It appears that La Salle left sixty men behind him, and on the 20th of March, 1686, after a buffalo-hunt, he was murdered by Duhaut and L’Archeveque, two adventurers, who had embarked their capital in the enterprise.  They had long shown a spirit of mutiny, and the malignity of disappointed avarice so maddened them that they murdered their unfortunate commander.

I will borrow a page of Bancroft, who is more explicit than the Comanche chroniclers.

“Leaving sixty men at Fort St. Louis, in January, 1687, La Salle, with the other portion of his men, departed for Canada.  Lading their baggage on the wild horses from the Cenis, which found their pasture everywhere in the prairies, in shoes made of green buffalo-hides; for want of other paths, following the track of the buffalo, and using skins as the only shelter against rain, winning favour with the savages by the confiding courage of their leader—­they ascended the streams towards the first ridges of highlands, walking through beautiful plains and groves, among deer and buffaloes, now fording the clear rivulets, now building a bridge by felling a giant tree across a stream, till they had passed the basin of the Colorado, and in the upland country had reached a branch of the Trinity River.

“In the little company of wanderers there were two men, Duhaut and L’Archeveque, who had embarked their capital in the enterprise.  Of these, Duhaut had long shown a spirit of mutiny; the base malignity of disappointed avarice, maddened by sufferings and impatient of control, awakened the fiercest passions of ungovernable hatred.  Inviting Moranget to take charge of the fruits of a buffalo-hunt, they quarrelled with him and murdered him.

“Wondering at the delay of his nephew’s return, La Salle, on the 20th of March, went to seek him.  At the brink of the river he observed eagles hovering, as if over carrion, and he fired an alarm-gun.  Warned by the sound, Duhaut and L’Archeveque crossed the river; the former skulked in the prairie grass; of the latter, La Salle asked, ‘Where is my nephew?’ At the moment of the answer, Duhaut fired; and, without uttering a word, La Salle fell dead.  ‘You are down now, grand bashaw!  You are down now!’ shouted one of the conspirators, as they despoiled his remains, which were left on the prairie, naked and without burial, to be devoured by wild beasts.

“Such was the end of this daring adventurer.  For force of will and vast conceptions; for various knowledge, and quick adaptation of his genius to untried circumstances; for a sublime magnanimity, that resigned itself to the will of Heaven, and yet triumphed over affliction by energy of purpose and unfaltering hope,—­he had no superior among his countrymen.  He had won the affection of the Governor of Canada, the esteem of Colbert, the confidence of Seignelay, the favour of Louis XIV.  After beginning the colonization of Upper Canada, he perfected the discovery of the Mississippi from the falls of St. Anthony to its mouth; and he will be remembered through all times as the father of colonization in the great central valley of the West.”