Summer 2000

The Spring of Water that Burns

The Visit of La Salle and Galinee

by

Rev. Alexander M. Stewart

Robert Cavelier de La Salle was born at Rouen, France, November 22, 1643. Being of a restless disposition, he soon abandoned the gentle restraint of the Jesuit College in Rouen and at age 23, in 1666, was settled on a piece of land at the west end of Montreal Island, modern suburb of Montreal, Canada, now called La Chine. His stone windmill is still standing a few rods from the St. Lawrence River and not far from the La Chine Rapids. His older brother, Abbe Jean Cavelier, of the Seminary of St. Sulpice in Montreal, had assisted him in getting this tract of land.

When the young La Salle was persuaded by visiting Senecas, in the winter of 1668-69, to attempt a trip of exploration to their country in this vicinity and to the Mississippi River country beyond, the careful older brother succeeded in having La Salle's trip combined with a trip of two Sulpician missionaries who were hunting for new territory, beyond the fields already reached by the Jesuits. These missionaries were: The Rev. Dollier de Casson, age 40, a veteran of the Turkish war, and of immense physical strength (he was the real leader of the expedition), and the Rev. Rene Galinee, to whom history is indebted for his brilliant Journal and his detailed map of this voyage. A convenient English translation of the Journal of Dollier and Galinee, will be found in many libraries, in Dr. Louise P. Kellogg's Original Early Narratives of the Northwest.

Research and writing by Rev. Alexander M. Stewart,
30 Audubon Street, Rochester, N. Y.
June 17, 1937

From a copy of the 1937 program supplied by Joan K. Hayward

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