Bound up with the success of Frontenac’s Indian policy is the exploration of the West—­an achievement which adds to this period its chief lustre.  Here La Salle is the outstanding figure and the laurels are chiefly his.  None the less, Frontenac deserves the credit of having encouraged all endeavours to solve the problem of the Mississippi.  Like La Salle he had large ideas and was not afraid.  They co-operated in perfect harmony, sharing profits, perhaps, but sincerely bent on gaining for France a new, vast realm.  The whole history of colonial enterprise shows how fortunate the French have been in the co-operation of their explorers with their provincial governors.  The relations of La Salle with La Barre form a striking exception, but the statement holds true in the main, and with reference to Algiers as well as to Canada.

La Salle was a frank partisan of Frontenac throughout the quarrel with Perrot and Fenelon.  On one occasion he made a scene in church at Montreal.  It was during the Easter service of 1674.  When Fenelon decried magistrates who show no respect to the clergy and who use their deputed power for their own advantage, La Salle stood up and called the attention of the leading citizens to these words.  Frontenac, who was always a loyal ally, showed that he appreciated La Salle’s efforts on his behalf by giving him a letter of recommendation to the court in which La Salle is styled ’a man of intelligence and ability, more capable than any one else I know here to accomplish every kind of enterprise and discovery which may be entrusted to him.’

The result of La Salle’s visit to Versailles (1674) was that he gained privileges which made him one of the most important men in Canada, and a degree of power which brought down on him many enemies.  He received the seigneury of Fort Frontenac, he was made local governor at that post, and, in recognition of services already performed, he gained a grant of nobility.  It is clear that La Salle’s forceful personality made a strong impression at court, and the favours which he received enabled him, in turn, to secure financial aid from his wealthy relatives at Rouen.

What followed was the most brilliant, the most exciting, and the most tragic chapter in the French exploration of America.  La Salle fulfilled all the conditions upon which he had received the seigneury at Fort Frontenac, and found financial profit in maintaining the post.  The original wooden structure was replaced by stone, good barracks were built for the troops, there were bastions upon which nine cannon announced a warning to the Iroquois, a settlement with well-tilled land sprang up around the fort, schooners were built with a draught of forty tons.  But for La Salle this was not enough.  He was a pathfinder, not a trader.  Returning to France after two years of labour and success at Fort Frontenac, he secured a royal patent authorizing him to explore the whole continent from the Great Lakes to Mexico, with the right to build forts therein and to enjoy a monopoly of the trade in buffalo skins.  The expenses of the undertaking were, of course, to be borne by La Salle and his associates, for the king never invested money in these enterprises.  However, the persuasiveness which enabled La Salle to secure his patent enabled him to borrow the necessary funds.  At the close of 1678 he was once more at Fort Frontenac and ready for the great adventure.