Learning of the wrecking of his enterprise, La Salle hurried to the
Illinois valley to search for his companions, arriving at Pere Marquette
State Park by canoe on December 7, 1680. On the north bank of the
Illinois River he viewed the fury of the Iroquois, for here were
Illinois women and children tortured to death by fire, impaled on poles.
Having found no trace of Frenchmen, he stripped the bark from the trunk
of a tree, hung a board with a drawing of his party in a canoe, tied a
letter to Tonti, his trusted lieutenant, to the board directing him to a
cache of supplies hidden nearby.
On December 7, 1681, La Salle with a party of 22 Frenchmen, reunited
with Tonti, rendezvoused with 18 Indians at the mouth of the Illinois
River. This party remained 12 days building elm bark canoes for the long
trip down the Mississippi. Three months later La Salle stood at the
mouth of the river and claimed the Mississippi valley for France, naming
it "Louisiana."