And, led on by zeal for religion or desire for adventure, he pushed
his settlements far into the wilderness.
So, long years went by. All along the Atlantic coasts spread fertile
fields and fair homesteads. The British were content to live on the
lands which they had cleared and tilled, and no adventurer sought
to know what lay beyond the blue mountain range which shut him from
the West.
Far otherwise was it with the French. Priests and traders were
both full of a desire for conquest and adventure. Many of them
indeed were so driven by the roving spirit that they left the
towns altogether and lived alone among the forests, tracking the
wild animals, and only coming to towns to sell the skins and get
provisions.
These trappers brought back with them many strange tales of the
forests and unknown wilds. They spoke of the Mississippi or "great
water" of which the Indians told marvelous tales. And at length
it seemed to their hearers that this great water could be no other
than the long sought passage to India and the East.
Many people, fired by these tales, went in search of this great
water. In 1673 two priests named Marquette and Joliet were the first
to discover it. For many miles they floated down the Mississippi.
On either side stretched endless forests and plains of waving grass,
haunts of wild animals and of the Indians, - almost as wild.
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