In the meantime La Salle and Tonty had started from Fort Frontenac, with a band of men and a goodly store of supplies for the expedition. After encountering rough weather and being nearly wrecked off the Bay of Quinté, they crossed the lake and landed at the mouth of the Genesee River. Here they disembarked, and after a brief delay, started on a visit to the same Indian village which had just been visited by Hennepin and La Motte, and which was a short distance south-east of the present site of the city of Rochester. La Salle called a council of the natives, and did his utmost to conciliate them, for they looked upon his proceedings with no friendly eye, and were not slow in expressing their disapproval. They were wise enough to know that European exploration would be but the forerunner of European settlement, and that European settlement must be the "sullen presage of their own decay." La Salle, however, had a great deal of personal magnetism and force of character, and contrived to gain the good-will of several of the chiefs. After much argument and cajoling, he succeeded in gaining their consent to the conveyance of his arms and ammunition by way of the portage at Niagara. They also acquiesced in his proposal to establish a fortified warehouse at the mouth of the river, and to build a vessel above the falls in which to prosecute his researches in the west. Having accomplished so much--and considering the jealousy of the Indians, it is surprising that he should have obtained such concessions--he set out to join Hennepin and La Motte in the Niagara River, which had been appointed as their place of meeting.
Father Hennepin and La Motte had not long taken up their quarters on the banks of the Niagara River before they ascended the stream to regale themselves with a view of the mighty cataract of which they had so often heard with awe and astonishment. To the skill of the mendacious priest we are indebted for the first verbal description of the falls by an eye-witness, as well as for the first artistic delineation of them. The friar had a keen eye for the beauties and grandeur of natural scenery; but, like other travellers before and since his time, he was much given to dealing in the marvellous. His view is drawn in direct violation of the laws of perspective, and the proportions are not correctly preserved. It must be remembered, however, that during the two hundred years which have elapsed since the sketch was made, nature has been steadily at work, and that the external appearance of the falls has undergone many changes in that time. It is probable, too, that the cross-fall depicted in his sketch as pouring over what has since been called "Table Rock" really existed in 1678. Upon the whole, there is no reason for doubting that in its general outlines the sketch made by Father Hennepin pourtrayed the scene more faithfully than did his written description, of which the following is a literal translation: "Betwixt the Lake Ontario and the Lake Erie there is a vast and prodigious cadence of water, which falls down after a surprising and astonishing manner, insomuch that the universe does not afford its parallel. This wonderful downfall is about six hundred feet, and is composed of two great cross-streams of water, and two falls, with an island sloping across the middle of it. The waters which fall from this horrible precipice do foam and boil after the most hideous manner imaginable, making an outrageous noise, more terrible than that of thunder; for when the wind blows out of the south their dismal roaring may be heard more than fifteen leagues off."