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ITS LA SALLE needed for his explorations. After putting Tonty in command at his fort, and despatching Acau and Hennepin to explore the Illinois to its mouth, he himself started back for Canada with five companions. From the mouth of the St. Joseph's he struck across Michigan to a river flowing into the Detroit, crossed that river, made his way overland to Lake Erie, and then proceeded in a canoe to his post at Niag- ara. Here he was convinced that the Griffon had perished, and heard of the loss of a ship on its way from France with supplies. Arrang- ing his affairs as best he could, he made up a ' fresh party, and started back for Fort Creve- cceur with supplies ; but on arriving he found that Tonty, by the attack of the Iroquois on the Illinois, and by the desertion of his men, had been forced to abandon the post and re- tire to Green bay. La Salle went down the Illinois to its mouth, and returned to gather his followers and obtain resources to renew his exploration, although De la Barre, Fronte- nac's successor, was openly hostile to him and aided his enemies. At last, Dec. 21, 1681, he started from Fort Miami with his expedition, ascended the Chicago, crossed to the Illinois, and descended to the Mississippi. Sailing down, he camped on the first Chickasaw bluff, stopped at the Arkansas villages, and kept on till the river divided. He explored the three channels to the gulf, and on April 9, 1682, set up a column with the French arms at the mouth, and took formal possession of the country watered by the river. Returning, he began Fort St. Louis at Starved Rock, on the Illinois, and in November, 1683, reached Que- bec, leaving Tonty in command in the west, with instructions to meet him at the mouth of the Mississippi. He then proceeded to France, and proposed to the government to begin a set- tlement there, and to undertake the conquest of New Biscay and the rich mining country of northern Mexico. By patent of April 14, 1684, he was appointed commandant of all the country from Fort St. Louis, in what is now the state of Illinois, to New Biscay. An expedition consisting of 280 persons, most of them ill chosen, sailed from Rochefort on Aug. 1, in four ships; but dissensions at once sprang up between La Salle and Beaujeu, the naval officer in command of the vessels. After stopping at Santo Domingo, they entered the gulf of Mexico, but, miscalculating distances, passed the mouth of the Mississippi, apparently on Jan. 10, 1685. As they advanced, La Salle, convinced that they had gone too far, wished to return, but Beaujeu went on. They finally anchored off the entrance to Matagorda bay. Here La Salle disembarked his colonists, but his store ship Aimable, containing most of his munitions, was run on an island and wrecked. Beaujeu, pleading a want of provisions, soon after sailed off with two vessels, leaving La Salle with the Belle, a small vessel given him by the king. La Salle then threw up a fort tailed St. Louis, and attempted to cultivate the LASCARIS soil. The Indians showed hostility from the first. Some of the settlers were killed, others perished from diseases and imprudence. La Salle lost time and men in excursions through the country ; the Belle was wrecked ; and after the lapse of two years the whole party, in January, 1687, was reduced to fewer than 40. Leaving half of these, including the women and children, in the fort, La Salle set out on Jan. 7 to make his way to the Illinois, with his brother, his nephews, Joutel, and 12 others. He had already visited the Cenis or Assinais, and now pushed on for their towns. He had crossed the intervening rivers and reached the Trinity, when a long smothered revolt broke out. Duhaut and Larcheveque killed Moran- get, a nephew of La Salle ; and when the com- mander turned back to look for his relative, they shot him down, and as they looked at the body cried, " There, you grand bashaw, there you are ! " The murderers soon after quar- relled among themselves, and Joutel with the Caveliers and four others, started on, and final- ly reached a French post on the Arkansas. Of those left at Fort St. Louis nearly all were mas- sacred by the Clamcoet Indians, the few sur- vivors falling into the hands of a Spanish force sent to drive out the French. The career of La Salle was, in and immediately after his day, the subject of conflicting statements, and con- troversies have been maintained to this day. Hennepin, Le Clercq, Joutel, and Tonty gave contemporaneous statements; and in recent times the subject has been specially treated by Sparks, "Life of La Salle;" Shea, "Discovery of the Mississippi;" Parkman, "Discovery of the Great West;" and Gravier, Decouvertes et etablissement de Cavelier de la Salle. LAS AMMAS, the S. E. county of Colorado, bounded E. by Kansas, S. by Indian territory and New Mexico, and W. by the Rocky moun- tains ; area, about 7,000 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 4,276, chiefly Mexicans. It is watered by the Las Aiiimas or Purgatory river and by branches of the Arkansas. The valley of the Purgatory is very fertile. The mesas or table lands afford excellent pasturage. The chief productions in 1870 were 5,930 bushels of wheat, 2,952 of In- dian corn, and 10,650 Ibs. of wool. The value of live stock was $31,801. Capital, Trinidad. LASAULX, Ernst von, a German philologist, born in Coblentz, March 16, 1805, died in Munich, May 10, 1861. He was the son of an architect, studied in Bonn and Munich, spent some time in Rome and the East, and was professor of philology at Wurzburg from 1835 to 1844, and subsequently at Munich. In tho Bavarian chamber he was conspicuous as an ultramontane. His principal works are: Del Untergang des Hellenismus (Munich, 1854) ; Ueber die theologische Grundlage oiler pJiiloso- phischen Systeme (1856) ; and Die PhilosopJiie der sclionen Kunste (1860). LASCARIS. I. Andreas Joannes, surnamed RHYNDACENUS, a Greek philologist, born on the banks of the Rhyndacus in Phrygia about