24       FRENCH AND INDIANS OF ILLINOIS EIVKB.
magnate in his native city. "When at a proper age he was ordained a priest, and being enthusiastic about the conversion of heathens, he sailed for America, forsaking home, wealth and friends, to spend a life among the savages in the western world.
After remaining a short time at Quebec, Mar-quette went west to Lake Huron, where he spent a number of years among the Indians, instructing them in the ways of Christianity. While among Indians he learned their language, and it is said that he understood and could speak six different Indian dialects.
Marquette went to Sault de Sainte Marie, the outlet of Lake Superior, where Father Allonez had previously established a mission. For a number of years this devout missionary traveled through the lake country, visiting different Indian villages, preaching to the natives, and wherever he went he made many converts to Christianity. Under his preaching old and young came forward to join the church; sometimes baptizing one hundred or more in a day. His active spirit could not rest—traveling from place to place, exposed to inclement weather, wading through water and snow, spending days without shelter or fire, subsisting on parched corn or moss, gathered