La Salle was very glad to see us with the wood we were transporting. …The wood that we brought was of much more use than all the wood that we had collected before that had cost the lives of many people. I can indeed affirm that the work caused the deaths of 30 people, as well as creating trouble and vexation.

The question was what would be done with the new wood. First, it was unloaded as soon as possible and each man was put to a particular task. As there were a number of pieces of wood of considerable size, large enough to construct a house, La Salle had all the pieces cut to the length he decided was correct. He had a building made from them, joining the other building that had begun. This last one proved to be the larger and nicer although there was only new wood for the most part, and the pieces were heavy. The first building was constructed in the Canadian manner and the other in almost the same way…. It was roofed with old planks which we had brought, and on the roof we nailed buffalo hides for cover from the rain as a good number of the planks were damaged or had holes. Our bison hides were not as satisfactory as we expected; they shriveled in the sun and split apart from the nails.

-Henri Joutel