| After divine service, he {the Sieur Le Gros} took a musket to go…to shoot snipe. After he had shot one, which fell in a small marsh, he took off his shoes to go find it. On his return, he stepped by chance on a rattlesnake, named for the sort of scale that it has at the end of its tail with which it makes noise. The snake bit him above the ankle. Some time passed without anything out of the ordinary happening except in regard to Sieur Le Gros whose leg was still very swollen. The surgeon told him that gangrene threatened to set in and that he could find no remedy other than cutting off the leg. Initially, Le Gros did not want to hear of it; but eventually he accepted this course of action. Several people persuaded him and assured him that he would not be left alone to walk with a wooden leg. In the end he accepted it all although the surgeon had not previously performed such an operation. When everything was prepared for the operation, his leg was cut off… The amputation was made very close to the knee, and a fever overtook the patient. He lasted only a few more days and died…. The loss was to everyone’s regret, particularly La Salle’s. … For my part, I can say that I lost the best friend that I had in the country. –Henri Joutel |