After returning to France, de Tonti continued his deployment as a volunteer on the galleys. From that time on, wore a prosthetic hook covered by a glove, thus earning the nickname "Iron Hand". Among the officers fighting beside the French expedition corps, there were the brothers Antonio and Thomas Crisafy, who years later de Tonti will have the chance to meet again in New France. After the Franco-Dutch War, de Tonti was unable to obtain employment until recruited by La Salle, for exploration. New France In the summer of 1678, de Tonti journeyed to Quebec with René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle; who recognized him as an able associate and thus named de Tonti his lieutenant. On August 27, Tonti and La Salle arrived in Gulf St. Lawrence. de Tonti described it as "A place extremely cold where no wheat grows". On December 26 of the same year, de Tonti and La Salle reached the Niagara. de Tonti was left to supervise the construction of Fort Conti below Niagara Falls and the construction of the Griffon in early 1679 above the falls, which was to be the first ship to sail the Great Lakes. In August 1679, de Tonti arrived at Fort Michilimackinac, the crossroads for southwestern fur trade, in which he discovered some of La Salle's crew had fled to and traded many livre's worth of goods. After rounding up the deserters, de Tonti sailed to the mouth of the St. Joseph and helped establish Fort Miami. Early in 1680. de Tonti also helped build Fort de Crèvecoeur in Illinois, which La Salle left de Tonti to hold while he returned to Ontario. While on his return trip up the Illinois, La Salle concluded that Starved Rock might provide an ideal location for another fortification and sent word downriver to de Tonti regarding this idea. Following La Salle's instructions, de Tonti took five men and departed up the river to evaluate the suitability of the Starved Rock site. Shortly after de Tonti's departure, on April 16, 1680, the seven members of the expedition who remained at Fort de Crèvecoeur ransacked and abandoned the fort and began their own march back to Canada. This opened up opportunity for Iroquois warriors to attack, stabbing de Tonti and forcing his men to retreat to Baie-des-Puants in late 1680. In 1681, after recuperating from his injuries, de Tonti traveled to Fort Michilimackinac to