THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE AND WESTWARD EXPANSION 12 LA SALLE’S EXPEDITIONS La Salle’s exploration of the Mississippi in 1682 was not his first expedition in North America Committed to expanding New France he had sold his land in Montreal to finance an expedition to the Ohio region in 1669 70 A decade later in 1679 he sailed from Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario to Green Bay on Lake Michigan He then continued south eventually in 1680 following the Illinois River to its junction with the Mississippi This was his first glimpse of the river he would famously descend two years later After his storied expedition of 1682 La Salle made one more voyage In 1684 he set out with four ships and about 400 men in an attempt to establish a post at the mouth of the Mississippi This expedition by sea was doomed from the start La Salle’s naval commander opposed him constantly and illness took a heavy toll Many men deserted Finally a great miscalculation brought the ships to Matagorda Bay in Texas 500 miles 800 kilometers west of their intended landfall There his naval commander left him with one small ship La Salle started to build a fort and made several fruitless journeys in search of his lost Mississippi His ship was wrecked and he lost all but 36 of his men In March 1687 he was murdered by three of his men near the Brazos River in what is now eastern Texas His vision of a French empire died with him It would be up to other Frenchmen to colonize New France
EUROPEAN EXPLORATION AND SETTLEMENT OF LOUISIANA 13 Map of Sieur de La Salle’s explorations of North America
14 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE AND WESTWARD EXPANSION Pierre Le Moyne sieur d’Iberville A French Canadian naval hero and explorer Iberville was commissioned in the 1690s to locate the mouth of the Mississippi and to establish a fort in order to secure the claim made by La Salle In 1699 he explored the north ern coast of the Gulf of Mexico rediscovering the mouth of the Mississippi He set up a fort at what is now Ocean Springs Mississippi near Biloxi This became France’s foot hold in Louisiana A year later he established a second fort near the site of present day New Orleans and in 1702 he built a new fort on the Mobile River The success of these defense projects persuaded Louis XIV to begin colonizing Louisiana Iberville was accom panied on his Louisiana expedition by his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne sieur de Bienville Following
EUROPEAN EXPLORATION AND SETTLEMENT OF LOUISIANA 15 An engraving depicts Sieur de Bienville overseeing work at the site of New Orleans In 1722 Bienville declared New Orleans the capital of the French colony of Louisiana
