he colony of Port Royal
in Nova Scotia in 1605. This settlement, afterward named Annapolis, was
the first permanent French colony planted in America. Quebec was founded
by Champlain in 1608.

The greatest French explorer, however, was Sieur de la Salle, who was
hardly twenty-three years old when he first visited Canada in 1666.
Leading an expedition westward, he fell ill while in the country of the
Seneca Indians and was forced to part with his companions near the head
of Lake Ontario. When he regained his strength he pressed on to the Ohio
River, down which he descended to the falls opposite the present city of
Louisville. Returning to France, he was made a nobleman and appointed
governor of the country around Fort Frontenac, which he had planted on
the shore of Lake Ontario. He demolished the fort and erected a much
stronger one, built four small vessels, and established a thriving trade
with the Indians.

In August, 1679, La Salle launched a vessel at the port of Niagara, with
which he sailed the length of Lake Erie, across Lakes St. Clair, Huron,
and Michigan to Green Bay. He then sent back his vessel for supplies and
crossed the lake in canoes to the mouth of the St. Joseph, where he
built a fort. He visited the Indian tribes in the neighborhood and made
treaties with the chiefs.

On the present site of Peoria, he erected a fort in 1680. Then, sending
Father Hennepin to explore the country to the northward, La Salle made
the entire journey of several hundred miles, alone and on foot, to Fort
Frontenac, where he learned that the vessel he had sent back for
supplies was lost.

With a new party he made his way to the fort planted on the Illinois
River, but found it had been broken up and all the white men were gone.
Thence La Salle went down the Mississippi to its mouth, where he set up
a column with the French arms and proclaimed the country the possession
of the king of France. He was welcomed back to his native land, and when
he proposed to his ruler to conquer the fine mining country in the
Southwest, the offer was promptly accepted and he was made commandant.
He set out with four ships and about 300 persons.

But the good fortune that had marked the career of La Salle up to this
point now set the other way, and disaster and ruin overtook him. His men
were mostly adventurers and vagabonds, and the officer in command of the
ships was an enemy of the explorer. The two quarreled and the vessels
had gone some di