of the
English.--New Orleans Founded.--Character of the Population.--Indian
Wars.

La Salle was dead, but his bright dream of France enthroned on the
Mississippi, holding in her hand the sceptre of the great West, was too
vital to die. It was growing more and more into the consciousness of
sea-going Europe, that the nation holding the mouth of the Great River
would grasp the key to the undeveloped wealth of the Western World. So
it was that when France stretched forth her hand to seize the coveted
prize, she found rivals in the field, Spain and {279} Great Britain
struggling for a foothold, Spain already planted at Pensacola, the
English nosing about the mouth of the Mississippi.

The man who was destined to achieve what La Salle had been hindered
from accomplishing only by the blunder of his pilots and the jealousy
of his associates, was Jean Baptiste LeMoyne de Bienville.

He was of that fine French Canadian stock that had already produced
Joliet, the brave explorer, and he belonged to a family whose seven
sons all won distinction, four of them dying in the service of their
country. When he came on the enterprise in which he was destined to
complete La Salle's unfinished work, he was a midshipman of twenty-two
serving with his older brother, Iberville, who was winning renown as a
brave and skilful naval captain. Though possessing none of La Salle's
brilliancy of genius, and never called on to make those heroic
exertions or to exhibit that amazing fortitude which were so
conspicuous in the case of the great explorer, he still exhibited
qualities which well fitted him for the task that fell to him, and
which earned for him the title of "Father of Louisiana."

To us it may seem strange that the first {280} reaching out of France
toward the incredibly rich Mississippi Valley did not touch the valley
itself, but made its lodgment on a sandy bluff overlooking a bay in the
territory of what is now the State of Mississippi. So it was, however,
and the fact only shows how little was grasped the true meaning of La
Salle's gigantic scheme.

In January, 1699, fifteen years after the great Pathfinder had made his
misguided landing in Texas, a small fleet from Brest was hovering about
the mouth of Mobile River seeking a place for settlement. It was
commanded by Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville. With him were his two
brothers, Sauvolle and Bienville, and Father Anastase Douay, who had
accompanied La Salle.

One of the firs