ription given by Marquette and
Joliet, of the country which they had visited, he formed the
determination of examining it himself, and for this purpose left
Canada in the close of the summer of 1679, in company with father
Louis Hennepin and some others.[3] On the Illinois he erected fort
Crevecoeur, where he remained during the winter, and instructing
father Hennepin, in his absence to ascend the Mississippi to its
sources, returned to Canada. M. de La Salle subsequently visited this
country, and establishing the villages of Cahokia and Kaskaskia, left
them under the command of M. de Tonti, and going back to Canada,
proceeded from thence to France to procure the co-operation of the
Ministry in effecting a settlement of the valley of the Mississippi.
He succeeded in impressing on the minds of the French Ministry, the
great benefits which would result from its colonization, and was the
first to suggest the propriety of connecting the settlements on the
Mississippi with those in Canada by a cordon of forts; a measure which
was subsequently attempted to be carried into effect.
With the aid afforded him by the government of France, he was enabled
to prepare an expedition to accomplish his object, and sailing in 1684
for the mouth of the Mississippi, steered too far westward and landed
in the province of Texas, and on the banks of the river Guadaloupe.
Every exertion which a brave and prudent man could make to effect the
security of his little colony, and conduct them to the settlement in
Illinois, was fruitlessly made by him. In reward for all his toil and
care he was basely assassinated; the remnant of the party whom he was
conducting through the wilderness, finally reached the Arkansas, where
was a settlement of French emigrants from Canada. The colonists left
by him at the bay of St. Bernard were mostly murdered by the natives,
the remainder were carried away by the Spaniards in 1689.
[8] Other attempts made by the French to colonize the Mississippi near
the Gulph of Mexico, were for some time unavailing. In an expedition
for that purpose, conducted by M. Ibberville, a suit of armor on which
was inscribed Ferdinand de Soto, was found in the possession of some
Indians. In the year 1717 the spot, on which New Orleans now stands,
was selected as the centre of the settlements, then first made in
Louisiana, and the country continued in the possession of France until
1763. By the treaty of Paris in that year, she ceded to G
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