the river. He made another voyage, but could not find its mouth.
Iberville was the first voyager that ever entered this river from the
ocean, and he erected a fort at Biloxi, near Mobile, in 1697.

CHAPTER II.

THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF NEW ORLEANS,--OF BILOXI,--NATCHEZ.--GOVERNOR
IBERVILLE AND HIS SUCCESSOR.

Iberville, the father of Louisiana, having formed a settlement at
Biloxi, by erecting a fort and leaving a garrison, proceeded up the
river, and established a town at Natchez, on that splendid bluff which
towers above the angry waters of the Mississippi. On his departure for
France, his brother, Bienville, was made Governor, and he appears to
have been anxious to procure a more eligible site for the capitol of
the province than either of those which his predecessor had selected.
Dropping down the vast current he most patiently made a thorough
examination of the banks from Natchez to the gulf, and finally
determined to make the Crescent Bend the future capitol. His judgment
was good, although the visitor frequently wonders why the city was
not placed nearer the ocean. It was, perhaps, the most elevated
spot convenient to the outlet, and was certainly nearest Lake
Pontchartrain, upon the commerce of which the founder no doubt made
reasonable calculations. But whether the settlement of New Orleans was
the result of accident, as many suppose, or of well conceived design,
it matters but little. It was selected by Bienville, and he threw
fifty able men forthwith into the forest to felling the trees, exactly
one hundred and twenty-nine years ago! In defiance of the united
opposition of Natchez and Biloxi, the Governor pushed forward his
work. It appears that in the very outset this place encountered
difficulties of various kinds, which thwarted its prosperity for
nearly a century. While only one year old, the Mississippi rising to
an unprecedented height, swept away every vestige of human innovation.
Being totally abandoned for three years, it was again settled by
Delorme, "who acting under positive instructions, removed to it the
government establishment." In the following year it contained about
one hundred houses scattered in all directions, with no regularity,
with no dyke to protect them from the rolling waves, no fort to
repel the incursions of the Indians; without the smallest luxury and
comfort, without society, without religious enjoyment, reduced by
disease and assailed by the venom of every tropical