René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
 |
Engraving of La Salle |
René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de LaSalle (
November 22,
1643 –
March 19,
1687) was a
French explorer. He explored the
Great Lakes region of the
United States and
Canada, the
Mississippi River, and the
Gulf of Mexico, and claimed the entire Mississippi basin for France.
La Salle was born on
November 22,
1643 in
Rouen[Francis Parkman, La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, France and England in North America 3 Williamstown, MA: Corner House Publishers, 1980), 7.] and was briefly a member of the
Jesuit religious order, taking his vows in 1660. On
27 March,
1667, he was released from the Society of Jesus after citing "moral weaknesses" in his request.
[Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34231; Even though he left the order and later became hostile to it, he is occasionally but wrongly described as a priest or a cleric.] Having lost a legacy from his father, which he had been required to reject upon joining the Jesuit order, La Salle was close to being destitute when he travelled to North America, sailing for
Canada in the Spring of 1666
[Parkman, 10.] and arriving in 1667 in
New France, where his brother Jean, a
Sulpician priest, had moved the year before. He was granted a
seigneurie on land at the western end of the
Island of Montreal which became known as "
Lachine"
[Parkman, 16; Apparently from French la Chine (China), a name that is often said to be an ironic reference to La Salle's desire to find a route to China, though the evidence for this claim is unclear and has been disputed.] La Salle immediately began to issue land grants, set up a village and learn the
Iroquois language and other languages of the native peoples. The Iroquois told him of a great river, called the
Ohio, which flowed into the
Mississippi River. Thinking this river flowed into the
Gulf of California, he began to plan for expeditions to find a western passage to China. He sought and received permission from Governor
Daniel Courcelle and Intendent
Jean Talon to embark on the enterprise. He sold his interests in Lachine to finance the venture.
[Parkman, 13-16]First Expedition
La Salle led his first expedition in 1669, the results of which are unclear. He claimed to have reached the Ohio River and followed it as far as
Louisville, Kentucky[Parkman, 29-30.], but not the Mississippi, which
Louis Joliet discovered in 1672. His group consisted of five canoes and fifteen men. Father
Dollier de Casson travelled with him as far as
Hamilton, Ontario with seven men in another three canoes. There the party met Joliet, who was returning to
Montreal. On the advice of Joliet, they went on to
Sault Ste. Marie in an unsuccessful effort to establish a mission to the
Potawatomis.
[Parkman, 25-28.]Fort Frontenac
La Salle next oversaw the building of
Fort Frontenac (now in
Kingston, Ontario) on
Lake Ontario as part of a
fur trade venture. The fort, which was completed in 1673, was named for La Salle's patron,
Louis de Baude Frontenac, Governor General of New France. La Salle travelled to France early the next year to establish his claim and to procure royal support. With Frontenac's support, he received not only a fur trade concession, with permission to establish frontier forts, but also a title of nobility. He returned and rebuilt Frontenac in stone.
Henri de Tonti joined his explorations.
On
7 August,
1679, La Salle set sail on
Le Griffon, which he and Tonti had constructed at
Fort Conti, near
Niagara Falls. Becoming the first white men to navigate the Great Lakes by sailing ship, they sailed up
Lake Erie to
Lake Huron and then down
Lake Michigan. On
November 1, La Salle's men built a fort at the mouth of the
St. Joseph River in what is now
Michigan, and waited for a party led by Tonti, who had crossed the peninsula on foot. Tonti arrived on
November 20, and on
December 3 the entire party set off up the St. Joseph, which they followed until they reached a portage to the
Kankakee River. They followed the Kankakee to the
Illinois River, where they established
Fort Crèvecoeur near present-day
Peoria, Illinois. La Salle then set off on foot for Fort Frontenac for supplies. While he was gone,
Louis Hennepin followed the Illinois River to its junction with the Mississippi, but was captured by a
Sioux war party and carried off to
Minnesota. The soldiers at the fort mutinied, destroyed the fort, and exiled Tonti, whom La Salle had left in charge. La Salle captured the mutineers on
Lake Ontario and eventually rendezvoused with Tonti at
St. Ignace, Michigan.
La Salle then reassembled his party for the expedition for which he is most remembered. Leaving Fort Crevecoeur with twenty-three Frenchmen and eighteen
Native Americans, he canoed down the
Mississippi River in
1682, naming the Mississippi basin
Louisiana in honour of
Louis XIV. At what is now the site of
Memphis, Tennessee he built a small fort,
Fort Prudhomme. On
April 9, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, near modern
Venice, Louisiana, La Salle buried an engraved plate and a cross, claiming the territory for France. In 1683, on his return voyage, he established
Fort Saint Louis of Illinois, at
Starved Rock on the Illinois River, to replace Fort Crevecoeur. Tonti was to command the fort while La Salle travelled again to France for supplies.
La Salle returned with a large expedition designed to establish a
French colony on the
Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. They left France in
1684 with 4 ships and 300 colonists. The expedition was plagued by pirates, hostile Indians, and poor navigation. One ship was lost to pirates in the West Indies, a second sank in the inlets of
Matagorda Bay, where a third ran aground. They set up
Fort Saint Louis of Texas, near
Victoria, Texas. La Salle led a group eastward on foot on three occasions to try to locate the Mississippi. During the last such search his remaining 36 followers mutinied, and he was murdered by four of them near the site of modern
Navasota, Texas. (The colony lasted only until
1688, when Karankawa-speaking Indians massacred the 20 remaining adults and took five children as captives. Tonti sent out search missions in 1689 when he learned of the expedition's fate, but failed to reach a fort with survivors.)
The encroachment of La Salle and other representatives of French interests into the
Spanish claimed territory of Texas, led Spain to establish a fort,
Presidio La Bahia, in
1721, at the site of the remains of Fort Saint Louis.
La Salle's primary ship,
La Belle, was discovered in the muck of
Matagorda Bay in
1995 and has been the site of archeological digs.
[Texas Historical Commission, La Salle Shipwreck Project; Dan Parker, "Raising The Belle-La Salle's last ship" Corpus Christi Caller-Times (1996).]The
La Salle automobile brand and many places have been named in his honor (see
La Salle for a list of places, most of which were named after him).
*
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online*
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle: North American Explorer*
The journeys of Rene Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle. Volume 1, (hosted by the
Portal to Texas History)
*
The journeys of Rene Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle. Volume 2, hosted by the
Portal to Texas History*
Cabeza de Vaca ; La Salle. published 1901, hosted by the
Portal to Texas History.*
Life of La Salle*
The Handbook of Texas Online: Renê Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle* Detailed Account of
La Salle in Texas
*
La Salle's Map of Texas from
A pictorial history of Texas, from the earliest visits of European adventurers, to A.D. 1879, hosted by the
Portal to Texas History.
