| Summary: | COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY a native of Lyons, France, at Kamanistigoya, north-east of Pigeon river, ^linnesota. He advanced as far as the Lake of the Issati, now Mille Lac, which he named Lake Buade, from the family name of AL de Frontenac, governor general of New France. At the close of the seventeenth century, France, by right of discovery and occupation, claimed not only Canada and Nova Scotia, then known as New France and Acadia, and Hudson's Bay and New Foundland, but parts of Maine, Vermont and New York, together with the whole of the Mississippi valley, and possessions on the Gulf of Mexico, in-cluding Texas as far south as the Rio del Norte. The English revolution of 1688, when William of Orange succeeded James H upon the throne of Eng-land, and the peace of Ryswick in 1697, did not affect these possessions of France in the New World. At the period of the close of the great war which had just closed upon European soil by the above treaty in which so many powers were in-cluded, none of the possessions of France in the New World engaged the attention of that power so much as Louisiana. In 1697 D'Iberville still further aroused the attention of the ministry of the colony, and inspired the Count de Ponchar-train with the idea of building a fort and making a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi. Two vessels were fitted out, one under the command of the Marquis de Chateau-Morand, and the other under DTberville. They left France in October, 1698, to find the mouth of the river, and after touch-ing at Pensacola, March 2, 1699, entered the delta of the Mississippi. De Chateau-Morand went back to the island of St. Domingo, but D'Iberville as-cended the river as far as what is now known as Bayou Goula. At this point he met an Indian chief who handed him a letter, which was written by Tonti, the man who had left his post at Fort Cre-vecaeur, where he was placed by LaSalle, and was addressed to the latter as governor of Louisiana. It read as follows : "Sir:—Having found the post on which you had set up the King's arms thrown down by the drift-wood, I caused another one to be fixed on this side, about seven leagues from the sea, where I have left a letter in a tree by the side of it. All the nations have smoked the calumet with me they are people who fear us exceedingly since you had captured this village. I conclude by saying it is a great grief to me that we will return with the ill fortune of not having found you, after we had coasted with two canoes thirty leagues on the Mexican side and twenty-five on that of Florida. The receipt of this letter was twelve years after the death of LaSalle, and nineteen years after he and Tonti had parted at the Peoria fort. Neither knew what had become of the other. Both _ had sought the other unavailingly. The letter is inter-esting as shedding light on Tonti's conduct and also as peculiar that the Indian chief had preserved it for so long a time. D'Iberville descended the river and went to the Bay of Biloxi, between the Mississippi and Mobile rivers, where he erected a fort. JNIissions, trading posts and small settlements began to be foundea from this time on in that province. As early as 1712 land titles were issued as far north as Kas-kaskia, in what is now Illinois, and regular trade channels were opened between Canada and Louis-iana. Settlements now arose along the Mississippi at various points from the mouth of the Illinois river southward. The French determined to circumvent the English colonies on the Atlantic coast by build-ing a line of forts from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, as once suggested to the French government by LaSalle. Part of this plan was carried into execution. Fort Chartres was con-structed on the east bank of the Mississippi about sixty-five miles south of the mouth of the ?vIissouri. This was one of the strongest fortresses on the con-tinent at the time, and its ruins were to be seen a hundred years later. It was the headquarters of the commandant of Louisiana. Shortly after thait the villages of Cahokia, Prairie du Rocher and others sprang into existence. A monastery and college was established in 1721, at Kaskaskia, a very important post in what is now the state of Illinois. The French laid claim to all the great Mississippi valley at this time. "France," says Bancroft, "had obtained, under Providence, the guardianship of this immense district of country, not, as it proved, for her own benefit, but rather as a trustee for the infant nation by which it was one day to be inherited." By the treaty of the Utrecht, in 1713. France ceded to England her possessions in Hudson's bay, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. France still re-tained Canada and Louisiana. In 171 1 the affairs of the latter were placed in charge of a governor-general, but this only lasted one year. The colony, not meeting the expectations of the government of the mother country, in 17 12 was farmed out to Internet Archive
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