Introduction
"In Adversity he was never cast down and always hoped with the help of heaven to succeed in his enterprises despite all the obstacles that rose against it."
Chronicle of La Salle's Last Expedition
by Father Anastasius Douay
On April 9, 1682, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, stood on a small rise of dry land where the great muddy Mississippi poured its waters into the Gulf of Mexico. He had changed his travel-worn shirt for a coat of brilliant red, kept especially for this moment of glory. By him stood his two closest companions: Nika, the Shawnee, and Henri de Tonty, his lieutenant. Father Zenobe Membré was there to bless their endeavor. Around them stood twenty-two Frenchmen and a small traveling village of Abenaki and Mohican who'd come with La Salle on the final leg of a journey begun, and interrupted, many times over the past five years.
Against incredible odds, La Salle had conquered the mystery of the mighty river that cut through the middle of America. Others had traveled it before him, but he was the first European to follow its course from its juncture with the Illinois River to its conclusion in the Gulf of Mexico. His mission was a complicated endeavor, every bit as difficult for its time as launching a space station is today. Only La Salle wasn't NASA. He was just one man. He alone negotiated with the French monarchy to get the necessary approval. He raised the funds, hired the men, and organized food, shelter, and supplies for the expedition.
At the mouth of the Mississippi, the men raised a tall, straight tree and carved on it the arms of Louis XIV, the dazzling Sun King, the greatest ruler France had ever known. La Salle stretched out his arms and claimed the entire Mississippi River basin from north to south, and from the Alleghany Mountains in the east to the Rockies in the west, for Louis and France. It was the huge midsection of the great North American continent, an area more than double the size of France.
Here was a gift fit for a great king. Spain had the riches of Mexico; England had the Atlantic coast; now France would have the heartland of America.
