The Munsons of Texas — an American Saga
Inset 7
FRENCH DESIGNS ON THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
During the century following the earliest Spanish explorations in Florida, English settlers began forming permanent settlements on the Atlantic coast. The French were active in fur trading in Canada, followed by settlements. Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec in 1608, and in 1663 King Louis XIV claimed Canada as a province of France, naming it "New France." In 1672, Louis de Baude, the Comte de Frontenac, was appointed governor of New France, and, being aggressive, he actively promoted westward expansion. He quickly commissioned explorers, including Sieur Robert Cavelier de La Salle, Louis Joliet, and Father Jacques Marquette, to push westward and southward.
La Salle first went to Canada as a fur trader in 1666 at the age of 23. Over the next twenty years he was consumed by his efforts to explore and settle the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers for France. He properly saw them as more fertile and potentially profitable areas than France itself. In 1684, with direct authority from the King of France, he traveled down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and claimed all of the lands drained by this great river as the "Land of Louisiana" for King Louis XIV.
In his determination to colonize the territory, he returned to France, and with four ships and two hundred colonists he set sail for the mouth of the Mississippi. Except for one of history's more disastrous mistakes, this heartland of America might be French today. La Salle mistook Matagorda Bay in South Texas for the mouth of the Mississippi. In the ensuing disagreements between La Salle and his ship's captain, his ship sailed away while La Salle and a party of men were ashore. In desperation the party set out on foot for Canada, but, en route, La Salle was shot by one of his men during an argument. He was 44 years old. Thus ended effective French colonization efforts for Louisiana.
