René-Robert Cavelier | |
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 A 19th-century engraving of Cavelier de La Salle | |
| Born | (1643-11-22)November 22, 1643 |
| Died | March 19, 1687(1687-03-19) (aged 43) present-dayHuntsville,Texas |
| Occupation | explorer |
| Known for | exploring theGreat Lakes, Mississippi River, and theGulf of Mexico |
| Signature | |
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René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (/ləˈsæl/,French:[ʁəneʁɔbɛʁkavəljesjœʁdəlasal]; November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687), was a French explorer andfur trader in North America. He explored theGreat Lakes region of theUnited States andCanada, and theMississippi River. He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of theIllinois River to theGulf of Mexico; there, on April 9, 1682, he claimed the Mississippi River basin for France after giving it the nameLa Louisiane, in honor ofSaint Louis andLouis XIV. One source states that "he acquired for France the most fertile half of the North American continent".[1][2] A later, ill-fated expedition in 1684 to the Gulf coast of Mexico (today the U.S. state of Texas) gave the United States a putative claim to Texas in the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803; La Salle was assassinated during that expedition.
AlthoughJolliet andMarquette preceded him on the upper Mississippi in their journey of 1673–74, La Salle extended exploration – and France's claims – all the way to the river's mouth, although the existing historical evidence does not indicate that La Salle ever reached theOhio/Allegheny Valley.
Robert Cavelier was born on November 22, 1643, into a comfortably well-off family inRouen, France, in the parish Saint-Herbland.[3] His parents were Jean Cavelier and Catherine Geest.[4] His older brother, Jean Cavelier, became aSulpician priest. When Robert was young, he enjoyed science and nature. In his teens, he studied with theJesuit religious order and became a member after taking initial vows in 1660.[a]
Required toreject his father's legacy when he joined the Jesuits, La Salle was nearly destitute when he traveled as a prospective colonist to North America. He sailed forNew France in the spring of 1666.[6] His brother Jean, had moved there the year before. At La Salle's request on March 27, 1667, after he was in Canada, he was released from the Society of Jesus after citing "moral weaknesses".[4]
La Salle was granted aseigneurie on land at the western end of theIsland of Montreal, which became known asLachine.[7][b] La Salle immediately began to issue land grants, set up a village and learn the languages of the several tribes of Iroquois in this area.[9]
Sieur de La Salle is a French title roughly translating to "Lord of the manor of La Salle."[10]Sieur is a French title of nobility, similar to the English "Sir," but under the French seigneurial system, the title is purchased rather than earned, and does not imply military duty. Robert Cavelier took the title with his seigneurial purchase ofLachine from the Sulpician order at Ville Marie around 1667. It refers to the name of a family estate near Rouen.[11] However,La Salle has become closely associated with the person as if it were his name; he is therefore often called Robert La Salle, or simply "La Salle".
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The Seneca told La Salle of a great river, called theOhio,[c] which flowed into the sea, the "Vermilion Sea".[d] He began to plan for expeditions to find a western passage to China. He sought and received permission from GovernorDaniel Courcelle andIntendantJean Talon to embark on the enterprise. He sold his interests in Lachine to finance the venture.[14]
La Salle left Lachine by the St. Lawrence on July 6, 1669, with a flotilla of nine canoes and 24 men, an unknown number of Seneca guides: himself and 14 hired men in four canoes, the two Sulpicians Dollier de Casson and Abbé René de Bréhan de Galinée with seven new recruits in three canoes, and two canoes of Natives. Having travelled up the St. Lawrence and across Lake Ontario for 35 days, they arrived at what is called todayIrondequoit Bay on the southern shore of Lake Ontario at the mouth of Irondequoit Creek, a place now commemorated as La Salle's Landing.
There they were greeted by a party of Natives, who escorted them starting the next day to a village some leagues distant, a journey of a few days. At the village, the Seneca vehemently attempted to dissuade the party from proceeding into the lands of their enemies, theAlgonquins, telling of the dire fate awaiting them. The necessity of securing guides for the further part of the journey, and the refusal of the Seneca to provide them, delayed the expedition a month. A fortuitous capture by the Natives in the lands to the south of a Dutchman who spokeIroquois well but French poorly, and was to be burned at the stake for transgressions unknown, provided an opportunity to obtain a guide. The Dutchman's freedom was purchased by the party in exchange forwampum.
While at the Native village in September 1669, La Salle was seized with a violent fever[e] and expressed the intention of returning toVille Marie.
At this juncture, he parted from his company and the narrative of the Jesuits, who continued on to upper Lake Erie.[16] Other accounts have it that some of La Salle's men soon returned toNew Holland or Ville Marie.
Beyond that, the factual record of La Salle's first expedition ends, and what prevails is obscurity and fabrication. It is likely that he spent the winter in Ville Marie.[17] The next confirmed sighting of La Salle was byNicolas Perrot on the Ottawa River near theRapide des Chats in early summer, 1670, hunting with a party of Iroquois. That would be 700 miles as the crow flies from the Falls of the Ohio, the point supposed by some that he reached on the Ohio River.[f]
La Salle's own journal of the expedition was lost in 1756.[17] Two indirect historical accounts exist. The one,Récit d’un ami de l’abbé de Galliné, purported to be a recitation by La Salle himself to an unknown writer during his visit to Paris in 1678, and the otherMémoire sur le projet du sieur de la Salle pour la descouverte de la partie occidentale de l’Amérique septentrionale entre la Nouvelle-France, la Floride et le Mexique. A letter from Madeleine Cavelier, his now elderly niece, written in 1746, commenting on the journal of La Salle in her possession may also shed some light on the issue.
La Salle himself never claimed to have discovered the Ohio River.[19] In a letter to the intendant Talon in 1677, he claimed "discovery" of a river, the Baudrane, flowing southwesterly below the Great Lakes (well north of the Ohio's location) with its head on Lake Erie and emptying into the Saint Louis (i.e. the Mississippi), a hydrography which was non-existent. In those days, maps as well as descriptions were based part on observation and part on hearsay, of necessity. This confounded courses, mouths and confluences among the rivers. At various times, La Salle invented such rivers as the Chucagoa, Baudrane, Louisiane (Anglicized "Saint Louis"), and Ouabanchi-Aramoni.
Confounding fact with fiction started with publication in 1876 of Pierre Margry'sDécouvertes et Établissements des Français. Margry was a French archivist and partisan who had private access to the French archives. He came to be the agent of American historian Francis Parkman. Margry's work, a massive nine volumes, encompassed an assemblage of documents – some previously published, but many not. In it, he sometimes published a reproduction of the whole document, and sometimes only an extract, or summary, not distinguishing the one from the other. These discrepancies have significantly complicated efforts to retrace and build upon Margry's work.
He also used in some cases one or another copies of original documents previously edited, extracted or altered by others, without specifying which transcriptions were original, and which were copies, or whether the copy was dated earlier or later. Reproductions were scattered in fragments across chapters, so that it was impossible to ascertain the integrity of the document from its fragments. Chapter headings were oblique and sensational, so as to obfuscate the content therein. English and American scholars were immediately skeptical of the work, since full and faithful publication of some of the original documents had previously existed. The situation was so fraught with doubt, that the United States Congress appropriated $10,000 in 1873, which Margry wanted as an advance, to have the original documents photostated and witnessed by uninvolved parties as to veracity.
La Salle undertook several other smaller unknown expeditions between 1671 and 1673. On July 12, 1673, the Governor of New France,Louis de Buade de Frontenac, arrived at the mouth of theCataraqui River to meet with leaders of the Five Nations of the Iroquois to encourage them to trade with the French. While the groups met and exchanged gifts, Frontenac's men, led by La Salle, hastily constructed a rough wooden palisade on a point of land by a shallow, sheltered bay. Originally the fort was named Fort Cataraqui; it was later renamedFort Frontenac by La Salle, in honor of his patron. The purpose of Fort Frontenac was to control the lucrative fur trade in the Great Lakes Basin to the west. The fort was also meant to be a bulwark against the English and Dutch, who were competing with the French for control of the fur trade.[20] La Salle was left in command of the fort in 1673.
Thanks to his powerful protector, the discoverer managed, during a voyage to France in 1674–75, to secure for himself the grant of Fort Cataraqui and acquiredletters of nobility for himself and his descendants.[4] With Frontenac's support, he received not only afur trade concession, with permission to establish frontier forts, but also atitle of nobility. He returned and rebuilt Frontenac in stone. AnOntario Heritage Trust plaque describes La Salle at Cataraqui as "[a] major figure in the expansion of the French fur trade into the Lake Ontario region. Using the fort as a base, he undertook expeditions to the west and southwest in the interest of developing a vast fur-trading empire."[21]
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After leaving Lower Canada in September 1678, La Salle and his lieutenantHenri de Tonti travelled toFort Frontenac (now inKingston, Ontario) and then to Niagara where, in December 1678, they were the first Europeans documented to have seenNiagara Falls; they builtFort Conti at the mouth of the Niagara River.[22][23] There, they loaded supplies into smaller boats (canoes orbateaux), so they could continue up the shallow and swiftly flowing lowerNiagara River to what is now the location ofLewiston, New York.[24] There the Iroquois had a well-establishedportage route that bypassed the rapids and thecataract later known asNiagara Falls.
The first ship built by La Salle, called theFrontenac, was a 10-ton single-decked brigantine or barque; it was lost in Lake Ontario on January 8, 1679. Afterward, La Salle builtLe Griffon, a seven-cannon, 45-tonbarque,[16] on the upper Niagara River, at or nearCayuga Creek; she was launched on August 7, 1679. La Salle sailed inLe Griffon upLake Erie toLake Huron, then up Huron toMichilimackinac and on to present-dayGreen Bay, Wisconsin.Le Griffon then left for Niagara with a load of furs, but was never seen again.[16]
La Salle continued with his men in canoes down the western shore ofLake Michigan, rounding the southern end to the mouth of the Miami River (nowSt. Joseph River), where they built a stockade in November 1679. They called itFort Miami (now known asSt. Joseph, Michigan). There they waited for Tonti and his party, who had crossed the Lower Michigan peninsula on foot.
On December 3, 1679, with a group of 40, La Salle andHenri de Tonti headed south from Fort Miami. They canoed up the St. Joseph and followed it to a portage at present-daySouth Bend, Indiana. They crossed to theKankakee River and followed it to theIllinois River. In January 1680, they reached an area that is near the current city ofPeoria, Illinois. In order to help the localPeoria tribe defend themselves against theIroquois, La Salle and his group built a stockade and named itFort Crèvecoeur.[25]
In March 1680, La Salle set off on foot for Fort Frontenac for supplies. There, he discovered that only month after his departure, the soldiers at Ft. Crevecoeur, led byMartin Chartier,mutinied, destroyed the fort, and exiled Tonti, whom he had left in charge.[26]
The group later travelled along the Illinois River and arrived at the Mississippi River in February 1682; they built canoes there. The exploration reached an area that is nowMemphis, Tennessee, where La Salle built a small fort, namedFort Prudhomme.[27]
In April 1682, the expedition reached the Gulf of Mexico. There, La Salle named the Mississippi basinLa Louisiane[28] in honor ofLouis XIV and claimed it for France.[29][30]
During 1682–83, La Salle, with Henry de Tonti, establishedFort Saint-Louis of Illinois atStarved Rock on the Illinois River to protect and hold the region for France.[31] La Salle then returned to Montreal and later, to France.[32]
On July 24, 1684,[11] he departed France and returned to America with a large expedition designed to establish aFrench colony on theGulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. They had four ships and 300 colonists. The expedition was plagued bypirates, Natives defending their land, and poor navigation. One ship was lost to pirates in theWest Indies, a second sank in the inlets ofMatagorda Bay. TheLa Belle made landfall in February 1685.
They founded asettlement, near the bay which they called the Bay of Saint Louis, onGarcitas Creek in the vicinity of present-dayVictoria, Texas. La Salle led a group eastward on foot on three occasions to try to locate the mouth of the Mississippi. In the meantime, the flagshipLa Belle, the only remaining ship, ran aground and sank into the mud, stranding the colony on the Texas coast.[33]
Some of his menmutinied, near the site of present-dayNavasota, Texas.[g]
On March 19, 1687, La Salle was slain by Pierre Duhaut during an ambush while talking to Duhaut's decoy,Jean L'Archevêque.[35] They were "six leagues" from the westernmost village of theHasinai (Tejas) Indians.[11] One source states that Duhaut was a "disenchanted follower".[36] Duhaut was shot and killed by James Hiems to avenge La Salle. Over the following week, others were killed; confusion followed as to who killed whom.[37]
The colony lasted only until 1688, whenKarankawa-speaking Natives killed the 20 remaining adults and took five children as captives. Tonti sent a search mission in 1689 when he learned of the colonizers' fate, but the expedition ran out of supplies in northern Texas and failed to reach the site.[38]
It is now known that there were 15 survivors of the original 180 colonists at the fort, most of whom had accompanied La Salle on his final eastward trek to locate the mouth of the Colbert (Mississippi) River and escaped the massacre: five children kidnapped by Native Americans at the settlement and later rescued by the Spanish, and 10 other adults, who lived for a while among the Native Americans and were later captured and released by the Spanish.[citation needed] Six found their way to Canada and eventually returned to France. Three others were refused passage by the Spanish; an Italian was imprisoned. For as long as 30 years after the demise of the colony, there were specious accounts of survivors still living among the Native Americans in Texas.[citation needed]
La Salle never married,[39] but has been linked toMadeleine de Roybon d'Allonne, an early colonizer ofNew France.[40]
In addition to the forts, which also served as authorized agencies for the extensive fur trade, La Salle's visits to Illinois and other Natives cemented the French policy of alliance with Natives in the common causes of containing both Iroquois influence and Anglo-American colonization. He also gave the nameLouisiana (La Louisiane) to the interior North American territory he claimed for France, which lives on in thename of a U.S. state.
TheEncyclopædia Britannica provides this summary of La Salle's achievements: "His claim of Louisiana for France, though but a vain boast at the time, pointed the way to the French colonial empire that was eventually built by other men".[41]
Pierre Berton wrote, "no other man had crammed so much adventure, so much excitement, so many triumphs, and so many heartbreaks into a single career. Though he died at the hands of some of his quarrelling followers in the mud of reeds of the Gulf of Mexico lowlands, he was essentially a man of the lakes, of Ontario and Erie, Huron and Michigan...."[42]
A sculpture of de La Salle is located on the south facade of the Knute Rockne Memorial on the campus of theUniversity of Notre Dame.[43] There is also astatue of him inChicago'sLincoln Park.
La Salle University inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania, adopted the nickname "Explorers" for its athletic teams after René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. La Salle University is named afterSaint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, the French priest, educator and founder of theInstitute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. In 1931, a sportswriter mistakenly referred to the La Salle football team as the "Explorers" thinking the school was named after the French explorer. In 1932 students voted to pick "Explorers" as the official nickname. The La Salle University mascot is The Explorer.[44]
In 1995, La Salle's primary shipLa Belle was discovered in the muck ofMatagorda Bay. It has been the subject of archeological research.[45][46] A search of the wreck and surrounding area during 1996 to 1997 yielded numerous artifacts from the 17th century.[47] Through an international treaty, the artifacts excavated from La Belle are owned by France[48] and held in trust by the Texas Historical Commission. The collection is held by theCorpus Christi Museum of Science and History. Artifacts fromLa Belle are shown at nine museums across Texas.
The wreckage of his shipL'Aimable has yet to be located. In 1998, The National Underwater and Marine Agency claimed that it had found the wreck in Matagorda Bay but the Texas Historical Commission stated that the wreck was much more recent.[49]
The possible remains ofLe Griffon were found in 1898 by lighthouse keeper Albert Cullis, on a beach on the western edge ofManitoulin Island in northern Lake Huron. Results of testing some of the artifacts were disputed. Many of the recovered artifacts were lost and the wreck was washed away in 1942.[50][51] A possible shipwreck ofLe Griffon nearPoverty Island at the entrance toGreen Bay in northern Lake Michigan was located by Steve Libert of the Great Lakes Exploration Group in 2001. The organization prevailed in a lawsuit against the state of Michigan over ownership of artifacts in 2012, and in 2013 was issued a permit to excavate the wreck. Only one artifact, a wood pole, was recovered, and it is indeterminate whether it was from a shipwreck. In 2019, theDiscovery Channel featured the story of the ship; divers who were involved in the investigation were convinced thatLe Griffon sank in theMississagi Strait.[52]
Historians debated the site of La Salle's "Fort St Louis" colony, which had been said to be nearLavaca Bay at Garcitas Creek, and was a significant part of the history ofFrench colonization of Texas. A June 1996 dig at the site that was believed to be the correct location revealed eight French cannon. This led archeologists to excavate the Keeran Ranch site in the area, during 1996–2002; they concluded that the SpanishPresidio La Bahía fort "was built on the La Salle settlement". Some 10 percent of the artifacts recovered are believed to have originated in France.[53]
Many places, streets, parks, buildings and other things were named in La Salle's honor:
Counties and towns
Parks and streets
Buildings and other
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.I, René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle, by virtue of His Majesty's commission, which I hold in my hands, and which may be seen by all whom it may concern, have taken and do now take, in the name of His Majesty and of his successors to the crown, possession of the country of Louisiana...
La Salle concentrated thousands of Indians as part of his ambitious plan to protect and exploit the vast new territory that he claimed for France.
Subsequent investigation of the site by the Texas Historical Commission discovered the vessel likely dated to the late 18th or early 19th centuries.
the most thorough work yet on the unsolved centuries-old maritime mystery, generously illustrated with historical and modern photos and maps.
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