this time was completed, on the 13th of December, 1683, he repairs to France. In 1684, with four vessels and two hundred and eighty-four emigrants, he sets sail from the shores of his native land for the Gulf of Mexico. Early in the following year, he reaches his point of destination. After vainly searching for the mouths of the Mississippi, he anchors his vessels in the Bay of Matagorda and disembarks his little colony upon the sandy shore. But here he experiences sad disasters. One by one, he loses all his vessels by shipwreck and desertion. After making scanty provisions for his colony, he explores the country. He searches for the mouths of the Mississippi and for his lost ship, Belle, but with ill success. He now pursues in ecstacy golden visions for the mines of St. Barbe, but in a few months, he returns in rags and sadness to his dejected colony-diminished by fatal fevers and savage massacres. Cut off from France by the loss of his ships, misfortune constantly attending him, he resolves to seek assistance in Canada. Having made arrangements for his colony during his absence, he sets out for the northern lakes with a company of twenty men. He had not proceeded far when a mutiny sprang up among his followers, and he was the victim of assassination. His little colony which had cost him so much labor, solicitude and misfortune, was soon visited by the Spaniards and all of its members killed, save five, who were spared on account of their youth, and a few men who escaped to the woods and were never heard of more.

During the next five years, France is too much engaged in war to turn her attention to her distant possessions. After the peace of Ryswick, another colony was sent out under her auspices. Early in 1699, Lemoine De Iberville, a distinguished Canadian officer, established a little settlement near the Bay of Baloxi. While exploring one of the mouths of the Mississippi he obtained Tonty's letter to La Salle from the wandering savages. It will be recollected that this was the individual whom La Salle had left in

before the Governor of Canada who recommends him to the favor of the King. Repairing to the courts of France, he obtains the sanction and encouragement of his sovereign. He returns to Canada and applies himself, like an enthusiast and a philosopher, a skilful financier and an importunate mumper, to the prosecution of his plans. He raises money without security, builds a ship sixty tons burthen, and crosses the waters of Lake Michigan to Green Bay. Returning his barge, laden with furs, to Niagara for the benefit of his creditors, he with others coasts the lake in canoes to the mouth of St. Joseph River where he erects a fort. Ascending this stream he crosses the portage and glides down the Kankakee into the Illinois. He descends with the current of this smooth flowing river as far as Peoria and erects another fort. His means are now exhausted and he is compelled to return, while Henepin, his associate, sets out in a northwest direction and explores the Mississippi for some distance above the mouth of the Wisconsin.

On the 4th of January, 1682, La Salle enters upon his second expedition. Descending the river Chicago, across the portage, down the Illinois, by the 6th of February he glides upon the waters of the Mississippi; yielding to its swift current, occasionally halting to smoke the calumet with the natives, and erecting Fort Prudhomme, on Chicasaw Bluffs, in three months he explores it to its mouth. Here, with due solemnity and in a formal manner, he takes possession of the country, by the name of Louisiana, in behalf of the King of France. Erecting a column with a cross, he has inscribed upon it Louis the Great, King of France and Navarre, reigns the 9th of April, 1682. He now resolves to return to Canada, collect a number of emigrants, convey them down the Mississippi and plant a colony at its mouth. His journey back was long delayed by illness, and this plan was never executed. He determines to accomplish his object in a different way. Placing his faithful associate Tonty, in command of Fort St. Louis at Peoria, which by

this time was completed, on the 13th of December, 1683, he repairs to France. In 1684, with four vessels and two hundred and eighty-four emigrants, he sets sail from the shores of his native land for the Gulf of Mexico. Early in the following year, he reaches his point of destination. After vainly searching for the mouths of the Mississippi, he anchors his vessels in the Bay of Matagorda and disembarks his little colony upon the sandy shore. But here he experiences sad disasters. One by one, he loses all his vessels by shipwreck and desertion. After making scanty provisions for his colony, he explores the country. He searches for the mouths of the Mississippi and for his lost ship, Belle, but with ill success. He now pursues in ecstacy golden visions for the mines of St. Barbe, but in a few months, he returns in rags and sadness to his dejected colony-diminished by fatal fevers and savage massacres. Cut off from France by the loss of his ships, misfortune constantly attending him, he resolves to seek assistance in Canada. Having made arrangements for his colony during his absence, he sets out for the northern lakes with a company of twenty men. He had not proceeded far when a mutiny sprang up among his followers, and he was the victim of assassination. His little colony which had cost him so much labor, solicitude and misfortune, was soon visited by the Spaniards and all of its members killed, save five, who were spared on account of their youth, and a few men who escaped to the woods and were never heard of more.

During the next five years, France is too much engaged in war to turn her attention to her distant possessions. After the peace of Ryswick, another colony was sent out under her auspices. Early in 1699, Lemoine De Iberville, a distinguished Canadian officer, established a little settlement near the Bay of Baloxi. While exploring one of the mouths of the Mississippi he obtained Tonty's letter to La Salle from the wandering savages. It will be recollected that this was the individual whom La Salle had left in

charge of Fort St. Louis on his going to France the last time. Tonty supposing that La Salle had returned with his intended colony to the mouth of the Mississippi, had descended, to visit him. But not being able to find him, Tonty had left this letter in the hands of the natives who had carefully preserved it for thirteen years.

The little daughter of France, thus cast upon the burning sands of the Mexican Gulf, struggled through a miserable infancy. The men, many of whom were of a reckless character, instead of pursuing the slow, but sure way of acquiring a subsistence, wealth and independence, by opening farms and tilling the fertile soil and raising stock, spent their time in roving over the country in search of game and gold mines. Whenever game failed, or supplies from France, the colony was in a suffering condition.

In 1712, France being plunged again in war was unable to lend assistance to her "infant child" across the waters. For the benefit of the colony, she sells the monopoly of Louisiana to Crozat, a merchant prince, who hoped by discovering and working mines, and by opening a traffic with Mexico, to make a wonderful speculation. But in this he was doomed to disappointment. In 1717, having lost his fortune-though he had labored more for his own aggrandizement than the good of the colony-he surrenders his privileges.

But other speculators were not intimidated by the failure of Crozat. Louisiana passed the same year into the hands of the western company. This corporation had absolute sovereignty over Louisiana, except homage and fealty to the King of France. The association was headed by John Law, a notorious gambler and swindler, and was organized just on the eve of his financial glory with a charter for twenty-seven years.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF LOUISIANA CONTINUED-1541-1854.

The company began their work by laboring to increase the settlement of Louisiana. A wonderful interest was awakened in France by artfully circulating reports of the gold and silver mines in the Mississippi valley. The stock of the company was soon in great demand. A company of eight hundred emigrants is shipped over and the city of New Orleans is laid out. Great expectations are awakened both in France and Louisiana of the future greatness and grandeur of the province, and for the first time the pulsations of life begin to throb vigorously in the little colony.

But the prosperity was not real. It was awakened by the financial flush, springing from the erroneous and ephemeral money theory of John Law. The financial gloom having spread over France, it extends to the colony, and the bright prospect vanishes. Louisiana is in but little better condition than when she passed into the hands of the company. The members of the company held their charter until 1733, when, wearied with their burden, surrendered it.

Though the company did not accomplish for the colony all that it and others expected, still it is entitled to credit for what it did. Under its auspices the colony had been increased to 5,000 white and 2,000 black, inhabitants-the latter having been shipped from Africa and sold for one hundred and seventy-six dollars apiece on three years credit. The vast territory had been divided into nine dis