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the Mississippi to France, and to open up trade with Mexico.357 He made his way to the Niagara River. There, a short distance above the Falls, he built the "Griffin," the first vessel ever launched on the waters of the upper Great Lakes.

La Salle with his little party, among whom was Father Hennepin, a Franciscan friar, sailed (1679) to Green Bay. At Green Bay he loaded the "Griffin" with furs, and sent the vessel back to Niagara with orders to obtain a cargo of supplies, and return to him at the Chicago River or vicinity. The vessel was never again heard of. La Salle then embarked with his men in a fleet of canoes for the St. Joseph River on the east side of the lake. At that point (1679) the commander constructed Fort Miami. He then ascended the St. Joseph, and crossing over the portage to the head waters of the Kankakee River, descended that stream, entered the Illinois, and kept on until (1680) he reached Peoria Lake. There he constructed Fort Crèvecœur. This fort marks the first attempt made by white men to take permanent possession of what is now the State of Illinois.358

La Salle spent the winter (1679-80) at the fort, anxiously hoping for news of the arrival of the "Griffin" with provisions and supplies, which would enable him to complete a small vessel, in which he purposed descending the Mississippi. Weary of waiting, La Salle at length resolved to go back to Fort Frontenac and get the things he needed. Leaving a small garrison to hold Fort Crèvecœur, he set out on the first of March (1680), accompanied by five of his followers, on his perilous journey of a thousand miles.

159. Father Hennepin's journey; La Salle explores the lower Mississippi and takes possession of "Louisiana" (1682); his death. Shortly before La Salle left Fort Crèvecœur he sent Father Hennepin (§ 158) to explore the lower Illinois. Hennepin went down that river to its mouth and then turned northward up the Mississippi. the Mississippi. After many adventures among the Indians he passed the site where the flourish

ing city of St. Paul now stands, and reached (1680) a cataract, which he named the Falls of St. Anthony; to-day those falls furnish the magnificent water-power of Minneapolis, the largest flour-manufacturing center in the world.

When the French commander returned to the Illinois he found Fort Crèvecœur deserted. A band of Iroquois warriors had destroyed it. He was forced to turn back and seek shelter (1680) in Fort Miami (§ 158).

Subsequently La Salle, with a strong party, started (1681) for the third time to explore the Mississippi. Late in the season they left Fort Miami and crossed Lake Michigan to the Chicago River. Following the frozen Illinois they reached open water just below Lake Peoria. There they embarked in their canoes, and in February (1682) entered the Mississippi. Early in April the French came in sight of the gleaming waves of the Gulf of Mexico.

There, amid volleys of musketry and shouts of "Long live the King!" La Salle planted a wooden column bearing the arms of France at one of the mouths of the "Great River of the West." Then, in the name of Louis XIV. of France, he took formal possession of the Mississippi from its source to the sea, and of all the country watered by it and by its tributaries. This immense territory, stretching from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, La Salle named Louisiana, in honor of the reigning French sovereign." France gained all this magnificent empire more than thirty years before the English had ventured as far west as the Blue Ridge (§ 137).

But the Mississippi empties into a sea which Spain claimed as her own, and she threatened death to all foreigners who should enter it. La Salle resolved to brave that decree, to fortify the mouth of the river, and to hold the great valley of the West against the world. The hand of an assassin (1687) put a stop to the execution of his plan.

160. Iberville's settlement; Mobile founded (1702); the "Mississippi Company"; New Orleans founded (1718). A number of years later, Iberville, a French Canadian explorer, built a fort at Biloxi, on the Gulf of Mexico (1699); he thus began the first European occupation of what is now the State of Mississippi.

A company of French Protestants begged Louis XIV. to grant them permission to emigrate to Louisiana. They received this answer: "The King has not driven Protestants from France to make a republic of them in America." 360 The Biloxi colonists did not succeed, and were transferred (1702) to Mobile; there they laid the foundation of a settlement which eventually became the State of Alabama.

A number of years later, reports reached Paris that a Frenchman had found enormous deposits of gold in the Illinois country. John Law, a clever Scotch financier, who was doing business in the French capital, got himself appointed (1717) president of a grand stock company to work these gold mines, and develop the resources of Louisiana. Law proposed to pay off the French national debt of $500,000,000, out of the profits of this gigantic undertaking. All Paris was seized with a mad fever of speculation. When the bubble burst, thousands of Frenchmen cursed the day when they first heard the name of Louisiana.361 But Law's scheme had one good result: Bienville, a brother of Iberville, had been appointed commander-general of Louisiana, and in 1718 he made a clearing in the canebrakes on the east bank of the Mississippi, and there founded the city of New Orleans.

Henceforth New Orleans controlled the mouth of the river. That immense stream, with its tributaries, drains the largest agricultural valley on the globe, having an area greater than that of Central Europe, and capable of producing grain enough to feed all the inhabitants of Europe and America.

161. The French in the North and the West; French forts. - Meanwhile the French had not been idle at the North.

Kaskaskia, in Illinois, was settled (1695). Duluth had built a fort on the northern shore of Lake Superior, had "visited the spot where the city since named for him stands," and had explored much further west. He advised building a fort on the straits connecting Lake Erie with Lake Huron. The French acted on that suggestion and founded (1701) the fortified post of Detroit. A little later (1702) they built a fort at Vincennes, the oldest town in Indiana.

In 1720 the French built Fort Chartres, on the Mississippi, in southern Illinois. It was one of the most formidable strongholds on the continent, and formed one more link in that chain of fortifications which Louis XIV. was extending from Quebec to New Orleans. By means of those forts France intended to make good her claim to the country west of the Alleghanies when the great final struggle for the mastery should come with the English.

162. War between the French and the English; Frontenac's plans; attack on Schenectady; on Haverhill; the English colonists attack Canada. The war (known as "King William's War") had, in fact, already begun in the Old World, and Frontenac (§ 66) simply opened the American side (1689-1697) of the terrible contest. It was a struggle for religious as well as for political supremacy, and Catholics and Protestants were arrayed against each other. Frontenac intended to seize New York and drive the inhabitants into the wilderness. This plan failed, but he sent a party of French and Indians (1690), who fell upon the little Dutch settlement of Schenectady and destroyed it.

At the suggestion of Jacob Leisler, Governor of New York (§ 67), an attack on Canada was planned. Sir William Phips, of Maine, took the French fort at Port Royal, Acadia (now Nova Scotia), and stripped the place bare, bringing away even the Governor's silver spoons and his new dress wigs.

In a later expedition against Quebec Phips was repulsed, and the "pinch of famine" forced a disastrous defeat. His men

clamored for their pay, and Massachusetts, having no coin to give them, issued her first paper money (£40,000), in order to settle the demand.362 That colony had now to shoulder the burden of a heavy debt, with nothing to pay it but paper currency, which soon fell to half its face value.

163. "Queen Anne's War"; Indian attacks; Port Royal, Quebec; King George's War; Louisburg taken. In the second, or "Queen Anne's War" (1702-1713), the French and Indians swept the coast of Maine from Casco to Wells. The next winter they burned Deerfield, Massachusetts, and carried away most of the inhabitants into captivity.

On the other hand an expedition sailed from Boston (1710) and took permanent possession of Port Royal, which was henceforth called Annapolis in honor of the reigning Queen of England.

The next summer (1711) a combined force of English troops and colonists was sent against Quebec. Eight ships of the squadron were wrecked in the St. Lawrence, and nearly nine hundred men were lost. A council of war voted not to proceed further. When peace was made (1713) Great Britain kept Annapolis, obtained full possession of Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland, and Acadia, which now received the name of Nova Scotia.

The third or "King George's War" (1744-1748) was marked by a splendid victory. The French fortress of Louisburg on Cape Breton Island guarded the entrance to the St. Lawrence. Colonel William Pepperrell of Maine led (1745) a secret expedition against this stronghold, which, with its walls of solid masonry twenty feet high, seemed to defy attack.

New England, New York, and Pennsylvania contributed men, artillery, and provisions for the expedition. Aided by a small English fleet the little army of fishermen, lumbermen, and farmers besieged the fortress for six weeks. Meanwhile the people of Boston were holding weekly prayer-meetings in behalf of the desperate enterprise. The commander of the

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