European Exploration to 1700: Spain's Loss, France's Gain

Twenty years later, the French government authorized another expedition to the mouth of the Mississippi River. It was led by Robert Cavalier La Salle, a celebrated Norman, and reached the gulf coast of Louisiana on April 10, 1682. Fathers Zenobe Membre and Anastase Doouay led the group in a religious ceremony of thanksgiving, and La Salle claimed for France "all the lands drained by the Mississippi River." La Salle really didn't know how much land he was claiming. He named the claim "Louisiane" which means "Land of Louis" in honor of the king, Louis XIV.

La Salle returned to Louis XIV to ask the king to authorize the establishment of a Louisiana colony before the English or Spanish did so. Louis XIV agreed, and La Salle began the return trip with four ships with soldiers and about 300 settlers.

Bad weather or bad navigating caused the group to miss the mouth of the Mississippi entirely and the group's ship wrecked in Matagorda Bay in the Spanish territory of Mexico in 1685. This location is about 80 miles east of modern-day Corpus Christi. The survivors built a small fort, Fort Louis, and waited for a French rescue team. Rescuers never arrived, and the reality that they were not in Louisiana settled over the group. Members of the group eventually died of starvation or diseasee, were killed by Indians, or were taken prisoner by the Spanish. Therefore, the first attempt at establishing a permanent European presence in Louisiana was a complete failure.

At the very end of the 17th century successful colonization of Louisiana was in its early stages. Two French Canadian brothers, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean Baptiste Le Moyne d'Bienville, were commissioned to begin a colony by the French government, which was getting nervous that England and Spain would have all of North America. Iberville and Bienville were the sons of Charles Le Moyne, an established Canadian, and were considered knowledgeable about the American frontier. Iberville also had already established himself as an outstanding naval officer in war against England. On Octber 24, 1698, they left France with companies of soldiers and about 200 settlers on the ships Badine and Marin. In February of 1699 they saw the Louisiana coastline. While most of the settlers made a temporary camp on an island called Ship Island near Biloxi, Iberville, Bienville and some soldiers traveled onward. On March 2, 1699 - which happened to be Mardi

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