Page:American History Told by Contemporaries, v2.djvu/340

  PART V INTERCOLONIAL, 1689-1764

CHAPTER XVII — THE FRENCH COLONIES 109. Foundation of Louisiana (17001703) BY BÉNARD DE LA HARPE (1723)

N the 28th May [1700], M. d'Iberville set sail for France, and on the same day M. de Bienville took command of the fort on the Mississippi. On the 29th he dispatched M. de Saint Denis to explore the country in the Red River, and to watch the Spaniards. On the 30th May [1701], the Enflammée of twenty-six guns, commanded by M. de la Ronde, arrived at Ship Island. Among the passengers was M. Sagan, a traveller from Canada, who had presented a memoir to the minister, M. de Pontchartrain, assuring him that he had travelled all over the Mississippi, and had found mines of gold on its banks ; and that the Indians had worked them. The minister, putting faith in his statements, granted to M. Sagan some privileges, and ordered M. de Sauvolle to supply him with twenty-four pirogues and one hundred Canadians, to accompany him to the Missouri.

On the 22d August, M. de Sauvolle died at Biloxi, and M. de Bienville was left sole commander of the colony.

On the 16th September, a party of Chactas arrived at Biloxi to demand of the French some troops to assist them to fight the Chicachas. The Chactas nation contained forty villages, and over five thousand warriors. On the 25th October, twenty Mobileans arrived at Fort Biloxi. This 312