Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/86



started in small boats westward along the coast in search of the mouth of the Mississippi. Ascending one of the channels, they met a band of Indians, among whom they found various articles which had been given them by La Salle in 1682. Some time later a letter was found in possession of the Indians written April 20, 1685, to La Salle by De Tonti, who was searching at that time for the lost French colony. They also fond a Spanish coat-of-mail that must have been taken from De Soto's army one hundred and sixty years before.

After exploring the country along the river for some distance, D'Iberville selected a place for his colony eighty miles east of where New Orleans stands, on the north coast of Biloxi Bay. This was the first permanent settlement established in the lower Mississippi Valley.

From here D'Iberville and his younger brother, Bienville, examined the valley of the Mississippi as far north as Natchez. On the bluff where that city now stands the commander selected a site for the future capital of the French possessions. The Natchez Indians, a powerful nation, had made some progress toward civilization. Fire was the emblem of their divinity, and the sun was their god. In their principal temple a fire was kept continually burning by their priests. D'Iberville concluded a treaty of peace with the Natchez chief, with permission to found a colony and erect a fort. From this place the French commander explored the Red River Valley for more than a thousand miles.

In 1702 Lesueur, a French explorer, with a party of adventurers ascended the Mississippi River, past the entire eastern boundary of Iowa. They went northward to the mouth of the St. Peter and up that stream to the Blue Earth, and there erected a fort. This was probably the first attempt to take formal possession of the region now embraced in the States of Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakotas.

In 1705 Frenchmen traversed the Missouri to the