Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/87

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST JIISSOURI 27 ernment of France the results with a recoin- mendatiou that it be followed up and the country held. We have now to consider the work of the greatest of the French explorers whose trav- els and voyages brought them to Southeast Missouri. Robert Cavelier de La Salle was a man who would have made his mark in any place or situation of life, for he was rarely gifted in manj' ways. He was born in France in 1643, received a good education and emigrated to Canada at the age of twenty- three. Here he heard the reports current among the French and Indians of a great river that flowed to- the south and west and perhaps entered into the western sea, called the Vermillion sea, or Sea of California. La Salle was fired by the desire to discover and explore this river and thus open the long sought and eagerly desired way to China and the East. He accordingly interested Cour- celles, the governor, and Talon, the intendant of Canada, in his schemes. He spent several years in exploring the lakes .and rivers, dis- covering in the course of his travels the Ohio river and descending it as far as the present site of Louisville and perhaps to its junc- ture with the Mississippi. At any rate he be- came convinced that the Mississippi did not flow to the west nor to the east but toward the south and emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle had become a friend of the new governor of Canada, Frontenac, and was able to interest him in his schemes of exploration and settlement. Frontenac was a man of en- ergy and resource and gave great assistance to La Salle. Through his help and encourage- ment La Salle secured from the government of France certain grants of land in Canada, the income of which enabled him to carry on the w-ork which he had undertaken. In the course of his negotiations he made a trip to France and w-as able to interest many of his friends in the w^ork he was attempting to per- form. That work w-as a great and noble one. La Salle seems to have been one of the few men at that time connected with the colonies in this country, either French or English, who had a clear grasp of the situation and saw the possibilities of the country. At the time the colonies of France were confined to Canada. The French were devoting their en- ergy to the exploration and settlement of the country around the Great Lakes, to the fur trade with the Indians, and to the en.ioyment of the wild and adventurous life of the woods. The country to which the French were de- voting their time and energies was a great and wonderful country in many respects. It contained the Great Lakes, and a wonderful system of rivers and water-wa.ys, the soil was fertile in places, and the Indian trade was most profitable and destined to grow for many years. But there was one great obstacle to the development of the French country and that was the severe climate. The winters were long and very cold. Snow was plentifid and deep, for weeks the lakes and rivers wi • coated with ice, and the shortness of the sum- mer precluded the possibilit.v of growing many of the desirable food plants. It was not a country to develop rapidl.y, nor to support a large population. When La Salle came to Canada, the French had been in possession for nearly tw^o generations, but had done lit- tle or nothing looking to securing land to the south of them. While the French were thus confining themselves to the region of the Lakes and ig- noring the other parts of the continent, the English were planted along the Atlantic coast. They. too. for many generations, were con-