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16 and the accounts of wilderness adventures roused many an ambitious youth to follow the trails into the wilderness. It was on the ninth day of April, 1682, that La Salle unfurled the French flag at the mouth of the Mississippi River and formally took possession of the entire valley in the name of the king of France. He gave to the country the name Louisiana in honor of his king, Louis XIV.

The Louisiana Country. — France and England had long been enemies at home; and so it is not surprising that they were likewise enemies in the new world. France finally lost Canada and the Ohio Valley to the British, and secretly bestowed upon Spain the trans-Mississippi country. The success of the American colonies in their war for independence gave to them, in addition to the territory of the thirteen original States, the territory west of the Alleghanies and east of the Mississippi River. In 1800 Spain receded the Louisiana country to France. By this time the American pioneers were rapidly pushing westward, only to find their chief avenue of commerce — the Mississippi River — blocked at the mouth by grievous burdens laid upon commerce by the Spanish and French authorities. The Purchase of Louisiana. — President Jefferson sent a commission to France to purchase the French rights at the mouth of the river; but Napoleon, fearing that Louisiana like the other French possessions in America, might any day fall into the hands of his British enemies, persuaded the Commissioners to take the whole province of Louisiana for something over $15,000,000.