Robert lasalle explorer route

Where was robert de la salle born

He was one of the first European explorers to make alliances with the Native Americans of Arkansas and the first to try to establish a permanent settlement in Arkansas through his friend and fellow explorer, Henri de Tonti. La Salle was born in Rouen, France, on November 21, His parents, Catherine Gesset and Jean Cavlier, were wealthy merchants.

Educated at the Jesuit College in Rouen, La Salle gave up his inheritance to enter the Society of Jesus and studied to become a priest. Feeling unsuited for the priesthood, La Salle left the order and sailed for Canada in to join his brother, Jean. He traded furs in the Ohio River valley and explored the Mississippi River Valley with the objective of establishing fur trading posts from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

By the s, La Salle secured a patent of nobility and a seigniorial grant from the French king for land in North America. Aided by de Tonti, La Salle cultivated important military, social, and political alliances with Indian tribes in the Mississippi River Valley. Reaching Arkansas in , La Salle and his men stopped at the Quapaw village of Kappa, a settlement located on the Mississippi River approximately twenty miles south of the mouth of the White River , where, after initial suspicion, the tribe received them cordially.

From this moment until Spanish domination of Louisiana in the s, the Quapaw allied themselves with the French to obtain firearms and manpower to face their enemies; they also traded, formed political alliances, and even intermarried with them. It was an advantageous relationship for both the Quapaw and the French. La Salle returned to France in order to promote settlement in French-occupied territory.

He ordered a fort to be built and set off in search of the Mississippi River with several colonists. His error in judgment and indecision regarding their situation caused dissention, which led members of the exploration party to kill him on March 19, , near the Hasinai Tejani Indians village. La Salle ultimately failed in his undertaking of establishing fur trading posts along the Mississippi River, but his expeditions were his fame.

However, he did open the great waterway for development and established friendships with Arkansas Indians, who would assist and support the French colonial settlers in the area for over years.