The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-02-06
I -. Finance, Real Estate Insurance .".
THE FATHER
 OF WATERS

1 Many thrilling volumes have been
 written about the early explorations
 of the Mississippi, beginning with it's discovery by the Spanish adventurer,
 Fernando De Soto, who died on it's
 banks in 1542.' The next important
 chapter in the history of the Father l or Waters has for it's heroes the l brothers Bienville and Iberville, scions l of the illustrious French-Canadian l clan Of Le MOyne, who raised the French flag and planted colonies, in- cluding the future city of New Or leans. at the mouth of the great | stream. Bienville, the father of the Crescent City, successfully contested the English claim to the territory at the mouth of the Mississippi, and turned back the English physician Coxe, who had been granted a charter to the territory and had sent out an expedition to claim it. Joliet and Marquette, in 1873, descended the great stream to a point within three days journey of it's mouth, and in 1880 Father Hennepin, the devoted
 missionary, explored the Mississippi
 from the mouth of the Illinois to the
 Falls of St. Anthony.
 Most important date of all in the
 annals of the Mississippi is that sixth
 of February in 16S2-just 235 years
 ago today-when Robert Cavelier,
 Sieur de la Salle, after a long and
 hazardous journey down the Illinois,
 set out with his fleet of canoes down
 the Mississippi. As he advanced he
 noted the mouth of the Missouri, noted
 T., -;%o oR& | &I,1 f,~4, 1s4~ 70 r
 built fort near the mouth of the
 Ohio, and erected a log cabin on the
 first Chickasaw bluff. In the vicinity
 of where Helena now stands he pass
 ed the point where De Soto had at-
 tained the banks of the great river,
 and at the mouth of the Arkansas he
 halted to plant the cross. Reaching
 the point where the river separates into three channels flowing into the
 Gulf of Mexico, the party separated,
 but the whole company assembled again at a dry spot near the Gulf, and there prepared a cross and a column, affixing to the latter the arms of France, with the inscription, 'eLouis the Great, King of France and Navaree, April 9, 1882" La Salle was accompanied on this memorable voyage by thirteen white companions, including Henri de Tonti, an Italian adventurer who had been associated with La Salle in earlier explorations; Nicholas, a nephew of La Sale; La Metarie, notary; Zenobe, Recollet and Jean Michel surgeon. Later La Sale set out to the west ward, penetrating the present domain of Texas to Trinity river, when some of his men revolted and murdered the great explorer.
 Such was the end,' says Bancroft, l "of this daring adventurer. For force of will and vast conceptions: for various knowledge and quick adapta- tion of his genius to untried circum- for a sublime magnanimity, that resigned itself to the will of heaven, and yet triumphed over af- fliction by energy of purpose and un- faltering hope, he had no superior among his countrymen."
 La Salle was native of Rouen, | France, and was abouty forty-seven years old at the period of his mo mentous voyage down the Father of settled in Canada, and subsequently, 1 received the grant of large demain [ around Fort Frontenac, and of the ex- elusive traffic with the Five Nations. If he had been a money-grubber he might have reaped a fortune from the fur trade, and returned to France a man of wealth and power; but the red blood of adventure flowed in his veins, and he plunged into the track less wilderness to go to his death.