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On November 22, 1647, La Salle was born in Rouen France.
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In 1665, at age 22, La Salle finds that he has an interest for adventure. He asks to be sent to New France(Canada) with his brother,Jean,as a missionary(and he is).
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In 1667, La Salle arrives at New France as a poor man. However, soon he receives a land grant from the Seminary of St.Sulpice. He built a settlement, gave land to settlers, and befriended the local natives. The natives told him about the Ohio/Mississippi rivers an show they flow out to the sea. La Salle became obsessed with finding a river that flowed from North America to China.
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By 1673, La Salle became good friends with the Count of Frontenac. They both loved exploring and dreamed of extending French rule across the Great Lakes. So, La Salle travelled to France to ask permission to explore the area between New France and Canada.
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By 1677, La Salle controlled a large portion of the fur trade. However, his unique change thirst for exploration led him to want more. So, he travelled to France to ask permission to explore the Mississippi in hopes of finding a water route to China. He returned to Montreal with dozens of men.
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By August of 1679. La Salle had built one fort on the Niagara River and built the ship Le Griffon for the journey across the Mississippi . However, the expedition had to be suspended due to the loss of Le Griffon, due to a mutiny and/or a storm.
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In February of 1682, La Salle led an expedition down te Mississipi river. On the way, he built Fort Prod’homme at current day Memphis, Tennessee. In April, La Salle reached the Gulf of Mexico. He named the region La Louisiane in honor of King Louis XIV. He also established many important relationships with Native American tribes in the upper Mississipi(river) area. On the way back La Salle built Ft. St. Louis in Illinois.
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On July 24,1684, La Salle set off on his expedition to establish a colony in the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi River. However, things didn’t go well from the start. Most of the ships were either wrecked, sunk, or the ship went rogue(back to France). One of the ships finally landed at Matagorda Bay which was 500 miles of their intended destination. Throughout the years, La Salle tried to take teams of men to find the Mississippi River, but failed.
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La Salle became desperate to find the Mississippi and took more and more people to help him find it. However, each time he was unsuccessful and a few people died. His crew became angry, a mutiny erupted and La Salle was killed on March 19,1687(by his own crew members) in Texas.
