Le Moyne, Pierre, Sieur d’Iberville, << luh mwan, pyair, syur dee behr veel >> (1661-1706), was a French-Canadian trader, soldier, naval officer, and explorer. He fought ruthlessly against the English in North America and founded the colony of Louisiana.
In 1690, during King William’s War (1689-1697), Iberville led a party that massacred and looted the English settlement of Schenectady, New York. He captured Fort York on Hudson Bay in 1694 and Fort William Henry on the Atlantic coast of Maine in 1696. That year, he also helped seize St. John’s in Newfoundland. In 1697, he again captured Fort York after defeating the English in a spectacular naval battle.
In 1698, France commissioned Iberville to explore the mouth of the Mississippi River and establish a fort nearby. He and his brother Sieur de Bienville reached the mouth of the river in 1699. Later that year, Iberville completed Fort Maurepas on Biloxi Bay, at what is now Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Old Biloxi, the first French settlement in the Mississippi Valley, grew up around Fort Maurepas. In 1706, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Iberville captured and looted the English Caribbean island of Nevis.
Iberville was born on July 20, 1661, in Ville-Marie (now Montreal), the son of wealthy fur trader Charles Le Moyne, Sieur de Longueuil et de Châteauguay. Iberville died on July 9, 1706.
