La Salle, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de << luh SAL, ruh NAY roh BEHR kah vahl YAY, syur duh >> (1643-1687), was a French explorer. He led the first European expedition to track the Mississippi River in North America to the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle claimed the entire Mississippi Valley for France. His many explorations strengthened France’s hopes for a great empire in the Western Hemisphere, sometimes called the New World.
Early life.
René-Robert Cavelier was born on Nov. 21, 1643, in Rouen, France. He took the name La Salle from the name of his family’s estate. As a youth, La Salle went to schools run by Jesuit priests and studied to be a Jesuit. However, he left religious training in 1665 to seek adventure. The next year, La Salle sailed to what is now Canada, where France had established a colony.
La Salle obtained some land near Montreal and became a prosperous fur trader. He did much of his trading with Indigenous (native) people, who told him of two great rivers to the southwest, the Mississippi and the Ohio. The Indigenous people believed these rivers flowed into the sea. La Salle thought one or both of the rivers might be a route through North America to the Pacific Ocean. In 1669, he sold his land and set out in search of the rivers.
First explorations.
From 1669 to 1673, La Salle wandered through the vast interior of North America. Historians believe he traveled as far as what is now Ohio. By the end of his journey, he was convinced that the Mississippi emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. 
La Salle returned to France in 1674, and King Louis XIV gave him land that included Fort Frontenac, on the site of what is now Kingston, Ontario. La Salle established a fur-trading post at the fort and soon became one of the most powerful people in Canada. In 1677, he again sailed to France, where he obtained permission from King Louis to explore the Mississippi River.
In 1679, after returning to Canada, La Salle launched an expedition to give France control of the Great Lakes region. The following year, he founded the first European settlement in what is now Illinois. It stood on the Illinois River, near present-day Peoria, and was named Fort Crèvecoeur (Fort Heartbreak). After La Salle built this fort, he went back to Canada for supplies.
Expeditions to the Gulf of Mexico.
La Salle returned to the Illinois region in late 1681. Fort Crèvecoeur had been destroyed in a rebellion by some of its occupants, but La Salle pushed on. He led a party of about 20 Frenchmen and about 30 Indigenous people down the Illinois River in canoes to the Mississippi.
The expedition started down the Mississippi River on Feb. 13, 1682, and reached the Gulf of Mexico on April 9. Near the mouth of the Mississippi, La Salle erected a cross and a column bearing the French coat of arms. He claimed all the land drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries for France. This region extended from the Appalachian Mountains on the east to the Rocky Mountains on the west, and from the Great Lakes on the north to the Gulf of Mexico on the south. La Salle named the region Louisiana in honor of King Louis.
Later in 1682, La Salle built Fort Saint Louis on a bluff along the Illinois River. This bluff is now in Starved Rock State Park. La Salle wanted to establish a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. In late 1683, he left for France to pick up supplies and settlers for such a colony.
In 1684, La Salle sailed from France for the Gulf of Mexico with 4 ships and more than 300 colonists. But this expedition never reached the Mississippi because La Salle sailed past it by mistake. In 1685, he set up a colony, also called Fort Saint Louis, west of the river. This site was near Matagorda Bay, or about 80 miles (130 kilometers) east of the present site of Corpus Christi, Texas.
Local Karankawa people threatened the new settlement, and many colonists died from disease. By 1687, the colony desperately needed help. La Salle and several men began an overland march to find the Mississippi, which they planned to follow to Canada. But they could not find the river. Some of the men rebelled. They killed La Salle’s nephew and then, on March 19, 1687, murdered La Salle.
