Cavelier de La Salle, 1684-1687 149
De La Salle has been severely taken to task for under-
taking with a few men an expedition in which de Soto with
vaster numbers had failed.
It has been claimed that his enterprise was based on a
“geographical blunder.” Unquestionably he did not know,
any more than his compatriots and most of the Spaniards
of the time, the distance between the Mississippi River and
the province of New Biscaye in Mexico. The best maps of
the time are very misleading in that respect. But it would
be a mistake to imagine that he would have been deterred
by a few hundred miles more or less. He had come down
all the way to the Gulf of Mexico from the Great Lakes,
with eighteen men only, and he should not be too lightly
criticized for attempting what other men did not dare to
think of.
Louis XIV and his excellent Minister Seignelay, having
been won over by the arguments of de La Salle, an expedi-
tion was fitted out in great secrecy. Not only did the King
give de La Salle the patent or permission requested and the
command of the expedition and establishment to be founded,
he also provided four ships, which were more than what the
explorer had asked for: a man-of-war, the “Joly,” carrying 36
guns, a frigate, the “Belle,” armed with six guns, his personal
gift to de La Salle, a fly boat of 300 tons, the “Aimable,”
and a small transport ship or ketch, the “Saint François.”
De La Salle arrived at La Rochelle, the great Atlantic
port, by the end of May, 1684, to superintend the necessary
preparations. Sergeants were sent out to gather recruits.
Unfortunately, since France was at war, 32,000 men had
been levied in the district shortly before. A hundred soldiers
were finally enrolled. Mechanics, laborers, gentlemen who
had volunteered to go, and a few families joined the expedi-
tion. Arrangements were made to carry one hundred and