Ocean State Libraries

The Sieur de La Salle's story begins in 1682, when he sets out with twenty-two Frenchmen, eighteen Indians, and his always-grumbling, epileptic cartographer, Pierre Goupil, to chart the length of the Mississippi River. In the course of this novel, in the form of diary entries by La Sale and Goupil, we see early America as seldom before--a world as foreign to us as any, for, as author Vernon points out, "the map of North America, so etched in our imaginations,...

"Describes the exploration of North America in the times of explorers Christopher Columbus, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, and Sieur de La Salle. The reader's choices reveal the historical details from Columbus' voyage in 1492, Coronado's 1540 expedition, and Sieur de La Salle's expedition down the Mississippi River in 1682"--Provided by publisher.

Presents a biography of the French explorer who traveled throughout New France, sailed down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, and claimed the region he called Louisiana for France.

Profiles the explorer who, upon hearing rumors of the Mississippi River, determined first to find it, then to claim it for France and establish French settlements from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

La Salle was the first European to explore the length of the great Mississippi River. As a result of La Salle's exploration, France was able to claim the entire Mississippi River basin.