Eric La Salle is an ambulance actor. La Salle - The French Adventures in Mississippi
The information project, became Rene-Robert de La Salle - America's famous French explorer.
People of steel.
Part 1. La Salle is a friend of the Indians.
It was a time when ships were built of wood,
and the people who ruled them were forged from steel.
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
21.11.1643 — 19.03.1687
Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle was born in Norman Rouen in 1643. His father, Jean Cavelier, who made a fortune in the fur trade, invests heavily in the education of his own children, and Rene enters a Jesuit college in early childhood. Here he studies languages \u200b\u200band sciences, and geography, astronomy, navigation and history become his favorite subjects. Reading the stories of Jacques Cartier and the campaigns, La Salle dreams of America and longs for wanderings and discoveries. In 1667, he breaks all ties with the Jesuits (being already a famous young scientist and teacher at that time), rejects the offer to continue his father’s trading business, loses his land allotment in Normandy and, unburdened, goes to Canada - a mysterious country open idols of his childhood.
The first two years in America it took to establish an economy, build your own fur trade enterprise (the knowledge and skills acquired from your father came in handy here), acquire a house and land allotments, and enlist friendship and support from representatives of the colonial authorities. In 1669, La Salle sold almost all of his property, once again left light. He left only a small house for himself, books with Cartier travel notes and maps compiled by them, as well as a good supply of money for organizing his own trips. From this moment begins the story of La Salle - the discoverer.
In the next 13 years, Rene de La Salle will do more to explore America than anyone before or after it. The history of his travels, being described in detail, will occupy a whole shelf in the library. During his expeditions, La Salle explored and described in detail the lands several times larger than the territory of his native France, the first to map the outlines of the Great Lakes, the waters of which the first large sailing ships were launched under his leadership (it was thanks to the appearance of these ships that France secured dominance in the European fur market for many years to come). Continuing Cartier's search for the northern passage to the Pacific Ocean and Asia, La Salle explored the St. Joseph, Ohio, and Illinois rivers. In the course of his travels, he founded more than 30 French forts, trading posts and settlements, spreading the influence of France to vast territories (now 15 states in the United States). In 1675, La Salle received the noble title personally from the “sun king” Louis XIV, and with it the monopoly on the fur trade in almost all the lands he discovered. For the discoverer himself, a trip to France to meet with the king seemed to be nothing more than a forced break in his wanderings - already in 1676 he continued his research.
La Sal proclaims the mouth of the Mississippi with French territory
The most impressive of all La Salle's travels took place between 1680-1683. Having explored the southern shore of Lake Michigan, passing the St. Joseph and Illinois rivers, a small detachment under his leadership went to Mississippi and descended along it to the Gulf of Mexico, first mapping the mouth of the great river. All the lands traveled La Salle declared the territories of France, naming them in honor of Louis XIV - Louisiana.
For 13 years of expeditions Rene de La Salle, French possessions in the New World have increased almost 20 times. He himself traveled thousands of miles through the wild lands where the European did not step before him - it was La Salle maps that first gave the inhabitants of Europe an idea of \u200b\u200bthe size of the American continent. What was his secret? How did it happen that one person could do more than dozens of researchers before and after him? Contemporaries considered La Salle to be phenomenally lucky, but this is not the only point. He was the first of the Europeans who began to study with the Indians, build friendships with them, and respect their customs. The first two years spent in Canada, La Salle devoted to the study of Native American languages \u200b\u200band culture. Toward the end of his life, he was fluent in six local dialects and dozens of their dialects. Rene always traveled light - he did not take carts, soldiers, artillery and horses with him. His troops rarely numbered more than 20 people, with the majority of his companions always being Indians. La Salle did not hesitate to learn from the locals: he wore their clothes, used their methods of treatment, he built pies and canoes, and preferred hunting and fishing during expeditions to preparing serious food supplies in advance.
Rene de La Salle always knew how to find a common language with the Indians - in the entire history of his campaigns it is difficult to find one more or less significant conflict with the local population. In 1673, he mediated negotiations between the leaders of the Iroquois and the governor of New France, putting an end to many years of armed confrontation (for the next 100 years, the Iroquois will become a reliable ally of the French in colonial wars against the British). La Salle was perhaps the first European in America who did not feel like a stranger and was not a conqueror, and the New World was revealed to him like never before. The local population accepted him, and stories about the French traveler spread among the Indians from Canada to Texas: each tribe received him as a guest, and each La Sal was addressed in his native language.
Rene Robert Cavelier de La Salle died on March 19, 1687 in the territory of modern Texas. He was killed by rebellious sailors from the crew of his own ship - the Europeans. La Salle's killer, Pierre Duhaux, briefly outlived his captain - the Indians who inhabited the surrounding territories tracked down the traitor and avenged the death of his friend. The great French discoverer passed away at the age of 43 years. And who knows - if he had lived longer - perhaps the story of the development of America by Europeans would have been different.
P.S. In 1803, Napoleon, who needed money for his European campaigns, sold almost all of the land discovered by La Salem to the United States of America. For 15 million US dollars, France ceded the territory of modern Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Texas, Colorado and Louisiana - a total of more than 2100 square kilometers, almost a quarter of the current US territory, or more than a third - if you do not include Alaska ..
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La Salle Rene Robert Cavelier de
French explorer of North America. The first to go down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico (1681-1682). He declared the entire Mississippi River basin the possession of the French king Louis (Louis) XIV and named it Louisiana. Explored Ohio and the Great Lakes. Killed by one of his servants.
After Champlain, the most notable explorer of North America was Rene Robert Cavelier de La Salle, who came to Canada in the late sixties of the 17th century. "He was born in Rouen, - says his biographer Charlvois, - in a wealthy merchant family. For several years he was brought up in a Jesuit school, was an educated and gifted man, ambitious and persistent. He had no lack of determination to dare to take a risky venture, nor of constancy to bring any business to the end, nor of firmness of mind to withstand obstacles, nor of means to carry out his plans. However, he did not manage to win love and gain the favor of those people whose services he needed most, and when he achieved power, he used it with cruelty and arrogance ... "
It was La Salle who made the discovery, which, perhaps, is not inferior in importance to the discovery of the Amazon by Francisco de Orellana in the 16th century and the discovery of the Congo River in the 19th century by Henry Morton Stanley.
Arriving in Canada, La Salle began to visit Indian villages, diligently study native dialects, get acquainted with the mores and customs of local residents. At the same time, he tried to collect as much information as possible from the hunters about rivers and lakes. La Salle dreamed of opening a short and convenient way from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and made a number of trips for this purpose.
In 1669, moving southwest from Lake Ontario, he discovered the Ohio River, a powerful left tributary of the Mississippi. Then he still thought that the Mississippi flows either directly into the "Western" (Pacific) Ocean, or into a vast bay, which, according to the fantastic imagination of the cartographers of the XVII - the first half of the XVIII century (mainly French), went deep into the mainland of North America in the temperate latitudes or even in the "Crimson Sea" (Gulf of California).
Having informed Count Frontenac of his plan for future research, he not only enlisted his support, but was also appointed head of a remote fort built at the exit of the St. Lawrence River from Lake Ontario. There, La Salle met a "forest scout", fur buyer Louis Jolie, who told him about his journey with Pater Marquette to the great lakes and the great Mississippi River. Jolie and Marquette personally made sure that the river continues to flow south, towards the Gulf of Mexico, and below the mouth of Arkansas.
La Salle immediately appreciated the benefits that could be gained from such an important path, especially if, as he had expected, the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico, and his mind immediately ripened a plan of travel from the sources to the mouth of the Mississippi. “In that case,” La Salle reasoned, “through the great lakes and tributary of the Mississippi, Illinois, it will be possible to establish a connection between the St. Lawrence River and the Antilles. What an invaluable benefit France will gain from this discovery!”
La Salle shared with Count Frontenac his grand plan of exploring the Mississippi and expanding French possessions to the Gulf of Mexico and, having received letters of recommendation from him to the Minister of the Sea and other influential persons, went to France to procure a royal patent for discoveries in the New World and the exclusive sale of buffalo in hides. The omnipotent Colbert introduced La Salle to the king, who granted him the nobility, took possession of the lands in the New World, and appointed the governor of the countries that he would open in the future.
La Salle built a fort near Niagara and equipped a ship for sailing in inland waters from Niagara to the Mississippi estuary. For this, he went into debt, and creditors described his Canadian estates.
Contemporaries considered La Salle a proud, cold, merciless man. Fur traders speculated that he wanted to get a monopoly on the fur trade in North America for himself. The Jesuits hated him and even tried to poison him. Not recovering from the effects of poisoning, the patient La Salle set off.
On July 14, 1678, La Salle left La Rochelle for Canada. About thirty soldiers went with him, the knight Henri de Tonti, who had lost his hand in one of the battles, and the Franciscan monk Louis Annepin, who then accompanied La Salle on all his trips. Anchors, sails and tackles were captured from France for the construction of a river vessel on Lake Erie.
While the ship was being built, La Salle continued to explore the surrounding areas, studied the life of the Indians and bought their furs, setting up a large warehouse in the fortress he founded on the banks of Niagara. At the same time, Henri de Tonti was engaged in the purchase of furs, but only in other areas, and Pater Annepen preached the Christian faith among the Indians and made up the first of the descriptions of Niagara Falls known to us.
By mid-August 1679, the Griffin ship was ready to sail. La Salle, joining the crew of two more Franciscan monks, went from Lake Erie to Lake Huron, and from there to Lake Michigan. On the way, the Gryphon survived a terrible storm that made it possible to postpone the trip to the Mississippi. While the knight Tonti was collecting the runaway carriage, the creditors sold La Salle's property in Quebec, and now all his hope was for the furs stacked in the Niagara Fortress. However, the Griffin, sent there for furs, disappeared without a trace on the way back; he drowned or was plundered by the Indians - it was not possible to establish. Despite all these troubles, La Salle nevertheless decided to proceed with the implementation of his plan.
He crossed with his squad a line separating the great lakes from the Mississippi Basin, and reached Illinois. Here La Salle fell into a very difficult position, since he could not rely on his people, and the Illinois Indians, who had previously been French allies, switched to the Iroquois side and did not hide their hostile feelings.
La Salle was bound to regain the confidence of the Indians at all costs. He already had nothing to lose, and he with twenty soldiers unexpectedly appeared in an Indian camp, in which there were more than three thousand soldiers, and calmly drove through the entire village. The Indians, amazed at such courage, immediately changed their attitude towards La Salou and ceased to obstruct him. Then La Salle, without wasting time, built Fort Krevker (Chagrin) on the shore of Lake Peoria, naming it in memory of the hardships suffered. Fort Krevker was to serve as the basis for further research.
Leaving Tonti at the head of a small garrison, La Salle, still hoping for the return of the Griffin, went with three Indians and one Frenchman to Fort Catarocua, which was five hundred leagues from Crevker. At the same time, he outfitted the path of Pater Annepin, instructing him to climb the Mississippi River and, if possible, reach its origins. "Both travelers, - writes Charlvois, - left Fort Krevker on February 28, 1680 and, having reached the Mississippi, rose on a cake up the river to 46 ° C. sh., until they were stopped by a large waterfall. Annepin gave him a name in honor of St. Anthony of Padua (Saint-Antoine). Then they fell into the hands of the Sioux Indians, who held them captive for a long time. "
Having wintered on the shores of Illinois, La Salle with five companions in early spring, in the mud, he returned on foot to Qatarokuua.
Sad news awaited him in Qataroku: the Griffin disappeared without a trace with a load of furs for ten thousand ecu, the ship crashed, which brought La Salou from France with many valuable goods. Enemies, meanwhile, spread a rumor that he had long been dead. The only thing La Salle was able to do was to refute the rumor of his alleged death. With great difficulty, he made his way back to Fort Krevker, where, to his surprise, there was not a single Frenchman. It turned out that the people left in Krevker rebelled against Tonti, stole food and fled. Tonti, left with five soldiers among the Illinois Indians, indignant at the robberies of the French, was forced to leave the fort on September 11, 1680. He headed to Lake Michigan, in the village of Mackinaco.
La Salle again occupied the dilapidated fort Krevker and, entrusting it to a small garrison, went in search of Tonti. La Salle was looking for him on the eastern shore of Michigan, while Tonti was at that time on the western. Only in May 1681 did they meet in Mackinaco, in the place where Chicago now stands.
Having lost his money, La Salle was no longer able to build a new ship and acquired several ordinary pies. In December 1681, at the head of a detachment of fifty-four people, he passed through the Great Lakes, went down in a sleigh with pies tied to them in Illinois, and in February of the following year reached the Mississippi. Reaching the Mississippi, he sent two people north to explore the upper section of the river. Himself, when the ice drift ended, sailed down the great river, stopping to inspect the coast and tributaries. La Salle explored the mouth of Missouri, the mouth of Ohio, where he built a small fort, penetrated Arkansas and declared it the possession of France, delved into the country inhabited by the Indians, and entered into an alliance with them; finally, on April 9, passing on a pie of three hundred and fifty leagues, he reached the Gulf of Mexico. So La Salle achieved his goal.
All the lands discovered by him, irrigated by the Mississippi and its tributaries, La Salle declared possession of the French king Louis (Louis) XIV, giving them the name Louisiana.
Then he climbed up the Mississippi and through the Great Lakes returned to the St. Lawrence River.
Returning to Canada took La Salle for more than a year. This is not surprising, given that on the way back travelers had to struggle with the fast flow of the Mississippi and suffer from hunger. But the indestructible energy and strong will of La Salle helped him overcome all difficulties.
Meanwhile, in Quebec, instead of the revoked Frontenac, the governor was taken by Lefebvre de la Barre, who was prejudiced by La Salle and in his report to Louis XIV praised his discovery: "This traveler with two dozen French and native tramps really reached the Gulf of Mexico, where he writhed himself a monarch and did all kinds of atrocities, covering up the violence granted to him by your majesty the right to conduct monopoly trade in those countries that he will be able to open."
To justify himself before the king and restore his reputation, La Salle went to France. He brought his king the news of the accession to his possessions of a gigantic country, many times larger than France (however, he himself did not know the exact size of Louisiana). King Louis XIV, of course, graciously accepted such a gift. La Salle managed to interest the Minister of the Sea with a plan to explore the Mississippi mouth from the sea, suggesting he build a fortress there and establish a colony. The king, approving this proposal, appointed La Salle governor of Louisiana. Under his authority was to pass a huge territory from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico.
June 24, 1684 La Salle sailed from the port of La Rochelle on four ships with a crew of four hundred people. The captain of Bojo was appointed commander of the flotilla. Hastily picked up soldiers and artisans were ignorant of their work. Disagreements arose between the two commanders from the very beginning, which soon turned into irreconcilable hostility.
Five months later, the La Salle flotilla reached the Florida Peninsula and entered the Gulf of Mexico. Following the west along the coast, La Salle and Bojo passed, not noticing, the Mississippi Delta and began to argue whether to sail further - west or east.
Finally, the travelers landed on the deserted island of Matagord (off the coast of Texas), spread the camp and sent troops on both sides in search of the Mississippi. But the great river "disappeared" La Salle could not recognize the places he knew, since it landed west of the Mississippi, on the Texas coast, in Galveston Bay.
In the spring of 1685, La Salle crossed the mainland to Matagorda Bay and built a fort at the mouth of the Lavaca River.
After each campaign inland, La Salle returned to the camp more gloomy and severe, and this inspired even more alarm to his fierce companions. And in fact, the situation was desperate. One ship sank, the second was captured by the Spaniards, and with the last two, Bojo went back to France, leaving La Salle with a detachment to their fate. In order not to starve to death, the colonists plowed a plot and sowed bread, but heavy rains destroyed the entire crop. Soon diseases broke out among the French. The number of colonists began to decline catastrophically and after a few months reached thirty people. In the fall of 1686, La Salle decided to return by dry route to the Great Lakes - in other words, cross the mainland from the southwest to the northeast. He intended to reach the Mississippi and then climb upstream - to the Indians with whom he had once made an alliance.
On January 12, 1687, La Salle, with a handful of exhausted, hungry people, went boating at sea. During the voyage, when the French were already close to the populated country, the sailors and soldiers decided to put an end to their commander and a few days later killed him with a shot from the musket. So died Rene Robert Cavelier de La Salle, a brave traveler who made a great geographical discovery by first exploring the Mississippi, the central waterway of North America.
At the end of the 17th century, a French colony was nevertheless founded at the mouth of the Mississippi. But this village served as a storage facility for fur dealers and eventually fell into disrepair. In 1718, the city of New Orleans emerged in the Mississippi Delta, which in the mid-18th century had only a few hundred inhabitants. In 1803, New Orleans, along with all of Louisiana, was sold to the United States Government, and thus France finally parted with its possessions, which were acquired through the energy of La Salle.
(1643-1687)
La Salle Robert Cavelier de, a French traveler in North America, was born in Rouen on November 22, 1643, died in Louisiana on March 19, 1687. He examined the course and mouth of the Mississippi. In 1667, La Salle arrived in New France (Canada) and settled in Montreal. To explore the possibilities of trading in furs, he took several trips to the Great Lakes region. In 1669, he visited Lake Erie and the upper Ohio region and until 1671 traveled to lands located south of the lakes up to upper Illinois, south of Lake Michigan. In 1673, he built Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, which he received as a gift while visiting France. In 1678, he began searching for the Mississippi, after he was given the right to explore new areas and build forts there. In 1682, La Salle proceeded from the river. Illinois down the river. Mississippi before its confluence with the Gulf of Mexico and thus the first to cross the interior of North America from north to south. He named the country on both sides of the mighty river in honor of King Louis XIV Louisiana and hastened to France to obtain funds for its colonial capture. In 1684, on four ships and with more than 200 French settlers, he returned. La Salle intended to establish a village in the Mississippi Delta, but walked past the mouth of the river and landed on the Texas coast near Rio Colorado. Abandoned by the ships, which, after the landing of La Salle and the settlers, went to sea, he tried to go out again to the Mississippi, embarking on an adventurous expedition across the Texas prairies, where the Indians had already begun to use horses by the example of the Spaniards. Frustrated and fierce by hardships and hardships, the settlers blamed La Salle for all the failures. In 1687, during a contention between them, he was killed. The Louisiana colony later flourished, but in 1763 France was forced to cede it to England.
From the heritage of La Salle, his companion Jutel published the Historical Diary of the Last Journey of the late M. de La Salle, 1723.
List of references
- 300 travelers and explorers. Biographical Dictionary. - Moscow: Thought, 1966 .-- 271 p.
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Renee Robert Cavelier de la Salle (fr. René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle ) or simply La sal (November 22 ( 16431122 ) , Rouen - March 19, Texas) is a French explorer of North America, the first of Europeans to sail along the Mississippi River and declare its entire basin the possession of the French king under the name of Louisiana. Thanks to his ebullient activity, France acquired (at least on paper) a huge territory that Napoleon would give a pittance a century later when making the Louisiana deal. In honor of La Salle, several cities and districts in the USA, the administrative district of Montreal, the Royal Military Academy in Canada and the brand of cars manufactured from 1927 to 1940 by General Motors were named.
early years
Rene-Robert Cavelier was raised at a Jesuit college. By the age of 22, he decided not to take the dignity and, having heard about the adventures of Champlain and other Frenchmen in America, went to New France, where he was granted a plot of land on the island of Montreal near the thresholds of Lachin. In addition to farming, Cavelier traded in furs, which were brought to his estate by Indians from distant parts of America. From communication with the natives, he became aware of large rivers south of the Great Lakes. In 1669, an enterprising Frenchman sold his plot with the intention of moving towards the Ohio River; for a long time the honor of its discovery was attributed to him.
Cavelier found an ally in the person of Count de Frontenac, the most energetic and successful of all the governors of New France. Frontenac, who was molested by his mohawks, convinced Cavelier to build Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, from where it was possible to control the fur trade of the Indians with the New England colonists, as well as send reconnaissance expeditions into the continent.
The plans of Cavelier and Frontenac met with opposition from both the Montreal merchants, who held on to their monopoly on the fur trade, and the Jesuits, who considered it their duty to bring the natives "the light of the word of God." Cavelier, however, during a trip to France, enlisted the support of the royal court, established Fort Frontenac (now Kingston) and began to manage it as a representative of the governor. In gratitude for the diligence, Louis XIV elevated him to the nobility with the title of "lord de la Sal".
New France Expansion
Managing his fort, La Salle became rich in the fur trade, but this did not cool his obsession with uncharted lands to the south. In 1677, he again went to meet the “king of the sun” and received permission to develop the “western reaches of New France,” the construction of log fortifications, as well as the monopoly on the sale of buffalo skins.
Since the king refused to finance the colonial enterprises, La Salou had to enter into large debts in Paris and in Montreal. The Jesuits continued to impede his activities in every way, but in Europe he found a faithful ally in the person of the Italian knight Henri de Tonti. Upon returning to Canada in 1679, La Salle and Tonti built the Griffon, the first merchant ship to plow the waters of Lake Erie. On it, they hoped to go down the Mississippi. Moving west, La Salle was able to discover the large Illinois River. There, Fort Krevkor (Fr. Crèvecœur) and the construction of another ship has begun.
Preparing to march inside the mainland, La Salle noticed that the Indians are able to make large land crossings, eating game and a small supply of maize. Thus, in the middle of winter, he traveled from Niagara Falls to Fort Frontenac, which aroused genuine admiration of the Jesuit Louis Annen, who decided to join his detachment. Despite the collapse of the Griffon and the destruction of Fort Krevkor, La Salle managed to go down Illinois in 1680 until it merged with the Mississippi. The river of his dreams lay before him, but the pioneer had to turn back at the news of the danger threatening the detachment of his comrade Tonti.
Only in the season of 1681-1682, having received additional funds from the lenders, La Salle and Tonti canoeed down the Mississippi and left on April 9 in the Gulf of Mexico. There, La Salle solemnly declared the entire pool of the river he passed the property of the French king and gave these lands, the most fertile on the continent, the name of Louisiana, that is, the "Louis".
La Salle's next event was the construction of Fort St. Louis in Illinois. The main settlers of this colony at first were Indians. To keep the colony afloat, La Salle turned for help to the governor of Quebec. The news came disappointing: Frontenac was ousted, and his successor, who was very hostile to La Salou, demanded that the latter leave Saint-Louis. The pioneer refused to obey orders and, arriving at Versailles, insisted on an audience with the king, who listened favorably to him and promised his support.
Last trip
To secure Louisiana for France, La Salle considered it necessary to settle at the mouth of the Mississippi and, if possible, take away the northern part of Texas from the Spaniards. He had at his disposal no more than 200 Frenchmen, but he considered it possible to gather up to 15 thousand Indians under his banners and, in addition, counted on the services of Caribbean buccaneers. From the outside, this enterprise looked like an adventure, but Louis XIV, who was at war with the Spaniards at that time, considered that it would be useful to distract their attention in the west. He allocated La Salou money, court and people.
On July 24, 1684, the La Salle expedition sailed from France towards the Gulf of Mexico. From the very beginning, she was haunted by failures - diseases, pirates, shipwrecks. The captains refused to follow the orders of La Salle. Their charts turned out to be so inaccurate that the ships sailed 500 miles west of their destination and mistook Matagord Bay off the coast of Texas for the Mississippi mouth. Desperate to find the coveted river, the sailors rebelled and killed La Salle.
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Literature
- Warsaw A.S. The road leads to the South (life, travels and adventures of La Salle). M., 1960.
- Anka Muhlstein. . Arcade Publishing, 1995.
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Excerpt from Cavelier de la Salle, Rene Robert
The violet eyes studied me very carefully for several seconds, and then an unexpected answer sounded:- I thought so - you are still sleeping ... But I can’t wake you up - others will wake you up. And it will not be now.
- And when? And who will these others be? ..
“Your friends ... But you do not know them now.”
“But how will I know that they are friends, and what exactly are they?” I asked, puzzled.
“You will remember,” Wei smiled.
- Remember? How can I remember something that is not there yet? .. - I stared at her dumbfounded.
“It is, but not here.”
She had a very warm smile that painted her unusually. It seemed as if the May sun peeked out from behind a cloud and lit up everything around.
“Are you all alone here on Earth?” - I could not believe in any way.
- Of course not. There are many of us, only different. And we live here a very long time, if you wanted to ask this.
“What are you doing here?” And why did you come here? - I could not stop.
- We help when necessary. And where they came from - I do not remember, I was not there. I just watched you now ... This is my home.
The girl suddenly became very sad. And I wanted to somehow help her, but, to my great regret, while it was not yet in my small powers ...
“You really want to go home, right?” I asked carefully.
Wei nodded. Suddenly her fragile figure flashed brightly ... and I was left alone - the "star" girl disappeared. It was very, very dishonest! .. She couldn’t just pick up and leave !!! This was not supposed to happen! .. A real resentment of a child was raging in me, from which my favorite toy was suddenly taken away ... But Weia was not a toy, and, to be honest, I should have been grateful to her already for she even came to me. But at that moment, in my “suffering” soul, the remaining bits of logic were breaking a real “emotional storm”, and there was a complete confusion in my head ... Therefore, there was no question of any “logical” thinking at the moment, and I, “killed” grief ”of her terrible loss, completely“ plunged ”into the ocean of“ black despair ”, thinking that my“ star ”guest would never come back to me ... I still wanted to ask her about how much! And she so suddenly took and disappeared ... And then suddenly I felt very ashamed ... If everyone wanted to ask her as much as I wanted to ask her, what good, there would be no time left to live! .. This thought somehow I immediately reassured. You just had to gratefully accept all that wonderful that she managed to show me (even if I still didn’t understand everything), and not complain about fate for the insufficiency of the desired “prepared”, instead of just moving my lazy “convolutions” and find answers to the questions that tormented me. I remembered Stella’s grandmother and thought that she was absolutely right when she spoke of the dangers of receiving something for nothing, because nothing could be worse than a person who was used to taking a person all the time. Moreover, no matter how much he takes, he will never get the joy that he himself has achieved something, and will never experience a feeling of unique satisfaction from the fact that he himself created something.
I sat alone for a long time, slowly “chewing” the food for thought given to me, gratefully thinking about the amazing purple-eyed “star” girl. And she smiled, knowing that now I definitely wouldn’t stop for anything until I found out what kind of friends I didn’t know, and from what such a dream they should wake me up ... Then I couldn’t even imagine that no matter how hard I try, and no matter how hard I try, it will happen only after many, many years, and my “friends” will really wake me up ... Only this will not be at all what I could ever even suggest ...
But then everything seemed to me childishly possible, and with all my non-burning fervor and "iron" tenacity decided to try ...
No matter how I like to listen to the rational voice of logic, my naughty brain believed that, despite the fact that Weia apparently knew exactly what she was talking about, I would achieve my goal and find those people before I was promised (or creatures) that were supposed to help me get rid of some strange “bear hibernation” there. At first I decided to try again to go beyond the borders of the Earth, and see who would come to me there ... It was impossible to come up with anything more stupid, of course, but since I stubbornly believed that I would achieve something anyway - I had to head again to plunge into new, perhaps even very dangerous "experiments" ...
For some reason, my kind Stella almost ceased to “walk” for some reason, and, it is not clear why, “moped” in her colorful world, not wanting to reveal to me the real reason for her sadness. But I still somehow managed to persuade her to go for a walk this time with me, interest in the danger of the adventure I was planning, and the fact that I was still a little afraid to try such “far-reaching” experiments.
I warned my grandmother that I was going to try something “very serious”, to which she only calmly nodded her head and wished her good luck (!) ... Of course, it shocked me “to the bone”, but deciding not to show her my insult, and pouting like a Christmas turkey, I swore to myself that no matter what it costs me, today something will happen! ... And of course - it happened ... just not quite what I expected.
Stella was already waiting for me, ready for the “most terrible feats”, and we, together and collectively rushed “beyond the border” ...
This time it turned out much easier for me, maybe because it was not the first time, but maybe because the same purple crystal was "discovered" ... I was carried out of the mental level of the Earth by a bullet, and it was then that I realized that I had overdid it a bit ... Stella, according to the general agreement, was waiting at the "turn" to hedge me if she saw that something went wrong ... But the "wrong" went from from the very beginning, and where I was at the moment, she, to my great regret, could no longer get me.
Around the cold night breathed the black, ominous cosmos that I had dreamed about for so many years, and which frightened now with its wild, unique silence ... I was completely alone, without reliable protection of my “star friends”, and without the warm support of my faithful girlfriend Stella ... And, despite the fact that this was not the first time I saw it, I suddenly felt quite small and lonely in this unfamiliar, surrounding world of distant stars that here looked completely not as friendly and familiar as from Earth, and little by little I became treacherous Petty cover, cowardly food from outright horror, panic ... But as the little man, I was still very, very hard-nosed, I decided that nothing limp, and began to look around, where does it still brought me ...
I hung in a black, almost physically perceptible emptiness, and only “shooting stars” flickered around only occasionally, leaving dazzling tails for a moment. And then, it seemed, very close by, such a dear and familiar Earth flickered with blue glow. But she, to my great regret, only seemed close, but in fact she was very, very far ... And I suddenly wildly wanted to go back !!! .. I no longer wanted to "overcome heroically" unfamiliar obstacles, but just really wanted return home, where everything was so dear and familiar (to warm grandmother’s pies and favorite books!), and not to hang frozen in some kind of black, cold “peace”, not knowing how to get out of all this, moreover, preferably without or “terrifying and irreparable” consequences ... I tried to imagine The only thing that came to mind was the purple-eyed girl Wei. For some reason it did not work - she did not appear. Then she tried to unroll her crystal ... And then, everything around sparkled, shone and swirling in a frenzied whirlpool of some unprecedented matter, I felt as if I was sucked in like a big vacuum cleaner, and then “turned around in front of me” "In all its glory, the already familiar, mysterious and beautiful Wayin world .... As I realized too late - the key to which was my open purple crystal ...
He arrived in Canada in the late sixties of the XVII century. La Salle dreamed of opening a short and convenient way from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and made a number of trips for this purpose. The first to go down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico (1681-1682). Declared the entire basin of the Mississippi River the possession of the French king Louis (Louis) XIV and named it Louisiana. Explored Ohio and the Great Lakes.
In 1669, moving southwest from Lake Ontario, La Salle discovered the Ohio River, the left tributary of the Mississippi. Then he still thought that the Mississippi flows either directly into the "Western" (Pacific) Ocean, or into a vast bay, which, according to cartographers of the XVII - the first half of the XVIII century (mainly French), deeply penetrated into the mainland of North America in temperate latitudes or even in the "Crimson Sea" (Gulf of California).
La Salle decided to explore the Mississippi and expand its French possessions to the Gulf of Mexico. He went to France to secure a royal patent for discoveries in the New World. He was introduced to the king, who granted him the nobility, brought into possession of land in the New World, and appointed governor of those countries that he will open in the future.
On July 14, 1678, La Salle left La Rochelle for Canada. About thirty soldiers went with him, the knight Henri de Tonti, and the Franciscan monk Louis Annepen, who then accompanied La Salle on all his travels. Anchors, sails and tackles were captured from France for the construction of a river vessel on Lake Erie.
While the ship was being built, La Salle continued to explore the surrounding areas, studied the life of the Indians and bought their furs, setting up a large warehouse in the fortress he founded on the banks of Niagara. At the same time, Henri de Tonti was engaged in the purchase of furs in other areas, and Pater Annepen preached the Christian faith among the Indians and composed the first of the descriptions we know of Niagara Falls.
In mid-August 1679, on the Griffin ship, La Salle set sail from Lake Erie to Lake Huron, and from there to Lake Michigan. On the way, the Gryphon survived a terrible storm that made it possible to postpone the trip to the Mississippi. At that time, creditors sold La Salle property in Quebec, and now all his hope was for the furs stacked in the Niagara Fortress. However, the Griffin, sent there for furs, disappeared without a trace on the way back; he drowned or was plundered by the Indians - it was not possible to establish. Despite all these troubles, La Salle nevertheless decided to proceed with the implementation of his plan.
La Salle built on the shore of Lake Peoria Fort Krevker (Chagrin), naming it in memory of the hardships suffered. Fort Krevker was to serve as the basis for further research.
Having wintered on the shores of Illinois, La Salle with five satellites of the early known, into the mud, he returned on foot to Qataroku.
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Sad news awaited him in Qataroku: a ship crashed, bringing La Salou from France with many valuable goods. Enemies, meanwhile, spread a rumor that he had long been dead. The only thing La Salle was able to do was to refute the rumor of his alleged death. With great difficulty, he made his way back to Fort Krevker, where, to his surprise, there was not a single Frenchman. It turned out that the people left in Krevker rebelled against Tonti, stole food and fled.
La Salle again occupied the dilapidated fort Krevker and, entrusting it to a small garrison, went in search of Tonti. La Salle was looking for him on the eastern shore of Michigan, while Tonti was at that time on the western. Only in May 1681 did they meet in Mackinaco, in the place where Chicago now stands.
Having lost fixed assets, La Salle was no longer able to build a new ship and acquired several ordinary pies. In December 1681, at the head of a detachment of fifty-four people, he passed through the Great Lakes, went down in a sleigh with pies tied to them in Illinois, and in February of the following year reached the Mississippi. Reaching the Mississippi, he sent two people north to explore the upper section of the river. Himself, when the ice drift ended, sailed down the great river, stopping to inspect the coast and tributaries. La Salle explored the mouth of Missouri, the mouth of Ohio, where he built a small fort, penetrated Arkansas and declared it the possession of France, delved into the country inhabited by the Indians, and entered into an alliance with them; finally, on April 9, passing on a pie of three hundred and fifty leagues, he reached the Gulf of Mexico. So La Salle achieved his goal.
All the lands discovered by him, irrigated by the Mississippi and its tributaries, La Salle declared possession of the French king Louis (Louis) XIV, giving them the name Louisiana.
Then he climbed up the Mississippi and through the Great Lakes returned to the St. Lawrence River. Returning to Canada took La Salle for more than a year.
Meanwhile, in Quebec, instead of recalled Frontenac, the governor was taken by Lefebvre de la Barre, who prejudiced La Salou and in his report to Louis XIV evaluated his discovery as follows: “This traveler with two dozen French and native tramps really reached the Gulf of Mexico, where he he made himself a monarch and did all kinds of atrocities, covering up the violence against the peoples granted by your majesty the right to conduct monopoly trade in those countries that he will be able to open. "
To justify himself before the king and restore his reputation, La Salle went to France. He brought his king the news of the accession to his possessions of a gigantic country, many times larger than France (however, he himself did not know the exact size of Louisiana). Louis XIV graciously received this news. The king approved the proposal to explore the mouth of the Mississippi from the sea, build a fortress there and establish a colony. He appointed La Salle as Governor of Louisiana: a huge territory from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico was to go under his authority.
June 24, 1684 La Salle sailed from the port of La Rochelle on four ships with a crew of four hundred people. The captain of Bojo was appointed commander of the flotilla. Hastily picked up soldiers and artisans were ignorant of their work. Disagreements arose between the two commanders from the very beginning, which soon turned into irreconcilable hostility.
Five months later, La Salle's flotilla reached the Florida Peninsula and entered the Gulf of Mexico. Following in a westerly direction along the coast, La Salle and Bojo passed, without noticing, the Mississippi Delta and began to argue whether to sail further - west or east.
La Salle landed on the deserted island of Matagord (off the coast of Texas), spread out the camp and sent troops on both sides in search of the Mississippi. But the great river "disappeared." La Salle could not recognize the places he knew, since he landed west of the Mississippi, on the coast of Texas, in Galveston Bay.
The situation was desperate. One ship sank, the second was captured by the Spaniards, and with the last two, Bojo went back to France, leaving La Salle with a detachment to their fate. In the fall of 1686, La Salle decided to return by dry route to the Great Lakes - in other words, cross the mainland from the southwest to the northeast. He intended to reach the Mississippi and then climb upstream - to the Indians with whom he had once made an alliance.
On January 12, 1687, La Salle, with a handful of exhausted, hungry people, went boating at sea. When the French were already close to the target, the companions killed Rene Robert Cavelier de La Salle with a musket shot.
At the end of the 17th century, a French colony was nevertheless founded at the mouth of the Mississippi. But this village served as a storage facility for fur dealers and eventually fell into disrepair. In 1718, the city of New Orleans emerged in the Mississippi Delta, which in the mid-18th century had only a few hundred inhabitants. In 1803, New Orleans, along with all of Louisiana, was sold to the United States Government, and thus France finally parted with its possessions, which were acquired through the energy of La Salle.
