La Salle Expeditions - Early Expeditions - Second Expedition

Second Expedition

In 1670 La Salle set out on another expedition. He led a group of men west across Lake Erie and then overland ending up at the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Although reports from the expedition do not indicate, it would have been obvious that the Great Lakes represented a vast freshwater sea. From Lake Michigan, the party moved south across Illinois and encountered the Mississippi River. From the first expedition, La Salle would have known that the position on the Mississippi was far north of the Ohio. He likely deduced that both rivers flowed South to the river reported by De Soto.

It was not until 1673 that Louis Jolliet and Père (Father) Jacques Marquette explored the upper Mississippi Valley, including the area where it was joined by the Ohio River. La Salle later participated in an expedition to follow the northern shore of Lake Erie across Lake Huron to Michilimackinac, where Lake Michigan empties into Lake Huron. La Sale named the entire area of the Mississippi watershed Louisiana after king Louis XIV of France.

La Salle later followed up the discovery and sailed down the river all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. His trip made him the first European to travel the length of the Mississippi, but it had been visited by Europeans at its southern end possibly as early as the voyages of Christopher Columbus, and its midsection by Hernando De Soto a century earlier.

La Salle did not lead another expedition for seven years, but he never forgot the rivers and continued to form plans for more expeditions. The land he discovered was all claimed in the name of Louis XIV and added to New France. The French Crown expanded on his exploration by claiming the entire Mississippi River Basin, and New Orleans was later created to control the southern end of the river.

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