—Historic Biloxi —
The 17th Century struggle among the French
Spanish, and English for supremacy on the
North American continent led the Bourbon King
of France, Louis XIV to sanction an expedition
from France to the Gulf of Mexico in 1698. The
command was given to Canadian-born Pierre
LeMoyne d'Iberville (1661-1706). After his military
exploits against the British during the European
War of the League of Augsburg, which spread to
America as the first of the French and Indian wars
(1689-1697), Iberville was recognized as Canada's
first hero. Iberville's new commission was to
locate the mouth of the Mississippi River from the
Gulf and to build fortifications against Spanish and
English advancement. The mission also served to
reinforce the claim to the Louisiana Territory made
by French explorer René LaSalle when, in 1682,
he descended the Mississippi from Canada to the
Gulf of Mexico.
On February 10, 1699, Iberville's two frigates,
Marin and Badine, anchored in the natural deep
water harbor in the northwestern lee of Ship
Island. The account of his coming ashore on
the Biloxi peninsula three days later is written in
his own words in his daily log, which has been
published as Iberville's Gulf Journals: "The 13th, I crossed over to the
land 4 leagues (about 12 miles) north in my Biscayne (flat bottomed
boat, with eleven
men, and my brother (Jean Baptist de Bienville) in
a bark canoe with two men." Iberville describes trekking overland two
leagues eastward along an Indian trail and camping for the night. He then
elaborates: "From the ships over to this land it is fully 4 leagues, due
north. Between the two, I found 16 feet of muddy water. The approach to
the shore is quite shallow; half a league off shore, four feet of water. The
shore here is west by south and east by north. ...we are seeing many
plum trees in bloom; tracks of turkeys, partridges...hares like the ones in
France, and some rather good oysters."
Iberville's initial landing on the Biloxi peninsula began the process of
the colonization and settlement of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and
Louisiana territory.
[Captions]
Map inset: A portion of the 1732 French map Carte De La Louisiana shows the sheltered anchorage at the western ed of the Isle aux Vaisseaux (Ship Island in English) where the French landed on February 10, 1699.
Credit: Biloxi Public Library
Portrait: Pierre LeMoyne D'Iberville, soldier, ship captain, explorer, colonizer, adventurer, privateer, and trader was the first person of Canadian birth to receive the French Cross of the Order of St. Louis, France's most prestigious honor.
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