The Landing of Pierre LeMoyne D'Iberville

The Landing of Pierre LeMoyne D'Iberville. . 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.