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many others, Robert La Salle thought of finding a way to China. The fur trade was the best way to get
rich, and he next thought of a plan of a controlling the fur trade on Lake Ontario. But, he upset the traders in
the Indian country, and he soon realized that this was no speedy road to wealth.

He now had new ideas after another explorer traveled the Mississippi River far enough to prove that it
emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. His story of buffalo convinced La Salle that he could make a lot of money
trading their skins and fur.... This was now his goal.

La Salle's first attempt to get to the Mississippi River from the Illinois River failed. In 1680 tried again to travel
the whole Mississippi River, determined to examine the mouth of the Mississippi to figure out if he would be
able to reach the Mississippi directly from France by sea. He then sailed down in 1682 and followed the route
taken by other French explorers who traveled down part of the Mississippi in the past. He got to their
furthest location on March 3rd, then explored the River to the Gulf of Mexico. Therefore, he went further
than any other explorers.

La Salle returned to Canada and created a fort with an area where a large amount of ships might be sheltered
from the winds. This fort surrounded the original fort built by the governor of New France, Louis de
Frontenac.

It would be difficult to explain all of the obstacles he had to face daily in carrying out his plans. But, he did not
have trouble with the tribes whom he was always able to use in his plans. Governor Frontenac went up to the
fort every year, and gathered the chiefs and important men of the Iroquois nations to keep up an alliance and
trade with them, and tried to convince them to believe in the Christian God, which was the main purpose of
the new fort.


Source: This account was told by a French priest named Zenobius Membre, who traveled down the Mississippi
River with Robert La Salle twice, and lived at the fort built by Robert La Salle. Membre told this story to another
French priest who wrote it down and published it as part of a book in 1691.

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