To Their New Homes : 175 



ans were markedly different from those of the Spanish. The Span- 

 iards sought to intimidate the Indians, to make servants of them 

 and sometimes slaves. If there was any delay or show of resistance 

 they fought their way from point to point. 



The French were more flexible. They had a facility with languages 

 and they sought to learn from the Indian. They used the Indians as 

 guides and were quite prepared to accept them as allies and compan- 

 ions in the forests. It was not that the French were unprepared or 

 unwilling to fight in an extremity but they preferred to exhaust other 

 methods first. This friendly approach to the Indian paid off in two 

 ways. It accounted for the rapidity of the travel of French explorers 

 on long expeditions and for a long period it also added military 

 strength to the French occupation forces. 



As early as 1634 Champlain sent out Nicolet, who reached Sault 

 Ste. Marie and who traveled along upper Michigan and reached 

 Green Bay. Radisson was at the western end of Lake Superior by 

 1659 and it was not long before a mission was permanently estab- 

 lished in this region. In 1673 the missionary Fathers Joliet and Mar- 

 quette traveled down the Mississippi Valley as far as the mouth of 

 the Arkansas. 



Their work was completed by La Salle, who started from posts 

 that the French had occupied on the Great Lakes and traveled down 

 the Mississippi until he reached its mouth in the year 1682. He 

 claimed the whole valley in the name of the king of France and 

 determined to establish a French colony at the mouth of the river. 



With this in mind he recruited 400 men in France, but on his 

 return to America missed the mouth of the river and landed on the 

 Texas coast instead. After futile attempts to reach the river. La Salle 

 was murdered by his companions and later the colonists were at- 

 tacked by Indians and completely wiped out. 



Nonetheless, the French were determined to protect the mouth 

 of the river and to have bases on the gulf coast. This was the terri- 

 tory they intended to defend against the expansion of the Spanish 

 and possible occupation by the English. With this in mind, Iberville 

 established colonies in Louisiana and at Biloxi. Mobile was founded 

 in 1710 and New Orleans in 1718. While the French hold on the lower 

 Mississippi was being developed, the forts, settlements and mission- 

 ary posts on the Great Lakes were also being strengthened. Cadillac 

 founded the city of Detroit in 1701. 



Thus, the French sought to drive a wedge between the Spanish 

 settlements in the west and the Spanish settlements in Florida and 



