René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
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A 19th-century engraving of Cavelier de La Salle
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| Born |
November 22, 1643 Rouen, Normandy, France |
| Died | March 19, 1687 (aged 43) present day Huntsville, Texas |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | explorer |
| Known for | exploring the Great Lakes, Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico |
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René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de La Salle (November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687) was a French explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle claimed the entire Mississippi River basin for France.
Robert de La Salle was born on November 22, 1643, into a comfortably well-off family in Rouen, France, in the parish Saint-Herbland. When La Salle was younger he enjoyed science and nature. As a man, he studied with the Jesuit religious order and became a member after taking initial vows in 1660. At his request on March 27, 1667, after he was in Canada, he was released from the Society of Jesus after citing "moral weaknesses." Although he left the order, never took final vows in it, and later became hostile to it, historians sometimes described him incorrectly as a priest or a leader.
La Salle never married, but has been linked to Madeleine de Roybon d'Allonne, an early settler of New France. His older brother, Jean Cavelier, was a Sulpician priest. His parents were Jean Cavelier and Catherine Geest.
Required to reject his father's legacy when he joined the Jesuits, La Salle was nearly destitute when he traveled as a prospective colonist to North America. He sailed for New France in the spring of 1666. His brother Jean, a Sulpician priest, had moved there the year before. La Salle was granted a seigneurie on land at the western end of the Island of Montreal, which became known as Lachine. (This was apparently from the French la Chine, meaning China. Some sources say the name referred to La Salle's desire to find a route to China, though the evidence for this claim is unclear and has been disputed.)
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