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LA SALLE’S HOUSE. NEAR MONTREAL, CANADA
THE CONTEST FOR NORTH AMERICA
La Salle
ONE
Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was the foremost pioneer of the great West of our country; but he failed because his schemes were too large for his resources. La Salle was brilliant, energetic, and courageous; but he could stir neither enthusiasm nor affection in those whom he commanded. Therein lay one reason for his failure. He was a shy, proud, and reserved man, loved by a few intimate friends, and greatly liked and respected by the Indians.
La Salle was born in Rouen (roo´-ohng), France, on November 22, 1643. He came of a good burgher family. He taught in the Jesuit schools during his early life; but in 1666 went to Canada to make his fortune. It was then that La Salle had the first of his great visionary schemes. He planned to discover a way to China across the American continent. That does not sound so impossible now; but it must be remembered that in the seventeenth century the first railroad had not even been dreamed of, and that the American continent, except for a few colonies along the eastern seacoast, was a wilderness of trackless forest and prairie.