NEW ORLEANS FOUNDED.—During fifteen years and more the little colony, which was soon moved from Biloxi to the vicinity of Mobile (map, p. 134), struggled on as best it could; then steps were taken to plant a settlement on the banks of the Mississippi, and (1718) Bienville (be-an-veel') laid the foundation of a city he called New Orleans.
SUMMARY
1. After many failures, a French colony was planted at Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia) in 1601; but this was abandoned for a time, and the first permanent French colony was planted by Champlain at Quebec in 1608.
2. From these settlements grew up the two French colonies called Acadia and New France or Canada.
3. New France was explored by Champlain, and by many brave priests.
4. Marquette and Joliet reached the Mississippi and explored it from the Wisconsin to the Arkansas (1673).
5. Their unfinished work was taken up by La Salle, who went down the Mississippi to the Gulf (1682), and formally claimed for France all the region drained by the river and its tributaries—a vast area which he called Louisiana.
6. Occupation of the Mississippi valley by the French followed; forts and trading posts were built, and in 1718 New Orleans was founded.
[Illustration: AN INDIAN VILLAGE.]