Colbert, La Salle, and the Search for Empire

The overlooked apotheosis of Colberts imperial strategy lay in his long-range plan to create a naval base on the Gulf of Mexico and provide the means to protect and supply his ships and sailors there. [...]in 1680, before he even began his voyage of discovery, La Salle recognized that he would have to return to France in order to continue his mission.1 His misidentification of the rivers mouth close to Mexico was evident when he arrived there in April 1682, long before he returned to France and heard of any competing plans.2 His 1684 return to the Gulf of Mexico, however misdirected, was Seignelay s cognizant continuation of his fathers grand design for the king, who understood and approved both expeditions. In 1677, Colbert flatly rejected a petition from Louis Joliiét to trade for furs in Illinois.3 The request contravened at least a dozen years of resistance by Colbert to extend posts deep into the interior.'1 It also did not meet criteria that Colbert had ordained in 1674, that new posts either protect the commerce of Canada or establish a warm-water port.5 Then, at the end of 1677, La Salle came to Paris with a petition of his own. Unlike Joliiét, who was a private citizen, La Salle was a royal official, having sworn fealty to Louis XIV and received his governorship from the kings hand in 1675.6 Commanding troops on the western boundary of French civilization in Canada, La Salle had built a fortress in stone and determined ports for decked ships on Lake Ontario. To attract investment capital, he was given a monopoly in buffalo hides and the same rights of seigniory at the forts he built on his route that he enjoyed at Fort Frontenac.15 With these inducements, Colbert persuaded La Salle to move through the heart of North America, not fifteen hundred miles to Lake Michigan but more than three thousand to the Gulf of Mexico.