Was the La Salle expedition successful?

Answer 1

Robert de La Salle had four expeditions, with mixed results.

1. 6 July 1669 - La Salle begins exploring based on accounts he had heard of land west and a southern sea. With twenty-four men and canoes, he traveled up the St. Lawrence River to Lake Ontario. He crossed Ontario to the mouth of the Seneca River, meeting part of the Seneca tribe there. The Seneca told him he would not be welcome further west and encouraged him to turn back. He refused and pushed on. Moving toward the Niagara River, La Salle's party encountered another group of Seneca with a Pottawatomie captive. La Salle ransomed the captive who lead him further west, into the Ohio Country. The party continued toward Lake Erie and turned south. Reaching the Ohio River, the party canoed down river to the Falls of Ohio. La Salle's men abandoned him there, returning home, but La Salle pushed on. While he did not find the Southern Sea, what he found decided him to mount a second expedition.
2. 1670 - La Salle explores Lake Erie west to modern day Michigan. The party crosses overland and reaches the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Turning south across Illinois, they ran into the middle region of the Mississippi River. Three years later, La Salle joined with Jolliet and Marquette to explore the upper Mississippi Valley, and still later the expedition that explored the eastern shoreline of Michigan to Lake Huron and Michilimackinac.
3. The third expedition was more one of building than exploration. La Salle's party built Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, 1673; Fort Conti at the mouth of the Niagara, 1679. At Fort Conti, he built the sailing vessel Le Griffon to expand his ability to explore the Great Lakes. In 1679 he set up a trading post where Green Bay, Wisconsin is today. He built a small post on the banks of the St. Joseph River in southwest Michigan. From there he sent La Griffon back to Montreal, but she was lost en route with all hands. On 3 December 1679, La Salle sent a party of twenty to search for the Kankakee Portage. La Salle became separated from them in a snow storm, but reconnected with them the next day. They moved down the Kankakee to the Mississippi and continued south. On the Mississippi, the encountered a "large Indian village" where they built Fort Crèvecoeur, which became a trading post. Being at war with the Iroquois, La Salle made contact with the tribes in the area who were also at war with the Iroquois (Miami, Wea, Piankeshaw, Peoria, Illini, and refugees from the Northeast). La Salle sent men back to Montreal in 1680 with fur to trade. These men deserted upon returning to Montreal. On Las Salle's return trip to Montreal to learn what had happened to the men he had sent back, he encountered the new governor of New France, François-Marie Perrot. Perrot was taking possession of the posts La Salle had established and garrisoning them. La Salle accompanied the party back to Fort Crèvecoeur, where they discovered it destroyed by the men La Salle had left behind, and the village abandoned by the natives.
4. 1681 - La Salle returns to Crèvecoeur and rebuilds the fort. He contacts the tribes who had fled and convinces them to return and establish an alliance against the Iroquois and begin trade. He introduces the tribes to guns and metal tools. In 1682, La Salle begins construction of Fort Saint Louis, and uses it to push further south and west. Moving south, La Salle builds Fort Prudhomme at the sight of modern Memphis, Tennessee. He names the river La Louisiane, and he reaches the mouth of the Mississippi, near modern day Venice, Louisianna 9 April 1682. La Salle sailed for France 24 July 1684 to resupply his posts. With four ships and 300 colonists, La Salle travels back to the Gulf area, but the expedition is doomed by pirates (losing one ship in the West Indies), bad weather (the second ship sank at Matagorda Bay), hostile natives, and poor navigation (ship three ran aground also at Matagorda Bay). La Salle tried to move east back toward the Mississippi, setting up a post at Fort Saint Louis of Texas (Victoria, TX). While searching for the Mississippi with the last thirty-six of his company, they mutinied. La Salle was attacked by four of his company, and was killed 19 March 1687 by Pierre Duhaut near Navasota, Texas. The mutineers remained in the area until 1688 when the twenty surviving adults were massacred by local natives, and the five remaining children were taken captive.

While the Iroquois returned to the Illinois Country and harassed the local tribes, the alliances La Salle established and the weapons he provided helped the allied tribes reach a deadlock with the Iroquois. The Great Peace of Montreal was signed in 1701.

Answer 2

The La Salle expedition, led by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, was ultimately not successful. La Salle aimed to establish a French colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River, but due to navigational errors and conflicts with Native Americans, the expedition ended in failure, with La Salle being killed by his own men.