Heritage, Volume 15, Number 3, Summer 1997 Page: 16
31 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Cannons of Fort Saint Louis
By Curtis TunnellA group of Texas archaeologists has unearthed the remains of the ill-fated
French colony that was established on the Texas coast by Robert Cavalier
Sieur de La Salle in 1685 after he failed to find the mouth of the Mississippi
River, and have begun work to preserve historic Fort St. Louis.n an April morning in 1689,
with coastal mist hanging in
the air, Don Alonzo De Leon
and a band of Spanish soldiers from
Coahuila, rode cautiously into the courtyard
at La Salle's Fort Saint Louis. They
were amazed by what they found.
The ill-fated French colony was established
on the Texas coast by Robert Cavalier
Sieur de La Salle in the spring of 1685
after he failed to find the mouth of the
Mississippi River, which was his goal. On
high ground beside what the French called
Riviere aux Boeufs, today Garcitas Creek,the colonists built one substantial structure
of salvaged ship timbers and logs, as well as
crude huts of posts and mud. During the
next three and a half years, they fished,
raised pigs and gardens, and occasionally
killed a bison. But members of the little
band regularly succumbed to disease, malnutrition,
snake bite, overwork, exposure,
and attacks by feral hogs, wounded bison,
and unfriendly natives. The cemetery at
the site expanded rapidly to include more
than 100 graves.
The colony had lost most of its supplies
in the sinking of two expedition ships,L'Aimable and La Belle, in Matagorda Bay.
By the time La Salle and his chronicler,
HenriJoutel, left the fort in 1687 to search
for the Mississippi and French colonies
around the Great Lakes, only 22 people
remained in the little outpost, including
two priests and seven women and girls.
After months of frantic searching for
the intrusive French Colony, the De Leon
expedition finally found the outpost on
April 22, 1689. There were no signs of life.
He described the primary structure, made
of squared logs and ship's timbers with
dovetail joinery, as having a chapel and16 HERITAGE *SUMMER 1997
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 15, Number 3, Summer 1997, periodical, Summer 1997; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45401/m1/16/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.