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women and children,—most of the men being disband-
ed
Canadian soldiers,—embarked for the
Mississippi, which, as yet, had never been entered from the sea.
Happier than
La Salle, the leader of the enterprise won confidence and affection every where: the governor of
St. Domingo gave him a welcome, and bore
a willing testimony to his genius and his good judgment.
A larger ship of war from that station joined the expedition, which, in January, 1699, caught a
glimpse of the continent, and anchored before the
Island St. Rose.
On the opposite shore, the fort of
Pensacola had just been established by three hundred Spaniards from
Vera Cruz.
This prior occupation is the reason why, afterwards,
Pensacola remained a part of
Florida, and the dividing line between that province and
Louisiana was drawn between the bays of
Pensacola and
Mobile.
Obedient to his orders, and to the maxims of the mercantile system, the governor of
Pensacola would allow no foreign vessel to enter the harbor.
Sailing to the west, D'Iberville cast anchor south-south-east of the eastern point of
Mobile, and landed on Massacre, or, as it was rather called, Dau-
phine Island.
The water between
Ship and
Horn Islands being found too shallow, the larger ship from the station of
St. Domingo returned, and the frigates anchored near the groups of the Chandeleur, while D'Iberville with his people erected huts on
Ship Island, and made the discovery of the
River Pascagoula and the tribes of
Biloxi.
The next day, a party of Bayagoulas, from the
Mississippi, passed by: they were warriors returning from an inroad into the land of the Indians of
Mobile.
In two barges, D'Iberville and his brother Bienville,
with a Franciscan, who had been a companion to La
