<P> In 1682, the Normand Cavelier de la Salle and the Italian Henri de Tonti came down the Mississippi to its Delta . They left from Fort Crevecoeur on the Illinois River, along with 23 French and 18 Native Americans . In April 1682, they arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi; they planted a cross and a column bearing the arms of the king of France . La Salle returned to France and won over the Secretary of State of the Navy to give him the command of Louisiana . He believed that it was close to New Spain by drawing a map on which the Mississippi seemed much further west than its actual rate . He set up a maritime expedition with four ships and 320 emigrants, but it ended in disaster when he failed to find the Mississippi Delta and was killed in 1687 . </P> <P> In 1698, Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville left La Rochelle and explored the area around the mouth of the Mississippi . He stopped between Isle - aux - Chats (now Cat Island) and Isle Surgeres (renamed Isle - aux - Vascular or Ship Island) on February 13, 1699 and continued his explorations to the mainland, with his brother Jean - Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville to Biloxi . He built a precarious fort, called' Maurepas' (later' Old Biloxi'), before returning to France . He returned twice in the Gulf of Mexico and established a fort at Mobile in 1702 . </P> <P> From 1699 to 1702, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville was governor of Louisiana . His brother succeeded him in that post from 1702 to 1713 . He was again governor from 1716 to 1724 and again 1733 to 1743 . In 1718, Jean - Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville commanded a French expedition in Louisiana . He founded the city of New Orleans, in homage to Regent Duke of Orleans . The architect Adrian de Pauger drew the orthogonal plane of the Old Square . </P> <P> In 1718, there were only 700 Europeans in Louisiana . The Mississippi Company arranged for ships to bring 800 more, who landed in Louisiana in 1718, doubling the European population . John Law encouraged Germans, particularly Germans of the Alsatian region who had recently fallen under French rule, and the Swiss to emigrate . </P>

Who was the famous frenchman that founded the first major french settlement in louisiana