h kept Port Royal and all Acadia. Port
Royal they called Annapolis, and the name of Acadia was changed to
Nova Scotia.

[Sidenote: King George's War, 1744-48.]

93. King George's War, 1744-48.--From 1713 until 1744 there was no
war between the English and the French. But in 1744 fighting began again
in earnest. The French and Indians attacked the New England frontier
towns and killed many people. But the New Englanders, on their part, won
a great success. After the French lost Acadia they built a strong
fortress on the island of Cape Breton. To this they gave the name of
Louisburg. The New Englanders fitted out a great expedition and captured
Louisburg without much help from the English. But at the close of the
war (1748) the fortress was given back to the French, to the disgust of
the New Englanders.

[Sidenote: La Salle on the Mississippi, 1681.]

[Sidenote: _McMaster_, 62-65; _Source-book_, 96-98.]

94. The French in the Mississippi Valley.--The Spaniards had
discovered the Mississippi and had explored its lower valley. But they
had found no gold there and had abandoned the country. It was left for
French explorers more than one hundred years later to rediscover the
great river and to explore it from its upper waters to the Gulf of
Mexico. The first Frenchman to sail down the river to its mouth was La
Salle. In 1681, with three canoes, he floated down the Mississippi,
until he reached a place where the great river divided into three large
branches. He sent one canoe down each branch. Returning, they all
reported that they had reached the open sea.

[Sidenote: La Salle attempts to found a colony. _McMaster_, 79-80.]

[Sidenote: Louisiana settled, 1699.]

95. Founding of Louisiana.--La Salle named this immense region
Louisiana in honor of the French king. He soon led an expedition to
plant a colony on the banks of the Mississippi. Sailing into the Gulf of
Mexico, he missed the mouth of the Mississippi and landed on the coast
of Texas. Misfortune after misfortune now fell on the unhappy
expedition. La Salle was murdered, the stores were destroyed, the
Spaniards and Indians came and killed or captured nearly all the
colonists. A few only gained the Mississippi and made their way to
Canada. In 1699, another French expedition appeared in the Gulf of
Mexico. This time the mouth of the Mississippi was easily discovered.
But the colonists settled on the shores of Mobile Bay. It was not until
1718 that New Orleans wa