ger that England would seize the country, that
Iberville had scarcely landed in France when he was sent back with a
reinforcement. The colonial views of the King may be gathered from his
instructions to his officer. Iberville was told to seek out diligently
the best places for establishing pearl-fisheries, though it was admitted
that the pearls of Louisiana were uncommonly bad. He was also to catch
bison calves, make a fenced park to hold them, and tame them for the
sake of their wool, which was reputed to be of value for various
fabrics. Above all, he was to look for mines, the finding of which the
document declares to be "la grande affaire."[296]

On the eighth of January, Iberville reached Biloxi, and soon after went
up the Mississippi to that remarkable tribe of sun-worshippers, the
Natchez, whose villages were on and near the site of the city that now
bears their name. Some thirty miles above he found a kindred tribe, the
Taensas, whose temple took fire during his visit, when, to his horror,
he saw five living infants thrown into the flames by their mothers to
appease the angry spirits.[297]

Retracing his course, he built a wooden redoubt near one of the mouths
of the Mississippi to keep out the dreaded English.

In the next year he made a third voyage, and ordered the feeble
establishment at Biloxi to be moved to the bay of Mobile. This drew a
protest from the Spaniards, who rested their claims to the country on
the famous bull of Pope Alexander VI. The question was referred to the
two Crowns. Louis XIV., a stanch champion of the papacy when his duties
as a Catholic did not clash with his interests as a king, refused
submission to the bull, insisted that the Louisiana country was his, and
declared that he would hold fast to it because he was bound, as a son of
Holy Church, to convert the Indians and keep out the English
heretics.[298] Spain was then at peace with France, and her new King,
the Duc d'Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., needed the support of his
powerful kinsman; hence his remonstrance against French encroachment was
of the mildest.[299]

Besides Biloxi and Mobile Bay, the French formed a third establishment
at Dauphin Island. The Mississippi itself, which may be called the vital
organ of the colony, was thus far neglected, being occupied by no
settlement and guarded only by a redoubt near one of its mouths.

Of the emigrants sent out by the court to the new land of promise, the
most valuable by far