La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

;344 A NEW ENTERPRISE. [1684losophy as he could command before the gildedarm-chair, where, majestic and awful, the power ofFrance sat embodied. The King listened to all hesaid; but the results of the interview were kept sosecret that it was rumored in the ante-chambers thathis proposals had been rejected. 1On the contrary, they had met with more thanfavor. The moment was opportune for La Salle.The King had long been irritated against theSpaniards, because they not only excluded hissubjectsfrom their American ports, but forbade themto enter the Gulf of Mexico. Certain Frenchmenwho had sailed on this forbidden sea had been seizedand imprisoned; and more recently a small vessel ofthe royal navy had been captured for the sameoffence. This had drawn from the King a declarationthat every sea should be, free to allhis subjectsand Count d'Estrees was sent with a squadron tothe Gulf, to exact satisfaction of the Spaniards, orfight them if they refused it. 2 This was in time ofpeace. War had since arisen between the twocrowns, and brought with it the opportunity of settlingthe question forever. In order to do so, theminister Seignelay, like his father Colbert, proposedto establish a French port on the Gulf, as a permanentmenace to the Spaniards and a basis of future1LeUres de VAbU Tronson, 8 Avril, 10 Avril, 1684 (Margry, ii.354).2 Lettres du Roy et du Ministre sur la Navigation du Golfe duMexique, 1669-1682 (Margry, iii. 3-14).