ABSTRACT
In 1699 a French expeditionary force led by Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville washed ashore on the beaches of Biloxi Bay. These men were part of a reconnaissance voyage sent to explore the region and claim the territory for the French King Louis XIV. In 1718 the French newspaper the Nouveau Mercure published a letter that was allegedly from a French colonist in Louisiana written to a “woman of quality” in Paris. Throughout the 1720s, the Company of the Indies strove to realize the idyllic vision of Louisiana and to convert a destitute backwater into a profitable hub of Atlantic exchange. French explorers’ first relationships in the Lower Mississippi Valley were with the petites nations. At the turn of the century the region was home to more than 35 small Native polities, each of which ranged in size from 50 to 2,000 people.
