Rene Robert Cavelier Sieur De La Salle - Navasota, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 30° 23.352 W 096° 05.219
14R E 779910 N 3365514
French explorer who claimed the basin of the Mississippi River and its tributaries for Louis XIV of France.
Waymark Code: WM123QW
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/19/2020
Views: 6
Smithsonian Art Inventory"A full-length standing figure of Rene Robert Cavelier Sieur De La Salle. La Salle wears period clothing including a coat, sword, and thigh-high boots. His shoulder-length hair is curly. His right hand is held out slightly with the palm turned up as if imploring his men to continue following him. In his left hand he carries a rolled piece of paper, possibly a map. The statue stands atop a small square bronze plinth on a three-tiered granite base.
(On bronze plaque on front of base:)
RENE ROBERT CAVELIER
SIEUR DE LA SALLE
TREACHEROUSLY SLAIN BY HIS OWN
MEN NEAR THIS SPOT IN MARCH 1687
BORN ROUEN, FRANCE, NOVEMBER 22, 1643
EXPLORER OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
FRONTIER STATESMAN - EMPIRE BUILDER
A NOBLEMAN IN RANK AND CHARACTER
ERECTED BY
THE TEXAS SOCIETY
OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND
THE CITIZENS OF NAVASOTA
1930"
Britannica
"René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, (born November 22, 1643, Rouen, France—died March 19, 1687, near Brazos River [now in Texas, U.S.]), French explorer in North America, who led an expedition down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers and claimed all the region watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries for Louis XIV of France, naming the region “Louisiana.” A few years later, in a luckless expedition seeking the mouth of the Mississippi, he was murdered by his men.
La Salle was educated at a Jesuit college. He first studied for the priesthood, but at the age of 22 he found himself more attracted to adventure and exploration and in 1666 set out for Canada to seek his fortune. With a grant of land at the western end of Île de Montréal, La Salle acquired at one stroke the status of a seigneur (i.e., landholder) and the opportunities of a frontiersman."
Wikipedia
"René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687) was a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico and claimed the entire Mississippi River basin for France."