9/23 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. |