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Chronology
1528-1937
Early Explorations
1528	Panfilo de Narvaez explores interior, possibly the Mississippi region,
from Tampa Bay. Expedition returns to sea and is dispersed by storm.
1536	Aivar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, with three other survivors of Narvaez expedition, reach Spain after eight years spent among tribes of American interior.
1537	Don Hernando (Fernando) de Soto, obtaining permission to conquer Florida, organizes expedition.
1540	De Soto enters Mississippi, one year after his landing in Florida.
1541	De Soto discovers the Mississippi River; crosses, and explores country, but fails to find the mythical cities of gold.
1542	Returning, De Soto reaches the confluence	of Red River with	Missis-
sippi. Dies (May 21), and is buried in Mississippi River.
1629-30 Charles I makes first Carolina grant to	Sir Robert Heath.	Grant
includes what is now Mississippi.
1663	Charles II makes second Carolina grant to Clarendon, Carteret and
others of all territory, from sea to sea, between latitudes 31° and 36° N.
1665	Grant of 1663 is enlarged to extend south to latitude 29° N.
1673	Joliet and Marquette descend the Mississippi River from about 42°
to about 34° N. latitude (from the Wisconsin to the Arkansas River).
1682	LaSalle descends the Mississippi River from the Illinois River to the
Gulf of Mexico.
French Dominion. 1699-1763
1699	Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, establishes the first colony on what is now Mississippi soil. The colony was Fort de Maurepas on the Bay of Biloxi.
1700	D'Iberville, de Bienville, and de Tonti ascend the Mississippi to the present site of Natchez.
1712	Louis XIV grants Antoine Crozat, Marquis de Chatel, a 15 years'
monopoly of trade in Louisiana.
1716	Jean Baptiste !e Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, French Governor of