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62
MISSISSIPPI: THE GENERAL BACKGROUND
AN OUTLINE OF FOUR CENTURIES	63
tensions to the mouth of the Mississippi, which two English vessels were sent to explore. But in September 1699, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, brother of Sieur d'lberville, encountered one of these English ships about fifty miles from the mouth of the Mississippi. Assured that this was not the Mississippi but a dependency of Canada belonging to the French, the English commander left the river and the early colonization of the region to the French. The point where this encounter occurred has since been known as English Turn.
In 1702, England having declared war on France, the French King gave orders to Iberville to build a fort on the Mobile River and to remove the Fort Maurepas colony thence. Thus, in case of trouble with the English who were moving westward from the Carolinas, the French settlers would be near their Spanish friends at Fort Pensacola. The seat of government was removed eighteen leagues up the river to the new fort, named Louis de la Mobile, and the first white family arrived there in May 1702. In 1711 the settlement of Mobile was inundated, causing the removal of colonists to the present Mobile.
Biloxi, however, was not abandoned. From this settlement Iberville and Bienville penetrated the surrounding country, establishing trading posts and forts, among which was Fort Rosalie founded on the bluffs of Natchez in 1716. In 1704 twenty or more young women destined for marriage with the colonists landed at Mobile and Ship Island—Fort Maurepas’ port and outer bulwark. This was the first of several shipments of "Casket Girls,” French orphans and peasants who came voluntarily to the New World as prospective wives for the settlers. Each girl brought with her a small "dot” and a chest containing a trousseau provided by the government.
On September 14, 1712, Louisiana was temporarily assigned by Louis XIV to a great French merchant and financier, Anthony Crozat, Marquis de Chatel. It has been said that "Never in the history of the world was such a magnificent domain, even temporarily, placed in the sole keeping of one man." For a term of 15 years Crozat was granted a monopoly of the trade of Louisiana. To assist and abet his agents, the troops in the colony were placed at his disposal. All the shipping in the colony was his, on condition that it be replaced at the end of his term. Yet "Crozat never came to Louisiana”; and it must not be thought that Louisiana was a populous territory when turned over to Crozat. There were a few settlements on the Kaskaskia, Wabash, and Illinois Rivers, but the total number of Europeans in the whole territory was only 380.
Though Crozat was in commercial control, Bienville was Acting Gov-