NOTABLE ARKANSANS
He was christened in February 1683 in Saint-Malo, France, the second son of a family with 12 children. In 1701, he served briefly as a cavalry officer for Philip V in Spain, but soon returned to France. In 1703, he sailed on a trading mission to Peru, where he worked as a merchant. While there, misrepresenting his own financial position, he married a wealthy widow 22 years older. After they returned to France in 1706, he bought the honorary titles of governor of the French town of Dol and lieutenant general of the coast guard of Brittany. When his wife died in 1709, he became involved in multiple lawsuits with her family concerning her fortune. He remarried in 1710, but within a few years, his second wife also died. When the lawsuits with the family of his first wife ended by 1715 — failures for him in all cases — his honorary titles were abolished. In the spring of 1718, he sailed from La Rochelle, France, for the New World.
By the fall of 1718, he was in New Orleans and had become a concessionaire for the Company of the Indies, with a mission to explore the Mississippi, Red and Sulphur rivers and establish trade routes with the Spanish. After a two-year exploratory trip into Oklahoma, he became ill and returned to France.
In 1720, he was appointed commandant of an area on the Texas coast, but the ship got lost and ended up in the wrong place. He returned to New Orleans and was sent to explore the Arkansas River. He arrived at the mouth of the Arkansas in February 1722 and docked at Arkansas Post for supplies. He continued up the river until he came to the first outcropping of rocks: three steep formations on the north side of the river and a smaller rock a short way downstream on the south. On April 9, 1722, he named the point on the north side “Le Rocher Français” (“The French Rock”) and took possession by carving the coat of arms of the King of France on a tree trunk. Later, French explorers named the smaller rock “Le Petit Rocher” (“The Small Rock”).
Because he was unsuccessful in establishing trade routes with the Spanish, he was fired by the Company of the Indies and returned to France in 1723.
Who was this French explorer, who was the first European to identify the area that would become the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock?
Who was this French explorer, who was the first European to identify the area that would become the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock?