Fort Saint-Louis (Texas)

Fort Saint-Louis

28°20′N 97°07′W / 28.333°N 97.117°W / 28.333; -97.117
Location	United States Texas
Completion date	18th century
Initial destination	Military fort

Fort Saint-Louis, Texas, was founded in 1685 by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle and members of his expedition, including Jesuit missionary Zenobius Membre, on the banks of Garcitas Creek, a few kilometers inland from the mouth of the Lavaca River. La Salle had intended to establish the colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, but inaccurate charts and navigational errors led his ships more than six hundred kilometers to the west, to the coast of Texas.

The colony's brief existence was fraught with difficulties, including the hostility of the natives, epidemics and harsh climatic conditions. Conscious of his original mission, La Salle led several expeditions to find the Mississippi, which enabled him to explore much of the Río Grande and eastern Texas. During one of his absences, in 1686, the colony's last ship was destroyed, prohibiting the colonists from obtaining supplies from French possessions in the Caribbean Sea. His last expedition took place on the Brazos River in early 1687. It was then that La Salle and five of his men were murdered, due to rivalries within the group he was leading.

Spain heard of La Salle's mission in 1686. Worried that a French colony might threaten their possessions in New Spain, the Spanish authorities launched several expeditions to discover and destroy it. A Spanish expedition led by Alonso de León finally came upon the remains of the fort in the spring of 1689, three or four months after the Karankawas people had killed most of the French, with the exception of five children whom they captured. Although it only existed for three years, this colony enabled France to claim possession of Texas, and later the United States to justify its claim to Spanish Texas, on the pretext that it was part of the territory involved in the Louisiana Purchase.