Pierre Le Moyne Iberville

Pierre Le Moyne Iberville (1661-1706), French-Canadian explorer and naval officer who fought against the British in Canada and founded the French colony of Louisiana. Iberville was born in what is now Montréal, Québec. Appointed a midshipman in the French navy at the age of 14, he was sent to France and served there until 1679, when he returned to Canada. After 1686 he led successive land and sea expeditions against stations of the Hudson's Bay Company in an effort to dislodge British power in Canada. After a victory over a superior British naval force, he captured Fort Nelson on Hudson Bay in 1697, thereby destroying the single remaining post of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada.

In 1698 the French government commissioned Iberville to find and colonize the mouth of the Mississippi River. In 1699 Iberville became the first European to approach the Mississippi from its outlet at the Gulf of Mexico. He then explored the river as far north as the present-day city of Cairo, Illinois. On his return to the Gulf of Mexico, Iberville became the first European to sight Lake Pontchartrain, in what is now Louisiana. He named the lake for the count of Pontchartrain, then the head of the French navy. Also in 1699 Iberville, accompanied by his brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, established a settlement at what is now Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Iberville was made a captain in the French navy in 1702 and assumed command of the West Indian fleet in 1706.