Jean-Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe

Jean-Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe (* early 1683 in Saint-Malo ; † September 26, 1765 ibid) was a French colonist and explorer who prepared the ground for the colonization of Louisiana .

Life

La Harpe was born in January or February 1683 as one of twelve children of Jeanne (Le Breton) and Pierre Bénard Seigneur de La Harpe. In 1701 he served as a cavalry officer in the army of Philip V of Spain.

In 1703 La Harpe went to Peru , where in 1705 he married Doña María de Rokafull , the former Marie de Witte Solier of Flanders , a wealthy widowed woman who was 22 years his senior. A book by La Harpe about South America (" Relation ") also dates from this period , but it is lost today and was dismissed as fiction by his wife. In 1706 the two returned to France, where his wife tried to annul the marriage. She died in 1709, La Harpe fought until 1715, ultimately unsuccessfully, about her rich inheritance.

In 1718 La Harpe sailed with 40 men to America , where he landed on Dauphin Island , an island off the coast of Alabama . La Harpe went to Nouvelle-Orléans , explored the Mississippi River , Red River and Sulfur River and began to build settlements on the Red River. In April 1719 he built a fort (" Fort Saint Louis de los Cadodaquious ", other sources speak of " Fort Breton " or " San Luis de Cadodachos ") on Roseborough Lake in what is now Bowie County . After the experiment had failed to establish trade routes with the Spaniards, to La Harpe went along the Canadian River in Oklahoma to the Comanches .

In 1720 he returned to France, only to set off again for the new world in 1721. La Harpe landed in Texas near Galveston Bay . Colonization of the area was planned, but since the natives were hostile to La Harpe's plans, he abandoned this goal.

In 1722 he explored the area of the Arkansas River and tried to establish trade routes to the Spanish possessions in the southwest of today's USA . When he failed, he was fired by his employers. He returned to France, where he wrote a work on his discoveries in America ("Journal Historique Concernant l'Établissement des Français à la Louisiane", 1831). However, today's historians doubt the accuracy of the information contained therein.

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personal data
SURNAME	La Harpe, Jean-Baptiste Bénard de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French colonist and explorer
DATE OF BIRTH	January 1683 or February 1683
PLACE OF BIRTH	Saint Malo
DATE OF DEATH	September 26, 1765
Place of death	Saint Malo