Cadillac sends Louis Juchereau de St. Denis…

Cadillac sends Louis Juchereau de St. Denis and a company of men from Mobile in September 1713 to travel up the Red River and establish a French outpost.

St. Denis arrives in Natchitoches later this year and builds a fort, trading with the natives and freely selling them guns.

The French learn many hunting and trapping skills from the natives.

The French settlement has two purposes: to establish trade with the Spanish in Texas, and to deter Spanish advances into Louisiana.

Also, the northern terminus of the Old San Antonio Road (sometimes called El Camino Real, or Kings Highway) is at Nachitoches.

St. Denis's parents had apparently been able to send him from his native Montreal to France to further his education.

He had sailed in late 1699 from La Rochelle with the second expedition of Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville (a relative by marriage), arriving in Louisiana.

St. Denis had commanded a fort on the Mississippi River and another at Biloxi Bay; he has also explored to the west of the bay and upstream, where he journeyed to the lower Red River.

These expeditions have brought St. Denis into contact with the Karankawa and Caddo tribes and taught him invaluable wilderness skills specific to the area.