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Donald S. Johnson, La Salle: A Perilous Odyssey from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2002. xxvii + 262 pp. ISBN 0-8154-1240-1.

Rene-Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, is best known for his explorations establishing the French claim to the Mississippi River watershed. Naming the land Louisiana for his sovereign, Louis XTV, La Salle returned with an expedition by sea to establish a French post at the mouth of the river. For a number of reasons, La Salle missed his target by 400 miles and instead sailed into Matagorda Bay (on the central coast of present-day Texas). There, he established a tenuous colony before being murdered. This biography places La Salle's achievements and the 'discovery' of Louisiana in the wider context of European exploration in the Americas. Donald S. Johnson begins by outlining European exploration through the seventeenth century. The book quickly moves to La Salle and his early travels and settlements developed on the St. Lawrence River. The author and the press should be commended for the number of maps and images included, greatly enriching the text. Rather than through explanatory footnotes or endnotes, sidebars explain selected terms or background information, which may not be familiar to the general reader. A short list of 'Important Individuals' and a chronology enhance the book as well, providing a touchstone for the many travels and characters involved in the La Salle's twenty-year career. Contentious and divided Catholic missionaries form an important component of any account of New France as funding for missions in the region often depended upon fur trade income and La Salle's position as a former Jesuit teacher who became a potential rival in the Great Lakes fur trade is well explained. How the Intendant and Governor of New France, the court of Louis XIV, Recollets and Jesuits, and rivals and backers in Canada each assisted or obstructed La Salle's schemes are the basis of much of the narrative. As he pressed into territories west and south of the core of New France, La Salle parlayed his growing geographic knowledge into monetary support from investors and the Crown.