Excerpt from Amy Boudreau's Epic
1718-JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE, SIEUR DE BIENVILLE
(Known as "The Father of New Orleans")
Bienvill, brave exporer, colonizer, -
Great is the debt New Orleans owes to him.
Unlimited his faith and dauntless courage;
Nor time nor failure could his high hopes dim.
Canadian-born, and French, he was the first,
Together with his brother, Iberville,
To ascend the Mississippi River
Upward from its mouth- a feat of skill.
In March of Sixteen Ninety-nine, Bienville
Sailed up the Mississippi, wide and long,
And even then foresaw the advantages
Of building on its banks a city strong.
His Indian guides had pointed out to him
A portage place of bayou and terrain
They used for short'ning travel miles. It lay
Between the River and Lake Ponchartrain.
Just there a little Bayou, later named
"Saint John", slowly wound its calm, unruffle way;
A bayou that would mold a city's life,
And was destined an important role to play.
'Twas where the Mississippi shaped its banks
In concave, convex edges like the moon
In its first quarter. There, Bienvill dreamed,
He'd build his "Crescent City." But alas, not soo.
For many years were destined first to pass
Ere the city of Bienville's dream came true,
And a great metropolis would stand
Where bayous flowed, and cypress trees then grew.
'Twas his belief a stronghold should be built
Near to the River's mouth, as he explained,
That France, alone, might hold secure the key
To all the land the Mississippi drained.