This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.


.,OHNSON OUTBOARD MOTORS
OWENS CRUISERS
CHAS. A. BREATH, Jr.
YACHT BROKER
o
Bay St. Louis, miss.
HISTORY CF :;aY ST. LOUIS
Long before the advent of the French explorers,, the City or Bay St. Louis was an Indian Village bearing the name of Chicapoula. Here the primitive children of the Choctau-i-'uskhogean family live.: in a veritable happy hunting ground,. for the ?ivine Designer gave this Gall Caest a special touch of beauty; anc to su^voly the needs of His people,, i-e filled the waters with aounaant fi si/and the forests with plentiful game.
In all probability, Robert Cavalier de la Sallesax was the first white man to explore this part of the Coast. According to Jacques de la Letairie, the official historian of this expedition, Ls Salle descended to the mouth of the Mississippi River; and on April 7, 1682, he went to reconnoiter the shores of tx. e Gulf of ?exico. In lb%3, Tonti the Faithful friend of Eg Salle came as far as the G-ul; to seek tidings of his lost leader. On this trip Tonto examined the coast thirty leagues towards
I.jexico, and twenty five leagues towards Florida.	^
When Pierre le Loyne d?lbervilie came to plant the Fleur ci Lis of France on the Gulf Cosst, the hiitorian, tel. sxx us:	"Cn the 12th of A
Apri 1lo?S , a?Iberville set cut to visit a bay about nine leagues from Ship Island, to which he gave the name of St. Louis, But finding thr ^
Vi i ter very shallow theie, he concluded to fix his settlement at Biloxi .f
<&? This howevei v;as just a ci saal visit to sound the depth? of the water, and it remains for his brother, Jean Baptist le Loyne Bienville,, -to set foot on the lend and give ?j t the present name. Let us re&d the account of this event as described uy Fenicault, the journalist fr-rr. the frigate Le Marin: nV?e shortly afterwards found a beautiful bay, about one leagne in width by four in circumference, which eas named Bay St. Louisr beccase it was on the uay of t. Louis we arrived there.	hunted
there three da^s and killed fifty deer"Ihe writer describes a trip up the Mississippi River, and on returning he writes:" "Next day we camped at the entrance of Hay St. Louis near a fountain of water that flows down from the hills, which J/.oyne Bienville named Belle Fountai ne.
We hiinted several days around this b; y and filled our boats with venison,, buffalo and other game. According to this evidence it is safe to say th&i 3ay St. Louis was discovered and named by Bienville on the Fekst of St Louis, August 25, 159i, ,
These first visits of c1Iberville ana Bienville established a ha>py precedent, and soon colonists from Biloxi found their way to th s land of plenty. The Hon. J. F. Ef Claiborne, autho^ of Li sfissippi t-s a Province, Terri tony and State, was well acca^inted with the history of Bay st,
Louis; for he lived foi^yearsbn a plantation a few miles south of the Bay, now called SiaiiisEXJiK Claiborne, Liss. In an address delivered at Bay st. Louis,, July 4,. 1S76, to commemorate tie centenary of the Declare ation of Independence, i r, Clailcorne said: "In December of the same year,


Boardman Family 022
© 2008 - 2024
Hancock County Historical Society
All rights reserved