After the suppression of this company, the French trade to America was carried on and improved by private adventurers, some of which obtained particular grants, to enable them to form colonies. Of this number was Robert Chevalier de la Sale, a native of Rouen. It was he who first discovered the river Missisippi, and who proposed to the King, in 1683, to establish a colony there. He lost his life in the attempt. Hiberville, a Canadian, took up the project; but soon died. He was succeeded by Antony Crozat, in 1712, who had better success; but the death of the King in 1715, and the rising genius of Mr. Law, engaged the Regent of France to make Crozat renounce his exclusive privilege of trading. Upon which, by edict of the 6th of September 1717, was formed the second _Compagnie d’Occident_, in favour of Mr. Law: to which was added the fur trade of Canada, then in the hands of private adventurers, and the farm of the tobacco, for which he paid 1,500,000 livres a year. I now come to the East India company. I have already mentioned the establishment of it by the great Colbert in 1664. After his death, want of experience in those who succeeded him, abuse of administration, carelesness in those who carried on the company’s business, competition between different companies, and, in short, every obstacle to new establishments, concurred with the consequences of the long and expensive wars of Louis XIV. to render all commercial projects ineffectual; and all the expence bestowed in establishing those companies was in a manner lost. In 1710, the merchants of St. Malo undertook the East India company. It languished in their hands until 1719, and their importations were not sufficient to supply the demand of France for India goods: for this reason it was taken from them, and incorporated with Mr. Law’s company of the West Indies, in May 1719. By this incorporation was established the great _Company of the Indies_, which still subsists in France: the only monument extant of the famous and unfortunate Law. For the better understanding, therefore, what is to follow, let us attend to some historical and chronological anecdotes, relative to the wonderful operations of this Missisippi bank, and company of the Indies. These I shall set down according to the order of time in which they happened, that my reader may have recourse to them as he goes along. Without the help of this table, I should be involved in a history of those events, which however amusing it might be to some readers, would be quite inconsistent with the nature of this inquiry. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAP. XXVIII. _Chronological Anecdotes._ [Sidenote: 1709.] A general coinage in France: the marc of standard silver, worth two pounds sterling, put at 40 livres denomination.