records do not tell us, but the probabilities are that he died in
France, for it is said he entered the French Army, serving with the
Dragoons, and saw service in Germany. While there is some speculation
about all the foregoing, there can be no speculation about the
statement that on May 25, 1718 he left La Rochelle, France, in one of
three ships bound for a place called Louisiana.

For M. Le Page tells us about this in a three-volume work he wrote
called, Histoire de la Louisiane, recognized as the authority to be
consulted by all who have written on the early history of New Orleans
and the Louisiana province.

Le Page, who arrived in Louisiana August 25, 1718, three months after
leaving La Rochelle, spent four months at Dauphin Island before he and
his men made their way to Bayou St. John where he set up a plantation.
He had at last reached New Orleans, which he correctly states,
"existed only in name," and had to occupy an old lodge once used by an
Acolapissa Indian. The young settler, he was only about 23 at the
time, after arranging his shelter tells us: "A few days afterwards I
purchased from a neighbour a native female slave, so as to have a
woman to cook for us. My slave and I could not speak each other's
language; but I made myself understood by means of signs." This slave,
a girl of the Chitimacha tribe, remained with Le Page for years, and
one draws the inference that she was possessed of a vigorous
personality, and was not devoid of charm or bravery. Le Page writes
that when frightened by an alligator approaching his camp fire, he ran
to the lodge for his gun. However, the Indian girl calmly picked up a
stick and hammered the 'gator so lustily on its nose that it
retreated. As Le Page arrived with his gun, ready to shoot "the
monster," he tells us: "She began to smile, and said many things which