The French explorer that sailed down the Mississippi River to its basin was La Salle.
Explanation:
Rene Robert Cavelier de La Salle was a French explorer, famous for his incursions into North America, where he toured the region of the Great Lakes of the United States and Canada, and then the Mississippi River, exploring the territories located between the San Lorenzo River valley and the Mississippi delta, reaching the Gulf of Mexico in 1682.
Tennyson's characterization is a bit different from the Homeric vision. Traditional texts present Ulysses as character which seeks freedom. A character whose final destination is his home in Ithaca.
