Answer:
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville et d'Ardillières
Explanation:
Of all the Le Moyne brothers, Pierre, known as Iberville, played the greatest role in the early settlement of what is now Alabama. Baptized in Montreal on July 20, 1661, Iberville served in the French military as a sailor and soldier, and his expertise and bravery in battle earned him a place as New France's greatest military hero in the continual wars over territory between France and England during the seventeenth century. He and two of his brothers made numerous forays against English outposts in the Hudson Bay region. His military successes during the 1690s earned him a high-ranking commission in New France's military, and in 1697 he led the French Canadians to victory in the Battle of Hudson Bay.
Later that year, Iberville sailed to France, where King Louis XIV appointed him leader of an expedition charged with establishing a series of forts that would protect France's territories in the Mississippi Valley, which had been claimed some 15 years earlier by explorer Robert de La Salle. Iberville's task was to rediscover and secure the mouth of the Mississippi and lay the foundations for future colonization of the Gulf Coast and the interior woodlands.
Robert de la Salle
In late 1698, Iberville left the port of Brest, France, with four vessels, accompanied by his 18-year-old brother Jean-Baptiste (Le Moyne de Bienville). The flotilla reached Pensacola Bay the following year and, finding the best site occupied by the Spanish, continued west to what is now Mobile Bay. Iberville and his crew explored present-day Dauphin Island, which they named Île du Massacre (Massacre Island) after finding a number of skeletons there, and then continued up the Mississippi River. After struggling to find an ideal location, Iberville finally ordered construction of Fort Maurepas on Biloxi Bay at what is now Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Iberville then returned to France but made two additional exploratory expeditions to the Gulf Coast in 1700 and 1701. His activities were recorded in the Annals of Louisiana from 1698 to 1722 by ship's carpenter André Pénigaut. <u>In 1702, Iberville relocated the settlement, called Fort Louis de la Louisiane, to the Mobile-Tensaw Delta near the site of present-day Mobile. Fort Louis and the surrounding settlement would serve as the first capital of the vast expanse of territory known as La Louisiane. In 1706, while engaged in naval battles with the English, Iberville contracted yellow fever and died in Havana, Cuba.</u>
<u>Courtesy of http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1102</u>
