...t merchant, famed for his successful enterprise, assumed its direction; the company of the Mississippi, aided by boundless but transient credit, had made it the foundation of their hopes; and, again, Fleury and Louis XV. had sought to advance its fortunes. Priests and friars, dispersed through nations, from Biloxi to the Dahcotas, propitiated the favor of the savages. But still the valley of the M...