| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 33.1

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 33.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Wreck of the Belle, the Ruin of La Salle. By Robert S. Weddle. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2001. xvii + 327 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $29.95.)

Robert S. Weddle has authored several books about the explorations of Robert Cavelier de La Salle and the Franco-Spanish rivalry along North America's Gulf Coast. In his latest attempt to fathom the quixotic French adventurer, he focuses on La Salle's involvement in the sinking of the small ship La Belle, off the Texas coast in 1686. The discovery of La Belle's underwater wreckage in 1995, and the archaeological recovery of those remains the following year, generated a host of new and different questions about the circumstances surrounding the vessel's destruction. Weddle returned to the archives in search of documentary evidence that might provide the answers. 1

His surprising new findings challenge many popular notions about the legendary La Salle, long considered a crucial figure in France's efforts to establish a presence in North America. Weddle begins by placing the primary responsibility for La Belle's loss squarely on La Salle's shoulders and concludes by arguing that "the wreck of the Belle and the tragic conclusion of the episode may now be seen as the natural culmination of La Salle's life and the way he lived it: a true reflection of the man himself" (p. xvii). . . .

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