IBERVILLE, PIERRE LE MOYNE, SIEUR D' (1661 1706), French-Canadian soldier and colonizer of Louisiana, was born in Montreal, Canada, on July 16, 1661. He was one of eleven sons of Charles Le Moyne, all of whom performed dis tinguished service in the extension of the French empire in America. The elder son, Charles Le Moyne, Baron de Longueuil, later became governor of Canada. A younger son, Jean Baptiste Sieur d'Bienville, became Iberville's lieutenant in founding the Louisiana colony, and later first governor of that province. At the age of 14 d'Iberville was appointed midshipman in the French navy and sent to France. After four years service on French ships he returned to Canada. In 1686 he led a detachment on the over land expedition under De Troyes against the English forts on Hud son bay and aided in the reduction of forts Monsipi, Rupert and Kitchichouame (later Fort Albany), also with the aid of his brothers capturing two English vessels. He was left in command of the forts, 1686-89, and in 1688 succeeded in taking two more English ships. In 1690 he was a leader of the French expedition against Schenectady, but before the end of the year returned to Hudson bay to recapture Fort Albany which had relapsed into English control. In 1694 he led a land expedition which captured Ft. Nelson, on Hudson bay. During the winter of 1696-97 he captured Fort Pemaquid and ravaged the English settlements on the coast of Newfoundland. In 1697, in command of a frigate, he again entered Hudson bay and defeated three superior English vessels in a desperate engagement. Afterwards he again took Fort Nelson which the English had recaptured. After the Peace of Ryswick d'Iberville was called to France and commissioned by the marine minister, Pontchartrain, to found a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi. He left Brest in Oct. 1698 with four vessels and 200 colonists and reached Mobile bay in Jan. Here the colonists were left while d'Iberville and a number of men searched the coast for the Mississippi, which was entered at the delta and ascended probably to the mouth of the Red river. No favourable site for a colony was found along the river, and, it being late, d'Iberville built Ft. Maurepas on the present site of Biloxi, Miss., and there left his colonists. This was the first permanent French settlement on the Gulf coast.
Returning the next year, d'Iberville built a post on the Missis sippi river dear New Orleans and explored much of the lower valleys of the Red and Mississippi rivers. Returning a third time in 1701, he found his colony badly reduced by disease and trans ferred most of the colonists to Mobile. He returned for addi tional colonists, but France was again at war, and d'Iberville was retained for naval service. He was given command of the West Indian fleet, and in 1706 invaded the islands of Nevis and St.
Christopher forcing them to surrender and capturing 3o ships and 175o men. While outfitting at Havana for an expedition against the Carolinas, he fell ill with fever and died July 9, 1706. D'Iberville's journal is found in B. F. French, Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, and series (1875). See also H. Gravier, L'Oeuvre de d'Iberville a la Louisiane (1899) ; C. B. Reed, The First Great Canadian (19io).