Henri de Tonti (born Enrico Tonti; – September 1704) was an Italian-born French military officer and explorer who assisted René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle during the French colonization of the Americas from 1678 to 1686. Tonti was one of the first explorers to navigate and sail the upper Great Lakes. He also sailed the Illinois and the Mississippi, to its mouth and thereupon claimed the length of the Mississippi for Louis XIV of France. He is credited with founding the settlement that would become Peoria, Illinois. Tonti established the first permanent European settlement in the lower Mississippi valley, known as Poste de Arkansea, making him "The Father of Arkansas".
Early life and military service
Henri de Tonti was born in Gaeta, , to Lorenzo and Isabelle (née di Lietto) de Tonti.
In 1668 around the age of 18, Tonti decided to join the French military. On December 26 of the same year, Tonti and La Salle reached the Niagara. Tonti was left to supervise the construction of Fort Conti below Niagara Falls and the construction of the Griffon in early 1679 above the falls, which was to be the first ship to sail the Great Lakes.
In August 1679, Tonti arrived at Fort Michilimackinac, the crossroads for southwestern fur trade, to which he discovered some of La Salle's crew had fled and traded many livres worth of goods. After rounding up the deserters, Tonti sailed to the mouth of the St. Joseph and helped establish Fort Miami. Early in 1680. Tonti also helped build Fort de Crèvecoeur in Illinois, which La Salle left Tonti to hold while he returned to Ontario. While on his return trip up the Illinois, La Salle concluded that Starved Rock might provide an ideal location for another fortification and sent word downriver to Tonti regarding this idea.
Following La Salle's instructions, Tonti took five men and departed up the river to evaluate the suitability of the Starved Rock site. Shortly after Tonti's departure, on April 16, 1680, the seven members of the expedition who remained at Fort de Crèvecoeur ransacked and abandoned the fort and began their own march back to Canada. f> This opened up opportunity for Iroquois warriors to attack, stabbing Tonti and forcing his men to retreat to Baie-des-Puants in late 1680. Assuming they had made peace with the tribe, Tonti tried to convince the Natchez to relocate near their new fort, Fort St. Louis, to conduct trade with one another. La Salle departed for France in 1683 to gather colonists for a new Louisiana venture, leaving Tonti behind to hold Fort St. Louis. This new Fort St. Louis (also known as Fort Pimiteoui) later became the main trading post for the French.
In the summer of 1685 Jacques-René de Brisay, Marquis de Denonville replaced La Barre as the governor of New France. Denonville decided that war with Iroquois was inevitable, promising Illinois "every protection" as well as consultation from De Tonti on military excursions. Denonville made de Tonti's key role in this military campaign, execution.