III.	MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST DIVISION — 90 Miles.
The seat Of the first colonizing efforts of tho French; and the first capital of Louisiana. Later both Spanish and English controlled the territory. Seat today of summer and winter colonies seeking the pleasures of the Gulf end the beauties of its shores.
IV.	LOUISIANA DIVISION — 350 Miles.
For 900 years the Sp nish sailed the Gulf of Mexico and held it as a Spanish lake. Argosies laden with gold sailed over it and filled the years with romance and adventure. Expeditions sought new sources of riches but the Spaniard passed by the empire the Mississippi River embraced.	Do Soto discovered and crossed/inTghty Father of
Voters and while dying begged his followers to subject it to the flag of Spain. But the perishing remnants of that expedition struggled down the Mississippi River seeking safety and left to LaSalle, the French Canadian from Quebec, 140 years later, the distinction of claiming the vast territory the Spanish might have commanded had they followed up the River from tho Gulf. £n 1699, 17 years after LaSalle, a French fleet entered the Gulf and colonized Louisiana. Later the Louisiana of the French was subjected to the standards of Spain and the Castilian period of Hew Orleans has left its impress for all tima After the American Revolution France again controlled and Louisiana was finally sold to the United States by Napoleon. The Mississippi Rivor was the doorway for all the midland country and in the restless struggle of races and of men to possess the V/est, New Orleans became the crucible where the burning passions of life and ambition were fused into a racial type different from anything in America.