Customer Reviews

Old Mobile: Fort Louis de la Louisiane, 1702-1711 (Library Alabama Classics)

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This comprehensive work is certainly not light reading, but it offers a degree of detail about the history of Mobile that is unavailable in other histories of the area. The author is careful to cite original documents, where available, to verify the information. The reader is reassured of the authoratative nature of the work. It is particularly helpful in substantiating information in less extensive narratives.

Scholarly and well documented but at the same time most readable. I had borrowed a copy of the book before I purchased it from Amazon so I knew what I was getting. Now that I have the book in hand, I am most pleased to have purchased it. One of the things that makes this book so interesting to me is that I live near Natchitoches, Louisiana. Natchitoches was founded in 1714 and is the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase Territory. My wife's grandfather, Francois Derbanne was under commission from King Louis XV of France as the "Keeper of the King's Storehouse and Paymaster to the Militia". The Fort St. Jean Baptiste, 1716, was where he was posted with Louis Juchereau de St Denis the Founder of Natchitoches. They had come from Mobile on a trade mission to Natchitoches. The book helped me to understand that Mobile was to French Louisiana what Jamestown was to the English colonies. There is also a fascinating account of Derbanne being captured by pirates falsely flying the flag of France. Jay Higginboth writes history that reads like a novel. He did his research well and has a full bibliography. I highly recommend this book.