biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1650–1704)
|
| biography:
| Explorer, probably born in Paris, France. Evidently the son of the Neapolitan banker Lorenzo Tonti, he joined the French army at age 18, and in 1678 went with Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, to explore in North America. The Native Americans named Tonty Iron Hand because of a metal hand that replaced the right one lost fighting in France. He supervised building of the Griffon, the first sailing vessel on the Great Lakes. He survived extreme deprivation in the Illinois country and suffered a wound from an Indian raid (1680), then went with La Salle to discover the mouth of the Mississippi R (1682). During 1683–1700, based mainly in Illinois, he was effectively commander of France's possessions and settlements in the Mississippi Valley. After 1700 he joined the French colony at New Orleans, and died of yellow fever near present-day Mobile, AL. |
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