5858115 Expedition Encamped on a Texas Prairie, April 1686, 1847-48 (oil on canvas) by Catlin, George (1796-1872); 37.8x56.4 cm; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA; (add.info.: In a Texan prairie, killing and drying buffalo meat Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643-87) French explorer and fur trader in North America, best known for this expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico and claimed the whole river basin for Louis XIV and France.).