La SalleRené-Robert Cavelier, or Sieur de La Salle, grew up in France dreaming of adventures in distant lands. When he travelled to New France as a Jesuit missionary in the middle of the 1600s, he could not wait to have a New World adventure. La Salle led several expeditions in search of gold and a waterway to China. He made some new friends and experienced many failures and successes along the way.