# Atlantic crossings to the German Coast and Habitation Haydel  
French colonization of Louisiana started in May 1699 when Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville established the colony of Biloxi on the Gulf Coast. The colony was very slow to develop because the colonists had to deal with an unfamiliar environment, diseases, a lack of food and attacks by the Native Americans. When the colony was ceded to John Law's Compagnie d'Occident (Company of the West) in 1717, the French population of Louisiana consisted of only four hundred men, women and children (Hall, 1992, p. 5). Finding French volunteers was a real challenge and thousands of German farmers were recruited by the Company to set up farms in the wilderness of Louisiana. In 1719, the Compagnie d'Occident was reorganized to become the Compagnie perpétuelle des Indes (Perpetual Company of the Indies) and its domain was extended to French trade in Asia. The previous year, the Company had gained control of the Concession of Senegal and had established its headquarters on the islands of Saint-Louis and Gorée. In theory, this created a monopoly on the West African coastal trade from Cap Blanc, Mauritania, to Sierra Leone  
(Delcourt, 1952, p. 65). The decision was made to develop the remote colony of Louisiana by importing captives mainly from this area. The Aurore, the first slave ship to arrive in Louisiana from Africa, left Saint-Malo in July 1718 and was soon followed by the Duc du Maine.