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Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac (; (:kadijak); March 5, 1658October 16, 1730), usually referred to as Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac (aka de la Motte), was a French explorer and adventurer in New France, an area of North America that stretched from present-day Eastern Canada in the north to Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico in the south. Rising from a modest beginning in Acadia in 1683 as an explorer, trapper, and a trader of alcohol and furs, he achieved various positions of political importance in the colony. He was the commander of Fort de Buade, modern-day St. Ignace, Michigan, in 1694. In 1701, he founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, the beginnings of modern Detroit, which he commanded until 1710. Between 1710 and 1716 he was the governor of Louisiana, although he did not arrive in that territory until 1713.〔Brasseaux, 2000〕 His knowledge of the coasts of New England and the Great Lakes area was appreciated by Frontenac, governor of New France, and Pontchartrain, Secretary of State for the Navy. This earned him various favors, including the Order of Saint Louis from King Louis XIV. The Jesuits in Canada, however, criticized his perceived perversion of the "Amerindians", North America's indigenous peoples, with his alcohol trading. La Mothe was imprisoned for a few months in Quebec in 1704, and again in the Bastille on his return to France in 1717.〔Brasseaux, 2000)〕 The city he helped found, Detroit, became the world center of automobile production in the 20th century. William H. Murphy and Henry M. Leland, founders of the Cadillac auto company, paid homage to him by using his name for their company and his armorial bearings as its logo in 1902. Various places bear his name in North America, in particular Cadillac Mountain, Maine, and the town of Cadillac, Michigan. He was widely hailed as a hero in the popular mind until the 1950s and rethinking of the colonial enterprise.〔Eccles, 1959〕 Since then Zoltvany finds, "he most definitely was not one of the 'great early heroes' and probably deserves to be ranked with the 'worst scoundrels ever to set foot in New France.'"〔Yves F. Zoltvany. "Laumet, dit de Lamothe Cadillac, Antoine," (''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online,'' vol 2 )〕 ==Early life== Cadillac was born Antoine Laumet on March 5, 1658, in the small town of Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Grave in the French Province of Gascony (today in the Tarn-et-Garonne département of the Midi-Pyrénées région).〔http://www.culture.gouv.fr/public/mistral/merimee_fr?ACTION=CHERCHER&FIELD_1=REF&VALUE_1=PA00095884〕 His father, Jean Laumet, was born in the village of Caumont-sur-Garonne. He became a lawyer in the Parliament of Toulouse. In 1652 Jean was appointed lieutenant to the judge of Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Grave by Cardinal Mazarin. He was appointed as a judge in 1664. Antoine's mother, Jeanne Péchagut, was the daughter of a merchant and landowner. They were Protestant – French Huguenots, and suffered some discrimination because of that. La Mothe's adult correspondence reveals that his youth included rigorous study at a Jesuit institution where he learned theology, the law, agriculture, botany and zoology.〔Brasseaux, 2000)〕 After his career in North America, he returned to France. In a record of service he filled out in 1675, he said that he had enlisted in the military as a cadet at the age of 17 in the Dampierre regiment, in Charleroi. Two years later in personal letters, however, he reported that he had been an officer in the Clérambault regiment in Thionville, and in 1682 he had joined the Albret regiment, in Thionville.〔Brasseaux, 2000)〕 At the age of 25, Antoine Laumet departed from France to the New World. His father lost a lawsuit against a lawyer in Castelsarrasin that caused him financial difficulties. In addition, he had lost financial support following the death of Cardinal Mazarin and suffered the current intolerance against Protestants. Laumet may have embarked on his voyage by devious means, as historians have not found his name on any passenger list of ships departing from a French port. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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