Cask for Lead Shot from La Belle

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He might not have established a French colony here, but La Salle came to Texas well-armed. Among the many artifacts excavated from La Belle in 1996 were caches of muskets, lead shot, cannonballs, and other armaments. This wooden cask filled with ammunition for muskets or flintlock pistols was one of many discovered in the ship's hold. La Belle's wreckage was discovered in Matagorda Bay, just northeast of Corpus Christi, and was one of four ships that René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, sailed to North America on his ill-fated 1684 mission to establish a French settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi River.