CELORON DE BIENVILLE, French explorer, born about 1715. He was sent, by the Marquis de la Galissoniere, governor of Canada, with subordinate officers, cadets, 20 soldiers, 180 Canadians, and 45 Cherokees and Abanakes, to take possession for France of the Ohio valley and prevent the English Ohio company from acquiring it by right of prior settlement. The expedition left Lachine on 15 June, 1749, ascended the St. Lawrence, crossed Lake Ontario, reached Niagara on 6 July, sailed along the south shore of Lake Erie, marched to the head-waters of the Allegheny, and ascended that River and the Ohio. Finding English traders at different points, C51oron warned them to withdraw, and wrote to the governor of Pennsylvania, claiming the country as a French possession, in accordance with the preliminaries of peace signed six months before. They buried in different places six leaden tablets, with inscriptions recording the formal occupation in the name of the French king. They descended the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Miami, and thence crossed by land to Lake Erie, and reached Fort Niagara on 19 October, 1749.