Tonty, Henri de (1650–1704)

French explorer of America. Between 1683 and 1700, based mainly in Illinois, he was effectively commander of France's possessions and settlements in the Mississippi Valley. In 1678 he went with Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, to explore in North America. The American Indians called Tonty ‘Iron Hand’ because of a metal hand that replaced the right one lost fighting in France. He supervised the building of the Griffon, the first sailing vessel on the Great Lakes.

Tonty was probably born in Paris. He joined the French army at the age of 18. During his explorations he survived extreme deprivation – and a wound from an Indian raid – in the Illinois country (1680) and then went with La Salle to discover the mouth of the Mississippi River (1682). After 1700 he joined the French colony at New Orleans and died of yellow fever near present-day Mobile, Alabama.