What happened to la salle and the karankawa?
During another search for the Mississippi River, his remaining 36 followers mutinied, near the site of modern Navasota, Texas. On March 19, 1687, La Salle was slain by Pierre Duhaut, one of four attacking him, “six leagues” from the westernmost village of the Hasinai (Tejas) Indians. The colony lasted only until 1688, when Karankawa-speaking Indians massacred the 20 remaining adults and took five children as captives. Tonti sent out search missions in 1689 when he learned of the expedition’s fate, but failed to reach a fort with survivors. The karankawa existed up until as late as the early 1800’s and were reputed to have had several encounters with Jean Laffite (the pirate). The Karankawa are all gone now. They disappeared sometime in the early 1800s. In 1840 only about 100 Karankawas were left. By 1850 they were gone. Scarcity of food and disease are often blamed for this.
