The following article is in today's Dallas Morning News Stanley LeBlanc www.thecajuns.com French sailor honored for historic role 318 years after death, seaman found in 1996 is laid to rest By PETE SLOVER / The Dallas Morning News AUSTIN - On a hillside at the Texas State Cemetery, an arthritic, middle-aged 17th-century seaman became something more Tuesday: a symbolic standard bearer for Franco-Texian solidarity. Dignitaries of France and Texas gathered to bury the remains of a seaman recovered from a French ship that sank in Matagorda Bay 318 years ago, projecting attributes on the deceased worthy of the formidable monument unveiled aside his grave. "All 22 million Texans are his children. Because his legacy is our legacy," Texas Secretary of State Geoff Connor - the state's top foreign protocol official - told a crowd of about 300 people. "He symbolizes all that is best about the human spirit: boldness." No less lofty was the verbiage from French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte, who traveled from Washington, D.C., for the ceremony. "As a French citizen, I'm deeply moved to see so many Texans present to pay tribute to an unknown French sailor who participated in the founding moments of Texas," he said. "Let me suggest a moment of silence in recognition of the courage and the determination of these people who crossed the ocean to explore the new world without knowing where they were going and what they were experiencing." He also used the occasion to recall the mutual wartime aid shared by France and Texas, as well as France's role as the first power to recognize the newly independent Texas as a nation in the 1830s. The sailor's remains were buried in a specially designed, argon-gas-filled box, donated by a local funeral home and intended to preserve the bones for possible future study. That vessel was sealed within a vault inscribed "C. Barange," the name by which the sailor is known (derived from markings on a pewter cup found near his body). His ship, La Belle, was the only one of four still along the Texas coast at the tail end of the ill-fated voyage of explorer Robert Cavelier Sieur De La Salle. La Belle sank in a 1686 storm, after its crew exhausted its fresh water supply waiting for LaSalle to return from an overland trip in search of the mouth of the Mississippi. Texas Historical Commission archeologists excavating the ship found the sailor's remains in 1996, and subsequent study suggested he had died of thirst after he crawled onto a resting place - a coil of rope in the hold. The bones revealed the dead sailor lived a life of heavy lifting, bad dental hygiene and at least one face-smashing brawl. No descendants have been found. The governments of Texas, the United States and France decided jointly on the state cemetery burial, an honor traditionally bestowed on elected officials and others who have contributed to the state's history. Arriving guests were greeted by dulcet, 16th-century French recorder tunes, played on period instruments. After introductions and tributes, a bilingual Roman Catholic priest in antique brocade vestments sprinkled holy water and offered burial rites in French and English.