Originally settling near present-day Biloxi, Mississippi, Bienville and his explorers began looking for other locations to expand the French empire at the behest of King Louis XIV. Bienville selected this site for several reasons: it was on relatively high ground and along a sharp bend in the Mississippi River which created a natural levee (the Quinipissa Indians, recognizing this fact, once had a village here), it was at an Indian trading route and portage between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain via Bayou St. John (that trading route became the basis for parts of Esplanade and Bayou Road), and it offered control of the Mississippi River at a safe distance from English and Spanish settlements.