Career
In 1719 Dumont sailed from La Rochelle, France to Louisiana, with a new commission as a lieutenant and engineering officer.[5] At this time interest and investment in the colony was strong, due to the financial schemes of John Law and the Mississippi Company. Dumont was assigned to a unit of soldiers sent to develop the land grants or concessions owned by a group of rich Frenchmen including Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, duc de Belle-Isle, an important patron and protector of Dumont's throughout his life. But in 1720 Law's financial bubble collapsed and most investors stopped sending supplies to their concessions. As Dumont and hundreds of others lived in camps near Biloxi, Mississippi, they ran short of food and boats to transport them to concessions.[2]
For nearly 18 years in the Louisiana colony, Dumont was assigned to forts at Yazoo and Natchez, participated in a 1722 exploration of the Arkansas River with Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe, and helped establish a concession at Pascagoula, Mississippi. He also quarreled with his superior officers, including the colonial governor, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, which led to brief periods of imprisonment.
