The Niagara River, with its mighty falls and rapids, was long known by Native Americans before its majesty drew European explorers, soldiers, traders, and other visitors in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1615, Etienne Brule may have been the first European to view the Falls and gorge. In 1678, La Salle passed through on his way to survey the Great Lakes, and Louis Hennepin, who traveled with him, later published the first engraving of Niagara Falls in his book Nouvelle Decouverte. By 1720, Chabert Joncaire had established a trading post at the lower portage landing at the foot of the gorge and likely guided many early visitors to the Falls. In 1750, French soldiers stationed at Fort Niagara at the mouth of the Niagara River could visit the Falls regularly, and two French officers escorted the Swedish botanist and agriculturalist Peter Kalm there. After the English captured Fort Niagara in 1759, they too had access to the Falls, and General Sir William Johnson, Colonel Frederick Haldimand, Reverend John Ogilvie, and several other officers were escorted by three companies of light infantry to see them. In 1760, Thomas Davies, serving on a survey for Major General Jeffery Amherst, created "An East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara," one of the first illustrations of the Falls; as a British artilleryman and officer during the French and Indian War, he also illustrated many other scenes, reflecting the army's use of artists to document places and events.