Louis Jolliet
Louis Jolliet, also known
Louis Joliet (baptised
September 21,
1645 –
1700), was a
Canadian explorer born in
Quebec who is important for his discoveries in
North America. Joliet and
missionary Jacques Marquette were the first white men to map the
Mississippi River.
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Jolliet's signature |
The son of a wagon maker, Louis Joliet was baptised in
Quebec, Canada, on
September 21,
1645. He gave great promise of scholarship, especially in mathematics, in the [Jesuits]' school at Quebec, and received minor orders in
1663. But caught with the adventurous spirit of the times, he abandoned his studies in
1667 and became a rover in the Canadian wilderness and a trader with the
Indians. A fleeting glimpse is caught of Joliet searching for a copper mine on the borders of
Lake Superior, in
1669; and again in
1671, he is seen standing by the side of Saint-Lusson as he plants the arms of
France at
Sault Sainte Marie.
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Map of New France, showing the Mississippi River, by Louis Joliet, 1673-1674, from the Archives Nationales du Québec |
In
1672, upon the advice of the
intendant,
Jean Talon, Joliet was dispatched by
Governor Frontenac to explore the
grande riviére beyond the Lakes, which the Indians alleged flowed into the southern sea. In the order the French governor refers to Joliet as one "experienced in these kinds of discoveries and who had been already very near the river." In December of the same year, Joliet reached the
Straits of Mackinac, where, with Father
Jacques Marquette, he spent the winter and the early spring in questioning the Indians and preparing maps for the journey.
In May of the following year,
1673, the historic quest began. With five voyageurs and two canoes, Joliet and Marquette reached the
Fox River in June. A few leagues beyond, a short portage was found by which they reached the
Wisconsin River, down the tortuous course of which they glided until, on
June 17, the little party drifted into the waters of the great Mississippi. For a month they paddled southward, passing a great river from the west which the Indians assured them flowed into the Vermeille Sea—the
Gulf of California—and, near it, a little village whose inhabitants, they were told, traded with the Indians on the Pacific coast. Joliet descended the river to the intersection with the
Arkansas River (30° 40' N), christening rivers, plateaus, and elevations with Indian and French names which were destined to endure no longer than La Salle's great dream of the "Empire of New France."
Confident that the great river emptied into the
Gulf of Mexico, and having received reports of hostile tribes further downstream (and having noted Spanish trade goods among the natives), the explorers turned back north. The expedition returned, following a new course shown by the
Illiniwek taking the Mississippi up to the
Illinois River and portaging into the
Chicago River entering Lake Michigan at the future site of
Chicago, Illinois. They arrived at
Green Bay in September, after having paddled 2,500 miles. Here Marquette remained while Joliet hurried to Quebec, where he arrived the middle of August
1674 after having lost all his documents and maps by the upsetting of his canoe in the
Lachine Rapids. Whether or not Joliet was the first Frenchman to have gazed upon the Great River, the reports that he laid before the governor and his establishment of the fact that the Mississippi was a highway to the sea led to the immediate formation of plans on the part of Canadian merchants and officers for the settlement of the
Mississippi Valley, though Joliet's offer to plant a colony among the Illinois was refused by the French Government.
Shortly after his return, Joliet was married to Claire-Francoise Bissot. In
1680 he was granted the
Island of Anticosti, where he erected a fort, which was subsequently captured by the
English in
1690, upon which occasion his wife was taken prisoner. The restless spirit of the explorer persevered in Joliet to the end, for mention is made, within a few years of his death, of extensive wanderings in
Labrador. In
1693 he was appointed royal hydrographer, and, on
April 30,
1697, he was granted the seigniory of Joliet, south of Quebec. Louis Joliet died some time in the month of May,
1700, being lost on a trip to one of his land holdings. He was one of the first people of European descent born in North America to be remembered for significant discoveries.
The city of
Joliet, Illinois, in the
United States is named after him.
*
French colonization of the Americas*
New France*
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online*
Joliet's map of New France, 1674*
French Explorers*
2006 Expedition following Jolliet's journey down the Mississippi
