Louis Jolliet

Colonial Canadian explorer

  • Born: September 21, 1645
  • Birthplace: Probably in Beaupré, near Quebec, New France (now in Canada)
  • Died: May 1, 1700
  • Place of death: Quebec Province, New France (now in Canada)

Along with Father Jacques Marquette, Jolliet led an expedition to determine the course of the Mississippi River, descending to the mouth of the Arkansas River before being certain that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico. The journey paved the way for later French exploration of the area.

Early Life

Louis Jolliet (lwee zhawl-yeh) was born in New France ten years after the death of Samuel de Champlain , the founder of the colony, and was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church near the city of Quebec on September 21, 1645. When he was six years old, his father, a wheelwright and wagon maker, died. Jolliet was educated for the priesthood in a Jesuit seminary in Quebec and received minor orders as a Roman Catholic priest. He was also a music master at the seminary and the organist in the cathedral. In 1666, he presented a master of arts thesis in philosophy. He was proficient in logic, metaphysics, and mathematics. He also studied briefly in France. By 1667, Jolliet was well qualified for a career in the service of his church, but he had shown no transcendent quality of character that would inspire such service.

By 1668, Jolliet had left the Jesuit seminary and abandoned the life of a priest for that of a trapper, fur trader, and explorer. In 1669, after his brother Lucien had disappeared, Jolliet led an unsuccessful French expedition to find copper along the shore of Lake Superior and then from Lake Huron south to Lake Erie. He became friends with Native Americans in the region and learned much about the area. Jolliet also met missionaries, including Jesuit father Jacques Marquette , who in 1671 founded the Saint Ignace Mission on Mackinac Island between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. In 1670, Jolliet joined French explorer Simon François Daumont, sieur de Saint Lusson, on another Great Lakes copper-finding mission. At Sault Sainte Marie, between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, Saint Lusson, in the presence of a large number of Native Americans, claimed all land from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico and from Labrador on the Atlantic Ocean west to the Salt Sea (Pacific Ocean) in the name of French monarch Louis XIV.

Life’s Work

Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto had first discovered the lower Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee, in 1541, but the Spanish were looking for gold and did not recognize the significance of de Soto’s discovery. French exploration of the upper Mississippi Valley began with Jean Nicolet in 1634. The French were interested in the possibility that the river might flow to the Pacific Ocean and thus provide a route to the Far East. Nicolet reached Green Bay on the west side of Lake Michigan and learned much about the river from Native American tribes such as the Winnebagos, Potawatomis, and Mascoutens.

In 1669, Father Claude-Jean Allouez founded the Mission of Saint Francis Xavier on Green Bay. He was the first Frenchman to record the name Messipi (father of waters), which the Chippawas had given to the Mississippi River. Father Allouez and Father Claude Dablon, a trained geographer, ascended the Fox River and portaged to the Wisconsin River. Although they never reached the Mississippi, they did initiate the route later followed by Jolliet and Father Marquette.

In April, 1672, Louis de Buade, comte de Frontenac, became governor of New France. He soon endorsed a plan by Jean-Baptiste Talon, the intendant of New France, to send Jolliet on an expedition to explore the Mississippi River. Jolliet quickly agreed to go, even though the government of the colony had no funds to finance his trip and he had to buy his own supplies. In December of that year, Jolliet was on Mackinac Island delivering orders for Father Marquette from his Jesuit superior, Father Dahlon, to join the expedition.

On May 17, 1673, Jolliet, Marquette, and five French woodsmen left Mackinac Island in two birch-bark canoes. Their food supplies consisted primarily of dried corn and smoked buffalo meat. The first Native Americans encountered were the Folles-Avoines, who were already known to Father Marquette. Although friendly, they warned of the dangers ahead: hostile tribes who killed all intruders, monsters in the Great River that devoured both persons and canoes, and heat so great that it would surely cause death. The Frenchmen thanked them for their warnings but declined to heed them. A few days later, they entered Green Bay.

During the first week in June, the Frenchmen ascended the Fox River. The most difficult part of this phase of their journey was having to carry their canoes past the rapids and into Lake Winnebago, a natural lake on the Fox. On June 7, they arrived in the land of the Mascoutens, who agreed to send two guides to lead them toward the big river. On June 10, the day they resumed their journey, they portaged two and one-half miles to the Wisconsin River. This route was made up of small lakes and swamps so confusing that Marquette gave full credit for the successful crossing to the Mascouten guides, who even carried the two canoes.

After putting the canoes into the Wisconsin, the Mascouten guides turned back, having gone as far as their knowledge could take them. Jolliet and Marquette were now entering a world unknown to other Frenchmen and the Native American tribes they knew. The descent of the Wisconsin was difficult at times because of sandbars and small islands. Marquette named this river “Mesconsing,” later changed to “Ouisconsin” and finally anglicized to “Wisconsin.” To the mild surprise of the Frenchmen, they saw no Native Americans along the Wisconsin, although hidden eyes no doubt watched them from the shore. This journey reached its climax near the end of the day on June 17, when the expedition members saw the big river, the goal of Frenchmen since Nicolet. Exactly one month after leaving Mackinac, they floated into the peaceful waters of the upper Mississippi River near the site of the modern town of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.

The first sign of human occupancy along the Mississippi, a little path on the west side, was spotted on June 25. The expedition followed the path to a village of the Illinois on the bank of the Des Moines River in present-day Iowa. The Illinois had heard of the French and gave them a warm welcome. The Iroquois from the east, who were allies of the British, had been raiding Illinois towns. The Illinois were hoping for an alliance with the French to stop the Iroquois raids. Jolliet and Marquette were escorted back to their canoes by about six hundred Illinois. They were also given a calumet, a feathered pipe of peace, for protection from more hostile tribes farther south. They soon passed the mouth of the Illinois River on the east side of the Mississippi River. This discovery would facilitate their return trip.

Farther down the river, near the mouth of the Missouri River, Jolliet and Marquette saw the monsters described by the Folles-Avoines painted on high rocks above the east bank of the river. The waters of the Missouri, entering the Mississippi from the west, brought mud, tree limbs, and great turbulence that polluted the peaceful blue waters the travelers had enjoyed to this point. After passing the mouth of the Ohio River on the east, along the present Illinois-Kentucky state line, they came to the mouth of the Arkansas River from the west. Here they found the Quapaw and indications that their southern journey was about to end.

At this point, the Frenchmen faced their first threat of violence from Native Americans. Only when Quapaw elders recognized the Illinois calumet being waved by Jolliet from his canoe were young Quapaw braves prevented from capsizing the canoes and massacring the inhabitants. From the Quapaw, Jolliet and Marquette confirmed what they already suspected, that the Mississippi flowed south to the Gulf of Mexico rather than to the Pacific Ocean. They also heard about Spanish activity to the south and realized they were in danger of being captured or killed, which would mean that France would not reap the benefit of their discoveries. Assured about the course of the Mississippi, the hard decision was made to turn around and return to New France.

For the return trip beginning on July 17, Jolliet and Marquette chose a route up the Illinois River, a portage to the Chicago River into Lake Michigan, and back to Green Bay, arriving in late September. The journey of about twenty-five hundred miles had taken four months.

Jolliet remained at Green Bay, compiling his notes and drawing a map of the Mississippi River, until the spring of 1674, when he returned to give his report to Frontenac in Montreal. In his ascent of the Saint Lawrence River, he tried to hasten his journey by shooting the Lachine Rapids. His canoe capsized, a slave boy given to him by the Illinois drowned, the box containing his reports and map was lost, and Jolliet was barely rescued by two fishermen. Despite the loss of his papers, Jolliet was warmly welcomed by the governor and was able to reproduce most of his report and map from memory.

Jolliet was denied permission to establish a trading post among the Native Americans along the Mississippi River. Instead, he became involved in the fur trade on the lower Saint Lawrence River, on the coast of Labrador, and on Hudson Bay. In 1694, Jolliet led the expedition that charted the coast of Labrador. In 1697, he was appointed royal hydrographer for New France and mapped the sea approaches to the Saint Lawrence. Jolliet died near Quebec in May, 1700.

Significance

Jolliet, along with Father Jacques Marquette, traveled uncharted waters, making maps and writing journals, on a journey in search of the Mississippi River. They not only found the river but also traveled down it to the mouth of the Arkansas River, establishing that the river flowed not to the Pacific Ocean but to the Gulf of Mexico and paving the way for future French explorers.

The name of the river explored by Jolliet and Marquette was a topic of debate for several years. The Spanish had named it River of the Holy Spirit. Marquette called it Conception River in honor of the Virgin Mary. Jolliet preferred Buade, the family name of Frontenac. In the end, no more fitting name could be found than the Chippewa’s name for the river, “Messipi,” meaning “father of waters.”

The loss of Jolliet’s records in the Lachine Rapids denied him much-deserved recognition for his voyage. The narrative kept by Father Marquette, which emphasized more the missionary potential of their discoveries, became the standard reference. This narrative can be found in History and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley by J. G. Shea. The expedition of René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle , down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico in 1682 was greatly facilitated because of the journey of Jolliet and Marquette. However, historical evaluation and significance soon elevated the latter expedition over the former.

Bibliography

Balesi, Charles John. The Time of the French in the Heart of North America, 1673-1818. Chicago: Alliance Française Chicago, 1992. The book focuses on French settlements in Illinois and Wisconsin, providing information on Jolliet’s exploration in these states.

Caruso, John Anthony. The Mississippi Valley Frontier. Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966. Chapter 10 provides full coverage of the journey of Jolliet and Marquette as well as the background and results of their work. Includes good descriptions of the Native American tribes throughout the Mississippi Valley.

Fiske, John. New France and New England. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1902. Reprint. Washington, D.C.: Ross and Perry, 2002. This book covers the expeditions of trailblazers such as France’s Jacques Cartier and Italy’s Giovanni da Verrazano, Jolliet and Marquette’s mission, and other topics dealing with the region up to the end of the French and Indian War in 1763.

Hartsough, Mildred. From Canoe to Steel Barge on the Upper Mississippi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1934. Good coverage of Jolliet and Marquette; puts the emphasis on Marquette and his missionary goals. Discusses the results of the journey, both religious and economic, and future uses of the Mississippi River.

Ogg, Frederic Austin. The Opening of the Mississippi: A Struggle for Supremacy in the American Interior. New York: Macmillan, 1904. Reprint. New York: Greenwood Press, 1969. Discusses the importance of the Mississippi Valley to American development. Covers Spanish and French discoveries, including those of Jolliet and Marquette, and the subsequent struggle between France and Great Britain for control of the valley. Has several good maps.

Parkman, Francis. France and England in North America. Edited by David Levin. Vol. 2. New York: Viking Press, 1983. In 1856, Parkman published his seven-part history of North America. Part 5, Count Frontenac and New France Under Louis XIV, is included in the second volume of this revised edition published in 1983. The book recounts historical developments in New France during the period when Jolliet and Marquette explored the Mississippi River Valley.

Severin, Timothy. Explorers of the Mississippi. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968. Includes a good description of the Mississippi River from its source to its mouth. Covers de Soto’s discovery. Chapter 4 provides full coverage of the journey of Jolliet and Marquette. Also includes a summary of the latter years of Jolliet’s life.