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Updated: June 2, 2025
"This river Miscousing on which we now are," returned Jolliet, "flows, as we see by our compass, to the southwestward. We know it is a branch of the great river. I am becoming convinced, Father, that the great river cannot discharge itself toward the east, as some have supposed."
One of the last but not the least of the explorations made under Talon's auspices was that which he entrusted to Louis Jolliet, and which resulted in the discovery of the upper Mississippi. Jolliet left Montreal in the autumn of 1672 and wintered at Michilimackinac, where he joined Father Marquette.
Here they were received rather coldly, as being rivals in the mission field and in exploration. They in their turn accused the Jesuits of thinking mainly, if not entirely, of the foundation of French colonies, and very little of evangelizing the natives. JOLLIET, a Canadian by birth, was dispatched by the Viceroy of Canada in 1672 to explore the far west.
Though they had large wigwams of bark, they wore no clothing, and hung beads from their pierced noses and ears. These Akamsea, or Arkansas Indians showed traits of the Aztecs under Spanish dominion; for what is now the state of Texas was then claimed by Spain. Marquette and Jolliet held a council. They were certain that the great river discharged itself into the Gulf of Mexico.
Vincennes, now a town of Indiana, was, after Kaskaskia, the oldest place in the west. This isolated post is said to have been founded by French soldiers and emigrants. Five thousand acres were devoted to the common field. De Vincennes, for whom it was named, was a nephew of Louis Jolliet.
"The Sieur Jolliet says it is not always that we may light a camp-fire," said Pierre Porteret to Jacques, as he struck a spark into his tinder with the flint and steel which a woodsman carried everywhere. "He is not likely to have one to-night, even in this safe cove," responded Jacques, kneeling to help, and anxious for supper.
In the summer of 1669 he accompanied two Sulpician priests, of Montreal, Dollier de Casson and Gallinée, on an expedition they made, under the authority of Governor Courcelles, to the extreme western end of Ontario, where he met Jolliet, apparently for the first time, and probably had many conversations with him respecting the west and south, and their unknown rivers.
Jolliet told the missionary de Casson of a great tribe in the far west, the Pottawatomies, who had asked for missionaries, and who were of Algonkin stock. La Salle, on the other hand, was determined to make for the rumoured Ohio River, which lay somewhere to the south-west of Lake Erie.
Marie, near the east end of Lake Superior; and here a representative of the French Government, accompanied by numerous missionaries and by Jolliet, read a proclamation of the sovereignty of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre. Below a tall cross was erected a great shield bearing the arms of France.
Three names stand out in bold letters on the records of western discovery: Jolliet, the enterprising trader, Marquette, the faithful missionary, and La Salle, the bold explorer. The story of their adventures takes up many pages in the histories of this fascinating epoch.
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