Jolliet, Louis and Marquette, Jacques
Louis Jolliet
1645
Beauport, Canada
1700
Quebec, Canada
Explorer
Jacques Marquette
June 1, 1637
Laon, France
May 18, 1675
on Illinois River
Jesuit missionary
French-Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary, were the first Europeans to travel down the Mississippi River. Beginning their voyage in 1673, the two explorers traveled from New France (now Quebec) in French North America (now Canada), down the Mississippi to a point just north of the present border between Arkansas and Louisiana. Marquette became ill and could not continue the return trip. He died two years later, but his journal provided a valuable record of the expedition. Jolliet went on to explore the Hudson Bay in 1679, as well as the coast of Labrador (a peninsula between Newfoundland and Quebec) in 1689 and 1694. Engaged in trade with Native American groups he issued warnings about English traders that foreshadowed eighteenth-century conflicts between England and France.
Enters Fur Trade
Louis Jolliet was born in the town of Beauport, in the colony of New France in 1645. He was the son of a craftsman who died while Jolliet was still a child. His mother was widowed twice before she married Jolliet's father.
This page contains 201 words.
Jolliet, Louis and Marquette, Jacques article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 2,103 words
(approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our Jacques Marquette Article
