Leaders & Success
Louis Jolliet, The Mississippi River King
Louis Jolliet never had it easy.
Then again, he never expected anything to come easy in his tough life.
Jolliet's father was dead by the time Louis turned 6.
His mother remarried, and Jolliet attended a Jesuit seminary in the primitive settlements of New France, which later became the province of Quebec in Canada.
Realizing his talent in hunting and music, Jolliet (1645-1700) gave up plans for the priesthood, leaving the Jesuits to become a fur trader.
It was 1667. The rugged landscape and harsh climate of Jolliet's youth forced him to hone his skills as a trapper and trader.
He would achieve fame as one of the first two white men to traverse the Mississippi River, along with Jacques Marquette, a Catholic priest and missionary who sought to convert Indians to Christianity.
Jolliet was the first major explorer of European descent who was born in North America.
By the 1670s, the governor Comte de Frontenac of New France needed to confirm the Mississippi River's exact boundaries. No one knew if it flowed westward toward the Sea of California and on to China, or southward into Spanish territory and the Gulf of Mexico. This was a crucial geographic detail for French colonists and traders.
French settlers didn't even know the best passageway to reach the Great Water, the river's name then.
Jolliet had a strong background for the mission. When he got the assignment, he was a tough 27-year-old who knew native languages from growing up in French-Indian settlements in Quebec.
The Long Way
The Jolliet-Marquette expedition entailed a harrowing, 2,900-mile trip in birch bark canoes. The party made its way from the current U.S.-Canada border down to the mouth of the Arkansas River and back again. The adventure led through tangled regions of wilderness where only Indian tribes lived.
Jolliet and Marquette made a good team. Clad in his buckskins and fur hat, Jolliet provided the hunting and navigation skills. Marquette helped out by creating trust among Indians who respected the "Black Robes" of the priesthood.
In the winter of 1672-73, the explorers set up a staging ground on the current site of St. Ignace on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. They stayed at a Jesuit mission post near the confluence of the Great Lakes and other waterways that were the main modes of transportation.
The expedition spent a frigid winter there preparing maps and supplies of Indian corn and smoked meat for the trip. The men also gathered beads, needles and hatchets to bring along as gifts for Indians.
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