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Louis Jolliet (1645-1700)

Louis Joliet, a discoverer and the son of a wagon-maker, was born at Québe c, Canada, on 21 September 1645; d. in Canada, May 1700. He gave great pro mise of scholarship, especially in mathematics, in the Jesuits' <http://ww w.newadvent.org/cathen/14081a.htm> school at Québec, and received minor or ders in 1663. But caught with the adventure spirit of the times, he ear ly abandoned his studies and became a rover in the Canadian wilderness a nd a trader with the Indians. A fleeting glimpse is caught of Joliet searc hing for a copper mine on the borders of Lake Superior, in 1669; and aga in in 1671, he is seen standing by the side of Saint-Lusson as he plants t he arms of France at Sault Sainte Marie. In 1672, upon the advice of the i ntendant, Talon, Joliet was dispatched by Governor Frontenac to explore t he grande rivi&eGrave;re beyond the Lakes, which the Indians alleged flow ed into the southern sea. In the order the French governor refers to Joli et as one "experienced in these kinds of discoveries and who had been alre ady very near the river". In December of the same year Joliet reached t he Straits of Mackinaw, where, with P&eGrave;re Marquette, he spent the wi nter and the early spring in questioning the Indians and preparing maps f or the journey.
In May of the following year, 1673, the historic queSt began. With five vo yageurs and two canoes, Joliet and Marquette in June reached the Fox Rive r. A few leagues beyond, a short portage was found by which they reached t he Wisconsin, down the tortuous course of which they glided until, on 17 J une, the little party drifted into the waters of the great Mississippi. F or a month the paddled Southward, passing a great river from the weSt whi ch the Indians assured them flowed into the Vermeille Sea -- the Gulf of C alifornia -- and, near it, a little village whose inhabitants, they were t old, traded with the Indians on the Pacific coaSt Joliet descended the riv er to 30° 40', christening rivers, plateaus, and elevations with Indian a nd French names which were destined to endure no longer than La Salle's gr eat dream of the "Empire of New France."
Having established beyond doubt the important fact that the great river em ptied into the Gulf of Mexico, the expedition returned, arriving at Gre en Bay in September, after having paddled 2500 miles. Here Marquette remai ned while Joliet hurried to Québec, where he arrived the middle of Augus t, 1674, after having loSt all his documents and maps by the upsetti ng 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 be fore the governor and his establishment of the fact that the Mississippi w as a highway to the sea led to the immediate formation of plans on the pa rt of Canadian merchants and officers for the settlement of the Mississip pi Valley, though Joliet's offer to plant a colony among the Illinois w as refused by the French Government. Shortly after his return Joliet was m arried to Claire-Francoise Bissot. In 1680 he was granted the Island of An ticosti, where he erected a fort, which was subsequently captured by the E nglish in 1690, upon which occasion his wife was taken prisoner. The restl ess spirit of the explorer persevered in Joliet to the end, for menti on is made, within a few years of his death, of extensive wanderings in La brador. In 1693 he was appointed royal hydrographer, and, on 30 April, 169 7, he was granted the seigniory of Joliet, south of Québec, which is sti ll in the possession of his descendants. He died in Canada in May, 1700, o ne of the firSt native Americans to have achieved historical distinction.

JOLLIET, LOUIS, explorer, discoverer of the Mississippi, cartographer, kin g's hydrographer, teacher at the Jesuit college at Quebec, organist, busin ess man, and seigneur; baptized 21 Sept. 1645 at Quebec, son of Jean Jolly et, a wheelwright in the service of the Compagnie des Cent-Associés, a nd of Marie d'Abancourt; d. 1700 in New France.

Can the historian fail to deplore the ill luck that seems to have do gged the personal papers of Louis Jolliet and the documents concerning hi m? Various mishaps and regrettable omissions have as it were wantonly cont rived to set up zones of silence and obscurity in the career of this gre at Canadian. The trouble begins even with his birth, of which we know neit her the place nor the date. Was he born at Quebec, on the Beaupré sho re or in one of the adjoining seigneuries, territories which in 1645 all c ame within the boundaries of the parish church of Quebec where he was bapt ized? The certificate of baptism dated 21 Sept. 1645 gives no precise deta ils on the place, any more than on the date of birth of this child "rece ns natum."

Louis Jolliet was only five and a half when he loSt his father, 23 A pril 1651. His mother married again on 19 October; her second husband w as Gefroy Guillot, who was drowned in the St Lawrence in the summer of 165 5. On 8 Nov. 1665 Marie d'Abancourt was married a third time, to Martin Pr évost.

Around the age of 11, Jolliet entered the college of the Jesui ts at Quebec, where he did his classical studies. Intending to enter the p riesthood, he took the minor orders, 19 Aug. 1662. At that time Jolliet w as already becoming interested in music, and he shared with Germain Mori n* the title of music officer in the college. As firSt organiSt of the cat hedral of Quebec, he apparently played the organ from 1664; a docume nt of 1700 states that he "played on the organ" there for "many years."

In 1666, Jolliet - whom the census of that year styles a "cleri c" - was finishing his philosophical studies. On 2 July, together with Pie rre Francheville*, he defended a "thesis in philosophy." Bishop Laval*, M M. Prouville de Tracy, Rémy de Courcelle, and Talon were present. "Monsie ur the Intendant, among others, made a strong argument," noted the Journ al des Jésuites; "Monsieur Joliet and Pierre Francheville replied very wel l, upon the whole subject of logic." This "disputation," as was the custo m, muSt have been conducted in Latin, a language that Jolliet knew wel l; he would have recourse to it in 1679 in Hudson Bay.

No longer feeling drawn towards a priestly vocation, Jolliet left t he seminary around the month of July 1667. In October, thanks to a s um of 587 livres lent by Bishop Laval, he embarked for France. We do not k now the object of this voyage, during which he stayed in Paris and at La R ochelle, dividing his time about equally between the two cities. He muSt h ave devoted some thought, however, to the direction that he would hencefor th give to his life. When he returned to Quebec his mind was made u p: on 9 Oct. 1668 he bought from Charles Aubert* de La Chesnaye a consider able stock of goods for fur-trading. Jolliet would be a fur-trader! B ut in this vaSt country of New France, with its inviting rivers and rea dy mirages, one temptation awaited fur-traders and travellers: exploratio n. Would the erstwhile "cleric" succumb to it?

Although having a rich supply of merchandise, Jolliet apparently d id not leave for the WeSt in the autumn of 1668. He was certainly at Queb ec on 14 October, and perhaps at Cap-de-la-Madeleine on 9 November, whi ch were very late dates for undertaking such a journey; his presence is fu rther vouched for at Quebec, 13 April 1669, too early for him to be alrea dy back from the Great Lakes, unless one assumes that he returned before t he melting of the snows and the break-up of the ice. But it is difficu lt to concede that an inexperienced traveller like Jolliet would have plun ged into an adventure dreaded by the moSt hardened and by the moSt courage ous coureurs de bois. It is more likely that he spent the winter at Quebe c. How then did he dispose of his fur trading goods? Did he keep them f or a journey that he may have made in 1669-70? It is not impossible, altho ugh we possess no indication of it. In 1669, it is true, a "sieur Jollie t" set off with Jean Peré, in search of a copper mine on Lake Superior, b ut it has been possible to demonstrate that this is a reference to Adrie n, Louis's brother. In short, it muSt be admitted that with the excepti on of his presence at Quebec 13 April 1669, nothing is known of Louis Joll iet from the autumn of 1668 to the summer of 1670.

On 4 June 1671, at the Sainte-Marie falls (Sault Ste. Marie), some F renchmen "who were fur-trading in the locality" signed the document where by Daumont de Saint-Lusson took possession of the territories of the WeSt  Louis Jolliet was one of the number. He had probably left Quebec in the au tumn of 1670; on 12 Sept. 1671 he was back. We do not know how he was enga ged during the year that preceded his departure for the Mississippi, b ut it is certain that he did not go back to the West.

The Mississippi! The mysterious river that for nearly 15 years haunt ed the imagination of missionaries and explorers. In 1660 and 1662, on t he assurance of the Indians, the Relation reported the existence towards t he weSt of a "beautiful River, large, wide, deep, and worthy of comparis on . . . with our great river St Lawrence." This river, which was thoug ht to flow into the Gulf of Mexico, or, in the direction of California, in to the "mer Vermeille" (Gulf of California), was not perhaps the Mississip pi, the name of which will moreover appear (in the form "Messipi") on ly in 1667; but at least, the missionaries' investigations concerning th is waterway did lead them to a knowledge of the Mississippi. In 1670, wi th only the information supplied by the Indians, the Jesuit Dablon manag ed to give a good description of it. The following year the Sulpicians Dol lier* de Casson and Bréhant de Galinée became in their turn interest ed in the river that they named Ohio or Mississippi ("Ohio," in the Iroquo is language, and "Mississippi," in the Ottawa language, both mean "beautif ul river," belle rivière). Thus, before any white man in New France had se en it, and although inevitably some confused ideas existed about it, the M ississippi was in 1672 relatively well known by the missionaries, who h ad acquired certain fairly precise notions regarding it from their contac ts with the native populations of the Great Lakes. Its mouth still remaine d, however, a disquieting and undiscovered secret: might this riv er be at laSt the coveted waterway to the China Sea, the insubstantial stu ff of the eternally disappointed dreams and quests of so many explorers?

Talon himself had not escaped the general obsession. In 1670, for ex ample, he had instructed Daumont de Saint-Lusson to "seek out careful ly . . . some communication" with the Southern Sea. The intendant had cert ainly heard of the Mississippi by then; but the additional information sup plied during 1671 by Saint-Lusson and by the Relation of 1669-70 kindl ed a new hope in him. He resolved to send someone "to discover the Southe rn Sea, by way of the country of the Mashoutins [Mascoutens], a nd to go to the great river that they call Michissipi and that is thoug ht to empty into the Sea of California." For this ambitious scheme, Tal on chose Louis Jolliet; shortly before sailing for France, in 1672, he sug gested his candidate to Frontenac [see Buade], who accepted him. The missi on entrusted to Jolliet was not so much to discover the Mississip pi as to ascertain into what sea, the Gulf of Mexico or the "mer Vermeille ," this "beautiful river" flowed. Here was the riddle to be solved.

For the moment, the explorer was facing other problems. Talon had wa rned him that the state would not subsidize his expedition, any more th an it had done for Saint-Lusson in 1670. To acquire funds, Jolliet form ed a commercial society, the revenues of which would serve especially to m eet the coSt of his voyage of discovery. On 1 Oct. 1672 François de Chavig ny* de La Chevrotière, Zacharie Jolliet, Jean Plattier, Pierre Moreau, Jac ques Largillier*, Jean Thiberge (Téberge), and Louis Jolliet agreed, befo re Gilles Rageot, to "make together the journey to the Ottawa Indians, [a nd to] trade in furs with the Indians as advantageously [as possible] ." On 3 October the partners attended to the laSt details of their prepara tions and settled certain matters with the notary Rageot. They probably le ft Quebec the next day, two days after the appointed date.

On 6 Dec. 1672 Jolliet arrived at Michilimackinac. There he deliver ed to Father Jacques Marquette a letter from Claude Dablon, the superi or of the Jesuits in New France, ordering the missionary to join the exped ition to the Southern Sea. In 1670 Marquette had been about to proceed v ia the Mississippi to the country of the Illinois, but the sudden worseni ng of relations between the Hurons, Ottawas, and Sioux had obliged h im to cancel his plan. It was with enthusiasm and gratitude that he agre ed to accompany Jolliet and to "seek . . . new nations that are unkno wn to us, to teach them to know our great God." If Jolliet, the official e nvoy of the state, represented the economic and political aims of New Fran ce, Marquette represented its religious aspirations. Thus can be seen, fel icitously combined in the 1673 expedition, the two great forces that launc hed the astonishing territorial expansion of the colony: the dictates of t rade and the zeal for evangelism.

Did Jolliet spend the winter of 1672-73 at the Sainte-Marie falls, b usy with his fur-trading, as it has been claimed? More probably he stay ed at the Saint-Ignace mission at Michilimackinac, together with Marquett e. On the one hand, he had to interrogate the Indians closely about the Mi ssissippi and the peoples along its banks: Michilimackinac was the rallyin g-point of several nations, and Marquette was an expert in Indian language s. On the other hand Michilimackinac, the starting-point of the voya ge of discovery, was the beSt place in which to complete the preparatio ns for the expedition. An extract from the "Voyages du P. Jacques Marquett e" (composed by Dablon) suggests this interpretation: "we obtained all t he Information that we could from the savages who had frequented those reg ions; and we even traced out from their reports a Map of the whole of th at New country; on it we indicated the rivers which we were to navigate, t he names of the peoples and of the places through which we were to pass, t he Course of the great River [Mississippi], and the: direction we we re to follow when we reached it." It is not impossible that Jolliet also s tayed for some time at the Sainte-Marie falls; his presence would not be a bsolutely necessary since his partners and, particularly, his brother Zach arie were looking after his interests there, thus assuring to him the ca lm and the leisure necessary for the perfecting of his great plan.

Towards the middle of May 1673 the expedition set forth. It compris ed seven men, in two canoes. In addition to Jolliet and Marquette, the gro up no doubt included some of Jolliet's partners. Chavigny, however, who w as at Fort Frontenac in July 1673, was not with them; we muSt also exclu de Zacharie Jolliet, who seems to have remained at the Sainte-Marie fal ls to watch over his brother's interests. The other partners (Largillie r, Moreau, Thiberge, and Plattier) probably accompanied Louis Jolliet; t he seventh person remains unidentified. In short, among the discovere rs of the Mississippi, two only - Jolliet, the leader of the expedition, a nd Marquette - are known with certainty; for the others, one can, it is tr ue, juggle with probabilities, but they will never yield more than hypothe ses and conjectures.

The discoverers' route, and more so the question of chronology, rema in obscured by doubt, owing to the absence of a log-book. It seems almoSt  certain, however, that from Michilimackinac the explorers headed westwar d, going along the north shore of Lake Michigan, then along the weSt sho re of the Baie des Puants (Green Bay), as far as the Saint-François-Xavi er mission (near De Pere, Wisconsin); from there they followed the Riviè re aux Renards (Fox River) as far as the village of the Mascouten India ns (near Berlin, Wisconsin). After some 20 days of navigation, the expedit ion had juSt reached the limit of known territory. From the Mascoutens, t he French learned of the existence - only three leagues away - of a tribut ary of the Mississippi; guided by two Indians, they made a "portage of ha lf a league," going from the Rivière aux Renards to the Rivière Meskousi ng (Wisconsin). On 15 June, after a journey of more than 500 miles, 1 18 of them along the Wisconsin, the canoes finally entered the Mississipp i. An intense feeling of joy and triumph surged through the little band; b ut Jolliet was careful not to forget that the discovery of the Mississipp i, however thrilling it might be, was only a stage in his glorious missio n, and that he had promised Frontenac he would see the mouth of this river .

Pushing on with their advance along the Mississippi, the French gaz ed in wonderment at the new scenery, so different from anything they had k nown before; soon strange birds appeared, exotic plants, and formidable bi son, in herds some of which numbered more than 400 animals. Of Indians, ho wever, there was no sign. For eight or ten days the banks remained obstina tely deserted, as far as the mouth of the Iowa, where at laSt the discover ers perceived their firSt village of Illinois Indians, the Peorias. They w ere received there with numerous gestures of friendship and welcome. Jolli et and his men took to their paddles once more, and pursued their journe y, which was marked by two other important stages: they encountered firSt  the Missouri and then the Ouabouskigou (Ohio), two stately rivers that fl ow into the Mississippi. The Indians were numerous in this region, and we re as hospitable as the Peorias. When they got to the mouth of the Ohio t he French had covered some 1,200 miles from Michilimackinac. Once agai n, as they got farther away from the Ohio, the landscape and climate chang ed rapidly; the Indians also became more distrustful, if not hostile; Marq uette, although he spoke six native tongues, no longer managed to make him self understood. The little band finally stopped at the village of the Qua paws (Kappas), some 450 miles from the Ohio.

The Quapaws lived on the right bank of the Mississippi, a little th is side of the present boundary of Arkansas and Louisiana, at lat. 34°40 ´N There Jolliet's voyage was to end. The growing hostility of the Indian s, the danger of falling soon into the hands of the Spaniards to whom t he Arkansas nation were known, the certainty, acquired from the natives, t hat they were only 50 leagues from the sea - in reality they were more th an 700 miles from it - and the fear of compromising the results of the exp edition: all these factors induced Jolliet and his companions to turn bac k. In the second fortnight of July the canoes were launched againSt the cu rrent in the Mississippi; the return journey was carried out via the Illin ois River, the Chicago portage, and Lake Michigan to the Baie des Esturgeo ns (Sturgeon Bay); thanks to a further portage, the canoeists passed in to the Baie des Puants and went down to the Saint-François-Xavier missio n, which they reached towards the middle of October.

Louis Jolliet had completed his mission. He had not seen the mou th of the Mississippi, but he had advanced sufficiently far south to acqui re the certainty that the river emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. This ne ws was a profound disappointment to all those who already believed that th ey possessed the passage to the China Sea; so much so that Jolliet's ve ry important contribution to what was then known of the geography of Nor th America and to the territorial expansion of New France was not always a ppreciated at its true worth. But the obsession with the WeSt was so firm ly rooted and hopes were so keen that people immediately began once mo re to dream of another waterway, this time along one of the tributari es of the Mississippi.

Jolliet spent the winter of 1673-74 at the Sainte-Marie falls, engag ed in making copies of his log-book and of the map that he had drawn duri ng the course of his expedition. Towards the end of May 1674, leaving repl icas of these precious documents in the care of the Jesuits, he set out f or Quebec. When he reached the Saint-Louis rapids, towards the end of Jun e, his canoe was capsized: two Frenchmen and a little Illinois slave giv en to him when he went down the Mississippi were drowned; Jolliet, the so le survivor, was saved in the nick of time "after being four hours in t he water"; the box that contained his log, his map, and his personal pape rs disappeared beneath the surface. The discoverer did not get off with th is disaster: the copies of his log and map left at the Sainte-Marie fal ls were destroyed in a fire; and to complete the circle of misfortune Marq uette's diary has not come down to us. On the discovery of the Mississip pi the historian therefore possesses only the information supplied from me mory by Jolliet and documents based on second-hand knowledge, particular ly Dablon's account. Hence there are numerous gaps: who is to say, for ins tance, whether Jolliet officially took possession, in the name of Franc e, of the territories discovered in 1673?

Back from the Mississippi, Jolliet began to think of settling dow n. On 1 Oct. 1675 he signed a marriage contract with Claire-Françoise Byss ot, aged 19, the daughter of François Byssot de La Rivière and Marie Couil lard; the latter had juSt married a second time (7 Sept. 1675), her new hu sband being Jacques de Lalande de Gayon. The religious ceremony was celebr ated in the cathedral at Quebec, 7 October. In the following year Jolli et asked Colbert for permission to settle, with 20 men, in the land of t he Illinois which he had discovered. The reply, dated 23 April 1677, was n egative. The minister wrote: "we muSt increase the number of settlers befo re thinking of other lands."

This refusal did not catch Jolliet unawares. From the time of his re turn from the Mississippi, he had resumed his commercial activity; but fol lowing upon his marriage with Claire Byssot - whose father had traded in t he region of Sept-Îles where the family still had interests - Jolliet aban doned the hinterland for the north shore of the St Lawrence River. On 23 A pril 1676 he joined the society consisting of Jacques de Lalande, his fath er-in-law, Marie Laurence, the widow of Eustache Lambert, and Denis Guyo n; on 2 May the partners hired Guyon's bark to meet the needs of the fur t rade at Sept-Îles. Jolliet and Lalande, however, were not long in obtaini ng their own boat: on 2 Nov. 1676 they bought from Michel Leneuf* de La Va llière a ketch in which they made the trip to Sept-Îles the following spri ng.

Jolliet rapidly acquired a place among the merchants of consequenc e. On 20 Oct. 1676, for example, he was among the settlers assembled by Du chesneau to fix the price of beaver. Two years later, 26 Oct. 1678, he w as one of the notables of the colony consulted by Frontenac about the traf fic in intoxicating drink. Jolliet's qualified opinion was the one adopt ed by Louis XIV in the ordinance of 24 May 1679, permitting traffic in spi rits within the colony but forbidding it in the woods.

With Frontenac's consent, in the spring of 1679, Josias Boisseau, t he agent for the syndicate holding the Tadoussac trading concession, and C harles Aubert de La Chesnaye instructed Jolliet to "visit the nations a nd the territories of the king's domain in this country." By virtue of h is commission the explorer was to go as far as Hudson Bay. It is difficu lt to state the exact object of this trip, but one may suppose that Jolli et assumed himself to have a double objective: to estimate the extent of E nglish influence on the tribes in the Hudson basin, and perhaps to lay t he foundations for a trade alliance with the Indians in the north. Accordi ng to Father Crespieul*, who was working in the Lac Saint-Jean region in 1 679, Jolliet's role was to "establish the fur trade and the St François Xa vier mission at Nemiskau." This testimony does not invalidate the two-fo ld hypothesis juSt formulated; it seems beyond question, indeed, that t he task entrusted to Jolliet did not concern solely the fur-trading poSt  - or the mission - at Nemiskau, which was only a stage in his expedition.

The 1679 voyage was not a voyage of discovery. After three fruitle ss attempts on the part of the French to reach Hudson Bay by sea (jean Bou rdon in 1657), and by land (Claude Dablon and Gabriel Druillettes in 166 1; Guillaume Couture* in 1661 and 1663), the Jesuit Charles Albanel, toget her with Paul Denys* de Saint-Simon and Sébastien Pennasca, had in fact re ached the mouth of the Rivière Nemiskau in June 1672. The Jesuit repeat ed the journey in 1674. These precedents did not, it is true, lessen the t errible difficulties of the routes. In Albanel's words, "There are 200 sau lts, or water-falls, and consequently 200 portages. . . . There are 400 ra pids."

On 13 April 1679 Jolliet embarked at Quebec with eight men, one of w hom was his brother Zacharie. Two Indians, who acted as their guides, prob ably joined them on the way. The expedition apparently adopted the followi ng itinerary: the Saguenay, Lac Saint-Jean, Rivière and Lac Mistassini, Ri vière à la Marte (Marten) to Nemiskau, and Rivière Nemiskau, which flows i nto Rupert Bay, to the south of James Bay. The journey, in Jolliet's estim ation, covered 343 leagues, "because of the detours." In the bay the explo rer encountered some Englishmen, who welcomed him with a great show of pol iteness, and particularly Governor Charles Bayly, who gave him ship's bisc uits and flour for the return trip. Bayly had heard of Jolliet and of h is discovery of the Mississippi; he congratulated the Canadian, assuring h im that "the English have a high regard for discoverers." After collecti ng all his information, and turning down a tempting offer from the governo r, who invited him to enter the service of the English, Jolliet took lea ve of his hosts. He returned along the Rivière Nemiskau and the Riviè re à la Marte, crossed Lac Mistassini and Lac Albanel, and, via the Riviè re Temiscamie, went into the Rivière Peribonca, Lac Saint-Jean, and the Sa guenay. On 25 October he regained Quebec.

During his voyage Jolliet had become convinced that in Hudson Bay t he English were doing "the fineSt trade in Canada." They "gathered in" bea vers, "as many as they wanted," and even hoped to "make this enterprise mo re extensive in the future." The circle of their influence was growing lar ger all the time, and each spring the rivers of the Hudson basin brought d own towards the English posts the heavily laden canoes of nations as numer ous as they were distant. "There is no doubt that if the English are le ft in this bay [they] will make themselves masters of all the trade in Can ada in less than six [ten?] years." The Ottawas, indeed, who were the supp liers of the French, "do not hunt beaver, but go and seek them from the na tions in the baie des Puants or from those in the neighbourhood of Lake Su perior"; now it was to be feared that those nations would prefer to take t heir furs directly to the English, as certain of them had begun to do. A nd Jolliet discreetly requested His Majesty to "remove the English from th is bay" or, at least, to "prevent them from establishing themselves any fu rther, without driving them out or breaking with them."

Jolliet was aware of the disastrous results that a drive by the Engl ish in Hudson Bay would have on the Tadoussac trading concession, and he a lso knew how much his own trade on the north shore was threatened. His int ereSt in this region, which adjoined the king's domain, was all the keen er because on 10 March 1679 Intendant Duchesneau had granted him, in joi nt ownership with Jacques de Lalande, the Mingan islands and islets. Jolli et, however, lacked neither ambition nor optimism. In March 1680 he obtain ed Anticosti Island from Duchesneau. He proposed to set up, there and at M ingan, fishing-grounds for cod, seals, and whales, and "by this means to t rade in this country and in the islands of America [WeSt Indies]."

Because of this second grant of land, Jolliet incurred the fierce op position of Josias Boisseau, the agent for the king's domain, who had juSt  quarrelled with Aubert de La Chesnaye, Jolliet's uncle. The trade that La lande and Jolliet were carrying on with the Indians of the Sept-Îles was t hought to be doing harm to the tax-farmers of His Majesty's domain. Counti ng on Frontenac's support, Boisseau demanded in vain the cancellation of t he Anticosti concession, as well as of certain fur-trading privileges gran ted by Duchesneau to Jolliet and his partners. The Crown's agent made a l ot of fuss, launched unfounded accusations, and indulged in such excess es of language and conduct that in the summer of 1681 he was relieved of h is duties and recalled to France.

Despite Boisseau's untimely complaints and extravagant behaviour, Jo lliet continued his trading on the north shore. As early as 1680 or 16 81 he had a dwelling on Anticosti, where he spent the summer months with h is family and a few servants; in winter he lived at Quebec. Because of t he scarcity of documents concerning him during the years 1680-93 - in 16 82 his papers were burned in a fire - little is known of Jolliet's activit ies between his voyages to Hudson Bay (1679) and to Labrador (1694). He ex ploited his fisheries at Mingan and Anticosti; but it is impossible to s ay whether he traded in the WeSt Indies. During his frequent travels, Joll iet had completed a map of the St Lawrence River and Gulf, which was se nt to the minister in 1685. On that occasion Brisay* de Denonville request ed for Jolliet the poSt of teacher of navigation. This reward was not acco rded him. In 1690 the fleet commanded by Phips seized Jolliet's bark, conf iscated goods worth 10,000-12,000 livres, and took the discoverer's wife a nd mother-in-law prisoners; two years later, two English ships sacked a nd burned his outposts at Mingan and Anticosti. Jolliet was ruined.

Jolliet had perhaps made a journey to Labrador in 1689, if we can belie ve a document dated 1693. He dreamed of going back there, but needed a sub sidy, which the court seemed little inclined to grant him. Fortunately a Q uebec merchant, François Viennay-Pachot, came to the rescue and agre ed to cover the costs of the undertaking. Several explorers-Davis, Waymout h, Knight, Jean Bourdon, Chouart Des Groseilliers, and Radisson* - had alr eady sailed along the coasts of Labrador, but none had produced a tolerab ly exact account of them, or even a map. Jolliet was to be the firSt to re veal the secret of this region that extended from the Saint John River ( 15 miles weSt of Mingan) to the present Zoar, situated at lat. 56°8´N.

On 28 April 1694, at Quebec, Jolliet boarded a vessel armed with 6 s wivel-guns and 14 cannon, belonging to Pachot; the crew comprised 18 perso ns, one of whom was a Recollet. They dropped anchor firSt at Mingan, whe re Jolliet stayed for more than a month to traffic in furs and to reconstr uct the buildings burned down by the English. On 9 June they set sail f or Labrador. Jolliet sailed along the coast, which he described and mapp ed out systematically, doing a little trading when the opportunity present ed itself. Shortly after 9 July the ship passed the Pointe du Détour (C ap Charles), and entered unknown waters. Continuing his slow advance, Joll iet charted the coastline and described the Eskimos with whom he made cont act. When he drew level with Zoar, the explorer decided to turn back. T he season was well advanced, and the ship, fitted with poor rigging, wou ld not have withstood the heavy weather of autumn; besides, trade with t he few Eskimos along the coaSt could not "pay what the vessel coSt every d ay"; finally, the ship was carrying salt "which had to be used for cod ." On 15 AuguSt Jolliet started on the way home. He reached Quebec arou nd the middle of October, after having fished, and after having probably s topped at Mingan to take on board his wife and children, who had spent t he summer there.

Jolliet hastened to give a final form to his travel log. This relati vely extensive document contains, in addition to a description of the Labr ador coasts and their inhabitants, 16 cartographic sketches. It is the fir St account of the shoreline between Cap Charles and Zoar, hence its histor ical importance; moreover, it was in 1694 the moSt complete and precise po rtrayal of the Eskimos so far made. As for the territories visited, Jolli et found the soil barren and the inhabitants few in number; he noted the r apid disappearance of cod as soon as one proceeded northward; the only tra de possible with the Eskimos was in whale oil and seal oil, but even th en it would be necessary to count on cod "to cover part of the costs." Jol liet was not put off because of that: he applied for the privilege - whi ch he was not to receive - of trafficking alone, for 20 years, with the Es kimos of Labrador.

In the autumn of 1695, when the season was well advanced and navigat ion in the river and gulf dangerous, he was selected by the governor and t he intendant to pilot the Charente: he was "perhaps the only man in this c ountry, according to Frontenac, capable of performing this work properly ." For this task Jolliet received 600 livres. He spent the winter in Franc e, and returned to Quebec before 13 June 1696 with the promise of his appo intment - confirmed 30 April 1697 - to the office of hydrographer. In a do cument of 1692 he had already been given the title of hydrography maste r: was this a lapsus, or was Jolliet teaching hydrography at the Jesuit co llege, without holding the poSt officially? Be that as it may, Jolliet a nd the maps that he was able to make to render navigation in the river a nd gulf safe were often mentioned during these years. One of the maps, dat ed 1698, has come down to us.

On 30 April 1697 Jolliet had received from Frontenac and Bochar t* de Champigny a small fief on the Rivière des Etchemins, which he did n ot have time to develop. In winter he taught at the Jesuit college; in sum mer he probably lived on Anticosti Island or at Mingan. Unfortunately t he laSt three years of his life are shrouded in uncertainty. Was it on h is lands on the north shore that he died in the summer of 1700, in circums tances that have not been revealed? Nothing is known of this, and despi te active research his burial place has not yet been discovered.

Thus ended, between 4 May and 15 Sept. 1700, the remarkable care er of this explorer; his broad education, his culture, the diversity of h is talents as much as his courage and ambition, made of him one of the gre ateSt and moSt illustrious sons of his country. Born in New France, form ed in its institutions, Jolliet attained international fame during his lif etime: in France, Spain, Italy, Holland, Germany, England, works extoll ed his name and the discovery of the Mississippi. Beyond all doubt, the Ca nadian Louis Jolliet is one of the moSt genuine and moSt impressive exampl es of the heroes produced by New France.

André Vachon

Acte de baptême de Louis Jolliet (21 sept. 1645), APQ Rapport, 1924-25, 19 8. Acte de mariage de Louis Jolliet et de Claire-Françoise Bissot (Québe c, 7 oct. 1675), APQ Rapport, 1924-25, 224. AJQ, Greffe de Romain Becque t, 7 mai 1666; 1er oct. 1675; 9 mai 1679; 16 avril 1680; Greffe de Pier re Duquet, 2 nov. 1676; 9 févr. 1679; Greffe de François Genaple, 14 ma rs 1680; Greffe de Gilles Rageot, 21 avril 1669; 1er oct. 1672; 3 oct. 167 2; 23 avril 1676; 2 mai 1676; 4 déc. 1676; 17 avril 1680. APQ, Ins. con s. souv., II, 3. Contrat de mariage de Louis Jolliet et de Claire Bissot ( 1er octobre 1675), APQ Rapport, 1924-25, 240. Correspondance de Frontena c, APQ Rapport, 1926-27, 1927-28 et 1928-29, passim. Correspondance de Tal on, APQ Rapport, 1930-31, passim. [Claude Dablon], "Voyages du P. Jacqu es Marquette, 1673-75," in JR (Thwaites), LIX, 85-211; ibid., passim. JJ ( Laverdière et Casgrain), 330, 345. [Louis Jolliet], "Journal de Louis Joll iet allant à la descouverte de Labrador, 1694," éd. Jean Delanglez, in A PQ Rapport, 1943-44, 147-206. Jug. et délib., passim. Ord. comm. (P.-G. Ro y), I, 322f. P.-G. Roy, Inventaire de pièces sur la côte de Labrador conse rvées aux Archives de la Province de Québec (2v., Québec, 1940-2), I, 3- 9. Recensement de 1666.

Delanglez, Jolliet. ErneSt Gagnon, Louis Jolliet, découvreur du Miss issipi et du pays des Illinois, premier seigneur de l'île d'Anticosti (Mon tréal, 1946); "Où eSt mort Louis Jolliet?" BRH, VIII (1902), 277-79. Godbo ut, "Nos ancêtres," APQ Rapport, 1951-53, 459. Amedée-E. Gosselin, "Jean J olliet et ses enfants," RSCT, 3rd ser., XIV (1920), sect.i, 65-81. Lion el Groulx, Notre grande aventure: l'empire français en Amérique du Nord (1 535-1760) (Montréal et Paris [1958]), 139-74. Pierre Margry, "Louis Jollie t," RC, VIII (1871), 930-42; IX (1872), 61-72, 121-38, 205-19. Adrien Poul iot et T.-Edmond Giroux, "Où eSt né Louis Jolliet?" BRH, LI (1945), 344-4 6, 359-63, 374.



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