Louis Jolliet is the Canadian explorer-Voyages, Life and Death.

Louis Jolliet was a French-Canadian explorer who was known for his discoveries in North America.Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette, a Catholic priest and missionary, was the first non-Native to explore and map the Mississippi River.

Jolliet was born in Beaupré, a French settlement near Quebec City, to Jean and Marie D'Abancourt.His father died when he was six years old and his mother married a successful merchant until his death in 1665.She married Martin Prevost after her mother's second husband died.The Ile d'Orleans was an island in the Saint Lawrence River that was home to the First Nations.Jolliet spent a lot of time on Ile d'Orleans, so it is likely that he began speaking the Indigenous languages of the Americas at a young age.He learned English and Spanish.Quebec was the center of the French fur trade when he was a child.Joliet knew a lot about the Natives, who were a part of day-to-day life in Quebec.Jolliet wanted to become a priest after entering a Jesuit school in Quebec as a child.He studied music and became a church organist.After receiving minor orders in 1662, he abandoned his plans to become a priest in favor of fur trading.[5]

Jolliet and Marquette were the first to find the upper reaches of the Mississippi River, about 130 years after it was discovered by Hernando de Soto.The river Rio del Espiritu Santo was called variations "Mississippi" by the tribes along its length.

Jolliet and Marquette left from St. Ignace, Michigan with two canoes and five other voyageurs of French-Indian ancestry.They sailed to Green Bay.They paddled upstream on the Fox River to the site.They traveled less than two miles through marsh and oak forest to reach the Wisconsin River.Europeans built a trading post between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins.The canoeists went onto the Mississippi River near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.

The Jolliet-Marquette expedition traveled down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.They returned to the mouth of the Arkansas River.They encountered natives carrying European goods and were worried about a possible hostile encounter with explorers from Spain.The voyageurs followed the Mississippi back to the mouth of the Illinois River, which friendly natives told them was a quicker way to get back into the Great Lakes.The Des Plaines River was turned up following the Illinois river.They took their canoes and gear up the Des Plaines River.They followed the Chicago River until they reached Lake Michigan.Father Marquette was at the southern end of Green Bay when they arrived in August.The news of their discoveries was brought back to Quebec by Joliet.

Jolliet married Franoise Byssot de la Valtrie.She was a daughter of Francois Byssot de la Riviere and his wife.Louise Byssot de la Valtrie was a sister of Claire Francoise.Jolliet created a fort and maintained soldiers on the island.On April 30, 1697, he was granted a seigneury southwest of Quebec City, which he named Jolliest.

He sailed from the Gulf of St. Lawrence north along the coast of Labrador for five and a half months.He kept a record of the country, navigation, Inuit and their customs.His journal "Journal de Louis Jolliet allant la descouverte de Labrador, 1694," is the earliest known detailed survey of the Labrador coast.

Louis Jolliet left for Anticosti Island in May 1700.He disappears from the historical record.The only record of his fate is that a mass for his soul was held in Quebec on September 15, 1700.[6]