Research for report
Sources: Explorers of the Millennium ( on the Oracle thinkquest website and
Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet Webpage www.east-buc12.ia.us )
Marquette and Jolliet were French explorers
that led a French expedition along the Mississippi River.
Marquette and Jolliet were known for a few things.
Most importantly, they discovered the
Mississippi River in America, and were the first Europeans to see the whole river.
Marquette was born in Laon, which is in France, on June 10, 1639. He became
a Jesuit novitiate, which is a type of priest at age 17. Jacques Marquette was a
Catholic missionary and was also called Father Marquette.
He died at age 38 in 1675.
Jolliet was born in a French Settlement in Quebec, Canada, in 1645. He went to Europe
to study. He returned to Canada to search for copper and ended up trading and trapping
for several years. He ended up becoming an expert on map making.
In 1666 Marquette went to a place called Canada and
learned to speak different Indian languages. From 1669 to 1671, he worked
in Wisconsin & Michigan at missions. This was when he met Louis Jolliet.
Jolliet was trading things with the Indians right around Michigan.
Marquette saw trading as a good opportunity for explorers around the
world to go to China.
In 1672 Jolliet was asked by France to and lead in an expedition to explore part of the Mississippi River.
Jacques Marquette asked Louis Jolliet to join him on the journey.
Their goals were to convert the Indians to Christianity and also to see if they
could establish trading posts where they traveled. France sent Marquette and Jolliet
because they wanted to build an Empire in the New World. They also wanted to see
if the Mississippi River connected with the Atlantic Ocean.
The materials they used to travel down the Mississippi River were a few birch bark
canoes. They had brought things over from France to trade with the Indians,
including salted meat and biscuits as some of their supplies.
For this exploration, they started in Fort St. Ignace on Lake Michigan, and continued
down the Mississippi River. When they came to where Arkansas meets the Mississippi,
they ended their journey because the Indians let them know there was a Spanish
settlement a little further down, and it was dangerous for them.
Throughout their exploration, they had mostly friendly relations with the Indians,
which included the Akensae Indians. The Akensae Indians were helpful and nice because they hadn't
had problems with the white men yet.
However, not all their times with Indians were nice and peaceful.
When Marquette and Jolliet were close to the mouth of
the Arkansas River, some Indians threatened them with guns beacause they were
afraid of the white people. A few of them are nice enough to explain to Marquette and Jolliet that their
guns were from white people. These would be Spanish people and it might have been
hazardous to keep going.
Sadly, Marquette got sick while returning from this adventure and died of the disease.
In addition, they had a canoe flip over and they lost their cargo, and many people went overboard.
They had to wait four hours for rescue.
Marquette and Jolliet's voyage lasted from 1673-1675. Overall, the expedition was very important
because they mapped out a big area of the Mississippi River and found out where the Spanish colonies were.