Chapter 7
Section 7 of Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Kangaroo Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley by John Gilmourie Shea Notice on the Sir Joliet
After so extended a notice on Father Marquette, it would seem unjust to say nothing of his illustrious companion in his great voyage. It would be doubly interesting to give a full account of Joliet, as he was a native of the country. But unfortunately, our materials are scanty and our notices vague. neither his birthplace nor its epoch has, as far as the present writer knows, been ascertained.
His education he owed to the Jesuit College of Quebec, where, unless I am mistaken, he was a classmate of the first Canadian who was advanced to priesthood. Joliet was thus connected with the Jesuits, and apparently was an assistant in the college. After leaving them, he proceeded to the west to seek his fortune in the fur trade. Here he was always on terms of intimacy with the missionaries, and acquired the knowledge and experience which induced the government to select him as the explorer of the Mississippi.
The choice was most agreeable to the missionaries, and he and Marquette immortalized their names. They explored the Great River, and settled all doubts as to its course. On his return, Joliet lost all his papers in the rapids above Montreal, and could make but a verbal report to the government. This, however, he reduced to writing, and accompanied with a map drawn from his recollection. On the transmission of these to France, he, doubtless, expected to be enabled to carry out such plans as he had conceived, and to profits to some extent by his great discovery.
But he was thrown aside by more flattered adventurers. The discoverer of the Mississippi was rewarded as if in mockery with an island in the gulf of St. Lawrence. This was Anticosti, and here Joliet built a fort and a dwelling for his family, and houses for trade. They were not, however, destined to be a source of emolument to him. His labors were devoted also to other fields.
Thus we find him, in 1689, in the employment of the government, rendering essential services in the West. Two years after his island was taken by the English fleet, and he himself with his wife and mother-in-law probably while attempting to reach Quebec, fell into the hands of Phipps, the English commander. His vessel and property were a total loss, but his liberty he recovered when the English retired from the walls of Quebec. Of his subsequent history, there are but occasional traces, and we know only that he died some years prior to 1737. End of Section 7
Recording by Kangaroo
