Canadian explorer, born in Quebec on the 21st of September 1645. He was educated at the Jesuit College of Quebec and went through the preliminaries leading to an entrance into the priesthood, but gave up this calling for that of explorer and trader. In 1672 Governor Frontenac and Talon made an effort to trace the course of the Mississippi River, which was then supposed to discharge itself into the Sea of California. Joliet was intrusted with this enterprise, for which he was provided with a canoe and an assistant. At a Jesuit mission the two were joined by Father Marquette and five others, and proceeded as far as Mackinaw, December 8, 1672. Here they derived information from the Indians, which enabled them to make a rough outline map of their proposed route. The party then ascended the Fox River from Green Bay, crossed over and descended the Wisconsin River, and on June 17, 1673, entered the Mississippi. After visiting several Indian villages on its banks, they became assured that the river emptied its waters into the Gulf of Mexico, and began their return journey. They reached Lake Winnebago at the end of September, where they spent the winter at the mission of St. Francis Xavier, and in 1674 returned to Quebec. On the way Joliet lost his map and papers by the upsetting of his canoe in the Lachine rapids of the St. Lawrence River. He was thereafter made governor of the colony. About 1680 he was granted Anticosti Island, where he built a fort, which was destroyed by the British and his wife taken prisoner. Later Joliet explored Labrador, and on April 30, 1697, was granted the seigniory of Joliet, near Quebec. The honor of the earliest exploration of the Mississippi remains unsettled. Joliet, Marquette and La Salle each have their advocates. For a discussion of the claims of each, see Winsor’s Critical and Narrative History (1884). He died in Canada, May, 1700.
