Jacques Marquette

Jacques Marquette, known as Père Marquette (1637-75), French missionary and explorer in America, born in Laon, in northern France. He landed at Québec in the New World in 1666 and passed the next 18 months studying indigenous languages. He founded a mission at Sault Sainte Marie (now in Michigan) in 1668 and served at La Pointe (now in Wisconsin) from 1669 to 1671. The Sioux forced him to flee to Mackinac (now in Michigan), where he founded a mission at Point Saint Ignace (now Saint Ignace). He was visited there by the French explorer Louis Joliet, who invited him to take part in an expedition to chart the Mississippi River. Joined by five others, they set sail in May 1673. They entered the Mississippi on June 17 and were the first Europeans to travel on the river. Marquette later worked as a missionary among the Illinois peoples. His account of the Mississippi journey was posthumously published in 1681.