HENNEPIN, LOUIS ? ), Belgian missionary and explorer, was born in Ath, Belgium, about 164o. While quite young he joined the Franciscan order. In 1675 he went to Canada in company with a Recollet mission, crossing in the same ship with La Salle and Bishop De Laval. From Quebec, Hennepin carried on '.iis missionary work (in 1677 among the Iroquois) . The next year (1678) he accompanied La Salle on his expedition to the West. They reached the present site of Peoria (Jan. I, 168o), when La Salle was compelled to return to Ft. Frontenac for sup plies; Hennepin and the remainder of the party were despatched to explore the upper Mississippi. They reached the falls of St. Anthony, where the modern Minneapolis stands, in July 168o, and were soon afterwards captured by Sioux Indians. Hennepin was rescued in June 1681 by Graysolon du Lhut (Duluth) and went to Quebec. In 1683 Hennepin was in France where he published a Description de la Louisiane, a full account of his exploits, but in 1697, La Salle having died, he brought out a revised copy of his earlier book, Nouvelle Decourverte, in which he claimed to have explored the Mississippi to its mouth. This bold assumption was soon discredited and Hennepin's otherwise valuable contributions to the history of New France and American ethnology are looked upon with suspicion. He incurred the displeasure of his order by refusing to return to America and as a result his last years were spent in obscurity.
See J. G. Shea, A Description of Louisiana by Father Louis Hennepin (188o) ; "Father Louis Hennepin" in vol. iv. of Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America (1889). A complete bibliography of Hennepin's works is found in C. R. Remington's The Shipyard of the Griffin (Buffalo, 1891).