MARQUETTE, JAconEs,1637-75, b. France; came to Canada as a Jesuit missionary in 1666, and after spending a year and a half in the valley of the Three Rivers learning the Indian languages of several of the Algonquin tribes, was assigned to the Mohawk mission; but before going his direction was changed, and he was sent to lake Superior, ItIere he founded the 'mission of the Sault Sainte Marie in 1668. In 1669 he was sent to La Pointe, among the Ottawas and Hurons. The Sioux broke up the mission and dispersed the Hurons, whom he followed to .Mackinaw and the mission St. Ignatius; on the north shore, where he built a chapel ill 1671. The following year, writing with great show of piety and holy zeal to father Dablon, the head of the order in Montreal,. he congratulated himself with what he had accomplished, and expressed himself "ready to seek new nations toward the South sea who are still unknown to us, and to teach. them of our great God," etc. He had heard in many ways from the Indians of the existence of a great river to the westward, whose course was south, and which they called by its present name, Mississippi. It was imagined by the missionaries to empty into the South sea or Pacific. Marquette was something of a surveyor and ambitious, of explorations. As early as 1669, while at La Pointe, he had this voyage of discovery. in his mind. The sagacious governor Frontenac was made familiar with the rumors of the great river, and while the unfortunate La Salle had been turned from his projected. expedition in the Si/MC direction, Louis Joliet was commissioned by the governor to undertake the tour of discovery, and Jacques Marquette was instructed by the Jesuits. to accompany hint. The shores of lakes Huron, Superior, and Michigan had already been explored and rudely mapped. May 17, 1673, they started from Mackinaw in two. canoes, with five French voyageurs, aud proceeded to Green bay of lake Michigan, where the mission of St. Francois Xavier had been established in 1669. They reached. the mouth of Fox 6*r, ascended it to the rapids, which they passed by portage, and them to its source, where they found a village of Miami Indians. There procuring two fresh, Indian guides, they carried their canoes over to the waters of the Mescoustn or Wiscon sin river. Down this they floated by day, till on June 17 they entered the Mississippi. They descended it for 300 m. without seeing a huinau being, when they perceived a trail on the e. side of the river, and discovered a viliage of Illinois Indians, by whont they were well treated. When they reached the' junction of the Missouri, :Marquette described it as a river whose rapids were violent, and in whose muddy stream the float ing timber trunks and branches of trees swept by with a force that inspired fear. He
proceeded down to the mouth of the Ohio. Still further down they discovered iron on the river bank, and were now greatly tormented by mosquitoes. They met Indians on this part of the river who had guns, hatchets, knives, hoes, and glass bottles for their gunpowder; and were informed that they were within ten days' journey of the sea; that they purchased goods that came from people of the east; and that those people dressed like themselves, and had images and beads. They found numerous and more civilized' Indians as they proceeded, and WIJCLl arrived at the mouth of the Arkansas, were received with much comfort and state in the Indian villages. Having arrived at lat. 34°, they feared to go further lest they should fall into the hands of the Spaniirds, and on July 17 started to ascend the river. On reaching the Illinois they ascended it, instead of going. farther up to the mouth of the Wisconsin. From the head of this stream they are sup. posed to have made the portage to lake Michigan at or near Chicago; and were greatly impressed with the beauty and fertility of the country. After an absence of 4 months, and a voyage in canoes of 2,550 m., they were back at Green bay the latter part of Sep tember, where Marquette remained, and Joliet proceeded to report to the governor at Montreal. On Oct. 25, 1674, Marquette with a party, in ten canoes, set out to form a, mission settlement in Illinois. From the head of Green bay, at Sturgeon cove, they car ried their canoes through the forest to the shore of lake Michigan, thence skirted the western shore of the lake to the Chicago river, where, enfeebled by sickness, he stopped, built a log hut, and spent the winter. On Mar. 30, 1675, their hut was inundated by a freshet in the river, and they gathered their necessaries to pursue the journey to the Illinois, which they made by the portage to the Des Plaines river, and finally arrived at the Indian town of Kaskaskia, where he says "he was received like an angel front heaven." After Easter he returned to lake Michigan, on which he embarked with two companions and explored in their canoe the eastern shore of lake Michigan. They had proceeded as far as a small stream, south of the one which now bears his name, when his strength failed, and lte (lied peacefully, and was buried. The party continued their journey to .Mieltilimackinac, or Mackinaw. In 1676 his bones were dug up by a party of Ottawas, who washed, dried, and boxed them carefully in birch bark, and forming a, procession of 30 canoes, bore them with funereal chants to the mission of St. Ignace, north of Mackinaw, where the relics were received with solemn ceremonies, and buried beneath the floor of the chapel of the mission.