JOLIET, Louis, American explorer: b. Quebec, 21 Sept. 1645; d. Canada, May 1700. He was educated at the Jesuit College of Que bec, and subsequently engaged in the fur trade on the western frontier, thereby becoming familiar with the missionaries and tribes. He was selected by the governor Frontenac to as certain the direction and mouth of the Mississippi, a few of whose affluents had al ready been visited by missionaries and traders. Starting with his companion, the illustrious Father Marquette (q.v.), and five other French man, from Green Bay in June 1673, he as cended the Fox River, and descended the Wis consin to its confluence with the Mississippi, down which they sailed as far as the country of the Chickasaws, below the entrance of the Arkansas. Having ascertained with tolerable accuracy the general course of the stream, they returned to Green Bay, by the way of Illinois River, Chicago and Lake Michigan, whence Joliet started alone for Quebec. The whole route traveled by them is estimatcd at 2,500 miles. He lost his journal and other papers in
the rapids above Montreal, but wrote out from recollection a few pages of manuscript, which agree with the narrative of Marquette. In the same manner he prepared a map of the region explored. The French government inade quately rewarded him for his services with the Island of Anticosti at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence, where he built a house and fort for his family, intending to embark in trade. He appears, however, to have been subsequently employed in the West. In 1691 his island was captured by a British fleet and his property destroyed. In 1697 the seignory of Joliet, Can ada, was assigned to him. Joliet, the capital of Will County, Ill, is named after him. Con sult Parkman, 'La Salle or the Discovery of the Great West' (1869) • Winsor, 'Narrative and Critical History of 'America' (1884-87) ; Gagnon, 'Louis Jolliet' (Quebec 1902).