for Louis de Baude, Comte de
Frontenac, who succeeded Courcelles as governor in 1672, to carry out
the plans of the able intendant when he left the St. Lawrence.

Jolliet, a Canadian by birth, was wisely chosen by Talon--and Frontenac
approved of the choice--to explore the West and find the "great water,"
of which vague stories were constantly brought back by traders and
bushrangers. Jolliet was one of the best specimens of a trader and
pioneer that Canadian history gives us. His roving inclinations were
qualified by a cool, collected brain, which carried him safely through
many a perilous adventure. He had for his companion Father Marquette,
who was then stationed at the mission of St. Ignace, and had gathered
from the Indians at his western missions--especially at La Pointe on
Lake Superior--valuable information respecting the "great water" then
{179} called the "Missipi." Both had many sympathies in common.
Jolliet had been educated by the Jesuits in Canada, but unlike La
Salle, he was in full accord with their objects. Marquette possessed
those qualities of self-sacrifice and religious devotion which entitle
him to rank with Lalemant, Jogues, and Brebeuf. While Jolliet was
inspired by purely ambitious and trading instincts, the missionary had
no other hope or desire than to bring a great region and its savage
communities under the benign influence of the divine being whose
heavenly face seemed ever present, encouraging him to fresh efforts in
her service. It was in the spring of 1673 that these two men started
with five companions in two canoes on their journey through that
wilderness, which stretched beyond Green Bay--an English corruption of
Grande Baie. Like Nicolet, they ascended the Fox River to the country
of the Mascoutins, Foxes, and Kickapoos, where they obtained guides to
lead them across the portage to the Wisconsin. The adventurers had now
reached the low "divide" between the valleys of the Lakes and the
Mississippi. The Fox River and its affluents flowed tranquilly to the
great reservoirs of the St. Lawrence, while the Wisconsin, on which
they now launched their canoes, carried them to a mighty river, which
ended they knew not where. A month after leaving St. Ignace they found
themselves "with a great and inexpressible joy"--to quote Marquette's
words--on the rapid current of a river which they recognised as the
Missipi. As they proceeded they saw the low-lying natural meadows and
prairies w