Louis Jolliet (born before Sept. 21, 1645, probably Beaupré, near Quebec—died after May 1700,Quebec province) was a French Canadian explorer and cartographer who, with FatherJacques Marquette, was the first white man totraverse theMississippi River from itsconfluence with the Wisconsin to the mouth of theArkansas River in Arkansas.

Jolliet received a Jesuit education inNew France (now in Canada) but left his seminary in 1667 and went to France. The following year he returned to New France to work in the fur trade.

In 1672 he was commissioned by the governor of New France to explore the Mississippi, and he was joined by Marquette. On May 17, 1673, the party set out in two birchbark canoes from Michilimackinac (St. Ignace, Mich.) forGreen Bay, onLake Michigan. Continuing up the Fox River in central Wisconsin and down theWisconsin River, they entered the Mississippi about a month later. Pausing along the way to make notes, to hunt, and toglean scraps of information from Indians, they arrived in July at the Quapaw Indian village (40 miles north of presentArkansas City, Ark.) at the mouth of the Arkansas River. From personal observations and from the friendly Quapaw Indians, they concluded that the Mississippi flowed south into the Gulf of Mexico—not, as they had hoped, into thePacific Ocean. In July the party returned homeward via theIllinois River and Green Bay. Their journey is described in Marquette’s journal, which has survived.

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Exploration and Discovery

Jolliet later travelled toHudson Bay, the Labrador coast, and a number of Canadian rivers. In 1697 he was made royal hydrographer of New France.