1699.]                 LOUISIANA AND FLORIDA.
139
countries lying between the east and west, from Montreal to the South Sea, as much and as far as was in his power. This entry into possession was made with all those formalities, as is to be seen in the relation of 1671, and more expressly in the record of the entry into possession, drawn up by the said subdelegate.
The next year, 1672, the river Mississippi, and, at the same time, the Illinois, Chauanons, and other tribes unknown to Europeans, were discovered by Sieur Joliet * and the
* Sieur Louis Joliet, whose name is now imperishably connected with the discovery of the Mississippi river and the exploration of the West, was born at Quebec, in the year 1645. After completing his studies at the Jesuit College of that city, he embraced the ecclesiastical profession, received minor orders in 1662, and finished his philosophy in 1666. He afterwards turned his attention to other pursuits, and set out for the Indian country of the West. In 1672 he was selected by Governor Count DE Frontenac to proceed in search of the great river which was reported by the Indians to Father Allouez, who was the first Jesuit missionary who reached its waters. Father Marquette, who was selected to accompany Joliet, says that " he was eminently qualified for such an important undertaking. He possessed wisdom, discretion, courage, experience, and a knowledge of the Algonquin languages." The success of this expedition is fully set forth in the first, second, third, and fourth volumes of the fiist series of the Historical Collections of Louisiana, and forms an interesting episode in the history of that State. On his return from this exploration to Canada, in 1672, he had the misfortune to lose his journal in descending the rapids of the St. Lawrence. He drew up, however, from memory, a narrative with a map, which was transmitted to the court of France by Count de Frontenac in 1674. Father Dablon, the Superior-General of the Canada Missions, in the description of the map published by him in the Relations, 1670-1, pp. 89-91, alludes to the existence of the Mississippi : '' that it flowed south, and probably had its mouth in the Florida Sea " (Gulf of Mexico). But Joliet, in one of his expeditions to the West, had nearly reached it. " And the long-expected discovery was now to be accomplished by Joliet, of whom there is scarce a record ; but this one excur-