Marquette, Jacques

Marquette, Jacques, a celebrated French Roman Catholic missionary and discoverer, was born in 1637, at Laon, in Picardy; entered the Order of the Jesuits; became a missionary, and traveled and labored several years in Canada and other regions. He was a member of the first exploring party to the Mississippi River, and wrote a narrative of the expedition (Paris, 1681). "He writes," says professor Sparks, "as a scholar, and as a man of careful observation and practical sense. In every point of view, this tract is one of the most interesting among those that illustrate the early history of America." On his return from the Mississippi he resumed his missionary labors among the Miamis on Lake Michigan, and died there, May 18,1675. — Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, s.v.; Moréri, Dictionnaire Historique, s.v.; Bacqueville de la Potheric, Hist. de l'Amerique Septentrionale (Paris, 1872, 4 vols. 12mo); Sparks. Amer. Biog. vol. 10:1st series, s.v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 33:942.