1637-1675. French Jesuit missionary and
explorer. He went to Canada in 1666, explored
the upper lakes of the St Lawrence, and in
1673 with Louis Jolliet (1645-1700), set out
on a voyage down the Mississippi on which
they made the first accurate record of its
course. In 1674 he and two companions camped
near the site of present-day Chicago, making
them the first Europeans to live there.