Jacques Marquette (June 1, 1637-May 18, 1675) was a French Jesuit missionary explorer in America. Landing in Quebec, 1666, he began learning the Algonquin and Huron languages. He founded a mission at Sault Sainte Marie, and from 1669 to 1671 had his station at La Pointe du Saint Esprit, at the head of Ashland Bay.
Forced to flee by the Sioux Indians, he moved to Mackinaw, where founded the mission of Saint Ignatius. In 1673, Louis Joliet (1645-1700) visited Marquette with a message from Frontenac (1620-1698), governor of Canada, requesting him to lead an expedition of seven men down the Mississippi River.
They explored along the east coast of Lake Michigan, to Green Bay, up the lower Fox River, across Lake Winnebago, up the upper Fox River, then portaged their canoes two miles through marsh to the Wisconsin River. Their two Indian guides abandoned them, fearing river monsters. Marquette and Joliet canoed the Wisconsin River to the Mississippi River, traveling south to just below the Arkansas River, hesitating to go further for fear of entering Spanish Territory.
The first Europeans to explore and map the northern Mississippi, Jacques Marquette gave his account in Voyage et De'couverte de Quelques Pays et Nations de l'Amerique Septemtrionale (translated 1852).
Père Jacques Marquette, as recorded in The Jesuit Relations, Volume LIX, stated:
<On the 17th day of May, 1673, we started from the mission of St. Ignatius at Michilimakinac, where I then was. The joy that we felt at being selected for this expedition animated our courage and rendered the labor of paddling from morning to night agreeable to us. And because we were going to seek unknown countries, we took every precaution in our power, so that, if our undertaking was hazardous, it should not be foolhardy.
To that end we obtained all the information that we could from the savages who had frequented those regions; and we even traced out from their reports a map of the whole of that new country; on it we indicated the rivers which we were to navigate, the names of the people and of the places through which we were to pass, the course of the great river, and the direction we were to follow when we reached it.
With all these precautions, we joyfully plied our paddles on a portion of Lake Huron, on that of the Illinois, and on the Bay des Puants.
The first nation that we came to was that of the Folle Avoine [Menominee]. I entered their river to go and visit these people to whom we preached the Gospel for several years - in consequence of which, there are several good Christians among them.
I told these people of the Folle Avoine of my design to go and discover those remote nations, in order to teach them the mysteries of our holy religion. They were greatly surprised to hear it, and did their best to dissuade me. They represented to me that I would meet nations who never show mercy to strangers, but break their heads without any cause; and that war was kindled between various peoples who dwelt upon our route, which exposed us to the further manifest danger of being killed by the bands of warriors who are ever in the field.
They also said that the great river was very dangerous, when one does not know the difficult places; that it was full of horrible monsters, which devoured men and canoes together; that there was even a demon, who was heard from a great distance, who barred the way and swallowed up all who ventured to approach him; finally, that the heat was so excessive in those countries that it would inevitably cause our death.
I thanked them for the good advice that they gave me, but told them that I could not follow it, because the salvation of souls was at stake, for which I would be delighted to give my life; that I scoffed at the alleged demon; that we would easily defend ourselves against those marine monsters; and, moreover, that we would be on our guard to avoid the other dangers with which they threatened us. After making them pray to God, and giving them some instructions, I separated from them...> 1637JM001
Père Jacques Marquette continued:
<Here we are at Maskoutens. This word may, in Algonquin, mean "the Fire Nation" - which, indeed, is the name given to this tribe. Here is the limit of the discoveries which the French have made, for they have not yet gone any farther....
No sooner had we arrived than we, Monsieur Joliet, and I, assembled the elders together; and he told them that he was sent by Monsieur our Governor to discover new countries, while I was sent by God to illumine them with the light of the holy Gospel. He told them that, moreover, the Sovereign Master of our lives wished to be known by all the nations; and that in obeying His will I feared not the death to which I exposed myself in voyages so perilous. He informed them that we needed two guides to show us the way; and we gave them a present, by it asking them to grant us the guides. To this they very civilly consented; and they also spoke to us by means of a present, consisting of a mat to serve us as a bed during our whole voyage...
On the 25th day of June we perceived on the water's edge some tracks of men, and a narrow and somewhat beaten path leading to a fine prairie. We stopped to examine it; and, thinking that it was a road which led to some village of savages, we resolved to go and reconnoiter it. We therefore left our two canoes under the guard of our people, strictly charging them not to allow themselves to be surprised, after which Monsieur Joliet and I undertook this investigation - a rather hazardous one for two men who exposed themselves alone to the mercy of a barbarous and unknown people. We silently followed the narrow path, and, after walking about two leagues, we discovered a village on the bank of the river, and two others on a hill distant about half a league from the first.
Then we heartily commended ourselves to God, and, after imploring His aid, we went farther without being perceived, and approached so near that we could even hear the savages talking. We therefore decided that it was time to reveal ourselves. This we did by shouting with all our energy, and stopped without advancing any farther.
On hearing the shout, the savages quickly issued from their cabins, and having probably recognized us as Frenchmen, especially when they saw a black gown - or, at least, having no cause for distrust, as we were only two men, and had given them notice of our arrival - they deputed four old men to come and speak to us. Two of these bore tobacco pipes, finely ornamented and adorned with various feathers. They walked slowly, and raised their pipes toward the sun, seemingly offering them to it to smoke - without, however, saying a word.
They spent a rather long time in covering the short distance between their village and us. Finally, when they had drawn near, they stopped to consider us attentively. I was reassured when I observed these ceremonies, which with them are performed only among friends; and much more so when I saw them clad in cloth, for I judged thereby that they were our allies.
I therefore spoke to them first, and asked who they were. They replied that they were Illinois; and, as a token of peace, they offered us their pipes to smoke. They afterward invited us to enter their village, where all the people impatiently awaited us.> 1637JM002
On their return trip up the Illinois River, Father Marquette founded a mission among the Illinois Indians. A year later, caught by a winter storm on December 4, 1674, Father Marquette and two companions erected a rough log cabin near the shore of Lake Michigan. The settlement would afterwards grow into the city of Chicago.
In 1675, being weakened by dysentery, Father Marquette preached to several thousand Indians, as written in an account by Father Claude Dablon of the Society of Jesus, 1678:
<FATHER JAMES MARQUETTE, having promised the Illinois, called Kaskaskia, to return among them to teach them our mysteries, had great difficulty in keeping his word. The great hardships of his first voyage had brought on a dysentery, and had so enfeebled him that he lost all hope of undertaking a second voyage. Yet, his malady having given way and almost ceased toward the close of summer in the following year, he obtained permission of his superiors to return to the Illinois to found that noble mission. He set out for this purpose in the month of November, 1674, from the Bay of the Fetid, with two men, one of whom had already made that voyage with him.
During a month's navigation on the Illinois Lake he was pretty well; but, as soon as the snow began to fall, he was again seized with the dysentery, which forced him to stop in the river which leads to the Illinois. There they raised a cabin, and spent the winter in such want of every comfort that his illness constantly increased. He felt that God had granted him the grace he had so often asked, and he even plainly told his companions so, assuring them that he would die of that illness and on that voyage.
To prepare his soul for its departure, he began that rude wintering by the exercises of Saint Ignatius, which, in spite of his great bodily weakness, he performed with deep sentiments of devotion and great heavenly consolation; and then spent the rest of his time in colloquies with all heaven, having no more intercourse with earth amid these deserts, except with his two companions, whom he confessed and communicated twice a week, and exhorted as much as his strength allowed.
Some time after Christmas, in order to obtain the grace not to die without having taken possession of his beloved mission, he invited his companions to make a novena in honor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Contrary to all human expectation, he was heard, and, recovering, found himself able to proceed to the Illinois town as soon as navigation was free. This he accomplished in great joy, setting out on the 29th of March. He was eleven days on the way, where he had ample matter for suffering, both from his still sickly state and from the severity and inclemency of the weather.
Having at last reached the town on the 8th of April, he was received there as an angel from heaven; and after having several times assembled the chiefs of the nation with all the old men (anciens), to sow in their minds the first seed of the gospel, after carrying his instructions into the cabins, which were always filled with crowds of people, he resolved to speak to all publicly in general assembly, which he convoked in the open fields, the cabins being too small for the meeting.
A beautiful prairie near the town was chosen for the great council. It was adorned in the fashion of the country, being spread with mats and bear- skins; and the father, having hung on cords some pieces of India taffety, attached to them four large pictures of the Blessed Virgin, which were thus visible on all sides. The auditory was composed of five hundred chiefs and old men, seated in a circle around the father, while the youth stood without to the number of fifteen hundred, not counting women and children who are very numerous, the town being composed of five or six hundred fires.
The father spoke to all this gathering, and addressed them ten words by ten presents which he made them; he explained to them the principal mysteries of our religion, and the end for which he had come to their country; and especially he preached to them Christ crucified, for it was the very eve of the great day on which he died on the cross for them, as well as for the rest of men. He then said mass.
Three days after, on Easter Sunday, things being arranged in the same manner as on Thursday, he celebrated the holy mysteries for the second time; and by these two sacrifices, the first ever offered there to God, he took possession of that land in the name of Jesus Christ, and gave this mission the name of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin.
He was listened to with universal joy and approbation by all this people, who earnestly besought him to return as soon as possible among them, since his malady obliged him to leave them. The father, on his part, showed them the affection he bore them, his satisfaction at their conduct, and gave his word that he or some other of our fathers would return to continue this mission so happily begun. This promise he repeated again and again, on parting with them to begin his journey. He set out amid such marks of friendship from these good people that they escorted him with pomp more than thirty leagues of the way, contending with one another for the honor of carrying his little baggage.
After the Illinois had taken leave of the father, filled with a great idea of the gospel, he continued his voyage, and soon after reached the Illinois Lake, on which he had nearly a hundred leagues to make by an unknown route, because he was obliged to take the southern [eastern] side of the lake, having gone thither by the northern [western]. His strength, however, failed so much that his men despaired of being able to carry him alive to their journey's end; for, in fact, he became so weak and exhausted that he could no longer help himself, nor even stir, and had to be handled and carried like a child.> 1637JM003
Jacque Marquette died at age 37. In 1877, his remains were discovered at Point St. Ignace, Michigan.
Named after him are a river, mountain, island, diocese, towns, townships, cities, counties, parks, schools, and Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1895, the State of Wisconsin placed a statue of Père Jacques Marquette in the U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall.
An historical marker in Michigan reads:
"Father Jacques Marquette, the great Jesuit missionary and explorer, died and was buried by two French companions somewhere along the Lake Michigan shore on May 18, 1675. He had been returning to his mission at St. Ignace which he had left in 1673 to go exploring in the Mississippi country. The exact location of his death has long been a subject of controversy. A spot close to the southeast slope of this hill, near the ancient outlet of the Pere Marquette River, corresponds with the death site as located by early French accounts and maps and a constant tradition of the past. Marquette's remains were reburied at St. Ignace in 1677."
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1637JM001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Jacques Marquette, The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents-Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610-1791, Volume LIX, edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites (Cleveland, OH: Burrows Brother Company, 1900). Henry Steele Commager and Allan Nevins, editors, The Heritage of America- Readings in American History (Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1939; 1949), pp. 14-19.
1637JM002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Jacques Marquette, The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents-Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610-1791, Volume LIX, edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites (Cleveland, OH: Burrows Brother Company, 1900). Henry Steele Commager and Allan Nevins, editors, The Heritage of America- Readings in American History (Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1939; 1949), pp. 14-19.
1637JM003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Jacques Marquette. Account written in 1678 by Father Claude Dablon, Superior of the Missions of the Society of Jesus in Canada. http://america.library4history.org/VFW-Huguenots- California/COLONIZATION/DEATH-OF-MARQUETTE.html