CHARLEVOIX informs us that the discovery of the Mississippi River is due to father Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, who manifested the most unwearied enterprise in exploring the northwestern regions of New France; and after laying the foundation of Michilimackinac, proceeded, in company with Sieur Joliet, up the Fox River of Green Bay, and, crossing the portage into the Wisconsin, first entered the Mississippi in 1673.
Robert de la Salle, to whom the merit of this discovery is generally attributed, embarked at Rochelle, on his first voyage of discovery, July 14, 1678; reached Quebec in September following, and, proceeding up the St. Lawrence, laid the foundation of Fort Niagara, in the country of the Iroquois, late in the fall of that year. In the following year, he passes up the Niaga River; estimates the height of the falls at six hundre feet; and P1 eeding through Lakes Erie, St. Clair, and Huron, reaches Mich mackinac in August. He then visits the Sault de St. Marie, and returning to Michilimackinac, continues his voyage to the south, with a view of striking the Mississippi River; passes into the lake of the Illinois; touches at Green Bay; and enters the River St. Joseph's, of Lake Michigan, where he builds a fort, in the country of the Miamies.
In December of the same year, he crosses the portage between the St. Joseph's and the Illinois; descends the latter to the lake, and builds a fort in the midst of the tribes of the Illinois, which he calls Crevecoeur. Here he makes a stand; sends persons out to explore the Mississippi, traffics with the Indians, among all of whom he finds abundance of Indian corn; and returns to Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, in 1680. He revisits Fort Crevecoeur