What became of jolliet's journal?
ARLY in the fall of 1672 Louis Jolliet, fur trader and explorer, was selected by Intendant Jean Talon to ascertain into which body of water the Mississippi River disembogued.' The remote purpose of this assignment was much like that of the one entrusted to Sieur de Saint Lusson in 1671, who in June of that year supervised the annexation ceremonies conducted at Sault Ste. Marie. In fact, the two enterprises were closely allied, that of Jolliet being a further step, on the part of the French Government, toward seizing for its own advancement the reins of political ascendancy and economic control in the new West-the Great Lakes and Mississippi River regions-so emphatically expressed in the Lusson demonstration at Sault Ste. Marie.2