Jacques Esprit [SEP] native language
Jacques Esprit
Jacques Esprit (22 October 1611, Béziers – 11 June 1677), sometimes called abbé Esprit despite never having been ordained a priest, was a French moralist and writer.
Biography.
Born at Béziers, the son of a doctor from Toulouse, he joined his brother (an Oratorian priest) in Paris, where Jacques studied theology and letters from 1628 to 1634. He attended the salon of the marquise de Sablé and entered the service of the duchesse de Longueville then of the duc de La Rochefoucauld
as fur and mineral ores; and to convert the native population to Catholicism. Fur traders began exploring the "pays d'en haut" (upper country around the Great Lakes) at the time. In 1659, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard Chouart des Groseilliers reached the western end of Lake Superior. Priests founded missions, such as the Mission of Sault Sainte Marie in 1668. On May 17, 1673, Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette began the exploration of the Mississippi River, which they called the "Sioux Tongo" (