One of the earliest French missionaries and explorers of the country near the
Great Lakes; born in 1620.
After laboring among the Indians on the
St. Lawrence several years, he penetrated the
Western wilds and established a mission on the western shores of
Lake Michigan, where he heard much about the
Mississippi River, and made notes of what he learned concerning it. He explored
Green Bay, and founded a mission among the Foxes,
Miamis, and other tribes there.
A mission begun by Marquette at
Kaskaskia, Ill.,
Allouez sought to make his permanent field of labor; but when
La Salle, the bitter opponent of the Jesuits, approached in 1679, he retired.
Returning to the Miamis on the St. Joseph's River, he labored for a while, and died, Aug. 27, 1689.
The contributions of
Father Allouez to the
Jesuit relations are most valuable records of the ideas and manners of the Indians.