Hennepin, Louis

(1640?-1701), a mi ionary of the Order of Recollets of St. Francis, was born in Belgium. He came to Canada in 1673, and founded a convent at Fort Frontenac in 1676. He accompanied La Salle’s expedition to the West and to the Niagara and the Upper Lakes in 1678, and constructed Fort Craévecceur in Illinois. Hennepin and his followers proceeded down the Mi i ippi until captured by the Sioux in 1680. On his return to Europe he published his ‘‘ Description de la Louisiane nouvelle ment découverte au sud-ouest de la Nouvelle France,’”’ and in 1697 his ‘‘ Nouvelle découverte d'un trés-grand pays situé dans l’Amérique, entre le Nouveau-Mexique et la mer Glaciale.”” He claimed to be the first to descend to the mouth of the Mi i ippi, but this is open to dispute.