The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Allouez, Claude Jean

ALLOUEZ, Claude Jean, one of the earliest Jesuit explorers of the northwest, born in France in 1620, died in 1690. He went to Quebec in 1658, and, after some years' training in the Algonquin missions on the St. Lawrence, founded the mission of the Holy Ghost at Chegormegon on Lake Superior in 1665, collected data as to the Mississippi, explored Green bay, where he founded the mission of St. Francis Xavier, and labored among the Foxes, Mascoutins, Miamis, and Illinois. In 1676 he permanently established at Kaskaskia in Illinois the mission begun by Marquette; but in 1679 he retired on the approach of La Salle, who was bitterly opposed to the Jesuits. His latest field of labor was among the Miamis on St. Joseph's river, where he died. His contributions to the Jesuit Rélations are among the most valuable records as to the ideas and manners of the Indians at the time.