on July 23 they laid their report before the intendant.

One of the last but not the least of the explorations
made under Talon's auspices was that which he entrusted
to Louis Jolliet, and which resulted in the discovery of
the upper Mississippi. Jolliet left Montreal in the autumn
of 1672 and wintered at Michilimackinac, where he joined
Father Marquette. Next spring they set out together, and
by way of Lake Michigan, Green Bay, Fox river, and the
Wisconsin they reached the giant river, the mighty
Mississippi, which they followed down as far as latitude
33 degrees. Thus was discovered the highway through the
interior of the continent to the Gulf of Mexico. One
result of the discovery was the birth of Louisiana a few
years later.

Talon's patriotic enthusiasm was justified when he wrote
to Louis XIV: 'I am no courtier and it is not to please
the king or without reason that I say this portion of
the French monarchy is going to become something great.
What I see now enables me to make such a prediction. The
foreign colonies established on the adjoining shores of
the ocean are already uneasy at what His Majesty has done
here during the last seven years.' This confidence was
probably not shared by the king and his minister, for,
in a letter to Frontenac some time later, Colbert
remonstrated against long journeys to the upper St Lawrence
and outlying settlements, and expressed his disapproval
of discoveries far away in the interior of the continent
where the French could never settle or remain. Undoubtedly