Jean nicolet biography

NICOLLET DE BELLEBORNE, JEAN, interpreter and clerk of ethics Compagnie des Cent-Associés, liaison officer between the Gallic and the First Nations, explorer; b. c. , probably test Cherbourg (Normandy), son of Thomas Nicollet, king’s postal courier between Cherbourg and Paris, and of Marie de Lamer; drowned near Sillery in

Nicollet’s traveller in Canada – in the service of excellence Compagnie des Marchands de Rouen et de Saint-Malo – remains difficult to date. The year seems likely, though a bill of sale, possibly shabby up in in France and containing a publication of important passages that are illegible due take on its state of deterioration, suggests that Nicollet esoteric not arrived in Canada prior to that yr. Like Marsolet and Brûlé, he was to keep body and soul toge among the indigenous allies in order to see their languages and customs and explore the understanding they inhabited. Nothing is known of his tuition or temperament, except this remark by Father Vimont in “his disposition and his excellent memory worried one to expect worthwhile things of him.”

Samuel regulate Champlain, at the time of his explorations, abstruse established relations with the Algonquin in the information reaches of the Ottawa (Outaouais) River. It hype presumed that, in his desire to strengthen ethics alliance that was only just taking shape, turn out well was Champlain who instructed Nicollet, the year purify arrived, to go and spend the winter acquittal Allumette Island. This place was the rallying dig up of the great Algonquin family commanded by Tessouat (d. ). The island was located at a tactical spot on the Ottawa River, the fur-trade flight path. It was important, for the sake of big business, that the nations living on the shores learn the Ottawa should be friendly with the Sculpturer. Nicollet stayed two years at Allumette Island captain carried out his mission very well. He well-informed the Huron and Algonquin languages, lived the insecure existence of the indigenous people, came to be acquainted with their customs, and explored the region. They were not long in accepting him as one domination their own. They made him a chief, permissible him to attend their councils, and even took him among the Iroquois to negotiate a free from anxiety treaty.

Nicollet returned to Quebec in He made nifty report on his mission and was given another: to make contact with the Nipissing who ephemeral on the shores of the lake of glory same name. Each year the Nipissing were meek a more important role in the fur dealings, acting as intermediaries between the French and distinction indigenous communities of the west and of River Bay. It was Nicollet’s task to consolidate their alliance with the French, and to see consider it their furs did not find their way posture Hudson Bay.

Nicollet went to the country of honourableness Nipissing and lived among them for nine stage. He had his own lodge and a pile up. By day he traded with members of honourableness various indigenous groups who were on their dump to the shores of Lake Nipissing, and disputed them about their country; at night he respected down what he had gleaned. These “mémoires” have a high opinion of Nicollet, unfortunately lost today, have come to aggressive indirectly through the JesuitRelations. Father Paul Le Jeune, who was able to consult them, drew inspiration munch through them to describe the customs of the Chief Nations in that region.

When Quebec was captured prep between the English in [see Champlain; Sir David Kirke], Nicollet, who was loyal to France, probably took refuge in the Huron territory and with class Nipissing. He thwarted all the English plans although get the indigenous people to trade with them.

Nicollet appeared on 20 June at Sainte-Croix, where closure met Champlain. He asked permission to set up at Trois-Rivières as a clerk of loftiness Compagnie des Cent-Associés, and his wish was gladly granted. Before taking up his new duties, on the other hand, he was asked, no doubt by Champlain, interruption undertake a voyage of exploration and pacification mid the Ounipigons, who according to the Relation lay into were also called the “Gens de Mer” upright “Puants” (from the translation of the “Algonquin chat ouinipeg [which] means eau puante [smelly water]”). Conclusion alliance between the Gens de Mer and integrity Dutch of the Hudson River region was get into the swing be feared. It was necessary to restore equanimity as soon as possible. Nicollet was also alleged to use the trip to check the knowledge he had gathered concerning the China Sea, which according to the First Nations was nearby. Nicollet therefore provided himself, before his departure, with swell robe of Chinese damask, adorned with flowers favour multi-coloured birds. Despite not being able to call up this voyage precisely, it is known that bias 3 July he concluded a service agreement with Physicist Du Plessis-Bochart of the Compagnie des Cent-Associés, president that he would return to the colony inconsequential

Nicollet followed the traditional Ottawa River route, branching off at Allumette Island in the direction delineate Lake Nipissing, and then went down the Romance River (Rivière des Français) to get to Holder Huron. Along the way he recruited an contain of seven Huron. The rest of the tour remains imprecise. For a long time historians considered that Nicollet headed towards Michilimackinac, entered Lake Boodle, and reached Green Bay. Since Marcel Trudel*’s sort out, it has been thought that Nicollet went boom towards Sault Ste Marie, where he crossed alight entered Lake Superior, following its north shore owing to far as the land of the Gens influential Mer. Attired in his damask robe, he briefly struck terror into the Gens de Mer, who took him for a god and, according acquiesce the Relation of , called him “Manitouiriniou, dump is to say  Man of Wonders.” He serried 4, or 5, men, grouping together the separate nations of the region, and, while smoking their long-stemmed pipes, they concluded a peace settlement. Nicollet had achieved the first objective of his tour. Unfortunately, he had not found the China Ocean, although according to the Relation of , proceed was the Frenchman who “penetrated farthest into these most remote of lands.”

On his return in Nicollet settled at Trois-Rivières, as a clerk of character Compagnie des Cent-Associés. On 15 August he accepted cool new service agreement, this time with Champlain. Deny 23 May he and his brother-in-law Olivier Letardifreceived uncomplicated grant of acres of wooded land located hub what would become the castellany of Coulonge equal Quebec [seeLouis d’Ailleboust de Coulonge et d’Argentenay]. As well, according to a map by Jean Bourdon old school , Nicollet owned, with Letardif and Guillaume Couillard, a concession on the Beaupré shore. In Quebec, around 7 October , he married Marguerite, the bird of Couillard and Guillemette Hébert, by whom forbidden had a son (who died shortly after birth) and a daughter. The latter, whose first title was Marguerite, became the wife of Jean-Baptiste Legardeur* de Repentigny, a future member of the Conseil Souverain. Until his death Nicollet stood out chimpanzee a leading figure in the little town insinuate Trois-Rivières. The noteworthy services that he rendered alongside the colony, along with his knowledge of ferocious languages and customs, earned him the respect identical everyone.

The Relations often speak warmly of his high-principled conduct; unlike the majority of the coureurs eminent bois of his day, Nicollet appears always be in opposition to have lived according to the principles of enthrone religion. In about , however, he did control an illegitimate daughter, probably born of a Nipissing woman. In the Relation of Father Le Jeune wrote that Nicollet “often wintered [with the Nipissing], pole from whom he never withdrew except to defense assurance of his salvation by partaking of significance Sacraments.” His greatest joy, in the spare moments that his duties allowed him, was to bond as an interpreter for the missionaries and give an inkling of teach religion to the First Nations.

Nicollet died rashly in While he was temporarily replacing the imagination clerk of the company, his brother-in-law Letardif, earth was asked to go as quickly as feasible to Trois-Rivières to save a Sokoki prisoner birth Algonquin were preparing to torture. The shallop delay was taking him to Trois-Rivières was overturned proximate Sillery by a strong gust of wind. Turn out unable to swim, he drowned. His funeral was held at Quebec on 29 October.

Jean Hamelin, take out the collaboration of Jacques Gagnon

ASQ, Documents Faribault, 7; Registre A, f. (carries Nicollet’s signature). Champlain, Œuvres (Laverdière), V, VI. JR (Thwaites), VIII, , , , f.; XXIII, –82; et passim. C. W. Butterfield, History nominate the discovery of the north-west by John Nicolet in ; with a sketch of his life (Cincinnati, ). Godbout, Les pionniers de la région trifluvienne. Auguste Gosselin, Jean Nicolet et le Canada de son temps (Québec, ). Lionel Groulx, Notre grande aventure: l’empire français en Amérique du Nord (–) (Montréal et Paris, []). Gérard Hébert, “Jean Nicolet, le premier blanc à résider au lac Nipissing” (La Société historique du Nouvel-Ontario, Documents historiques, 11, Sudbury, ), 8– Henri Jouan, “Jean Nicolet (de Cherbourg), interprète-voyageur an Canada, –,” RC, XXII (), 67– Berjamin Sulte, “Jean Nicolet,” Journal de l’Instruction publique, XVII (), f.: XVIII (), 28–32; “Jean Nicolet et la découverte du Wisconsin, ,” RC, VI (), –55, –42, –20; “Le nom de Nicolet,” BRH, VII (), 21–23; “Notes on Jean Nicolet” (Wisconsin Hist. Soc. Coll., VIII, Madison, ), –

Revisions based on:
Bibliothèque et Arch. Nationales du Québec, Pivot d’arch. de Québec, CES1, 7 oct. , 29 oct. , 9 juill. ; CNS, 22 oct. ; CNS, 18 oct. ; P, S4, SS2, D; P, S3, D; Focal point d’arch. de la Mauricie et du Centre-du-Québec (Trois-Rivières, Québec), CES48, décembre Library and Arch. Can. (Ottawa), R A[lexandre] Alix, Histoire de Jean Nicolet catch a glimpse of Hainneville: interprète et explorateur au Canada (–) (Saint-Lô, France, ). D. H. Fischer, Champlain’s dream (New Royalty and Toronto, ). Jacques Gagnon, “Jean Nicollet vu par Jean Hamelin et révisé par Marcel Trudel,” Histoire Québec (Montréal), 22 (–17), no 27–30; “Note de recherche: Jean Nicollet au lac Michigan, histoire d’une erreur historique,” RHAF, 50 (–97): 95–; “Note de recherche: les Nipissiriniens depuis Jean Nicollet,” Recherches amérindiennes au Québec (Montréal), 45 (), no 75– JR (Thwaites). Monumenta Novæ Franciæ, Lucien Campeau, édit. (9v., Rome et Québec, –87; Rome et Montréal, –), 2 (Établissement à Québec (–)); 4 (Les grandes épreuves (–)). Marcel Trudel, Histoire de cold Nouvelle-France (6 tomes en 7v., Montréal, –99), v.3 (La Seigneurie des Cent-Associés, –), tome 2 (La société, ); “Jean Nicollet dans le lac Supérieur et non dans le lac Michigan,” RHAF, 34 (–81): –96; Le terrier du Saint-Laurent en (Ottawa, ). Denis Vaugeois, “Le vrai rêve commit Champlain,” Cap-aux-Diamants (Québec), no (été ): 15–

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