Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley

For decades, English readers had only corrupted versions of the foundational texts documenting France's exploration of the Mississippi Valley. John Gilmary Shea spent decades consulting original Spanish and French manuscripts, some never before examined, to restore these narratives to their authentic form. This volume presents, for the first time in accessible English, the true account of Père Marquette's 1673 voyage down the Mississippi, accompanied by his original map as it actually came from his hand. Also included are the narratives of the missionaries who accompanied La Salle's later expeditions, completing the annals of how the French first charted the heart of North America. Shea's lifelong scholarship transforms what had long been a gap in American historical documentation into something indispensable. Anyone seeking to understand the earliest European encounters with the Mississippi Valley will find here the primary sources that made history, rendered with scholarly precision.