Jean Nicolet
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Jean Nicolet (Nicollet) de Belleborne (1598 - November 1, 1642) was a French coureur de bois noted for exploring Green Bay in early modern North America.
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[edit] Life and exploration
[edit] Arrival at Quebec
In 1618, Jean Nicolet came to Quebec as a clerk and to train as an interpreter for the Compagnie des Marchands, a trading monopoly owned by members of the French aristocracy. As an employee, Jean Nicolet was a devotee of the Roman Catholic Church and a faithful supporter of the Ancien Régime.
On his arrival in Quebec, in order that he learn their language, he was sent to live with the Algonquins on Allumette Island, a friendly First Nation settlement on the important fur trade route on the Ottawa River. Nicolet returned to Quebec in 1635, but was then directed to go to the Lake Nipissing area where he spent more than eight years among the Nipissing First Nation nation, running a store and trading with the various indigenous peoples in the area.
From a relationship with a Nipissing native he had a daughter, Madeleine Euphrosine Nicolet, whom he later brought back with him to the colony. On July 19, 1629, when Quebec fell to the Kirke brothers who took control for England, Jean Nicolet fled back into the safety of the Huron country and worked against English interests until the French were restored to power. He died in a crash near quebec and drowned.
[edit] Green Bay, instead of China
Jean Nicolet is noted for being the first European to cross Lake Michigan, and, in 1634, became Wisconsin's first European explorer. He landed at Red Banks, near modern-day Green Bay, in search of a passage to the Orient. He and others had learned that the people who lived along these shores were called Winnebago ("the people from the stinking water") and "the People of the Sea." He concluded that these people must be from or near the Pacific Ocean and would provide a direct contact with China. In order to make an impression on his foreseen Chinese hosts, he dressed in a traditional silken Chinese robe.[1] Although he never reached China (let alone the Pacific Ocean), Jean did make an impression upon the local Amerindian natives with his colorful silk dress, as they mistook him for a well-dressed deity and promised not to block the fur trade from then on.[2]
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Brook, Timothy. (1998). The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22154-0
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