Claude Dablon (February 1618 – May 3, 1697) was a Jesuit missionary, born in

Dieppe Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to N ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. At the age of twenty-one he entered the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

, and after his course of studies and teaching in France, arrived in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 1655. He was at once dispatched with Father Chaumonot to begin a central mission among the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

Onondaga Onondaga may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Onondaga people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois League * Onondaga (village), Onondaga settlement and traditional Iroquois capita ...

. The diary he kept of this journey and of his return to

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

in the year following gives a graphic account of the terrifying conditions under which these journeys were made. Many of his diary notes were published during his lifetime in ''

Jesuit Relations ''The Jesuit Relations'', also known as ''Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France'', are chronicles of the Jesuit missions in New France. The works were written annually and printed beginning in 1632 and ending in 1673. Originally written ...

.'' In 1661 he accompanied Father

Gabriel Druillettes Gabriel Druillettes S.J. (also spelled Dreuillettes, Drouillettes, Drouillet, Droulletes, Drueillettes, Druilletes; 29 September 1610 – 8 April 1681) was a French Jesuit priest in New France who was an explorer, missionary to First Nations pe ...

, the "Apostle of Maine", on an expedition overland to Hudson Bay, the purpose of which was to establish missions among the Native Americans in that region and perhaps to discover an outlet through Hudson Bay to China. The expedition was unsuccessful and is only chronicled as another abortive attempt to find the famous

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arc ...

.Spillane, Edward. "Claude Dablon." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 14 January 2018 In 1668 Dablon was on

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

with

Claude-Jean Allouez Claude Jean Allouez (June 6, 1622 – August 28, 1689) was a Jesuit missionary and French explorer of North America. He established a number of missions among the indigenous people living near Lake Superior. Biography Allouez was born in Saint ...

and

Jacques Marquette Jacques Marquette S.J. (June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Sainte Marie, and later founded Saint Ign ...

, and he was the first to inform the world of the rich copper mines of that region, which later became so valuable to the Canadian economy. It was Dablon who appointed Marquette to undertake the expedition which resulted in the discovery of the Upper

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

; he also gave Marquette's letters and charts to the world. In connection with this discovery he called attention to the feasibility of passing from

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

"by cutting a canal through only half a league of prairie to pass from the end of the Lake of the Illinois ( Lake Michigan) to the River of St. Louis" (the Illinois River). This canal, projected by Dablon, was built in the 1840s as the

Illinois and Michigan Canal The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In Illinois, it ran from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed the Chicago Por ...

. After founding Sault Ste. Marie, Dablon became, in 1671, Superior General of all the Canadian Missions, retaining that office until 1680. He was reappointed in 1686 and remained superior until 1693. Charette, c.s.c., Marie-Jean-d’Ars. "Dablon, Claude", ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'', vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–
/ref> His contributions to the "Relations" are historically valuable with his descriptions of places and people and his narration of events.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dablon, Claude 17th-century French Jesuits 1618 births 1697 deaths Roman Catholic missionaries in Canada Canadian diarists Jesuit missionaries in New France French Roman Catholic missionaries