Louis Joliet was a French-Canadian explorer born in Quebec in 1645. He was educated by the Jesuits and had his first job as a fur trader working with Native Americans. In 1673, he was commissioned by the French governor to explore the Mississippi River with Jacques Marquette, a priest. Although Marquette died during the expedition in 1677, Joliet continued on and discovered that the Mississippi did not flow to the Pacific Ocean as previously thought. He returned to Quebec and later had a career as a royal hydrographer before dying in 1700.