Henri Joutel, the writer of this narrative, was a native of Rouen, in France. His father had formerly been head-gardener to Henri Cavelier, the uncle of Réné Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, the explorer, whose presence and projects for a new voyage to the Mississippi were the engrossing subjects of interest to his fellow townsmen of Rouen just at the time of Joutel's return from a seventeen years' service in the army.[1]
Being then in the prime of his young manhood, of an adventurous spirit, unhampered by family responsibilities, and free for any new employment, he very naturally became a volunteer in the enterprise of his distinguished fellow-townsman. He evidently possessed a fair education for that day, and a character for reliability and experience, which, together with his personal and business qualifications, rendered him most acceptable to La Salle's projected undertaking. His social position in his native town, if we may infer from the title of "Mr." usually prefixed to his name, was that of a bourgeois—that class in the community which for centuries has been the mainstay and source of France's stability and prosperity. In the mixed military and naval expedition which sailed under La Salle's orders, his position seems not to have been that of a commissioned officer, though he styles himself in his Journal, "a Commander," but rather that of a personal lieutenant
- ↑ "Sixteen or seventeen years," as he says in his Journal, under date of July, 1684; "so that, as he could hardly have entered the service before the age of 18 or 20, he must have been, at the time he linked his fortunes to those of La Salle, about 35 or 37 years old—hence born, probably, about 1643-5."
