DABLON, CLAUDE. - Jesuit, missionary among the Redskins, b. at Dieppe on 21 Jan. 1619; d. at Québec, on 3 May 1697. Having landed at Québec in 1655, he took part in several expeditions among the Hurons and the Iroquois; he explored Hudson Bay in order to establish mission centers there and to find a western passage to the sea, then called the China Sea; he was the first to report the rich copper mines in the Lake Superior region; he assigned Fr. G. Marquette to the expedition that led to the discovery of the upper Mississippi. His is also the first plan to connect Lake Erie with the Illinois River by a canal. Having founded the residence of Sault-Ste-Marie, he was appointed superior of all the Canadian missions (1686-93). His numerous letters and reports are still of high historical value, clear and comprehensive.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: Sommervogel. II, coll. 1773-75; R. G. Thwaites, Jesuit Relations, 72 vols., Cleveland 1896-1901 (see index); C. da Rochemonteix, Les Jésuites et la Nouvelle France au XVIIe siècle, II, Paris 1896; III, ibid. 1896, passim; T. J. Campbell, Pioneer Prints of North America, I, 2nd ed., New York 1913, pp. 110-33.

Celestino Testore

@incollection{ec4_dablon_claude, author = {Testore, Celestino}, title = {Dablon, claude}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1105}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/dablon-claude} }

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Dablon, Claude

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