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 The Expansio7i of England 345 And. a fourth group, especially dangerous from their spirit and energy, was formed by those who fretted at the closing of those outlets for ambition, and the loss of those opportunities for aggrandizement, through political intrigue or military prowess, that had been current of old. Such a mass of disaffection, however latent or suppressed, was obviously a standing menace to the tranquillity of the country, constituting a solid basis, and providing a power- ful agency for the rousing of evil passions and the promotion of seditious enterprise, — a sure factor in any movement or question involving the peace or security of the state. V. The Jesuits in North America The spirit of the Jesuit explorers is clearly to be seen in Father Marquette's account of his discovery of the Mis- sissippi River in 1673. The feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed 373. How Virgin — whom I have always invoked since I have been in Mar( l uette descended this country of the Outaouacs to obtain from God the grace the Missis- of being able to visit the nations who dwell along the Missis- sippi River sippi River — was precisely the day on which Monsieur Joliet m l673 ' arrived with orders to accomplish this discovery with me. . . . We were not long in preparing all our equipment, although we were about to begin a voyage the duration of which we could not foresee. Indian corn, with some smoked meat, constituted all our provisions. With these we embarked — Monsieur Joliet and myself with five men — in two bark canoes, fully resolved to do and suffer everything for so glorious an undertaking. Accordingly, on the seventeenth day of May, 1673, we started from the mission of St. Ignace at Michilimakinac, where I then was. The joy that we felt at being selected for this expedition animated our courage and rendered the labor of paddling from morning to night agreeable to us. And because we were going to seek unknown countries we took every precaution in our power, so that if our undertaking