Henri Joutel (c. 1643 – 1725) was a French soldier and explorer whose detailed journal serves as one of the most valuable eyewitness accounts of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle's final, ill-fated expedition to North America. Born in Rouen, Joutel served in the French military before joining La Salle's 1684 expedition, which aimed to establish a French colony near the mouth of the Mississippi River.\n\nDue to navigational errors, the expedition landed far to the southwest in present-day Texas, where they established Fort Saint-Louis. Joutel was appointed commander of this southern post. Following the loss of their ships, rising tensions, and the eventual assassination of La Salle by mutineers, Joutel took command of the remaining survivors. Between 1687 and 1688, he successfully led a small group northwards across land and rivers through the Illinois Country to New France, eventually returning to France.\n\nJoutel's written journal of these events offers some of the earliest and most detailed ethnographic, geographical, and natural history observations of the North American interior. Upon his return to France, Joutel settled in Rouen as a city gate guard. Although he declined invitations from the Minister of Marine to return to the New World, he lent his journal to Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville's 1699 expedition, which successfully established a permanent French presence near the Mississippi's mouth.
