Étienne Brûlé, a French explorer and voyageur,…

Étienne Brûlé, a French explorer and voyageur, had traveled to New France in 1608 at the age of sixteen or so and become a sort of 'exchange student' when he was sent by Samuel de Champlain to live with the Hurons in 1610; Champlain in turn had accepted the company of a Huron youth named Savignon.

Brûlé traveled with the Huron and their chief (Iroquet) to the southern shores of Georgian Bay, where he had spent a year in their village, learning their language and customs.

Becoming a scout for Champlain, he has explored much of what is now Quebec, Ontario, and Michigan.

He is probably the first European to see all the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Erie, Michigan and Superior, and one of the first Europeans to set foot in the future states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.

He has traveled widely, going as far south as the Chesapeake Bay, and as far west as the site of Duluth, Minnesota.

He had been briefly captured and tortured by the Iroquois on the way back to Quebec.

Champlain and the Jesuits have often spoken out against Brûlé's adoption of Huron customs, as well as his association with the fur traders, who are beyond the control of the colonial government.

Brûlé leaves Quebec to live with the natives in the 1620s and becomes the first European to travel up what will be named the St. Marys River and into Lake Superior.