First French foot-prints beyond the lakes, or, What brought the French so early into the Northwest?

the long version

The author begins this article by briefly outlining a number of early French visits to the region of Wisconsin and Illinois from 1634 to 1684. He then poses this question and sums up in the answer the theme of the remainder of the article: “How shall we account for the phenomenon I have now sketched, that the French penetrated so far inland so early and so persistently? My answer to this question is implied in the words Fun, Faith, Fur, False Fancies, Finesse and Feudalism.”