Henri Joutel, a French explorer, born in Rouen about 1651. He was the son of a gardener, served in the army from an early age, and in 1684 joined La Salle's expedition to the mouth of the Mississippi. La Salle placed Jou-tel in command of his first fort in Texas, and also of the larger one, St. Louis, when he set out in November, 1685, to seek the river. On the last expedition, in January, 1687, Joutel accompanied La Salle, and was in charge of the camp when the latter was assassinated. Leaving the murderers, he set out with La Salle's brother and nephew and three others, and reached Canada by way of the Illinois. Thence he returned to France in 1688, and retired to his native city. In 1713 appeared at Paris his Journal historique du dernier voyage que feu M. de la Sale fit dans le golfe de Mexique, edited by M. de Michel. Charlevoix met Joutel at Rouen in 1723, and speaks highly of him. The only stain on him is his complicity in the fraud practised by Cavelier on Tonty in the Illinois country.