le sueur came to canada with the jesuits to their mission at sault sainte marie, but very soon he turned himself to fur trade and became a coureur des bois. he was fluent in several native languages, which was crucial to his success in trade. around 1683, he received some samples of bluish clay from the middle reaches of a tributary of the mississippi and took it back to france to be analyzed. a chemist, alexandre l'huillier, deemed it to be copper ore. le sueur returned to new france to mine this ore, but was waylayed by, among other things, a prison term for overreaching his trade privileges. he was present at the formal assertion of french sovereignty of canada, declared in 1689 by nicholas perrot at green bay. eventually, however, he was given a royal commission to open a copper mine (although some suggested he was more interested in "mining furs").