LE CARON, Joseph, French missionary, born in France; died there, 29 March, 1632. He became a member of the Franciscan order, and in 1615, with three others, followed Champlain to Canada, where they built a rude monastery on St. Charles river, near Quebec. Le Caron set out in the autumn of 1615 with some French traders for the Huron country, and, after enduring many hardships, reached Lake Huron, being the first white man to enter it. He landed at what is now Simcoe county, Ontario, and chanted the first Te Deum and said the first mass in the country of the Hurons on 12 August, 1615. His missionary labors were not successful, and, after wintering with the Indians, he set out with Champlain in the spring of 1616 for Quebec, and embarked for France. On his return, in March, 1617, he celebrated the first Christian marriage in Canada. In 1623 the French colony feared that the Hurons would abandon their alliance and join the Iroquois, and Le Caron was sent to the Huron country again, but with no success. When Quebec was taken, in July, 1629, by the English, Le Caron was led prisoner to England, but afterward released, he endeavored to return to Canada when it was restored to France, but every obstacle was thrown in his way by the commercial company that ruled the colony, and he is said to have died broken-hearted at his failure. Le Caron was the founder of the Huron mission, and left Huron vocabularies that were found useful by his successors in Canada.