Chapter IX (8)

[473] The “Procès Verbal” of Talon, as given by Margry and Tailhan, mentions fourteen nations; among others: 1. Achipoés [Ojibways or Chippeways]; 2. Malamechs; 3. Noquets; 4. Banabeoueks [Ouinipegouek, or Winnebagoes?]; 5. Makomiteks; 6. Poulteattemis [Pottowattamies]; 7. Oumalominis [Menomonees]; 8. Sassassaouacottons [Osaukees or Sauks?]; 9. Illinois; 10. Mascouttins. The Hurons and Ottawas, at a later period, conferred with the French and assented to the treaty; and this would account for Talon’s assertion, as given in his report quoted in the text, that there were seventeen tribes.

[474] Margry, i. 367.

[475] Margry, i. 322. La Salle writes in August, 1682: “The brother Louis le Bohesme, Jesuit, who works for the Indians in the capacity of gunsmith at Sault Ste. Marie, advised him [a deserter] to hide in the house of the Fathers the goods which he stole from me.” (Margry, ii. 226.)

[476] [Cf. _Courcelles au lac Ontario_, in Margry’s _Découvertes et établissements des Français dans l’Amérique septentrionale_, part i. p. 169; and _Relation du Voyage de M. de Courcelles au lac Ontario_, in Brodhead’s _New York Colonial Documents_, vol. ix. p. 75.—ED.]

[477] Letter to Frontenac.

[478] [Given on a later page.—ED.]

[479] Shea, _Charlevoix_, iii. 177; Parkman, _Discovery of the Great West_, p. 154.

[480] Mount Joliet is about sixty feet in height. The summit is two hundred and twenty-five feet wide, and thirteen hundred long. It is forty miles southwest of Chicago, in the vicinity of the city of Joliet, Illinois.

[481] Joliet, in his letter written on the map prepared for Frontenac, speaks of passing the years 1673 and 1674 in explorations of the Mississippi valley. [See this letter in fac-simile on a later page.—ED.]

At the conclusion of his note to Frontenac, he alludes to the disaster which happened a quarter of an hour before his arrival at the point from which, in September, 1672, he had departed, in these words: “I had avoided perils from savages, I had passed forty-two rapids, and was about to land, with full joy at the success of so long and difficult an enterprise, when, after these dangers, my canoe upset. I lost two men and my box (_cassette_) in sight of, at the door of, the first French settlements which I had left almost two years before.”

Marquette conveys the impression that Joliet returned with him to Green Bay in September, 1673; but when, in a few weeks, he went back to the Illinois country between Chicago and Lake Peoria, he found several Frenchmen trading with the Indians, and among others mentions La Taupine, or Pierre Moreau, who in 1671 was with Joliet at Sault Ste. Marie. Near one of the upper tributaries of the Illinois on Joliet’s map appears Mont Joliet. May Joliet not have traded in this vicinity during the winter of 1673-1674, and may not Taupine and others have been his associates?

[482] [Cf. narrative in chapter vii. A plan of this fort is given on a later page.—ED.]

[483] Margry, i. 329.

[484] Ibid., i. 277.

[485] Du Lhut and Hennepin.

[486] Margry, i. 283.

[487] Ibid., i. 287.

[488] Ibid., i. 334.

[489] Margry, i. 333.

[490] Ibid., i. 337.

[491] _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 104.

[492] Margry, ii. 252.

[493] La Salle and Hennepin both write _Du Luth_.

[494] _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 795.

[495] Du Lhut’s letter to Seignelay, in Harrisse, speaks of the Izatys. The Issati or Isanti—Knife Indians—was the name of an eastern division of the Sioux that dwelt near Knife River, and perhaps made and traded stone knives.

[496] _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 132.

[497] Du Lhut’s letter, in Harrisse.

[498] Margry, ii. 252.

[499] Margry, ii. 251.

[500] Perhaps intended for Meshdeke Wakpa, River of the Foxes.

[501] Chapa Wakpa in the Sioux language is Beaver River.

[502] La Salle writes: “Michel Accault qui estoit le conducteur leur fit présenter le calumet.” Margry, ii. 255.

[503] La Salle, who probably received his information from the leader, Accault, gives a different version. [See the note on Hennepin on a later page.—ED.]

[504] Harrisse makes the date of the letter 1685, at which time its writer was near Lake Superior; Shea, in its translation appended to his edition of _Hennepin_, retains the same date.

[505] He probably established the post near the Sioux at the portage of the St. Croix River, which upon Franquelin’s map of 1688 is called Fort St. Croix. The hostility of the Indians at the Bay may have led him to seek the point by way of Lake Superior.

[506] Louis XIV. confusedly writes on July 31, 1684: “It also appears to me that one of the principal causes of this war proceeds from the man named Du Lhut having two Iroquois killed who assassinated two Frenchmen on Lake Superior.”

[507] Tonty in Margry, i. 614.

[508] Margry, ii. 343.

[509] Bellin, in _Remarques sur la Carte de l’Amérique Septentrionale_, Paris, 1755, writes: “In the eastern part of Lake Nepigon there is a river by which one may ascend to the head of Hudson’s Bay. It is said this was discovered by a Canadian named Perray, who was the first to travel this route, and gave his name to the river.”

[510] Son of Groseilliers.

[511] Fort La Tourette. See Franquelin’s map of 1688 on a later page.

[512] Greyselon de la Tourette.

[513] De la Barre, Oct. 1, 1684; _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 243.

[514] _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 231.

[515] La Potherie.

[516] La Potherie, chap. xv. 165.

[517] Franquelin, in his map of 1688, as will be seen, marks the hill where the French wintered as a few miles above the Black River, probably _montagne qui trempe l’eau_. Major Long, in 1817, writes of “high bluff-lands at this point towering into precipices and peaks, completely insulated from the main bluffs by a broad flat prairie.”

[518] Franquelin’s map of 1688.

[519] Denonville, Nov. 12, 1685, _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 263.

[520] The history of this soleil has been given by Professor J. D. Butler, of Madison, in _Wisconsin Historical Society’s Collections_. In 1686 it was presented to the Jesuit mission at Depere, Wisconsin. In 1687 the mission-house was burned; in 1802 the soleil was ploughed up, and is now in the vault of the Bishop of the Church of Rome at Green Bay. See Shea’s _History of Catholic Missions_, p. 372.

[521] Nicholas Perrot married Marie Madeleine Raclot. His child Francois was born at Three Rivers, Aug. 8, 1672; Nicolas was born in 1674; Clemence in 1676; Michel, in 1677; Marie, in 1679; Marie Anne, on July 25, 1681; Claude, ——; Jean Baptiste in 1688; Jean, Aug. 15, 1690. In his old age he resided at the seigniory, Becancour, not far from Three Rivers, on the St. Lawrence. About the year 1718 he died.

[522] Tonty had been ordered to raise a party of Illinois and attack in the rear, while Denonville was charging in front; but he could not find enough men, and therefore joined Du Lhut, his cousin.

[523] [See chap. vii.—ED.]

[524] Denonville, Aug. 25, 1687. _N. Y. Col. Docs._ ix.

[525] La Hontan writes: “I am to go along with M. Dulhut, a Lyons gentleman, and a person of great merit, who has done his King and his country very considerable service. M. de Tonti makes another of our company.” Joutel in his Journal mentions that Tonty reached his post in the Illinois country October 27, 1687.

[526] The post at Wisconsin River was called Fort St. Nicholas, suggested by Perrot’s baptismal name. In August, 1683, Engelran wrote to Governor de la Barre from Mackinaw: “M. de Boisguillot fulfils faithfully the duties of the position which has been assigned him during the absence of those who are under your command.” Le Sueur says St. Croix River was called from a Frenchman, and it is thought the River St. Pierre was named in compliment to Pierre Le Sueur.

[527] Sir Edmund Andros, the successor of Dongan as governor of New York, and subsequently governor also of New England.

[528] [See chap. iii.—ED.]

[529] [See chap. vi.—ED.]

[530] [Cf. also Benjamin Sulte’s papers, _Mélanges_, published at Ottawa, in 1876, and the Note on the _Jesuit Relations, sub anno_ 1640 and 1642-1643.—ED.]

[531] [See the Note on the _Jesuit Relations, sub anno_ 1645-1646.—ED.]

[532] [For an account of these general sources, see the Note following chap. vii., and the statements regarding Margry’s labors on a subsequent page.—ED.]

[533] [Cf. Shea’s _Charlevoix_, iii. 165, _Historical Magazine_, ix. 205; and the Note on the _Jesuit Relations_.—ED.]

[534] [See the Note on the _Jesuit Relations_.—ED.]

[535] In Margry’s _Découvertes_, etc.

[536] In his _Notes pour servir à l’Histoire, etc., de la Nouvelle France_.

[537] The bibliography of Hennepin is examined in a later note.

[538] There have been papers on the ancient mining on Lake Superior, by Daniel Wilson, in _The Canadian Journal_, New Series, i. 125, and by A. D. Hager, in the _Atlantic Monthly_, xv. 308.

[539] The North American Missions of the Catholics, particularly those of the West among the Hurons, etc., have been followed by A. J. Thébaud in _The Month_, xxxiii. 480; xxxv. 352; xxxvi. 168, 524; xxxvii. 228; xl. 379; xli. 60; xlii. 379; xliii. 337; and they of course make an important part of Dr. Shea’s _History of the Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States_. See the Note elsewhere in the present volume on “The Jesuit Relations.”

[540] Cf. “Early Notices of the Beaver in Europe and America,” by D. Wilson, in _The Canadian Journal_, 1859, p. 359; “French Commerce in the Mississippi Valley, 1620-1720,” in the _American Presbyterian Review_, iv. 620; v. 110.

[541] Cf. “Early French Forts in the Mississippi Valley,” in the _United States Service Magazine_, i. 356.

[542] Field, no. 1,081, who calls it the best of the books on Western history; Thomson’s _Ohio Bibliography_, no. 842.

[543] Mr. Perkins also published a paper on “French Discovery in the Mississippi Valley” in _The Hesperian_ (Columbus, Ohio), iii. 295; cf. papers by R. Greenhow, in _De Bow’s Review_, vii. 319.

[544] Made mainly about 1856, by P. L. Morin.

[545] There is a memoir of Colonel Thorndike in Hunt’s _Merchants’ Magazine_, ii. 508.

[546] An excellent bibliographical summary of the sources of the history of these early Western explorations, by Mr. A. P. C. Griffin, appeared in the _Magazine of American History_, 1883, also separately. The account of the sources of La Salle’s discoveries given in Edouard Frère’s _Manuel du Bibliographe Normand_ is scant. Mr. John Langton’s paper on “The Early Discoveries of the French in North America,” printed in _The Canadian Journal_, 1857, p. 393, enumerates some of the early maps. Dr. George E. Ellis’s “French Explorations in the West,” in the _North American Review_, cx. 260, is a review of Parkman; and J. H. Greene’s “Early French Travellers in the West,” in _Ibid._, xlviii. 63, is a review of Sparks’s _Life of Marquette_, which is one of the volumes of his _American Biography_.

[547] Margry, i. 81.

[548] _La Salle_, p. 450.

[549] _Histoire de la Colonie Française_, iii. 305.

[550] _Notes_, etc., no. 200.

[551] _Catalogue_, 1858, p. 1615.

[552] _Histoire de la Colonie Française_, vol. iii. p. 284.

[553] _N. Y. Col. Docs._, ix. 66. Margry (i. 73) gives various papers indicating the views of Talon on western exploration.

[554] Vol. i. p. 112.

[555] He edited it for the Historical Society of Montreal in 1875. An English translation of part of it is given in Mr. O. H. Marshall’s _First Visit of La Salle to the Senecas in 1669_, which was privately printed in 1874.

[556] A heliotype of it is given in the note on “The Jesuit Relations,” following chapter iv., _sub anno_ 1670, 1671. There is in the Kohl Collection (Department of State) what Kohl calls the “Jesuits’ map of Lac Supérieur;” but he gives it a somewhat later date, and says it is found in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. In the same Collection are maps of the Mississippi, dated 1670, and credited to “Thornton and Moll.”

[557] Parkman, _La Salle_, p. 452.

[558] _Découvertes_, etc., i. 376; cf. also p. 101.

[559] Cf. also Colonel Charles Whittlesey’s paper on “The Discovery of the Ohio River by La Salle, 1669-1670,” in no. 38, _Western Reserve and Northern Ohio Historical Society’s Tracts_. Dr. Shea thinks the legend “pour aller,” etc., was placed on the map by others.

[560] _Découvertes_, etc., ii. 285. The literature of this controversy is reviewed on a later page. Parkman thinks that La Salle crossed the Chicago portage and struck the upper waters of the Illinois, but did not descend that river, and suggests that the map called in a later sketch “The Basin of the Great Lakes” is indicative of this extent of La Salle’s exploration in the mere beginning of the Illinois River which it gives. Others reject the “Histoire” altogether, as Hurlbut does in his _Chicago Antiquities_, p. 250, not accepting Parkman’s view that La Salle was at Chicago in 1669 and 1670. Dr. Shea holds it was the St. Joseph’s River which La Salle entered.

[561] Shea (_Mississippi Valley_, p. lxxix) and Margry have done much to make known Joliet’s personal history. Margry has papers concerning him in the _Journal général de l’instruction publique_, and in the _Revue Canadienne_, December, 1871; January and March, 1872. Cf. Ferland, _Notes sur les registres de Notre Dame de Québec_, 2d ed., Quebec, 1863; Faillon, _Histoire de la Colonie Française_; Parkman, _La Salle_, pp. 49, 66.

[562] There has been a controversy over the point of Marquette’s being at Chicago. Cf. Dr. Duffield’s oration at Mackinaw, Aug. 15, 1878; H. H. Hurlbut on _Father Marquette at Mackinaw and Chicago_,—a paper read before the Chicago Historical Society, Oct. 15, 1878; A. D. Hager’s _Was Father Marquette ever in Chicago?_ which is replied to by Hurlbut in his _Chicago Antiquities_, p. 384; also see _Historical Magazine_, v. 99.

[563] _Notes_, etc., p. 322.

[564] In the _N. Y. Col. Docs._ (ix. 116), and in Margry, i. 257. See also Shea’s _Mississippi Valley_, p. xxxiii; Tailhan’s _Perrot_, p. 382.

[565] Vol. i. p. 259.

[566] This has appeared in the _Mémoires du Congrès des Américanistes_, 1879; and in the _Revue de Géographie_, February, 1880. The original manuscript of the map is priced in Leclerc, _Bibliotheca Americana_, no 2,808, at 1,500 francs. Gravier gave a colored fac-simile of it in connection with his essay, and the same fac-simile is also given in the _Magazine of American History_, 1883. This fac-simile is of a reduced size; but some copies were also reproduced of the size of the original.

[567] The Jesuit _Relations_ call it the “Grande Rivière” and the Messi-sipi; Marquette calls it “Conception;” and in 1674 it was called after Colbert. See an essay on the varying application of names to the Western lakes and rivers in Hurlbut’s _Chicago Antiquities_.

[568] The _Relation_ of 1666, and other of the early writers, record the reports from the Indians of a great salt-water lying west, where now we know the Pacific flows. A collation of some of these references has been given in Andrew McF. Davis’s elaborate paper on “The Journey of Moncacht-Apé,” in the _Proceedings_ of the American Antiquarian Society, new series, ii. 335.

[569] Cf. Parkman, _La Salle_, p. 25.

[570] Parkman, _La Salle_, pp. 25, 450. A sketch of it is given herewith as “The Basin of the Great Lakes.”

[571] No. 214.

[572] Vol. i. pp. 259-270.

[573] This is printed in the _Mission du Canada_, i. 193, and translated in the _Historical Magazine_, v 237.

[574] Pages 231-257.

[575] He repeated this fac-simile later in his edition of the _Relation_ of 1673-1679. The engraving of this map given in Douniol’s _Mission du Canada_ has a small sketch of an Indian cabin on it which does not belong to it. Cf. Harrisse’s _Notes sur la Nouvelle France_, pp. 142, 610; Shea’s edition of Charlevoix’s _New France_, iii. 180; and Parkman’s _La Salle_, p. 451. There are other reproductions of this map in Blanchard’s _History of the Northwest_; Hurlbut’s _Chicago Antiquities_; and in the _Annual Report of the United States Chief of Engineers_, 1876, vol. iii. A sketch is given herewith. Kohl credits four maps, dated 1673, to Marquette, as given in the Collection in the State Department at Washington, of which use has also been made in the present essay.

[576] Again in 1861 in Douniol’s _Mission du Canada_, ii. 241, edited by Martin.

[577] See the note on the _Jesuit Relations, sub annis 1673-1675_.

[578] There are copies in Harvard College, Lenox, and Carter-Brown Libraries. Copies of Thevenot vary much in the making up. See _O’Callaghan Catalogue_, no. 2,245; Stevens, _Bibliotheca Historica_, no. 2,068; _Brinley Catalogue_, no. 4,522; _Sparks Catalogue_, no. 2,592. Some copies have the date 1682; and the _Sunderland Catalogue_, no. 12,409, shows one with “Paris, I. Moette, 1689,” pasted over a 1682 imprint. A distinction must be kept in mind between this octavo _Recueil de voyages_, and Thevenot’s folio _Relations des divers voyages curieux_. The _Sobolewski Catalogue_ (nos. 4,112-4,113) compares Brunet’s collation.

[579] Of Thevenot’s text a defective translation was published in London in 1698, as a supplement to an English version of Hennepin. Later and better renderings are in the _Historical Magazine_, August, 1861, and in part ii. p. 277, etc., of French’s _Historical Collections of Louisiana_, accompanied by a fac-simile of a map by Delisle showing the routes of the early explorers. This section of Thevenot was reprinted (125 copies) in fac-simile, with the map, in Paris in 1845, for Obadiah Rich. There is a copy of this reprint in the Sumner collection in Harvard College Library, and in the Carter-Brown and Lenox libraries, and the latter library has devoted no. iii. of its _Contributions to a Catalogue_ (1879) to the “Voyages of Thevenot.” The _MSS. de la Bibliothèque impériale_, viii. 2d part, p. 11, note 1, shows a notice of the life of Thevenot. Harrisse, _Notes_, p. 140, compares the claims of several manuscripts of this narrative of Marquette.

[580] _Notes_, no. 202.

[581] _La Salle_, p. 452. From this Parkman copy the annexed sketch, to which the title, “Mississippi Valley, 1672-1673,” is given, has been taken. Another copy is given in the _Catalogue_ of the Library of Parliament, 1858, p. 1615, no. 16.

[582] _Sparks Catalogue_, p. 175. Shea (_Mississippi Valley_, p. lxxv) thinks that the routes of going and returning were inserted by an editor. This Thevenot-Marquette map is rare. Dufossé has variously priced copies of the _Recueil_ with the map at 150, 180, and 200 francs. Leclerc (no. 566) priced one at 325 francs.

[583] The contemporary account of Marquette’s death is given in the _Relation_ of that year, and in the “Récit de la mort du P. Marquette,” as published in the _Mission du Canada_. Cf. Shea’s _Charlevoix_, iii. 182, note; but Charlevoix’ account varies, and Parkman says it is a traditionary one, and that traces of the tradition were not long since current (_La Salle_, p. 72). Cf. “Romance and Reality of the Death of Marquette, and the Recent Discovery of his Remains,” by Shea, in the _Catholic World_, xxvi. 267, and “Father Marquette’s Bones” in the _Canadian Antiquarian_, January, 1878. In 1877 some human bones were found on the supposed site of the mission chapel at St. Ignace. Of Marquette’s successors in the Illinois mission, see Shea’s _Catholic Missions_, App., and _Wisconsin Historical Society’s Collections_, iii. 110.

[584] The claim was reinforced by Judge John Law in a paper on “The Jesuit Missionaries in the Northwest,” printed in the _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, vol. iii., with replies and rejoinders; Dr. Shea taking issue with him in a paper called “Justice to Marquette,” which originally appeared in the _Catholic Telegraph_, March 10, 1855. Parkman credits Shea also with a refutation in the _New York Weekly Herald_, April 21, 1855. The Jesuits alleged to have been on the affluents of the Mississippi thus early were Dequerre, Drocoux, and Pinet.

[585] _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, vii. 111.

[586] Printed in New York in 1879.

[587] _200e anniversaire de la découverte du Mississipi par Jolliet et le P. Marquette. Soirée littéraire et musicale à l’Université Laval, 17 juin, 1873._ Québec, 1873. One of the latest studies on the subject is by the Père Brucher, _Jacques Marquette et la découverte de la vallée du Mississipi_, Lyons, 1880,—which had originally appeared in the _Études réligieuses_. Cf. also R. H. Clarke in the _Catholic World_, xvi. 688; _Knickerbocker Magazine_, xxxix. 1; etc.

[588] But the King, May 17, 1674, was warning Frontenac not to foster discoveries. _Mass. Archives: Documents collected in France_, ii. 283.

[589] Shea, in his _Le Clercq_, ii. 199, says: “La Salle has been exalted into a hero on the very slightest foundation of personal qualities or great deeds accomplished;” and in his _Peñalosa_, p. 22, he finds it not easy to conceive how intelligent writers have exalted a man of such utter incapacity.

[590] Cf. E. Jacker, in “La Salle and the Jesuits,” in _American Catholic Quarterly_, iii. 404.

[591] Margry (i. 271) gives various papers on La Salle’s first visit to Paris, when he got the seigniory of Fort Frontenac, together with La Salle’s “Proposition” and the subsequent “Arrest,” his “Lettres Patentes,” and “Lettres de Noblesse.”

[592] Margry (i. 301) gives Frontenac’s letter to Colbert, 1677, relating to La Salle and his undertakings.

[593] Margry (i. 329) gives La Salle’s petition for further discovery, and the royal permission (p. 337).

[594] Margry (i. 421) gives the papers of La Salle’s financial management from 1678 to 1683; and further (ii. 7) gives various papers relating to La Salle’s movements in 1679.

[595] The exact position of this extemporized ship-yard is in dispute. Parkman puts it at Cayuga Creek, on the east side of the river, and gives his reasons. _La Salle_, p. 132.

[596] _Historical Magazine_, viii. 367.

[597] Parkman, _La Salle_, p. 169. This first vessel of the lakes has been the subject of some study. Hennepin gives a view of her building in his _Voyage curieux_, 1711 edition, etc., p. 100. Mr. O. H. Marshall has published, as no. 1 of the publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, a tract of thirty-six pages, called _The Building and Voyage of the “Griffin,”_ printed in 1879, giving in it a map of Niagara and its vicinity in 1688. Margry prints (i. 435) a “Relation des découvertes et des voyages du Sieur de la Salle, 1679-1681,” which he calls the Official Report of the transactions of this period made to the minister of the marine, and thinks it drawn up from La Salle’s letter by Bernou, and that Hennepin used it. Shea considers the question an open one, and that the Report may perhaps have been borrowed from Hennepin. A note on Hennepin and his contributions to the historical material of this period is on a later page.

[598] The principal portages by which passage was early made by canoes from the basin of the lakes to that of the Mississippi were five in number:—

1. By Green Bay, Lake Winnebago, and the Fox River to the Wisconsin, thence to the Mississippi,—the route of Joliet.

2. By the Chicago River, at the southwest of Lake Michigan, to the Illinois, thence to the Mississippi. This appears in the earliest maps of Joliet and Marquette, and is displayed in the great 1684 map of Franquelin, of this part of which Parkman gives a drawing in his _La Salle_, which with various later ones is repeated in Hurlbut’s _Chicago Antiquities_.

3. By the St. Joseph River, at the southeast corner of Lake Michigan, to the Kankakee, and so to the Illinois. This was La Salle’s route.

4. By the St. Joseph’s River to the Wabash (Ouabache); thence to the Ohio and Mississippi.

5. By the Miami River from the west end of Lake Erie to the Wabash; thence to the Ohio and Mississippi.

A paper by R. S. Robertson in the _American Antiquarian_, ii. 123, aims to show that this last portage was known to Allouez as early as 1680, and had perhaps been indicated by Sanson in his map of Canada as early as 1657. It would seem to have been little frequented, however, because of the danger from the Iroquois parties, but was reopened in 1716. Regarding La Salle’s connection with this portage, see a letter by Mr. Parkman quoted by Baldwin in his _Early Maps of Ohio_, p. 7, and letters of La Salle in Margry’s _Découvertes_, etc. Cf. H. S. Knapp’s _History of the Maumee Valley from 1680_, Toledo, 1872 (P. Thomson’s _Bibliography of Ohio_, no. 681). The southern shore of Lake Erie was the latest known of all the borders of the great lakes.

Margry in his fifth volume has two papers on the routes of these early explorers,—“Postes de la route des Lacs au Mississipi (1683-1695),” and “Postes dans les Pays depuis le Lac Champlain jusqu’au Mississipi (1683-1695).” The series of the Great Lakes show the following heights above tide-level at New York: Ontario, 247 feet; Erie, 573 feet; Huron and Michigan, 582 feet; Superior, 602 feet. The Mississippi at St. Paul is 80 feet above Superior.

[599] Parkman examines the evidence in favor of this site in a long note in his _La Salle_, p. 223.

[600] There is some dispute about the origin of this name. Le Clercq says it was so designated “on account of many vexations experienced there;” others say it was a reminiscence by Tonty of the part he had taken in the siege of Crèvecœur in the Netherlands. Cf. Shea’s _Hennepin_, p. 175.

[601] He now addressed to Frontenac, Nov. 9, 1680, a “Relation sur la nécessité de poursuivre le découverte du Mississipi,” which is given in Thomassy’s _Géologie pratique de la Louisiane_, Paris, 1860, App. B. p. 199. It is translated in the _Historical Magazine_, v. 196 (July, 1861). Margry (ii. 32) gives a letter of La Salle, in which he describes his operations and the obstacles he encountered in the Illinois country in founding Fort Crèvecœur, etc.; and (p. 115) another letter on the expedition (Aug. 22, 1680, to the autumn of 1681).

[602] Margry (ii. 164) gives a fragmentary letter of La Salle describing the country as far as the mouth of the Missouri; and (p. 196) another detached fragment, in La Salle’s hand, describing the rivers and peoples of the new region.

[603] Margry, ii. 181.

[604] The “Procès verbal de prise de possession de la Louisiane, 9 Avril, 1682,” is in Margry, ii. 186; in Gravier’s _La Salle_, App. p. 386; and in Boimare’s _Texte explicatif pour accompagner la première planche historique relative à la Louisiane_, Paris, 1868. The English of it is given by Sparks and in French’s _Hist. Coll. of Louisiana_, vol. i. and vol. ii.

[605] Zénobe Membré’s letter, “de la Rivière de Mississipi, le 3 Juin, 1682,” is given in Margry (ii. 206); and also (ii. 212) the letter of La Salle, dated at Fort Frontenac, Aug. 22, 1682, detailing his experiences.

[606] _Géologie pratique de la Louisiane_, p. 9. Cf. Harrisse, _Notes_, etc., no. 698. It is translated in French’s _Hist. Coll. of Louisiana and Florida_, 2d ser., ii. 17. Thomassy also printed in 1859 a tract of twenty-four pages, _De la Salle et ses relations inédites de la découverte du Mississipi, avec carte_.

[607] Parkman’s _La Salle_, p. 276.

[608] Membré’s narrative is translated in Shea’s _Discovery of the Mississippi_, p. 165. Cf. Shea’s _Charlevoix_, vol. iii. There is also a separate letter of Membré in _Hist. Coll. of Louisiana_, ii. 206, and other documents. Cf. the annotations in Shea’s _Charlevoix_ and _Le Clercq_; Falconer’s _Discovery of the Mississippi_, London, 1844; and the account from the _Mercure gallant_, May, 1684, in Margry, ii. 355; who also (i. 573) gives Tonty’s “Relation écrite de Québec, le 14 Novembre, 1684,” which Margry thinks was addressed to the Abbé Renaudot; it covers La Salle’s undertakings from 1678 to 1683.

[609] Margry, i. 547. See the account of the La Salle celebration in _Magazine of American History_, February, 1882, p. 139. Margry (ii. 263) groups together various contemporary estimates of La Salle’s discovery, including the accusations of Duchesneau (p. 265), and the defence of La Salle (p. 277) by a friend, addressed to Seignelay, and La Salle’s own estimates of the advantages to grow from it, in a letter dated at “Missilimakanak, Octobre, 1682.”

[610] Margry (ii. 302) prints some of De la Barre’s accusations against La Salle, and shows the effects of them on the King (p. 309); and gives also La Salle’s letters to De la Barre (p. 312), one of them (p. 317) from the “portage de Checagou, 4 Juin, 1683.” De la Barre, addressing the King (p. 348), defends himself (Nov. 13, 1684) against the complaints of La Salle.

[611] Parkman has given an abstract (_La Salle_ p. 458) of the pretended discoveries of Mathieu Sagean, who represents that he started at this time with some Frenchmen from the fort on the Illinois on an expedition in which he ascended the Missouri to the country of a King Hagaren, a descendant of Montezuma, who ruled over a luxurious people. The narrative is considered a fabrication. Mr. E. G. Squier found the manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, and bringing home a copy, it was printed by Dr. Shea, with the title, _Extrait de la relation des aventures et voyage de Mathieu Sâgean. Nouvelle York: à la Presse Cramoisy de J. M. Shea_. 1863, 32 pages. Cf. Field, _Indian Bibliog._, no. 1,347; Lenox, _Jesuit Relations_, p. 17; and _Historical Magazine_, x. 65.

There are some papers by J. P. Jones on the earliest notices of the Missouri River in the _Kansas City Review_, 1882.

[612] Margry (ii. 353) groups various opinions on La Salle’s discovery incident to his return to France in 1684.

[613] _Notes_, etc., nos. 209, 213-218. Harrisse also cites no. 229, a _Carte du Grand Fleuve St. Laurens dressee et dessignee sur les memoires et observations que le Sr. Jolliet a tres exactement faites en barq et en canot en 46 voyages pendant plusieurs années_. It purports to be by Franquelin, and is dated 1685. See _Library of Parliament Catalogue_, 1858, p. 1615, no. 17.

[614] Parkman, _La Salle_, p. 455; this is Harrisse’s no. 219; cf. his no. 223.

[615] _Notes_, etc. (1872), no. 222.

[616] _La Salle_, pp. 295, 455, where is a fac-simile of the part showing La Salle’s colony on the Illinois; and _Géologie pratique de la Louisiane_, p. 227.

[617] Harrisse, no. 223.

[618] Harrisse, no. 234; Parkman, p. 457.

[619] This also, according to Harrisse, is now missing; but the _Catalogue_ (1858, p. 1616) of the Library of Parliament (Ottawa) shows a copy as sent by Duchesneau to Colbert, and it has been engraved in part for the first time in Neill’s _History of Minnesota_, 4th ed., 1882. Another copy is in the Kohl Collection (Department of State) at Washington. A copy of Neill’s engraving is given herewith.

[620] _Notes_, etc., nos. 240, 248, 259.

[621] Ibid., no. 231.

[622] Ibid., no. 232. There is a copy in the Library of Parliament at Ottawa (Catalogue, 1858, p. 1616). Harrisse (nos. 248, 259) assigns other maps to 1692 and 1699.

[623] _La Salle_, p. 457.

[624] These two maps are in the Poore Collection in the State Archives of Mass. Cf. Harrisse, nos. 359, 361, 362; and Parkman (_La Salle_, p. 142), on the different names given to Lake Michigan.

[625] Parkman, _La Salle_, p. 454; _Library of Parliament Catalogue_, p. 1615, no. 18. Harrisse (nos. 236, 237) gives other maps by Raffeix. The Kohl Collection (Department of State) gives a map of the Mississippi of the same probable date (1688), from an original in the National Library at Paris. See the Calendar of the Kohl Collection printed in the _Harvard University Bulletin_, 1883-84.

[626] Harrisse, _Notes_, etc., no. 237.

[627] Parkman, _La Salle_, p. 454.

[628] _Notes_, etc., p. xxv and no. 241.

[629] See the third page following.

[630] _Notes_, no. 202.

[631] Margry, iii. 17, etc.

[632] Margry (ii. 359) gives La Salle’s Memoir of his plans against the mines of New Biscay, together with letters (p. 377) of Seignelay, etc., pertaining to it, and the Grants of the King (p. 378), and La Salle’s Commission (p. 382).

[633] Margry (ii. 387) prints various papers indicative of the vexatious delays in the departure of the expedition and of La Salle’s difficulties (pp. 421, 454, etc.), together with his final letters before sailing (p. 469). Various letters of Beaujeu written at Rochelle are in Margry (ii. 397, 421, etc.).

[634] Margry (ii. 485) gives letters of Beaujeu and others concerning the voyage. A fragmentary Journal of the voyage by the Abbé Jean Cavelier is also given in Margry (ii. 501), besides another Journal (p. 510) by the Abbé d’Esmanville.

[635] Margry (ii. 499) gives an account of this capture.

[636] Margry (ii. 521) gives some letters which passed between La Salle and Beaujeu after they reached the Gulf.

[637] Margry (ii. 555) prints an account of the loss of the “Aimable.”

[638] Margry (ii. 564, etc.) prints some letters which passed between La Salle and Beaujeu just before the latter sailed for France, and Beaujeu’s letter to Seignelay on his return (p. 577).

[639] This map is still preserved in the Archives Scientifiques de la Marine, and a sketch of it is in the text. Thomassy (p. 208) cites it as “Carte de la Louisiane avec l’embouchure de la Rivière du S^r de la Salle (Mai, 1685), par Minet,” and giving a sketch, calls it the complement of Franquelin. Shea thinks it was drawn up from La Salle’s and Peñalosa’s notes. Cf. Shea’s _Peñalosa_, p. 21; Harrisse, _Notes_, etc., nos. 225, 227, 228, 256-258, 260, 261, 263, who says he could not find on it the date, Mai, 1685, given by Parkman and Thomassy; Gravier, _La Salle_; and Delisle, in _Journal des Savans_, xix. 211. Margry (ii. 591) prints some observations of Minet on La Salle’s effort to find the mouth of the Mississippi.

[640] Dr. Shea puts the settlement on Espirito Bay, where Bahia now is.

[641] See his Relation of this voyage in Falconer’s _Discovery of the Mississippi_, etc.

[642] This is Parkman’s statement; but Shea questions it. Margry (i. 59) gives various notices concerning le Père Allouez, who was born in 1613, and died in 1689.

[643] See Brodhead’s _History of New York_, ii. 478, and references, and the text of the preceding chapter.

[644] Margry, iii. 553.

[645] Harrisse (no. 261) mentions a sketch of the Mississippi and its affluents, the work of Tonty at this time, which is preserved in the French Archives.

[646] Margry, iii. 567.

[647] Margry, ii. 359; iii. 17; translations in French, _Historical Collections of Louisiana_, i. 25; ii. 1; and in Falconer’s _Discovery of the Mississippi_, London, 1844.

[648] He refers to evidences in Margry, ii. 348, 515; iii. 44, 48, 63. Cf. Shea’s _Peñalosa_ and his _Le Clercq_, ii. 202. In this last work Shea annotates the narrative of La Salle’s Gulf of Mexico experiences, and makes some identifications of localities different from those of other writers. Cf. also _Historical Magazine_, xiv. 308 (December, 1868).

[649] There is an English translation in Falconer’s _Discovery of the Mississippi_, and in French’s _Historical Collections of Louisiana_, i. 52.

[650] Margry, i. 571.

[651] Joutel says it had a map; but later authorities have not discovered any. Cf. Harrisse, _Notes_, etc., no. 174; Leclerc, no. 1,027 (130 francs); Dufossé (70 and 100 francs); Carter-Brown, vol. ii. no. 1,522. It was reprinted as “Relation de la Louisiane” in Bernard’s _Recueil des voyages au Nord_, Amsterdam, 1720, 1724, and 1734, also appearing separately. An English translation appeared in London, in 1698, called _An Account of Monsieur de la Salle’s last Expedition and Discoveries in North America_, with _Adventures of Sieur de Montauban_ appended. (Harrisse, no 178; Carter-Brown, vol. ii. no. 1,542; Brinley, no. 4,524.) This version was reprinted in the _N. Y. Hist. Coll._, ii. 217-341.

[652] _La Salle_, p. 129.

[653] See vol. iii. pp. 89-534, and p. 648, for an account of the document.

[654] _La Salle_, 397; cf. Shea’s _Charlevoix_, i. 88-90.

[655] Joutel, according to Lebreton (_Revue de Rouen_, 1852, p. 236), had served since he was seventeen in the army.

[656] Harrisse, no. 750. The book is rare; there are copies in the Boston Public, Lenox, Carter-Brown (vol. iii. no. 117), and Cornell University (_Sparks’s Catalogue_, no. 1,387) libraries. Cf. Sabin, vol. ix. p. 351; Brinley, no. 4,497; Leclerc, no. 925 (100 francs); Stevens, _Bibliotheca Historica_, 1870, no. 1,036; Dufossé, nos. 1,999, 3,300, and 9,171 (55 and 50 francs); O’Callaghan, no. 1,276.

The book should have a map entitled _Carte nouvelle de la Louisiane et de la Rivière de Mississipi ... dressée par le Sieur Joutel_, 1713. A section of this map is given in the _Magazine of American History_, 1882, p. 185, and in A. P. C. Griffin’s _Discovery of the Mississippi_, p. 20.

In 1714 an English translation appeared in Paris, as _A Journal of the last Voyage perform’d by Monsr. de la Sale to the Gulph of Mexico, to find out the Mouth of the Mississipi River; his unfortunate Death, and the Travels of his Companions for the Space of Eight Hundred Leagues across that Inland Country of America, now call’d Louisania, translated from the Edition just publish’d at Paris_. It also had a folding map showing the course of the Mississippi, with a view of Niagara engraved in the corner. Cf. Harrisse, no. 751; Lenox, in _Historical Magazine_, ii. 25; Field, _Indian Bibliography_, no. 808; Menzies, no. 1,110; Stevens, _Historical Collections_, vol. i. no. 1,462; Carter-Brown, vol. iii. no. 55; Brinley, no. 4,498 (with date 1715). There are copies in the Boston Public, the Lenox, and Cornell University libraries. This 1714 translation was issued with a new title in 1719 (Carter-Brown, vol. iii. no. 244; Field, no. 809), and was reprinted in French’s _Historical Collections of Louisiana_, part i. p. 85. A Spanish translation, _Diario historico_, was issued in New York in 1831. Dumont’s _Mémoires historiques sur la Louisiane_, Paris, 1753, with a map, was put forth by its author as a sort of continuation of the Journal published by Joutel in 1713.

Shea speaks of Hennepin’s _Nouveau Voyage_ as “a made-up affair of no authority.” It is translated in French’s _Historical Collections of Louisiana_, part i. p. 214; in the _Archæologia Americana_; and of course in Shea’s _Hennepin_; cf. _Western Magazine_, i. 507.

[657] The Library of Parliament _Catalogue_, p. 1616, no. 30, gives a map, copied from the original in the French Archives, which shows the spot of La Salle’s assassination. La Salle’s route is traced on Delisle’s map, which is reproduced by Gravier.

[658] This portion of his Journal is translated in the _Magazine of American History_, ii. 753; and Parkman thinks it is marked by sense, intelligence, and candor.

[659] Translated into English in Shea’s _Discovery of the Mississippi_, p. 197, and in his edition of _Le Clercq_, where he compares it with Joutel. Parkman cannot resist the conclusion that Douay did not always write honestly, and told a different story at different times. _La Salle_, p. 409.

[660] Vol. iii. p. 601.

[661] _La Salle_, p. 436.

[662] Shea printed it from Parkman’s manuscript in 1858, and translated it, with notes, in his _Early Voyages up and down the Mississippi_. It is called _Relation du voyage entrepris par feu M. Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle....Par son frère, M. Cavelier, l’un des compagnons de voyage_. Shea says of it in his Charlevoix, iv. 63, that “it is enfeebled by his acknowledged concealment, if not misrepresentation; and his statements generally are attacked by Joutel.” Cf. Margry, ii. 501.

[663] Cf. Joutel, Charlevoix, Michelet, Henri Martin, and Margry in his _Les Normands dans les vallées de l’Ohio et du Mississipi_. Parkman modified his judgment between the publication of his Great West and his _La Salle_.

[664] Page 294.

[665] Page 208.

[666] Vol. iii. p. 610.

[667] Page 25. Cf. French, _Historical Collections of Louisiana_, 2d series, p. 293.

A few miscellaneous references may be preserved regarding La Salle and the Western discoveries:—

The paper by Levot in the _Nouvelle biographie générale_; one by Xavier Eyma, in the _Revue contemporaine_, 1863, called “Légende du Meschacébé;” Th. Le Breton’s “Un navigateur Rouennais au xvii^e siècle,” in the _Revue de Rouen et de Normandie_, 1852, p. 231; a section of Guerin’s _Les navigateurs Français_, 1846, p. 369; the Letters of Nobility given to La Salle, printed by Gravier in his Appendix, p. 360; where is also his Will (p. 385), dated Aug. 11, 1681, which can also be found in Margry, and translated in _Magazine of American History_, September, 1878 (ii. 551), and in Falconer’s _Discovery of the Mississippi_; a picture of his 1684 expedition, by Th. Gudin, in the Versailles Gallery; a paper on the discoveries of La Salle as affecting the French claim to a western extension of Louisiana, in the _Journal_ of the Royal Geographical Society, xiii. 223; paper by R. H. Clarke in the _Catholic World_, xx. 690, 833; “La Salle and the Mississippi,” in _De Bow’s Review_, xxii. 13. Gravier has furnished an introduction (69 pages) on “Les Normands sur le Mississipi, 1682-1727,” to his fac-simile edition (1872) of the _Relation du voyage des dames Ursulines de Rouen à la Nouvelle Orléans_ (100 copies) of Madeleine Hachard, following the original printed at Rouen in 1728 (Maisonneuve, _Livres de fond_, 1883, p. 30).

[668] He seems to have begun to make his copies in 1842, led to it by the work he had done when employed by General Cass.

[669] “Découverte de l’acte de naissance de Robert Cavelier de la Salle,” in the _Revue de Rouen_, 1847, pp. 708-711, and others mentioned elsewhere.

[670] Preface to eleventh edition of Parkman’s _La Salle_.

[671] From a copperplate by Van der Gucht in the London (1698) edition of Hennepin’s _New Discovery_. The Margry picture has unfortunately deceived not a few. It has been reproduced in the Carter-Brown Catalogue, and in Shea’s edition of Le Clercq’s _Établissement de la Foi_; and Mr. Baldwin speaks of the determination which its features showed the man to possess!

[672] The curious reader interested in M. Margry’s career among manuscripts may read R. H. Major’s Preface (pp. xxiv-li) to his _Life of Prince Henry of Portugal_, London, 1868. Mr. Major has clearly got no high idea of M. Margry’s acumen or honesty from the claim which this Frenchman has put forth, that the instigation of Columbus’s views came from France. Cf. Major’s _Select Letters of Columbus_, p. xlvii.

[673] Margry is not able to refer to the depository of this document, as it is not known to have been seen since Faillon used it. The copy of it made for Sparks is in Harvard College Library. See a translation of part in _Magazine of American History_, ii. 238.

[674] This method of supplying Canadian mothers is the subject of some inquiry in Parkman’s _Old Régime_, p. 220.

[675] Papers on Hennepin and Du Lhut are in the _Minnesota Hist. Soc. Coll._, vol. i. Du Lhut’s “Mémoire sur la Découverte du pays des Nadouecioux dans le Canada,” is in Harrisse, no. 177, and a translation is in Shea’s _Hennepin_.

[676] Shea (_Le Clercq_, ii. 123) notes a valuable series of articles on Hennepin by H. A. Rafferman, in the _Deutsche Pionier_, Aug.-Oct., 1880.

[677] [See chapter iv.—ED.]

[678] This was not the only missionary labor in New France during the period already noticed. In 1619 some Recollect Fathers of the province of Aquitaine in France, at the instance of a fishing company which had establishments on the Acadian coast, came over to minister to the French and labor among the Indians. Their field of labor included Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Gaspé; but of the results of their attempts to instil an idea of Christianity into the minds of the Micmacs, we can give no details. One of their number, Father Sebastian, perished in the woods in 1623, while on his way from his post at Miscou to the chief mission station on St. John’s River. Three surviving Fathers joined the Recollects at Quebec in 1624 by order of their provincial in France, and took part in their ministry till Kirk arrived.

[679] [It was printed in 1833, in the _Memoirs_ of the American Academy. His strong box, captured at the same time, was for a while (1845-1855) in the keeping of the Massachusetts Historical Society (_Proceedings_, ii. 322; iii. 40). Pickering, who edited the dictionary when printed, submitted to the same Society (_Proceedings_, i. 476) some original papers concerning Rale, preserved in the _Massachusetts Archives_, and these were used by Convers Francis in his _Life of Ralle_ in Sparks’s _American Biography_. Cf. also 2 _Mass. Hist. Coll._ viii. 2511 and Proceedings, iii. 324. An account of his monument is in the _Historical Magazine_, March, 1858, p. 84, and June, 1871, p. 399.—ED.]

[680] The Abenaki missions on the St. Lawrence and in Maine were continued, however; and a remnant of the tribe still adhere to the Catholic faith at Indian Old Town, on the Penobscot, as they did in the days of Rale and of Orono, their chief, who led them to fight beside the Continentals in the Revolution. They are now known as the Penobscots and Passamaquoddies, but are dwindling away.

[681] [Harrisse, _Notes sur la Nouvelle France_, no. 62, says the book is hard reading, which explains the little use made of it by historians. Chevalier, in his introduction to the Paris reprint by Tross, in 1864-66, arraigns Charlevoix for his harsh judgment of Sagard. The original is now rare and costly. Tross, before securing a copy to print from, kept for years a standing offer of 1,200 francs. There are copies in the Harvard College and Carter-Brown (vol. ii. no. 437) libraries. Rich, in 1832, priced it at £1 16_s._; Quaritch, in 1880, prices it at £63; and Le Clerc (no. 2,947), with the Huron music in fac-simile, gives 1,200 francs. Dufossé (_Americana_, 1876 and 1877-78) prices copies at 1,200 and 1,500 francs; cf. Crowninshield, no. 948, and Field’s _Indian Bibliography_, no. 1,344.

Of the _Grand Voyage_ of 1632, there are copies in Harvard College and Carter-Brown libraries, and in the Library of Congress. Other copies were in the Crowninshield (no. 949), Brinley (no. 143), and O’Callaghan (no. 2,046) sales. Harrisse (_Notes_, etc., no. 53) says that after the Solar sale, where it brought 320 francs, it became an object for collectors; and Dufossé, in 1877, priced it at 550 francs; Ellis & White, the same year, at £42; Quaritch, at £36; Rich, fifty years ago, said copies had brought £15. Cf. Field, no. 1,341. This book was also reprinted by Tross in 1865.—ED.]

[682] [This translation, of which only 250 copies were printed, was made by Dr. Shea. He introduces it with “A Sketch of Father Christian Le Clercq,” which includes a bibliographical account of his works. The book supplements in a measure Sagard’s _Histoire du Canada_, since that had given the earlier labors as this portrays the later works of the Recollects, or at least more minutely than Sagard. The Recollects had been recalled to Canada to thwart the Jesuits, and Le Clercq reached Quebec in 1673, and was assigned in 1675 to the vicinity of the Bay of Gaspé as a missionary field; and it is of his labors in this region that we learn in his _Nouvelle relation de la Gaspésie_, which was printed in Paris in 1691 (cf. Harrisse, _Notes_, 170; Field, _Indian Bibliography_, 902; Ternaux, 176; Faribault, 82; Lenox, in _Historical Magazine_, ii. 25; Dufossé, _Americana_, 1878, 75 and 100 francs; Sabin, vol. x. p. 159; Stevens, _Bibliotheca Historica_, 1870, no. 1,113; _Brinley Catalogue_, 102; Le Clercq, _Bibl. Amer._, 746, 140 francs; Carter-Brown, vol. ii. no. 1,415; O’Callaghan, no. 1,360), and Le Clercq refers his readers to the present work for a continuation of the story, but it does not contain it, that portion being suppressed, as Dr. Shea thinks. The Jesuits are bitterly satirized by Le Clercq in the concluding part of the first volume, and in the second of the _Établissement_. Shea’s collation of the _Nouvelle Relation_ does not correspond with the Harvard College copy, which has 28 instead of 26 preliminary leaves. See also Sabin’s _Dictionary_, vol. x. no. 39,649; Field’s _Indian Bibliography_, no. 903; Harrisse, _Notes sur la Nouvelle France_, no. 170; Boucher de la Richarderie, vi. 21; Faribault, p. 82.

The original edition of the _Établissement_ had two varieties of title, one bearing the author’s name in full, and the other concealing it by initials. It is very rare with either title, but copies can be found in the Carter-Brown Library (see _Catalogue_, no. 1,413), and in the Sparks Collection at Cornell University (see _Sparks Catalogue_, no. 1,482). Dr. Shea notes other copies in Baron James Rothschild’s library at Paris, and in the Abbé H. Verreau’s collection at Montreal. Mr. Stewart tells me there are copies in the libraries of Laval University, of the Quebec Government, Of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, and of Parliament, at Ottawa. The Leno Library has a copy of what seems the same edition, with the title changed to _Histoire des colonies françoises_, Paris and Lyons, 1692. Mr. Lenox (_Historical Magazine_, January, 1858), following Sparks and others, claimed that the 1691 edition was suppressed; but Harrisse (_Notes_, etc. p. 159) disputes this in a long notice of the book, in which he cites _Œuvres de Messire Antoine Arnould_, Paris, 1780, xxxiv. 720, to the contrary. Le Clercq’s book should have a map, “Carte generalle de la Nouvelle France,” which is given in fac-simile in vol. ii. of this translation. It includes all North America, except the Arctic regions, but, singularly, omits Lake Champlain.

President Sparks wrote in his copy: “An extremely rare book.... It is peculiarly valuable as containing the first original account of the discoveries of La Salle by two [Recollect] missionaries who accompanied him. From this book, also, Hennepin drew the account of his pretended discovery of the Mississippi River.” See the bibliographical notice in Shea’s _Discovery and Explorations of the Mississippi Valley_, p. 78. Sparks, in his _Life of La Salle_, first pointed out how Hennepin had plagiarized from the journal of Father Membré, contained in Le Clercq. See further in Shea’s _Mississippi Valley_, p. 83 _et seq._, where Membré’s journal in Shea’s translation from Le Clercq was printed for the first time, and the note on Hennepin, following chap. viii. of the present volume. Harrisse, _Notes_, etc., p. 160, points out what we owe to this work for a knowledge of La Salle’s explorations. Cf. Parkman’s _La Salle_; Field’s _Indian Bibliography_, no. 903, with a note touching the authorship; Brunet, _Supplement_, i. 810, noting copies sold,—Maisonneuve, 250 francs; Sóbolewski, 150 thalers; Tross (1873), 410 francs; Dufossé, 600 francs; Le Clercq, no. 2,833, 1,500 francs.

The bibliographers are agreed that others than Le Clercq were engaged in the _Établissement_, and that the part concerning Frontenac was clearly not by Le Clercq. Charlevoix says Frontenac himself assisted in it; and it is Shea’s opinion that extraneous matter was attached to Le Clercq’s account of the Recollect missions, to convert the book into an attack in large part on the Jesuits.—ED.

[683] Champlain’s _Voyages_, Prince ed. iii. 104 _et seq._

[684] _Establishment of the Faith_, i. 200, 346.

[685] [See a note on the bibliography of Hennepin, following chap. viii. of the present volume.—ED.]

[686] [S. Lesage, in the _Revue Canadienne_, iv. 303 (1867), gives a good summary of the Recollect missions.—ED.]

[687] [An annotated bibliography of the _Relations_ follows this chapter.—ED.]

[688] Harrisse, no. 122. The book has been priced by Leclerc at 500 francs, and by Quaritch at £16 16_s._ Field does not mention it in his _Indian Bibliography_.

[689] See chap. v.; and cf. _Historical Magazine_, ix. 205, and Shea’s _Charlevoix_, iii. 165. Also later _Sub_ 1655-56.

[690] Cf. Wilson on Mines in _Canadian Journal_, May, 1856.

[691] See _Mgr. de St. Valier et L’Hôpital Général de Quebec_. Quebec, 1882.

[692] This son, François Louis, entered the army, and was killed while in the service of King Louis, in Germany.

[693] A plan of this fort was sent by M. Denonville to France, on the 13th November, 1685. A copy may be seen in Faillon’s _Histoire de la Colonie Française_, iii. 467, entitled “Fort de Frontenac ou Katarakourg, construit par le Sieur de la Salle.” A sketch after Faillon is given on another page, in the editorial note on La Salle appended to chapter v.

[694] [Dr. Hawley says, in a note in his _Early Chapters of Cayuga History_, page 15, that this name is derived from _onnonte_, a mountain, and was given by the Hurons and Iroquois to Montmagny, governor of Canada, 1636-1648, as a translation of his name (_mons magnus_), and was applied to his successors, while the King of France was called _Grand Onontio_.—ED.]

[695] [See narrative in chap. vi. Margry (i. 195) gives the “Voyage du Comte de Frontenac au lac Ontario, en 1673,” with letters appertaining. Cf. _N. Y. Col. Doc._, ix. 95.—ED.]