Chapter I: Canada and Louisiana (4)

The _Relation du voyage des dames religieuses Ursulines de Rouen_, etc. (Paris, 1872), with an introduction and notes by Gabriel Gravier, is an exact reprint of a publication at Rouen in 1728 of certain letters of Marie Madeleine Hachard, sœur Saint-Stanislas, to her father. The account of the tedious journey of the nuns from Paris to Orient, and of their perilous voyage to New Orleans, was worth preservation. M. Gravier has performed his part of the work with the evident satisfaction which such a task would afford a bibliophile and an antiquary. His introductory chapter contains a condensed history of Louisiana down to 1727, and is strongly fortified with quotations. He acknowledges himself to be indebted to M. Boimare for a great number of valuable unpublished documents relating to the foundation of New Orleans. Greater familiarity with his subject would have enabled him to escape several errors of date and of statement into which he has been led by authorities whose carelessness he apparently did not suspect. The memorial concerning the Church in Louisiana (_note_ 1, p. 113 _et seq._) is a document of great value and interest. M. Gravier (p. lvi) states that the Relation is substantially the same as the _Relation du voyage des fondatrices de la Nouvelle Orléans, écrite aux Ursulines de France, par la première supérieure, la mère St. Augustin_, which was reprinted by Dr. Shea in an edition of one hundred copies in 1859, under the general title of _Relation du voyage des premières Ursulines à la Nouvelle Orléans et de leur établissement en cette ville [1727], par la Rev. Mère St. A. de Tranchepain; avec les lettres circulaires de quelquesunes de ses sœurs, et de la dite mère_ (62 pp.).

The _History of the American Indians, particularly those Nations adjoining to the Mississippi, East and West Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia_, etc., by James Adair, who was forty years in the country, is a work of great value, showing the relations of the English traders to the Indians, and is of much importance to the student of Indian customs.[104]

The _Géologie pratique de la Louisiane_, by R. Thomassy (New Orleans and Paris, 1860), contains copies of some rare documents which were first made public in this volume.

The _Histoire de la Louisiane_[105] by M. Barbé Marbois is so brief in its treatment of the period covered by this chapter that very little can be gained from consulting that portion of the book.

A work entitled _De la puissance Américaine_, by M. Guillaume-Tell Poussin, was published at Paris in 1843. A translation was printed at Philadelphia in 1851. The writer, from his familiarity with this country, was especially fitted to give a French view of our history. His chapter on Louisiana shows that he had access to the treasures of the Paris Archives. Its value, however, is diminished by the fact that he is inexact in his details.

Daniel Coxe, the son of Dr. Coxe, the claimant of the Carolana grant, published in London in 1722 _A Description of the English Province of Carolana, by the Spaniards call’d Florida, and by the French La Louisiane_.[106] The body of the text is devoted to a description of the attractions of the province to the emigrant. The preface contains an account of the entrance of the Mississippi by the vessel which was turned back by Bienville. The appendix is an argument in favor of the claimant’s title to the grant, and of England’s title to the Mississippi Valley. It contains a curious story of a Massachusetts expedition to New Mexico in 1678, and a claim that La Salle’s guides were Indians who accompanied that expedition.[107]

The official correspondence concerning the Louisiana boundary question may be found in Waite’s _American State Papers and Public Documents_ (Boston, 1815-1819), vol. xii. The temperate statements of Don Pedro Cevallos are in strong contrast with the extravagant assumptions of Luis de Orris, who even cites as authority the mythical Admiral Fonte.[108] Yoakum, in his _History of Texas_ (New York, 1856), goes over this ground, and publishes in his appendix an interesting document from the archives of Bexar.

_Illinois in the Eighteenth Century_, by Edward G. Mason (Fergus Historical Series, no. 12), Chicago, 1881, has two papers dealing with the topics of this chapter: “Kaskaskia and its parish records” and “Old Fort Chartres.” The recital of the grants, the marriages, and the christenings at Kaskaskia and St. Anne brings us close to Boisbriant, Artaguette, and the other French leaders whose lives are interwoven with the narrative of events in Illinois. The description of Fort Chartres is by far the best extant. The work of rescuing from oblivion this obscure phase of Illinois history has been faithfully performed.

The following works have been freely used by writers upon the early history of Illinois and the Illinois villages and forts:—

_The Administration of the Colonies_, by Thomas Pownall, 2d ed. (London, 1765). The appendix, section 1, deals with the subject of this chapter.

_A Topographical Description of North America_, by T. Pownall (London, 1776). Appendix, no. 4, p. 4, Captain Harry Gordon’s Journal, describes the fort and villages.

[Part of the _Map of Carolana and of the River Meschacebe_, in Daniel Coxe’s _Description of the English Province of Carolana_, London, 1742—ED.]]

Thomas Hutchins has also published two books,—_An Historical Narrative and Topographical Description of Louisiana_, etc. (Philadelphia, 1784), and _A Topographical Description_, etc. (London, 1778).

Captain Philip Pittman prepared a report on _The Present State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi_. It was published in London, in 1770. It is embellished with charts of the river and plans of several of the forts and villages.[109]

Also _Sketches of History, Life and Manners in the West_, by James Hall (Philadelphia, 1835), who visited the fort in 1829.

The _Early History of Illinois_, by Sidney Breese, contains an interesting description of French life in Illinois.[110] See also a chapter on the same subject in Davidson and Stuvé’s _Complete History of Illinois_ (Springfield, 1874). _The History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Mississippi Valley_, by John W. Monette (New York, 1846), also has an elaborate sketch of the settlement of Louisiana and Illinois.[111]

_Mississippi as a Province, Territory, and State_, by J. F. H. Claiborne (1880), devotes considerable space to the Province.

Extracts from a memoir by M. Marigny de Mandeville may be found in several of the histories of Louisiana of colonial times. In a note in Bossu[112] it is stated that such a work was published in Paris in 1765.

The story of Saint-Denys’ experiences in Mexico is told in H. H. Bancroft’s _North Mexican States_, p. 612 _et seq._, in which the sources of information are mainly Mexican and Spanish. The hero of Penicaut’s romances, viewed from this standpoint, becomes a mere smuggler.

Under the title _Historical Collections of Louisiana_, etc., Mr. B. F. French, in the years 1846-1875, inclusive, published seven volumes containing reprints and translations of original documents and rare books. Mr. French was a pioneer in a class of work the value of which has come to be fully appreciated. His _Collections_ close a gap on the shelves of many libraries which it would be difficult otherwise to fill. The work was necessarily an education to him, and in some instances new material which came to his hands revealed errors in previous annotations.[113] The value of the work would have been increased if abridgments and omissions had been noted.[114] The translation of the _Journal_ _historique_, etc., given in the collection was made from the manuscript copy in the library of the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia.[115] The Penicaut relation differs materially from the copy published by Margry.[116] The labors of Mr. French, as a whole, have been of great service to students of American history.[117]

The fourth and fifth volumes[118] of Pierre Margry’s _Découvertes et établissements des Français dans l’ouest et dans le sud de l’Amérique septentrionale_ contain the material upon which so much of this chapter as relates to Iberville’s expeditions is founded. We have here Iberville’s correspondence with the minister, his memorials, the instructions given to him, and his reports.[119] There are also some of Bienville’s despatches, and the correspondence with the engineer about New Orleans and about the bar at the mouth of the river. The publication of these volumes has enabled us to correct several minor errors which have been transmitted from the earlier chroniclers. Interesting as the volumes are, and close as their scrutiny brings us to the daily life of the celebrated explorer, it is not easy to understand why their contents should have been shrouded with such a profound mystery prior to their publication.[120]

The periodicals and tracts of the eighteenth century contain many historical articles and geographical discussions, from which historical gleaners may yet procure new facts.[121] The manuscripts in the Archives at Paris have by no means been exhausted. Harrisse, in his _Notes pour servir à l’histoire, etc., de la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1872), gives an account of the vicissitudes which they have undergone. He traces the history of the formation of the Archives of the Marine and of the Colonies and points out the protecting and organizing care, which Colbert during his ministry devoted through intelligent deputies to the arranging of those documentary sources, among which the modern historian finds all that the Revolution of 1789 has left to him.

The copies which from time to time have been procured from France for the State Archives of Louisiana have so generally disappeared, particularly during the Federal occupation, that but a small portion of them still remains in the State Library.[122]

EDITORIAL NOTES.

Copied from the head of a full-length portrait in _Het Groote Taferel_. Rigaud’s portrait of Law is engraved in Alphonse Courtois’ _Histoire des banques en France_, 2d ed. (Paris, 1881). Cf. also the print in Mouffle d’Angerville’s _Vie privée de Louis XV._ (Londres, 1781), vol. 1. p. 53.]

=I.= LAW AND THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE.—The literature of the Mississippi Scheme is extensive, and includes the relations of Law’s system to general monetary science. The Mississippi excitement instigated the South Sea Scheme in England. Holland, also, was largely affected, and gave, as well as England and France, considerable additions to the contemporary mass of brochures which grew out of these financial revolutions. Law’s own pleas and expositions, as issued in pamphlets, are the central sources of his own views or pretensions, and are included in the _Œuvres de J. Law_, published at Paris in 1790. These writings are again found in Daire’s _Économistes financiers;_ where will also be met the _Essai politique sur le commerce_ of Melon, Law’s secretary,—a production which Levasseur styles an allegorical history of the system,—and the _Réflexions politiques sur les finances et le commerce_ of Dutot, another of Law’s partisans, who was one of the cashiers of the Company of the Indies, and undertook to correct what he thought misconceptions in Melon; and he was in turn criticised by an opponent of Law, Paris Duverney, in a little book printed at the Hague in 1740, as _Examen du livre intitulé, etc._

Law’s proposal for his Mississippi Company is also included in a Dutch collection of similar propositions, printed at the Hague in 1721 as _Verzameling van alle de projecten en conditien van de compagnien van assuratie_, etc.

There are various _Lettres patentes_, _Édits_, _Arrests_, _Ordonnances_, etc., issued separately by the French Government, some of which are included in a volume published at Amsterdam in 1720,—_Recueil d’arrests et autres pièces pour l’établissement de la compagnie d’occident_. Others will be found, by title at least, in the _Recueil général des anciennes lois Françoises_ (Paris, 1830), vol. xxi., with the preambles given at length of some of the more important. Neither of these collections is complete, nor does that of Duhautchamp take their place; but all three, doubtless, contain the chief of such documents.

A few of the contemporary publications may be noted:—

_Some Considerations on the Consequences of the French settling Colonies on the Mississippi, from a Gentleman_ [Beresford] _of America to his Friend in London_, London, 1720 (Carter-Brown, vol. iii. no. 275).

_Impartial Inquiry into the Right of the French King to the Territory west of the Mississippi_ (London, n. d.).

_The Chimera; or, the French way of paying National Debts laid open_ (London, 1720).

_Full and Impartial Account of the Company of the Mississippi ... projected and settled by Mr. Law_. To which is added a _Description of the Country of the Mississippi and a Relation of the Discovery of it, in Two Letters from a Gentleman to his Friend_ (London, 1720). In French and English (cf. Carter-Brown, vol. iii. no. 276). This is an incentive to the speculation.

_Historische und geographische Beschreibung des an dem grossen Flusse Mississippi in Nord America gelegenen herrlichen Landes Louisiana_, etc. (Leipsic, 1720) 8vo. It has a map of Louisiana. There was a second edition the same year in 12mo, with _Ausführliche_ beginning a title otherwise the same (Carter-Brown, vol. iii. nos. 277, 278). It has an appendix, _Remarques über den Mississippischen Actien-Handel_, which is a translation of a section on Louisiana in _Aanmerkigen over den koophandel en het geldt_, published at Amsterdam (Muller, _Books on America_, 1872, nos. 915, 916; 1877, no. 1817).

_Le banquerotteur en desespoir; Das ist, der versweifflende Banquerottirer_, etc., with a long explanation in German of the lament of a victim, dated 1720, without place, and purporting to be printed from a Dutch copy (cf. Carter-Brown, ii. 258).

_Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid, vertoonende de opkomst, voortgang en ondergang der Actie, Bubbel en Windnegotie in Vrankryk, Engeland en de Nederlanden, gepleegt in dem Jaare DDCCXX._ (1720). This is a folio volume of satire, interesting for its plates, most of which are burlesques; but among them are a full-length portrait of Law, another of Mrs. Law in her finery, and a map of Louisiana. There is a copy in Harvard College Library. Cf. Carter-Brown, vol. iii. no. 270; Muller, _Books on America_ (1872), no. 1503.

There is in the Boston Public Library a contemporary manuscript entitled, _Mémoire d’après les voyages par Charles Le Gac, directeur de la Comp. des Indes à la Louisiane, sur la Louisiane, sa géographie, la situation de la colonie Française, du 26 aoust 1718 au 6 mars 1721, et des moyens de l’améliorer. Manuscrit redigé en 1722_. Le Gac was the agent of Law’s Company during these years.

The earliest personal sketch which we have noted is a _Leven en character van J. Law_ (Amsterdam, 1722).

_A Sketch of the Life and Projects of John Law_ was published in Edinburgh in 1791, afterward included in J. P. Wood’s _Ancient and Modern State of the Parish of Cramond_ (Edinburgh, 1794), and the foundation of the later _Life of John Law of Lauriston_, published by Wood at Edinburgh in 1824. This may be supplemented in some points by Chambers’s _Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen_.

Professor Smyth found, when he assigned one of his _Lectures on Modern History_ (no. 27) to Law and his exploits, that he got at that time the best exposition for his system in English from Steuart’s _Political Economy_. The latest summarized statement in English will be found in Lalor’s _Cyclopædia of Political Science_, vol. ii. (1883), and a good one in Mackay’s _Popular Delusions_. The general historians of England, more particularly Stanhope, do not tell the story of the great imitatory pageant of the South Sea Scheme without more or less reference to Law. Those of the United States necessarily recount the train of events in Paris, of which Louisiana was the background. A few English monographs, like J. Murray’s _French Financiers under Louis XV._, and an anonymous book, _Law, the Financier, his Scheme and Times_ (London, 1856), cover specially the great projector’s career; while the best key to his fate at the hands of magazinists will be found in Poole’s _Index to Periodical Literature_ (pp. 728, 854), where a popular exposition by Irving is noted, which having appeared in the _Knickerbocker Magazine_ (vol. xv. pp. 305, 450), has since been included in the volume of his works called _Wolfert’s Roost, and other Papers_.

In France the treatment of the great delusion has been frequent. The chief source of later writers has been perhaps Duhautchamp’s _Histoire du systéme des finances_ (à la Haye, 1739), which, with his account of the Visa, makes a full exposition of the rise and fall of the excitement by one who was in the midst of it. His fifth and sixth volumes contain the most complete body of the legislation attending the movement. Forbonnais’ _Recherches et considérations sur les finances de France à l’année 1721_ (Basle, 1758) is a work of great research, and free from prejudice. The _Encyclopédie méthodique_ (1783) in its essays on commerce and banking contributes valuable aid, and there is a critical review in Ch. Ganilh’s _Essai sur le revenu public_ (Paris, 1806). To these may be added Bailly’s _Histoire financière de la France_ (Paris, 1830); Eugène Daire’s “Notice historique sur Jean Law, ses écrits et les opérations du système,” in his _Économistes financiers du dix-huitième siècle_ (1843); Théodore Vial’s _Law, et le système du papier-monnaie de 1716_ (1849); A. Cochut’s _Law, son système et son époque_ (1853); J. B. H. R. Capefigue’s _Histoire des grandes opérations financières_ (Paris, 1855), vol. i. p. 116; J. P. Clément’s _Portraits historiques_ (1856); and le Baron Nervo’s _Les finances Françaises_ (Paris, 1863). L. A. Thiers’ encyclopedic article on Law was translated and annotated by Frank S. Fiske as _Memoir of the Mississippi Bubble_, and published in New York in 1859. This is perhaps the best single book for an English reader, who may find in an appendix to it the account of the Darien Expedition from the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, and one of the South Sea Scheme from Mackay’s _Popular Delusions_. Thiers’ French text was at the same time revised and published separately in Paris in 1858. Among other French monographs P. E. Levasseur’s _Recherches historiques sur le système de Law_ (Paris, 1854, and again, 1857) is perhaps the most complete treatment which the subject has yet received. We may further add Jules Michelet’s “Paris et la France sous Law” in the _Revue de deux mondes_, 1863, vol. xliv.; and the general histories of France, notably Martin’s and Guizot’s, of which there are English versions; the special works on the reign of Louis XV., like De Tocqueville’s; P. E. Lémontey’s _Histoire de la Régence_ (Paris, 1832); J. F. Marmontel’s _Régence du duc de Orléans_ (1805), vol. i. p. 168; and the conglomerate monograph of La Croix, _Dix-huitième siècle_ (Paris, 1875), chap. viii. Law finds his most vigorous defender in Louis Blanc, in a chapter of the introduction to his _Révolution Française_.

The Germans have not made their treatment of the subject very prominent, but reference may be made to J. Heymann’s _Law und sein System_ (1853).

The strong dramatic contrasts of Law’s career have served the English novelist Ainsworth in a story which is known by the projector’s name; but the reader will better get all the contrasts and extraordinary vicissitudes of the social concomitants of the time in the _Mémoires_ of St. Simon, Richelieu, Pollnitz, Barbier, Dangeau, Duclos, and others.

The familiarity of Mr. Davis with the subject has been of great assistance to the Editor in making this survey.

=II.= THE STORY OF MONCACHT-APÉ.—The writer of this chapter has, in the _Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society_, April 25, 1883, printed a paper on the story of Moncacht-Apé,—an Indian of the Yazoo tribe, who claimed to have made a journey from the Mississippi to the Pacific about the year 1700, which paper has also been printed separately as _The Journey of Moncacht-Apé_. The story, which first appeared in Le Page du Pratz’ contributions to the _Journal œconomique_, and first took permanent form in Dumont’s _Mémoires_ in 1753, was made in part to depend for its ethnological interest on the Yazoo marrying a captive Indian, who tells him a story of bearded white men being seen on the Pacific coast. That the Yazoo himself encountered on the Pacific coast a bearded people who came there annually in ships for dye-wood, is derived from the fuller narrative which Le Page du Pratz himself gives in his _Histoire de la Louisiane_ published five years later, in 1758.

Mr. Davis does not find any consideration of the verity of the story till Samuel Engel discussed it in his _Mémoires et observations géographiques_, published at Lausanne in 1765, which had a chart showing what he conceived to be the route of the Indian, as Le Page du Pratz had traced it, in tracking him from the Missouri to the streams which feed the Columbia River. The story was later examined by Mr. Andrew Stewart in _The Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec_, i. 198 (1829), who accepted the tale as truthful; and Greenhow, in his _History of Oregon_ (Boston, 1844, p. 145), rejects as improbable only the ending as Dumont gives it. In 1881, when M. de Quatrefage rehearsed the story in the _Revue d’anthropologie_, vol. iv., he argued that the bearded men must have been Japanese. It was this paper of the distinguished French anthropologist which incited Mr. Davis to the study of the narrative; and it is by his discrimination that we are reminded how the story grew to have the suspicious termination, after Le Page had communicated it to Dumont; so that in Mr. Davis’s judgment one is “forced to the unwilling conclusion that the original story of the savage suffered changes at Le Page’s hands.” The story has since been examined by H. H. Bancroft in his _Northwest Coast_, i. 599 _et seq._, who sees no reason to doubt the truth of the narrative.

There is an account of the early maps of the country west of Lake Superior and of the headwaters of the Mississippi in Winchell’s _Geological Survey of Minnesota, Final Report_, vol. i., with a fac-simile of one of 1737. Between 1730 and 1740 Verendrye and his companions explored the country west and northwest of Lake Superior, and reached the Rocky Mountains. Mills, _Boundaries of Ontario_, p. 75, says he failed to find in the _Moniteur_, September and November, 1857, the account of Verendrye’s discoveries by Margry, to which Garneau refers.

CARTOGRAPHY

OF

LOUISIANA AND THE MISSISSIPPI BASIN UNDER THE FRENCH DOMINATION.

BY THE EDITOR.

THE original spelling of the name Mississippi, the nearest approach to the Algonquin word, is _Mêché Sébè_,[123] a form still commonly used by the Louisiana creoles. Tonty suggested _Miche Sepe_; Father Laval, _Michisepe_, which by Father Labatt was softened into _Misisipi_. Marquette added the first _s_ in _Missisipi_, and some other explorer a second in _Mississipi_, as it is spelled in France to-day. No one knows who added a second _p_ in _Mississippi_, for it was generally spelled with one _p_ when the United States bought Louisiana.[124]

In Vol. IV. of the present _History_ the earliest maps of the Mississippi Basin are enumerated, and fac-similes or sketches of the following may be seen in that volume:—

1672-73 (p. 221). An anonymous map of the course of the Mississippi, which is also to be found in Breese’s _Early Hist. of Illinois_. Other early maps, without date, are noted in Vol. IV. at pp. 206, 215.

1673-74 (pp. 208, 212, 214, 218). Joliet’s maps; and (p. 220) Marquette’s map, which has since been reproduced in Andreas’s _Chicago_, i. p. 47.

1682-84-88 (pp. 227, 228, 230, 231). Franquelin’s maps,—the last of which has since been reproduced in Winchell’s _Geological Survey of Minnesota, Final Report_, i. pl. 2.

1683-97 (pp. 249, 251, 252, 253). Hennepin’s maps, also to be found in Winchell and Breese.

1685 (p. 237). Minet’s map; and without date (p. 235) the map of Raudin. The map which accompanied Joutel’s _Journal_ in 1713 also gave the topography of the time of Lasalle. (See p. 240.)

1688 (p. 232). The map of Coronelli and Tillemon; and (p. 233) that of Raffeix.

1702 (p. 394). The map in Campanius.

1703-1709 (pp. 258, 259, 260, 261). Maps in Lahontan.

* * * * *

It is in continuation of this series, which includes others not here mentioned, that the following enumeration is offered of the cartographical results which controlled and developed the maps of the eighteenth century.

The plates of the maps of Nicolas Sanson, who had died in 1667,[125] were towards the end of that century in the hands of Hubert Jaillot, who was later a royal geographer of France.[126] He published in Paris, in 1692, what passes for Sanson’s _Amérique Septentrionale_, with adaptations to contemporary knowledge of American geography. It naturally augments the claims of the French to the disputed areas of the continent. It was reissued at Amsterdam not long after as “Dressée sur les observations de M^{rs} de l’Academie Royale des Sciences.” The plate was long in use in Amsterdam, and I have noticed reissues as late as 1755 by Ottens.

The English claims to the westward at this time will be seen in “The Plantations of England in America,” contained in Edward Wells’ _New Sett of Maps_, London, 1698-99.[127]

The most distinguished French cartographers of the early part of the eighteenth century were the father and son, Claude and Guillaume Delisle. The father, Claude, died in 1720 at 76; the son, six years later, in 1726, at 51.[128] Their maps of _Amérique Septentrionale_ were published at Paris of various dates in the first quarter of the century, and were reissued at Amsterdam.[129] Their _Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi_ appeared first at Paris in 1703, and amended copies appeared at various later dates.[130] Thomassy[131] refers to an original draft by Guillaume Delisle, _Carte de la rivière du Mississipi, dressée sur les mémoires de M. Le Sueur_, 1702, which is preserved in the Archives Scientifiques de la Marine, at Paris. Thomassy (p. 211) also refers to an edition of Delisle’s _Carte de la Louisiane_, published in June, 1718, by the Compagnie d’Occident. Gov. Burnet wrote of this map to the Lords of Trade[132], that Delisle had taken from the borders of New York and Pennsylvania fifty leagues of territory, which he had allowed to the English in his map of 1703.

There is an Amsterdam edition (1722) of Delisle’s _Carte du Mexique et de La Floride, des Terres Angloises et des Isles Antilles, du Cours et des Environs de la Rivière de Mississipi_, measuring 24 × 19 inches, which includes nearly the whole of North America.

Nicholas de Fer was at this time the royal geographer of Belgium, 1701-1716.[133] We note several of his maps:—

_Les Costes aux Environs de la Rivière de Misissipi, par N. de Fer_, 1701. This extends from Cape Roman (Carolina) to the Texas coast, and shows the Mississippi up to the “Nihata” village. There is a copy in the Sparks MSS., vol. xxviii.

_Le Vieux Mexique avec les Costes de la Floride, par N. de Fer,_ 1705. This extends south to the Isthmus of Panama. There is a copy in the Sparks MSS., vol. xxviii.

_Le Canada ou Nouvelle France_, Paris, 1705. There is a copy in the Sparks MSS., vol. xxviii. It shows North America from Labrador to Florida, and includes the Mississippi valley. The region west of the Alleghanies is given to France, as well as the water-shed of the lower St. Lawrence.

De Fer also published, in 1717, _Le Golfe de Mexique et les provinces et isles qui l’environne_ [sic].

In 1718 his _Le Cours du Mississipi ou de Saint Louis_ was published by the Compagnie d’Occident.

Making a part of Herman Moll’s _New and exact Map of the Dominions of the King of Great Britain on the Continent of North America_, measuring 24 × 40 inches, issued in 1715, was a lesser draft called _Louisiana, with the indian settlements and number of fighting men according to the account of Capt. T. Nearn._[134]

When Moll, in 1720, published his _New Map of the North Parts of America claimed by France under the name of Louisiana, Mississippi, Canada, and New France, with the adjoining territories of England and Spain_ (measuring 24 × 40 inches), he said that a great part of it was taken from “the original draughts of Mr. Blackmore, the ingenious Mr. Berisford, now residing in Carolina, Capt. Nairn, and others never before published.” He adds that the southwest part followed a map by Delisle, published in Paris in June, 1718.[135]

In 1719 the Sieur Diron made observations for a map preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, _Fleuve Saint Louis, ci-devant Mississipi_, showing the course of the river from New Orleans to Cahokia, which was not drawn, however, till 1732.[136] About the same time (1719-20) the surveys of M. De Sérigny were used in another map, preserved in the Archives Scientifiques de la Marine, _Carte des Côtes de la Louisiane depuis les bouches du Mississipi jusqu’à la baie de Saint-Joseph_. Part of the gulf shore of this map is reproduced in Thomassy (plate ii.).

The year 1719 is also assigned to John Senex’s _Map of Louisiana and the river Mississipi, most humbly inscribed to Law of Lawreston_, measuring 22 X 19 inches.[137]

Gerard van Keulen published at Amsterdam, in 1720, a large map, in two sheets, _Carte de la Nouvelle France ou se voit le cours des grandes Rivières Mississipi et S. Laurens_, with annotations on the French fortified posts.

At Paris, in November, 1720, De Beauvilliers took the observations of La Harpe and drafted a _Carte nouvelle de la parte de l’ouest de la province de la Louisiane_.[138]

The map of Coxe’s _Carolana, 1722_, is given in fac-simile on an earlier page (_ante_, p. 70).

The _Memoirs of John Ker of Kersland_ (London, 1726) contain a “new map of Louisiana, and the river Mississipi.”[139]

The map in La Potherie’s _Histoire de l’Amérique Septentrionale_ (Paris, 1722, vol. ii.), called “Carte généralle de la Nouvelle France,” retains the misplacement of the mouths of the Mississippi, as La Salle had conceived them to be on the western shore of the gulf, giving the name “Baye de Spiritu Sancto” to an inlet more nearly in the true position of its mouths.

Thomassy[140] points out that William Darby, in his _Geographical Description of Louisiana_ (2d ed. 1817), in reproducing Jean Baptiste Homann’s map of Louisiana, published at Nuremberg as the earliest of the country which he could find, was unfortunate in accepting for such purpose a mere perversion of the earlier and original French maps. Homann, moreover, was one of those geographers of easy conscience, who never or seldom date a map, and the German cartographer seems in this instance to have done little more than reëngrave the map which accompanied the Paris publication of Joutel’s _Journal historique_, in 1713. Homann’s map, called _Amplisimæ regionis Mississipi seu Provinciæ Ludovicianæ a Hennepin detectæ anno 1687_, was published not far from 1730, and extending so as to include Acadia, Lake Superior, and Texas, defines the respective bounds of the English, French, and Spanish possessions.[141]

When Moll published his _New Survey of the Globe_, in 1729, he included in it (no. 27) a map of New France and Louisiana, showing how they hemmed in the English colonies.

Henry Popple’s _Map of the British Empire in America, with the French and Spanish Settlements adjacent thereto_, was issued in London in twenty sheets, under the patronage of the Lords of Trade, in 1732; and reissued in 1733 and 1740.[142] A reproduction was published at Amsterdam, about 1737, by Covens and Mortier. Popple’s map was for the Mississippi valley, in large part based on Delisle’s map of 1718.

Jean Baptiste D’Anville was in the early prime of his activity when the Delisles passed off the stage, having been born in 1697, and a long life was before him, for he did not die till 1782, having gained the name of being the first to raise geography to the dignity of an exact science.[143] He had an instinct for physical geography, and gained credit for his critical discrimination between conflicting reports, which final surveys verified. His principal _Carte de la Louisiane_ was issued as “Dressée en 1732; publiée en 1752.”[144] His map of _Amérique Septentrionale_ usually bears date 1746-48; and a new draft of it, with improvements, was published at Nuremberg in 1756.

A map made by Dumont de Montigny about 1740, _Carte de la province de la Louisiane, autrefois le Mississipi_, preserved in the Dépôt de la Marine at Paris, is said by Thomassy (p. 217) to be more valuable for its historical legends than for its geography.

In 1744 the maps of Nicolas Bellin were attached to the _Nouvelle France_ of Charlevoix, and they include, beside the map of North America, a _Carte de la Louisiane, Cours du Mississipi, et pais voisins_.[145] Bellin’s _Carte des embouchures du fleuve Saint-Louis_ (1744) is based on a draft by Buache (1732), following an original manuscript (1731) preserved in the Archives Scientifiques de la Marine, in Paris.

Bellin also dates in 1750 a _Carte de la Louisiane et des pays voisins_, and in an atlas of his, _Amérique Septentrionale, Atlas maritime_, published in 1764 by order of the Duc de Choiseul, Bellin includes various other and even earlier maps of Louisiana.[146]

Thomassy[147] also refers to a MS. map in the Bibliothèque Nationale, _Carte de la Coste et Province de la Louisiane_, dated at New Orleans, October 5, 1746, which is not, however, of much value.

There is a “Carte de la Louisiane” in Dumont de Montigny’s _Mémoires historiques de la Louisiane_, vol. i. (1753), a fac-simile of which is given herewith. It perhaps follows the one referred to above.

There is on a later page a fac-simile of the map, showing the carrying-place between the St. Lawrence and Mississippi valleys, which appeared in the London (1747 and 1755) editions of Cadwallader Colden’s _History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada_.

The controversy over the bounds of the French and English possessions, which was so unproductive of results in 1755, caused a large number of maps to be issued, representing the interests of either side. The French claimed in the main the water-shed of the St. Lawrence and the lakes, and that of the Mississippi and its tributaries. The English conceded to them a southern limit following the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, thence across Huron and Michigan, to the Illinois, descending that river to the Mississippi; and consequently denied them the southern water-shed of the St. Lawrence and most of the eastern water-shed of the Mississippi.

On the French side the following maps may be named:—

The great D’Anville map, _Canada, Louisiane, et les terres anglaises_, which was followed in the next year (1756) by D’Anville’s _Mémoire_ on the same map; Robert de Vaugondy’s _Partie de l’Amérique Septentrionale qui comprend le Cours de l’Ohio, la N^{lle} Angleterre, la N^{lle} York, New Jersey, Pensylvanie, Maryland, Virginie, Caroline; Carte Nouvelle de l’Amérique Angloise contenant le Canada, la Nouvelle Ecosse ou Acadie, les treize Provinces unies, avec la Floride, par Matthieu Albert Lotter_, published at Augsburg, without date; _Carte des possessions Angloises et Françoises du Continent de l’Amérique Septentrionale_, published by Ottens at Amsterdam, 1755; _Carte de l’Amérique Septentrionale, par M. Bellin_, 1755; in the same year the _Partie Orientale, et partie Occidentale de la Nouvelle France ou du Canada_, likewise by Bellin;[148] and the _Carte de la Louisiane par le Sieur Bellin, 1750, sur de nouvelles Observations on a corrigé les lacs, et leurs environs, 1755; Canada et Louisiane, par le Sieur le Rouge, ingénieur géographe du Roi_, Paris, 1755, with a marginal map of the Mississippi River.

In the English interests there were several leading maps: _A new and accurate map of North America (wherein the errors of all preceding British, French, and Dutch maps respecting the rights of Great Britain, France, and Spain, and the limits of each of His Majesty’s Provinces are corrected), by Huske_. This was engraved by Thomas Kitchin, and published by Dodsley at London, 1755. It gives the names of the French trading posts and stations. John Huske also printed _The Present State of North America, Part I._, London, 1755, which appeared in a 2d edition the same year with emendations, giving Huske’s map, colored, leaving the encroachments of the French uncolored. It was also reprinted in Boston, in the same year.[149]

Another is _A map of the British Colonies in North America, with the roads, distances, limits, and extent of the settlements_. This is John Mitchell’s map, in six sheets, engraved by Kitchin, published in London by Jefferys and Faden, 1755. John Pownall, under date of February 13, 1755, certifies to the approval of the Lords of Trade.[150] It was reëngraved, with improvements, a year or two later, at Amsterdam, by Covens and Mortier, under the title _Map of the British and French Dominions in North America_, on four sheets, with marginal plans of Quebec, Halifax, Louisbourg, etc.[151]

Lewis Evans issued his _General Map of the Middle British Colonies in America_ in 1755,[152] and it was forwarded to Braddock after he had taken the field, for his assistance in entering upon the disputed territory of the Ohio Valley,—indeed, its publication was hastened by that event, the preface of the accompanying pamphlet being dated Aug. 9, 1755.

This is sketched from the colored folding map in John Huske’s _Present State of North America, &c._, second edition, London, 1755. The easterly of the two pricked (dots) lines marks the limits within which the French claimed to confine the English seaboard colonies. Canada, or the region north of the St. Lawrence, east of the Ottawa, and south of the Hudson Bay Company and New Britain, together with the islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the northerly coasts of Newfoundland (to dry fish upon), constitute all that the British allowed to France. The stars represent the forts which they had established in the disputed territory; while the circle and dot show the frontier fortified posts of the English, as Huske gives them. The English claimed for the province of New York all the territory north of the Virginia line, west of Pennsylvania, and west of the Ottawa, and south of the Hudson Bay Company’s line. Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia extended indefinitely westward. The northern line of Virginia was established by the charter of 1606; the southern bounds mark where the Carolina charter of 1665 begins, and the bounds of Spanish Florida denote that charter’s southern limit, the territory being divided by the subsequent grant of Georgia. The space between the pricked line, already mentioned, and the other pricked line, which follows the Mississippi River to the north, is the land which is called in a legend on the map the hereditary and conquered country of the Iroquois, which had been ceded by them to the British crown by treaties and a deed of sale (1701), and confirmed by the treaties of Utrecht and Aix-la-Chapelle. Cf. _Description of the English and French territories in North America, being an explanation of a new map, shewing the encroachments of the French, with their Forts and Usurpations on the English settlements; and the fortifications of the latter._ Dublin, 1755 (Carter-Brown, iii. 1056).]

Jefferys pirated Evans’ map, and published it in 1758, “with improvements by I. Gibson,” and in this form it is included in Jefferys’ _General Topography of North America and the West Indies_, London, 1768. Pownall, who was accused of procuring the dedication of the original issue by “a valuable consideration” (_Mass. Hist. Coll._, vii. 136), called Jefferys’ reproduction badly done, and reissued Evans’ work in 1776, under the following title: _A map of the Middle British Colonies in North America, first published by Mr. Lewis Evans of Philadelphia in 1755, and since corrected and improved, as also extended ... from actual surveys now lying at the Board of Trade, by T. Pownall, M. P., Printed and published for J. Almon, London, March 25, 1776_. In this form the original plate was used as “Engraved by James Turner in Philadelphia,” embodying some corrections, while the extensions consisted of an additional engraved sheet, carrying the New England coasts from Buzzard’s to Passamaquoddy Bay.

A French copy, with amendments, was published in 1777.[153]

The map was also reëngraved in London, “carefully copied from the original published at Philadelphia by Mr. Lewis Evans.” It omits the dedication to Pownall, and is inscribed “Printed for Carrington Bowles, London; published, Jan. 1, 1771.” It has various legends not on Evans’ map, and omits some details, notwithstanding its professed correspondence. Evans had used the Greek character [Greek: ch] to express the _gh_ of the Indian names, which is rendered in the Bowles map _ch_.

Another plate of Evans’ map was engraved in London, and published there by Sayer and Bennett, Oct. 15, 1776, to show the “seat of war.” It covers the same field as the map of 1755, and uses the same main title; but it is claimed to have been “improved from several surveys made after the late war, and corrected from Governor Pownall’s late map, 1776.” The side map is extended so as to include Lake Superior, and is called “A sketch of the upper parts of Canada.” Smith (1756) says: “Evans’ map and first pamphlet were published in the summer, 1755, and that part in favor of the French claim to Frontenac was attacked by two papers in the _N. Y. Mercury_, Jan. 5, 1756. This occasioned the publication of a second pamphlet the next spring, in which he endeavors to support his map.”[154]

Evans’ pamphlet is called _Geographical, historical, political, philosophical, and mechanical essays. The first, containing an analysis of a general map of the middle British colonies in America; and of the country of the confederate Indians_ [etc.]. Philadelphia, 1755. iv. 32 pp. 4º. A second edition, with the title unchanged, appeared the same year, while “Part ii.” was published in the following year.[155]

By Gen. Shirley’s order N. Alexander made a map of the frontier posts from New York to Virginia, which is noted in the _Catal. of the King’s maps_ (British Museum), ii. 24. This may be a duplicate of a MS. map said by Parkman (i. p. 422) to be in the Public Record office, _America and West Indies_, lxxxii., showing the position of thirty-five posts from the James River to Esopus on the Hudson.

Le Page du Pratz gave a “Carte de la Louisiane, par l’Auteur, 1757,” in his _Histoire de la Louisiane_ (vol. i. p. 138), a part of which map is reproduced herewith. See also _ante_, p. 66.

In the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, 1757, p. 74, is “A map of that part of America which was the principal seat of war in 1756,” defining the Ottawa River as the bounds under the treaty of Utrecht.

Janvier’s _L’Amérique_, in 1760, carried the bounds of Louisiana to the Pacific.

Pouchot, in a letter dated at Montreal, April 14, 1758, describes a map, which he gives in his _Mémoires_, vol. iii., where it is called “Carte des frontières Françoises et Angloises dans le Canada depuis Montreal jusques au Fort Du Quesne.” It is reproduced in Dr. Hough’s translation of Pouchot, in the _Pennsylvania Archives_, second series, vi. p. 409, and in _N. Y. Col. Hist._, vol. x.

In 1760 Thomas Jefferys included a map of Canada and the north part of Louisiana in _The Natural and Civil History of the French Dominion in North and South America_, purporting to be “from the French of Mr. D’Anville, improved with the back settlements of Virginia and course of the Ohio, illustrated with geographical and historical remarks,” with marginal tables of “French Incroachments,” and “English titles to their settlements on the Continent.” This map ran the northern bounds of the English possessions along the St. Lawrence, up the Ottawa, across the lakes, and down the Illinois and the Mississippi. The northern bounds of Canada follow the height of land defining the southern limits of the Hudson Bay Company.

After the peace of 1763, Jefferys inserted copies of this map (dated 1762) in the _Topography of North America and the West Indies_ (London, 1768), adding to it, “the boundaries of the Provinces since the Conquest laid down as settled by the King in Council.” The map of 1762 is reproduced in Mills’ _Boundaries of Ontario_.[156]

Jefferys also gave in the same book (1768) a map of the mouths of the Mississippi and the neighboring coasts, which, he says, was taken from several Spanish and French drafts, compared with D’Anville’s of 1752 and with P. Laval’s _Voyage à Louisiane_.