[394] The signification of the word Ohio is "Beautiful River." According to Bancroft, it was called the Wabash in La Salle's time, and long afterward.
[395] "La Chine is a fine village three French miles to the southeast of Montreal, but on the same side, close to the River St. Lawrence. Here is a church of stone, with a small steeple, and the whole place has a very agreeable situation. Its name is said to have had the following origin: As the unfortunate M. de Sales was here, who was afterward murdered by his own countrymen further up the country, he was very intent on discovering a shorter road to China by means of the River St. Lawrence. He talked of nothing at that time but his now short way to China; but, as his project of undertaking this journey in order to make this discovery was stopped by an accident which happened to him here, and he did not at that time come any nearer China, this place got its name, as it were, by way of joke."—Kalm, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 699.
[396] See Appendix. No. LXIV. (vol. II.)
[397] "This is the site of New Orleans. New Orleans, holding, from its position, the command of all the immense navigable river-courses of interior America, is making the most rapid progress of any American city, and will doubtless one day become the greatest in that continent—perhaps even in the world. A formidable evil, however, exists in the insalubrity of the air, arising from the extensive marshes and inundated grounds which border the lower part of the Mississippi. The terrible malady that bears the name of the yellow fever, makes its first appearance in the early days of August, and continues till October. During that era New Orleans appears like a deserted city; all who possibly can, fly to the north or the upper country; most of the shops are shut; and the silence of the streets is only interrupted by the sound of the hearse passing through them. In one year two thousand died of this fever. Since the morasses have been partially cleared, its ravages have been less destructive; and, as this work is going on, the city may hope, in time, to be almost free from this terrible scourge."—Murray's America, vol. ii., p. 428.
[398] "Garcilasso de la Vega parle de cette nation comme d'un peuple puissant, et il n'y a pas six ans qu'on y comptoit quatre mille guerriers. Aujourd'hui les Natchez ne pourroient pas mettre sur pied deux mille combattans (1714)."—Charlevoix, tom. vi., p. 177.
[399] "La Louisiane est le nom que M. de la Sale a donné au pays qu'arrose le Mississippi audessous de la Rivière des Illinois et qu'il a conservé jusqu'à present. C'étoit en l'honneur de Louis XIV., qui regnoit alors en France."—Charlevoix, tom. ii., p. 436.
[400] Charlevoix thus speaks of the selection of M. de la Salle by M. de Seignelay: "Il n'est point de vertu qui ne soit mêlée de quelque défaut: c'est le sort ordinaire de l'humanité. Ce qui met le comble a notre humiliation, c'est que les plus grands défauts accompagnent souvent les plus éminentes qualités, et que la jalousie que celles-ci inspirent trouve presque toujours dans ceux-là un spécieux prétexte pour couvrir ce que cette passion a de bas et d'injuste. C'est à ceux qui sont établis pour gouverner les hommes à se faire jour pour sortir de cette labyrinthe, à dégager le vrai des ténébres dont la passion veut l'offusquer, et à connoître si bien ceux dont ils veulent se servir, qu'en leur donnent lieu de faire usage de ce qu'ils ont de bon, ils se précautionnent sur ce qu'ils ont de mauvais."—Charlevoix, tom. ii., p. 2.
[401] Mémoires de l'Amérique Septentrionale par M. le Baron de la Hontan: à Amsterdam, 1705. For the character of these memoirs, see Charlevoix, tom. vi., p. 408. They are translated in Pinkerton, vol. xiii.
[402] The North Pacific Ocean. The South Pacific Ocean had been discovered by the Spaniard Balboa in 1513.