From Quebec Hennepin continued his missionary wanderings, sometimes to remote stations, and at one time, in the spring of 1677, among the Iroquois,—not going, however, to Albany, as has been sometimes asserted. (Cf. Brodhead’s New York, ii. 307; Hist. Mag. x. 268.) Next he accompanied La Salle in his explorations west. Of Niagara he offers us the earliest picture in his 1697 publication,—of which a reduced fac-simile is here given. Others are in Gay’s Pop. Hist. U. S., ii. 511; Shea’s Hennepin, p. 379, and in his Le Clercq, ii. 112; and in the Carter-Brown Catalogue, vol. ii. no. 561. The original cut was repeated in the later editions and translations of Hennepin. These Falls had been indicated on Champlain’s map, in 1632, with the following note: “Sault d’eau au bout du Sault [Lac] Sainct Louis fort hault, où plusiers sortes de poissons descendans s’estourdissent.” This was from the natives’ accounts. Ragueneau, in the Relation of 1648, was the first to describe them, though they had been known by report to the Jesuits some years earlier (Parkman’s Jesuits, p. 142). Lalemant, in 1641, called them Onguiaahra. Ragueneau gave them no definite altitude, but called them of “frightful height.” Hennepin, in his 1683 book, calls them five hundred feet, and in 1697 six hundred feet high, and describes a side-shoot on their western verge which does not now exist. Sanson, in his map of 1657, had somewhat simplified Ragueneau’s name into Ongiara; but Hennepin gives the name in its present form. There is a great variety in the early spelling of the name. (See Canadian Journal, 1870, p. 385.) The word is of Iroquois origin, and its proper phonetic spelling is very like the form now in use (Parkman, La Salle, p. 126; O’Callaghan, Col. Doc., index, 465). Hennepin had also been anticipated in a brief notice by Gendron, in his Quelques Particularites, etc., 1659. Hennepin’s account is also translated in the Mag. of Amer. Hist., v. 47. His engraving was reproduced, in 1702, in Campanius’ work on New Sweden.

Hennepin accompanied La Salle to the point where Fort Crèvecœur was built, on the Illinois, and parting from La Salle here in February, 1680, he pursued his further wandering down the Illinois to the Mississippi, and thence up to the Falls of St. Anthony, which were named by him in reference to his being a Recollect of the province of St. Anthony in Artois. On the 3d of July, 1880, the bi-centenary of the discovery of these Falls was observed, when C. K. Davis delivered an historical address. Thence, after being captured by the Sioux and rescued by a party under Du Lhut,[675] Hennepin made his way to the Wisconsin, passed by Green Bay, and reached Quebec. He soon after returned to France, where, on the 3d of September, 1682, he obtained the royal permission to print his first book, which was issued from the press Jan. 5, 1683.

From this point his story[676] can be best followed in connection with the history of his books, and as they are rare and curious, it has been thought worth while to point out a few of the repositories of copies, which are indicated by the following heavy-faced letters:—

BA.Boston Athenæum.
BPL.Boston Public Library.
C.Library of Congress.
CB.Carter-Brown Library, Providence.
HC.Harvard College Library.
HCM.Henry C. Murphy.
L.Lenox Library, New York.

For full titles, see the Bibliography in Shea’s edition of the Description of Louisiana, and the article “Hennepin,” in Sabin’s Dictionary. Cf. also Brunet, Supplément, 598.

I. DESCRIPTION DE LA LOUISIANE.

This first book was entitled Description de la Louisiane nouvellement découverte au Sud-Oüest de la Nouvelle France. Les Mœurs des Sauvages. Par le R. P. Louis Hennepin, Paris, 1683. Pages 12, 312, 107. Some copies are dated 1684.

Copies: BA., C., CB., HC., L. (both dates).

References: Shea (ed. of Hennepin), nos. 1, 2; Sabin, Dictionary, no. 31,347; Ternaux, Bibliothèque Amér. no. 985; Harrisse, Notes sur la Nouv. France, nos. 150, 352; Carter-Brown Catalogue, vol. ii. no. 1,266, with fac-simile of title; Hist. Mag., vol. ii. no. 24 (by Mr. Lenox), 346; Dufossé, Americana, 70 francs, with genuine map, and 40 or 50 francs with fac-simile; Leclerc, Bibl. Americana, nos. 897, 898 at 90 and 150 francs; Rich, Catalogue (1832), no. 402, 12s.