He derives new matter from the public archives in France, goes over afresh the whole history of Champlain’s career, and throws light on points left dark by Charlevoix and the earlier narrators, and is in some respects the best of the recent French historians; but Parkman (Jesuits, p. 193) cautions us that his partisan character as an ardent and prejudiced Sulpitian should be well kept in mind (cf. Field, p. 518; and chap. vii. of the present volume). Dollier de Casson’s Histoire de Montréal, 1640-1672, is a manuscript in the Mazarin Library in Paris, of which Mr. Parkman has a copy. It was printed in 1871 by the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, in the third series of their historical documents. Parkman refers to (Jesuits, p. 209), and gives extracts from, Les véritables Motifs ... de la Société de Notre Dame de Montréal pour la Conversion des Sauvages, which was published in 1643 as a defence against aspersions of the “Hundred Associates.” It was probably printed at Paris. A copy some years since passed into an American collection at 800 francs. A transcript of a copy, collated by Margry, was used in the reprint issued in the Mémoires de la Société historique de Montreal, in 1880, under the editing of the Abbé Verreau, who attributes it to Olier, while Faillon has ascribed it to Laisné de la Marguerie. The editor adds some important “notices bibliographiques et documentaires;” some “notes historiques par le Commandeur Viger,” from an unpublished work,—Le Petit Registre; a “liste des premiers Colons de Montreal.” Of the older authorities, Le Clercq and Charlevoix (Shea’s edition, note, ii. 129) are useful; but Charlevoix, as Parkman says, was not partial to Montreal. The Société historique de Montreal began in 1859 the publication of Mémoires et Documents relatifs a l’histoire du Canada. The first number, “Dè l’Esclavage en Canada,” was the joint work of J. Viger and L. H. Lafontaine, but it has little matter falling within the present period; the second, “De la Famille des Lauson,” the governor of New France after 1651, by Lafontaine, with an Appendix on the “Vice-Rois et Lieutenants Generaux des rois de France en Amerique,” by R. Bellemare; the third, “Ordonances de Mr Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, premier gouverneur de Montreal,” etc; the fourth, “Règne Militaire en Canada;” the fifth, “Voyage de Dollier et Galinée.” See a paper on Montreal and its founder, Maisonneuve, in the Canadian Antiquarian, January, 1878. Concerning the connection of M. Olier with the founding of Montreal and the schemes connected with it for the conversion of the savages, see Faillon, Vie de M. Olier, Paris, 1873, iii. 397, etc., and references there cited; and also see Faillon, Vie de Mdlle. Mance, Paris, 1854, and Parkman in Atlantic Monthly, xix. 723.
1642-1643.—Vimont. Relation ... en l’années 1642 et 1643. Paris, 1644. Pages 8, 309, 3.
Contents: Report,—Algonquin Letter, with interlinear Translation; Founding of Sillery; Tadousac; Five Letters from Père Jogues about his Captivity among the Iroquois, beginning p. 284, giving, in substance only, the Latin narrative mentioned below; Declaration of the Company of New France, that the Jesuits took no part in their trade; Further notice of Nicolet’s Exploration towards the Mississippi.
THE SITE OF MONTREAL.
From Lescarbot’s map of 1609, showing the Mountain and the Indian town, Hochelaga, the site of Montreal. Newton Bosworth’s Hochelaga Depicta was published in Montreal in 1839.
References: Carayon, no. 1,272; Harrisse, no. 81; Carter-Brown, vol. ii. no. 552; Lenox, p. 6; O’Callaghan, no. 1,222.
Copies: CB., F., GB., HC., L. (two copies, slightly different), M., SJ., V.
Nicolet’s explorations, which have usually been put in 1638-39, were fixed by Sulté in 1634; cf. his Mélanges, Ottawa, 1876, and Draper’s annotations in the Wisconsin Historical Collections, viii. 188, and Canadian Antiquarian, viii. 157. This view is sustained in C. W. Butterfield’s Jean Nicolet, Cincinnati, 1881. Cf. Margry, Découvertes, i. 47; Creuxius, Historia Canadensis, and the modern writers,—Parkman, La Salle: Harrisse, Notes; Margry, in Journal de l’Instruction publique, 1862; Gravier, La Salle; etc. See also chap. v. of the present volume.