On the French missions in New York, see Marie de l’Incarnation, Lettres historiques; Parkman’s Old Régime, chap. i.; O’Callaghan’s New Netherland; Shea’s Charlevoix, vol. iii.; J. V. H. Clark’s Onondaga (Syracuse, 1849); Charles Hawley’s Early Chapters of Cayuga History, with the Jesuit Missions in Goi-o-gouen, 1656-1684 (Auburn, 1879), with an Introduction by Dr. Shea. This last book has a map of the Iroquois territory and the mission sites, by J. S. Clark (reproduced on an earlier page).
1659.—Lallemant. Lettres envoiées de la Nouvelle France. Paris, 1660. Pages 49, 3.
Contents: Arrival of a Bishop; Algonquin and Huron Missions; Acadia Mission. The three letters are dated, respectively, Sept. 12, Oct. 10, Oct. 16, 1659.
References: Harrisse, no. 113; Sabin, vol. x. no. 38,683; Lenox, p. 9; O’Callaghan, no. 1,236.
Copies: From what was supposed to be a unique copy (since burned in 1854), in the Parliamentary Library at Quebec, Mr. Lenox had a fac-simile made, from which he afterward printed, in 1854, his fac-simile edition; but Harrisse has since reported two copies in the Bibliothèque Nationale, at Paris. Harrassowitz, in his Rarissima Americana, no. 91, p. 5, notes a copy at 2,500 marks, which is now in Mr. Kalbfleisch’s Collection.
De Laval landed at Quebec June 6, 1659, having been made Bishop of Petra and Vicar Apostolic of New France the previous year. He became Bishop of Quebec in 1674; resigned in 1688, and died in 1708. Parkman draws a distinct picture of his character in his Old Régime, chap. v., and describes his appearance from several portraits which are extant, one of which is engraved in Shea’s Le Clercq, ii. p. 50. A Life of him, by La Tour, was printed at Cologne in 1761; and an Esquisse de la vie, etc., at Quebec, in 1845. Two other publications are of interest: Notice sur la fête à Quebec le 16 Juin, 1859, 200eme anniversaire de l’arrivée de Laval, Quebec, 1859, and Translation des Restes de Laval, Quebec, 1878. Cf. Faillon, Hist. de la Colonie Française, ii. chap. 13, and Shea’s Charlevoix, iii. 20, for references. In 1874 the second centennial of Laval’s becoming bishop was commemorated in a Notice biographique, by E. Langevin, “suivie de quarante-une lettres et notes historiques sur le Chapitre de la Cathédrale,” published at Montreal, 1874.
The Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame were founded this year at Montreal, and the life of the foundress, Margaret Bourgeois, by Montgolfier, was published in Montreal in 1818; and was translated and published in English in New York in 1880. Another Life, said to be by the Abbé Faillon, was published in 1853. An earlier Life, by Ransonet, was published at Liege in 1728. Cf. Parkman’s Jesuits, p. 201, and Shea’s Charlevoix, vol. v., for her portrait.
The Abbé de Queylus, who was the candidate of the Sulpitians for the Bishopric, came over in 1657. (Faillon, ii. 271; La Tour, Vie de Laval, 19; Shea’s Charlevoix, iii. 20; Parkman, Old Régime, 97.)