[584] The claim was reinforced by Judge John Law in a paper on “The Jesuit Missionaries in the Northwest,” printed in the Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol. iii., with replies and rejoinders; Dr. Shea taking issue with him in a paper called “Justice to Marquette,” which originally appeared in the Catholic Telegraph, March 10, 1855. Parkman credits Shea also with a refutation in the New York Weekly Herald, April 21, 1855. The Jesuits alleged to have been on the affluents of the Mississippi thus early were Dequerre, Drocoux, and Pinet.
[585] Wisconsin Historical Collections, vii. 111.
[586] Printed in New York in 1879.
[587] 200e anniversaire de la découverte du Mississipi par Jolliet et le P. Marquette. Soirée littéraire et musicale à l’Université Laval, 17 juin, 1873. Québec, 1873. One of the latest studies on the subject is by the Père Brucher, Jacques Marquette et la découverte de la vallée du Mississipi, Lyons, 1880,—which had originally appeared in the Études réligieuses. Cf. also R. H. Clarke in the Catholic World, xvi. 688; Knickerbocker Magazine, xxxix. 1; etc.
[588] But the King, May 17, 1674, was warning Frontenac not to foster discoveries. Mass. Archives: Documents collected in France, ii. 283.
[589] Shea, in his Le Clercq, ii. 199, says: “La Salle has been exalted into a hero on the very slightest foundation of personal qualities or great deeds accomplished;” and in his Peñalosa, p. 22, he finds it not easy to conceive how intelligent writers have exalted a man of such utter incapacity.
[590] Cf. E. Jacker, in “La Salle and the Jesuits,” in American Catholic Quarterly, iii. 404.
[591] Margry (i. 271) gives various papers on La Salle’s first visit to Paris, when he got the seigniory of Fort Frontenac, together with La Salle’s “Proposition” and the subsequent “Arrest,” his “Lettres Patentes,” and “Lettres de Noblesse.”
[592] Margry (i. 301) gives Frontenac’s letter to Colbert, 1677, relating to La Salle and his undertakings.
[593] Margry (i. 329) gives La Salle’s petition for further discovery, and the royal permission (p. 337).