MOUTHS OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
[Part of a map in Le Page du Pratz’ Histoire de la Louisiane (1758), i. 139. Cf. also the Carte des embouchures du Mississipi, by N. Bellin, given (1744) in Charlevoix’ Nouvelle France, iii. 442. In the same volume (p. 469) is the “Partie de la coste de la Louisiane et de la Floride,” giving the coast from the mouths of the Mississippi to Apalache Bay. In 1759 Jefferys gave in the margin of his reproduction of La Tour’s map of New Orleans a map of the Mississippi from Bayagoula to the sea, and of the east mouth of the river, with the fort La Balise.—Ed.]
Dumont, whose Mémoires historiques sur la Louisiane[95] were edited by M. L. Le M. (said to have been L’Abbé Le Mascrier), was in the military service in the colony. In the Journal historique, etc., mention is made of a sub-lieutenant Dumont de Montigny[96] at the post at Yazoo. The author was stationed at this post, and accompanied La Harpe up the Arkansas. The statement made in biographical works that Butel Dumont,[97] who was born in 1725, was the author, is manifestly incorrect. Both Dumont and Le Page were contributors to the Journal œconomique, a Paris periodical of the day. We are able positively to identify him as Dumont de Montigny, through an article on the manner in which the Indians of Louisiana dress and tan skins, in that journal, August, 1752. Dumont had a correspondence with Buache the cartographer[98] on the subject of the great controversy of the day,—the sea of the west and the northwest passage. Dumont was fond of a good-sounding story;[99] and his book, like that of Le Page depends for its value largely upon the interest of his personal experiences. Another book of the same class is the Nouveaux voyages aux Indes occidentales,[100] by M. Bossu. The author, an army officer, was first sent up the Tombigbee, and afterward attached to the forces which were posted in Illinois, and was there when Villiers marched on Fort Necessity. He was in the colony twelve years, and bore a good reputation.
The work entitled État présent de la Louisiane, avec toutes les particularités de cette province d’Amérique, par le Colonel Chevalier de Champigny (A la Haye, 1776), has been generally quoted as if Champigny were the author. In an editorial introduction Champigny says the text and the notes were furnished him in manuscript by an English officer. In the body of the work the statement is made by the author that he accompanied the English forces which took possession of the colony after its cession to England. This work is cited by Mr. Adams in the boundary discussion.
The Mémoire historique et politique de la Louisiane, by M. de Vergennes, minister of Louis XVI. (Paris, 1802), contains a brief historical sketch of the colony, intended only for the eye of His Majesty. Its wholesome comments on the French troops and on French treatment of the Indians are refreshing to read.[101] They would not have been so frank, perhaps, if the work had been intended for publication.
In his Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi (Albany, 1861) Dr. Shea has collected, translated, and annotated various relations concerning the voyages of Cavelier, De Montigny de Saint-Cosme, Le Sueur, Gravier, and Guignas.[102]
A number of the relations in the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses cover portions of the period and territory of this chapter. These have been collected and translated by Bishop Kip in the Early Jesuit Missions (Albany, 1866). To avoid repetition, he has made certain abridgments. Some of the material thus left out has value to the student of the early history of Illinois.[103]
Major Amos Stoddard, in his Sketches Historical and Descriptive of Louisiana (Philadelphia, 1812), furnished an unostentatious and modest book, which has been freely quoted.