The Early History of Illinois, by Sidney Breese, contains an interesting description of French life in Illinois.[110] See also a chapter on the same subject in Davidson and Stuvé’s Complete History of Illinois (Springfield, 1874). The History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Mississippi Valley, by John W. Monette (New York, 1846), also has an elaborate sketch of the settlement of Louisiana and Illinois.[111]
Mississippi as a Province, Territory, and State, by J. F. H. Claiborne (1880), devotes considerable space to the Province.
Extracts from a memoir by M. Marigny de Mandeville may be found in several of the histories of Louisiana of colonial times. In a note in Bossu[112] it is stated that such a work was published in Paris in 1765.
The story of Saint-Denys’ experiences in Mexico is told in H. H. Bancroft’s North Mexican States, p. 612 et seq., in which the sources of information are mainly Mexican and Spanish. The hero of Penicaut’s romances, viewed from this standpoint, becomes a mere smuggler.
Under the title Historical Collections of Louisiana, etc., Mr. B. F. French, in the years 1846-1875, inclusive, published seven volumes containing reprints and translations of original documents and rare books. Mr. French was a pioneer in a class of work the value of which has come to be fully appreciated. His Collections close a gap on the shelves of many libraries which it would be difficult otherwise to fill. The work was necessarily an education to him, and in some instances new material which came to his hands revealed errors in previous annotations.[113] The value of the work would have been increased if abridgments and omissions had been noted.[114] The translation of the Journal historique, etc., given in the collection was made from the manuscript copy in the library of the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia.[115] The Penicaut relation differs materially from the copy published by Margry.[116] The labors of Mr. French, as a whole, have been of great service to students of American history.[117]
The fourth and fifth volumes[118] of Pierre Margry’s Découvertes et établissements des Français dans l’ouest et dans le sud de l’Amérique septentrionale contain the material upon which so much of this chapter as relates to Iberville’s expeditions is founded. We have here Iberville’s correspondence with the minister, his memorials, the instructions given to him, and his reports.[119] There are also some of Bienville’s despatches, and the correspondence with the engineer about New Orleans and about the bar at the mouth of the river. The publication of these volumes has enabled us to correct several minor errors which have been transmitted from the earlier chroniclers. Interesting as the volumes are, and close as their scrutiny brings us to the daily life of the celebrated explorer, it is not easy to understand why their contents should have been shrouded with such a profound mystery prior to their publication.[120]
The periodicals and tracts of the eighteenth century contain many historical articles and geographical discussions, from which historical gleaners may yet procure new facts.[121] The manuscripts in the Archives at Paris have by no means been exhausted. Harrisse, in his Notes pour servir à l’histoire, etc., de la Nouvelle France (Paris, 1872), gives an account of the vicissitudes which they have undergone. He traces the history of the formation of the Archives of the Marine and of the Colonies and points out the protecting and organizing care, which Colbert during his ministry devoted through intelligent deputies to the arranging of those documentary sources, among which the modern historian finds all that the Revolution of 1789 has left to him.
The copies which from time to time have been procured from France for the State Archives of Louisiana have so generally disappeared, particularly during the Federal occupation, that but a small portion of them still remains in the State Library.[122]