Il me vient quelquefois en pensée,
que ce Grand Homme, qui par
son admirable sagesse, & non-pareille
conduite ez affaires s'est tant acquis
de renommée sur la terre, se prepare
vne couronne de gloire tres-
esclatante dans le Ciel, pour le soing
qu'il tesmoigne auoir en la conuersion
de tant d'ames que l'infidelité
perd en ces pays sauuages: I'en prie
tous les iours affectueusement pour
luy, & nostre compagnie ayant par
son moyen occasion de glorifier
Dieu en cette si noble entreprise, luy
en aura vne obligation eternelle.
While form H was off the press, and the above alteration of text taking place, certain types appear to have dropped out or been moved in other pages of the same form, making a half-dozen verbal errors on pp. 115, 119. The form, with the text thus altered, was again sent to press, and apparently Harvard H. 55 is the result. Another peculiarity in the Harvard copy is,—and this is noted by Harrisse,—that the letter P in the word "Par," on the title-page, has been partially dropped: the Brown copy is perfect, in this respect.
In due course, a second issue of the Relation became necessary,—but in what year it is now impossible to say; for, after the custom of Cramoisy, the dates of the original title-page and Privilege were reproduced in the new edition, which is the one known to bibliographers as "H. 56," having been described by Harrisse in his Notes, no. 56. This edition—we describe the example in Lenox Library—was printed from an entire resetting of type, the altered text of Harvard H. 55 having been selected for "copy," although the orthography was occasionally modernized. Harrisse, in giving the title-page of H. 56, accidentally omits two line-ending indicators; with these exceptions, his description applies to the copy of H. 56 in Lenox. But he errs in saying that H. 56 does not differ from H. 55 (he describes the Harvard copy), save in the arrangement of the title with its repetition of "de," in the substitution of a ram's head for a cupid in the vignette of p. 1, and a few errors in pagination. The differences are more numerous: in page-numberings, are many discrepancies; in the contents of lines, on several of the pages of each, there is considerable variance,—although both continue to end their pages uniformly, save that H. 56 is on p. 57 a line short; there are also frequent variations in spelling and capitalization.
An abridgment of the Relation appears in Mercure François, vol. xix., pp. 771-802. The Privilege for this volume, which covers events in 1633, bears date March, 1636.
The Quebec reprint (1858) follows H. 56.
See further references in Carayon, no. 1261; Sabin, vol. x., nos. 39,947, 39,948. and vol. xvi., p. 536 (this bibliographer strictly follows Harrisse); Brown Catalogue, vol ii., nos. 118, 417; Pilling's Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages (Washington, 1891), p. 307; O'Callaghan Sale Catalogue, no. 1212 (wherein the description follows Lenox H. 56); Barlow's Rough List (N. Y., 1885), no. 338, p. 77; Barlow Sale Catalogue, no. 1273 (the copy therein mentioned sold for $120); Græsse, tome iv., livr. i., p. 154; Murphy Sale Catalogue, no. 1344; O'Callaghan's Bibliography (1850), p. 36; Sommervogel, tome iv., p. 795, no. 2; Winsor, p. 301 (the Bancroft copy referred to is now in Lenox); and Dodd, Mead & Co.'s Trade Catalogue (April, 1896), wherein a copy, with "the date cut from title," is priced at $200.
Examples of the Relation of 1633 may be found in the following libraries: Harvard (H. 55), Brown (H. 55 and 56), Lenox (H. 56, two copies), and British Museum (ed. not specified).
Title-page. Given in photographic facsimile, from the copy of H. 55, in Brown Library, Providence.
Collation of Brown H. 55. Title, 1 p.; blank at back of title, 1 p.; text, pp. 3-216; Privilege, in small type, on p. 216.