42 GEORGE STEWART ON SOURCES 



A'ille is exhaustively treated by Father François Xavier de Charlevoix iu his " Histoire et 

 Descriptiou Générale de la Nouvelle France, avec le Journal Historique d'un Voyage fait 

 par l'ordre du Roi dans l'Amérique Septentrionale," which was issued at Paris in 1T44. 

 This work is the first in point of importance and value, and sets forth the Jesuit side of 

 the story ably and well. Shea, who edited an edition of the book, says : "Access to State 

 Papers and the archives of the religious order to which he belonged, experience and skill 

 as a practised writer, a clear head and an ability to analyze, arrange, and describe, fitted 

 him for his work." On the other hand, Parkman often speaks of Charlevoix's " usual 

 carelessness." In 1*744 there were two editions of this history published, one in three 

 volumes quarto, and the other in six volumes of small size, with the plates folded. 

 "Heriot," says Justin "Winsor, " published an abridged translation of Charlevoix in 1804, 

 but the English reader and the student of Canadian history oAves a great deal to the 

 version and annotations of Dr. Shea, which this scholar printed in New York in six 

 sumptuous volumes in 1866-72." Charlevoix, of course, gives great prominence to the 

 ecclesiastical side of the subject. He is not altogether unfair to Frontenac, though the 

 Recollets do not fare so well at his hands. 



Abbé La Tour, not a very trustworthy authority, wrote "Memoirs sur la vie de 

 M. de Laval, premier Evêque de Quebec" in 1761. Only one A^olume appeared, though the 

 scope of the work demanded two. The unfair manner iu which Bishop St. Vallier was 

 treated in the manuscript of the second volume, led the worthy prelate's family to 

 interpose objections to the publication of the matter, and it was not pu^blished. Fronte- 

 nac is bitterly assailed in the first volume, his faults are greatly magnified, and very serious 

 charges are preferred against him. 



A useful work, which demands notice in the consideration of this period, is 

 " L'Histoire de l'Hôtel Dieu de Québec, de 1639 à 1716," by the Rev. Mother Françoise 

 Juchereau de St. Ignace, printed in Paris in 1751. It contains many facts and incidents, 

 and is especially rich in details concerning the missionary activity of the time, and on the 

 attempt made by the clergy to evangelize the savages. A supplementary work, prepared 

 with great care and thoroughness from original documents, and bearing the same title, 

 has been written by Abbé H. R. Casgrain. It is brought down to 1840, and was piiblished 

 at Quebec in 1878. 



In the third series of "Historical Documents," published under the auspices of the 

 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec in 1871, is a paper entitled "Recueil de ce qui 

 s'est passé en Canada au sujet de la guerre, tant des Anglais que des Iroquois, depuis 

 l'année 1682." It contains a full account of the Lachine massacre from the pen of an eye- 

 witness. The author accompanied Subercase to the scene. 



In a collection entitled " Bibliotheca Americana : Collection d'ouvrages inédits ou 

 rares sur TAmericjue," with the imprint of Leipsic and Paris, appeared the "Mémoire sur 

 les Mœurs, Coustumes, et Religions des SauA'ages de l'Amérifjue Septentrionale, par 

 Nicolas Perrot, publié pour la première fois par le R. P. Tailhan, de la Compagnie de 

 Jésus, 1864." Charlevoix, La Potherie, Abbé Ferlaud and other writers on early Canadian 

 history attach considerable importance to this memoir. It will be found often quoted 

 in their narratives. Harrisse (No. 833) says that this work seems to have been written 

 day by day from 166-5 to the death of Perrot. Colden gives a part of the narrative in 

 his " History of the Five Indian Nations," London, 1747. 



