SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS 
ON 
FATHER RASLES’ DICTIONARY OF THE ABNAKI LANGUAGE 
IN NORTH AMERICA. 
BY THE EDITOR. 
Father Rasles in one of his letters, dated at Nanrantsouak (Norridgewock) the 
12th of October, 1723, and published in the Lettres £difiantes,* makes the fol- 
lowing general remarks upon the Indian languages and his mode of studying 
them: 
“On the 23d of July, 1689, I embarked at Rochelle ; and after a tolerably good 
voyage of about three months, I arrived at Quebec the 13th of October of the same 
year. I at once applied myself to the study of the language of our savages. It is 
very difficult; for it is not sufficient to study the words and their meaning, and to 
acquire a stock of words and phrases, but we must acquaint ourselves with the 
turn and arrangement of them as used by the savages; which can only be attained 
by intercourse and familiarity with these people. 
“JT then took up my residence in a village of the Abnaki nation, situated in a 
forest which is only three leagues from Quebec. This village was inhabited by 
two hundred savages, who were almost all Christians. Their huts were in regular 
order, much like that of houses in towns; and an enclosure of high and close 
pickets formed a kind of bulwark which protected them from the incursions of their 
CNEMIes: a wees s 
“Tt was among these people, who pass for the least rude of all our savages, that 
I went through my apprenticeship as a missionary. My principal occupation was 
to study their language. It is very difficult to learn, especially when we have only 
savages for our teachers. 
* Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, écrites des Missions Etrangéres par quelques Missionaires de 
la Compagnie de Jésus, vol. xxiii, p. 198. 
