PREFACE. 



In committing to the press a second volume of the 

 "Transactions oFTiTELixERARy andHistokical Society 

 OF QcTEBEC," it seems necessary to state some particulars 

 respecting the origin and progress of the Society, which 

 have not appeared in the first volume. We may thus 

 account for the discrei)ancy apparently existing hctwcen 

 the name adopted hy the Society, and its published Trans- 

 actions, which, with few exceptions, are not devoted to 

 what is strictly considered literary or historical research. 



It is generally known here, that numerous documents 

 exist in the Public Offices, in the Convents, and in the 

 Possession of Individuals, containing valuable and curious 

 matter, hitherto incdited, respecting the Aborigines and 

 early settlers of Canada, The Earl of Dalhousie, in found- 

 ing a society in Quebec, in the year 1824, had chiefly in 

 view the collection and arrangement of these papers, from 



which it was expected that nnich historical information would 

 be gleaned, and fresh light thrown on the state of society, 

 customs, &<•. of the Indians in their primitive state, before 

 they were corrupted by tliclr intircomse with I'uropeans. 

 — Nutunil History, and other departninits of Science, held 

 only a secondury place in the researches about to be insti- 

 tuted. But cither from want of iucliuation, or sullicient 



