HISTORY. 65 



some adventurer, who, having some defective notes of the 

 country, had pub H shed them under his name. 



In addition to the other circumstances which make the 

 authenticity of the relation pubhshed as Marquette's doubtful, 

 Lochman, who published a collection of the travels of the 

 Jesuits, printed in London, in 1743, makes no mention of the 

 pretended voyage of Marquette — but in his preface he has 

 this remark : " The Jesuits have been proved to exaggerate 

 so greatly in their accounts, to give so much into the marvel- 

 lous, and to assert so many falsities, that, like the shepherd's 

 boy in the fable, many people wont believe them, even when 

 they do speak the truth. For this reason I judge it neces- 

 sary to examine their relations very carefully, and to com- 

 pare them with those of such travellers as are in the great- 

 est repute for their veracity and talents." The omission by 

 so judicious a compiler to include in his work a narrative of 

 so important a discovery as that of the Missisippi River, with 

 remarks like the foregoing, coupled w^ith the facts, that Mar- 

 quette's journal was said to be lost, and that in the narrative 

 published as his, no particular descriptions are given, shows 

 that the relation ascribed to Marquette was, as above sup- 

 posed, considered spurious, or that, if genuine, it was includ- 

 ed in that class of travels that were unworthy of belief. 



The supposition applied to this, that it was the work of a 

 literary speculator, may be also extended to the second 

 volume of Hennepin, as already hinted. But there is more 

 probability in favor of his first volume. Indeed, the fact that 

 he ascended the Upper Missisippi in 1680 is beyond doubt; 

 and it is quite probable that he was the first discoverer of that 

 river. Before, however, entering upon the relation of his 

 very important expedition, the substance of the relation of 

 Marquette will be given, which, whether true or not, yet, 

 having been frequently referred to by writers as credible, and 



