LAHONTAN. 247 



anoe of money, a letter from time to time, containing a narrative of 

 occurrences in Canada, with descriptions of the natives and natural 

 productions of the country. 



These letters were not in the first instance intended for publication, 

 but having occasion to apply to the government of France for protec- 

 tion against what he deemed to be an unjust proceeding on the part of 

 one of the courts of the country, and thinking that his professional 

 services in Canada were not sufficiently recognized, he decided at length 

 to communicate to the public what was at first intended only for the 

 eye of an interested patron and relative. The letters, of which he had 

 retained copies, he accordingly allowed to be printed, just as they 

 were, affected all of them, more or less, by a desire to amuse and 

 please his aged benefactor, and to make, in his eyes, a respectable 

 shew of enterprise and military tact, of spirit and efficiency. 



It is well known that a few years previous to the publication of the 

 " Nouveaux Voyages dans FAmerique Septentrionale," the heroic 

 La Salle had obtained important distinctions and advantages from 

 Louis XIV. through personal representations at Court of his enter- 

 prises and discoveries. Lahontan, baffled by the opposition that had 

 been excited against him in the mind of the French minister, desired 

 to imply by his book that he was as much entitled as La Salle to the 

 favours of the Government, — And, in truth, it is not improbable that 

 Lahontan would have succeeded with the authorities at Paris, almost 

 as well as La Salle, had he been a man somewhat dift'erent; endowed, 

 at all events, with a little more prudence. We find that a good deal of 

 consideration was really shewn him in view of certain familv losses, 

 and that an appointment of some dignity was given him in New- 

 foundland — an appointment, however, speedily rendered untenable by 

 disagreements between himself and his superior officer. 



In Canada, likewise, Lahontan's independence of character brought 

 trouble upon him. He ventured to find fault with the proceedings of 

 the Jesuit association — a body apt with some adroitness to represent 

 opposition to itself as hostility to religion. It is chiefly to the official 

 "Relations" of the Jesuits, and other productions of theirs, that he 

 refers when he says, in the Preface to his Travels : " A good many 

 works on the same subject (viz.. North America) have already been 

 given to the public but they all labour under the essential defect of a 

 want of disinterestedness and sincerity. They are all of them the pro- 

 ductions of missionaries, — that is, of a class of men, bound by their 



