248 LAHONTAN. 



very profession to persuade the world that their labours, praiseworthy 

 as they otherwise are, are not wholly without fruit. Hence it happens 

 that, speaking strictly, their narratives are nothing more at bottom 

 than a detail of masses said, of miracles, of conversions, and other par- 

 ticulars directly fraudulent, which the good sense of the present age 

 does not readily accept. In a word, the authors. in question, urged 

 forward by a zeal, true or pretended, have written more for a cause 

 than for the purpose of making the reader acquainted with what 

 really happens in a country." 



And again, in the Preface to the English edition, he says, "Not- 

 withstanding the veneration I have for the clergy, I impute to 

 them all the mischief the Iroquois have done to the French colonies in 

 the course of a war that had never been undertaken, if it had not been 

 for the counsels of these pious Churchmen." He adds that bis stric- 

 tures would have been severer had he not restrained his pen out of 

 regard to the prejudices of his aged relative. " He hears now," he 

 says, " that some pedants are set to "stork to lash me in writing ; and 

 so I must be prepared to stand a shower of insults that will be poured 

 upon me in a few days. But it is no matter," he continues, " 1 am so 

 good a conjurer that I can ward off any storm from the side of Paris. I 

 laugh at their threats, and since I cannot make use of my sword, I will 

 wage war with my pen." 



Having shown himself indisposed to an unreasoning deference in quar- 

 ters where, in his day, such a homage was exacted and rendered, it is 

 not to be wondered at that Lahontan failed to conciliate the goodwill of 

 every one, either in Canada, Newfoundland or France, and that hia 

 name should occasionally be referred to in a tone that sounds slightly 

 vindictive. 



The brief article in Watkins' Biographical Dictionary of the year 

 ISOTis derived from a French work entitled '< Nouvelle Dictionnaire 

 Historique," and it reads as follows : " A native of Gascony, in the 

 seventeenth century, who published his Travels in North America, 

 written in a barbarous style. He was an officer in the French service, 

 from which he was dismissed for bad conduct, and at length settled ia 

 Denmark." Again, in his " Glenius of Christianity," Chateaubriand 

 has a scornful reference to Lahontan : " When the Jesuits published 

 the valuable correspondence known as the ' Lettres Edifiantes,' the 

 work was universally quoted and studied. Reliance was placed on its 

 authority and the facts related therein were held to be indubitable. 



