[304] 

 LAHONTAN. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



(Continued from page 2B0.) 



"We begin witli a letter, written at Micliiliniackinac in May, 1688, 

 addressed by Lahontan to the Marquis de Seignelay, Minister for the 

 Colonies, in relation to a leave of absence, wMch had been obtained 

 for him to visit France for the purpose of attending to some private 

 family affairs. We give this letter first, because in it Lahontan re- 

 cords some particulars in regard to his father. Also the family 

 business which it mentions, repeatedly comes up in subsequent letters, 

 and requires to be borne in mind. The document will explain itself. 

 The Marquis de Seignelay is the son and the successor in oifice of the 

 famous Colbert. Louis Quatorze is the reigning king. "Honoured 

 Sir," Lahontan says, "I am the son of a gentleman that spent 

 three hundred thousand crowns in deepening the water of the 

 two Gaves of Beam. He had the good luck to compass his 

 end by conveying a great many brooks to these two rivers; and 

 the ciirrent of the Adour was by that means so far strengthened 

 as to render the bar of Bayonne passable by a fifty -gun ship, 

 whereas in former times a frigate of ten guns durst not ven- 

 ture over it. It was in consideration of this great and successful 

 attempt that his Majesty granted to my father and his heirs 

 forever, certain duties and taxes amounting to the sum of three thou- 

 sand livres a year. This grant was confirmed by an act of the Coun- 

 cil of State, dated Janiiary 9th, 1658, signed Bossuet, collated, &c. 

 Another advantage accruing to the King and the Province from my 

 father's services, consists in the bringing down of masts and yards 

 from the Pyrenean mountains, which could never have been effected, 

 if he had not by his care, and by the disbursing of immense sums, 

 enlarged the quantity of water in the Gave of Oleron to a double pro- 

 portion. These duties and taxes which had been jointly entailed 

 upon him and his heirs, ceased to be ours when he died; and to in- 

 flame the disgrace, I lost his places, viz: that of being an honorary 

 judge of the parliament of Pau and Reformateur du Domaine des 

 Eaux et Porets for the Province of Beam, all which were mine by 

 inheritance. These losses are now followed by an unjust seizure 

 which some pretended creditors have made of the Barony of Lahon- 



