LAHONTAN. 329 



ter to my unacquaintedness with that study." To which Adario 

 rejoins : ''I protest I do not understand one word of what thou hast 

 said ; for I know the contrary of what thou sayest to be true ; and 

 those who informed me so of the judges are men of undisputed 

 honour and sense." 



The following is the account which Lahontan gives of the dialogue 

 with Adario, of its appearance in an English dress, and of the assis- 

 tance which the Count de Frontenac afforded him when moulding it 

 into shape : "While my book was printing in Holland," he says, "I 

 was in England ; and as soon as it appeared, several English gentle- 

 men of a distinguished merit, who understood the French as well as 

 their mother-tongue, gave me to know that they would be glad to see 

 a more ample relation of the manners and ctistoms of the people of 

 that continent whom we call by the name of savages. This obliged 

 me to communicate to these gentlemen the substance of the several 

 conferences I had in that country with a certain Huron whom the 

 French call Rat. While I stayed at that American village, I employed 

 my time very agreeably in making a careful collection of all his argu- 

 ments and opinions ; and as soon as I returned from my voyage upon 

 the lakes of Canada, I showed my manuscript to Count Frontenac, 

 who was so pleased with it that he took the pains to assist me in 

 digesting the dialogues and bringing them into the order they now 

 appear in ; for before they were abrupt conferences without connexion. 

 Upon the solicitation of these English gentlemen, I have put these 

 dialogues into the hands of the person who translated my Letters and 

 Memoirs. And if it had not been for their pressing instances, they 

 had never seen the light ; for there are but few in the world that will 

 judge impartially and without prepossession of some things contained 

 in them." 



