The French Period 



Although both the original and translation of this work contain only 1669 

 frequent allusions to Niagara in the course of the account of La Salle's Le Clerc< l 

 explorations, with no attempt at description, on account of the early date, 

 it seemed suitable that mention should be made of them in their proper 

 order. 



1678 



HENNEPIN, LOUIS. Description de la Louisiane, nouvellement decou- 1678 

 verte au Sud 'Oiiest de la Nouvelle France, par ordre du roy . . . enne P in 

 A Paris. Chez la Veuve Sebastien Hure. 1 683. Pp. 29-30. 



Father Hennepin was a Recollect missionary who accompanied the La 

 Salle expedition of 1678. He was the first man to write of the Falls at 

 length. His works were extremely popular and the original French was 

 soon translated into various other European languages. The different 

 editions are legion, extending from 1 683 to the present time. 



HENNEPIN, LOUIS. Description of Louisiana. Translated from the 

 edition of 1 683 and compared with the Nouvelle Decouverte, the La 

 Salle documents, and other contemporaneous papers, by John Gilmary 

 Shea. N. Y. : John G. Shea. 1 880. Pp. 7 1 -72, 378-38 1 . 



Pages 378—381 are a translation of the description given in the Nou- 

 velle Decouverte and quoted below. 



On the 6th (December, 1678), St. Nicholas day, we entered 

 the beautiful river Niagara, which no bark had ever yet entered. 

 . . . Four leagues from Lake Frontenac there is an incredible 

 Cataract or Waterfall, which has no equal. The Niagara river 

 near this place is only the eighth of a league wide, but it is very 

 deep in places, and so rapid above the great fall, that it hurries 

 down all the animals which try to cross it, without a single one 

 being able to withstand its current. They plunge down a height 

 of more than five hundred feet, and its fall is composed of two 

 sheets of water and a cascade, with an island sloping down. In 

 the middle these waters foam and boil in a fearful manner. 



They thunder continually, and when the wind blows in a 

 southerly direction, the noise which they make is heard for from 

 more than fifteen leagues. Four leagues from this cataract or fall, 

 the Niagara river rushes with extraordinary rapidity especially for 

 two leagues into Lake Frontenac. It is during these two leagues 



23 



