Rivers on the 24th, and on the 27th left. It adds: "They were in number three hundred. Des Grosilleres was in their company, who had gone to them the year before. They had departed from Lake Superior with one hundred canoes; forty turned back, and sixty arrived, loaded with peltry to the value of 200,000 livres. At Montreal they left to the value of 50,000 livres, and brought the rest to Three Rivers. They come in twenty-six days, but are two months in going back. Des Grosillers wintered with the Boeuf tribe, who were about four thousand, and belonged to the sedentary Nadouesseronons [Dakotahs]. The Father Menar, the Father Albanel, and six other Frenchmen went back with them." There appears to be no uniformity in the spelling of the name of Groseilliers. Under May, 1662, is this entry: "I departed from Quebek on the 3d for Three Rivers; there met Des Grosillers, who was going to the Sea of the North. He left Quebek the night before with ten men." Under August, 1663, is the following: "The 5th returned those who had been three years among the Outaoouac; nine Frenchmen went, and seven returned. The Father Menar and his man, Jean Guerin, one of our donnés, had died, the Father Menar the 7th or 8th of August, 1661, and Jean Guerin in September, 1662. The party arrived at Montreal on the 25th of July, with thirty-five canoes and one hundred and fifty men." Of Creuxius' Historia and its relations to the missionaries' reports, there is an account in the next chapter. 1660-1680. The documents from the French archives in the Parliament Library at Ottawa, Canada (copies in manuscript), and those translated and printed in the New York Col. Docs., vol. ix., give much information on this period; and so do the Jesuit Relations, and the first volume of the Collections edited by Margry and published at Paris in 1875.1 The Mémoire sur les Mœurs, Coustumes, et Réligion des Sauvages de l'Amérique septentrionale, par Nicolas Perrot, publié pour la première fois par le R. P. J. Tailhan, de la Compagnie de Jésus, Leipsic and Paris, 1864,2 was examined by Charlevoix one hundred and fifty years ago, when it was in manuscript, and afforded him useful information. It is the only work referring to the traders at the extremity of Lake Superior between 1660 and 1670, and to the migrations of the Hurons from the Mississippi to the Black River, and from thence to Lake Superior. Much of interest is also derived from the Histoire de l'Amérique septentrionale. Par M. de Bacqueville de la Potherie, Paris, 1722, 4 vols.8 1680-1690. There are differences of statements regarding the Upper Mississippi Valley, but nevertheless much information of importance, in the letter of La Salle from Fort Frontenac, in August, 1682,* in Du Lhut's Mémoire of 1683, as printed by Harrisse, and in Hennepin's Description de la Louisiane.® Perrot, in the work already quoted, gives the best account of this region from 1683 to 1690. 5 For the whole period of the exploration of the Great Lakes, the works among the secondary authorities of the chief value are Charlevoix in the last century, and Parkman in the present; but their labors are commemorated elsewhere. EDITORIAL NOTE. THE HE local historical work of the Northwest has been done in part under the auspices of various State and sectional historical societies. The Ohio Society, organized in 1831, became later inanimate, but was revived in 1868, and ought to hold a more important position among kindred bodies than it does. Mr. Baldwin has given an account of the historical and pioneer societies of Ohio in the Western Reserve and Northern Ohio Historical Society's Tracts, no. 27; and this latter Society, organized in 1867, with the Licking County Pioneer Historical Society, organized the same year, and the Firelands Historical Society, organized in 1857, have increased the historical literature of the State by various publications elucidating in the main the settlements of the last century. The youngest of the kindred associations, the Historical and Geographical Society of Toledo, was begun in 1871. The State, however, is fortunate in having an excellent Bibliography of Ohio (1880), embracing fourteen hundred titles, exclusive of public documents, which was compiled by Peter G. Thomson; while the Americana Catalogues of Robert Clarke & Co., of Cincinnati, are the completest booksellers' lists of that kind which are published in America. The Ohio Valley Historical Series, published by the same house, has not as yet included any publication relating to the period of the French claims to its territory. The earliest History of Ohio is by Caleb Atwater, published in 1838; but the History by James W. Taylor—“First Period, 1650–1787 - is wholly confined to the Jesuits' missions, the wars of the Eries and Iroquois, and the later border warfare. (Field, Indian Bibliography, no. 1,535.) Henry Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, originally issued in 1848, and again in 1875, is a repository of facts pertaining for the most part to later times. The Historical Society of Indiana, founded in 1831, hardly justifies its name, so far as appears from any publications. The chief History of Indiana is that by John B. Dillon, which, as originally issued in 1843, came down to 1816; but the edition of 1859 continues the record to 1856. The first three chapters are given to the French missionaries and the natives. (Field, Indian Bibliography, nos. 429, 430; Sabin, vol. v. no. 20,172.) A popular conglomerate work is The Illustrated History of Indiana, 1876, by Goodrich and Tuttle. A few local histories touch the early period, like John Law's Colonial History of Vincennes, 1858; Wallace A. Brice's History of Fort Wayne, 1868; H. L. Hosmer's Early History of the Maumee Valley, Toledo, 1858; and H. S. Knapp's History of the Maumee Valley from 1680, Toledo, 1872, which is, however, very scant on the early history. In Illinois there is no historical association to represent the State; but the Historical Society of Chicago (begun in 1856), though suffering the loss of its collections of seventeen thousand volumes in the great fire of 1871, still survives. The principal histories of the State touching the French occupation are Henry Brown's History of Illinois, New York, 1844; John Reynolds's Pioneer History of Illinois, Belleville, 1852, now become scarce; and Davidson and Stuvé's Complete History of Illinois, 1673–1873, Springfield, 1874. The Historical Series issued by Robert Fergus pertain in large measure to Chicago, and, except J. D. Caton's "Last of the Illinois, and Sketch of the Potawatomies," has, so far as printed, little of interest earlier than the English occupation. H. H. Hurlbut's Chicago Antiquities, 1881, has an account of the early discovery of the portage. The Michigan Pioneer Society was founded in 1874, and has printed three volumes of Pioneer Collections, 1877-1880. The Houghton County Historical Society, devoting itself to the history of the region near Lake Superior,1 dates from 1866. It has published nothing of importance. The State of Michigan secured, through General Cass, while he was the minister of the United States at Paris, transcripts of a large number of documents relating to its early history. The Historical Society of Michigan was begun in 1828, and during the few years following it printed several Annual Addresses and a volume of Transactions. Every trace of the Society had nearly vanished, when in 1857 it was revived. (Historical Magazine, i. 353.) The principal histories of the State are James H. Lanman's History of Michigan, New York, 1839; Electra M. Sheldon's Early History of Michigan, from the First Settlement to 1815, New York, 1 There have been papers on the ancient mining on Lake Superior, by Daniel Wilson, in The Canadian Journal, New Series, i. 125, and by A. D. Hager, in the Atlantic Monthly, xv. 308. 1856, which is largely given to an account of the Jesuit missions; 1 Charles R. Tuttle's General History of Michigan, Detroit, 1874; James Valentine Campbell's Outlines of the Political History of Michigan, Detroit, 1876. (Cf. Clarke's Bibliotheca Americana, 1878, p. 92; 1883, p. 169; Sabin, Dictionary, vol. xii. p. 141.) A few of the sectional histories, like W. P. Strickland's Old Mackinaw, Philadelphia, 1860, touch slightly the French period. A brief sketch of Mackinaw Island by Lieutenant Dwight H. Kelton, U. S. A., includes extracts from the registers of the Catholic Church at Mackinaw, and a list of the French commanders at that post during the eighteenth century. The Historical Society of Wisconsin was founded in 1849, and reorganized in 1854. It has devoted itself to forming a large library, and has published nine volumes of Collections, etc. (Joseph Sabin in American Bibliopolist, vi. 158; Field, Indian Bibliography, no. 1,688). Mr. D. S. Durrie published a bibliography of Wisconsin in Historical Magazine, xvi. 29, and a tract on the Early Outposts of Wisconsin in 1873. A paper on the First Page of the History of Wisconsin" is in the American Antiquarian, April, 1878. The principal histories of the State are I. A. Lapham's Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1846, which lightly touches the earliest period; William R. Smith's Wisconsin (vol. i., historical; vol. ii., not published; vol. iii., documentary, translating in part the Jesuit Relations from the set in Harvard College Library), Madison, 1854; and Charles R. Tuttle's Illustrated History of Wisconsin, Madison and Boston, 1875. The Minnesota Historical Society was organized in 1849, and began the publication of its Annals in 1850, completing a volume in 1856. This volume was reissued in 1872 as vol. i. of its Collections, and includes papers on the origin of the name of Minnesota and the early nomenclature of the region, and papers by Mr. Neill on the French Voyageurs, the early Indian trade and traders,2 and early notices of the Dakotas. In vol. ii. Mr. Neill has a paper on "The Early French Forts and Footprints in the Valley of the Upper Mississippi;” and Mr. A. J. Hill The principal and sufficient account of the The Historical Society of Iowa was founded in 1857, and began the publication of its Annals in 1863. The principal account of the State is C. R. Tuttle and D. S. Durrie's Illustrated History of Iowa, Chicago, 1876. There are a few more general works to be noted: John W. Monette's History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi, New York, 1846-1848;4 S. P. Hildreth's Pioneer History of the Ohio Valley, Cincinnati, 1848, which but cursorily touches the French period; James H. Perkins's Annals of the West, Cincinnati, 1846, which brought ripe scholarship to the task at a time before the scholar could have the benefit of much information now accessible; 5 Adolphus M. Hart's History of the Discovery of the Valley of the Mississippi, Cincinnati, 1852, a slight sketch, as we now should deem it, but followed soon after by a more scholarly treatment in J. G. Shea's Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, New York, 1852, to which a sequel, Early Voyages up and down the Mississippi, was published in 1861, containing the voyages of Cavelier, Saint Cosme, Le Sueur, Gravier, and Guignas, during the last 1 The North American Missions of the Catholics, particularly those of the West among the Hurons, etc., have been followed by A. J. Thébaud in The Month, xxxiii. 480; xxxv. 352; xxxvi. 168, 524; xxxvii. 228; xl. 379; xli. 60; xlii. 379; xliii. 337; and they of course make an important part of Dr. Shea's History of the Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States. See the Note elsewhere in the present volume on "The Jesuit Relations." 2 Cf. "Early Notices of the Beaver in Europe and America," by D. Wilson, in The Canadian Journal, 1859, p. 359; "French Commerce in the Mississippi Valley, 1620-1720," in the American Presbyterian Review, iv. 620; v. 110. 8 Cf. "Early French Forts in the Mississippi Valley," in the United States Service Magazine, i. 356. 4 Field, no. 1,081, who calls it the best of the books on Western history; Thomson's Ohio Bibliography, no. 842. 5 Mr. Perkins also published a paper on "French Discovery in the Mississippi Valley" in The Hesperian (Columbus, Ohio), iii. 295; cf. papers by R. Greenhow, in De Bow's Review, vii. 319. 1 This sketch follows a modern map given by Parkman. There is a similar route-map given in the Bulletin de la Soc. de Géog., November, 1880, accompanying a paper by M. J. Thoulet. In the above sketch the port ages are marked by dotted lines. JOLIET, MARQUETTE, AND LA SALLE. HISTORICAL SOURCES AND ATTENDANT CARTOGRAPHY. BY THE EDITOR. THE 1 HE principal sources for the cartographical part of this study are as follows: The collection of manuscript copies 1 of maps in the French Archives which was formed by Mr. Parkman, and which he has described in his La Salle (p. 449), and which is now in Harvard College Library; a collection of manuscript and printed maps called Cartographie du Canada, formed by Henry Harrisse in Paris, and which in 1872 passed into the hands of Samuel L. M. Barlow, Esq., of New York, by whose favor the Editor has had it in his possession for study; the collection of copies made by Dr. J. G. Kohl which is now in the Library of the State Department at Washington, and which through the kind offices of Theodore F. Dwight, Esq., of that department, and by permission of the Secretary of State, have been intrusted to the Editor's temporary care; and the collection of printed maps now in Harvard College Library, formed mainly by Professor Ebeling nearly a hundred years ago, and which came to that library, with all of Ebeling's books, as a gift from the late Colonel Israel Thorndike, in 1818.2 The completest printed enumeration of maps is in the section on Cartographie" " in Harrisse's Notes pour servir à l'histoire . . . de la Nouvelle France, 1545-1700, Paris, 1872, and this has served the Editor as a convenient check-list. A special paper on "Early Maps of Ohio and the West" constitutes no. 25 of the Tracts of the Western Reserve and Northern Ohio Historical Society. It was issued in 1875, and has been published separately, and is the work of Mr. C. C. Baldwin, secretary of that Society, whose own collection of maps is described by S. D. Peet in the American Antiquarian, i. 21. See also the Transactions (1879) of the Minnesota Historical Society. The main guide for the historical portion of this essay has been the La Salle of Parkman.8 There are in the Dépôt de la Marine in Paris two copies of a rough sketch on parchment, showing the Great Lakes, which were apparently made between 1640 and 1650. They have neither maker's name nor date, but clearly indicate a state of knowledge derived from the early discovery of the Upper Lakes by way of the Ottawa, and before the southern part 1 Made mainly about 1856, by P. L. Morin. 2 There is a memoir of Colonel Thorndike in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, ii. 508. 8 An excellent bibliographical summary of the sources of the history of these early Western explorations, by Mr. A. P. C. Griffin, appeared in the Magazine of American History, 1883, also separately. The account of the sources of La Salle's discoveries given in Edouard Frère's Manuel du Bibliographe Normand is scant. Mr. John LangVOL. IV. - 26. ton's paper on "The Early Discoveries of the French in North America," printed in The Canadian Journal, 1857, p. 393, enumerates some of the early maps. Dr. George E. Ellis's "French Explorations in the West," in the North American Review, cx. 260, is a review of Parkman; and J. H. Greene's "Early French Travellers in the West," in Ibid., xlviii. 63, is a review of Sparks's Life of Marquette, which is one of the volumes of his American Biography. |