Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
Francis Parkman,
In the Clerk’s Office
of the
District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by
Francis Parkman,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

_Copyright, 1897,_
By Little, Brown, and Company.

_Copyright, 1897,_
By Grace P. Coffin and Katharine S. Coolidge.

_Copyright, 1907,_
By Grace P. Coffin.

Printers
S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, U. S. A.

THE CLASS OF 1844,

Harvard College,

THIS BOOK IS CORDIALLY DEDICATED

BY ONE OF THEIR NUMBER.

PREFACE OF THE ELEVENTH EDITION.

When the earlier editions of this book were
published, I was aware of the existence of a collection
of documents relating to La Salle, and
containing important material to which I had
not succeeded in gaining access. This collection
was in possession of M. Pierre Margry, director
of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies at
Paris, and was the result of more than thirty
years of research. With rare assiduity and zeal,
M. Margry had explored not only the vast depository
with which he has been officially connected
from youth, and of which he is now the
chief, but also the other public archives of
France, and many private collections in Paris
and the provinces. The object of his search
was to throw light on the career and achievements
of French explorers, and, above all, of La
Salle. A collection of extraordinary richness
grew gradually upon his hands. In the course
of my own inquiries, I owed much to his friendly
aid; but his collections, as a whole, remained
inaccessible, since he naturally wished to be the
first to make known the results of his labors.
An attempt to induce Congress to furnish him
with the means of printing documents so interesting
to American history was made in 1870
and 1871, by Henry Harrisse, Esq., aided by the
American minister at Paris; but it unfortunately
failed.

In the summer and autumn of 1872, I had
numerous interviews with M. Margry, and at his
desire undertook to try to induce some American
bookseller to publish the collection. On returning
to the United States, I accordingly made
an arrangement with Messrs. Little, Brown &
Co., of Boston, by which they agreed to print
the papers if a certain number of subscriptions
should first be obtained. The condition proved
very difficult; and it became clear that the best
hope of success lay in another appeal to Congress.
This was made in the following winter,
in conjunction with Hon. E. B. Washburne;
Colonel Charles Whittlesey, of Cleveland; O. H.
Marshall, Esq., of Buffalo; and other gentlemen
interested in early American history. The attempt
succeeded. Congress made an appropriation
for the purchase of five hundred copies of
the work, to be printed at Paris, under direction
of M. Margry; and the three volumes devoted
to La Salle are at length before the public.

Of the papers contained in them which I had
not before examined, the most interesting are
the letters of La Salle, found in the original by
M. Margry, among the immense accumulations
of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies and
the Bibliothèque Nationale. The narrative of
La Salle’s companion, Joutel, far more copious
than the abstract printed in 1713, under the
title of “Journal Historique,” also deserves
special mention. These, with other fresh material
in these three volumes, while they add new
facts and throw new light on the character of
La Salle, confirm nearly every statement made
in the first edition of the Discovery of the Great
West. The only exception of consequence relates
to the causes of La Salle’s failure to find
the mouth of the Mississippi in 1684, and to the
conduct, on that occasion, of the naval commander,
Beaujeu.

This edition is revised throughout, and in part
rewritten with large additions. A map of the
country traversed by the explorers is also added.
The name of La Salle is placed on the titlepage,
as seems to be demanded by his increased prominence
in the narrative of which he is the central
figure.

Boston, 10 December, 1878.

* * * * *

Note.–The title of M. Margry’s printed collection is “Découvertes
et Établissements des Français dans l’Ouest et dans le Sud
de l’Amérique Septentrionale (1614-1754), Mémoires et Documents
originaux.” I., II., III. Besides the three volumes relating to La
Salle, there will be two others, relating to other explorers. In
accordance with the agreement with Congress, an independent edition
will appear in France, with an introduction setting forth the
circumstances of the publication.

PREFACE OF THE FIRST EDITION.

The discovery of the “Great West,” or the
valleys of the Mississippi and the Lakes, is a
portion of our history hitherto very obscure.
Those magnificent regions were revealed to the
world through a series of daring enterprises,
of which the motives and even the incidents
have been but partially and superficially known.
The chief actor in them wrote much, but printed
nothing; and the published writings of his associates
stand wofully in need of interpretation
from the unpublished documents which exist,
but which have not heretofore been used as
material for history.

This volume attempts to supply the defect.
Of the large amount of wholly new material
employed in it, by far the greater part is drawn
from the various public archives of France, and
the rest from private sources. The discovery of
many of these documents is due to the indefatigable
research of M. Pierre Margry, assistant
director of the Archives of the Marine and Colonies
at Paris, whose labors as an investigator of
the maritime and colonial history of France can
be appreciated only by those who have seen their
results. In the department of American colonial
history, these results have been invaluable;
for, besides several private collections made by
him, he rendered important service in the collection
of the French portion of the Brodhead documents,
selected and arranged the two great
series of colonial papers ordered by the Canadian
government, and prepared with vast labor analytical
indexes of these and of supplementary
documents in the French archives, as well as a
copious index of the mass of papers relating to
Louisiana. It is to be hoped that the valuable
publications on the maritime history of France
which have appeared from his pen are an earnest
of more extended contributions in future.

The late President Sparks, some time after the
publication of his Life of La Salle, caused a
collection to be made of documents relating to
that explorer, with the intention of incorporating
them in a future edition. This intention
was never carried into effect, and the documents
were never used. With the liberality which
always distinguished him, he placed them at my
disposal, and this privilege has been kindly continued
by Mrs. Sparks.

Abbé Faillon, the learned author of “La Colonie
Française en Canada,” has sent me copies
of various documents found by him, including
family papers of La Salle. Among others who
in various ways have aided my inquiries are Dr.
John Paul, of Ottawa, Ill.; Count Adolphe de
Circourt, and M. Jules Marcou, of Paris; M. A.
Gérin Lajoie, Assistant Librarian of the Canadian
Parliament; M. J. M. Le Moine, of Quebec;
General Dix, Minister of the United States
at the Court of France; O. H. Marshall, of Buffalo;
J. G. Shea, of New York; Buckingham
Smith, of St. Augustine; and Colonel Thomas
Aspinwall, of Boston.

The smaller map contained in the book is a
portion of the manuscript map of Franquelin, of
which an account will be found in the Appendix.

The next volume of the series will be devoted
to the efforts of Monarchy and Feudalism under
Louis XIV. to establish a permanent power on
this continent, and to the stormy career of Louis
de Buade, Count of Frontenac.

Boston, 16 September, 1869.

CONTENTS.

Page

INTRODUCTION 3