On the discovery of the Mississippi, and on the South-Western, Oregon, and North-Western boundary of the United States / With a translation form the original ms. of memoirs, etc., relating to the discovery of the Mississippi by Robert Cavelier de La Salle and the Chevalier Henry de Tonty.

  • Thomas Falconer
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the discovery of the Mississippi, and on the South-Western, Oregon, and North-Western boundary of the United States / With a translation form the original ms. of memoirs, etc., relating to the discovery of the Mississippi by Robert Cavelier de La Salle and the Chevalier Henry de Tonty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    v] letters patent, dated May 12, 1678, and he was com- missioned to undertake the discovery of the Mississippi. Having had an establishment at a place called La Chine, on the island of Montreal, a little above the Rapids, at the east end of Lake St Louis, it has been inferred that he contemplated finding a route to China, and that he sought unknown regions with wild and indistinct ends. This, however, was not an inference which the few facts known of him justified. Without authority or commission he might have associated himself with adventurers seeking fortune among savages, and expecting wealth from the inhabitants of the desert. But his expedition in 1671 was evi- dently under the authority of the government, and was reported in the ordinary manner. The letters patent of 1678 were issued with a distinct political object; Louis XIV desired to attack the Spanish possessions of America, and “had nothing more at heart than to find a road to penetrate to them.”’* There was no vision of a new world—of a traffic with China, or of conquests of new nations, actuating the French King. The settlers of Canada knew of many tribes of Indians, but they were not decorated either with gold or silver, and they could inform them of no * A translation of these letters patent will be found at p. 18. I was not aware until after I had printed it that they are to be found in Le Clercq, vol. ii, p. 163. In Le Clereq the words “notre pays” precede the words New France. I omitted them, not being in my MS. copy of the original.