French Pathfinders in North America Part 18

[1] We may remember that La Salle and his followers found Indians on the plains of Texas crossing rivers in boats made of buffalo-hide.

{329}

BOOKS FOR REFERENCE

The Origin of the American aborigines is treated briefly by Dr. John Fiske in "The Discovery of America," Chapter I, and at great length and with wide research by Mr. E. J. Payne in his "History of the New World Called America."

Their Distribution, also sketched by Dr. Fiske, is satisfactorily detailed by Dr. D. G. Brinton in his "Races and Peoples."

Those who may wish to study Indian Social Life in its primitive conditions will do well to read the work of Baron de Lahontan, recently edited by Dr. R. G. Thwaites. He was among the earliest writers on aboriginal affairs, and his "New Voyages to North America" gives the results of travel and observation about the years 1683-1701. "Three Years' Travels through North America," by Jonathan Carver, relates an interesting experience among the Indians between the years 1766 and 1768. Some of his general remarks, however, are drawn from the preceding writer. An inexhaustible store of information on this subject is found in the famous "Jesuit Relations," which have been edited, in an English translation, by Dr. Thwaites. For ordinary readers, however, the very interesting treatment by Dr. Fiske, in the chapter already cited, and especially by {330} Mr. Francis Parkman, in the Introduction to his "The Jesuits in North America," will amply suffice.

In the same chapters will be found a satisfactory account of the Iroquois League. Students, however, who may wish to go to the fountain-head are referred to Mr. Lewis Morgan, whose work, "The League of the Iroquois," is the accepted authority.

As to Cartier, Ribaut, Laudonniere, Champlain, and La Salle, the writer has not gained any new light by referring to the original doc.u.ments, and has drawn his material chiefly from that great master, Parkman, by whom the first four are treated in his "Pioneers of France in the New World," and the last-named in his "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West."

The story of the Jesuit missionaries runs through what is practically a whole library, the "Jesuit Relations." Parkman, in a volume devoted to setting forth the n.o.bler aspects of their work, "The Jesuits in North America," does ample justice to the heroism of the best of these pioneers.

For Radisson the only authority is himself. His "Voyage," not published until after it had lain in ma.n.u.script two hundred and twenty-five years, and of which but two hundred and fifty copies are in existence, is one of the quaintest of books and "mighty interesting reading."

The story of Joliet and Marquette's exploration is told most interestingly by Dr. Thwaites, in his "Father Marquette," and by Parkman, in his "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West." The observations of {331} Jonathan Carver, who went over a part of their route about one hundred years later, throw much interesting light on some of their experiences.

Father Hennepin receives ample justice from Parkman in his account of the opening of the Great West. Readers, however, who may desire a first-hand acquaintance with the erratic friar will find curious, much of it stolen, reading in his "New Discovery in North America," his "Description of Louisiana," and his "Curious Voyage."

In Dr. Thwaites's "Rocky Mountain Exploration" may be read the story of the heroic Verendryes and dauntless Alexander Mackenzie.