Mémoires de l'Amérique septentrionale

Mémoires de l'Amérique septentrionale

Mémoires de l'Amérique septentrionale, a learned and entertaining natural history of Canada, was the journal kept by Louis-Armand de Lom d'Arce, baron de LAHONTAN, during his travels in New France, 1683-93. Published as vol II of Nouveaux voyages (1703), the memoirs duplicate information from vol I, an epistolary travelogue. Lahontan's memoirs describe the geography, native peoples and flora and fauna of the colony, and outline its trade and politics and its importance to Europe. Lahontan's lists and essays, occasionally unreliable, include false accounts of fictitious tribes from the Long River, which he claimed to have discovered; his portrait of the Indian helped to create the image of the "noble savage" popular in 18th-century Europe. The complete Voyages went through 13 editions in 14 years, including the author's own English translation (1703; ed R.G. Thwaites, 1905). A facsimile of the 1703 French text was published in Montréal (1974).