chats Sauvages, jusques à 100. lieuës au dessous des Maroa." Tome II. p. 249.

HENNEPIN. "Quand on est arrivé a 20. ou 30. lieües au dessous des Maroa, les bords de ce Fleuve Meschasipi sont pleins de cannes jusques à la Mer. On trouve cependant environ trente ou quarante endroits, où il y a de tres beaux côteaux avec des debarquements commodes & spatieux. L'inondation du Fleuve ne s'étend pas bien loin, & derriere ces bords noïez, on découvre les plus beaux pays du monde pendant la longuer de deux cens lieües. Nous ne pouvions nous lasser de les admirer. On nous a assuré, qu'en largeur ce sont de vastes Campagnes, où on trouve des terres admirables bordées de fois à autre par des côteaux extremement agreables, par des bois de haute fûtaie, & par plusieurs bocages, où l'on peut aller commodément à cheval, par ce que les chemins sont fort nets, & qu'on n'y trouve aucun embarras. Ces petites forêts bordent tout de même les Rivieres, qui coupent ces Campagnes en divers lieux, & qui sont fort abondantes en Poisson, de même que le Fleuve Meschasipi. Au reste les Crocodiles y sont fort à craindre, quand on se neglige. Les Sauvages disent, qu'ils entrainent par fois ceux de leurs gens, qu'ils peuvent surprendre. Cependant cela arrive assez rarement, car aprés tout il n'y a point d'animal, quelque feroce qu'il soit, qui ne craigne l'homme. Les Campagnes de ces vastes pays sont pleines de toute sorte de gibier & de Venaison. On y trouve des Taureaux Sauvages, des Cerfs, des Chevreüils, des Ours, des poules d'Inde, des perdrix, des Cailles, des perroquets, des bécasses, des Tourterelles,

des pigeons ramiers, des Castors, des Loutres, des Martres, & des Cats suavages, pendant plus de cent cinquante lieües." p. 295.

We will close our extracts with a description of the opossum, an American animal, which was then a novelty to the European travellers.

LE CLERCQ.

66

Il y a un autre petit animal semblable à un rat mais aussi gros qu'un chat qui a le poil

queuë est sans poil grosse environ d'un pied de lon

argenté meslé de noir, sa comme un gros doigt & gueur, avec laquelle il se suspend quand il est aux branches des arbres il a une espece de sac sous le ventre où il porte ses petits quand on le poursuit." Tome II. p. 253.

HENNEPIN. "Il y a un petit animal, dont j'ay déja fait mention en passant, qui est assez semblable à un Rat pour la figure. Il est aussi gros qu'un chat, & a le poil argenté, meslé de noir. Sa queue est sans poil grosse comme un bon doit, environ d'un pied de longueur, de laquelle il se sert pour se pendre aux branches d'Arbres. Il a sous le ventre une espece de Sac, dans lequel il porte ses petits, quand on le poursuit." p. 297.

In addition to the account of his pretended voyage up and down the Mississippi River, Hennepin devotes nearly four chapters of his work to a description of the country along its banks, the rivers flowing into. it, the manners of the inhabitants, productions of the soil, animals, mines of lead and coal, and other natural objects, which he likewise copies in many parts from the same author. By the above references, the reader may easily pursue the parallel.

No. IV.

PROCÈS VERBAL

OF THE TAKING POSSESSION OF LOUISIANA, AT THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI, BY THE SIEUR DE LA SALLE, ON THE 9TH OF APRIL, 1682.*

JAQUES DE LA METAIRIE, Notary of Fort Frontenac in New France, commissioned to exercise the said function of Notary during the voyage to Louisiana in North America by M. de la Salle, Governor of Fort Frontenac for the King, and commandant of the said Discovery by the commission of his Majesty given at St. Germain, on the 12th of May, 1678.

To all those to whom these presents shall come, greeting;- Know, that, having been requested by the said Sieur de la Salle to deliver to him an act, signed by us and by the witnesses therein named, of possession by him taken of the country of Louisiana, near the three mouths of the River Colbert, in the Gulf of Mexico, on the 9th of April, 1682.

In the name of the most high, mighty, invincible, and victorious Prince, Louis the Great, by the Grace of God, King of France and of Navarre, Fourteenth

* This curious and important historical document has never been printed. The translation here given is made from the original, contained in the archives of the Marine Department at Paris. The proper names remain precisely as they are found in the manuscript, although the orthography of several of them is different from that which was afterwards adopted.

of that name, and of his heirs, and the successor of his crown, we, the aforesaid Notary, have delivered the said act to the said Sieur de la Salle, the tenor whereof follows.

On the 27th of December, 1681, M. de la Salle departed on foot to join M. de Tonty, who had preceded him with his followers and all his equipage forty leagues into the Miamis country, where the ice on the River Chekagou, in the country of the Mascoutens, had arrested his progress, and where, when the ice became stronger, they used sledges to drag the baggage, the canoes, and a wounded Frenchman, through the whole length of this river, and on the Illinois, a distance of seventy leagues.

At length, all the French being together, on the 25th of January, 1682, we came to Pimiteoui. From that place, the river being frozen only in some parts, we continued our route to the River Colbert, sixty leagues, or thereabouts, from Pimiteoui, and ninety leagues, or thereabouts, from the village of the Illinois. We reached the banks of the River Colbert on the 6th of January, and remained there until the 13th, waiting for the savages, whose progress had been impeded by the ice. On the 13th, all having assembled, we renewed our voyage, being twenty-two French, carrying arms, accompanied by the Reverend Father Zenobe Membré, one of the Recollect Missionaries, and followed by eighteen New England savages, and several women, Ilgonquines, Otchipoises, and Huronnes.

On the 14th, we arrived at the village of Maroa, consisting of a hundred cabins, without inhabitants.

Proceeding about a hundred leagues down the River Colbert, we went ashore to hunt on the 26th of February. A Frenchman was lost in the woods, and it was reported to M. de la Salle, that a large number of savages had been seen in the vicinity. Thinking that they might have seized the Frenchman, and in order to observe these savages, he marched through the woods during two days, but without finding them, because they had all been frightened by the guns which they had heard, and had fled.

Returning to camp, he sent in every direction. French and savages on the search, with orders, if they fell in with savages, to take them alive without injury, that he might gain from them intelligence of this Frenchman. Gabriel Barbie, with two savages, having met five of the Chikacha nation, captured two of them. They were received with all possible kindness, and, after he had explained to them that he was anxious about a Frenchman who had been lost, and that he only detained them that he might rescue him from their hands, if he was really among them, and afterwards make with them an advantageous peace, (the French doing good to everybody,) they assured him that they had not seen the man whom we sought, but that peace would be received with the greatest satisfaction. Presents were then given to them, and, as they had signified that one of their villages was not more than half a day's journey distant, M. de la Salle set out the next day to go. thither; but, after travelling till night, and having remarked that they often contradicted themselves in their discourse, he declined going farther, without