Note 682 — Chapter VI

[This translation, of which only 250 copies were printed, was made by Dr. Shea. He introduces it with “A Sketch of Father Christian Le Clercq,” which includes a bibliographical account of his works. The book supplements in a measure Sagard’s Histoire du Canada, since that had given the earlier labors as this portrays the later works of the Recollects, or at least more minutely than Sagard. The Recollects had been recalled to Canada to thwart the Jesuits, and Le Clercq reached Quebec in 1673, and was assigned in 1675 to the vicinity of the Bay of Gaspé as a missionary field; and it is of his labors in this region that we learn in his Nouvelle relation de la Gaspésie, which was printed in Paris in 1691 (cf. Harrisse, Notes, 170; Field, Indian Bibliography, 902; Ternaux, 176; Faribault, 82; Lenox, in Historical Magazine, ii. 25; Dufossé, Americana, 1878, 75 and 100 francs; Sabin, vol. x. p. 159; Stevens, Bibliotheca Historica, 1870, no. 1,113; Brinley Catalogue, 102; Le Clercq, Bibl. Amer., 746, 140 francs; Carter-Brown, vol. ii. no. 1,415; O’Callaghan, no. 1,360), and Le Clercq refers his readers to the present work for a continuation of the story, but it does not contain it, that portion being suppressed, as Dr. Shea thinks. The Jesuits are bitterly satirized by Le Clercq in the concluding part of the first volume, and in the second of the Établissement. Shea’s collation of the Nouvelle Relation does not correspond with the Harvard College copy, which has 28 instead of 26 preliminary leaves. See also Sabin’s Dictionary, vol. x. no. 39,649; Field’s Indian Bibliography, no. 903; Harrisse, Notes sur la Nouvelle France, no. 170; Boucher de la Richarderie, vi. 21; Faribault, p. 82.