Recovery,
which was then established in the lower city of Quebec, and commenced at
the same time the first schools for the French children. It was this
father who was with Champlain in his last moments. Many years afterward,
he returned to France, when he was successive chief of the Colleges of
Rouen, of La Fleche and Paris, and Superior of the Maison Professe in
the last named city. He died there, on the eighteenth of November, 1674,
aged eighty-seven years.
Father CHARLES wrote an interesting _Relation on Canada_, inserted under
the date of August 1, in the _Mercure Francais_ of 1626, and a letter on
his shipwrecks, which Champlain published in his edition of 1632. We
have also some religious works left by him.
The _Relation_ of Father Biard was published at Lyons, 1612 and 1616, in
32mo. It gives an account of his travels and labors--the nature of the
country, its mineral and vegetable productions, &c.
That of Father Lalemant is a long letter addressed to his brother
Jerome, and inserted in the _Mercure Francais_, 1627-28: Paris, 1629. It
treats of the manners and customs of the Indians, the nature of the
country, and the fatal change which trade had undergone since it had
become a monopoly.
Continuing the researches of Dr. O'Callaghan, Father Martin found, from
a catalogue of manuscripts on Canada, preserved among the archives of
the Jesuits at Rome, that there was a _Relation du Canada_ for 1676 and
for 1677: but it was not ascertained whether these were complete. Other
manuscripts were found in the same collection, but fragmentary, and
could only serve as the materiel of a general Relation. But a more
important acquisition was made in the recovery of valuable manuscripts
in Canada. There have been found two complete Relations, following that
of 1672, and continuing the series to 1679. One is the Relation of 1673,
and the other comprises a period of six years, from 1673 to 1679. They
fortunately escaped the pillage of the Jesuit College at Quebec, Father
Casot, the last of the old race of Jesuits, dying at Quebec in 1800, had
confided them, with other manuscripts, to the pious hands of the nuns of
the Hotel Dieu, in that city, who preserved them for a long time as a
sacred trust, and restored them, to the Jesuits, when they returned to
Canada in 1842.
What increases the value of these historical monuments, is the fact,
that they are contemporary with the facts to which they relate. They
bear numerous co
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