A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America, Extending above Four Thousand Miles, Between New France and New Mexico; With A Description of the Great Lakes, Cataracts, Rivers, Plants, and Animals. Also, The Manners, customs, and Languages of the several N

Hennepin, Louis.[also: La Salle, Robert Cavelier, sieur de; Joliet, Louis; & Marquette, Jacques.]

Price: 4500.00 USD

London: M[rs] [Katherine] Bentley, J[acob] Tonson, H[enry] Bonwick, T[imothy] Goodwin, & S[amuel] Manship, 1698. "Hennpin, explorer, born in Ath, Belgium, about 1640; died in Holland after 1701. He entered the order of Recollets of St. Francis, and his fondness for traveling led him to Italy, where he remained several years. He was then sent to preach at Halles, in Hainault, and afterward passed into a convent in Artois. He was employed by his brethren to solicit alms at different places, among others in Dunkirk and Calais, where the stories related by old sailors stimulated his desire to visit distant countries. At the battle of Senef, between the Prince of Conde and William of Orange, he was present as regimental chaplain, and in 1673 he was ordered to Canada. After preaching at Quebec for a time, he went in 1676 to Fort Frontenac, where he founded a convent. When La Salle undertook his expedition to the west, he solicited Recollet fathers as chaplains of the posts that he intended to establish. Among those assigned to him was Father Hennepin. The latter accompanied the Sieur de la Motte in a brigantine, reached the outlet of Niagara River, 6 December, 1678, and chanted a Te Deum in thanksgiving. Leaving the vessel, he went in a canoe to the mountain-ridge, where a rock still bears his name, and after ascending the heights of Lewiston came in sight of the cataract. He then went with his companions to Chippewa creek in search of land suitable for a colony, and, returning the next morning, was the first to offer mass on the Niagara. He then began the erection of a bark house and chapel at the Great Rock on the east side, where La Motte was building Fort de Conty. He then traveled through the great lakes as far as Mackinaw, where he arrived, 26 August, 1679. After reaching Peoria, on the Illinois river, where La Salle built Fort Crevecoeur, Hennepin, by his orders, set out with two men in a canoe, 29 February, 1680, to ascend the Mississippi river. He descended the Illinois to its mouth, and, after sailing up the Mississippi till 11 April, fell into the hands of a large party of Sioux, who carried him and his companions to their country. Here he discovered and named the falls of St. Anthony. He spent eight months among the savages, when he was rescued by Daniel Greysolon du Lhut, who enabled him to reach Green Bay by way of Wisconsin River. He passed the winter at Mackinaw and returned to Quebec 5 April, 1682. There is reason to suppose that before this time he was invited by some Roman Catholics in Albany to become their pastor... Hennepin asserts that he descended to the mouth of the Mississippi, and explains that he did not treat his travels with sufficient detail in the first volume, because he did not wish to annoy La Salle or take from him during his life the glory of discovering the Mississippi. "[Appleton's Ency.] First English Edition, first "Bon" issue.