auquel on attache vne corde, qui [89] prend le prifonnier par le col, & le ferre de trois ou quatre tours. Enfin on le ceint par le milieu du corps, auec vn collier: c'eft vne façon de fangle, dont les Sauuages fe feruent en toutes fortes d'vfages: & celui qui a soin d'vn captif, prend les deux bouts du collier, & les met fous foi pendant qu'il dort, afin d'estre éueillé fi fon homme remuë tãt soit peu. Cette feule posture durat toute vne nuit, dans cette cõtrainte, à la merci des Maringouïns & des Moufquites, qui ne ceffent de piquer iufqu'au vif, & qui fucent le fang par tout le corps, eft fans doute vn cheualet bien rude; & c'eft le traitemet que nos pauures Frãçois auec les autres captifs reçoiuent toutes les nuits, pour les difpofer aux tourmens du feu, aufquels ils fe doiuent bien attendre. Mais voions coment nonobftant [90] toutes ces precautions quelques Sauuages fe fauuerent fi heureusement, que ces fortes d'euafions peuuent passer pour de petits miracles. C'eft d'eux que nous auons appris ce que nous auons dit cy-dessus.

extended in the form of a saint Andrew's Cross. A fifth stake is also driven into the ground and a cord fastened to it, which [89] is tightly wound about the prisoner's neck three or four times. Finally, he is bound around the waist with a belt, a kind of strap that the Savages use for all sorts of purposes; and he who has charge of a captive takes the two ends of the belt and puts them under him while he sleeps, in order to be awakened if his man moves ever so little. This single position during a whole night, under such constraint and at the mercy of the Gnats and Mosquitoes, which sting incessantly to the very quick, and suck the blood in all parts of the body,is undoubtedly a very severe torture; and such is the treatment that our poor Frenchmen, as well as the other captives, receive every night, to prepare them for the tortures by fire which they are confidently to expect. But let us see how, despite [90] all these precautions, several Savages effected their flight, with such good luck that escapes of this sort may be regarded as little miracles. From these men we learned the facts given above. 18

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA: VOL. XLV

XCIX

The original of this letter of Bishop Laval, addressed to the father general, under date of August, 1659, was in the domestic archives of the Society, at Rome, when copied by Father Felix Martin about 1858; but could not be found among the MSS. of the order, when, in 1897, search was made in the interest of this series. We are obliged, therefore, to follow Father Martin's copy, in Carayon's Première Mission, pp. 257-259.

C

66

In reprinting Jerome Lalemant's little annual for 1659 (Paris, 1660), entitled Lettres envoiées de la Novvelle France, we follow a copy of the original Cramoisy edition in the Lenox Library. It consists of three of Lalemant's letters, each dated "A Kebec" in 1659, and respectively as follows: "12. de Septemb.," " 10 d'Octobre," and " 16 d'Oct." The "Priuilege" was "Donné à Paris le 26. Decembre 1660," while the date of the "Permifsion "is the same as that of the Relation of 1657-58, namely "Donné à Paris, au mois de Decembre 1658." The volume forms no. 113 of Harrisse's Notes.

Collation: Title, with verso blank, I leaf; "Premiere Lettre," pp. 3-21; "Seconde Lettre," pp. 21-33; Troisiéme Lettre," pp. 34-49; Extrait

du Priuilege du Roy," p. (1); Permifsion," with verso blank, leaf. Signatures: A-C in eights, D in two. No mispaging; but in two of the three copies in the Bibliothèque Nationale the pagination of p. 3 is omitted.

Five copies are known to be now extant; one other copy was burned; and there is an interesting facsimile, done by pen-each of which we describe at length.

I. A good copy (the Neilson) was burned on February 1, 1854, in the fire which destroyed many important volumes of the now Canadian Library of Parliament (then at Quebec). An account of this

conflagration will be found in our description of the rare fragmentary annual for 1655 (Paris, 1656), the Copie de devx Lettres. The statements made therein (q.v.) apply likewise to the present volume.

2. There are three copies in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris; all of them bearing the classmark "Réserve Lk 12. 741." We are indebted to Monsieur Viennot, sous-bibliothecaire of that library, for a detailed description of each copy. They are identical, save that in two of the copies the pagination of p. 3 is omitted. Their binding (boards) is of a comparatively recent date-probably since 1850; measurements are as follows:

No. 115 cent. I mill. by 9 cent. 8 mill.

No. 2

-

16 cent. I mill. by 9 cent. 8 mill. No. 3 16 cent. 4 mill. by 10 cent.

The omission of pagination already alluded to occurs in nos. I and 2. These copies were in the library in the days of Van Praet, early in this century; and it is believed that they have been there since the particular year of their publication. No.