A Description of Louisiana

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J.G. Shea, 1880 - Indians of North America - 423 pages
 

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Page 391 - With a continuation: giving an account of the attempts of the Sieur de la Salle upon the mines of St. Barbe, &c. The taking of Quebec by the English; with the advantages of a snorter cut to China and Japan.
Page 142 - As far as the eye could reach, nothing was to be seen but reeds which rose five or six feet above the waters in which they bathed their roots.
Page 392 - ... extending above four thousand miles, between New France and New Mexico. With a description of the Great Lakes, cataracts, rivers, plants, and animals...
Page 220 - behind us. After four or five leagues sail another chief came to us, made us disembark, and pulling up three little piles of grass, made us sit down ; he then took a piece of cedar full of little round holes in one of which he put a stick, which he spun round between his two palms, and in this way made fire to light the tobacco in his great calumet. After weeping some time, and putting his hands on my head, he gave me his peace-calumet to smoke, and showed us that we should be in his country in six...
Page 198 - Indians who had taken us, wishing to kill us, wept the whole night, to induce the others to consent to our death. This lake which is formed by the River Colbert, is seven leagues long, and about four wide ; there is no considerable current in the middle that we could perceive, but only at its entrance and exit.* Half a league below the lake of Tears, on the south side, is Buffalo river, full of turtles.
Page 256 - Toward the end of September, having no implements to begin an establishment, we resolved to tell these people, that for their benefit, we would have to return to the French settlements. The grand chief of the Issati, or Nadouessiouz, consented, and traced in pencil on a paper I gave him, the route we should take for four hundred leagues. With this chart, we set out, eight Frenchmen, in two canoes, and descended the rivers St.
Page 216 - this wily savage had the bones of some distinguished relative, which he preserved with great care in some skins dressed and adorned with several rows of black and red porcupine quills. From time to time he assembled his men to give it a smoke, and made us come several days...
Page 236 - I took half an altar cloth which I had wrested from the hands of an Indian who had stolen it from me, and put it on the body of the baptized child; for as I could not say mass for want of wine and vestments, this piece of linen could not be put to a better use, than to enshroud the first Christian child among these tribes.
Page 207 - Our two boatmen were, however, resolved to sell their lives dearly, and to resist if attacked. Their arms and swords were ready. As for my own part, I determined to allow myself to be killed without any resistance, as I was going to announce to them a God, who had been falsely accused, unjustly condemned, and cruelly crucified, without showing the least aversion to those who put him to death.
Page 232 - In fact, they were never better pleased with me, than when I was shaved ; and from a complaisance certainly not criminal, I shaved every week. All...

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