of his adventures in a "Mémoire sur la Découverte du pays des Nadouecioux dans le Canada," which is printed in Harrisse's Notes, pp. 177-181, and translated in Shea's Hennepin.
The "Procès verbal de prise de possession de la Louisiane, à l'embouchure de la mer ou Golphe du Mexique, 9 avril, 1682," in Margry, vol. ii., pp. 186-193, gives the principal incidents of the voyage down the Mississippi from the Illinois. This document may also be found in Gravier's "La Salle," and in English in Sparks' "Life of La Salle," also in French's "Historical Collections," part i., and with the title, "Narrative of the Expedition of La Salle to explore the (Mississippi) Colbert River, in 1682," in French's Historical Collections, second series, pp. 17-27, New York, 1875.
La Salle's letter, written at the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, printed in Margry, vol. ii., pp. 164-180, a translation of which is given in The Magazine of American History, vol. ii., pp. 619-622, describes the journey to the Missouri.
The procès verbal of the act of taking possession at the Arkansas, March 13 and 14, 1682, in Margry, vol. ii., p. 181, reports another stage of the voyage. Membré's journal of the entire expedition, first printed in Le Clercq's "Établissement de la Foy," Paris, 1691, is reproduced in English in Shea's "Discovery of the Mississippi." Shea has lately brought out an English translation of Le Clercq under the title, "First Establishment of the Faith in New France," New York, 1881, two vols. 8vo. He there compares Membré's narrative with Hennepin's "Nouvelle Découverte" and "Nouveau Voyage," and also points out the variations between it and the account published by Thomassy in his "Géologie pratique de la Louisiane."
Thomassy's document is entitled, "Relation de la Découverte de l'embouchure de la Rivière Mississipi." Parkman considers it to be the "official report of the discovery made by La Salle, or perhaps for him by Membré," and says that the Le Clercq narrative is based upon it.
To which Shea replies, that it "seems strange to assume that the fuller document given by Le Clercq must be drawn from a shorter form."
The two documents are essentially identical, and afford trustworthy data upon the voyage.
According to Boimare, a manuscript copy of Membré's journal exists in the library at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Henri de Tonty, who was with La Salle from 1678-83, reports the explorations during that time, in a memoir written at Quebec in 1684, which is published for the first time in Margry, vol. i., pp. 571-616. Another narrative by him, entitled "Mémoire envoyé en 1693 sur la Découverte du Mississipi, par de La Salle en 1678, et depuis sa mort par le sieur de Tonty," is printed in its integrity in Margry's "Relations et Mémoires inédits," pp. 1-36, Paris, 1867. A translation of it
