| | Soon after the fur trade was established in New France in the early 1600s, French Jesuit missionaries followed. Beginning in 1632 and continuing through most of the 17th century, the missionaries produced several volumes, roughly 1,800 pages, of accounts. These accounts, or relations, among the major works used to recreate the early history of French Canada, are available here, including Ruben Gold Thawaite’s 1901 translation of the texts. In addition to discussions of attempts at converting Canadian Natives, the accounts provide an in-depth exploration into French and British colonialism. They also include detailed descriptions of Canadian natives, especially the Huron, the Iroquois, and the Montagnais Nation, and highlight interaction between these societies and the French colonists. At once travelers’ narratives, ethnographies, and stories, these texts can also serve as a resource to explore the language, content, and bias of missionary accounts. The site also includes five secondary-source essays describing and contextualizing the accounts and a bibliography of additional resources.
| |