rrections, notes, and even entire pages, in the
handwriting of Father Dablon, then superior of the missions in Canada,
who, without doubt, prepared them for publication.

That of 1672-3 is anonymous, and in three parts. The first is on the
Huron mission near Quebec, the second on the Iroquois missions, and the
third on the various missions to the west of the great lakes. In the
last part, consisting of eighty-seven pages, the thirty-ninth and
fortieth are missing.

The Relation for 1673-9 is also anonymous and without a general title,
but on the back of the last leaf is an endorsement in the handwriting of
Father Dablon, "Relation en 1679, abrege des precedentes." On the first
page the writer announces that the relation embraces a period of six
years. It is divided into eight chapters, subdivided into paragraphs.
The second chapter is devoted to an account of the last labors and
heroic death of Father MARQUETTE, on the lonely shore of the "Lac des
Illinois," now Lake Michigan. This relation passes in review all the
missions of the west, and enters into minute details concerning the
missions to the Iroquois, the Montagnais, the Gaspesiens, those of the
Sault St. Louis, and Lorette. It extends to 147 pages, but unfortunately
one entire sheet is lost, embracing the pages 109 to 118.

This last Relation should have included the other voyages of Father
Marquette, and especially the discovery of the Mississippi in 1673; but
another manuscript of the same epoch, and which bears the same evidence
of authenticity, explains the omission. Under the title of "Voyage and
Death of Father Marquette," it recites in sixty pages the labors which
have immortalized that celebrated missionary. This curious manuscript
furnished Thevenot with the materiel for his publication in 1687,
entitled "Voyage et Decouverte de quelques Pays et Nations de l'Amerique
Septentrionale, par le P. Marquette et le Sr. Joliet."[E] What adds
great value to the manuscript is the fact that it is much more extended
than the publication of Thevenot. The causes and the preparations for
the expedition are recounted; and we can follow the missionary in his
various travels, even to his last moments in 1675.

Two other documents, which complete this valuable historical discovery,
are noticed by Father Martin:

1. The autograph journal of Marquette's last voyage, from the
twenty-fifth of October 1674 to the sixth of April 1679, about a month
before his death.

2. T