See VolumeVI.for particulars of this document.
The original of Le Jeune's letter to Cardinal Richelieu, dated at Quebec, August 1, 1635, is in the Archives of Foreign Affairs, at Paris. We follow a transcript of the document, in the library of the Dominion Parliament, Ottawa. So far as we are aware, this is its first publication.
As will be seen from thePrefaceto the present volume, this document, which for convenience is designated by bibliographers as Le Jeune'sRelationof 1635, is, like most of the Cramoisys, a composite. It is often referred to as "H. 63," because described in Harrisse'sNotes, no. 63.
For the text of this document, we have had recourse to a copy in the Lenox Library.
Collation:Title, with verso blank, 1 l.; "Table des Chapitres," pp. (2); Relation signed by Le Jeune and eighteen of his confrères, pp. 1-112; Brébeuf's Huron Relation, pp. 113-206; Perrault's Relation of Cape Breton, pp. 207-219; "Divers Sentimens," pp. 220-246; "Extraict du Priuilege du Roy," with the "Approbation" on the verso, 1 l. There is no misnumeration.
The (civil) Privilege for this volume is dated January 12, 1636, and the (ecclesiastical) Approbation January 15, 1635. This apparent discrepancy arises from difference in the calendar: the civil authorities were using the present calendar; whereas the officers of the church were still clinging to the old ecclesiastical year, which began in March. The Approbation of the Jesuit provincial was granted three days after the granting of the royal Privilege.
Another edition of thisRelationappears in the octavo volume published at Avignon, also in 1636, and containing theRelationsfor 1634 and 1635 conjunctively. The volume is described in the Bibliographical Data for document XXIII., in VolumeVI., p.321, of the present series.
There are at least two issues of the Paris edition. We note the following differences:
The Avignon edition follows the wording of the first Paris issue, though it deviates somewhat in the matter of paragraphing;cf.,e.g., pp. 127 and 199 of the Paris edition with pp. 345 (mispaged 245) and 388 of the Avignon edition.
The Quebec reprint (1858) follows the text of the second Paris issue.
The only copy of the Avignon edition, known to us, is in the Lenox Library. Copies of the Paris edition are in the following libraries: Lenox (two issues), Harvard, Riggs (Georgetown University), Brown, British Museum, and Bibliothèque Nationale. Copies have been sold or priced as follows: Leclerq (1878), no. 778, 140 francs; O'Callaghan (1882), no. 1214, $35—it had cost him $32.50 in gold; Barlow (1889), no. 1275, $12.50; Dufossé, of Paris, priced (1891-1893) at 300 and 400 francs.