La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

;1680. JHENNEPIN AN IMPOSTOR. 2471681, in company with La Salle. The slightest comparisonof his narrative with that of Hennepin issufficient to show that the latter framed his ownstory out of incidents and descriptions furnished byhis brother missionary, often using his very words,and sometimes copying entire pages, with no otheralterations than such as were necessary to makehimself, instead of La Salle and his companions, thehero of the exploit. The records of literary piracymay be searched in vain for an act of depredationmore recklessly impudent. 1Such being the case, what faith can we put in therest of Hennepin's story? Fortunately, there aretests by which the earlier parts of his book can be1Hennepin may have copied from the unpublished journal ofMembre', which the latter had placed in the hands of his Superioror he may have compiled from Le Clerc's book, relying on the suppressionof the edition to prevent detection. He certainly saw andused it ; for he elsewhere borrows the exact words of the editor.He is so careless that he steals from Membre passages which hemight easily have written for himself ; as, for example, a descriptionof the opossum and another of the cougar, — animals withwhich he was acquainted. Compare the following pages of theNouvelle Decouverte with the corresponding pages of Le Clerc : Hennepin,252, Le Clerc, ii. 217 ; H. 253, Le C. ii. 218 ; H. 257, Le C.ii. 221 ; H. 259, Le C. ii. 224; H. 262, Le C. ii. 226; H. 265, Le C. ii.229; H. 267, Le C. ii. 233; H. 270, Le C. ii. 235; H. 280, Le C.ii. 240; H. 295, Le C. ii. 249; H. 296, Le C. ii. 250; H. 297, Le C. ii.253 ; H. 299, Le C. ii. 254 ; H. 301, Le C. ii. 257. Some of theseparallel passages will be found in Sparks's Life of La Salle, wherethis remarkable fraud was first fully exposed. In Shea's Discoveryof the Mississippi, there is an excellent critical examination of Hennepin'sworks. His plagiarisms from Le Clerc are not confined tothe passages cited above ; for in his later editions he stole largelyfrom other parts of the suppressed Etablissement de la Foi.