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

482 APPENDIX.of this region appear upon it. This is the map numbered208 in the Cartographie of Harrisse.12. Another map deserving mention is a large and fineone, entitled Carte de VAmerique Septentrionale et partiede la Meridionale . . . avee les nouvelles decouvertes de laRiviere Missisipi, ou Colbert. It appears to have beenmade in 1682 or 1683, before the descent of La Salle to themouth of the Mississippi was known to the maker, whoseems to have been Franquelin. The lower Mississippi isomitted, but its upper portions are elaborately laid down;and the name La Louisiana appears in large gold lettersalong its west side. The Falls of St. Anthony are shown,and above them iswritten " Armes du Roy gravees sur cetarbre Pan 1679." This refers to the acte de prise de possessionof Du Lhut in July of that year, and this part ofthe map seems made from data supplied by him.13. We now come to the great map of Franquelin, themost remarkable of all the early maps of the interior ofNorth America, though hitherto completely ignored byboth American and Canadian writers. It is entitled Cartede la Louisiana ou des Voyages du $. r de la Salle et despays qu'il a deeouverts depuis la Nouvelle France jusqu'auGolfe Mexique les annees 1679, 80, 81, et 82, par JeanBaptiste Louis Franquelin. Van 1684. Paris. Franquelinwas a young engineer, who held the post of hydrographerto the King, at Quebec, in which Joliet succeededhim. Several of his maps are preserved, including onemade in 1681, in which he lays down the course of theMississippi, — the lower part from conjecture, — making itdischarge itself into Mobile Bay. It appears from a letterof the governor, La Barre, that Franquelin was at Quebecin 1683, engaged on a map which was probably that ofwhich the title is given above, though had La Barreknown that it was to be called a map of the journeys of