(no subject)

I updated my other blog with a series of corrections. That'll teach me to trust secondary sources -- it turns the little work done in unearthing the Saint-Michel case had been done very badly, and when I went to the original documents, I found most of it had been done incorrectly -- factual errors everywhere.

I think I've unearthed every surviving bit of information on this side of the Atlantic about Saint-Michel, unless there's some old mouldering book out there no one's discovered. As for information from France, I can't tell -- France's online government archives seem to have been programmed to be as difficult as possible.

Because of all this research, I've been scarce lately.

In any event, the entry is now four times as long and as accurate as possible. I think it's safe to say I know more about this man than any other living person. I plan on updating again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, just in time for the Fête Nationale, an anecdote from the great historian of New France, W.J. Eccles:

"Five years had elapsed since [French explorer Jacques] Cartier's departure with ten kidnapped Iroquois [including Chief Donnacona], and he had promised to bring them all back safe and sound in ten months. all but one of them, a child, had died in France. When asked, Cartier admitted that Donnacona, was dead, but he declared that the others were alive and well, great lords who now preferred to remain in France."

Some of the Natives were as good con artists as the French, though. The Hurons kept stringing the French along with promises to lead them to the Kingdom of the Saguenay, a magical land with all the gold and gems they could want, if the French would only keep coming back to trade with them exclusively. The French bought it.