Louis-Armand De Lahontan

Background

Baron de Lahontan was a native of the south of France, where the village of Lahontan still stands on the banks of the Garonne. His father, Isaac de Lom d'Arce, was a noted engineer who bought the barony of Lahontan and bequeathed it to his only son, the child of his old age and of a second marriage with Jeanne-Françoise le Fascheux de Couttes. Isaac Lahontan died in 1674 after having had financial losses that left his estate greatly depleted.

Career

Louis, following the custom of his time, entered the army at an early age, held first a commission in the Bourbon regiment, and then transferred to the marine corps, which had charge of colonial defense. In 1683 he embarked with his regiment for New France, where the governor, La Barre, had asked for troops to aid him against the Iroquois. Lahontan's first military service was in La Barre's futile expedition of 1684 to Lake Ontario, which failed to reach or punish the Iroquois Indians, with whom the governor was forced to make an ignominious peace. For this he was recalled.

The Marquis Denonville, who came in his place, undertook in 1687 an expedition which was more effective. In the interval between the two excursions Lahontan was in garrison, where he devoted much time to hunting and to observing his surroundings. Meanwhile he was summoned to France on affairs of his estate. Needing every available soldier, the governor would not allow him to go and, after the campaign was finished, sent him west with Duluth and Tonty because he understood the Indian languages and the Indian methods of diplomacy. He was left as commandant at Fort St. Joseph, on St. Clair River above Detroit. This post he abandoned the next year on pretext of danger, visited Mackinac, and thence went somewhere into the farther west to spend the winter.

In his book he claimed to have ascended the Mississippi, to have found the River Long, and there to have wintered among tribes whose names and customs are unknown to history. In the summer of 1689 he returned to Quebec and joined the new governor, Count de Frontenac, by whom the young baron was held in such esteem that he was sent to France in 1690 to bear the good news of the defeat of the English fleet on the lower St. Lawrence.

Lahontan's reward was a promotion to a captaincy and the gift of a place in the order of Notre Dame. By September 1691 he was again in Canada, a member of the gay court of Frontenac at Château St. Louis. There he had an affaire du coeur with a Canadian girl, whom he finally refused to marry, apparently from caprice. The next year he again embarked for France and, on the way, aided in the repulse of a large British squadron at Plaisance, Newfoundland. In reward for this service he was made royal lieutenant for the last-named colony, whence in 1693 the erratic soldier deserted the service, and made himself an exile from French domains.

Thereafter he wandered about Europe, from Portugal to Holland and, later, from Hamburg and Copenhagen to Spain. In 1703 he published at The Hague his famous book, Nouveaux Voyages de Mr. le Baron de Lahontan dans l'Amérique Septentrionale, which ran through many editions and translations. It was accompanied by a map showing the River Long and a number of illustrations of the manners and customs of the Indians, a brief vocabulary, and much interesting material on the New World. In the first English edition, the same year, the author published a series of "Dialogues" with the Huron Indian he called "Adario, " wherein he discussed the philosophy of primitive life as contrasted with civilization.

His last years were spent at the court of Hanover, where he was befriended by the philosopher, Leibnitz, and where he is believed to have died. Lahontan was a caustic spirit with a cynical outlook on life; his favorite authors were Lucian and Petronius and he had a deep aversion for ecclesiastics of all kinds.

Achievements

• De Lahontan wrote an enormously popular travelogue. In it he recounted his voyage up the "Long River, " now thought to be the Missouri. His "Dialogues Curieux" depicted the "natural man" so important to eighteenth-century philosophers, and his influence on the growth of primitivism both in England and France has been traced by Chinard. Addison, Steele, and preëminently Swift derive from Lahontan, while his work was a source for LeSage, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Châteaubriand. He wrote well, even charmingly, and his descriptions of Canada and the West add to the knowledge of primitive conditions, of flora, fauna, and the life of the native peoples. His accounts of historical events and personages are accurate, except where he wilfully misled his readers. His imaginary River Long has discredited his book of travels, which in many particulars is the best account of New France in the late seventeenth century.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Voyages du baron de La Hontan dans l'Amerique Septentrionale, qui contiennent une rélation des différens peuples qui y habitent; la nature de leur ... faire la guerre; l'int...: 2 (French Edition)

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Memoires de l'Amérique Septentrionale, ou la Suite des Voyages de Mr. Le Baron de Lahontan, Vol. 2: Qui Contiennent la Description d'une Grande ... Commerces, Leurs Navigation (French Edition)

    (Excerpt from Memoires de l'Amérique Septentrionale, ou la...)

  • Dialogues de Monsieur le baron de Lahontan et d'un sauvage dans l'Amérique

Interests

• Writers

  Lucian, Petronius

Connections

Father:

Isaac de Lom d'Arce

Engineer

Mother:

Jeanne-Françoise le Fascheux de Couttes

References

• Louis-Armand de Lom d'Arce, baron de Lahontan (9 juin 1666 - 21 avril 1716) (French Edition)