New Voyages to North America
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New Voyages to North America is a book by Louis Armand de Lom d’Arce, baron de Lahontan that chronicles his nine years exploring New France as an officer in the French Army. Published in two volumes in 1703 as Nouveaux Voyages de M. le Baron de Lahontan dans l’Amérique Septentrionale, it was translated into English the same year.
Considered the best work on 17th century New France for its detailed descriptions of the environment and North American native society,[1] the book includes accounts of the two winters Lahontan spent hunting with a group of the Algonquin people.[2] Lahontan expresses his opinions of New France and the natives, as well as of European society, through dialogue between himself and "Adario", a fictional native based on the Huron chief Kondiaronk.
The volumes provide historical perspective on the landscape, the native peoples, and the developing economic, social, and political involvements of the French explorers. Gordon Sayre says of Lahontan that he "takes a secular perspective" and that this "differentiates his works from those of the Jesuits" who published during the same period.[3]