New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-03-09
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE STORY OF FRENCH EXPLORATION.


The reader who comes to this book with an IN
terest previously awakened will doubtless glance
forward to the places whore the author must
touch matters in dispute. He will be curious 10
see what Mr.. Winsor Goes with these unsettled
questions in the evolution Of American geogra-
ply For II evolution IN the strlctes'
sense. The great continent emerged little by III
tie out Of primeval darkness into the full light OF
day. From age TO age people who mace maps
or studied them found that the picture Of LANDS
discovered changed persistently in their minds
Points that had long been known separately
were connected by coast line. Straits and arms
OF the sea that were traced on one chart diHp-
reared forever from It's SUCCESSORS Passages by
sea 10 Cathay and Cimpango turned out to be
rivers more wonderful than any the old World
had ever dreamed of. In any review of the growth
Of knowledge respecting the New Word the IN
settled questions come 10 the front very carly.
In the present case Mr.. Winsor does rot get the
French explorer. Cartier started on his hrst Noy-
age without putting doubt as to the obJec; Tor
which search was TO be made. The Western
Continent was really more of an obstacle than
anything else to the navigators OF the sixteenth
century What they wanted was a short cut TO
Asia and their course was blocked by barrier
in which every gap turned out 70 be only lapse
OF the travellers ina gination Mr.. Winsor evil
IDENTIFY holds that Columbus publicly maintained
the Asiatic character of his discovery long after
he had been convinced in his own MIND mat ne
was wrong. Apparently to have confessed MS
error would have cheapened his labors 10 ms
royal patrons. Freed by his death from the
strenuous repression which he had exercised. the
truth as it was dimly seen, row by one mariner
or geographer and now by another, began to
come out But for every grain of truth there
was a hundredweight Of legend and misconcep-
ton There was little hope of gold or silver be-
ing found north OF the regions already possessed
and partly occupied by Spain Without gold
they offered no temptation to the covetous ana
needy monarchs Of Western Europe But there
was still the possibility that sea-way couid De
found to Asia. and this took shape in cartier
time by means of learned hypothesis as well as
native legend in sea separated from the Az
lantic by a narrow strip of land
Somehow the width of the lsthmus OF Panama
and that of Mexico furnishes a criterion which
man considered sufficient for the measurement
Of tho whole continent What they eagerly de-
sired they began actually to see. They pictured
q new ocean which rolled between Cape Hat
teras on the east and the CALIFORNIA; on the
1.est Rest Of all HHeronimo da Verrazono had
actually looked upon its waves as his vessel
breasted those of the Atlantic. while he Vainly
sought a gap in the coast line. II Francis hau
NOT known of this dream Of Verrazano's, he
might never nave tlCOuldScu oo4N'N' - "'"'
ton In Mr. Winsors opinion. he would not
have encouraged it, If he had believed another
Pigment Of the geographers that the main part
of North America separated from Mexico was an
attachment of Northern Asia IF Cartier |
or his royal master had entertained the eXpecta-
ton that his expedition might penetrate into
the heart OF Northern Asia when it started for
the gulf back Of Newfoundland. 1t is altogether
probable that its equipment would not nave been |
undertaken. 1t is far more likely that the faith
which the earlier expedition of Verrazano had
developed in the narrowness Of the northern con-
tinent prevailed at Paris and ST. Malo when Car
tier started on his fateful voyage"
Hateful is strong word to OF an
expedition which accomplished nothing be-
yond circuit Of the Gulf Of St. Law
rence but Mr.. Winsor IS not thinking OF
Cartier so much Of his successors French
exploration in the New World was fairly be-
gum and it required only another journey for
Cartier to learn that what seemed to him tide
water passage out Of the gulf to the westward
was river of fresh water. Already the salt sea
which was neither the Atlantic nor the Pacific
had receded far from the lands through which
he passed. But 1t still figured in the minds of
men long afterward. When Father Alouez,
Jesuit contemporary Of Marquette. came among
the Sioux In the neghborhood Of Sault ste
Marie he learned that they lived next to a peo-
pie whose country bordered on the great fetid
ocean" The mirage which Cartier imag-
ined in 1885 or whereabouts wavered before his
successors in 1863 1t is curious, too. that the
striking phrase "fetid ocean is exactly the one
which figures in certain legends of interior Asia.
One could almost imagine that Mr. Winsor was
thinking at the instant Of passage in the ORR
entail romance Of Alexander the Great.
Generations after Cartier has passed away
there comes the dispute over the question: DID
La Sale reach the Mississippi at his first at
tempt? If the theories of ge0graphers about an
unknown had become more vague. the tradi-
tons of the Indians were emphatic enough. But
they were religiously misconstrued because the
minds of white were still dominated by an
Anticipated notion. When the Red Men talked Of
great water" they meant a river, just as the
modern Egyptian does when he calls the Nile a
sea. They tod La Sale about a continuous wa
terway By which he might Journey in eight
nine months southwark to the sea. 1t was a
group of Seneca Indians who talked thus. and
they were doubtless thinking Of a voyage down |
the Allegheny the Ohio and the Mississippi to |
the gulf: but "to La Sales imagination" says !
Mr. Winsor, at was a vision of the great water |
way which had been looked for from the tine :
Of Cartier" He outlined TO himself a course |
which led at last into the distan; Gulf Of Cali |
fornia and opened the way for the FRENCH TO
the South Sea II was wonderful dream, and |
Il was hardly more uncertain than the route |
which the great explorer is supposed TO have
followed in 1870 in order TO verify IT, Somehow
all trace of La Sale is lost after he reaches the
south shore Of Lake Erie. Mr.. Winsor follows
Major and Shea and others in his distrust Of the
Interviews which passed under the of
'Histoire De Monsieur La Sale and was print
ed and vouched for in recent times by the Nor
historian Margry. But taking these inter-
views at their best, they only place La Sale on
the Ohio River without telling how he got there.
II is said that he went through the country Of
the Iroquois. But there was water route from
that region 10 the southwestward
AS In duty bound, Mr. Winsor enumerated tre |