Voyages du baron De la Hontan dans l'Amerique Septentrionale

Baron De la Hontan's Travels in North America

Travel accounts from distant lands became en vogue in Europe during the era of geographical exploration, i.e. from the beginning of the 15th century until the end of the 18th century. False testimonies flourished, ranging from inaccurate assumptions to deliberately produced forgeries. Some invented travel narratives affected all aspects of geographical knowledge, including cartography and navigation. Some of them served as propaganda tools for colonial expansion, while some others, even if only partially true, incorporated the most progressive views of their time. A career officer and adventurer, La Hontan spent 13 years in North America, taking part in the colonial wars on the side of New France, exploring the continent and meeting indigenous peoples, whose cultures he described in detail in his writings. His accounts were very popular, but also generated many controversies, especially his account of his 4,000 mile–long journey along the ‘Long River’, during which he met different Indian tribes and which is now considered to be a product of his imagination. The river, rising in distant ‘western mountains’ and emptying into the upper Mississippi, has never been identified, and there are no other accounts confirming the existence of the tribes he met during his voyage. Some scholars argued, however, that La Hontan was actually describing the Missouri River.