Lahontan, Louis-Armand, Baron de
Lahontan, Louis-Armand, Baron de(1666–c. 1713), French explorer, came to New France (1683) and made an unsuccessful expedition against the Iroquois. In 1687 he was sent with Duluth to Fort St. Joseph, near Detroit, a post which he capriciously abandoned the following year to make a journey of his own to the upper Mississippi. In favor with Frontenac and having distinguished himself in service, he was made lieutenant-governor of Newfoundland, which he erratically left (1693) to become an exile from French domains. His Nouveaux Voyages, published in Holland (1703), was translated into English with an added series of Dialogues with a supposed Huron chief, Adario. His book has important information on the Indians and the flora and fauna, but contains willfully misleading information on such subjects as the fictional River Long. His Dialogues, contrasting savage with civilized life, were a source of the writings of Chateaubriand and other believers...
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