Southern Canada in the mid-18th century
From: Alan Crozier (name1.name2_at_telia.com)
Date: 02/05/05
- Next message: Alaca: "Re: Lime tree and Swedes living like Indians."
- Previous message: Alaca: "Re: Lime tree and Swedes living like Indians."
- Next in thread: Marcus Gustavsson: "Re: Southern Canada in the mid-18th century"
- Reply: Marcus Gustavsson: "Re: Southern Canada in the mid-18th century"
- Reply: Seppo Renfors: "Re: Southern Canada in the mid-18th century"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 22:30:45 GMT
Let's begin again with that now-famous quotation from Kalm, which can be
translated as:
Monsr. La Croix, who has travelled a great deal in the southern part of
Canada, recounted that on the other side of the Illinois one can find in the
forest in many places wild growing fruit trees planted as in lines; in some
places alongside them are mounds.
There has been a lot of discussion here of the meaning of "on the other side
of", but let's consider instead what may be meant by "the southern part of
Canada". Obviously we can't just look at a map showing today's borders.
In the mid-18th century the French territories in North America (Nouvelle
France) ran in a broad belt from the east coast and the St Lawrence estuary
all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and the mouth of the Mississippi. The
southern part of this territory was called Louisiana, which obviously
extended much further north than the present state of Louisiana. The
northern part was called Canada, and this extended further south than the
present-day border of Canada. But where did the border run between Louisiana
and Canada?
A historical atlas that I have kept since my school days has a map entitled
North America 1689-1783. It has the name QUEBEC written all over the area of
present-day Michigan between Lakes Michigan and Huron. The Q of Quebec
starts south of the Wabash, which is south of the Illinois. This sent me in
search of old maps on the web.
A map from 1719 shows a border between Canada and Louisian running south of
the Great Lakes:
http://www.civilization.ca/vmnf/cartes/small11.htm
A map from about 1720 shows the border even further south:
http://www.civilization.ca/vmnf/cartes/small12.htm
See also a map drawn in 1703, reprinted in 1730:
http://www.civilization.ca/vmnf/cartes/small10h.htm
My conclusion is that La Croix was widely travelled in southern Canada as it
was understood then and that while in these parts of southern Canada he
could have seen the remarkable mounds and lines of trees south of the
Illinois. From the place where Kalm met La Croix (Montreal?) this would have
been "on the other side of the Illinois".
With this interpretation there is no need to distort the meaning of the
phrase "på andra sidan".
Alan
-- Alan Crozier Lund Sweden
- Next message: Alaca: "Re: Lime tree and Swedes living like Indians."
- Previous message: Alaca: "Re: Lime tree and Swedes living like Indians."
- Next in thread: Marcus Gustavsson: "Re: Southern Canada in the mid-18th century"
- Reply: Marcus Gustavsson: "Re: Southern Canada in the mid-18th century"
- Reply: Seppo Renfors: "Re: Southern Canada in the mid-18th century"
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ]
Relevant Pages
|
