Jacques Cartier: Relations ed. by Michel Bideaux (review)

some reason why Sma byerin the poem ofthatname is rendered 'old cities' instead of 'small cities.' But we can only be profoundly grateful to the translator for giving us so much of the subtle sound and substance of a great poet. The volume comes complete with Notes explaining references which might elude the non-Norwegian reader. We are also helped with the pronunciation of the Norwegian place names so dear to Jacobsen. (CHARLES LELAND) Michel Bideaux, editor. Jacques Cartier: Relations Presses de I'Universite de Montreal, coll 'Bibliotheque du Nouveau Monde.' 500. $48.00 A decade ago, just before the publication of David Quinn's monumental five-volume documentary, New American World, Quinn jocularly described the archives of early North American history as 'a chance rag-bag of survivals.' In that rag-bag Quinn ranked Jacques Cartier's BriefRecit of his 1535 voyage of discovery as the literary starting point of Canada's history. Cartier's Recit, published in "545, is indeed brief, amounting only to about twenty thousand words, the length of a major essay by a graduate student. Despite its brevity and its seminal importance, however , it has been reprinted separately less than twenty times, and not in English until John Florio's translation of 1580, followed in 1600 by inclusion in Richard Hakluyt's Principall Navigations. After that, three centuries passed before J.P. Baxter's edition of 1906, and yet another generation before H.P. Biggar's bilingual edition for the Public Archives of Canada in "924, now a rare book among Canadiana. The editor of this new and scholarly volume, a professor at Universite Paul-Valery (Montpellier), has included Cartier's 'Relations' of his 1534 trip into the Gulf of St Lawrence, of his three-ship voyage of 1535-6 when he reached Montreal and wintered at Quebec, and of his colonization at Cap Rouge in "54"-2. He has also included De Roberva]'s brief account of the "542-3 expedition to reinforce the ill-fated plantation of the previous year. These four documents fill just a guarter of the volume, the remainder being taken up by a lengthy introduction, a short description of the texts used, a chronology and ten appendices including Cartier's famous lroquoian lexicon, and finally critical and exhaustive notes on the texts that alone make up half of the book. The work concludes with a glossary, an iconography, and an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources on Cartier and De Roberval. The editorial work of M. Bideaux is an example of the highest standards of critical scholarship and his volume of Cartier's Relations will stand as definitive for many years to come because it goes so far in textual compari- .1/4 Lt.11tK:) ii" \..A!"AUA J.~oo son and notation beyond Biggar's edition. Physically the volume is a credit to the bookmaker's art, but unfortunately this beautiful and excellent new documentary of the 'starting point' of Canadian history will probably remain unknown or unappreciated by unilingual anglophone citizens of this bilingual country. (JOHN S. MOIR) George F.G. Stanley, general editor. The Coilected Writings of Louis Riel/Les Ecrits complets de Lollis Riel University of Alberta Press 1985.5 vols. $250.00 je Ie dis sans ambages: Ie meilleur monument eleve en I'honneur de Louis Riel it l'occasion du centenaire de sa mort, ce sont The Collected Writings of Louis Riel/Les Eerits complets de Louis Riel. Rien n'egale ni ne surpasse cette ceuvre hautement scientifique. Cette reussite exceptionnelle tient tout autant it la valeur et aI'experience de I'equipe constituee pour entreprendre I'aventure qu'a son travail acharne et it sa pluridisciplinarite. Dans sa 'Notice de I'editeur generaI : qui se trouve dans Ie volume v mais qu'il faut lire en tout premier lieu, George F.G. Stanley fait rapidement l'historique du projet et decrit la methodologie des auteurs. Tout commence en 1977, a I'Universite de l'Alberta, qui lance Ie Projet des publications de YOuest canadien (Western Canada Publications Project) et consulte sur 'Ies documents qui seraient les plus utiles aux chercheurs, soit les documents qui seraient en mesure de jeter Ie plus...