On the Eve of Conquest: The Chevalier de Raymond's Critique of New France in 1754

Part IV: Comparative Analysis of Raymond’s and Surlaville’s Reports

IV. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF RAYMOND'S AND SURLAVILLE'S REPORTS For the reader who wishes systematically to compare the content ofSurlaville's report with that of Raymond's enumeration (see pages 30-32 for the topical outline of the latter's denombrement), a topical outline of Surlaville's memoire is provided in appendix 1. The most obvious differences between Raymond's and Surlaville's memoires are the disparities in length (Surlaville's is shorter by one-third) and the significant omissions made by Surlaville. The higher level of Surlaville's spelling and written expression, and his use of shorter paragraphs than Raymond's (which occasionally run on for three large folio pages) are readily distinguishable differences. Less obvious is the difference in the organization of the content by the two men; Surlaville attempted, generally successfully, to group together material on the same topic. For example, he wrote but one section, under the bold heading "Character of the Indians," on the nature and customs of the Indians (on NAC transcript pages 3017-22); Raymond, on the other hand, had placed this content under inappropriate headings in different locations in his report (NAC 2901-5 and 2967-68). Many of Raymond's digressions are under headings unrelated to them, whereas this tendency is virtually eliminated in the Surlaville manuscript. Like Raymond, Surlaville introduced his report with a three-paragraph summation of the points he was going to cover, calling his report, in part, a Memoire en forme d'observations. Raymond did not head his memoire with a title, but he referred to it in his first paragraph by the underlined words ie denombrement de taus ies pastes du Canada. Raymond divided his denombrement into three major sections, each of which he headed by a bold Roman numeral. In the body of his report, Raymond used bold lettering merely to begin each paragraph, not to indicate a subhead. He did use bold, centered 141 142 On The Eve cfthe Conquest ~:~." ~)Lti.!llff!!!)fi{'!~· "J;#f"HfAmlUul~j,JPI41IZ" ,dll &udJa ,.Ilu.cJ • Iif,urlimf." fa (J."t,_,ufuariou 1u';/., md f,.. 1m.. "fiN' /,.. ""h,." ./i..a4faHiaf;L.J , • ~J , 9/l 0'" a , ~"" JNf alt#n~lI.>" " 2~',Il(£;4: du (}""HI,,""l,~#J tIL ad I""''''''./;{3uadl~£dLJ ,1;,/1~~I dl CLJ , L ~'HllJ,." ftl. IHtUliu~'" Ilnib,. nA'L~ ~u.4:.J, "/''1'101 h.' 9nu1u""J ,t J".,pct'kJ d:" iL ~.,,"'--I /;11 (l~>i"• •// muju. d~~ I••pmlil.wlt",...a«~ LU,4/!.JlfkiuJ ~r 1')},tl,"'"irl,.,fl-r.l.I}.H-., n~CUu.L4I - IIP1 ,"'I'k.l J~Jr'"'' .I~' ~. ../iJ t:itf,tAJ 1"1re.1III(,.H-I'IIXItI"oiJ; ~ e~"·(.t._Jt'''41U~8.• ~"J cI~ .1It » .II.'J};tIt, , ., " I -" .Il{tailiNu,ltt adiuLJ,J 'l'n~.1 - ..',d"";,,w),.",.;,,,,/ke~;"'ie IX"'" fL.' . I. 'i,t1ia ~f<~ 't.' I • • • • ( .., , ' , I \ . ' - - \. . ' t1J/N.Ju ~I(orcl '%i'. \ I UNIHUliamiHCJIIIJ . 2 •#i.A~m(lK;;.JC..c.h'/*i.:k/,)f'_' A.,jW~. a,,·'~' . ~. .,t;.6a~ , , 4. ,J,; .14,.~ '"~,iNto I , First page of Colonel Michel Le Courtois de Surlaville's Memoire en forme d'observations concernant Ie denombrement des postes du Canada, .. , 1754. Reproduced with permission of the Archives de Saint-Sulpice, Paris, from manuscrit 1200, piece 38 ofthe collection "Pieces pour I'histoire militaire du Canada 1730-1760," Comparative Analysis