Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix

Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix (* October 29, 1682 in Saint -Quentin, † February 1, 1761 in La Fleche ) was a French Jesuit traveler and historian.

Life

At the age of 16 years Charlevoix joined the Jesuit Order. After he had studied in the years 1701 to 1704 at the Collège Louis -le- Grand philosophy, he was sent to New France in 1705, where he spent four years taught grammar and rhetoric in Québec. Then he returned to France and studied theology there. Later he taught classical philology and philosophy.

1720 Charlevoix traveled on behalf of the Regent Philippe of Orléans again to New France. His task was to undertake explorations regarding contentious issues for demarcation in terms of the Peace of Utrecht and explore a way to the Pacific. On his journey to the Pacific he reached the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence River. From Lake Ontario he drove over the Erie and Lake Huron to Lake Michigan, where he was the winter 1721/22 spent in northern Michigan and contacts with the Indian nations recorded. Today, the city of Charlevoix, the Charlevoix County and Lake Charlevoix there are named after him. After he had traveled further south and a further three months had waited in vain for assistance from Paris, he changed his itinerary and followed the Mississippi River down river to the Gulf of Mexico. There he undertook further explorations. On his return on Saint- Domingue to Québec Charlevoix suffered shipwreck and returned in December 1722 to France.

In addition to a trip to Italy in 1723 and his work in the Jesuit Charlevoix worked from 1733 to 1755 as editor of the Journal de Trévoux. From 1742 to 1749 he was also responsible as procurator for the economic interests of the Jesuit mission in New France. He also dealt with the history and geography of the non-European world, issuing several works.

Works

  • Histoire de l' établissement, you progrès et de la decadence you Christianisme dans l' empire des Japons, Paris 1715
  • Vie de la Mere Marie de I'Incarnation, institutrice et première supérieure des Ursulines de la Nouvelle -France, 1724
  • Histoire de I'Isle Espagnole ou de Saint- Domingue, 1730
  • Histoire et description générale du Japon, 1736
  • Histoire et description générale de la Nouvelle France, Paris 1744 ( text on the page BnF )
  • Histoire de Paraguay, 1756; German 1831 ( digitized )
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