Louis Nicolas

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Louis Nicolas (* 15. August 1634 in Aubenas , † 1682 ) was a French Jesuit missionary in Canada , the one Algonquian - grammar and the Codex canadiensis left.

biography

Nicolas joined the Jesuit Order in Toulouse in 1654 , was ordained a priest in 1663 and came to New France as a missionary on May 25, 1664 , where he remained until 1675. First he went to Sillery to learn the language of the Indians to be proselytized and to study theology . But he fled twice to the Algonquin in the Trois-Rivières area . In August 1667 he went on his first missionary trip. Accompanied by Père Claude Allouez, it led to the Ottawa . The two initially stayed in Chagouamigon on the southwestern shore of Lake Superior , where they met Sioux , Illinois and the Hurons , but Father Allouez soon looked for a mission area further south.

On June 21, 1668, Nicolas was back in Québec . This was possibly due to the fact that his superiors sent him back for brutality against Indians - whom he called "amériquains septentrionnaux" (Northern Americans) - and neglect of his actual duties. Although he was given another opportunity to return to his place of work, in 1669 he was put aside for the time being.

The next year he received another probation opportunity , but this time accompanied by Father Jean Pierron and with the Agniers de Tionontoguen . In 1671, however, he was back in Sillery and signed baptismal acts. It was probably during this forced residency that he began writing his grammar. In the spring of 1673 he interrupted this work and went to Sept-Îles , but returned during the summer. During these months he wrote his Mémoire pour un missionnaire qui ira aux Sept Isles que les Sauvages appellent Manitounagouch ou bien Mantounok . 1673 and 1674 he stayed in Batiscan, probably in an economic-administrative activity. From 1674 he no longer appeared in the Jesuit registers. It can therefore be assumed that he returned to France in 1675 at the latest .

Now he tried to publish his works, but the order refused him permission. Nicolas resigned from the Jesuit order in 1677. His last secure place of residence is Albi in 1678.

His main interest was less the mission than the landscape and its inhabitants, the Indians in the Great Lakes region . During his work in North America he traveled the area between Lake Superior and Sept-Îles , between Trois-Rivières and the area south of Lake Ontario . He got into disputes in which he is said to have even hit a chief of the Odawa, Kinongé, with a club. In Sillery, near Québec, he is said to have kept a pair of bear cubs, which he tamed and trained, which his friars probably particularly disliked.

He as the author of the Codex canadiensis , a 79-page description of plants and animals, but above all the Indians of the region. With 180 illustrations, it is of the utmost importance for biological, historical and ethnological science. He took over designs and contours from the Historiae canadensis seu Novae Franciae Libri Decem of the Jesuit François du Creux , published in Paris in 1666. But he meticulously added tattoos , pipe shapes , weapons and shields, hairstyles and body paintings. With almost ethnological accuracy, he recorded tool and canoe types , whose different shapes he precisely assigned to certain tribes. He also passed on the appearance of a mask from a healing society, the False Face Society . The codex also contains one of the only two surviving portraits of Indians from the French era, that of Chief Iskouakite of Ottawa.

There are also numerous edible plants and animals from the region, such as bears and moose , otters , beavers and seals . He also depicted marine animals, but did not distinguish marine mammals from fish. The code is now held by the Thomas Gilcrease Institute in Tulsa , Oklahoma .

He certainly also wrote the Histoire Naturelle des Indes Occidentales , as well as the aforementioned Grammaire algonquine . The year of his death is uncertain, but it is believed that he died around 1700, since the Codex canadiensis was created around this time. If the last datable entry was made by someone else, it could have died in the 1680s.

literature

  • Diane Daviault: L'Algonquin au XVIIe siècle , Quebec 1994, ISBN 2-7605-0770-X
  • Guy Tremblay: Louis Nicolas: sa vie et son oeuvre , unpublished dissertation, Département d'histoire, Université de Montréal 1983

See also

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ JR Twaites, Vol. 59, pp. 55-63.
personal data
SURNAME Nicolas, Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Jesuit in Canada
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1634
PLACE OF BIRTH Aubenas
DATE OF DEATH 1682