The name of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville is inextricably linked with Canada, where he lived for several years. The memory of the famous admiral is preserved in the names of the streets of Montreal and Quebec City.
Following the capitulation of these cities to the British, Bougainville embarked on his first expedition to the Falkland Islands. A few years later he completed the circumnavigation of the world, about which he wrote the book titled Voyage Around the World 1766-1769*.
Having had the opportunity to compare the lifestyle, customs, and physical appearance of the peoples inhabiting North and South America, Bougainville noted obvious similarities between them, describing them in his book as tall, stately and beautiful people whose facial features were no different from those of the Europeans. Travel narratives and engravings by many other travelers confirm these words. One of them is Samuel de Champlain**, who arrived to Canada 156 years before Bougainville.
The Montreal museum, Centre d’Histoire de Montréal, displays two engravings from Samuel de Champlain’s travel narratives.
They depict the Huron people.
The engraving presents various forms traditional Huron clothing. Distantly related, the Hurons and St.Lawrence Iroquoians shared similar ways of life (from Champlain’s book Oeuvres de Champlain, vol. 4, 1870).
Each of the four figures is marked with a specific letter.
E – Warrior in his armor
F – Woman and child in traditional clothing.
G – Girl going dancing
H – Woman pounding maize
The image marked with the letter D is presented separately and has a very brief explanatory note: “A man in winter clothes”. It should be pointed out that this is only a fragment of another four-figure composition, the missing parts of which can be found in one of Champlain’s books.
Figures of soldiers in combat gear are placed under the letters A and C; under the letter B the author placed an image of a young woman with a child.
Samuel de Champlain gives the following explanation to the drawings in his book: “All these people are well proportioned in body, without any deformity, and are also agile. The women are well-shaped, full and plump (…)”. It is important to note that Champlain also emphasized their proportional facial features and tall stature.
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*Voyage autour du monde à bord de la frégate la Boudeuse et la flute l’Étoile en 1766, 1767, 1768 et 1769 by Louis Antoine de Bougainville.
**Samuel de Champlain (Samuel de Champlain. 1567-1635) was a famous French traveler, researcher, cartographer, governor of New France (1633) and author of numerous travel essays: Des sauvages, Voyages et découvertes en la Nouvelle France, Voyages de la Nouvelle France. They were published in 1870 in five volumes as part of Oeuvres de Champlain which contains 62 illustrations.