Lafitau (Joseph-Francois)
Moeurs des Sauvages Ameriquains, Comparees aux Moeurs des Premiers Temps.
Lafitau was a French Jesuit missionary who travelled extensively across the what is now Canada. He arrived in New France in 1913 and went on to spend six years with the Native Americans, principally the Iroquois. His peerless understanding of their language and culture was soon to be noted by his superiors, Julien Garnier desperately sought his return after having journeyed back to France in 1717.
Moeurs des Sauvages Ameruquains… was written between 1722 and 1724, upon publication its popularity was immediate. Indeed, within the year it went through two printings, as two quarto volumes and then four octavo volumes.
The first edition is notable for containing a disproportionately large chapter on Religion, which Lafitau later sought to publish as a book.
