Was It a Forgery? [pp. 1-10]

Was it a Foryery?
having caused the thing which was hung high
up on the great vessel to inflate, they were
borne far off, and disappeared from sight as
if they had entered the water."
Which of the two men is responsible for
the difference in the endings of the two versions of the story? The two books were
published about the same time-Dumont's
in 1753, Le Page's in 1758. Prior, however,
to this date, Le Page had published in the
"Journal (Economique" what he terms an
abridgment of his history. Dumont, in his
"M Iemoires," accuses Le Page of borrowing
his manuscript and of appropriating his work;
and while repeatedly speaking of him as his
friend, charges him with inaccuracies, blunders, and falsehood. The credulity of the
reader of the "Memoires" is taxed by the
author's assertion that he saw a rattlesnake
twenty-two feet in length, and a frog that
weighed thirty-two pounds. On the other
hand, Le Page's volumes are free from all
exaggeration of statement, are void of personalities, and except for certain speculations
on the origin of the native races and their
religion, which betray a fondness on his part
for theories of his own, seem perfectly
reliable. Were it not for the fact that Le
Page must have been in France at the time
of the publication of Dumont's book,-where
he could hardly have escaped seeing the version of the story there given, with himself as
authority, we should have little hesitation in
charging Dumont with the responsibility for
the change. As it is, however, we must
search further for a satisfactory explanation
of the two endings.
About the same time that these books
were going through the press, a great war
was going on among the European cartographers on the subject of the northwest coast
of America. Into this war our two historians
drifted. Dumont ranged himself with his
countrymen. For Le Page to have taken
the same step, would have been to abandon
Moncacht-Ap6. WVe may feel sure that if
Le Page originally believed in the story of
the Indian, the fires of his faith, now that he
had become mixed up in this partisan controversy which questioned its truth, would
be fanned to a fiercer glow; while, if the
story was a fiction of his own construction,
he would avail himself of any opportunity to
build it up and increase its strength.
In the sixteen years which elapsed between
the return of Behring's expedition and
the publication of Le Page's History, more
or less of the information gathered by that
expedition had been furnished to the public.
With his senses sharpqmed by participation
in the war of the geographers, it would not
be wonderful if Le Page had heard that the
natives of the coast were in the habit of eating roots, and that the seals furnished them
with meat. There had, however, been no
such publication of these facts as would justify us in saying that he must have known
them.
The outline of our coast, as suggested by
Moncacht-Ap6 in his travels, shows a much
better conception of the facts than do the
hy-pothetical maps of the French cartographers, which were hampered in their construction by the fictions of Font6 and Maldonado. The Russians published a chart
about this time, based upon knowledge
which was public and freed from the prejudices of upholding geographical theories,
which corresponds very closely with our
coast as we now know it, and would easily
answer to Moncacht-Ap6's general description.
To just the extent that we may believe Le
Page to have come into possession of the
knowledge upon these subjects which we
have shown to have been possibly within his
reach, will the argument of coincidences between the statements of the Indian and the
revelations of subsequent discoveries be
weakened. It depends upon our views on
this point what weight we shall give to the Indian's astonishment at the absence of Indian
corn, his yearning for it, and the inadequacy ~
of the breadstuff furnished him as a substitute-the natural and probable experience of
a traveler over this route. So, too, with reference to the use of seal's meat as food.
And now, what about the bearded men,
who came habitually to the coast with such
regularity that their arrival could be predict
9
1885.]