Sagard (1623-1624)
Sagard, Gabriel (ca 1614-ca 1636). Le Grand Voyage du pays des Hurons [...]. Paris: Denys Moreau, 1632.
Gabriel Sagard, a Récollet missionary and an ethnographer and lexicographer before his time, visited New France only on a round trip, as it were. He arrived in Quebec City in June 1623 after a difficult three-month six-day crossing, spent eight or nine months in Huronia, and returned to France in 1624.
In Grand voyage du pays des Hurons published in 1632, Sagard relates the circumstances of his visit to America, studies the mores and customs of the Huron, and describes the fauna and flora of the country. Thanks to his keen spirit of observation, his descriptions are precise and accurate, so much so that he can be included among the forerunners of ethnography.
Prompted by the desire to provide his missionary colleagues with a working tool, Sagard also got down to the task of compiling a dictionary of the Huron language, which - it may be recalled - was the most widely used language among the various Indian nations of North America with whom the Europeans had come into contact. Despite its imperfections, this dictionary was at the time the most comprehensive work done on a Native North American language; moreover, it still remains today the most complete compendium of the ancient Huron language.
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