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Seascapes: shaped by the sea: embodied narratives and fluid geographies

Relations in regard to the quality of the travelogues and ethnography. This reportage on what was experienced helped initiate an exciting new genre of travelogues along with similar publications by Gabriel Sagard and Samuel de Champlain. Yet the Jesuits were not occasional visitors, but rather serious missionaries who came to live and die in the service of the Amerindians. True asserts that the Jesuit ethnography was credible as the Jesuits were skilled observers in the land of the Amerindians and accurately recorded what they encountered. Although their French bias was evident, the Jesuits limited their own perceptions to enter into the culture of the Amerindian. The missionary observations published in the Relations provoked letters from French readers and benefactors which guided the missionaries in future submissions. Seeing the published editions of the Relations in the libraries of New France, the missionary writers were further instructed on what the readers in France wanted to read. The editing out of extraneous detail and the creation of a missionary image was important to the Jesuit editors. The authors and editors sought out ‘similarities between European and American cultures that could be used to ease the way for the implantation of Christianity and that could reassure European readers of the humanity of the inhabitants of the New World’ (167). Today the Relations continue to be read as perceptive accounts of the European experience in seventeenth-century New France and as a prime source of ethnographic data about Amerindian culture. The Jesuit writings remain a more vivid travel account of an exotic culture than an analytical assertion of modern ethnography. True establishes his theme that the Jesuits accepted their role of masters of the Euro-Amerindian dialogue once they had learned the Amerindian language. He further brings to our attention that the scholarly profession in our time accepts the ethnographic content of the Relations but intentionally excludes the religious content of these encounters. When Amerindians were converted to Christianity, the scholarly examination of these events today edits out the Christian commitment of enduring suffering for the sake of the Gospel. True suggests that the scholarly analysis today should be more comprehensive in its reflection on the Jesuit writings as the Jesuits comprehensively recorded their perception of the Amerindian culture. In sum, True provides the reader with a careful analysis of seventeenth-century documentation. His volume will be of great interest to scholars for its methodology and rich content.