![[Screenshot 2025-02-11 at 3.16.26 PM.png]] Louis Armand, Baron de Lahontan (1666-1716) was an impoverished French aristocrat who traveled to New France as a member of the military in 1683 at age 17, where he led an attack on the [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Iroquois]] from [[Fort Frontenac]]. Although he had planned to return to France in 1687, he was instead sent to command Fort St. Joseph on the St. Clair River (now Port Huron). A force of about two hundred [coureurs de bois](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coureurs_de_bois "Coureurs de bois"), five hundred [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Algonquin]], and about thirty French soldiers assembled there to launch another attack on the Iroquois. Presumably after they set out, Lahontan, with no supplies left to survive the winter and no orders from the governor, burned the fort and moved his men to [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Notes to Fill/Michilimackinac]]. He explored the upper [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Mississippi River]] valley and met the famous [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Huron]] diplomat [[Kandiaronk]] and made notes on their discussions that he would later publish as _Dialogues avec le sauvage Adario_. Lahontan was then called back into action during [King William's War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_William%27s_War) and defended the capital of Newfoundland in 1692. However, apparently becoming disillusioned with politics after a conflict with Newfoundland's governor, he deserted. Making his way through Portugal to Amsterdam, Lahontan wrote three books, [_Nouveaux Voyages dans l’Amerique Septentrionale_](https://archive.org/details/McGillLibrary-rbsc_lc_new-voyages-north-america-lahontan_lande00503-v1-17316/page/n7/mode/2up), [_Memoires de l’Amerique Septentrionale_, and _Supplement aux Voyages ou Dialogues avec le sauvage Adario_.](https://archive.org/details/voyagesdubaronde0002laho/page/n7/mode/2up) Lahontan's dialogues with Kandiaronk contrast the injustice and venality of French society (and Christianity) compared with the Huron way of life and advance ideas about individual liberty and social contracts between governors and the people that became bedrocks of the Enlightenment.