Review Author(s): J. B. Owens Review by: J. B. Owens Source: The Journal of American History, Vol. 75, No. 3 (Dec., 1988), pp. 912-913 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of Organization of American Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1901579 Accessed: 07-06-2016 17:57 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms
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Book
on humanism, that of Helen Nader (1979),
Reviews
913
which focuses on Castile.
PhilippeJacquin documents the confluence and mutual influence of French and Indian cultures
Even where Vigil contributes to the historiographical debate over the Crown's Indian la-
tells, as the subtitle suggests, the story of two
bor policy, his position is not clear. It is not surprising that Vigil's view of Spain's role in the
in North America. In part, Les indiens blancs diverse peoples in North America from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. In chronologically successive chapters, Jacquin describes
New World has been heavily influenced by Keen or that the author rejects Lesley Byrd Simpson's
the fur traders' entry into the St. Lawrence Riv-
benevolent view of the conquest (The Reparti-
er valley and their alliances with the Algonquin
miento System, 1938; The Encomienda in New Spain, 1950). However, in presenting Zorita as an instrument of Crown policy, Vigil often appears to side more with Lewis Hanke (The Spanish Struggle for Justice in the Conquest of
America, 1949). Accepting accounts of the conquest as a disaster for the Indians, Hanke sought to save Spain's reputation by making critics like Las Casas representative of Crown intentions. Vigil apparently adopted Hanke's thesis in his 1969 dissertation on Zorita's role before the abdication of Charles V. However, Vigil presents a number of engaging tales about the jurist's confrontations with judges and royal inspectors who had established close relationships with exploiting colonists and placed a high priority on
the efficient extraction of New World wealth. Since all were Crown appointees, it is difficult to see how Zorita was more representative of the interests of metropolitan royal counselors than those others. From the evidence Vigil marshals, one could easily sustain Keen's view that Crown interests in Indian welfare stemmed mostly from fear that population declines would cripple the labor supply necessary to extract desired resources and that Crown support of royal officials against American elites generally arose when the colonists showed too much independence. While there is a suggestion of a policy shift between the reigns of Charles V and Philip II, Vigil's poor grasp of Hapsburg administration does not allow him to make a clear contribution to the Hanke-Keen debate
(1969-1971). J. B. Owens
Idaho State University
Les indiens blancs: Franfais et indians en
Amerique du Nord (XVIe-XVIIIe siecle). By PhilippeJacquin. (Paris: Payot, 1987. 310 pp. Paper, Fr.160.00.)
and Huron tribes, which insured a steady stream of beaver pelts from the interior. Following the Hurons' collapse as a result of the Iroquois onslaught in the mid-seventeeth century, French coureurs des bois replaced Indians as middlemen in the lucrative trade, probing beyond the
forests onto the windswept plains of North America.
As a summary of three centuries of the French presence on the American frontier, Jac-
quin's narrative, adorned with appropriate details and quotations amply drawn from primary sources (the author's native tongue enables him to scour such treasures as thejesuitRecollections) successfully shows the range and significance of the coureurs des bois. Jacquin seeks, however, to do more than recount the adventures of a few daring young men. He seeks to show how Indians influenced them and thereby helped shape the history of France in North America. Just as the coureurs des bois helped forge New France, so the Indians helped shape the coureurs des bois; thus New France must be seen as a hybrid culture, not as a purely European outpost in the New World. Coveting profits from the fur trade, rather than seeking to subdue the forests and till the soil, the French approached North America differently from their English and Spanish rivals.
Few settlers came to the New World; the French
who created New France were the wide-ranging fur traders. Although missionaries and colonial administrators often spoke contemptuously of them, the traders in fact did the work that poured profits into French pockets. And in times of conflict, they and their Indian allies greatly aided the mother country. Thus the story of France in North America centers on the exploits of the coureurs des bois. Importantly, Jacquin shows, the young French traders found themselves drawn to Indian ways. They not only found Indian survival and hunting skills essential in coping with the
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