Judge François-Xavier Martin, in the _History of Louisiana from the Earliest Period_, 2 vols. (New Orleans, 1827-1829), followed closely the authorities accessible to him when he wrote; his work is a complete, and in the main accurate, compendium of the materials at his command. A new edition was published at New Orleans in 1882, entitled: _The History of Louisiana from the Earliest Period. With a Memoir of the Author by W. W. Howe. To which is appended, Annals of Louisiana from 1815 to 1861, by J. F. Condon_. Charles Gayarré is the author of two distinct works which must not be confounded. _Louisiana, its Colonial History and Romance_,[89] is a history of colonial romance rather than a history of the colony. The _Histoire de la Louisiane_[90] is an essentially different book. It is mainly composed of transcripts from original documents, woven together with a slender thread of narrative. He states in his Preface that he has sought to remove from sight his identity as a writer, and to let the contemporaries tell the story themselves. References to Gayarré in this chapter are exclusively made to the _Histoire_, which was brought down to 1770. His final work (reprinted in 1885) was in English, and was continued to 1861.[91] In this edition two volumes are given to the French domination, one to the Spanish, and one to the American.[92] [Illustration] A little volume entitled _Recueil d’arrests et autres pièces pour l’établissement de la compagnie d’occident_ was published in Amsterdam in 1720. It contains many of the important edicts and decrees which relate to the foundation and growth of this remarkable Company. The presence of Le Page du Pratz in the colony for sixteen years (1718 to 1734) gives to his _Histoire de la Louisiane_[93] a value which his manifest egotism and whimsical theories cannot entirely obscure. It was an authority in the boundary discussions.[94] [Illustration: MOUTHS OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [Part of a map in Le Page du Pratz’ _Histoire de la Louisiane_ (1758), i. 139. Cf. also the _Carte des embouchures du Mississipi_, by N. Bellin, given (1744) in Charlevoix’ _Nouvelle France_, iii. 442. In the same volume (p. 469) is the “Partie de la coste de la Louisiane et de la Floride,” giving the coast from the mouths of the Mississippi to Apalache Bay. In 1759 Jefferys gave in the margin of his reproduction of La Tour’s map of New Orleans a map of the Mississippi from Bayagoula to the sea, and of the east mouth of the river, with the fort La Balise.—ED.]]