The fourth and fifth volumes[118] of Pierre Margry’s _Découvertes et établissements des Français dans l’ouest et dans le sud de l’Amérique septentrionale_ contain the material upon which so much of this chapter as relates to Iberville’s expeditions is founded. We have here Iberville’s correspondence with the minister, his memorials, the instructions given to him, and his reports.[119] There are also some of Bienville’s despatches, and the correspondence with the engineer about New Orleans and about the bar at the mouth of the river. The publication of these volumes has enabled us to correct several minor errors which have been transmitted from the earlier chroniclers. Interesting as the volumes are, and close as their scrutiny brings us to the daily life of the celebrated explorer, it is not easy to understand why their contents should have been shrouded with such a profound mystery prior to their publication.[120] The periodicals and tracts of the eighteenth century contain many historical articles and geographical discussions, from which historical gleaners may yet procure new facts.[121] The manuscripts in the Archives at Paris have by no means been exhausted. Harrisse, in his _Notes pour servir à l’histoire, etc., de la Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1872), gives an account of the vicissitudes which they have undergone. He traces the history of the formation of the Archives of the Marine and of the Colonies and points out the protecting and organizing care, which Colbert during his ministry devoted through intelligent deputies to the arranging of those documentary sources, among which the modern historian finds all that the Revolution of 1789 has left to him. The copies which from time to time have been procured from France for the State Archives of Louisiana have so generally disappeared, particularly during the Federal occupation, that but a small portion of them still remains in the State Library.[122] [Illustration] EDITORIAL NOTES. [Illustration: JOHN LAW. Copied from the head of a full-length portrait in _Het Groote Taferel_. Rigaud’s portrait of Law is engraved in Alphonse Courtois’ _Histoire des banques en France_, 2d ed. (Paris, 1881). Cf. also the print in Mouffle d’Angerville’s _Vie privée de Louis XV._ (Londres, 1781), vol. 1. p. 53.]