Date Published:
June 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Joseph-François Lafiteau

Lafitau, Joseph Francois (d. 1740), missionary and author, was born in Bordeaux, France, and entered the Society of Jesus. He came to Canada in 1712 as a missionary, and was stationed for a time at the Sault St. Louis, where his portrait is still preserved. On his return to France he published a Mémoire concernant la précieuse plante ginseng de Tartarie (Paris, 1718), which gave rise to the trade with Canada in ginseng. Later he published his Moeurs des sauvages américains (2 vols., Paris, 1723; 4 vols., Rouen, 1724). He died in France in 1740. See Hospice Verreau, " Notice biographique", in Mémoire concernant la précieuse plante ginseng (Montreal, 1858).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. III, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 396p., p. 372.