plant. He was determined to find the plant in the Iroquois culture so that he would have partial proof of their Asiatic origin. Encouraged by the Iroquois to continue his hunt, a Mohawk woman whom Lafitau had hired to find the plant recognized it as one of the common remedies of the Iroquois. Lafitau quickly sent for Jartoux's publication and description to identify the plant from the plate. In his discovery, Lafitau was the first to employ botanical plates in the field in order to gain information from Natives. His published report the Mémoire...concernant la précieuse plante du gin-seng in 1718 set off a hunt by market collectors who exported ginseng to China via France. As the son of a merchant, Lafitau was keen to describe the medical properties of ginseng in Galenic terms, which facilitated marketing the plant to European consumers across the world. Mémoire...concernant la précieuse plante du gin-seng has never been translated into English. Bibliography Moeurs des Sauvages Amériquains His major work, written in French, was first published in 1724 in Paris. It is entitled Customs of the American Indians Compared with the Customs of Primitive Times (Moeurs des Sauvages Amériquains, Comparées aux Moeurs des Premiers Temps) and is 1,100 pages in total. In 1974, Dr. William Fenton and Dr. Elizabeth Moore translated and edited the work as part of the Champlain Society's General Series. Volume I Design and Plan of the Work The Origin of the peoples of America Idea or Character of Primitives Peoples in General Religion Political Government Marriage and Education Volume II Occupations of the Men in the Villages Occupation of the Women Warfare Embassies and Trade Hunting and Fishing Games Sickness and Medicine Death, Burial and Mourning Language The length of each section reflects Lafitau's disproportionate devotion to specific aspects of the Iroquois. His 350-page chapter on religion accounts for his personal role as a missionary in Canada. Chapters on government, marriage, education, death, and burial are all roughly 70 pages in length. The longest chapters in Volume II on Occupation of the Women and Warfare is related to the importance of these subjects in Iroquois culture. Other works Aside from Moeurs des Sauvages Amériquains Lafitau wrote two other books: Histoire de Jean de Brienne, Roy de Jérusalem et Empereur de Constantinople was released in Paris before his return to Canada, 1727. However, the subject matter of this book is not widely