Parkman, FRANCIS, historian, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, 16th September 1823, graduated at Harvard in 1844, next studied law for two years, then travelled in Europe, and returned to explore the Rocky Mountains. The hardships he endured among the Dakota Indians seriously injured his health, yet in spite of this and defective sight Parkman secured recognition as the authoritative historical writer on the rise and fall of the French dominion in America. He died 8th November 1893. His chief works form a connected series, and should be read in the following order: The Pioneers of France in the New World (1865), The Jesuits in North America (1867), The Old Regime in Canada (1874), La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West (1869), Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV. (1877),
A Half-Century of Conflict (1893), and Montcalm and Wolfe (1884).