In 1700 a Canadian mariner arrived in France and started telling stories. Mathieu Sagean told of his discovery of a vast Native American kingdom in the far west, of his adventures across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and of the controversial administration of a certain New York Governor, one “Linsselaer,” who conspired with a pirate to steal Sagean’s treasure.
His lengthy narrative provides a valuable primary account of the administration of Jacob Leisler (b. ca. 1640 – d. 1691). The problem, however, is that Sagean was an inveterate liar.
Much of his account was obviously invented, making it difficult to know how to treat it as a historical source. Even if it was not true, however, Sagean’s report is important in that it reveals the kinds of stories about Leisler’s New York that
circulated in the late-seventeenth-century Atlantic, and how they related to a wider imagined world that stretched from the interior of North America to the Far East.
Owen Stanwood, Professor of History at Boston College will present a talk about the Canadian explorer and raconteur Mathieu Sagean, whose fabulous tales of a New World intrigued the elites of Europe. The presentation is in collaboration with the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History.
This in-person talk, the second in a series of four collaborations with the Leisler Institute, will be in the Community Room of the library on Thursday, April 25, from 6 until 7:30 pm at the Hudson Area Library.
Owen Stanwood is Professor of History at Boston College. He is the author of two books: The Empire Reformed: English America in the Age of the Glorious Revolution (2011); and The Global Refuge: Huguenots in an Age of Empire (2020).
The Jacob Leisler Library Lectures are made partially possible through the generous support of the Van Dyke Family Foundation and Hudson River Bank and Trust.
The Hudson Area Library History Room houses a collection that pertains to the history of the City of Hudson, Greenport and Stockport; as well as Columbia County and New York State. The History Room also hosts the Local History Speaker Series at the library, offering free monthlytalks on diverse topics related to local history.
The History Room is open Saturdays, 10am-1pm and Wednesdays 6 – 8pm and by appointment. Online research requests for information on local history are available online. This is a free service to the public. To inquire about an appointment email brenda.shufelt@hudsonarealibrary.org or call (518) 828-1792 x106. The Hudson Area Library is located at 51 North Fifth Street in Hudson, NY.
The Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History is an independent, not-for-profit study and research center devoted to collecting, preserving, and disseminating information relating to colonial New York under English rule.
Illustration: Map detail from Guillaume Delisle, Carte du Canada et de la Nouvelle France et des découvertes qui y ont été faites (Paris, 1703).
