Caption title:  De l'Isle de la Martinique en l'Amerique Meridionnalle le 18 Juin 1675.

Header note:  Lettre copiée du R. P. Lemercier Sup.^emo touchant la mort du R P. Poncet Relig.^x de la Compag.^e de Jesus.

Folio (32 x 22 cm), 4 written pages, in French, on laid watermarked paper.

Upper margin trimmed touching a couple of letters, tears at margins and inner fold, some browning, a few small perforations affecting some letters but not the legibility.

Precious contemporary duplicate of the lost autograph signed letter sent from Martinique 18^th June 1675 by François-Joseph Le Mercier (1604-1690)—Jesuit, Superior-General of New-France and the West Indies—announcing the death in Martinique of his missionary colleague, Joseph-Antoine Poncet de la Rivière (1610-1675).  

Long concise letter written the day Father Poncet passed away, including biographical details, references to the captivity by the Iroquois and the cruelties suffered, his great success in converting the indigenous of Canada, role as teacher of slaves in Martinique, among others.

The original missive is still to be found.  Only a single, eventually two copies are still held by the major public institutions.  One is located at the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu.  According to the bibliographer Ernest Rivière another duplicate was discovered around 1911 at the Sorbonne University Library, however, the online catalog does not list it.  

The present document was executed circa 1675—or in the 17th century.  It could possibly be the earliest record known to have survived.  The text remains seemingly unpublished to date.