After several visits to New France, the French Jesuit Pierre-Francois-Xavier de Charlevoix produced a detailed multivolume study entitled Histoire et description generale de la Nouvelle France. This thesis places the historiographical aims enunciated in that work within the context of eighteenth-century historical writing. Echoes of the approach of both the "philosophes" and the "erudits" can be found in Charlevoix's work and the conflict between these two influences will be analysed here. / By looking more specifically at the issue of the truth through Charlevoix's description of the Jesuit missionaries' enterprise, the essay explains the methods used by the author to increase the credibility of his narrative work. In spite of the stern criticisms which were circulating at the time against the theological view of history, it is by attempting to reconcile the Christian doctrines with a rigorous critical method that Charlevoix tries to reach his goals.

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