After the first two Library Jewels for March included an old, rare map and a collection of classic photos, the third and final Library Jewel is rare text, the precursor text to Le Jeune’s famous Chinook shorthand, by Paul Durieu.

The manuscript for this text is 18×12 centimeters and crudely sewn onto a pasteboard cover. The manuscript seem to show that Durieu was writing extensively in Duployan as early as 1874, eight years before Le Jeune arrived in British Columbia to work with Durieu, and long before Le Jeune came to adapt it regularly to indigenous languages of the Northwest Coast. This is an important record of the work of a pioneer missionary to the Pacific Northwest, since Durieu initially arrived at Olympia in 1854.

We’ll start our online poll on the three Library Jewels soon, so be watching for it!