LA HONTAN, de, Armand Louis de Delon-darce, Baron, French traveller, born near Mont de Marsan, Gascony, France, about 1667; died in Hanover in 1715. He arrived in Canada, probably as a private soldier, in 1683 in one of the companies of marines that were sent by Governor de la Barre against the Iroquois, and was afterward with Denonville's expedition against the Senecas, being stationed successively at Chambly and at Fort Frontenac, Fort Niagara, and Fort St. Joseph's. He was sent to Mackinaw and Sault Ste. Marie with a detachment, was at Green Bay the year following, and claimed to have explored and discovered Long river, a branch of the Mississippi. He returned to Quebec, and went to France in 1690, but came back the following year, and soon afterward was sent by Count Frontenac with despatches to the French government announcing the failure of Sir William Phipp's expedition against Quebec. The vessel on which he sailed put into Placentia, Newfoundland, and he rendered such valuable service in defending that port from an attack by the English that he received a command as king's lieutenant in Newfoundland and Acadia. In 1693, becoming involved in difficulties with De Brouillon, the governor of Newfoundland, he made his escape to Portugal, and thence went to Spain, Denmark, and England. He afterward solicited advancement and redress from the French court in vain. He published "Nouveaux voyages de M. le baron de Lahontan dans l'Amerique Septentrionale" (2 vols., the Hague, 1703); "Dialogue de M. le baron de Lahontan et d'un sauvage dans l'Amerique, avec les voyages du meme en Portugal" (Amsterdam, 1704); and "RSsponse g la lettre d'un partieulier opposee au manifeste de S. M. le roi de la Grande Bretagne contre la-Sudde," published after his death. Truth and fiction are so blended in his works they have long ceased to have any authority.