The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents Volume 20

PREFACE TO VOL. XX

Following is a synopsis of the documents contained in the present volume:

XLI. The Relation of 1640 is the joint product of Le Jeune, who wrote at Quebec (under date of September 10) the portion dealing with the field of the lower St. Lawrence, and of Jerome Lalemant, who wrote from the Huron country (under date of May 27) of the year’s work in that far-away mission. In Vol. XVIII., we gave the first ten chapters of Le Jeune’s narrative (Part I. of the document); in Vol. XIX. this part was concluded, and eight chapters were published of Lalemant’s report (Part II.). We herewith give Chapters ix. and x., thus closing the document.

In Chapter ix., Lalemant describes the founding of the mission of St. Jean Baptiste. At first, the Fathers are welcomed; but soon their troubles begin,—the demons prompt the natives to perform all their customary superstitious rites more freely than ever, and to drive out the strangers. A friendly chief calls a council at which the missionaries may refute the slanders spread about them ; fortunately, Joseph Chihwatenhwa arrives in time to speak at this conclave, and his eloquence appeases the tumult for a season. As usual, most of their converts are among the dying ; of these, is an Algonkin whose tribe are wintering with the Hurons. [Page 9]

The final chapter of this Relation describes the new mission to the Tobacco Nation, conducted by Garnier and Jogues; “this mission has been the richest of all, since crosses and sufferings have been most abundant therein.” There the Fathers are persecuted on every side,—they can with difficulty obtain sufficient food to support life; they are feared and reviled by almost all the people ; they are driven from village to village, sometimes forced to leave a house in the middle of the night; and are repeatedly threatened with death. Many bands from the Neutral Nation flee hither for refuge from the famine that prevails in their own country, and many die of hunger; but the Fathers succeed in baptizing nearly all of these unfortunates, thus ensuring their future blessedness. While thus wandering through the villages of the Tobacco Nation, the missionaries receive an unexpected reinforcement in the good Chihwatenhwa, who leaves his own family to God’s care, that he may join and aid the Fathers in their itinerancy. While the smallpox epidemic was at its height, these Jesuits were in excellent health ; but, now that it is decreasing, they are attacked by scurvy, but fortunately recover.

Lalemant had closed his narrative May 27, and, according to custom, sent it to his superior (Vimont) by the spring fleet of canoes which proceeded down the Ottawa River to the great fur market at Three Rivers. He was able, this year, to send a postscript dated August 3, which reached Quebec before the Relation for the year had been forwarded to France (in September). This letter relates the sad death of Joseph Chihwatenhwa, who had been killed and scalped by the Iroquois. This is a grief to the missionaries, [Page 10] but they console themselves by saying: “Since the Saints have more power when they are in heaven than here below on earth, we are bound to believe that we have gained more than we have lost by his death.”

XLII. This is a letter written by Father Charles Garnier, from the mission of Ste. Marie, in the Huron country, under date of June 23, 1641, to one of his brothers in France. After many pious exhortations and reflections, and a reference to another brother, “a prodigal,” the writer describes missionary work among the savages, mentioning the frequent hardships and dangers to which the Jesuits are exposed. He closes with a request that his brother will send him some medicinal seeds, with instructions as to their use and culture.

XLIII. This is a letter by Brébeuf to the Father General, written at Quebec, August 20, 1641. Only fragments thereof have been preserved to us, and these chiefly relative to the Huron mission. He praises the peace, strict discipline, and order that prevail in the missionary household, especially among their donné. The Huron church contains about sixty members,—a number slowly increasing. The two new missions—to the Algonkins and the Neutral Nation—are mentioned ; and the writer praises Chaumonot’s zeal, and his ability in learning the native tongues.

XLIV. Although Vimont is now superior of the Jesuit missions in New France, the Quebec portion (Part I.) of the Relation of 1640-41 is written by Le Jeune, and the Huron narrative (Part II.) by Jerome Lalemant,—the same as with the preceding Relation [Page 11] of 1640. In the present volume, we give the first eight chapters of Part I., leaving the document to be concluded in our Vol. XXI.

Le Jeune’s narrative is without date; Lalemant’s was concluded May 16, 1641, and sent down by the spring fleet to Quebec. Le Jeune was despatched to Paris in the autumn, as an envoy from the governor and colonists, on various matters touching their interests, and took with him the MS. of the Relation of 1640-41. In an introductory note, written in Paris, he explains this circumstance. In the Relation proper, he begins by describing the work of the Ursulines; they not only teach the French girls of the colony, but have a little seminary of young Indian girls. One of these has married, and was given her clothes and furniture by the nuns ; four others are nearly ready to marry, and donations are needed for aiding them. Two more nuns, who could furnish some funds for the support of the convent, would be welcomed. Extracts from the letters of the nuns are given, showing the intelligence, amiability, and piety that characterize these Indian girls. They are quite weaned from savage customs, and even from their own mothers. Madame de la Peltrie sustains this enterprise with undiminished ardor, and does all she can for the Indian families as well.

Le Jeune then narrates the progress of affairs at St. Joseph de Sillery, the new settlement of Indian converts, The Christians are zealous, and resolve (unknown to the Fathers) that any Indian in this village who commits a fault, however slight, shall be punished by imprisonment and fasting. Several instances are given of their enforcement of this rule,—sending the offender to Quebec, with a request to the [Page 12] governor that he be placed in a dungeon. Some, indeed, are so eager to defend the faith before unbelievers, that they provoke the latter to rage ; and the Fathers find it necessary to recommend to them more discretion and mildness. The Algonkins of the Island endeavor to beguile these Christians away from St. Joseph, but they refuse to leave the place. One young woman is full of grief because she had chosen marriage, instead of becoming a nun. A man, who has not yet received instruction, abandons the use of tobacco, and the “eat-all” feasts and other superstitions; he also begins to preach to his countrymen that they must believe in God and listen to the missionaries. He induces the Tadoussac Indians to send to Quebec for Jesuit teachers; and when one is sent there, “this good Neophyte,” armed with a pistol, stands guard over the Father when he goes for a walk, lest some harm should befall him. He is, after a time, duly instructed and baptized ; and Charles Meiachkawat becomes a notable and influential Christian.

Le Jeune proceeds to give detailed accounts of various conversions, baptisms, and pious acts among the neophytes both at Sillery and Three Rivers. One of these, named Achilles, “was very haughty before his baptism, but God has changed him into a little lamb.” He refuses to leave St. Joseph with Makheabichtichiou,—a quasi convert, mentioned in earlier Relations; the latter “is wretchedly slain in the country of the Abnaquiois, and his family is ruined.” Another notable convert is a Huron, who has come down to Quebec with Brébeuf and Du Peron ; he is baptized at Sillery with great ceremony, .as Charles Sondatsaa. Montmagny, who acts as his [Page 13] sponsor, presents to him a handsome arquebus, and exhorts him to spread the faith among his countrymen; while the Sillery converts give him powder to use with his gun. He is very grateful, and avers that he will never give up the faith he has professed. “We have nothing,” he says, “so precious as Our porcelain collars; if I were to see a score of them glittering before me, to entice me into sin, I would turn away my eyes, and my heart would loathe them. In our Villages, we value highly certain garments and robes ; if what we call beauty should present me with one of these robes, in order to corrupt me, I would say to her, ‘If the God whom I adore wishes me to use these garments, he will cause me to find them by other ways,—sin is banished from my heart; it must never reënter there.’ ”

The narrator, commenting on the influence of these converts, says: “Indeed, I have observed that one truly Christian Savage, who is zealous for the faith, accomplishes more among his people than do three Jesuits.” He next describes the good work that the Hospital nuns are performing, at their house near Sillery. They not only aid the savages in illness, but through this are doing much to keep them sedentary, as the missionaries desire. Aid has generously been given to the hospital by a lady of rank in France, by the Hundred Associates, and by another friend. The Sisters gather in old persons who have been abandoned by the savages ; they care for all who are sick, both French and Indians; they succor many needy poor; and even instruct several children who are too far away to go to the Ursulines at Québec. They have cared for sixty-eight sick persons. during the Past year, of whom only four have died, [Page 14] and seven have been baptized. The Indians show in sickness astonishing patience and gentleness, and often most pious devotion. The Sillery savages are in many ways under the care of the nuns ; and various instances of their simplicity and naïveté are recounted. Accustomed to divide with one another their food, they also think it necessary to share the medicines prescribed,—all impartially drinking from the cup allotted to one. A portrait of the Duchess d’Aiguillon is sent to the hospital, and the women and children all imitate the posture of prayer in which the lady is depicted; then, bowing low to her picture, they kiss it “with more simplicity and candor than grace. It is not the custom of the savages to salute one another with a kiss ; but as Madame de la Peltrie often embraces and kisses these poor girls on meeting them, these good creatures imagine that they must imitate her, in order to do right.” The death of one of the nuns is recorded—Mother de Sainte Marie, “a dear dove, ” whose health has been frail during all her stay in Canada; she dies (March 5) apparently from consumption, but her physician states that “she had three mortal diseases.”

The writer proceeds to relate the history of the mission at Three Rivers, which “has been beaten this year by more kinds of winds than pilots and mariners have marked on their wind roses or on their charts.” Three Rivers is a rendezvous for all the tribes of the upper St. Lawrence and Ottawa region, who are not only often ignorant of the missionaries and their designs, but are usually involved in jealousies and quarrels with one another. They also practice the pagan superstitions and customs that the Fathers have labored to suppress among their neophytes, and [Page 15] thus greatly disturb the little church at this place. Father Buteux, in attempting to stop one of these heathen rites, is roughly treated, and threatened with death. The church now numbers about eighty persons, many of whom console the Fathers by their steadfastness in the truth. On the whole, “in spite of the attacks of the Devil, the Unbelievers are opening their eyes by degrees, so that they are becoming softened and tamed, giving us hopes of their conversion.”

A beginning is made in reaching the Attikamègues, a peaceful tribe, who occasionally “make their appearance like flashes of lightning” at Three Rivers, for trading. Some of these Indians are baptized, and thus carry news of the faith to their tribesmen. Detailed accounts are given of various baptisms at Three Rivers; among these is Pieskars (Piescaret), a chief of the Island tribe, a man of much influence and ability.

The following have recently rendered valuable assistance to the editor, in addition to those already mentioned: Mgr. C. A. Marois, vicar-general of the archdiocese of Québec; Rev. B. Th. Garneau, secretary to the archbishop of Quebec ; Rev. A. Lallemand, S. J., Societe des Bollandistes, Brussels, Belgium; Rev. .Dr. S. H. Frisbee, S. J., of Woodstock College, Woodstock, Md. ; Rev. T. Charaux, S. J., Sault-au-Recollet, P. Q. ; Rev. C. M. Widman, S. J., of St. Charles College, Grand Coteau, La. ; Hon. John Russell Young, ‘librarian of Congress, Washington; and Richard R. Elliott, Esq., Detroit.

R. G. T.

Madison, Wis., April, 1898

XL1 (concluded)

Relation of 1640

Paris: SEBASTIEN CRAMOISY, 1641

—————

Chaps. ix., x. of Part II., completing the document. The

earlier portions of this document will be found in Volumes

XVIII. and XIX.

[145] CHAPTER IX.

OF THE MISSION OF SAINT JEAN BAPTISTE TO THE

ARENDARONONS.

HE Arendaronons are one of the four nations which compose those whom, properly speaking, we call Hurons; it is the most Eastern nation of all, and is the one which first encountered the French, and to which, in consequence, the trade belonged, according to the laws of the country. They could enjoy this alone; nevertheless, they found it good to share it with the other [146] nations,—retaining for themselves, however, more especially the character of our allies ; and on this account inclining to protect the French when some disaster has happened. This is where the late monsieur de Champlain stopped longest on the voyage that he made up here, about 22 years ago ; and where his reputation still lives in the minds of these barbarous peoples,—who honor, even after so many years, many excellent virtues which they admired in him, and in particular his chastity and continence with respect to the women. Would to God that all the French who first came to these regions had been like him! we would not so often blush for them in the presence of our Savages, who oppose to us the immodesties and the debauches of several, as if this were an infallible proof, that what we threaten them with, concerning hell, is nothing but fables,—inasmuch as those first Frenchmen whom they knew had no fear thereof. [Page 19]

This so special alliance which these Arendaronon peoples have with the French had often given us the thought [147] of going to impart to them the riches of the Gospel; but our deficiency in the language had always prevented us from advancing to that point,—having found ourselves occupied from the outset in our first abiding place, which was situated at the other end of the country, quite opposite to these.

This year, having found ourselves strong enough for this enterprise, we began a mission there, which has had three villages in its department,—St. Jean Baptiste,^l St. Joachim, and Sainte Elizabeth.² Fathers Antoine Daniel and Simon le Moine have had the. care of them.

They made their chief and most usual abode in the more populous village of St. Jean Baptiste, having most work to do there. At the first, they set forth in open council the purpose of their coming, which was approved and universally received by every one: people spoke of nothing but believing, and embracing the Faith; the cabins were open to them, and even emulously so: these good people came to invite them, and offered them with a friendly heart all the kindnesses they could imagine.

[148] The disease, which had already begun in this village, increased after the arrival of our Fathers: the affection and the confidence of these poor barbarians seemed at the same time to increase toward them; one or two raisins, the palm of the hand full of half-sweetened water, the assistance which they tried to give the sick, either by counsel or by going to ask alms in the cabins of the more wealthy for those who were in poverty,—these were the charms [Page 21] of a charity which had never been seen in these villages.

Meanwhile, the affairs of God were quietly managed; the children were baptized when they were considered in danger; the adults received with open heart the words of heaven, and hardly was one found who in the peril of death would not think of the salvation of his soul; even the relatives, when they had some sick patient, would come to notify our Fathers thereof.

Some effects of God’s goodness over these poor barbarians increased still more their affection for us. A young man,—one of the greatest [149] hunters and warriors in the country, and one of the best connected in all this village,—was brought so low by the disease that they wholly despaired of him; he was instructed and baptized by one of our Fathers, who made a journey thither toward the end of the month of September. Shortly after, he returns to health, contrary to all hope; but he remains blind, and there stays with him an intolerable inflammation which spoils his eyes. A month later, our two missionaries, having arrived in this village, visited this Neophyte: he blesses God that he is cured, but he bewails his misery for having lost his sight, without which he can no longer love life. They exhort him to hope in God, with whom nothing is impossible; he protests that he believes; in proof of his belief, he gives up a tortoise shell,—which is, as it were, the lute and the violin of their concerts,—which he used in hunting, in order to invoke the aid of his demon.³ They apply to his eyes some holy water, with a sign of the cross, uttering these words: “May he whom you have taken for master, Our Lord,—the Father, [Page 23] the Son, and the Holy Ghost, cure you.” It pleased God to bless his Faith; the inflammation [150] is scattered, the pain ceases, there is no more blindness, sight returns entire. There still remained to him some sores on the face and on the body ; they left with him a little of that holy water to use from time to time,—invoking Our Lord for the space of nine days, in honor of the nine choirs of Angels,—with the promise to come and render thanks to God in the Chapel which our Fathers had erected in the cabin of the principal captain of that village, with whom they were lodged. Heaven continued its favors upon this poor young man; he found himself altogether cured before the time, and, in order not to be thankless, he made a solemn feast, at which, the company being assembled, he openly declared that he had from the God of the believers his sight, his health, and his life. This young man is called Ononrouten, and he was named Charles at his baptism.

The favors of God do not stop there. A little girl of his fell sick, and into danger of death, from a certain carbuncle which was consuming her even to the bone ; he begs them to baptize her—they cannot [151] refuse him; after her baptism she finds herself entirely cured.

Another woman of the same cabin was oppressed by a violent colic, which made her yield up, by strange vomitings, everything that she had in her body: after that, she lost feeling, and her kinsmen already accounted her dead. Our Fathers hastened thither, and put before her eyes an image of Our Lord; they are utterly astonished that her senses come back to her ,—she speaks and hears ; they baptize her with entire satisfaction. After that, they [Page 25] give her a little holy water, and they exhort her to put her trust in God. The next day she is on her feet,—she works as before, and says aloud to every one that it is God alone who has cured her. She was named Marie at her baptism; her Huron name is Atatasé.

With the host with whom our Fathers lodged, two received a similar cure, and by way of thanksgiving the. parents made two public feasts in the Christian style,—at which, instead of their war songs or songs of dreams, the Pater noster in Huron [152] was sung, and some other prayers, which carried away all those present, in admiration. A French voice with harmony in it excels all their howlings.

Some other acts of heaven, similar to these, were loudly sounded through all the cabins,—where, in consequence, our Fathers were received and regarded with an eye which had no Savage aspect whatever.

The disease, nevertheless, makes its ravages there: this entire village, flourishing and large, is becoming a woeful hospital.

It would have been a wonder indeed, if the powers of hell had not crossed the affairs of God ; the devil must needs defend his kingdom which he has possessed from all time, and it is not without resistance that he is to be expelled from it.

A man of this same village was, during all that time, engaged in fishing; a demon appeared to him under the form of a tall and handsome young man. “Fear not,” said this haughty spirit; “I am the master of the earth, whom you Hurons honor under the name of Iouskeha;⁴ I am the one whom the French [153] wrongly call Jesus, but they do not know me. I have pity on your country, which I have taken under my [Page 27] protection; I come to teach you both the reasons and the remedies for your misfortune. It is the strangers who alone are the cause of it; they now travel two by two throughout the country, with the design of spreading the disease everywhere. They will not stop with that; after this smallpox which now depopulates your cabins, there will follow certain colics which in less than three days will carry off all those whom this disease may not have removed. You can prevent this misfortune ; drive out from your village the two black gowns who are there. As for those who are now attacked by the smallpox, I wish you to serve me in curing them; prepare a quantity of such a water, run as fast as possible to the village, and tell the elders to carry and distribute this potion during the whole night. Then all the youth and the war Captains will go acting like madmen through all the cabins; but I wish them to continue even till the dawn of day,—after that, the demon disappears.”

[154] This poor man straightway hastens to the village, and gives warning of all that he knows; thereupon the Elders twice and thrice assemble the council. These diabolical ceremonies are received with approbation ; toward evening, one hears in all the streets nothing but the shout of the Captains, who exhort the youth to act bravely as madmen. Then it was that this spirit of trouble triumphed in his reign. As our missionaries were lodged in the cabin of the principal Captain, it was there that the first act of this comedy began; our Fathers were obliged to break up their little retreat for the holy Mass, to the end of preventing what these mad fellows would have done, for he is judged the most valiant who best acts the maniac. Everywhere were heard only howlings,— [Page 29] nothing but agitation and madness ; but the rigor of the cold increases,—these masqueraders withdraw a little after midnight. On that account these new Apothecaries (they were six of the Elders who bore in silence a great kettle full of that diabolical water, whereof they made all the sick people drink), these physicians [155] of hell, ceased to make their round, because the follies of the young men had ceased. The morrow night it was necessary to satisfy the devil, and begin again, quite afresh. This night was that of Christmas, during which the demon was punctually obeyed.

In consequence thereof, this Prince of wantonness ordered infamous dances and feasts during all those holy days, consecrated to the memory of the infant J e s u s, King of purity, and of his dear disciple, the well-beloved for his virginity.

Behold, then, the souls of these poor barbarians possessed by the demon; the truths of our Faith no longer find access to their mind; their affection for us is changed into hatred. This spirit of deceit, whom they honor as the master of their land, having assured them that we alone were the cause of their ruin, the doors of the cabins begin to be closed to our Fathers ; the sight of them is dreaded, as if a single one of their looks caused all the children to die; they are held in abomination, and they hardly find any one who tolerates them.

[156] From day to day, their minds become further embittered; the false reports which came from the neighboring nations augment their suspicions, being received as true; and certain tools of the devil confirmed all these slanders,—declaring that they had seen black gowns in a dream,—now without the [Page 31] palisade of the village, now on the shore of the lake,—who were unfolding certain books, whence issued sparks of fire which spread everywhere, and no doubt caused this pestilential disease.

Even in the cabin whither our two missionaries retreated, they are looked upon with an evil eye; night and day they are confronted with the rumors which are current about them. Every one, and especially a Megera who is the mistress of the house, treats them worse and worse, in order to oblige them to leave as soon as possible; their host is the only one who tolerates them, but he begs them, as a friend, to remain shut in and concealed, because of the dread which he feels, of some evil deed.

So great and sudden a change is not difficult to understand, if one will reflect [157] that the Savior of the world was blasphemed by all the Jews, and treated like a malefactor,—although a few days before they had received him in their city, and had acknowledged a part of his dignities. How be it, it is a strange thing that even those who shortly before had received their cure from heaven, and who dared not deny it, grow cold in the Faith after all these intrigues of satan, and lose their ideas of God and of the obligations which they are under to his goodness. When one of our Fathers was one day reproaching with this the man who had so happily recovered sight by the virtue of holy water, this barbarian said to him: “But how am I so greatly obliged to him? what did it cost him to restore my sight? You used nothing but cold water : that is not a very difficult remedy to obtain.” “That, wretched man,” he says to him, “is why you ought to admire his power and love his goodness, which has rendered [Page 33] your cure so easy, without commanding you—as do your demons, who nevertheless are impotent—the sacrifice of stags, dogs, and bears. [158] Know, then, that if he has so much power to do you good, he will not have less power to chastise you if you do not serve him according to your promise.” To that, no reply ; a mind whereof the devil has regained possession is no longer capable of estimating the greatness of God, whom he before adored.

Notwithstanding all that, our missionaries pursue their point; Atironta, their host, who loves them,—and who, bearing the name of the first Huron Captain who met the French, has also his charge and his power,⁶—assists them as far as he can to assemble a council of the Elders of the village, at which they can publicly demonstrate their innocence and refute these calumnies.

By a happy coincidence, Joseph Chihouatenhoua—that excellent Christian of whom we spoke in the preceding chapter—arrives in this same village, to assist our Fathers in such manner as they shall choose to employ him for the publication of the Gospel. The council is held; Father Antoine Daniel refutes the slanderers, and speaks with so much emphasis that not one dares to answer him. Joseph Chihouatenhoua [159] afterward begins to speak, and passes more than two entire hours in discoursing on the mysteries of our Faith. Those old Captains are greatly surprised to see a young man speak like a master, in a new language; they can but admire him. They approve the truths of our Faith, all the commandments of God seem reasonable to them,—in a word, they condemn themselves ; and some exclaim that all the earth ought to heed such great concerns, [Page 35] and speeches of such importance. But, at the end, what blindness ! not one embraces the truths which he acknowledges, not one adopts for himself the advice which he approves.

Nevertheless, this assembly and its result, which was favorable to us, appeased their minds somewhat; the grievances which they had against us, greatly diminished; they begin to receive our Fathers quite peaceably in most of the cabins, and the latter continue to announce the name of God to them, to the whole and to the sick. Some minds, of those who are not in disease, relish this, and [160] some even desire baptism ; but we do not proceed so fast,—they must be tried; otherwise we should run the risk of having many people baptized, but very few Christians.

The mercy of God further appeared over the sick; in the single village of saint Jean Baptiste, more than 140 were baptized, most of whom are dead,—and among others, 40 little children, whose salvation is beyond doubt, The judgments of God are always adorable. Here follows what the Fathers of this mission write to me in the matter.

“Some receive baptism with an unspeakable joy, and know not how to express the grace that they experience, by means of loving colloquies, now before our Crucifix, now before the Image of the Savior of the world. ‘Alas!’ (said, among others, a young man of 25 years) ‘0! thou master of our lives! thou seest that I have no sense, and that I cannot speak; tell me, then, what it would please thee that I should say.’ And others, almost at the same time, blaspheme against God, having their souls on their lips. Lately, a war Captain, when we spoke to him of hell, [Page 37] [161] mocked those fires. ‘Those flames do not burn for me,’ said this braggart; ‘death dreads me; I seek it everywhere, and it shuns me; my most usual provision is the flesh of our enemies.’ This poor wretch was soon carried off by death, without ever consenting to acknowledge himself in error. A poor child died in the midst of our cabin, and we were never able to baptize it. Several others, far removed from us, in isolated cabins in the midst of the fields, awaited only our coming in order to expire almost in our hands; and they have gone to enjoy in Heaven him who had made them only to save them. Some, closing their cabins to us, constrain us to enter another, into which we were not intending to go; we find there a soul which lacks nothing but baptism, in order to be the same day in paradise. Others, whom we were not seeking, call us to their house, and, without realizing it, give us the means to procure the salvation of a poor man who already had one foot in hell. In a word, the Angels [162] assist us to increase the number of the blessed. We cannot attribute to other power than to guardian spirits of men, the following occurrence:

“While the dream, or rather the devil, is being obeyed in our own cabin by a tumult or general madness of the whole people, and while he consequently interrupts the course of our exercise, a captain of the Algonquins, who are wintering an eighth of a league from here, comes to seek us in haste. ‘A brother of mine,’ he tells us, ‘is dying of the contagion; come, I beg you, and visit him while he is still alive; come and teach him the way to heaven, for he desires it.’ We hasten thither; we instruct him, more from the heart than from the lips; his [Page 39] brother, seeing that he only half understood us, joins the party (for he passably understands Huron), and serves us as interpreter. We use some Algonquin prayers that we had in writing from our Fathers who are at the Three Rivers ,—and, among others, the act of contrition, which this dying man repeated with so good a heart that at last we called him Felix, in baptism: [163] in fact, he died a few hours later. These good people spoke to us of burying him in our manner, as our Fathers do at the Three Rivers: but the time for,that has not yet come.” Thus far the letter.

I hope that after a while we shall have workmen up here who shall know the Alguonquin language, and who will be able not only to assist some bands of Algonquins who come to winter each year near our Hurons, but to pass beyond, two and three hundred leagues from here, where the language of the Algonquins is generally understood.

The two villages of saint Joachim and sainte Elizabeth also gave exercise to our evangelistic workers, the disease having prevailed in all places alike. “The greatest difficulty we have,” one of our Fathers writes to me, “is not that of consuming the poverty of these wretches, but that of entering into their minds, which we see manifestly possessed, for the most part, by some demon,—even to the extent that some, at our approach, sometimes howl like wolves: [164] these, as I have proved, quickly become silent when we outwardly exorcise them per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum. [Page 41]

CHAP. X.

OF THE MISSION SURNAMED “OF THE APOSTLES,” TO

THE KHIONONTATERONONS.

HE Khionontateronons, who are called “the nation of the Tobacco,” from the abundance of that plant there, are distant from the country of the Hurons—whose language they speak—about twelve or fifteen leagues toward the West. These nations formerly waged cruel wars against one another ; but they are now on very good terms, and have recently renewed their alliance, and made a new confederation against some other peoples, their common enemies.

We have taken this opportunity to announce the gospel to them, and to plant there, if we can, the standard of Jesus Christ. [165] This, which we have named the mission of the Apostles, has been the fifth of our missions. The lot for it fell to Father Charles Garnier and to Father Isaac Jogues. Here are the names which they have given to nine villages that they have encountered there: saint Pierre and saint Paul,⁶ saint André, saint Jacques, saint Thomas, saint Jean, saint Jacques and saint Philippe, saint Barthelemy, saint Matthieu, saint Simon and saint Jude.

This mission has been the richest of all, since the crosses and the sufferings have been most abundant therein. Here is what our Fathers write to me of their beginnings in it.

“Here we have at last arrived, thank God, at the.[Page 43] farthest and principal village of our district, to which we have given the name of saint Pierre and saint Paul. Not having been able to find any Savage at the village of la Conception to come with us,—the roads being then too bad, for people who are not seeking God,—we were constrained to start alone; taking our good Angels for guides. About the middle of the journey, not having [166] been able to find a certain detour which would have led us to some cabins which are a little isolated, we were surprised by night in a fir grove. We were in a damp place, and could not go from it to seek a drier one; we had trouble enough to pick up some pieces of wood to make a little fire, and some dry branches to lie down upon: the snow was threatening to put out our fire, but it suddenly ceased. God be blessed, we spent the night very quietly. The next morning we came across some poor cabins in the fields, but they had no corn. Finding company there to come into the country with, we were not willing to lose it, because the roads were very difficult on account of the newly-fallen snows, which had obliterated the trails. Accordingly, we set out, and went by many bad roads, at a very bad season, to a little village which we named St. Thomas ; we made easily a league by the mere light of the snow, and arrived about eight o’clock in the evening, with good [167] appetite,—not having eaten all day, save each a morsel of bread. We had no design on that village, rather than on another: but having taken what company of Savages there offered, and having followed them, we arrived,—no doubt, where God was leading us, for the salvation of a predestined soul which awaited nothing but our coming, in order to die to all its miseries. [Page 45]

While we were at a loss to know whether there was not some person critically ill, a young man came to beg us to go and give some relief to one in his cabin. We go thither, and find a poor woman at the last pass: she was instructed, and happily received with the Faith the grace of Baptism; shortly after, she beheld herself in glory. In the whole village there was only that one who had need of our help. We ran to some other little villages, where they told us that there were sick people: we baptized some of them,—Our Lord’s sheep are much scattered, hither and yon. We have met some persons who at first indeed relished the gospel: [168] God grant them the grace to embrace it altogether. We received consolation two or three days ago, seeing that a girl, who came to pledge herself to a young man, having a little later heard mention of God and the pains of hell, went to lie down alone, saying, ‘He sees us even at night.’

“On arriving in this village, we knew not that there was a little child of the neutral nation, aged five years, whom its parents have recently brought here, where hunger causes them to take refuge; for a long time, it was each day believed that that would be the last of its life. Out of 45 or 50 cabins, without thinking of it, we first visited the one in which was this little stranger, and baptized him ; he straightway saw himself out of exile and happy in his native land. Those are the first fruits of this neutral nation, and this was the very first one to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ.

“This whole country is filled with evil reports which are current about us. The children, seeing us arrive at any place, exclaim that famine and [Page 47] disease [169] are coming; some women flee, others hide their children from us; almost all refuse us the hospitality which they grant even to the most unknown tribes. We have not been able to find a house for Our Lord,-not having been able to find any place where we can say Mass. Our host,—who is the chief Captain of this country, and who through a natural prudence had appeared quite peaceable,—on seeing us pray to God mornings and evenings on our knees, finally could not refrain, on one occasion, from revealing to us what he had on his heart. He begins, therefore, to speak, but in a council voice,—that is to say, loud and distinct: ‘Truly, it is now that I fear and speak. What are now these demons but spells to make us die, and finish what the disease has left over, in this cabin? They had told me, indeed, that these were sorcerers, but I believe it too late. This is a thing unknown—that persons who come to lodge at one’s house pass the night in postures to which our eyes are nowise accustomed.’ [170] Imagine with what looks they regard us in a cabin where they have such fine ideas of us!—we could hardly tranquilize this mind again. They treat us very ill, in order to oblige us to leave. It is, in sooth, all, if we have what suffices for life,—our hunger usually attends us from morning till evening; but these simple people do not see that what retains us here is more precious than all that they conceive in the way of pleasures in this world. There is hardly any corn in this village, and, nevertheless, every day some Attiouandarons arrive (they are those of the neutral nation),—bands of men, women, and children, all pale and disfigured, whom famine drives hither. Fleeing famine, they here find death, or rather a [Page 49] blessed life, for we see to it that not one dies without baptism. Among those people was a little child of one year, who seemed rather a monster than a human being. It was happily baptized; God, it seems, preserved its life only by miracle, so that, being washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, it might bless his mercies forever.

[171] While we try to render some honor to God, the devil continues to be adored ; even yesterday, in our cabin, they made him a solemn sacrifice. All the people being assembled there, they repeatedly threw tobacco and fat into the fire, making several invocations ; and all that for the cure of a wretch whom his private demon afflicts with a certain disease, because he has not obeyed him in the matter of some feasts which he had commanded him.

“Is it a wonder that we are held in abomination at a place where the devils are acknowledged as masters? Our host orders that his door be barricaded every evening, fearing lest they do us some violence by night; for, if they killed us in his house, he would have the reproaches to bear for it, even from those who desire naught but our death. It is not this which assures us; we have a more powerful protection, although less visible to these poor infidels.”

Hitherto the Fathers.

Those were only the beginnings of their sufferings: in the other [172] villages, since the rumors were continually increasing, they had more to endure; they had not been two days in a place before people could no longer suffer them, and it was necessary to change their location. Some Hurons, who went thither from time to time to effect some trades, incensed minds against them, and even did their utmost to the end [Page 51] that they be got rid of as soon as possible. At one time a man who awakens with terror in the middle of the night, commands them to go forth from his cabin; again, some one comes from outside,—also in the dead of night,—to shout at their door that the next morning they shall not appear in the village. As they leave one village, taking the way to some other, they are forestalled, and one goes to give warning to the next villages that they are to refuse them entrance; the Captains come to forbid them to set foot there, and threaten them that their heads would be split if they so much as approached.

Their greatest crime is that they carry the Faith and the name of Jesus everywhere; that they forbid the diabolical ceremonies; that while saying their prayers they bewitch [173] the villages. But their joy and consolation is that very thing,—to see themselves thus repelled for the name of Jesus, not only in the councils, but also by the villages and private houses; to see themselves the abomination of those whose salvation they seek, at the peril of their own lives; enduring hunger, cold, the rains, and the snows,—in a word, all the inclemencies of the seasons and weather: to see themselves threatened, almost at every moment, with dying as malefactors. Non est servus major domino suo. If the Savior of the world was treated like that, have not his servants cause to glorify themselves in God, while bearing their master’s livery?

Thereupon, one of our missionaries falls sick,—the fever seizes him, and some other inconveniences; God must indeed be their physician, their food, and their all, on these occasions,—since everything fails them therein. [Page 53]

Hardly is he somewhat relieved from his sickness, when it is necessary to start,—fasting, as early as three o’clock in the morning,—in order to go to another village eleven or twelve leagues thence, [174] whither the affairs of God call them. A little bread of the land,—if, however, that be bread; a mass of Indian corn meal soaked in water without leaven, which is not worth the bread which in France they make for the dogs; whatever name one give it,—this little food which they carry freezes on the way; and yet they must be content with it, and of necessity make eleven leagues without having eaten in the whole day a lump as large as the fist, of this so delicate fare. They almost stop, from weakness, but Our Lord assists them; and finally they drag themselves through the snows, and arrive very late at the place whither they are bound—on the one hand, covered with sweat, and, on the other, more than half frozen. Some souls gone astray here and there, which are put in the way to heaven when they are on the point of being swallowed up in hell, deserve a thousand times more than these labors; since they have cost the Savior of the world dearer than that.

While our Missionaries were under these persecutions, Joseph Chihouatenhoua,—of whom we often speak, [175] because his zeal and his courage have caused him to take a good share in all our sufferings,—this good Christian, wishing to be of the party, leaves his wife and his children, and gives over into the hands of God the care of his house at the time when all their village was most afflicted with disease. This poor family was every day expecting the visitation of Our Lord ; the poor mother, in particular was in apprehension for her children,—well [Page 55] seeing that, her husband being at a distance, she would remain deprived of a strong support, both spiritual and temporal. One of our Fathers who was there, wishing to console her, said to her that this journey would be brief,—twelve or fifteen days at most. “Alas,” she said, “our children will have died in that space of time, without his having learned the news of their illness.” “My wife,” answered the husband, “ whom do you take me for? I am nothing at all, and what would my presence avail here? Should my children be sick, all that I could do would be to feel distressed for them, and grieve my spirit, in order to try to [176] relieve them; but that and nothing are all one. To God alone it belongs to preserve or to restore health to whom he pleases; as for us, we have only to try to please him in all our actions. That is what makes me leave you now; it is enough for me that it is his will. As for our family, he will take care of it, if he please: and then here are my brothers the Jesuits who remain with you. Even if I were here, the best that I could do would be to follow their advice: keep your mind at rest.” Before starting he confessed and received communion; and at the moment of the separation he knelt down in his cabin, to offer and commend his family to God.

Thereupon he went away, while it was terrible weather ; the cold was cracking the trees; a furious wind was blowing in his face; but the fire of his charity was stronger than all these inclemencies. Having joined our missionaries, they begin to scour the hamlets and villages; having arrived at the first one, very weary and fatigued, they present themselves to enter a [177] cabin, but the door is shut on [Page 57] them; they apply at another, they receive there a like refusal. Finally, this Christian leads them to some relatives of his, but they are constrained to dislodge the next day, after having effected some baptisms in this village. Having reached another village, the Captain’s door is immediately closed to them ; this good Christian is again obliged to have recourse to one of his kinsmen. This was not without reproaches which they administered to him for taking the part of people who were the greatest sorcerers on earth; but he knew well how to meet them. That did not prevent, when night had come, a young man of the cabin from falling into a fury; either he was possessed by the devil, or he pretended to be. He throws all the firebrands hither and thither; he burns what he finds, even things most precious; the barbarians hide themselves where they can. This frenzied man then comes, to fall upon the very place where our missionaries are; but by good fortune they had just withdrawn from it. As this lunatic was in the act of performing a thousand mad freaks there, looking for those against whom he had a grudge, [178] he is quietly informed of the place whither they had withdrawn. Our Joseph, having had good enough ears to hear this information, exclaimed: “What, then? this lunatic has his senses, and you are conspiring with him!” Nevertheless this madman, true or counterfeit, goes in fury to the place where one of our Fathers was, who at the same time withdraws and leaves the cabin, in order to find some shelter elsewhere, in the middle of the night. God knows what were this crazy man’s designs: but he was forthwith cured.

In another village, where some days before our [Page 59] Fathers had been quite well received, every one refused them shelter; and yet the night was very near, while they knew not where to go, being chilled through with cold, and all wet. A good old man whom they had formerly instructed, and who had relished the word of God, approaches them. “How now,” they said to him, “will your door be closed to us also?” “Come, and be welcome,” answered this old man. He was a stranger,—from a hostile nation which they call Atsistaehronons, “Nation of fire,”⁷—who, [179] having been taken captive in his early years, received his life, and came to be at home among them. Non est inventus nisi hic alienigena qui daret laudem Deo. This good man eagerly received the words of salvation; however, as we make no great haste about baptisms, he was put off till another time.

It was in the principal village of saint Pierre and saint Paul, where, having returned to make a second visit, they could find no one who would admit them. The doors are at first closed to them, even by those who at the start had shown some pious affection for the Faith : they hear naught but threats and maledictions. The women exclaim aloud, “Where are now those who said that, if these black-robed men returned, they would split their heads?” The hours pass, and the more they appear before the cabins, the more they are refused; the children scream after them, as after sorcerers. Finally, night comes on, and obliges them to leave this village, where not one had been found worthy to receive them; they were not very [180] far when an insolent band of young men pursues them, hatchet in hand, to massacre them. The captain of this village had exhorted them to that at a [Page 61] feast where they were all assembled. I know not whether it was a good fortune or a bad fortune for us, that these barbarians set forth a little too late, and could not overtake them; perhaps our blood would do more for the conversion of these peoples than all our sweat.

The next day, the captain of this wretched village came to find our Missionaries in the village whither they had retreated, in order to make his excuses; but he had much difficulty in clearing himself. Then it was that our Joseph Chiouatenhoua most revealed his courage, and finely criticized this captain, who was astonished that we called the things of the Faith matters of importance. This Christian, then taking up the matter, said to him: “It is really you captains, who know not what are matters of importance; you are the ones who have overturned our country by separating us from the maxims and good regulations of our ancestors; it is these black gowns here, [181] whom you despise, who know what matters of importance are, and who come to teach us the same. I would have thee know that I am the one who am everywhere, in derision, called ‘The believer:’ they think to curse me, and that is my greatest glory. I am that man; I have such and such kinsmen in thy village; I make profession of following the good instructions which these my teachers give me. We have no sense, as many as we are; our thoughts extend no further than this life. Those who believe found their hopes upon an eternity of good things which assuredly await them; as for you who are always infidels, you do not expect miseries after your death, and yet they will be inevitable for you unless you open your eyes to your wretchedness. You [Page 63] drive out those who love you more than themselves, since their lives are less precious to them than your salvation, which they come to obtain, from so great a distance, with so many labors. Our ancestors have been in some sort excusable if they have not adored this great master who has created the world, for no one [182] taught them ; but you will be a hundred thousand times more severely punished than they, since you choose to remain in your misery, although one try to draw you out of it.” All that this captain could answer was to say, “That is true,” and turn the subject of conversation elsewhere.

You see how the Gospel has been received by these poor barbarians. Not that we do not almost always find, in whatever village we go to, some soul to draw away from the precipice, and whose salvation, which we procure, fills with sweetness all the bitterness which must needs be swallowed. And what further consoles us in that is, that we see manifestly the hand of God therein.

“On entering a village” (Father Garnier writes to me) “I learn that a feast is being prepared in a cabin, in the name of a dying child. I present myself there; I straightway meet with a refusal. I withdraw, and recommend this little innocent to Our Lord; some time after, his parents send to invite me to the feast; and that before they went to invite the public. I go in, and find a place quite near the [183] patient ; pretending to feel the vein of his temple, in order to ascertain the state of his health, I fortunately sprinkle his soul with the blood of Jesus Christ, who called him to himself to be present at the feast everlasting.

“In another village, shortly after I had arrived, [Page 65] run across a little child of ten days; I well see that it is not for this mortal life; I baptize it, and the next day it is in heaven.

“Making an excursion to another little village, I find a child of two days, whose mother had come from another village to be confined in this one. This child had been born only to be happy, for it died soon after holy baptism, which I conferred on it by the favor of a good woman who is well disposed toward the Faith, and whom God, it seems, had at the same time brought from ten leagues’ distance, for no other purpose than to render me this assistance.” Thus far the Father.

These so gracious providences of God, and several other like acts of salvation for some predestined souls, [184] cause us plainly to discern that we are not all alone, and that there are a thousand persons in France who lift their hands to heaven while we are in the fight. In eternity we shall see to whom the spoils belong which we conquer here from the powers of hell. So many vows and so many holy desires for the conversion of these peoples; so frequent and so continuous mortifications, which are borne for this object; and especially three thousand Masses which are said for the same purpose on the second Sunday of each month, and countless communions which are received on the same day (a favor which has been devoutly obtained for us by a person of great merit, who seems to be in the world only to oblige heaven and earth),—all this, no doubt, is what moves God’s heart, and causes him to pour upon us so many graces. He is, it would seem, gently compelled,—this great God,—not to refuse to so powerful an effort of prayers, a number of souls. Who [Page 67] knows whether—seeing that these peoples would not have profited in health by the words of [185] their salvation—he has not permitted all these diseases in order to draw to himself in this way those whom he had chosen? Is it not reasonable to believe that 450 children, who have died after baptism, have been snatched from this world for fear that mischief should alter the whiteness of their innocence? And why shall we not think that strange tribes, among whom we have never set foot,—who this year have come to die in our hands, being driven from their country by famine,—have been led, without their thinking of it, by the holy Ghost, who has wished by this means to furnish and complete that number of souls which he was destined to put in heaven by virtue of all these prayers?

It must be acknowledged that we cannot answer for the future, and that by contemplating these affairs with eyes of the flesh, one does not see the light in them which many would desire therein. But what then? this is God’s work; he alone sees the end of it and knows the means for it; it is for us to follow him, and not to anticipate him. One must serve a master according to his will, and, whatever betides, be content, provided [186] that he be so: it is the glory of God that things go as he wills. Often we advance the most when we think we are far behind; we have seen, in the case of several sick people, that we have gained much by instructing them when they were in health, although at the time it seemed to us that we had lost all our labor; several have adored, at the hour of death, him whom they blasphemed during their lives. The word of the Gospel germinates when the holy Ghost wills to render it fruitful; it is [Page 69] for us merely to sow it with fidelity, and await heaven’s moments. Many who only see our Hurons fifteen hundred leagues from here are impatient that they are not already all converted, and think that one must simply speak of the grandeur of the Faith in order to render it adorable; others almost despair of the salvation of these poor barbarians,—seeing that they are so removed from the sentiments not only of the Faith, but even of reason. I would earnestly entreat the former to reflect that there is no country on earth which has been converted so soon. If civilized peoples have been whole centuries [187] in acknowledging Jesus Christ, can one reasonably demand a readier obedience from the peoples who have been born in barbarism? If they considered them closely, they would accept for a real miracle the fact that even a single one had been converted; for it seems that neither the Gospel nor Holy Scripture has been composed for them. Not only do words fail them to express the sanctity of our mysteries, but even the parables and the more familiar discourses of Jesus Christ are inexplicable to them. They know not what is salt, leaven, stronghold, pearl, prison, mustard seed, casks of wine, lamp, candlestick, torch; they have no idea of Kingdoms, Kings, and their majesty; not even of shepherds, flocks, and a sheepfold,—in a word, their ignorance of the things of the earth seems to close for them the way to heaven. The grounds for credence, taken from the fulfillment of the prophecies; from miracles, Martyrs, Councils, holy Doctors, histories both sacred and profane; from the holiness of [188] the Church, and from the external splendor which renders it venerable to the greatest Monarchs of the world,—all that [Page 71] has no place here ; where can the Faith enter their minds?

But, nevertheless, it would be impiety to despair of the salvation of these peoples,—the blood of Jesus Christ has been shed for them; the hand of God is not shortened. If from stones he can raise up children to Abraham, if he can render the barren fruitful, why will he not be able to draw from these deserts, and from the depth of this barbarism men whom he will train according to his heart, and whom he will place among the Choirs of Angels? What has been seen in the other regions of the world, what we ourselves see here with our own eyes, should animate our hopes, and cause us to entertain sentiments worthy of the goodness of God.

It is true that most of these poor barbarians grow hardened in their sins, and become from day to day more unworthy of God’s graces; it is true that they rebel, on every occasion, against the hand of the physician who wishes to cure their [189] disease,—taking us to be the cause of all their miseries, and urging one another to make us die. It is beyond doubt that all human reasons more and more disclose to us new difficulties in this work: but from that very thing we derive our most powerful motives for hoping against all hope, as well as did Abraham. We manifestly discern that it is God who guides our affairs, and not one can deny this who will open his eyes to things which we see daily. These barbarians nearly all desired our death as passionately as they craved the preservation of their own lives; in their speeches they talked of nothing but slaughtering us,—that was an ordinary theme of their councils; nothing in the world is so easy to them, and even [Page 73] they might have done it without having had this crime imputed to them before men. We live only on what they themselves sell us, and come to bring us in our house: who has constrained them to do this? They have the use of poison; could they not [190] each day mix some in what they bring us? They kill one another quite frequently, and these murders are imputed to the enemies, who throughout the summer and autumn are in ambushes along the roads; who restrains them from slaughtering us during those times when we journey from village to village,—without arms or defense, sometimes alone, and, at most, two together? Is it not God, who shuts their eyes? is it not he who protects us, and who wills that we shall not doubt the care that he has for us; and that he alone is our fortress, our cannons, our armies, our purveyor, our all? We see that he takes his opportunity and his moments at the very hour when there is need of it; he gives us access to those whom he wishes to draw to himself, though earth and hell oppose ; and that is done with so much ease and effectiveness that it is easy to judge that this is an act of that hand which strongly influences from one extremity to the other, and continues to arrange everything quietly.

While the disease was ravaging this country, our Evangelistic workers enjoyed [191] a more robust health than they had ever had in their lives; the disease having ceased,—and consequently there being no longer necessity to hasten from village to village, in order to succor those poor infidels at the hour of death,—we saw ourselves caught by the legs, and attacked by the land disease [scurvy]. Did not that adorable providence thus ordain! In a word, we [Page 75] are but the instruments of that almighty arm: God is the master; his designs never remain unperfected. Since, then, hitherto the beginnings are from him, should we not hope that he will complete his work? And thus, while the Hurons conspire for our death; while human means fail us to maintain our lives here; while the enemies of these peoples increase as they do, every year; while they cut off for them the way, which they hold, for going down to Kebec, and by so doing deprive us of the little aid which we derive thence; while all hell and the demons rise up against the Faith and against those who announce it; our confidence, and our [192] thoughts of passing on beyond, will not diminish by one jot, since they have for support the Cross of Jesus Christ, who must finally subjugate all the world, and be adored by Angels, men, and the regions of hell.

Since the Relation, here follows a letter which has come from the Hurons, addressed to Reverend Father Vimont; which deserves to go with the present narrative.

Y REVEREND FATHER,

Pax Christi.

It seems that the last canoes which are to go down are waiting to start, only to give us means of acquainting Your Reverence with a piece of news which I am sure will surprise you as much as it has surprised us,—and will cause you to put in the number of the profound secrets and of the adorable dispensations of the divine providence, that which we cannot consider without astonishment.

I was preparing to write to Your Reverence for [Page 77] the last time in this current year, [191 i.e., 193] by the hand of Joseph Chihouatenhoua, our good Christian: and now the same paper of which he should have been the bearer is used to carry to Your Reverence the news of his death. Yesterday, toward evening, the second of this month, while he was working in his field to cut down some trees, two Hiroquois, enemies of the Hurons, issued from the neighboring wood, where they lay in ambush, and having rushed upon him, pierced him with a long javelin. Then, having felled him with two blows of a hatchet, they promptly retreated in flight, after having removed his scalp according to their custom, in order to carry it away in triumph to their country. When it was seen, in his house, that he was late in coming back, they suspected what had happened; and in fact, having gone to look for him they found at the very place his body outstretched,’ stone-dead, and covered with his blood. There are indications that they did not take him without resistance; and the elders of the village, after visiting the place, have inferred by the marks of feet round about, and from the trampling of the corn, that he had shown fight, and [192 i.e., 194] that the enemies would not have succeeded if they had not had a long javelin with which they reached him. No doubt this death, although sudden for this good and excellent Christian, did not take him unprepared: for, besides the fact that he was continually in the grace of God,—as those affirm who had charge of his soul and heard his confessions, who on the one hand were astonished at the enlightenment which God gave him concerning his least failings; and on the other hand admired the tenderness of his conscience and his fidelity in [Page 79] responding to the graces of God,—on that very day, promptly in the morning, he had knelt as was his wont in the middle of the cabin, commending his soul to God and offering himself, together with his whole family, to whatever it should please Our Lord to dispose for him or his. Toward noon, having left his cabin with three of his little nieces, to go to his field, he did nothing but instruct them by the way; then having reached the place, and seeing there the fruits of the earth, uncommonly flourishing: “Let us kneel,” he said, “and thank God for these good things which he gives us; [193 i.e., 195] it is the very least that we can do, since he continues his blessings upon us without ceasing.” After they had prayed to God, he had them gather some squashes; and, as soon as possible, he sent them back, all three burdened, to the house,—telling them that they were not in a secure place; that, as for him, he was going into the woods to cut some sticks of Cedar to finish the canoe which was to carry him to Kebec; and that on his return he would continue to work in his field for the rest of the day, this work being necessary. But what! there it was, in fact, where death was to find him several hours later.

Last Sunday, he had come to our house,—now distant about three leagues from his,—with his wife and his two children, in order to offer his devotions there as usual. After having confessed and received communion, he had sent for and had offered to Our Lord the first fruits of that same field in which he has since been killed ; and God no doubt even then accepted both the gift and him who was making the offering,—having found him ripe [194 i.e., 196] for heaven,—inasmuch as so few days later he has willed [Page 81] to gather him from the garden of his Church militant, in order to put him in the one triumphant. Those who may have read the preceding Relations and the ones for this year will have no difficulty in believing this; God had not begun and conducted so far forward so rare a work not to continue upon him his mercies as much and more, at the hour of death, than he had done during his life. Those who have been most closely acquainted with this good Christian, and who have themselves tested him, render me the evidence that he had an almost continual sense of the presence of God, that in everything he acted with intentions worthy of a truly Christian heart. They say that if, at times, his mind strayed in the least from the way of the Saints, he straightway recovered himself, and was confounded by his slight faults as by so many crimes that he was committing against the love of him without whom he would not have wished to breathe a moment. As for me, I can say in truth that I admired in him from day to day the powerful effects of the grace which wholly possessed [195 i.e., 197] his heart; and that I desire no other recompense after this life than the place in which I certainly believe his soul is.

It is true that we hoped much from him for the conversion of these tribes, whose Apostle he had made himself during the course of this year; but since the Saints have more power when they are in heaven than here below on earth, we are bound to believe that we have gained more than lost at his death. We shall see in due time what it will produce.

Since time presses me, and as the canoes are on the point of starting, I am constrained to stop here, [Page 83] and say no more; although there are things which—though not proper to publish of a man before his death, crowned with the good of perseverance—would deserve to be added here, in order to cause all the world to admit that God is admirable in his Saints, no less in this land of barbarism than in any other place in the world. But, if these things are not known on earth, they will be in heaven: there we shall ceaselessly bless [196 i.e., 198] God for his mercies which he continues to exercise over this poor barbarous people, and over those whom he wills to employ for them. Your Reverence will continue, if you please, by your holy sacrifices and prayers to aid us to render ourselves not unworthy thereof.

Your Reverence’s

Very humble and obedient servant in

God, HIEROSME LALEMANT.

From the Hurons, this 3rd

of August, 1640.

XLII — XLIII

Two Letters of 1641

XLII.—Lettre du P. Charles Garnier à son Frère; Sainte-Marie aux Hurons, 23 juin, 1641

XLIIL—Excerpta Epistola Patris Joannis de Brebeuf ad Præpositum Generalem; Kebec, August 20, 1641

Source: Document XLII. is from a contemporary copy of the original letter, in French, made by a member of the Garnier family, in France. Document XLIII. consists of extracts from Brébeuf’s letter in Latin, made from the original in 1858, by Father Felix Martin; this apograph is in the archives of St. Mary’s College, Montreal; an indorsement thereon, by Father Martin, shows that the letter was written at Quebec, August 20, 1641.[Page 87]

Letter from Father Charles Garnier to his Brother.

Y DEAREST BROTHER,—

May Our Lord fill Your Heart with his Holy love.

I feel Consolation not only in receiving Your letters, but also in sending you my own. Therefore It was a Mortification to me that you did not receive those that I had written to you two years ago: I Suppose they may have been lost; God be blessed in all. I would, no doubt, have much more Consolation in writing to you if I had some Notable progress to announce to you that I might have made,—either toward my individual perfection, or toward the Conversion of the Savages,—As You Think I have done. But patience! my Consolation is that from Whatever I shall communicate to you, you will derive reason to praise, honor, and love God the more. I am in an occupation wholly divine: Bless God for it forever, and with all your Heart; his Infinite mercy shows me a thousand, thousand favors to Lead me unto the perfection which This Occupation requires. Let Your Heart break in the Transports of love that you pour forth toward That sovereign goodness. I am very Faithless in Responding to These Innumerable favors; be angry At me, with David admire the patience of God, and Console Yourself That we have to deal with so good a Master, who wearies not, and calls us to himself. He is not repelled by Our stupidities, Impertinences, and Evil actions. Courage, [Page 89] my dearest brother; if we have spent two years—Even six, Even thirty—in turning a deaf Ear, let us Believe and Hope that to-morrow we shall Begin to open our ears to This Voice, so gracious and so patient. And why, I beg You, should we not thus Believe, since we see and know that the patient Jesus still calls us? But with a loving call, and one which will gain the day, only we know not when; let us hope, at all events, that It will be as soon as possible. Oh, I do not Believe that we can commit a greater fault in the service of God, than to lose Courage, and to allow our Hearts to be cast down by distrust and pusillanimity. All the other sins are nothing in comparison with That one,—at least, there is none which so much impedes our progress as These low opinions of the Goodness of God toward us; and very often It is by That sin that the Devil seizes Our Hearts in order to let into them afterward all the others. My Dear brother, let us not be alarmed for not having advanced nor even for having receded; there is hardly any soul to which That does not sometimes happen. But let us Hasten to the purposes which God has for deriving his own Glory from These Unfaithful acts; Your sufferings and Inconveniences will purge your Heart. Hope this, therefore, although it seem to You that You take them very ill. I pray God to grant you the grace to find everywhere the peace of Your Heart. I Think that you must find Consolation in reading the other [works] of Monsieur de Salles.⁸ I know not whether you have seen a Certain little book Entitled . . . . . . . . . . . . . It is A little treasure of Consolation, This Little book ; but the source of all sweetness, and the whole support of Our Hearts is Jesus in the [Page 93] blessed sacrament. And say not that You do not relish This bread of Life: deem it only good to converse for some time after the Holy Mass, and at some Visits to the blessed sacrament, with This wholly gracious Host, according as Your occupations allow You this. Let us adore and Embrace him; let us protest to him that we are his in spite of ourselves, and let him do with Us what he shall please. Pardon me, my Dear brother,—assume that It is myself alone to whom I speak in This letter, and not to you, and thus take me for a lunatic; For it is true that I rave; but pray to God to change me, and then, As I Believe, I shall write to you something good. Such as I am, I do not fail to entreat God for you, and for our poor prodigal brother; and I do so often. I know not whether you both received my letters last year, by which I informed you that I was entreating Our Lord to accept the Intention which I had, that a Certain number of masses that I would say at the time of Your death,—in case of you both, if perchance you depart before me,—should be applied to You. Alas, will This poor prodigal not return to himself? Let us pray the Father and the Mother of mercies to have pity on him.

To tell you some news of This country, you shall know that we have been thirteen priests of Our Society This year: to wit, the Reverend Father Hierosme Lallemant, Our superior; Father Brébeuf, Father le Mercier, Father Daniel ; Father Raimbault, and Father Claude Pijart, who came from Québec last year to Instruct some Algonquin and non-Huron Nations in These quarters; Father Jogues, Father Le Moyne, Father du Peron, Father Chaumonot, Father Chastelin, Father Pierre Pijart, and myself,— [Page 93] who distributed ourselves last winter among six Missions. Father Brébeuf and Father Chaumonot went to the Neutral Nation,—where we had not yet been to carry the Gospel,—which is Five or six Days’ Journey Distant from Our House; on 4 of which one must sleep in the Field. This nation Includes about 40 villages; our fathers have made the round of about a dozen of these, but with many sufferings and Calumnies, which will some day produce their fruits,—such is our Hope. This Mission has for Patrons the Holy Angels. Father Daniel and Father le Moyne have Continued the mission which they had Begun last year among the Arendaenhronon, and have furthermore taken charge of the village of St. Joseph, where they have sustained some good Christians who are there. The Reverend Father Lalemant and Father Le Mercier have taken for their portion the mission of la Conception, which takes its name from the village of la Conception, which the savages call Ossossaňé, where we formerly had a Cabin; now we have there only a little chapel, where we assemble some good Christians that we have in That village. It is in their Instruction that The Reverend Father Lallement has been occupied This winter, with Father Le Moine, to their great Consolation. You have learned by the Relation that last year the good Joseph Chiohoarehra, who was Our first and our good Christian, dwelling in This village, was killed the past Summer by the Enemies, in his own Field. It was in This Christian that we had our Hope, after God; and if we had not Experience of the special providence with which God Guides us here, we might have thought that the incipient Church of This poor barbarian land was about to be [Page 95] smothered by the death of her eldest son; but God Guides us here through the gracious Way of depriving us of Creatures, and He desires that our support be in him alone. He has therefore raised up the brother of this dear Christian,—as he was to us,—to take his place, and become a good Christian; their whole family gives us much Consolation. In the end of their Cabin we have made a little chapel, whither we go from time to time to say mass for them.

Father Jogues and Father du Peron have had for their portion the mission of Ste. Marie, which Comprises 5 villages hereabout, where they have labored with much difficulty and patience. Father Raimbaut and Father Pierre Pijart, remaining at the house, went every day to See the nipissiriniens—This is an Algonquin nation which had Come to spend the winter in This country, a Hundred paces from Our House. They went thither to learn their language, and give them what Instruction they could at This Beginning of their own study of their language; they have taught them to chant some excellent prayers, which the good people have learned very Willingly. Some among them bear witness of having some inclination for the faith; the two Fathers have gone with them to their own country, which is Five Days’ Journey from here, where they spent the summer in Instructing them. Father Pierre Pijart and I have been sent to the mission of the Apostles; This is in The Tobacco Nation, where I had already spent the preceding winter. We were received very ill there the 1st year; in the second, we have been regarded in a tolerably favorable manner; thank God, we find some who listen to us. Patience and perseverance will win the day God [Page 97] helping. It is true that These Missions are filled with Crosses,—both in the difficulty of the Roads during the winter, and as regards food, clothing, lodging, the smoke, etc.; but the chief trouble is the Bondage that one is in with reference to saying one’s prayers and taking a little rest away from the bustle, besides the privation of mass, which is said not at all, or very seldom. We have twice come near dying in the roads: once It was on A frozen lake, where two savages died from cold on the very evening when we passed. O My dear brother, pray for us that he may Preserve us and strengthen the Courage wh

Editor		Reuben Gold Thwaites

		\| Finlow Alexander
		\| Percy Favor Bicknell
		\| William Frederic Giese
Translators.		\| Catherine S. Kellogg
		\| Crawford Lindsay
		\| William Price
		\| Hiram Allen Sober

Assistant Editor		Emma Helen Blair

Bibliographical Adviser		Victor Hugo Paltsits

Electronic Transcription		Tomasz Mentrak

CONTENTS OF VOL. XX.

Preface To Volume XX.		9
Documents:—
XLI.	Relation de ce qvi s'est passé en la Novvelle France, en l’année 1640. [Chaps. ix., x. of Part II., and postscript, completing the document.] Jerome Lalemant; Des Hurons, May 27 and August 3, 1640		17
XLII.	Lettre à son Frere. Charles Garnier; Sainte-Marie aux Hurons, June 23, 1641		88
XLIII.	Excerpta Epistola ad R. P. Mutium Vitelleschi, Præpositum Generalem Societatis Jesu, Romæ. Joannes de Brébeuf; Kebec, August 20, 1641		102
XLIV	Relation de ce qvi s’est passé en la Novvelle France, és années 1640. et 1641. [Introduction, and Chaps. i.-viii. Of Part I.] Paul le Jeune; Kebec and Paris, undated		107
Bibliographical Data; Volume XX.			301
Notes			305

ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. XX.

I.	Photographic facsimile of title-page, Relation of 1640-41	110