H 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS 
 
 OF 
 
 NORTH AMERICA 
 
 1642-1710 
 
 BY THE / i 
 
 Rev. T. J. Campbell, S.J. 
 
 VOL. II 
 
 AMONG THE HURONS 
 
 THE AMERICA PRESS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 1910 
 
 BOSTOK •OLLWB UBRakt 
 
12787S 
 
 Copyright, 1910 
 
 BY 
 
 The America Press 
 
nmi Qbstat 
 
 REMIGIUS LAFORT, S.T.L., 
 
 Censor Deputatus 
 
 Imprimatur 
 
 JOHN M. FARLEY, D.D., 
 
 Archbishop of New York. 
 
 March 8, 1910 
 
S f . lONTENTS 
 
 C 
 
 S" u 
 
 I-I 
 
 a; 
 
 i-iv 
 
 _ [ARD. 
 
 g S PAGE 
 
 o Tj in of Name of New France — 
 
 f"* S adia's Situation and Estab- 
 
 ^ '-' rst Missionaries — De Mont's 
 
 "c " > — Inhabitants, Customs, Re- 
 
 2 3 IV and the Jesuits — Joshua 
 
 O •— jise de Guercheville — Arrival 
 
 3 "w at Grand Menan — Attempts 
 
 ^H G .he Sagamo Membertou — Ex- 
 
 ^ g enobscot — Mass in Maine... 3-26 
 
 T-T ^ \.cadia by Mme. de Guerche- 
 
 ^ .g suits Leave the Mission — Es- 
 
 ^ s" at Bar Harbor — Mistakes of 
 
 •^ g -gall — Dispersion of Colonists 
 
 «+-< irginia to be Hanged — Burn- 
 
 § (j^" )ix and Port Royal — Mission- 
 
 1-1 c<8 the Azores, Liberated by the 
 
 ^ JJ s — Return to France 27-46 
 
 cuo c 
 
 £ ''^^ MASSE 
 
 l_ :; _ g5 id Monument — Masse's Birth- 
 
 ^ ,d In the Court of Henry IV — 
 
 ^ S txo ival at Acadia — Winters with 
 
 <; r^ jl^ Harbor — At Sea in an Open 
 
 p^ second Journey to America — 
 
 Ph turn to France — Rector of La 
 
 W imerica — Builds the College of 
 
 49-61 
 
 IREBEUF. 
 
 ;hplace — Studies — Ordination — 
 llects in Canada — Jesuits In- 
 rica 65-76 
 
 ix. wi^ c..^ v^. ..»..« from Quebec — Helped by the 
 
 Recollects — First Residence — Refused by the Hurons — 
 Wintering with the Algonquins — In the Huron Canoes — 
 Ottawa Scenery — Arrives at Georgian Bay — Pothier's 
 Itinerary — Toanche — Alone in Huronia — Fall of Quebec 
 — Returns to France 77-92 
 
 III. The Second Attempt — On the Ship with Champlain — Fail- 
 ure to Reach Huronia — Labors Among the Algonquins — 
 Again at Georgian Bay — Brule's Grave — Ihonitiria. .. . OS-fOl 
 
 V 
 
Yiibll (S^bdtat 
 
 REMIGIUS L^ 
 
 fmpdmatur 
 
 JOHN M. FA 
 March 8, 1910 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Introuuction i-iv 
 
 PETER BIARD. 
 Chapter page 
 
 I. Establishment of Acadia — Origin of Name of New France — 
 
 Geographical Divisions — Acadia's Situation and Estab- 
 lishment — Its Calvinism — First Missionaries — De Mont's 
 Failure — Natural Conditions — Inhabitants, Customs, Re- 
 ligion — Potrincourt — Henry IV and the Jesuits — Joshua 
 Flessche — Starvation — Marquise de Guercheville — Arrival 
 of Jesuits in Acadia — Mass at Grand Menan — Attempts 
 to Learn the Language — The Sagamo Membertou — Ex- 
 ploring the Kennebec and Penobscot — Mass in Maine... 3-26 
 
 n. Mount Desert — Purchase of Acadia by Mme. de Guerche- 
 ville — Misuse of Funds — Jesuits Leave the Mission — Es- 
 tablishment of St. Sauveur at Bar Harbor — Mistakes of 
 La Saussaye — Arrival of Argall — Dispersion of Colonists 
 — Missionaries Taken to Virginia to be Hanged — Burn- 
 ing of St. Sauveur, Ste. Croix and Port Royal— Mission- 
 aries Driven by Storms to the Azores, Liberated by the 
 English at Pembroke, Wales — Return to France 27-46 
 
 ENEMOND MASSE 
 
 Sillery — Masse's Buildings and Monument — Masse's Birth- 
 place — Enters the Society — In the Court of Henry IV — 
 Austerity of His Life — Arrival at Acadia — Winters with 
 the Savages — Goes to Bar Harbor — At Sea in an Open 
 Boat — Return to France — Second Journey to America — 
 Fall of Quebec — Second Return to France — Rector of La 
 Fleche — Third Voyage to America — Builds the College of 
 Quebec— Death 49-61 
 
 JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 I. Early Life — Ancestors — Birthplace — Studies — Ordination — 
 Troubles at Rouen — Recollects in Canada — Jesuits In- 
 vited — Departure for America 65-76 
 
 II. Up the Ottawa — Debarred from Quebec — Helped by the 
 
 Recollects — First Residence — Refused by the Hurons — 
 Wintering with the Algonquins — In the Huron Canoes — 
 Ottawa Scenery — Arrives at Georgian Bay — Pothier's 
 Itinerary — Toanche — Alone in Huronia — Fall of Quebec 
 — Returns to France 77-92 
 
 III. The Second Attempt — On the Ship with Champlain — Fail- 
 ure to Reach Huroaia — Labors Among the Algonquins — 
 Again at Georgian Bay — Briile's Grave — Ihonitiria. . . . 93-101 
 
 V 
 
TABLE OF. CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter. page. 
 
 IV. Controlling the Indians — Mirrors, Microscopes, Magnets — 
 Fortifying the Village — Advice to Missionaries — Chief 
 One Eye — The Nez Perces — Francis Marguerie 102-110 
 
 V. Storms — Arrival of Jogues — The Pestilence — Threats of 
 Murder — Peter the Huron — New Perils — In the Indian 
 Council — The Letter of Death — Peter the Iroquois — Fight 
 for Life — Tranquillity 111-124 
 
 VI. Huron Characteristics — Language — Religion — Sacrifices — 
 Immortality of the Soul — Festivals — Devil Worship — 
 Medicine — Civil Polity — Defense in War — Councils — 
 Care of the Dead — Decennial Interment 125-138 
 
 VII. Among the Neutrals — The Neutral Country — Customs — 
 Expelled — Success — Popular Uprising — Niagara — Invad- 
 ing a Wigwam — Threats of Death — Expulsion — Along 
 Lake Erie — The Kindly Squaw — Writing a Grammar — 
 Abandon the Enterprise — Teondechoren — Painful Acci- 
 dent — Visions — Itinerary — Return to St. Mary's 139-151 
 
 VIII. Down at Quebec — Escape from the Iroquois — Weird 
 Stories — Character of de Brebeuf — His Terrible Vow — 
 Visit to the Hotel Dieu— Jogues— Death of Nicolet. . 152-164 
 
 IX. The Tragedy — Return to Huronia — Visits Muskoka — Last 
 Struggles of the Hurons — Iroquois Raids — Abandons St. 
 Ignatius I — Captured at St. Louis — Brought Back to St. 
 Ignatius II— Torture— Death 165-172 
 
 GABRIEL LALEMANT. 
 
 Torture and Death — His Vow — Indian Battle — Finding the 
 Remains — The Burial — Official Inquiry as to Sanctity and 
 Martyrdom 175-183 
 
 ANNE DE NOUE. 
 
 The Huguenot de la None — The Page at Court — Birthplace 
 — Novitiate — In Huronia — Return to Quebec — Recall to 
 France — Second Journey to America — Sufferings at Sea 
 — Among the Algonquins — Death in the Snow — Finding 
 the Body— Funeral at Three Rivers 187-193 
 
 ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 I. Cape Breton — Stewart's Fort — Captain Daniel — Vimont — 
 Shipwreck of Noyrot — Arrival of Vieuxpont — Abandon- 
 ment of Cape Breton — Return of Captain Daniel with 
 Father Daniel — Description of the Island — Daniel sent to 
 Quebec — Huronia — Hardships of the Journey — Visits the 
 Algonquins — Louis de Saincte Foy — Indian Choirs — 
 Education of Huron Boys — Takes Three to Quebec — De- 
 tained at Isle des Allumettes — Arrival at Three Rivers — 
 Establishing the Huron School — Capture of a Pupil by 
 the koquois — Battle at Three Rivers 197-215 
 
 vi 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter. page. 
 
 II. Armand the Huron — Rumors of Massacre — Daniel and 
 Armand as Scouts — Armand's Escape from Death- 
 Daniel's Danger — Armand Among His People — Exploits 
 in War — On the Lake — Captured by the Iroquois — 
 Jogues' Defender — Fights at Three Rivers — Indian 
 Treachery — Reappearance of Armand — Arrival of Bres- 
 sani — Armand at Isle d'Orleans — His Piety — His Death — 
 Devotion of His Wife — Jogues' Defender Goes to 
 France 216-231 
 
 III. The Last Days — At Ossossane and St. Joseph's — Mem- 
 ories of Champlain — Threats of Death — Indian Sorcerers 
 — Chaumonot — Le Moyne — Old Indian Pupils — Etiennc 
 Totiri — Ahitsasteari the Warrior — Capture of the 
 Squaws — Trick of the Iroquois — Murder of the Outposts 
 —Retaliation— St. Joseph's Attacked— Daniel's Death 232-244 
 
 CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 I. Early Career — Birthplace — Studies — Teaching — Nevers — 
 Clermont — Rector — Asks for the Missions — Recollects — 
 Sets Out with de Brebeuf — N. D. des Anges — Grant of 
 Land at Beaupre — Letter to His Brother — Character of 
 the Natives — Difficulties with the Traders — Departs for 
 France— Fall of Quebec 247-257 
 
 II. Third Voyage — Prisoner in England — Shipwrecked at Canso 
 — Second Shipwreck at San Sebastian — Rector at Eu — 
 Fourth Voyage to America — Dislike of the Indians — Pas- 
 tor at Quebec — Piety of the Colonists — At the Deathbed 
 of Champlain— Return to France 258-267 
 
 III. Procurator of the Missions — Founding Montreal — Dauver- 
 siere — Maisonneuve — Jeanne Mance — Jesuit Pastors of 
 Montreal — First Mass on the Island — Vice-Provincial — 
 Superior of the Professed House — Prince de Conti — Dis- 
 liked by the Queen — Asked for as Bishop of Quebec — 
 His Literary Works— Death 268-276 
 
 JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 I. First Experience — Birthplace — Novitiate — Studies — Arrives 
 at Quebec — Adventures on the Ottawa — Indian Census — 
 Map of the Country — The Donnes — Jean Amiot — Rear- 
 rangement of Missions — St. Mary's on the Wye 279-288 
 
 II. Sketches of the Hurons — The Squaw's Dream — A Gambling 
 Scene — Hardships of Converts — Difficulties of the Gospel 
 — Sorcerers — Excessive Strictness of the Missionaries 289-297 
 
 III. Superior in Quebec — Author of Huron Grammar — Sends 
 Jogues to the Mohawk— The Journal des Jesuites — End of 
 the One Hundred Associates — Member of Royal Council 
 — Departure of Montmagny — Destruction of Huron Mis- 
 sions — Temporary Absence — Disasters — Recalled to 
 France— Rector of La Fleche 298-310 
 
 vii 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter. page. 
 
 IV. Vicar-General — Request of Laval — Returns to America — 
 Public Esteem — The Right to Faculties — De Queylus — 
 Academic Exercises — D'Argenson — The Liquor Question 
 — D'Avaugour — The Earthquake — De Mesy — Retirement 
 —Death 311-324 
 
 CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 L Missionary Longings — A Modern Romance — Martyr Blood 
 — Schoolboys — Novitiate — The Wayward Brother — Asks 
 for the Missions — Paternal Opposition — Flight to the 
 Ship — The Ocean Voyage — Arrival at Quebec — Indian 
 Baptism— Indian Funeral 327-338 
 
 II. Among the Savages — Events at Three Rivers — On the 
 River — Arrival at Ihonitiria — Letters from Ossossane — 
 The Beardless Missionary — Indian Choice of Pictures — 
 Awaiting Massacre — The Noble Redman 339-350 
 
 III. Chiwatenwa — Evangelizing the Petuns — Sufferings — Lost in 
 the Snow — Wrath of the Indians — Expulsion from Vil- 
 lage — Saved by Chiwatenwa — Chiwatenwa's Baptism — 
 His Natural Virtues — His Zeal for the Faith — His Resig- 
 nation in Affliction — Finding Garnier — Appeals to the Pe- 
 tuns — Return to Huronia — His Murder 351-359 
 
 IV. The Crash — Second Journey to the Petuns — Failure — His 
 Influence Over Savages — Third Petun Expedition — At 
 Etharita — Starvation — Approach of the Iroquois — The 
 Village Attacked — Garnier's Death — Search for the Body 
 —Burial 360-364 
 
 NOEL CHABANEL. 
 
 Arrival at Quebec — Goes to Huronia — Aversion for His 
 Work — Depression — Vow of Perseverance — With de Bre- 
 beuf — Replaced by Gabriel Lalemant — Helping Garnier — 
 Recalled to Christian Island — Murdered in the Wilder- 
 ness 367-373 
 
 LEONARD GARREAU 
 
 The Burning Village — Burial of Father Garnier — Waiting 
 for Death — Alone at Ekarrenioiidi — Withdrawal of Gar- 
 reau to St. Joseph's — His Family — Childhood — Studies — 
 Leaves France — Letter to His Brother — Among the Al- 
 gonquins — Facing Death on Lake Nippissing— At the 
 Point of Death in St. Mary's— With Garnier Among the 
 Petuns— Returns to Quebec— Perils on the Way— Arrival 
 of the Ottawas — Starts for the West — Pursued by the Iro- 
 quois — Shot Near Montreal — Three Days' Agony — Car- 
 ried to the Settlement — Expires — Ragueneau's Letter — 
 Exalted Holiness of Garreau— Burial— Place of the Battle 
 — Garreau in the Petits Bollandistes 377-403 
 
 Epilogue 404-405 
 
 viii 
 
AUTHORITIES 
 
 "The Jesuit Relations," Cleveland, 1896-iSOl. 
 
 Rochemonteix — " Les Jesuites et la Nouvelle France," Paris, 1896. 
 
 " Documentary History of the State of New York," Albany, 1849- 
 1851. 
 
 Morgan — " The League of the Iroquois," New York, 1904. 
 
 Shea — " History of the Catholic Church in the United States, Vol. I, 
 Colonial Days," New York, 1888. 
 
 Parkman — " The Jesuits in North America," Boston, 1880. 
 
 Prat — " Recherches Historiques," Lyons, 1876. 
 
 Dionne — " Champlain," Quebec, 1906. 
 
 Sagard — " Histoire du Canada," Paris, 1636. 
 
 Casgrain — " Jean Nicolet." 
 
 Charlevoix — "Histoire de la Nouvelle France" (Shea's transl."). 
 New York, 1871. 
 
 Bancroft—" History of United States," Boston, 1853. 
 
 Garneau — " Histoire du Canada," Quebec, 1845. 
 
 Faillon — " Histoire de la Colonic Frangaise en Canada," Montreal, 
 1865. 
 
 Richard— " Acadia," Montreal, 1895. 
 
 Ferland — " Cours d'histoire du Canada," Quebec, 1S61. 
 
 Chapuis— " Jean Tallon," Quebec, 1904. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 All the Martyrs Frontispiece 
 
 Acadia (Old Map) Facing page 3 
 
 On the Shores of Mount Desert " " 27 
 
 Champlain Monument, Mount Desert " " 30 
 
 Church of the Holy Redeemer, Bar Harbor " " 32 
 
 Bar Harbor " " 35 
 
 Masse Monument, Sillery " " 51 
 
 Huronia (Map) " " 65 
 
 The Chaudiere " " 80 
 
 The Rideau " " 84 
 
 An Indian Chief " " 122 
 
 Hurons of Lorette (1838) " " 131 
 
 Niagara River " " 139 
 
 Where Nicolet Died " " 163 
 
 Martyrdom of Brebeuf and Lalemant " " 175 
 
 Death of Father de Noiie " " 192 
 
 Cartier Monument, Quebec " " 256 
 
 Champlain Monument, Quebec " " 266 
 
 Dauversiere " " 268 
 
 Maisonneuve " " 272 
 
 Lac des Allumettes " " 280 
 
 First Mass in Montreal " " 3©7 
 
 Where Garreau Was Buried " " 392 
 
 Montreal Island (Map) " " 40© 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE first volume of " The Pioneer Priests of North 
 America " contains the biographies of the eighteen 
 priests who labored among the Iroquois Indians in what is 
 now the State of New York. The present one concerns 
 itself with the lives of the chief apostles of the Hurons. 
 The period of time covered in this narrative is more 
 restricted than the other, but is more tragic in its character, 
 and is filled from beginning to end with deeds of more than 
 usually heroic self-immolation. It is the history of de 
 Brebeuf and his associates. 
 
 A year after Champlain had built his huts at Quebec, 
 namely in 1609, a tribe from what was then the far North- 
 west, came down the river with their peltries. They were 
 Wendots or Wyandots, but the French called them Hurons, 
 because of the irregular tufts of hair which the savages 
 cultivated on their half-shaven heads. To the imaginative 
 Frenchman the decoration seemed like la hure or bristles on 
 the back of an angry boar. '" Quelle hure! " they ex- 
 claimed ; " What a shock of bristles ! " From that the name 
 Huron was evolved. The derivation seems fanciful, but 
 is commonly admitted to be correct. The Dutch historian, 
 Vandendonck, however, classified these new arrivals as The 
 French Savages or Rondaxes ; but Rondaxes is merely a 
 corruption of Adirondacks ; the only Indians ever called the 
 French Savages. Golden, for no reason that he assigns, 
 designates them as Quantoghies ; while Lahontan, who is 
 famous for his misstatements, describes them as Nadoueks, 
 which is the Algonquin name for Iroquois. 
 
 These Wyandots or Hurons were, like the other savage 
 nations, divided into various clans or families, such as The 
 Bears, The Rocks, The Cords, etc. They were the parent 
 slock of the five Iroquois Nations, and were relatives of the 
 
 xiii 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Petuns and Neutrals, who were their immediate neighbors 
 near Lake Huron. They were also connected by blood with 
 the Andastes or Susquehannas of Pennsylvania. Their 
 country was 800 or 900 miles away from Quebec, near the 
 great lake which now bears their name, but which they 
 called Attigouantan. Roughly speaking, it was the terri- 
 tory at the head of Georgian Bay, with Lake Simcoe on the 
 east, the Severn River and Matchedash Bay on the north, 
 Nottawasaga Bay on the west, and was separated from the 
 Neutrals on the south by what w^ould be a line drawn from 
 the present town of Collingwood over to Hawkstone on 
 Lake Simcoe. The train from Toronto north to Midland 
 and Penetanguishene runs through the old habitat of the 
 Hurons. 
 
 The most reliable information we have about these In- 
 dians is to be found in the " Relations " of the missionaries, 
 notably those of de Brebeuf, Jerome Lalemant and Bressani. 
 The Recollects who first visited them remained only a short 
 time, and it is difficult to accept Friar Sagard's account 
 without reserve, as he could not possibly have known their 
 language. Champlain passed a winter among them after 
 his defeat in Western New York, and has left us a record 
 of what he saw. They were selected as the most likely to 
 be influenced by the teaching of the Gospel, because of their 
 remoteness from the whites, and because also like their 
 kinsmen, the Iroquois, though continually at war, they were 
 settled in well protected villages. 
 
 Champlain first asked the Jesuits to undertake the work 
 of their conversion, but as the troubles in Acadia were about 
 at their height, it was deemed unwise to enter upon an 
 additional struggle with the Calvinist merchants who then 
 controlled Quebec. In consequence of this refusal, the 
 Recollects were invited, and in 1615, Father Le Caron was 
 at Carhouaga, near Thunder Bay, but in 1616 he returned 
 to France and did not resume his work among the Hurons 
 until 1623, when he again took up his abode there with 
 
 xiv 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Father Viel and the lay-brother Sagard. In the following 
 year, he and Sagard withdrew, and Viel was left alone. 
 
 Despairing of success with either red or white men, 
 on account of the opposition of the French traders, the 
 Recollects entreated the Jesuits to come to their aid. This 
 time the invitation was accepted, and Fathers de Brebeuf 
 and de Noiie immediately left France with the Recollect 
 d'Aillon, and after much difficulty reached the Huron coun- 
 try in 1625 ; but d'Aillon and de Noiie soon withdrew, 
 leaving de Brebeuf alone. The Recollect Viel had before 
 that, attempted to go down to Quebec but lost his life on 
 the Riviere des Prairies, at a place known as Sault au Recol- 
 let. Finally, in 1629, de Brebeuf was compelled to give 
 up the work, as the English were then in possession of 
 Quebec. 
 
 Canada again became French territory in 1632; and in 
 1634, de Brebeuf, Davost and Daniel forced themselves on 
 the unwilling savages who had again come down to Quebec 
 to trade, and after much suffering reached the Huron 
 country. They were joined by Le Mercier and Pierre 
 Pijart in 1635, and in the following year, by Jogues, Garnier 
 and Chastellain. Paul Ragueneau arrived in 1637; and 
 Le Moyne and du Perron in 1638. Jerome Lalemant, Chau- 
 monot, Poncet and Claude Pijart were on the list in 1639 ; 
 and Menard in 1640. We find Garreau, Chabanel and 
 Bressani there in 1641, and in 1648, Gabriel Lalemant, 
 Bonin and Daran arrived just in time for the closing scenes 
 of the tragedy in which Lalemant was a conspicuous victim. 
 
 They were all wonderful men and necessarily so ; for they 
 had to convert an entire people who were at that very 
 moment being rapidly exterminated by an implacable foe. 
 The time allotted by Divine Providence for this work was 
 exceedingly brief, for counting out the few years which 
 de Brebeuf spent in Huronia prior to the fall of Quebec in 
 1629, it began only in 1634, but it was not until 1639 that 
 the savages would even tolerate an allusion to Christianity, 
 
 XV 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and before the end of 1650 the Hurons had vanished from 
 the earth as a distinct people. Nevertheless, in those ten 
 years, results were achieved which have scarcely a parallel 
 in missionary annals. Thousands of these Hurons became 
 excellent Christians, and not a few were distinguished by 
 lives of exalted virtue. It is true that it was at the cost 
 of awful sufferings and the sacrifice of the lives of many of 
 the missionaries, but de Brebeuf and his companions brought 
 a holy and pertinacious fierceness into the fight and made 
 light of death if they won even a few souls. After the 
 destruction of the Hurons some of the missionaries went 
 down among the Iroquois. Chaumonot, Le Moyne, 
 Ragueneau, Poncet and Bressani labored both in Canada 
 and in New York; and Jogues himself first began with the 
 Hurons. Their stories have been told in the first volume. 
 
 We have prefixed to the present work an account of the 
 early Acadian mission ; for the reason that it was the first 
 effort made in the evangelization of New France, and also 
 because Father Masse, who had been in Acadia, kept alive 
 the enthusiasm for the Canadian missions when he returned 
 to France, and was the first to volunteer when the Recollects 
 appealed for help. He was for a time superior of the only 
 missionary who was left among the Hurons, and he hastened 
 back to America when the French resumed control of 
 the country. Biard, his companion in Acadia, would doubt- 
 less have gone with him had he not been summoned to his 
 reward four years before the Jesuits undertook the work. 
 
 It may not be out of place to say that daily access to the 
 valuable archives of St. Mary's College, Montreal, and the 
 counsel of the Rev. Arthur E. Jones, who is among the 
 foremost authorities in all matters relating to Huronia, have 
 made the preparation of this volum.e a comparatively easy 
 task. 
 
 XVI 
 
PETER BIARD 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 Establishment of Acadia. 
 
 THE *' Jesuit Relations," as we now have them, 
 are merely the summaries or digests of the various 
 letters sent by the missionaries to their superior at Quebec, 
 who forwarded them to Paris where they were published 
 annually in forty consecutive volumes from 1632 to 1672. 
 As they appear in their modern re-prints they are usually 
 preceded by two other documents, one a letter, dated 1626, 
 from Charles Lalemant to his brother Jerome, and another a 
 treatise or an elaborate account of the work done in Acadia 
 sixteen years before that time. The latter was written by 
 Father Biard, and is an answer to an accusation which was 
 then current in France that the Jesuits were traitors to their 
 country and religion, and in collusion with the English 
 pirates who destroyed the colonies of Port Royal and St. 
 Sauveur. This charge was formulated in a book known as 
 the " Facts of the Case between M. J. de Biencourt and 
 Fathers Masse and Biard," and was supposed to have been 
 written by Lescarbot, who was the devoted friend of the 
 Biencourts and had lived a short time in Acadia. 
 
 One of the good results of the accusation was that its 
 refutation has supplied us with very valuable ethnological 
 and historical data about Acadia, which otherwise might 
 not have been forthcoming; and has given us a story of 
 wanderings by sea and land that reads like an Odyssey. 
 
 Biard begins by telling us why the name of New France 
 was given to the recently acquired territory. The first 
 reason is because there was no land between it and the old 
 country ; a view, more patriotic than convincing. The second 
 is hardly more satisfactory, namely that the Bretons and 
 Normans had been in the habit of visiting those parts a 
 
 3 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 hundred years or more for fishing purposes, and used to 
 bring back an occasional Indian to exhibit him in St. Malo 
 and elsewhere. The third is the only valid one, viz : that 
 Verazzano, in the employ of Francis I, gave the name to 
 the entire territory north of 40° latitude. What was known 
 as Canada " was only part of the acquisition, and was 
 restricted to that portion of it which lay along the St. 
 Lawrence. Acadia, or the land of the Souriquois, adjoined 
 it on the south ; while further south still, beyond the Baie 
 Frangaise or Bay of Fundy w^as Norumbega." 
 
 After the expeditions of Roberval and the Marquis de la 
 Roche had failed, Pierre du Cast, the Sieur de Monts, having 
 acquired an ample fortune, associated with himself some 
 merchants of Rouen, St. Malo and Rochelle, and received 
 from " the incomparable Henry IV," as Biard styles him, a 
 grant of land from the 40° to 4G° north latitude, besides 
 trading privileges as far as the 54°. Its eastern boundary 
 was the Atlantic, and its western the China Sea or Pacific. 
 De Monts left France in 1604, coasted along the shore of 
 Norumbega, settled for a while on Ste. Croix Island, and 
 finally chose for the central seat of the colony the Harbor 
 of Port Royal, or what is now Annapolis, in Nova Scotia. 
 
 Champlain, who was with the expedition, was strongly 
 opposed to the entire scheme ; first, because the place was 
 too near the English settlements and consequently in con- 
 stant danger of attack ; and secondly, because the settlers 
 were half Calvinist and half Catholic. He foresaw the 
 strife that would ensue, and he sadly notes in his "Voyages" 
 that the parson and the priest on board of his vessel not 
 only spent their time in religious controversy, but came to 
 blows on the deck to the great amusement of the crew. 
 Both of these tempestuous evangelists died shortly after 
 landing, and the sailors buried them side by side, hoping that 
 there at least they might be at peace. The chaplain on 
 Pontgrave's ship was a priest from Paris named Aubrey, 
 who succeeded in losing himself for three weeks in the 
 
 4 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 woods, where he nearly perished. Nothing else is recorded 
 of him. Two years of misery followed, and the associ- 
 ated merchants, finding that they were getting nothing for 
 their money but maps of rivers and bays, refused any further 
 advances. Du Gast therefore, abandoned the enterprise, 
 without however, relinquishing his charter. He made over 
 the Seigneurie of Port Royal to Jean de Biencourt, com- 
 monly known as Potrincourt or Poutrincourt, and retained 
 the rest as his own. 
 
 After this brief historical review, Biard then addresses 
 himself to what he calls the horoscope ct geniture de ces 
 terrcs, namely the astronomical location, the temperature, 
 the seasons, and the characteristics of the people. It will 
 not be necessary to follow him in all these details which 
 are very discursive and often speculative, but it will suffice 
 for our present purpose to select a few of the traits which 
 differentiate the Micmac or Souriquois Indians from the 
 other red men of the country. 
 
 " In spite of the scurvy and bitter cold," he says, " the 
 place is healthy, if one does not coop himself up in his 
 cabin, but keeps his blood in circulation by hunting and 
 fishing. There is nothing to be feared from the Indians, 
 for the only unfriendly ones are those north of the Gulf of 
 St. Lawrence." He called them Excommuniquois, which 
 is about the nearest he could come to their name, and which 
 he, no doubt, thought properly described them, though he 
 blames the immorality of the Basque sailors in those parts 
 for having made them bad. The Montagnais, the Souri- 
 quois, and the Etchemins were all friendly. The Acadians 
 or Souriquois he found to be a light-hearted, intelligent 
 race, with a good memory for things that they could see 
 and touch, but absolutely helpless when there was question 
 of keeping any formula of words in their head. They 
 regarded the French as very ugly, chiefly because of the hair 
 around the lips, but little by little they got used to that 
 ornament. They were all decently clad in winter, though 
 
 5 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 in summer the men's wardrobe was reduced to a breech- 
 clout. 
 
 They were smaller than the French, well built, " pretty 
 much," says Biard, " as we should have been, had we all 
 remained twenty-five years old." There are no fat men 
 among them, no hunchbacks; no cripples or deformed crea- 
 tures ; none with gout, or stone or the like ; no lunatics ; 
 none with a single eye or a squint, and they are much amused 
 at any of the French who are unfortunate in these respects. 
 On the whole they have a very poor idea of the Europeans, 
 and consider themselves a superior race." Thus, for in- 
 stance, one of these distinguished sons of the forest, hearing 
 that the King of France was looking for a wife, offered his 
 daughter, but on condition that His Majesty should give 
 in return for the maiden several barrels of bread and beans, 
 a supply of hats, harpoons and the like. 
 
 They were nomads and hunters, and divided their year 
 of thirteen moons into the periods which determined their 
 pursuit of the different kinds of game. They ate what they 
 caught and then starved until something else came their 
 way. When the ice broke up they were most of the time in 
 their light canoes, which we are assured would make thirty 
 or forty leagues a day. Rarely living together in any great 
 number, there w^as no system of laws to regulate their con- 
 duct. Their chiefs were called Sagamos, and were mostly 
 heads of families, who guided the activities of their 
 various descendants. Like all Indians they were fond 
 of visiting each other, chiefly because of the feasts, which 
 were customary on such occasions. They were always at war, 
 or at least deliberating about it. But Charlevoix says that 
 before deciding they used to fight with their wives. If the 
 squaws got the best of the battle, it was a good omen; if 
 the men prevailed, it was the reverse. The logic of such 
 reasoning is not apparent, but that was unimportant. Their 
 tactics were the usual trickery and stealthiness of the savage, 
 viz : lying in ambush or creeping up on their foes. In Biard's 
 
 6 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 opinion they were miserable cowards in a regular battle, 
 while in their personal quarrels two men would fight all 
 day without much damage to either except in breath and 
 perspiration, " pulling each other's hair," he says, " like 
 women in France." 
 
 Their marriages were generally by purchase, and the 
 squaw then began her drudgery. Polygamy prevailed and 
 with it gross immorality, but there was a certain amount of 
 external decorum. Indeed they were better behaved in 
 that respect than the French. Adultery was punishable by 
 death, but loss of virtue in a maid did not affect her matri- 
 monial availability, though it was a blot on her record. 
 The children were few, the suffering and misery of the 
 squaws affording a sufficient explanation of that condition 
 of things. According to the writer the Souriquois did not 
 exceed 3,500, the Eteminquois, who were in the Penobscot 
 region, were no more than 2,500; another 3,000 might be 
 found from there to the Kennebec and Chouacouet, while 
 there were only about 1,000 Montagnais in all. In brief 
 only about 10,000 aborigines vv^ere to be found in those parts. 
 
 They had no handicraft whatever, and were intellectually 
 dense. Their pharmacopoeia was reduced to sweat baths, 
 and unctions of fish oil ; but the latter we are told was a 
 specific against mosquitoes, and also helped the savage to 
 bear the extremes of heat and cold. Besides it made their 
 hair slip easily through the tangled brushwood, and 
 triumphantly shed the rain. They used tobacco against 
 hunger, and to get it would sell their shirts. All their en- 
 tertainments and business meetings were helped out by pro- 
 tracted use of the pipe. 
 
 Their medical practice was mostly jugglery. When an In- 
 dian was very far gone, he stretched out at full length near 
 the fire, and then, by common consent, he was sick. They 
 offered him everything they were eating, whether roast or 
 boiled, and usually dragged it through the ashes to present 
 it to him. If he refused it, they called in the sorcerer. 
 
 7 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 That functionary examined the patient and then began to 
 blow on him. If, after some days, this pneumatic treatment 
 was ineffective, he was pronounced to have the devil inside 
 of him, and the spirit had to be driven out and killed. 
 Then all prepared to slay Beelzebub, but were warned to be 
 on their guard lest he might jump into and strangle 
 them. A three hours' comedy then began in which each one 
 had his part to play. 
 
 The juggler established himself in a deep hole, at the 
 bottom of which he tied a rope around a peg. Singing, 
 screaming and dancing they crowded around the patient who 
 was placed close to the hole, the physician meantime waving 
 a naked sword till he was all in a sweat and foaming at the 
 mouth like a hard driven horse, and howling meantime like 
 a demon to warn the people to look out for the evil spirit. 
 He sees him in the pit writhing in anger and ready to 
 spring out and eat them. Every one is pale with fear, 
 until at least the braves take hold of the cord to drag Satan 
 out. They pull and pull, but the sorcerer had taken good 
 care to make it fast. While they are tugging he is vocifera- 
 ting over the hole and pretending to make lunges against 
 the evil spirit. Finally he descends into the pit, and lo ! the 
 rope yields, and out it comes with bits of bones and shreds 
 of fish attached to it. "Victory! the devil is dead. You 
 will cure the sick man." 
 
 Then the sufferer is examined to see if the demon has hurt 
 him in the exit. To find that out the physician must sleep 
 and dream, which gives the patient a good chance to get 
 worse. After that he pronounces the verdict. Possibly he 
 will say: "You will die in three days." Whereupon the 
 sick man proceeds to help out his medical adviser by refusing 
 all food. If at the end of three days, life still persists in the 
 victim, the devil is accused of interfering, and consequently 
 pots of cold water are poured on the patient's stomach till 
 he expires. If you expostulate they will tell you that such 
 is their national method of medical treatment. Even after 
 
 8 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 all this, the French have sometimes succeeded in rescuing 
 the victims and restoring them to health, though the pious 
 Biard says it was by the grace of God. Among those who 
 were rescued were the two Sagamos, Membertou and his 
 son. a result which redounded very much to the discredit 
 of the native doctors, who, however, whether they succeeded 
 or not, always had the privilege of receiving numerous 
 presents and were exempted from giving anything in return. 
 They were thus a favored class and grew unavoidably 
 rich. 
 
 Resuming his narrative, Biard tells us that when the doom 
 of the sick man was pronounced, all his friends and relations 
 gathered around and he made his own funeral oration. He 
 related his exploits ; extolled his family ; gave his instruc- 
 tions and bade everyone farewell. He made no gifts but 
 called for a general smoke. The pipe was lighted and all 
 gave presents to their departing friend ; arrows, skins, dogs, 
 etc. They killed the dogs, however, and made a funeral 
 banquet of them. When the feast was over the mourners 
 began their harangues : They were sorry to lose him, but 
 he was leaving good sons behind who would grow up fine 
 hunters, and he was bidding good bye to admiring friends 
 who would avenge the wrongs done to him. Finally, 
 when the poor wretch breathed his last, they set up a howl, 
 and if he was a man of importance they continued at it night 
 and day for a week, provided they had enough to eat. If 
 the food gave out, they buried the body straightway and 
 adjourned the banquet to another occasion. 
 
 For the funeral, the afflicted relatives painted their faces 
 black, but occasionally enlivened the gloom of their aspect 
 by a dash of color. They wrapped the corpse in skins, 
 and tied up the knees against the stomach. The grave 
 was shallow, with the dead man's head almost on a level with 
 the ground, but a mound was made above it by means of 
 sticks. If the defunct was a chief they built a pyramid over 
 him. Bows, arrows and shields marked the resting place 
 
 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 of the men; spoons or some feminine adornments indicated 
 that a weary squaw had ceased from her labors. In the 
 grave, skins, hatchets and sometimes the uneaten dogs were 
 thrown. Finally, when the obsequies were over, all shunned 
 the place, and banished every remembrance of the departed 
 from their minds. If they had to speak of him, they called 
 him by another name. 
 
 " Their religion is nothing but sorcery," continues Biard. 
 " They offer sacrifices to the devil for good luck in fighting 
 or hunting, and are firm believers in dreams. The magicians 
 are said to evoke ghosts, but we never saw any. Diabolical 
 possession was alleged to have been common before we 
 came, and old Membertou averred that his Satanic Majesty 
 often appeared to him, but, as something wicked was always 
 enjoined in such interviews, the chief grew suspicious and 
 stopped conjuring. They believed in God, but the divinity 
 as far as could be made out v^as the Sun. They had also 
 a confused idea of the immortality of the soul, and of the 
 recompense and punishment of the good and wicked. But 
 they were not much worried about the next world. Only 
 material affairs interested them. Unlike many North 
 American tribes they did not eat human flesh." 
 
 It will be remembered that when Du Gast abandoned 
 Acadia, he made over the Seigneurie of Port Royal to his 
 friend Potrincourt who, to ensure the validity of the trans- 
 fer, applied in person to the King for the royal sanction. 
 The easy-going monarch saw no reason to refuse the request, 
 but intimated his desire to have the evangelization of the 
 natives confided to Jesuit missionaries. As the grantee, 
 however, though a Catholic, had imbibed many Calvinist 
 prejudices from his business friends, he regarded Jesuits 
 as ogres, and the royal suggestion made him uncomfortable. 
 But instead of bluntly telling the king his difficulties in the 
 matter, he determined to evade the command as best he 
 could. He began by dilatory tactics, and long after he was 
 thought to have set out for America he again appeared in 
 
 10 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 Court. The king in anger ordered him to depart immedi- 
 ately, but in spite of that the whole winter was consumed 
 in preparations for the voyage. Evidently Henry IV was 
 not a despot. 
 
 A year before that, Fathers Biard and Masse had been 
 ordered to repair to Bordeaux, so as to be ready to set sail 
 for America, but no one there knew of any vessel about 
 to leave; and although it was then near the close of 1608, 
 there had been no intelligence of the failure of de Monts 
 in Acadia. There were no newspapers in those days. 
 Another year slipped by, and not till winter had set in did 
 Potrincourt receive his second order from the king. On 
 that occasion Father Coton, who was the royal confessor, 
 heard the command, and made haste to ask about the mis- 
 sionaries, but Potrincourt put him off with the assurance 
 that it would be wise to wait another year, and, when at 
 the end of February, 1610, he set sail, there were no Jesuits 
 on board. In their stead, was a priest with the extraor- 
 dinary name of Joshua Flessche or Flesse, whose theological 
 knowledge was rather of the Old than of the New Testa- 
 ment. Three weeks after his arrival he baptized a score of 
 Indians whom Potrincourt's son, evidently at his father's 
 suggestion, had instructed. The poor savages, however, 
 knew nothing about what they were doing, were even 
 unable even to make the sign of the cross, and were left 
 undisturbed in their former habits of life. Thus one of 
 those distinguished neophytes pointed with pride to the eight 
 wives whom his curious Christian belief did not prevent 
 him from retaining. Indeed, the prevalent impression 
 among them was that baptism was merely an initiation 
 ceremony which made them Normans. They called the 
 Reverend Joshua " Patriarch," and adopted the name for 
 themselves ; but when the news of the clergyman's singular 
 performance reached France, his title did not prevent him 
 from being roundly scored by the Sorbonne and he was 
 recalled. 
 
 11 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Notwithstanding the supphes brought by Potrincourt, the 
 colony soon lapsed into its condition of semi-starvation, 
 and it was thought advisable for young Biencourt to cross 
 the water. He left Port Royal at the end of July, 1610, 
 and an accident occurred at his departure which, because 
 it affected Potrincourt, nearly brought irreparable disaster 
 on the unfortunate settlers. It is not referred to in Biard's 
 narrative, but we find an account of it in a private letter 
 written to the Provincial in France. 
 
 When Biencourt hoisted sail for Europe, his father and 
 the old Sagamo Membertou, accompanied him for some dis- 
 tance, each in a separate shallop or schooner-rigged long 
 boat. They kept up with him as far as La Heve, and then 
 turned back. After rounding Cape Sable, Potrincourt gave 
 the helm to one of his men and went to sleep, leaving orders 
 to keep in along the shore. When he awoke he was far out 
 at sea, and alone ; for the wise old Indian in the other boat, 
 not knowing why his companion had changed his course, fol- 
 lowed his own counsels and reached home in safety. For six 
 weeks the shallop went up and down helplessly in all direc- 
 tions, for the poor craft was damaged on one side and could 
 not be kept close to the wind. Soon the provisions gave 
 out. Fortunately, however, the men had shot some cor- 
 morants, but being in an open vessel it was impossible 
 to cook the game, and the prospects were that they should 
 have to eat it raw. However, by means of a loose plank, 
 they succeeded in lighting a fire, which helped them to roast 
 the birds, at least to some extent. They worried along 
 until they reached the Penobscot. They felt safe then, for 
 from there to Port Royal was an easy sail. Unfortunately, 
 however, they came near Port Royal during the night and 
 the men disagreed with the captain as to their whereabouts. 
 Fle yielded to them, and was soon far out in the ocean 
 again at the mercy of wind and waves. Meantime the col- 
 onists gave them up for lost, especially as old Membertou 
 assured them he had seen the missing boat put out to sea. A 
 
 19 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 council was held, and the general verdict was that all ought 
 to return to France, as it was deemed impossible on account 
 of the prevailing winds for the boat ever to reach the shore. 
 While they were discussing the matter, Potrincourt, to their 
 great amazement and relief came into port. 
 
 The distress was great when Biencourt, who was expected 
 to arrive from France in November, failed to appear. 
 Christmas came and there was no sign of a ship. They 
 dragged wearily through the winter, as best they could. 
 Every one was on short allowance, though Potrincourt, not 
 to alienate the savages, kept lavishing his gifts on them. 
 Of course they enjoyed his generosity, but when asked why 
 they did not give something in return, as was the custom, 
 answered maliciously, " Potrincourt is too good to want our 
 peltries." However, they sent some fish and moose, from 
 time to time, and that helped a little. On top of all this 
 the millstream froze, and there was no means of making 
 flour, and for seven weeks peas and beans had to be sub- 
 stikited. They succeeded in getting a fair supply of fish, 
 but the absence of bread so worried them that it was deter- 
 mined, in case the vessel did not arrive in May, to scour the 
 coast in order to find a vessel to take them, as Biard says, 
 "to the land of the wheat and the grape." Potrincourt, how- 
 ever, succeeded in inducing them to wait till June. May 
 came, and the time had nearly expired. Still they waited, 
 but it was not until the 22d of May that Biencourt entered 
 Port Royal. He had a momentous tale to unfold. 
 
 Shortly before he arrived in France, Henry IV was 
 assassinated. In consequence, all interest in the distant 
 colony had declined, and Biencourt could find no one to 
 assist him but two Calvinist merchants who agreed to supply 
 him w^ith a cargo. Hearing of his arrival, the Queen 
 Mother, Marie de Medicis, sent orders to him to take back 
 with him to America the Jesuit missionaries who for more 
 than two years had been waiting to cross the ocean. That 
 angered the Calvinist merchants, who immediately cancelled 
 
 13 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 their agreement. " Any other priests, yes ; but Jesuits, 
 no." For such representatives of the cloth they had what 
 Biard describes as " une antipathie insociable." 
 
 Here enters the fairy god-mother in the person of the 
 Marquise de Guercheville, a great dame of the Court. In- 
 dignant that the orders both of the dead king and of the 
 queen regent should be flouted by two little shop-keepers, 
 she went around among her rich friends and begged enough 
 to buy out the entire cargo. She then made the two mis- 
 sionaries part owners, and ordered the vessel to hoist sail 
 and be off; and at last, on the 21st of January, 1611, Biard 
 was able to write to the Father General Aquaviva : " Mid- 
 night has just struck; to-morrow at the point of day we set 
 sail." They did not sail however, until five days later. 
 Appropriately the ship was called The Grace of God; which 
 intimated what they were sorely in need of. The weather 
 was dirty; the ship was small and the voyage endless. 
 
 Father Biard, who was the chief figure in this missionary 
 expedition, was not an ordinary man. He had been a pro- 
 fessor of scholastic and moral theology in various colleges 
 of France, and was revered for his exalted virtue. He was 
 born at Grenoble in 1567, and entered the Society in 1583. 
 The exact dates, however, are not known ; some authorities 
 putting both seven years later. In either case he was some- 
 where among the forties when he started out for America. 
 Giving the Jesuits a share of the vessel's cargo was, how- 
 ever, a great source of pharasaical scandal in France. Here 
 were men with vows of poverty exercising the rights of 
 proprietorship. The ecclesiastical and lay mind was very 
 much stirred up by it : but under the circumstances, the 
 average canonist will not accuse them of violating their 
 vow, and Biard was a good enough theologian to know what 
 he was doing. 
 
 Champlain, who took part in the controversy, averred 
 that " the Jesuits always acted within the lines of the 
 strictest equity." They themselves had no scruple about 
 
 14 
 
PETER BIARa 
 
 their course, and their only regret was that they left Europe 
 so soon only to arrive so late. It was mid-winter and the 
 voyage lasted four months. Champlain, who had set sail 
 after them on his way to Quebec, found them struggling 
 in the icebergs in the Gulf. Cape Canso was the first land 
 they reached, and from that they worked their way along 
 the 120 leagues of intervening coast until they came to Port 
 Royal, which, the " Relation " says, they entered " on 
 June 22d, 1611, which happened to be Pentecost Sunday " — 
 an evident mistake, for it is in contradiction with Biard's 
 letter which gives May 22d ; and besides, Pentecost of 1611 
 fell on May 22d. As a matter of fact the festival is never 
 as late as June 22d. 
 
 Whatever proprietorship the Jesuits had in the cargo 
 was not in evidence on the way over. They worked their 
 passage ; mended and washed their clothes and looked after 
 their own wants like the humblest man on board. They 
 even won the good will of Biencourt, though they were at 
 first unwelcome passengers. They treated him as the abso- 
 lute master of the ship, and continued the same line of con- 
 duct after landing. They ingratiated themselves with the 
 crew, who were mostly Calvinists, got them to join in 
 morning and night prayers, and to listen to the sermons 
 on Sundays and festivals, as well as three discourses a week 
 during Lent. There were religious discussions also, but 
 without fisticuffs, and all finally agreed that the Jesuits were 
 not the monsters they were generally thought to be. On 
 the contrary, the verdict was that " they were honest and 
 courteous gentlemen who had good manners and a straight 
 conscience," which is a very valuable endorsement of the 
 much misunderstood Society. 
 
 The arrival of the ship naturally threw the colony into 
 great excitement. Two eager individuals hurried out in 
 an Indian canoe to meet it, and succeeded in upsetting their 
 boat, and the flurry of course increased. Every one 
 on the beach shouted orders which could be heard by no one 
 
 15 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 else ; while Potrincourt and Biard waved their hats to the 
 distant ship, without attracting attention and then knelt 
 down to say their prayers. Finally the luckless wights were 
 fished out of the water, thus preventing a disaster which 
 would have been a damper on the general happiness. It 
 is worth noting how many of these early voyageurs knew 
 nothing about the art of swimming, which for their manner 
 of life would be the first thing to learn. 
 
 Potrincourt was naturally delighted to see his son, for 
 to all appearances it was the end of the colony's trials, which 
 were even worse than the " Relation " tells us of, for not 
 only was every one down to starvation fare, but Biard's 
 letter to the Provincial says that for three weeks a number 
 of the colonists had been sent off to live among the Indians. 
 Everything seemed bright now, but unfortunately all hopes 
 of a betterment soon vanished ; for the ship's supplies were 
 altogether inadequate. " They were only a drop of water," 
 says Biard, " to a thirsty man." The thirty-six new ar- 
 rivals, added to the twenty-three colonists already there, 
 made fifty-nine to feed, not to speak of the hungry Indian 
 Chief, Membertou, his daughter and their troop. Besides, 
 as the ship had been four months at sea its provisions were 
 nearly exhausted, for it was only a small craft of fifty or 
 sixty tons ; more of a fishing smack than anything else. 
 Hence, means had to be devised to disperse this large family, 
 both to provide food and to get something for trading with 
 the Indians ; for money was needed to pay the men and to 
 get means for the journey back to France. 
 
 For that purpose Potrincourt set out for a place twenty- 
 two leagues west of Port Royal, where he hoped to meet 
 some French traders. Biard, who was anxious to know the 
 country and get acquainted with the natives went with him. 
 On their way they came across four vessels. The captains 
 were all summoned and compelled to acknowledge young 
 Biencourt as vice-admiral. They all contributed their quota 
 of provisions ; but "may God forgive the crew from Rochelle 
 
 16 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 for cheating the revenue," writes Biard, " they gave us 
 barrels of mouldy bread which they told us was good." 
 
 While all this was going on, Biard heard that young 
 Du Pont, the son of the famous Pontgrave, Champlain's old 
 associate, was living among the Indians, and, unfortunately, 
 behaving like them. He had been arrested the year before 
 by Potrincourt for something or other, but had escaped, 
 and was in great misery, not even daring to board his own 
 vessel for fear of being captured. Biard pleaded for him 
 and was allowed to hunt him up. He found him and recon- 
 ciled him to Potrincourt; the ship's cannon announcing the 
 good news to the white and red men. The poor fellow- 
 went to confession on the beach, the Indians looking on at 
 a distance and wondering what was being done during the 
 long time they saw him kneeling at the feet of the priest. 
 When that was over, Mass was said on the shore, and Pont- 
 grave received Holy Communion. This interesting event 
 occurred, according to the " Relation," at La Pierre Blanche, 
 which was probably at the Grand Menan, for there is a 
 point there called Whitehead — which is a near enough trans- 
 lation of La Pierre Blanche. When all was over the prod- 
 igal asked to have Biard dine with him on board his ship, 
 which shows that the rulers in those days did not leave 
 much liberty to their subjects. The petition was granted, 
 but Potrincourt lost his temper again and seized the vessel. 
 Biard, a second time came to the rescue and straightened 
 out the difficulty, " for which," he writes, " I shall be 
 forever obliged to the Sieur de Potrincourt." 
 
 In the month of June of the same year, 1611, Potrincourt 
 started back to France with all the colonists except twenty- 
 two. That had to be done, otherwise the whole party must 
 have starved to death in the winter time. The missionaries 
 then set to work to study the language. But it was a hope- 
 less task. The Indians had no abstract ideas whatever, 
 and when it came to explain the meaning of holiness, sac- 
 raments, faith, law, temptation and the like, complete failure 
 
 17 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 resulted. What added to the trouble was that the wily 
 savages amused themselves by putting- foul expressions in 
 the mouths of their questioners, and, moreover, always 
 insisted on being fed as a reward for their pedagogical 
 labors. Biard then asked young Biencourt for leave to go 
 and pass the winter with Du Pont, who was eighteen or 
 twenty leagues from Port Royal, and who having lived 
 among the savages knew their language. But the proposal 
 put the youthful governor in a temper and for sake of peace 
 the matter was dropped. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, on returning from a trip to Ste. Croix 
 Island with Biencourt, Biard found that the old Sagama, 
 Membertou, had arrived very ill at the colony, and had been 
 installed by Father Masse in Biard's bed. The good natured 
 missionary, however, did not object to the invasion, but 
 when the Indian's wife and daughter took up their abode in 
 the cabin, making it almost impossible to turn around, for 
 the place was extremely small, the very reasonable request 
 was made in the interests of propriety and convenience, to 
 have the sick man removed to another cabin. The surly 
 Biencourt refused, and so an outside addition had to be 
 built to the establishment, and there the old man was finally 
 accommodated. He was near his end and was dying 
 piously, when another difficulty arose ; this time about his 
 prospective interment. 
 
 Backed by Biencourt, he wanted to be buried in Indian 
 fashion ; a request which the priests refused to entertain. 
 That called for more temper on the part of Biencourt, but 
 finally the chief was persuaded to yield, and they gave him 
 a Christian funeral. Biencourt, however, refused to bury 
 his own resentment. The death of Membertou was a dis- 
 aster for the missionaries, for he was a very intelligent 
 savage and a good Christian according to his lights. He 
 had great influence among his people, spoke a little French 
 and did his best to instruct the priests in the native language. 
 He had known Jacques Cartier, and was said to be over 
 
 18 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 one hundred years old, and, unlike his race, cultivated a 
 beard. If that were so it is difficult to understand the sur- 
 prise of the Indians at the hairy chins of the Frenchmen, 
 but perhaps they thought that only Membertou had a right 
 to the distinction. 
 
 An event occurred at this juncture which showed very 
 clearly that the settlement of Acadia was impossible under 
 the petulant and conceited Biencourt. Hunger was again 
 beginning to worry the colonists, so the Governor deter- 
 mined to go out on a hunt for food among the Armouchi- 
 quois who lived near what would be now the borders of 
 Maine and Massachusetts. He was very late in starting, 
 and besides had determined to go by the roundabout way of 
 St. John's River, where Captain Merveille and young Du 
 Pont, with five or six others, all from St. Malo in France, 
 had thrown up a little fort, about eighteen miles from the 
 mouth of the river. Biencourt wanted to exact a fifth of 
 their trading profits, for he claimed the monopoly of every- 
 thing in those parts ; which, of course, was going to be 
 resented by those joyous freetraders. 
 
 He reached the place about night, when the sky suddenly 
 reddened. The Indians startled by the phenomenon pre- 
 dicted war and bloodshed, and the white men also began 
 to prognosticate, " to make their almanachs," says Biard, 
 As the ship approached, one of its guns saluted the 
 fort, and the little swivel on shore gave the answering 
 welcome. Next morning prayers were said (for these old 
 marauders were very devout), and a couple of Frenchmen 
 appeared on the beach inviting the visitors to disembark, 
 saying that their two commanders, Merveille and Du Pont, 
 had been away for three days, and no one knew when they 
 would return. Father Biard celebrated Mass on the shore, 
 and all piously assisted ; but immediately afterwards, Bien- 
 court, to the amazement of everyone, posted sentries around 
 the fort and declared the garrison his prisoners. It was a 
 shabby return for their hospitality. Some gave themselves 
 
 19 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 up for lost, and others raged furiously and meditated all 
 manner of vengeance. 
 
 That night Captain Merveille returned home, and was 
 very much surprised when he neared the fort to hear a 
 sentry challenge him with "Who goes there?" "Who 
 goes there yourself?" he answered. Whereupon the man 
 with the gun took aim and fired, and " it was a marvel," 
 says Biard, " that Captain Marvel was not killed." He 
 was at least very much astonished when several soldiers 
 rushed out and took him prisoner. It was a curious con- 
 dition of things for these starving exiles to be cutting such 
 capers at midnight in the woods of the St, John's River. 
 Merveille was gagged, bound and dragged inside; and his 
 captors began to disport themselves about the room, leaping 
 and shouting like so many young savages The poor 
 wretch, who was sick at the time and worn out by his long 
 journey, threw himself on the ground near the fire and 
 moaned piteously, while everyone else shouted and roared 
 at their captive. Biard strove to restore order but without 
 avail, and then in despair knelt down to pray. After a 
 while Merveille perceived him, and leaping up with a bound 
 flung himself at the side of the priest, crying: " Father, hear 
 my confession ; I am a dead man," This was too much for 
 a scattered-brained soldier, who, picking up a musket from 
 where Merveille had been lying, pulled the trigger, and 
 aiming the weapon at the kneeling man cried out : " Traitor 
 — you were going to kill us." As Merveille was hand- 
 cuffed and such a feat impossible, the charge seemed only 
 an excuse to kill, and so Biard flung himself in front of the 
 gun. He finally succeeded in persuading the excited men 
 to put the prisoner in the lock-up for the night, promising 
 to stand guard at the door to prevent his escape. The 
 victim was therefore thrust in, bound hand and foot, but 
 suffered so much and groaned so piteously that the priest 
 pleaded to have the chains eased a trifle. That was done ; 
 but the captors had a riotous time for the rest of the night, 
 
 20 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 while Biard kept at his prayers till morning. He then pre- 
 pared Merveille and some of his more obstreperous com- 
 panions for death. But the execution did not take place. 
 
 In the afternoon he asked leave to go out and hunt for 
 Du Pont, first exacting a promise of good treatment from 
 Biencourt. He had hardly left the fort when Du Pont 
 himself walked in, and then everyone suddenly quieted down, 
 and Biencourt even borrowed Merveille's boat to go off 
 to visit the Armouchiquois as if nothing had happened. 
 What did all these antics mean? Were they merely rough 
 sport or an evidence of the frivolity and fickleness of these 
 curious colonists? 
 
 Biencourt had two reasons to visit the Armouchiquois 
 country ; one was to see if the English had taken possession 
 there, as Paltrier, who had been captured by them the year 
 before assured him was the case; the other, a more urgent 
 one, viz : to buy some corn against the possible starvation 
 of the following winter. Biard went with him, and he has 
 left us a very vivid description of what he saw in these parts. 
 It is of special value, as it is the first picture we have of 
 Maine as it was 300 years ago. It is not to be found in the 
 *' Relation." but in a letter to the Provincial in France. It 
 is dated January 31, 1612, and was consequently written 
 after Biard's return to Port Royal. 
 
 Before reaching the Armouchiquois country, " we entered 
 the Kennebec," he says. " which is eighty leagues from Port 
 Royal- It was the 28th of October, 1611. As soon as our 
 people landed they hurried off to see the English fort; for 
 they had heard there was no one in it " — which shows how 
 brave these warriors were. " They soon found it ; and as 
 everything new is marvellous, the advantages of the site 
 formed a subject of general admiration ; but opinions 
 changed, in a day or so, when it was seen that a second fort 
 might be built near by which would cut off the first both 
 from the sea and the river. Besides, there were other 
 places not very far away, which were just as good, if not 
 
 21 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 better, for trading purposes. On the third day, as there 
 was a breeze blowing up the river, and the tide was setting 
 in, it was determined to take advantage of both conditions 
 to explore a part of the country. We had gone about three 
 leagues when the tide began to ebb so we dropped anchor 
 in mid-stream. We had hardly done so when six canoes, 
 containing twenty-eight warriors, were seen coming towards 
 us. They went through a thousand evolutions as they ap- 
 proached, and they looked for all the world like a flock of 
 birds hovering over a ploughed field, but afraid of the 
 scarecrow. We were not displeased at their slowness, for 
 it gave us time to arm and fling our flags to the wind. 
 Finally they drew near and carefully studied our guns, our 
 weapons, the number of the crew, etc. ; but when night 
 came on they set off for the other side of the river, not out 
 of the reach of our cannons, but too far for a good aim. 
 
 " All night long we heard them singing and dancing 
 and making speeches. As we presumed that their songs and 
 dances were incantations, the crew, at my suggestion, began 
 to chant the Salve Regina, Ave Maris Stella, &c. But as 
 the sailors' repertory of church hymns was small, they fol- 
 lowed with every song they knew, and when that stock gave 
 out they began to imitate the songs and dances of the In- 
 dians; for your Frenchman is a born mimic. While one 
 party sung, the other kept silence. It was impossible to 
 refrain from laughing, for you would have thought they 
 were two trained choirs. Indeed, it would have been hard 
 to distinguish the genuine Indian song from the imita- 
 tion. 
 
 ** When morning came, we resumed our journey up the 
 stream. They accompanied us in their canoes, and told 
 us that by taking the right branch we should arrive at the 
 village of the great Sagamo, Meteourmite, who had plenty 
 of corn. They would go with us and show us the way. 
 Although there was every indication that they were playing 
 a trick on us we did as they said, part of them going ahead 
 
 32 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 of us, part following after. But we had not gone a half a 
 league when we reached a widening of the river. Suddenly 
 the man with the lead cried out : ' two fathoms ; one fathom ; 
 one fathom everywhere. Haul in ; haul in ; drop anchor.' 
 We looked around for the Indians. They had disappeared 
 like magic. Oh, the traitors! 'About ship!' rang out 
 from the captain. 
 
 " Meteourmite, however, who had been warned of our 
 arrival, and saw us change our course, came in all haste 
 to meet us. Fortunately Biencourt had better sense than 
 his crew, who wanted to murder everybody. They were 
 wild with rage and fear, but their rage made the most noise. 
 In spite of that, the chief was received with respect, and he- 
 assured us there was a channel we could safely follow, and 
 he offered some of his men as pilots. We believed him but 
 repented of it, when we found ourselves amid such perilous 
 rapids that w^e thought we should never escape. Many of 
 the men were terror stricken, and cried out that we were 
 surely lost. But they cried too soon. 
 
 " When we arrived, Biencourt put his men under arms, 
 so as to march into Meteourmite's village in martial array. 
 On entering the cabin we found his majesty alone, and 
 seated ; the wigwam from bottom to top was hung with 
 mats, and outside stood forty stalwart warriors on guard, 
 with bows and arrow^s on the ground in front of them. 
 Those Indians are not fools by any means. 
 
 " I received more attention," continues Biard, " than all 
 the rest. As I had no weapons, the most distinguished 
 chiefs took no notice of the soldiers, but bestowed on me 
 every mark of friendship. They conducted me to the largest 
 wigwam, where about eighty people were assembled. When 
 all had taken their places, I fell on my knees, and making 
 the sign of the cross, recited the Pater, Ave and Credo and 
 some other prayers, and the Indians after a pause cried out, 
 as if they understood me, * Ho ! Ho ! ' I then distributed 
 crosses and pictures among them and tried to make them 
 
 23 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 understand as well as I could. They kissed the pious ob- 
 jects, tried to make the sign of the cross, and held up their 
 children to be blessed. The same thing was repeated in 
 another cabin. 
 
 " Meteourmite told Biencourt that he had not much corn 
 but had some pelts to sell ; and next morning while the 
 trade was going on I went on shore to say Mass, taking a 
 boy as server. Our people on the ship, to avoid surprise, 
 had armed themselves to the teeth, and built up barricades 
 on the deck, leaving the centre free for the Indians who 
 began to swarm over the ship. But their precautions w^ere 
 useless; the red men were everywhere, mixed up pell-mell 
 with the crew. In vain the Frenchmen cried ' Back ! Back ! ' 
 the Indians shouted louder than they. 
 
 " There was nothing but tumult and confusion. Every- 
 one was sure it was a trap. Indeed, Biencourt said after- 
 wards that he was more than once on the point of crying 
 ' Kill ! Kill ! ' but the thought of me in the woods choked 
 back the words. Had he given the order not only I, but 
 every Frenchman would have been slaughtered, and the 
 French name would have been forever execrated along the 
 coast. Meteourmite and some of the other chiefs saw the 
 danger and called off their people. In the evening a num- 
 ber of Indians were sent to make excuses for the trouble 
 in the early part of the day, and to lay the blame on a 
 party of Armouchiquois who had got in among them. 
 They, themselves, respected the French, for they saw that 
 they had treated the natives well, eating with them and 
 giving them presents which had been brought from France. 
 All this was announced to us in grand discourses ; for those 
 people are the greatest speech-makers on earth. They do 
 nothing without a speech. 
 
 " It appears that all the trouble arose from what some 
 Englishmen had done a few years before. In 1608 they 
 had settled at one of the mouths of the Kennebec, and 
 although the commander was an excellent man, and treated 
 
 24 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 the natives kindly, he was killed. In 1009 the next party 
 of English assumed the offensive and dealt sternly with the 
 Indians. In consequence, the Armouchiquois took their 
 revenge on every pale face they could lay their hands on; 
 and one day, watching the enemy, and seeing three shallops 
 go off to fish, they followed cautiously, approaching with 
 every sign of friendship, but at a given signal each red-skin 
 plunged his knife into his victim's throat. Eleven English- 
 men were murdered that day, and the rest of the party aban- 
 doned the Kennebec, only venturing occasionally on the 
 Island of Emmentic which was eight leagues away from the 
 fort. 
 
 " When Biencourt heard this story he went down to the 
 Island and erected a cross there with the arms of France on 
 it. He found some shallops on the shore and was urged 
 to burn them, but as he was of a mild and humane dis- 
 position he refused, saying that they belonged to fishermen 
 and not to soldiers. It w-as now the 6th of November and 
 we started for Port Royal, intending to visit the Penobscot 
 on our way, which we found to be a beautiful river, some- 
 thing like the Garonne in France. It empties into the Bay of 
 Fundy. When you ascend the stream it seems like a great 
 sound or inlet of the sea. Where you first meet the cur- 
 rent the river is about three leagues in width, and you are 
 then about 44^° north latitude. You cannot imagine what 
 the Norumbega of the Ancients was if it was not this. 
 We asked about that place but could get no information. 
 
 " We continued on about three leagues further, and came 
 to another fine river called the Chiboctos, which flows from 
 the northeast into the Penobscot. At the confluence we 
 saw in front of us the finest assembly of Indians we had 
 yet met with. There were eighty canoes and a shallop, and 
 in their village we found eighteen cabins and about three 
 hundred people. Their most conspicuous chief was called 
 Betsabes, who was a very discreet and self -controlled indi- 
 vidual. Indeed, one meets among these savages instances 
 
 25 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 of natural virtue and political skill that make one who is 
 not lost to all sense of shame, blush for some of the French 
 who come to these parts. 
 
 " When they recognized us there was great joy and all 
 began to dance and sing. We had no fear of them, for 
 we trusted the Etchemins and Souriquois as much as our 
 own servants, and thank God ! we were not often deceived. 
 On the following day I visited the savages, and the same 
 ceremonies were gone through with as on the Kennebec. 
 I went around to see the sick, and read the gospel and re- 
 cited prayers over them, giving each a cross to wear. I 
 found one poor wretch who had been ill for four months 
 and who was stretched out near the fire. The death sweat 
 was already on his forehead. Two days afterwards I saw 
 him in his canoe sound and hearty. He came out to the 
 ship to thank me, and to show me the cross around his 
 neck. I could only shake hands with him, for I was unable 
 to speak his language, and even if I were, there was such a 
 turmoil around us, for the trafficking was going on, that 
 we could not have heard each other. 
 
 " Such was the result of our visit. We had not done 
 much preaching of the Gospel but we were beginning to 
 know and be known. The Indians were growing accus- 
 tomed to religious things, and w^hen we said Mass in the 
 woods they would stand around in respectful silence. They 
 were as pleased as the little boys at Port Royal whom we 
 made carry the cross, or the torches, or the holy water, 
 when we went in procession at the Indian interments." 
 
 26 
 
w 
 P 
 
 H 
 
 2; 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 w 
 « 
 o 
 w 
 
 w 
 
 H 
 
 o 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Mount Desert. 
 
 After leaving the Penobscot, the travelers touched at Ste. 
 Croix Island, where Captain Platrier had settled. From 
 him Biencourt obtained a couple of barrels of peas. It was 
 a welcome contribution, small as it was, and as every one 
 was then in good humor, Biard asked permission to go to 
 the settlement on the St. John's in order to study Indian 
 with Du Pont, but Biencourt would consent only on con- 
 dition that the priest would support the sailors of the ship 
 until spring time. As such an agreement was out of the 
 question they all returned to Port Royal. It was high time, 
 for already winter was taking its grip on the harbor. Biard 
 was worn out and ill, but soon managed to get on his feet 
 again. Snow fell on the 26th of November, and provisions 
 again ran so short that each one was down to a supply of 
 ten ounces of bread, a half pound of pork, three spoonfuls 
 of peas, and one of prunes which had to last for a week. 
 Occasionally an Indian came in with some fish or game 
 and a feast followed, but there were gloomy apprehensions 
 for the long winter ahead. " On the third Sunday after 
 Christmas," writes Biard, " I was preaching on the mar- 
 riage feast of Cana, and after the service I quoted the text 
 to Biencourt : ' Vinum non habent : they have no wine,' 
 and asked him to give what was left in the barrel to his 
 people. It would cheer them up and perhaps help would 
 soon arrive. We had a feast that day, and lo! one week 
 afterwards a vessel arrived from France and we had plenty 
 to eat for the rest of the winter." 
 
 This vessel was the practical outcome of the long nego- 
 tiations of the elder Biencourt with the Marquise de 
 Guercheville. Being at his wits' ends to find backers for his 
 
 27 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 ill-fated scheme, he bethought himself of the pious marquise. 
 She again consented to furnish money, but this time very 
 wisely insisted on having some of the profits ; and she went 
 so far as to propose to purchase for a thousand crowns the 
 whole of the Acadian grant, except Port Royal. Potrincourt 
 was incensed ; whereupon she demanded his charter. To ^ain 
 time, he said it was in America, whereupon she addressed 
 herself to the original owner, Du Gast, who declared that 
 his charter had never been cancelled, and he forthwith made 
 over to her the whole of Acadia, by which she came into 
 possession of all the country from Florida to Labrador, and 
 going west as far as she could find land. She w^as thus on 
 paper the greatest land-lady that America has ever known. 
 Naturally the purchase did not help the temper of Potrin- 
 court but he had to submit ; so he appointed as his agent a 
 certain Simon Imbert, a former tavern keeper of Paris, 
 an arrangement that gave fresh cause for misunderstand- 
 ings and troubles. When the vessel arrived at Port Royal 
 January 23d, 1612, every one was happy except young Bien- 
 court, for he soon heard of the negotiations in France. To 
 make matters w^orse, a lay-brother, Gilbert du Thet, who 
 came over as the agent of the marquise informed Biencourt 
 of what everyone knew, that Imbert had kept no account 
 of the cargo or the disbursements of the money given him ; 
 that he had sold some of the goods at Dieppe, had disposed 
 of other supplies on the voyage, and had not given an exact 
 list on his arrival. The imprudent Biencourt made all haste 
 to communicate this to Imbert himself. That started a 
 storm. There were recriminations on all sides, and Imbert 
 persuaded Biencourt that it was a deep-laid Jesuit plot to 
 dispossess him and his father from all their holdings in the 
 colony. Indeed Lescarbot and Le Tac narrate that du Thet 
 proceeded to excommunicate his opponents; but, as du Thet 
 was a lay brother, such a proceeding was beyond his powers ; 
 nor did he or any one else ever think of such a performance. 
 But it is a curious instance of the persistency of historical 
 
 38 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 falsehood, that even many Cathohc writers still speak of 
 du Thet as a priest. 
 
 Finally peace was made, but prosperity did not accom- 
 pany it. For some reason or other Biencourt had got it 
 into his head that a whole fleet was to come out to supply 
 him with provisions, and hence he rapidly bartered off all 
 he had for peltries, with the result that the unfortunate 
 colony was again struggling with starvation. Du Thet had 
 meantime returned to France and poor old Potrincourt was 
 once more importuning the marquise for help. But the 
 good dame's patience was exhausted. The missionaries had 
 informed her that it was impossible to do anything with the 
 Indians under Biencourt, and very little with the French, 
 on account of the Calvinist leaven in the colony. Martin 
 says that they sent her a map and urged a distinctively 
 Catholic settlement on " the continent." The word " con- 
 tinent " is somewhat peculiar, especially when employed by 
 Martin, for it would imply that Nova Scotia was an island 
 which of course it is not. On the other hand Hannay, in his 
 " History of Acadia," tells us that the missionaries had pro- 
 cured a chart of the country, and that when their plans had 
 been discovered by Biencourt, he entered into a towering 
 rage and declared he would put them under arrest if they at- 
 tempted to leave the colony, as they had been sent there 
 by royal order. He also adds that Biencourt suspended all 
 religious services for three months. Biard says nothing 
 of this ; and as for finding the chart, he must have known the 
 coast of Maine nearly as well as Biencourt. At all events 
 the marquise fitted out a ship, but unfortunately handed it 
 over to another blunderer, La Saussaye, bidding him to call 
 at Port Royal to take the Jesuits there with him and to 
 look for some other place to found a colony. 
 
 There were forty people in La Saussaye's expedition, in- 
 cluding Brother du Thet and Father Quentin. They had 
 horses, and goats, and tents, and plenty of provisions on 
 board, so that the prospects were bright when the vessel 
 
 29 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 left Honfleur on the 12th of March, 1613. They reached 
 Cape de la Heve on the 16th of May and went ashore 
 where Mass was celebrated, and a cross erected with the 
 Guercheville escutcheon upon it. From thence they made 
 their way to Port Royal, where, to their amazement, they 
 found only five persons; the two priests, Biard and Masse; 
 their servant; the apothecary Hebert, who afterwards be- 
 came so conspicuous in Quebec; and another person whose 
 name or occupation is not given. The rest were away in 
 the woods. La Saussaye waited at Port Royal for five 
 days, but as no one else appeared he took the two priests 
 on board and sailed away over the Bay of Fundy, the in- 
 tention being to settle at the mouth of the Penobscot, at a 
 place called Kadesquit. " But God," says the pious chroni- 
 cler, " disposed otherwise, for while we were off the Island 
 of Menan, a heavy fog came down upon us, turning the 
 day into night, and there we remained for forty-eight hours 
 veering now to the left and now to the right as God inspired 
 us." At last the stars appeared, and on the third day the 
 fog lifted and the travellers found themselves opposite 
 Mount Desert, which the Indians called Pemetig. The pilot 
 worked around to the east of the Island and entered a 
 spacious port. Going ashore, they erected a cross, sung a 
 hymn of thanksgiving and after Mass was celebrated held 
 a consultation and decided to name the place St. Sauveur. 
 
 Champlain had been there in 1605, and had called the 
 island LTsle aux Monts Deserts, because of the five-notched 
 hill, whose " shrubless brow," as Whittier with his muddled 
 metaphor describes it, seemed to Champlain when he was 
 out in the open to be a barren heap of stone. A monument 
 recently erected on the shore commemorates Champlain's 
 visit. Four years after Champlain's arrival a less peaceful 
 explorer dropped anchor there. It was Henry Hudson, on 
 on his way to the river which bears his name, though it 
 had been called after St. Anthony long before the Half 
 Moon had crossed the Atlantic. There is no monument to 
 
 30 
 
( IIAMi'l.AlX Alo.XL'MKXT, AJOL'XT DKSKKT. 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 Hudson at Bar Harbor, nor should there be, for he records 
 in his " Journal " that " in the morning we manned our 
 scute with four muskets and six men and took one of the 
 Indian shallops and brought it aboard. Then we manned 
 our boat and scute with twelve men and muskets and two 
 stone pieces or murderers, and drove the savages from their 
 houses, and took the spoil of them." How many savages 
 were slain by the " murderers " when Hudson " took the 
 spoil " of the Indians we are not told, but it is noteworthy 
 that although this interesting event happened only four years 
 before the arrival of La Saussaye, the Frenchmen were 
 received very cordially, which would go to show that the 
 Indians even then were observers of racial differences. 
 
 Another interesting fact about Bar Harbor is that eighty 
 years afterwards, namely in 1688, the famous French Baron 
 de Castine, who had married an Indian squaw, lived there, 
 but he was driven out by Governor Andros who pillaged 
 the settlement and conscientiously destroyed the altar. 
 Another notable individual is also identified with Mt. Desert, 
 namely de la Mothe Cadillac, the founder of Detroit, who 
 was styled the Seigneur of Bonaquat and Mt. Desert. 
 Whether he was ever there in person is not certain, but in 
 virtue of the grant made to him in 1688, his descendants, 
 the Gregoires, had their claim of possession allowed by the 
 Court of Massachusetts after the Revolutionary war. It 
 is curious to find Cadillac, who was the great enemy of the 
 missionaries at Mackinac in 1700, in control of the place 
 whence the predecessors of those same missionaries were 
 driven in 1613. To-day, as every one knows, Bar Harbor 
 is the refuge of opulence from the summer heats, but there 
 is a Catholic church there with the title of St. Sauveur, or 
 Holy Redeemer. A Protestant chapel has assumed the 
 name also, and even the streets and caravanseries perpetuate 
 it. 
 
 When La Saussaye landed at Mt. Desert in 1613, the 
 inevitable quarreling immediately began ; some were for 
 
 31 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH A^IERICA. 
 
 remaining where they were, others for going off to look for 
 Kadesquit. But the Indians persuaded the travellers that 
 the place they were in was the best to be found, and so it 
 was finally decided to make the settlement permanent. 
 " Rude entrenchments," says Bancroft, " were raised by 
 La Saussaye on the eastern shore of Mt. Desert Isle. The 
 conversion of the heathen was the motive to the settlement ; 
 the natives venerated Biard as a messenger from heaven, 
 and under the summer sky, round a cross in the centre of 
 the hamlet, matins and vespers were regularly chanted. 
 France and the Roman religion had appropriated the soil 
 of Maine." 
 
 Apart from the fact that there was no " chanting of 
 matins and vespers," for these missionaries were not monks, 
 the distinguished historian misses the important point in 
 the establishment of this unfortunate colony. La Saussaye, 
 or de la Saussaye, as Charlevoix calls him, did not raise 
 any '* rude entrenchments," at least immediately. His fail- 
 ure to do so was the head and front of his offending. He 
 was bent on laying out farms, and although entreated by 
 every one to do something in the way of defense against 
 possible attack he refused, though he seems to have at- 
 tempted something later, Charlevoix credits him with a 
 fort which suffered a cannonade, though it had no gun to 
 reply, but the distinguished Jesuit's account of the taking 
 of St. Sauveur is one mass of errors. It is hard to explain 
 his mistakes, as he must have read the account of Biard, 
 who was an eye witness ; but possibly he wrote from 
 memory after perusing the document. " Every one was in 
 bad temper," says Biard, " but the English soon made us 
 agree." 
 
 All that summer a vessel from Virginia had been prowling 
 around the coast, ostensibly in quest of fish, but as it had four- 
 teen cannon and sixty musketeers, its occupation could not 
 have been such a peaceful one. Charlevoix says it was con- 
 voying a fleet of fishing smacks, but none of these vessels 
 
 32 
 
o 
 
 X 
 
 X 
 -r; 
 
 
 
 -I 
 
 ■J 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 appeared on the scene. Samuel Argall, its captain, Biard 
 found very courteous in his ways, but from what the Protes- 
 tant writers tell us of him, he had many an evil deed to ac- 
 count for. Among other things he is credited with having 
 carried off the famous Indian princess, Pocahontas, from a 
 chief to whom Powhatan had confided her. Argall bribed the 
 custodian with a brass kettle and then led the maiden off to 
 Jamestown. The outrage very nearly provoked a general 
 massacre of the colonists. It was particularly odious be- 
 cause it occurred after Pocahontas had saved Captain John 
 Smith from death. In spite of this, Argall became 
 Deputy Governor of Virginia in 1617, but was so tyrannical 
 that he was recalled to England in 1619. He had, however, 
 taken care to amass a fortune meantime. It is asserted 
 that while returning from the expedition in which we now 
 see him, he stopped at Manhattan and demanded its sur- 
 render from the Dutch on the ground that it was discovered 
 by an Englishman. But Brodhead, in his " History of 
 New York," denounces this as " fabulous." After Dela- 
 ware's death, Argall took charge of the estate. Letters of 
 Lady Delaware, yet in existence, accuse him of flagrant 
 peculation. 
 
 Such was the buccaneer who was sailing along the coast 
 of Maine in the summer of 1613. He had been lost in the 
 fog, but when the sky cleared he picked up an Indian who 
 told him of the French settlement near by. It was great 
 news for his ragged and ravenous crew, and under the 
 guidance of the red man, who fancied he was bringing 
 friends together but who was afterwards nearly killed by his 
 fellow savages for his error, Argall set every sail for Mt. 
 Desert. "He came into the harbor like an arrow," says 
 Biard ; " the wind was aft, the blood red banner of England 
 floated at the peak, and three trumpeters and two drummers 
 kept up a tremendous noise. La Saussaye remained on shore 
 and kept the greatest number of his men around him, while 
 La Motte, the lieutenant, Ron fere, the ensign, and Joubert, 
 
 33 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 the sergeant, hurried to join Captain Flory on the ship. 
 But alas ! she was at anchor and could not budge ; there were 
 only ten sailors on board, none of whom ever expected a 
 sea fight ; and worst of all the sails were down, and stretched 
 like a tent on the deck from stem to stern. " It was for- 
 tunate," says Biard, somewhat cynically, or paternally, " for 
 it protected the men, and none of them could be picked off 
 by the English musketeers when they came to close quar- 
 ters. ' Who are you ? ' shouted the English as they ap- 
 proached. The French replied in the sailor fashion of those 
 days : ' O ! O ! ' But the only acknowledgement from the 
 other side was a discharge of cannon and musketry. The 
 shots fell all at once on the sides, and bow, and poop. To 
 Biard's eyes the enemy's ship seemed all aflame. " Fire," 
 cried Captain Flory, but the cannoneer was conveniently 
 ashore; whereupon the lay-brother, du Thet, who was no 
 coward, though Father Charlevoix says his courage was 
 " zrai on prctendii," seized the match and blazed away. 
 Unfortunately he did not take aim. " Had he done so," 
 says the chronicle, " there would have been something more 
 than noise." 
 
 The enemy then came alongside and the grappling irons 
 were flung out to seize the prey: but Captain Flory let go 
 the cable and saved himself for a moment. The vessel could 
 only go a certain length at best, and the English opened fire 
 with their muskets. It was in that discharge that du Thet 
 fell mortally wounded. The Captain received a ball in the 
 foot, and three of the men were more or less seriously 
 wounded. Some one shouted " we surrender," others 
 sprang overboard and swam for shore, but two of them were 
 either drowned or shot before they reached the land. The 
 battle was over. The English boarded and took the ship. 
 
 The victors then went ashore and demanded by what 
 right the French were on their territory. They sought for 
 La Saussaye, but that worthy had disappeared. Whereupon 
 Argall began to rifle the trunks, and to his great delight 
 
 34 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 found La Saussaye's commission. That valuable document 
 he pocketed forthwith, and putting everything else back 
 again very neatly, " gcntiment," says Biard, waited for the 
 gallant commander's return. When he made his appearance 
 he was received very politely and with many professions of 
 regard, and after a while was requested to show his papers. 
 He went to his trunk, found everything in good order but, 
 of course, there was no commission. The farce went on. 
 " What! " thundered Argall, " you pretend to have a royal 
 commission, and you have no papers to prove it. Avaunt! 
 pirates, and free hooters ; you deserve to be hanged. Go, 
 men, and seize your booty," and off they posted to the ship, 
 while the Frenchmen sat on the shore and looked on at the 
 plundering. Next day the loot began on land. There was 
 some rough scuffling for a time, and a number of the set- 
 tlers fled to the woods, starving and half naked though they 
 were, rather than take their chances with the English. 
 
 On board of Argall's ship was a Catholic surgeon. It is 
 to be regretted that we do not know his name, for he had 
 the wounded taken on shore, and tenderly cared for. Du 
 Thet died twenty-four hours afterwards, and was buried at 
 the foot of the cross which had been erected in the centre 
 of the settlement. Where the exact spot is has not been 
 ascertained. Biard and Masse meanwhile had gone on the 
 ship to implore the Captain to be merciful with the settlers. 
 They succeeded, and when he discovered that they were 
 Jesuit missionaries, he expressed his surprise to find them 
 in the company of such scoundrels ; a somewhat sardonic 
 remark from an Englishman in Reformation times. They 
 of course, defended their associates, and he was finally con- 
 vinced that his captives were not pirates, for he added : 
 " It is a pity you have lost your papers. I shall see about 
 your return to France." After that he insisted that the two 
 priests should take their meals at his table, and he continued 
 from that out to treat them with the greatest respect. He 
 had his game to play, for he wanted to lay hands on the 
 
 35 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 French pilot and some of the crew who had escaped and 
 were hiding in the woods. It was an uncomfortable position 
 for the English, as they could not leave any witnesses of 
 their exploit behind them. Perhaps had they succeeded in 
 capturing the fugitives, the whole party would have been 
 taken care of so as to tell no tales. " But on the whole," 
 says Biard, " Argall acted like a gentleman, and his people 
 were not inhuman or cruel to any of their captives." 
 
 What was to be done with the Frenchmen? Biard tells 
 us that the Indians volunteered to provide for them on shore. 
 But as wintering among the savages was as yet an impos- 
 sible feat for the average white man, and as the natives 
 themselves had scarcely anything to eat, it was considered 
 unwise to accept the offer. Nevertheless, one naturally asks 
 why did not the missionaries at least, who had come over 
 to evangelize the Indians, take this opportunity of living 
 among them, learning their language and beginning the 
 w^ork of conversion ? As for learning the language directly 
 from the natives, that had been found impossible, and so 
 Biard asked to be landed on the Island of Pencoit wliere 
 there were some English fishermen whom Argall was to 
 request to look after the priests and have them conveyed 
 some way or other to France. Did the missionaries lose 
 courage or did they conclude that it would be a useless 
 sacrifice of life, to repeat what had nearly put an end to 
 Masse a few months before in Acadia ? The most plausible 
 solution is that they were afraid of Biencourt, whom they 
 had left in Acadia. 
 
 Argall, however, concluded to put the thirty Frenchmen 
 in a shallop and let them shift for themselves, and La Saus- 
 saye assented to that arrangement. But a protest was 
 made by the two priests, as it really meant nothing but 
 death to the whole party. The little craft with such a load 
 would certainly founder somewhere in the 150 leagues 
 it would have to travel before meeting a French ship. It must 
 not have helped La Saussaye's popularity with the French- 
 
 36 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 men when it was told that he had accepted the proposal. Had 
 they all gone down in the sea, of course, it would have been 
 so much less trouble for Argall, but he did not insist and 
 then offered to transport all the artizans to Virginia, prom- 
 ising at the same time to send them back to France after 
 one year. 
 
 Some of the men accepted the ofifer and even de la Motte, 
 to whom Argall had taken a fancy on account of his gallant 
 conduct in the fight consented to go also and was joined 
 later by Captain Flory. 
 
 Thus fourteen were left for the shallop, and Masse, at 
 their request, joined them. Biard and Quentin sailed away 
 with Argall expecting to be landed on the Island of Pencoit 
 as had been promised ; but to their consternation they were 
 carried down to Virginia. They were assured, however, 
 that there was no danger to be apprehended, that Dale, the 
 Governor, was very fond of the French, having served in 
 the armies of Henry IV and was actually in the enjoy- 
 ment of a pension from the French Government. 
 
 It is hard to reconcile this shameless falsehood with 
 Biard's continued characterization of Argall as a gentleman. 
 Still a man may be a polite liar. Dale indeed had been a 
 soldier under Henry IV, but he was a Calvinist and enter- 
 tained an intense hatred of everything Catholic ; so much 
 so that when the captives arrived he determined to hang 
 every one of them : " We all expected," says Biard, " to 
 mount ignominiously by a ladder and to descend very wretch- 
 edly by a rope." But Argall stood by them. Dale, how- 
 ever, persisted, until at last the theft of the papers had to 
 be admitted. The prisoners were evidently French sub- 
 jects, and there could be no question of putting them to 
 death. A few days afterwards the assurance was given that 
 the gallows would not be called into requisition. 
 
 A council was called and it was decided to send Argall 
 back to Acadia, with orders to destroy every French settle- 
 ment on the coast ; to seize whatever vessel he might find, 
 
 37 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 and to hang La Saussaye and any of his men if they had 
 persisted in remaining in those parts. They clearly over- 
 rated the bravery of La Saussaye. That hero never re- 
 turned to America. Moreover, all the prisoners were to 
 reembark with Argall and to be landed at any place he chose. 
 He therefore set out with three vessels. But not all of the 
 Frenchmen went with him. Probably most of them had 
 enough of the sea. On Argall's ship was Captain Flory 
 with four men, while the two Jesuits were assigned to Ar- 
 gall's lieutenant, Turnel. 
 
 They directed their course towards St. Sauveur where 
 they expected to find La Saussaye, but he was already safe 
 in France. They burned all the defences and houses, and 
 threw down the cross, but erected another one in its stead 
 with the escutcheon of the King of England on it to declare 
 that he w^as henceforth and had always been the true master 
 of the territory. To vary the programme they hanged one 
 of their own men for mutiny, choosing for the execution 
 the spot where they had thrown down the cross. 
 
 From St. Sauveur they made for the Island of Ste. Croix, 
 and there Biard fell into disfavor with Argall. He refused 
 to act as pilot. The captain was furious, and the priest came 
 near sharing the fate of the mutinous sailor. But by help 
 of the charts which had been found at St. Sauveur, Ste. 
 Croix was discovered. The houses were burned ; and every 
 mark of French ownership of the island was obliterated. 
 
 The next objective point was Port Royal. After his ex- 
 perience with Biard, Argall concluded not to ask any 
 Frenchman to guide him into that dangerous harbor; so 
 he scoured the country till he found a Sagamo who knew 
 the rocks and shoals. They entered in full moonlight, and 
 if the French even then had been on the lookout they could 
 have defended themselves or at least decamped with their 
 belongings, especially as for ten or eleven hours the tide 
 prevented a landing. But when the English finally did go 
 ashore, they found no one in the fort. The invaders were 
 
 38 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 surprised at the negligence manifested, and also at the 
 amount of booty which a short search revealed. 
 
 The capture of the colony nearly cost Father Biard his 
 life. Having lost so much time in finding the place and in 
 hunting for a pilot, Turnel wanted to return to Virginia, 
 alleging the dangers of the place and the advancement of 
 the season, for it was then near the end of October. 
 Besides he had heard from Biard that he could get nothing 
 there except hatred, for the colony was in a miserable con- 
 dition. But when Argall, the chief of the expedition dis- 
 covered the place without difficulty, and moreover captured 
 considerable booty in provisions, clothes, tools, etc., he not 
 only reproached Turnel with putting trust in the Jesuit, 
 but allowed him a very small part of the plunder. The lieu- 
 tenant was furious, for he always had the reputation of 
 being clever, and he now found himself in disgrace. To help 
 his ill feeling the sailing-master of Argall's ship, who was 
 an English Puritan, and a deadly enemy of the Jesuits, 
 though outwardly very suave and discreet, advised Turnel 
 to put Biard ashore, on the plea that it was not proper that 
 he should be supported on the provisions which he had 
 endeavored to prevent the English from obtaining. 
 
 The usual Jesuitical virtue of sincerity saved Biard from 
 this fate. Twice he threw himself on his knees before 
 Argall to intercede for the colonists. The captain believed 
 that he meant what he said, though at the very moment a 
 Frenchman who had just arrived from the woods was howl- 
 ing curses against the priest and demanding his death. 
 As Argall had not consented to the proposal of the Puri- 
 tan, neither did he hang the Jesuit to oblige the Catholic, 
 nor did he change his attitude when something worse oc- 
 cured. Just as the ships were ready to depart and were 
 waiting for the tide, one of the colonists came out with a 
 document signed by five or six of his compatriots in which 
 Biard was accused of being a traitor, a Spaniard, a fugitive 
 from justice for crimes committed in Europe, as having 
 
 39 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 led a scandalous life in Port Royal, etc., etc., but Argall 
 dismissed the Frenchman with a smile. In any case, he 
 had given his word to bring Biard back to Virginia, where, 
 he said to himself, he was sure to be hanged as soon as 
 the Governor heard of the refusal to guide the ships to the 
 different settlements. So having secured everything he 
 could lay hands on, even to nails and locks, he sailed away 
 when the wind was favorable after having set fire to the 
 settlement. " Would to God," writes Biard, " that the 
 fire could have destroyed all the sin that had been com- 
 mitted in that place." 
 
 It was on the 19th of November, 1613, when the three 
 ships turned their prows towards Virginia. The two priests 
 were on Turnel's ship, and that elegant pirate, who could 
 speak four or five languages, Latin among others, was now 
 thoroughly convinced that Biard was a thorough going 
 scoundrel, only fit to be strung up at the yard arm. He 
 was particularly incensed because he had formerly admired 
 and liked him ; but the damning testimony of the paper 
 presented by the colonists was before his eyes, and he felt 
 like a man whose confidence had been abused. He was 
 angry also at finding out that his prisoner was a Spaniard, 
 masquerading as a Frenchman. Hatred of Spain was an 
 article of the Englishman's creed, for the invincible Ar- 
 mada was still remembered, but as a matter of fact Biard 
 not only had not a drop of Spanish blood in his veins, 
 but had never even set foot in Spain. On the second day 
 out, a storm separated the three vessels. The barque was 
 wrecked, and the six Englishmen in it perished, whereas 
 Argall reached Virginia inside of a month. Dale received 
 him with pleasure, and joyously awaited the arrival of 
 Biard, to whom he proposed " to show the end of the 
 world from the middle of a ladder," but Almighty God 
 willed otherwise. 
 
 Turnel's ship was driven before the gale for sixteen 
 consecutive days, and all hope of reaching Virginia was 
 
 40 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 abandoned. Meantime the provisions were giving out, 
 and the horses on board were using up and fouHng all the 
 water ; every sail was tattered and torn ; the rigging was in 
 shreds. But suddenly fine weather came and the reckon- 
 ing showed they were scarcely twenty-five leagues from 
 port, which was the last thing the prisoners wanted. 
 So they redoubled their prayers and apparently God heard 
 them, for a furious southeaster arose right ahead of them. 
 The ship was put about; every sail was reefed, and Biard 
 tells us " the men then thought only of their consciences." 
 There was no help for it. The gale was too furious to 
 do anything but go before it, and the Captain made up his 
 mind the best he could do was to reach the Azores seven 
 hundred leagues away. He slaughtered the horses to get 
 something to eat, and also to save the small amount of 
 water they had left. Captors and captives both enjoyed 
 the horse flesh. 
 
 As the sailors all grew prayerful during this hurricane, 
 Turnel called Father Biard to his cabin and said : " I see 
 that God is angry with us, but not on your account. We 
 went to war without making any previous declaration, 
 which, of course, was not right. But it was against my 
 advice and my liking. I had to obey. I repeat, God is 
 angry against us but not against you, although you are the 
 occasion of it." " However," he resumed, " it is very 
 strange that your countrymen should have spoken as they 
 did about you." " Did you ever hear me speak ill of 
 them?" asked Biard. "Never; on the contrary, at the 
 very time they were reviling you, I noticed that you always 
 defended them. I am willing to testify to that." " Who, 
 then. Captain, is likely to tell the truth on his side; the 
 charitable man or the calumniator?" '* The charitable 
 man, no doubt," said Turnel, " but candidly, did not your 
 charity prompt you to lie to me, when you said we should 
 find nothing but misery at Port Royal?" " Pardon me," 
 replied Biard, " you will remember that I did not express 
 
 41 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 myself in those words, but said that when I was there I 
 found nothing but misery in the place." "True; you 
 did," admitted the other, " and everything would be clear 
 except for the fact that you are a Spaniard, and you are 
 not so much trying to benefit the French as to do harm to 
 the English." Biard endeavored to remove the impression, 
 but in vain ; for Turnel could not understand how five or 
 or six Frenchmen who were facing death could have 
 consented to sign a false accusation against one of their 
 own countrymen and a priest, with no other purpose than 
 to have him hanged to satisfy their hatred. 
 
 After a while they came in sight of the Azores, but it 
 did not add to the happiness of Turnel or the crew. It 
 was Portuguese territory, and the presence of two captive 
 priests in an English vessel would mean the gallows or the 
 galleys for all concerned. An easy solution of the difficulty 
 would have been to drop the troublesome Jesuits overboard, 
 but the grace of God was working in the heart of Turnel, 
 and if the suggestion ever presented itself it was rejected. 
 The two prisoners agreed to keep out of sight, if the vessel 
 was searched. 
 
 It was decided to remain outside of the harbor and to 
 send in a boat for supplies, in order to obviate any very 
 exhaustive investigation by the Port Warden, but luck was 
 against them, and they were compelled to enter the port. 
 In doing so they unfortunately fouled a Spanish ship and 
 tore off its bowsprit. The haughty Don in command re- 
 garded the accident as intentional, and only a disguised 
 attempt at robbery; having had the same mischance with 
 a French vessel in the same port five weeks before. His 
 men sprang to arms and there was imminent danger of a 
 fight. The city was in consternation as were the sailors in 
 the port, but the trouble ended by Turnel going ashore, 
 and remaining there in custody of the authorities, who 
 now regarded him as a pirate. Meantime, the vessel was 
 searched again and again, and the Jesuits had to play hide 
 
 43 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 and seek in every hole and corner, from the cock-pit to 
 the hold, in constant terror of being discovered. The 
 Spaniards came aboard in their turn, and again the game 
 of concealment had to be repeated. It was hard work and 
 at one time they found themselves behind a boat, holding 
 their breath and not daring to move hand or foot till the 
 visitors withdrew. The crew was pale with fear, but the 
 priests wanted to convince them that the prevalent idea 
 about Catholics not being obliged to keep faith with heretics 
 was a calumny, and they succeeded. Had an accident, 
 however, occurred, and had they been discovered, of course 
 it would have been regarded as intentional. But nothing 
 happened, and when at last after three weeks detention 
 the vessel drew out of the port, the grateful Englishmen 
 hugged and kissed these two woe-begone Jesuits with en- 
 thusiasm. At this distance of time it is difficult to under- 
 stand why such a difficult process had to be resorted to in 
 order to conceal their identity. It would have been a 
 simple matter to have taken off their cassocks and to pass 
 as part of the crew. But there was a sort of superstition 
 prevalent just then of never going without the habit. Later 
 on we shall see Lalemant standing in his cassock on the 
 deck of a vessel that was being battered against the rocks, 
 and then complaining that his feet got entangled in it 
 when he was in the water. Biard boasted that he wore 
 his soutane during the nine months of his captivity. 
 
 Turnel's troubles were not yet over. It was impossible 
 to get back to Virginia, both because he had no provisions, 
 and because it was already the year 1614, when the 
 sailors' term of service was drawing to a close ; so he headed 
 for England. He tried to get into the English Channel 
 but was driven first into Milford Haven, which Biard spells 
 " Milfer," and then into the port of Pembroke in Wales. 
 There the unexpected happened. His ship was French, 
 for it was Mme. de Guercheville's, and he had no papers. 
 Argall had them in Virginia. The consequence was that 
 
 43 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 he and his men were regarded as pirates, and were going 
 to be hanged. There was only one way to save them^ 
 selves. They brought the two Jesuits ashore to tell the 
 sceptical judges the whole story of their American ad- 
 ventures. That saved the day, and from pirates they 
 became patriots, while the Jesuits were regarded as public 
 benefactors. 
 
 The summons to go ashore was very fortunate, for Biard 
 and his companion would have died of cold and starvation 
 if they had been compellel to pass the four weeks they 
 spent at Pembroke in the hold of the vessel. It was Tur- 
 nel's intention to leave them there, for a priest's life was 
 not worth much in England at that time ; but as their tes- 
 timony had saved so many honest Britons from the gallows, 
 the Judge, who was a fort honneste ct grave personnage 
 inquired how they were lodged in the ship. When their 
 condition was explained, he made arrangements to in- 
 stall them in the house of the Mayor, saying that it would 
 be a shame not to treat such distinguished and learned men 
 with courtesy. Biard takes care to hand down to pos- 
 terity the name of this observant old gentleman. It was 
 Nicholas Adams. 
 
 Ministers, lawyers, gentlemen, and others, called on them 
 and a noble Lord of the Council arranged for a controversy 
 with four eminent ministers. " I call them ministers," says 
 Biard, " but in England they are called ' priests.' " " Our 
 chief antagonist was an archdeacon, for the English re- 
 tain much of the old ecclesiastical nomenclature. They have 
 their archbishops, bishops, priests, curates, canons, etc. 
 They insist on the imposition of hands for the priesthood; 
 have minor orders, confirmation, the chrism and all the 
 ceremonies, the sign of the cross, holy images, festivals of 
 saints, lent, abstinence on Fridays and Saturdays, priestly 
 vestments, sacred vessels, etc. The Scotch and French 
 Calvinists who condemn all these practices as damnable 
 superstitions and inventions of the devil are called Puritans 
 
 44 
 
PETER BIARD. 
 
 by the English and are heartily detested." Finally a de- 
 cision arrived from London. It was favorable, and the 
 captives found out that it was a piece of good fortune to 
 have been driven into a Welsh port, for had they landed in 
 another part of Great Britain, the Virginia Company would, 
 if possible, have prevented them from getting back to their 
 native country, as was attempted to be done in the case 
 of Captain de la Motte a short time after. 
 
 The two Jesuits finally left England. By royal com- 
 mand they were brought in a roundabout way to Sandwich, 
 or Saiiduicts, as Biard writes it, from there to Dover and 
 from Dover to Calais. They had been nine months in the 
 hands of the English. The Governor of Calais, the Sieur 
 d'Arquien, and M. La Baulaye, the dean, received them 
 kindly and gave them money enough to reach Amiens. 
 
 In France they found themselves the center of another 
 storm. They were accused of having been the authors of 
 all the misfortunes that had befallen Acadia; they had led 
 the English thither; fomented dissensions among the 
 French; induced Mme. du Guercheville to abandon Port 
 Royal, and establish St. Sauveur ; and out of personal spite 
 had compromised the interests of both religion and the 
 crown. Potrincourt lodged a formal complaint to that 
 effect with the Government, and his friend Lescarbot was 
 particularly active in influencing the public mind by his 
 *' Derniere Relation de I'Histoire de la Nouvelle France." 
 
 To exculpate himself from the charges of Lescarbot, 
 who was regarded then as a very judicious historian, and 
 supplied with exact information, but who is discredited by 
 modern waiters, Biard wrote his statement of the case. 
 Champlain, though angry not only with Mme. de Guerche- 
 ville for directing her benefactions to Mt. Desert instead 
 of Quebec, but also with Father Coton for advising her, 
 came to Biard's assistance and declared that the Jesuits 
 always acted according to the strictest equity ; were actuated 
 by the loftiest spiritual motives and guided by common 
 
 45 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 sense. In fact, the first chapter of his Third Book is a 
 resume of Biard's " Relation." His estimate of the Jesuits 
 at Port Royal and St. Sauveur is more than complimentary. 
 
 Thus the first attempt at evangelizing Acadia ended in 
 disastrous failure. The political fortunes of the colony 
 were worse. For although young Biencourt built up Port 
 Royal after Argall's departure, it was only to give a field 
 for the long fratricidal struggle between de la Tour, Aulnay 
 and others who fought for mastery in the unhappy country 
 although they were at the very same time harassed by 
 repeated incursions of the English from Massachusetts. At 
 one time two Franciscan friars were said to have beeii on 
 a vessel which came over to sustain the cause of de la Tour, 
 but what they did after reaching Port Royal we have no 
 means of knowing. That was in the year 1642, nearly 
 forty years after the original settlement. When the Eng- 
 lish came into possession of the country, both missionary 
 work and political rivalry had come to an end. 
 
 What became of Biard? When he returned to France 
 he again taught theology; then we find him famous as a 
 missionary and finally as a military chaplain. In 1635, 
 his old companion, Masse, started with de Brebeuf for work 
 among the Canadian Indians. Biard would naturally have 
 joined them, but he had died at Avignon, three years before, 
 shattered and broken by his long life of apostolic labor. 
 
 46 
 
ENEMOND MASSE 
 
ENEMOND MASSE. 
 
 As you journey up the St. Lawrence from Quebec, the 
 first object that attracts your attention after you have 
 satisfied yourself with looking back at the medieval city 
 on the Rock, is a bold headland on which a graceful church 
 stands far out on the brow of the hill and high above the 
 river. Higher still but much farther back in the land is 
 a splendid conventual establishment half hidden in the 
 surrounding woods; while on either side, cluster the white 
 and well kept houses of the " habitants." It is Sillery, and, 
 singularly enough, the church is dedicated to St. Columba, 
 which would naturally suggest that there are affectionate 
 memories of Green Erin lingering in the neighborhood. 
 Indeed, if you strayed into the church on a Sunday or holi- 
 day, you might hear a sermon in either French or English, 
 for the children of the Celt and the Gaul both kneel around 
 that altar on the banks of the St. Lawrence. 
 
 If you climb the cliff above the point where the little 
 steamer lands, and stand where the solitary cannon looks 
 peacefully over the waters, you have a scene before you that 
 is not only a delight to the eye, but a comfort to the heart for 
 the multitude of romantic and religious memories that crowd 
 upon you. Opposite you on the other side of the river is the 
 Cote de Lauson, the one-time domain of the old seigneur 
 whose name occurs repeatedly in Canadian history. Near 
 by, the boiling Chaudiere tumbles into the St. Lawrence ; 
 and lofty Pointe Levis presents itself with its crown of 
 convents and colleges and churches. Cape Tourmente is a 
 dozen leagues away to the east, and quite close to 3'ou is 
 Cape Diamond, with a forest of masts at its feet, and on its 
 summit the citadel and the historic Plains of Abraham. 
 Between you and it is the fairy-like cove where Wolfe made 
 the fatal ascent in 1759. 
 
 49 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 If you wander down the slope to the lowlands near the 
 river, you will come after a little space to an ancient dwell- 
 ing which has stood the storms of two hundred and seventy- 
 two Canadian winters, but which shows no marks of age. 
 Indeed, you would take it for a house of one of the well- 
 to-do people of the neighborhood ; yet it is perhaps the 
 oldest structure in Canada for it was built in 1G37. But 
 it has more than antiquity to commend it. It is all that is 
 left of the famous establishment founded by the Chevalier 
 Noel Brulard de Sillery, a Knight of Malta, who after 
 achieving fame in the world became a priest. He was a 
 friend of St. Vincent de Paul, and spent a large fortune 
 in good works, among which was this training school on 
 the St. Lawrence where it was hoped that the savages 
 might be taught agriculture and the mechanical arts, and 
 be thus brought from the forest into the ways of civilization. 
 In former times a church stood near it, but after many years 
 it was demolished, and the oldest inhabitants will still tell 
 you what a marvelous piece of masonry it was. There, 
 too, the first Hotel Dieu of Canada was built, but the nuns 
 left it and fled in terror to Quebec, when one day an Indian 
 runner came into the settlement carrying a letter written on 
 a piece of birch bark. It was from Father Bressani who 
 had fixed it to a tree as he was being carried into captivity 
 by the Mohawks. It conveyed the startling intelligence 
 that the savages were going to descend on the hospital and 
 carry off the nuns. A sign at the roadside to-day shows 
 where it once stood. 
 
 All these buildings except the residence were virtually 
 abandoned after the English conquest, but though the 
 structures are gone, the memories still remain of the 
 saints who labored there. De Brebeuf had lived in that 
 house after his wanderings among the Neutrals along 
 Lake Erie. Menard was the hospital chaplain ; and indeed 
 most of the great martyrs of the northwest had offered 
 Mass in the chapel, or instructed the neophytes, or had 
 
 50 
 
MASsi', MoxuMK.x r AT sii,i.i:m- 
 
ENEMOND MASSE. 
 
 come to bid good-bye to their friends before going forth 
 to die. So that apart from the historical interest with 
 which the locahty is invested, Sillery may be regarded as 
 one of the sacred places of Canada. All this would prob- 
 ably be unknown to the ordinary traveller, but were he to 
 pass by the old residence he would see in front of it, though 
 on the other side of the road, and nearer the river, a monu- 
 ment surmounted by a cross. On a marble slab set in its 
 base, he would read an inscription in French, telling him 
 that " the inhabitants of Sillery have erected this monu- 
 ment to the memory of Father Enemond Masse, S.J., the 
 first missionary of Canada, who was buried in 1646 in the 
 church of St. Michael, which was attached to Residence 
 of St. Joseph of Sillery." 
 
 This monument was the result of the labors of two 
 pious and painstaking historiographers, the Abbes Casgrain 
 and Laverdiere who, in 1869, caused excavations to be 
 made in the ruins of the old church and succeeded in un- 
 covering all the foundations. They found it to be a struc- 
 ture of 100 by 37 feet (French measure), and to have 
 been built in the form of a cross, with a hexagonal apse. 
 Its facade was towards the river; and in the lateral chapel 
 on the gospel side, they came upon Father Masse's remains. 
 There could be no possible doubt about their identity, for 
 he was the only one that was ever buried there. The 
 *' Journal des Jesuites " informs us that the chapel was not 
 yet complete when the interment took place. 
 
 The people of Sillery were naturally jubilant over this 
 discovery, and in response to an appeal made haste to 
 erect the shaft. The corner stone was laid with great 
 ceremony in 1870, and it was noted that many, not of the 
 faith, were reverential spectators. The inscription is sig- 
 nificant, for it calls Masse " the first missionary of Can- 
 ada," although two or three other priests had preceded him 
 in Acadia and Canada. He was born in Lyons, in 1574 
 or 1575. There is some uncertainty, however, about the 
 
 51 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 date, just as there is about his name, which is sometimes 
 written without the accent. Thus it appears in Biard's 
 "Relation" and in Charlevoix's and Champlain's works; 
 but as Creuxius in his " Historia Canadensis " calls him 
 Massseus, as do the Catalogues of the Society, we are safe 
 in writing it Masse and not Masse, though there is another 
 difficulty in the fact that when he was Father Coton's 
 associate at Court, he signed himself de Masso, and com- 
 plicated the problem still more by prefixing to it Imbertus, 
 which he discarded afterwards for Enemondus. 
 
 He entered the Society on August 25, 1595, when he 
 was twenty years old. He is said to have been naturally 
 of a somewhat turbulent disposition, but in the novitiate 
 he succeeded so well in keeping himself under control that 
 he passed for having no temper at all. At first there was 
 some difficulty about admitting him, because of his weak 
 eyes, but he swept away that obstacle by falling on his 
 knees and praying so fervently that his sight became per- 
 fect immediately. Although he studied philosophy before 
 becoming a Jesuit, he followed the abbreviated course of 
 theology in the Society. He was ordained priest in 1603, 
 and for the five following years filled the posts of minister 
 and procurator in various houses. He was then sent as 
 Socius to Father Coton, who was court preacher and con- 
 fessor of Henry IV. 
 
 He must have been a man of good manners to have been 
 assigned to such a place ; but it was doubtless extremely 
 distasteful to one who had been accustomed from youth 
 to daily fasts, flagellations, and all sorts of penitential exer- 
 cises. Even then he was like a Father of the Desert in 
 austerity. Besides, he had always been almost inordinately 
 fond of self abasement, and when a novice it is said of 
 him that while making the usual novitiate pilgrimage, he 
 was so grieved at being hospitably received by a good 
 natured priest, that he began to pray for a change of dis- 
 position on the part of his host. The result was that he 
 
 53 
 
ENEMOND MASSE. 
 
 and his companion were unceremoniously thrown out of 
 doors. Whether the other novice was consulted before 
 this prayer was offered we do not know ; nor is it certain 
 that the good cure was fairly treated. 
 
 While he was at court there was a call for missionaries 
 in the new colony of Acadia. At his request he was ap- 
 pointed for the work. That was in 1G08; but it was not 
 until January 26, 1611, that he and Biard set sail on The 
 Grace of God for America. The reasons of this long delay 
 have been already given in the previous biography. The 
 journey was perilous and hard, for " traveling in such a 
 small boat and so badly equipped," wrote Biard, " is an 
 accumulation of all the hardships and sufferings of life." 
 Strong as he was, Father Masse never left his bed for forty 
 days, but though deathly sick and eating almost nothing 
 he was anxious to keep Lent, which could scarcely be 
 allowed in such conditions. His request, however, reveals 
 his spiritual temper. They arrived on the 22d of May, 
 and three weeks afterwards they wrote to Father Aquaviva ; 
 Biard at length, Masse briefly as follows: — 
 
 " Very Rev. Father, 
 " Pax Christi. 
 
 " If your Paternity read with pleasure my letter of Oc- 
 tober 13th, I had still greater happiness in receiving yours 
 of the 7th of December, the more so as I am the first one 
 of the Society to receive a letter in Canada from your 
 Paternity. I regard that as a happy augury, and as a 
 heavenly incentive to run my course with fervor so as to 
 merit and receive the reward of the celestial vocation, 
 and to sacrifice myself more promptly and more completely 
 for the salvation of this people. I avow to you that I have 
 said frankly to God, Behold me! If Thou choosest what is 
 weakest and most miserable in the world to overthrow and 
 destroy what is strong, Thou shalt find all this in Ene- 
 mond. Lo ! here I am ; send me and make my words and 
 
 53 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTPI AMERICA. 
 
 my tongue speak so that I shall not be a barbarian for those 
 who hear me.' 
 
 " Your prayers I am sure will avail for me in this as 
 they did for our coming- here on Pentecost Day. We are 
 feeble in Jesus Christ, but we shall live, I hope, in him, in 
 the strength of God. 
 
 I beg your Paternity to obtain by your prayers and holy 
 sacrifices that the Lord may accomplish all this in us. 
 " Your unworthy son in Jesus Christ, 
 
 " Enemond Masse, S.J. 
 " Port Royal in New France, 
 " June 10, 1611." 
 
 Together the two missionaries passed the dreary and un- 
 fruitful years of their work in Acadia. Both underwent 
 the same hardships, but a differentiating note between the 
 two men reveals itself occasionally. Thus, to learn the lan- 
 guage. Masse took the quickest though hardest method. 
 He went off to the mouth of the St. John and lived with 
 the Indians. But in doing so he misjudged his powers of 
 endurance. Accustomed to hardships though he was, the 
 life was too much for his strength. Pie fell sick, and 
 became almost blind because of the ansemic state to which 
 he was reduced. But his strength of will sustained him and 
 perhaps, also, his good humor. For when apparently at 
 the point of death, the Indian who had built him another 
 cabin to die in, asked him to write a letter to the Com- 
 mandant at Port Royal to explain the situation; otherwise 
 the savages would be accused of murdering him, Masse 
 refused. " If I do that," he said, " somebody might kill 
 me and would then go off to Port Royal with my certificate 
 of acquittal in his hands." " Well then," said the Indian, 
 " pray to Jesus to cure you." " I am doing so," replied the 
 priest, " and I am not going to die." In spite of the hor- 
 rible privations to which he was subject he recovered, and 
 after a while started for the colony. Just as Biard was 
 
 54 
 
ENEMOND AlASSE. 
 
 returning from an unsuccessful hunt along the coast in 
 search of him, for he had not been heard of for four 
 months, Masse arrived, happy to have suffered a good deal 
 and to have at least helped some dying people and babies 
 to go to heaven. 
 
 Winter came and with it starvation. The colonists lost 
 what little energy they possessed, possibly because they were 
 unfitted for the work, or possibly because their physical 
 strength was gone, though they were a shiftless lot at best, 
 and contented themselves with passing their time mostly 
 in their huts, lounging about the fire. To Masse this sloth 
 was intolerable, and he determined to build a boat and go 
 out and hunt for food. He knew nothing at all of the 
 trade of ship-building, but he was a handy man with tools, 
 and he set to work. He could induce only one man to help 
 him. The rest looked on and laughed at his clumsy efforts ; 
 but little by little the craft took shape, and was sufficiently 
 calked with shreds of cordage, soaked with the gum which 
 he scraped from the trees, and was finally launched and 
 succeeded in keeping afloat. Biard, of course, toiled with 
 him, though he good humioredly wrote : " I could only give 
 the boat my benediction." Such was only one of the many 
 instances of the lack of energy and initiative that character- 
 ized those Acadian colonists who had come out to found 
 an empire. They were sitting idly on the sea shore without 
 a boat in which to go out on the water except perhaps some 
 wretched canoe which they had bought from the Indians. 
 They were starving, though there was plenty of game in 
 the woods if they would only hunt for it. 
 
 The two missionaries embarked in their miserable craft 
 and went up and down the shore in search of food. They 
 soon returned not only with a plentiful supply of roots and 
 acorns, but with an abundance of fish which there was no 
 difficulty in catching. Their boat-load was welcome, for 
 there was not a morsel of food left in the colony's store- 
 house. Finally La Saussaye arrived with orders for the 
 
 55 • 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 priests to leave, so bidding farewell to Port Royal they 
 sailed across the bay to Mt. Desert. The issue of that ill- 
 fated expedition we know. Both Masse and Biard did their 
 best to restrain the English marauders in the havoc that 
 they were making of the colony, and with some measure of 
 success. They were courteously treated by Argall, and it 
 was their protest, as we have seen, that prevented him from 
 putting all the Frenchmen in an open boat and turning them 
 adrift on the high seas, to go to what was certain death. 
 Instead of thirty, fourteen Frenchmen were stowed away 
 in a miserable old shallop, and the rest were carried off to 
 Virginia. 
 
 Before starting out the crew asked for one of the priests 
 to go with them, and when Argall inquired which one they 
 wanted they all clamored for Masse; an evident sign of 
 his popularity as against that of his companion. On that 
 day he and Biard bade good-bye to each other, not knowing 
 if they should ever meet again. The shallop sailed away, 
 with the commander. La Saussaye, as one of the company. 
 Unfortunately there were only two or three sailors in the 
 boat, and they knew nothing of the coast and had neither 
 chart nor compass. But a kind Providence was watching 
 over them. Just before Argall had reached St. Sauveur, 
 La Saussaye's pilot had started out to discover the character 
 of the ship that was making for the harbor. By the time 
 he had made out the English flag on the peak it was too 
 late to return, so he and his men steered their boat to the 
 shore, and kept in concealment until the fight was over. 
 Argall was aware of their absence and lingered a long time 
 after the capture of the colony to lay hands on them, but 
 without avail, though from time to time the pilot himself 
 appeared among his friends disguised as an Indian. Just 
 as the shallop was leaving the harbor, an Indian was seen 
 signalling to them. It was the pilot and they received him 
 on board with delight. 
 
 They steered in a northerly direction, and first reached 
 
 56 
 
ENEMOND MASSE. 
 
 the Grand Menan. They had intended to start thence for 
 Long Island, over what was a perilous stretch of ten leagues 
 of open sea, just where the tide of the Bay of Fundy rushes 
 furiously in to the land. But the weather was too bad to 
 attempt it for nine successive days, and they spent that 
 time praying fervently for a clear sky. It came at last 
 and they made Long Island in safety, where they erected 
 a cross in thanksgiving, celebrated Mass, and went in proces- 
 sion along the shore. That stopping place was at the end 
 of St. Mary's Bay, below the present Digby. They found 
 there a supply of salt, and to add to their good luck they 
 succeeded in making a fine haul of fish for which the salt 
 came in very handy. It is distressing to find that after their 
 arrival in France, Potrincourt appealed to the courts against 
 the Jesuits who robbed him of the salt which he had left 
 on that desolate island. Thus with plenty of fish in their 
 locker they continued on their way, and landed at Cape 
 Forchu. They had already travelled well down the coast 
 of Nova Scotia, and had reached the place where now stands 
 the present town of Yarmouth. They had avoided going 
 into Port Royal, for very likely they would have been 
 seized and imprisoned by Biencourt. 
 
 At Cape Forchu they met Louis Membertou, the Indian, 
 in whose wigwam Masse had spent four hard months en- 
 deavoring to learn the native language. The welcome was 
 very cordial and the priest was invited to leave his white 
 friends and go ofT with the red men. There were many 
 reasons why the offer could not be accepted, one of which 
 was that Biencourt was too close at hand ; another, which 
 was more than sufficient, viz : the Frenchmen might be 
 wrecked before they found a ship and would sorely need a 
 priest. In spite of the refusal, however, Membertou gave 
 them a feast and furnished them also with a plentiful supply 
 of moose which kept them alive till they doubled Cape 
 Sable. Keeping along the coast they arrived at Port 
 Mouton, where some more Indians came out to meet them. 
 
 57 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 They had just been trading with the whites and had a supply 
 of bread which they shared with the wanderers. With 
 wonderful liberality they gave a loaf to the priest, says the 
 " Relation," and half a one to each of the others. " It was 
 the world upside down. Indians giving bread to the 
 French and getting nothing in return. The bread was like 
 manna for us, because three weeks had elapsed since we 
 had tasted a crumb. To add to our joy they told us that 
 there were two French vessels not far away, one at Seza- 
 more and the other at Passapec. We bade our Indian 
 friends good-bye and hurried as fast as we could so as not 
 to miss the ships." The distance nevertheless was consider- 
 able, for though Sezamore and Passepec are no longer on 
 the maps, we find on Charlevoix's chart two places called 
 Sincembre and Prospec, which doubtless are the same as 
 the present Sambro and Prospect not far from the present 
 Halifax. 
 
 The wanderers found the ships; one of them only fifty 
 tons burden; but the other twice as large. It was called 
 The Savior. The smaller one was in command of Du 
 Pont the young Frenchman who a few years before had 
 taken to the wild life of the woods to escape the vengeance 
 of Potrincourt, and had been finally reconciled to the Gov- 
 ernor of the colony by the entreaties of Biard and Masse. 
 Du Font's vessel started out first and had a rough passage 
 of it all the way over. The Saznor did not leave America 
 until twelve days later, but though it encountered heavy 
 seas, it overtook its companion and they both entered the 
 harbor of St. Malo together. Good weather had come to 
 them when twin St. Elmo fires appeared in the rigging. 
 For the sailors it was the harbinger of a calm. A quarter 
 of an hour passed and the sky was clear. 
 
 The failure in Acadia was of course a disaster, but in 
 one respect it may be regarded as providential, inasmuch 
 as it drove Masse back to France, and made him virtually 
 the creator of a greater enterprise : the Missions of Canada. 
 
 58 
 
ENEMOND MASSE 
 
 The year after his arrival he was appointed Vice Rector 
 of the Royal College of La Fleche, and thus was thrown 
 into intimate association with a number of men whose names 
 as we read them on the college register seem like a muster 
 roll of Canada's most illustrious heroes. Paul Le Jeune 
 was there and Bartholomew Vimont, and Anne de Noue, 
 and Charles Lalemant, and Francis Ragueneau, and Isaac 
 Jogues, and Rene Menard with others whose names we 
 omit. When these future apostles gathered around Masse, 
 and listened to his stories of the western world their imag- 
 inations took fire, and they were all eager to emulate his 
 example. He, of course, fanned the flame, and possibly 
 he did so even when he did not speak, for splendid though 
 his position was at La Fleche and implying in its incumbent 
 unusual qualities of mind and heart, he was pining away 
 for his savages, and there was no happier man in the world 
 than he when the word came that he was to resume his 
 interrupted work. 
 
 How that result was brought about is revealed by a 
 document found among his posthumous papers. It is given 
 in the " Relation " of 1646. It begins with a rhapsody 
 about " mon cher Canada which is so lovable and adorable 
 in its crosses and whose conversion can only be undertaken 
 by those who have on them the stigmata of the cross. To 
 obtain the needed qualification it will be helpful for me," 
 he writes, " to keep the following resolutions : 
 
 1st. Never to sleep except on bare ground, without sheets 
 or mattress, which, however, must be kept in the room so 
 that no one may know what is being done. 
 
 2d. Not to wear linen except around the neck. 
 
 3d. Never to say Mass without a hair-shirt, in order to 
 make me think of the sufferings of my Master of which 
 the Holy Sacrifice is the great memorial. 
 
 4th. To take the discipline daily. 
 
 5th. Never to take dinner unless I have first made my 
 examen, and if prevented to eat only a dessert. 
 
 59 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 6th. Never to gratify my taste. 
 
 7th. To fast three times a week, but so that no one will 
 know it." 
 
 The eighth is to punish any uncharitable word that might 
 escape his lips. Those lips, were made to pay a penalty 
 which we prefer to omit. 
 
 As some of the members of the La Fleche community 
 were at the end of the year transferred to Clermont in Paris, 
 they interested in the Canadian Missions the famous Bre- 
 tesche, who was the Spiritual Father of the house. He hap- 
 pened to be at that time the confessor of the Duke de Ven- 
 tadour, and it was he who urged that dignitary to have 
 himself appointed Viceroy of New France so as to check 
 the Calvinist traders of Quebec, who were opposed to the 
 conversion of the Indians. While negotiations were pend- 
 ing, Bretesche died, and Father Noyrot became the noble- 
 man's counsellor. Just when Ventadour was named, the 
 Recollects asked the Jesuits for help. The response was 
 immediate, and on June 19th, 16:35, Masse, de Brebeuf, 
 de None and Charles Lalemant set out for Canada. 
 
 It was Masse who built the first Jesuit residence in Can- 
 ada : Notre Dame des Anges, and when Lalemant had to 
 return to France he was left in charge of the mission ; an 
 office intended only to last for two or three months, but which 
 lengthened out into two or three years. During that time 
 disasters began to multiply. Kirke had sailed up the St. 
 Lawrence to demand the surrender of the city. De Brebeuf 
 was recalled from the mission among the Hurons, and in 
 1629 the French flag was hauled down from the citadel, 
 and Recollects, Jesuits, and nearly all the colonists went 
 back to France. It was Masse's second failure. 
 
 He was sent to La Fleche where he had been five years 
 before. Although it seemed hoping for the impossible, he 
 again resumed his appeals for the American missions. As 
 before, he enkindled an enthusiasm in all the Jesuit houses, 
 and spread it outside to such an extent that religious com- 
 
 60 
 
ENEMOND MASSE. 
 
 munities offered their good works and watched all night 
 praying before the Blessed Sacrament that the work of 
 evangelizing the Indians might in some way or other begin 
 again. At last, after many a diplomatic delay Canada was 
 given back to France, and in 1633 Masse again stood on the 
 vessel at the side of de Brebeuf, and on the 8th of June, 
 after a tempestuous passage, landed with Champlain at 
 Quebec. 
 
 He was then nearly sixty years of age. As he was, more- 
 over, exhausted by his life of penance and hardship he 
 could not be sent to the Hurons, but the Montagnais along 
 the river were the objects of his solicitude; and also 
 on account of his skill in mechanical works the construc- 
 tion of various buildings was entrusted to him. He 
 repaired Notre Dame des Anges, which the English had 
 almost wrecked ; he supervised the erection of the college 
 at Quebec, and also the hospital, residence, and church at 
 Sillery. 
 
 These material occupations, however, did not interfere 
 with his being the favorite confessor of the colonists up 
 to the last year of his life. It was then that he was inscribed 
 in the catalogue as sencx, an old man who had ceased from 
 his labors. That was in 1645, and he had reached the age 
 of seventy-one. The end had come and he went over to 
 Sillery where on May 12, 1646, he breathed his last. " He 
 was a man of many trades," says Ragueneau, " but in none 
 so skilful as in that of saving souls." 
 
 61 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF 
 
o 
 
 oi 
 D 
 
CHAPTER I 
 Early Life. 
 
 John de Brebeuf has not been canonized by the Church, 
 but he is enshrined in the hearts of all those who know his 
 tragic story. For them he is a hero, a saint and a martyr. 
 In Canada especially, the cult is positive and pronounced. 
 There is a niche awaiting his statue in the splendid fagade 
 of the Government buildings at Quebec, and his name sur- 
 rounded with the laurels of victory is inscribed in letters 
 of gold on the grand staircase leading to the Legislative 
 Chambers. At the Hotel Dieu, the nuns are busy, at cer- 
 tain seasons, showing tourists the precious reliquary in 
 which they guard the remains of the great missionary, and 
 they will tell you, if you ask them, that the 16th of March, 
 the anniversary of his death, has, ever since 1650, been a 
 Communion day in the convent. 
 
 A street is named after him in Montreal, and a splendid 
 painting on the walls of the cathedral depicts his martyr- 
 dom. But perhaps the most notable tribute is recorded by 
 the author of the " History of the Early Missions of Can- 
 ada," who tells us that he saw in the Ritualist Church of 
 St. Martin's, Brighton, England, " a figured window to the 
 memory of Father de Brebeuf," in which he appears in 
 his priestly robes with an aureola upon his head. At his 
 feet is a miniature map of Huronia. Such a representation, 
 of course, would not be permitted in a Catholic Church 
 prior to an official pronouncement of the Sovereign Pontiff 
 on the heroicity of his life and the reason of his death ; 
 but the error goes to show the extent of the veneration 
 paid him. There is a sort of a compromise picture in the 
 splendid church of Our Lady, in Guelph, Ontario, where a 
 great illuminated window in the transept represents the 
 
 65 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 saints of the Society of Jesus. In the foreground stand 
 de Brebeuf, Lalemant, and Jogues. All the others have 
 illuminated halos ; whereas there is only a black circle 
 over the heads of the American heroes. They are waiting 
 for their glorification. 
 
 One is not surprised to hear that there were crusaders 
 among de Brebeuf's forbears. Indeed, it would r.ot be 
 hard to conceive the hero himself in complete armor scaling 
 the walls of Damietta where his ancestors distinguished 
 themselves under the banner of St. Louis. That would have 
 been a trifle for such as he. It is also claimed that some of 
 his kin went over to England with William the Conqueror 
 and not only fought in the battle of Hastings, but were 
 allied to the Howards and Arundels, whose names are iden- 
 tified wath English Catholicity. Guillaume du Hamel, 
 Aimwnier et Consciller du Roi who wrote a dissertation on 
 La Pharsale, a poem by a grandnephew of the martyr, is 
 the authority for the assertion. Both Boileau and Voltaire 
 condemned the poem as being of slight literary value, but 
 left unchallenged the claim of the author's illustrious 
 descent. 
 
 Naturally one would desire to admit the kinship, but it 
 requires a great deal of good will to trace a family con- 
 nection between de Brebeuf and the Howards and Arundels 
 of to-day. It is true that in the Battle Abbey List of the 
 Norman Knights who came over with William the Con- 
 queror, which is given by Augustin Thierry in his " Con- 
 quete de I'Angleterre," in the " Pieces Justificatives " at 
 the end of Volume I-II, the name of Braybuf occurs. There 
 are also an CEil de Boeuf, and a Front de Boeuf, — the 
 latter being probably Walter Scott's unpleasant hero — and 
 a host of others with names so whimsical that even the 
 French chroniclers of those days had great sport with them. 
 In the same catalogue there is found the name of Arundel, 
 and in one by Leland, taken from the " Collectanea de rebus 
 britannicis," (ed. Hearne Vol. I, p. 206), is that of How- 
 
 60 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 arde, which may perhaps suggest a doubt about the Saxon 
 origin of that family, but how the de Brebeufs were united 
 with the Arundels, and yet had their name so completely 
 eliminated in succeeding generations we must leave to gene- 
 alogical experts to determine. 
 
 As for the Howard element in the puzzle we are dispensed 
 from following it, until nearly four hundred years after 
 the conquest. From Thierry and Lingard and other author- 
 ities it appears that the first holder of the title of Norfolk 
 was Raulf de Gael, a Breton, who, though the chief insti- 
 gator of the invasion, cjuarrelled with William and was 
 relieved of his honors which then passed over to Bigot. 
 Under Edward I, the title reverted to the Crown, and was 
 conferred on the king's son, Thomas Plantagenet de 
 Brotherton. Finally in default of heirs, John Howard, 
 who was descended from de Brotherton by the mother's 
 side, was made Duke of Norfolk by Richard HI, whose 
 cause he espoused, and with whom he subsequently fell on 
 Bosworth field. 
 
 Hence the blood of de Brebeuf must be extremely atten- 
 uated, if there is any at all in the Howard family. But he 
 did not need the connection to add to his glory. Indeed, 
 while he was working for the Church in America, the 
 descendants of his Norman ancestors were doing their best 
 to extirpate the Faith in England. The Jesuit Garnet had 
 just been dragged to the gallows as the result of the Gun- 
 Powder Plot ; Buckingham had rallied the Puritans of Eng- 
 land to the rescue of the Protestant Normans of France; 
 Archbishop Laud had formulated laws " against all priests 
 and harborers of priests, as well as against all persons who 
 had papistical books or were suspected of having them 
 present at Mass;" and four years after de Brebeuf was 
 slain in Huronia, Oliver Cromwell, as Lingard tells us, 
 " was eager to gain the goodwill of the godly by shedding 
 the blood of the priests." Thus had history turned a somer- 
 sault, and de Brebeuf might have gained martyrdom by 
 
 67 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 simply crossing the Channel instead of the Ocean; but 
 America needed a saint. 
 
 About his early life very little is known. Even the place 
 of his birth was for a long time a subject of dispute. Fel- 
 ler, Pluquet, and the " Missions Catholiques " of 1877, 
 basing their conclusions on the " Relation " of 1649, pro- 
 nounced for Bayeux, while Father Martin and some others 
 ventured to surmise that it was Conde-sur-Vire. A bap- 
 tismal record would have settled the question, but a labor- 
 ious search in the archives of the Department, resulted in 
 showing that the registers did not go farther back than the 
 last years of the sixteenth century. The quest was about 
 to be abandoned when the " Primus Catalogus Provincise 
 Franciae," 1618-19 was discovered which established the 
 claim of Conde-sur-Vire. As this " Catalogus Primus '' is 
 the list which the individual members of the Society fill out 
 every three years for transmission to Rome, its authority 
 is beyond question. In it we find, in de Brebeuf's own hand- 
 writing : " Pater Joannes de Brebeuf, natus Condsei, 25 
 Mars 1593, in dioec. Baioc." The abbreviation " dioec. 
 Baioc," means the diocese of Bayeux, and the only Conde 
 in that district is Conde-sur-Vire. It is a difficult place to 
 find on the map, for it is only a village or commune of about 
 3,000 souls, but it is situated in the Department of La 
 Manche, about five miles from St. L6. De Brebeuf as far 
 as we know gave it the only distinction it ever enjoyed, 
 but that is sufficient to glorify a much larger place. 
 
 What he did, or where he was, prior to his becoming a 
 Jesuit is yet to be discovered. We know that he had 
 already made a two years course of literature, and had 
 studied philosophy for the same period, but whether or not 
 it was a preparation for the priesthood must be left to 
 conjecture. At all events he bade good-bye to the world 
 and presented himself at the Novitiate of Rouen, November 
 8, 1617. He was then twenty-four years of age. This 
 Novitiate was the second which the Society had established 
 
 68 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 in France, and it nearly missed going there, which would 
 have been regrettable, for Rouen gave many a glorious 
 man to the Order. Besides, as it was a stronghold of Cal- 
 vinism, it needed all the orthodoxy it could get to strengthen 
 its faith. 
 
 The story of its foundation is that one day Henry IV 
 conversing with Father Coton, grew enthusiastic about the 
 great number of Jesuit Colleges he was going to establish 
 all over France. Coton, however, cooled his ardor by rep- 
 resenting to him that it was impossible to obtain profes- 
 sors to supply them all. " What can we do to get them? " 
 said the King. " Found Novitiates," was the reply. *' So 
 far, we have only one in France and that is in Aquitaine, 
 which is very remote from the centre of the kingdom." 
 " Why can we not have one at La Fleche?" inquired the 
 monarch, " in connection with the college we are building 
 there? " The proposition was acceded to, but as the funds 
 were already giving out even for the college at La Fleche, 
 it looked as if the scheme for a Novitiate would be delayed 
 indefinitely. Meantime, without being aware of what was 
 in prospect, the Countess d'Aubigny and several of her 
 friends proposed to the king to establish a house at Rouen ; 
 the foundress giving 10,000 livres for the purchase of the 
 house and 600 for an annual revenue; the others contribu- 
 ting according to their resources. The proposition was 
 gladly accepted, and in 1604 the Novitiate of Rouen was 
 founded. It was only thirteen years in existence when de 
 Brebeuf arrived at its gates. 
 
 One naturally inquires if he met there any of the men 
 who became afterwards conspicuous in the work of the 
 American missions. A search through the old catalogues 
 shows us that he was too late and too early to have that 
 happiness. Vimont, his future superior at Quebec, had been 
 there four years before, and Buteux, the martyr of the 
 St. Maurice, came the year after de Brebeuf had been as- 
 signed to college work. Raymbault, the first Jesuit to die 
 
 69 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 in Canada, also arrived later, as did Daniel, who was to be 
 a martyr a year before de Brebeuf. Jogues did not enter 
 till seven years later. In the noviceship, de Brebeuf, of 
 course, stood for the rigor of the law in its application to 
 himself. " I will be ground to powder," he used to say, 
 " rather than break a rule." His self-effacement, which 
 was also one of his characteristics till the end, likewise 
 declared itself in the Novitiate. He not only sought the 
 most humiliating tasks, but entreated his superiors to let 
 him become a lay-brother. He urged the request again 
 when about to pronounce his vows, and the proposition was 
 duly considered, but a negative answer was given. This 
 wise decision was a blessing for the Church, and ensured 
 a great future. 
 
 At the end of his noviceship he had reached the age of 
 twenty-six, and was consequently too old for the review 
 of the classics, and he was therefore sent to the college in 
 the same city, and given a class of low^er grammar. But the 
 difficult student youth proved too much for him. He col- 
 lapsed completely after two years, and in the catalogue of 
 1622 we find this ominous entry : " F. dc Brebeuf oh in- 
 Urinavi valetudincni non occupatits; " nothing to do on ac- 
 count of ill health. He was then twenty-eight years of 
 age, and it looked as if he had been right in his aspirations 
 to be a lay brother. But he did not lose heart. He re- 
 viewed his moral theology privately, passed his examina- 
 tions and was ordained a priest. Of dogmatic theology 
 this great apostle does not seem to have studied a single 
 chapter, at least in the Society. Still he knew enough to 
 solve the difficulties of the sorcerers and the sachems who 
 sat around him at the council fires near Lake Huron. 
 
 He was ordained sub-deacon at Lisieux in the month of 
 September, 1621, deacon in the same year at Bayeux, and 
 priest the year following at Pontoise or Pontisaroe, as the 
 Latin has it. The date of his priesthood however is dis- 
 puted. Father Martin said he was ordained on the anni- 
 
 70 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUR 
 
 versary of his birth, March 25, 1623. But there are two 
 great difficulties about accepting that date; first — we have 
 in de Brebeuf's own handwriting " die Virginis Annuntiatcu 
 primum sacrum Deo ohtiili," that is, he said his first Mass 
 on the day of the Annunciation, which of course is not the 
 same as ordination. Second — Unless the calendars are all 
 astray, March 25, 1623 was Good Friday, which would 
 make both his ordination and first Mass impossible. The 
 mistake was apparently caused by taking the date of his 
 ordination from the catalogue of 1623, and not adverting 
 to what Father Martin knew as well as any one else, that it 
 recorded the arrangements of the previous year. Now in the 
 catalogue of 1623, de Brebeuf is inscribed as a priest, and 
 therefore must have been ordained in 1622. All this may 
 look like too minute an inquiry into details, but dates are 
 precious things in history, and ordination to the priesthood 
 was of course the most important event in the life of an 
 apostle. 
 
 As for the places identified with him, Conde-sur-Vire is, 
 as we have said, only a village, and all we can know is that 
 he was most likely baptized in the parish church. There 
 could have been only one there, but whether or not it still 
 exists we are unable to say. It is also difficult to obtain 
 much information about the novitiate and College of Rouen, 
 for after the suppression of the Society the novitiate be- 
 came a Bureau de Mendicite, an alms house office, and sub- 
 sequently a prison and a barracks. New streets have been 
 cut through the grounds so that identification would be well 
 nigh impossible. As for the college, it was appropriated 
 by the Government and is now a Lycee with 1000 students. 
 Lisieux, where he was ordained subdeacon, is in the valley 
 of the Orbec and Touques. In de Brebeuf's time it was 
 an episcopal town, and there was annexed to the cathedral 
 a Lady Chapel, built as an expiatory offering by a former 
 bishop, who is known to history as Pierre Cauchon, one 
 of the Judges who condemned Joan of Arc. Perhaps de 
 
 71 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Brebeuf was ordained there and had a premonition of his 
 own death at the stake. But of course that is only fancy. 
 The Bayeux cathedral where he probably received deacon- 
 ship is, of course, known to the tourist, but Pontoise, where 
 he was ordained a priest is a puzzle. It had no cathedral, 
 for Pontoise was in the Diocese of Bayeux, and we ask 
 in vain did the great event take place in the beautiful St. 
 Maclou, or the collegiate church, or possibly in some little 
 out of the way chapel in one of the steep and narrow 
 streets of the town? In any case one would like to know 
 what brought him down there for ordination ? We have no 
 information on that point, and must satisfy ourselves by 
 blaming the carelessness of the chronicler. However, no 
 one could have foretold that the levite kneeling in his white 
 robes at the altar in obscure Pontoise would later on wear 
 the red robes of a martyr. His elevation to the priesthood 
 coincided with, if it did not bring about his complete restora- 
 tion to health. He was not asked to go back to the class 
 room, but was made procurator or bursar of the college; 
 an occupation which threw him ofificially into the midst 
 of the first of the storms that swept over his life. 
 
 An unworthy priest of a little place near Dieppe, who 
 had been condemned to be broken on the wheel for his 
 crimes, devised a plan while in prison to distract the atten- 
 tion of the public and to save himself from death. He ac- 
 cused the Jesuits of plotting the assassination of King Louis 
 XIII. As Henry IV had been murdered a few years be- 
 fore, and as the Jesuits had been charged with the crime, 
 in spite of the fact that Henry was their greatest bene- 
 factor, and that they had everything to lose by his death, 
 the new accusation was seriously considered, and the country 
 was thrown into a great state of excitement about it. The 
 Huguenots took it up, and the sky looked very dark for 
 the Society. The Parliament at Rouen whose enmity had 
 never been concealed, officially entertained the charge, im- 
 prisoned Father Chappuis, the Superior of the Residence, as 
 
 70 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 well as Father Guyot and a lay-brother who were supposed 
 to be the chief conspirators. 
 
 De Brebeuf was hurried off to Paris to advise the Pro- 
 vincial of the situation. As Father Coton had been the 
 confessor of Henry IV, and still exercised great influence 
 at the court, he betook himself immediately to the King 
 and had the case transferred to the royal tribunal. The 
 accusation was examined and dismissed ; and the unfor- 
 tunate priest confessed that he had trumped up the charge 
 to save himself. This was de Brebeuf's first opportunity 
 to observe at close range the difficulties he was to encounter 
 at the other end of the world. The Huguenots who were 
 trying their best to rule or ruin the mother country were 
 doing the same in its American colony. 
 
 Champlain had founded Quebec in 1608, and from that 
 time until Kirke drove him out, the Calvinist merchants 
 who had absorbed the entire trade of the new possessions 
 caused more trouble than all the savages from Gaspe to 
 Lake Huron. The story is one of the commonplaces of 
 history, for it is known how after the failure of the Acadian 
 project, Champlain induced Prince Henri de Bourbon to 
 finance the new enterprise on the St. Lawrence, and how a 
 company was founded of which Champlain was to be in 
 absolute control. But the Prince died before his plans were 
 perfected, and the new organization fell into the hands of 
 the famous Conde who reorganized it, but very unwisely 
 withdrew from Champlain the controlling interest, making 
 him only an ordinary member, and giving shares to any of 
 the merchants of Rouen, Havre, St. Malo and La Rochelle 
 who might desire to embark in the enterprise. It was stip- 
 ulated that only the Catholic religion should be allowed in 
 Canada, and that the missions to the natives should be sub- 
 sidized by the traders. As most of them were Calvinists, 
 the result might have been anticipated. It was either an 
 amazing trust in human nature, or a cynical unconcern about 
 the religious welfare of the aborigines. 
 
 73 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Champlain informs us that in 1G08, he asked the Jesuits 
 to accept the task of evangehzing Canada, but that they 
 refused. They did not care to deHver themselves up into 
 the hands of their enemies, and besides they were already 
 struggling with the problem of Acadia. In 1614 the offer 
 was made to the Recollects, who eagerly accepted it; for 
 was it not set down in the bond that six of their number 
 were to be supported by the company ; and had not the car- 
 dinals and the bishops of the States General handed them 
 1,500 livres for the purchase of portable chapels, vest- 
 ments and the like? They left Honfleur, April 24, 1615, 
 and on June 25, according to Ferland, " inaugurated the 
 Catholic Faith in Canada, when in their poor little chapel 
 the colonists assisted for the first time at the Holy Mass 
 on the banks of the St. Lawrence." The description is pic- 
 turesque, but incorrect ; for it implies, of course, that the 
 faith was not inaugurated in Canada, when Cartier's chap- 
 lain said Mass all through the winter of 1536, on the banks 
 of the St. Charles, or when Masse and Biard built their 
 altar at Port Royal and St. Sauveur. 
 
 But that is only a trifle ; the missionaries immediately 
 addressed themselves to the task of converting the Indians. 
 D'Olbeau buried himself among the Montagnais, and Le 
 Caron journeyed to Georgian Bay, and became the first 
 apostle of the Hurons. But the friars soon discovered that 
 they had been too guileless in trusting their alleged friends 
 in Quebec, who as Champlain assures us had no desire of 
 converting the natives at all. Indeed they were bitterly 
 adverse to it, for it was a detriment to business, the result 
 being that when an Indian ceased to be a hunter, he dimin- 
 ished by so much the company's revenues. The only pur- 
 pose the traders had in view was to get peltries, and hence 
 not only were the savages left in their heathenism, and all 
 attempts to settle them in villages discouraged, but nothing 
 was done even for the white settlers, or the defense of the 
 colony. Quebec was to be a trading post and nothing else, 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUR 
 
 and hence the fields were unploughed and the fort was 
 falhng to pieces. Champlain stormed and entreated but 
 without avail. 
 
 Over and over again the Recollects returned to France 
 to protest against the existing conditions. Conde would 
 not or could not apply a remedy. Indeed, he was a political 
 prisoner part of the time. Finally he handed over his rights 
 to the Duke de Montmorency, but the new incumbent re- 
 garded the appointment merely as a source of revenue with 
 no consequent obligations. Nevertheless he made a feeble 
 effort at reform and reorganized the company, but appar- 
 ently influenced by the religious indifference of the time, 
 he put at the head of it two Calvinists, Guillaume and Emery 
 de Caen, who of course merged the new concern with the 
 old corporation, so that the last state was worse than the 
 first. Not knowing where to turn, the Recollects bethought 
 themselves of the Jesuits, who. according to the popular 
 superstition, were supposed to be possessed of inexhaust- 
 ible revenues, or were at least able to put their hands in 
 the pockets of their friends. Sixteen years had passed, 
 and nothing had been accomplished either for the colonists 
 or the savages, and so the Recollects, Father Piat and 
 Brother Sagard, begged the Jesuit Provincial Father Coton 
 to undertake the work. 
 
 Ever since the destruction of St. Sauveur at Mount 
 Desert, Fathers Biard and Masse had been keeping alive 
 the enthusiasm of the French Jesuits for the Canadian 
 missions, and so the appeal of the Recollects met a ready 
 response. It was first determined, however, to get rid of 
 the existing Director of the Trading Company, and for that 
 purpose, de Levis, the Duke de Ventadour, was induced 
 to buy out de Montmorency's interest in the concern. The 
 purchase was made, and as de Ventadour was not only a 
 man of fervent piety but a sort of lay missionary, he did 
 not wait for the associates to fulfil their obligations, but 
 promised to support six of the missionaries. 
 
 75 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Four Jesuits immediately set out. At the head of them 
 was Lalemant, who was then Principal of Interns of the 
 College of Clermont, and who, unlike his superiors, judged 
 himself unfit for such civilized work. With him were 
 Enemond Masse, who a few years before had been set 
 adrift in an open boat on the wild Atlantic, when the 
 English destroyed St. Sauveur; John de Brebeuf, who was 
 to achieve greater things than all the others was also of 
 the company, and a Jesuit lay-brother named Buret. The 
 distinguished Recollect, of whom Champlain speaks with 
 the greatest enthusiasm, Joseph de la Roche d'Aillon, also 
 joined the party. They set sail on April 24, 1625, on the 
 stout Protestant ship owned by Guillaume de Caen, and 
 reached Quebec on June 19th of the same year. 
 
 76 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Up the Ottawa. 
 
 We have no details of how the ocean treated the mission- 
 aries on the way over. In the best of times, the passage 
 was always accompanied with great suffering; but in this 
 instance, if the travelers escaped the tempests of the deep, 
 they encountered a wild political storm when they entered 
 the St. Lawrence. 
 
 Before their coming, the acting Governor, Emery de Caen, 
 had excited the colonists against the Jesuits by circulating 
 the libellous pamphlet called " Anti-Coton," which had 
 caused great commotion in the mother country, and could 
 be trusted to do the same at Quebec. It succeeded to a 
 certain extent, and when the ship dropped anchor before 
 the city, de Brebeuf and his companions were forbidden to 
 land. In view of what a journey over the ocean meant in 
 those days, the order was one of the greatest inhumanity. 
 But the faithful friars stood by their friends. They took 
 the obnoxious missionaries off the vessel in defiance of 
 the governor, and sheltered them in the Recollect convent 
 on the St. Charles. That act of kindness has never been 
 forgotten. 
 
 After a while de Caen grew ashamed of the part he had 
 taken, and granted the outcasts a strip of territory on the 
 banks of the Lairet, a little tributary of the St. Charles. 
 The place was most acceptable, first because it was an official 
 recognition of their presence, and secondly because Jacques- 
 Cartier had wintered on that very spot, ninety years before, 
 with his scurvy-stricken sailors, and had sanctified the whole 
 neighborhood with prayers and pilgrimages while waiting 
 to be freed from the grip of the ice. 
 
 It is to be regretted that even now this most interesting 
 
 77 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 and historical site is so difficult of access, for until recently, 
 at least, the sordid surroundings were scarcely in keeping 
 either with the beauty of the monument erected there, or 
 with the heroism it commemorates. 
 
 The Jesuits dedicated their Residence to Notre Dame des- 
 Anges, and the name now extends to that entire district 
 of the suburbs of Quebec. The house itself was not much 
 to boast of, though Champlain admired it. It was about 
 forty feet long, and a little over thirty wide. It had four 
 rooms ; the first of which was of course the chapel ; the 
 second the refectory, which served at the same time for a 
 sleeping room. There were two other apartments with two 
 beds in each ; while a sort of garret provided for an over- 
 flow. " Such," says Parkman, " was the cradle of the 
 American Missions." Topographers in quest of relics may 
 be interested to know that it stood about two hundred paces 
 from the river. 
 
 The herculean strength of de Brebeuf would naturally 
 have come into requisition for the erection of this shelter, 
 but he was studying Huron night and day, and besides, 
 something more immediately apostolic than felling timbers 
 and driving stakes presented itself. A party of Hurons 
 had arrived at a trading post on the St. Lawrence near the 
 present Sorel. It was called Cape Victory, because of a 
 successful battle which Champlain had fought there against 
 the savages. It had also a more suggestive name : Pointc 
 an Massacre. Many an Iroquois had been slaughtered 
 there. Thither de Brebeuf and and d'Aillon betook them- 
 selves, expecting to meet the Recollect Father Viel with 
 the Hurons, but he never came. He had been murdered and 
 his body flung into the rapids of the Back River, north 
 of the Island of Montreal. The place has ever since been 
 known as Sault au Recollet. 
 
 On the borders of the stream to-day stands the beautiful 
 convent of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, and further 
 down, but not on the river bank is the Jesuit Novitiate, the 
 
 78 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 spiritual birthplace of the Canadian as well as of the older 
 generation of the New York Jesuits. 
 
 De Brebeuf and d'Aillon heard with feelings of regret, 
 and perhaps with some little envy, of the fate of Viel. 
 They would gladly have exchanged places with him. But 
 at the same time they doubted if they were warranted, in 
 "the then excited state of the savage mind, to rush into the 
 same danger. Great saints are not rash, and it was there- 
 fore deemed proper, after doing everything possible for 
 the Indians at Cape Victory, to wait for better times ; and 
 so in sadness and sorrow they turned their bark canoe down 
 the stream to Quebec. 
 
 Though bitterly disappointed, de Brebeuf determined to 
 make up for this defeat. Winter was coming on, and 
 the Algonquins were setting out on their annual hunting 
 expedition, and so, on October 25, 1625, he disappeared 
 with them in the w^oods, living in the filth and vermin of 
 their tepees, travelling with them in quest of game over the 
 ice and snow, sustaining himself on their disgusting fare, 
 or starving with them when there was nothing to eat. For 
 some time he was unable to utter an intelligible word in their 
 language, and was mocked at and ridiculed for his blunders, 
 or for the foul expressions they put in his mouth, but he 
 kept at his self imposed task until the spring thaws drove 
 the Indians back to the St. Lawrence. He Had been five 
 months away, and at the end of Holy Week, March 27, 
 1626, he dragged himself back weary and exhausted to 
 Notre Dame des Anges. He had not converted any In- 
 dians but he had learned their language ; not indeed Huron, 
 which he was particularly anxious to master; but Algon- 
 quin. Nevertheless that would be of service in one way 
 or another later on. In the midst of the terrible hardships 
 of that winter he had even composed an Algonquin gram- 
 mar and dictionary ; and, what was still better, he had 
 .softened the hearts of the savages, who w^ere beginning to 
 understand his motives and to like and admire him. 
 
 79 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 That summer his beloved Hurons came again to Cape 
 Victory, and he was busy among them imploring to be taken 
 to their country. They alleged many reasons against it, 
 among others the rather humorous one, that a man of his 
 bulk would double up, or upset any canoe he might step into. 
 If the objection was serious, we can estimate de Brebeuf s 
 stature. He must have towered above any savage in the 
 tribe. However, by lavishing presents on them he suc- 
 ceeded in gaining their consent, and at last to his great 
 delight found himself paddling up the Ottawa. He saw 
 for the first time the Rideau Falls, the cataract that in 
 those days came down like a silver gauze from the rocks 
 above, forming regular folds as it descended, and then 
 breaking into a fringe of foam as it sunk into the torrent 
 below. The fancy of the travellers likened it to a curtain, 
 and hence the name which it still retains. It has now lost 
 its former beauty. A few miles further up he heard the 
 roar of the Chaudiere, the torrent that tumbles from the 
 rocks, sixty feet above, into the semicircular gulf which it 
 has been digging for centuries in the basin at its feet, where 
 as in a cauldron, the seething waters boil and foam in their 
 furious struggle to leap into the river below. 
 
 Superstition has woven its web of weird fancies around 
 the Chaudiere. In the minds of the Indians a demon dwelt 
 in its caves, and as many a canoe had been hurled over its 
 edge the malignant spirit had to be propitiated. With 
 feelings of pity and no doubt of proper curiosity, de Brebeuf 
 watched his future neophytes performing the solemn cere- 
 monies prescribed for such occasions. In the midst of a 
 circle of braves stood the chief. In his outstretched hands 
 he held a bark dish heaped high with tobacco, for the devil 
 was sadly addicted to the weed ; his humor depending on 
 the supply, which reveals a trait of the human in the ghost. 
 Finally, when all had contributed their quota, the dish 
 was solemnly placed on the ground and then interminable 
 speeches were made recounting the dangers of the Falls, 
 
 80 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 and rehearsing the names of those who owed their safety 
 to the reverence accorded to this old tobacco fiend. Gro- 
 tesque dances and gloomy incantations of course followed, 
 and when the muscles and eloquence of the Indians gave 
 out, the chief took up the dish and walking carefully to 
 the edge of the precipice dropped the contents into the 
 waters amid the shouts and yells of the satisfied Hurons. 
 The journey was then resumed. 
 
 All this picturesqueness, of course, has long since de- 
 parted with the advent of civilization. The sluices and 
 slides and sheds of commerce now crown the Chaudiere 
 instead of its former fierce rocks and forbidding forests. 
 It is the western boundary of the City of Ottawa. The 
 climatic conditions, also, must have changed since olden 
 times, for late in November 1908, there was not enough 
 water tumbling over the Chaudiere to turn the turbines of 
 the factories. There were other rapids of course, not so 
 terrible perhaps, as the Chaudiere, but making up in num- 
 ber what they lacked in difficulty and danger. Notable 
 among them was the Chute des Chats, called either because 
 of the catamounts which swarmed in the neighborhood, 
 or because of the cat-like look of the falls as it leaped down 
 the hillside spitting in its anger. Further on was the Calu- 
 met, around which a legend grew up, after the times of de 
 Brebeuf. 
 
 Cadieux, a clever Frenchman had settled there, and 
 gathered around him a number of Indians whose admira- 
 tion and affection he had won by his marvellous skill in 
 many arts, which he made use of to better the condition 
 of his savage friends. He had married a squaw, and made 
 her a pious Catholic, but the Iroquois had discovered this 
 Indian Arcadia, and were bent on destroying it. Cadieux 
 was aware of it and one day when an attack was expected, 
 he sent his wife down the rapids with some trusty friends to 
 insure her safety. The story goes that the luminous figure 
 of la bonne Ste. Anne went before her canoe, guiding it 
 
 81 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 safely through the wild rush of the water, and leading her 
 finally to the homes of the French. Cadieux and a single 
 warrior remained to defend their lodge. By shifting from 
 tree to tree, and with every shot bringing down an enemy, 
 they made the Iroquois believe that a great number of 
 warriors were concealed there, until the assailants finally 
 lost heart and fled. But Cadieux's man was slain and he 
 himself was wounded, and soon sickened and died. His 
 name, however, still lingers around the Calumet, and for 
 many a year afterwards the trappers stopped there to pray, 
 and cut a cross on the trees in memory of their visit, and 
 perhaps to give a lasting value to their prayers. There is 
 a marble monument now above the falls. On it is the in- 
 scription: "A la memoire de Cadieux." There is no date, 
 but it was erected in 1891. 
 
 There were thirty-five or forty such falls, around which 
 long portages of the boats and baggage had to be made, 
 the missionary bearing his burden like the rest. When 
 not struggling over rocks or sinking in morasses, or drag- 
 ging his canoe through the shallows, he was all day long 
 plying his paddle against the headlong current of the river. 
 Indeed, similar portages, though not accompanied with such 
 hardship have to be made even in our own times, and in 
 some parts of those regions the country is as wild as when 
 the savage skulked in the surrounding forests. They finally 
 reached the Isle des Allumettes, or Isle du Borgne, from the 
 old one-eyed chief who held sway there. It was the 
 stronghold of the Algonquins, and nature had fortified it 
 by placing formidable rapids at both ends of the island. 
 It commanded the river, and no one could pass up or down 
 without permission of the chief. Long after de Brebeuf 
 had seen old Le Borgne, Ragueneau tried to go dawn to 
 Quebec with the remnants of the Hurons. He was in a 
 hurry, no doubt, and omitted to pay his respects to the 
 authorities, says Tailhan, but he had to atone for his temer- 
 ity by being hanged to a tree bv the armpits till he agreed 
 
 82 ' 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 to the terms of the chief. No doubt Ragueneau, when 
 he was there, saw the great cross of white cedar which 
 Champlain had erected on the island wuth the arms of the 
 King of France cut upon it, but that devout explorer had 
 planted many another along the banks of the great river. 
 To-day on the other side of the Ottawa stands the City 
 of Pembroke, with its cathedral dedicated to St. Columba. 
 On the north branch of the river is St. Patrick's. There 
 is not a single Indian on the island at the present time. 
 
 Leaving the domain of the Borgne, the tired wayfarers 
 still followed the Ottawa westward, which there takes the 
 name of the Hollow River, for it is Hke the Saguenay in 
 that part of its course, and flows in a deep gorge between 
 grim and towering palisades of rock. They then embarked 
 on the Mattawa, at the place where the Ottawa comes down 
 from Lake Temiscaming, and a short portage after some 
 miles led them on to the gloomy Lake Nippissing, shrouded 
 in its dark pine forests where all day and all night the 
 inhabitants gave themselves to the black arts of the sor- 
 cerer, though its evil reputation, it is said, was unmerited. 
 To-day the miner has supplemented the sorcerer, and Nip- 
 pising Cobalt stock is quoted in all the markets of the 
 world. 
 
 From the Lake they launched out on the French River 
 which is north of the famous Muskoka region, now the 
 resort of summer pleasure seekers ; and out of the French 
 River which at its mouth is a net work of sharp rocks 
 protruding above the water they sailed into the vast waters 
 of Georgian Bay, which is the eastern arm of Lake Hare- 
 gondi, — a name that philologists are at odds about. Cham- 
 plain called it La Mer Douce, and subsequently it appeared 
 on some maps as Lac d'Orleans, but its familiar name is 
 Lake Huron ; and properly so, for it was on its shores that 
 the Huron Indians dwelt. De Brebeuf regarded it as the 
 Promised Land, but, as with the Hebrews of old, it was not 
 to be possessed without fighting. " The devils who had been 
 
 83 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 worshipped there for centuries," says Father Martin, " were 
 preparing for a terrible war against the angels who came 
 with the missionaries." 
 
 We find in the wonderful manuscript of Father Pothier 
 a detailed itinerary of this journey up the Ottawa. It was 
 drawn up for him by Joseph Derouen, and was written 
 a hundred years after de Brebeuf's time, but of course the 
 physical features of the region travelled over were un- 
 changed. Apart from its being a very precious historical 
 document it will help us to appreciate the gigantic labor 
 involved in such an expedition. Pothiers handwriting is 
 exquisitely clear, but the paper is brown with age and there 
 are creases and even cuts of a knife in some of the pages 
 which occasionally make the figures doubtful, though in the 
 main they are decipherable. The itinerary, it is true, does 
 not terminate in Georgian Bay where the missions formerly 
 stood, but continues on till it reaches Michilimackina — as 
 he spells it. However, as it goes as far as the mouth of 
 French River, it will serve our purpose. 
 
 From Montreal to Michilimackina the distance was reck- 
 oned at 300 leagues, which is divided as follows : From 
 Montreal to the end of the Island ten leagues; to the Lac 
 des Deux Montagnes three; to the Chateau Blondeau or 
 Carillon at the foot of the Sault six or three leagues (there 
 is a correction here which blurs the figure) ; to the Long 
 Sault three leagues. Now begin the portages. The first 
 is at the foot of the Long Sault and is a league in length. 
 Up to the Chaudieres, which he puts in the plural, and 
 which he says are three in all, the Chaudiere proper, the 
 middle one, and the Chenes, it is twenty leagues. The 
 several portages there make a total of twenty-six arpents, 
 which would be nearly the third of a league, — an arpent 
 containing about 180 feet. Up to the Chats the distance 
 is eleven leagues, and arriving there other portages of 
 thirty-six arpents had to be made. To the channel of the 
 Calumet it was a matter of ten leagues, and besides smaller 
 
 84 
 
< 
 
 Q 
 
 M 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 portages there was one of two leagues and a half, over 
 steep and dangerous rocks. At Achigan another laborious 
 portage of six leagues had to be faced. After leaving the 
 rocky Allumettes which was eleven leagues from Achigan, 
 the travellers reached Hollow or Creux River, which was 
 eight leagues away, and following its course for twenty 
 leagues they reached the Joachims — now pronounced some- 
 thing like Shoishons. They then got to Roche Capitaine, 
 which was ten leagues away, and after eight leagues 
 reached the fork of the Matawa. Here the names became 
 poetic or peculiar. One is Plain Chant, another is Music; 
 a third The Roses. The name of the Intendant Talon is 
 commemorated at a place where there is ice all the year. 
 Whether or not it referred to one of the great man's pecu- 
 liarities is not said. After that comes the Lazy Man and 
 the Tortoise ; the distances from each place and the ever- 
 recurring portages are all carefully noted. At last they 
 enter Lake Nippisirien, and after passing another Chau- 
 diere, which is at the source of the Riviere des Frangais, 
 they continue on for forty leagues in the course of which 
 there are various rapids and turns of the stream until they 
 finally reach Lake Huron. 
 
 When de Brebeuf arrived at that point he turned his 
 canoe in a southerly direction. The Derouen itinerary on 
 the contrary follows the north shore of Lake Huron, and 
 keeps on past Manitoulin and finally ends at Michilimackina. 
 Coming back to our missionaries who went down past what 
 is now Beausoleil Island and landed on the shores of 
 Penetanguishene we cannot but wonder at their temerity 
 in attempting to conquer this remote and what was sup- 
 posed to be a devil-infested region. But those three men 
 were heroes : de Brebeuf, de None, and the Recollect de la 
 Roche d'Aillon. Martin tells us that d'Aillon established 
 himself at Caragouha, on the west coast of the Huron 
 peninsula, and that the two Jesuits pitched their tents at 
 Ihonitiria. A note adds that Caragouha was replaced sub- 
 
 85 
 
PIONEER TRIESTS OF NORTH A^^IERICA. 
 
 seqtiently by Ossossane, and that Champlain called Ihonitiria 
 Otouacha, while others designated it as Toanchen or 
 Toachim. It was at the west entrance of Penetangueshene 
 Bay. 
 
 Other students of those sites, however, dispute the find- 
 ings, and maintain that d'Aillon never went to Caragouha, 
 and that it was never a distinct mission, but that he re- 
 mained with the Jesuits until he left for his mission among 
 the Neutrals, and finally that the party did not stop at 
 Ihonitiria, but at Toanche. The name Ihonitiria was given 
 to the village that replaced Toanche later on, and it was 
 three quarters of a league further inland. It was also 
 called Teandeonata, of which it was a part, and was a 
 little further west. A detailed exposition of the question 
 may be found in Father Jones' scholarly studies of the 
 Huron sites published by the Ontario Government. 
 
 Unfortunately Father de None could make no hand of 
 the difficult Huron language, and was recalled to Quebec. 
 But he atoned for his failure by triumphing later on. He 
 was found on his knees in a wild snow storm, on the ice 
 of the St. Lawrence, frozen to death. Father d'Aillon also, 
 after living for a time among the Neutral Indians joined 
 de Brebeuf and then withdrew to the colony, leaving the 
 Jesuit all alone in the wilderness. Life under such circum- 
 stances was necessarily an uninterrupted series of suffering, 
 discouragements, and dangers. He was able to baptize 
 only a few dying babes, but " he would have gone to the 
 end of the world," he used to say, " to accomplish that 
 much." 
 
 Of his life in that solitude we have no details except that 
 while he was there he succeeded in translating Ledesma's 
 Catechism into Huron. Fortunately Champlain has pre- 
 served the work for posterity, by publishing it along with 
 the story of his own travels, so that those who wish may. 
 if they are brave enough, find out how in those days spiritual 
 things were explained to the savages who lived around 
 
 86 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 Matchedash Bay. We know that he went over to evan- 
 gelize the Petuns or Tobacco people, but how frequently 
 we cannot say. When he returned to his work, after the 
 restoration of Canada to the French, he again visited that 
 tribe, and he records the delight he felt at finding in ex- 
 cellent health a little lad of five who, when a baby and at 
 the point of death, had been baptized by him on the occasion 
 of that first apostolic visit. 
 
 One more event of those days we make out from his sub- 
 sequent wTitings. It occurred in 1628, the year of the 
 terrible drought, when all Huronia was on fire. Month 
 after month passed by and not a drop of rain fell. Every- 
 thing was parched and as dry as tinder, so that the least 
 spark would set fire to a cabin or a forest and start the whole 
 country side in a blaze. Indians came from all directions 
 and reported that fires were raging everywhere. The 
 springs were dried up, rocks and bottoms were showing 
 in the rivers, and all the crops were ruined. Day and night 
 the thumping of the tortoise drum was heard as the sor- 
 cerers kept up their dances and incantations to bring down 
 the rain, but though the thunder was heard in the distance 
 it never rattled over Toanche. At last a council was held 
 and it was decided that the cause of the curse was the red 
 cross over the missionary's wigwam. A deputation was 
 forthwith appointed to order him to take it down; just as 
 de Brebeuf's fellow countrymen are doing in France to- 
 day. " Nonsense," he answered, " You have had abun- 
 dance of rain since it was placed there, and I will not take 
 it down." " It is not so much the cross," they rejoined, 
 "as the color; it is red." 
 
 As in Indian mythology thunder is a celestial turkey 
 flapping its wings, the objection was considered valid, as 
 no turkey takes kindly to red. To humor them he painted 
 the cross white. But the skies were as obdurate as before. 
 The heat was increasing and the Indians were in despair. 
 Finally he summoned them around his cabin and explained 
 
 87 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 what the symbol meant. " Come here to-morrow," he said, 
 " and let us honor the cross after the Christian fashion, 
 and we shall see if we can get rain." They came and 
 prayed so fervently that " they almost put me to shame," 
 he wrote good humoredly. God heard the prayers of the 
 poor wretches or rather of the saint who was trying to 
 teach them sense. Rain poured down in torrents, and ever 
 after that de Brebeuf was the Great Sorcerer. It was a 
 title of distinction indeed, but was fraught with danger, 
 for Indian ethics permitted anyone who felt so disposed to 
 kill a sorcerer at sight, and be counted a public benefactor 
 for doing so. The only thing that kept the tomahawk from 
 the head of de Brebeuf was that he happened to be the 
 friend of Champlain. To kill such a magician might in- 
 volve the whole tribe in ruin, and hence while they dreaded 
 him they did not dare to hurt him. But for the rest of 
 his life he wore this uncomfortable halo on his head, and 
 walked continually in the valley of the shadow of death. 
 
 While alone in those wilds he was unaware that events 
 were taking place which were to close this first period of 
 his missionary career. Father Masse, who had replaced 
 Charles Lalemant as Superior, ordered him to report with 
 all haste at Quebec. The Trading Company had become 
 more intractable than ever. Complaints were continually 
 being carried to the Home Government, until finally Rich- 
 elieu determined to take the matter in hand himself. He 
 organized the famous Company of the Cent Associes, which 
 for some time after was to be prominent in the history of 
 Canada. Unfortunately, however, this reorganization of 
 the Company coincided with a declaration of war against 
 the Huguenots of France; and though the great cardinal 
 made short shrift of them when he took La Rochelle. 
 he forgot their capabilities of mischief in the far off 
 colonies. Only then the folly of putting all the business 
 of Quebec in the hands of Huguenots revealed itself. The 
 evil genius of that period was David Kerkt, or Kirke, or 
 
 88 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 Quer. People were free in their spelling in those days. 
 He was a native of Dieppe, and, with his brothers Louis 
 and Thomas, had gone over to the service of the King of 
 England. David was given command of a fleet and com- 
 missioned to blockade the mouth of the St. Lawrence. He 
 did more. On July 3, he appeared off Cape Tourmente, 
 and sent a messenger to Champlain to demand his sur- 
 render. Though in the direst straits, with rations down 
 to two ounces a day for each man, and with only fifty 
 charges of powder for his few pieces of cannon, Champlain 
 put on such a show of bravery that Kirke feared to make 
 the attack. Meantime the first ships sent out by the new 
 company fell into the hands of the enemy; then a fleet of 
 five vessels, on which were several missionaries was caught 
 by the blockaders, and only one made its way back to 
 France to report the disaster. 
 
 On June 29, 1629, Father Noyrot organized another ex- 
 pedition which was wrecked off Cape Canso, and Noyrot 
 and Brother Malot disappeared in the waves. Kirke then 
 plucked up courage, and on the 19th of July appeared off 
 Quebec. Champlain, however, had still one hope. De 
 Brebeuf, who was on his way from the Huron country 
 might have some provisions with him, but when he came 
 the canoes were practically empty, and at last the starving 
 garrison struck their colors and Louis Kirke entered the 
 citadel. 
 
 " Louis," says Champlain, " was very courteous, for he 
 always retained the natural amiability of the French, al- 
 though he was the son of a Scotchman who had married 
 at Dieppe," an observation which somewhat reflects on the 
 Scotch. " He strove, as far as possible, to keep the French 
 families at Quebec, for he preferred to deal with them 
 rather than with the English, for whom he always had 
 a decided repugnance." On account of this benignity of 
 Kirke two or three families lingered on in the colony 
 when Champlain and the priests departed for Tadoussac, 
 
 89 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 where David was awaiting them. On the way down, Louis 
 Kirke captured a vessel commanded by de Caen, who had 
 slipped past the blockaders, but who in any case would have 
 arrived too late. His misfortune, however, freed him from 
 the suspicion of working in complicity with the Kirkes. 
 
 David treated Champlain with great consideration. But 
 it must have been a trying situation for the defeated gen- 
 eral to find himself face to face with some of his own 
 countrymen who had been false to their king and their 
 Faith. Conspicuous among them was Etienne Brule, with 
 whose corpse de Brebeuf had to concern himself later in 
 the Northwest. In the group also was Nicholas Marsolet. 
 He, however, became a Frenchman again, a good, though at 
 one time a somewhat turbulent citizen of Quebec, and is now 
 honored as the founder of a family at Three Rivers. There 
 was another Frenchman named Pierre Raye, whom Char- 
 levoix stigmatizes as the worst possible kind of scoundrel, 
 and another named Le Bailiff, to whom Kirke handed the 
 keys of the magazine after the surrender. Brule and Mar- 
 solet protested that they were prisoners of the English, and 
 had been compelled to act as they did. 
 
 The one who attracted most attention there was Michel. 
 He had piloted the ships to the St. Lawrence, and was every- 
 where parading his importance. He even treated the 
 Kirkes with lofty contempt. " \Miat were they but w'me 
 merchants? " he said " and yet they pretended to be sailors." 
 De Brebeuf particularly excited Michel's wrath. The old 
 sailor cursed and blasphemed so vigorously that Champlain 
 exclaimed with what to non-Gallic ears seems something 
 like a little profanity: "Good God! man, but you swear 
 pretty well for a reformer! " Michel only grew more in- 
 censed, and declared he would have it out with the priest 
 before night or be hanged for it. Night came, and poor 
 Michel was a corpse. His choler and drink brought on an 
 apoplectic fit which carried him off. On account of his 
 dignity as Captain-in-chief, the sailors gave him a great 
 
 90 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUR 
 
 funeral, though they hated him. Official honors were his 
 due, but Champlain records that he never saw such riot as 
 after the obsequies. The mournrers boarded Michel's ship 
 and broached all his Malaga to drown their grief. Three 
 years afterwards, Le Jeune wrote from Quebec that when 
 the vessels had sailed away, the Indians dug up the corpse, 
 treated it with the greatest indignity, and then gave it to 
 the dogs. Kingsford who, of course, is pro-English, thinks 
 that Champlain's account of the revels is not really his, 
 but was written afterwards by some foreign hand. 
 
 While these Indian manifestations of dislike were being 
 given utterance to at Tadoussac, Champlain and his friends 
 were making for France. Late in October, 1629, they 
 landed at Calais. All their great schemes had come to 
 naught ; and what was particularly galling, they found out, 
 when they reached home, that Quebec has been seized three 
 months after the treaty of peace had been signed. The Kirkes 
 had thus been unconscious buccaneers, and the English were 
 in possession of a territory they did not own. Nor was 
 that all. Not only did it seem as if the knell of the mis- 
 sions had sounded forever, but that all the political aspira- 
 tions of France in the. New World were thenceforth to be 
 abandoned. The great Richelieu was apparently as ready 
 as Mme. de Pompadour at a later date, to give up " the 
 few acres of snow," and had it not been for the persistent 
 entreaties of Champlain, Canada would have certainly 
 passed over at that time to English control. Finally, after 
 the treaty of Saint Germain-en-Laye had dragged on for 
 three years, an agreement was come to that in spite of 
 Kirke's victory, Canada should be restored to France, and 
 thus after being the Founder, Champlain now became the 
 Saviour of New France. Without delay, Du Plessis Bou- 
 chard, Champlain's lieutenant, was despatched to take pos- 
 session of Quebec, and on the vessel with him were Father 
 Le Jeune, who was to be the Superior of the re-established 
 missions. Father de Noue, and Brother Buret. 
 
 91 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Where was de Brebeuf? On his return frorn America 
 he had been sent to Rouen, where he pronounced his final 
 vows as a Jesuit, January 30, 1630. The date is worth re- 
 cording, inasmuch as it reminds us that he passed through 
 the terrible trials of the Indian apostolate before being 
 irrevocably bound to the Order. His was the first instance, 
 at least in the group we are now considering, of this extra- 
 ordinary delay in granting the vows, and it implied a 
 sublime confidence on the part of the superiors in the virtue 
 of their subordinates. While in France he was appointed 
 Procurator of the College. It was the second time he had 
 held that office, whose requirements seem so incompatible 
 with the habits of a man who had been living among 
 savages, with nothing to spend, and nothing to eat, and 
 almost nothing to wear. But this disregard of worldly 
 methods is not infrequently displayed in religious communi- 
 ties. At least he had the pleasure of meeting there several 
 of the great men who were already or were later to be 
 identified with the history of the American missions. There 
 was Charles Lalemant, who had returned to France before 
 de Brebeuf, and was later on to be twice shipwrecked in 
 his efforts to resume his work in the colony. He met Simon 
 Le Moyne, who was to achieve celebrity both in Canada 
 and New York; and greater than either of the latter he 
 saw Isaac Jogues. It is to be regretted that we have no 
 records of the conversations of these illustrious men, about 
 the work in which they were all absorbed. It would be 
 a study of the heroic. 
 
 92 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 The Second Attempt. 
 
 Why was de Brebeuf not on the first ship that sailed to 
 America? Perhaps he had not yet balanced his books. 
 However, when Champlain, who was now accredited as 
 " Captain of the King's Navy and Lieutenant of His Lord- 
 ship the Cardinal, throughout the whole length of the St. 
 Lawrence," sailed out of the harbor of Dieppe, March 23, 
 1633, de Brebeuf was at his side. The little fleet entered 
 the river in the beginning of May, but on account of the 
 floating ice it failed to reach Quebec until June 2d. The 
 booming of the ship's cannon announced the arrival of the 
 chief, and every gun on the rock roared back a welcome. 
 With characteristic enthusiasm de Brebeuf knelt down and 
 kissed the earth when he landed. His efforts to reach 
 Huronia were at first as unavailing as they had been years 
 before, for as a matter of fact the Hurons were from the 
 beginning very antagonistic to Christianity, and although 
 six hundred of them came down to greet Champlain, and 
 though flattered and feasted and cajoled, Champlain making 
 great promises, and de Brebeuf delivering great speeches, 
 and bringing the red men over to Notre Dame des Anges 
 to see the wonders of that establishment they remained 
 unimpressed. After selling their pelts they flitted away 
 like birds over the water on their journey home. Never- 
 theless, while waiting for the chance to go, de Brebeuf 
 found plenty of work among the Algonquin savages around 
 him, and one or two of his conversions may be recorded, 
 chiefly on account of the marvellous happenings in connec- 
 tion with them. They are narrated in the " Relation " of 
 1634. 
 
 There was a certain young Indian named Samousat, about 
 
 93 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 twenty-five or thirty years of age, who one day heard the 
 interpreter talking about the pains of hell and the joys of 
 paradise. "If that be so," he exclaimed, " take me to 
 France to be instructed. Otherwise you will have to answer 
 for my soul ! " — not that he was eager for foreign travel, 
 but the temptations to evil were too frequent in his surround- 
 ings and he was frightened. But he fell seriously ill a few 
 days afterwards, and when the priest found him he was 
 already delirious. De Brebeuf and his friends were nat- 
 urally very much worried on that account, and they began 
 a novena of Masses for the Indian's recovery. The Mass 
 of the first day was scarcely finished when the news came 
 that Samousat had recovered consciousness, and was ex- 
 tremely anxious to be baptized. He was put off for a few 
 days, but he was not satisfied with the decision, and told 
 another Indian that during the night he had seen Father 
 de Brebeuf enter his cabin to baptize him, and that as soon 
 as the priest sat down at his side the sickness left him. The 
 story was told to de Brebeuf who hurried to the dying 
 man. 
 
 Just then the Indians were going to shift their quarters, 
 and the invalid had to be cared for; so he was put on a 
 toboggan, and to his great delight was lodged at Notre 
 Dame des Anges. He thought he was in heaven. On the 
 26th of January he fell into a faint, and fearing he would 
 die the priest baptized him. Coming to, he was overjoyed 
 to hear what had happened, and for the two days that inter- 
 vened before he expired he was constantly occupied in 
 making acts of faith, hope, and charity, and confessing 
 aloud the evil deeds he had committed. He was instructed 
 in the nature of Extreme Unction, and when he was 
 anointed he asked the Fathers to come and sing hymns at 
 his bedside. While they were so engaged he died. 
 
 But that was not all. " A few hours after his death," 
 wrote Le Jeune, " a great light appeared at the windows 
 of our house, rising and falling three distinct times. The 
 
 94 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 Father and several of the workmen ran out thinking the 
 house was on fire, but they saw nothing. His relatives, 
 who were in the woods, also saw a similar phenomenon 
 around their wigwam and were terrified, for they regarded 
 it as a forerunner of death. " I was at that time," Le 
 Jeune continues, " forty leagues from Quebec in the cabin 
 of the dead man's brother. At the same hour, and on the 
 same day, as I found afterwards by comparing notes with 
 Father de Brebeuf, I saw the same strange light. All the 
 Indians ran out of the wigwam with me. As they were 
 extremely frightened, I told them it was only a flash of 
 lightning, and that they should not be alarmed. But they 
 replied that it was not merely a flash, as it had continued for 
 some time before their eyes. ' Besides,' they said, ' who ever 
 saw lightning in such bitter cold weather as this ? ' When 
 I asked what they thought of it, they answered : 'It is 
 death. The Manitou is feeding in those flames.' " Le 
 Jeune, who records these phenomena, was not a man to 
 give way to his imagination, nor does he draw any con- 
 clusion from it at all. He merely tells the story. 
 
 There was another Indian named Manitougatche, or La 
 Nasse, as the French called him, who used to know the 
 Fathers before the English took Quebec. He had been badly 
 treated by the newcomers, and as soon as the priests 
 returned he pitched his tepee near the house and said he 
 wanted to be a Christian, protesting he would never leave 
 the place, no matter what they did to him. Unfortunately 
 he had a young relative who had been sent to France by 
 the Recollects, and who after having been well educated 
 there took up with the English, and from that degenerated 
 into his former savagery and became a bitter enemy of 
 the Faith. He filled poor old Manitougatche' s mind with 
 all sorts of prejudices, but did not succeed in alienating 
 him from the missionaries. After a while Manitougatche 
 fell sick, and he also was moved into the house. It took 
 a long time to get him into proper dispositions, but at last 
 
 95 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 everything was straightened out and he was told he was 
 to be baptized. Sick as he was, he crawled over to the 
 chapel before the priest could come to him. He answered 
 in excellent fashion all the questions about the Creed and 
 the Commandments, and in the presence of his family was 
 baptized. When the medicine men came in to carry him 
 off so as to have a dance over him he drove them out of the 
 cabin, though his wife and daughter entreated him to con- 
 sent. " On Holy Saturday," says the " Relation," " Mani- 
 tougatche went to spend Easter in heaven." 
 
 Such were some of the bright scenes in the Algonquin 
 wigwams around Quebec which delighted de Brebeuf 
 while he was waiting to get back to the land where he 
 had left his heart. 
 
 The time at last came, for, like other mortals, the Hurons 
 turned to God when they were in distress. In the year 
 following their refusal to accept the missionaries, they 
 were badly beaten by the Iroquois. Five hundred of them 
 had come down the St. Lawrence, to sell their furs, but 
 before they reached Quebec they fell into the hands of their 
 enemies. They were caught in an ambush and in the fight 
 that followed two hundred of their warriors were slain, 
 and another hundred taken prisoners. The battered rem- 
 nant hurried down the river to implore the protection of 
 the French. They were now willing to accept missionaries. 
 It was the old story of " when the devil was sick," for as 
 a matter of fact they rejected Christianity until they saw 
 themselves on the verge of destruction. Their acceptance 
 of it was only a death-bed conversion. But death-beds are 
 often God's harvest fields. It was so in this instance. 
 
 De Brebeuf, Daniel, Davost and a number of laymen 
 who had offered themselves for service in the missions, 
 along with four or five soldiers went back with the crest- 
 fallen Hurons. In the party, it may be noted, was the 
 famous z'oyageur John Nicolet, of whom we shall hear 
 more later on. On this trip, however, he was only going 
 
 96 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 as far as Isle ties Allumettes. The Indians were depressed 
 and they were also surly, so that the terrible hardships of 
 the journey were made almost intolerable by their bad 
 temper. Even the herculean strength of de Brebeuf nearly 
 gave way under the strain. Davost, who was somewhat 
 on in years, arrived at the mission post in such a state of 
 exhaustion that it took him a long time to recover, and 
 perhaps that may have been the beginning of the trouble 
 which sent him back to France a few years after. He died 
 on the way over and was buried at sea. . 
 
 In the usual improvident fashion of the Hurons, the 
 canoes separated on the journey up, in spite of the risk 
 they ran of making themselves helpless in the face of an 
 enemy who had just treated them so rudely. Of the white- 
 men de Brebeuf arrived first, after a whole month of in- 
 tense suffering, and was unceremoniously landed on the 
 north shore of Penetanguishene Bay, near where he had 
 lived some years before. He knev>^ where he was, of 
 course. But there was no sign of any human habitatiort 
 around him, and as the Indians began to throw his traps 
 on the shore he asked them : " Are you going to leave me 
 here? Will you not lead me to the nearest village? Will 
 you not stay, at least, to watch these goods while I go 
 hunt for some one?" They made no answer. "Do you 
 forget all I did for you ? how I nursed you, on the way up^ 
 when you were sick, and cared for you when you were 
 injured? Will you not at least keep your promise?" 
 They looked at him in sullen silence and paddled away,, 
 leaving him helpless in the wilderness. But it was not the 
 first time he had seen such manifestations of brutality, and 
 he excused them by saying " it was the result of sickness, 
 which often changes the kindliest dispositions." 
 
 Another man would have given himself up to despair. 
 For him it was only a petit disgrace, a slight misfortune, 
 by which the Lord admonished him that the land was ta 
 be conquered by suffering, and he knelt down to thank 
 
 97 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 God, Our Lady, and St. Joseph, for the graces and favors 
 he had received on the journey, and to implore the divine 
 assistance in the work he was now beginning. He saluted 
 the Guardian Angels of the country, and offered himself 
 to God for the salvation of the poor Indians. He then felt 
 confident that he would be rescued. 
 
 Knowing that he had to bestir himself he hid some of 
 his bundles in the woods, keeping on his person what was 
 most precious, and then started out to prospect. It was 
 the 5th of August, 1635, and it was already late in the 
 afternoon. He knew that Toanche, where he had labored 
 six years before, ought to be three quarters of a league 
 inland, and he directed his steps thither. But alas ! there 
 was no Toanche. He found only the ruins of one old 
 cabin. All the rest was a heap of ashes. One thing, how- 
 ever, in the general desolation before him, filled him with 
 delight. The place where his chapel had once stood, and 
 where he had offered the Holy Sacrifice for three years, was 
 not covered with wreckage as all the rest. It was a smooth 
 and, in his eyes, a beautiful meadow. " I gazed at it," he 
 said, " with tenderness, and a flood of recollections filled 
 my heart." Although he does not say so, there is no doubt 
 that he knelt down, and kissed the consecrated ground as 
 he had done at Quebec when he saw himself once again 
 in the land for which he was going to sacrifice his life. 
 
 Doubtless, also, he prayed at another place near by; at 
 the grave of the voyageur Etienne Brule, whom he had 
 seen a few years before among the enemies of his country, 
 at the surrender of Quebec. " Here," he said, " poor 
 Etienne was treacherously and barbarously murdered." 
 Happy Etienne! to have had a saint praying above his 
 unconsecrated grave in the wilderness. " It made me 
 tliink," continues de Brebeuf, " of the fate that was in store 
 for us, and to hope that at least it might be while we were 
 seeking the glory of Our Lord." He did not imagine that 
 a year afterwards he would be asked to dig up those mould- 
 
 98 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 ■ev'mg remains and to inter them with honor at Ossossane. 
 
 Brdle had had a very unsavory career. He had come 
 out as a mere lad with Champlain, probably in 1G08. He 
 became an interpreter for the Hurons, and had spent eight 
 years among the various tribes, but unhappily he became 
 as bad as the savages. In 1615 he was sent among the 
 Hurons, and was afterwards commissioned by Champlain 
 to visit the Andastes on the Susquehanna in order to make 
 a treaty with them against the Iroquois ; but he came back 
 to Quebec only three years later and excused himself by 
 saying that he had been retained among the Andastes, but 
 had explored the country southward to the sea, probably 
 Chesapeake Bay, and that afterwards on his return he had 
 been captured by the Iroquois and had finally made his 
 way to the Hurons. After the capture of Quebec, in 1629, 
 he went over to the English, but subsequently came back 
 and sought his old haunts among the Hurons. Champlain 
 informs us that he was licentious and depraved. Sagard 
 says he was murdered for some evil deed, and that his 
 flesh was eaten by the savages. No doubt some mark 
 had been left to indicate the place of burial of the 
 unfortunate man, as the Indians for a long time after- 
 wards feared that the whites w^ould avenge his death, and 
 they were anxious to treat the remains with some honor 
 to prove that they were guiltless of the murder. 
 
 De Brebeuf could not have lingered long there, for 
 evening was coming on, and some shelter must be found. 
 Whither he was to go he did not know, but at last he saw a 
 village before him, and heard the cry: "Echon! Echon is 
 come back to us. Our brother, our cousin, our nephew 
 has returned." He was among his friends and they flocked 
 around him, exclaiming: " We are happy now. Our corn 
 will no longer wither. He will protect it." He was still 
 the Great Sorcerer, who could " make the rain fall at will." 
 He returned their greetings most cordially, and then chose 
 as his dwelling the cabin that would be best able to support 
 
 99 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 him and his companions, who would arrive, he hoped, in 
 a few days. He rested only long enough to relieve his 
 hunger, for it was getting late, and his possessions were 
 a long way off in the woods, and had to be secured. Some 
 of the braves volunteered to go with him, and at one 
 o'clock that night he returned to the village, and laid them 
 down in the hospitable wigwam that had received him as 
 a guest. 
 
 He was now at Teandeouihata, the place occupied by the 
 people who had formerly been at Toanche. It was also 
 called Ihonitiria, and its exact site has evoked considerable 
 discussion. Parkman, in his text, says it was on Thunder 
 Bay, but on his map we find it near Penetanguishene. By 
 a careful study of the various journeys of Champlain and 
 the Recollects, and by exact measurements of the distances 
 they covered on their journeys, while at the same time 
 keeping in view the direction in which they travelled, Father 
 Jones has satisfactorily established the position of Ihonitiria 
 as not being either Thunder or Penetanguishene Bay, but 
 on the point of land which is now Point Todd, south of 
 Grant's Tomb Island. It looks over to the famous Chris- 
 tian Island, the last refuge of the Hurons after the murder 
 of de Brebeuf. 
 
 We cannot enter here into all the details of the minute 
 and scientific investigation which led to this conclusion, 
 but must refer the reader to Father Jones' learned work, 
 published by the Ontario Government, entitled " Ouendake 
 Ehen, or Defunct Huronia." It consists of two parts. 
 The first deals with the topography of the country in mis- 
 sion times, while the second is a record of the missionaries 
 and of the missionary centres from 1615 to 1650. It is a 
 most valuable contribution to the knowledge of the territory 
 of the old Hurons. and is indispensable for those who 
 desire to make their way through the tangled narrative of 
 the " Relations," starting from Ihonitiria or " The Little 
 Village of the Loaded Canoe." It was conveniently 
 
 100 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 perched on a blufif overlooking a little harbor which was 
 well protected from wind and wave, so that the well- 
 freighted canoes from Quebec might land their stores in 
 safety at that place. 
 
 We have an almost Homeric description of it in a con- 
 versation which took place between de Brebeuf and the chief, 
 later on, when there was cpiestion of changing the site of 
 the village. The Indian speaks with all the dignity of 
 one of Agamemnon's chieftains, as he remonstrates with 
 de Brebeuf, who was opposed to the removal: " Echon," 
 said ^E^nons, anticipating the objection, " I know well that 
 you are going to say that you dread being further from 
 the Lake ; but I pledge my word that you will not be as 
 far away as you imagine. And, even if you were, why 
 worry about it? You are not going to fish. All the vil- 
 lage will do that for you. Will you find it hard to unload 
 your parcels from Quebec? Not at all. There will not 
 be a soul in the village who will not be glad to serve you 
 in that matter. It is true that you will not come to the 
 shore of the Lake to receive what is sent to you ; but what 
 matter, for everything is brought to your door. In case 
 you want to employ the people of Ossossane, if they care 
 for you they will not put you to the trouble of going all 
 the way to their village as they usually pass by the place 
 where we propose to put our new dwellings." From these 
 indications topographers are able to fix almost to a certainty 
 the location of Ihonitiria. 
 
 101 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 Controlling the Indians. 
 
 De Brebeuf does not seem to have been deliberating 
 whether he would hve in the new or the old Ihonitiria. He 
 was only asking himself whether it would not be advisable 
 to transfer his headquarters to Ossossane, which was a 
 larger place, and where he was asked for by the inhabitants. 
 But on the other hand it would be unwise to send his 
 companions, who as yet spoke the language very imper- 
 fectly, to a place where they might be jeered at; besides 
 it would have been a very ungrateful act to abandon those 
 who had first given them shelter, especially as according 
 to Indian ethics the Ihonitirians would be still responsible 
 for the safety of the missionaries. So he yielded to the 
 solicitations of the chief; selected a site for the house, and 
 every one began to build it with the greatest expedition. 
 It was in conformity with their ideas of architecture, with 
 the opening at the top as a vent for the smoke, but the 
 interior subdivisions which the missionaries insisted on 
 having, and especially the doors, which swung on hinges, 
 filled them with amazement. 
 
 They swarmed into the house at all hours, and gazed 
 around at its wonders. The clock cjuite stupefied them, 
 especially as it rung when it was told, and stopped appar- 
 ently for the same reason. "What does it say?" they 
 asked. One of the workmen replied : " When it strikes 
 twelve it says ' clear out, and also when it strikes four.' " 
 They believed him, and always hurried away in hot haste, 
 even though some had hoped to share the contents of the 
 pot at midday. The Indian is always hungry, but the clock 
 had to be obeyed. The microscope or magnifying glass was 
 an object of alarm, especially when it made insects tliat 
 
 103 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 swarmed in the hair and clothing take the dimensions of 
 lobsters. The mirror, also, with its many angles, frightened 
 them by multiplying the number of their noses, eyes, ears, 
 etc. ; but the magnet they were sure had glue on it ; and the 
 art of reading script was startling. One of the priests 
 would go outside, and then some would have a conversation 
 with the other blackrobe in the wigwam. When the one 
 who had withdrawn had returned, he would read from a 
 piece of paper all that had been said. The wondering red 
 man wanted to have the operation repeated from morning 
 till night. 
 
 Everything went smoothly for a while. The chief would 
 even go through the village and summon the people to hear 
 the missionaries. Daniel taught the children to sing, and 
 they were soon chanting the prayers in Huron, both in the 
 lodges and in the village streets. The Fathers were picking 
 up the languare quickly, especially Le Mercier, who had 
 just arrived. Daniel was already an adept. But a con- 
 tinual and overwhelming terror of the Iroquois occupied 
 their minds, especially in the summer time when the braves 
 were away. Indeed, at one time there was question of 
 leaving the village and taking to the woods, even in 
 the winter, although with the leaves off the trees, conceal- 
 ment would have been impossible and the exposure and 
 hardship would have been fatal to many. 
 
 De Brebeuf determined to put an end to such a condition 
 of things. He was not a man to trust merely to prayers, 
 as a means of defense, and he therefore went from village 
 to village and induced the Indians to repair their neglected 
 palisades. He made them abandon their system of building 
 their circular forts, and showed them the advantage of 
 rectangular constructions with bastions at the corners. He 
 supplied the braves with metal arrowheads to take the place 
 of their flints ; and promised to send the few soldiers he 
 had to the first place that might be attacked, assuring them 
 at the same time that he would never desert them no matter 
 
 103 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 •what happened. In a short time all the villages were fairly 
 protected, and the Hurons had lost their timidity and were 
 almost eager for a fight. But the Iroquois did not come. 
 It was not usual with them to go to war when their enemies 
 were ready. 
 
 It was about 1G35 when de Brebeuf sent down to Quebec 
 a detailed statement of the requirements for apostolic work 
 among the Hurons. It is too long to reproduce entirely, 
 but a digest of it may serve as a pen picture of de Brebeuf 
 himself and of his heroic associates. 
 
 " Never make an Indian wait for you," he says, 
 ^'especially when there is a question of getting into a canoe. 
 Be sure you have your burning glass with you to help him 
 light his pipe, and also a flint to start the fire at night. Eat 
 his sagamite, in spite of its coarseness and filth. It may 
 turn your stomach, but try to look pleased while you are 
 swallowing the food. Take every bit they offer you. 
 Commonly it will be little enough. Eat in the morning, 
 for ordinarily the Huron has only two meals a day. Go 
 barefoot in the canoe so as to be lighter, and also to avoid 
 carrying mud or sand into it. In the portages you can put 
 on your shoes. Do not ask many questions. Be bright 
 and cheerful, and do not notice the grossness of your com- 
 panions. 
 
 " Accept the best place in the wigwam. The best they 
 have is hard enough to put up with. Do not volunteer to 
 help in any work unless you intend to continue to the end. 
 Do not begin to paddle unless you have made up your mind 
 to keep at it all day. Be quite sure that the savage will 
 retain the first impression you make on him, and impart 
 his feelings to his friends and acquaintances. You come 
 from the classic land of politeness, but all the fine manners 
 that would make you an acceptable member of society in 
 France will be pearls before swine here, and will only have 
 you laughed at. You have to be an Indian. Bend your 
 shoulders to the same burdens they bear, and you will be 
 
 104 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 recognized as a great man ; otherwise not. Remember that 
 Jesus Christ is the true greatness of the missionary. Him 
 alone and His cross are you to seek, in running after these 
 people. With Him you will find roses on thorns, sweets 
 in bitterness, everything in nothingness. I do not want to 
 chill your enthusiasm, but remember, in getting up here 
 from Quebec, you will have enough to appall the stoutest 
 heart." 
 
 He then gives briefly a description of life in a canoe and 
 in the forests. It is unnecessary to repeat it here, for we 
 shall see it in the reality as we proceed in these sketches. 
 *' When you reach us," he continues, " we will receive you 
 with open arms, in the vilest dwelling you have any con- 
 ception of. You will sleep on a skin, and many a night 
 you will never close an eye on account of the vermin that 
 swarm over you. li you have been a great theologian in 
 France, you will have to be a very humble scholar here, and 
 be taught by an ignorant squaw, or by children, and you 
 will furnish them no end of amusement. The Huron 
 tongue will be your St. Thomas and Aristotle, and you will 
 be happy, if after a great deal of hard study you are able 
 to stammer out a few words. 
 
 " The winter is almost unendurable. As for your leisure 
 time, the savages Vi'ill give you no rest night or day, and 
 will be particularly assiduous at meal times. If you have 
 anything special to eat. they must have a share ; otherwise 
 your reputation is lost. You may expect to be killed at 
 any moment, and your cabin, which is very inflammable, 
 mav often take fire either on account of the carelessness 
 or malice of the savages. You are responsible for fair and 
 foul weather, and if you do not bring rain when there is a 
 drought you may be tomahawked for your ill-success. 
 Then there are outside foes who have to be reckoned with. 
 On the 13th of this month of June, a dozen Hurons were 
 killed at Contarea, which is only a few days' journey 
 from this place ; and a short time before, a number of 
 
 105 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Iroquois were discovered in ambush quite close to our 
 village. 
 
 " In France you are surrounded by splendid examples of 
 virtue. Here every one is astonished when you speak of 
 God. Blasphemy and obscenity are commonly on their lips. 
 You are often without Mass, and when you succeed in 
 saying it, your cabin is full of smoke or snow. The Indians 
 never leave you alone, and are continually yelling and shout- 
 ing at the top of their voice. They do not know what a 
 whisper is. Once when I was trying to get one of them to 
 speak lower, a cock crew. ' Why don't you stop him ? ' 
 said the Indian. ' He is talking louder than I am.' The 
 food will be insipid but the gall and vinegar of our Blessed 
 Saviour will make it like honey on your lips. Climbing 
 rocks and skirting cataracts will be pleasant if you think 
 of Calvary ; and you will be happy if you have lost the 
 trail, or are sick and dying with hunger in the woods. 
 You have no head-ache nor stomach-ache, nor colds, nor 
 catarrh. It is a mistake to protect yourself against the 
 cold. It is an enemy you can make a friend of, if you open 
 your arms wide to him. We have usually a store of pro- 
 visions, chiefly corn and dried fish, and as we are on the 
 shores of a great lake, we can get fresh fish in abundance 
 when they are in season; there are berries and fruit also. 
 and they are plentiful and fairly good. But Indian corn 
 is sufficiently nourishing when you get used to it. 
 
 " There is no danger for your soul, if you bring into 
 this Huron country the love and fear of God. In fact I 
 find many helps to perfection. For in the first place, you 
 have only the necessaries of life, and that makes it easy to 
 be united with God. As regards your spiritual exercises, 
 you can attend to them, for you have naught else to do 
 but to study Huron and talk with the savages. Of course 
 you have nothing in the way of externals to increase your 
 devotion, but God makes up for it. Have we not the 
 Blessed Sacrament in the house ? Moreover, we are forced 
 
 106 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 to trust in God, for there is no other help available. Op- 
 portunities for exercising charity abound among the people 
 who are so destitute as these Indians. You are obliged to 
 pray, for you are facing death at every moment. Perhaps 
 you fear for your own chastity in such surroundings. If 
 you are on your guard, there is no danger. The brutality, 
 ignorance, poverty and wretchedness of these people, whose 
 life is more deplorable than death, compel you to see the 
 effects of sin better than anything else could. Finally, if, 
 after contemplating the sufferings that are prepared for 
 you, you are ready to say: 'Aniplius Domine' Still more 
 O Lord, then be sure that you will be rewarded with con- 
 solations to such a degree that you will be compelled to 
 say : Enough, O Lord, Enough ! " In this description de 
 Brebeuf reveals his own personality. It is that of a warrior 
 panting with the joy of battle. 
 
 In 1636 certain personages cross the scene at Ihonitiria, 
 who, perhaps, deserve a passing mention. One was the 
 old Algonquin chief, Le Borgne de I'lsle, an appellation 
 which in irreverent English would have to be translated 
 "One Eye." The "Isle" attached to his name was the Island 
 of Allumettes in the Ottawa, of which mention has already 
 been made. Champlain knew the chief and styled him 
 " the good old Indian," but his goodness was, of course, 
 relative. He came to see de Brebeuf to persuade him to 
 go down to live at Allumettes. " You can get rich there," 
 he said. " You will be the principal interpreter and Grand 
 Chief." 
 
 On being told that such motives had no weight with the 
 missionaries, he resumed : " Do you know that you are in 
 danger of being murdered here? It was the Hurons who 
 killed Etienne Brule. They also killed Father Viel and his 
 companion, and will do the same to you." But as de 
 Brebeuf had good reason to suspect that One Eye himself 
 was about the worst enemy the missionaries had, or at best 
 that he had his one eye on business, and merely wanted to 
 
 107 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 transfer the French trade to the island by bringing the 
 mission there, he put off the old plotter with soft words 
 and fine presents. Le Borgne died shortly after, but Father 
 Daniel had to wrestle with the old Indian's ghost when 
 going down the river with the first Huron students who 
 were brought to Quebec. 
 
 Another arrival at Ihonitiria shows how the Indians of 
 North America have changed their habitats since those 
 times. A number of Nez Perces waited on the great mis- 
 sionary. They are now far out in the Rocky Mountains, 
 but were in 1635 only a few days' journey from Huronia. 
 The purpose of their coming, however, was not devotional. 
 It was to ask for some Frenchmen to help them against the 
 Indians who lived near what is now Green Bay in Wis- 
 consin. De Brebeuf would have gladly sent them priests 
 instead of soldiers, but of course, there were none to be had. 
 
 One day he was almost startled by the arrival of young 
 Frangois Marguerie, who is one of the picturesque figures 
 in Canadian history. He was then only a lad of nineteen, 
 and was passing the winter with the Algonquins down at 
 the Isle. The missionary marvelled at the hardihood of 
 the boy who had adopted and apparently enjoyed the wild 
 life of the savage, in spite of the brutality with which he 
 was treated. " If that child can suffer so much for sport," 
 said de Brebeuf, meditatively, *' how much should I not do 
 for God ! " 
 
 No spinner of Indian romances could weave a stranger 
 tale about the adventures of this daring lad than what 
 we read in the veracious account of the " Relations " a 
 few years later. In 1641 the Indians were prowling around 
 Three Rivers, where he and his friend Thomas Godefroy 
 went out to hunt. They had encamped for the night and 
 lighted their fire, but the Iroquois had followed the tracks 
 of their raquettes. They crept up stealthily upon the boys and 
 then with wild yells, rushed upon them with uplifted toma- 
 hawks to slay them. One of the lads grasped his arquebuse 
 
 108 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 and aimed straight at the savage who was making for him ; 
 but the Iroquois seized the barrel. Fortunately the weapon 
 missed fire. Had the Indian been killed, the boy and his 
 companion would have been butchered on the spot. The 
 other youngster had meantime sprung to his feet and drawn 
 his sword, but an arrow whizzed under his uplifted arm 
 without hitting him. The savage who was making for him 
 stumbled in the snow, and in an instant he saw the flashing 
 blade of his young antagonist at his thoat. The other 
 Indians stood still. One step to rescue their comrade would 
 have meant his death. " What shall I do? " said the boy to 
 himself, as he stood above his prostrate foe. " If I kill 
 him I shall be killed immediately. I was at confession 
 Sunday, but if I am led into captivity and burned and eaten, 
 I shall have more time to prepare for death." Better that 
 kind of preparation than death just now, he thought, and 
 he threw down his sword. The Indians were satisfied, and 
 they led the two boys off into captivity. 
 
 The absence of Marguerie and his companion was soon 
 noted at Three Rivers, and a number of men set out on 
 the trail after the fleeing Iroquois. On a scrap of paper fixed 
 to a stick in the ground the pursuers found a scrawl in 
 charcoal, saying: "The Iroquois caught us in the woods. 
 So far they have not harmed us." Further on there was 
 some more writing on a tree which the captives had stripped 
 of the bark. But that was all. The boys were carried 
 down to the Mohawk. They were treated well and man- 
 aged to communicate with the Dutch at Fort Orange by 
 writing letters on strips of bark or skins, and in this way 
 secured clothing and other things which they needed. 
 
 In the month of April five hundred Mohawks came to 
 Three Rivers to make peace, and as the garrison was looking 
 out anxiously at the flotilla in the river to discover the in- 
 tentions of the savages, a lone Indian was seen coming in 
 a canoe towards the shore. It was not an Indian, but Mar- 
 guerie coming to plead for his captors. Peace was made and 
 
 109 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 the two boys were restored to their friends. But Marguerie 
 continued his adventurous hfe, and in 1648, when he and 
 his young friend, Amiot, were out in a canoe in the 
 river, they were caught in a squall. Their frail bark was 
 torn apart by the violence of the waves, and the two lads 
 were drowned. " Both of them," says the " Relation," 
 " were skilful and brave, and according to the judgment of 
 every one lived a life of remarkable innocence." Of young 
 Amiot we shall have something to say in the sketch of 
 Father Jerome Lalemant. 
 
 110 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 Storms. 
 
 In 1636 de Brebeuf had the happiness of baptizing the 
 first Iroquois who ever became a Christian. He was a 
 Seneca chief who had been captured in a fight, and who 
 died at the stake. Le Mercier wrote a long account of it, 
 and we have condensed it in the biography of JuHen Gar- 
 nier, who long afterwards became the apostle of the Senecas 
 of New York. To repeat it here would be an unnecessary 
 piling up of the hideous scenes of which we have a surfeit 
 in the story of de Brebeuf. 
 
 This conversion of the Seneca took place on September 
 2, and one almost regrets that it was not a week or so later; 
 for Isaac Jogues, whose blood was to be shed for the Iro- 
 quois, arrived in Huronia on September 11. Jogues was 
 not present at that first baptism, but he made up for it by 
 converting a dozen or more of those terrible savages in 
 the bitterly anti-Christian Huron town of Tenaustaye, to 
 which he was assigned shortly after his arrival. His com- 
 ing to the mission was the beginning of trouble. He fell 
 sick almost immediately of a contagious disease of some 
 kind, and the lodge of the missionaries at Ihonitiria was 
 soon a miniature hospital. All but one or two of the 
 Fathers caught the sickness, and not only was no medicine 
 to be had, but there was scarcely anything for the sick or 
 well to eat. But after a while all recovered, only, however, 
 to meet with trouble of another kind. The malady had 
 invaded the Indian wigwams, and the wildest disorder broke 
 out. Orgies and incantations followed each other, day and 
 night, in order to conjure away the pestilence. The Fathers 
 were incessant in their efforts to care for the sick, and 
 though only convalescent themselves, they travelled from 
 
 111 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 village to village, from wigwam to wigwam, helping the 
 sufferers in their bodily needs, and administering remedies 
 which cured more by mental suggestion than by any inherent 
 virtue of the drug. Whenever the chance offered, of course, 
 they instructed and baptized the dying. Still the disease 
 was not checked. On the contrary its ravages became more 
 appalling. Month after month passed, only to increase the 
 horrors around them. Hopes were entertained that the ap- 
 proaching winter might bring some relief, but winter 
 lengthened out into spring and still the pestilence con- 
 tinued. The pest was blamed on the missionaries, and they 
 were even accused of causing it for the purpose of destroy- 
 ing the tribe; the fact that none of them succumbed giving 
 some semblance to the charge. Over and over again they 
 were on the point of being massacred by the frantic people. 
 They were hooted at and insulted ; okis were suspended in 
 front of every wigwam to prevent them from visiting the 
 sick; threats were heard on all sides, and the scowls of the 
 angry savages made it clear that some public action was 
 imminent. Ihonitiria was fast becoming a charnel house, 
 and Ossossane, which had been hitherto so friendly, was 
 now bitter in its denunciations of the missionaries. But just 
 as the prospects were gloomiest, a sudden change of feeling 
 manifested itself. The Indians began to listen to the advice 
 given to them about segregating the infected ; they made 
 use of the remedies given them, and, perhaps, moved by 
 the devotion which they had witnessed during those terrible 
 months, they began to be mollified and to show some 
 curiosity about the Faith. 
 
 This fact is noteworthy because it was already the year 
 1637. As the missions were all destroyed in 1650, it will 
 be seen that the entire period allotted by Divine Providence 
 for the conversion of the Hurons covered a period of only 
 a dozen years. The time was extraordinarily brief for such 
 a gigantic work, but those wonderful men set themselves 
 at their task with a determination that was almost fierce 
 
 112 
 
JOHx\ DE BREBEUF. 
 
 in its intensity. They had resolved to batter down the 
 fortress of the enemy at any cost. Some remarkable con- 
 versions at that time even made them look forward hope- 
 fully to a great spiritual triumph. 
 
 It was at this period that the first adult Huron in perfect 
 health was baptized. He was a conspicuous chief, and it 
 speaks well for his heroism and sincerity that he chose 
 those dark days to declare his belief. He was very properly 
 called Peter, for he was the rock on which the church of 
 Huronia was to be built. A sketch of him will serve to 
 show the capabilities of those poor savages for exalted 
 virtue when under the influence of divine grace. 
 
 He had been under instructions for a long time, but 
 though unusually intelligent and giving every assurance of 
 perseverance, his baptism was deferred. The dreadful 
 surroundings made the missionaries apprehensive of his per- 
 severance. At last, yielding to his reiterated requests, con- 
 sent was finally given. But as it was an event of great 
 importance, A had to be invested with more than usual 
 solemnity. Trinity Sunday was the day chosen for the 
 ceremony. The little chapel glittered with lights ; all the 
 greenery and flowers of the forest were made use of for 
 wreaths and festoons ; and outside of the chapel, a graceful 
 arbor was constructed to receive the neophyte. From the 
 midst of the decorations pictures of Our Lord and the 
 Blessed Virgin looked out upon the Indians who asked if 
 they were living beings. Then while the music of the 
 children filled the air, de Brebeuf, in stole and surplice, ad- 
 vanced solemnly in the sanctuary, and after a fervent dis- 
 course on the nature of the ceremonies, he poured upon the 
 bowed head of the chief the waters of regeneration. To 
 the ardent Frenchmen it was the scene of St. Remi and 
 Clovis reenacted in the forests of the New World. 
 
 Fortunately, we are able to follow Peter for some time 
 after his baptism. Father Pijart, who was going to the 
 missions, met him at Three Rivers, and writes to Le Jeune : 
 
 113 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 " I beg of you (though I feel I do you wrong in suggesting 
 what your heart would naturally prompt you to do) to 
 receive our first Christian with great consideration. I con- 
 fess to you that when I met him, even before he told me 
 he had letters for me, I was quite struck by his sweetness 
 and modesty. I could not help recalling what I used to 
 read about the first Christians, or of what they tell us about 
 the Japanese ; namely, that baptism worthily received confers, 
 besides the graces that necessarily go with it, an exterior 
 sweetness in manner and speech, as well as gentleness of 
 heart. I was so impressed when I saw him that I could 
 have kissed his feet." 
 
 On that journey down to Three Rivers this new Chris- 
 tian took care of every one who fell sick, and instructed 
 them for baptism. When his nephew caught the con- 
 tagion a Frenchman said: "Peter, look after your rela- 
 tive." " I pray for him, night and day," was the answer. 
 " Yes, but take care he does not die without instruction." 
 " I have already instructed him, and he knows enough now 
 to be a Christian. If he gets worse, I will call you to bap- 
 tize him, or will do it myself if you tell me the words to 
 say. If he recovers, I will bring him to the house of the 
 Fathers." At Three Rivers Peter went around with Pijart 
 from cabin to cabin, caring for the sick and instructing 
 them for baptism, and was instrumental in saving many a 
 soul. 
 
 As a council is always held at such gatherings of Indians, 
 a request was made to see the governor, but he was at 
 Quebec, so the Chevalier de ITsle represented him and the 
 convention began its sessions. When the chiefs had taken 
 their usual places, the chevalier, after explaining the absence 
 of the governor, called up Peter to sit beside him. The 
 Indian was quite amazed at the distinction, but did as he 
 was told. Presents were displayed, speeches were made, 
 and then the chevalier reproached the Indians for not 
 receiving the Truth which the missionaries had taught them. 
 
 114 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 "What do you think?" he asked, turning to Peter. 
 Alodestly and with great dignity the convert spoke to his 
 tribe, approving of the censure uttered by the governor, 
 and imploring his people to embrace Christianity. 
 
 There was another meeting and Peter again sat next to 
 the chevalier. A great picture of Our Lord was handed 
 to him, and he held it up before his people and made a 
 discourse that caused the happy missionaries to leap for 
 joy. " It was better," they said, " than even Nicolet could 
 have done." " When we are in battle," he said, " this 
 picture will be held up before us a standard. Can we 
 doubt that we shall prevail over enemies?" His own 
 people looked at him in amazement. They had never heard 
 such words from the lips of a Huron ; " and yet," says the 
 " Relation," " this man, a short time before, had been eating 
 human flesh." 
 
 Nor was he a mere maker of speeches. He was an ab- 
 solutely earnest man. He assisted at all the religious 
 services, and prayed long and fervently after they were 
 over. Unlike the other Indians, who were always clamoring 
 for food, Peter never asked for anything. He had often 
 said to de Brebeuf up at the Lake : " I am becoming a 
 Christian, not for my body but my soul." Before leaving 
 his country he went to confession and communion, and 
 *' though I was astonished," says Pi j art, " that he was 
 allowed to approach the Holy Table so soon, my astonish- 
 ment vanished when I came to know him. I never saw in 
 any savage what I saw in him. I used to study the others 
 to try if I could discover any traces of the dove-like sim- 
 plicity which I observed in him, but without success. He 
 had a certain exterior modesty that quite impressed you. 
 Ten such Indians would convert the country." 
 
 It is to be regretted that we do not find Peter later on 
 in the " Relations," but perhaps the poor fellow was soon 
 stretched out dead on the war path, or was tortured in some 
 distant Iroquois town ; for these Christian Hurons were 
 
 115 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 splendid fighters. His conversion inspired the missionaries 
 with the greatest hopes for the future. Their joy, however^ 
 was short lived. Another storm broke upon them with re- 
 doubled fury, and the cause of it goes to show how men 
 resemble each other all the world over. 
 
 A report was circulated that the Fathers had a dead 
 child in the house, whom they had captured in the woods 
 and stabbed to death with bodkins. It recalls the old Roman 
 distortion of the doctrine of the Blessed Eucharist, and 
 shows us that the tribes of the Tiber were gifted with no 
 higher intelligence on this point than the tribes of Lake 
 Huron. Others averred that there was a huge serpent 
 in the priests' lodge, and that from out the barrel of gun- 
 powder, where he lay coiled, he breathed pestilence on the 
 people. A streamer on one of the branches of a tree, 
 placed there to tell the w^ay the wind blew, was also thought 
 to have a sinister purpose. It told the pestilence where to 
 go. It was Peter who repeated to the Fathers these stories 
 which he had heard right and left among his people. 
 
 Something still more ridiculous added fuel to the flames. 
 It is almost inconceivable, but it is vouched for as sober 
 truth : — a scare about Jesuit machinations. One is used 
 to such alarms among civilized people, but they are hardly 
 conceivable among red Indians. It appears, however, that 
 a band of Hurons had been down at the Atlantic seaboard 
 and had heard at Fort Orange that the Jesuits had been 
 expelled from every country of Europe; that they were 
 a menace to all governments, etc. Excited by these reports 
 the warriors hurried home and succeeded in creating a 
 universal terror in the tribe. They were more afraid than 
 when the pestilence was raging. 
 
 Although Martin says the calumny came from '' Ics puri- 
 tains de Fort Orange," the assertion may be questioned. It 
 is true, no doubt, that at a much later period, the Dutch at 
 Fort Orange were accustomed to ridicule the Mohawks for 
 wearing crosses and medals, but in the early days they 
 
 116 
 
JOHX DE BREBEUF. 
 
 -showed nothing but kindness to the missionaries. In fact, 
 Jogues and Le Moyne, who were in Huronia when this 
 charge was made, told later of the kindHness of the 
 Dutch. Moreover, in the " Relations " of 1639, Le Jeune 
 attributes the trouble to quite another source. He says : 
 *' It came from the savages who were in communication 
 v/ith certain Insular Europeans who are established on the 
 coast towards the south, and who have always been equally 
 bitter against the Church and the Society." 
 
 Whatever the origin, the excitement was sufficient to con- 
 vince de Brebeuf that a general massacre was imminent. 
 He therefore asked for a council. It was granted, and a 
 great crowd packed the lodge at Agoutenec. He addressed 
 the assembly with his usual eloquence and was apparently 
 making a favorable impression, when some one in the 
 audience stupidly or designedly invited the sachems and 
 braves to a banquet. Such a proposition invariably over- 
 powers an Indian, and the convention immediately broke 
 up, leaving the priest in a ridiculous and discredited position. 
 On the -ith of August another council was convoked, and 
 then the purpose of the Indians revealed itself. De Brebeuf 
 was invited to assist, but to throw him off his guard, 
 nothing but the general policy of the tribe was discussed 
 at the opening session ; and towards the end some irrelevant 
 questions were asked about the firmament, the movement 
 of the sun and stars, all of which he explained as he had 
 often done before. 
 
 The next meeting was held late at night. An old chief, 
 who was nearly blind, presided. He opened the proceed- 
 ings by reciting, in a lugubrious tone, all the woes of the 
 tribe, and then invited the sachems to explain the cause. 
 No one spoke. They sat in gloomy silence, broken only 
 by long drawn sighs and groans. The groans, however, 
 soon began to grow more frequent, and finally turned 
 into wild cries and menaces of death, and then, when the 
 feelings of the assemblv were worked into a fury, the orators 
 
 117 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 began their harangues denouncing the Blackrobes and call- 
 ing for their blood. In the midst of the tumult de Brebeuf 
 arose, and his eloquence soon silenced the clamor. But 
 after a while, they began to call for the mysterious spells 
 which he was supposed to possess. " Give us those okis, 
 and no harm will be done to you." " We have no such 
 things," he replied, but he was answered with wild cries of 
 "liar;" "kill him," etc. "If you do not believe me," 
 he retorted, " take all our possessions and pitch them into 
 the lake." " That is always the way with sorcerers," they 
 shouted. "What else is destroying us?" "It is the ig- 
 norance and stupidity which you show in the way you treat 
 your sick," he answered, and he explained to them the 
 nature of contagious diseases, passing afterwards to the 
 higher reasons of the wrath of the Almighty, who was 
 afiflicting them for their sins. 
 
 It was past midnight when the meeting broke up, and as 
 he was returning in the darkness to his lodge, a savage 
 walking near him fell dead at his feet. A tomahawk had 
 crushed his skull. " Was that for me ? " he coolly asked 
 the murderer. "No; it was for that miserable sorcerer." 
 As de Brebeuf was in the same category, he was uncertain 
 whether the savage had mistaken his man, or merely wanted 
 to furnish an object lesson for the " Great Sorcerer " him- 
 self. A few weeks followed full of terror, when another 
 council was convened at Ossossane. De Brebeuf, who was 
 at Ihonitiria, hurried over to the scene of danger, but as 
 only a few chiefs had remained faithful to him, he was made 
 aware that all hope was lost. The doom of the missionaries 
 was sealed. 
 
 It was on this occasion that he wrote his famous letter 
 to the Superior at Quebec. It was dated Ossossane, October 
 28, 1G37, and says: "We are probably about to pour out 
 our blood and to make the sacrifice of our lives. Appar- 
 ently our good Master, Jesus Christ, has deigned to accept 
 this sacrifice from me in expiation of my great and num- 
 
 118 
 
JOHN DE BR£BEUF. 
 
 berless sins, and as a reward for the great and loving work 
 which our Fathers have done here." 
 
 He admits, however, that he was not quite convinced that 
 such would be the issue, first because of his own unworthiness 
 of the blessing of martyrdom, and secondly because of the 
 need which at least some of the Hurons have of the services 
 of the priests " Whatever the end may be," he continues, 
 " our only worry is about the unhappy moral condition 
 of the savages, whose wickedness thus closes on themselves 
 the gates of salvation. However, we shall endeavor to 
 bear it patiently, regarding it as a singular favor to us to 
 be thus called to suffer something for the love of God. 
 We are now beginning to appreciate the happiness of belong- 
 ing to the Society ; and we bless God for having chosen us 
 among so many more worthy than ourselves, to help Him 
 to carry his cross in this country. May His holy will be 
 done in all things. If He wishes us to die, how happy we 
 shall be ! If He wishes to reserve us for other labors, may He 
 likewise be blessed. But if you hear that He has crowned 
 our little work in these parts, or, at least, our desires, thank 
 Him. It is for Him that we wish to live and die. If any 
 one survives, I have made arrangements about what is to 
 be done. Those who are spared are to seek shelter among 
 the most friendly Indians. Peter, our first Christian, will 
 take care of the articles of the chapel, and will, no doubt, 
 do what he can to save the Huron dictionary, and whatever 
 we have written about the language. As for myself, if 
 God gives me the grace to go to heaven, I will pray for my 
 poor Indians, and will not forget your Reverence. 
 
 ** In time and eternity we are your most humble and 
 affectionate servants in Christ, 
 
 " Jean de Brebeuf, 
 
 " FranQois Joseph Le Mercier, 
 
 " Pierre Chastelain, 
 
 " Charles Garnier, 
 
 " Paul Ragueneau." 
 119 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 There is a precious postcript to this epistle. It reads as 
 follows : " I have left in the residence of St. Joseph, Fathers 
 Pierre Pijart and Isaac Jogues, who are in the same dis- 
 position of mind as ourselves." 
 
 The letter is thoroughly characteristic of de Brebeuf. 
 There is no undue exaltation in it about martyrdom. In- 
 deed, he is so used to the fickleness of the Indian that he 
 discounts the likelihood of their carrying out their purpose. 
 He is not in the least alarmed at the approach of death, but 
 deliberately makes preparations for the safety of the possible 
 survivors ; and he is almost amusingly solicitous about his 
 dictionary and grammar. Evidently he considered death by 
 torture only as a little incident in a missionary's career, and 
 he set to work to make arrangements that when the next 
 incumbents arrived they would have means of study at 
 hand. 
 
 As it was admitted on all hands that death was certain, 
 Indian etiquette called for a feast, and it was announced. 
 As on all such occasions, the cabin was packed with hungry 
 savages eager to see how the palefaces would conduct them- 
 selves in presence of death and torture, but perhaps they 
 were more eager to satisfy their voracious appetites in dis- 
 posing of the funeral baked meats which the victims had 
 to supply. When the guests had gorged themselves to their 
 heart's content, de Brebeuf arose. He did not extol his 
 own prowess or recount his exploits, or defy their tortures 
 in good Indian fashion, but he spoke to them of God, of 
 the soul, of heaven and hell. His eloquence, however, fell 
 upon deaf ears. They listened to him sullenly; no one gave 
 the usual grunt of approval, and when he had finished 
 they silently withdrew to their wigwams. Apparently the 
 last act of the tragedy was soon to take place. But for 
 some reason or other, perhaps because the old men had 
 succeeded in convincing the hotheads that the murder of 
 the missionaries would certainly be avenged by the French, 
 the execution of the sentence was deferred. A temporary 
 
 120 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 lull succeeded, and though tomahawks were occasionally 
 tiourished over the heads of the priests, and sticks and stones 
 emphasized the disHke which the savages entertained for 
 Christianity, it was found possible to visit the cabins, and 
 even to preach to some extent, without a constant dread of 
 being killed. By the following year public opinion had 
 so much changed in its tone, that the missionaries were able 
 to effect a permanent establishment in the village of Tenau- 
 stayce, that had been so far the most malignant in its enmity 
 to the Faith. Their entrance into this place marks an im- 
 portant change in the geography of the mission sites. 
 
 The population of Ihonitiria had been so decimated by 
 the pestilence that de Brebeuf determined to abandon the 
 place altogether, and to form a residence elsewhere. The 
 most populous town was Tenaustayoe, but it was the most 
 unfriendly. Nevertheless he boldly went over and asked 
 permission of the chiefs to build a house there. To the 
 amazement of everyone not only a permission but a welcome 
 was given, and so on June 25, 1C38, he and his companions 
 bade farewell to Ihonitiria which thenceforward disappears 
 from history. The new post was called St. Joseph's 11. 
 Ihonitiria had been also dedicated to the holy Patriarch, 
 and hence it is known in history as St. Joseph's I. 
 
 Tenaustayoe figures largely in the records of the mis- 
 sions, although almost exactly ten years afterwards it went 
 up in fire over the bloody corpse of Anthony Daniel. Many 
 events occurred, meantime, inside its palisade, which give 
 interest to its history. Jogues and Pijart were in one of 
 the wigwams when the Fathers were signing their letter 
 of death in 1637, at Ossossane, and in its brief life in spite 
 of its pagan population, it produced many splendid examples 
 of heroic Christianity. Its first great convert, however, 
 was not a native Indian, but an Iroquois who was, like the 
 first Huron, given the name of Peter at his baptism. The 
 manner of his death may be set forth here as illustrative 
 of the character of the people who were being Christianized, 
 
 121 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 but the nervous reader would do well to pass to a few pages 
 further on. 
 
 Peter was an Oneida, and had wandered up near 
 Huronia with no warlike purpose, but merely for hunt- 
 ing and trade. Not meeting with success, he joined one of 
 the Iroquois war parties that had come up subsequently. 
 The meeting was accidental but the accident brought him 
 to heaven. The invaders were caught by the Hurons, and 
 the method of capture may serve as an example of the 
 military tactics of the aborigines. 
 
 Some of the Huron scouts had fallen into the hands of 
 the Iroquois, and one of them, w^ith apparent inadvertence, 
 let it be known that their people were few in numbers and 
 could easily be overpowered. Forthwith the invaders threw 
 up defences in the woods in order to have a regular battle, 
 but next morning they found themselves surrounded by an 
 army. Enraged at the trick that had been played upon 
 them, they murdered the Huron deceiver and prepared for 
 flight. " Not I," said Peter ; " the clouds are not dark 
 enough to hide the shame I w^ould feel in avoiding the fight.'* 
 Others took heart after this speech, but they were quickly 
 overpowered and led off to Tenaustayce. There Peter was 
 instructed and baptized. But, of course, baptism did not 
 interfere with the pleasure of his foes. He was to be 
 tortured. 
 
 The morning of the execution arrived. Standing at 
 Peter's side was another Iroquois, who had also been 
 brought to the Faith. In the midst of his sufferings he 
 seemed to be w^eakening under the agony, but Peter's words 
 sustained him, when suddenly he died. Enraged at being 
 thus defrauded of half their expected sport, the mob threw 
 themselves with the fury of fiends on Peter, determining 
 to make up for the loss by the pain they were to inflict on 
 him. They began their work by tearing off his scalp. 
 Rising to his feet after undergoing what would have left 
 any other man helpless, he saw that he was alone on the 
 
 122 
 
mutmimtmmittmmnm 
 
 y n f 
 
 ■WM"WM«»NiaNMMimHw 
 
 
 AN IxNDlAN CHIEF. 
 (Trom the Maisonneuve Monument.) 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 platform and he determined to fight. Better to die that 
 way, he thought, than by progressive butchery. Though 
 his hands were all bloody and mangled, he seized a blazing 
 torch and stood for a moment defying the foe. Cries of 
 rage rent the air at this act of unparalleled audacity. The 
 Hurons rushed at him with fire brands and hissing red hot 
 irons in their hands, but he beat them back with his terrible 
 weapon and felled everyone who approached, dodging mean- 
 time the missiles that were flung at him from a distance 
 by his infuriated foes. He tore away the ladder that led 
 up to the platform, and hurled back the blazing wood upon 
 his assailants. Showers of fire and ashes fell on him but 
 he avoided them as best he could, springing aside meantime 
 from the torches that were thrust through the fissures of 
 the beams beneath his feet. 
 
 The battle went on with redoubled fury on both sides 
 when a misstep flung him to the ground. They pounced 
 upon him like tigers, and dragging him along the inter- 
 vening space pitched him into the fire. But he rose in the 
 midst of the flames, his body dripping with gore, which the 
 ashes thickened on his wounds. Out of the burning mass 
 he seized two faggots and with these weapons kept off the 
 foe. As no one dared to come near him, he started on a 
 run to set fire to the village, but before he reached it a block 
 of wood felled him to the ground and his assailants were 
 again on top of him, hacking off his hands and feet, piling 
 blazing torches around him and rolling a burning log on him 
 to keep him down. But with a superhuman effort he flung 
 it off, and wriggling out of the fire started on his mangled 
 stumps to attack his foes. They fled horror-stricken. Even 
 they had never witnessed anything so ghastly. Finally a 
 warrior crept up behind him, and cut off his head. Such 
 were the primitive Hurons ; they were more like demons 
 than men. 
 
 In spite of all this fiendishness, however, many notable 
 conversions were made. Most remarkable of all was that 
 
 133 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 of Joseph Chiwatenwa, of whom we shall speak elsewhere. 
 Indeed, the general conditions had so improved that the 
 priests could not only move around unmolested among the 
 people, but were able to extend their field of labors to the 
 neighboring tribes. Thus we find de Brebeuf and Jogues 
 among the Petuns to the west, and though they were not 
 able to eft"ect much, they at least prepared the way for work 
 in the future. An expedition was also planned for the 
 Neutral country. 
 
 124 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 Huron Characteristics. 
 
 Before going among the Neutral savages de Brebeuf put 
 down in writing a summary of his observations about the 
 character and customs of the Huron Indians. While being 
 an extremely valuable document from an ethnological point 
 of view, it enables us to form some idea of the difficulties 
 with which the missionaries had to contend in the work of 
 converting this degraded people. It is found in the '* Re- 
 lation " of 1G36. We give here only a few extracts. 
 
 It begins with a summary of the character of the lan- 
 guage, but de Brebeuf reminds the Fathers to whom he is 
 writing that it is only a foretaste of the grammar and dic- 
 tionary which had been begun ten years before. We omit 
 many of the scientific details, which are too technical for 
 the general reader, though one or two of them may be of 
 interest. 
 
 " In the first place the letters B. R L. M. P. X. Z," he 
 says, " are unknown to the Hurons, but they have one which 
 we do not possess. It is somewhat like the Greek KJii. 
 They have no labials, and consequently their mouths are 
 always open, and it gives them a most unpleasant look 
 when they are talking. You can scarcely hear them when 
 they speak low. As they have neither religion, nor virtue, 
 nor science, nor any idea of discipline, they have consequently 
 no words to express such things, so that we are at our wits 
 ends to get them to understand our explanations of Chris- 
 tianity. They are very fond of compound words, and that 
 gives the key to their language. Their genders are like 
 ours, but they resemble the Greeks in the use of numbers, 
 They also employ a relative declension which always intro- 
 duces the personal pronoun. All their words are con- 
 
 125 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 jugated ; not only the verbs, but even the nouns and 
 adjectives. A relative noun always exacts a possessive 
 pronoun, so that it is impossible for us to get them to say 
 ' In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.' We 
 have to resort to this formula : ' In the name of Our Father, 
 and His Son, and their Holy Ghost.' " He wants to know 
 if that change is allowable. 
 
 " Another curious difficulty," he adds, " is that you can- 
 not say — ' Our Father who art in Heaven,' without in- 
 sulting them. The savages are sentimental. To speak to 
 any of them about a dead father or mother or husband 
 would put them in a rage. Thus the expression ' Father 
 who art in heaven ' is an insinuation which they do not 
 like. The same difficulty arises when you tell them to honor 
 their father and mother if the old people are dead. 
 
 " They have verbs for animate and others for inanimate 
 things; they vary the tenses as often as the Greeks do, and 
 besides the singular, plural and dual numbers they have a 
 double first person for the two latter. They have also in 
 common with other American languages a double conjuga- 
 tion, one simple and absolute, the other reciprocal ; that is, 
 always terminating in some person or thing. 
 
 " What I rarely find," he says, " is a feminine conjuga- 
 tion, at least in the third person singular and plural." He 
 adds somewhat wittily that " the principal distinction be- 
 tween the masculine and feminine conjugation is the absence 
 of the letter H, in which the masculine abounds. It is, 
 perhaps, to let the women understand that there is to be 
 nothing harsh in their words or their manners, and that 
 the law of mercy would show itself on their tongues in 
 accordance with the saying of the Wise Man : ' Lex 
 dementiae ejus.' This is enough for the present unless one 
 wants to know something of their style. They use com- 
 parisons, time-words, and proverbs very frequently. Thus, 
 for example, when they see a fat man they say ' the star is 
 falling,' because there is a belief among them that 
 
 126 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 once a star fell from heaven and was turned into a fat 
 goose." 
 
 There is a great deal of scholarship implied in his account 
 and he almost deserves literary canonization for having 
 built up a grammar in a wigwam, or in the woods, from the 
 language of a people who had no books or writings to help 
 him. 
 
 " In religious matters," he tells us, " there is some appear- 
 ance of their having once had an idea of the true God, 
 but their vices and degradation have pretty well obscured it. 
 They boast of their heavenly origin, and trace it back to 
 a woman named Aataentsic. They will tell you that one 
 day seeing her dog pursuing a bear she joined in the chase. 
 The animals fell into a hole and she, following after, found 
 herself in the sea, which dried up and became the earth. 
 Another version has it that Aataentsic's husband was sick, 
 and wanted some of the fruit that the denizens of heaven 
 usually eat. She proceeded to gather it in Indian fashion 
 by cutting down the tree, which, when it fell, tumbled down 
 to earth and of course she went with it. A tortoise seeing 
 her on the way held a council of the animal world as she 
 was descending, and then scurried to the bottom of the 
 ocean from which he brought up some mud on his back. 
 On that Aataentsic alighted, and the patch of mud expanded 
 into the present earth." 
 
 All this to us moderns sounds like a fancy of Uncle 
 Remus, but the Huron rose no higher than that in his cos- 
 mogony. De Brebeuf suggests that the idea of the tree 
 whose fruit the heavenly ones used to eat is a reminiscence 
 of a primitive revelation. They seemed not to realize the ab- 
 surdity of the story, and when asked who made Aataentsic, 
 and the dog, and the bear, and the tree, and the hole, the 
 Huron theologians gave it up. They had also a distorted 
 version of the story of Cain and Abel, and singularly enough 
 their Cain or lousheka became the benefactor of the race 
 by giving it beautiful rivers and lakes. He accomplished 
 
 127 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 that feat by piercing the armpit of a huge toad which held 
 all the waters captive. He also brought fire on the earth, 
 and let out all the animals from a vast cavern where they 
 were kept. " Perhaps," says de Brebeuf, " there is a vestige 
 in that of what we are told in Scripture, about the animals 
 having been brought before Adam." As they escaped, 
 lousheka wounded each beast slightly, so that it might not 
 run too fast, but he missed the fox. He seems also 
 to have been a sort of Ceres who gave plenty to the fields. 
 He is said to appear sometimes to men, but the missionary 
 never could find any one who saw him. 
 
 To the soul they gave different names when they wanted 
 to describe it as thinking, reasoning, deliberating, seeking 
 an object, separated from the body, etc. It was material, 
 divisible, clinging to the corpse after death, and had a head 
 and members like the body. It preceded the body to the 
 funeral, and lingered about the cemetery until the decennial 
 feast of the dead; it walked the streets at night; entered the 
 cabins and eat what was left in the pot. After the decennial 
 feast they imagined the souls went west to the setting sun, 
 except those of old men and babies, whose legs are not 
 strong enough for the journey. Such spirits lingered 
 around the village, and their voices were heard at times. 
 In the far west it was supposed that there were villages of 
 souls, each tribe having its own, but those who died in war 
 had a place apart. The Hurons declared that those ghostly 
 dwelling places were toward the Petun country, and to get 
 to them they had to pass on a well-beaten trail, near a great 
 rock which is known in the country as Ecaregoniondi. At 
 the time de Brebeuf wrote, it was daubed all over with 
 rude pictures. The souls in passing it met a mysterious 
 being who pierced the skulls of the dead, took out the brain 
 and kept it in a gourd. Around this superstition were woven 
 all sorts of gruesome, but at times poetic stories, about 
 people travelling to the setting sun in search of the souls 
 they loved, not finding them, and the like. 
 
 128 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 They invoked the earth, and rivers and lakes, the dan- 
 gerous rocks and particularly the sky, all of which according 
 to them were instinct with life and were the abodes of some 
 powerful beings. They not only prayed but offered sac- 
 rifices, mostly tobacco, both for impetration and propitiation. 
 They fancied the sky was angry when any one was frozen 
 to death or was drowned, and a sacrifice in such an event 
 was obligatory. "But my God!" exclaims de Brebeuf, 
 "what a sacrifice! or rather, what a butchery! We saw 
 one of these ceremonies. When the corpse was found the 
 whole country was interested in the festival that followed the 
 discovery. They carried the body to the cemetery, and 
 there a number of young braves chosen by the family stood 
 near the dead man clutching their knives, and waiting for 
 the signal. The guardian of the corpse then traced in char- 
 coal on the body of the deceased the parts to be cut out. 
 Whereupon the executioners flung themselves upon the car- 
 cass and slashed off the portions that were most decayed. 
 That being done they eviscerated the corpse and threw the 
 entrails with the other separated portions into the fire and 
 afterwards placed the mangled remains in the grave. Mean- 
 time the squaws were running about encouraging the braves 
 to do their work and putting grains of porcelain into the 
 mouths of the butchers. Sometimes even the mother of the 
 dead man was one of them. All bathed in tears and howling 
 out her lamentations, she urged on these ghouls in their 
 work. When all was over, the sky was supposed to be 
 appeased, but if anything was omitted more trouble was 
 expected." 
 
 He tells us that there were certain rocks of which they 
 stood in awe, and that on the way to Quebec there were 
 several which had their clefts stuffed with offerings of to- 
 bacco. Fish were supposed to have sense, and also deer 
 and elk. Fishing nets were sacred, and when the dead are 
 brought into a cabin the nets were removed. 
 
 The dream was their great superstition. Whatever it 
 
 ^ 129 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 enjoined must be executed at any cost, and instantaneously. 
 Nothing in business, hunting, fishing, dancing, playing, 
 gambling, war, travelling was done except in obedience to 
 a dream, and everybody eagerly assisted the dreamer. 
 Sometimes if he was very poor the requirements were disre- 
 garded, or if too difficult, commutation was resorted to. 
 Sometimes it called for an Ononhara which means that a 
 number of braves were to act like madmen, by entering 
 cabins, destroying what they could lay hands on, carrying of¥ 
 hatchets, pots, shoes, clothing, etc., none of which was re- 
 fused, the actors all the time howling like demons. This 
 performance continued for days. Their festivals were in- 
 numerable, but de Brebeuf reduces them to four classes : 
 festivals of farewells; of mutual enjoyment; of singing and 
 eating; of healing the sick. 
 
 At the eating-festival you have to swallow all that is 
 given to you, and if you do not succeed offhand, they put 
 you aside in a corner until you do. No one can enter after 
 a feast is begun. At song-festivals the sport may continue 
 for twenty-four consecutive hours, and on one occasion he 
 saw as many as twenty or thirty cauldrons boiling at one 
 time, and no less than thirty deer devoured by the guests. 
 Ordinarily they began their feasts by singing. Some of 
 their dances represented the slaying of their enemies. At 
 least a dozen of them were prescribed for the healing-feasts, 
 but the dream must declare which particular one is to be 
 employed. Again it may not be a dance that is to restore 
 the sick Huron to health, but a game of lacrosse in which 
 the whole village participates; or a gambling contest at 
 which everyone who can crowd into the cabin, looks on at 
 the game, which was, to a great extent, like throwing dice, 
 each player howling like a demon, as he shakes six plum 
 stones in a dish, and keeping at it till he loses everything he 
 has, even to his clothes, and then walking off light heartedly 
 to his lodge through the snow. Often there are indecencies 
 wdiich cannot be recorded. 
 
 130 
 
HURONS OF LORETTE (1S38). 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 He tells you that they were not so stupid as not to recog- 
 nize something above the world of sense, but since their 
 vices had made them lose the knowledge of God, they 
 turned naturally to the devil. They resorted to charms for 
 good luck, and were most subservient to the sorcerers who 
 made a business of predicting events, healing the sick, find- 
 ing lost objects and the like. These tricksters were always 
 at the festivals, and drove a profitable trade. Some of their 
 predictions turned out to be amazingly correct ; whether 
 accidentally or by diabolical agency de Brebeuf does not ven- 
 ture to decide. The remedies enjoined by the medicine- 
 men were sometimes ridiculous, sometimes horribly cruel, 
 and sometimes in appearance diabolical. When the priests 
 pointed out to the patient the absurdity of what was being 
 done, the answer would be " Why don't you cure us? " It 
 would be a splendid opportunity, the Fathers thought, for 
 a good medical practitioner who would devote himself to 
 healing these unfortunate wretches. Teaching divine truth 
 would then be extremely easy. 
 
 In spite of their degradation, they had nevertheless 
 evolved a respectable scheme of political and civil life. 
 They had regularly established villages, consisting at times 
 of fifty or sixty lodges, which meant three or four hundred 
 families ; they cultivated their fields, and lived at peace 
 with each other. The Nation of the Bears especially were 
 remarkable for the almost inconceivable sweetness of their 
 manners. It was very hard to offend them, and they always 
 concealed their resentment. They were extremely kind and 
 obliging, and were ever ready to help others in distress. 
 They never married in their own kin, either direct or col- 
 lateral, but sought alliances elsewhere. They talked well 
 and reasoned correctly. They were honest, courteous and 
 civil, and in their dances and festivals there was more 
 decency and reserve than among the other Indians. They 
 punished robbers, murderers and traitors, but, of course, 
 it was in a way that was in keeping with their traditions; 
 
 131 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 not by putting them to death, but usually by giving presents 
 to the aggrieved party. One horrible penalty, however, is 
 recorded, of making a murderer sit under the corpse of his 
 victim and receive the corruption and blood of the decaying 
 flesh in the plate from which he was to eat. 
 
 They had also their system of treaties with outside tribes, 
 and even stipulations were made by individual families, the 
 children of the contracting parties being rigidly bound by 
 the terms agreed upon. In war, though there was appar- 
 ently great confusion, there was a certain order observed, 
 especially when about entering into battle. As to their con- 
 duct in war, de Brebeuf very modestly refers to Champlain's 
 writings for information. 
 
 They fortified their villages, and even maintained spies 
 who lived among other nations. Hence, visitors from sus- 
 pected tribes who entered a village were kept under strict" 
 surveillance. The tribe was generally under the authority 
 of two chiefs ; one for war, the other for civil matters. 
 Under these chiefs were a great number of captains, each 
 with special duties. These captains obtained their posts 
 sometimes by election, sometimes by succession. But it 
 was their nephews and grandchilren, not their own chilren, 
 who were their heirs. However, the heirs had to possess 
 the requisite qualities for the office, before it was confided 
 to them, and had to be formally accepted by the nation. As 
 such charges implied a great deal of hard work, and as there 
 was no means of securing obedience except by persuasion, the 
 honor was sometimes refused. De Brebeuf gives an in- 
 stance of it in his own case, where a chief had to make 
 speeches at him for six months before the missionaries would 
 consent to move to another village. Councils had to be held 
 about it and presents given, and finally to help on the reso- 
 lution that was ultimately taken, all the Indians, young and 
 old. built a new cabin to soothe him for yielding. 
 
 The General Assemblies, were, so to say, parliaments of 
 the entire country. They were usually held in the village 
 
 132 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 of the principal chief and in his lodge, which was adorned 
 for the occasion, and supplied with fires if the season called 
 for it. At other times, however, the assembly took place 
 in the middle of the village, or in the depths of the forest, 
 especially if the business had to be secret, and then it was 
 most commonly at night. The chief of the council presided. 
 The decisions were arrived at by a plurality of votes. As 
 human nature is always the same, it is not surprising to 
 hear that the presiding officers and their officials were quite 
 as open to bribery as in bodies of civilized legislators. 
 
 The first thing to be done before the convention was to 
 send messengers around to the different villages, inviting, 
 not ordering, attendance at the meeting. On their arrival 
 the delegates took their places, each village or nation keeping 
 in its own group. After a vote had been taken about the 
 legality of the convocation, an orator was appointed to open 
 the proceedings. It was not always the chief who was 
 selected. Sometimes his gravity prompted him to remain 
 silent. Any distinguished man could be named, and he, 
 after thanks and congratulations, let loose the flood of ora- 
 tory for the other orators. 
 
 " Their manner of speaking is like that of a preacher 
 of the old school," says de Brebeuf, " with rising and falling 
 inflection, but slowly, gravely, distinctly, and sometimes 
 repeating the same reasons several times, as well as sum- 
 ming up the arguments of the other side. I have heard," 
 he continues, " that their parliamentary style differs from 
 their ordinary language, but such is not the case. They are 
 merely more metaphorical, more exact and more elevated. 
 Most of the speakers have clean cut minds and reason well. 
 They do not stammer or hesitate, and have great sport 
 with any one who does. Some of them are born orators, 
 and when at the conclusion of a speech the grunt of approval 
 has been given, the presiding officer or some one else sums 
 up what the speaker has said ; so that there is no danger 
 of any false interpretation or impression. They are always 
 
 133 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 very moderate and prudent in their utterances ; and though 
 they sometimes lose their tempers, they are astonishingly 
 sweet and discreet. 
 
 " They display an extraordinary solicitude in their care of 
 the dead. They will save for years and go naked and hungry, 
 so that the interments of their departed ones may be at- 
 tended with the proper solemnity and display. They are not 
 afraid to speak of death to the sick, nor are the sick alarmed 
 to hear of its approach. As soon as death takes place the 
 corpse is not laid out, but is rather bundled up in a sort of 
 a package, and until that is done no one weeps. Then they 
 begin a regularly modulated lugubrious wail, until some one 
 in authority orders them to cease. 
 
 " After that, the captain of the village goes around to 
 the houses with the news, and the friends flock in and begin 
 a series of discourses about the merits of the deceased. Mes- 
 sengers are sent to the outlying villages, and each family 
 has its own undertaker who directs the proceedings. The 
 burial usually takes place on the third day, and meantime 
 each house hangs its pot over the fire and prepares for the 
 funeral feast. Great numbers have to be provided for, and 
 good feeling has to be in evidence, but it is chiefly to oblige 
 the dead man's soul, which is supposed to take its part of 
 the viands. 
 
 " When the captain announces the departure for the 
 cemetery, every one assembles in the cabin, lamenting and 
 weeping. The corpse is put on a stretcher and covered with 
 a beaver robe and carried out. All follow in silence. A 
 bark tomb has been already erected on four posts about 
 eight or ten feet high. While the corpse is being prepared 
 the captain announces the presents which have been made 
 to the family to dry their tears. They are numerous and 
 costly, but they are not placed in the tomb. The dead person 
 is sometimes provided with a comb, a gourd full of oil, a 
 porcelain collar, and two or three little loaves. Presents 
 are also given to the funeral director. While the women are 
 
 134 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUR 
 
 at the feet of the corpse giving vent to their dismal lamen- 
 tations, the captain generally throws a stick to the young 
 men who struggle madly for its possession, sometimes for 
 more than an hour " — a game which is strongly suggestive 
 of our college cane-rushes. When that is over every one 
 goes home. 
 
 " Little children are buried in the roads in the hope that 
 they may be born again as some woman passes by. The 
 mourning goes on for a year, though the deep mourning 
 lasts only ten days, during which time the afflicted parties 
 do not go near the fire even in winter ; they eat everything 
 cold and go out only at night. They shear off a part of 
 their hair behind. They do not marry again inside the year. 
 The general interment takes place only every tenth year, 
 but in the interval funeral feasts are of frequent occurrence, 
 in order to recall the memory of the dead. The solemn and 
 general feast of the dead is a national event. Its chief 
 characteristic is the universal feasting that takes place. In- 
 deed, these entombments are called ' the festivals of the 
 pot.' The pot is boiling in every cabin. 
 
 " Before it takes place a solemn council is convened to 
 decide on the proper day. When the word is given each 
 family goes after its dead, no matter where they may be. 
 The disentombment is a scene of unspeakable horror. 
 Corpses in every state of decomposition are laid out on the 
 ground to be looked at. When the relatives have satisfied 
 themselves with the dreadful spectacle, the flesh is removed 
 from the bones. Those, however, who have recently died 
 are left untouched. When this ghoul-like ceremony is over, 
 the remains are carefully wrapped in precious robes, and 
 carried on the backs of the mourners to the village, each 
 cabin taking its own and performing its own ceremonies. 
 
 " The Hurons were convinced that a man had two souls, 
 one which goes straight to the Village of Souls, or turns 
 itself into a turtle dove; while the other clings to the corpse 
 and is a sort of forma cadavcrica. Hence their extreme 
 
 135 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 solicitude. A day or so after, speeches are made and 
 presents interchanged, and then all the bodies are carried 
 to a large cabin and suspended on poles. The village cap- 
 tain gives a great feast, but does it in the name of some 
 dead chief whose name he bears." 
 
 On the occasion at which de Brebeuf was present eight 
 days had already passed, and people were flocking in from 
 all parts with their dead. The women meantime indulged 
 in games of archery, and the braves in their cane-rushes, 
 for both of which prizes were given. Finally the grand 
 procession started for Ossossane, which was only twelve 
 miles away, but it went by very slow stages. Every village 
 they passed came out to meet them with presents. It was 
 fully five days after when the burial services began. They 
 first undid all the bundles, for a last look at the departed, 
 and the indulgence of extravagant affection. " The place 
 of assembly," he says, " was as large as the Place Royale 
 in Paris." In the middle was a pit ten feet deep and about 
 fifteen feet in diameter. All around it a platform had been 
 erected above which were poles, placed lengthwise, with 
 others across from which the packs of bones were to be 
 hung. The bodies that were still entire were stretched on 
 the platform with bark or mats beneath them. 
 
 The procession arrived at one in the afternoon, and 
 divided up into separate groups of villages, families, etc. 
 Then a signal was given, and a wild rush was made for 
 the platform to hang up the dead, and to display the presents 
 which on that occasion were 1200 in number. When that 
 was done the ladders were withdrawn, and for two hours 
 the two thousand people of the crowd contemplated the 
 display, and from that till seven o'clock at night the orators 
 discoursed on the virtues of the departed and the richness 
 of the presents. About five or six o'clock, while the flood 
 of oratory was being poured out, they began to prepare 
 the pit to receive the bodies. 
 
 First someone threw in handfuls of sand to insure good 
 
 136 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 luck for the souls at gambling; then forty-eight precious 
 robes were placed at the bottom of the grave. This was, 
 of course, over and above the robes in which each corpse 
 was enveloped. At seven o'clock they started to place the 
 bodies in the grave. It was impossible for the priests to 
 get near, and it seemed to them like a riot of the damned, 
 as the savages struggled in from all sides with half rotten 
 carcases, yelling and screaming to the ten or twelve men 
 who were down in the pit. Finally in the centre they placed 
 three old pots which were of no further use and a few por- 
 celain collars, though of course there were many on the 
 bodies themselves. They passed the whole night at the 
 mouth of the pit gorging themselves at the fires, where they 
 hung up their pots to cook their food. 
 
 In the morning they were to put in the loose bones. The 
 missionaries, who had withdrawn to their own cabin for 
 the night, had resolved to be on hand early in the morning. 
 But they were not quick enough for what had happened. 
 One of the bundles of bones had fallen from its pole, and 
 the people were wild with excitement. When the mission- 
 aries arrived they saw what looked like a picture of hell. 
 The whole place was lighted up with the glare of many 
 fires, cries and shrieks filled the air, and the maddened people 
 were flinging the bones into the pit, first tearing off the 
 precious robes to carry them home. Then the multitude 
 took up a lugubrious chant, which, rising and falling, seemed 
 like the wail of lost souls. 
 
 Almost everything had been thrown in when the mis- 
 sionaries had arrived, and the bones had already filled the 
 pit to the depth of two feet. Over them were folded the 
 robes that had lined the sides of the excavation, and mats 
 and bark were placed on top. Finally sand, blocks of wood, 
 poles, anything in fact that came to hand was pitched in 
 to fill up the excavation. De Brebeuf remarks that the 
 important men, the grossestetcs, who presided at this cere- 
 mony made a good deal of profit out of it, in the precious 
 
 137 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 things they were able to carry off in the way of presents; 
 but that the people were getting tired of the whole thing 
 on account of the great expense it involved. However, he 
 saw in the festival a glimmer of hope that he some day 
 might speak to them of the pricelessness of the human soul, 
 " of whose immortality they had at least some vague idea." 
 
 After the dead were interred there was a general dis- 
 tribution of the robes that had been exhibited. A very rich 
 one was offered to de Brebeuf in return for the valuable 
 collar he had presented at the council. But he refused the 
 gift. " I gave you that collar," he said, " to draw you to 
 the faith, and not to get anything in return. Do what you 
 will with it." The chiefs of course were delighted. It was 
 so much more profit for themselves. It was on this occasion 
 that poor Briile's ghost arose. 
 
 At the preparatory council, de Brebeuf had been asked 
 to transfer the bodies of the two Frenchmen who had been 
 murdered and put them in the trench with the rest of the 
 dead. They were Brijle and Chaudron, two curious appel- 
 latives — '' burned " and " pot." He refused, alleging that 
 both of those unfortunates had been baptized, and he was 
 unwilling to mingle their dust with the heathens. Doubt- 
 less he expressed it more gently. It was finally agreed that 
 he should transport them to the burial spot, and put them 
 in a grave apart with a great cross above them. But the 
 savages of Ihonitiria began quarrelling with those of Os- 
 sossane about the body of Bride, somebody suggesting that 
 the people who murdered him ought to keep him. So he 
 was left in his grave in the woods. " One has to admire 
 the secret judgments of God," soliloquizes the missionary, 
 " for that infamous wretch did not merit such an honor. 
 To be candid it would have been hard on us to make a 
 special cemetery for him, and to transfer to consecrated 
 ground the body of a man who had led such a scandalous 
 life in this country, and had given the savages such a bad 
 impression of the morality of the French." 
 
 138 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 Among the Neutrals. 
 
 The country of the Neutrals had long been tempting the 
 missionaries. It lay to the south, and according to the 
 " Relations " was about 120 miles away ; that is to say : 
 " St. Mary's which had just been established, was in latitude 
 44°, 25', and the Neutral boundary was 42^°," but, as if 
 in anticipation of a challenge, the writer adds : " we cannot 
 be more exact, for if the natives here go into convulsions 
 when they see us using our writing materials, we do not 
 know what would happen if they found us on the hills with 
 a quadrant or an astrolabe." For that reason the unscien- 
 tific reader will pardon them if they are out in their reckon- 
 ing by 15' 18". Whatever the distance be geodetically, it 
 meant four or five days' journey to reach the nearest Neu- 
 tral town. There we are told " if the travellers continued 
 south east for another five days they would, barring accident 
 or delay, reach the mouth of the Niagara River, through 
 which Lake Erie empties into Lake Ontario. On the west 
 of that river and not on the east," we are warned, "are 
 most of the Neutral villages. The few on the other side 
 straggle off in the direction of the Eries or Cats." " Oh ! " 
 sighs the poor scribe who is writing all this, in his miserable 
 wigwam up near Georgian Bay, " if we could only control 
 the southern shore of Lake Ontario, how easy it would 
 be to leave Quebec, paddle up the St. Lawrence, cross Lake 
 Ontario, and then go to the regions beyond." But the 
 Iroquois refused to be controlled, and four years after these 
 words were written, they were torturing Jogues on the 
 banks of the Mohawk. 
 
 The earlier explorers were under the impression that most 
 of the tribes towards the west were Neutrals, but a more 
 
 139 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 exact knowledge of language and localities revealed the fact 
 that they were not so numerous as was imagined. They 
 were only about 12,000 all told, and were distributed in 
 forty towns or villages. Their Indian name was Ottiwan- 
 daronk. They were called Neutrals merely because they 
 refused to take sides in the Huron-Iroquois wars. They 
 held the scales so evenly balanced between the two con- 
 testants, that the Huron and Iroquois braves might meet in 
 an Ottiwandaronk wigwam without coming to blows, much 
 less using their tomahawks. Later on, as often happens, 
 the nation sympathized with the winners, but it turned out 
 to be very bad policy, for after the Iroquois had demolished 
 the Hurons, they made short w^ork of the Attiwandaronks. 
 It was a deplorable strife, for at bottom it was mainly a 
 struggle to get the white man's trade. 
 
 The Hurons and Neutrals resembled each other in their 
 manner and customs, and in what Lalemant calls " their 
 domestic and political economy." They both dressed in 
 the skins of wild beasts, but the Neutral apparel was less 
 decent. Although the women were clothed from the waist, 
 the men were shameless. " The warriors," we are in- 
 formed, " were tattooed with as many traceries as could 
 be found in the old gorgets and head pieces and cuirasses 
 of a French soldier. The people cultivated maize, faizoles, 
 pumpkin and squash. Fish abounded in the rivers and 
 lakes, and there was plenty of game in the woods, such as 
 deer, moose, wild cats and hctes noircs. There were other 
 animals whose flesh and fur were considered especially 
 valuable for trade," but what they were we are not informed. 
 " Turkeys went in droves through the forests and fields, 
 but in the matter of fruits, the Neutrals had to satisfy them- 
 selves with chestnuts and wild apples." 
 
 They were taller and shapelier than the Hurons, but more 
 brutal. For instance a Huron would never think of tor- 
 turing a woman at the stake, though, in his wrath, he might 
 kill her. The Neutrals had no scruples on that score. 
 
 140 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 There was a notable difference, also, in the way they dis- 
 posed of the dead. The Huron carried off the corpse 
 immediately, whereas the Neutral let it rot in the wigwam, 
 till even his strong nostrils could no longer stand the in- 
 fliction. They then put it on a scaffold outside, till the 
 flesh fell off, and finally set up the skeleton in the lodge so 
 that the squaws might lament over it whenever they were 
 so disposed. 
 
 Another uncomfortable feature of life among them was 
 the great number of maniacs to be met with. Some were 
 genuine madmen, but many were counterfeit, and assumed 
 the frenzy, merely as a pretext for all sorts of license, rob- 
 bery and murder. When they were carrying on their antics 
 no one interfered with them. They were chartered liber- 
 tines. Such were the people whom the missionaries pro- 
 posed to convert. The task was unusually difficult, and 
 for that reason de Brebeuf was assigned to it, though the 
 "Relation" tells us that "the lot fell on him;" as if he 
 were chosen as the Apostles chose Matthias. Chaumonot, 
 who had just arrived, was given to him as a companion. 
 
 With two servants of the mission, who went ostensibly 
 as traders, so as to facilitate the entrance of the missionaries 
 into this doubtful country, they started out on November 2, 
 1640, and after five days' tramping through woods and 
 swamps, reached Kandoucho, which they called All Saints. 
 The time of the year suggested the name, and, indeed, the 
 titles of man)/* of those old missions almost serve as a 
 church calendar. 
 
 Nothing noteworthy happened at that place, and in blissful 
 ignorance of the fact that Huron runners had preceded them 
 to predispose the Neutrals against their coming, they con- 
 tinued on their way in search of the principal chief. But 
 the country was aroused. The cry w^as on every tongue: 
 " Echon ! Echon ! The Great Sorcerer, the Chief of the 
 Demons is coming." The women and children fled in 
 terror, and the men kept aloof. A council was called to 
 
 141 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 determine what to do. The priests presented themselves 
 at it, ahhough uninvited, and offered a wampum belt of 
 two thousand porcelain beads by way of friendship. It was 
 refused, on the pretext that the chief was absent. The 
 refusal was ominous. 
 
 Meantime the shrewd Indians had discovered that the 
 two servants were not real traders, probably because they 
 were so well behaved, and the missionaries had to conduct 
 them back again to the Huron country. When that was 
 done they returned a second time to the Neutrals, with no 
 pretence of trade to obscure their purpose. The second 
 appearance of the missionaries was the signal for an ex- 
 plosion. The chiefs told the people that " Echon had de- 
 clared he would remain a certain time in the country and 
 would cause the death of as many as he had determined 
 to kill, and then would go to other places and do the same ; 
 not stopping till he had destroyed the whole earth." Others 
 said that " after having brought ruin on the Hurons, he 
 was now on his way to make a treaty with the Senecas, 
 who were down near Niagara." Others, on the contrary, 
 related that when Joseph Chiwatenwa was buried, Echon 
 turned towards the Seneca country and exclaimed : " Seneca, 
 it is all over with thee; thou art dead," and that striding 
 solemnly in that direction, he caused a pestilence to break 
 out in their villages. As just then there was sickness pre- 
 vailing among the Senecas, it was easy to persuade 
 the Indians that de Brebeuf had caused it. When the 
 storm was at its worst the Hurons made their appearance 
 again, and went around exciting the Neutrals to kill the 
 priests. Indeed, rumors of their murder had already 
 arrived at St. Mary's. 
 
 Undismayed by all this commotion the two heroic men 
 kept on their way. But it was everywhere the same story. 
 Arriving at a village they would hear the cry : " Bar your 
 doors, Echon is coming," and not a lodge would admit them ; 
 or if they were given shelter, they were treated with the 
 
 143 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 greatest brutality, and made to do the work of slaves. They 
 were abused, insulted, threatened. The professional maniacs 
 would enter stark naked into their cabin, to shock or rob 
 them. Whatever they touched was regarded as bewitched ; 
 the springs where they slaked their thirst were poisoned; 
 the trails they travelled were infected; their crucifixes were 
 okis; their prayers incantations. No one would sleep in a 
 house they had entered ; children vomited blood, and women 
 became sterile. "Kill them;" "eat them," was heard on 
 all sides. So great was the excitement that the people 
 insisted on another council. Into it de Brebeuf with his 
 usual audacity forced his way, only to be thrust out with 
 threats and insults. The deliberations lasted till midnight. 
 Three times the sentence of death was passed, but the in- 
 fluence of some of the chiefs who did not share the general 
 panic deferred the execution. When the meeting broke up, 
 the Indian who had given them shelter hurried to tell them 
 what had happened. To his amazement he found them both 
 asleep. Death had no terrors for them. 
 
 Onward they went from village to village, until they 
 reached Onguiara, near the famous Falls, but they tell us 
 nothing in their account of what must have greatly im- 
 pressed them. Doubtless they were thinking more of the 
 moral cataract that was overwhelming the unhappy people 
 around them. We only know that they were badly treated 
 there, and that they journeyed on to another village which 
 came near being their grave, for every lodge was shut 
 against them. The night was far advanced ; the snow was 
 deep, and the bitter cold was splitting the trees in the 
 forest. There was danger of freezing to death, and hence 
 they determined to force their way into a wigwam at the 
 risk of being tomahawked for their temerity. It was only 
 a choice of ways of leaving the world, and they chose the 
 latter. So crouching at the door of a lodge they waited 
 for some one to come out. After a while the deerskin was 
 pushed aside, and an Indian appeared. Before he could 
 
 143 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 prevent them they rushed in, only to find the occupants 
 aroused to a pitch of fury at this daring intrusion. Once 
 inside, however, the laws of hospitality forbade their being 
 harmed, but the young men could with difficulty be re- 
 strained from making light of the law, and murdering them 
 where they stood. Shouts and yells resounded through 
 the cabin, and the whole village rushed to the scene of 
 the uproar. " Kill them ; " " drink their blood," " we have 
 had enough of dark flesh, let us eat the white," they cried. 
 A warrior stood before them with his bow in his hand, his 
 arrow drawn to the head. The old men entreated the 
 priests to withdraw, but de Brebeuf calmly continued talking, 
 till awed by his splendid courage the assembly grew calm, 
 the tumult ceased, and all sat down to discuss the situation. 
 They asked all sorts of questions, examined the articles the 
 missionaries had with them, but immediately imposed silence 
 if any attempt was made to introduce religious subjects. 
 
 It was during this apostolic journey that de Brebeuf had a 
 vision of a demon who endeavored to strike him with a fiery 
 dart, but who was always prevented by an invisible power. 
 The savage with the arrow might well pass for the demon, 
 but the missionary chose to see it verified in all the wonderful 
 escapes from death which marked his journey in this new 
 country. Though he had consecrated the land to the Holy 
 Angels, the fallen ones would seem to have been in posses- 
 sion. Indeed, the mission had utterly failed, for during 
 those four awful months nothing had been effected, and 
 it was at last determined to return to St. Mary's But a 
 fierce blizzard was raging, and they were compelled to pass 
 another three weeks among these intractable savages. By 
 this time they had arrived at a village called Teatonguiaton. 
 They gave it the name of St. William, and it turned out to 
 be one of the blessed spots of that painful pilgrimage. 
 
 In spite of the clamor of her neighbors, a^squaw received 
 them into her cabin. She was denounced by the tribe, 
 warned of the danger of harboring them, threatened with 
 
 144 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 punishment if she persisted ; but she made light of their 
 wrath, and treated her guests with the greatest consider- 
 ation, giving them the best portion of her food ; even pro- 
 curing fish for their Lenten fare, a soHcitude from which 
 in the circumstances, a modern missionary would have dis- 
 pensed her; and instructing her children to put themselves 
 at the service of the Fathers. Meantime her lodge was 
 often invaded by furious savages who stormed around her 
 visitors, beat them, spat upon them, tore off their garments 
 and threatened them with death. But though the riot con- 
 tinued night and day for weeks, the brave woman never 
 flinched in her defense of her guests. Even her boys had 
 fights in the village streets on their account. 
 
 It used to be one of Cesar's glories that he wrote his 
 famous " Commentaries " in the very midst of war's alarms, 
 but it is doubtful if he could have achieved what those two 
 ragged and weary men accomplished in that miserable wig- 
 wam during the three weeks they sought its shelter from 
 the blinding snowstorm outside, or strove to get a moment's 
 peace from the maniacs who were continually raging within 
 it. In the twenty-five days of their stay in that place, they 
 wrote a book of comparative philology of the Huron and 
 Neutral dialects which, according to Lalemant, was worth 
 spending several years of exile to complete. The good 
 squaw would leave all her work and patiently dictate and 
 explain while they wrote. 
 
 They were most grateful, indeed, but her kindness was 
 almost a source of sorrow to them, for although giving 
 evidence of so much natural virtue, she failed to show the 
 slightest inclination to accept the Faith. When her father 
 arrived, he fully approved of all that she had done, but 
 as he was something of a sorcerer, it was perhaps to get 
 some hints about the black art from the missionaries. 
 It was the case of Simon Magus and St. Peter. Meantime 
 the Fathers in Huronia were very much alarmed about the 
 wanderers. Disquieting reports had come in about their 
 
 145 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 fate, and finally an appeal was made to the Indians 
 to send some one out in search of diem. Two volunteered 
 to go, one of them, the famous Teondechoren, of whom a 
 word here is almost imperative. 
 
 Teondechoren was the brother of the pious Chiwatenwa. 
 He had been a man of frightfully licentious life, and the 
 admitted leader in the most diabolical incantations and 
 dances of the tribe. Shortly after the death of his great 
 brother, he presented himself at the lodge of the priests, 
 and asked for baptism. The proposal made them shudder. 
 But he persisted, and to their surprise they found that he 
 was perfectly well instructed in the Faith. His knowledge 
 had been almost forced on him by Chiwatenwa. Still there 
 could be no question of trusting him, especially in his actual 
 surroundings, but as he persisted they at last began to take 
 him seriously. During the instructions they succeeded in 
 making him talk about his power as a magician. 
 
 " When I was about twenty years of age," he said, " I 
 took a fancy to be a sorcerer, but I found I could do very 
 little of what I saw the others doing. When I tried to 
 handle the fire I always burned myself, but I so juggled 
 with it that people thought I was perfect in the art. Finally 
 one night I had a dream, and I saw myself in a fire-dance, 
 in which I could perform all the ceremonies without dif- 
 ficulty, and I heard a song which on awakening I found 
 I could sing just as I had heard it in my dream. At the 
 first public feast I sung it, and little by little I fell into a 
 trance, and I discovered that I could carry fire in my hands 
 and mouth, and plunge my naked arms into cauldrons of 
 scalding water without feeling the slightest pain. In a word 
 I was perfect in the art, and during the twenty years I 
 practiced magic, I had sometimes three or four of those 
 dances in a single day. Indeed, instead of burning myself, 
 I felt cool and refreshed." He added that he could never 
 succeed in his performances unless he had on his person 
 the articles which he had seen in his dream. Hence he 
 
 146 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 always held a preparatory dance in which he called for 
 what he needed. 
 
 He was at last baptized, though with much misgiving, 
 but immediately he w^as a changed man. He led a pure 
 life, and abandoned his work as a sorcerer. He was ready 
 for any thing that would be helpful to the missionaries, 
 and when the call was made for a search party to go 
 down to the Neutral country he offered himself, although 
 there was important public business demanding his attend- 
 ance, absence from which would give rise to much discon- 
 tent ; but he did not care, and with another Huron and two 
 servants of the mission he set out on his journey. He 
 arrived at St. William's just as the blizzard was abating. 
 The Fathers were more than happy to see him, and prepared 
 to return home. The weather was intensely cold, but 
 there was a crust on the snow that made travelling com- 
 paratively easy; and so, bidding farewell to their kind 
 hostess they started out with their guides for St. Mary's. 
 For tw^o days their snow shoes were of use, but after that 
 the trouble began. Chaumonot relates that they were able 
 to drag their sleds over sixty miles of ice on the frozen 
 water courses, but had to pay for it by many a fall of which, 
 he said, " I bear the marks still on my knees." " The w^ater 
 course " he speaks of, was probably the river that leads up 
 to Lake Simcoe. Strangely enough he says nothing what- 
 ever in his letter about what occurred as they came near the 
 end of their journey. 
 
 De Brebeuf fell on the ice and for a time was unable to 
 stir. When he revived, he discovered that his collar bone 
 was broken, but he said nothing of it to the others. He 
 was evidently in great pain, how'ever, and was obliged 
 to lean on his companions. He could not lift his feet from 
 the ground and had to crawl up the ice-hills on his 
 knees, and then slide down the opposite declivities to avoid 
 another fall. They offered to make a sled to drag him 
 for the remaining thirty-six miles of the journey, but he 
 
 147 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 refused, probably because he did not want to make pack- 
 horses of his companions, or it may be because he was 
 fulfilhng a vow which he had made ten years before, to do 
 every thing in the most perfect way under pain of sacrilege. 
 
 The journey lasted altogether four days. During the 
 night, of course, they slept in the snow, for as Chaumonot 
 says: "there were no other inns in those parts." Finally, 
 on St. Joseph's day, they reached St. Mary's " in time to 
 say Mass," the chronicler is careful to note, while he adds : 
 " thus affording them a happiness which they had not en- 
 joyed during their long absence;" a piece of information 
 which is most valuable, for we are made aware that during 
 those four months, the Holy Sacrifice was no where offered 
 in the Neutral country. Of course everything was done 
 for de Brebeuf in order to relieve the pain which he was 
 continually suffering, but there was no surgical aid avail- 
 able in those rough surroundings, and it cost him eighteen 
 months of uninterrupted agony. Meantime he refused all 
 aid in his ministerial work. He was bent on getting more 
 than his share of a promise made to him in a vision near 
 Niagara, when he saw a cross which " covered the whole 
 country and was large enough for everyone." 
 
 In those memorable five months the two missionaries 
 had come in contact with about 3,000 Indians, and the 
 rest of the people had at least heard about the purpose of 
 their apostolic visit, so that the seed of the Gospel can be 
 said to have been sown among the Neutrals at that time, 
 even if most of it fell on rocks or was choked by weeds. 
 However, the work was not altogether fruitless. They 
 caught many a little babe just gasping its last, and " made 
 it an angel ; " and a number of old and sick and dying 
 people seemed only to have been waiting for their coming. 
 
 Another event happened during that journey which gave 
 de Brebeuf and his companions considerable comfort. A 
 wandering tribe known as the Awenrehronnons had come 
 from the other side of Lake Erie to seek refuge among 
 
 148 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUR 
 
 the Neutrals. These poor exiles gladly welcomed the mis- 
 sionaries, and listened to all that was said to them about the 
 Faith. A few were baptized, but as it was impossible to 
 stay with them any length of time, and as they were, unfor- 
 tunately, a very degraded set, nothing could be done for them 
 just then. Nevertheless they had caught something of the 
 teachings of the Gospel and may have carried at least a few 
 faint recollections of it elsewhere in their wanderings. 
 " God, no doubt," said the missionaries, " would gather His 
 harvest in some way or other later on." Thus even apart 
 from the splendid heroism which it evoked — and that would 
 be triumph enough — the work among the Neutrals was not 
 altogether a failure. 
 
 It is to be regretted that we have not an exact itinerary 
 of that great expedition. We know, indeed, where the 
 first village of Kandoucho or All Saints was, for it is put 
 down at one hundred and twenty miles directly south of 
 St. Mary's on the Wye. About Niagara, of course, there 
 is no doubt, but where were the other sixteen villages which 
 they visited ? The old map of Creuxius, which was pub- 
 lished in 1660, but whose geography, as all agree, is that 
 of 1647-48, furnishes, however, some precious information. 
 On it we find that Khiotea or St. Michael's, the only place 
 where any respect was paid to them, lies as far west as 
 Lake St. Clair, and consequently beyond the present city 
 of Detroit. Thus these two apostles must have travelled 
 the whole length of Lake Erie. Two other sites are 
 also indicated : St. Francis, which was situated where Lake 
 Huron empties into Lake St. Clair; and St. Joseph's, which 
 apparently occupies the actual site of Detroit. St. Alexis 
 is down near Lake Erie, and north of it is Our Lady of 
 Angels, a name given to the whole territory, but which may 
 also have been bestowed on some particular place. Neither 
 of these names, however, can be found in the " Relations." 
 Unfortunately the one village which would give us most 
 pleasure to find, Creuxius has omitted, namely Teatonguia- 
 
 149 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 ton or St. William's where the valiant squaw stood up so 
 sturdily in their defense. It is thought to have been about 
 the middle of the Neutral territory. 
 
 What became of their guide, the converted sorcerer 
 Teondechoren? Not only did he remain a fervent Chris- 
 tian, but a great preacher of the Faith. When Jogues 
 started down to Quebec with the dying Raymbault, Teonde- 
 choren accompanied him, and before going he* addressed 
 the braves in a discourse which reads like a splendid 
 sermon. At its conclusion he made them all kneel down 
 and consecrate themselves to God. 
 
 They reached Quebec, and Teondechoren embarked with 
 Jogues for the return journey. They were captured by the 
 Mohawks and led into the Iroquois country with the mis- 
 sionary, where Teondechoren spent an entire year, but was 
 finally able to escape and make his way to Quebec. There 
 he told the story of the disaster, and it is from him we 
 have many of the details of that memorable event. At 
 Quebec he consoled the nuns by giving them information 
 about Therese, the little Huron girl who had been educated 
 at the convent, but who when returning to her country with 
 Father Jogues, had fallen into the hands of the Mohawks ; 
 he told how she had remained good and pious in the midst 
 of the corruption of the Indian town ; how she used to say 
 her beads on her fingers or on pebbles which she would 
 place on the ground ; how she used to go to confession to 
 Father Jogues whenever he was brought into her neigh- 
 borhood by her savage masters. He was heart-broken at 
 not being able to take the child with him when he fled, 
 for she was his niece, the daughter of the famous Chiwa- 
 tenwa, and it was he who had sent her down to the convent 
 at Quebec after the death of his brother. But it was im- 
 possible to save her. 
 
 Bidding good-bye to his white friends on the St. Law- 
 rence, he started for home with a party of Hurons. They 
 w^ere caught, however, by the Iroquois, and lost twenty of 
 
 150 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 their men and a large part of their provisions. That was bad 
 enough, but in addition they were completely routed farther 
 up the river, probably at the Chaudiere, and Teondechoren 
 was left bleeding to death on the rocks from a bullet hole 
 in his shoulder. Ordinarily he Vv'ould have been abandoned, 
 but his companions heard him praying so fervently to 
 God to let him see the Fathers before he died, that they 
 carried him back all the way to St. Mary's. His happiness 
 brought about his speedy recovery. 
 
 He continued his pious manner of life, and after the 
 destruction of the missions we find him at Isle d'Orleans 
 with the remnants of his tribe. While there he gave an 
 example of chastity which recalls the classic ones of Holy 
 Scripture; but in spite of his irreproachable life, his wife 
 was insanely jealous, and although the difficulty was patched 
 up by the Fathers it was continually revived. Poor 
 Teondechoren stood it for a year, when Heaven inter- 
 vened. He and a party of Hurons had gone down to 
 Tadoussac to sell their furs when a squall struck the canoe, 
 and they all disappeared in the depths of the St. Lawrence. 
 His wife's scoldings had come to an end. 
 
 151 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 Down at Quebec. 
 
 When Father Vimont, the new Superior General, arrived 
 in Canada, he was naturally desirous of knowing something 
 about the condition of the Huron missions, and as the one 
 best informed was de Brebeuf, he was sent down to report. 
 Probably the desire to put him in the hands of whatever 
 doctors Quebec might possess at the time had also some- 
 diing to do with the choice. Hence, at the end of the 
 summer of 1641, he and Father du Peron, with four French- 
 men and six Indians started down the river and reached 
 Quebec in safety. He had, however, a very narrow escape 
 when approaching Three Rivers. 
 
 Five hundred Iroquois had come up from the Mohawk, 
 but had sent a detachment ahead to intercept any Hurons 
 who might be descending the St. Lawrence. They saw 
 de Brebeuf's canoe, but it was too late to catch him, so they 
 did not even reveal themselves. They pounced on another 
 party that followed close behind, slaughtered some of the 
 braves, and made many prisoners. Those who escaped 
 brought the news of the disaster to Three Rivers. " The 
 unhappy captives," writes Vimont, who is writing his first 
 report of these happenings, " were carried off to be flung 
 into the flames, and to be made the food of savage stomachs. 
 Such are the obsequies, and such the grave, that we can 
 expect, in case we fall into the claws of these tigers, or 
 rather if we are delivered up to the fury of these demons." 
 
 This escape of de Brebeuf was the basis of a curious story 
 which began to circulate among the Hurons. One of their 
 warriors had succeeded in slipping away from the Iroquois, 
 and reported that while he was in the enemy's country, an 
 Iroquois came to him and said : " You ought to know that 
 
 152 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 there is a mutual understanding between Echon and the 
 Iroquois to destroy the Hurons. That is the reason he 
 went a short time ago among the Neutrals, who are so 
 close to the Senecas. While he was there the Iroquois 
 envoys visited him at night in his cabin, and exchanged 
 presents with him. He told them : ' we blackrobes have 
 killed a great many Hurons by our spells and incantations. 
 You Iroquois must now finish the work with your toma- 
 hawks. When the Hurons are all destroyed, I and my 
 companions will go and live with your tribes.' You saw 
 how we let his canoe pass on the way down the St. Law- 
 rence. It was he who gave us the information about the 
 party that was following close behind him." 
 
 Echon was used to such accusations. He had heard them 
 frequently in Huronia, so that this additional one did not 
 disturb him, and he hurried down to Quebec to induce the 
 Algonquins to accompany Ragueneau and Menard up to the 
 missions. They had attempted it but had failed. The In- 
 dians were too frightened to try it again. De Brebeuf, him- 
 self, would have gladly led the expedition, but he had other 
 orders. He therefore presented himself to his superior, 
 and as if he had never done anything else, he settled 
 down at his desk in Quebec to keep books and busy 
 himself with the temporal concerns of his brethren. He 
 applied himself with as much zeal to that work as if he 
 were hunting for wandering Indians in the forests near 
 Lake Huron. 
 
 His three years absence is declared by Jerome Lalemant 
 to have been a sore trial for those whom he left behind in 
 Huronia. No one understood the savages as well as he. 
 He had been the first in the field, and was familiar with all 
 their moods and methods. His perfect grasp of their lan- 
 guage, while making him most acceptable to them, was 
 invaluable in preventing any error of judgment on the part 
 of the missionaries about the purport of private or public 
 acts or speeches. Ragueneau speaks in the highest terms of 
 
 153 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 the rare discernment and wisdom which characterized his 
 advice about measures to be adopted, and the manner of 
 carrying them out. He had an amazing influence with 
 the Indians, for though they dreaded him as The Great Sor- 
 cerer, they paid him the tribute of admiration, and even in 
 many instances displayed genuine affection for him. Al- 
 though his life was in constant danger, it was not on account 
 of any personal animosity on the part of the savages. It 
 was merely a public opposition to his avowed purpose of 
 doing away with their traditional policies and beliefs, which 
 they were convinced he had the power to do, even to the 
 extent of inflicting great national calamities on the tribe if 
 they opposed him. As a matter of fact it was not the 
 Hurons who finally killed him, but the Iroquois, who knew 
 him only as a sorcerer, and they were convinced that he had 
 laid waste one of their populous villages and would inflict 
 greater damage if he were not done away with. 
 
 In a word, his absence from the missions meant a with- 
 drawal of a great element of protection for his associates, 
 as well as the privation of a sublime example of apostolic 
 enthusiasm and zeal which buoyed up all those who came 
 in contact with him. They were all remarkable men, but 
 he was like a king among them. Supreme however, as he 
 was, he always claimed the hardest and most repulsive 
 works as his by right. The Indians called him Echon — " the 
 man that drags the loads." " I am like an ox," he used to 
 say, referring to his name of de Brebeuf, and he would stick 
 to his paddle or continue at his toil of any kind from 
 morning till night. He was the first to leap into the water 
 to drag the canoe through the rapids, and was the last to 
 leave it no matter how icy cold the torrent might be. It 
 was he who prepared the morning meal, and when others 
 were buried in sleep, he was still toiling; and all the while 
 with such apparent ease that it seemed to cost him nothing ; 
 and what is more noteworthy, no matter how he was 
 crushed with work or wearied with plodding over roads that 
 
 154 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 were full of terror for others, often compelling the bravest 
 to give up in despair, he would keep at it day after day 
 for a month at a stretch, without rest, without relaxation, 
 sometimes without stopping to eat, except to snatch a bite 
 when he could, and nevertheless finding time to perform 
 all the religious duties the rule enjoined. He never omit- 
 ted a single one of the ordinary devotions, beginning them 
 early in the morning, before others were out of their blan- 
 kets, and continuing them late into the night when everyone 
 else was buried in sleep. 
 
 One almost shudders to hear that he was not satisfied 
 with all these privations, hardships and sufferings, but that 
 he scourged himself to blood with disciplines, sometimes 
 twice a day, and that he continually wore on his body, hair- 
 cloth and sharp pointed iron cinctures. And nevertheless, 
 with all this, like St. Paul, he was in constant fear of losing 
 his soul. There was found among his writings : " I fear 
 I shall be among the reprobates unless God, who has treated 
 me so gently, will give me an opportunity of suffering." He 
 was working out his salvation in fear and trembling. 
 
 He was hungry for humiliation, for no matter how low 
 he was placed, he thought he was much higher than he 
 deserved. Sometimes to co-operate with what they saw 
 was the working of grace, his superiors did not spare him 
 even public humiliations, but they never succeeded in dis- 
 turbing his tranquihty of soul, or causing a shadow on his 
 countenance, which was invariably sweet and benign. 
 
 Nor was it only in dealing with his fellow Jesuits that 
 he was so gentle. They often used to look at him with 
 amazement in the midst of a mob of shrieking Indians, 
 who were denouncing him as a devil and clamoring for 
 his blood ; charging him with the calamities that had come 
 upon them ; striking him with their clubs and fists till he 
 was livid with wounds ; spitting upon him ; tearing his gar- 
 ments to tatters, while through it all he remained smiling 
 and serene, expostulating, explaining, and entreating, and 
 
 155 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 finally subduing them to silence, and even to avowed and 
 astonished admiration. 
 
 Ragueneau, who knew him perfectly, says : " During the 
 twelve years that we were together, whether he was su- 
 perior, or on the same level with the rest of us, whether en- 
 gaged in temporal or spiritual affairs, settling difficulties 
 with the savages or the civilized Christians, whether dealing 
 with friends or enemies, in the midst of sufferings, persecu- 
 tions and calumnies, never did I see him angry or even show- 
 ing the slightest sign of resentment. Often we would try to 
 hurt him in matters where we supposed he might be some- 
 what sensitive, but his eye would look at you as kindly 
 as if he were not at all concerned. His peace of soul was 
 an extraordinary and special gift of God. He was more- 
 over so poor in earthly possessions that he had not even 
 a medal. His purity was so marvellous, that he did not 
 appear to remark the reek of immorality around him. In- 
 deed, he appeared to be a thousand miles away from it. 
 With him the body was in absolute subjection to the soul." 
 
 He was eager to die. " O, my God," he wrote a short 
 time before his death, "why art Thou not known? Why 
 is this barbarous country not converted? Why is not sin 
 abolished? Why art Thou not loved? O, my God! if 
 all the cruel torments which the captives can endure in this 
 country should fall on me, I accept them with my whole 
 heart, I alone am willing to suffer all the pains that the 
 martyrs have undergone." 
 
 Nine years before his death, he wrote this terrible vow : 
 
 " Jesus, my God and Savior, what can I give Thee in 
 return for all Thou hast given to me? I will take from 
 Thy hand the chalice of suffering, and will invoke Thy 
 name. I therefore vow in presence of the Eternal Father 
 and the Holy Ghost, and of Thy most holy Mother, and 
 her chaste spouse, St. Joseph; before the Angels, Apostles 
 and Martyrs, and my blessed Fathers Ignatius and Francis 
 Xavier, never to miss the grace of martyrdom, if, out of 
 
 156 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 Thy mercy, Thou dost offer it some day to Thy unworthy 
 servant. I bind myself in such fashion, that it will not be 
 lawful for me, where I am free to avoid the occasion of 
 dying and shedding my blood for Thee, except in so far as 
 I judge that it is for Thy glory that I should do otherwise. 
 And when I am about to receive the stroke of death, I 
 bind myself to accept it from Thy hand with pleasure and 
 joy of heart. And since Thou hast deigned to die for me, 
 I, therefore, my beloved Jesus, offer Thee from this day 
 forth in the sentiments of joy which I now feel, my body, 
 my blood and my life, in order that I may die for Thee 
 alone, if Thou grantest me that grace. Let me so live that 
 Thou wilt grant me this favor of dying thus happily. 
 Hence, my Saviour and my God, I take from Thy hand 
 the chalice of Thy suffering and I will invoke Thy name, 
 Jesus, Jesus, Jesus." 
 
 Is there anything like that in the lives of the saints, and 
 is it any wonder that heavenly visions were vouchsafed to 
 such a lover? We are not surprised that he saw Our Lord, 
 and the Blessed Virgin, and troops of angels and saints, 
 that he was assailed by devils, and that he overcame them. 
 Indeed these apparitions are so frequent as to be almost 
 bewildering, and we are prone to fancy that we are reading 
 of an anchoret in the desert devoting his life to contempla- 
 tion and penance, instead of a missionary toiling for years on 
 the trail, in the forests and in the wigwams of the degraded 
 savages. The mystery of it all is that such a man did not 
 convert every one of those wretched beings for whom he 
 spent his soul. 
 
 He remained three years at Quebec, or rather at Sillery; 
 for except in winter he went up to the city only on Sundays 
 and Feast days, to hear confessions and preach. So that, 
 as there are a good five months of winter in Canada, Sillery 
 saw most of him. There was an Indian colony there, and 
 also the Hotel Dieu, but that institution was removed not 
 long after a visit he paid to it with another illustrious per- 
 
 157 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 sonage. As the chronicle of the hospital records that event 
 with more than usual detail, it fortunately furnishes us 
 with two very precious portraits. 
 
 " We were very much alarmed about our isolation at Sil- 
 lery," writes the good nun who was the historian of the 
 house, " when one morning, our new superior who had 
 just been elected was called to the parlor by two Jesuit 
 Fathers. One of them was somewhat small in stature 
 and frail in his general appearance. His features were 
 regular and delicate, his face oval, and his large and well 
 developed forehead suggested a fine intellectuality, but on 
 the whole his physiognomy denoted a character made 
 rather to obey than to command. He wore a beard, as 
 did most of the missionaries who were obliged to live in 
 the woods with the savages. His soutane, which was very 
 much worn and patched, bore the marks of many a hard 
 journey in the forests. He kept his eyes cast down, the 
 result of long habits of recollection, and he had the appear- 
 ance of great reserve. In fact, he appeared timid and a 
 little awkward, so much so that a man of the world might 
 have smiled at him. No one but his superiors would 
 suspect the indomitable energy of this humble priest when 
 he was acting under obedience or from supernatural con- 
 viction. 
 
 " When Mother St. Ignace came to the grating she could 
 not refrain from an exclamation of delight and surprise: 
 * What,' she cried, ' is it you, Father Jogues ? How happy 
 we were to hear of your arrival at Quebec, after all the 
 dangers you encountered ' ! 
 
 " ' It was indeed he,' continues the chronicle. ' He had 
 returned from the Huron country on the 14th of July. 
 With that sublime simplicity that characterized him in 
 everything he did, he undertook the perilous journey at 
 the first intimation of the superior's wish. He did not 
 hesitate a moment to expose his life to all the risks of an 
 expedition of o-ver three hundred leagues, through a coun- 
 
 1.58 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 try swarming with Iroquois. He and his companions es- 
 caped only by a happy combination of circumstances, which 
 they never could have hoped for. He was now going back 
 again over the very same route, and he had come to bid 
 good-bye to the community of Sillery. He was accom- 
 panied by another Jesuit who was equal to him in courage 
 and merit, but who was endowed with a totally different 
 character and temperament. Physically he was built like 
 an athlete; spiritually he was still more remarkable. His 
 strong features revealed his decision of mind and vigor 
 of character. On fire like Father Jogues with apostolic 
 zeal and the passion for suffering, he longed like him for 
 the crown of martyrdom. He was destined to win it after 
 Jogues, and on another field, in the midst of a gory tragedy 
 which announced the doom of a nation. He was no other 
 than Father de Brebeuf, the giant of the missions." 
 
 The frightened nuns anxiously inquired about the dangers 
 which their isolated position exposed them to in the raids 
 which were becoming frequent around Montreal and Three 
 Rivers, which Jogues told them about. 
 
 " Do you think they will come as far as this," asked the 
 Mother Superior. " Not just now," answered de Brebeuf, 
 " but it is not impossible. Their boldness has increased 
 since the Dutch have supplied them with fire arms." " What 
 do you advise us to do? " he was asked. " You may have 
 to leave Sillery," w^as the answer. 
 
 Jogues bade them farewell and started for Three Rivers, 
 which he left on August 1. He never reached the Huron 
 country. The next year de Brebeuf fitted out a flotilla for 
 Bressani, but that hero shared the fate of Jogues. It was 
 he who, as w^e have recorded elsewhere, overheard the 
 Iroquois planning to swoop down on Sillery, and he wrote 
 on a piece of bark which he fixed to a stake : " The Iroquois 
 are on their way to Sillery; they want to carry off the 
 White Virgins." A Huron found it, and hurried with it 
 to Quebec. The people read it with blanched faces, and 
 
 159 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Montmagny ordered the removal of the convent. The 
 Fathers of course remained with their Indians. 
 
 Just before this visit to the hospital a sad accident 
 occurred which caused universal grief throughout the colony 
 as well as among the Indians. For de Brebeuf it was also 
 a great personal loss. We refer to the tragic death of his 
 friend, John Nicolet, with whom he had travelled many a 
 mile over the trails of the Northwest, and who, though only 
 a layman, was a most devoted and efficient co-operator in 
 the evangelization of the savages. He must ever be re- 
 garded as one of the conspicuous figures in Canadian his- 
 tory. He had come out to the colony in 1618, a light 
 hearted lad whom every one loved, but the lure of the 
 wild led him to live among the savages. He wanted to 
 make his fortune by becoming an Indian interpreter; so 
 he buried himself for two years with the Algonquins, hunt- 
 ing with them, travelling with them in their interminable 
 tramps through the country, starving with them and sharing 
 every danger like the most reckless brave of the tribe. 
 On one occasion he supported life for seven weeks by 
 gnawing the bark of trees. He took particular pride in the 
 fact that he had helped to make the first treaty with the 
 Mohawks, when he went down into their country with four 
 hundred Algonquins. It was a short time after the Dutch 
 had taken possession of Manhattan. 
 
 For nine years, also, he lived among the Nippisiriens, 
 at the Isle des Allumettes. He was adopted by the tribe; 
 had his own lodge, and assisted at all the councils. At the end 
 of that time he was recalled to Three Rivers, and established 
 as clerk in the Company of the One Hundred Associates, in 
 whose interests he had been thus far living among the 
 Indians, so as to ensure peace, and also to stimulate trade. 
 He had been even commissioned to discover the Pacific 
 Ocean and the passage to China, for every one, even Cham- 
 plain, nourished that delusion, and Nicolet was so convinced 
 that success would follow his efforts that he provided him- 
 
 160 
 
JOHN DE UREBEUF. 
 
 self with a Chinese dress, and when he reached Lake 
 Michigan he decked himself out in damask robes, all em- 
 broidered with birds and liowers, and presented himself in 
 that guise to four or five thousand Indians to see if he 
 could arouse any recollection in their minds of their sup- 
 posed Chinese ancestry. He succeeded at least in terrifying 
 the squaws, when he shot off his two huge horse-pistols. 
 They took him for a demon, holding thunder and lightning 
 in his hands. 
 
 Of course he never reached China, but returned to Three 
 Rivers where from that out he lived until summoned to 
 Quebec. He had a brother, a secular priest who had come 
 out as the chaplain of jNIontmagny, but who withdrew to 
 P'rance a year before the Governor's recall. There was also 
 another member of the family, a sailor in the service of the 
 Company of the One Hundred Associates, who was at 
 Quebec in 1640. 
 
 He married only in 1637. His bride was the grand- 
 daughter of the famous Louis Hebert, the patriarch of the 
 Canadian colonists. The nuptials were, of course, most 
 solemn, and like many other things in those early days the 
 match was romantic. Gosselin, in his " Jean Nicolet," gives 
 us a transcript of the contract with all its conditions. It 
 was signed by several of the distinguished men and women 
 of the time, but it does not appear from the document that 
 the bridegroom had as yet adopted the appendix to his name 
 of de Belleborne, which his admiring biographer declares to 
 be " a ridiculous but harmless vanity." We are astonished 
 to hear that the maiden. Marguerite Couillard, had reached 
 the advanced age of eleven, and one almost hopes there was 
 a mistake in the register, or a fault on the copy. But it 
 seems to be true, and when Nicolet died on October 27, 
 1641, she had already borne him two children. Not only 
 that, but we are informed that her daughter grew up to 
 be a distinguished young lady, " and at the age of fourteen 
 married Jean Baptiste Le Gardeur de Repentigny. " Their 
 
 161 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 son," says Suite, " was Augustin Le Gardeur de Courte- 
 manche, an officer who achieved fame by many useful 
 services in the west, and was the worthy contemporary of 
 Nicholas Perrot, and an honorable descendant of his grand- 
 father Nicolet." 
 
 From his retirement at Three Rivers, Nicolet had been sum- 
 moned down to Quebec to take the place of his brother-in- 
 law, Le Tardiff, as one of the chief officials of the company. 
 He was hardly there a month when alarming news was 
 brought to him. The Algonquins had captured an Indian 
 belonging to a tribe which was allied with the Iroquois, and 
 were already torturing him at the stake. The consequences 
 would be disastrous if he w-ere killed, for it would provoke 
 another war with the Iroquois. No one could prevent the 
 execution but Nicolet, and messengers were hurried down 
 to beg him to come to the rescue. A terrible storm was 
 raging at the time ; the north wind was lashing the St. Law- 
 rence into fury. The weather was bitter cold, and the ice 
 was forming on the shores. It was already seven o'clock 
 at night when the intelligence reached him, and the sky 
 was dark and forbidding, but he hurried down to the shore. 
 De Chavigny's shallop had hoisted sail and was about to 
 make for Sillery. Nicolet leaped aboard and the little 
 bark started out on the wild waves. 
 
 They were just doubling the Pointe-a-Puiseaux when a 
 squall struck them, and flung the boat bottom up in the 
 furious river. The occupants clung to it, but the night was 
 pitch dark, and though they were near the shore no object 
 could be seen. Perishing with cold and worn out by the 
 waves, the men dropped off one by one and disappeared. 
 Nicolet still kept his hold, but felt his strength giving way, 
 and at last de Chavigny heard his voice in the darkness : 
 "Good-bye, de Chavigny, make for the shore ; you can swim ; 
 I am going to God. Bid good-bye to my wife and children." 
 Then all was over. The boat struck a rock and de 
 Chavigny, after a short swim, found his footing, and grop- 
 
 162 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. • 
 
 ing through tlie darkness stumbled into the Jesuit house 
 which was near at hand. For an hour he could scarcely 
 utter a word, and finally he told the story; Nicolet was 
 drowned only a few rods away. 
 
 They never found the body. Consternation and grief 
 took possession of the colony. The Indians, especially, 
 were alarmed. They had lost a friend, a protector, and a 
 father, and they ran like crazy people up and down the 
 beach screaming out: " Achirra! Achirra! where art thou? 
 Hast thou left us and shall we never see thee more?" 
 Indians rarely weep, but we are told that their eyes were 
 streaming with tears as they gave vent to their lamentations. 
 
 So died this wonderful voyageur, almost within reach of 
 his friends, and one asks in amazement how the man whose 
 w^hole life was in constant peril on lakes and rivers and 
 amid roaring cataracts, was unable to swim a few strokes 
 that would have so easily brought him to the shore. One 
 is also prompted to ask did de Brebeuf, who was then at 
 Sillery, urge that question upon himself while weeping over 
 the untimely death of his friend? He also, over and over 
 again, had been in danger of drowning, and yet had never 
 learned to swim though it would seem to have been de- 
 manded by the commonest laws of prudence. 
 
 It is comforting to know that the savage for whom 
 Nicolet sacrificed his life was saved. He appeared at Sil- 
 lery twelve days after, and when his wounds were healed 
 he was sent dow^n to the Abenaquis where he belonged. 
 It is more comforting still to know that Nicolet " went to 
 God " prepared. He was totally unlike the scapegraces of 
 coiireurs who scoured the woods, and brought ruin on them- 
 selves and discredit on their religion. Though living so 
 long among the Indians his life was irreproachable, and 
 Fatlier Charles Lalemant probably referred to him in the 
 " case of conscience," that was sent to France to determine 
 whether Christian men could thus voluntarily shut them- 
 selves ofif from the possibility of practicing the duties of 
 
 163 
 
PIONEER l^RIESTS OE NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 their religion by living among the Indians. There would 
 not have been much dit^culty if the men in vjuestion were all 
 like Nicolet, for he not only gave no scandal, but was an in- 
 valuable hel])er for the priests. He was ever ready to 
 instruct the Indians, and he himself sought them out to put 
 them on the way of salvation. 
 
 Some idea of the character of the man may be obtained 
 from the list of books composing the little library he had 
 gathered together for his own use. Small as it is, it rep- 
 resents the careful gathering of years, and meant much 
 in those rough days. Gosselin gives us the inventory, 
 which is so brief that it may be put down here. It consisted 
 of " The Metamorphosis of Ovid ; " " The Relation of 
 10o7;" "Portuguese Discoveries in the West Indies;" 
 "Collection of Gazettes from 1634;" "A Book on Fen- 
 cing; " " Inventory of Science; " " History of St. Ursula; " 
 " Meditations on the Life of Christ; " "The Secretary of 
 the Court;" "The Clock of Devotion;" "The Way to 
 Live for God; " " Elements of Logic; " " The Holy Duties 
 of a Devout Life;" "History of Portugal;" "Missal;" 
 " Life of the Redeemer of the World ; " " History of the 
 West Indies ; " two books of music, a package of old books, 
 and finally " The Lives of the Saints " in folio. 
 
 It is very illuminative of his piety that when he was 
 summoned down to Quebec he carried with him the large 
 folio volume of the " Lives of the Saints." One can easily 
 conclude that when the waves of the St. Lawrence closed 
 over this great man, the gates of heaven were opened to 
 admit him to the reward of a noble and well spent life. 
 The place where this tragedy occurred was probably on the 
 Quebec side of Pointe-a-Puiseaux, in the bay known by the 
 general name of Sillery Cove, though to every part of it 
 the lumbermen or proprietors have assigned different names 
 as their fancy prompted them. The eastern end of the bay 
 is where Wolf landed his troops in 1759. 
 
 164 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 The Tragedy. 
 
 While de Brebeuf was at Oiiebec, several efforts to reach 
 the missionaries in Huronia had been made, but without 
 success. As we have ah-eady noted, Jogues had been led 
 into captivity in 1642, and Bressani met a similar fate in 
 the following year. Finally, in IC-l-i, de Brebeuf himself 
 started up the river. This time, however, an escort of 
 twenty soldiers made part of the expedition, a precaution 
 it would seem that should have been always taken. With 
 Fathers Chabanel and Garreau, both of whom were to shed 
 their blood for the Faith, he reached St. Mary's on Sep- 
 tember 17th of that year. 
 
 It is somewhat difficult to follow him for the few remain- 
 ing years of his life, for Ragueneau, who wrote those '' Re- 
 lations," is very unsatisfactory because of the vagueness 
 with which he sets down what occurs. It is, however, 
 certain that he was still at St. Mary's on October 8th, 
 for we find a record in his papers of a vision he had there 
 on that date. He saw himself and his companions wearing 
 garments all stained with blood. In 1645, however, he 
 came into prominence because of an apostolic expedition 
 made among the Algonquins, who were living north of 
 what is now known as the Muskoka region. The raids of 
 the Iroquois had been so incessant that many of the Hurons 
 had fled thither for safety, and he went to see them. It 
 was a difficult journey of five or six days over lakes and 
 rivers, through vast solitudes and trackless forests, but it 
 was a trifle for him. He found only one Christian family 
 among the exiles, which would lead us to infer that the 
 Christians were more patriotic than their pagan relatives, 
 and were willing to fight for their country to the last. That 
 
 165 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Christian family gave him no rest. Night and day they 
 wanted to talk upon religious matters, and to form plans 
 for the future. With difficulty he tore himself away from 
 them. Indeed they were forced to let him go, for the ice 
 was forming on the lakes, and any further delay might cost 
 him his life by cold or starvation. He finally reached St. 
 Ignatius, where he could not fail to see that the end was 
 fast approaching. The nation was doomed. 
 
 A glimmer of hope, however, appeared in the possibility 
 of making defensive alliances with the neighboring Neu- 
 trals. They had been the victims of an outrageous breach 
 of hospitality, for a whole section of their people had been 
 butchered by the Senecas, who had been admitted to the 
 wigwams as welcome guests. But after a little anger they 
 lapsed into their former attitude of non-interference. It is 
 more than likely that had they combined with the Petuns 
 and Hurons in a defensive alliance, they would have been 
 able to check the whole Iroquois invasion, especially as 
 a good turn done to an Onondaga chief had almost secured 
 the help of three of the great Iroquois tribes against the 
 Mohawks. The Onondagas were quarreling with them be- 
 cause of the trade in furs; but after tedious and multiplied 
 embassies to and fro, all the negotiations ended by the mas- 
 sacre of the Huron envoys, who fell into the hands of the 
 remorseless Senecas. 
 
 Hope once more revived when the Andastes of Penn- 
 sylvania and Delaware presented themselves, and proposed 
 to destroy the Iroquois. Again there were long journeys 
 and continually reiterated embassies, which consumed very 
 precious months and involved countless dangers in the 
 official journeys, but like the rest it all ended in disappoint- 
 ment. In each of these negotiations, it may be noted, 
 Christian chiefs were chosen as the representatives of the 
 tribe; which would imply that they were at that time the 
 controlling factor among the Hurons. But two great dis- 
 asters occurred to the Hurons towards the end of the winter 
 
 166 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 of 1648. A party of about three hundred men and women 
 were encamped in the woods only about two days' journey 
 from their principal town, when a band of Senecas swooped 
 down upon them. The main body of the people were scat- 
 tered just then hunting and fishing, and when they returned 
 they found seven of their warriors weltering in their 
 blood. The women and children had been carried off into 
 captivity, and there was no sign of the Senecas except the 
 results of their sanguinary visitation. 
 
 Nearly all the victims in this instance were Christians, 
 among them the young Ignatius Saonaretsi, who was like an 
 Indian Aloysius. At early dawn he was always found in the 
 chapel reciting his beads and assisting at Mass. Throughout 
 the day he was continually praying. His purity of soul was 
 angelic, and we are told that he never looked at a woman. 
 When his people urged him to marry he refused, alleging 
 that he knew none of the marriageable women of the tribe. 
 He was ready for heaven and the Lord took him. 
 
 That massacre was bad enough, but it was followed by 
 another immediately after. When the people went out to 
 bury their dead, a hundred Iroquois fell upon them and 
 a second list of fifty killed or captured was added to the 
 black record of this calamitous period. Evidently a new 
 arrangement of the villages had to be made to ensure better 
 protection, and hence it was resolved to change the location 
 of the mission, and St. Ignatius II was begun. It was then 
 the spring of 1648. The new site was admirably chosen 
 for defense, for in the " Relation " of 1649 we read : " It 
 was enclosed by a palisade fifteen or sixteen feet high, and 
 encircled by a deep ravine, with which nature had power- 
 fully fortified the place on three sides, leaving but a small 
 space, weaker than the others, on the fourth side." That 
 weak spot w^as a plateau where the Fathers had insisted on 
 building a stockade. 
 
 This site has been identified by Father Jones, the Archivist 
 of St. Mary's College, Montreal, who thus describes it: 
 
 167 
 
PIONEER i'RlESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 " From the brow of the hill where the declivity is steepest, 
 we have a commanding view of the Rosemount Ridge, 
 towards the east and southeast, and the eye plunges deep 
 into the sombre valley of Sturgeon Bay that lies at our feet. 
 Turning toward the north and northeast, the eye ranges 
 over the waters of Sturgeon Bay, and the greater Matche- 
 dash, and takes in a wide stretch of country in the Muskoka 
 district, while a little further east it sweeps over Gloucester 
 Pool, the mouth of the Severn, and no small extent of the 
 North or Black River Valley. 
 
 " Vastly grander visions of the beautiful and sublime in 
 nature are to be met with in the confines of the great 
 Dominion, from the beetling crags of Trinity Rock, the 
 towering masses of Cape Eternity on the Saguenay, to the 
 fairy scenes of enchanting beauty in the Islands of the 
 St. Lawrence; from Niagara, with its deafening roar of 
 waters plunging into depths unknown, to the silent solitudes 
 of Selkirk, whose glittering peaks cleave the clouds above. 
 All these surpass it immeasurably, either in majesty or the 
 perfection of detail, but no spot on the continent is hal- 
 low^ed by a nobler sacrifice for the Master than was consum- 
 mated on this hill-top, a few^ acres in extent, and which lay 
 for two centuries and a half lost in the recesses of the 
 forest. Such was St. Ignatius II. If it had been properly 
 defended, instead of being the tomb, it would have been the 
 impregnable citadel of the Huron nation." 
 
 It was the 16th of March, 1649. Day was just breaking 
 after a stormy night, and the advance guards of over one 
 thousand Iroquois, who had been concealed in the forest, 
 crept stealthily in the snow towards the unprotected part 
 of the palisade. They were discovered, and a wild shriek 
 of alarm summoned to arms the few braves who were 
 present. They met the foe and twice repulsed them, but 
 it was too late. Nearly all the inhabitants were slaughtered, 
 and the few who escaped the tomahawk were reserved for 
 death by fire. 
 
 168 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 De Brebeuf and his young companion, Gabriel Lalemant, 
 who had joined him only one month before, were at that 
 moment in the village of St. Louis, four kilometers away, 
 where there were no less than seven hundred Hurons ; most 
 of them, however, women and children, or old and infirm 
 men. The braves were away hunting, or foolishly trying 
 to discover if the Iroquois were coming into the country. 
 Some half naked fugitives from St. Ignatius hurried to 
 give the alarm, but the Iroquois were already at their heels. 
 There was scarcely time to dismiss the women and children, 
 and to assemble eighty warriors for the defense. They 
 saw that all was lost, but determined to sell their lives as 
 dearly as possible. They begged the priests to withdraw, 
 but the offer was, of course, refused. 
 
 The sun was already lighting up the scene when the Iro- 
 quois appeared, and attempted to scale the palisade. The 
 first assault was attended with heavy loss, for thirty of their 
 warriors fell dead and many were wounded. The check, 
 however, was only momentary, and the fight raged fiercely 
 on all sides, but what could eighty men do against such a 
 host? Indeed it speaks well for the prowess of the Hurons, 
 that every attempt to scale the palisades was repulsed, and 
 the Iroquois resorted to another means of gaining an en- 
 trance to the village. They began to cut their way through 
 the stockade with their hatchets. At last an opening was 
 made, but the breach was quickly blocked by the bodies of 
 the besieged, only to be hacked to pieces in their frantic 
 effort to drive back the foe. The enemy were now inside 
 the fort. 
 
 While all this fiendish work was going on, the two priests 
 were hurrying hither and thither, staunching the blood of 
 the wounded, baptizing the neophytes and absolving the 
 dying Christians. They were scarcely aware of the near- 
 ness of the Iroquois, who in turn did not know that the 
 priests were there. At the sight of the black gowns they 
 stopped for a moment in their work of massacre. It was 
 
 169 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 an unexpected capture. There was Echon, the Great Sor- 
 cerer himself, and with fiendish glee they fell upon the 
 missionaries, stripped them naked, and bound them fast, 
 first tearing off the nails of their victims to forestall any 
 attempt to escape. 
 
 The battle was soon over. Every one who resisted was 
 butchered and the prisoners were headed towards St. Ig- 
 natius. As they turned to gaze for the last upon St. 
 Louis, they saw the wigwams a mass of flames, while the 
 savage Iroquois hurried from place to place, dragging from 
 the blood-clotted snow the old men and wounded warriors 
 and flinging them shrieking into the fire. The people in 
 St. Mary's, a league away saw the conflagration at nine 
 o'clock. The color of the smoke made them only too certain 
 of what had happened, their conclusions being confirmed 
 shortly after by the fugitives who flocked in and told the 
 sad story. 
 
 Shivering with the bitter cold and with their dripping 
 blood leaving tracks in the snow, de Brebeuf and his com- 
 panion slowly dragged themselves through the stockade of 
 St. Ignatius. As they entered the gate they walked between 
 two lines of infuriated savages, who struck at them with 
 knives, and clubs, and stones. They were led to the stakes at 
 which they were to be burned to death. They showed no 
 fear. On the contrary, de Brebeuf fell on his knees before 
 the one to which he was to be bound, and kissed it as a priest 
 kisses the altar. " Father," he said, turning to Lalemant, 
 " we are made a spectacle before heaven and the angels and 
 men." To the Christian Hurons around him, some of 
 whom were later on to meet the same fate, he said : " In 
 your sufferings lift up your eyes to heaven. Remember that 
 God will reward you. Do not falter. The torments you 
 must undergo will be brief. The glory to follow will be 
 everlasting." "Echon," they replied, "fear not for us; 
 our thoughts will be in heaven while our bodies are suf- 
 fering on earth. Pray for us to the Master of life that 
 
 170 
 
JOHN DE BREBEUF. 
 
 He may have mercy on us." His people assured him that 
 they would be faithful. 
 
 When the braves had assembled, the torture began; de 
 Brebeuf, as the great chief, being the first victim. The 
 fire was lighted and the flames climbed around his limbs 
 while his executioners plunged hot prongs into his flesh, 
 pressed fire-brands against the most sensitive parts of his 
 body, cut off strips of his flesh and roasting them in the 
 fire devoured them before his eyes ; but not once during this 
 atrocious torture did this wonderful man wince or groan. 
 He uttered no reproach, and spoke only to sustain the 
 courage of the Christians around him. But his words only 
 made his torturers more furious. They slashed off his nose 
 and lips, shattered his teeth with their clubs, and filled his 
 mouth with fire. His voice was now stilled, but his wounds 
 spoke to all the Christians who stood shuddering at the 
 hideous spectacle, the mere description of which one would 
 fain avoid, but as this is history, it must, at least be hurried 
 through with, while omitting the more shocking details. 
 
 As cynically as any civilized enemy of religion, one of the 
 savages exclaimed : " You have always told people it was 
 good to suffer. Thank us for this," and he dropped over 
 the head of the victim a necklace of red hot tomahawks, 
 which eat their way hissing and spluttering into the flesh. 
 " You like to baptize us," cried a Huron apostate, " let us 
 see how you like it yourself; " and with a mocking laugh, 
 he poured cauldron after cauldron of scalding water on 
 the head of the priest. 
 
 No sign of weakness had yet been extorted from the suf- 
 ferer. Something must be done to make him quail, and 
 so a flaming cincture of birch bark soaked in pitch was tied 
 around his waist, and under his armpits. His scalp was 
 torn off and a poultice of hot ashes applied to the ghastly 
 wound. Not a single spot remained on his body that had 
 not been scarified by fire or gashed with knives. Finally, 
 when no new species of torture suggested itself, and it was 
 
 171 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 found that not a moan could be wrung from the sufferer, 
 they clove his head with a tomahawk and thus ended his 
 three hours of agony. Finally they tore out his heart and 
 drank the blood, so as to imbibe, as they fancied, some of his 
 wonderful courage. 
 
 Thus died Father John de Brebeuf at the age of fifty-six. 
 It was the 16th of March, a day ever memorable in the 
 annals of Canada. Around his corpse danced the mob of 
 shrieking savages, reeking with his blood, and with morsels 
 of his flesh in their teeth; beyond was the burning village 
 of St. Louis, from which he had been taken, and standing 
 over him was his frail and delicate companion, Gabriel 
 Lalemant, all bloody, and wrapped in the inflammable bark 
 which was soon to consume his flesh. Lalemant gazed upon 
 his beloved Father lying in the snow at his feet, and waited 
 for his own sacrifice which was to be more terrible than 
 that of de Brebeuf. 
 
 172 
 
GABRIEL LALEMANT 
 
MARTYRDOM OF DE 
 
 BRRBEUF AND LALEMANT. 
 
 (In the Cathedral, Montreal.) 
 
GABRIEL LALEMANT. 
 
 While de Brebeuf was being put to death anxious eyes 
 were strained in the direction of St. Ignatius, from the 
 palisades of St. Mary's. Every now and then an Indian 
 runner could be seen making for the fort to tell what was 
 happening at St. Ignatius. Their coming was, at first, a 
 cause of alarm, for at a distance it was hard to distinguish 
 them from the Iroquois. Indeed, every one felt sure that 
 St. Mary's would soon be attacked ; for Iroquois scouts had 
 been prowling around that afternoon, and as was told after- 
 wards, they had reported back to their chiefs that the place 
 could be taken. 
 
 Meantime Lalemant was waiting for death. One hour 
 passed, and then another; and at last his torture began. It 
 is unnecessary to go over the hideous details. It was a 
 repetition of what had been inflicted on his companion. One 
 or two horrors, however, were added. As he turned his 
 gaze frequently to heaven, his eyes were torn out and burn- 
 ing coals thrust into the sockets ; though a corrected edition 
 and du Creux's account seem to indicate that only one was 
 thus dealt with. To prevent him from speaking or praying, 
 fire brands were not merely placed in his mouth, but forced 
 down into his throat. They slit both his thighs, one in the 
 form of a cross, and then passed hot tomahawk edges along 
 the whole length of the wounds into the very bones. When 
 he lifted his hands in prayer, they beat them down with 
 clubs, and forced him to his feet again when he attempted 
 to kneel. But the most appalling feature of his torture 
 was that it lasted fifteen hours ; that is, from six o'clock at 
 night till nine next morning, for the Indians did not permit 
 their victims to die between sunset and sunrise. On that 
 account, they refrained while torturing him from touching 
 any vital part, but, of course, the prolongation of the agony 
 
 175 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 was worse than death itself. At last, weary of their work 
 they crushed his skull with the blow of a tomahawk. It 
 was then nine o'clock in the morning of the 17th of March, 
 1649. 
 
 Some writers in describing these terrible scenes have 
 naturally drawn on their imagination, and represented the 
 martyr as uttering heart-rending cries while writhing in 
 agony. As he was a man of extremely delicate constitution 
 that would naturally have suggested itself; but it is pure 
 fiction. Poncet, who wrote about his death two months 
 later, says : " Instead of indignantly or angrily upbraiding 
 his executioners, or uttering words of complaint, such as 
 nature might have wrung from him, he did nothing but cast 
 his eyes up to heaven and kissed the stake to which he was 
 tied to make his last offering to God." 
 
 Lalemant was no weakling. He had been preparing for 
 that battle for sixteen years. He had prayed to God, and 
 importuned his superiors, till he was sent to the missions. 
 During the two years he was at Quebec he knew everything 
 that was going on in Huronia. He was fully aware of the 
 proximity of the Iroquois. The death of Daniel had just 
 occurred and he was familiar with its horrors, and it was 
 with full knowledge of what might happen that he entered 
 the village of St. Ignatius one month before he was to be 
 a mangled and disfigured corpse on its bloody snow. Hero- 
 ism was in his nature. He was the nephew of Jerome and 
 Charles Lalemant ; the brother of a Carmelite nun, who, on 
 hearing of his death, knelt down and sang a Magnificat, 
 and the son of a mother who, when his triumph was an- 
 nounced, forsook the world and consecrated herself as a 
 nun in the cloister. His preparedness for the kind of death 
 he suffered was revealed in a document found among his 
 papers. It reads as follows : 
 
 " O my God and my Saviour ! since Thou hast abandoned 
 all comfort, all health, all glory, all joy and a life itself to 
 save wretched me, is it not proper 1st, that I should give up 
 
 17G 
 
GABRIEL LALEMANT. 
 
 all things for the salvation of souls whom Thou regardest 
 as Thine own, who have cost Thee Thy blood, and of whom 
 Thou hast said : ' What you do to the least of these you 
 do unto me.' 
 
 " 2d — Even if I were not prompted by a spirit of gratitude 
 to make a holocaust of myself, I should with all my heart 
 do so out of consideration for Thy adorable majesty and 
 Thine infinite goodness, which deserves man's immolation 
 and joyful sacrifice of himself in order to fulfil what he 
 conceives to be Thy will in his regard, and in pursuance of 
 the special inspiration Thou hast given him to promote 
 Thy greater glory. 
 
 " 3d — Since I have been so wretched as to offend Thy 
 goodness so grievously, O my Jesus ! it is just that I should 
 pay the penalty by extraordinary sufferings, and thus walk 
 in Thy presence for the rest of my life with an humble and 
 contrite heart, undergoing the sufferings which Thou didst 
 submit to for me. 
 
 " 4th — Out of regard for my relatives, my mother and 
 my brothers to whom I owe so much, and in order to draw- 
 down upon them the effects of Thy mercy, never permit 
 tliat any member of that family, which Thou lovest so much, 
 should perish before Thy face, or be among those who blas- 
 pheme Thee for ever; and for that end let me be a victim 
 for them. Since I am prepared to be scourged for them, 
 burn me, smite me, in order that Thou shouldst forever 
 spare them. 
 
 " 5th — Yes, my Jesus, my love ! let Thy Blood, which 
 was poured out for the savages as for us, be applied effica- 
 ciously for their salvation. Let me co-operate with Thy 
 grace and be immolated for them. 
 
 " 6th — Thy name must be adored ; Thy kingdom must 
 be extended throughout the world, and my life must be 
 devoted to withdrawing from the hands of Satan, Thine 
 enemy, those poor souls who have cost Thee Thy life and 
 Thy Blood. 
 
 J t ( 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA'. 
 
 " 7th — If it is reasonable that some one should sO' hve 
 to give comfort to Jesus Christ, even sacrificing a thousand 
 lives, if he had them, along with the loss of everything that 
 is sweet and agreeable to nature, thou, my soul, wilt find no 
 one more bound to do so than thou. Arise then, my soul, 
 and let us holily lose ourselves, in order to give this consola- 
 tion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ; He deserves it, 
 and thou canst not do otherwise, unless thou wishest to live 
 and die ungrateful for His love." 
 
 The prayer in the fifth paragraph was answered to the 
 letter " Let me co-operate with Thy grace and be immolated 
 for the savages." His love for his family as expressed in 
 the passage immediately preceding is well worthy of notice. 
 
 Beyond this we know very little about Gabriel Lalemant. 
 He was born in Paris in the year 1610, entered the novitiate 
 of that city which had already trained for an apostolic 
 career his illustrious uncle Jerome, and after the usual course 
 of studies and teaching in his native country, he arrived at 
 Quebec in 1646. People wondered that such a frail and 
 delicate mortal could have aspirations for the rude life of 
 the missions, and it took him two years to convince his 
 uncle, who was superior at Quebec, and had his seven years 
 experience in Huronia, that such was the will of God. At 
 last, just when the clouds were darkest and the rumblings 
 of danger filled the hearts of all with terror, Gabriel Lale- 
 mant deliberately entered into the whirl of the storm and 
 disappeared in its fire. 
 
 The embers were not cold around the stake where he 
 expired, when two hundred Iroquois started on their march 
 to destroy St. Mary's, where his friends were awaiting their 
 death; but at the same time five hundred Hurons, chiefly 
 of the Bear family, were about taking up their position 
 on the trail to await the advancing enemy. Unfortunately, 
 some of their braves who were sent out ahead came into 
 collision with the foe. A skirmish ensued which grew into 
 a general battle, and finally involved the main body of the 
 
 178 
 
GABRIEL LALEMANT. 
 
 Hurons. The furious Iroquois flushed with victory, drove 
 their disheartened foes back towards the very pahsades of 
 St. Mary's. There, at last, a stand w^as made, chiefly by 
 the Christian Indians of Ossossane and the new mission of 
 St. Madeleine who had come to the rescue. After a short 
 struggle the Iroquois reeled and then retreated in confusion 
 to the still standing palisades of St. Louis, which was 
 situated between St. Mary's and St. Ignatius. The Hurons 
 followed and a mad fight occurred inside the stockade, out 
 of which the Iroquois were driven. The Hurons were now 
 in possession of the village. Sortie after sortie was made 
 leaving numbers of the braves on both sides dead in the 
 snow. The Iroquois, seeing that their victory was to be 
 snatched from their grasp, sent word to St. Ignatius, and 
 the main body of their countrymen hurried to the rescue. 
 All day long the fight continued, and well on into the night, 
 until at last only twenty-five Hurons were left alive. They, 
 seeing that all hope was gone, threw down their arms and 
 surrendered. All of them were badly wounded, but they 
 had slain the great chief and one hundred of the bravest 
 warriors of the Iroquois. 
 
 During the night the people in St. Mary's waited with their 
 weapons in their hands. Any moment might bring the 
 wild whoop of the enemy to their ears. They were all 
 praying fervently, and had made up their minds to die to 
 a man in defense of the town. Day dawned. It was the 
 18th of March. No sign had appeared of the approaching 
 foe. Hour after hour passed by, but no one could tell what 
 new disaster was impending. Still no enemy came, and 
 another night of terror followed. On the morning of the 
 19th an unexplainable panic seized the Iroquois, and in spite 
 of the protests of their chiefs, they fled in wild confusion, 
 driving their captives before them, but first setting fire to 
 the town. The wounded and helpless were tied to the 
 burning wigwams to perish in the flames, and while the 
 smoke was darkening the morning sky, the blood-stained 
 
 179 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 conquerors liurried down to Niagara. Only after all this 
 had occurred, a distant Huron village heard of the disaster. 
 A fugitive squaw had brought them the sad tidings. Im- 
 mediately seven hundred braves seized their arms and set 
 out in pursuit. But they soon gave up the chase. They did 
 nothing but gather up a few mangled bodies of their brave 
 people, whom the fleeing Iroquois had left for dead on the 
 trail. Had the Hurons persevered, they might even then 
 have inflicted an irreparable disaster on the Iroquois, who 
 were not only in a panic but completely exhausted by the 
 terrible battle they had fought. 
 
 Some Hurons who had escaped in the confusion from 
 St. Ignatius brought the news to St. Mary's of the departure 
 of the Iroquois, and Father Bonin, Brother Malherbe, and 
 seven Frenchmen were sent to St. Ignatius to reconnoitre 
 and, if possible, to secure the remains of the martyrs. A hor- 
 rid spectacle met their gaze. The ruins of the wigwams were 
 still smoking, and mutilated corpses littered the trampled and 
 blood-stained snow. But where were the beloved dead 
 they were seeking for? At last they found them in a heap 
 of the slain. There was no doubt about their identity. 
 They were more horribly gashed and hacked than the rest, 
 and when the blood was washed away the white skin 
 revealed itself. Filled with horror the searchers fell on 
 their knees and kissed the wounds of the beloved dead. 
 The grief of Father Bonin was uncontrolled. He was 
 Father Lalemant's most intimate friend, and for more than 
 an hour he knelt weeping and sobbing over the corpse of 
 the man he so tenderly loved. It was with difficulty he could 
 be dragged away to perform the sad duty of burying the 
 Christian Indians. A trench was dug and the bodies were laid 
 reverently in it. The prayers were said, a cross was placed 
 over the mound, and then the blessed remains of the two 
 priests were carried in solemn procession out of the black- 
 ened ruins of St. Ignatius, along the trail that led to St. 
 Mary's. The little fort opened its gates for the home- 
 
 180 
 
GABRIEL LALEMANT. 
 
 coming of the heroes, and the people followed the weeping 
 mourners to the house of the Fathers, where the bodies 
 were laid to await the obsequies of the morrow. " We 
 could not pray for them," w rites Ragueneau. " Our only 
 regret was that we had not shared their torture, and won 
 the same crown. I would willingly call them martyrs, if 
 it were permitted, not only because it was the love of God, 
 and the salvation of souls that made them willingly expose 
 themselves to death of the most dreadful kind, but especially 
 because hatred of the Faith and of the name of God was 
 one of the most powerful motives which impelled the 
 savages to treat them with such atrocious cruelty." 
 
 A long letter of Benin's, giving all the details, is referred 
 to by Du Creux. It was probably used by Father Martin, 
 but the document is now nowhere to be found. What oc- 
 curred in and around that humble cabin on that memorable 
 afternoon of March 20, 1649, is given us in a letter of 
 Brother Regnault's, written years afterwards to the Jesuits 
 of Caen. The scene was evidently still as vivid in his 
 memory, as if he were yet kneeling at the side of the 
 martyrs. What he says of himself was probably also done 
 by all the people who were in St. Mary's or who flocked 
 in from the country round to gaze for the last time at the 
 illustrious dead : 
 
 " The bodies of the two Fathers," he says, " were found 
 at St. Ignatius, a little apart from each other, and carried 
 to our cabin. They were laid upon strips of bark, and I 
 gazed at them for more than two hours to see if what the 
 savages had told us of their martyrdom was true. I exam- 
 ined first the body of Father de Brebeuf, and then that of 
 Father Lalemant. The legs, thighs and arms of Father 
 de Brebeuf were stripped of flesh to the very bone. I saw 
 and touched a great number of blisters which were on 
 various parts of the body, where the boiling water had been 
 poured on him in mockery of Holy Baptism. I saw and 
 touched the wounds made by the cincture of bark soaked 
 
 181 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 in pitch, which had scorched the whole body. I saw and 
 touched the places which the collar of hatchets had burned 
 on his shoulders and breast. I saw and touched the place 
 where his two lips had been cut off because he continued 
 to speak of God. I saw and touched all the parts of his 
 body which had received more than two hundred blows of 
 sticks. I saw and touched the crown of his head, which 
 had been burned with fire. Finally, I saw and touched all 
 the wounds of his body. They were just as the savages 
 had described them." 
 
 The bodies were buried on Sunday the 21st, and good 
 Brother Regnault glories in the fact that he was one of those 
 who carried them to the grave. They were disinterred, 
 however, when St. Mary's was abandoned a few months 
 later. The flesh was removed from the bones, which were 
 then carefully dried and wrapped in silk, and carried over to 
 the Island of St. Joseph. That place was soon deserted, and 
 the precious relics were then brought down to Quebec. 
 Martin says that " on account of the length and difficulty 
 of the journey, they could not take any more than a part 
 of the venerable remains. They kept at least the head, and 
 placed it in the College of Quebec. Before the destruction 
 of the Society of Jesus in Canada, one of the last Jesuits of 
 Quebec confided the treasure to the Hospital Sisters where it 
 now is. There are also some of Lalemant's bones. We know 
 that two fragments were sent abroad, one to the Professed 
 House at Paris, and the other to Father Lalemant's sister, 
 the Prioress of the Carmelites of Sens, but they were all 
 swept away in the whirlwind of the French Revolution." 
 It is curious that not a word is found in the " Journal des 
 Jesuites," of the reception of the remains of the Fathers. 
 
 " Four years after their death," continues Martin, " the 
 Archbishop of Rouen whose jurisdiction then extended to 
 Canada, ordered an ofificial inquiry into the virtue and death 
 of the missionaries. We have a copy of the proceedings, 
 each document being accompanied by an autograph attesta- 
 
 182 
 
GABRIEL LALEMANT. 
 
 tion of Father Ragueneau, given under oath, which may 
 be of use for the process of beatification if the cause is ever 
 introduced." These papers are in the archives of St. 
 Mary's College, Montreal. 
 
 After two hundred and sixty years the cause has again 
 been taken into consideration. The tribunal established 
 for the hearing of testimony was in session for more than 
 two years in Quebec in 1906 and 1907. An investigation 
 as to the 7ton cult, that is, an inquiry whether any public 
 worship has been approved or tolerated by any one in antici- 
 pation of the action of the Holy See was also made. A 
 great number of witnesses were summoned, and the docu- 
 ments recounting what has been done are now awaiting 
 examination, in Rome. If they are canonized the New 
 World v^ill have two glorious patrons. 
 
 1S3 
 
ANNE DE NOUE 
 
ANNE DE NOUE. 
 
 In the times of Catherine de Medicis there was a famous 
 old general named de None, who was commonly known as 
 bras de jcr, because of an iron arm that he wore as a sub- 
 stitute for the real arm he had lost at the seige of Lamballe. 
 Sometimes he was on the Huguenot side, sometimes he 
 favored the Catholics. Naturally one is prompted to in- 
 quire if there was any relationship between him and a young 
 page named Anne de Noue, who was then at Court. It is 
 quite possible, but as a matter of fact very little is known 
 of the family or the early life of the holy missionary who, 
 in 1646, perished in the snow on the frozen St. Lawrence. 
 He was the son of the Seigneur de Villers-En-Priere or 
 Villers-en-Prairie which, we are told, was a chateau and 
 village six or seven leagues from the city of Rheims in 
 Champagne. But in a work entitled the " Communes de 
 France," which gives detailed descriptions even of villages 
 of one hundred inhabitants, we find only one place with a 
 designation like that given in the " Relation." It is Villers- 
 en-Prayeres, and is in Picardy, thirty-five kilometres from 
 Soissons, with a population of only 174. Was that his 
 birthplace? 
 
 Again his name is written de Noue, and also de Noue, 
 though the diaresis is sometimes placed on the u instead of 
 the e. He generally put the mark over the e. Finally he 
 was called " Anne," which to-day would be an uncomfort- 
 able name for a boy ; but in those days, even the illustrious 
 Constable de Bourbon was known as Anne de Montmorency. 
 To add to the confusion there are two dates given for his 
 birthday; one in 1687, the other in 1679. It is probably the 
 latter, for he was regarded as "old" when he became a Jesuit 
 Having made his novitiate he was sent to La Fleche, where 
 he studied philosophy for three years, and after teaching a 
 
 187 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 low class at Nevers for a year, he began a four years' course 
 of theology at Paris. It is somewhat surprising to hear 
 that while pursuing his studies he was at the same time 
 siirvcillant ; but as Henry IV was just then establishing a 
 great many colleges in France the superiors were evidently 
 short-handed, and we find that condition of affairs existing 
 thirty years afterwards, at La Fleche, in the case of Gabriel 
 Lalemant. After finishing his theology he was appointed 
 Minister at Bourges. where he remained for two years, and 
 then, singularly enough, made his Third Year of Probation 
 in the same house immediately afterwards. When that was 
 over, he and Father Noyrot started for Canada, where they 
 arrived on July 14, 1626. 
 
 De Brebeuf and the Recollect d'Aillon had meantime been 
 making efforts to reach the Huron country. When at last 
 Lhey succeeded, de None went with them. " They arrived 
 at Toanche," says Father Martin, " but de None, in spite 
 of his good will and hard work, found it impossible to learn 
 the language of the Indians, and he thought he could better 
 serve the cause by returning to Quebec." 
 
 As the language was extremely difficult, the time allotted 
 to test his powers in that respect would seem to have been 
 altogether too short to make that a motive for his return, 
 and as on the other hand Masse was the only Jesuit left in 
 Quebec, it is possible that other reasons may have prompted 
 his recall. Very likely, also, Masse saw the approaching 
 crisis. In 1628 Kirke demanded the surrender of the city ; 
 in 1629 Champlain hauled down the French flag, and all 
 the missionaries, including de Brebeuf, were sent back to 
 France. That is about all we know of de Noue's first three 
 years experience in America. 
 
 In 1G32 we find him again setting out for the missions. 
 He is among the first to be chosen. In a letter of Father 
 Le Jeune to the Provincial, dated April, 1632, we read : 
 
 '' Being advised by your reverence on the last day of 
 March that I should embark immediately at Havre de Grace 
 
 188 
 
AXXE DE XOUE. 
 
 and go straight to New France, I felt more satisfaction and 
 contentment than 1 had experienced in twenty years. I 
 never received a letter which gave me such pleasure. I left 
 Dieppe next day, and passing by Rouen with Brother Gil- 
 bert I met Father de None. Arriving at Havre we went 
 to pay our respects to M. du Pont, the cardinal's nephew, 
 who gave us a passport for America. From Havre we went 
 to Honlieur, and on the 18th of April set sail. ■ We had 
 fair weather at the beginning, and in ten days made six 
 hundred leagues, but we paid up for it during the thirty 
 days that followed. We had nothing but storms and head 
 winds, with only a few hours of fair weather from time 
 to time. 
 
 " Even in the last days of May and the beginning of June 
 the winds and the fog were bitter cold. Father de Noue 
 had his hands and feet frozen, and I had headaches and a 
 palpitation of the heart that continued an entire month. 
 As we had only salt meat we were tortured with thirst, and 
 there was no fresh water on board. Our cabins were so 
 small that we could not stand nor kneel nor sit in them, and, 
 what is worse, when it rained, the water poured down on 
 my face. Everyone else suffered in the same way ; the 
 sailors worst of all. But all that is past and gone, and I would 
 not care to be back in France. Our little troubles did not, I 
 think, cause us a moment's sadness. God never lets himself 
 be conquered. If you give him a farthing he repays you 
 with a gold mine. On the whole, however, I came off 
 better than Father de Noue, who, for a long time, could not 
 eat a morsel. As for the Brother, he is like an amphibious 
 animal, just as well on sea as on land." In this rough 
 fashion did Father de Noue come a second time to America. 
 
 While repairing the old residence of Notre Dame des 
 Anges, which the English had almost ruined during their 
 occupation, an opportunity was offered to the Fathers to 
 go down with a party of savages who were encamped at 
 Cape Tourmente. De Noue was chosen for the work. It 
 
 189 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 was bitterly cold, for it was in the month of January, and 
 the Indians had for shelter nothing but a deep excavation 
 in the snow. Around them were the white walls ; above 
 was the sky. Crouched about a cauldron sat the hunters 
 who, from time to time, took out huge chunks of half- 
 cooked meat and devoured them. There was no attempt 
 at cleaning the filthy and bleeding lumps of elk or beaver 
 or bear that were flung into the horrible pot, and the savages 
 tore them in pieces with their teeth or hands, sometimes 
 even bringing their feet into requisition when the fibres 
 were too tough. Poor de Noue tried to imitate his hosts 
 who were otherwise very attentive to him. but his gorge 
 rose and he set aside the meat, satisfying himself with a 
 few crusts of bread he had brought with him. But the 
 savages snatched them from him and eat them, saying he 
 could get as much bread as he wanted when he returned 
 home. So there he sat starving and sick amid the piles 
 of reeking flesh, which had to be all eaten, for the Indians 
 made no store for the future. Nor could he speak to his 
 friends, for the Montagnais showed themselves very reluc- 
 tant to teach the missionaries the language of the country, 
 and so at last he made up his mind to return, and staggered 
 out of the pit. He had gone only a short distance when 
 he found himself both blind and deaf, and had to be carried 
 back again into the offensive hole over which the heavy 
 smoke hung, but fortunately he could no longer see the 
 blood and filth around him. At last he revived a little, and 
 the savages, no doubt disgusted at his weakness, put him 
 on a sled and dragged to Notre Dame des Anges, where 
 he was gradually nursed back to health. The Indian 
 methods were evidently too much for him. 
 
 From that out his labors were confined to the immediate 
 surroundings of the house, and we find him toiling night 
 and day for the next six or seven years. He always asked 
 for the meanest and the hardest occupations. He made 
 himself a slave for the comfort of others, and many a day 
 
 190 
 
ANNE DE NOUE. 
 
 he spent in the woods digging roots to feed the famishing 
 members of the household. It is somewhat pleasant to be 
 told that this saintly missionary became by dint of enforced 
 I)ractice an expert fisherman, and that the table never lacked 
 a supply of the best the rivers could afford when he was 
 in the neighborhood. Perhaps, like St. Francis, he called 
 the fish around him. 
 
 In 1G43 he was assigned to the chaplaincy of Fort 
 Richelieu, which had been built where the Sorel or Iroquois 
 or Richelieu River — it had all these names — empties into 
 the St. Lawrence. It was the usual passageway for the 
 Iroquois in their raids on Canada, and necessarily dangers 
 and privations were not wanting, so that it was a great com- 
 fort for him VN'hen his old friend Le Jeune was sent there for 
 a time to help him. In 1G46 the end came. It was the 30th 
 of January. He had set out from Three Rivers along with 
 two soldiers and Huron. They were going to Fort Riche- 
 lieu, thirty-six miles away. Everything, of course, was in 
 the grip of winter, and the snow was three or four feet 
 deep. They tramped along on their raquettes, but made 
 only eighteen miles before night overtook them. They 
 camped in the snow near the bank w'here the trees shielded 
 them somew^iat from the piercing wind, but there was 
 nothing above them but the cold sky. The two soldiers 
 were worn out with fatigue, for they were not used to snow- 
 shoes, and had besides carried heavy packs on their backs. 
 To afiford them relief, Father de Noue got out of his blankets 
 at two o'clock in the morning and started out alone for the 
 fort. He took nothing with him ; not even his gun to start 
 a fire, nor his robe, and only a few bits of bread and some 
 dried prunes which they found afterwards on his dead body. 
 Before him lay the wide stretch of Lake St. Peter. The 
 moon was shining brightly and he tramped along alone. 
 When we think of it, the scene is almost startling: an old 
 white haired man, sixty-seven years of age, hurrying along 
 in the dead of night on the ice fields of the St. Lawrence, 
 
 191 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 to make it easier for two tired soldiers to reach their des- 
 tination, and going into his own grave in the snow. Soon 
 the face of the moon was darkened by clouds, and a fierce 
 storm of snow made the gloom of the night still more dense. 
 He had no compass to guide him, but he could not have 
 seen it if he had one. Nor could he any longer make out 
 the borders of the lake, nor find any of the islands with 
 which it is dotted. Still he tramped onward, but made little 
 progress. He was lost. 
 
 In the morning the soldiers arose, and were astounded 
 to find that the Father was not with them. They could not 
 see any tracks, for the new snow had covered everything. 
 One of the party who had been at Richelieu before, fixed its 
 direction by the quadrant, and he and his companion with 
 the Indian started off in pursuit. All day long they 
 searched but in vain, and at night, worn out with fatigue, 
 they encamped on St. Ignatius Island, not far from where 
 Noue's body was, but they did not know it. The Huron, 
 more accustomed to such things than the white men, hurried 
 on to Richelieu to find if the Father had arrived. He was 
 frightened to hear that he had not. It was only eighteen 
 miles and the wanderer could easily have covered that dis- 
 tance. Evidently he had gone astray. It was then night, 
 and they had to wait till morning. At break of day 
 the soldiers of the garrison scurried away to the north, but 
 he had gone to the south. They shouted and discharged 
 their muskets, but no answer came. He was far away. 
 They found the two soldiers ; for the Indians had given theiii 
 the needed information, but there Avas no sign of the priest. 
 All day long they hunted in every direction but to no purpose. 
 
 It was now the 2d of February, and a soldier who had 
 been long in the country took two Indians with him and 
 started back to the place where the party had encamped on 
 the first night. An Indian can find tracks that have been 
 covered, and hence they were soon on the trail. They fol- 
 lowed it as it wound in all directions, and at last came to 
 
 192 
 
ANNE DE NOUE. 
 
 the place where he had passed the night. It was a hole in 
 the snow. There were some pine branches on which he 
 had rested, if he rested at all, for he had nothing to cover 
 himself but an old soutane and a light cloak. As the 
 French did not usually go in that direction he had evidently 
 not recognized the locality. From that spot he had crossed 
 the river in front of the Richelieu, which he did not see, 
 either because it was snowing hard or he had lost the sight of 
 his eyes. The soldier and the Indians, nevertheless, kept 
 on and succeeded in finding at Cape Massacre, a place where 
 Noue had rested. It was in front of Isle Platte on the main- 
 land between two little creeks. There they saw him. He 
 was on his knees, frozen stiff, in a hole that he had made 
 in the snow. His hat and his snowshoes were near him, 
 and he was bending over on the snow bank. He had died 
 while he knelt in prayer and had fallen over on the snow, 
 for his arms were folded across his breast and his eyes 
 were wide open and gazing upwards to heaven. He was 
 looking for home. 
 
 The brave soldier, overcome by the sight, fell on his knees 
 and prayed. He then cut a cross on the nearest tree, and 
 wrapping up the body, which was like ice, put it on the sled 
 and sorrowfully and reverently dragged it to the fort and 
 then down to Three Rivers. Thev buried him there, and as 
 the soldiers and Indians stood around his rigid corpse many 
 a hard heart melted, and men who for years had been steeped 
 in vice hastened to make their peace with God. The icy 
 lips of the priest .spoke as they had never done before. He 
 probably died on the Feast of the Purification, and that 
 must have made him happy, for he never let a Saturday pass 
 without fasting in honor of the Mother of the Lord, nor a 
 day without reciting the Office of her Immaculate Con- 
 ception. 
 
 193 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Indian College. 
 
 Cape Breton, as every one knows, is not, in spite of its 
 name, a cape, but an island. It would be the eastern ex- 
 tremity of Nova Scotia did not the Gut of Canso, which 
 is only a mile wide, give it a separate existence. Indeed, 
 it is almost two islands, for the Little Bras d'Or, which runs 
 into it from the east and then widens out near the western 
 extremity into Bras d'Or Lake, almost cuts it in two longi- 
 tudinally. 
 
 A glance at the names of the different localities as they 
 appear on the map, reveals to us the various elements of 
 the population. There can be no mistake about who have 
 named Loch Lomond, and Skir Dhu ; nor about lona and 
 Irish Town, the latter of which for safety sake is on the 
 other side of Bras d'Or over against Orangedale. La 
 Framboise, L'Archeveque, etc., recall Acadian influences; 
 and a rare name like Whycocomah, reminds us of the 
 vanishing Micmacs, some of whose shadows still flit over 
 the Island. The population in 1901 was 49,000, of whom 
 about 35,000 were Catholics. 
 
 Perhaps Sebastian Cabot saw Cape Breton in his wander- 
 ings, and its name would suggest that Breton fishermen 
 toiled ofif its shores, but it attained political prominence 
 only w^hen Champlain was surrendering Quebec, in 1629. At 
 that time a Scotchman named Stewart, who claimed to have 
 royal blood in his veins and who enjoyed the title of Fourth 
 Lord of Ochiltree, had a fancy that it would be a fine place 
 for a colony, so he built a fort at Great Cibou, which is now 
 called St. Anne's Harbor. 
 
 197 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Just then the fleets were hurrying over the sea to the 
 relief of Quebec. One of them was in command of Captain 
 Daniel. Unfortunately, his vessels lost sight of each other 
 in the fogs of Newfoundland, and he found himself with 
 only a single ship. Under such circumstances it would 
 have been more than hazardous to attempt to break through 
 Kirke's blockade of the St. Lawrence, so he concluded to 
 do what was the next best thing. Having heard that 
 Stewart had captured some French vessels, and estab- 
 lished a colony in Cape Breton, he turned his ship in that 
 direction, made short work of the Scotch lord's defences, 
 demolished the fort and built another in its stead at what 
 is now St. Anne's Bay, just north of the Bras d'Or. 
 Leaving a garrison there of forty men, he set sail for 
 France with his prisoners, and forever after boasted that 
 when the French flag was lowered at Quebec it remained 
 floating in the breeze at St. Anne's in Cape Breton. 
 
 Among those wdio came ashore from Daniel's ship and 
 remained when the Captain sailed away, was the Jesuit 
 Father Vimont. He w-as joined by one of his brethren 
 shortly after, in a most unexpected fashion. A vessel fitted 
 out by Father Noyrot, for the purpose of provisioning 
 Quebec, went to pieces on the rocks near Canso. Noyrot 
 and Brother Malot along with twelve men were drowned, 
 while Fathers Charles Lalemant and Vieuxpont, and eight 
 of the crew, succeeded in reaching the shore. Vieuxpont 
 escaped without injury, but Lalemant was nearly killed by 
 being battered against the rocks and was hauled out of the 
 water more dead than alive. A Basque fisherman took them 
 on board and they remained with him from that time — it 
 was then the end of August — until October 6th. They were 
 about to set sail for France, when an Indian told them of 
 Daniel's establishment twenty-five leagues away. Lalemant 
 remained with the skipper and started across the ocean, 
 but Vieuxpont got into the canoe with the Indian and a few 
 days after presented himself to Vimont, who, of course, 
 
 198 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 was as much astonished as dehghted by the arrival of such 
 a welcome companion. They heard only a year afterwards 
 that poor Father Lalemant had suffered another shipwreck 
 before he reached home. 
 
 The two priests remained in Cape Breton a little over 
 a year, and returned to France in 1630. They could do 
 nothing with the few scattered natives of whose language 
 they were necessarily in total ignorance, but they had plenty 
 to do with the soldiers of the fort, most of whom were 
 down with scurvy. " I found myself often," says Vimont, 
 " with a corpse in liis shroud on one side, and a sick man 
 whom I was administering on the other," 
 
 When peace was concluded. Captain Daniel sailed back 
 again to his " abitation." Perhaps he was emulating Cham.- 
 plain in the choice of that name. With him was his brother 
 Anthony, who was destined to become one of Canada's 
 illustrious martyrs, and who was then only a little over 
 thirty-three years of age, for he was born at Dieppe, May 27, 
 1601. After studying law for about a year, he had entered 
 the Jesuit novitiate at Rouen, October 1, 1621. It was his 
 distinguished brother's ship that brought him over to begin 
 his career as an Indian missionary. His companion was 
 Father Davost, and they were to look after the aboriginees 
 of Captain Daniel's Island. What the place was like, we 
 find from a letter written by Father Perrault a year later. 
 
 " The Island," he says, " is about sixty or eighty leagues 
 in circumference. A number of very high mountains are 
 seen here and there, at the foot of which we found the 
 debris of great land slides. There are also in some places 
 frightful precipices." To the modern traveller this descrip- 
 tion of many high mountains and frightful precipices seems 
 an exaggeration, although one of the promontories goes 
 up into the air about 1,200 feet, but we must remember that 
 these missionaries came from Normandy, where every hill 
 is a " montagne." 
 
 " The land," he continues, " is covered with all sorts of 
 
 199 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 trees; oak, beech, birch, pine, spruce, etc. T!ie Cibou is a 
 great bay nearly two leagues wide at its mouth, narrowing 
 gradually as it works into the land. At the entrance of 
 the harbor, on the left as you enter, and perched on the top 
 of a bluff is Fort St. Anne, looking towards the northwest. 
 Opposite to it is a small bay. It is a position which com- 
 petent judges declare is so well chosen that with ten or 
 twelve cannon you could sink eveiy ship that would show 
 itself. Old sailors assure us they have never seen so 
 spacious a port with such facility for landing. Three 
 thousand craft might ride safely at anchor. The harbor 
 forms almost a circle, and is fair to look upon. The tides 
 are moderate and regular, and there is always a depth of 
 thirty or thirty-six feet of water. Although we are in 
 latitude 46^° the cold is intense, and the winter lasts five 
 or six months of the year. Nevertheless the savages are 
 better off then than in many another place. If they trap 
 fewer beavers in the water, they find more moose on the 
 shore at that time. In summer they live at their ease, on 
 woodchuck. parrot-fish, cormorants, and various other sea 
 fowl, and there are otters, mackerel, cod, smelt and all 
 kinds of fish in season. 
 
 " The people are not ugly. On the contrary they are 
 rather good-looking, well built and strong. Their natural 
 hue is white, as you can see from the children, but the heat 
 of the sun and the use of fish-oil and elk-grease, with which 
 they smear themselves, changes their color as they grow 
 up. They have long black hair but are beardless, so that 
 we are puzzled at times to distinguish the men from the 
 women ; though the latter wear more clothes. * The re- 
 verse,' says the restrospective missionary, ' of what is prac- 
 ticed in Christendom to the shame of Christianity.' 
 
 " Judging from the way they treat us they are not at all 
 bad. Indeed, there is a certain modesty and gravity in their 
 demeanor which is attractive. They appear to be unwilling 
 to have us know their language, but will listen to us all 
 
 200 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 day, and repeat w hat we say or do. Thus, seeing we pay 
 respect to the cross, they paint it all over their bodies. As 
 far as we can make out, they know nothing about God, 
 or the condition of the soul after death. But perhaps a 
 better acquaintance with their language may change our 
 ideas. Unlike other Indians they are honest, and although 
 they are polygamists and easily dismiss their wives, there 
 is nothing indecent in their external behavior." 
 
 Such were the aboriginees of Cape Breton, but unfortun- 
 ately the place was abandoned in 1G41. Daniel and Davost 
 remained there only a year, and we find in the " Relation " 
 that " on June 24, 1632, Daniel arrived at Quebec, and 
 gave information of the arrival of Captain Morieult, on 
 whose ship he had left Father Davost at Tadoussac. 
 ]\Iorieult had been told to call for them at Cape Breton, 
 for both were destined for more perilous work. 
 
 De Brebeuf was about to start for Huronia, and almost 
 immediately after their arrival, namely on July 7, 1634, 
 Daniel and Davost got into the Indian canoes along with 
 him and began a journey to the northwest which was one 
 uninterrupted series of hardships and dangers. The trav- 
 ellers lost each other on the way up, and Daniel was ejected 
 from his canoe and would have been left to perish in the 
 wilderness had not a friendly Indian come to his rescue 
 and put him in another boat. The change was fortunate, 
 for the first canoe was a miserable affair which twice in one 
 day came near being dashed to pieces, and besides, its three 
 lazy occupants had determined to drop their passenger 
 twelve leagues away from his destination. 
 
 Arriving at Ihonitiria after de Brebeuf, who had taken 
 a month for the journey, Daniel immediately plunged 
 into work. The records are scanty just then, but we 
 find him in the following year down among the Algon- 
 quins, kneeling, in the middle of the night, at the side of a 
 poor Iroquois prisoner who was staked to the ground, while 
 his captors were shaking fire-brands over him so as to make 
 
 201 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 the sparks fall on his naked and mangled body. The 
 wretched sufferer never uttered a moan. Next day he was 
 put to death, but before he expired, Daniel had made him 
 a Christian. That, however, was only one of the ordinary 
 incidents of his life at that time. He had plenty to do 
 between studying the terrible language of the natives, 
 ingratiating himself with the people, caring for them in 
 their sickness, and striving to put a check on some of their* 
 frightful vices. There was, besides, the abiding fear of 
 the Iroquois. On the 14th of May, a number of mangled 
 Hurons had rushed into Ihonitiria. They had been out 
 on the war-path, and after spending two nights singing, 
 and dancing, and carousing, were set upon by the Iro- 
 quois, almost within gunshot of their own village. A 
 dozen were tomahawked, some were taken prisoners, and 
 the rest fled to their homes to tell the tale. 
 
 One good result of the misfortune was that they were 
 now more willing to listen to the missionaries, and the 
 tragedy was, moreover, the occasion of the conversion to a 
 better life of an Indian known as Louis de Saincte Foy, who 
 had been sent to Europe to be educated, but who, on his 
 return, was for a long time a subject of great concern for 
 the missionaries. This massacre set him in the right path 
 again, and he never deflected from it afterwards. He was 
 in the fight, and he declared that God had so wonderfully 
 protected him on that occasion that he determined to change 
 his life. Excepting his father, he brought his whole family to 
 the faith. He became a zealous teacher, and even de Bre- 
 beuf used to admire the correctness and lucidity of his ex- 
 planations of Christian doctrine. His father was a curious 
 old character, however, and a source of constant amuse- 
 ment to the missionaries. His conceit in his abilities was 
 phenomenal. Thus when he first heard the catechism ex- 
 plained, he said with disdain : " Why that is nothing ; any- 
 one can learn that. When I was sent on embassies to the 
 tribes I had thirty things to remember and never forgot 
 
 909, 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 one. The trouble is that all this is new to us. The French- 
 men who came here before were a bad lot, and never spoke 
 to us of religion. Learn those prayers! Certainly. I in- 
 tend not only to learn them but also the language of the 
 missionaries, and be the chief in one of their houses. If 
 ever I have power I shall put to death anyone who steals." 
 " Then," retorted his son, " you will leave no one in the 
 country, for every Huron is a thief." " Yet," says de Bre- 
 beuf, rather dryly, " this mighty intellect had to w^ork hard 
 to learn the sign of the cross." 
 
 Later on, the old man joined the expedition to Quebec 
 with Daniel, and we are made party to a conversation be- 
 tween him and his dutiful son on the eve of the departure : 
 " Father," said Louis, " when you embrace Christianity do 
 not do so for anything you hope to get out of it. When 
 you are among the French, refrain from going around the 
 cabins to have a good time. Don't be regarded as a beggar. 
 Try to see M. de Champlain, and keep near the Fathers." 
 
 As the old savage was an inveterate gambler, and very 
 avaricious, the son had reasons to suspect the motive of his 
 journey. It is not recorded that he ever became Superior 
 of any of the Jesuit houses as he declared was his ambition. 
 On the contrary the deceiver did not go even as far as 
 Three Rivers, but stopped over with the Bissiriens, and 
 then returned home where he began a series of w-ild dis- 
 orders, keeping carefully out of sight of the missionaries. 
 Louis was killed some time after, and then the unfortunate 
 man became gloomy and committed suicide by poisoning 
 himself. 
 
 There was one special work in Huronia assigned to 
 Daniel. He had to teach the children to sing. He began 
 by putting the Our Father, the Hail Mary and tlie Com- 
 mandments to music, with the result that the older Indians 
 were compelled to hear from their own offspring what they 
 refused to listen to when the missionaries spoke to them. 
 The choir was a great success not only in giving solemnity 
 
 203 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 to the service, but in filling the chapel with an interested 
 audience, and by that means, getting supernatural thoughts 
 into the dark souls of the savages. 
 
 Probably it was this influence with the children that sug- 
 gested Daniel as the one best fitted for carrying out the 
 scheme that had long been discussed of educating a number 
 •of Huron boys at Quebec. The people were approached on 
 the subject, and it was suggested as an excellent way of 
 cementing the friendship with the French, and also of 
 furnishing an opportunity of making traders of the boys. 
 The religious motive back of it was not urged. It would 
 scarcely appeal to the savage heart. A dozen families con- 
 sented and Daniel's hopes went soaring, but when the boys 
 were already seated in the canoes, maternal lamentations 
 rent the air, and all but three were hurried back into the 
 wigwams again. Daniel was as depressed as he had before 
 been elated, but it was the best that could be done and he 
 set out with his young hopefuls. It was a perilous under- 
 taking, for if anything happened to the boys either on the 
 way down or at Quebec, the missionaries might expect a 
 general massacre. But they were willing to take much 
 greater risks. 
 
 On August 15, 1636, Father Le Jeune and du Plessis 
 Bouchard, the General of the Fleet, as he was called, were 
 at Three Rivers, when a canoe was beached on the river 
 bank and an Indian handed a letter to the priest. It was 
 from Father Daniel and read : 
 
 " I am held here at the Isle des AUumettes. The Indians 
 will not let us pass, because Chief One Eye is dead and his 
 relatives have not been covered. You know what that 
 means. Their grief has not been assuaged by rich presents. 
 We cannot satisfy them, and though they are willing to let 
 the French go down the river, they are retaining the Hurons, 
 but I told them I would not go without my Indians. 
 
 " I saw Fathers Garnier and Chastelain about three days' 
 journey up from here. They seemed to be having a good 
 
 204 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 time, for they had their shoes on and were not paddHng. 
 I was so dehghted that I gave the savages some of the weed 
 which we detest and which they adore — tobacco. It costs 
 a good deal here this year, but I would give ten times as 
 much to get out of this scrape at the Isle. It is of the 
 greatest importance that I should do so. Unfortunately, 
 however, although I promised you twelve pupils, I have 
 only three, but one of them is the son of a great chief. 
 I have also some older people wath me whom you will see. 
 Would you please tell M. du Plessis that though I have 
 only a few canoes I have a good supply of provisions." 
 The letter ends : " Signed under the glare of a piece of 
 burning bark, which is the only candle we have in this 
 country." 
 
 On the 19th, the main body of Daniel's party began to 
 arrive. " We hurried dow^n to the River," says the " Re- 
 lation," " and all the Frenchmen with us, among them M. du 
 Plessis himself. Father Daniel's canoe was leading the 
 flotilla. Davost, w-ho was W'ith the party, was in the rear. 
 When we saw Father Daniel our hearts began to melt. 
 His face was wreathed in smiles but he was all spent. He 
 was in his bare feet ; he held a paddle in his hand, wore a 
 ragged soutane, and his breviary was slung by a string 
 around his neck. His shirt was rotting on his back. He 
 saluted all the chiefs and Frenchmen, and then we em- 
 braced. After adoring the Blessed Sacrament we all with- 
 drew to my little room, where he told us how the Faith 
 was progressing among Hurons. Then he gave me his 
 papers and the account of the mission." 
 
 After the Indians had held their usual powows and sold 
 their peltries, the subject of the boys had to be settled. 
 Only little Satouta, who was of the Bear family, held 
 out. The two others wanted to go home. Daniel was in 
 despair, running hither and thither, reproaching the Indians 
 with not keeping their word. Le Jeune made long speeches 
 and du Plessis did the same, until at last one of the chiefs 
 
 205 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF xNORTH AMERICA. 
 
 declared it to be a shame that only the Bears should show 
 any confidence in the French. Then turning to his nephew, 
 Joseph Tewatiron, he said : " You will remain here; have no 
 fear ; the French will treat you well." Whereupon Satou- 
 ta's father began a little speech : " My son, be firm ; do not 
 change your mind. You are going among good people. Do 
 not take anything without Father Anthony's leave. Obey 
 the Blackrobes. Keep away from the Montagnais. Don't 
 go in a canoe with the French, for you might misunderstand 
 each other and quarrel. If you kill a deer, keep the skin and 
 give away the flesh. Stay here till next year and we shall 
 see what is to be done." 
 
 " As time was pressing and M. le General wanted to leave 
 on account of the state of his health," says the " Relation," 
 *' we took our two scholars in the shallop and set sail. It was 
 a great sight to see the parents of the boys apostrophizing 
 them as they left, urging them to keep up their courage, 
 not to steal anything, for that was not the custom among 
 the French, etc. Finally the anchor was hoisted, and as 
 we sailed away, every cannon in the fort and every piece 
 of firearms in the village was discharged to bid us God- 
 speed." 
 
 "There," says Le Jeune, "you have your seminary;" 
 and he adds with a touch of humor, " all I need now is a 
 place to put it in and means to support it. The trouble is 
 that these little savages come to you as naked as your hand ; 
 for when you dress them up in French fashion the parents 
 take away all their old clothes and expect plentiful presents 
 for having given you their prodigies." Though he made 
 an appeal to the King, it is not recorded that His Majesty 
 exhausted the treasury in responding. Perhaps two were 
 not worth while, but another scholar had been captured 
 somewhere. Nicolet got two more, and the five little copper 
 colored students were carried over to the Fathers' house, 
 and to save money to feed the five young savages, five civil- 
 ized workmen had to be discharged. 
 
 206 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 When the boys were leaving Three Rivers they were told 
 not to go near the Montagnais. The advice was needed, 
 and an event occurred just then at Quebec which showed 
 how horribly degraded those Indians had become. The 
 nervous may well omit the account of it. 
 
 An Iroquois brave had been captured and was handed 
 over to the squaws to be tortured. They seized him as he 
 stepped out of the canoe and hurried him off to their prin- 
 cipal wigwam. The dance was the first act in the hideous 
 performance, and while the poor wretch was going through 
 its evolutions a shrivelled old hag kept beating him with a 
 knotted rope as fiercely as her strength would permit; 
 another pounded him on the back and stomach with a stone, 
 and a third slashed his back with a knife till he was all 
 streaming with blood. They had not gone far in giving 
 vent to their ^fury when an old savage who was lying on the 
 ground, wasting away with an incurable disease and already 
 looking almost like a skeleton, suddenly sprang to his feet 
 and clutching the Iroquois by the neck, bit off his ear and 
 then stuffed it into the victim's mouth and tried to make 
 him eat it. Strange to say the prisoner took the morsel 
 with apparent pleasure, chewed it for a time, and not being 
 able to swallow it, threw it into the fire. 
 
 Tlijs went on all day, and when evening came they tied 
 a rope around the prisoner and dragged him from cabin 
 to cabin, a furious squaw lashing him meantime, her strokes 
 keeping time with a dirge that she was singing. Other 
 horrors were perpetrated which, Le Jeune says, " this paper 
 would blush to record." Finally the Governor was in- 
 formed of what was going on, and he insisted that they 
 should exercise their savagery elsewhere. Whereupon they 
 crossed the river, strangled their victim, roasted his body 
 and gave it to the dogs and then threw the bones into the 
 stream. 
 
 What a people to evangelize! Evidently not only the 
 missions, but even the Christian settlements needed infinite 
 
 207 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 forbearance to put up with these abominations. The won- 
 der is why armed repression was not resorted to. The 
 difficulty was, that national customs could not be repressed 
 without throwing the whole country into a state of war. 
 They had to be tolerated for the moment. 
 
 The Fathers needed no advice to keep their Huron boys 
 from going among these monsters. There was enough of 
 inherent savagery in the pupils themselves to absorb all 
 the energy of their patient teachers. Indeed the chronicles 
 of the first native school furnishes a series of adventures 
 as absorbing as ever filled the pages of an Indian romance. 
 
 The scholars were dressed like French boys and taught 
 to bow and lift their hats, and sit properly at table, etc. It 
 was the foolish program of Frenchifying or francization of 
 the savages which years afterwards Frontenac taunted 
 the Fathers with refusing to continue. Of course it 
 was much more important to make them Christians, and 
 they had prayers and instructions which naturally had to be 
 very brief. They made great progress, however, and on 
 the whole were very happy. Of course there were acci- 
 dents and fights, for, says the record, " they were as hard 
 to manage as so many wild asses." Unfortunately two of 
 them died, and the Fathers were in consternation, for both 
 were heirs-apparent to much wampum and great offices in 
 their tribes. Satouta, the little man who was the only 
 one who was willing to leave home, was the grandson of 
 a great chief who was called by the French " the Admiral 
 of his country," for through his hands everything had to 
 pass. The other one, Teiko, had given wonderful promise 
 as an orator. Would their death cause an uprising among 
 the tribes? Happily, the pestilence was raging in Huronia 
 just then, and it was thought that it was only in the course 
 of nature that the boys should succumb like their relatives. 
 There was still, however, some apprehension that their 
 deaths might be thought to have resulted from fights they 
 had been in. But it turned out that boylike they had merely 
 
 208 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 eaten too much, and had not been able to wrestle with the 
 sohd nourishment of a French table. Though purgatives and 
 bleedings were vigorously resorted to, as medical science 
 required in those days, the poor little fellows died and went 
 off to join the angels. 
 
 The school was now reduced to three pupils, and one of 
 the three became homesick. He did not complain of ill- 
 treatment, but was longing for his tepee and the woods. 
 Just as he was on the point of withdrawing, however, it 
 was announced that a great number of Hurons were ex- 
 pected at Three Rivers, and the boys were therefore given 
 a conge and sent up to the colony to see their relatives. 
 Father Daniel went with them, and in the account of what 
 happened we have a very interesting story of a break in 
 the studies at Notre Dame des Anges. It so happened that 
 a light-headed and talkative chief reached Three Rivers 
 before the rest of his party. He was an uncle of one of 
 the Indian pupils, and told them he had heard on the way 
 that the Hurons had killed two Frenchmen, and that as an 
 atonement would have to be made, very probably the two 
 boys were the most likely victims to be chosen. They, of 
 course, were terrified, and resolved to abscond. The pro- 
 ject became known and the chief was arrested. He escaped, 
 however, from the fort by jumping over the bastion, but 
 a soldier saw him and a hand to hand fight ensued, with 
 the result that the chief was led back to confinement and 
 accused of trying to kidnap the two Huron boys. For- 
 tunately just then some Hurons arrived, and reported that 
 there was no truth in the rumor about the murder of the 
 Frenchmen ; a piece of intelligence which brought peace to 
 every one. Nevertheless, the boy who first caused the 
 trouble, Joseph Tewatiron, persisted in his desire to return 
 home, and about the 22d of July, 1637, he set out with 
 Father Ragueneau for Huronia. 
 
 They were travelling along very contentedly; one happy 
 in the probability of soon becoming a martyr, the other in 
 
 209 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 the prospect of again becoming a savage, when they saw 
 a number of canoes coming towards them. Were they 
 Iroquois? No; Hurons; and in the lead was the uncle of 
 the boy. " Where are you going? " he asked very angrily. 
 " Home," was the answer. " You are not," said the chief; 
 " g:et into a canoe behind and follow me. You have been 
 well treated at Quebec and must keep your word." Very 
 meekly the young Indian obeyed, while Father Ragueneau 
 continued on his way up the river alone. All went well 
 till Joseph and his uncle arrived at Lake St. Peter, between 
 Three Rivers and Sorel. An Indian warwhoop was heard. 
 It was the Iroquois. A brief battle followed and then all 
 was over. Uncle and nephew were in the hands of the 
 foe, and for some time Three Rivers knew nothing of what 
 had happened. 
 
 After a time the river was thought to be clear, and on the 
 6th of .A^ugust two Huron canoes started for home. That 
 night at 10 o'clock the long drawn out wail was heard. 
 Ouai ! Ouai ! It was the Huron cry announcing bad news. 
 The Indians in the fort pricked up their ears and silently 
 waited. At last in the early morning one of the canoes 
 reached the shore. They had met the Iroquois and the 
 other boat had been captured. Then followed a scene of 
 wild disorder. The men seized their weapons and the 
 squaws swarmed into the fort. Scouts were sent out and 
 they returned at daybreak with the report that they had 
 heard the shouts of a great number of Iroquois who were 
 apparently rejoicing over their booty. There must have 
 been two hundred men also, in ambush, at the entrance 
 of Lake St. Peter. 
 
 This announcement filled every one with terror. The 
 women seized their children and started, some for Quebec, 
 and others up the St. Maurice. The braves asked to enter 
 the fort, but as the French knew bv experience that such 
 alarms were often groundless they hesitated. At last an 
 Iroquois canoe was seen out on the river, sometimes present- 
 
 210 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 ing- its bow to the fort, sometimes its side, as if in deriance. 
 Tliat was enough. The Hurons and Algonquins were let 
 into the redoubt, and there they began a war dance. One 
 seized an axe. another a club, another a shield, and leaped 
 around with wild capers howling and yelling like demons. 
 The old writer of the " Relations " remarks : " they were 
 usually exhausted when it was time to fight." 
 
 Montmagny surveyed the scene for a moment, and then 
 quietly got his own men in line ai.d brought the Indians 
 to their senses, assigning them to various posts in case any 
 lighting had to be done. As the challenging canoe ap- 
 peared from time to time out in the river, he ordered 
 Nicolet to go out with the barque to reconnoitre, and he 
 came back with the news that there were five hundred 
 Iroquois in the neighborhood. They were seen by him, but 
 as they were not near enough for a musket shot, the cannon 
 was trained on them, and soon they were scurrying through 
 the reeds on the shore carrying the bodies of some of their 
 comrades, who had been killed or wounded. This news 
 again started the howls of the Indians in the fort, and again 
 they had to be repressed. It was fortunate that Mont- 
 magny was on hand to control them. 
 
 Nothing, however, happened just then, but later on, a 
 fugitive came in stark naked and reported that he had been 
 pursued by the Iroquois close up to the fort. Evidently an 
 attack was imminent, and Montmagny despatched a canoe 
 to Quebec for reinforcements. Einally, at nightfall, some 
 Indians came in with the news of the capture of the Huron 
 chief and his nephew. At midnight other warriors arrived 
 and announced that Lake St. Peter was alive with Iroquois. 
 They themselves had been hotly pursued and had barely 
 escaped being taken. 
 
 Next day, the 9th, while every one was waiting in terror, 
 not knowing what might happen, a wild cry arose : " The 
 Iroquois! The Iroquois!" There was a rush to the 
 stockade and lo! out in the river in an Iroquois canoe sat 
 
 211 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 a naked Indian with a long pole in his hand What did 
 it mean? Was it another defiance? Was it a prelude to 
 a general attack? It was feared that the five hundred 
 Irocjuois were already in the woods around the fort. The 
 gunner took aim at the audacious savage in the canoe. 
 " Stop," said the Governor, " not yet." " We strained 
 our eyes," says the " Relation," " as the boat came nearer, 
 until it finally reached the shore. We saw the Indian walk 
 deliberately to the fort We held our breath. What did it 
 all mean ? At last sone one gasped out : ' Perhaps it is our 
 seminarian, Joseph Tewatiron.' ' It is indeed,' said the 
 Governor. ' I know his stride,' and so it was. We wel- 
 comed him with delight and he told us his story." 
 
 " When we saw my uncle's canoe surrounded," he said, 
 " we plied our paddles vigorously to escape, hotly pursued 
 by the Iroquois. We made for the shore, and scattered 
 through the woods, flinging off our clothes so as to run 
 faster. The enemy pursued us but night came on and they 
 gave up the chase. I remained one day in concealment, and 
 then made my way cautiously to the river, where I found an 
 Iroquois canoe. I was very much frightened, for I thought 
 I had fallen into their hands. I listened and then crept 
 around but heard and saw nothing; so I tore off the limb 
 of a tree and determined to return to the place I had aban- 
 doned." "Did you pray?" asked Daniel. "I never 
 stopped praying," he answered, " that God would protect 
 me." 
 
 Great as the happiness of all was, some suspected that 
 Joseph might, after all, be nothing but an Iroquois spy, 
 who had been given his life on the condition that he might 
 come down with this strange story to betray the fort. But 
 tb.e poor boy soon convinced them that their suspicions 
 were unfounded, for he wanted to go back immediately to 
 Quebec to take some needed rest and to heal the wounds 
 he had received in his flight. 
 
 " What about your uncle," asked Daniel. " I taught him 
 
 212 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 all 1 knew about the Faith while we were coming down the 
 river," replied the boy. " 1 do not know what happened 
 afterwards." But that night he found out. A great fire 
 flared up on the other side of the river. Some Hurons and 
 Montagnais went across to see what it meant, and they 
 brought back two of Joseph's companions. It was they 
 who had started the fire as a signal of distress. The fugi- 
 tives were welcomed and the garrison crowded around to 
 hear the story. " I escaped from the enemy," said one of 
 them. " I was hidden in the reeds and I heard the Iro- 
 quois torturing the captives. I could distinguish the voice 
 of the chief Tarantouan, singing as vigorously and as gaily 
 as if he were among his friends. I was lying naked in a 
 swamp and was suffering very much, but the thought of the 
 poor chief gave me courage, though three times I was on 
 the point of giving myself up, until I finally got the chance 
 of stealing away and here I am." 
 
 He corroborated the story of Joseph in all its details, and 
 after a few days Daniel took his three boys and set out for 
 Quebec. The Governor was away at the time hunting for 
 Iroquois, but M. de Chateaufort, imitating what had been 
 done on a former occasion, ordered the cannon of the fort 
 to salute the little barque as it sailed down the St. Lawrence. 
 It was to show the savages what esteem was had for those 
 who embraced the Faith. They reached Quebec in safety 
 and studies were resumed even while on their way to the 
 city. Such was the first vacation of the first Huron col- 
 lege. Later on new scholars arrived, but they were the 
 reverse of what was wanted. One boy especially was so 
 corrupt that he had to be sent away. Two others decamped 
 of their own accord. For although they had been cared 
 for affectionately for several months, they were as savage 
 as ever; liars, thieves, gluttons and worse, and they could 
 not stand the restraint. By dint of lying and stealing they 
 secured a canoe and plenty of provisions, and one fine morn- 
 ing vanished from sight over the waters of the St. Law- 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 rence. The number was thus again reduced to two, but it 
 was a mercy of God, for there were many sick people in 
 the neighborhood just then, and it was better to feed them 
 than those young scapegraces from the west. But the two 
 boys who remained were worth keeping. One was the lad 
 who had just escaped from the Iroquois, the other was called 
 Armand, who later on became an apostle of his people. 
 His full name was Armand Jean, given to him in honor of 
 Richelieu, and he well deserved the distinction accorded 
 him. We shall speak of him in another chapter. 
 
 Meantime Montmagny was scouring the river in search of 
 the Iroquois. On the 11th two shallops fully equipped ar- 
 rived at Three Rivers, and a barque and more boats were 
 on their way, but the Governor would not wait. He started 
 out immediately in pursuit of the enemy, taking Father 
 Le Jeune with him. It was night, and a fair wind carried 
 them across Lake St. Peter. Not a sound was heard, but 
 at dawn it was thought that they were near the foe. There 
 was a dense smoke on the shore, near where the river enters 
 the lake, and it was surmised that the enemy could not be 
 far away. All haste was made to reach the place but the 
 birds had flown. It was useless to follow, for their canoes 
 were lighter than the barques and shallops of the French. 
 Deeply disappointed, the pursuers went ashore to examine 
 more closely. They found on the river bank a board for- 
 merly used as the arms of a cross which had been planted 
 by du Plessis. The savages had torn it off the upright, 
 and had painted on it the heads of the thirty Huron captives, 
 and fastened it on a tree where it could not escape the 
 notice of anyone that passed that way. Two heads were 
 larger than the others. One of them represented the great 
 chief Tarantouan. There were also the heads of two chil- 
 dren, and of two boys who had started for the school 
 at Quebec but had never reached it. With the exception 
 of one head which was painted black, the rest were in red. 
 Red signified captivity, black death. A little later the body 
 
 214 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 of the poor wretch who was slain was found floating in the 
 river. But that was all, and there was nothing to be done 
 but to return. Montmagny and his men were deeply chag- 
 rined, chiefly because the Iroquois never knew they were 
 pursued. It was a bad mark against the courage of the 
 French. 
 
 215 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Armand the Huron. 
 
 In the course of the year 1637 alarming reports began 
 to come to Quebec about the missions. Rumor had it that 
 all the Fathers had been murdered. Montmagny was very 
 much distressed and would gladly have sent a detachment 
 of soldiers to find out what had really happened, and to 
 punisli the offenders in case the report was true. But he 
 had only a slim garrison at Quebec, and if he sent a small 
 number of soldiers they might easily be caught in the 
 enemy's country and annihilated. In this emergency the 
 two Indian seminarists came to the rescue. They volun- 
 teered to go, and send back word about the condition of 
 the country. The offer was gladly accepted. It meant, of 
 course, danger of death at every step, but that did not deter 
 them, and they determined to go. A young Frenchman, 
 whose name is unfortunately not given, asked to accompany 
 them as did a number of Algonquins 
 
 " We also sent the Father who had instructed them," says 
 the " Relation," but it omits to give his name ; and one 
 hesitates for a moment, because Pijart had been sent down 
 to take Daniel's place, who had fallen desperately sick 
 because of the failure of his educational scheme. But as 
 we find Daniel back again in the missions about this time, 
 and as the clerical guide appointed for this expedition is 
 spoken of as keeping his Indians singing all the way, all 
 doubts are dispelled. It was he who returned with Armand. 
 Quebec was unable to cure him, and so he was sent back to 
 undergo the incredible hardships and privations of Indian 
 life, to effect his restoration to health. The Algonquins 
 started out gaily with the young Hurons, and went like the 
 wind, although the spring freshets and melting snows had 
 
 216 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 swollen the St. Lawrence and made the current fiercer than 
 ever. Unfortunately Daniel did not speak Algonquin, and 
 could not instruct his boatmen in the Faith, who would 
 have listened to him gladly. But he did the next best 
 thing. He had a sort of litany of the principal dogmas, 
 in their language, and he taught them to sing it, so that 
 every morning and night or whenever they passed an 
 Indian settlement the united voices of the savages carried 
 a profession of faith over the waters. 
 
 They had not gone far when young Armand met with a 
 misfortune. Rounding a point where the water surged and 
 boiled like the incoming tide of the sea, his canoe upset 
 and for a moment he was given up for lost. The young 
 Algonquin, his companion, having nothing to look after and 
 thinking only of saving his own skin, was soon out of 
 danger; but Armand had been entrusted with a box in 
 which were a chalice, a chasuble and all the other precious 
 things for the altar, and he saw it sink on one side of the 
 canoe while he went down on the other. Daniel, who was 
 on shore, fell on his knees to implore the help of God, while 
 the brave boy fought fiercely for his life, until at last, with 
 his body all bruised and his hands lacerated, his strength 
 gave out, and he sunk to the bottom of the river. But a 
 prayer sprung up from his heart: " O, Master of life," 
 he said, " Thou canst do all things. Thou canst let me 
 die or make me live. Thou art my God." His prayer 
 was heard. Just then a great wave tossed him against the 
 bank, and clutching the bushes which were growing there, 
 he clung to them with all his strength, although the fierce 
 torrent strove to tear him away. With shouts of joy his 
 companions hurried to his rescue. To Father Daniel il 
 seemed as if his beloved child had risen from the grave, and 
 he affectionately embraced him. Armand thought only of 
 the loss of the box, but the priest reproached him tenderly 
 and exclaimed : " Enough ! Enough ! we have you, and 
 let us bless God for having saved you from death." 
 
 217 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 A few days after that the canoes became separated, and 
 Daniel was the last to arrive at a long and difficult portage 
 that had to be made. Enfeebled by his long sickness and 
 exhausted with hunger, for he had eaten nothing since early 
 morning, and also wearied out by the painful journey over 
 rocks and through swamps and woods, and probably af- 
 fected by the scorching sun, he began to reel under the 
 heavy pack he was carrying and fell in a faint to the ground. 
 He was all alone; his companions having gone ahead at a 
 rapid pace to gain time. When consciousness returned he 
 was too feeble to rise. He found near him three or four 
 goo'"eberries which we are assured, though we are tempted 
 to doubt the holy man's word, gave him new strength. 
 He attempted to walk, but his aching head and tottering 
 limbs forced him to lie down again. " I thought of Agar 
 and the prophet Elias in the wilderness," he said, " and I 
 wondered if God would help me as He did them, but my sins 
 prevented me from hoping for such a favor. However, 1 
 was consoled by the thought tliat if I died, it was through 
 obedience. I remained an hour or two in this state, when 
 my men, perceiving my absence, came back to look for me. 
 I asked them for something to eat but they said they had 
 nothing. They helped me up, took my pack and encouraged 
 me to walk, and soon we came to a rivulet which refreshed 
 me somewhat and gave me strength to reach Allumettes 
 towards evening. There I found my two seminarists, and 
 also the young Frenchman, who v^-ere very much alarmed, 
 for they had been waiting for me for two days. I met 
 Armand's relatives and went to their cabin, but at night the 
 Algonquins came to ask me to go with them to sing their 
 litanies. I was very tired, but I dragged myself to their 
 wigwam, for it was sweeter for me than for them. We 
 heard that the Fathers were safe, though they had been in 
 considerable danger, and so after remaining a week on the 
 Island to recuperate, we resumed our journey and readied 
 Ihonitiria July 9th, having left Montreal the 11th of June." 
 
 218 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 Daniel was evidently very cruel to himself. To start 
 out after a long illness, on a month's journey up through 
 the wilderness of the Ottawa, to carry his pack like the 
 sturdiest Indian of the party, to have often nothing to 
 eat all day except, as on this occasion, four gooseber- 
 ries, and then, after lying almost dead on the road, to 
 stagger into the Indian town and pass long hours of the 
 night listening to a set of howling savages singing litanies 
 which were " sweeter to him than to them," is to do what 
 only a man of heroic spiritual stature could attempt. 
 
 The boy Armand amazed and delighted the Fathers at 
 Ihonitiria. He was their unflinching and fearless cham- 
 pion, and dared even to outface the greatest chief in defence 
 of them ; an attitude which was a flagrant defiance of Indian 
 proprieties. He w^ent around explaining the mysteries of 
 the Faith; labored to improve the morals of the-people, and 
 all the time, though at a considerable distance away from 
 the priests, he led a life of purity and prayer which 
 astounded the red men. He became one of the most fearless 
 warriors of the nation, was ahvays in the forefront of 
 battle, and apparently immune against the weapons of the 
 enemy. " God protects me," he used to say ; " the arrows 
 seem to be coming straight at me in a shower, and then in 
 a most remarkable manner they turn aside." 
 
 In the summer of 1642 he was the centre of a very remark- 
 able occurrence. A party of braves w?ere returning from 
 the war path; all of them belonging to St. Michel, which 
 was one of Daniel's missions. When crossing a great lake 
 which was about sixty miles in length (evidently our present 
 Lake Simcoe), they were caught in a furious storm. Death 
 stared them in the face, for their little bark canoe could 
 never withstand the violence of the waves. Already through 
 the howling of the tempest was heard the moaning chant of 
 the savages, which they usually sung in battle when all 
 hope of life was lost. They saw the waves sweep over 
 them and each moment expected to go to the bottom. 
 
 219 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 The only Christian in the boat was Armand. " Com- 
 rades," he cried, " your voices are drowned in this storm. 
 They can never penetrate into hell where your miserable 
 demons are burning. You call on them in vain. They 
 cannot hear you. For me, I shall have recourse to God, for 
 I know that he is everywhere, and will surely hear my 
 prayer and if He wishes, will have pity on us although you 
 have offended him. Stop," he said to the man in the stern, 
 " let the canoe go with the wind, so that the one in front 
 will not have to fend off the waves that are dashing against 
 us. He must be at rest to pray." They all bent their 
 heads humbly while Armand made a vow to God as 
 his devotion prompted, and lo! the canoe stood still and 
 the water near them was as smooth as glass, while every 
 where else the storm continued in unabated fury; "great 
 enough," says the " Relation," " to sink a thousand canoes 
 had they been there." 
 
 The Indians came home and told Father Daniel the won- 
 derful story, and it was repeated in all the villages. Doubt- 
 less the weary missionary thought then that his school had 
 not been altogether a failure. To have produced Armand 
 Andewarahan was a sufficient justification for everytliing 
 that had been done to make it a success. 
 
 What became of this wonderful Indian? Was he killed 
 in one of the many raids, or taken prisoner and tortured 
 at the stake, and did he remain a faithful Christian in spite 
 of the horrible conditions in which he was compelled to live? 
 
 He appears again in a fight with the Iroquois in 1648, 
 in which very many romantic incidents are interwoven, 
 lieginning with a curious and somewhat suspicious occur- 
 rence in front of the fort at Three Rivers. It was the 
 :30th of May, and some French canoes had gone out into 
 the river to examine the nets when they saw the dark face 
 of an Iroquois who was swimming towards them. As he 
 wa? alone, the white men were not alarmed, and they took 
 him into one of the boats. Then they heard a voice from 
 
 220 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 the shore and saw a Huron who had been formerly cap- 
 tured by the Iroquois, and adopted by one of their tribes, 
 who also made signs to them, and asked to be taken aboard. 
 When the two were together they assured the white men 
 that the Iroquois had no grudge against the French, but 
 were bent only on killing the Algonquins. They both 
 agreed to go straight to the fort and give themselves up as 
 hostages, to prove the truth of their words. Meantime the 
 Iroquois had made the extraordinary assertion that he 
 had tried to save the life of Father Jogues, and in proof of 
 what he said he showed a scar on his arm where he had been 
 wounded by the tomahawk that killed the martyr. " I tried 
 to save the life of Lalande, also," he said, " but the young 
 men carried him off before I could reach him." Whether 
 he was lying or not they could not tell, but we are assured 
 that " he seemed better than the other Indians." 
 
 About a month after, another Iroquois was seen prowl- 
 ing around the fort at night, and his two tribesmen 
 were made to stand out on the wall and shout to him not 
 to harm the French. Whereupon the marauder was ad- 
 mitted to the fort, and after the three had conversed a 
 while, they reported to the Commandant that there was a 
 large party of Iroquois in the neighborhood, who had their 
 sachems with them and had come up to make peace. " Send 
 one of us down," they said, " to let them know that we are 
 well treated." Later, another Irocjuois was admitted. 
 
 Willing to play the game to the end, the French allowed 
 one of them to depart. He returned, as he had agreed, and 
 reported that a canoe would arrive off the fort for a parley 
 on the next day. At the appointed time the boat was seen 
 full of warriors, all of them well armed. The chief swam 
 ashore, and after a conference with the whites two more 
 Iroquois gave themselves up as hostages. It seemed very 
 much like playing WMth fire to let these treacherous and 
 cunning savages inside the entrenchments, but the French 
 probably knew what they were doing. Finally after some 
 
 221 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 days two of the four hostages went down the river, and 
 induced the whole party to go back to the Mohawk to in- 
 form the tribe of the peaceful dispositions of the French, 
 
 Now the villain of the story shows his hand. The Huron- 
 Iroquois who had all this time been in the fort asked leave 
 to go to Montreal to release some furs which he had left 
 there with a trader. As the Commandant wanted to com- 
 municate with Maisonneuve, the permission was granted, 
 but the Huron never went to Montreal. On the contrary, 
 he hunted up a roving band of Iroquois, and told them a 
 blood-curdling story about the treatment of the captive 
 Iroquois at Three Rivers, and wrought them up to such 
 fury that they fell upon a party of whites and Hurons 
 quite near the fort, killing some and carrying off others as 
 prisoners. The news was very startling for the Iroquois at 
 Three Rivers. They had apparently been playing false. 
 They were caught, and were convinced that they would be 
 put to death. But the French reassured them, and said 
 that Christians did not break their word in that fashion. 
 No harm would be done to them ; so both sides settled down 
 to wait for developments. 
 
 It was now the 14th of July, when on the other side of 
 the river some one was seen waving his blanket in the air, 
 and signalling to be taken across. It was evidently a fugi- 
 tive. A shallop was made ready and filled with armed men 
 to forestall a surprise. Their progress was slow\ for there 
 was very little wind, and they saw the distant Indian begin to 
 make some kind of a raft and then get on it, and paddle 
 straight for the shallop. As he came near, French words 
 could be heard mingled with Huron: " Yenez. venez." The 
 Indian reached the boat when it was in mid-stream. It was 
 Armand Andewarahan. Everyone knew him, and all haste 
 was made back to the fort where the throng gathered around 
 him, eagerly plying him with questions. " Let me alone," 
 he cried ; " lead me to the Prayer House, and get me one of 
 the Fathers. I want to go to confession." " I assure you 
 
 222 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 he was well prepared," says the " Relation," " for in danger 
 Faith works marvels." 
 
 He would not leave the chapel till he had performed his 
 penance, and then coming out he shouted in a jovial way: 
 *' Now get me something to eat for I am starving. It is 
 twenty-four hours since I tasted food." 
 
 " I was captured by the Iroquois," he told them, " and 
 vi^as sent up from the Mohawk River with a party who 
 were going to make a raid on Quebec. We were two days 
 out from the last Mohawk village when we met the first 
 band of Iroquois who had left this place, and they told 
 us such a fine story of the good treatment of the prisoners 
 that every one was delighted. The plan to attack Quebec 
 was abandoned, and the warriors began to contribute wam- 
 pum so as to make a good present when we reached the 
 fort. After a while the second body, with the French 
 prisoners came along with another story, viz : that the 
 Iroquois in the fort were being tortured. I denounced it 
 as a lie, but I was not listened to. All thoughts of peace 
 were abandoned, and the old plan was resumed and we came 
 up here. They are down below you, a hundred strong, and 
 are on both sides of the river. I succeeded in getting away 
 from them and here I am." 
 
 This story aroused the four Iroquois hostages to fury 
 against the treacherous Huron whose lies had brought on 
 all the trouble. " Send one of us down to see our people," 
 they said, " and if he does not return, kill the other three 
 who remain." The offer was accepted, and one of them 
 left the fort. At midnight he was heard outside clamoring 
 for admission. " I was nearly killed," he said, " for they 
 mistook me for a Huron. They were astonished to hear 
 that we were safe and sound, and are determined to take 
 vengeance on the Huron who misled them. They will be 
 here to-morrow, if you let them know by a report of a 
 cannon tb.at I have arrived and have delivered this message." 
 
 In accordance with this request the cannon boomed over 
 
 223 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 the St. Lawrence at midnight, and next morning two Iro- 
 quois canoes appeared far out in the river beyond the reach 
 of the guns. But there were no French prisoners with 
 them as had been agreed. While they were waiting there, 
 the Iroquois hostages stood on the walls of the fort 
 hurling denunciations at their countrymen for leaving them 
 to be killed. " Whether it was all a bit of stage play or 
 not," says the " Relation," " the sequel will show." 
 
 Two days passed by and the Iroquois were still prowling 
 around. On the 17th of July a pretence was made to attack 
 them and they asked for a parley. They said they were 
 hungry and were looking for a supply of food. They lied, 
 of course, for afterwards, eighty sacks of corn were found 
 in their canoes. The French refused to treat with them 
 unless the white prisoners were delivered up, and the Iro- 
 quois turned aw-ay in a very surly mood, but before they 
 withdrew, a captive Huron, who was with them, whispered 
 to one of his compatriots that it was all a scheme, and that in 
 a day or two. Three Rivers w-ould be invested on all sides. 
 That night, however, the prisoner who had claimed to have 
 defended Father Jogues went down among the Iroquois, 
 and brought back a white man named Couture, who said 
 he was a relative of the Couture who had been Father 
 Jogues' companion. 
 
 While all this manoeuvring was going on, two Huron 
 canoes were seen coming down the stream, all the time stick- 
 ing close to the north shore. They had scarcely shown 
 themselves, when instantly a great number of Iroquois boats 
 darted from the reeds where they were concealed to inter- 
 cept them. They went like the wind. The tocsin of the fort 
 was sounded ; the garrison rushed to arms, when suddenly a 
 volley of musketry was lieard in the distance ; then another, 
 and finally the sound died away in the woods. Was it a trick 
 to lure the garrison out of the defences? No one could tell, 
 and for safety sake the men were ordered inside the palisade. 
 
 But they were scarcely at their posts when the news came 
 
 004. 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 tliai it was a genuine battle, and that a body of two hundred 
 Hurons had been disastrously defeated. The soldiers hung 
 Iheir heads in grief and shame. Their allies had been mur- 
 dered near at hand, and had received no help. They were 
 gloomy and depressed, when suddenly a solitary ?Iuron 
 canoe was seen approaching, followed by two others which 
 were clearly Iroquois. A rush was made for the boats in 
 order to protect the fugitive, and the garrison stood on the 
 beach to await the result. The Huron canoe was seen to stop 
 as if expecting to be attacked. Then some one cried : "Look, 
 they are saluting each other." Then all together, in the most 
 friendly fashion paddled down the stream together. They 
 approached the shore and lo! seated in the canoe holding 
 aloft the banner of the cross was Father Bressani, who was 
 thought to be in Huronia. Loud huzzahs greeted him as 
 he stepped ashore, and every one threw their arms about 
 him and cried " Tell us what it means? " " Not yet," he 
 answered. " Come to the church first and let us sing a 
 Te Deum to thank God; the Iroquois are defeated." 
 
 When Bressani had satisfied his piety he told them this 
 story: "We could not come down last year because we 
 were closely invested, but w^e resolved to do it this year at 
 any cost, for we were starving to death. We started out 
 two hundred and fifty strong. With us were one hundred 
 and twenty Christians who never failed to say their prayers 
 publicly, twice a day, in spite of the pagans around them. 
 Never did they observe such order and vigilance. For two 
 hundred leagues w^e saw no sign of the enemy, until we 
 came here near Three Rivers, when the braves went 
 ashore to paint up for their triumphant entry into 
 the fort. A detachment had already got out into the 
 river when the Iroquois caught sight of them, and, as you 
 saw, swept down upon us like the wind. We formed in 
 a semicircle to receive them. It was a fierce fight with 
 muskets and knives, and not one would have escaped had 
 not some cowards faltered, and let a number of them break 
 
 225 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 through the line. Even they could have been caught, but 
 the desire to rest after the long journey prevented pursuit." 
 
 Bressani was finishing his story, when the victorious 
 Hurons were seen approaching. It was a grewsome spec- 
 tacle. Sixty canoes moved slowly down the stream, holding 
 the bloody scalps in the air, the victors keeping time with 
 their paddles while the Iroquois chanted their doleful death 
 song as a preparation for the torture that awaited them. 
 But when they were brought in, only one was made to 
 suffer, and he was a renegade Huron. The torments were 
 atrocious, but the Fathers could not prevent the execution, 
 for the savage law was peremptory on that point. 
 
 Bressani, of course, was the hero of the occasion. Mont- 
 magny came up from Quebec to salute the victors ; and after 
 the usual councils, the Hurons got into their canoes and 
 paddled homewards, taking with them Gabriel Lalemant, 
 who was soon to die at St. Ignace, and four other Jesuits : 
 Fathers Bonin, Greslon, d'Aran, and Brother Noirclair. 
 It is quite likely that our Indian, Armand, who was con- 
 spicuous in all the fights in this war at Three Rivers, had 
 not yet heard of the death of his beloved Father Daniel, 
 which occurred at St. Joseph's on the 4th of July previous. 
 However, some intelligence of it may have been brought 
 down by Indians before the new expedition started up the 
 river. 
 
 We do not know whether he returned home with 
 the missionaries, but very likely he did. After that we lose 
 sight of him for seven years, and then our eyes are delighted 
 by a glorious record of him in the " Relation " of 1655, 
 which describes the condition of the Hurons who had come 
 down after the wreck of the missions to the Isle d'Orleans. 
 It reads thus : " This year there died at this place a remark- 
 able young Indian, who for seventeen years not only never 
 proved false to the promises of his baptism, but who, on the 
 contrary, improved each year in piety and devotion. His 
 name is Armand Andewarahan." It was no other than our 
 
 336 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 young hero, whose career all through the horrors of savage 
 life had shed such glory on the Faith. 
 
 Although he was absent when Daniel was put to death, 
 it is more than likely, though we cannot positively affirm 
 it, that next year he was among the gallant Bears who routed 
 the Iroquois at the time that de Brebeuf and Lalemant were 
 martyred ; that he had seen St. Mary's given over to the 
 flames, and was among those who came down with 
 Ragueneau after Christian Island was abandoned. At all 
 events he was now a member of Chaumonot's famous So- 
 dality, which used to send its birch-bark letters and wampum 
 belts to the great shrines of Europe. 
 
 To that Indian Sodality no ordinary Christian could 
 belong. They called themselves the Servants of Mary, and 
 they were not merely nominal servants. They met at day- 
 break on Sundays and festivals, and instead of the Office re- 
 cited their beads in alternate choirs, taking about an hour to 
 do so ; because after every decade there was an exhortation, 
 sometimes by the Father Director, sometimes by the Indian 
 Prefect. It is not said that Armand filled that office, but 
 as the prefect is described in the " Relation " as '' a Chris- 
 tian of rare virtue and holy zeal," we may be pardoned if 
 we try to see him in that function. 
 
 The recitation of the beads was only a preparation for 
 Mass, during which they sang the Gloria in excelsis and 
 Credo in Huron. The women's voices, we are told, were 
 particularly sweet. 
 
 At nightfall every Sunday they assembled for Benediction, 
 and sang the litanies or a hymn in honor of the Blessed 
 Virgin. They were all irreproachable in their conduct, and 
 the fact that a girl was a Child of Mary absolutely debarred 
 any attention being paid to her by dissolute Indians. The 
 purity of their consciences and the tenderness of their piety 
 were the talk of everyone. 
 
 If not the Prefect, Armand was one of the conspicuous 
 members of the Sodality. Every day he heard two Masses, 
 
 227 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 kneeling erect on the bare ground, his hands clasped in 
 prayer. The bitterest cold never kept him away. When 
 he had concluded his devotions, he labored at his little 
 patch of earth, and when he rested it was to recite his 
 beads, which he did five or six times a day. Finally he fell 
 ill and asked to be taken to the hospital, so as to be cared 
 for by the Holy Maidens as the Hurons called the nuns. 
 They were delighted to receive him, and as his illness seemed 
 a slight one he was about to leave, when he had a relapse 
 and called for Father Chaumonot. He made his confession 
 with deep compunction of heart and the profoundest grati- 
 tude for the gift of the Faith. When extreme unction was 
 administered he died, and thus the curtain drops on the 
 romantic career of Armand Andewarahan. 
 
 There is a beautiful epilogue to this life drama of the 
 young Indian. His wife, Felicite, was a pious Christian, but 
 after Armand's death, her brother, who had been adopted by 
 the Iroquois, asked her to join him. She loved him tenderly 
 and was about to go. The Fathers warned her of the danger 
 of living among pagans, but she replied : "There is no dan- 
 ger for me. I love my brother indeed, but I love Christ 
 more." She was already in the canoe and was bidding her 
 friends good-bye. " If you really love God more than your 
 brother," said the priest, "you ought in that case to make the 
 sacrifice of your brother's love for God." The poor woman 
 was silent for a moment and tears streamed down her cheeks. 
 "Must I do that?" she asked. "If I must, I will, if I 
 die for it." She fell into a swoon and for twenty-four 
 hours remained unconscious, and was thought to be at the 
 point of death. Finally she recovered. Her heart was 
 broken but she remained true to her promise till she went. 
 to join her holy Armand. " The souls of these Indians," 
 says the " Relation," " are capable of divine impulses, and 
 faith elevates them as it does us above the sentiments of 
 nature." 
 
 It may be remembered that just before the fight in 1648. 
 
 228 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 an Iroquois swam out to a French canoe in the St. Law- 
 rence and asked to be taken as a hostage to the fort at Three 
 Rivers, claiming that he had attempted to save the Hfe of 
 Father Jogues two years before. Though the French 
 doubted his story, they took very kindly to him. He was 
 quite superior to the rest of the savages, and when the 
 war was over and the other hostages had either decamped 
 or been dismissed, Le Berger, as they called him, remained 
 in the fort, and some of the French began to grow 
 nervous about him. It was even intimated that the best 
 thing to do was to kill him, as he knew too much about the 
 weakness of the defences — a suggestion which shows how 
 association with savages reacts upon civilized man. Better 
 counsels prevailed, however, and he was sent to Quebec. 
 On the way down he was securely bound at night with 
 ropes and chains, to prevent him from going overboard and 
 taking to the woods ; an unintelligible precaution, because 
 he could have escaped at any time during the 'preceding 
 months. To the surprise of every one, how'ever, he stood 
 on deck next morning perfectly free of his fetters. The 
 next night he was bound more securely than ever, but w^ith 
 the same result as before. The Frenchmen were much 
 alarmed and began to think that they had to do with a 
 wizard, and deliberated very seriously about dropping him 
 into the river with a weight attached to his heels. 
 
 When he arrived at Quebec the priest asked him how it 
 all happened, and he quietly answered : " I prayed. When 
 I saw myself so badly treated by the French, from whom I 
 learned all I know about the Almighty, and as I felt myself 
 suffering very much from the way they bound me I prayed 
 to God : ' O Thou who hast made all things. Thou knowest 
 that the French are doing wrong in treating me so harshly. 
 They take me for a traitor w^iich I am not. Thou who 
 knowest it, have pity on me.' When I had said these 
 words the chains fell off though I had made no effort to set 
 myself free." " Thus," says Ragueneau, " God wrought 
 
 229 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 a miracle to save this soul, and though again and again the 
 soldiers and sailors and a surgeon who was on board used 
 all their ingenuity to bind him, he was always free and there 
 was no break noticeable in the ropes or chains." 
 
 The poor fellow was a puzzle to everyone, and they 
 thought the best thing to do v^as to send him to France along 
 with Father Le Jeune, wdio was just about to sail. So they 
 departed together, and on the way over, the Indian de- 
 lighted every one by his gentleness of manner as well as 
 his eagerness to be instructed in the Faith, of which he 
 knew a great deal already. 
 
 When they reached Havre and he saw the fleets of ships, 
 the houses crowding on each other, and the throngs of people 
 on the street he became speechless. He now believed all 
 he had heard from the palefaces in America. It happened 
 to be market day when he left Havre for Dieppe, and as the 
 country roads were as thronged as the city streets, it 
 added to his amazement. He had not his usual savage 
 stride as he walked along, for he was wearing French 
 shoes which soon became intolerable, so he took them off and 
 went barefoot, though it was well on in December and the 
 roadway was abominable. By the time he had reached 
 Dieppe he had injured himself, and was suffering besides 
 from an incipient fever, caught probably on shipboard ; so 
 Father Le Jeune put him in a hospital, intending to 
 go on alone to Paris. But the poor Indian could speak to no 
 one and was very lonesome, so he begged to continue the 
 journey. He attempted it, but had to be brought back again 
 to Dieppe. There he was a model of good behavior. He 
 was constantly in the chapel or kneeling in the corridor 
 when the priest passed by carrying the Blessed Sacrament 
 to the sick. Strange to say he had not yet been baptized, 
 and when anyone wished to make him happy it was only 
 necessary to intimate that he would soon be made a Chris- 
 tian. He was a constant delight to the good Sisters, and 
 became a hero when a fire broke out next to the hospital. 
 
 230 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 Sick as he was he scaled the burning building and did more 
 than a dozen others to extinguish the flames. He had had 
 plenty of practice in that kind of exercise in his native vil- 
 lage. Finally he heard that Le Jeune wanted him in Paris, 
 and fancying he was sufficiently strong pleaded to go. The 
 priest met him in the great city, but the fever was burning 
 him up and he had again to be put to bed. All the time he 
 was begging to be baptized, but again and again it was de- 
 ferred. At last he fell into convulsions, and when he revived 
 and saw the priest standing over him with surplice and stole, 
 to begin the ceremony, his joy knew no bounds. A half an 
 hour after becoming a Christian his soul went off to join 
 Father Jogues, who had evidently watched over his heroic 
 defender, and had led him to heaven. Incidentally it is a 
 curious instance of delay in the matter of baptism. 
 
 231 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 The Last Days. 
 
 We have wandered far from Father Daniel, but the study 
 of the virtue of young Armand will have helped us to 
 appreciate the greatness of the spiritual guide who had led 
 him in the paths of holiness. We may now, however, return 
 to the time when they both found themselves in Huronia, 
 after the failure of the Indian school in Quebec. It was 
 in the year 1638, and as far as we can unravel the tangled 
 skein of the chronology of the " Relations," his return must 
 have been before August 38. In the following year we 
 find him at Ossossane, with five other Jesuits. At that time 
 and possibly before, he was known as Anouenen, which 
 seems to be the result of an Indian attempt to pronounce the 
 name Daniel. 
 
 During 1G38 and 1639 he went to the various Indian 
 towns among which was Tenaustaye or St. Joseph's, wath 
 which ten years later he was to be so tragically associated. 
 In 1640 Jerome Lalemant abolished all the residences except 
 St. Mary's on the Wye, and from that time the Fathers 
 travelled during the winter months to the various aggrega- 
 tions of people throughout the country. Daniel seems to 
 have been assigned most frequently to St. John the Baptist, 
 which was down near the shores of what is now Lake Sim- 
 coe, near the present town of Hawkstone. This town prided 
 itself as being the place at which Champlain remained the 
 longest time on the occasion of his visit to Huronia. It was 
 known as Cahiague, and the memory of the great explorer 
 was always held in the greatest veneration there, because 
 of the irreproachable purity of his life. " Would to God," 
 exclaims the writer of the " Relation," " that all the French- 
 men who came out here in the beginning had been like him. 
 
 232 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 We should not now be obliged to blush when the savages 
 cast up to us the shameless debauchery of the voyageurs, 
 and ask us why they should believe in hell since many of the 
 Frenchmen whom they saw seemed to have no fear of it." 
 From the beginning, the association of the French with 
 this particular section of the tribe naturally suggested 
 a mission. But none of the Fathers except, de Brebeuf 
 could as yet speak the language, and, moreover, Ihonitiria 
 demanded all their energies. It was desirable, also, to keep 
 the missionaries together at least until they were formed 
 to the manner of life of the Indians. But the arrival of help 
 from Quebec at last made a mission feasible at Cahiague, 
 and Daniel and Le Moyne were charged with the work. 
 Their welcome at the place which they called St. John Bap- 
 tist's was most cordial, each lodge vying with its neighbor 
 in offering them hospitality. The esteem for them increased 
 when the ever recurring malady of the small-pox swept 
 over the town, and the devotion which the Fathers displayed 
 night and day in aiding the sick helped them to win every 
 heart. Indeed, the sanguine missionaries already foresaw 
 the conversion of the entire tribe, when suddenly the sky 
 became overcast. One of the hunters who had been absent 
 when they came, arrived at the village in a state of con- 
 sternation. '' While I was alone in the forest," he said, " a 
 beautiful young man appeared to me and declared that he 
 was the Lord of the World. I am the one whom the 
 French call Jesus, but they do not know me. I have pity 
 on your nation and take it under my protection, and there- 
 fore I want to tell you the reason of the sickness that is now 
 destroying you all, and what you are to do to stop it. The 
 cause of it is the presence of those strangers. You see 
 them going everywhere, two and two, in their black gowns. 
 That is to spread the pestilence. The only thing to do is 
 to drive them out. For those who are already attacked by 
 the disease, tell your sachems to get a certain kind of water 
 and let them carry it to tb.e sick all night long, while the 
 
 233 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 braves go from cabin to cabin as madmen. This must be 
 kept up till daybreak. Go as fast as you can and have all 
 this done." 
 
 The command threw the town into an uproar. Three 
 successive councils were convened, and it was decided that 
 there was no help for it. The injunctions must be carried 
 out to the letter, and that evening, all the chiefs went 
 around exhorting the braves to commit the wildest excesses 
 and immediately the tumult started. Nothing was heard 
 till after midnight but shouts and yells. Men in hideous 
 masks and ridiculous dresses danced through the streets 
 screaming out the direst threats, looting houses, destroying 
 objects of value, and no one dared to stop them. " Mean- 
 time," says the "Relation," six old men were trotting around 
 in solemn silence carrying the huge cauldrons of water 
 prescribed by the ghost, and like so many apothecaries pour- 
 ing it down the throats of the sick." But the night was too 
 cold for those solemn physicians and naked braves, and long 
 before dawn, in spite of the spirit's command, they were 
 rolled up in their blankets. 
 
 The failure to be exact in this savage ritual was serious, 
 for if all the conditions of a dream are not fulfilled the charm 
 is broken. So they went at it again, and the horrors were 
 renewed night after night for a week — " the week of the 
 Infant Jesus," moans the horrified Father. 
 
 This sudden revulsion of feeling shocked but did not sur- 
 prise Daniel. The primitive delusion of the missionaries 
 that these guileless savages had no set form of worship and 
 would readily accept the Gospel had long since vanished, 
 and they were now almost convinced that they had to do 
 with devil worship or its equivalent. Indeed there were 
 plenty of things occurring all the time which were very hard 
 to explain by mere natural causes. Thus there was an old 
 sorcerer who could direct the braves almost infallibly where 
 to go for game, telling them what they would get. Implicit 
 trust was placed in him, which was rarely disappointed. He 
 
 234 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 explained his power by the fact that when he was sixteen, 
 and while performing the official sweating ceremony, a ven- 
 erable man appeared to him and offered him some human 
 flesh to eat. When that was refused bear's meat was given 
 him which he eat, and he received in consequence his knowl- 
 edge of the movements of animals. " If I had only eaten 
 the human flesh," he said regretfully, " I could get the best 
 of all our enemies." He also pretended to have been told 
 almost everything that was to happen throughout his life. 
 Of course he may have been lying, but he was believed and 
 venerated by everyone. 
 
 For these poor wretches a dream was considered to be a 
 real personality whose commands had to be rigidly obeyed. 
 Thus there is an instance of one unlucky wight dreaming that 
 he was to be tortured by the Iroquois. As in duty bound 
 he consulted his friends, and they solemnly decided that 
 he had to undergo the torture, for which they would act as 
 Iroquois. So they hacked him and gashed him and rolled 
 him in the fire, stopping only short of killing him. To avoid 
 that, they let him escape, and he ran off and caught a dog 
 which he presented to them as a substitute. The animal 
 was roasted and eaten, and the dream-god propitiated. The 
 Iroquois were supposed to have thus vicariously swallowed 
 a Huron. 
 
 During all this commotion, none of the Fathers were ill- 
 treated except poor Chaumonot, whose head was badly bat- 
 tered by a stone in the hands of a young reprobate who 
 really intended murder, and would have succeeded had not 
 Daniel and some Indians rushed in between him and his 
 victim. It may be noted that the medical treatment which 
 Chaumonot received was of a kind not known to the modern 
 profession. The doctor scarified the bruise with a hot stone, 
 then spat on the spot and applied a poultice of roots; and 
 the patient was well next day from the blow, if not from 
 the bum. The punishment of the culprit was in accordance 
 with accepted views of justice. The only penalty imposed 
 
 235 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 was lo tell him that he had no sense, and even that mild 
 suggestion had to be made by his next of kin. 
 
 In 1641, St. John the Baptist's and St. Joseph's were 
 made one mission, and entrusted to Fathers Daniel and 
 Le Moyne. It was a very considerable increase of labor 
 and danger for them, for the places were far apart, and there 
 was always a chance of meeting the Iroquois on the road 
 in going from one post to the other, but w^e are assured 
 that the more their trouble increased the happier they were. 
 It was in St. John the Baptist's that Daniel found one of 
 his former seminarists, who had been at Quebec for six 
 months, but had never really got rid of his paganism. 
 Indeed on his return to Huronia, he had every mark of 
 ultimate reprobation stamped on him. But down deep in 
 his heart the good seed had been sprouting. He fell ill, 
 and clamored for the priest. His pagan brother had to 
 tramp off thirty-six miles to get Father Daniel, who found 
 the poor wretch heart-broken over his bad life. He was 
 baptized before he expired, giving the Father one more con- 
 solation for his Quebec experiment. 
 
 Perhaps the reader may remember the Indian boy who was 
 homesick, and who on the way back to Huronia was nearly 
 caught by the Iroquois but succeeded in m.aking his escape 
 and arriving at Three Rivers. He had returned home with 
 Father Daniel and Armand in 1638, but the evil surround- 
 ings were too much for him, and over and over again he 
 fell into grievous disorders. He was finally saved yet 
 " so as by fire," for he was nearly burned to death. Later 
 he expired in the most pious dispositions. 
 
 St. Joseph's or Tenaustaye had been always a hard place 
 to manage. It was one of the great Huron towns, and had 
 a population of fifteen or sixteen hundred Indians, or, to 
 be more exact, four hundred families, a census, it may be 
 remarked in passing, which would go to show that the 
 Hurons were not a prolific race. However, many of the 
 children of the tribe died because of the ignorance of their 
 
 236 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 mothers in taking care of them. They were, indeed, easy 
 victims of disease, want and exposure. Unhappily the size of 
 the town increased the difficulty of its conversion, because 
 of the influential pagan element that had to be dealt with. 
 Nevertheless conversions began to multiply, piety increased, 
 and in 1G46 a regular chapel was established, in which the 
 ceremonies of the church were carried out w'ith all the 
 solemnity possible, the Christians having become courageous 
 enough to go through the streets in procession to the ceme- 
 tery which they insisted on having apart from the common 
 burial ground of the town. Sunday was always a great 
 day there ; and many went to Holy Communion, preparing 
 for it two or three days ahead. Weekly confession was 
 common among them. At mid-day on festivals the bell 
 summoned all to the sermon or catechism, and the recitation 
 of the rosary, and the greater part of the afternoon was 
 spent in various exercises of devotion. 
 
 In the interests of truth it must be remarked here that 
 the bell which summoned the faithful to prayers must have 
 often made these holy missionaries smile when they heard 
 its clangor. It was not the carillon or gros bourdon they 
 had been accustomed to in their native country ; nor did it 
 send its loud peal over the village and to the country beyond. 
 It was often only a discarded pot ; but the people had great 
 reverence for it ; and it is recorded that an old Indian stood 
 at the risk of his life to defend one of these bells which a 
 furious savage was going to tear down from the tree on 
 which it w-as hung. The massacre of Deerfield, which hap- 
 pened much later on in Connecticut, was said to have been 
 caused in great part because the New Englanders had carried 
 off a bell from an Indian settlement. 
 
 St. Joseph's produced some wonderful Christians, two of 
 whom at least deserve recognition here. One of them was 
 Etienne Totiri, who had been with Father Jogues in the 
 fatal meeting near Three Rivers. Though he escaped cap- 
 ture he lost everything he had. When he returned home the 
 
 237 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 first news he received was that his mother had died in his 
 absence. " Tell me," he said, " did she die a Christian? " 
 When assured that she had expired in the most pious and 
 holy sentiments, he did not want to hear another word. 
 He was perfectly happy. He not only professed his faith 
 openly, but he fenced off a part of his lodge to afford a 
 chapel for the Fathers, though it brought upon him no end 
 of persecution. He went about preaching Christianity, and 
 he dared to do what no other Indian would have attempted. 
 
 One day he happened to be in the village of St. Ignatius, 
 just as an Iroquois was being burned to death. In spite of 
 every effort to stop him, he went up to the stake where the 
 victim was writhing and succeeded not only in instructing 
 him, but in inducing him to ask for baptism. As soon as he 
 got the Indian's consent he started like a flash for some 
 water. When he came back with a basin the savages tried 
 to dash it from his hands, but he fought his way fiercely 
 through the crowds, flinging his opponents right and left 
 until he reached the dying Iroquois and forthwith made him 
 a Christian. 
 
 On another occasion, when the Christian cemetery was 
 desecrated, Totiri mounted the roof of his cabin and began 
 to shout in a loud voice as was the custom when summoning 
 the tribe to war. Every one seized his weapons and rushed 
 to the scene to find out on what side the enemy was ap- 
 proaching. They saw only Totiri shouting and gesticu- 
 lating : " The enemy is not outside," he said, *' but here 
 in our town. You have dared to desecrate the cemetery of 
 the Christians. God will avenge the insult, for the dead 
 are sacred. Even you pagans will not allow anything you 
 have hung over a grave to be touched. Destroy my lodge 
 if you will ; ill-treat me; I will stand it; but as long as I live 
 I will make you know the enormity of your crime and what 
 a terrible thing it is to make God your enemy." His words 
 had their effect and ever afterwards the cemetery was 
 respected. 
 
 • 2SH 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 Ahitsasteari was another Christian of St. Joseph's who, 
 hke Totiri, had gone with Father Jogues, but who, unhke 
 his fellow tribesman, had been unable to escape. He ended 
 his life in torture on the Mohawk. He was a great loss, 
 for among the Hurons there was no chief like him. In 
 1641 he, with only fifty warriors, withstood and put to flight 
 a body of three hundred Iroquois, and in the summer before 
 he set out with Jogues, he gave a wonderful exhibition of 
 daring. It was his greatest exploit. He happened to be out 
 on Lake Ontario with a few braves, when they saw a great 
 number of Iroquois swooping down on them. His com- 
 panions wanted to take to flight, but he cried out : " No, no, 
 let us attack them," and he made straight for the Iroquois. 
 Naked as he was he leaped into their largest canoe, and 
 with his tomahawk he smashed the head of the first Indian 
 he met. Flinging the two others into the lake he sprang 
 after them, upsetting the canoe as he left it and swimming 
 with one one hand and wielding the axe with the other, he 
 killed everyone he could reach. Even the Iroquois had 
 never seen anything like it, and they turned their canoes 
 and fled. Ahitsasteari then got into his own canoe, pursued 
 the Indians whom he had thrown into the lake and brought 
 them all back as prisoners to his village. 
 
 He was not then a Christian, but had always been friendly 
 to the missionaries, and at last asked for baptism. It was 
 in the winter of 1641. " Two days from now," he said, 
 " I am going out on the war-path. Tell me where shall my 
 soul go if I die without being baptized. If you saw my 
 heart as clearly as does the Great Master of life, I would 
 already be ranked among the Christians, and the fear of 
 hell would not be in my soul when I am face to face with 
 death. I cannot baptize myself. I can only tell you sin- 
 cerely what I desire. After that, if I go to hell you will 
 be the cause of it. But in any case I will pray to God and 
 perhaps He will have mercy on me, for you say He is better 
 than you." 
 
 239 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 "But wliat makes you want to be baptized?" he was 
 asked. " Before you were in the country," he repHed, " I 
 saw myself escaping a thousand dangers in which my com- 
 panions perished. I thought there was some spirit that was 
 protecting me. I did not attribute it to the dream super- 
 stition. I knew the stupidity and nonsense of that; and 
 when I heard you preach of the greatness of God, and of 
 what Jesus Christ did when He was on earth, I recognized 
 that it was He who had protected me, and I resolved to 
 honor Him all my life. When going to war I prayed to 
 Him morning and night, and it is He who has given me all 
 my victories. I believe in Him and ask for baptism, so 
 that after my death He will have pity on me." 
 
 Of course he was baptized. It was then Holy Saturday, 
 and after the Easter devotions he assembled his braves and 
 addressed them : " We are Christians. Let us be of one 
 heart and one soul. On our way let us stop only at the 
 lodges of Christians, and let us help one another, so that 
 our friends may see what bond unites us ; and let us warn 
 our people that if we die we are not to be buried with pagans. 
 If our souls are separate so must our bodies be." For an 
 Indian to make such a declaration was to tear asunder the 
 strongest ties that bound parents and children together. 
 But those savage converts did not believe in half-measures. 
 Ahitsasteari was in Father Jogues' party and had made his 
 escape. Seeing, however, that the priest was in the hands 
 of the enemy, he deliberately returned and went to a terrible 
 death on the Mohawk. 
 
 But the tragic crisis was now rapidly coming on in 
 Huronia. One dark night at the beginning of the spring 
 of 1G46, a band of Iroquois crept stealthily towards one of 
 the villages, and hiding themselves in the woods waited for 
 morning. At early dawn the squaws as usual w^ent out to 
 work in the fields. No one dreamed of danger, when sud- 
 denly a great number of Iroquois braves started, it would 
 almost seem, from the ground, and dragged them to the 
 
 240 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 canoes that were ii^ar by. The wild shrieks of the women 
 startled the village, and two hundred warriors hurried to 
 their rescue. But it was too late; not one was saved. The 
 Iroquois had already disappeared and it was hopeless to 
 pursue them. The presence of canoes in this raid almost 
 certainly identifies the place as being near Lake Simcoe. 
 
 Another disaster followed at the end of summer. The 
 Iroquois and Hurons were out for each other's scalps, and 
 met in the woods. With something like their old courage 
 the Hurons had beaten the enemy back and Ihe Iroquois 
 remained behind the stockade all night, but when morning 
 came they asked for a parley, and with their usual skill per- 
 suaded the Hurons that they had only come with thoughts of 
 peace. By dint of presents which dazzled the eyes of the 
 chiefs, and supplies of food which whetted the appetites of 
 the braves, they convinced the Hurons that a mistake had 
 been made, and that a council should be called to reconcile 
 existing differences. Meantime an Iroquois who had for- 
 merly lived among the Hurons went around among his old 
 friends, and skilfully fomented the discontent which he 
 saw had begun to develop among some of the chiefs who 
 had not been invited to the conference. He succeeded so 
 well that some of them deserted; others followed, and then 
 when the numbers had diminisJied sufficiently, the Iroquois 
 proceeded to murder those who remained. 
 
 This characteristic bit of trickery was a prelude to a 
 descent on St. Joseph's, but the Hurons determined not to 
 be taken by surprise, and resorted to more than usual pre- 
 cautions. Braves were posted on look-outs in the trees, and 
 during the night they made the forests resound with shouts 
 and yells to warn the Iroquois that every one was in readi- 
 ness to receive them. It seemed like a very silly proceeding, 
 for as day approached the shouting grew feeble and finally 
 ceased. Then something happened. To the foot of one of 
 the trees in which two sentries had taken their place crept 
 a party of Iroquois. The men above made no sound; tliey 
 
 241 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 were asleep. The enemy saw it, and quick as a squirrel 
 an Iroquois sped up the tree, split the head of one of the 
 sleepers, and then liurled the other to the savages below, 
 who quickly scalped him and then vanished in the woods. 
 
 It was a daring affront and had to be avenged, and for 
 that purpose three Huron braves travelled for twenty days 
 till they reached the nearest Seneca village, into which they 
 crept under the cover of the night. Every wigwam was 
 shut, but they cut their way into one and found themselves 
 in utter darkness. Coolly stirring the smouldering embers 
 of the fires they discovered where the braves were sleeping. 
 Each Huron picked out his man, killed and scalped him, 
 and then set fire to the village. The flames aroused the nine 
 hundred warriors who were there, but the Hurons escaped 
 in the confusion. Such was the story they told when they 
 returned to St. Joseph's. The Hurons, however, were not 
 conspicuous for their devotion to truth. 
 
 On the 2d of July, 1648, a happy meeting of missionaries 
 occurred in St. Mary's on the Wye. Daniel was there with 
 the rest, and had just finished his annual retreat. Always 
 a very fascinating man, he was particularly attractive that 
 morning. Ragueneau, who knew him well, says that 
 wherever he went he carried every heart with him. His 
 Indians almost adored him. As the little party sat chatting 
 over their plans and prospects and telling of their trials 
 and adventures, Daniel arose to go. Every one implored 
 him to take at least one day's rest, as it would be a long time 
 before they would all meet again, but no one dreamed how 
 long that time would be. He started off for his beloved 
 mission, and the next morning he was preaching to his In- 
 dians who had been looking eagerly for his return. In the 
 afternoon he heard the confessions of most of them, and 
 the burden of his advice was to prepare for death. That 
 night the Iroquois were prowling around the village. 
 
 The sun was rising in the morning of the 4th of July, 
 when Father Daniel began the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 
 
 242 
 
ANTHONY DANIEL. 
 
 When he had finished he turned to speak to the people. 
 In the midst of his discourse a wild warvvhoop curdled the 
 blood of everyone present. "The Iroquois! to arms!" 
 The warriors hurried out to seize their weapons. The 
 women and children sought protection in flight; but the 
 priest ran towards the place where most of the warriors 
 were gathered, and urged them to fight for their lives. His 
 words won the hearts of all, even of those who had been 
 thus far opposed to him, and many of them asked for baptism 
 then and there. The crowd was so great that there was no 
 time for anything but baptism by aspersion, for the battle 
 was already begun. It raged furiously on both sides. As 
 yet the Iroquois had not penetrated the palisade, but they 
 were steadily gaining ground. Daniel might have saved 
 himself by flight even then, but he never thought of it. 
 There were old and sick people in the cabins who could not 
 rise from their mats, in spite of the horrible death by fire 
 which was before them, and he sought for them anxiously. 
 He baptized and absolved and exhorted them, consoling 
 them over and over again with the words : " Brothers, to-day 
 we shall be in heaven." 
 
 By this time many of the people, seeing that all hope of 
 defending themselves was lost, crowded into the church as 
 the best place to die. Daniel followed them and advised 
 them to escape from the village, for it yet seemed possible. 
 " I shall remain here," he said, " while there is a soul to 
 save. My life is of no account if I can help you." 
 
 But the Iroquois were at their heels. Seeing them com- 
 ing Daniel advanced to the chapel door and forbade them 
 to enter. For a moment they paused in amazement, and 
 then a shower of arrows rained on every part of his body. 
 A musket shot rang out ; a bullet pierced his heart and he 
 fell with the name of Jesus on his lips. Like wild beasts 
 the savages sprang upon his prostrate form. They tore off 
 his garments and perpetrated every kind of indignity on his 
 corpse, each one vying w^ith the other in rage against it. 
 
 243 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Finally, when the flames from the burning cabins had leaped 
 over to the church, which soon became a blazing furnace, 
 they tossed the body into the fiercest part of the fire, and 
 there near the altar the holocaust was completed. No 
 more glorious place could have been chosen for the bones 
 of the great missionary to return to dust. Not a vestige 
 of his remains was ever found. 
 
 " He had labored fourteen years in the Huron missions," 
 says the writer of the " Relation," '* and had displayed 
 heroic courage, indomitable patience, unalterable sweetness, 
 and inexhaustible love for his people. His humility was 
 without guile, his obedience absolute, and his readiness to 
 suffer and to labor was always to be relied upon. His zeal 
 continued till his last breath, and though his death was 
 sudden it did not find him unprepared. For he always bore 
 his life in his hands. He had passed more than nine years on 
 the frontiers of the country, in the part of the missions most 
 exposed to the enemy, and was ever awaiting with hope 
 and love the death which God had appointed." 
 
 He was the first Jesuit to die in the Huron missions. 
 Visions of him were reported to have occurred after his 
 death ; one to all the Fathers who were assembled in council, 
 who saw his sweet face looking down upon them, and heard 
 him bid them to be of good heart in the work upon which 
 they had entered. Each one felt as if the light of heaven was 
 beaming down upon them. Another apparition occurred 
 later, and though Ragueneau is cautious about vouching for 
 either, he adds : " it does not matter, for the sweet memory 
 of this man who has ravished our hearts, will always abide 
 with us." 
 
 How many were murdered on that fatal 4th of July, 
 1648, we do not know, but the Iroquois led out of the 
 burning village about seven hundred captives, mostly women 
 and children. Those who escaped saw Tenaustaye disap- 
 pear in flames, its ashes forming a shroud for the bodies that 
 littered the streets of the village. 
 
 244 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Two Attempts. 
 
 It is with some reluctance that we present here the life 
 of Charles Lalemant. Though he was one of the first to 
 come out to labor in the Huron missions, and was superior 
 until the fall of Quebec, yet as a matter of fact he never 
 lived among the Indians. Indeed, he seemed to have mis- 
 taken his vocation as regards that particular kind of apos- 
 tolic work, but as he was one of the conspicuous figures in 
 early Canadian history, and is the hero of many picturesque 
 adventures in founding and sustaining the missions, we may 
 admit him into this gallery of great men. 
 
 He was the uncle of the martyr, Gabriel Lalemant, 
 who died at the side of de Brebeuf, and the brother of the 
 famous Jerome Lalemant, who was for many years superior 
 at Quebec. There was another brother named Pierre, older 
 than either, but who entered the Society later. He never 
 came to America. As far as we can make out now, they 
 were not related to the ascetic writer, Louis Lalemant, the 
 well-known author of " La Doctrine Spirituelle." He was 
 from Chalons-sur-Marne, and all the other Lalemants be- 
 longed to Paris. 
 
 Charles Lalemant was born on November 17, 1587, and 
 entered the Novitiate at Rouen, July 29, 1607. By some 
 unexplainable error, which many other writers have copied, 
 the erudite Dr. O'Callaghan associates him with La Saus- 
 saye in the expedition to Alount Desert in 1613. That 
 would have been impossible, for he was then only a scho- 
 lastic, and could not have been engaged in the missions. 
 Moreover, Father Biard, who wrote the " Relation " of that 
 year, gives the names of those who accompanied La Saus- 
 saye, and Lalemant does not appear on the list. After his 
 
 247 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 novitiate he went to the College of La Fleche, which Des- 
 cartes, who had been a student there, used to say " was the 
 best place to study philosophy." Of course it was not 
 Cartesianism. Subsequently we find him as Professor at 
 Nevers, the picturesque town which was built like an am- 
 phitheatre on the hill side, just where the Nievre flows 
 into the Loire, and whose principal street long after Lale- 
 mant's time was spanned by a triumphal arch which others 
 besides Frenchmen will be pleased to know was erected to 
 honor the victor of Fontenoy. 
 
 Flenry IV wanted to have a Jesuit College in all of the 
 principal cities of France, but as Nevers could scarcely have 
 entered into that category, curiosity is excited to know how 
 that relatively inconspicuous place could have been so 
 favored. Was it a fancy of the monarch? Probably not, 
 and the explanation may be found in the fact that the Duke 
 of Nevers was none other than Louis de Gonzague, a rela- 
 tive of St. Aloysius. The ducal tomb is still pointed out as 
 one of the sights of the city, and the guide books will tell 
 you that " the chapel of the former Jesuit College, but now 
 the Parish church of St. Pere is a small but elegant struc- 
 ture, built in exquisite taste, with frescoes recalling the 
 pretty oratories of Italy." Very likely the Gonzagas were 
 the founders of the college where Lalemant first labored as a 
 regent. 
 
 After leaving Nevers he followed a four years' course of 
 theology at Paris. He was given a fifth year afterwards, 
 which would imply that hopes were entertained of his future 
 greatness in that particular study. He made his Third Year 
 of Probation under the guidance of one of the Society's 
 great ascetic writers, Le Gaudier. He then went to 
 Bourges, where Petavius, not yet a Jesuit, had begun his 
 splendid career as a professor of philosophy. Finally from 
 1622 to 1625 he was what was called Principal of the Interns 
 at Clermont ; a position which was equivalent to that of rector 
 for the students who lived at the college. Such an appoint- 
 
 248 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 meat was of special importance, as Clermont was just then 
 recovering from a catastrophe that had completely over- 
 whelmed it, and was entering on a career of triumph that 
 made it eclipse all other educational institutions of the 
 country. The man who was chosen for such a responsible 
 position as Principal of the Interns, had to be intellectually 
 and morally a great personality. To appreciate this a sketch 
 of Clermont may be helpful. 
 
 It was established in 1550, by the Bishop of Clermont, 
 who had known the Jesuits at the Council of Trent, and 
 who, with Cardinal de Guise, had obtained letters patent 
 from the King of France to found the College. It was 
 begun on the Rue de la Harpe, near the College de Justice, 
 in a house belonging to the bishop. The religious of the 
 nearby abbey allowed them the use of the chapel, but in 
 1563, another place was bought on the Rue St. Jacques, in 
 an establishment known as " I'hotel de Langres." The col- 
 lege, however, continued to be called Clermont. The names 
 of the most illustrious families of France were found on 
 its roster of students ; men with world-wide reputations 
 were among its professors, and it attained such prominence 
 that the University of Paris, jealous of its success, vowed 
 its destruction. Many excellent Catholics w^ere bitterly op- 
 posed to it, for the reason that the University, which was 
 a papal foundation, had proclaimed that it was a sin to 
 send students to Clermont, and as an instance of this popular 
 prejudice it is narrated that when young Pierre Coton w-as 
 pushed from the street into its courtyard by some of his 
 companions, he hurried off to confession. If he had not 
 committed sin he had been in danger of it. And yet this 
 same Pierre Coton became subsequently one of the con- 
 spicuous Jesuits of France, and it is just possible that one 
 of the boys he ran up against in that courtyard of Clermont 
 was young Francis de Sales, who was there at the time. 
 
 It was not long before the University had the opportunity 
 it was looking for. On December 27, 1594, Jean Chatel 
 
 249 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 attempted to assassinate the king. Pie had once been a 
 student of Clermont. He had also been at the University, 
 but the latter fact did not matter. He was tried, put to the 
 torture and executed in two days, and meantime a squad of 
 soldiers had descended on the college, seized all the books 
 and papers, and imprisoned the professors. One was even 
 tortured and put to death, and a decree was issued banishing 
 every Jesuit from France. Of this decree Sismondi wrote : 
 " One does not know which to regard as more deplorable ; 
 the fanaticism of the assassin, or the cruelty, precipi- 
 tation, and base servility of the chief magistracy of 
 the realm, which was not satisfied with inflicting 
 atrocious torments on the young criminal, but in punishing 
 the innocent without taking time to investigate the truth, 
 and in throwing wholesale into infamous exile within forty- 
 eight hours, a great religious society which had not been 
 heard or listened to, on account of an attempt at regicide in 
 which none of them had any part." 
 
 Meantime the college had been looted, and its splendid 
 library of twenty or thirty thousand volumes seized and 
 scattered. To inspire public detestation of the deed. Chatel's 
 house was razed to the ground, and on its site a pyramid 
 was built displaying defamatory inscriptions to perpetuate 
 the ignominy of the Society of Jesus, which had participated 
 in the crime. Finally, to emulate what was being done in 
 England and Ireland, a decree was issued forbidding parents 
 to send their sons to be educated by Jesuit teachers outside 
 of France, and ordering them under pain of fines and con- 
 fiscation of goods to recall those who had been already sent. 
 
 As soon as Plenry was the acknowledged King of France, 
 he recalled the Jesuits, reminding Queen Elizabeth who 
 advised him against it, that she had a kingdom of her own 
 to rule. He restored all the property rights that had been 
 forfeited, but on account of the establishment of La Fleche, 
 in which he was then engrossed, Clermont's opening was 
 delayed. Indeed it did not take place until February 20, 
 
 250 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 1618, under Louis XliL He, in spite of the opposition of the 
 university, and to give splendor to the event sent royal com- 
 missioners who, in the presence of the Papal Nuncio, the 
 Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, and many other illustrious 
 prelates, empowered the institution to again receive 
 pupils. The college was once more on its feet after lying- 
 in the dust for twenty-two years. Lalemant was one of 
 those who were chosen to revive its ancient glory. Four 
 years after it was opened he was the acting rector of its 
 principal department. 
 
 Just at that time there was great excitement about the, 
 Canadian missions. Champlain had established Quebec, and 
 Biard and Masse, after their romantic wanderings over sea 
 and land, had reached France and told the story of their 
 expulsion from Mount Desert. Missionaries were needed 
 on the St. Lawrence, and Champlain asked for the Jesuits. 
 But the strong Calvinistic element in the Company of 
 Traders at Quebec made the offer unacceptable, and the 
 Recollects undertook the work. Those religious were then 
 very popular in France. They were Franciscans of the 
 Strict Observance, a name given to them in Spain in the 
 year 1484 by the Count of Belalcazar. In 1502, under the 
 direction of Martiale Bouliers, they invited all the fervent 
 members of the Franciscan Rule to join them, and they 
 then adopted the name of " Fratres Recollecti." A Bull of 
 Julius n approved of that designation, but in 1525 the 
 Italian Franciscans, while accepting the strict observance 
 called themselves the Reformed, while those in Spain aban- 
 doned the name Recollect and were known as the Discalced. 
 In 1595 the strict French Franciscans assumed the name 
 Recollect, and in 1597, the Duke of Nevers, Louis de Gon- 
 zague, invited them to his city. In the same year Sixtus V 
 gave the name Recollect exclusively to the French branch, 
 but later on Clement VIII brought back the Italian and 
 Spanish friars to their former alliance with the French. 
 They came to Paris in 1603, and Henry IV, who was their 
 
 251 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 zealous protector and visited them often, gave them an estab- 
 lishment on the Faubourg St. Martin. 
 
 With the approval of the Pope and the King, and assured 
 of aid by the Company of Traders, four Recollects started 
 for America on April 24, 1G15. They were Fathers Jamay, 
 d'Olbeau, Le Caron, and Brother Pacificus. Others fol- 
 lowed and they built a convent on the River St. Charles, 
 which they called Notre Dame des Anges, By 1624 five 
 Recollect missions had been established, viz. : at Tadoussac, 
 Quebec and Three Rivers, while Carhagoua is said to have 
 been begun among the Hurons, and another among the Nip- 
 pissings. There had been one on the St. John's River in 
 1619, but it was abandoned in 1624, 
 
 In spite of all these efforts, however, nothing had been 
 accomplished. Nothwithstanding the solemn engagement 
 of the trading company to assist the missionaries, they not 
 only gave no help but thwarted every effort of the friars 
 to gather the Indians together. "If you put them in vil- 
 lages we will drive them out with clubs ; we want them to 
 be hunters," was all the satisfaction received when these 
 devoted men saw all their labor thus frustrated. Finding 
 themselves powerless, they appealed to the Jesuits to come 
 to their aid. 
 
 The appeal was heeded, but although the difficulty with 
 the Trading Company was diminished by eliminating to a 
 great extent the Huguenot influence that dictated its policy, 
 trouble arose with the Recollects themselves. As the Com- 
 pany had guaranteed the support of six of the missionaries, 
 the Jesuits asked that two of the allotted subsidies should 
 be assigned to them, but the Friars resented the request, and 
 the matter w^as dropped. Later, as Le Clercq says : "Charity 
 scattered the gathering clouds." However, some over- 
 zealous friends assured the Recollects that now that the 
 Jesuits were in possession, there would be no room for any 
 one else in the missions. A great deal of acrimonious con- 
 tention on this topic followed, but nevertheless, subsequently, 
 
 252 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 while the storm was rag-ing-, Fathers Lalemant. Masse, 
 and de Brebeuf with the Coadjutor Brothers, Buret and 
 Charton, sailed out of Dieppe on April 24, 1625, and on 
 June 15 reached Quebec. 
 
 The difficulty they met with on arriving has been already 
 told in the sketch of de Brebeuf, and the kindness of the 
 Friars in sheltering them has been recorded. But, of course, 
 a separate establishment had to be sought for the new- 
 comers, and when the opposition of de Caen had been 
 overcome, the Due de Ventadour, who had the controlling 
 influence in the Company, gave them a tract of territory 
 lying between Beauport River and the Creek St. Michel. 
 The deed was signed and the seal attached on March 10, 
 1626, ceding to the Jesuits in perpetuity a stretch of land 
 one league in length and four in depth, to serve as a source 
 of revenue for the missions. It was only a wilderness, but 
 they immediately set about cultivating it in view of the 
 future, for except the two communities and a few families 
 no one thought of the soil as a means of support. Every 
 one was looking for furs. The ships from Europe would 
 supply them with provisions. 
 
 That land has long since passed to others. It is the 
 old story of state appropriation. The original proprietors 
 kept it only forty years, for when the enterprising 
 Intendant Talon arrived, his eye fell upon it and his hand 
 seized it. He took it, he said, for the benefit of the crown, 
 and incidentally for himself, for he divided it up into the 
 Bourg Talon, the Bourg Royal, and the Bourg-la-Reine, 
 settling colonists first on the Bourg Talon and letting the 
 other two sections develop themselves. No compensation 
 was offered, and beyond a mild protest no opposition was 
 made. 
 
 When Lalemant accepted the grant, of course, he never 
 dreamed that such would be the fate of the establishment 
 which he began there in 1626, and possibly if he had fore- 
 seen the heart burnings that ensued because he dedicated 
 
 253 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA 
 
 his little chapel to the Notre Dame des Anges, he would 
 have chosen another title. Unfortunately it was the same 
 name as that given by the Recollects to their convent, and 
 there has been much writing since then as to who could 
 claim priority in chosing this particular designation. At 
 this distance it would seem as if Our Lady would have 
 been more pleased if these holy men had concerned them- 
 selves less with such trifles. 
 
 As the ships arrived only once a year and sometimes 
 less frequently, Lalemant informed his superiors in France 
 that he had plenty of time to write, and accordingly, in a 
 letter, dated August 1, 1626, he gives his impressions of 
 America. It appeared first in the " Mercure Frangais." 
 The Recollect Le Clercq questions its authenticity, but un- 
 reasonably so. Rochemonteix has a lengthy disquisition 
 about the matter, which one may read if he so fancies. 
 Lalemant had already written another account for 1625, 
 but it has been lost. 
 
 He begins with some geographical data, and then dis- 
 cusses the climate. " The winters are very long," he says, 
 " but the excellence of the crops is quite remarkable." 
 Very little land is under cultivation, though he had been told 
 that there are Indians farther up who have great fortified 
 villages and who till the soil with some appearance of 
 skill, though their knowledge of farming does not appear 
 to have helped their morals. Speaking of the difficulties 
 in navigating the rivers, he refers to the death of the 
 Recollect Father Viel, which had just occurred, though 
 he does not tell us that he had been killed by the Indians. 
 Possibly definite information had not yet arrived, or he 
 was not sure of it. He merely says that in passing the last 
 Sault, he was drowned. 
 
 He is troubled about the voyageurs who live among 
 the savages. As it was impossible for these adventurers 
 to make their Easter duty, he is anxious to know if one 
 is permitted to engage in that kind of business. He 
 
 254 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 proposes it as a case of conscience to be decided in 
 France. With regard to the Indians themselves he finds 
 that they are shameless and persistent beggars. They never 
 come near you except to get something to eat, and if you 
 refuse them they go away angry. They are excessively 
 haughty, and consider themselves vastly superior to the 
 whites. They are polygamists, and very immoral. They 
 are not only voracious gluttons, but are at times cannibals ; 
 they are filthy in the extreme, and are covered with 
 vermin. They kill their aged or helpless parents, and 
 expect to be treated in the same manner by their own 
 offspring. They never fight fair, but creep up behind 
 their enemies. If they have a spite against a Frenchman, 
 they will wreak their vengeance on the first pale-face they 
 meet. They have a vague idea of a Supreme Being, and 
 believe that the soul lives after death, but have a fancy 
 that the pots and kettles which they place in the grave, 
 have spirits which go with the departed. There are medi- 
 cine men among them who profess to hold converse w^ith 
 the devil and to cure every ill. The savages in the vicinity 
 of Quebec are nomads. With regard to their dress, he 
 says, " they wear their furs as an ecclesiastic wears a cope." 
 In their apparel they are decent, and their bodies are painted 
 in the most grotesque fashions, according to the fancy of 
 their women, whose pleasure it is to decorate their lords 
 and masters. He is under the impression that the dark 
 color of their skins is due more to bear and elk grease than 
 to nature ; an opinion shared by others. Their riches are 
 the skins of animals, chiefly beavers ; the annual exporta- 
 tion of this commodity running up in one year to 32,000 ; 
 and as each skin is worth a pistole, the trafific evidently is 
 very lucrative. Of course the outlay is great, for the 
 Company employs about one hundred and fifty men, whose 
 wages amount on the average to one hundred and six livres ; 
 Each skin is worth ten livres, on wdiich the Company realized 
 about forty per cent. Formerly there were as many as 
 
 255 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 twenty vessels at one time at Tadoussac, but the Company's 
 monopoly has put an end to that. Now there are only two 
 vessels a year, and they arrive about the beginning of June. 
 They are loaded with all sorts of merchandise on the out 
 voyage, and return packed with furs. 
 
 On the first of June, the cross was planted on the grounds 
 where the new residence was to be built. The Recollects 
 and the most conspicuous of the colonists took part in 
 the ceremony, and helped a little in clearing the ground. 
 Meantime, Lalemant had been going every Sunday to 
 Quebec, and had so dispelled the prejudices against the 
 Jesuits that the obnoxious pamphlet which had been circu- 
 lated about them was publicly burned. He even ingratiated 
 himself to such an extent with de Caen, the business manager 
 of the Company, as to get him to send a number of carpen- 
 ters to help to build the new house, which, for want of hands, 
 was going on very slowly. In the letter which records all 
 this, one cannot help noticing the somewhat boyish exulta- 
 tion with which Lalemant tells how the Indian interpreter 
 or trucheuient was kinder to him than to any one else. It 
 did not result, however, in his acquiring much knowledge 
 of the language. 
 
 Work went on more expeditiously when, later on, Fathers 
 de None and Noyrot arrived with twenty workmen. In a 
 short time they made more improvements than the colony 
 had seen since the first white man landed. " If," said 
 Champlain, " that had been done for the last twenty-three 
 or twenty-four years, we should have many dwellings and 
 houses, and not be in the constant terror and fear that now 
 beset us." But the object lesson had no effect on the ob- 
 stinate Trading Company. It was impossible to get food 
 to support the laborers, and hence Lalemant sent Noyrot 
 back again to Europe to complain. 
 
 Noyrot was a timid, slow-going man, but once in France 
 he worked with a feverish activity, going everywhere night 
 and day, till he at last secured an audience with Richelieu 
 
 256 
 
CAKTIEK MONUMENT, 
 
 QUEBEC. 
 (Site of First Jesuit 
 
 Residence.) 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 himself. The result was that the cardinal dissolved the 
 old Company, and established a new one, known as the 
 Society of the One Hundred Associates, whose member- 
 ship should be exclusively French and Catholic ; and should 
 be obligated first — to send over two hundred colonists in 
 1638. and four thousand within fifteen years ; secondly — to 
 support three priests at their various posts for fifteen years, 
 and thirdly — to make all converted Indians ipso facto 
 French subjects; a concession to the inferior races, which, it 
 is claimed, has no parallel in the history of colonization. 
 
 Unfortunately, on the ship with Noyrot were Guillaume 
 de Caen and the Admiral of the Fleet, de la Ralde. They 
 suspected the purpose of the priest's sudden return to 
 France, and when they succeeded in ascertaining it, they 
 determined to thwart him by starving the colony, and for 
 that purpose actually held up at Harfieur the supply of pro- 
 visions that were sent over to the Jesuit establishment. 
 These provisions were anxiously expected at Quebec, and 
 when they did not arrive, Lalemant took his twenty laborers, 
 put them on board the first ship he could get, and started 
 for France, arriving there in November, 1627. It was not 
 until May 8 of the following year, that the Company of 
 the One Hundred Associates was able to send out its first 
 ships. On one of them was the indefatigable Lalemant and 
 another Jesuit, Francis Ragueneau, the brother of Paul 
 Ragueneau. Francis never reached the shores of the New 
 World, for he and Lalemant were captured by Kirke in the 
 Gulf of St. Lawrence, and were sent as prisoners to England, 
 and later on to Belgium. They were subsequently liberated 
 and restored to France, at the request of Queen Henrietta 
 Maria, the wife of Charles I of England. About this 
 English imprisonment we have no details. 
 
 257 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 The Shipwrecks. 
 
 Lalemant would not admit defeat, and on June 16, 1629, 
 he again endeavored to cross the Atlantic. He and 
 Father Noyrot had succeeded in provisioning a ship and 
 they joined the expedition of Captain Daniel. Their vessel 
 went to pieces on the rocks of Cape Breton. We find no 
 record of this mishap in the " Relation," but fortunately 
 Champlain has embodied in the account of his Voyages, a 
 letter of Lalemant, which gives us all the details, and 
 describes a scene which is, perhaps, the most romantic in 
 the missionary's career. Champlain prefaces it by the fol- 
 lowing note : 
 
 " After having sojourned two days at Dieppe, I jour- 
 neyed to Rouen, where I remained two days more. There 
 I learned that the ship of the Reverend Fathers Lalemant 
 and Noyrot had been wrecked on the Canseau Islands. I 
 was shown a letter from the Reverend Father Lalemant, 
 Superior of the Missions of the Jesuit Fathers in New 
 France, sent from Bordeaux to the Reverend Father Su- 
 perior of the Jesuit College at Paris, and dated November 
 22, 1629. It runs as follows: 
 "Reverend Father, P.C. 
 
 '' Castigans castigavit me Dominns et morti non tradidit 
 me; a chastisement which I feel all the more keenly, as be- 
 sides the loss of our ship, death has taken from us Father 
 Noyrot and Brother Louis, both of whom I think would 
 have been of the greatest service in our seminary. But 
 nevertheless, since God has so ordained, we must seek our 
 consolation in His holy will. Without that there never 
 was a peaceful or contented mind; and I feel sure that ex- 
 perience will have shown your Reverence that the bitterness 
 
 258 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 of grief tempered with the sweetness of doing the will of 
 God, to whom the soul is inseparably attached, loses either 
 all or the greater part of its sting. Yet, if we still sigh 
 over our sufferings, either past or present, it only prompts 
 us to long the more for heaven, and to deserve to grow 
 more perfect in that conformity in which our soul has 
 resolved to remain till life draws to its close. 
 
 " Of the four of us who were on the ship, God has made 
 an equal division. He has taken two and left two. These 
 two good Religious who were well prepared and resigned 
 to die, will serve as victims to appease the wrath of God, 
 who is justly irritated against us for our shortcomings, 
 and will make His goodness favorable to us henceforward 
 for the success of our enterprises. 
 
 " Our wreck was caused by a fierce squall from the 
 southeast, which arose when we were off shore. It was so 
 violent that the care and promptness of our pilot were 
 of no avail. We offered our prayers and vows to avoid the 
 disaster, but there was no help for us ; we were going to be 
 dashed against the rocks. It was nine o'clock at night on 
 St. Bartholomew's day, twenty-six days after we had set 
 sail. Only ten of the twenty-four on board escaped. 
 Father Noyrot's two nephews perished with him. We buried 
 them and the Brother. The other bodies we never found. 
 
 " It would be very hard to explain how Father Vieuxpont 
 and I escaped. God alone knows. It was in accordance 
 with His Providence, for I felt so convinced that it was 
 impossible to be saved, that I had resolved to stay in the 
 cabin with Brother Louis to prepare for death, which seemed 
 to be distant only about as long as one would take to say 
 three misereres. Suddenly I heard some one calling me 
 on deck. I imagined it was about a means of safety, and 
 I went up and found it was Father Noyrot asking for a 
 second absolution. I gave it to him and then we all sang 
 the Salve Regina. I could not get back to the cabin for 
 the sea was high and the gale furious; Then, in less than 
 
 259 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 no time, the side towards the shore began to go to pieces 
 on the rocks. I was standing near Father Noyrot when 
 a wave struck our part of the ship with such violence that 
 it shattered everything and tore Father Noyrot away 
 from my grasp. As he disappeared, I heard him say : ' In 
 mamts tuas, Douiinc' I was caught by four planks, two 
 of which struck me violentlv in the chest, while the other 
 two fell on my back with such force that I thought I should 
 die in that way before being swallowed up by the waves. 
 Then another wave came down on me, and carried me off 
 the ship minus my hat and slippers. The ship keeled over 
 and we were at the mercy of the waves, and they were 
 pitiless. They rose I don't know how many cubits above 
 us, and then crashed down on our heads. After keeping 
 myself afloat a long time in the dark, I began to peer around 
 and made out a circle of pine trees, on the shore of what 
 seemed to be a bay. Then I discovered some people 
 not far away shouting to me to do all I could to get near 
 them. But I was so bruised with the wreckage of the 
 vessel, that I felt unable to make any effort. Soon, how- 
 ever, by means of the planks to which I was clinging, 
 I reached them, and with some help got up on the main 
 mast, which was still fast to the ship. I was not long there, 
 for when we got near the shore some of our sailors swam 
 out to us, and with their aid we joined the others wdio had 
 landed. I was hatless and shoeless ; my soutane and clothes 
 were in rags, and I had been so battered that I could not 
 stand, and had to be carried to the woods nearby. I had 
 received two heavy blows on the legs, especially the right 
 one, which is still sore. My hands were split by something 
 I had struck, my hip was skinned, and my chest felt as if 
 it were crushed in. 
 
 " Seven of us reached the woods, but the place was as 
 reeking wet as ourselves, though we had just come out of the 
 sea. The first thing we did was to fall on our knees to 
 thank God for saving us, and then to pray for those who 
 
 260 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 were drowned. To keep warm we lay down close to each 
 other, but the ground was so soaked with the rain of the 
 day before, that there was no possibility of our getting 
 dry. Thus we passed the night, but Father Vieuxpont, who, 
 thank God, had not been injured, slept soundly. 
 
 " Next morning, at day break, we went to reconnoitre. 
 We found we were on an island from which it was easy 
 to reach the mainland. On the shore there was a great 
 number of articles, which had been cast up by the sea. I 
 secured two slippers, a biretta, a cap, a soutane and several 
 other necessary things. We were especially grateful to 
 God for sending us food ; for there were five barrels of wine, 
 ten pieces of pork, casks of oil, cakes of cheese, and an arque- 
 bus and powder, which came in handy for making a fire. It 
 was St. Louis's Day, and when we had gathered up every- 
 thing, we set about making a boat from the debris of the 
 ship, so as to go out and hunt for some fishermen who 
 might be on the coast. We worked as well as we could with 
 the poor tools at hand, and on the fourth day the boat was 
 nearly finished, when the look-out announced a vessel 
 making in our direction. One of the sailors went to 
 a point which the vessel had to pass, to hail the vessel. 
 They took him aboard, and when the captain heard of our 
 mishap, he got into his shallop and came ashore to encourage 
 us. That night we felt safe, for we slept on board 
 his boat. It was a Basque fishing smack, and was coasting 
 around three or four miles from where we struck. We 
 remained on that place during the month of August and 
 all of September. 
 
 " On the first of October, an Indian appeared and told 
 the captain that if he did not leave soon he would be cap- 
 tured by the English. That was sufficient, and orders were 
 given to hoist sail, but w^e were also told that Captain 
 Daniel w^as twenty-five leagues away, and had built a 
 fort and was going to leave one of our Fathers there. As 
 Father Vieuxpont asked to be allowed to go with the Indian, 
 
 261 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 who seemed to be one of the best men you could meet, I 
 said : ' It is an excellent chance. Father Vimont will be 
 glad to have you as a companion. The Indian will lead 
 you there, and if you want to remain some months with 
 the savages to learn their language, you may. Both you 
 and Father Vimont will be happy.' 
 
 ** The good Father was delighted with the chance that so 
 unexpectedly presented itself, and he got into the canoe with 
 the guide. I gave him everything we had saved, except 
 the large painting, which the Captain would not give up. 
 I intended to compel him to do so later, if another misfor- 
 tune had not overtaken us. We set sail on October 6th, 
 and after encountering the most furious storms that I have 
 ever seen, we arrived after a voyage of forty days, at a 
 port near San Sebastian. But there we were shipwrecked 
 again. Our vessel was shattered to splinters, and the whole 
 cargo of cod lost. I was able to get into a small boat, and 
 having obtained a pair of slippers and a night cap, presented 
 myself in that dress to our Fathers at San Sebastian. I 
 left there eight days ago, and reached Bordeac, near Bor- 
 deaux, on the 20th of this month. Such is the result of our 
 expedition, from which your Reverence may judge how 
 much I am indebted to Almighty God." 
 
 This disaster at Canso, was one of the incidents of the 
 struggle between the French and English for the control 
 of Canada. The English prevailed for a time, and appar- 
 ently the work of evangelizing the Indians was now at an 
 end. Hence we find Lalemant appointed to the rectorship 
 of the college of Eu, a little town on the Bresle, about 
 twenty-nine kilometres from Dieppe. There was nothing 
 remarkable about the place except, perhaps, that the patron 
 of the parish church was St. Lawrence of Dublin, who died 
 there in 1181. We know it in modern times because of the 
 great Chateau d'Eu, which was made over by the Comte de 
 Paris to the French Government. The college to which 
 Lalemant was assigned had been founded by the Duke de 
 
 263 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 Guise in 1582. Its chapel, which is still pointed out as 
 one of the sights of the city, was built a few years after 
 Lalemant started on his fourth journey to America. He 
 was at Rouen when the news came of the restoration of 
 Quebec to the French, and he appears to have known of it 
 before it really took place, for he wrote to the Provincial 
 in December, 1631, informing him of what was to be 
 done, and entreating him to have missionaries ready to start 
 as soon as they were asked for. Possibly the request was 
 superfluous, for Masses were being offered constantly by 
 the Fathers, and communions were being made by the Ur- 
 sulines and Carmelites for the reinauguration of the work 
 of evangelizing the savages. 
 
 On April 18, 1632, Fathers Le Jeune and de Noue were on 
 board one of Emery de Caen's ships at Harfleur, ready to 
 sail. There was no Recollect Friar with them this time, 
 and that has been ascribed to the machinations of the 
 Jesuits ; Father Lalemant being regarded as the chief of- 
 fender. But the Friars themselves did not appear to 
 thin^ 50, and only complained that the notice to depart was 
 given to them too late, and that they were not ready. 
 Faillon, who cannot be accused of fondness for the Society, 
 declares the accusation of exclusion to be without foundation. 
 It was simply the desire of Richelieu, and that was all there 
 was to it. The Friars made a formal request subsequently, 
 but without success which was all the more galling, as their 
 friend. Governor de Lauson, kept putting them off from 
 year to year with excuses that were more or less futile. 
 The Recollect, Le Tac, says: " the Jesuits, mindful of their 
 old friendship for us, wanted the Recollects," and Le Clercq 
 admits, though somewhat unwillingly, that Lalemant really 
 desired to have the friars as co-workers, but both writers 
 subsequently modified their admission, and accused Lale- 
 mant of double dealing and bad faith. There are two 
 letters of Lalemant to prove the contrary, one to the Recol- 
 lect Guardian at Paris, and the other to the Secretary of 
 
 263 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 the Recollect Provincial, but his assailants found something 
 between the lines which is not in the written text. It is 
 one of those ugly clouds which have so often obscured the 
 glory of good works. 
 
 In the following year, when de Brebeuf and Masse were 
 setting out with Champlain, Lalemant asked to join them. 
 His superiors did not think they could spare him, and he 
 therefore did not leave France until 1634, when we find him 
 with Le Jeune at his old place of Notre Dame des Anges, 
 but apparently not with the same energy as in the early 
 days. Possibly the prisons of England and Belgium, the 
 storm beaten rocks of Canso and San Sebastian, and the 
 seven journeys he had made across the Atlantic, one of which 
 was enough to sap the strength of the most vigorous, had 
 weakened him physically. He had attempted, like Le Jeune, 
 to winter with the Algonquins, but his party came back to 
 civilization after ten days to save themselves from starva- 
 tion, and ever after that Lalemant had no craving for life 
 in the wigwam. The filth and indecencies of the Indians 
 filled him with loathing, nor did he apply himself with ex- 
 cessive zeal to learn their language. Indeed, when there 
 w-as question of founding a new mission at Three Rivers, 
 and Lalemant was thought of for the work, he professed his 
 willingness to go, but his superior went instead. Thus a 
 little shadow crosses the heroism in this great man's life, 
 but weak mortals will not condemn him. 
 
 Champlain had made a vow when leaving Quebec, to 
 build a church in honor of the Blessed Virgin, if the colony 
 was ever restored. When he found himself on the great 
 Rock once again, he set to work immediately to fulfil his 
 vow. It was a slight change in his plans, for in the begin- 
 ning he had dreamed of a splendid basilica under the invoca- 
 tion of the Holy Redeemer, but possibly he fancied that 
 would be built later. At all events he erected the chapel 
 of Notre Dame de Recouvrance, which was practically the 
 first parish church of Quebec. Its site was near that of the 
 
 264 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 present gloomy-looking Protestant Cathedral. Lalemant 
 was given charge of it. 
 
 To be parish priest at Quebec in those days was idyllic. 
 The city was growing out of its poverty and littleness, and 
 its piety was keeping pace with its material progress. "When 
 we arrived," says Le Jeune, " there was only one family, 
 and they were about to return to France, but now mul- 
 titudes of excellent people are arriving. We know nothing 
 of all the horrors and crimes of France except what we see 
 in the paper, which comes here once a year." There were 
 no lawsuits of any consequence, and the governor or his 
 lieutenant settled all disputes with the greatest expedition. 
 Laws were made against drunkenness, blasphemy and ab- 
 sence from Mass; and they were promulgated by simply 
 affixing them to a post in front of the church. Of course, 
 that was not enough to have them observed, and the stocks 
 were soon placed next to the post. Three punishments are 
 recorded as having been publicly inflicted on January G, 
 1636, for drunkenness, blasphemy, and selling liquor to the 
 savages. 
 
 For attendance at church, there was no difficulty. At 
 each Mass the chapel was crowded to the very altar rail, 
 " and all the services were as fine," says the " Relation," 
 '■ as in any church in France ; " a bit of boasting which, of 
 course, calls for some qualification. There were sermons 
 and catechism, and Vespers and Solemn Mass ; the prone was 
 read, and the pain bcnit distributed. " I felt my heart melt 
 within me," writes Le Jeune, " when I saw all this. I fan- 
 cied I was back in France again, after having passed some 
 years with the savages." It is even recorded that one pious 
 Christian walked in the snow barefooted, bareheaded, and 
 fasting, for a distance of half a league, to atone for the 
 offences against God which were being committed in France 
 at that time. Not only was Lent rigidly kept, but it is 
 said that some of the soldiers at the garrison scourged them- 
 selves in church as a penance for their sins. 
 
 265 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 The happy condition of Quebec must, of course, be 
 ascribed to the fact that Champlain was Governor, for it can 
 scarcely be questioned that he was one of the most remark- 
 able men that the New World ever saw. He was a soldier 
 in his youth, but as the salt was in his blood, for his people 
 were all sea-faring folk, we find him while yet a young 
 man threading the mazes of the still unexplored West 
 Indies, travelling overland through Mexico, and standing 
 on the Isthmus of Panama, which even then, in 1603, he 
 proposed to cut through, for a passage to the Pacific. He 
 explored and mapped out all of the New England coast, 
 was associated with de Monts in the establishment of 
 Acadia, and in 1608 founded Quebec. We find him then 
 with the Iroquois near the lake which bears his name, and 
 subsequently far up in the northwest among the Hurons, 
 and leading them across Lake Ontario to fight their hered- 
 itary foes. In this effort he failed, and was carried wounded 
 from the field of battle. He held his citadel of Quebec 
 against the English though his men were starving, and 
 when it was finally surrendered, it was his entreaties that 
 induced Richelieu to demand the restoration of Canada. 
 Soldier, sailor, explorer, legislator, ruler, battling against 
 civilized and savage foes, living in barracks and between 
 decks, in forests and wigwams, in fortresses and palaces, he 
 was not only a practical Christian, but an extraordinarily 
 devout and earnest Catholic ; so pure in his life that the In- 
 dians spoke of him twenty years after he was dead with 
 reverence and wonder. His " habitation " at Quebec was 
 like a religious house, and he made laws for his rough 
 and reckless soldiers and sailors, that read almost like the 
 rules of a monastery. His motto was that the conquest of 
 a kingdom was not worth a single mortal sin, and when 
 he died he gave all his possessions as a tribute of his love 
 to the Mother of the Redeemer. With such a ruler Quebec 
 could not help being a godly city. 
 
 He died on Christmas Day, 1636. " On the birthday of 
 
 266 
 

 9»m 
 
 c< 
 
 i^mWMmVf i'UMW 
 
 i^*-J 
 
 \ yffMfwyMwy.Myw wfwywfjyi^ 
 
 ■ -■«! 
 
 CHAMPLAIN MONUMENT, QUEBEC. 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 Our Saviour," says the " Relation," " our Governor was 
 born again in heaven. It is true that he Hved a hfe of 
 great justice and equity, but at his death his virtue was so 
 perfect and his piety so great that he amazed us all. How 
 his eyes streamed with tears ! and how his lips uttered words 
 burning with desire of the service of God! What love he 
 had for his people, and how he hoped that they would not 
 be left unprotected ; promising meanwhile to do all that lay 
 in his power for their good, if God restored him to health. 
 He was not taken unaware in having to render an account 
 to God. A long time before, he had made a general con- 
 fession of his whole life to Father Lalemant, who was his 
 friend and confessor, and who was always at his side during 
 the two months and a half that he was sick. It was Father 
 Lalemant who received his last sigh." 
 
 The great man's obsequies were all that the people and 
 soldiers and clergy could make them. Lalemant officiated, 
 and Le Jeune preached the panegyric. As Le Jeune was 
 said to be " a man of steel with a heart of fire," it is a pity 
 that his discourse has not come down to us. 
 
 A short time after this we find Lalemant back in Europe. 
 It was the eighth time he had crossed the Atlantic, and as 
 ocean trips in those days meant two and sometimes three 
 months of intolerable hardship in the fetid holds of crazy 
 vessels, we can reckon up about two years of life which he 
 spent on the deep, diversified in his case with two ship- 
 wrecks, a sea fight, and imprisonment in foreign dungeons. 
 He is entitled to a brilliant place on the scroll of fame. 
 
 267 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 Procurator of the Missions. 
 
 In France, Father Lalemant's long acquaintance with the 
 important personages of the reahn, and also the enthusiastic 
 admiration which his romantic adventures had thrown 
 around his name, naturally made him the director of the 
 benefactions which were pouring out of the mother-coun- 
 try, in support of the national enterprise in America. The 
 Duchesse d'Aiguillon, Richelieu's niece, constituted him her 
 almiOner, and many others followed her example, and it was 
 he who became the chief instrument in the foundation of 
 Montreal. D'Ollier de Casson says the work could never 
 have been accomplished v/ithout his consent. 
 
 A distinguished and unusually pious gentleman named 
 Jerome Le Royer de la Dauversiere, like so many French- 
 men of that period, had been wrought up to a state of intense 
 excitement about the propagation of the Faith in New 
 France. He had been a student of the Jesuit college at 
 La Fleche, and at the end of his studies had succeeded to his 
 father's wealth and worldly honors, married and was the 
 father of a large family. Pie led a very devout life, and 
 was guided in his piety by Father Chauveau, of La Fleche. 
 His scheme of founding a community of nuns for hospital 
 work at La Fleche, in connection v/ith a colony on the 
 Island of Montreal was, for a time, regarded by his spiritual 
 guide as a mere fancy or delusion, but as the hospital was 
 finally established, contrary to all expectations, the idea of 
 a colony at Montreal began to be taken more seriously. 
 
 The main difficulty was to get a concession of the Island, 
 which was then the property of ^I. de Lauson, but who 
 abruptly and peremptorily dismissed the proposal to part 
 with it. He wanted it for his sons. As Father Lalemant 
 
 268 
 
1)AU\'i:rsiere, founder of Montreal. 
 
 (Old Print.) 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 was a friend of de Lauson's, he took the matter in hand, and 
 without difficulty obtained the grant. Nevertheless, M. 
 TAbbe Bertrand de la Tour, in his " Memoirs sur la Vie 
 de M. de Laval," informs us that Dauversiere and his 
 friends " bought the island for twenty casks of merchandise, 
 and that the contract was duly made in the name of the 
 little Society of the j\LM. de Montreal in the month of 
 August, 1642." 
 
 One naturally stands aghast at such an assertion. We can 
 admit regretfully that the white men made purchases of that 
 kind from the savages, and can be amused at Washington Ir- 
 ving's description of Ten Broeck's purchase of Manhattan 
 Island, but that de Lauson should have given up his claim 
 to this vast possession of the Island of Montreal for "20 ton- 
 ncaux d'effets," which were not even given to him, but 
 were sent to Father Le Jeune, Rector of the College of 
 Quebec, " pour fairc racquisition de I'lsle," is simply in- 
 comprehensible. Fortunately, we have in our hands a very 
 valuable Ms. of Mr. Jacques Viger, the first Mayor of Mon- 
 treal, in which this absurdity is very emphatically denied. 
 He says : " the Island of Montreal was not purchased by 
 this Society, by means of those ' 20 tonneaux d'effets ' above 
 mentioned, nor for any other consideration. M. de Lauson 
 had received the Island as a gift from the Company of the 
 One Hundred Associates, on condition of establishing a 
 colony there, and on the ITth of August substituted the 
 name of M. Olier and his associates for his own, and thus, 
 with the approbation of the Company to which he formerly 
 belonged, transferred the Island to the Company of Mon- 
 treal. But not only did Father Lalemant secure for the new 
 company the grant of the Island of Montreal ; he also gave 
 it the heroic Maisonneuve, the first Governor. 
 
 Maisonneuve had been reading the " Relations," and came 
 to consult Lalemant about the manner in which he, as a man 
 of the w^orld, could co-operate wnth the work of establishing 
 Christianity in Canada. He had been in the army from 
 
 209 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 boyhood, and had kept his soul untainted by the corruption 
 around him. He was now in the full vigor of life, 
 and as there was no war in which his country was engaged 
 for the moment, he, like many another soldier of those 
 days, began to dream of New France. Hearing that Lale- 
 mant was in Paris as Procurator of the Missions, he pre- 
 sented himself at the Jesuit house and asked if he could 
 be of service. The priest and the soldier talked the matter 
 over, and when Dauversiere came in a few days later, and 
 was at his wit's end to find somebody to do the fighting in 
 the new colony, Lalemant put him in communication with 
 Maisonneuve, and that part of the programme was quickly 
 settled. But another gap had to be filled. In the spring 
 of 1641, when the first batch of colonists were gathering at 
 La Rochelle, it suddenly dawned upon the promoters of the 
 project, that there was an absolute need of a wise and 
 courageous woman to look after the household effects they 
 were bringing over, and to nurse the sick and wounded on 
 the journey and in the colony. Naturally Dauversiere was 
 expected to supply some such aid from his Hospital nuns 
 at La Fleche, but that could not be done, for his Institute 
 had not been officially approved. Why it should have 
 interfered is hard for the average man to understand, but the 
 difficulty was met by the Jesuits who presented the heroic 
 Jeanne Mance, whom they induced to accept the task. 
 
 Jeanne was then about thirty-five years of age. For many 
 years she had been thinking of devoting herself to the work 
 of assisting the missions in the New World, and her con- 
 fessor sent her to Paris to see Father Lalemant. After 
 one or two conversations, he made up his mind that she was 
 the woman for the situation. Father St. Jure, the famous 
 ascetical writer, who had already induced the Baron de 
 Renty to join M. Olier and his friends, undertook her spir- 
 itual direction, and it was he who finally fixed her in her 
 vocation. None of the Associates of the Montreal Company 
 knew her, and she was totally unaware of their existence, 
 
 270 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 until Father de la Place, a missionary who had temporarily 
 returned to France, spoke to her of the Dauversiere's en- 
 terprise. The result was that in the month of August, she 
 was on the vessel with Father Vimont, the Superior of 
 the Jesuit Missions. 
 
 " Thus," says the Sulpitian Faillon, " the Jesuits had been 
 so far the instruments of all the success which the Associa- 
 tion had succeeded in obtaining. These Fathers had ap- 
 proved of the scheme of establishing Montreal, had sent 
 Dauversiere to Paris to make the arrangements;" — indeed 
 they had ordered him to go, — " had determined M. de 
 Lauson to make the concession of the island, and had con- 
 tributed to induce the Company of Quebec to approve of 
 the grant. Finally they had procured for the Associates, 
 who were then in the greatest embarrassment, the help of 
 M. de Maisonneuve and Mile. Mance." " It may be added 
 also," says Rochemonteix, " that they secured another mem- 
 ber for the Association in the person of M. d'Ailleboust, 
 who succeeded Maisonneuve as Governor of Montreal, and 
 who later became Governor of all Canada when Mont- 
 magny was recalled." Evidently Montreal owes much to 
 the Jesuits. 
 
 M. Dollier de Casson in his " Histoire de Montreal," does 
 not see anything suggestive of divine inspiration in all these 
 business transactions which set the new Company on its 
 feet, but the author of the " Memoires Particuliers pour 
 servir a I'histoire de I'Eglise de I'Amerique du Nord," re- 
 gards the establishment of the colony as something little 
 short of miraculous. M. de la Dauversiere is alleged to 
 have had a vision of the place of the new settlement. Never- 
 theless, it had been known ever since the time of Cartier; 
 imany living in France had seen it, and it had already been 
 granted to de Lauson for colonization. In the same strain 
 the pious author grows enthusiastic over the meeting of 
 Dauversiere and Olier, when they recognize each other by 
 some inward prompting of the spirit, and he finds it extra- 
 
 271 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OE NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 ordinary that a man who was in many respects so unfitted 
 to carry out the enterprise as Dauversiere should have suc- 
 ceeded. As a matter of fact his friends had to come 
 to his rescue. Finally it is unnecessary to accept as his- 
 tory that an order was given him by the Holy Family to 
 establish the Hospital nuns in Montreal. The whole affair 
 is romantic enough without indulging in such fancies. 
 
 The voyage over was tolerably pleasant for those who 
 were on the ship in which Mile. Mance embarked, but de 
 Maisonneuve had a hard time of it, and arrived at Quebec 
 much later than the others. The exact dates of their arrival 
 seem to be uncertain, nor is it sure that on reaching 
 Quebec, de Maisonneuve made haste to visit the place of 
 the new settlement. However, in the month of May, 1642, 
 he, along with Fathers Vimont and Poncet, and accompanied 
 by Mme. de la Peltrie, Mile. Mance and some others, landed 
 on the island, and on the 17th or 18th, Father Vimont, 
 after celebrating Mass in a little wooden hut hastily con- 
 structed, blessed the ground of the new colony. All the 
 details of the notable event may be found in the writings 
 of Soeur Bourgeois: " Les Annales manuscrites de I'Hotel 
 Dieu par la Soeur Marie," and in the histories of Charle- 
 voix, and M. I'Abbe de la Tour. 
 
 For the first fifteen years the Jesuits ministered to the 
 spiritual needs of the colonists. The list of those distin- 
 guished men is given to us in the precious manuscript of 
 M. Viger, and deserves to be reproduced. The names are 
 as follows : 
 
 Joseph Poncet Adrien Daran 
 
 Joseph-Imbert Duperon Georges d'Eudemare 
 
 Ambroise Davost Pierre Bailloquet 
 
 Gabriel Druillettes Charles Abanel 
 
 Isaac Jogues Andre Richard 
 
 Jacques Buteux Simon Le Moyne 
 
 Paul Le Jeune Claude Pijart 
 
 272 
 
MAISONNFA'VE. 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 Two martyrs, and all the rest heroes, thus head the list of 
 the clergy of Montreal. The Sulpitian de Oueylus was there 
 for a few months in 1642, but he withdrew to France, and 
 returned only in 1657 to begin the seminary. The first 
 parish church was built in Montreal as late as 1679. Up to 
 that time, according to M. Viger, the chapel of the Hospital 
 was used as a church. The Jesuits withdrew from the 
 care of the island in 1657. 
 
 The wisdom of Maisonneuve's undertaking to establish 
 a new colony at a time when Quebec was struggling 
 for existence, which would necessarily mean many years 
 of fighting and the loss of many valuable lives, was ques- 
 tioned at the time of his arrival from France, and has since 
 then been frequently discussed. Lalemant could have pre- 
 vented it if he wished. The praise or blame is his. But 
 possibly as he knew that de Lauson might attempt it, he 
 concluded that it was better to let it go to Maisonneuve. 
 
 After having been Procurator of the Missions he became 
 vice-provincial, and while in that office he received a letter 
 addressed to him by Father Jogues, describing the occur- 
 rences on the Mohawk. The last office of any prominence 
 held by him was that of Superior of the Professed House 
 at Paris. That famous establishment had been founded in 
 1588 by the Cardinal de Bourbon, the uncle of Henry IV, 
 and we find in a curious old book, by Germain Brice, that 
 it stood in the widest part of the Rue St. Antoine, just op- 
 posite the Rue de la Couture de Ste. Catherine. It had no 
 •chapel for two years, and then a small one was built. It 
 was there that Petavius pronounced his solemn vows in 
 1618. It disappeared in 1627 to make place for a large 
 church which Louis XIII erected, and which furnished the 
 first example of an edifice of its size with a dome spanning 
 the intersection of nave and transept. The royal funds must 
 have been low, for although His Majesty laid the corner 
 stone in 1627, the church was not opened until 1641. Lale- 
 mant arrived some time after that event. 
 
 273 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Brice tells us that the church was built in very bad taste. 
 " Its general style is Corinthian. It is very gorgeous in- 
 teriorly, but very badly lighted, the reason of its failure 
 being that the plans of the Lay Brother, Martel Ange, who 
 was an excellent architect, and wanted to make St. Louis 
 of Paris like St. Peter's of Rome, were set aside for the 
 plans of a Reverend Father who arrived from Lorraine. 
 The Brother had his revenge by being left alone when he 
 built the chapel for the novitiate, on the Faubourg St. 
 Germain, which was as much of a success as the other was 
 a failure." 
 
 While there, Lalemant became very intimate with the 
 Prince de Conti, the younger brother of the more famous 
 Prince de Conde, but the friendship caused him no end of 
 trouble. Both Conde and Conti, though continually 
 changing from one party to the other in the strife that was 
 wrecking France, were most frequently in opposition both 
 to Mazarin and Queen Anne of Austria. Lalemant was as- 
 sociated with Conti, not for politics but for piety, though the 
 Queen did not think so, and as a natural consequence he was 
 in great disfavor at Court. The Queen Regent feared him, 
 Colbert suspected him and Mazarin set spies to watch him. 
 Sad to say, also, some of his brethren uttered hard things 
 about him. 
 
 Towards the end of the forties the question of a bishopric 
 for Quebec was mooted. The Queen mother wanted Le 
 Jeune ; Ragueneau was thought of because of his " excep- 
 tional abilities," to use Le Jeune's expression, and besides 
 he had been Conde's preceptor. But while the excitement 
 was at its height and the General of the Society had for- 
 bidden the mention of the names of either Ragueneau or 
 Le Jeune, a letter came from the Company of the One Hun- 
 dred Associates at Quebec, asking for Lalemant. To this 
 request Father General Nickel answered immediately, on 
 July 31, 1651, refusing the request of ** the distinguished 
 gentlemen of the Canadian Society." 
 
 274 
 
CHARLES LALEMANT. 
 
 " There is need," he says, " not only of large minded 
 generosity, but also of Christian piety, when there is a ques- 
 tion of what is greatest in heaven and on earth, viz: the 
 glory of God and the salvation of souls ; in this case of the 
 souls of the savages. If our Fathers have done anything to 
 that end by their labors and, as you say, at the constant peril 
 of their life, they have merely fulfilled their duty and have 
 shown that they were worthy of their calling. They have 
 paid their homage to their Creator, for whom to die is gain. 
 But when actuated by love for them you ask the appointment 
 to the new see by royal warrant of a member of the Society, 
 namely Father Charles Lalemant, who is Rector of the 
 Professed House of Paris, I must say, while recognizing 
 the request as a mark of very great consideration in our 
 regard, that such an appointment, on account of the strict 
 rule of our Institute in that matter, is impossible. You 
 will therefore easily see that it would neither be grateful 
 to God nor good to your distinguished Association." 
 
 It will be noted that this occurred eight years before the 
 nomination of Laval. All three Jesuits were debarred by 
 the rule of their Order, and Lalemant had the additional 
 impediment of the Queen's opposition. He was, besides, 
 sixty-four years of age, and could never have endured the 
 hardships which would have to be undergone by the first 
 Bishop of Quebec. He lived twenty-three years after that, 
 however, and would possibly have disappeared from public 
 life entirely were it not that his old age was glorified by 
 a book. He is the author of *' La Vie Cachee de Jesus 
 Christ en I'Eucharistie." 
 
 Naturally the question arises : Is there not some con- 
 fusion with his namesake, Louis Lalemant? None what- 
 ever. Louis Lalemant died at Bourges in 1635, when 
 Charles Lalemant was still at Quebec. The first edition of 
 the '' Vie Cachee " is, according to de Backer, in "La Biblio- 
 theque des Ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jesus," is 1660. 
 Permission to prmt it, however, was given in 1657, by the 
 
 275 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Provincial Father Cellot. Three editions of it were pub- 
 hshed in our own time; one in 1835, a second in 1857, 
 and a third in 1888. The book we have before us has the 
 date of 1857. The editor, Father Cadres, after giving us 
 a sketch of Lalemant's career in America, considers it an 
 excellent work, and regrets that it had been so long out of 
 print. It had been published three times before the author's 
 death, but Father Cadres found that many liberties had been 
 taken with the text, though he himself makes divers and 
 sundry corrections, especially with " certain phrases that 
 might hurt delicate ears." Perhaps the old missionary 
 talked too plainly at times. In any case the language 
 in Europe was far more direct in 1660 than it is in our 
 times. But we are told that the " unction which consti- 
 tuted the charm of Father Lalemant is carefully pre- 
 served." Father Southwell attributes also to Lalemant a 
 book entitled: " Exercises de St. Ignace de huit jours, an. 
 1661." The last years of the old missionary were passed in 
 great bodily pain. He was afflicted with paralysis, and 
 died November 18, 1674, at the advanced age of eighty- 
 .seven. His brother Jerome had gone to heaven one year 
 before him. 
 
 276 
 
JEROME LALEMANT 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 First Experiences. 
 
 Jerome or Hierosme Lalemant, as he used to write his 
 name, was six years younger than his brother Charles, and 
 became a Jesuit three years after him. He entered the 
 novitiate in his native city, and not at Rouen. He was born 
 in Paris, April 27, 1593, and became a novice October 
 20, 1610; consequently when he was seventeen years of age. 
 The novitiate had just been established, and its foundation 
 was due to a single sermon ; not that the preacher had 
 pleaded for it, but he had produced such an impression by 
 a discourse before the King, that Madame de Sainte-Beuve 
 immediately made up her mind to found a house in Paris 
 which might produce other men like the preacher, Father 
 Gonterey. She therefore addressed herself to some friends, 
 and they bought the Hotel de Meziere, in the Faubourg 
 St. Germain. " It had a fine garden," the account informs 
 us, " and a spacious stable." What use the Jesuits made 
 of that part of the establishment is not recorded, but the 
 pious benefactress seemed to have been particularly pleased 
 to have it, in her gift for the reason that Our Lord was born 
 in a stable. 
 
 Knowing nothing of all this, the Marquise de Maignelais, 
 had also made an offer to build a novitiate on one of her 
 estates, proposing at the same time to furnish ample funds 
 to support it. Father Coton made haste to communicate 
 with the General Aquaviva, " who, however," says Prat, 
 " was of the opinion that a novitiate should be in a city 
 where hospitals and schools would give the candidates for 
 an apostolic life, an opportunity to exercise their zeal. 
 Nevertheless, for want of something better, it was decided 
 to accept the establishment in the country." Meantime 
 
 279 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Madame de Sainte-Beuve had been going on with her city 
 plans, and had even succeeded in instalhng the novices at 
 Paris, March 25, 1610. 
 
 It is all a pretty story, but how the Father General could 
 have been in such ignorance about the successful competi- 
 tor's work, is hard to imagine. At all events, Henry IV was 
 glad to have it in Paris, and the benevolent Marquise, whose 
 plans had been so unceremoniously set aside, is reported to 
 have remained as friendly as ever. Jerome Lalemant was 
 one of the first novices to enter the new foundation. 
 
 After his novitiate we find him a student of philosophy 
 at Pont-au-Mousson ; then Prefect in the boarding school 
 at Verdun, and Professor in the lower classes at Amiens. 
 From 1619 to 1623 he was studying theology in the Col- 
 lege of Clermont, and after that he taught philosophy and 
 the sciences there for three years. He then went to Rouen 
 for his Third Year of Probation, and after having filled the 
 post of Minister and Principal of the Interns at Clermont, 
 he was sent to be Rector at Blois, where he remained from 
 1632 to 1636. He went back to Clermont, where he was 
 appointed Spiritual Father, and after two years in that 
 office set out for Canada. To have been engaged in such 
 duties makes it clear that he was not an ordinary man. 
 
 Arriving at Quebec, he started almost immediately for 
 the Huron Missions, and on the way up he was the hero of 
 what he called a tragi-comedy. The scene was in an old 
 hut, on the Isle des Allumettes. The Hurons took pos- 
 session of it while he remained outside to recite his breviary. 
 After a little while he was summoned to enter, and ordered 
 to sit down beside a particularly surly-looking Algonquin. 
 The Indian stared at him and immediately grew furious. 
 It appears that a Frenchman in a party which had gone 
 ahead, had undertaken to bleed one of the Algonquin's rela- 
 tives to relieve him of a fever, but the patient died. " You 
 must pay for that," cried the savage, scowling at Lalemant, 
 and holding an axe over his head. The expected blow, 
 
 280 
 
u 
 
 o 
 >, 
 
 o 
 
 in 
 H 
 
 t/2 
 
 w 
 Q 
 
 u 
 
 < 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 however, was not given, for the Indian suddenly changed 
 his mind, and began to dance wildly around the cabin. 
 Then another fancy moved him, and seizing a bow string 
 he attempted to choke his victim. Here Lalemant con- 
 cluded it was proper to do something in self-defence, and 
 he held the crazy fellow off at arm's length, remonstrating 
 with him meanwhile ; but his words only increased the fury 
 of his assailant, who, after making another effort at strangu- 
 lation, a result which the priest's collar interfered 
 with, because the hooks baffled the Indian's ingenuity to 
 unfasten them, again took up his tomahawk and resumed 
 his dance. The friendly Hurons meantime smoked their 
 pipes and looked on placidly at the performance. 
 
 At last the Frenchmen outside hearing the uproar, seized 
 their weapons and rushed in. They were upon the point 
 of killing the Algonquin, but fortunately Lalemant stopped 
 them ; for such an act might have brought on a v^ar. " Ask 
 these Hurons what they mean," he said, " after promising 
 to protect us." The Hurons remonstrated feebly, but the 
 Algonquin drove them out, and then seizing the priest by 
 the foot sat glaring at him considering what was best to 
 be done. From time to time the Hurons looked in at the 
 door. " Finally," says Lalemant, " they succeeded in as- 
 suring the crazy fellow that they would be responsible for 
 my safe keeping. Whereupon he let go his grip, and I 
 went out to say my breviary." Evidently he did not pro- 
 pose to let a trifle like strangulation interfere with his piety. 
 
 Then the Hurons called a meeting and resolved to give 
 the Algonquin some presents to soothe him. So they went 
 to see him, and laid before him three hatchets and the blade 
 of an old sword. After the usual preliminaries the senior 
 Huron solemnly rose, and taking the deadly implements up 
 one by one said pompously : " These are to free the French- 
 man whom you hold." The Algonquin examined the 
 hatchet very critically, and with equal pomposity replied : 
 ' The desire to kill the Frenchman is now leaving my 
 
 281 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 head, but in order that it may get out completely I want a 
 pot.' There was no pot available, so they gave him a 
 shirt, with which he professed himself satisfied. Then tell- 
 ing some one to fetch him a dish of water, he washed his 
 face and particularly his eyes, and drank what was left. 
 Those sons of the forest were not over delicate. " Behold," 
 he says, " this is to dry my eyes, and change my face ; it is 
 to swallow all the bitterness of my wrath;" after which 
 unburdening of his heart, he trotted off to get some presents 
 and returned in a few minutes with a beaver skin, as a sign 
 of reconciliation. 
 
 Now it was the Hurons' turn. When the storm was 
 over they began to protest their love for the priest, and 
 urged him to write a full account of the incident to the 
 Governor, and to say in the letter that one of the Hurons 
 was so angry that he thought of tomahawking the Algon- 
 quin next morning. Lalemant did not trouble the Governor 
 with any communication, nor did the Huron disturb the 
 Algonquin with a tomahawk. " The mosquitoes are eating 
 me up so rapidly," writes the light-hearted missionary 
 to his Superior at Quebec, " that there is not enough left of 
 me to put down another word." 
 
 He finally reached de Brebeuf and his friends at Ihoni- 
 tiria. He came as Superior of the Missions, and as he was 
 pre-eminently an organizer, the first thing he did was to 
 take a census of the population. He ordered the Fathers 
 to put their packs on their backs, and tramp off in the snow 
 of winter from village to village, and count the number of 
 individuals they had charge of. By the spring of 1639, 
 all had returned from north, east, south and west, and 
 reported that they had found thirty-two villages or towns, 
 with a population of 12,000 souls. An estimate had 
 already been made by de Brebeuf four years before, which 
 gave only twenty villages, but with 35,000 inhabitants. It 
 is not possible to ascertain how exact the first figures were, 
 but famine, pestilence and war had ravaged these unfor- 
 
 282 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 lunate tribes meantime, and it is quite likely that the decrease 
 of one third of the population was correct. 
 
 In connection with the census, a map of the territory 
 was also made. Unfortunately it has not come down to 
 us, but very likely the map of Du Creux is a modified form 
 of it, and it was inserted with some alterations in Father 
 Du Creux's works, bearing the date of 1660. It has no 
 scale, and there are some variations in the names employed 
 as well as certain hap-hazard drawings, as, for instance, 
 where Lake Simcoe by being made almost circular, projects 
 into territory which in reality projects into it, but on the 
 whole it is extremely valuable in helping us to understand 
 the relative positions of the various villages. 
 
 Another matter that engaged his attention was the 
 solution of the problem of how to secure lay assistance 
 for the missions; which was very much needed. For 
 when the priests first went to Huronia, they slept in the 
 wigwams with the savages, eat out of the same filthy dish, 
 patched their tattered garments as best they could, etc. In 
 such surroundings and because of the shocking immorality 
 always before their eyes, it was impossible to think of 
 placing a layman. But later, when they possessed lodges 
 of their own, and were compelled to provide for their 
 own sustenance, help was needed. There had to be some 
 one not only to serve them at Mass, but also to guard 
 the house when they were away on long missionary ex- 
 cursions. It was absolutely out of the question to employ 
 lay-brothers for such work, for they might have to use a 
 gun to defend themselves in case of an attack; they would 
 have to hunt and fish and plant corn to provide the daily 
 food ; and besides would be brought into daily contact with 
 the shameless licentiousness of both the men and women 
 of the tribe. It would be impossible to induce any ordinary 
 brother to adopt a life of such isolation and suffering. 
 What was to be done? 
 
 Lalemant had discussed the matter with the provincial 
 
 283 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 in France, and they had agreed that the only feasible thing 
 was to adopt a system which had proved a success in one 
 of the French provinces, when brothers were scarce. Lay- 
 men had been accepted, who without belonging to the 
 Society had, because of a life-contract and the permission 
 to bind themselves by what are called vows of devotion, 
 taken upon themselves the care of the temporal concerns 
 of the religious houses in which they lived. This seemed 
 to be a solution of the problem, and so the system of donncs 
 or ohlatcs was established. In 1639 six or seven domestics, 
 who were already working with the Fathers, and who were 
 recognized as men of solid piety and well-tried virtue, were 
 permitted to pronounce conditional vows whose wording 
 was somewhat like the formula of the vows of the Society. 
 They were to renew these vows twice a year, to wear the 
 religious habit, and the Society bound itself to take care of 
 them for life. 
 
 Evidently the General had not been consulted about all 
 this, and as soon as the scheme was presented to him it was 
 found to labor under serious objections. First, it had been 
 tried in the East Indies with deplorable results, and besides, it 
 was nothing else than a Third Order which the Society 
 has never admitted. Consecjuently Father Vitelleschi con- 
 demned it, objecting also to the habit, the vows, and the 
 contract for life support. It was quite a shock for Father 
 Lalemant, so he summoned his council and recast the whole 
 plan. In the new arrangement the donnes were not to take 
 vows, nor wear the habit. The life-contract was so modified 
 that they were to agree to accept no salary, on condition 
 of life-sustenance, but with the understanding that the 
 agreement was not made with the whole Society, but with 
 the Superior of Canada. Finally, it was stipulated that there 
 would be no exterior distinction between the donnes and 
 the hired men, and that they could be dismissed at any 
 time if found unworthy of their vocation. On April 
 2, 1643, this arrangement, signed by Lalemant, Le Mercier, 
 
 284 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 Pijart, Ragueneaii and Chastelain, was forwarded to Rome 
 and accepted. 
 
 Some of these donncs have become immortal. " Without 
 being members of the Society of Jesus," says Bancroft, "they 
 were exceptional men who were ready to shed their blood 
 for the Faith." The most illustrious of all are, of course, 
 Goupil and Lalande, who were the associates of Father 
 Jogues. Not very far from them in greatness was William 
 Couture, who, on the occasion of the capture of Jogues, after 
 succeeding in getting well out of the hands of the savages, 
 deliberately and fiercely fought his way back, till he stood all 
 reeking with blood at the side of Jogues, and quite ready to 
 die with him. He was not killed however, but was adopted 
 by the tribe, and when two years later the Indians assembled 
 at Three Rivers for a treaty of peace, Couture, dressed 
 as an Indian, appeared as one of their principal delegates. 
 He did not return again to this savage life, but remained 
 in the colony. He married, after being duly released from 
 his vows, became the father of a large family, and lived 
 till the age of ninety. His descendants to-day dwell mostly 
 around Pointe Levis, opposite Quebec. 
 
 Guerin, who accompanied Menard to the Far West was 
 also a donne, and perhaps Chouart, who subsequently be- 
 came an associate of the famous Radisson, and is known 
 as le Sieur de Groselier. He and Radisson, whose sister 
 he married, are the founders of the Hudson Bay Com- 
 pany. He was, at least, one of the domestics, who even 
 though they had not assumed the obligation of donnes 
 were unusual men ; and there is a passage in the " Relations " 
 which records the great purity of their lives and the immense 
 services they rendered to the mission. Among them we find 
 one who is registered as " a boy." He was more than 
 likely the " petit gargon " whom Jogues carried on his 
 shoulders on the first painful journey to Huronia. He had 
 fallen sick, and the priest toiled along with him over the 
 difficult portages until finally an Indian had to come to the 
 
 285 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA 
 
 relief of both, by volunteering to carry the child the rest of 
 the way. 
 
 What this boy was doing in the wilderness or to whom he 
 belonged we do not know, but he was probably the Jean 
 Amiot whom the Indians called Antaiok. Later on he be- 
 came a daring fighter but withal extremely prudent, always 
 escaping any serious injury, and always attributing his pro- 
 tection to his patron St. Joseph. It is told of him that on one 
 occasion when he was out hunting, he found himself in- 
 capable of making a single step in advance. He prayed for 
 a moment and then said to the Huron along side of him : 
 "Something is wrong here; let us return." He found 
 later that they had been going right into an Iroquois am- 
 buscade. He was noted also for putting a stop to bad 
 conversations and profanity — his irreproachable life and his 
 admitted valor as a warrior giving authority to his words. 
 He was as pure as an angel, and in one instance he had to 
 imitate Joseph of Egypt in his flight from danger. As he 
 was always among the first to seize his weapons and hurry 
 to the thickest of the fight, in the constant alarms of those 
 days, he said to one of the Fathers : *' In case I am killed 
 I have a lot of wood and other things to build a house. I 
 want you to take whatever there is, for a chapel in honor 
 of St. Joseph." The same devotion prompted him to organ- 
 ize a flying troop of Indians to be ready for every attack, and 
 he proposed to call it " the army of St. Joseph." He did not 
 die in war however, but in 1647 he went down to Quebec to 
 get a commission from the Governor to lead a squad of 
 Frenchmen against the Iroquois. He had reached Three 
 Rivers and there he won every heart by his bright and joyous 
 disposition, as well as by his physical prowess. He was a 
 great athlete, and could beat every one, white men and In- 
 dians alike, at racing with raquettes or without them, but 
 no one begrudged him his victories, so much was he beloved. 
 Unfortunately while out on the river, and in full view of all 
 his friends, he and his companion, Francis Marguerie, were 
 
 286 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 caught in a squall and drowned before help could be given 
 them. In the curious language of the " Relations " we are 
 told that " this brave soldier of St. Joseph made a journey 
 of twenty-five or thirty leagues to be interred in the residence 
 of St. Joseph," which means that they brought his body 
 to Quebec to be buried. 
 
 When Lalemant arrived in Huronia, the arrangement of 
 the various sites did not please him. A system of resi- 
 dences in the principal centres had been planned, and besides 
 the two already established at Ossossane and Tenaustaye, 
 two more were contemplated. He changed all that, and 
 set about founding a central house as a basis of operations 
 from which the Fathers could go to- the different parts of 
 the country. He was dreaming, of a Paraguay on Lake 
 Huron. The building was to be a parallelogram seventy- 
 five by ninety feet, protected by a ditch and palisades on 
 the sides facing the River Wye, near where that stream 
 runs into Georgian Bay. On the other two sides there was 
 to be a wall of masonry supporting a palisade, and provided 
 with bastions. Within the inclosure were to be the house 
 of the missionaries, the chapel, servants' quarters and two 
 houses of retreat, one for Indians who came for instruction, 
 the other for passers by who stayed for a day or so. Out- 
 side the walls were two great lodges built in Indian fashion, 
 one for an hospital, the other a shelter for wandering 
 Hurons. There was also a cemetery, and beyond that the 
 farm. The entire settlement was to be enclosed by a 
 stockade. Richelieu approved the plans and promised funds 
 and soldiers, but we have no record of what he contributed 
 in the way of money. The military force was scarcely ever 
 more than a corporal's guard. 
 
 These great plans were carried out, but the scheme of 
 having all the Fathers together was found after a few years 
 not to be workable, and when Lalemant went down to 
 Quebec in 1645, he informed the Provincial that there were 
 six residences where the Fathers lived, namely : the principal 
 
 287 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 one which he had built at St. Mary's ; the Immaculate Con- 
 ception at Ossossane ; St. Joseph's at Tenaustaye ; St. 
 Michael's, St. Ignatius', and St. John the Baptist. There 
 was even a seventh one, but it was only temporary. It was 
 for the Algonquins who wintered in the Huron territory, 
 and was under the invocation of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 288 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Sketches of the Hurons. 
 
 It is to be regretted that we have no more of the personal 
 adventures of Father Lalemant, but as he was always Su- 
 perior, and wrote the account of what was happening, he 
 effaces himself completely. No doubt he had many an 
 experience like the one that occurred down at Allumettes; 
 but instead of that he gives us some valuable information 
 about the people he was laboring with. It will serve as a 
 supplement of what we have from de Brebeuf 
 
 One of the most striking of these pen-pictures is the ac- 
 count of one of their superstitious practices. Possibly when 
 he was a professor at college in France, he had charge of 
 the dramatic representations, for just as he called his 
 struggle with the crazy Algonquin a tragi-comedy, he 
 describes the events he is now narrating as a drama in five 
 acts. He begins by telling us that a woman of the village 
 went out of her cabin one night with her child in her arms. 
 Immediately, she fancied that the moon fell on her head and 
 then transformed itself into a beautiful woman holding in 
 her arms a child like her own. 
 
 " I," said the spectre, " am the immortal ruler of these 
 countries and its inhabitants. Therefore I wish you to go 
 everywhere to compel the people to give you presents. Go to 
 the Petuns for tobacco, to the sorcerers for porcupine belts, 
 etc. As I am all fire I order you to be dressed entirely in 
 red; a red hat, red feather, red cincture, etc." 
 
 In consequence of her order the squaw started like a flash 
 for her cabin, and forthwith went into convulsions, possibly 
 out of delight at her prospective adornments. She straight- 
 way began to clamor for the satisfaction of her dream, 
 and crowds rushed in to see what they could do for hen 
 
 289 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 As usual, it became a national afifair; a council was sun> 
 moned, and the sages determined that the lady must be 
 gratified in getting whatever she asked. Consequently next 
 morning criers went through the village ordering prepara- 
 tions for the feast, and instantaneously, as if there were a 
 conflagration, people were seen hurrying to and fro to gather 
 what was necessary for the event. A council was again 
 summoned, and Lalemant and the Fathers were invited. 
 
 "What do you think of it?" they were asked. "It is 
 all craziness or deviltry," was the answer; whereupon a cun- 
 ning old chief pretending that the priests had given their 
 assent, cried out to the mob: "Courage men; courage 
 women ; courage brothers ; perform the ceremony now, that 
 is necessary for our country and is in keeping with the 
 customs of our ancestors." Then in a stage whisper to 
 those near him he added : " I told these Frenchmen that 
 they were going to see things that would astonish them, 
 but that they should not mind, for I heard at Quebec and 
 Three Rivers that if we were Christians in four or five 
 years that would be soon enough." 
 
 While this by-play was going on, delegates from the 
 squaw came in, and asked for two men and two garls to be 
 sent to her, in order to learn what she wanted. The persons 
 designated withdrew ; and at mid-day, the lady in red, seated 
 on a sort of a hod and carried on the shoulders of the 
 braves in the midst of a mob that was howling its 
 lungs out, entered the lodge. Her four coryphaei were 
 attired pretty nearly in nature's garb, having left their gar- 
 ments as a tribute to the ruling spirit of the revels, and 
 they declared that six dogs of a certain color which they 
 described were required, and also six rolls of tobacco, a 
 quantity of other things besides, and finally a blue dress, 
 which the French must give her. 
 
 Great excitement followed, and before the Fathers could 
 escape from the crowd, fifteen of the presents were laid at 
 the feet of the thrifty squaw. " What are you going to do 
 
 290 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 about the blue dress ? " the missionaries were asked. " You 
 are laughing at us," was the answer; whereat the whole 
 assembly was scandalized. " If that is the reason you called 
 us here you can tell her to go home without a present from 
 us," said the priests, and they vanished from the scene, 
 only to be followed by the chief, who begged them not to 
 break the spell. " Such," says Lalemant, " was the first 
 act of the'drama." 
 
 The second consisted in every one going to the squaw's 
 lodge, whither she had meantime been transported with 
 great solemnity. No one was empty-handed, and the 
 presents were literally rained on her. She was kept busy 
 avoiding the missiles. At sunset, the chiefs were out on 
 the streets again, shouting to everyone to stir up the fires 
 and to make them as hot as possible, for such was the 
 dreamer's command. The fires were soon ready, and two 
 braves took her by the hand and led her from house to 
 house. To the astonishment of every one, though her feet 
 and her legs were bare, she walked through two or three 
 hundred fires, not only without being burned, but complain- 
 ing that the fire was not hot enough. Was it a trick or 
 deviltry ? 
 
 The third act consisted in a general outbreak of insanity. 
 Every one except a few old and decrepit Indians, began to 
 run over the course the woman had followed. They were 
 all painted and bedaubed and wore ridiculous and hideous 
 masks, and kept up such a din and committed such wild 
 acts that " they seemed," says the " Relation," " like the 
 bacchantees of old or like the devils in hell." The laws of 
 the feast gave them full license to do and say what they 
 liked with impunity. They upset the pots on the fires; 
 they smashed the earthenware ; they killed the dogs ; they 
 scattered fire brands in every direction at the risk of burning 
 the lodge or the whole village, and no one dared to inter- 
 fere with them ; the idea being that the more riot there was, 
 the quicker the sick person would recover. 
 
 291 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 The fourth act was the " solving of the riddles." Every 
 one ran around proposing them. The answer was given 
 not in words, but by throwing some object at the questioner. 
 Thus, for instance, one would say : " I want a lake," and 
 would be answ^ered by a kettle of water being flung at him. 
 The one who propounded the riddle kept the kettU ' any 
 case, but if the answer to his conundrum was correct there 
 was great rejoicing, and every one began to beat the sides 
 of the wigwam to show their joy, and also to console the 
 patient who, perhaps, was then at the other end of the 
 village, but who was supposed to be comforted by this absent 
 treatment. Covetous persons could thus acquire consider- 
 able property. It is needless to say, some of the requests 
 were gross and indecent. No one was idle, but all were 
 running like mad from house to house proposing and solv- 
 ing the riddles, hammering on the sides of the lodges, and 
 carrying off other people's household effects. The act con- 
 cluded by a general meeting in the lodge of the trouble- 
 some female who had caused all this disturbance, for they 
 liad to answer her riddles. If she was skilful she could 
 keep them busy throwing things at her all night. Finally, 
 when everyone was worn out, a council was summoned 
 and the number of successful answers was counted. On 
 this occasion it was ascertained that one hundred correct 
 guesses were made, and the vilage plumed itself that night 
 on its marvellous cleverness. 
 
 Two days and nights w-ere spent in this folly. On the 
 third day, her ladyship began the fifth and last act. She 
 was conducted to every house in the village. After and 
 before her, was a long line of mourners in single file, crawl- 
 ing alone in solemn silence, with bowed heads and dismal 
 faces. While the procession was passing, no one dared 
 appear on the streets. When it entered a house, the woman 
 recited in doleful tones all her woes, and explained the 
 purposes of her enigmas. Presents were again hurled at 
 her. She went to the next cabin and the next, her at- 
 
 fV O tW 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 tendants meantime gathering up the pots, and coats, and 
 hats and shoes, and whatever she was thus vigorously pre- 
 sented with. She made the round of the village three times, 
 and while the presents were accumulating and the riddles 
 read, the battering of the lodges continued, the yells grew 
 louder, the congratulations on her recovered health became 
 more vociferous, she meantime keeping up her piteous wail 
 of thanks for their kindness, and conveying her assurance 
 that she was feeling somewhat better. " It is a comedy so 
 far," says Lalemant, " but the child upon whom the moon 
 had fallen, sickened and died meantime. However while the 
 mother was engaged in public affairs, one of the mission- 
 aries baptized the poor little fellow and sent him to heaven." 
 
 This is only one of the endless varieties of " omens, 
 dreams and such like fooleries," which these degraded 
 savages indulged in. There was no end to them ; the 
 reason of their multiplicity being that the Hurons were not 
 a homogeneous people, but an agglomeration of all sorts 
 of exiles and fugitives who had agreed to live together 
 for mutual defense. Hence each section contributed its 
 special superstition with its own fixed and unalterable ritual, 
 every detail of which had to be rigorously observed. To 
 ensure their perpetuity, a great number of societies had 
 been formed, which were to prevent any infraction or 
 neglect, and in that way to secure the success of the in- 
 cantation. Membership in such associations was very much 
 coveted, and in some instances was hereditary. One can 
 understand the difficulty of converting such people. 
 
 A glance at a gambling scene may also help us to appre- 
 ciate another of the trials of the missionary life among the 
 Hurons. Like all gambling, even among civilized people, 
 there was superstition connected with it. The favorite 
 game consisted in throwing plum-stones in a wooden dish. 
 Before it began, nights were passed in consultation in order 
 to choose the best player, and the braves fasted and abstained 
 most austerely, so as to obtain favorable dreams, carefully 
 
 293 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 carrying all the objects they had dreamed about to the 
 gambling hell. The men who were known to have 
 especially lucky charms on their person were placed near 
 the players. If there was any old Indian whose presence 
 might give good luck, he was carried in on the shoulders 
 of the braves and given a seat of honor. Even the Fathers, 
 because of their dignity as sorcerers, were invariably asked 
 to pray for a happy result. Finally, the two chosen gamblers 
 face each other. Above them, a long platform has been 
 built, and stretched out on it, where they can follow every 
 move of the game are lines of men, who are instructed to 
 invoke their demons during the play, and to make menacing 
 gestures and hurl imprecations at the demons of the opposite 
 side so as to frighten them off. The play begins, growing 
 wilder and wilder as it proceeds, amid the shouts and yells 
 of the spectators and the excitement of the gamblers them- 
 selves. Bags of tobacco, robes, shoes, weapons, everything 
 is staked and lost, and often the loser goes back to his 
 lodge in the snow, " as naked as a worm." Unfortunately 
 for the missionaries, it was conceded that their presence 
 in the country brought bad luck, for the people of Ossossane, 
 w^here conversions were multiplying, invariably lost the 
 game. Over and over again, the missionaries asked the 
 most serious men in the village to summon the demon of 
 the gambling dish or the dream ceremonies to appear 
 openly for a talk; but they never succeeded in seeing his 
 Satanic Majesty or any of his imps. 
 
 In 1645, Lalemant resigned his superiorship into the 
 hands of Ragueneau; and without knowing if he would 
 ever reach Quebec, for the Iroquois were all along the 
 river, he wrote to the provincial what he thought about 
 the condition of things in Huronia, affixing it to his 
 descriptions of their funerals and gambling. Fortunately 
 he is very chatty, and is always excusing himself for 
 being prolix, but his fondness for writing furnishes us with 
 excellent sketches of men and things in the land to which 
 
 294 
 
JERO:^lE LALEAIANT. 
 
 he had given seven years of his Hfe, and which he was 
 leaving only in obedience to the summons of his superiors. 
 We shall give only a digest of the long account. 
 
 " When I arrived in Huronia," he says, " the pestilence 
 was at its height, and many people were baptized in their 
 last moments. It was fortunate for them, but hard on 
 those who survived, for the one or two Christian families 
 who were left after the sickness had ceased, scarcely dared 
 lift their heads. In the popular estimation, they were the 
 cause of the misfortune. They were also the chief victims; 
 for pestilence, famine and war always cut a wider swath 
 among them than among the pagans. In a single instance, 
 one hundred picked warriors, all of them Christians, were 
 cut off to a man by the Iroquois ; and disease would pass 
 by the huts where the missionaries were scoffed at and ill- 
 treated, and leave the homes of fervent Christians desolate. 
 They were generally also the poorest. And yet in spite of 
 all this, the little flock grew amazingly both in numbers and 
 sanctity. 
 
 " I know no people on earth who have so many obstacles 
 between them and the Faith. Apart from the fact that they 
 have no writings, and no traditions, and no idea of God 
 as a Creator, and no conception of a Divine Providence, 
 they will absolutely not submit to any restraint upon their 
 conduct. A father has no control over his children, nor a 
 chief over his warriors. There are no laws in the country, 
 except those you choose to accept. A wretch who is red 
 with a score of murders is unmolested. There is even no 
 punishment for a man who betrays his countr}', and he will 
 actually boast of having instigated the most disastrous wars 
 in which his own people have suffered defeat. Punish- 
 ments for crime are inflicted on the public, and not on the 
 culprit. If a Huron kills an Algonquin or one of his own 
 tribe, the whole nation meets and discusses the amount 
 and character of the presents to be given to the family of 
 the sufferer, but there is no public authority to enforce 
 
 295 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 such contributions from individuals. Only the praise ac- 
 corded to them for their generosity and public spirit urges 
 them to pay their quota. 
 
 " Moreover, what seems to the savage to be just and 
 equitable, runs directly counter to the teachings of Christian- 
 ity. Thus they think it eminently proper to dismiss their 
 •wives, as they would their slaves, and the women also 
 withdraw if the fancy seizes them, and in any case they 
 are at liberty to consort with any number of the braves 
 before their marriage without any detriment to their repu- 
 tation. But possibly the greatest obstacle to their conver- 
 sion lies in the fact that all their remedies against illness, 
 all their recreations, their hunting and fishing, their business 
 and banquets, are involved in some way or other in diabol- 
 ical rites and ceremonies. The consequence is an absolute 
 exclusion from trade, pleasure, and public life of all those 
 who profess to be Christians. 
 
 " It is true that after having examined all their super- 
 stitions, we cannot find any of the assistance which the 
 devil is supposed to give them which may not be explained 
 by natural agencies, but nevertheless they firmly believe in 
 the Prince of Darkness; they have recourse to him, they 
 invoke him, and are sure he speaks to them in dreams and 
 omens ; they sacrifice to him and offer him presents, and 
 refer to him all the temporal things of life. They do not 
 get much in return, but it does not shake their belief. 
 
 " If lesser difficulties than these thwart the missionaries 
 of civilized races, if the gospel is accepted by people only 
 because of miracles, the gift of tongues, prophecies and the 
 like, what can we do here where God has not deigned to 
 work miracles to advance the faith? If, at least, we had 
 somejtemporal aid ; if the French would only establish their 
 authority to repress the outrages against common decency 
 which go on before our eyes, the difficulty would be con- 
 siderably diminished. But in spite of all this," he says in 
 conclusion, " I must testify, now that I am going a\A'ay, 
 
 296 
 
JEROME LALEMANT 
 
 after seven years work among them, that I have seen as 
 much accompHshed in that short period as I could not have 
 dared to hope for at the end of a long life, and, perhaps, 
 I would not have believed it if I had not seen it with my own 
 eyes." 
 
 297 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 Superior in Quebec. 
 
 Although Lalemant returned to Quebec in 1645, he should 
 have been there the year before, but the first letter appoint- 
 ing him superior never reached him. It fell into the hands 
 of the Indians, who, possibly puzzled over its hieroglyphics, 
 which were always a profound mystery for them, or per- 
 haps made use of the paper in their incantations. 
 When the summons at last came. Achiendase, as Lalemant 
 was called, put the last touch to the Huron Catechism, which 
 we are told was drawn from the " Summa " of St. Thomas, 
 and started down the river. Whether he took his manu- 
 script with him or not, we do not know. In fact, we were 
 unaware that his name was on the long list of missionaries 
 who have left literary monuments, until we saw it set down 
 m the Mss. of Father Martin. De Backer credits him 
 with writing, also, " Les Principes de la langue Huronne." 
 
 He arrived at Three Rivers in time for the great con- 
 ference with the Mohawks, at which Montmagny presided. 
 He met there his two brethren, Jogues and Bressani, who 
 had returned from Europe after their captivity, and saw 
 Couture enter the assembly as an Iroquois delegate. When 
 the proceedings ended, he went down to Quebec, and began 
 his long superiorship, the first five years of which were 
 one continual agony. For it was he who sent Jogues down 
 to the Mohawk, and only a few months elapsed when 
 the news came of the hero's death. At the same time 
 the Iroquois were drawing their lines closer around the 
 upper missions, and utter ruin seemed inevitable. In 1G46 
 he wrote these memorable words : " We shall be taken ; 
 we shall be burned; we shall be massacred. But that is a 
 
 298 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 trifle. One s bed is not always the best place to die in. I 
 do not see a single one here who does not hold his head 
 high. They are all begging to be sent to the Hurons, 
 and some protest that it is the fire of the Iroquois that they 
 covet." In 16-18 came the news of Daniel's bloody death, 
 and then the tragedies of de Brebeuf, Lalemant, Gamier 
 and Chabanel were announced. The crash came in 1650, 
 and when he held in his hands the bones of his nephew, 
 Gabriel, and of his beloved de Brebeuf, we may well im- 
 agine, but may not attempt to describe his feelings. He 
 had not time to weep, for the seven hundred Huron fugi- 
 tives, who came down with Ragueneau had to be provided 
 for, and he went around to the convents and the houses of 
 the colonists to beg for food and clothes. The Indians were 
 saved from starvation, and were given shelter on the Jesuit 
 farms at Beauport. 
 
 As soon as he returned from Huronia he began the 
 famous " Journal des Jesuites," which has become one of 
 the curiosities of historical literature. It is nothing but 
 the ordinary diary of events that is kept in every Jesuit 
 house, but for that very reason it is of the greatest interest 
 and value. This particular " Journal " has on its title 
 page: "Journal commence 1645," and is therefore thought 
 to be the first of its kind. But that is incorrect. Vimont, 
 Lalemant's predecessor, in all likelihood kept a similar 
 "Journal," but unfortunately, like many other precious docu- 
 ments, it has been lost. 
 
 This diary of course was never intended for publication, 
 for it is always a private and personal record whose con- 
 tents are not even known by the members of the community. 
 It is intended as a guide for future superiors, and often con- 
 tains impressions that may have been formed about individ- 
 uals as well as about public policies. As this particular 
 Journal was for a long time in the hands of others who might 
 not have been friendly, interpolations and marginal notes 
 might have been made which would not be pleasant to have 
 
 299 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 ascribed to those who never wrote them. On this account it 
 would naturally have to be submitted for revision before 
 giving it to the public, i'ossibly that was done, but the dis- 
 tinguished editors, Laverdiere and Casgrain, do not assure 
 us on that point. On the contrary they seem somewhat 
 apprehensive of unpleasant consequences, and warn their 
 readers " not to be unjust to the estimable authors of the 
 manuscript or the persons or institutions of which they 
 speak and to be careful not to take too seriously what was 
 written under the form of badinage and without niauvaise 
 intention." 
 
 There is necessarily a personal note throughout the 
 "Journal." Thus, for instance, Lalemant writes: "When 
 I was in Montreal, the resolution had been taken to build 
 a wooden house for a residence and all the timber was 
 ready, but the ship arrived with orders from France to build 
 the hospital. Maisonneuve found it difficult to explain the 
 situation to the Fathers, so I took it upon myself. But 
 now they are throwing the cat at my legs as if I had pre- 
 vented the work." 
 
 We have sometimes apparently trivial details, as for in- 
 stance : 
 
 " About the end of the month there were great com- 
 plaints about certain Hurons wintering at Sillery, for hav- 
 ing crept into the windows of Gadois' house and taken some 
 pieces of salt pork in retaliation for his having robbed 
 them of some old rags. They were threatened with the 
 Governor's wrath when he returned, but were also promised 
 satisfaction for their loss." 
 
 In another note we read : " Madame Giitard took some 
 black cloth of an old soutane to line the sleeves of another 
 not so bad, etc. We got a man for the kitchen to day to 
 help the Brother, who had too much to do." 
 
 " To-day Pierre Goudron arrived. He is a miller or 
 thinks he is." 
 
 There are items also about the unhappiness of the nuns, 
 
 300 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 who did not get as many benedictions as they wanted ; tlie 
 hopelessness of appointing Father Dablon for High Mass, 
 for he could not sing; the tricks of a sharper who swindled 
 the Fathers out of a good deal of money ; the arrival of a 
 quack doctor, etc. Among other records we have an ac- 
 count of the midnight Mass on Christmas of 1645, which is 
 worth quoting, as it gives us an idea of the musical con- 
 ditions that prevailed at that time in Quebec. 
 
 " The first bell for midnight Mass," we are told, " rang 
 at 11 o'clock; the second a little before half past eleven, 
 and then they began to sing two airs : ' Venez mon Dieu ' 
 and ' Chantons Noel.' Mons. de la Ferte took the bass, 
 and St. Martin played the violin. There was also a Ger- 
 man flute, which was out of tune, when they reached the 
 church. A little before midnight we sang the Te Dcum, 
 and a little after, a signal gun was fired, and Mass began. 
 The pain benit was distributed just as the priest was open- 
 ing the book. It was the first time in many years, because 
 of the quarrels about it. 
 
 This trouble about the paUi bciiit which was made use of 
 as in the agapes or love feasts of the early Christians, forms 
 a curious story about early Quebec. In spite of the name, 
 there was not much brotherly love lost in this recrudescence 
 of primitive piety, and one is amazed to find the people 
 who W'Cre fighting for their life on that desolate rock, 
 squabbling like children about a gift that should have been 
 a symbol of union and peace. 
 
 The quarrel was revived on this particular Christmas, in 
 order to satisfy the devotion of the taillandiers, or tool 
 makers. Mons. le Gouverneur was going to give the pain 
 benit on the following Sunday, and in order to avoid hurting 
 any one's feelings it was to be offered first to the priest, 
 and then to the governor, and afterwards to every one in- 
 discriminately ; the distribution taking place sometimes at 
 the altar and sometimes at the end of the church. The 
 Christmas ceremony seemed to have passed off smootly. 
 
 301 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 but on New Year's Day, when the governor received his 
 portion, the question arose: Who's next? It was decided to 
 give it to the two principal trustees, and then to begin on 
 the side of St. Genevieve, as if going up one street first, 
 and returning by another. There was no disturbance then, 
 but before Septuagesima, Mme. Marsolet, whose turn had 
 come for the pain benit, sent it in, all wrapped in gauze with 
 candles around it on which small coins were hanging, but, 
 says the writer, " before blessing it I had all that taken off so 
 as to prevent it from being the cause of jealousy and 
 vanity." 
 
 There is one entry which somewhat takes the glow off 
 Montmagny's glory, great as he was in other respects. 
 It is recorded on the 8th of January that the Iroquois had 
 been telling how an arrangement had been made with the 
 governor, who agreed that the Mohawks could make war 
 on the Algonquins, provided they did not touch the Hurons 
 and French. No one believed it, but " unfortunately," says 
 the chronicler, who forthwith begins to write in Latin, 
 " there is a foundation for it. When I heard it I went to 
 the governor, and he said to Father de Quen and myself 
 that in the preceding summer, when the Mohawk envoys 
 came to Three Rivers with Couture, one of their chiefs, 
 named Crochet, asked for a private interview, which was 
 granted. The chief said that he had a splendid present to 
 offer, and wanted to make an arrangement about fighting 
 the Algonquins. The governor refused to look at the 
 present, and told the Indian that such a thing was im- 
 possible. Crochet was very angry, and the peace which 
 had just been made seemed to be on the point of being 
 broken, whereupon Montmagny compromised, and agreed, 
 on condition that they would not attack the Christian 
 Algonquins." 
 
 How Christian Algonquins could be distinguished in a 
 fight from their pagan relatives is hard to understand, and 
 the concession looks like a deplorable weakness in the great 
 
 303 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 man. For a similar desertion of the allies, de Denonville, 
 at a much later period, was cashiered and recalled to France. 
 However, remote as we are from those occurrences, it 
 is perhaps not fair to judge the governor as guilty of 
 cowardice. The fate of the colony was then hanging in the 
 balance. 
 
 There is one ugly item which is not usually found in 
 general history ; and very likely it is a solitary instance in the 
 annals of Canada. We are told that in March, 1646, 
 " Chrestionnot, a cook at Three Rivers, left our service and 
 was put in the fort, but he behaved himself so badly there 
 that ' on le mit sur le chevalet on il se rompit; ' that is to 
 say, he was broken on the rack. Of course that punishment 
 was in vogue in Europe at the time, and the New Eng- 
 enders used it much later in Salem, but one is not prepared 
 for it in Quebec. 
 
 In this very interesting book we find also valuable 
 records of Government acts, accounts of massacres, 
 notes about journeys, the departure of ships, etc., all care- 
 fully put down, day by day. On that score alone the " Jour- 
 nal " is of inestimable value, for the *' Relations " very often 
 leave us without dates, and even omit the names of Fathers 
 who are sent upon missions of great importance ; and in 
 these gaps, the " Journal " comes to our help, and guides 
 us through what would otherwise be an inextricable tangle, 
 while at the same time it supplies us with an excellent picture 
 of the social life of Quebec as it was two hundred and fifty 
 years ago. 
 
 Lalemant kept the record until 1650. He then went 
 to Europe, and Ragueneau took his place; but in 1651, 
 Lalemant's handwriting appears again in the books. In 
 1656 he was a second time called abroad, but returning with 
 Laval, in 1659, he resumed the " Journal " until 1665. 
 Here and there, however, the entries are in the handwriting 
 of de Quen and Druillettes. There are also some blank 
 pages from time to time, which may be accounted for by the 
 
 303 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 records having been written on other paper, with the inten- 
 tion of transcribing them later. 
 
 This interesting book was found after the death of Father 
 Cazot, the last Jesuit in Quebec. It then disappeared in 
 the general scattering of the papers, and was discovered 
 only in 1815, by Mr. A. W. Cochran, the Secretary of 
 Governor Sherbrooke, in some out of the way corner of 
 the office. Cochran kept it until 1849, and his widow then 
 gave it to M. Faribault, who bequeathed it in his will to the 
 Seminary of Quebec. In 1871 it was published in its 
 present form, and with its elaborate Index forms a large 
 quarto of 400 pages. 
 
 Besides this diary, which ends in June, 1668, we discover 
 in the inventory of Father Cazot's papers that there were 
 three other copy books, in which the " Journal " was con- 
 tinued up to the year 1750. The first of these books goes 
 as far as 1710, and we are told it had the following title : 
 " The Continuation of the Registers which all the Rectors 
 of the College have written about important events that 
 have happened in the country during their term of office, 
 except Father Bigot, who during six years wrote nothing,^ 
 so that Father Bouvart, who immediately succeeded him,, 
 wrote his records in the book bound in red. We are now 
 about to resume it in the one bound in parchment, in 
 1710." By reference to the catalogues we find that the 
 Rector in 1710 was Father Germain. But how do we know 
 that the diary was continued after that year?. Because 
 Smith, in his " History of Canada " quotes from it, with re- 
 gard to events which occurred in 1755. Faribault gives us 
 this information, and tells us that the copy-books formed two 
 large volumes. Where they are nobody knows. Their 
 discovery would be of great historical value. 
 
 A short time after Lalemant's arrival at Quebec, the 
 famous Trading Company of the One Hundred Associates 
 began to show signs of dissolution. Its monopoly had nat- 
 urally provoked a great deal of discontent, and finally, on 
 
 304 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 March 6, 1645, it yielded all its right in furs to an associa- 
 tion whose headquarters were in Montreal, which styled 
 itself the " Compagnie des Habitants." With what appears 
 to be amazing generosity to itself, the One Hundred re- 
 tained the trade of Acadia, Cape Breton, and Miscou ; 
 kept its hold on all its great Scigneuries, and also main- 
 tained its exclusive right to name the governor and lieu- 
 tenant governor, as well as the judges of whatever courts 
 might in course of time be established. It also saddled 
 on the new company the obligation of paying the salaries 
 of the Government officials, supplying ammunitions of war, 
 keeping the forts in repair, maintaining at least one hundred 
 men in the various posts, assuming all the debts of the 
 General Company, bringing over at the lowest twenty 
 colonists every year from Europe, supporting the missions, 
 and giving a thousand weight of beaver skins to the General 
 Company yearly. 
 
 We do not know whether the rival organization acquitted 
 itself of all these obligations, but as a matter of fact it 
 coined so much money that the officers immediately voted 
 to increase their own salaries ; a proposal which was estopped 
 by Maisonneuve's refusal to approve of it. When two 
 companies at the same time could make such profit as 
 the meeting of all these obligations implies, it is compre- 
 hensible that they did their best to prevent the settlement 
 of Indians on reservations where they could be civilized. 
 
 The quarrel in the new company, and the dissatisfaction 
 with the old, resulted in the appointment of a Royal Coun- 
 cil, which was to govern the colony, and thus prevent thos^ 
 two great moneyed interests from exercising a dangerous 
 political control. This Council was to consist of first, the 
 Governor of the entire country; second, the Superior of 
 the Jesuits until the arrival of a bishop ; third, the Governor 
 of Montreal. In the " Journal des Jesuites," there is a 
 record of a domestic consultation to determine whether 
 the Superior of the Jesuits should accept the place. It was 
 
 305 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 finally decided in the affirmative, and Lalemant entered upon 
 its duties. The obHg-ations of the office might draw on 
 him a great deal of odium, but he displayed such skill and 
 prudence in the performance of his work that not a word 
 was ever said against him, whereas his successor, Raguen- 
 eau, who was undoubtedly a man of great parts, was 
 removed at the request of the Jesuits themselves. 
 
 In 1648, the French Government gave another example 
 of the fatuousness which almost invariably prompted its 
 direction of its colony in the New World. It recalled Mont- 
 magny. 
 
 After Champlain, there was no greater ruler of New 
 France than Montmagny. His name mons magnus, 
 or Onontio, as the Indians called him, was the title given 
 to all subsequent governors. He was a man of unusually 
 devout life, and being a Knight of Malta, he had made a 
 vow of celibacy. He was an extremely prudent and wise 
 ruler, and kept his balance perfectly between the contending 
 factions of those early days. He was a valiant soldier, and 
 had the reputation among the Indians not only of always 
 keeping his word, but of never being deceived by the prom- 
 ises of the politicians. He had just reached a period in his 
 administration when the colony was face to face with its 
 greatest crisis. Daniel had been slain ; the Iroquois were 
 closing in on the missions, and the great tribe, which had 
 been allied with the French from the beginning was on 
 the point of being exterminated. Yet, merely because it 
 was not considered good policy to leave any one too long 
 in office, he was recalled. The great man sailed for France 
 and then disappeared from view. It is amazing how com- 
 plete the oblivion is that shrouds the last days of Onontio. 
 
 Shortly after he departed, the crash came. Six of the 
 missionaries were killed, and the scattered remnants of 
 the once powerful Hurons drifted down to Quebec and 
 had to be saved from starvation by the colonists, who them- 
 selves were in woeful straits for want of provisions. The 
 
 30G 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 Iroquois were so successful that the abandonment of the 
 colony was seriously contemplated. It could not hold out 
 much longer unless help arrived, and in order to ob- 
 tain it, Lalemant, after sending back to France the mis- 
 sionaries for whom there was no longer any possibility 
 of employment among the Indians, embarked on the 
 last vessel that left Quebec in 1650. It is lugubriously 
 noted in the " Journal " that it was November 2, le jon- 
 des morts. Reading further, we find that he was not able 
 to return until October 24 of the following year. When 
 he came back, the new Governor, de Lauson, was on the 
 ship with him. 
 
 During the next six years of his Superiorship tragic 
 events followed quickly on each other. Father Buteux was 
 killed by the savages on the St. Maurice in 1G52. On the 
 19th of August of the same year, Du Plessis, the Com- 
 mandant of Three Rivers and thirteen of his men were 
 massacred. At Montreal, only the heroism of Lambert 
 Closse, who, with a handful of men beat back two hundred 
 Iroquois, saved that colony from annihilation. In May of 
 the following year, the Mohawks beset Three Rivers and 
 would have taken it, but for the timely arrival of a detach- 
 ment of men from Quebec, who were pursuing the Indians 
 who had come up to the very walls of Quebec and had 
 carried off Father Poncet into captivity. There was some 
 relief when Maisonneuve arrived with one hundred sol- 
 diers, most of whom, however, lost their lives subsequently 
 in fighting the savages, and finally a plot was discovered 
 to detach the remnants of the Hurons from their ancient 
 allegiance to the French. The prospects were never darker 
 in New France. 
 
 Just then, however, for reasons which no one could un- 
 derstand, the most powerful of the Iroquois Federation, the 
 Onondagas, not only asked for peace, but also for the 
 establishment of a French colony in their territory. There 
 was every reason for fearing it was only a ruse, but Father 
 
 307 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 4 
 
 Le Aloyne went down among them, and returned with the 
 report that the proposition was sincere. Dablon and Chau- 
 monot followed him, and in 1656, fifty Frenchmen estab- 
 lished a post on Lake Ganentaa, near the site of the present 
 city of Syracuse. 
 
 In that year Lalemant was recalled to France ostensibly 
 for family matters, but probably to let his superiors study 
 him more closely in view of another appointment. He 
 knew nothing of their intentions, and it must have caused 
 him no little astonishment when, in 1658, he was made 
 Rector of the Royal College of La Fleche. He had been 
 seven years among the savages of Lake Huron ; he had 
 suffered ten years of agony as superior at Quebec, at a 
 period when the whole structure, which had been reared 
 with such an awful expenditure of labor and blood, was 
 falling about his ears, and he was now summoned to pre- 
 side over one of the greatest educational establishments 
 in France. His American experience had evidently not 
 diminished either his refinement of manner or the strictness 
 of his religious observance. 
 
 La Fleche was established by Henry IV, in one of his 
 ancestral chateaux, and as it had been the home of his boy- 
 hood, he was much attached to it. The old wood-cuts, 
 of it remind one of Versailles, with its park, its elaborate 
 gardens and stately avenues. Before it is the placid Loire, 
 while another stream runs along the right of the domain. 
 The chateau itself was about the only building of importance, 
 for in the seventeenth century, La Fleche was only a village, 
 and even to-day, if you took away some of the dwellings of 
 the rich that have clustered there, and the college, which is 
 now no longer a Jesuit establishment, and also the religious 
 institutions, you would have scarcely anything left. It 
 could not have ever been very populous, but in that secluded 
 place the King resolved to establish a great university ; and 
 for that end poured out his treasures so lavishly that the 
 Royal Treasurer protested. Indeed, the monarch spent so 
 
 308 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 much on the structure, that in order to get money for its 
 upkeep, he had to apply to the Pope to employ the revenues 
 of an old Priory nearby which had been founded by Geoffrey 
 Plantagenet in 1130; and also of a somewhat disused mon- 
 astery which was then inhabited by a few monks of St. 
 Bernard. 
 
 As a matter of fact it was the only college in France, 
 except Louis le Grand, that ever had sufficient revenues to 
 support it. The Jesuits had educational institutes all over 
 the country, but with the exception of these two, none were 
 adequately endowed ; and it comes as a surprise to hear 
 that in those golden days, which are so much extolled, a 
 school like Toulouse, for instance, which needed 20,000 livres 
 a year, had in reality only 5,800; that Bordeaux, which 
 called for the same amount had no more than 9,000, and 
 so on through the list. They were all in debt, badly fur- 
 nished, and ill-suited for educational requirements. Even 
 the community was often poorly clothed, and in some cases 
 the brethren had to borrow each other's clothes to go out. 
 It is a good commentary on the Society's alleged wealth. 
 But it would never do to have the royal college of La 
 Fleche in such straits, even if the Pope had to pay for it 
 by sacrificing other foundations ; and so the necessary 20,000 
 livres were annually paid into its exchequer. We find these 
 interesting facts in the " Recherches Historiques " of Father 
 Prat. 
 
 A glimpse of what was done at La Fleche may be of in- 
 terest. It opened with nineteen professors in 1603, and had 
 forty-two in 1011. From that out, till the suppression of the 
 Society in France in 1762, the number varied from eighty to 
 one hundred and ten. This, of course, included tutors or 
 repetiteurs, among whom were men like Noel, the intimate 
 friend of Descartes ; de Rienne, the famous physicist of 
 those days ; Vavassour, whose name looms large in French 
 Belles Lettres ; Gresset, already famous for his Vert vert, 
 Jouvency, Charlevoix, and others equally famous. Among 
 
 309 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 its surveillants we find the names of Pierre Pi j art, Gabriel 
 Lalemant, Rene de Gamache, the founder of the College 
 of Quebec; Claude Dablon; de la Place; Bonin; Simon Le 
 Moyne and others. 
 
 There were usually about five hundred pupils in the col- 
 lege, representing the greatest families in the realm ; dukes 
 and counts and princes. There were La Valettes, de 
 Rohans, d'Armagnacs, de la Rochefoucaulds, and notable 
 on the list because of what is now going to enter into the 
 life of Lalemant there was the future Bishop of Quebec, 
 Frangois de Montmorency Laval-de Montigny. The new 
 rector was installed in September, 1658. He was then more 
 than sixty-three years of age. 
 
 '310 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 Vicar General. 
 
 Scarcely had Lalemant entered upon his duties as Rector 
 of La Fleche, than he was asked for as Vicar General by 
 Laval, who had just been assigned to the Bishopric of 
 Quebec. To that request Father Nickel, the General of the 
 Society strenuously objected : " His Illustrious Lordship 
 de Laval de Montigny, the future Bishop of Canada, he 
 said, " must bear with us, if we cannot comply with his 
 desire. There are others who can be of help to him in the 
 office to which he refers. He is unaware that Father 
 Lalemant has just been appointed Rector of La Fleche." 
 
 The answer did not satisfy Laval. He urgently re- 
 quested the Provincial, Father Renault, to insist upon it, 
 and before the answer came he himself had appealed to 
 the General, and Father Nickel finally consented to grant 
 what Laval assured him would be a great favor. He had 
 met Lalemant in Paris, and fully agreed with Father Le 
 Jeune, who had written to the General in October as fol- 
 lows : ** I say very frankly that there is no one better suited 
 for the office, especially in the actual conditions of the 
 colony. He is strong, strenuous, prudent and pious. 
 
 Whether we consider the Abbe de Queylus, or the Governor, 
 or the Bishop, there is no one who can manage matters 
 with greater prudence than Father Lalemant." 
 
 Lalemant was delighted to return to America, especially 
 with Laval, whom he described as " one who had the ap- 
 pearance and at the same time the power of an angel." 
 But doubtless, if the choice were given him, he would have 
 preferred to go out among the Indians than to remain at 
 Quebec. He was fully aware of the trouble in store for 
 him, but he hastened to obey. " I left La Fleche on the 
 
 311 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 10th of April," he wrote the General, "and I was at 
 Rochelle the next day, which was Easter Sunday ; and on 
 the same day I was on board the ship with the Illustrious 
 Bishop of Petroea. We reached Quebec on the 16th of 
 June after a prosperous voyage. There the Bishop was re- 
 ceived as an angel of God." 
 
 His judgment of the Bishop was shared by all the Fathers 
 at yuebec. Le Mercier, writing to the General, calls Laval 
 '* a man of thorough sanctity." Ragueneau styles him " an 
 apostolic man, after God's own heart, who is not seeking 
 self but Jesus Christ;" and de Quen declares that " he fills 
 all our hopes and longings." The public reception given 
 to the Bishop was as splendid as the circumstances would 
 allow, but he must have already perceived an under current 
 of opposition which was to give him no end of trouble. 
 
 Lalemant's own return was a cause of great rejoicing. 
 IMarie de ITncarnation, writes that it was a blessing for the 
 whole country. His absence in Europe had left a void 
 which no one was able to fill, and Ragueneau found that 
 "" no one possesses to an equal degree the gift of governing; 
 especially as experience and sanctity has softened the asper- 
 ity which was remarked in him when he was younger." 
 The observation is valuable as an explanation of the sudden- 
 ness with which he set about revolutionizing everything in 
 the missions in the early years before he had scarcely time to 
 look around, and making arrangements which were sub- 
 sequently abandoned. Dablon, Druillettes, Pijart, Le Mer- 
 cier and others all wrote to thank the General for sending 
 him back. Great as his energy and influence might have 
 been, however, it can scarcely be admitted, as a recent 
 writer declares, that from that out, on account of Lale- 
 mant's withdrawal from the post of Superior, the work 
 of the missions languished. The fact is that they were 
 never in a worse condition than when he was in charge, 
 though the fault should not be ascribed to him. A dozen 
 Lalemants could not have restored them to their former 
 
 312 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 vigor, nor could he have inaugurated new enterprises. What 
 was needed was not a priest, but a Governor with some sense 
 and plenty of soldiers. The Indians themselves saw that, 
 and at the very first reception given to Lalemant and Laval, 
 an old chief said to both of the dignitaries : " You will 
 never reach the other Indians until you crush the Iroquois." 
 Nor did this crushing process mean that indiscriminate 
 slaughter had to be resorted to ; for nine years afterwards, 
 de Tracy merely burned a few old villages on the Mohawk, 
 without killing a single Indian, and there was an uninter- 
 rupted peace of fifteen years. 
 
 Lalemant's office of vicar general launched him on a sea 
 of troubles, but he himself to a certain extent was responsible 
 for some of it. A course of action which had to be 
 adopted six years before caused the first storm. It was 
 about the matter of episcopal jurisdiction. From the begin- 
 ning of the missions the Jesuits derived their ecclesiasiical 
 faculties from Rome, but about the year 1040, the Bishop 
 of Rouen got it into his head that Quebec was part of his 
 diocese, for the reason that a certain number of ships left 
 from the port of that city for Canada. It might have be- 
 longed to many other cities for a similar reason, but never- 
 theless, he was sustained in his contention by substantially 
 the whole episcopate of France. It followed as a necessary 
 consequence, if the claim was w^ell founded, that the Jesuits 
 of Canada, not having faculties from him, were unlawfully 
 administering the sacraments. 
 
 Indeed, acting on that presumption, the Abbe de Queylus, 
 a distinguished Sulpitian, had fifteen years previously pre- 
 sented himself in Quebec as the vicar general of the Bishop 
 of Rouen. As his claims were not allowed, he naturally 
 returned home very much chagrined ; but his visit had the 
 effect of disturbing the consciences of the Jesuits, and it 
 was determined to send Vimont to consult the theologians 
 of France. He started in 1647, merely informing the 
 General that he was returning to Europe upon matters of 
 
 313 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 importance. Doubtless there were other things that re- 
 quired his personal attention, but one is prompted to inquire 
 why this matter of jurisdiction was not set at rest by a 
 simple letter to his Paternity. As far as we can make out, 
 that was not done. Arriving in France, Vimont put the 
 matter before his brethren, and it was decided that if it did 
 not do any good it would not do any harm to ask, in ad- 
 dition to their papal faculties, authorization from the Bishop 
 of Rouen, who was immensely pleased to grant them, 
 and made the Superior of the Jesuits of Quebec ipso facto 
 his vicar general. But when the general was informed of 
 it, he sent a tart letter to Father Lalemant telling him that 
 the claims of the Bishop were without foundation. The 
 receipt of this communication may explain the subsequent 
 silence of the Fathers about their faculties. 
 
 Unfortunately, in 1053, when Lalemant was still in 
 charge, an order came from the Bishop of Rouen to pro- 
 claim the Jubilee of Innocent X. To do so was to admit 
 the Bishop's jurisdiction. Lalemant however, obeyed, and 
 announced that " the Bishop of Rouen had full authority 
 in the French Colony." He was evidently taken to task 
 for this action also, and in the '' Journal des Jesuites " we 
 find him giving his reasons for so doing. They are : 
 " First — The Bishop had sent letters patent to the French 
 Assistant of the Society in Rome, which were forwarded to 
 Quebec by episcopal order. Second — The Bishop had or- 
 dained a young man who had lived ten years in Canada, 
 on the ground that Canada was in his jurisdiction. Third — 
 He had ordered an inquiry into the life and virtues of the 
 missionaries who had been killed. Fourth — The Governor 
 had been consulted, and was of the opinion that the procla- 
 mation of the Jubilee should be made. Fifth — There were 
 grave doubts about the right of the missionaries to receive 
 the religious professions of the nuns without the Bishop's 
 authorization." So that if a mistake was made, it was not 
 due to levity or precipitation. 
 
 314 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 During all this time, a movement had been going on to 
 provide Quebec with a bishop of its own; an arrangement 
 which would have solved the difficulty altogether. But the 
 Bishop of Rouen protested against any such division of his 
 diocese. While the battle was in progress, M. de Queylus 
 arrived in Quebec with the appointment as vicar 
 general in his hand. That was two years before the 
 coming of Laval. De Queylus, as he had been directed, 
 presented his papers to Father de Quen, who was then 
 superior, but who. instead of asking if his own appointment 
 had been revoked, and falling back in case it was on his 
 faculties from the Pope, very unwisely said nothing. In- 
 deed, it does not appear that de Queylus was aware of the 
 appointment of de Quen by the Bishop of Rouen, and he 
 forthwith began to exercise his powers with his accustomed 
 vigor, and appointed the Jesuit Father Poncet, parish priest 
 of Quebec, with instructions, however, to administer the 
 parish with due subjection to his religious superior. This 
 Poncet did not do, and was consequently summarily re- 
 moved by de Quen. Whereupon de Queylus hurried back 
 from Montreal whither he had gone with some other Sul- 
 pitians to found the Seminary ; and began what Father Pijart 
 describes as " an Iroquois war against the Jesuits." He 
 withdrew^ from them all faculties in the parish church, ques- 
 tioned the validity of the marriages they had performed, 
 accused them of trafficking in peltries, denounced them for 
 not living as religiously as in France, and sent his com- 
 plaints to the Father General, who returned them to de 
 Quen and asked for information. 
 
 Meantime de Quen had written to Rouen, and was told 
 that he was still vicar general at Quebec, while the juris- 
 diction of de Queylus was restricted to Montreal. This 
 brought peace for a time. Finally in 1659 Laval arrived, 
 and de Queylus hurried down to make his submission. But 
 he was unaware that the Bishop of Rouen was still thun- 
 dering against Laval, and had on May 11, 1659, received 
 
 315 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 a decree from Louis XIV, in virtue of which de Queylus 
 was to be Vicar of Montreal, and that such instructions 
 were being forwarded to him personally. But as some one 
 had made haste to explain to His Majesty that he had com- 
 mitted a grievous blunder by his interference, the first letter 
 was revoked, and Laval was advised of the royal change 
 of heart. Not knowing this, de Queylus, on receiving his 
 letter, hurried again to Quebec to claim his rights, but to 
 his amazement was confronted with the second letter to 
 Laval. In disgust he started for France on October 22d, 
 and in the interest of peace a royal order was procured 
 prohibiting the Abbe's return to America. 
 
 But the merry war still continued. In spite of episcopal 
 and royal injunctions, de Queylus obtained a decree from 
 the Dataria in Rome, authorizing him to establish an inde- 
 pendent parish in Montreal. Armed with this document, 
 he presented himself at Quebec in 16(31, and at the same time 
 handed to Laval an order from the Bishop of Rouen 
 directing his Lordship to betake himself to Montreal and 
 inaugurate the parish. Rouen still claimed Quebec, and 
 even the nuns were wondering if the Grand Vicaire of 
 Rouen was not a greater personage than a mere Vicar Apos- 
 tolic, whose diocese was f;r partihiis infidclium; for Laval 
 was not yet Bishop of Quebec, but only of Petrcea, and no- 
 body knew where that was. Laval, however, was sure of his 
 position and excommunicated de Queylus, who, instead of 
 submitting, slipped off in a canoe that night for Montreal. 
 Tie remained there until the Governor himself had to go 
 after him and order him to return to Europe; all of which 
 was very edifying for the laity. 
 
 Seven years after that, namely, in 1668, de Queylus again 
 appeared in America, this time as Superior of the Sulpitians, 
 who were desirous of undertaking missionary work among 
 the Indians. Laval, to efface the memory of the past, 
 received him with benignity, but unfortunately made him 
 Vicar General of Montreal. That meant ten years more 
 
 316 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 of turmoil, which ended only when the restless de Queylus 
 returned to France and remained there. He was, never- 
 theless, regarded as a holy man. 
 
 Before Lalemant arrived in Quebec in 1659, the new 
 Governor, d'Argenson, had been installed. He had been 
 received with great honor by the Jesuits, had dined with 
 the community, assisted at Vespers, and in the evening 
 was led to the school hall where the students gave him a 
 reception. The future looked bright, but alas ! the hopes 
 were not realized. However, if the great man was not 
 pleased with his hosts, he must have been delighted with 
 the efforts of the young collegians. 
 
 The academic exercises which they gave in his honor 
 w^ere, as far as we know, the first of their kind in this part 
 of the New World, and they must have astonished his Ex- 
 cellency. Given the rawness of the scholars, the disturbed 
 condition of the social, political, and even religious life of 
 the colony, the results achieved are astonishing. They 
 presented a drama which had been composed for the oc- 
 casion, and which, though bearing the imprint of the Old 
 World, was invested with all the local color that was 
 obtainable with the scant means at their disposal. 
 
 One lad appeared costumed as the Genius of New France ; 
 another as the Genius of the Forest, and the rest as wild 
 men of the woods. In a very complimentary discourse the 
 Genius of New France presented his retinue of Indians to 
 the Governor. Then four other actors in the role of 
 French colonists unburdened their hearts in classic verse. 
 When they had ended, a Huron chief appeared, deplored 
 the ruin of his people, and appealed to d'Argenson for aid, 
 while in opposition to him an Algonquin advanced on the 
 stage, extolled his own courage, and in scornful tones pro- 
 tested that he would be ashamed to lament like a Huron. 
 But here the Genius of the Forest bursts upon the scene, 
 with his retinue of savages clamoring in their various lan- 
 guages for help ; appeals which the Genius of the Forest 
 
 317 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 translated. Then two Indians who had just escaped from 
 the Iroquois entered, and in piteous tones implored as- 
 sistance in their troubles. Finally, all gathered around the 
 great man, laid their bows and arrows at his feet, and pro- 
 claimed him chief. 
 
 The suggestion would have been enough for any ordinary 
 man, yet d'Argenson never did anything for the natives. He 
 was too busy with petty squabbles at Quebec. None of the 
 Jesuits pleased him except Lalemant. To smooth matters 
 Laval had a heart to heart talk with him which only irritated 
 him the more. Thinking it would be of help, the bishop 
 wrote to d'Argenson's brother asking his co-operation in 
 removing the Governor's prejudice, but according to Tuttle, 
 in his " History of the Dominion," d'Argenson wrote at 
 the same time complaining of the bishop, and saying that 
 Lalemant and Laval were at odds upon grave questions. It 
 is not likely that so prudent a vicar general would quarrel 
 with his ecclesiastical superior, and endanger his own head. 
 Meantime the fight grew hot between the bishop and the 
 governor; the churchman insisting on certain things that 
 the soldiers should do in ecclesiastical processions, and the 
 civilian demanding that his chair should be in a certain 
 place in the church, that he should receive incense before the 
 others, etc. All the while the Iroquois were prowling 
 around the walls, and were so menacing that sentinels had 
 to be posted in the convent grounds to prevent a raid. 
 
 Between his two friends, the bishop and the governor, 
 Lalemant tried to keep his balance. He confesses that he 
 was almost distracted ; and things came to such a pass that 
 he could not invite them simultaneously to the scholastic 
 exercises of the college, or even to church functions. It 
 looked like deserting the bishop, but the course was adopted 
 with the prelate's approval. Added to his troubles in 
 Quebec, the governor had others in Montreal. " The 
 people there," he wrote, " want to monopolize the fur trade, 
 and if the King does not intervene we shall have civil war/' 
 
 318 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 Civil war between colonists who had all they could do to 
 save their scalps from the Iroquois ! If d' Argenson uttered 
 such a sentiment, the only authority for which, as far as 
 we can make out, is Tuttle, he was clearly not fitted for his 
 position. At all events it was a great relief to everyone 
 when he returned to France. 
 
 Ever since Champlain's time it had been a mooted ques- 
 tion as to whether or not liquor should be given to the 
 Indians. They had an inordinate thirst for it, and would 
 hunt the continent for peltries, in order to be able to buy 
 a flask of fire-water. Of course they had no idea of moder- 
 ation, and when the casks were opened an Indian village 
 was a hell. Men, women and children, stark naked and 
 raving drunk, indulged in all sorts of excesses, set fire to 
 their houses and murdered each other indiscriminately. 
 Prohibition never had a better case and the ecclesiastics 
 stood out for it, though one Protestant writer pharisaically 
 accuses them of using wine at their own tables. The 
 traders, of course, were for the open shop. The bishop ex- 
 plained, entreated, expostulated and finally resorted to cen- 
 sures and excommunications, and the Jesuits were accused 
 of egging him on. Such was not the general impression, 
 but it was easier to attack them than the bishop. Paris was 
 in great excitement about it. Colbert, who had his boys 
 at the Jesuit schools, and who thanked the General of the 
 Society " passionately," as he said himself, " for the good 
 that had been done to his sons," angrily protested that the 
 bishop and the Jesuits were too severe in their exactions. 
 France was flooded with pleas for both sides, and finally 
 Laval crossed the Atlantic to explain the situation. The 
 matter was finally submitted to the moralists to decide, and 
 the action of the bishop in inflicting such grievous penalties 
 for the sale of liquor was debated. Finally a compromise 
 was arrived at, and it was decreed that no liquor could be 
 carried out into the woods to be given or sold to the savages, 
 but its sale was not prohibited in the settlements. 
 
 319 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Such was the condition of pubHc life when d'Avaugour 
 arrived as governor. He was a stern, inflexible man, un- 
 duly conscious of his own rectitude, and a stern supporter 
 of the bishop in enforcing the liquor law. Parkman says 
 that a few weeks after his arrival, two men were shot and 
 one was whipped for breaking the law. If such were the 
 case it was not merely " good nature or humanity," as Park- 
 man describes it, that induced Father Lalemant to seek out 
 the governor, to plead for a poor woman who had been 
 arrested for a similar offense. D'Avaugour could have sim- 
 ply told Lalemant that he had done his duty as a priest, but 
 that the law must take its course. Unhappily, however, the 
 governor entered into a towering rage, and thundered out : 
 " You and your brethren were the first to cry out against 
 the traffic, and now you want to save the traders from pun- 
 ishment. If it is not wrong for a w^oman, it is not wrong 
 for a man to sell liquor, and henceforward I shall let ever>'- 
 one do as he likes." 
 
 Such an utterance from the ruler of a commonwealth 
 was little short of insanity. The consequences were ter- 
 rible. " My ink is not black enough to describe what is 
 going on," writes Lalemant. " In one month we have lost 
 all that the labors of ten or twenty years have accomplished." 
 The Indians relapsed into former conditions, and ran amuck 
 even in the streets of Quebec with tomahawks and fire- 
 brands. Laval hurried across the water to ask for an- 
 other governor, and was permitted to choose the one he 
 wished. He made the mistake of his life when he picked out 
 the incompetent de Mesy, and started for America. Indeed, 
 misfortune followed them all the way over. They were 
 more than three months on the ocean, and ship-fever made 
 terrible ravages among passengers and crew. More than 
 forty bodies were thrown over to the sharks, and the ship 
 was almost a pest house when it dropped anchor off Tadous- 
 sac. The bishop had labored night and day with the sick 
 and dying but escaped the contagion, and the Lord gave 
 
 320 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 him another consolation when he came ashore. An earth- 
 quake had stopped the hquor traffic. 
 
 During the entire year there had been strange phenomena 
 in the heavens. What seemed hke fiery serents appeared in 
 the air, and one night, a ball of fire, from which sparks shot 
 out in all directions hovered above Quebec. At Montreal 
 it seemed to issue from the moon, and as it sped through 
 the air, reverberations of thunder like the roll of a park of 
 artillery were heard until the meteor disappeared behind 
 the mountains. Later on, at eight o'clock in the morning 
 of a bright winter day, a slight mist was seen rising from 
 the St. Lawrence. When it caught the first rays of the 
 sun, two other suns appeared, not far from each other, with 
 a rainbow- above them, not, however, with the colors fixed, 
 but fading gradually into a luminous white, as if behind 
 it were a brilliant light. This was on the 7th of January, 
 1663, and lasted for two hours. It occurred again a week 
 later. The color, however, did not grow white but merely 
 faded away, while the suns on either side vanished simul- 
 taneously. 
 
 All this was considered as an admonition from heaven. 
 In February, 1663, the earth began to speak. It was the 
 day before Mardi Gras, when a good deal of revelry might 
 have been expected ; but at five o'clock in the afternoon a 
 great rushing sound was heard, like the sweep of a mighty 
 conflagration, and every one hurried into the streets. They 
 saw the walls of their houses swaying to and fro. The 
 bells began to ring of themselves. Beams and uprights, 
 and rafters cracked, and the earth heaved and swelled in 
 every direction. The people were in consternation ; children 
 were crying with terror, and men and women were on their 
 knees praying for mercy. The animals broke loose and fled, 
 and all night long the ground rose and fell like the sea, 
 the great trees in the forest swayed and crashed into each 
 other, or were torn from their roots; the ice in the river, 
 though five or six feet thick cracked with a frightful noise, 
 
 321 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 and leaped into the air, flinging up great columns of vapor 
 and mud. The springs dried up or became sulphurous, and 
 the St. Lawrence turned white as far as Tadoussac. Mean- 
 time the sky was full of fiery forms ; pikes and spears and 
 fire brands were seen close to the roofs of the houses ; dismal 
 bowlings added to the horrors of the night, and monsters 
 of the deep, porpoises and sea cows were seen as far as 
 Montreal bellowing with fear. At Three Rivers high bluffs 
 were levelled, and two hills fell into the river and deflected 
 the stream. For three months afterwards the St. Lawrence 
 was brown with mud. Elsewhere mountains were razed, 
 new lakes were formed, and well known rivers disappeared ; 
 what had been cataracts became smooth water, and thou- 
 sands of acres which had shortly before been covered 
 by forests were changed into level fields. Nature had be- 
 come tipsy instead of the Indians, and this riot of the ele- 
 ments went on for six months, though the shocks were 
 growing less and less violent on the plains, but near the 
 mountains the rumblings were incessant. The disturbance 
 extended down as far as Gaspe, New England and Acadia. 
 Finally, on September 1, 1663, there was an eclipse of the 
 sun which gave to the whole country a pale and sepulchral 
 look. It began at twenty minutes and forty-two seconds 
 past one, and ended at fifty-two minutes and forty-four 
 seconds after three. Singularly enough, no lives were lost 
 in these upheavals, but for some time there was no drinking 
 in Canada. 
 
 There are various accounts of these cosmic disturbances, 
 and no doubt there may have been unconscious exagger- 
 ations in the description of the events which in the midst 
 of the solitudes of the New World the imagination would 
 naturally color and intensify, but there is no doubt that in 
 the main they were true. They are vouched for by the 
 " Relations," the narrative of Marie de ITncarnation, the 
 history of I'Hotel Dieu. the chronicles of events in New 
 England, and they are generally accepted by historians. 
 
JEROME LALEMANT. 
 
 On July 23, 1663, the Governor, d'Avaugour, set sail for 
 France, and on September 15, as the " Journal des Jesuites " 
 informs us, the new governor, de Mesy, the bishop and 
 others came up in a shallop from Tadoussac. It was a con- 
 solation for them to hear that they would not be troubled for 
 some time at least with the liquor traffic. 
 
 Bishop Laval could scarcely have been blamed for his selec- 
 tion of the new governor. He had known de Mesy, who 
 though a layman, had been one of the solitaires with him 
 and the other ecclesiastics at Caen. What more likely, than 
 that this accomplished gentleman of the world, who was as 
 devout as any priest, and apparently in pursuit of the loftiest 
 ideals, would be an ideal governor and would work in ab- 
 solute harmony with his friend the bishop. But the very 
 reverse happened. He had all the defects of his two imme- 
 diate predecessors, resented all interference on the part of 
 the bishop, and displayed the most exaggerated ideas of his 
 own importance. He was proud, sensitive, irascible, and 
 was even suspected of having an itching palm. He lasted 
 scarcely two years. He was preparing to leave, but died 
 at Quebec on May 5, 1665. He was reconciled to Laval 
 at the last moment. The end of de Mesy's career coin- 
 cided with the withdrawal of Lalemant from public life. 
 In the " Journal des Jesuites " the editors add a note, after 
 the 3d of August, 1665, which reads : "Here ends the writing 
 of Father Jerome Lalemant. The rest is in the hands of 
 Father Le Mercier." 
 
 The new series of governors \vhich was inaugurated by 
 such men as de Courcelles, with helpers like de Tracy, Talon 
 and others then began. They opened the way for the new 
 missions in New York by chastising the Iroquois, and then 
 Fremin, Lamberville, Millet, and others began their splendid 
 careers. To that alone is to be ascribed the revival of 
 apostolic work among the Indians. It was not Lalemant's 
 work. It came after his time. In the precious ]\Is, of 
 Father Martin we have a few facts about the last days of the 
 
 323 
 
^ 
 
 PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 g^reat man, which we do not find elsewhere, and we are told 
 that although he was seventy-two years of age when he laid 
 down the burden of superiorship, he taught theology in the 
 College of Quebec. z-\fterwards the Ursulines wanted him 
 to revise their constitutions and adapt them to the require- 
 ments of the times, but he left that work to other hands, 
 and devoted himself to the task he liked best, of instructing 
 the savages and teaching little children their catechism. He 
 died on January 26, 16(';>. 
 
 We have no details of his last moments, nor do we need 
 any. The end must have been in keeping with his life. 
 He is one of the great figures in the history of New France. 
 He had been a valiant missionary, who light-heartedly faced 
 every danger : the beloved superior of heroes, saints and 
 martyrs; the chosen ruler of one of the greatest educational 
 institutions in Christiandom ; the chief executive of the illus- 
 trious Laval in the stormy days of the inauguration of the 
 hierarchy in Canada ; the first vicar general of the Diocese 
 of Quebec. He deserves a monument in the land he loved 
 so much. 
 
 324 
 
CHARLES GARNIER 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 Missionary Longings. 
 
 Some of the devout clients of Father Charles Gamier have 
 been shocked to find that he has been made the hero of a 
 love-story. According to the author of " A I'CEuvre et a 
 I'Epreuve," it was decided in the councils of the Garnier 
 family to have him marry a fair maiden who had been 
 educated at Port Royal, and whom the fascinating Mere 
 Angelique had vainly endeavored to lure behind the con- 
 vent grille. Mere Angelique, we are told, was pitted 
 with small pox, was very austere but had wonderful azure 
 eyes; all of which is valuable historical information. The 
 religious vocation of Charles interfered with the family 
 plans ; the youth entered the novitiate ; and the maid, after 
 wilting for a while recovered, and when the news of the 
 martyrdom arrived she was a holy nun, thanking God for 
 not having interfered with such a glorious career. 
 
 It is a pleasant little romance, and plainly intended for 
 nothing more than to weave a pretty thread of human in- 
 terest in the wonderful sto-Ky of the Huron Missions, and 
 in that way to induce even languid novel readers to peruse 
 the book. The elder Garnier did not, as the novelist tells 
 us, balk at his son's vocation. On the contrary he was de- 
 lighted by it, and, indeed, led him to the novitiate, where he 
 bade him good-bye. Nor could it have been otherwise, be- 
 cause there was already martyr-blood in the Garnier family. 
 For in the religious wars of France, the grandfather of 
 Charles, who had been Commandant of the little town of 
 Pithiviers, was hanged by the Prince de Conde for refusing 
 to turn Protestant when the town surrendered. 
 
 From a military point of view such a death was accounted 
 infamous, though as a matter of fact it was martyrdom for 
 
 337 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 the Faith. Later on, when his son, the father of Charles, 
 became Secretary of the Council of Henry III and Treas- 
 urer of Normandy, he petitioned the King to have the sup- 
 posed blot removed from his father's reputation. The king 
 of course complied, and a proclamation was issued declaring 
 that what had been regarded as a military reproach was, 
 on the contrary, a national glory. A splendid mausoleum 
 was built in the church of the Carmelites at Pithiviers, 
 where the hero was entombed, and on it the record of his 
 defence of the town was inscribed, besides his other glories. 
 Evidently the son of such a father would not stand in the 
 way of his own son's vocation to a religious life. 
 
 Charles was born in Paris May 25, 1605, though another 
 authority puts it down as May 26, 1606. He got his school- 
 ing at Louis-le-Grand, along with the other scions of nobil- 
 ity, and was a clever lad who easily led in his studies. He 
 was also one of a group whcun the other students called 
 the " bcati," either because of their happy disposition, or 
 because they were almost good enough to be canonized. 
 We are told that he practiced frightful mortifications at 
 school, but while the precious " Manuscript Life," written 
 by his brother, informs us of these pious excesses, it also 
 gives us some other interesting pictures of this period of 
 the future martyr's youth. For instance, the favorite game 
 in the college was jcu dc paumc, a sort of field handball, 
 which, like modern athletics, required expenditure of money. 
 Charles's remittances, however, went to a Prisoners' Relief 
 Society, and also for the purchase of bad books which he 
 burned. He would need a fortune in our days for such 
 auto da fcs. Though he was not a player, he of course went 
 to the games, and in connection with it, comes the revela- 
 tion that though a saint, he was a genuine boy. " One 
 day," says the manuscript, " he and his eldest brother were 
 returning from a jen de paumc; and just for sport the 
 brother and a companion named Denis went into an inn in 
 the Faubourg St. Denis ; " not a common resort," the 
 
 328 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 chronicler who was a Carmehte monk hastens to assure 
 us, " but a famous estabhshment known as le Riclie 
 Laboureur (The Wealthy Plowman). Charles being a 
 socialist refused to enter. He waited outside, however, and 
 with school-boy casuistry, when his friends smuggled out 
 the half of a chicken, he enjoyed his share of the feast with 
 all proper relish, and the surveillant was not informed of 
 the breach of rules. After his college course, Charles ap- 
 plied for admission to the Society, his father consenting, as 
 we have said, qualifying his generosity, however, with the 
 assertion that " only his esteem for the Society reconciled 
 him to parting with the boy who had never caused him a 
 moment's pain." The novitiate was in his native city, and 
 among the novices was the famous Julien Maunoir, whose 
 missions and miracles were later on to be the wonder of 
 France. There was also Menard, who was to go farther west 
 in search of souls than any missionary had yet done, and 
 who left his bones in the swamps of Wisconsin. Another 
 distinguished associate was Le Mercier, whose name is 
 alongside of Garnier's in the famous death-letter which de 
 Brebeuf wrote in the wigwam at Ossossane. Finally there 
 was Chastelain, with whom he was forever afterwards 
 united in the bonds of the most tender affection. " When 
 you pray for me," Garnier wrote to his brother. " you pray 
 for Chastelain, for we are one." 
 
 We have no details about those days except that his route 
 on the usual novitiate pilgrimage, brought him through the 
 town of Pithiviers, where his grand-father had given up 
 his life for the Faith. It made him happy to find that his 
 ancestor's memory was still devoutly cherished in the town, 
 and possibly the desire of a similar immolation arose in his 
 heart, as he knelt at the splendid tomb. His rhetoric, phil- 
 osophy and theology were all made at Louis-le-Grand, where 
 he had lived as a boy, but it is not pleasant to see on the 
 records that while he was studying theology he was also 
 a prefect. Perhaps his delicate health required that dis- 
 
 329 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 traction, or it may be that the great Petavius, who was a 
 professor there, made theology easy. 
 
 It was while he was pursuing his course of theology that 
 he was confronted with a family skeleton. His eldest 
 brother, the same one who had figured in the escapade at the 
 cabaret of Le Riche Laboiircur, though occupying a distin- 
 guished position in the world after leaving school, had lapsed 
 into a life of dissipation. Even his faith seemed to be 
 shaking. The letters of Charles to a second brother, who 
 later on became a Carmelite monk, furnish us with some 
 information about this domestic sorrow. Writing in Oc- 
 tober, 1631, he says: " I saw him at Argenteuil on the 9th 
 of this month, on my way to Paris. I found him much 
 better than when I left home, but not what I wanted. I 
 have prayed so much for him, that if my prayers were 
 agreeable to God I cannot understand how he remains in 
 the state in which he is." 
 
 Later on even the Carmelite began to give him some 
 uneasiness, but possibly the good monk was piously exag- 
 gerating his own spiritual troubles and Charles was unduly 
 solicitous. " Oh ! " he exclaims to the newly made re- 
 ligious, " if I had but made my novitiate in the proper dis- 
 positions what a different man I should be now ! " and he 
 then proceeds to tell the monk how to profit by his oppor- 
 tunities. This hortatory tone continues year after year, 
 even when the letters were coming from distant America, 
 for the Carmelite is continually accusing himself of melan- 
 choly, depression of spirits, bodily ailments, unwillingness 
 to accept the burdens put upon him, etc. Indeed, the com- 
 munications sent year after year from one to the other might 
 be made into a little treatise of exalted asceticism. 
 
 In 1633, there is again a reference to the prodigal of the 
 family. He had shocked his people by saying when the 
 conversation turned upon the Capuchins that if he had to 
 choose between a Capuchin convent and hell he would 
 prefer the latter, but the prayers of his friends were begin- 
 
 330 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 ning to prevail. He presented himself to the Capuchins 
 whom he affected to despise, and asked to be admitted 
 among- them. As his reputation was not of the best, they 
 naturally hesitated, but he protested that if they put him 
 out he would lie on the door-step as a beggar till they let 
 him in. They finally yielded, and he took the habit, so that 
 the Garniers now had a Carmelite, a Jesuit and a Capuchin. 
 
 Whether there were any other sons in the family we do not 
 know, but one can easily sympathize with the Father's im- 
 patience, holy old man though he was, when he heard of the 
 desire of Charles to go out to America for the Indian 
 Missions. He would not consent to it. He had done his 
 share, he thought, in giving three sons to the Church, and 
 the esteem in which he was held by the Jesuit superiors 
 made them hesitate for a year or so. Finally when the 
 father reluctantly desisted from direct opposition, Charles, 
 with a sort of holy madness, started for Dieppe on foot. 
 He would not wait for a companion. Unfortunately it was 
 winter; the roads were bad; he had taken no provisions 
 for the journey; and before he reached his destination he 
 fell in a faint several times from sheer exhaustion. He had 
 not dared to face his father before leaving home, fearing 
 a change of mind. He was worried, however, at not re- 
 ceiving the paternal blessing, and we find him writing from 
 America to the Carmelite to thank him for having obtained 
 it for him. 
 
 He left Dieppe, April 5, 1636. He had glorious company 
 on board, for with him were the new governor, Mont- 
 magny, Jogues, Daniel, and the beloved Chastelain. The 
 " Relations " do not give us any details about the voyage, 
 except that there was a very fierce individual among the 
 passengers whom every body feared and shunned, but for 
 whom the gentle Garnier always had an attraction, and whom 
 he won over and made the delight of the ship for the rest 
 of the journey. This gap in the " Relations," however, is 
 filled up by a fragment of a letter which he wrote from 
 
 331 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Quebec to his father. '' Of course/' he says, " there was 
 many a hardship, but M. le General (Bouchard) made it as 
 easy as possible. I missed Mass only twelve or thirteen 
 times during the voyage, which lasted two months. Our 
 chapel was in the cabin of M. le General. One part of the 
 crew assisted at the first Mass, the rest at the second. At 
 the Elevation there were two fusilades of musketry, and 
 on Sundays and feast days two salvos of artillery. Our 
 " parishioners " went to Communion, and M. de Montmagny 
 set them the example, besides delighting every one with the 
 care he took of a poor family on board who were all sick. 
 Orders were posted up on the ship prohibiting profanity, 
 stealing and quarreling. Everything, indeed, was so re- 
 ligiously conducted, that even the pain bcnif was distributed 
 on Sundays, as if the travellers had been at home in their 
 own parish church. In the afternoon there was a sermon 
 with vespers and complines. On week days besides daily 
 prayers, catechism was taught to the children, and after 
 supper a half hour's reading from the " Lives of the 
 Saints," usually in the cabin of the general, but sometimes 
 on deck for the sailors. It differs somewhat from modern 
 methods of crossing the deep. Their arrival is thus 
 described. 
 
 " On St. Barnabas' Night," says the " Relation," a vessel 
 dropped anchor off Quebec. It had come up in the dark, and 
 next morning we were told that M. de Montmagny was on 
 board, and with him Fathers Garnier and Chastelain. We 
 hurried down to receive them, and after the usual compli- 
 ments of welcome we devoutly followed the governor to the 
 church. When we passed the tree of our salvation, which 
 is planted on the wayside, he said : ' Behold the first cross 
 I have seen in this country. Let us adore the Crucified in 
 His image,' and he knelt down on both knees. We all 
 did the same, and then directed our steps to the church, 
 where we sung a solemn Te Dcum, and oft'ered our prayers 
 to God for our good king. Then, when our thanksgiving 
 
 332 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 was ended, M. de Chateaufort, who had been in command 
 since Champlain's death, handed the new governor the keys 
 of the fortress, while salvos of cannon and musketry shook 
 the air. 
 
 " During these ceremonies, the governor had been asked 
 if he would be god-father at the baptism of an Indian. 
 
 * Most willingly,' he replied ; ' I am delighted to have the 
 happiness at the beginning of my administration to open the 
 door to a poor soul who wishes to enter heaven,' Where- 
 upon preparations were quickly made, and to let the new- 
 comers put their sickle in the harvest, Father Chastelain 
 was asked if he would like to administer the sacrament. 
 
 * God ! ' " exclaimed the writer, who was not profane but 
 pious, " you should have seen his joy when the offer was 
 made to him. Immediately the governor, accompanied by 
 all his dapper noblemen, and the rest of us, set out for the 
 grimy Indian quarters, where the poor savages were startled 
 at all this glitter of gold and scarlet flashing in the dark- 
 ness of their miserable hut. The neophyte, who was very 
 sick, answered all the cjuestions very satisfactorily; the name 
 of Joseph was given to him by the governor, and he was 
 baptized. 
 
 At dinner, for all these happenings were in the forenoon, 
 the governor declared that he had that day received the 
 highest honor and had experienced the greatest happiness 
 he could hope for in New France. It was very consoling, 
 but in the afternoon, the general joy was increased for 
 another ship arrived, and besides the two Jesuits who were 
 on board, namely Father Adam and Brother Cauvet. several 
 families, among others those of M. de Repentigny and 
 M. de la Poterie, " excellent gentlemen both, " came to 
 swell the number of our colonists. There were forty-five 
 persons in all. " It was a beautiful sight," says the " Re- 
 lation," very naively, " to see these delicate damosels, and 
 the tenderest babes come forth from that prison of wood 
 as day issues from the darkness of night. Notwithstanding 
 
 ooo 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 all the inconvenience they had to suffer in those floating 
 dwellings, they arrived in as sweet a state of health as if 
 they had been making a little promenade en voiture." 
 
 The baptism in which Garnier participated gave him some 
 new ideas of the moral and physical fibre of the people to 
 whom he was going to devote his life. As the sick man had 
 been ailing for a long time, the army surgeon had been in- 
 duced to prescribe for him and the priest was acting as nurse, 
 renewing the bandages, bathing the sores and supplying 
 the patient with food and what little comforts were avail- 
 able. As he was growing worse he said : *' Nikanis " 
 — which means my beloved friend — " never mind the body 
 now ; it is dead ; attend to the soul ; baptize me." Evidently, 
 the difference between matter and spirit was clear to him. 
 
 The priest thought proper to defer the ceremony for a 
 while, and very wisely so. For the next time he entered 
 the hut he found a medicine man blowing on the patient, 
 howling and dancing and beating his drum. The priest 
 was indignant. He berated both of them very roundly, 
 bidding the sick man to pray to God, and not to the devil, 
 and ordering the medicine man to stop his incantations over 
 one who had already professed his belief in Christianity. 
 The sorcerer stared, said not a word, and silently with- 
 drew. But the invalid remonstrated. " What makes you 
 angry, Nikanis? The medicine man only came to do what 
 •is usual among us. If it is wrong, of course it must be 
 stopped. But we did not mean anything." Then some 
 of the other Indians put in a word: "Nikanis, you have 
 no sense. You are doing what you can for the sick man, 
 but you have not succeeded. Help is offered, and you get 
 angry. Two are not too many to handle such an illness. 
 You do your part, and you should let him do his." " Like 
 ■the Philistines," mused the priest, " they want to have the 
 Ark of the Covenant and Dagon at the same time; and 
 ■yet," he continued, " perhaps all these tomfooleries are 
 more innocent than we imagine. It all depends on the 
 
 334 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 intention. The most stupid among the Indians think the 
 music soothes them ; others regard it as a medicine, and 
 others again are quite convinced that the noise scares away 
 the Manitou; while the medicine men themselves carry on 
 their monkeyshines (ces singeries) to make money." The 
 missionaries had begun to suspect that they saw more evil 
 in the Indian practice of medicine than really existed. 
 
 However, the sick man promised to behave himself in 
 future, and in course of time, when there was no longer 
 any hope of his living, he was as we have seen baptized. 
 But after the baptism he called the Father. " Nikanis," 
 he said, '' there is one thing more I want." " What is it? " 
 " To go to Three Rivers." " But you will die on the 
 way." "Not at all," he replied. " I shall reach it, live 
 a little while and then die. I want to see my people, for the 
 last time. You have brothers there also ; write to them 
 and tell them to take care of my soul as you have done." 
 
 He had to be humored. He was put in a canoe with 
 his wife and children, and they paddled up the St. Lawrence. 
 When he arrived at Three Rivers he sent for Father 
 Buteux, and made him sit down and read the letter from 
 Quebec. Finding that he was a Christian and the godson 
 of the governor, Buteux embraced him effusively, much 
 to the delight of the Indians who were not accustomed to 
 such endearments. " Your brother," said the red man, 
 *' took care of me at Quebec." " We shall do the same 
 here," was the reply; "let me see if you remember what 
 my brother taught you." " Surely," he said, as he put 
 down the bark dish he was holding, and began to count 
 on his fingers, the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, 
 and to recite the fundamental truths; his wife meantime 
 jogging his memory when he forgot. " I could not help 
 crying," writes Buteux. " when I saw this forty-year-old 
 savage who had passed his life amid the horrors of pagan- 
 ism, reciting his catechism with the humility of a child, and 
 the devotion of a grown person. He died on June 30, and 
 
 335 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 we obtained his corpse from the Indians for burial, but 
 only after a long fight with the council which had to be 
 convened to sit on the case." 
 
 After that another ceremony, which is both picturesque and 
 illuminative of Indian habits took place. In it both Garnier 
 and the governor participated. It was not a baptism but 
 a funeral. A stalwart young savage named Echkanich, or 
 Little Horn had fallen sick at Three Rivers, and then 
 began to pine for his family who were coursing through the 
 woods around Quebec. To satisfy him, one of his rela- 
 tives put him on a sled, and dragged him over the snow 
 and ice for the ninety miles that lie between the two places. 
 " You can imagine," says the chronicle, " what kind of 
 refreshment he had on the road, and at what kind of inns 
 he put up at night. But these Indians have bodies of brass 
 and can stand anything." 
 
 The poor wretch arrived in Quebec with some life yet 
 in him, and one of the Fathers immediately hastened to 
 see him. He admired the courage of the man who had 
 dragged the sled, and who was not at all tired, but was 
 dumbfounded at the will power of the sick man. After 
 giving both of them something to eat, he began to talk to 
 them about spiritual matters, and they both listened very 
 eagerly. The invalid was especially consoled by what he 
 heard about another life, which was so different from the 
 one he was leading, but the other was disappointed at 
 not finding his relations at Quebec. So leaving his friend 
 in the miserable hut, he started for the woods. The Fathers 
 then took charge of the invalid, provided for his bodily 
 wants, and were in high hopes of making him a Christian 
 when his relatives arrived. In spite of every remonstrance 
 they immediately put his poor emaciated carcass on a sled, 
 and dragged him off over the ice to the woods. Those 
 who saw him going thought he would last about five days; 
 but he passed the whole winter with his people, although 
 he was hauled around starved and suffering over mountains 
 
 336 
 
 >. 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 and valleys and lakes and rivers wherever they could find 
 an Indian camp. 
 
 Spring came, and they returned to Quebec. The priest, 
 who had been praying for the sufferer all the time, was 
 filled with pity and amazement. The poor wretch had some 
 of his faculties left, at least enough to grasp the funda- 
 mentals of the Faith. He could hear, but his eyes were 
 gone. His body had scarcely a shred of flesh on it, and 
 he was a skeleton rather than a man. But he listened 
 very willingly to all that was said to him, the mother very 
 gently suggesting what he could not grasp at first. In 
 brief, he gave sufficient proofs of belief, and died five days 
 after he was baptized. The mother immediately wrapped 
 the body in furs, and without saying a word to anyone 
 hurried away and placed it on a high platform after the 
 fashion in which the Indians usually dispose of the dead. 
 
 When the priest learned this, he immediately returned 
 to the cabin. "Where is the body?" he asked. No 
 answer. He then posted off to the chief, and told him that 
 the new governor would be shocked if the body were not 
 buried in a Christian manner. The chief agreed to help 
 him, and presenting himself to the old mother made a solemn 
 speech at her, as if he were addressing a council of sachems, 
 until she finally gave orders to some young braves to go 
 and fetch the corpse to the cabin. As they were very slow 
 about obeying, the priest urged them to make haste. 
 " Why the soul may be yet in the body." they replied, 
 " and yet," says the Father. *' two days had already passed 
 since the poor wretch had expired." 
 
 Finally the body was brought. The funeral was arranged 
 and it was made as solemn as possible. The governor was 
 asked to assist, and he consented most willingly, giving 
 up for the day, his work of laying out the fortifications. 
 He summoned his gentlemen and soldiers around him, and 
 with a torch in hand followed the body of the poor Indian 
 to the tomb. Fathers Gamier and Chastelain carried tlie 
 
 337 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 corpse, and the savages followed in profound silence. But 
 they had their way at the grave. They began to throw into 
 it blankets and coats, and among other things a sack hold- 
 ing the dead man's few effects, and a roll of bark. " What 
 good is all that? " asked the priest. " It will be of no use 
 in the other world." " It is our custom," was the answer. 
 " We keep nothing that belongs to the dead." The body 
 was finally lowered into its last resting place, and covered 
 with earth ; the French looking on and trying to console 
 the family for its loss. Such were Garnier's first experi- 
 ences with the Indians of the New World. 
 
 338 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 Among the Savages. 
 
 " I am in a Paradise," he wrote to his brother about this 
 time ; meaning Canada, " and in a few days my happi- 
 ness will be complete. We are to start for the Huron 
 country." He set out for Three Rivers with Chastelain 
 on the 1st of July. " Monsieur noire gonverneur," we are 
 told. " conducted them to the river side, avec une courtoisie 
 et une affection non pareille'' and ordered three salutes 
 from the cannon of the fort as the travellers paddled out 
 in their canoes on the great river. They were a week at 
 Three Rivers when Father Le Jeune, to whom they had 
 bade good-bye at Quebec joined them. Word had come to 
 him that some Hurons were expected, and he had to be 
 on hand to arrange officially for the departure of the mis- 
 sionaries, and also to answer what letters might be brought 
 down from Huronia. 
 
 He had started out in the ship which was anchored off 
 Quebec, but as he had often had the experience of being 
 becalmed in mid-stream, or being held back by adverse 
 winds, he had left word with a party of Indians who were 
 going up the river, to take him on board in case they 
 overtook him. What was feared happened, and the ship 
 was soon surrounded by a flotilla of canoes, crowded with 
 Indians, all clamoring for Father Le Jeune. He got into 
 one of the boats, and they soon left the great ship far 
 behind. 
 
 They paddled steadily on till three in the afternoon, but 
 as the wind was then sweeping down the river, lashing the 
 v.-aves into fury, the travellers made for the shore and 
 hauled their canoes into the woods. A fire was started to 
 smoke out the mosquitoes, and a few branches were flung on 
 
 339 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 the ground to serve as a bed for the night. If it rained, 
 the travehers would crawl under their furs. While they 
 were there, and Le Jeune was trying to say his breviary, at 
 some distance from the rest of the party, an Indian, like 
 Nicodemus of old, managed to get near him in a place 
 where he could not be seen by the others, and asked for 
 instruction in the Faith. Of course nothing serious could 
 be done then, but the poor savage promised to pray to 
 the God of the Christians when he found himself surrounded 
 by enemies. The resolution was a practical one, for the 
 Indians were then out on the warpath. 
 
 As night approached, a chief accosted him. " We ap- 
 prove of your way of praying," said he, " and now you 
 ought to see what we do." Le Jeune willingly assented, 
 and as they were already preparing a shelter for the sor- 
 cerer, who was going to consult the Manitou, he said : 
 "Do you think it is the Manitou that shakes that cabin?" 
 " Surely," they answered. " Very well, then. Now I will 
 tell you what I shall do. I will give you a barrel of peas 
 if, as soon as it shakes, you will let me go inside, and hold 
 the medicine man's hands. I engage you it will not shake 
 a second time." "Ho! Ho!" cried the young braves. 
 " Let him do it. We'll not even ask for the peas; a barrel 
 of bread will do." But the older men would not listen to 
 the proposal. They silently slunk away, and there was 
 no exhibition by the medicine man ; though at midnight 
 howls were heard in the woods. They were appeals to the 
 Manitou to come, but the spirit failed to appear. 
 
 Next morning beaver tracks were discovered, and a cer- 
 tain kind of bark which was useful for shields was found 
 in the woods, both of which determined the Indians not to 
 move that day. Le Jeune was anxious to go, for it was 
 Saturday, and he wanted to say Mass on Sunday at Three 
 Rivers. " AMiat is your hurry? " they said. " You would 
 not have been as far as this, if you had remained on the ship, 
 and yet you are not satisfied." " But I want to go and 
 
 340 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 pray that you may win the battle," he said. " Oh! you do. 
 That is important," and they hustled him into a canoe, 
 promising to follow immediately. But the weather was 
 still very bad, and at night-fall he was eighteen miles from 
 his destination. To add to his troubles, his Indians had a 
 panic. They feared there were Iroquois near by. The 
 enemy did not come, but the rain did, and it fell in tor- 
 rents. "I was not very wet, however," writes Le Jeune; 
 " I got under my blanket and at daybreak aroused the party, 
 and promised them a fine present if they reached the fort 
 before mid-day. Unhappily, just as they were about to 
 embark, one of them fell into an epileptic fit, and there was 
 no going out on the water till he revived. It was not an 
 unhappy accident after all, for had it occurred in mid- 
 stream, the frail canoe would have certainly capsized, and 
 Le Jeune would never have reached Three Rivers. 
 
 They were in view of the fort before mid-day, when they 
 were overtaken by the canoes which they had left down the 
 river. As the flotilla approached, other boats put out from 
 the shore to join them. It was a bright Sunday morning, 
 and as Le Jeune left the canoe the Indians shouted with 
 delight as the effusive Frenchmen fell on each other's necks 
 and embraced. Buteux and Chastelain were the first to 
 hasten to greet their Superior, and as all three walked to- 
 gether along the beach, the flotilla out in the stream paddled 
 along at a respectful distance, never going ahead of the 
 party on the shore. When Garnier and Quentin came along, 
 there were more embraces and more shouts of Ho! Ho! 
 But the next day filled the savage cup of joy to overflowing. 
 A glorious banquet was spread for them, and they gorged 
 themselves with the plentiful viands put at their disposal. 
 
 Before their arrival, a poor squaw with a baby in her 
 arms had presented herself at the fort and asked to have 
 the papoose baptized, promising to have it properly in- 
 structed when it grew up. It was now Garnier's turn, and 
 he poured the water on the head of the little innocent with 
 
 341 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 at least as great joy as he did afterwards when baptizing 
 some old man-eating savage, who could no longer flourish 
 the torch or wield the tomahawk. His happiness was in- 
 creased when he heard that in a few days he and Chastelain 
 would be sailing up the Ottawa ; for some Hurons who had 
 just then come down the river asked to have them. The 
 request was a startling one, from people who had hitherto 
 been so averse to receiving the missionaries, especially as 
 it came from Indians who had arrived almost accidentally 
 and at the opportune moment. " Give us a canoe and we 
 shall conduct them to our people," they said; but strange 
 to say there was only one little battered boat available. 
 Indeed, it was not only strange but deplorable, that at this 
 stronghold of the French, where there should have been 
 a fleet of canoes ready for all emergencies, such poverty 
 should have been revealed to the savages. But the little 
 craft was run into the water and a chief took his place at 
 the paddle. In front of him was one of the missionaries. 
 Whether it was Garnier or Chastelain we are not told ; 
 but seeing the disappointment of the priest who was left, 
 the Indians said : " It would be a pity to disappoint him. 
 There is also room for him in our canoe." So they 
 made for the west; each Indian receiving presents, and the 
 chiefs getting something else besides, on account of their 
 official position. A barrel of peas, another of bread and 
 a supply of prunes were also put aboard, as a reward for 
 the generosity of the Hurons in taking the missionaries. 
 But that meagre store was to feed the hungry savages and 
 the two missionaries for an entire month. However, they 
 were accustomed to starve, and with light hearts they 
 paddled up the St. Lawrence to the terrible Ottawa. 
 
 On their way they met Daniel who was coming down 
 with his young Indians to begin the school at Quebec. 
 When Daniel saw them he was so delighted at the good 
 treatment they were receiving, " for they had their shoes 
 on and were not paddling," that he gave each of the Indians 
 
 342 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 a supply of tobacco. He himself had gone to Huronia in 
 quite another fashion. Whether it was the bread and peas 
 and prunes, and the unexpected supply of tobacco, or the 
 good nature of the two missionaries that kept the Indians 
 in such excellent humor we cannot say. Garnier, we know, 
 was a very captivating personality. 
 
 He wrote a letter to Le Jeune from the Lake of the 
 Sorcerers ; and he tells his superior that " the Indians 
 treated the baby like a baby." They would not even let 
 him carry anything at the portages, not even his own traps. 
 Finally, when one of the Indians fell sick, the " baby " 
 was allowed to shoulder a burden, but " it was very light," 
 he said. " Indeed, I feel quite depressed because the Lord 
 has not let me bear even a little bit of the cross. We reached 
 the Isle des Allumettes on the eve of St. Ignatius' day; 
 our provisions had given out, and we bought some corn 
 and reached Lake Nippissing on August 8th. There we 
 expect Father Davost to meet us." 
 
 His companion also informed Le Jeune that in spite of 
 all they had suffered, they were never in better health. 
 " Even I, who could never rest on the ground for any length 
 of time, now sleep through the coldest nights with nothing 
 under me but a few pine branches. I say nothing about 
 the heat of the sun in the day time, and the want of food. 
 It is sufficient to assure you that in the midst of these 
 bodily sufferings, God has given me much consolation, 
 though it is not precisely sensible. Indeed, even if I were 
 a thousand times more abandoned than I feel myself now, 
 I would be happy to suffer for God, who has been so good 
 and loving in my regard." Garnier does not appear to 
 have remarked the hardships of the road. 
 
 On the 12th of August, Chastelain reached Ihonitiria, 
 one day ahead of his companion. It was the quickest 
 journey from below that had yet been made, for it took 
 only three weeks in all. The joy of the old missionaries 
 at this unexpected arrival was of course very great. " The 
 
 343 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 earliest fruits of the tree," wrote Le Mercier, " are naturally 
 more delicious than those one gathers later. So we gave 
 them a feast ; but what a feast ! A handful of dried fish 
 and a little flour. I sent some one out to hunt for a few 
 ears of corn, which we roasted in the fire. The newcomers 
 said they never had a better meal. They declared they felt 
 as if they had reached heaven. They were particularly 
 happy that all along the frightful road they had been able 
 to bunk together, and were only sorry they had been unable 
 to say Mass. They told us all about M. de Champlain's 
 death, of which we had heard some rumors, but which 
 we could not trust. We grieve over the loss, for our 
 Society is greatly indebted to him for the benevolence he 
 has always shown us, both during his life and at his death. 
 Our missions are the beneficiaries of his last will and testa- 
 ment." This voice from the woods in praise of the great 
 Champlain is very pleasant to hear. 
 
 We get some ideas of how Garnier spent those first days 
 from a number of letters which were carefully kept by his 
 brother, the Carmelite. One is dated Ossossane 1637, 
 and is addressed to his father. No mention is made of his 
 having been at death's door shortly after arriving at the 
 missions, for he caught the pestilence like the rest, but 
 he says : " I am in God's hands and He takes care of me. Of 
 course we have persecutions, calumnies, etc., but people of 
 our vocation should never be happy till they hear the devil 
 crying out against them. As far as I am concerned there 
 is not a place on earth where I could be more joyous. You 
 ought to know that we have a fortress here that has not 
 its like in France; and our walls are quite different from 
 those of the Bastille. Indeed, we have less fear of the 
 Spanish cannon than you have in Paris. Of course, some 
 wag may whisper to you that it is because the cannon 
 cannot come within nine hundred miles of us, and hence 
 we are safe. In fact our defenses consist only of stakes 
 ten or twelve feet high, and half a foot thick; but we have 
 
 344 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 a tower made of thirty stakes at one corner of this in- 
 closure and on two sides of it. We are going to have two 
 more to protect the two other approaches. Our Hurons 
 fancy that the French forts are built in that fashion. It 
 is only a difference of opinion, and that is one of the 
 reasons why I am glad I left France. You remember how 
 you used to laugh at me, because I had no beard. Pre- 
 cisely on that account, the savages here think I am a hand- 
 some man. You recollect, also, what trouble you had to 
 make me study surgery. Now that is one of my trades 
 here at present, except that it does not go much further than 
 preparing poultices and administering a few harmless 
 drugs. Do not worry about my health. I never felt better 
 in all my life, and, indeed, I am convinced that if our friends 
 in France did not develop as much girth as they do, they 
 would be free from many of their ailments. About learn- 
 ing the language I can assure you that I am making 
 progress thank God! I jot down every word I hear. I 
 have not the same chance to write as I might have in France, 
 for I am busy from morning till night, instructing, visiting 
 the sick, and receiving the savages in our hut. I am forging 
 ahead, however, but it is hard work to get these poor 
 brutalized people to understand the mysteries of the Faith. 
 Remember your most loving son whenever you lift your 
 heart to God." 
 
 About this time, the spiritual condition of his brother, 
 the Carmelite, was filling him with alarm, but of course 
 the good monk was continually practicing self-depreciation 
 just as Charles himself was always wondering how God 
 could have called such a wretch as himself to the divine 
 work of the missions of Canada. Now that we are familiar 
 with St. Francis de Sales, it is curious to find in these 
 letters a recommendation to the Carmelite, to " read the 
 beautiful books of M. de Sales." In the same communi- 
 cation we find a valuable topographical hint about Ossos- 
 sane; it is called Rochelle, because it was situated on a hill. 
 
 345 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 He says sur une montagne but he was a Norman, and was 
 accustomed to flatlands. It was also described as " sur- 
 rounded by a ravine." He thus gives us two features of 
 the place which are of great value for the purpose of 
 identification. Also, by giving us the names of the Fathers 
 who were there, namely himself or " Ouracha," as he was 
 called, de Brebeuf, Le Mercier and Ragueneau, while Pi j art, 
 Jogues and Chastelain were at Ihonitiria, which was about 
 to be abandoned, he fills up a gap that exists in the 
 " Relation." 
 
 We may quote here also a letter which he sent much 
 later, but which may be transcribed because it furnishes 
 us with a psychological sketch of his people. " I want a 
 picture of Christ," he says " without a beard or with very 
 little, as for instance when he was about eighteen years old. 
 On the cross the figure must be very distinct, and with no 
 one near Him, so as not to distract the attention. Put a 
 crown on the Blessed Virgin, a sceptre in her hand, and 
 have Our Lord standing on her knee. That quite takes the 
 Indians' fancy. Do not use a halo. They will mistake it 
 for a hat ; though rays will answer. In fact the head must 
 always be uncovered. Send me pictures of the Resurrec- 
 tion, and make the souls of the blessed as happy looking 
 as possible. Avoid confusion in representing the General 
 Judgment. In the resurrection of the dead the figures 
 must stand out, and, if possible, let them be illuminated. 
 The faces should not be in profile, but full and with the 
 eyes wide open. The bodies should not be completely 
 draped; at least a part should be bare. There must be no 
 curly hair, and no saint should be bald. Beards also should 
 be debarred, and birds or animals should be kept out of 
 the picture. Our Lord and the Blessed must be very 
 white, and with vivid colored robes, red, blue, scarlet, 
 but not green or brown. Let the saints coming down from 
 heaven be as white as snow, with bright garments, and with 
 a happy smiling countenance, looking affectionately on the 
 
 34G 
 
CHARLES GARNIER 
 
 spectators and pointing to a motto above : * The eye hath 
 not seen,' etc." 
 
 It is somewhat starthng to find the gentle Garnier 
 describing a damned soul as follows : " Have it represented 
 as roasted and black in the fire; put fiames above the head, 
 and fire behind it, with some in front here and there, but 
 not so as to hide the sufferer. The eyes should be glitter- 
 ing, the mouth open as if screaming, and from it fire should 
 issue and also from the nose, eyes and ears. The whole 
 face should be pinched and wrinkled and the hair on end; 
 the hands, feet, and waist bound with fiery iron chains. 
 Put a frightful dragon squirming around the victim, and 
 biting him near the ear. Remember to put horrible scales 
 on the beast, and not a beautiful blue as I have seen. There 
 may be two devils on either side tearing the body with iron 
 hooks, and another above lifting the victim by the hair. 
 Do this, dear Brother, and God will reward you." Evidently 
 the sw^eet Father Garnier could have written a " Hell 
 Opened for Christians," but his unimpressionable Hurons 
 would not have been satisfied with any minor horrors. 
 
 Shortly after his arrival at Ossossane, a poor tribe called 
 the Ouenrohrononnons, in the Neutral country, fled to the 
 Hurons for protection. Their own people would give 
 them no help, and so they miserably dragged them- 
 selves, sick and starving, a distance of one hundred and 
 forty miles with their packs on their backs to Huronia, 
 where they were welcomed, and distributed among the 
 various hamlets. They were a god-send for the mis- 
 sionaries, because the poor exiles eagerly listened to the 
 word of God. It was among them that Garnier first exer- 
 cised his apostolic zeal. His knowledge of medicine, w^hat- 
 ever it amounted to, came in handy, for there were many 
 sufferers among the newcomers, and the skill of some of 
 the mission servants was especially noticeable on this oc- 
 casion. Indeed these helpers were such remarkable men 
 that Father Lalemant thanks the governor for having sent 
 
 347 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 them. Not only did they render efficient service in caring 
 for the bodily ills of the poor wretches around them, but 
 they were very efficient in getting the Indians to understand 
 the doctrines of the Church. It would have been an excellent 
 opportunity, Lalemant wTote, for a regular practitioner 
 who might want to devote himself to apostolic work, but 
 needless to say, there were none to spare in Quebec. In- 
 deed, much later on we find Lalemant himself when down 
 in the city, victimized by a quack, the first Canadian prac- 
 titioner. 
 
 Garnier was one of those who had to face the storm 
 that broke out against the priests when they were accused 
 of having brought the pestilence into Huronia, and his name 
 appears among the signatures to the farewell letter which 
 de Brebeuf wrote when the massacre of the missionaries 
 seemed imminent. We have given elsewhere the descrip- 
 tion of that heroic assembly in the hut at Ossossane. When 
 the storm had spent itself he began his labors with the 
 others, and astonished de Brebeuf by the facility with which 
 he learned the language of the Indians, but especially by 
 the fascmation which he exercised not only over his neo- 
 phytes, but even over the savages who remained pagans. 
 For him their good cjualities alone seemed to be in evidence, 
 and he appeared to forget their hideous vices and brutality. 
 He always found excuses for the worst of them, and no 
 one ever heard him speak harshly of their shortcomings. 
 He was a persistent optimist in that, as in almost everything 
 else, and it may explain how it is, that we meet in his life and 
 letters frequent examples of nobility in the savage, which 
 come as a relief in the midst of the horrors with which the 
 story of the missions abounds. The Indian was, indeed, 
 very far from being the noble creature such as romances 
 describe him, but he was nevertheless capable of splendid 
 human actions, even before his regeneration by the Faith, 
 but, of course, more than ever when assisted by divine grace. 
 
 We have a striking instance of this in an act of brotherly 
 
 348 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 love by which one of them distinguished himself. He was 
 a young brave in all the vigor of manhood, and gave 
 every promise of being in the future an efficient worker in 
 the conversion of his people. He was out fishing with a 
 party of Ossossane Indians, when they were suddenly at- 
 tacked by a number of savages coming no one knew 
 whence. The young Huron fought like a tiger in defence 
 of his fellow tribesmen, but his solicitude was exerted 
 chiefly in protecting his little brother, whom the enemy 
 were trying to kill or capture. He kept the boy close to 
 him and took every blow of the knife or tomahawk of the 
 assailants. He succeeded in saving the boy, but finally fell 
 in a heap, all mangled and bloody over the body of the boy, 
 and the enemy thinking them both dead withdrew. Gar- 
 nier found them lying together on the river bank, the 
 boy comparatively unhurt, but the young brave gasping in 
 death. By a prayer that seemed almost miraculous in its 
 power, he restored him to consciousness, and baptized him 
 before he expired. 
 
 There must have been a strain of nobility in that Indian 
 family, at least in a portion of it. The young sister of the 
 brave was dying, and the priest hurried to see her; but her 
 father, a fierce old sorcerer, endeavored to drive him out 
 of the lodge, while her harridan of a mother screamed 
 maledictions against the black robe. But although in her 
 agony, the girl found voice enough to exclaim : " I will 
 obey neither of you; I will not be lost; I must be baptized." 
 They pleaded with her and threatened her, but she per- 
 sisted, and in spite of the menaces of the parents, Garnier 
 baptized her, and she went to heaven to join her noble 
 brother. But it was a hard thing for the missionary to 
 explain how both of these chosen souls should have been 
 taken, while the other occupants of the lodge remained im- 
 mune from the pestilence. 
 
 He tells us of another instance of fraternal affection among 
 his Indians. A little child fell into a hole in the ice, and with- 
 
 349 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 out a moment's hesitation his brother plunged after him 
 into the black and rapid current below. No one ever ex- 
 pected to see them again, but in a few moments they emerged 
 from an opening further down the stream, the young fellow 
 holding the rescued child in his arms. All of which is com- 
 forting, but one cannot help recalling how the very reverse 
 of this occurred to Jogues among the Mohawks. Though 
 he could not swim, he plunged into the rapids to save a 
 poor squaw with a child in her arms, while the Indians 
 looked stolidly on as all three were struggling with 
 death. No help at all was proffered. But perhaps the 
 poor squaw had no brother, and had not the good fortune 
 of the young woman whom Garnier met on his expedition 
 among the Petuns. She was one of a band that was 
 trudging with the missionary amid the driving snow over 
 a frozen lake. The cold was intense and the girl began 
 to show signs of numbness, and was about to sink in her 
 tracks, when her brother instantly stripped the heavy furs 
 from his own shoulders and wrapping her in them forced 
 her to run with all speed to her destination. She reached 
 the village, but he fell dead in the snow. Garnier seems 
 to have met with many such acts of devotion. They are 
 very welcome amid the recurrent horrors that make up the 
 ordinary history of those savage tribes. 
 
 350 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 Chiwatenwa. 
 
 In 1640 Garnier was sent with Jogues among the Petun 
 or Tobacco Indians, so-called because of their love for the 
 weed which they cultivated extensively. One is almost 
 tempted to call their country Petunia as a companion-desig- 
 nation for that of Huronia, but that name has been pre- 
 empted by a beautiful flower and of course is not available. 
 It lay west of Huronia on what are called the Blue Hills. 
 Because of the name of the mission which Garnier estab- 
 lished, the country was also called " The Mountains of St. 
 John." 
 
 If we scan the map, we shall see that Ossossane, the vil- 
 lage of Huronia from which Garnier and Jogues set out 
 is on Nottawasaga Bay. Letting the eye travel along the 
 southern rim of that expanse of water, we find the town 
 of Collingwood. Going northwest from there and con- 
 tinuing up past the inlet, know as Owen Sound as far as 
 the end of the Peninsula which shuts off Georgian Bay 
 from Lake Huron, we have traversed one of the boundaries 
 of the Petun country. Then proceeding south along the 
 shores of the great lake itself, past the present town of 
 Southampton, and keeping on until we reach Goderich, 
 we have arrived at what was probably the southern limit 
 of the territory on the west. From that by running a line 
 eastward to a point perhaps a little below Barrie on Lake 
 Simcoe, we have the frontier between the Petuns and their 
 neighbors, the Neutrals, on the south. 
 
 The name Petuns was not the only one by which the 
 inhabitants of that tract were known. Their appellatives 
 are bewildering for any one but an expert, who may find 
 them if he wishes in the " Relations." They appear first 
 
 351 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 as the " Khiomontaterronnons " and from that the name 
 runs through a figure of eleven or twelve variations, such 
 as " Etionontatehronnons,'' " Tionontateheronnons," etc., 
 ending finally in what is declared to be " corrupt English," 
 but which has a paternal look about it, namely "Diondadies." 
 
 On the first apostolic expedition the missionaries visited 
 nine villages, to each of which they gave the name of an 
 apostle. With the exception of St. John and St. Barnabas, 
 which are below Collingwood, and consequently near the 
 Huron frontier, the sites of these villages have not yet been 
 determined. " It is the richest mission of all," Garnier 
 wrote to his superior, " because of the crosses and sufferings 
 you meet here." If it was more abundantly supplied in 
 that respect than Huronia, the missionaries must have 
 abounded in opportunities for penance. 
 
 They could not induce any Indian at Ossossane to show 
 them the way, " so we took the Angels for our guides," 
 \vhich everyone will admit was better. " We reached the 
 principal village, which was called St. Peter and Paul, over 
 roads that were altogether too bad for any one who was 
 not seeking God. Unfortunately about midway in our 
 journey, we missed a little path which would have led 
 us to some cabins near the main trail, so we had to pass 
 the night in a pine wood. It was a damp place, but we 
 could do no better just then ; and with some difficulty we 
 found a few bits of dried wood to make a fire, and some 
 branches to sleep on. There was danger for a time of 
 the snow putting out our fire, but fortunately the storm 
 subsided and, thanks be to God, we passed the night very 
 comfortably." They were easily pleased. 
 
 " Next morning we found the cabins that we were looking 
 for, but could not get any corn in the place. However, 
 we had the good fortune to meet a party that was setting 
 out, so we joined them. We were glad to do so for the 
 snow had covered all the trails, and such was the condition 
 of the country all day long that towards night we had to 
 
 352 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 walk a full league by the glitter or glare of the snow, and 
 we reached the village, which we called St. Thomas, at eight 
 o'clock. We had a good appetite, for we had eaten only a 
 crust of bread that day. While we were wondering if 
 there were any sick people in the neighborhood, a young 
 brave invited us to his cabin and to our delight we found 
 there an old squaw who was at the point of death, and 
 who seemed to be only waiting for our coming. She re- 
 ceived us gladly, and we instructed and baptized her." 
 Garnier did not plead that he was too tired to see her. 
 
 Other apostolic discoveries of like nature are duly 
 recorded, but the whole country looked at them askance, 
 and angry comments were heard every where about their 
 purpose. The women gathered up their children and fled, 
 screaming out at the top of their voices that the black- 
 robes were bringing pestilence and famine in the land; the 
 men scowled at them and every door was shut in their 
 faces — an outrageous breach of hospitality, for the stranger 
 is always free to enter a wigwam. One chief admitted 
 them, but became frightened when he saw them on their 
 knees late in the night. " Now I know you are sorcerers," 
 he cried. " What do you mean by these postures that we 
 have never seen in this country before? " He drove them 
 out by dint of ill treatment, and when they started for the 
 next village, runners preceded them to warn the people of 
 their coming. It was a hungry and a weary day for the 
 poor wayfarers. They could get no food in the place 
 they left, and not a morsel passed their lips till nightfall. 
 But they consoled themselves because they had baptized 
 some " little monster " of a baby whom a band of refugee 
 Neutrals had with them. " The poor little misshapen thing 
 became an angel." 
 
 They found a shelter in the village, but there was a feast 
 of the devil going on that night in the cabin, and in- 
 cantations and dances, and the throwing of tobacco and 
 fat in the fire went on hour after hour. It was all to cure 
 
 353 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 a sick person who had not fulfilled the injunctions 
 imposed by a dream. But even that shelter was only tem- 
 porary; so they resumed their tramp, never passing two 
 days in one place, and finding the country more disturbed 
 as they advanced. Mobs would gather outside the lodge 
 at midnight ordering them to be off, and in one instance 
 a savage started up from his sleep and drove them out into 
 the dark. They could do nothing but plod along through 
 snow, and rain, and cold, and ice only to find some angry 
 savage at the entrance of the next village, with an uplifted 
 tomahawk, threatening to brain them if they approached. 
 
 It is somewhat amusing to be told in the story that at 
 this juncture one of the Fathers fell sick. It was not sur- 
 prising; but we regret not to know whether it was Garnier 
 or Jogues. The sufferer recovered shortly, and his treat- 
 ment in the time of convalescence was on the same heroic 
 lines as those that led him into sickness. At three o'clock 
 in the morning, he and his companion were driven out of 
 the wigwam without a bit to eat, and were compelled to 
 tramp off to another place thirty-three or thirty-six miles 
 away. They had nothing but a handful of bread, and 
 " such bread," writes Le Mercier, " you would not give to 
 a dog in France." But they did some good here and there 
 among the stray Indians they met, and they thought that 
 was worth a thousand times greater hardships. 
 
 They could not have held out much longer, and they 
 themselves were convinced that they should die or be killed. 
 Just then the heroic figure of the Huron, Joseph Chiwa- 
 tenwa, appeared on the scene. 
 
 This wonderful Indian deserves more than a passing 
 notice. He is continually to the fore in the records 
 of those early days, and around his picturesque life 
 an Indian drama might be easily constructed. He 
 was baptized on the 15th of August, 1638, and received 
 the name of Joseph. He was in danger of death at the 
 time, but had been lon-g under instruction, and was leading 
 
 354 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 meanwhile a wonderfully holy life. Anyone else but those 
 too-exacting missionaries would have made him a Chris- 
 tian long before. Indeed, Jerome Lalemant, after seven 
 years' experience, solemnly affirmed that they had been too 
 timorous about the perseverance of their neophytes, and too 
 exacting in the dispositions for baptism. Many a thing 
 they thought to be sinful was only coarseness, simplicity or 
 perhaps stupidity. 
 
 Chiwatenwa, at the time of his baptism, was thirty-five 
 years old or thereabouts. There was nothing of the savage 
 in him except his name. He belonged to one of the first 
 families of Ossossane, for it must be borne in mind that 
 social distinctions were observed among the aborigines. He 
 was clever, not merely when compared with those around 
 him, but the missionaries were of the opinion that he would 
 be considered such even in France. He had a marvellous 
 memory, and never forgot a word he was taught. He 
 was a constant delight to the priests, as they listened to 
 him explaining the mysteries of Christianity to the won- 
 dering red men. He married when he was very young, 
 and never had but one wife — an extraordinary thing in 
 such surroundings where wives were changed with the 
 seasons, and when every one was an early profligate. He 
 never gambled, and did not even know how to deal the 
 cards, or rather the straws which the Indians made use 
 of ; and what will edify some modern white men he never 
 used tobacco, which the good missionary informs us " was 
 the wine and drunkenness of those parts." His spiritual 
 guides were shocked, however, to find that he cultivated 
 the weed in his garden, but he assured them it was only 
 for pastime or to give to his friends, and also to help him 
 to buy what he needed. The Fathers were very severe, and 
 exacting, and Joseph was a casuist. 
 
 He also had in his possession a charm, a rabbit's foot 
 or something of the kind, an oki in a word, which had 
 been bequeathed to him by his deceased father, and was 
 
 355 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 considered to be a priceless treasure, for it had brought 
 his progenitors much kick. But Joseph never used it ; nor 
 did he ever take part in any of the banquets where the devil 
 was invoked. He was of a very kindly nature, wonderfully 
 teachable, and, unlike the ordinary Indians, eager to learn. 
 He succeeded even in being able to read and write, the 
 former of which he found the more difficult. What first 
 led him to the Faith was a discourse of de Brebeuf's in one 
 of the preparatory councils of the Feast of the Dead, and 
 he was also much touched when he heard the explanations 
 given to the plague-stricken people about the way to profit 
 by their affliction. Of his own accord he began to study 
 the Commandments, and to ridicule the prevailing super- 
 stitions of the tribe. He often went to the priests' cabin, 
 but only to discuss religious matters, never to beg like 
 the other Indians. He had his own children baptized, and 
 induced others to imitate his example. Finally, when he 
 found that he was going to be taken down with the fever, 
 he came to inquire how he should pray during his sickness. 
 
 \\'hen he fell ill he was very anxious that no superstitious 
 remedy should be employed for his recovery. The priests 
 saw to that, and took full charge of him corporally as well 
 as spiritually. The poor patient observed the minutest 
 directions even when blunders were made in caring for 
 him. He sank rapidly, and at last baptism was suggested. 
 " Baptism!" he exclaimed. " It is not for me to speak of 
 that, but you. I have asked you a hundred times, and you 
 never came into the cabin that I did not wonder if you were 
 going to baptize me." Of course the sacrament could no 
 longer be deferred, and after it. the sufferer showed not 
 only Christian resignation, but the piety of an old monk. 
 Even in his delirium he was speaking of God. Happily, 
 he recovered two days after his baptism, and could never 
 do enough to express his gratitude for the love that was 
 shown him. 
 
 When he was sufficientlv strong, he invited his friends 
 
 356 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 to a great banquet which he made as splendid as possible. 
 He began it with asking a blessing, and then, as master 
 of the feast, he made a great many speeches, in all of which 
 he explained the mysteries of the Faith. Every one listened 
 with astonishment at the amount of knowledge he dis- 
 played, and withdrew discussing all they had heard. A 
 short time afterwards, he went to the chapel to make a 
 public offer of his services to the Fathers. Nor did he 
 ever fail to live up to his promise of leading a life of holi- 
 ness. Indeed, extraordinary things are told about his 
 piety, his delicacy of conscience and his courage in the midst 
 of afflictions. His enthusiasm for the Faith was com- 
 municated to his pagan relatives ; one of them, for instance, 
 forbidding his sick wife the use of any superstitious prac- 
 tices for her cure. To conquer his natural affection he 
 offered to God his youngest child, to whom he was very 
 much attached, and repeated the offer a hundred times a 
 day, if it were the Divine \^'ill the boy should die. When 
 the little one was taken, Chiwatenwa came before the 
 Blessed Sacrament, and spoke like Abraham to God while the 
 priest left him standing there, and hurried off to console 
 the afflicted mother. His prayers for the tribe pronounced 
 aloud in the chapel, the " Relation " assures us, would 
 have melted the heart of a stone. He feared no one, and 
 on all occasions gloried in the name they gave him of " The 
 Believer," and he preached the Faith on every occasion; 
 in the cabins, on the trail, in the councils, and always with 
 an eloquence, a power of illustration, and a thoroughness 
 and quickness in replying to objections that astonished 
 everyone. 
 
 News had come of the dangers that threatened Jogues 
 and Garnier among the Petuns. Immediately Chiwatenwa 
 exclaimed, " I will go there." His wife entreated him not 
 to leave her. The children were sick, and she feared he 
 would never return, but he tenderly consoled her, and 
 started out for what might be death in the wild storm that 
 
 357 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 was then raging. The weather was frightful. The cold 
 was splitting the trees, and a biting wind was driving into 
 his face as he hurried along. But his ardor in the work 
 made his suffering seem a trifle. To his great delight he 
 found them. Their joy must have been greater than his. 
 
 He went around with them from village to village. 
 Cabin after cabin turned them away, and even his relations 
 reproached him for going about with sorcerers, and did 
 not hesitate to expel him as well as his companions. One 
 night a Petun declared that he was going to kill the mis- 
 sionaries, and immediately seized his hatchet and started 
 out to execute his threat. Luckily they had both changed 
 their sleeping quarters that night, and while the crazy In- 
 dian was hunting for them Chiwatenwa came up and quickly 
 disarmed him. Only one place received them well, and 
 that bit of humanity was shown not by the Petuns, but by 
 an old man belonging to another tribe. 
 
 When they attempted to go to the great town of Sts. 
 Peter and Paul, where the missionaries had already been, 
 they found every door shut, and heard the squaws screaming 
 from the lodges : " where are the braves who said they 
 would kill these men if they returned?" From one place 
 they were driven away in the dead of night, and were then 
 pursued by a party of savages armed with tomahawks. 
 Luckily the pursuers missed the trail ; and when the chief 
 followed next day to express regret for what had hap- 
 pened, Chiwatenwa opened upon him with a fiery speech. 
 " It is not these blackrobes who are disturbing the country, 
 but you who will not listen to the important things they 
 have to tell you. You laugh at me and call me * The 
 Believer.' That is my greatest glory. You know me, and 
 you know my people. I am proud to follow the teachings 
 of these great men. Our ancestors were excusable, for 
 they never heard what you have heard, but you will be 
 punished a thousand times worse than they, if you remain 
 in the degradation from which the missionaries wish to 
 
 358 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 raise you," and so on. The old Petun listened in silence; 
 grunted out " True," and then changed the subject, just 
 like a civilized man. 
 
 Finally they gave up the work as hopeless, and returned 
 to Ossossane, and Chiwatenwa was commissioned to go 
 down to Quebec with a letter to Father Vimont. Alas ! 
 he never went. He was murdered. On the evening of the 
 2d of August, 1640, two Iroquois crept up stealthily behind 
 him in the woods. They ran him through the body with 
 a sword and crushed his skull with two blows of a toma- 
 hawk, and then tearing off his scalp disappeared. He had 
 gone out in the forest to cut some saplings for the boat 
 that was to carry him to Quebec. Three of his little nieces 
 were with him, and while walking out to where he intended 
 to work he spoke of God's goodness, and made them kneel 
 down and pray. As they wanted to enter the woods, he sent 
 them back telling them it was a dangerous place. After a 
 while finding that he did not return, his people went out 
 to look for him, and to their horror found his mangled 
 remains. There was evidence of a fierce fight having taken 
 place, and they noted what had caused his death ; the thrust 
 of the sword. If it had not been for that weapon, they felt 
 sure that their valiant warrior would have won the victory. 
 There was great mourning for him, but most of all among 
 the missionaries, who felt as if one of themselves had been 
 slain. So ended this glorious Christian, Joseph Chiwa- 
 tenwa, who looks as if he might be one of America's un- 
 canonized saints. 
 
 259 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 The Crash. 
 
 In the following year Garnier, accompanied by Pijart, 
 made another attempt to evangelize these intractable To- 
 bacco people. The results were only a little better, but 
 the two easily satisfied missionaries were overjoyed because 
 they succeeded in having a council assemble to discuss the 
 question of admittance to the country. Opinion was di- 
 vided; some of the chiefs clamoring for the death of the 
 intruders, and others granting full permission for them 
 to go wherever they wished. So the two brave men took 
 their chances and started off. It was to a great extent 
 a repetition of the previous year's experiences, with the ex- 
 ception of one village which received them with great en- 
 thusiasm, though the chief had declared that to go there 
 meant death. They had an adventure, also, v^^hich always 
 remained a puzzle for them, in spite of their knowledge 
 of the native customs. Just as they were emerging from 
 a wood, waist deep in the snow, and with their packs on 
 their backs, they suddenly felt heavy hands on their shoul- 
 ders ; and a wild yell : " You are dead ! " rent the air. They 
 were flung on their backs in the snow, and they lay there 
 expecting a blow of a tomahawk. But nothing happened. 
 A deep silence ensued ; and when they staggered to their 
 feet, they saw a number of Indians, stark naked, scampering 
 away in all directions over the snow. What it meant they 
 never found out; but it is probable that they had accidently 
 stumbled upon some incantation ceremony in the forest. 
 If it were so, they thought that the devil was a hard task- 
 master to exact such scant covering for his devotees in 
 weather such as they were suffering from at the time. 
 
 We are unable to follow Garnier year by year after this 
 
 360 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 second expedition. We merely know that he labored in 
 every one of the Huron missions, and every where was re- 
 garded with wonder by his brethren. For them he was an 
 angel, forever walking in the presence of God. He thought 
 of nothing else but his apostolic work. Even letters from 
 France had no interest for him. But, on the other hand, 
 there was nothing rude or repellant about him. On the con- 
 trary he was a most attractive man. His words, gestures, 
 smile, all won the people to him ; but it was more than a 
 natural influence. Though brought up in all the refinements 
 and delicacy of a noble family in France, he loved the 
 savages; he preferred their food; and the dirt and loath- 
 someness of their cabins never seemed to shock him. He 
 would nurse some poor sick creature for months, though 
 the odor was insupportable for every one in the cabin. 
 The " Relation " tells us, that he would plunge headlong 
 into the midst of a wild fight that might be raging among 
 the Indians, and in a few minutes, or sometimes by the 
 first word he said, restore peace and tranquillity. He could 
 even take hold of a raving maniac, and bring him to his 
 senses. His bed was the bare ground ; and he would chas- 
 tise his emaciated body with iron disciplines, or with sharp 
 pointed chains which cut into his flesh. He was always 
 panting for martyrdom ; and in a letter to his brother, about 
 this time, he said he was confident he would soon be a 
 victim. Whenever the Iroquois appeared he was hoping 
 they would take him prisoner. " I might do some good to 
 them," he said, " before they put me to death." 
 
 In 1648, he was sent back to the Petuns along with 
 Father Garreau, but they were unable to penetrate very far 
 into the country, and merely established two stations 
 not far from the Huron border, which were called res- 
 pectively St. Matthias and St. John, but were known as 
 the Indian villages of Ekarreniondi and Etharita. 
 Their exact location has not yet been positively verified, 
 but if Ekarreniondi or Standing Rock is identical with 
 
 361 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 a weird place still in those parts, and which Is now known 
 as " Devil's Glen," it would not be hard to determine the 
 exact location of Etarhita, and thus the holy place where 
 the precious remains of Father Garnier have been slum- 
 bering for more than 260 years could be found. Such is the 
 impression of the careful topographer whom we have often 
 quoted, Father Arthur E. Jones, S.J. 
 
 Conditions in St. John's were at their worst. Chabanel 
 had been sent down to help, but had been recalled by 
 Ragueneau for the reason that it was easier to find food for 
 one than two, so Garnier was left alone, with the prospect 
 of dying of starvation, if he was not killed by a tomahawk. 
 The superior wanted him to return, but he begged to re- 
 main, saying he did not wish to let the occasion slip by 
 of losing himself for God. " I am taking good care of 
 myself," he said, " and if I thought that my strength would 
 give out, or if your Reverence really commanded me to 
 leave, I am ready to give up everything in order to die 
 in obedience wherever God wishes. But apart from that 
 I will never come down from the cross where he has placed 
 me." 
 
 One of the last letters we have from him was sent from 
 that place, and is dated April 25, 1649. It is directed to 
 his brother. He says he is " a victim that must be im- 
 molated," and he asks prayers that he may be faithful to 
 the end. " Ask my brother, the Capuchin, and any one else 
 you may think of, to excuse me for not writing. I do not 
 know where I shall be next year, if I am alive." The next 
 year never came; but a little later, namely on August 13, 
 he was at St. Joseph's Island, and contrived to send a last 
 word to his family. He wrote the reply to Ragueneau 
 which we have given, only three days before he fell beneath 
 the Indian tomahawk. 
 
 When the news came that the Iroquois were in the neigh- 
 borhood, the over confident braves of Etarhita were de- 
 lighted. It was an opportunity to wipe out many an old 
 
 363 
 
CHARLES GARNIER. 
 
 score, and they prepared for the fight. They waited and 
 waited, but no enemy came. Finally losing patience, they 
 started out to find them. That was December 5th, but the 
 wily Iroquois were approaching from another direction. 
 On December 7 they were right near St. John's, and to add 
 to their good luck captured a man and a woman who had 
 just left the village, and from them heard of its defence- 
 less condition. At three o'clock that afternoon their war- 
 whoops were heard outside the palisades, and they were 
 soon swarming through the gate. The massacre began im- 
 mediately. Men, women and children were indiscrimin- 
 ately slaughtered, and the wigwams set on fire. Garnier 
 ran hither and thither, absolving the dying Christians, drag- 
 ging the children from the burning buildings and baptizing 
 them, and everywhere exhorting the people to make their 
 peace with God. Some few found safety in flight, and 
 begged the priest to go with them, but he refused, though he 
 might easily have escaped. He kept at his heroic work 
 regardless of danger, but his dress easily distinguished him 
 in the midst of the wild and shrieking mob, and a moment 
 after, two musket balls pierced his breast. As he fell, a 
 savage tore the soutane from his body, and then made after 
 the fugitives. Garnier, lying in his blood, was seen to join 
 his hands in prayer to prepare for death, when the moan of 
 a dying Indian caught his ear, and he struggled to lift him- 
 self from the ground to crawl over to the sufferers, but he 
 fell again with the blood streaming from his wounds. He 
 made a second and third attempt. It was the last act of 
 his apostolic life. An Indian tomahawk crushed his skull, 
 and then stripping him stark naked, the savages proceeded 
 to butcher the other victims. A poor squaw- who was badly 
 wounded, and who lived a short time after the massacre, 
 gave the Fathers the precious details of the last moments 
 of the martyr. 
 
 The work was soon over; the village was a heap of ashes, 
 and the smoke of the burning wigwams told the sad tale 
 
 363 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 to the people of St. Mathias, twelve miles away. The Iro- 
 quois hurried in the direction of the Huron country where 
 there were no longer any enemies. The Hurons had been 
 extirpated. They dragged with them all the captives they 
 could lay hands on, and those who were unable to walk 
 were murdered where they lay. 
 
 It was a night of terror in the adjoining mission ; but next 
 morning the scouts announced that the enemy had departed, 
 and Fathers Garreau and Greslon made their way to the 
 scene of the disaster. The ghastly spectacle that met their 
 gaze filled them with horror. Mangled corpses littered the 
 blood-stained snow ; bodies, charred and unrecognizable, 
 lay amid the smouldering ruins of the lodges, and on every 
 side were heard the moans of the dying. About the middle 
 of the village they saw a naked corpse, all splashed with 
 blood and blackened by the ashes of the burning buildings. 
 They passed by. It was only one of many others. But the 
 cjuick eye of the Indians recognized it. They called to the 
 priests, who hurriedly retraced their steps. It was the 
 beloved Garnier. They tore off their own garments to 
 cover him, and with streaming eyes, and hearts broken v/ith 
 grief they buried him in the place where his chapel had once 
 stood, but of which not a vestige remained. They could 
 not take the body with them, for the Iroquois might return 
 at any moment, and when the last sad rites were over they 
 hurried back to St. Mathias. Two days afterwards the 
 war party of the once jubilant Petuns returned home, and 
 when they saw the tragedy which had occurred in their 
 absence, and for which their foolish bravery was responsible, 
 they sat down upon the ground among their dead, and with 
 eyes fixed upon the ground remained without a sigh, with- 
 out a moan, mourning for their wives and little ones who 
 had been so ruthlessly slaughtered. 
 
 Father Garnier died at the age of 44, on the eve of the 
 Feast of the Immaculate Conception. If he had been asked, 
 he would have chosen that day above all others to die. 
 
 364 
 
NOEL CHABANEL 
 
« 
 
 2; 
 g 
 
 to 
 < 
 
NOEL CHABANEL. 
 
 Towards the end of his life Father Chabanel used to 
 say very frequently : " Mine will be a martyrdom in the 
 gloom." It was a curious utterance and its meaning was 
 by no means clear, but it was verified in a very remarkable 
 manner. Indeed there was a gloom hanging over Chabanel 
 during all his missionary career, and for a long time after 
 his death doubt and uncertainty remained about the place 
 and manner in which he died. When he came to New 
 France the whole colony was buried in gloom. The mis- 
 sions were perishing, and every effort to relieve them had 
 been unsuccessful. The Iroquois were hovering around 
 Montreal and Three Rivers, and even Quebec was in peril, 
 and then the news came over the ocean that Louis XIII, 
 who had the interests of the colony so much at heart was 
 dead. All that was bad enough, but the regular vessels 
 from the mother country no longer arrived. Had they 
 been lost in the deep? Spring dragged into summer, and 
 it was already the month of August. Still no vessel ap- 
 peared. At last, just as the priest was about to begin 
 Mass on the Feast of the Assumption, two sails were seen 
 coming up the river. They dropped their anchors a league 
 away from the fort and a shallop put off for the shore. 
 On board the ships was the venerable Father Quentin. 
 With him were two other missionaries, Garreau and 
 Chabanel, both of whom were to be killed. They were 
 welcomed with delight by Vimont, who wrote that they were 
 apt at learning the Indian language, but it was a sad mis- 
 take in Chabanel's case. He never could utter a word of 
 Indian speech. Not that he was dull. On the con- 
 trary he was a man of brilliant parts. He had taught 
 Rhetoric and Poetry at Rhodez and Toulouse, and might 
 have achieved fame if he had remained in France. 
 
 367 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 He tarried a year in Quebec, for it was impossible to 
 ascend the river which was swarming with Iroquois, but 
 at last the governor determined to force a passage at any 
 cost, and with twenty soldiers, de Brebeuf, Garreau and 
 Chabanel, made the attempt and succeeded. We are told 
 that the soldiers who acted as an escort were sobered by 
 the dangers of the expedition. There were several wild 
 lads among them, who had need of something serious to 
 steady them, and now they protested that they had em- 
 barked on the enterprise not in any spirit of adventure or 
 to better their fortunes, but solely to atone for the past. 
 How long the poor fellows persevered in their pious senti- 
 ments is not recorded. 
 
 Chabanel was employed at St. Mary's, and applied him- 
 self vigorously to the study of the language. He failed 
 completely. Though of superior talents and possessed of 
 an excellent memory, year after year passed by and he could 
 not make himself understood in the most ordinary mat- 
 ters. Not only that, but there developed in his heart a 
 loathing for the savages. He could scarcely look at them. 
 Their grossness and filth revolted him, and he could never 
 grow accustomed to the food which the other missionaries 
 were compelled to eat. What was worst of all, the heroic 
 sentiments with which he was formerly actuated vanished, 
 and while his brethren were longing for martyrdom, he 
 was in constant dread of being tortured and killed by the 
 Iroquois. A good many people will sympathize with the 
 poor man. 
 
 The consequence was that he fell into a deep depression 
 of spirits. He had been convinced in France that he had 
 a vocation for the missions, and now he found himself ab- 
 horring every thing connected with them. Even after three 
 or four years application he could not say a word to the 
 meanest Indian. Day after day, and year after year the 
 temptation came to him : " Go back to France ; you have 
 been under a delusion ; your Superiors have made a mis- 
 
 368 
 
NOEL CHABANEL. 
 
 take; you have no vocation for this kind of work." But he 
 never gave up. He kept doggedly at his task, and finally, 
 to put an end to any more discussion about the propriety 
 of his remaining, he wrote the following vow : 
 
 " O Lord Jesus Christ, who in the admirable disposition 
 of Thy Fatherly Providence, hast deigned to call me though 
 altogether unworthy to be a helper of the holy apostles who 
 cultivate the vineyard of the Hurons, I, Noel Chabanel, 
 impelled by the desire of serving the Holy Spirit in pro- 
 moting the conversion of the savages of Huronia to the 
 Faith, vow, in presence of the Most Holy Sacrament of Thy 
 Body and Blood, God's testament with men, perpetual 
 stability in this Huron Mission, understanding all this in 
 accordance with the interpretations and arrangements of 
 the Society and its Superiors. I beg Thee, therefore, to 
 receive me as the perpetual servant of this mission, and to 
 make me worthy of such an exalted ministry, Amen. June 
 21, 1647." 
 
 Even after this, the temptations did not cease, but he 
 always conquered them, and God gave him the perseverance 
 for which he prayed. He now even looked for martyr- 
 dom. We do not know in what missions he labored, but it 
 is of no importance ; for beyond baptizing and saying Mass, 
 of course he did nothing. However, one very interesting 
 appointment is revealed in a letter to his brother in France. 
 " You came near having a martyr for your brother," he 
 wrote. " I was with Father de Brebeuf at St. Ignatius, 
 and was recalled, and Father Gabriel Lalemant took my 
 place. In a month he was dead." It was certainly a nar- 
 row escape, especially as we learn from Father Chastelain, 
 who was Chabanel's spiritual guide, that he was a completely 
 transformed man when he started for that post. " I do not 
 know what there is in me," he said, "or what God wishes, 
 but I feel completely changed on one point. Now that I 
 am going to face almost certain death, I feel no fear. This 
 do€S not come from me." 
 
 369 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Afterward depression came for a different reason, namely, 
 that he had escaped death, which he ascribed to his own 
 unworthiness. "Alas!" he says, "one must have a dif- 
 ferent kind of virtue than mine. Perhaps I shall be a 
 martyr in umbra, and undergo a martyr iiim sine sanguine." 
 He was already suffering a bloodless martyrdom in the 
 agony which his own disposition was inflicting on him. 
 *' But it may be," he continues, " that the ravages of the 
 Iroquois will one day do the rest through the merits of so 
 many saints with whom I have the consolation of living." 
 
 His time was approaching. x\fter leaving de Brebeuf, 
 he was sent to help Garnier among the Petuns. There, con- 
 ditions were much worse than at St. Ignatius. The two 
 priests were actually starving, and on December 6th 
 Chabanel was called to St. Joseph's Island, to which the old 
 mission of St. Mary's had been meantime transferred. 
 As the order was peremptory he bade farewell to Garnier, 
 and started for St. Mathias, twelve miles further north, 
 where he found Fathers Garreau and Greslon, who were 
 expecting to be killed in a disturbance which had just de- 
 clared itself there. On the morning of December 7th he 
 resumed his journey, taking with him seven or eight Indians 
 as guides. His last words to his two Jesuit brethren were : 
 *' I am going where obedience summons me. I may never 
 arrive there, but if I do I shall ask my Superior to send me 
 back again to the mission which was my share of work, 
 for I must serve God until I die." They were to go east- 
 ward from St. Mathias till they reached the Nottawasaga 
 River, which they had to cross, and then proceed along the 
 shore of Nottawasaga Bay up to the head of the Peninsula, 
 and from there get over the best way they could to St. 
 Joseph's Island. They made eighteen or nineteen miles 
 that day, over a very difficult road, and arrived by night- 
 fall at a place where the Nottawasaga makes a great bend 
 before it empties into the Bay. They threw themselves 
 down to rest in a dense wood, knowing nothing of the 
 
 370 
 
NOEL CHABANEL. 
 
 tragedy that had occurred that very afternoon at St. John's, 
 where Father Garnier and all the inhabitants of the village 
 had been killed. But towards midnight, Chabanel heard 
 a confused murmur in the distance. It was coming nearer, 
 and he awoke the sleeping Indians. What could it be? 
 Surely not the Petuns, who had left St. John's before the 
 massacre. They had gone in another direction. It must 
 be the Iroquois. There was an immediate flight, and as far 
 as can be made out from the accounts, the fugitives ran 
 towards their own country, and consequently in the direc- 
 tion of the approaching Iroquois, but, of course, to one 
 side, so as to avoid meeting them. Exhausted with hunger 
 and fatigue, Chabanel followed them a little while and then 
 fell on his knees, saying to his companions : " It matters 
 not if I die. Life is but a slight thing after all, and the 
 Iroquois cannot rob me of Paradise." There the Indians 
 left him. Meantime, unaware of the nearness of the Petuns, 
 the Iroquois passed on, and crossed the frontiers of 
 Huronia. No enemies were to be feared; for as we have 
 already said, that territory was now deserted. 
 
 At day break, finding himself refreshed, Chabanel ap- 
 pears to have given up the idea of returning to St. Mathias, 
 whither the others had fled; and resumed his journey to 
 St. Joseph's Island. He soon reached the river. It was 
 too wide to ford, and it was reported that an Indian found 
 him there bareheaded, without any of the traps that are 
 usually carried on such journeys, and took him across the 
 river. He never reached St. Joseph's. For a long time 
 the Fathers wondered what had become of him. Was 
 he murdered by the Iroquois; had he died of starvation in 
 the woods ; or did the Indian who carried him across the 
 river kill him? They strongly suspected that the last sup- 
 position was correct, though they had no proofs. But there 
 was a strong presumption that such was his fate. 
 
 Just before Chabanel had passed through St, Mathias 
 on the way from St. John's to St. Joseph's Island, a Huron 
 
 371 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 had made his appearance there, and told a number of his 
 tribesmen who were fugitives among the Petuns that he 
 had been down at Quebec and had seen valuable presents 
 given to the Iroquois by Onontio, the governor ; and had 
 heard that a secret treaty had been made, in virtue of which 
 the French were to keep up the semblance of opposition to 
 the Iroquois, but were always to fight without bullets, so 
 that no Iroquois would be killed, and that thus the destruc- 
 tion of the Hurons would be effected without openly in- 
 volving the French. 
 
 This cock-and-bull story was immediately accepted by 
 the Hurons as true, and the excitement became so intense 
 that they succeeded in getting the Petuns to call a council 
 in the absence of the two missionaries, Greslon and Gar- 
 reau. In the council it was determined to kill them as soon 
 as they returned to St. Mathias. Quite unaware of what 
 had happened the two missionaries arrived. They saw an 
 angry mob of Petuns and Hurons waiting to receive them, 
 and they expected a blow of the tomahawk as they ap- 
 proached, but they coolly and even smilingly walked into 
 the very midst of the throng, addressing a word here and 
 there to friends as they passed along. The Indians gasped 
 in amazement. Each one waited for the other to strike 
 the blow, but no arm was lifted and the two priests quietly 
 entered their lodge. 
 
 Among the Hurons who were thus stirring up the Petuns 
 against the missionaries was Chabanel's boatman, and two 
 years afterward he admitted that he had murdered the 
 priest. He had once been a Christian, but on account of 
 the misfortunes which befell him he left the Faith, and 
 became very bitter in his hatred of the missionaries, an- 
 nouncing publicly that he intended to kill one of them. He 
 did so, but his worldly condition was not improved as he 
 expected. On the contrary all his people were either killed 
 or led into captivity by the Mohawks. It was his apostacy 
 that placed the crown on the head of Father Chabanel. 
 
 372 
 
NOEL CHABANEL. 
 
 How the murder was committed was never known. Was 
 Chabanel tomahawked and thrown into the river, or was 
 he drowned ? At all events he had verified the enigmatical 
 utterance of the martyrium sine sanguine. He died in the 
 shadow and gloom of the forest, where he was all alone with 
 the assassin. Nor has the uncertainty ever been removed 
 about the manner and the time of his death. About the 
 cause there is no doubt. He was killed out of hatred for 
 the Faith. 
 
 873 
 
LEONARD GARREAU 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 We have seen how the column of smoke that rose over 
 Etarhita on the afternoon of December 7, 1649, told Fathers 
 Garreau and Greslon, who were at Ekareniondi that Father 
 Gamier was dead. They awaited their own turn, and 
 could not understand why the Iroquois did not come to 
 complete the work of slaughter. They thought that prob- 
 ably it was a savage ruse, and that later on, when they 
 least expected, the enemy would swoop down on them. 
 Hence, after burying Father Garnier they quietly prepared 
 for death, which might come as quickly from their own 
 people as from outside. For they were fully aware that 
 the plot which had miscarried a day or so before, might 
 be organized again. Soon, however, Father Greslon fell 
 sick, and was recalled to St. Joseph's Island, and Father 
 Garreau was left all alone. He was thus the last priest 
 outside of the general refuge on St. Joseph's Island. It is 
 very singular how little has been ever published about this 
 great man. There are valuable manuscripts in the archives 
 of St. Mary's, which are of most absorbing interest in the 
 revelations they give of him, but beyond a scant notice, 
 here and there, very little of this material has found its 
 way into print. 
 
 As often happens when a man achieves greatness, there 
 is an attempt to discover some strain of noble blood in the 
 family to which he belongs — a natural impulse which is not 
 at all reprehensible even in our democratic days, and such 
 may have been the motive that prompted two of the curious 
 letters which we find in the folio labelled " Garrneau," in 
 the musty archives of St. Mary's. One of them is from the 
 Office Heraldiqiie et Historique de France, a bureau which 
 proclaims istelf as engaged in " Recherches Genealogiques; " 
 gives "consultations juridiqucs" and engages in " travaux 
 
 377 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 heraldiques en style Moyen Age et Renaissance." It was 
 this high sounding pronouncement of its purpose that no 
 doubt induced some one in Montreal named Gareau to 
 inquire if he was in any way connected with the martyr. 
 He was answered by one of the principal officials of the 
 Bureau — a Frenchman of course; but possessed of a name 
 that comes almost with a shock. It is no less than " M. 
 O'Kelly de Galway," who informs his correspondent that 
 Mr. O'Kelly alone possesses the manuscript list of all the 
 names cited in the condensed inventories of Charente In- 
 ferieur and of the civil list of La Rochelle. 
 
 One expects much from the prelude, but the inquirer is 
 merely informed that the name properly spelled must have 
 a double r, and that in 1660 there was a Pierre Garreau at 
 La Rochelle who by brevet royal had been courtier-jiire, 
 which, as far as we can make out, is merely a duly accredited 
 broker. It is edifying to note that M. O'Kelly advises M. 
 Garreau that the laborious researches which were under- 
 taken imply an honorary of one hundred francs. 
 
 Another communication is to the Archivist of St. Mary's 
 College, and is from the Commandant dii Garreau, of the 
 6th corps d'armee, 5th division de cavalerie Etat Mayor. 
 This distinguished officer insists that Father Garreau was 
 of his kin, for the reason that such has been always the 
 family tradition, and also that the name Leonard is very 
 frequently given at baptism. Whatever foundation there 
 may be to his claim, the fact remains that the great mis- 
 sionary never called himself dii Garreau, and his fellow 
 Jesuits were unaware that he or his family ever employed 
 the prefix. In a letter written by Father Ragueneau, shortly 
 after the tragedy, the hero's brother is addressed as plain 
 M. Garreau. It is true that in Father Martin's MSS. there 
 is a reference to the noblesse of the family, and to the great 
 number of its dependents, but that is all we know about the 
 subject. 
 
 He was born on October 11, 1609, in the town of 
 
 378 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 Aredieux or Saint-Yriex, in the Diocese of Limoges. His 
 mother had the very amiable name of Frangoise de Gentil, 
 and apparently deserved it. She is said to have been en- 
 dowed with every womanly virtue, and devoted herself 
 exclusively to the training of her numerous offspring. 
 There was enough to do, for she was blessed with no less 
 than ten children. Fortunately the other head of the house 
 was all that she could have desired. He had served with 
 distinction in the armies of Henry IV, and when the wars 
 were over, he was often cited as the ideal Christian war- 
 rior. He was famous for his benevolence to the needy; 
 never pressed his tenants when the harvests were poor, and 
 when he was about to go to heaven, cancelled all the debts 
 they had ever contracted against him. His alms always 
 passed through the hands of his children, but that excellent 
 custom developed into an extravagance in the case of the 
 subject of this sketch. Young Leonard used to give to 
 the poor everything he could lay his hands on in the 
 house. When admonished that well ordered charity con- 
 sisted in disposing of one's own and not of other people's 
 property, he promptly changed his ways; but it was soon 
 perceived that he was growing pale and sickly. Finally 
 it was discovered that he was giving the greatest part of 
 his meals to the people he thought were hungry. After 
 that, other means had to be devised to let him indulge his 
 benevolent inclinations. 
 
 The Garreaus must have been a very holy family. Be- 
 sides the Jesuit, two of the boys became secular priests 
 and another a Recollect friar, who was subsequently Master 
 of Novices in his Order, Nor were they slow in making 
 up their minds. Leonard's vocation was decided shortly 
 after his birth. He was a sickly child and not expected 
 to live, whereupon his mother offered him to God and 
 promised to let him enter any religious order he chose if 
 such were the Divine Will. She was rewarded by seeing 
 the boy immediately develop into sturdy health. It is sin- 
 
 379 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 gular that the shadow of death always had a formative 
 influence in the development of the sanctity of Leonard 
 Garreau. 
 
 He went to school at Limoges and Bordeaux where he 
 shone intellectually, and was never admonished for mis- 
 behavior except when he was caught keeping a rigorous 
 Lent when he was only sixteen. But long before that he 
 had been fasting every Saturday, in honor of the Blessed 
 Virgin. Of course there was no difficulty in accepting such 
 a lad when he wanted to become a Jesuit, and on Sep- 
 tember 27, 1628 he entered the Novitiate at Bordeaux, 
 which then belonged to the Province of Aquitaine. Now 
 at that very time Quebec was being beseiged and the specu- 
 lation naturally suggests itself : what would have been Gar- 
 reau's subsequent career, if the English flag had continued 
 to fly above the citadel on the St. Lawrence. He remained 
 about eleven years in France, and was conspicuous both 
 for his intellectual abilities and the holiness of his life, 
 and for both reasons was sent to Rome to study theology. 
 While there, the Father General, Mutius Vitelleschi, gave 
 him permission to go to America for the Indian missions. 
 
 He left La Rochelle on May 18, 1643, and on that day 
 he wrote to his beloved brother, the Recollect friar, to whom 
 he was tenderly attached. The letter is valuable as a his- 
 torical document, and furnishes us, at the same time, with 
 an excellent picture of the young missionary's soul. It is as 
 follows : 
 
 " He who writes to you is your brother whom you have 
 not forgotten, and who will never forget you. He loves 
 you and will always love you as himself, and will never 
 cease to pray daily for you with all the fervor he possesses. 
 
 " You already know, I think, that when I was at Rome 
 studying theology I obtained permission from Father Gen- 
 eral, after many efforts on my part, to go to New France, 
 to devote the rest of my life in converting the poor savages, 
 who have been so long under the thraldom of the evil one. 
 
 380 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 As such a vocation is somewhat out of the ordinary, and 
 entails great labor and suffering, I studied it according to 
 all the rules of prudence left us by the saints. Being finally 
 persuaded that it came from God, and that it was an ex- 
 traordinary privilege to be called to such a mission, I took 
 the resolution to employ whatever means were in my power 
 to obtain it. God has blessed me with success, and I am 
 now about to realize my ambition. In four hours I shall 
 leave France. 
 
 " I must bid you a long farewell, my dear brother in 
 Jesus Christ, and it is not without the deepest emotion 
 that I find myself leaving one whom I love so much. 
 We have not been able to see each other for a moment and 
 embrace each other in the Lord, but let us be submissive 
 to the will of God, and console ourselves with the thought 
 of meeting in heaven, where there shall be no parting. 
 
 " I beg and implore you, O, my brother, if you still keep 
 some remembrance and love for him who loves you more 
 than anyone else, to ask God to give me the necessary 
 virtue for the new work which I now undertake. 
 
 " I set out full of joy, and so happy that I would not 
 change my lot for all the kingdoms of the earth. The 
 only thing that would complete my happiness is a little 
 half-hour's talk with you, to receive your counsel on the 
 kind of life that I am embracing. But let us learn to suffer 
 the privation willingly. We must begin to renounce all 
 human and even heavenly consolation if such is the good 
 pleasure of God. 
 
 " I did not call on my brother when I went from Paris- 
 to La Rochelle. I knew it would have been of no use, and 
 I thought it was proper to offer that sacrifice to God, al- 
 though it was, naturally, so painful ; so I deprived myself 
 of the greatest consolation I could have here below, in order 
 to obtain by this renunciation of self, the grace of becoming 
 a worthy instrument in the hands of God. 
 
 " Farewell then, my brother, farewell once again. I 
 
 381 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 embrace you with all my heart and love. Have pity on 
 your brother, not because he is going to expose himself 
 to tempests and shipwreck, to pirates and to savages, who 
 are the cruelest of men — that is only a reason for joy; but 
 because he is not yet what God would wish him to be, and 
 is very far removed from the virtue which a worker in such 
 a field ought to have." It would be hard to beat that for 
 a love letter. 
 
 On the vessel with him were Fathers Chabanel, Druil- 
 lettes, de Lyonne and Claude Ouentin. They reached 
 Quebec on August 19, 1643, He immediately wrote to 
 his brother, and to interest him the more, he made use of a 
 piece of birch bark instead of paper, for the missive. It 
 reads as follows : 
 
 " We suffered on the voyage what people usually do ; 
 storms, danger of going to the bottom, want of fresh 
 w^ater, seasickness, which is a grievous trial, and the ex- 
 tremes of heat and cold. But all that trouble is now over, 
 and it only made our arrival at Quebec the happier. As 
 regards myself, I have never felt greater joy of heart. I 
 would not exchange our bark hut for a king's palace, nor 
 our poverty for all the riches and magnificence that I have 
 seen in Rome or Paris; and this thought fills me with the 
 greatest consolation. I can imitate Jesus Christ, my good 
 Master, and obtain from Him the gift of fidelity in whatever 
 is painful and hard. His journey to earth when he came 
 from heaven for our salvation w^as longer than ours from 
 the Old World to the New. The conversion of a single soul 
 is, on that account, worth daring, if necessary, a thousand 
 deaths, since for that reason the Son of God did not spare his 
 blood or his life. 
 
 " I thank God that I fear neither fire nor sword. The 
 most ardent desire of my heart is to sacrifice myself entirely 
 for God, who is so good that he has sacrificed himself 
 for me. I do not deserve such a favor, and I have reason 
 to fear that my sins may prevent me from gaining the 
 
 382 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 crown of martyrdom, and that is what has brought me 
 here. 
 
 " Believe me, my brother, everything here below is 
 vanity and delusion, except the desire to work and suffer 
 for God. When you think that such is the harvest I am 
 reaping here do not worry, but rather rejoice with me that 
 I am where God wishes, where I have desired so ardently 
 to be, and where I am resolved to live and die for Him. 
 Do not, however, imagine that we are without consolation. 
 The success of our labors in propagating the Faith has been 
 very great." 
 
 The thirteen years he spent in Canada were a complete 
 realization of these lofty ideals. He was forever elimin- 
 ating from his life whatever could flatter the senses ; he 
 w^as always thirsting for suffering, and was always on fire 
 with the love of God and his neighbor. When he first ar- 
 rived at Quebec he was assigned to the Algonquins, and 
 consequently when de Brebeuf was returning to the mis- 
 sions and needed some one to look after the roaming 
 savages who were staying around Huronia, Garreau was 
 chosen for the work, and he started up the river on Septem- 
 ber 7, 1644. On reaching Huronia, he was immediately des- 
 patched with Father Claude Pijart to Lake Nippissing, 
 where his flock could be found. They set out at the end of 
 November in a canoe, taking the west shore of Georgian 
 Bay, and going north to the mouth of the French River. 
 Ascending that stream they finally arrived at the lake. 
 
 On December 4 they were still out in Georgian Bay, about 
 nine miles from the shore when the cold became intense, 
 and with such suddenness that they found themselves caught 
 in the ice, and without any possibility of running their 
 boat to the shore. Their only hope was to get on the ice, 
 w^hich was not yet thick enough to bear them ; they hesi- 
 tated, but as it was a choice of freezing to death in the 
 motionless canoe or taking the risk, they concluded 
 to make the attempt.. They succeeded at first, and crept 
 
 383 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 along cautiously, strung out a long distance from each 
 other. A Frenchman and an Indian took the lead to test 
 the ice, while the missionaries, not used to that kind of 
 travelling, followed slowly and with great effort. They 
 were soon very far behind ; when suddenly the whole surface 
 gave way under the feet of Father Pijart, and he dis- 
 appeared in the lake. Garreau uttered a loud cry of alarm, 
 and, quite oblivious of himself, hastened to the rescue. But 
 he went in also, and both were soon grasping at the floating 
 cakes around them. Their shouts brought their com- 
 panions to the rescue, but there was no means of getting 
 near the edge of the hole. Ropes were flung to the drown- 
 ing men, but each effort to get out only widened the break, 
 and meantime they were freezing to death in the icy water. 
 
 Humanly speaking all hope was lost, but they put their 
 life in God's hands, praying with fervor to the saint whose 
 feast was celebrated that day. They did not lose their 
 heads for a moment, and finally, after desperate struggles 
 they reached a piece of ice strong enough to support them, 
 and by help of the ropes were hauled out of the water. 
 The cold pierced the marrow of their bones, and their 
 clothes became a solid block. They made all haste for the 
 shore, lighted a fire and put together some bits of bark for a 
 shelter against the driving wind. They recovered suf- 
 ficiently, and then resumed their journey to the mission 
 which, unfortunately, was not in any fixed place, but where- 
 ever the roving Indians chose to go ; the presence of game 
 usually deciding their camp. This rude work of following 
 the tribe was continued all the winter and following sum- 
 mer; a terrible trial for two raw Europeans who, besides 
 the hardships of the journey had nothing to eat; for the 
 Algonquins devoured all the game they shot, and then 
 starved till the next stroke of luck. But we are told that 
 the missionaries found it easy because of the docility and 
 fervor of their neophytes. 
 
 Towards autumn they started for St. Mary's, but on the 
 
 384 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 road Garreau fell ill. Disentery and fever made a wreck 
 of him, and in that condition he had to face the wind and 
 the heat and the rain, and sometimes in the hard parts 
 of the journey, had to work like a slave at the paddle. Of 
 course he grew worse. They stopped for a while to let 
 him recuperate, but the symptoms became so alarming that 
 they had to carry him on their shoulders, over the long and 
 difficult portages, exhausting themselves as well as the 
 sufferer. They endeavored to buoy him up with words 
 of encouragement, the only thing they had to offer, and 
 on the other hand his courage and resignation gave them 
 strength. Finally, after a journey of thirteen long and 
 sorrowful days, they arrived at St. Mary's. They were 
 just in time. The sick man could stand it no longer, and 
 for twenty-four hours he was at the point of death. Every 
 moment they expected him to breathe his last. Indeed, he 
 was so far gone that his coffin was actually made; but 
 they kept on praying for him, and everyone made a vow 
 to the Blessed Virgin for his recovery. Their prayer was 
 heard. His strength returned, and he was soon on his feet 
 again ready for work. 
 
 His friend. Father Garnier, who was present, wrote with 
 enthusiasm about his manner of supporting his sufferings, 
 " I was often carried away with admiration this winter," 
 he says, " by one of Ours, who was so close to death that 
 we were preparing his grave. He was sick for thirty-eight 
 days, and what delighted us was the abundance of grace 
 that God gave him. Indeed, it seemed too much for the 
 extreme feebleness of his body. There was such an in- 
 tensity and uninterruptedness in the heroic acts of humility 
 which he made; there was such a boundless love of God 
 which prompted him to offer himself to suffer all the pains 
 of hell if necessary, and there were so many ardent aspira- 
 tions for heaven that we could not understand how he did 
 not succumb. He would pass three and four hours without 
 intermission in those acts of piety. 
 
 385 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 As soon as he was up, Father Garreau went to work with 
 greater enthusiasm than ever. The goodness of God had 
 given him back his health, and he determined to use every 
 bit of it. Father Ragueneau, who afterwards became his 
 superior, wrote of him that " he died daily," and in an 
 official letter to the General, in 1645, Pijart, who knew him 
 thoroughly, described him as " a most intrepid mission- 
 ary, just such as we need most here." When Father 
 Garnier was sent in 1646 to found a permanent mission 
 among the Petuns he took Garreau with him as a com- 
 panion, chiefly to look after the Algonquin contingent 
 that had settled there. He was very busy with them all 
 winter, but an unfortunate occurrence disturbed the good 
 feelings that existed between the Petuns and their Algon- 
 quin neighbors. An Algonquin was killed, and the Petuns 
 refused to make the usual reparation. This failure of jus- 
 tice caused a rupture, and the Algonquins decamped and 
 settled elsewhere. 
 
 As Garreau thus lost his flock, he set himself to study 
 Huron, so as to be better able to help Father Garnier, whose 
 work had grown excessively heavy. 
 
 A holy emulation sprung up between these two saints, 
 in the care of their respective flocks. They alternately ex- 
 changed missions. Thus after fifteen or twenty days of 
 work apart from each other, they met and passed two or 
 three days together and then separated for another space, 
 each taking the other's place, and so on through the year. 
 " We are alone," says Garnier, " for three weeks at a time, 
 except for our good angels and our Indians, but we must 
 admit that the time of solitude is richest in graces and con- 
 solations." 
 
 In 1649, Father Greslon was sent to help Father Gar- 
 nier, and Chabanel was named as Garreau's assistant. It 
 was the year of the great catastrophies. De Brebeuf and 
 Lalemant had been murdered and the whole country was 
 in consternation; for the destruction of the entire Huron 
 
 386 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 nation, which the Iroquois had determined to bring about 
 now seemed inevitable, especially as the year closed with 
 the deaths of Garnier and Chabanel. Garreau and Greslon 
 were thus the only priests left on the old missions. The 
 other remnants of the wreck had been gathered on St. 
 Joseph's Island. 
 
 Then Father Greslon fell sick and had to be sent away, 
 and thus Garreau was all alone in the wilderness. How 
 long he remained in that dreadful and dangerous isolation 
 we do not know exactly. But soon his Indians left him. 
 Like the rest of the tribe, they began to make their way 
 to the Island, and he was compelled to follow them. There 
 he remained until the general flight to Quebec. The story 
 of that perilous journey has been often told and we omit 
 it here, except to note that once again Garreau had to look 
 into the eyes of death before he reached civilization. He 
 was caught in the rapids and upset. Fortunately he was 
 able to cling to his canoe, while he was being battered against 
 the rocks by the roaring torrent. How he was saved he 
 does not tell us, except that his Angel Guardian got him 
 out of trouble. It would be pleasant for inquisitive mor- 
 tals to know who was his Angel Guardian's representative. 
 Possibly that was not the only adventure in the nine hundred 
 miles of a journey, which he told his brother could be 
 scarcely more perilous. 
 
 Every one was gloomy at Quebec after the arrival of 
 the Hurons. For the priests, there were no longer any 
 missions, and for the traders there were no more furs. 
 At last, in 1654, to the delight of everyone, there sailed 
 down the St. Lawrence a great flotilla of canoes loaded with 
 rich peltries. A new set of Indians presented themselves. 
 They were the Ottawas, or Chcveux Relcves. Immediately 
 the traders took heart, and two young Frenchmen volun- 
 teered to go back with the newcomers to visit their country. 
 It is not said in the " Relations " who these " two young 
 men " were, but it is very likely they were no other than 
 
 387 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 Radisson and Chouart, the latter known later as Grosel- 
 liers, both of whom figure very largely in Canadian history 
 and who ultimately, to the chagrin of their compatriots, 
 established the English Hudson Bay Company. They 
 were accepted by the Ottawas, and started up the river with 
 the intention of remaining a year. They did not return 
 for two years, and when all hope of ever seeing them was 
 given up, fifty canoes with 180 Ottawas paddled down to 
 Three Rivers with a load of furs that set the whole colony 
 dancing with delight. Every young man wanted to go 
 back with them, and yielding to the popular demand the 
 Governor commissioned thirty Frenchmen to begin a set- 
 tlement in the Ottawa country. But it was not only trade 
 that received a new impulse. While Radisson and Chouart 
 were trafficking for furs, they had not been oblivious of 
 the interests of religion. They had spoken a great deal to 
 the Ottawas about Christianity, had even baptized all the 
 dying babies they could lay their hands on, and had got a 
 promise from the chiefs to ask for missionaries when they 
 went down to Quebec. The Indians kept their promise, 
 and offered the Governor to take back with them tw^o priests 
 to instruct the tribe. Father Garreau, who had spent some 
 time on the Isle d'Orleans with Chaumonot and the Hurons, 
 and was then at Three Rivers, was expressly asked for. 
 
 It was a joyous day for Quebec when amid the booming 
 of cannon and the cheers of the colonists, the thirty French- 
 men got into the canoes with the one hundred and eighty 
 Indians and started up the St. Lawrence. In the party were 
 Fathers Garreau and Druillettes, and also Brother le Boeme, 
 wnth three domestics who had volunteered to go with the 
 missionaries. 
 
 They were in high spirits until they met a French soldier 
 on the river, who had been sent down to warn them that 
 the Iroquois were on the war path, and were in ambush 
 higher up the stream. The intelligence gave a chill to the 
 enthusiastic company but it soon passed, and trusting in 
 
 388 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 their numbers they were almost eager to meet the foe. 
 Whether or not they were seen by the Iroquois or whether 
 the wily foe let them pass in hopes of a better opportunity 
 further up, can not be determined. At all events the trav- 
 ellers reached Three Rivers in safety, and were quite elated 
 over their success. But the feeling that prevailed in the 
 settlement soon cooled their ardor, and they suddenly dis- 
 covered that their canoes were in bad condition, and that 
 their provisions were insufficient for the long journey of 
 one thousand two hundred miles that lay before them. 
 They ended by very disgracefully backing down from their 
 lofty purpose, and concluded to return to Quebec. 
 
 Of course the Ottawas had to continue on their journey, 
 and as the priests and brother were actuated by a loftier 
 purpose than that of money-making, and had never any 
 intention of withdrawing, they started on the way up 
 the river with the Indians. Their three domestics also 
 went with them. The Ottawas were in great spirits, and 
 were quite heedless of the warnings they had received. 
 They not only took no precautions against a surprise, but 
 the foolish young braves who were as delighted with the 
 firearms which they had purchased as a child is with a 
 new toy, were continually shooting off their pieces to hear 
 the report, or to bring down any game they met on the 
 way. They were unaware that the Iroquois had been 
 tracking them all the way up the river. 
 
 When they approached Montreal they entered the Riviere 
 des Prairies, or Back River as it is now called, which runs 
 on the north side of the island. Precisely how far they 
 had travelled we do not know, though probably they had 
 already covered a considerable distance. Six of the canoes 
 were somewhat in advance, and in one of them was Father 
 Garreau, intent on instructing his Indians. They had 
 passed a rapid, and to avoid the current had to go very close 
 to the shore near where a point of land projected into the 
 river. Suddenly a report of firearms was heard, and 
 
 389 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 several of the occupants of the canoes tumbled over dead 
 or wounded. Among them was Father Garreau, who was 
 hit on the right side by a bullet which shattered his spine. 
 They were at that time so close to the bank that the 
 Iroquois pounced upon them and dragged them out of 
 their boats. Those who were not wounded were made 
 prisoners, and flung inside of the entrenchments which the 
 Iroquois had, in expectation of a fight, thrown up near by. 
 Seeing what had happened, the main body of the Ottawas 
 hurried forward, determined to make short work of the 
 enemy. But their ardor was checked when they en- 
 countered the defences from which it was impossible to 
 dislodge the foe. Chagrined and baffled, they withdrew a 
 short distance and began to build a fort of their own. 
 Then they changed their tactics, and asked for a parley. 
 They protested that they had no quarrel with the Iroquois, 
 and merely wanted leave to continue on their journey, 
 but their proposals were treated with contempt. 
 
 That night there was a tumult in the Ottawa camp. 
 Shouts of command and the noise of falling trees gave 
 notice to the enemy that a fight was going to be made on 
 the morrow, but when morning dawned the Ottawas had 
 disappeared. The noise was only a trick to deceive the 
 enemy. It was the usual Indian strategy, and it is curious 
 that it so often succeeded. Father Druillettes and the 
 lay brother, Boeme, who had not been hurt in the 
 fight Vi^anted to continue on the journey, but their request 
 was refused, and they were left to shift for themselves in 
 the woods. Ferland says they were taken prisoners by 
 the Iroquois and led to Montreal, but he gives no authority 
 for his assertion. There is nothing about it in the " Re- 
 lation." 
 
 What had become of Garreau meantime? He was bleed- 
 ing to death inside the stockade. He had been stripped of 
 his clothes down to the miserable drawers that he wore, 
 and left to die on the ground. No one paid any attention 
 
 390 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 to him except one Indian, who offered him some medicine 
 which he was unable to take. It was then 4 o'clock on 
 Wednesday, August 30, 1656. From time to time the 
 savages would come to poke at the hole with iron prongs to 
 try to extract the bullet, and he bore the agony of that hor- 
 rible probing without a murmur. Thursday passed and 
 Friday, and still he lay on the bare earth bathed in his blood. 
 No one had given him even a drink of water, though they 
 were on the river bank. Even then he was thinking of the 
 souls around him, for while his eyes were closing in death he 
 discovered among the captives a number of Huron Chris- 
 tians, and calling them over he made them go to confession, 
 gasping out the words of absolution and exhorting them 
 as best he could to be faithful during the terrible tortures 
 and death to which they were doomed. But God gave him 
 a much greater consolation. Among the Iroquois was an 
 apostate Frenchman, who in a wild rage about some wrong 
 which he had received in Quebec, had become an Indian. 
 Father Garreau calmed the fury of the poor wretch, and 
 after a while reconciled him to God. It was providential, 
 for a day or so after, when the party went over to Mon^ 
 treal, the Iroquois betrayed the renegade to the colonists; 
 and he was taken down to Quebec and hanged. But he 
 persevered in the good sentiments which Father Garreau 
 had poured into his soul, and died in great contrition for 
 his sins. Such was the last act of the ministry of Father 
 Garreau. If we are to trust Belmont, in his " Histoire du 
 Canada," it was this Frenchman who fired the fatal shot ; 
 but perhaps that story was told by the Iroquois to shift the 
 blame from themselves. 
 
 Saturday morning came, and Father Garreau was stilj 
 breathing. It was a serious situation for the Iroquois. 
 They were at peace with the French, and yet here was one 
 who was not only a Frenchman but a priest whom they had 
 murdered. It meant war unless it was explained. So they 
 took up the dying man and hurried to Montreal, arriving 
 
 391 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 there in the afternoon. FHnging down the usual presents 
 to wipe away the tears of his friends, they declared that the 
 shooting was an accident, and then made off with them- 
 selves. Nothing could be done to punish them. 
 
 The great missionary was true to his high ideals to the 
 very end. Without a murmur of resentment against the 
 wretches who had so cruelly treated him during the three 
 days of agony he, on the contrary, offered up the most fer- 
 vent prayers to God in their behalf. He breathed his last, 
 at ten o'clock that night, and went to heaven. 
 
 Shortly after the tragedy Father Ragueneau, who had 
 been Father Garreau's Superior in the Huron country and 
 subsequently at Three Rivers, and who loved him tenderly, 
 wrote to the dead hero's brother. As the letter gives 
 us an appreciation of the splendid character of the dead 
 man, besides adding some details of his life which have 
 been purposely omitted in the general sketch, it is thought 
 proper to reproduce it here, even if one or two of the 
 events already told are repeated. We find it in the MSS. 
 of Father Felix Martin, who copied it from the " Histoire 
 des Saints de Limoges." Incidentally it affords us some 
 knowledge of Ragueneau's own charming character. 
 " Sir. 
 
 " Pax Christi : 
 
 " The writer, who is unknown to you, considers that he 
 is under the obligation of communicating a happy piece 
 of news about one who was very dear to you in life, and 
 who must be a thousand times more so now that he is dead. 
 
 " You have a brother in heaven, a martyr of charity, 
 killed by the savage Iroquois when he was beginning a 
 journey of four hundred leagues, to labor at the conversion 
 of a number of Indians, who having formerly known him, 
 came down the river to the number of two hundred to ask 
 for him as their teacher, promising at the same time that 
 they would become Christians. He of whom I write is 
 Father Garreau, whose virtue I have admired during the 
 
 392 
 
WHERE GARREAU WAS BURIED. 
 
 (The Maisonneuve Monument, Montreal.) 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 twelve or thirteen years in which I had the privilege of 
 knowing him in this country, and who deserves to be 
 honored for the death that has crowned his holy life. 
 
 "God is great in his saints; and his ways of leading 
 them are as adorable as they are mysterious. This blessed 
 Father was endowed with an active and solid intelligence, 
 and was accomplished in every way that one could desire. 
 Grace was added in abundance to his splendid natural 
 qualities, to make of him an evangelical laborer who, in 
 whatever place he was assigned to, reaped a rich harvest 
 of souls. Indeed it was to be expected from one whose 
 zeal was so apostolic, and whom angels and men regarded 
 with such approval. His profound humility; his patience 
 in trials, his charity which was unalterably sweet, his obedi- 
 ence that dared everything, made him conspicuous among 
 us. In brief, he possessed in an exalted degree every 
 virtue that makes souls agreeable to God. I can say with- 
 out any qualification whatever that he was dead to the 
 world and lived in God. 
 
 " About ten years ago, after inconceivable hardship in 
 the mission which lasted an entire summer, in which he had 
 absolutely nothing to alleviate his sufferings, was without 
 rest, and even without such necessities of life as the vilest 
 slaves and the most wretched of men have in abundance, he 
 returned to our mission amon the Hurons. He was deathly 
 sick. Indeed we had already made his coffin, and prepared 
 everything for his burial, under the impression that he had 
 not an hour to live. It was marvellous what the love of God 
 did in that emaciated body, whose strength was completely 
 gone. Helping him at that late hour, I discovered a saint 
 who, in the act of dying, was already living in God Every 
 throb of his heart was a transport of love. Every breath was 
 an act of love of God, uttered in such a loud but such a sweet 
 voice, while he expressed the feelings with which his heart 
 was beating, that I think it would have been impossible to 
 have suggested more tender and loving and holy prayers 
 
 893 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 than those which his Hps formed at that time. It was a 
 divine eloquence, a holy abandonment of himself to the 
 will of God, for time and eternity. 
 
 " Out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth spoke 
 to God and of God. His trust in the Almighty was so 
 sweet, his feelings of happiness so exalted, his detachment 
 from self and his attachment to God so far removed from 
 nature that we saw that grace alone abided in him, ani- 
 mating his desires, his hope and his love. This lasted 
 for a whole hour, while his body was in the throes of death. 
 But love was stronger than death, and God gave him back 
 to us though we abandoned all hope. He recovered, and 
 his noble heart continued faithful to the great love that 
 was consuming it. 
 
 " In the missions which I have referred to, I can safely 
 say that he sacrificed his whole life for God; that he suf- 
 fered everything for God, and that for him God was all, 
 and everything else was nothing. He lived in the places 
 which were most exposed to the attacks of the Iroquois, 
 and every day he was in danger of suffering a thousand 
 deaths before the final blow came. It would be impossible 
 for cruelty to invent more horrible pain than these enemies 
 of God and man inflict on those who fall into their hands. 
 Some of our Fathers have already been put to death by 
 them, but Father Garreau, instead of fearing a similar fate, 
 was longing for it. That desire animated his zeal and set 
 his heart on fire. One of our Fathers, his intimate friend 
 and the companion of his labors, Charles Garnier, was slain 
 by those wretches on December 7, 1649, and after that 
 Father Leonard was left in those parts alone, exposed to 
 all the evils that nature shrinks from. He could then say 
 with St. Paul : * I die every day,' He had nothing to eat 
 the greatest part of the time except acorns, roots and wild 
 berries. The earth was his bed and God his consolation. 
 I called him back from that mission in the spring of the 
 following year, and on his way while crossing an expanse 
 
 394 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 of about ten leagues on the lake that was between him and 
 us, he lost his way in the midst of a dense fog that settled 
 around him. Night came on with a furious storm, and 
 wearied out with paddling all day long, his companions 
 gave up all hope and let themselves be carried wherever 
 the winds and waves might toss them. It would seem that 
 God had designedly made Father Garreau die every day, 
 so that by looking death in the face his love might grow 
 in intensity; for during that time when everyone expected 
 to go to the bottom of the lake at any moment, nothing 
 but loving words left his lips, as he exhorted his companions 
 to accept death from the hands of God. During the two or 
 three hours that they were there, he had them all reciting 
 acts of the love of God and abandonment to Divine Prov- 
 idence. The party was half French and half Huron, and 
 they told us afterwards that they were never happier than 
 when all hope was gone ; they never felt so well disposed, 
 and were even desirous of death, for they were sure they 
 would never be so well prepared. The fire of divine love in 
 Father Garreau's heart had enkindled theirs, and made 
 them feel the happiness it brings. After all hope of saving 
 their lives had been abandoned, God stilled the tempest and 
 scattered the clouds, and they found themselves suddenly 
 near the shore tranquil, happy, and rejoicing. 
 
 '' Less than a year ago, in order to prepare him for death, 
 God sent him another sickness which was contracted in 
 consequence of a labor of charity. While it lasted, all 
 the virtues that one could expect in a holy man in the last 
 struggle were evidenced in his heroic patience, his absolute 
 submission to the will of God, his complete effacement of 
 self, and his love that hoped for everything from God. 
 The death of the saints is precious in the eyes of God, but 
 God, who loved him so much, reserved him for another death 
 instead of the one to which that sickness had nearly brought 
 him. 
 
 '* About two hundred and fifty Indians had come from 
 
 395 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 their country in the month of August, 1656, a distance of 
 four hundred leagues. They were partly Huron and 
 partly Algonquin. They came to trade, but also to ask 
 for missionaries, and first of all they asked expressly for 
 Father Garreau, who spoke the two languages, and also 
 for the reason that he had been the first to preach the gospel 
 among them. Having obtained two Fathers, one of our 
 brothers and three of our domestics to go with them to 
 begin a mission in those parts, he set out for their country. 
 On the way up, six Huron canoes, in one of which Father 
 Garreau was, paddled a short distance ahead of the rest of 
 the flotilla and fell into an ambuscade of Mohawks, who 
 were concealed in the reeds on the river bank, close to which 
 the canoes had to pass, and who discharged a volley of 
 musketry on the unsuspecting travellers. The best warriors 
 in the six canoes fell dead, others were wounded, and the 
 rest were dragged out of their boats to a captivity worse 
 than death. After this first success the Mohawks hurried 
 back to the intrenchment which they had thrown up in the 
 woods. 
 
 Among the victims in that first attack was Father Gar- 
 reau. He was struck by a musket ball which shattered 
 his spine. He was taken from the canoe and flung pitilessly 
 on the ground and stripped naked except for a miserable 
 drawers that?Jie wore. As he lay there the first word he ut- 
 tered was: 'O God! receive my spirit. My God! forgive 
 them.' He remained bathed in his blood for four hours, but 
 rejoicing that he was left like Christ in his dereliction. When 
 the savages came back and found him still alive they lifted 
 him up and carried him inside the stockade. It was 
 Wednesday, August 30, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon 
 that he received this stroke of death, I should rather say 
 his increase of life, for from that out, his life was only in 
 God. He did not show even the slightest movement of 
 resentment against his murderers. He was all charity for 
 them; loved them in God, and God in them; offering his 
 
 396 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 life and his death for them, adoring and blessing God 
 for the ways which had led up to the culmination of his 
 labors. 
 
 " We could not have known this, had not the goodness 
 of God given us back Father Garreau a little while before 
 death finally came to claim him. For as the victorious 
 Iroquois were anxious to keep the treaty of peace with the 
 French, while waging a cruel war against our allies, they 
 stopped at Montreal on the way back and left the Father 
 there on the Saturday following, namely the 2d of September. 
 It was a miracle that he was not dead. During all the 
 time that elapsed since he was struck by the bullet he had 
 not eaten a thing, and as not a drop of water had passed 
 his lips he was tortured by a burning thirst. 
 
 " He was received at Montreal as an apostle and a martyr 
 of Jesus Christ. That day he made his confession three 
 times over, with sentiments of humility and love worthy 
 of such a precious death. He received Holy Viaticum 
 and Extreme Unction, and answered all the prayers. He 
 continued to make acts of thanksgiving to God for the honor 
 and the favor of accepting his blood and his life for the 
 divine glory, and abandoned himself completely to God's 
 holy will. He complained that his death was too 
 easy. He lovingly invoked the Blessed Virgin, St. 
 Joseph and his Angel Guardian. Finally, in the midst of 
 his prayers, he was seized with convulsions, and at ten 
 o'clock at night he gave his beautiful soul to God whitened 
 by his blood, and leaving all those who stood around him 
 filled with joy and hope that his blood would produce abun- 
 dant fruits for the glory of God. We spared nothing to 
 make his funeral rites what they should have been. 
 
 " His life was holy and his death still more so. All who 
 knew him regard him as one of the great servants of God. 
 No one prayed for him, but all invoked him as a saint. 
 I have reason to know it, for I was his Superior for eight 
 years. I was above him, indeed, in the eyes of the world, 
 
 397 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 but in reality like the dust beneath his feet. I can affirm 
 in the presence of God, who knows the depths of our hearts, 
 that he always appeared to me to be a saint; a man of solid 
 virtue, unvarying piety, genuine humility, of a loving and 
 lovable charity, and with an apostolic zeal that merited 
 his holy death. May I die the death of that just man! 
 
 " What makes his death more precious is that he knew 
 the danger he was incurring. We had experiences of the 
 same enemy, and we apprehended that something of the sort 
 might occur. But both he and we thought that the glory 
 of God and the salvation of souls ought to lead him to 
 make the attempt ; for if the hope of gaining a glorious 
 victory for one's king will send a soldier headlong against 
 a foe. though death may be staring him in the face, 
 should not a man do as much for God? That was in his 
 mind, when forgetting himself and taking his life in his 
 hands, he went forward with joy and love, obedient even 
 unto death. 
 
 " I write you this from a French colony which we call 
 Three Rivers, where your brother, that great servant of 
 God, lived for the last two years of his life, edifying every- 
 one by the example of his virtues and the power of his 
 words, which were inflamed with the love of God and neigh- 
 bor; a love which went almost to extremes, for he con- 
 sidered that there was nothing in the house that did not 
 belong as much to the sick and the poor as to the Fathers. 
 He often took the bread out of his mouth to give it to some- 
 one in want. In that way he won all hearts. I took his place 
 there, without inheriting his virtues, but nevertheless I 
 must bless God for having been his successor. He loved me 
 while he was here on earth ; he will have pity on me now 
 that he is in heaven. He was separated from me for eight 
 days before his death. On Saturday, the 2d of August, 
 he made his general confession to me, and that day I 
 thanked God for having such friends who loved Him in 
 spirit and truth, and who loved Him alone. The last word 
 
 398 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 that was said to him was that he was going to his death, and 
 he exclaimed ' O ! would that it were so ; how happy would 
 I be!' A few moments before he was shot he was en- 
 couraging the Frenchmen w^ho were with him, and telling 
 them they ought to be ready to die; that the one whose 
 heart is near God fears neither life nor death ; and indeed 
 prefers suffering and death if they make him live in God. 
 
 " Excuse me, if one whom you do not know writes at 
 such length in his first letter to you, but I am writing to 
 a brother, and of a brother who cannot be too much loved. 
 He loved and respected you, and I know that a year ago, 
 when he was near death, he asked me to write to you to 
 cell you that he would think of you in heaven. Since then 
 his love for you increased, and I doubt not that I am com- 
 plying with his wishes in acquitting myself of this duty, 
 and in asking you that since he was so close to me that 
 I may find a place in your heart. You will lose by the 
 change, or rather you will gain, for instead of one brother 
 who is not dead, for he lives in heaven, and is more 
 powerful than ever, you will have another who will be 
 yours with all his heart. 
 
 " All those who witnessed his virtue in early youth say 
 that he was endowed with a strong and keen intelligence, a 
 docility that knew no bounds. When after his successful 
 course of humanities he was received into the Society of 
 Jesus, the greatest hopes were founded on him, because of 
 the natural gifts with which he was endowed. In his 
 novitiate he was the first in every hard and humiliating 
 trial to which he was subjected; and he manifested a posi- 
 tive delight, not only in helping the poor, but in over- 
 coming the repugnace which young people experience when 
 they find themselves in the midst of infection, and the 
 loathsome odor of the sick. He was the most eager to 
 make their beds, to wash away their filth, and to console 
 and instruct them. All the other novices were spurred on 
 by his example. 
 
 399 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 " After the novitiate he was employed in teaching. He 
 was very successful as a professor of philosophy, and for 
 that reason he was sent to Rome for a six years theological 
 course. In the large number of students gathered there 
 from various parts of the world, his virtue attracted the 
 attention of everyone. It was when he was nearing the 
 end of his theology that a letter was sent to the Father 
 General from the Superior of the Canada missions asking 
 for help. Your brother accepted the call, and asked so 
 persistently to be devoted to the conversion of the Indians, 
 that he was chosen to the exclusion of others. He set out 
 for America as soon as possible, manifesting the greatest 
 joy at the realization oi his hopes. He came, and died 
 as we have seen. 
 
 " What can be said of his death except that it was 
 precious in the eyes of God ; that his memory will be in 
 benediction in future ages; and that the record of his life 
 will bring the blush of shame to the cheeks of many an 
 ecclesiastic who is living idly at home, unfortunately bury- 
 ing the talents which nature and grace may have given, or 
 whose labor results in nothing but vanity and affliction of 
 spirit." 
 
 The death of Father Garreau was certainly the most 
 notable event of those early days of Montreal, but in nearly 
 all the histories it is remarkable how little attention is given 
 to it. One would like to know, for instance, if Maison- 
 neuve was there at the time? Did Jeanne Mance, who 
 had founded her little hospital endeavor to alleviate his 
 suffering? Was the gentle Marguerite Bourgeoys, who 
 had come out to begin the work of education in that part 
 of Canada present at his entombment? No doubt Father 
 Druillettes and Brother le Boeme and the three domestics 
 who had started out with the dead missionary were then at 
 Montreal, but nothing is said of them; though it is probable 
 that when they found themselves alone in the woods by the 
 Ottawa, they did not wait for the Iroquois to issue from 
 
 400 
 
ls^= 
 
 
 
 5= 
 
 
 <? 
 
 s 
 
 
 .? 
 
 i 
 
 
 r'' 
 
 ~1 
 
 •,'i 
 
 ■t 
 
 IJ 
 
 -^ c 
 
 li. 
 
 <; ; 
 
 ^ 
 
 i 5- 
 
 
 u/. 
 
 
 
 
 1 V ■*- ' : 
 
 
 
 i ^ 
 
 ■3 3' 5 
 
 S 1 
 
 « n 
 
 - y 
 
 ^ ' 
 
 Uu 
 
 1 
 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 (-4 
 O 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 their fort but made for Montreal, which Druillettes knew 
 very well, for he had been in charge of the colony from* 
 1643 to 1646. 
 
 Of the obsequies we know nothing except what is con- 
 tained in Ragueneau's letter, viz. ; " that they were made as 
 splendid as the circumstances would permit." We have, 
 however, in Viger's "Petit Registre in 4° de la Cure de Mon- 
 treal," an official record of the interment by Father Pijart, 
 which runs as follows : " A. D. 1656 on the 2d of September 
 at 11 o'clock at night, Father Leonard Garreau, Priest of 
 the Society of Jesus fortified by all the sacraments, gave 
 up his soul to God. He was struck by a musket ball on 
 August 30 by the Iroquois, while on his way to preach the 
 Gospel in the upper country. He was a man who was ex- 
 ceptionally endowed with the gifts of God, and enriched 
 with every virtue. The day after his death he was buried by 
 me, Claude Pijart, of the same Society of Jesus, in the plot 
 set apart for the priests." 
 
 Where was this plot set apart for the priests? It was 
 somewhere in the square where the splendid monument of 
 Maisonneuve now stands. For we read in a little book 
 entitled " Les Premieres Cimitieres Catholiques de Mon- 
 treal," that the old place down at the river side, near the 
 place Royale, was altogether abandoned on account of the 
 inundations, and that a new one higher up had been 
 chosen two years before Father Garreau's death. Where 
 the precious remains are now we do not know, for the 
 growth of the city made another change necessary in course 
 of time, and the bodies, no doubt, were all transferred to 
 the present cemetery of the Cote des Neiges. 
 
 It would be gratifying, also, to be able to identify the 
 exact spot on which the battle was fought in which Garreau 
 was wounded. The " Relation " merely states that " the 
 Iroquois were ambushed on the bank of the great river 
 where the Algonquins (the Ottawas were Algonquins) had 
 to pass. They first threw up a redoubt on a little hill, by 
 
 401 
 
PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 cutting down some trees. The sentinels whom they had 
 stationed at a convenient place which commanded a good 
 view of the great river warned the chief that the flotilla 
 was approaching, and then a number of braves who were 
 good shots were concealed in the weeds and tall grass on 
 a point which the canoes had to graze in passing {que nos 
 gens venoicnt f riser).'' 
 
 This is very vague in spite of its details. The great river 
 here spoken of included all the branches of the Ottawa, 
 which w^as considered at that time to be the same as the 
 St. Lawrence. A glance at the map will show that where 
 the Ottawa approaches the island of Montreal, it widens 
 out into what is called the Lake of the Two Mountains, 
 and divides into three streams ; one going to the St. Law- 
 rence, another called Mille Isles, which runs north of the 
 Isle Jesus, and a third called the Riviere des Prairies. 
 The two latter enter the St. Lawrence at the eastern end 
 of Montreal Island. It seems to be agreed that the travel- 
 lers took the Riviere des Prairies, which was the usual 
 route up the Ottawa. But at what point in the river the 
 battle occurred we are not told. Charlevoix, who wrote 
 a hundred years later, said it was on the shores of the Lake 
 of the two Mountains. But as the river is so very wide 
 there, it is hard to imagine any place where the canoes 
 would be compelled to pass so close to the bank that the 
 Iroquois in the reeds and tall grass were able immediately 
 after the shooting to leap upon their victims and drag 
 them ashore. 
 
 In direct contradiction to Charlevoix, with whose state- 
 ment he was of course familiar, Father Martin says ex- 
 plicitly that " the Iroquois had concealed themselves on the 
 zrery island of Montreal, on the banks of the river which 
 bathes it on the northeast (the Riviere des Prairies or Back 
 River), and at a place where the canoes had to pass {ou 
 Us dezment ^passer). This place could not be better suited 
 for their purpose, for in order to ascend the current in 
 
 402 
 
LEONARD GARREAU. 
 
 that tiarrozv and rapid place they had to hug the shore 
 and work with all the strength of their paddles," If this 
 is correct, though Father Martin is adding something to 
 the vague description of the " Relation " without giving us 
 his authority, it might be easy to find the spot. In 
 scrutinizing the map of the Hunt Club of Montreal, we 
 find the narrowest part of the river with a projecting point 
 to be just above where the Canadian Pacific Railway crosses 
 the stream. Is that the place? It would be rash to ven- 
 ture an assertion. Only topographical experts can tell us. 
 In conclusion it is worth while recording the fact that 
 besides being included in the " Histoire des Saints de Lim- 
 oges," which was published in 1673 by Jean Collins, Father 
 Garreau is honored not only by an unusually laudatory- 
 account of his life and death in the Roman Archives, and 
 in Guilhermy's " Menology," but though anticipation of 
 the decision of the Holy See is not allowed, he is put down 
 in "Les Petits Bollandists " (7th ed.. Tome 10, p. 408, on 
 the 2d of December, the day of his death) as "le venerable 
 Pere Garreau de la Conipagnie de Jesus missionaire dans le 
 Canada." In spite of all this, the great man is almost un- 
 known at the present time. 
 
 403 
 
EPILOGUE. 
 
 With the destruction of Father Garreau's mission among 
 the Petuns, the work of the Jesuits around Lake Huron 
 virtually came to an end. Parkman and others regard it 
 as a failure, but it must be remembered that the Hurons 
 would have been utterly annihilated if the priests had never 
 approached them. Indeed their arrival retarded the dis- 
 aster, and besides their presence was tolerated solely in 
 the hope of averting the blow. It was only after the Hurons 
 were overwhelmingly defeated by the Iroquois that de 
 Brebeuf and his companions were admitted into their ter- 
 ritory. They were like condemned criminals who angrily 
 reject the ministrations of religion, but who finally yield 
 in the hope of saving their necks from the gallows. They 
 were of the same blood as the Iroquois, and were almost 
 as terrible a race to deal with. They were degraded, ig- 
 norant, gross, immoral, obscene in their words and acts, 
 depraved, superstitious, worshippers of the devil, liars, gam- 
 blers, traitors, apostates, murderers, fiendishly cruel in tor- 
 turing their enemies, and not unfrequently cannibals. 
 They had no idea of restraint in their family relations, or 
 of submmission to the tribal authorities, and they regarded 
 with loathing and contempt the teachings of Christianity. 
 
 To have attempted to convert such a people during the 
 brief period of ten years, every moment of which was 
 marked by wars, massacres, starvation, disease and pes- 
 tilence, and nevertheless to have established flourishing mis- 
 sions in every Huron town, to have made many thousands 
 of Christians, both young and old, nearly all of whom 
 were perhaps too severely tried before being admitted to 
 baptism, to have developed very many splendid examples 
 of exalted sanctity, and finally, to have closed their books 
 of account with the Lord not only by years of suffering 
 
 404 
 
EPILOGUE. 
 
 almost unparalleled in Christian annals, but to have sealed 
 them with the blood of seven of their noblest men is the 
 glorious record of the Huron missionaries. 
 
 In 1650 the tribe vanished from the earth as a distinct 
 nation. Gathered at first, as a forlorn hope, on Christian 
 or St. Joseph's Island, they were pursued and massacred 
 by their foes even there. Pestilence came with its ravages, 
 and starvation added its horrors to such a terrible degree 
 that the dead were dug up and eaten. Some of the sur- 
 vivors took refuge among the Petuns, Neutrals and 
 Eries, only to be murdered in the general destruction of 
 those tribes by the all-conquering Iroquois. The Andastes, 
 of Pennsylvania received some, and the Illinois others. 
 There were groups of them at Mackinac, and Menard's 
 companions found a starving village of them in the swamps 
 of Wisconsin. Three hundred families, mostly Christian, 
 were led by Ragueneau to Quebec, and the remnants still 
 live in La Jeune Lorette on the River St. Charles ; but there 
 is not a full-blooded Huron among them now. Thus perished 
 the once flourishing nation to whom God gave such won- 
 derful saints to lead them to heaven at the last moment of 
 their existence. 
 
 405 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Aataentsic, Huron legend 
 
 concerning 127 
 
 Acadia, establishment of . . . 3 sqq 
 Achiendase, J. Lalemant 
 
 called 298 
 
 Adam, Father 333 
 
 Adams, Nicholas 44 
 
 Ahitsasteari, Huron chief. . . . 239 
 Ailleboust, Governor of Mon- 
 treal 271 
 
 Albanel, Charles 272 
 
 Algonquins, Brebeuf among. 79 
 
 Daniel among 201 
 
 All Saints, mission 141 
 
 Allumettes, Isle des 82 
 
 Amiot, Jean (Antaiok) 286 
 
 Andastes, Etienne Brule 
 
 among 99 
 
 Andewarahan, Armand. See 
 
 Armand the Huron. 
 
 Andros, Governor 31 
 
 Annapolis (N. S.) 4 
 
 Anne, St., Legend 81 
 
 " Anouenen," Father Daniel 
 
 called 232 
 
 Antaiok. See Amiot, Jean. 
 
 Anthony, St., River 30 
 
 " Anti-Coton," pamphlet 77 
 
 Aqnaviva, Masse's Letter to. 53 
 
 Argall, Samuel 33 
 
 Argenson, Governor of New 
 
 France 317 
 
 Armand the Huron 216 
 
 Armouchiquois Indians . . 19, 22 
 Arquien, Governor of Calais, 45 
 Arundels, kinship with Bre- 
 
 beufs 66 
 
 Assemblies, Indian 132 sq 
 
 Attigouantan (Lake Huron). ii 
 Aubigny, Countess d', founds 
 
 Rouen novitiate 69 
 
 Aubrey, Pontgrave's chaplain 320 
 Avaugour, Governor of New 
 
 France 320 
 
 Avvenrehrennons 148 
 
 Bailloquet, Pierre 272 
 
 Bear Nation (Huron) 131 
 
 407 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Beard, Sotiriquois dislike of. 5 
 
 Beausoleil, island 85 
 
 Bells, Indian reverence for. . 237 
 Berger Le, Indian convert... 229 
 
 Betsabes 25 
 
 BIARD, PETER 3 sqq 
 
 Biencourt the younger 12 
 
 Biencourt, Jean de. See Pot- 
 
 rincourt. 
 Boileau, estimate of " La 
 
 Pharsale " 66 
 
 Bonaquat and Mt. Desert.... 31 
 
 Bonin, Father 180, 226 
 
 Bourbon, Cardinal de, Jesuit 
 
 foundation 273 
 
 BREBEUF, JOHN DE. . 65 sqq 
 
 Bressani, Father 225 
 
 Bretesche 60 
 
 Breton, Cape. See Cape Bre- 
 ton. 
 Brotherton, Thomas Planta- 
 
 genet de 67 
 
 Brulard de Sillery. See Sil- 
 lery. 
 
 Brule, Etienne 90, 98 sq., 138 
 
 Buret, Jesuit lay-brother 
 
 76, 91, 252 
 Burial, among Souriquois ... 9 
 
 Among Hurons 135 
 
 Among Neutrals 141 
 
 Buteux, Jacques 69, 272 
 
 Cadieux, tradition concerning 81 
 
 Cadillac, de la Mothe 31 
 
 Caen, Emery de 75 
 
 Caen, Guillaume de 75 
 
 Cahiague, mission 232 
 
 Cain and Abel, Huron version 127 
 
 Calumet, legend 81 
 
 Cannibalism, none among Sou- 
 riquois 10 
 
 Among Hurons 255 
 
 Cape Breton 197 
 
 Caragouha, mission 85 sq 
 
 Castine, Baron de 31 
 
 Cauchon, Pierre chapel at Li- 
 
 sieux 71 
 
 Cauvet, Brother 333 
 
INDEX. 
 
 p 
 Cazot, Father 
 
 Cent Associes, Company of 
 the 88, 257, 
 
 CHABANEL, NOEL ... 367 
 
 Champlain 4, 14, 45, 73. 
 
 89, 258, 266 
 
 Chappuis, Father, imprisoned 
 
 Charton, Jesuit lay-brother . . 
 
 Chastelain, Fr 204, 
 
 Chatel, Jean 
 
 Chats, Chute des. See Chute 
 des Chats. 
 
 Chaudiere, river 
 
 Legend 
 
 Chandron, burial 
 
 Chaumonot 227, 
 
 Chauveau 
 
 Chiboctos, river 
 
 Chiwatenwa, Joseph, Indian 
 convert 
 
 Chouart, donne 
 
 Chute des Chats 
 
 Clermont, Jesuit college. .248, 
 
 Closse. Lambert 
 
 Columba, St., church, Sillery. 
 
 Columba, St., cathedral, Pem- 
 broke 
 
 ■' Compagnie des Habitants " 
 
 Conde, Prince de 
 
 Conde-sur-Vire 
 
 Conti, Prince de 
 
 Cosmogonv, Huron 
 
 Coton, Pie'rre 11, 52, 
 
 Couillard, Marguerite 
 
 Courcelles, Governor of New 
 France 
 
 Couture, donne 
 
 D'Aillon, Joseph de la Roche, 
 Recollect 
 
 Dale, Governor of Virginia 37, 
 
 Daniel, Captain 
 
 DANIEL, ANTHONY.. 197 
 
 Daran, Adrien 
 
 Dauversiere, Jerome 
 
 Davost, Ambroise 199, 
 
 Death, Huron attitude to- 
 wards 134 
 
 Deerfield massacre 
 
 Delaware, Lord, Argall's re- 
 lations with 
 
 Derouen, Joseph 
 
 Descartes, on College of La 
 Fleche 
 
 .'KGE PAGE 
 
 304 Desert, Mount. See Mount 
 Desert 
 
 304 Devil-worship, among Hurons 296 
 sqq Diondadies, Petuns called . . . 352 
 
 D'Olbeau, Recollect mission- 
 sqq ary 74, 252 
 
 72 Donnes, system of 284 
 
 253 Dreams, Indian belief in. 129, 235 
 
 329 Druillettes, Gabriel 272 
 
 249 Duperon, Joseph-Imbert .... 272 
 
 Duplessis Bouchard 91, 204 
 
 Dupont, son of Pontgrave. 17, 58 
 49 Earthquake, Quebec, 1663.... 321 
 
 80 Eating-festival, among Hu- 
 
 138 rons 130 
 
 235 Echkanich (Little Horn), In- 
 268 dian convert 336 
 
 25 Echon, Brebeuf called . . 141, 154 
 
 Ekarreniondi, mission 361 
 
 354 Emmentic, Island of 25 
 
 285 Etchemin Indians 5 
 
 81 Eteminquois 7 
 
 280 Etharita, mission 361 
 
 307 Etiontatehronnons, Petuns 
 
 49 called 352 
 
 Eu, France, church of St. 
 
 83 Lawrence 262 
 
 305 Eudemare, Georges d' 272 
 
 73 Excommuniquois 5 
 
 68 Exorcism, among Souriquois. 8 
 
 274 Felicite, wife of Armand the 
 
 127 Huron 228 
 
 249 Fleche, La. See La Fleche. 
 
 161 Flessche, Joshua 11 
 
 Flesse, Joshua. See Flessche. 
 
 323 Flory, Captain 34 
 
 285 Gael, Raulf de 67 
 
 Gambling, among Hurons . . . 293 
 
 76 Ganentaa, Lake (Onondaga) . 308 
 
 40 GARNIER, CHARLES.. 327 sqq 
 
 198 GARREAU, LEONARD. 377 sqq 
 
 sqq Gast. Pierre du 4 
 
 272 Gentil, Franqoise de 379 
 
 268 Godefroy, Thomas 108 
 
 272 Gonterey, Father 279 
 
 Goupil, Rene 285 
 
 sqq " Grace of God, The " 14 
 
 237 Great Cibou, fort 197 
 
 Gregoire claim 31 
 
 33 Greslon, Father 226 
 
 84 Grosellier, Sieur de. See 
 Chouart. 
 
 248 Guercheville, Marquise de. 14, 27 
 
 408 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Guerin, donne 285 
 
 Hamel, Guillaume de 66 
 
 Haregondi, Lake 83 
 
 Hawkstone (Cahiague) 232 
 
 Henri de Bourbon 73 
 
 Henrietta Maria, secures re- 
 lease of Lalemant 257 
 
 Henry IV, grant to de Monts. 4 
 
 Hollow (Creux) River 83 
 
 Hotel-Dieu, first Canadian... 50 
 Howard, John, Duke of Nor- 
 folk 67 
 
 Hudson, river 30 
 
 Hundred Associates. See Cent 
 Associes. 
 
 Huron, Lake ii. 83 
 
 Huronia ii 
 
 Hurons i, 80, 125 sqq, 
 
 254 sq., 289 sqq 
 
 Ihonitiria 85 sq., 201 
 
 Imbert, Simon 28 
 
 Immortality, Huron belief in. 128 
 
 Souriquois belief in 10 
 
 lousheka, Huron legend con- 
 cerning 127 
 
 Isle aux Monts Deserts. See 
 
 Mount Desert. 
 Jamay, Recollect missionary. 252 
 Jogues, Isaac. .59, 92, 158, 272, 273 
 " Journal des Jesuites " 299, 303 sq 
 Julius II, approval of Recol- 
 lects 251 
 
 Kadesquit 30 
 
 Kandoucho, mission 141 
 
 Kerkt. See Kirke. 
 Khionontaterronnons, Petuns 
 
 called 352 
 
 Khiota, mission 149 
 
 Kirke, David 88, 257 
 
 Kirke, Louis 89 
 
 Kirke, Thomas 89 
 
 La Boulaye 45 
 
 La Fleche, Jesuit college 
 
 59, 247, 308 sqq 
 
 Lairet, river 77 
 
 Lalande, donne 285 
 
 PAGE 
 
 LALEMANT, CHARLES 
 
 3, 59, 92, 198, 247 sqq 
 LALEMANT, GABRIEL 175 sqq 
 LALEMANT, JEROME 279 sqq 
 
 Lalemant, Louis 247 
 
 La Saussaye 29 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Lauson, Governor de . . . 263, 268 
 
 Laval de Montigny 310 
 
 Lawrence, St., church of, at 
 
 Eu 262 
 
 Lawrence, St., river 49 
 
 Le Bailiff 90 
 
 Le Borgne, Indian chief. . 82, 107 
 Le Caron, Recollect. ... ii, 74, 252 
 
 Le Jeune, Paul 59, 91, 204 
 
 265, 272 
 
 Le Moyne, Simon 272, 303 
 
 Lescarbot 3, 28, 45 
 
 Levis, de. See Ventadour. 
 
 Levis, Pointe 49 
 
 Liquor traffic controversy 319 sqq 
 Lisieux, Cauchon's chapel at. 71 
 " Little Village of the Loaded 
 
 Canoe," Ihonitiria called... 100 
 Louis XIII, supposed plot 
 
 against 72 
 
 Louis de Saincte Foy 202 
 
 Louis Membertou 57 
 
 Maignelais, Marquise de 279 
 
 Maisonneuve 269 sq 
 
 Malherbe, Brother 180 
 
 Malot, Brother 89 
 
 Mance, Jeanne 270 
 
 Manitougatche 95 
 
 Marguerie, Frangois .... 108, 286 
 Marriage, among Souriquois. 7 
 
 Marsolet, Nicholas 90 
 
 Marv. Servants of, Indian so- 
 dality 227 
 
 Massaeus. See Masse. 
 
 MASSE, ENEMOND.. ll,49sqq 
 
 Masso, Imbertus de. See 
 
 Masse. 
 
 Mattawa, river 83 
 
 Maunoir, Jules 329 
 
 Membertou 9, 12, 18 
 
 Menard 50, 59 
 
 Mer Douce, La, Lake Huron 
 
 called 83 
 
 Merveille, Captain 19 sq 
 
 Meteourmite 22 sqq 
 
 Mesy, de. Governor of New 
 
 France 320 
 
 Michel 90 
 
 Micmacs 5 
 
 Mohawks, conference with . . 298 
 
 Montagnais 5, 7, 207 
 
 Montmagny 211, 302 306 
 
 Montmorency, Duke de 75 
 
 409 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Montreal, purchase of . . . . 268 sqq 
 Monts, Sieur de. See Gast, 
 
 Pierre du. 
 Mourning, among Souriquois 9 
 "Mountains of St. John".... 351 
 
 Mount Desert 30 
 
 Nadoueks, Hurons called .... i 
 Nasse, La. See Manitou- 
 gatche. 
 
 Neutrals 139 sqq 
 
 Nevers, Jesuit College at.... 248 
 
 New France 3 
 
 Nez Perces 108 
 
 Nicolet, John 160 sqq 
 
 Nippissing, Lake 83 
 
 Nippissings, Recollect mis- 
 sions among 252 
 
 Nippisirien, Lake 85 
 
 Noirclair, Jesuit lay-brother.. 226 
 
 Norfolk, first Duke of 67 
 
 Norumbega 4, 25 
 
 Notre Dame de Recouvrance. 264 
 Notre Dame des Anges, Jes- 
 uit foundation 60, 78 
 
 Notre Dame des Anges, Re- 
 collect foundation 252 
 
 NOUE, ANNE DE 
 
 59, 91, 187 sqq 
 Noyrot, Father. . 60, 89, 256, 259 
 
 Onondagas 307 
 
 " Ononhara," Indian supersti- 
 tion 130 
 
 Orleans, Lac d'. Lake Huron 
 
 called 83 
 
 Ossossane, mission 85, 99 
 
 Otouacha, mission 86 
 
 Ottiwandaronk (Neutrals).. 140 
 
 Ouenrohronnons 347 
 
 " Ouracha," Gamier called... 346 
 
 Pacificus, Brother 252 
 
 Pain benit 301 
 
 Passapec 58 
 
 Pembroke, site 83 
 
 Pemetig 30 
 
 Petavius 248, 273 
 
 Peter, Huron convert ... 113 sqq 
 
 Peter, Iroquois convert 121 
 
 Petuns 87, 351 sqq 
 
 " Pharsale, La " 66 
 
 Piat, Recollect 75 
 
 Pierre Blanche 17 
 
 Pijart 216 
 
 Platrier, Captain 27 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Pocahontas 33 
 
 Pointe au Massacre. See 
 
 Victory, Cape. 
 Polygamy, among Souriquois. 7 
 
 Among Hurons 255 
 
 Poncet de la Riviere 272 
 
 Port Royal 4, 38 
 
 Pothier, Father 84 
 
 Potrincourt 5 sqq 
 
 Poutrincourt. See Potrin- 
 court. 
 
 Prospec, identity 58 
 
 Quantoghies, Hurons called. i 
 
 Quebec 182, 252, 265, 274 
 
 Quen, Fr. de 315 
 
 Quentir, Fr 29 
 
 Quer. See Kirke. 
 
 Queylus, Abbe de 313 sqq 
 
 Ragueneau, Frangois .... 59, 257 
 
 Ragueneau, Paul 257 
 
 Raye, Pierre 90 
 
 Recollects 74, 251 sqq 
 
 Regnault _ 181 
 
 Repentigny, Jean Baptiste... 161 
 
 Richard, Andre 272 
 
 Richelieu 88 
 
 Rideau Falls 80 
 
 Rondaxes i 
 
 Rouen 313, 68 sq 
 
 Sagamite 104 
 
 Sagamo 6 
 
 Sagard, Brother 75 
 
 Sambro, 58 
 
 Samousat, conversion 93 
 
 Saonaretsi, Ignatius 167 
 
 Satouuta 205 
 
 Sault au Recollect 78 
 
 Saussaye. See La Saussaye. 
 
 Sezamore 58 
 
 Sillery, mission 49 
 
 Sillery, Noel Brulard de 50 
 
 Simcoe, Lake 219 
 
 Sincembre 58 
 
 Sorcery, among Souriquois.. 7 
 
 Souriquois 5 sqq 
 
 St. Alexis, mission 149 
 
 Ste. Croix 4, 27, 38 
 
 St. Francis 149 
 
 St. Germain-en-Laye 91 
 
 St. Ignatius, mission 168 sqq, 175 
 
 St. John, mission 361 
 
 St. John the Baptist, mission. 232 
 St. Joseph, mission 149 
 
 410 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 St. Jure, Father 270 
 
 St. Madeleine, mission 179 
 
 St. Mary's, mission 139, 175 
 
 St. Matthias 361 
 
 St. Michael's, mission 149 
 
 St. Peter, Lake 210 
 
 St. Sauveur 30 
 
 St. William, mission 144 
 
 Stewart of Ochiltree 197 
 
 Sun, worship of 10 
 
 Syracuse 308 
 
 Tadoussac, Recollect mission 252 
 
 Talon, Intendant 253 
 
 Tarantouan, Indian chief. 213 sq 
 
 Teandeonihata 100 
 
 Teondeonata 86 
 
 Teatonguiaton 144 
 
 Teiko, Indian seminarian.... 208 
 
 Tenaustaye 121, 232 
 
 Teondechoren, Indian con- 
 vert 146 sqq 
 
 Tewatiron, Joseph.. 206, 209, 212 
 Thet, Gilbert du, Jesuit lay- 
 brother 28 sq, 34 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Three Rivers 209, 220, 252 
 
 Thunder, in Indian myth- 
 ology 87 
 
 Tionontateheronnons, Petuns 
 
 called 352 
 
 Toachim 86 
 
 Toanche 86, 98 
 
 Tobacco 7, 80 
 
 Tobacco Indians. See Petuns. 
 Totiri, Etienne, Indian con- 
 vert 237 
 
 Tourmente, Cape 49 
 
 Turnel 38 sq 
 
 Ventadour, x3uke de 60 
 
 Victory, Cape 78 
 
 Viel, Father 78 
 
 Vieuxpont, Father 198, 289 
 
 Vimont, Bartholomew 
 
 59, 152, 198, 299 
 Voltaire, estimate of " La 
 
 Pharsale" 66 
 
 Warfare, Souriquois methods 6 
 Wendats. See Hurons. 
 Wyandots. See Hurons. 
 
 411 
 
Date Due 
 
 JUL 17 M 
 
 ^ IC 
 
 
 
 0CT25-i^l 
 
 
 
 
 ,IC,S ^' , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 -'112 TO 
 
 
 
 
 Fr315'!^D 
 
 6^ 7/ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 j 
 
 m -4 1 
 
 l,§l 
 
 
 ! 
 
 
 
 
 
 dec: 2- 199! 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ) '■ 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 ift... 
 
 ^ 
 
 - 
 
 
 1 
 
BOSTON COLLEGE 
 
 3 9031 01631213 4 
 
 12787S 
 
 ("^/PAf/ 
 
 BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS 
 CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. 
 
 Books may be kept for two weeks and may 
 be renewed or the same period, unless re- 
 served. 
 
 Tw' ^entv 3 day is charged for each book 
 kept overtime. 
 
 If you cannot find what you want, ask the 
 Librarian who will be glad to help you. 
 
 The borrower is responsible for books drawn 
 on his card and for all fines accruing on the 
 same.