IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I L^12.8 |50 ■^™ ,^ Uj2 12.2 :t ui 12.0 1.8 m m IIU4 ^ 6" ► i? /2 .^ /. /: '/ /A PhotografJiic Sciences Corporation 33 WIST MAIN STRUT WHSTIR.N.Y. MSIO (716) 172-4303 m s\ 4 ;\ \ ^:^. 6^ ^\aglnning on tlia first paga with a printad or illuatratad impraa- •ion, and anding on tha last paga with a printad or illuatratad impraasion. Tha last racordad frama on aach microficha shall contain tha symbol — ^> (moaning "CON- TINUED"), or tha symbol y (moaning "END"), whichavar appiias. L'axamplaira film4 fut raproduit grica A la g*n4roaltA da: La bibiiothAqua daa Archivaa pubiiquas du Canada Lm imagas suhrantaa ont 4t4 raproduitas avac la plus grand soin, compta tanu da la condKion at da la nattat* da l'axamplaira film*, at an conformiti avac las conditions du contrat da filmaga. I.aa axamplairas orlglnaux dont la couvartura an paplar aat ImprimAa sont filmAs an commandant par la pramiar plat at an tarminant soit par la damlAra paga qui comporta una amprainta d'Imprassion ou d'iiiustration, soit par ia sacond plat, salon la cas. Tous las autras axamplairas originaux sont filmte an commandant par la pramiAra paga qui comporta una amprainta d'Imprassion ou d'iiiustration at an tarminant par la darnlAra paga qui comporta una taila amprainta. Un das symboias suivants apparattra sur la darnlAra imaga da chaqua microficha, salon la cas: la symbols — ► signifia "A SUIVRE", ia symbols V signifia "FIN". Maps, platas. charts, ate, may ba filmad at diffarant raduction ratios. Thosa too iarga to ba antiraly inciudad in ona axposura ara filmad baginning in tha uppar laf^: hand cornar, laft te right and top to bottom, as many framas aa raquirad. Tha following diagrams iilustrata tha mathod: Las cartas, planchas, tablaaux, ate, pauvant Atra filmis A das taux da reduction diff Arants. Lorsqua la documant akt trop grand pour Atra raproduit an un saul clichA, ii ast fiimA A partir da i'angia supAtiaur gaucha, da gaucha A droita, at da haut an bas, an pranant ia nombra d'imagas nAcassaira. Las diagrammas suivants iliustrant ia mAthoda. rrata to pelura. nA a 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 J ACQIM. S CAKTl LR FIRST llSTABfJSllMKNT OF Tlii. Vm'W IN NEW FRANCE. ^ I'ATf^' I ! <:i.i:k("(), i; t'lRs^ i '••/' w^rii Av)/ ir>MN OILMARV sriH \. v... I. -k J O } i jV*-'- 4» FIRST ESTABLISHMKNT OF TUB FaITH IN NEW FRANCE. BY FATHER CIIKISTIAN LK CLEKCQ, RKCOLLKCr MISSIONARY. NOIV J'/A^SJ' rRANSLATED, WITH NOTES, nv JOHN GILMARY SHEA. Vol.. I. New York JOHN G. SHEA 1881. ■J 311 Copyrijriii, JOIJN G. SIlIiA. 1882. PREFACE. This is tliu first English translation nf a work published in France in 1691, and now become exceedingly scarce, but yet of liigli value to American scholars, since, with Henne- pin's " Description of Louisiana," it gives the earliest printed account of the explorations of Robert Cavelier, written by Recollect missionaries who were his companions for a series of years, and wrote from actual observation. It contains also a sketch of Canadian history, especially in connection with the missionary labors of the Recollect or Franciscan Feathers, who were the first clergy of the colony founded by Champlain, who visited what is now Ontario and New V'ork, and in later days were generally the chaplains at the forts by which France endeavored to hold our western country. In translating, the original has been closely followed, and pro|)er names are given as Le Clercq prints them, the correct form being added in the notes. References are made to other works and documents, especially to those collected by Mr. Margry. In the portion where the Jesuit Relations of their missions in Canada are so shar|)ly criticised, the allusions have in most cases been traced. In the introduction will be found what is known of the missionary labors of the author, and a discussiorA of the ques- tions that have been raised in regard to the work. Elizahktii, N. J., July 22, 1881. ILLUSTRATIONS. to face title. to face page ifi Portrait of Jacques Cartier, . Lc Clcrc(|'s Micinac IlicroKlypliics, Title of Prayer-book in IIleroKlypliJcs, . . . paKc 19 Facsimile of original title-page of Lc Clercq's work.t.) face page 37 Portrait of Samuel de Champlain, ..." g- Fort of the Entouhonorons attacked by Champlain, " iq^ or A SKETCH FATHER CHRISTIAN LE CLERCQ, A't-culli-it Afissionaiy, and of the Works that hear his Name. AS Brother Sagard was tlie annalist of the earlier Canada missions of that brancli of the Franciscan Order known as Recollects, so we look to Father Christian Ic Clercq for details of the later labors of these religious in the same field. His chief work, "Tlic "Establishment of the Faith in New France," gives, from then extant documents, a clearer sketch of the first Recollect mission cfibrts than can be gleaned from the diffuse writings of Brother Sagard ; and for the commence- ment of the second mission Le Clercq is our only guide, ex- cept in the personal narrative afforded by Father Hennepin. After Le Clercq's time nothing was pul>lished by any member of that body except the Letters of Father Emmanuel Crespel. Le Clercq, in giving an account of the labors of his Cana- dian associates, devotes a large part of his work to the explo- rations of Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, who, from the time he assumed command of Fort Frontenac, on Lake Onta- rio, to his ill-starred death amid the tall grass of a Texas prai- rie, was almost constantly accompanied by Recollect friars. A SKETCH OF 'rhoii^h not hiniHolf among the number of tliosc hrought directly in i-uiilact with l,a Salic, l-e Clcn (| wrote from the narratives of those who formed part of his expeditions, and were in full sympathy with the explorer. I,c ('lerc(i was born about the jear 1641 at Hapaume, a fortified town of three thoU8and inhabitants, now cnd)rai:ed in the department of I'as-de Calais, France. When the Recol- lects, or Reformed Franciscans, introduced into the kingdom in 1592, had so increased that the province of St. iJenis n- (piired division, and a new province was formed in Artois under the patronage of St. Anthony of I'adua, young I.e ('Ur((| resolved to renounce the world and don the gray habit •Mid cord of St. Francis. He was the first to enter the novi tiate in llie new province after its erection,* and then appa- rently assumed the religious name of Christian, by which alone he is known to us. Persevering in his vocation, he took his final vrande Haye dc St. Laurens en la Nouvclle France, mise dans un jour on elle n'auroit jus(|u'icy parUe, I'exacti- tude, la curiositu et la jusiesse y alant estfc observfees autant qu'il a est6 possible." Catalogue of the Library of Parliament (Canada), p, 1616. 55 " Relation de la Gaspcsie," p. 530. Le Clercq says he had then ix years on the Gasp6 mission, but he apparently counts from FATHER CHRISTIAN I,E CLERCQ. >3 inhabitants there are said to have invited the Recollects to that place, and they themselves had great i)rojects for mis- sions wliere Indians were to be taught to cultivate the land and acquire the language and manners of Frenchmen. Fatiier le Clercq and his companion sailed on the S/e. Aniif with letters to the Very Rev. Germain Allart, a Recol- lect Father, who was soon after raised t(* a bishojjric, as well as instructions for the negotiation, in order to obtain of the king and the Sulpili.ins, then proprietors of the island of Montreal, permission to erect a cliurch and convent there. Our good Recollect seems to have been i)ursued by bad weather. He encountered so many storms tluit it took him seven weeks to re-"' He Percee, and the vessel was nearly wrecked on the -u Islands. His adopted father welcomed the missionary, but, to his grief, heard that he was on his way to France. Runners soon spread the news, and the Gaspesians gathered to take farewell of their spiritual father, approach the sacraments, and obtain some of liis Oukatei:;ui'/mes Ki^a^namatinoer, or Hieroglyphic Prayers. After distriliuting these and what tobacco and trin- kets lie possessed Father le Clercij embarked once more, and in thirty days reached Honfleur, whence he repaired to Paris. The future Bishop of Vence readily obtained the royal sanction for the Montreal tstablishment, and the Very Rev. Potenlien Ozon, then provincial, easily persuaded the Rcv. Mr. Tronson, Superior of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, to give letters to Dollier de Casson, the local superior at Montreal, urging him to favor the project of the Franciscans. the day he received orders in France, as he reached Gaspfi really in 14 A SKETCH OF The object of their mission having been thus promptly and happily attained, Father le Clcrcq received permission to visit Artois, where relatives, friends, religious and seculars, endeavored to persuade him to remain in France. He seems to have been influenced so far as to request his superiors to assign him to a field of labor at home, but a letter of Father Ozon dispelled his hopes : he was ordered to Canada, espe- cially as the superior at Quebec claimed him. He accordingly left Bapaume and went to Arras, in order to make his annual retreat. Then, in company will) Father Francis Wasson, who from an opponent had become a volun- teer for the mission, he set out for Paris. There the Rev. Mr. Mace, of St. Suli)ice, recjuested them to take charge of two Hospital nuns of Ueaufort, in Vallee, who were going out to tile convent of their order in Montreal. They embarked at Kdchelle about Whitsuntide, and after a voyage of thirty days, during which they were ])ursued by a Barbary corsair, they reached the mouth of the St. Lawrence and soon an- cliored before Quebec* Le Clerc(i immediately proceeded to Montreal witli his sii|)erior, Father le Roux, acting for the time as chaplain to the Count de Fronteiuic. The great desire of the Recollects was accomplished : DoUier de Casson granted them four acres of land near the river-side, not far from the chapel of Notre Dame de Bon Secours. Our iiistorian iuid no cause for further delay ; he returned * " Relation de la G;isp6sie," pp. 528-572. Lc Clercq docs not give the year, but, according to Faiilon, " Vie de Mile. Mancc " (ii. p. 56), the two nuns. Sisters Gallard ar.vi Monmusseau, embarked at Rochellc in the spring of 1679, and Lc Clcrcq must have gone to France in 1678. , FATHER CHRISTIAN LE CLERCQ. 15 to Quebec and proceeded to Gasp^ to resume his missionary duties. Here his work, the " Relation de la Gaspesie," leaves us, referring the reader to tlie work now translated for his sub- sequent labors in that field. However, the " Etablissement de la Foi," as published, gives no details, showing that part of Le Clercq's matter was suppressed. He was back again at Quebec in the summer of 1679,*. liaving gone up to report the condition of his missions to the commissary, Father le Roux, but found liim absent on a visit to Fort Frontenac. Le Clercq renviined two months at the Convent of Our Lady of Angels. After a retreat he returned to Gaspe.f During his stay at Quebec he proved to his fellow-friars the utility of his hieroglyphics by the facility with which a boy seven years old learned to read them. As these hieroglyphics are still in use among the Micmacs, who write and read them, and a font of type for them has ac- tually been cast at Vienna, in whicii a prayer-book has been printed in our day, through the exertions of Rev. Ciiarles Kauder, a Redemptorist missionary who spent some years at Tracadie, it will not be out of place to give Le Clercq's own words : " The easy method which I found for teaching our Gas- pesians their prayers witii certain ch.iracters wliich I liave formed, eiTeclually convinces nie that the majority would soon become instructed; for, indeed, I should find no more difficulty in teaching them to read tlian to pray to God by my papers, in * Lc Clercq says that Ic Ruux arrived too late to meet Ribourdc, Membrc, and Hennepin, who had set out before he got there. They started in August, 1679. f " Relation de la Gaspesie," pp. 133-140. \^^ i6 A SKETCH OF which each arl)itrary letter signifies a particular word, and some, even two together. They so readily grasp this kind of rc.iding that they learn in a single day wimt they would never have been able to retain in a whole week without the aid of these cards, which they call Kignaniotinoer, or Kate- gucnne. They preserve these instructive papers so carefully and prize them so highly that they keep them very neatly in little bark cases adorned with wampum, beads, and porcupine quills. They liold them in their hands as we do our prayer- boqks during holy Mass, after which they replace them in their cases. " The rriain utility and advantage resulting from this new method is that the Indians teach one another, wher- ever they mny happen to be. Thus the children teach the father, the wife her husband, and children the aged, their great age giving them no repugnance to learn from their little nephews, and even from girls, the principles of Christianity." * " It is, therefore, easy to judge hereby of the >ise of these characters to a missionary who wishes to i)roduce a great deal of fruit in a short time throughout the whole extent of his district ; for, poor as our Indians' memory may be, they can not only easily learn their prayers by these characters, but when they forget theni il is easy to bring them to mind again by counting them one after another, in the manner shown them. In fine, I employed them so usefully for the spr^e of ten years, etc."f "Our Lord inspired me with this method the second year * " Relation dc laGaspcsic," pp. 129-131. He has Ki^namatinohi on p. 148 and Kignatamonoer on p. 151. f " Relation de la Gaspcsie," pp. 139-140. He went to Gaspc in 1675, invented these in 1677, so that ten years' use would bring him to 1687. THB LORD'S PRATER IN UTCMAC HIEROOLTPRIOA *. ^ (V f anibliim Wrjok cbia Our Father lohcavM iMt«d tebiptook IM7 ■fgnldedamek WiUok n'telldanen tcUptook IfMnwkk nia b« rMpcetcd Id heaven i^ ni ms/ gfut tbM cbkede*lk thoa ai-t obc;a4 i' •I when warn dell nrmalek uledcchlnen. Natel wi^ok toMt In staying. There In beaven at teblptook dell may M be cbkedulak obeyed nakimlfnck OB eartk H^c^c- 2 it Ai. 2^ ISO Pelamnkiibenlptai cchemloirael apch As Ibon hast given it to us in the same nuner also Begareh klebkook BOW to-dsy te— C^c* 3=i§ g^^ -Ci^c delsmooktceb giro it pcni'gniinenwln nlianrn ; our nourisIimeBt to us ; deli^blkehlktsk«;hlk we fsrgli-etbos* SB ^l J> ^ i il^ ^T^a- wcgftl^amethlk elp kil nUknm ablkebiktwia who b«To offeaded us . m thou O Ood forgire H Kidkenlnreeh winnehudll hold n» strong bythoband £€I3l c:> mo not k'tygallBcn toftll olweiilliek OBf fault* £cnc keglnakamkil keep Car from as i^f^ 311 h\!? 2Z Brlnaehlgnel ■uffertogt twaktwlo. •TiU ITdellcte^ Amesu i t tllilt •:=^S } H-J3 ^ dia Mil K^co :=.33 ^ K s- c/^S te^idti lie UOll i.i'Mli lit »-.viiT [i»nM5oh8/i/ dtliiraoii C==3g '^ I<-I S- S 1 I ef i>»b tiMlqiiit e» vra» ^ li S :,^ ^ H J»ii)!ii*wij nfwJ-Jlib)i yT\n ^ 13 HtUlt U,i 'fiO^t fllOo) j;oi{t 0^ fu I- —jtt c :> id 3 5 II not Jolt I'vnr'iti-M .m -i^N ^vU r?£. r^'Al '«?!S*S5^»;*'^r)«''^-»'ainf'«ti^ FATHER CHRISTIAN T-E CT.ERCQ. '7 (»f my mission, when, being greatly embarrassed as to the mode in which I should teach the Indians to pray, I noticed some children making marks on birch bark with coal, and they pointed to them with their finger at every word of the prayer which they pronounced. Tiiis made me tiiink that, by giving them some form" which would aid their memory by fixed characters, I should advance much more rapidly than h" teaching on the plan of making them repeat over and r what I said. I was charmed to know that I was not de- ceived, and thai tliese characters which I had traced on paper produced all the effect I desired, so that in a few days they learned all their prayers willjout difficulty. I cannot describe toyou the ardor with winch tjhcsc poor Indians competed with each other in praiseworthy emulation v/hicii siiould be the most learned and tlie ablest. It costs, indeed, much time and pains to make all that they require, and especially since I en- larged them so ab to include all the prayers of the Church, with the sacred mysteries of the Trinity, Incarnation, Hap- tism, Penance, and the Eucharist. But, after all, what ougiit we not to do for God's sake } " "As I sought in this little formulary only the good of my Indians and the easiest and readiest method of instructing them, I always used them with greater pleasure since several persons of merit and virtue have been kind enough or:iIly and in letters to exhort me to continue, even forcing me to send specimens to tliem in France, in order to show the curious a new method of learning to read, and how God avails him- self of the least things to manifest the glory of bis holy name to these tribes of Gaspesie. The approbation of Monsei- gneur de Saint Valier, now Bishop of Quebec, lias more than sufficiently authorized their use, and that worthy prelate has i8 A SKETCH OF esteemed them so higlily tliat, after witnessing; in person tligir advantage and utility in a very painful voyage which he made to Acadia, he asked some 8|)ecimens from the Rev. Father Moreaii, to whom I had imparted them some years before." * It is no little honor to the Recollect missionary to have established among the Indians a system of characters which has been maintained for nearly two centuries. None of the bjsuit missionaries lay any claim to any such means of in- struction, so that the title of Father le Clercq seems indis- putable. A government officer on that coast thus speaks of tiiem in a recent report : " The earlier missionaries," says R. Macdonald, Indian agent, "had invented a system of hieroglyphics, which they subse(|uently gathered into a volume and handed to the first converts. By the good offices of a religious foreign society a reprint was made a few years ago, and many copies of this later edition are now in circulation. The publication is in two small separate volumes, which contain the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Hail Mary, a few other simple supplications, the Ten Commnndments, the principal Roman Catholic Ec- clesiastical Precepts, the entire service of the Mass, the Office for the Dead, several selections from Sacred Scriptures, and a summary of Christian Doctrine in catechetical form; tliis, I need not say, is the poor Micmac's simple record through two hundred and seventy consecutive years. Each Sunday even- ing the head of the family, with profound reverence, takes the book into his hand, deciphers it from beginning to end, and • " Relation de la Gasp^sie," pp. 141-145. I treated tliis matter in the Historical Magazine for October, 1861 (v. p. 289). FATHER CHRISTIAN I.E CI.ERCQ '9 then wiih great earnestness impresses what he considers its most important truths nn the niind.s of his by no means inat- tentive hearers." * The title of the liirger of tlie works here alhuled to, and which embraces tiie two others, is as follows : • . • • 1 • • BUOH ICil? *i* pt. 0^5 t\Jl ^S^ nikilidd in latKkiimi, B*lncMn|, Gmm(. L.^S_pS A ^ -^i^' oH^- •itUiMrliclM tii auk ktBiftiekr Bick^rKlmi =:-l^ bit (s ftimU U^n'' 11^ '1 Iv ^pv^J ii in kiiirrlicbfn Sii'li Wiei id 0<.*lvr«iji ^^^ o®si. ^^^ i2m(): Katechismus (8)146; Betrachtun^sbiich, iii pp.; (lesangbiidi, 210 pp. * " Annual Report of the Commissioaer of Indian Affairs ," 1880, pp. 45-6. The writer, I thiniv, overestimates their age. 111! I 1i 20 A SKETCH OF I !■ The second work has the same title as the preceding, omit- ting the word Gosang and the character above it, and em- braces (8) 146 ; III pp. The third omits Katechismiis and ^Betrachtungsb'ich with their characters, and reads simply den Gesang, and contains pp. (8) 210. They were prepared by the Rev. Christian Kauder, and were printed by the Leopold Society at Vienna. They are dc('icated to his Eminence Joseph Othmar, Cardinal von Rauscher, Arclibishop of Vienna. In his " Relation de la Gaspesie " Father le Clercq refers to the " Etablissement de la Foi " for later details as to his missionary labors. The two works appeared almost simul- taneously, and if the " Etablissement " contained any such matter originally we now seek it in vain . it was omitted for the caustic and bitter satire on the Jesuits. Allusions to Father le Clercq after this arc brief and few. Father Zcnobius Membre, who was a cousin of Fallier le Clercq, in his letter to his superior, written " from the river of Mississipi, June 3, 1682," announcing La Salle's successful descent to the gulf, and ascent of the river till he fell sick, closes by saying: "I cannot fulfil my duty, which would be to write to those to wliom obligation compels me. I beg your reverence to supply my defect, as well as to all my Fa- thers. Do me the favor to give me news of Father Chris- tian."* The Jesuit Father, James Bigot, in tlic Relation of his Ab- naqui mission at Sillery and St. Francis in 1684, mentions the arrival of several Gaspesians at his mission, and adds : " God * Margry, ii. pp. 211-2. FATHER CHRISTIAN LR CLERCQ. 21 gave most of tliese Gaspesians the grace of dying at Sillery tliis year some time after arriving there. I call this a great grace for them, for you know the wretched life they lead in their country, and the Rev. Father Christian, Recollect, who spends most of his time, as you know, in the country of the Gaspesians, and who instructs them with great zeal, said to me some days ago that lie desired only one favor for these poor Gaspesians, which is to see them come into our mis- sion, to which he influenced them all he could. Those of that nation here are doing well."* Mr. de St. Valier, afterwards second bishop of Quebec, visited He Percee in 1686. He says : " I went back by way of Miramichy. Instead of taking the route by Ristigouciie and Mattane in order to reach Quebec, I took that of He Percee, where I knew that my visit would not be useless. I did not reach it till the 26th of August, after experiencing mucli hardship; and during the stay I made there I had time to visit all the places where the fishermen carry on their trade. Some profited by my visit, and I have reason to be satisfied with them; but I found in many little inclination to lead a Christian life, notwithstanding the exertions of a good reli- gious of the order of Recollects, to whom they bear testimony tliat he lives among them witli great regularity." f Father le Clercq himself tells us that lie returned to France in 1687,1; and those wlio represent him as having left He Percee only in 1690^ have overlooked this statement; had he been there in September, 1688, when Joutel and Father * Bigot, " Relation Abnafjuise," 16S4, pp. 38-9. f St. Valier, " Estat Present" (Quebec edition), p. 42. t " Etablisseinent de la Foi," i. p. 427. § Tanguay, " Repertoire," p. 55 ; Ilarrisse, p. 158. 22 A SKETCH OF Anastasius stopped there, he could scarcely have failed to allude to it. In that year Le Clercq must have been in France, for he givesj at length a letter from Fatlier Emman- uel Jumeau, in which that religious describes the destruction of the churches at lie Perc^e and He Bonaventure by the English in August, 1690. At this time Father le Clercq had been appointed guar- dian of the convent at Lens, a religious house destroyed at the time of the French Revolulion. He held this position on the 30th of December, when the privilege was issued for his two books, and when the printing of the two was completed, in 1691. Paquot, in his "Memoires," says he died in 1695; but the " Nouveau Voyage " of Hennepin calls him in 1699 " Definitor of our Recollects of Artois." Father le Clercq has left us two works : I. Nouvelle | Relation | de la | Gaspesie, | qui contient ( les Moeurs & la Religion des Sau- | vages Gaspesiens Porte- Croix, I adorateurs du Soleil, & d'autres | Peuples de I'Amer- ique Septen- | trionale, dite le Canada. | Dedie'e a Madame la I Princesse d'Epinoy, | Par le Pere Clirestien le Clercq, | Missionnaire Recollet de la Province de | Saint Antoine de Pade en Artois, & | Gardien du Convent de Lens. | A Paris, I Chez Amable Auroy, rue Saint | Jacques, a I'lniage S. Je- rome, attenant | la Fontaine S. Severin. | M.DC.XCI. | Avec Privilege dv Roy. | Title, verso blank (2) ; Epitre a Madame la Princesse d'Epinoy (22); Extrait du Privilege du Roi, dated December 30, 1690; Printing completed April 20, 1691 (2); Text 1-572. It concludes : " J'obmets ici les circonstances de cette seconde Mission, que je reserve pour le Premier etablisse- FATHER CHRISTIAN LE CLERCQ. 23 ment de la Foi dans la Nouvelle France." He also refers to the same work on p. 20. 2. Premier Etablissement | de la Foy | dans la | Nouvelle France, | contenant la Publication | de I'Evangile, I'Histoiie des Colonies Fran- | (;oises, & les fameuses dccouvertes de- puis I le Fleuve de Saint Laurent, la Loiiisiane | & le Fleuve Colbert jusqu'au Golplie | Mexique, achevces sous la con- duite de | feu Monsieur de la Salle. | Par ordre dv Roy. | Avec les victoires | remportees en Canada par les amies de Sa I Majeste' sur les Anglois & les Iroquois | en 1690 | Dodie a Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac, | Gouverneur & Lieutenant General de la | Nouvelle France. | Par le Pere Clirestien le Clercq Missionnaire | Recollet de la Province de Saint Antoine de Pade | en Artliois, Gardien des Recol- lets de Lens. | Tome I. | A Paris, | Chez Aniable Auroy, rue- Saint Jacques, | attenant la Fontaine S. Severin a I'lmage | Saint Jerome. | M.DCXCI. | Avec Privilege du Roy. | Vol. I. Title, verso blank (2) ; Epitre " A Tres Haul et Puissant Seigneur Messire Louis de 15uade, Comte de Fron- tenac," etc. (13); Preface (4); Table de Chapitres (8); Ex- trait du Privilege du Roi, dated December 30, 1690 (2) ; Printing completed April 20, 1691 ; Text r-559. Vol. II. Title, verso blank (2); Text (1-458), 453-6 are not given. These two works received the royal i)rivile:;e llic same day, and tlie printing was completed April 20 and July 26. Neitlier title alludes tu any map, but copies of both occur containing a map entitled : Carte | Generalle de la | Nouvelle | France | ou est com- pris I La Lovisiane | Gaspesie | et le nouveau Mexiipie | auec les Isles Antilles | Dressee sur les inenioires | les plus i hm 24 A SKETCH OF i i I t nouiieaux. I 1691; I. Rouillard, dclineavit ; L. Boiidan, Sculp. Some copies of the map are said to bear the date 1692. The last figure has somctiiing of the appearance of 2, but seems to be really i, and has probably been read differently. This title seems to be the more common one, but otliers — among which are that in the library of Baron James Roth- schild, Paris ; tlie Carter-Brown collection, Providence ; that of the Abbe H. Verreau, Montreal — have the following title, which I print from a transcript of Baron Rothschild's copy, made for me by the kindness of Mr. H. Harrisse, who is inclined to regard this form as that under which the book was first issued. As, however, the name of Le Clercq is given in the Royal Privilege in full, it is not easy to see why tlie initials only should have been used on the title ; but if, when the work ap- peared with his name, complaints were made, there would be a reason for printing a new title to keep it out of sight as much as possible. The second title is as follows : Etablissement | de la Foy | dans la | Nouvelle France, | Contenant I'Histoire | des Colonies Francoises, & des Decou- I vertes, cjui s'y sont failes juscpies a pre- | sent. | Avec une Relation Exacte | des Expeditions &: Voyages entrepris pour la I Decouverte du Fleuve Mississipi jusques | au Golplie de Mexique. | Par Ordre du Roy ] Sous la conduite du Sieur de la Salle, & de | ses diverses avantures jus(jues a sa mort. I Ensemble les Victoires | remportees en Canada sur les An- glois et Iro- | quois en 1690, par les Amies de sa Majeste | sous le commandement de Monsieur le Co.iite | de Frontenac, Gouverneur et Lieutenant Ge- | neral de la Nouvelle France. FATHER CHRISTIAN LR CLERCO. 25 I Par le P. C. L. C. | Tome Premier. | A Paris, | chez Amable Auroy, rue Saint Jacques, | attenant la Fontaine Saint Severin, | a I'image Saint Jerome. I M.DC.I.XXXXI. Avec Privilege dii Roy. Tlie second volume also gives only- .he initials of Le Clercq. Besides these two a third title exists, of which the copy in the Lenox Library, New York, is an example. This tliird form is as follows: Histoire | des | Colonies Fran(;oises | et | les fameuses decouvertes depuis | le fleiive de S. Laurent, la Loiii- | siane ^' le fleuve Colbert jus- | qu'au Golphe Mexi(|ue, ache- I vees sous la conduite de feu | Monsieur de la Salle. I Avec Les Victoires | remporti^s en Canada par les amies | de sa Majeste sur les Anglois & les Iro- | quois en 1690. I Tome Premier. | Imprime a Paris, & se vend | A Lyon, | Chez Thomas Amaulry, | ruii Merciere, au Mer- cur^- Galant. M. DC. XCII. These copies all seem, except tlie title, to be part of the same edition, corresponding throughout, and all, after the " Ex- trait du Privilege," having a note that the printing for the first time was completed, some copies say April 20, 1691, the same date as the " Gaspesie," while others, in which the error seems to have been seen while jirinting, have July 26, 1691. Neither of Le Clercq's wotks was ever re[)rinted, nor did any translation appear, although it was noticed in the Journal (its Scixvaiis for February, 1692, and was made the text of one of Arnauld's diatribes against the Society of Jesus in his " Morale Pratique des Jesuites." The members of that order, of course, felt the attack on them, which they could not but consider unjust. It is often ! I. i '' :1 ; ji. 11 i! ! iil II 26 A SKETCH OF stated that tliey procured the siippressiorj of the " Etal)lisse- ment de la Foi," which is now extremely scarce. But if we are to believe Arnauld, this was not the case. " Tiie Jesuits," iie says, '* opposed the book and did all they could to sup- press it. Tile Recollects, who have friends at court, main- tained that the l)ook was good and contained nothing but the truth. The bookseller was for a time under arrest for his book, but when it was shown that there was nothing in it to be gainsaid the book passed and has ever since been sold freely."* It would seem, however, tliat with all the stir the book did not sell, as after a time it was put forward with the third title- page we have given. The " Relation de la Oaspesie " is evidently the work of Ic Clerc(i, describing as it does his own missionary lile, with re- marks on the Indians and frecpient citation of Mici. ac words. Like every missionary of e.xperience, he speaks strongly against llie practice of selling liquors to the Indians, f The book is uniform in style througliout, and is confined to the affairs of the district in which he was, far removed from the more active life of the French colony. As to the " Etablissement de la Foi " questions liavc arisen. Father le Clercq, as we have already mentioned, re- fers the readers of his Rela'ion of Gaspe to it for a continua- tion of his mission career aft'-r his return from France, but there is not in tlie " Etablissement " the slightest allusion to his later labors ; and even his first mission duties are in one * CEiivrus do Messire Antoinc Aiiiauld, Paris, 1780, vol. .\x.\iv. p. 720, cited by Ilarrisse, p. 159. t H. 432. FATHER CHRISTIAN LE CLERCQ. 27 place utterly ignored, another missionary, d'Etliuiie, l)eing represented as at Percee till 1683, whereas le Clerc(i tells us tiiat lie succeeded that missionary in 1675. Evidently part of the book prepared by him has been suppressed, and a part inserted which was written by some one wlio knew little of his mission life. In the " Nouveau Voyage " of Fatlier Hennepin, a vf)lume drawn from the " Elablissement," the assertion is made that the real author of the latter woik was Father Valentine le Roux, Commissary or Superior of the Recollects in Canada. I'he " Nouveau Voyage " is, however, too doubtful a work to be cited as authority. Joutel, an author of higher character, in his "Journal Historique," edited by Michel (p. 117), impeaches the " Elablissement " as drawn up from untrustworthy memoirs. In the more extended Journal published by Margry (iii. p. 190) Joutel impeaches statements of the " Nouvel Etab- lisscment," or ratlier " he Premier Etablissement de la Foy dans la Noiivelle France," as to the fort in Texas and the live stock, and remarks in a note : " The author of that book, which treats of the voyage of M. de la Salle, states that he drew what lie alleges from tlie memoirs furnished to him by the Reverend Father Anastasius, witli whom I returned from the said country; but I have not observed that the said Father worked at that topic. I will say more: I have not re- marked that he wrote a single line during our return. He even ex])ected that I would give him a copy of what I had written. Nor can I believe tliat he would have put forward a number of false statements. Now, there are some the falsity of which is evident, without any necessity of having been in said country to perceive it." ;j»; 28 A SKETCH OF ■^m Hill I I ! 11 And on p. 396, in another note, lie again impeaches it : *' Hence I am surprised tiiat the autlior of wliom I have al- ready spoken can assert tliat Fatlier Anastasius made tliem exhortations and made them understand the mysteries of our religion, whicli could not be done without understanding their language perfectly, which I have not remarked in the said Father, who did not even take the pains to write a single word." There were, however, reasons why Father Anastasius should keep his notes private. Tiie Recollects certainly attempted to chronicle the voyage, but th°re was no in- tention of allowing them to speak freely. Joutel says (p. 99) : " On the 9th an accident befell one of our Re- collect Fathers, named Father Zenobius, Superior of tlie mission, whicli annoyed him. During the voyage he had written all that hajipened on board the J'o/y — that is to say, all the disputes that had arisen during the whole trip between Mr. de Beaujeu and Mr. de la Salle — and he had written them just about as they had happened. This Father left liis desk open, or some one opened it; but, however that happened, the memoirs having been seen by some one who carried tliem to Mr. de Beaujeu, he was extremely angry against the Fa- ther, so far as to say that if he came back on his vessel he would put him in the sailors' mess." Joutel sliows himself to have been a mere partisan of La Salle, and not an impartial writer, for (p. 244) he tells us: " Some time after there was an incident in regard to Father Maximus [Le Clercq], who had written on wliat had occurred. Mr. Chefdeville informed me that lie had seen a Rehition by the said Father in which there were statements against Mr. de la Salle. I told the said sieur that I would have to seize Ml FATHER CHRISTIAN LE CLERCQ. 29 tliat Relation, whicli was done, wlicrcat the Fathers felt great- ly einharrassed, and especially the Father who was the author of that memoir, who might thus have reason to fear the re- turn of Mr. de la Salle. Hence Father Zenobius begged me not to let the matter go any further. I told him that I could not conceal it, as I was obliged to guard Mr. de la Salle's in- terests, and, besides, that it did not befit their character to write things of tliat nature; that, moreover, I was not the only one cognizant of it. However, these Fathers persisted till the said Relation was burned so that it should not appear. Fa- ther Zenobius had fallen into a similar fault in regard to Mr. de Beaujeu. As these gentlemen are extremely fond of writ- ing, they cannot refrain from it; however, it is not proper to tell certain things, b'u there are some who amplify." He states subsequently that La Salle, on returning to the fort, refused for a time to allow the Recollects to sit at table with liim. This throws some light, and lets us see that while Joutel himself, from what he deemed his duty, wrote only to support La Salle, tlie Recollects were making notes constantly and so frankly as to offend both sides. And we may well imagine that, after the exjicrionce of his associates, Membre and Le Clercq, Father Anastasius did not parade what he wrote be- fore the eyes of Joutel. When Father Anastasius accompanied Iberville he con- tinued to keep a journal, but it was stolen from him with his breviary while stopping at an Indian village.* Iberville criticises the " Establishment of the Faith " by Le Clercq, and his authority. Father Membre, in regard to the Margry, iv. p. 273. 30 A SKETCH OF |! ! ■I ' 1 I ! distances from the Arkansas to tlie mouth of the river, mak- ing it two hundred and sixty-three and a half leagues, wliile Meml)r(5's cstiniate was only one hundred and ninety. Tonty's (Margry, iv. \). 180), hf)wcver, agreed in the main with Mem- bre's, and Iberville shows strong prejudice. In another place he attacks a Recollect Father whom he does not name, and whom Mr. Margry supposes to be Hen- nepin, as he puts tiiat name at the head of (.he page (p. 168). " Returning always," says Iberville, " to the Relation of the Recollect Father which he had made as to this river, not being able to believe that he would have been wretched enough to make a false statement to all France, although I knew well that he had lied in many places in his Relation, in what he said of Canada and Hudson Bay, where he lied shamelessly." This Recollect was certainly not Hennepin, but Membre, for he subsequently says (j). 182): "This has no resemblance to what the Relation of the Recollect Fatlier states as to the lower part of the branch of the Mississipi by which they descended, but has leally with the lower part of that where I am, although he states in his Relation that he descended by tiie western branch. I know that when he was at St. Louis Bay with Mr. de Beaujeu, he said, like Mr. de la Salle, that it might be the western branch of the Mississipi which fell into St. Louis Bay, not knowing it, as he descended by the eastern one. He is a liar who has disguised every- thing, whom I cannot consult to see the resemblance between this river and that which they descended." Membre was with La Salle at St. Louis Bay, and Hennepin was not, so that the Recollect referred to is not Hennepin, but Membre. Still later Father Charlevoix, in his " History of New FATHER CHRISTIAN LR CI.KRCQ. 31 •ranee II i|( treating of it in his l>ist of Aiitljors, says: "This work, in wliich there is reason to l)elieve that the Connl de Frontenac liad a hand, is generally pretty well written." The work itself seems to show that several persons had a hand in it. 'i'he " Ktablissement de la Foi " comprises, first, a sketch of tlic Recollect missions in Canada from 1615 to tlio rapture of Quebec by Kirk in 1629, and of the efforts of the missionaries to return to Canada after its restoration in 1632. This |)art is clearly given, in a more connected form than Sagard's diffuse history, and has additional matter drawn from the j)apers of Father Joseph le Caron, the founder of the Recollect mission in Canada. This portion embraces fifteen chapters (pp. 1-5 13) of the first volume. The rest of the volume to p. 559 is a bitter satire on tlie Jesuits and a ridicule of the Relations of their missions in Canada. The second volume begins willi a statement of the religious con- dition of the colony and the various establishments, with an other sharp attack on tlie Jesuit missions, and includes an account of de Tracy's operations against the Iroquois. This portion extends to page 84. Chapter xix. is devoted to the return of the Recollects to Canada and to Governor Fron- tenac. Chapters xx.-xxv. ([ip. 106-377) aie devoted to La Salle's discoveries, drawn mainly from narratives of Fathers Membre and Douay. The rest of the work (pj). 378-454) treats of Fiontenac's operations in 1690 and iiis defeat of the Englisii at Quebec, and is by another hand and based on de Monseignat's Relation and Frontenac 's despatches. Harrisse f well remarks that the " Etablissement " " is as * Shea's " Charlevoix," i. p. 85. t " Notes pour scrvir d I'llistoire, ii la Bibliographic et h la Carto- graphie de la Nouvelle France," p. 159. 38 A SKETCH OF I I I much a book of controversy as a history," and " is divided into several parts clumsily enough patciied togetiier, tlie sub- jects of which have been drawn from different sources." It would seem that a manuscript of I,e Clercq's, intended to give simply a history of the Recollect missions in ('anada generally, and of his own in more detail, was made to serve as a medium for introducing attacks on the Jesuits, against whom the Count de Krontenac was then arraying all Mie civil power, and for flattering that governor with a eulogy on his administration. As I have had occasion to note at various places, the edi- tor of the " Ktablissement " takes the ground that the Indians are not susceptible of conversion and never become sincere Christians; while in his "(laspesie " Father le CKrc. were not slow in taking u|) ir.o^t curious modes ol uveuge; and riilicule, above all, was brouglit to play upon liieir .in- tugonists. So tar had public opinion become vitiated that in a memoir drawn up apparently by the intend int Duchesncau with regard to the Indian village of Cauglinawaga, the wrilei, addressing the French court, deemed it necessary to defend the Jesuit missionaries against the charge of preventing the erection of any tavern on their lands at l,.i|uairie, in the vi- cinity of their Indian village ! I'iie only defence made is more curious: it admits the fact, but tienies the necessity of taverns there, as Montreal was full (}f them. In this brandy war the Jesuits, being in ciiarge of the missions, were chielly attacked, and soon after a new charge was nuide against them personally. Frontenac especially insisted tlial Indian vil- lages a|)art would never result in t:ivilizing the natives; his plan was a complete fusion of the two races by bringing them into perfect contact. The nnssionaries, convinced that In- dians living among the whiles were irrecoverably losi, adher- ed pertinaciously to their original system of separate villages and gradual advancement. Frontenac's theory is much up held by the "Etablissement,"and many arguments are adduced in favor of this plan, which iu assumed to be that of the early Recollects. Religion was at that time upheld by i)opular oi)inion in Canada ; a man in rank or ofitice had to ])ractise his religious duties ; indeed, he never thought of not doing so. Now, these duties in the Catholic Church are something very positive in- deed, and many in Canada found themselves under ecclesias- tical censures for trading in liquor with the Indians, and saw li IlilUi I 34 A SKETCH OF ; i , 'i i ■I'! i! no other alternative hut that of renouncing ahicrative traffic, unless, indeed, they could find more lenient confessors. A party called for the return of the Recollects as earnestly as they had oi)posed it when they deemed them too exjiensive. Le Clercij states this ground of recall without a word of cen- sure. The Recollects returned, became the fashionable con- fessors, and were stationed at trading points. In this way they became involved in existing disputes, and, favored by and favoring Frontenac, found themselves arrayed in a man- ner against the rest of the clergy. A general charge made about the time seems to have been that the Jesuits had really made no discoveries, and no progress in converting the In- dians. With this as a principle, it would not do to allow the discovery of the Mississippi to be ascribed wholly or in part to one of the missionaries of that society ; hence a work de- dicated to Frontenac must naturally be a eulogy of iiis ideas and his friends, and a well-directed attack on his enemies. It must be, and be ex])ected to be, a party affair, and docu- ments were altered to support their views. Tliis explains the motive for the doubt as to tlic authen- ticity of the Jesuit Relations, and the treatment of their mis- sions as chimerical. In the account of the progress of Cliris- tianity during the period in question there is no historical order preserved ; no mention is made of the Huron missions, their rise and fall with the nation, and the death of the va- rious missionaries, whose last moments are a sufficient proof of their sincerity in the accounts which they iiad given. Of the Algoncpiin and Montagnais missions, and their almost entire destruction by sickness and war, no notice is taken ; and wliat is said of the Iroquois is very much garbled. No missionary ever could have written this part. One m FATHER CHRISTIAN LE CLERCQ. 35 instance will show the spirit of tliis portion. Speaking of the mission in New York in 1655-58, lie mentions tlic fact that Menard, at Cayuga, baptized four hundred, and adds : " Cliristianity nuist have advanced eacii year by sliil more Iiappy and multiplied progress, and consequently all these people must he converted.'^ Then, as he finds the mass of tlie Iroquois in 1690, as we find them in 1880, pagans, lie concludes that llie accounts of the missions are false. Now, in the lirst place, tile period of missionary effort in New York embraces only the periods from 1655 to 1658 and from 1667 to 1685 — in all not more than twenty years, with a few visits at inter- vals before and after these dates; in 1690 there was no mis- sionary in New York save Father Milet, who had just been dragged to Oneida as a prisoner taken at Fort Frontenac. And as to baptisms, no fact is more clearly stated in early writers, the Relations and all others, tiian this: that tlie bap- tisms were chiefly those of dying children and adults. Among the Iroquois there were, indeed, ciiiidren of Christian Huions, who could be baptized in health, but only there. Hence tlie baptisms gave a very slight increase to the number of living neophytes, and in time of epidemics a very great number might be baptized, and yet the Church lose in point of numbers. To assume that four hundred baptisms gave as many living members, and that ten times as many gave four tiiousand, is a puerility in one who is not much acquainted with the matter, but a gross deceit in one who is. Le Clercq was not, I believe, the author of jiarts in the work that bears his name ; tliat two or more hands were em- ployed in it will, I think, appear to any one who will read it over attentively. That all the Recollects should have been at the time under some prejudice is natural. Fortunately these li 36 A SKETCH OF LE CLERCQ. . ,1 religious were soon relieved from their false position by the settlement of the disputes, and, without attempting new In- dian missions, labored for the good of tiie colony with a zeal beyond all praise. Cliosen almost always as chaplains to tlic troops and forts, they were to be found at every P'rencii post, and thus became the earliest pastors of some of our Western towns. Like the Jesuits, they were a second time exclud- ed from Canada by the English on their conquest of the country, and tiie last survivor has long since descended to the grave. A few names are almost all that recall to tlie tra- veller the labors and merits of the children of St. Francis. They did mission service among the Indians in Maine, and at the present time a community of Franciscans of tlie Tiiird Order, embracing some Indian members, is laboring among tlie Ojibwas of Michigan. Ill II, Yoi Ajaa A J 2 H A a <3DKA>n HJjaVUOkf MOlTADUau^I Ai THA'^iJTMCO onfifliiioj fil , 3n53t;i;J inie?. a.f> 3vt« I-J o| tiUiloD un'L'p)f,{ ntjdlo^ avo-Jl 3/ >5 ■'-■H.v: rDnoM n^'il »3 A M 1 :■ .cQ"u rr*) ■' i , ^ I ;r '1 £( >lucn:3Jit ;| < 11 l'2 I! ' I !i .1 n 1 liiji PREMIER ETABLISSEMENT DELAFOY DANS LA NOUVELLE FRANCE, CONTENANT I A PUBLIGATION* de rEvangilc,rHi{loire dcsColonies Fran- ^oifes , & les fameufes decouveices depuis )e Flf uve de Sainr Lauccnc , la LoUiuane & le Fleuve Colbert jufqu'au ' GolpKe Mexique ^ ach?vce$ fous la conduite de feu Monficut tit l.i Salle. Pj^r ordre l V RO r. AVE C" L ES VICTCIRES, lempotrces en Canacla par Its armcs .ic Sa MA|Este' fur ies Anglois & les Ico(.poif en 1690. J)t(<'U a Mortjicur fe Conte^ d e F R u v t B M A c« CcitvernarQr LtC'ttnan: Ce/ieral de U Heuvtle Frar.cc. T/frle Pert CntitSjitu ii C^tticQ^MtJponnMirk Reeollef de U Frovinre sic Saint Antcine deVnit tn Arthois , G»rdiin des K^celleisde Ltnt, TOME I A PARIS, Chez Amable Aurot rue Saint Jacquel attcnaup la Fo'.uainc S- Scvcriu a I'lraage Saint Jcrume. M. DC XCI. AvtcTrivilegc dn Rof. m\ FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FAITH IN NBV FKANCh; Ci>nt;iininK (he pul)lication of (he Gospel, the history of the French colonies, aTid the famous discoveries from the river St. Lawrence, Louisiana, and the river Colbert, to the Gulf of Mexico, accomplished imder the direction of the late Mr. DE la SALLE. BV ORDER OF THE KING. ! yii With the victories grained in Canada by his ALajesiy's arms over the Enj^dish and Iro(|U()is in \(h)o. Dedicated to Monsieur, the Count de Frontenac, Governor and Lieiitenant-(Jeneral of New France. KY FATHER CHRISTIAN LE CLERCO, Recollect Missl.mnry ot llie Proviiur of St. Anthony of /'.i,ln,i, in Artliois, (hiiinli'iin of the Recollects oj Lens. VOL. I. Paris: AMAHLE AUROY, RUE ST. JACQUKS, NEAR ST. SEVERIN'S FOUNTAIN, SIGN OI- ST. JEROME. 1691. IVITH ROYAL PRIVILEGE. If \ I i .11 To the most hi^^h ami puissant ioni, Messire Louis tie Buade, Count of Fronteiiac, Governor ami Licutenant-General for the King in New France, Acadia, the island of Newfoundland, and other countries of North America : My Lord: Did I not feel obliged to offer you this little essay in sa- cred history, to give a public mark of the veneration and respect wl '.ch I entertain for your person, I could not with- out injustice publish under any other name the historical sketch of a Church which owes its main and most solid estab- lishment to the protection and effects of your zeal. It has increased more than half in the number of subjects, nations, and extent of country under your administration; for nearly twenty years you have powerfully sustained its interests and in everything favored the ministers of the Gospel ; just recently you have preserved it to God and the king by saving it from the incursions of a formidable army of savages and infidels, and a few days after from the attacks and descent of a nu- merous fleet of rebels to religion and the state who menaced it with total ruin. I do not undertake here, my lord, to include in the narrow limits of an epistle the glories of your house ; all France knows its merit, nobility, and antiquity, illustrated on the pa- ternal and maternal side by a long line of ancestors who have graced the first offices, civil and military, who were eminent for their great deeds and an unswerving attachment to the in- terests of their prince, in even most dangerous times. 40 DEDICATION. It is known tliat, ainid the host of knights of royal orders numbered in your family, you are descended from a father and grandfather both invested with that mark of honor. Others were ministers, secretaries, counsellors of state, marshals of France, governors of provinces, presidents jl mortier, officers in the state or royal household, and even now they consti- tute a part of the ornament and support of the crown. It seems, my lord, that nature and grace have combined to present in your person the ideal of the Christian, political, and military virtues of your ancestors : that elevation and this extent of universal genius, which shows nothing but what is noble ; that magnificent and liberal heart,, so worthy of your birth ; that disposition, ever beneficent even to your enemies ; that easy access ; that magnanimity in all changes of fortune, where your courage alone has borne you up; valiant, just, equitable, upriglit, an enemy of disguise, always moderate in prosperity and adversity ; a heart according to God's heart, full of faith, religion, and piety — predominant qualities, the very soul of your conduct in the posts committed to you for the service of the king and state from the age of seventeen, when you made your first essay in the army ; colonel of the cavalry regiment of Normandy for eleven years; major-general in the royal armies ; commandant of detached corps, serving in Italy Flanders, and Germany, everywhere giving proofs of y.pur valor and experience. The king having given peace to Europe by the treaty of the Pyrenees, your courage, my lord, led you, under the gui- dance of religion, to the Levant to battle with unbelief. Worthy of the choice of Louis the Great and of the discern- ment of the ablest captain of our age (Turenne), appointed lieutenant-general in Candia, you were the terror of the in- DEDICATION. 41 fidel, the Iionor of the nation, the envy of the Italians. Su- perior in courage and resohition, tlic place would have held out far longer had your opinions been followed ; you had, at least, the glory of arresting the progress of the infidel, of being the last to leave the place, and of holding out alone with your troops for fifteen days. God thus, my lord, prepared your religion and zeal to combat a new barbarism and an infidelity far different in the New World to wliich his providence destined you; it was, too, a few years after that the king, wishing to show liis love for New France, appointed you governor and his lieutenant-gene- ral, a post which your piety made less a fortune for time than an establishment for eternity, preferring it to more attractive ones which your favor, merit, and services promised you. It would be too little, my lord, to say that you have per- fectly honored the post, which was not worthy of you, except from the choice and confidence of your prince, the honor of representing his person, and tlie glory of serving religion and the state. We know that in the first two years your wisdom reassured the colony, established peace with all barbarous nations, built a fort at the entrance of the Iroquois country to keep them in check, entirely destroyed the bushlopers, established security not only for trade but also for religion by full and entire liberty in the exercise of missions. No one ever knew better than you, my lord, to subdue and sweeten the fierce humor of so many different nations, 10 ronsult their interest and tliat of the colony, to lay open their designs, to dissipate their factions, to fix the instability of tiieir mind and bring them to your ends for the king's ser- vice, to inspire tlieni at once \v^th love, fear, obcdit^nce, and respect, so that they have not dared during the ten years If if ilf iiiiii li fiiili! II I '! 42 DKOICATION. that you have been in tlie country to ninkc any rupture with the French nor with our allies, in spite of tlie solicitation of tlic Europeans in New Knuland and New Netherland. All these advantages were obtained, my lord, without ex- pense in money or troops, by your address, vigilance, and care alone, by the great blessings which God has given the up- rightness of your intentions; his glory alone having been the ruling motive of your conduct and the soul of your actions in a perfect disinterestedness. God has not, my lord, permitted so just and regular a life to be obscured by clouds raised by tlie malice of evil-minded men, except to establish more solidly the merit of your services, to add new lustre to your glory, and give publicity to the testimonials of approval be- stowed by the king on your wisdom ; in fine, to reserve to you alone the glory of saving Canada from ruin in the present wars, after having formerly so happily contributed to its establishment. In the last campaign we have seen that God continues to shower his blessings on the enterprises of T^ouis the Great ; that France, tiiough besieged on all sides by her enemies, has not failed to make powerful incursions into Germany, Flan- ders, and Italy; that the Dauphin scattered on the Rhine the formidable imperial army by his mere presence and the repu- tation and terror of his arms; the complete victories which the king has gained in Flanders, Piedmont, and on the ocean by the defeat of the confederate army, of the Duke of Sa- voy's, and of the combined fleets of England and Holland. We have just learned, my lord, that New France, under your government, presented in the same campaign as complete success on sea and land as we have seen in Old France, by the powerful irruptions which you made last winter more than DEDICATION. 43 a liiindred leagues beyond the French settlements, storming forts and entrenched towns, and spreading terror in the hos- tile countries of New Kngland, New Netherland, and the Iro- quois ; that by your mere approach, at the head of an incon- siderable force, you have dispersed a formidable army of l-'rench and Knglish rebels, of Iroquois and other savage nations; that, finally, you terminated the campaign by the defeat of a fleet of thirty-five sail, raised the siege of Quebec, which was attacked by sea and land, repulsed and dispersed an army revolted against religion and the state. All these favors showered by your zeal and courage on this rising Church, with your natural love of truth, induce me to ho|)e, my lord, that you will not take amiss my liberty in pub- lishing this little work under such favorable auspices, and to give you this public mark of the profound respect with which I am, my lord. Your very humble and very obedient servant, ^!l ■4 If V it FRIAR CHRISTIAN LE CLERCQ. PREFACE. 111! fl It would be useless to endeavor to win the reader by a studied preface in favor of the little work here published. As truth is the soul and pro])er essence of history, this has no need of being supported and authorized by aught else. No- velty and variety have their charm, even in a yet uncivilized barbarism. The plan of nearly two hundred difierent nations liere spoken of, discovered and visited in our age, will afford some pleasure to the curious. Since the Son of God predicted that his Gospel should be preached throughout the whole world, the jiicty of the faith- ful has always sought to accomplish his prophecy amid bar- barous tribes and nations where the name of the true God was before unknown ; and all good Frenciimen, who share alike in the glory of the king and the advantage of the na- tion, will learn with pleasure that I-ouis the Great, even more zealous for the establishment of religion than for tiie aggran- dizement of his states, has borne the light of the Faith and planted the standard of the cross from the commencement of his reign in all the vast countries of the new world submitted to his power. Persons little versed in knowledge of distant countries im- agine that New France is included in the narrow bounds of tlie least part of America; they must know that it now com- prises nearly eight hundred leagues of known country from the grv,at bay, ascending the St. Lawrence, and almost as much on the river Colbert, or Missisipi, from the Gulf of Mexico, and !« '!■ I'RKKACE. 45 lliat tliu (Icptli in land of botli liver-sliorcs contains vast pro- vinces peopled witli inlinite tribes; so that, wiliioiit speaking of the Antilles, under tlie kinj^'s sw.iy, liis majesty possesses on the mainland more territory than all I'airope, and a re^^ion capahle of forniinj,' the greatest emjjire in the world, the first puhliculiun of the Gospel in which we here attempt to de- scribe. It seems enou}i;h fron> this title that, not to wander from my subject, 1 should but toucii upon the situation, soil, com- merce, manners, laws, and customs of all these countries, so far as is necessary to give a m:iin knowledj^e of the matter treated of, and of which I give only an ubriilged essay, suffi- cient, however, to instruct the ri-acKr of the very moderate progress the Ciiurch has hitherto made. The first chapter will serve as a prelude and introduction to the rest of the work, which we divide into three epochs. The first from 1615, when the first establishment of the Faith began, to 1629, when the English seized tlie country. The second from 1632, when the kinf lesumed possession of New France, .to 1663. The third from the said year, when the king took the coun- try from the hands of the ('ompany, to the present year, ifxji. If the reader finds neither numerous conversions nor a church formed which answers in its progress to the untir- ing exertion of so many zealous, learned, and disinterested missionaries who have for nearly a century been laboring to clear that vineyard of the Lord, the reader's piety will have reason to adore, in a spirit of faitii, (lod's design on his peo- ple; to conjure Heaven to liaslen the auspicious time and mo- ment of grace, without which .i|)ostolic men can do nothing ; to acknowledge the signal favor of the Lord to us, excludiiig that multitude of nations who live without faitii, law, '.r Ood in this world, and whose eyes are closed to the knowledge of truth. CONTENTS. 'WW rAQB CHAPTER I. First discoveries of New Franco, ..... 49 CHAPTER H. First embarkation of the missionaries to plant tlic Faith in New France, ........ 81 CHAPTER HI. First establishment of the Recollects — The first Mass ever said in Canada — The missions niade immediately after their arrival, 86 CHAPTER IV. Cham|)lain's voyage to France with the Reverend Father-Com- missary of the mission to represent the state of all the new discoveries and efTect their establishment, . . . 108 CHAPTER V. New progress for the establishment of the Faith in New France from 1618 to 1620, ...... 138 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. 47 The governor and chief men of the colony cit|)iitu Father George le Haillif to tlic king for the interest of New France, ........ 157 CHAPTER VH. Establishment of a novitiate and seminary in New France — Bap- tism of some Indians — Incursion of the Iroquois, and other different incidents in our missions, .... 175 I CHAPTER VIII. Death of a Recollect on the mission of Acadia — Arrival of new missionaries at Quebec — Happy progress of the Huron mis- sion — State of those of the Nypisiriniens, Three Rivers, and Tadoussac, ...... kjq CHAPTER IX, The Recollects of the province of Paris solicit in France a mis- sion of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers for Canada — They ob- tain it after overcoming the difficulties that arise — The Re- verend Jesuit Fathers go to Canada for the first time in 1625 229 CHAPTER IX. Murder of Father Nicholas, Recollect missionary to the Hurons, committed by the Indians — Fruitless attempts of the Kecol- Iccts and Jesuits to reach that Father's mission — Deputation of Father Joseph le Caron to France — Wintering of the Re- collects and Jesuits at Ouebec, with many historical recol- lections on the first establishment of the Faith, 242 m i I i i. Ililffl ' iiii'i' ip ' il 48 CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. The Jesuit Fatliers proceed to l)egin tlicir first missions, conduct- ed by the Recollects — Several incidents happening in that and other missions, ...... 261 CHAPTER XI. The Reverend Jesuit Fatliers are traversed again in tneir estah- lislinient — Tr;igical fate of the Canada Hiiet — Unfortunate accidents whicli befell the colony, .... 277 CHAPTER XH. New misfortunes caused by the descent and irruption of the English in 1628 — Capture and desolation of the country by the said English in 1629, ..... 288 CHAPTER XIV. The King resumes possession of Canada — The Reverend Jesuit Fathers return — Unavailing eflbrts of the Recollects to restore their former mission — Arrival of the Jesuits at Quebec, ........ 310 CHAPTER XV. New attempts of the Recollects of the Province of Paris to re- turn to Canada, and various events which happened in this matter, . . ...... 347 . Ill iii CHAPTER XV. Progress of the Church in New France among the Indian nations during the years that the country was in the hands of the Gentlemen of the Company, Seigneurs and Pro- prietors of Canada by royal grant, .... 37f' wM FIRST Establishment of the Faith IN NEW FRANCE. CHAPTER I. FIRST DISCOVERIES OF NEW FRANCE. T SPEAK here of the first estabHshment of the faith in New France only with regard to the order of God, who, in the ordinary course of his providence, knows the times and moments which he has marked for the conversion of men and wills that his Church be established by successive steps, and that his most holy truths be gradually dis- covered and announced to all the nations of the earth, in order to show more clearly the effects of his justice and mercy. 4 50 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT l our Holy Father Paul V. as judge and commissary in these (juarters, to our well-beloved the venerable Fatiier Joseph le Charon, priest, professed religious Recollect of the order of St. Francis, province of l\iris or St. Denis, and to all other fathers ;ind brothers Recollects professed of said order of St. Francis, raised to the holy order of priesthood and confessors ap- proved by the oidinary, who are on the [)oint of re< ei\ing a mission uui obedience from their Father- I'rovincial to proceed with you to some heathen and inlidel countries to effei t iheir conversion to tlie true faith and Catholic religion, or whom you may take with the leave and license of said Fa- ther-Provincial, health and sincere love in our Lord. Know that heretoicre the Most Rev. Archbishop Count of Lyons, OF THE FAITH. 75 ambassador of his Most Christian Majesty to our Holy Father, having addressed the Apostolic See and petitioned His Ho- liness that, with the good pleasure of his said Holiness and the conditions hereinafter written, it should be lawful for the Rev. Father- Provincial of the Recollect religious of the said order of St. F'rancis to send some religious of the same order and of his province of St. Denis in France who should be fit and proper men to preach and extend the Catholic faith in heathen lands and regions; and inasmuch as the work was in itself meritorious, and it had pleased His Holiness to give us full power to grant tlie necessary and competent means for the execution of all the above, for the causes and reasons above alleged, by apostolic authority and commission, we have given and granted, and do give and grant, to your reverend Father- Provincial, and you who have l)een named, chosen, and deputed by him, the following faculties and privileges, which you may use and exercise, in case no one is found in those parts who lias similar ones the time whereof h.ih not expired, and so long only as you, I'riar Joseph Caron, and your associates remain in those heathen and infidel coun- tries ; and the said i)rivileges are of tenor, force, and effect following to wit : to receive all children born of believing Ami unbelieving [)j rents, and all others of what condition so- ever they mav be, who, after promising to keep and observe all that should be kej)! and observed by the faithful, will em- brace the truth of the Christian ami Catholic faith ; to baptize even outside of tiic churclu-s in case of necessity; to heai' con- fessions of penitents, and, after (liliu;intly hearing then\ im- posed a salutary penance according to their faults, and en- joined what ^Imuld be enjoined in conscience, to loose and i] Ml I 76 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT « ( absolve them from ,„ other ecclesiaseica. pains a:,d ce„ Jl """"'■'"'■"'■''" -d of crimes, excesses, and deHcC "„ ^^'I ™ '"'" ^'" '°"» Apostolic See and those contv T '■'^'"'''^<' 'o 'he on Maundy Tht.sda, .^ d '" "" '"'^" '-""y -"'= --'-., MatWa,e.a:;re:"Z::;~'-'-- of vestments, vessels and , ^"^"on , to bless all kinds "O. necessar ; to^ Is """"'' """^ "°'^ "-'on is Have contrac-tJd o/:r;i~:'' ""' ^°"^"'^ "'- Of eo„san,ni„i,y ,„ ,fl,„,^ ; "Z^'^^' '" -X ^eg-ee second or between asc.ndin. and 7 7"" "" '"" "' -men have not carried off Z^ '"'' ""'''''"' ">e -Ho have contracted or ,™„d c t"' ""' "" '™ """''"■^ "-- He jnst canse as weM ! h "' ."-■ '•"^"'°''^^' ^"<' to<: ■he convenience of a church sha I ,1 "-' "'"'''' """= '" faitn and testimony . Lto v T"""'- >'-". letters, subscribed a dl"^: commanded ,h. se oa.ed, signed, and sea'ed with ^ °" '''"'^- '" He Lou,s Savanutius, onr ' . d t /L""' '"^ °" ''^■"■''^'oved Messire Thomas Gallo^cirr:. at p"'"' '" '"""■^"'- ••'■"' and civil law, notary public 1„. ""■•■•"■■ '" <=a"on 'Homy as by the ven r ' 7 " ''"' ''^ ""-'oHc a„- aooording to the ediC: he r""" """" "' ''"■» -<> ;-" on the registers of the di^cet ::;°"'' ""' '""~"- "a-on. of Paris, residing in sld T J"'"' °' "" '"■"- S'reet, and our notary in ,„.:;:^j"-' "» Notre „ame rf 4r»:, OF THE FAITH. n fc Given at Paris the year of our Lord 1618, the 20th of the month of March. (Signed) G., ARCHBP. OF KHODES, Apostolic Nuncio. And lower down — By order of the said Most Illustrious nnd Rev. Lord Nuncio Apostolic ajid delegated Commissary. THOMAS GALLOT. Notary Public as c foresaid. LOUIS SAVANUTIUS, Auditor.* ROYAL PATENT FOR THE RECOLLECTS. Louis, by the grace of God, King of France and Navarre, to all who shall see these presents, greeting : The late kings, our predecessors, have icquired the title and quality of Most Christian by procuring the exaltation of the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman faith, defending it from all oppres- sions, maintaining ecclesiastics in their rights, and receiving in their kingdom all religious orders who apply in purity of life to instruct the people and teach them by word and example ; iind as we are also filled with an extreme desire of maintaining and pre.'jerving said title of Most Christian as the richest leaf of our crown, and by which we hope that all our actions will prosper, wishing not only to imitate wherever possible our said predecessors, but even to surpass them in the desire of I !' * The original is in the Archives de Versailles — R^collets. Faillon, " Hist, de la Colonic," i. p. 146. 78 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT establishing the said Catholic faith and announcing it in dis- tant savage and foreign lands where the holy name of (lod is not invoked. Our dear and devoted petitioner, the Father- Provincial of the province of St. Denis in Fnince, of the relig- ious of St. Francis of the strict observance, commonly called Recollects, has heretofore, seconding our desires, offered to send to the countries of Canada religious of the said order to preach the holy Gospel there, and bring to the Holy Faith the souls of the inhabitants of the said country, who are erring and wandering in their conceits, having no knowledge of the true God ; and for this purpose having sent a number there, their labor, by the grace of God, has not been useless ; on the contrary, some of the said inhabitants of Canada, ac- knowledging their former error, have ardently embraced the Holy Faith and received holy baptism, tidings as agr-.eable as any that can reach us ; and it now remains only to confirm what has been begun by the said religious, which cannot be better done than by permitting said religious both to continue to dwell . iaid country and to build there as many convents as the;, L-all deem necessary, according to the time and place, all which convents, monasteries, and religious shall be under the obedience of the said Father-Provincial of the province of St. Denis in France, and no other, and this to prevent all confusion that might arise if each religious, at his first impulse, was induced to pass to the said land of Canada. Desiring to remedy this in future, we h.ue said and declared, and by these presents signed by our hnnd do say and declare, our iM- tention ;ind will to be that the Father-Provincial of the said province of St. Denis in France alone may, and it shall be lawful for him to, send to said country of Canada is many of ;**; I OF THE FAITH. 79 his Rt'collect religious as he shall deem necessary, and when he deems proper ; and we have permitted, and by these said presents permit, the "^aid Recollect religious lo inhabit said country of Canada, and build and construct there one or many convents and monasteries, as ihey shall deem proper ; and to which country of Canada no other Recollect religious shall have power to go, except by obedience given by said provincial of the said province of St. Denis in France, and this to avoid all dissension that might arise, forbidding all port and harbor masters to permit any religious of the order of St. Francis to embark, in order to pass and go to said country of Canada, except by the obedience of the said Provin- cial and of the one whom he shall name as superior ; and show- ing moie particularly our affection towards said religious, we hereby take under our protection and safeguard all their con- vents and monasteries together. We hereby command our dear and well- beloved cousin, the Sieur de Montmorency, Ad miral of France, or his lieutenants in all the ports and har- bors of this our kingdom, and all our oiher justiciaries and officers to whom it may belong, to cause the contents hereof to be kept and observed, point by ]joint, according to its form and tenor, a' d publish these presents in all ports, harbors, and places of their jurisdiction, without permitting it to be contravened. We further command our viceroy of Canada, his lieutenants, and our other officers in those places to main- tain the said Recollect religious of the said province of St. Denis in France, in said countr\ ; not, however, authorizing them to receive any who have no obedience of the said jiro- vincial of thejjnjvince of France ; giving, moreover, their cure to the execution of this our will, notwithstanding any letters 8o FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FAITH. I U It ■ «^' '''' I '• 1 ' m I I'' 4 I to the contrary, which we have derogated, and l)y these pre- sents do derogate. For such is our pleasure. In witness whereof we have set our seal to these presents. Given at S. Germain-en-Laye the 20th of March, in the year of grace 1615, and of our reign the fifth.* *Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," pp. 12, 17. He gives no date, and that here given by Le Clercq is evidently a misprint for 1618, the date of the preceding document. In March, 1615, the Recollects could not be spoken of, as in this document, as having already been sent there and made converts. t ; CHAPTER II. FIRST EMBARKATION OF THE MISSIONARIES TO PLANT THE FAITH IN NEW FRANCE. A LEARNED author, eulogizing the religious state, once said, with as much truth as justice, that there was nothing greater or more glorious than the conversion of the New World. " Nihil proeclarius aut gloriosius, quam totius novi orbis conversio, qua^ quantacumque est religiosorum est,"* which, after the grace of the Lord, must be attribut- ed in all its parts to the apostolic labors of reli- gious in general, but especially, he says, to the un- tiring zeal of the religious of the order of St. Fran- cis, who have the honor of having been the pio- neers in this high and glorious enterprise. "Primos omnium qui tantam provinciam aggressi sunt Fran- ciscanos esse legimus."f " Nulli in tota India * Hieron. Plat., lib. i., " De Bono Statu Rel." f Hieron. Plat., ibidem. *,'. 82 FIRST RSTAHLISHMENT crant rcligiosi pra*ter eos, quos dixi Franciscanos."* So that, by the account taken at the General Chapter of the order in 1621, the Recollects had then in Spanish America five hundred convents established and distributed in twenty- two provinces since Martin de V^alencia, one of our first reformers, passed over there with a great number of Recollects to cast the first seeds of Christianity. This same glory is due to them, and no one can, without injustice, contest with them this illustrious advantage of having been the first apostles of New France, where they have fruitfully labored for the conversion of the Indians. It is, then, in the year 161 5 that we must acknow- ledge the first establishment of the faith in Canada,f when the father- provincial of the Recollects of Paris selected Father Denis Jamay as first commis- « sary of the mission, Father John d'Olbeau as suc- cessor in case of death, Father Joseph le Caron, * Tcresul (Tursellini). f This ignores the earlier labors of Messrs. Fleclic, Aubi}-, etc., sec- ular priests, ;iiid of the Jesuits in Acadia. OF THE FAITH, 83 and Brother Pacificus du Plessis to lay the first foundations of Christianity in New France, whither they actually passed in said year and began this great work, which they have since continued with their brethren by indefatigable labors and happy progress, as will appear in the sequel* Here I cannot forbear making an observation on the year given by the Abb6 de la Roque as the first epoch and birth of the Church in Canada, when he states the first establishment to have been made in 1637 and 1638 by the reverend Jesuit fathers. I have read what he has written in his " Memoirs of the Church " (printed at Paris in 1690) not only with pleasure, but with a singular esteem for the author's merit ; yet, as he himself avows, he wrote only on memoirs given him, and on the account of persons whom he consulted orally at Paris. I can- not help telling him, with a respectful liberty, either that his memoirs are untrustworthy or that the persons whom he consulted disguised the truth on * Laverdi6re's Champlain, 1619, iv. p. 7 ; Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," p. 11. f ^ ^# IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 Uit2^ 125 lis ^^ "^ u: U2 12.2 S Hi ^ ? U2 12.0 L25 11.4 1 1.6 FhotDgraphic Sciences Corpcxation 33 WIST MAM STRHT WMSTIt,N.V. 14SM (71«)«73-4S03 ) 84 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT this point of history which I here treat of. The reverend Jesuit fathers themselves would agree with us and admit it in the country where we labor with them. The people now in Canada render public testimony , the most faithful historians relate it ; in fine, you may still see in this New World the remains of our old establishments, many of which have been repaired since our return, without men- tioning other authentic proofs which we will set forth in the course of this work. It was, then, in 1615, on the 24th of April, about five o'clock 'n the afternoon, that the first four Recollect missionaries, whom we have named above, embarked at Honfleurs. After a voyage of thirty-one days they arrived safely at Tadoussac on the 25th of May,* a day consecrated to the festival of the translation of our Seraphic Father St. Fran- cis. We leave the reader to imagine with what ardor these hew missionaries were inflamed on en- *They came on the S/. Etienne, of 350 tons, commanded by the Sieur de PontgravC*. Lavcrdiire's Champlain. ifiig, p. 9 ; Sa^ard, " Hist, du Canada," p. 2a. OF THE FAITH. 85 tering that vast country, and with what fire the unction of the Spirit pervaded them at that first moment. We may ^y that, in the extreme desire of gaining to Christ all the savages of the New World, their hearts became by inclination us great as all Canada, grace there producing the same effect as in that of St Paul, which, in the terms of St. John Chrysostom, became by zeal and charity as great as the universe : " Non erraxeris, si tor Pauli, cor totius orbis dixeris." After spending two days at Tadoussac the Rev. Father Commissary chose Father John d'Olbeau to go on to Quebec and prepare all things. The Rev. Father Commissary followed him a few days after with the rest of his religious. CHAPTER III. FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF THE RECOLLECTS — THE FIRST MASS EVER SAID IN CANADA — THE MISSIONii MADE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THEIR ARRIVAL. TIEGINNINGS are always difficult, and the ^^ greater the work the greater the difficulty. They also meet stronger opposition, especially in a religious establishment, even when it is proposed to push them on in a convenient country, where it . should be easy to find all that is necessary for this design. It is easy, then, to imagine the difficulties which our first missionaries in New France sustained when they settled in that New World where there were only woods, forests, thorns, and brambles; where all was to be cleared and the very neces- saries of life were usually wanting. But at last, animated and strengthened within by the same Spirit which had called them thither to be the FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FAITH. 87 corner-stones of Christianity, they surmounted, with the help of Heaven, all these obstacles. Father John Dalbeau, having arrived at Quebec, had there, in concert with Monsieur de Champlain, traced the plan of our first establishment, a little chapel and a house to shelter the religious, on the very spot where the lower town is now. The whole was soon ready, for there was nothing but what was most simple and conformable to evangelical poverty. Father Denis, the superior, had merely passed by Quebec, and had set out at the same time for Three Rivers with Father Joseph le Caron, leaving to Father John d'Olheau the charge of the work, which being finished, and the chapel in a fit state, he had, on the 25th of June, 161 5, the privi- lege of celebrating there the first Mass ever said in Canada.* * This point is in debate among Canadian scliolars. Mass was evi- dently said in Canada in Cartier's time, on St. liarnalias's day, 1534, at Brest (" Brief Discours," Paris, 1865, p. 25), and in February, 1536, at Quebec (" Brief Recit," p. 35). Even as to the first Mass by the Recol- lects there is a question. The '* Memuire faict en 1037 pour TalFaire dcs Pferes Recollect/.," Abeillc vii. No. 25; Margry, " D6couvertes," i. p. 3, states that the first Mass was said at Riviere des Prairies (see Laver- I ! 88 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT Nothing was wanting to make this action solemn^ as far as the simplicity of this little band of a rising colony permitted. The celebrant and his congrega- tion were all bathed in tears (by an effect of inte- rior consolation which God infused into their souls) to see for the first time descending in those before unknown lands, under the sacramental species, the Incarnate Word and God. Having prepared by confession, they received the Saviour in Eucharistic Communion; the "Te Deum " was chanted amid the ro?r of their little artillery, and amid the accla- mations of joy with which that wilderness re-echoed on every side. One might say it was changed into a paradise, all there invoking the King of Heaven, blessing his holy name, and calling to their aid the guardian angels of those vast provinces, in order to draw these nations more efficaciously to the know- ledge and adoration of the true God.* Thus wrote di&re's Champl., i6ig, p. i6) ; and though Champlain leaves the date blank, it is supposed to have been on June 34, and to have preceded d'Olbeau's. But it seems strange that they should have let a month pass before saying Mass for the colonists. * Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," pp. 34-5. OF THE FAITH. 89 the reverend Father d'Olbeau to a religious, a friend of his : "The affection wliich you have for the salviition of the souls of this country of New France, which has made us de- sire, and even seek in person means of assisting them, obliges me to give you news of our mission. We sailed from Hon- fleur on the evening of the 24th of April, and arrived May 25 at a port where vessels sailing here stop. This port is called Tadoussac ; it is full eighty leagues up the great river of Canada. Thirty-five leagues above is the French settle- ment, which I reached on the second of June, unaccompanied by our other religious, who came after as they found oppor- tunity. The reverend father-commissary and Father Joseph did not stop there, but sailed forty or fifty leagues along the river, in order to see the goodness of the country and to see the Indians, who arrive there in great numbers to trade with the French. On the 25th of June, in the absence of the reverend father-commissary, I celebrated holy Mass, the first that has been said in this country, whose inhabitants are truly savage in name and fact. They have no fixed abode, but cabin here and there as they can find game and fish, their ordinary food. Both men and women are dressed in skins and always go bareheaded, wear their hair long, paint their faces black and red, are generally of good sta- ture. As to mind I cannot speak positively, having thus far conferred only with a few individuals. Thus far the tem- perature of the itir has seemed to me like that of France. The land appears good, but we must winter here to judge. I would write you more did I not believe that the reverend 90 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT father-commissary has written you amply about all. Since we have been on land I have been almost always alone with Brother Paciiiciis. Next year, when we have a better know- ledge, we shall write you at greater length. " I conimend myself affectionately to the prayers of all our Fathers and Brothers, ever remaining, your very humble and very affectionate servant, "FRIAR JOHN D'OLBEAU. "Quebec, in New France, July 20, 1615." This letter is written to his friend, F. Didacus David. Meanwhile the father-commissary came down from Three Rivers, where he left Father Joseph le Caron. The latter remained there with the French either to administer tl»e sac aments or to learn the manners and language of the Indians, in order to be able to satisfy his passionate desire of announcing the Gospel to them. By the help of the French and Indians he built a house and chapel there to begin a sedentary mission which Father Denis Jamay, before his departure, had ordered him to establish. He erected an altar there, adorned according to the poverty of a wild and savage place. He had the honor of celebrat- OF THE FAITH. 91 ing Holy Mass there July 26, 161 5, with a sen- sible devotion. He had arranged all things for a solid mission, and would have wished to remain permanently. The savages even endeavored to keep him ; he left them two Frenchmen for t!ieir spiritual consolation, and as the reverend father- commissary undertook to extend his care to that mission, Father Joseph left Three Rivers and de- scended to Quebec, whither his superior sum- moned him, and his brethren awaited him to con- cert together on the knowledge they had acquired of the country, and agree upon the fittest means of advancing God's glory.* While at Quebec they had many conferences with Monsieur de Champlain and the most intelli- * This does not agree with Champlain, who says that he learned on the 8th of July that Father Joseph Ic Caron had set out from the Riviere des Prairies for the Huron country, and of course could not have been at Three Rivers on the 26th. Lavcrdidro (Champ., i6ig, p. 18) thinks that Father Denis Jamay, who was then descending the river, stopped at Three Rivers. Suite, " Histoire des Trois Rivieres," p. 35, takes the same view. Father le Caron stopped on his way down, June 15, 1616, and remained till the trade closed, July 11, but he was on his way to France July 26. Yet it seems probable that what Le Clercq states occurred at this time. (See Suite, p. 37.) 93 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT gent Frenchmen, who unanimously, after frequently invoking the aid of Heaven, made a kind of capi- tulary assembly, a little conclave, where, after the example of the disciples of the Son of God upon the descent of the Holy Ghost, these new apostles had to divide among them this vast country and this New World, which they were going to subdue to the empire of Jesus Christ. We may, with some sort of analogy, apply to this little troop what St. John Chrysostom applies to the great St. Paul, " parva machina gravida mundo," like the machine of the great Archimedes, which in idea and zeal bore this new Christian world. The result of this assembly, and the division made, were approved by the governor. The reverend fa- ther-commissary remained at Quebec, as the centre of the country, to administer the sacraments to the French in the colony and to form a mission for the Indians ; to extend his solicitude as far as Three Rivers, and establish others further down the river, over which he might watch. Father John d'Olbeau was selected for the Montagnais ; Tadoussac being OF THE FAITH. 93 named as his post, whence he should extend to the end and mouth of the river St. Lawrence. Father Joseph le Caron had as his share the Hurons and other Western tribes ascending the river. Father John d'OIbeau accordingly left Quebec the 2d of December in the same year, to proceed to the spot appointed for his Montagnais district, in order to learn their language and be able to labor seriously for their conversion. We cannot express the inward joy of this all-seraphic man when he beheld himself at last able to show God, as St. Paul had done, that he had no other am- bition than that of enlarging the kingdom of Je- sus Christ. He devoted himself to it during the winter with unwearied zeal, and devoured with pleasure all difficulties found in familiarizing one's self in the knowledge and practice of the language of these barbarians, of which in a little wh'le he learnt the elements. He built a small hut there, in which he arranged a chapel in the form of a cabin, to assemble the French and Indians for in- struction and prayer; all was neat, though poor. 2a 94 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT During the winter he endeavored to test the soil of the country, the natural temper and disposition of the Montagnais Indians; and as this nation is al- most always errant and vagabond, he underwent great hardships in seeking them and visiting them in all the principal places where they had assem- bled. He even went as far as the Bersiamitcs, Papanachois Eskimaux, and other savages, up to and beyond the Seven Islands, everywhere planting the sign of salvation, so that many years after there were found, in many spots, vestiges and marks of this course and of the zeal of this first missionary. After this discovery, in which he had acquired much information and opened the way for the es- tablishment of missions, he had to return to Que- bec to report to his superior.* Meanwhile the reverend Father Joseph le Caron had set out the preceding autumn f in the com- pany's barks which went to Three Rivers, and had thence advanced to the Hurons and other nations five or six hundred leagues further inland, with * Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," pp. 26 7. f Summer. OF THE FAITH. 95 Indians who had come to trade, and twelve Frenchmen whom Monsieur de Champlain gave to the Hurons to defend them against their ene- mies.* It is impossible to describe the hardships which this good father underwent during this painful voyage ; now amid the boiling whirlpools, the currents, the rapids and waterfalls, capable of appalling the most intrepid ; now bearing the in- supportable annoyance of the countless mosqui- toes and gnats, which gave him no rest by day or night. He wrote thus to one of his friends: " It would be difficult to tell you the fatigue I have suf- fered, having been obliged to have my paddle in hand all day long and row with all my strength with the Indians. I have more than a hundred times walked in the rivers over the sharp rocks, which cut my feet, in the mud, in the woods, where I carried the canoe and my little baggage, in order to avoid the rapids and frightful waterfalls. I say nothing of the p/iinful fast which beset us, having only a little sagamity, which i? a kind of pulmentum composed of water and the meal of Indian corn, a small quantity of which is dealt out to us morning and evening. Yet I must avow that amid my pains I felt much consolation. For alas ! when we see such a great number of infidels, and nothing but a drop of water is .* The men went before Champlain came up. Champlain, 1619, p. 18. 96 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT III I :\ needed to make them children of God, one feels an ardor which I cannot express to labor for their conversion and to sacrifice for it one's repose and life." This zealous missionary had appeared in the country of the Hurons, who had received him with all the mildness and friendship which they usually show their guests. This country is not of great extent, ciccording to the description given by this good father. It can he easily traversed in five or six days' time. The climate is very agreeable — much more moderate than that of Quebec. The ground, though sandy in many parts, is fertile and produces in abundance Indian com, beans, and pumpkins. Even French wheat would doubtless come to perfect maturity. This country is sur- rounded and intersected by very fine lakes; the most important of these, which is on their north, is called from its size "Mer douce" — "Freshwater sea. There arc eighteen f towns, comprising about ten * Lake Huron. Compare Champlain's description, " Voyage," 1619, p. 30 ; Sagard, " llistoire," p. 243 ; " Grand Vojrage," p. 113. f Sagard ('* Grand Voyage," p. 115; " Histoire," p. 347), a few years OF THE FAITH. 97 thousand souls, under one same language, which is common to ten or twelve other nations, all seden- tary and populous. The most famous of their vil- lages is called Carragouha,* which is defended and surrounded by a triple palisade, thirty-six feet high, to defend themselves against their enemies. It was in this village that the Hurons, to show Father Joseph the joy which they felt at his com- ing, offered to lodge him in their common cabins. He represented to them that he had to negotiate with God affairs so important, involving the salva- cion of their whole nation, that they deserved to be treated with more respect, in solitude and retreat, far from the tumult and trouble of their families. They hearkened to his remonstrance, and with poles and bark built him a cabin apart from the village. Here he raised an altar to offer God the holy sacrifice of the Mass and perform his spiritual exercises. In these places the Indians went to later, says twenty to twenty-five towns containing thirty to forty thou- sand souls. • This town was not far from Thunder Bay. ?>ee Laverdidre's Champlain, 1619, p. 28. 7 w I--? ; iM 98 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT visit him to be instructed in the mysteries of Chris- tianity and learn of him how to pray to God. Soon after his arrival the father had the conso- lation of embracing there Monsieur de Champlain, who had followed him closely with two French- men and seven Indians, whom he had distributed in two canoes, in order to go to war against the Iroquois. He arrived at the Huron country soon enough to hear the first Mass which Father Joseph had the consolation of celebrating there* and planting, amid the noise of their muskets, the sign of our salvation amid the acts of thanks which they offered God by a " Te Deum " solemnly chant- ed for the first time in that barbarous country. Meanwhile Monsieur de Champlain, who had agreed to accompany our allies the Hurons in war against the Iroquois, only in the hope of thus secur- ing their friendship and more easily pursuing his glo- rious discoveries, proceeded to visit all the Huron * This was August 12, 1615. Lavcrdifere's Champlain, 1619, p. 29. The " Memoire des Recollectz " (Abeille vii. 25 ; Margry i. p. 3) says August 10. f^v OF THE FAITH. 99 villages, to plant the royal arms there and contract a strict alliance with them, arousing their youth to go and fight the common enemies of their nation and of the French. The war-kettle was raised ; feasts of arms were made in a full concourse of captains and warriors. Each one here took part, and, full of the fire and resolution which Monsieur de Champlain had inspired, they fixed the ist of September as the day of their departure.* These savages do not need as much preparation nor munitions and supplies as Europeans and other civilized nations when they prepare for war. They carr> no provisions, leaving all the care to the chance of being able to hunt deer, beaver, and all sorts of game, which are very abundant in these parts. While the main body of the army advances others are sent to fish, so that nothing is wanting, especially in the evening, their principal meal-time. Thus our little army of Hurons set out under the direction of Monsieur de Champlain, who had ten • Laverdidre's Champlain, 1619, p. 34. WWy ^ lOO FIRST ESTABLISHMENT or (twelve Fienchmen with him to command the savages.* After forty-eight days'f march, as they approach- * The route of Champlain in this expedition into what is now New York Slate, and the site of the fort attacked by him, have led to much discussion. Starting from Cahiagu£, between the Severn and Matche- dash Hay, they passed through Lake Couchlchine, Lake Simcoe, Stur- geon Lake, the Otonabi and Trent to Lake Ontario. Laverdi^re's Champlain, 1619, p. 28. They then crossed the end of Lake Ontario to Stony Point, according to O. H. Marshall and Laverdiire ; to Hen- derson, according to Krodhead ; to Little Sandy Lake, according to General John S. Clark. After marching along the shore to Salmon River (Laverdiire, Marshall), or Salmon Creek (Clark), they struck inland and crossed the Osvvcgo at Fort Brewerton (Marshall, Clark). After this, but how lung is not stated, they met a party of the enemy (October g) going to their fishing-ground on Oneida Lake, ten miles from their town ; and the next day reached the fort or town of the Entoulionorons. This General Clark, with no little probability seeks to identify with the remains of an hexagonal fort on Nichols Pond, in the town of Fenner, ten miles from the east end of Oneida Lake, while Mr. Marshall maintains it to have been on Onondaga Lake. Con- sult " Expedition of the Sieur de Champlain," by O. H. Marshall, Mag. of Am. I/ist., Jan., 1S77 ; General John S. Clark, Paper before the N. Y. Historical Society; notice on the same in the Pentt. Hist. Mag., ii. p. 103; Rev. Mr. Slafter, " Memoir of Champlain," Prince ed., i. p. 129; Mr. Marshall's Reply, Mag. 0/ Am. I/ist., August, 1878. Dr. O'Callaghan, A^. Y. Doc. I/ist,, iii. p. 10, and the Abb6 Laverdiire placed the fort on Canandaigua L;ikc, but this position is untenable ; Parkman and Slafter have adopted General Clark's theory. Brodhead adopted Mr. Marshall's view. The Entouhnnorons were beyond question Onondagai f October 9. Laverdiire's Champlain, 1619, p. 39. As they set out Septem* t was the 39th. OF THE FAITH. lOI cd the first Iroquois town, they met an advance party of the enemy, eleven of whom our people took prisoners, the rest being killed, scattered, or put to flight. This defeat facilitated the approach to the town, which they found situated in a beauti- ful champaigne on the edge of a pond, encircled with four rows ot palisades thirty feet high, and strengthened by large trees interlaced in each other, above which these savaofcs had made a kind of way which serve'' a parapet against arrow and gun-shots. They had also formed and distributed at intervals a number of gutters to throw water and put out the fire in case we attempted to burn their palisades. On approaching this fortress our savages perceiv- ed a great number of Iroquois, who were gathering their Indian corn and pumpkins, which form their only harvest. It was impossible for Monsieur de Champlain to arrest the ardor of the Hurons and retard the exe- cution till the next day, when success would have been easy. Impatient to attack and conquer, feel- •6C2 loa FIRST ESTABLISHMENT ing themselves supported by the French, they rais- ed their usual shouts and war-cries, enfjaging in combat with so little order and so much precipita- tion that they were in danger of defeat, had not Monsieur de Champlain rendered them victorious by an opportune discharge of firearms. The noise of this little artillery so terrified the Iroquois that they retired to their fort, carrying all they could of their wounded and of those killed in the heat of the fight. This victory was a glorious one to the Hurons, who lost only a single man and had only five seriously wounded. Our Indians' irregular way of fighting entirely disconcerted all the measures which Monsieur de Champlain had formed for a regular siege of the place. With his usual pru- dence he dissembled his chagrin, and withdrew the Hurons to concert with them the plan of a second attack on the following day. It was resolved in council to make a cavalier, consisting of timbers placed above each other, and on top a kind of parapet to secure our Frenchmen from the Iroquois' arrows ; that they should bring OF THE FAITH. 103 a quantity of dry wood to the foot of the palisade, to set fire to it by trains of powder ; lastly, to cor- rect the precipitation with which our Indians had acted on the last occasion, they promised to fol- low carefully, in the attack of the place, the orders of Monsieur de Champlain. On leaving the council the Indians labored stea- dily at the cavalier, which was finished in one night. Three hundred* of the bravest and stout- est men placed it amid a shower of stones which the enemy poured on them, and a cloud rf ar- rows that they darted. Without being disheartened at seeing many of their comrades killed or dangerously wounded beside them, others with equal fervor brought the dry wood which they had gathered, set fire to it ; but it had no effect, because the con- trary wind turned off the flames and carried them .aside; besides, the Iroquois cooled theii palisades by such torrents of water, which they * Two hundred. Laverdi^re's Champlain, 1619, p. 43. Ml 'H ' nil •: I ,, p:!i!!i|ii! 5'' It I II 11 II nil m) \ 104 FIRST ESTABIJSHMENT poured by the gutters, that the fire was soon ex- tinguished. Meanwhile the French ascended the cavalier, from which they fired incessantly on the enemy, who lost many ; they were even obliged to descend from their covered way and hide in the fort. Vic- tory would have been infallible, if our Hurons had not, contrary to their promise to wait for the sig- nal and orders of Monsieur de Champlain, resumed their ordinary precipitation. They discharged all their arrows above the fort, which wounded very few Iroquois ; so that our Indians, after three hours' fight, getting disgusted, lost all inclination for a further contest, the more so as Monsieur de Champlain, having been wounded by two arrows, one in the leg and the other in the thigh, left them without a leader. Never was greater consternation seen. The In- dians at first carried the captain and the wounded to the canoes, and after applying the first course of Indian remedies, which are withal specific and sov- ereign, resumed the route to their own country, i-i OF THE FAITH. »05 having, nevertheless, left amid the Iroquois the terror of their own and the Frenchmen's arms. On the way Monsieur de Champlain recovered, as much by an effect of God's providence as by the help of remedies. After much pain and hardship he at last, on the 14th of January, arrived safely at the famous village of Carragouha, where Father Joseph received him xr'ith all imaginable joy.* Charity and the interests of Faith so earnestly pressed our Huron apostle that, after having first laid the foundations of this Church in their country, he left there two or three of the Frenchmen he had with him, to continue the outline he had traced, and passed on with Monsieur de Champlain to the country of the Indians called Petuneux,f and seven other neighboring nations. This zealous mission- * Champlain (Laverdi6re's edition, i6ig, p. 57) seems to make them meet on the 15th. The Carantouannais (Garontawane), a tribe near the Susquehanna, were to have co-operated with the Hurons, but did not come. t Petun is old French for tobacco. These are the Tionontates, or Dinondadies. They reached them February 15 (Champlain, 1619, p. S7)i though Laverdi6re thinks in January, as the edition of 1632 has it. ^tl io6 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT ^) r' ary had the consolation of suffering much there for the establishment of Christianity, as these In- dians cruelly ill-treated him at the instigation of their Ohi, or jugglers, who are the sorcerers and magicians of these nations. After learning the ideas and disposition of these Indians he returned to his Huron village. This expedition was not fruitless for God's glory, as he baptized some children and dying old men, for whom he thus procured eternal salvation. Having returned to the Hurons, he spent the rest of the winter there, completed the acquisition of a tincture of their language, and drew up a pret- ty correct dictionary, still to be seen and preserved as a relic. He devoted himself assiduously to the civilization of these Indians. The time had not come to effect great conversions there; but they were gradually prepared to receive gently the light of the Gospel when it should please God to second, by the efficacy of his grace, the truth and the extent of his zeal and that of those who should follow him. Having then put all things in train, he set OF THE FAITH 107 out from Carrajjouha, and arrived at Three Rivers on the 15th of June, 1616.* Father John d'Olbeau, some days after his re- turn from the Tadoussac mission to Quebec, had proceeded to the same place in the company's harks, to visit it and see the state of the mission which Father Joseph had projected the previous year. A few days later God consoled them by the arrival of Monsieur de Champlain, who had pro- ceeded to the Lake of the Nepysiriniens. It was the trading time ; and this over, they set sail for Quebec, where the two fathers arrived f together with Monsieur de Champlain, and there they found the reverend Father-Commissary, who received them with joy. *Thcy set out May 20. Lavcrdi^rc's Champlain, 1619, p. 102. Sa- gard, " Histoirc," p. 30, makes them reach Three Rivers July i. tjuly II. Sagard, p. 31. $kM f J I ■9 CHAPTER IV. CHAMPLAIN's voyage to FRANCE WITH THE REVE- REND FATHER-COMMISSARY OF THE MISSION TO REPREf.ENT THE STATE OF ALL THE NEW DISCO- VERIES AND EFFECT THEIR ESTABLISHMENT. w» TN the origin of the Church we remark that the apostles, after having made a general and con- fused discovery of the disposition of the nations, assembled to concert together the means of sub- jecting the world to the faith of Christ. What our first religious had already done in one year was properly only a discovery of the temper of mind and customs of these tribes, the ways to bring them to the Gospel, and the difficulties to be overcome, having made only a rough draft for Christianity and a distant preparation for their conversion. As yet it was only a shapeless chaos, to be disentangled in time, so that, according to FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FAITH. IO9 the project formed among them the year before, they should meet at Quebec this July to make each other a faithful report of their information and agree on what was to be undertaken for God's glory. They invited Monsieur de Champlain to be present (knowing him to be as zealous for the establish- ment of the faith as for the temporal weal of the colony) and six other well-meaning persons. For the good of the country they all unanimously agreed on the following articles, set out more at length in our memoirs still extant, in, order that truth, which is the soul of history, may reign throughout this work. It seems, then, that it was resolved : ■m I >^1 f -^m " Tliat with regard to the nations down the river and those of the North, inchiding the Montagnais, Etechemins, Betsi- amites, and Papinachois, the great and little Esquimaux, an uncultivated, barren, mountainous country ; abounding, how- ever, in all kinds of wild beasts, seals, beaver, nioose, bear, marten, otter, lynx — the Indians are nomadic, wandering in the woods, excessively superstitious, attached to their juggleries, with no form of religion, and, so far as regards the most part, it would require a long time to civilize them. " That, by the report of those who l>ad visited the southern coasts, the Rivers Loup and Bic, the Monts Notre Dame, no FIRST ESTABLISHMENT . I iiii i! and had even penetrated by land to Cadie,* Cap Breton and Chaleurs Bay, Isle Perc^e and Gaspe, the country was more temperate and susceptible of cultivation. That there would be found dispositions less estranged from Christianity as the people had more shame, docility, and humanity than the others. " That, with regard to the upper river and all the numerous nations of Indians visited by Morsieur de Champlain and Fa- ther Joseph themselves, or by others, besides the abundance of game, which might attract the French there in hopes of trade, the land was much more fertile and in a soil and tempera- ture more convenient than among the Indians down the river. That those above, as the Algomquins, Iroquois, Hurons, Nip- siriniens,t Neuters, Fire Nation,^ were indeed sedentary ; these nations being generally docile, susceptible of instruc- tion, charitable, strong, robust, patient, insensible, however, and indifferent to all that concerns salvation. Lascivious tribes, and so material that when you tell them that their soul is immortal they ask what they will eat after death in the next world. In general none of the savages whom they had known had any idea of a divinity, believing, nevertheless, in another world where they hope to enjoy the same pleasures as they take here below. A people without subordination, law, or form of government or system, gross in religious mat- ters, shrewd and crafty for trade and profit, but superstitious to excess. " They remarked that none could ever succeed in convert- ing them, unless they made them men before they made them Christians. That to civilize them it was necessary first that * Acadia, now Nov;> Scotia. f Nipissings. X Mascoutens, called Assistaguvronon by the liurons. OF THE FAITH. Ill the French should mingle with them and habituate them among us, which could be done only by the increase of the colony, the greatest obstacle to which was on the part of the gentlemen of the Company, who, to monopolize trade, did not wish the country to be settled, and did not even wish us to make the Indians sedentary, without which nothing can be done for the salvation of these heathens. " That the Protestants, or Huguenots, having the best share in the trade, it was to be feared that the contempt they showed for our mysteries would greatly retard the establish- ment of the faith. That even tlie bad example of the French might be prejudicial, if those who had authority in the coun- try did not establish order. " That the mission among such numerous nations was pain- ful and laborious, and so would advance but little, unless they obtained of tlie gentlemen of the Company a greater number of missionaries free of expense. We still see by the state of their project that all agreed that it would need many years and great labor to humanize these utterly gross and barba- rous nations, and that, except a small number of individuals, even then doubtful, they could not risk the sacraments to adults. This we still see, for, after so many years, missionaries have advanced little, although they have labored mucli. "It finally appears that it was decided that they would not progress unless the colony was increased by a greater number of settlers, mechanics and farmers; that free trade with the Indians should be permitted without distinction to all French- men ; that, in future, Huguenots should be excluded ; that it was necessary to render the Indians sedentary, and bring them up to our manners and laws. f lii HI m 1 |! ■ ■ ' ■CJ h - ;■ i^A ,^ 5i ■' -I'li i L^lffl t!jIwI i'l^H I Ih i . VfiH^Hj 1 i'^Hm B [/ i 112 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT " That, by the help of zealous persons in France, a semina- ry might be established in order to bring up young Indians to Christianity, who might afterwards aid the missionaries in con- verting their countrymen. That it was necessary to maintain the missions which our Fathers had established, both up and down the river, which could not be done unless the associat- ed gentlemen showed all the ardor to be expected from their . zeal, when they were informed of all in a manner far diffe- rent from what they had been by the reports of the clerks whom they had sent the year before ; the governor and our Fathers having no ground to be satisfied therewith." This is nearly an abridgment of the conclusions taken in this little assembly of our missionaries and those best disposed towards the spiritual and tem- poral advancement of the colony ; but as nothing could be done without the aid of France, Monsieur de Champlain, who intended to go there, asked the Father-Commissary and Father Joseph to accompany him, in order to report all and obtain more effica- ciously all necessary help. It was hard to consent, but at last, considering how important it was to lay solid foundations to their enterprise, they yielded to the persuasions and instances of the company, and pre- pared all for their departure. They left among the OF THE FAITH. 113 Indians Father John d'Olbeau, a very learned, wise, and zealous man, in whom they confided entirely, Brother Pacificus having already greatly advanced in sharing his apostolic labors in instructing the In- dians; so that they set sail July 20, 1616.* The voyage was pleasant, and they arrived in France, the vessels loaded with furs for the merchants, bear- ing, too, stalks of French grain which they had gathered, and plants and fruits of that strange and barbarous country. The associates awaited them at Paris, whither Monsieur de Champlain and our Fathers repaired with some other Frenchmen who had gone with him. A faithful report was made of all things, tem- poral and spiritual. These gentlemen, after many conferences, promised much, but without effect ; very zealous for their trade, they cared little to de- serve God's blessing by contributing to the inte- rests of his glory. It is true that our poor Fathers, who had enter- H *Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," p. 31 ; Laverdifere's Champlain, 1619, p. 107. They reached Hontleur September 10. 8 •iij Udit- 4-iit<">mn.,.iM' HPP 114 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT h. taincd the best hopes for the advancement of the king^dom of Christ, finding no encouragement from these persons, on whom all depended, began to re- gret their departure, as their voyage had so little success. There are letters extant written by them at Paris to Monsieur de Champlain, who had returned to Normandy, by which advising him of what was going on at Paris, they showed him their extreme chagrin at seeing matters so little advanced. This, however, was incapable of cooling the ardor of these holy religious ; on the contrary, basing all their hopes in God and deprived of the help of these in- terested men, they abandoned themselves entirely to Providence, who raised up some charitable persons to give them means to continue their work. The winter was spent in these arrangements. It is surprising to say that so noble and glorious a project as the conversion of a new world, of a barbarous country, which was then much spoken of in France, should find so little help, and even so much opposition. >iOnsieur de Champlain, on his part, forgot no- OF THE FAITH. "5 thing to sustain his enterprise, in spite of all the ob- stacles which he met at every step. He steadily pre- pared a shipment greater even than the last, but we may say that the most fortunate thing he effected was his persuading Sieur Hebert to go to Canada with all his family, which has produced, and will hereafter produce, good subjects, the most impor- tant and zealous in the colony.* The Recollect province offered subjects enough ; but the members of the company, over-economical, would give passage to two only. The superiors judged that Father Denis, the late commissary. 'Y * 3 i '% I n .» %. * Louis H6bert, apothecary, is regarded as the father of Canada. He was the first settler with a family, and his house was the first one in the upper town, and is supposed to have been between the present Ste. Famille and Couillard Streets. In 1866 the foundations of a house were discovered in the garden of the seminary, which were supposed to have been Hubert's. After rendering great services to the colony he died in January, 1627, from the results of a fall, and was buried on the 27th in the Recollect cemetery, whence, half a century later, his remains were removed lo their church in the upper town. Many of the distinguished Canadian families, Joliet, de Lory, de Ramsay, d'Eschambault, are descended from him. Mgr. Taschereau, Archbi- bishop of Quebec ; Mgr. Tach6, Archbishop of St. Boniface ; and Arch- bishop Blanchet, of Oregon, all trace their ancestry to him. Tanguay, " Dictionnaire G6n6alogique," p. 301. v t<; profit to be made in the Indian trade, closed the... to the requests and en- treaties made them. They therefore contented themselves with what they could get. Be that as it may, they nevertheless induced some Frenchmen to go and take lands and form this new country. Our Fathers even could not resist the entreaties of Father John d'Olbeau to return to Canada with Monsieur de Champlain. He took with him Brother Modestus Guines. At last, early in spring, they left Honfleur, and, after a voyage more for- tunate than the last, arrived safely at Quebec* * They left Honfleur May 24, 1618, in a vessel commanded by Nich- olas de la Mothe-Ie-Vilin, who had been with the Jesuits at Mont Dc'seil. Laverdi^re's Champl., 1619, p. 111-12. They reached Tadous- sac June 24 lb. See Sagard, p. 40. OF THE FAITH. 129 Soon after Monsieur de Champlain embarked with Father Paul Huct for Three Rivers, where they found Brother Pacificus du Plessis, who had done his best to sketch out the work of the salva- tion of the heathen. In the year he had baptized, as he computed, fifteen or twenty of these savages, children, sick or dying. Here the murder of the two Frenchmen was taken up, and here Monsieur de Champlain confirmed the pardon promised to the murderers. The Indians a second time, by the usual pre- sents, invited Monsieur de Champlain to go to war with them against the Iroquois, but he did not deem proper to do so. His presence was ne- cessary at Quebec, whither he descended to gain the first jubilee ever published in Canada. Father John d'Olbeau had obtained it of His Holiness during his stay in France. It was opened with the usual ceremonies in the chapel of Quebec, July 29, 1618. * The French prepared with all possible devotion. Nothing was so edifying as * Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," p. 50. 1 i ■ ^'4 iiji II ^ t. , 1 1 ll i ; -ll I ■a •■ I 130 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT J' the piety with which they visited the stations which -our missionaries had prepared by little cha- pels, in the form of cabins, in the environs of Que- bec. The Indians present, though ignorant of the Faith, made exteriorly the same postures and cere- monies as the French, and some of them a little more advanced in instruction recited the prayers, chanting their best with us. Monsieur de Cham- plain gave, meanwhile, the necessary orders, and that indefatigable man prepared for a new voy- age to France. A priest had to be given him for his consolation. The lot fell on Father Paul Huet* A holy dispute arose between Fathers John and Joseph. The latter, burning with the desire of devoting his toil to the conversion of the Indians, which he always hoped to advance, although they could remark only very remote dispositions, be- sought Father John d'Olbeau to relieve him of his *Champlain embarked at Tadoussac July 30, i6i8, with Father P.iul Huet and Brother Paciticus du Plessis. Laverdi&re's Champ., 1619, pp. 142-3. OF THE FAITH. 131 office of superior, which subjected him to a more sedentary residence at Quebec. Father John con- sented, the more as he was given to understand that his eyesight would not stand the great smoke of the cabins. Father Joseph accordingly set out from Quebec for Tadoussac, with a young French- man and four Indians, on the 9th of November in the same year, not finding any opportunity of returning to his mission of Carragouha in the Huron country. This Father had a hard enough wintering and underwent great hardships. God did indeed raise him up one of the chiefs of these nations, who adopted him as a brother, so that by this means he gained ground with these barbarians and acquired credit to dispose them better and gain them more effectively to Christ. Such is the holy artifice used by the missionaries who go to winter with savage nations. They seek the most esteemed chief and the best inclined to the French. This Indian begets him (as these people say) amid a feast made expressly. This chief adopts him as a ■ ;■ ; 7 •f ^ ' :.l • m !' '■■■ 't rV mmmm 132 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT son or brother, according to the age and rank of the person, so that all the nation considers him as actually a native of their country and a relative of their chief, entering by this ceremony into an al- liance with the whole family in the same degree — brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephews, cousins, and so on. The one who adopted Father Joseph as a bro- ther was called Choumin — that is, "Grape" — be- cause he loved liquor. The French called him the Cadet, because he was extremely neat in his dress, and because in all his actions he affected French manners.* Choumin accordingly did all he could for the consolation of his missionary. He entertained so much esteem and affection for him that, his wife having been delivered of a boy, he wished him to be baptized and called Pere Joseph. " I insist," said Choumin to this good religious when the latter endeavored to persuade him to give his child the name of Monsieur de Champlain or of the Sieur Pontgrave, "that he be called Pere * Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," p. 52. OF THE FAITH. 133 Joseph like you, and when he is large I will jLjive him to you to instruct; for I desire with all my heart that he should live without a wife and be dressed like you." He had to satisfy the Indian, whose child was called Pere Joseph * and died in his innocence five years after his baptism. Our missionary then employed to advantage the friendship of the Montagnais chief, who helped him materially in building more solidly the house we had there in a beautiful spot which the gentle- men of the Company had in due form granted the •year before. We cannot express how ardently Choumin labored himself to encourage his tribe by his example to continue this work, where he f remained with one hundred and forty neophytes, whom he had prepared for baptism, till the 15th of July, X when he descended to Quebec to inform the Father-Superior of all that had happened of im- portance during his wintering. He left in his mis- * Sagard, " Histoirc du Canada," p. 54. t Evidently meaning Father le Caron. t Sagard, "Histoire du Canada," p. 54, says he set out for Quebec March 11, 1619. He says nothing of his chapel or neophytes. If m |i . \ ^ tl !! i 1. f .«! t ViJ T34 KIRST KSTAnMSIIMKNT sioii two Frenchmen, very good servants of God, in whom he had great confidence. I cannot give a more faithful account of the other circumstances of his wintering than by what he himself wrote the Reverend Fatiier Provincial of Paris after his re- turn from Tadoussac to Quebec : I < m " I went to Tadoussac to assist the barbarians of those parts, to instruct them, and administer the sacraments to the French and tliose who dwell there during the winter trade of our merchants. We have not had as mucii snow as in previ- ous years. The savages have had a great famine, and I will tell you that by the disorders of the people whom the mer- chants leave in these parts to trade we expected to be all killed, had not God withheld the baibarians and turned them from us. They have, nevertheless, since sought our friend- ship and alliance. These i)e()ple are withal very docile, and I am astonished, seeing the disorders of our Frenchmen, that they do not commit more considerable deeds. I write to the gentlemen of the Company a part of what I have seen. I beg you, my Reverend Father, to take this to heart and do your best to have it remedied as much as possible, so that or- der may be established here. The Father Commissary and Monsieur de Champlain give me great hopes ; but, after all, we find no greater relief in that. Our merchants are always plunging into greater disorders. They give us a Huguenot as clerk and intendant of their stores ; the powder-magazine keeper is of the same religion as this Protestant who com- OF THE FAITH. 135 mands at this post. If possible, the king ought to put a ('a* tholic lord in these parts, esteemed by him, who would give what is necessary to build a seminary. I would have had a great many children to instruct in the mysteries of our holy faith, if I had anything '7 ligious. I have baptized ten dying children, six of wliom en- joy glory, having died since baptism. Many adults came to be baptized, but nothing must be done in haste ; I will wait till they are better instructed. I gave absolution to a Hugue- not who, by the grace of God, has entered into himself and abjured his heresy in my hands. He begs earnestly to re- main with us at Quebec this year, but I do not know whether our merchants will let him. I will see Monsieur de Cham- plain before his dijparture * from Tadoussac, this 7th of Au- gust, 1618." * What follows should evidently be printed as the dale of the letter. •I, I t > ( . n » f ^4 1 5; 't! ::::■!! !^ : 4 -it P rP CHAPTER V. NKW I'ROCKKSS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FAITH IN NEW FRANCE FROM 1618 TO 162O. /^^ OD is ordinarily pleased to try his elect and ^-^ even apostolic men in the most sensible point ; perils, hardships, sufferings, the sacrifice of life, would be a pleasure, if by becoming victims for their brethren God gave them the consolation of seeing some success in their enterprise for his glory in the conversion of souls. Whoever glances at the immense number of na- tions I treat of, the true state of the Canadian Church, the little progress it has thus far made among the Indians, who inhabit so vast an extent of country, in which so many learned secular priests and holy religious have everywhere borne the torch of the Gospel and given all the ingenuity of their zeal, will be obliged to admire the depth of God's judgments and exclaim with St. Paul : " O altitu- t i.s FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FAITH. 139 do ! " * He would make us feel that the conver- sion of souls is the work of his grace, the happy moment of which not having arrived, he is content to see us groan under this dependence of his inte- rior aid, to be witness of our sighs and tears, to hear our prayers and desires, to receive our sacri- fices, to accept the constant entreaties we make him, to advance the time of his mercy for these nations buried in the darkness of ignorance. He nevertheless wishes all Gospel laborers to toil in J reparing his vineyard ; that they bestow on it all their industry, but that they await the fruit in pa- tience. God will act at the time marked in his providence, and this just remunerator docs not the less accept our labors and our sacrifices, but would only deprive us of that return of sensible joy if they were followed by numerous conversions, which might flatter our self-love and vanity.f I here give my readers an abridgment of the * Romans xi. 33 : O the depth of the riches, of the wisdom, and of the knowledge of God ! t This is given as an excuse for the small number of converts fl - t. < 1 ■ t i I40 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT M 111 iiii feelings of our old religious on the early missions of Canada, as appears by the authentic acts of the Assembly of the Superiors of the Province of Pa- ris, held on the return of Monsieur de Cham plain and Father Paul to France, after the report made by that missionary and the more ample informa- tion given as to the disposition of the barbarians. Alas! they saw with grief the difference between the missions of this New World and those of the Recollects, begun and then continued in America and Peru, where they daily converted millions of souls, while in Canada they could only see a ster- ile and unfruitful land, blindness, insensibility, a prodigious estrangement from God, and even an opposition to the Faith ; that centuries might be spent in preparing these barbarians for the Gospel before hoping any progress ; that, to crown the misery, God permitted the country to be in the hands of a Company of merchants guided by inte- rest and utterly insensible to the propagation of made by the Recollects, but he makes no such allowance for the Jesuits in chapter xvi. OF THE FAITH. 141 the Faith.* We see by the memoirs of that as- sembly with what penetration they had foreseen what we now know, and that, after so many years of apostolic labors, so little has been done for the conversion of these tribes. In this I have admired the great faith of our first Fathers, who, in spite of all opposition, seemed to increase in zeal and re- solved to continue the work by all possible means. One of the chief instructions which our mission- aries had given Father Paul, when deputing him to France, was to consult the ablest of the pro- vince and the doctors of the University of Paris on the difficulty they felt in administering the Sa- crament of Baptism to the Indians. Such is still the disposition of these tribes, who, professing no religion, seem incapable of the most ordinary reasoning which leads other men to the knowledge of a true or false deity. These poor blind creatures hear as songs what we say of our * The anonymous " Plainte de la Novvelle France dido Canada, a la France sa Germaine. Pour seruir de Factum en vne cause pandante au Conseil " (see Harrisse, p. 51), is perhaps referable to this period. 't "^ Is if :■ i i' i ■!'l in ■ m ! s: III 1 1 II I : I ' 1 ■: II iini! i, III illl I i III -' 142 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT mysteries ; they take only what is material and meets the senses ; they have their natural vices and unmeaning superstitions, savage, brutal, and barba- rous manners and customs ; they would willingly be baptized ten times a day for a glass of brandy and a pipe of tobacco ; they offer us their children and wish them baptized, but all this without the least sentiment of religion ; even those who have been instructed a whole winter show no more discern- ment of the Faith. Very few are found not buried in this profound insensibility, which caused our Fathers great alarms of conscience, knowing that the few adults to whom they had administered the sacrament, even after having given them instruc- tions, had immediately relapsed into their ordinary indifference for the things of salvation ; that bap- tized children followed the example of their pa- rents ; that it was profaning the character and the sacrament. The case was more fully exposed and thorough- ly discussed. It was even carried to the Sor- bonne, and the resolution was that, as for dying OF THE FAITH. 143 adults and children beyond hope of recovery, the sacrament might be risked where they asked it, presuming that at this extremity God gave the adults some rays of light, as we thought we saw in some of them. As to the other Indians, the sa- crament should on no account be given them, ex- cept to those who, by long practice and experience, seemed touched, instructed, and detached from their savage ways, or to those habituated among our Frenchmen, brought up in our way of living, and humanized after being well instructed ; and in like manner to the children of these. Of this a formula and kind of fundamental canon was drawn up, which served as a rule for our mission- aries to conform to exactly. We had already established the previous years sedentary missions at Quebec, Three Rivers, the Hurons, and at Tadoussac, as has been shown, and our Fathers had left at the last two, devout and zealous young men who had offered themselves to us in France, to sacrifice their life with us in the apostolic ministry ; they labored their best to cate- m\ ' I P^^ 144 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT chise and humanize the Indians in their districts, living with them, adopted even by the leading men of the nation, thus seeking the salvation of the Indians and the good of our little establishments. Our Fathers would gladiy have established semina- ries in all these spots to receive, support, and in- struct Indian children, whom their parents freely offered ; but as it was an expensive undertaking and our means were limited, it was deemed proper to order Father Paul to solicit in France necessary powers and alms to commence the great work by the establishment of a regular convent at Quebec, with the title of seminary, where children should be supported and instructed. Father Denis Jamay, first Commissary of the missions in Canada, who, after his return in France, had been employed in different posts, at Chilons in Champagne for the good of the Province, and at St. Denis in France as superior and preacher, did not fail to advance with suc- cess the affairs of Canada, to which he was pro- mised a return the next year. He was then at ' !'i :■ OF THE FAITH. HS Paris with Father Paul, and they acted in concert to obtain the establishment of a seminary. The powers were issued in due form. Monseigneur the Prince of Cond6 contributed the sum of fifteen hundred livres. Monsieur Charles des Bouis, Vicar-General of Pontoise, an ecclesiastic of great piety, also wished to take part ; he accepted the post of General Syndic of our missions, and gave as his first alms the sum of six hundred livres, without mentioning many still more considerable services which he afterwards rendered.* Some other zeal- ous persons entered this holy enterprise, and a sum was raised by their charity, which was confided to Monsieur de Champlain. It had been remarked that it was good to use all kinds of workmen for instructing the Indians, and that seculars even, when well-intentioned, easily gained their minds. Father Paul had orders to obtain some in France, if possible, to serve as auxiliaries, and sometimes even as supplementary ; *Sagard, " Histoire dit Canada," p. 56; Laverdifere's Champlain, 1632, p. 326 ; "Memoire faict en 1637," L'Abeille vii. Nos. 25, etc., Margry, i. p. 8. 10 'S ';] '■] I "111 111'; II m i! ill: 146 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT as they came over at small expense, this pleased the gentlemen of the Company. Three were gain- ed, of exemplary mildness and piety, who voluntari- ly and gratuitously gave themselves to us as asso- ciates in the apostolic ministry, and who served us usefully. Two mechanics were also obtained on wages to work at our new buildings. The chant of the office was regularly kept up at Quebec, especially on Sundays and holidays, although there was only one priest. The French assisted, to the edification of the Indians, who loved our ceremonies, although celebrated with so little solemnity. Nev^ertheless Father Paul was happy enough, aided by Father Denis and Monsieur de Champlain, to obtain of the Company another religious, a priest. Father William Poulain, a religious of singular virtue, was preferred to the many who offered to go to Canada with Father Paul Huet* Meanwhile Monsieur dc Champlain neglected nothing on his side to advance the temporal * Sagard, " Ilistoire du Canada," p. 49 OF 1 HE FAITH. 147 affairs of the colony ; and though neither at court nor elsewhere did they respond to his zeal or good intentions, yet he obtained something, after which he prepared a shipment, with such munitions of war as he could, with provisions and goods for trade, laborers, mechanics, farmers to cultivate the land ; but as he had more extensive designs, he deemed proper to remain in France to conduct them successfully, sending off, however, a vessel in which our Fathers, Paul and William, embarked with the three donnes* and the two mechanics. The voyage was safe ; they anchored at Quebec in the month of June, 1619. The joy of their coming was damped by the death of Brother Pacificus, who died on the 23d of August in the same year. He was the first victim which Heaven received of our missions. His obsequies were celebrated with all the solem- nity that the state of the country would allow, but accompanied by the regrets of the French and In- i * Donnas — men who gave themselves as auxiliaries to the missiona- ries. 148 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT dians, of whom there was a prodigious gathering. He was a man of God, of great mildness, zeal, and simplicity, and who, though but a mere lay brother, may be said to have labored extremely in a short time for the spiritual and temporal advancement of the mission.* Father John d'Olbeau, the superior, had sent Father William, immediately after landing, to Three Rivers with the two donnas, in order to put all in order and watch over that mission. Fa- ther Joseph, who had wintered at Tadoussac, la- bored there on his side with great application ; and as they had received from France with the regula- tions full powers and the first aid for building a re- gular convent and seminary, a place was selected for its site about half a league from the Fort of Quebec, where they proposed to build the city, and where our convent is now. This place represenl^ kind of little isle, surrounded by natural sis, where the waters of clear, fresh fountains pass and meander agreeably as they fall from a neighbor- * Sagard, " llistoire du Canada, " p. 55. OK THK VMTU. 149 ing mountain, and which reach it insensibly ; hav- ing on the north a little river which empties near by, and on the east the river St. Lawrence ; the ground is rich, fertile, convenient, and easy ; the prospect grand, extensive, and very agreeable ; the air is extremely pure and healthy, with every charm of situation that could be desired. The little river was called by the Indians Cabir Coubat* on ac- count of the turns it makes as it winds and the points of land it forms. Our Fathers gave it the name of St. Charles (which it still keeps), in me- mory and honor of Monsieur Charles des Boues, Vicar-General of Fonthoise, father and founder of our mission by his care and liberality, f In this spot, then, our Fathers undertook to build the first church, the first convent, and the first semi- narv which ever existed in the vast countries of New France. The Father- Superior built a lime- kiln very near by, the traces of which are still visi- 1? 'S? \l ■•"« ♦This is Montagnais. Sagard, " Histoire," i. p. 162. •{• He asked that the seminary should bear the name (Letter in Sa- gard, p. 71), but the convent was called Our Lady of the Angels. It occupied the site of the present General Hospital. Laverdiire, I a !! :^ii ir 150 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT t i lit lift B: ble. Materials were prepared at once and brought to the spot during winter with the planks and all else necessar^\ He opened pleasant paths through all the surrounding woods, and cleared the ground to begin gardens. Here they cabined in spring. French and Indians, under the command of the Sieur de Pont-Grav6, contributed equally by their labor ; twelve mechanics were employed, who were paid out of the alms ; so that on the 3d of June, 1620, the Father-Superior* solemnly laid the cor- ner-stone. While things were going on thus in Canada Monsieur de Champlain was advancing the in- terests of the country in France, having obtained a little fleet with part of the aid necessary for the establishment of the colony, and as it began to assume form, his Majesty honored him with the * Father d'Olbeau. Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," p. 56 ; *' Me- moiredes Recollectz," Margry, i. p. 7 ; " Memoire Instructif," ib. p. 19. Father Jamay describes this convent at length in his :• tter printed in Sagard, p. 59, and also separately. Harrisse, p. 45. The " Me- moire des Recollectz " would give the idea of an extensive church, with a convent attached, whereas from Sagard it is clear that it was a frame house for a convent, in which they had a chapel. OF THE FAITH. I SI post of first governor of New France by letters- patent, which were issued to him with order to build forts there, to extend and govern the colony according to the laws and customs of the kingdom, and especially to give his care and attention to the propagation of the Faith. He also received new commissions from the gentlemen of the Com- pany, to whom the king had granted the country with absolute power. The Duke of Montmorency gave his consent as Viceroy of Canada, recently appointed by the king. Monsieur de Cham- plain had secured many persons for the service of the country, and, as he intended to settle there him- self, he arranged his domestic affairs, took with him all his property, and prepared his wife and all his family to proceed there in that year, 1620. Father Denis Jamay, who had begun this mission in 161 5 as first Commissary, and who was now in France as Resident, and Procurator of the mission and colony, had just returned to Paris from Ze- zane in Brie, where he had during the winter es- tablished a convent of our order as first Superior. 152 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT ^ - , ^ i! 1 ■, The province agreed to sacrifice him once more and grant him leave to return to Canada, more es- pecially as Monsieur de Champlain earnestly asked it. His institution as Superior and Commissary Provincial was issued under date of the present year, and he prepared to set out with Brother Bonaven- ture. Father George le Baillif, a Recollect religious, illustrious for his birth, his personal merit, and the singular esteem with which his Majesty honored him, was also inspired by God to make the voy- age. * The Duke of Montmorency, the Sieurs de Villemont, Dolu, the former Intendant of the Ad- miralty and the latter Intendant of the affairs of New France, commanded Monsieur de Champlain to undertake nothing without the participation of that good Father, assuring him that they would approve all that he did in concert with him. All things being ready, the vessel set sail in said year, i620,f and arrived safely at Quebec. Our two Fa- * Sagard could not ascertain when this Father came over. " Histoire," p. 72. He evidently came with Champlain. Laverdi^re's Ch., vi. p. 5. f Father Jamay left Honfleur on the Salamandre, on Passion Sunday, April 5, and reached Tadoussac on the Saturday after Ascension, May 3a Letter in Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," p. 58. OF THE FAITH. »53 there, who had come out in different vessels, an- chored almost simultaneously. Almost all the Frenchmen in the country were then at Quebec, and a great number of Indians of several nations who had never seen such a fleet. This happy amval caused redoubled joy in all minds. Monsieur de Champlain, the Governor, was received and acknowledg**d amid the noise of cannon. He immediately repaired to the Recollect Chapel, where a " Te Deum " was sung. Father Denis Jamay, the Superior, made a pathetic exhorta- tion to induce the peoples to the submission which they owed to God, the King, and his Lieutenant- General.* Monsieur de Champlain, untiring man, having closely examined the state of affaire, gave his orders everywhere. We sa)'^ nothing of the goings and comings, or of the voyages he made in several parts after his arrival. He may with justice be called the father and founder of this new colony, having sacrificed all for its establishment * Laverdi^re's Champl , 163a, vi. p. 5. 154 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT Meanwhile the Father-Superior neglected no- thing to support and advance our missions in the country, where he sent obediences in form to the missionaries who were in their districts, sealed with the great seal of the mission, to prepare the minds of the Indians remotely and obtain the mildest and most tractable of their children. He found the foundations of our convent and seminary laid on the banks of the river St. Charles, and, as he had brought a reinforcement, he set new workmen on it, so that the, house was soon ready to receive the religious, and even some Indian children. They did not, however, leave the house and chapel which we had built in 1615 where the lower town of Quebec is now ; it served as a hospice and suc- cursal chapel, where we administered the sacra- ments and where the Divine Office was solemnly and publicly celebrated as well as in the new con- vent. The Father- Superior meanwhile steadily ad- vanced the building. The interior of the church was fitted up during the winter, so that it was ready OF THK FA^ITH. 155 to be blessed. On the 25th of May, 1621, our Fa- thers having arrived in Canada on the same day in 161 5, it was blessed under the title and patronage of Our Lady of the Angels, which our church and onvent still retain, as the first church and first re- ligious house in this new country, as the first house of the Order of St. Francis of Assisium was con- secrated under the same title of Our Lady of the Angels. We do not add here, on occasion of this conformi- ty, the singular favors then received by one of our Fa- thers with Brother Modestus Guinez, although they are confirmed by a letter of the Father- Superior to the Father- Provincial, and although I have myself heard it repeated from the lips of Madam Couil- liard, who was still alive when I was in Canada.* This kind of extraordinary favors has generally no place in history ; most people give them little credit, as appears by certain books of some Cana- dian lives which have been published.f It suffices * She was buried Oct. 3o, 1684. Tan^uay, p. 142. f This alludes probably to Father Raguenau's " Life of Mother Ca- ^d 156 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FAITH. to know the particulars in the cloister and believe them piously, the more so as we have seen by the event the truth of all that God was pleased to re- veal at that time to these first apostles. tharine de St. Augustin " (Paris, 1671), and to the biographical notices in the Jesuit Relations. CHAPTER VI. THE GOVERNOR AND CHIEF MEN OF THE COLONY DE- PUTE FATHER GEORGE LE BAILLIF TO THE KING FOR THE INTEREST OF NEW FRANCE. 'T^HE Company of merchants who had thus far -*- had the temporal direction of Canada expe- rienced the unhappy effect ordinarily attached to the error of those who forget God and prefer their own interests to his in the conduct of their enter- prise. One of the principal intentions of King Louis the Just, and the most essential condition of the powers granted by his Majesty to the Canada Com- pany, was that they should contribute with all their power to the establishment of the Faith and the pro- pagation of the Gospel among the savages of this New World ; that they should send and support a sufficient number of missionaries, take out men to t Ffil ^ *a • -■iiii\. ' !■ 158 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT cultivate the ground, and transport mechanics and persons of every trade, in order to increase the colony by means of French Europeans to be taken there, and to whom they should afford every advan- tage that could be reasonably expected ; that they would civilize the Indian nations, to dispose them more readily for the laws and customs of ours ; that they would build forts for the defence of the French and of our Indian allies ; and, finally, that they would for this purpose maintain the necessary offi- cers and soldiers, in consequence of which his Ma- jesty granted them, free from all rent, the com- merce and advantages of those vast countries. They undertook it, but really in course of time fulfilled nothing at all. From the extreme cupidity of gain which they expected they entirely neglect- ed the progress of Christianity, even opposing the ways and means of advancing it ; they were al- ways most averse to the increase of the colony, and instead of building forts and fulfilling the other conditions they thought only of sordid lucre and of drawing out the substance of the country by the OF THE FAITH. 159 quantity of furs, then the great staple of Canadian trade. Monsieur de Champlain, who had himself formed that Company, had tried in vain during his stay in France to open their eyes and to appeal to their honor and conscience. To seek the good of the rising colony was to attack them directly, and the assistance which he had obtained was due solely to his tact and address ; he attracted settlers only against the will of these gentlemen, and all the establishments and forts which he built in New France were not at all at their expense. So that if this New World had not been upheld by the zeal of this excellent gentleman and able governor, and by the care and application of the missiona- ries, the whole enterprise would have surely failed. A ship arriving from France in the present year, 1 62 1, brought news that the Duke de Montmo- rency, Viceroy of Canada, had formed a new Com- pany to oppose the old one, in hopes that it would more faithfully fulfil the above conditions. Messrs. William and Emeric de Caen, uncle and nephew, t' * i'p 1 i-ii ;mj i6o FIRST ESTABLISHMENT were at the head.* The old f Company had sent a vessel, which arrived early in the spring at Quebec, with orders to their agent to use the fort of the settlement and enter into all the rights of the country specified in the treaty, yet without inter- fering with the fur trade and effects of the old Company. The Sieur de Pontgrav6, who was in France for the old Company, had left it and closely followed the Messrs. de Caen's ship. He arrived at Quebec, but was not permitted to enter ; they merely gave him some goods and permitted him to trade at Three Rivers for the benefit of his associates. He yielded, and soon after dropped down to Tadoussac to trade. There Monsieur de Caen arrived from France with the decree of the Council to settle differences, declaring that the two companies should trade freely together that year, and that both should * Laverdifere's Champlain, 1632, vi. p. 10 ; [Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," p. 56 ; Lettre de Montmorency ii Champlain, Feb. 2, 1621, Mass. Paris Doc, i. p. 493. f Should be "new." OF THE FAITH. I6l contribute to the expenses and share the profits. These disputes caused great trouble and greatly re- tarded the progress of the colony, notwithstanding all the steps taken by Monsieur de Champlain to remedy them. Every one took sides, all was spent in disputes, and nothing was gained. * Amid all these differences the governor, the Recollects, and the best-intentioned settlers formed a third party, and, having in view only the estab- lishment of the Faith and of the colony, lamented to see that all v/as about to be lost by quarrels of interest, which, when reported in France, would undoubtedly disgust the King and his ministers, and make them lose the good-will then enter- tained by the court for Canada. They drew up all the causes of complaint which they had. The affair was delicate. After all the attempts which Monsieur de Champlain had made in France he had little hope of being heard from such a dis- tance. But at last, as the governor and notables of the country, in union with their first missionaries, * Laverdifere's Champlain, 1632, vi. pp. 11, etc. 11 1} '1 4 (A i m -II > 1 63 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT ha J also made for themselves powerful friends at court, they resolved to send a deputation to the King, and to select one who had capacity and credit to negotiate successfully the aflfairs of the country at this juncture. There was no hesitation in the choice. Mon- sieur de Champlain's presence being absolutely ne- cessary in this New World, no one was found who could fill this embassy better than Father George Ic Baillif,* who, besides the access which his habit, virtue, and birth gave him at court, had also the advantage of being known by the King, who even frequently honored him by conversation and let- ters. This good Father, seeing the will of God in all the reasons alleged, accepted the commission. An authentic power was drawn up, signed by the governor and principal officers and inhabitants, and sealed with the great seal of the mission, f The Father, however, seeing in it several articles the negotiation of which was not altogether suited ♦George Ic Baillif de la Haye. Ferland, i. p. aoi. f It is given in Sagard, pp. 73, etc. OF THE FAITH. 163 to a missionary, protested to the Assembly that he accepted it only from their want of a disinterest- ed person and to advance what concerned God's glory, the King's service, and the establishment of the colony, absolutely necessary for the propagation of the Faith among the Indian nations. Father George, in virtue of his powers, accom- panied by statements of the country and necessary instructions, embarked on the 7th of September in the same year on the Sieur de Pont-Grav6's ves- sel.* After a safe voyage he arrived in France, and, leaving the two companies to discuss their interests, he devoted himself solely to interest the King in the country. He had the honor of salut- ing his Majesty at St. Germain. He was very fa- vorably received, but did not enter into any details at that first audience. Some days later Monsieur de Montmorency obtained a second. After con- versing with the King in private on the general state of Canada and the chief articles which Fa- ther George had to present, this nobleman, who * Laverdiire's Champlain, 1632, vi. 'p. 33. to iiiii' -If 164 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT loved <^Hc country, introduced the missionary to this second audience, to which the Reverend Fa- ther-Provincial was also admitted. Father George made his harangue in the most respectful and touching terms ; presented his credentials, his de- putation, and a very humble remonstrance in form of petition to his Majesty, who received it with all possible goodness and piety, and gave it to Mon- sieur de Montmorency to be referred to his Coun- cil, promising the Father not only to render justice in the matter, but also to grant him personally his royal protection and favor. We cannot better inform the reader of this nego- tiation, and more suitably- satisfy the proper curi- osity which he may have to know the condition of New France, its commercial basis, vind the advan- tages to be derived fron it, than by here giving to the public a copy of the petition and the essential articles of the deputation : " To all whom it may concern, know that in the yea>' of grace 1621, the 18th day of August, in the reign of the most high, most puissant, .^nd most Christian moniiuh Loui'» XUl. of the name, King of Frame, of Navnrre and of New France, ^V...W OF THE FAITH. 165 called Western, under the government of the high and puis- sant Lord Messire Henry, Duke of Mont-morency and Dam- ville, peer and Admiral of France, Governor and Lieutenant- General for the King in Languedoc, and Viceroy of the coun- tries and lands of New France, called Western, under tlie lieutenancy of noble man Samuel de Champlain, ordinary Captain for the King in the Navy, Lieutenant-General in said countries and lands of said Viceroy, that, by permission of said Lieutenant, a general assembly was held of all the French settlers in the country of New France, in order to concert the most proper measures in regard to the ruin and desolation of all tliis country, and to seek the means of preserving the Ca- tiiolic, Apostolic, and Roman religion intact, the authority of the King inviolable, and the obedience due to the said Vict- roy, after it had by said Lieutenant, religious, and settlers, in the presence of Sieur Baptiste Cuers, commissary of said Viceroy, been concluded, and promised to live only for the pre- servation of the said religion, inviolable obedience to the King, iind preservation of said Viceroy's authority, yet, in view of the imminent ruin of the whole country, it has by like vote been resolved tiiat choice be made of a person in thi as.,tmbly to be deputed, on behiilf of the whole country in general, to go to tile feet of the King and make the most humble iibmission to which nutuie, Christianity, and duly render all subjects obliged, and i)resent with all hiimility a statement of the toun- try, in whi( h should be ' ontained the disorders which had occmied in thiscountry, especially in this year 162; ; and also thai su< I) deputy wait upon our said Lord Viceroy to com- municate in like manner to him sucii disorders, and to beg him to unite in their complaini and recjuest tor a lemedy to the many evils thai threaten these lands with coming ruin ; % i66 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT i and, finally, that such deputy may act, request, convene, treat and grant for such country generally in all times and places as shall be most for the advantage of said country; and as all, with like consent and unanimity, knowing the holy ardor for the Cliristian religion, inviolable zeal in the King's service, and devoted affection for the preservation of the authority of the said Viceroy constantly and faitli fully shown by the Reverend Father George le Eaillif, Religious of the Order of Recollects, together with his great probity, learning, and prudence, we have commissioned, deputed, and delegated him, witli full power and charge to act, represent, request, settle, write, and grant for and in the name of all the settlers of this land, in all hu- mility beseeching his majesty, his council, and our said lord Viceroy to accept this our delegation, to preserve and pro- tect said reverend Father, that he be not troubled or molested by any person whatever or under any pretext whatever, that he may peacefully act and prosecute the affairs of the ci un- try, to whom we forthwith give power to reduce all the infor- mation given him by individuals into a general statement, and to affix his signature thereto with the ample declaration we now make, to accept and ratify all done, signed, reipnred, negotiated, ai.d granted by said reverend Fath r in what shall concern said country. And we also empower him to name and appoint one or two Advocates in his ^^ajesty's council, sovereign courts and jurisdictions, for and in iiis name and ours to write, consult, sign, plead, and petition his Majesty an;', council in all that concerns the affairs of New France. We humbly request all princes, potentates, lords, governors, prelates, justiciaries, and ail to whom it shall be- long, to give favor and assistan'^e to said reverend Father. and prevent his being disquieted or molested in this pre- i 4 ^ OF THE FAITH. 167 sent delegation, while going or coming or abiding in France, with particular obligation of gr ititude on our part as far as possible. Given at Quebec, in New France, under the sig- nature of the principal inhabitants, acting for all, who, to authenticate still moie this delegation, have besought the Very Rev. Father in God, Denis Jamay, Commissary of the Religious who are in these lands, to affix his ecclesiastical seal the day and year as above- I, I ^1' (Signed) CHAMPLAIN. FRIAR DENIS JAMAY, Commissary. FRIAR JOSEPH LE CARON. HEBERT, Royal Procurator. GILBERT COURSERON, Lieutenant du Prevost. BOULI.fi. PIERRE RP:YE. LE TARDIF. I. LE GROUX. P. DES PORTES. NICOLAS, Protho lotary of the Jurisdiction of Quebec and of the Assembly A GUERS, Commissioner of my lord the Vice- roy, and present at this election. Sealed with the seal affixed of the said Reverend Fatlier-Commissary of the Recollects. y^ 1 68 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT "TO THE KING: "Sire: " The poor Recollect Religious residins at Quebec, in New France, most humbly show that for six years that it has pie ised God to employ their ministry under your Majesty's authority, as well in the voyage to this strange land, discoveries of coun- try, as in the conversion of most savage nations to the know- ledge of God and their civil conversion, they have deferred giving their advice touching this enterprise until, experience seconding their good-will, they can with more certainty, as it behooves not to speak to kings but on well-digested and ma- turely-considered matters, propose to your Majesty what is necessary in this affair ; and although from the first years of their residence in the country it seemed their duty to inform your Majesty of what was needed for carrying out that great design, they have considered that the annual letters which they have written since their coming should sufifice till the country nnd the nations were better known to them, so that, according as they should find out the disposition of the peo- ple anu the profits to be hoped from the land, they might judge what would be most proper. Now that the visiting of the tribes has made them fully informed by observation, and that the voyages which they have made of five or six hundred leagues inland in company with the Sieur cie Champlain, Lieu- tenant under your authority of Monseigneur de Montmorency, Viceroy of the country, have acquired ihem the much-desired knowledge of tlie people of different countries ; and seeing the great and manifest profit which miglit redound to God's glory, the increase of the sceptre and empire of the French, the singular pleasure of your majesty, and profit and advan- T OF THE FAITH. 169 tage of all his subjects, your petitioners have deemed it ex- pedient, even greatly necessary, to declare what they know in conscience to be the state of all this enterprise, in order that it may please your Majesty to grant them what is con- tained in their annexed memorial. Your petitioners are, then, with God's grace, Sire, in a land commonly called Canada, but better New France, in a place called Quebec, built by the singular diligence and industry of the Sieur de Champlain, far up the river St. Lawrence. Having resided here, they have learned the riches of this quarter, and especially of this river, accompanied by many beautiful and fertile islands, stocked with such an abundance of all kinds of fish as cannot be de- scribed, bordered by hills full of fruit-trees, such as walnuts, chestnuts, plums, cherries, and wild vines, with numerous meadows which adorn and embellish the valleys, the rest of the earth furnished and peopled with all kinds of game, more numerous and profitable than in France, as there is not only no lack of the game and deer ordinary in these countries, but there are, besides, elks, or orignal, beaver, black fox, and other animals, the fur of which gives access and hope of a very great trade hereafter. Moreover, the fertility of this country has been more and more established by the travels your petition- ers have made there, which have brought to their knowledge more than three hundred thousand souls desirous of agricul- ture and easy to be brought to the knowledge of God, being bound to no worship, by the aid of whicli tribes, rivers, streams, l;%. %!^ Til ^^* fv IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) A 1.0 I.I 1.25 lis ^^ 25 22 li,g ^ Itf 12.0 U III 1.6 V] <^ 4 ^ 'c>J M ^. m 0^ A Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 873-4503 \ /. i/.A % ^ i Ili^^. r h mil vj«r: tnutk I:: : 1 176 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT dowed him, had offered himself the previous years, with great eagerness, to announce the Gospel to these savages, and satisfy there, if possible, his vio- lent ardor for martyrdom. This grace was granted to him ; and as Father George, Resident of the mis- sion in France, had persuaded the Definitory to es- tablish a novitiate at Quebec in the Convent of Our Lady of the Angels, which might subsist there * with the, Indian seminary, and would even contri- bute greatly to the edification of these young neo- phytes, the province chose this good religious, as a man full of grace, light, and unction, to carry for- ward the seminary and lay the foundations of this first novitiate, so that to his institution as Superior was added a special power authorizing him to re- ceive to our holy habit not only the French who might present themselves coming from the world, but also the Indians of our seminary, if in course of time they could be made good enough Christians to hope to advance them to evangelical perfec- tion. Monsieur de Caen prepared all for the voyage at =!-f 'F OF THE FAITH. 177 Dieppe, and the vessels were ready to start in May, 1622. Our Fathers embarked and weighed anchor on the 15th of said month, takin;^ with them some Frenchmen full of piety who wished to follow them, and a young Indian whom Father George had brought with him the year before as the first fruits of our seminary, where he had spent seme months* While all these things were passing thus in France, Monsieur de Champlain supported himself as best he might, and even made progress, in Canada. He strengthened himself by new al- liances with the Indians, the Iroquois alone re- maining impenetrable and indocile. This fierce and indomitable nation, which had long designed either to destroy or to subject all the others, per- ceiving that these received their principal force from the French, now made an cITort by a pro- digious number of warriors, divided into ditlcrent corjis in order to attack on all sides. As so sudden and violent an irruption wi»s not * SaKurd, " llistoiie dii ("aiuida," p\\ ()i-2. ) ■' ^■Mffi 178 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT expected, \m\ny of our Frenchmen had scattered and ironc up trading with our Indian allies to the Kapids, now called Sault St. Louis. Father Wil- liam PouUain had offered to follow them. Thev were attacked by an Iroquois i)arty, against whom they held out pretty successfully by the help of their firearms, and even took some prisoners ; but Father William, who was in a canoe apart, hav- ing landed with one Frenchman, was surprised in the woods by the Iroquois. IMiis good religious bore with all fortitude and i)atience the indigni- ties and cruellies of these savages ; they had even already begun to apply him to the fire when our people, missing the Father, sent one of their pri- soners to treat with their chiefs. A number of the Iroquois who had been ♦^aken were given up, and they restored to liberty the Father with the Frenchmen and seven other Indians of our allies. This great servant of God had indeed this conso- lation, that two of the Ir(K|uois prisoners who re- mained in our hands refused in the sequel to re- turn to their nation and joined us. They were OF THE FAITH. 179 instructed in Christianity, and ev^en served us quite usefully afterwards against their own people* The country is divided in such a way that the Indians, particularly the Iroquois, find many routes, by rivers off the main route, not only to escape from us, but also to come and attack us in our settlements. This in the beirinninjr rendered de- fence difficult. This Indian troop joined a still greater one, which cut to pieces two or there Huron parties, and soon after entered the St. Lawrence with thirty canoes, passed Three Rivers, and to our surprise appeared near Quebec. They durst not approach the fort, although Mon- sieur de Champlain was then absent, having gone to explore the country while awaiting the arrival of the vessels ; but these savages, after several unsuc- cessful attempts on the French, came in full force to attack our convent. I'ortunatcly, a little fort had been completed on the banks of the river St. ♦Champlain and Sat;ard are siloni :\s lo iIk-^c Iroiinois tiDstilitii-s. Tliis raises some doiibl, as liiey would sfarcely omit all allusion to an allaik on Ouebec. i8o FIRST ESTABLISHMENT Charles. The house, too, was some defence. On this occasion we experienced the zeal and gratitude not only of the French, hut alsu of our Indian al- lies, who (locked to our assistance. vSonie of ours received arrow-wounds, of which two died a few davs after; and a servant received an arrow in his arm, which was n(4, however, attended with serious consequences. These sava' -vtencra of Pr,Mt • "•' - -««. .; :,::;::;: " - cercly acknowledges tint ,1, ' ""• "^ nati jusi received. Fifh^.- r i "'"■ -^-•" f".- .he si,,,,,,.,,. „f .,^,, ; ;' ^7" received the intercession of th«f i • J -law [/Kit tliL' \v>ci:<.I . I U'r^,.N . ^^'''^'^ '^'^OUt to he ;d,:rTr^""^''''-"---^^ -'-- of Tali: ™™'''^- """• '■"'^■"«' "^ Fa. :i. 1"^ '"-''"- '^- '-^'^ -."i.ed, t,.e hcrCo„,n„ssarnudgedp,.ope,..o leave Father ; \ or rnK faith. tS»; Iicnaus tlicrc wlule he pursued his way to Que- bec, lie arrived, and landed fnst at our hospice in the lower town, where all the company received him with an extreme joy. Father Irenieus follow- ed three weeks afterwards. They were both sur- prised to fmd a house so far advanced as that (»f Our Lady of the .Xnjj^els, the pounds and jj^arden ready, and even a little solitude cleared with devout little cabins in the woods, where our Indians were taken as to stations, and of which the sites and ves- tiijes are still to be seen in the (J account. The hihois of I'.liut, Mayhcw, ami othcMs in New l'.iiL;lanii iiail pKuiiiiHiJ iitiu-ticial icsiill<: duTC wt'ic iiuliaii tiarliiis. ami a iVw kaiiicd tiailos. hi iiinliii iiliiiation no jiicat icsull had yii \nvn ol'lainetl, ami I'.liot's Inilian printiT is tlie iii>;hcsi fxani|iii'. In New Voili notliiii^ liad at iliis time been acroiiiplished. 'ill: 190 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT iMI'l Providence had sent us a young man, a native of Rouen, named Peter Langoisseux, who had given himself freely to us, and who for three years had served our ministries for the instruction of our In- dians at Three Rivers. He had long pressed us to give him the holy habit, and as he was known and loved by the Indians of the country, having been adopted by the chiefs of several nations, the Father- Commissary considered this vocation as a particular conduct of God, who wished to flivor the design of our zeal. He accordingly received him into the novitiate. The ceremony of his clothing took place in the month of September, 1622, in our Church of Our Lady of the Angels, in the presence of the Governor, all the French, and a multitude of Indians. He was called Brother Charles, from the name of our first Father-Syndic, whom we have mentioned.* At the same time, as some inhabi- tants were moved to vow their children to our Fa- ther, St. r^ancis, il was deemed right to second * Sagard nuMitions Miother (Miailes, p. loi, but says nothing of the I't'ceptiDii. if OF THE FAITH. 191 their piety. Three of these ehiUhen were vested with the little habit, which contributed not a little to attract the savages, who asked us to grant the same thin tiurefoot). il 1.1 19- FIRST ESTABLISHMENT a tincture of their language, in which he soon made rapid progress by familiar intercourse with the Montagnais, so that he even added much to the dictionary which our Fathers arranged after enter- ing the country. He had the consolation of send- ing some Indians to heaven after administering baptism to them, and of giving others some light of the Faith ; but he had also the deep regret of finding these people in a prodigious darkness, caused by their jugglery and superstitions. Yet, animated by the Spirit of God and jealously pas- sionate for the Loid's glory, which these heathen so openly outraged, he endeavored most adroitly to draw them away from these unhappy customs, which are their resource in sickness. He found an occasion in the illness of the brother of the one who had adopted him and supported him during his wintering. The natural affection which this Montagnais had for the sick man induced him to seek a remeily by all the simples, which they know perfectly. These failing, he determined to consult the oracle, the most Himous juggler of the nation. ll <>.' OF THE FAITH. 193 He called him, and erected in the middle of his cabin a kind of tower with posts driven into the ground and covered with birch bark in order that in this little dungeon, full of shades and darkness, adorned with hideous figures representing the devil, he might learn what had caused his brother's ill- ness. The medicine-man entered alone. His ges- tures, postures, and contortions were horrible as he invoked his Monitou to come and reveal the au- thor of the malady of our Indian's brother. He struck his breast, tor^ /ace, uttered fearful cries and howls amid the rattle and noise of a kind of tambourine. The earth trembled under his leaps and bounds, while he shook with his hands the posts of his cabin till he sweated blood and water, without taking a moment's rest. At last, after all these invocations, this accom- plished knave decided that the illness had been given by an Indian more than sixty leagues from the cabin ; and as if this imposture had been the final judgment of life and sentence of death pro- nounced against the imaginary author of the mal- 13 FT i^l 1 i 1 1 ■1 194 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT ady, it was [resolved by all that one of the sick man's brothers should set off at once to kill the person who, they believed, had attempted their brother's life. This pernicious sentence was executed, nor was Father Irenaeus able to save the life of an Indian so innocent of the crime imputed to him. This cruelty touched him, indeed, and compelled him to leave that cabin, shaking, as the Gospel says, the dust from his feet, to go to others more tractable and docile. Yet he did not find the satisfaction he expected.* Father Joseph, on his side, labored with more patience, having learned by a long acquaintance with these savages that the success of the Gospel is not to be so soon expected among these people. Father Irtneeus hoped to make them enter into themselves by leaving them for a time, in order to make them recall him. In fact, the Montagnais, moved by his departure and conscious of the rea- ; ''1 * Sagard, " Histoire," i. pp. gy-gg. OF THE FAITH. 195 son why he would not return to tlicm, came to Quebec, with presents of moose tongues and muz- zles, to induce the Father to continue his mission. The protestations made by these Indians that they would profit by his instructions, and the aversion they pretended for their superstitions (saying that they had had no sense till then to follow the coun- sel of the Monitou, but that they wished in earnest to have recourse to the great Master who made all), touched the missionary's heart so sensibly that he determined to make a second excursion as he did with this Montagnais, but it was not happier than the first. This great religious, known in the province as having received of God the gift of tears, groaned and sighed till the end of his days, employing his fervent prayers and sacrifices to obtain of God in favor of these savages what he could not do by his words. These blinded wretches would tell him that he had no sense, not conceiving the secret of his intentions. Some, indeed, were touched, and this holy man afterwards told us that he thought he 196 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT I < iff should die of regret on this excursion, purely on account of their insensibility. When the time of returning came he set out with the Indians by a favorable wind, but as it became contrary they were forced to land. Here they made a vapor bath in the manner I have described in my " Relation of Gaspe."* In this cabin, then, after svveatinjr amid the usual songs and entertainments, they began to invoke their Manitou in order to have a suitable and favorable wind. Two young men whom they had placed as sen- tinels interrupted the jugglery, crying with all their might that the wind had changed. All rejoiced, telling the Father that it was not his Jesus who had given them so favorable a wind, but that they had obtained it of their Manitou. God, who is jealous of his glory and honor, was not slow in avenging the Father, for they were scarcely embarked when the air was troubled, the * Le Clercq, " Relation de la Gaspesie," pp. 511-3. OF THE FAITH. 197 thuiulcr rolled, and there suddenly arose so violent a tempest that it was only by a wonder that they were not all swallowed up. God delivered them from ruin by permitting them to land. This jjave the Father oecasion to remonstrate strongly and catechise them well by rellections on the danger which they had just escaped, endeavoring to lead them to a knowledge of a first principle by ordi- nary and common reasons, and that God alone dis- posed of all things, that he was master of heaven and earth, and that in all their needs they should invoke him alone. Vou have had recourse, said he, to your Manitou to have a favorable wind, and he has given you a contrary one. lie has deceived you and exposed you to danger of perishing. It is just now that we invoke the good Jesus, who will hearken to your desires, if you invoke him with all your heart. These brutal men, incaj)al)le of these familiar reasonings, nevertheless iiiade the outer semblance of Christians, consenting to '.vhat the Father told them, prostrating themselves like him to adore God, but v.'ithout any sentiment of re- !i| 198 FIRST ESTABLISHMKN r OF TUP: FAl'IH. Hgion. The weather became calm, and they ar- rived safely at Quebec* Father Joseph meanwhile remained at Tadous- sac, now at the trading-post to administer the sacra- ments to the French, now following the Indians with an invincible perseverance. Amid the sterili- ty and little success of his labors he always regret- ted his Huron mission and sighed to return to it ; but, sacrificing all his inclinations to obedience, he devoted himself, with a pleasure and inclination of pure grace, to the mission of Tadoussac, God giv- ing him from time to time, amid infinite disgust and toil, extraordinary consolations, as he wrote to one of his friends in France, in the hope that the time would come to civilize these barbarians and open their eyes to the light of the Gospel. This holy religious, who was a man of great penetration, draws in his letter the true portrait of the Mon- tagnais, as they are still, just as brutal, just as in- sensible, always nomadic, vagabond, and incapable of Christianity. * Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," pp. 106-111. CHAPTER VIII. DKATII OF A KKCOI.I.KCT IN THK MISSION OF ACA- DIA AKKIVAl. OI" NKW M ISSlO.NA KI KS Al" (JUKIJF.C IIAl'l'V l'R(K;kF,SS OF TIIK IlLKoN MISSION STATIC OF THOSE OF Till-: N VriSIRINIKNS, TIIRFK RIVKKS, AN!) TAHOUSSAC. /~\UR ancient Recollect Fathers of the province ^^ of .\quitaine, to whom the members of the Company first applied in 1615, in order to p^ive evangelical laborers to Canada, findinp^ dilTerent ob- stacles, as we have said, did not for all that lose the good-will and desire they entertained of going to share the apostolic labors of the Recollects of the province of Paris. They found a very favorable opportunity in the associations made at Bordeaux in 16 1 9, one for sedentary fisheries, the other for the fur trade. The members of the Company had treated with the king for all the continent from the mouth of the Gulf oi St. Lawrence north and south to the 199 ' ■> 200 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT end of the country. Acadia is a vast province, containing many dilTcrcnt nations of Indians. 'Ihis country had been always reserved, and was not C(^nii)rised in tlie treaty. It is not my |)lan to add here all the circumstances of these two little com- panies formed at 15t)rdeau.\, more especially as there was nothinj^ important about them, beini:: mere associations of merchants, Catholic and Hu- guenot. Our Fathers of A(|uitaine did not neglect the occasions which olfered. These <;entlemen asked three priests and a brother, jiromisinjif to sup- port them as lonij as their society lasted. They accord in ji^ly went and be^an a kind of sedentary mission there. In 1623 these Fathers had for four years cultivated with great success this vineyard of the Lord, of whicii they have jj^ivcn an ami)le Re- lation to the public, to which I will add nothinji^."' The Reverend r\ither Sebastian had labored there * Manj* years" scarcli has faileJ to discover the work here vajjiic- ly alluded to. The Public Library at Bordeaux has no history, manu- script or printed, of tlie Recolifccts of the province of Aquitainc, and the Abbe Compans, secretary to His Eminence Cardinal Donnet, kindly informs nie that the arcliives of the archbishopric give no clue to tlie work or the labors of the friars. OF TIIK FAITH. 20 1 for tlirc'f years nvIk-ii, in 1623. wt; Icanu'd at <_)uo- l)cc l)v two Indians the news of his death. This irood rcliuious had started from Miscou for St. John's l-iiver, wliere the chief mission of the Re- collects of his province had been estahlished. I le was overcome hy misery and fatiirue while travers- ing the woods and the pjreat extent of countrv l)etwcen Miscou and l*ort l-Joyal, so that he per- ished of hunu^er after havini^ holily exercised the ajjostolic ministry in the conversion of inlidels. As he had visited our Fathers at Ouehec and wintered there, our reliy^ious considered him in esteem and alTection, as a member of our mission, and olTered the usual sullraires for him at the Convent of Our Latly of the Anj^els. Our Father-Commissary and the reli> 1)1 Our missionaries who were then at Quebec, after having invoked for some days the light of the Holy Ghost to concert what was most expedient for the establishment and propagation of the Faith in these countries which had been committed to their care, casting their eyes on the great number of different nations, and seeing that the colony begin to form, decided that the harvest was too great for so small a number of workmen, and that the mem- bers of the Company thought they were making a great effort in supporting annually six Recollects ; that for the rest they must rely on Providence ; that their salaries were scanty for the establishment of the missions ; that it would be enough for us, supported by little succors and alms from France, to maintain the five missions, which promised some * Father Irenajus Piat and Brother Sagard probably went together. Champlain went at the same time. Laverdiere's Champ. (1632), vi. p. 84. OF THE FAITH. 5?l success ; and that, finally, if some religious com- munity could be found willing^ at its own expense to sacrifice to this New World a number of mis- sionaries, some advantage might be expected. With this view our Fathers did not hesitate ; hav- ing no share but uprightness, simplicity, the glory of the Almighty, a sincere desire of furthering it, without envy, by the conversion of these tribes, they all agreed to dejiute some one of their num- ber to France to propose it to the reverend Jesuit Fathers, whom they judged best fitted to estab- lish and amplify the Faith in concert with us in Canada. This project was not without its difficulties. It was ascertained that Father George le Baillif, Pro- curator of the mission in France, had already sound- ed the associates; our Fathers had done so wilh Monsieur de Caen's agents at Quebec. Hut all showed an unwillingness to hear of it ; and it was the same with the inhabitants of the country, who had not such broad, pure, and disinterested views as our missionaries. Monsieur de Chamj)lain 15 w 226 FIRST RSTATITJ.SIIMENT was sounded, and his opinion was very c(iui\'ocal ; so that it was ajrrccd in onr mcclin>j[ to keep the resolution secret, the better to ensure success in France before the Kinij and with the reverencJ Jesuit Fathers, provided they gave their consent ; so that the Chapter deputed Father Ircnauis Piat to go to France and negotiate this matter which the mission had at heart. Monsieur de Champlain, after having given peace to the whole country, resolved to sail to France by the first vessels.* He arranged all his affairs for the first that cleared. Father Irenrcus received all his instructions ; even before his departure he had the consolation of seeing two of our Fathers set out, one for Tadoussac, the other for Three Rivers with Brother Charles Langoisseux. A French canoe coming from the Ilurons brought him letters from Father Nicholas, who showed great perseverance, asking to live and die in his mis- sion. But what crowned the joy of our religious and all the French of the risinj colony hap- *He sailed Aug. 15, 1624. Lavcrdiirc'sChampl, (1632), vi. p. 83. ■ OF THE FAITH. re py arrival of three illustrious Recollect missiona- ries of the province of Aquitaine, who, having em- harked in the ships of the Company which traded in Cadie,* came to Quebec in canoe by the River Louj>, with two Frenchmen and five Indians, two days before the departure of the vessels. They had left the mission which they had on St. John's River a month before, in consequence of ordcts which they had received from their provincial in France, and they wished greatly to devote them- selves to the apostolic labors of ours and labor in concert with our Fathers in converting; the heathen in this New World. Father fames de la Foyer asked to go and winter with the Nepisiriniens, and he went with Brother Bonaventure, a Recollect of the province of St. Denis. The other two, name- ly. Father Louis Fontiner and James Cardon, re- mained at our convent of Our Lady of the Aujo^els, and labored with fruit for the salvation of the sur- rounding nations. The little fleet at last weighed anchor. It was, indeed, driven by a storm into * Acadia, now New Brunswick. 228 FIRST ESTAllLISIIMKNT OF THE FAITH, ^;i Gaclipc"' Hay, where tlicy liad to stay some lime ; l)iit tlie wind havinjj^ l)ecome favorable, they sailed on safely and arrived in France, f Monsieur de Champlain havinju taken his wife with him. * 1,1' ("k'rc(| liinisc'lf, iiiliis diIkt tmok, always writes Gasp6. I 111' rcaduil l)ic|ii)f Oct. i, ifi2.|. I.avciilicrc's Champlain (if)32), vi. p. S(^. CHAPTER IX. P iiK ui;('(»i,i,ix:is OF tiik provinck ok takis solicit IN rUANCI'; A MISSION OK TIIK kKVKKKNU JKSUIT KATIIKkS KOK CANADA TIIKV OIJIAIN IT Al TKk OVKKCO.MING I'lIK I >1 KKICULTILS THAT AKISK — Tin; KKVHkKNI) JKSUIT KATIIKKS CO TO CANADA KOK TIIK KIKST TI.MK IN 1 625. \ Jj^ATIlEk IREN.HUS lost no time, ami, thoui,di ill II season which hc^aii '<» he nn- plcasaiiL, after takinij^ two days' rest at Dicj)pe, he set out for Paris, where he arrived safely, and put his commission and paj)ers in the hands of liie Su- periors, whom he informed at length of the state of our missions. Among other things he e.\i)osed the necessity in which the country was of a greater number of missionaries ; that, indeed, the three Recollects of iVfjuitaine who had fortunately ar- rived to aid our missions before his departure from Quebec could facilitate new discoveries ; yet, after all, the harvest was too great, and they must cast *1 II 230 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT their eyes on some leligious order to labor with us in the conversion of this New World. He pre- sented for this purpose the most humble remon- strance made by the Chapter of Quebec to the reverend Father-Provincial, and to his definitory to call the Jesuit Fathers to their help, if it was judged expedient, in order to cultivate this vineyard of the Lord. The reverend Father-Provincial, to whom, apart from every other, the mission was subject as Pre- fect, to send whom he pleased thither by virtue of the apostolic brief already mentioned, soon after as- sembled his definitory to deliberate on the affairs of Canada, of which this was the most important. Futher George was summoned to it with Father Irenreus. It is true that many persons without, distrusting the project, had sought to divert our Fathers, on the ground of their own interest, showing us that we had every reason to fear that the Gospel saying, " And the first shall be last," would be verified to our prejudice, if we were not in course of time OF THE FAITH. 231 actually excluded altogether from these missions. Other persons diverted us from interested views of their own. All their reasons were maturely weighed on both sides, but charity dissipated all the clouds. The singular esteem so justly due to that illustri- ous body, the close union which the Recollects have always maintained and still keep up every- where with the reverend Jesuit Fathers, this faith- ful and cordial understanding overcame all these considerations. The assembly deputed Father Irenoeus to make the proposal to Father Noirot, who was then the reverend Father-Provincial of the Jesuits. He fulfilled it faithfully. The pro- position was accepted with joy and every promise of gratitude and union on the part of the Jesuits. It now only remained to have it approved at court. Monsieur de Montmorancy was no longer Viceroy of Canada ; he had transferred the title and duties to Monsieur de V^entadour, his nephew.* Father George, accompanied l)y Father Irenieus, V- ..';. * Vcntadour's Commission to Cliami)l;iin is in "Edits (:t Oidoti- tianccs," iii. p. 13. ^1' I '1 •' 232 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT communicated their project to him, and that noble- man, seeing the parties agreed, consented without difficulty. He undertook to petition the King to confirm it by his royal authority, and even to influ- ence the gentlemen of the Company, who were very averse to it. The reverend Jesuit Fathers did not appear. Monsieur de Ventadour obtained his Majesty's consent, and at last the gentlemen of the Company were made to understand that they would be obliged to agree to it, willingly or by force, and that they might better consent with a good grace ; that, moreover, it was not pretended that this was to be at their expense, nor in prejudice to the num- ber of Recollects which by their contract they were bound to support in Canada. Meanwhile, after the Recollect Fathers had thus overcome all obstacles to the establishment of the Jesuits, these reverend Fathers found means of propitiating the gentlemen of the Company, who appointed them a day to meet the Recollects at their office, in order to consult together on what was to be done. How we know not, they forgot OF THE FAITH. 233 to notify us ; the Jesuit Fathers were there alone at the appointed day and hour. The gentlemen of the Company were hound by the treaty with the King to carry out and support six Recollects in Canada. The terms are : " The said de Caens or their said Society sluili he bouiul to carry to Canada and support there in the ordinary way six 1 i Recolk ..ecollects, including two who will often be on explorations in the country among the Indians. Done and agreed between us, the undersigned, November 18, 1620. (Signed) " m: Cakn." But, notwithstanding this contract, it was found that, by the result of the meeting, these gentlemen granted the Jesuits two of the six places, of which we were in possession by right of time. The Re- collects, informed of what had happened, had re- course to Monsieur de Ventadour, who, being in- formed of it, commanded his secretary to write promptly in his name to che directors of the Com- pany that he wished no change made in anything that had been done in favor of the six Recollects, either a., to support or passage, and that in case of violation he absolutely revoked the permission ''•ii js.i A" il''- V ;. 'I^f 234 FIRST ESTAHLISHMKNT :■: H which he had given the Jesuit Fathers* to go to Canada. The reverend Father Noyrot, Provincial of the Jesuits of Paris, appointed Fathers Charles Lalle- mand, Enemond Masse, John Brei)euf, Spiritual Coadjutors, and Brothers Gilbert Buret and Fran- cis Charton, Temporal Coadjutors, to begin the mission of the Society of Jesus in Canada, f The reverend Father-Provincial of the Recollects of the province of Paris on his side appointed Fa- ther Joseph de la Roche-d'Allion, of the house of the Counts du Lud, a Recollect religious of the l)rovince of St. Denis, as illustrious for his zeal and virtue as for his birth. There was still time before embarking, so that both parties had leisure to prepare for the voyage, ij; *SaganJ, " liistoire du Canada,'' pp. 861-6. + No Jesuit letter or Relation gives the nan>cs of this first party till Creuxius, " Hist. Canadensis," 1664, p. 5. Cluimplain (Luverdiere's cd., vi. p. 86) gives them, omitting the family name of the two Hro- ihcrs. Instead of Buret, the Relation 1635 (Quebec cd., p. 23), and F. Charles Lallcmant (Carayon, " Premiere Mission," p. 120), and Creux- ius give Burcl, and the last writes Charrcton. :j; Lavcrdi^rc's Champlain (1632), vi. pp. 86, 92. OF THE FAITH. ^35 Amoiifr the younjj Indians whom our Fathers had previously taken to France was one called Ahinsistan, who had made much protrress in Christianity, in the usances of the world and (he French mode of life. He had learned French so well that he had forgot the Canadian language. The Prince de Guimenc did him the honor to hold him over the font, where he was christened Peter Anthony.* His illustrious godfather had maintained him at his studies for five years; he had made great progress in Latin and in many natural and civil ac(|uirements. We had three others, who had been distributed in our convents of Paris, Rouen, and St. Germain. They were trained to piety and the service of the altar, even teaching them Latin, These young plants gave the best thinkers some hope of forming the Cana- dians in time. They showed docility, vivacity. is ,\ * Peter Antliony Pasteik'cliouan was subscf|uuiuly Father le Jcune's Montagnais teacher. Relatiuii if>33, p. 7; Creu.\ii!s, \\ no. Sajiard (" llistoirc," p. 936) calls him Pateidioimon and a (Jai adiiui, lueaniiin, apparently, a Naskapcc. Le ('lerc(i's name, Ahinsistan, looks like Huron, and is probably put here by mistake. See Sagard, p. S74. Mi'!' f '•0^: ; 'li'./'y'' ■ 1 ■'■■ ' ■ ' " . ': , j:',. . \ . i . I'^' ' ;> 1 1 I fl m At 236 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT and a tolerably easy conception. After the first eijifht or ten months' stay in France there was one, among others, who had learned to write so well that we have Relations of the country and instructive letters of our Fathers in his handwrit- ing. As Peter Anthony was more advanced, hav- ing made five years' stay in France, which he did not wish to leave. Father George and Father Jo- seph thought proper to persuade him to make a voyage home. As he was tractable and docile, he yielded to their entreaties from a pure mo- tive of God's glory ; for he was a Christian, and so devout as to shame many who laid claim to piety.* The fleet for Canada was making ready to sail. Monsieur de Caen had reserved the direction to himself, so that when the Jesuit Fathers and Fa- ther Joseph de la Roche Dallion had embarked they set sail. The voyage had nothing particu- lar beyond being shorter and more pleasant than previous ones. They arrived at Quebec, where * Sagard, " Histoire," pp. 864-5. ■ til OF THE FAITH. 237 they were received with the universal joy of the French and Indians* We may here remark that the Ahhe dc la Roque did not write on faithful memoirs when he places the first apostolic labors of the Jesuits in Canada only in 1637 and 1638, as all the world knows, and so many Relations and His- tories of the country attest, that they were led there by our Fathers, and that these five mis- sionaries of the vSociety of Jesus anchored there in 1625. The Recollects had already labored there for the space of ten years in the first estab- lishment of the Faith. The highest and holiest enterprises for God's glory are usually the most opposed. One would have thought that the Jesuit Fathers, willing to sacrifice themselves for the country and begin their mission by so large a number of excellent men, would have been received with all jiossible gratitude, and even cheerfully ; but, far from that, there was no one either of the chief men or of * S.igard, p. 867 , Creuxius, " Historia Canadensis," p. 0. ! W ' it- . h- . 1 ■ i * ill: : ! I '1 w 238 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT the settlers but showed a repuc^nance. All una- nimously refused to receive them, unless they saw absolute orders and a command of the kiner for their establishment. They did not e\cn find any one willino^ to lodge them ; for as they had been satisfied with obtaining a mere verbal consent of his Majesty, no steps had been taken to obtain authentic letters for the establishment of these reverend Fathers. The enterprise was about to fall through, they were on the point of return- ing to France in the same ships and abandoning their design entirely, when our Fathers, after much coming and going, at last obtained of the gene- ral and settlers their consent that the Jesuit Fa- thers should take up their abode with us, to make only one spirit and body of missionaries, without being a charge to the country, till it pleased the king to order otherwise. This ar- rangement being made, the Father-Commissary and his religious set out in the convent boat to go on board to do honor to the reverend Jesuit Fathers and take them to our convent with all OF THE FAITH. !39 the joy that can he supposed. Our relip^ious, seeinjT iheir desires accomplished by the arrival of these Fathers, chanted a Te Deum in thanks- Pfivinpr, and showed them every welcome which the state of the country and holy poverty could permit. They were offered and accepted the half of our convent, cfarden, and cleared enclo- sure, which they chose, and they remained there for the space of two years, livin<:( and laborini^ in perfect harmony with our Fathers, while their affairs were advancinjr and seitlin,£r in France and in the country itself for a perfect establish- ment. This was aided materially, no doubt, by the deputation of Father Joseph le Caron to France by our Fathers chieily on this matter.* He returned in triumph the next year, proud of having obtained a part of his nep^otiation and of what we desired in the matter. The public will be at once pleased and edified to see that the reverend Jesuit Fathers were not ungrateful. Among other proofs that could be '™mK : • Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," p. 871. 240 FIRST KSTABI.ISHMENT given here, we copy two letters of the Rev. Father Lallemant, first Superior of the Jesuits in Canada, written to Monsieur tie Champlain in France and to the reverend Father-Provincial of the Recollects of the province of St. Denis : " Sir : " Here we are, thank God ! within the limits of your lieu- tenancy, where we arrived safely after having had one of the best voyages yet experienced. The general, after declaring to us that it was impossible for him to lodge us in the settle- ment or in the fort, and that we must either return to France or retire to tlie Recollect Fathers, has compelled us to accept this last offer. These Fathers have received us with so much charity that they have put us under obligations for ever. Our Lord will be their reward. One of our Fathers went to the trade, intending to proceed to the Hurons and Irocpiois with the Recollect Father who came from France, as they should arrange with Father Nicholas, who was to be at the trade and confer with them ; but it has happened that poor Father Nicliolas, Recollect, was drowned at the last rapid. This has ol)liged them to return, having no knowledge, lan- guage, or information. We accordingly await your coming to resolve what it is expedient to do. You will learn all that you can desire to know of this country from the reverend Fa- ther Joseph. I accordingly content myself with assuring you that I am, sir, vour very affectionate servant, "CHARLES LALLEMANT.* " Quebec, 28th July, 1625." * Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," p. 868. OF THE FAITH. 241 The loUowing; is a copy of that which he wrote to the Rev. Father- I'rovincial of the Recollects of Paris : " Revlrend Father : "Pax Christi. It would be too ungrateful were I not to write to your Reverence to thank you for the many letters lately written in our favor to the Fathers who are here in New France, and for the charity which we have received from the Fathers, who put us under eternal obligation. I be- seech our good God to be the reward of you both. For myself, I write to our Superiors that I feel it so deeply that I will let no occasion pass of showing it, and I beg them, although already most affectionately disposed, to show your whole holy order the same feelings. Father Joseph will tell your Reverence the object of his voyage, for the success of which we shall not cease to offer prayers and sacrifices to God. This time we must advance in gcod earnest the affairs of our Master, and omit nothing that shall be deemed necessary. I have writ- ten to all who, I thought, could aid it, and I am sure they will exert themselves, if affairs in France permit. Your Reverence, I doubt not, is affectionately inclined, and so vis unita, our united effort, will do much. Awaiting the result, I commend myself to the Holy Sacrifices of your Reverence, whose most humble servant " I am, " CHARLES LALLEMANT.* " Quebec, July 28, 1625." * ?.; Sagard, " llistoirc du Canada," p. 869. 16 B '^ '\'- il CIIAPTKR IX. MURDKR OF KATHER NICHOLAS, RKCOI.IJ'.CT MIS- SIONARY I'o TlIK IIURONS, (OMMITTKI) I'.V TIIK INDIANS — FRUrri-KSS ATTKMI'TS OF Till', RF.lOl.- LECTS AND JESUITS TO REACH THAT FATHF.r's MISSION — DEPUTATION OF FATHER JOSEPH EE CARON TO FRANCE WINTERINC OF THE RECOi - EECTS AND JESUITS AT (^UEIiEC, WITH MAW IlIS- TOKICAL RECOLLECTIONS ON THE FIRST ESTAI!- LISHMENT OF THE FAITH. nr^HE Church of Canada, rcinforccc' by these -*- new evangelical laborers full of light and fervor for its establishment, would have received considerable increase had the time of grace ar- rived for these nations buried in darkness and a horrible obduracy. Union, friendship, disinte- restedness, God's glory, the conversion of the In- dians, and the propagation of the faith were the soul of these apostolic men ; and although they were of a dilTerent institute, it appears by their FIRST ESTAHMSTIMRNT OF THF FAITH. 243 Vum I whole conduct that they always preserved the same spirit, undertakinjj^ nothinji^ except in con- cert, especially in these early times, making one heart, one soul, and, so to say, one mission. After the Jesuit Fathers had reposed and were settled in our house both aa^rced to go up to the llurons to advance that mission, which seemed to promise something. Father Brebeuf, a Jesuit, and Father Joseph de la Roche Dallion, a Re- collect, were appointed for these missions, and set out at once * for Three Rivers on the Company's harks which went there to trade. They were charitably received by our missionary who re- sided there, and wh'^ shared in the common joy of our Fathers at the arrival of these new apos- tles. There were several Tluron chiefs there, ^^'ho fiicilitatcd the means of pursuing their route lid conducted them with their little baggage to heir country and to the residence of the Recol- lects. Our traders gave beads, knives, kettles, ♦Aboiii 'lie inontli of July, 1625, Sagard, " Ilistoire," p. S74 ; LalUinaiii iiayon, " I'lcnii^ix' Mission," p. iS8 ; Lettrc, Paris, 1627, !'■ 51. ti 244 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT and other articles to these Indians to ensure the voyap^e antl pay for our missionaries. They were jrettino^ ready to start when a ru- mor beo^an to spread of the death of the Recol- lect Father Nicholas Viel. This j2^ood relij^ious, who had ijone up to the Hurons two years be- fore with Father Joseph le Caron and Brother Gabriel Sagar, who had remained there all that time with some Frenc'men who took turns j^o- ing and returninc^ to Quebec had been solicited by the Ilurons to go down with them to trade. He seized the opportunity to come and make his retreat at our convent of Our Lady of the An - gels, and even took one of his disciples, little Ahaut- sic, whom he had instructed in the Faith and bap- tized. There were in the party many pretty good Hurons, among whom were some brutal men, enemies of religion, yet pretending to love and respect the good Father. A storm scattered the canoes, and unfortunately this religious was left in his with three wicked and impious Indians, who OF THE FAITH. 245 luirlcd him into the water with his little disciple, Ahautsic, at the last Sault dcscendin|2: to Mont- loyal, the deep and rapid waters of which en- gulfed them in a moment. They saved only his chapel and some writings which he had drawn Uj) in books of bark paper, comprising a kind of mission journal ; he had left his dictionary and other memoirs among the Ilurons in the hands of the Trench.* The place where this good re- ligious was drowned is still called the " Sault au Recollet."t If we may acknowledge as martyrs those who die in apostolic labors either by the cruelty of the Indians of these countries, who have little or no light of any divinity, true or false, we might justly acknowledge Father Nicholas and his lit- tle disciple as the two fust martyrs of Canada, lie was, moreover, a very great religious, who, after having lived in the odor of sanctity, came to Canada only from his burning zeal for martyr- dom. The pains and toil he had to undergo in * Siigard, " llistoiif ilii Caiiiula," pp. S74-5- \ 'l"'''"^ '"^ ^'i" ""^'- 246 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT his mission, as reported by Frenehmcn worthy of credit, cannot be described. He had pro- duced much fruit ; and, finally, we learned from the Hurons themselves assembled at the trade the cruel manner in which he and his neophyte had been put to death, whom God had received into his glory as the first fruits of the Huron mission. The Hurons had scattered his vestments, except the chalice ; strips of them were gathered, of which they had made trimmings in their style ; but at last Fathers Brebeuf and Joseph de la Roche Dallion, having learned this sad event, believed that it would be rash in them to trust themselves to these savages on so long a voyage. Accord- ingly, by the advice of the wisest Frenchmen who were there, as well as of the best-disposed Hu- rons, who would not answer for their country- men, they resolved to go back to Quebec, put- ting off the matter for another year.* Their ar- rival announced and soon spread the news of the tragic death of Father Nicholas. He was uni- * Sagard, " Ilistoirc du Canada," p. 874. OF THE FAITH. 247 vcrsally regretted by the French, Indians, and even by the Huguenots, who were won by his talents and merit. The ordinary rites and suf- frages were performed for him, and his funeral service was celebrated with much solemnity, al- though every one was persuaded that God had already put him in possession of his glory, llie ships were ready to start. Our Fathers and the Jesuits had several conferences on w^Mt was to be done for the good of the country. It was agreed that Father Joseph le Caron should go to France with the necessary instructions. The pro- gress of the mission was principally addressed to the king, to whom he had the honor of being known, having even had the advantage of teach- ing iiis Majesty the first elements of the Faith, lie set sail at the close of August, 1625. The ar- rival of this good religious in France, as well as his return the next year to Canada, was i)ros- Ijcrous.f flic came back wit'i ("liaiiiplain in 1^2^], sailiiiLj Apiil 15 ami leacliiiiji Oiuhcc luly 5. Lavtrdicic's C'liaiiiplaiii (1632), vi. p[i. 96, 124. 248 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT Meanwhile our Fathers were divided in the principal missions, except that of the Hurons ; those who remained at Quebec spent the winter with the Jesuits, rendering all possible aid to French and Indian. I am surprised that a historian attributes to the Jesuit Father le J' ne the first dictionary of the Montagnais language, as that missionary, accord- ing to this Relation, went to Canada only in 1632* I have seen another which says almost the same of the Huron and Algomquin languages. Yet it is certain that, during the ten years that the Recollects were the only missionaries in Canada, they were scattered everywhere in sedentary mis- sions and the remotest in every nation, but parti- cularly in that of Quebec, whither they had at- tracted several cabins of the Huron, Montagnais, and AigonKjuin nations, of wiiose languages they had formed and perfected dictionaries, of whi h I * Lc Jciinc (Relation 1O33, pp.2, 7; ("riuxius, p. ni) speaks of studying the langiiuge and making a dictiuiiaiy, Init lays no claim to [tri- ority, and admits that he liad received a small dictionary in France. OF THE FAITH. m 249 have myself seen several fragments which have re- mained to us in the handwriting of our ancient Fathers. The dictionary of the Huron language was first drafted by Father Joseph le Caron in 1616. The little Huron whom he took with him when he returned to Quebec aided him greatly to ex- tend it. He also added rules and principles dur- ing his second voyage to the Hurons. He next increased it by notes which Father Nicholas sent him, and at last perfected it by that which that holy religious had left when descending to Quebec, and which the French placed in his hands: so that Father George, Procurator of the mission in France, presented it to the king with the two preliminary dictionaries of the Algom- quin and Montagnais languages in 1625.'^ It is *It is curious tliat Ln Dieppe May ?..\, i(.j6, with five vi'ssels. Aicordiiij; lO '.av-iiliorc, Cliamiil. (1632) vi. p. /•;, the |csuit vessel •as /',//i'//.7/, . He reached Oiieliee Inly?. ( "leiixiiis, "llist. Cana- diiisis," p. 9, makes them embark in Aiiiil. See C'hamplaiii (1032), p. 127. OF THE FAITH. 259 ear to needed expenses for distant lands ; yet his Majesty ordered in favor of Father Joseph some aid for the instruction of our little seminary and for the new converts, but all this was in vain. The king found it necessary to cause a part to be delivered in his presence to one of the Father's friends. Monsieur de Champlain, who was in France on behalf of the affairs of the country and his own, conversed with Father Joseph, and, learning that Monsieur de Caen, General of the tleet, had mo- lested the Catholics during his stay at Quebec, they both drew up very humble remonstrances to the king to grant new commissions. His Majesty ordered that Monsieur de Caen sliould not go on this voyage, but, with the V^iceroy's approbation, appoint a Catholic to conduct the ships. Monsieur de (Jaen appointed the Sieur de hi kalde. Mon- sieur de Champlain prepared to return to Quebec ir. his ordinary capacity of Governor with the Sieur du lioulr, his brother-in-law, anil the Siciu di s I ouches, the one as lieutenant, the other as ;• 260 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FAITH. ensign.* After which Father Joseph le Caron, impatient to be again in our missions of New France, set out for Dieppe with Brother Gervase Mohier and the reverend Jesuit Fathers. They set sail, and the missionaries arrived safely at Tadoussac, where the great trade was going on. Our missionaiy received them with all possible ioy. They witnessed a solemn feast prej)are(l for a party of two hundred Indians, and soon after pro- ceeded to Quebec, which this licet reached safelv.f * Lavordiurc's (^li;mipl;iin (1632), vi, p. 94. I Safraiil, " llisluiic dii ("aiiada," p. S71. CHAPTER X. THE JKSUIT FATHERS PROCEKD TO I!E(;iN IIIEIR FHiST MISSIONS CONDUCTED BY illE Ri:CoI,!,E( TS — SEVERAL INCIDENTS HAPI'ENING IN THAT AND OTHER .MISSIONS. ''I^HE safe arrival of these missionaries taf and de la Noue to go up with him, these Indians refused to lake them, giving as a pretext tiie weight of Father IJreheuf, who, said they, was too heavy and would capsize the canoe. These !ll| 262 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT reverend Fathers, however, having made sonic presents to others who were more civil, they took them on board, and the) made the voyage together, which was a safe one. '•■ As Father Joseph de la Roche Dallion had dur- ing the winter learned the Huron language by means of the dictionary which Father Jose|)h Ic Caron, the first apostle of the I lurons, had left him, and had practised even at Quebec with the Hurons wintering there, and the French who knew the language, he had much facility with Fa- ther Brebeuf, who had also acquired a tincture to make himself understood on the various occasions which they met in the course of the journey. These missionaries lab«jn'(l to,'ins, "Sii; ; My huniliK' salutation in tlic mercy i)f jesiis." I The words in parenthesis are in Sagard. ; 264 FIRST ESTABTJSHMRNT 1'^ all tlic hardships that any one may iiDaginc by reason of tlic wrt'lclicd way, some time afterwards I received a letter from our reverend l'"alher Jose|)h le Caron, by which he en- couraged me to pass on to a nation we cnll Neutral, of which the interpreter (I>rusle) told wonders. iMicoiira^ed, tlien, by so ^t^'ood a l'"ather and the i^rand account given nie of these people, I started for their country, setting out from the IIu- rons will) this tlesign October 18, 1626, with a !'ian called Grenole and Lavaiice, l''renchmen l)y birth. " Passing to the I'elun nation, I made accjuaintance and friendshi|) willi an Indian chief who is in great credit, who promised to guide me to this Neutral nation and supply Indians to carry our baggage and what little provision we had ; for to think io live in these countries as mendicants is self-deceit ; these i)eople giving only as far as you oblige them, so that you nuist often make long stages and often si)cnd many nights with no shelter but the stars. He ful- filled wliat he had liscd to our satisfaction, and we slept only live nights in K woods, and on the sixtli day we arrived at the first \iilag(', where we were very well received, thanks to our Lord, and linn at four other villages, which envied each other in bringing us food — some venison, others s([uashes, neinlhaouy, * and the best they had. AH were astonished to see me dressed as 1 wis, and to see that I de- sired nothing of theiis, excejit that I invited them (by signs) to lift their eyes to heaven, make the sign uf the cross, and receive the Faith of Jesu^ C'hrisl. What lillcd them with wonder was to see me retire at ( ertain hours in the day to * Ncintaliouy, Sagard, \k SS2. Dftincd in liis Dictionary, under \'iandc," to be Bled rosiy, parched corn. ] OF THE FAITH. 26t^ , pray to Ciod and attciul to my spiritiuil affiiiis (for tliey liad never seen relit;ioiis, except towards the I'etiineiix and Hii- rons, their neighbors). At last we arrived at tlie sixth vil- lage, wliere I had I)een advised to remain. I called a coun- cil. Remark, by the way, if you i)lease, that tliey call every assembly a c()un( il. Tliey hold them as often as it pleases the chiefs. Tlu'y sit on the ground, in a cabin or the open field, in ])rofound (very strict) silence while the chief ha- rangues, and they are inviolable observers of what has one e been ( oncluded and resolved. " There I told them, as well as I could, that I came on be- half of tlu' I'rench to contr.ict alliance and friendship with them, and to invite them to come to trade. I also bej'^ed tin n to allow me to remain in their country to (be able to) instruct them in the law of our God, which is the only means of going to heaven (I'aradise). They accepted all my offers, and showed me that they were very agreeable. Being much consoled at this, I made them a ])resent of what little 1 had, as little knives and other trifles, which they esteem highly. For in this country nothing is done with the Indians without making them some kind of jiresent. In return they adopted me, as they say — that is to say, they declared me a citizen and child of the country, and gave me in trust — mark of great affection — to Souharisser (Souharissen), who was my father and host; for, according to age, they are accustomed to call us cousin, brother, son, uncle, or nephew. 'I'his man is the chiet of the greatest credit and luthority that has (ever) been in all these nations; for lie i^ not only chief of his village, but of all those of his nation, composed of (in number) twenty-eight towns, cities, and villages, made like 266 FIRST ESTABT.IRHMENT those in the Huron country, and also of several little liamlets of seven or eight rahins, hiiilt in various ])arts convenient for fishing, hunting, or agriculture. " It is unexampled in the other nations to have so abso- lute a chief. He acquired this honor and power by his courage, and by having been repeatedly at war with seven- teen nations which are their enemies, and taken heads or brought in i)risoners from them all. " Those who are so valiant are much esteemed among them, and, although they have only the club, bow, and arrow, yet they are, nevertheless, very warlike and adroit with these arms. After all this cordial welcome our Frenchmen re- turned, and I remained, the happiest man in the world, hoping to do something there to advance God's glory, or at least to discover the means (which would be no small thing, and to endeavor to discover the mouth of the river of the Hiroqjois, in order to bring them to trade). "I did my best to learn their manners and way of living. During my stay I visited them in their cabins to know and instruct them. I found them tractable enough, and I often made the little children, who are very bright, naked, and dishevelled, make the sign of the (holy) cross. I remarked that in all this country I met no humpback, one-eyed, or de- formed persons. * * Here in Sagard is the following : " I liavc always seen them con- stant in their resolution to go with ai least four canoes to the trade, if I would guide tliem, the whole difhcultv being that we did not 'enow ihc way. Yro(Uiet, an IndiaVi known in those countiies, who had couic there with twenty of his men hunting for beaver, and who tonli fully five hundred, would never give us any mark to ku'iw the mouth of the river. lie and several Hurons assured us well that it was onlv ten or THE FAITH. 267 "During three niontlis I had every reason in the worhl to he satisfied with my ])e(}])Ie ; hut the Hiirons, having discov- ered that 1 talked of leading them to the trade, spread in all the villages where he passed very had reports about me : that I was a great inagi( ian ; that I had tainted the air of their country and poisoned many ; that if they did not kill me soon 1 would set fire to their villages and kill all their chil- dren. In fine, I was, as they said, a great .\talanite — that is their word to mean him who performs sacrileges,* whom they hold in great horror. .And know, by the way, that there are a great many sorcerers who pretend to heal dis- eases by mummeries and other fancies. In a word, the Hurons told them so much evil of us to prevent their going to trade :t that the Frencii were unapproachable, rude, sad, melancholy [)eoi)le, who live only on snakes and poison ; that we eat thunder, wliich they imagine to be an un])aralleled chimera, relating a thousand strange stories about it; that we all had a tail like animals; that the women have only one nip- ple in the centre of the breast ; that they l)ear five or six children at a time, adding a thousand other absurdities to make us hated by them and prevent their trading with us, so days' jdiirncy to tlie tradiiifr-placc ; liiit we were afraid of taking; one river for aiiotiier, and losini; our wav or dying of hunger on tiie land." This was evidently tlic Niagara River and the route thMni<;li Lake Ontario. lie apparently crossed the river, as lie was on liie Iro(|uois frontier. The omission of tiie passage by Le C'lercq was evidently caused by the allusion to trade. * Sortileges {i.e., magical rites). Sagard, p. 886. f Always told them so much evil of the French as they were able to devise, to divert them from trading with them, iii 268 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT 1"% r thai they iiiij^ht liavc the Irailc willi ihcsc nations themselves exclusively, which is very profilablc to iheni. " In fact, these i^^ood people, who are very easy to persuade, ^rew very suspicious of nie. As soon as any one fell sick they came to ask nie whether it was not true that I had poisoned him, and that they would surely kill me if I did not cure him. 1 had great difficulty in excusing and defending myself. At last ten men of the last village, called Ouaroronon, * one day's journey from the Iro(piois, their relatives and friends, coming to trade at our village, came t(j visit me and invited me to come and see them in their village. 1 |)r')m- ised to do so without fail when the snows ceased (molted), and to give them all some little presents (trifles), with which they seemed satisfied. Thereupcin they left the cabin v/here 1 was living, always concealing their evil designs against me. Seeing that it was growing late, they came back after me aqd abruptly began a (luarrel without provocation. One knocked me down with a blow of his fist, another took an axe and tried to split my head. God averted his hand ; the blow fell on a bar (post) near mo. I also received much other ill-treat- ment ; but that is what we came to seek in this country. De- coming somewhat appeased, they vented their wrath on what little goods were left us ; they took our writing-desk, blanket, breviary, and bag, which contained some knives, needles, awls, and other small objects of the kind. And having tiuis slrij)- |)ed me, they went off all that night, full of joy at their ex- ploit. On arriving at their village and examining the spoil, I * Tills is a tribal name, ronon signifying people. Thuy caniu from a village of the tribe called in Rel., 1635, p. 34, Aliouenrochroiion ; Rel., 1639, p. 59, Ouenrohronon. OK 'I'lII'; I'MTII. 269 touched, perha|)s, by repentance coming from the Most Hit;h, they sent me hack our Ijreviary, compass, desk, hhmket, and hag — empty, however. When they arrived in my viUage, called (Jiinontisaston, there were only women there. The men had gone to hunt stags. On their return they declared that they were much grieved at tlie misfortune which had befallen me (after whirh no more was said al)OUt it). "The report at once spread I0 the Ifurons that I had bei'U killed. On this the good l-'alhers lirebeiif and de la None, who remained there, sent Clrenole to me at once to learn the truth, with orders to bring me back if I was still alive. 'I'he letter they wrote me (with tlie pen of their good-will) also in- vited me to do so. I did not wish to gainsay tliem, as this was their advice and that of all the Frenchmen, who feared more misfortune than profit by my death; I according- ly returned to the Huron country, where I now am, all ad- miring the divine effects of Heaven. " 'J'he country of this Neutral nation is incomparalily larger, more beautiful, and better than any other of all these countries. There is an incredible number of stags,* great abundance of moose or elk, beaver, wild-cats, and black srpiirrels larger than the French ; a great fjuantity of wild geese, turkeys, cranes, and other animals, which are there all winter, which is not * Here SaK^i'l lias, " wliirli they do not take oik,' by one, as is done on this side, hut, makin !' .**■.■ »5 .in 74 FIRST ESTAIU.ISHMENT " How, Father," said he, " would your reverence send me among those beasts who know not God ? " But the Superior overcame him by reasons of grace, telling him that it was to make them know God, to help and contribute to the salvation of his kindred and countrymen. He was confirmed by giving him rules of conduct, and we may say that he rendered great service to the mission under the guidance and direction of our Fathers.* The memory of the Reverend Father Nicholas Vicl was in singular veneration among the Hurons when he set out on the voyage on which he was put to death. A head of family, who was attached to him, had promised to go down and take him his son. He kept his word ; he came to Quebec the same year, 1626, and brought his son to be instructed in our convent. He was received and brought up for some time by the Superior with great care. This boy was particularly distinguish- ed among all those in the seminary. He was six- teen years old, well made, had talent, showed docil- * Sagard, " Histoire," p. 865. OF THE FAITH. 275 ity, was amiable and by no means fickle like the rest, so that when the ships were on the point of starting for France several were eager to have the boy. He clearly belonged to us as the conquest of Father Nicholas, and, moreover, his father had put him in Father Joseph le Caron's hands. Vet the Reverend Jesuit Fathers wished to have him, and the Sieur Emeric de Caen asked him of us. At last, as Father Noyrot was going to Franco, Father Joseph yielded this young neophyte to him. This could not be done without the consent of the young Huron's father, who used duplicity. Father Joseph asked him for the Jesuits, and he did not wish to disoblige him. He had also to conciliate the Sieur de Caen on account of the trade. He promised him to both, received their presents, leaving him, nevertheless, all the while on deposit in Father Joseph's hands till the de- parture of the vessels, when the Sieur de Caen pretended that he had the right to him. He embarked him, in fact, and took him to Rouen ; but the Jesuit Fathers, by Monsieur de Venta- 'Ml m m 1'"' ^&j^' k\M\ 276 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FAITH. JT^iil i- fi 1 I'i ' '%■ '5 1 ■ 1 1 iiU' dour's authority, obtained him from his hands, and afterwards took the honor to themselves with great eclat. The archbishop administered baptism to him solemnly in the cathedral church of Rouen, where Monsieur de Longueville and Madame de Villehars held him over the font. He was chris- tened Louis de Saintf; Foi amid a countless crowd of people, the repor. having spread that he was son of the king of Canada, while in fact he was only the son of a miserable Indian.* * Louis Amantaclia. See Lnlemani, Relation i62f), p. 9. During the Enjj[lisli occupation lie lost his fervor (I.averdifere's Champlain [1632], vi. p. 267 ; Creuxius," Ilistoria ('anadensis," p. 11), but became a support of the missionaries afterwards (Rel. 1632, |). 14 ; 1633, p. 31, etc.; 1635, p. 39; 163O, p. 71), although he was taken bj' the Irocpiois (Rel. 1634, p. 88). On April 29, 1627, Cardinal Richelieu passed the " Act for the establishment of the Compan)- of One Hundred Asso- ciates." " Edits et Ordonnances," i. p. 5. CHAPTER XI. TIIK REVEREND JESUIT FATHERS ARE TRAVERSED ACIAIN IN THEIR ESTAHEISIIMENT TRAGICAL lATE OK THE CANADA FLEET UNFORTUNATE ACCIDENTS WHICH BEFELL THE COLONY. i': 1 \'i 1 f ! I SIM I '.\ f#| ;■••! til jfil \m I, f. "II riL mentioned, thoujjjh but incidentally, a voy- age to France proposed by the rev. Father Noyrot, Jesuit. He executed it in tiie year 1626, and went back in the same ship in which he came to Canada, in order to procure a more solid estab- lishment and obtain more abundant succor for the country, where most frequently there was a want of everything, and finally to complain of the Sieur Emeric de Caen and the Sieur de la Ralde, who greatly traversed the Fathers of his Society and even troubled the Catholic settlers. He had con- ferred with the reverend Father George le Baillif, Procurator of the Recollects of Canada, to sup- port the interests of the missions, which zeal for I ■ . i ^-f\ Wt-i) 'H: i{ i < i 278 FIRST ESTABLISH MENT God's glory anti charity made both esteem alike. The Sieurs de Caen and de la Ralde sailed the same year. We will say nothing of the negotiations of these two religious in France till their return, linding no important circumstances. Father George obtained some little aid for the support of the seminary and missions. Father Noyrot, whose establishment in Canada was not yet begun (the Reverend Jesuit Fathers doing us the favor to continue their stay in our convent), had need of greater efforts. He fit- ted out a ship furnished with all necessaries ; but the Sieurs de Caen and de la Ralde took umbrage, and having, moreover, heard that the Fathers had made some complaints about their conduct, these mer- chants acted so skilfully that they stopped what was on account of the Jesuits.* Although Father George had shared in the same complaints, these gentlemen nevertheless received on board, as they were bound to do by their treaty, whatever was for the Recollects. Some bales and utensils were also * Sec Lavcrdiferc's Champlain (1632), p. 145. OF THE FAITH. 2/9 put on board, under their name, for the aecount of the Jesuit Fathers. 'I'he Sieur de la Ualde was somewhat displeased at it, for he showed it at least in words to our Fathers in Canada, when he ar- rived there safely with his lleet, so niueh so that when l\Uher Josej)h le Caron, on his return to FVanee, asked him to take a youn<^ Indian whom he had instrueted in the Faith and baptized by the name of Louis, lie refused to do so. Missionaries of both institutes were e(|ually eha- fj^rincd at the news that the intrigues of the Sieurs de Caen and de la Ralde had prevailed in Franee against the reverend Jesuit Fathers, whieh, dei)riv- ing them of their expceted reinforeement and the supplies neeessary for their support and buildings, almost crushed their project at its birth. They were already forming a resolution to return to France,* and had Fathers Brebcuf and de la Noue been at Quebec they were all ready to give the whole up, convinced even then that no great fruit was to be * Laverdiferc's Cliamplain (1632), vi. p. 145. They WLtu |>ru|)aiing to send buck the workmen, whom tliey were unable to winter. i SI ill ■4 i-i 'hi if ■'"til I- , HI 2.So i'lRST ESTAni.ISHMENT ^aiiifcl ill convcrtinir the Indians, and that they were (ie|nived of the means of estal)lishin^ them- selves and increasiny^ the ct)lony; hut, encouraged l»y I'ather Josepli le Caron and our other missiona- ries, and animated, too, hy some secret motives llial Mattered ihem with hetter hopes after all these eonlrailictions, I'ather Lallemant, the Superior, re- solved to leave the rest of his Jesuit brethren and go hack alone with twenty mechanics.* We had at this time another grief. Monsieur 1 lehert, the first settler of the colony, of whom we have spoken in the beginning of our history, fell sick, exhausted hy the hardships he had undergone, and after lingering some days he paid the debt of nature. His death was universally regretted. He may be calleil the Abraliam of the colony, the father of the living and faithful, since his j)()sterity has become as numerous as we have heretofore said : that it has produced many officers, civil and mili- tary, able merchants in trade, worthy ecclesiastics, * He sailed early in September willi de la Ralde. Crenxius, " Ilist. Oinad.," p. 13. TT OF THE FAITH 281 finally a ^leat nuinhcr of j^ood Christians, many of whom have suircrcd much and otluTs Inon killed hy the Indians in the eomn on cause.* lie was sol- emnly huried in our cemetery ; hut as the place was disturhed after our re-estahlishment in Canada, his hones were found in 167S, still enclosed in a cedar collin. The kev. rather Valentine le Uoux, then Commissary and Superior of all our missions, had it taken up from that spot and solemnly IransjMMt- ed to the vault of the chapel of our convent church which he had huilt ; and the hody of him who had heen the stock of the inhahitants of the country is the fnst whose hones rest in that vault, with those of Brother Pacificus du Plessis. Madam (Jouil- lard, daughter of Sieur H chert, who was still alive, had herself carried there, desiring to witness this translation. Although the reverend Jesuit Fathers were a little disgusted with the mission on account of the contradictions we have mentioned, they soon * He died January 25, 1(127. Sa^ard, " llistoire du Canada," p. 591 ; Laverdi^rc's Chanipluin (1632), vi. p. 132. ,\' mm Ti|f^ ■Ps 't' ' '1 1 m'^ ml\ '■ 1'p i '"'■ ■ 282 FIRST ESTAHLISHMRNT icsLinicd courage. Our l*\itlicrs, who had made it an alTliir of God to have them as asst)ciatcs and to elleet their cstablislniieiil with all their power, wished to facilitate ihe means. They had lent them a house-frame, all ready to put uj), for a new huildinjj^ of ahout forty feet lon^ by Iwenty-eight wide, with which we intended to enlarge our semi- nary, and this jjresent year, 1627, they also lent them another which they had prepared to extend our convent. These {Reverend bathers accepted them cheerfully in the necessity to which so much opposition hati reduced them, and they used them in the buildings which they raised beyond the little river, eight or nine hundred paces from us.* .About this time occurred a very tragic accident, ha[)pily repaired by the skill of Monsieur de Cham- plain and the conversion of some Indians. A certain Mahican-aticouche, a Montagnais by nation, killed two Frenchmen f who were asleep * " At lliu place coininniily called Jac(iues Cailier's fort," says Sajraiil, " Ilisioiie," p. S()8. He says 40 l)y 23. f Henry and Dumoulin, in Octol)er, 1627, apparently at La Canar- di^rc. Laverdiire's Chaniplain (1632), vi. [). 150; Saj;ard, 895, (J13. OK TUF- I'AITH. 283 by tlic vvatcr-sidc, wrapped in tlicir blankets. This Iniliaii had been ill-lreated by Madame Ilebcil's baker and by another whom he asked for bread, perhaps too impoitimately. Me watched them, and, believinjj, tliose to be the same who were asleep on the Itank of the river, he killed tliem with hatchet strokes and threw them into the water. Monsieur de Champlain, who was return- inu^ fiom ( -ape Tourment, iirst saw the blood alon^ the beach down to the water's edj^e, and, suspcct- inj^ the crime that had happened, had the two bodies sonii^ht and buried in oui chapel at Oiiebec. The murderer was souiiht, but he had lied to the woods to escaj)e the justice of the I'lench, and the Sieur de ('hamplain kej)t one of his children as a hostage till he appeared at Ouebec with the other Montaunais. Meanwhile these savages, wishiny^ to appease Monsieur de Champlain, and knowinij the extreme pleasure that he took in gettinjr Indian cliildieii to have them brouj^dit up in Christianity, they asked liim, through Father Joseph le Caron, whether he would not Vfv. 284 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT accept three of their daughters to take them to France. The Sieur tie Champlain acce[)ted them very willingly, the more so as he could never con- vict the one suspected of having committed these two murders. He took particular care of their education, and, having had them instructed in the truths of Christianity, he did them the honor of being their sponsor. Father Joseph le Caron bap- tized them, and Monsieur de Champlain gave these three girls the names of Faith, Hope, and Charity.* As to the accident which gave occasion to the rupture of the peace between the Irotpiois, our allies, and us, it did not terminate so happily ; for the Irocjuois having killed a Frenchman named Peter Magnian, with three Indians, because the Algon([uins had previously killed some Iroquois, j)eace was broken and war was enkindled more fu- riously than ever.f These disorders were followed l)y another niis- * Lavcrdiferc's Champlain, vi. p. 155-6 ; Sagard, p. 913. f This occurred in July-Aug., 1627 ; lb., p. 142. ; ■•'I OF THE FAITH. 285 J fortune which reduced Canada to the greatest ex- tremity by the defeat and capture of ^ the fleet which was cominij^ to Canada, commanded by the Sieur de Rocmont. 1 he reverend Jesuit Fathers, having resumed courage in France, had sent out on it two of their Fathers;* we had also two mission- aries on l)oard, Fathers Daniel 15oursier and Fran- cis Girard, Recollects of Paris. This fleet, com- posed of large vessels, set sail from Dieppe about mid-April, 1628. It defended itself successfully against two Rochelle ships when leaving the Eng- lish Channel. Never was voyage more crossed. At last, on the river St. Lawrence, they fell into the hands of an English fleet. y\ battle ensued, but our fleet was beaten. f The English caj>tured a number of Bas(iue }; shii)s employed in fishing, carried off our people, and put ashore at Cape Breton several Frenchmen and our two Fathers, from whom they could expect nothing. The English left them one of the Basque ships which * Father Cliarlos Lalemant and John Rapneneau. Crciixius, p. 19. f July 19. (viruxius. { Hai«|iiL' in text. W\ Ml': ft JUj-. ' If' 286 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT they had taken ; hut some of the Bas(|ues, hav- ing escaped from their victors, found the means of coming in hoats and suddenly seized their ves- sels as their own ; so that our religious and the French, among whom was a gentleman* with his family, a physician, and other persons, were left ashore and remained without a ship. The ladies, and especially the gentleman's wife and three daughters, gave admirable proofs of virtue. The sailors passed in a sloop to Placentia island, and thence to France in ships which they found there. Our poor religious, after much constancy, found their resource in a wretched Basque t1y-boat which came by chance, and which was soon joined by two others that were little better, having been roughly handled in a storm which the one bearing our Fathers escaped miraculously by a vow made to our Father, St. Francis; but it was only to fall into the hands of a Turkish corsair, to whom they aban- doned the vessel, the poor passengers escaping in the ' ^at to the Spanish coast, which they had * Sii'ui lo Faiulirr. S;if,r;iiil, [). ()53. ,; f I 'I ( OF THE FAITH. 287 ■f >: sighted. They arrived at Bayona, in Gal icia, where they received every kindness from the RTUNES CAUSKI) HY TMK DESCENT AND IRRUPTION OK THE KNC.LISII IN 1628 CAPTURE AND DESOLATION OF THE COUNTRY HY THE SAID ENGLISH IN 1 629. /'"^ OD is admirable in the eonduct of his pro- ^-^ vidence ; he has designs which are imj)ene- trable to us in their outset, in their ends, and in their effects. The colony of New France seemed to take form from day to day. For some years dis- coveries and the preaching of the Gospel had been greitly extended. Commerce was increasing, the French were multiplying, chapels and oratories were built in several places, the country assumed a form of government and order, when God permitted the defeat of the colony, of Catholicity, order, laws, and commerce with France. The English then favored the heretics and rebels in France, whom Louis the Just was everywhere FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FAITH. 289 subduing. Some English partisans equipped a Heet to seize Canada in 1628. Two little towers on the fort of Quebec, which fell of themselves in calm weather on the 9th of July, seemed to j)re- sage the evils of New France.* ' The English, on their way, took a ship which we had at Isle Pere^e.f advanced to Tadoussac, and by means of a bark which they found sent twen- ty men to seize Cape Tourment. Two Indians ij; escaped and gave warning at Quebec. Monsieur de Champlain at once asked Father Josej)h to go on and ascertain the truth. The alarm was but too true ; he found confirmation at five leagues from Quebec, and had only time to take to the woods. The religious whom we had at Cape Tourment came by land. These two religious, witii the Sieur de I'aucher, the commandant, came to an- nounce at Quebec that Cape Tourment had been surprised by a stratagem, that they had burnt ,:-j; * Sagard, " Histoire du Canada," pp. 915, 977. f Sagard, " Histoire," p. 916. X Napag.ibiscou and a coniradu. Lavcidicrt-'s Champlain (1632), vi. p. 170 ; Sagard, p. 917. 19 li »«!!i 1 m; 1,1 290 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT everything, killed the cattle, overturned the chapel, and profaned our sacred vessels. The Frenchmen had escaped to the woods. Only three fell into the hands of the English,* one of whom, named Piver.f soon after api)eared with his wife and niece before Quebec, accompanied by an officer of the Sieur Ouerk,]: admiral of the English fleet, who, by a letter to Monsieur do Champlain, sunmioned the place to surrender. § But the brave governor. * Lavcrdifire's Champlain, pp. T72-5 ; Snf;ai32), vi. pp. iS6-i(jo ; Sagard, " His- toire," p. 941. OF THE FAITH. 297 of whom we have spoken, jrave us his son on con- dition that he would give him up entirely to Father Joseph to instruct, and even send to France, as was done. The reverend Jesuit Fathers, who were then lodged in their house, employed themselves to relieve the French* Early in the spring the Sicur de Champlain. see- ing the necessity in which they had heen during the winter, begged Feather Joseph to grant him a part of our land near the Pointe aux Lievres ; four other persons did the same. They were roughly cleared and planted with wheat, peas, and Indian corn. The Sieur dc Champlain had sent towards Gas- pee to see whether they could not find a French ship. They got no news of any by the return of his boat ; but although the Gaspesians offered to support twenty flmiilies, their wives and children, the Algomquins and Montagnais offered still greater aid, a bark was prepared to go to France. The Sieur du Boulle, Monsieur dc Champlain's * Sagard, " Histoire," pp. 942-3. ' ''1 rl f ! |i \m 298 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT : II brothcr-in-la\v, took the command, having the Sieur dcs Dames, agent of tlie Company, as lieu- tenant. As they approached (iaspee, in the great bay of St. Lawrence, tliey fortunately met a French ship commanded i)y the Sieur Emeric de Caen, which l)rought them rehef and announced that the king had sent the vSieur de Razilly to light the Enghsh and save the country. The bark was loaded, and the Sieur de Boulle was retracing his course to Quebec when he unfortunately fell in with an Eng- lish vessel, which made them all prisoners."" Meanwhile the Ilurons arrived at Quebec with twenty canoes. A (juantity of Indian corn was i)ought {)i them, some of which supported us and the Jesuit Fathers till the coming of the English, which was not delayed.f Their licet surprised us, having appeared in the morning of the 19th of July, 1629, opposite Que- bec, at the point of Isle (J)rleans. It was composed * Sagard, " Histoire," pp. 9S3-4. f Laverdiere's Cliamplain, vi. p. 231-5. > l i f llMI I>M OF THE FAITH. 299 of three ships, followed soon by six others whieh they had left at Tadoussac. Tiie Jesuit and Re- collect missionaries were ordered to retire with the other settlers into the fort, where there was powder for only two or three volleys of cannon and eijrht or nine hundred rounds t)f musketry. Sieur Querc, general of the English fleet, sent an English gentleman to the Sieur de Champlain to summon the place, with a very civil letter. The wretched state of the country, which had neither [)rovisions nor ammunition (having received no supplies from Trance for two years), made him re- turn a milder answer than the last. The Sieur de Champlain deputed Father Jcjscph to go on hoard the llagshi[) to negotiate for favor- able conditions, and especially to obtain a delay. He asked a fortnight. The general, informed by the prisoners on the sloop of the distress in which Quebec was, refused to hear of it. The Father then asked at least a week. The council of the fleet assembled to consider, but his (jnly reply was that the English would wait only till evening of liiiii 300 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT I iii that day. lie asked the Father to go and tell Monsieur de Chani])lain, and that besides he had only to draw artieles of capitulation, which he would execute faithfully, lie advised Father Jo- seph to retire with our Fathers to the convent, promising to do them no injury in any event. Two French prisoners, named Baillif, formerly agent, and Pierre de la Ray, a wheelwright, had pre- judiced the captain against the Jesuits, persuading him that he would lind much booty at their place. Accordingly, the captain, in great fury, declared to Father Joseph that had the wind been more favor- able he would have begun by the house of those Fathers. Father Josej)h did not fail to inform them confidentially of the unjust fury of those heretics, in order to take their precaution in the articles about to be made. Father Joseph having received this answer, the caj)tain took him all over his ship and showed him his armament and force. lie was then put ashore and made his report to Monsieur de Champlain. There was a difference of opinion. Father Jo- OF THE FA nil. 301 seph, who had not seen among the enemy a girat force in men, their regular troops not exceeding two hundred men at most, badly t)rganized, who had not even carried arms, and besides relying much on the courage shown by the settlers, would have inclined, as would the Jesuit Fathers, to risk a siege ; but at last Monsieur Champlain's opinion ))revaiied. The articles of capitulation were drawn up and sent on board the flagship, and, all these things being arranged, Ihey a^ked the Kng- lish to give them time till next morning.* At the same time the Indians friendly to the French, and especially Chaumin, already mention- ed, strongly urged Father Joseph, the Superior, and our Fathers to grant him two or three of our mis- sionaries to retire into the woods and thence into their country; for although he was not yet grounded in the principles of religion, he nevertlRJess was greatly attached to these poor l^^Uhers. The pro- ♦Laverdierc's rhampln.in (1632), vi. pp. 237-244 ; Sajjard, " Ilistoirc dii Canada," pp. 9Sr)-()()7. "The Depositions of Captain Dauid Kyrcive," in L'Ahcille, x. No. 12. " 4 ' f 1 n i 1 '■' i ;• i \' i:i ■ 302 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT jcct was taken into consideration ; on one side it was thouj^ht that tiie English would not long be possessors of the country ; that the king, by treaty or otherwise, would sooner or la.er recover it ; that while waiting the good work begun among the Indians might be constantly advanced, as they be- sides offered to support our missionaries ; and that, finally, when the country returned to the French sway we should be in Canada, ready to continue our evangelical labors and support our establish- ments everywhere. They were more inclined to it as the English general had made great show and protestation of friendshij) to Father Joseph. Finally two of our Fathers offered to sacrifice them- selves to this project. Father Joseph himself was not averse to it. Vet there was no time to lose ; they must needs start and escape that very day, as some French did, in canoes with the Indians. It is trying for apostolic men to be stopped in li.eir most uneful, reasonable, and holy projects by force. The Council of Quebec and other officers opposed it, and it was decided for several purely iiW B »a *')' -aJ«J "W g W -t 1I .HWai w » P - '* OF THE FAITH. 303 political and human reasons, cither from respect to the English, who had knowledjj^e of it, or the re- proaches which they pretended to fear in l*" ranee, or from distrust in God's providence over our Fa- thers, or because they did not believe that the French would return to ('anada. The blithers had to yield, and this was the only j^round of com- plaint at court, and especially in the province, ajcrainst Father Joseph, the Superior, that he had not had firmness enough to ixive full elTect to his zeal ; for, in fact, it would have hapjH'ned that these Indian nations which had put all their conlidence in the l^ecollects would he now better disposed than they seem to Christianity. Father Joseph cleared himself as well as he could by throwing; the responsibility on the Ouebec Council, as apj)ears by his answers to the defini- tory of the province after his return, when giving an account of the mission. The next day, July 20, 1629, the Sieur de Cham- plain having gone on board, the articles of capitu- lation were signed on both sides; the English 304 FIRST ESTABMSHMKNT landed and were put in possession of the country by the Sieur de Champlain. I say notiiinj>[ of the articles of capitulation, which do not enter into my plan. The Sieur de Ciianij^lain saved not only his family and all his property, but even gained some advantage. The French settlers were to have each twenty crowns, the rest to be confiscated to the conquerors. Great complaints were made of this, some then proving to be very rich. Those who chose to remain in the country obtained some advantage, especially the family of Monsieur llebert. As to the Recollects, the English did not forget their promise to Father Joseph not to j)ermit them to be harmed. \'et, for all the care the captains took, they could not prevent one of their soldiers stealing a chalice from us ; but those gentlemen showed so much re- gret that they swore that the culprit should under- go an exemplary punishment if they caught him. The reverend Jesuit Fathers received a very dif- ferent treatment. Their house was pillaged, and all found there became the booty of the soldiers ; OF THE FAITH. 305 they were even forced to embark the next day with the Sieur de Champlain and all the French, who sailed for Tadoussac ; but Sieurs Louis and Tho- mas Querc, one admiral, the other vice-admiral of the British fleet, permitted our Fathers to remain at Quebec. They even declared openly that they would willingly leave them in Canada, if they had not had positive orders from the King of England to carry them to France. That they might never- theless act familiarly with them, with the same liberty they had before the capture of Quebec ; that they would cheerfully receive their visits, and, far from interdicting the exercise of our re- ligion, they begged them to use no wine in cele- brating Mass but what they cheerfully offered.* Our Fathers lived thus in peace for six weeks after the capture of Quebec, and received much civility from the English till September 9, 1629,+ when they embarked with the Sieur dc l^ont- Grave, who had been detained at Quebec by '1- •s; ^ Sagiird, " Histoire," pp. 1000-2; Laverdicre's (Champlain, vi. p. 248. f July 24. Laverdicre's Champ., vi. p. 251. 20 ill 306 FIRST ESTAHMSHMENT ness, to go and join the Jesuit Fathers, the Sieur de Champlain, and ail the French of the colony, who had heen sent to Tadoussac the day after the capture of Quebec. One may judge of the grief of the missionaries of the two institutes at being thus obliged to abandon a mission they so tenderly loved. In the hope that our Fathers entertained of returning soon they hid a part of their utensils in different places, and enclosed the principal church vestments in a leather box, before leaving Quebec for Tadoussac. The fleet set sail for England on the 14th September, and arrived on the i8th of October at Plimout, where our religious stayed five or six days, after which they were taken with some Frenchmen to London ; from London to Calais on the 29th of October, in the same year, 1629, and then arrived safely at our '^onvent In Paris. * Thus these first apostles of New France were obliged to abandon this rising church with as *Sagard, p. 1004; " Memoirc des Recollects," Margry, i. p. 10; Abeille, vii. No. 25, etc. OF THK FAIiH. 307 much grief and regret as they had shown eagerness and zeal to create there the first and true spirit of Christianity. The mere thought that they left helpless the few Indian Christians whom they had begotten in Christ by the preaching of his holy Gospel, made them feel keenly the sense of that great misery of which the apostle feared the de- {)loral)le results when they considered that the English had already entered like ravishing wolves into this little Hock of the faithful, which was all the fruit of their apostolic labors, and that they would not except any Indian from the resolution they had taken to draw them into their errors. They saw too affecting a proof already in the case of the Indian girls, whom we have already men- tioned. Faith, Hope, and Charity, whom Monsieur de Champlain earnestly desired to carry to France with him to take care of their education. The English would not let them embark, in spite of the entreaties of the reverend Jesuit leathers, of Monsieur de Champlain, and our Fathers, and the tears which those good girls shed abundant- Bi If:-: ■ f & J 308 FIRST KSrAIU.lSHMENT * f ly to obtain of the Enp^lish permission to ^o to France in order to preserve the sanctity of Christianity which they had received from our first missionaries.* They were obliged to return from Tadoussac to Quebec and retire to Madam Me- bert's, who took care of them, in order to pro- tect them from tlie persecution of these heretics, who expected only to establish in New France a Babylon of error and confusion by the exorcise of a religion as detestable in its followers as it is impious and sacrilegious in its principles. But, after all, as the designs of the wicked break and go to wreck against the immutable decrees of Divine Providence, which plays as it likes with their strongest resolutions, it pleased our Lord to take pity on his people. He remembered his mercy, and, after having heard the tears, prayers, and vows of these poor Israelites, who groaned under the heavy hand of these cruel Pharaohs, he raised up another Moses in the royal person of Louis the Just to deliver his people from the persecu- * Laverdiirc's Champlain, vi. p. 242; Sagard, "Histoire," p. 1003. LijitM«a"iawi << i>iW ' W«>>wJ ! Mt*> ' e OF THE FAITH. 309 tion of tlic ICiifj^lisli ; and this monarch, as illustrious for his pit'tv as for the happy success of his victo- rious arms, kiiowinjr well that, according to the judicious reilection of that famous and celebrated (|ueen in sacred history, Ood had raised him to the throne and allowed him to bear the sceptre and |)urple, the glorious title of eldest son of the Church, only for the salvation of his |)eo- ple, compelled the F.nglish to leave New I'Vance, which was no sooner for the second time under the sway of its first master and monarch than that jiious. prince restored there the emj)ire of Christ, as well as his own royal jiower and au- thority, in the manner we shall see in the sequel of this history. |, ! 1 )' ' 1 u Ui . ! m I w m wt ill 1 CHAPTER XIV. THE KING RESUMES POSSESSION OF CANADA THE REVEREND JESUIT FATHERS RETURN UNAVAIL- ING EFFORTS OF THE RECOLLECTS* TO RESTORE THEIR FORMER MISSION — ARRIVAL OF THE JESU- ITS AT QUEBEC. /^^ANADA groaned under the tyranny of its ^""^ new masters, and the Catholic religion, estab- lished for fourteen years by the zeal and toil of the religious of St. Francis, would soon be darkened and insensibly extinguished in the hands of the English by the errors of the new sects, had not God cast an eye of mercy on this new church and been touched by the groans, tears, prayers, and sac- rifices of so many holy missionaries, settlers full of piety, and the little flock of Indian neophytes ; and, finally, if he had not inspired the resolution and conducted the means of delivering his people from their double'captivity. FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FAITH. 31 1 The English were three years in possession of this new world, and although they neglected no- thing to gain the friendship of the Indians and draw them to their interests, yet the presents, flat- teries, advances, projects, and treaties of alliance which they proposed had not yet weakened the strong liking they had conceived for the French and the attachment felt by almost all, except the Iroquois, who have never had any for any nation. We learned this in France by secret correspond- ence which we had kept in the country ; and this, joined to the pressing entreaties made by the mis- sionaries at court, and the remonstrances of the gentlemen of the Company, contributed not a little to bring it under deliberation whether it was expedient to resume the country and whether it was worth while to enter into negotiations with the English about the matter. The Ministry were somewhat dividctl in opinion on the matter, and perhaps even the honor and glory of the nation would not have prevailed had not the matter been thoroughly examined. Those best versed li I K \ 312 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT i i tl : : ; declared that from the time of Francis I. France had made similar efforts on the coast of Ame- rica where the two Floridas and Virginia are now, and that they had failed ; that the same designs had been resumed subsequently, and new establishments made unsuccessfully on the coast near Canada. Moreover, as the gentlemen of the Company had affected to conceal the gains and profits of the Canada trade, no one felt convinced of the benefit it would be to the kingdom. As regards religion, it was known, by the accounts of the Recollects who had visited and examined the whole country, that very moderate fruit could be expected, these savages showing only opposition to the faith ; that to make these new countries valuable numerous colonies must be sent, which would, perhaps, drain France of men, as Spain had been greatly weakened by her colonies in Mexico, Peru, and other Eastern and Western enterprises ; that as Europeans were already begin- ning to form considerable settlements on all the sea-coast from the Gulf of Mexico, Rio del Spiritu OF THE FAITH. 313 Sancto, to the strait where Florida, Virginia, New York, and New England are now, it would require of us great outlays to maintain our ground against these nations, more skilful than we in settling new countries; that the Indians, having no inclina- tion to submit to laws, still less to politeness, could never be subjected to our manners and customs nor brought over to our interests. The most enlightened, on the contrary, alleged that since the discovery of the country in the last century France had become mistress of the great fisheries of green and dry fish, in which consider- able trade was carried on in warm countries, which then employed a thousand or twelve hundred ves- sels. That the great bank and other neighboring banks, the Islands of New Foundland, Cape Bre- ton, Isle Percee and the coasts of Acadia, being the only places fit for abundant fisheries, if we ex- cept those of the North, belonged to France as first occupant ; and that these fisheries were inex- haustible mines for the kingdom, which no one could dispute with us if we maintained the colony. ' iKi> 314 FIRST ESTABLISHMEN r ■1 That many Basque and other French ships went there to take porpoises, whales, and seals, from which they made a prodigious number of barrels of oil, necessary in our manufactures and domestic use, and which were even exported to foreign countries. It was known that by this fishing trade alone which our European neighbors carried on off our Canada coasts they had already made great establishments in America ; that as yet we had had neither time nor means to explore the country to find mines; that nevertheless tin, lead, copper, and iion had been found in many parts, and more would doubtless be discovered in time, as the country was well suited to them, and the forests of great help in making them available. That even at Quebec and elsewhere the stone seemed a kind of spurious mariiie ; there were in several places abundant mines of coal tit for forges, and a certain plaster which is a kind of alabaster. Tiiat the further you advanced into the country you found beautiful forests full of gummy trees for tar for ships, tall trees for masts, pines, firs, cedars. «,L i W i > I W l M » UI >| !BI«tiM l im ilW»«ilill»ll^ OF THE FAITH. 3'5 maple, proper for all kinds of work, and especially for ship-building. As France, under the ministry of Cardinal Richelieu, Superintendent of the Seas, Commerce, and Navigation of the kingdom, was then preparing great naval armaments, and the king was laying the foundation of that great power the kingdom now possesses on the ocean and the Mediterranean, giving the law to all Europe, they considered well the necessity in which they were of seamen for the naval forces, and that they could not get them unless sailors found employment at all times to support their families, and unless they were formed to the sea by commerce and naviga- tion Westward, as our Eastern trade did not com- prise a large number of vessels. That the fur trade already began to produce great profits in moose, bear, beaver, lynx, fox, otter, marten, wildcat and other skins, the gentlemen of the Company drawing thence every year at least one hundred thousand crowns in beaver-skins alone, which would increase greatly as the trade extended, not including the gain of individuals. In fact, I will ,ii f ;1 ii I 3i6 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT tell you that on my return to France in 1687 this sum had more than trebled in furs with which our shins .■ . c loaded ; for though they now go further to seek them, it is a trade which will never run dry, as those know who have explored furthest. They cousif''-r.'d tiiat the great characteristic of Frenchmen was 'lot to stay in the king- dom — there \A\.iC few r u.-iiies in Europe where they were not scattered, a..', even settled; that Canada had vast provinces where colonies might be formed, subject to the king, without greatly affecting the kingdom ; that, the Indians be- coming civilized and allied to us, the country would soon be peopled and strengthened at very moderate expense ; that, finally, as there were on our coasts a quantity of produce, manufac- tures, and merchandise of every kind which could not by a great deal be all sold in the kingdom, commerce would be the more ad- vanced by carrying them to Canada, where they could be readily disposed of. ^MSSSm »^ ' ' j i-i» »»*' . - : '» M &.-;-i OF THE FAITH. 317 By this means New France derived benefit from its own misfortune, for otlierwise they never, perhaps, would have understood how important that country is to our well-being, if the English had not taken it from us. In this we must ac- knowledge and admire God's providence in not wishing all countries to be e([ually furnished with all things, in order to establish society, inter- course, and commerce between different nations, so as thus to spread over all the world the truths of the Gospel and make all nations on earth share in the merit of redemption. It was, too, the chief motive of Louis XIII., who, penetrated with sentiments of faith, piety, and fervor which animated all his conduct, thought little of having gained so many battles, suppressed the rebellion of a great part of his subjects, and triumphed everywhere over the for- eign enemies of the crown, if he did not also extend the kingdom of the Son of God over infidelity and bar!)arism, and subject new nations to his empire. This was, then, the great motive 11 'm t^l' 3t« FIRST ESTABLISHMENT ': vf.n of Louis the Just, and of that ^rcat genius who governed under his orders — 1 mean Car- dinal Richelieu.* For this purpose negotiations with England were entered into to induce them to restore a country unjustly usurped at a time when the two countries were at oeace. His Majesty wrote to the King of England. All these negotiations were long, and England, knowing how advanta- geous these vast countries could be to her, put us otf with fair words from 1630 to 1632 ; but at last the cardinal, who knew by four years' experience the injury done to France by the * There is no documentary evidence of any such discussion in the French council. Quebec was taken July 20, 1629. In Novem- ber Cardinal Richelieu instructed the French ambassador extraor- dinary in London to demand the restoration of Canada, which had been seized after the treaty of Suze, April 24, 1629. On December 3 the English declared that they could not then restore Canada, and France, in consequence, declined to restore ships captured after the treaty of peace. In April, 1630, the English king promised to restore Quebec, and the new French ambassador had already been instruct- ed to press the point. This following up of the subject is inconsis- tent with the idea of any such discussion as Le Clercq supposes. See the point examined by Faillon, " Histoire de le Colonic Fran^aise," i. p. 256.7. !WC ' ft?W'l OF THE FAITH. 319 loss of this trade, fitted out a fleet of six men- of-war, with four tenders, to take forcible posses- sion of a country which in all justice helonj^cd to us. The command was given to the Cheva- lier de Razilly, as general of the armament. When information of this step reached London, it obliged the King of England to speak and consent to the restitution of New France. His Most Christian Majesty revoked the orders given to the Chevalier de Razilly ; the treaty was signed between the two crowns, fixing the lim- its on the New England side, where we yield- ed some extent of country between Port Roy- al and Baston, which belonged to France as first occupant.* While the reverend Jesuit Fathers were act- ing in concert with us for the good of the country, we learned that they had all to do, in erecting the Company which was forming, in * Canada was restored by tlic treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, March 29, 1632. " Memuircs des Cominissaires, " iii. p. 5. Champlain mentions Commander Razilly's preparations, L;iverdi6re, vi. p. 342. " Pieces Justificatives," pp. 25-6. S ! w mi ^ ?ir'ij \ 1*1 ■l,J 320 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT the choice and nomination of those who were to compose it. Our natural uprightness made us really believe that things would only go bet- ter both for the settlement of the country and for our own benefit, relying on the probity and virtue of those reverend Fathers and their grati- tude, of which they frequently made us avowals and protestations. Their return was ordered and decreed in full form, the commercial Company erected by letters-patent, and a new contract which gave them the country as lords and pro- prietors. Monsieur de Lauzon was appointed su- perintendent and president. A kind of Supreme Council was established at Quebec, composed of the governor, the Superior of the Jesuits, and the syndic of the country. Such were the pro- ject and regulation which they formed, to be afterwards observed in all circumstances as soon as they entered into possession of Canada.* * There is strange confusion here. No new Company was formed at this time. The Company of One Hundred established April 29, 1627, before Kirk took Quebec, still existed. " Memoires des Com- missaires," ii. p. 462 ; Mercure Francois, xiv. ii. p. 232. The appoint- W-. ' OF THE FAITH. 321 We prepared for our return in the year 1631, and did not anticipate the least difficulty in the matter, as we had our establishments formed, patents from Rome and France in good form ; a possession of fourteen or fifteen years, with untiring labors which we had undergone, rendered our right incontest- able. In fact, his Majesty gavf^ consent. The cardinal chose to favor our preparations by his lib- erality, as did the Duchess d'Aiguillon. The gen- tlemen of the Company amused us with fair words, which we took to be sincere and in good faith. The reverend Jesuit Fathers, our old associates and coadjutors, also made us every civil advance. The Superiors of the two institutes seemed to act with equal sincerity and understanding. Monsieur de Champlain took our interests to heart, but durst not appear ; he was even the first to advise us of mcnt of de Lauson was made at the very outset, May 7, 1627. " Memoires," etc., p. 478. The Jesuits arc not mentioned in any docu- ment cited in the " Memoires." There is no order in regard to the erec- tion of a Supreme Council at this time. It was not till 1647 that a kind of Council was established, of which the Superior of the Jesuits, until the appointment of a bishop, was a member. " Jesuit Journal," p. 93 ; Ferland, " Cours d'Histoire," i. p. 356. ai i 322 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT tlic real intentions of those who pretended to serve us, but in fact thwarted us. An incident which befell us gave our Fathers some suspicion. The gentlemen of the Com- pany informed us that from them we could expect nothing but permission to go to Canada, and that they could not continue to pay the salaries of six hundred livres nor grant free passage, being bound to the Jesuit Fathers by a regular contract, by which they promised to support three of their Fa- thers in each settlement. * Our six places belonged to us by an incontest- able right, as this Company, though augmented in the number of associates, was still the same as the old, succeeding to its obligationti and charges, as well as to its rights and privileges, by virtue of the treaty made with the king, and consequently they were bound to support six Recollects by an agree- ment made with the province. 1 ^ 1 1 ■ '\' f f ' *The edict establishing the Company of One Hundred required them to maintain three priests in e.tch settlement, but did not specify whether regular or secular. OF THE FAITH. 323 |red tify Nevertheless, this was not an obstacle for our Fathers, accustomed to live on Providence and be content with little. They agreed to subsist, without any aid from thc.ie gentlemen, on the alms from France, for which thoir syndic, President Loysel, and other men of rank became security before a notary in an act presented to the Company to give them every security. But the sequel showed that this was only a stratagem devised in Monsieur [ de Lauzon, who soon after sent us a counter-order to prevent our departure. The missions of New France ar^- very different from many others. There is nothing there to please nature ; nothing that does not contradict the in- clination of the senses — insurmountable fatigues, sterile and thankless toil, little success in the con- version of souls, obstacles perfectly odious ; and yet all who serve there with true zeal avow that there is a secret charm which binds them to the task, so that if obedience or the necessity of circumstances withdraw them they have to do violence to their own feelings. !> r 1 f h 324 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT I V'% This invisible charm has always seemed to me a happy augury for Canada, in the thought that God will not abandon it for ever, but supports our hopes of seeing Christianity one day flourish in that bar- barism by the continuation of that secret vocation and powerful attraction which he imprints on the heart of missionaries. It was not only our Fathers who had labored in New France who were possessed with this ardor ; the whole province was in the same senti- ments, especially Father Joseph le Caron, who since his return had been appointed procurator of the mission ; but as he saw that all his efforts were useless, he experienced the same fate as St. Fran- cis Xavier, who, when on the point of entering China, found so many secret obstacles to his pious design that he fell sick and died of chagrin. So was Father Joseph a martyr to the zeal which consumed him, and of that ardent charity which burned in his heart to visit his church again ; and, seeing himself and his brethren interdicted by a secret conduct, he could not survive it, but d'ed, i OF THE I'AiTll. 325 full of merits, in the odor of sanctity, on the 29th of March, 1632, a few days before the fleet sailed.* We shall see elsewhere how, in the course of time, he will pursue the design of his apostolate by means of Monsieur Soiiart, his nephew, a great servant of God and true heir of the virtues and talents of that great apostle, and of that fervor which he had for New France, where this holy ec- clesiastic will fpcnd his best days, the sjiacc of forty years, till a great but happy old age. f The fleet got ready, and the Jesuit Fathers, more fortunate "I than we and more powerful, got their * Father Joseph le Caron, wlu) may be rcgaidi!d as almost the first Apostle of Canada, was in March, 1631, Superior of St. Margaret's Convent, near (Jis'rs, in Normandy, when a contagious disorder broite out in the place, anJ in the sanitary measures adopted all his writings on Canada were burned. " Memoire des Recollets," Margry, i. p. 11. t Rev. Gabriel Souart was a Sulpitian. He reached Quebec July 29, 1657, and, proceeding to Montreal with Mr. de Queylus, became first parish priest of that city. He was superior of the seminary there, 1661-8, 1674-6. He died at Paris, March 8, ifxji. jucliereau, " Hist, de I'Hotel Dieu," p. 242 ; Tanguay's " Repertoire," p. 43 ; Faillon, " Histoire de la Colonie." I Cardinal Richelieu ollered the Canada mission to the Capuchins, an order he greatly favored, and January 20, 1632, ordered de Caen to take three Fathers of that order. At their reipiesi he committed it to the Jesuits, ordering le Jeune, de None, aad Buret to go. I'asspnrt issued by Card. Richelieu in Martin's " Hressani," p. 295. The origi- I- 326 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT shipment ready. The Reverend Father le Jeune, Superior of the residence of Dieppe, was appointed Superior of the mission. As associates there were assigned to him Father de la Noiie and a Brother temporal coadjutor. * Monsieur dc Champlain was appointed governor ; but as the Sieur Emeric de Caen had sustained great loss in 1628 and 1629 in the siege and capture of Quebec, his Majesty granted him the enjoyment of the country for one year only, in order to reimburse him. He was not only general of the fleet, but also governor of Canada till the following year. The Sieur du Plessis Bouchard was his lieutenant, and com- manded under him. The letters-patent and orders of the kings of France and England were given him, with all powers to restore the colony. As soon as all things were ready for their departure at Dieppe f the)^ set sail in the month of April, nal, on parchment, signed b}- him, was a few )ears since in the Canadian archives. See Relation 1632, p. i. * Brother Gilbert Huret. fThe vessel sailed from Havre, and left Ilontleur April 18, 1632 (Le Jeune, Rcl. 1632 [yueb. ed.], p. i), and anchored before Quebec July 5 (ib. p. 7). M: ,) OF THE FAITH. 327 1632. The Heet arrived safely at Quebec, where the Sieur de Caen having presented his orders to the Sieur Louis Querk, the English general, the latter, without any opposition, surrendered the place and country, of which possession was a second time taken in the name of the king. * We leave the reader to judge of the joy which this return produced in the hearts of the French in the colony who had been permitted by the English to remain. The Jesuits visited them first and saw the sad ruins of their house, which these heretics had destroyed. Happily, they had spared our con- vent of Our Lady of the Angels, which was found in good enough condition to receive the Jesuit Fathers until they had restored their house.f Our Fathers had confided to Reverend Father le Jeune before he left France the spot where we had hid- den the church vessels and vestments, with all pow- er to use them in the divine offices till our return. X 11 « *Le Jeunc, Rul. 1632, p. 8. ■f Lc loiinc rcpicsLMUs tliu Recollect liuusc iis in the worse con- dition. I It is pretty clear that the Recollects made no serious cfibrt to go I l\ if* ■ ill 328 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT |f« The reverend Fathers kindly did us the favor to use them as their own, as well as the church, house, and lands, a part of which remains in their possession till this day, from a spot called la Gribane to near the edge of our ditches. Their first care was to restore their house beyond the river St. Charles, and, as they hoped that we would never return to Canada, they transferred among other things the name and title of our con- vent to their house, which they called Our Lady of the Angels. I shall not omit in this connection an obser- vation on the letter falsely attributed to the Reverend Father Charles I'Alemant, written at Quebec in 1626, inserted in the third volume of the Mercure Francois, by which, among other articles contrary to sincerity, he tells his Provin- cial that he enters into his idea to dedicate their church to Our Lady of the Angels, and that ours was consecrated to the name of St. Charles. over in 1632, and, as here stated, authorized the Jesuits to recover their church property. The next year they attempted to go and were defeated. OF THE FAITH. 329 This makes me judge that this letter could not be from Father TAlemand, as he was not ignorant that historians of the same time had witnessed that the first church in Canada be- longed to the Recollects and had been conse- crated under the name of Our Lady of the Angels.* We shall leave those Reverend Fathers to re- store their missions while we resume our history of the new efforts made by our Fathers in France to follow them to this new world. The province * This is a very vague foundation for doubting Lalcmant's author- ship of the Relation of 1626. Sagard, in his " History " (1632), chap. vi. p. 50, spealis of " the commencement of our Convent of St. Charles in Canada," but in the text (p. 56) says, " Our Convent of Our Lady of the Angels." The confusion is easily understood if what Father Lalemant states is a fact — that is, that the chapel in the Recollect convent of Our Lady of the Angels was dedicated to St. Charles. Sagard gives no name to this chapel, and has nothing to contradict Lalemant, whose letter was written on the spot in 1626 and published in the same year. There were no historians at that time whose works could help him know the name of his own chapel ; and Sagard, writing six years later, to some extent from memory and in France, might easily confound the names of the convent and its chapel. Another fact is that on March 10, 1626, the Jesuits obtained of the Duke de Ventadour a concession called Notre Dame des Anges on the River St. Charles near Quebec. " Seignorial Questions," A iga I* . .: « ll ';:? 330 FIRST ESTAHLISHMEN r was constantly strengthened in the hope it en- tertained of resuming the mission. Father Wil- liam Galleran was made procurator.* The news received every year from Canada en- kindled our zeal more and more. We learned with agreeable surprise, by the ample Relations pr-nted, the great progress of the Gos})el in that country ; all France admired that this barbarism, by an un- expected stroke of grace, was civilized and regu- lated in so short a time. The numerous conver- sions appeared every year to augment on paper, even among nations that had seemed to us quite brutal. O God ! what eagerness this success in- spired the hearts of all the province to go and share in so wonderful a change, if they were as real as they were said ; for at that time all France was duped by them, although the Relations of New Eng- land and New Holland quite contradicted them.f * Father William Galleran, according to the ' "Memoirc qui faict " (L'Abcille, vii. No. 2()), and which was drawn up in 1637, "died the year before while charitably ministering to those sick of contagion in the city of Mct^." ■j- No works arc cited. New York historians, O'Callaghan and it . ■I OF THE FAITH. 331 Our Fathers deputed to Rome the Reverend Fa- ther Anthony Baudron to obtain powers and spi- ritual authority. He was supported by letters from the king for his ambassador at the court of Rome. Urban VIII. then filled the Holy See. A relation of the state of our missions and the progress made in them by the province was priv sented to him, so that there was no difficulty in being heard in a proposal where we asked only to sacrifice our rest and lives to maintain a church which God had begun by our toil. The Holy Father, v/ho favored us throughout, gave us an express command, and, in spite of the intrigues set on foot to defeat our project, he wrote to his Ma- jesty and addressed him through his Nuncio. A new decree of the Sacred Congregation dc propa- ganda fide was issued under date of February 28, 1635, of which the following is a copy : " On the report of his Eminence Cardinal Monty the Brodhcad, find the Jesuit Relations and Dutch documents to harmon- ize and not contradict. Tiie statements of the Relations and of Jesuit documents like those of Druilietes and liigut, then unprinted, arc not contradicted by New England authorities. .1 332 FIRST ESTAHLISHMENT Sacred Congregation has ordered that the mission of the Re- collect Fathers of the province of Paris to go to North Ame- rica, commonly called Canada, and established under the auspices of Paul V. of happy memory, should be confirmed ; and in order that it be henceforth belter conducted and bear greater fruit, it has in the first place judged proper that the Father-Provincial of the said Recollects be, during liis term, constituted and established prefect of the said mission, with full power to appoint a vicar or a prefect, wlio shall be obliged to reside in said country of Canada, long since or recently discovered, or to be discovered, provided, nevertheless, that there is no other mission, and shall take care of them and see that they observe regular discipline. " In the second place, it wills that, with the knowledge of the Nuncio resident in France, the said Father-Provincial and his definitory increase the said mission by twenty religious, whom they may send there at once, or at several times, as during his time they shall deem proper. " In the third place, it grants said Provincial prefect of the said mission, for the space of ten years, the same privileges granted to the missionaries of the Indies, with all power to communicate them to his vicar or vice-prefect, and even to the missionaries both of the old and of the new mission, in whole and in part, and when he chooses, and he may also suspend or recall tliem entirely, as the necessity of the mis- sion shall require. " In the fourth place, it enjoins the said Provincial to ob- tain every year of his vice-prefect a Relation of the progress of his mission, which he shall send to the Most Eminent Pre- fect of this Congregation. In the last place, it commands OF THE FAITH. 333 that for the execution of said faculties recourse shall be had to the Holy Inquisilion.* Signed, "ANTHONY BARRERINI, [Sealed.] Cardinal and Prefect." And lower down, " FRANCIS INGOLUS, "Secretary." The Holy Father, moreover, added several more authentic privileges, permissions, and authorities in nineteen other articles, which I omit for brevity, by which we see that our Holy Father Pope Ur- ban VHI. granted such permissions to the Pro- vincial who was and should be of the Recollects of the province of Paris, for the term of ten years, all dated March 29, 1635, signed Francis, Cardinal Barberini (L.S.) ; Francis Ingolus, Secretary; John Anthony Thomas, Notary of the Roman Church and Universal Inquisition. The Sacred Congregation, not content with all these precautions, wrote by Signor Ingolus to the Reverend Father-Provincial and to the Guar- * Sagard, " Histolre du Canada," Appendix. ff r 1 ■'[' m y 334 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT dian of Paris.* The Most Eminent Antiiony Barbcrini, Prefect of the said Congregation and Protector of our order, condescended to add his letters, all addressed in France to Monsignor Dascoli, Nuncio of the Holy See, who, having some time after received new orders and privi- leges, put the whole into our Fathers' hands and conjured them to continue the effects of their zeal for the missions, so useful and necessary for the salvation of souls. The letters from Rome having been obtained, that of the king, new orders of the cardinal, the Reverend Father Ignatius le Gault, Provin- cial f of the Recollects of Paris, now presented himself in person at their meeting on the 6th of September, 1635, and there pleaded our cause so clearly that these gentlemen not only granted us our return, but also the same allowance for the * The letters of the secretary, dated January i6, March 13, Decem- ber 18, 1635, arc in the Paris Documents in Canada, Series II. vol. i. p. 75-81. f He was Vicar-Provincial, the Provincial, Father Vincent Mors, being absent in Guienne. " Memoire" in L'Abeille, vii. No. 30. OF THE FAITH. 335 passagje of our Fathers and the six hundred livres appointed for their maintenance on the spot. This the president was comj)elled to announce from them to the Reverend I'ather-Provincial, and to have it committed to writing at once in his pres- ence ; he even came afterwards to our convent at Paris to assure us of it, yet without consentin^r to give us a copy of the result. The i)rovince made its preparations for the voyage and tlie re-estahiish- ment of our missions in the country. Six religious were sent, namely : Father Potentien de Mont- mellier, Superior and Vice-Prefect ; I'athers Paul Huet, Giles du Tilliet, Florcnt Morel, and Bro- thers Gervase Mohier and Charles Langoisseux.* Mechanics were hired ; alms were received from per- sons who chose to contribute. At last, when every- thing was ready, Monsieur de Lauzon,f President, ♦The "Mcmoirc" (L'Abcille, vii. No. 30) says Rev. Potciitian de Mommeillier, from Neveis, Superior; Tatlier Paul Iliiet, from Mel/.; Father Anthony Soue, Guardian of Vordin ; Father (iratian Charnie, from Gisors ; Brother Gervase Mohier, from Vitry ; Brother Germain Petit, from Mclun ; and Brother La/arus, Oblat. t John de Lauson, born in 1582, was Intendant of Vicnnc in Dauphiny, Royal Councillor in the Council of State and I'rivy Cour.- ilti 336 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT Strictly forbid us to go, sent his orders to that effect to the fleet, and on our remonstrance gave as his sole reason that we would not live in peace there with the Reverend Jesuit Fathers — a reason the more frivolous as these Fathers themselves refuted it in verbal and written assurances ; charity not permitting us to believe that the said Sieur had any understanding with them in his insincere con- duct towards us. The president came frequently to propose and even solicit us to sell to the reverend Jesuit Fa- thers our convent, church, land, vestments, fur- niture, and generally all that we owned in Canada. I am willing to believe that he acted on his own cil, Mattrc dcs Requetcs ordinaircs de son Hotel, and President of the Grand Council; was appointed by Cardinal Richelieu in 1627 Intcndant of the Affairs of New France and of the Company (" Edits et Ordon- nances," i, p. 16 ; " Menioires des Commissaires," ii. p. 501 ; Tanguay, " Dictionnajre Gfind'alogitjue," p. 172 ; Lafontaine, " Memoires de la So- ci6t6 Hist, de Montreal," i. pp. C5-96). He was, according to Rague- neau ("Vie de la Merc Caih6rine," p. 319), veryactive in establishing the Company of One Hundred Associates, and from the positions h acquired must have stood high in favor with Ric'ielieu and been tha great minister's agent in carrying out his plans. He was appointed Governor of Canada January 17, 1651, and remained in office till 1656, when he returned to France, and died at Paris February 16, 1666. :J ^m OF THE FAITH. 337 impulse ; but as our Fathers would never consent, he hoped to drive us to it by raisinjr all obstaeles, until he openly declared himself against us in the meetings and on all occasions. To depreciate our chief house and our lands, they had drawn up a verbal to their fancy when the vessels arrived in 1633; but, bein<^r found un- faithful, our Fathers in good faith applied to Mon- sieur de Lozon, who by his letters ordered a new examination in 1634. This second verbal was more false than the first, diminishing the number and condition of the cleared lands, the state of the buildings, and church furniture. Summation made March 7, 1636, to Monsieur de Lauzon, President of the Assembly, and to all the gentlemen of the Company, at the request of Presi- dent Loisel, in the name and as Syndic-General of the Recollects, tending to our return to Can- ada. They rv'plied in our favor, unable to refuse it to the justice of our cause and the orders of the courts of France and Rome. Similar summation at Dieppe, whither our Fa- aa i 33^ FIRST ESTABLISHMENT thers had repaired for passage, dated April 3 in the same year, at the request of said Sieur Loisel, in the said name, tending to the same end. They trifled with our poor Fathers and put them off with words till the moment when they had to set sail ; then a counter order was given by the gen- tlemen of the Company, seigneurs, and proprie- tors of the country and the vessels, so that the general r'^^used to take them. As the Sieur de Lauzon had no reason but the interest of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers, our Fa- thers had only time to write them pressing letters, which were sent to Canada. The original an- swers have been found from the Reverend Father Charles Lallemant, Superior of the missions, da,ted at Quebec August 19, 1636, which are a kind of manifesto by which he not only justifies himself of the imputation of having caused our delay, but also protests that he and all his religious desire nothing so much as our return.* * The case of the Recollects was a hard one, and this work shovs how bitterly they felt their exclusion, which they ascribed t< thi Jesu- ...'* OF THE FAITH. 339 Backed by this testimony, a new request was addressed to the king's council January 4, 1637. It was granted in our favor, but remitted for execu- tion to the Company, to whom the Reverend Fa- ther Ignatius le Gault presented the request. It was read by Mr. Olier in his presence on the 15th of January in the same year. The request an- I' its. There is, however, reason to believe that the whole was decided b}- Cardinal Richelieu. Mis orders to the first Jesuits show that he first offered the Canada mission to the Capuchins, aiul then assigned them to Acadia and removed the Recollects from that province. "Archiv'es des Affaires Etrangeres k Paris," vol. Aiiwriijuc, fol. ic?, 106, cited by Faillon, " Histoirc de la Colonic," p. 2S0. The Com- pany of New France was created by Richelieu and could not oppose his will. Le Clercq nowhere intimates that his order appealed to the cardinal, who could have restored them in a moment. The Recol- lects had, moreover, taken a step that gave umbrage to the govern- ment. They had solicited at Rome the appointment of a bishop for Canada, and one of their order, a native of Guyenne, well known in Rome, seems to have been actually named, as French ecclesiastics tried to induce him to resign in their favor (" Memoire des Recol- lectE," Margry, i. p. 15). When the Jesuits sailed in 1632 with their passports the Recollects did not attempt to go ; no reason is given, but from the cardinal's policy it is evident that lie had or would have refused to give them a passport. See Faillon, " llistoire de la Colo- nic," pp. 280-2. The Jesuits rc'-cived their passi)ort at the last mo- ment from the hands of a nephew of the cardinal (Rel. 1632), and must have had already powers from the Recollects, who evidently did not attempt to go. 340 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT svvered, was granted, not for this year but for an- other time, under different pretexts and new inci- dents so well kept up that we had in fact tvO await a more favorable time* Our Indians believe that there is a certain invisi- ble Spirit which governs all, one good and one bad, yet without power to understand or specify which is the fortunate, whicl. the unfortunate genius. We learned in after-years that they spoke thus when told of the obstacles which retained us. These Indians, who do not lack good sense, told our French that the Manitou which kept us was an evil spirit, and that in our world we had not jugglers expert enough to conjure it ; for they im- agine that the world ends at the end of theirs and at the beginning of the great lake which is in our ocean. *The " Mcmpirc (jui faict pour I'afTaire des Peres Recollects do la prouincc dc Sainct Dc-n)s ditte de Paris, touchant le droict qu'ils ont depuis l"an 1615, d'aller en Canada soubs I'authorite de Sa Maiest6, et mission des Souuerains Pontifes, soubs la faucur desqucls ils ont basty vn conucni et Eglise a Quebecq, ils ont celebre Ics SS. Mysteres en diuers cndroits du diet pays les premiers" was apparently prepared at this time. The original is at Versailles. Tiie text in L'Abeille, vii. No. 25, seems m«re accurate than Margry's, " Decouvertes," i. p. 7. !f OF THE FAITH. )4I Although these people judged by all these delays that we had not as much mind as they thought he- fore, inclination, however, and the desire to see their first Fathers again, were unaltered, as we learned by the letters of our friends and those which came every year from Canada. I myself had a sensible proof a fortnight after my arrival from France at Quebec, when I first visited the Indians of the mission of Laurette and Syllcrie ; for the Hurons, Montagnais, and Algomquins had still — some by tradition, the older by themselves — the re- collection of and present inclination for our old Fa- thers ; so that some old men among them, unable to make me understand in their language, of which I had no knowledge, what they wanted to say, they knelt before me, in the presence of the Rev- erend Father Chaumonot, Jesuit, their missionary, clasped their hands, and with their hands raised to heaven several times repeated the names of Father Joseph and Father Nicholas, sprinkling water on their heads to show me that those apostolic mis- sionaries had baptized them — so true is it that the m 342 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT m memory of the just is precious before God and be- fore men. I admit that religious discernment had not as great a share as the natural inclination and preference they had in our favor, but after all it is certain, as events afterwards convinced us, that these tribes being people of habit, and having become accustomed to our Fathers, our removal greatly retarded their conversion ; and, without speaking of the means which we had put in use, to which, however, no great regard was afterwards paid, missionaries of different institutes would have greatly advanced the work, the harvest being, be- sides, ample enough to give employment to ten thousand ; not that the little rising churches we had left there* belied their faith, except two or three who could not place confidence in new mis- sionaries and did not Sustain their vocation with all perseverance. We must, however, hope that God gave them grace to see their ' ("or, although some ♦These "Indian churches" are rather at variance with other parts of the work, and can mean only the few converts whom they liad made iu the fourteen years. OF THE FAITH. 343 writers have damned them with full right, as they have canonized others who are not less suspicious ; for Canada is a country where they decide sover- eignly of the eternal lot of folk, even when they are still full of life, and where they damn or save men with plenitude of power and without any forms of law. It is just to add here, to the glory of Father Wil- liam Galleran, an apostolic man, that he met the same fate as Father Joseph le Caron had experi- enced ; and that this last attempt, which seemed so well supported, having failed, this poor religious began to despair of our return and made no long struggle, for he died of regret the same year (1636), in great repute for virtue. We may be- lieve that God, who regards our services in the preparation of the heart and good-will, wished to anticipate his crown and give him the reward of many years of toil which he had designed to under- take in Canada. This did not fail to make some noise at court among those interested in the good of the country, 344 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT each one taking a side, some from an interest in re- ligion, others from policy, many impelled by fear and hope ; for though the two bodies were per- fectly united together and persuaded of their good intentions towards each other, nevertheless the rev- erend Jesuit Fathers saw themselves suspected of preventing the return of the Recollects. They chose to exculpate themselves by a certificate, by protestations, by authentic letters which I have read, one from the Reverend Father le Jeune, Superior of the mission, to the Father-Guardian of Paris, dated August 16, 1632; another from the Reverend Father Charles Lallemant to Father Baudron, secretary of the Reverend Father-Pro- vincial of the Recollects of St. Denis in France, dated September 7, 1637; and a third from the same Father Lallemant to Brother Gervase Mohier, in which he complains greatly that the Fathers of the vSociety were suspected in France and Canad,; of being opposed to our return. These were authentic proofs of their sincerity which leave no doubt of the truth. OF THE FAITH. 345 Our Reverend Recollect Fathers of the pro- vince of Aquitaine, who had from 1619 given so many proofs of their zeal for the establishment of the Faith in Acadia, had been driven out by the Eng^lish in 1628, but they were more fortunate than our Parisian Fathers in obtaining their return to their former missions after the king resumed possession of Canada and the limits of Acadie had been settled between the two crowns ; for as these Reverend Fathers found no one to compete with them, and besides it was not necessary to come to court and move machinery as difficult as that of the gentlemen of the great Company, the Asso- ciates of Acadie anticipated the Reverend Fathers, and, remembering the good they had received in the spiritual order without their interfering in other matters, they had recourse to their old missionaries. Our Fathers accordingly passed over in 1633, and afterwards distinguished themselves by their merito- rious labors and zeal for the French and Indians as long as the affairs of the former were able to sup- port their enterprises, and a spirit of peace reigned K "TT^ 346 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FAITH. among these gentlemen, I shall not give a detail of their missions, referring the reader to the natural and simple Relation which the Fathers of the same province have given to the public* * These three Recollects were sent out by the Company of New France in 1630 and settled at Port la Tour (Champlain, Prince ed., i. p. 2<)8), but Lc Clercq suppresses the fact that Richelieu in 1633 ordered them to be sent to France and Capuchins to be despatched in their stead (Faillon, i. p. 280). This confirms the suspicion that the whole matter of missionaries in the colony was decided absolutely by Cardinal Richelieu, and that he did not wish Recollects to be employed. CHAPTER XV. NEW ATTEMPTS OK THE RECOLLECTS OF THE PRO- VINCE OF PARLS TO RETURN TO CANADA, AND VARIOUS EVENTS WHICH HAPPENED IN THIS MATTER. T T is a glory and great subject of consolation ■*■ for our holy order that the religious of St. Francis had the advantage of being the precursors of the Reverend Fathers of the Society of Jesus in all countries by the preaching of the Gospel, of making the first discoveries, of clearing the vine- yard of the Lord, and preparing the way for those apostolic rr.en in both Indies, Africa, Asia, Bar- ] ary, and Turkey, and generally in every place where the sons of St. Ignatius have marched in the foot-steps of the sons of St. Francis.* In the East Indies, where they are now so power- * The Franciscans were establishe'i in 1209, and the Jesuits in 1540, more than three centuries later. 348 FIRST ES'IABMSHMENT ful in credit, merit, and possessions, it is known that eit^ht Friars Minors were sent tiierc in 1500 to an- nounce the Gospel at Calicut and Cochin, and even received the crown of martyrdom there, ex- cept l^ither Henry, who on his return to Spain be- came confessor to the King of Portugal and Bish- op of Cepta. In 1502 a more numerous mission of our Fathers was sent there, who extended the ex- |)loration. planted the standard of the cross, and made prodigious conquests to the Gospel in the conversion of tJKise nations. In 1510 our Fathers built the famous college and seminary of Goa, which they conducted and increased for twenty- eight years, till at last in 1542 they resigned it to St. Francis Xavier, in order to devote themselves entirely with that great saint and his disciples to preaching the Gospel to those barbarous nations, as the historians of those times and the authors of the life of that saint, especially Father Horace Tursellini, admit in early editions, although in later ones this mark of gratitude has been omitted, though so justly due us. OF THE FAITH. 349 All know the glory vve have had in all those countries of the East, even in Japan, of sharing with those great men their apostolic labors, and even the crown of martyrdom ; that the Recollects opened to them the way of the Gospel in the king- dom of Voxu, in the eastern part of Japan; that by their preaching the king and his kingdom acknow- ledged the religion of the true God, burnt more than eight hundred idols, and i)lanted everywhere in his empire the arms of our salvation, so that the king in 1613 deputed a famous embassy of a hundred Japanese gentlemen, who embarked on the 28th October, 161 3, and landed in Spu.M on the loth of November, 16 14, under the guid- ance of Father Louis Sotello, a Recollect, who presented to the Pope the ambassador, who acknowledged him as head of the Church in the name of the king and his subjects. As regards the West Indies, otherwise called America, it is not less known that this great part of the world was entirely discovered in the years 1492-3 by Christopher Columbus, accompanied by 8f!!r' i; : 1 350 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT religious of St. Francis; that in the year 1516 vvc had already consi 'erablc houses and convents at Cuhagnia, Cumana, and Markapana, where our re- ligious were everywhere massacred ; tiiat there were Recollects in the kingdoms of Tlaxcalla, Mechioacan, and Mexico, and, to be brief, in the year 1 540-1 Spain had already conquered more than a hundred kingdoms and a vast extent of country of which Europe is not a third, while our religious, the first and sole evangelical laborers, had subjected a part of its subjects to the empire of Christ.* In these vast countries they afterwards called, introduced, welcomed, received, sustained, loved, and favored the Fathers of the Society and continued their evangelical labors with them. It is not less clear that in other parts of the * The Franciscans were not alone. Benedictines, Dominicans, and Augustinians were also engaged in these American missions. Yet it is true that the Franciscans had a very large part in these eflbrts. Tlie Spanish Franciscans for many years directed missions among the In- dians in New Mexico, Florida, Texas, and California, and of seventy- eight Catholic priests and religious who were killed amid their labors within the limits of the United States, no fewer than fifty-five were Franciscans. ' OF THE FAITH. 351 world the Franciscan religious even now support powerful missions established in the origin of the order. Alexander IV. in 1254 bears witness in one of his letters, " that they were scattered in all the lands of heretics and unbelievers." These are the very words of this Sovereign Pontiff : "Alexander, to our Mell-bcloved the Friar Minors con- ducting missions in the hinds of the Saracens, Pagans, Greeks, Bulgarians, Cumanians, Etiiiopians, Syrians, Hiber- nians, Jacobites, Nubians, Nestorians, (leorgians, Armenians, Indians, Mossellani(iues, Tartars, Hungarians of Lower and Upper Hungary, Christians captives among the 'I'urks and other infidel nations of the Fast, or any other part whatever, health and apostolic benediction." In 1272 Father Jerome Dascoli, afterwards Pope Nicholas IV., with his disciples, not only effected the reconciliation of the Greek and Latin churches, but also carried the Gosj:)cl to Tartary. The reli- gious of our order were invited by the princes of both Armenias in 1289, and were still extending their conquests in 1332. Turkey and the kingdoms subject to the Grand I ,1 'i 352 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT Seigneur have been and are theatres of their zeal and witne^-ses of our apostolic labors, and it is known that the Holy Land and several other parts subject to the Turk are still governed under the prefecture of the children of St. Francis, who there honor the reverend Jesuit Fathers and with plea- sure give them employment. History mentions in 1342 missions of ours in Bosnia and Slavonia against the infidels, among the Grand Tartars who now possess China, in Per- sia, Media, and Chaldea. In 1370 the mission was augmented by Urban V. with sixty of our religious, the order being every- where honored with a great number of martyrs. The embassy of Eugene IV. and the mission of forty religious to Prester John in 1439, after- wards supported by a still greater number, is also well known, as also the re luction of his states and their submission to the Roman Church. I should never end, were I to undertake to set down the most famous missions with which we have been honored throughout the world where OF THE FAITH. 353 in ;rc the reverend Jesuit Fathers are scattered ; but they there entered into our labors, or rather we have the advantage of continuing them with those apostolic men, acting everywhere in admirable concert and perfect union for the sake of the glory of God and of the Gospel which we seek there solely. Hence our Fathers of Paris, having invited that illur.'.rious body to Canada to aid them in laboring in the conquest of souls, had on the one side great joy to learn every year the happy progress of the establishment of the reverend Jesuit Fathers; but this joy, though free from jealousy, was clouded by a holy sorrow to see that, if we had preceded them in all the other missions of the New World, that of New France was the only one where wt; had not the consolation of continuing our apostolic la- bors with them, the more so as the reciprocal char- ity between the two bodies, which had never been weakened, persuaded us that th(;se Fathers, full of virtue and merit, regretted it as dee[)ly as they manifested in their letters. f' 354 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT I I!: m. We shall not give the detail of a new attempt made in 1639. Two deputies arrived in France from Canada and secretly addressed our Fathers at Paris to show the gchenna in which the consciences of the colony were to see themselves governed by the same persons in spirituals and temporals, con- juring us to do our best at court to obtain our restoration. Father Paul Iluet accompanied them to some of the gentlemen of the Conii)an\ , ulio were friendly to us and who frccl)' opeind their mind to us, showing us that they were j)ersuaded uf the necessity for our return, even for their own interest, and promising all kinds of favor. New re<|uest presented to the cardinal, the grounds of which will be given hereafter. It was granted according to its tenor, and, as before, sent to the gentlemen of the Conij)any who in )»rivate gave us their word ; but when they had consulted the oracle (jur own friends turned their backs on us, not willing even to give us lea\e to go to Cana- da, which they did not refuse laborers, mechanics, and farmers. OF THE FAITH. 355 We had thought that this occasion would be all the more favorable to us, as they were that year, at the request of the reverend Jesuit Fathers, send- ing out to Canada some Ursulines and Hospital Nuns for the s:piritual and corporal aid of the colony ; but finally, secret reasons having excluded us, we had to let the matter rest there and conform to the orders of God. Meanwhile our Fathers, always relying on the justice of their cause and more and more streni at great expense ; 71)1, that at present, as the Company was negotiating with the settlers in regard to trade, they should take no more interest or assume authority, as the colonists, subjects of the king, and tlie Indian nations asked for us most earnestly ; 8th, that we were bearers of testimonials showing all the services we had rendered in the discoveries of tlie coun- try ; 9th, that the very Iraians still regretted our absence, and that tlie austerity of the Recollects, the disinterestedness of their conduct, simplicity, humility, and ciiarity, and all these externals of abjectness, powerfully attracted these In- dian nations ; loth, that, having our establishments in the country already, we needed little to restore them, contenting ourselves, moreover, with poor fare for our support; iilli, that, far from being a burden to the rising colony, the pro- vince dejjended only on aid from France, it being known by the public voice that a blessing and secret multiplication of Providence had supported us there for fourteen years, and th."*^ ('Od's arm was not siiortened to support us again ; 12th, t.a! we would not excite the jealousy of the reverend Jesuit leathers, as some members of the Company alleged, as these reverend Fathers had assured us by letter, the harvest being so great and ample in tliat vast extent of country and differ- ent nations, that all tlie religious bodies in France might find employment there ; 13th, that we were not indeed an institute to maintain and advance trade and commerce, but that we were ecjually incapable ot partaking in its profits directly or indirectly ; that, on the contrary, merchants would be? • testi- mony that our Fathers, perfectly disinterested for themselves, had favored them in all that depended on tlieii ministry ; 14th, that the Recollects were not of a stale and institute to enter OF THE FAITH. 359 into competition willi any one for credit and pre-eminence, ranks, dignities, funds, rents, lands, seigneuries, and all other hopes of fortune, asking only to devote their toil and life to the vineyard of the Lord and the establishment of his kingdom ; 15th, that if Monsieur de Lauzon, President of the (.'om- l)any, alleged tliat we were not fit for a new colony, our insli- lute not ])ermitting us to send over and support a number of inhabitants, clear lands, establish farms, villages, towns, and seigneuries, and make cajjital available, wlience he pretended to conclude that it would be more advantageous to multiply the establishments of the reverend Jesuit Fathers than to send Recollects there, we showed at length that this reason could not pass with Christians, and that it was altogether contrary to the ai)ostolic spirit, foreign to the intentions and end. ac- tually destructive of the fruit and effect, of missions ; that, moreover, this reason showed little policy, as these establish- ments would be made gradually by seculars and lay persons, and that after many ages they could aver that the religious of tit. Francis had no more right than the first day to the lands and jiroperty in those vast countries ; while, should the country one day l)e peojiled, the principal seigneuries, farms, and l)est property vvoidd be possessed by missionaries, mas- ters ali' c of temporal and spiritual." At last, in reply to the frivolous reasons ;il- legea by Monsieur do Lauzon to support the ehar^e that religious without li.xetl ineomc were not proper for new eountries, we inserted a d ;- tail of the almost inhnite number of colonies il'^ Ir -.i'^-'t ii,' II m 360 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT established for many ages in the East and West, with so great progress in spirituals and tempo- rals, although none were employed on them hut the religious of St. Francis or others without fixed income, to whom kings, princes, states, and commercial companies had on this point rendered most flattering testimony ; and that there was no reason why New France should be on this point an exception. The Reverend Father Ignatius Legault, for- merly vicar-general of the order, was then pro- vincial of the province of Paris. He himself, in company with Father Paul Huet, presented a most humble remonstrance joined to our mani- fest. He did the same at the Com;>any's office. As it was not possible to deny the justice of our reasons, the request was granted in council and orders were issued ; but in spite of all the precautions we could take not to be sent back to the gentlemen of the Company, more cunning and powerful persons played their part so well that it was inserted in the order that we should OK IHK FAITH. 361 be ol)li;ht, were too much slaves of eertain persons to eonsent against their will to the justiee of our eause. The best-inten- tioned of the jrentlemen nevertheless consented to take our papers once more. Our Reverend Father- Provincial was at the office on the aj)- pointed day ; the extract of our reasons and the orders of the court were read. Our Fathers left the office. Discussion fol'owed. It was said that they granted us what we asked, on condi- tion that we should wait till the following year, these gentlemen not wishing to decide finally till they had consulted the colonists to whom they abandoned the trade. Meanwhile, as all these negotiations were spun 362 FIRST KSTAHMSIIMlON'r out and the |)ie|)arations of the lleet were jiro- ceedinji, Monsieur de l'vej)entif;ny,* General, liad asUed of us, and even obtained of our Reverend Falher-Provineial, three of our reli^ y J Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. M580 (716) 873-4S03 i ^4^ ^> ^ i I Vi 1 i: t ] :l! ' ft . i; 364 FIRST RSTABLISHMKNT temporal to establish the spiritual. A country is then better governed. The Recollects are your friends; tell them to think no more about it." This was enough to deprive our Fathers of all hope, seeing themselves thus sent from Cai- phas to Pilate. The province, however, con- tinued to make new protestations in the name of the syndic, declaring that if we were stopped by force we did not abandon our case. Mean- while a procuration was made out to the Reve- rend Father-Guardian of Rochelle for the use of eight arpents of our cleared lands to Monsieur de Repentigny ; and although this grant was purely gratuitous on our part, that gentleman, who has left his hereditary probity, generosity, and liberality to his family, one of the highest in Canada, chose to make us an annual return ; the rest of our lands had in preceding years been similarly given up to the Hospital Nuns on condition that it should be without prijudice till our return, and that they would by letter make the avowal to the province. 9 l-tl OF THE FAITH. 365 Subsequent to that time Monsieur tl'Avau- gour granted a part hy concession to Monsieur cle Lobbinier,* Lieutenant-General. It is true that some years after — !iamely, in 1668 — the Sieur Bequet.f Notary Royal at Quebec, hav- ing asked us some portion, particularly the con- vent ground and three or four arpents around, the province granted him the use without preju- dice to our rights. It happened that in November, 1650, :)ne of our friends in the Canada Company took the trouble to come to our convent at Paris to |)a) a visit to Father Placidus Gallemant, his particular friend, then guardian of the house, on purpose to ask him whether we would not send religious to Canada, assuring us that we were more and more desired by the majority of the French settlers, as deputies just come from Canada had severally as- sured him— namely, Messrs. Geodfroy, Admiral of * Louis Th6antie Cli. rtiei dc Lotljinitre, nu-mbi-r of the Council and Lieutenant of yucbec. Daniel, "Nos (Jioires," i. pp. 177-9. Tanguay, " Dictionnaire Gtncalogifiiie," p. 120. f Romain Uecquet died in 1682. Tanguay, p. 36. ^ m\ .: hi I 366 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT v\ ';iiM I;* the fleet ;* de Tilly, a jrentleman ; and Mahcu, syndic of the country ; f that we could see them about it ; that he had spoken to several of his as- sociates, wiio said that there was no difliculty — on the contrary, that our return was absolutely neces- sary ; that it was an act of justice ; that the set- tlers had no quiet in conscience on account of cer- tain clashings of interest which had arisen in Ca- nada with those to whom they had to confess (these are the words of his statement). He added that if we did not take this step the deputies and the Company, in default of us, would take measures to send over secular priests. On these advances the Reverend Father Raphael le Gault, then provincial, wished to try in his turn whether he would be more fortunate than his pre- decessors. He summoned to Paris Father Paul Huet, who was of the community of Rouen, and Brothers Gervase Mohier and Charles Langois- * Jolin Paul Godfroy. Tanguay, p. 274; " Jesuit Journal," p. 144. f Probably James Maheu (Tanguay, p. 403), thougli I do not find that he ever held any such position as syndic of the colony. r ■! - OF THE FAITH. 3^7 seiix, who knew Cnnada, and g^avc them as asso- ciate Fatlier Zachaiy Moreau, a man of intclli- fjence and mind, in order to ne^rotiate our return once more. We called on our friend, who advised us not to go to court, i)ut to apply directly to the Company, to whom we could present our re(jues( at the general meeting to be held on the i6th of January, 1651, and that we should surely find no opposition ; that even Monsieur de Lauzon was entirely changed, provided it cost the Company nothing ; that we must visit them i)rivately, and above all confer with the d(;puties from Canada. No part of this advice was neglected. The deputies told us more than we wished to know, and more than charity permits me to give to the public, and at last they told us resolutely that they sought some one to i)lace as parish priest at Que- bec and at some of the principal places, their con- sciences being too much hampered in having to treat with the same [)ersons in temjjorals and sjjir- ituals, having no one to whom they could conli- dently communicate the difiiculties of their con- -.68 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT science, and that on our refusal they would look for others. The members of the Company, instructed by these deputies, addressed us nearly the same lan- guage, especially Monsieur Rose, Director ; Messrs. Margonne, des Portes, Beruhier,* and Chamflou, adding in direct words : " Fathers, it would have been far better to let you go back to Canada rather than others. It is a great injustice they do you and the settlers. We see well where this comes from. Present your reasons, and justice shall be done to you and the people of the country." We then called on Mr. ChelTault, Secretary of the Com- pany, who told us : *' Fcrmerly, Fathers, ^I was against you, and I beg God's pardon. I had been deceived. Now I see that I was wrong. Would to God that you had gone there long ago to act as parish priests ; they want you there for the repose of their consciences." * John Rose, inRrchanf, of Rouen ; Claude Margonne, of Soissons, Royal Councillor and Treasurer ; Peter des Portes, Seigneur de Lig- nery ; James Berruyer, Sieur de Mauselleinont. i i' OF THE FAITH. 369 look Fathers Zachary Moreau and Paul Huet begged and entreated him to assure these gentlemen that, even if permitted to return to Canada, we should not undertake to exercise parochial functions there, in order to avoid jealousy, unless the Reverend Jesuit Fathers showed us the same cordiality as our old Fathers had done them in 1625, when Father Joseph le Caron, the Superior, permitted and even begged them, in order to maintain friendship, to exercise parochial functions alternately with us at Quebec ; that we should merely exercise our ministry there, as in France and everywhere, for the relief of consciences and in concert with the re- verend Jesuit Fathers. They also called on Monsieur de Lauzon, Inten- dant of the Company, who, as usual, appeared to decide in our favor. We even presented him the bonds of our syndic and others to show him that we could not be a burden to the country nor the colony, with the draft of a request which he ap- proved. He asked how many religious we wished to send, and was told three— two priests, and one 24 370 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT M 1^ ».4 K i lay brother to go and examine the grounds. He even directed the request to be given to him when ready, and answered for our success. In fact, our Fathers were simple enough to have no doubts of success. They even took all measures with the Canada deputies. The religious were got ready for the voyage, and at ast the re- quest was taken to Monsieur de Lauzon on the 15th, signed " Father Raphael Ic Gault, Provin- cial ; Vincent Paladuc, Definitor ; Placidus Galle- mand, Guardian of Paris," in the name of the whole province, accompanied by a manifest con- taining our reasons and rights in detail. The meeting was held on the 16th of said month of January in Monsieur de Lauzon's own house. It began, proceeded, and closed without our said Sieur de Lauzon's producing our request till the meeting adjourned and the members rose to leave ; then Monsieur Clarantin * said to Monsieur de Lauzon : " You say nothing of the request of the poor Re- collect Fathers." The members sat down again. * Simon Clarentin. OF THE FAITH. 37' The said Sieur de Lauzon read a part of the re (^ucst, which he interrupted to make a harangue directly against our interests. At last the decision was pronounced that as the Compan> had relin- (juished the trade to the inhabitants, and in conse- (luence were sending no vessels to Canada, he * re- mitted our matter to the judgment of the inhabi- tants, and, in case they had no objection, he * per- mitted us to pass. So three of the members, intimate friends of ours, informed us, and they told us to beware of Sieur de Lauzon, l)ecause he had not wished the result to be entered at the time in the Company's book or endorsed on the re- quest. According to this decision, we had reason to believe our matter sure, as of four Canadian set- tlers, who were deputies in France, the three already named absolutely demanded the Recol- lects, and we wore sure of their constancy ; but we were greatly surprised when, on the 19th of January, our request was returned thus answered : * Evidently for " they." m. 11 II 'it iril ( '■ 372 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT " As the Company has resigned the beaver trade to tlie inhabitants of the country, and accordingly send no vessels to New France, the Company has resolved that the request be transmitted to the Council of Quebec and the syndic of the cr)untry, that on their report the Directors and Asso- ciates may provide. To whom it shall belong, by resolution made January 16, 165 1, at the meeting of New France. "Signed, A. CHEFFAULT, " Secretary of said Company " (with scroll). This written answer, as can be well seen, was not according to the Assembly's resolution, as Monsieur de Lauzon had inserted in that answer that it should be communicated to the Council of Que- bec, while the Company, as most assured us, had asked, what was quite different, to communicate our request to the deputies and inhabitants of the country then in France.* , Our Fathers had recourse to these deputies, who all gave us their certificates and told us at the same time that they had learned from good sources that our affair would come to nothing, unless the gentle- men of the Company gave another answer on a * This is not borne out by his previous statement, where nothing is said of deputies in France. See p. 371. h-ll :»! OF THK FAITH. 373 new request ; that it was trifling with us to no pur- pose to send us to the Council of Quebec, which was composed of the governor,* a creature of the ' Jesuits, of the Superior of the mission, f a syndic and inhabitants who could easily be gained so as to prevent our return ; they also added that they were on the point of sending Monsieur dc Lauzon as governor, and that we might take measures ac- cordingly. A new request was presented to the Company on the 30th of January at a meeting held at the house of Monsieur des Portes. Monsieur de Lau- zon contrived to have none of our friends there but Messrs. Margonne and Robinot ; the others, espe- cially Monsieur de la Madeleine, declared that the answer endorsed on our request must be adhered to ; that, moreover, they gave us all permission to go and advocate our matter before the Council of, Quebec, which answer was formally announced to us. * Louis D'Ailleboust, Sicur de Coulongcs. See Shea's " Cliarlc- voix," ii. p. 205. t Father Paul Ragueneau. 374 FIRST KSTARI,ISHMF,NT I 1 lis- 'if: Thus closed all our negotiation, which ended in sending the matter to Quebec with letters of recom- mendation from several persons. We obtained let- ters even from the Reverend Father-Provincial of the Jesuits and the Reverend Father Lallemant, Superior of the professed house, who was then in France, Superior of the missions, the latter promis- ing us every kind of favor when he should be in the country ; he even wrote a letter protesting it to our Reverend Father-Provincial and the province, so that we did not yet despair of returning. The reader may think that if the reverend Jesuits had been in our place, and the Recollects in theirs, we should not have failed to make their request succeed and be ajiproved, and employ our credit in doing so, as we had formerly held firm against the whole country in calling them to Canada, and maintaining them there when they arrived in 1625, and the governor and inhabitants opposed their reception. Charity, which is upright and simple, persuades us that these Reverend Fathers did not lack good-will to do the same for us in this case, ill OF THK FAITH. 375 and that they only wanted credit and power in the Council of Quebec, as they assured us the next year by letter. It is easy to judj;e that the deci- sion was not in our favor, and that Monsieur de Lauzon, who then went to the country as gov- ernor, did not fail to continue the Recollects the services he had so far rendered them. A' i ■!. CHAPTER XV. PROGRESS (W THE CHURCH IN NEW FRANCE AMONG THE INDIAN NATIONS DURING THE YEARS THAT THE COUNTRY WAS IN THE HANDS OF THE (JEN- TLEMEN OF THE COMPANY, SEIGNEURS, AND PRO- PRIETORS OF CANADA IJY ROYAL GRANT. \ LL the Christian world recofrnizes as a system '^ ^ of religion and first principle of faith that the real and sincere Yocation and conversion of tribes and nations is the great work of God's mercy and power, and the triumphant efficacity of his grace and spirit. If this be true of infidel and idolatrous nations which are already civilized, ruled and ordered by laws, whose reason is, so to speak, prepared to re- ceive the instruction of the Gospel and the Chris- tian religion, apostolic men should much more ac- knowledge this sovereign dependence on God with regard to barbarous nations who have no idea of religion, true or false ; who live without rule, with- FIRST ESTAKLISHMENT OF THE FAITFr. ^.yj out order, without laws, without God, anrl without worship ; whose reason is absolutely huricrl in mat- ter and incapable of the most ordinary rcasonin«rs of religion and faith. Such are the nations and the tribes of New France of whom I here treat. Missionaries must in good faith acknowledge that their conversion is beyond our powers ; that it belongs .>nly to the Father of Spirits, as St. Paul says, and Ilim who holds the hearts of all men in his hands, to raise the veil which covers the eyes of this barbarism, to clear their reason, disperse the chaos of darkness in which they are buried, change their inclinations, melt the hardness of their inflexible iiearts. civilize these people, render them susceptible of laws which right reason suggests and subject them to those which religion prescribes ; in a word, to en- lighten the blind and lead them by the power of his grace to the knowledge and love of truth. This is the foundation of the true apostolate of the native tribes of Canada which are known to us. The great point of simplicity 378 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT of faith, liumility, p:racc, and the unction of the Spirit should animate those whom God ap- points and calls to the publication of the Gos- pel in these nations. It must be laid down as a principle that no one can be drawn efficaciously to Christ, the Son of God, unless the Father of lights draw him by the power of his victorious grace ; that his invisible Spirit breatheih where it wills and when it wills ; that the moments of grace are known to God and in the hands of the power of the father and master of our destiny ; that, having called all men to the Faith in the pre- paration of his good-will common to all, he gives them, in truth, in time the natural and supernatural graces interior and sufficient to at- tain it, as distinguished from those efficacious and triumphant graces which cannot be resisted ; that the work is not only and simply of him who runs, nor of him who wills, but chiefly of Him who enlightens and touches by an effect of his great mercy ; that a fortiori the work OF THE FAITH. 379 of and jrlory arc not his who preaches, wlio plants or waters— he is but a feeble instrument — but rather His who by his ^race gives the in- crease; that faith is a gift of God; that the sacrifice of all nature is not capable of meriting by any right the first grace of vocation, which does not depend on merit ; that men labor in vain to raise the spiritual edifice of the faith, unless God aids, prepares, and disposes the in- dividual. Humble simplicity which should be the soul of apostolic labors and the application of the missionaries of Canada; to attach them to their ministry in this spirit of dependence as simple organs and feeble instruments of the cha- rity of Him to whom alone should be referred the glory of the conversion of the little flock ; but profound anniiiilation under God's orders, when zeal has not its ellect. too happy to be able to say we have done our part, what God demands of our ministr)', even when want of success should oblige us to acknowledge that we are useless servants. *¥■•! 38o FIRST ESTAHLISHMENT m^ m Undoubtedly the sons of St. Ignatius are tru- ly apostolic men, a body full of light, ability, virtue, grace, zeal, and courage to undertake all for the conversion of souls, to support the most arduous difficulties, and suffer contradiction and chagrin in the accomplishment of their ministry. We know that by a special vow they are de- voted to tiie missions as vessels of election, des- tined to bear the name of the Lord to the tribes and nations to the ends of the earth ; that Providence has fortified the church militant with this new body to second the labors of all others, religious and secular, in the establishment of the kingdom of Christ. We have in previous chapters brought these reverend Fathers to New France, where we left them in their house near Quebec, which was afterwards for a time the centre of all their mis- sions. On them must roll during the present epoch the whole Canadian church, they being confident that the harvest was not too ample • • their great zeal, and that they had men OF THE FAITH. 38' enough to minister to the French and instruct the Indians. \\c doui)t not they undertook and continued the work in that interior disposition which we have described in the beginning of this chapter. This has always convinced me that, as they glory only in their toils and suf- ferings, they had no part in the Relations* of *The Jesuit Relations, commencing with Bi.ird's (1611) and Lale- mant's (1626), are continuous from 1632 to 1672. The permission to print the la- , given Jan. 9, 1673. This whole series was reprinted .It Queb . 1058 in 3 vols. 8vo, and comprises a vast amount of in- formation as to Indian tribes, their language, manners, etc., as well as of the labors of the missionaries, 'llie enthusiasm of zeal may have made some too sanguine, but their honesty is attested by the accuracy of their statements where we have any means of testing them. The other works on Canada during this period refer to tlie Relations as authentic. Boucher, " Ilistoire Veritable," Avant Propos ; Marie de rincarnation (" Choix de Lettres," p. 85, etc.); Dollier de Casson. " Histoire de Montreal," pp. 12, 16 ; St. Valier, " Etat Present " (Que- bec edn.), p. 72 ; Vaudreuil, " N. Y. Col. Doc," i.\. p. 371, iii. p. 507. Bishop Laval contributed to the Relations and asked others to do so. Dollier de Casson, p. 209. Tlic only charges against them besides this of LeClercq's work, which cannot be regarded seriously, are those ascribed to the Sulpitian Francis d'Allet, secretary of the .Vbbe de Qu61us, and, of course, a party in the disputes of that gentleman. The Jansenist Ainuuld published in his unscrupulous "Morale Pra- tique des Jesuites " (" tEuvres," edn. 17S0, torn. 34, jjp. 724-734) a loose memoir received from a friend of d'Allet in June, 1693, without dates' or authorities, and a memoir drawn up from conver.sati(jns with him, in which he says ■ " All the Relations that the Jesuits have written on 382 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT Canada, which have been printed, apparently, on false memoirs, at least in what regards the ad- vancement of the Faith among tiie Indian nations. I have already taken the liberty in the first chapters of this work of rectifying the chrono- graphic remarks of the Abi)e de la Roque, go- ing back to 1615 to find the first establishment of the Faith in New France by the labors of the Recollects of the province of St. Denis, Canada must be regarded as full of falsities. As soon as they were printed in France care was taken to send them to the ecclesiastics who were in Montreal, and thej- groaned to see that things were related altogether difterent from what they were in truth." He adds : "Mr. de Courcelle having informed the court of this, the Jesuits were ordered to make no more Relations." There is no trace of any au- thority for this, and the fact is that the Jesuits did prepare Relations after de Courcelle's time. Rel. 1672-3, 1673-9, 1675, Relations In- 6ditcs. D'Allet's memoir closes with a silly story, and the last lines contain a misstatement that shows either that d'Allet never wrote it or that his memory was gone in 1693. D'Allet arrived in Canada in 1657, and represents de Lauson as dying in Canada. That very year, 1657, he went to France, leaving his son, lie Lauson Charny, to replace him till a new governor arrived. The son was subsequently a priest in Canada, but neither father nor son died there. The attack on the Relations in the scurrilous " Recit " in Margry (i. p. 374) makes still worse work with history, and, whether by the Abbe Renaudot or the Prince de Conii, is by one who was never in America and of no authority. OF THE FAITH. 383 which Sicur de hi Roque ascribes to the years 1637-8 and to the zeal of the reverend Jesuit Fathers. He lias wished to rob these reverend Fathers of four or five years, or rather elude what he could not but know, as these illustrious missionaries had scarcely reached Quebec in 1632 and the following year, when their ardent cha- rity spread among the nations up and down the river St. Lawrence, the coast of Cadie,* the isl- ands of Cape Breton and Miscou ; and that, having in that and the following years received powerful reinforcements and many members of the society, they extended and divided, (always) in the bounds and limits of our former discove- ries,t where during the present period they formed missions of which this is the plan : Their mission which they called Our Lady of the Angels, at three-quarters of a league from Quebec, was the head ; that of Our Lady of * Acadia. + The missions to the Attikamagues, Iroquois, Ottawas, and ot»-.T tribes on Lakes Superior and Michigan, the Miamis and llii- nois, were ail beyond the Recollect bounds. w 384 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT Recouvrancc at Qucl)ec, of Conception at Three Rivers, of (Jur Lady at Mont-Royal, of St. Jo- seph amon^ the Ilurons jjradually divided into three others durinp^ the time of this epoch ; the mission of the Holy Cross at Tadoussac, of St. Ann at Cape Breton, of St. Charles at Miscou, of Our Lady of Consolation of Nipisiguit, whence they spread to Cadie and Chaleurs bay ; the mis- sion of St. Michael at Sillery from the year '35, soon after that of the Holy Family at Isle Or- leans, so that in the year 1635 the truth of his- tory already numbered twenty Jesuits attached to the river missions, without including those then employed in advanced posts in Cadie and the adjacent islands to the number of five or six laborers full of zeal.* We find, too, towards the close of the present epoch, in 1657, the first establishment of their missions among the Iroquois, distributed in five * This is exnggcrated. There were not more than sixteen Jesuit Fathers in all. Sec List in " Bannissement des J6suites," pp. 111-2 ; Tanguay, " Repertoire," pp. 21-31 ; Rel. 1635, p. 23. The Indian mis- sion on Isle Orleans was long after 1635. OF THE FAITH. 3S5 residences, according to the division of the chief cantons which compose that nation : the tirst of St. Gabriel among the Agniets (Mohawks), on the south, near New Netherland, which reckon- ed tiiree or four hundred men in three or four towns; the second at the Onncjout (Oneidas), westward, which could form one hundred and forty warriors ; the third, St. John the Baptist, (if- teen leagues west at the towns of Onnontaguets (Onondagas), about three hundred combatants, which is, as it were, the centre of the Irocpiois missions ; the fourth, St. Joseph, thirty leagues thence west at the Ojongouen (Cayugas), divid- ed into three towns, counting full three hundred warriors; the fifth, St Michael, at the Son- nontoiians (Senecas), towards the end of Lake Frontenac, the most considerable canton of the Iroquois nations, which in three towns comprised about twelve hundred combatants.* * This is so dishonest that it is not easy to trace the statement. The Relation for lUsi Rives the heginninj. of the mission of Our Lady of Ganentaa at Onondaga, but no such list of missions as is lieie paraded. 25 386 FIRST ESTABLISH MENT It is not my (lcsijj;n to trace hcif the plan of these five cantons, and remark how much country these nations have con(iuered since 1657, extending their limits and multiplying their families hy the de- struction of other nations whom they have taken captive, and by whom tiiey have fortified and in- creased the number of their subjects. I here pass in silence what they have dared to advance in these Relations, that in the year 1632-3 they could perceive in all these Indian nations no mark of Christianity or form of a church, not even the remembrance and idea of the instruc- tions, the least perceptible smatterings of the Faith ; that there was not yet any knowledge, even gene- ral, of the principal languages ; and, linally, that all that the Recollects had been able to do was to keep the French in duty* — as if so many zealous missionaries of our provinces of Paris, A(]uitaine, and Thoulouse had stood idle with folded arms * There does not appear any such charge in the Relations. The Recollects never reached the Fire Nation (Mascoiitens), and no mission of Recollects from Toulouse is known at all. OF THE FAITH. 3i^7 from 1615 to 1629, when these Feathers were in constant action in Cadie. on the sea-coast, anci from the mouth of the river, ri^ht and left, to the Neutral and Fire Nations, the Petuns, Algon- quins, Nipissiriens, Monta^miaits, and the depen- cies of Quebec, where they supported that of the /Mji^onquins, living with them for ten years in the neighborhood of Three Rivers, iiaving on the sj)ot, esj)ecially at the Hurons, made six or seven win- terings, the last by the Reverend Father Josej)h de la Roche Dallion, Recollect, with the Reverend Fathers Brcbeuf and de la Noue, Jesuits. Formerly, before our return to Canada, and for the space of thirty years that our Fathers at Paris made such frequent attempts to return, they learn- ed every year, with as much joy as admiration and surprise, that this barbarism, by a stroke of grace, was sensi!)ly civilizing and visibly converting ; that in the year 1634 the nations showed extreme eagerness for instruction ; a great number of bap- tisms — these appearances of an ample harvest which began to whiten in '34 ; the surprising cir- I f K 388 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT cumslancos of the conversion of Sasousmat ; the effects of advanced faith in tliese sava^^es ; the oracles which he pronounces, the |)erce|)tihle light which api^eared after his death at the same time in different j)arts of Canada, forty leagues distant, rising and lowering three times;* the miraculous circumstances of the conversion of Manitoutchat- che, his sentiments of devotion, the solidity of his faith in resisting his wife and family, and on points of religion ;f the fervor, zeal, and lively faith of Kioliiriniou and his family at the bap- tism of his son ; X ^^^^ marvellous events of the conversion of an Ourontinoukouen § squaw, the animated sentiments of that woman, her apos- trophes to the crucifix ; verification of a great number of sorcerers || scattered through the coun- * This is to ridicule the Relation 1634, pp. 3-4. It is certain that this chapter and pp. 164-6 of this v(jluinc were not written by the same person. See those pa^es where a Recollect miraculously converts an Indian, a su|)ernatural lijflit follows his death and delivers the vessel from shipwreck. + lb. pp. 5. (>■ i lb- I'- 7. § lb. p. 8. 11 For the missionary le Clercq's belief as to the medicine men see " Rel. de la Gasp6sie," p. 333 : " I cannot convince myself, too, but that the devil dominates in their deceits and impostures, which he employs OF INK I". A ITU. 389 try, used hy the devil to oppose ( 'liristiiinitv and saj) its foundations."'" How in all parts, from the first years, eyes are opened to tlu* truth, parents sending their ehildren, hy an instinct of faith, to have them instructed ; the eidinhtened thoULjIi impious arjruments aj.jainsl (lod and religion attributed at this time to an Indian; baptism of twenty-two catechumens; extraordinary impres- sions of constancy and lirmness of faith in that woman baptized at Three Rivers in '35. f Can we believe that these savai^es at first durst not become converts, be bapti/.ed. perform the ex- ercises of relijrion. and jjroduce in public the in- struments of salvation, for fear of drawing on them the raillery of others ? — as if we did not know now that they are steejied in perfect indifference on the subject of relijrion,;!; to delude ilicsc nations and (.siiangc iIriu all the more from the know- ledge of (iod." * Rel. 1634, p. 14. i ,.^^^1. ,(,3.^ pp 5^ ,j t Vet comjiare Mi-ie Marie de I'lncarnation, " c;hoi\ de Lettres," p. 55, and the Recollect Father Le Clerc(|, a practical missionary, in his " Relation de la Gasp6sie," p. 206, where he seems ignorant of this in- difTercnce. ■■*BI5IS 390 FIRST RSTAHMSIIMENT Am()iihtest apj)earance of sin, that they feared not the i'uc or sword of the Iro(]Uois, hut only the lire of hell. Those combats of Christian squaws, and e\en youny; men, for purity, from respect for their hajjlism. That little St. Cyr who resisted the threats and promises of his Q;randmother : " Here are mv hands, feet, body," said he, "but I sh;ill never forsake my reliirion." '^^ We admire the risini:: town of Sillerv, spreading up and down the river and to Miscou the holv odor of Christianity and the ardor of conversion among the Indian nations; that reciprocal emulation for * Rcl. i()42, p. 4, etc. Compare Marie dc I'lncarnation, " Choix deMA-ttrcs," p|). 42, 06, S7. OF thr 1 aith. 39' "Iff the Faith of husbands in rcf^ard to their wives ; the fre([uent confessions and communions; the sacrament of marriairc commonly administered.* We do not doubt the devotedncss (ft the Ursu- hnes to the education of Indian j^irls, but we are surprised that these Uttle tj^irls. by an advanced faith, instruct Indian families f who come Kt see them; we admire their ejacuiatory and mental prayers, their eaixerness, their prej)ara(ion for cr>mmunion, their delicacv of conscience, elevation and inten- tion of mind ; how tiiere were some who, after leaving the Ursulines, wrote to the-r- ladies from the depth of the woods their regret at not bi-ing able to go to confessi(jn and communion every fortnight as formerly. I. The rules and exercises, the fervor of whole villages, which would efface * RlI. 1642, p. 14 ; I'i43, p. >>. Marie f ihc L'rsulines, Father Le CI en Rel. de la (Jaspesi<-," pp. i2.->-<^. 392 FIRST ESTAHLISH MENT that of the primitive Christians ; what edification to see the captive churches sustainin, 259, 534, etc. t Relation, 1646, p. 42. 394 FIRST estai?lishmp:nt that of the Ilurons, so ardent that it could not be contained in their village : they pass to the neigh- boring nations ; we see there a kind of martyrs, evangelical preachers, fanciful prophets who an- nounce divine vengeance, Elis who resist pro- faners, fathers who resist children, husl)ands con- verted at the entreaties of their wives ; we find some who roll in the snow, others making a bed of live coals and firebrands to extinguish concupiscence ; extraordinary impressions of the Spirit of God in view of his intimate presence, in prayer, communion, the fervent exercise of virtue ; how they believe without difficulty the most sublime mysteries of religion ; marvellous effects of a firmness of faith among the Nisipis- siriniens and among the Indians of the mission of the Holy Ghost ; how they support the truth in dogmatical disputes with their still heathen countrymen. So many favors of a visible and miraculous Providence and sensible blessinij^s which we find exi)ressed in all these Relations. Visions, revelations, prodigies are not spared. The f f ^M r OF THE FAITH. 395 •A mission of the great Gulf of St. Lawrence at last produces great fruit."*' All France has admired and received with singu- lar edification the wonderful operations of grace on the Huron Church in Isle Orleans ; the fer- vor, regularity, uniform assiduity of these Indians; how the Sodality of the reverend Jesuit Fathers was in great fervor among them ; that in '54 they had already eighty Sodalists ; the letter of asso- ciation of this Indian Sodality, written to the vSo- dality of the Professed house at Paris, was circu- lated through all France, and drew tears of devo- tion from all.f But unfortunately about the year '56 this Huron Church is attacked by the Irocjuois, who carry all off by treaty and reciprocal convention to the Iro- (juois country to make only one people, one heart, one mind, and be installed in their families ; in fact, all these llurons were distributed among the * A burlesque of tlic Rv.\. 1646. Huron part chs. iii. to viii. f Rol. 1654, cli. X., Ouub. udu., p|). 22-8. If tliu letter was evri printed separately, as here suggested, it has escaped our bibliographers. 396 FIRST ESTABI>ISHMKNr V v Mohawks and Onondagas, adopting immediately their manners, interests, and customs."' We cannot refuse our devotion to the suhse- (juent Rehitions when they describe the disposi- tion of these Israelites, banished from their coun- try, groaning under the captivity of this kind of Babylon. The Reverend Father Brebeuf, who was em- ployed in missions to several different nations in Canada, alone converted seven thousand in his Huron mission, and produced a church truly animated with the Spirit of God, as we may see in the life of Mother St. Augustine, Hospital Nun of Quebec, book iii.f What fruit did he not pro- duce in other missions ! I shall say nothing of the great progress of the Church in the Iroquois nations. We read that the mission commenced in the year '57, and "that the * Rel. 1657, ch. iii., yueh. cdn., ])p. 5-7. f RaguenL-au, " Lii Vic cic la Mure Catlieriiie de Saint Avgvstin," Paris, 1671, p. 179. The Rel. 1649, p. 17, says he had the consolation of seeing seven thousand Hurons baptized, but does not ascribe them all to him. t OF THE FAITH. 397 first year the reverend Father Menard had l)ap- tized more than four hundred Iroquois in his single mission of Dojongouen;* the missionaries in the other four cantons in proportion. We may judge that in the last thirty-seven years Christianity must have advanced annually by more happy ami multiplied steps, and, consequently, that all these nations must be converted. We may make the same remark and draw the same conclusion as to the other Indian nations of New France ; the knowledge we [possess es- tablishes pretty nearly the number of souls that compose them, so that, making a total of the con- * Cayuga, The Rel. 1657, ch. xvi., Quebec edii., pp. 42-4 ; " Early Chapters of Cayuga History," pp. 21-2O, gives the account of Menaril's first year, but does not state the number of baptisms. It states that the nucleus of his Hock were Ilurons. After Monard's death the K<1. 1663, ch. viii. (Oueb. edn., ]). 23), in a somewhat intlated passage speaks of his gathering "an Iroquois church which in a short time he composed of 400 Christians." This, in the text, is disingenuously transformed into 400 baptisms, although the Rel. 1657 shows that most of his flock were Huron captives. The Cayuga mission did not con- tinue from that time thirty-seven years ; it was almost immediately broken up, and not restored till 1669. Its whole history can be seen in Hawley's "Early Chnplers," Auburn, 1S79. See rh. .xviii., vol. ii., for the condition of ('anada. I w m :: 398 FIRST ESTABLISHMENT versions each year from the return of the French to Canada, we may be sure that the Clmrch is per- fectly established there, and that there is very little intidelity left intermingled. We must also see that they aspired there to Christian perfection : they ordinarily accused them- selves of the slightest imperfections ; public con- fessions and j)enances n'ere in use, a kind of in- quisition, devotions and the frequentation of the sacraments. We see squaws draw a crucifix from their bosoms and present it to libertines with these words: " Wretch ! wouldst thou again crucify Ilim who died for thy salvation ? What ! wouldst thou ruin me and ruin thyself for a sin which God abhors ? " * We see squaws, too, disputing with the Dutch about the veneration of images, speak like theologians, and confound those heretics; we see others menace them with death for the cause of God, and mock their torments ; we see fervent * Father Ic Cleirq, "Relation de la Gaspcsie," p. 146, relates how his neophytes were scandalized b}- an angry woman who threw her hieroglyphic prayers in the lire ; and on p. 151 her repentance and reparation. See Hisliop St. Valier, " Etat Present," p. 68. ^ \i I r M OF THE FAITH. 399 Christians exhort their brethren in death l)y the most touching words.* Yet we cannot hear that they should impose on a missionary whom 1 knew by making liim say in the fourth decade that he announced the first words of the Gospel to the Onnontiogats, Neuters, and Ilurons, captives among the Tshon- nbtouans.f and that the first two nations had never scarcely seen Europeans ; yet it is notorious that from 1616 to 1629 missionaries had announced the Gospel to them, which that res'crend Father himself could not deny.;^ Would to God all these ' i * This alludes to Rcl. 1670, cli. v. ij 5 (Quebec edn., pp. 32-3). It will interest bibliographers to notice that the Jesuit Relations even at this time had become scarce. This fierce attack on them cites, so far as I can trace the allusions, only the volumes for 1634, 1635, 1(142, 1646, 1649, 1654, 1657, and 1670. Arnauld, the great Jansenist oj)- ponent of the Jesuits, had his attenti m diawn t(j the Relations by this work, and he found diiriculty in getting at them. " It was not easy to find any after such a lapse of time, for all know that this sort of ephemcrals (feuilles volantes) are easily lost." However, at a "great library," which he dues not name, he discovered tlKjse for 1633, 1636, 1637, 163S, 1640-1, 1642, 1643, 1644, 1650-1, 1653-4, 1661-2, 1662-3, 1666-7, 1671-2. " Morale pratique des Jesuites." f Senecas. X What Father James Fremin really says in the Rel. 1670, ch. ix. (Quebec edn., p. 6g), is : " This town (Gandougarae) is conqjosed of 400 FIRST ESTAnMSHMRNT Relation churches were as true and real as all the country admits them to he chimerical. I lad they formerly existed, could they hecome invisihle, espe- cially in '74 5, when, the colony, increasin_L( much more, more fre(|uent and open commerce with iMance has caused the (lisapi)earance of this unreal number of conversions, as well as the kelations, which they have ceased giving to the public, now disabused of such hctions. in this they have acted wisely, for what will those who come after us say, on reading year by year such great progress of le- ligion, excei)t that anti(]uity wished to imj)ose on them by a vain ostentation, or else that these pre- thc remnants of three diflcrcnt nations wliicli, having Ijccii licnlciforc destroyed l)y tlio Irixiuois, were oblifffd to surrender at discrerimi to tlie (■on(iiR'r()r and i-onie and settle in his country. Tiie first nation is called ()nnonlioi;a, the second thi' Neuters, and the tliirtl the liurons. The first two liave, as it were, never seen Europeans, nor ever heard the true God spoken of." As to the Onnontiojras this is absolutely true. There is no trace of any missionary, Recollect or Jesuit, reacli- \ng them, nor of any French interconrse with them. The Neuters were visited by the Recollect Father de la Roche ilWllion in i62(_), and by the Jesuit Father Hrebeuf in i()40 (Rel. 1O41, p. 71 ; Rel. 1649, pp. 18, 20I ; but there was no permanent mission, and for this work liere to pretend that there was a Recollect mission in these two tribes from if)if) i *Tl.is reasoning rests on a fnllacy. The Relations, properly read, show bai.tisms of liyinu infants and adults, but comparatively few of I.ersons in healtli. Tliey do not claim lar^c numbers of converts. The Huron and Iroquois missions, tliose amon^ the Monta-nais and Abe nakis, still subsist. The Ottawa. Chipp.'wa. M.nom.mee, Winneb.a- gocs, and Miamis show to this day the inlluence of the old Jesuit labors ; and even the Illinois, where, after the Recollects retired, the fesuits' resumed their labors, became entirely Christian. Le Meraj's chief field of labor was an old [.suit mission ai (iaspe. and his own account of his labors is so like that ol the Jesuits that he could not possibly h.ave written this chapter: he was practically too well infornie.l, and himscli l)oasts of the piety .,1 hi- converts wlio visited Ouebec •• Re- lation de la Gasi esie," p i jj. Wwr 408 FIRST ESTARLISHMENT II I i All that can be done is to draw from the depth of the woods certain families which show more do- cility, and conduct them to the settled country, where they still form two villa<2^es near Quebec, and two more near Mont-royal cut off from in- tercourse with the French. It is in these places, then, the Indian Church is jnrathered ; and, thoutrji their language as well as their customs still remain savage, the neophytes are kej)t in order and trained to piety by attraction. There are some good Chris- tians, and although many, and even whole families, escape from time to time from the missionaries after ten or twelve years' stay to return to the woods to their former tor|)or. VVe are told that there are many C^hristians in Europe who stray from their duty and profane their character by a worldly a!u! pagan life ; but we are not speaking of corrupt morals in the bajjtized In- dians and neophytes, but of the substance of re- ligion and faith, which is absolutely effaced from their minds by an apostasy, a prodigious insensibili- ty and profound blindness, although it be said in OF THE FAITH. 409 the Relations that even the Sacrament of Confirma- tion * has been administered to them. It is for us to admire the judgment of God on these nations, and to acknowledge his favor and mercy in our behalf, in having allowed us to be born of families enlightened by Faith, in a country and nation where it is secure, where all preaches to us piety and virtue, and where the multitude of in- terior graces and exterior aids offer us means of securing our calling and election, if we are faithful to them. Let us render glory to the Lord for the distinction he has made in our favor, and say in heart, applying to ourselves the words of the pro- phet, " Non fecit taliter omni nationi, etc." (He hath not done in like manner to every nation, and * Confirmation can be conferred ordinarily only by a bishop. This is, therefore, an attack on Bishop Laval, who, soon after reaching America, in 1659, confirmed one liundred and forty at Gasp6, Le Clercq's future mission (Relation 1659, p. to). lie also confirmed one hundred Algon- quins and Hurons at Quebec, August 24, 1659 (Jesuit Journal, p. 262) ; and again confirmed Indians at Tadoussac in June, 1668 (ib. p. 361 ; Relation 1668, p. 24) ; and at St. Fran9ois Xavier du Sault (Rel. 1673-9, p. 23S). In the disputes then going on in Canada Frontenac and his party were arrayed against the bishop and his secular priests, as well as against the Jesuits. 87 1^-;^ 4IO FIRST ESTABLISHMENT OF 'I'HE FAITH. his judgments he hath not made manifest to them — Ps. cxlvii. 20), but ever in sentiments of terror anr' ^'\.r, in view of the more exact account we shall be obliged to render him. END OF IHK 1 IRST VOIXMK. ii ' f. hem ?rror we EXTRACT FROM TIIK ROYAL PRIVILEGE. By the favor and i)rivil(iL;o of the king, given at Taris on the 30th of December, 1690, signed by the king in his ,„un- cii, Menestrel, permission is granted to the Reverend Fatiier Chrestien le Ciercq, Recollect Missionary of the I'rovince of Arthois, Gnardian of the convent of Lens, to cause to i)e printed a book wiiich he has composed, entitled " Le Premier Etablissement de la Foi dans la Nouvelle France," during the time and space of eight consecutive years, to count froH. the day wiien the said book shall be comi)letely printed ior the first time; and prohibition to all i)ublishers and others to print, sell, and issue without the consent ot the s.ud ai)pli- cant or iiis legal representatives, under the penally of lllteen hundred livres fine, i)ayable without deposit by each who contravenes, confiscation of pirated copies, and of all damage and interest, as is more amply set forth in said j.rivilege. Registered in the book of the Community of Ilooksellers and Printers of the City of Paris, this 5th January, 1691, according to the Arret of Parlemenl of April 8, 1653, and that of the king's council February 27, 1665. (Signed) AUBOUIN, 6>,//V. Printing f(;r tlie first time completed July 26, 1691. The said Reverend Father has ceded his privilege to Amable Auroy. I .',.' \ i^^^^M \ 1 )-!^^^^^IH f^'I^^H^^I i IB 1 ^uMWSB 1