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THE JOGUES PAPERS
TRANSLATED AND ARRANGED, WITH A MEMOIR
BY
JOO GILM1ET J3HEA,
MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY.
SECOND SERIES.—VOL. III.
11INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
* The following papers, written by the illustrious missionary between
the years 1642 and 1646, consist of,
I.	Narrative of bis Captivity among tbe Mohawks, from a Latin
manuscript preserved at Montreal, and in Alegambe.
II.	Account of his Escape, from the Relation of 1642-8, p. 284.
III.	Description of New Netherland, from his original manuscript.
IY. His last Letters in 1646, from the Relation of 1646-7.
Y. Captivity and Death of Rene Goupil, from his original manu-
script.
YI. Letters of Gov. Kieft announcing his death, from an attested
copy preserved at Montreal.
The narrative of his captivity forms part of a manuscript volume,
entitled u Memoires touchant la mort et les vertus des peres Isaac
Jogues, Anne de Noue, Antoine Daniel, Jean de Brebeuf, Gabriel Lale-
mant, Charles Gamier, Noel Chabanel et Rene Goupil,” consisting of
authentic papers relating to their life and death, being copied from
originals, and each sworn to by Fathers Paul Ragueneau and Joseph
Poncet; as to Father Jogues, it includes Father Buteux’s u Narre de la
prise du p. Isaac Jogues,” Jogues’ own narrative, his account of the
captivity and death of Goupil, and letters of Fathers Buteux and
De Quen relative to his death. It was found, accompanied by the
Description of New Netherland, and the account of Goupil’s death, in
the handwriting of Father Jogues himself, both in letter form, with the
folds and incisions for sealing in use at the time, and both more easily
read than the court-hand of the volume. They were found in the Hos-
pital of the Augustin nuns, or Hotel Dieu, at Quebec, where they had
been deposited shortly before 1800 by Father Cazot, the last of the old
race of the Jesuits of the French colony, who seeing his body then
about to expire by the enactments of the English conquerors, which
prevented their receiving new members, wished to save for Catholicity
at least a few of the most valuable of the papers in the archives. The164
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
volume in question, and some others, were selected by him, and faith-
fully preserved by the ladies to whom he intrusted them, as a sacred
deposit, and were by them restored to the Jesuits soon after their return
to Canada a few %y ears since.
The use of these manuscripts has been kindly afforded by the Eev.
Felix Martin, President of St. Mary’s College, Montreal, Corresponding
Member of the Society.MEMOIR.
Isaac Jogtjes was bom at Orleans, in France, on tbe tenth of
January, 1607, and his family still enjoys the esteem of his native
city. Educated in a Jesuit college but lately opened there, his tender
piety, his wonderful love of the Cross, or, in less ascetic language, of
sufferings, and a desire of pouring out his blood in attempting to
convert the heathen to the Faith of Christ, induced him, towards
the close of his studies, to ask to be enrolled among the members of
the celebrated Society which had directed his education. Admitted
to the Eouen novitiate in 1624, he was sent, after the two years of
seclusion and prayer which usher in the religious life, to Paris to
continue his literary studies. In 1629, he began his career as a
teacher, and for four years attracted universal admiration by his able
scholarship and ability in the direction of youth. The following let-
ter in its latinity would do credit to a scholar writing in the quiet
of his study; and other monuments are extant to show how easily
he might have grasped at literary fame. He sighed, however, for
the missions; and it was with joy that he received a summons to
repair to the Clermont College, at Paris, to prepare, by the study of
divinity, for the order of priesthood, which would enable him to set
out for that field which he had ever ardently desired.
In 1636, after four years’ study, he was ordained priest, and or-
dered to prepare for immediate embarkation to Canada, to which,
when all chance of the European mission was cut off, his longings
had been turned. After bidding farewell to his mother and family,
he set sail from Dieppe with Father Gamier and Father Chatelain,
and after a stormy voyage reached Miscou, a little island at the
entrance of Chaleurs Bay, where the Jesuits then had a missionary
station. Here he landed; but after a short stay proceeded to Que-
bec, and arrived in the city on the 2d of July: his two companions166
MEMOIR.
had already started for the Huron mission—a long and painful voy-
age by the Ottawa liver. He followed, embarking in his frail canoe
at Three Rivers, on the 24th of August. “ It would not be easy,”
says he, in a letter to his mother, “ to detail all the miseries of the
voyage; but the love of God, who calls us to these missions, and our
desire of contributing something to the conversion of these poor
savages, renders this so sweet, that we would not exchange these
pains for all the joys of earth. Our food on the way is a little Indian
corn, pounded between two stones, and boiled in water without any
seasoning; our bed the earth, or the frightful racks, lining the great
river, which rolled by us in the clear moonlight, for we always slept
in the open air. The posture to be taken in the canoe is extremely
inconvenient; you cannot stretch out your legs, so little and cramped
is it: scarcely do you venture to move, for fear of capsizing all into
the river. I was forced to keep perfect silence, being able neither to
understand nor make myself understood by my Indians. Another
source of pain and hardship is, that in this voyage we meet sixty or
eighty cataracts, or waterfalls, which descend so precipitously, and
from such a height, that the canoes are often ingulfed by approaching
too near them. "We indeed were not exposed to this, as we went
against the current; but we were not the less obliged to land very
frequently, and make through the neighboring rocks and wood a
detour of a league or more, loaded with our baggage, and with even
our canoe. As for me, I not only carried my little bundle, but I also
helped our Indians and relieved them as much as I could, till at last
a boy some ten or twelve years old, belonging to our party, fell sick •
then I was forced to carry him on my shoulders in the marches occa-
sioned by the falls, of which I have spoken.” This and the heavy
burdens which he afterwards had to carry broke him down, so that
soon after his arrival at the mission of St. Joseph’s, at Ihonatiria, he
was prostrated by a dangerous malady. Destitute of every suitable
remedy, of food, and even of care, as his fellow-missioners, one by
one, were prostrated around, he trusted to Providence alone, and soon
recovered. He was immediately initiated into a missionary life by
Father Brebeuf, and spent the winter in hurrying from town to town
to visit the victims of a pestilence then raging throughout the coun-
try. Like all the missionaries, he had to contest every inch of ground
with the medicine men, who saw in the new apostles the destroyers
of their influence. The study of the language engaged his leisure
hours; and when the violence of the epidemic abated, he daily visitedMEMOIR.
167
a number of cabins to learn the practice,' then returned to listen to
tbe theory of the Huron language explained by its first master, Brebeuf.
After passing unscathed through the terrible persecution and immi-
nent danger to which the missionaries were exposed when the plague
broke out anew a year later, and almost depeopled the land, Father
Jogues, with the rest of the missionaries, removed to Teananstayae,
the second St. Joseph’s, (the first missionary station, Ihonatiria, hav-
ing dwindled to a few cabins.) We find him next, with Gamier,
carrying the Cross to the Petuns, who had imbibed such prejudice
against them, that the town Ehwaa, unmindful of Indian hospitality,
elosed its doors against them in the depth of winter, and compelled
the missionaries to depart from their ungrateful cabins. Never again
had it a season of mercy; the next year it was a heap of ruins, de-
stroyed by famine, pestilence, and war.
On his return from this painful mission, Father Jogues was sta-
tioned St the permanent residence which, under the name of St.
Mary’s, had risen on the banks of the river Wye. As in old con-
vents, a hospice stood hard by, where the wayfarer might enter in,
and where neophytes came from the most distant villages to receive,
away from the noise of their towns, full and particular instruction in
the truths of Christianity. From this seminary issued many of the
ablest and most fervent Catechists of the Huron Church. Father
Jogues was not, however, to remain here long: the Jesuit, like the
soldier, is ever liable to receive orders for a distant march. In the
summer of 1641, the neighboring nations had gathered in the Huron
country to witness the games, the dances and the alternately joyful
and lugubrious ceremonies of the Feast of the Dead. Among the
rest, came the Pauoitigoueieuhak, from the rapid outlet of Lake Su-
perior. Charmed with the conduct of the missionaries, they invited
them to their lodges, and Father Raymbault was chosen to visit them
from his skill in Algonquin; Father Jogues was assigned to him as a
companion, and they launched their bark in September on the Fresh-
Water Sea; and, wandering amid its maze of isles, hallowed to the
Indian’s mind, in seventeen days reached the Sault de Gaston, which
henceforth assumes in the mission annals the name we still give it—
Sault St. Mary’s. Here, where the adventurous Nicole! had pene-
trated a few years before, Jogues and Raymbault planted the Cross
turned to the South, where a great river was said to stretch away to
a vast lake, passing by the villages of countless tribes. Two thousand
Indians assembled round the Cross, and listened with attention to168
MEMOIR.
the words of truth; they earnestly pressed the missionaries to winter
with them; but the Huron land reclaimed them, and they returned
to their labors there.
While the missionaries were thus extending their spiritual con-
quests on every side, they were personally reduced to a state of most
frightful poverty; their clothes were in shreds, their little stock of
flour for hosts, was all but expended; for wine, they pressed the wild
grape of the forest, but even then they had not chalices and vest-
ments enough for the various missions. The want of the mere com-
forts of life had no weight with them, but now they needed what
could not be foregone; and though the Iroquois, who had for some
time back prevented all intercourse with Quebec, still waylaid the
passage, a Father must be sent: the Superior stated to Jogues his
wish that he should go; he had already asked of heaven an occasion
of suffering; his prayer was heard; he bowed his head and de-
parted.	*
The following letters (i.-iv.) will detail his subsequent history,
and give us, in his own words, the sufferings of this refined scholar
and poet, yet no less humble and zealous missionary.
The sequel of his career after his captivity can be shortly told.
He left New York in a small bark on the 5th of November, and
after much hardship, put into Falmouth, in England, having al-
most fallen into the hands of a Parliament cruiser. Here their bark
was entered by robbers, and F. Jogues stripped of his hat and coat.
Having seen a French collier, he went up to him, and though at first
taken for a beggar, made known his real character, and obtained
passage to the French coast, which he reached, between Brest and St.
Pol de Leon on Christmas Day, early enough to satisfy his devotion
by receiving communion, of which he had so long been deprived.
A good merchant took him to Rennes: unknown, he presented
himself at the college of his order as one who brought news from
Canada. The Rector, who was preparing to say Mass, hurried to see
the stranger as soon as he heard the word Canada. Almost his first
question was as to Father Jogues. “ Do you know him ? ” “si know
him well,” said the other. “ We have heard of his capture by the
Iroquois, and his horrible sufferings. What has become of him ? Is
he still alive \ ”	“ He is alive,” said F. Jogues; “ he is free, he is now
speaking to you! ”—and he cast himself at the feet of his astonished
Superior to ask his blessing.
Once known, honors met him on every side; objects belongingMEMOIR.
169
to him were eagerly sought as relics; the Queen Regent even re-
quested that he should come to Paris, that she might see so illus-
trious a sufferer. All this was painful to him, and it was not till
three times summoned that he proceeded to the capital. He longed
to return to Canada; but one thing prevented his departure. The
mangled hands which had been reverently kissed by the Queen and
Court of France, were an obstacle to his celebrating the Holy Sacri-
fice of the Altar. A dispensation was needed. Urban VIII. then
sat in the See of Peter-—a Pope noted especially for the stringent
rules which he introduced against any symptom of public veneration
to the departed servants of God until their life and virtues had been
sifted and examined in the long and minute legal proceedings for
canonization. Yet when the application of Father Jogues was pre-
sented, and he had learned the story of his sufferings, he forgot his
own laws, and exclaimed, as he granted it, “Indignum esse Christi
martyrem Christi non bibere sanguinem.”
Nothing now detained the missionary in France; and early in the
spring of 1644 he was again in Canada. The colony was on the
brink of ruin; but the Governor fortunately brought the Mohawks
to offer peace. It was concluded at Three Rivers on the 12th of
July, 1645. Father Jogues, though stationed at Montreal, was pres-
ent, and an anxious observer of the state of feeling. The treaty was
at last confirmed on the Mohawk, and again renewed on the St. Law-
rence, with a request for a missionary.
Conscious that he would be selected, Father Jogues announced
to his friends his perilous mission, (v.;) and in April, 1646, readily
accepted it when offered by his Superior, (vi.)
Though a mission was resolved upon, it was thought better that
he should go first as ambassador, and was accordingly sent with Mr.
Bourdon, an officer in the employ of the colony.* Of his embassy,
the missionary drew up a full account, which was in existence till
1800, when it was, with other papers belonging to the Canada
Jesuits, seized by the British Government. It has now disappeared.
The “Relation,” which doubtless followed it, says that they left Three
* As the misssionary was about to set out, an Algonquin chief advised him
to lay aside his religious habit. His reason was striking: it exemplifies per-
fectly what has been called “ the hideous face of Christianity.” “ There is
nothing,” said the Algonquin chiefs, “ nothing more repulsive at first than this
doctrine, that seems to exterminate all that men hold dearest. Your long gown
preaches it as strongly as your lips : leave it, and go in a short coat.”170
MEMOIR.
Rivers on the 16th of May, 1646, with four Mohawks and two Algon-
quins. Ascending the Sorel, they traversed Lake Champlain, and on
' the 29th of May reached the beautiful lake below it. Its Iroquois
name was Andiatarocte: for Europeans it was without a name, but
as it was the eve of Corpus Christi, the festival instituted by the
Church to honor Christ’s presence in the Holy Sacrament, the mis-
sionary gave it the name, which it bore for more than a century—
Lake Saint Sacrament.*
Continuing their march, they came to Ossaragu6, a fishing sta-
tion on the Maurice, or Upper Hudson, which they descended to Fort
Orange. When the missionary had here repaid his debt of gratitude
to his generous benefactors, the embassy proceeded to the Mohawk.
The first castle was reached on the 7th of June, its name had been
changed from Ossernenon to Oneowgowre. Here Jogues was wel-
comed as a friend: a council of Sachems was soon convened, and he
delivered the presents of the Governor, and in a discourse, still pre-
served, urged them to thoughts of peace. He was heard with atten-
tion, and responded to in a similar strain. According to Indian cus-
tom, he presented a belt of wampum to the tribe into which he had
been incorporated. The Wolf replied that Ondessonk should ever
find among them his mat to rest upon, and a fire to warm him.
Another present was yet to be made. Jogues had remarked
among the spectators some Onondaga braves, and to these also he
made a present, to smooth the way for the French to their land of
lakes. This was cheerfully accepted; and Jogues, no longer a tem-
poral envoy, turned to his spiritual avocations. The captive Chris-
tians were soon visited and consoled, the sacraments of baptism or
penance conferred on many; but he could not delay as long as his
zeal desired. The Iroquois pressed his departure, and on the 16th
he left their castles for the St. Lawrence. As he expected to return
speedily, he left a box containing his little missionary furniture: they
showed a disinclination to keep it, but as he opened it in their
presence he thought their suspicions dispelled, and went his way.
On his arrival in Canada, joy, such as had not been known for
years, quickened every heart, for all had been so suspicious of the
Mohawks, that public prayers had been constantly offered for the
missionary and his companion.
His immediate return to the Mohawk was now expected; but
* It would need but a slight change to make Lake George, Lake Jogues, and
surely its great discoverer deserves it better than a Hanoverian king.MEMOIR.
171
suddenly there came mysterious rumors, and the Superiors paused.
Jogues must not go. * But as the summer wore on all became quiet,
and, yielding to his entreaty, the Superior permitted him to depart#
In September, 1646, he left Three Rivers for the last time with
Lalande, a worthy successor of Goupil, and some Hurons. As they
advanced, they heard tidings which seemed positive as to the end of
the peace: some Hurons left them, but Jogues went fearlessly on.
After the return of these, the French were left in the greatest anxiety
and uncertainty as to his fate. Months rolled by, and no tidings
reached them: at last, almost at the same time, they heard from
some Hurons, who had escaped from the Mohawk, an account of his
death, and received letters from Governor Kieft which confirmed it.
The Indian account, as preserved in the manuscript of Father
Butetix and Father De Quen, is, that when the missionary was within
two days’ march of the castles, that is, half way between Lake George
and the Mohawk, he w7as met by a war party out against the French.
The missionary and his companion were immediately seized, and in
spite of his remonstrances stripped and beaten: they then turned
homeward, and Father Jogues was again led naked into Gandawague, f
the place of his former captivity. Blows were mingled with threats
of death on the morrow. “ You shall not be burned,” they cried;
“ you shall die beneath our hatchets, and your heads shall be fixed
on our palisades, to show your brethren whom we take.” In vain
did he endeavor to show them the injustice of treating him as an
enemy, when he came the messenger of peace: deaf to the voice of rea-
son, and blinded by superstition, they began their butchery. Slicing
off the flesh from his arms and back, they cried, “ Let us see whether
this white flesh is the flesh of an Otkon.” “ I am but a man like
yourselves,” replied the dauntless missionary, “though I fear not
* Decision in the Superior’s journal.
■)* Thus do all the French Relations from this time name the place of his
death: it is the same as Caughawaga, and means “ at the rapids.” Father
Poncet, in the narrative of his Captivity on the Mohawk, makes the place of Gou-
pil’s death that of Jogues* also, to he the second village, the Andagoron, or Gan-
dagoron, of Father Jogues. The present Caughnawaga may therefore he con-
sidered the place of the missionary’s death, as we have nothing to show that the
village in question lay south of the Mohawk, although the first village did.
Caughnawaga became, too, in the sequel, the centre of the most successful
Catholic mission among the Iroquois, and is hallowed, not only by the deaths
of Jogues and Goupil, but by the birth of the sainted Catharine Tehgakwita. It
is our holy ground.172
MEMOIB.
death, nor your tortures. You do wrong to kill me. I have come
to your country to preserve peace and strengthen the land, and to
show you the way to heaven, and you treat me like a dog! Fear
the chastisement of Him who rules both the Indian and the French I”
In spite of their threats his fate was undecided. Of the three
great families in each tribe, the Bear was clamorous for blood, while
the Tortoise and his own, the Wolf, declared that he should live.
A council was called in the largest town: it was there decided that
he should be spared; but it was too late.
Towards evening, on the day after his arrival, some Indians of the
Bear family came to invite him to supper; he rose to follow, but
scarce had he stooped to enter the lodge, when an Indian, concealed
within, sprang forward, and dealt him a terrible blow with his
hatchet. Kiotsaeton, the deputy, who had concluded the peace,
threw up his arm to avert the blow, but it cut through his arm, and
sank deep in the head of the missionary. His head was then cut off,
and set on the palisade. His companion shared his fate.
On the 5th of June, 1647, the day after the reception of the let-
ters from the Dutch authorities (viii. ix.), a solemn Mass of the Dead
was offered up at Quebec; but “ we could not,” says Bagueneau,
u bring ourselves to offer for him the prayers of the dead. We offered
the adorable sacrifice, but in thanksgiving for the favors which he
had received from God. Laity and religious share our sentiments on
this happy death, and more were found inclined to invoke his aid
than to pray for his repose.”
The Catholic clergy of our State may well be proud of so illus-
trious a founder, for he was the first priest who entered or labored in
the city and State of New York.
His sufferings and toils now find a place in every history of our
country; but we must not consider him as a mere explorer of the
wilderness, borne up perhaps by religious enthusiasm. He was a
man of deep and tender piety, of extraordinary candor and’ openness
of soul, timid by nature, yet of tried courage and heroic firmness ; a
man who saw all in God, and in all resigned himself to the directing
hand of Providence. To make God known at the expense of per-
sonal suffering was his only thought. In a word, he was one of those
superior men who rise from time to time in the Church, so distin-
guished from all around by an impress of sanctity, by a prestige of
all Christian virtue, as to make us look without astonishment on even
miraculous powers in their hands..NARRATIVE
OF THE CAPTIVITY OF FATHER ISAAC JOGUES, OF THE
SOCIETY OF JESUS, AMONG THE MOHAWKS, IN 1642
AND 1648.
Reverend Father in Christ,
The Peace of Christ :
Wishing to write to your Reverence, I at first hesitated
in what language to do so, for after so long a disuse, almost
equally forgetful of both, I found equal difficulty in either.
Two reasons, however, induced me to write in the less com-
mon idiom. I shall be better enabled to employ the words
of Holy Scripture which have at all times been my greatest
consolation, “amid the tribulations which have found us
exceedingly,” (Ps. xlv. 2 ;) I also wished this letter less
easily understood.
The exceeding charity of your Reverence, which in other
days overlooked my manifold trangressions, will excuse me
if, after eight years’ intercourse and residence with savages,
nay, a savage now in form and dress myself, aught be here
wanting in correctness or decorum. I fear still more, that,
rude in language, I may be more so in knowledge, “nor
know the time of my visitation,” (Luke xix. 44,) nor re-
member the character imposed on me by God, of preacher
of his Gospel, Jesuit and Priest. This induced me to write
to you, that if this letter should ever reach your hands, I
may, though living here in this hard land amid Iroquois and
Maaquas, be helped by your masses and the prayers of your
whole province. This aid, I trust, will be more earnestly
given, when from a perusal of this letter * you shall have
* This letter is adddressed to the Provincial of the Jesuits at Paris. The
original in its classic Latin has been printed by Alegambe, in his “ Mortes illus-
tres,” Rome, 1657; and by Tanner in his ‘‘ Societas militans,” Prague, 1675.174
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
seen both how much I am indebted to the Almighty, and in
what need I am of the prayers of the pious, in which, I am
aware, I have a powerful shield.
We sailed from the Hurons on the 13th of June, 1642,
in four small boats, here called canoes; we were twenty-
three in all, five of us being French.* The line of travel
is in itself most difficult for many reasons, and especially
because in no less than forty places both canoes and bag-
gage must be carried by land on the shoulders. It was,
moreover, now full of dangers, from fear of the enemy, who
every year, by lying in wait on the roads to the French
settlements, carry off many as prisoners; in fact, Father
John de Brebeuf had been all but taken the year before. Be-
sides this, they not long previous had carried off two French-
men, but afterwards brought them back to their countrymen
unharmed, demanding peace on most unjust terms, and
then conducted themselves in a very hostile manner, so that
they were driven off by our cannons. On this they declared,
that if they took another Frenchman prisoner, they would
torture him cruelly, like their other captives, and then bum
him alive at the stake.
The Superior, conscious of the dangers to which I was
exposed on this journey, (one, however, absolutely necessary
for God's glory,) assigned the task to me in such a way as
to leave me at liberty to decline it if I chose. “I did
not," however, “ resist, I did not go back," (Isaias 1.,) but
willingly and cheerfully accepted this mission imposed upon
me by obedience and charity. Had I declined it, it would
have fallen to another, far more worthy than myself.
Having therefore loosed from St. Mary's of the Hurons,
amid ever-varying fears of the enemy, dangers of every kind,
losses by land and water, we at last, on the thirtieth day
A sworn copy of the autograph letter is preserved at Montreal, examined and
attested in 1652 by Father Poncet, whose sufferings and captivity the next year
were hut a copy of those of Jogues and Bressani, who had preceded him to the
Mohawk. There is also another narrative of F. Jogues’ captivity, extorted
from him by Father Buteux, when his superior, which is more full in some
respects. This narrative was translated into Italian by Bressani in his work
“ Breve Relatione,” into German in the edition of Tanner in that language, and
part of it into French in the “Relation” of 1647; but, though written at the
capital of the State of New York, has never till now appeared in English.
* The place from which they departed was the Mission-house of St. Mary’s,
on a little river now called the Wye. Traces still exist to mark the site of this
cradle of European colonization in Upper Canada. It was at first at some dis-
tance from any Huron town, hut some years after this date, on the ruin of
the frontier towns, a village was grouped around it.THE JOGTTES PAPERS.
175
after our departure, reached in safety the Conception of the
Blessed Virgin. This is a French settlement or colony,
called Three Rivers, from a most charming stream which
just there empties by three mouths into the great River St.
Lawrence.* We returned hearty thanks to Grod, and re-
mained here and at Quebec about two weeks.
Having transacted the business which had brought us
down, we celebrated the feast of our holy father, Ignatius ;
and on the second of August were once more on our way
for Huronia. The second day after our departure had just
dawned when, by the early light, some of our party discov-
ered fresh foot-prints on the shore. While some were main-
taining that they were the trail of a hostile, others that of
a friendly party, Eustace Ahatsistari, to whom for his gal-
lant feats of arms all yielded the first rank, exclaimed,
u Brothers ! be they the bravest of the foe, for such I judge
them by their trail, they are not more than three canoes,
and we number enough not to dread such a handful of the
enemy” We were, in fact, forty, for some others had
joined us.
We consequently urged on our way, but had scarcely
advanced a mile when we fell into an ambush of the enemy,
who lay in two divisions on the opposite banks of the river,
to the number of seventy in twelve canoes. As soon as we
reached the spot where they lay in ambush, lurking in the
reeds and tall grass, they poured in a volley of musketry,
for they were well supplied with arms, riddling our canoes,
but killing none: one Huron only was shot through the
hand.*)* At the first report of the fire-arms, the Hurons,
almost to a man, abandoned the canoes, which, to avoid the
more rapid current of the centre of the river, were advanc-
ing close by the bank, and, in headlong flight, plunged into
the thickest of the woods. We, the four Frenchmen, thus
left with a few either already Christians, or at least Cate-
chumens, offering up a prayer to Christ, faced the enemy.
* The Algonquin name was Metaberoutse. It had been, prior to their ex-
pulsion from Canada, the site of an Iroquois town. Rel. 1634; Perrot MS.
f Father Jogues omits a fact worth mentioning. The pilot of his canoe was
unbaptized, though instructed. Regardless of the halls whizzing around, he
bade him kneel, and, bending down, took up a handful of water and baptized
him. This Indian, Bernard Atieronhonk, afterwards escaped, and was cease-
lees in his praise of the Missionary. “ Ondesonk,” he would exclaim, “ forgot
self at the sight of danger; he thought only of me and my salvation; he feared
not to lose his own life, but feared lest I should be lost forever.”176
THE JOGUES PAPEKS,
We were, however, outnumbered, being scarcely twelve or
fourteen against thirty ; yet we fought on till our comrades,
seeing fresh canoes shoot out from the opposite bank of the
river, lost heart and fled, Then a Frenchman named Rene
Goupil, who was fighting with the bravest, was taken, to-
gether with some of the Hurons. When I saw this, I neither
could nor cared to fly. Whither, indeed, could I escape,
barefooted as I was ? * Conceal myself amid the reeds and
tall grass I could indeed, and thus, perhaps, escape; but
could I leave a countryman and the Unchristened Hurons,
already taken, or soon to be ? As the enemy, in hot pur-
suit of the fugitives, had passed on, leaving me standing on
the battle-field, I called out to one of those who had re-
mained to guard the prisoners, and bade him place me
beside his French captive, that as I had been his companion
on the way, so would I be in his dangers and death.. Scarce
crediting what he beard, and fearful for himself, he ad-
vanced and led me to the other prisoners.
u Dearest brother,” I then exclaimed, “wonderfully hath
God dealt with us; ‘ but he is the Lord, let him,do what
is good in his sight/ (1 Kings, iii. 18 ;) as it hath pleased
him, so hath it come to pass, blessed be his name.” Then,
hearing his confession, I gave him absolution. I now turn-
ed to the Huron prisoners, and instructing them one by one,
baptized them. As new prisoners were constantly taken in
their flight, my labor was constantly renewed. At length,
Eustace Ahasistari, that famous Christian chief, was brought
in : when he saw me, Iiq exclaimed, “ Solemnly, indeed, did
I swear, brother, that I would live or die by thee.” What,
answer I made 1 know not, so much had grief overcome
me. Last of all, William Couture was dragged in : he, too,
had set out from Huronia with me. When he saw all
routed, he had,* with the rest, taken to the woods, and
being a young tnan, as gifted in body as in mind, had by
his ^agility left the enemy far behind ; but when he looked
around and could see nothing of me,—“ Shall I,” said he
to himself, “ abandon my dear Father a prisoner in the
hands of the savages, and fly without him ?—not I.”
Then, returning by the path which he had taken in flight,
he gave himself up to the enemy. Would that he had fled,
* To keep their canoes free from sand and gravel, the Indians required all
to enter them barefoot. Few even of the missionaries were exempted from this
rule.THE JOGUES PAPERS.
177
nor swelled our mournful band!—for, in sueb a case, it is
no comfort to have companions, especially those whom you
love as yourself. Yet such are the souls who, though but
laymen, serve God and the society among the Hurons, with
no views of earthly reward.*5 It is painful to think even
of all his terrible sufferings. Their hate was enkindled
against all the French, but especially against him, as they
knew that one of their bravest had fallen by his hand in the
fight. He was accordingly first stripped naked, all his nails
tom out, his very fingers gnawed, and a broad sword driven
through his right hand. Mindful of the wounds of our Lord
Jesus Christ, this pain, though most acute, he bore, as he
afterwards told me, with great joy.
When I beheld him thus bound and naked, I could not
contain myself, but, leaving my keepers, rushed through the
midst of the savages who had brought him, embraced him
most tenderly ; exhorted him to offer all this to God for
himself, and those at whose hands he suffered. They at
first looked on, in wonder, at my proceeding ; then, as if
recollecting themselves, and gathering all their rage, they
fell upon me, and with their fists, thongs and clubs beat me
till I fell senseless. Two of them then dragged me back
to where I had been before ; and scarcely had I begun to
breathe, when some others, attacking me, tore out, by biting,
almost all my nails, and crunched my two fore-fingers with
their teeth, giving me intense pain. The same was-done to
Rene Goupil, the Huron captives being left untouched.
When all had come in from the pursuit, in which two
Hurons were killed, they carried us across the river, and
there shared the plunder of the twelve canoes (for eight had
joined us). This was very great; for, independent of what
each Frenchman had with him, we had twenty packages, con-
taining Church plate and vestments; books and other arti-
cles of the kind—a rich cargo, indeed, considering the
poverty of our Huron mission; While they were dividing
the plunder, I completed the instruction of such as were
unchristened and baptized them. , Among the rest, was one
r * Goupil and Couture were what are called in the old French writers,
Donnes, that is, men given: they were not religious of the order to which they
attached themselves, but laymen, who, from motives of zeal, gave themselves to
the missionaries, to be employed as they saw fit. There probably never was a
set of more humble and heroic men than the DonnSs of the early Catholic
missions.
SECOND SERIES.—YOL. III.
12178
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
sere octogenarian warrior, who, when ordered to enter the
canoe to be borne off with the rest, exclaimed, “ What !
shall I, a hoary old man, go to a strange and foreign land ?
Never ! here will I die,” and there he died, for absolutely
refusing to go, they slew him on the very spot, where he had
just been baptized.
Raising then a joyful shout, which made the forest ring,
“as conquerors who rejoice after taking a prey,” [Isaiah
ix. 3,] they bore us off, as captives towards their own land.
We were twenty-two, three had been killed. By the favor
of Grod our sufferings on that march, which lasted thirteen
days,* were indeed great; hunger and heat and menaces, the
savage fury of the Indians, the intense pain of our untended
and now putrifying wounds, which actually swarmed with
worms. No trial, however, came harder upon me than to
see them five or six days after approach us jaded with
the march, and, in cold blood, with minds in nowise excited
by passion, pluck out our hair and beard and drive their
nails, which are always very sharp, deep into parts most
tender and sensitive to the slightest impression. But this
was outward ; my internal sufferings affected me still more,
when I beheld that funereal procession of doomed Christians
pass before my eyes, among them five old converts, the main
pillars of the infant Huron Church.f Indeed I ingenuously
admit that I was again and again unable to withhold my
tears, mourning over their lot and that of my other com-
panions, and full of anxious solicitude for the future. For
I beheld the way to the Christian faith closed by these
Iroquois on the Hurons and countless other nations, unless
they were checked by some seasonable dispensation of Divine
Providence.
On the eighth day we fell in with a troop of 200X Indians
* Every copy of this letter printed in Latin or other languages,, till the dis-
covery of the manuscript at Montreal, has here 38 days, although the context
shows the error. Taken the 2d, they reached the Castles on the 15th, leaving
just 13 days as the manuscript actually has. The Relation of 1647, Bressani, in
his work in 1653, as well as Alegambe and Tanner, have the erroneous number.
f The progress of the missionaries among the Hurons was at first extremely
slow ; three years elapsed after their return before a single adult was baptized,
and indeed the conversion of Ahasistari, just before the date of this narrative, was
the first impulse given. On his example and influence the missionaries had
built many fond hopes, and Jogues might well grieve to see them blasted. The
conversions of the Huron in any considerable number took place only when the
nation was on the brink of ruin. See Bressani, Breve Rel.
% Charlevoix, probably by a misprint, says 700. The place was an island
ia Lake Champlain. See account of Rene Goupil.THE JOGUES PAPERS.
179
going out to fight; and as it is the custom for savages when
out on war parties to initiate themselves, as it were, by
cruelty, under the belief that their success will be greater as
they shall have been more cruel, they thus received us.
First rendering thanks to the Sun, which they imagine pre-
sides over war, they congratulated their countrymen by a
joyful volley of musketry. Each then cut some stout clubs
in the neighboring wood in order to receive us. After we
had landed from the canoes they fell upon us from both
sides with their clubs in such fury., that I, who was the last
and therefore most exposed to their blows, sank overcome
by their number and severity, before I had accomplished half
the rocky way that led to the hill on which a stage had been
erected for us. I thought I should soon die there ; and so,
partly because I could not, partly because I cared not, I did
not arise.. How long they spent their fury on me He
knows, for whose love and sake it is delightful and glorious
thus to suffer. Moved at length by a cruel mercy, and
wishing to carry me to their country alive, they ceased to
strike. And thus half dead and drenched in blood, they
bore me to the scaffold. Here I had scarce begun to breathe
when they ordered me to come down to load me with scoffs
and insults, and countless blows on my head and shoulders,
and indeed on my whole body. I should be tedious were I
to attempt to tell all that the French prisoners suffered.
They burnt one of my fingers, and crunched another with
their teeth ; others already thus mangled they so wrenched
by the tattered nerves, that even now, though healed, they
are frightfully deformed. Nor indeed was the lot of my
fellow-sufferers much better.
But one thing showed that God watched over us, and
was rather trying than cutting us off. One of these savages,
breathing naught but blood and cruelty, came up to me,
scarce able to stand on my feet, and, seizing my nose with
one hand, prepared to cut it off with a large knife which he
held in the other. What could I do ? Believing that I
was soon to be burnt at the stake, unmoved, I awaited the
stroke, groaning to my God in heart, when, as if stayed by
a supernatural power, he drew back his hand in the very act
of cutting. About a quarter of an hour after he returned,
and, as it were, condemning his cowardice and fainthearted-
ness, again prepared to do it; when again held back by some
similar unseen hand he departed. Had he carried out his180
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
design my fate”was sealed, for ifc is not their custom to grant
life to captives thus mutilated.
My sufferings were great in themselves, heightened by
the sight of what a like cruelty had wreaked on the Christian
Hurons, fiercer than all in the case of Eustace ; for they
had cut off both his thumbs,* and through the stump of the
left one they, with savage cruelty, drove a pointed stake up
to his very elbow. This frightful pain he bore most nobly
and piously.
The following day we fell in with some other war canoes,
who cut off some of our companions' fingers to our great
dread.
On the tenth day about noon, we left our canoes, and
performed on foot the rest of the journey, which lasted four
days. Besides the usual hardships of the march came that
of carrying the baggage; hunger, too, was ever .increased
by the ever increasing want of food, so much so that for
three days we ate nothing but some berries once gathered
on the way.f
[Aug. 15th.] At last, on the eve of the Assumption of
the Blessed Virgin, we reached the first village of the
Iroquois. , I thank our Lord Jesus Christ that on the day
when the whole Christian world exults in the glory of His
Mother's \ Assumption into heaven, he called us to some
small share and fellowship of his sufferings and cross.
Indeed we had, during the journey, always foreseen that it
would be a sad and bitter day for us. It would have
been easy for Ren6 and me to escape that day and the
flames, for being often unbound and at a distance from our
guards, we might, in the darkness of night, have struck off
from the road, and even though we should never reach our
countrymen, we would at least meet a less cruel death in
the woods. He constantly refused to do this, and I was
resolved to suffer all that could befall me, rather than forsake
in death Frenchmen and Christian Hurons, depriving them
of the consolation which a priest can afford.
On the eve of Assumption, then, about three o'clock, we
* This practice of cutting off fingers so constant 'with the Iroquois was, be-
fore firearms were known, a matter of policy, to unfit their prisoners from hand-
ling the how. Sagard, 461.
t The text in Alegambe, and others, has here some details which I omit, as
they are not in the manuscript. One of these describes the Indian custom of
taking wsrm water to check the pangs of hunger.THE JOGUES PAPERS.	181
reached a river, which flows by their village [Ossernenon],
Both banks were filled with Iroquois, whti received us with
clubs, fists and stones. As a bald or thinly covered head is an
object of aversion to them, this tempest burst in its fury on
my bare head.* Two of my nails had hitherto escaped,
these they tore out with their teeth and with their keen
nails stripped off the flesh beneath to the very bones.
When satisfied with the cruelty and mockeries which we
thus received by the river side, they led us to their village
on the top of the hill. At its entrance we met the youth of
all that district, awaiting us in a line on each side of the road,
all armed with clubs. Conscious that if we withdrew our-
selves from the ranks of those chastised, we no less withdrew
ourselves from those of the children, we cheerfully offered
ourselves to our God, thus like a father chastising us, that
in us “ he might be well pleased.” Our order was as follows :
in the front of the line they placed a Frenchman, alas! en-
tirely naked, not having even his drawers ; Ren6 Goupil was
in the centre, and I, last of all, closed the line.
The Iroquois scattered themselves through the line
between us and the Hurons, to check our speed and afford
more time and ease to our torturers to strike us thus separ-
ately as we passed. Long and cruelly indeed “ did the
wicked work upon my back,” [Psalms, cxxviii. 3,] not with
clubs merely, but even with iron rods, which they have in
abundance, from their proximity to the Europeans ; one of
the foremost, armed with an iron ball of the size of a fist,
slung to a thong, dealt me so violent a blow that I should
have fallen senseless, had not fear of a second given me
strength and courage. Running then our long race amid
this fearful hail of blows, we with difficulty reached the stage
erected in the centre of the village.
If each here presented a face to excite compassion,
Rene's was certainly the most pitiable. Being by no means
quick or active he had received so many blows all over his
body, but especially in the face, that nothing could be dis-
tinguished there but the white of his eyes ; more beautiful,
indeed, as he more resembled Him, whom we have beheld
c as a leper and smitten by God for us,' “in whom there
was no comeliness or beauty.” [Isaias liii. 2.]
We had but just time to draw breath on this stage when
* Not .in MSS.	#182
THE JOGUES PAPEKS.
one, with a huge club, gave us Frenchmen three terrible
blows on the bare back ; the savages now took out their
knives and began to mount the stage, and cut off the
fingers of many of the prisoners, and as a captive meets
with cruelty proportioned to his dignity they began with
me, as my manner of acting showed me to be in authority
among the French and Hurons. Accordingly an old man
and a woman* approached the spot where I stood ; and he
commanded her to cut off my thumb ; she at first drew back,
but at last when the old wretch had three or four times re-
peated the order, as if by compulsion she cut off my left
thumb where it joins the hand. Then taking in my other
hand the amputated thumb, I offered it to thee, my true
and living God, calling to mind the sacrifices which I had
for seven years constantly offered Thee in thy Church.
At last warned by one of my comrades to desist, since
they might otherwise force it into my mouth and compel me
to eat it as it was, I flung it from me on the scaffold and
left it I know not where. Rene had his right thumb cut
off at the first joint. I must thank the Almighty that it
was his will that my right should be untouched, thus ena-
bling me to write this letter to beg my dear Fathers and
brothers to offer up their masses, prayers, supplications and
entreaties in the Holy Church of God, to which we feel our-
selves now entitled by a new right, for she often prays for
the afflicted and the captive.f
On the following day, the Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin, after spending the morning on the stage, we were taken
about mid-day to another village, [Andagoron,] about two
miles distant from the“first. As I was on the point of start-
ing, the Indian who had brought me, loth to lose my shirt,
sent me off with nothing but an old and tattered pair of
drawers ; when I beheld myself thus naked, “ Surely,
brother/' said I, “ thou wilt not send me off thus naked,
thou hast taken enough of our property to enrich thee."
This touched him, and he gave me enough of the hempen
bagging, in which our packages had been put up, to cover
my shoulders and part of my body. But my flesh, mangled
* In the printed text are here some words, stating her to have been a Chris-
tian A.lgonqnin, named Jane, not long before taken by the Iroquois.
t Here ends the first part, written apparently apart from what follows; which
is not in the attested copy in Canada. This we have hitherto followed, the rest
we take as given by Tanner and Alegambe.THE JOGUES PAPERS.
183
by their blows and stripes, could not bear this rough and
coarse cloth. On the way, while scarcely and at last not at
all covered by it, the heat of the sun was so intense, that
my skin was dried, as though in an oven, and peeled off
from my back and arms.
As we entered the second village blows were not spared,
though this is contrary to their usual custom, which is to be
content with making prisoners run the gauntlet once. The
Almighty, doubtless, wished us to be somewhat likened in
this point to his Apostle, who glories that he was thrice
beaten with rods, and though they received us with fewer
blows than the first, these were more cruelly given, being
better aimed from there being less of a crowd, and some
struck constantly on the shins to our exquisite pain.
The rest of the day we spent on the stage, and the
night in a hut tied down half naked to the bare ground, at
the mercy of all ages and sexes ; for we had been handed
over to the sport of the children and youth, who threw hot
coals on our naked bodies, which, bound as we were, it was no
easy matter to shake off. In this manner Indian children
make their apprenticeship in cruelty, and from less grow ac-
customed to greater.
In this village we spent two days and nights, with
scarcely any food or sleep, in great anguish of mind as far as
I was concerned ; for from time to time they mounted the.
stage, cutting off the fingers of my Huron companions, and
binding their clenched hands in hard cords so tightly drawn
that they fainted, and while each suffered but his own
pain, I suffered that of all. I was afflicted with as intense
grief as you can imagine a most loving father’s heart to feel
at the sight of his children’s misery, for, with the exception
of a few old Christians, I had begotten them all recently in
Christ by baptism.
Yet amid all this the Lord gave me such strength, that
suffering myself I was able to console the suffering Hurons
and French; so that both on the road and on the stage,
when the tormenting crowd of c saluters ’ * had dropped away,
I exhorted them, at one time together, at another individu-
ally, to preserve their patience and not lose confidence, which
would have a great reward; to remember u that by many
* (So they call those who wreak their cruelty on captives brought in.) Nota
in the original.184
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
tribulations it behoves us to enter into the kingdom of
heaventhat the time was come, indeed, foretold us by God,
when he said: cc Ye shall lament and weep, but the world
shall rejoice, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy ; ” that
we were like to “ a woman who, when she is in tfavail, hath
sorrow because her hour is come; but when she has brought
forth, no longer remembers her anguish for joy that a man is
born into the world [John xvi. 21;] so should they feel
assured that in a few days these momentary pains would
give place to never-ending joys. And surely I had reason
to rejoice when I beheld them so well disposed, especially
the older Christians, Joseph, Eustace and two others, for on
the very day that we reached the first village, the fifth one,
Theodore, had freed himself from his bonds, but as in the
battle his shoulder had been broken by a blow of a musket,
he died on his way to the French.
Never till now had the Indian scaffold beheld French
or other Christian captives.* Hence, contrary to usual cus-
tom, we were led around through all their villages to gratify
the general curiosity. The third indeed [Teonontogen] we
entered scatheless, but on the scaffold s scene met my eyes
more heart-rending than any torment ; it was a group of
four Hurons taken elsewhere by another party and dragged
in to swell our wretched company. Among other cruelties,
every one of these had lost some fingers, and the eldest of
the band his two thumbs. As soon as I reached them, I
began to instruct them separately on the articles of faith,
then on the very stage itself I baptized two with rain-drops
gathered from the leaves of a stalk of Indian com given us
to chew ; the other two I baptized at a little stream which
we passed when led to another village. At this place, cold
setting in after the rain, we suffered extremely from it as we
were entirely uncovered. Often shivering with cold on the
stage, I would, unordered, come down and enter some hut
but I could scarcely begin to warm myself when I was
commanded to return to the scaffold.
William Couture had thus far lost none of his fingers ;
this excited the displeasure of an Indian in the village, and
he sawed off half the forefinger of his right hand; the pain
* A Frenchman, Peter Magnan, had indeed been put to death as early as
1628 by the Mohawks to whom he went as ambassador. (Sagard, p. 483.
Le Clerc, ch. ix.) But this was probably forgotten by them and unknown to F.
Jogues. Marguerie and Godefroy, taken in 1640, were not tortured. Rel. 1640—1.THE JOGUES PAPERS.
185
was more excruciating, as he employed not a knife, but a
shell very common there. As it could not sever the sinews,
which were hard and slippery, he wrenched the finger so
violently that when the sinews gave way, the poor sufferer's
arms swelled frightfully up to his very elbow. An Indian
seeing it, was touched with compassion and took him to his
hut where he kept him the two days which we spent in that
village, leaving me in ignorance and great anxiety as to his
fate. At nightfall we were taken to a hut, where the youth
awaited us. Being ordered to sing as other captives do, we
at last complied, for alas ! what could we do ; but we
“ sang the canticles of the Lord in a strange land." Tor-
ture followed the chanting, and its fury burst especially on
Ren6 and myself, for the good savage still kept William in
his hut. On me then, and especially on Rene, they threw
hot ashes and live coals, by which he was severely burnt in
the breast.
They next hung me between two poles in the hut, tied
by the arms above the elbow, with coarse rope woven of the
bark of trees.* Then I thought I was to be burnt, for this
is one of their usual preliminaries ; and that I might know,
that I had thus far borne any thing with fortitude or even
with patience, this came not from myself, but from Him
who gives strength to the weary. Now as though left to my-
self in this torture I groaned aloud, for “ I will glory in my
infirmities that the power of Christ may dwell in me,"
[2 Cor. xii. 9,] and from my intense pain I begged my tor-
turers to ease me some little from those hard rough ropes. But
God justly ordained that the more I pleaded, the more they
drew my bonds. At last, when I had been hanging thus
about a quarter of an hour, they unloosed me, as I was on
the point of fainting. I render thee thanks, 0 Lord Jesus,
that I have been allowed to learn, by some slight experience,
how much thou didst deign to suffer on the cross for me,
when the weight of thy most holy body hung not by ropes,
but by thy hands and feet pierced by hardest nails !
Other chains followed these, for we were tied to the
ground to pass the rest of the night. What did they not
then do to my poor Huron companions, thus tied hand and
foot ? What did they not attempt on me ? But once
* Bressani was hung tip in the same way and loaded with chains. This tor-
ture is not unlike that of the thumbscrew applied to the Jesuits in more civilized
countries. See Jardine on the Use of Torture in England.186
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
more I thank thee, 0 Lord, that thou didst save me, thy
priest, ever unsullied from the impure hands of the savages.
When we had thus spent two days in that village, we
were led hack to the second [Andagoron] which we had
entered, that our fate might be finally determined. We
had now been for seven days led from village to village,
from scaffold to scaffold, become a spectacle to God and to
his angels, as we may hope from his divine goodness, a scoff
and jeer to the vilest savages, when we were at last told
that that day should end our lives amid the flames. Sooth
to say, this last act was not without its horrors, yet the
good pleasure of God, and the hope of a better life, where
sin should have no place, rendered it rather one of joy.
Addressing my French and Huron companions, for the last
time, I bid them be of good heart, and amid their mental
and bodily sufferings to think “diligently upon Him that
had endured such opposition of sinners against himself; not
to be weary, fainting in their minds/' (Heb. xii. 3,) but to
hope that the morrow would unite us to our God, to reign
for ever.
Fearing lest we might be torn asunder, I especially
advised Eustace to look towards me when we could not be
together, and by laying his hand on his breast and raising
his eyes to heaven, to show contrition for his sins, so that
I could absolve him, as I had already frequently done after
hearing his confession, as well on the way as after our ar-
rival* Acting on my advice, he several times made me
the sign.
The sachems, however, on further deliberation resolved
that no precipitate action was to be taken with regard to
the French prisoners, and summoning us before the council
they declared that our lives were spared. To almost all the
Hurons they likewise granted life ; three only were excepted,
Paul, Eustace, and Stephen, who were put to death in the
three villages which make up the tribe ; Stephen in Anda-
goron, the village where we were; Paul in Ossernenon, and
Eustace in Teonontogen. The last-named was burned in
almost every part of his body, and then beheaded ; he bore
* Owing to the sacramental grace of absolution, a Catholic ‘will often seek
ft, when not conscious of any mortal sin which absolutely requires it: and thus
renews his contrition for past, hut forgiven sins, as an act pleasing to God and
beneficial to himself.THE JOGUES PAPERS.
187
all most piously, and while it is usual for dying captives to
cry out,—
“ Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor.”—JEn. iv. 625.
Rise from our scattered bones, avenger, rise !
he, on the contrary, in the Christian spirit which he had so
deeply imbibed in baptism, implored his countrymen who
stood around not to let any feelings for his fate prevent
the conclusion of a peace with the Iroquois. Paul Onon-
horaton, who, after the usual fiery ordeal, was tomahawked
in the village of Ossernenon, was a young man of about
twenty-five, full of life and courage ; for such they generally
put to death, to sap, as it were, the life-blood of the hostile
tribe. , With a noble contempt of death, arising, as he
openly professed on [the way, from his hope of a better life,
this generous man had repeatedly, when the Iroquois came
up to me to tear out my nails, or inflict some other injury,
offered himself to them, begging them to leave me and*turn
their rage on him. May the Lord return him a hundred-
fold, with usury, for that heroic charity which led him to
give “ his life for his friend,” and for those “ who had be-
gotten him in Christ in bondage/'
Towards evening of that day they carried off William
Couture, whom they regarded as a young man of unpar-
alleled courage, to Teonontogen, the furthest village of their
canton, and gave him to an Indian family. (It is the cus-
tom of these savages, when they spare a prisoner's life, to
adopt him into some family, to supply the place of a de-
ceased member, to whose rights he, in a manner, succeeds;
he is subject thenceforward to no man's orders but those of
the head of the family, who, to acquire this right, offers
some presents.*) But seeing that Ren6 and I were less
vigorous, they led us to the first village, the residence of the
party that had captured us, and left us there [Ossernenon]
till some new resolution should be taken.
After so many a long day spent fasting, after so many
sleepless nights, after so many wounds and stripes, especially
after such heart-rending anguish of mind, when time was,
so to speak, given us at last to feel our sufferings, we sank
into a state of helplessness. Scarce able to walk or even
stand erect, nor night nor day brought a moment of repose,
* This is a note added apparently by another hand, as it interrupts the nar-
rative.188
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
from many evils, but chiefly from our still untended wounds ;
all this state was rendered more trying by the myriads of
lice, fleas and bugs, which it was not easy to keep from us
with maimed and mutilated fingers. Besides this, we suf-
fered from hunger ; more true here than elsewhere is the
saying :
“Non cibus utilis segro.”
So that, with nothing but unripe squashes to add to their
American (or, as we Europeans call it, Turkish) corn, care-
lessly bruised between two stones, we were brought to the
verge of the grave, especially Ren6, whose stomach refused
this food, and who, from his many wounds, had almost lost
his sight. The Indians then seeing us fail day by day,
hunted up in the village some small fishes and some bits of
meat dried in the sun or smoke, and pounding them, mixed
them with our sagamity. After three weeks we were just
recovering from our illness, when we were sought to be put
to death. The two hundred Indians who had maltreated
us so on the way, advanced into New France, to the point
where the river Iroquois,5*" so called from them, empties into
the great river St. Lawrence : here seeing a party of French
engaged in laying the foundations of Fort Richelieu, they
thought they could easily kill some and carry off the rest as
prisoners. Accordingly the whole two hundred, in a single
column, almost all armed with muskets, rushed almost un-
expected on the whites engaged in tjieir various works. At
the first onset of the foe, the French, though but a handful
compared to the hostile forces, flew to arms, and so bravely
and successfully withstood their savage assailants, that after
killing two and wounding many more, they put the rest to
flight. The war party returned furious, and as though they
had been greatly wronged, who had gone forth to do wrong,
demanded the death of such of us as were yet alive. u It is
a shame,” they cried, “ that three Frenchmen should live
quietly among us, when they have so lately slain three of
our braves.” Amid these complaints, Rene's safety espe-
cially and my own were brought into great jeopardy. He
alone, who as he gave, so proteeteth life, warded off the
blow..
[Sept. 7.] On the eve of the nativity of the Blessed Vir-
gin, one of the principal Hollanders, who have a settlement
* The Sorel, or Richelieu.TJEE JOGUES PAPEBS.
189
not more than twenty leagues from these Indians, came with
two others to effect our liberation.* He remained there
several days, offered much, promised more, obtained nothing.
But as they are a wily and cunning race of savages, in order
not to seem to refuse all that a friend asked, but to concede
something to his desires, they lyingly asserted that they
would in a few days restore us to our countrymen. This was ,
perhaps the wish of some of them ; but in the latter part of
September (for constant rains had put off the matter till that
time) a final council was held on our fate, although osten-
sibly provisions had been prepared and men appointed- to
take us back. Here the opinion of the few well inclined was
rejected, confusion carried the day, and some clamorous
braves declared that they would never suffer a Frenchman to
be taken back alive. The council broke up in alarm, and
each, as if in flight, returned to his lodge or the village
whence he came. Left thus to the cruelty of bloodthirsty
men, attempts were * constantly made on our lives. Some,
tomahawk in hand, prowled around the cabins to find and
despatch us. However, towards the close of the council, God
had inspired me with some thought that induced me to draw
my companions together, without the village, in a field be-
longing to the cabin where I was. Here, ignorant of what
had transpired, we lay hid in comparative safety, until the
storm under which we should all have fallen, had we re-
mained in the village, was somewhat calmed.
William was after this taken back by his master to his
own village. Ren6 and I, perceiving that there was now no
hope of our return, withdrew to pray on a neighboring hill
which commands the village. Here, remote from every wit-
ness and from all officious intrusion, we resigned ourselves
entirely to God and to His holy will. . On our road back to
the village we were reciting our beads, and had already com-
pleted four decades of the rosary, when we met two young
men, who commanded us to return to the village. “ Dear
brother/' said I, “we know not what may be, in this period
of general excitement, the design of these men; let us com-
* This was the celebrated Arendt Van Curler, s6 highly esteemed by the
French and Indians. The latter even gave his name perpetually to the English
governors. He was the constant friend of Father Jogues, and after many
ineffectual attempts to ransom him, by the charitable contributions of the Dutch
colonists, aided him to escape. The journal of his present visit to the Mohawk
villages has been published by Dr. O’Callaghan in his History of New Nether-
land, vol, i. p. 334:.*190
THE JOGUES PAPERS*
mend ourselves earnestly to God, and to the most blessed
Virgin our good Mother ” We had reached the village in
prayer, when at its very entrance one of the two who had
met us, plucking forth his tomahawk, which was concealed
in his dress, dealt Ben6 so deadly a blow on the head that he
fell lifeless, invoking the most holy name of Jesus as he fell.
We had happily (mindful of the indulgence thereby gained)
often reminded each other to close our life by uttering with
our dying voice that holiest of names.
At the sight of the reeking hatchet I knelt down on the
spote, and, uncovering my head, awaited a like blow ; but
when I had been there a moment or two, they bade me rise,
as he had no right to kill me, for I was the slave of another
family. Bising then in haste, I ran to my still breathing
companion and conferred absolution, which I was in the
habit of giving him after his confession every other day ; then
two other blows, dealt before my very face, added him to the
number of the blessed. He was thirty-five years of age,
eminent for his simplicity of manners, his innocence of life,
his patience in adversity. Entirely submissive to God, whom
he in all things regarded as present before his eyes, he was
ever resigned to His most holy will in love. Most worthy is
he, Beverend Eather, to be counted among thy children, not
only because he had most edifyingly spent several months in
one of the novitiates of the Society, and had* afterwards, by
order of the Superiors, to whom he gave the entire disposal
of his life, proceeded to Huronia to aid the Christian popu-
lation by his medical knowledge, but especially does he merit
it from the fact that, a few days before his death, impelled
by a desire of uniting himself more closely to God, he pro-
nounced the usual vows of the Society to subject himself to
it as far as in him lay. And certain it is, that in life as in
death, where his last word was the most holy name of Jesus,
he had proved himself no unworthy son of the Society. Nay,
I not only love him as a brother, but revere him as a martyr
—martyr to obedience, and still more, a martyr to the faith
and to the cross. As he was very pious, and accustomed to
be with the Christians, or such as were more intimate with
our Christians, he daily spent a long time in prayer, to the
wonder and even suspicion of the savages, so novel did it
seem to them. These suspicions were confirmed in their
minds, when one day, taking off the cap of a child in the hut
where he lived, he made him make the sign of the cross onTHE J0GUES PAPERS.
191
his breast and forehead ; for a superstitious old Indian, the
grandfather of the boy, seeing this, ordered him to be killed.
This I afterwards learned from the boy's mother, who told
me that he had been killed by the old man for that reason.
But to resume my narrative. After I had been a little
while in our hut, where my life had been pretty tranquil, I
was taken to another, the hut of the one that had cut off my
thumb, a most bitter enemy of the Algonquins, and conse-
quently of the French. Here not I alone, but the Iroquois
generally, expected every moment to see me tomahawked.
In consequence some who had given me articles of clothing,
that I might in part at least cover my person, now asked
them back, for fear of losing them by my death.
The next day I was filled with so great an anxiety to
know what had become of my dear companion that I re-
solved to look for his body at all hazards, and commit it, if
possible, to the earth. After stripping it, they had con-
temptuously tied a rope around the neck and dragged it
through the village to a ravine at a considerable distance,
where they flung it. As I was going out of the village I
met the old man in whose lodge I had previously been ; he
advised me to stay at home : u Whither art thou hurrying,"
he exclaimed, u thou art scarce alive ; they seek thee every
where to slay thee, and yet thou goest to find an already
putrefying corpse ; dost thou not see those fierce young
braves who are about to kill thee ? '' Some in fact had gone
out of the village just before me with arms in their hands ;
but fearlessly, for in my bitter anguish it was 6 a pain to live,
a gain to die' in such a work of charity, If pursued my way.
When the old man saw me so resolute he asked another
Indian to go with me. By his assistance I found the body
which the dogs had begun to gnaw about the hips, and,
sinking it in the deepest part of the torrent, I covered it
with a heap of stones, intending to return the next day with
a spade and bury it secretly and alone, for I was afraid that
they would disinter it. As I re-entered our hut I found
two young men waiting to take me to their village to put
me to death. Aware of their design I told them that I was
in the hands of those with whom I lived, that if they gave
the slightest consent I would accompany them; as I would,
in fact, have done. Seeing that they gained nothing in
this way, the next day one of them, who, at the time of our
capture had, with his brother, been wounded in the action,192
THE JOGtTES PAPERS.
seeing me in a field, whither I had gone to execute some
order of my owners, seized a hatchet and was rushing on to
kill me, when he was stopped by an old man of our family
and prevented from accomplishing his design. Thus did the
Almighty teach me “to cast all my solicitude on him,"
“ knowing that he hath care for me, and that I should not
fear the face of man/' when the Almighty was the protector
of my life, without whose permission not a hair could fall
from my head.
As I could not that day accomplish my design, I pro-
ceeded to the spot early the next morning, with a spade or
hoe, to inter the body, but alas! they had carried off my
brother. I returned to the spot, I ascended the mount at
the foot of which the torrent ran, I descended again ; I
searched the wood on the opposite side,—all, all in vain.
The torrent ran swollen by the night rains, but undeterred
either by its depth or the cold, for it was the first of Octo-
ber, I tried the bottom with my stick and feet, as I thought
that the stream might perhaps have borne him to another
spot; I asked all whom I met, whether they knew any thing
of him ; but as they are a most mendacious race and always
give an affirmative answer without regard to truth, they
falsely told me that it had been dragged to a quite distant
river. What groans did I not utter then? What tears
did I not sfred, mingling them with the waters of that
mountain stream, chanting to Thee, my God, the psalms
which the holy Church employs in the service of the dead.
When, however, the snows had melted away I heard
from the young men that they had seen the scattered bones
of the Frenchman. Hurrying to the spot, I gathered up
the half-gnawed bones, the remnants left by the dogs, the
foxes and the crows, and clearest of all the skull fractured
in several places ; these, reverently kissing, I committed to
the earth that I might one day, if such were God's will,
bear them with me as a'great treasure to a consecrated
Christian land.
From many other dangers which I know and know not,
did the Lord rescue me, unwilling and furious as the Iro-
quois were; but the following I should not omit. There was
in our cabin an idiot who asked me to let him cut off two
hands' breadth from a wretched bit of cloth not seven long,
yet all that I had to cover me. “ Brother/' said I, “ thou
seest me shivering every night under this short thin cover-THE JOGUES PAPERS.
193
ing; but do as thou wilt.” My modest excuse offended
him ; and when soon after I went to the huts of the bap-
tized Hurons, whom I daily instructed and “ bore again till
Christ should be formed in them,” (Gal. iv. 19,) he came in
search of me and fiercely bade me return. When I entered
the cabin, Rene's murderer was sent for, that the same hand
might end both our lives ; they looked for him in vain ; he
could not be found. I was accordingly sent the next day
with two women into a field of his, where he was then stay-
ing, under the pretence of bringing back some article or
other, but in fact to be exposed to death; for two days be-
fore the only son of one of their noble women had died in
our cabin, and I was to be sacrificed to his manes. These
women actually had with them the squashes, corn, and other
articles of the kind which were to be the fee of my execu-
tioner. “ But I like a deaf man heard not ” the vain things
they devised, “ and like a dumb man opened not my mouth,
and I became like a man that heareth not, nor hath a reply
in his mouth,” (Ps. xxvii. 14,) “ because in Thee, 0 Lord,
have I hoped;” but mindful of his meekness, “ who was led
like a lamb to the slaughter,” (Acts, viii. 32,) I went to my
death begging the Lord with David “ to turn away evil
from my enemies and scatter them in his truth.” (Ps. liii.
7.) About midway we met the looked-for murderer. Seeing
him at a distance, I commended myself for the last time to
God, begging him to receive a life spent with care and
anguish ; but my sins still rendered me unworthy. He
passed quietly by us, and his mother, who soon' met us,
addressed some words, of what import I know not, to those
who conducted me; on this, trembling and as if in flight,
they darted off, leaving me in the road, for they saw that I
was aware of their design.
Amid this frequent fear and death, while every day I
die, or rather drag on a life more bitter than any death, two
months glided away. During this time, I made no effort
to learn their language ; for why should I, who every mo-
ment expected to die ? The village was a prison for me ;
I avoided being seen ; I loved the wild wood, where I beg-
ged the Lord not to disdain to speak to his servant; to give
me strength in such fearful trials—iu which indeed, if I
have become a prodigy to many, God was my stout helper*
and often, by His unfailing goodness, roused my drooping
spirits. I had recourse to the Holy Scriptures, my only
SECOND SERIES.—VOL. III.	13194
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
refuge “in the tribulations which had found me exceeding-
ly these did I venerate ; with these I wished to die. Of all
the books which we were carrying to Huronia for the use
of the Frenchmen living there, none had fallen into my
hands but the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews, with the
paraphrase of the Eight Eev. Anthony Godeau, Bishop of
Gratz. This little book, with a picture of St. Bruno, the
illustrious founder of the Carthusian order, to which some
indulgences were attached, and a rude wooden cross which
I had made, I always carried about me ; so that wherever
death, ever present before my eyes, should strike me down,
I might cheerfully die with the Holy Scriptures, which had
ever been my greatest consolation, with the graces and
indulgences of my most holy mother the Church, whom I
always greatly, but now most tenderly loved, and with the
cross of my Lord and Saviour.
And now the middle of October was come, when the
Indians leave their villages to go and hunt deer, which they
take by traps, or kill with their guns, in the use of which
they are very skilful. This season, to the Indians one of
relaxation and enjoyment, brought its new burden of sor-
rows for me ; for I was given to a party who were at first
amazed at me, then ridiculed, and at last began to hate
me. Mindful of the character imposed upon me by God,
I began with modesty to discourse with them of the adora-
tion of one only God, of the observance of his command-
ments, of heaven, hell, and the other mysteries.of our faith,
as fully as I was able. At first, indeed, they listened ; but
when they saw me constantly recur to these things, and
especially when the chase did not meet with the desired
success, then they declared that I was a demon who caused
them to take so little game. But what turned their ill-will
into perfect rage and fury, so to speak, was this: it is the
custom with all these nations to have recourse, in their
hunting, fishing, war, sickness, and the like, to a certain
demon, whom they call Aireskoi.* Whoever desires his
fishing, hunting, or other expeditions to be successful, takes
meat and other of the better articles of food, and begs the
* In Huron, Agreskoue. This demon or divinity is evidently the same as
Tharonhyawagon, or the holder of the heavens, whose worship, even among
the so-called Pagan Iroquois, has been superseded by that of the true God,
called by them “ Niio,” a corruption of Dieu, or with an Indian prefix, Haw-
enniio.THE JOGUES PAPERS.
195
oldest of the house or village to bless them for him, if I may-
use the expression, and there are some to whose blessings
they attach more value than to others. The old man stand-
ing opposite the one who holds the meat, in a loud and dis-
tinct voice, speaks thus : “ Oh, demon Aireskoi! lo we offer
thee this meat, and of it we prepare thee a banquet, that
thou mayest eat thereof and show us where lurk the deer,
and lead them into our traps; ” or if not during the chase,
“ that by thee we may again behold the spring, taste the
new harvest, and again engage in the chase in the fall:9
if it be a case of illness—“that by thee we may recovei
health.”
The very first time I heard a formula couched in such
words, I was filled with a deep detestation of this barba-
rian superstition, and firmly resolved to abstain for ever from
meats thus offered. They interpreted this abstinence on
my part, and this contempt of their demon, as the cause
of their taking little game : “the wicked have hated me
without cause.” (John xv. 25.) As under the influence of
this hate, they would neither listen to my instructions, nor
help me to acquire their language in which I refuted their
fables, I resolved to devote my time entirely to spiritual
exercises. Accordingly, I went forth every morning from
the midst of this Babylon, that is, our hut, where constant
worship was paid to the devil and to dreams,* and “ saved
myself in the mountain,” (Gen. xix. 17,) a neighboring hill.
Here I had formed a large cross on a majestic tree, by strip-
ping off the bark, and at its foot I spent almost the whole
day with my God, whom, almost alone in those vast wilds,
I worshipped and loved : sometimes in meditation or in
prayer, at other times reading an Imitation of Christ, which
I had just before recovered. This for some time was unper-
ceived ; but on one occasion finding me, as was my wont,
in prayer before my cross, they attacked me most violently,
saying that they hated the cross, that it was a sign they
and their friends, the neighboring Europeans, knew not,
(alluding to the Dutch Protestants). Upon this, I changed
* An instance of their superstitious worship of dreams gave him an occasion
of Christian fortitude. A sick man, for whom the medicine-men were perform-
ing their usual mummeries, dreamed that he should recover if Ondesson were
to come with his Arrihsa, or book, and do as the French did when they prayed;
—they called on Jogues to satisfy this dream; but he resolutely refused, though
threatened, with death; and when they attempted to drag him there, he
escaped by a precipitate flight.—Buteux’s MSS, (See Bruyas, Marines Aynieres..)196
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
my conduct; and whereas I had before carefully avoided
praying or kneeling in the hut, that I might not give them
the slightest reason to complain, (for we should, especially
among savages but little accustomed to such things, act in
all prudence,) I now conceived that 1 should no longer re-
frain from those pious exercises which make up a spiritual
life—a life I far preferred to my temporal one. This I
believed would he serviceable to them when the moment
of their conversion should come, “ which the Father hath
put in his own power.” (Acts i. 7.)
While thus an object of their enmity, I certainly suffered
much from hunger and cold, the contempt of the lowest of
men, the bitter hatred of their women, who are the great-
est gainers by the hunting season, and regarded me as the
cause of their want and poverty. I endured, indeed, great
hunger, for as almost all the venison on which they then
chiefly lived had been offered to the demon in these obla-
tions, I spent many days fasting; and almost every night
when I came in famished, I would see our Egyptians sitting
over their fleshpots, which my severe, though self-imposed
law, prevented my touching. And although reasons occur-
red to me in a manner dissuading me from my course, yet,
by God’s grace, I never suffered myself to break my resolu-
tion, but in hunger said to my Lord, “ We shall be filled
with the good things of thy house,” (Ps. lxiv. 5;) “I shall
be satisfied when thy glory shall appear,” (Ps. xvi. 15,)
when thou wilt truly fill the desire of thy hungry servants
in thy holy city Jerusalem, “ which thou wilt fill for ever
with the fat of corn.” (Ps. cxlvii. 14.)
I suffered also greatly from cold, amid the deep snows
in my scanty, worn-out cloak, especially at night, when or-
dered to sleep uncovered on the bare ground on some rough
bark ; for though they had plenty of deer-skins, perfectly
useless to them, not one was given to me ; nay, when some-
times, on a very bitter night, I would, driven by the cold,
secretly take one, they rose at once and stripped it from
me, so great was their enmity. My skin was now in such
a state, that I could, with David, say, “it had withered with
the filth of dust,” (Job vii. 5;) it split with cold, and gave
me great pain all over my body.
But when inward afflictions came crowding on these
outward cares, then indeed my grief became intolerable. I
remembered that I had been recently covered with the life’sTHE JOGTJES PAPERS.
197
blood of my dearest companion—and tjiose who came from
William's Village told me that he had already been put to
death, with exquisite torture, and that I myself, on my re-
turn, was to meet the same fate. With this came up the
remembrance of my past life, stained with so many sins,
and so unfaithful to God ; and I grieved that I was thus
to be tom away, unaided by any of the sacraments, in the
midst of my course—rejected, as it were, by God, with no
good works sent on to plead my cause. In this state, loath-
ing life, yet shrinking from death, I uttered many a mourn-
ful cry, and said unto my God: When shall my sorrows and
miseries have an end ?—How long wilt thou forget our want
and our tribulation ?—When, after this tempest, wilt thou
give us calm, and, after weeping, joy and exultation ?—
“And had not those days been shortened, my flesh had not
been saved." (Mark xiii. 20.) I had recourse to my wonted
refuge of the Scriptures, my usual retreat, and passages
which my memory had retained taught me how I should
think of God in goodness, even though not upheld by sensi-
ble devotion ; that I should know that “the just man lives
by faith." (Wis. i. 1.) I searched them ; I followed their
streamlets, and sought, as it were, to quench my daily thirst.
“ I meditated on the law of God night and day," (Ps. i. 2,)
and “ had not the law of God been my meditation, I had
perhaps perished in my abjection," (Ps. cxviii 92,) and
“ my soul had passed through a water insupportable." (Ps.
cxxiii. 8.) “ But blessed be God, who did not give us a prey
to the teeth of our enemies," (Ps. cxxiii. 6,) “whose hour
had come and the power of darkness," (Luke xxii. 53,) “ in
which we were overmuch oppressed," (2 Cor. i. 8 ;) so that
I was weary of life, and could say with Job, though in a
different meaning, “Although he should kill me, I will trust
in him." (Job. xiii. 15)
Thus passed two months away in this retreat, where,
like St. Bernard, a disciple of the trees of the forest, I
thought of naught but God, until, having become an object too
hateful to all to be any longer borne with, I was sent back
to the village before the usual time. During this journey,
which took us eight days, “ I was become like a beast of
burthen before God," (Ps. lxxii. 23,) under the heavy load
of venison which I carried; and being ignorant what fate
awaited me at the village, since many reports had been
spread about me by a party that had gone before, I endeav-198
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
ored to be ever united with God. My sufferings on the
march from the intense cold were extreme; for I was nearly
naked, and we generally passed the night in the open air.*
My unhealed fingers were another source of misery, for the
wounds were hardly closed by the middle of January. In
the village, however, a thin skin was added to my worn-out
mantle, and in this wretched guise I traversed the streets
of our village, begging that the Lord would one day join me
to his saints, who formerly served him in “ sheep-skins, in
goat-skins, distressed, afflicted, of whom the world was not
worthy.” (Heb. xi. 37.) And I daily saw the Indians well
dressed in the cloth and garments which our baggage had
plentifully supplied, while I was shivering night and day
with cold ;—but this was little ; more was I moved to see
these heathen men unworthily profane things dedicated to
the service of God. One of them had made himself leggings
of two of the veils used at Mass—
----“non hos servatum nranus in usus.”—JEn. iv. 647.
I can, in truth, say before God of all that period up to
mid-January : “ Even unto this hour we both hunger and
thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no fixed
abode. And we labor working with our hands : we are re-
viled and we bless ; we are persecuted and we suffer it; we
are ill-spoken of and we entreat; we are made as the refuse
of this world, the offscouring of all, even until now.” (1 Cor.
iv. 11.)
When in the middle of January my owners returned
from the chase, they in a manner dressed me in skins, until
a Lorrainese, who lived among our Dutch neighbors, hear-
ing that I suffered greatly from cold, sent me from his house
a dress, such as they usually sell to the Indians. This
brought some slight alleviation to my pains ; but I found
still greater in the care of an old woman, whose only son
had died not long before. A noble of high rank in the
nation (for barbarism, too, has its nobles),f she took care
* He omits an act of charity which he performed on this march. A woman,
heavily loaded and carrying a child, fell from a tree which formed a bridge over
a deep and rapid stream, and would have perished had he not sprung into the
water and rescued her. Yet they showed no gratitude: on returning to the
village, he was sent back to the hunters, and falling from exhaustion, was set
to nurse one of his persecutors, then a dying mass of corruption, abandoned
by all .—BvJtevx.
I Some of these noble matrons, under the name of Oyenders, sat in council
with the Sachems.—Bruyas, Racines Agnieres.THE JOGUES PAPERS.
199
of me, and “the Lord gave me grace in her eyes.” Yet all
this was but a slight solace in such woe.
When I saw that my life was at last in some sort
spared, I applied myself to the study of the language, and
as our cabin was the council-hall not only of the village, but
almost all that canton, I began to instruct the oldest on the
articles of our faith. They, too, put me many questions as
to the sun and moon, the face which seems to appear on her
disk, the circumference of the earth, the size of the ocean,
its tides, whether, as they had heard, the heavens and the
earth anywhere met each other ? Adapting my philosophy
to their reach, I satisfied them on all these points ;—then,
indeed, they began to wonder and say : “ Indeed we should
have lost a great treasure, had we put this man to death,
as we have been so often on the point of doing.” Then I
endeavored to raise their minds from creatures to a know-
ledge of the Creator : I confuted their old wives’ tales of
the creation of the world, which their fable makes out to
have been created by a tortoise : the sun was, I showed
them, not only without intellect, but even a lifeless mass,
much less a God: “ with whose beauty, if they, being de-
lighted, took it to be a God, they should know how much
the Lord of it is more beautiful than it,” (Wis. xiii. 3;)
that Aireskoi, whom they pretended to be the author and
preserver of life, and the giver of all the good things which
they enjoyed, was not a God, but a demon.
. Were they as easy in belief as they are easy to be con-
vinced, the matter would soon be settled ; but “ the prince
of this world” (John xii. 31,) expelled from almost every
quarter of the globe by the power of the Cross, seems to
have retreated into these regions as his last stronghold ; so
that the kingdom which this “strong man armed” (Luke xi.
21) has possessed here for so many thousand years, can be
overthrown only in lapse of time, and by unconquerable con-
stancy on the part of the soldiers of Christ. From time to
time, however, Christ, their true Lord and Lord of all,
chooses some for himself, not only among the infants, many
of whom are now in heaven, but even among adults, some
of whom I baptized in sickness or in bondage.
Many other native adults I instructed ; but some refused
to listen to me, others rejected me, others assented merely
with the lips, from a kind of politeness which makes them
consider it rude to contradict you, and which would easily200
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
mislead most. I sometimes even made excursions to the
neighboring villages to console and instruct the Christian
Hurons, “ who had not bent their knee before Baal,”
(3 Kings xix. 18,) and to absolve them after hearing
their confessions, to announce a God every where, so far as
I was able, to succor the dying, but especially to save in-
fants in danger of death. This was my only solace in my
bitterest mental pangs ; and once when with this view I
visited a neighboring village, and there baptized five chil-
dren, I learned soon after, in another excursion, that all had
been called to heaven.
In these and like exercises, therefore, and efforts at the
study of their language (what study can there be without
writing ?) two months glided by. About the middle of
March, when the snow had melted away, they took me with
them to their fishing-ground. A party accordingly started,
consisting of the old man and woman, a little boy and my-
self ;—four days travel brought us to a lake, where we
caught nothing but a few little fishes. The entrails of these
generally served as a seasoning for our sagamity, the fish
being laid by to carry back to the village. Such food as
this—with the entrails of deer, full of blood and half-putre-
fied excrement, boiled fungus, decayed oysters, frogs eaten
whole, head and feet, unskinned, uncleaned—had hunger,
custom, and want of better made, I will not say tolerable,
but even pleasing. How often in those journeys, and in that
lonely wilderness, “did we sit by the rivers of Babylon and
weep while we remembered thee, Sion,” (Ps. cxxxvi. 1-4,)
not only exulting in heaven, but even praising thy God on
earth !	“ How often, though in a strange land, did we sing
the canticle of the Lord,” and mountain and wild-wood
resound with the praises of their Maker, which from their
creation they had never heard ! How often on the stately
trees of the forest did I carve the most sacred name of Jesus,
that, seeing it, the demons might fly, who tremble when
they hear it! How often, too, did I not strip off the bark,
to form the most holy cross of the Lord, that the foe might
fly before it; and that by it thou, 0 Lord, my King, “might
reign in the midst of thy enemies,” (Ps. cix. 2,) “ the ene-
mies of thy Cross,” (Phil. iii. 18,) the misbeliever and the
pagan who dwell in that land, and the demons who rule so
fearfully there ! I rejoiced, too, that I had been led by the
Lord into the wilderness at the very time when the ChurchTHE JOGUES PAPERS.
201
recalls the story of His Passion, so that I might more un-
interruptedly remember the course of its bitterness and gall,
and “my soul pine away at the remembrance,” Jer. iii. 20.
When, therefore, I had fulfilled the task imposed on me by
my masters as their slaved—the slave of savages—when I
had cut and brought in wood for the fire in the lodge, I
spent almost all the rest of my time before a large cross
which I had formed on a huge pine-tree at a considerable
distance from the hut. But I was not long allowed to en-
joy this holy repose ; indeed too many days had passed un-
alarmed by my wonted terrors. On Monday in Holy Week,
an Indian came to us from the village ; the reason of his
coming was this : Ten Iroquois, among whom was the son
of the man who had cut off my thumb, and in whose hut
I now dwelt, had gone out on a war-party about midsum-
mer. Summer, fall, and even the long winter passed, and
yet no tidings of them came : they were consequently given
up. especially as neighboring nations said that they had
fallen victims to the cruelty of the enemy. Early in the
spring, during our absence, a captive was brought in, who
being also questioned as to them, gave the same answer,
and said that they had been killed. Then indeed deeming,
what they already believed, to be now passed doubt, they
sacrificed that very captive to the manes of the young brave,
my master's son. But the soul of this captive seemed too
vile to atone for the life of the noble youth. I was accord-
ingly sent for from the lake where we were, that my life
with his might compensate for the death of the chieftain.
Such, at least, was the conclusion to which one or two old
women and a decrepit old man had come. We consequent-
ly set out the next day, as if in flight, under the pretence
that parties of the enemy were around us. We reached
the village towards evening, on Maundy Thursday, April 2.
The morrow, which had closed the Saviour's life, was now
to close mine also, when it pleased Him who, by dying on
that day, had given life to my spirit, to give it to my body
also. Accordingly on that day, when I was to have been
put to death, rumor was spread, as if without good au-
thority, that those supposed to be dead were still alive ;
then it came that they had joined another war party, and
were now bringing in twenty-two captives.
Thus did God scatter the malignant designs of the
savages—instructing and showing me that he took care of202
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
me, that I should cast myself wholly on him, conscious that
he would not recoil and let me fall.
Although I naturally rejoiced to be rescued from these
and other dangers, yet I sighed to see myself given over to
new sorrows and heart-breaking torments, compelled to drag
on a life more painful than the most cruel death ; for the
success, as well as the reverses of these men, fell heavily on
me alone. If any one was slain in battle, I was at once
demanded as a victim to be offered to his shade ; but if, as
was generally the case, they brought in prisoners after hav-
ing killed more, my heart was always rent with grief, for
they were either Frenchmen, or allies of the French.
Naturally, therefore, did I prefer retirement and solitude,
where, far from the villages, I was no longer dismayed at
the wonted cruelty of these savages, and where I could bet-
ter and more freely hold converse with God. Yet, knowing
that though Lia was blear-eyed, she was more fruitful than
Eachel, and bore more children ; mindful, too, of the In-
stitute of our Society, which prefers our neighbor’s salva-
tion to our private spiritual joy, I unreluctantly remained
at home, for the village enabled me to make greater progress
in the language, and to secure the salvation of infants and
adults by baptism ; for I was greatly grieved whenever dur-
ing my absence an adult died without instruction, or a child
without baptism.
To return to our war-party: they came in, bringing
twenty-two prisoners, but belonging to a nation with whom
they had never as yet been at war; * still, in violation of all
right and justice, they were beaten with clubs and stripes,
and mutilated by the usual cutting off of fingers. Five of
them were to be put to death—for all the rest, being boys
and girls, or women, were kept as slaves. Their instruction
was now the object of my solicitude, for I was ignorant of
their language; yet, by God’s grace, I was enabled, by a
few words that I knew, but chiefly by the kindness of one
who knew both languages, to instruct and baptize them.
This happened at Easter, j* At Whitsuntide (May 24),
they brought in new prisoners—three women with their lit-
tle children, the men having been killed near the French
settlements. They were led into the village entirely naked
* A manuscript says Abnakis.
f Between these, in April there came a Sokoki embassy to solicit his libera-
tion. This he details in the narrative of his escape.THE JOGUES PAPEKS.
203
—not even with any kind of drawers on—and after being
severely beaten on the way, had their thumbs cut off. One
of them (a thing not hitherto done) was burned all over her
body, and afterwards thrown into a huge pyre. Worthy
of note is a strange rite I then beheld. When this woman
was tortured, at every burn which they caused, by applying
lighted torches to her body, an old man, in a loud voice,
exclaimed: “ Demon Aireskoi ! we offer thee this victim,
whom we burn for thee, that thou mayst be filled with her
flesh, and render us ever anew victorious over our enemies/'
Her body was cut up, sent to the various villages, and de-
voured ;—for about midwinter, grieving, as it were, that they
had refrained from eating the flesh of some prisoners, they
had, in a solemn sacrifice of two bears, which they offered
to their demon, uttered these words: “Justly dost thou
punish us, oh demon Aireskoi!—lo, this long time we have
taken no captives : during the summer and fall we have
taken none of the Algonquins.” (These they consider pro-
perly their enemies.) “We have sinned against thee, in
that we ate not of the last captives thrown into our hands ;
but if we ever again capture any, we promise thee to devour
them, as we now do these two bears,"—and they kept their
word.* This poor woman I baptized in the midst of the
flames, for I was unable to do it before, and then succeeded
only while raising a drink to her parched lips.
On the eve of St. John the Baptist, (June 23,) of whom
it is written, “ that many shall rejoice at his birth," a new
weight was added to my usual sorrows : eleven Hurons and
a Frenchman were brought in ;—three Frenchmen and ten
Hurons, among them some of the most celebrated Chris-
tians, had been killed, treacherously circumvented by a show
of friendship. Of these they bore the scalps, or hair, which
they tear off with the skin from the head of their fallen
enemies.
Really, I felt in my own person this punishment de-
served by my sins, and pronounced of old by Grod to His
* An idea too generally propagated by those who knew the Indians but
slightly is, that those in Northern America had properly no religious worship.
This is refuted by many facts; but by none, perhaps, more clearly than that
here given by Father Jogues. We have here all the essentials of a sacrifice,
which, in the human annals, is the only recognized act of adoration to a Supreme
Being. The idea of man’s sinfulness, of his condemnation to death, of a per-
mitted substitution, of the great human sacrifice that was to appease the Al-
mighty, are all here recognizable.204
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
people when He said, “ that their new moons, their festivals
and solemnities, should be turned into grief and sorrow,”
(Osee ii. 11,) as Easter, and Whitsuntide, and the nativity
of St. John the Baptist, each brought new sorrows on me,
to be afterwards increased to agony by the slaughter of a
hundred Hurons, most of whom, racked by fearful torments,
were burned to death in the neighboring cantons. “Woe
is me ; wherefore was I born to see the ruin of my
people.” * (1 Mach. ii. 7.)
Yerily,in these and like heart-rending cares, “my life is
wasted with grief, and my years with sighs,” (Ps. xxx. 11,)
“ for the Lord hath corrected me for mine iniquity, and hath
made my soul waste away as a spider,” (Ps. xxxviii. 12;)
“ he hath filled me with bitterness, he hath inebriated me
with wormwood,” (Lam. iii. 15,) “because the comforter,
the relief of my soul, is far from me,” (Lam. i. 16;) “ but
in all these things we overcome/’ and by the favor of God
will overcome, “ because of Him that hath loved us,” (Rom.
viii. 37,) until “ he come that is to come, and will not
delay,” (Heb. x. 37,) “ until my day, like that of a hireling,
come,” (Job. vii. 1, to xiv. 14,) or my change be made.
Although I could in all probability escape either through
the Europeans or the Indian nations around us, did I wish
to fly, yet on this cross to which our Lord has nailed me,
beside Himself, am I resolved by His grace to live and die.
For who in my absence would console the French captives ?
who absolve the penitent ? who remind the christened Huron
of his duty ? who instruct the prisoners constantly brought
in ? who baptize them dying, encourage them in their tor-
ments ? who cleanse the infants in the saving waters ? who
provide for the salvation of the dying adult, the instruction
of those in health P Indeed I cannot but think it a pecu-
liar interposition of divine goodness, that while a nation,
* About this time F. Jogues, who, since the Sokoki embassy, had risen in
importance, was taken by some Sachems about to visit a dependent tribe,
about eighty leagues distant from them. Hither he was led in triumph, as a
proof of the irresistible power of the Mohawk. The tribe was poor, and he
suffered much by the way, but had the inexpressible satisfaction of finding the
Indian who had cut him down, when hung up at Teonontogen. He was dying,
and though Jogues could give his bodily ailments only the tears of sympathy,
he carefully instructed and baptized him, repaying his act of charity by the
endless joys of heaven.
On his return to the village, he was knocked down and nearly killed by a
madman: his kind mistress, or aunt, fearing for his safety, urged him to escape;
but the letter shows his feelings on this point.THE JOGUES PAPERS.
205
fallen from the true Catholic religion, barred the entrance
of the faith to these regions, on one side, and on the other,
a fierce war between savage nations, and on their account
with the French, I should have fallen into the hands of
these Indians, who by the will of God reluctantly, and I
may say against their will, have thus far spared my life, that
through me, though unworthy, those might be instructed,
believe and be baptized, who are predestined to eternal life.
Since the time when I was taken, I have baptized seventy
children, young and old, of five different nations and lan-
guages, that of “ every tribe, and people, and tongue, they
might stand in the sight of the Lord/' (Apoc. vii. 9.)
Therefore do I daily bow my knee to my Lord and to
the Father of my Lord, that if it be for his glory, he may
confound all the designs of the Europeans and savages for
ransoming me or sending me back to the whites ; for many
of the Indians speak of my being restored, and the Dutch,
among whom I write this, have frequently offered, and now
again are offering to rescue me and my companions. I have
visited them twice, and have been most kindly welcomed;
they leave no stone unturned to effect our deliverance, and
have made many presents to the Indians with whom I am,
to induce them to treat me humanely.
But I am now weary of so long and so prolix a letter ;
I therefore earnestly beg your Reverence ever to recognize
me, though unworthy, as one of yours; for though a savage
in dress and manner, and almost without God in so tossed
a life, yet as I have ever lived a son of the most holy
Church of Rome and of the Society, so do I wish to die.
Obtain for me from God, Reverend Father, by your holy
sacrifices, that though I have hitherto but ill-empb>yed
the means He gave me to attain the highest sanctity, I
may at least employ well this last occasion which He offers
me. Your bounty, surely, owes this to a son who has
recourse to you ; for I lead a truly wretched life, where
every virtue is in danger : Faith in the dense darkness
of paganism, Hope in so long and hard trials, Charity amid
so much corruption, deprived of all the sacraments. Purity
is not, indeed, endangered here by delights, but is tried, amid
this promiscuous and intimate intercourse of both sexes, by
the perfect liberty of all in hearing and doing what they
please ; and, most of all, in their constant nakedness.
For here, willing or not, you must often see what elsewhere206
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
is shut out, not only from wandering, but even from curi-
ous eyes. Hence I daily groan to my God, begging Him
not to leave me without help amid the dead ;—beg-
ging him, I say, that amid such impurity and such super-
stitious worship of the devil to which he has exposed me,
naked as it were, and unarmed, “ my heart may be undefiled
in His justifications,'” (Ps. cxviii. 80,) so that when that good
Shepherd shall come, “who will gather together the dis-
persed of Israel,” (Ps. cxlvi. 2,) “He may gather us from
among the nations to bless His holy name. Amen ! Amen l”
(Ps, cv. 47.)
Your Reverence's
Most humble servant and son in Christ,
Isaac Jogues.
Permit me through your reverence to salute all my dear
fathers and brothers whom I tenderly love and cherish in
Christ, and to commend myself to their holy sacrifices and
prayers.
Your most humble servant and son in Christ,
Isaac Jogues.
Renssalaerswyck, in New Netherland, August 5,1643.*
II.
FATHER JOGUES TO MR. DE CHAMPFLOUR, GOVERNOR OF
THREE RIVERS.
[Written in a jargon of French, Latin and Huron.]
Sir—This#is my fourth letter since I fell into the hands
of the Iroquois. Time and paper prevent by repeating here
what I have already given you at length. Couture and I are
yet alive. Henry, a young , man taken at Montreal, was
brought in on !St. John's eve. He did not run the gauntlet
on entering the village, nor has he lost any fingers as we
did ; he is alive, as well as all the Hurons brought in
with him. Be on your guard every where. Hew parties are
constantly setting out, and you must rely on it that the
river will not be free from the enemy before the fall. The
* This letter was written, as we shall see by No. HI., after the holy mis-
sionary had left the Mohawk villages for the last time, unconscious as he was
while penning it at Renssalaerswyck, our modern Albany, where the kind-hearted
Dutch, impelled by their minister, Dominie Megapolensis, showed him every
courtesy and kind sympathy.THE JOGUES PAPERS.
207
Iroquois here are about 700 ; they have 300 arquebusses,
and handle them well. They can reach Three Rivers by
different streams. Fort Richelieu gives them a little more
trouble, but does not hinder them. The Iroquois say that
if those who took and killed the French at Montreal had
known how you acted in rescuing the Sokokiois from the
hands of the Algonquins, they would not have done so. They
had set out in midwinter, before the news came. For all
that, a new party has just set out, and Mathurin’s man (F.
Brebeuf knows him well) is with them, and leads the band,
as he did at our capture last year. This troop desires and
intends to take French as well as Algonquins. Do not let
any consideration for me prevent your doing what may be
for God's glory.
The design of the Iroquois, as far as I can see, is to take
all the Hurons, if they can, put to death the most emi-
nent, and a good part of the rest, and make of the two one
people and one land. I feel great compassion for these poor
people, many of whom are Christians, others Catechumens,
prepared for baptism. When shall these evils be stopped ?
When they are all taken ? I received many letters from the
Hurons with the Relation taken at Montreal. The Dutch
have wished to deliver us, but in vain. They are now
making another effort, but will be, I think, equally fruitless.
I am more and more resolved to stay here, as long as it
shall please our Lord, and not go away, even if an occasion
should offer. My presence consoles the French, Hurons and
Algonquins. I have baptized more than sixty persons, many
of whom are now in heaven. This is my only consolation,
with the will of God, to which I most cheerfully unite mine.
I beg you to recommend them to offer prayers and
masses for us, and especially for him who desires ever to be
Your most humble servant,
Isaac Jogues, S. J.
Iroquois Village, June 30th, 1643.
III.
FATHER JOGUES TO HIS SUPERIOR IN CANADA.
Reverend Father : The Peace of Christ.
On the very day of the feast of our holy Father Ignatius
(July 31), I left the village where I was a prisoner to follow
and accompany some Iroquois who were going first to trade,208
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
then to fish. Having got through their traffic, they pro-
ceeded to a place seven or eight leagues below the Dutch
post, which is on the river where we were fishing. While
arranging our weirs for the fish, a report reached us that an
Iroquois war party, returned from the Huron land, had killed
five or six on the spot, and brought in four prisoners, two of
whom had been already burnt at our village with more than
common cruelty.
At these tidings my heart was rent with most keen and
bitter grief, that I had not seen, consoled or baptized these
poor victims. Fearful that something of the kind might
happen again during my absence, I went to a good old
woman, who from her age and her care of me, as well as
from her compassion for my sufferings, called me her nephew,
as I called her aunt. “Aunt,” said I, “I would much
rather go back to our cabin, I am very lonesome here,” I
did not indeed expect more comfort or less pain at the vil-
lage, where I suffered a continual martyrdom, compelled to
witness before my eyes the horrible cruelties they perpetrate,
but my heart could not bear that one should die without my
affording him baptism. “ Go, nephew,” said this good
woman, “ go, if ydu are tired of this place, and take some-
thing to eat on the way.” I accordingly embarked in the
first canoe going up to the village, always conducted, and
always accompanied by Iroquois.
Un reaching the Dutch post through which we had to
pass, I learned that our village was furious against the
French, and that they only awaited my return to burn me.
The reason of all was this. Among the war parties against
the French, Algonquins and Hurons, was one that resolved
to go and prowl around Fort Richelieu to spy the French
and their Indian allies. A certain Huron of this band, taken
by the Iroquois and naturalized among them, came to ask
me for letters to carry to the French, hoping perhaps to
surprise some one by this bait; but as I had no doubt the
French would be on their guard, I saw the importance of
giving them some inkling of the designs, arms and treachery
of our enemy. I found means to get a bit of paper to write
on. The Dutch did me this charity.*
I knew well the danger to which I exposed myself. I
was well aware that if any mishap befell the party, I would
be made responsible, and the blame thrown on my letters.
* The letter here referred to is the preceding.THE JOGUES PAPERS.
209
I foresaw my death, but it seemed to me sweet and agree-
able, employed for the public good, and the consolation of
our French, and the poor Indians who listen to the word of
Jesus Christ. My heart was undisturbed by fear at the
sight of all that might happen—God's glory was concerned.
So I gave my letter to the young brave, who never re-
turned. The story given by his comrades is, that he carried
it to Fort Bichelieu, and that as soon as the French saw it,
they fired their cannon at them ; that alarmed at this, most of
them took to flight all naked, leaving one of their canoes, in
which were three arquebuses, powder, ball and other ar-
ticles. When this news was brought into the village, the
cry was raised that my letter had caused them to be treated
so. The rumor spread around ; it reached my ears ; I was
taunted with the mishap ; they talked of nothing but burn-
ing me ; and had I been found in the village when these
braves returned, fire, rage and cruelty had deprived me of
life.
To increase my misfortune, another party, returning
from the neighborhood of Montreal, where they had laid an
ambush for the French, said that two of their party had
been killed and two wounded. All made me guilty of these
mishaps. They were now beside themselves with rage, and
impatient for my return. All these reports I heard, offer-
ing myself unreservedly to our Lord, and resigning myself
all in all to His most holy will.
The commander of the Dutch post where we were,
aware of the evil design of the savages, and aware, too, that
the Chevalier de Montmagny had prevented the Canada
Indians from coming to kill the Dutch, had offered me means
of escape. c Here/ said he, ‘ lies a vessel at anchor, to sail
in a few days. Get privately on board. It is bound first to
Virginia, whence it will carry you to Bordeaux or Eochelle,
where it must stop/ Thanking him with much respect and
courtesy, I told him that the Iroquois would suspect them
of favoring my escape, and perhaps do some injury to their
people. 6 No ! no ! * he replied, ‘ do not fear ; get on board,
it is a fine opportunity, and you will never find a surer way
of escaping/
At these words my heart was perplexed. I doubted
whether it was not for the greater glory of our Lord to ex-
pose myself to the danger of savage fury and flames in order
to aid in the salvation of some soul. I therefore replied,
SECOND SERIES.—YOL. III.	14210
THE JOGTJES PAPEKS.
4 This affair, sir, seems to me so important, that I cannot
give you an answer on this spot; give me, if you please,
to-night, to think it over. I will recommend it to our Lord ;
I will examine the reasons on both sides, and will tell you
my final resolution in the morning/ Greatly astonished, he
granted my request. The night I spent in prayer, earnestly
imploring our Lord not to let me adopt a conclusion myself,
but to give me light to know His most holy will; that in
all and through all, even to the stake itself, I would follow
it. The reasons to retain me in the country were the con-
sideration of the French and Indians; I loved them, and
felt so great a desire to be of aid to them, that I had re-
solved to pass the rest of my days in this captivity for their
salvation ; but now I beheld the face of affairs entirely
changed.
First, as for the three Frenchmen, brought prisoners
like myself into the country ; one, Ren6 Goupil, had al-
ready been massacred at my feet. This young man was as
pure as an angel. Henry, taken at Montreal, had fled to
the woods ; because while he was beholding the cruelties
perpetrated on two Hurons roasted alive, some Iroquois told
him that they would treat him so, and me too, as soon as
I got back. This threat made him resolve to run the risk
of starving in the woods, or being devoured by some wild
beast, rather than endure the torments inflicted by these
half-demons. He had not been seen for seven days. As to
William Couture, I could scarcely see any means of being
of service to him, for he had been put in a village at a dis-
tance from mine, and the Indians kept him so busy here
and there, that I could no longer find him. He had, more-
over, himself told me,—‘Father, try to escape ; as soon as
I see no more of you, I will manage to get off. You know
well that I remain in this captivity only for your sake ; do
your best, then, to escape, for I cannot think of my own
liberty or life till I see you in safety/ Besides, this good
young friend had been given to an old man, who assured
him that he would let him go in peace, if I could effect my
deliverance ; so that I no longer saw any reason to remain
on account of the French.
As to the Indians, instructing them was now out of the
question, and almost hopeless; for the whole country was so
excited against me, that I no longer found means to speak
to them, or gain them; and the Algonquins and HuronsTHE JOGUES PAPERS.
211
kept aloof from me, as a victim destined to the flames, be-
cause they feared to come in for a share of the rage and
hatred which the Iroquois bore me. I saw, too, that I had
some knowledge of their language, that I knew their country
and their strength, and that I could perhaps contribute bet-
ter to their salvation in other ways than by remaining
among them. All this knowledge, it occurred to me, would
die with me if I did not escape. The wretches, too, had so
little intention of giving us up, that they committed an act
of perfidy against the right and custom of all these nations.
An Indian of the country of the Sokokois, allies of the Iro-
quois, having been taken by the upper Algonquins and
brought to Three Rivers or Quebec as a prisoner, was deliv-
ered and set at liberty by the intervention of the Governor
of New France, at the solicitation of our Fathers. The good
Indian, seeing that the French had saved his life, sent beau-
tiful presents in the month of April to deliver at least one
of the French. The Iroquois retained the presents without
setting one of us at liberty ; a treachery perhaps unexam-
pled among these tribes, for they invariably observe the law,
that whoso touches or accepts the present made him, must
execute what is asked by the present. Accordingly, when
they do not wish to grant what is desired, they send back
the presents, or make others in their stead.
But to return to my purpose. Having ^weighed before
God, with all possible abstraction from self, the reasons for
remaining among the Indians, and those for leaving, I con-
cluded that our Lord would be more pleased with my taking
the opportunity to escape.
As soon as it was day I went to salute the Dutch Gov-
ernor, and told him the resolution I had come to before
God ; he called for the officers of the ship, told them his
intentions, and exhorted them to receive and conceal me—
in a word, to carry me over to Europe. They replied, that
if I could once set foot in their vessel, I was safe ; I should
not leave it till I reached Bordeaux or Rochelle. “ Cheer
up, then/ said the Governor ; c return with the Indians, and
this evening, or in the night, steal off quietly and make for
the river, there you will find a little boat which I will have
ready to take you to the ship/ After most humble thanks
to all those gentlemen, I left the Dutch the better to con-
ceal my design. In the evening, I retired with ten or twelve
Iroquois, to a bam; where we spent the night: before lying212
THE J0GUES PAPEKS.
down, I went out *to see where I could most easily escape.
The dogs then let loose ran at me, and a large and power-
ful one snapped at my bare leg and bit it severely ; I
immediately entered the barn, the Iroquois closed the door
securely, and to guard me better, came and lay beside me,
especially one who was in a manner appointed to watch me.
Seeing myself beset with these mishaps, and the barn well
shut and surrounded by dogs, that would betray me if I
attempted to go out, I almost thought that I could not es-
cape, I sweetly complained to my God, that having given
the thought pf escaping, cHe hath shut up my way with
square stones, and in a spacious place my feet/ (lament, iii.
9.) This whole night also I spent without sleep ; towards
day, I heard the cocks crow ;—soon after, a servant of the
Dutch farmer who had received us into his barn, entered by
some door I did not see. I went up to him softly, and not
understanding his Flemish, made him a sign to stop the dogs
barking ; he immediately went out, and I after him as soon
as I had taken my little luggage, consisting of a Little Office
of the Blessed Virgin, an Imitation of Christ, and a wooden
cross which I had made to keep me in mind of my Saviour’s
sufferings. Having got out of the barn without making any
noise or waking my guards, I climbed over a fence which
enclosed the house, and ran straight to the river where the
ship was ; it was as much as my wounded leg could do, for
the distance was a good quarter of a league. I found the
boat as I had been told, but as the tide had gone down, it
was high and dry ; I pushed it to get it to the water, but
finding it too heavy, I called to the ship to send me their
boat to take me on board. There was no answer ; I do not
know whether they heard me; be that as it may, no one
appeared, and day was now beginning to reveal to the Iro-
quois the robbery which I had made of myself, and I feared
to be surprised in my innocent crime. Weary of hallooing,
I returned to my boat, and praying to the Almighty to in-
crease my strength, I succeeded at last so well by working
it slowly on, and pushing stoutly, that I got it into the wa-
ter. As soon as it floated, I jumped in and reached the ves-
sel alone, unperceived by any Iroquois. I was immediately
lodged in the bottom of the hold, and to hide me they put
a large box on the hatch. I was two days and two nights
in the hold of this ship, in such a state that I expected to
be suffocated and die of the stench, when I remembered poorTHE JOGUES PAPERS.
213
Jonas, and prayed our Lord ‘that I might not flee from His
face/ (Jonas i. 3,) nor depart from His will; but on the
contrary, ‘that He would infatuate all counsels’ (2 Kings
xv. 31) that were not for His glory, and to keep me in the
land of these heathen if He did not approve my retreat and
flight.
The second night of my voluntary imprisonment, the
Minister of the Hollanders came to tell me that the Iro-
quois had made much trouble, and that the Dutch settlers
were afraid that they would set fire to their houses and kill
their cattle. They have reason to fear them, for they are
armed with good arquebuses. ‘ If/ I replied, ‘ for my sake
this great tempest is upon you, cast me into the sea/ (Jonas
i. 12.) If this trouble has been caused by me, I am ready to
appease it at the loss of my life. I had never wished to es-
cape to the injury of the least man in the colony.*
At last, then, I had to leave my den ; the sailors took
umbrage, saying ‘ that they had pledged their word in case
I could set foot on the ship, and that they were now
taking me off at the very moment when they should have
brought me, had I not been there ; that I had put my life
in danger by escaping on their promise, and that, cost what
it might, they must stick to it/ This honest bluntness
touched me, but I begged them to let me go, as the captain,
who had opened to me the doorway of escaping, now asked
me back.f I was taken to his house, where he kept me
concealed. These comings and goings were done by night,
so that I was not discovered. In all this proceeding I might
have urged my own reasons, but it was not for me to speak
in my own cause, but rather to follow the commands of
others ; I cheerfully submitted. At last the captain told
me that we must yield calmly to the storm, and wait till
the minds of the Indians were appeased : in this advice all
concurred. Here, then, I am a voluntary prisoner in his
house, whence I write this. If you ask my thoughts in all
this affair, I will tell you first, that the vessel which had
wished to save me has gone off without me ; second, that if
our Lord does not in an almost miraculous way protect me,
the Indians, who come and go here every moment, will dis-
* He could say no more, for, spent with sufferings of mind and body, and
with want of food, he fell senseless on the deck.—MIS. of F. Buteux.
f By Captain, he means apparently another than Van Curler, whom he
calls Governor, for he was not in his house.214
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
cover me ; and if they ever believe that I am still here, I
must necessarily be restored to their hands.
Now, when they had such fury against me before my
flight, how will they treat me when I fall again into their
power ? I will die by no ordinary death ; their fire, rage,
and new-devised cruelties will wring out my life. Blessed
be God's name for ever ! We are ever in the bosom of His
divine and adorable providence. ‘Yea, the very hairs of
your head are numbered. Fear not, therefore ; you are of
more value than many sparrows/ ‘not one of whom falls to
the earth without your Father.' (Luke xii. 7.)
I have been hidden ten or twelve days, and it is hardly
possible that an evil day will not come upon me.
In the third place, you will see our great need of your
prayers, and of the holy sacrifices of all our Fathers. Give
us this alms ‘ that the Lord may render me fit to love Him,
patient to endure, constant to persevere in His holy love
and service." This and a little New Testament from Europe
are my sole desires. Pray for these poor nations that burn
and eat each other, that they may come to a knowledge of
their Creator, and render Him the tribute of their love. ‘ I
am mindful of you in my bonds,' captivity cannot enchain
my remembrance.
I am, in heart and affection, &c.
Renselaerwyck, 30 August, 1643. *
IV.
LETTER OF FATHER JOGUES TO FATHER CHARLES LALEMAET.
Rennes, January 6, 1644.
‘Now I know in very deed that the Lord hath sent
His angels and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod,
and from all the expectation of the Jews.' (Acts xii. 11.)
The Iroquois came to the Dutch post about the middle of
September, and made a great deal of disturbance, but at last
received the presents made by the captain who had me
concealed. They amounted to about three hundred livres,
which I will endeavor to repay. All things being quieted,
* The Mohawks were not easily appeased, and Father Jogues remained a
close prisoner for six weeks; so much neglected by his honest, hut, it would
seem, avaricious host, that he actually suffered hunger and thirst; for, though
his excellent friend Megapolensis constantly sent him victuals from his own ta-
ble, it was not always that his present reached the missionary.THE JOGUES PAPERS.
215
I was sent to Manhattan, where the Governor of the country
resides. He received me very kindly, gave me clothes, and
passage in a vessel which crossed the ocean in mid-winter.
Having put in in England, I got on a collier's vessel
which brought me to Lower Brittany, with a nightcap on
my head, in utter want of every thing, as you landed at St.
Sebastian, but not after two shipwrecks.*
y.
FATHER JOGUES' DESCRIPTION OF NEW NETHERLAND.
New Holland, which the Dutch call in Latin Novum
Belgium—in their own language, Nieuw Netherlands that
is to say, Ne$v Low Countries—is situated between Virginia
and New England. The mouth of the river, which some
people call Nassau, or the Great North Biver, to distinguish
it from another which they call the South Biver, and from
some maps that I have recently seen I think Maurice Biver,
is at 40 deg. 30 min. The channel is deep, fit for the largest
ships, which ascend to Manhatte's Island, which is seven
leagues in circuit, and on which there is a fort to serve as
the commencement of a town to be built here, and to be
called New Amsterdam.
The fort, which is at the point of the island, about five
or six leagues from the mouth, is called Fort Amsterdam ;
it has four regular bastions mounted, with several pieces of
artillery. All these bastions and the curtains were, in 1643,
but mounds, most of which had crumbled away, so that they
entered the fort on all sides. There were no ditches. For
the garrison of the said fort, and another which they had
built still further up against the incursions of the savages,
their enemies, there were sixty soldiers. They were begin-
ning to face the gates and bastions with stone. Within the
fort there was a pretty large stone church, the house of the
Governor, whom they call Director General, quite neatly
built of brick, the storehouses and barracks.
On the Island of Manhatte, and in its environs, there
may well be four or five hundred men of different sects and
nations: the Director General told me that there were men
of eighteen different languages ; they are scattered here and
there on the river, above and below,, as the beauty and con-
* See Rel. 1642-3, p. 284.216
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
venience of the spot invited each to settle : some, mecha-
nics, however, who ply their trade, are ranged under the fort;
all the others were exposed to the incursions of the natives,
who, in the year 1643, while I was there, actually killed
some two score Hollanders, and burnt many houses and barns
full of wheat.
The river, which is very straight, and runs due north
and south, is at least a league broad before the fort. Ships
lie at anchor in a bay which forms the other side of the
island, and can be defended from the fort.
Shortly before I arrived there, three large ships of 300
tons each had come to load wheat ; two found cargoes, the
third could not be loaded, because the savages had burnt a
part of their grain. These ships came from tjie West In-
dies, where the West India Company usually keeps up
seventeen ships of war."
No religion is publicly exercised but the Calvinist, and
orders are to admit none but Calvinists, but this is not ob-
served ; for there are in the Colony besides the Calvinists,
Catholics, English Puritans, Lutherans, Anabaptists, here
called Mnistes, &c., &c. When any one comes to settle
in the country, they lend him horses, cows, &c.; they give
him provisions, all which he returns as soon as he is at
ease ; and as to the land, after ten years he pays to the
West India Company the tenth of the produce which he reaps.
This country is bounded on the New England side by a
river which they call the Eresche river, which serves as a
boundary between them and the English. The English,
however, come very near to them, choosing to hold lands un-
der the Hollanders, who ask nothing, rather than depend on
English Lords, who exact rents,, and would fain be absolute.
On the other side, southward, towards Virginia, its limits are
the river which they call the South river, on which there
is also a Dutch settlement, but the Swedes have one at its
mouth extremely well supplied with cannons and men. It
is believed that these Swedes are maintained by some Am-
sterdam merchants, who are not satisfied that the West In-
dia Company should alone enjoy all the commerce of these
parts. It is near this river that a gold mine is reported to
have been found.
See in the work of the' Sieur de Laet of Antwerp, the
table and chapter on New Belgium, as he sometimes calls
it, or th# map “ Nova Anglia, Novum Belgium et Virginia."THE JOGUES PAPERS.
217
It is about forty years since the Hollanders came to
these parts. The fort was begun in the year 1615; they
began to settle about twenty years ago, and there is al-
ready some little commerce with Virginia and New Eng-
land.
The first comers found lands fit for use, formerly cleared
by the savages, who had fields here. Those who came
later have cleared the woods, which are mostly oak. The
soil is good. Deer hunting is abundant in the fall.
There are some houses built of stone —lime they make of
oyster shells, great heaps of which are found here, made
formerly by the savages, who subsist in part by that fish-
ery.
The climate is very mild. Lying at 40f° there are
many European fruits, as apples, pears, cherries. I reached
there in October, and found even then a considerable quan-
tity of peaches.
Ascending the river to the 43d degree, you meet the
second Dutch settlement, which the tide reaches but does
not pass. Ships of a hundred and a hundred and twenty
tons can come up to it.
There are two things in this settlement (which is called
Eenselaerswick, as if to say, settlement of Eenselaers, who
is a rich Amsterdam merchant)—1st, a miserable little
fort called Fort Orange, built of logs, with four or five
pieces of Breteuil cannon, and as many swivels. This has
been reserved, and is maintained by the West India Com-
pany. This fort was formerly on an island in the river ; it
is now on the mainland, towards the Hiroquois, a little
above the said island. 2d, a colony sent here by this Een-
selaers, who is the patron.—This colony is composed of about
a hundred persons, who reside in some twenty-five or thirty
houses built along the river, as each found most convenient.
In the principal house lives the patron's agent; the Minis-
ter has his apart, in which service is performed. There is
also a kind of Bailiff here, whom they call the Seneschal,
who administers justice. Their houses are merely of boards
and thatched, with no mason work except the chimneys.
The forest furnishing many large pines, they make boards
by means of their mills, which they have here for the pur-
pose.
They found some pieces of ground all ready, which the
savages had formerly cleared, and in which they sow wheat and218
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
oats for beer, and for their horses, of which they have great
numbers.* There is little land fit for tillage, being hemmed
in by hills, which are poor soil. This obliges them to sepa-
rate, and they already occupy two or three leagues of country.
Trade is free to all; this gives the Indians all things
cheap, each of the Hollanders outbidding his neighbor, and
being satisfied provided he can gain some little profit.
This settlement is not more than twenty leagues from
the Agniehronons,f who can be reached by land or water,
as the river on which the Iroquois lie, falls into that
which passes by the Dutch, but there are many low rapids,
and a fall of a short half league, where the canoe must be
carried.
There are many nations between the two Dutch settle-
ments, which are about thirty German leagues apart, that
is, about fifty or sixty French leagues. The Loups, % whom
the Iroquois call Agotsagenens, are the nearest to Bense-
laerswick and Fort Orange. War breaking out some years
ago between the Iroquois and the Loups, the Dutch joined
the latter against the former; but four men having been
taken and burnt, they made peace. Since then some na-
tions near the sea have killed some Hollanders of the most
distant settlement ; the Hollanders killed one hundred and
fifty Indians, men, women and children. They having then,
at intervals, killed forty Hollanders, burnt many houses,
and committed ravages, estimated at the time that I was
there at 200,000 liv. (two hundred thousand livres,) they
raised troops in New England. Accordingly, in the be-
ginning of winter, the grass being trampled down and
some snow on the ground, they gave them chase with six
hundred men, keeping two hundred always on the move
and constantly relieving one another ; so that the Indians,
shut up in a large island, and unable to flee easily, on ac-
count of their women and children, were cut to pieces to
the number of sixteen hundred, including women and chil-
* The introduction of horses and of European fruits was much neglected by the
French in Canada, and even later than this date an apple was a rarity,
t Mohawks.
X These are the Mohegans, whom Champlain, the first to know them, calls
them “Mayganathicoise/’ which means “Wolf tribe,” p. 173. The Indian
name, Mohegan has been preserved in English, but the French, translating their
name, generally call them Loups, that is, Wolves, though Mahingan is not un-
frequent. Champlain puts them two days’ march from the Yrocois, and three
or four from the Dutch.THE JOGUES PAPERS.
219
dren. This obliged the rest of the Indians to make peace,
which still continues. This occurred in 1643 and 1644.
Three Rivers in New France, /
August 3d, 1646.	)
VI.
LETTER OF FATHER JOGUES TO A FRIEND.
Alas, my dear Father, when shall I begin to love and
serve Him whose love for us had no beginning ? When
ahall I begin to give myself entirely to Him, who has given
Himself unreservedly to me ? Although I am very miser-
able, and have so misused the graces our Lord has done me
in this country, I do not despair, as He takes care to render
me better by giving me new occasions to die to self, and
unite myself inseparably to Him.
The Iroquois have come to make some presents to our
Governor to ransom some prisoners he held, and to treat
of peace with him in the name of the whole country. It
has been concluded, to the great joy of the French. It will
last as long as pleases the Almighty.
To maintain it, and see what can be done for the in-
struction of these tribes, it is here deemed expedient to send
some Father. I have reason to think I shall be sent, hav-
ing some knowledge of the language and country. You see
. what need I have of the powerful aid of prayers, being amidst
these savages. I will have to remain among them, almost
without liberty to pray, without Mass, without Sacraments,
and be responsible for every accident among the Iroquois,
French, Algonquins, and others. But what do I say ? my
hope is in God, who needs not us to accomplish His designs.
We must endeavor to be faithful to Him, and not spoil His
work by our shortcomings. I trust you will obtain me
this favor of our Lord, that, having led so wretched a life
till now, I may at last begin to serve Him better.
My heart tells me that if I have the happiness of being
employed in this mission, Ibo et non redibo; but I shall be
happy if our Lord will complete the sacrifice where He has
begun it, and make the little blood I have shed in that land
the earnest of what I would give from every vein of my body
and my heart.
In a word, this people is c a bloody spouse to me/—‘ in220
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
my blood have I espoused it to me/ (Exod. iv. 25.) May
our good Master, who has purchased them in His blood,
open to them the door of His Grospel, as well as to the four
allied nations near them.
Adieu, dear Father ; pray Him to unite me inseparably
to Him.	Isaac Jogues, S. J.
vii.
LETTER OF FATHER JOGUES TO HIS SUPERIOR.
Montreal, April, 1646.
Reverend Father:
The letter which it has pleased your Reverence to
write found me in my retreat and in the exercises* which
I had begun, there being no canoe to carry our letters. I
chose this time, because the Indians, being at the chase,
allow us to enjoy a greater silence.
Would you believe that, on opening your letter, my
heart was at first seized with a kind of fear that what I
desire, and what my soul should earnestly desire, might not
arrive. Poor nature, mindful of the past, trembled; but
our Lord, by His goodness, has given, and will again restore
it calm.
Yes, Father, I will all that our Lord wills, and I will
it at the peril of a thousand lives. Oh ! how I should re-
gret to lose so glorious an occasion, when it may depend
only on me that some souls be saved ! I hope that His
goodness, which has not abandoned me in the hour of trial,
will aid me still. He and I are able to trample down every
difficulty that can oppose the project.
It is much to be 6 in medio nationis pravce,’ without
Mass, without Altar, without Confession, without Sacra-
ments ; but His Holy will and divine providence so will it.
He who, by His holy grace, preserved us without these
helps for eighteen or twenty months, will not refuse us the
same favor, for we do not thrust ourselves into this work,
but undertake this voyage solely to please Him, without
consulting all the repugnances of nature.
* To make a retreat or perform the spiritual exercises is to give a certain
time, usually eight days, to silence, prayer, meditation, pious reading, and self-
examination. This is required annually by the rules of some religious orders,
and is a common practice with the devout in Catholic countries, where suitable
houses are to be found adapted for this temporary retirement.THE JOGUES PAPERS.
221
As to all these comings and goings of the Iroquois,
what I can say is, that I see very few from the first two
towns; yet it is with them chiefly that we are concerned,
as the last killed were of these villages. Scarcely any have
come, except from the last village, where Couture was; and
they profess, at least in words, not to come as warriors in
these parts. It is not, however, with these last that we
must dwell, hut with those whom we do not see.
I thank you affectionately for sending me your Huron
principles. Send the rest when you please. What I need
is chiefly prayers, formularies for confession, et ejusdem gene-
ris. I will thereby become, your debtor, as I am already
on so many grounds. I owe your Reverence the account
of the ‘ Capture and death of good Rene Groupil/ which I
should have sent already. If the bearer of this give me
time, I will send it along.
If G-od wills that I go to the Iroquois, my companion
must be virtuous, docile, courageous, and willing to suffer
something for Grod. It would be well for him to know how
to make canoes, so that we can go and return without call-
ing on the Indians.
VIII.
CAPTIVITY AND DEATH OF RENE GOUPIL.
BY FATHER ISAAC JOGUES.
Rene Groupil was a native of Angers, who, in the bloom
of life, earnestly asked admission into our novitiate at Paris,
where he remained some months with great edification. His
bodily ailments having deprived him of the happiness of con-
secrating himself in the holy state of religion as he had
wished, he crossed over to New France, as soon as he grew
better, to serve the Society there, as he had not had the
happiness of giving himself to it in the old. And to do
nothing of his own head, though perfect master of his ac-
tions, he submitted himself entirely to the direction of the
superior of the mission, who employed him for two whole
years in the meanest employments of the house, which he
discharged with great humility and charity. They also gave
him the care of tending the sick and wounded in the hos-
pital, a post he filled with great ability, for he was well
skilled in surgery, and with equal love and charity always222
THE JOGUES PAPEKS.
beholding our Lord in the person of his patients. So sweet
an odor of his goodness and other virtues did he leave in
that place, that his memory is still in benediction there.
As we descended from the Hurons in July, 1642, we
asked the Keverend Father Yimont to let us take him, as
the Hurons greatly needed a surgeon, and he consented.
It were impossible to express the joy of this good young
man when the Superior told him to prepare for the voyage.
He knew, withal, the great dangers on the river; he knew
how furious the Iroquois were against the French ; yet all
this could not deter him from embarking for Three Eivers,
at the slightest sign of His will, to whom he had volun-
tarily resigned all that concerned him.
We left there (Three Eivers) on the first of August,
the morrow of the Feast of our Holy Father. On the
second, wTe met the enemy, who, divided into two bands,
awaited us, with all the advantage which a large number
of picked men, fighting on land, can have over a smaller one
of all kinds on the water in bark canoes.
Almost all the Hurons had fled into the wood, and,
having left us, we were taken. Here his virtue was striking-
ly displayed ; for as soon as he was taken, he said: e Father!
blessed be Grod, He has permitted it; He has wished it;
His holy will be done ! I love it, I wish it, I cherish it, I
embrace it with all my heart/ While the enemy pursued
the fugitives, I confessed him and gave him absolution, not
knowing what was to befall us after our capture. The
enemy, having returned from the chase, fell on us with their
teeth, like furious dogs, tore out our nails and crunched our
fingers, all which he endured with great patience and
courage.
His presence of mind in so distressing an accident was
shown specially in his aiding me, in spite of the pain of his
wounds, in instructing, as far as he could, the Huron prisoners
who were not yet Christians. As I was instructing them
separately, and as they came to me, he reminded me that a
poor old man named Ondoterraon might well be one of those
to be killed on the spot, it being then the custom always to
sacrifice some one to the heat of their rage. I instructed this
old man carefully while the enemy were busied with the
division of the booty of twelve canoes, a part of which were
laden with necessaries for our Huron Fathers. The spoil
being divided, they killed the poor old man almost at theTHE JOGUES PAPERS.
223
very moment when I had given him a new birth. Daring
onr march to the enemy’s country, we had the additional
consolation of being together ; and here I witnessed many
virtues.
On the way, he was always absorbed in God. His
words and conversation were all in perfect submissive-
ness to the orders of Divine Providence and a voluntary
acceptance of the death which God sent him. He offered
himself to him as a holocaust, to be reduced to ashes in the
fires of the Iroquois, which that good Father should enkin-
dle. In all, and by all, he sought means to please Him.
One day—it was soon after our capture—he told me, while
still on the way,—c Father ! God has always given me a
great desire to consecrate myself to His holy service by the
vows of religion in His holy Society ; till now, my sins have
rendered me unworthy of this grace ; yet I hope that 6ur
Lord will accept the offering I wish to make Him now, and
to take, in the best manner that I can, the vows of the So-
ciety, in the presence of my God and before you/ Having
permitted him, he pronounced them with great devotion.
Wounded as he was, he dressed the wounds of others,
not only of the prisoners, but even of such of the enemy as
had received any wound in the combat. He also bled a sick
Iroquois, and did all with as much charity as if he were do-
ing it to his dearest friends.
His humility and the obedience he paid to his captors,
confounded me. The Iroquois, who had us both in their
canoe, told me to take a paddle and use it. Proud even in
death, I would not. Some time after, they told him to do
it, and he immediately began to paddle ; but when he per-
ceived that the Indians wished to compel me to do so after
his example, he begged my pardon. At times, on the way,
I suggested to him. thoughts of flight, as the liberty given
us afforded him abundant opportunity. For my own part,
I could not forsake a Frenchman and twenty-four or five
Huron prisoners. He would never do it, resigning himself
entirely to the will of our Lord, who inspired him with no
such thought.
On the Lake (Champlain), we met two hundred Iro-
quois, who came to Kichelieu, when they began to build the
fort; they covered us with stripes, drenched us, as in blood,
and made us experience the rage of men possessed by the224
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
devil. All these outrages and cruelties he endured with
great patience and charity for those who ill-treated him.
On entering the first town where we were so cruelly
treated, he showed extraordinary patience and mildness.
Having fallen under the hail of blows of clubs and iron rods
poured on us, and unable to rise, he was carried, as it were,
half-dead on the scaffold, where we were already, in the
middle of the town, but in so pitiable a state that he would
have moved cruelty itself to compassion ; he was all livid
with bruises, and in his face we could distinguish nothing
but the white of his eyes; yet he was the more beautiful
in the eyes of angels as he was more disfigured ; and like
Him of whom it is said, 6 We have seen Him as a leper/
&c. ; c There was in Him neither comeliness nor beauty/
Scarcely had he, or even we, recovered breath, when
they came and gave him three blows on the shoulders with
a heavy club, as they had done to us. After cutting off a
thumb from me as the most important, they turned to him
and cut off his right thumb at the first joint. During this
cruel operation, he constantly repeated, ‘ Jesus, Mary, Jo-
seph/ During the six days that we were exposed to all
those who chose to maltreat us, he displayed extraordinary
mildness ; his breast was all burnt by the live coals and
ashes which the boys threw on his body when he was tied
down on the ground at night. Nature gave me more dex-
terity than him in escaping some of these pains.
After our life was granted us, just after we had been
warned to prepare to be burned, he fell sick in great want
of every thing, especially of food, for he was not accustomed
to theirs. Here truly it may be said, cNon cibus utilis
cegro.’ I could not relieve him, being also sick, and not
having one finger sound, or whole.
But I must hasten to his death, which wants nothing
to be that of a martyr.
After we had been six weeks in the country, as confu-
sion arose in the councils of the Iroquois, some of whom
were for sending us back, we lost all hope, which in me had
never been sanguine, of seeing Three Elvers that year.
We consoled one another then at this disposal of Provi-
dence, and prepared for all He should ordain in our regard.
He did not see the danger we were in so clearly : I saw it
better. This made me often tell him to hold himself in
readiness. Accordingly, one day when in our mental pain,THE JOGUES PAPERS.
225
we liad gone out of the town to pray more becomingly and
undisturbed by noise, two young men came after us and
told us to return borne. I bad some presentiment of what
was to happen, and told him : “ My dear brother, let us
recommend ourselves tof our Lord and to our good mother
the Blessed Virgin, these men have some evil design, as I
think.” We had a little before offered ourselves to our
Lord with much devotion, beseeching him to accept our
lives and blood, and unite them to his life and blood for
the salvation of these poor tribes. We were returning
then towards the town reciting our beads, of which we had
already said four decades. Having stopped near the gate
of the town to see what they would say, one of these two
Iroquois drew an axe which he had hidden under his blan-
ket, and dealt Rene a blow on the head as he stood before
him; he fell stiff on his face on the ground,, uttering the
holy name of Jesus, for we had often reminded each other
to close our voice and life with that holy name. I turned
. at the blow and seeing the reeking hatchet, fell on my
knees to receive the blow that was to unite me to my loved
companion, but as they delayed I rose, ran to him, as he
lay expiring near me. They gave him two more blows on
the head and extinguished life but not before I had given
him absolution, which since our captivity, I had given
him regularly after his confession every other day.
It was the------ day of September, the feast of St. Mi-
chael, that this angel in innocence, and martyr of Christ,
gave his life for him, who had given him His. They com-
manded me to return to my cabin, where I awaited during
the rest of the day and the next the same treatment. It
was the belief of all that I would not wait long, as they had
begun it, and in fact for several days they came to kill me,
but our Lord prevented it by ways, which would take
long to explain. Early the next morning, I did not fail to
start out to inquire where they had thrown that blessed
body, for I wished to inter it, cost what it might. Some
Iroquois who had a wish to save me, said, “ Thou hast no
sense ; thou seest that they seek thee every where to kill
thee, and thou goest out still, thou wilt go to seek a body
already half puterfied, which has been dragged far from here.
Seest thou not, those young men going out, who will kill
thee, when thou art past the palisade.” This did not stop
me, and our Lord gave me courage enough to be willing to
SECOND SERIES.-------VOL. III.	15226
THE JOGUES PAPEKS.
die in that office of charity. I go, I seek, and by the help
of an Algonquin taken, and now a real Iroquois, I find it.
After he had been killed, the children had stripped him
and tieing a cord around his neck, dragged him to a torrent
which runs at the foot of the town. The dogs had already
gnawed a part of his thighs. At this spectacle, I could not
withhold my tears. I took the body and aided by the Al-
gonquin, I sank it in the water and covered it with large
stones, to hide it, intending to return the next day with a
spade, when there was no one near and dig a grave and in-
ter it. I thought the body well hidden, but perhaps some
one saw us, especially of the youth, and took it up.
The next day as they sought to kill me, my aunt sent
me to her field to escape as I think; this compelled me to
defer it till the next day. It rained all night so that the
torrent was extremely swelled; I borrowed a hoe in another
cabin, the better to conceal my design, but on approaching
the place, could not find the blessed deposit; I entered the
water already quite cold, I go and come, I sound with my
feet to see whether the water had not raised and carried off
the body, but I saw nothing. How many tears I shed,
which fell in the torrent, while I sang as I could the psalms
which the church chant for the dead. After all I found
nothing, and a woman known to me who passed by, see-
ing me in trouble, told me,when I asked her whether she
did not know what had been done with it, that it had been
dragged to the river which is a quarter of a league from
there, and with which I was not acquainted. This was
false, the young men had taken it up and dragged it to a
neighboring wood, where during the fall and winter it was
the food of the dog, the crow, and the fox. When I was
told in the spring that he had been dragged there, I
went several times without finding any thing; at last, the
fourth time, I found his head and some half-gnawed bones,
which I interred, intending to carry them off, if taken back
to Three Rivers as was then talked of. Repeatedly did I
kiss them as the bones of a martyr of Jesus Christ.
I give him this title, not only because he was killed by
the enemies of God, and his church, in the exercise of an
ardent love for his neighbor, putting himself in evident
perils for the love of God, but particularly because he was
killed for prayer, and expressly for the Holy Cross. He
was in a cabin where he prayed daily, which scarcely pleasedTHE JOGUES PAPERS.
227
a superstitious old man there. One day seeing a little
child, three or four years old, in the cabin, from an excess of
devotion and a love of the cross, and in a simplicity which
we who are more prudent according to the flesh would not
have had, he took off his cap and putting it on the child's
head made the sign of the cross on his body. The old man
seeing it ordered a young man in his cabin, who was start-
ing on a war party, to Mil him, and he obeyed the order as
we have seen.
The mother of the child herself, in a voyage which I
made with her, told me that he had been killed for that sign
of the cross, and the old man who had given the order to Mil
him, invited me one day to his cabin to dinner, but when I
made the sign of the cross before beginning, he said: “ There
is what we hate ; that is what we Mlled thy comrade for,
and will MU thee too. Our neighbors, the Europeans, do
not make it." Sometimes too as I prayed on my knees in
hunting time, they told me that they hated that way of do-
ing, and had Mlled the other Frenchman for it and would
Mil me too, when I got back to the village.
I beg pardon of your Eeverence for the precipitation
with which I write this, and my want of respect in so do-
ing. Excuse me, if you please; I feared to miss this oppor-
tunity of discharging a debt I should long since have dis-
charged.
VIII.
LETTER OF GOVERNOR KIEFT TO GOVERNOR DE MONTMAGNY.
“ To M. De Montmagny, Governor of New France.
“ Monsieur, Monsieur :
“ I wrote a reply to that which you were pleased to
honor me with by Father de Jogues, dated May 15, and I
sent it to Fort Orange to deliver it to said F. de Jogues;
but he not having returned as expected, it was not imme-
diately sent. This will serve, then, to thank your Excel-
lency for your remembrance of me, which I shall endeavor
to return, if it please Grod to give me an opportunity. I
send this through the Northern Section by the English or
Monsieur d* Aunay, in order to advise you of the massacre of
F. Isaac de Jogues and his companions, perpetrated by the
barbarous and inhuman Maquaas, or Iroquois; as also of228
THE JOGUES PAPERS.
their design to surprise you, under color of a visit, as you
will see by the enclosed, which, though badly written and
spelt, will, to our great regret, give you all the particulars.
I am sorry that the subject of this is not more agreeable ;
but the importance of the affair has not permitted me to be
silent. Our minister above carefully inquired of the chiefs
of this canaille their reasons for the wretched act, but he
could get no answer from them but this, that the said
Father had left, among some articles that he had left
in their keeping, a devil, who had caused all their corn or
maize to be eaten up by worms.* This is all I can at pres-
ent write to you. Praying God to vouchsafe to guard you
and yours from this treacherous nation, and assuring you
that I am
“ Your most humble and obedient servant,
“ William Kieft.
“ Fort Amsterdam, in New Netherland, Nov. 14, 1646.”
IX.
LETTER OF JAN LABATIE TO MONSIEUR LA MONTAGNE.
(Enclosed in the foregoing.)
“ Praised be God at Fort Orange !
“ Monsieur, Monsieur La Montagne :
“ I have not wished to lose this occasion of letting you
know my state of health. I am in good health, thank God,
and pray God that it may be so with you and your children.
“ I have not much more, but how the French arrived
the seventeenth of this month at the Maquaas Fort. This
is to let you know how those ungrateful barbarians did not
wait till they were fairly arrived at their cabins, where they
were stripped all naked, without shirt, only they gave each
a pair of drawers to cover decency.
“ The very day of their coming they began to threaten
* The allusion here is to Dominoe John Megapolensis, to whom the Indians
brought some of the books and clothes of the murdered missionary. The friend-
ship existing between this early representative of the Dutch Church in New
York and the Catholic missionaries, is one of the most pleasing incidents in this
period. To his kind solicitude and subsequent hospitality, two acknowledged that,
next to God, they owed their lives. A correspondence was subsequently car-
ried on between them, and the missionaries lost no opportunity of expressing
their gratitude to so eminent a benefactor, and the name of this clergyman of
the Reformed Dutch Church is deservedly honored by the Catholics of New York..THE JOGUES PAPERS.
229
them, and immediately with fists and clubs, saying : c You
shall die to-morrow ! Do not be astonished, we shall not
burn you ; take courage ; we shall strike you with an axe,
and put your heads on the palisade, that your brothers may
see you yet, when we take them/ You must know that it
was only the Bear nation that killed them. Knowing that
the Wolf and Tortoise tribes have done all that they could
to save their lives, and said against the Bear, cKill us first
but, alas, they are no longer alive. Know, then, that the
eighteenth, in the evening, they came to call Isaac to sup-
per. He got up and went away with the savage to the Bear's
lodge; as entering the lodge, there was a traitor with his
hatchet behind the door. On entering, he split open his
head, and at the same time cut off his head and put it on
the palisade. The next morning early he did the same with
the other, and threw their bodies into the river. Monsieur,
I have not been able to know or hear from any savage why
they killed them.
“ Besides this their envy and enterprise, they are going
with three or four hundred men to try and surprise the
French, to do the same as they did to the others ; but God
grant they don't accomplish their design.
“ It would be desirable that Monsieur should be warned,
but there is no way to do it from here. Monsieur, I have
no more to write, but I remain
“ Your very humble and affectionate servant and friend,
“ Jan Labatie.*
“ Monsieur, I beg you (give) my baisemains (respects)
to the Governor.
“ Written at Fort Orange, Oct. 30, 1646.”
* Labatie was the French interpreter at Albany, and had, with Van Curler,
visited the Mohawk castles for the rescue of the missionary in 1642.