Transcriber's Note.

A [list] of the changes made can be found at the end of the book. In the text, the corrections are underlined by a red dotted line "like this". Hover the cursor over the underlined text and an explanation of the error should appear.

THE JESUIT RELATIONS
AND
ALLIED DOCUMENTS
Vol. I.

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents

Travels and Explorations
of the Jesuit Missionaries
in New France

1610-1791.

THE ORIGINAL FRENCH, LATIN, AND ITALIAN TEXTS, WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS AND NOTES; ILLUSTRATED BY PORTRAITS, MAPS, AND FACSIMILES

EDITED BY

REUBEN GOLD THWAITES

Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin

Vol. I.

Acadia: 1610-1613

CLEVELAND: The Burrows Brothers
Company, PUBLISHERS, M DCCCXCVI

Copyright, 1896
by
The Burrows Brothers Co

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED,

The Imperial Press, Cleveland

EDITORIAL STAFF

GENERAL PREFACE

The story of New France is also, in part, the story of much of New England, and of States whose shores are washed by the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. It may truly be said that the history of every one of our northern tier of commonwealths, from Maine to Minnesota, has its roots in the French régime. It is not true, as Bancroft avers, that the Jesuit was ever the pioneer of New France; we now know that in this land, as elsewhere in all ages, the trader nearly always preceded the priest. But the trader was not often a letter-writer or a diarist: hence, we owe our intimate knowledge of New France, particularly in the seventeenth century, chiefly to the wandering missionaries of the Society of Jesus. Coming early to the shores of Nova Scotia (1611), nearly a decade before the landing of the Plymouth Pilgrims, and eventually spreading throughout the broad expanse of New France, ever close upon the track of the adventurous coureur de bois, they met the American savage before contact with civilization had seriously affected him. With heroic fortitude, often with marvellous enterprise, they pierced our wilderness while still there were but Indian trails to connect far-distant villages of semi-naked aborigines. They saw North America and the North Americans practically in the primitive stage. Cultivated men, for the most part,—trained to see as well as to think, and carefully to make record of their experiences,—they left the most luxurious country in Europe to seek shelter in the foul and unwelcome huts of one of the most wretched races of man. To win these crude beings to the Christian Faith, it was necessary to know them intimately, in their daily walks. No coureur de bois was more expert in forest lore than were the Jesuit Fathers; and the records made by these soldiers of the Cross,—explicit and detailed, while familiar in tone,—are of the highest scientific value, often of considerable literary interest. The body of contemporary, documentary material which, in their Relations and Letters, the Jesuits of New France have bequeathed to the historian, the geographer, and the ethnologist, entitles them to the enduring gratitude of American scholars. For forty years, these documents have, in part, been more or less familiar to Americanists as a rich storehouse of material. But, hitherto, they have existed only in rare and costly forms, when in print at all,—as original products of ancient French, Italian, and German presses, or as reprints issued in sparse number for small circles of bibliophiles; while many important papers, capable of throwing light upon certain portions of Canadian history hitherto in shade, have as yet remained in manuscript.

We cannot promise for this series the entire body of existing Jesuit documents, either printed or in manuscript, which illustrate the history of New France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This would carry us, even were they all obtainable, far beyond the necessary limits of this series; for the fathers were profuse writers, and their papers are in many archives. It is of necessity a matter of selection. We shall, however, reissue all of the documents usually designated as Relations,—the Cramoisys, the Quebec reissue, the Shea and O'Callaghan reprints; and to these will be added a very considerable collection of miscellaneous papers of importance, from printed sources and from manuscripts, in order to fill the chronological gaps and round out and complete the story. It is the purpose of the Editor to present this mass of selected material in chronological order, so far as proves practicable, and to furnish such scholarly helps as will tend to render it more available than hitherto for daily use by students of American history. To this end will be given an English translation, side by side with the original text. While translations of many of the briefest documents, and of portions of others, have already appeared in one form of other, this is the first attempt to translate the entire body of the Relations. In many cases, where corruptions in text have crept in, we shall be enabled, by recourse to original manuscripts, to restore correct renderings; this care has been taken, wherever practicable, even to the examination of manuscripts in European archives; but occasionally we shall be obliged to follow our predecessors blindly in this regard, either from inability to discover the whereabouts of the original, or to obtain access to it, when found. In the case of each document, we shall invariably state the source whence we obtained our copy, and shall give additional bibliographical data as to other editions known to us. All maps and other illustrations appearing in previous editions will be reproduced in this; and these will be supplemented by other important contemporary aids of like character. At the end of each volume will appear such Notes as seem necessary to the elucidation of the text. The closing volume of the series will contain—and probably will be wholly devoted to—an exhaustive analytical Index, a feature without which the work would lose much of its value. In short, no pains have been, or will be, spared to render all possible service to scholars, in the present work. But the field is wide, the difficulties are many, and the Editor makes no claims to perfection. He will be grateful to any who, in the course of publication,—promising to extend through several years yet to come,—will offer helpful suggestions in any department of the undertaking.

While seeking to reproduce the old texts as closely as practicable, with their legitimate typographic and orthographic peculiarities, it has been found advisable here and there to make a few minor changes. The original printer was sometimes careless,—Cramoisy especially so,—and his proof-reader negligent. The result was that certain typographical errors crept into the original prints,—errors not of the author's making, and therefore not illustrative of his methods. These consist in the main, of: (1) turned letters; (2) transposed letters; (3) slipped letters; and (4) mis-spacings. To these obvious errors may be added such as, e.g., mistaking the verb gratter for grauer, evidently through a failure on the part of the writer to cross his t's,—the context plainly showing what was written; the printing, e.g., of beaućoup for beaucoup; or the repetition on the next line of a syllable in a divided word, resulting in such a redundancy as, poupouuant for pouuant. Palpable blemishes like these, we have deemed it advisable to correct without specific mention; in some instances, however, the original error has been retained, and in juxtaposition the correct rendering given within brackets.

Another and more annoying class of errors is, the wrong numbering of chapters and pages in the old issues, chiefly the fruit of carelessness in make-up. We indicate, throughout, the original pagination, by inclosing within brackets the number of each page at its beginning, e.g. [148]; in case of misnumbering, the correct figure is also given, e.g. [150, i.e. 149]. A similar device is adopted as to chapter misnumbering, e.g. Chapitre XXX. [i.e. XXIX.].

A difference in the typographic style of the documents presented in the present series, will occasionally be noticed. In following originals of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, we have of course reproduced their peculiarities, such as the long "s," and character diphthongs; but where our sole copy has been a modern reprint, in a modern typographic dress, we have followed its style, deeming it inadvisable, for mere sake of uniformity, to masquerade the document in olden guise.

In the progress of the work, which has now been under way for some sixteen months, many persons beside the present staff have tendered helping hands. To them, the Editor returns, for the Publishers and for himself, grateful acknowledgment. It is impracticable to name them all in this place; but of a few from whom special favors have been received, it is only just to speak: The Reverend Arthur E. Jones, S. J., archivist of St. Mary's College, Montreal, from the first opened his heart to this enterprise, and has not only given us carte blanche to ransack his priceless stores, but has contributed invaluable suggestions and data, almost without number. To Wilberforce Eames, librarian of Lenox Library, and his assistant, Victor H. Paltsits, we owe much; for in their institution the greater part of the transcription is being done, and their daily courtesies and kindnesses materially lighten the task. Superintendent Robbins Little, and Librarian Frederick Saunders, of Astor Library, have also been of much assistance in the conduct of the work. To John Nicholas Brown, of Providence, R. I., and to his librarian, George Parker Winship, we are indebted for numerous courtesies and suggestions during the copying and photographing of documents in the John Carter Brown Library of Americana. Similar aid is being rendered by Dr. Justin Winsor, of Harvard College Library, and his assistants, W. H. Tillinghast and T. J. Kiernan; by the librarians of St. Francis Xavier College, New York, and the Jesuit Colleges at Georgetown, D. C., and Woodstock, Md.; by L. P. Sylvani, assistant librarian of the Library of Parliament, Ottawa; and by C. H. Gould, librarian of McGill University Library, Montreal, and his assistant, Henry Mott. Donald Guthrie McNab, of Montreal, has kindly permitted us to photograph and reproduce his excellent oil portraits of the early fathers; and, in this connection, we feel under especial obligations to Messrs. Notman & Son, of Montreal, for their intelligent advice and patience in photographing paintings and manuscripts for the series. Marked privileges have been granted by the officials of the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, of Paris. Numerous antiquarians have rendered generous aid, notably Peter A. Porter, of Niagara Falls, N. Y.; W. M. Beauchamp, of Baldwinsville, N. Y.; l'Abbé H. A. B. Verreau, of Montreal; Mgr. T. E. Hamel, of Quebec; and A. F. Hunter, of Barrie, Ontario. Further acknowledgment of assistance will be rendered in the several volumes, as they appear.

R. G. T.

Madison, Wis., August, 1896.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I

ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I

INTRODUCTION

BY REUBEN GOLD THWAITES

Doubtless Norse vikings, venturing far southward from outlying colonies in Iceland and Greenland, first coasted New France, and beached their sturdy ships on the shores of New England. But five centuries passed without result, and we cannot properly call them pioneers of American civilization. Columbus it was, who unlocked the eastern door of the New World. Five years later, John Cabot, in behalf of England, was sighting the gloomy headlands of Cape Breton. Cortereal appeared in the neighborhood, in 1501, seeking lands for the Portuguese crown. About this time, at intervals, there came to Newfoundland certain Norman, Breton, and Basque fishers, who, erecting little huts and drying-scaffolds along the rocky shore, sowed the first seed of that polyglot settlement of French, Portuguese, Spanish, and English which has come down to our day almost uninterruptedly. By 1511, these fishermen appear to have known the mainland to the west; for on the map of Sylvanus, in his edition of Ptolemy, that year, we find a delineation of the "Square Gulf," which answers to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 1520, Fagundus visited these waters for the Portuguese, and four years later Verrazano was making for the French an exploration of the coast between North Carolina and Newfoundland. Whether or not Cartier (1535) was the first to sail up the St. Lawrence "until land could be seen on either side," no man can now tell; apparently, he was the first to leave a record of doing so. Progress up the river was checked by Lachine Rapids, and he spent the winter on Montreal Island.

France and Spain were just then engaged in one of their periodical quarrels, and adventurers were needed to fight battles at home, so that it was six years before any attempts were made to colonize the river-lands to which Cartier had led the way. In 1541, a Picard seigneur named Roberval, enjoying the friendship of Francis I., was commissioned as viceroy of the new country beyond the Atlantic, with Cartier as his chief pilot and captain-general, and a choice selection of jail-birds for colonists. Cartier started off before his chief, built a fort at Quebec, and, after a long and miserable winter, picked up a quantity of glittering stones which he took to be gold and diamonds, and gladly set sail for home. Tradition has it that Roberval met him near the mouth of the river, but was unable to induce him to return to his cheerless task of founding a state in an inhospitable wilderness, with convicts for citizens. Roberval, however, proceeded to Quebec with his consignment of prison dregs, and throughout another protracted winter the flag of France floated from the little intrenched camp which Cartier had planted on the summit of the cliff. Roberval's principal occupation appears to have been the disciplining of his unruly followers, a work in which the gibbet and the lash were freely employed. He also essayed explorations up the river; but the rude task was not to his liking, and, with what remained of his battered band, he followed Cartier to France.

It is commonly said that Canada was abandoned by the French between the going of Roberval and the coming of Champlain. But, though little was done toward colonizing on the St. Lawrence, Newfoundland was by no means neglected. Its fishing industry grew apace. The rules of the Church, prescribing a fish diet on certain holy days, led to a large use of salted fish throughout Catholic Europe; and, by 1578, full a hundred and fifty French vessels alone, chiefly Breton, were employed in the Newfoundland fisheries, while a good trade with the mainland Indians, as far south as the Potomac, had now sprung up. The island colony proved valuable as a supply and repair station for traders and explorers, and thus served as a nucleus of both French and English settlement in America.

It is difficult for us of to-day to realize that, at any time in the world's history, enlightened folk should have thought good colonists could be made out of the sweepings of the jails and gutters of the Old World. But in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that delusion was quite generally entertained by would-be founders of states across sea; it required the lessons of more than a hundred years of disastrous experiments to teach discerning men that only the best of the middle class and the masses, can successfully plant a new community in the wilderness. The experiences of Cartier and Roberval on the St. Lawrence, and of Laudonnière in Florida (1564), were of no avail in influencing governmental policy at Paris. In 1590, the Marquis de la Roche was sent out with the usual dissolute crew to succeed Roberval as the king's agent on the banks of the St. Lawrence. Leaving part of his ill-favored gang on the desert Sable Isle, off Nova Scotia (where early in the century Baron de Léry had vainly attempted to plant a colony), La Roche set forth to explore the mainland for a site. A wild storm blew his vessels to France, and the wretched skin-clad survivors of the band which he had left behind were not rescued until thirteen years had elapsed. Their tale of horror long rang in the ears of France.

In 1600-1603, Chauvin and Pontgravé made successful trading voyages to the St. Lawrence. Samuel de Champlain was one of the party which, in the latter year, followed in Cartier's track to Montreal. The same season, a Calvinist, named De Monts, was given the vice-royalty and fur-trade monopoly of Acadia, and in 1604 he landed a strangely-assorted company of vagabonds and gentlemen on St. Croix Island, near the present boundary between Maine and New Brunswick; but in the spring following they settled at Port Royal, near where is now Annapolis, Nova Scotia, thus planting the first French agricultural settlement in America. Five years later, Champlain reared a permanent post on the rock of Quebec, and New France was at last, after a century of experiments, fairly under way.

Various motives influenced the men who sought to establish French colonization in America. The ill-fated agricultural colony of the Huguenots in Florida (1562-68), was avowedly an attempt of Admiral Coligny to found an enduring asylum for French Protestants. The enterprise of New France, on the other hand, was the outgrowth of interests more or less conflicting. Doubtless the court had deepest at heart the kingly passion for territorial aggrandizement; next uppermost, was the pious wish to convert heathen nations to the Catholic faith, explorers like Cartier being authorized to discover new lands "in order the better to do what is pleasing to God, our Creator and Redeemer, and what may be for the increase of his holy and sacred name, and of our holy mother, the Church;" the desire for pelf, through the agency of the fur trade, and the possibility of the discovery of precious metals, gave commercial zest to the undertaking, and to many was the raison d'être of the colony; and lastly, was the almost universal yearning for adventure, among a people who in the seventeenth century were still imbued with that chivalric temper which among Englishmen is assigned to the Middle Ages. The inner life of New France, throughout its century and a half of existence, was largely a warring between these several interests.

Missionaries came early upon the scene. With the Calvinist De Monts were Huguenot ministers for the benefit of the settlers, and Catholic priests to open a mission among the savages, for the court had stipulated with him that the latter were to be instructed only in the faith of Rome. But no missionary work was done, for the colony was through several years on the verge of dissolution, and the priests became victims of scurvy. Poutrincourt, who held under De Monts the patent for Port Royal, did nothing to further the purposes of the court in this regard, until 1610, when, admonished for his neglect, he brought out with him a secular priest, Messire Jessé Fléché, of Langres, who on June 24, "apparently in some haste," baptized twenty-one Abenakis, including the district sagamore, or chief. The account of this affair, which Poutrincourt sent in triumph to France, is the initial document in the present series.

On the twelfth of June, 1611, there arrived at Port Royal, at the instance of King Henry IV., two Jesuit fathers, Pierre Biard and Ennemond Massé. They were, however, not favorably received by Poutrincourt and his followers; they found great practical difficulties in acquiring the Indian languages and made slight progress in the herculean task to which they had been set. To them, came the following year, a lay brother, Gilbert du Thet, who was soon dispatched to the head of the order, in France, with an account of the situation. In the spring of 1613, he returned, in company with Father Quentin. The little band of missionaries had no sooner established themselves at the new French colony on Mt. Desert Island, than the latter was attacked and dispersed by the Virginian Argall. Du Thet was killed in the fight, Massé was, with other colonists, set adrift in a boat, and Biard and Quentin were taken to Virginia, to be eventually shipped to England, and thence allowed to return into France. Several of the earlier documents of our series have to do with this first and apparently unfruitful mission of the Jesuits to Acadia.

In 1615, Champlain thought the time ripe for the institution of Indian missions upon the St. Lawrence, a spiritual field hitherto neglected, and introduced to Quebec four members of the fraternity of Récollets, the most austere of the three orders of Franciscans; these were Fathers Denis Jamay, Jean d'Olbeau, and Joseph le Caron, and a lay brother, Pacifique du Plessis. To D'Olbeau was assigned the conversion of the Montagnais of the Lower St. Lawrence; Le Caron went to the Hurons, or Wyandots, in the vast stretch of forested wilderness west of the Ottawa River, and before the coming of autumn had established a bark chapel in their midst; Jamay and Du Plessis remained in the neighborhood of Quebec, ministering to the colonists and the wandering savages who came to the little settlement for purposes of trade or sociability, or through fear of scalp-hunting Iroquois. For ten years did these gray friars practice the rites of the church in the Canadian woods, all the way from the fishing and trading outpost of Tadoussac to the western Lake of the Nipissings. Barefooted, save for heavy wooden sandals, coarsely clad in gown and hood, enduring in a rigorous climate, to which they were unused, all manner of hardships by flood and field, they were earnestly devoted to their laborious calling in a time when elsewhere the air of New France was noisy with the strife of self-seeking traders and politicians. Yet somehow their mission seemed without important result. Even less successful was the enterprise of some fellow Récollets, who, in 1619, began independent work among the French fishermen and Micmacs of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Gaspé, but were forced in 1624, after many disasters, to abandon their task, three of them joining the party at Quebec.

The little band on the St. Lawrence, although thus reinforced, felt impelled, in 1625, to invite the powerful aid of the Jesuits, who in the face of great odds were just then holding most successful missions in Asia, Africa, and South America. In response to the call, three fathers of the black gown came to Quebec this year,—Massé, who had been of the old Acadian mission, Charles Lalemant, and that giant among them, in both stature and deeds, Jean de Brébeuf. Immediately the work began to broaden, but the records of the dual mission do not give evidence of many converts,—a few Huron youth taken to France, and there instructed and baptized, being the chief gains. The wandering habits of the Indians were not favorable to persistent instruction of the young, and adults were unwilling to commit themselves to the new doctrine, even when not openly opposed to its promulgation. The summer months were usually spent by the missionaries at Tadoussac, Quebec, and Three Rivers, where trading parties from the tribes were wont to assemble; and, when the latter scattered for their winter hunts, the missionaries accompanied them, sharing the toils, dangers, and discomforts of the movable camps, and often suffering much from positive abuse at the hands of their not over-willing hosts.

The settlements of Port Royal and Quebec were at this time wretched little hamlets of a few dozen huts each, surrounded by a palisade, and these fell an easy prey to small English naval forces (1628-29). With their fall, ended the slender mission of the Récollets and Jesuits, who were in triumph carried off to England. For a few months, France did not hold one foot of ground in North America. But as peace had been declared between France and England before this conquest, the former received back all of its possessions, and the inevitable struggle for the mastery of the continent was postponed for four generations longer.

With the release of Canada to France, in 1632, the Jesuits were by the home authorities placed in sole charge of the spiritual interests of both settlers and Indians, and the history of their greatest missions begins at this time. On the fifth of July, there landed at Quebec, Fathers Paul le Jeune and Anne de Nouë, and a lay brother named Gilbert. Le Jeune was the superior, and at once devoted himself to learning the language and customs of the savages, and so studying the enormous field before him as intelligently to dispose of his meagre forces.

The Indians.

The existence of rival tribes among the Red Indians of North America, was, perhaps, the most formidable obstacle in the path of the missionaries. It has always been impossible to make any hard-and-fast classification; yet the Indians presented a considerable variety of types, ranging from the Southern Indians, some of whose tribes were in a relatively high stage of material advancement and mental calibre, down to the savage root-eaters of the Rocky Mountain region. The migrations of some of the Indian tribes were frequent, and they occupied overlapping territories, so that it is impossible to fix the tribal boundaries with any degree of exactness. Again, the tribes were so merged by intermarriage, by affiliation, by consolidation, by the fact that there were numerous polyglot villages of renegades, by similarities in manner, habits, and appearance, that it is difficult even to separate the savages into families. It is only on philological grounds that these divisions can be made at all. In a general way we may say that between the Atlantic and the Rockies, Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, there were four Indian languages in vogue, with great varieties of local dialect:

I. The Algonkins were the most numerous, holding the greater portion of the country from the unoccupied "debatable land" of Kentucky northward to Hudson Bay, and from the Atlantic westward to the Mississippi. Among their tribes were the Micmacs of Acadia, the Penobscots of Maine, the Montagnais of the St. Lawrence, the ill-defined tribes of the country round about Lake St. John, and the Ottawas, Chippewas, Mascoutens, Sacs, Foxes, Pottawattomies, and Illinois of the Upper Lakes. These savages were rude in life and manners, were intensely warlike, depended for subsistence chiefly on hunting and fishing, lived in rude wigwams covered with bark, skins, or matted reeds, practised agriculture in a crude fashion, and were less stable in their habitations than the Southern Indians. They have made a larger figure in our history than any other family, because through their lands came the heaviest and most aggressive movement of white population, French or English. Estimates of early Indian populations necessarily differ, in the absence of accurate knowledge; but it is now believed that the number was never so great as was at first estimated by the Jesuit fathers and the earliest English colonists. A careful modern estimate is, that the Algonkins at no time numbered over 90,000 souls, and possibly not over 50,000.

II. In the heart of this Algonkin land was planted the ethnic group called the Iroquois, with its several distinct branches, often at war with each other. The craftiest, most daring, and most intelligent of North American Indians, yet still in the savage hunter state, the Iroquois were the terror of every native band east of the Mississippi, before the coming of the whites, who in turn learned to dread their ferocious power. The five principal tribes of this family—Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, all stationed in palisaded villages south and east of lakes Erie and Ontario—formed a loose confederacy styled by themselves and the French "The Long House," and by the English "The Five Nations," which firmly held the waterways connecting the Hudson and Ohio rivers and the Great Lakes. The population of the entire group was not over 17,000—a remarkably small number, considering the active part they played in American history, and the control which they exercised through wide tracts of wilderness. Related to, but generally at war with them, were the Hurons of Canada, among whom the Jesuits planted their earliest missions. Champlain, in an endeavor to cultivate the friendship of his Huron and Algonkin neighbors, early made war on the Iroquois, and thus secured for New France a heritage of savage enmity which contributed more than any other one cause to cripple its energies and render it at last an easy prey to the rival power of the English colonies.

III. The Southern Indians occupied the country between the Tennessee River and the Gulf, the Appalachian Ranges and the Mississippi. Of a milder disposition than their Northern cousins, the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles were rather in a barbarous than in a savage state; by the time of the Revolution, they were not far behind the white proprietors in industrial or domestic methods, and numbered not above 50,000 persons. With them, this story of the Jesuit missions has little to do; the Louisiana mission, an offshoot of that of New France, did faithful work here, but the documentary result was neither as interesting nor as prolific, and necessarily occupies but small space in the present series.

IV. The Dakotah, or Sioux, family occupied for the most part the country beyond the Mississippi. They were and are a fierce, high-strung people, genuine nomads, and war appears to have been their chief occupation. The Jesuits worked among them but in slight measure, on the waters of the Upper Mississippi; they met this family, chiefly in the persons of the Winnebagoes, one of their outlying bands, which at the time of the French occupation was resident on and about Green Bay of Lake Michigan, at peace and in confederacy with the Algonkins who hedged them about.

The mission of the French Jesuits to these widely-scattered hordes of savages forms one of the most thrilling chapters in human history. It is impossible, in this brief Introduction, to attempt anything more than the barest outline of the theme; Rochemonteix, Shea, and Parkman have told the story in detail, from differing points of view, and with these authorities the student of the following documents in the case is presumed to be familiar. A rapid summary of results will, however, be useful; and this we may best obtain, at the expense of occasional repetition of narrative, by following the fortunes of the pioneers of the Cross through the several district missions into which their work was naturally divided.

I. The Abenaki Mission.

This mission was chiefly in Maine and Acadia, and on Cape Breton Island. The Abenakis (or Abnakis) were a strong but mild-mannered Algonkin tribe, settled in villages or cantonments; but, like others of their race, in the habit of taking long semi-annual journeys,—each winter to hunt, and each summer to fish. We have seen that the French Jesuits, Biard and Massé, were in the field as early as 1611, soon after the establishment of Port Royal; their predecessor being the secular French priest, Fléché, who had been introduced to the country by Poutrincourt, the patentee. Biard and Massé met with many discouragements, chiefly the opposition of Poutrincourt's son, Biencourt (sometimes called Baron St. Just), who had been left in charge of the colony. Nevertheless the missionaries learned the native language, and made many long journeys of exploration, one of Biard's trips extending as far as the mouth of the Kennebec. They were later joined by a lay brother, Du Thet, and by Fathers Quentin and Lalemant. Joining the new French colony on Mt. Desert Island, in the spring of 1613, the establishment was almost immediately destroyed by the Virginian Argall. In the skirmish, Du Thet was killed.

In 1619, a party of Récollets, from Aquitaine, began a mission on St. John River, in Acadia, but five years later, as we have seen above, abandoned the task, the survivors joining the Quebec mission of their order. Other Récollets were in Acadia, however, between 1630 and 1633, and later we have evidence of a small band of Capuchins ministering to French settlers on the Penobscot and Kennebec; but it is probable that they made no attempt to convert the natives.

A Jesuit mission was founded on Cape Breton in 1634, by Father Julian Perrault; and a few years later, Father Charles Turgis was at Miscou. Other missionaries soon came to minister to the Micmacs, but for many years their efforts were without result; and sickness, resulting from the hardships of the situation, caused most of the early black gowns to retreat from the attempt. Finally, an enduring mission was established among these people, and, until about 1670, was conducted with some measure of success by Fathers Andrew Richard, Martin de Lyonne, and James Fremin. About 1673, the Récollets took up the now abandoned work, occasionally aided by secular priests from the Seminary of Quebec, and Jesuits, until at last the Micmacs from Gaspé to Nova Scotia were declared to be entirely converted to the Catholic faith.

Father Gabriel Druillettes, of the Jesuit mission at Sillery, near Quebec, went to the Kennebec country in 1646, invited thither by converted Abenakis who had been at Sillery, and during visits, extending through a period of eleven years, was more than ordinarily successful in the task of gaining Indian converts to Christianity. In 1650, he made a notable visit to the Puritans of Eastern Massachusetts, during which was discussed the proposed union between New France and New England, against the Iroquois. Upon the final departure of Druillettes in 1657, the Abenakis were but spasmodically served with missionaries; occasionally a Jesuit appeared among them, but the field could not be persistently worked, owing to the demands upon the order from other quarters. The fathers now sought to draw Abenaki converts to Sillery, and later to St. Francis de Sales, at the falls of the Chaudière, which soon became almost exclusively an Abenaki mission.

In 1688, Father Bigot, of this mission, again entered the field of the Kennebec, at the same time that Rev. Peter Thury, a priest of the Quebec Seminary, opened a mission on the Penobscot, and the Récollet F. Simon gathered a flock at Medoktek, near the mouth of the St. John. They were in time aided and succeeded by others: the Jesuits being Julian Binneteau, Joseph Aubery, Peter de la Chasse, Stephen Lauverjeat, Loyard, and Sebastian Rale; the death of Rale, the greatest of them all, at the hands of New England partisans in the border strife of 1724, is a familiar incident in American history. Jesuits succeeded to the Penobscot mission in 1703, and with great zeal, but amid continual hardships and discouragements, carried on the principal work among the Abenakis until the downfall of New France in 1763. The majority of the Kennebec converts, however, emigrated to the mission of St. Francis de Sales, and from there frequently went forth upon avenging expeditions against the New England borderers.

II. The Montagnais Mission.

This was centered at Tadoussac, and ministered to the Montagnais, Bersiamites, Porcupines, Oumaniwek, Papinachois, and other tribes of the Lower St. Lawrence and the Saguenay. Tadoussac had, from the earliest historic times, been a favorite harbor and trading-station for the French; for, being at the junction of two great rivers, it was convenient as a place of assembly for the natives of the lower country. The first priests in the district had said mass there; but it was not until 1640 that a Jesuit mission was formed by Father Jean du Quen, its sphere of influence soon reaching to the upper waters of the Saguenay, Lake St. John, Hudson Bay, and the coast of Labrador. Du Quen was actively assisted by Charles Meiachkwat, a Montagnais convert, who erected the first chapel, became a catechist, and made extended tours through the neighboring tribes. In time, there were associated with Du Quen, Fathers Buteux and Druillettes. Protracted missionary tours were made by them, with results which were considered satisfactory as compared with other missions; although they had serious difficulties to contend with, in the prevalent intemperance which the fur trade introduced among the natives, the belief in dreams, the laxity of morals, and the wiles of medicine-men, or sorcerers, as they were called by the Jesuits.

For the first few years, the missionaries spent their winters in Quebec, ministering to the colonists, and each spring went down to Tadoussac to meet the summer trading parties; but greater persistency of effort was deemed desirable, and thereafter, instead of returning home in the autumn, they followed the Indians upon their winter hunts, and in the course of these wanderings endured the usual privations and hardships of traveling camps. Bailloquet, Nouvel, Beaulieu, Albanel, De Crépieul, Dalmas, Boucher, Peter Michael Laure, and Jean Baptiste Labrosse, are other names of Jesuit fathers who at different periods were engaged upon this toilsome mission.

In 1670, Tadoussac was almost deserted, owing to Iroquois raids and the ravages of smallpox; the Montagnais and kindred tribes were in hiding, through the vast country between Lake St. John and Hudson Bay. They were still followed by their devoted shepherds, whom no hardship could discourage. The following year, Crépieul began a mission on Hudson Bay, and here in 1694 his auxiliary Dalmas was killed. Laure (1720-37) left us a monument of his labors in a Montagnais grammar and dictionary. Labrosse, the last of his order at Tadoussac, instructed many of his flock to read and write, and left a legacy of native education, which has lasted unto the present day; he lived and taught long after his order had been suppressed in New France, and died at Tadoussac in 1782.

III. The Quebec and Montreal Missions.

These included the several missions at Quebec, Montreal, Three Rivers, Sillery, Bécancourt, and St. Francis de Sales, which were designed for the wandering Montagnais of the district, those Algonkins of the West who could be induced to come and settle on the lower waters, and in later years such Abenakis of Acadia and Maine as sought an asylum upon distinctively French soil.

We have seen that Récollets were first at Quebec, ministering both to colonists and Indians, and that, in 1625, they invited the Jesuits to aid them. In 1629, the joint mission came to a close through the surrender of Quebec to the English. When the mission was reopened in 1632, Jesuits alone were in charge, their operations being at first confined to the neighboring Montagnais, although they soon spread throughout the entire Canadian field. In 1658, Bishop Laval founded the Seminary of Quebec, whereupon the Jesuits resigned their parishes among the colonists, and thereafter confined themselves to their college and the Indian missions. In addition to their parish work, the priests of the seminary conducted missions in Acadia, Illinois, and on the lower Mississippi.

The year following the return of the Jesuits to Canada, Father Buteux, of that order, began his labors at Three Rivers, which was a convenient gathering-place for the fur trade. The village was frequently raided by Iroquois, but remained until the fall of New France one of the prominent centers of missionary influence. The efforts of Buteux, which lasted until his death at the hands of Iroquois in 1652, met with considerable success. His custom, like that of the other missionaries, was to be present at the French posts during the annual trading "meets," and when the savages returned to the wilderness, to accompany some selected band. In thus following the nomadic tribes, he made some of the longest and most toilsome journeys recorded in the annals of the Society of Jesus, and shared with his flock all the horrors of famine, pestilence, and inter-tribal war.

It was soon realized by the missionaries that but meagre results could be obtained until the Indians were induced to lead a sedentary life. Their wandering habit nullified all attempts at permanent instruction to the young; it engendered improvidence and laziness, bred famine and disease; and the constant struggle to kill fur-bearing animals for their pelts rapidly depleted the game, while the fur trade wrought contamination in many forms. Missionary efforts were at first conducive to the interests of the fur trade, by bringing far-distant tribes within the sphere of French influence; but so soon as the Jesuit sought to change the habits of the natives, to cause them to become agriculturists instead of hunters, and to oppose the rum traffic among them, then the grasping commercial monopoly which controlled the fortunes of New France, and was merely "working" the colony for financial gains, saw in the Jesuit an enemy, and often placed serious obstacles in his path.

In pursuance of the sedentary policy, and also to protect the wretched Montagnais from Iroquois war-parties, the Jesuits, in 1637, established for them a palisaded mission four miles above Quebec, at first giving it the name St. Joseph, but later that of Sillery, in honor of Commander Noël Brulart de Sillery, of France, who had given ample funds for the founding of this enterprise. Here were at first gathered twenty of the Indians, who began cultivation of the soil, varied by occasional hunting and fishing trips, which the missionaries could not prevent. The little town slowly grew in importance, both Algonkins and Montagnais being represented in its population. Three years later, nuns opened a hospital at Sillery, for the reception of both French and Indian patients, and thus greatly added to the popularity of the mission. But in 1646 the nuns removed their hospital to Quebec; a few years later, the church and mission house were destroyed by fire; disease made sad havoc in the settlement; the thin soil became exhausted through careless tillage; Iroquois preyed upon the converts, until at last the Algonkins almost entirely disappeared; and although their place was taken by Abenakis from Maine and Acadia, until the attendance became almost solely Abenaki, the enterprise waned. In 1685, it was abandoned in favor of St. Francis de Sales, a new mission established at the falls of the Chaudière River, not far from the St. Lawrence. Beyond a monument of later days, to the memory of Fathers Massé and De Nouë, whose names are prominently connected with this work, nothing now remains to mark the site of the old Sillery mission.

From St. Francis, the mission work began to spread into Maine. Of its character and extent there, mention has already been made. St. Francis achieved a certain measure of prosperity, as Indian missions go. It became in time a source of serious trouble to the New England borderers, for many a French and Indian war-party was here fitted out against the latter, during the series of bloody conflicts which marked the three-quarters of a century previous to the fall of New France. Finally, in September, 1759, Maj. Robert Rogers descended upon the village with his famous rangers, and in retaliation pillaged and burned the houses, and killed "at least two hundred Indians." New France soon after fell into the hands of the English, and, the Jesuits being suppressed, we hear little more of St. Francis de Sales.

In 1641, the missionary settlement of Montreal was founded by Maisonneuve. The Jesuits were the first resident clergy, and soon began mission work among the neighboring Indians and those who resorted thither from the valleys of the Lower St. Lawrence and the Ottawa. Soon, however, the Sulpitians, established in Paris by the Abbé Olier, one of the Society of Montreal, took charge of the mission on Montreal Island, which in after years was moved to the Sault au Récollet, and thence to the Lake of the Two Mountains, where there was gathered a polyglot village composed of Iroquois, Algonkins, and Nipissings. Upon the opening of the English régime, the Jesuit and Récollet missions were suppressed, but those of the Sulpitians were undisturbed, so that this mission at the lake is the oldest now extant in Canada.

Among the Algonkins of the Ottawa River (or Grande Rivière), no permanent missions were attempted by any of the orders. Long the chief highway to the West, the river was familiar to travelling missionaries, who frequently ministered to the tribesmen along its banks, either at the native villages or during the annual trading councils at the French posts of Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec.

IV. The Huron Mission.

At the time of the advent of the French, the Hurons (or Wyandots), allied in origin and language to the Iroquois, numbered about 16,000 souls, and dwelt in several large villages in a narrow district on the high ground between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. Their dwellings were bark cabins, clustered within stoutly-palisaded walls, and near each fortified town were fields of corn, beans, pumpkins, and tobacco. Agricultural in habit, keen traders, and in the main sedentary, these semi-naked savages made short hunting and fishing expeditions, and laid up stores for the winter. They were better fighters than the Algonkins around them, yet were obliged gradually to withdraw northward and westward from Iroquois persecution, and during the period of the Jesuit missions were almost annihilated by the latter. To the southwest, across a wide stretch of unpopulated forest, were the allies and kindred of the Hurons, the Tionontates, called also Petuns, or Tobacco Nation, a term having its origin in their custom of cultivating large fields of tobacco, which commodity they used in a wide-spread barter with other tribes. To the southeast of the Petuns, west of Lake Ontario and on both sides of the gorge of Niagara, were the peaceful Atiwandaronks, who, being friends alike of Iroquois, Algonkins, and Hurons, were known as the Neutral Nation. To the eastward of the Neutrals, strongly intrenched in the interlocking basins of the Genesee and the Mohawk, lay the dread confederacy of the Iroquois, who in time were to spread like a pestilence over the lands of all their neighbors.

The intelligence and mobility of the Hurons rendered the early prospects for missionary effort among them more promising than with the rude and nomadic Algonkins. But while at first the missionaries of New France were well received, the innate savagery of these people in time asserted itself. Their medicine-men, as bitterly fanatical as the howling dervishes of the Orient, plotted the destruction of the messengers of the new faith; the introduction of European diseases was attributed to the "black gowns;" the ravages of the Iroquois were thought to be brought on by the presence of the strangers; the rites of the church were looked upon as infernal incantations, and the lurid pictures of the Judgment, which were displayed in the little forest chapels, aroused unspeakable terror among this simple people; finally, an irresistible wave of superstitious frenzy led to the blotting out of the mission, accompanied by some of the most heart-rending scenes in the history of Christian evangelization.

It will be remembered that in 1615 the Récollet friar, Joseph le Caron, made his way into the far-away country of the Hurons, but returned in the following year, having learned much of their language and customs. Five years later, another of his order, William Poulin, took up the weary task, being joined in 1623 by Fathers Le Caron and Nicholas Viel, and the historian of the Récollet missions, Brother Gabriel Sagard. All of them soon left the field, however, save Viel, who alone, amid almost incredible hardships, attained some measure of success; but in 1625, when descending the Ottawa to meet and arrange for co-operation with the Jesuit Brébeuf, at Three Rivers, he was willfully drowned by his Indian guide in the last rapid of Des Prairies River, just back of Montreal. Such is the origin of the name of the dread Sault au Récollet.

In 1626, the Jesuits Brébeuf and Anne de Nouë, having received some linguistic instruction from Récollets who had been in the Huron field, proceeded thither, with a Récollet friar, Joseph de la Roche Daillon, to resume the work which the Récollets had abandoned. Daillon attempted a mission to neighboring Neutrals, but, being roughly handled by them, rejoined his Jesuit friends among the Hurons. Two years later, he returned to Quebec, having been preceded by De Nouë, who found it impossible to master the difficult language of their dusky flock. Brébeuf, now left alone, labored gallantly among these people, and, winning the hearts of many by his easy adoption of their manners, gathered about him a little colony of those favorably inclined to his views. He was recalled to Quebec in 1629, arriving there just in time to fall into the hands of Louis Kirk, and be transported to England.

When Canada was restored to France, by the treaty of St. Germain, the Jesuits were given sole charge of the Indian missions, but it was 1634 before the Huron mission could be reopened. In September, Brébeuf, Antoine Daniel, and Davost returned to Brébeuf's old field, and commenced, in the large town of Ihonatiria, the greatest Jesuit mission in the history of New France. Others soon joined them. Additional missions were opened in neighboring towns, some of the strongest of these being each served by four fathers, who were assisted by laymen donnés, or given men; while in the cultivation of the soil, and the fashioning of implements and utensils both for the fathers and for the Indians, numerous hired laborers, from the French colonies on the St. Lawrence, were employed in and about the missions. Charles Garnier and Isaac Jogues, with their attendants, made a tour of the Petun villages; other Jesuits were sent among the Neutrals; and even the Algonkins as far northwestward as Sault Ste. Marie were visited (1641) by Raymbault and Jogues, and looked and listened with awe at the celebration of the mass. In 1639, there was built, on the River Wye, the fortified mission house of St. Mary's, to serve as a center for the wide-spread work, as a place for ecclesiastical retreat for the fathers, and a refuge when enemies pressed too closely upon them.

The story of the hardships and sufferings of the devoted missionaries, as told us by Rochemonteix, Shea, and Parkman, and with rare modesty recorded in the documents to be contained in this series, is one of the most thrilling in the annals of humanity. Space forbids us here to dwell upon the theme. No men have, in the zealous exercise of their faith, performed hardier deeds than these Jesuits of the Huron mission; yet, after three years of unremitting toil, they could (1640) count but a hundred converts out of a population of 16,000, and these were for the most part sick infants or aged persons, who had died soon after baptism. The rugged braves scorned the approaches of the fathers, and unmercifully tormented their converts; the medicine-men waged continual warfare on their work; smallpox and the Iroquois were decimating the people.

Jogues was (1642) sent down to the colonies for supplies for the missions, but with his Huron companions was captured by an Iroquois war-party, who led them to the Mohawk towns. There most of the Hurons were killed, and Jogues and his donné, René Goupil, were tortured and mutilated, and made to serve as slaves to their savage jailers. Finally Goupil, a promising young physician, was killed, and Jogues, being rescued by the Dutch allies of the Mohawks, was sent to Europe. Supplies thus failing them, the Huron missionaries were in a sad plight until finally (1644) relieved by an expedition to the lower country undertaken at great hazards by Brébeuf, Garreau, and Noël Chabanel. The same season, Francis Joseph Bressani, attempting to reach the Huron missions, had been captured and tortured by Mohawks; like Jogues, he was rescued through Dutch intercession and sent back to Europe, but both of these zealots were soon back again facing the cruel dangers of their chosen task.

A temporary peace followed, in 1645, and the hope of the Jesuits was rekindled, for they now had five missions in as many Huron towns, and another established for Algonkins who were resident in the Huron district. But in July, 1648, the Iroquois attacked Teanaustayé, the chief Huron village, and while encouraging the frenzied defense Father Daniel lost his life at the hands of the enemy. He was thus the first Jesuit martyr in the Huron mission, and the second in New France,—for Jogues had been tortured to death in the Iroquois towns, two years before. The spirit of the Hurons was crushed in this bloody foray; large bands, deserting their towns, fled in terror to seek protection of the Petuns, while others made their way to the Manitoulin Islands of Lake Huron, and even as far west as the islands of Green Bay and the matted pine forests of Northern Wisconsin. Here and there a town was left, however, and one of the largest of these, called St. Ignatius by the Jesuits, was stormed by a thousand Iroquois, March 16, 1649. The three survivors fled through the woods to neighboring St. Louis, where were Brébeuf, now grown old in his service of toil, and young Gabriel Lalemant. Bravely did they aid in defending St. Louis, and administering to wounded and dying; but at last were captured, and being taken to the ruined town of St. Ignatius were most cruelly tortured until relieved by death. Early in November, Fathers Garnier and Chabanel met their death in the Petun country, the former at the hands of Iroquois, the latter being killed by a Huron who imagined that the presence of the Jesuits had brought curses upon his tribe.

The missions in the Huron country were now entirely abandoned. A few of the surviving Jesuits followed their flocks to the islands in Lake Huron; but in June, 1650, the enterprise was forsaken, and the missionaries, with a number of their converts, retired to a village, founded for them, on the Island of Orleans, near Quebec. This settlement being in time ravaged by the Iroquois, a final stand was made at Lorette, also in the outskirts of Quebec, which mission exists to this day.

The great Huron mission, which had been conducted for thirty-five years, had employed twenty-nine missionaries, of whom seven had lost their lives in the work. This important field forsaken, many of the missionaries had returned to Europe disheartened, and apparently the future for Jesuit missions in New France looked gloomy enough. The Iroquois had now practically destroyed the Montagnais between Quebec and the Saguenay, the Algonkins of the Ottawa, and the Hurons, Petuns, and Neutrals. The French colonies of Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal, had suffered from repeated raids of the New York confederates, and their forest trade was now almost wholly destroyed. In this hour of darkness, light suddenly broke upon New France. The politic Iroquois, attacked on either side by the Eries and the Susquehannas, and fearing that while thus engaged their northern victims might revive for combined vengeance, sent overtures of peace to Quebec, and cordially invited to their cantonments the once detested black gowns.

V. The Iroquois Mission.

Champlain had early made enemies of the Iroquois, by attacking them as the allies of his Algonkin neighbors. This enmity extended to all New France, and lasted, with brief intervals of peace, for over half a century. We have seen that Jogues was the first of his order (1642) to enter the Iroquois country, as a prisoner of the Mohawks, the easternmost of the five tribes of the confederacy. Two years later, Bressani, while on his way to the Huron missions, was also captured by the Mohawks, passed through a similar experience of torture, was sold to the Dutch, and transported back to France, and, again like Jogues resumed his hazardous task of attempting to tame the American savage. During the first peace (May, 1646), Jogues, now in civilian costume, paid a brief visit to his former tormentors on the Mohawk, this time conveying only expressions of good-will from the governor of New France. His political errand accomplished, he returned to Quebec; but in August was back again, with a young French attendant named Lalande, intent on opening admission among the Iroquois. Meanwhile, there had been a revulsion of sentiment on their part, and the two Frenchmen had no sooner reached the Mohawk than they were tortured and killed.

During an Iroquois attack upon Quebec, seven years later (1653), Father Joseph Anthony Poncet was taken prisoner by the marauders and carried to the Mohawk, where he suffered in the same manner as his predecessors; but his captors being now desirous of a renewal of peace with the French, spared his life, and sent him back to Quebec with overtures for a renewal of negotiations. Early in July, 1654, Father Simon le Moyne was sent forth upon a tour of inspection, and returned to Quebec in September, with glowing reports of the fervor of his reception by both Mohawks and Onondagas. It was determined to rear a mission among the latter, and thither (1655),—a four weeks' voyage,—proceeded Claude Dablon and Peter Mary Joseph Chaumonot; while, to appease the jealous Mohawks, Le Moyne at the same time reopened a brief but unprosperous mission among that tribe.

At first, Dablon and Chaumonot had high hopes of their Onondaga enterprise; but mistrust soon arose in the minds of the natives, and Dablon found it necessary to proceed to Quebec and obtain fresh evidences of the friendship of the French. He returned in the early summer of 1656, accompanied by Fathers Francis Le Mercier, superior of the Canadian mission, and René Ménard, two lay brothers, and a party of French colonists under a militia captain, who designed founding a settlement in the land of the Iroquois. By the close of the year, the work was in a promising stage; a number of Christianized Hurons, who had been adopted into the confederacy, formed a nucleus for proselyting, several Iroquois converts had been made, and all five of the tribes had been visited by the missionaries.

Fathers Paul Ragueneau and Joseph Imbert Dupéron, who had been sent out from Quebec in July, 1657, to assist the Onondaga mission, reached it only after many perils en route; for meanwhile, there had been a fresh Iroquois uprising against the Hurons and Ottawas, in which Father Leonard Garreau lost his life near Montreal, and the entire confederacy was soon in an uproar against the white allies of its ancient enemies. The intrepid Le Moyne joined the party in November, and in the following March (1658), on learning that all of the French had been condemned to death, the entire colony stole away in the night, and reached Montreal only after a long and hazardous voyage. The great Iroquois mission, which had promised so happily and cost so much in blood and treasure, was now thought to be a thing of the past.

There was, however, still another chapter to the story. In the summer of 1660, after two years of bloody forays against New France, a Cayuga sachem, who had been converted at Onondaga, came to Montreal as a peace messenger, asking for another black gown to minister to the native converts and a number of French captives in the Iroquois towns. Once more, Le Moyne cheerfully set out upon what seemed a path to death; but he passed the winter without molestation, and in the spring following was allowed to return to Canada with the French prisoners.

It was five years later (1665), before the government of New France felt itself sufficiently strong to threaten chastisement of the raiding Iroquois, who had long been making life a torment in the colonies on the St. Lawrence. The Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas sued for peace; but the Mohawks were obstinate, and their villages were wasted by fire until they too asked for mercy and the ministrations of the Jesuits. Fathers James Fremin, James Bruyas, and John Pierron were sent out in 1667; later, they were assisted by Julian Garnier, Stephen de Carheil, Peter Milet, and Boniface, so that by the close of 1668 a mission was in progress in each of the five cantonments. A few notable converts were made, among them Catharine Tegakouita, known as the "Iroquois saint;" Catharine Ganneaktena, an Erie captive who afterwards founded a native mission village on the banks of the St. Lawrence; the head-men Assendasé, Kryn, and Soenrese. But a great success was never possible; here as elsewhere, the vices and superstitions of the tribesmen were deep-rooted, and they had not yet reached a stage of culture where the spiritual doctrines of Christianity appealed strongly, save to a few emotional natures. The converts were subjected to so many annoyances and dangers, that isolation was thought essential, and there was established for them opposite Montreal the palisaded mission of St. Francis Xavier; this settlement, fostered by the French as a buffer against Iroquois attack on the colonists, was subsequently removed to Sault St. Louis, and is known in our day as Caughnawaga. This mission, and that of the Sulpitians on Montreal Mountain—later removed to the neighboring Lake of the Two Mountains,—and at Quinté Bay, were frequently recruited by Iroquois Christians, who were carefully instructed by the missionaries in the arts of agriculture and the rites of the church.

This depletion of the Iroquois population alarmed the sachems of the confederacy. To please them, Governor Dongan of New York, himself a Catholic, introduced to the Five Nations three English Jesuits, who sought in vain to counteract the movement. The French did not abandon the Iroquois mission-field until 1687, when the rising power of the English obliged them to withdraw from the country. We have, however, glimpses of occasional attempts thereafter to revive the work, Bruyas being on the ground in 1701, joined the following year by James de Lamberville, Garnier, and Le Valliant, and later by James d'Hue and Peter de Marieul. The entire party were again driven from the cantonments in 1708, De Marieul being the last of his order to remain on duty.

Thereafter, the Jesuits were chiefly devoted to their mission at Caughnawaga, whither many Iroquois retreated before the inroads of Dutch and English settlers who were now crowding upon their lands. When the black gowns were at last expelled from New France, secular priests continued their work among the remnants of those New York Indians who had sought protection by settling among the French colonists on the St. Lawrence.

VI. The Ottawa Mission.

This embraced the tribes beyond Lake Huron,—the Chippewas at Sault Ste. Marie, the Beavers, the Crees, the Ottawas and refugee Hurons on Lake Superior, the Menomonees, Pottawattomies, Sacs, Foxes, Winnebagoes, Miamis, Illinois, and those of the Sioux who lived on or near the banks of the Mississippi. The Ottawas were the first Indians from the upper lakes to trade with the French, hence that vast district became early known as the country of the Ottawas.

The Huron mission was the door to the Ottawa mission. Jogues and Raimbault were with the Chippewas at Sault Ste. Marie in 1641; but it was nineteen years after that (1660), before they were followed by another Jesuit, the veteran Father Ménard, who accompanied an Ottawa fleet up the great river of that name, through Lake Huron and the Sault, and on to Keweenaw Bay, where he said the first mass heard on the shores of the northern sea. After a wretched winter on that inhospitable coast, spent in a shanty of fir boughs, with savage neighbors who reviled his presence, he proceeded inland intent on ministering to some Hurons who had fled from Iroquois persecution to the gloomy pine forest about the upper waters of Black River, in what is now Wisconsin. In August, 1661, he lost his life at a portage, thus being the first martyr upon the Ottawa mission.

Four years later, Claude Alloüez set out for Lake Superior, and reaching Chequamegon Bay in October (1665), built a little chapel of bark upon the southwest shore of that rock-bound estuary,—the famous mission of La Pointe. His flock was a medley, Hurons and Algonkins here clustering in two villages, where they lived on fish, safe at last from the raging Iroquois, although much pestered by the wild Sioux of the West. For thirty years did Alloüez travel from tribe to tribe, through the forests and over the prairies of the vast wilderness which a century later came to be organized into the Northwest Territory, and established missions at Green Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, on the Miami, and, with Marquette, among the Illinois at Kaskaskia.

Later, there arrived on the scene Fathers Louis Nicholas, James Marquette, Dablon, Louis André, Druillettes, Albanel, and others. The field of the Northwest seemed at first, as did the Huron mission, highly promising. The missionaries were everywhere greeted by large audiences, and much curiosity was displayed concerning the rites of the church; but, as usual, the nomadic habits of the Indians rendered instruction difficult. The fathers, with great toil and misery, and subject to daily danger and insult, followed their people about upon long hunting and fishing expeditions; and even when the bands had returned to the squalid villages, life there was almost as comfortless as upon the trail. Among the donnés and the Jesuit coadjutor brothers were skillful workers in metal, who repaired the guns and utensils of the natives, and taught them how best to obtain and reduce the ore from lead and copper deposits. We have evidence that the copper region of Lake Superior was at times resorted to by the lay followers and their Indian attendants, to obtain material for crucifixes and for the medals which the missionaries gave to converts; and in the lead mines centering about where are now Dubuque, Iowa, and Galena, Ill., the missionary attendants and Indians obtained lead for barter with French fur-traders, who, like the soldiers of the Cross, were by this time wandering all over the Northwest.

Marquette had succeeded Alloüez at La Pointe, in 1669; but it was not long before the Hurons and Ottawas of Chequamegon Bay foolishly incurred the fresh hostility of the Sioux, and the following year were driven eastward like autumn leaves before a blast. Marquette established them in a new mission, at Point St. Ignace, opposite Mackinaw; and it was from here that, in 1673, he joined the party of Louis Joliet, en route to the Mississippi River. The St. Ignace mission became the largest and most successful in the Northwest, there being encamped there, during Marquette's time, about 500 Hurons and 1,300 Ottawas. The interesting story of Marquette, a familiar chapter in American history, will be fully developed in the documents of this series; and we shall be able to present for the first time a facsimile of the original MS. Journal of his final and fatal voyage (1674), which is preserved among the many treasures of the Jesuit College of St. Mary's, in Montreal.

After the suspension of the publication of the Relations, in 1673, we obtain few glimpses of the Ottawa mission, save in the occasional references of travelers. The several local missions in the district were, in the main, probably more successful than those in any of the other fields of endeavor. La Pointe, Green Bay; St. Ignace (later Mackinac), Sault Ste. Marie, St. Joseph's, and Kaskaskia became the most important of them all; and at some of these points Catholic missions are still maintained by Franciscan friars and secular priests, for resident French Creoles and Indians. The uprising of the Foxes against French power, which lasted spasmodically from about 1700 to 1755, greatly hampered the work of the Jesuits; they did not, during this period, entirely absent themselves from the broad country of the Ottawas, but conversions were few and the records slight.

There was, for a time, governmental attempt to supplant the Western Jesuits with Récollets. Several friars were with La Salle, who had a great antipathy to the disciples of Loyola,—Father Hennepin's adventures belong to this period of Récollet effort, his colleagues at Fort Crèvecœur being Brothers Ribourde and Membré; but their mission closed with the Iroquois repulse of the French from Crèvecœur, and the consequent death of Ribourde. When La Salle retired from the region, Alloüez resumed the Illinois mission of the Jesuits; and soon after there arrived upon the ground Fathers Gravier, Marest, Mermet, and Pinet, who, because of the more docile character of the tribes collectively known as the Illinois,—Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Peorias, and Tamaroas,—found here a relatively fruitful field. In time, French settlements grew up around the palisaded missions, intermarriages occurred, and the work flourished for many years. Black gowns visited the prosperous Illinois towns as late as 1781, when the death of Father Meurin closed the work of his order in the Northwest.

VII. The Louisiana Mission.

The Jesuit Marquette was in Louisiana in 1673, but established no mission. Nine years later, Membré, of the Récollets, accompanied La Salle into the region, and instructed natives as far down the Mississippi as the mouth; and with La Salle at his death were Anastasius Douay, of the Récollets, and the Sulpitian Cavalier. In 1698, Francis Jolliet de Montigny and Anthony Davion, priests of the Seminary of Quebec, established missions on the Yazoo, among the Natchez, and elsewhere in the neighborhood; to their aid, soon came others of their house,—St. Côme, Gaulin, Fonçault, and Erborie, who labored until about 1710, when, St. Côme and Fonçault being killed by roving Indians, the survivors retired to the North. The Jesuit Du Rue accompanied Iberville into the country in 1699-1700, followed by De Limoges and Dongé, of his order, their work continuing until about 1704.

In 1721, Father Charlevoix reported that but two priests were then in Louisiana, one at Yazoo and another in New Orleans; at the latter post, a chaplain of some sort was established throughout the French régime. Capuchins and Jesuits were both admitted to Louisiana, in 1722, the former to serve as priests to the French of the country, chiefly at New Orleans and Natchez, while the Jesuits were restricted to the Indian missions, although permitted to maintain a house in the outskirts of New Orleans. It was not long before the Illinois mission became attached to Louisiana, and missionaries for that field usually entered upon their work by way of the New Orleans house. Missions were maintained in the villages of the Arkansas, Yazoo, Choctaws, and Alibamons; but the uprising of the Indians in the Natchez district, in 1727, led to the fall of these several missions, together with that of French colonies above New Orleans. Father Du Poisson was killed by savages at Natchez, where he was temporarily supplying the French settlers in the absence of their Capuchin friar; Souel fell a victim to the Yazoos, at whose hands Doutreleau narrowly escaped destruction. However, the Jesuits did not despair, but soon returned to the Lower Mississippi, where they continued their labors until about 1770, although the order had in 1762 been suppressed in France.

The Louisiana mission of the Jesuits, while producing several martyrs, and rich in striking examples of missionary zeal, has yielded but meagre documentary results; few of the papers in the present series touch upon its work, and indeed detailed knowledge thereof is not easily obtainable. Severed from Canada by a long stretch of wilderness, communication with the St. Lawrence basin was difficult and spasmodic, and in the case of the Jesuits generally unnecessary; for, having their own superior at New Orleans, his allegiance was to the general of the order in France, not to his fellow-superiors in Quebec and Montreal. The several missions of New France played a large part in American history; that of Louisiana, although interesting, is of much less importance.

The Relations.

A few explorers like Champlain, Radisson, and Perrot have left valuable narratives behind them, which are of prime importance in the study of the beginnings of French settlement in America; but it is to the Jesuits that we owe the great body of our information concerning the frontiers of New France in the seventeenth century. It was their duty annually to transmit to their superior in Quebec, or Montreal, a written journal of their doings; it was also their duty to pay occasional visits to their superior, and to go into retreat at the central house of the Canadian mission. Annually, between 1632 and 1673, the superior made up a narrative, or Relation, of the most important events which had occurred in the several missionary districts under his charge, sometimes using the exact words of the missionaries, and sometimes with considerable editorial skill summarizing the individual journals in a general account, based in part upon the oral reports of visiting fathers. This annual Relation, which in bibliographies occasionally bears the name of the superior, and at other times of the missionary chiefly contributing to it, was forwarded to the provincial of the order in France, and, after careful scrutiny and re-editing, published by him in a series of duodecimo volumes, known collectively as The Jesuit Relations.

The authors of the journals which formed the basis of the Relations were for the most part men of trained intellect, acute observers, and practised in the art of keeping records of their experiences. They had left the most highly civilized country of their times, to plunge at once into the heart of the American wilderness, and attempt to win to the Christian faith the fiercest savages known to history. To gain these savages, it was first necessary to know them intimately,—their speech, their habits, their manner of thought, their strong points and their weak. These first students of the North American Indian were not only amply fitted for their undertaking, but none have since had better opportunity for its prosecution. They were explorers, as well as priests. Bancroft was inexact when he said, in oft-quoted phrase, "Not a cape was turned, not a river entered, but a Jesuit led the way." The actual pioneers of New France were almost always coureurs de bois, in the prosecution of the fur trade; but coureurs de bois, for obvious reasons, seldom kept records, even when capable of doing so, and as a rule we learn of their previous appearance on the scene only through chance allusions in the Relations. The Jesuits performed a great service to mankind in publishing their annals, which are, for historian, geographer, and ethnologist, among our first and best authorities.

Many of the Relations were written in Indian camps, amid a chaos of distractions. Insects innumerable tormented the journalists, they were immersed in scenes of squalor and degradation, overcome by fatigue and lack of proper sustenance, often suffering from wounds and disease, maltreated in a hundred ways by hosts who, at times, might more properly be called jailers; and not seldom had savage superstition risen to such a height, that to be seen making a memorandum was certain to arouse the ferocious enmity of the band. It is not surprising that the composition of these journals of the Jesuits is sometimes crude; the wonder is, that they could be written at all. Nearly always the style is simple and direct. Never does the narrator descend to self-glorification, or dwell unnecessarily upon the details of his continual martyrdom; he never complains of his lot; but sets forth his experience in phrases the most matter-of-fact. His meaning is seldom obscure. We gain from his pages a vivid picture of life in the primeval forest, as he lived it; we seem to see him upon his long canoe journeys, squatted amidst his dusky fellows, working his passage at the paddles, and carrying cargoes upon the portage trail; we see him the butt and scorn of the savage camp, sometimes deserted in the heart of the wilderness, and obliged to wait for another flotilla, or to make his way alone as best he can. Arrived at last, at his journey's end, we often find him vainly seeking for shelter in the squalid huts of the natives, with every man's hand against him, but his own heart open to them all. We find him, even when at last domiciled in some far-away village, working against hope to save the unbaptized from eternal damnation; we seem to see the rising storm of opposition, invoked by native medicine-men,—who to his seventeenth-century imagination seem devils indeed,—and at last the bursting climax of superstitious frenzy which sweeps him and his before it. Not only do these devoted missionaries,—never, in any field, has been witnessed greater personal heroism than theirs,—live and breathe before us in the Relations; but we have in them our first competent account of the Red Indian, at a time when relatively uncontaminated by contact with Europeans. We seem, in the Relations, to know this crafty savage, to measure him intellectually as well as physically, his inmost thoughts as well as open speech. The fathers did not understand him from an ethnological point of view, as well as he is to-day understood; their minds were tinctured with the scientific fallacies of their time. But, with what is known to-day, the photographic reports in the Relations help the student to an accurate picture of the untamed aborigine, and much that mystified the fathers, is now, by aid of their careful journals, easily susceptible of explanation. Few periods of history are so well illuminated as the French régime in North America. This we owe in large measure to the existence of the Jesuit Relations.

What are generally known as the Relations proper, addressed to the superior and published in Paris, under direction of the provincial, commence with Le Jeune's Brieve Relation du Voyage de la Nouvelle-France (1632); and thereafter a duodecimo volume, neatly printed and bound in vellum, was issued annually from the press of Sebastien Cramoisy, in Paris, until 1673, when the series was discontinued, probably through the influence of Frontenac, to whom the Jesuits were distasteful. The Relations at once became popular in the court circles of France; their regular appearance was always awaited with the keenest interest, and assisted greatly in creating and fostering the enthusiasm of pious philanthropists, who for many years substantially maintained the missions of New France. In addition to these forty volumes, which to collectors are technically known as "Cramoisys," many similar publications found their way into the hands of the public, the greater part of them bearing date after the suppression of the Cramoisy series. Some were printed in Paris and Lyons by independent publishers; others appeared in Latin and Italian texts, at Rome, and other cities in Italy; while in such journals as Mercure François and Annuæ Litteræ Societatis Jesu, occasionally were published letters from the missionaries, of the same nature as the Relations, but briefer and more intimate in tone.

It does not appear, however, that popular interest in these publications materially affected the secular literature of the period; they were largely used in Jesuit histories of New France, but by others were practically ignored. General literary interest in the Relations was only created about a half century ago, when Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan, editor of the Documentary History of New York, called attention to their great value as storehouses of contemporary information. Dr. John G. Shea, author of History of the Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States, and Father Felix Martin, S. J., of Montreal, soon came forward, with fresh studies of the Relations. Collectors at once commenced searching for Cramoisys, which were found to be exceedingly scarce,—most of the originals having been literally worn out in the hands of their devout seventeenth-century readers; finally, the greatest collector of them all, James Lenox, of New York, outstripped his competitors and laid the foundation, in the Lenox Library, of what is to-day probably the only complete collection in America. In 1858, the Canadian government reprinted the Cramoisys, with a few additions, in three stout octavo volumes, carefully edited by Abbés Làverdière, Plante, and Ferland. These, too, are now rare, copies seldom being offered for sale.

The Quebec reprint was followed by two admirable series brought out by Shea and O'Callaghan respectively. Shea's Cramoisy Series (1857-1866), numbers twenty-five little volumes, the edition of each of which was limited to a hundred copies, now difficult to obtain; it contains for the most part entirely new matter, chiefly Relations prepared for publication by the superiors, after 1672, and miscellaneously printed; among the volumes, however, are a few reprints of particularly rare issues of the original Cramoisy press. The O'Callaghan series, seven in number (the edition limited to twenty-five copies), contains different material from Shea's, but of the same character. A further addition to the mass of material was made by Father Martin, in Relations Inédites de la Nouvelle-France, 1672-79 (2 vols., Paris, 1861); and by Father Carayon in Première Mission des Jésuites au Canada (Paris, 1864). In 1871, there was published at Quebec, under the editorship of Abbés Laverdière and Casgrain, Le Journal des Jésuites, from the original manuscript in the archives of the Seminary of Quebec (now Laval University). The memoranda contained in this volume,—a rarity, for the greater part of the edition was accidentally destroyed by fire,—were not intended for publication, being of the character of private records, covering the operations of the Jesuits in New France between 1645 and 1668. The Journal is, however, an indispensable complement of the Relations. It was reprinted by a Montreal publisher (J. M. Valois) in 1892, but even this later edition is already exhausted. Many interesting epistles are found in Lettres Édifiantes et Curieuses, écrites des Missions Étrangères, which cover the Jesuit missions in many lands, between the years 1702 and 1776; only a small portion of this publication (there are several editions, ranging from 1702-1776 to 1875-77) is devoted to the North American missions.

American historians, from Shea and Parkman down, have already made liberal use of the Relations, and here and there antiquarians and historical societies have published fragmentary translations. The great body of the Relations and their allied documents, however, has never been Englished. The text is difficult, for their French is not the French of the modern schools; hence these interesting papers have been doubly inaccessible to the majority of our historical students. The present edition, while faithfully reproducing the old French text, even in most of its errors, offers to the public for the first time, an English rendering side by side with the original.

In breadth of scope, also, this edition will, through the generous enterprise of the publishers, readily be first in the field. Not only will it embrace all of the original Cramoisy series, the Shea and O'Callaghan series, those collected by Fathers Martin and Carayon, the Journal des Jésuites, and such of the Lettres Édifiantes as touch upon the North American missions, but many other valuable documents which have not previously been reprinted; it will contain, also, considerable hitherto-unpublished material from the manuscripts in the archives of St. Mary's College, Montreal, and other depositories. These several documents will be illustrated by faithful reproductions of all the maps and other engravings appearing in the old editions, besides much new material obtained especially for this edition, a prominent feature of which will be authentic portraits of many of the early fathers, and photographic facsimiles of pages from their manuscript letters.

In the Preface to each volume will be given such Bibliographical Data concerning its contents, as seem necessary to the scholar. The appended Notes consist of historical, biographical, archæological, and miscellaneous comment, which it is hoped may tend to the elucidation of the text. An exhaustive General Index to the English text will appear in the final volume of the series.

PREFACE TO VOL. I

There is a dramatic unity in the Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, as they will be presented in this series. Commencing with a report of the first conversion of savages in New France, in 1610, by a secular priest, and soon drifting into the records of Jesuit missionary effort, they touch upon practically every important enterprise of the Jesuits, in Canada and Louisiana, from the coming of Fathers Biard and Massé, in 1611, to the death, in the closing decade of the eighteenth century, of Father Well, "the last Jesuit of Montreal."

I. The series fitly opens with Lescarbot's La Conversion des Savvages. Marc Lescarbot, a Paris lawyer, a Huguenot poet as well as historian, and in many respects a picturesque character in the early scenes of our drama, adroitly seeks in this document to convince the Catholic Queen of France that his Huguenot patrons, De Monts and Poutrincourt, are so wisely ordering affairs in their New World domain that not only will the glory of France be enhanced, but the natives be won to Christ through the medium of the Church; for it was part of the agreement entered into with the Crown, by these adventurers, that while their colonists should be permitted to have Huguenot ministers, the aborigines must be converted only by Catholic priests. To this end, Lescarbot describes with unction the sudden conversion by a secular priest, Messire Jessé Fléché, of old Chief Membertou and twenty other Micmacs, and their formal baptism on the beach at Port Royal. The object is, of course, to ward off the threatened invasion of New France by the Jesuits, by showing how thoroughly the work of proselyting is being carried forward without their aid.

II. By the same ship which, in the hands of Poutrincourt's son, Biencourt, carries to France this ingenious document, one Bertrand, a Huguenot layman, sends a message to his friend, the Sieur de la Tronchaie. In his Lettre Missive, M. Bertrand describes the conversion of Membertou and his fellow savages, and speaks with enthusiasm of the new country: as well he may, for in Volume II. we shall find Lescarbot testifying that in Paris the worthy Bertrand was "daily tormented by the gout," while at Port Royal he was "entirely free" from it.

III. Lescarbot's fervid description of Father Fléché's conversions did not succeed in keeping the Jesuits from New France. The present document is a letter written at Dieppe, by Father Pierre Biard, of the Society of Jesus, to his general at Rome, telling of the adventures which had befallen Father Ennemond Massé and himself, since they, the pioneers of their order in the New World, had been ordered from France to Port Royal. Certain Huguenot merchants of Dieppe conspired to prevent the passage of the Jesuits to America; but finally the queen and other court ladies, favoring the missionaries, purchased control of the Huguenots' ship and cargo, and the exultant fathers are now on the eve of sailing.

IV. In this letter, written by Biard to his provincial, a few weeks after the arrival at Port Royal, the missionary gives the details of his voyage, describes the spiritual and material condition of Poutrincourt's colony, and outlines plans for work among the Indians—only Huguenot ministers being, as yet, allowed under the charter to serve the spiritual needs of the colonists themselves.

V. In this letter, Biard notifies his general of the safe arrival of Massé and himself.

VI. A like duty is here performed by Massé.

VII. Father Jouvency, one of the eighteenth-century historians of the Society of Jesus, herein gives an historical account of the Canadian missions of his order, in 1611-13; and, by way of comparison, tells of the condition of the same missions in 1703, ending with a list of the Jesuit missions in North America in the year 1710, the date of original publication.

VIII. Herein, Jouvency gives a detailed account of the Indian tribes of Canada,—their customs, characteristics, superstitions, etc. Although not in strict chronological order, these chapters are given here as being from the same work as the foregoing.

In the preparation of several of the Notes to Volume I., the Editor has had some assistance from Mrs. Jane Marsh Parker, of Rochester, N. Y.

R. G. T.

Madison, Wis., August, 1896.

I

Lescarbot's La Conversion des Savvages

Paris: JEAN MILLOT, 1610

Source: Title-page and text, reprinted from original in Lenox Library, New York; the Register of Baptisms from original in the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, R. I.

Peculiarities in Original Pagination: P. 7, misnumbered 1; p. 16, misnumbered 6; pp. 23, 24, are repeated, except the last sentence on p. 24; p. 46 numbered ""

LA CONVERSION DES SAVVAGES QVI ONT ESTÉ BAPTIZÉS EN LA Novvelle France, cette annee 1610.

AVEC VN BREF RECIT, du voyage du Sieur De Povtrincovrt.

A PARIS,

Chez Iean Millot, tenant sa boutique sur les degrez de la grand' Salle du Palais.

Avec Priuilege du Roy.

THE CONVERSION OF THE SAVAGES WHO WERE BAPTIZED in New France during this year, 1610.

WITH A BRIEF NARRATIVE of the voyage of Sieur De Poutrincourt.

PARIS,

Jean Millot, keeping shop upon the steps of the great Hall of the Palace.

By Royal License.

[54]

[iii] A la Royne.

MADAME,

Dieu m'ayant fait naitre amateur de ma nation & zelateur de sa gloire, ie ne puis moins que de luy faire part de ce qui la touche, & qui sans doute l'époinçonnera quand elle entendra que le nom de Iesus-Christ est annoncé és terres d'outre mer qui portent le nom de France. Mais particulierement cela regarde vôtre Majesté, laquelle sur ces nouvelles a rendu vn temoignage du grand contentement [iv] qu'elle en avoit. La Chrétienté doit ceci au courage & à la pieté du Sieur de Poutrincourt, qui ne peut viure oisif parmi la trãquillité en laquelle nous vivons par le benefice du feu Roy vôtre Epoux. Mais (Madame) si vous desirez bien-tot voir cet œuvre avancé, il faut que vous y mettiez la main. Donnez luy des ailes pour voler sur les eaux, & penetrer si avant dans les terres de delà, que jusques a l'extremité où l'Occident se joint à l'Orient, tout lieu retentisse du nom de la France. Ie sçay qu'il ne manque de volonté & fidelité au service du Roy & de vôtre Majesté, pour faire (apres ce qui est de Dieu) que vous soyés obeis par tout le monde. Et pour mon regard en tout ce que i'ay iamais travaillé, ie me suis efforcé de bien meriter du Roy & du public, ausquels i'ay dedié mes labeurs. [v] S'il m'en arrive quelque fruit, ie le dedieray volontiers, & tout ce que Dieu m'a donné d'industrie, à l'accroissement de cette entreprise, & à ce qui regardera le bien de vôtre service. Cependant ayez (Madame) agreable ce petit discours evangelique (c'est à dire portant bonnes nouvelles) que publie à la France souz vôtre bon plaisir, Madame, de vôtre Majesté le tres-humble, tres-obeïssant, & tres-fidele serviteur & sujet,

Marc Lescarbot .

[iii] To the Queen. [1]

MADAME,

God having created me a lover of my country and zealous for its glory, I cannot do less than impart to it whatever affects its interests; and so doubtless it will be greatly encouraged by the tidings that the name of Jesus Christ has been proclaimed in the lands beyond the sea, which bear the name of France. But this news is of especial interest to your Majesty, who, upon hearing it, gave evidence of your great satisfaction [iv] therein.

The Christian World owes this event to the courage and piety of Sieur de Poutrincourt,[2] who cannot lead a life of idleness amid the peaceful prosperity in which we live through the favor of the deceased King, your Husband. But (Madame), if you wish to see immediate advancement in this work, you must lend a helping hand. Give it wings to fly over the seas, and to penetrate so far into the lands beyond that, even to the uttermost parts where the West unites with the East, every place may resound with the name of France. I know that there is no lack of good-will and loyalty in the service of the King and of your Majesty, to the end that (after what is due to God) you may be obeyed by all mankind. And as for me, in all that I have ever done, I have endeavored to merit the esteem of the King and of the public, to whom I have dedicated my labors. [v] If I gather any fruit therefrom, I shall willingly consecrate it, and all the energy God has given me, to the enlargement of this enterprise and to whatever may concern the welfare of your service. Meanwhile, be pleased (Madame) to accept this little gospel narrative (gospel, because bringing good tidings), which is published in France under your good pleasure, Madame, by your Majesty's very humble, very obedient and very faithful servant and subject,

Marc Lescarbot.[3]

[56]

[vi] Extraict du Priuilege du Roy.

PAR grace & priuilege du Roy, il est permis à Iean Millot Marchant Libraire en la ville de Paris, d'imprimer, ou faire imprimer, vendre & distribuer par tout nostre Royaume tant de fois qu'il luy plaira, en telle forme ou caractere que bon luy semblera, vn liure intitulé La Conversion des Savvages composé par Marc Lescarbot Advocat en la Cour de Parlement. Et ce jusques au temps & terme de six ans finis & accomplis, à compter du jour que ledit livre sera achevé d'imprimer. Pendant lequel temps defences sont faictes à tous Imprimeurs, Libraires, & autres de quelque estat, qualité, ou condition qu'ils soient, de non imprimer, vendre, contrefaire, ou alterer ledit liure, ou aucune partie d'iceluy, sur peine de confiscation des exẽplaires, & de quinze cens livres d'amende appliquable moitié à nous, & moitié aux pauvres de L'hostel Dieu de cette ville de Paris, & despens dommages, & interests dudit exposant: Nonobstant toute clameur de Haro, Chartre Normande, Privileges, lettres ou autres appellations & oppositions formees à ce contraires faictes ou a faire. Donné à Paris le neufiesme iour de Septembre l'an de grace 1610. Et de nostre regne le premier.

Par le Roy en son Conseil.

Signé, Brigard.

[vi] Extract from the Royal License.

BY the grace and prerogative of the King, permission is granted to Jean Millot, Bookseller in the city of Paris, to print or to have printed, to sell and distribute throughout all our Kingdom, as often as he may desire, in such form or character as he may see fit, a book, entitled: The Conversion of the Savages, composed by Marc Lescarbot, Counsellor in the Court of Parliament. And this to remain valid until the expiration of six complete years, counting from the day on which the printing of said book shall be finished. During said period of time all Printers, Booksellers, and other persons of whatsoever rank, quality, or condition are prohibited from publishing, selling, imitating, or changing said book or any part thereof, under penalty of confiscation of the copies, and of fifteen hundred livres fine, one-half of which is to be paid to us, and one-half to the poor of the town hospital in this city of Paris, together with the costs, damages, and interests of the aforesaid petitioner: notwithstanding all cries of Haro, Norman Charter,[4] Licenses, letters, or other appeals and counter-claims, opposed to this now or in future. Given at Paris on the ninth day of September, in the year of grace, 1610, and in the first of our reign.

By the King in Council.

Signed, Brigard.

[58]

[7] La Conversion des Sauvages qui ont esté baptisez en la Nouuelle-France, cette annee 1610.

Matth. 24. vers. 14.

LA parole immuable de nôtre Sauveur Iesus-Christ nous temoigne par l'organe de sainct Matthieu que l'Euangile du royaume des cieux sera annoncé par tout le monde, pour estre en temoignage à toutes nations, avant que la consommation vienne. Nous scavons par les histoires que la voix des Apôtres a eclaté par tout le monde de deça dés il y a plusieurs siecles passez, quoy qu'aujourd'hui les royaumes Chrétiens en soient la moindre partie. Mais quant au nouveau monde decouvert depuis environ six-vingts ans, nous n'auons aucun vestige que la parole de Dieu y ait onques [8] esté annoncée avant ces derniers temps, si ce n'est que nous voulions adjouter quelque foy à ce que Iehan de Leri rapporte, que comme il racontoit vn jour aux Bresiliens les grandes merveilles de Dieu en la creation du monde, & mysteres de nôtre redemption, vn vieillart lui dit qu'il auoit oui dire à son grand pere qu'autrefois vn homme barbu (or les Bresiliens ne le sont point) estoit venu vers eux, & leur avoit dit choses semblables: mais qu'on ne le voulut point écouter, & depuis s'estoiẽt entre-tuez & mangez les vns les autres. Quant aux autres nations de dela quelques vns ont bien quelque sourde nouvelle du deluge, & de l'immortalité des ames, ensemble dela beatitude des biẽvivans apres cette vie, mais ils peuvent avoir retenu cette obscure doctrine de main en main par tradition depuis le cataclisme vniversel qui avint [60] au temps de Noé. Reste donc à deplorer la miserable condition de ces peuples qui occupent vne terre si grande, que le monde de deça ne vient en comparaison avec elle, si nous comprenons la terre qui est outre le detroit de Magellan dite, [9] Terra del fugo, tant en son etenduë vers la Chine, & le Iapan, que vers la Nouvelle Guinée: comme aussi celle qui est outre la grande riviere de Canada, qui s'estend vers l'Orient & est baignée de la grande mer Occidentale. Toutes lesquelles contrees sont en vne miserable ignorance, & n'y a point d'apparence qu'elles aient onques eu le vẽt de l'Evangile, sinon qu'en ce dernier siecle l'Hespagnol parmi la cruauté & l'avarice y a apporté quelque lumiere de la religion Chrétienne. Mais cela est si peu de chose, qu'on n'en peut pas faire si grand estat qu'il pourroit sembler, d'autant que par la confession méme de ceux qui en ont écrit les histoires ils ont preque tué tous les naturels du païs, & en fait nombre vn certain historien, de plus de vingt millions, dés il y a soixante dix ans. L'Anglois depuis vingt-cinq ans a pris pié en vne terre qui git entre la Floride, & le païs des Armouchiquois, laquelle terre a esté appellée Virginie en l'honneur de la defuncte Royne d'Angleterre. Mais cette nation fait ses affaires si secretement, que peu de gens en sçauent de [10] nouvelles certaines. Peu apres que i'eu publié mon Histoire de la Nouvelle France on fit vn embarquemẽt de huit cens hommes pour y envoyer. Il n'est point mention qu'ils se soient lavé les mains au sang de ces peuples. En quoy ils ne sont ni à loüer, ni à blamer: car il n'y a aucune loy, ni aucun pretexte, qui permette de tuer qui que ce soit, & méme ceux des biens desquelz nous-nous emparons. [62] Mais ils sont à priser s'ils montrent à ces pauvres ignorans le chemin de salut par la vraye & non fardée doctrine Evangelique. Quant à noz François ie me suis assez plaint en madite Histoire de la poltronnerie du temps d'aujourd'huy, & du peu de zele que nous avons soit à redresser ces pauvres errans, soit à faire que le nom de Dieu soit coneu exalté & glorifié en ces terres d'outre mer, où jamais il ne le fut. Et toutefois nous voulons que cela porte le nom de France, nom tant auguste & venerable, que nous ne pouvons sans honte nous glorifier d'vne France qui n'est point Chrétienne. Ie sçay qu'il ne manque pas de gens de bõne volonté pour y aller. Mais pourquoy [11] l'Eglise, qui possede tant de biens; mais pourquoy les Grands, qui sont tant de depenses superflues, ne financent-ilz quelque chose pour l'execution d'vn si sainct œuvre? Deux Gentils-hommes pleins de courage en ces derniers tẽps se sont trouvez zelés à ceci, les Sieurs de Monts, & de Poutrincourt, lesquels à leurs dépens se sont enervés, & ont fait plus que leurs forces ne pouvoient porter. L'vn & l'autre ont continué jusques à present leurs voyages. Mais l'vn a esté deceu par deux fois, & est tombé en grand interest pour s'estre rendu trop credule aux paroles de quelques vns. Or d'autant que les dernieres nouvelles que nous avons de nôtre Nouvelle-France viennent de la part du Sieur de Poutrincourt, nous dirons ici ce qui est de son fait: & avons iuste sujet d'exalter son courage, entant que ne pouvant viure parmi la tourbe des hommes oisifs, dont nous n'abondons que trop; & voyant nôtre France comme languir au repos d'vn calme ennuieux aux hõmes de travail: apres avoir en mille occasions fait preuve de [64] sa valeur depuis vingt quatre ans ença; il a voulu coroner [12] ses labeurs vrayement Herculeens par la cause de Dieu, pour laquelle il employe ses moyens & ses forces, & va hazardant sa vie, pour accroitre le nombre des citoyens des cieux, & amener à la bergerie de Iesus-Christ nôtre souverain Pasteur, les brebis egarées, lesquelles il seroit bien-seant aux Prelats de l'Eglise d'aller recuillir (du moins contribuer à cet effect) puis qu'ils en ont le moyen. Mais avec combien de travaux s'est-il employé jusques ici à cela? Voici la troisieme fois qu'il passe le grand Ocean pour parvenir à ce but. La premiere année se passa avec le sieur de Monts à chercher vne demeure propre & vn port asseuré pour la retraite des vaisseaux & des hommes. Ce qui ne succeda pas bien. La seconde année fut employée à la mesme chose, & lors il estoit en France. En la troisieme nous fimes epreuve de la terre, laquelle nous rendit abondamment le fruict de nôtre culture: Cette annee icy voyant par vne mauvaise experience que les hommes sont trompeurs, il ne s'est plus voulu attendre à autre qu'à luy-méme, & [s']est mis en mer le 26. Fevrier, ayant eu [13] temps fort contraire en sa navigation, laquelle a esté la plus longue dont i'aye jamais ouï parler. Certes la nôtre nous fut fort ennuieuse il y a trois ans, ayans esté vagabons l'espace de deux mois & demi sur la mer avant qu'arriver au Port Royal. Mais en cette-ci ils ont esté trois mois entiers. De sorte qu'vn indiscret se seroit mutiné jusques à faire de mauvaises conspirations: toutesfois la benignité dudit Sieur de Poutrincourt & le respect du lieu où il demeuroit à Paris, lui ont serui de bouclier pour luy garentir la vie. [66] Terrir, c'est à dire decouvrir la terre. La premiere côte où territ iceluy Sieur de Poutrincourt fut au port au Mouton. De là parmi les brouïllas qui sont fort frequens le long de l'Eté en cette mer, il se trouva en quelques perils, principalement vers le Cap de Sable, où son vaisseau pensa toucher sur les brisans. Hist. de la Nouvelle-France liv. 2. chap. 37. p. 527. Depuis voulant gaigner le Port Royal, il fut porté par la violence des vents quarante lieuës par-dela, c'est à sçavoir à la riviere de Norombega tant celebrée & fabuleusement décrite par les Geographes & Historiens, ainsi que i'ay monstré en madite Histoire, là où se pourra voir cette navigation par la Table geographique [14] que i'y ay mise. De-là il vint à la riviere sainct Iehan qui est vis à vis du Port Royal pardela la Baye Françoise, où il trouva vn navire de S. Malo, qui troquoit avec les Sauvages du païs. Et là il eut plainte d'vn Capitaine Sauvage qu'vn dudit navire lui auoit ravi sa femme, & en abusoit: dont ledit Sieur fit informer, & print celui là prisonnier, & le navire aussi. Mais il laissa aller ledit navire & les matelots se contentant de garder le malfaiteur: lequel neantmoins s'evada dans vne chaloupe & se retira avec les Sauvages, les detournant de l'amitié des François, comme nous dirons ci-apres. En fin arriués audit Port Royal il ne se peut dire avec combien de ioye ces pauvres peuples receurent ledit Sieur & sa compagnie. Et de verité le sujet de cette ioye estoit d'autant plus grand qu'ils n'avoient plus d'esperance de voir les François habiter aupres d'eux, desquels ils auoient ressenti les courtoisies lors que nous y estions, dont se voyans priués, aussi pleuroient ils à chaudes larmes quand nous partimes de là il y a trois ans. En ce Port Royal est la demeure [15] dudict sieur de Poutrincourt, le plus beau sejour que [68] Dieu ait formé sur la terre, remparé d'un rang de 12 ou 15. lieuës de montagnes du côté du Nort, sur lesquelles bat le Soleil tout le iour: & de cotaux au côte du Su, ou Midi: lequel au reste peut contenir vingt milles vaisseaux en asseurance, ayant vingt brasses de profond à son entrée, vne lieuë & demie de large, & quatre de long jusques à vne ile qui a vne lieuë Françoise de circuit: dans lequel i'ay veu quelquefois à l'aise noüer vne moyenne Baleine, qui venoit auec le flot à huict heures au matin par chacun jour. Au reste dans ce port se peche en la saison grande quantité de harens, d'eplans, (ou eperlans) sardines, bars, moruës, loups-marins, & autre poissons: & quant aux coquillages, on y recueille force houmars, crappes, palourdes, coques, moules, escargots, & chatagines de mer. Mais qui voudra aller au dessus du flot de la mer il pechera en la riviere force eturgeons & saumons, à la dessaicte desquels il y a vn singulier plaisir. Or pour reprendre nôstre fil, le Sieur de Poutrincourt arrivé [6 i.e. 16] là a trouvé ses batimens tout entiers sans que les Sauvages (ainsi a-on appellé ces peuples là iusques à maintenant) y eussent touché en aucune façon, ny méme aux meubles qu'on y avoit laissé. Et soucieux de leurs vieux amis ils demandoient comme vn chacun d'eux se portoit, les nommant particulierement par leurs noms communs, & demandans pourquoy tels & tels n'y estoient retournez. Ceci demontre vne grãde debõnaireté en ce peuple, lequel aussi ayant en nous reconu toute humanité, ne nous fuit point; comme il fait l'Hespagnol en tout ce grand monde nouveau. Et consequemment par vne douceur & courtoisie, qui leur est aussi familiere qu'à nous, il est aisé de les faire plier à tout ce que l'on [70] voudra, & particulierement pour ce qui touche le point de la Religion, de laquelle nous leur avions baillé de bonnes impressiõs lors que nous estions aupres d'eux, & ne desiroient pas mieux que de se ranger souz la banniere de Iesus-Christ: à quoy ils eussent esté receuz dés lors, si nous eussions eu vn pié ferme en la terre. Mais comme nous pensions continuer, [17] avint que le sieur de Monts ne pouvant plus fournir à la depense, & le Roy ne l'assistant point, il fut contraint de revoquer tous ceux qui estoient pardelà, lesquels n'avoient porté les choses necessaires à vne plus longue demeure. Ainsi c'eust esté temerité & folie de conferer le baptéme à ceux qu'il eust fallu par apres abandonner, & leur donner sujet de retourner à leur vomissement. Mais maintenant que c'est à bon escient, & que ledit sieur de Poutrincourt fait pardelà sa demeure actuelle, il est loisible de leur imprimer le charactere Chrétien sur le front & en l'ame, apres les avoir instruit és principaux articles de nôtre Foy. Aux Hebr. 11. vers. 6. Ce qu'a eu soin de faire ledit Sieur, sachant ce que dit l'Apôtre, que celuy qui s'approche de Dieu doibt croire que Dieu est: & apres cette croyance, peu à peu on vient aux choses qui sont plus eloignées du sens commun, comme de croire que d'vn rien Dieu ait fait toutes choses, qu'il se soit fait homme, qu'il soit nay d'vne Vierge, qu'il ait voulu mourir pour l'homme, &c. Et d'autant que les hommes Ecclesiastics qui ont esté portés pardelà ne sont encore [18] instruits en la langue de ces peuples, ledit Sieur a pris la peine de les instruire & les faire instruire par l'organe de son fils ainé jeune Gentilhomme qui entend & parle fort bien ladite langue, & qui sẽble estre né pour leur ouvrir le chemin des cieux. Les hommes qui sont au Port Royal, [72] & terres adjacentes tirant vers la Terre-neuve, s'appellent Souriquois, & ont leur langue propre. Mais passée la Baye Françoise, qui a environ 40. lieuës de profond dans les terres, & 10. ou 12. lieuës de large, les hommes de l'autre part s'appellent Etechemins, & plus loin sont les Armouchiquois peuple distingué de langage de ceux-ci, & lequel est heureux en quãtité de belles vignes & gros raisins, s'il sçavoit conoitre l'vtilité de ce fruit, lequel (ainsi que nos vieux Gaullois) il pense estre poison. Ammian Marcellin. Il a aussi de la chãve excellente que la nature lui donne, laquelle en beauté and bõté passe de beaucoup la nôtre: & outre ce le Sassafras, force chenes, noyers, pruniers, chataigniers, & autres fruits qui ne sont venus à nôtre conoissance. Quant au Port Royal ie veux confesser qu'il n'y a pas [19] tant de fruits: & neantmoins la terre y est plantureuse pour y esperer tout ce que la France Gaulloise nous produit. Tous ces peuples se gouvernent par Capitaines qu'ils appellent Sagamos, mot qui est pris és Indes Orientales en méme signification, ainsi que i'ay leu en l'histoire de Maffeus, & lequel i'estime venir du mot Hebrieu Sagan, qui signifie Grand Prince, selon Rabbi David, & quelquefois celui qui tient le second lieu apres le souverain Pontife. Esai. 41. vers. 25, Ierem. 51. vers. 23. Santes Pagnin, 9. En la version ordinaire de la Bible il est pris pour le Magistrat: & neantmoins là méme les interpretes Hebrieux le tournẽt Prince. Et de fait nous lisons dans Berose que Noé fut appellé Saga tant pour ce qu'il estoit grand Prince, que pour ce qu'il avoit enseigné la Theologie, & les ceremonies du service divin, avec beaucoup de secrets, des choses natureles, aux Scytes Armeniens, que les anciens Cosmographes appellerent Sages du nom de Noé. Et paraventure pour cette [74] méme consideration ont esté appellés nos Tectosages, qui sont les Tolosains. Car ce bon pere restaurateur du monde vint en Italie, & envoya [20] repeupler les Gaulles apres le Deluge, donnant son nom de Gaulois (car Xenophon dit qu'il fut aussi appellé de ce nom) à ceux qu'il y envoya, par ce qu'il avoit esté echappé des eaux. Et n'est pas inconvenient que lui-méme n'ait imposé le nom aux Tectosages. Revenons à nôtre mot de Sagamos lequel est le tiltre d'honneur des Capitaines en ces Terres neuves dont nous parlons. Au Port Royal le Capitaine, ou Sagamos dudit lieu s'appelle en son nom Membertou. Il est âgé de cent ans pour le moins, & peut naturellement vivre encore plus de cinquante. Il a sous soy plusieurs familles, ausquelles il commande, non point avec tant d'authorité que fait nôtre Roy sur ses sujets, mais pour haranguer, donner conseil, marcher à la guerre, faire raison à celui qui reçoit quelque injure, & choses sẽblables. Il ne met point d'impost sur le peuple. Mais s'il y a de la chasse il en a sa part sans qu'il soit tenu d'y aller. Vray est qu'on lui fait quelquefois des presens de peaux de Castors, ou autre chose, quand il est employé pour la guerison de quelque malade, ou pour interroger [21] son dæmon (qu'il appelle Aoutem) afin d'auoir nouvelle de quelque chose future, ou absente: car chaque village, ou compagnie de Sauvages, ayant vn Aoutmoin, c'est à dire Devin, qui fait cet office, Membertou est celui qui de grande ancienneté à prattiqué cela entre ceux parmi lesquels il a conversé. Si bien qu'il est en credit pardessus tous les autres Sagamos du païs, aiãt dés sa jeunesse esté grand Capitaine, & parmi cela exercé l'office de Devin & de Medecin, qui sont les [76] trois choses plus efficaces à obliger les hommes, & à se rendre necessaire en ceste vie humaine. Or ce Membertou aujourd'huy par la grace de Dieu est Chrétien avec toute sa famille, aiant esté baptizé, & vingt autres apres lui, le jour sainct Iehan dernier 24. Iuin. I'en ay lettres dudit Sieur de Poutrincourt en datte du vnzieme jour de Iuillet ensuivant. Ledit Membertou a esté nommé du nom de nôtre feu bon Roy Henry IIII. & son fils ainé du nom de Monseigneur le Dauphin aujourd'huy nôtre Roy Lovis XIII. que Dieu benie. Et ainsi consequemment la femme de Membertou a [22] esté nommée Marie du nom de la Royne Regente, & à sa fille a esté imposé le nom de la Roine Margverite. Le second fils de Membertou dit Actaudin fut nommé Pavl du nom de nôtre sainct Pere le Pape de Rome. La fille du susdit Louis eut nom Christine en l'honneur de Madame la sœur ainee du Roy. Et consequemment à chacun fut imposé le nom de quelque illustre, ou notable personnage de deça. Plusieurs autres Sauvages estoient lors allez cabanner ailleurs (comme c'est leur coutume de se disperser par bendes quand l'esté est venu) lors de ces solennitez de regeneration Chrétienne, lesquels nous estimons estre aujourd'huy enrollés en la famille de Dieu par le méme lavemẽt du sainct bapteme. Mais le diable, qui iamais ne dort, en ceste occurrence ici a témoigné la jalousie qu'il avoit du salut annoncé à ce peuple, & de voir que le nom de Dieu fust glorifié en cette terre: ayant suscité vn mauvais François, non François, mais Turc: non Turc, mais Athée, pour detourner du sentier de salut plusieurs Sauvages qui estoient Chrétiens en leur ame & de [23] volonté dés il y a trois ans: & entre autres vn [78] Sagamos nommé Chkoudun homme de grand credit, duquel i'ay fait honorable mẽtion en mon Histoire de la Nouvelle-Frãce, par ce que je l'ay veu sur tous autres aymer les François, & qu'il admiroit nos inventions au pris de leur ignorance: mémes que s'estant quelquefois trouvé aux remontrances Chrétiennes qui se faisoient par-de là à noz Frãçois par chacun Dimanche, il s'y rendoit attentif, encores qu'il n'y entẽdist rien: & davantage avoit pendu devant sa poitrine le signe de la Croix, lequel il faisoit aussi porter à ses domestics & avoit à nôtre imitation planté vne grande Croix en la place de son village dit Oigoudi, sur le port de la riuiere sainct Iehan, à dix lieuës du port Royal. Or cet homme avec les autres, a esté détourné d'estre Chrétien par l'avarice maudite de ce mauvais François que i'ay touché ci-dessus, lequel ie ne veux nõmer pour cette heure pour l'amour & reverence que ie porte à son pere, mais avec protestation de l'eterniser s'il ne s'amende. Celui-là, di-ie, pour attraper quelques Castors de ce Sagamos [24] Chkoudun, l'alla en Iuin dernier suborner, apres s'estre euadé des mains dudit Sieur de Poutrincourt, disãt que tout ce qu'icelui Poutrincourt leur disoit de Dieu n'estoit rien qui vaille, qu'il ne le falloit point croire, & que c'estoit vn abuseur, & qu'il les feroit mourir pour avoir leurs Castors. Ie laisse beaucoup de mechans discours qu'il peut avoir adjouté à cela. S'il estoit de la Religion de ceux qui se disent Reformez ie l'excuserois aucunement: mais il mõtre bien qu'il n'est ni de l'vne, ny de l'autre. Si diray-ie toutefois qu'il a sujet de remercier Dieu du dãger où il s'est veu en nôtre voiage. Ce Sagamos pouvoit estant Chrétien en rẽdre bon nombre [80] semblables à lui, à son imitation. Mais ie veux esperer, ou plustot croire pour certain qu'il ne demeurera plus gueres long tẽps en cet erreur, & que ledit Sieur aura trouvé moyen de l'attirer (avec beaucoup d'autres) pres de soy, pour luy imprimer derechef les vives persuasions dont il luy avoit autrefois touché l'ame en ma presence. Car l'esprit de Dieu est puissant pour faire tõber sur ce champ vne nouvelle rousee, qui fera regermer ce que la grele a desseché & abbatu. Dieu vueille par sa grace conduire le tout en sorte que la chose reüssisse à sa gloire & à l'edification de ce peuple, pour lequel tous Chrétiens doivent faire continuelles prieres à sa divine bonté, à ce qu'il lui plaise confirmer & avancer l'œuvre qu'il lui a pleu susciter en ce temps pour l'exaltation de son nom, & le salut de ses creatures.

FIN.

[25] Il y a pardela des hommes d'Eglise de bon sçavoir que le seul zele de la Religion y a porté, lesquels ne manqueront de faire tout ce que la pieté requerra en ce regard. Or quant à present il n'est pas besoin de ces Docteurs sublimes, qui peuvent estre plus vtiles pardeça à combattre les vices & les heresies. Ioint qu'il y a certaine sorte de gens desquels on ne se peut pas bien asseurer faisans métier de censurer tout ce qui ne vient à leurs maximes, & voulans commander par tout. Il suffit d'estre veillé au dehors sans avoir de ces epilogueurs qui considerent tous les mouvemens de vôtre corps & de vôtre cœur pour en faire regitres, desquels les plus grands Rois mémes ne se peuvẽt defendre. Et puis, que serviroiẽt pardela tãt de gens de cette sorte, quãt à present, si ce n'est qu'ils [82] voulussent s'addonner à la culture de la terre? Car ce n'est pas tout que d'aller là. Il faut considerer ce que l'on y fera y estant arrivé. Pour ce qui est de la demeure du Sieur de Poutrincourt il s'est fourni au depart de ce qui lui estoit necessaire. Mais s'il prenoit envie à quelques gens de bien d'y [26] avancer l'Evangile, ie seroy d'avis qu'ils fissent cinq ou six bandes, avec chacun vn navire bien equippé, & qu'ils allassent planter des colonies en diverses places de ces quartiers là, comme à Tadoussac, Gachepé, Campseau, la Héve, Oigoudi, Saincte Croix, Pemptegoet, Kinibeki, & autres endroits où sont les assemblées de Sauvages, lesquels il faut que le temps ameine à la Religion Chrétienne: si ce n'est qu'vn grand Pere de famille tel que le Roy en vueille avoir la gloire totale, & face habiter ces lieux. Car d'y penser vivre à leur mode i'estime cela estre hors de nôtre pouvoir. Façon de vivre des Souriquois & Ethechemins. Et pour le montrer, leur façon de vivre est telle, que depuis la premiere terre (qui est la Terre-neuve) insques aux Armouchiquois, qui sont pres de trois cens lieuës, les hommes vivent vagabons, sans labourage, n'estans iamais plus de cinq ou six semaines en vn lieu. Pline à fait mention de certains peuples dits Ichthyophages, c'est à dire Mangeurs de poissons, viuans de cela. Ceux ci sont tout de méme les trois parts de l'année. Car venant le Printẽps ils se divisent par troupes sur les rives de mer insques à [27] l'Hiver, lequel venãt, par ce que le poissõ se retire au fond des grandes eaux salées, ilz cherchent les lacs & ombres des bois, où ilz pechent les Castors, dont ilz vivẽt, & d'autres chasses, comme Ellans, Caribous, Cerfs, & autres animaux moindres que ceux-lá. Et neantmoins quelquefois, en Eté méme ilz ne laissent point de chasser: & [84] d'ailleurs ont infinie quantité d'oyseaux en certaines iles és mois de May, Iuin, Iuillet, & Aoust. le coucher. Quant à leur coucher, vne peau etendue sur la terre leur sert de matelas. Et en cela n'avons dequoy nous mocquer d'eux, par ce que noz vieux peres Gaullois en faisoient de méme, & dinoiẽt aussi sur des peaux de chiens & de loups, si Diodore & Strabon disent vray. Armouchiquois. Mais quant au pais des Armouchiquois & Iroquois, il y a plus grande moisson à faure pour ceux qui sont poussez d'vn zele religieux, par ce que le peuple y est beaucoup plus frequent, & cultive la terre, de laquelle il retire vn grand soulagement de vie. Vray est qu'il n'entent pas bien la façõ de faire le pain, n'ayant les inventiõs des moulins, ni du levain, ni des fours; ains broye son blé en certaine façon de [28] mortiers, & l'empâte au mieux qu'il peut pour le faire cuire entre deux pierres echauffées au feu: ou bien rotit ledit blé en epic sur la braise, ainsi que faisoient les vieux Romains, au dire de Pline. Plin. liv. 18. chap. 2. & 10. Depuis on trouva le moyen de faire des gateaux souz la cendre: & depuis encore les boulengers trouverent la façon des fours. Or ces peuples cultivans la terre sont arretés, ce que les autres ne sont point, n'ayans rien de propre, tels qu'estoient les Allemans au temps de Tacite, lequel a décrit leurs anciennes façons de vivre. Iroquois. Plus avant dans les terres au dessus des Armouchiquois sont les Iroquois peuples aussi arretés, par-ce qu'ilz cultivent la terre, d'où ils recueillent du blé mahis (ou Sarazin) dés féves, des bõnes racines, & bref tout ce que nous avons dit du pays desdits Armouchiquois, voire encore plus, car par necessité ilz vivent de la terre, estans loin de la mer. Neantmoins ils ont vn grand lac d'étendue merveilleuse, comme d'environ 60. lieuës, [86] à lentour duquel ils sont cabãnés. Dans ledit lac il y a des iles belles & grandes, habitées desdits Iroquois, qui sont vn grand peuple, & plus on va [29] avant dans les terres plus on les trouve habitées: Nouveau Mexique. si bien que (s'il en faut croire les Hespagnols) au pays dit le Nouveau Mexique bien loin pardela lesdits Iroquois, en tirant au Suroüest, il y a des villes baties, & des maisons à trois & quatre etages: méme du bestial privé: d'où ils ont appellé vne certaine riviere Rio de las Vaccas, La riviere des Vaches, pour y en avoir veu en grand nombre paturer le lõg de la riviere. Grand lac outre Canada.Et est-ce pays directement au Nort à plus de cinq cens lieuës du vieil Mexique, avoisinant, comme ie croy, l'extremité du grand lac de la riviere de Canada, lequel (selon le rapport des Sauvages) a trente journées de long. Ie croiroy que des hommes robustes & bien composés pourroient vivre parmi ces peuples là, & faire grand fruit à l'avancement de la Religion Chrétienne. Mais quant aux Souriquois, & Etechemins, qui sont vagabons & divisés, il les faut assembler par la culture de la terre, & obliger par ce moyen à demeurer en vn lieu. Car quiconque a pris la peine de cultiver vne terre il ne la quitte point aisement. Il cõbat pour la conserver de tout son courage. [30] Mais ie trouve ce dessein de longue execution si nous n'y allons d'autre zele, & si vn Roy ou riche Prince ne prent cette cause en main, laquelle certes est digne d'vn royaume tres-Chrétien. Conquete de la Palestine comparee à celle de la Nouvelle-France. On a jadis fait tant de depenses & pertes d'hommes à la reconqueste de la Palestine, à quoy on a peu proufité: & aujourd'hui à peu de frais on pourroit faire des merveilles, & acquerir infinis peuples à Dieu sans coup ferir: & nous sommes touchés d'vne ie ne sçay quelle [88] lethargie en ce qui est du zele religieux qui bruloit noz peres anciennement. Si on n'esperoit aucun fruit temporel en ceci ie pardonnerois à l'imbecillité humaine. Mais il y a de si certaines esperances d'vne bõne vsure, qu'elles ferment la bouche à tous les ennemis de ce pays là, lesquels le decrient afin de ne perdre la traite des Castors & autres pelleteries dont ils vivent, & sans cela mourroyent de faim, ou ne sçauroient à quoy s'employer. Au Roy & à la Royne.Que s'il plaisoit au Roy, & à la Royne Regente sa mere, en laquelle Dieu a allume vn brasier de pieté, prendre goust à ceci (cõme certes elle a faict au rapport de la Conversiõ des Sauvages baptizés par le [31] soin du Sieur de Poutrincourt) & laisser quelque memoire d'elle, ou plustot s'asseurer de la beatitude des cieux par cette action qui est toute de Dieu, on ne peut dire quelle gloire à l'avenir ce lui seroit d'estre la premiere qui auroit planté l'Evangile en de si grandes terres, qui (par maniere de dire) n'ont point de bornes. Si Helene mere de l'Empereur Cõstantin eust trouvé tant de sujet de bien-faire, elle eust beaucoup mieux aimé edifier à Dieu des temples vivans que tant d'edifices de marbre dont elle a rempli la terre saincte. Et au bout l'esperance de la remuneration temporelle n'en est poĩt vaine. Car d'une part le Sieur de Poutrincourt demeure toujours serviteur du Roy en la terre que sa Maiesté luy a octroyée: en laquelle il seroit le rendezvous & support de tant de vaisseaux qui vont tous les ans aux Terres neuves, où ilz reçoivent mille incommodités, & en perit grand nombre, comme nous avons veu & oui dire. Moyens pour aller aux Molucques par le Ponant & le Nort.Dailleurs penetrant dans les terres, nous pourrions nous rendre familier le chemin de la Chine, & des Molucques par vn climat & parallele tẽperé, en [90] faisant quelques statiõs ou [32] demeures au Saut de la grande riviere de Canada, puis aux lacs qui sont plus outre, le dernier desquels n'est pas loin de la grande mer Occidentale, par laquelle les Hespagnols vont aujourd'hui en l'Orient: Ou bien on pouroit faire la méme entreprise par la riviere de Saguenay, outre laquelle les Sauvages rapportent qu'il y a vne mer dont ilz n'ont veu le bout, qui est sans doute ce passage par le Nort, lequel en vain l'on a tant recherché. Vtilités.De sorte que nous aurions des epices, & autres drogues sans les mendier desdits Hespagnols, & demeureroit és mains du Roy le proufit qu'il tire de nous sur ces denrées: Laissant à part l'vtilité des cuirs, paturages, pecheries, & autres biens. Mais il faut semer avant que recuillir. Par ces exercices on occuperoit beaucoup de ieunesse Françoise, dont vne partie languit ou de pauvreté, ou d'oisiveté: ou vont aux provinces etrangeres enseigner les metiers qui nous estoient iadis propres & particuliers, au moyen dequoy la France estoit remplie de biens, au lieu qu'aujourd'hui vne longue paix ne l'a encore peu remettre en son premier lustre, tant [33] pour la raison que dessus, que pour le nombre de gens oisifs, & mendians valides & volontaires que le public nourrit. Chiquanerie.Entre lesquelles incommodités on pourrait mettre encore le mal de la chiquanerie qui mange nostre nation, dõt elle a esté blamée de tout temps. A quoy Ammiã Marcellin.seroit aucunement obvié par les frequẽtes navigations: estant ainsi qu'une partie de ceux qui plaident auroient plustot fait de conquester nouvelle terre, demeurans en l'obeissance du Roy, que de poursuivre ce qu'ilz debattent avec tant de ruines, longueurs, solicitudes, & travaux. Et en ce ie repute heureux tous [92] ces pauvres peuples que ie deplore ici. Felicité des Sauvages.Car la blafarde Envie ne les amaigrit poĩt ilz ne ressentent point les inhumanités d'vn qui sert Dieu en torticoli, pour souz cette couleur tourmenter les hommes; ilz ne sont point sujets au calcul de ceux qui manquans de vertu & de bonté s'affublent d'vn faux pretexte de pieté pour nourrir leur ambition. S'ilz ne conoissent point Dieu, au moins ne le blasphement ilz point, comme font la pluspart des Chretiens. Ilz ne sçavent que c'est d'empoisonner, ni de corrompre la [34] chasteté par artifice diabolique. Il n'y a point de pauvres, ny de mendians entre eux. Tous sont riches, entant que tous travaillent & vivent. Mais entre nous il va bien autrement. Car il y en a plus de la moitié qui vit du labeur d'autrui, ne faisant aucun metier qui soit necessaire à la vie humaine. Que si ce païs là estoit etabli, tel y a qui n'ose faire ici ce qu'il feroit là. Pour ceux qui vont en la N. France.Il n'ose point ici estre bucheron, laboureur, vigneron, &c. par ce que sõ pere est chiquaneur, barbier, apothicaire &c. Et là il oublieroit toutes ces aprehensions de reproche, & prendroit plaisir à cultiver sa terre, ayant beaucoup de compagnons d'aussi bonne maison que lui. Et cultiver la terre c'est le metier le plus innocent, & plus certain, exercice de ceux de qui nous sommes tous descendus, & de ces braves Capitaines Romains qui sçavoient domter & ne point estre domtés. Mais depuis que la pompe & la malice se sont introduits parmi les hommes, ce qui estoit vertu a tourné en reproche, & les faineans sont venus en estime. A la Royne.Or laissons ces gens là, & revenons au Sieur de Poutrincourt, ains plustot a vous, ô Royne Tres-Chretienne, [35] la plus grande, & plus cherie des cieux que l'œil du monde voye en la rõde qu'il fait [94] chaque iour alentour de cet vnivers. Vous qui avés le maniement du plus noble Empire dici bas, Quoy souffrirez vous de voir vn Gentil-hõme de si bonne volonté sans l'employer & sans le secourir? Voulez vous qu'il emporte la premiere gloire du monde par dessus vous, & que le triomphe de cet affaire luy demeure sans que vous y participiés? Non, non, Madame, il faut que le tout vous en soit rapporté, & que cõme les etoilles empruntent leur lumiere du soleil, aussi que du Roy & de vous qui nous l'avés dõné toutes les belles actiõs des François depẽdent. Il faut donc prevenir cette gloire, & ne la ceder à autre, tandis que vous avés vn Poutrincourt bon François, & qui a servi le feu Roy de regretable memoire vôtre Epoux (que Dieu absolve) en des affaires d'Estat dont les histoires ne font mention.: En haine dequoy sa maison & ses biens ont passé par l'examen du feu. Il ne passe point l'Ocean pour voir le païs, comme ont fait préque tous les autres qui ont entrepris de semblables navigations [36] aux dépens de noz Roys. Mais il mõtre par effect quelle est son intentiõ, si bien qu'on n'en peut point douter, & ne hazarderez rien maintenant quand vôtre Majesté l'employera à bon escient à l'amplificatiõ de la religion Chrétienne és terres Occidentales d'outre mer. Vous reconoissez son zele, le vôtre est incomparable, mais il faut aviser où se pourra mieux faire vôtre emploite. Ie louë les Princesses & Dames qui depuis quinze ans ont dõné de leurs biens pour le repos de ceux ou celles qui se veulent sequestrer du monde. Mais i'estime (sauf correction) que leur pieté seroit plus illustre si elle se montroit envers ces pauvres peuples Occidentaux qui gemissent, & dont le defaut d'instruction crie vengeance [96] à Dieu contre ceux qui les peuvent ayder à estre Chrétiens, & ne le font pas. Vne Royne de Castille a esté cause que la religion Chrétienne a esté portée és terres que tient l'Hespagnol en Occident: faites ô lumiere des Roynes du monde, que par vous bientot on oye eclater le nom de Dieu par tout ce monde nouveau où il n'est point encore coneu. Or reprenant le fil de mõ [37] Histoire, puisque nous avons parlé du voyage dudit Sieur de Poutrincourt, il ne sera point hors de propos si apres avoir touché les incommodités & longueurs de sa navigation, qui l'ont reculé d'vn an, nous disons vn mot du retour de son vaisseau. Ce qui sera bref, d'autant qu'ordinairement sont bréves les navigations qui se font des terres Occidentales en deça hors le Tropique du Cancre. Liv. 1. ch. 24. & li. 2. ch. 41. & 42.I'ay rendu la raison de cela en mon Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, où ie renvoye le Lecteur: comme aussi pour sçavoir la raison pourquoy en Eté la mer y est remplie de brumes en telle sorte que pour vn jour serein il y en a deux de broüillas: & deux fois m'y suis trouvé parmi des brumes de huict jours entiers. Que c'est ce Banc Voy la dite Histoire liv. 2. chap. 24.Ceci e esté cause que ledit Sieur de Poutrincourt renvoyant son fils en France pour faire nouvelle charge, il a demeuré aussi long temps à gaigner le grand Banc aux Moruës depuis le Port Royal, comme à gaigner la France depuis ledit Banc: & toutefois depuis icelui Banc jusques à la terre de France il y a huit cens bonnes lieuës: & de là méme jusques audit Port Royal il n'y en a gueres [38] plus de trois cens. C'est sur ledit Banc qu'on trouve ordinairement tout l'Eté force navires qui font la Pecherie des Moruës qu'on apporte pardeça, lesquelles on appelle Moruës de Terre-neuve. Ainsi le fils dudit Sieur de Poutrincourt (dit [98] le Baron de Sainct Iust) arrivãt audit Banc fit provision de viande freche, & pecherie de poisson. La maniere de cette pecherie, voy au lieu sus-dit.En quoy faisant il eut en rencontre vn navire Rochelois & vn autre du Havre de Grace, d'où il eut nouvelles de la mort lamentable de nôtre defunct bon Roy, sans sçavoir par qui, ni comment. Mais apres eut en rencontre vn autre navire Anglois, d'où il entendit la méme chose, accusans du parricide des gens que ie ne veux ici nõmer: car ils le disoient par haine & envie, n'ayans plus grans adversaires qu'eux. En 15. jours du Banc en France.En quinze jours donc ledit Sieur de Sainct Iust fut rendu dudit Banc en France, ayant toujours eu vent en poupe: navigation certes beaucoup plus agreable que celle du vingtsixieme de Février mentionnée-ci-dessus. Les gens du Sieur de Monts partirent du Havre de Grace neuf ou dix jours apres ledit jour 26. Février pour aller à Kebec, 40. lieuës pardela [39] la riviere de Saguenay, où icelui Sieur de Monts s'est fortifié. Mais ilz furent contraints de relacher pour les mauvais vents. Et là dessus courut vn bruit que le Sieur de Poutrincourt estoit peri en mer, & tout son equipage. A quoy ie n'adjoutay onques foy, croyant pour certain que Dieu l'aidera, & le fera passer par-dessus toutes difficultez. Kebec Fort du Sieur de Monts.Nous n'avons encore nouvelles dudit Kebec, & en attendons bien-tot. Mais ie puis dire pour la verité que si jamais quelque chose de bon reüssit de la Nouvelle-France la posterité en aura de l'obligatiõ audit Sieur de Monts autheur de ces choses, auquel si on n'eust point oté le privilege qui lui avoit esté baillé pour la traite de Castors & autres pelleteries, aujourd'hui nous aurions force bestiaux, arbres fruictiers, peuples, & batimẽs en ladite province. Car il a desiré ardamment de voir pardela les affaires etablies à [100] l'honneur de Dieu & de la France. Et jaçoit qu'on lui ait oté le sujet de continuer, si ne s'est il point decouragé jusques à present de faire ce qu'il a peu, ayant fait batir vn Fort audit Kebec, avec des logemens fort beaux & commodes. En ce lieu de Kebec cette [40] grande & immense riviere de Canada est reduite à l'étroit, & n'a que la portée d'vn fauconneau de large, abõdante en poissons autant que riviere du monde. Pour le pays il est beau à merveilles, & abondant en chasse. Mais estant en pays plus froid que le port Royal, assavoir quatre vingtz lieuës plus au Nort, aussi la pelleterie y est elle beaucoup plus belle. Car (entre autres) les Renars y sont noirs, & d'vn poil si beau, qu'il semble faire honte à la Martre. Les Sauvages du Port Royal y peuvent aller en dix ou douze jours par le moyen des rivieres sur lesquelles ils navigent préque jusques à la source, & de là portans leurs petits canots d'écorce par quelque espace dans les bois, ils gaignent vne autre riviere qui va tomber dans ledit fleuve de Canada, & ainsi expedient bien-tot de lõgs voyages: ce que de nous-mémes ne sçaurions faire en l'etat qu'est le païs. Et par mer audit Kebec il y a dudit Port Royal plus de quatre cens lieuës en allant par le Cap Breton. Ledit Sieur de Monts y auoit envoyé des vaches dés il y a deux ans & demi, mais faute de quelque femme de village qui entendist le [41] gouvernement d'icelles, on en a laissé mourir la pluspart en se dechargeant de leurs veaux. Femmes combien necessaires.En quoy se reconoit combien vne femme est necessaire en vne maison, laquelle ie ne sçay pourquoy tant de gens rejettent, & ne s'en peuvent passer. Quant à moy ie seray toujours d'auis qu'en quelque habitation que ce soit on ne fera jamais fruit sans la [102] compagnie des femmes. Sans elles la vie est triste, les maladies viennent, & meurt on sans secours. C'est pourquoy ie me mocque de ces mysogames qui leur ont voulu tant de mal, & particulierement i'en veux à ce fol qu'on a mis au nombre des sept Sages, lequel disoit que la femme est vn mal necessaire, veu qu'il n'y a bien au monde comparable à elle. Ecclesi. 4 vers. 10.Aussi Dieu la il baillée pour compagne à l'homme, afin de l aider & consoler: & le Sage dit que Malheureux est l'hõme qui est seul, car il n'a personne qui l echauffe, & s'il tombe en la fosse il n'a personne pour le relever. Que s'il y a des femmes folles, il faut estimer que les hommes ne sont point sãs faute. De ce defaut de vaches plusieurs se sont ressentis, car estant tombés malades ilz n'ont pas eu toutes les douceurs [42] qu'autrement ils eussent euës, & s'en sont allez promener aux champs Elisées. Conspiration chatiee.Vn autre qui auoit esté de nôtre voyage, n'eut point la patience d'attendre cela, & voulut gaigner le ciel par escalade dés le commencement de son arrivée, par vne conspiration contre le sieur Champlein son Capitaine. Les complices furent condemnés aux galeres, & ramenés en France. Voyage aux Iroquois.L'Eté venu assavoir il y a vn an, ledit Champlein desireux de voir le païs des Iroquois, afin qu'en son absence les Sauvages ne se saisissent point de son Fort, il leur persuada d'aller là faire la guerre, & partirent avec lui & deux autres François, en nõbre de quatre-vingts ou cent, iusques au lac desdits Iroquois, à deux cẽs lieües loin dudit Kebec. Peuples ennemis.De tout temps il y a eu guerre entre ces deux nations, comme entre les Souriquois & Armouchiquois: & se sont quelquefois elevés les Iroquois jusques au nõbre de huit mille hommes, pour guerroyer & exterminer tous ceux qui habitoient [104] la grande riviere de Canada: comme il est à croire qu'ils ont fait, d'autant que là n'est plus aujourd'hui le langage qui s'y parloit au [43] temps de Iacques Quartier, qui y fut il y a quatre-vingts ans. Guerre.Ledit Champlein avec ses troupes arrivé là, ilz ne se peurent si bien cacher qu'ilz ne fussent apperceuz de ces peuples, qui ont toujours des sentinelles sur les avenües de leurs ennemis: & s'estans les vns & les autres bien remparés, il fut convenu entre eux de ne point combattre pour ce jour là, mais de remettre l'affaire au lendemain. Le temps lors estoit serein: si bien que l'Aurore n'eut point plutot chassé les ombres de la nuit, que la rumeur s'emeût par tout le camp. Quelque enfant perdu des Iroquois ayant voulu sortir de ses rempars, fut transpercé non d'un trait d'Apollon, ou de l'Archerot aux yeux bendés, mais d'un vray trait materiel & bien poignant qui le mit à la renverse. Là dessus, la colere monte au front des offensés & chacun se met en ordre pour attaquer & se defendre. Comme la troupe des Iroquois s'avançoit, Champlein qui avoit chargé son mousquet à deux balles, voyant deux Iroquois marcher devant avec des panaches sur la tête, se douta que c'estoient deux Capitaines, & voulut s'avancer [44] pour les mirer. Mais les Sauvages de Kebec l'empecherent, disans: Il n'est pas bon qu'ilz te voyent, car incontinent, n'ayans point accoutumé de voir telles gens, ilz s'en fuiront. Mais retire toy derriere le premier rang des nôtres, & puis quand nous serons prets, tu devanceras. Ce qu'il fit: & par ce moyen furent les deux Capitaines tout ensemble emportés d'vn coup de mousquet. Victorie.Lors victoire gaignée. Car chacun se debende, & ne restoit qu'à poursuivre. Tabagie, c'est festĩ. Ce qui fut fait avec [106] peu de resistance, & emporterent environ cinquante têtes de leurs ennemis, dont au retour ilz firent de merveilleuses fêtes en Tabagies, danses, & chansons continuelles, selon leur coutume.

[7] The Conversion of the Savages who have been baptized in New France during this year, 1610.

Matth. 24, verse 14.

THE unchangeable word of our Savior Jesus Christ bears witness to us through the lips of saint Matthew that This Gospel of the kingdom, shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the consummation come. History shows that the voice of the Apostles has resounded for several centuries past throughout all the old world, although to-day the Christian kingdoms form the smallest part of it. But as to the new world, discovered some hundred and twenty years ago, we have no proof that the word of God has ever [8] been proclaimed there prior to these later times; unless we are to believe the story of Jean de Lery,[5] who says that one day as he was telling the Brazilians about the great miracles of God in the creation of the world, and the mysteries of our redemption, an old man told him that he had heard his grandfather say that, many years before, a bearded man (Brazilians have no beards) had come among them and had related something similar; but that they would not listen to him, and since then had been killing and eating each other. As to the other countries beyond the sea, some of them have indeed a certain vague knowledge of the deluge, and of the immortality of the soul, together with the future reward of those who live aright; but they might have handed this obscure doctrine down, from generation to generation, since the universal deluge which hap pened in the time of Noah. It remains now to deplore the wretched condition of these people who occupy a country so large that the old world bears no comparison with it, if we include the land which lies beyond the straits of Magellan, called [9] Terra del fugo, extending as far toward China and Japan as toward New Guinea; and also the country beyond the great river of Canada,[6] which stretches out to the East and is washed by the great Western ocean. Dense ignorance prevails in all these countries, where there is no evidence that they have ever felt the breath of the Gospel, except in this last century when the Spaniard carried thither some light of the Christian religion, together with his cruelty and avarice.[7] But this was so little that it should not receive much consideration, since by the very confession of those who have written their histories, they have killed almost all the natives of the country, who, only seventy years ago, according to a certain historian,[8] numbered more than twenty millions. For more than twenty-five years, the English have retained a foothold in a country called, in honor of the deceased Queen of England, Virginia, which lies between Florida and the land of the Armouchiquois.[9] But that country carries on its affairs with so much secrecy, that very few persons know [10] anything definite about it. Soon after I published my History of New France,[10] there was an embarkation of eight hundred men to be sent there. It is not reported that they bathed their hands in the blood of those people, for which they are neither to be praised nor blamed: for there is no law nor pretext which permits us to kill anyone, whosoever he may be, and especially the persons whose property we have seized. But they are to be commended if they show to these poor ignorant people the way of salvation by the true and unvarnished doctrine of the Gospel. As to our French people, I have complained enough in my History of the cowardice of these later times, and of our lack of zeal either in reclaiming these poor erring ones, or in making known, exalted, and glorified, the name of God in the lands beyond the seas, where it never has been proclaimed. And yet we wish that country to bear the name of France, a name so august and venerable that we cannot, without a feeling of shame, glory in an un-Christianized France. I know that there are any number of people who are willing to go there. But why is it that [11] the Church, which has so much wealth; why is it that the Nobility, who expend so much needlessly, do not establish some fund for the execution of so holy a work? Two courageous Gentlemen, Sieurs de Monts and de Poutrincourt, have in these later times shown such great zeal in this work, that they have weakened their resources by their outlays, and have done more than their strength justified them in doing. Both have continued their voyages up to the present time. But one of them has been frustrated twice, and has had heavy losses through too great confidence in the words of certain persons. Now, inasmuch as the latest news of our New France comes from Sieur de Poutrincourt, we shall speak here of what he has accomplished, and we have good reason to praise his courage; for (not being able to live among the crowd of idle men, of whom we have only too many, and seeing our France seeming to languish in a monotonous calm that was wearisome to men of action), after having given a thousand proofs of his valor, during the last twenty- four years, he sought to crown [12] his truly Herculean labors in the cause of God, for which he employs his means and strength, and endangers his life, by increasing the number of celestial citizens, and leading to the fold of Jesus Christ, our sovereign Shepherd, the wandering sheep, whom it would be becoming to the Prelates of the Church to go out and gather in (at least to contribute to this end) since they have the means of doing so. But with what difficulty has he labored in this cause up to the present time? Thrice has he crossed the great Ocean to carry on his enterprises. The first year was passed with sieur de Monts in seeking a suitable dwelling and a safe port for the withdrawal of the ships and their crews. In this, they did not meet with much success. The second year passed in the same way, and then he returned to France. During the third year, we experimented with the soil, which yielded abundantly to our cultivation. This present year, discovering through an unfortunate experience that men are not always to be trusted, he made up his mind to depend upon no one but himself, and put to sea on the twenty-sixth of February; the [13] weather being very unfavorable, he made the longest voyage of which I have ever heard; certainly our own, three years ago, was tedious enough, when we drifted about upon the sea for the space of two months and a half before reaching Port Royal. But this one lasted three whole months, so that one reckless man was about to mutiny, going so far as to form wicked conspiracies; but Sieur de Poutrincourt's kindness, and respect for the place where he lived in Paris, served as a shield to protect his life. Terrir, meaning to discover the land.The first coast which Sieur de Poutrincourt discovered was port Mouton; there, among the fogs which are very common in this sea during the Summer, he encountered serious dangers, principally in the neighborhood of Cape Sable, where his ship came near foundering. History of New France, book 2, chap. 37, p. 527.Thence, in trying to reach Port Royal, he was carried by violent winds forty leagues beyond, namely to the Norombega river,[11] so celebrated and so fabulously described by Geographers and Historians, as I have shown in my said History, where this voyage may be seen in the geographical Chart [14] which I have inserted therein. Thence he came to the river saint John, which is opposite Port Royal beyond French Bay,[12] where he found a ship from St. Malo trading with the Savages of the country. Here complaint was made to him by a Captain of the Savages, that one of the crew of the said ship had stolen away his wife and was abusing her: the Sieur informed himself about the matter and then made a prisoner of the malefactor and seized the ship.[13] But he released the ship and the sailors, contenting himself by retaining the guilty one, who escaped, however, in a shallop, and went off with the Savages, prejudicing them against the French, as we shall relate hereafter. Arrived at last at Port Royal, it is impossible to describe the joy with which these poor people received the Sieur and his company. And, in truth, there was still greater reason for this joy, since they had lost all hope of ever again seeing the French live among them. They had had some experience of our kind treatment while we were there, and, seeing themselves deprived of it, they wept bitterly when we left them three years ago.

This Port Royal, the home [15] of sieur de Poutrincourt, is the most beautiful earthly habitation that God has ever made. It is fortified upon the North by a range of 12 or 15 leagues of mountains, upon which the Sun beats all day, and by hills on the Southern or Meridian shore, which forms a port that can securely harbor twenty thousand ships, being twenty fathoms deep at its entrance, a league and a half in width, and four leagues long, extending to an island which is a French league in circumference: here I have sometimes seen swimming at ease a medium-sized Whale, which came in with the tide at eight o'clock every morning. Furthermore, there can be caught in this port, in their season, great quantities of herring, smelt, sardines, barbels, codfish, seals and other fish; and as to shell-fish, there is an abundance of lobsters, crabs, palourdes,[14] cockles, mussels, snails, and porpoises. But whoever is disposed to go beyond the tides of the sea will find in the river quantities of sturgeon and salmon, and will have plenty of sport in landing them. Now, to return to our story; When Sieur de Poutrincourt arrived [6 i.e. 16] there, he found his buildings entire, the Savages (as these people have been called up to the present) not having touched them in any way, even the furniture remaining as we had left it. Anxious about their old friends, they asked how they were all getting along, calling each individual by his name, and asking why such and such a one had not come back. This shows the great amiability of these people, who, having seen in us only the most humane qualities, never flee from us, as they do from the Spaniard in this whole new world. And consequently by a certain gentleness and courtesy, which are as well known to them as to us, it is easy to make them pliant to all our wishes, and especially so in regard to Religion, of which we left them some good impressions when we were there; and they seemed to wish for nothing better than to enroll themselves under the banner of Jesus Christ, where they would have been received at once if we had had a firm foothold in the country. But just as we were hoping to continue [17] the work, it happened that sieur de Monts, being unable longer to meet the expenses, and not receiving any help from the King, was obliged to recall all those who were over there, who had not taken with them the means necessary to a longer sojourn. So it would have been rash and unwise to administer baptism to people whom it was necessary afterwards to abandon, and give them an opportunity to return to their corruption. But now that the work is being carried on in earnest, and as sieur de Poutrincourt has actually settled there, it is lawful to impress upon their minds and souls the stamp of Christianity, after having instructed them in the principal articles of our Faith. Hebrews 11, vers. 6.Sieur de Poutrincourt is careful to do this, remembering what the Apostle said, He that cometh to God, must believe that he is; and after believing this, one comes gradually to ideas which are farther removed from mere sensual apprehension, such as the belief that out of nothing God created all things, that he made himself man, that he was born of a Virgin, that he consented to die for man, etc. And inasmuch as the Ecclesiastics who have been taken over there, are not [18] familiar with the language of these people, the Sieur has taken the trouble to teach them and to have them taught by his eldest son, a young Gentleman who understands and speaks the native language very well, and who seems to have been destined to open up to the Savages the way to heaven. The people who are at Port Royal, and in the adjacent countries extending toward Newfoundland, are called Souriquois[15] and have a language of their own. But beyond French Bay, which extends into the land about forty leagues, and is ten or twelve leagues wide, the people on the other side are called Etechemins; and still farther away are the Armouchiquois, whose language is different from that of the Etechemins, and who are fortunate in having an abundance of vines and large grapes, if they only knew how to make use of this fruit, which they believe (as did our ancient Gauls) to be poisonous. Ammianus Marcellinus.They also have excellent hemp, which grows wild, and in quality and appearance is much superior to ours. Besides this they have Sassafras, and a great abundance of oak, walnut, plum and chestnut trees, and other fruits which are unknown to us. As to Port Royal, I must confess that there is not [19] much fruit there; and yet the land is productive enough to make us hope from it all that Gallic France yields to us. All these tribes are governed by Captains called Sagamores, a word used with the same signification in the East Indies, as I have read in the History by Maffeus,[16] and which I believe comes from the Hebrew word Sagan, which, according to Rabbi David, means Great Prince, and sometimes means the one who holds the second place after the sovereign Pontiff. Isaiah 41, vers. 25, Jerem. 51, vers. 23, Santes Pagnin, 9.In the usual version of the Bible it is defined "Magistrate," and yet even there the Hebrew interpreters translate it by the word "Prince." And in fact we read in Berosus[17] that Noah was called Saga, as much because he was a great Prince as because he had taught Theology and the ceremonies of divine service, and also many of the secrets of nature, to the Armenian Scythians, whom the ancient Cosmographers called "Sages," after Noah. And perhaps for this very same reason our Tectosages, who are the Tolosains,[18] are so called. For this good father, who restored the world, came into Italy and sent [20] a new population into Gaul after the Deluge, giving his name, Gauls (for Xenophon says that he was also called by this name), to those whom he sent there, because he had escaped from the waters. And it is not improbable that he himself imposed this name upon the Tectosages. Let us return to our word Sagamore, which is the title of honor given to the Captains in these new Lands, of which we are speaking. At Port Royal, the name of the Captain or Sagamore of the place is Membertou.[19] He is at least a hundred years old, and may in the course of nature live more than fifty years longer. He has under him a number of families whom he rules, not with so much authority as does our King over his subjects, but with sufficient power to harangue, advise, and lead them to war, to render justice to one who has a grievance, and like matters. He does not impose taxes upon the people, but if there are any profits from the chase he has a share of them, without being obliged to take part in it. It is true that they sometimes make him presents of Beaver skins and other things, when he is occupied in curing the sick; or in questioning [21] his demon (whom he calls Aoutem) to have news of some future event or of the absent: for, as each village, or company of Savages, has an Aoutmoin, or Prophet, who performs this office, Membertou is the one who, from time immemorial, has practiced this art among his followers. He has done it so well that his reputation is far above that of all the other Sagamores of the country, he having been since his youth a great Captain, and also having exercised the offices of Soothsayer and Medicine-man, which are the three things most efficacious to the well-being of man, and necessary to this human life. Now this Membertou to-day, by the grace of God, is a Christian, together with all his family, having been baptized, and twenty others with him, on last saint John's day, the 24th of June. I have letters from Sieur de Poutrincourt about it, dated the eleventh day of July following. He said Membertou was named after our late good King Henri IV., and his eldest son after Monseigneur the Dauphin, to-day our King Louis XIII., whom may God bless. And so, as a natural consequence, the wife of Membertou [22] was named Marie after the Queen Regent, and her daughter received the name of the Queen, Marguerite. The second son of Membertou, called Actaudin, was named Paul after our holy Father, the Pope of Rome. The daughter of the aforesaid Louis was named Christine in honor of Madame, the eldest sister of the King. And thus to each one was given the name of some illustrious or notable personage here in France. A number of other Savages were about to camp elsewhere (as it is their custom to scatter in bands when summer comes) at the time of these ceremonies of Christian regeneration, whom we believe to be to-day enrolled in the family of God by the same cleansing water of holy baptism.[20] But the devil, who never sleeps, has shown the jealousy which he felt at the salvation of these people, and at seeing that the name of God was glorified in this land, by inciting a wicked Frenchman, not a Frenchman but a Turk, not a Turk but an Atheist, to divert from the path of righteousness several Savages who had been Christians in their hearts and [23] souls for three years; and among others a Sagamore named Chkoudun, a man of great influence, of whom I have made honorable mention in my History of New France, because I saw that he, more than all the others, loved the French, and that he admired our civilization more than their ignorance: to such an extent, that being present sometimes at the Christian admonitions, which were given every Sunday to our French people, he listened attentively, although he did not understand a word; and moreover wore the sign of the Cross upon his bosom, which he also had his servants wear; and he had in imitation of us, a great Cross erected in the public place of his village, called Oigoudi, at the port of the river saint John, ten leagues from Port Royal. Now this man, with others, was turned away from Christianity, by the cursed avarice of this wicked Frenchman to whom I have referred above, and whom I do not wish to name now on account of the love and reverence I bear his father, but I protest that I will immortalize him if he does not mend his ways. He, I say, in order to defraud this Sagamore [24], Chkoudun, of a few Beavers, went last June to bribe him, after having escaped from the hands of Sieur de Poutrincourt, saying that all this Poutrincourt told them about God was nonsense, that they need not believe it, that he was an impostor, that he would kill them and get their Beavers. I omit a great many wicked stories that he may have added to this. If he were of the religious belief of those who call themselves Reformed, I might somewhat excuse him. But he plainly shows that he is neither of the one nor the other. But I will say, however, that he has reason to thank God for his escape from imminent peril on our voyage. This Sagamore, being a Christian, by his good example might have caused a great number of others to become Christians. But I am willing to hope, or rather firmly believe, that he will not remain much longer in this error, and that the Sieur will have found some means of attracting him with many others to himself, to impress upon him the vital truths with which he had formerly, in my presence, touched his soul. For the spirit of God has power to drop upon this field fresh dew, which will bring forth a new germination where all has been laid waste and beaten down by the hail. May God, by his grace, guide all in such a way that it will redound to his glory and to the edification of this people, for whom all Christians ought to make continual supplication to his divine goodness, to the end that he may consent to confirm and advance the work, which he has been pleased to begin at this time for the exaltation of his name and for the salvation of his creatures.[21]

END.

[25] There are in that country some men of the Church, of good scholarship, whom nothing but their religious zeal has taken there, and who will not fail to do all that piety requires in this respect. Now, for the present, there is no need of any learned Doctors who may be more useful in combating vices and heresies at home. Besides, there is a certain class of men in whom we cannot have complete confidence, who are in the habit of censuring everything that is not in harmony with their maxims, and wish to rule wherever they are. It is enough to be watched from abroad without having these fault-finders, from whom even the greatest Kings cannot defend themselves, come near enough to record every movement of our hearts and souls. And then what would be the use of so many such men over there at present, unless they wanted to devote themselves to the cultivation of the soil? For going there is not all. What they will do, when they get there, must be taken into consideration. As to Sieur de Poutrincourt's residence, he provided himself at his departure with everything that was necessary. But if a few honest people were seized with a desire to [26] advance the cause of the Gospel there, I would advise them to make up five or six parties, each one having a well-equipped ship, and to go and establish colonies in different parts of New France, as at Tadoussac, Gachepé, Campseau, la Héve, Oigoudi, Ste. Croix, Pemptegoet, Kinibeki, and in other places, where there are assemblages of Savages, whom time must lead to the Christian Religion: unless the head of some great family, like the King, wishes to have the sole glory of peopling these lands. For to think of living as the Savages do seems to me out of all reason. And to prove this, the following is an example of their way of living: Manner of living of the Souriquois and Ethechemins.From the first land (which is Newfoundland) to the country of the Armouchiquois, a distance of nearly three hundred leagues, the people are nomads, without agriculture, never stopping longer than five or six weeks in a place. Pliny mentions a certain people called Ichthyophagi, i.e., Fish-eaters, living in the same way. These Savages get their living in this manner during three seasons of the year. For, when Spring comes, they divide into bands upon the shores of the sea, until [27] Winter; and then as the fish withdraw to the bottom of the great salt waters, they seek the lakes and the shades of the forests, where they catch Beavers, upon which they live, and other game, as Elk, Caribou, Deer, and still smaller animals. And yet, sometimes even in Summer, they do not give up hunting: besides, there are an infinite number of birds on certain islands in the months of May, June, July and August. Their beds.As to their beds, a skin spread out upon the ground serves as mattress. And in this we have nothing to jest about, for our old Gallic ancestors did the same thing, and even dined from the skins of dogs and wolves, if Diodorus and Strabo tell the truth. Armouchiquois.But as to the Armouchiquois and Iroquois countries, there is a greater harvest to be gathered there by those who are inspired by religious zeal, because they are not so sparsely populated, and the people cultivate the soil, from which they derive some of the comforts of life. It is true that they do not understand very well how to make bread, not having mills, yeast, or ovens; so they pound their corn in a kind of [28] mortar, and make a paste of it as best they can, and bake it between two stones heated at the fire; or they roast this corn on the ear upon the live coals, as did the old Romans, according to Pliny. Pliny, book 18, chap. 2 and 10.Afterwards people learned to bake cakes under the embers; and still later bakers began to make use of ovens. Now these people who cultivate the soil are stationary, not like the others who have nothing of their own, just as the Germans in the time of Tacitus, who has described their ancient way of living. Iroquois.Farther inland, and beyond the Armouchiquois, are the Iroquois tribes, also stationary, because they till the soil, whence they gather maize wheat (or Buckwheat), beans, edible roots, and in short all that we have mentioned in describing the Armouchiquois, even more, for from necessity they draw their sustenance from the earth, as they are far from the sea. However, they have a great lake in their country, of wonderful extent, perhaps about sixty leagues, around which they encamp. New Mexico.In this lake there are large and beautiful islands inhabited by the Iroquois, who are a great people; the farther [29] we penetrate into the country, the more we find it inhabited: so much so that (if we can believe the Spaniards) in the country called New Mexico, a long distance to the Southwest of these Iroquois, there are regularly built cities and houses of three and four stories, and even domesticated cattle, whence they have named a certain river, Rio de las Vaccas, or Cow river, because they saw a large number of them grazing on its banks. A great lake beyond Canada.And this country is more than five hundred leagues directly to the north of old Mexico, being near, I believe, the end of the great lake of the river of Canada which (according to the Savages) is a thirty days' journey in length. I believe that robust and hardy men could live among these people, and do great work for the advancement of the Christian Religion. But as to the Souriquois and Etechemins, who are nomadic and divided, they must be made sedentary by the cultivation of the land, thus obliging them to remain in one place. For any one who has taken the trouble to cultivate a piece of land does not readily abandon it, but struggles valiantly to keep it. [30] But, I think, the execution of this plan will be very slow unless we take hold of it with more zeal, and unless a King, or some rich Prince, take this cause in hand, which is certainly worthy a most Christian kingdom. Conquest of Palestine compared with that of New France.Great expense and loss of life were once incurred in the re-conquest of Palestine, from which there was little profit; and to-day at slight expense wonders could be accomplished, and an infinite number of people won over to God, without striking a blow: and yet we are touched by an inexplicable apathy in religious matters, which is quite different from the fervid zeal, which of old burned in the bosoms of our fathers. If we did not expect any temporal fruit from these labors, I would pardon this human weakness. But there are such well-founded hopes of good usury, that they close the mouths of all the enemies of that country, who decry it in order not to lose the traffic in Beaver and other furs from which they gain a livelihood, and without which they would die of starvation or would not know what to do. Appeal to the King and the Queen Regent.But if the King and the Queen Regent, his mother, in whom God has kindled a fire of piety, should be pleased to take an interest in this (as she has certainly done in the report of the Conversion of the Savages, baptized through the [31] instrumentality of Sieur de Poutrincourt) and would leave some memorial of herself, or rather would secure for herself the blessedness of heaven by this most godly act, no one can tell how great would be her future glory in being the first to establish the Gospel in such vast territories, which (so to speak) have no bounds. If Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, had found such a field for good work, she would have greatly preferred to glorify God with living temples, instead of building so many marble edifices, with which she has filled the holy land. And, after all, the hope of temporal profit is not vain. For on one hand Sieur de Poutrincourt will continue to be the servant of the King in the country which his Majesty has granted him; where he would afford a rendezvous and give assistance to all the vessels which go every year to the new World, where they encounter a thousand hardships and, as we have seen and heard, great numbers of them are lost. Means of reaching the Moluccas through the Northern route.On the other hand, penetrating into the country, we might become familiar with the route to China and the Moluccas, through a mild climate and latitude, establishing a few stations, or [32] settlements, at the Falls of the great Canadian river, then at the lakes which are beyond, the last of which is not far from the great Western sea, through which the Spaniards to-day reach the Orient. Or, indeed, the same enterprise could be carried on through the Saguenay river, beyond which the Savages say there is a sea of which they have never seen the end, which is without doubt that Northern passage that has been so long sought in vain. Advantages.So that we could have spices and other drugs without begging them from the Spaniards, and the profits derived from us upon these commodities would remain in the hands of the King, not counting the advantages of having hides, pasturage, fisheries, and other sources of wealth. But we must sow before we can reap. In this work we could give employment to many of the youth of France, a part of whom languish in poverty or in idleness: while others go to foreign countries to teach the trades which in former times belonged strictly and peculiarly to us, and by means of which France was filled with prosperity; whereas, to-day, a long period of peace has not yet been able to restore to her her former glory, as much [33] for the reasons just given, as for the number of idle men, and of able-bodied and voluntary mendicants, whom the public supports. Chicanery.Among these obstacles we may place also the evil of chicanery, which preys upon our nation, and which has always been a reproach to it. Ammianus Marcellinus.This would be somewhat obviated by frequent voyages; for a part of these pettifoggers would sooner conquer some new land, remaining under the dominion of the King, than follow up their cause here with so much loss, delay, anxiety, and labor. Happiness of the Savages.And, in this respect, I consider all these poor savages, whom we commiserate, to be very happy; for pale Envy doth not emaciate them, neither do they feel the inhumanity of those who serve God hypocritically, harassing their fellow-creatures under this mask; nor are they subject to the artifices of those who, lacking virtue and goodness wrap themselves up in a mantle of false piety to nourish their ambition. If they do not know God, at least they do not blaspheme him, as the greater number of Christians do. Nor do they understand the art of poisoning, or of corrupting [34] chastity by devilish artifice. There are no poor nor beggars among them. All are rich, because all labor and live. But among us it is very different, for more than half of us live from the labors of the others, having no trades which serve to the support of human life. Opportunities for emigrants to New France.If that country were settled, there are men who would do there what they have not courage to do here. Here they would not dare to be wood-cutters, husbandmen, vinedressers, etc., because their fathers were pettifoggers, barber-surgeons, and apothecaries. But over yonder they would forget their fear of being ridiculed, and would take pleasure in cultivating their land, having a great many companions of as good families as theirs. Cultivating the soil is the most innocent of occupations and the most sure; it was the occupation of those from whom we have all descended, and of those brave Roman Captains who knew how to subjugate, but not how to be subjugated. But now, since pomp and malice have been introduced among men, what was virtue has been turned into reproach, and idlers have risen into favor. To the Queen.However, let us leave these people, and return to Sieur de Poutrincourt, or rather to you, O most Christian Queen, [35] the greatest and most cherished of heaven, whom the eye of the world looks down upon in its daily round about this universe. You who have the control of the most noble Empire here below, how can you see a Gentleman so full of good will, without employing and helping him? Will you let him carry off the greatest honor in the world when it might have been yours, and will you let the triumph of this affair remain with him and not share in it yourself? No, no, Madame, all must proceed from you, and as the stars borrow their light from the sun, so upon the King, and upon you who have given him to us, all the great deeds of the French depend. We must then anticipate this glory, and not yield it to another, while you have a Poutrincourt, a loyal Frenchman who served the late lamented King, your Husband (may God give him absolution), in affairs of State which are not recorded in history. In revenge for which his house and property passed through the ordeal of fire. He is not crossing the Ocean to see the country, as have nearly all the others who have undertaken similar voyages [36] at the expense of our Kings. But he shows so plainly what his intentions are, that we cannot doubt them, and your Majesty will risk nothing by employing him in earnest for the propagation of the Christian religion in the Western lands beyond the sea. You recognize his zeal, your own is incomparable; but you must take thought as to how you may best employ it. I commend the Princesses and Ladies who for fifteen years have given of their means for the repose of those men or women who wished to sequester themselves from the world. But I believe (under correction) that their piety would shine with greater luster if it were shown in behalf of these poor Western nations, who are in a lamentable condition, and whose lack of instruction cries to God for vengeance against those who might help them to become Christians, and will not. A Queen of Castille caused the Christian religion to be introduced into the lands of the West which belong to Spain; so act, O light of the Queens of the world, that through your instrumentality, the name of God may soon be proclaimed throughout all this new world; where it is not yet known. Now resuming the thread of our [37] History, as we have spoken of the voyage of Sieur de Poutrincourt, it will not be out of place, if, after having touched upon the hardships and tediousness of his journey, which retarded him one year, we say a word about the return of his ship, which will be brief, inasmuch as the voyages from the Western world, this side of the Tropic of Cancer, are usually so. Book 1, ch. 24, and book 2, ch. 41 and 42.I have given the reason for this in my History of New France, to which I refer the Reader, where he will also learn why it is that in Summer the sea there is overhung with fogs to such an extent that for one clear day there are two foggy ones; and twice we were in fogs which lasted eight entire days. For these Banks, see the said History, book 2, ch. 24.This is why Sieur de Poutrincourt's son, when he was sent back to France for fresh supplies, was as long in reaching the great Codfish Banks from Port Royal, as in getting to France from the said Banks; and yet from these Banks to the coast of France there are eight hundred good leagues; and thence to Port Royal there are hardly [38] more than three hundred. It is upon these Banks that a great many ships are usually found all the Summer, fishing for Cod, which are brought to France and are called Newfoundland Codfish. For their manner of fishing, see the above-mentioned place.So Sieur de Poutrincourt's son (who is called Baron de Sainct Just), on arriving at these Banks, laid in a supply of fresh meat and fish. While doing this he met a ship from Rochelle and another from Havre de Grace, whence he heard the news of the lamentable death of our late good King, without knowing by whom or how he was killed. But afterwards he met an English ship from which he heard the same thing, certain persons being accused of this parricide whom I will not here name; for they brought this accusation through hatred and envy, being great enemies of those whom they accused. In 15 days from the Banks to France.So in fifteen days Baron de Sainct Just made the distance between the Banks and France, always sailing before the wind; a voyage certainly much more agreeable than that of the twenty-sixth day of February mentioned above. Sieur de Monts's crew left Havre de Grace nine or ten days after this twenty-sixth of February to go to Kebec, forty leagues beyond [39] the Saguenay river, where Sieur de Monts has fortified himself. But contrary winds compelled them to put into port. And thereupon a report was circulated that Sieur de Poutrincourt was lost in the sea with all his crew. I did not believe this for an instant, trusting that God would help him and would enable him to surmount all difficulties. Kebec, Sieur de Monts's fort.We have as yet no news from Kebec, but expect to hear from there soon. I can say truly that if ever any good comes out of New France, posterity will be indebted for it to Sieur de Monts, author of these enterprises: and if they had not taken away the license which was granted him to trade in Beaver and other skins, to-day we should have had a vast number of cattle, fruit-trees, people, and buildings in the said province. For he earnestly desired to see everything established there to the honor of God and of France. And, although he has been deprived of the motive for continuing, yet up to the present he does not seem discouraged in doing what he can; for he has had built at Kebec a Fort and some very good and convenient dwellings. Here at Kebec this [40] great and mighty river of Canada narrows down and is only a falcon-shot wide; it has as great a supply of fish as any river in the world. As to the country, it is wonderfully beautiful, and abounds in game. But being in a colder region than port Royal, since it is eighty leagues farther North, the fur there is all the finer. For (among other animals) the Foxes are black and of such beautiful fur that they seem to put the Martens to shame. The Savages of Port Royal can go to Kebec in ten or twelve days by means of the rivers, which they navigate almost up to their sources; and thence, carrying their little bark canoes for some distance through the woods, they reach another stream which flows into the river of Canada, and thus greatly expedite their long voyages, which we ourselves could not do in the present state of the country. And from Port Royal to Kebec by sea it is more than four hundred leagues, going by way of Cape Breton. Sieur de Monts sent some cows there two years and a half ago, but for want of some village housewife who understood [41] taking care of them, they let the greater part die in giving birth to their calves. The need of women.Which shows how necessary a woman is in a house, and I cannot understand why so many people slight them, although they cannot do without them. For my part, I shall always believe that, in any settlement whatsoever, nothing will be accomplished without the presence of women. Without them life is sad, sickness comes, and we die uncared-for. Therefore I despise those woman-haters who have wished them all sorts of evil, which I hope will overtake that lunatic in particular, who has been placed among the number of the seven Sages, who said that woman is a necessary evil, since there is no blessing in the world to be compared to her. Ecclesiastes 4, verse 10.Therefore God gave her as a companion to man, to aid and comfort him: and the Wise Man says:—Woe to him that is alone, for when he falleth, he hath none to lift him up. And if two lie together, they shall warm one another. If there are some worthless women, we must remember that men are not faultless. Several suffered because of this lack of cows, for, when they fell ill they did not have all the comforts [42] that they would have had otherwise, and so they have departed to the Elysian fields. A conspiracy punished.Another, who had been with us on the voyage, did not have the patience to wait for death, but must needs go to heaven by scaling the walls, as soon as he arrived there, by a conspiracy against sieur de Champlein, his Captain. His accomplices were condemned to the galleys and sent back to France. Journey to the land of the Iroquois.When Summer came, that is a year ago, Champlein wishing to see the country of the Iroquois, to prevent the Savages from seizing his Fort in his absence, persuaded them to go and make war against them; so they departed with him and two other Frenchmen, to the number of eighty or a hundred, to the lake of the Iroquois, two hundred leagues distant from Kebec. Hostile nations.There has always been war between these two nations, as there has been between the Souriquois and Armouchiquois: and sometimes the Iroquois have raised as many as eight thousand men to war against and exterminate all those who live near the great river of Canada: and it seems that they did this, as to-day the language which was spoken in the [43] time of Jacques Quartier, who was there eighty years ago, is no longer heard in that region.[22] War.When Champlein arrived there with his troops, they could not conceal themselves so well but that they were perceived by the Iroquois, who always have sentinels upon the routes of their enemies: and each side being well fortified, it was agreed among them not to fight that day, but to postpone the affair until the morrow. The weather then was very clear; so clear that scarcely had Aurora chased away the shadows of the night, than a din was heard throughout the camp. An Iroquois skirmisher having tried to issue from the fortifications, was pierced through, not by one of the arrows of Apollo, nor of the little Archer with the blindfolded eyes, but by a genuine and very painful arrow, which stretched him out upon his back. Thereupon the eyes of the offended were full of ire, and each one takes his place in the line of attack and defense. As the band of Iroquois advances, Champlein, who had charged his musket with two balls, seeing two Iroquois, their heads adorned with feathers, marching on in front, supposed they were two Captains, and wanted to advance [44] and aim at them. But the Kebec Savages prevented him, saying:—"It is not well that they should see thee, for, never having been accustomed to see such people as thou art, they would immediately run away. But withdraw behind our first rank, and when we are ready, thou shalt advance." He did so, and in this way the two Captains were both slain by one musket shot. Victory.Victory ensued at once. For they all disbanded, and it only remained to pursue them. Tabagie is celebrated.This was done with little opposition, and they carried off some fifty of their enemies' heads, a triumph which, upon their return, they celebrated with great festivities, consisting of continual Tabagies,[23] dances, and chants, according to their custom.[24]

[108]

[45] Extrait dv Regitre de Bapteme de l'Eglise dv Port Royal en la Nouvelle France. Le iovr Sainct Iehan Baptiste 24. de Iuin.

MEMBERTOV grand Sagamos âgé de plus de cent ans a esté baptizé par Messire Iessé Fleche Pretre, & nommé Henry par Monsieur de Poutrincourt au nom du Roy.

2. Membertovcoichis (dit Iudas) fils ainé de Membertov âgé de plus de 60. ans, aussi baptizé, & nommé Lovis par Monsieur de Biencour au nom de Monsieur le Dauphin.

3. Le fils ainé de Membertoucoichis dit à present Louïs Membertou, âgé de cinq ans, baptizé & tenu par Monsieur de Poutrincourt, qui l'a nomme Iehan de son nom.

4. La fille ainée dudit Louïs âgée de treze ans aussi baptizée, & nommée Christine par ledit Sieur de Poutrincourt au nom de Madame la fille ainée de France.

5. La seconde fille dudit Louïs âgée d'onze ans aussi baptizée, & nommée Elizabeth par ledit sieur de Poutrincourt au nom de Madame la fille puisnée de France.

6. La troisieme fille dudit Louïs tenuë par ledit Sieur de Poutrincourt au nom de Madame sa femme aussi baptizée, nommée Clavde.

7. La 4. fille dudit Louïs tenuë par Monsieur de Coullogne pour Madamoiselle sa mere, a eu nom Catherine.

[110] 8. La 5. fille dudit Louïs a eu nom Iehanne ainsi nõmée par ledit sieur de Poutrincourt au nõ d'une de ses filles. [46]

9. La 6. fille dudit Louïs tenuë par René Maheu a esté nommée Charlotte du nom de sa mere.

10. Actavdinech, troisieme fils dudit Henri Membertou a esté nommé Pavl par ledit sieur de Poutrincourt au nom du Pape Paul.

11. La femme dudit Paul a esté nommée Renee du nom de Madame d'Ardanville.

12. La femme dudit Henri a esté tenuë par ledit sieur de Poutrincourt au nom de la Royne, & nommée Marie de son nom.

13. La fille dudit Henri tenuë par ledit sieur de Poutrincourt, & nommée Margverite au nom de la Royne Marguerite.

14. L'vne des femmes dudit Louïs tenuë par Monsieur de Iouï pour Madame de Sigogne, nommée de son nom.

15. L'autre femme dudit Louïs tenuë par ledit sieur de Poutrincourt au nom de Madame de Dampierre.

16. Arnest cousin dudit Henri a esté tenu par ledit sieur de Poutrincourt au nom de Monsieur le Nonce, & nommé Robert de son nom.

17. Agovdegoven aussi cousin dudit Henri a esté nommé Nicolas par ledit sieur de Poutrincourt au nom de Monsieur des Noyers Advocat au Parlement de Paris.

18. La femme dudit Nicolas tenuë par ledit sieur de Poutrincourt au nom de Monsieur son neveu, a eu nom Philippe.

19. La fille ainée d'icelui Nicolas tenuë par le dit Sieur pour Madame de Belloy sa niepce, & nommée Lovise de son nom.

[112] 20. La puis-née dudit Nicolas tenuë par ledit sieur pour Iacques de Salazar son fils, a esté nommée Iacqveline.

21. Vne niepce dudit Henri tenuë par Monsieur de Coullongne au nom de Madamoiselle de Grandmare, & nommée Anne de son nom.

LOVÉ SOIT DIEV.

[45] Extract from the Register of Baptism in the Church of Port Royal, New France. The day of Saint John the Baptist, June 24.

MEMBERTOU, a great Sagamore, over one hundred years old, has been baptized by Messire Jessé Fleche,[25] a priest; and named Henry, by Monsieur de Poutrincourt, after the late king.

2. Membertoucoichis (called Judas), eldest son of Membertou, over sixty years old, also baptized; and named LOUIS, by Monsieur de Biencour, after Monsieur the Dauphin.

3. The eldest son of Membertoucoichis, now called Louis Membertou, aged five years, baptized; Monsieur de Poutrincourt godfather, and named John, after himself.

4. The eldest daughter of said Louis, aged thirteen years, also baptized; and named Christine by Sieur de Poutrincourt, after Madame the eldest daughter of France.

5. The second daughter of the said Louis, eleven years old, also baptized; and named Elizabeth by sieur de Poutrincourt, after Madame, the youngest daughter of France.

6. The third daughter of said Louis, Sieur de Poutrincourt godfather, also baptized, and named Claude, in honor of his wife.

7. The fourth daughter of said Louis, Monsieur de Coullogne godfather, was named Catherine, after his mother.

8. The fifth daughter of said Louis was named Jeanne, thus named by sieur de Poutrincourt, after one of his daughters. [46]

9. The sixth daughter of said Louis, René Maheu godfather, was named Charlotte, after his mother.

10. Actavdinech, the third son of Henry Membertou, was named Paul by sieur de Poutrincourt, after Pope Paul.

11. The wife of said Paul was named Renée, after Madame d'Ardanville.

12. The wife of said Henry, sieur de Poutrincourt sponsor in the name of the Queen, was named Marie, after her.

13. The daughter of Henry, sieur de Poutrincourt godfather, was named Marguerite, after Queen Marguerite.

14. One of the wives of Louis, Monsieur de Jouï sponsor in the name of Mme. de Sigogne, was named after her.

15. The other wife of Louis, sieur de Poutrincourt sponsor in the name of Madame de Dampierre.

16. Arnest, cousin of Henry, sieur de Poutrincourt godfather in the name of Monsieur the Nuncio, was after him named Robert.

17. Agovdegoven, also cousin of Henry, was by sieur de Poutrincourt named Nicholas, after Monsieur de Noyers, a Lawyer of the Parliament of Paris.

18. The wife of said Nicholas, sieur de Poutrincourt godfather in the name of his nephew, was named Philippe.

19. The eldest daughter of Nicholas, the said Sieur sponsor in the name of Madame de Belloy, his niece, was after her named Louise.

20. The younger daughter of Nicholas, the said sieur being godfather for Jacques de Salazar, his son, was named Jacqueline.

21. A niece of Henry, Monsieur de Coullongne sponsor in the name of Mademoiselle de Grandmare, was after her named Anne.

PRAISED BE GOD.

II

Bertrand's Lettre Missive

Touchant la Conversion et Baptesme du grand Sagamos

Paris: JEAN REGNOUL, 1610

Source: Title-page and text reprinted from original in Lenox Library.

LETTRE MISSIVE, TOVCHANT LA Conversion et Baptesme du grand Sagamos de la nouuelle Frãce, qui en estoit auparauant l'arriuée des François le chef & souuerain.

Contenant sa promesse d'amener ses subjets à la mesme Conuersion, ou les y contraindre par la force des armes.

Enuoyée du Port Royal de la nouuelle France au S^R de la Tronchaie, dattée du 28. Iuin 1610.

A PARIS,

Chez Iean Regnovl, ruë du Foin, pres sainct Yues.

1610.

Auec permission.

A LETTER MISSIVE IN REGARD TO THE Conversion and Baptism of the grand Sagamore of New France, who was, before the arrival of the French, its chief and sovereign.

Containing his promise to secure the conversion of his subjects also, even by strength of arms.

Sent from Port Royal, in New France, to Sieur de la Tronchaie, dated June 28, 1610.

PARIS,

Jean Regnoul, Rue du Foin, near Saint Ives.

1610.

With permission.

[3] Lettre Missive, Tovchant la Conversion et [120] Baptesme du Grand Sagamos de la nouuelle France, qui en estoit auparauant l'arriuée des François chef & souuerain.

MONSIEVR & Frere, Ie n'ay voulu laisser partir le nauire sans vous faire sçauoir des nouuelles de ce païs que ie croy aurez agreables, d'autant que ie sçay, qu'estes bon Catholique, C'est que le Grand Sagamos, qui se dit en nostre langue Grand Capitaine des Sauuages, & le premier de tous, s'est fait baptiser le iour de la sainct Iean Baptiste derniere, [4] auec sa femme, ses enfans, & enfans de ses enfans, iusques au nombre de vingt: auec autant de ferueur, ardeur & zele à la Religion que pourroit faire vn qui y auroit esté instruict depuis trois ou quatre ans: Il promet faire baptizer les autres, autrement qu'il leur fera la guerre: Monsieur de Poutrincourt & Monsieur son fils les ont tenus au nom du Roy, & de Monseigneur le Dauphin. Les nouvelles de la mort du Roy n'estoiẽt encores en ce pays là. C'est desia vn beau commencement, ie croy que cy apres ce sera encores mieux: Quant au pays, iamais ie n'ay veu rien de si beau, meilleur ny plus fertile, & vous dis auec verité, & sans mentir, que si i'auois trois ou quatre Laboureurs maintenant auec moy, & [5] pour les nourrir vne année, & du bled pour ensemencer le labourage qu'ils pourroient faire de leurs bras seulement, du surplus qui me reuiendroit apres leur nourriture, i'espererois faire trafiq tous les ans de sept ou huict mille liures en Castors & Pelleterie: Ie suis bien marry auant que [122] partir que ie ne sçauois ce que ie sçay, i'eusse employé le verd & le sec ou i'en eusse amené deux ou trois, & deux muids de bled qui est peu de chose: Vous asseurant qu'il fait beau trafiquer par deçà & faire vn beau gain: Si vous voulez y entendre, mandez moy vostre volonté par ce porteur qui desire retourner & faire trafiq, suiuant ce qu'il a veu. Ie ne vous [6] en diray dauantage, sinon que ie prieray Dieu Monsieur & frere vous donner en parfaicte santé tres-longue vie. De la nouuelle France, du Port Royal ce xxviij. Iuin, 1610.

Vostre tres-affectionné Frere & seruiteur

Bertrand.

[3] A Letter Missive in regard to the Conversion and Baptism of the Grand Sagamore of new France, who was, before the arrival of the French, its chief and sovereign.

SIR and Brother, I did not wish the ship to depart without giving you some news of this country which I believe will be acceptable, as I know that you are a good Catholic. The Grand Sagamore, whom we call in our language Grand Captain of the Savages, and chief of all, was baptized on last saint John the Baptist's day; [4] with his wife, children, and children's children, to the number of twenty; with as much enthusiasm, fervor, and zeal for Religion as would have been evinced by a person who had been instructed in it for three or four years. He promises to have the others baptized, or else make war upon them. The news of the King's death had not then reached Canada.Monsieur de Poutrincourt and his son acted as sponsors for them in the name of the King, and of Monseigneur the Dauphin. We have already made this good beginning, which I believe will become still better hereafter. As to the country, I have never seen anything so beautiful, better, or more fertile; and I can say to you, truly and honestly, that if I had three or four Laborers with me now, and [5] the means of supporting them for one year, and some wheat to sow in the ground tilled by their labor alone, I should expect to have a yearly trade in Beaver and other Skins amounting to seven or eight thousand livres, with the sur plus which would remain to me after their support. I am very sorry that I did not know before my departure what I know now; if I had, I should have left no stone unturned to bring with me two or three farmers, and two hogsheads of wheat, which is a mere trifle. I assure you it is delightful to engage in trade over here and to make such handsome profits. If you wish to take a hand in it, let me know your intentions by the bearer, who desires to return and traffic here in pursuance of what he has seen. I [6] shall say no more, except to pray God to give you, Sir and Brother, a long life and perfect health. From Port Royal, New France, this 28th of June, 1610.

Your very affectionate Brother and servant,

Bertrand.

[124]

From Lescarbot's Histoire de la Novvelle France; Paris, 1612.

(Slightly reduced from original.)

[Larger image]

III-VI

Lettre du P. Pierre Biard, au T. R.-P. Claude Aquaviva

Dieppe, Janvier 21, 1611

Lettre du P. Biard, au R.-P. Christophe Baltazar

Port Royal, Juin 10, 1611

Lettre du P. Ennemond Massé, au T. R.-P. Aquaviva

Port Royal, Juin 10, 1611

Lettre du P. Biard, au T. R.-P. Aquaviva

Port Royal, Juin 11, 1611.

Source: Reprinted from Première Mission des Jésuites au Canada, by Auguste Carayon, S. J. Paris: L'Écureux, 1864.