Full text of "Pioneer priests of North America, 1642-1710"

See other formats

ALGONQUINS.

From the Hebert Group before the Palais Legislatif, Quebec.

PIONEER PRIESTS

NORTH AMERICA

1642-1710

BY THE

REV. T. J. CAMPBELL, S.J.

VOL. III.
AMONG THE ALGONQUIN'S

NEW YORK

THE AMERICA PRESS
1911

This Y< (llline of ill*'

PIOXKKR 1'RIKSTS OK NORTH AMERICA

i^ respectfully dedicated i<» th<'

RK.III RIAKRKND BMIOI> OF I'ORTLAM',

Lous SKBASTIAN WALSH. D.l>.

in whoM' diocese, on tin' banks of tin- Kcnncbec,
the vmerablc remains of

FATHEH SEBASTIAN RAM-:, s.j.,

lie buried

Nihil Obstat.

REMIGirS LAFORT. S. T. L,

Censor.

Imprimatur.

JOHN M. FARLEY, P.P.,

Archbishop of New York.

N>\v York, April 25. lyii

TAHLF OF ( OXTFXTS

Introduction

PAU. LIC JKCXE.

CM \riTu

1. Karly life — Departure for the Missions — Across \\\c
Atlantic — At Tadous<ac and (Juebec — l;n>t negro in
Canada — Learning the Language — The renegade
Amantancha — Lscape from drowning — The drunken
Pierre — In the woods — The l«>>t canoe — Tlie Sorcerer
— Le Jonne and the Oevil — Christinas — In the ice of

t he river — Return pp. i -jo

II. I-'ii>t posts — Sillerx — Xotre Dame de Reconvrancc —
Indian school — I Intel Dieu — The Jesuit College-
Death of Champlain — Ma-s on Isle Jesns — Hunting
elk — Scientific pr» >hleins pp. j i -^ \

III. Journey to I;rance— La>t six vcars in Canada— In
!•" ranee a^ain — Letter to Lmii> XI\' — Kvent< in Ne\\
Prance — Death — .M iracle> pp. ^ ;-.|j

J A. \II:.S Hl'Tia'X.

I. Shattered health — Indian brutality — Rescued xpia\v—
Savages at the Missmn — liiitenx's audacity — The jimu-
\\ hitertsh — Siller\ — The Indian drums — Case <>f C'on-

science — Inxjuois raitN pp. 4.V55

II. I j> the St. Maurice — Sleeping in the snoxv — Mirage —
Mass in the forest — Lnst on the trail — Starvation
Holy Week — At the Indian Villages — Krecting tin-
cross — Indian records of sins — Lake- Ki^agami — The
pursuing Irocpiois — Again at Three Rivers — Second
journey to the north — Slain by the Indians. . .pp. 5nW»

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES.
CHAPTER

I. The Winter hunt — Danger of blindness — The Abnaki
Sagamos — The Chaudiere — Narantsouac — Cousinoc —
Edward Winslow — The Capuchins — The trip to Moose
Head — Back to Quebec pp. 70-79

II. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction — Second winter with the
savages — The old squaw — Arrival at Tadoussac — Sec
ond journey to Narantsouac — Lost on the St. John —
The surly Etchemin — Visit to Boston as Ambassador
— Conditions in New England — John Wirislow's con-
frairic — -Major Gibbons — Darbyfield the Irishman —
Governor Dudley — Plymouth — The Fish Dinner —
Witchcraft — Endicott — John Eliot — Protestant and
Catholic Indian Missions — Burning of Eliot's book by
Order of the Court — Harvard — Return to Quebec —
Failure of the Embassy pp. 89-99

III. Starts for the Ottawa country — Death of Garreau —
Rejected by the Ottawas — At Montreal — Up the Sag-
uenay at Nekouba — Various routes to the North Sea —
With the Montagnais — Teacher of Marquette — Fol
lows Marquette to the West — Missionary at the Sault
— Massacre of the Dakotas — Dies at Quebec....

pp. 100-108

CHARLES ALBANEL.

I. Arrival in America — Life with the Montagnais — Pub
lishing the banns — With de Tracy on the Mohawk —
Resuscitation of a Chief — Pestilence at Tadoussac —
Theordore and Susanna — Off for Hudson Bay — The
Papinachois — Mass in the Woods — Prior claims of dis
covery — Lake St. John — News from the Bay — Lake Al-
banel — Reaching the Bay — First Convert — Description
of new territory — Return to Tadoussac. . . .pp. 109-126

viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER

II. Crippled in the woods — Kadisson in New York—
Escape from the Indians — Recapture — Torture — Saved
by the Dutch — Sent to France — Hack in Canada — Be
comes a voyageur — Wanderings in the West — Escape
from Onondaga — Headwaters of the Mississippi — Al
leged journey to Hudson Bay — 111 treated by Avau-
gour — Goes to England — Writes his famous book
Organizes Hudson Bay Company — Sails to the Bay-
Suspected by the English — Meets Albanel at the Bay
— Returns to French service — Albanel a prisoner in
England — Returns to America — Dies at the Sault....

pp. 1-7-140

CLAUDE ALLOUEZ.

I. Vicar General of the Northwest — The Indian Fl-
— The Battered Canoe — Deserted by the savages — Res
cued — Rejoins the flotilla — Again abandoned and res
cued — Berates the Indians — The powder keg — Super
stitious practices — Hatred of the Medicine men — On
Lake Superior — La Pointe — (Imssness of the people
— In the north woods — The Squaw and her daughter-
Leaves La Pointe pp. 147-157

II. The French Traders — Down the St. Marys — Sleeping
on the rocks — Mud and Hay Lake — Mackinac Island
— The Great Beaver — Why there are no beavers in
France — St. Francis Xavier's — The Fox River — Lake
Winnebago — First Mass — Near the Mississippi -
Joined by Dablon — The Prise </«* Possession — At I )e
Pere — Ice boating — Kaskaskia — Death pp. 158-164

JAMES MARQUETTE.

The Grave at St. Ignace— Laon— Marquette's Family
— At the end of Lake Superior — Mackinac — Joliet—
Starting for the Mississippi — Indian tribes — The Medi-

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

wiwin — The Fox — Wisconsin Portage — On the Wis
consin — Junction with the Great River — The First Vil
lage — The calumet — Hiawatha — The picture-rock —
The Missouri and Ohio — Danger — Akansea — Return
ing north — Chicago — Illinois — Mass among the Illi
nois — Dying on the road home — Buried on the hilltop
— Disinterring the bod}' — Funeral at St. Ignace —
Memorials pp. 165-183

FRANCIS DE CRESPIEUL.

The Optimist — Mass in the wigwam — Up the Sague-
nay — The Christian Esquimaux — The dead child —
Marks of the earthquake — The Repository in the forest
—Final vows — The Jeremie Islands — Helping the
wounded Albanel — Invading the King's Domain — As
sumptions of Frontenac — Death pp. 184-194

ANTHONY SYLVIE.

The fight for Hudson Bay — Iberville's Raid — Capture
of the English forts — Seizure of ships — Mathematics
at Quebec — Death pp. 195-201

ANTHONY DALMAS.

Working with Sylvie — The starving garrison — Mur
dered — Seizure of the Assassin — Defense of the fort —
Flight of the French pp. 202-204

GABRIEL MARET.

Chaplain of the fleet — Enters Hudson Bay — Caught in
the ice — Death of Chateaugai — Capitulation of the
English — The Protestant chaplain — The Poli and Sala-
mandre — Break-up of the ice — The degraded natives —
Remains in the fort — Captured by the English — The

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER

prison at Plymouth — Return^ to Anu-rica — Ann nig tin-
Illinois — Meets his brother — Death pp. jo^-ji-

PETER LAfKE.

Discovery of the manuscript — Fir>t librarian at pm-he<-
—The Grand Act — ( )1<1 Tadoussac — The King's Mo
main — Lanre's Map — Krother Malherbe's grave— Fan
tastic pebbles — The dwindling Indians — -Averse to tin
water — The marble cave — -The peaceful Montagnais
Learning the language — Mary the squaw — The Frcnch-
Indian — Laure's dictionarv— Pest fr<i:n Marsei
Bad Brow — The Seal Station— ( )rigin
niaux — Destruction of Bon de-ii" — Ask
mission — Death

I. Lake of the \\'uods — Massacre I>land — De la \\-ren
drye's dreams — Anlnean unknown — l)iso>\er\ of his
papers — The Seigneurs de la Touche — Crosses tin-
ocean — The infected ship--Thc ' irand Bank> — In the
St. Lawrence — Ship fever— Recovery — [examination in
theology — Sent to the Mandans— Spiritual gloom—
The burning forests — Fort St. C'harles-— The Indian
Hell — Devil Worship — Slain bv tlu- Sioux. .|)p. 243-250
II. Last Days of de la \Y-rcndrye — Discover} of the !\<>ck\
Mountains — Interest in old I:»>rt St. Charles- \'
tempts to discover it — FlTort of the .\rehbi>hop of St.
Boniface — A false trail — The second >earch--The luck\
accident — On the American side — I'nearthing th«-
bones — The line of palisades — The row of skulls — Tin-
coffin — Identification of Anlnean's body — The I". !
National Park .......................... pp. jf* )_''•}.

SF P. AST IAN

I. The Rale monument— New Fngland i-pinii'i
— Birthplace — A gifted linguist — Difficulties

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

gonquins — Near the Chaudiere — Indian dress and man
ners — Off for the West — Storm on Lake Huron — Star
vation — Winter at Mackinac — Indian Cosmogony —
Cremation — The cunning squaw — Among the Illinois
— Eating dog — Buffalo meat — Indian skill with the

bow — Torturing captives — Illinois Christians

pp. 265-275

II. Missionary to the Abnakis — At Narantsouac — Piety of
the Indians — Fishing for herring — A broken hip — Car
ried in a litter to Quebec — Rale's austerity — Absti
nence from meat and wine — Maple-sugar making —
The famous dictionary — Bloody wars — Origin of the
struggle — Chief Bomaseen — The tankard of liquor —
Dudley's conference — Laws against priests — Rale's ad
vice to the Indians — First attempt to capture the mis
sionary — The dolorous decade — The meeting at Ports
mouth — The Kennebec treaty pp. 275-287

III. The new church — The encroaching store-keepers —
Governor Shute — The flag and the Bible — Disputed
territory — Baxter at Old Town — Failure of the school
— Controversy with Rale — English treachery — Castine
a prisoner — Government resolutions to capture Rale —
False alarms — Westbrook's raid — Rale's escape — Star
vation — The Abnaki dictionary — Relics at Portland —
Digging up the hatchet — Sleeping Indians murdered —
Price on Rale's head — Moulton's raid — Stealthy ap
proach — Absence of warriors — Firing without warning
— Massacre of women and children — Murder of Rale —
The missionary's scalp — Desecration of the corpse — Ca
lumniating the dead — Burial of the missionary — Bene
dict Arnold's description of the grave — Subsequent
honors to Rale — The monument — The Pilgrimage —
Narantsouac a sanctuary pp. 288-308

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Algonquins

[>age.

Tadoussac To-Day ................................ 4

Father Le Jenne .................................. 21

The Lower Chaudiere ............................. 75

Hudson Bay Region .............................. KMJ

Aspamouachan Falls .............................. 1 16

Allouez's Ostensoriuni ............................. i^o

Ottawa Country .................................. inj

Marqnette's Grave ................................ iU»

Tlie Calumet ..................................... i~S

Death and Burial of Manjuette ..................... iSj

Frontenac ........................................ K;J

Le Moyne d'lherville ............................. n,-

Xorth of the Sa^iionay ........................... 205

Modern Montagnais ...............................

Massacre Island ..................................

Lake of the \Yoods and Jesuit Camp ............. j;S

Aulneau's Skull ................................... 264

Rale's Relics ...................................... 2</<;

Rale's Monument . ^07

AUTHORITIES

RELATIONS— Quebec. 1858.

RELATIONS— Thwaite's Kdition. Cleveland. 180.7.
JOURNAL DES JESU1TES— Quebec. 1871.
ROCHEMONTEIX— Les Jesuites et la Xouvelle France.

Litouzey, Paris, 1895.

ARCHIVES MSS.— St. Mary's College, Montreal.
CHARLEVOIX— Hist, de la N. France. Paris. GifTard,

1744-

SPARKS — American Biography. Boston, 1845.
HUTCHISON— History of the Colony of Massachusetts

Bay. Richardson, London, 1760.
BANCROFT— History of the United States. London.

Routledge, 1854.
CARAYON— Relations Inedites de la \. France. Dounuil.

Paris, 1861.
GARNEAU — Hist, de Canada. Beauchemin. Montreal,

1882.

PARKMAN — France and England in North America. Lit
tle, Brown & Company. Boston, 1867.
PRAT — Recherches Historiques. Briday, Lyons, 1876.
CHAPOT — Marie de 1'Incarnation. Poussielgue, Paris,

1892.

CHAPAIS— Jean Talon. Demiers, Quebec, 1004.
CARAYON— Jesuites de Paris. L Euneux, Paris. 1864.
DANIEL — Histoire de France. Paris, 1756.
GOSSELIN— Jean Nicolet.
DIONNE— Le Pere Sebastian Rale. Pamphlet. Hope et

Fils, Ottawa, 1903.
LETTRES EDIFIANTES— Bethune, Paris, 1830.

INTRODUCTION

THE name Algonquin is said to mean ''the place where
they spear fish," /'. <•., the front of the canoe. ( Hher
philologists insist that the proper interpretation of the word
is " the men on the other side of the river," namely, the St.
Lawrence. As many of the Algonquins did not live on the
other side of the river, the latter meaning may he questioned
unless it applies to those who, unlike the other branches of
the great family, retained for themselves the name Algon
quin ; those namely who lived north of the St. Lawrence
and whose stronghold was on the Allumette Island far up
the Ottawa. In the days of the missions, the Ottawa and
the St. Lawrence were regarded as the same river.

When the Algonqnins were a great nation they claimed
as their own almost all the upper regions of the North
American continent, and even out in the Atlantic there
was no one to dispute Newfoundland with them except an
inconsiderable and now forgotten people known as the
Beothuken. Cape F>reton and Prince Edward Island and
Xova Scotia and all the country from Labrador to Alaska
was theirs, except where the Esquimaux lived in the East,
the Kitunahans in the far Northwest, and the Ilurons, Pc-
tuns and Neutrals in the region near Georgian Hay. In
what is now the United States, New England was counted
as their country, and though their deadly enemy, the Iro-
quois, had somehow or other seized the greater part of New
York, yet the strip along the Hudson belonged to the Al-
gonquins, as did also New Jersey, a part of Virginia and
North Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois and Wisconsin.

Generically they \vere all Algonquin?, but each section
had assumed a different designation. It is impossible to
remember them all, and it will suffice to mention the prin
cipal ones; taking the alphabetical order in which they are

xvii

INTRODUCTION

set down in the ethnological tables. They were classified
as Abnakis, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Crees, Delawares.
Foxes, Illinois, Kickapoos, Mohicans, Massachusetts, Me-
nominees, Montagnais, Montauks, Narragansetts, Nipmucs,
Ojibways, Ottawas, Powhatans, Sacs, Shawnees, Wam-
panoags, Wappingers, etc.

Of all these tribes there are only about 95,000 left at the
present day, 35,000 of whom are in the United States and
the rest in Canada. Their number, of course, must have
been considerable in former times, but any exact estimate
of their strength can only be a matter of conjecture. As far
as we remember, no systematic Indian census was ever at
tempted, except by Fathers de Brebeuf and Jerome Lale-
mant, and they were interested only in the Hurons. But
the evident power of this great people and the extraordinary
way in which they were scattered over a vast extent of ter
ritory will easily explain why Champlain had no hesitation
about entering into alliance with them against the sixteen
or seventeen thousand Iroquois of New York, who could
easily have been destroyed if the Algonquins had been
united.

It is commonly asserted that the Algonquins were the
noblest of the North American Indians, but for those who
are familiar with their history it is hard to find any notable
difference between them and their fellow savages. When
Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence almost a hundred years
before the arrival of the missionaries, he was shocked by
the indecency of the Montagnais at Tadoussac. When Le
Jeune arrived at the time of the recouvrance, the savages
near the same place invited him to see them eat their cap
tives. One of the victims was a mere lad, whom they re
fused to sell to the horrified priest. Even the Hurons told
their boys, whom they sent clown to Quebec to be educated,
not to consort with the Algonquins; and the fiendish and
indecent torture which the squaws inflicted on an Iroquois
prisoner under the very walls of the city, warranted the ad-

xviii

INTRODUCTION

vice. It is true that the Indians north of the St. Lawrence
were of a meeker and kindlier disposition than their rela
tives elsewhere. Thus the Papinachois were well disposed
to the missionaries, as were the Whitefish whom Father
Buteux was evangelizing at Three Rivers, but that may
have been due to the poverty and wretchedness in which
they were compelled to live. They were not warriors but
wanderers in the woods, and they naturally listened to men
like the missionaries, who were interested in their welfare.
The trouble was that they had no fixed habitations like the
Iroquois or Hurons, and thus, while being always an easy
prey to their enemies, they were absolutely shut off from
any possibility not only of learning any of the textile arts,
but of even acquainting themselves with the most funda
mental notions of agriculture. They always remained
savage. The same was true for the Algonquins in the
West. Although they were not confronted by the hard con
ditions of climate which made life miserable for their breth
ren on the St. Lawrence, nevertheless Marquctte found
some of them at Green Bay too stupid to make a dish or
to scoop out a ladle. They were all worshippers of the
manitou. Most of them were shameless in their immoral
ity, and were just as cruel as the Iroquois in their treat
ment of captives, though their hereditary foes are credited
with having taught them these practices.

The fact that they were nomads prevented the mission
aries in the beginning from attempting to Christianize
them. It was simply impossible to follow them in their
wanderings. A priest would be needed for every group of
Indians. For that reason, when the missionaries were few
in number, no systematic effort was made to convert them,
and both Recollects and Jesuits concentrated their energies
on the Huron tribes who lived in fortified towns and culti
vated the fields. Hence it was that de Brebeuf, although
he passed his first winter in America among the Algon
quins, did so only because he was unsuccessful in reaching

xix

INTRODUCTION

the Huron country. Before that, Biard and Masse had en
deavored to get in touch with the Souriquois or Micmacs
of Acadia, and with the Etchemins of Maine, but without
any great result. When the missions were resumed after the
restoration of Quebec, Le Jeune went out on the winter hunt
with the Algonquins, so as to learn their language and
to teach them some of the elements of Christianity, but he
found all his efforts useless. It was only when the Reser
vation at Sillery was begun that some good was effected.
Thither the Abnakis of Maine came in great numbers and
thus prepared the way for the work on the Kennebec and
elsewhere. Father Buteux also, as we have said, had some
success with his Whitefish Indians, who willingly flocked
around him at Three Rivers, but left him as soon as there
was any fear of the Iroquois. Hence it was only in 1649,
when there were no more Hurons to evangelize, that the
Fathers were, so to say, compelled to direct their efforts to
the Indians north of the St. Lawrence. It was almost in
spite of themselves that they entered upon one of the most
heroic though not perhaps the most brilliant period of their
apostolic labors.

The work began with the journey of Dablon and Druil-
lettes up the Saguenay and Aspamouachan as far as Ne-
kouba ; then came the heroic Albanel, who was the first to
reach Hudson Bay by an overland route. He made the
journey twice, but on the second expedition he was seized
and sent as a prisoner to England. De Crespieul, Sylvie
and Maret then entered upon the scene. The saintly Father
Laure underwent eighteen years of terrible suffering on the
Saguenay, and descended every winter to the Gulf of St.
Lawrence in pursuit of the Betsamites and the Papinachois,
striving at the same time, but without success, to establish
a post among the degraded Esquimaux.

Meantime, the Western country was opened up by the
explorers, and in 1654 Garreau was murdered by the Iro
quois when he was endeavoring to reach the Ottawa coun-

INTRODUCTION

try. Claude Alloucz succeeded him and founded the
missionary post of St. Esprit at the further end of Lake
Superior. In 1073 Marquettc discovered the Mississippi
and thus the Illinois Indians came under the influence of
the missionaries. The priest who had pone furthest in tin-
western wilderness was John Aulneau, who was killed by
the Sioux on a barren island in the Lake of the Woods. A
short time before. Rale had fallen under the bullets of the
English in the Abnaki village on the Kennebec.

The story of the Algonquin missions is not as tragic as
that of the Hurons; but it is safe to say it is just as heroic.
Especially in the North and Last, the work was absolutely
devoid of every natural comfort. It was in a region of al
most uninterrupted ice and snow except for a very brief
part of the year. The journeys were over frozen lakes and
down ice-clogged cataracts. The pangs of hunger and star
vation were almost an every day experience, and the mis-
'sionaries frequently made their beds in the snow drifts;
their daily tramp was often waist deep in icy water or in
driving storms, and when they were shivering behind the
wretched bark shelters in the forests or on the slopes of
mountains, it was only to exchange their sufferings outside
with the torturing smoke of the fire and the inconceivable
filth of the people who swarmed into their cabin with them.
It was a life of uninterrupted horror.

There is some relief in the narration in the fact that sev
eral of these old missionaries were identified with the great
events of the day. Thus Albanel was sent to find Ra-
clisson at the North Sea. Sylvie and Maret and Dalmas
were in the wild raids of Iberville; Marquette was with
Joliet in the discovery of the Mississippi; Druillettes was
the envoy of Quebec to the magnates of Boston, and the
death of Rale was the end of a fight for the possession of
the State of Maine.

Only a few of the heroic men who devoted their lives
to the conversion of the Algonquin Indians have been men-

xxi

INTRODUCTION

tioned in this volume. There are many others of whom no
records are kept, except that like true soldiers they never
flinched in the fierce battle which they had set for them
selves to save the souls of those degraded savages. We
shall know more of them in heaven.

xxn

PAUL LE JEUNE

CHATTER I.
WINTERING WITH THF. SAVAGES.

The distinguished historian of New York, Dr. OVal-
laghan, calls Le Jeune "the Father of the Canadian Mis
sions." He was so in fact, and the reasons <>f tliis distinc
tion are as follows: (i) When Canada was restored to tin-
French, he was selected as Superior. (2) It was he who
rebuilt the dilapidated residence and church of Notre Dame
des Anges. He established the first parish of Quebec, that
of Notre Dame de Recouvrance. (4) He organized the
missions of Miscou. Tadoussac, and Three Rivers. (5) He
conceived the idea of Sillery as an Algonquin Reservation.
(6) He instituted a native school for Indian boys, and
prompted Marie de 1'Incarnation to undertake the education
of Indian girls. (7) He founded the College of One-bee,
and suggested to Cardinal Richelieu's niece, the Duclie^e
d'Aiguillon, to build the first hospital in Canada, the Hotel
Dieu of Quebec.

As far as we are aware, he was the only one of the early
missionaries who was a convert from Protestantism. He
was born at Chalons-sur-Marne, in July, 1591, and when still
a young man he became a Catholic in spite of the bitter
opposition of his family. He entered the Society of Jesus
at Rouen, September 22. 1613; studied philosophy at La
Fleche, was professor at Rennes, Bourges and Xevers, and
then followed the four years' course of theology at Clermont.
The famous Louis Lalemant was his spiritual guide in the
Tertianship, and after that we find him teaching rhetoric,
and preaching at Dieppe, and subsequently presiding over

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

the Residence of that place. He was occupying that posi
tion when the question began to be mooted about resus
citating the missions of Canada, if ever the colony were re
stored to France.

At first there was no thought of entrusting the work
to the Jesuits. They were already too influential in France
to suit Richelieu's taste. He would brook no rival at
court, and for that reason was unfriendly to Father
Coton, whom he proposed to attach to the French
embassy at London. Coton was too near the throne.
The scheme was thwarted by the Father General Vitel-
leschi, who made Coton, Provincial of Paris. A similar
apprehension made the Cardinal extremely suspicious of
the young king's confessor, Father Suffren, and hence
every movement of that very worthy mai? who, on his part,
never dreamed of meddling in State affairs, was carefully
watched. It also happened that at the same time two some
what defamatory pamphlets were published ; one the Mys-
teria Politica, and the other Commendatio ad Christianissimum
Regent, both aimed at Richelieu. They were ascribed to
Jesuit authorship. Finally the Cardinal's great friend and
advisor at the time was the Capuchin Joseph, son eminence
grise, as he was called, of whom the Cardinal used to say :
" Aucun ministre ou plenipotentiaire en Europe n'etait capable
de faire la barbe a ce Capucin " (no minister or plenipoten
tiary in Europe could get the better of that Capuchin).

Naturally, therefore, because of Friar Joseph's influence,
the Capuchins were chosen for the work in America ; but
they declined the offer and suggested the Jesuits or Recol
lects, who had already labored on those missions. As the
authorities, however, had already determined to take only
one religious order, so as to keep clear of those little mis
understandings which sometimes occur even among holy
men, the Jesuits were selected and letters patent were im
mediately sent to Fathers Le Jeune, Anne de Noue, and
Brother Gilbert Buret empowering them to take possession

PAl L LK JKt'NK

ol their former establishments, and resume their work of
evangelizing the savages.

The Fathers had all alung expected that such \vuuld he
the issue, and were ready when the call came. Indeed,
although Le Jeune and his companions were informed of
the Cardinal's decision, only at the end of March, they
were on board the ship, at H<mtleur, < m April iS, lo^j.

Unfortunately this choice annoyed the Recollects. They
admitted that they could not have set out for America with
such little time to prepare, but thev asked to go later on.
They were refused ; but what was most exasperating in
this arrangement was that it was the Intendant de Lauson
himself, though owing his position to their influence, who
told them they were not wanted. Some unpleasant things
were written by the Recollect historians Le Clcrcq and Le
Tac on the subject, and the Jesuits were accused «if working
underhand to exclude the Friars; but of course tho>e ac
cusations were only the expression of a temporary irritation.
Indeed it is clear, when one examines the documents pub
lished at the time, that there was no desire to debar the men
who had really been the first missionaries of ('anada. and
had displayed the greatest heroism during fifteen years of
apostolic labor. Fortunately the first missionaries had de
parted before these charges had been made. Tin' weather
was fair when they left Honfieur and " in ten days," says
Le Jeune, " we sailed six hundred leagues." which was cer
tainly rapid travelling for a clumsy vessel of those times;
but the thirty-three following days made the unfortunate
passengers pay for their previous enjoyment.

" I have often beheld the sea in its fury, when I looked
out of the window of our little house at Dieppe," writes Le
Jeune, " but it is quite another thing to be tossing on the
ocean than it is to gaze at it from the shore. We had to go
before the wind for a long time and were lifted on the crest
of mountainous waves, only to be flung into yawning
abysses. Every moment we thought our masts would go by
the board, or that the waves would crash through the sides

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

of the vessel. At one time, at least a sailor told us so, we
came very near going to the bottom. We found then how
easy it is to meditate on death in one's room while kneeling
before the crucifix, but how hard when one is at close quar
ters with it. But I must confess that I was indifferent; and
perhaps I had a slight desire to die. It may be if the actual
moment arrived I might have thought differently, but in any
case I concluded that the best I could do was to offer my life
for the crew.

" It was then the end of the month of May, but the wind
and the fog made us shiver with cold. Father Noue's feet
were frozen, and for a whole month I was troubled with
pains of the heart and head. There was no fresh water on
board, and in our little cabins, where we could neither stand,
nor sit, nor kneel, the sea sometimes poured down on our
faces when we stretched ourselves out for a rest.

" On Pentecost Sunday I was just about to preach when
a sailor cried out monte! morue! codfish ! codfish ! Every one
hurried to the sides of the vessel and without difficulty
hauled in all they wanted. It was a pleasure to see such a
slaughter and so much blood bespattering our deck. We
needed this change of diet after the terrible squalls we had
encountered."

He saw Newfoundland on the i8th of May. The ice
bergs glittering in the sun seemed like churches or rather
like mountains of crystal. " You could not believe it," he
says, " unless you saw it." Bird Island was sighted on
June 3. The whales, the seals, and the white porpoises
all passed before his delighted eyes, and at last the ship
cast anchor in Gaspe Bay, where they met two other
French vessels. Mass was celebrated in the cabin of one
of them, and a sermon was preached. Very appropriately
the Gospel of the day was " Go forth and teach all nations."

On June I4th they arrived at Tadoussac, and a Sagamo
and ten Indians came to meet them. The natives had put on
their paint for the occasion, and the priest wondered as he
looked at them. Some of them had made their noses blue,
and the eyes and cheeks black, while the rest of the face was
vermillion; others had glittering streaks of red, from the

PAUL LE JEUNE

ears to the mouth ; others again appeared with the face all
black except the ears and the chin ; or there would he some
with bands of color across the eyes and running from car to
ear. The natural hue of their skin he thought was like that
of the sunburned beggars in France, and he ventured the
opinion that if their bodies were clothed, they would be
white. The men, he said, were dressed like St. John the
Baptist, though the leathern girdle was usually the entrail
of some animal. Like the ancient philosopher they \\nri-
nothing that they did not make, but as it was all very simple
he suggests that it would not take many years to become
an accomplished native tailor.

While at Tadoussac he was treated to the horrid spec
tacle of the torture of three Iroquois captives, one a lad of
only fifteen or sixteen years of age. In vain he begged them
to cease, and offered to buy the boy, but they refused, and
he noted that the women were the most fiendish and the
most indecent in the means they employed to make the vic
tims suffer. The captives were to be eaten, and he wa>
asked to stay for the feast.

Of course he did not accept the invitation, but started
up the river with his companions. They were not far on
their way when a frightful squall nearly sent them to the
bottom. Within four leagues of Quebec another tempe-t
compelled them to drop their anchor, but the cable parted.
and they came near being driven on shore, especially when a
second anchor shared the same fate. At last the storm
ceased when they were within three quarters of a league
of Quebec.

The city was in a deplorable condition. Champlain's
" habitation " near the fort had been burned, and the stone
work that had once supported the timbers was in ruins. The
Jesuits' house on the St. Charles was uninhabitable, as was
the old Recollect convent near by. Only one family had
remained in the city — the Heberts. who were just on the
point of abandoning their possessions and returning to

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

France. Mass was celebrated in their house, and a Te Deum
was sung in thanksgiving for the recouvrance. The next
day, Thomas Kerk, the English-Frenchman who had re
mained in charge of the fort since its capture, was formally
visited and shown the treaty between France and England.
He agreed to withdraw within a week, which he did to the
delight of everyone, as even his own retainers complained of
his brutality.

When the English had departed, Le Jeune betook him
self to the dilapidated dwelling on the St. Charles, and did
what he could to patch it up. Being a very observant man
he naturally began to make careful notes of everything
he saw. Sometimes he appears to be talking about mere
trifles, but no doubt they were invested with much impor
tance for him, as well as for the people in France for whom
they were intended. If nothing else they are at least an
excellent mirror of his impressions, and help us to know the
man. They are also a valuable picture of conditions that
prevailed among the savages along the St. Lawrence at
that time. Their religious ideas, their superstitions, their
belief in dreams, their dress, their marriage, their domestic
habits, etc., are all carefully set down. While being very
precious from an ethnological point of view, they also help
us to understand the religious difficulty that confronted the
missionaries.

His first care was to study the language. He had al
ready made an offer at it, on the way over, by poring over
a book, but he complains that it was full of blunders. He
appealed to the interpreter Marsolet to assist him, but that
worthy assured him that he had taken an oath not to reveal
the secrets of the Indian language to any one. This singu
larly scrupulous individual was the same man who had
been found by Champlain among Kerk's soldiers at the
capture of Quebec, though he protested that he had been
made a prisoner by the English and was on the wrong side
in spite of himself.

PAFF FF JEt'XK

Thus thwarted. Fe Jeune had recourse to the children
as teachers. To his ama/ement he found among them a
little negro who had come irom Madagascar, and had
been sold to a colonist by one of the Fnglish traders. He
was the first of his color to appear among the snows <>f
Canada, and of course Fe- Jeune soon made him spiritually
white by bapti/ing him.

lie learned very little from his youthful instructors, and
was at his wits' end, when hope came at last. An educated
Indian who spoke French appeared on the scene. lie was an
Algonquin who had been sent to France and had been bap
tized there will1 great ceremony, having had most dis
tinguished people for his sponsors. P>ut Pierre, as he wa>
called, is an early and notable example of the futility of en
deavoring to make a Fumpean out of an Indian. The
leopard had not changed his spots.

Unfortunately Pierre had remained at Quebec while it
was in the possession of the Fnglish. They quickly dissi
pated what Catholic faith there was in him, and taught him
everything evil. He soon became a hard drinker and by
the time the French returned he was again a savage. I'.e-
ing a clever fellow, however, he immediately made court to
bis former friends, and was established in the household of
de Caen, who in the interval between tin- restoration and
Champlain's arrival was in charge ot the colony. Indeed,
so well educated was Pierre, that de Caen admitted him
to his table, and used him as intermediary in all important
transactions with the Indians. lie soon quarrelled with
his benefactor, however, and was dismissed, whereupon he
addressed himself to du Plessis, the commander of the Fleet.

But du Plessis would have nothing to do with him, for
Pierre's moral record was now known, and so Father Fe
Jeune gladly took him in. hoping to bring about the poor
wretch's reformation while using him as a teacher in the
Indian language. Rut it was all in vain. Pierre would
never teach the priest a single word without a correspond-

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

ing compensation in tobacco, although he was being lodged
and fed in the house. Soon he began to give false meanings
to certain words, in order to make the instructions to the
children ridiculous. It was clear now that he had lost all
belief in Christianity, and, that fact, along with his drunk
enness and immorality made his dismissal imperative. We
shall find him again as the evil genius of the missionary
during a winter's experience which Le Jeune was soon to
have among the Indians.

Later on, another native appeared who it was hoped
would be useful in many ways, but, unfortunately, he was
not available as an interpreter, for he was a Huron. He
also had been sent abroad and had been very well instructed,
but, like the Algonquin, he had become a moral wreck
during the English occupation. However, he had not lost
his faith. He was known as Amantancha, or Louis de Ste.
Foy. After some time, Father Le Jeune induced him to
resume the practices of Christianity, and, with the excep
tion of a few lapses, Amantancha continued to be a great
help to de Brebeuf and the other missionaries in the Huron
country. He was captured at one time by the Iroquois, but
succeeded in returning to his own people, and, thanks to
his good example and instructions, he brought his whole
family to the Faith.

Besides laboring with the Indian children Le Jeune had
the white people of the colony to look after, and this branch
of his ministry came near putting an end to his career.
Some one fell sick on the ship, which was anchored out in the
river. Le Jeune hurried to bring him the ministrations of
religion, but in leaving the vessel the canoe in which he was
returning upset, and he and his man found themselves
floundering in the waves of the St. Lawrence. " It was
twenty-four years since I had my last swim," he wrote
afterwards, " and I never was very much at it, but as the
canoe was going down, I determined to strike out. I had
only gone a short distance when my cassock got around

PAUL LE JEUXE

my head, and I sunk. The sailors were shouting 'Help!
help ! ' but no boat on the vessel could be lowered to my
assistance. Fortunately some one on shore heard me scream
ing and started out in a shallop. It arrived just in time-.
A part of my cassock was yet visible, and my rescuer sei/ed
it and hauled me out. Another 'Our Father' and 1 was
gone. As it was, they had a great deal of trouble in bring
ing me to."

In May, 1^33, Champlain arrived. Everyone was happy.
for it was feared that de Caen, who was a Huguenot, might
be assigned to the post. With Champlain were de Rrebcuf,
de Xoue, Davost, and Daniel. Xo one felt happier than
Le Jcunc at the splendid reinforcement. He was now de
termined to make an effort to pa^ a winter among his
Montagnais, for he saw it was unavoidable, if ever he was
to learn their language. The Hurous had come in from the
west, but in spite of the efforts of Champlain and the elo
quence of de Rrcbetif they refused to take the missionaries
back with them on the journey home. So, leaving the four
Jesuits to look after things in Quebec, Le Jeune set out with
his Montagnais to pass the winter in the forest.

He was not acting blindly. He knew perfectly well all
the horrors of an Indian wigwam: its filth; its indecency;
its sufferings; its dangers. There was even a very great
likelihood of his never returning alive, but the attempt had
to be made, otherwise he would be forever dumb among
the neophytes. Fortunately he kept a fairly exact diary of
what occurred, though it is surprising how he did it. It
presents us with a tableau of the Indian life in one of its
worst aspects. Some idea of it may be of service in helping
us to estimate the character of the man who dared to face
its horrors and privations.

He was very much annoyed at that time by a disreputa
ble savage, a handsome and intelligent fellow, but who had
completely wrecked his health by his immorality, and who
moreover pretended to be a sorcerer. He had clone all he

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

could to discredit Le Jeune in the eyes of the Indians, and
hearing of the proposed winter expedition he determined
to be one of the party, but Le Jeune stubbornly persisted
that he was not to be accepted, and exacted a promise to
that effect, which, of course, the Indians did not keep. A
lie never troubled the red man.

The day of the departure arrived. Le Jeune loaded
into the canoe a barrel of bread, a sack of meal, some ears
of corn, and a supply of prunes and turnips. That was to
serve through the winter with what ever else could be
picked up. He was urged very strongly to take with him
a small cask of wine, but he stoutly refused, for he was
afraid that some one would get drunk, but as they all sol
emnly promised not to touch it without his permission he
consented ; but he regretted it afterwards. Finally, on Oc
tober 18, he bade good-bye to Champlain, who strongly
recommended the Indians to take care of him. The chief
in command of the expedition promised that if the Father
died, he himself would never be seen in his tribe again.
There was some comfort in that, though the Frenchmen who
had come down to the river bank to see them off were full
of gloomy forebodings, as the shallop and canoe left the
shore. Le Jeune was the only white man among twenty
Indians — men, women, and children.

It was ten o'clock in the morning; the wind and tide
were favorable, and they passed the Isle d'Orleans, and
reached a place which the enthusiastic missionary found
to be wonderfully beautiful. There the camp was pitched,
and while Mestigoit, the Indian who was responsible for
Le Jeune, took his gun and started out to shoot something
for supper, the squaws busied themselves in putting up the
hut. Everybody was working except Pierre, the Gallicized
Indian, whom Le Jeune from that out designates as the
apostate. He was watching, and saw his chance. He made
for the cask of wine in the boat and drank and drank till
he was stupidly drunk. Then, after first tumbling into the

PAUL LE JEUNE

river and nearly drowning himself, lie staggered into the
camp howling like a demon and proceeded to tear down
the hut. The squaws in alarm tied to the woods. Me^ti-
goit had returned meantime with some birds and was boil
ing them in the pot over the tire, when Pierre rolled up
towards him, threw down the pole on which the pot was
hanging, and upset the contents in the ashes.

Mestigoit, however, showed no sign of anger, but quietlv
picked up the birds, and proceeded to wash them in the river.
while Pierre, now foaming at the mouth, made after the
women who had returned to gather up some of their traps.
They decamped again and he pursued them into the woods.
It was now dark night, and after a while the furious man
returned, attracted by the glare of the tire, and tried to
upset the pot again, but his loving brother Mestigoit an
ticipated him and flung the scalding water in hi- fare.
That did not altogether sober him, but at least it diverted
his fury for a moment from the pot and he made another
assault on the hut. which be now completely demolished.
At this stage Le Jeune approached to calm him, although
the Indian was looking for an axe to kill somebody. " 1 )on't
be afraid." he stammered out : "it is not for you. but for
somebody else. You and I ought to go home: you don't
know these people. They don't care for you at all. They
only want to feed on you."

The advice was not taken, of course, and. leaving the un
fortunate wretch to himself, for it was useless to talk to him,
the priest went off to the woods to sleep, stretching himself
on a pile of leaves far enough away not to hear the drunken
man's shouts.

" Such," he said, "was my first lodging; under the light
of the moon ; and in this wise was I inducted into this
savage academy for the study of their language. Rain came
on after a while, but it did not last long, and next morning I
found that my bed, which had not been made since the cre
ation of the world, was not as hard as I fancied it would be."

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

The first thing he did on awakening was to empty the
barrel of wine in the river, in spite of the protests of the
Indians.

" Pierre has no sense," they said, " we will not touch
it"; " but I stuck to my resolution," says Le Jeune, "of
making this contribution to the river, lest a little wine
might make us drink a good deal of water; for if they all
got drunk the St. Lawrence would swallow us up.

" That night, under the brilliant moonlight," he con
tinues, " we reached White Duck Island. It was well
named. I saw a thousand of these fowl in a single flock.
There was no one living there. It was only a stopping place
for our roaming savages; but a painter would have been
delighted to be seated on its high and jagged rocks, crowned
with cedars and pines and a variety of other kinds of trees
with which art seemed to have had something to do in
planting them on the edges of those gloomy and beetling
crags which towered above the bays and swamps, that
were swarming with game."

Another day's journey brought them to a barren rock,
where they could scarcely find saplings big enough to build
their hut. They had had nothing to eat all day, except a
biscuit, and there was no water to drink, for the St. Law
rence is brackish there. Wind and rain penetrated the mis
erable shelter, and during the night the storm carried off
their shallop and then their little bark canoe. The travellers
were thus left on a barren island. Instead of getting angry,
however, the Indians began to laugh, and when the priest
showed some annoyance the chief said : "Don't worry,
Nicanis, my beloved, worry brings sadness, and sadness
sickness." The missionary remembered the lesson forever
afterwards.

When morning dawned, they saw the boats a long dis
tance off on the rocks, and when the tide was out, they were
able to recover them. Though they expected to find them
badly shattered they were, on the contrary, comparatively
uninjured. But it was impossible to leave the rock on ac-

PAUL LE_JEITNE

count of the storm, and OIK- night while they were there.
and all the men but one were uwav, a squaw ran into the
wigwam screaming that she had seen the devil and that he
was outside. Le Jeune went out to interview his Satanic
Majesty, but he saw nothing and though he shouted at tin-
top of his voice defying him to put in an appearance,
nothing occurred, and the terrified squaws were tranquil
lized. When the braves returned, they heard with amaze
ment of the audacity of the white man. His intlneiiee was
supreme after that, but the sorcerer, who was to ruin all his
work, had not yet arrived.

"On the 30th of October," says Le Jeune. "we reached
an island with a name larger than itself. Indeed I think
that the savages coin these appellations on the spur of the
moment." There was not a tree of any size on it, and that
night, the few pine branches they could gather scarcelv
covered the snow on which they had to stretch themselves.
It was on that barren rock that the evil genius of the expe
dition, the sorcerer, found them. "To think of it," says
Le Jeune ruefully, " he came on the Feast of All Saints."

His arrival inaugurated a succession of feasts \\hich were
celebrated with as much assurance of the future as "if all the
beasts that had to be hunted for in the woods were safely
housed in stalls near by." Le Jeune attempted a spcerh at
one of the banquets, and was laughed at uproariously, for
his knowledge of the language was as yet very elementary.
"Wait till I can speak," he said, "and I shall tell you plenty
of things that will make you listen/' and he contrived some
how or other to put questions to them about the natural
phenomena, which they confessed they could not answer.

At another revel there was a theological battle with
the sorcerer and it is curious how that wild man of the
woods was puzzling over the same objections against the
existence of God and the necessity of belief as the learned
philosophers of civilized countries. Le Jeune begged the
apostate Algonquin Pierre to help him out with his explan-

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

ations and proofs, but the surly wretch, who could have been
of great assistance, refused to open his mouth.

It was now the I2th of November, and leaving their two
boats on the little island, the party struck out into the woods
in search of game. There they remained till April 22nd,
camping in twenty-three different places, on high moun
tains and deep valleys, in woods and in swamps, but always
in the snow. There were lakes, and ponds, and rivers to
cross; all of them, however, were solid ice. Some other In
dians had meantime joined them, making forty-two persons
all told, who found shelter in the three wigwams. In Le
Jeune's there were nineteen inmates. Camp was shifted as
soon as the game was exhausted, and the party started on its
journey with a mouthful to eat if there was anything to be
had, but often passing whole days with nothing at all.

Men, women, and children put their packs on their
backs, and with their long toboggans tramped from morn
ing to night in the snow. If there was a thaw they were
often up to their waists in icy water. Le Jeune tried to
build the huts with the others, but he was so stiff with cold
that he could scarcely move, and had to wait till the fire
was made. The savages who were sweating at their work
could not understand why he suffered, nor why he was
unable to carry a heavy load on the trail. Even he felt
ashamed of himself when he saw a poor sick squaw, car
ried on a stretcher, wait patiently in the snow for hours
until the wigwam was made, without ever showing a sign
of impatience.

At one of these stations, while supper was being pre
pared, the sorcerer suddenly sprung to his feet and an
nounced with a loud shout that his senses had left him.
At times he yelled with all the power of his lungs, and
stopped short as if frightened ; he laughed, and cried, and
sang without measure or meaning; he hissed like a ser
pent and howled like a wolf ; he was an owl and a wildcat ;
his eyes rolled in his head, and he groped around him as if

PAt'L LK J El 'NT-
he wanted to seize something. Le Jeune expected lu be
struck at any moment, but he kept his eyes on the maniac,
or sometimes quietly read hi> book or wrote while Illeg
alities were going on. He even stretched himself out on the
ground and pretended to sleep.

The next night the same performance was repeated. " 1
thought perhaps," sa\ s the priest, " that it wa> the delirium
of a fever, and 1 went over and felt his pulse, lie glared
at me astounded, and began to mil his eyes wildly. 1 then
passed my hand over his forehead and found him as c«>ld
as a fish, and as far from a fever as 1 was fmin France.
He was shamming. It wa> all put on to get his staring
companions to give him out <»f pity the be>t food thev had."

The poor missionary tried his best tmm time to time to
talk to the sick squaw, who wa- sinking rapidly. \<> duuht
he would have put some good thoughts in her mind, but
whatever he said or did was thuarted bv his enemv the
sorcerer. Finally the poor woman was either killed or
abandoned in the woods. She disappeared mysteriously
in the night and Le Jeune never saw her again, lie tried
to bring the magician himself to a sense of better things,
and the miserable fellow agreed to throw awav his con
juror's drum and the other implements ol his profession, if
Le Jeune would cure him of the disease that was hurrying
him to the grave; but his desire of Christianity went no
further, and entreaties, expostulations, and explanations
were lost on him.

Hy this time they were opposite Tadmissac. mid as there
was nothing to eat, the savages invited each other to a least
of tobacco. They were so addicted to the weed that not
only was the pipe in their mouth the first thing in the morn-
ning, and the last at night, but if they awoke from their
sleep their hand went out instinctively to their tobacco
pouch. The missionary had a supply of tobacco with him.
but not for himself. It was a tuition fee to his professors for
helping him in his study of the native speech.

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

About this time he lost himself in the woods, which was
bad enough, but he barely escaped being killed by the sav
ages because a little boy who had followed him on a false
trail failed to reach the camp along with him. Fortunately
the child was discovered in time by two squaws who went
out to look for him.

It was Christmas Day and the savages, now on the verge
of starvation, implored him to do something. By dint of
persuasion he induced the apostate Indian to translate a
little prayer into the language of the people, and the next
morning he built an altar in the cabin, decorated it as best
he could with a crucifix, a reliquary, and picture he had in
his breviary. He then, with the help of his interpreter, ex
plained to the Indians that he wanted them to ask God to
assist them. Kneeling down, he made them all repeat
the prayer after him. Only the sorcerer refused. But all
were astonished when they heard the priest make the offer
ing of his own life to God if He would deign to come to the
aid of the suffering people. " No, don't say that," they
cried ; "we all love you." At last even the sorcerer joined
in the prayer. When the prayer was over all the men
started out on the hunt, and at evening came back loaded
with game. Only the apostate was unsuccessful, and he
disgusted the priest by saying that there was no need of
prayer after all, for the animals were there if the people
had known enough to go out to hunt for them.

Le Jeune had passed triumphantly through the period
of famine with unimpaired health. Nor did the fresh meat
of the moose and elk disagree with him ; but the filthy dried
beef he had to subsist on at one time brought on a sick
ness that did not leave him for three weeks after he had
returned to civilization. The sorcerer was delighted to see
him fall ill. " It is the manitou that is afflicting you," he
said, " for mocking at him." Over and over again the
taunt was repeated till the people began to believe it. The
priest could bear it no longer and starting up from his

PALL LE JEUNE

miserable couch, he cried out: "Come, manitou ! Conic,
devil! Kill me if you have the power. 1 defy you. I scorn
you and do not fear you. You have no power over those
who believe and love God. Come, kill me if vour hands
are free, but you have more fear of me than 1 have of you."

The sorcerer stood aghast. "Why do you call him — do
you want him to kill you'" " Xo. hut 1 want to let you
know that he has no power over those who adore the true
God, and to let you see he is not the cause of this sickness.
It is the meat and nothing else." The medicine man held
his peace after that and soon left the party. I'.ut poor Le
Jeune felt his limbs becoming paraly/ed from lying on the
icy ground. lie finally succeeded in purchasing a small
piece of elkskin from a squaw. It was only half long
enough, but it kept off the chill to some extent.

On the 4th of April they were back again on the little
island where they had left their boat, and on the 5th Le
Jeune and Mestigoit started up the river for Quebec. It had
to be done, for the priest's strength had given out, and it
would never do to return to the city with the news that he
was dead. With him was the unfortunate apostate. That
journey was a fitting climax of the winter's expedition.

The weather was still very cold, and a little up the
stream they found a thin coat of ice on the river, but Mes
tigoit broke it with his paddle as they went along. They
had, however, miscalculated its thickness or forgot the con
dition of their bark canoe. A cake of ice cut through the
bow and " the water poured into the boat and fear into our
hearts." says Le Jeune. "We made for an island which
was fortunately near by, I bailing and the Indians paddling.
\Ye reached the shore; the red men lifted their boat out of
the water, turned it upside down, struck fire with their flint,
and very deftly mended the break in the bark with some gum
which they found on the trees, and in a very short time the
canoe was afloat again and we were on our way as if noth
ing had happened. ' If the break had been a little bigger

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

we were lost,' said the Indian. ' Well, why not remain on
shore till the river is clear? ' he was asked. ' Oh, that thin
ice is nothing,' was the answer."

About three in the afternoon there was plenty of ice
thick enough to satisfy the most confident Indian. It
stretched clean across the river for three or four leagues,
but there was a break in it and thither the canoe was
directed. It was a perilous trick, for the boat had to wriggle
to the right and the left, to avoid the huge pieces which a
gust of wind might at any moment hurl against the frail
bark, and crush.it like corn under a mill-stone. Finally,
aware of the danger, the Indians jumped from cake to
cake, like squirrels on the trees, and pushed the boat away
from them. Le Jeune remained in the canoe. He was too
weak to move. They thus kept up the battle till five o'clock
and then went ashore, where they ate a little dried beef,
lighted a fire, and lay down at the foot of a tree and went
to sleep.

Early next morning they started out again. The tide
had carried off the heavy ice to the other side of the river,
but the wind arose and as the canoe began to dance too reck
lessly on the waves the travellers had to land again. There
was another night of cold and exposure on the bleak shore
under the canoe, and the next night the same thing was
repeated. Meantime the provisions were giving out, and
the two Indians started out to hunt for food. Mestigoit
shot a partridge, and that served as breakfast, dinner, and
supper for all three. The fierce winds kept them prisoners
there for another day and a night. Their bed was the bare
ground, but it was better than being caught on some barren
island without even wood to make a fire. There was some
comfort in that thought.

While the two Indians were out hunting, and the Father
was alone on the rocks, the sun suddenly came from behind
the clouds, the wind subsided, and the river became smooth.
Now was the time to make head up the stream. As he lifted

PAUL LE JEUNE

his eyes he saw the two redskins making like deer fur the
river. Le Jeune knew what it meant and he hurried down
with his traps to the canoe, and in a few minutes the boat
was skimming like a bird over the surface of the St. Law
rence. At ten o'clock that night they were at the end of
the Isle d'Orleans, only six miles from home. They had not
eaten a bite that day, hut it was impossible to go any far
ther, for the tide was running out, and they could not cross
the river to the St. Charles, so they ran into a little cove,
lighted a fire on tlu- beach, and went to sleep. At midnight
the tide changed, and there was a bright moonlight. Both
wind and tide made the canoe scud rapidly on its way, but
when they reached the St. Charles they found ice every
where; huge blocks of it were piled upon the shore and
battering against each other, threatening to crush the
canoe if it ventured near. So they had to put about and face
the incoming tide. It is in such circumstances that the skill
of the savage displays itself. Mestigoit stood in the bow.

" I could see him in the obscurity (for the moon had
gone down) as he stiffened his sinews in the struggle with
death," says Le Jeune. " lie steadied the frail bark in the
midst of waves that might have swamped a ship. ' Make
for Quebec, Xicanis,' 1 cried, \\ben we doubled SailoiV
Point, around which the St. Charles emptied into the St.
Lawrence, you could have seen him yield before one
wave, then cut another midway, dod^e one cake of ice. shove
another aside, all the while fighting steadily against the fu
rious north wind that was driving in his face.

" \Ye were out of the stream at last, but the ice floes
tossed and tumbled about by the fury of the winds shut us
off from the shore. We were in front of the fort, keeping
as close as we could to the beach, and seeking some inlet or
a part of the ice which was sheltered from the wind, but
without success. Quick as a flash the Indian thrust aside
with his paddle three or four blocks that were bearing down
on us, and then made a leap from the canoe, crying, ' Ashore !
ashore ! ' But the ice was so high and thick that I could not
reach the top with my hands; so I seized the Indian's ankle
with one hand and a projecting piece of ice with another,

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

and eventually reached the top. Even a heavy man be
comes agile in such circumstances. We were out of the
canoe, which we pulled up after us, and then gazed at each
other breathless, ' Nicanis/ he said, ' we were nearly lost.'
Even he had still the horror of death depicted on his face.
Indeed, had he not been the giant that he was, and a man of
more than usual skill, we should have been capsized by the
gale, or a cake of ice would have crushed us. Or, rather,
had not God been our pilot, the waves that dashed against
the shores where our little dwelling was built would have
been our sepulchre."

Singularly enough they did not seek shelter in Quebec
that night, but travelled further up the St. Charles where the
ice was solid and at three o'clock on the morning of Easter
Sunday. April the Qth, Le Jeune awoke the occupants of
Notre Dame des Neiges, who welcomed him with wonder
and delight. Next day, Champlain sent two of the chief
men of Quebec to inquire about the missionary's health,
and the great Indian chief of the country came to visit him.
There wras much rejoicing and weeping among them as he
told the tale of the journey. The rest of Le Jeune's party
came up the St, Lawrence later,

FATHER LE JEUNE.

CHAPTKR II.
For NDATIONS.

Shortly after Le Jetme's return to Quebec missionaries
began to arrive, and be saw the possibility of doing some
thing for the nomadic tribes north of the St. Lawrenee.
They could not be readied like the Humus, who had fixed
habitations, and the only solution of the problem was t"
establish stations at the places where they were accustomed
to meet at certain periods of the vear for trade. The sav
ages, who might possibly be instructed during their short
sojourn in such places, would exert some intluence on their
tribes later on, and thus be a means of introducing the mis
sionaries into the interior of the country, which so far had
never been visited.

The first of the outposts was at Three River>. where
some enterprising French colonists had built their huts and
erected a fort. Thither Le Jeune repaired with 1'uteux.
who became afterwards the great apostle of the lndian> in
that section.

Tadoussac, one hundred and twenty miles down the river.
was another important position, known even long before
Cartier's time as a trading post. The Recollects had already
been there, but had left no permanent establishment. Hence,
in 1648 Le Jeune went thither with de Oucn. and founded
a inission post among the Indians, which the Jesuits at
tended long after the suppression of their society.

A third mission was that of Miscou, on a little island on
the Baie des Chaleurs. It never figured to any great extent
in the history of the Canadian missions, although the heroic
men who were sent thither underwent awful sufferings.
Their journeys led them as far as Richibouctou. Miramachi.
Xipisiguit, Chedabouctou and fiaspe. They even descended
to Acadia and Cape Breton.

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Sillery, near Quebec, which was also one of Le Jeune's
foundations, was projected on a more ambitious scale. It
was intended for educational and hospital work among the
Indians, and it was hoped that by inducing a certain num
ber of families to settle there they could be taught the ele
ments of agriculture. For that purpose more money was
needed than the miserable one hundred dollars doled out
to the missionary at Tadoussac. " It was a delusion," Le
Jeune wrote to his friends in France, "to imagine that the
savage would be so charmed by the sight of the French
colonists sowing the fields and reaping a rich harvest and
living in comfort, as to be quickly induced to do the
same. Even if an Indian were seized with a desire to
work, where would he get his tools? " asks Le Jeune, " and
supposing he did succeed in gathering his crop, where would
he store it? Not in his miserable bark hut. Besides, where
would he live while his crop was ripening? In brief, a good
deal of money would be needed to build houses for them to
begin writh." The trading company was willing to give
land, but would do no more, and the difficulty arose as to
how the poor savage would fell the trees and clear his farm?
Evidently he had to be helped.

Year after year Le Jeune kept urging these needs upon
the wealthy people in France, who were supposed to take
some interest in the colony. At last he found a friend in
the person of Noel Brulard de Sillery, a nobleman of the
court of Henry IV. Sillery had been entrusted with offices
of the greatest distinction, was very rich, and indeed was
known as " The Magnificent " because of the sumptuous-
ness of his many establishments.

Urged by his sister, he withdrew from the world and
betook himself to a life of good works. He heard of Le
Jeune's appeal, and forthwith made over a generous supply
of money and sent twenty men to build the houses and clear
the land. The result was that, in 1637, at a place called
Kamiskoua Ouangachit, Le Jeune laid the foundation of a

PAUL LE JEUNE

house for the missionaries, a school for the neophytes, and
a hospital and church. He called the establishment after
the founder, Sillery. Two Algonquin families, consisting
of twenty persons, were the first to he admitted to it. In
1641 there were thirty families, and in 1641 it could boast of
a number of Christian Indians who astounded the people
of Quebec by the holiness of their lives. Le Jeunc was con
stantly among them, and not only preaching and instructing,
but teaching them the arts of civilization. For the Indians
he was a man of miracles. Marie de 1'Incarnation wrote of
the red men of the reservation that you could not find any
where purer or simpler souls, or people more eager to
observe the laws of God. " \Ye are used to them here," she
said, " but the French who arrive from Europe regard
them with wonder and amazement. You cannot go to the
chapel any time in the day without finding an Indian there
praying, and if any one in the settlement misbehaves him
self he disappears immediately, being well aware that he
would have to undergo a rude penance. If he refused, his
presence would not be tolerated."

Meantime Le Jeune had built Xotre Dame de Recouv-
rance in Quebec, and assigned Fathers Charles Lalemant
and de None to it. The transformation effected in the city
by the pious exercises that were practised, the fervor with
which the offices of the Church were followed, seem to be al
most incredible as we read the account. But we have this
solid fact to build on, which redounds greatly to the credit of
Quebec, namely: that, up to 1667, that is, for a period of
more than thirty years, although there had been 674 bap
tisms, the official register shows only one illegitimate birth.
This is most remarkable when we reflect that the popula
tion, besides the colonists, had in it a large contingent of
soldiers, sailors and voyagcurs.

Another scheme which Le Jeune had been elaborating
was that of the education of Indian boys. He had decided
to begin with the Hurons, who were more stable than the

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

other tribes, and he resolved to start the work at Quebec.
A school in the Indian country would never succeed, for
no Indian father would ever permit his young hopeful to
be punished, and in all likelihood that aid to scholarship
would have to be invoked. When Father Daniel, who had
promised to procure twelve Huron lads, appeared with only
two, Le Jeune had to give up the plan of restricting it to
Hurons, and he took those he could pick up anywhere. Not
that there was any uncertainty or vacillation in his proceed
ing ; he was doing the best he could under the circumstances.

But when the scholars arrived he had not only no place
to lodge them, but no means to support them. No interest
in the plan had been aroused, and the best he could do
was to install them in Notre Dame des Anges, an arrange
ment as inconvenient for the boys as it was for the Fathers.
It did not take long to show the hopelessness of it all. Be
sides draining all of Le Jeune's slender resources, " the
young savages were as hard to manage as wrild asses," he
wrote gloomily. One after the other broke away and made
for the woods, or were so deplorably wicked that they had to
be dismissed. Only one turned out well, a boy who was
named after Richelieu, Armand-Jean. He was true to his
training till the end of his life. It would have been worth
building half a dozen schools to have formed him. We
have told the story of this lad elsewhere. This first Indian
seminary lasted scarcely five years.

The failure of the undertaking was very gratifying to a
certain number of people who had never left France, but
who fancied they knew all about America. They were sure
that such would be the result, and that the Jesuits were
all along on the wrong track. The proper way to train the
Indian was to make him a Frenchman in language, dress,
manners, etc. Indeed there was a party formed at court
which demanded what they called the Francization of the
savages. Even the great Colbert insisted on it. Later on,
when Mgr. Laval came to Quebec, positive orders were

PAt'L LF JKt'M-:

given to effect this transformation, and Talon was in
structed to see that they were carried out. Hence, a short
time afterwards. Laval informed the Home Government
that he had establishd a seminary for that purpose, and to
hasten the work he had put several little French boys on
the benches with the savages. The effect on the white
children may be imagined. The institution was closed, or
rather the six little Hnrons who had to be checked in the
evil things they were teaching their white companions in
the Seminary of the Infant Jesus took to the woods and
disappeared. Like Father Le Jeune's. that institution aNo
lasted only five years.

The Slilpicians at Montreal, under de Qucylus, made
•in effort in the same direction in 1'><>S. and \\er«- warmly
felicitated by Colbert, who did all he could to ensure its
success. In a few years the king " complained that tin-
priests of the seminar\- did not apply themselves to the
work." The king was mistaken. The Snlpicians did their
best, but you cannot change a race in a single Ljenera-
tion. The French government, however, ha- persisted
in this policy whenever it has established a colony. The
zeal with which the French missionaries all over the world
at the present time endeavor to Frenchify their neophytes
i.s very remarkable. But the wisdom of it may be ques
tioned.

Very naturally, while dreaming of a school for Indian
boys, Le Jeune saw the necessitv of a similar institution for
girls. He wrote to the Provincial about it in 10^3. but with
out any practical result. In 16^5 he reported that a greal
many nuns in France had written to him about the de-itv
to devote themselves to the American missions. ' There are
so many inquiries," he said. " from such different kind< of
convents, even the strictest, that you would imagine they
were laughing at the difficulties of the journey, the storm-
of the ocean, and the savagery of the country."

In that vear Marie de I'lncarnation was telling her spir-

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

itual director about her wishes in this regard, and among
other things, she spoke of a vision she had had. The direc
tor was Father Dinet, the rector of the Jesuit College of
Tours. " Your dream," he said [he refused to call it a
vision], " can be realized by going to Canada."
But the wise Le Jeune had written:

" Do not let them hurry. If they come they must have
a good and a well built house, with ample revenues, other
wise they would be a burden on our hands. Men can put
up with difficulties, but a convent calls for a house, cleared
lands and money, so as to help and to comfort the wretched
Indian girls and women in their poverty. My God," he
added, " if the extravagances and superfluities of some of
the ladies of France were employed in the holy work what a
blessing it would bring upon their families. Here are tender
and delicate virgins ready to risk their lives on the waves of
the ocean, to come to seek a few poor souls in a country
much colder than that of France. They are willing to un
dertake work at which even men balk, and we cannot find
any valiant woman who will give these Amazons of the
Great God a chance to attempt the work by endowing a
house where the Divine Majesty will be praised and served
in this distant world. I cannot imagine that Our Lord will
not inspire some one in this matter."

This eloquent appeal fell under the eyes of Mme. de la
Peltrie, and the effect was immediate. She went to see
Marie de 1'Incarnation, and the arrangement was made to
establish the Ursulines at Quebec. That splendid house of
education, which is still one of the glories of Canada, thus
owes its origin to Father Le Jeune.

He had succeeded in getting only a partial foundation
for a hospital at Sillery. Munificent as the gift was, it was
far from satisfactory. Besides, there were no nuns to take
charge of it. But the apostolic utterance in the " Relation "
of 1635, which had so deeply impressed Mme. de la Peltrie,
produced a similar effect in the heart of a still greater per
sonage, the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, the niece of the great
Richelieu.

PACL LE JEt'NE

She was interested in charitable works, and naturally
thought of the Hospital Xuns at Dieppe. She inquired if
they would think of going to America. Whereupon she
wrote to Le Jeune: "After having read the 'Relation'
which you wrote, God inspired me with the desire of estab-
lishing the Hospital Xuns in Xew France, and for that pur
pose to send over MX workmen to clear the ground and
begin a house for those excellent religious."

Le Jeune could not have received more delightful intel
ligence. Dieppe was the place where he had last labored
in France, and these were the very nuns whose Constitution
he had drawn up. He borrowed the methods, spirit and
name from that of the Daughters of Mercv. and created the
new Congregation of the Religious of the Mercy of Jesus.

Richelieu united with his niece in establishing this new
foundation. He assured it a revenue ot JJ.jixi lures, beside^
procuring for it a grant of seven acres in the City of Quebec
and sixty more between Cape Rouge and the Coteau Sainte-
Gencvieve. 'The only condition imposed was that pravers
should be offered for the Cardinal Due de Richelieu and
Madame la Duchesse d'Aigmllon, and also for the Indians.
\\y a fortunate coincidence the three nuns »\ Dieppe were
to embark on the same ship as Mine, de la IVltrie and Marie
de I'lncarnation. The Duchesse d'Aiguillon. writing to her
beneficiaries, expressed herself as sure that the two com
munities would get on well together.

Tliev set out on Mav j, m^o. and had a perilous vovagr.
On July 31 st. which no doubt Le Jriine thought auspicious.
the ship doub'ed Cape Totirmente. and a- the sun was sel
ting they passed the upper end of the Isle d'< Irlcans and
saw the white cascade of Montmorency. The next morning
their eyes rested on the rock of Quebec, whose scattered
houses were but half revealed amidst the trees which
crowned its summit. Their arrival was a great event for
the colony, and in good French fashion the holy women
knelt down and kissed the ground which they were going

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

to consecrate by their labor. Montmagny met them at the
landing place and led them, with great pomp and ceremony,
to the temporary quarters they were to occupy.

The happiest man that day was Le Jeune. " Am I
dreaming?" he asked, as the news came of their arrival.
" Here on one ship are an Ursuline convent, a hospital di
rected by nuns, and a Jesuit college." The foundation of
that college was also partially his work.

Rene Rohault, the eldest son of the Marquis de Gamache,
had been received into the Society of Jesus by Father Coton,
and was assigned to the Canadian missions. When bid
ding farewell to his father in 1626 he asked that his patri
mony should be devoted to the establishment of a college at
Quebec. The aged Marquis consented, and made over to
Father Coton the sum of 16,000 livres d'or for the purpose
designated by his son, and added as his own gift a yearly
revenue of 3,000 livres while he lived.

The occupation of Quebec by the English interfered with
the plan, but as soon as Le Jeune reached Canada he laid
the foundation of the college near Fort St. Louis, on a piece
of land twelve acres in extent, which was granted in per
petuity for that purpose by the Company of the One Hun
dred Associates. In the concession of this property de
Luson, the Governor, gave it to the Fathers in mortmain,
without obligation or condition, and " in recognition of the
services rendered by the said Fathers both to the savages
and the French, they having been engaged, at the peril of
their lives, in the conversion of the savages, and having ever
contributed mightily to the establishment of the colony."

The only stipulation in Renault's gift was that the col
lege should be established for the spiritual aid and educa
tion of Canadians. The spiritual part of it was, of course,
sure to be attended to ; but in 1637 Le Jeune was able to
write to the Father General: ''The college, which began
with one class and a few pupils, is growing every day on
account of the arrival of new colonists from France. We

PAUL LE JEl'NE

are now teaching Latin, French. Montagnais and Huron."
In Ragueneau's letter to the General in 1651 we find that
there were then two regular classes, one of grammar and
the other of mathematics, and a third was about to In
formed. In 1655 it had four professors, one of \\hmn taught
philosophy, another humanities and rhetoric, and a third
grammar. The fourth class was for the elements. In that
year Louis XIV added to the foundation a grant of 400
livres. In 1665 it could boast of a professor of thcol»»g\.
and a little later, at the request of Governor I'eauliarnai-
and of the Jnttndanl Noquart. the MiniMre de la Marine
Maurepas sent over 300 livres to support another professor.
In 1671 there was a course of higher mathematics and
hydrography. This branch was strongly encouraged by
Talon, who saw in it a means of preparing a large contingent
of navigators and handicraftsmen who would be extremelv
useful to the colonial government. The popular drift at
that time was in the direction of the positive sciences —
physics, astronomy, geography and navigation- — and the
common demand had to be heeded. In a work published in
1671 and entitled Description du Canailn. the author advocates
rather ambitiously the establishment of an .-IcdJcuiu- </t-
Marine for the training of pilots and explorers. The king
even sent a set of mathematical instruments to encourage
the work. The study of Latin was for a time in disfavor.
though we find that regular monthly disputations in philos
ophy were held, and that such men as Joliet defended the
theses, and even distinguished officials like Talon conde
scended to appear as objectors. In furthering this collegiate
development, however, the colonial authorities counted for
nothing. It bent all its energies to the increase of trade,
and let the Jesuits bear the whole burden of providing
money for the enlargement of their institution.

As early as 1661 the Bishop. Mgr. Laval, writes that the
education given in the school was on the same footing as
in Europe. Music was taught and public literary exhibi-

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

tions were given. In 1658 the new Governor d'Argenson
presided at a dramatic representation written for the occa
sion. Fifty years later Father Germain could report to his
superiors in France that everything went on in Quebec as
in the colleges of Europe, and perhaps with more regu
larity and exactness. The students were industrious, eager
and capable. In 1712 there was a two years' course of phil
osophy, and another two of theology. Such was the result
of what Le Jeune had begun in 1637.

It will be of interest to add here that the first college
which was built in 1635 was °n^y a- wooden structure and
did not last more than five years. It went up in the same
fire that consumed Champlain's votive church of the Re-
couvrance. Another building was erected in 1648 by Brother
Liegois, and had the distinction of being, at that time, the
only stone building in Quebec besides the fort. It could
accommodate fifty or sixty boarders. It was there that
Joliet studied. While it was being built classes were held
on the ground floor of the warehouse of the One Hundred
Associates, which was probably on the northwest corner of
the property of the present Anglican cathedral.

There is a common impression that the great building
known in Quebec as the Caserne des Jcsnites, which was
demolished in 1878, was the edifice built by Brother Liegois.
Indeed, one of the literary celebrities of Canada has, in
perfect good faith, written some very eloquent pages on
that theme. But, as a matter of fact, that particular struc
ture was erected somewhere between 1725 and 1730. In
Charlevoix's Journal d'un voyage fait par ordre du Roy, dans
I'Amerique Septentrionale, addresse a Madame la Duchesse de
Lestiguieres, he says:

" You have, no doubt, seen, Madame, in some accounts
that the Jesuit College is a beautiful edifice. It is certain
that when Quebec was a shapeless jumble of French bar
racks and Indian huts, it and the fort cut something of a
figure because they were in stone. The first travellers, speak-

PAt'L LR JEl'NK

-e

ing comparatively, represented it a> a tine building. Th
who came after, and who, as usual, copied the first accounts.
made use of the same language. But since then the cabins
have disappeared and the barracks have been replaced by
houses, most of them fairly well built, while the college now
disgraces the city and is falling into ruin."

These lines were written in 1720. but were published
only in 1744, and in that edition there i^ a note appended
to the description, which was then twenty-four years old:
"They have since rebuilt the college, which is now verv
beautiful." As every one knows, the site of that college is
at present occupied by the City Hall.

It is somewhat amusing to read that when Bishop l;en-
wick, of Boston, who wa> a Jesuit, went to Ouebec and saw
the I. H. S. over the main entrance, he a>ked what the build
ing was, and being told that it was the old Jesuit College
and that it was then being used as a barracks, lie grew vcrv
angry and refused to enter a building which, he said, " was
the home of martyrs like Jogncs, de Brebeuf and others, and
was now polluted bv men of blood."

The sentiment was indeed correct, but unfortunately the
historical basis for it was not altogether solid. Jogues, de
Brebeuf and others of their time were never inside of it.
They had died a hundred years before, for it bad been used
as a college only about thirty or forty years, as the Society
of Jesus was suppressed in 1773.

Champlain saw the first college opened. lie died on
Christmas Day, 1635. His demise was a great blow to the
colony, but it had been expected for some time. Le Jeune
pronounced the funeral oration. " I did not lack material,"
he said, with which sentiment all will agree. It was re
garded as a remarkable discourse, but it is to be regretted
that he did not leave us a sketch of what he said on that
occasion. It would have been an historical document. But
he was the Superior in Ouebec, and had no one to order him
to do things. He was a sort of Government official also, and

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

it was he who was delegated by the Company of the One
Hundred Associates to announce to the colonists the tem
porary appointment of Chateaufort as Governor.

Montmagny, who arrived soon after, was a worthy suc
cessor of Champlain. He wras Le Jeune's devoted friend.
They were often together, and on one occasion we find them
on the St. Lawrence as far up as the end of Lake St. Peter,
and entering the Iroquois or Richelieu River. On this visit
he gave the name of St. Ignatius to the largest of the beau
tiful islands at the mouth of the river. They travelled up to
Montreal, and on the way back they entered the Riviere
des Prairies, which flows behind the Island of Montreal, and
went ashore on the Isle Jesus, to which they gave the name
Montmagny, in honor of the Governor. On that occasion
Le Jeune offered the Holy Sacrifice "the first time, as far as
I know," he writes, "that mass was ever celebrated on that
island." Unfortunately, he does not give us any informa
tion which would enable us to identify the place, nor does
he tell us the exact date of the visit. We only know that
after leaving the island they sailed down to Three Rivers,
which they left on October 4th, and that it was the year 1636.
He informs us in passing that the river north of the Isle of
Jesus, which is now known as Mille Isles, then went by the
name of St. Jean, in honor of Jean Nicolet, " who had fre
quently passed there," and who is described as "an inter
preter and clerk in the store at Three Rivers." The present
name of Riviere des Prairies \vas given because a certain
man named des Prairies lost his way among the islands
there, instead of keeping up the St. Lawrence, where his
friends were waiting for him.

At Three Rivers Le Jeune had witnessed a hideous scene
of torture of an Iroquois prisoner which had filled them
with horror, and he refers to it briefly. But he recounts
with relief, if not with pleasure, a little hunting adventure
\vhich took place as his boat was sailing down the St. Law
rence to Quebec. They were then about four or five leagues

PAUL LE JEl'NK

below Three Rivers. He writes rather pueticallv about it,
and says :

" We were sailing peacefully along in the glorv of a
golden day when we perceived a great elk browsing on tin-
shore. The Governor ordered the sails to be lowered aud
bidding every one to be silent sent two or three Frenchmen
in a little canoe to drive the animal into the river, or shoot
it if it made for the woods. The hunters landed and drew
near, but hearing the noise the elk took to the river. Imme
diately the shallop was launched and the >tr«ng arms of the
rowers drove it swiftly over the waters in pursuit. 1'oor
beast," says Le Jeune, "it did n«»t know where to turn; it
saw the hunters on shore with their arquebuses, and on the
water the shallop was speeding toward it. It was the men
in the boat who finally killed it and hoisted it on the deck.
If all the journeys in Xew France," he continues, "could
be as peaceful as that, the country would be more attractive,
and perhaps the body would gain more than the soul ; for elk
and beaver and fish are not lacking in their season. Mav
God he praised bv all his angels for the blessings he bestows
on men. We. reached Quebec on the /th of October."

Arriving in the city, he was immediately engrossed in
the ceaseless work of instructing the Indians. It was a
wearisome task, but those old Frenchmen had the knack of
lightening labors with good humor. We find in his diary
a question of woman's rights. " One dav," he says, " a
squaw came to me and wanted to know if woman could
not go to heaven as well as men and children. ' Certainly,'
I replied, 'Then why don't you instruct us as well as
the men and children?' 1 assured her that her protest
was well founded, and appointed a time for catechism class
for women, but I had to give it up, for they all brought
their babies, and the noise was so great that we could not
get on at all."

Some students of Indian characteristics have said that
Indian babies did not cry. This incident would seem to sug
gest the contrary, unless the little heathens were in that
instance protesting against Christianity.

3 33

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

On the loth of January Le Jeune had to solve some
problems in astronomy and physics for an old Indian whose
name is a philological and almost a physical problem. It
was Makheabichtichiou. He was troubled about the lunar
eclipses. When he was told that they were caused by the
earth coming between the moon and the sun, he said " that
it couldn't be so, for the earth often got between the sun
and the moon without any eclipse coming." " I told him,"
said Le Jeune, " that as the heavens were so vast and the
earth so small, such interventions did not occur as often
as he thought, and when I illustrated it by passing a torch
around a ball, he was satisfied."

" But the red man had another difficulty. ' Why was the
sky sometimes red and sometimes another color?' I said
it was due to the vapors of the clouds varying in density. I
took a triangular prism. ' There,' said I, holding it off
from him, 'it looks white, does it not?' 'Yes/ 'Now
put it to your eye and you will see all sorts of colors.'
' You French are manitous/ he exclaimed ; ' you know
all about heaven and earth.' '

But these troubles were slight compared with Makhea-
bichtichiou's theological difficulties. He wanted to be a
Christian, and took upon himself to explain some of the
doctrines of the Faith to his people. But when he made
the announcement that Father Le Jeune wished the men
to have only one wife, singularly enough he fell into great
disfavor with the women. They were more numerous than
the men, and hence many of them would be obliged to live
in single blessedness. A great tumult ensued, and Makhea-
bichtichiou's life was made miserable for him ever after
wards. He had three wives of his own. " Oh," exclaimed
poor Father Le Jeune, " what trouble flesh and blood have
to know the sweetness of God."

CHAl'TFK III.
IN Tin-: RANKS.

Le Jeunc was thus laboring in the humblest works of
the ministry, and at the same time directing the energies
of all the missionaries from Miscou to Lake Huron; but a
change came in 10^8. It is announced in the following
delightful fashion in the first paragraph of the " Relation "
of 1639:

" The birth of a Dauphin, the love and benefaction be
stowed by our great king on the savages, the solicitude of
M. le Cardinal for this country and his pecuniary aid for the
Huron Missions; the assistance given to the neophytes by
the gentlemen of Xew France, the continuation of the gov
ernment of M. de Montmagny, the arrival of the nuns, the
help of many per-on> of merit and .social condition, the
prayers and vows of pious souls, the holy Associations which
have been formed to draw God's blessing on our Indians,
have been the subjects of our conversations on board the
ship, not only in our intercourse with the world, but in our
personal communication with God. All this joy was so
much the more profound, because at the same time I at last
enjoyed the sweet liberty for which I have been so eagerly
longing, and also because your Reverence has at last ac
corded it by sending to us the Rev. Father Yinmnt whose
virtues will repair the faults which I have committed in the
charge which I have now given into his hands."

In other words, he was no longer Superior. lie had
descended into the ranks and was free. He left office when
every one was happy. After that he is undistinguishable
in the throng, and there is nothing noteworthy except that
the Provincial in France assigned to him the work of con
tinuing the writing of the " Relations." It was a wise
appointment, because of the valuable information which he
has given us about early American history. In doing so he

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

was incidentally compelled to describe an occurrence which
happened shortly after, and which came near ending his
career in America.

" Although we are living here at present in a time of
peace/' he says, " misfortunes sometimes penetrate into our
great forests as into your great cities. Father Vimont our
Superior took Father Raimbault and myself on a journey up
to Three Rivers. Our boat began its mishaps by being
nearly smashed to pieces just off Quebec. Next night, as
we were sailing happily along, we ran on a rock. Before we
could get off, the tide left us high and dry, and our bark went
over on its side. At high tide it straightened up again, but
was so battered that it immediately began to fill. We made
for the other side of the river, to calk it, and reached the
shore just in time. Another quarter of an hour and we
should have all gone to the bottom. When the tide rose
the boat sunk, but contrary to our expectation it came to the
surface again and we hauled it on shore and began to patch
it up. While we were at work a gale arose and flung it
against the rocks where we thought it would be dashed to
pieces ; but we secured it again and mended it so that it
could float. But the water had spoiled all the provisions we
were bringing to the poor Indians. That night we lodged
on shore at the sign of the Moon and the Cold and the Rain.
Such was the first trip attempted by our Rev. Father Su
perior. He gave it up and went back to Quebec."

In 1640 Le Jeune was sent to France, and when he
arrived he sent a characteristically joyous letter to his
Provincial. It is prefixed to the " Relation " of 1641, which
he brought with him :

"Reverend Father:

" I am like a man who wrote a letter and then carried it
himself. I indited the following chapters in New France
and I am going to hand them myself to your Reverence.

" The fleet which carried these few lines over the ocean
carried also three of our Society: Father Nicholas Adam,
who was recalled by your Reverence because of his shat
tered health ; Father Claude Quentin, who was sent on busi
ness of the mission, and your humble servant, who appears
without being expected, but not without being sent. For

PAUL LE JEUNE

M. dc Montmagny, our Governor, tlic princip.il men of the
colony, Father Yiniont. our Superior, and all our Father-.
and the savages themselves have condemned me to under
take the voyage for the public welfare.

" Our fleet of four ships, commanded by the Sieur de
Courpon, a brave man and an excellent navigator, was scat
tcred by a tempest at the entrance of the Gulf of St. Law
rence, and we never caught sight of each other on the ocean
afterward^. Father Qucntin's ship having mistaken St.
George's Channel for that which separates France and Eng
land, was a long time without making its appearance, but at
last God conducted it to port. As we came near land we
saw the main mast of a vessel, and other portions of wrecked
ships which had gone down on the coast of France. It
made one think that there is onlv one good thing about the
sea. It is that vou are at every moment in a greater and
more immediate and consequent! v more delightful depend
ence on God than when you are on land."

He then goes on to tell the Provincial the general drift
of what his "Relation" of 1641 contains, and adds:

" I shall console your Reverence by assuring yon that
you have subjects in the New World who run with great
strides in the path of holiness. God gives them favors in
abundance. Difficulties awaken courage; want is their
treasure; dangers their trust ; sufferings their delight; death
and the cross their expectation, and the God of the living
their exceeding great reward. I hope that as soon as 1 have
acquitted myself of my commission, that your Reverence
will hand me my passport for the New World, to die among
my neophytes who by their piety and devotion have won the
affection of my heart."

"The Relation" of the following year, which was
written by Father Vimont after Le Jcune's return to Amer
ica, begins by saying that the condition of things in Canada
had compelled him to send one of the Fathers to France to
explain to what a state the incursions of the Iroquois had
reduced the infant Church of the colony, and that he could
find no one better than the one who had labored so hard to
establish it — namely, Father Lc Jeune. " Nor was I dc-

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

ceived/' he continues, " for during the short time he re
mained in France he saw many persons of distinction whom
he acquainted with the great spiritual riches that could be
hoped for here. Among others he induced the Duchesse
d'Aiguillon, who had founded a House of Mercy for sick
Indians, to obtain from her uncle, the Cardinal, the greatest
help against our enemies, the Iroquois. The Father's ar
rival here revived the sinking spirits of the colonists. They
now hold their heads erect with as much assurance as if the
fort was already built."

The next six years he was engaged in the routine work
of the missions, and in 1649, after the death of de Brebeuf, he
departed for France again, never to return. On this journey
over the ocean he had with him the remarkable Iroquois
who had endeavored to save the life of Father Jogues. We
have told his story in the sketch of Father Daniel in Vol. II.

In France he was engaged as Procurator of the Canadian
missions, and was so wonderfully successful in interesting
the world at large in the work that, when there was a ques
tion of changing him from the office, eager entreaties were
made by the Fathers in America to leave him at the post.

Later on, when there was need of naming a bishop
of Quebec, Le Jeune was the choice of the Queen Regent.
Ragueneati and Charles Lalemant were also mentioned, but
the Father General forbade the consideration of any Jesuit
for that post.

In 1661 Le Jeune made a touching appeal to Louis XIV
himself for the perishing colony. It is worth reproducing
here. It runs as follows :

"Sire:

" Behold your colony of New France at the feet of Your
Majesty. As you will see in this account a small band of
savages has reduced it to the last extremity. Listen, Sire,
if it so pleases you, to her languishing voice, nay, to her
dying words : ' Save me/ she cries, ' I am going to be bereft
of the Catholic Faith ; they are tearing from my hands the
fleur-de-lis ; I shall be no longer French ; they are taking

PAUL LE JEUNE

from me the beautiful name with which I have so long been
honored ; I shall fall into the hands of the strangers, when
the Iroquois shall have drained all my blood which has n«>\\
almost ceased to flow; I shall soon be consumed in their
fires,' and, Sire, the demons will bear away a great number
of nations who expect salvation from your piety, your power
and your generosity. Sire, listen to the sighs ami the s<>!»
of your afflicted one. It is almost a year that your children
and your subjects, the dwellers in the New World, made
you know the extremity of the peril in which they were ; but
alas! the misfortunes of the time did not permit you to scud
them help. But since that time by the prodigies which have
occurred the heavens and the earth have proclaimed to you
the cruelties and the fiery tortures which the enemies of God
and of Your Majesty have made us suffer. The^e pertidi»u<
foes will tear a gem from your crown if the acts of ymr
powerful hand do not correspond with the words that fall
from your lips. If you turn towards heaven, it will tell you
that perhaps your very salvation is bound up with the salva
tion of so many people, who will be lost if they are not
helped by the care and solicitude of Your Majesty. If you
consider the name of Frenchman, you will remember, Sire,
that the great king who has made Europe tremble should
not be mocked at in America. If you regard the good of
your States, your gaze which at the age of 24 discerned what
so many great princes do not see at 50 will now recdgnixe
how the loss of this great country will work to the detriment
of your kingdom. But a heart so royal, a virtue so heroic, a
generosity so magnanimous, can have no need of my words.
The Queen, your most honored mother, whose goodness is
known beyond the seas, has thus far prevented the entire
ruin of Xew France; but she has not given it freedom.
delayed its death, but she did not give it health or strength.
This achievement is reserved for Your Majesty, who by sav
ing the lives and the possessions of your French Colony, and
the souls of a great number of the aborigines, will compel
them all to pray that, like your great ancestor, whose zeal
you imitate, you may merit the name of saint by undertak
ing this holy war. Such are the desires, and the wishes, and
the trust of one who by permission of your bounty calls him
self not in the language of the court but of the heart,

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

" Your Majesty's most humble and most obedient sub
ject, and most faithful servant,

" Paul Le Jeune,

" Procurator of the Missions of the Society
of Jesus in New France."

It may be questioned if Louis XIV. was ever spoken to
so pointedly even by the greatest of his preachers. To tell
him that his actions should correspond with his words, and
that his salvation, perhaps, depended on the course he
adopted in Canada, required more than usual courage, but
Le Jeune was equal to it ; and if the King read the " Rela
tion " of 1642, as no doubt he did, he must have been
appalled at the deplorable state of his colony.

A terrible earthquake had struck consternation into the
hearts of the miserable colonists, and the bloodthirsty Iro-
quois were more than ever bent upon the extermination
of the whites. Fierce battles had been fought in Montreal ;
men, women and children had been slaughtered or carried
off to captivity and torture ; and at Three Rivers thirty-two
men maintained a fight for forty-eight hours against eighty
Iroquois ; even women mingled in the fray. Quebec had
also its fill of horrors, and the young Seneschal de Lauson,
on whom the colony had founded its highest hopes, trag
ically ended his career. He had gone over in a shallop with
seven men to attack a band of Iroquois who were en
trenched on the Isle d'Orleans. He met them near a rock
on the shore — the place he himself had chosen for the fight,
but the enemy had reached it before him. As he approached
his shallop capsized, and he and his men saw that they were
doomed. They were no longer to be defenders, but assail
ants, and the effort to take the post seemed futile. How
ever, there was nothing else to be done, and before they
made the attack they knelt down and prayed, and then
rushed at the foe. Only one of the eight was left alive, and
he was badly wounded and carried into captivity.

It was at that time, also, that the Sulpician Le Maistre

PAUL LE JEUNE

was killed near Montreal. He was in the held with eight
Frenchmen who were gathering the harvest, when fifty In>-
quois rushed upon them. They cut off the head of the priest
and one of the savages later on came strutting past the pali
sades, dressed in the soutane which they had torn from
his body. Six of the Frenchmen cut their way through the
croud of Indians and succeeded in reaching the palisades.

These were only a few of the gruesome things that
Father Le Jeune presented to the consideration of his
majesty Louis XIV. The "Relation" of n»ni teem-- with
horrors. Meantime Dahlon was striving to reach the North
Sea, and Le Moyne was suffering the ill-treatment of the
Iroquois in far-away Onondaga. P.ut very likely the (Jivat
Monarch did not appreciate how widely his realms were
being extended by these efforts of the missionaries, nor
what it meant for the future. It was only in K>0o, two
years after Le Jeune was dead, that any assistance was sent
to the colony. With a handful of troops, de Tracy and de
Conrcelles had no trouble in frightening the Iroquois into
a peace of fifteen years' duration. That result was achieved
without killing a single Indian.

Father Le Jeune died at Paris, August 7, 1004. Tin-
veneration with which he was regarded will be sufficiently
understood by an extract from the "Relation" uf n ><•<>.
With it we close this brief sketch of his splendid life.

"An Algonquin named Apicanis was dying of an epi
demic which was ravaging an Indian village. He was at
his last gasp. The priest had already administered the Sac
raments when he heard the sufferer invoking the interces
sion of Father Paul Lc Jeune, who was venerated by the
Indians, because it was he who had first preached the Gospel
among them, and had undergone such hardships for their
conversion. They had heard also of the great esteem in
which he was held in Europe, for his holy life. The priest
was delighted and made every one in the cabin kneel down
and join in prayer with the sick man, to whom at the same
time he gave some of the Montagnais manuscript of Father

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Le Jeune, and a book which used to belong to him. Sud
denly the violence of the sickness ceased, followed by a
sweet sleep which lasted till the following morning, and the
patient awoke in perfect health, and then amazed everyone
by walking into the chapel. He wanted to thank God, and
the one whom after God he regarded as the author of the
miracle. The same thing occurred to one of the children
of the family later. It was the same sickness, and there was
an absolutely certain proximity of death, but the same
prayer to the beloved priest brought a perfect restoration to
health and vigor."

Father Le Jeune was still watching from heaven over
his beloved Algonquins.

JAMES BITEUX

AT THKKK KIVKRS.

In the " Relation " of 1(135 uv nnd a description of a
journey made by Father Buteux to Three- Rivers. It was
the first time he had seen that part of the St. Lawrence, and
the beauty of the landscape must have filled him with
delight. Another less heroic soul, however, might have
been gloomy and depressed, for he was going to begin a mis
sion among the Indians at a new trading post, and his
Superior, Father Le Jeune. had informed him that the one
who first undertook such a task usually died from hardship
and exposure. But Buteux did not give that a second
thought. He was a soldier on the field of battle; and as a
matter of fact he did not die of hardship and exposure.
though his sufferings in that respect were terrible, but fif
teen or sixteen years later he fell riddled with bullets on
the banks of the St. Maurice, far up in the mountains.

" It was the 3d of September." writes the chronicler.
" when Father Buteux and I got into our boat to go to the
assistance of some of our French people in the settlement at
Three Rivers. \Ye passed close to the little island of Rich
elieu, on which Champlain had planted a cannon to com
mand the river. For a good part of the way up the channel
is narrow and dangerous. Once we ran into the mud ; then
we upset our canoe, and later on when a stiff gale was
sweeping down the river, we just grazed a rock that made us
all shudder when we saw it ; but," says the good man.
piously and patriotically. " God seems to have defended
the passage in that way, so as to keep it in the hands of the
French, who own it." He did not know what the future
had in store for the control of that channel.

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

" On the 8th," he continues, " we arrived at Three Rivers.
It is a pleasant place to live in. The soil is sandy and the
rivers abound in fish. It is common enough to see an Indian
with a dozen or so of sturgeon in his boat, the smallest of
them as big as a man; and there are plenty of other kinds
besides. The French call the place Three Rivers because a
beautiful stream, which empties into the St. Lawrence, is
divided at its mouth by several little islands into three
branches. The Indian name of the river is Metaberoutin.
I would describe its beauty for you but it would carry me
too far. Indeed, the whole country between Quebec and
the new settlement, which we have named the Residence of
the Conception, is very fair to look upon. It is intersected
everywhere by streams and rivulets, and as you journey on
ward you see them pouring their waters into the King of
Rivers, the St. Lawrence, which here, ninety miles above
Quebec, is two or three miles wide."

Such was the place which Father Buteux was to illus
trate by his life and death.

There is a common impression among those who have
not carefully read the story of those wonderful efforts of
three centuries ago that Providence had furnished these old
missionaries with unusual strength of body to resist the
hardships which they were called upon to undergo. Father
Buteux is an example of the incorrectness of that view.
Thus, when on his way from France, in 1634, he nearly died,
so weak and exhausted had he become. He was tenderly
cared for by no less a personage than the commander of
the expedition, du Plessis, and it is quite touching to see
how shamefaced the young priest was about being the
object of such solicitude.

He was then thirty-four years of age, and had only been
fourteen years a Jesuit. He was born at Abbeville on April
n, 1600, and entered the Society at Rouen on October the
2Oth or 22d, 1620; we do not know which, for there is a
doubt about the dates. His health was very frail, but he
set out for America as soon as he could after the colony was
restored to the French. On the same ship with him was

JAMES BUTKt'X

Brother Liegois, who was also to win the crown of mar
tyrdom.

Buteux had a very hard time of it for some years, but
the hardships did not worry him ; it was the difficulty of
making these wild people understand him. Besides, al
though the Algonquins are counted as the noblest of the
sons of the forest, they were in many ways as wicked as
the rest of the red men. \Ve can glean a few instances <>f
it from Buteux's letters to Le Jeune.

He tells of one unfortunate wretch who was baptized at
Quebec, but had lapsed into his former savagery. Return
ing to Three Rivers, he fell sick and was thrown out of his
cabin by his relatives. The Fathers could give him no
shelter, for their own hut was only twelve feet long, so the
sufferer was carried back again to Quebec and nursed all
through the winter; but when he was able to stagger about.
he insisted on going back to his old haunts. Buteux found
him at Three Rivers, naked as when he was born, stretched
on the bare ground, and trying to keep life in his wretched
body by a morsel of fish which was llung at him from time
to time by his devoted relatives. Finally one of them struck
him on the head with a tomahawk and put an end to his
miserable life.

Another instance is cited which is still more atrocious.
We repeat it here, not to add to our mutoscope <>f horrors,
but to show the heroism of the missionaries who could make
up their mind to live with such monsters.

An Indian at the point of death had been baptized, but
recovered. Unfortunately he was madly in love with a
squaw, and without wraiting to marry her in Christian fash
ion, simply took her to his cabin. It happened that he and
his family went off to hunt and every one of them perished
except the man and two of his children, who made their way
back to Three Rivers. He was exhausted and at the point
of death, and naturally might have expected some help from
his sister, who lived there with a sick boy. But, not wanting

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

to be troubled with the care of another invalid, she brained
her brother in the presence of his two sick and starving
children, a boy and a girl, and then, heedless of their clam
ors for food, she put her own hopeful in a canoe and started
down the river to Quebec. The children followed her all
day along the shore, begging to be taken on board. At
nightfall the fierce hag beached the canoe and told the boy :
" I can't carry both of you with me ; kill your sister, and I
will take you." Horrible to relate, the young brute seized
a string and tied it around the throat of the girl. Then,
holding one end with his foot, he choked her to death. "Did
she struggle with you ? ' asked the priest, when the story
was told at Quebec. " No ; she did not even try to run
away, but only looked at me, and let me do it."

The sequel to this crime is one of the mysteries of God's
Providence. The trio arrived at Quebec and the sick man,
whose disease made him too loathsome for any one but his
mother and the priest to approach, was taken care of, and
we are told died in good dispositions. Of course, they tried
to do something with the young fratricide, also, but of the
squaw nothing is said.

Everything, however, was not so hideous in those first
days at Three Rivers. Many of the women were well be
haved. One group of them, for instance, took care of a
number of fatherless children, and begged Buteux for food
to keep the life in their little bodies. " I do not know how
we did it," he writes. " I had nothing to give, but somehow
or other God, who feeds the birds, provided for them ; and
when the dreary winter was over, the children were as
plump and as merry as if they had been plentifully fed dur
ing all that dreadful season."

One of the squaws who was a great comfort to him
had a curious story to tell. She had been captured by the
Iroquois, when she was young, and on one occasion when
Champlain, with some Algonquins, was attacking an Iro
quois village and killing every one, she kept shouting out

JAMES BITEUX

an Algonquin vsord: " A '/>, nir, nir!" (Me, me, me!).
It was all she remembered. A warrior heard her and rec
ognized her as belonging to his tribe. She returned with
the victors and became an Algonquin again. It was a ro
mantic story, but genuine history says nothing of Oiam-
plain carrying off prisoners from an Iroquois villain-.

In 1641 we find Fathers de Quen and I'oncet working
with Buteux at Three Rivers.

" I think," writes Le Jeune. " that poor church was more
battered by all sorts of tempests than ever a vessel on the
high seas. There was a motley crowd of all kinds of Indian
wretches, who gave no end of trouble to tlu- Fathers. There
were savages from Allumettes, from the little nation of Atti-
kamegues, from the Montagnais, and Oukotocmis, and
Ounatchatsonons, and others besides, sometimes at peace
and often at war, but always with their little jealousies and
spites against each other. The bad were spoiling the good.
and the devil renewed all the old superstitions, which had
been banished from Sillery and which we thought were for
gotten at Three Rivers. Father Buteux tells me that the
Sillery Indians who are at Three Rivers, do their best, but
that the conditions are awful. You hear nothing but the
drum of the sorcerer, and see only the abominations of the
dream superstition.

'Those who have come down from the land <>f the Hu-
rons have introduced a diabolical dance which fills us with
horror. Though they are all starving, they are still as
proud as the devil. The terror they have of the enemy pre
vents them from going out to hunt to get something to eat ;
but all day and all night they have visions. They fancy the
Iroquois are lurking in the corn fields, they see them hiding
in the woods, in the canoes on the river and the canoes on
the shore; they are pursued by them; they discover their
trails; they find the place where they camped, the trees
where they plucked the fruit ; they hear them howling in the
forests and they keep the French on the jump, with a thou
sand false alarms. Unfortunately these phantoms of the
imagination turn them from the fear they ought to have of
oflfending God. It is a case of the wicked fleeing when no
man pursueth."

On one occasion a very indecent dance was to be per-

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

formed; men and women were to join in a wild orgy, and
the juggler in chief was to walk through fire. Father
Buteux determined to stop it, and he and Father Poncet
burst into the wigwam at 10 o'clock at night and fiercely
harangued the multitude. It was too much for the sor
cerer, who appears to have been the famous One Eye from
Allumettes, the wily individual who figures so frequently
in the " Relations."

One Eye was usually as cold as ice, but this interference
made him blaze up in a wild fury. Seizing some of the fire
brands in his hands, he flung them straight into the eyes of
Buteux, ordering him to be off, and shouting out that the
Christian baptism was killing the Indians. But Buteux
could not be stopped. " It is your sins that are doing it,"
he replied. The excitement spread and the savages came
running in from all directions. The Christians, being very
few in number, kept quiet, while the pagans were yelling
like demons. Growing wilder than ever, One Eye seized a
rope and attempted to strangle the priest who, quite coolly,
held out his neck to facilitate the operation. At last some
one begged Buteux to withdraw, which he did ; but there
was no dance that night.

When the French heard of the affront they demanded
satisfaction. Champfort, the Governor, summoned One
Eye, but the cunning old wretch humbly admitted that he
threw the fire into Buteux's eyes, and offered to let the
priest do the same to him. He knew very well that retal
iation of that kind would not be resorted to. As for the
strangling episode, he said : " Why, no, that was far from
my thoughts. I merely seized the cord to show that both
of us could not be right, and the one who lied deserved to
be choked." Nothing was done to this excellent lawyer, but
the victim of his efforts in medicine died during the tumult.

In spite of all this, however, the little church of Three
Rivers began to thrive. There were eighty neophytes there
in 1641. Notwithstanding the threats of their tribesmen,

JAMES BITEUX

they came every day to the chapel to hear Mass, which was
celebrated at daybreak, even in mid-winter; they frequented
the sacraments and suffered no harm from the horrible
examples around them. On the feast of SS. Peter and Paul
there were thirty-two at the altar-railing, " which wasn't
bad," writes Buteux, " for a church that had to cat its spir
itual bread soaked with tears." After a while there had to
be a separate Mass for the French, the chapel being too
small for both the Indians and the white men at the same
time. The pagans also relented somewhat in their antag
onism.

Among the red men who were in the habit of visiting
Three Rivers were the Attikamegues or the While Fish
Tribe. Like their namesakes of the sea, these Indians had
the habit of disappearing like a Hash at the first approach
of a foe. It is from Butcux we get the first account of
them, and he tells us incidentally that the fish from which
they took their name are plentiful in this country, have an
excellent flavor, and as far as he is aware, are unknown in
France. Whitefish is still a favorite in America.

The White Fish Indians lived north of Three River-,
and travelled down what is now the St. Maurice, to trade
with the French. At these assemblies the missionaries did
what they could to get some notion of Christianity into their
heads. However, they were not difficult to deal with, and
had even promised to settle in the neighborhood, so as to
be belter instructed; but the ever-present fear of the Iro-
quois made them always give up the project. "You see,"
they told Buteux, " we arc not warriors. We know how to
handle a paddle, but not to wield a tomahawk. We love
peace, and that is the reason we live far away, so as to avoid
the occasions of war. If you could only conquer these peo
ple who want to massacre us we should very soon come and
settle here." " Indeed." writes the priest, " when they do
come to the post they are more frequently in the church
than in the store."

4 49

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

There was one of them who was especially eager to
know all about the Faith. He had already received a good
deal of instruction, and when about to return to his country
he asked for a rosary and a picture, so that he might say
his prayers more easily; in addition, he begged for a
piece of paper on which the prayers were to be written. Of
course, he did not know how to read, but he used to hold
up the scrap of writing, and tell the Lord that it contained
what he wanted to say.

Some months passed by, and he returned to Three Riv
ers. Immediately he pulled his picture out of a bag and
said: "There it is, Father. It is pretty black, but the
smoke of the wigwam did it. However, we all used to knee)
down before it, night and morning. Now read the prayers
you wrote for me, so as to see if I have learned them cor
rectly ;" and he produced the crumpled piece of paper. The
Father was nonplussed. He had simply scrawled some cap
itals, here and there, and added an occasional word, but it
was impossible to remember what he had put down. He
could not betray himself to the Indian, however, so he said :
" You begin first." To his amazement this son of the for
est not only remembered what had been indicated on the
paper, but everything else that he had been taught. He
was a likely candidate for baptism. Indeed, the time had
been fixed ; but one day a shout was heard : " The Iroquois
are coming ! " and he, with the rest, vanished from the
scene, " dreading the Iroquois," moans the missionary,
" more than he did the devil."

In 1642 there were very few Indians of any kind at Three
Rivers, and we discover Father Buteux down at Sillery.
What was he doing there? Gratifying his thirst for hard
ships, in the first place, and secondly, availing himself of
the opportunity to see a party of his beloved White Fish.
The Sillery chief had invited them down to pass the winter
near the Reservation, and had promised to provide for them
during the winter. About sixty of them had accepted the

JAMES BlTKrX

invitation and, after paying their rejects to the (lovernor
at Quebec, were assigned a place some distance away from
the Christians. Buteux hurried from Three Rivers to look
after them, and his ministry there gave him no end of suf
fering. We find him. for instance, one night nine miles
away from the mission, hunting up a sick squaw whu was
clamoring for the priest. This particular visit is worth nut-
ing, because with him on this occasion was a young physi
cian who was very likely HOIK- other than Rene (loupil.
Father Jogues' future companion in martyrdom. He was
the only medical man anywhere near (Juebcc in those days.

Night journeys like that were, of course, common, but
even his ordinary work among his people constantly culled
for unusual heroism. " I have often seen him," .says dc
Quen. " tramping in the dark through three or four feet of
snow, groping along by the light of a lantern which the
howling wind would often tear from his hand or extinguish.
while he himself would perhaps be thing by the violence of
the storm down some icy hill into the snowdrift below. This
will be surprising news," continues the writer, "for those
who remember him in France, frail to the last degree, and
almost always a valetudinarian. His zeal for his Indian
Hock was always rewarded, however, for no matter how
bad the weather, all the tribe trooped over every morning
to hear Mass in the Ursuline chapel and to receive instruc
tions from the priest and the nuns. You could not give
that eager throng too much piety. A hundred Indians,
White Fish and others, were baptized that winter; the Sil-
lery Indians contributing mightily to the result by their
advice and good example.

A curious fact is brought out in connection with this
visit of the White Fish to Sillery. In addition to the usual
Indian superstitions of dreams, sweatings, indecent dances,
and the rest, every White IMSH seemed to have a drum,
which he regarded as his most cherished spiritual treasure.
Although in the other tribes only the magicians banged

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

this musical implement, its use was universal among the
Attikamegues. One would think that the less noise such
timid people made the safer they would be ; but error, reli
gious or otherwise, is rarely logical. For them the drum
was everything, and to give it to the priest was considered
to be unconditional surrender to the Faith. Hence Father
Bnteux was busy that winter making bonfires of these
precious instruments, which it cost the red man many heart
burnings to abandon. But they yielded and were uncom
promising converts when baptized. Thus, one day a zeal
ous convert found a French drum in his cabin, and he im
mediately proceeded with great fervor to kick it to pieces.
It looked too much like the sorcerers' " medicine," and he
did not want to have it near him.

It may be of interest to theologians to know that these
poor people who had been just dragged from the mire of
pagan immorality could easily compound what are called
cases of conscience, as well as the rest of us. One scrupu
lous squaw, for instance, inquired of the confessor: "What
am I to do about preparing the cauldron when my husband
is going to have a banquet in honor of the devil?" "It
would be best if you had nothing to do with it," was the
reply. " But suppose he insists upon it?" she urged. "In
that case you can get it ready, as you would any other pot-
ful of meat you might give him for his supper, and then
you can disappear from the scene." " I won't touch it at
all," she answered indignantly. She did not believe in the
doctrine of material cooperation.

During that winter Butenx was sent down to Tadoussac,
for some reason or other, and he had the usual report to
make, that everything would be perfection if it weren't for
the savage's fondness for liquor. Probably it was he who,
on his return to Quebec on August 15, brought a letter from
the missionary at Miscou, Father Richard, which conveyed
the interesting bit of news that a pious old squaw had just
died at that place who had been baptized by Father Biard,

JAMES IUTEUX

at i'ort Royal, in Xova Scotia, as far hack as 1012, viz.:
thirty years before. The fact has nothing to do with tin-
present narrative, but it is only given as an example of how
the work of those heroic old apostles of Acadia continued
after they had gone to heaven.

Those were stormy days on the St. Lawrence. The Iro
quois were swarming over it, and lUiteux, of course, comes
in for his share of the danger. The enemies, however, had
changed their tactics. They had been accustomed to come
in great numbers, and after the usual ravages (>f a summer
campaign, would withdraw, leaving the river free. Hut in
1643 they were divided into groups of thirty, forty, fifty,
or at most a hundred, and thus covered the whole country.
When one baud went back to the Mohawk another took
its place. They were provided with firearms, which was a
tremendous advantage over their enemies, for it often hap
pened that three or four hundred Ilurons would comedown
the river with immense stores of pelts, but with no means
of defence, the result being that they were either killed or
put to flight.

The first capture by the Iroquois in that year occurred
on the (jth of May, within four leagttes of Three Rivers.
Eight Algonquins who were coming from the Huron coun
try and had been paddling all night so as to avoid the enemy,
went ashore in the morning to light a fire to warm them
selves, for it was bitter cold. They fancied they were out
of danger, when nineteen Iroquois suddenly started out of
the woods, murdered a couple of the Algonquins, and hur
ried off with a number of prisoners and all of their precious
possessions.

This encounter is memorable because on that occasion
the Iroquois seized some of the letters which were sent
down from Huronia, and also the " Relation " of what had
occurred there in 1642, a loss which explains the scant
account about that mission for that particular year, but sin
gularly enough Jogues. who was then a prisoner at Osserne-

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

non, contrived to send a letter up to the St. Lawrence by
an Indian messenger, and among other things he said that
the "Relation" had fallen into his hands, but it was never
seen afterwards. He evidently lost it.

Montreal suffered much in these raids. Thus, on June
iQth, forty Iroquois hid themselves in ambush, half a league
from the stockade. On that very day they fell upon sixty
Hurons with thirteen canoe-loads of furs, captured twenty-
three, most of whom they butchered, and immediately aft
erwards, while making a feigned attack on the French fort,
seized five white men who were building a house two hun
dred feet away. The men in the fort saw the Iroquois
carrying off the prisoners and furs, but did not dare to
give chase, for they did not know how many savages would
start out of the ground to meet them. Maisonneuve was
now realizing what his declaration meant when he said
that he would stay in Montreal if every tree were an
Iroquois.

Things were worse up the river. The Christian Indians
from Sillery were the best friends the French had in those
perilous times. They were superb fighters, never skulked
like other Indians, but went straight into danger. Better
yet, they openly proclaimed themselves to be Christians.
Not only did they keep aloof from all the indecencies and
superstitions of their pagan kinsmen, but would not live in
the same lodge with them, and on the warpath they
bivouacked apart from the others. Buteux was with them at
Montreal in some of these fights, and he tells us that usually
on the journey, when he was reading his breviary, the In
dians would stop paddling, if the wind was favorable, and
keep him company by reciting their beads. They were very
much admired by the pagans. On the other hand, they had
a supreme contempt for the Christian Indians who did not
live up to their professions.

Le Jeune, who was no longer Superior, had joined his
friend Buteux at Three Rivers, and in the " Relations " of

JAMES BUTEUX

those years the familiar forms of do Xoue. de Rrebeuf, Rres-
sani and others cross the scene. Occasionally fugitives from
the Iroquois country came with news about Jogues, and the
report had got abroad that the enemy would gladly .sur
render him In the vain hope that they might make some
such proposition, the Governor kept boats going to the other
side of the river to endeavor to meet some of the roving
bands, but the approach of these scouts was only a signal
for the Iroquois to disappear. They had no intention of re
linquishing the prize,

CHAPTER II.
IN THE NORTH COUNTRY.

Up to the clay of his death, Buteux lived in the midst of
war's alarms. As a priest, he had the additional hardship
of being compelled to battle against the corruption that
usually reigns at a military post, a hardship which at Three
Rivers was emphasized, because its geographical position
made it a meeting place for the savage tribes from the east,
west and north, with all their varied pagan superstitions
and vices. It was also a resort for the wild coureurs de bois.
As we have said, his Indians were remarkable for their fidel
ity to their obligations as Christians and their fearlessness in
professing their faith. He never succeeded, however, in in
ducing his favorite White Fish to settle near the river; not
that they were unwilling, but they were afraid. Neverthe
less, with what instruction they received on their regular
visits to Three Rivers, these timid and poverty stricken peo
ple became excellent Catholics. They were very devoted to
him and resorted to all sorts of devices to have him visit
their country.

At last, in 1651, he was told by his Superiors to make the
attempt. It looked like trifling with life, for his seven
teen years of the worst kind of hardship had been a dreadful
strain on his physical strength, which from the very outset
seemed on the verge of a collapse. Besides, a visit to the
White Fish country meant a three months' journey, in the
worst season of the year, through a region that was impas
sable except for a savage. Nevertheless, he made the
attempt and succeeded. He has left us a journal of the
expedition, which if not written by such a saint would be
incredible. It is at the same time an astounding though
unconscious revelation of his heroism.

JAMKS 1UTEUX

" 1 gladly accepted the work," he says, " and T informed
the Chief, who was at Three Rivers, that I was at last able
to go with him. He supplied me with a sled for my little
baggage, and provided me with snow shoes and the like.
On March 27th, M. de Xormanville and myself started with
two men and a band of forty Indians, big and little. A
squad of soldiers went with us the first day as a protection
against the Iroquois. The weather wa> tine, but it was bad
under foot, for the warm sun had melted the snow and made
our sleds difficult to drag and our snow-shoes were soaking
wet. The ice was unsafe and in one place broke under my
feet. The swift current would have carried me off if a
soldier had not come to my assistance. The road that day
ran along a succession of cataracts leaping troni lofty preci
pices. There was fal>e ice which was very dangerous and
very annoying, for we had to walk with our feet and
raquettes in the water. As a consequence the raquettes be
came very slippery and very dangerous when we had to
crawl over the ice-covered rocks close to the rapid--. \Yc
could only make .-ix leagues that day, though we walked
from morning till night. The end of the day was worst of
all, for a cold wind sprung up and froze our shoes and stock
ings, which had been wet since morning. Our escort of
soldiers, who were not accustomed to that sort of thing.
were astounded, but still more so when, at night, we dug
down into the snow and went to sleep. It was like entering
a sepulchre.

" On our second day out we bade good-bye to the soldier-
and continued up the river. About a league from our cam]-)
we came to a waterfall which blocked our way. and we had
to climb over three mountains, the last of which was very
high. It was then we felt the heaviness of our sleds and
raquettes; to descend the opposite slope there was nothing
else to do but to toboggan from the top to the bottom, and
that brought us out into the middle of the river, which at
one place was aboi.t 400 yards wide. At intervals of about
a league we came to three other cataracts of a prodigious
height and very terrible to look at, as they leaped down with
a horrible roar and extraordinary impetuosity. \Ye had to
go through places which struck terror to every heart : we
crawled over them on all fours. Finally, we halted on the
top of a very steep mountain. In brief, it had been a hard
day for all of us, and we were weary of trudging for eleven

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

hours through the snow, dragging our load as the horse
does the plow, meantime taking no rest and no repast.

' The third day we started out very early and marched
on the icy river which is there very wide. At two in the
afternoon a mirage made some branches of trees which were
buried in the water appear to be above the surface. They
looked like men, and immediately everyone was sure it was
a band of Iroquois awaiting us there. Scouts were sent out
and they came back and reported that it was indeed the
enemy. The Christians immediately prepared to go to con
fession and the catechumens to receive baptism. The chief
exhorted them to fight like Christian soldiers, and to put
their trust in God. His speech gave them courage and each
man resolved to conquer or die. As we drew near, however,
we found out our mistake and kept on our way very much
relieved.

" On the fourth day I said Mass on a little island. It
was the first time the Adorable Sacrifice was offered in these
parts. There was a discharge of musketry at the elevation
and after Mass a feast of Indian corn and eels. All our pro
visions for the forty people of our party consisted of about
two bushels of corn meal, one of peas, and a little bag of sea
biscuit. The difficulty of dragging our sleds had made us
cut down our supplies. Besides, we had hoped to hunt a lit
tle on the way. But, as a matter of fact, we had scarcely
enough to keep the life in our bodies. For myself, there
was enough in the load, the road, and the fast which I was
keeping, for it was Passion Week, to compel me to do with
out provisions. However, God gave me more courage than
the young man I brought with me. He succumbed under
the strain, and had to leave us and return with two Algon
quin squaws. They went away two days later.

The fifth and sixth days were different ; but yet alike in
the difficulty of the roads. The first was rainy, the second
fair, but the thaw which it brought clogged our sleds and
raquettes, so that for the next ten days we had to start out
very early in the morning before the ice and snow had begun
to melt.

" On the seventh day we walked from three o'clock in
the morning till one in the afternoon, in order to reach an
island where I wanted to say Mass, for it was Palm Sunday.
I succeeded, but I had a share in the suffering of the Passion
of our good Master. My thirst made my tongue adhere to

JAMES BUTEUX

my palate. The extra burden which 1 had to shoulder,
when my man left me, aggravated my pains. The Indians
saw my weakness during Mass, and after it gave me some
sagamite, which was made especially for me, and which
consisted of some meal boiled in water. With it was half
of a dried eel. After Mass we had public prayers, instead of
Vespers. On the march each one said his rosary privately.
" On the eighth day. in order to avoid the rapids where
the ice was beginning to break, and where we could not
safely trust ourselves, we started through the woods in a
valley between two mountains. It was encumbered at
every step with trees which had been thrown down by the
wind, so that the travelling was very difficult, a> our ra-
quettes were always getting entangled in the branches. Be
yond this valley we reached a mountain which was so high
that it took us three hours to reach the summit. Besides
mv sled, I had to carry in my arms a little boy. the son of the
Indian who was taking care of me. I took that burden in
order to help the mother, who had another child, and also
had to drag all her traps on a sled. ( )n the mountain we
came to a lake which we had to cross. I-' very step made us
think of death as we looked into its black depths. We were
continually sinking up to our knees, and often deeper,
through the soft mush, but were fortunately held up by
stronger ice underneath. Often the surface was very slip
pery, and gave us many a hard fall, with the result some
times of sending us head and heels into the water.

" The ninth day was notable for the length of the road.
It ran between lakes and rapid rivers and down mountain
sides. We walked from early morning till nightfall. Fear
of the thaw made us hurry along till we were all exhausted.
From time to time, so as to get courage, we sung hymns and
kept our thoughts on God.

" The tenth day was spent in climbing and descending
mountains, and at last we arrived at a lake whose banks
were perpendicular rocks higher than any bluffs I have ever
seen in France.

" On the eleventh day we left camp at three o'clock in
the morning, so as to avail ourselves of the ice which the
cold north wind had formed. The moon was shining
brightly and when morning dawned we again struck for the
woods and journeyed over hills and mountains and along
lakes and rapid rivers.

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

" On the twelfth day, after the Office of Good Friday,
and when I had heard the confessions of some Indians who
were going to leave us, for they had to take another road,
and first to make their canoes, we reached the top of the
mountains and came to a little river where we found some
beaver-dams. We killed six of the animals and continued
our route over three great lakes, on the last of which is a
small island where we slept on the snow with no shelter
over us.

" The thirteenth day was the hardest of all. We started
out at three in the morning by horrible roads through under-
bush so thick that it was almost impossible to find a place
for our feet or raquettes. I was lost several times, because
I could not find the trail of those who went ahead of me.
Then we arrived at some lakes which were very slippery
and yet dangerous to walk on without raquettes, which kept
us from going through the ice. On the other hand it was
hard to use them because of the melting ice and snow. At
mid-day we stopped and I had the happiness of saying Mass,
which was my only consolation. There I found strength in
my weariness. To revive me, for I was very weak, they
offered me a piece of beaver meat which had been left over
from the day before. I did not eat it, but offered it to Our
Lord, for I had not touched any meat from the beginning of
Lent.

The fourteenth day of our journey was Easter Sunday,
the Qth of April, and I was very much consoled at the piety
displayed by the Indians. Our little chapel, built of cedar
and pine branches, was extraordinarily decorated ; that is to
say, each one had brought whatever pictures and new stuffs
he had and hung them here and there on the walls. After
blessing them with holy water, and distributing the pain
benit, which was a piece of bread I had purposely kept, the
chief made a speech to excite the devotion of his people.
When Communion and thanksgiving were over, and the
beads recited, they came to offer me a partridge and other
food, which they deprived themselves of to give to me, in
spite of the hunger that was gnawing their vitals as well as
mine.

" On the loth of April we started out early in the morn
ing. The rain had fallen all night and had melted the sur
face ice of the lakes and the snow in the forests, so that we
had to tramp in the water up to our knees, with our ra-

JAMKS BITFTX

queues on our feet, so as not to go through the lower layer
of ice. After crossing four lakes we arrived at the one
where my guide usually lived. \Ye built a shelter on a
sand hill, under the pines, where the snow had melted.
There we erected a chapel, where I said Holv Mass and
planted a fine cross. Up to that we had merely cut crosses
on the trees as we passed along, but now we lifted up •'in-
beautiful standard. We rested there all day, and should
have had time to eat had there been the wherewithal. The
snow was only half melted, and as the fish had not yet be
gun to run we were verv straitened fur food. M v people
set about making canoes, and thev toiled at it from morning
till night. 1 was astonished that they could work so hard,
as they scarcely took six ounces of nourishment a day.
What hurt them most was to see me in pain. Their own
sufferings thev offered light-heartedly to God.

" Seeing that everyone was occupied, 1 took up with an
old man who was making snares for hares. One day I got
lost in the forest and could not find the trail. 1 walked all
day in places I did not know, across mountains and through
lowlands full of water and melting snow without knowing
where I was. Fatigue, the coldness of the water, and the
approach of night, as well as the pangs of hunger — for I had
eaten nothing all day — compelled me to throw myself at the
foot of a tree to rest. 1 was soaking wet and my clothes be
gan to freeze, for there was a frost every night. 1 gathered
some pine branches to protect myself against the wet ground
and then pulled some on top of me as a protection against
the cold, but I had leisure enough to shiver all night. J was
chiefly tormented by thirst and had to go down to the lake
from time to time to drink. I finally fell asleep. On awak
ening and recommending myself to my Angel Guardian and
to Father de Rrebeuf, I heard the report of a musket. My
people, who had been all night worrying about my absence,
were out looking for me. I shouted a reply, and another
shot was fired in response. I started to where the sound
came from and arriving at the shore of the lake I saw M. de
Xormanville and my host coming toward me in a canoe.
When I reached the cabin they looked at me as if I had risen
from the dead. They gave me some fish which they had
caught and I ate it without bread, or wine, or sauce other
than what hunger gave, and that was enough.

" On St. Mark's day, after the procession and Mass. I

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

blessed the lake and called it after St. Thomas. I also
blessed the canoes and dedicated each one to some saint.
We painted the names on them in red letters. Before going
to the tribe's meeting-place, everyone prepared himself for
a general Communion which took place on May ist. On
the following day we got into our canoes, and until the i8th
we were travelling over all sorts of rivers and lakes, which
we had to reach by roads whose very names still make me
shudder. Frequently it was only by climbing across por
tages of steep rocks with our canoes and baggage. We not
only had nothing to eat, but had no hopes of getting any.

It was now Ascension Day, and after saying Mass on a
beautiful flat rock in the middle of an island, and then trav
elling over passes which filled us with terror and dismay, we
arrived at the general meeting-place where I was delighted
to see towering above everything a great and Avell-made
cross. We knelt and invoked the protection of our Angel
Guardians and St. Peter, whom we made patron of the
country. Then we discharged a volley of musketry, but
were surprised to hear only the shouts of a few children in
reply. A moment after the chief appeared and came down
to the shore. ' Father,' he said, ' the reason we did not
answer your salute was, not want of means to do so, or lack
of esteem for you, but the people were at prayers in the
chapel thanking God for your coming.' ' Splendid ! ' said I ;
4 but tell me who planted the cross?' 'It was put there
long ago/ he answered, ' by the first Christians. And why
should they not? ' he continued; ' were not they as well as
the French obliged to do so? But come, let us enter the
chapel.'

" It was a small arbor-shaped structure made of bark.
At one end was a sort of an altar, covered with blue stuff,
on which were fastened paper pictures and little crucifixes.
We all knelt down and said our beads together and then
sung some pious canticles in thanksgiving.

" After that the chief men came to pay their respects,
and to present their little children for baptism. We bap
tized about fifteen, but as it was already night, we put off
the rest till the following day. The older people were so
anxious to be instructed then and there that I had scarcely
time to say my office. I began with the oldest and found
some of them, eighty and a hundred years of age, who had
never seen a white man, and wrho were so well disposed

JAMES BUTEUX

for the Faith that they seemed to me like St. Anne ami
Simeon waiting in the temple for the message of salvation.

" Although time was very precious and I was sorely in
need of rest I had to let them have a dance in the cabin to
show their gratitude and happiness after the fashion of the
country ; and next day, nothing would do but to take part
in a banquet, where the viands were remarkable for their
scarceness. It had not snowed much that winter and there
was danger of a famine. Where we had expected to find
abundance of food there was want, lint the good will of
the people was all the more acceptable on that account and
their excellent dispositions served me instead of food.

" On the next day seven or eight families arrived with
their babies to be baptized. I prepared the people for con
fession, and as there was a great crowd who had never been
at confession before I thought 1 should have had a hard time
of it. but they were so well instructed that it was like hear
ing so many French people. Every one had his beads and
knew his prayers. They had instructed each other."

Father Buteux then tells us, at great length, how these
good Indians kept the record of their sins; by notches on
pieces of wood, or by painting them on pieces of bark or
skin, or by beads and the like. He dilates with great enthu
siasm on the solidity of their faith, which was evinced by
their determination to expel any vicious person from their
midst, their assiduity at prayer, their continual habit of pre
paring for death, and their love for the souls in Purgatory.

The cemeteries were kept with the greatest care. At the
foot of the grave were two crosses. For men some warlike
implement was laid upon the tomb, and for women an
article of one kind or another from the household. At first
they buried the rosaries with the body, but afterwards an
other custom was adopted. The dying person gave his
beads to some friend with the agreement to pray for the
soul of the giver. In one place the priest was startled by
seeing some pots filled with meat hung in the graveyard.
" It is not superstition," they hastened to tell him, " but an
inducement to the poor who come there to pray for the dead

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

in return for the public charity that is exercised in that
way."

Resuming the journal., he says:

" After remaining some days in the place of the first
meeting, I went with a convoy of thirty-five canoes to an
other place twenty-five leagues away. We had no other
provisions than the fish we caught, and nine or ten ounces
a day was all that any of us could get to eat. It was our
bread, our meat, our entrees, our dessert. Our soup was the
water in which we boiled our fish. At times, however, we
had a little more abundant fare ; but man can subsist on
very little, and God sustains our bodies as well as our souls.
' The day after leaving we came to some frightful cata
racts ; one in particular, after roaring over a rocky bed, sud
denly leaps down a precipice into a basin of stone a hundred
feet long. There the river boils so furiously that if you
throw a stick into it you see it sink out of sight and then
rise high in the air forty or fifty feet away. To avoid these
cataracts we had to carry our traps over lofty mountains ;
all the while skirting the edge of precipices on the narrow
est kind of a trail. For a long time we were only one step
away from death.

" On the third day we arrived at our destination and
were received with a volley of musketry. When the chief
had finished his short but affectionate harangue we were
led straight to the chapel, which was made of the bark of
odoriferous pine. No European had ever set foot in it."

The usual consolation awaited him there. Not only
were the Christians faithful to their duties, but had been
assiduous in instructing others in the Faith. Indeed, in his
long account he chronicles many instances of remarkable
piety. He regrets that he cannot recount them all.

" From the second assembly we went to a third, three
days away," he says. ' This time there were sixty canoes in
the company. In this last place I experienced only sorrow,
for the people came from a country where the Faith is re
garded as the law of death, and where polygamy reigns.
I did all I could to instruct them, and the Indians who had
come with me gave me wonderful help. We got the people
to erect a cross and build a chapel, and there I taught them

JAMES BUTEUX

from morning till night. They always came to listen, and
put off the most urgent work to do so. They brought me
all their drums and the other superstitious articles which
they used in their conjuring. Even during the night they
came to put questions to me. Several asked for baptism
during the ten days 1 remained there, but i did not think it
proper to grant their request, except lor the very old people
who I feared might soon die. 1 found one old blind man of
eighty who was a marvel in the way lie grasped the truths
I taught him. lie was never weary of teaching the others
what he learned.

" Hunger broke up the meeting, but they begged me to
return next year and asked so affectionately that 1 was very
much consoled. Ever\one wanted beads; some asked them
for others whom they might meet in the woods. I sent
some also to the various chiefs, and only regretted they
were not of better material. It is wonderful what zeal
these people have for conversions. If we could only go
among the remote tribes we should have all we could do to
take care of them.

" We returned by another road. It was over rapids and
precipices and amid horrors of every sort. In less than
five days we had to make thirty-five portages, some a league
and a half in length. ( hir loads were heavy and our pro
visions light, but (iod gave us. strength to reach home in
safety. All the fatigues I had undergone did not affect my
health. I arrived at Three Rivers on the i8th of June.

" In the spring time I hope to return and go as far as the
North Sea, to find new people and bring them to the light of
the Faith. However, since our return, the Iroquois have in
vaded the country. My poor people can embrace the cross
only through persecution and death."

\Ve are unable to say exactly how far Father Buteux
went on this journey, but judging from what he tells us
about his going from lake to lake to meet the different In
dian assemblies, it would appear that he must have reached
what are now put down on the maps as The Sources of the
St. Maurice. This group of lakes is up at the Height of
Land, or the crest of the watershed, one side of which slopes
towards Hudson Bay.

In a letter which he wrote in the following November he

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

speaks of a massacre occurring at Lake Kisagami. That
name does not appear on any of the ancient or modern
charts, though there are some that resemble it, as, for in
stance, Lake Nattagame, which is very far to the north and
at no great distance from Hudson Bay. Had he succeeded
in reaching that place he would have anticipated Father
Albanel by twenty years. There is another lake, however,
called Kinougami, which is on the southern watershed and
not far from the Aspamouachan River. It is impossible to
determine, however, either the place to which he had first
gone, or the other more important one where he was killed
in the following year.

In the letter above referred to, he says that on leaving
Sillery he was overwhelmed with spiritual desolation, but
when he reached Three Rivers he understood the reason of
it. It was to prepare him for future crosses. One reason of
his distress was that some Indians had died without Bap
tism ; another that the Iroquois were busy massacring his
neophytes. That terrible foe had gone as far as Lake
Kisagami, which was twenty days' journey in the snow, and
some of the fugitives were already flocking into Three
Rivers. Among them was an Indian saint. He had lost
his wife, his father, three children, three brothers, and a
sister; and yet not a murmur ever left his lips. The wife
he was bereft of was a wonderfully holy person.

" She was the most beautiful woman," says Buteux,
" that I have ever seen among these people, and also the
most accomplished. She was a good housekeeper, ex
tremely industrious, very liberal and courageous, and at
the same time modest, charitable, wonderfully humble, and,
above all, always on fire for the conversion of the Indians.
Indeed, she lost her life on that account. She might have
gone to Tadoussac, which was as yet unknown to the Iro
quois, but the desire to help her people at Lake Kisagami
prompted her to remain. She had already converted twenty-
five families, and so wound herself around the heart of her

JAMES BUTEUX

husband that she changed him from a fierce savage into a
holy man. For six years the happy pair never failed to make
long and dangerous journeys together, to go to confession
and Communion. They had intended to pass the winter
at Three Rivers, to perfect their knowledge of the Faith,
but death interfered with that." Whether the poor woman
was killed or led into captivity we are not told.

The opening page of the " Relation " of 1652 is the con
cluding chapter of Father Buteux's life. lie had passed the
winter at Three Rivers, and in the springtime some poor
people of the White Fish tribe who had come down to the
settlement for instructions asked him to go with them to
their country. He consented, and on April 4 started out
towards the north. On the eve of his departure he wrote
the following letter to Father Ragueneau :

" Dear Reverend Father:

" We are now planning our departure. God grant that
they may not back out. at the last moment, and that we may
leave for good and all. .May Heaven be the term of this last
journey! This is the hope laid up in my heart. Our party
is a very weak one. The men are all ailing, and the rest are
women and children, about 60 in all. The food and pro
visions of this little party must be furnished by him who
feeds the birds. I am going accompanied by all my miseries,
and I have great need of your prayers and those of the
Fathers. I ask them in all humility. My heart tells me
that the time of my happiness draws near. It is the Lord ;
let that be done which is good in his eyes."

Clearly Buteux knew of his approaching death, and this
journey to the grave was a very painful one. They travelled
about a month, suffering much from hunger and fatigue.
Often not a morsel passed their lips for days. On Ascen
sion Day they divided into two bands, for the purpose of
finding food, but also to provide against total extermination
by the Iroquois. If one division were massacred, the other
might escape. It was a cheerless outlook. They made the

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

best of it, however, and before bidding good-by to each
other all went to confession and Communion.

With the missionary were a young Frenchman and a
Huron. The snows had melted, and the rivers were free of
ice. They were in a little canoe which they had made, and
camped wherever the night found them.

On the loth of May they had to leave their boat three
different times, and as they were making their last portage,
and bending under their heavy loads, they suddenly found
themselves surrounded by Iroquois. The Huron, who was
in the lead, was seized so unexpectedly that he had not time
to make a single step backward. The priest and the French
man fell riddled with bullets. The savages then rushed upon
them with their knives and tomahawks, stripped them naked
and flung them into the river. The last word on the lips
of both was " Jesus."

Two days afterwards, some other Christians, following
the same trail, were also captured. One of them, an Algon
quin, was burnt alive on the spot. The Huron who had
been with Buteux was carried off to be tortured on the
Mohawk, but after some days he succeeded in making his
escape, and arrived at Three Rivers with the sad news.
Some Christians went up the river, later on, to find the body
of the priest, but they met with no success. However, they
came upon the corpse of the young Frenchman half eaten
by the crows and wild beasts.

" Father Buteaux," says Ragueneau, " had a wonderful
power of instilling piety in the hearts of his neophytes.
You could always recognize his Indians, by their tender
devotion and their solid faith. He was a man of prayer, and
of such constant mortification, that his life was a continual
fast. He always slept on the ground, and gave himself only
a few hours for that miserable rest. Though he was always
weak, and never free from pain, he practised mortifications
far beyond his strength. Hearing some one remark that
it would be better to be put to death instantly, than to fall
into the hands of the Iroquois, he said that although the tor-

JAMES BUTEUX

tures would be terrible, he would prefer to die at a slow fire.
no matter how cruel the savages might be; for grace pre
vails over everything, and an act of the love of God is purer
in the midst of fire. Indeed he was a thousand time> in
places where the Iroquois might seize him, hut he never
quailed or even changed color; nor did any danger ever
make him draw back a single step when there was hope of
doing anything for the glory of God."

The whole life of this great missionary was so wonderful
that the people of Three Rivers ought to petition for his
canonization.

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

CHAPTER I.
DOWN THE KENNEBEC.

On the northern boundary of the State of Michigan, near
where Lake Superior rushes over the rocks at Sault Ste.
Marie and flows down to Lake Huron through the beautiful
St. Mary's River, stands a monument which commemorates
the official appropriation of the northwest territory by the
delegate of Louis XIV in 1671. On the shaft, along with
the names of the civic and military functionaries, we find
those of Father Allouez, Louis Andre, and Gabriel Druil-
lettes, all of the Society of Jesus.

If we are to accept the testimony of Rochemonteix and
Gilmary Shea, Druillettes was at that time seventy-eight
years old, having been born in 1593. But there is some
ddubt about the correctness of the date, just as there is
about the place of his birth, some putting it at Gurat, or
Garat, and others again at Beaulieu. In fact, we know little
or nothing about the illustrious man's early life, except that
he came to Canada, on August 15, 1643, on the same ship
with Chabanel and Garreau, both of whom were subse
quently slain by the Indians.

He was scarcely a year in the country, when he was sent
out on the winter hunt with the Algonquins, many of whom
were Christians. They had started ahead of him, and he
got into his canoe with two young braves, and joined the
party far down the river. As he was seen approaching,
•every one hastened to the shore to greet him. Negabamat,
the great chief, made the customary speech of welcome, and
a day or so after all rolled up their strips of bark, the ma
yo

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

tcrial, namely, for constructing a shelter at the encamp
ments, and made for the woods in search of game.

At every stopping place, their first care was to build a
chapel where Mass and morning prayers were said. Before
starting out for the day's hunt, the Indians knelt for the
priest's blessing, and at night prayers were recited. \Yhen
shifting their quarters they always erected a great cross,
around which they knelt to say their prayers and sing some
simple hymn. At midday they halted for their meal, which
was only dried meat, "as hard," says Druillettes, "as iron
and as tasteless as hemp." Finally, at night they slept on
the ground, with only the vault of heaven above their
heads. " It was the sort of an inn," says the chronicle,
"where you did not have to settle with the host."

During that journey Mass was said every day. Sundays
and festivals were scrupulously kept, and many of the In
dians went to confession and Communion. Christmas espe
cially was observed with great solemnity, for the Algon-
quins had a great devotion to the Infant Jesus. They usu
ally built a little side chapel of cedar and pine, where they
went to pray, and to offer the acts of voluntary penance
they had performed as a preparation for the feast. On St.
Joseph's day they lighted a bonfire, " an easy thing to do,"
says Druillettes, "' with the millions of tall trees around
them," and on Good Friday they laid out on the snow a fine
beaver skin, on which they placed a crucifix. Kneeling
around it, they prayed most fervently.

Thus winter passed, and when the thaws set in the scat
tered bands all met on the banks of the St. Lawrence, and
there erected a great cross as a memorial of their winter
expedition.

Druillettes revelled in the spiriual joy which the piety
of his Algonquins gave him, but he purchased his pleasures
by a great deal of bodily suffering. He had nothing on
which to rest his weary bones at night but a few pine
branches laid on the snow, and nothing but a thin roll of

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

bark to shelter him from the storms. He lived with dogs
as well as human beings, for in those Indian camps every
thing is common for man and beast. He fasted more rigor
ously on Sunday in the woods than he would have done
on Good Friday in Quebec. He had only enough to stave
off death, but not enough to give him strength. As the
" Relation " puts it, " filth was his cook and constant com
panion " ; and in spite of his affection for these wretched
creatures, and their love for him, he was their laughing
stock when he made a blunder of speech, or when he lacked
skill in the craftsmanship of the savages. The strength of
the ox and the fleetness of the deer were their ideals of
worth, and they had only scorn for intellectual acquire
ments. There was no school of theology or philosophy in
the forests.

In brief, the number and character of his sufferings con
vinced him he had not found the terrestrial paradise, and he
thought once he was going off to the celestial one. The
smoke of the wigwam had made him stone blind, his bones
were racked with agonizing pain, and he was reduced to
such a state of helplessness that it was determined to tie
him on a toboggan and drag him along like luggage. But
as he laughingly refused to be treated in that fashion, they
gave him a boy to lead him on the trail. He grew worse,
however, and then a solemn council was convoked to decide
what to do with him. When the debate was over, the chief
pompously approached the sufferer and said: "There is a
woman here who can cure you, if you put yourself in her
hands." It was a matter of blind obedience, so he assented.
As an initial treatment, the squaw led him out of the wig
wam and said : " Now open your eyes wide and look at the
sun." While he was staring in spite of the glare, the fair
" oculist," as the " Relation " calls her, took a rusty iron
and began to rasp at his eyelids. Her hand was not as
light as a feather, and her skill was on the same level as her
science ; so she soon developed a running sore on the eye. In

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

spite of the operation his sight was as dim as ever, and the
lady admitted she had nothing else to suggest. She had
exhausted her medical knowledge, so the victim turned else
where and determined to ask God to cure him. If his prayer
was to be heard he wanted the savages to know it.

Blind as he was he determined to say Mass, for he knew
the Mass of the Blessed Virgin by heart, and he summoned
every one around and told them what he was going to do,
bidding them to pray with him.

" Whether or not," says the " Relation " very cautiously,
"God had chosen that time to be the term of the Father's
sufferings, or whether it was a direct answer to prayer,
it happened that, while he stood at the altar, a bright ray
of light scattered the darkness that bad settled on bis eyes,
and he not only saw perfectly, but all his bodily pains left
him, and never after that did the smoke or snow cause him
the slightest inconvenience." After some months he arrived
at Quebec in perfect health.

lie was in Montreal for a time after this expedition, and
later was, as far as we can make out, laboring in Quebec
about the time that Xicolet was drowned in the St. Law
rence. That disaster was the occasion though not the cause
of a series of journeys which have given Druillettes consid
erable prominence in American history.

Xicolet had lost his life in an attempt to save some
Abnakis from being burned at the stake in Three Rivers.
He never reached the place, but when the Algonquin Chief
Charles Meiaskwat arrived there with the news of the
tragedy. Xicolet's wishes were respected and the captives
were liberated and brought to Quebec. The Sisters in the
hospital soon healed the wounds of the poor wretches, who
had been horribly maltreated, and loaded them with pres
ents when Meiaskwat went with them to the Abnakis
country. The people heard with wonder what had hap
pened, and an Abnaki sagamo immediately started off to
see the wonderful White Virgins. Other Indians soon fol-

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

lowed, and in a few years there were Christians in every
village along the Kennebec.

Finally, on Assumption Day, 1646, two sagamos came to
Quebec for missionaries. Montmagny was only too anxious
to accede to their request, especially as peace had just been
concluded with the Iroquois ; and hence, after much prayer
and deliberation, Father Jerome Lalemant wrote in his
"Journal," under date of August 21, 1646, as follows:
" To-day I held a consultation, at which Fathers de Quen,
Le Jeune, and Vimont were present. It was decided to
send Father Druillettes to winter among the Abnakis, and
Father Jogues among the Iroquois."

On the 29th there is another entry in the " Journal " :
" Father Gabriel Druillettes set out for the mission of the
Assumption, with two canoes of savages, under the Chief
Claude, who is a good Christian. The name ' Assumption '
was given to the mission, because it was on that day the
Indians presented their petition." Father Jogues left for
his destination a month later, for we find the following entry
in September : " Father Jogues is to set out on the 24th to
winter among the Iroquois, along with Lalande, Outrihoure,
an Iroquoised Huron, and two or three other Hurons who
are going to visit some of their relatives held in captivity
there."

Druillettes was perfectly well aware of the danger, but
it mattered little to him, so with a light heart he stepped
into his canoe, and crossed to the other side of the St. Law
rence a short distance above Pointe Levis, where the Chau-
diere empties into the great river.

The stream is tranquil enough when you enter it from
the St. Lawrence, but a little further up it runs furiously
down towards you through a deep gorge, for two miles or
more, at the end of which is a great cataract which leaps
over a precipice 130 feet above. The fall is split by an im
pending rock just as the waters are about to plunge into the
fathomless gulf beneath, from which ascend clouds of vapor

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

that hover like the steam of a seething cauldron above the
surrounding country. Hence, the name of Chaudiere, or
Boiling Cauldron.

Around this great waterfall the travelers carried their
canoes, and embarked on the river which folds continually
in on itself like a crimped ribbon on its way down from Lake
Megantic. Whether the travelers followed it through all
its course, or portaged over to Moose Head, out of which
the Kennebcc flows, we have no means of determining. At
all events they reached the Abnaki region, "over roads,"
says the "Relation," "which seem to lead to hell, but in
reality make for heaven." No white man had made that
journey before Druillettes.

He passed the autumn and winter there, amid the usual
horrors of savage life. Fortunately, we have a very de
tailed account of this first visit to the Kennebec. It is to be
found in the " Relation " of 1647. A few extracts will suf
fice for our present purpose.

As soon as he arrived, all the savages from far and near
came to visit him, " saluting him," he says, " with more
heartiness and simplicity than politeness." The sick dragged
themselves for miles to ask his prayers, and bis amiability
won the hearts of all. He was a man of very charming man
ners, and his interest in them was so sincere that they could
not do too much to show their gratitude. His quickness in
learning their language especially pleased them. It had very
little affinity with the Algonquin, with which he was famil
iar, but he managed to master it so rapidly that every one
was amazed.

Shortly after his arrival, he went down the Kennebec
with an Indian to an English trading post, at Cousinoc, the
present Augusta, where he was most cordially received by
the Agent, Edward Winslow, who from that out became his
affectionate and lifelong friend. He did not remain long,
however, for his people needed him, and about the middle
of October he bade good-by to Winslow and resumed his

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

work among the redmen. He visited the sick, and even
washed and cleaned and fed them, often going without food
to give it to them. Old and young, men and women, con
tinually thronged to his cabin to listen to him ; and it is
said that many miraculous cures were effected by his
prayers. Indeed, he was more remarkable as a thaumaturge
than any of the missionaries.

The Abnakis were very proud of him, and to please them
he had to go a second time to Cousinoc, and then to the sea,
where his Indians exhibited him all along the coast. He
visited seven or eight English posts, and everywhere he was
received with the greatest manifestation of respect. He
journeyed as far as the Penobscot on this occasion, and he
found there a small convent of Capuchin Friars. Charle-
voix says that they had an establishment on the Kennebec,
but there is no mention of such a post in the " Relations."
The Superior at Penobscot, Father Ignatius of Paris, wel
comed him cordially, as was to be expected from a man
who was named Ignatius, and who was a Parisian and a
Capuchin. Druillettes remained some time there, and then
returned by way of Cousinoc, for he wanted to show Wins-
low the letters he had received from the Sieur de Chastes,
whom he had met on the coast and who had supplied him
with ample provisions for his journey home. Winslow was
delighted with the laudatory tone of the letters, and had a
copy made of them to show to the authorities of Plymouth
and Boston. Meantime he gave the priest leave to go
among the Indians at the fort, and even supplied him with
timber to build a chapel.

Druillettes enjoined three things on these Indians. The
first was to abstain from fire-water, which they all promised
to do ; and, what is better, they kept their word. The sec
ond was to put an end to the war with their neighbors, and
in this he succeeded so well that a famous chief who had
got into a quarrel in his own village scourged himself pub
licly, and begged the offended party to forgive him. The

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

third was to throw away their manitous. Very many did
so, and that put an end, for a time at least, to the nightly
shouts and yells of the medicine men in their incantatiun>
over the sick. Some stubborn ones, however, still held out.

lie remained there till the middle of January, and had
the happiness of baptizing thirty dying persons, whom he-
had previously instructed; among them an old M>rcerer, who
got well as soon as he had discarded his conjuring-drum.
Druillettes was a little uncomfortable when the old fellow
recovered, for so far he had baptized only those who were
at the point of death.

The impression he made on the Indians was so great
that the squaws began to pray over their sick babies, and
God often rewarded their simple faith. The medicine men
were, of course, arrayed against him, and they were in great
glee when the chief, at whose lodge Druillettes lived, fell
sick. They were sure he would die, but to their intense re
gret he recovered. He had two or three relapses, but came
out safely. After that Druillettes' reputation was secure.

But sorrow fell on the family of this much favored chief.
His little boy, to whom he was very much attached, sick
ened and died ; but instead of growing gloomy over it, the
valiant man invited his friends to a banquet, where he made
a great speech and expressed his delight that the child was
safe in heaven.

Another case occurred of a poor fellow who relapsed
into evil courses after his almost miraculous cure. He had
gone down to Boston and indulged uproariously in fire
water, with the usual consequences. He fell sick again,
but to vindicate the missionary, he summoned his friends
to his cabin and declared that he richly deserved the pun
ishment he was undergoing.

Druillettes was named " the Patriarch " by his Indians.
They never tired of extolling his virtues, his fearlessness
in facing contagion, his immunity from disease, his absti
nence from food, for they saw him refraining from eating

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

meat for months at a time, so as to give it to others, and,
above all, his freedom from all suspicion that he was seek
ing personal gain quite captured their hearts. He was after
souls, not furs. It was hard for them to understand how
this scholarly man, who had always enjoyed the comforts of
civilized life, could live in their hovels. They saw that he
was venerated by the French, and, what was more surpris
ing, respected by the English ; yet he was always happy in
an Indian wigwam, was intensely interested in Indian
babies, was unwearied in nursing the sick, and was able to
bear long journeys in the forests and over mountains as
well as the most stalwart Abnaki.

In the winter they went up to Moose Head to hunt, and
the medicine man predicted all sorts of misfortune for those
who had accepted the prayer. They were sure to have a
spell cast over them, or would be caught by the Iroquois, or
would find no game. All these prophecies of evil failed.
Druillettes accompanied them everywhere. He instructed
his squad of hunters as they went along and made them
pray, and so won their good will that everybody wanted to
be near him. When the hunt was over the scattered groups
met on the shores of the lake, and to their great delight not
only was no one injured during all that time, but they had
a plentiful supply of moose, elk, bear, etc., while the Indians
who held off from the priest had no luck at all.

After remaining some time at the lake, they descended
the Kennebec, and insisted again on showing their " Patri
arch " to the English, " Houinslaud," as the " Relation "
tentatively spells the name of the Agent. Winslow, who
meantime had gone down to Boston and Plymouth, told
Druillettes that he had presented Chastes' letters to the
most important personages of New England, among others,
to four ministers, and that all had not only expressed their
delight at the arrival of the missionary, but had blessed God
for inspiring him to devote himself to the work. They were
most willing that he should build a house on the Kennebec,

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

and promised not to molest him in the exercises of his min
istry. " If you would remain here," he added, " some of the
English would visit you," which would seem to imply, as
the " Relation " suggests, that there were some Catholics
in New England at that time. Could it be possible that
Major Gibbons, who was so solicitous about Druillettes
four years later, was of the Faith? At last, on the 2Oth of
May, he bade good-by to " Houinslaud," and after going
around to all the Indian villages, baptizing the dying and
obtaining health for the sick by his prayers, he turned his
face towards Canada. The Indians, old and young, re
proached him bitterly. " You don't love us any more. You
do not care if we die, for you are abandoning us." But he
had to obey orders, and he departed for the north. Thirty
braves accompanied him to Quebec, where he arrived on
the 1 5th of June, in vigorous health, although his delay in
coming made his friends fear that he had fallen sick on the
way.

CHAPTER II.
IN NEW ENGLAND.

Druillettes expected to return to his Abnakis, but was
told to dismiss all thoughts of it. The reason of this order is
set down by Lalemant without note or comment in the
"Journal" of 1647, and is as follows:

" On the 3d or 4th of August, the Abnakis asked to see
me to thank me for Father Druillettes' visit, and to request
his return. But as the last representatives of the Abnakis
had brought letters from the Capuchin Fathers asking us
not to return, I refused the Indians, and gave them the same
answer that I had sent to the Capuchins."

What makes this opposition of the Friars particularly
regrettable is that, according to Shea in his " Catholic Mis
sions," they never attempted any work among the Indians.
They were merely chaplains to the French. Nor did they
remain long even in that capacity, for before 1650 they were
carried off by de la Tour, who was fighting with Aulnay for
the possession of Acadia. Indeed, their attitude was so un
reasonable that, after some hesitation, it was decided to dis
regard it. Hence, we find another entry in the " Journal,"
that " in July, 1648, it was determined in the Consultation
that if the Abnakis asked again for the Father he was to be
sent."

Meantime, however, the upper Algonquins were again
starting on their annual hunt, and wanted a priest. Druil
lettes was assigned to the work and passed another winter
of terrible sufferings in the mountains of the St. Lawrence,
down near the Gulf.

They first went as far as Tadoussac, and on the 8th of
October crossed the great river to the south side. As the
St. Lawrence is between twenty-four and thirty miles wide

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

at that place, of course they had to wait for tine weather,
but they finally reached the opposite shore in safety and
then dispersed in the woods. Druillettes' squad consisted
of about fifty people, not counting the very small children.
They kept journeying in a northeasterly direction, till they
arrived at the river Matanne, which flows into the St. Law
rence above the Restigouche, which the Inter-Colonial
Railroad of to-day crosses at the head of the P.aie des Cha-
leurs. At the mouth of the Matanne they left their two
canoes and kept plodding- onward, till they came to the
mountains of Notre Dame, which are at the mouth of the
St. Lawrence. The " Relations " furnish us with the in
teresting information, that when the ships from Europe
sighted these mountains the passengers who had never seen
them before had to go through the same unpleasant cere
monies that sailors subject people to when crossing the
equator, dousing them with water, etc. These mountains
were about four days' journey from the Matanne, "over
roads," we are told, " more generously paved than the great
highway from Paris to Orleans, but not so smooth or even.
The stones were placed there by the hand of nature, and
were of a most delightful variety ; some as sharp as knives.
others covered with moss ; they were round, and square, and
big, and little. In a word, it was a chcmin dc fcr. " ( )ver that
road." continues the narrative, " we had to carry our houses
and our provisions on our backs. \Ye found our beds every
where. He who made the earth and the woods and the
rocks, had also made the mattresses and the sheets which
the savages use when they set out on their journeys."

On the 7th of November, when they were eating the last
handful of Indian corn that was left in their sacks, a chief
addressed them. "Keep up your courage; now we shall
have to starve. There are no porcupines here ; the beavers
are scarce ; and the snow is not deep enough to hunt the
elk." But the Indians did not seem to be distressed over
the announcement, and the Christians among them offered

6 Ri

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

their sufferings to God, and prayed that because of their
hunger He would save them from the Iroquois.

When they reached the Mountains of Notre Dame their
sufferings were terrible. Still they kept on, and one old
woman surprised even the braves by climbing the highest
of the peaks. " How did you do it?" they asked. "My
Guardian Angel helped me," she said. " It was a great
feat," they assured her. " And as you are about as old as
this mountain, we are going to give you its name." From
that out the venerable squaw was known as the Ouabask,
a name that doesn't sound unlike one that was heard later,
in the far West, the Wabash ; but only the philologists can
tell us if there is any linguistic kinship.

Food grew scarcer, but after a while the party that was
in the section where there was supposed to be least game
succeeded in killing many a wild beast, while the hide of an
elk which old Noel had shot supplied material for snow-
shoes. That made hunting easier, for the snow was now
very deep. Enough game was furnished by the hunters at
least to support life.

During all this trip Druillettes continued his exhorta
tions, and God seems to have given him almost miraculous
powers in healing the sick. The Indians were enthusiastic,
and one grateful savage planted a cross on the highest
mountain in gratitude for what had been done to him in
that respect. There was even a case of what seemed to be
diabolical possession, and the victim was none other than
the daughter of the chief. But she, too, recovered.

When the winter was over the tribes met again at the
River Matanne, where they had left their canoes. It was
the 3d of March, but they waited there till the I4th of April
for the stragglers, and then made for Tadoussac, which was
one hundred and twenty miles away. They were anxious
to reach that place at the end of the month, to celebrate
the feast of St. Michael, to whom the little chapel in the
cove was dedicated, and though usually it wpuld take a

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

month to travel that distance, a favorable wind helped them
to realize their hopes.

When they arrived at Quebec, Druillettes gathered
them all around him, and with his crucifix held aloft gave
thanks to God for the protection that had been vouchsafed
during the winter. The white people looked on in silent
wonder, some of them weeping at the sight of the poor
emaciated and barefooted missionary, wrapped in his Indian
blanket, exhorting his people who knelt before him as he
gave them his parting benediction.

During his absence the Abnakis in Maine had sent dele
gation after delegation to have their beloved Patriarch re
turn to them. They said they had secured the permission
of the Patriarchs of Acadia (the Capuchins) for him to
resume his apostolic work; and finally a letter came from
the Superior on the Pein>l»cot. Cosme do Mante, begging
for the same favor. It was dated 1648, and ran as follows:

"We entreat your Reverence, through the holy love of
Jesus and Mary, for the salvation of these poor souls to
wards the south who beg it of you, to give them every assist
ance that your courageous and indefatigable charity can be
stow, and, even if crossing the Kennebec you should meet
any of Ours, you will please us if you will make known
your needs to them ; and if you have none we ask you to
continue your holy instructions to those poor abandoned
barbarians as much as your charity will permit." It is
curious that the Kennebec, which the English, later on, de
clared to be the dividing line between the French and Eng
lish territory, was also proclaimed as an ecclesiastical de
marcation.

In consequence of this return of good feeling, Father
Druillettes, accompanied by a Frenchman, went with a
party of Abnakis on his second trip to the Kennebec. It
was September first. Unfortunately the old route was not
followed, and they attempted one on which many Indians
had previously lost their lives from fatigue or hunger. After

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

fifteen days the provisions gave out and not a third of the
journey had been accomplished. As usual, Druillettes
brought the Lord to the aid of the famishing crew. He was
just leaving the altar, when a young Christian Indian who
had gone into the woods to find something to appease his
hunger, came back with three elks and three moose. The
savages devoured all they could, attacked the meat again
and again, dried what was left, and then took up their
paddles.

For some reason or another they had portaged into the
River St. John, whose headwaters are not far from those of
the Chaudiere; and they had to return after finding their
mistake. They were now working against the current, and
there were so many rocks and shallowrs, besides portages of
five or six leagues in length, that an Etchemin Indian who
was in the party wanted to turn back and to follow the
course of the river to where it empties into the Bay of
Fundy. When he was remonstrated with, that such a course
would be virtually abandoning the Abnakis, he relented, and
for three days worked furiously in rounding and avoiding
the cataracts that were met with continually. Then he lost
heart again, and turned angrily on Druillettes, abusing him
for having caused them to lose their way. The situation
became so unpleasant that the priest had to get into another
canoe. He even abandoned part of his baggage to lighten
the burden. This concession mollified the savage. He took
up his paddle again, and in the portages always trudged
alongside of Druillettes and his companion. He was aton
ing for his bad temper. He never grew weary. Indeed, says
the " Relation," " those Indians are like English horses :
they will eat all night and travel all day. The priest had
to imitate them, except for the eating. He would work all
day long without a mouthful, and at night would take for
his only meal a little bit of jerked meat, or perhaps a fish
which he had managed to catch. The bare ground was his
bed, and a log his pillow, but he slept more sweetly than if

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

he were lying on feathers or down." After twenty-two or
three days, he at last arrived at the village, as the " Rela
tion " calls it, of " Naranchouak."

He was welcomed with a volley of musketry. The Chief
Oumandarok embraced him, and after a long speech in
which he thanked the Great Spirit for having sent him back,
he inquired if he had been well treated on the way, and
when some one told him of the bad behavior of the Ktche-
min, he grew very angry and. apostrophizing the culprit,
said: " If you were of our tribe, I would make you feel the
weight of the displeasure of every one here."

The poor Etchemin did not excuse himself, but acknowl
edged his fault.

" I had no sense " he said, " to have acted so; especially
as his prayers saved my life. He watched all night at my
side, and drove away the demon that was trying to kill inc.
He was not satisfied with carrying his own pack, but insisted
on taking mine. He obtained from Him who made all
things whatever he asked. When the water was low he
prayed, and the rivers were immediately full, so that we
could travel with ease. When we were hungry, he obtained
from God more food than we could cat. He never ate
meat when it was fresh, but used to go out to fish at night
and he gave us the best of what he caught. When our
canoes were in danger of striking the rocks in shallow
water, he got out, and I have seen him walking for six days
at a time in thick undergrowth, and over horrible rocks.
He would eat nothing till nightfall and then he was fresher
and livelier than any of us. He is not a man ; he is a Xious-
keou, an extraordinary spirit. When I cried out against
him and blamed him for our sufferings, he never answered
a word, or if he did, he was so sweet and kind that one
would have believed he felt guilty. Yes, I had no sense,
but I want to have, I want to love the prayer, and be in
structed by the Patriarch."

No doubt after this discourse Druillettes affectionately
embraced the penitent, and instructed him in the Faith.

The news of his arrival at Xarantsouac brought all the
savages who lived along the Kennebec and in the neighbor-

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

ing country to see him. They were all happy at his return,
reproached him for having left them, and listened eagerly
to all he had to say about " The Prayer."

But Druillettes had a very important political mission to
fulfill just then, besides prosecuting his apostolic work
among the Abnakis. He had been appointed by the Quebec
Government to go down into New England and, if possible,
make a treaty of mutual defense against the terrible Iro-
quois, and, as an inducement, he was to offer certain valu
able trade privileges with Quebec in return for the alliance.

It is remarkable that this is not explicitly set down in
the " Relation." He is represented as going merely as an
envoy of the Abnakis to ask for English protection, but in
a letter of Druillettes to Governor Winthrop, which
Thwaites gives in full, surmising that it was probably writ
ten in 1651, the missionary appeals for aid against the Iro-
quois ; but adds that " the Most Illustrious Governor of
Quebec commanded me to offer you in his name the most
ample commercial advantages and a considerable compen
sation for the expense of the war."

He also makes an admission which is notable, in con
nection with the claims made in Rale's time, seventy years
later. Druillettes says that the Kennebec catechumens are
inhabitants of New England, and the special clients of Ply
mouth Colony, which was an implicit abandonment of the
claim which the French made later with regard to the Ken
nebec country, and it may explain why it is not stated in
the " Relations " which were published in France. Per
haps it was expunged there. Whether this concession
was made with the assent of the French Governor or not, is
not explicitly stated, but it is not likely that Druillettes
would have dared to make the statement without authoriza
tion. In all probability, the Governor of Quebec knew that
if he insisted on French ownership of the territory he could
have no hopes of making a treaty.

Garneau informs us that the proposition for a commer-

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

cial treaty emanated from Xew England, and that a com
missioner had appeared at Quebec with that end in view
just prior to the second visit of Druillettes to Boston ; and
Hutchison, in his "History of Massachusetts Bay," says
that "proposals had been made in the year 1648, to Mon
sieur d'Ailleboust, the Governor of Canada, for free trade
between Massachusetts and that colony. The French pro
fessed to be greatly pleased, and a correspondence was kept
up on the subject until the year 1050, when the French
Governor sent an agent to Boston, not merely to settle the
question of trade, but to form a league or alliance, defensive
and offensive, between the Government of Canada and the
colonies of Massachusetts and Plymouth." Hutchison
does not tell us who the delegate was.

At that time the Xew England colonies were very
far from enjoying a condition of internal peace and tran
quillity. Cromwell had just beheaded Charles I, and while
the other colonies were royalist in their sympathies, a letter
from the General Court in Massachusetts Bay, dated 1050.
reminds the honorable Parliament, that " as for our carriage
and demeanor for these ten years, since the first beginning of
vour differences with the late King, and the war that there
after ensued, we have constantly adhered to you, not with
drawing ourselves in your weakest condition, and doubt-
fullest time, but by our fasting and prayers, for your good
success, and our thanksgiving, on days of solemnity set
apart for that purpose after the same was attained, as also
our sending over useful men (others also going voluntarily
from us to help you), for which we have suffered the hatred
and threats of other English colonies, now in rebellion
against you."

Cromwell recognized this loyalty of the Xew Englanders
to his cause, and thought he could not reward it better than
by asking them to emigrate to Ireland, to take possession
of the lands that he had devastated there. The offer was
refused, whereupon the Protector, who evidently had a poor

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

idea of New England's future, suggested to them to go to
Jamaica. That invitation was also declined.

There were commercial troubles also with the adjoining
colony of Connecticut, and in addition to all this the en
croachments of the Dutch in that region caused considerable
alarm. A certain number of Episcopalians were at the same
time clamoring for their rights as English subjects; Roger
Williams had left the colony in anger, and a little later the
persecution of the Quakers was begun and two of them were
executed. In 1656 the second execution for witchcraft took
place. Fcrdinando Gorges was also endeavoring to estab
lish an independent colony in Maine, and an alarming-
growth of democratic spirit was revealing itself in the pro
tests of the deputies against the autocratic power of the
magistrates who constituted the Upper House.

As if all this were not enough of trouble, according
to Hutchison, " the scrupulosity " of the good people of the
colony was at its height. Soon after Mr. Winthrop's death,
in 1649, Governor Endicott, the most rigid of any of the
magistrates, joined with other zealots in an association
against long hair, which was officially declared to be con
trary to the rule of- God's word, and it was enjoined that
" the members of the Church should not be defiled there
with." Previous to that, namely, in 1646, the same " scru
pulosity " had decreed that any Jesuits who persisted in re
maining in the colony should be put to death. Hutchison
does not mention this, as it is a little outside of his scope,
but we find it in Gilmary Shea's collection (Vol. I, p. 269).

Such were the perturbed conditions of New England,
social, political, and religious, when Druillettes went there.
His " Narre du Voyage, 1650-1 " is published entire in
Thwaites, V, xxxvi, and is very interesting reading, espe
cially for Americans. His shipwrecks in orthography are
delightful, as there is no harm done except to some personal
prejudices about how sounds should be written. Druillettes
had his own ideas and carried them out. He was such an

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

amiable man that nobody cared. No doubt that amiability
stood him in good stead, for it is amazing that in those
troubled times a Catholic priest should have dared to show
himself in close-cropped Puritanical Boston. lUit it was
quite unlikely that he went there in his cassock.

On September 28 he was at Cousinoc with his friend
\Vinslow. The affection of that excellent man had not
waned. On the contrary, he assured Xoel, after the chief
had made the usual speech, that " he would lodge Druillettes
at his own house and treat him as a brother." ' This," says
the " Xarre," " was because ' Houinslaud ' had a special /eal
for the conversion of the savages. Indeed, his brother
John was then appealing to the Parliament of England to
institute a brotherhood to train and instruct the savages."

Uruillcttes evidently did not sei/.e exactly the precise
purport of John \Yinslow's scheme. He had not estab
lished a " confraierie." but he had organized a corporation
in England to supply funds to support the Indian missions
in the colony. This corporation uas duly established, say.s
Hutchison, by an act of Parliament, which authorized col
lections to be made in England and \Yales for that purpose.
Oxford and Cambridge took up the work, and called upon
the ministers to promote it. Even the arm} was enlisted
in the cause. Of course, as usually happens, great opposi
tion was aroused, and the project was denounced as a
money-making scheme. Hugh Peters was accused of not
only refusing to give a penny himself, but also of discour
aging others, because he had no hand in laying the plan.
In spite of all this, however, by the time Charles II came
to the throne, the corporation had a revenue of five or six-
hundred pounds per annum, and because there were fears
of losing everything then, for the charter had been given
by the Parliament, and not by the King, a new concession
was obtained which assured the safety of the funds.

As Winslow had said that he would do everything for
" his brother " Druillettes, he was asked to accompany the

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

delegation to Boston. He agreed to do so, and started from
Cousinoc by land to Merrymeeting, or " Marmiten," as
Druillettes spells it, a distance of thirty miles. " That
road," says the " Narre," " was very difficult, especially for
the Agent who was already growing old, and he assured me
he would not have undertaken it if he had not given his
word to Noel.

On the 25th of November they set sail from Natsouac for
Merrymeeting, and on the way met some English fishermen
who complained that Winslow was conducting a French
spy along the coast.

They were not able to reach " Kepane," or Cape Anne,
until December 5th, and then had to go partly by land,
partly by water in order to cross over the great bay to
Charlestown. " We then went over the river, which separates
it from Boston, where we arrived on the eighth." No doubt
Druillettes mentally took note that he entered Boston on
the feast of the Immaculate Conception. He puts down in
his narrative that the principal men of Charlestown went
ahead to announce his coming to Major-General " Gebin "
or Gibbons.

Druillettes does not give us any information about the
major, but we find in Hutchison, who quotes from Mather,
that " in 1650 Edward Gibbons was made an Assistant or
Member of the Upper House. He was one of Mr. Wollas-
ton's plantation, and a very gay young gentleman, when
the Massachusetts people first came to Salem, and hap
pened to be there at Mr. Higginson's, at Mr. Shelton's ordi
nation, and forming of the Church. He was so much
affected by the solemnity of the proceeding that he desired
to be received into the number. They had not sufficient
knowledge of him, and encouraged him in his good inten
tions, and he afterwards joined into the Church in Boston."

The name of the " gay young gentleman " about whom
the Puritans had " not sufficient knowledge " and who
" joined into the Church " has a suspiciously Irish and Cath-

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

olic ring to it. Perhaps the fact that he was friendly with
Aulnay, a staunch Catholic, the opponent of de la Tour in
the race for Governorship of Acadia, might indicate his
spiritual attitude. Do la Tour was the reverse of " staunch."

Gibbons received the missionary as a duly accredited
ambassador of the Governor; " but," says the " Xarre," " he
gave me a key to an apartment in his house, where I could,
in complete liberty, offer my prayers and perform my re
ligious exercises. He begged me to take no other lodgings
while I should sojourn in I'.oston."

\Ye find in Charles Francis Adams' "Three Fpisndes of
Massachusetts History," that the major was one of the fash
ionable set iu Boston, and that his roy.stering habits often
shocked the Puritans. He was once on the list of offenders
in the matter of deep drinking and was heavily fined for it.
At one time he disappears from Boston on one of his ships
for a cruise, no one knew whither nor cared much. For
those were the days when a gentleman pirate could go off
as a privateer, and no one was very inquisitive about how
the cargo on the return voyage was so valuable. Gibbons
finally settled down and became one of the most prosperous
and enterprising merchants <>f Boston. His house was in
what is now Washington Street, opposite Cornhill. It was
in that mansion that Druillettes was so hospitably received.

A little before that time we are told by Hutchison that
"one Darbyfield, an Irishman, with some others, travelled
this year, 1642, to the White Hills, which were supposed to
be the highest in these parts of America. They reported
that they had been on the top, where there is a plain sixty
feet square; that on the west side is a very steep precipice,
and all the country round appeared like a level very much
beneath them. The glittering appearance of the rocks as
they came near caused an expectation of something valu
able, but they found nothing." We do not know if this
acknowledged Irishman. Darbyfield, who was the first to
reach the top of the White Mountains, and was looking at

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

the glittering rocks, and found nothing, also happened to
meet Druillettes in Boston. But he probably did.

The day after Druillettes' arrival, which, by an evident
slip of the pen, is also put down as the eighth, the major
conducted the priest to " Rogsbray," or Roxbury, to see
Governor Dudley, who, after examining Druillettes' creden
tials, appointed the thirteenth for a general discussion of
the matter by the magistrates. The thirteenth came and
all the dignitaries, with one member of the Low House, met
Druillettes at dinner, and when that was over devoted the
whole afternoon to debate. They were in good humor
when they sat down to supper, but the general verdict was
that the clause about protecting the Abnakis would have
to be referred to Plymouth, " as Boston had no interest in
those Indians."

In consequence of this decision, Druillettes posted off to
Plymouth, or " Pleimout," which he reached on Decem
ber 22nd, Governor Bradford not only welcoming him, but,
as it was Friday, inviting him to a fish dinner ; a very extraor
dinary act of courtesy on the part of the Puritan host, and
the missionary was careful to make note of it. He was
also well received by the principal merchants of the place.
As their financial interests were involved in the Abnakis
trade they strongly advocated the policy of uniting with
the French for mutual help and protection.

Elated at his success, Druillettes returned to Boston.
It was December 29th. The precise place in which he
passed Christmas we do not know, for he left Plymouth on
the twenty-fourth and did not reach Roxbury until the
twenty-eighth. At Boston he lodged as usual at the house
of Gibbons.

He made many friends there, one of whom he calls
Ebens, whose identity has been somewhat of a puzzle to a
few writers ; but as there was a distinguished man in the
colony named Hibbins, there can be little doubt that he is
the one indicated. He was a worthy man in many respects,

GABRIEL DRUILLEYTES

and a sad interest attaches to his name, because after his
death, and in spite of the esteem in which he had been held.
the Puritan superstition about witchcraft first vented its fury
on his wife. She had become moody and bad tempered in
her widowhood, and was soon regarded as a witch. In the
mind of her accusers there was little doubt about her com
plicity with the Spirit of Darkness, because it was found
out that one day she passed two of the magistrates, who
were conversing in the street, and guessed thai they were
talking about her. She was correct in her suspicion, and
was therefore arrested and condemned to death. A similar
test for witchcraft would convict nearly every Yankee since
that time. The unfortunate woman made her preparations
and calmly went to the scaffold. This was in 1050, /. c.t
only a few years after Druillettes bade good-bye to the
kindly " Sieur Ebens."

On the last day of the year he had a conference at Rox-
bury with Governor Dudley, who expressed his gratifica
tion at Plymouth's resolution to subdue the Inxjuois. and
promised to aid the movement with all his power. A few
days afterwards, Gibbons volunteered the assurance that,
although Boston would not participate in the war officially,
yet considerable private assistance might be relied on.

The indefatigable envoy posted off to " Marblet/.." or
Marblehead, on January 9, and from there to Salem, where
he met Endicott. lie found that grim old Puritan very
affable and spoke French with him. in which language he
tells us Endicott was very proficient. Very much to his
delight, he discovered a great deal of good feeling in that
important personage towards the French in general. " See
ing that I had no money," says Druillettes, " he paid my
expenses, and invited me to dine with the magistrates."
Indeed the Governor went further in his amiability. He
expressed his pleasure at the action of the Plymouth Gov
ernment, and promised to send to Druillettes the report of
whatever conclusion he himself would arrive at. Quebec's

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

treatment of the envoy in sending him on an embassy
without money was characteristic. Druillettes was at the
mouth of the Piscataqua on January 24, and on February 7
he reached Temeriskau, where the fishermen who had taken
him for a spy on his way to Boston now cordially wel
comed him. As he went up the Kennebec the same friendly
spirit was manifested by all the Englishmen he met. It
was not until April 13 that his friend Winslow came back
from his trip to Plymouth and Boston. He brought good
news with him. He assured Druillettes (i) that all the
Magistrates and the two Commissioners of Plymouth had
resolved that the other colonies should be urged to enter
into the league against the Iroquois ; (2) that Governor
Bradford had sent Captain Willet, who was greatly
attached to the Abnakis, with letters to the Governors of
Kenetigout [Connecticut] and of Nieufhaven [New
Haven], and even to the Governor of Manate [Manhattan],
to further the project ; (3) that in ten days Endicott would
be Governor of Boston, and that even if there were no
official action, a great number of volunteers could be
counted on for the expedition, and (4) that several Indian
tribes, notably the Mohegans, would go out on the warpath.
The Catholics of Maryland also were expected to at least
favor the project. Such, in brief, were the results of Druil
lettes' embassy to the Puritans of New England.

It should not be forgotten that while he was there he
met John Eliot, " the Apostle of the Indians," as American
historians call him. " On the 28th of December I arrived
at Rogsbray," he says, " where the minister Master Heliot,
who was teaching some savages, received me at his house,
because night was overtaking me. He treated me with
great respect and kindness, and begged me to spend the
winter with him."

As Druillettes was accustomed to spend the winter in
quite another fashion, Eliot's kind invitation could not be
accepted. He remained only that night, but the conversa-

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

tion of these two men, who were opposite types of mission
ary enterprise, must have been very interesting for both.
Druillettes' method was to go out into the woods to hunt
for the Indians; Eliot had them to come to him at " Kngs-
bray." Protestant historians, while admitting the heroism
of the outdoor kind, are fond of contrasting the results;
always, of course, in favor of Kliot.

"If we compare the requisites," says Hutchison (I., p.
166), "to determine any one to be a convert, in Mr. Eliot's
esteem, with those of the popish missionaries, it is not
strange that their numbers exceeded his. Before the con
verts in New England were admitted to the ordinances,
they were examined by some of the magistrates, as well as
the ministers. The confessions of many of them, as taken
from their own mouths, were sent to England, and printed,
and there approved of; and, although the mission began in
1646, it was the year 1651 before the first church was
gathered at Xatick. Whereas with the Romish priests the
repetition of a f\itcr Xostcr, or an .-/TV Maria, made them fit
subjects of Baptism. The French conrciirs dc bins and others
married among the Indians, and became savages them
selves, and the priests went into their country and dwelt
among them, suffered them to retain their old customs and
conformed to them themselves."

It would be interesting to know if Eliot thought that
Druillettes, whom he entreated to stay with him all winter,
had conformed to the savage customs of the Indians, or
imagined for a moment that he would baptize any Indian
who could do no more than recite a Pater Xostcr or an .-hr
Maria. As a matter of fact, the Catholic missionaries sinned
in the contrary direction. They would keep Indians for
years before baptizing them, and they are blamed, and per
haps rightly so, for undue rigorism in that respect.

How many Indians were converted in New England by
Eliot's method we have no means of knowing, though we
are told there were in 1660 ten towns of praying Indians.

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

In Martha's Vineyard there were ninety families on the
list. At Natick, between forty and fifty communicants were
counted. There were others at Stoughton, Marlborough,
Nashope, Wamesut, Pautucket, etc. " The Massasoiets and
the Naragansetts and the Wampanoags were averse to
Christianity, but, they having been extirpated, we are told
the rest lived in peace."

The large number of these Indian towns would make
one fancy that in reality the number of Eliot's converts was
greater than that of the " popish " missionaries, but we
have no means of finding the number of individual con
versions, nor do we know how severe was the test to which
the Indians were subjected, prior to baptism, even if " the
confessions of many of them, taken from their own mouths,
were sent to England and printed." In our days " getting
religion " is sufficient to admit almost anybody as a member
of any sect, and probably such was the case then. More
over, according to Converse Francis, even Eliot ascribed the
knowledge of Christianity which his converted Indians pos
sessed to some French priest who had been wrecked on the
coast. As the savages were not clever in discerning doc
trinal differences they probably considered Maitre " Heliot "
as the lawful successor of the blackrobe.

In speaking of the Huron missions, Parkman inquires,
somewhat scoffingly, of what use was such an expenditure
of life that resulted in nothing but the few scattered Indian
Christians which exist here and there? Hutchison's account
of Eliot's labors might give the answer. He says : " It does
not appear that the number of Christians have since de
creased by the return of Indians to paganism. The Indians
themselves are wasted, and their tribes or nations every
where in Massachusetts and Plymouth extinct." He wrote
this in 1770, and informs us that " at Nantucket, last year,
there were ninety families, but now only fifteen." In neither
case is the failure of the missions to be ascribed to the
preachers.

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

It may not be uninteresting to know that ten years after
Eliot bade good-bye to Druillettes, the General Court of
Massachusetts became a sort of Spanish Inquisition, and
made an auto-da-fe of one of Eliot's contributions to litera
ture. The good man had written a book and the Court
found that " on perusal, though it was entitled ' The Chris
tian Commonwealth,' it was full of seditious principles and
notions, in relation to all established governments in the
Christian world." Just like any benighted papist. " Eliot
retracted and disowned his errors; the books were ordered
to be called in and his acknowledgment was posted up in
the principal towns of the colony."

As Druillettes was naturally and by training interested
in educational projects, it is more than likely that while he
was in Boston he took a glance at Harvard. Had he been
present at one of the academic exhibitions he would have
been surprised and delighted if he found that the collegiate
exercises corresponded with the theses defended by the
graduates of 1642. They are given by Hutchison (Y. I.,
p. 510). They are in Latin, and the subjects discussed
reveal the fact that the much derided scholasticism of the
Middle Ages was in high honor in Harvard in its early days.
Thus, among other pronouncements, we have: " Materia
secunda non potest existere sine forma ; L'nius rei non est
nisi unica forma constitutive. Quidquid movetur, ab alio
movetur," etc., etc.

In summing up the transactions of his diplomatic visit
to New England Druillettes displays a joyous enthusiasm
about the good results to be expected. He was sure he had
succeeded, and when his friend \Vinslow returned from
Boston to Cousinoc, with the intelligence that the colonists
were quite ready to go out against the Iroquois. he hastened
to Quebec with his report, and so impressed the authorities
there that Godefroy and the old Indian Xoe'l were dis
patched with him on June 22, 1651, to make the final ar
rangements.

7 97

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

This Sieur Godefroy was an important man in the
colony. He had come out to America at a very early date,
and was employed as a clerk and interpreter of the trading
company. He was present at the capitulation of Quebec,
and had returned with Champlain to France in 1629. In
1636 he was again in his old occupation, not however at
Quebec, but at Three Rivers. In 1644 he was a delegate
of the Canadian colonists to France, along with the famous
Pierre Le Gardeur, who was Nicolet's son-in-law. In the
following year he was commander of a ship, and from 1648
to 1650 was Admiral of the fleet. He had just resigned that
important office, and formed a trading company with sev
eral other conspicuous people in Quebec when he was
deputed to go down to New England with Druillettes.
Evidently the people on the St. Lawrence were deeply in
earnest in furthering the alliance with the English.

Not much is said about this second embassy ; possibly
because of its failure, and we merely find in the " Journal
des Jesuites " that Druillettes sent a letter back to Quebec,
from Cousinoc, and also that Noel returned from Boston,
before his associates. Godefroy finally appeared with his
report on October 30. It turned out that the English were
quite willing to make a commercial treaty with the French,
but refused to engage in war against the Iroquois. Why
should they? The Iroquois were not only destroying the
other red men, but from all appearances would soon drive
the French from Quebec. They were at that moment
making raids around the very walls of the citadel.

In the " Relation " of 1650-1651 we have a letter of Noel
to Father Le Jeune, who was then in France. The old
Indian, very much impressed with his own importance,
says : " I would like to go to France to see you, but I am
prevented from doing so. I was sent to the countries of
the Abnakis and of the English, who are their neighbors, to
ask them for assistance against the Iroquois. I obeyed
those who sent me, but my journey was in vain. The Eng-

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

lishman replied not ; he has no good thoughts for us. This
grieves me very much ; we see ourselves dying and being
exterminated every day."

This grief of Noel may explain the hatred which from
that time characterized the conduct of the Kennebec
Indians for the English. Up to that they seemed to have
accepted the protectorate of Plymouth, which, according to
Thwaites, came about in the following fashion: "The
original grant of the territory was made to Bradford, Wins-
low and other Plymouth colonists, and was held by them
until 1640, and then surrendered to the colony at large. The
deed was known as ' The Kennebec Patent/ and is the
original source of land-titles in that district. The patent
was owned by the colony until October 27, 1661, when it
was sold to John Winslow and others for 400 pounds ster
ling." Thus Druillettes' friends became the proprietors ten
years after the delegation started from Quebec. But in Rale's
time we find the Indians protesting that no one had a right
to give away their lands, and they announced their deter
mination to fight for them. Although the Jesuits were
accused of urging them on in this contention, the contrary
is true; for we find Druillettes' successors doing all in their
power to induce the Abnakis to abandon the territory and
establish themselves in the St. Lawrence. Even Rale,
though commanded by the Governor and the King to
support the Indians in their claim, thought he nevertheless
had the right to urge his flock to withdraw.

CHAPTER III.

IN THE WEST.

Druillettes continued his labors along the Kennebec
until March, 1652, when he ceased to work there, and a long
gap intervenes until the coming of Father Bigot in 1685.
But during all that period of non-residence, efforts were
made to have the Abnakis come up to Sillery for instruc
tion. In fact, the place had been already deserted by the
Algonquins and was occupied exclusively by Indians from
the Kennebec, and even a second mission called St. Francis
of Sales had been established near the Chaudiere. The small
number of the priests and the constant fear of the Iroquois
made missionary expeditions into Maine impossible at that
time.

In 1656, a number of Ottawa Indians came down to
Quebec, and professed to be eager not only to take the mis
sionaries back with them to their country, but also to have
the French establish a trading post or colony among them.
As the Hurons had been completely exterminated, and fur-
trading in that direction had ceased, the offer was gladly
accepted by the authorities of Quebec, and fifty young
Frenchmen volunteered to go as pioneers of the new enter
prise. Father Druillettes and Garreau accompanied the
party.

By the time they reached Three Rivers their enthusiasm
had evaporated. The Iroquois were on the river and the
general impression was that it would be wiser to return to
Quebec. The Ottawas, of course, continued their journey
homeward, and the two priests, a lay-brother and three of
their domestics determined to keep them company.

Keeping up the St. Lawrence till they arrived at the
Riviere des Prairies, they continued on their course until

ICO

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

they fell into an ambuscade of the Iroquois. Garreau, who
was in the forward canoe, was shot in the spine, and then
dragged on the shore and left weltering in his blood inside
of the stockade. The other canoes, in one of which was
Druillettes, came up later, and a tight ensued. During the
night, however, the Ottawas decamped, and, although
Druillettes begged to be taken with them to the west, he
was refused. What happened to him just then we do nol
know. He could not have been taken prisoner by the Iro
quois, for they were then at peace with the French. Indeed,
they carried the dving Father ( larreau over to the settle
ment at Montreal, and protested that his death was the
result of an accident. .More than likely, after the ( Htawas
had refused Druillettes' offer to go with them, he and his
companions made their way over to the settlement, which
he knew very well, for he had labored there with Jogues
twelve or thirteen years before, and he may have been pres
ent when the Iroquois came in with the bleeding bodv of
Father Garreau. This, of course, is only conjecture, as
there is no information at hand. The " Relation " is silent
on this point. It gives a detailed account of the death of
Father Garreau. but does not tell us who stood at his side
when he breathed his last in the cabin at Montreal.

While Druillettes was endeavoring to reach the Ottawa
country other Jesuits were laboring among the Onondagas,
and had succeeded in establishing themselves at what is
now Syracuse. They began their work in 1655, but in 1658,
to avoid a general massacre, they abandoned the mission.

The most conspicuous man in that enterprise was Father
Dablon, who on his return to Quebec settled down to ordi
nary parochial work in the city; but while there he met a
Nippisirien chief who was continually talking to him about
the region near Hudson Bay. especially about a great meet
ing of Indians, which was to be held in the summer of 1661.
A large number of the Indians of Quebec and Tadoussac
were going to take part in it.

101

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Dablon was interested, for he considered it to be an
excellent opportunity to obtain correct geographical notions
about the place, and especially to find out if there was any
truth in the report about a northwestern passage to the Sea
of Japan ; but most of all because it seemed to hold out
some hope of establishing a mission there. The result was
that he and Druillettes were assigned to go with the party,
Druillettes being told to pass the winter with the savages,
while Dablon was to report at Quebec.

They remained three weeks at Tadoussac, and on June i,
1661, started up the Saguenay in forty canoes. We have
already given an extract of Dablon's account of this
interesting journey in Vol. I., but the entire story merits
perusal as an extremely brilliant narrative of thrilling
adventure far into the north in what was a totally un
explored country, where dangers on the rivers and lakes,
as well as from starvation, stared them in the face at every
moment, and where there was also the continual fear of the
pursuing Iroquois. Dablon's letter is dated " Nekouba, a
hundred leagues from Tadoussac, in the woods, on the road
to the North Sea, July 2, 1661." It is in the " Relations."

When they reached Nekouba they found that the Iro
quois had not only preceded them, but had completely
exterminated the Squirrel tribe, which lived a few leagues
further on. Reports of all this came in to the assembled
Indians, and such consternation took possession of them
that they flatly refused to go any further. The consequence
was that the Fathers were compelled to turn back along
with them, regretting indeed that they had not been able to
explore the unknown regions of the North Sea, but above
all that their apostolic purposes were again thwarted by
the same terrible foe. Dablon, who had lived among the
Iroquois in New York, calls them " the Turks of New
France," and he was of the opinion that a holy war or
crusade ought to be preached against them.

The failure of this expedition did not, however, dispel

102

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

the hopes of some day reaching the far away sea. Later
on, Albanel was commissioned to make the attempt, and
to guide him Druillettes sent to his Superiors a list of
routes which might be followed. He had gathered the in
formation from the Indians and also from his friends Radis-
son and de Groseilliers. The original was scrawled in lead
pencil, and possibly Dablon, who transcribed it, did not
keep the precious paper. What we have is his copy. We
shall not trouble the reader with the list of places which
could not possibly remain in the memory of any one not
familiar with Indian languages, but we shall merely indicate
the general directions which such expeditions should have
to take.

The first was up the Saguenay to Lake Piouakouami, a
distance of forty leagues, and then to another expanse of
water with a name somewhat like the first, for a distance of
sixty leagues, and from that another sixty leagues would
be required to reach the sea.

The second would start from Three Rivers, and two
hundred and fifty leagues would be the distance to the Bay
of the Kilistinons. A traveler from that place told Druil
lettes that the sea was four days' journey further on.

The third might begin at Lake Xippising, and from there
one hundred and fifty leagues further would be all that was
required.

The fourth route would be from a river that empties into
Lake Huron. It was reported that the Indians who lived
there often went to trade with a tribe of the Kilistinons,
whose country bordered on the sea. The journey was a
matter of a few days.

The fifth was from the country of the upper Algonquins.
•Three days traveling would be enough to reach Lake Alimi-
beg and four others to arrive at the desired goal.

Finally there was a route from Lake Tempagami, be
tween Lake Huron and the source of the St. Lawrence.
After going some distance on the great river and traveling

103

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

fifteen leagues over small water courses you could reach
Lake Ouassisanik, from which the St. Maurice flows. That
was the route taken by the Nippisiriens on their journey
to Three Rivers two years previously.

It was not a geographical purpose that prompted Druil-
lettes to make this study, for he hastens to tell his Superior
of the number of Indians to be found in those localities.
There were fourteen nations in all, some of them consisting
of only a few families, but others of them numbering twenty
and twenty-four thousand people. As the Huron Missions
were destroyed, and those among the Iroquois not yet
opened, he saw in these newr regions to the north wide fields
for apostolic work.

When he returned from Nekouba he did not remain at
Quebec, but started off to evangelize the Montagnais.
There is no explicit announcement of it in the " Relations,"
but we discover his presence there in the account of Father
Nouvel, who was on his way to the Papinachois. " The
first of my flock to die/' he said, " was a little girl baptized
by Father Gabriel." Later on the two missionaries met
unexpectedly in the wilderness among the savages. The
Indians had told Nouvel that there was a canoe a league up
the Esseigiou River, and in it were Father Druillettes and a
Frenchman. The joy of this meeting may be imagined.
But they did not remain long together. They discussed
their plans, and it was decided that Nouvel should keep on
towards the north, with his Papinachois, while Druillettes
would ascend the Saguenay to look after the Indians in
those regions. They then bade good-bye to each other, and
went on their separate ways.

Here we lose sight again of this wonderful man, but we
know that he was somewhere in those trackless woods until
1666. We find him afterwards at Three Rivers, and Mar-
quette, who had just arrived from Europe, was put into his
hands to be inducted into the mysteries of Montagnais.
These two men, whose winning natures were so closely akin

104

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

to each other, and whose amiability exercised such a mar
velous influence on the natives, must have been very con
genial companions.

In 1668, Marquette, went to the west, and, in Septem
ber, 16/0, Druillettes followed him. He was thus again
with the Ottawas, who had left him at night in the woods
near Montreal sixteen years before. Father Alluue/
announces his arrival as follows: "To re-enforce the labors
in this vast mission, Father Gabriel Druillettes, one of the
oldest and most esteemed of our missionaries, was sent to
us." He was assigned to Sault Stc. Marie, and there the
man who had labored near the ocean and the North Sea
was to spend what was left of his strength in the service of
God. It is marvelous how much vigor he still retained. In
all probability he was then nearly eighty years of age.

The abundance of fish in these waters attracted a great
number of the neighboring tribes, and that was a strong
reason for the missionaries to establish a post there. The
natives of the place called themselves by the unpronounce
able name of Pahouitingouach Irini. It was too much for
the French, so the name Saultcurs was introduced. They
were only one hundred and fifty souls in all, but they were
related to three other nations who were allowed to live
there, and who were about five hundred and fifty in number.
In winter they roamed along both the north and south
shores of Lake Superior. There were seven other nations
besides who were dependent on this mission, but in spite
of their name of " nations," they did not go beyond four
hundred men, women and children all told. Finally there
were wanderers from all directions who flocked to the Sault
to fish. To this post Father Druillettes was assigned.

In order to induce the Indians to cultivate the soil, the
Fathers laid out a farm, and built a little chapel, which they
tell us was beautifully decorated for such a desolate place.
It is a pity that we cannot find at the Sault to-day the exact
spot where that sanctuary stood. It would be far more

105

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

precious assuredly than the foundries and factories and
power-houses which now cluster around the rapids. How
ever, there is a Jesuit church nearby, and one can find some
little consolation in that, but only a few remnants of the
aborigines are left. You meet them on the street, some
of them gaudily tricked out in modern finery, but most of
them slouching along in the cheap clothing of the working-
man and engaged in the humblest employments. They
keep by themselves and mingle very little with the whites.

The only difficulty in converting these Saulteurs in olden
times was the Manitou. The old squaws were the worst
victims of the superstition. But the power of Father Druil-
lettes soon asserted itself, and his little church was filled
morning and evening with people eager to hear him. As
everywhere else, wonderful answers were given to his
prayers, especially in healing the sick. The people were
eager to live in the settlement, and built their huts as near
as possible to the church.

Besides the Saulteurs, two or three distant tribes looked
for spiritual help to St. Mary's. They were Chippewas,
Kiskakons, and Missisagas. Old as he was, Druillettes did
not shirk the work of looking after them. He passed the
winter with each of them in turn, amid the privations and
dangers of their hunting expeditions. It is marvelous how
at his age he could have been equal to such a task.

A sad event cast a shadow over his last days. The fierce
Dakotas had always been bitter enemies of the Indians of
the Sault, but finally they sent an embassy for the purpose
of making peace. They were received with every demonstra
tion of joy, but while the council was in session, a Cree
Indian slipped into the assembly and plunged his knife in
the heart of a Dakota. Thinking themselves betrayed, the
braves seized whatever weapons they could find, for they
had entered the house unarmed, and made a desperate fight
in self defense. They laid about them, slaughtering every one
indiscriminately, and then barricaded themselves and began

1 06

GABRIEL DRUILLETTES

shooting' at their enemies outside. The Chippewas, who
had not been in the council, rushed to the fray. The battle
became general, and raged furiously till every Dakota was
killed. Meantime the buildings had taken fire, and soon
the whole village was a heap of smoldering ashes. Rut
that was not all. According to Indian ethics, the Chip
pewas, though not guilty of the murder of the deputy, were
responsible for the crime, because it had been committed
in their village. Hence, fearing a reprisal by the Dakota-,
every Chippewa fled, and there was not a red man, woman
or child left of all of Druillettes' once promising congrega
tion. Rut little by little they drifted back; the chapel was
rebuilt, cabins arose around it, and the old missionary
resumed his accustomed labors, and under his kindly ad
ministration order reigned.

Refore this tragic occurrence the Intcndant Talon at
Quebec had determined to fasten forever the claims of
France on the western country and had ordered Saint-
Lusson to take solemn possession of the territory in the
name of the King.

Saint-Lusson arrived from the distant Kennebec, and
Perrot, who knew the Indians well, was sent everywhere
to summon the tribes to the meeting. He traveled along
Lake Superior, into the remotest regions of Canada, and
then down to Green Ray and succeeded in gathering a re
markable congress. In May, 1/71, says Rancroft, " there were
assembled the envoys of the wild republicans of the wilder
ness, side by side with brilliantly clad officers from the vet
eran armies of France. A cross of cedar was raised, and
amidst the groves of maple and pine, of elm and hemlock,
which are strangely intermingled on the beautiful banks of
the St. Mary, where the bounding river lashes its waves
into snowy whiteness, as they hurry past the dark ever
green of the tufted island in the channel, the throng of
French, bowing before the emblems of man's redemption,
chanted to its glory a hymn of the seventh century:

107

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

" ' Vexilla Regis prodeunt,
Fulget crucis mysterium.' '!

Bancroft does not mention the presence of the three
illustrious priests whose tattered black gowns also mingled
with " the brilliant uniforms of the officers " and the sav
age finery of the painted and feathered chiefs. The old
white-haired Druillettes was there, and the splendid
Allouez, and the young Andre, who had just begun his
work among the Indians, nor does he speak of the glowing
oratory of Allouez as he recounted the glories of the great
chief Louis XIV., who wore scalps of numberless enemies
at his belt, and made the oceans tremble with the thunder
ing cannons of his great canoes. But Dablon in the account
which he wrote in Quebec shortly afterwards tells us all
about it.

Druillettes remained at the Sault until 1679. He had
long before that passed the period of life when men need
rest, and the time had come when even he could work no
longer. So he stepped into his little canoe and journeyed
over the thousand miles of river, and lake, and cataract, and
tramped through the forests, which were still as full of perils
as when he first started to the northwest. He finally reached
Quebec, where, after two years, he went to heaven to claim
the glorious crown that he had won.

108

CHARLES ALBANEL

CHAPTER I.
FIRST JOURNEY TO HUDSON HAY.

Father Charles Albanel was one of the very great mis
sionaries among1 the aborigines. Although it was reported
to the Superior of the Society that he was actuated more by
a spirit of adventure than that of apostolic zeal, the charge is
absolutely groundless. Xo one who reads the story of his
life of hardships and privations can fail to see that at all
times, and in all places, he was a man in search of souls.
The accusation only afforded him one more opportunity
to add new luster to his crown.

He was born in 1613, and belonged to the Province of
Toulouse. Of his early life we have no details, but we
know that he came to America on August 23, 1640, a few
months after the martyrdom of Lalemant and de Brebeuf,
and in the following year was at Montreal, which was then
making its first fierce fight against the Iroquois. He
remained there only a very short time, for we find him
wintering that same year with the Montagnais. The awful
sufferings which this kind of life entailed upon the young
missionary just fresh from Europe is a sufficient evidence
of Albanel's heroicity. When the spring came he went
down to Tadoussac, where he took care of eight hundred
Indians who were dying of a loathsome malignant fever.

He had a touch of the fever himself, but he forgot it in
the enthusiasm he felt when he witnessed the wonderful
piety of these dying red men. They were lying on their
mats, in their wretched cabins, many of them clasping their
beads and gazing constantly at the pious pictures or cruci-

109

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

fixes which they had fixed on the bark walls of their miser
able shelters. All of them accepted their sufferings with
the most edifying resignation.

Just a chance notice in the " Relations " gives us the
information that in 1659 Albanel was appointed to accom
pany Menard on the fatal journey to the Far West, but he
succeeded in getting no further than Montreal. His Indian
companion was objected to by the Ottawas, and both he
and Albanel found it impossible to join the party. Why
the objection to the Indian should affect the priest is not
stated. Menard never came back.

For the next six years his labors were thus confined to
the Indians of Tadoussac. As he had succeeded in raising a
storm in Quebec, because he had married a Frenchman to
an Indian woman without publishing the banns, it may be
that to get him out of the way he was relegated to the
Far West with Menard, where banns might not be necessary.
His inability to join the old missionary seemed to have
compelled the Superiors to send him back to the Saguenay ;
for there he continued to labor for the following six years,
when a change in the Government methods of dealing with
Indians called for his zeal in another direction.

Wearied with the incursions of these relentless savages,
the authorities at Quebec finally resolved to act aggres
sively, and in 1666 de Courcelles started out in midwinter
for the Mohawk. His chaplain was the Jesuit Raffeix. He
met no Iroquois, however, but, on the contrary, returned
to Quebec, chagrined and disgraced, for he had left many
of his own soldiers behind him dead in the snow. He at
tributed his failure to the unconcern or disloyalty of the
Jesuits, who had not sent the Algonquin contingent to
meet him, as had been agreed upon. The charge, of
course, was prompted by the irritability of the old com
mander, and had no foundation, in fact. Indeed, the
Jesuits were only too eager to get into the country, which
Jogues had sanctified twenty years before ; especially as

CHARLES ALBAXEL

the destruction of the Huron missions had left them without
any field to work in. De Courcelles apologized for the
accusation later. He had spoken in his wrath.

In the following summer, de Tracy started out with
better arrangements for a successful raid, and also with a
greater number of soldiers. Albanel was on that expedi
tion, with the former chaplain. They said Mass in one of
the villages of the Mohawk, and, of course, saw the place
where Jogues was slain. Very likely they brought back
some mementoes to Quebec of what, for them, was little
less than a sanctuary, but unfortunately the " Relations "
say nothing about it. Perhaps some future searcher in the
archives may discover a letter or a document of one kind
or another, which will give us the precious information.
Like de Courcelles, de Tracy saw no Iroquois. They had
all decamped, but the destruction of their villages had the
effect of inspiring them with such wholesome terror that
the French were left in peace for the ensuing fifteen years.

In 1668, Albanel was Superior at Sillery, but nothing
of importance is chronicled about that period, except that
he took part in the resuscitation of the pious old Chief Noel,
who had died some years before; not that the Indian was
called back to the flesh to walk the earth again, but his suc
cessor was appointed to the long vacant chieftainship, and
thus Noel was supposed to live again.

This poetic fiction was a very expensive piece of busi
ness for the new incumbent. All the tribes for miles around
assembled for the ceremony: Abnakis, Papinachois, Mon-
tagnais, Gaspesians, and the dispersed Hurons, all of whom
had to be placated by presents. His Royal Highness was
led into the great assembly, and, out of respect for the
French, he was appareled in civilized habiliments. Whether
they fitted him or not the simple son of the forest did not
care. He gave his first present to de Courcelles, the Gov
ernor, who was there however only by proxy. Father
Albanel was next honored, and made a great speech,

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

exhorting the new chief to reproduce in his life the virtues
of the defunct. Then each tribe, in turn, received appro
priate gifts, with the result that while the King won the
hearts of his subjects, his exchequer at the end of the cere
mony was empty. But his new honor consoled him for his
want of provisions.

Albanel hurried down to Tadoussac, where a pestilence
of smallpox was raging, on November 14, of the following
year. The river must have been closed by that time, for it
took him six days to reach the place. He arrived only to
find that even the Indian with whom he was to lodge had a
short time to live. It was a great loss for the missionaries,
as well as for the tribe, for Theodore, as the chief was
called, had distinguished himself by a life of holiness.
Albanel prepared him for death, as he did the other sick
people around, and then intimated that he was about to
set out to visit the scattered huts of the Indians in the
wroods. " Not at all," said Theodore, " you will stay here
till I breathe my last. I have served you for many years,
and you shall not leave me, when I need you most." His
only regret was that his condition prevented him from
receiving Holy Communion, but he resigned himself to the
privation. His last words were an act of love, and " he
died," says Albanel, " with the marks of the predestined
upon him."

His wife was as pious as himself. When death is of a
particularly loathsome kind the squaw usually deserts her
dying spouse ; but not so Susanna. She never left his side,
although the malady had already made him an object of
horror to every one else. She not only cared for his bodily
wants, but helped him to make his confession, and rehearsed
all the things he had done, and the places he had been in.
" Did you tell that and that? " she would ask, for the Indian
man and wife keep no secrets from each other. The priest
withdrew for a moment and Susanna continued to speak to
him of God and hell and heaven. When he told her tenderly

112

CHARLES ALBANEL

how sorry lie was to leave her. she said : " Don't speak of
that ; I shall be with you soon," and so continued till the
end, and afterwards. For when he was laid to rest the
good old woman never let a day pass without going to pray
at his tomb. She said her beads twice a day for him ; and
kept a rigorous Lent, and at other seasons fasted twice a
week to hasten his release from Purgatory. " Many a
French woman," says Albanel, " might learn a lesson of
genuine conjugal affection from old Susanna, the squaw."

A French shallop arrived at Tadoussac with fifteen or
twenty victims of the plague on November jS. They
looked like monsters rather than men. so hideous were their
disfigured and corrupting bodies. On December 4. four
more canoes came, and increased the number of the sick.
On the fifth a number of Frenchmen who had gone ashore
at Green Isle, near Tadoussac. found a cabin full of stricken
Indians, and sent a messenger in haste for the priest, but he
could not leave Tadoussac until the tenth, and when he
reached the place he found what he called " animated skele
tons." They were not only ill, but starving to death. He
helped them as well as he could with food, the French
assisting him most heroically. lie dosed them with
" theriaque," which, he says. " was a sovereign remedy for
that kind of ailment." and after giving them all the sacra
ments, he hurried back to Tadoussac.

Unfortunately on the twentieth some Indians from
Gaspe, fourteen or fifteen leagues away, came to the
infected village. They withdrew after they had all gone
to confession and Communion, but they had scarcely
reached home when nearly all of them fell sick and died.
Albanel says: " It was a stroke of heaven, and a very par
ticular grace"; not their death, but the reception of the
sacraments.

It was now January, 1670, and all that month Albanel
continued his work. " If I had only made use of my oppor
tunities/' he writes, " I could have practiced great acts of

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

virtue, and especially of mortification, as I had to remain
most of the time in a place where the stench was horrible."
Most people will imagine that the occasion of mortification
was not let slip by the holy missionary.

He started through the forests on February 3, to find
some sick people who were far away from the river. The
snow was light and the snowshoeing heavy, and it was only
after a seven days' tramp that he reached the place. There
he remained for two weeks, instructing the poor people and
administering the sacraments. On the twenty-fifth he
started off again for a village eighteen miles away, which
some hunters had told him about, and it was not until the
fifteenth of March that he came back to the Saguenay. It
was then drawing towards Easter, and he prepared every
one of his people for the sacraments, which, he says, " they
all received with great piety." He speaks with enthusiasm
of the devotion of the Frenchmen in helping the sick, and
burying the dead. They even carried the disgusting car
casses on their backs ; and he notes that by a singular pro
tection of Providence not one of the white men caught the
contagion.

" I was the last one who fell sick," he says. " My head
was frightfully swollen, and my face was covered with pus
tules, like those of small-pox. I had a terrible pain in the
ear, as well as a furious toothache. My lips were like those
of a dead man, and there was a constant flux from my
eyes. Added to it all, I had a great difficulty in drawing my
breath. I promised to make a novena to St. Francis Xavier,
and immediately I began to get better. Perhaps God had
pity on the poor savages who needed my assistance. I end
this letter," he says, " by recommending myself to your
Holy Sacrifices and assuring you that I am your obedient
servant in the Lord."

Another letter informs the Superior that in pursuance
of orders he had set out for the northern missions, and had
arrived there at the end of May. He cannot forbear casting

114

CHARLES ALBANEL

a look back at Tadoussac, as lie turns to the north, and
expressing his grief that where he once saw ten or twelve
hundred people scarcely a hundred were left.

On June third he met a party of one hundred and fifty
savages from Hudson Bay, who told him that an Knglish
vessel had arrived there, and that the crew had maltreated
and robbed the natives. The captain of the ship said he
was coming back next year, and that he would have with
him a number of Iroquois, who would murder the Algon-
quins if they were not on hand at his arrival, with plenty
of furs.

Albanel reports that the Papinachois whom he saw «.n
his journey were excellent Christians, lie did not remain
among them, however, but went further north to the
Oumamiois. He reached the Black River on June 15.
There the Indians had been expecting him for a month.
After caring for them, he made for the River ( Jodebout,
where he met one hundred and thirty Indians, who had
traveled six hundred miles to see him. He reports that
they are a well built race, docile, peaceful, and clever, and
that they led very decent lives. Polygamy thcv hold in
abhorrence, and hate the sorcerers. They are wretchedly
poor, however ; are clothed with caribou skins trimmed
with porcupine quills, and also with feathers which are dyed
in all sorts of colors. " But they arc fast disappearing," he
says, " on account of the continual famines. They have no
firearms, and if they succeed in getting a net they consider
themselves rich."

The morning after his arrival he built an altar and spread
above it the sail of the boat. After Mass he began his work
of instruction. On the twentieth of June he baptized
twenty-one little children ; and some days later twenty-four
adults. Night and day, these poor Indians clustered around
him, listening to his instructions. One of them, an old man,
gave him an almost unexpected and pleasant surprise.
" Sixteen years ago, Father," he said, " you baptized me at

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Tadoussac, and I have never failed to do what you told
me." He had instructed his whole family in the Faith and
had led a life of perfect innocence.

This is all we know of Father Albanel up to the time
when the authorities at Quebec were looking for a priest
to go to Hudson Bay. They thought of him, for his heroic
life up to that had well fitted him for the work. It is at
this point that he assumes a sort of international promi
nence.

Although it is very likely that some of the early navi
gators who were looking for the elusive northwest passage
to China, by way of the Pole, were aware of the existence
of Hudson Bay, nevertheless it is only from the great sailor
who entered the Straits on June 24, 1610, and gave his name
to the vast expanse beyond, that the world received any
positive information about it. Thomas Button followed
Hudson in 1612, and went as far as 65° north latitude. In
1631 Lucas Fox, whom Charlevoix calls "Lux" Fox,
was so convinced that he was going to reach Japan by
that route that he carried a letter from the King of Eng
land to the Mikado. He never delivered the missive, but
he gained a few degrees of latitude on his predecessors. In
the same year Captain James sailed south through the Bay
and gave his name to the lower part of it. In 1646 the rest
less de la Tour, who for years had kept Acadia in a turmoil,
visited those regions with some friends from New England,
and ten years after that Jean Bourdon, the old companion of
Father Jogues, an ambassador to the Mohawks, left Quebec
and is said to have sailed into the Bay. Dionne, however,
refuses to admit his claim.

Meantime efforts had been continually made by the
French to reach Hudson Bay by a land route, but without
success; Champlain had attempted it as early as 1615. In
1664, Fathers Dablon and Druillettes, with four Frenchmen,
had ascended the Saguenay, crossed Lake St. John, and
had gone as far as Nekouba on the Aspamouachan, but the

116

CHARLES ALBANEL

Indians refused to go any farther. Couture, the Donne,
who had been captured with Jogucs, in 1643, claimed to
have succeeded, but was not believed, and finally, in 1667,
the famous Radisson and Chouart maintained that they had
found the way. But they also were discredited. Finally,
as the Intendant Talon was anxious to establish the feasi
bility of the route, he commissioned Father Albanel to make
the attempt, and hence, on August 6, 1671, a year or so
before Marquette sailed with Joliet down the Mississippi,
Albanel left Quebec, and at Tadoussac met the two French
men who were to go with him. Saint Simon and Couture.
He kept a diary of the journey, which may be found in
the " Relation " of 1072. We shall make a few extracts
from it as we go along.

"I reached Tadoussac," he says, "on August 8th, and
found no end of opposition to the enterprise. The chief
had died a few days before, and hence I addressed myself
to the uncle of the deceased, and by his help got the better
of the ill-will of the braves. Indeed the chief came himself
with us forty leagues up the river. \Ye remained three days
at Chicoutimi, the first two I heard confessions and gave
Communion, and the third we packed up and portaged for
over a league and a quarter. On the thirtieth, we reached
Lake Kinougami, and on the first of September camped at
a little lake called Kinougamichis, which was famous for its
long-tailed and poisonous frogs; a curious thing, for in this
country the toads, serpents and vipers are not harmful.

" On the second, we reached Lake St. John, or Pingag-
ami. It is thirty leagues long, ten wide, and has twelve
rivers flowing into it, and only one, the Saguenay, flowing
out. The country around is fair to look upon, the country
unbroken and the beautiful prairies are apparently fertile.
Otters, elk, and beavers, and especially porcupines, abound.
In fact, the Indians of that region are called Porcupines or
Kakouchaes."

He tells us that in former times he had seen as many
as twenty nations assembled there for trade, but war and
pestilence had made sad havoc among them.

On the seventh he reached the end of the lake, and on

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

the seventeenth five canoes, filled with Whitefish Indians,
were seen coming towards him. The savages reported that
there were two English ships anchored in Hudson Bay;
that there was a great deal of disorder in those parts ; that
one Indian had been killed, and that no one's life was safe.

This intelligence started a panic among Albanel's Indian
guides, and they showed an unwillingness to go on. Indeed
he himself seems to have suddenly discovered that it would
be wiser not to proceed without passports from the Gov
ernor and letters from the Bishop of Quebec. Why, in view
of a possible meeting of the English these two things were
not thought of before the expedition started, is difficult to
imagine. At all events, they had to be secured, and mes
sengers were therefore sent back to Quebec for that pur
pose. The delay involved was, of course, considerable, and
by the time the travelers had the documents in hand the
bad season had set in., and the travelers settled down in
winter quarters. " I have suffered many a hardship with
Indians in their winter camps, but nothing like this one,"
writes Albanel. The misery, however, was not caused by
lack of game, for there was abundance of it; but by the
mean and discontented spirit of some Indians who were
in the party, and chiefly the surly savage who had been
selected as a guide. He and others did everything in their
power to make the enterprise a failure, and to render fur
ther progress impossible. Finally Albanel discovered an
old and needy Mistassirinin Indian, who for a considera
tion, chiefly of tobacco, undertook to lead the party to the
Bay. It was already June, 1672, when the three French
men and sixteen Indians got into their canoes to resume
their journey.

" We had six days of rapids " says the chronicle, " and
had to continually drag the boats against the current. We
were compelled to go ashore frequently, to tramp through
the woods, to crawl over rocks, to plunge into crevasses,
to climb over precipices covered with stunted trees, tearing

118

CHARLES ALBANEL

our clothes to shreds meanwhile and struggling painfully
under our heavy burdens. Then rain came, and we had to
make a two-days halt.

" The ninth was a trying day. \Ye had to portage over
a wide stretch of country intercepted with streams to reach
Nekouba River. At times we were in water up to our waist.

" On the tenth we arrived early in the morning at Pas-
listaskaw, which is the dividing line between the north and
the south. There we found two little lakes, from which two
rivers flow, one emptying into the Saguenay, the other into
Hudson Bay/'

Here there was an attempt on the part of the Mistas-
sirinins to stop him ; but Albanel assumed a haughty tone
and summoned the chief for a parley, and on the thirteenth
of June eighteen canoes came to the place where the white
men were waiting. The Indians were decked out in all
their finery, and were grouped around the chief Sesiba-
houra, whom Albanel saluted with ten volleys of musketry
as the dignitary stepped ashore from the canoe.

" Sesibahoura," said the priest, " you do wrong to pre
vent us from crossing your territory, after we Frenchmen
have freed you from the Iroquois. Besides, God is send
ing me to preach the Gospel and lie has rights which all
other Indian nations recognize. Here is a present to lay
on the graves of your braves whom the Iroquois have slain ;
and here is another to tell you that the Iroquois are now
praying to God and to bid you do likewise. As I come to
be your friend here and hereafter, I want you to stop trad
ing with the Europeans who come to the Bay. Go down
to Lake St. John, where you will always find a blackrobe
to instruct you."

The chief collapsed. He gave a great banquet ; made
fine speeches in the usual Indian fashion, expressing his
pleasure to be instructed in the truths of the Gospel. He
wanted his training to begin immediately, but Albanel,
while agreeing to baptize the babies, told the older people
he would meet them at Lake St. John on his return.

"On the eighteenth, we entered the great lake of the
Mistassirinins," he continues, " so extensive that it would

119

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

take twenty days of fine weather to go around it. It derives
its name from the prodigious rocks that everywhere crop
up, on its surface. Elk, bear, caribou, porcupines and
beavers are found in abundance on its beautiful islands. We
had travelled six leagues on the lake, when my eye caught
sight of a lofty peak, far away in the distance. ' Are we
going thither?' I asked. 'Silence,' whispered the guide,
1 don't look at it, if you don't want to die. If you look at
it you will bring a fierce storm on the lake.' ' It may be
noted here that this stretch of water is now called Lake
Albanel.

" On the nineteenth, we arrived at Makouamitikac, or
the place where the bears fish. It was great sport to see
bruin walking along the shore, scooping in a pickerel, a
whitefish or a little sturgeon. He was very skilful at it.
The twenty-second, twenty-third and twenty-fourth were
days of hardship, because of the innumerable portages, and
on the twenty-fifth of June at noon we arrived at Nemiskau,
a lake ten leagues in circumference, with a semi-circle of
lofty mountains from north to south. You see at the mouth
of the great river, which flows from east to north-east, vast
plains, which extend to the foot of the mountains, and are
so cut up by stretches of water, that they seem like lakes
dotted with islands. You find the track of beavers, deer and
porcupines everywhere. Five great rivers empty into the
lake, which is teeming with fish. On our way we came
across the gloomy vestiges of a raid of the Iroquois some
years before. On one of the islands they had built a fort
of great trees, and from there covered every approach. The
devastations they caused were so great, that the inhabitants
abandoned the locality altogether, though it was once a
great centre of traffic."

On the twenty-sixth the travelers were at Tehepimont;
a very mountainous country. On the twenty-seventh they
made many wearisome portages, and had to fight contin
ually with swarms of mosquitoes, which left them no rest
night or day. " On the twenty-eighth," says the diary, " we
had scarcely gone a quarter of a league when we saw at our
left, in a little creek, a small coaster of ten or twelve tons
burden, floating the English flag, and carrying a lateen
sail." It was the first indication that they had reached the

1 20

CHARLES ALBANEL

great inland sea. He does not tell us if he went over to the
little ship. Probably he did not. A quarrel might have
ensued. But one would like to know who they were, and
whence they came, and how they had dared to cross the
wild ocean in a little coaster of ten or twelve tons with its
lateen sail.

" About a gunshot away from it " continues Albancl.
" we saw and entered two abandoned houses and there were
signs that Indians had camped nearby.

" We kept on our way to a pond about six leagues from
the English houses. There the tide was out, and the wind
was against us; but we went ashore wading waist deep in
the mud of a little creek to the right. Turning" right and
left, we at last came on two or three huts, but there was
no living thing there, except an abandoned dog. From that
clue however we gathered that the Indians were not far
away, and had left only a day or so before. There we
stopped, firing otT our muskets over and over again to at
tract attention. «\nd diverting ourselves by gazing out on the
sea that we had suffered so much to reach, the famous
Hudson I 'ay."

Albanel had accomplished his object and was a happy
man.

But where were the Indians? "\Yhcre could he look for
them in those vast solitudes? On the twenty-ninth a canoe
was sent out to hunt for them, at a place which he calls
Meskoutcnagachit. On the thirtieth the guide grew ill tem
pered, and insisted on returning home. It was now July.
Albanel was in despair. To go back without seeing any of
the people was to render useless all that had been done ; it
would make him and his party ridiculous on their return
to Quebec, but especially for him as a priest the thought of
turning his back on these people whom he had come to
evangelize, and who might be within a few miles of him,
was something that was intolerable. But he was at the
mercy of this miserable Indian who would have left them
there to perish in the wilderness. He controlled his feel-

121

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

ings, however, and early in the morning of July i, 1671, he
called his Frenchmen and Indians around and began to pre
pare for the celebration of holy Mass; doubtless the first
time such an event had occurred in those frozen North
American regions. Some artist ought to make a picture of
it: the poor altar, with the weather-beaten and weary priest
in his sacerdotal robes, celebrating the solemn mysteries on
the shore of that wide sea ; near him the battered wigwam
and the lonely dog; and kneeling around the altar the little
group of Frenchmen and the wondering Indians ; the guide
perhaps standing aloof in anger.

After Mass, he took the reluctant savage in hand and
appealed to him. How would he dare think of returning
and run the risk of bringing on himself the curse of God,
for having deprived the poor people of those parts of the
message of salvation, which the priest had travelled so far
to bring them? He would certainly be punished in hell
for it.

" I have always noticed," writes Albanel, " that the fear
of hell exercises a great influence on the Indian." It was so
in this case. " Let us go," said the savage abruptly, and
immediately the party embarked in their canoes and pad
dled across the wide expanse, over which they had seen
the other boat disappear a day or so before. They had
hardly travelled six leagues when, lo! a canoe was seen
coming towards them. Was it their own? No, it was one
that belonged to the Indians who had been found by the
scout. They were only too eager to send one of their best
boats to bring the missionary to their settlement. No delay
was made in embarking. " From afar," he writes, " they
saw us approach, and ran out of their cabins to the shore,
crying with all their might : * The black-robe ! The black-
robe has come to visit us.' "

Banqueting and rejoicing followed, but in the midst
of it all Albanel detected a lurking suspicion among the
Indians that the Frenchmen with him were traders, and

122

CHARLES ALBANEL

just as at Lake Mistassirinin he had to disabuse them, by
assurances that it was God who had sent him, reminding
them also of how the French had delivered them from the
Iroquois. He helped out his eloquence by means of
presents, which was nearly always an overwhelming argu
ment with the red men.

As in the former instance, there was a general request
for baptism, the old chief, a remarkably intelligent man,
being the most insistent upon it. Albanel forthwith began
to teach them. The instructions were kept up night and
day, and as the neophyte was not in danger of being spoiled
by contact with the whites, he on July 14, in~j, poured the
waters of baptism on the head of the great chief, giving
him the name of Ignatius. He was the first native Christian
in those parts of America.

Albanel gives us the outline of a wonderful speech made
by the neophyte after the administration of the sacrament;
in the course of which he showed how well he understood
his obligations, and how determined he was to fulfill them.
He was anxious that all the tribe should follow his
example. Indeed every one was eager to do so, and though
Albanel was not able to remain long with them, he baptized
sixty-two persons, children and adults, before he turned his
face homeward.

Apologizing for the incompleteness of his information,
because of the briefness of his stay and his absorption in
ministerial duties, he gives, nevertheless, some idea of the
country which he had succeeded in reaching.

" The river by which we entered Hudson Bay " he says,
" flows out of Lake Xemiskau, whose name it keeps. It is
very beautiful. It is a league or more in width, in certain
parts, and is about eighty leagues in length, flowing from
southeast and northwest. It is very swift and its course is
broken by eighteen cataracts. Its tides are very regular,
but the distance which the sea recedes from the shore at
low tide is amazing. The Indians put it at twenty leagues.
At all events the water of the river is lost to sight. As far

123

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

as the eye can see there is nothing but mud and rocks.
The river that flows into it disappears in the mud, and there
is not water enough a little way from the shore to float a
canoe. The mouth of the river is at 50° latitude."

Then follows a list of the tribes, in the adjoining regions ;
but as they are unpronounceable and unrememberable, they
may be omitted here. There was any amount of game, and
the savages told him, though he doubts the story, that in
some places the birds shed such abundance of plumage
when they moult, that other birds and sometimes men,
are smothered in the heap. The only fruits he found were
blueberries, small red apples, diminutive black pears, and
any quantity of gooseberries. There was plenty of game,
but on the other hand he saw many trees stripped of their
bark. The Indians had gnawed it off when they were in
want of other food.

" It is a mistake," he says, " to fancy that the climate
makes the place uninhabitable, either because of the ice and
snow, or the lack of wood to build or to burn. Those who
think so have not seen these vast and dense forests, the
beautiful plains, these wide prairies, along the borders of
rivers, and covered with herbage which is most suitable for
live stock. I can assure you that, on the I5th of June, I
have seen wild roses as fragrant as those at Quebec. In
deed, the season seemed more advanced, and the tempera
ture mild and pleasant. While we were in those parts,
there was no night; dawn succeeded twilight immediately."

A recent visitor there assures us that the same condi
tions still prevail at the foot of Hudson Bay, and he urges
his countrymen of Canada to emigrate thither and take
possession of the land. We do not know if the copper-plate
on which Albanel cut the arms of France, and which he
planted at the foot of a great tree to proclaim that Hudson
Bay belonged to Louis XIV., has ever been dug up.

On the sixth of July the travellers started homeward ;
the journey up the river being of course harder than going
down; but in four days he reached Nemiskau, where he

124

CHARLES ALBANEL

elected the arms of the King on the point of an island in
the lake. He met two canoes on the fourteenth and the
Indians told him that one hundred and fifty Mistassirinins
were near by waiting to he instructed. "I was on fire with
eagerness to go to them," he writes; "hut my ill-tempered
guide, who pretended to he asleep, while the Indians were
talking, started up as he saw me departing and cried out :
' Where arc you going, Black-Robe? We cannot wait ; let us
go on.' It is a wretched thing to be dependent on the humor
of a savage, but there was no help for it ; I had to submit."
Later on he met another party of two hundred Indians
who wanted to be Christians, and all he could do was to tell
them to meet him at Lake St. John, the following spring.
However he baptized thirty-three of the little papooses.

"On the nineteenth, at j o'clock in the afternoon," he
tells us, " I planted the arms of our puissant and invincible
monarch, on the banks of the River Minahigouskat, as a
protection for these people against the inroads of the Iro-
cjuois. On the twenty-third we reached Lake St. John,
where I found a number of Mistassirinins who had been
waiting for me a whole month. They were the party we had
first met on our way up, and whom I had requested to meet
me there."

He was thus back again within reach of civilization, and
it is worth noting that it took him only seventeen days to
cover the distance from Hudson Bay to that point. He had
established the practicability of the route. Saint-Denys, the
Commandant of Tadoussac, met him at Chicoutimi on the
twenty-ninth, took him aboard a vessel and started for
Quebec, which he reached on August first, and gave an ac
count of the expedition to the authorities.

Albanel was very much elated over his success; almost
too much so in fact for such a holy man. He was convinced
that God had set him apart for the task ; because, when, at
the solicitation of his Superior, he had devoted himself to
the northern missions he was miraculously cured of a

125

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

serious illness. Whether God had especially appointed him
or not, matters little. He deserved to succeed, for he had
been endeavoring for eighteen years to find the road that
led to Hudson Bay. Before him, three expeditions had
made the attempt and failed. He had reached the goal. He
haa travelled eight hundred leagues, passed two hundred
c-itaracts, and had crossed mountains and morasses, where
his life was in his hand at every moment. He was virtually
alone, for the authorities at Quebec did not think it worth
while to give him a single soldier to protect him from the
red men on the way, or from the Englishmen, at the end o£
the route. History is silent as to the temporal recognition by
the Colonial authorities of the information given by the
explorer, which was very valuable for commercial purposes,
but in all likelihood the silence is due to the fact that the
Governj.aent did nothing at all to acknowledge the service.

126

CHAPTER II.

FINDING RADISSON.

Albane! made a second journey to Hudson Ray in 1074.
As the "Relations" had suspended publication two years
previously, it is of course impossible to obtain any official
account, not only of the details but even of the main facts
of this expedition or indeed of the twenty-four subsequent
years of Albanel's adventurous career. Fortunately, a re
cent work on "The Conquest of the Great Northwest"
furnishes us with some valuable information about what
happened in 1^74.

On this second trip to the Bay he met with a serious
accident. Some unpublished documents of the Society in
form us that Father de Crespieul, who was laboring among
the savages in those parts, heard of the mishap, and he, of
course, immediately left his own post and hurried over
mountains and lakes and rivers to bring help to his com-
panion-in-arms. A heavy load had fallen on him and had
nearly broken his back. In the story of Crespieul we have
given a detailed account of this romantic meeting in the
woods. They were together off and on, for about three
weeks, and then Albanel resumed his journey to the north.
In spite of many hardships, which in his battered condition
of health must have required heroic patience and courage
to overcome, he at last arrived at Hudson Bay.

There he met the Frenchman, Pierre Esprit Radisson,
who was acting as the chief agent of the English Hudson
Bay Company. Indeed, the main object of this second ex
pedition was to effect that meeting, for, though no one knew
it then, nor till very recently, Albanel was acting as the
secret agent of Frontenac, the Governor of Quebec, and if
he succeeded in inducing Radisson to abandon the service

127

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

of the Hudson Bay Company the consequences would be
momentous both for England and France.

To understand this situation, it will be necessary for
us to interrupt the story of Albanel's life at this point, and
to give somewhat at length an account of Radisson's career,
although we have already said something of this remark
able man in the other volumes. This historic personage
first appears in the territory which is now the state of New
York.

In September, 1653, the Jesuit missionary, Father Joseph
Antoine Poncet de la Riviere, was carried down in a
mangled condition to Albany, or Fort Orange, from the
same Mohawk village where Father Jogues had been put
to death seven years before. While he was waiting for
his wounds to heal, a party of Indian braves arrived at the
Fort. Among them was a young French lad painted and
plumed like the rest. Poncet speaks of him as being very
serviceable as an interpreter, but forgets to give his name.
We find, however, in an account written later on by this
white savage himself, that he was no other than Pierre
Esprit Radisson, who was destined, in the course of his life,
to embroil England and France in a bloody and protracted
struggle for wrhat is now known as the Hudson Bay Terri
tory. He acquired the additional distinction of being the
most detested and perhaps the most maligned man in Can
adian history.

He had come to America in 1651 and in the following
year, on account of his reckless disregard of danger, which
was his characteristic through life, he was captured by the
Mohawks. Instead of being scalped he was adopted by an
old chief, whose wife was a Huron, and consequently well
acquainted with the French, possibly even knowing some
thing about Christianity. She loved him as a mother and
called him " Orimah " after a son whom she had lost. The
name fitted him ; for curiously enough " Orimah " means
Pierre. Later on, the Algonquins called him " Porcupine

128

CHARLES ALBAXEL

Head." After a while he was initiated as a member of the
Mohawk tribe and thus became a full-fledged Iroquois. He
had two Indian sisters.

He seemed to be about as savage as his red brethren;
for he, himself, informs us that soon after his capture, when
out hunting with three of the braves, an unknown Algon
quin came upon them in the woods and was hospitably ad
mitted to their temporary shelter. He took Radisson aside
and said : "Do you love the French?" to which Radisson
replied: "Do you love the Algonqnins? " which probably
meant, "Of course- I do." " \Yliy don't you escape then?"
inquired the Indian. " Impossible," was the answer. " I am
a captive." " Very easy." rejoined the Algonquin; " we can
murder these three Mohawks while they are asleep and
get away to the St. Lawrence together."

The ghastly proposal was accepted; and three Mohawks
lay dead in their cabin that night. The assassins reached
the great river, and even succeeded in crossing Lake St.
Peter, but just as they landed, a band of Iroquois, who were
on the war path, started out of the bushes. They were not
aware of the crime that had been perpetrated, but they shot
the Algonquin on general principles and led Radisson back
to the Mohawk, along with three other white prisoners,
one of them a woman, and a dozen or so of Ilurons.

Radisson's Indian father and mother were in consterna
tion, for, like the other captives, he was to die by torture.
The first day the executioners tore off four of his finger
nails; on the second a brutal savage made him put his
thumb into a calumet on top of burning tobacco, and then
proceeded to smoke the horrid mixture until the end of the
thumb was reduced to a cinder; through his feet also was
thrust a skiver of hot iron. \Yhile this was going on, a
four-year-old child was doing his best to chew off one of
Radisson's fingers, but without success. Finally he was
tied to the stake, but as the flames ate into the thongs he
was free for the moment, and then the old chief interfered

9 129

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

and saved him from death. He was thus taught how un
wise it was to try to escape from his Indian relatives.

The precise age of this singular lad at that time we have
no means of determining. Some one has given 1620 as the
date of his birth, but that would have made him over thirty
when he arrived at Fort Orange, which is contrary to the
general belief. There is a conflict of opinion also about
where he was born. Mr. Scull, who wrote the preface to
the Prince Society publication which printed Radisson's
diary, pronounces for St. Malo. Dionne admits that, at
least, his family lived there : while Judge Prud'homme of
Winnipeg favors Paris.

When the Dutch Commandant urged this boy-savage to
take off his paint and feathers he was met with a positive
refusal. An offer of a ransom was also rejected. Radisson
said he was very much attached to the Mohawks, and be
sides he wanted the opportunity to travel, and so he went
off with the Indians. Possibly he remembered his former
effort to desert. But about three weeks later he changed
his mind and stole back to the fort, where he was received
with open arms. The Governor dressed him up as a white
man and then led him away, for the Indians were on his
trail. They arrived very soon after him, but were not ad
mitted to the fort. His two Indian sisters also came to
plead with him to return. He did not see them but could
hear them outside crying piteously : "Orihma! Orihma !"
He grew a little sentimental at the sound of their lamenta
tions but braced himself up and persisted in his resolution.

He tells us that while there he went to confession to
Father Poncet, or Father " Noncet," as the printer's copy
of his MS. puts it. The poor fellow was in sad need of
being shriven, as well as of getting instructions in funda
mental ethics. It is curious to note how Dionne, with so many
other proofs at hand, eagerly seizes on the incident of con
fession to prove that Radisson was a Catholic. No doubt
he performed other pious acts besides going to confession,

130

CHARLES ALBANEL

and of course his penance was a heavy one. When Poncet
started for Montreal by way of what is now Herkimcr and
(Jgdensburg, Radisson sailed down the Hudson to Man
hattan, where he remained three weeks, and then took ship
for Amsterdam, reaching that port on January fourth, 1654.
He was hack in Three Rivers the next year. Whether he
married or not at that time historians are not agreed, but
111 any case he certainly did not establish a home in the
colon}-, for he was one of the most persistent rovers that
Canada ever produced.

lie appears, in the " Relations " of 1655, where we read
that: "on August nth, 1654, two young Frenchmen, full of
courage, having received permission from Monsieur le
Gouverneur to embark with some of the Indians who had
come down to the French settlements, began a journey
of more than five hundred leagues under the guidance of
these Argonauts, not in great galleons, or long-oared
barges, but in little gondolas of bark. They fully expected
to return in the Spring, but the Indians did not conduct them
home until towards the end of August. 1050. Their arrival
gave a great deal of joy to the whole country, for they
brought with them five hundred canoes laden with goods
which the French come to this end of the world to procure."

Ihe two young men who made this wonderful journey
were Radisson and his friend Chouart. The enormous
amount of furs which they brought back to the colony
meant a great deal for them financially, and that was their
object of their expedition, but it is very much to their credit
that while they were among the Indians they talked con
stantly to them about the missionaries, and whenever they
found a dying papoose they made haste to baptize it.

Before they went west, Father Le Moync, at the peril
of his life, had visited the Onondagas to make sure
that they were sincere in their request for a missionary.
As Le Moyne's report was favorable, Fathers Chaumonot
and Dablon undertook the work of evangelizing the Indians

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

of that part of New York, but they soon found that it was
not a craving for religious instruction that agitated the
hearts of these savages. The red man wanted a trading
post, and hence in the spring of 1656 Father Dablon made
his memorable journey, on foot, from Onondaga to Quebec
to obtain volunteers for this commercial enterprise. As
we have said elsewhere, permission was given by the author
ities, and on July eleventh a flotilla of canoes, carrying fifty
white men and a motley crowd of Onondagas, Senecas, and
Hurons, sailed over Lake Ganentaa. Cannons and musketry
roared their salute as the barks approached the shore, ban
ners fluttered on the breeze and songs and cheers awoke
the echoes of the forest as the fifty Frenchmen beached
their boats at a place now known as Liverpool, and began
the first permanent establishment in Iroquois territory.

Radisson had not yet returned from the West, or he
would certainly have thrown in his fortune with these ad
venturers. He reached the St. Lawrence only after their
departure, but later on we find him going up the St. Law
rence to Onondaga with Father Ragueneau in August, 1657,
and witnessing somewhere on the river a horrible butchery
by the Iroquois of the unfortunate Hurons, who had been
invited to the new settlement. Ragueneau saw on reaching
the place that the same treatment was to be meted out to
the whites; not indeed by the Onondagas, who were well
disposed, but by the Mohawks and Oneidas. After con
sidering the situation it was decided that the only course
to adopt was flight. How to do so was a problem. " A
young Frenchman," as the " Relations " described him,
came to the rescue. Very likely this " Frenchman " was
Radisson. He had a dream, or said he had, in which he was
commanded to spread a great banquet, at which everything
was to be eaten, otherwise the ghost would kill him. It was
good news for the hungry redmen, and they agreed to keep
the contract.

Enormous quantities of food were laid before them,

132

CHARLES ALBANEL

and they gorged themselves heriocally, but never reached
the bottom of the pot. The supplies were inexhaustible.
They pleaded for pity, but the dreamer asked : " Do you
want me to be killed? " They assured him that they did not,
and they went to work again until they were almost filled to
the lips, dancing and singing and screaming meantime, until
at last, to the sound of French fiddles and fifes and cornets,
they all fell off in a stupor. With their enemies thus re
duced to helplessness, the Frenchmen slipped out on the
lake and paddled down the ( )s\vego River, cutting their way
through ice, portaging around cataracts, and through woods
and swamps, until they reached Lake Ontario. They left
Onondaga on March twentieth and arrived at Montreal on
the evening of April third, 1058.

Ragueneau has left us a very graphic description of his
adventure and Kadisson also gives us his story. He in
forms us that the fugitives were anxious to murder the
sleeping Indians, as the only way to prevent pursuit, but
that the priest forbade them to carry out the ghastly pro
posal. Quite possibly the suggestion came from Radisson
himself. He had disposed of his enemies in that fashion
before.

He was hardly in Three Rivers, when he began to
pine, as he says himself, for "life in the bottom of a canoe."
He did not pine long, for he and Chouart started about the
middle of June for the great lakes. There were sixty
Frenchmen in the party, and some western Indians who
were going home. At Montreal eight Ottawas and two
Frenchmen joined them. A.< they were paddling up the
St. Lawrence an Indian suddenly appeared on the shore
and warned them to be cautious about discharging their
firearms. They paid no attention to him, and on the fol
lowing day a handful of Iroquois attacked them, killed
thirteen men and scattered the rest in all directions. All
the white men returned to Montreal except Radisson and
Chouart, and they, with a few Indians, continued on their

133

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

journey to the west. They went to the end of Lake Ontario
and then entered Lake Huron. Arriving at Sault Ste.
Marie, they wintered there, but traveled a great deal mean
time among the tribes, going as far as Green Bay, and carry
ing on a brisk trade. At the Sault they met the Crees, who
told them about Hudson Bay.

The next winter they were again at Green Bay, and then
reached the end of Lake Superior. The Canadian Govern
ment map marks the place as near the present Duluth and
puts the date as 1659. From the " Minnesota Historical
Collections " (Vol. I, p. 38), we find that they were invited
by the Indians of Mille Lac and the headwaters of the Ste.
Croix River. They proceeded westward along the Knife
Sioux Trail, and were at what is now known as Pine
County in January, 1660, " securing from the Indians a
description of the Forked River, which is very reasonably
understood to be the junction of the Mississippi and Mis
souri." They then returned and reached Three Rivers in
the spring of 1660, after a journey of twenty-five days,
which was a remarkably speedy trip from Lake Superior.
They had three hundred Indians with them, and two hun
dred thousand francs' worth of furs.

It is sometimes alleged that the travelers had on this
occasion discovered the Mississippi, and had, therefore,
anticipated Marquette and Joliet. Indeed, Perrot (p. 28)
declares that " they saw it, but did not recognize it under its
Sioux name." Dionne merely says they learned of its exist
ence, and in the " Relations " of 1660, Dablon, who talked
with the travelers after they returned, writes that they told
him they had met a band of dispersed Hurons, and that
these Hurons spoke of their having seen a river as " wide,
as deep and as beautiful as the St. Lawrence." Chouart
and Radisson did not assert that they themselves had seen
it. In his own narrative Radisson does indeed say that
" by the persuasion of some of the Indians we went into ye
great river that divides itself into two parts, where the

134

CHARLES ALBANEL

Hurons. with some Ottanake, and the wild men that had
wars with them, had retired. This nation /m:v tears against
those of the forked rirer. It i- so called, because it has two
branches; the one towards the west, the other towards the
south, which we believe runs towards Mexico, by the tokcn>
they give us."

The " forked river " is evidently the junction of the Mis
sissippi and the Missouri; but, far from saying that he went
that far, Radisson implies the contrary, lie speaks of it
as being far removed from the place where lie actually was
with his Indian friends.

The account in the " Relation " is certainly more reliable
in any case than the one written lor King Charles II,
which was never intended to be published, and in which
Radisson would be prone to make much of his own exploits.
With Pern it we may say that lie saw the headwaters of the
river, but did not know it. He would be more likely not
to exaggerate when speaking to 1 )ablon and Perrot, who
were his friends. It is gratifying to hear that on this
journey they hapti/ed two hundred Algonquin babio ;
" forty of whom went straight to heaven." Evidently these
Frenchmen were not Huguenots.

So far they had only heard about Hudson Hay. They
were burning with a desire to visit it in person, and asked
Avaugour for the requisite permission. 1 he Jesuits inter
ceded for them, but the Governor could not be budged.
Whereupon they took French leave, traveled over Lake
Ontario and Lake Erie, and made their way to Mackinac.
They saw Keweenaw Day. and in the winter of 1661-2 they
camped on the shores of Lake Superior at Chagouamigan
. IJay. They stayed there, however, only twelve days, and
started out again. Possibly they visited the Lake of the
Woods. They inform us that they also went with some
Crees to the shore of the sea, where they found the battered
ruins of an old shed, and learned from the Indians that the
whites used to visit the place. From there they reached the

135

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Aspamouachan, which is the prolongation of the Saguenay.
Dionne credits them with having reached the shore of James
Bay, spending the spring of 1663 in piling up stores of furs.
They finally arrived in Quebec in the summer, after an
absence of two years.

Unfortunately the intractable Avaugour was still at
Quebec, though on the point of being recalled. He arrested
Chouart, who had been commandant at Three Rivers, and
had absented himself without leave. A fine of 4,000 livres
was imposed on the pair for the purpose of building a fort
at Three Rivers. " He told us for our consolation," says
Radisson, " that we could put our coat-of-arms on the fort.
He laid on us another fine of 6,000 for the public treasury,
but the bugger (sic) wanted to fatten his own ribs with our
money. He then exacted a fourth part of the pelts, which
was the usual tariff ; so that we had to give up 46,000 livres,
and were allowed to keep only 24,000. Isn't he a tyrant to
treat us in that fashion after we had within two years
brought 40,000 to 50,000 pistoles into the country."

What about Radisson's claim to have been the first to
reach Hudson Bay by the land route? There is little doubt
of its being unfounded, for we read in the " Relation " of
1672 that " the sea which is north of us, to which Hudson
gave his name, has since then always prodded the curiosity
of the French to discover a land route to it in order to
ascertain its relative situation, and to become acquainted
with the people who live there. Anxiety to know these
things has increased since we heard from the Indians that
certain ships were there engaged in fur trading. On that
account M. Talon, the Intendant, decided that we should do
our best to make the discovery, and for that purpose Father
Charles Albanel, an old and tried missionary, was chosen
for the work. He left Quebec on August 6, 1671."

Then follows the diary of Albanel, which enables us to
follow him step by step, until he reaches Hudson Bay in
the summer of the following year. At the end of his narra-

136

CHARLES ALBAXEL

live he informs us that three attempts had been made, and
that he and his companions, two Frenchmen and six
Indians were the first to open the way. The very detailed
account, in which every portion of the march is noted,
would seem to intimate that the authorities at Quebec did
not believe that Bourdon or Couture had gone as far as
Hudson Bay, and attached much less credence to the story
of Radisson and Chouart.

Whatever views may be taken of the claims of Radisson
and Chouart as discoverers of Hudson Bay, there is no
doubt that they were unjustly and cruelly treated, not by
their fellow Canadians, but by the mulish and wrong-headed
Avaugour. In hope of better things they went to France,
but all that could be obtained there was the promise of a
vessel to continue their explorations. It was not full rep
aration, but at least it would enable them to retrieve their
fortunes.

Believing what they were told, they returned to America
and waited for the vessel at Isle Ferce, in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence. But a Jesuit missionary was sent to inform
them that the Government had changed its mind. Of
course, there was no use going to Quebec, so they made
their way to Cape Breton, where they were mobbed. They
then Hed to Port Royal, in Xova Scotia, which was at that
time under English rule.

Now begin the accusations of treachery and apostacy.
Charlevoix calls them dcs transfuses, but if they were, every
unfortunate emigrant who leaves his country to improve his
fortunes is likewise a deserter. It is a perversion of truth
to describe them at this stage of their career as " Huguenot
adventurers," as Douglas calls them in his " Old France in
the New World " (p. 516). Up to that time both had been
conspicuous as missionary helpers; the Jesuits had been
interceding for them at Quebec, and Chouart, who had
accompanied Father Menard to the Far West, is described
by Dionne as a Jesuit donnc. or oblate. Whatever may be

137

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

the truth about Radisson, this is the only instance which
we know of in which Chouart is accused of leaving the
Faith.

At Port Royal they succeeded in inducing Captain Zach-
ary Gillam to attempt the journey to Hudson Bay, but Gil-
lam lost courage when he found himself in the ice of the
Straits and turned back. The Frenchmen, however, did not
give up. They had some little money left, and with that
they chartered two vessels, but one of them went to pieces
off Sable Island, and that disaster landed the unfortunate
navigators in a lawsuit in Boston. Though they won the
case, they were left absolutely penniless. Finally good luck
or ill luck brought them to the notice of Sir George Car-
teret, the Royal Commissioner, who persuaded them to go
to England writh him.

They left America on August I, 1665, but when off Spain
they were captured by a Dutch privateer, The Caper, after
a desperate two hours' fight. Carteret had just time to
fling his private dispatches overboard when a bayonet was
pointed at his breast and he gave up his sword. Every
effort was made to induce the two Frenchmen to go over
to Holland to tell their wonderful story, but they refused
to leave Carteret, and all three were put ashore somewhere
on the coast of Spain, and from there made their way to
England.

They were presented to the King, who was then at
Oxford. The good-natured monarch listened with delight
to the account of their travels, and a little later, when he
went to Windsor, he had them accompany him, and saw
that they took chambers somewhere in the neighborhood.
Like a true Stuart, Charles had no superfluous money, and
all he could do for these two great men was to give them
£2 a week for their maintenance. It was the time of the
great plague, the London fire, and the Dutch war, and thus
something besides the King's own extravagances had
drained the country's exchequer.

138

CHARLES ALBANEL

It was then that Radisson wrote from his memoranda
the story of his travels. It is a great book. As he had but
a scraping acquaintance with English, he plunges through
its spelling and grammar with as much glee as if he were
careering down the cataracts of the Ottawa, hitting the
rocks at times, and swirling in the eddies, but swimming
out unconcernedly, and then starting in again for another
race down the stream. The manuscript was found with the
Pepys papers, part of it in the Bodleian, and part in the
British Museum, and published with all its horrors of syn
tax and orthography by the Prince Society of London. It
is one of the curiosities of literature, but, as he was writing
to amuse a pleasure-loving King, and to exalt his own im
portance, absolute confidence cannot be placed in his asser
tions.

Prince Rupert had already come upon the scene at
Oxford and developed a lively interest in the rovers. But
it was the King himself who issued a letter of instruction
to his brother, the Duke of York, afterwards James IT, to
detach a vessel from the tleet for the enterprise. This infor
mation, which is given to us by Laut. is of great value, for
hitherto all the credit of sustaining Radisson's scheme, was
attributed to Rupert, whereas all that he did was to co
operate with a half dozen friends in victualling the ship and
paying the wages of the sailors. Radisson's old friend,
Gillam, of the Nonsuch, was to join the Eaglet, which the
Government supplied. The Royal munificence again poured
itself out lavishly by bestowing a gold medal on Radisson,
and a small title of nobility on Chouart. The nobility in
question was that of the Garter. Marie de ITncarnation
gives us this information, and she adds that besides knight
hood, Chouart received a gift of 20,000 crowns. Why this
discrimination was made in favor of Chouart, she does not
state, nor why he assumed the name of de Groseilliers.

While these preparations were being made, a spy came
from Holland and tried to bribe the Frenchmen to join the

139

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Dutch service. When he failed to win them over he accused
them of counterfeiting money, but, as he could not prove
his charge, he was incontinently thrown into prison.

It was now five years since Radisson and his friend had
discovered the North Sea, or had said they did, and at last,
at June 3, 1668, they sailed out from Gravesend, Radisson
on the big ship Eaglet, and de Groseilliers on Gillam's
smaller craft, the Nonsuch, but before they were out very
far the Eaglet was dismasted and limped back to port,
while the Nonsuch kept on its way and reached the Great
Bay.

It remained there all winter, and, as no news came to
Radisson about its successful passage across, he secured
another vessel, the Wavero, and started out to search for
the missing ship. Unfortunately the Wavero in turn was
disabled, but when Radisson, now in the very depths of
gloom, entered the Channel on his return to England, he
had the unexpected pleasure of seeing the Nonsuch before
him. The little vessel had crossed and recrossed the ocean.

She must have brought back a rich cargo, for a trading
company was immediately organized, and with the greatest
secrecy application was made for a royal charter, giving to
" The Gentlemen Adventurers Trading to Hudson Bay " a
monopoly of trade in America for all time to come.

The request was granted, and it would be hard to find
in the documents of any government a more splendid gen
erosity in disposing of the earth than the deed of gift made
by Charles II to his friends and cronies, who made up the
original Hudson Bay Company. Laut says " it was practi
cally deeding away half America, namely, all modern
Canada except New France," which they were ultimately
to take, and most of the Western states beyond the Missis
sippi. The grantees were to have " all the trade and com
merce of all those seas, bays, rivers, creeks and sounds in
whatever latitude that lie within the entrance of the straits
called Hudson's Straits, together with all the lands,

140

CHARLES ALBAXEL

countries, and territories upon the coasts and confines of
said straits, bays, rivers, lakes, creeks, and sounds not now
actually possessed by any other Christian states." They
were even given power " to make war against other princes
or peoples that were not Christian, and to expel any other
Englishman who should intrude on their territory, and to
impose such punishment as the offense might warrant.
Admirals, judges, sheriffs, and all officers of the law in
England are charged by the charter to aid, favor, help, and
assist the Company by land and sea." Signed at West
minster, May 2, 1670.

The applicants for the charter were Prince Rupert, the
Duke of Albemarle, the Earl of Craven, and others less con
spicuous. They were in great part also the stockholders.
The capital did not exceed £10,500, and most of the shares
were not subscribed in cash. But neither in the list of in-
corporators nor shareholders do we find the name of Radis-
son, who really had created the company. Later on his
name appears with £200 to his credit.

The first vessels sent out were the Wavero, the Shaftes-
bury, and the Prince Rupert. On reaching the bay, Radis-
son took the Wavero, which was the smallest craft, and
sailed along the south shore, and afterwards north to Xelson,
where he erected the arms of the English King. lie then
continued on to Moose and Cape Henrietta Maria, and
when he had accomplished that much he left Groseilliers in
America and returned to London as advisor of the company.
In the summers of 1671 and 1672 he was again in the bay,
and when he returned to London in the fall of the latter
year he committed the offense of marrying the Protestant,
Mary Kirke, the daughter of Sir John Kirke, who was the
representative of the Huguenot family which had driven
Champlain from Quebec in 1629. This alliance is consid
ered proof enough for some of Radisson's critics, but not
for others, that while taking a wife he accepted her religion.

The year 1674 was the beginning of the disillusionment

141

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

of Radisson. He was again in the bay, and, although he
saw vast fortunes accumulated around him, he found him
self regarded merely as an employee. He had taken the
oath of fidelity to the company, but that was not enough for
his English friends; nor did his marriage with Mary Kirke
avail to convince them of his trustworthiness. He was still
considered to be a Catholic, and, indeed, Laut always de
scribes him as such throughout the narration. There can
be very little doubt that had he been an out-and-out Prot
estant and Englishman, he would have been the recipient of
more worldly favors, and not looked down upon as a hire
ling.

Just then something occurred. It was in the fall of 1674.
He was at his work, when suddenly a Jesuit missionary,
Father Albanel, appeared and handed him a letter. It was
from no less a personage than Colbert, the Prime Minister
of Louis XIV, offering him a position in the French navy,
the payment of all his debts, and a gratuity of £400, if he
would return to his allegiance.

There is a scene for a novelist: a traitor and an outlaw
in the icy desolation of the North, thousands of miles from
civilization ; a dark-robed Jesuit mysteriously appearing,
secretly slipping a letter in the fugitive's hand, making
offers of wealth and advances from the Grand Monarque,
etc., etc., etc.

The weavers of romance have not lost sight of this op
portunity, and they have spun fine yarns of how the absent
Governor unexpectedly appears and sees the two French
men hobnobbing with the Jesuit; dark suspicions arise; he
demands the Jesuit's passport; finds it is from Frontenac,
and is compelled to extend official courtesy to him ; but in
a rage he knocks down both Frenchmen; they reply in
kind; and then flee to the woods, and after a thousand
dangers arrive palpitating with excitement at Quebec.

The real story is more romantic. Radisson had pocketed
the letter before the Governor arrived, and he was too

142

CHARLES ALBAXEL

sleek an individual to betray himself subsequently. As
soon as he got the chance he slipped back to England, and
from there crossed over to France. He accepted the offer
of a place in the navy ; went with d'Estrees on an expedition
to the West Indies; was in the squadron that ran on the
rocks at Curac,oa, when three out of the six ships were lost.
Returning to France, he was recommended by d'Estrees
for a gratuity of one hundred loiiis d'<>r.

He then tried to get bis wife to join him in France, but
she refused. By a curious process ()f logic, Colbert and
his son, Seignelay, interpreted this unwillingness of the lady
as meaning that Radisson was too much attached to Eng
land, and they forthwith began to frown on him. The poor
fellow probably convinced them of his loyalty later on by
sending to the ( lovernment a suppliijuc signed by the Mar
quis de Bi-lleroche, declaring that his wife had adjured
Protestantism. This important paper is quoted by Dionne,
who refers us to the "Collection of Documents," pp. 314,
3!5. 316. in the "New York Colonial MSS.," Vol. IX. It
shows conclusively that Radisson was not a Huguenot.

\Yhat became of Father Albanel? There is no informa
tion forthcoming from any of the published " Relations "
of the Society; but fortunately the author of "The Con
quest of the Great Northwest " fills up the gap with two
very valuable letters, dug up from the Hudson Bav
archives. One is dated " London, September 25th, 1674,"
though the writer's name is not given ; but it is addressed
to the Secretary of State. It runs as follows: ''This day
came The Shaftesbury Pink from Hudson Bay, Capt. Shop-
ard. Ye Capt. tiles me he found a ffranch Jesuit that did
endeavor to convert ye Indians and persuade them not to
trade with ye English, for which reason they brought him
away with them. Capt. Gillam we expect to-morrow."

Later: " This day arrived Capt. Gillam. I was on board
of him ; they were forced to winter there and spend all
their provisions. They have left only four to keep posses-

143

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

sion of the place. I see the French Jesuit is a little, ould
mar,"

There is no mention whatever of Albanel's tampering
with Radisson, nor was it necessary to communicate that in
formation to Captain Shopard. There was reason enough in
that he was " converting ye Indians." It may be noted
that, besides giving us the knowledge of these very impor
tant facts, the letters also furnish us with a pen picture of
the famous missionary's personal appearance. We are told :
" He was a little, ould man/' As a matter of fact, he was
only sixty-two, but the hardship of his missionary career
had, no doubt, left its scars on him. In addition to this,
Dionne, in a paper read before the Royal Society of Canada,
tells us something else about the " little, ould man/' He
notes that in the journal of Thomas Gorst, the secretary of
Charles Bradley, Governor of Port Nelson, it is stated that
on April 3, 1674, " there arrived at Fort Charles a Jesuit
missionary, born of English parents. He brought a letter
from Frontenac to Charles Bradley, in which the wish was
expressed to have the Jesuit treated with all respect due to
his position. The missionary also gave a letter to Chouart
from his family at Three Rivers." Probably because Al-
banel was of English parentage and spoke English he was
chosen for the mission to Hudson Bay.

These twro letters fill up a gap in the story of the great
missionary's life. It is said that for two years his Superiors
knew nothing of his whereabouts. How could they? He
was a prisoner at Hudson Bay and in England, and his dis
appearance from view may also explain the harsh judg
ment about Albanel's propensity for travel, rather than for
apostolic work in converting the Indians. He appears to
have been a much wronged man, even among his own.

We have no details about his prison life in England,
nor is there any explanation at hand of how he was set free.
We know only that he was in France in 1675, and on
July 22 set sail for America. He was on the ship with

144

CHARLES ALBANEL

Father Enjalran, and, although the voyage was very temp
estuous, he was quite immune from the distress of sea
sickness, which nearly killed his companion, though, on the
other hand, had it not been for Enjalran, Albanel might
have been brained by a >tack of guns which had been
detached from its place by the battering of the waves
against the side of the vessel, and which came near falling
on the missionaries.

Enjalran. in his long letter, narrates an incident which
occurred at their departure from Gaspe, which at first sight
reflects somewhat unfavorably on Albanel's courage. As
they were leaving the shore to go up to Quebec a Christian
Indian girl implored them to take her with them, as she
feared for her virtue from the Frenchmen at Gaspe. She
even leaped into the shallop and took her place at the side
of the priests. The most prominent individual of the post
pursued her, and dragged her out of the boat, in spite of
her protests. Enjalran wanted to interfere, but Albanel,
who is called by his companion " our dear and gracious
leader," bade him to say nothing, and the unfortunate girl
was hustled ashore. It was very distressing for the priests,
but, on the other hand, they understood her very imper
fectly. She may have been deceiving them, and merely
wanted to go to Quebec. Besides, it might have com
promised the reputation of both the missionaries if they
had carried off a lone Indian girl from one of the French
settlements. At this distance of time any judgment in the
matter would be temerarious.

Albanel had scarcely arrived when he was sent to the Far
West to replace a Father who was leaving for the Illinois.
Probably he was given that destination to remove him as
far as possible from the danger of meeting the English.
He was likely to be seized again, for in the Public Record
Office of London there is recorded in the '' Colonial Entry
Book," Vol. 96, p. 42, a protest of the Hudson Bay Com
pany in the proceedings of the Royal Council, against

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

" some ill practices of Charles Albanel, a Jesuit ; de Grose-
liers, a Frenchman, and Radisson, an Italian. The Council
resolved to request the French Government to hinder the
Jesuit, and the two persons aforesaid, undertaking anything
that may be prejudicial to the trade or interest of the afore
said Company."

Whether or not the knowledge of this complaint of the
company had reached Quebec we do not know, but on
general principles it was prudent to have him out of the
way. It is curious to hear Radisson described as an Italian
by his old English associates. Of Albanel's work among
the Ottawas we find nothing but a casual reference. While
he was laboring there, the fight of the English and French
for the territory around the bay was in progress ; Radisson
had a second time abandoned the French allegiance, and
gone over to the enemy. The romantic expeditions of Iber-
ville to recover the trading posts, were filling the Cana
dians with alternate enthusiasm and despair, for the multi
plied conquests of that remarkable man between the years
1687 and 1697, splendid as they were, only ended in the
loss of the entire country. No doubt Albanel heard of it
all, in his far away seclusion of the west, for the news of
such events travelled fast among the aborigines. The end
came at last, and the heroic missionary, who was described
as " a little, ould man " in 1674, went to heaven from Sault
Ste. Marie as late as twenty-two years afterwards, on Jan
uary n, 1696.

146

CLAUDE ALLOUEZ

CHAPTER I.
THE UNWELCOME PASSENGER.

Claude Allouez is often spoken of as the Francis Xavier
of the American missions. No distance was too great, no
danger too threatening, to make him desist from his pursuit
of the souls of the red men. He was the first to follow
Menard to what was then the farthest west. " Do you
notice the shape of Lake Superior or Lake de Tracy? " asks
Dablon in his " Relation " of those apostolic enterprises.
" Its northern shore is bent like a bow, the southern side
may do for the string, while midway in the three hundred
and sixty miles of water a great peninsula juts out, which,
with a little effort of the imagination, will seem to you like
the arrow, even if it does not go all the way across the one
hundred and forty miles, which is the width of the lake at
that place. At the extreme western end of that inland sea
Father Claude Jean Allouez established his mission of La
Pointe du St. Esprit." The place is now simply La Pointe.
Indeed, it was sometimes so designated in missionary times.

Allouez was born at St. Didier, in France, June 6, 1622,
and was only a lad of seventeen when he entered the novi
tiate at Toulouse. He made his studies in the same city,
and subsequently at Billom and Rodez, and we find him in
the last named place engaged chiefly in preaching. When
he was thirty-six years of age he set out for Canada, on
the same ship with d'Argenson, who had been made Gov
ernor of New France. Like all the other missionaries, he
was first engaged at different posts along the St. Lawrence ;
in 1660 he was Superior at Three Rivers, and while at that

147

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

post was named vicar general of the Northwest, an appoint
ment which was perhaps the first act of the ecclesiastical
organization of the western country.

He started from Three Rivers for Lake Superior in 1664,
but on reaching Montreal he found that the flotilla of canoes
had already gone up the river, and he was compelled to
retrace his steps and wait for the next expedition, which
left in the following year, on August 8, 1665. It consisted
of a party of more than four hundred savages. They were
of no particular tribe, but were an aggregation of the vari
ous nations who had fled westward from the pursuing
Iroquois. Besides Allouez there were six other French
men ; they in quest of furs, he of souls.

It was a hard journey that he had set for himself, and
he naturally blamed the devil for all the troubles he had to
wrestle with. Even at the start the haughty savages gave
him the uncomfortable assurance that he would never reach
his destination, but would be abandoned in some lonely
place on the way up if he persisted in going. However, he
was not to be balked. He and the Frenchmen had a canoe
of their own, but by the time they reached the Riviere des
Prairies, which flows behind Montreal Island, they unfortu
nately smashed it, and the crowd of Indians went on with
out them, being only too glad to be rid of any white com
panions. The boat, however, was repaired, and they pad
dled fiercely after the retreating savages, and succeeded in
joining them two or three days later at the Long Sault on
the Ottawa.

The effort, however, was too much for them, especially
as the canoe was in a deplorable condition. That night
Allouez made a speech to the Indians, entreating them to
take the white men in their canoes. He won his case for
his friends, but he himself was not wanted, and the next
morning when he attempted to embark, the occupants of
the canoe drove him off, and left him standing on the shore,
while they paddled rapidly away. He was heart-broken,

148

CLAUDE ALLOUEZ

but knelt down and prayed for the brutal men who had left
him to starve to death in the wilderness. His repulse, how
ever, was providential, for the canoe from which he had been
expelled went to pieces later on in the rapids. Had he
been in it the dark waters of the Ottawa would have closed
over him forever.

While he was resigning himself to God's will he saw
three of his French friends coming up the river. He hailed
them, and, of course, they came ashore to rescue him from
his plight. Together they repaired the old canoe, and
started after the party, which had long since vanished from
sight. It was a dangerous thing to do, for they were trav
eling up an unknown river, where ignorance of the currents
meant at times almost certain death. The passage at the
Chat Rapids was particularly perilous, but doubtless they
were helped by the prayers of the missionary, and they not
only made it safely, but succeeded in catching up with a
party of six of the Indian canoes.

Allouez thought it was high time to lay aside his meek
and humble demeanor, and he began to berate the Indians
soundly. "Do you know that I represent Onontio?" he
asked ; " that I hold his voice in my hands and that I am
going as his ambassador to speak to all the nations of the
West?" They looked at him in amazement. He had suc
ceeded in frightening them so much that they let him
journey along with them, and at noon that day they caught
up with the rest of the flotilla.

Encouraged by his maneuver in terrorizing the first de
tachment, he tried the same tactics on the whole assembly
that afternoon. But he failed ; for one of the chiefs rose up
to reply, and succeeded so well in allaying the fears of the
others that, although the laymen were taken aboard the
canoes, the priest was again repelled, the reason alleged
being that he did not know how to paddle and could not
carry a load at the portages.

Utterly discouraged this time, the abandoned man with-

149

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

drew to the woods to pray, and perhaps to die, but after a
little while he returned to the shore, he scarcely knew why,
and there to his amazement he saw out on the stream the
very Indian who had treated him with such contempt
coming back to ask him to get into the canoe. " I did so
immediately," says Allouez, " before he could have time to
change his mind."

Seated in the canoe, a paddle was thrust in his hand,
and he was bidden to get to work. " I felt like a malefactor
condemned to the galleys," he tells us, " and had to work
all day long, but, though thoroughly exhausted, God gave
me strength to keep at my task far into the night." But he
was treated with undisguised contempt ; he was the butt of
the whole party, and they stole everything they could from
him. Hunger added its pangs, and the putrid meat and
bitter roots which he occasionally received left their taste
in his mouth for days. But, he wrote, " it is a pleasant
thing to be hungry on Fridays."

The portages were especially difficult for him, on ac
count of the heavy packs that were put on his shoulders.
When he stumbled and fell he was abused for his lack of
strength ; nor were the two or three hours' stretch which he
allowed himself on the rocks calculated to rest his tired
frame, especially as he went to sleep supperless.

When the party had passed Lake Nipissirinien and were
descending a little river they were startled by mournful
wailings and death songs in the distant woods. They ap
proached and to their horror found eight young Ottawa
braves lying on the ground mangled and dying. A powder
keg, ignited by a spark, had exploded. As far as we are
aware, this is the only accident of the kind recorded in the
" Relations." Four of the poor wretches were at the point
of death, and Allouez endeavored to prepare them for bap
tism, but he had no time, for the Indians would not wait;
they took up the wounded men and made all haste to reach
the entrance of Lake Huron.

150

A LLor K/' S ( )ST K N S( )R 1 1' M.

CLAUDE ALLOUEZ

On the twenty-fourth of the month a hundred canoes
met at the rendezvous and the jugglers forthwith began
their incantations to heal the wounded men. Others who
were not jugglers offered what the missionary thought to
be a sacrifice to the sun. They lighted a fire out on the point
of a rocky islet, where ten or twelve of them solemnly sat
around in a circle, and, while the smoke of the fire ascended
to the sky, they made the air hideous with their cries, finally
bringing the ceremony to a close by a pompous speech
which the most influential and oldest chief addressed to the
sun.

Allouez hesitated a long time as to what he should do to
combat their superstition. If he angered the savages he
and his French companions would very likely be killed or
abandoned, but, plucking up courage, he went up to the jug
glers. An animated debate followed, ending with the change
of heart of one of the victims of the accident. He promised
to have nothing more to do with such superstitious prac
tices. It was a triumph and a comfort for Allouez, but the
defeated medicine man howled all night around the mis
sionary's hut, and then vented his rage on him by smashing
to pieces the poor old canoe that had given such trouble
all the way up the river.

It was not till the second of September that they
reached Sault Ste. Marie. He tells us that the journey up
what is now St. Mary's River had been comparatively
pleasant as far as the scenery could make it, but that the
savages were surly, because the fish they expected to catch
in abundance refused to enter their nets. At last they
launched out upon Lake Superior, to which Allouez then
gave the name of the Governor, de Tracy, a designation
which may still be seen on some of the old maps.

" The savages," he writes, " regard this lake as a
divinity and offer it sacrifices, but whether it is on account
of its size, or because of its goodness in furnishing a supply
of fish to make up for the lack of game in those parts, I

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

do not know. As you sail along over its clear waters you
can see far down at the bottom of the lake pieces of copper,
some of them as much as ten and twenty livres in weight.
The Indians keep bits of the metal about them as manitous,
and hand them down as precious heirlooms to their chil
dren/'

He was anxious to find the great rock of pure copper'
which he had been told projected far out of the water ; but
as he saw nothing he surmised that the frequent storms on
the lake had covered it with sand. It may be of interest ta
the reader to know that this same copper rock is now in the
Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D. C.

Allouez met on the lake representatives of twelve or
fifteen nations. They had come from north, south, east and
west, chiefly for fishing. For him it was a dispensation of
Divine Providence, as it enabled him to do some fishing of
another sort. During all the journey, of course, he had been
unable to say Mass, and he informs us that it was only in
the month of September, when he was alone with the
Frenchmen, that the desired opportunity presented itself.

After Mass he crossed the bay to which Father Menard,
who had preceded him in that far away wilderness, some
years before, had given the name of St. Theresa, and on the
first of October he arrived at beautiful Chequamegon Bay,
or Chagoumigong, as he calls it, where he found a great
village, which could send out on the warpath no less than
eight hundred warriors. They were a sedentary people,
however, and cultivated the land, and, strange to say,
though composed of seven different tribes, they lived in
peace with each other.

The exact spot of this mission is still a matter of dispute.
It may have been at the mouth of what is now Vander-
venter's Creek, and not far from where the famous trapper
Radisson camped four years before. Verwyst, however,
locates it near Whittlesey's Creek, on Shore Landing.

The only trouble in the place was the dread of the Na-

152

CLAUDE ALLOUEZ

douessi, a warlike tribe, their next neighbors, who were
threatening to go to war with them. Allouez was invited
to the council that was called to discuss the situation, and
he willingly accepted, but, while assuring them of the pro
tection of Onontio, who, he told them, was just then setting
out for the Mohawk to crush the Iroquois, he contrived to
insert in his discourse a great deal of information about the1
Christian faith. What was the result of the council he docs
not tell us, and we do not know if hostilities began at that
time. We learn, however, that later on the Xadouessi tri
umphed and the mission of La Point e was temporarily
abandoned. But that was after Allouez left it, and when
Marquette was in charge.

Like the rest of the savages, these Indians were a bad
set; they were polytheists, with a particular devotion to the
sun, the delusion varying in its manifestations from what it
was further east. He tells us that he saw in one village
an idol to which a dozen dogs were sacrificed for the pur
pose of putting an end to a pestilence. Tobacco also was
a common oblation. It was offered by throwing it at the
object venerated. They believed also in a certain kind of
metempsychosis, and were particularly devout to a wonder
ful beast which they called Missibizi ; a creature, however,
which no one had ever seen except in a dream. The usual
savage debauchery was associated with these religious rites.
Polygamy reigned, and men, women, and girls were all
wildly profligate. Of medicine they had no idea and
usually submitted to the absurdities of the juggler, though
a feast in honor of the sun was considered the most sov
ereign remedy for all the ills that flesh is heir to. What
ever the fate of the patient, it was sure to be profitable for
the medical practitioners.

After some time he thought he discerned some decrease
in the debauchery of the people, and was so delighted that
he plucked up courage and planted his little chapel in the
very center of the village. But he made a mistake, for it

153

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

brought him face to face with the worst of their disorders,
and inaugurated a bitter struggle with the chief of the
jugglers, who treated him with the utmost scorn and con
tempt. That, of course, was to be expected, but unfortu
nately the people imitated their medicine man, and soon
made a wreck of the little chapel, so that the weary man
had to withdraw to his former secluded abode.

He set out, on May 6, 1667, for far away Lake Nipigon,
or Alimibegong, which was fifty or sixty leagues from the
North Sea. The purpose in view was to visit the Nipis-
siriniens, many of whom were Christians. They had fled
northwards to get out of reach of the terrible Iroquois, and
for twenty years had never seen a priest. The route was
across the western end of Lake Superior, which was the most
dangerous part of the journey, for he and his men had to
paddle incessantly for twelve hours a day in order to make
the most of the fair weather. If they had been caught in a
storm on that great inland water they would never have
returned to La Pointe, for when Lake Superior is in its
fury it is like the ocean. Indeed, so rapidly did they travel
that in a single day they made a run of eighteen leagues.
The amazing part of it is that, though all the time they had
very little to eat, their strength did not give out. They
fished when they could, but it was only on the twenty-third
that they succeeded in getting anything. But on that day
there was such a plentiful haul of sturgeon that they had to
leave much of it behind.

They were now on the north shore, and after winding
through the beautiful islands, one of which was twenty
leagues long, they left the lake and attempted the ascent
of a river, but there were so many difficult rapids to pass
that the Indians gave it up in despair. Moreover, they
heard that Lake Alimibegong was still frozen over, and
they, therefore, resolved to rest where they were for the
next two days.

When they resumed their journey they met some Nipis-

154

CLAUDE ALLOUEZ

siriniens in the woods. It was then Whitsuntide, and the
missionary gathered his Christian Indians together and,
erecting a bower in which he built an altar, he celebrated
Holy Mass, and gave his little congregation an instruction.
" They listened," he wrote, " with as much piety and de
corum as our Indians at Sillery." It was on this occasion
that he met two women, a mother and daughter, whoso
previous adventures would furnish a blood curdling theme
for an Indian romance. They had been captured by the
Iroquois, and once had succeeded in making their escape,
but, having been recaptured, a close watch was kept on
them. One day, however, it happened that they found
themselves in a cabin with a single Iroquois. The others
had gone out to hunt. It was their only chance, and they
put their heads together for a plot, and when everything
was arranged the girl asked the unsuspecting brave for a
knife to help her to dress a beaver skin which had been
given her to prepare. Unsuspectingly, he handed her the
knife, but in an instant it flashed before his eyes only to be
buried in his heart. He sunk at her feet and the mother
finished the work by beating out his brains with a block of
wood. They then fled to the forest and made for their
country, which they succeeded in reaching after incredible
suffering. It was not thought much of, however, for it was
a common occurrence among these wild people.

Leaving these wanderers in the woods, Allouez paddled
around the lake for six days, seeking some way of going
farther north. He found an outlet at last, and on June 30
came upon the village of the Nipissiriniens. Most of them
were idolaters, but there were twenty Christians among
them, and with both classes he had his hands full for the
two weeks he was able to remain with them. He then
started for home, which he reached in safety, having made
a journey which, including the 'detours, was a mere trifle
of about fifteen hundred miles.

Meantime his people at La Pointe were not responding

155

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

to his efforts for their improvement, and he determined to-
try what effect a little fear might have on them. He sum
moned a general council and gave vent to his feelings.
" You are an ungrateful people," he said ; " I have been two
years laboring among you, and you have treated me with
no consideration whatever. I am going to leave you ; I will
shake the dust from my shoes," and, suiting the action to
the word, he took off his shoes and shook them violently.

The Indians were alarmed. It was not, however,
entirely regret for the loss of his ministrations that wor
ried them, but fear that the French would leave them to
the mercy of the Iroquois if the missionary went away. The
temporal and the spiritual seemed to have an equal share
in determining them. At all events, an entire tribe, the
Queues Coupes, promised to embrace the faith. As a mat
ter of fact they abandoned their superstitious practices
and renounced polygamy, but their conversion, however,
was not as abrupt as it might at first appear. Years before
Allouez appeared among them, de Brebeuf and his com
panions had dealings with the tribe down at Lake Huron,
and Menard had met them in his lonely wanderings in the
west.

Seeing such rich harvests before him, as he thought, he
started for Quebec to ask for help. It was fortunate that
he did so, for as no news had come of him since the day he
left Three Rivers with the four hundred Indians, two years
before, his Superiors thought he was dead. He was wel
comed, of course, and succeeded in getting Father Nicholas
as an assistant, but he remained only two days with his
brethren and then set his face again for Lake Superior.
Five Frenchmen volunteered to go with him, but the
Indians would take only three, and insisted on such a small
amount of luggage that the white men stepped into the
canoes with the greatest misgivings. It looked as if they
should never reach the western country. However, no mis
fortune befell them.

156

CHAPTER II.
GREEN BAY.

In 1669 Allouez again went down to Quebec; this time
with a number of Iroquois, whom he had ransomed. His
stay in the colony was as brief as on the former occasion.
Apparently, however, he did not return to La Pointe, but,
after reaching Sault Ste. Marie, set out on another journey,
this time to the south, to discover new fields for apostolic
endeavor. Evidently war was raging at La Pointe.

The opportunity came to him in a complaint lodged by
some Pottowotamies against five or six traders, who had
established themselves in the vicinity of the Baie des
Puants, or Green Bay. Where there was trading, argued
Allouez, of course there were people, and with the double
purpose of making the traders behave themselves and
establishing a mission, he, with two white men, pushed
their canoe off the shore of the Sault on the third of No
vember, 1669, and paddled down the St. Mary's River
towards the Straits of Mackinac.

It was already late in the season, and the ice was form
ing, but these hardy men made light of the fact that,
although the cold was intense, they could have no other
place to sleep than the bare rocks on the shore.. Allouez
notes incidentally that they were a little uncomfortable one
morning when they woke up and found themselves covered
with snow. Their boat was coated with ice, and they had
to walk in the freezing water in their bare feet, dragging
their canoe after them, so as to prevent it from being
crushed by the cakes of ice. About the fourth day out they
reached the bend in the river, where it turns towards Lake
Michigan. Allouez called it the Detour, and such is its name
to-day.

157

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Not in that fashion is the journey made at the present
time. In the course of an afternoon you are carried in a
fine steamer down the beautiful St. Mary's and over the
wide stretches of Hay and Mud Lakes, on neither of which
beautiful expanses of water do you see either mud or hay.
On the contrary, the eye rests with delight upon islands
dotting the surface, while the far away shores sometimes
almost fade from view in the distance. Again and again
great steamers, seven and eight hundred feet long, are seen
speeding along with their precious freight towards the
gigantic locks at the Sault, to be lifted like toys into the
western sea of Lake Superior. You hurry along through a
panorama of forests, and mountains, and islands, and
towards evening you land at Detour, not to pass the night
on the rocks, but in one of the big hotels which look out on
the Straits towards the Island of Mackinac.

The old travelers whose itinerary we are now following
were detained for some days on one of the little islands off
Detour, and only on the eleventh of the month were they
able to resume their journey. They were warned by some
Indians and Frenchmen whom they met not to make the
attempt, but they kept straight on, and after bravely under
going a great deal of hardship and danger the huge bulk of
Mackinac loomed up in the sky behind them. His suffer
ings, however, did not prevent the light hearted missionary
from being amused by the stories his Indians told him about
Michilimackinac.

The god of the place is Ouisaketchak, or the Great Hare.
He created the earth, the natives say, and then, very incon-
sequently, they add, he also invented fishing nets, the idea
being suggested to him by watching a spider spinning its
web. As the god was a mighty hunter, it suited his fancy
once upon a time to go out after beavers. He started up
the St. Mary's River, traveling eight leagues at every step.
There used to be a dam midway in the river, but he stepped
on it and crushed it. That's the reason why there are no

158

CLAUDE ALLOUEZ

rapids there. He was in a hurry when he reached the Sank,
and hence trod very lightly on the obstruction at that place,
which explains how you do not find it a cataract, but
merely rapids. When he entered Lake Superior the beavers
saw him and scurried away to the North Sea, intending to
swim to Europe, but when they tasted the salt water they
were disgusted and turned back, and that is the reason why
there are no beavers in France.

On the twenty-fifth and twenty-seventh they met some
Pottawotamies, but were unable to accept their invitation
to eat with them, for there were not provisions enough to
go round. On the twenty-ninth they reached the mouth of
a river, up which they intended to go, but it was frozen.
They waited till the wind broke up the ice, and on the
second of December, the eve of St. Francis Xavier's feast,
they found the post of the French traders. The day, of
course, suggested the name, and the place was thereafter
known as St. Francis Xavier's. Until recently this place
was believed to be the site of the present city of Green Hay,
but that is a mistake, for Allouez says distinctly that he
reached the mouth of the Menominee River only in the
spring time. That mission post was eight leagues away
from St. Francis Xavier's, which was probably at the
entrance to the Oconto River.

He passed the winter among the Pottowatomies, whom
he found wretchedly poor and deplorably stupid. They had
not wit enough, he said, to make a dish or to scoop out a
ladle. He started for the Menominees on April sixteenth,
and consequently was on his way to Lake Winnebago.
There were plenty of rapids to pass, and, among other
things he makes note of the weir which the Sacs, who were
about four leagues up the river, had constructed for catch
ing fish, a device which, with very little modification, is used
by the whites of to-day. The apple trees and vine stocks
which he saw as he passed along are noted down in his
diary, and he describes the eclipse of the sun which occurred

159

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

on the nineteenth. Finally, on the evening of that day, he
launched his canoe on the waters of the lake, which he also
called St. Francis. The first Mass in that territory was
said on the following day, which was Sunday. This was at
the confluence of the Upper Fox and Wolf Rivers.

It is very delightful to note with what minuteness
Thwaites describes the various obstacles which Allouez had
to face on his way up the river, now known as the Fox.
They were the Rapides des Peres ; Little Kakalin, now
known as Little Rapids ; the Croche, above Wrightstown ;
Grand Kakalin, at Kankauna ; Little Chute, which still pre
serves its old name ; the Cedars at Kimberly ; Grand Chute
at Appleton, and Winnebago Rapids, at Neenah. Allouez
would be astounded if he visited those scenes to-day to see
the thriving manufacturing towns and villages all along the
river, which he toiled up so laboriously three hundred and
thirty years ago.

He had but a limited time to work in those regions, for
he had to report back at the Sault, but he has left us some
precious information about the fertility of the soil, the
abundance of game, and the character of the various tribes.
He was regarded by the Indians as a manitou. They often
entreated him to save them from their enemies, and he had
great difficulty in preventing them from offering sacrifices
to him. Their favorite oblation was tobacco. It was then
he was told that the river of the Oumanis would lead him
in six days to the Mississippi. He would gladly have gone
to explore it, but was under orders, and could not yield to
his own inclinations. We should not forget, however, that
it was he who marked out the route which his great suc
cessor, Marquette, was so soon to follow. Finally, on the
twentieth of the month, he embarked with an Indian and
a Frenchman, and made his way back to Sault Ste. Marie.

Father Dablon, who had just been named Superior of
the missions, arrived at the Sault on September 6, 1670, and
went with Allouez to the Green Bay country. The journey

160

CLAUDE ALLOUEZ

has been already described in the sketch of Dablon, in
Volume I, and there is no need of repeating it here. On
June fourth of the following year there took place at the
Sault the solemn official act by which the northwest terri
tory was declared to be subject to the King of France. M.
de Lusson, who had been delegated by the Government at
Quebec to preside at the ceremonies, had arrived at the
mission post the month before, and summoned the tribes
for a hundred leagues around to signify their approval of
the act of possession by taking part in the proceedings.
As has been related elsewhere, the occasion was invested
with all the pomp and solemnity possible. It is only neces
sary to recall that the orator of the occasion was Father
Allouez, who, evidently elated by the importance of the
occasion, pronounced a perfervid and picturesque discourse,
dilating chiefly upon the glories of the Grand Monarque be
yond the seas, Louis XIV. The choice of Allouez indicated
the esteem in which the great missionary was held both
by the Indians and whiles, and the brief resume of the topics
he dwelt upon, as well as the local color with which he
invested his thoughts, showed that the holy man was a
master of barbaric imagery, which counted for much in an
Indian council.

An event now occurred which is somewhat puzzling
when looked at from a merely human point of view. Both
the Home and the Colonial Government had determined
that the Great River must be found at any cost. Joliet had
been chosen for the expedition, and a priest was to go with
him, but the one selected was not the tried veteran Allouez,
who had already been so near the Mississippi, and who not
only knew every step of the intervening country, but was
inured to every hardship by long years of missionary toil. It
was the young and comparatively inexperienced Marquette,
who had been only a few years in the west. Was it some
mysterious dispensation of Divine Providence that set aside
the older soldier and chose the young recruit? Who can

161

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

tell? At all events, in the year 1671, Marquette and Joliet
started out to find the Mississippi, and Allouez went back
to Green Bay, and up the Fox River, to establish the mis
sionary post of Des Peres. Father Andre, a recent arrival,
was named as his companion. The name of Allouez is still
in benediction at De Pere, as it is now called. The full
name used to be Rapides des Peres, or Rapids of the Fathers,
but it has now assumed its present abbreviated and singular
form.

The remembrance of the great missionary is not likely
to fade from men's minds in that part of the world. For
the State Historical Society of Wisconsin has built a mon
ument to him on the sloping river bank, quite close to the
site of the old house and chapel which he occupied. It is a
huge granite boulder, resting firmly on a pedestal of native
limestone, and a bronze tablet records the fact that " Near
this spot stood the chapel of St. Francis Xavier, built in
the winter of 1671-72 by Father Claude Allouez, S. J., as
the centre of his work in Christianizing the Indians of Wis
consin. This Memorial Tablet was erected by the citizens
of De Pere, and unveiled by the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin, September 6th, 1899."

Bishop Messmer of Green Bay, now Archbishop of Mil
waukee, who read a paper on this occasion on the " Early
Jesuit Missions in the Fox River Valley/' must have felt
his heart thrill with delight when he held in his hand the
old mission ostensorium which was given to the Fathers in
1686, by Nicholas Perrot, who was then Commandant for
the French in the west.

De Pere was the center of Father Allouez's work until
the news came that Marquette had succumbed to the labor
entailed by his journey down the Mississippi, and had died
after attempting to inaugurate a mission among the Illinois.
" A successor was needed," says the " Relation," " no less
zealous than Marquette," and Allouez was ordered to the
front. It was at the close of October, 1676, that he set out

162

CLAUDE ALLOUEZ

with two men to go to the country assigned to him, and
which he already knew, but the winter was early that year,
and they were compelled to go into a camp until the ice was
strong enough to bear them. It was not until the month of
February that he was able to resume his journey, and then,
says he, " the mode of navigation was very unusual. In
stead of putting the canoe in the water, we placed it on the
ice, over which the wind, which was in our favor, and a
sail, made it go as on water " — the first example of " ice-
boating " that, as far as we know, appears in American
history. On the eighteenth of March, the eve of St. Jo
seph's day, he found himself on the shores of Lake Michi
gan, and, of course, he gave it the name of the saint. He
notes that it was a bitter cold day, the wind was high, the
ice formed on the paddles, and the canoe was nearly crushed
between the shore ice and the cakes that were driven in by
the gale.

On the next day he found the famous " pitch rock,"
which he said gave them material for caulking the canoe
and sealing his letters. The exact locality of this rock
has been identified by Dr. Hobbs of the University of Wis
consin, as being in Whitefish Bay, a few miles north of
Milwaukee. It rises slightly above the water, and in it
there are many cavities filled with a semi-fluid, tar-like bitu
men.

He journeyed seventy-six leagues over the lake before
he reached the Illinois country, where he was received most
hospitably. Eighty Indians came out to meet him. At
their head was the chief, holding a firebrand in one hand,
and in the other a calumet, tricked out with feathers. Ad
vancing about thirty steps in front of his braves, he made
one of the characteristic Indian speeches and conducted the
missionary to the wigwam that had been made ready for
him.

He arrived at Kaskaskia on the twenty-seventh, where
he had been the year before. It was the largest of the

163

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Illinois villages, and consisted of three hundred and fifty
one cabins, all ranged along the river bank". It was an
unhealthy spot, but was well adapted to give the people a
chance to see an approaching enemy. He did not stay with
them long, however, for this expedition was only to pros
pect in order to determine the most advantageous place for
the central mission. He returned again in 1678, and during
his absence the Iroquois had made their appearance, but
had been put to flight by the watchful Illinois. There
Allonez passed the remaining years of his life. He wrote
much about his mission ; always graphically and interest
ingly, and one reads with the greatest delight the account
of the events that occurred there, his description of the
country, the habits of the people. He remained eleven years
in this apostolic field, and on the night of August 27-28,
1689, near what is now Niles, Michigan, on St. Joseph's
River, among the Miamies, he died. He was sixty-seven
years old, and he is credited with having instructed during
his apostolic career 100,000 natives, 10,000 of whom he bap
tized. He had earned his name as the second Xavier.

164

JAMES MARQUETTE

It was a gloomy and depressing da}- when we set out
on the journey from Detroit, up through the Michigan pen
insula. The country was flat, desolate, and sparsely settled,
with only an occasional town to break the dead monotony.
To the right and left were never-ending swamps and lakes
and bays, and beyond them forests, over which fierce fires
had passed. The sky was like load, and mists were hanging
over the low meadows and marshes. For a long time we
were skirting the shore of Mullet's Lake until we reached
Cheyboygan. and then, veering to the northwest, were hur
ried along the South Channel of Lake Huron, where you
could see Bois Blanc Island beyond. At Mackinaw City
the train rumbled in on the deck of a huge steamer, and we
were soon ploughing across the Straits of Mackinac, whose
waters are sometimes as tumultuous as the sea, for there
Lake Huron and Lake Michigan rush together. You feel
the battering of the waves against the hull, but you see
nothing, for the walls of the steamer shut you in as in a
tunnel. At last the boat grinds against the groaning wharf,
and we land at Pointc St. Ignacc, or " St. Igniss," as they
call it in those parts. You are free to make your choice of
pronunciations, just as you can say Mackinac or Mackinaw,
as it suits your fancy. St. Ignace is not wonderful archi-
tectually, commercially or socially, but for the historian
and the Catholic it is a sacred place, for it guards the
precious remains of Father Marquette.

At the eastern end of the village or town or city of St.
Ignace, you will find a little enclosure, somewhat triangular
in shape, near the base of which stands a modest stone shaft,
which tells you that you are standing above the grave of
the great discoverer. It is all so humble and unpretentious

165

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

that you look into the eyes of your guide, and are tempted
to be skeptical about the truth of the story. Is not the
place rather on beautiful Mackinac Island, where the rich
people of these parts who resort thither in the summer
have erected a great statue of Marquette — a copy of the one
that stands in the Capitol at Washington? No; this little
out of the way village possesses the treasure, and there can
be no serious doubt about it whatever.

In the year 1877 an excellent Catholic Irishman, named
Patrick Murray, concluded after a great deal of deliberation
that it would be a proper thing for him to clear up a patch
of ground adjacent to his house and convert it into a garden.
It was covered with a tangle of undergrowth, with an odd
cedar tree here and there, but, although bordering on the
public road, no one ever crossed it, for there was a tradition
among the Indians, which the whites seemed to share, that
a great bishop had once been buried there. Perhaps the
story about the bishop gave new energy to the loyal son
of the Church who had undertaken the work. At all events,
in the course of his digging, he came upon the foundation
of a house, and midway in what must have been the lower
room his spade struck the decaying remnants of a birch-
bark coffin.

Had he found the body of Father Marquette? It was
just possible, he thought, and he hurried off to the parish
priest, Father Edward Jacker, who was an admitted
authority on all that related to the old Indian missions.
Careful investigations were made ; studies of the Jesuit
" Relations " were resumed, measurements were taken, his
torians were consulted, with the result that the grave was
admitted to have been really found. Pointe St. Ignace was
no longer a place which the traveler might pass with
unconcern.

Strangely enough, pieces of the coffin had been scorched
by fire. How was that to be accounted for? Had the
Indians burned down the chapel? No; it was the Jesuits

166

JAMES MARQUETTE)

themselves who had applied the torch. Those who are
familiar with the " Relations " will remember that when
St. Ignace was deserted in consequence of the action of
Cadillac in withdrawing the Indians to Detroit, Father dc
Carheil set fire to the whole establishment, so as to preclude
the possibility of its ever being desecrated by the roving
bands of Indians. He could not, of course, have removed
the body of Marquette. which in any case he thought was
safe from the flames. He was mistaken, indeed, for
the humble casket was disintegrated, and the bones
\vere all scattered in the clay. Perhaps God wished
to put His stamp on the treasure, so as to be the means
of its identification later on by leaving this reminder of the
conflagration.

It is worth noting that this discovery was made in 1877,
just two hundred years after Marquette was buried there ;
for it was in 1677 that the Indians came in their canoes to
the shores of St. Ignace with the hallowed remains, which*
they had taken from the hill on the Marquette River, near
where it empties into Lake Michigan. They delivered their
precious burden to Fathers Pierson and Xouvel, who
placed it reverently beneath the earthen floor of the little
chapel — a fitting resting-place for such an apostle.

The uncertainty which always confronts a man not
in quest of human glory is very strikingly illustrated in the
life of Father Marquette. He had been only a very few years
on the missions, and yet on none of the priestly pioneers
of Christianity in America has the world lavished more
honor. There were others among his associates who were
apparently better qualified to accompany Joliet in discov
ering the Great River, yet in the Providence of God they
were set aside and the youngest and most inexperienced of
all was chosen for the work. But neither he nor they were
looking for the world's esteem. It was another who was
disappointed — Joliet.

James Marquette was born at Laon, in France, a forti-

167

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

fied city about seventy-four miles N. E. of Paris. It was
an ancient place, and even Caesar makes mention of the
isolated hill called Mt. Bibrax, on whose steep slope it
stood. Queen Brunehaut had made it her residence in 575,
and the French kings often went there to live, previous
to the rise of the House of Capet in 987. In the Middle
Ages, Anslem and Abelard taught and studied at Laon, and
later on it made vigorous resistance against the white-
plumed King of Navarre. Napoleon, too, is associated with
Laon, and in 1870 the Germans occupied it in the great war
which so deeply humiliated France.

The Marquette family was among the most distin
guished of the city, but its glory culminated in the son who
saw the light there on January 10, 1637. When he was a
boy of seventeen he left home and entered the Jesuit Novi
tiate at Nancy. That was on October 8, 1654. In 1666,
after his term of studies and teaching at Pont a Mousson,
Rheims, Charleville, and Langres, he came to America,,
just when de Tracy and de Courcelles were marching down
with the Carignan regiment to subdue the Mohawks. The
usual time for studying Algonquin at Quebec and else
where along the St. Lawrence was accorded him, and then
he set out for the far away west. He was assigned to the
post which had been established a few years before by the
old and tried missionary, Claude Allouez, at the furthest
extremity of Lake Superior. He was then only thirty-two
years old. About one hundred and ten years after that
time four of the Marquette family fought for American
independence, three dying in battle for the cause. It is
also worth recording that by his mother Marquette was a
relative of the saintly founder of the Christian Brothers,
John Baptiste de la Salle.

The conditions at La Pointe to which he was first sent
were not as bright as Allouez had painted them. His
knowledge of the language was as yet necessarily imperfect,
and perhaps he did harm to his prestige by apologizing to

1 68

JAMES MARQUETTE

the Indians for his deficiency in that respect. The red man
had never much respect for the virtue of humility, and the
young missionary was treated rather contemptuously by
many of the degraded wretches whom he was trying to
regenerate. Still he toiled on manfully in his lonely and
isolated mission.

There for the first time he saw the Illinois. They came
from their own country to visit the place and told him
wonderful stories about the great river which he and all
the other missionaries had been longing for years to explore.
He made up in his mind from what they said that it did not
empty its waters into the Atlantic, which was one of the
theories then current about it, but he was still wondering
if it would not, if he ever embarked on it, lead him through
California to the Pacific. " \Ye shall go there next year,"
he wrote to his Superior, " in order to open the passage to
those of our Fathers win") have been awaiting this good for
tune for so long a time. This discovery will give us a full
knowledge of the South Sea or the Western Sea." He did
not go next year, as he thought he would. On the con
trary, after remaining for two years at La Pointe, he got
into his canoe and paddled back to Sault Ste. Marie, for
the Nadouessi had dug up the hatchet, and the war made it
impossible for him to remain at his post.

In 1671 he went to the Straits of Mackinac. He called
the new place St. Ignace, and began to labor with greater
success than had attended his efforts at La Pointe, for the
Indians at St. Ignace were chiefly Hurons, who had fled
from Georgian Bay after the death of de Brebeuf and his
companions. At first they had settled, some on Mackinac
Island, and some on the mainland, but later on went off
from both places to the Noquet Islands. In 1671, however,
they returned to Mackinac and established themselves on
the mainland at the place where Marquette found them.
There he remained for the two following years. The vision
of the Mississippi seemed to have been dispelled forever.

169

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

There is nothing special to chronicle about his work at
the Straits, except that it was the usual round of hardships,
dangers, and disappointments, though doubtless there was
more spiritual consolation than elsewhere, for the Hurons
were mostly Christians. But just as he was beginning to
think that his dream about the great discovery could never
be realized, there came to St. Ignace — Marquette is care
ful to note that it was on the eighth of December, the feast
of the Immaculate Conception — his friend Joliet, who had
just been commissioned by the Colonial Government to
find the Mississippi, and he brought with him the delightful
intelligence that Marquette was to be his companion. It
was like an order to conquer an empire.

Dablon in his account tells us that Joliet was particu
larly well adapted for the work. He was a man of educa
tion; he had followed the course of studies at the Jesuit
College of Quebec, and had even entered the theological
seminary with the idea of becoming a priest, but, changing
his purpose, he set sail for France, where he prepared him
self for his future career as an explorer by a course of engi
neering, hydrography, and whatever else was available in
those days. Previous to that he had lived among the
Ottawas, and was conversant with many of their languages.
As winter had already set in, it was out of the question to
think of starting till the ice had broken up, and hence it
was not until May 17, 1673, that he and Father Marquette,
with five Frenchmen, pushed off their two little canoes from
Pointe St. Ignace, " fully resolved," writes Marquette, " to
do and suffer everything for so glorious an undertaking."
A little smoked meat and some Indian corn constituted their
whole stock of provisions.

Their route lay through the Straits of Machinac, across
the headwaters of Lake Michigan, and up to Green Bay,
just as Allouez had gone before them. " I placed our voy
age," writes Marquette, " under the protection of the Blessed
Virgin Immaculate, promising her that if she granted us

170

JAMES MARQUETTE

the favor of discovering the Great River that I would give
it the name of the Conception."

The Wild Oats Indians were the first to be met with.
They were startled at the audacity of the white men, and
drew dreadful pictures of the dangers that would have to
be encountered. They had weird stories about the savage
men, the monsters on the rivers, and the huge demon who
was waiting on the river to swallow up every one who came
near him. Marquette must have smiled at most of these
fancies when he thanked them for their good advice, and,
bidding them good-bye, paddled up the Baie des Puants.

Ascending the Fox River, the travellers arrived at the
villages of the Maskoutens, Miamis, and Kickapoos. "The
Miamis," says Marquette, whose diary we shall quote fre
quently, "are gentlemen; the Kickapoos and Maskoutens,
boors." lie tells us that he found a plant in the neighbor
hood which was a specific for snake bites, but modern bot
anists have been unable to trace it. It had several stalks,
long leaves, and a white flower, something like the wall
flower. Among the Maskoutens he saw, to his delight, " in
the middle of the village, a handsoi le cross, adorned with
bows and arrows and peltries, which these good people had
offered to the Great Spirit to thank Him for having had
pity on them during the winter by giving them plenty of
game when they were very much in fear of starvation."

But " that was not a Christian cross at all," says W. J.
Hoffman, in the " Bureau of American Ethnology Reports "
( 1885-6; p. 155), " and Marquette was without doubt ignorant
of the fact that the cross is the sacred post, and the symbol
of the fourth degree of the Midewiwin, a Society of Mide,
or Shamans, designated as the Grand Medicine Society,
which is found among many Algonquin tribes. Its ritual
and the traditions of Indian genesis and cosmogony con
stitute what to them is a religion even more powerful and
impressive than the Christian religion is to the average
man. This symbol of the cross had probably been erected

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

and bedecked with barbaric emblems and weapons months
before anything was known of Marquette."

Perhaps it may not be out of place to interrupt the course
of this narrative for a moment to animadvert upon these
amazing utterances of the " Bureau of American Ethnology
Reports."

In the first place, no where in the " Relations " is there
any mention of this General Medicine Society, and had there
been any such association the old missionaries would
certainly have made note of it. Secondly, instead of the
cross being a sacred thing for the Indians, it was a constant
source of dread and suspicion. Thirdly, it is astonishing to
be told that " the cross had probably been there for months
before Marquette was heard of." As Marquette had been
living at St. Ignace for two years, it is more than probable,
or rather it is very certain, that not only had the Indians
heard of him, but knew him. Finally, it is going far afield
to conjure up the cross as a sacred emblem of a secret
society of medicine men when Marquette's predecessor,
Allouez, had been for two years before that going through
the country erecting crosses in every Indian village. We
say nothing of the extraordinary sentiment expressed by
the writer, viz., that the indecent and degrading ritual of
Indian incantations " was a more powerful and impressive
religion than Christianity is to the average man."

These Indians on the Fox, like the others below, were
horrified when they understood the nature of the expedition.
But, though warning the wayfarers of the dangers to be met
with, they gave them two guides to conduct them to a river
nine miles away, which emptied into the Mississippi. The
distance was not great, but the country was so broken up
by swamps and small streams, whose channels were hard
to find, that guides were indispensable ; and so, on June
tenth, Marquette and his companions bade good-bye to the
great crowd that gathered on the bank to see them off.
They reached the Fox-Wisconsin Portage in safety, and

172

JAMES MARQUETTE

then launched out upon the Wisconsin River. " We left
the waters flowing towards Quebec," writes Marquette, " to
float on those that would take us to strange lands, but
before embarking we began a new devotion to the Blessed
Virgin, and after mutually encouraging each other we
entered our canoes." The Miami guides left them at that
point and returned home.

In the diary there is an accurate description of the Wis
consin, with its islands and sand banks, the woods and hills
and prairies on either side, with their oak and walnut and
basswood trees, and " others whose branches are armed
with long thorns." But the travellers saw no game or fish,
though there were plenty of deer and cattle. They noted
an iron mine as they passed along, and, at last, " after pro
ceeding forty leagues by this route, we arrived at the mouth
of our river, and at 42^° latitude we safely entered the
Mississippi, on the seventeenth of June, with a joy that I
cannot express."

Marquette did not see the league-wide river which the
Indians had told him about, for it is narrow where the Wis
consin empties into it. Further down, lie says, " it is at
times about three-quarters of a league across." lie saw
herds of buffalo as he went along and also wingless swans ;
a tiger cat made its appearance at one time and startled the
travelers, and again, when a huge catfish dashed against the
canoe, they thought that they had struck the submerged
trunk of a tree; but no where did they see any trace of
human habitation, though they had already journeyed three
hundred miles, counting the distance on both rivers. At
night when they landed to cook their meals they made only
a small fire, so as not to attract attention, and then with
drew lo their boats, always, however, leaving a sentinel on
guard. Finally, on the twenty-fifth of June, they perceived
the tracks of men, on a narrow and somewhat beaten path,
leading to a fine prairie.

" We stopped to examine it," he says, " and thinking it

173

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

was a road leading to a village, we resolved to reconnoitre.
Leaving the two canoes in charge of our people, M. Joliet
and I undertook the investigation, a rather hazardous one
for two men who exposed themselves alone to the mercy of
a barbarous and unknown people. We silently followed the
narrow path, and after walking about two leagues we dis
covered a village on the bank of a river and two others
about half a league from the first. Then we heartily recom
mended ourselves to God, and, imploring His aid, we w~ent
farther without being perceived, and approached so near
that we could even hear the savages talking. We therefore
decided that it was time to reveal ourselves. This we did
by shouting with all our might, and then stopped without
advancing further. On hearing the shout the savages
quickly issued from their cabins and, having probably
recognized us as Frenchmen, especially when they saw the
black gown, or, at least, having no cause of distrust, for
we were only two men, and had given them notice of our
arrival, they deputed four old men to come and speak to
us. Two of these bore tobacco pipes, handsomely orna
mented and adorned with various feathers. They walked
slowly and raised their pipes to the sun, but without saying
a word. They spent a long time in covering the distance
between the village and us. Finally, when they had drawn
near they stopped to consider us attentively. I was reas
sured when I observed their ceremonies, which with them
are performed only among friends, and much more so when
I observed that they were clad in cloth, for I judged thereby
that they were our allies. I asked them who they were.
They replied that they were Illinois, and as a token of peace
they offered us the calumets to smoke, and then invited
us to enter their village.

" At the door of the cabin in which we were to be re
ceived was an old man who awaited us in a rather sur
prising attitude. He stood erect and stark naked ; his hands
were lifted toward the sun, as if he wished to protect him
self from its rays, which nevertheless shone upon his face
through his fingers. When we came near him he paid us
this compliment : ' How beautiful is the sun, O Frenchman,
when thou comest to visit us. All our village awaits thee
and thou shalt enter all our cabins in peace/

" The people crowded around us, devouring us with their
eyes, but all in profound silence. We could hear, however,

174

JAMES MARQUETTE

these words, which were addressed to us from time to time
in a low voice : ' How good it is, my brothers, that you
should visit us.' "

Then followed the smoking of the calumet, at which at
least a pretense of smoking had to be made. A visit to a
grand council in the next village followed, and as the
Frenchmen passed along, the people ran ahead and then
lay in the grass to contemplate the wonderful strangers,
repeating the act again and again. At the entrance to the
village the great chief, with an old man on cither side, stood
at the entrance of the cabin, all three in the garb that nature
gave them, and holding their calumets up to the sun. The
same ceremonies were performed as before, and when Mar-
quette had spoken to them about the truths of Christianity
the chief arose, and, having thanked the Frenchmen for
having come to see them, said : " Never has the earth been
so beautiful or the sun so bright as to-day ; never has our
river been so calm, or so clear of rocks, which your canoes
have removed in passing; never has our tobacco tasted so
good or our corn appeared so fine." He then gave them a
little slave to sit near them, and begged them not to proceed
on their journey.

Attention has been frequently called to the fact that
Longfellow, in his Hiawatha, has taken this scene from Mar-
quette's diary almost word for word. It may be useful to
quote it here :

From the distant land of Wabun,
From the farthest realms of morning,
Came the Black-Robe chief, the Prophet,
He the Priest of Prayer, the Pale-face,
With his guides and his companions.

And the noble Hiawatha,
With his hands aloft extended,
Held aloft in sign of welcome,
Waited, full of exultation,
Till the birch-canoe with paddles
Grated on the shining pebbles,
Stranded on the sandy margin,

175

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Till the Black-Robe chief, the Pale-face,
With the cross upon his bosom,
Landed on the sandy margin.

Then the joyous Hiawatha
Cried aloud and spake in this wise :
" Beautiful is the sun, O strangers,
When you come so far to see us !
All our town in peace awaits you,
All our doors stand open for you ;
You shall enter all our wigwams,
For the heart's right hand we give you.

" Never bloomed the earth so gayly,
Never shone the sun so brightly,
As to-day they shine and blossom,
When you come so far to see us !
Never was our lake so tranquil,
Nor so free from rocks and sand-bars ;
For your birch-canoe in passing
Has removed both rock and sand-bar.

" Never before had our tobacco
Such a sweet and pleasant flavor,
Never the broad leaves of our corn-fields
Were so beautiful to look on,
As they seem to us this morning,
When you come so far to see us! "

The council was followed by a feast, of which Marquette
writes : " The master of ceremonies filled a spoon three or
four times with sagamite, and put it in my mouth, as if I
were a baby. He did the same to M. Joliet. The second
course was fish, and the same dignitary took a few pieces,
removed the bones, and then, blowing on the fish to cool
it, put it in our mouths, as if he were feeding a bird." The
third course was a dog, but, as the pale-faces gagged at
that, it was removed. The last was wild ox, the fattest
morsels being placed in the mouths of the honored guests.
On the following day six hundred people gathered to bid
farewell to the travellers, and loaded them with presents ;
the chief distinction being accorded to Marquette, who
received a sacred calumet. It was to be of great use further
down the river.

176

JAMES MARQUETTE

Near where Alton now stands they saw painted on the
rocks two hideous figures, on which no Indian would dare
to fix his gaze. They were as large as calves, and had horns
as big as those of a deer. Their eyes were blood red, like a
tiger's; they had human faces; bodies covered with scales,
and their tails wound around their bodies, then over the
head, and finally curled backward between the legs. The
end of the tail was like that of a fish. Marquette made a
copy of this work of art and sent it to France.

The inrush of the Missouri, or the Pekitanoui, an Indian
name for Muddy River, was a dreadful menace to their frail
canoes, as it swept down huge trees and masses of earth.
Nevertheless, Marquette wrote: " I hope to ascend it some
day, and perhaps we may discover the Vennillion Sea." He
never realized that hope, but he was sure when he saw the
Pekitanoui's course that the Mississippi, whose current it
swelled and defiled, did not empty into the Pacific. The
Ohio also, or the Ouaboukigou, as he calls it, which he met
twenty leagues further down, and coming from the east,
cleared up the doubt about the possible eastern mouth of
the Great River, which he was now tolerably certain pourcif
its waters into the Gulf of Mexico.

Meantime the tall reeds on the banks began to show
themselves; swarms of mosquitoes pursued them night and
day; but the first feeling of terror came over them when
they saw, on the bank before them, a crowd of Indians,
armed with guns, and awaiting their approach. But Mar
quette held up the calumet, and after a parley they all
went ashore and found that the savages had been as terri
fied as themselves. Being reassured, the Indians laid aside
their fears and spread a feast for the wonderful new
comers, who learned, to their delight, that the sea was only
ten days away. Leaving this kindly tribe, they kept on
down the river. Cottonwood and elm and basswood lined
the shore, and the bellowing of great herds of buffaloes
could be heard in the distance.

la 177

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

When the canoes were nearing the mouth of the St.
Francis River in Arkansas, a village on the water's edge
was perceived, and crowds of savages, armed with bows
and arrows, hatchets and clubs, were seen hurrying to their
boats. Some were already in the water, swimming out to
intercept their progress. Every one was uttering frantic
yells, inciting each other to battle. Indeed, it seemed
already begun when a huge club flung from the shore passed
over the Frenchmen's heads. Marquette held up the calu
met to plead for peace, but it was of no use, and the braves
stood with their arrows drawn to the head, when suddenly
some old men standing near the river bank made out the
sacred pipe, and, keeping back the warriors, came to cast
their weapons at the feet of the white men. " We landed,"
says Marquette, " not without fear, but unfortunately none
of the Indians could understand any of the six languages
which I spoke. At last we found an old man who could say
some words in Illinois, and with his help we made the rest
understand the purpose of our journey. They could give
us no information about the river, but told us we could find
out all we wanted to know at a village called Akansea,
which was eight or ten leagues further down. We passed
the night among them, with some anxiety."

On the following morning, preceded by a canoe contain
ing ten savages, they proceeded on their way. Arriving
within half a league of Akansea, they saw two canoes com
ing to meet them. Standing in one of the boats was a chief,
holding aloft a calumet. He joined the Frenchmen, sing
ing as he came, and gave them tobacco to smoke and bread
to eat. He preceded them to the village, and led them to a
platform, which was very clean and well covered with fresh
mats. The council assembled and Marquette spoke them
on religious matters, with such good results that a general
desire was manifested to have him remain with them
altogether.

Inquiries were, of course, made about the sea, and the

178

JAMES MARQUETTE

travellers discovered that they could reach it in five days,
but, learning that the Indians in the lower country were
evidently in contact with Europeans, it was decided that it
would be unsafe to proceed further down, as it was likely
the explorers would be killed by the hostile Indians, or
kept as prisoners by the Spaniards, who were on the Gulf,
and thus all the fruit of their expedition would be lost.
Hence it was decided to return to the north, as the course
of the river had been satisfactorily determined.

They had assured themselves that it emptied neither into
the Atlantic nor the Pacific Ocean, but into the Gulf of
Mexico. Their return was prudent also for another reason.
The very night they arrived at the last village some of the
young men had determined to kill and rob them. But an
old chief discovered the plot and forbade it, and then came
to dance the calumet before the visitors to assure them of
complete protection. In spite of that, however, Jolict and
Marquctte, after a day's rest, turned their canoes up the
stream and began their journey homeward. It was then
the seventeenth of July. They had spent one month in
descending the river.

Naturally, fighting the current on their way back in
volved considerable labor, but Marquette gives us no ac
count of this part of his travels, except to say that they did
not continue on as far as the Wisconsin, but took the Illinois
River, which he merely calls " another river," and by that
route reached Lake Michigan, thus passing over the site
of the present Chicago. At the end of September they
reached the mission of St. Francis Xavier at Green Bay,
and there, when the ice broke up, Joliet left them and started
for Montreal, but unfortunately \vas wrecked in the La-
chine Rapids, and lost all his maps and papers, barely
escaping with his life, for he was four hours in the water
clinging to his canoe. Of course, his unsupported declara
tion that he had reached the Mississippi was valueless
without documentary proofs, and only a year later, when

179

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Marquette's charts and narration reached Quebec, did the
public believe that the great exploration of the river had
been made. It was, after all, the papers of Marquette which
dispelled the doubts about the success of the expedition, and
thus his name, and not Joliet's, is most frequently men
tioned in connection with the great discovery, though in
reality Joliet was chief of the enterprise.

That summer Marquette was down with dysentery, the
result of his hardships and sufferings on the Mississippi.
But by September he considered himself cured, and on
October 25, 1674, about noon, he started for the Illinois
country with twro Frenchmen, Pierre and Jacques, their
ultimate destination being the village of Kaskaskia. He
did not go further than the mouth of the Illinois River that
winter, and passed all those terrible months suffering untold
hardships from cold and exposure. Meantime the recur
rence of his ailment was rapidly exhausting his strength.

He foresaw his approaching death, and in the miserable
cabin, which his two faithful companions had constructed
for him, he made his annual retreat. In spite of the danger
of perishing on the way he started in the spring up the river.
It was then March twenty-ninth, and after eleven days he
reached the great village. It was composed of five or six
hundred fires. A vast assembly was convened to meet him,
and his first instruction was delivered on Holy Thursday.
He then said Mass. He celebrated again on Easter Sunday,
but, as his strength was rapidly failing, he deemed it wise
to set out for home. With profound regret they saw him
go, and a great many Indians went with him a distance of
thirty leagues down the river. A journey of one hundred
leagues lay before him, and he was already so feeble that"
he had to be lifted like a child.

All the time, however, his sweetness and gentleness
never deserted him. He was continually communing with
God or instructing his companions. Every evening a medi
tation on death was read to him, and, though his sight was

1 80

JAMES MARQUETTE

fast failing, he contrived to recite his breviary till the day
of his death. He prepared the holy water for his burial,
and the night before he died told his friends that he would
leave them on the morrow. He instructed them as to the
way to conduct the burial services, and selected the spot
for his interment.

They were proceeding tip the lake when he saw a hill
rising close to the river bank. "' There," he said, " you must
lay me in the grave, and be sure to put a cross above me."
As the day was fair they thought they might go a little
further on their way, but the wind drove them back to the
place he had indicated. So they carried him ashore, built
a little shed above him, and laid him down on the ground,
making him as comfortable as they could; they were so
heartbroken that they scarcely knew what they were doing.
He gave them his last instruction, bade them ask pardon
for him from all the Fathers, and entrusted to them a slip
of paper, on which he had written all the faults he had com
mitted since his last confession, enjoining upon them to
hand it to the Superior of the mission. He heard their con
fessions, promised not to forget them in paradise, and then
sent them off to rest, assuring them he would awaken them
when he was about to die.

Two or three hours passed, and he entered into his
agony. His companions drew near him and he embraced
them, their tears pouring down their cheeks as they knelt
to kiss his feet. He asked for holy water and his reliquary,
took off his cross and told them to hold it before him. He
made aloud his profession of faith, thanked God for all His
favors, and then, repeating the sacred names several times,
he riveted his eyes on the Christ and breathed his last, his
countenance all aglow with happiness and peace. They
buried him on the summit of the hill, planted a cross to
mark the spot, and sadly turned their canoe to the north.
The river on whose banks he was buried was named after
him, but his blessed remains were not left there. By a

181

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

peculiar coincidence a party of Kiskakous whom he had
instructed some years before in the far away mission of La
Pointe, on Lake Superior, were hunting on Lake Michigan.
As they were returning in the spring they passed by his
grave, and determined to bring back the body to St. Ignace.
They disinterred it, and, according to the Indian custom,
removed the flesh and exposed the bones to dry in the sun.
Then, placing them in a birch bark coffin, they set out for
St. Ignace.

Thirty canoes in regular order formed that funeral pro
cession over the great lake. A goodly number of Iroquois
had meantime joined them, and with great solemnity they
approached the strand on which stood the mission which
Father Marquette had founded. Fathers Nouvel and Pier-
son saw them as they slowly approached, and put the usual
questions to make sure that it was really the body of the
venerated missionary. There could be no doubt about it,
and before it was brought to the shore, and while thirty
canoes were still out on the water, the priests entoned the
De Profundis, and then carried the blessed remains to the
little church. It was Whit-Monday, the eighth of June,
and all day long the body lay covered by the funeral pall,
and on the following day it was lowered into the small vault
in the middle of the little church. There, two hundred
years later, it was found, and there it rests to-day.

The name of Marquette will ever be venerated in
America. You meet it everywhere. There is a city named
after him and a county, and a township, and a river and
several villages in Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Ne
braska. His Jesuit brethren of the twentieth century have
built a Marquette University in Milwaukee, which rejoices
in the possession of some of the relics that were given to it
when the grave was opened at Pointe St. Ignace. Again,
though Marquette never descended the Mississippi as far as
New Orleans, the Jesuits of that city thought they could do
no better than imitate their brethren of Milwaukee, in giving

182

*4A

35* \ ^*i'\

SgaiP^ •••;/
r .„

JAMES MARQUETTE

the same name to their own great educational establish
ment. But perhaps the most curious illustration of this
popular desire to commemorate the glory of the illustrious
discoverer is given by one of the great railroads of the
country. You are almost startled as you see speeding over
the vast prairies of the Far West long trains of cars belong
ing to the great railway system which proclaims itself, not
in English, but French: " Pere Marquette." One cannot
help thinking how times have changed since Marquette him
self trudg-ed across those same prairies with his pack on his
back, or launched his bark canoe on the lakes and rivers on
whose shores the wolf and the wild cat skulked, or the wan
dering Indian erected his wretched tepee. In every city of
the country, from Now York to San Francisco, these en
gines and cars, with their picturesque and historical name,
recall the story of his achievement.

His portrait is in all the school books. It is conven
tional, of course, for there is no duly authenticated likeness
of him extant. The sturdy and somewhat bulky man whose
picture Thwaites suggests as a possible portrait cannot be
Marquette, for he left his home when a mere boy, and ended
his life when he was a little beyond thirty. The anxiety
to secure a genuine portrait of him is an indication of the
world's anxiety to know him better.

A statue has been erected in his honor on Mackinac
Island, though as far as we know he never pitched his tent
there. Still it is very likely that he often visited the Indians
of that place, for it was very near to St. Ignace. Finally,
when the State of Wisconsin wanted to exercise its privi
lege of erecting in the Capitol at Washington a memorial
of one of its illustrious sons, it chose Marquette. There was
some delay in the acceptance of the statue, but to-day the
marble figure of Father Marquette, in his cassock and cloak,
with his beads and his crucifix in his belt, stands beneath
the great dome, by far the most artistic in its conception
and execution of all the group of the notables of the nation.

183

FRANCIS DE CRESPIEUL

In 1658 a brilliant young man of twenty entered the
Society of Jesus at Tournay. His name was Francis de
Crespieul. He was born at Arras, on March sixteen or sev
enteen, in the year 1638. During his studies, he attracted
unusual attention by the brilliancy of his intellectual en
dowments, and the strength and energy of his character.
He had much to expect in Europe, but he was on fire with
enthusiasm for the Canadian missions. He came to Quebec
in 1670, before finishing his theological course, and when
he had passed his final examination was assigned to the
Tadoussac mission, arriving there on October 28, 1671.

The Indians received him with unusual manifestations
of friendship, and that feeling in his regard never waned.
Doubtless, he communicated some of his own effusiveness
to them, for he was characteristically optimistic. Thus he
tells us, with some commendable exaggeration, that " the
feast of All Saints, which occurred a few days after my
arrival, was celebrated by the savages writh all the practices
of devotion that are observed in the holiest Christian com
munities."

He started up the Saguenay on November sixth, but
after a day's journey wras stopped on his way by bad
weather, and compelled to seek shelter in a bay of consider
able size, while the storm raged with unabated fury for four
days on the river beyond. It was his first chance of becom
ing acquainted with the hardships of Indian life. He was
in the woods in mid-winter. The cold, the blinding smoke
from the half decayed wood which made his eyes run water
all day long, the damp air, the biting wind, and the want of
food, all this de Crespieul describes as " his little martyr
dom, his happiness and bliss."

184

FRANCIS DE CRESPIEUL

His enjoyment of it was helped by the fact that these
trifles failed to extinguish the devotion of the savages.
They insisted on hearing Mass, every one of those four ter
rible days, although the fire had to be put out meantime,
tor the smoke would have stifled the priest, who had, of
course, to stand erect in the midst of it. Indeed, when there
was a fire in the hut, the only way to breathe at all was to
crouch as near as possible to the ground. One old mission
ary used to say that the only way to avoid drinking smoke,
was to eat dirt.

After saying Mass on the eleventh of November, and
planting a cross to commemorate their sojourn there, they
sailed north with a favorable wind, though the pelting rain
was drenching them, and the piercing wind was penetrating
the very marrow of their bones. Towards evening they
reached another bay, which was shut in by thirty high
mountains. At the foot of the tallest peak the travelers
built their bark hut, and remained there through another
five days of cold, " calculated." he says. " to put one's
patience to the test." It was not only a " test of patience,"
one might fancy, but of endurance. However, " a picture
of my beloved St. Francis Xavier," says de C'respieul, " and
a reliquary, in which there was a piece of the true cross,
greatly ameliorated my little suiTerings." In the hut be
offered the tears which the smoke wrung from his eyes, " to
extinguish the flames of some souls in Purgatory."

On the twenty-first he was tramping through the for
ests, for the ice had formed on the river. While climbing
the icy mountains, the Indians killed a moose. " They
showed me her fawn," he says, " which was no bigger than
my thumb " — evidently the embryo. " After studying care
fully the entire anatomy of this little animal, I was struck
with admiration at the wisdom of the Creator who can
enclose in so small a compass so many different parts, all
so well adapted to their functions. Had the creature been
larger, it would have relieved the hunger that beset us, and

185

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

which until the first day of December caused us no less
suffering than the cold and smoke." But the extreme fond
ness displayed by his Indians for religious exercises and
instructions made him forget his pains. As soon as they
were up in the morning, every one, even the little children,
flocked around him for the lessons which lasted all day long.
" It was only during the silence of the night, when our sav
ages cease their singing and talking, that I had leisure to
commune with Our Lord in those solitudes."

The hermits of Thebais had a comfortable time of it
when compared with this nocturnal solitary in the Sague-
nay woods. Incidently, one is tempted to ask how the
Indians could contrive to sing in such surroundings. Like
de Crespieul, they, too, must have been optimists.

Here a Christian family of Esquimaux appears on the
scene. They were fugitives for the Faith, for their amiable
compatriots used to strangle any one who accepted baptism.
One wrould like to know how many martyrs of that kind
there were in Labrador in those days, and who had baptised
these refugees, but no record is to be found. Onward they
tramped, the Esquimaux with them, over the ice and snow.
At this stage of the journey, de Crespieul thanked God
that, besides his own pack, he had to shoulder the burden
which a poor sick girl had been trying to carry. However,
the additional load was a help, he said, for it prevented him
from plunging into a crevasse where he might have lost his
life, or at least fractured his limbs. He notes also how they
celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception with con
fessions, Communions, and spiritual songs, and, of course,
with the celebration of holy Mass.

They kept on till Christmas Eve, following the moose
tracks in the snow, and hoping to bring down some game ;
but they found no moose, and were all spent with hunger.
" At length, however," he says, " the good God, who takes
pity on His servants in their necessities, helped us, after
many a day of bitter suffering, to shoot two elks and four

1 86

FRANCIS DE CRESPIEUL

beavers. It happened seasonably, for the Indians would
not have hunted on Christmas Day, out of reverence for
the festival " — a bit of strictness which ought to make even
a Sabbatarian wonder. But what is more incomprehensible,
is that although they were starving, they would not touch
the meat on the eve because it was a fast day. Evidently
the Indians were exceedingly pious, or de Crespieul was
a rigidist. Nor were their devotions confined to the festival
itself. They sat up all night, and had midnight Mass, at
which a young man and woman made their First Com
munion.

There was gloom in the hut, however, when a little boy.
who on account of his fondness for catechetical instruction
was a special pet of the priest, died in spite of all the care
they lavished on him in his sudden illness. But "the little
angel's death fell in the week of the Holy Innocents, so that
he might go," says the priest, "and swell their numbers
in Heaven." Indeed, firmly believing the child was in Para
dise, the Indians invoked him without ceasing. He was
buried with all the ceremonies of the Church, " to the great
consolation of the savages, and before leaving the place the
child's father went and knelt on the grave, commending
himself to his boy, and entreating him thenceforth to ex
change with him the place of a parent."

Hunger drove them onward over the mountains, which
were piled high with snow drifts, and over lakes, where
they were sometimes up to their waists in icy waters. A
cold wind beat against their faces, and they were in constant
danger of having cheeks and feet and hands frozen. " It
was hard," he said, " to set out on such a tramp without a
morsel of food for breakfast, and to have nothing during
the day, and then to wait at night for three or four hours,
while the cabins were being built, before a fire could be
lighted." In this fashion they passed the whole month of
January, on one Friday of which they were particularly
pressed with hunger, " We besought Our Lord by His

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

sacred wounds to have pity on us. Our prayers were not
displeasing to Him, for on that day He gave us five beavers
in a very short time after our asking the favor. They re
stored our strength, and prepared us for greater hardships.
So we continued our journey. As it was Friday, one is
prompted to inquire if this stern spiritual Father permitted
his neophytes to eat these quasi-amphibians on that day.

January came to a close, and then the weary days of
February began, when the cold was greatest. March was
welt on its way, but they had not yet reached their destina
tion; and though the weather was milder, the smoke in the
huts was more pungent. But the moose were now plentiful,
and the holy man says " God seemed to lead them with His
own hand to our cabin, to reward our savages for their
fidelity in daily attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
which I offered there."

Seismologists will be interested to learn that during the
last two months of this dreary tramp two moderate earth
quake shocks were felt. They were thought to be a con
tinuation of the great earthquake which had occurred
throughout Canada in 1662, which the missionary assures
us took place at intervals up to the time he was writing
about them. That was 1672, so that they had a ten years'
succession of quakes. The journey came to an end at Lake
of the Cross, so called from its shape ; but to proclaim its
name to the Indians who might pass that way, Father de
Crespieul and his people planted a great many crosses along
the shore. It was Holy Week, and the locality suggested
that more than usual devotion should be displayed in the
ceremony of the adoration of the Cross.

" It will, perhaps, excite astonishment," he says, " that
for the proper celebration of the most august mysteries of
our religion, we were able to find room in our poor cabin
for everything that conformity to the Church during Holy
Week requires. We accomplished it, however, so as to
bring our winter to a happy end and to consecrate those

188

FRANCIS DE CRESPIEUL

rocks and mountains by all that we possess that is holy
and venerable. Thursday, Friday and Saturday of Holy
Week, converted our forests into a church, and our cabin
into a repository, where very few of the ceremonies ob
served by Christians all over the world were omitted by
our savages. Above all, they showed profound respect for
and maintained a religious silence in the cabin where the
Blessed Sacrament was placed during the night of Thurs
day and Friday, so that in the depths of that desert this
august mystery was honored without ceasing, by continual
prayers that suffered no interruption in the darkness of the
night."

Easter Sunday crowned it all by a general Communion
and more than usual devotion. " The Indians." he said,
" wanted to make me forget all the hardship I had suffered
with them during the winter."

They finally reached the Sagucnay, and ou May 17.
1672, arrived at Tadoussac, which they had left six months
before. P>ut it was not to give rest to the weary bones of
the apostolic man. " It was the season," he writes, " for
the mission to the Papinachois, for which Our Lord had
left me sufficient strength. Its situation is thirty leagues
below Tadoussac, and I reached it safely just when the
savages were returning from their winter hunts."

There he baptized thirteen children, and administered
whatever sacraments the adults were prepared for. Among
them were two old squaws, who had been baptized by
Father Le Jeune many years before and had led a life of
perfect innocence during all the intervening time. DC
Crespieul ends his letter to his Superior by asking for what
he calls " the same happiness next winter, when I hope that
God will give me courage to make amends, by fresh suffer
ings, for the errors I may have committed this season."

He went to Quebec for his final vows, on Assumption
Day, 1673, for, says Dablon, " he preferred to postpone it
until then, rather than lose the opportunity of wintering
among his beloved savages. He invariably falls ill when I

189

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

recall him for a little rest, and no sooner has he returned
to the labors of his mission than he is restored to health.'"
His Superiors afforded him the opportunity he asked for,
and at the end of September, 1673, ne set out again for the
Papinachois country, intending to go from there to Chi-
coutimi, and afterwards to Lake St. John, where he was to
pass the winter.

In October he was down at the Jeremie Islands, two
hundred miles below Quebec, a little west of the mouth of
the Betsamites River. He remained there for six or seven
days, instructing and baptizing, and on the twenty-first
made for the Saguenay. The journey was a rapid one, for a
storm which lasted for ten hours, and threatened every min
ute to send them to the bottom, swept them like the wind
along the coast. Calm weather came again, and they trav
eled up the river to Chicoutimi, where there was a gathering
of Indians waiting for the priest. On All Saints Day,
nearly all the savages and Frenchmen confessed and went
to Communion, and on November twentieth, after perform
ing their duties to the souls in Purgatory, the French got
into their bark and set sail for Quebec. That evening de
Crespieul started off with six canoes of savages, and spent
the night " near the rapid of the large river that flows from
the Lake St. John into the Saguenay."

The experiences of the preceding year were repeated,
and it is therefore unnecessary to rehearse them here. They
are all set down in the diary sent to his Superiors. It will
be sufficient to say that he found in this region also, more
vestiges of the great earthquake of 1663. Forest fires had
likewise devastated the country, in some places to the extent
of two hundred leagues. Intelligence was brought to him
on January fourteenth that Father Albanel, who was mak
ing for the North Sea, had met with a serious accident and
was not far away.

" I set out, therefore, on January sixteenth, after Mass,"
he says, " along with two Frenchmen and an Algonquin

190

FRANCIS DE^CRESPIEUL

chief. We made five leagues on snow shoes, but the snow
was soft and clogged our feet. At the end of the five
leagues we were on a frozen lake, four or rive leagues long,
over which a blinding snow was driving, so that we could
scarcely see each other or make out their bearings. After
a league and a half our strength began to give out, and
we went back to get some rir branches to build a shelter.
We tried to light a lire but failed. The cold penetrated to
our bones, the darkness was intense and the wind howled
fearfully. To keep ourselves from dying of cold we re
sumed our inarch on the lake, not knowing whither we were
going. After a league and a half we had to stop. 1 thought
of Father de Xoiie, who, in similar surroundings, was found
dead in the snow, kneeling, and with his hands clasped in
prayer. This thought aroused me. I made the sacrifice
of my life to God and united mv death, which 1 thought to
be near, to that of the pious missionary. The Frenchmen
cut some fir branches, which they laid on the snow, and we
threw ourselves down on them, after saying our prayers,
and taking for our supper a little theriac and seven or eight
raisins which we happened to have with us. Fatigue caused
us to fall into a slumber, but the wind and snow and cold
did not allow us to enjoy it very long. \Ye remained awake
during the rest of the night. Fortunately, on the following
morning two Frenchmen, from Father Albanel's cabin, ar
rived very opportunely, and kindled a good tire on the snow.
One of them went for some water to quench our burning
thirst. Then we resumed our journey, and in spite of the
wind and snow, which drove into our faces, we reached the
place where the Father was. A serious injury of the loins,
caused by a heavy load falling on him, prevented him from
moving, and, of course, from performing any of his mis
sionary duties."

De Crespieul remained with his suffering friend for two
days, meantime instructing the people he found there ; and
then tramped back to his own place, a distance of ten
leagues over the snow, to administer the sacraments to a
dying squaw. He was back again with Albanel on February
second, and remained till the sixth. A report came just
then that the Iroquois were in the neighborhood. The
result was that the whole party started off to a place twenty

191

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

leagues away, where they found that the people had thrown
up defenses in view of a fight. Soon, however, the scouts
came in, and reported that it was a false alarm. The enemy
wrere far away at Lake Piecouagami.

Off went the indefatigable man, with his party, to the
Mistassinis; and having toiled and suffered there for a con
siderable time, he joined a delegation of Indians who were
going to pay their respects to Frontenac at Quebec. This
journey, however, was not a matter merely of courtesy.
The region in which he was laboring had been appropriated
by the Government and was called the King's Domain. No
white man could enter it without a passport, and the
punctilious* Governor was in a high dudgeon because de
Crespieul had presumed to go into that wilderness without
permission. It was an absurd assertion of authority, of
course, and Frontenac might have been better occupied.
But de Crespieul went down to mollify the great man, and
humbly petition to go back to his martyrdom.

In 1686 he writes from the cabin of Louis Kistabistichit,
at Pastagoutchichwusipiou, and gives some valuable infor
mation about the character of the people in those parts, and
he also imparts useful advice for future missionaries. He
begins by citing several examples of God's judgments on
the Indians who \vere unfaithful to their marriage relations,
or wrho took to drink. The wife of Tall Charles, for in
stance, wras guilty of the latter offense, and ended her career
by hanging herself ; but, on the other hand, he is glad to
note how completely some of his Indians have changed
their ways.

He tells us that there is generally a great deal of kind
ness and consideration shown in the wigwams, although
several families may be huddled together in their narrow
limits. On the trail they do not lose their temper or swear,
like the French, if an accident happens. They merely laugh.
They have a horror of theft, but are very jealous, and easily
calumniate each other. They are modest in their dress, and

192

FRANCIS DE CRESPIEUL

even when sleeping are decently covered. They are not
only safe in the presence of fire-water, but often give proof
that they can be trusted even with kegs and flasks, more
so than many a Frenchman. He is indignant with some
people in Quebec who fancy it is useless to attempt to con
vert these Indians; but, however, he warns all the mission
aries never to grow angry with an Indian, and not to be
discouraged by failures at the outset. Visits to the cabins
are always acceptable, but it would be very unwise for the
priest, except for a grave reason, to enter a wigwam at night
where there are women. The danger is very great at all
times, and the fear and love of God are indispensable as
safeguards, for often the missionary is the only man in the
camp.

Life there is one long series of penances and humilia
tions ; prayer, reading, writing, and work are the only pre
servatives; and the priest must always bear in mind that
he is there for the Indians, and not they for him. lie should
not concern himself with the affairs of the Commandants, or
clerks of the post ; and never administer any public rebuke,
or be importunate in his requests. Affability, civility, rec
ognition of services, and praise for the smallest exhibitions
of virtue, or even skill in hunting, canoeing, and the like, go
far to gain the esteem of all. Nor should a missionary ever
condescend to spend his time in fishing or trapping. It
scandalizes both the French and the Indians. Anything
like favoritism or familiarity with any one, either white or
red, should be avoided. Long prayers in public are not to be
recommended, and marriages of white men and squaws
should not be performed without the approval of the bishop.
No doubt he was thinking of Albanel's experience.

We have another brief sketch from his hand about mis
sionary methods among the Montagnais. He signs him
self, " an unprofitable servant of the Missions of Canada,
from 1671 to 1697," the latter date completing his twenty-
sixth wintering in the service of the Tadoussac mission and

U 193

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

the fourth at the mission of St. Xavier. It was written at
Chicoutomi, April 21, 1697.

" The life of a Montagnais missionary," he says, " is a
long and slow martyrdom. Besides the sufferings in the
cabins, and on the trail/' he reminds those who are to come
after him that " they are not to expect anything dainty at
their meals. They must eat from a dish that is seldom
washed, or, at best, is wiped with a greasy piece of skin or
licked by the dogs. One eats only when something is
offered, and the meat is commonly only half cooked and
tough. As a rule, there is only one meal a day. The mis
sionary never takes off his cassock or stockings, except to
get rid of the vermin which swarm over every one, espe
cially the children. On awakening, one finds himself usu
ally among a pack of dogs. The snow is so dazzling that
the missionary has often to be led by the hand. The cries
of the children are annoying, and the stench is insupport
able, especially when they are scrofulous. One has to sleep
near them and eat out of the same dish."

Such are a few of the ordinary features of the life which
this wonderful man led in the wilderness for twenty-eight
years. He says nothing about the constant danger of death
from exhaustion, disease, or hunger; or the perils of the
forests, the lakes, the mountain torrents and the rest. He
had had more than his share of them. At last, when shat
tered in health, he was summoned to Quebec, and it is not
a little surprising that at his advanced age he was engaged
in college work, even occupying the position of Prefect of
Schools.

He died somewhere after October 28, 1702, at the age
of sixty-four, leaving behind him the reputation of being
one of the greatest apostles of the Indians.

194

ANTHONY SYLVIE

When Radisson handed over the Hudson Bay territory
to the English, the French Canadians, aroused to fury, took
up arms, although France and England were then at peace.
The war was begun by La Martiniere, who met some Eng
lish sloops on the bay and put them to flight. But, like all
the French victories, this exploit had no lasting result. The
English forts at Moose, Rupert's River, and Albany were
only slightly flurried when the news of La Martiniere's
exploit reached them. That was in 1685. In 1686 an over
land raid was organized, than which fiction could not con
ceive anything more romantic. It is one of Canada's bril
liant episodes of knight errantry in the forests.

Towards the end of winter a band of thirty-three French
men, arrayed in all the gay frippery of those davs, accom
panied by sixty-. ix plumed and painted Indians, might
have been seen setting out from Montreal on snowshocs.
They had no provisions with them ; the guns on their
shoulders and their pistols in their belts would bring down
what game they met; or if they met none, they would go
hungry. The blankets on their shoulders were all they
had to protect themselves from the cold. At their head was
the old Chevalier de Troves; but more important than the
commander was Pierre d'lberville, then only twenty-four,
who was beginning his heroic career. With Pierre were his
brothers, Maricourt and Ste. Helene. The chaplain of the
party was the Jesuit Father Sylvie.

Their route lay along the frozen Ottawa, past the long
Sault, where Bollard had made his great fight twenty years
before against seven hundred Iroquois ; then up to the
Rideau and the Chaudiere Falls, around which they had to
tramp, as they did when they reached the Calumet and

195

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Chats, and the cataracts at Allumettes Island, where the
Algonquins were gathered. On they went to Mattawa, and
then turned north to Lake Temiscamingue, which they
traversed, continuing their march till they came to Abbit-
tibbi, at the height of land. There they waited for the ice to
break, and to take time to build canoes for the descent to
the Bay. They had traveled six hundred miles over the
snow and ice, and no one had died or grown faint-hearted.
They seemed to revel in their dangers and sufferings.

Before them was another three hundred miles, full of
wilder adventure. It was a rush down cataracts maddened
by the loosened floods which were tossing huge masses of
ice through the foam and threatening every instant to crush
the frail canoes like egg shells, or to crowd them against
the rocks or giant trees which blocked the stream. Pierre
dTberville's canoe was swamped, and t\vo of his men went
down in the swirl, while two others were saved by d'lber-
ville himself, who, at the risk of his own life, dragged them
ashore. Around the ice jams they had to portage their
boats, or cut their way through with their hatchets, the men
at times sinking to their armpits in the snowslush. At one
stage of the journey they had to walk barefoot, dragging
their canoes for eleven miles where the icy water was too
shallow to float the boats.

They had left Montreal in March, and it was June when
d'Iberville, who went ahead as a scout, sighted Fort Moose
in the distance. " Hastily," says the author of " The Con
quest of the Great Northwest," " all burdens of blankets and
food and clothes were cast aside and cached. Hastily each
raider fell on his knees, invoking the blessing of St. Anne,
the patron saint of the Canadian voyager. Hastily the
Jesuit Sylvie passed from man to man absolving all sin,
for these men fought with all the Spartan ferocity of the
Indian fighter, and thought that it was better to die righting
than to suffer torture in defeat."

It is not likely that Father Sylvie heard confessions in

196

LE MOYNE cl'IBERVILLE.

ANTHONY SYLVIE

that expeditious fashion, hut that does not matter. He was
in the fray, and prepared the men for possible death.

It was June 18, 1686, one of the longest days in the
year, when there is no night, but when twilight merges into
dawn. Not a sound disturbed the stillness when two figures
emerged from the bush near the fort. They were d'lberville
and his brother. They measured with their eyes the
eighteen-foot palisades, and saw the holes through which the
inmates could thrust their muskets. The enclosure was a
square, with stone bastions at each corner. In one of them
were three hundred pounds of powder ; in another the sol
diers slept ; in a third were the furs, and the fourth was the
kitchen. Across the middle of the court were the two-story
warehouse and the residence of the chief factor. These ar
rangements could only be guessed at by the t\\o prowlers,
who crept cautiously around in their moccasined feet, avoid
ing even to tread upon a twig. They found the main gate
barred, but they saw to their delight that the fourteen can
non which protruded from the embrasures were all plugged.
They pricked the:'r ears to listen, but heard not a sound.
Every one was buried in sleep, and then satisfied with what
they had found, they quietly disappeared.

The next night the French surrounded the fort. De
Troves attacked, making a feint on the water-front, but
meantime d'lberville with his Indians scaled the pickets, and
with a trunk of a tree were soon battering down the main
gate. It yielded, and the sleepy guardian was sabred. Then
a rush was made for the house ; the door was partially shat
tered by their blows and d'lberville leaped inside. It closed
behind him, and he was alone in a darkened chamber; but
he kept hacking right and left with his sword, making each
blow tell. A soldier with a lantern appeared on the stairs
above, and he was toppled over by a bullet from d'Iberville's
pistol. Fortunately, the great door soon yielded under the
blows of the battering ram, and the raiders were masters of
the fort.

197

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Then off these wonderful fighters started to the second
fort, far up on Rupert's River, one hundred and thirty
miles away. Sylvie was with them. They had remained at
Moose only long enough to build a raft to carry Troyes
and his prisoners along the coast. The rest embarked in
their canoes. It was now the twenty-seventh of June. By
July first, d'lberville was in sight of Fort Albany. In the
offing was a ship. Waiting for the night, the daring fighter
took with him a half a dozen of his men and paddled out to
the vessel. He reached the stern, and cat-like crawled
up to the deck. Awakened by the noise, the man on the
lookout awoke and sprang for d'Iberville's throat, but a
stroke from the raider's sword laid him dead on the deck.

The men came trembling up from below, and three of
them were sabred as their heads protruded from the hold.
A fourth appeared. It was Bridgar, the Governor of the
whole territory, and he surrendered helplessly. Then the sig
nal was given to attack the fort. D'Iberville hastened from
the ship and led the assault. In a trice he and his followers
were on the roof of the principal house, hacking through it
with their hatchets, and flinging hand grenades into the
interior. As one of the explosives left his hand, says Laut,
from whom we are borrowing this description, a terrified
Englishwoman dashed up the stairs into the room directly
under the roof. They shouted to her to retire. But it was
too late. She was hit by the bomb, and the next moment
d'Iberville and Father Sylvie sprang down the stairs dashing
from hall to hall, candle in hand, looking for her. A plaintive
cry came from one of the rooms. Followed by his powder-
grimed raiders, d'Iberville threw open the door. With a
scream there fell at his feet a woman whose hip was shat
tered. Lifting her to a couch, the priest and d'Iberville
called in the surgeon, and, barring the door from the out
side, forbade intrusion. It was the chief calamity in the
assault. Fort Rupert was theirs.

There was still another post to take. It was Fort Al-

ANTHONY SYLVIE

bany, three hundred miles to the northwest. D'Iberville
started out in his canoes ; De Troyes followed in the ship
with the traders and prisoners. They reached the open bay
when night was coining on, and a fierce gale was sweeping
down from the north tossing the ice floes about in the wild
est confusion. It would be dangerous enough even for the
stout ship that had crossed the ocean, but it would be mad
ness to attempt to make such a passage in canoes, and so
most of the Indians made for the land. The daring d'lber-
villc, however, with the men in two of his boats, refused to
turn back or to stop. Though the huge white ice blocks were
bearing down upon him, his two frail barks were paddled
desperately forward. When the threatening ice could not be
avoided, these desperate men leaped out upon the tloes and
carried their canoes across to the npm water, or for hours
held them above their heads to prevent them from being
crushed to pieces. When morning dawned they kept on in
spite of the fog, d'lberville discharging his musket from time
to time to mark the course for the men behind. For four
days this fierce fight with the elements was kept up, and at
last, on the first of August, the canoe-men landed below
Fort Albany. (Inly some days later de Troyes arrived with
the ship. With which section of the expedition Father
Sylvie came at Fort Albany we do not know, but it
is quite possible that the man who was with d'lberville on
the roof of the house at Rupert was with him in the canoes
fighting the ice floes.

As soon as the ship arrived with the cannon, the French
set about putting them in place for the bombardment. The
fort had as yet given no sign of life, when suddenly its
forty guns thundered simultaneously. The embankment,
which the assailants had singularly enough been allowed to
construct, appears to have prevented any one from being
injured by this first cannonade, which was also the last that
day. De Troyes mustered his troops, and with flag flying,
went up to the fort and demanded its surrender. The Com-

199

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

mandant refused, though his garrison was in a panic. For
two days the firing was kept up, until just as the ammuni
tion of the French was giving out the flag of truce was seen
fluttering from the walls, and the raiders entered. They
found 50,000 crowns' worth of peltries, but no food. The
consequence was that the prisoners were all set adrift, and
many perished from hunger or exposure. The raiders
themselves hurried back to the St. Lawrence to avoid
starvation, and a small garrison under Maricourt was left
in the fort to defend it. Father Sylvie, as far as we can
make out, remained, for he was only incidentally a military
chaplain. His chief work was that of a missionary to the
Indians.

In the following year dTberville was back again at the
Bay. He came upon one of the vessels of the company and
seized it. But that did not satisfy him. There was another
ship at Charlton Island, and he sent out four spies to recon
noitre. Three of them were seized by the English and
clapped in irons in the hold. In the springtime one was
called on deck to help the sailors. He willingly consented
to leave the fetid prison, but when he saw six of the men up
in the rigging, he seized an axe, crept up behind two men
who were working near him, brained them both, and then
hurrying below freed his two comrades. They imme
diately seized the weapons that were at hand, and, keeping1
the men up in the rigging at pistol point, steered the vessel
across the Bay to Rupert River, where dTberville was wait
ing. The capture of this vessel, which was well provisioned,
kept him from starvation.

Rescue parties had come down from Nelson to attack
the French at Fort Albany, but their two ships, the Hamp
shire and the Northwest Fox, were caught in the ice, and
they sent their crews ashore, not suspecting that dTberville
was waiting in ambush in the swamps nearby. No sooner
had the eighty men been safely landed than, to the horror
and consternation of the English, they saw dTberville board-

200

ANTHONY SYLVIE

ing one of the vessels, and as the ice cleared he sailed away
from Albany for Quebec.

But he was not yet out of clanger. At the Straits he met
two English vessels. Both he and they were caught in the
ice and were within gunshot of each other. D'Iberville ran
up the English flag and invited the captains of the two ships
to come across the ice to visit him. They were actually
on their way when the ice parted and away Hew d'lherville
through a stretch of clear water which just at that moment
left him a clear passage.

Father Sylvic. it would appear, remained at the Bay
until 1693. He was not alone, however, for Dalmas was
with him during the last fifteen months of that period. At
last his health gave way and he returned to Quebec. What
did he do there? Something that was as much a revelation
of character as when he was at the side of d'Ibcrville in the
wild raids of the Bay.

It must have been a very edifying sight indeed to see
that battered old missionary undertake a class of mathe
matics in the college when he came back home. Then, for
the last ten years of his life, he filled the position of Minister,
and finally went to his reward in 1711, probably on October
twelfth. He had reached the age of seventy-four. He had
come to America in 1673, and had first labored for four
years in the Far West with the Ottawas, where he was
Allouez's companion part of that time. Subsequently re
called east in 1679, he was assigned to the work among
the nomads of the Bay. It was only after seven years' toil in
that difficult mission that he started as the chaplain of d'lber-
ville in his heroic efforts to win back Hudson Bay from the
English. Very little is said of Sylvie in the " Relations/*
but nothing more was needed to show what a man he was.

201

ANTHONY DALMAS

After Sylvie withdrew to Quebec, Father Anthony
Dalmas, who had been with him for a year and a half, was
left alone in the frozen wilderness of Hudson Bay. There
seems to be no doubt about this fact, though Father Marest,
in a letter to de Lamberville written much later, makes
quite a contrary statement. He tells us that Dalmas was
the first priest to accompany d'Iberville in his attacks on the
English. Evidently he had forgotten all about, or had never
heard of, Sylvie's experiences. Indeed, Dalmas does not
seem to have gone out with Iberville on any expedition,
but was at Fort Albany looking after the French and In
dians all the time that d'Iberville was fighting down at
Schenectady, Maine, and Newfoundland.

Fort Albany, which had been captured by d'Iberville in
1686, was still floating the French flag in 1693, but the con
dition of its miserable little garrison was deplorable. They
were starving to death. One by one they had dropped off,
and Father Dalmas had read the Church's prayers over them
as they were laid to rest in the snow. At last only eight
remained.

The spring of 1693 had come, and the eyes of the un
happy sufferers were turned incessantly towards the great
bay north of them to catch a glimpse of a sail coming to
their relief. But none ever came. One day five of the little
band started out over the snow to see if they could replenish
their empty larder by capturing some chance game. There
was some hope, for now the winter was breaking up.
Father Dalmas, the surgeon, and the tool-maker remained
in the fort. After five days the hunters returned. They
found the tool-maker alone, and there were traces of blood
in the snow. Murder had evidently been committed, and
they seized the solitary wretch and put him in irons,

202

ANTHONY DALMAS

After a few days the prisoner confessed that he had
killed the surgeon, and had thrown the body in a hole in the
ice. What about the priest? \Yherc was he? That was
the saddest chapter of the tragedy. After killing the sur
geon, the murderer returned to the fort and found Father
Dalmas about to say Mass; but the priest, quite unaware of
what had happened, spoke to him only afterwards. The
unhappy man confessed his crime, and expressed the fear
that when the others returned he would be put to death.
" Not at all," he was told. " \Yc arc too few to think of
that, and if the men attempt to do so, I give you my word, I
shall prevent them. Fear, rather, the wrath of (iod, and im
plore His mercy for your horrible crime."

In order to forestall the anger of the others, the Father
set out to meet them, with the consent of the assassin. But
hardly had he left the fort when he perceived the wretch
following him, armed with a hatchet and gun. Tie heard
the cry, " Stop! You are going to betray me," and imme
diately a musket shot rung out and the ball entered the body
of the priest.

The wound did not prevent him. however, from leaping
on a cake of ice that was floating near the bank of the river.
Hut his pursuer sprung after him. and buried his hatchet
twice in the head of his victim, and then flung the bndy
unclcr the ice. Such was the story he himself told to his
horrified associates. Their first impulse was indeed to
wreak vengeance on him then and there, but they restrained
their wrath, hoping that a ship would soon arrive from
Quebec. Day after day passed and no help came. At last
in the offing, to their consternation, a vessel appeared with
an English flag flying at its peak. It was all over with
them now, but they were not going to surrender without
a struggle.

They had kept their cannon loaded for just such an
emergency, and as the ship approached the shore it was
met with such a murderous fire that it veered about and

203

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

sailed away. The furious fashion in which they had been re
ceived created the impression that the fort was fully garri
soned. Shortly afterwards three vessels were seen bearing
down on the fort, prepared for what they thought would be
a desperate battle. Of course, the worn and emaciated
Frenchmen were in no condition to resist such a force, and
so, in the darkness of the night they quietly slipped away
and disappeared in the woods, and then made for Montreal.
Three of them perished on the way. Such is the French
account. It is told, however, in a slightly different fashion
by Laut in " The Conquest of the Great Northwest."

" Grimmington," the author says, " came out to Nelson
in 1693, determined to capture back Albany for the Eng
lish. Three ships sailed down from Nelson to Albany. The
fort looked deserted. Led by Grimmington, the sailors
hacked open the gates. Only four Frenchmen were holding
the fort. The rest of the garrison were off hunting in the
woods, and in the woods they were forced to remain that
winter, for Grimmington ransacked the fort, took posses
sion, and clapped the French, under Mons. Captain Le
Meux, prisoners in the hold of his vessel. As the Eng
lish captains searched the cellars, they came on a ghastly
sight. Naked, covered with vermin, shackled hands to the
feet, was a French criminal, who had murdered first the
surgeon, then the priest of the fort. He, too, was turned
adrift in the woods with the rest of the garrison." Such is
the gruesome ending of Father Anthony Dalmas's mission
ary career. He was then fifty-six years of age, having been
born in Tours, August 4, 1636. He had come to Canada in
1670, and was occupied almost all the time in the terrible
Tadoussac missions. He was a martyr of the confessional.
About his labors at Tadoussac there is nothing but the grim
routine of hardship and dangers which always constituted
the labors of that section of the Algonquin apostolate.

204

ciatasmi ?

GABRIEL MARET

Eight years of fierce warfare between the French and
English had passed to get possession of Hucson Bay. Forts
were taken and retaken by both sides, and finally the
authorities at Quebec decided that there were no means of
holding their posts in the south unless they dislodged the
English from their stronghold on the Nelson River, far
away to the north.

To effect that purpose, d'Iberville set sail from Quebec
on August 10, 1694, with two frigates, The Poli and Sala-
mandre. There was three hundred men on board. The
chaplain was Gabriel Maret, who had just arrived from
France. " They took me." he writes, " because I could not
speak any of the Indian languages. As chaplain of the two
ships, I could get along with French.

" \Ye set sail," he says, " on the tenth of August, and
cast anchor near midnight near the bar of Cape Tourmente.
At seven or eight next morning we were sailing down the
St. Lawrence, or attempting to do so, but the wind was
against us, and for the next three days we made very little
progress." Maret, however, profited by this enforced leis
ure to preach to the crew and to induce them to celebrate
properly the feast of the Assumption, which was coming on.
He spent the evening of the fourteenth and the morning of
the fifteenth in hearing the confessions of the crew. Many
of the sailors went to Communion, and lo ! " just at the end
of Mass the wind changed and the vessels were speeding
down the river." On the twentieth they were becalmed
again, and this time Maret went to the other ship, the Sala-
mandre, to say Mass and to shrive the sailors.

On the twenty-first they wrere passing Belle Isle, which
he says is two hundred and twenty leagues from Quebec,

205

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

so that, all in all, they had made tolerably fair progress in
those eleven days. The icebergs began to appear, and they
seemed to him like mountains of crystal ; some of them like
glittering cliffs bristling with peaks. Calm and storm suc
ceeded each other, and it was now the twenty-fifth of
August. " The season was advanced, and we were going
into a country where winter comes before autumn. We
were only at the 56th degree latitude, and there was
still a long distance to make, on a sea which was full of ice
bergs, through which we should have to force our way as
far as the 63d degree."

On the twenty-eighth they had a good east wind, but
on the thirty-first they were enveloped in a dense fog. At
noon, however, the sky cleared, and " the ' Sugar Loaves/
all covered with snow, were before our eyes." About even
ing they were entering the Strait of Hudson Bay, which
was choked with ice. They saw Button's Islands, which
were in the 6oth degree and some minutes. Nearby deep
bays were perceived, one of which was said to go as far as
the lower end of Hudson Bay, " but," he adds, " this is very
uncertain."

It took them four days, from September first to Sep
tember fifth, to pass the straits, and on the seventh the
weather became calm, " which," says the watchful mission
ary, " gave an opportunity to more than fifty persons to
offer their devotions on the following day, the Feast of the
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin." But the calm continued all
along through the eighth, ninth and tenth, much to the
worry and anxiety of the crew. Then Maret, who was
always working miracles, proposed to the sailors to invoke
the protection of St. Anne and to offer public prayers in
her honor. Every one was delighted, and the very next
night he says " a fair wind was drawing them along, and on
the twelfth they described the North Land, but below the
point where we wished to go."

Now a head wind sprang up, and the vessels kept tack-

206

GABRIEL MARET

ing for several days ; but as no progress was made they cast
anchor. Meantime the cold was increasing, and the water
was giving out. Again St. Anne was invoked, and the sail
ors approached the sacraments, d'Iberville and the officers
setting the example. " The very next day," says the chron
icle, " God gave us a favorable wind/'

They entered the River Bourbon on Friday, September
twenty-fourth, about six in the evening, singing the [Y.nV/d
Regis and the 0 Cni.v Arc, which they repeated several
times, " to do honor to the adorable cross of the Saviour, in
the country where it is unknown to the barbarians, and
where it has been many times profaned by heretics who
have overthrown with contempt all the crosses that our
French had in former times set up." lint did not the holy
man mistake these overturning of the crosses as examples
of religious hatred? The crosses were indeed thrown down,
but, generally speaking, it was because they were marks of
the French occupation. If there was any religious animos
ity, it entered at best only incidentally. For usually when a
French cross wa.: thrown down, an English one was set
up in its stead. He was new in the country. il The Bour
bon River," says Maret, " was called by the English in those
days the Pornctton. Southeast of it, and emptying into the
same bay, is the St. Theresa, the two streams being sepa
rated from each other by a neck of land only a league or two
in width. On the St. Theresa the English had built their
fort, and up that river d'Iberville sailed with the Salaman-
dre, leaving the Poli to winter in the adjoining stream. The
St. Theresa was called by the English the Nelson. The
other was the Churchill.

On the night of their arrival, September twrenty-four, a
number of men were put ashore to attempt to take the fort
by surprise. It failed, for the enemy were on the alert, and
for four or five days afterwards d'Iberville continued looking
for a place to pitch his camp. He finally went ashore about
a league and a half above the fort.

207

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

It was now October 30. The moon was very nearly
full, and, favored by the tide, the shallop, equipped with
sixteen oars, towed the ship up the stream. As they passed
the fort three or four volleys were fired at them from the
shore, but the balls fell short, and the French replied with
mocking cries of Sassa Koues, the savage shout of rejoicing.
They continued up the river without further molestation.
However, though they had passed the English, the elements
were against them. On the night of the second of Novem
ber, as they were striving to enter a harbor, a heavy snow
storm hid the shore from view, while a fierce northwest wind
drove the ship on the shallows, and at ten o'clock the ice
began to grind against the hull, opening it in three or four
places. To lighten the vessel, d'Iberville threw his cannon
out on the shoals, and did the same with whatever else
would not be damaged by the water. On the third the wind
subsided, and the whole cargo was taken ashore.

To add to the trouble young Chateauguai, d'Iberville's
brother, who had been skirmishing near the fort, was fatally
wounded. He died the next day in Maret's arms. Then
came the news that the other ship, the Poli, in the Churchill,
was having as much trouble as the Salamandre. It had been
pounded by the ice, and much of its cargo and powder had
been ruined, and to add to the distress its captain, de Tilly,
had fallen dangerously ill.

Of course, the chaplain hastened over the intervening
land to his assistance. " It was the first journey I made in
the woods of America. The ground was marshy, and we
had to go a long way around. We sunk knee deep in the
half-frozen ground, but succeeded, nevertheless, in making
five leagues through the woods, if you can call them woods,
for there was nothing but thorns and brambles, with here
and there an open space." When they arrived at the bank
of the river they found the ship on the other side. The
stream was a league and a half wide, and the current was
swift and full of floating ice. At last they saw an opening

208

GABRIEL MARET

and hurried with their canoe to the clear water. The sun
was setting, but before darkness fell they were on board
the ship.

After administering- the sacraments to the dying man,
and spending the next day visiting the cabins which the
crew had thrown up on the shore, Alaret made for the
river again, and reached the other side very late at night.
A shelter was hastily made, but they regretted their haste,
for it snowed heavily for three hours, and they nearly
perished before morning. On the eleventh the chaplain
was again in camp with d'lberville, who had meantime been
making heroic efforts to begin the siege of the fort. A road
had been built up to the defenses for the transportation of
the cannons and mortars. They were in position on the
twelfth, and on the thirteenth a message was sent to the
garrison to surrender. They asked till eight o'clock next
morning to consider. The next day they capitulated.

It is very edifying to be informed that in that desolate
place, and sharing all the hardships and dangers of the
soldiers, there was a Protestant minister, who came out to
arrange the terms of surrender. lie wrote them in Latin
and Maret translated them into French. Unfortunately we
do not know the good parson's name. He deserves to be
remembered.

M. du Tas, with sixty men, took possession of the fort,
which, Maret says, " was much weaker than we believed."
It was a wooden structure and there was very little in it
worth taking. Laut contradicts this statement. The defen
ders numbered fifty-three all told. They were a fine set of
men, but we are informed that the Commandant knew more
about driving a bargain than firing a cannon, which was
the reason he surrendered so readily. It is noteworthy that
this fort, on the St. Theresa River, was captured on St.
Theresa's Day. D'lberville called it Fort Bourbon, whereas
he might better have chosen the name of the heavenly, in
stead of the earthly protector.

209

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Of course, the victors celebrated their triumph by a
banquet, but immediately after dinner Father Maret set out
over land to see the dying captain of the Poli. When he
reached the river it was impassable ; so he and his party built
a temporary shelter for the night, and the next day they
started a great fire to announce the fall of the fort to the
Frenchmen on the opposite shore. It was not until three
days afterwards, namely on the eighteenth of October, that
he succeeded in crossing the stream. There he remained
till the twenty-eighth, when the sick man breathed his last.
They made his grave in the snow.

When all was over Maret was eager to get back to the
other river, so as to celebrate there the feast of All Saints,
but it was impossible to cross the stream until the following
day. His troubles, however, did not end there, for, though
he reached the opposite shore in safety, he and his com
panions got lost in the woods and did not arrive at the other
camp till the third of November.

That journey across the neck of land had to be repeated
many a time after that, for both crews were attacked by
scurvy, and the priest had all he could do to attend the sick
on both rivers. Twenty men died. He attributed his own
immunity from the disease to his enforced activity in going
from one place to the other. The tramp was a hard one,
but winter was now at its height, and both streams were
frozen solid, so that it was easy to reach the ships. It was
a disaster in other respects, for the Poli and Salamandre
were imprisoned there from November till June. He notes
that the Churchill, which was slow to freeze, took longer
to break up, for, whereas the Nelson began its debacle at the
end of May, the Churchill was not open until two weeks
later. No one seemed to mind it, however, and at the end
of July both vessels went down to the mouth to fight any
English ship that might appear; but none arrived to avenge
the loss of the fort.

Meantime Maret had set himself to study the customs

210

GABRIEL MARET

and language of the natives. lie tells us that three hundred
or more canoe-loads of Indians came to the fort. There
were among them representatives of seven or eight different
tribes. The most numerous were the Assiniboels and Kris-
tinons. The former lived at a distance of thirty-five or forty
days' journey ; the latter about twenty-four. They were
allies and spoke each others' language. They were well
formed and sturdy. The Assiniboels were heavily tattooed,
and seemed to him to be a phlegmatic race; the Crecs were
more vivacious. They were both nomadic and consequently
hard to instruct. In the judgment of the new missionary,
they were " a base, cowardly, idle, churlish, and a wholly
vicious set," a rather poor recommendation for the noble
red man. The worship of the sun seemed to prevail among
them, with the usual amount of jugglery and constant use
of the pipe, which the good man fancied was a religious
instrument.

4 The land is marshy and unproductive," he says. " For
more than thirty or forty leagues from the fort there are no
real woods. Winter sets in about September and ends in
June, but, though the snow is on the ground for eight
months, it is never more than three feet deep. There is no
rain, but only a powdery snow that sifts in everywhere. The
short season of summer is unpleasantly hot, and the mos
quitoes are a worse torment than in the more southern dis
tricts of Canada. Game of many varieties abound : geese,
ducks, bustards, &c. The vast herds of caribou so fright
ened the sailors when they first saw them that those hardy
adventurers, who would face all sorts of dangers, disgrace
fully fled from the deer.

The missionary made an offer at learning the language
of the Indians. He tells us he had more trouble in under
standing it than speaking it, and no doubt the Indians had
a similar trouble in understanding him. He succeeded in
baptizing three children, two of whom, he says, " have gone
to heaven."

211

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

At the beginning of September, 1695, the two vessels
set sail, but as they proposed to go directly to France Maret
determined to remain with the eighty men who were left to
garrison the fort. According to Laut, Nelson was a fine
capture. It had a large square house, with lead roof and
limestone walls. There were four bastions to the courtyard,
one for the garrison's lodging, one for trade, one for powder,
and one for provisions. All the buildings were painted red.
Double palisades, with a trench between, enclosed the yard.
There were two large gates, one on the waterside, one in
land, reinforced with iron panels, and writh huge metal
hinges, showing the knobs of huge spike-heads. A gallery
ran around the roof of the main house, and on this were
placed five cannon. Three cannon were also mounted on
each bastion. The officers' mess boasted a huge iron
hearth, oval tables, wall cupboards, and beds that shut up
in the wall.

Such a post was well worth fighting for, and apparently
could have been easily held. But shortly after d'Iberville's
departure Captain Allen swooped down upon it, and carried
off the entire garrison to England as prisoners. Father
Maret was, of course, among the captives. Perhaps he was
on Allen's ship, and at one time his heart may have fluttered
with the hope of rescue, for just as they were at the entrance
of the straits, a swift sailing French privateer bore down on
the whole fleet, and, singling out Allen's ship, which was
separated from the others, raked it fore and aft with shot,
killing Allen on the spot, and then sped away before the
other ships could come to the rescue. Who was the enemy
no one ever found out. But it was thought to be Serigny,
d'Iberville's brother, who a little before that had been in
the Bay.

The captives lay in prison at Portsmouth for five
months. Maret's own account says Plymouth. Released
at last, they hastened to France, where their spent and
ragged condition excited the people to fury. Maret wrote

212

GABRIEL MARET

an account of it to Lambcrvillc, who was then in Europe
as Procurator, but unfortunately the letter was lost. Possi
bly we can get an idea of the brutality that prevailed in
England, and no doubt elsewhere at that time, from an old
letter by Le Merceir, in 1652, wrho describes what was usual
then, even in time of peace. It is concerned with the capture
of Father du Perron.

The vessel on which he was going home was boarded
somewhere in midocean, and all the passengers were un
ceremoniously plundered. The priest lost all his vestments
and chalices, his breviary, and even his blanket. All his
papers were rilled, and either flung overboard or torn to
pieces and scattered over the deck. There was much val
uable information about the missions in the documents, but
that was of little consequence to the sailors. \Ye are told
that the best dressed among the Frenchmen were stripped
quite naked and forced to cover themselves with whatever
rags they could find. The nights were passed in the hold
with no blanket but the dirt of the place, amid a swarm of
soldiers, sailors, and passengers, and with bilge water be
neath them, while the sea often broke through the port
holes.

" At last," says the letter, " the ship was brought to
Plymouth, where other Frenchmen were met with in the
same plight. The vessel was immediately surrounded by
small boats, and mobs of people poured over the deck to pur
chase the booty of the sailors." The Father saw his bre
viary put up at auction, and we suppose the rest of his
belongings, though he does not say so ; but everything
appears to have been sold, so that the greater part of the
passengers lost in one day what they had spent several
years gaining in New France. Some of them said that the
value of the ship itself might reach as high as 300,000 livres.

" There is no place in the universe, however," says the
writer, " except hell, where there are not found some good
people, or persons of good disposition," a reflection sug-

213

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

gested by the presence of some Englishmen who ap
proached the Father and gave him a small alms. It was
very cruel after enduring the fatigues of the sea to be thus
shipwrecked in port, and just at the moment when the trav
elers were looking to meeting their friends, to be captured
again by their enemies. It was to this place that Maret
was brought, but he was kept only a short time, and was
then sent over to Havre de Grace, at the suggestion of some
French captains, whose vessels had been also seized.

He did not remain long in France. He returned to the
American missions, but instead of being sent among his
Crees and Assiniboels, he was assigned to work in the Far
West, among the Illinois, and we have a letter from him to
Father Germon about that place. It was written at " Cas-
caskias, otherwise called the Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin," and is dated November 9, 1712. It is very
long, and we find in it none of the thrilling adventures that
he met with in the earlier part of his career, for the con
ditions along the Mississippi were quite, different from those
in the north and east. The Indians were not as savage
and not as brave. In fact, Maret had a very poor opinion
of them :

" They are indolent, traitorous, fickle, inconstant, de
ceitful and naturally thievish and brutal ; without honor ;
taciturn; capable of doing everything when you are liberal
with them, but at the same time thankless and ungrateful.
To do them a favor is to make them proud and insolent.
They then fancy they are feared. Gluttony and love of
pleasure are above all, the vices most dominant among
them. They are habituated to the most indecent acts be
fore they are old enough to know the shame connected
with them. If you add to this their wandering life in the
forests in pursuit of wild beasts, you will easily admit that
reason must be greatly brutalized in these people and that
they are very much adverse to the yoke of the Gospel.

' The country itself, with its great rivers, dense forests,
extensive prairies and wood-covered hills, is delightful.
There is abundance of game; oxen, hinds, stags and other

214

GABRIEL MARET

wild beasts. We find here multitudes of swans, cranes,
bustards and ducks. The wild oats, which grow freely on
the plains, fatten the fowl to such a degree that they very
often die, their fat suffocating them. Turkeys are likewise
found here in abundance, and they are as good as in
France."

There is some curious information about Missouri,
"which is seven leagues below the mouth of the Illinois.
It is called the Pekitanoui, or muddy water. It is extremely
rapid and discolors the beautiful water of the Mississippi.
It comes from the northwest, not far from the mines which
the Spaniards have in Mexico." The Wabash, or Ouabachc,
as it was spelled, is also described, and then follows a de
tailed account of the natural productions of the country.

When Maret arrived iu those parts many of the Indians
had been Christianized, and the French were beginning to
settle there. As elsewhere, hunting was the occupation of
the men. The hard work fell to the women, and the mis
sionary is of the opinion that " the feebler sex, being thus
occupied and humble, are more disposed to accept the truths
of the Gospel. In the lower part of the Mississippi," he
continues, " the idleness which prevails among the women
gives opportunity for the most shocking irregularities, and
wholly indisposes them to the way of salvation."

The Manitou is the usual superstition, and the mission
ary was often in danger of having his head split open for his
opposition to the practice, but the mission settlements
finally expelled all the medicine men, and the most edifying
piety soon reigned among the converted Indians.

Meantime the venerable missionary's younger brother,
Joseph, had come out to America, and had been appointed
General Superior. He lived chiefly at Mackinac, and thither
Gabriel was sent to confer with him about the affairs of the
missions, and incidentally to look after the Peoria Indians,
among whom he had labored for some time, but who, for
one reason or other, were not in the same good dispositions

215

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

as formerly. He was accompanied by a few savages, one of
them a catechumen. He had an excellent opportunity of
measuring the extent of their courage.

The missionary's feet became swollen with the long
journeys and he. lagged behind on the trail. Finding him
self in danger of being deserted, he cried out to his friends
to come back to him. They, hearing his shouts, thought
only of one thing, namely, that he was in the hands of some
of their enemies, whose traces they thought they had seen
a short time before. Instead of coming to his rescue they
flung their packs from their backs and fled like deer in the
opposite direction. At last, however, the catechumen,
thoroughly ashamed of himself, crept cautiously back, and
found poor Father Maret alone and crawling painfully along
the trail. " You frightened us very much," said the valiant
red man ; " my companions had already fled, but I resolved
to die with you." After that the missionary never lost sight
of his guides.

He reached the Peorias, and found them repentent for
their misdeeds. He remained a fortnight with them and
promised to return to re-establish the old mission. Setting
out then by way of the St. Joseph's River to the Mission of
the Pottawatomies, he covered the seventy leagues in nine
days. Part of the journey was by the river, which is full of
rapids, and part across the country.

"As I was drawing near the village of the Pottawa
tomies," he writes, " some of the Indians, who were sowing
their fields, saw me and hurried off to tell Father Chardon,
who was in charge of the place. He made all haste to meet
me, followed by another Jesuit. What a delightful surprise
when I recognized the other Jesuit as my brother. It was
fifteen years since we parted, never dreaming of seeing each
other again, and we rushed to each other's arms. Of course,
I had set out to join him at Mackinac, but here we were
together three hundred miles from that place. Father
Chardon gave us a great feast that evening."

216

GABRIEL MARET

The two brothers then proceeded on their way to Mack-
inac, and after remaining there some time Gabriel set out
to see his rehabilitated Peorias, who received him with the
greatest delight and promised to atone for the bad treat
ment the tribes had been guilty of towards Father Gravier.
Maret promised to return and live with them permanently
after he had settled matters in Kaskaskia, but when he an
nounced that purpose at the latter place a tumult ensued.
Neither the French nor the Indians would hear of it.
Father de Yille was sent in his place and Maret remained
in his old mission.

It is said of him that besides making the Indians good
Christians he taught them to cultivate the soil, and raise
live stock. He succeeded, indeed, in making them the most
peaceable and industrious of the Western Indians. Gravier
tells us that in 1/07 Kaskaskia had a population of twenty-
two hundred souls, all of them, with the exception of forty
or fifty, being Christians. Maret was an accomplished
linguist, but none of his MSS. are to be found. lie died in
Kaskaskia September 15, 1714. He was then fifty-two
years of age, and had spent twenty years in the mission ;
the first part of his career being full of adventures, the clos
ing years amid hardship, indeed, but in tranquillity and
peace.

217

PETER LAURE

A few years ago an earnest seeker after historical treas
ures, while prowling around a garret in a certain city of
Canada, happened to catch a glimpse of an old manuscript
which had been tossed into a barrel with a number of other
papers and newspaper clippings. In all probability it would
have found its way to the cellar to kindle the fire of the fur
nace when the cold weather set in. It was yellow with age,
and frayed on the edges. There were blots and erasures
and omissions, and the writing was far from legible, but
those were all good signs, and it turned out to be the orig
inal manuscript of a ten years' sojourn among the Saguenay
Indians from 1720 to 1730. The author was Father Peter
Laure, of whom his brethren knew very little, except that
he had labored in those parts, and yet here in their posses
sion, yet without being aware of it, was the most complete
geographical and ethnographical account of those regions,
as they were in the early days, that has ever been written.

Father Laure was born at Orleans, September 17, 1688,
and entered the novitiate at Paris October 30, 1707. From
1709 to 1711 he studied philosophy at Louis-le-Grand and
La Fleche, the finest colleges that the Society had in France.
From La Fleche he went to Quebec, where he taught gram
mar, poetry, and rhetoric. He was also put in charge of the
library, and a certain careful observer of such facts notes
that it was the first time that such an office appears in the
Jesuit catalogues of Canada. Perhaps the reason was that
up to that time there was no library worth mentioning.

In 1717 he began his theology under a distinguished old
professor who had won his laurels in France, Father Ber-
trand Gerard, and at the end of the first year we find him
sustaining a public defense before all that was distinguished

218

PETER LAURE

in Quebec, both lay and clerical. It was a great event, and
reflected considerable glory on the defender. It was not
merely good enough for America in those rough times ; it
was in reality an excellent performance, and the prelate
who presided was no less a personage than St. Yallier, who
was a doctor of the Sorbonnc. He is described in the official
account of the event as multum approbans. In the following
year, the Prefect of Studies wrote to the Father General,
asking permission for Laure to attempt what is called the
" Grand Act," c.v unircrsa theolvgia, although ahead of the
usual time. The permission was granted and the defense
on that occasion is described as " brilliant." How did he
do it? Evidently he must have been a man of unusual
ability.

Besides aptitude for theology, he was also a painter.
The Father Minister at Quebec, writing to Rome, informs
the authorities that " Magistcr Laure qui thcolo^iac dat hie
opcram, picture multum tribuit tcmporis." The accomplish
ment would be useful, no doubt, to amuse the savages, to
make maps, and to ornament his little chapels. His skill
as a mechanic also was of great service, as we shall see in
the sequel.

After all this glory he was told to go down to the
Saguenay, where there had been no possibility of sending a
missionary for more than twenty years. The old Indians
there could mumble some of their prayers, but the younger
generation was growing up with all the vices of paganism.
He went and remained among them for eighteen years, and
in the manuscript that was so luckily discovered we have
an account of the first ten years of that period. The other
eight were more or less a repetition of the preceding ones.
The narrative was written at the request of the Superior in
Quebec, and is characterized by the gracious and vivacious
manner which people were accustomed to in those days.

" You know, Rev'd Father," he says, " that we send
letters from here to Quebec only once, viz., in the winter.

219

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

But although I am late, I nevertheless beg of you [I con
jure you, is the expression he uses] to accept the respectful
homage which I presented to you with all my heart, at the
beginning of this year, which I renew to-day, and which I
shall always continue to pay to you till the day of my death.
I send you a thousand good wishes. Whatever you desire
is for me an order ; but instead of commanding me, you al
most entreated me when, with such extreme kindness, you
accompanied me to the shore of the river on which I was
to embark. You asked me to write to you whatever I might
observe of an edifying nature among our Montagnais. I
understood that you wanted a simple story of what oc
curred in our three churches in the nine years that Provi
dence has confided them to my care. I obey ; for could I
hesitate a moment to satisfy your pious curiosity and to
give you this feeble mark of my esteem for you, as well as
my submission, and my gratitude for all the kindness of
which I have been so long the recipient. Although you do
not journey through the forests in search of the Indians, you
are worth many missionaries because of the care which, as
a true father, you take of your children, who, though they
are scattered, are yet united in your heart. What could we
not say, if we wanted to praise you? I am going, therefore,
to give you a condensed account of these years, and would
be only too happy if I had a crowd of true converts to pre
sent to your Reverence as a New Year's gift."

Chicoutimi, whither Laure directed his steps, was one
of the four trading posts in what was called the King's Do
main. The other three were Tadoussac, the Jeremy Islands,
the Moisy River. The meaning of the term King's Domain
is explained at length by M. J. Edmund Roy in his excellent
little book entitled " In and Around Tadoussac " :

" Long before the settlement of Canada, Tadoussac had
been a great centre of trade. At least a hundred years be
fore Columbus discovered America the Basque, Breton and
Norman sailors had fished on the banks of Newfoundland
and had visited the St. Lawrence in pursuit of whales, wal
ruses and other cetaceous monsters, of which the seals of
our days are but the degenerate and the bastard descend
ants. After fish came the search for furs, and there was a
brisk trade in peltries at Tadoussac when Chauvin, and de

220

PETER LAURE

Monts, and Pontgrave, arrived with a royal grant, which
gave them a monopoly of the latter commodity. The
Basques resisted, and the dispute was finally referred to the
King, who settled the matter in favor of his grantees, in
1613. From that out, instead of the great fleet of free trad
ers, which could be seen every year at the mouth of the
Saguenay, only two vessels arrived annually, and they be
longed to the Trading Company. Hut it is recorded that in
a single year as many as 22,000 skins were shipped. The
value of a single cargo was from 150,000 to 200,000 francs.

" For more than twenty-five years one company suc
ceeded another in this lucrative business. Chauvin had
died leaving his powers to de Chastes. I )e M»>nts and de
Caen succeeded him, but they quarreled in spite of
Champlain's efforts to keep the peace between them.
Finally, in 1629, Quebec was taken by the Knglish, and
that was an end of the French trading; but when the terri
tory was restored to its former owners a number of the
trading companies were formed, all passing through various
vicissitudes, until the colonists formed an association of
their own in 1645 and assumed the direction of the Tadous-
sac factory. In io|8 trading at that post had transactions
to the amount of 250,000 livres, with a net profit of 40,000;
a livre being nearly as much as a franc. ( hit of this, how
ever, the expenses of the colonial government had to be
defrayed.

" This great commercial success caused the old company
of the One Hundred Associates, which had yielded up its
claims to the " Compagnie des Habitants," to have a com
mission named, which reported that their supplanters had
watered the stock and had 644,700 livres unsecured. The
charge, however, was vehemently denied.

" In 1666 the West India Company came into posses
sion ; but in 1675 His Majesty the King appropriated the
whole territory for himself, and it was known afterwards,
until the time of the English domination, as the King's
Domain, and became an integral part of the Combined
Farms of France. In 1733 a survey was made and the lim
its laid out on the maps extended over no less than 72,000
square miles of territory. It reached from the lower ex
tremity of the Eboulements to Cape Cormoran, a distance
of three hundred miles. A straight line drawn from each
of these extremities toward the north is the demarcation of

221

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

the eastern and western limits of the reserve. On one side
were the high lands dividing the waters of the St. Maurice
and Batiscan from those which fall into Lake St. John; on
the other were the still unknown regions where dwelt the
Waskapis and the Esquimaux. Twelve principal trading
depots were then in full operation within this network, of
which Tadoussac was the centre and the rallying point.
The reserve was so sacred that no one was allowed to ap
proach nearer than ten leagues from the confines."

Into this Domain Father Laure entered in 1720. He
had free access, for he. was there only as a missionary
and it was of great importance for the government agents
that the red men should be kept in good order. His base
of operations was in the north, at least sixty leagues from
Quebec.

'' The place has nothing to distinguish it," he says, " ex
cept that, from time to time, a number of savages go there
with rich peltries, arriving from the little rivers which form
the famous Saguenay, of which as far as I am aware no one
has so far made a complete and reliable map. There would
be curious things to tell your Reverence did my subject
permit it. But I cannot refrain from giving you some idea
of the surroundings."

It is to Father Martin that we are indebted for the infor
mation that in the portfolio entitled " Apparatus Frangais
et Montagnais," 1726, consisting of 865 pages, and which is
now in the Department of the Marine in Paris, there is an
autograph map of Laure's, giving the countries north of the
river. It is dedicated to the Dauphin, and the dedicatory
letter is dated " Chicoutimi, August 23, 1731." In the same
department there are two copies of this map, one of 1732
and another of 1733, with several additions. The latter has
been executed and illumined with great care. All these maps
are highly esteemed, even to-day, for their exactness.
Other copies have been recently made of them. There is a
large one which, made as it was in an Indian cabin, is quite
a surprising achievement. But, besides that, Laure gives a

222

PETER LAURE

word picture of the place, which for most readers will be
more interesting than the map.

" The river," he says, " takes its source in Lake Pickouu-
gami, which Father de Crespieul, who, with his apostolic
sweat, watered these forests for thirty years, called Lake
St. John." This is a piece of valuable information ; for one
would fancy that the name was given by Father Ouen, who
had discovered the lake. ' The river," he continues, " is
about twenty-five leagues in length from here to Tadoussac.
It starts from a great bay, at the foot of a mountain chain,
which is broken here and there by a great number of brooks
and rivers. To the northeast is the Chicoutimi River, which
starts with two cascades, and thus divides into two branches,
forming the island on which we live. Uniting again below
the island, it pours its volume of water into the salty
Saguenay."

The official map of Bellini, drawn fourteen years after
these words were written, has inscribed on it that it was
based on manuscripts which were deposited in the Section
of Maps and Plans of the Marine Department, 1/44. Very
likely Bellini's chief guide was Father Laure.

" At the mouth of the river," continues the narrative,
" is the pretended capital of the Province of the Saguenay.
I mean Tadoussac, which consists of one wooden house and
a store. It must be confessed that the situation is very
beautiful and quite suitable for the establishment of a city.
The port is spacious, healthy, and safe. It is sheltered from
every wind, and good sized vessels can anchor at high tide
close to the shore. The English went there in old times
to trade with the Indians, and you are shown a rock where
they planted a post to moor their boats to. Two years ago
an iron chain, about thirty fathoms long, and thick in pro
portion, was found on the sand."

Father Laure's conception of a great city was evidently
not according to modern ideas, especially as he says :

" At that place the Saguenay rushes furiously into the
St. Lawrence, and when the tide rises in the larger river

223

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

the Saguenay fills up so rapidly that there is only about a
quarter of an hour's difference between the rise of the water
at Tadoussac and Chicoutimi, though the latter place is
about ninety miles further up the river. This has been ob
served over and over again. Nor is it surprising, for as the
Saguenay is nearly a league wide in certain places at its
mouth, and is almost bottomless, the sea rushes, as it were,
into a sort of gulf, the upper end of which is not so deep,
and thus it keeps pushing back the water that comes down
the stream, so that it is high tide at Chicoutimi, where the
bottom of the river is more level and the banks closer to
gether, almost as soon as at Tadoussac, at which place the
water rises more slowly, for a greater volume of water is
required to fill not only the great bays which are there,
but the vast expanse of the river itself, which is eight or ten
leagues wide at that point.

' The mountains between which the Saguenay flows are
so high and steep that the gigantic trees which are on their
summits appear from below no bigger than a man's legs.
At 7 o'clock of a summer evening, unless you are quite out
in mid-stream, you cannot read in your canoe. Here and
there in clefts of the rocks, where the sun never beats, you
may observe veins of very fine, white saltpetre. Every
spring there are land-slides which come down with a sound
like the roar of a cannon, and the atmosphere is filled with
the smell of powder.

" The heat between these two mountain chains, which
are for the most part bare and inaccessible, is so great that
it melts the gum in the canoe, down to the water line. Al
though it is a dangerous stream, nature has left commodi
ous havens for travellers. With the exception of a single
stretch of four or five leagues, where it would be risking a
good deal to venture without the greatest caution, and
where in case of a sudden squall it would be impossible for
a bark canoe to weather the storm, you find at intervals
little stretches of sand where you can conveniently beach
your boats. These landing places are mostly on the north
shore. Almost everywhere there you find anchorage for
larger vessels, and the ships in distress are happy to run
into them. Thus, when the English were making their use
less attack on Quebec, the French ships, which arrived too
late to render assistance, anchored here. The ruins of the
barracks and batteries which they built are still there.

224

PETER LAURE

" At low tide it is difficult to land. You have to carry
your baggage a great distance over slippery stones, covered
with slimy weeds, which we call goimon ; but, on the other
hand, Providence has so arranged that almost at every
place we find wood to make our tires. There are also little
streams which flow from the marshes, where the beaver
builds his dam, and which leap over the crags into the river
below. There the thirsty and tired traveller slakes his
thirst.

" Only the north and northeast winds prevail in the
Saguenay. The others are rarely felt, or, at least, are never
violent. As long as I have been travelling over it, and my
journeys have been frequent, 1 have not been troubled much
except with those two; but they are extremely treacherous.
violent, and lasting. As soon as one or the other blows you
have to be on your guard, especially if it is cloudy weather
and there is any appearance of a storm. Just as if you were
on the high seas, the waves rise, toss, and foam, and the
struggling of thousands of waves which chase each other,
and then dash together, warns the people in the canoes to
paddle with all their might to the shore. May I presume,
Reverend Father, to tell you of one or tw'o of my experi
ences?

" I had no knowledge as yet of the risk one runs on this
capricious river. I was in a great hurry, for the call was
urgent, and although we had only an old canoe for four, we
had to travel all night. The weather was fine, and the
moon was full, and there was no sign of a storm. My two
red men, wearied with paddling, fell asleep. Tired of trying
to keep them awake, I did not disturb them, and took a
paddle myself to guide the boat, letting it go with the tide,
which was setting down stream. After a little while one of
my men, who awoke, seized his paddle. After the fashion
of the savages, who are sovereignly independent of one
another, to such a degree that they never urge their com
panions to work, lest the individual addressed would be
offended, he asked me to arouse the sleeper. I did so and,
being completely exhausted, I in my turn put my head and
arms on one of the bars of the canoe and was soon in the
land of dreams.

" Hardly had T done so when I heard some Montagnais
words, and I thought my two men were quarreling. I
started up, spoke and looked around. I saw neither the

225

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

sky, nor the rocks, nor the water. All was darkness. A
storm had arisen in the northwest. ' We are lost, Father/
cried the Indians. There was no shore visible where we
might land, so dense was the gloom. Besides, we were
out in the middle of the Sagrienay, and we could see the
gathering clouds and hear the thunder rumbling behind
us. By the sheerest good luck we drew near a rock and as
soon as we struck it I made an attempt to land, but my
foot slipped and I went into the water. It was all over
with me had not the Indian, wrho had only one arm, quickly
stuck the stump under my arm-pit and flung me on the
rock. There we hauled up our canoe. I could not help
admiring my two companions, who after this adventure
slept peacefully the rest of the night, while I meantime
felt the blood flowing from my leg, which had struck vio
lently against the rock.

" I could not attend to the wound, for there was no
means of lighting a fire. But I kept wrorrying about the
canoe, lest the storm would carry it off, and then what
would become of us? But God had pity on the father and
his children, who were not yet ripe for heaven. The storm
finally passed, and when morning came I was surprised
to find that we were in a sort of niche, and I could not help
laughing at what was, indeed, our lucky mishap. However,
the receding tide had left us high and dry, ten or twelve
feet above the water, and we had to carry our canoe, the
provisions and the baggage over to a little runnel, in which
we glided down to the river.

" We finally arrived at Tadoussac, and I gave the last
sacraments to the sick man, who died a few days after.
After that we started up the stream again for Chicoutimi.
We were caught by a northwest wind, accompanied by a
heavy rain, and we were so badly battered that two ribs of
our canoe were broken. We were almost swamped, and I
was on the point of giving absolution to my two men, who
were more frightened than I, for they knew the danger and
were begging me to make them pray to God as well as I
possibly could. I confess that it was due to their faith and
their confidence in the Blessed Virgin and St. Regis that we
were saved. I quickly bound the canoe with my cincture
and garters, the men steering, while I managed the sail, as
we sped along, cutting through the waves, which were from
time to time washed into the boat and threatening to fill it.

226

PETER LAURE

Finally we reached the shore and found an Indian hut. \Ve
emptied and mended the canoe, and my companions made
a great fire, where we dried our clothes. I was delighted
with the compassion which my dear neophytes had for me
in our common misfortune.

"After that 1 considered myself fairly well impressed
with the dangers to he met with on our river, and when 1
got to our little church I took the wrong resolution of being
more cautious in the future. I say wrong, for in certain
contingencies it is the part of prudence n< >t to have too
much of that virtue. Timidity will often make a man miss
a good work. An hour's delay has often left travellers ex
hausted and famished when quite near the place, of safety.
I do not mean to sav that one should not take proper pre
cautions, for rashness has caused the death of many a
Frenchman and Indian in these parts; but there are times
when one can be too cautions."

After this story of his adventures, he turns to geography,
and says:

" I had the honor to tell you in the beginning, Reverend
Father, that the Saguenay takes its source in Lake St. John,
but I want to give you a more exact idea of the place. "Lake
St. John is about thirty leagues from Chicnutimi, toward
the west, and is situated in the depths of those mountains
which you see north of Quebec. Its circumference is not
more than thirty leagues. It is not deep, and in the sum
mer, when the waters are very low, it has a beautiful beach
of fine sand. It is full of fish, the surrounding country is
beautiful, the landscape picturesque, the soil good, but most
of the seed that is planted, especially corn, cannot ripen
on account of the frequent northwest winds, which come
early and are very piercing, sometimes bringing snow as
early as the end of August. A part of the old missionary
establishment is there yet. You can see that they had a
large garden, and a chapel, where Brother Malherbe was
buried. Over his grave I planted a cross."

It will be of interest to know that this is the Brother
Malherbe who carried the remains of de Brebeuf and Lale-
mant to the tomb. His account of the mangled condition
in which the bodies were is often cited by historians.

227

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Charlevoix marks the site of the old mission in a map to
be found in Volume VII of " Histoire de la Nouvelle
France/'

" At the top of the lake/' continues Father Laure, " there
is a river which is very curious on account of the little
stones of all shapes which are found in its bed. Nature
seemed to have studiously set about making models for all
the arts. There are birds, animals, vases, and even tools for
all sorts of trades, which are very recognizable. You can
see them all in the water. The difficulty is to gather them.
You have to make a journey there for that purpose and
take time to gather them, for the Indians would not know
what to choose. One who would fancy that sort of curiosity
would only have to hire and feed two men, who would carry
him there in a canoe. I have a specimen with me that is
very curious. If, for instance, you hold it straight up, this
little bit of hard grey stone looks like a monkey or an ear
less cat, squatted on its tail and paws, and holding a ball
in its little mouth. If you lay it down it reminds you of a
bird pecking, and on one side of the head is a spot which
represents an eye fairly well. It is one inch wide and one
and a half long. It is very singular that the stream carries
none of these treasures down to Lake St. John, into which
it flows.

"The river I am speaking of comes, like many others,
from the mountain ridge which is the watershed of this
part of the country. They all flow from Lake Kaouit-
chiouit, and from there by a series of other lakes you can
go to Lake Albanel, so called because Father Albanel dis
covered it. It is about 80 leagues E. N. E. of Hudson Bay
and quite near Lake Mistassini, which receives the water of
Lake Albanel, and empties into the North Sea.

" Here the Michtassini, or, in French, the Mistassini,
dwell. The name is composed of Mechta, great, and assini,
stone, given because of the great rock in the river. This is
where the jewels I spoke of are made. The rock is held in
great veneration, and it would be a crime for the Indian to
pass near it without leaving some mark of superstitious re
spect for Tchigigoucheou, the god of good or bad weather,
who, as they believe, has chosen to make his dwelling there.

" Usually the incense offered to him consists of a little
tobacco or a cake, or, perhaps, only the bone of a beaver or

228

I'KTKK I.AIIKK

fish. Sad to say, some of tin- less devout, or tho-.r vvli«» ate
hungry for a smoke, oftm help themselves as they pa1/* by
when (his p.od or evil spirit is not quick enough to piohi
by the piety of his woi shippers.

" They tell you also that after thr delude* (for they have
something of trial in thru tradition) thr hi;- ( anoe < am< lo
fii< I on the hrdi in' mill ;iin which they point out to yon
Sonic of tlirtn assure yon, as if it were an arti'le of faith,
that they often saw an old man of IIIIIIK -use height, aimed
with how and arrows, promenading on it summit and ap
pcarin^ to watch over the ".till vei y respectable wreck of
the ^reat canoe A few of its Ilinher-, ai«- thought to be
preserved somewhere in those unions.

"These and a thousand other delusions do not, l-'ever
end Father," says the* deferent ial mi sionary, " d< erve youi
attention. I I. id Father l.afitau i« ni.nii'd .nnonj' u , < .\n>
all deeply regret his lo1.-.), had il not hei-n that In. well
known merit recalled linn to 1'iance, he would h;r.« writ
ten ahonl all the e thiii}'1. in In , mai v« lion , nianin-i. 'I h« <
stories are so eonmion hereahonls thai I|MH i not a « Inld
who cannot tell yon ahonl the joeat canoe, and ili< y\
^antic Indian, the venerahle grandfather M<I.||.,H

"The tnhe has dwindled down to an inconsiderahle
n Ilinher. Some of them come hei r for t lade, in pun;; lime ;
some yn \<> the I'.njdi' h. 'I hey ate MI* h -,we< I l.inp'i'd
and simple people that yon ran foi in no id« a of lli* n ;>ood
nr.HH. It would not he haid to make fo<,d ( Ini Man, oi
them if they were near a missionary, who could M main a
lon^ time amon^ them, and who would he left a certain
amount of freedom to urtriut them." lie was prohahly
alluding to the difficulties often put in the way of the mis
sionaries hy the civil authorities at Quebec.

" Unlike the other Indians, they have no liking for fire
water, and if the I-rench, who are more ea^er to plunder
them of their peltries than to help them save their souls, did
not, in spite of repeated royal prohibitions, four it on
them, they would never take it. When they do taste it
they make most ridiculous grimaces, and never of their
own account come bark to the charge. To use their own
idiom, they do not like it because ' they lose their mind in
a shameful way once it has been killed by fire water.'

41 Alonj' with this happy trait of sobriety, they display a
most admirable docility, no matter what it costs them.

029

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Thus, for instance, some years ago, a missionary sent to a
chief who was very old and not yet baptized, a little object
of devotion, as a present, intending it also as an invitation
to come to be instructed. In spite of his great age, the
length of the journey, the fatigue of the canoe, and the
difficulty of the portages, he obeyed and walked into the
church, saying : ' Here, Father, is the old man you wanted
to see.' Every day he asked for instruction so as to prepare
for baptism. He wanted even to make his confession, so as
' to throw away/ as they are wont to say, all their sins.
Thus at the end of his life he received the grace which he
had travelled seven hundred and fifty miles to obtain ; or,
rather, the grace that went so far to find him. His con
fession was a source of great edification to every one.

" The Mistassini live on the fish which abound in their
lakes. There are no beavers there, but droves of caribou
make up for it. Almost all the popular superstitions are
reduced to not allowing the dogs to eat certain bones, the
impression being that the bones are profaned and the kind
of animals they were taken from can never afterwards be
caught by the hunters. Hence they are carefully thrown
into the river or the fire. In reality this religious act has
no other origin than the fear of having their dogs break
their teeth. In old times hunters took that precaution and
in the course of years it became a religious rite. Another
custom is to throw a portion of what they are going to eat
or drink into the fire as an offering for the dead. It is a
sort of grace before meals which they teach their children.

" The most curious thing to be found in these forests is
a cave of white marble near Wemiskou. You would imag
ine workmen had cut and polished it. It is easy to enter, is
quite bright in the interior, and the style of the brilliant
roof is quite in keeping with the columns. In a corner there
is a rough mass of stone projecting from the wall, making
a sort of a table which might serve as an altar. Indeed,
the Indians call it a prayer and a council house, where the
spirits assemble. On that account they never take the lib
erty of entering it; but the jugglers, who are, so to say, the
priests of the tribe, do not hesitate to do so, to consult the
oracles.

" I would not dare to assert that there are any genuine
sorcerers among the Mistassins, nor among the other
Montagnais. They are all little else than crude charlatans.

230

PETER LAURE

As far as I could make out, after watching1 them a good
deal, their supposed powers are only tricks to inspire re
spect and fear. Although they have thirty different kinds
of juggleries, they rarely succeed in doing what they pro
pose. But, unfortunately, it is enough for them to make one
lucky hit, to be forever in favor afterwards. Many of them
do not believe there is anything in their ceremonies, and the
most skillful among them have admitted to me that their art
is only a fraud; that they have never seen the devil or the
Atchene — that is, ghosts without any heads or hands, &c.
They add that it is all only to humbug the ignorant, to give
themselves importance, and to be regarded as privileged
characters, that their ancestors invented those absurd
fables.

" Others have assured me that they have seen extraordi
nary fires and supernatural monsters, but after becoming
Christians they never saw them any more, although com
pelled very often to travel by night. One, more obstinate
than the rest, insisted that he had seen the evil spirit, but
being asked immediately what he looked like, whether lie
was black or white, he became confused and could not
answer. By an admirable Providence of God these unfortu
nate sorcerers, real or sham, whose burdensome and impure
practices are always to be condemned, usually die wretch
edly. I have seen four instances of it. One of them I have
already told your "Reverence about. lie was a famous jug
gler of the Lake who, while yet young, lost his life in a
dreadful fashion, along with his wife, who was more super
stitious than he.

" But you are tired," he says to his Superior, " of this
wearisome story of mountains, and rivers, and rocks, and
jugglers, and drunkards. Let me tell you about my first
arrival here."

He then describes the lamentable condition into which
the people had fallen ; how licentiousness, polygamy, and
all sorts of vice prevailed everywhere, because of the want
of a missionary, but chiefly because of the scandalous lives
of the French employees and woodlopers.

" When I left our dear, peaceful college, and arrived
here, the general joy showed itself by a discharge of mus-

231

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

kets. It was a good omen for me, but after taking posses
sion of an old chapel, which was falling to pieces, the first
sight that met my gaze was a lot of savages uproariously
drunk, others on the way to it, who in the most benign fash
ion came up to embrace me and to ask to go to confession.
You can imagine my feeling at this introduction to my new
field of labors.

" The Montagnais is a kind, gentle, peaceful creature,
who readily does what you ask provided you keep your
eye on him; he is credulous and never answers back; he
always accedes to what you wish. He is timid, obedient,
and, because he is ignorant of the riches he has in his
peltries, he is wretchedly poor, and is always looking for
some one to help him. They all readily do what I tell them,
except in the matter of drink. Yet it is surprising that
among all these different nations of Chicoutimists, Mistas-
sins, Tadoussaciens, and Papinachois, I have never met a
drunkard who was brutal, in my regard.

" My only chagrin during the first stormy times was
that I could not easily make myself understood in this
strange land. Pure Algonquin was of no use to me; and so,
without a house, without help, without consolation, I was
withering up and growing pale, simply because I had no
way of showing them the bitterness of my heart. Worried,
and not being able to sow any seed in this fine field, I had
recourse to Father de Crespieul. I went frequently to the
church to ask the venerable man, long since dead, to send
me down from heaven his Montagnese tongue, as he no
longer had any use for it. But the saints want us to suffer
the same hardships as they did, so as to be in a condition to
glorify God. The plan I then adopted was to take as my
teacher a good squaw who had been a Christian for many
years. Old Mary, of whom I have already had occasion to
speak to your Reverence, after having happily assisted me
in finishing my Montagnais books, ended her days last year
by a precious death. She directed my studies like a pro
fessor, and at the very first word she heard me pronounce
she cried out to the others : ' It is all right ; our Father has
spoken our language ; I shall never speak a word of French
to him again ; and in spite of my entreaties she kept her
word, with the result that by keeping me guessing at the
meaning of different expressions she had me in a condition
to preach at Christmas without paper."

232

PETER LAURE

It was a good result for six months' work. Mary was a
great woman. We find in an old " Liber Miscellaneorum,"
or " Book of Scraps," which was dug up in the church
archives at Chicoutimi, that she died in July, 1/28, and over
against the announcement of her burial is a eulogy written
by Father Laure :

" Marie Outchiouanich, the wife of Nicholas Felletier,
died, as she had lived, in the odor of sanctity, after a sick
ness of a year. She was fortified by the sacraments of the
Church. She was regretted by all, and will ever be mourned
by me especially, who learned from her to speak the
Montagnais language and to translate the prayers. She
assisted me in making a grammar and dictionary, and de
served a longer life, if God had so willed. She was not yet
fifty, I think. She had lived for seventeen years with M.
Sauvage, at Quebec, where she learned I'Yenrh. When she
felt the first approach of her sickness, which was as early
as I /O2, Father de Crespieul was dead, and there was no
missionary at the post. She was so worried, and at the same
time so fervent, that she went continually to the chapel to
recite her prayers and weep, thus giving to her tribe a les
son of genuine compunction of heart. Her only regret in
dying was that she could no longer help her Spiritual
Father in his labors. May she assist him by her prayers in
heaven. I buried her precious remains in the cemetery of
Chicoutimi with all the honors of the Church."

It would be worth some traveler's while to find good
Mary's grave.

There is another note in the " Scrap Book " which is not
without interest. It is also the record of an interment, and
runs as follows :

"29 Feb., 1/29, Nicholas Pelletier, gallus natione
sylvestris moribus, prope centcnarius scpultus cst." (On
the twenty-ninth of February, 1729, Nicholas Pelletier, a
Frenchman by birth, but a savage in his mode of life, and
almost a centenarian was buried.)

This Indianized Frenchman was Mary's husband. The
slight disparity of fifty years in their respective ages did not

233

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

interfere with their happiness. He survived her only seven
months. How pious he was we do not know, but a little
over two years before his departure from this life, when
Father Laure was building a new church, it is recorded that
old Nick was the first one to go to confession in it. Whether
he was prompted to secure that distinction out of vanity or
piety is not set down. With regard to his family we know
little, 'except that Father Laure gives special credit to
a Charles Peltier, " who was conspicuous among the other
Indians for his zeal in building the missionary's house."
Evidently old Nicholas had wiped out all the French that
was in him when his offspring were classed among the sav
ages.

What became of the dictionary, and the grammar, and
the sermon, elaborated in Mary Pelletiers wigwam, we do
not know. Like many other precious things, they have been
lost. At all events the Christmas sermon created a sensa
tion, but, as aften happens with sensations, it produced no
lasting effect. The people were as bad as before. But he
kept on instructing them, taking the precaution, however, to
have some old Indian sit near him to correct any blunder
he might make in Montagnais. It was like St. Ignatius and
Ribadineira.

When the people began to disperse in the woods for the
hunt the hard-working priest set his hand to writing native
hymns and a rudimentary catechism, but, exhausted by his
new kind of life and chagrined also by his failures, he felt
his health giving way, and so, at the beginning of spring,
au petit printemps, as he expresses it, he went back to Quebec
to recuperate. But he was hardly there when an irresistible
impulse to return to his people took possession of him, and
in spite of the entreaties of every one he was at Chicoutimi
as soon as a canoe could carry him thither. Evidently the
angel guardians of the Indians were urging him. He arrived
just in time.

The people were returning from the woods and moun-

234

PETER LAURE

tains after their winter expedition. They arrived at the post
with their load of peltries, martens, beavers, and the like,
the men carrying their canoes, and the women, with the
privilege of their sex, everything else — babies, bundles of
bark for building, faggots for the fire, tools, pots, kettles,
and whatever else their lords and masters disdained to
touch. After the savage fashion, they formed in a line before
the chapel and saluted it by a volley of musketry. Then in
cassock and surplice the prieM received them at the altar.
made a little address and said a prayer, after which thev all
betook themselves to the Company's warehouse for a feed.
That being done, the building of their huts began, an occu
pation not left to the women, as among the other tribes, for
the Montagnais were beginning to learn manners from the
French. Unfortunately they were not building their houses,
but their tombs.

A pestilence broke out, and the first victim was a great
chief, who had not been baptized, but who had learned
Christianity from the old missionaries, and was very observ
ant of its practice^. Scarcely had he begun to work when
he felt himself growing ill. He kept on, however, and
reproached himself with being lazy; but when the Father
saw him a raging fever was consuming him. lie had to be
bled, an operation which the Indians usually performed by
making an incision below the vein, which was lifted tip and
cut with a dull and perhaps a dirty knife, with, of course,
deplorable consequences to the victim. When the French
came, that sort of medical practice was changed, and in this
case the chief had the advantage of saner treatment. The
fever abated, indeed, but there was no one to take care of
him. Not only that, but as some of his young men were
fighting for liquor with the storekeeper, he got up to quell
the riot. Then he insisted on going to the chapel, in spite
of the terrible mosquitoes which were swarming- there.
Finally he died like a saint. " Knowing well," writes Father
Laure, " what this infant church was losing by the death of

235

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Maratchikatiq, or ' Bad Brow,' as he used to call himself, I
could only let my tears fall on my ritual during the
obsequies. In the bitterness of our hearts we could not sing
either in Latin or Indian. The French were weeping also,
as they gazed on the catafalque that had been erected in his
honor. The altar was draped in black, there were a number
of lighted torches, and on a beautiful funeral pall were
placed the sword and the musket of the dead chief in the
form of a St. Andrew's cross, and over it hung his cere
monial robe. A profound impression was made in every
one's heart that day."

" Alas ! " moans the missionary, " it was only the begin
ning. We lost twenty-four adults." He was consoled, how
ever, by many beautiful deaths. He informs us that the
Indians used the vapor bath against the sickness, but with
out the accompanying superstitious practices. In passing
we are told that the French had introduced an improvement
in this treatment by taking the steam from a caldron of
water, in which branches of balsam and other aromatic
trees had been placed. The head of the patient was kept in
the outside air — " a sovereign remedy," he says, " for lassi
tude, rheumatism, swellings, pains in the side, nervousness,
&c." We quote it here as an illustration of medical practice
in the woods of the Saguenay.

" Happy was I to have returned from Quebec when I
did," he writes. " Had I got in the boat that would have
brought me to Chicoutimi I should have arrived when all
was over. But would you believe it? When the work was
finished I could not speak a word of Indian. I completely
forgot all I had learned. Perhaps God made me speak in
Montagnais only when I was needed. I make this remark
to recall to myself and others that an evangelical laborer
ought, if I can use the expression, tempt God for God ; dar
ing much, undertaking everything, not mistrusting too
much his own strength and fearing nothing so much in the
work of the Lord as pusillanimity."

The Indians were convinced that they had been poisoned

236

PETER LAURE

by the merchandise from the ship. As a matter of fact,
only those who had bought any of the goods caught the
fever. The clerk and others who opened the bales were the
first victims. The cargo had been shipped from Marseilles,
where there was a pestilence. It was fortunate that the
Indians were not Iroquois, or there would have been no
white men to tell the tale.

In describing this pestilence, he says that the pagan
Indians took to flight and scampered otY from the scene with
the muzzles of their muskets pointed towards the village,
which was the centre of contagion, as if to prevent the evil
spirits supposed to be gathered there from pursuing the
fugitives. When Laure recovered his Montagnais speech,
he went down to Tadoussac, where lie had been long
awaited by both French and Indians.

"It was once a flourishing mission. " he says reminis-
cently. "In former days 3000 people were gathered there
and three Jesuit Fathers were assigned to take can- <>t
them, but now there are at most twenty-five families, and
there is nothing very savage about the place. Situated on
the shore of the sea [evidently he considers the wide St.
Lawrence as being part of the ocean], the scene before you
is very beautiful as you stand on the grassy bank, which is
dotted down to the water's edge with a thousand llowers
and diminutive wild trees. From the river comes the fresh
breeze, and you see the canoes and vessels passing up and
down the stream. The Indians at that place dress in the
French fashion, though they are rather grotesque and dirty,
but in their manners they are not quite as gross as their
tribesmen in the interior. There are some old stone build
ings, whose foundations and cellar, with the remnants of
the oven and a battered gable, shows you where once stood
a very pretty church and a comfortable dwelling. That
chapel was dedicated to the Holy Cross on account of the
veneration all the Indians along the shore used to have for
the symbol of man's salvation. At least so I was assured
by an old woman nearly a hundred years old, who used to
know Father Briet [probably Druillcttes] and Father
Albanel. The grant of the land was made to the Jesuits by

237

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

the Queen Mother in the year " [here there is a blank in the
manuscript] " the deed of which may be seen inscribed on
parchment in the archives of the College of Quebec."

" I have not lost all hope," he continues, " that my
immediate successor will succeed in getting from the Com
pany of the Domain an order to have the church rebuilt.
It is only sixty feet long; the stone and the old lime kiln are
on the property, and it would redound to the credit of the
King and of the agents to have it done. His majesty's
principal post cannot very well do without a chapel and a
house. They would not cost more than 1500 livres, and
they would attract a multitude of Montagnais from the
north and south, and so even in a worldly sense would be
of service to this post, whose financial condition is on the
verge of collapse.

" In this alleged Capital of the Saguenay there is now
only a miserable chapel of bark, broken on all sides, which
because of its wretched condition is incapable of giving
these young Christians, who see only with carnal eyes, any
idea of our mysteries, or of inspiring their hearts with any
veneration for the holiness that should be there represented.
Oh ! if all the silks and furniture and precious stuffs that
are piled up in out of the way corners of houses in France,
only to be devoured by moths, were given to us, what could
we not do in our poor little chapel in the forest? If I could
but lift up again this cross of Tadoussac on its ancient ruins
and give it a new splendor in making it shine once more
over the restored sanctuary, very soon the walls would
write its lessons in the hearts of these people who, although
they are called savages, are not far from the Kingdom of
God."

That winter he spent with the In'dians at a place twenty-
four miles nearer the Gulf. It was a seal station, and was
known as Notre Dame de Bon Desir. For those who are
interested in these poor Montagnais, who had so many good
qualities which the other aborigines did not possess, it may
not be unwelcome to cast a glance at them at this station of
Bon Desir, which was soon to disappear from the map.
They were no longer hunters and warriors, but degraded
toilers for the French in the filthy work of manufacturing

238

PETER LAURE

fish oil, and were as repulsive as the occupation could pos
sibly make them.

" When a boat arrives," writes Laure, " the squaws and
the children rush down to unload the cargo. The cleaning
of the fish begins. First, there is a peaceful sharing of the
choice cuts — the paws, the flippers, and the head. The
heart is the least nasty portion. All are thrown into a boiler
or toasted on prongs of wood planted near the fire and are
then eaten, without salt or other condiment. They begin
the work of getting the oil by skinning the carcass and then
taking off all the fat, which is three or four inches thick.
It is then thrown into a press and made to liquify gradually.
It produces a rich oil which is good for tanning. ( )f course,
the odor of this mass, melting and putrefying in the >un, is
abominable; but such is not the case when the grease is
put into the caldrons. That process gives a lighter and
clearer oil, which is good for lamps and for making fritters;
nor is the odor so foul. Placed in a phial, it has a whitish
color, and is excellent for burns. When kept some time
over the fire it turns red, especially if some other ab
sorbent substance is put in to extract the impurities."
Father Laure begs pardon for all " these greasy details," as
he calls them.

"You can imagine," he tells us, "the frightful appear
ance of the people who are engaged in preparing these oils
and how black and stilling is the smoke in which thev are
compelled to toil. It is done chieilv by the women, who
with great skill and patience cut the fat into small pieces,
which their husbands take for the boiling process. The
Montagnais are unlike the other native races, who regard
their squaws as slaves. These Indians help the women.
Indeed, the man keeps what is hardest for himself and in
times of want he will deprive himself of food so that his
wife and children may not suffer. The distinction, how
ever, is always kept that the food is first offered to him.
In fact, the Montagnais women are queens and sovereigns
compared with those of other tribes. They on their part
pay the greatest deference to their husbands. All the fam
ily plans, projects, enterprises, journeys, and places of win
ter-quarters are left to the women."

Gentle and humble as they were, these Montagnais of

239

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

the Bon Desir post were courageous, even to rashness,
especially in the dangers which they voluntarily faced on
their journeys over the ice of the St. Lawrence. But their
temerity had most frequently a backing to it of piety and
trust in God. Among other instances, Father Laure tells
us of a journey in quest of food made by a young lad and
his aged mother. They were returning home over the cakes
of ice when night overtook them. Huge blocks of ice were
heaped up around them by the current, so that there was
no possibility of their ever reaching the shore. As a signal
of distress the boy discharged his musket. They listened,
and it was answered from the village beyond. The people
crowded down to the river and shouted. The Father was
there and cried out to them to continue to pray. " We are
praying," came back the reply over the intervening ice.
" We are praying, and ask pardon of God for our sins."
" Kneel down," said the priest to those around him, " and
ask God for their deliverance." The poor Indians did as they
were told, and there on the ice and snow, in the darkness of
the night, went up their united supplications to the throne
of God. They were heard. Almost immediately the piles
of ice parted, and through the narrow passage came the
little boy and his mother, who had been only a moment
before looking into the eyes of death.

" Bon Desir should have never been given up," exclaims
Father Laure. But it was. The agents of the Company
did not want to be so much under the eyes of the priest.
Indeed, they lodged a complaint that he was making his
Indians pray too much, and that this interfered with their
work. They then tore down his little chapel and hut during
his absence, and so the mission ceased to exist. " But God
vindicated us," writes the missionary, " for the Indians,
knowing that they would never more see the priest waiting
for them on the bleak rocks, as they returned from their
labors of the sea, refused to go back to the post; and for
four years after their expulsion three or four barrels of oil

240

PETER LAURE

was all the Company could get from the seals, whereas
before that, forty, sixty, and one hundred was the usual
outcome of the take. " There remains nothing now of Bon
Desir," he complains, " except the remembrance that Jesus
Christ was proclaimed there, and would have always been
served and glorified in what is now only a dilapidated and
unrecognizable station."

Father Laure must have been unaware of the destruc
tion of his property at Bon Desir until he arrived among his
Indians for his usual winter stay. He writes that he left the
place on All Saints' Day, and started for the Jeremy Islands,
ninety miles nearer the Gulf, not far from the river of the
Bessiamites, which " is as deep as the Saguenay." He tells
us that from that place down to Labrador the people, who
are of the Montagnais stock, are called Papinachois, from
the Indian word which corresponds to their character:
11 Ni-papinach — I laugh a little; or, Poupapinachconcts — I like
to laugh a little. On account of their unalterable gayety they
are a most attractive people, and would to God they could
communicate something of their temperament to their
intractable neighbors, the Esquimaux, who will never be
evangelized short of a miracle. Buried in the hollows of
impregnable rocks, where they breathe only by a little hole
which serves for both door and window, they allow no <uic
to approach them, not even the Basque, although, according
to the common conviction around here, a Basque fisherman
was their unfortunate Adam. lie and some hideous Eve
were shipwrecked on these coasts in the long ago."

We do not know if the Americanists have taken note of
this tradition.

" I have talked too much, Reverend Father," he says.
" I have now only to communicate to you a new design
which I think comes from God, because it can only tend to
His glory, and it has held possession of me for a long time.
It is to let me extend the limits of my mission. Tadoussac
and Chicoutimi, and the Isles, are too restricted a territory.

i<i 241

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

The new commercial establishments at Lake Mistassini and
Lake St. John will prevent many Indians who are half
Christians from coming here, and I think you ought to let
me go to Labrador, where, I am told, there is much to be
done. It could be arranged without abandoning this post,
or, if you so wish, a new missionary can keep my place here.
The effort is worthy of your zeal in propagating the Faith.
But it is my duty to propose and yours to decide. Perhaps
this information, which I take the liberty of giving you, will
influence the natural tenderness of your heart. If you do
not consent, do not fear to tell me so. I make the proposi
tion because of the fear that has long worried me lest a
single savage in Labrador, old or young, should one day
reproach me because he had lost his soul. I am only satis
fying the demands of my already agitated conscience. Send
here the first Father that comes from France; then I shall
embark for the gulf and I shall always have the honor to
be, as at Chicoutimi and everywhere else, with gratitude
and respect to your Reverence,

" Your very humble servant,

" Laure."

He did not go to the Gulf, but continued his painful and
perilous journeys from Chicoutimi to Tadoussac and the
Jeremy Islands until the year 1737, when we find in the
" Repertoire General du Clerge " that he was made Cure of the
Eboulements, and died there November 22nd of the follow
ing year, at the age of sixty-four.

Glorious Father Laure ! and yet we should have known
nothing about him had it not been for the poor old dis
carded bundle of paper which had been lying for years in
the dust of an unvisited garret in Quebec, and which is
now safely pigeonholed among the other valuable Jesuit
archives in Montreal.

242

JOHN AULNEAU

WITH DI-: i \ YF.KKNPKYK.

If you glance at a map of the groat Canadian Northwest
you will soo before you a vast region interseoted in every
direction by lakes and rushing rivers. Near where the ter
ritory approaches Minnesota you will notice a vast expanse
of water called Lake of the Woods. It is one hundred miles
long and fifty wide. Its shores are indented on all sides
by deep bays and iidets, and its surface is dotted with thir
teen thousand islands, few of them very large, some mere
rocks, but others spacious enough and covered with gigantic
pines and firs, where eagles, even to-day, build their nests
undisturbed.

It will be remarked that in the lower reaches of the lake
the boundary line between the two countries is broken in a
very singular fashion. Instead of continuing west, as it
had been doing so far, it suddenly deflects to the north, then
veers west again, entering what is called the Northwest
Inlet, which it divides in two as far as there is anything
like possible navigation. The northside of the Inlet is
Canadian, the south, American. The latter, though still a
wilderness, has suddenly leaped into fame. It was one of
the outposts in the pioneer development of the continent.

In the Canadian section of the lake, however, twenty-
one miles from Northwest Inlet, though forever to be asso
ciated with it in thought, lies a wooded island to which a
deep religious interest attaches. It has a gruesome name
and history. It is called Isle au Massacre. Even the pagan
Indians make the sign of the cross as they approach, and

243

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

then paddle furiously by. They never land on its shore,,
and never even point at it. Red men do riot easily recoil
from bloody memories, but a priest was murdered there in
1736, and crimes of that nature make even savages shudder.
At present a cross keeps guard over the once haunted island.
Another rock in American waters once disputed the dis
tinction of the massacre, but measurements, Indian tradi
tions, and recent discoveries have settled the matter beyond
dispute. Canada owns the horrible but sacred place.

The priest who was murdered there was Father Aulneau,
a young Jesuit. He had gone out with the famous de la
Verendrye, in an attempt to find a way to the West Sea, as
the Pacific was called in the early days. The road lay
through a mysterious country, where people who wore
white beards, and owned horses and cattle, and domestic
fowls were said to live. The learned men of those days
were sure there must be in those parts a great river that
ebbed and flowed ; for, they argued, if the St. Lawrence
went east, and the Mississippi south, why was it not likely
that there was another going west through those unexplored
regions? The balance had to be preserved.

De la Verendrye never saw the white beards nor the
river. He did not even succeed in going further than the
Mandan country, at the headwaters of the Missouri ; but
the wonder is that he had the courage to go so far after the
tragedy that carried off twenty-one of his men, among them
his son and the priest. They were on their way to Mackinac
and, unsuspicious of danger, had encamped on an island in
the lake, but the Sioux crept up behind them, murdered
them in cold blood, and then, cutting off their heads and
taking their scalps, disappeared over the lake. Hence the
name Isle au Massacre. The mangled bodies were found
there later and transported to the fort. De la Verendrye
meditated vain things against the foe for some time, and
then resumed his weary tramp through the wilderness,
towards the sea which always receded. A record of the

244

JOHN At'LXEAU

massacre was inscribed in the " Archives Coloniales de la
Marine," of Paris (16/9-1/59), but it only rehearsed the
story told before that by a voyageur, named Bourassa, who
seemed to be conspicuous in those days.

Two years later Father Lafitau wrote from Paris a brief
account of it to the General of the Society in Rome, and
that was about all that was known, for a long time, of the
bloody ending- of the missionary's career. As years went
by even the trappers forgot where Yerendrye's fort had
stood. The northern storms rapidly battered it to pieces.
Its timbers rotted, and when its masonry crumbled and fell
the weeds hastened to cover the wreck. In the same way
poor Father Aulneau's memory faded away from men's
minds. To a great extent even his own Order lost sight of
him, not out of negligence or unconcern, for it is very solici
tous about its records, but many dispersions and the general
suppression of the Society, had swept away mountains of
precious documents, sonic of which are only now beginning
to be found.

As a matter of fact, neither his famliy nor his birth-place,
nor the college where he studied, nor the province he be
longed to in the Society, was known until our times. Fven
his full name was a matter of dispute, until, after many
years, the dclvers in archives and the decipherers of frayed
and forgotten manuscripts made it certain that he was Jean-
Pierre Aulneau dc la Touche. In Garneau he appears as
Arnaud, which is not surprising when we see, in the ex
quisitely beautiful and careful handwriting of the Jesuit,
Father Pothier, the very phonetic rendering of Aulneau as
Ono. Pothier was often facetious, but he was serious in this
instance. P>ut now, in a very unexpected fashion, the grave
has given up its dead and revealed a hero and perhaps a
saint.

It happened in this wise: In 1889 three Jesuits were
giving a men's retreat in La Yendee. in France. Among
the six hundred who followed the exercises was a venerable

245

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

old man named Aulneau. He had never before met a Jesuit,
but in the course of a conversation with one of the mis
sionaries he chanced, or perhaps the Lord prompted him to
say, that there was a precious heirloom in his family — a
package of letters written by a relative, a Jesuit priest, who
had been slain by the savages in the wilderness of North
America, one hundred and fifty years before. The letters
were examined, and the joy of his spiritual brethren was
as great as that of his kindred in flesh.

It was only then that the details of his life became
known, and we can now put down as history that he was
born April 21, 1705, at Moutiers-sur-le Hay, where the Aul-
neaus, or the Seigneurs de la Touche, as they are called,
still reside. It came out that one of his brothers was also
a Jesuit, another a Sulpician, and that there was a sister, a
nun. His first schooling was at Lugon, and he entered the
Novitiate when he was only fifteen. He was making his
fourth year of theology when Father de Lauzon, Superior
of the Canadian Mission, came to France seeking help.
Aulneau offered himself and was accepted. He was only
twenty-nine years of age when he embarked on " the King's
ship," otherwise the man-of-war Ruby, commanded by the
Chevalier Chaon, and bound for America. With him was
an illustrious company, for, besides his three Jesuit com
panions, the Ruby carried Mgr. Dosquet, the fourth Bishop
of Quebec, with a number of ecclesiastics, who were to fill
the vacancies in the ranks of the diocesan clergy. In the
group there was also the famous Sulpician Piquet, who was
to build the Indian mission of La Presentation at what is
now Ogdensburg, after the English had driven the Jesuits
out of New York.

It is gratifying to get a glance at the young missionary's
qualities of mind and heart from the letters so fortunately
found in the chateau. One addressed to "My Dearest
Mother," is dated Quebec, October 10, 1734. It is a descrip
tion of his journey over the Atlantic, and may serve as a

246

JOHN AULNEAU

remonstrance against our cowardly fashion of crossing the
deep in modern times:

"Quebec, Oct. 10, 1734.
"My Dearest Mother:

" On taking leave of you, I promised to write as often as
possible, and to inform you of whatever should take place
during my journey and even of what might happen later
on. It is with pleasure that 1 now begin to fulfill my
promise, and this is the first letter I write since my arrival
in Canada.

" \Ye embarked on the 29th of May. at two in the after
noon. Adverse winds obliged us to lie in the roadstead
the 3Oth, so that it was only on the ^ist. at three o'clock
in the morning, the wind having become favorable, that we
weighed anchor and set sail. \Ye lost sight of the shores
of France that same day, and we made such headway that
all on board began already to congratulate themselves at
the prospect of a quick voyage. Their satisfaction was but
short-lived, as contrary winds soon set in. \\'e consoled
ourselves, however, with the hope that they would not
last. The sequel convinced us but too well that our hopes
were vain. \\ e took forty-seven davs to reach the great
Hanks of Newfoundland, and during that long run, with
the exception of a few days of calm, we encountered fierce
head winds from the northwest, which more than once
forced us to let the vessel scud before the gale. Mass
was not celebrated on board, either on Pentecost, or the
Octave, or on Saint Peter and Saint Paul's day, as the
storm was so violent and the rolling and pitching of the
ship so heavy that it was impossible to stand. Our ra
tions on those days were biscuits and dry bread, of which
each one secured a supply as best he could.

" The pleasure we experienced the morrow of our ar
rival on the Great Banks, watching the sailors fishing for
cod, compensated us for our late fatigues. In less than
two hours the crew caught more than two hundred. Some
were salted and the remainder distributed amongst those
on board. That same day they were served up at the
table, and were much relished by some, others found them
insipid, myself among the number. Once on the Banks
we began to catch sight of different varieties of birds,
which I do not think arc to be seen in Europe. The kind

24?

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

most frequently seen the sailors called ' Tongeux.' It is
a bird shaped somewhat like a goose and nearly as large.
Its breast is pure white, and the tips of the wings black.
We saw numbers of ' Happefoix,' ' Codes ' and ' Pelyngoins.'
They are a kind of a small duck, which never abandon the
vicinity of the Grand Bank.

" There arose during the night which followed our catch
of codfish, a dense fog, accompanied by a breeze strong
enough to enable us to set sail. We, therefore, got under
way and began tacking as we had done heretofore. We
sailed at haphazard, and if the fog had held out an hour
or two longer a misfortune would have befallen us, for
after beating about for twenty-four hours in the darkness
we were surprised when the mist cleared away to see land
about a league and a half distant. It was the island of
Newfoundland, whose coasts loomed up high before us.
We had drifted imperceptibly with the current towards the
island, and found ourselves at the entrance of Placencia
Bay, an English settlement and the capital of the island.
We immediately put about and took a whole day to keep
out from land. As soon as we thought that we were at a
safe distance we continued our run along ' Cavert Bank.' *
It is a bank of sand about fifteen leagues long, where
large quantities of codfish are caught. We did not stop,
however, to fish for any. We were delayed by another fog,
which rose and forced us for three entire days to beat
about Cavert Bank.

" Meanwhile a great many on board had fallen sick, and,
seeing the winds always unfavorable, our officers began to
grow despondent, and thought seriously of putting in to
Louisburg, a town of 'Isle Royale' (Cape Breton), which
belongs to the French, and is situated at the entrance of
the Gulf of the River St. Lawrence. Had they done so,
we should have been obliged to take shipping in some
smaller craft to make the two hundred leagues which yet
remained before we could reach Quebec. Providentially,
the winds having become a little more favorable, the of
ficers abandoned their project, and determined to go as
far as that port. We consequently entered the Gulf of the
St. Lawrence, leaving on our left Isle Royale and St. Paul's,
and on our right, the islands of St. Pierre.

" It was at about this date that we began to notice fre-

* Cap Vert, at present Green Bank,

248

JOHN AULNEAU

quently on our masts and yard-arms a kind of bird called
the cardinal, very likely because its plumage is red, with
the exception of the tail and the tips of the wings. It is
about as large as a chaffinch, but its beak resembles that
of a parrot. Several were captured bv the sailors and
caged.

" It was also about this time that we had to change our
foretopmast. which was split in the late gales. In spite
of these delays we made some headway towards the
mouth of the St. Lawrence, but before reaching it, we wit
nessed a spectacle, which, I am sure, many in Kurupe
would set down as a pure invention. In the middle of the
gulf are two small islands, the larger of which might be
about half a league in circumference. They are ii"t named
without reason Bird Islands. Never in all my life did 1
see as great a number of birds as were on the^e islands,
though they are completely denuded of trees. The ground
was actually alive with them, and the sky darkened. It
was one of the kinds of birds of which I spoke to you
above. Our captain tired a cannon twice in their direction
as we passed, but as we were not near enough, both shots
fell short of their mark. During the remainder of our
journey up the gulf we caught sight of Ilrion and Mag
dalen Islands (to the southwest of the Bird Islands). Tor-
poises of a prodigious size, whales blowers and sea-cows
awakened, if they did not entirely satisfy our curio^itv.
Finally we reached the mouth of the river two months
after leaving France. \Ve entered it on the south side,
with the Island of Anticosti on our right. The river here
is more than forty leagues wide, and is one of the greatest
and most beautiful of the world. The wind soon obliged
us to bear away from the southern towards the north
ern shore, which is of the two the less dangerous. Roth
are formed of very lofty mountains, which extend along
the river almost as far as Quebec. For several days we
struggled on against the violence of the winds, which
tossed us about even more boisterously than they had
done heretofore, but finally we made an island lying mid
way in the stream. It bears the name of Isle Yerte.

" A dead calm succeeded when we were abreast of it,
and this gave us an opportunity of sending a boat ashore
in quest of refreshments, of which we stood in great need,
as for many days we had lived on nothing but salt beef,

249

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

while the number on the sick list had considerably in
creased. Since we left the Grand Bank five had died, and
were buried at sea. The boat, which we had dispatched
to the southern shore, for the settlements begin about here,
took a day and a half to make that little trip, and when
she again joined us we had already been two or three hours
under sail, the wind having sprung up again while she
was away seeking fresh provisions. She brought back
but a small supply, but what little she did bring was re
ceived with satisfaction by all on board. We proceeded
on our way with more caution and dread than ever, for
though we had escaped many dangers already, we had still
greater ones to guard against.

" We shortly made for another island, which bears the
name of Isle-aux-Coudres. Near this island there is a whirl
pool, which makes it the most dangerous spot throughout
all the passage from France to Canada. It was there that
we realized for the first time that we were in summer, for
since our departure from France we had all along experi
enced wintry weather. The sick had suffered much from
it. I can say that in all my experience I never endured
such intense heat.

" For two days we rode at anchor near the whirlpool
without being able to pass it, as we were wind-bound. This
delay brought us a further supply of fresh provisions, and
gave us a chance to admire at our leisure the snow-white
porpoises and numbers of seals. At last a northeast wind
sprung up about two o'clock in the afternoon, and we suc
cessfully cleared the whirlpool, but again cast anchor two
or three leagues beyond.

" On the morrow we proceeded as far as the cape called
Maillard, and there I left the King's vessel. From the time
we reached the whirlpool I had suffered from violent head
aches, and this led Father Superior to apprehend that I
had caught the ship-fever. He, therefore, bad me take
the launch, which a Jesuit had brought down from Quebec
to receive those among us who might be ailing. But fif
teen leagues remained to reach that port. The evening of
the day on which I left the ship, I supped at the Island of
Orleans, and travelling all night, I arrived the following
morning at six o'clock in the bark canoe, which, to journey
more expeditiously, we had taken at the Island of Orleans.
I had up to this enjoyed good health. I had not even been

250

JOHN AULNEAU

seasick during the passage across, though it had taken us
seventy-five days. Three days after landing at Quebec
I was taken down with ship-fever. Twice it brought me
to death's door, but, thank God, I have now quite recov
ered.

" Beg the Father of Mercy, my dear mother, to grant
me the grace of devoting to His service my health and my
life which He has restored to me, and that I may bring the
poor Indians also to serve and love Him. I have alreadv
seen a few of almost all the tribes, and there is no more
repulsive sight, but they have been ransomed by the blood
of a God. How happy shall 1 he if He deigns to make use
of so unworthy an instrument as myself to bring them to
love and adore Him in spirit and in truth.

" I am to spend the winter in Quebec. It is a town
perched on the top of a mountain. There are houses pretty
enough, but they are built, to some extent at least, as
necessity required; without order or symmetry. The
Island of Orleans, the environs of Quebec, and either shore,
for a stretch of more than a hundred leagues beyond, are
under very good cultivation, and with the exception of
wine, everything that is found in France may be found here.

"Once more, my dear mother, implore our Lord that 1
may have the grace to draw profit from the grand ex
amples of virtue which I have before my eyes. I am here
in a college made up of former missionaries, who have
sacrificed their health and strength to win for Him the
love of souls. Father Xau, who is in excellent health,
sends his compliments.

" I am, dear mother, with the tcnderest affection for
now and for life,

" Your servant and son,

" AULXFAU, J."

Although Father Aulneau refrains from describing all
the horrors of that ocean voyage, his companion, Father
Nau, in a letter to his Superior, lifts the veil, or rather opens
the gangway of the hold of the Ruby :

" The mere sight of the gun-room was a revelation,"
he says. "It is a room about the size of the Rhetoric
class-room at Bordeaux. There was a double row of frames
swung up in it, which were to serve as beds for the pas-

251

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

sengers, subalterns and gunners. We were packed into
this dismal and noisome place like so many sardines in
a barrel. We could make our way to our hammocks only
after repeated blows on our limbs and head. A sense of
delicacy forbade our disrobing, and our clothes in time
made our backs ache. The rolling and pitching loosened
the fastenings of our hammocks, and hopelessly entangled
them. On one occasion I was pitched out sprawling on a
poor Canadian officer, and it was quite a time before I
could extricate myself from the ropes and wraps. Mean
while the officer had scarcely breath enough to give vent
to his profanity.

" Another disagreeable feature was the company we
were thrown in with, day and night. We had to shun them
as much as possible. But the worst of all was the stench
and vermin. There were on board about a hundred soldiers,
freshly enrolled, each of whom carried a whole regiment
of ' Picardies ' [a euphemism for insects as unpleasant to
name in English as in French].

" In less than a week these ravenous ' Picards ' migrated
in all directions. No one was free from their attacks, not
even the bishop or the captain. Every time we went on
deck, we could see that we were covered with them. We
found them even in our shoes.

" Another source of infection were eighty smugglers,
who had already passed a twelvemonth in jail. They sent
out swarms of the marauders. These wretched men would
have caused the heart of a Turk to melt with pity. They
were half naked, and covered with sores ; some were eaten
alive with worms. All that we could do was unavailing
to prevent the outbreak among them of a pest which at
tacked all, indiscriminately, and carried off twenty of our
men at a stroke."

Such were our missionary's surroundings during those
three months on the wild Atlantic. And yet, while the
ship fever was burning him up, we find that he was assidu
ous in caring for the unhappy wretches in the hold of the
Ruby. He was hurried ashore on her arrival, and when the
crisis was over he had a bad relapse. He finally recovered
and was told to prepare for his fourth year examination in
theology, of which he acquitted himself with ease.

252

JOHN AULNEAU

Here enters the explorer tie la Yerendryc. The world
was crazy at that time about the mysterious land of tin-
west. The court of France was very anxious to have it
mapped out, but, on the other hand, was unwilling' or unable
to advance the necessary funds, and so the discovery was
left to private enterprise.

The man who did most in that direction was undoubtedly
de la Verendrye, one of Canada's most notable heroes. His
real name was Pierre Gaullier de Yarcnne. and before In-
started out on his travels he bad been commandant at
Xepigon, north of Lake Superior, He bad seen service in
two American campaigns, one in New Kngland. the other in
Newfoundland, and he afterwards fought in Flanders. He
won the grade of lieutenant, at Malplaquet, thanks to tin-
nine wounds that left him for dead on the field, and at the
end of the war be returned to America, but without his rank
and without a penny in bis purse. Appointed to a little
trading post near Three Rivers, be supported himself as
best he could, and married a wife. Governor Heauharnais,
who was his friend to the last, made him Commandant at
Fort La Tourette, near Lake Xepigon, which was regarded
as being " at the end of the world."

Though poor and with no future before him, he was
dreaming of eclipsing Marquette, Jolict, de la Salle and tin-
others in discovering new territories. At Mackinac be met
Father de Conner, who had been out among the Sioux, and
whose brain was seething with similar projects. Together
they dreamed and schemed about the Far West, and when
de la Verendrye drew up his plan, de Conner journeyed
down to Quebec to plead for him, and later on crossed the
sea to France for the same purpose. Subsequently, de la
Verendrye showed Beauharnois a map made for him by a
savage, which, because of the artist, must have been a mar
vel of elementary cartography. Everything was ready but
the money, and that could not be extracted from the French
Court, so de la Verendrye was given a post at Winnepigon,

253

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

with permission to sell furs, to see if he could get rich
enough by that means.

At last, on May 19, 1731, he started for Mackinac with
fifty men. With him was Father Mesaiger, whose name
Garneau, Margry, and B. Suite spell " Messager," though
the autograph signature is very clear. They reached the
Grand Portage of Lake Superior August 26, and wintered
at Kaministigoya. The next year they arrived at Rainy
Lake, and in 1732 built a fort on the shores of Lake of the
Woods, which was called St. Charles, after the chaplain,
Charles-Michel Mesaiger, who, however, soon collapsed, and
had to return to Quebec. Some one had to take his place
to care for the garrison, a charge which was only incidental
to announcing the Gospel to the Assiniboels or Assiniboins,
the Cristinaux or Cris, and the Oua Chipoiianes, who are
none other than the Mandans, with whom Catlin made us
familiar at a much later period. Who was to go? The
young priest lately ordained and scarcely over his almost
fatal illness, Father Aulneau.

The proposition filled him with horror. Without count
ing the uninterrupted series of terrible journeys in the wil
derness, and the privations to be endured, he did not know
a single word of Mandan, Cris, or Assiniboin, nor could any
of his fellow travelers teach him. Moreover, he was to be
absolutely isolated from all religious assistance, two or
three thousand miles from Quebec. There was to be no
missionary near him to afford any help. " I assure you," he
wrote to Father Fay, " it is the hardest trial of my life, and
I cannot face the situation without fearing for my salvation.
The Superior has appointed me for this mission without any
warning, and without any regard for my intense aversion to
it. I assure you it has cost me the greatest struggle to make
up my mind to obey. May God deign to accept the sacrifice
of my life and of every human consolation which I have
made in this act of submission."

True to his heroic instincts he wrote as follows :

254

JOHN AULNEAU

" May God be blessed! Henceforth, lie will be my en
tire comfort and consolation. I have no other help than
what Jesus dying on the cross will give me. \Yhat in
spires me with confidence is that it is not of my own choice
that I am exposed to so many dangers. From this out, I
must think only of the souls of the savages. The more I
reflect on the suftVrings before me, the more joy I feel
that God has called me for the missions of that wretched
country. My joy, however, would be complete if I had
another Jesuit to go with me. Implore God to give me
the grace not to be unworthy, by my sins, of His protec
tion and mercy. Let us love God always, and Him alone.
Le us do all we can to be like His adorable Son dying on
the cross. Happy are those whom He has judged worthy
of dying for Him."

No one could talk in that way, when face to face with
terrible sacrifices, unless his soul was illuminated and forti
fied in a wonderful way by supernatural grace. He went
forward with grim determination. Meantime, it is very
comforting to find that the affections of his heart were not
deadened or blunted. When he was in Montreal, on June 12,
already on his way to the West, he writes to his mother:
" To-morrow I leave here with no other sorrow than that
of going too far away from you to be able to write to you
often." The " dearest mother " must have been happy and
proud in her grief. She was like the mother of Father
Jogues. Indeed, there are very strong points of resem
blance between those two young apostles, though they were
separated by a whole century.

It took him till October 23 to reach Fort St. Charles.
We have only one note of that long journey, and it was
written the following year.

" From the end of Lake Superior to Fort St. Charles,"
he says, " we traveled 300 leagues. Almost all the time
our road led through fire and stifling smoke. We never
once saw the light of the sun. The savages in hunting had
set fire to the forest without dreaming of such a horrible
conflagration. We saw nothing but lakes and rocks, for-

255

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

ests, savages and wild beasts. It was too late to reach
Winnipeg, so we passed the winter in Fort St. Charles.
It is a long quadrangle, consisting of four rows of palisades,
twelve or fifteen feet high, inside of which are some miser
able cabins, made of wood and mud, and covered with bark.
Next, summer I am going to the Assiniboins, who occupy
all the land near Lake Winnipeg. At All Saints, if it be the
will of God, I propose to go with some Frenchmen who
are ready to face the same perils as myself, and start for
the Assiniboins, who every year, as soon as the ice forms,
go to the Mandan country for their supply of corn.

" As for the Indians who dwell here, I do not believe,"
he continues, " unless it be by miracle, that they can
ever be persuaded to embrace the faith ; for even not tak
ing into account the fact that they have no fixed abode,
and that they wander about the forests in isolated bands,
they are superstitious and morally degraded to a degree
beyond conception. What is most deplorable is that the
devil makes use of the very men who should endeavor
to break their bondage, to rivet their fetters more firmly.
Both English and French, by their accursed avarice, have
given them a taste for brand"y, and have thus been instru
mental in adding drunkenness to their other vices. Yet,
notwithstanding the shameful degradation of these poor
infidels, God has allowed them still to retain certain no
tions, which, perhaps, may help to determine them to range
themselves on the side of religion. They acknowledge the
immortality of the soul. After its separation from the
body it goes to join those of the other deceased Indians;
but they have not all the same dwelling-place; some in
habit enchanting prairies, where all kinds of animals are
found. The departed souls have no trouble in slaying them,
and with the viands of the chase they are perpetually re
galing one another. Everywhere on these plains, we are
told, you see kettles swung over the fire, and dances and
games. That is their paradise.

" But before reaching it, there is an extremely danger
ous place, a wide ditch which the souls have to cross. On
one side of it there is a stretch of muddy water, offensive
to the smell and covered with scum; then there is a pit
filled with fire, which rises in fierce tongues of flame. The
only means of crossing is a pine tree, the ends of which
rest on either bank. Its bark is ever freshly moistened and

256

JOHN At'LNEAU

besmeared \vitli a substance, which makes its as slippery
as ice. If the souls who wish to cross to the enchanting
plains have the misfortune to fall at this dangerous pas
sage, there is no help left ; they are doomed forever to
drink of the foul, stagnant water, or to burn in the flames.
Such is their hell, and such their obscure notion of what
efforts must be made to secure heaven.

" I leave untold a thousand other vagaries, of which,
from the little I have said, you may form a faint idea; nor
am I sufficiently versed in the matter, having but a very
imperfect knowledge of the language. If it be pleasing to
you, I may revert to the subject later on.

" 1 am the first missionary who has yet undertaken to
systematize the language of the Kristinaux. I am n«>t verv
skillful at it, for T have picked up only a little of it dur
ing the winter, because the Indians have been nut on a
warlike expedition against the Maskoutepoels or Prairie
Sioux. They destroyed some lodges of the enemy, and
have returned with a few scalps. This war was the oc
casion of much suffering during the winter, as we had no
other nourishment than tainted pike, boiled or dried over
the fire.

"The Kristinaux are not so numerous as the Assini-
boels, but they are much braver, or, rather, much more
fierce and cruel. They massacre one another on the ino-t
trivial pretext. War and the chase arc their sole occupa
tion. They are averse to teaching their language to others,
so that what little I know has been picked up in spite of
them. I hope, nevertheless, before my departure for the
Koatiouaks to announce the gospel to them.

"The devil is the only idol they acknowledge, and it
is to him that they offer their outlandish sacrifices. Some
have assured me that he has visibly appeared to them.
They are in great dread of him, as, according to their own
avowal, he is the author of all the ills that befall them.
It is for this reason they honor him, while they do not
give a thought to God, since lie sends them nothing but
blessings. They acknowledge having received everything
from Him, and that He is the author of all things. Where
fore, they manifest no surprise when told of His wondrous
works. Even the raising of the dead to life would not
astonish them. One day a Moussouis, listening to the
story of Lazarus, exclaimed : ' Wonderful that God raised

17 2.S7

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

him to life ! He had already given life to him once. Could
He not give it to him a second time?'

"When we speak of Christianity to them, one of their
standing reasons for not embracing it is, that the Indians
were not made for that religion. But the true reason, which
they do not wish to avow, is their fear of the devil, and
the" necessity in which they would be placed of renounc
ing what they call their incantations, which they imagine
they could never abandon without immediately being
stricken with death."

This was the last letter he ever wrote. He ends with
a thought that would indicate something of a premonition
of death : " The issue of my project is known to God alone.
Perhaps instead of hearing that I have succeeded, you may
hear of my death. Let it be as God pleases ; with all my
heart I will make the sacrifice of my life."

The end soon came. Provisions were giving out at the
fort, and three canoes with a party of men were sent down
to Mackinac for supplies. Father Aulneau went with them.
One of the motives of his going was that because of his ex
tremely delicate conscience he was anxious to go to con
fession. To be sure of making the journey quickly, he asked
for young de la Verendrye as a companion. Permission was
given, and on June 8 twenty men and the priest left Fort
St. Charles, never to return.

The Sioux were then at war with the Cris, who were allies
of the French, and when Aulneau and his party were only
about twenty miles from the fort a band of Sioux swooped
down upon them. Was it in the early morning, or at their
camp-fire in the evening, or when they wrere all asleep? No
one can tell. There are several accounts of it, and they all
differ. Not one of the party was left to tell the tale. Some,
it is said, were drowned, but in view of recent discoveries,
that is unlikely. In Father Du Jaunay's letter from Mack
inac to Aulneau's mother,- three years later, we read that the
majority of the Indians were averse to killing the priest, but
that a crazy savage, careless of the consequences, struck the

258

IKSIIT <AM1'.

I.AKi: OF THK WOODS.

JOHN Al'LNFAU

blow. " I have heard also," continued the writer, " that
scarcely had the deed been perpetrated than a deafening
clap of thunder struck terror into the whole band. They
fled from the spot, thinking that heaven was incensed at
the deed." Of course, this inav be pure invention. Stories
grow with the imagination of the narrators.

\Ve gain some additional information from de la Veren-
drve's Memoirs. It appears that on June JQ a party of
voyageurs, with thirty Cris Indians, gave him the news of
the massacre. On July 2<) it was confirmed by four other
Frenchmen, who arrived at the fort. Alarmed at their long
absence, he sent a canoe with eight men to verilv the fact<.
They found voting de la Yerendrye lying fare downward,
his back gashed with knives, a hoe imbedded in his loins,
and the head separated from the trunk. Father Aulneau
was kneeling on one knee, his left hand supporting the b< idy,
his right raised in the air. An arrow had pierced his >ide,
and there was a deep ga^li in the breast. It is not said that
he was decapitated. Indeed, it was reported that the
Indians were afraid to touch his body, but whether the
posture in which he was found is a fancy picture, or whether
he was really in that attitude after the butchery, must be left
to adepts in surgery or anatomy to quarrel about. The
skulls, we are told, were wrapped in beaver skins. All the
skulls and some of the bodies were transported to the fort.

Father Martin relates that M. IJelcourt, a missionary at
Pembina, visited the island in 1843, and saw a mound, about
seven feet high, which had been built over the bodies. A
grave was impossible there, for the island was all rock, and
hence stones were merely piled on top of the remains. One
is tempted to ask why Father Martin did not visit the tomb
himself. The explanation is not hard to find. A journey to
that remote place is even now a matter of great difficulty
and expense. It was out of the question in his time.

259

CHAPTER II.
FINDING THE FORT.

De la Verendrye left Fort St. Charles in 1737. On Oc
tober 3, 1738, we find him at Fort Maurepas, which he built,
and a few months later he was away in the Missouri country
among the Mandans. In 1740 he returned to Montreal, to
appease some clamorous creditors, and in 1741 he was at
Mackinac. Subsequently he made his permanent abode at
Fort la Reine, and from there directed the explorations of
his sons, who valiantly sustained the family traditions. They
established forts in many places, and in 1742 started west.
They reached the Upper Missouri, followed its course as
far as the Yellowstone, and on January i, 1743, pitched
their tents at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, sixty years
before the arrival of the American trail makers, Lewis and
Clarke.

During all this time, the elder de la Verendrye was the
victim of jealousy and hatred. Blamed by the Quebec Gov
ernment (though Beauharnois was always true to him),
accused of illicit trading, and disgusted by the ingratitude
of those who had profited by his sacrifices and labors, he
resigned his position as Commandant of the Northwest, and
withdrew from public life. He was reinstated, however, in
all his honors, and others wrere added, but his toil, his mis
fortunes, and especially the attack on his reputation, had
shattered his constitution, and he died on December 6, 1749.
Canada owes much to de la Verendrye.

Meantime the world began to forget all about Fort St.
Charles, and, of course, Father Aulneau passed out of man's
memories. It is true that the untiring Father Martin wrote
about him, but even he makes a mistake of four years in
recording the date of his arrival in America, putting it at

260

JOHN AULNEAU

1730 instead of 1734. In iS<)O, however, immediately after
the discovery of the Aulneau letters, the cloud began to
lift. The Jesuits of St. Boniface College, Manitoba, visited
Isle au Massacre and erected a cross upon it. They were
accompanied by Captain Laverdiere, who knew the lake by
heart, and besides had all the traditions of the Indians at
his finger tips. There could be no mistake about the loca
tion of the island, and subsequent developments showed
that no error had been committed in its identification.

In 1902, Mgr. Langevin, the Archbishop of St. Boniface,
who, like his predecessor, had been for years intensely
interested in the question, organixed an expedition :it his
own expense to make another discovery, \r/.., the site of
Fort St. Charles. lie and tlmse associated with him in the
enterprise left Rat Portage September 2. on the steamer
Catherina S, and in the afternoon stopped at the Isle an
Massacre to say a prayer at the foot of the cross which
the Jesuits had planted there two years before. From
ihence they went to Flag Island, where thev took on board
the great chief Powassin, who said he knew all about Fort
St. Charles. He led them straight to what he said was the
place, having told them first the kind of ruins thev were
going to find. They saw there, indeed, remnants of a chim
ney, with a quantity of ashes, calcined bones, etc. Besides,
everything seemed to correspond with the accounts of which
de la Yercndrve has left about the locality, and on the site
they solemnly erected a cross, with the inscription:

FORT ST. CHARLES.

Founded 1732.

Visited 1902.

Great enthusiasm reigned among the happy explorers on
their return home; but after a while doubts began to arise
about the advisability of accepting their find as conclusive.
The stones and the ashes were scarcely a firm enough foun-

261

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

elation to build on. The old chief Powassin had told them
he was sure of it, but he might have been mistaken. It is
true that another chief, whose name we fear all the printers
of the world will gag at, for it is nothing short of Andakami-
gowinimi, agreed writh him about Frenchmen having been
there, but from time to time he alluded to a fort on the other
side of the inlet. His casual utterances did not attract much
attention then, but they afterwards proved to be a very val
uable clue. So the conviction gradually began to force itself
on the minds of those interested that Fort St. Charles had
not yet been discovered.

In 1908 another expedition was organized. The arch
bishop's absence in Europe explains why he did not lead it.
It started on July 10, and was composed of Jesuit priests
and lay brothers. They embarked at Kenora, or Rat Port
age, in an autoboat of their own construction. With ab
solute trust in Divine Providence and serious doubts about
the boat, they started out on the lake, singing the Ave Maris
Stella. At two o'clock in the afternoon they arrived at
American Point, down at the entrance of the lake. The
next morning they began investigations, as usual, along the
north shore, but several hours' search ended in complete
failure. Providence, however, came to their rescue by an
accident. Father Paquin had cut his foot very badly the
night before while driving tent pegs, thus rendering him
unfit for work. He did not sulk in his tent, however, but
while nursing his foot occupied himself meditating on de la
Verendrye's memoirs, and studying the maps and notes,
which he had gone over a hundred times before. The vague
hints of the old Indian with the unpronounceable name also
came back to him with unwonted force, and it then sud
denly flashed on his mind that they had all along been fol
lowing the wrong scent. The fort, he felt sure, was on the
south, and not on the north, shore. Accepting his sugges
tion, the searchers, the next day, traveled two miles up the
inlet in the direction indicated, and arrived at a bay which

262

JOHN All \K.\r

the old chief had spoken <>1. There, stretching out in a long
line, each man being responsible for five feel on either side
of him, and meantime making a wide clearing through
tangled brushwood, and fighting the dense swarms of mos
quitoes, which were as thirsty as Sioux for while blond,
they were all suddenly summoned by a cry to the side of
one of the party.

lie had come upon a number of Hat stones can-fully laid
upon each other. The spades were quickly at work, and
the great discovery was made. Thcv had struck the large
chimney of the f«rt, without a doubt. Digging deeper, they
unearthed, among other things, a carpenter's chisel about
eighteen inches Mug and covered with rust. The next day
was Sunday, but on Monday, the thirteenth, they uncovered
a heap of bones. Among them were scissors, nails, etc., and
a blade ot a knile, with a name on it, " Alice 1 )." P>\ Tues
day thcv had found the two other chimneys of the fort,
after seventy poplar trees had been felled to clear the
ground. The next day it rained, but by Thursday night
three lines of palisades had been laid bare1.

The joy of the explorers was now at fever heat, but the
time for their annual retreat had arrived, and they all ha«l
to pack off to St. Boniface for their eight days' seclusion.
Why did they not make their retreat there? The reason
was that they had brought only ten days' provisions, and
even holy men must eat. Hut when the retreat \vas over
they returned to their work with renewed energy.

With them was a distinguished historiographer of the
locality, M. Prud'homme, who had been working f<>r years
at the problem. Before two weeks had passed they had
turned up nineteen skulls. De la Yerendrye's account was
startlingly verified. In addition they found five bodies, two
of which were in a box, side by side ; one with the os sacrum
broken slantingly, precisely as the wound of young de la
Vercndrye had been described one hundred and sixty years
ago. At the feet of the other skeleton were- beads of ."

263

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

rosary and a bunch of keys. Between the two was a cutlass.
Both bodies were headless. There could be but little doubt
that the Jesuits of 1908 had found their brother, who was
murdered in 1736.

With the greatest reverence all these precious relics
were transported to the College of St. Boniface. Photo
graphs of everything were taken. The picture of the skulls
represents them just as they were found, viz., carefully
placed in layers, one above the other. It is unnecessary to
reproduce them, but the base of one may be given as a
curiosity. It shows an arrowhead still imbedded in the
bone. It is curious, indeed, but may it not be something
more? Garneau, quoting Bourassa, says that " Father Aul-
ncau was struck by an arrow in the head." May not this
skull, so singularly marked, be the head of the priest?

Such was the sudden and unexpected result of a search
taken up, at intervals, during nearly twenty years. It is a
discovery of the greatest interest to the students of the his
tory of the Church in this country, for it tells us exactly
where one of the great missionaries who had gone furthest
into the interior of the country, was killed, and where he was
buried. Of course, there is no desire to claim that he was
a martyr of the Faith ; for hatred of Christianity does not
enter into the cause of his death. He was, however, a
great confessor and apostle, and as such should be honored
and revered.

Independently of religious considerations, the discovery
of the site of Fort St. Charles is also a notable achievement
in historical exploration work. It has revealed the line of
de la Verendrye's discoveries.

It will be a satisfaction to Americans to know that the
United States Government has recently made the place
a National Park. The Canadians, however, have the better
place, namely, the island where the heroes were murdered.
They also can claim the honor of having discovered both
sites, and to have given us one.

264

SEBASTIAN RALE

\Vrni TIH: ( )rr. \\v.\s

On the hanks of the Kenncbec, ahout thirty miles above
Augusta, there is a secluded and beautiful spot which is
without doubt the most sacred place in Xew Kngland. It
is called Indian Old Point. To reach it you follow y<>ur
guide along narrow and winding paths in the dense woods,
and when at last you emerge into the open you see before
you a perfectly level and treeless stretch of twenty or thirty
acres extending from north to south along the river. You
are on the site of the old Abnakis village of Xarantsouac.
or "the place of those who travel by water," and you notice
that here and there the soil has been dug up by people who
have come to hunt for Indian relics.

As you enter the plain from the north you have the river
on your right, while deep forests on the three other sides
shut it in completely from the outer world, as if to make it
a sanctuary. A decaying farmhouse in the distance is the
only sign of human occupation in the past, and the stunted
pine woods on the opposite bank, whither the Indians once
fled to escape the murderous fire of their foes, are appar
ently unfrequented by any living creature. All is still, and
only the splash of water on the rocks or the occasional
rumble of a distant train, disturbs the silence. As you look
towards the further extremity you are almost startled to
see, though you knew it was there, a shaft of grey stone,
surmounted by a cross, outlined against the background of
the trees, and standing as the lone watcher in the solitude.
\Yith feelings of awe you approach the monument, which

265

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

bears the marks of many a rude northern winter. It is
slightly out of perpendicular, and the cement has fallen
from the seams where the obelisk rests upon the base, and
also from the stones of the base itself, on which there is
an inscription still legible, if you stand where the sun may
help you to decipher the letters. It is written in Latin
and tells us that reposing beneath the monument lies :

'' The Reverend Sebastian Rale, a Frenchman by birth,
and a missionary of the Society of Jesus, who after evangel
izing the Hurons and Illinois, became the apostle of the
Abnakis, keeping them for thirty-four years in the faith
and love of Christ. Unterriiied by the perils of war, and
often testifying his readiness to give his life for his flock,
he died the best of shepherds, on this very spot, amid the
slaughter of his people of Narantsouac, on the 23d of
August, 1724. To him and to his children in Christ, who
died along with him, Benedict Joseph Fenwick, Bishop of
Boston, built and dedicated this monument August 23d,
1833. A. M. D. G."

The mind of New England has passed through three
stages in its appreciation of Father Rale. It was first under
the spell of the extravagant ideas expressed in the poem of
" Mogg Megone," by Whittier, who represents the great
missionary as the malignant Jesuit plotting to establish
" Romish " domination in the New World, and to attain
that end, availing himself of the most degraded and fiendish
passions of the savages. Rale, according to him, was the
son of Belial, and was very justly slain by the outraged and
virtuous Puritans. In after life Whittier considered " Mogg
Megone " as one of the sins of his youth.

Converse Francis, the Unitarian Minister, who wrote a
" Life of Father Rale " for Jared Sparks' " American
Biography," is fairly typical of another and more liberal
view. Though not intentionally unfair, Francis cannot
entirely divest himself of all the prejudices of his class, and
whenever there is question of veracity, even though Rale
may have been an eye-witness of the event, he is set aside,

266

SEBASTIAN RALE

and others, whose testimony is necessarily biased, or who
were not even present at the occurrences in dispute, are pre
ferred. Unfortunately also, being a Unitarian, Francis
could not sympathize with, or even comprehend, the motives
which actuated the subject of his sketch.

At the present time there- is a saner and more rational
view taken by historians of the character of the threat apostle
of the Kennebec Indians, and there is even a tendency to
accord him all the honor which his heroic life deserved.

Sebastian Rale was born on January 4, 1057, iu the little
town of Portalier, which is situated on the Doubs, a tribu
tary of the Saone. Portalier appears in history as early as
the fifth century, and in the course of time it passed suc
cessively under the domination of the Saracens, Hungarians,
and Germans. It is now a well-laid-out city of eight thou
sand inhabitants, with its hospital, municipal buildings,
public library; and the college, where, long ago, Kale went
to school, is still there, lie made his whole course of clas
sical studies and then two years of philosophy. The Jesuits
had a novitiate at Portalier. and the boy sought admission
to it at the age of eighteen. From there he went to Oarpcn-
tras and Ximes, where he taught the usual classes of gram
mar, humanities, and rhetoric. In both of these cities he
devoted all his leisure time to the spiritual needs of the
laboring people. lie began his theology at Lyons, and be
fore he was ordained a priest he was Director of the Sodal
ity of Laborers and Porters. Those who saw how devoted
he was to his work were not surprised when the news came
that he had asked for the Indian missions.

He left La Rochelle on July 23. 1080. and after three
months of what he calls " a sufficiently happy voyage,"
arrived at Quebec; but as he needed very little to make him
" sufficiently happy " in any surroundings, we have no
means of knowing how unkindly the ocean treated him.

Though remarkably gifted as a linguist, and very readily
acquiring a knowledge of a number of words and phrases,

267

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

he soon saw that he could never grasp the meanings
attached to certain turns of expression and tones of voice,
unless by daily contact with the savages ; so he betook him
self to a Christian village about nine miles away, on the
other side of the river, somewhere in the vicinity of the
Chaudiere.

The difficulty did not, however, immediately disappear.
Among other troubles he tells us that the gutturals formed
his chief obstacle. They were uttered without the slightest
movement of the lips, and, though he sometimes caught the
sound, he more frequently succeeded with only half of it,
to the great amusement of the Indians. However, at the
end of four months, he could express himself with tolerable
accuracy, and then with the assistance of five or six of the
most intelligent savages, he constructed a grammar and a
catechism. We are not aware that these valuable books are
extant at present.

Years afterwards, when he was master of many tongues,
he wrote that the Indian modes of speech contained much
genuine linguistic beauty, and \vere particularly remarkable
for strength of expression. They had no affinity with any
European language that he wTas acquainted with, and it was
hard to trace any relationship even with the speech of the
other tribes. To illustrate this he gives us in a letter to his
brother the first verse of the 0 Salntaris Hostia, in Algon
quin, Huron, Abnakis and Illinois. To the ordinary ob
server there is not a word common between them.

He is at one with other scholars in regarding Huron as
the most majestic of all the Indian languages, but at the
same time as being the most difficult, not merely because of
the gutturals, but because of the multiplicity of the accents
which give a totally different meaning to the same word.
He recommends Chaumonot's Grammar as the most help
ful for beginners, but adds the very discouraging informa
tion, that even with its assistance, ten years of unremitting
labor will be needed to speak it with elegance. Once ac-

268

SEBASTIAN RALE

quired, however, it will he easy to learn the five connate
Iroquois tongues. It will he a surprise to most people to
hear that there could he anything like elegance in the lan
guage of the savages.

The Indians with whom he resided at the Chaudiere
quite captivated him. They were all Chri>tians, and lived
in a well laid-out stockaded village. They were decently
clad, and he notes that they showed a passion for red and
hlue in their apparel. They were attached to their children,
but all, even the girls, were deplorably addicted to tobacco.
and would give their own weight in gold for a supplv of the
weed. The men were sturdy, agile, bron/.ed, and beardless.
Their hair was straight and black. Their teeth were white
as ivory. They decked their locks with strings of many
colored shells and pebbles, which fell over their ears and
down the back of their heads. Similar bands did service as
belts, collars, and garters; all of them were decorations a^
precious to the savage as gold and jewels to the European.

As elsewhere, the women were the worker-. Their lords
and masters waged war, or tracked the wild beast in the
forest. He tells us how they hunted the moose in tho-e
days and from all accounts the same methods still obtain.
The hunter set out on snow-shoes, and when the huge beast
was wearied with plunging in the drifts, his pursuer ap
proached with a knife fastened to the end of a stick and
despatched him. How much fighting occurred at that mo
ment is not said. \Ye have also a glimpse of the table man
ners of his friends. The etiquette was at first too much for
him and he merited a reproof for his weakness. To have a
lump of half-raw meat dragged from the pot and passed
around for each one to bite, was something he was not used
to, and he hesitated when his turn came. The Indians re
proached him and said bluntly: "You are a patriarch, and
you pray. You must overcome yourself." He accepted the
advice, and from that out never balked at the foulest mouth-
fuls.

269

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

He had lived nearly two years in the village when he
received orders from Quebec to prepare himself for the
Illinois mission. He immediately returned to Quebec, and
began the study of the new language which he should hence
forth have to employ in the far west. On the thirteenth of
August he was in his canoe, making for the country of the
Illinois which, on account of the way he had to travel was
eight hundred, but Martin says this is a copyist's error
for five hundred leagues away. He saw the great lakes for
the first time, but apparently made no attempt to cross them,
for he writes : "We landed each night and wrere happy to
find a flat rock on which to stretch our limbs." On the
way up, some of the canoes were shattered in the rapids;
but though his own struck the rocks again and again, no
harm resulted. It had been supposed that game would be
found as they journeyed on, but none was met with, and
the travellers were reduced to such a state of hunger that
they had to resort to the tripes de roches, a sort of lichen,
which was made into a stewr or roast. Rale, who by that
time was a connoisseur in Indian delicacies, pronounced it
"disgusting."

When they reached Lake Huron, a storm scattered the
boats. That meant death for some of the travellers ; for
starving as they were, there was now no hope of reaching
Mackinac. Fortunately Rale \vas able to keep on his course.
"I reached the fort," he said, "ahead of the others, and sent
provisions back to them. They had been seven days with
out food, except for a cow which they had killed more by
accident than skill. They were so weak that they could
not stand up."

At Mackinac he found two missionaries ; one in charge
of the Ottawas ; the other of the Hurons, and he remained
with them, for the season was too far advanced to attempt
to reach the Illinois. Fortunately the delay has to some ex
tent helped our knowledge of the Ottawas. He tells us they
were grossly superstitions, and firm believers in their medi-

270

SEBASTIAN RALE

cine men, who were nothing but charlatans. The manitoti
superstition prevailed there, as elsewhere, with the usual
sacrifice of tobacco, pots, etc., winch were thrown into the
water to insure protection against the rapids, or to insure
a prosperous hunt. The nation was composed (if three-
families, the chief of which was descended from The lircat
Hare. The Hare was a giant so tall that \\lun in former
times he entered the lake to gather his nets, which were
eighteen fathoms down, the water came only to his arm
pits. In the time of the deluge, he is said to have sent out
a beaver to find land, but the beaver never returned. Tlu-u
the otter was dispatched on the same errand, and soon ap
peared with a clod of earth covered with foam. After a
while the clod expanded into an inland and then began to
extend in all directions. Having done this much, the (Ireal
Hare took his tlight to heaven, but before doing so ordered
his descendants always to burn their dead; otherwise their
countrv would be- covered with snow and ice.

Shortly before Rale's arrival a cunning old squaw
availed herself of the popular delusion to increase her repu
tation. The winter had been exceptionally hard, and the
starving family of The (ireat Hare were in consternation.
"It serves you right," said the prophetess. "You have no
sense. You know you were told to burn your dead, and to
throw their ashes to the wind, and yet there is a body here
for several davs, and you have not burned it." "Mother!"
they said ; "you speak the truth ;" and forthwith twenty-five
men were deputed to perform the sacred duty. They took
fifteen days to accomplish the task, but by that time the
thaw had set in, game was available and the old woman's
name was forever after in veneration.

The second Ottawa group claimed an accommodating
carp as their parent. It had spawned on the banks of the
river, when lo ! a ray of sunlight fell on the eggs, and pro
duced a woman, who became the mother of the tribe.

The third family sprang from the paw of a bear. The

271

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

genesis was not explained, but the persuasion of its truth
was so profound that when they killed a bear, accidentally
or otherwise, they were profuse in their apologies to the car
cass, reminding the animal that it was a glorious thing to be
eaten by one's children, who otherwise might have starved
to death.

The Great Hares had the monopoly of cremation. The
others buried the corpse, and followed the common prac
tice of filling the grave with everything that might be use
ful to the warrior when he arrived at the happy hunting
grounds. While the interment was in progress the relatives
kept up a lugubrious chant, and with measured strokes
waved the ceremonial sticks in the air. On them were hung
little bundles of rattles to increase the expression of grief.

At the opening of spring, Rale started for the Illinois
Country. It took him forty days to reach the Illinois River,
and then he had to travel fifty leagues before he arrived at
the first village. It consisted of three hundred cabins, all
of them with four or five fires, that is to say, with eight or
ten families in each. There were ten other such villages be
longing to the nation. On his way he had met the Maskat-
ings, the Takis, the Omikones, the Tripegonons, the Outo
gamis, etc. They all had their own language, but in other
respects were like the Ottawas. A missionary from Baie
des Puants, or Green Bay, looked after their spiritual in
terests.

On the day after his arrival, a great chief paid him a
formal visit to invite him to a banquet which had been pre
pared to do him honor. It was a very splendid affair, and
as several dogs had been sacrificed for the occasion, it was
regarded as a feast of the upper set. The usual flow of ora
tory was let loose, and when the long discourses were over,
esquires ("ecuyers," Rale calls them), were sent around
with the meats, one bark dish being assigned to every two
guests. Fortunately for the missionary, they were not, as
in the east, compelled to eat everything, but could carry

272

SEBASTIAN RALE

off the remnants to their lodges. He tells us that the Illinois
were not as reserved as the men of the east. They went
naked, from the waist up. hut atoned for their absence of
garments by all sorts of fanciful tattoos. At church, how
ever, and in winter they put on their furs. Plumes of vari
ous colors adorned their heads, and they dauhed their faces
chiefly with vermilion, though other colors were permitted.
They wore collars and earrings of cut stone-, of various
shades, and usually displayed a porcelain hreast plate. Thev
were convinced that all this lincrv added to their beantv,
and exacted proper respect from those they dealt with.

\Vhcn not fighting or hunting, tlu-v were gambling, or
dancing, or eating. The dances were chiefly for joy or sor
row. '1 he latter were mostly funeral rites, and lasted as
long as the pmvi.Mons held out. or the character of the prc--
ents to the afflicted family seemed to demand. Any one
could join in these ceremonies wh<> came bearing gifts. Hut
it does not seem t<> have been the case with the dances of
rejoicing. They were -elect affairs; for. as among civilized
people-, there were class distinctions among the Indians,
t'ulike the (ireat (Htawas. they did not burn the dead, but
wrapped them in skins and hung them bv the head and
feet to the branches. The men made arrows, bows, calu
mets, and the like, while the squaws did the tilling, tanning,
and net-making, and provided the food supplies <>f the wig
wam. When a brave shot a bear or a deer, he left it where
it fell, perhaps miles away from the village, and the squaws
had to go and find it, and bring it home and skin and dis
member it.

Of all the Indian tribes none lived in greater plenty than
the Illinois. Their rivers were swarming with wild ducks,
swan, and the like. Great droves of turkeys roamed over
the plains, some of the birds being thirty or thirty-six
pounds weight. Bisons covered the prairies, as far as the
eye could see, and were slaughtered by the thousand every
year. Rale found the meat somewhat salty, but so light

13 27J

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

that even when eaten raw no bad consequences ensued.
Only the fat ones were taken; the lean kind were left to
rot, the savage contenting himself merely with the tongue.

Firearms had not yet been introduced to any great ex
tent. The arrow, which he says was shaped like a serpent's
tongue, was their great instrument for hunting and warfare.
The accuracy and rapidity of their aim was marvelous. A
hundred arrows would leave the bow while a European was
loading his gun. They concerned themselves very little
about fish-nets. The abundance of fish made it unneces
sary, but occasionally, when fancy prompted, they went out
in their canoes, and standing up for better aim, darted a
spear at the fish and rarely missed their aim.

As elsewhere, the savage was esteemed only for his
prowess as a hunter or warrior. To kill a man, or make a
captive, they would travel as much as four hundred leagues
at a time, in spite of the danger that met them everywhere,
and the starvation that faced them, especially when they
nearecl the enemy's country. There they could not hunt;
for if they missed the beast, or only wounded it, the lost
arrow would betray them. Scalps were certificates of mar
tial greatness, but more valuable were the captives who
were brought in alive.

They tortured their victims, but Rale attributes the par
ticularly fiendish methods employed, such as eating the
flesh and rubbing powder into the wounds and then setting
it on fire, to the teaching of the Iroquois. The practice of
resuscitating the dead by giving a captive to a household
which had lost one of its inmates, was in vogue, as in the
east.

We sometimes hear of Eliot's converts in Massachusetts
as "The praying Indians." The same word was in use
among the Catholics. They were not said to have embraced
Christianity, but "the prayer." All were eager to hear about
"the prayer," but their polygamy and licentiousness pre
vented them from embracing it. The Illinois Christians

274

SEBASTIAN RALE

went morning and night to the chapel, and even the medi
cine men sent their children to he instructed and baptized.
Of course, the missionaries gladly availed themselves of
this opportunity, especially as many of those children were
almost sure to die after a few years. Their mothers had no
idea of how to take care of them. The remoteness of the
Illinois from civilization fortunately preserved them from
lire-water, which in the ea>t wa> almost as much as im
purity an obstacle in spreading the Faith.

275

CHAPTER II
INDIAN WARS

The journeys undertaken by those heroic old mission
aries were amazing, and Rale had his share of such trips.
He had been two years among the Illinois when he received
orders to return to his Abnakis in Maine. He was in his
canoe immediately, paddling back over the same route that
he had traversed such a short time before. He says nothing
about the hardships of the journey. It was merely a repeti
tion of what he had already suffered, but he eagerly tells
us that by a special providence he found a poor Indian girl,
about sixteen years of age, who was dying near a French
settlement about one hundred and twenty miles above Que
bec. As a matter of geographical detail it is of interest to
know that there were already twenty-five French families
there, with a resident parish priest ; but he does not give us
the name of the settlement.

Unfortunately the priest of the place could not speak
the language of the sufferer, and hence on Rale's arrival
they both made haste to visit her. A few questions brought
out the fact that she had been thoroughly instructed in the
Faith by some missionary, but for some reason or other had
not been baptized. "Do not let me die without baptism,"
she begged very piteously. Rale assented, and appointed
the following day for the ceremony. To his amazement,
early next morning the sick girl walked into the chapel.
Her joy had given her superhuman strength, and she would
not let a moment of the day pass before baptism was given
her. She returned to her miserable cabin after the cere
mony, and two days afterwards Rale knelt at her side, as
her soul took its flight to heaven.

We do not know the exact date of his arrival at Quebec,

276

SEBASTIAN RALE

but Gilmary Shea tells us that during his brief stay there
he put his hand to the incomplete autobiography of Father
Chaumonot. Indeed the manuscript is in Rale's handwrit
ing. Shea adds that this precious document is, at present,
in the archives of St. Mary's College, Montreal, but a long
and careful search has failed to discover it.

In 1693 Rale again found himself among his beloved
Abnakis. With the exception of a hurried visit to France
in I /OO, of which we know nothing beyond the fact that he
went there, the next thirty years were passed on the banks
of the Kennebec at Xarantsouac. Fvery moment of that
time was a preparation for its tragic end.

The Indians were all Catholics, and most devoted to
their faith. Every one assisted at Mass in the morning, and
eagerlv listened to the instruction that followed. They
would have done so, in anv case, but Rale had a remarkable
power in fixing their attention, the old people showing as
much plea-nre as the children in answering the questions
that were proposed. After Mass, up to midday, his house
was crowded with applicants for advice on every conceiv
able subject, temporal as well as spiritual. The afternoon
was given to the sick, or in assisting at the interminable
councils of the Indians, to determine questions of public
policy.

I le had scarcely time to attend to his < iwn spiritual duties.
and after a while was compelled to forbid them to speak to
him from night-prayers until after Mass next morning, ex
cept for some very urgent reason. I'eing handy at tools.
and somewhat of a painter, he devoted himself to making his
chapel as beautiful as possible. The structure he found
there on his arrival, and which was burned in 1/05, was "the
rude, unshapely" thing that \Yhitticr speaks of, "built in
those wilds by unskillful hands." The one that replaced it,
he used to tell his friend, was very beautiful and they
would be proud of it in Europe. He was plentifully sup
plied with means by helpers in France for that purpose.

277

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

At the services the altar was a blaze of light, for he found
means of making wax from the bay-berry. Twenty-four
pounds of wax obtained by boiling the berry was sufficient
to make a hundred candles a foot long. They may not have
been strictly in accord with the requirements of the ritual,
but bees were not busy in those parts at that time. He had
trained forty altar boys for the service of the sanctuary, and
also to give splendor to the procession through the woods
and village streets, on the great festivals. He called his
acolytes ''the junior clergy" — an expression which Francis
takes seriously. Besides the village church, there were two
other chapels, about three hundred feet from the village, one
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, the other to the Guardian
Angel. They were placed on the paths that led to the
fields and the woods. The women took great pride in
adorning them.

Besides these permanent chapels other temporary ones
were erected for the conveniences of the tribe when out
hunting and fishing. Such expeditions occurred at least
twice every year. First, after planting and hoeing their
corn, they all went down to the mouth of a river to fish for
herrings, which were found there in great numbers. In fact
had there been means at hand, he says, 50,000 barrels might
have been filled with the catch. But the poor Indians could
only dry a certain number, and they spent eight or ten days
at that work. This stock had to support the village till
they gathered the corn, and with that they tided over the
intervening period until winter. Then they went down
again to the sea, and gathered an abundance of shell fish,
and shot the wild fowl and game which were there in
abundance. Their own immediate territory had, long be
fore, been exhausted by the thoughtless slaughter of all the
bears and moose of the place.

When they arrived at the hunting grounds the first thing
they did was to select an island and build a chapel. The
priest was always with them, his attendance being in-

278

SEBASTIAN RALE

variably requested at a solemn council held for that pur
pose. He brought his chalice and vestments and all the
services were as carefully carried out as they would have
been in the village. It was on one of these jnurnevs that
he was seriously injured. He fell on the ice, and fractured
his thigh and lei;, and had to be carried to Quebec to have
his injury attended to, f, ,r tin-re were no surgeons at \ar
antsouac. ( )n that terrible fifteen davs' journev, he suffered
excruciating torture while bc'in^ carried through the wood .
and over the lake- and rivers, and by the time he reached
the St. Lawrence the bones had knitted, and had to be
broken again. He underwent that operation, of course with
out anesthetics, but i^avc no sign ot the aiv 'iiv it cau>ed him.
"Groan, at least, I;ather." sai<l the physician; "it will give
y< m si une relief."

During the thirtv years he remnine<l at Xarantsouae his
food was nothing but corn sweetened with a little oi the
maple sugar, which the s<|iia\\'s (ibtamed trom the tree- an
item of his table iiu'iin, by the way, which is u-eful in tin-
history of maple sugar making, f« -r it shows us that the art
was not discovered bv the whites, but was already known
to the red men. Indeed even to-day, the process seems sav
age enough, for the same kind of bark receptacle- for the
sap are employed which the old Abnakis squaws had in
vented.

The holy anchoret never drank wine, even on his visits
to Quebec. He washed and mended his miserable garments
and looked after his little garden to obtain his needed sup
ply of corn. His religious exercises were performed with
the same regularity as if he had been living in some great
establishment of the Society, and every year the first week
of Lent found him entering Quebec to begin his annual re
treat. That time was sacred for him. He would never put
it off, for any consideration. "Otherwise," he used to say,
"I might neglect it altogether," a disaster which only
he himself could have apprehended. At every spare mo-

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

mcnt that he would get in his daily work he was working
at his Abnakis Dictionary, or writing spiritual works in the
native language, to read to his neophytes. Only a very few
hours in the night did he give to his needed rest.

Such a life might seem ideal for a heroic missionary like
Rale; but in that village on the Kennebec other scenes
were occurring that rilled him with horror and dismay.
Over and over again his Abnakis, who were terrible fight
ers, came back from the warpath stained with English
blood, and carrying reeking scalps at their belts. But after
all, they were fighting for their country. The English
claimed that side of the Kennebec and the Abnakis said
they were defending their homes.

Here the tragic part of Rale's life begins, and we must
cast a glance at this protracted struggle between the Eng
lish and the Abnakis in order to vindicate him from the
charge which almost every English author lays at his door,
of being the chief instigator of these bloody reprisals.

As a matter of fact, the war with New England was al
ready in progress when he arrived at Narantsouac. It was
known as King William's war, which begun in 1688, and
lasted until 1698. It was the "deccnnium luctuosum" or "dole
ful decade," as old Cotton Mather described it. Hence it
was in full swing before Rale had left France, for it was not
until 1689 that he sailed out of the port of Rochelle. In
deed he had to make the long journey to the Illinois coun
try in the very midst of that terrible strife, and at the risk
of meeting the fierce Iroquois, who were allies of the Eng
lish. That war was surely not of his making.

These bloody battles in America were only repetitions,
on a small scale, of what wras going on simultaneously in
Europe in the fight of the allied powers against the ambition
of Louis XIV. William of Orange, Tourville, Noailles, Ven-
dome, Catinat and Luxembourg were all on the warpath,
and were covering Europe with blood from Spain to the
Netherlands. It was not until the treaty of Ryswick had

280

SEBASTIAN RALE

been signed in i(>o8 that these European Indians buried the
hatchet.

During that period the Iroquois had perpetrated the hor
rible niassaere at Eaehine in 1089; Le Moyne d'Iberville
had fought his heroic light among the icebergs uf llud-.-n
Bay, and lowered tlie Englisli colors at Pemquid on the sea
coast. In i(x>o Erontenac had made his triple raid on Schen
ectady, Salmon Falls, and Casco. and the English colonists
had attempted a counter invasion of Canada, bv land and
sea; Cadillac also was lighting at Detroit. The part the
Abnakis took in the fray was relatively inconsiderable; and,
moreover, they had withdrawn from the struggle before the
others; for in 1093, the year of Kalr's arrival, they made a
treaty of their own with their English neighbor--;. "All the
charms of the Erench friar, then resident am<>ng them
[Rale] could not prevent them." says Cotton Mather, "from
suing to the English for peace."

Unfortunately the peace was broken in the following
year. The rupture \va>. of course, ascribed to the recovered
"charms of the Erench friar," and it may not be out of place
to remark that the "charms" here referred to may not have
been in Mather's mind mere graciousness of manner, but a
diabolical influence. The old Xew England divine, who
was a firm believer in Salem witchcraft, was quite con
vinced that the devil had his hand in the troubles between
the English and the Indians, though the explanation of the
strife was much simpler and more mundane. The English
at Pemquid had seized Chief Bomasecn and sent him to
Boston as a prisoner. That was sufficient to enkindle the
wrath of the savages for they remembered how, seventeen
years before, one hundred and fifty of their people had been
captured, in the same treacherous fashion, and sold into
slavery at Boston. War was therefore begun not by the
devil but by the English.

Unfortunately Bomaseen had helped the delusion in Bos
ton about the priests. The popular conviction was, accord-

281

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

ing to Francis, that "Frontenac had four special Jesuit
agents to stir up the Indians ; namely, Thury, the two
Bigots, and Sebastian Rale.'' It mattered little that Thury
was not a Jesuit at all. Rale was, and that was sufficient;
and Cotton Mather specifically names him as "instigating
the Indians against their own inclinations." Probably to
make his chains rest easier on his limbs, Bomaseen assured
the magnates of the Massachusetts Colony that they were
correct in their assertions. He told them, and they were
delighted to hear it, that the French priests had taught then?
that the Blessed Virgin was a Frenchwoman, and that the
English had murdered Christ, who, on ascending into
heaven had said that his favor could be gained only by un
ceasing war against the English.

As the good people of Boston were convinced that the
captive, Bomaseen, was far gone in these errors, they
determined to enlighten and convert him. "Hence," says
Francis, "a minister, availing himself of such a symbolical
mode of instruction as he supposed would best suit the sav
age mind, took a tankard of drink standing on the table and
told the Indian that Jesus Christ gave us a good religion,
like the good liquor in the tankard, but that the French had
wickedly poured poison into the good liquor." Bomaseen
was conquered. Lifting his eyes and hands to heaven, he
declared for the real article. What was in the tankard is
not specified ; but Bomaseen was ultimately released. The
miserable deceiver, however, was not really converted. For,
years afterwards, we find him giving up his life to defend
Father Rale. His bones rest at the side of the martyr to
day, under the cross at Narantsouac.

As four other Indians had already been seized in the
same manner at Saco, and four more at Pemquid, though
the latter had presented themselves under a flag of truce,
which John Pike, an officer of the garrison disrespectfully
describes as "a white rag," the natives had sufficient reason
to dig up the hatchet and keep it raised until the general

282

SEBASTIAN RALE

treaty of 1/98. During that lime, it was, of course, impos
sible for the missionary to restrain them, and one cannot
refrain from smiling at the atlected horror of Bancroft when
he says that "before setting out on the warpath, the brave^
went to confession, and prayers were said every dav in the
village for their success in battle."

lint, after the peace of I7<>S. though the Indians along
the Kenncbec accepted the treat} like the rest, tliev were
always discontented, for their land was being rapidlv in
vaded by English settlers. Matters were drawing to a erisis
when Governor Dudlev summoned them to a conference.
It took place at Casco in 1703.

At the request of his Indians, Kale was present, but kept
in the background. Dudley noticed him. however, and ap
proached to speak to him. but the red men immediatclv
lormcd in a bodv around the priest. Thcv were apprehen
sive of treaehery, for three years before that, the General
C'ourt of Massachusetts had passed a law. making it death
for "a popish priest to persi.M in remaining on Xew I4' up
land soil," and similar legislation had been forced through
the unwilling1 Assembly <>1 Xew ^ ork. by the bitter ( )range-
man, Governor Bellomont. Indeed, the Xew York decree'
was worse than that of Xew England, for whereas the lat
ter inflicted death for persistency in remaining, Xew York
had determined to hang any priest who would voluntarily
enter the Province, which Smith, in his "History of Xew
York" (p. 1 60). says, without any regard for the feelings of
the clergy, "is a law that ought forever to continue in force."
To which Bancroft, who is generally credited with kindness
of heart, subjoins (III, 193): "This is a commentary of a
historian wholly unconscious of the trtie nature of his re
mark." And yet we look benignly on Bancroft.

Whether or not Dudley intended to seize the priest on
that occasion, we do not know. In any case it would have
been very unwise for him to have attempted it, so he con
tented himself with merely urging Rale to use his influence

283

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

in keeping the peace, to which Rale answered : "My religion
and my priesthood both counsel me to do so." But when
Dudley urged the Indians to break with the French they
cried out : "No ! the French have always treated us well. If
you lift the hatchet against them we shall lift ours against
you, and hasten to strike/' The Governor returned to Bos
ton disappointed.

Penhallow, who was not present on this occasion, gives
quite another account of what occurred, and informs his
readers that the Indians had intended to turn the friendly
conference into a massacre. He makes no mention of the
presence of Rale. "Nevertheless," says Converse Francis,
"Penhallow's account is more credible." Why it should be
so, the historian does not state. The rejection of Rale's
testimony in this off-hand fashion is certainly a reflection
on his honesty. For, although he wrote his account twenty
years later, he could not have forgotten the details of such
an important event, and there can be little doubt, moreover,
that the report which he then sent to France was only a
transcript of his notes made in 1703.

This conference was evidently convoked because Dud
ley expected a renewal of hostilities. As a matter of fact
war had already begun, and another " dolorous decade " had
been inaugurated. Marlborough, and Eugene, and Villars,
and Berwick were in the field in Europe, and when the news
arrived in America the Indians willingly went out on the
warpath. " Within six weeks," says Bancroft, " the whole
country, from Casco to Wells, was in a conflagration. On
one and the same day several parties of Indians and French
burst upon every house or garrison in that region." It was
at this time that Deerfield was destroyed and its inhabitants
massacred. " Such cruelties," continues the historian, " in
spired our fathers with a deep hatred of the French mission
aries." It was unjust, however, to accuse the missionaries
with having caused the uprising. However, it was impossi
ble to convince the New Englanders of the contrary,

284

SEBASTIAN RALE

especially after two hundred and hftv braves bad set out
from Xarantsouac in tbeir \var p-iiiu. " 1 counseled them."
writes Rale, "to observe carefully all tlie laws of war, to
practice no cruelty, to kill no one except in tbe beat of
battle, and to treat tbeir enemies humanely." That be was
so considerate would, of course, never be credited, and, in
deed, Converse Francis informs us that Rale " recounts with
an air of triumph the service which these two hundred and
fifty warriors rendered in the work of desolation among the
English settlements, and that when they finally returned to
tbeir village each man had two canoes loaded with the
plunder they had taken."

Such an account was indeed found in Rale's letter to his
brother, but it was written long after, and the unprejudiced
will, with difficulty, discover " anv air of triumph" in the
narration. Perhaps, after all. Converse Francis was not suf
ficiently conversant with French. f-T we find him making a
very curious mistake when describing the tragedy of Rale's
death. The French text has it " // fnt cntcrrc a hi iih'-inc pldcc
on il a~'dit cclcbrc la Mcssc la rr///r." Francis reads this : "lie
was buried in the same place where he had celebrated Mass
the ct'cning before." which is not only a linguistic, but an
ecclesiastical, blunder. For a minister, at least, the latter
mistake is unpardonable.

That it was chiefly Rale who kept the Abnakis faithful
to the French was. of course, true, and that was a sufficient
reason for tbe authorities of Boston to determine to capture
him. Hence, " in the winter of 1705, when the snow lay
four feet deep on the ground, and the whole country was
like a frozen lake, Captain Hilton, a man of some distinc
tion, was sent, with two hundred and seventy men, with
provisions for twenty days, to Xorridgewock, with the in
tention of surprising the enemy in tbeir headquarters. Tbe
dreary and severe march on snowsboes was accomplished
with much spirit. But the expedition failed of the main
object. When tbe party reached the place they found only

28.S

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

a deserted settlement. The large chapel, and the vestry at
the end of it, and the wigwams, they burned to the ground."
The invaders then withdrew, leaving the fugitives, wherever
they were, to camp out in the snow. Rale's account of this
devastation is merely that it was " a sudden irruption by
the English when the Indians were absent from the village."
Very likely he means the fighting population. The women
were probably hiding in the woods.

The war went on, and three years later Haverhill, which
Charlevoix spells " Heiveruil," was destroyed ; not, how
ever, by the Abnakis, but by other Algonquins and the
French. Port Royal, after being gallantly defended by
Subercase, fell into the hands of the English in 1710, and in
the following year Sir Hoveden Walker sailed up the St.
Lawrence with a fleet to capture Quebec; but, though it
was the month of August, he was afraid that the St. Law
rence, whose depth he fancied was at least a hundred
fathoms, would freeze solid under his hulls, and so he
returned exultingly to Boston without even having seen
Quebec. Eight of his ships had run ashore far down the
river, but he regarded the mishap as providential, as he had
saved the rest by returning home.

Thus the war continued with alternate triumphs and
defeats, on both sides of the Atlantic, and finally the fighters,
both in Europe and America, laid down their arms and the
treaty of Utrecht was signed.

Unfortunately the treaty failed to determine the limits
of the English and the French possessions and the unrest
and discontent continued. To prevent a new outbreak, Dud
ley again invited the Indians to a conference. The meet
ing took place at Portsmouth on July n, and Penhallow de
clares that " a treaty was made, in virtue of which the Eng
lish were to quietly and peacefully enter upon, improve and
forever enjoy all properties and possessions within the east
ern parts of the province of Massachusetts Bay and New
Hampshire, and be in no wise molested therein, saving unto

286

SEBASTIAN RALK

the Indians their own ground and free liberty of limiting,
fishing, fowling, and all other lawful liberties and privilege."
The historian adds that " the Indians confessed that they
had been unfaithful to their previous engagement, and then
eight sachems affixed their marks to the document."

Rale's account contradicts that of lYnhallnw. Tie says
that the (lovenior informed the Indians that the Kim; of
France had given the territory to the English; whereupon
the Indians replied that he had no right to give what did
not belong to him; the land was theirs; and tliev imme
diately sent a deputation to Quebec to inquire if anv such
transfer had been made. I lie answer was in the negative.
Hut as the Abnakis were wearv of war, they went nu f.ir
ther than tu protest.

287

CHAPTER III
RAIDS ox NARANTSOUAC

After the war the Abnakis set themselves to repair the
village, and their first care was to build their church. To
accomplish that as soon as possible they applied for work
men from Boston. The request was eagerly acceded to,
and the Governor volunteered to build the church for them,
provided they sent away Rale and accepted a Protestant
minister. The proposal was received with contempt, and
by means of some help from Quebec the new church was
erected. In a letter to his brother, Rale says " it would
have been admired even in Europe.''

The building of the church aroused the fury of the New
Englanders. It was an invasion of their territory, and had
been done in a particularly offensive manner. It was also
to stand as a reminder that they had burned the one that
stood there. Angry protests were made against allowing
it ; and at last, yielding to the popular clamor, Dudley sent
two hundred men to overawe the Indians. He would have
succeeded but for the presence of Rale. Indeed, but for him
the Abnakis from that day would have been subjects of
Queen Anne, religiously as well as politically.

When " great Anna " departed this life she left her
earthly kingdoms to the good German, George I, and his
dealing with his colonists, through his deputies, furnishes
the first chapter in Rale's life in which we are permitted to
smile.

The new Governor was named Shute, who in order to
follow in the footsteps of his predecessors summoned an
Indian council. The place of meeting was at Arrowsick,
at the mouth of the Kennebec, where a new municipality
had been established, and was already called Georgetown,
in honor of his Majesty. Thither the red men came in their

SEBASTIAN RALE

canoes, and Shutc offered them a British flap: and a Protest
ant Bible. The Indians accepted both. They appreciated
the flag as an ornament for their boats, but were pu//led
about the Bible. Sbute explained that the flag represented
their allegiance to the crown of Great Britain, and the
Bible the new faith which they were to adopt.

The Indians asked for time, and went off to consult
Father Rale. On the next day they returned saying that
they accepted the flag, for they had no objection to Mibmit
to King George, provided he guaranteed them their rights:
but they objected to the change of religion. " Every one,"
said they, "loved their ministers, and it would be strange
if we also should not love those who come from ( iod. Hence
we must return the Bibles, as (iod has given us teaching
already, and if we should desert that we should displease
God."

There is a very important point in this replv which
throws light on Rale's attitude in dealing with the Indians.
lie was not a rabid Frenchman, determined to keep his In
dians devoted to France, at any cost. His purpose was to
save their souls. He accepted the English flag, and he did
not speak unkindly of the ministers, though he was well
aware that they were the chief fomenters of the trouble.

Shute seems to have dropped the subject of religion, for
the moment, and addressed himself to that of the land. Ik-
produced a deed signed by six Indian Sagamos. making
over the whole territory to Richard \Yalton; but the In
dians protested they had never heard of it. They were will
ing to say nothing of the west bank of the Kennebec, but
the eastern one was theirs. The dispute became very hot,
and, throwing down the English flag, they tramped back
to their own quarters.

In the evening they again presented themselves, with
a letter from Rale to the Governor, which stated that when
Vaudreueil was in France he had asked the King if such
a cession had been made, and was assured that nothing of

28c)

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

the kind had been done. Shute read the letter, and de
nounced it as unworthy of notice. Hutchison says: "He
let them know he highly resented the insolence of the
Jesuit." Baxter adds a little color by informing us that " he
would not buckle to them." Shute then pretended to make
for his ship in anger. The Indians, who were easily fooled,
and who dreaded another war,, ran after him, and in the
language of the pompous historian of the day " apologized
for their rude carriage of yesterday," and it was finally stip
ulated that if they would remain at peace " they should be
provided with two or three warehouses and a smith to mend
their guns." A formal treaty was then made, in which the
hope was expressed that " it would prove of mutual and
reciprocal benefit advantage to them and to us, and that
they should cohabit with us."

Having thus arranged the land question, Shute now set
himself to adjust the religious difficulty. He commissioned
the Reverend Joseph Baxter " who was said to be of the
family of the famous Richard Baxter, as well as a man of
distinction in the ministry and in the Colony," to establish
an Indian school at Old Town, a village on an island of
the Penobscot above Bangor.

The school was indeed begun and a number of letters
were exchanged between the minister and the missionary.
In these communications not a little of odium thcologicitm is
displayed on both sides, particularly by Baxter, who found,
after a while, that he could do nothing with his little copper
colored scholars. So he went back to Boston and the inci
dent Avas closed.

Josiah Flynt, to whom Rale had also written in 1720,
finds that " Friar Sebastian Rale affords in this instance
evidence of excited feeling and resolute defiance, not un-
mingled with a tone of arrogance." Flynt was irritated
by Rale's threat to suspend some of the Indians from the
church and he took offense especially at the phrase : " a.
missionary is not a cipher like a minister, and a Jesuit is

290

SEBASTIAN RALE

not a Baxter nor a Boston minister." That sentiment is
put down as evidencing " the imiggart dignity of a church
man." His animadversions on the episode are to be found in
the " Massachusetts Historical Collection " (2<1 series Vol.
VIII, p. 253). Rale's expostulations do indeed seem to
have been written in a somewhat overwrought state <>f
mind, as presented by Elynt, but perhaps the context, if we
had it, might convey a different impression.

In the Flynt collection there is reference to a book which
Rale declared lie was writing for the King's enlightenment,
but it has never been produced. He seems to have also
communicated with Dudley and Shute. In the reply of the
latter the priest is roundly rated for his lack of cliaritv in
dealing with his fellow ministers, and then Shute pours out
the vials of his wrath against " the spiritual Babylon which
is drunk with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs of
Jesus. The English could live in amity with the Indians
were it not for the instigations of the Popish missionaries."
Erom these writings, and indeed from all the histories of
those times, it is evident that Rale was held responsible for
all the Indian uprisings, while the English are regarded as
guiltless.

As the solemn promise of providing warehouses for tin-
Indians had not been kept the authorities gave permission
to some private individual to build a store near the village.
The Indians made no objection at first, until another and
another storekeeper arrived, and then the red men opened
their eyes and saw that they were being quietly dispos
sessed. Rale had foreseen what was coming and had al
ready exhorted his people to emigrate to Canada, and leave
their lands to the English, which is another evidence that
he was not actuated by any political, much less by any war
like, purpose. His sole object was to preserve the faith of
his neophytes. On the other hand it seemed as if the col
onists were deliberately provoking an outbreak by these
encroachments. Thus, for instance, on one occasion a party

291

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

of twenty Indians had gone into an English house to trade
or to rest ; they suddenly found themselves surrounded by
a troop of two hundred men.

The Indians seized their arms, and were about to fight
for their lives, but were pacified by being told that the sol
diers were a Boston delegation, coming to make amicable
arrangements with them. Accepting this assurance as
truthful, they commissioned four of their number to go
down to Boston to talk to the Governor. On arriving there
the envoys were thrown into prison, and when the tribe
protested, the answer came back that the four were not
prisoners, but hostages, for some damage that had been
done, and that they could be redeemed for two hundred
pounds of beaver skins. The ransom was sent, though the
depredations were denied; but the prisoners were not re
leased.

Thereupon a delegation was sent to Vandreuil, to ask
him if he would help them to drive out the English. The
question was embarrassing, for France -and England were
then at peace; and so the non-committal answer \vas given
that " rather than abandon them to the English he would
lead them himself."

Again they asked for a conference with Shute. He ap
pointed the time and place, but failed to appear — a dis
courtesy which made the Indians both angry and suspicious.
Father de la Chasse, Rale's Superior, had come down from
Canada with a French officer, and a letter was written by
de la Chasse to Shute. It was dated July 21. It was in
Latin, Abnakis, and English, and respectfully submitted :
First, that the Abnakis did not understand why their depu
ties were kept in prison; secondly, why their lands were
seized, and thirdly, they requested an immediate release of
the prisoners.

The presence of de la Chasse and the officer was con
sidered a defiance of the English ; and it may have been the
reason why the English answered only by another outrage,

292

SEBASTIAN RALE

viz : the capture of the voting half-breed chief, Castinc. \\h<>
had been at the conference. He was decoyed on board a
ship, and kept in durance, in spite of the remonstrance of
Vaudreuil, whose letter was not even answered. Castinc
was set free, only after six months' imprisonment. An ex
planation was sent subsequently that he had been taken by
soldiers who misinterpreted orders, lint that could scarce-!}
explain the duration of his confinement.

In the face of all these provocations, it is idle to accuse
Rale of inciting the Indians. In fact, Francis says he ran
find "no good evidence that Kale used his power as a con
fidential adviser of the Indians to promote wanton and
blood}' outrages, or to incite unprovoked invasion . >f the
property and lives of the English." The charge was onlv
the outcome of that hatred of priests which had caused so
much bloodshed in the mother country and which was ex
pressing itself in America.

Nor can Yaudreuil's demand for the liberation of Cas-
tine be adduced as a cause of the outbreak. His letter wa->
written on June 15, 1721, and already in November, 1720.
a resolution had been passed by the House in Boston, or
dering one hundred and fifty men under Colonel Walton
to proceed to Norridgewok, to seize the priest and bring
him to Boston. If he could not be found the Indians were
to be summoned to produce him. If they refused they
were to be arrested and carried to Boston as a guarantee
for the surrender of Rale.

The resolution was not indeed carried out, for the Coun
cil and Governor regarded it as a declaration of war. But
Hutchison thinks that the House would have been glad to
seize that opportunity of extirpating or subduing the In
dians; for just because of the peace then existing be
tween Erarice and England, the Erench would not have
dared to interfere. He also admits that it was not certain
that the Indians were aware that they had ever promised
submission to the English (II, p. 270).

293

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

In the following year the capture of Rale was again
discussed, and it was voted by the House and assented to
by the Governor, to send three hundred men under Colonel
Thaxter to demand the surrender of the Jesuit and other
incendiaries, but it happened that good old Judge Sewall,
who had imposed a penance on himself for his stern judg
ments in the Salem witchcraft cases, declared against the
measure, because he thought the Indians were the rem
nants of the lost tribes of Israel, and so the matter was
dropped for the time being.

As the legislative proceedings were a matter of public
knowledge, the Indians heard about them and were stirred
up to bitter hatred. Indeed they would have already been
on the war-path, had it not been for " the incendiary Friar
Sebastian Rale." The English desired to avert that cal
amity, for the Abnakis, though mild-mannered in time of
peace were terrible warriors. Every one in the colony re
membered how, when thirty of them were surprised in their
sleep by six hundred Englishmen, sixty whites fell in the
fray that followed, and the rest fled in confusion, leaving
the colonel dead on the field. It was precisely this dread
of the Indians that prompted the stealthy tactics adopted
in all the attacks by the English on Norridgewrok. They
were invariably made in the winter, while the braves were
away or as, in the last raid, when success attended their
efforts, it was by creeping secretly up to the village and
opening fire, without a moment's warning. Even then the
village was almost deserted.

The efforts of the colonists to capture Rale only made
his Indians more resolute in protecting him. In a letter
to his brother we are told of two instances of this devo
tion. They are well worth referring to.

The tribe was down at the sea when a report came that
he had been taken prisoner. They assembled immediately,
and it was agreed to rescue him at all hazards; but they
first sent off two braves to see if the report was true. They

294

SEBASTIAN RALE

arrived at the village, late at night, and found the priest
occupied in writing the life of a saint. "Oh Father! " they
exclaimed; "how glad we are to sec you!" " Hut what
brought you here, and in such frightful weather?" " \\Y
heard that you had been captured, and we came to hud the
trail. If they had carried you to the fort we would have
attacked it." " \ < >\i see, my children," he said, " \<>ur fears
are groundless. But your love for me fills me with joy. for
it shows how sincerely von are attached to vour religion.
You must remain here to-night, and to-morrow, after Mas>
you will hurry hack to tell your fellow warriors not to
worry ab< nit me."

Another false alarm was the occasion of a great deal of
suffering and danger to the missionary. He was out with
his people on OIK- ot their hunting expeditions, when the re
port came that the English were onlv a half a day's march
of them. " Father you must leave," they said. " \Ye shall
wait here and fight if necessary, and our scout < have al
ready gone to watch the eneinv. You must return to the
village and here are some men tu guide you. When you are
safe we shall be at rest."

" At day-break," says Rale, " T started with ten Indians,
but, after a few days, our provision*; gave out. My guide-
killed a dog, which had been following us, and devoured
it. After that they began to chew si.me of their bags, which
were made of the skin of a sea wolf. I was not able to
join them in that. From time to time we ate a sort of
wood, which, when boiled, is about as tender as a half-
cooked turnip, except the core, which remains hard and has
to be thrown away. The rest had not a bad taste, but was
very difficult to swallow. It is an excrescence to be found
on trees, and is about as white as a large mushroom, but
when stewed, does not taste like it. At other times, we
dried green oak-bark in the fire, and made a stew of that
also, as we did with the lichen that we could gather, but
the mess made by the latter is very black and disagree
able to the taste. I took my share of it however, for
a hungry man will make a meal of anything.

295

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

" As we were very weak with such fare, our progress
was slow. However, we reached a lake where, unfor
tunately, the ice was beginning to thaw, and indeed, it was
already covered with three inches of water. We had to
cross it, but as our snow-shoes are made of strips of hide,
the leather began to swell, and made the shoes heavy and
the walking difficult. Although an Indian went ahead to
sound the ice, I sunk once up to my knees, and the man
at my side, to his waist. ' Father I am done for,' he cried.
I strove to help him, but we only went deeper in the slush.
Finally after a good deal of difficulty, for we could not
get our snow-shoes off, we reached the solid ice. However,
I ran less risk of drowning than of freezing to death, while
crossing the lake.

u New dangers awaited us next morning. We had to
cross a river on floating ice. We succeeded in reaching
the other side, however, and finally arrived at the village.
I dug up some Indian corn, which I had buried in the house,
and was eating it raw to allay the pangs of hunger, and
meantime the poor Indians were hurrying around to pro
cure something else. They gave me a real feast. First,
they presented me with some corn stew ; the second course
was a small piece of bear's meat ; and then some acorns
and a corn cake, baked in the ashes. Dessert consisted
of an ear of corn, or some of the grains roasted in the
fire [our modern pop-corn]. When I remonstrated with
them for making such a fine spread for me, they exclaimed :
4 Why, Father! You have eaten nothing for two days.
Could we do less than give you a feast?5

"While I was resting from my fatigue another alarm
came. One of the Indians arrived from the sea-coast, and
not finding me around, was sure that I had been captured,
and he hurried back to apprise the fishermen. On the
river bank he stripped off the bark of a tree, and with a
piece of charcoal, made a picture of a party of Englishmen
cutting off my head. Putting this crude drawing on a
stick he planted it near the bank. A little while afterwards
some Indians coming up the river in their canoes saw it
at a distance, and paddled over to read it. They were over
whelmed with grief. ' Alas ! ' they cried, ' the English have
killed the Father, and have cut off his head/ Without saying
another word the whole party unloosened their long hair,
and, letting it hang down on their shoulders, sat speechless

296

SEBASTIAN RALE

around the stick till next morning. They then resinned
their journey, and when about half a league from the village
they sent a seotit to see if the English had hurncd it down.
When the Indian appeared on the other side of the river
I was walking along the stockade saving mv breviary.
'Oh, Father!' he cried, 'how glad I am to see you! Ms-
heart was dead, but it lives again. We saw the writing
which said the English had cut off your head. How glad
I am that it lied ! '

"When 1 wanted to send a canoe to take him across
the river, he said: ' Xo! It is enough to have seen yon.
I must go back with the news, and we shall soon return
to visit you.' That same dav the party arrived at the vil
lage and were all consoled to find me alive."

What they did to the artist who made the picture is not
recorded.

The alarms, however, soon ceased to be false. Late in
January, 1722, Rale was alone in the village with a few sick
and old people, the others being away on the annual hunt.
They were unaware that Captain Westhronke, and a party
of armed men, had just set out from Boston to take him
prisoner. We have an account of the affair in Rale's own
words : —

"All the Indians had gone off hunting, and it was
thought to be the best time to lay hands on me. Eor that
purpose the English sent a detachment of two hundred
men. Two young Abnaki braves, who were down at the
sea, heard that the enemy had already entered the river, and
they hurried over to see if it were true. They caught up
with the party about two leagues from our village. [That
must have been at Cousinoc, the present Augusta.] Strap
ping their snow-shoes on their feet they made all haste to
XTarantsouac to warn me of the danger, and to have the
old and sick people conveyed to a place of safety. I had
scarcely time to consume the sacred species, to hide the
chalices and vestments, and make for the woods. The
English arrived at night-fall, and finding no one around
they waited till morning. [Meantime the old and sick
were freezing to death in the snow.] When morning came
they began the search in the woods, following the tracks

297

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

which the Indians had made. We saw them about a gun
shot away. I had not been able to go far, for I had not
time to get my snow-shoes, and my legs were crippled
by the accident of a few years ago. All I could do was to
crouch behind a tree. They came within eight paces of
me. Naturally, they could not have failed to see me, for
it was winter, and there were no leaves on the trees. But
suddenly, as if repelled by some invisible hand, they re
traced their steps, and returned to the village. It was the
special Providence of God that saved me. However, they
pillaged the church and my little house, and so left me to

Francis tells us that the troops carried off all the Indian
provisions, the intention being, of course, to let the people
die of hunger, for it was the dead of winter, and there was
nothing to eat, except the few things that had been stored
away to tide over that season of want. Before supplies
could have been obtained from Quebec the whole village
would have died of starvation.

It was on this occasion that Rale's famous Abnaki Dic
tionary was seized. There is no doubt about it, even if on
the first page there is an inscription in English which
would imply that it was taken in the following raid. The
inscription reads : " This book was taken in the fight at
Norridgewock." But that is an error. That particular treas
ure had already been seized before Rale's murder. What
labor had been spent on that work may be appreciated by
another note on the same page in Rale's hand: " // y a un
an qne jc sitis parmi Ics sanvages; jc commence a mettre, en
ordrc, en forme de dictionnairc, Ics mots que j apprens" Thus
he had begun the work in the second year of his stay on the
Kennebec.

This valuable book is now in the possession of Harvard.
It is divided into two parts ; the first is a dictionary in
French and Abnaki, the French word being given first. It
consists of two hundred and five leaves, a small number of
which have writing on both sides. The second part is de-

298

SEBASTIAN RALE

voted to the rarticlcs, the Indian word being placed opposite
its French or Latin equivalent. It has only fifty pages.

In 1818, Mr. John Pickering published an account of this
manuscript, and expressed a hope that it would soon be
printed. Yon HinnhoUlt was also anxious to have it done.
But it did not appear until 1833. and is now to be found in
the first volume of " The New Series of the Memoirs of the
American Academy."

Rale tells us that besides his book he was robbed of his
strong box. Xo doubt it is the one that is now exhibited in
the Portland Museum. It is about eighteen inches long, is
covered with embossed brass, and fastened bv a rough iron
hasp. It has two compartments, the lower one requiring
a knowledge of its mechanism to open it. Possibly he
kept his chalice in it. The upper section has an ink-well
and an old-fashioned sand blotter.

In the Museum there is also exhibited Rale's cross and
a small well-printed volume of Busembaum's " Moral
Theology." This book proved conclusively to the parsons
that Rale believed that the end justified the means. In the
Catalogue of the Museum it is noted that all these articles
were once in the possession of a Catholic priest, the Rev.
Father Waldron, a descendant of Westbrooke, the com
mander of the troop. Although repeatedly asked by the
Jesuit Provincial to bestow them on those whom one would
naturally suppose to be the owners, Waldron refused, and
made them over to the Museum. Prior to that they had
been in the custody of the Museum of the Massachusetts
Historical Society.

It is alleged that in the strong box were found very
compromising letters from Yaudreuil. As the Governor of
Quebec had to do his best to keep the Indians attached to
the French, and as the limitation of territory had not yet
been officially made, it might very easily happen that an
Englishman would find Yaudreuil's letters very inflamma
tory without involving any culpability on the part of the

299

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

Governor. It all depends in the point of view, and no good
can result in discussing the tenor of the letters.

It is unnecessary to state that Westbrooke's expedition,
even if it failed, did not diminish the exasperation of the
Abnakis. On the contrary, they immediately resolved to
avenge it. They dispatched messengers to the other In
dian tribes, and the war song was sung by the Hurons in
Lorette and in all the Abnakis villages. Narantsouac was
given as the rendezvous, but, before any allies arrived, a
descent was made on the settlements at the mouth of the
Kennebec. They destroyed three or four houses at Merry-
meeting Bay and then coming up the river burned several
others, but did no harm to the inhabitants personally, be
yond taking five hostages to secure the deliverance of their
own men who were still languishing in chains in Boston.
Their moderation, however, had no corresponding effect on
the English, for soon afterwards Captain Harmon, rinding
sixteen Indians asleep on an island of the Kennebec, fired
at them, killing five and wounding three others. Francis
says " he slaughtered a large number." The devil was let
loose then, and Shute, though restrained for some time by
men of influence who protested that the Indians had not
only been unjustly treated, but had been plied with rum by
New England traders, issued a proclamation of war on
July 25, 1722. The ceremony was somewhat superfluous,
for Westbrooke's raid in the preceding winter was itself the
beginning of hostilities.

It was not, however, until February, 1723, that the first
expedition ordered by this proclamation was sent out. Har
mon, the midnight murderer of the year before, was in com
mand. But it never reached Narantsouac, for the country
was flooded, and the rivers were filled with floating ice. He
was too late, and returned ingloriously to Boston.

Nothing more was done until the following winter, when
Captain Moulton reached the village but found it deserted.
He merely seized some more compromising letters from

300

SEBASTIAN KALE

Vaudreuil, which would go to prove, if it were true, that
Rale must have been a singularly careless man about his
correspondence if he left his letters lying about in a hut so
that the usual winter marauder had nothing to do but to
pick them up.

During all this time the devotion of the Indians to him
never failed to display itself. A prize of 11,000 sterling was
offered for the missionary's head, but that part of his anat
omy still remained on his shoulders. Francis says it was
only /5OO and was afterwards cut down to .t'Jw; but less
than that was enough to tempt the average savage. Not
only did they not accept the oiler, but were insistent in beg
ging Father Rale to withdraw to Canada, and his Superi'T-
also left him free to do so if he judged fit. Hut he answered
that he was not a coward to desert his post in time of
danger. He had not to wait long.

In the beginning of August. 1724, one thousand one
hundred men, partly English, partlv Indian, started out t«»
perform the final act of the tragedy. Counting the expedi
tion of nineteen years la-fore, this was the fifth attempt to
capture him. The English historians cut the number <>f
men in this raid down to two hundred and eight, but l.'har-
levoix and de la Chasse vouch for the first figure--. There
were two commanders this time: Harmon and Mmilton.

On the nineteenth of August they left F< >rt Richmond
on the Kcnnebec; and on the following day tlu-v arrived at
Teconnct. Leaving there forty men to guard the nineteen
whale boats, which had transported the party thus far, thev
began their march to the village on the twenty-first, divert
ing themselves on the way by shooting at two Indian
women, killing one and taking the other prisoner. The
murdered squaw was the wife of Bomaseen, the chief who
had been assiduous in his efforts to conciliate the English
and who was supposed to have been converted at Boston
when his religious difficulties were discussed over a tankard.
The murder would soon matter little for Bomaseen, for he

301

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

himself and his son-in-law were killed two days afterwards
at Narantsonac.

About midday the invaders were near the village. Like
Indians they crept cautiously through the woods, and at
three o'clock stood before the silent wigwams. Not a soul
was seen. Then at a given signal every musket blazed and
a shower of bullets pierced the thin walls of the houses.
Hutchison denies this, and says the Indians fired first,
though he admits that the settlement was surrounded be
fore any one was aware of what was happening. There
were only fifty warriors in the place, and they seized their
weapons and rushed out to cover the flight of their women
and children, who were already making a mad rush for the
river. Where was Rale? He was already facing the foe.
He was the only one whom the English wanted, and he
knew that if he presented himself it would divert their at
tention from the fugitives. He was not mistaken. A loud
shout greeted his appearance. The man they had so often
failed to find was before them. Every musket covered him,
and he fell riddled with bullets at the foot of the cross which
he had planted in the centre of the village. They crushed
in his skull with hatchets again and again, filled his mouth
and eyes with filth, tore off his scalp, which they sold after
wards at Boston, and stripped his body of his soutane, which
they wanted as a trophy, but as it was too ragged to keep
they flung it back on the corpse. Meantime the fire was
kept up on the fleeing Indians, who were endeavoring to
reach the shelter of the woods on the other shore. Some
were slain before they reached the river, others were killed
in midstream, and others before they reached the protect
ing forest.

When the slaughter was over, the soldiers retraced their
steps to the village and began the work of plunder. They
desecrated the Blessed Sacrament, and defiled the vessels
of the altar. Then putting the torch to the buildings, they
withdrew in the glare of the conflagration. They were

302

SEBASTIAN RALE

laden with booty, and Hutchison tells us that the \>w
England Puritan thought it no sacrilege to take the
plate from an idolatrous Roman Catholic Church; which
lie supposes " was all the profancncss offered to the -acred
vessels." There were also some expressions of /eal against
idolatory in breaking the crucifixes and other imagery which
were found there. So died Sebastian Kale. The "inflam
matory friar" would flare up no more.

The raiders were received with enthusiasm at l.o-ton.
There is little doubt that the missionary's white scalp was
put up at auction and duly knocked down to the highest
bidder. Harmon received a promotion, and Moulton was
awarded the thanks of a grateful country. The Rev. Dr.
Colman, of 1'mston. declared that Kale'- death was "tin-
singular work of ( !od. The officers and soldiers pioiislv
put far from themselves the h<>nor of it; and he who was
the father of the war. the gh<»tly father of those perfidious
savages like I'.alaam, the son of Ueos. wa^ --lain anum;.-; the
enemy after vain attempts to cur>c us." '1 he Reverend
Doctor would have been a good war chief.

After having outraged Rale's body, hi- enemies set to
work to besmirch his reputation. \\ hen Vaudreuil asked
for an explanation. Lieutenant Governor Dummer replied,
" that the priest was killed in action, associated with the
open and avowed enemies of the English, and that more
than once he had shown himself at the head of the Indian
troops, "--"an accusation," says Francis, " which might be
urged against any army chaplain." The AVrc Fji^lcunt
Courant accused him of " making the offices of devotion
serve as incentives to the ferocity of the savages," and
urged as a proof that " the flag which was brought to town
on which were portrayed five crosses, one in the middle,
and one at each corner, had been hoisted by Kale as a help
to devotion and courage, when he granted them absolution
before any considerable expedition." As a matter of fact
he hoisted it for precisely the opposite reason : viz., to sub-

303

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

due their ferocity. However the Puritans had a dislike for
the cross on a banner. Endicott had long before cut it out
of the royal standard.

Attempts to palliate the deed only added new calumnies.
It was said that Moulton had given orders to spare the
priest, but that Lieutenant Jaques was so exasperated at
seeing Rale firing from a wigwam that he broke in the door,
and shot him through the head while Rale was loading a
gun, and shouting that he would neither give nor take quar
ter. It was further alleged that, in the wigwam with Rale,
was an English boy who had some time before been taken
prisoner by the Abnakis. Rale shot him through the thigh,
and stabbed him in the body. Captain Harmon testified
to the truth of this ferocious act under oath. But apart
from the unthinkableness of such a deed, the fact is that
Harmon arrived at the village only after the battle was over.
The witness's bad reputation \vould in any case discredit
his testimony.

Another charge was based on a letter which was said
to have been written by Rale on the very day he was slain.
The French original, if there were ever one, is not produced,
but only what purports to be a translation. It is for the
most part unintelligible, and if the \vriter's knowledge of
French was no better than his English the document might
be tossed aside as valueless, but at the end of it we can
divine its purpose. Rale is made to express his thanks to
some one whose name is not given, for the great quantity
of wine that was sent him. " I have now enough for a
twelve month, and I will keep it in my cellar, with what I
already have. I take a glass after Mass, but I prefer
brandy."

As there could be no cellar in an Indian cabin, and as
Rale never tasted wine, it is unnecessary to call attention
to the malice of the insinuation. But he was not merely a
drinker. He was a profligate as well. In Belknap's " New
Hampshire " (Volume II, p. 57), and in the "Massachusetts

304

SEBASTIAN RALE

Historical Collection " (2cl Series, Volume VIII, p. 257)
the paternity of young Castine is ascribed to him, on the
authority of a certain Hugh Adams. As Castine was per
fectly well known, both to the French and English and to
the Abnakis, and as he had also solemnly declared himself,
before the judges in Boston, to be the legitimate son of
Baron de Castine by an Indian mother, this attempt to
blacken the reputation of a holy man like Rale cannot be
too bitterly reprobated. Young Castine himself had just
been killed by the English a month before at OysU-r River.
His lips were forever dumb and could not refute the
calumny.

Quite different from those disgraceful scenes at
Boston were those that took place at the same time on the
plateau of Narantsouac. The day after the massacre, the
Indians crept cautiously back to the desolate village. The
men cleared away some of the ruins, and then sat down to
weep over the dead ; the women meantime scoured the
woods for herbs to heal the wounds of the braves. The
body of their beloved priest was found horribly mangled.
They kissed it again and again, and then took it up tenderly,
and after washing it, laid it in the place where for thirty
years he had offered the Holy Sacrifice. His altar was his
grave. Around him in a circle they laid the bodies of the
seven warriors who had died in his defence. There was
Mogg, the Indian whom Whittier has defamed. His wife
and children had likewise been killed. There, too, was
Bomaseen, who probably died before he knew that his wife
and daughter had been murdered. Hi* son-in-law was
placed near him in the grave and also Job, Carabasset and
Wessemenet. The name of the seventh hero is not known.
The Indians carried the bloody cassock to Quebec, but what
became of that sacred relic cannot be discovered. The
chapel bell, of course, was uninjured, and it is said that an
Indian lad took it, and hid it some distance up the river.
He lived many years after the tragedy, but would never

20 3°5

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

tell where he had placed the treasure. When asked about
it, his only answer was: "Maybe Indian need it some
time." He died with his secret, but after some time a wood
cutter found the bell in the hollow of a large pine that had
been uprooted in a storm. It was taken to Norridgewock
and from thence to Brunswick. It is now in the Portland
Museum.

Narantsouac never rose from its ruins, but remained in
the desolation in which the destroyers saw it as they turned
back for the last time to gaze at its flaming wigwams. Relic
hunters occasionally visited the place to dig up its soil. But
the village had disappeared forever. There is, however, one
interesting record of how it appeared fifty-two years after
the tragedy, and singularly enough it is from the pen of
no less a personage than Benedict Arnold. Fortunately it
was written before the cloud of dishonor had settled on his
name. Indeed he was then an ardent patriot and on his
way up the Kennebec to capture Quebec. It was the year
1775-

11 At a place below Norridgewock Falls," he writes, "was
a wide and beautiful plain, once the site of an Indian
village, from which the falls took their name, and memor
able in the annals of former days, as the theatre of a
tragical event in which may of the tribe were slain, in a
sudden attack, and among them Father Rale, the vener
able and learned missionary, who had dwelt there for
twenty-six years. The foundations of a church and an
altar "in ruins are still visible, the only remaining me
morials of a people which wras once feared, and of a man
who had exiled himself from all the enjoyments of civiliza
tion to plant the cross in a savage wilderness, and who lost
his life in its defence. Let history tell the story as it may,
and let it assign such motives as it may for the conduct of
the assailants ; the heart of him is little to be envied who
can behold the melancholy vestiges of a race extinct, or
pass by the grave of Rale without a tear of sympathy and
a sigh of regret."

After some years a wooden cross was erected over Rale's

306

RALE'S MONUMENT.

SEBASTIAN RALK

remains. but sonic one cut it down. Later on a rude memo
rial in stone was placed there, and finally on August 2$,
1833, the one hundred and ninth anniversary of the mas
sacre, a throng of people, among whom were Penobscot,
Passamaq noddy and Canadian Indians, gathered around a
granite shaft about twenty feet high which the second
Bishop of Boston, Benedict Joseph Fen wick, had erected
to commemorate the glory of the hero. The great bishop
thrilled his hearers on that day with the story of Narant-
sonac. Lenwick himself was a Jesuit.

During the time of the Knownothing excitement the
monument was thrown to the ground, but was put in its
place again soon after. It has stood there ever since, and
ihe railroad guides indicate it as one of the point> of in
terest for travellers in that part of Maine.

In spite, however, of its solidity, the storms of scvcntv
years had opened the seams of the pedestal, and under
mined the foundation. The shaft was out of plumb, and the
ruin of the monument seemed imminent. To avert the dis
aster the Bishop of Portland, the Right Rev. Louis Sebas
tian \\ "alsh. who regarded the custody of the place as a
sacred duty, had the foundation strengthened and set the
obelisk again squarely on its base. Meantime excavations
were made in the hope of finding the precious remains be
neath, but without success. The danger of undermining
the monument prevented a very thorough search.

\Yhen all this was done, a pilgrimage to the holy place
was announced, and although Indian Old Point is really
in the woods, and affords no shelter in case of a storm, six
or seven hundred people assembled to do honor to the
martyr. A rustic altar was constructed at the base of the
monument, and in the sanctuary were the relics that had
been loaned for the celebration by the Portland Museum.
Distinguished men were present and the speaker of tin-
occasion happened to be the present writer, who could not
help feeling the emotion that arose from the fact that he

307

PIONEER PRIESTS OF NORTH AMERICA

was standing on the very spot which was once dyed by the
blood of Father Rale. The sacred remains of the great
missionary and martyr were still there mouldering beneath
the monument, and on the altar steps were the bell, the
book, the strong box, and the cross, which had been familiar
objects to the faithful who knelt there in the days when
Narantsouac was a Catholic village. The bishop, whose
name, by a happy coincidence, is like Father Rale's, Sebas
tian, and who rejoiced in the possession of a treasure more
precious than any other diocese of North America can
claim, addressed his people with emotion, which he did
not attempt to conceal. Benediction of the Blessed Sacra
ment was given and then the multitude wended their way
through the woods to the train which carried them back
to their homes. The scenes of that day will never fade from
their memory.

The entire plateau has since been purchased at a price
not much greater than Bishop Fenwick paid for a single
acre in the times when religious bigotry stood in the way
of Catholic ownership, even if it were to be in the midst
of a forest. It is now a burial place for the dead, and is
thus secure against desecration. The people of Maine are
particularly blessed in possessing such a sanctuary. They
could not find a better place to lie down in the sleep of
death than at the side of their apostle, Father Rale.

308

INDEX

PAGE

Abnaki ...... ..73. 74- 75- 7°. 83

Abnaki Dictionary 298

Acadia 21

Adams, Charles F. " New

Episodes of Mass. History." 91

Adam, Father Nicholas 36

Aiguillon, Duchesse d' 3. -'6

Ailleboust, M. d' 87

Albanel, Father 66, 103,

III, 112, 113, luO

Albany, Fort 202

Alimibeg, Lake 103

Allen, Captain 212

Alloucz, Claude.. 147 sqq., 70,

105. 1 68

Aulncau. John 243 sqq

Amantancha, or Louis de Ste.

Foy 8

Andre, Louis 70. 162

Apicanis 41

Aspamouachan 136

Assiniboels 211

Argenson, d', Governor. . .30, 147

Aulnay So. 91

Avaugour 135, 136

Baie des Chaleurs, P. S 21

Baxter. Rev. Joseph 290

Beauharnais, Governor. . . .29, 253

Bellerochc, Marquis do 143

Bellomont, Governor 283

Bjard. Father 52

Bigot. Father 100

Bird Island 4

Black River 115

Bois Blanc Island 165

Bomaseen, Chief 281. 301

Bon Desir, Notre Dame de.. 238

Bourdon, Jean 1 16

Bradford. Governor 92, 94

Bradley, Charles, Governor.. 144

Brebeuf, de 8, 9, 31, 55,

61, 156, 169

Bressani 55

Breton. Cape ... 21

Bridgar. Governor 198

PAGE

Ruret, Brother Gilbert

Bureau of American Ethnol
ogy Reports 171, 172

Buteux, James 43 sqq., 21

Button, Thomas 1 16

Button's Islands 206

Caen, de 7, 221

Carheil, Father 167

Cartcret, Sir George 138

Chabanel 70

Chagouamigan Bay 135

Champfort, Governor 48

Champlain 9. 20. 46

Champlain's "Habitation.".... 5

Charlcvoix 30, 76

Chardon, Father 216

Charles, Fort St 25*;, J'K>, jni

Charles II 135

Chastes, Sieur de 70, 78. 221

Chateauguai 208

Chaumonot, Father, autobiog
raphy 131, 277

Chauvin 221

Cheyboygan 165

Chicoutimists 232

Chidabouctou 21

Chouart 131

Clercq le 2

Colbert 142, 143

Colinau. Rev. I)r 303

Copper Rock in Lake Supe
rior 152

Coton, Father 28

Conart 117

Courcelles, de 41

Couture, the Donne 117

Crespieul, Francis de.

184 sqq.. 127. 223

Cross, Among the Maskou-

tens 171

Cross. Lake of the 188

Dablon, Father... 41, 101, 102.

U7. i to

Dalmas, Anthony. .. .201. 202 sqq

Daniel, Father 9.24. 38

309

INDEX

PAGE

Darbyfield 91

Davost 9

De Courcelles in

De Pere, Wis 162

Dinet, Father 24

Dosquet, Mgr 246

Druillettes, Gabriel 70 sqq

Dudley, Governor 92, 93, 283

Dummer, Lieutenant Gover
nor 303

Earthquake in Canada, 1672.. 188

Eliot, John 94, 95, 96, 97

Endicott, Governor 88, 93

Enjalran, Father 145

Esprit, St., La Pointe du.

.Mission of 147

Estrees d' 143

Etchemin 84, 85

Fenwick, Bishop 31, 307

Fox, Lucas 1 16

Flynt, Josiah 290

Francis, Converse, " Life of

Father Rale." 266

Francis, St. River 178

Frontenac 127, 282

Gardeur, Pierre Le 98

Garneau 86

Garreau, Father 70, 100, 101

Gaspe Bay 4, 21

Gentlemen Adventurers Trad
ing to Hudson Bay, Char
ter to " 140

Gerard, Father Bertram! 218

Germain, Father 30

Germon, Father 214

Gibbons, Major 79, 90, 91, 92

Gillon, Captain Zachary. . 138, 143

Godebout River 115

Godefroy, Sieur 98

Conner, Father DC 253

Gorges, Ferdinando 88

Gorst, Thomas 144

Goupil, Rene 51

Grand Medicine Society 171

Gravier, Father 217

Grimmington 204

Groseilliers, de 103, 141

Habitans, Compagnie des 221

Hare, the Great Family,

271, 272, 273

Hay and Mud Lakes 158

Hoffman, W. J 171

Flospital Nuns 27

PAGE

Hudson Bay 101, 116, 137

Hudson Bay Company 127

Hudson, Henry 136

Hutchison, "Hist, of Mass.

Bay." 87

Iberville, Pierre d'..i95, 196,
197, 201, 202, 205, 207,

208, 209, 212, 28l

Ice-boat, first in America. . . . 163

Ignace, St 165, 182

Ignatius of Paris, Father.... 76

Illinois, called Pekitanoui 215

Incarnation, Marie de 1' 3,

23, 25, 26, 139

Indian Seminary, first 24

Isle d'Orleans 19

Isle Jesus 32

Iroquois Indians 100, loi

Jacker, Father Edward 166

James II 139

Jaunay, Father du 258

Jogues 31, 38, 74

Joliet 29, 170, 174, 176

Joseph, Capuchin 2

Jeune, Paul Le 3 sqq

Kaskaskia

Kerk, Thomas

Keweena Bay

Kilistinons Indians

Kinougami Lake

163
6

135

103

Kirke, Sir John 141

Kirke, Mary 141

Kisagami, Lake 66

Kristinaux 257

Kristinons 211

Lafitau, Father 229, 245

Lake of the Woods 135

Lalemant, Charles 23, 38

Lalemant, Jerome 74

Lalemant, Louis 3

Lamberville 213

Langevin, Archbishop 261

Laure, Peter 218 sqq

Lauson, Intendant de 3, 40

Lauzon, Father de 246

Laval, Mgr 24, 25, 29

Le Moyne, Father 131

Liegois Brother 30, 45

Louis XIV 29, 38

Luson, de, Governor 28, i6[

Maisonneuve 54

Maistre, le 40

Makouamitakac . , . 120

310

INDEX

do la

Malhcrbo, P.rotlicr

Mante, Cosine de

Maret, Father

Ma ret, Gabriel 205

Maret, Joseph

Marquette, James. . . . i<-5 sqq.,

KM, 105. 100. i<>2.

Marquette's Mother, Relative
of St. J. P.. «le la Salk-. . . .

Martin. David

Martin, Father

Maskoutings

Maskoutepoels, or
Sioux

Massacre, I>le an

Mather. Cotton

Maurepas Fort

Maurcpas, Ministre
Marine

Mariconrt

Meiaskwat. Charle

Menard. Father

Mercier. le

Mesaigcr, Father

Meskoutenagachi .

Messmer. Bishop

Menx. Captain le.

Millc Lac. Indians

Minahigouskat Riv

Minnesota, Histori
tions

Miritnachi

Miscou

Missibizi, Religiou

Mist as sins

Mistassirinins

Montagnais, The. .

Montmapny

Monts. l)e

Moyne. Le

Mullet's Lake

Xadouessi, Indians..

\arantsouac ...277
285

Nattagami, Lake. . . .

Noel, Chief

\oquart. The Intendant

Xoquet Islands

Notre Dame dcs Anges

Notre Dame des Neipes

Notre Dame dc Reeouvrance.

Noue. Anne dc 2, p. 23.

Norman ville. M. D. .

PACK

104, 107
285, 2<>8. 306
70
102

2(X)

(

137. 15(1

213

254

;

Io~

-'04

of 134

IT 12;

cal Collec-

1 34

Rites. . . . 153

j^_»

IK)

'.'. .28, 32,' 35

22 1

1^5

:. ' 2oO.' J82.

;. 300. 305. 307

f/i

227 Nouvel, I:ather. .
83 Norridgcwoek .

2t>2 Negabamat

sqq Nekouba

Nemiskau. Lake

Nicholas, Father

Nicolet, Jean 32

Niles, Mich

i(>8 Nipigon, or Alimibcgong

K><> Lake

222 Nippising, Lake

272 Nippisirien Indians mi

Nipsiguit

_>57 Omikoues

_• }3 One Fye

_>So One Hundred Associates.
2<o 30. 32

( )tta\va Indians

( )uasaouanik Lake

Ouisakctchak, or tin-
Hare

Outchiotianich, Mary. .

Outagamis

Pahouitingouacli 1 1 mi . .

Painted Rocks near Alt

Papinachois Indians.. . .

Paslistaskaw

Pellctier. Nicholas

Vltrie. Madame de la .
eorias. The

Perron. Father du

Perrot. Nicholas

Pierson. Father

Piouakouanii. Lake. . . .

Piquet. The Sulpician..

Pitch Rock. \Yis

Plessis. du

Poncet, Father Joseph Antone
dc la Riviere 47,

Porcupine, or Kakouchac In
dians

Port Royal. Nova Scotia

Pothier, Father

Pottawatomies

Prince, Society of London. . .

1 1 1 Puants, Baie des

29 Quen, de 21.

[6<) Quentin, Father Claude. . . .36.

3 Queues, Coupees Tribe

20 Ouevlus, de

3 Radisson 117 sqq.. 103.

55 Ragueneau, Father. .. .&), 38.
57 67. ($.

(ireat

104.

134,

156

164

154

103
104

221

loi
104

158
-'33

-'/ 2

105
'77
241

IKJ
233

216

213
162
167

103
246
163

7. 128

-45
159
139

47
37

25
127

I3-?

INDEX

PAGE

Raffeix, Father 1 10

Raimbault, Father 32

Rale, Sebastian 86, 265 sqq

Richard, Father 52

Richelieu, Cardinal. . .2, 3, 24, 27

Richibouctou 21

Recollects 21

Rohault, Rene 28

Roy, J. Edmund 220

Rupert, Prince, 139

Saint-Denys 125

Sault Ste. Marie 104, 105

Saulteurs 105, 106

Sea of Japan 102

Sewall, Judge 294

Sillery 22, 23

Shute, Governor 288, 289,

290, 292, 300
Sources of the St. Maurice,

The 65

Suffren, Father 2

Sulpicians 24

Superior, Lake, or Lake de

Tracy .147, 151

St. Francis of Sales, Mission. 100

St. John, Lake 1 16

Sylvie, Anthony 195 sqq

Syracuse 101

Tac, le 3

Tadoussac 3, 4, 5, 15

Tadoussaciens 232

Talon, The Intendant 117

Tas. M. du 209

PAGE

Tempagami, Lake 103

Thaxter, Colonel 294

Theodore, Chief 112

Three Rivers 3, 21

Tilly, Captain de 208

Tour de la 80, 91, 116

Tracy, de 41, in

Troyes, Chevalier de 195,

197, 198, 199

Ursulines 26

Vallier, St 219

Vaudreuil 292, 293, 299,

301, 303

Varenne, P. G., de 253

Verendrye, de la 253,258,

259, 260, 262, 263, 244

Ville, Father de 217

Vimont, Father 32, 36, 37

Vitelleschi, Father General... 2

Walker, Sir Hovenden 286

Walsh, Rt. Rev. L. S 307

Walton, Richard 289

War, King William's 280

Whitefish Indians 49, 118

Whittier's poem, " Mogg Me-

gone." 216

Wildoates Indians 171

Williams, Roger 88

Winslow, John.. 75, 76, 78, 89,

90, 94, 97

Winthrop, Governor 86

Wrest Indian Company 221

Westbrooke, Captain. 297, 299, 300

Umprimf potest

JOSEPH F. HANSELMAN, S. J.

Priep. Prov.y Md.-N.

312

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Pioneer priests of North America, 1642-1710"

See other formats