The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 1: Acadia, 1610-1613

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Title: The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 1: Acadia, 1610-1613

Editor: Reuben Gold Thwaites

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THE JESUIT RELATIONS AND ALLIED DOCUMENTS

VOL. I.

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents

TRAVELS AND EXPLORATIONS OF THE JESUIT MISSIONARIES IN NEW FRANCE

1610-1791.

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

EDITED BY

REUBEN GOLD THWAITES
Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin

Vol. I.
ACADIA: 1610-1613

CLEVELAND: =The Burrows Brothers Company=, PUBLISHERS, M DCCCXCVI

_The Imperial Press, Cleveland_

EDITORIAL STAFF

Editor REUBEN GOLD THWAITES

Translator from the French JOHN CUTLER COVERT

Assistant Translator from the French MARY SIFTON PEPPER

Translators from the Latin { WILLIAM FREDERIC GIESE
{ JOHN DORSEY WOLCOTT

Translator from the Italian MARY SIFTON PEPPER

Assistant Editor EMMA HELEN BLAIR

GENERAL PREFACE

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

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

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

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

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

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

R. G. T.

MADISON, WIS., August, 1896.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I

GENERAL PREFACE vii

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. _The Editor_ 1

PREFACE TO VOLUME I 45

DOCUMENTS:--

I. La Conversion des Savvages qui ont esté baptizés en la Novvelle
France, cette annee 1610. _Marc Lescarbot_ 49

II. Lettre Missive, tovchant la Conversion et baptesme du grand
Sagamos de la nouuelle Frãce. _M. Bertrand_; Port Royal,
June 28, 1610 115

III. Lettre au T.-R. P. Claude Aquaviva, Général de la Compagnie de
Jésus, à Rome. _Pierre Biard_; Dieppe, January 21, 1611 125

IV. Lettre au R. P. Christophe Baltazar, Provincial de France, à Paris.
_Pierre Biard_; Port Royal, June 10, 1611 138

V. Lettre au R. P. Provincial, à Paris. _Ennemond Massé_; Port
Royal, June 10, 1611 184

VI. Lettre au T.-R. P. Claude Aquaviva. _Pierre Biard_; Port
Royal, June 11, 1611 188

VII. Canadicæ Missionis Relatio ab anno 1611 usque ad annum 1613; cum
statu ejusdem Missionis, annis 1703 & 1710. _Joseph Jouvency_ 193

VIII. De Regione et Moribus Canadensium seu Barbarorum Novæ Franciæ.
_Joseph Jouvency_ 239

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA: Volume I 299

NOTES 305

[Decoration]

ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. I

I. Photographic facsimile of title-page, Lescarbot's _La Conversion
des Savvages_ 52

II. Photographic facsimile of title-page, Bertrand's _Lettre Missive_
118

III. Map of Port Royal (1609), from Lescarbot's _Histoire de la
Nouvelle France_ (Paris, 1612) _Facing_ 124

IV. Map of "La Terre Nevve, Grand Riviere de Canada, et côtes de
l'Ocean en la Novvelle France," from _Ibid_ _Facing_ 192

V. Historical map of New France, showing missions, forts,
portage-routes, tribes, etc. _At end of volume_

INTRODUCTION

BY REUBEN GOLD THWAITES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE INDIANS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I. THE ABENAKI MISSION.

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

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

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

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

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

II. THE MONTAGNAIS MISSION.

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

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

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

III. THE QUEBEC AND MONTREAL MISSIONS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IV. THE HURON MISSION.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

V. THE IROQUOIS MISSION.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VI. THE OTTAWA MISSION.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VII. THE LOUISIANA MISSION.

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

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

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

THE RELATIONS.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PREFACE TO VOL. I

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

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

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

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

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

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

VI. A like duty is here performed by Massé.

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

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

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

R. G. T.

MADISON, WIS., August, 1896.

LESCARBOT'S LA CONVERSION DES SAVVAGES

PARIS: JEAN MILLOT, 1610

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

PECULIARITIES IN ORIGINAL PAGINATION: P. 7, misnumbered 1; p. 16,
misnumbered 6; pp. 23, 24, are repeated, except the last sentence on p.
24; p. 46 numbered "[-4-6]."

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

_AVEC VN BREF RECIT,
du voyage du Sieur_ DE
POVTRINCOVRT.

[Illustration]

A PARIS,

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

_Avec Priuilege du Roy._

THE CONVERSION
OF THE SAVAGES
WHO WERE BAPTIZED
IN NEW FRANCE
during this year, 1610.

_WITH A BRIEF NARRATIVE
of the voyage of Sieur_ DE
POUTRINCOURT.

PARIS,

JEAN MILLOT, keeping shop upon the steps of
the great Hall of the Palace.

_By Royal License._

[iii] A la Royne.

_MADAME_,

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

_MARC LESCARBOT_.

[iii] To the Queen.[1]

_MADAME_,

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

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

_MARC LESCARBOT.[3]_

[vi] Extraict du Priuilege du Roy.

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

Par le Roy en son Conseil.

Signé, BRIGARD.

[vi] Extract from the Royal License.

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

By the King in Council.

Signed, BRIGARD.

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

[_Matth._ 24. _vers._ 14.]

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

FIN.

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

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

[_Matth. 24, verse 14._]

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

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

END.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LOVÉ SOIT DIEV.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRAISED BE GOD.

BERTRAND'S LETTRE MISSIVE

Touchant la Conversion et Baptesme du grand Sagamos

Paris: JEAN REGNOUL, 1610

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

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

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

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

[Illustration]

A PARIS,

CHEZ IEAN REGNOVL, ruë du Foin,
pres sainct Yues.

1610.

_Auec permission._

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

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

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

PARIS,

JEAN REGNOUL, Rue du Foin,
near Saint Ives.

1610.

_With permission_.

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

MONSIEVR & Frere, Ie n'ay voulu laisser partir le nauire sans vous
faire sçauoir des nouuelles de ce païs que ie croy aurez agreables,
d'autant que ie sçay, qu'estes bon Catholique, C'est que le Grand
Sagamos, qui se dit en nostre langue Grand Capitaine des Sauuages, & le
premier de tous, s'est fait baptiser le iour de la sainct Iean Baptiste
derniere, [4] auec sa femme, ses enfans, & enfans de ses enfans,
iusques au nombre de vingt: auec autant de ferueur, ardeur & zele à la
Religion que pourroit faire vn qui y auroit esté instruict depuis trois
ou quatre ans: Il promet faire baptizer les autres, autrement qu'il
leur fera la guerre: Monsieur de Poutrincourt & Monsieur son fils les
ont tenus au nom du Roy, & de Monseigneur le Dauphin. [_Les nouvelles
de la mort du Roy n'estoi[~e]t encores en ce pays là._] C'est desia vn
beau commencement, ie croy que cy apres ce sera encores mieux: Quant
au pays, iamais ie n'ay veu rien de si beau, meilleur ny plus fertile,
& vous dis auec verité, & sans mentir, que si i'auois trois ou quatre
Laboureurs maintenant auec moy, & [5] pour les nourrir vne année, &
du bled pour ensemencer le labourage qu'ils pourroient faire de leurs
bras seulement, du surplus qui me reuiendroit apres leur nourriture,
i'espererois faire trafiq tous les ans de sept ou huict mille liures
en Castors & Pelleterie: Ie suis bien marry auant que partir que ie ne
sçauois ce que ie sçay, i'eusse employé le verd & le sec ou i'en eusse
amené deux ou trois, & deux muids de bled qui est peu de chose: Vous
asseurant qu'il fait beau trafiquer par deçà & faire vn beau gain: Si
vous voulez y entendre, mandez moy vostre volonté par ce porteur qui
desire retourner & faire trafiq, suiuant ce qu'il a veu. Ie ne vous [6]
en diray dauantage, sinon que ie prieray Dieu Monsieur & frere vous
donner en parfaicte santé tres-longue vie. De la nouuelle France, du
Port Royal ce xxviij. Iuin, 1610.

_Vostre tres-affectionné Frere & seruiteur_

BERTRAND.

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

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

_Your very affectionate Brother and servant_,
BERTRAND.

[Illustration: FIGVRE DV PORT ROYAL EN LA NOVVELLE FRANCE. Par Marc
Lescarbot. 1609.

FROM LESCARBOT'S HISTOIRE DE LA NOVVELLE FRANCE; PARIS, 1612.

(Slightly reduced from original.)]

III-VI

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