Table Of Content3
CHRONICLES OF CANADA
Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton
In thirty-two volumes
4
THE JESUIT MISSIONS
BY THOMAS GUTHRIE MARQUIS
Part II
The Rise of New France
4
THE JESUITS WELCOMED BY THE RÉCOLLETS, 1625,
From a colour drawing by C. W. Jefferys
5
THE
JESUIT MISSIONS
A Chronicle of the Cross
in the Wilderness
BY
THOMAS GUTHRIE MARQUIS
TORONTO
GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY
1920
Copyright in all Countries subscribing to the Berne Convention
Press of The Hunter-Rose Co., Limited, Toronto
6
Table of Contents
I. The Récollet Friars
II. The Jesuits at Quebec
III. In Huronia
IV. The Adventurers of Canada
V. The Return to Huronia
VI. The Martyrs
VII. The Dispersion of the Hurons
VIII. The Iroquois Mission
IX. The Mission of Ville Marie
X. The Missionary Explorers
XI. The last Phase
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
INDEX
7
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE JESUITS WELCOMED BY THE RÉCOLLETS, 1625.
From a colour drawing by C. W. Jefferys.
HURONIA OF THE RELATIONS.
Based on the Map by the Rev. A. E. Jones, S.J.
JEAN DE BRÉBEUF.
From a painting in the House of the Immaculate Conception, Montreal.
SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER, EARL STIRLING.
From the John Ross Robertson Collection, Toronto Public Library.
PAUL LE JEUNE.
From a painting in the House of the Immaculate Conception, Montreal.
MADAME DE LA PELTRIE.
From a painting in the Ursuline Convent, Quebec.
ISAAC JOGUES.
From an engraving by S. Hollyer.
JEANNE MANCE.
From a portrait in the Château de Ramezay, Montreal.
JACQUES MARQUETTE.
From a portrait in the Château de Ramezay, Montreal.
JEAN JOSEPH CASOT, THE LAST OF THE JESUITS OF NEW
FRANCE.
From a painting in the House of the Immaculate Conception, Montreal.
8
9
CHAPTER I
THE RÉCOLLET FRIARS
ForsevenyearsthecolonywhichChamplainfoundedattherockofQuebec
lived without priests.[1] Perhaps the lack was not seriously felt, for most
of the twoscore inmates of the settlement were Huguenot traders. But out
in the great land, in every direction from the rude dwellings that housed
the pioneers of Canada, roamed savage tribes, living, said Champlain, 'like
brute beasts.' It was Champlain's ardent desire to reclaim these beings of
thewilderness.Thesalvationofonesoulwastohim'ofmorevaluethanthe
conquest of an empire.' Not far from his native town of Brouage there was
a community of the Récollets, and, during one of his periodical sojourns
in France, he invited them to send missionaries to Canada. The Récollets
responded to his appeal, and it was arranged that several of their number
shouldsailwithhimtotheStLawrenceinthefollowingspring.So,inMay
1615,threeRécolletfriars--DenisJamay,Jeand'Olbeau,JosephLeCaron--
andalaybrothernamedPacificusduPlessis,landedatTadoussac.Tothese
four men is due the honour of founding the first permanent mission among
the Indians of New France. An earlier undertaking of the Jesuits in Acadia
(1611-13) had been broken up. The Canadian mission is usually associated
withtheJesuits,andrightlyso,fortothem,asweshallsee,belongsitsmost
glorious history; but it was the Récollets who pioneered the way.
When the friars reached Quebec they arranged a division of labour in this
manner: Jamay and Du Plessis were to remain at Quebec; D'Olbeau was to
returntoTadoussacandessaythethornytaskofconvertingthetribesround
that fishing and trading station; while to Le Caron was assigned a more
distant field, but one that promised a rich harvest. Six or seven hundred
miles from Quebec, in the region of Lake Simcoe and the Georgian Bay,
dwelttheHurons,asedentarypeoplelivinginvillagesandpractisingarude
agriculture.
In these respects they differed from the Algonquin tribes of the St
Lawrence, who had no fixed abodes and depended on forest and stream
for a living. The Hurons, too, were bound to the French by both war and
10
trade. Champlain had assisted them and the Algonquins in battle against
the common foe, the Iroquois or Five Nations, and a flotilla of canoes
from the Huron country, bringing furs to one of the trading-posts on the St
Lawrence, was an annual event. The Récollets, therefore, felt confident of
a friendly reception among the Hurons; and it was with buoyant hopes that
Le Caron girded himself for the journey to his distant mission-field.
HURONIA OF THE RELATIONS;
Based on the Map by the Rev. A. E. Jones,
S.J.
On the 6th or 7th of July, in company with a party of Hurons, Le Caron
set out from the island of Montreal. The Hurons had come down to trade,
and to arrange with Champlain for another punitive expedition against the
Iroquois, and were now returning to their own villages. It was a laborious
and painful journey--up the Ottawa, across Lake Nipissing, and down the
FrenchRiver--butatlengththefriarstoodontheshoresofLakeHuron,the
first of white men to see its waters. From the mouth of the French River
the course lay southward for more than a hundred miles along the east
shore of Georgian Bay, until the party arrived at the peninsula which lies
between Nottawasaga and Matchedash Bays. Three or four miles inland
from the west shore of this peninsula stood the town of Carhagouha, a
triple-palisaded stronghold of the Hurons. Here the Indians gave the priest
11
anenthusiasticwelcomeandinvitedhimtosharetheircommonlodges;but
ashedesiredaretreat'inwhichhecouldmeditateinsilence,'theybuilthim
a commodious cabin apart from the village. A few days later Champlain
himselfappearedonthescene;anditwasonthe12thofAugustthatheand
hisfollowersattendedinLeCaron'scabinthefirstMasscelebratedinwhat
is now the province of Ontario. Then, while Le Caron began his efforts
for the conversion of the benighted Hurons, Champlain went off with the
warriors on a very different mission--an invasion of the Iroquois country.
The commencement of religious endeavour in Huronia is thus marked by
an event that was to intensify the hatred of the ferocious Iroquois against
both the Hurons and the French.
LeCaronspenttheremainderoftheyear1615amongtheHurons,studying
the people, learning the language, and compiling a dictionary. Champlain,
his expedition ended, returned to Huronia and remained there until the
middle of January, when he and Le Caron set out on a visit to the Petun or
Tobacco Nation, then dwelling on the southern shore of Nottawasaga Bay,
a two-days' journey south-west of Carhagouha. There had been as yet no
direct communication between the French and the Petuns, and the visitors
werenotkindlyreceived.ThePetunsorcerersormedicine-mendreadedthe
influence of the grey-robed friar, regarded him as a rival, and caused his
teachings to be derided. After an uncomfortable month Champlain and Le
Caron returned to Carhagouha, where they remained until the 20th of May,
and then set out for Quebec.
When Le Caron reached Quebec on the 11th of July (1616) he found that
his comrades had not been idle. A chapel had been built, in what is now
theLowerTown,closetothehabitation,andhereFatherJamayministered
to the spiritual needs of the colonists and laboured among the Indians
camped in the vicinity of the trading-post. Father d'Olbeau had been busy
among the Montagnais, a wandering Algonquin tribe between Tadoussac
and Seven Islands, his reward being chiefly suffering. The filth and smoke
of the Indian wigwams tortured him, the disgusting food of the natives
filled him with loathing, and their vice and indifference to his teaching
weighed on his spirit.
12
