|
|
I have traced, in another volume, the life and death of the noble
founder of New France, Samuel de Champlain. It was on Christmas Day,
1635, that his heroic spirit bade farewell to the frame it had
animated, and to the rugged cliff where he had toiled so long to lay
the corner-stone of a Christian empire.
Quebec was without a governor. Who should succeed Champlain and
would his successor be found equally zealous for the Faith, and
friendly to the mission? These doubts, as he himself tells us,
agitated the mind of the Father Superior, Le Jeune; but they were
happily set at rest, when, on a morning in June, he saw a ship
anchoring in the basin below, and, hastening with his brethren to
the landing-place, was there met by Charles Huault de Montmagny, a
Knight of Malta, followed by a train of officers and gentlemen. As
they all climbed the rock together, Montmagny saw a crucifix planted
by the path. He instantly fell on his knees before it; and nobles,
soldiers, sailors, and priests imitated his example. The Jesuits
sang Te Deum at the church, and the cannon roared from the adjacent
fort. Here the new governor was scarcely installed, when a Jesuit
came in to ask if he would be godfather to an Indian about to be
baptized. "Most gladly," replied the pious Montmagny. He repaired on
the instant to the convert's hut, with a company of gayly apparelled
gentlemen; and while the inmates stared in amazement at the scarlet
and embroidery, he bestowed on the dying savage the name of Joseph,
in honor of the spouse of the Virgin and the patron of New France.
[Le Jeune, Relation, 1636, 5 (Cramoisy). "Monsieur le Gouverneur se
transporte aux Cabanes de ces pauures barbares, suivy d'une leste
Noblesse. Je vous laisse à penser quel estonnement à ces Peuples de
voir tant d'écarlate, tant de personnes bien faites sous leurs toits
d'écorce!"] Three days after, he was told that a dead proselyte was
to be buried; on which, leaving the lines of the new fortification
he was tracing, he took in hand a torch, De Lisle, his lieutenant,
took another, Repentigny and St. Jean, gentlemen of his suite, with
a band of soldiers followed, two priests bore the corpse, and thus
all moved together in procession to the place of burial. The Jesuits
were comforted. Champlain himself had not displayed a zeal so
edifying. [Ibid., 83 (Cramoisy).]
A considerable reinforcement came out with Montmagny, and among the
rest several men of birth and substance, with their families and
dependants. "It was a sight to thank God for," exclaims Father Le
Jeune, "to behold these delicate young ladies and these tender
infants issuing from their wooden prison, like day from the shades
of night." The Father, it will be remembered, had for some years
past seen nothing but squaws, with papooses swathed like mummies and
strapped to a board.
He was even more pleased with the contents of a huge packet of
letters that was placed in his hands, bearing the signatures of
nuns, priests, soldiers, courtiers, and princesses. A great interest
in the mission had been kindled in France. Le Jeune's printed
Relations had been read with avidity; and his Jesuit brethren, who,
as teachers, preachers, and confessors, had spread themselves
through the nation, had successfully fanned the rising flame. The
Father Superior finds no words for his joy. "Heaven," he exclaims,
"is the conductor of this enterprise. Nature's arms are not long
enough to touch so many hearts." ["C'est Dieu qui conduit cette
entreprise. La Nature n'a pas les bras assez longs," etc.--Relation,
1636, 3.] He reads how in a single convent, thirteen nuns have
devoted themselves by a vow to the work of converting the Indian
women and children; how, in the church of Montmartre, a nun lies
prostrate day and night before the altar, praying for the mission; [Brébeuf,
Relation des Hurons, 1636, 76.] how "the Carmelites are all on fire,
the Ursulines full of zeal, the sisters of the Visitation have no
words to speak their ardor"; [Le Jeune, Relation, 1636, 6. Compare
"Divers Sentimens," appended to the Relation of 1635.] how some
person unknown, but blessed of Heaven, means to found a school for
Huron children; how the Duchesse d'Aiguillon has sent out six
workmen to build a hospital for the Indians; how, in every house of
the Jesuits, young priests turn eager eyes towards Canada; and how,
on the voyage thither, the devils raised a tempest, endeavoring, in
vain fury, to drown the invaders of their American domain.
| ["L'Enfer enrageant de nous veoir aller en la
Nouuelle France pour conuertir les infidelles et
diminuer sa puissance, par dépit il sousleuoit tous les
Elemens contre nous, et vouloit abysmer la flotte."--Divers
Sentimens.] |
Great was Le Jeune's delight at the exalted rank of some of those
who gave their patronage to the mission; and again and again his
satisfaction flows from his pen in mysterious allusions to these
eminent persons. [Among his correspondents was the young Duc
d'Enghien, afterwards the Great Condé, at this time fifteen years
old. "Dieu soit loüé! tout le ciel de nostre chere Patrie nous
promet de fauorables influences, iusques à ce nouuel astre, qui
commence à paroistre parmy ceux de la premiere grandeur."--Le Jeune,
Relation, 1636, 3, 4.] In his eyes, the vicious imbecile who sat on
the throne of France was the anointed champion of the Faith, and the
cruel and ambitious priest who ruled king and nation alike was the
chosen instrument of Heaven. Church and State, linked in alliance
close and potential, played faithfully into each other's hands; and
that enthusiasm, in which the Jesuit saw the direct inspiration of
God, was fostered by all the prestige of royalty and all the
patronage of power. And, as often happens where the interests of a
hierarchy are identified with the interests of a ruling class,
religion was become a fashion, as graceful and as comforting as the
courtier's embroidered mantle or the court lady's robe of fur.
Such, we may well believe, was the complexion of the enthusiasm
which animated some of Le Jeune's noble and princely correspondents.
But there were deeper fervors, glowing in the still depths of
convent cells, and kindling the breasts of their inmates with
quenchless longings. Yet we hear of no zeal for the mission among
religious communities of men. The Jesuits regarded the field as
their own, and desired no rivals. They looked forward to the day
when Canada should be another Paraguay. ["Que si celuy qui a escrit
cette lettre a leu la Relation de ce qui se passe au Paraguais,
qu'il a veu ce qui se fera un jour en la Nouuelle France."--Le Jeune,
Relation, 1637, 304 (Cramoisy).] It was to the combustible hearts of
female recluses that the torch was most busily applied; and here,
accordingly, blazed forth a prodigious and amazing flame. "If all
had their pious will," writes Le Jeune, "Quebec would soon be
flooded with nuns." [Chaulmer. Le Nouveau Monde Chrestien, 41, is
eloquent on this theme.]
Both Montmagny and De Lisle were half churchmen, for both were
Knights of Malta. More and more the powers spiritual engrossed the
colony. As nearly as might be, the sword itself was in priestly
hands. The Jesuits were all in all. Authority, absolute and without
appeal, was vested in a council composed of the governor, Le Jeune,
and the syndic, an official supposed to represent the interests of
the inhabitants. [Le Clerc, Établissement de la Foy, Chap. XV.]
There was no tribunal of justice, and the governor pronounced
summarily on all complaints. The church adjoined the fort; and
before it was planted a stake bearing a placard with a prohibition
against blasphemy, drunkenness, or neglect of mass and other
religious rites. To the stake was also attached a chain and iron
collar; and hard by was a wooden horse, whereon a culprit was now
and then mounted by way of example and warning. [Le Jeune, Relation,
1636, 153, 154 (Cramoisy).] In a community so absolutely
priest-governed, overt offences were, however, rare; and, except on
the annual arrival of the ships from France, when the rock swarmed
with godless sailors, Quebec was a model of decorum, and wore, as
its chroniclers tell us, an aspect unspeakably edifying.
In the year 1640, various new establishments of religion and charity
might have been seen at Quebec. There was the beginning of a college
and a seminary for Huron children, an embryo Ursuline convent, an
incipient hospital, and a new Algonquin mission at a place called
Sillery, four miles distant. Champlain's fort had been enlarged and
partly rebuilt in stone by Montmagny, who had also laid out streets
on the site of the future city, though as yet the streets had no
houses. Behind the fort, and very near it, stood the church and a
house for the Jesuits. Both were of pine wood: and this year, 1640,
both were burned to the ground, to be afterwards rebuilt in stone.
The Jesuits, however, continued to occupy their rude mission-house
of Notre-Dame des Anges, on the St. Charles, where we first found
them.
The country around Quebec was still an unbroken wilderness, with the
exception of a small clearing made by the Sieur Giffard on his
seigniory of Beauport, another made by M. de Puiseaux between Quebec
and Sillery, and possibly one or two feeble attempts in other
quarters.1 The total population did not
much exceed two hundred, including women and children. Of this
number, by far the greater part were agents of the fur company known
as the Hundred Associates, and men in their employ. Some of these
had brought over their families. The remaining inhabitants were
priests, nuns, and a very few colonists.
The Company of the Hundred Associates was bound by its charter to
send to Canada four thousand colonists before the year 1643. [See
"Pioneers of France," 399.] It had neither the means nor the will to
fulfil this engagement. Some of its members were willing to make
personal sacrifices for promoting the missions, and building up a
colony purely Catholic. Others thought only of the profits of trade;
and the practical affairs of the company had passed entirely into
the hands of this portion of its members. They sought to evade
obligations the fulfilment of which would have ruined them. Instead
of sending out colonists, they granted lands with the condition that
the grantees should furnish a certain number of settlers to clear
and till them, and these were to be credited to the Company.2
The grantees took the land, but rarely fulfilled the condition. Some
of these grants were corrupt and iniquitous. Thus, a son of Lauson,
president of the Company, received, in the name of a third person, a
tract of land on the south side of the St. Lawrence of sixty leagues
front. To this were added all the islands in that river, excepting
those of Montreal and Orleans, together with the exclusive right of
fishing in it through its whole extent.3
Lauson sent out not a single colonist to these vast concessions.
There was no real motive for emigration. No persecution expelled the
colonist from his home; for none but good Catholics were tolerated
in New France. The settler could not trade with the Indians, except
on condition of selling again to the Company at a fixed price. He
might hunt, but he could not fish; and he was forced to beg or buy
food for years before he could obtain it from that rude soil in
sufficient quantity for the wants of his family. The Company
imported provisions every year for those in its employ; and of these
supplies a portion was needed for the relief of starving settlers.
Giffard and his seven men on his seigniory of Beauport were for some
time the only settlers--excepting, perhaps, the Hébert family--who
could support themselves throughout the year. The rigor of the
climate repelled the emigrant; nor were the attractions which Father
Le Jeune held forth--"piety, freedom, and independence"--of a nature
to entice him across the sea, when it is remembered that this
freedom consisted in subjection to the arbitrary will of a priest
and a soldier, and in the liability, should he forget to go to mass,
of being made fast to a post with a collar and chain, like a dog.
Aside from the fur trade of the Company, the whole life of the
colony was in missions, convents, religious schools, and hospitals.
Here on the rock of Quebec were the appendages, useful and
otherwise, of an old-established civilization. While as yet there
were no inhabitants, and no immediate hope of any, there were
institutions for the care of children, the sick, and the decrepit.
All these were supported by a charity in most cases precarious. The
Jesuits relied chiefly on the Company, who, by the terms of their
patent, were obliged to maintain religious worship.4
Of the origin of the convent, hospital, and seminary I shall soon
have occasion to speak.
Quebec wore an aspect half military, half monastic. At sunrise and
sunset, a squad of soldiers in the pay of the Company paraded in the
fort; and, as in Champlain's time, the bells of the church rang
morning, noon, and night. Confessions, masses, and penances were
punctiliously observed; and, from the governor to the meanest
laborer, the Jesuit watched and guided all. The social atmosphere of
New England itself was not more suffocating. By day and by night, at
home, at church, or at his daily work, the colonist lived under the
eyes of busy and over-zealous priests. At times, the denizens of
Quebec grew restless. In 1639, deputies were covertly sent to beg
relief in France, and "to represent the hell in which the
consciences of the colony were kept by the union of the temporal and
spiritual authority in the same hands." ["Pour leur representer la
gehenne où estoient les consciences de la Colonie, de se voir
gouverné par les mesmes personnes pour le spirituel et pour le
temporel."--Le Clerc, I. 478.] In 1642, partial and ineffective
measures were taken, with the countenance of Richelieu, for
introducing into New France an Order less greedy of seigniories and
endowments than the Jesuits, and less prone to political
encroachment.5 No favorable result
followed; and the colony remained as before, in a pitiful state of
cramping and dwarfing vassalage.
This is the view of a heretic. It was the aim of the founders of New
France to build on a foundation purely and supremely Catholic. What
this involved is plain; for no degree of personal virtue is a
guaranty against the evils which attach to the temporal rule of
ecclesiastics. Burning with love and devotion to Christ and his
immaculate Mother, the fervent and conscientious priest regards with
mixed pity and indignation those who fail in this supreme
allegiance. Piety and charity alike demand that he should bring back
the rash wanderer to the fold of his divine Master, and snatch him
from the perdition into which his guilt must otherwise plunge him.
And while he, the priest, himself yields reverence and obedience to
the Superior, in whom he sees the representative of Deity, it
behooves him, in his degree, to require obedience from those whom he
imagines that God has confided to his guidance. His conscience,
then, acts in perfect accord with the love of power innate in the
human heart. These allied forces mingle with a perplexing subtlety;
pride, disguised even from itself, walks in the likeness of love and
duty; and a thousand times on the pages of history we find Hell
beguiling the virtues of Heaven to do its work. The instinct of
domination is a weed that grows rank in the shadow of the temple,
climbs over it, possesses it, covers its ruin, and feeds on its
decay. The unchecked sway of priests has always been the most
mischievous of tyrannies; and even were they all well-meaning and
sincere, it would be so still.
To the Jesuits, the atmosphere of Quebec was well-nigh celestial.
"In the climate of New France," they write, "one learns perfectly to
seek only God, to have no desire but God, no purpose but for God."
And again: "To live in New France is in truth to live in the bosom
of God." "If," adds Le Jeune, "any one of those who die in this
country goes to perdition, I think he will be doubly guilty."
| ["La Nouuelle France est vn vray climat où on
apprend parfaictement bien à ne chercher que Dieu, ne
desirer que Dieu seul, auoir l'intention purement à Dieu,
etc. . . . Viure en la Nouuelle France, c'est à vray
dire viure dans le sein de Dieu, et ne respirer que
l'air de sa Diuine conduite."--Divers Sentimens. "Si
quelqu'un de ceux qui meurent en ces contrées se damne,
je croy qu'il sera doublement coupable."--Relation,
1640, 5 (Cramoisy).] |
The very amusements of this pious community were acts of
religion. Thus, on the fête-day of St. Joseph, the patron of New
France, there was a show of fireworks to do him honor. In the forty
volumes of the Jesuit Relations there is but one pictorial
illustration; and this represents the pyrotechnic contrivance in
question, together with a figure of the Governor in the act of
touching it off. [Relation, 1637, 8. The Relations, as originally
published, comprised about forty volumes.] But, what is more
curious, a Catholic writer of the present day, the Abbé Faillon, in
an elaborate and learned work, dilates at length on the details of
the display; and this, too, with a gravity which evinces his
conviction that squibs, rockets, blue-lights, and serpents are
important instruments for the saving of souls. [Histoire de la
Colonie Française, I. 291, 292.] On May-Day of the same year, 1637,
Montmagny planted before the church a May-pole surmounted by a
triple crown, beneath which were three symbolical circles decorated
with wreaths, and bearing severally the names, Iesus, Maria, Ioseph;
the soldiers drew up before it, and saluted it with a volley of
musketry. [Relation, 1637, 82.]
On the anniversary of the Dauphin's birth there was a dramatic
performance, in which an unbeliever, speaking Algonquin for the
profit of the Indians present, was hunted into Hell by fiends. [Vimont,
Relation, 1640, 6.] Religious processions were frequent. In one of
them, the Governor in a court dress and a baptized Indian in
beaver-skins were joint supporters of the canopy which covered the
Host. [Le Jeune, Relation, 1638, 6.] In another, six Indians led the
van, arrayed each in a velvet coat of scarlet and gold sent them by
the King. Then came other Indian converts, two and two; then the
foundress of the Ursuline convent, with Indian children in French
gowns; then all the Indian girls and women, dressed after their own
way; then the priests; then the Governor; and finally the whole
French population, male and female, except the artillery-men at the
fort, who saluted with their cannon the cross and banner borne at
the head of the procession. When all was over, the Governor and the
Jesuits rewarded the Indians with a feast. [Le Jeune, Relation,
1639, 3.]
Now let the stranger enter the church of Notre-Dame de La
Recouvrance, after vespers. It is full, to the very porch: officers
in slouched hats and plumes, musketeers, pikemen, mechanics, and
laborers. Here is Montmagny himself; Repentigny and Poterie,
gentlemen of good birth; damsels of nurture ill fitted to the
Canadian woods; and, mingled with these, the motionless Indians,
wrapped to the throat in embroidered moose-hides. Le Jeune, not in
priestly vestments, but in the common black dress of his Order, is
before the altar; and on either side is a row of small red-skinned
children listening with exemplary decorum, while, with a cheerful,
smiling face, he teaches them to kneel, clasp their hands, and sign
the cross. All the principal members of this zealous community are
present, at once amused and edified at the grave deportment, and the
prompt, shrill replies of the infant catechumens; while their
parents in the crowd grin delight at the gifts of beads and trinkets
with which Le Jeune rewards his most proficient pupils. [Le Jeune,
Relation, 1637, 122 (Cramoisy).]
We have seen the methods of conversion practised among the Hurons.
They were much the same at Quebec. The principal appeal was to fear.
[Ibid., 1636, 119, and 1637, 32 (Cramoisy). "La crainte est l'auan
couriere de la foy dans ces esprits barbares."] "You do good to your
friends," said Le Jeune to an Algonquin chief, "and you burn your
enemies. God does the same." And he painted Hell to the startled
neophyte as a place where, when he was hungry, he would get nothing
to eat but frogs and snakes, and, when thirsty, nothing to drink but
flames. [Le Jeune, Relation, 1637, 80-82 (Cramoisy). "Avoir faim et
ne manger que des serpens et des crapaux, avoir soif et ne boire que
des flammes."] Pictures were found invaluable. "These holy
representations," pursues the Father Superior, "are half the
instruction that can be given to the Indians. I wanted some pictures
of Hell and souls in perdition, and a few were sent us on paper; but
they are too confused. The devils and the men are so mixed up, that
one can make out nothing without particular attention. If three,
four, or five devils were painted tormenting a soul with different
punishments,--one applying fire, another serpents, another tearing
him with pincers, and another holding him fast with a chain,--this
would have a good effect, especially if everything were made
distinct, and misery, rage, and desperation appeared plainly in his
face."
| ["Les heretiques sont grandement blasmables, de
condamner et de briser les images qui ont de si bons
effets. Ces sainctes figures sont la moitié de
l'instruction qu'on peut donner aux Sauuages. I'auois
desiré quelques portraits de l'enfer et de l'âme damnée;
on nous en a enuoyé quelques vns en papier, mais cela
est trop confus. Les diables sont tellement meslez auec
les hommes, qu'on n'y peut rien recognoistre, qu'auec
vne particuliere attention. Qui depeindroit trois ou
quatre ou cinq demons, tourmentans vne âme de diuers
supplices, l'vn luy appliquant des feux, l'autre des
serpens, l'autre la tenaillant, l'autre la tenant liée
auec des chaisnes, cela auroit vn bon effet, notamment
si tout estoit bien distingué, et que la rage et la
tristesse parussent bien en la face de cette âme
desesperée"--Relation, 1637, 32 (Cramoisy).] |
The preparation of the convert for baptism was often very slight.
A dying Algonquin, who, though meagre as a skeleton, had thrown
himself, with a last effort of expiring ferocity, on an Iroquois
prisoner, and torn off his ear with his teeth, was baptized almost
immediately.6 In the case of converts in
health there was far more preparation; yet these often apostatized.
The various objects of instruction may all be included in one
comprehensive word, submission,--an abdication of will and judgment
in favor of the spiritual director, who was the interpreter and
vicegerent of God. The director's function consisted in the
enforcement of dogmas by which he had himself been subdued, in which
he believed profoundly, and to which he often clung with an
absorbing enthusiasm. The Jesuits, an Order thoroughly and
vehemently reactive, had revived in Europe the mediæval type of
Christianity, with all its attendant superstitions. Of these the
Canadian missions bear abundant marks. Yet, on the whole, the labors
of the missionaries tended greatly to the benefit of the Indians.
Reclaimed, as the Jesuits tried to reclaim them, from their
wandering life, settled in habits of peaceful industry, and reduced
to a passive and childlike obedience, they would have gained more
than enough to compensate them for the loss of their ferocious and
miserable independence. At least, they would have escaped
annihilation. The Society of Jesus aspired to the mastery of all New
France; but the methods of its ambition were consistent with a
Christian benevolence. Had this been otherwise, it would have
employed other instruments. It would not have chosen a Jogues or a
Garnier. The Society had men for every work, and it used them
wisely. It utilized the apostolic virtues of its Canadian
missionaries, fanned their enthusiasm, and decorated itself with
their martyr crowns. With joy and gratulation, it saw them rival in
another hemisphere the noble memory of its saint and hero, Francis
Xavier. [Enemies of the Jesuits, while denouncing them in unmeasured
terms, speak in strong eulogy of many of the Canadian missionaries.
See, for example, Steinmetz, History of the Jesuits, II. 415.]
I have spoken of the colonists as living in a state of temporal and
spiritual vassalage. To this there was one exception,--a small class
of men whose home was the forest, and their companions savages. They
followed the Indians in their roamings, lived with them, grew
familiar with their language, allied themselves with their women,
and often became oracles in the camp and leaders on the war-path.
Champlain's bold interpreter, Étienne Brulé, whose adventures I have
recounted elsewhere, ["Pioneers of France," 377.] may be taken as a
type of this class. Of the rest, the most conspicuous were Jean
Nicollet, Jacques Hertel, François Marguerie, and Nicolas Marsolet.7
Doubtless, when they returned from their rovings, they often had
pressing need of penance and absolution; yet, for the most part,
they were good Catholics, and some of them were zealous for the
missions. Nicollet and others were at times settled as interpreters
at Three Rivers and Quebec. Several of them were men of great
intelligence and an invincible courage. From hatred of restraint,
and love of a wild and adventurous independence, they encountered
privations and dangers scarcely less than those to which the Jesuit
exposed himself from motives widely different,--he from religious
zeal, charity, and the hope of Paradise; they simply because they
liked it. Some of the best families of Canada claim descent from
this vigorous and hardy stock.
Nicollet, especially, was a remarkable man. As early as 1639, he
ascended the Green Bay of Lake Michigan, and crossed to the waters
of the Mississippi. This was first shown by the researches of Mr.
Shea. See his Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley,
XX.]
1 For Giffard, Puiseaux, and other colonists,
compare Langevin, Notes sur les Archives de Notre-Dame de Beauport,
5, 6, 7; Ferland, Notes sur les Archives de N. D. de Québec, 22, 24
(1863); Ibid., Cours d'Histoire du Canada, I. 266; Le Jeune,
Relation, 1636, 45; Faillon, Histoire de la Colonie Française, I. c.
iv., v.
2 This appears in many early grants of the
Company. Thus, in a grant to Simon Le Maitre, Jan. 15, 1636, "que
les hommes que le dit . . . fera passer en la N. F. tourneront à la
décharge de la dite Compagnie," etc., etc.--See Pièces sur la Tenure
Seigneuriale, published by the Canadian government, passim.
3 Archives du Séminaire de Villemarie, cited by
Faillon, I. 350. Lauson's father owned Montreal. The son's grant
extended from the River St. Francis to a point far above
Montreal.--La Fontaine, Mémoire sur la Famille de Lauson.
4 It is a principle of the Jesuits, that each of
its establishments shall find a support of its own, and not be a
burden on the general funds of the Society. The Relations are full
of appeals to the charity of devout persons in behalf of the
missions.
"Of what use to the country at this period could have been two
communities of cloistered nuns?" asks the modern historian of the
Ursulines of Quebec. And he answers by citing the words of Pope
Gregory the Great, who, when Rome was ravaged by famine, pestilence,
and the barbarians, declared that his only hope was in the prayers
of the three thousand nuns then assembled in the holy city.--Les
Ursulines de Québec. Introd., XI.
5 Declaration de Pierre Breant, par devant les
Notaires du Roy, MS. The Order was that of the Capuchins, who, like
the Récollets, are a branch of the Franciscans. Their introduction
into Canada was prevented; but they established themselves in Maine.
6 "Ce seroit vne estrange cruauté de voir
descendre vne âme toute viuante dans les enfers, par le refus d'vn
bien que Iesus Christ luy a acquis au prix de son sang."--Relation,
1637, 66 (Cramoisy).
"Considerez d'autre coté la grande appréhension que nous avions
sujet de redouter la guérison; pour autant que bien souvent étant
guéris il ne leur reste du St. Baptême que le caractère."--Lettres
de Garnier, MSS.
It was not very easy to make an Indian comprehend the nature of
baptism. An Iroquois at Montreal, hearing a missionary speaking of
the water which cleansed the soul from sin, said that he was well
acquainted with it, as the Dutch had once given him so much that
they were forced to tie him, hand and foot, to prevent him from
doing mischief.--Faillon II. 43.
7 See Ferland, Notes sur les Registres de N. D. de
Québec, 30.
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The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century, 1867
Jesuits
in North America
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