The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century Part 8

[ 1 Nevertheless, the Hurons always pa.s.sed this way as a matter of favor, and gave yearly presents to the Algonquins of the island, in acknowledgment of the privilege--Le Jeune, Relation, 1636, 70.--By the unwritten laws of the Hurons and Algonquins, every tribe had the right, even in full peace, of prohibiting the pa.s.sage of every other tribe across its territory. In ordinary cases, such prohibitions were quietly submitted to.

"Ces Insulaires voudraient bien que les Hurons ne vinssent point aux Francois & que les Francois n'alla.s.sent point aux Hurons, afin d'emporter eux seuls tout le trafic," etc.--Relation, 1633, 205 (Cramoisy),-- "desirans eux-mesmes aller recueiller les marchandises des peuples circonvoisins pour les apporter aux Francois." This "Nation de l'Isle"

has been erroneously located at Montreal. Its true position is indicated on the map of Du Creux, and on an ancient MS. map in the Depot des Cartes, of which a fac-simile is before me. See also "Pioneers of France," 347. ]

In the July that preceded Le Jeune's wintering with the Montagnais, a Huron Indian, well known to the French, came to Quebec with the tidings, that the annual canoe-fleet of his countrymen was descending the St. Lawrence. On the twenty-eighth, the river was alive with them.

A hundred and forty canoes, with six or seven hundred savages, landed at the warehouses beneath the fortified rock of Quebec, and set up their huts and camp-sheds on the strand now covered by the lower town.

The greater number brought furs and tobacco for the trade; others came as sight-seers; others to gamble, and others to steal, [ 1 ]

--accomplishments in which the Hurons were proficient: their gambling skill being exercised chiefly against each other, and their thieving talents against those of other nations.

[ 1 "Quelques vns d'entre eux ne viennent a la traite auec les Francois que pour iouer, d'autres pour voir, quelques vns pour derober, et les plus sages et les plus riches pour trafiquer."--Le Jeune, Relation, 1633, 34. ]

The routine of these annual visits was nearly uniform. On the first day, the Indians built their huts; on the second, they held their council with the French officers at the fort; on the third and fourth, they bartered their furs and tobacco for kettles, hatchets, knives, cloth, beads, iron arrow-heads, coats, shirts, and other commodities; on the fifth, they were feasted by the French; and at daybreak of the next morning, they embarked and vanished like a flight of birds.

[ "Comme une volee d'oiseaux."--Le Jeune, Relation, 1633, 190 (Cramoisy).

--The tobacco brought to the French by the Hurons may have been raised by the adjacent tribe of the Tionnontates, who cultivated it largely for sale. See Introduction. ]

On the second day, then, the long file of chiefs and warriors mounted the pathway to the fort,--tall, well-moulded figures, robed in the skins of the beaver and the bear, each wild visage glowing with paint and glistening with the oil which the Hurons extracted from the seeds of the sunflower. The lank black hair of one streamed loose upon his shoulders; that of another was close shaven, except an upright ridge, which, bristling like the crest of a dragoon's helmet, crossed the crown from the forehead to the neck; while that of a third hung, long and flowing from one side, but on the other was cut short. Sixty chiefs and princ.i.p.al men, with a crowd of younger warriors, formed their council- circle in the fort, those of each village grouped together, and all seated on the ground with a gravity of bearing sufficiently curious to those who had seen the same men in the domestic circle of their lodge-fires. Here, too, were the Jesuits, robed in black, anxious and intent; and here was Champlain, who, as he surveyed the throng, recognized among the elder warriors not a few of those who, eighteen years before, had been his companions in arms on his hapless foray against the Iroquois. [ See "Pioneers of France," 370. ]

Their harangues of compliment being made and answered, and the inevitable presents given and received, Champlain introduced to the silent conclave the three missionaries, Brebeuf, Daniel, and Davost. To their lot had fallen the honors, dangers, and woes of the Huron mission. "These are our fathers," he said. "We love them more than we love ourselves.

The whole French nation honors them. They do not go among you for your furs. They have left their friends and their country to show you the way to heaven. If you love the French, as you say you love them, then love and honor these our fathers." [ Le Jeune, Relation, 1633, 274 (Cramoisy); Mercure Francais, 1634. 845. ]

Two chiefs rose to reply, and each lavished all his rhetoric in praises of Champlain and of the French. Brebeuf rose next, and spoke in broken Huron,--the a.s.sembly jerking in unison, from the bottom of their throats, repeated e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns of applause. Then they surrounded him, and vied with each other for the honor of carrying him in their canoes. In short, the mission was accepted; and the chiefs of the different villages disputed among themselves the privilege of receiving and entertaining the three priests.

On the last of July, the day of the feast of St. Ignatius, Champlain and several masters of trading vessels went to the house of the Jesuits in quest of indulgences; and here they were soon beset by a crowd of curious Indians, who had finished their traffic, and were making a tour of observation. Being excluded from the house, they looked in at the windows of the room which served as a chapel; and Champlain, amused at their exclamations of wonder, gave one of them a piece of citron.

The Huron tasted it, and, enraptured, demanded what it was. Champlain replied, laughing, that it was the rind of a French pumpkin. The fame of this delectable production was instantly spread abroad; and, at every window, eager voices and outstretched hands pet.i.tioned for a share of the marvellous vegetable. They were at length allowed to enter the chapel, which had lately been decorated with a few hangings, images, and pieces of plate. These unwonted splendors filled them with admiration. They asked if the dove over the altar was the bird that makes the thunder; and, pointing to the images of Loyola and Xavier, inquired if they were _okies_, or spirits: nor was their perplexity much diminished by Brebeuf's explanation of their true character. Three images of the Virgin next engaged their attention; and, in answer to their questions, they were told that they were the mother of Him who made the world. This greatly amused them, and they demanded if he had three mothers. "Oh!" exclaims the Father Superior, "had we but images of all the holy mysteries of our faith! They are a great a.s.sistance, for they speak their own lesson."

[ Relation, 1633, 38. ] The mission was not doomed long to suffer from a dearth of these inestimable auxiliaries.

The eve of departure came. The three priests packed their baggage, and Champlain paid their pa.s.sage, or, in other words, made presents to the Indians who were to carry them in their canoes. They lodged that night in the storehouse of the fur company, around which the Hurons were encamped; and Le Jeune and De Noue stayed with them to bid them farewell in the morning. At eleven at night, they were roused by a loud voice in the Indian camp, and saw Le Borgne, the one-eyed chief of Allumette Island, walking round among the huts, haranguing as he went. Brebeuf, listening, caught the import of his words. "We have begged the French captain to spare the life of the Algonquin of the Pet.i.te Nation whom he keeps in prison; but he will not listen to us. The prisoner will die.

Then his people will revenge him. They will try to kill the three black-robes whom you are about to carry to your country. If you do not defend them, the French will be angry, and charge you with their death.

But if you do, then the Algonquins will make war on you, and the river will be closed. If the French captain will not let the prisoner go, then leave the three black-robes where they are; for, if you take them with you, they will bring you to trouble."

Such was the substance of Le Borgne's harangue. The anxious priests hastened up to the fort, gained admittance, and roused Champlain from his slumbers. He sent his interpreter with a message to the Hurons, that he wished to speak to them before their departure; and, accordingly, in the morning an Indian crier proclaimed through their camp that none should embark till the next day. Champlain convoked the chiefs, and tried persuasion, promises, and threats; but Le Borgne had been busy among them with his intrigues, and now he declared in the council, that, unless the prisoner were released, the missionaries would be murdered on their way, and war would ensue. The politic savage had two objects in view.

On the one hand, he wished to interrupt the direct intercourse between the French and the Hurons; and, on the other, he thought to gain credit and influence with the nation of the prisoner by effecting his release.

His first point was won. Champlain would not give up the murderer, knowing those with whom he was dealing too well to take a course which would have proclaimed the killing of a Frenchman a venial offence.

The Hurons thereupon refused to carry the missionaries to their country; coupling the refusal with many regrets and many protestations of love, partly, no doubt, sincere,--for the Jesuits had contrived to gain no little favor in their eyes. The council broke up, the Hurons embarked, and the priests returned to their convent.

Here, under the guidance of Brebeuf, they employed themselves, amid their other avocations, in studying the Huron tongue. A year pa.s.sed, and again the Indian traders descended from their villages. In the meanwhile, grievous calamities had befallen the nation. They had suffered deplorable reverses at the hands of the Iroquois; while a pestilence, similar to that which a few years before had swept off the native populations of New England, had begun its ravages among them. They appeared at Three Rivers--this year the place of trade--in small numbers, and in a miserable state of dejection and alarm. Du Plessis Bochart, commander of the French fleet, called them to a council, harangued them, feasted them, and made them presents; but they refused to take the Jesuits. In private, however, some of them were gained over; then again refused; then, at the eleventh hour, a second time consented. On the eve of embarkation, they once more wavered. All was confusion, doubt, and uncertainty, when Brebeuf bethought him of a vow to St. Joseph.

The vow was made. At once, he says, the Indians became tractable; the Fathers embarked, and, amid salvos of cannon from the ships, set forth for the wild scene of their apostleship.

They reckoned the distance at nine hundred miles; but distance was the least repellent feature of this most arduous journey. Barefoot, lest their shoes should injure the frail vessel, each crouched in his canoe, toiling with unpractised hands to propel it. Before him, week after week, he saw the same lank, unkempt hair, the same tawny shoulders, and long, naked arms ceaselessly plying the paddle. The canoes were soon separated; and, for more than a month, the Frenchmen rarely or never met.

Brebeuf spoke a little Huron, and could converse with his escort; but Daniel and Davost were doomed to a silence unbroken save by the occasional unintelligible complaints and menaces of the Indians, of whom many were sick with the epidemic, and all were terrified, desponding, and sullen. Their only food was a pittance of Indian corn, crushed between two stones and mixed with water. The toil was extreme. Brebeuf counted thirty-five portages, where the canoes were lifted from the water, and carried on the shoulders of the voyagers around rapids or cataracts.

More than fifty times, besides, they were forced to wade in the raging current, pushing up their empty barks, or dragging them with ropes.

Brebeuf tried to do his part; but the boulders and sharp rocks wounded his naked feet, and compelled him to desist. He and his companions bore their share of the baggage across the portages, sometimes a distance of several miles. Four trips, at the least, were required to convey the whole. The way was through the dense forest, inc.u.mbered with rocks and logs, tangled with roots and underbrush, damp with perpetual shade, and redolent of decayed leaves and mouldering wood. [ 1 ] The Indians themselves were often spent with fatigue. Brebeuf, a man of iron frame and a nature unconquerably resolute, doubted if his strength would sustain him to the journey's end. He complains that he had no moment to read his breviary, except by the moonlight or the fire, when stretched out to sleep on a bare rock by some savage cataract of the Ottawa, or in a damp nook of the adjacent forest.

[ 1 "Adioustez a ces difficultez, qu'il faut coucher sur la terre nue, ou sur quelque dure roche, faute de trouuer dix ou douze pieds de terre en quarre pour placer vne chetiue cabane; qu'il faut sentir incessamment la puanteur des Sauuages recreus, marcher dans les eaux, dans les fanges, dans l'obscurite et l'embarras des forest, ou les piqueures d'vne mult.i.tude infinie de mousquilles et cousins vous importunent fort."-- Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1635, 25, 26. ]

All the Jesuits, as well as several of their countrymen who accompanied them, suffered more or less at the hands of their ill-humored conductors.

[ 1 ] Davost's Indian robbed him of a part of his baggage, threw a part into the river, including most of the books and writing-materials of the three priests, and then left him behind, among the Algonquins of Allumette Island. He found means to continue the journey, and at length reached the Huron towns in a lamentable state of bodily prostration.

Daniel, too, was deserted, but fortunately found another party who received him into their canoe. A young Frenchman, named Martin, was abandoned among the Nip.i.s.sings; another, named Baron, on reaching the Huron country, was robbed by his conductors of all he had, except the weapons in his hands. Of these he made good use, compelling the robbers to restore a part of their plunder.

[ 1 "En ce voyage, il nous a fallu tous commencer par ces experiences a porter la Croix que Nostre Seigneur nous presente pour son honneur, et pour le salut de ces pauures Barbares. Certes ie me suis trouue quelquesfois si las, que le corps n'en pouuoit plus. Mais d'ailleurs mon ame ressentoit de tres-grands contentemens, considerant que ie souffrois pour Dieu: nul ne le scait, s'il ne l'experimente. Tous n'en ont pas este quittes a si bon marche."--Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1635, 26.

Three years afterwards, a paper was printed by the Jesuits of Paris, called Instruction pour les Peres de nostre Compagnie qui seront enuoiez aux Hurons, and containing directions for their conduct on this route by the Ottawa. It is highly characteristic, both of the missionaries and of the Indians. Some of the points are, in substance, as follows.--You should love the Indians like brothers, with whom you are to spend the rest of your life.--Never make them wait for you in embarking.--Take a flint and steel to light their pipes and kindle their fire at night; for these little services win their hearts.--Try to eat their sagamite as they cook it, bad and dirty as it is.--Fasten up the skirts of your ca.s.sock, that you may not carry water or sand into the canoe.--Wear no shoes or stockings in the canoe; but you may put them on in crossing the portages.--Do not make yourself troublesome, even to a single Indian.--Do not ask them too many questions.--Bear their faults in silence, and appear always cheerful.--Buy fish for them from the tribes you will pa.s.s; and for this purpose take with you some awls, beads, knives, and fish-hooks.--Be not ceremonious with the Indians; take at once what they offer you: ceremony offends them.--Be very careful, when in the canoe, that the brim of your hat does not annoy them. Perhaps it would be better to wear your night-cap. There is no such thing as impropriety among Indians.--Remember that it is Christ and his cross that you are seeking; and if you aim at anything else, you will get nothing but affliction for body and mind. ]

Descending French River, and following the lonely sh.o.r.es of the great Georgian Bay, the canoe which carried Brebeuf at length neared its destination, thirty days after leaving Three Rivers. Before him, stretched in savage slumber, lay the forest sh.o.r.e of the Hurons. Did his spirit sink as he approached his dreary home, oppressed with a dark foreboding of what the future should bring forth? There is some reason to think so. Yet it was but the shadow of a moment; for his masculine heart had lost the sense of fear, and his intrepid nature was fired with a zeal before which doubts and uncertainties fled like the mists of the morning. Not the grim enthusiasm of negation, tearing up the weeds of rooted falsehood, or with bold hand felling to the earth the baneful growth of overshadowing abuses: his was the ancient faith uncurtailed, redeemed from the decay of centuries, kindled with a new life, and stimulated to a preternatural growth and fruitfulness.

Brebeuf and his Huron companions having landed, the Indians, throwing the missionary's baggage on the ground, left him to his own resources; and, without heeding his remonstrances, set forth for their respective villages, some twenty miles distant. Thus abandoned, the priest kneeled, not to implore succor in his perplexity, but to offer thanks to the Providence which had shielded him thus far. Then, rising, he pondered as to what course he should take. He knew the spot well. It was on the borders of the small inlet called Thunder Bay. In the neighboring Huron town of Toanche he had lived three years, preaching and baptizing; [ 1 ]

but Toanche had now ceased to exist. Here, etienne Brule, Champlain's adventurous interpreter, had recently been murdered by the inhabitants, who, in excitement and alarm, dreading the consequences of their deed, had deserted the spot, and built, at the distance of a few miles, a new town, called Ihonatiria. [ Concerning Brule, see "Pioneers of France,"

377-380. ] Brebeuf hid his baggage in the woods, including the vessels for the Ma.s.s, more precious than all the rest, and began his search for this new abode. He pa.s.sed the burnt remains of Toanche, saw the charred poles that had formed the frame of his little chapel of bark, and found, as he thought, the spot where Brule had fallen. [ 2 ] Evening was near, when, after following, bewildered and anxious, a gloomy forest path, he issued upon a wild clearing, and saw before him the bark roofs of Ihonatiria.

[ 1 From 1626 to 1629. There is no record of the events of this first mission, which was ended with the English occupation of Quebec. Brebeuf had previously spent the winter of 1625-26 among the Algonquins, like Le Jeune in 1633-34.--Lettre du P. Charles Lalemant au T. R. P. Mutio Vitelleschi, 1 Aug., 1626, in Carayon. ]

[ 2 "Ie vis pareillement l'endroit ou le pauure Estienne Brule auoit este barbarement et traitreus.e.m.e.nt a.s.somme; ce qui me fit penser que quelque iour on nous pourroit bien traitter de la sorte, et desirer au moins que ce fust en pourcha.s.sant la gloire de N. Seigneur."--Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1635, 28, 29.--The missionary's prognostics were but too well founded. ]

A crowd ran out to meet him. "Echom has come again! Echom has come again!" they cried, recognizing in the distance the stately figure, robed in black, that advanced from the border of the forest. They led him to the town, and the whole population swarmed about him. After a short rest, he set out with a number of young Indians in quest of his baggage, returning with it at one o'clock in the morning. There was a certain Awandoay in the village, noted as one of the richest and most hospitable of the Hurons,--a distinction not easily won where hospitality was universal. His house was large, and amply stored with beans and corn; and though his prosperity had excited the jealousy of the villagers, he had recovered their good-will by his generosity. With him Brebeuf made his abode, anxiously waiting, week after week, the arrival of his companions. One by one, they appeared: Daniel, weary and worn; Davost, half dead with famine and fatigue; and their French attendants, each with his tale of hardship and indignity. At length, all were a.s.sembled under the roof of the hospitable Indian, and once more the Huron mission was begun.

CHAPTER VI.

1634, 1635.

BReBEUF AND HIS a.s.sOCIATES.

THE HURON MISSION-HOUSE.--ITS INMATES.--ITS FURNITURE.--ITS GUESTS.-- THE JESUIT AS A TEACHER.--AS AN ENGINEER.--BAPTISMS.-- HURON VILLAGE LIFE.--FESTIVITIES AND SORCERIES.--THE DREAM FEAST.-- THE PRIESTS ACCUSED OF MAGIC.--THE DROUGHT AND THE RED CROSS.

Where should the Fathers make their abode? Their first thought had been to establish themselves at a place called by the French Roch.e.l.le, the largest and most important town of the Huron confederacy; but Brebeuf now resolved to remain at Ihonatiria. Here he was well known; and here, too, he flattered himself, seeds of the Faith had been planted, which, with good nurture, would in time yield fruit.

By the ancient Huron custom, when a man or a family wanted a house, the whole village joined in building one. In the present case, not Ihonatiria only, but the neighboring town of Wenrio also, took part in the work,--though not without the expectation of such gifts as the priests had to bestow. Before October, the task was finished. The house was constructed after the Huron model. [ See Introduction. ] It was thirty-six feet long and about twenty feet wide, framed with strong sapling poles planted in the earth to form the sides, with the ends bent into an arch for the roof,--the whole lashed firmly together, braced with cross-poles, and closely covered with overlapping sheets of bark.

Without, the structure was strictly Indian; but within, the priests, with the aid of their tools, made innovations which were the astonishment of all the country. They divided their dwelling by transverse part.i.tions into three apartments, each with its wooden door,--a wondrous novelty in the eyes of their visitors. The first served as a hall, an anteroom, and a place of storage for corn, beans, and dried fish. The second--the largest of the three--was at once kitchen, workshop, dining-room, drawing-room, school-room, and bed-chamber. The third was the chapel.

Here they made their altar, and here were their images, pictures, and sacred vessels. Their fire was on the ground, in the middle of the second apartment, the smoke escaping by a hole in the roof. At the sides were placed two wide platforms, after the Huron fashion, four feet from the earthen floor. On these were chests in which they kept their clothing and vestments, and beneath them they slept, reclining on sheets of bark, and covered with skins and the garments they wore by day.

Rude stools, a hand-mill, a large Indian mortar of wood for crushing corn, and a clock, completed the furniture of the room.

There was no lack of visitors, for the house of the black-robes contained marvels [ 1 ] the fame of which was noised abroad to the uttermost confines of the Huron nation. Chief among them was the clock. The guests would sit in expectant silence by the hour, squatted on the ground, waiting to hear it strike. They thought it was alive, and asked what it ate. As the last stroke sounded, one of the Frenchmen would cry "Stop!"--and, to the admiration of the company, the obedient clock was silent. The mill was another wonder, and they were never tired of turning it. Besides these, there was a prism and a magnet; also a magnifying-gla.s.s, wherein a flea was transformed to a frightful monster, and a multiplying lens, which showed them the same object eleven times repeated. "All this," says Brebeuf, "serves to gain their affection, and make them more docile in respect to the admirable and incomprehensible mysteries of our Faith; for the opinion they have of our genius and capacity makes them believe whatever we tell them." [ Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 33. ]

[ 1 "Ils ont pense qu'elle entendoit, princ.i.p.alement quand, pour rire, quelqu'vn de nos Francois s'escrioit au dernier coup de marteau, c'est a.s.sez sonne, et que tout aussi tost elle se taisoit. Ils l'appellent le Capitaine du iour. Quand elle sonne, ils disent qu'elle parle, et demandent quand ils nous viennent veoir, combien de fois le Capitaine a desia parle. Ils nous interrogent de son manger. Ils demeurent les heures entieres, et quelquesfois plusieurs, afin de la pouuoir ouyr parler."--Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1635, 33. ]

"What does the Captain say?" was the frequent question; for by this t.i.tle of honor they designated the clock.

"When he strikes twelve times, he says, 'Hang on the kettle'; and when he strikes four times, he says, 'Get up, and go home.'"

Both interpretations were well remembered. At noon, visitors were never wanting, to share the Fathers' sagamite; but at the stroke of four, all rose and departed, leaving the missionaries for a time in peace.

Now the door was barred, and, gathering around the fire, they discussed the prospects of the mission, compared their several experiences, and took counsel for the future. But the standing topic of their evening talk was the Huron language. Concerning this each had some new discovery to relate, some new suggestion to offer; and in the task of a.n.a.lyzing its construction and deducing its hidden laws, these intelligent and highly cultivated minds found a congenial employment. [ Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1639, 17 (Cramoisy). ]

But while zealously laboring to perfect their knowledge of the language, they spared no pains to turn their present acquirements to account.

Was man, woman, or child sick or suffering, they were always at hand with a.s.sistance and relief,--adding, as they saw opportunity, explanations of Christian doctrine, pictures of Heaven and h.e.l.l, and exhortations to embrace the Faith. Their friendly offices did not cease here, but included matters widely different. The Hurons lived in constant fear of the Iroquois. At times the whole village population would fly to the woods for concealment, or take refuge in one of the neighboring fortified towns, on the rumor of an approaching war-party. The Jesuits promised them the aid of the four Frenchmen armed with arquebuses, who had come with them from Three Rivers. They advised the Hurons to make their palisade forts, not, as. .h.i.therto, in a circular form, but rectangular, with small flanking towers at the corners for the arquebuse-men. The Indians at once saw the value of the advice, and soon after began to act on it in the case of their great town of Ossossane, or Roch.e.l.le.