1636-1646.
QUEBEC AND ITS TENANTS.
The New Governor • Edifying Examples • Le Jeune's Correspondents • Rank
and Devotion • Nuns • Priestly Authority • Condition of Quebec • The
Hundred Associates • Church Discipline • Plays • Fireworks • Processions
• Catechizing • Terrorism • Pictures • The Converts • The Society of
Jesus • The Foresters
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. [1] 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. [2]
[1] 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!"
[2] 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." [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; [4] how "the Carmelites are all on fire, the Ursulines
full of zeal, the sisters of the Visitation have no words to speak their
ardor"; [5] 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. [6]
[3] "C'est Dieu qui conduit cette entreprise. La Nature n'a pas les bras
assez longs," etc.--Relation, 1636, 3.
[4] Brébeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 76.
[5] Le Jeune, Relation, 1636, 6. Compare "Divers Sentimens," appended to
the Relation of 1635.
[6] "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. [7] 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.
[7] 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.
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. [8] 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." [9]
[8] "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).
[9] 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. [10] 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. [11] 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.
[10] Le Clerc, Établissement de la Foy, Chap. XV.
[11] Le Jeune, Relation, 1636, 153, 154 (Cramoisy).
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. [12] 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.
[12] 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.
The Company of the Hundred Associates was bound by its charter to send
to Canada four thousand colonists before the year 1643. [13] 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.
[14] 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. [15] Lauson sent out not a single colonist
to these vast concessions.
[13] See "Pioneers of France," 399.
[14] This appears in many early grants of the Company. Thus, in a grant
to Simon Le Maître, 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.
[15] 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.
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. [16] Of the origin of the convent, hospital, and
seminary I shall soon have occasion to speak.
[16] 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.
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." [17] 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. [18] No favorable result followed; and the colony remained
as before, in a pitiful state of cramping and dwarfing vassalage.
[17] "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.
[18] 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.
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." [19]
[19] "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. [20] 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. [21] 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. [22]
[20] Relation, 1637, 8. The Relations, as originally published,
comprised about forty volumes.
[21] Histoire de la Colonie Française, I. 291, 292.
[22] 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. [23] 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. [24] 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. [25]
[23] Vimont, Relation, 1640, 6.
[24] Le Jeune, Relation, 1638, 6.
[25] 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. [26]
[26] 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. [27]
"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. [28] 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." [29]
[27] Ibid., 1636, 119, and 1637, 32 (Cramoisy). "La crainte est l'auan
couriere de la foy dans ces esprits barbares."
[28] 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."
[29] "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. [30]
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. [31]
[30] "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
"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.
[31] 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,
[32] 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. [33] 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.
[32] "Pioneers of France," 377.
[33] See Ferland, Notes sur les Registres de N. D. de Québec, 30.
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.