1648, 1649.
SAINTE MARIE.
The Centre of the Missions • Fort • Convent • Hospital • Caravansary •
Church • The Inmates of Sainte Marie • Domestic Economy • Missions • A
Meeting of Jesuits • The Dead Missionary
The River Wye enters the Bay of Glocester, an inlet of the Bay of
Matchedash, itself an inlet of the vast Georgian Bay of Lake Huron.
Retrace the track of two centuries and more, and ascend this little
stream in the summer of the year 1648. Your vessel is a birch canoe, and
your conductor a Huron Indian. On the right hand and on the left, gloomy
and silent, rise the primeval woods; but you have advanced scarcely half
a league when the scene is changed, and cultivated fields, planted
chiefly with maize, extend far along the bank, and back to the distant
verge of the forest. Before you opens the small lake from which the
stream issues; and on your left, a stone's throw from the shore, rises a
range of palisades and bastioned walls, inclosing a number of buildings.
Your canoe enters a canal or ditch immediately above them, and you land
at the Mission, or Residence, or Fort of Sainte Marie.
Here was the centre and base of the Huron missions; and now, for once,
one must wish that Jesuit pens had been more fluent. They have told us
but little of Sainte Marie, and even this is to be gathered chiefly from
incidental allusions. In the forest, which long since has resumed its
reign over this memorable spot, the walls and ditches of the
fortifications may still be plainly traced; and the deductions from
these remains are in perfect accord with what we can gather from the
Relations and letters of the priests. [1] The fortified work which
inclosed the buildings was in the form of a parallelogram, about a
hundred and seventy-five feet long, and from eighty to ninety wide. It
lay parallel with the river, and somewhat more than a hundred feet
distant from it. On two sides it was a continuous wall of masonry, [2]
flanked with square bastions, adapted to musketry, and probably used as
magazines, storehouses, or lodgings. The sides towards the river and the
lake had no other defences than a ditch and palisade, flanked, like the
others, by bastions, over each of which was displayed a large cross. [3]
The buildings within were, no doubt, of wood; and they included a
church, a kitchen, a refectory, places of retreat for religious
instruction and meditation, [4] and lodgings for at least sixty persons.
Near the church, but outside the fortification, was a cemetery. Beyond
the ditch or canal which opened on the river was a large area, still
traceable, in the form of an irregular triangle, surrounded by a ditch,
and apparently by palisades. It seems to have been meant for the
protection of the Indian visitors who came in throngs to Sainte Marie,
and who were lodged in a large house of bark, after the Huron manner.
[5] Here, perhaps, was also the hospital, which was placed without the
walls, in order that Indian women, as well as men, might be admitted
into it. [6]
[1] Before me is an elaborate plan of the remains, taken on the spot.
[2] It seems probable that the walls, of which the remains may still be
traced, were foundations supporting a wooden superstructure. Ragueneau,
in a letter to the General of the Jesuits, dated March 13, 1650, alludes
to the defences of Saint Marie as "une simple palissade."
[3] "Quatre grandes Croix qui sont aux quatre coins de nostre
enclos."--Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1648, 81.
[4] It seems that these places, besides those for the priests, were of
two kinds,--"vne retraite pour les pelerins (Indians), enfin vn lieu
plus separé, où les infideles, qui n'y sont admis que de iour au
passage, y puissent tousiours receuoir quelque bon mot pour leur
salut."--Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1644, 74.
[5] At least it was so in 1642. "Nous leur auons dressé vn Hospice ou
Cabane d'écorce."--Ibid., 1642, 57.
[6] "Cet hospital est tellement separé de nostre demeure, que non
seulement les hommes et enfans, mais les femmes y peuuent estre
admises."--Ibid., 1644, 74.
No doubt the buildings of Sainte Marie were of the roughest,--rude walls
of boards, windows without glass, vast chimneys of unhewn stone. All its
riches were centred in the church, which, as Lalemant tells us, was
regarded by the Indians as one of the wonders of the world, but which,
he adds, would have made but a beggarly show in France. Yet one wonders,
at first thought, how so much labor could have been accomplished here.
Of late years, however, the number of men at the command of the mission
had been considerable. Soldiers had been sent up from time to time, to
escort the Fathers on their way, and defend them on their arrival. Thus,
in 1644, Montmagny ordered twenty men of a reinforcement just arrived
from France to escort Brébeuf, Garreau, and Chabanel to the Hurons, and
remain there during the winter. [7] These soldiers lodged with the
Jesuits, and lived at their table. [8] It was not, however, on
detachments of troops that they mainly relied for labor or defence. Any
inhabitant of Canada who chose to undertake so hard and dangerous a
service was allowed to do so, receiving only his maintenance from the
mission, without pay. In return, he was allowed to trade with the
Indians, and sell the furs thus obtained at the magazine of the Company,
at a fixed price. [9] Many availed themselves of this permission; and
all whose services were accepted by the Jesuits seem to have been men to
whom they had communicated no small portion of their own zeal, and who
were enthusiastically attached to their Order and their cause. There is
abundant evidence that a large proportion of them acted from motives
wholly disinterested. They were, in fact, donnés of the mission,
[10]--given, heart and hand, to its service. There is probability in the
conjecture, that the profits of their trade with the Indians were
reaped, not for their own behoof, but for that of the mission. [11] It
is difficult otherwise to explain the confidence with which the Father
Superior, in a letter to the General of the Jesuits at Rome, speaks of
its resources. He says, "Though our number is greatly increased, and
though we still hope for more men, and especially for more priests of
our Society, it is not necessary to increase the pecuniary aid given
us." [12]
[7] Vimont, Relation, 1644, 49. He adds, that some of these soldiers,
though they had once been "assez mauvais garçons," had shown great zeal
and devotion in behalf of the mission.
[8] Journal des Supérieurs des Jésuites, MS. In 1648, a small cannon was
sent to Sainte Marie in the Huron canoes.--Ibid.
[9] Registres des Arrêts du Conseil, extract in Faillon, II. 94.
[10] See ante, (page 214). Garnier calls them "séculiers d'habit, mais
religieux de cœur."--Lettres, MSS.
[11] The Jesuits, even at this early period, were often and loudly
charged with sharing in the fur-trade. It is certain that this charge
was not wholly without foundation. Le Jeune, in the Relation of 1657,
speaking of the wampum, guns, powder, lead, hatchets, kettles, and other
articles which the missionaries were obliged to give to the Indians, at
councils and elsewhere, says that these must be bought from the traders
with beaver-skins, which are the money of the country; and he adds, "Que
si vn Iesuite en reçoit ou en recueille quelques-vns pour ayder aux
frais immenses qu'il faut faire dans ces Missions si éloignées, et pour
gagner ces peuples à Iesus-Christ et les porter à la paix, il seroit à
souhaiter que ceux-là mesme qui deuroient faire ces despenses pour la
conseruation du pays, ne fussent pas du moins les premiers à condamner
le zele de ces Peres, et à les rendre par leurs discours plus noirs que
leurs robes."--Relation, 1657, 16.
In the same year, Chaumonot, addressing a council of the Iroquois during
a period of truce, said, "Keep your beaver-skins, if you choose, for the
Dutch. Even such of them as may fall into our possession will be
employed for your service."--Ibid., 17.
In 1636, La Jeune thought it necessary to write a long letter of defence
against the charge; and in 1643, a declaration, appended to the Relation
of that year, and certifying that the Jesuits took no part in the
fur-trade, was drawn up and signed by twelve members of the company of
New France. Its only meaning is, that the Jesuits were neither partners
nor rivals of the Company's monopoly. They certainly bought supplies
from its magazines with furs which they obtained from the Indians.
Their object evidently was to make the mission partially
self-supporting. To impute mercenary motives to Garnier, Jogues, and
their co-laborers, is manifestly idle; but, even in the highest flights
of his enthusiasm, the Jesuit never forgot his worldly wisdom.
[12] Lettre du P. Paul Ragueneau au T. R. P. Vincent Carafa, Général de
la Compagnie de Jésus à Rome, Sainte Marie aux Hurons, 1 Mars, 1649
(Carayon).
Much of this prosperity was no doubt due to the excellent management of
their resources, and a very successful agriculture. While the Indians
around them were starving, they raised maize in such quantities, that,
in the spring of 1649, the Father Superior thought that their stock of
provisions might suffice for three years. "Hunting and fishing," he
says, "are better than heretofore"; and he adds, that they had fowls,
swine, and even cattle. [13] How they could have brought these last to
Sainte Marie it is difficult to conceive. The feat, under the
circumstances, is truly astonishing. Everything indicates a fixed
resolve on the part of the Fathers to build up a solid and permanent
establishment.
[13] Lettre du P. Paul Ragueneau au T. R. P. Vincent Carafa, Général de
la Compagnie de Jésus à Rome, Sainte Marie aux Hurons, 1 Mars, 1649
(Carayon).
It is by no means to be inferred that the household fared sumptuously.
Their ordinary food was maize, pounded and boiled, and seasoned, in the
absence of salt, which was regarded as a luxury, with morsels of smoked
fish. [14]
[14] Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1648, 48.
In March, 1649, there were in the Huron country and its neighborhood
eighteen Jesuit priests, four lay brothers, twenty-three men serving
without pay, seven hired men, four boys, and eight soldiers. [15] Of
this number, fifteen priests were engaged in the various missions, while
all the rest were retained permanently at Sainte Marie. All was method,
discipline, and subordination. Some of the men were assigned to
household work, and some to the hospital; while the rest labored at the
fortifications, tilled the fields, and stood ready, in case of need, to
fight the Iroquois. The Father Superior, with two other priests as
assistants, controlled and guided all. The remaining Jesuits,
undisturbed by temporal cares, were devoted exclusively to the charge of
their respective missions. Two or three times in the year, they all, or
nearly all, assembled at Sainte Marie, to take counsel together and
determine their future action. Hither, also, they came at intervals for
a period of meditation and prayer, to nerve themselves and gain new
inspiration for their stern task.
[15] See the report of the Father Superior to the General, above cited.
The number was greatly increased within the year. In April, 1648,
Ragueneau reports but forty-two French in all, including priests. Before
the end of the summer a large reinforcement came up in the Huron canoes.
Besides being the citadel and the magazine of the mission, Sainte Marie
was the scene of a bountiful hospitality. On every alternate Saturday,
as well as on feast-days, the converts came in crowds from the farthest
villages. They were entertained during Saturday, Sunday, and a part of
Monday; and the rites of the Church were celebrated before them with all
possible solemnity and pomp. They were welcomed also at other times, and
entertained, usually with three meals to each. In these latter years the
prevailing famine drove them to Sainte Marie in swarms. In the course of
1647 three thousand were lodged and fed here; and in the following year
the number was doubled. [16] Heathen Indians were also received and
supplied with food, but were not permitted to remain at night. There was
provision for the soul as well as the body; and, Christian or heathen,
few left Sainte Marie without a word of instruction or exhortation.
Charity was an instrument of conversion.
[16] Compare Ragueneau in Relation des Hurons, 1648, 48, and in his
report to the General in 1649.
Such, so far as we can reconstruct it from the scattered hints
remaining, was this singular establishment, at once military, monastic,
and patriarchal. The missions of which it was the basis were now eleven
in number. To those among the Hurons already mentioned another had
lately been added,--that of Sainte Madeleine; and two others, called St.
Jean and St. Matthias, had been established in the neighboring Tobacco
Nation. [17] The three remaining missions were all among tribes speaking
the Algonquin languages. Every winter, bands of these savages, driven by
famine and fear of the Iroquois, sought harborage in the Huron country,
and the mission of Sainte Elisabeth was established for their benefit.
The next Algonquin mission was that of Saint Esprit, embracing the
Nipissings and other tribes east and north-east of Lake Huron; and,
lastly, the mission of St. Pierre included the tribes at the outlet of
Lake Superior, and throughout a vast extent of surrounding wilderness.
[18]
[17] The mission of the Neutral Nation had been abandoned for the time,
from the want of missionaries. The Jesuits had resolved on
concentration, and on the thorough conversion of the Hurons, as a
preliminary to more extended efforts.
[18] Besides these tribes, the Jesuits had become more or less
acquainted with many others, also Algonquin, on the west and south of
Lake Huron; as well as with the Puans, or Winnebagoes, a Dacotah tribe
between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi.
The Mission of Sault Sainte Marie, at the outlet of Lake Superior, was
established at a later period. Modern writers have confounded it with
Sainte Marie of the Hurons.
By the Relation of 1649 it appears that another mission had lately been
begun at the Grand Manitoulin Island, which the Jesuits also christened
Isle Sainte Marie.
These missions were more laborious, though not more perilous, than those
among the Hurons. The Algonquin hordes were never long at rest; and,
summer and winter, the priest must follow them by lake, forest, and
stream: in summer plying the paddle all day, or toiling through pathless
thickets, bending under the weight of a birch canoe or a load of
baggage,--at night, his bed the rugged earth, or some bare rock, lashed
by the restless waves of Lake Huron; while famine, the snow-storms, the
cold, the treacherous ice of the Great Lakes, smoke, filth, and, not
rarely, threats and persecution, were the lot of his winter wanderings.
It seemed an earthly paradise, when, at long intervals, he found a
respite from his toils among his brother Jesuits under the roof of
Sainte Marie.
Hither, while the Fathers are gathered from their scattered stations at
one of their periodical meetings,--a little before the season of Lent,
1649, [19]--let us, too, repair, and join them. We enter at the eastern
gate of the fortification, midway in the wall between its northern and
southern bastions, and pass to the hall, where, at a rude table, spread
with ruder fare, all the household are assembled,--laborers, domestics,
soldiers, and priests.
[19] The date of this meeting is a supposition merely. It is adopted
with reference to events which preceded and followed.
It was a scene that might recall a remote half feudal, half patriarchal
age, when, under the smoky rafters of his antique hall, some warlike
thane sat, with kinsmen and dependants ranged down the long board, each
in his degree. Here, doubtless, Ragueneau, the Father Superior, held the
place of honor; and, for chieftains scarred with Danish battle-axes, was
seen a band of thoughtful men, clad in a threadbare garb of black, their
brows swarthy from exposure, yet marked with the lines of intellect and
a fixed enthusiasm of purpose. Here was Bressani, scarred with firebrand
and knife; Chabanel, once a professor of rhetoric in France, now a
missionary, bound by a self-imposed vow to a life from which his nature
recoiled; the fanatical Chaumonot, whose character savored of his
peasant birth,--for the grossest fungus of superstition that ever grew
under the shadow of Rome was not too much for his omnivorous credulity,
and miracles and mysteries were his daily food; yet, such as his faith
was, he was ready to die for it. Garnier, beardless like a woman, was of
a far finer nature. His religion was of the affections and the
sentiments; and his imagination, warmed with the ardor of his faith,
shaped the ideal forms of his worship into visible realities. Brébeuf
sat conspicuous among his brethren, portly and tall, his short moustache
and beard grizzled with time,--for he was fifty-six years old. If he
seemed impassive, it was because one overmastering principle had merged
and absorbed all the impulses of his nature and all the faculties of his
mind. The enthusiasm which with many is fitful and spasmodic was with
him the current of his life,--solemn and deep as the tide of destiny.
The Divine Trinity, the Virgin, the Saints, Heaven and Hell, Angels and
Fiends,--to him, these alone were real, and all things else were nought.
Gabriel Lalemant, nephew of Jerome Lalemant, Superior at Quebec, was
Brébeuf's colleague at the mission of St. Ignace. His slender frame and
delicate features gave him an appearance of youth, though he had reached
middle life; and, as in the case of Garnier, the fervor of his mind
sustained him through exertions of which he seemed physically incapable.
Of the rest of that company little has come down to us but the bare
record of their missionary toils; and we may ask in vain what youthful
enthusiasm, what broken hope or faded dream, turned the current of their
lives, and sent them from the heart of civilization to this savage
outpost of the world.
No element was wanting in them for the achievement of such a success as
that to which they aspired,--neither a transcendent zeal, nor a
matchless discipline, nor a practical sagacity very seldom surpassed in
the pursuits where men strive for wealth and place; and if they were
destined to disappointment, it was the result of external causes,
against which no power of theirs could have insured them.
There was a gap in their number. The place of Antoine Daniel was empty,
and never more to be filled by him,--never at least in the flesh: for
Chaumonot averred, that not long since, when the Fathers were met in
council, he had seen their dead companion seated in their midst, as of
old, with a countenance radiant and majestic. [20] They believed his
story,--no doubt he believed it himself; and they consoled one another
with the thought, that, in losing their colleague on earth, they had
gained him as a powerful intercessor in heaven. Daniel's station had
been at St. Joseph; but the mission and the missionary had alike ceased
to exist.
[20] "Ce bon Pere s'apparut aprés sa mort à vn des nostres par deux
diuerses fois. En l'vne il se fit voir en estat de gloire, portant le
visage d'vn homme d'enuiron trente ans, quoy qu'il soit mort en l'âge de
quarante-huict.... Vne autre fois il fut veu assister à vne assemblée
que nous tenions," etc.--Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1649, 5.
"Le P. Chaumonot vit au milieu de l'assemblée le P. Daniel qui aidait
les Pères de ses conseils, et les remplissait d'une force surnaturelle;
son visage était plein de majesté et d'éclat."--Ibid., Lettre au Général
de la Compagnie de Jésus (Carayon, 243).
"Le P. Chaumonot nous a quelque fois raconté, à la gloire de cet
illustre confesseur de J. C. (Daniel) qu'il s'étoit fait voir à lui dans
la gloire, à l'âge d'environ 30 ans, quoiqu'il en eut près de 50, et
avec les autres circonstances qui se trouuent là (in the Historia
Canadensis of Du Creux). Il ajoutait seulement qu'à la vue de ce
bien-heureux tant de choses lui vinrent à l'esprit pour les lui
demander, qu'il ne savoit pas où commencer son entretien avec ce cher
défunt. Enfin, lui dit-il: 'Apprenez moi, mon Père, ce que ie dois faire
pour être bien agréable à Dieu.'--'Jamais,' répondit le martyr, 'ne
perdez le souvenir de vos péchés.'"--Suite de la Vie de Chaumonot, 11.