[Sidenote: 1880.]
When the children met Col. Ingham the next week, Fergus said that as
they came out he had been telling the others that he had always wished
that people would tell more of the beginnings of America. “To tell the
truth,” said Fergus, “I had supposed they did not know; but when we
made our camp on the Maguadavik River last summer, when I really felt
as if we were the first settlers in a wilderness, I wondered very much
whether John Smith did just that thing at Jamestown, or whether he
began in some other way.”
“We may as well confess,” said Col. Ingham, “that our people here were
very reticent; also, they seem to have had very little paper, very few
pens, and almost no ink. My mother used to say that they must have
taken solemn oaths that they would record nothing interesting; and when
you do find a bright bit of early New England narrative, it is because
some faithful ‘modern’ has gone over a dozen old stories and picked out
one plum here and one there, and put them all into one cake for you.
“But there do exist narratives that go into just the sort of detail
you ask for, Fergus. Fortunately for us, the Jesuit fathers, who were
the special literary men of their time, were obliged to write letters
home from the points where they were at work, and more fortunately the
Society of Jesuits found it advisable to print them. Within a few years
past these narratives have been translated and printed in this country.
You will find them in the best of the large Public Libraries. You will
find that some of them come very near your own homes.”
“Does not Mr. Parkman quote them?”
“Yes, and his skilful use of them and other materials like them is what
makes his books so fascinating for you boys. Here is a story of a poor
fellow who tried the hospitality of the Six Nations,--the French, you
know, called them ‘Iroquois.’”
“Why, we rode out to see them from Syracuse, when I made my famous
visit to Grace.”
“The same. See how they would have treated you a hundred and fifty
years ago had you been a French girl.
“Father Isaac Jogues was born of good family in the city of Orleans,
France. He was sent out into New France in the year 1636, and was
attached to the Mission among the Hurons, where he stayed for six
years. At the end of this time he was sent to Quebec on some of the
business connected with the Mission there. The following is his own
narrative.”