THE RETURN TO HURONIA
After the Treaty of St Germain-en-Laye, which restored
to France all the posts in America won by the Adventurers
of Canada, the French king took steps to repossess Quebec.
But, by way of compensation to the Caens for their losses
in the war, Emery de Caen was commissioned to take over
the post from the Kirkes and hold it for one year, with
trading rights. Accordingly, in April 1632, Caen sailed
from Honfleur; and he carried a dispatch under the seal
of Charles I, king of England, addressed to Lewis Kirke
at Quebec, commanding him to surrender the captured fort.
On the 5th of July the few French inhabitants at Quebec
broke out into wild cries of joy as they saw Caen's ship
approaching under full sail, at its peak the white flag
sprinkled with golden lilies; and when they learned that
the vessel brought two Jesuit fathers, their hearts
swelled with inexpressible rapture. During the three
years of English possession the Catholics had been without
priests, and they hungered for their accustomed forms of
worship. The priests now arriving were Paul Le Jeune,
the new superior-general, and Anne de Noue, with a lay
brother, Gilbert Burel. They hastened ashore; and were
followed by the inhabitants to the home of the widow
Hebert, the only substantial residence in the colony,
where, in the ceremony of the Mass, they celebrated the
renewal of the Canadian mission.
Quebec was in a sad condition. The English, knowing of
the negotiations for its return to the French, had left
the ground uncultivated and the buildings in ruins. The
missionaries found the residence of Notre-Dame-des-Anges
plundered and partly destroyed; but they went to work
cheerfully to restore it, and before autumn it was quite
habitable. Meanwhile Le Jeune had begun his labours
tentatively as a teacher. His pupils were an Indian lad
and a little negro, the latter a present from the English
to Madame Hebert. The class grew larger; during the winter
a score of children answered the call of Le Jeune's bell,
and sat at his feet learning the Credo, the Ave, and the
Paternoster, which he had translated into Algonquin
rhymes. In order to learn the Indian language Le Jeune
was himself a pupil, his teacher a Montagnais named
Pierre, a worthless wretch who had been in France and
had learned some French. Le Jeune passed the winter of
1632-33 in teaching, studying, and ministering to the
inhabitants at the trading-post. Save for a short period,
he had the companionship of Noue, a devoted missionary,
eager to play his part in the field, but, as we have
seen, without the necessary vigour of mind or body. Though
Noue had failed in Huronia, he thought he might succeed
on the St Lawrence. And in the autumn, just as the first
snows were beginning to whiten the ground, when a band
of friendly Montagnais, encamped near the residence,
invited him to their wintering grounds, he bade farewell
to Le Jeune and vanished with the Indians into the northern
forest. But the rigours of the wigwams were too much for
him, and after three weeks he returned to Notre-Dame-
des-Anges in an exhausted condition.
In the meantime the Hundred Associates were getting ready
to enter into the enjoyment of their Canadian domain,
but now without the hopeful ardour and exalted purpose
which had characterized their first ill-fated expedition.
The guiding hand in the revival of the colony, under the
feudal suzerainty of Richelieu's company, was Champlain.
He was appointed on March 1, 1633, lieutenant-general in
New France, 'with jurisdiction throughout all the extent
of the St Lawrence and other rivers.' Twenty-three days
later he sailed from Dieppe with three armed ships, the
St Pierre, the St Jean, and the Don de Dieu. These ships
carried two hundred persons, among them the Jesuit fathers
Jean de Brebeuf and Ennemond Masse. At Cape Breton they
were joined by two more Jesuits, Antoine Daniel and
Ambroise Davost, who had gone there the year before.
There were no Recollets in the company, for, greatly to
their disappointment, the Recollets were now barred from
the colony. For this the Jesuits have been unjustly
blamed. It was, however, wholly due to the policy of the
Hundred Associates. At one of their meetings Jean de
Lauzon, the president, afterwards a governor of New
France, formally protested against the return of the
Recollets. The Associates desired to economize, and did
not wish to support two religious orders in the colony;
and so the mendicant Recollets were excluded.
The vessels appeared at Quebec on the 23rd of May, and
landed their passengers amid shouts of welcome from the
settlers, soldiers, and Indians. Presently Champlain's
lieutenant, Duplessis-Bochart, on behalf of the Hundred
Associates, received the keys of the fort and habitation
from Emery de Caen; and at that moment ended the regime
of the Huguenot traders in Canada. Thenceforth, whether
for good or for evil, New France was to be Catholic.
During the English occupation the Indians had almost
ceased to visit Quebec. At first the fickle savages had
welcomed the invaders, for they ever favoured a winner,
and had thronged about the fort, expecting presents galore
from the strong people who had ousted the French. But
instead of presents the English gave them only kicks and
curses; and so they held aloof. Now, however, on hearing
that Champlain had returned, the Indian dwellers along
the Ottawa river and in Huronia flocked to the post.
Hardly more than two months after his arrival, a fleet
of a hundred and forty canoes, with about seven hundred
Indians, swept with the ebb tide to the base of the rock
that frowned above the habitation and the dilapidated
warehouses. Drawing their heavily laden craft ashore,
the chiefs greeted Champlain and proceeded to set up
their camp-huts on the strand. Among them were many
warriors, now grown old, who had been with him in the
attack on the Iroquois in 1615. There were some, too,
who had listened to the teaching of Brebeuf. For the
eager missionaries this was an opportunity not to be
lost; and, resolved to go up with the Hurons, who willingly
assented, Brebeuf, Daniel, and Davost got ready for the
journey to Huronia. On the eve of departure the three
missionaries brought their packs to the strand, and lodged
for the night in the traders' storehouse, hard by the
Indian encampment. But they had an enemy abroad. All in
this party were not Hurons; some were Ottawas from
Allumette Island, under a one-eyed chief, Le Borgne. This
wily redskin wished for trouble between the Hurons and
the French, in order that his tribe might get a monopoly
of the Ottawa route, and carry all the goods from the
nations above down to the St Lawrence. At this time an
Algonquin of La Petite Nation, a tribe living south of
Allumette Island, was held at Quebec for murdering a
Frenchman. His friends were seeking his release; but
Champlain deemed his execution necessary as a lesson to
the Indians. Le Borgne rose to the occasion. He went
among the Hurons, urging them to refuse passage to the
Jesuits, warning them that, since Champlain would not
pardon the Algonquin, it would be dangerous to take the
black-robes with them. The angry tribesmen of the murderer
would surely lay in wait for the canoes, the black-robes
would be slain or made prisoners, and there would be war
on the Hurons too. The argument was effective; Champlain
would not release the prisoner; and the Jesuits were
forced to return to their abode, while the Indians embarked
and disappeared.
There were now six fathers at Notre-Dame-des-Anges. They
kept incessantly active, improving their residence,
cultivating the soil, studying the Indian languages, and
ministering to the settlers and to the red men who had
pitched their wigwams along the St Charles and the St
Lawrence in the vicinity of Quebec. In spite of Noue's
failure among the Montagnais, the courageous Le Jeune
resolved personally to study the Indian problem at first
hand; and in the autumn of 1633 he joined a company of
redskins going to their hunting ground on the upper St
John. During five months among these savages he suffered
from 'cold, heat, smoke, and dogs,' and bore in silence
the foul language of a medicine-man who made the
missionary's person and teachings subjects of mirth. At
times, too, he was on the verge of death from hunger.
Early in the spring he returned to Quebec, after having
narrowly escaped drowning as he Crossed the ice-laden St
Lawrence in a frail canoe. He had made no converts; but
he had gained valuable experience. It was now more evident
than ever that among the roving Algonquins the mission
could make little progress.
In 1634 the Hurons visited the colony in small numbers,
for Iroquois scalping parties haunted the trails, and a
pestilence had played havoc in the Huron villages. Those
who came to trade this year gathered at Three Rivers;
and thither went Brebeuf, Daniel, and Davost to seek once
more a passage to Huronia. The Indians at first stolidly
refused to take them; but at length, after a liberal
distribution of presents, the three priests and four
engages were permitted to embark, each priest in a separate
canoe. They had the usual rough experiences. Davost and
Daniel, who had no acquaintance with the Huron language,
fared worse than Brebeuf. Davost was abandoned among the
Ottawas of Allumette Island, his baggage plundered and
his books and papers thrown into the river. Daniel, too,
was deserted by his savage conductors. Both, however,
found means to continue the journey. When Brebeuf reached
Otouacha, on the 5th of August, his Indian guides, in
haste to get to their villages, suddenly vanished into
the forest. But he knew the spot well; Toanche, his old
mission, was but a short distance away. Thither he hurried,
only to find the village in ruins. Nothing remained of
the cabin in which he had spent three years but the
charred poles of the framework. A well-worn path leading
through the forest told him that a village could not be
far distant, and he followed this trail till he came to
a cluster of cabins. This was a new village, Teandeouiata,
to which the inhabitants of his old Toanche had moved.
It was twilight as the Indians caught sight of the
stalwart, black-robed figure emerging from the forest,
and the shout went up, 'Echon has come again!' Presently
all the inhabitants were about him shouting and
gesticulating for joy.
Daniel and Davost arrived during the month, emaciated
and exhausted, but rejoicing. The missionaries found
shelter in the spacious cabin of a hospitable Huron,
Awandoay, where they remained until the 19th of September.
Meanwhile they had selected the village of Ihonatiria,
a short distance away near the northern extremity of the
peninsula, as a centre for the mission. There a cabin
was quickly erected, the men of the town of Oenrio vying
with the men of Teandeouiata in the task. This residence,
called by Brebeuf St Joseph, was thirty-five feet long
and twenty wide and contained a storehouse, a living-room
and school, and a chapel.
For three years this humble abode was to be the headquarters
of the missionaries in Huronia. During the first year of
the mission all went smoothly. To the Indians the fathers
were medicine-men of extraordinary powers; moreover, the
hired men who came with them had arquebuses that would
be valuable in case of attack in force by the Iroquois.
Objects which the missionaries possessed inspired awe in
the savages; a handmill for grinding corn, a clock, a
magnifying lens, and a picture of the Last Judgment were
supposed to be okies of the white man. For a time eager
audiences crowded the little cabin. Few converts were
made, however; for the present the savages were too firmly
wedded to their customs and superstitions to accept the
new okies. Unfortunately, in 1635, a drought smote the
land, and the medicine-men used this calamity to discredit
their rivals the black-robes. According to these fakirs,
it was the red cross on the Jesuit chapel which frightened
away the bird of thunder and caused the drought. Brebeuf,
to disarm suspicion, had the cross painted white; yet
the thunder-bird still held aloof, and the incantations
and drummings of the sorcerers availed not to bring rain.
Brebeuf then advised the Indians to try the effect of an
appeal to his God. In despair they consented. A procession
was formed and the priests said Masses and prayers. The
result was dramatic. Almost immediately a sudden refreshing
rain deluged the ground; the crops were saved and the
medicine-men humiliated. Still, no perceptible religious
progress was made. Though children came to the residence
to be instructed by the black-robes, they were attracted
more by the 'beads, raisins, and prunes' which they
received as inducements to come back than by the lessons
in Christian truth. For the most part the elders listened
attentively to the missionaries, but to the question of
laying aside their superstitions and accepting Christianity
they replied: 'It is good for the French; but we are
another people, with different customs.'
Winter was the season of greatest trial. The cabins,
crowded to suffocation, were made the scenes of savage
mirth and feasting. The Hurons were inveterate gamblers;
sometimes village would challenge village; and, as the
game progressed, night would be made hideous with the
beating of drums and the hilarious shouts of the spectators.
Feasts were frequent, since any occasion afforded an
excuse for one, and all feasts were accompanied by gluttony
and uproar. The Dream Feast was a maniacal performance.
It was agreed upon in a solemn council of the chiefs and
was made the occasion of great licence. The guests would
rush about the village feigning madness, scattering
fire-brands, shouting, leaping, smiting with impunity
any they encountered. Each one would seek some object
which he pretended to have learned about in a dream. Only
when this object was found would calmness follow; if it
was not found, there would be deepest despair. Feasts,
too, were prescribed by the medicine-men as cures for
sickness; the healthy, not the sick, would take the
medicine, and would take it till they were gorged. To
leave a scrap of food on their platters might mean the
death of the patient.
Only one of the social customs of the Hurons had any real
religious significance. Every ten or twelve years the
great Feast of the Dead took place. It was the custom of
the Hurons either to place the dead in the earth, covering
them with rude huts, or, more commonly, on elevated
platforms. The bodies rested till the allotted time for
final interment came round. Then at some central point
an immense pit would be dug as a common grave. In 1636
a Feast of the Dead was held at Ossossane. To this place,
from the various villages of the Bear clan, Indians came
trooping, wailing mournful funeral songs as they bore
the recently dead on litters, or the carefully prepared
bones of their departed relatives in parcels slung over
their shoulders. All converged on the village of Ossossane,
where a pit ten feet deep by thirty feet wide had been
dug. There on scaffolds about the pit they placed the
bodies and bones, carefully wrapped in furs and covered
with bark. The assembled mourners then gave themselves
up to feasting and games, as a prelude to the final act
of this drama of death. They lined the pit with costly
furs and in the centre placed kettles, household goods,
and weapons for the chase, all these, like the bodies
and bones, supposed to be indwelt by spirits. They laid
the dead bodies in rows on the floor of the pit, and
threw the bundles of bones to Indians stationed within,
who arranged the remains in their proper places.
The Jesuits were witnesses of this weird ceremony. They
saw the naked Indians going about their task in the pit
in the glare of torches, like veritable imps of hell. It
was a discouraging scene. But a greater trial than the
Feast of the Dead was in store for them. By a pestilence,
a severe form of dysentery, Ihonatiria was almost denuded
of its population. In consequence the priests, who had
now been reinforced by the arrival of Fathers Francois
Le Mercier, Pierre Pijart, Pierre Chastelain, Isaac
Jogues, and Charles Garnier, had to seek a more populous
centre as headquarters for their mission in Huronia. The
chiefs of Oenrio invited the Jesuits to their village.
But Brebeuf's demands were heavy. They should believe in
God; keep His commandments; abjure their faith in dreams;
take one wife and be true to her; renounce their assemblies
of debauchery; eat no human flesh; never give feasts to
demons; and make a vow that if God would deliver them
from the pest they would build a chapel to offer Him
thanksgiving and praise. They were ready to make the vow
regarding the chapel, but the other conditions were too
severe--the pest was preferable. And so the Jesuits turned
to Ossossane, where the people agreed to accept these
conditions.
Formerly Ossossane had been situated on an elevated piece
of ground on the shore of Nottawasaga Bay; but the village
had been moved inland and, under the direction of the
French, a rectangular wall of posts ten or twelve feet
high had been built around it. At opposite angles of the
wall two towers guarded the sides. A platform extended
round the entire wall, from which the defenders could
hurl stones on the heads of an attacking party, or could
pour water to extinguish the blaze if an enemy succeeded
in setting fire to the palisades.
Here the Jesuits were to live for two years. Outside
the walls of the town a commodious cabin seventy feet
long was built for them; and on June 5, 1637, in the part
of the cabin consecrated as a chapel, Father Pijart
celebrated Mass. The residence was named La Conception
de Notre Dame. For a wilderness church it was a marvel.
At the entrance were green boughs adorned with tinsel;
pictures hung on the walls; crucifixes, vessels, and
ornaments of shining metal ornamented the chapel. From
far and near Indians flocked to see this wondrous edifice.
Best of all, a leading chief offered himself for baptism.
The future looked promising; the Indians showed the
fathers 'much affection' and a rich harvest of souls
seemed about to be garnered.
But all this was to be changed. A hunch-backed, ogre-like
medicine-man who claimed to be of miraculous birth came
to Ossossane. The pest was still raging, and he laid the
blame for it at the door of the missionaries. According
to him their prayers and litanies were charms and
incantations; their pictures were evil okies. It was, he
declared, by the influence of these and other agencies
that they had spread the pestilence among the Hurons.
Some of the older and most influential Hurons joined with
the sorcerer in his denunciation of the priests, and soon
the inhabitants of the whole village turned against them.
Squaws shut the doors of the cabins at their approach,
young braves threatened them with death, children followed
them about hooting and pelting them with sticks and
stones. At last the priests were summoned to a public
council and openly accused of being the cause of the
misfortunes that had recently visited the Huron people.
Brebeuf replied to the accusations with unflinching
courage, denying the charges, and showing their absurdity.
He then boldly addressed his audience on the truths of
Christianity, held before them the awful future that
awaited those who refused to obey the words of Christ,
and declared that the pest was a punishment for their
evil lives. The council was deeply impressed by his
courage and evident sincerity, and for the time being
the lives of the missionaries were in no danger. But they
knew that at any moment the blow might fall, and none
ever went abroad without the feeling that a tomahawk
might descend on his unguarded head.
On October 28, 1637, Brebeuf prepared, as he thought, a
farewell letter to his friends at Quebec. He and the four
other missionaries at Ossossane signed it and sent it to
the superior-general Le Jeune. It opens with the words:
'We are perhaps on the point of shedding our blood and
sacrificing our lives in the service of our Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ.' There is no note of fear in this
letter. 'If,' it runs, 'you should hear that God has
crowned our labours, or rather our desires, with martyrdom,
return thanks to Him, for it is for Him we wish to live
and die.' Such was the spirit of these bearers of the
Cross. Their humility, courage, and disinterestedness
kept them for the present from 'the crown of martyrdom.'
But the hunch-backed sorcerer continued his agitation
and the storm once more broke over their heads. To show
the Indians that he knew their hearts, and that he could
meet death with the stoical courage of one of their own
chiefs, Brebeuf summoned them to a festin d'adieua farewell
feast--and while his guests, in ominous silence, ate the
portions set before them he addressed them in burning
words. He was about to die, but before he departed this
life he would warn them of the life to come. Their
resistance to Christ's message, their abuse and persecution
of Christ's messengers, would have to be atoned for in
eternity. His actions and words took effect.
Though the sorcerer still schemed, the Jesuits went about
their labours unscathed, preaching to the unregenerate,
visiting and caring for the sick, and baptizing the dying.
For a year after the establishing of the mission of La
Conception at Ossossane three fathers--Pierre Chastelain,
Pierre Pijart, and Isaac Jogues--ministered to the remnant
of the Hurons at Ihonatiria. But the pest was still
raging, and by the spring of 1638 Ihonatiria was little
more than a village of empty wigwams. It was useless to
remain longer at this spot, and the missionaries looked
about for another field for their energies. The town of
Teanaostaiae, the largest town of the clan of the Cord,
about fifteen miles north of the present town of Barrie,
seemed suitable for a central mission. Brebeuf visited
the place, talked with the inhabitants, met the council
of the nation, and won its consent to establish a residence.
In June the mission of St Joseph was moved to Teanaostaiae.
Before the end of the summer Jerome Lalemant, who for
the next eight years was to be the superior of the Huron
mission, Simon Le Moyne, and Francois du Peron arrived
in Huronia. There was now a new distribution of the
mission forces, five priests under Lalemant's immediate
leadership taking up their abode at Ossossane, while
three in charge of Brebeuf settled at Teanaostaiae.
So far Brebeuf had been the recognized leader in Huronia.
He had been nobly supported by his brother priests and
his hired men. The residences at both Ihonatiria and
Ossossane had been kept well supplied with food, even
better than many of the Indian households. Game was scarce
in Huronia, but the fathers had among their engages an
expert hunter, Francois Petit-Pre, ever roaming the forest
and the shores in search of game to give variety to their
table. Robert Le Coq, a devoted engage, later a donne,
[Footnote: An unpaid, voluntary assistant whose only
remuneration was food and clothing, care during illness,
and support in old age.] was their 'negotiator' or business
man. It was Le Coq who made the yearly trips to Quebec
for supplies, and who with infinite labour brought many
heavy burdens over the difficult trails. Brebeuf had
proved himself essentially an enthusiast for souls, a
mystic, a spirit craving the crown of martyrdom, yet
withal a man of great tact, and a powerful exemplar to
his fellow-priests. Lalemant, while lacking Brebeuf's
dominating enthusiasm, was a more practical man, with
great organizing ability. After viewing the wide and
dangerous field to be administered, the new superior
decided to concentrate the separate missions into one
stronghold of the faith. The site he chose was remote
from any of the centres of Indian population. It was on
the eastern bank of the river Wye between Mud Lake and
Matchedash Bay. Here the missionaries built a strong
rectangular fort with walls of stone surmounted by
palisades and with bastions at each corner. The interior
buildings--a chapel, a hospital, and dwellings for the
missionaries and the engages--although of wood, were
supported on foundations of stone and cement.
The new mission-house they named Ste Marie; and from this
central station the missionaries went forth in pairs to
the farthest parts of Huronia and beyond. The missions
to the Petuns and the Neutrals, however, ended in failure.
The Petuns hailed Garnier and Jogues as the Famine and
the Pest and the priests barely escaped with their lives.
In the following year (1640), when Brebeuf and Chaumonot
went among the Neutrals, they found Huron emissaries
there inciting the Neutrals to kill the priests. These
Hurons, while themselves fearing to murder the powerful
okies of the French, as they regarded the black-robes,
desired that the Neutrals should put them to death. But
no such tragedy found place as yet. After visiting nineteen
towns, meeting everywhere maledictions and threats,
Brebeuf and Chaumonot returned to Ste Marie.
The good work went on, notwithstanding trials and reverses.
The story of the Cross was being carried even to the
Algonquins and Nipissings of the upper Ottawa and Georgian
Bay. At Ste Marie neophytes gathered in numbers, and here
there were no medicine-men, 'satellites of Satan,' to
seduce them from their vows. But, just at the time when
the harvest seemed richest in promise, a cloud appeared
on the horizon--a forerunner of darker clouds, heavy with
calamity, and of the storm which was to bring destruction
to the Huron people.
Meanwhile, how fared the mission at Quebec? Champlain
had died on Christmas Day 1635, and the Jesuits had lost
a staunch friend and never-failing protector. His successor,
however, was Charles Huault de Montmagny, a knight of
Malta, a man of devout character, thoroughly in sympathy
with the missions. Under Montmagny's rule New France
became as austere as Puritan New England.
The Relations of the Jesuits, sent yearly to France and
published and widely read, had roused intense enthusiasm
among wealthy and pious men and women. Thus Noel Brulart,
Chevalier de Sillery, was moved to take an interest in
the Canadian mission and to endow a home for Christian
Indians. Le Jeune chose a site on the bank of the St
Lawrence, four miles above Quebec; and in 1637 the Sillery
establishment was erected there, consisting of a chapel,
a mission-house, and an infirmary, all within strong
palisades.
About the same time two wealthy enthusiasts, the Duchesse
d'Aiguillon, a niece of Cardinal Richelieu, and Madame
de la Peltrie, were likewise inspired by the Relations
to undertake charitable work in New France. These ladies
founded, respectively, the Hotel-Dieu of Quebec and the
Ursuline Convent. In 1639 Madame de la Peltrie, who had
given herself as well as her purse to the work, arrived
in Quebec, accompanied by Mother Marie de I'Incarnation
and two other Ursulines and three Augustinian nuns. The
Ursulines at once began their labours as teachers with
six Indian pupils. But a plague of small-pox was raging
in the colony, and for the first year or two after their
arrival these heroic women had to aid the sisters of the
Hotel-Dieu in fighting the pest.
The Jesuits themselves were busy with the education of
the Indians and had already established a college and
seminary for the instruction of young converts. The
colony, however, was not growing. The Hundred Associates
had not carried out the terms of their charter. There
were less than four hundred settlers in the whole of New
France, and only some three hundred soldiers to guard
the settlements from attack. Canada as yet was little
more than a mission; and such it was to remain for another
twenty and more years.