and corrupt influences which had enlisted their powers in Europe, the Jesuits could achieve and did achieve their noblest and most useful triumphs. There, their influence was for good alone, and their labors stand in striking contrast with those which won for the order the universal execration of Europe. Not only did they win the honor of gaining many converts to the Christian faith, but they were the means of extending the dominion of their country far beyond the boundaries of Canada, and of bringing the great valley of the Mississippi under the authority of France.

Marriage of Whites and Indians.

By the year 1536 there were thirteen Jesuit missionaries in Canada laboring among the Indians. Not content with remaining around the posts, they pushed out beyond the frontier settlements into the boundless forest, making new converts and important discoveries. Each convert was regarded as a subject of France, and the equal of the whites, and the kindliest relations were established between the French and the natives. Many of the traders took them Indian wives, and from these marriages sprang the class of half-breeds afterwards so numerous in Canada.

The limits of Canada were too narrow for the ambition of the Jesuits; they burned to carry Christianity to the tribes in the more distant regions beyond the lakes. In the autumn of 1634 Fathers Brabeuf and Daniel accompanied a party of Hurons, who had come to Quebec on a trading expedition, to to their home on the shores of the lake which bears their name. It was a long and difficult journey of nine hundred miles, and it taxed the endurance of the missionaries to the utmost, but they persevered, and finally gained a resting-place at the Huron villages on Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe

There

they erected a rude chapel in a little grove, and celebrated the mysteries of their religion in the midst of the wondering red men, who looked on with awe and not without interest.

New Missions.

Six missions were soon established among the Indian villages in this part of the lake, and converts began to reward the labors of the devoted priests. Father Brabeuf had not an idle moment. The first four hours of the day were passed in prayer and in the flagellation of his body; he wore a shirt of hair, and his fasts were frequent and severe. The remainder of the day was given to catechising and teaching the Indians. As he passed along the streets of the village he would ring his little bell, and in this way summon the warriors to converse with him upon the mysteries of the Christian faith. He spent fifteen years in his labors among the Indians, and hundreds of converts were by means of him gained to Christ among the dusky children of the forest.

The great Huron chief, Ahasistari, was among the converts of Father Brabeuf. Before you came to this country," he said to the missionary, "when I have incurred the greatest perils and have alone escaped, I have said to myself, 'Some powerful Spirit has the guardianship of my days.'" That Spirit he now declared was Jesus Christ, and as he had before adored him in ignorance, he now became his acknowledged servant. Being satisfied of his sincerity, Father Brabeuf baptized him, and the chief, in the enthusias asm of his new belief, exclaimed, "Let us strive to make the whole world embrace the faith in Jesus."

The report of the successful efforts of the missionaries gave great satisfaction in France, and the king and queen and the nobles made liberal donations in support of the missions and for the assistance of the converts.

A

college for the education of missionaries was founded at Quebec in 1635. This was the first institution of learning established in America, and preceded the founding of Harvard College by two years. Madame de la Peltrie, a wealthy young widow of Alencon, with the aid of three nuns, established in 1639 the Ursuline Convent for the education of Indian girls. The three nuns came out from France to take charge of it, and were received with enthusiasm, especially by the Indians. Montreal being regarded as a more suitable place, the institution was removed to that island and permanently established there.

The Powerful Mohawks.

The labors of the missio...ries had thus far been confined to the Huron and Algonquin tribes, whom they found very willing to listen to them, and among whom they counted their converts by thousands. They had encountered but little hostility from them, and the dangers of the enterprise were merely those inseparable from the unsettled condition of the country. They were anxious to extend their efforts to the fiercer and more powerful Iroquois, as the conversion of the tribes of this confederacy would not only swell the number of their converts, but would extend the influence of France to the very borders of the English settlements on the Atlantic coast.

The Iroquois, or Five Nations, consisted, as has been said, of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk tribes. They occupied almost all that part of Canada south of the Ottawa, and between Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron, the greater part of New York and the country lying along the south shore of Lake Erie, now included in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. They were generally called by the English the Mohawks. They were the most intelligent,

as well as the most powerful, of the tribes with whom the French missionaries came in contact.

Their traditions related that their confederacy had been formed in accordance with the instructions of Hiawatha, the greatest and wisest of their chiefs, who had been blessed by the Great Spirit with more than human beauty and wisdom and courage. He had made his people great, united and prosperous; had then taken a solemn leave of them, and had sailed out into the distant sunset in a snow-white canoe, amid the sweetest music from the spirit land. They were regarded with dread by the surrounding tribes, many of which were tributary to them. Their influence extended eastward as far as New England, and westward as far as the countries of the Illinois and the Miamis. They regarded the Hurons as their hereditary enemies, and the French, as allies of the Hurons, now shared this hostility. The savages long remembered, and never forgave, the alliance of Champlain with the Hurons and Algonquins, to which reference has been made.

Enmity of the Red Men.

The Jesuit missionaries vainly endeavored to add the tribes of the Five Nations to their converts. The latter, regarding the French as enemies, could never be made to look upon the missionaries of that race as friends, and considered the efforts of the good fathers in their behalf as a species of incantation designed for their destruction. They closed the region south of Lake Ontario to the French traders and priests and kept a vigilant watch over the passes of the St. Lawrence for the purpose of breaking up the trade of the French at Montreal with the tribes on the lakes.

The only route by which the lakes could be reached in safety was by the Ottawa and

through the wilderness beyond. Yet occasionally a trading party would slip through the blockade established by the Iroquois, and, descending the lakes and the St. Lawrence, reach Montreal and Quebec in safety. These expeditions constituted the only means by which the Jesuit missionaries in the remote regions could conmunicate with their principal establishment at Montreal.

In the summer of 1642, Father Jogues, who had labored with great success in the country now embraced in the state of Michigan, left the Sault Sainte Marie under the escort of the great Huron war chief Ahasistari and a number of his braves, and, descending the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, reached Montreal and Quebec in safety. On the first of August he set out on his return, accompanied by a larger fleet of Huron canoes. Before the mouth of the Ottawa was reached the party was attacked by a band of Mohawks, and the canoes were so much damaged that the occupants were forced to make for the opposite shore. The greater number escaped, but a few, among whom were Father Jogues and Father Goupil, a fellow-priest, were taken prisoners.

Died at the Stake.

Ahasistari had succeeded in reaching a place of safety, and from his concealment saw the missionaries prisoners in the hands of their enemies. He knew the fate that awaited them, and resolved to share it with them. Father Jogues might have escaped, but as there were among the prisoners several converts who had not yet received baptism, he decided to remain with them in the hope of being able to administer the sacred rite to them before their execution. Ahasistari strode through the midst of the astonished Mohawks to the side of the priest. "My brother," said the chief, "I made oath to thee that I would share thy fortune, whether

death or life; here am I to keep my vow." He received absolution from the hands of his teacher, and died at the stake with the firmness of a Christian and a hero. Jogues and Goupil were carried to the Mohawk, and in each village through which they were led were compelled to run the gauntlet. On an ear of corn which was thrown to them for food a few drops of the dew had remained, and with these Father Jogues baptized two of his converts.

Peace with the Five Nations.

Goupil was not so fortunate. He was seen in the act of making the sign of the cross over an Indian child, and was struck dead by a blow from the tomahawk of the child's father, who supposed he was working a spell for the little one's harm. Father Jogues had expected the same fate, but he was spared, and even allowed to erect a large cross near the village at which he was detained, and to worship before it at pleasure. He escaped at length and reached Albany, where he was kindly received by the Dutch, who enabled him to return to France, from which country he sailed again for Canada. He went boldly into the Mohawk country and began again the efforts which he had made during his captivity to convert his enemies to the true faith, but his labors were soon cut short by his murder by a Mohawk warrior. Other missionaries sought the country of these tribes, but only to meet torture and death at their hands.

In 1645, the French, who desired to secure their possessions, made a treaty of peace with the Five Nations. The latter professed to forget and bury the wrongs of the past, and agreed to be the true friends of the French. The Algonquins joined in the peace, but neither tribe was sincere in its professions of friendship.

The Abenakis of Maine, who had heard | of the good deeds of the Jesuit fathers, sent messengers to Montreal asking that missionaries might be sent to dwell among them. Their appeal was favorably considered, and Father Dreuilettes made his way across the wilderness to the head of the Kennebec, and descended that stream to a point within a few miles of its mouth, where he established his mission. Large numbers of the savages came to him for religious instruction, and he found them ready to embrace the truths he taught them. He entered heartily into all the modes of Indian life, hunting and fishing with them, and winning their confidence and affection. After remaining with them about a year he returned to Quebec, escorted by a band of his converts. He gave such favorable accounts of the disposition of the Maine Indians that a permanent mission was established among them.

Uncivilized Wild Men.

By the close of the year 1646 the French had established a line of missions extending across the continent from Lake Superior to Nova Scotia, and between sixty and seventy missionaries were actively engaged in instructing and preaching to the savages. How far the labors of these devoted men were actually successful will never be known, as their work was of a character which cannot be submitted to any human test. They They did not succeed, however, in changing either the character or the habits of their converts. They were still wild men, who scorned to engage in the labor of cultivating their lands, and lived by hunting and fishing. They learned to engage in the religious services of the missionaries, to chant matins and vespers, but they made no approach to civilization. When, in after years, the zeal of the whites for their conversion became less active, and the missionaries less numerous, they fell back into their old ways.

In 1648 the peace between the Mohawks and the Hurons was broken, and the war Bands of blazed up again fiercer than ever. Mohawk warriors invaded the territory of the Hurons, and both the savage and the missionary fell victims to their fury. Om the morning of the fourth of July the village of St. Joseph, on Lake Simcoe, was attacked. by a war party of the Mohawks.

Pierced With Arrows.

The Huron braves were absent on a hunting expedition, and only the old men and the women and children of the tribe were left in the village. This was the village founded by the missionaries Brabeuf and Daniel, the latter of whom, now an old man, was still dwelling with his converts. At the opening of the attack the good priest hastened to baptize such as he could, and to give absolution to all whom he could reach. Then, as the Mohawks forced the stockade which protected the village and swarmed in among the wigwams, he advanced calmly from the chapel to meet them, and fell pierced with numerous arrows.

During the next year the Jesuit missions in Upper Canada were broken up. At the capture of the village Father Brabeuf and his companion, Gabriel Lallemand, were made prisoners, and were subsequently put to death with the cruelest tortures. They bore their sufferings with a firmness which astonished their persecutors. The Hurons were scattered and their country was added to the dominion of the Five Nations. Many of the captive Hurons were adopted into the conquering tribes. A large number of these had embraced Christianity-so many, indeed, that the Jesuits, who had been in nowise discouraged by the terrible scenes which had marked the war, began to cherish the hope that the presence of these converts would induce the Iroquois to receive a missionary