CHAPTER X

NEW FRANCE AND LOUISIANA

Missionary Work in New France. In 1615, on the invitation of Champlain, three Franciscans arrived in

them. The two orders labored together until 1629, when Quebec was taken by the English. Then all were returned to Europe. On the restoration of Canada to the French, three years later, the Jesuits resumed their missionary activity.

Captivity of Father Jogues. In one of his journeys Father Jogues (zhōg), as well as his companion René Goupil (reh-na' goo-pēl'), was taken prisoner by a roaming band of Mohawks, carried to one of their castles, or fortified villages, in central New York, and cruelly tortured. During his captivity of fifteen months he baptized many, heard a

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number of confessions, and, whenever opportunity offered, began to instruct the natives in the elements of Christianity. Thinking on the heroism and the zeal of Father Jogues, the historian Bancroft1 writes:

Roaming through the stately forests of the Mohawk Valley, he wrote the name of Jesus on the bark of the trees, graved the cross, and entered into possession of these countries in the name of God, often lifting up his voice in a solitary chant. Thus did France bring its banner and its faith to the confines of Albany."

Father Jogues was eventually ransomed by the Dutch of New Netherland; Governor William Kieft showed him the greatest kindness, and among other favors found him passage on a ship for France. Everywhere in Europe he was honored for his sufferings. But once more his apostolic spirit brought him from cultured France to what was then barbarous Canada, where he arrived in the spring of 1645. Having urged a mission among the terrible Iroquois, he was soon in New York. This time he did not, as on a former occasion, escape with mutilated hands, for not far from the scene of his earlier torture he gained the martyr's

crown.

Father Le Jeune. On the 5th of July, 1632, Father Le Jeune (zhun), S.J., landed at Quebec. In the interesting book The Jesuits in North America, the story of Le Jeune and other missionaries among the Algonquins and Hurons is beautifully told by Francis Parkman. Interesting as it

1 History of the United States, Vol. III, p. 134.

His first attempt to explain by signs the doctrines of the Catholic Church convinced him of the necessity of learning the Algonquin language. For this purpose he visited the Indian encampments. In the absence of the men he was received by a squaw, who showed him how to roast eels by holding them with a forked stick over embers. At this feast, which was shared by several younger squaws, who used their hair for napkins, the priest left no moment unemployed and by gestures and broken words kept up an active conversation. Though he found this method of studying the language very unsatisfactory, it was the best he could do at that time.

is, it is more closely connected with the history of Canada than with that of our own country. In this book, therefore, the subject can be touched but briefly. In the experience of Father Le Jeune the chief things to be noted are the difficulty of learning the Indian languages and the impossibility of converting bands of roving savages.

The Huron Mission. When the zeal of Le Jeune had singled him out for the position of Superior of the Society of Jesus, the attempt to convert the Hurons, who were farmers even more than hunters, was made by Fathers Brébeuf (bra-buf'), Daniel', Davost (dah-vo'), and others. At the risk of their lives they made the difficult journey to the shores of Lake Huron. Their endeavors were beginning to bear fruit in many conversions when in 1649 the Iroquois attacked the Huron villages and destroyed or dispersed the nation, after some of the most desperate fighting that ever took place between Indians.

Brébeuf and Lalemant. Fathers Brébeuf and Lalemant (lahl-mahn') were then conducting the mission at St. Louis. Parkman gives us a vivid account of their fate. Both were captured, and Brébeuf was led away and tied to a stake. Forgetting himself he urged his converts to suffer bravely. Enraged at this the Iroquois scorched him from head to foot; his lower lip was cut away and a red-hot iron thrust down his throat. Then in his presence Lalemant was led to the torture. Strips of bark smeared with pitch were tied about his naked body. In the words of St. Paul he called out to his Superior: "We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men." He then threw himself at Brébeuf's feet. Immediately he was seized by the Iroquois, who set fire to the bark wrapped about him. From the midst of the flames he threw up his arms with a cry of supplication to Heaven. Then the torture of Father Brébeuf was resumed. They hung round his neck a collar of

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red-hot hatchets. The fine form of the priest towered proudly above the fiendish Iroquois. Boiling water was next poured slowly over his head. "We baptize you," said a renegade Indian, "that you may be happy in Heaven; for nobody can be saved without a good baptism." Even then the missionary showed no signs of flinching, and in a rage they cut from his body strips of flesh which they devoured before his eyes. He was then scalped, and when he was nearly dead, they came in a body to drink the blood which flowed from so valiant an enemy. His heart was torn out by a chief, who devoured it. Thus died Father Jean de Brébeuf, the hero of the Huron Mission. Some hours afterward the gentle Father Lalemant was brained by the hatchet of a warrior who had grown weary of torturing him. Missions in New York. After overthrowing the Hurons, the Iroquois destroyed several other tribes. Meanwhile, for some reason that is not perfectly clear they sued for peace with the French. When the Onondagas asked for a missionary, Father Le Moyne was sent to them. At first he founded a mission near the mouth of the Oswego River; thence he pushed into the interior and in doing so discovered the salt springs in the vicinity of Syracuse, New York. Fathers Dablon (dah-blawn') and Chaumonot (sho-monō') were soon at work in the same field. In November, 1655, was begun the building of a chapel, which, owing to the zeal of the natives, was finished in a day.

The success of the mission aroused the wrath of those Iroquois who were still pagans, and its flourishing career of three years was interrupted by a renewal of war. Through the influence of the Indian chief Garacontié (gah-rahcon-tya'), however, who looked kindly upon Christianity, and at last became a convert, peace was restored in 1660. Thereafter he was a protector of the missions and a friend of the French.

Marquette and Joliet. In 1673 the missionary Reverend James Marquette (mar-ket'), S. J., and the explorer Joliet (zhō-lyā'), discovered the upper Mississippi River. They drifted with its current as far as the mouth of the Arkansas. Several times they landed and twice passed the night at Indian villages back from the river. In this there was the greatest danger, but the calumet, or pipe of peace, in every case was found a perfect protection. When they had reached the Arkansas River these explorers were convinced that "The Father of Waters" flows not toward either California or Virginia but toward the Gulf of Mexico. With their five companions, therefore, they began paddling upstream the weary way back to Lake Michigan. In crossing to that body of water they passed the site of Chicago.1

With a map of their discoveries and a report, Joliet started for Quebec with the breaking up of the ice. In the rapids near Montreal, his canoe was capsized, his report lost, and three of his companions drowned.

La Salle. Robert Cavalier (cah-vah-lya'), Sieur de la Salle (syer deh lah sahl), now determined to explore the Mississippi to its mouth.2 In 1679, on the upper Niagara River he launched the Griffin, a ship of forty-five tons. On it, the first large vessel ever seen on those waters, he crossed

1 Exposure to days of heat and nights of chilling fog, together with lack of rest and of food, had broken the health of Father Marquette, and it was long before he was able to keep his promise to found a mission among the Illinois Indians, upon whom he had made a lasting impression. It was while returning from a visit to one of their villages that a great weakness warned him that his days were spent. On the eastern shore of Lake Michigan he saw a suitable place for ending his voyage, and there begged his rowers to set him on shore. This they did and made him as comfortable as was possible in the wilderness. The little time that remained was passed in prayer. His friends heard him thanking God for the manner of his approaching death. This expression of his gratitude was scarcely ended when the saintly Marquette went to his reward.

2 On earlier journeys of exploration, in 1669-1671, La Salle had already discovered the Ohio River, and probably the Illinois also.