The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century Part 13

"If you will not believe me," said Brebeuf, "go to our house; search everywhere; and if you are not sure which is the charm, take all our clothing and all our cloth, and throw them into the lake."

"Sorcerers always talk in that way," was the reply.

"Then what will you have me say?" demanded Brebeuf.

"Tell us the cause of the pest."

Brebeuf replied to the best of his power, mingling his explanations with instructions in Christian doctrine and exhortations to embrace the Faith.

He was continually interrupted; and the old chief, Ont.i.tarac, still called upon him to produce the charmed cloth. Thus the debate continued till after midnight, when several of the a.s.sembly, seeing no prospect of a termination, fell asleep, and others went away. One old chief, as he pa.s.sed out said to Brebeuf, "If some young man should split your head, we should have nothing to say." The priest still continued to harangue the diminished conclave on the necessity of obeying G.o.d and the danger of offending Him, when the chief of Ossossane called out impatiently, "What sort of men are these? They are always saying the same thing, and repeating the same words a hundred times. They are never done with telling us about their _Oki_, and what he demands and what he forbids, and Paradise and h.e.l.l." [ The above account of the council is drawn from Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1638, Chap. II. See also Bressani, Relation Abregee, 163. ]

"Here was the end of this miserable council," writes Le Mercier; ...

"and if less evil came of it than was designed, we owe it, after G.o.d, to the Most Holy Virgin, to whom we had made a vow of nine ma.s.ses in honor of her immaculate conception."

The Fathers had escaped for the time; but they were still in deadly peril. They had taken pains to secure friends in private, and there were those who were attached to their interests; yet none dared openly take their part. The few converts they had lately made came to them in secret, and warned them that their death was determined upon. Their house was set on fire; in public, every face was averted from them; and a new council was called to p.r.o.nounce the decree of death. They appeared before it with a front of such unflinching a.s.surance, that their judges, Indian-like, postponed the sentence. Yet it seemed impossible that they should much longer escape. Brebeuf, therefore, wrote a letter of farewell to his Superior, Le Jeune, at Quebec, and confided it to some converts whom he could trust, to be carried by them to its destination.

"We are perhaps," he says, "about to give our blood and our lives in the cause of our Master, Jesus Christ. It seems that His goodness will accept this sacrifice, as regards me, in expiation of my great and numberless sins, and that He will thus crown the past services and ardent desires of all our Fathers here... . Blessed be His name forever, that He has chosen us, among so many better than we, to aid him to bear His cross in this land! In all things, His holy will be done!" He then acquaints Le Jeune that he has directed the sacred vessels, and all else belonging to the service of the altar, to be placed, in case of his death, in the hands of Pierre, the convert whose baptism has been described, and that especial care will be taken to preserve the dictionary and other writings on the Huron language. The letter closes with a request for ma.s.ses and prayers.

[ The following is the conclusion of the letter (Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1638, 43.)

"En tout, sa sainte volonte soit faite; s'il veut que des ceste heure nous mourions, o la bonne heure pour nous! s'il veut nous reseruer a d'autres trauaux, qu'il soit beny; si vous entendez que Dieu ait couronne nos pet.i.ts trauaux, ou pl.u.s.tost nos desirs, benissez-le: car c'est pour luy que nous desirons viure et mourir, et c'est luy qui nous en donne la grace. Au reste si quelques-vns suruiuent, i'ay donne ordre de tout ce qu'ils doiuent faire. I'ay este d'aduis que nos Peres et nos domestiques se retirent chez ceux qu'ils croyront estre leurs mei'leurs amis; i'ay donne charge qu'on porte chez Pierre nostre premier Chrestien tout ce qui est de la Sacristie, sur tout qu'on ait vn soin particulier de mettre en lieu d'a.s.seurance le Dictionnaire et tout ce que nous auons de la langue.

Pour moy, si Dieu me fait la grace d'aller au Ciel, ie prieray Dieu pour eux, pour les pauures Hurons, et n'oublieray pas Vostre Reuerence.

"Apres tout, nous supplions V. R. et tous nos Peres de ne nous...o...b..ier en leurs saincts Sacrifices et prieres, afin qu'en la vie et apres la mort, il nous fa.s.se misericorde; nous sommes tous en la vie et a l'Eternite,

"De vostre Reuerence tres-humbles et tres-affectionnez seruiteurs en Nostre Seigneur,

"IEAN DE BREBEVF.

FRANcOIS IOSEPH LE MERCIER.

PIERRE CHASTELLAIN.

CHARLES GARNIER.

PAVL RAGVENEAV.

"En la Residence de la Conception, a Ossossane, ce 28 Octobre.

"I'ay laisse en la Residence de sainct Ioseph les Peres Pierre Pijart et Isaac Iogves, dans les mesmes sentimens." ]

The imperilled Jesuits now took a singular, but certainly a very wise step. They gave one of those farewell feasts--festins d'adieu--which Huron custom enjoined on those about to die, whether in the course of Nature or by public execution. Being interpreted, it was a declaration that the priests knew their danger, and did not shrink from it. It might have the effect of changing overawed friends into open advocates, and even of awakening a certain sympathy in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of an a.s.sembly on whom a bold bearing could rarely fail of influence. The house was packed with feasters, and Brebeuf addressed them as usual on his unfailing themes of G.o.d, Paradise, and h.e.l.l. The throng listened in gloomy silence; and each, when he had emptied his bowl, rose and departed, leaving his entertainers in utter doubt as to his feelings and intentions. From this time forth, however, the clouds that overhung the Fathers became less dark and threatening. Voices were heard in their defence, and looks were less constantly averted. They ascribed the change to the intercession of St. Joseph, to whom they had vowed a nine days' devotion. By whatever cause produced, the lapse of a week wrought a hopeful improvement in their prospects; and when they went out of doors in the morning, it was no longer with the expectation of having a hatchet struck into their brains as they crossed the threshold.

[ "Tant y a que depuis le 6. de Nouembre que nous acheuasmes nos Messes votiues son honneur, nous auons iouy d'vn repos incroyable, nons nous en emerueillons nous-mesmes de iour en iour, quand nous considerons en quel estat estoient nos affaires il n'y a que huict iours."--Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1638, 44. ]

The persecution of the Jesuits as sorcerers continued, in an intermittent form, for years; and several of them escaped very narrowly. In a house at Ossossane, a young Indian rushed suddenly upon Francois Du Peron, and lifted his tomahawk to brain him, when a squaw caught his hand.

Paul Ragueneau wore a crucifix, from which hung the image of a skull.

An Indian, thinking it a charm, s.n.a.t.c.hed it from him. The priest tried to recover it, when the savage, his eyes glittering with murder, brandished his hatchet to strike. Ragueneau stood motionless, waiting the blow. His a.s.sailant forbore, and withdrew, muttering. Pierre Chaumonot was emerging from a house at the Huron town called by the Jesuits St. Michel, where he had just baptized a dying girl, when her brother, standing hidden in the doorway, struck him on the head with a stone. Chaumonot, severely wounded, staggered without falling, when the Indian sprang upon him with his tomahawk. The bystanders arrested the blow. Francois Le Mercier, in the midst of a crowd of Indians in a house at the town called St. Louis, was a.s.sailed by a noted chief, who rushed in, raving like a madman, and, in a torrent of words, charged upon him all the miseries of the nation. Then, s.n.a.t.c.hing a brand from the fire, he shook it in the Jesuit's face, and told him that he should be burned alive. Le Mercier met him with looks as determined as his own, till, abashed at his undaunted front and bold denunciations, the Indian stood confounded.

[ The above incidents are from Le Mercier, Lalemant, Bressani, the autobiography of Chaumonot, the unpublished writings of Garnier, and the ancient ma.n.u.script volume of memoirs of the early Canadian missionaries, at St. Mary's College, Montreal. ]

The belief that their persecutions were owing to the fury of the Devil, driven to desperation by the home-thrusts he had received at their hands, was an unfailing consolation to the priests. "Truly," writes Le Mercier, "it is an unspeakable happiness for us, in the midst of this barbarism, to hear the roaring of the demons, and to see Earth and h.e.l.l raging against a handful of men who will not even defend themselves." [ 1 ]

In all the copious records of this dark period, not a line gives occasion to suspect that one of this loyal band flinched or hesitated. The iron Brebeuf, the gentle Garnier, the all-enduring Jogues, the enthusiastic Chaumonot, Lalemant, Le Mercier, Chatelain, Daniel, Pijart, Ragueneau, Du Peron, Poncet, Le Moyne,--one and all bore themselves with a tranquil boldness, which amazed the Indians and enforced their respect.

[ 1 "C'est veritablement un bonheur indicible pour nous, au milieu de cette barbarie, d'entendre les rugiss.e.m.e.ns des demons, & de voir tout l'Enfer & quasi tous les hommes animez & remplis de fureur contre une pet.i.te poignee de gens qui ne voudroient pas se defendre."--Relation des Hurons, 1640, 31 (Cramoisy). ]

Father Jerome Lalemant, in his journal of 1639, is disposed to draw an evil augury for the mission from the fact that as yet no priest had been put to death, inasmuch as it is a received maxim that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. [ 1 ] He consoles himself with the hope that the daily life of the missionaries may be accepted as a living martyrdom; since abuse and threats without end, the smoke, fleas, filth, and dogs of the Indian lodges,--which are, he says, little images of h.e.l.l,--cold, hunger, and ceaseless anxiety, and all these continued for years, are a portion to which many might prefer the stroke of a tomahawk.

Reasonable as the Father's hope may be, its expression proved needless in the sequel; for the Huron church was not destined to suffer from a lack of martyrdom in any form.

[ 1 "Nous auons quelque fois doute, scauoir si on pouuoit esperer la conuersion de ce pas sans qu'il y eust effusion de sang: le principe receu ce semble dans l'Eglise de Dieu, que le sang des Martyrs est la s.e.m.e.nce des Chrestiens, me faisoit conclure pour lors, que cela n'estoit pas a esperer, voire mesme qu'il n'etoit pas a souhaiter, considere la gloire qui reuient a Dieu de la constance des Martyrs, du sang desquels tout le reste de la terre ayant tantost este abreuue, ce seroit vne espece de malediction, que ce quartier du monde ne partic.i.p.ast point au bonheur d'auoir contribue a l'esclat de ceste gloire."--Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1639, 56, 57. ]

CHAPTER XI

1638-1640.

PRIEST AND PAGAN.

DU PERON'S JOURNEY.--DAILY LIFE OF THE JESUITS.-- THEIR MISSIONARY EXCURSIONS.--CONVERTS AT OSSOSSANe.-- MACHINERY OF CONVERSION.--CONDITIONS OF BAPTISM.--BACKSLIDERS.-- THE CONVERTS AND THEIR COUNTRYMEN.--THE CANNIBALS AT ST. JOSEPH.

We have already touched on the domestic life of the Jesuits. That we may the better know them, we will follow one of their number on his journey towards the scene of his labors, and observe what awaited him on his arrival.

Father Francois Pu Peron came up the Ottawa in a Huron canoe in September, 1638, and was well treated by the Indian owner of the vessel. Lalemant and Le Moyne, who had set out from Three Rivers before him, did not fare so well. The former was a.s.sailed by an Algonquin of Allumette Island, who tried to strangle him in revenge for the death of a child, which a Frenchman in the employ of the Jesuits had lately bled, but had failed to restore to health by the operation. Le Moyne was abandoned by his Huron conductors, and remained for a fortnight by the bank of the river, with a French attendant who supported him by hunting. Another Huron, belonging to the flotilla that carried Du Peron, then took him into his canoe; but, becoming tired of him, was about to leave him on a rock in the river, when his brother priest bribed the savage with a blanket to carry him to his journey's end.

It was midnight, on the twenty-ninth of September, when Du Peron landed on the sh.o.r.e of Thunder Bay, after paddling without rest since one o'clock of the preceding morning. The night was rainy, and Ossossane was about fifteen miles distant. His Indian companions were impatient to reach their towns; the rain prevented the kindling of a fire; while the priest, who for a long time had not heard ma.s.s, was eager to renew his communion as soon as possible. Hence, tired and hungry as he was, he shouldered his sack, and took the path for Ossossane without breaking his fast. He toiled on, half-spent, amid the ceaseless pattering, trickling, and whispering of innumerable drops among innumerable leaves, till, as day dawned, he reached a clearing, and descried through the mists a cl.u.s.ter of Huron houses. Faint and bedrenched, he entered the princ.i.p.al one, and was greeted with the monosyllable "Shay!"--"Welcome!"

A squaw spread a mat for him by the fire, roasted four ears of Indian corn before the coals, baked two squashes in the embers, ladled from her kettle a dish of sagamite, and offered them to her famished guest.

Missionaries seem to have been a novelty at this place; for, while the Father breakfasted, a crowd, chiefly of children, gathered about him, and stared at him in silence. One examined the texture of his ca.s.sock; another put on his hat; a third took the shoes from his feet, and tried them on her own. Du Peron requited his entertainers with a few trinkets, and begged, by signs, a guide to Ossossane. An Indian accordingly set out with him, and conducted him to the mission-house, which he reached at six o'clock in the evening.

Here he found a warm welcome, and little other refreshment. In respect to the commodities of life, the Jesuits were but a step in advance of the Indians. Their house, though well ventilated by numberless crevices in its bark walls, always smelt of smoke, and, when the wind was in certain quarters, was filled with it to suffocation. At their meals, the Fathers sat on logs around the fire, over which their kettle was slung in the Indian fas.h.i.+on. Each had his wooden platter, which, from the difficulty of transportation, was valued, in the Huron country, at the price of a robe of beaver-skin, or a hundred francs. [ "Nos plats, quoyque de bois, nous cotent plus cher que Les votres; ils sont de la valeur d'une robe de castor, c'est a dire cent francs."--Lettre du P. Du Peron a son Frere, 27 Avril, 1639.--The Father's apprais.e.m.e.nt seems a little questionable. ]

Their food consisted of sagamite, or "mush," made of pounded Indian-corn, boiled with sc.r.a.ps of smoked fish. Chaumonot compares it to the paste used for papering the walls of houses. The repast was occasionally varied by a pumpkin or squash baked in the ashes, or, in the season, by Indian corn roasted in the ear. They used no salt whatever. They could bring their c.u.mbrous pictures, ornaments and vestments through the savage journey of the Ottawa; but they could not bring the common necessaries of life. By day, they read and studied by the light that streamed in through the large smoke-holes in the roof,--at night, by the blaze of the fire. Their only candles were a few of wax, for the altar.

They cultivated a patch of ground, but raised nothing on it except wheat for making the sacramental bread. Their food was supplied by the Indians, to whom they gave, in return, cloth, knives, awls, needles, and various trinkets. Their supply of wine for the Eucharist was so scanty, that they limited themselves to four or five drops for each ma.s.s.

[ The above particulars are drawn from a long letter of Francois Du Peron to his brother, Joseph-Imbert Du Peron, dated at La Conception (Ossossane), April 27, 1639, and from a letter, equally long, of Chaumonot to Father Philippe Nappi, dated Du Pays des Hurons, May 26, 1640. Both are in Carayon. These private letters of the Jesuits, of which many are extant, in some cases written on birch-bark, are invaluable as ill.u.s.trations of the subject.

The Jesuits soon learned to make wine from wild grapes. Those in Maine and Acadia, at a later period, made good candles from the waxy fruit of the shrub known locally as the "bayberry." ]

Their life was regulated with a conventual strictness. At four in the morning, a bell roused them from the sheets of bark on which they slept.

Ma.s.ses, private devotions, reading religious books, and breakfasting, filled the time until eight, when they opened their door and admitted the Indians. As many of these proved intolerable nuisances, they took what Lalemant calls the _honnete_ liberty of turning out the most intrusive and impracticable,--an act performed with all tact and courtesy, and rarely taken in dudgeon. Having thus winnowed their company, they catechized those that remained, as opportunity offered. In the intervals, the guests squatted by the fire and smoked their pipes.

As among the Spartan virtues of the Hurons that of thieving was especially conspicuous, it was necessary that one or more of the Fathers should remain on guard at the house all day. The rest went forth on their missionary labors, baptizing and instructing, as we have seen.

To each priest who could speak Huron [ 1 ] was a.s.signed a certain number of houses,--in some instances, as many as forty; and as these often had five or six fires, with two families to each, his spiritual flock was as numerous as it was intractable. It was his care to see that none of the number died without baptism, and by every means in his power to commend the doctrines of his faith to the acceptance of those in health.

[ 1 At the end of the year 1638, there were seven priests who spoke Huron, and three who had begun to learn it. ]

At dinner, which was at two o'clock, grace was said in Huron,--for the benefit of the Indians present,--and a chapter of the Bible was read aloud during the meal. At four or five, according to the season, the Indians were dismissed, the door closed, and the evening spent in writing, reading, studying the language, devotion, and conversation on the affairs of the mission.

The local missions here referred to embraced Ossossane and the villages of the neighborhood; but the priests by no means confined themselves within these limits. They made distant excursions, two in company, until every house in every Huron town had heard the annunciation of the new doctrine. On these journeys, they carried blankets or large mantles at their backs, for sleeping in at night, besides a supply of needles, awls, beads, and other small articles, to pay for their lodging and entertainment: for the Hurons, hospitable without stint to each other, expected full compensation from the Jesuits.

At Ossossane, the house of the Jesuits no longer served the double purpose of dwelling and chapel. In 1638, they had in their pay twelve artisans and laborers, sent up from Quebec, [ Du Peron in Carayon, 173. ] who had built, before the close of the year, a chapel of wood.