[14]Relation, 1660, 6, 7 (anonymous). Le Jeune says, "Their victories have so depopulated their towns, that there are more foreigners in them than natives. At Onondaga there are Indians of seven different nations permanently established; and, among the Senecas, of no less than eleven." (Relation, 1657, 34.) These were either adopted prisoners, or Indians who had voluntarily joined the Iroquois to save themselves from their hostility. They took no part in councils, but were expected to join war-parties, though they were usually excused from fighting against their former countrymen. The condition of female prisoners was little better than that of slaves, and those to whom they were assigned often killed them on the slightest pique.
[14]Relation, 1660, 6, 7 (anonymous). Le Jeune says, "Their victories have so depopulated their towns, that there are more foreigners in them than natives. At Onondaga there are Indians of seven different nations permanently established; and, among the Senecas, of no less than eleven." (Relation, 1657, 34.) These were either adopted prisoners, or Indians who had voluntarily joined the Iroquois to save themselves from their hostility. They took no part in councils, but were expected to join war-parties, though they were usually excused from fighting against their former countrymen. The condition of female prisoners was little better than that of slaves, and those to whom they were assigned often killed them on the slightest pique.
CHAPTER XXXIV.THE END.Failure of the Jesuits • What their Success would have involved • Future of the Mission
THE END.
Failure of the Jesuits • What their Success would have involved • Future of the Mission
Withthe fall of the Hurons, fell the best hope of the Canadian mission. They, and the stable and populous communities around them, had been the rude material from which the Jesuit would have formed his Christian empire in the wilderness; but, one by one, these kindred peoples were uprooted and swept away, while the neighboring Algonquins, to whom they had been a bulwark, were involved with them in a common ruin. The land of promise was turned to a solitude and a desolation. There was still work in hand, it is true,—vast regions to explore, and countless heathens to snatch from perdition; but these, for the most part, were remote and scattered hordes, from whose conversion it was vain to look for the same solid and decisive results.
In a measure, the occupation of the Jesuits was gone. Some of them went home, "well resolved," writes the Father Superior, "to return to the combat at the first sound of the trumpet;"[1]while of those who remained, about twenty in number, several soon fell victims to famine, hardship, and the Iroquois. A few years more, and Canada ceased to be a mission; political and commercial interests gradually became ascendant, and the story of Jesuit propagandism was interwoven with her civil and military annals.
[1]Lettre de Lalemant au R. P. Provincial (Relation, 1650, 48).
[1]Lettre de Lalemant au R. P. Provincial (Relation, 1650, 48).
Here, then, closes this wild and bloody act of the great drama of New France; and now let the curtain fall, while we ponder its meaning.
The cause of the failure of the Jesuits is obvious. The guns and tomahawks of the Iroquois were the ruin of their hopes. Could they have curbed or converted those ferocious bands, it is little less than certain that their dream would have become a reality. Savages tamed—not civilized, for that was scarcely possible—would have been distributed in communities through the valleys of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi, ruled by priests in the interest of Catholicity and of France. Their habits of agriculture would have been developed, and their instincts of mutual slaughter repressed. The swift decline of the Indian population would have been arrested; and it would have been made, through the fur-trade, a source of prosperity to New France. Unmolested by Indian enemies, and fed by a rich commerce, she would have put forth a vigorous growth. True to her far-reaching and adventurous genius, she would have occupied the West withtraders, settlers, and garrisons, and cut up the virgin wilderness into fiefs, while as yet the colonies of England were but a weak and broken line along the shore of the Atlantic; and when at last the great conflict came, England and Liberty would have been confronted, not by a depleted antagonist, still feeble from the exhaustion of a starved and persecuted infancy, but by an athletic champion of the principles of Richelieu and of Loyola.
Liberty may thank the Iroquois, that, by their insensate fury, the plans of her adversary were brought to nought, and a peril and a woe averted from her future. They ruined the trade which was the life-blood of New France; they stopped the current of her arteries, and made all her early years a misery and a terror. Not that they changed her destinies. The contest on this continent between Liberty and Absolutism was never doubtful; but the triumph of the one would have been dearly bought, and the downfall of the other incomplete. Populations formed in the ideas and habits of a feudal monarchy, and controlled by a hierarchy profoundly hostile to freedom of thought, would have remained a hindrance and a stumbling-block in the way of that majestic experiment of which America is the field.
The Jesuits saw their hopes struck down; and their faith, though not shaken, was sorely tried. The Providence of God seemed in their eyes dark and inexplicable; but, from the stand-point of Liberty, that Providence is clear as the sun at noon. Meanwhile let those who have prevailed yield duehonor to the defeated. Their virtues shine amidst the rubbish of error, like diamonds and gold in the gravel of the torrent.
But now new scenes succeed, and other actors enter on the stage, a hardy and valiant band, moulded to endure and dare,—the Discoverers of the Great West.
INDEX
The Roman Numerals refer to the introduction.
Abenaquis, where found,xxii; ask for a missionary,321.Abraham, Plains of, whence the name,335note.Adoption of prisoners as members of the tribe,lxvi,223,309,424,444.Adventures and sufferings of an Algonquin woman,309-313; of another,313-316.Agnier, a name for the Mohawks,xlviiinote.Aiguillon, Duchess d', founds a Hôtel-Dieu at Quebec,181.Albany, formerly Rensselaerswyck, its condition in 1643,229.Algonquins,a comprehensive term,xx; regions occupied by them in 1535,xx; the designation, how applied,ib. note; found in New England,xxi; their relation to the Iroquois,xxi; numbers,ib.; Algonquin missions,368.Allumette Island,xxiv,45; its true position,46.Amikouas, or People of the Beaver,lxviiinote; supposed descent from that animal,ib.Amusements of the Indians,xxxvi; the Jesuits require them to be abandoned,136.Andacwandet, a strange method of cure,xlii.Andastes, where found in the early times,xx,xlvi; fierce warriors,xlvi; identical with the Susquehannocks,ib. note; their aid sought by the Hurons,341; the result unsatisfactory,344seq.; war with the Mohawks,441; assisted by the Swedes from Delaware River,442; repulse an attack of the Iroquois,ib.; a party of Andaste boys defeat the Senecas and Cayugas,443; finally subdued by the Senecas,ib.Aquanuscioni,or Iroquois,xlviiinote.Areskoui, the god of war,lxxvii; human sacrifices offered to him,ib.; a captive Iroquois sacrificed to him,81.Armouchiquois,a name applied to the Algonquins of New England,xxi; a strange account of them given by Champlain,xxiinote.Arts of life, as practised by the Hurons,xxxi.Assistaeronnons,or Nation of Fire. SeeNation of Fire.Ataentsic,a malignant deity; the moon,lxxvi.Atahocan,a dim conception of the Supreme Being,lxxiv.Atotarho of the Onondagas,liv,lvii.Attendants of the Jesuits,112note,132. SeeDonnés.Atticamegues,xxiii,286,293; attacked by the Iroquois,420.Attigouantans.SeeHurons.Attiwandarons,or Neutral Nation, why so called,xliv; their country,ib.; ferocious and cruel,xlv; licentious,ib.;their treatment of the dead,ib.SeeNeutral Nation.
Baptism of dying men,89,124; clandestine, of infants,96,97,116,117; of an influential Huron,112; conditions of baptism,134; baptisms, number in a year,136note.Birch-bark used instead of writing-paper,130.Bourgeoys, Marguerite, her character,201; foundress of the school at Montreal,202.Bradford, William, governor of Plymouth, kindly entertains the Jesuit Druilletes,327.Brébeuf, Jean de, arrives at Quebec,5,20,48; commences his journey to the Huron country,53; suffers great fatigue by the way,54; his intrepidity,54note,56; arrives in the Huron country,56; his previous residence there,ib.;his misgivings as to his future treatment by the Indians,57note;the Indians build a house for him,59; the house described,60; its furniture,ib.;Brébeuf witnesses the " Feast of the Dead,"75; witnesses a human sacrifice,80seq.;his uncompromising manner,90; "the Ajax of the mission,"99; his dealings with beings from the invisible world,108; sees a great cross in the air,109,144; his courage,120; his letter in prospect of martyrdom,122; harangues the Hurons at afestin d'adieu,123; commences a mission in the Neutral Nation,143; sees miraculous sights,144; at the Huron mission,370; taken by the Iroquois,381; his appalling fate,388; his intrepid character,390; his skull preserved to this day at Quebec,391; his visions and revelations,392note;a saint and a hero,ib.Bressani, Joseph, attempts to go to the Hurons,251; taken by the Iroquois,252; terrible sufferings from his captors,253-255; his escape,256; at the Huron Mission,370.Brulé, Étienne, murdered by the Hurons,56; the murder supposed to be avenged by a raging pestilence,94.Bullion, Madame de, founds a hospital at Montreal,266.Burning of captives alive, instances of,xlvnote,80-82;249,250;309,339,385;436note,439,441note.Buteux, Jacques, his toilsome journey,421; waylaid by the Iroquois and slain,422.
Cannibalism of the Hurons,xxxix,137, of the Miamis,xl; other instances,247.Canoes, Indian,xxxi.Capuchins, unsuccessful attempt to introduce them into Canada,159note;a station of them on the Penobscot,322.Cayugas, one of the Five Nations,xlviiinote,liv. SeeIroquois.Cemeteries of Indians lately opened,79; description of them,ib.Chabanel, Noël, joins the mission,105; among the Hurons,370; recalled from St. Jean,408; his journey,ib.;murdered by a renegade Huron,409; his vow,410note.Champfleur, commandant at Three Rivers,277,285.Champlain, Samuel de, resumes command at Quebec,20; his explorations,45; introduces the missionaries to the Hurons,48; assists the missionaries at their departure,50; his death,149.Chatelain, Pierre, joins the mission,86; his illness,ib.;his peril,126.Chaumonot, Joseph Marie, his early life,101-104; his gratitude to the Virgin,103,105; becomes a Jesuit, and embarks for Canada,105,181; narrowly escapes death,124; goes with Brébeuf to convert the Neutrals,142; his extreme peril,145; saved by the interference of Saint Michael,ib.;among the Hurons,370; with a colony of Hurons, near Quebec,431; builds Lorette,432.Choctaws, like the Iroquois, have eight clans,lvinote.Clanship, system of,l-lii.Clock of the Jesuits an object of wonder to the Hurons,61; an object of alarm,115.Colonization, French and English, compared,328,329.Condé, in his youth writes to Paul Le Jeune,152.Conestogas. SeeAndastes.Converts, how made,133,162seq.Couillard, a resident in Quebec,3,334,335.Councils of the Iroquois, their power,lvii-lx.Council, nocturnal, of the Hurons, relative to the epidemic in 1637,118.Couture, Guillaume, adonnéof the mission,214; a prisoner to the Iroquois,216; tortured by them,216,223;adopted by them,223; assists in negotiations for peace,284,287; returns with the Iroquois,296.Crania of Indians compared with those of Caucasian races,lxiii.Credulity and superstition of the Indians,301.Crime, how punished,lxi.Cruelties, Indian,xlvnote,80,216seq.,248,253,254,277,303seq.,308seq.,313,339,350,377,381,385,388seq.,436note,439,441note.Custom, with the Indians, had the force of law,xlix.
Dahcotahs,found east of the Mississippi,xxnote;their villages,xxvi.D'Ailleboust de Coulonges, Louis, lands at Montreal,264; history,265; fortifies Montreal,266; becomes governor of Canada,330,332.Daily life of the Jesuits,129; their food,ib.;how obtained,130.Dallion, La Roche, visits the Neutral Nation in 1626,xliv; exposed to great danger among them,xlvinote,146.Daniel, Antoine,5,20,48; commences his journey to the Huron country,53; disasters by the way,55; his arrival in the Huron country,58; his peril,126; returns to Quebec to commence a seminary,168; labors with success among the Hurons,374; slain by the Iroquois,377.Dauversière, Jérôme le Royer de la, described,188; hears a voice from heaven,189; has a vision,191; meets Olier,192; plans a religious community at Montreal,ib.;one of the purchasers of the island,195; his misgivings,197.Davost at Quebec,5,20,48; sets out on his journey to the Huron country,53; robbed and left behind by his conductors,54; his arrival among the Hurons,58.De Nouë, Anne, a missionary,5,14; perishes in the snow,257-260.Des Châtelets, an inhabitant of Quebec,334,335.Devil, worshipped,lxxiv,lxxvi,lxxvii; his supposed alarm at the success of the mission,113; consequences,114seq.Dionondadies.SeeTobacco Nation.Disease, how accounted for,xl,xli; how treated,ib.Divination and sorcery,lxxxiv,lxxxv.Dogs sacrificed to the Great Spirit,lxxxvi; used at Montreal for sentinels,271; very useful,272."Donnés"of the mission,112note,214,364.Dreams, confidence of the Indian in,lxxxiii,lxxxiv,lxxxvi; "Dream-Feast," a scene of frenzy,67.Dress of the Indians,xxxii; scarcely worn in summer,xxxiii.Druilletes, Gabriel, his labors among the Montagnais,318; among the Abenaquis on the Kennebec,321,323; visits English settlements in Maine,322; again descends the Kennebec, and visits Boston,324,325; object of the visit,324; visits Governor Dudley at Roxbury,326; and Governor Bradford at Plymouth,327; spends a night with Eliot at Roxbury,ib.;visits Endicott at Salem,ib.;his impressions of New England,328; failure of his embassy,330.Dudley, Thomas, governor of Massachusetts, kindly receives the Jesuit Druilletes,326.Du Peron, François, his narrow escape,124; his journey,127; his arrival,128; his letter,130; at Montreal,263.Du Quen, journeys of,xxvnote,318.Dutch at Albany supply the Iroquois with fire-arms,211,212; endeavor to procure the release of prisoners among the Mohawks,230.