FATHeR. ISAAC 
 
 S-J 
 
 »^'• 
 
Columbia ^nitoem'tp 
 tntl)eCitpoflfttitork 
 
 THE LIBRARIES 
 
 Bequest of 
 
 Frederic Bancroft 
 
 1860-1945 
 
FATHER ISAAC JOGUES, S. J. 
 
 POUNDER OF THE IROQUOIS MISSION, 
 Kil,ednearAuriesvi!le,N,Y.. October 18. 1646. 
 
THE LIFE OF 
 
 FATHER ISAAC JOGUES, 
 
 Pi.$'^'i0ttavy gvic^t of tU^ Society of S^jsiu^, 
 
 Slain by the Mo/iatuk IroqiioiSy in the present State of New 
 York, Oct. 1 8, 1646. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. FELIX MARTIN, S. J. 
 
 WITH 
 
 Father Jogues' Account of the Captivity and Death of his 
 Companion, RENE GOUPIL, Slain Sept. 29, 1642. 
 
 Translated from the French by 
 JOHN GILMARY SHEA. 
 
 With a Map of the Mohawk Country, by Geti. John S. Clark, 
 
 New Yokx, Cincinnati, .Ai^r St. -Louis : 
 
 BENZIG^SR BROTHKRS, 
 
 printers to the holy 'apostolic see. 
 
-'^^"^/uri 
 
 r 
 
 
 Copyright, 1885, 
 By the President of the College of St. Francis Xavjer, New York. 
 
 • « • * * • * 
 
 * • * 
 
 • f • 
 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Filled from my youth with the deepest veneration for 
 Father Isaac Jogues, whose amiable character and heroic 
 death attracted even those who could not appreciate 
 fully his virtues as a Christian and a priest, I had read 
 in manuscript the life written by Father Felix Martin, 
 my guide and constant encourager in my historic studies. 
 To its publication I earnestly looked forward, hoping to 
 be able to translate it into English. In the long delay I 
 contributed what I could to make the illustrious mission- 
 ary known. When the Life by Father Martin finally ap- 
 peared, my work on the translation was soon begun ; 
 but a respected friend, the Rev. Joseph M. Finotti, told 
 me that his translation was far advanced, and begged 
 me to yield it to him. To this I consented, but though 
 he completed his task, he found no one ready to publish 
 it, and after his death the manuscript fell into my hands. 
 To encourage the work of Rev. Father Loyzance in 
 erecting the Chapel of Our Lady of Martyrs at Auries- 
 ville, where Father Jogues and Rene Goupil were put 
 to death, I offered this manuscript, which Messrs. Ben- 
 ziger Brothers agreed to publish. On revising it for the 
 press, however, I found that the translation made dur- 
 ing the long illness of Rev. Mr. Finotti had never been 
 carefully compared, and that some parts were missing, 
 so that I could more easily make a new translation than 
 revise the work of my late friend. Hence the present 
 version is mainly my own. 
 
4 Translator s Preface. 
 
 To General John S. Clark of Auburn, all who feel any 
 devotion to the pioneer priest of New York are indebted 
 for establishing, by his long examination in records, 
 maps, and the successive sites of Indian towns, the exact 
 locality where Father Jogues suffered; and to his per- 
 sonal kindness this volume is indebted for the map. 
 
 All profit arising from this volume will be devoted to 
 the erection of the Chapel of Our Lady of Martyrs. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Translator's Preface 3 
 
 Introduction 7 
 
 I. Birth of Isaac Jogues— His Education — First Mass— 
 
 The Canada Mission 1 1 
 
 II. Canada — The Huron Mission— The Missionaries fall 
 
 Sick — Their Recovery 25 
 
 III. Recovery of the Missionaries — The Huron Language — 
 
 The Epidemics — Celestial Favors 40 
 
 IV. New Residences — Saint Mary — Mission among the Tio- 
 
 nontate Nation — Voyage to Sauk Saint Marie 52 
 
 V. The Iroquois — Father Jogues goes down to Quebec — 
 
 His Captivity 61 
 
 VI. Sufferings and Resignation of the Missionary — Execu- 
 tion of Three Hurons — A Christian and Generous 
 Death 76 
 
 VII. Captivity of Father Jogues— The Dutch Interpose- 
 New Dangers — Murder of Rene Goupil— Consoling 
 Dreams 97 
 
 VIII. WinterHunt— Fasts— Father Jogues' Oratory— Celestial 
 Comforts — Return to the Village — His Situation 
 changed — He Studies the Mohawk — He Speaks of God 
 — Fishing — New Dangers — Torture of Prisoners iii 
 
 IX. Steps taken by the Chevalier de Montmagny to De- 
 liver Father Jogues — The Missionary's Letters — His 
 Resignation — A Journey — Unexpected Meeting— Con- 
 solation • 128 
 
Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 X. Father Jogues sets out for the Fishery — Fury of the Iro- 
 quois— They wish to Burn him— He is Saved by a 
 Dutch Captain— He reaches Manhattan Island- 
 Sails for France 140 
 
 XL An Uncomfortable Voyage— Father Jogues in Brittany- 
 Touching Hospitality— College at Rennes — Arrives in 
 Paris— Words of the Sovereign Pontiff— Returns to 
 Canada— At Montreal— Couture's Delivery 156 
 
 XII. Great Assembly at Three Rivers— The Treaty of Peace 
 — Father Jogues among the Iroquois— A Toilsome 
 Journey — He Returns to Three Rivers I75 
 
 XIII. Third Visit of Father Jogues to the Mohawks— Ill-treat- 
 
 ment — Division of Opinion in the Tribe — Father 
 Jogues is Put to Death — Punishment of his Murderer 194 
 
 XIV. Virtues of Father Jogues— Favors Obtained by his In- 
 
 tercession 211 
 
 Rene Goupil and his Heroic Death, from the Auto- 
 graph of Father Jogues 222 
 
 Appendix. Geography of the Huron Country — Stephen 
 Totiri — Teresa Oiouhaton — Joseph Theondechoren — 
 Charles Tsondatsaa — Eustace Ahasistari — Novum 
 Belgium : Father Jogues' Account of New Netherland 
 in 1642 230 
 
 Map Showing Sites of the Mohawk Villages in 
 1642, as located by General John S. Clark, Auburn, 
 N. Y., facing 259 
 
 Note.— Identification of Mohawk Sites— The Pilgrim 
 Shrine— Recent Petitions for the Introduction of the 
 Cause of Beatification 259 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 At the first glance it might seem a matter of surprise 
 to see the life of a modest servant of God published 
 more than two centuries after his death. The name of 
 Father Jogues, however, is not unknown in history. 
 Father Charlevoix, the annalist of New France, re- 
 counted his labors, and especially his sufferings, in pages 
 full of deep emotion. He had only to condense and 
 group together the long and numerous details scattered 
 through the precious collection of '' Relations of the 
 Missions of New France," for the years 1646 and 1647.* 
 
 * The Jesuit Relations, as they are called, comprise 41 small 
 octavo volumes, prepared generally by the Superior of the Mis- 
 sion. One was published each year, and the last appeared in 1672. 
 These Relations are the most important, and often the only, mate- 
 rial for Canadian history at that remote period. Some of these 
 volumes became so rare that they could not be found even in the 
 great libraries in Europe. With a patriotic feeling \forthy of all 
 praise, the Canadian Government in 1848 encouraged their reprint in 
 three large octavo volumes. Protestant writers beyond suspicion 
 (Bancroft, Sparks, Parkman) have paid a noble tribute to the value 
 of this collection. "With regard to the condition and character of 
 the primitive inhabitants of North America, it is impossible to ex- 
 aggerate their value as an authority. I should add, that the closest 
 examination has left me no doubt that these missionaries wrote in 
 perfect good faith, and that the Relations hold a high place as authen- 
 tic and trustworthy historical documents" (Parkman, "The Jesuits 
 in North America," Preface). 
 
8 Introduction. 
 
 This had already been done in biographical collections,* 
 published in Latin, German, Italian, Spanish; but the 
 size of these works and the languages in which they are 
 written make them acceptable only to a privileged class 
 of readers. 
 
 Towards the close of the last century, the Abbe J. B. 
 Forest, animated with just patriotism, impelled, too, by 
 a feeling of piety and fraternal love, undertook to be 
 the historian of Father Jogues. Like him a native of 
 Orleans, and a Jesuit till the suppression of the Society, 
 he was better able than any other to seek information at 
 the proper sources. His work fulfilled the desire of the 
 family of the servant of God and the wishes of his 
 native city, by making known one of its glorious sons. 
 This Life was completed just as the French Revolution 
 burst forth in all its fury. The publication of such a 
 work was out of the question. Religion was persecuted, 
 and virtue itself was about to be proscribed. To the 
 shame of humanity, it found in the midst of France less 
 liberty and respect than Father Jogues himself expe- 
 rienced at the hands of the bloodthirsty Iroquois. 
 
 We have taken up his task by endeavoring to com- 
 plete it. The author had not at his disposal the pre- 
 cious documents still preserved in Canada, or in the 
 archives of the Gesu at Rome. Two of these manu- 
 scripts, drawn up in the lifetime and soon after the 
 death of Father Jogues, deserve particular mention. 
 One is th^ autograph journal of the Superior of the 
 Missionaries in New France, which notes day by day 
 everything that bore on their labors, and sometimes 
 
 * Alegambe, S.J.,"Mortes lUustres et Gesta, . . . Soc. J."— Al. de 
 Andrade, S.J., "Varonis Illustres de la Compania de Jesus." — M. 
 Tanner, S.J., " Societas Jesu, usque ad sanguinis et vitae profusionem 
 militans" (also in German). — G. Patrigrani, S.J., " Menologia di pie 
 Memorie d'alcuni Religiosi de la C. de G." — Jos. Cassani, "Glorias 
 del Segundo Siglo de la Compania de Jesus." 
 
Introduction, g 
 
 events simply of colonial interest.* The other is still 
 more important. It is a quarto manuscript, entitled 
 "Memoire Touchant la Mort et les Vertus des PP. 
 Isaac Jogues, Anne de Noue, Jean de Brebeuf," etc. 
 The first 150 pages are devoted to Father Jogues. To 
 invest this monument with a character of special author- 
 ity, and render it available for use in case of necessity 
 in a canonical process, each account, and in some cases 
 each separate document, is confirmed by the signature 
 of the Superior of the Mission and his attestation under 
 oath. 
 
 The geography and history of that period seemed to 
 us to require some details to enlighten readers who 
 might be unfamiliar with the country. 
 
 Before entering on our narrative, we borrow from Mr. 
 Parkman, a Protestant writer, the sketch which he gives 
 of the Canadian missionaries, and which applies so well 
 to our hero. His testimony has all the greater value 
 because, amid his eulogistic words, he omits no opportu- 
 nity to give currency to false, unjust, and even calum- 
 nious ideas in regard to the Society, and he cannot avoid 
 self-contradiction in spite of this frank declaration : 
 *' No religious order has ever united in itself so much to 
 be admired and so much to be detested. Unmixed 
 praise has been poured on its Canadian members. It is 
 not for me to eulogize them, but to portray them as 
 they were" ("Jesuits in North America," p. 13). 
 
 Thus he portrays them: "All the weapons of Satan's 
 malice were prepared against the bold invader who 
 should assail him in this, the heart of his ancient do- 
 main. Far from shrinking, the priest's zeal rose to 
 tenfold ardor; ... he stood prompt to battle with all 
 the hosts of Hell. A life sequestered from social inter- 
 course and remote from every prize which ambition 
 
 * This precious manuscript, now at the University Laval, Quebec, 
 was printed a few years since in that city. 
 
lo IiitrodtLction. 
 
 holds worth the pursuit, or a lonely death, under forms, 
 perhaps, the most appalling — these were the mission- 
 aries' alternatives. Their maligners may taunt them, if 
 they will, with credulity, superstition, or a blind enthu- 
 siasm; but slander itself cannot accuse them of hypoc- 
 risy or ambition" (p. 43). 
 
 "■ A fervor more intense, a self-abnegation more com- 
 plete, a self-devotion more constant and enduring, will 
 scarcely find its record on the page of human history" 
 
 (p- 83). 
 
 " 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 " (p. 125). 
 
 This Life is better fitted to interest the pious than the 
 learned. Yet it may serve as an indirect and irrefra- 
 gable reply to the odious and calumnious insinuations 
 made against the Jesuits of Canada by the Jansenist 
 Arnauld and his imitators — insults revived in our day by 
 writers without religion or principle, who seem to pique 
 themselves when insulting religion and her ministers 
 on outdoing their predecessors.* 
 
 I make it a duty to mention here the active and 
 kindly part taken in the work by the Viscount de Lastic 
 Saint Jal. 
 
 In conformity with the decree of Urban VIII., we de- 
 clare that everything related in this life, and every praise 
 or honorable title given to those of whom it treats, have 
 no authority but human testimony, without any wish to 
 anticipate in any manner the judgment of the Church. 
 
 * As an example, see Michelet, Revue des deux Mondes, 15 Jan., 
 1863, on the " epicurean" life of the Jesuits in Canada. 
 
LIFE OF FATHER ISAAC JOGUES, 
 
 OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Birth of Isaac Jogues— His Education— First Mass— The 
 Canada Mission. 
 
 lATHER JOGUES was the first apostle of the Iro- 
 quois, and the first missionary victim to their 
 cruelty. His short apostleship of six years has no 
 striking features; but his two captivities in the hands of 
 the fiercest Indians of Canada, the horrible tortures he en- 
 dured, and his tragical death present a magnificent pic- 
 ture of the sublime virtues of Religion and the Apostle- 
 ship. Such a character reveals the most excellent heav- 
 enly gifts in a soul, and proves that it had been long 
 prepared for the combat. 
 
 Isaac Jogues was born at Orleans, January lo, 1607, 
 of a worthy family. Deprived of his father at an early 
 age, he found in his mother, Frances de Saint Mesmin, a 
 woman after the heart of God, who understood the holy 
 mission which the Almighty had confided to her in 
 the education of her children. At his baptism in the 
 Church of St. Hilary he received the name of Isaac, as 
 though God had thus chosen to presage the sacrifice 
 which his pious mother was one day to make, and that 
 
12 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 which he himself was to offer to the Lord. His happy 
 disposition responded admirably to the care bestowed 
 on his infancy, and every day saw rare dispositions for 
 virtue develop in the boy. He loved to listen to the nar- 
 rative of the passion of our Lord and the sufferings of 
 the Saints. They excited deep emotion in his heart, and 
 more than once affected him to tears. While still young 
 he was moved by occasional impulses of .great fervor. 
 This was manifested in prayer, and in his eagerness to 
 profit by occasions of suffering for God's sake. Instead 
 of murmuring at those who reproved or punished him 
 for any fault, he would express his gratitude as if for a 
 great service done him. 
 
 In 1617, at the moment when Isaac Jogues reached the 
 age for beginning his studies, the Fathers of the Society 
 of Jesus opened a college at Orleans.* He immediately 
 entered, and ere long rapid progress gave him a pre-emi- 
 nence over his fellow-scholars which he never lost. His 
 success was acquired by constant application, guided by 
 a solid judgment, a happy memory, and great penetra- 
 tion. 
 
 Nothing tends more to develop the intellect than the 
 best disposition of the heart. Isaac's, so well trained by 
 his excellent mother from early childhood, profited in 
 the highest degree by the advantages afforded in the 
 course of life followed in the new academy, where all 
 
 * Long opposition had retarded the foundation of this college. 
 The first letters-patent were issued by Henry IV., January 16, 1609, 
 but the authority of Marshal de la Chatre, governor of the city, 
 could not overcome these obstacles. The matter was not taken up 
 again till 1617, the Queen Regent issuing new letters-patent on the 
 19th of March; on the 12th of May the Governor and municipal offi- 
 cers installed the Jesuits in a house on the Rue Sainte Anne, but the 
 college was not opened for scholars till October 18, in another 
 building on the Rue de la Vieille Monnaie, but it was only tempora- 
 rily. An eminent benefactor, Raoul Gazille, Prior Commendatory 
 of Saint Sanson, introduced them on the 9th of March, 1619, into his 
 priory, where he had erected the necessary buildings for a college. 
 
His EdiLcatio7i, 1 3 
 
 were animated by piety. His virtue, like his learning, 
 grew with his years ; his assiduity and fervor in prayer, 
 pious reading, serious conversati9n, tender devotion to 
 the Blessed Virgin, frequent participation in the sacra- 
 ments, all developed in him a religious feeling and habit. 
 Isaac became a perfect model of a virtuous scholar, and 
 the often critical tests of this college life never made him 
 swerve from the line which he had traced for himself. 
 Works of charity and zeal — an ordinary characteristic of 
 souls predestined for the service of God — already claimed 
 his leisure hours, and he v^as never happier than when he 
 had been able to lead others to virtue. 
 
 At an early age Isaac sought light from heaven as to 
 his vocation: it was the frequent subject of his prayers, 
 and he prepared himself in advance to fulfil the divine 
 will as soon as it became known to him. The light of 
 grace did not fail him; he soon understood that he was 
 called to the religious and apostolic life. His eyes 
 turned toward the Society of Jesus, which seemed to em- 
 body all the aspirations of his heart from both points of 
 view. He solicited admission, and as soon as he received 
 a favorable reply he longed to put his project into effect 
 at once, although he had only just finished his course of 
 rhetoric; but he was impelled by the thought that one 
 who resolves to dedicate his life to God's service can 
 never do it too soon. 
 
 Filled, however, with respectful deference for his 
 mother, he would take no step without her consent; he 
 imparted his design to her. This valiant woman knew 
 her duty too well to give ear only to the voice of affec- 
 tion, which is so easily blinded, and so easily influenced 
 by self-love. Above all, she weighed the interest of God 
 and the happiness of her son. Having convinced her- 
 self that his vocation was real, she left him absolutely 
 free to follow it, and like Abraham, did not falter in her 
 sacrifice. 
 
 Isaac was seventeen years old when he entered the no- 
 
14 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 vitiate of the Society of Jesus at Rouen, on the 24th of 
 October, 1624. To guide his steps in the career which 
 he had embraced, and be initiated into the interior 
 life, which forms the spiritual man, and prepares the 
 apostle, he found there a master deeply versed in the 
 practice and knowledge of the things of God. Father 
 Louis Lalemant,* a religious of eminent virtue, was en- 
 dowed with extraordinary talent for imbuing others with 
 the spirit of self-denial and zeal which animated him. 
 Notwithstanding his earnest solicitation, he had not 
 been permitted to bear the gospel to savage nations, 
 and atoned for the loss by selecting and forming good 
 missionaries to accomplish that eminently Catholic 
 ^vork — men who had all his predilection for it. 
 
 He had been struck by young Jogues' aptitude and 
 disposition. Nor was he long in discerning in the young 
 man a soul full of uprightness, energy, and ardor, a heart 
 capable of the greatest sacrifices, and a virtue to stand 
 every test. These were the qualities characteristic of a 
 good missionary. Accordingly, when the mission of 
 New France was opened to the Jesuits in 1625 for the 
 second time. Father Lalemant loved to repeat to his 
 disciple these prophetic w^ords: " Brother, you will not 
 \ die anywhere but in Canada." 
 
 " The young religious thought indeed of devoting him- 
 A self to the preaching of the gospel in remote countries, 
 / but his aspirations did not incline him towards that 
 I American province, then little known: he longed to go 
 to the burning sands of Ethiopia, where the success of 
 the faith called for many laborers. He even manifested 
 this pious desire to his superiors, and begged them to 
 inscribe his name in advance on the list of those wlio 
 were to have the happiness of being summoned to ex- 
 tend the kingdom of Jesus Christ in that region. 
 
 * Three members of this family are still famous in the history of the 
 Canada missions — Charles, his brother Jerome, and their nephew 
 Gabriel, who was put to death by the Iroquois in 1649. 
 
The Canada Missio7i. 15 
 
 His youth allowed time for his projects to mature, 
 and gave him full leisure for an excellent preparation. 
 He was about to enter on the career of study and teach- 
 ing through which the younger members of the Society 
 of Jesus must usually pass before they are elevated to the 
 priesthood. After his novitiate he was sent to La Fleche 
 to study a three-years' course of philosophy. This col- 
 lege was at that time in a very prosperous condition, 
 through the munificence of Henry IV. It had three 
 hundred boarders and nearly two thousand day-scholars. 
 
 The young Jesuit scholastics formed a little body by 
 themselves, and were engaged only in their studies. 
 That species of retreat combining religious recollection 
 with the pursuit of science was most providential for 
 Brother Jogues. Several of his fellow-students were 
 destined to share at a future day his stern labors in 
 Canada. They were: Rene Menard, Charles Dumarche, 
 James Delaplace, Claude Quentin, and Nicholas Adam. 
 There too were at this period Brothers Julian Maunoir 
 and Vincent Hubi, already eminent for virtue, who were 
 in later days to shed a brilliant lustre by their labors and 
 their sanctity. 
 
 Brother Jogues' residence at La Fleche had familiar- 
 ized him with the Canada Mission, — the only one of his 
 order in French America, — and this doubtless at a later 
 day caused the change in his destination. Father 
 Masse,* after ten years' residence at La Fleche, had left 
 it the year before, to return to New France, from which 
 he had been expelled by the English in 161 1. During 
 his stay in Europe he had sighed incessantly for that re- 
 mote mission, which he styled his Rachel. His accounts 
 of Canada, preserved traditionally in the house, kept 
 
 * Father Enemond Masse was a member of the Acadian Mission 
 in 161 1, and of that of Quebec in 1625. After being expelled by the 
 English, he returned to Canada in 1633, and died in 1646. A pious 
 monument was raised to his memory, in 1870, over his grave at Sil- 
 lery, near Quebec, 
 
1 6 Life of Father Jogties. 
 
 alive an emulation for the conversion of souls and the 
 propagation of the gospel in heathen lands. 
 
 At this time the Society of Jesus was passing through 
 one of the most brilliant phases of its history. Nothing 
 was lacking for its prosperity on the various stages where 
 its zeal was displayed — not even the trial of the most 
 envenomed and bloodiest persecution. In Catholic coun- 
 tries hatred in the hearts of unbelievers invented the 
 grossest calumnies against it, while Protestantism in 
 England and Holland and idolatry in Japan endeavored 
 to overwhelm its flourishing missions in blood. Then 
 the converts and tlieir apostles renewed the finest ex- 
 amples of Christian heroism, which has been set in the 
 primitive ages of the Church, and the glory of religion 
 expanded as at its cradle, just as hell reawakened in 
 the executioner, the same instincts of rage and cruelty 
 that marked the persecutions of old. These desperate 
 struggles stimulated courage, and the most perilous mis- 
 sions were the most coveted. 
 
 The death of Father Spinola,* burnt in Japan in 1622, 
 whose life presents so many touching circumstances, had 
 singularly impressed Father Jogues. It inspired him 
 from that moment with a keen desire for martyrdom, 
 God apparently thus preparing him for the tortures 
 which he himself was one day to undergo. He often fixed 
 
 * A touching scene occurred at the death of Father Spinola. From 
 his funeral pyre he perceived the mother of a child that he had bap- 
 tized four years before. This remembrance touched his heart. 
 "Where is my little Ignatius?" he exclaimed. The mother then 
 raised towards him the child, who, like all the others, was arrayed 
 in its finest clothes for the sacrifice. " Here he is, Father," she ex- 
 claimed; "he is rejoiced to die with you for God's sake." Then ad- 
 dressing her son, she continued in a lively sentiment of faith: "See 
 the one who made thee a child of God !— ask his blessing for thyself 
 and thy mother." Ignatius fell on his knees, his hands clasped, and 
 the confessor blessed the martyr-child. A cry of pity rose from every 
 mouth. To arrest it, the executioners hastened to complete their 
 work. Father Spinola was enrolled among the Beatified in 1867. 
 
The Canada Mission. 17 
 
 his eye on a small picture, which represented the gener- 
 ous confessor attached to the stake, amid the fagots, his 
 eyes raised to heaven; he seemed to liear him, when 
 at the very moment of his torture he intoned in a 
 triumpiiant voice the Psalm Laiidate pueri Domimun^ which 
 his thirty companions continued with the same enthu- 
 siasm till their voices were extinguished forever. 
 
 Brother Isaac henceforward carried that picture of the 
 servant of God on his breast and prayed to the holy 
 religious to obtain grace to imitate him in his labors, and 
 to die like him for his God; but he had not yet over- 
 come all the obstacles, and, full of submission to the di- 
 vine will, he contented himself for the time being with 
 a more modest field of battle, though rich in merits and 
 fruitful in sacrifices. In 1629 the Superiors sent him to 
 the College of Rouen to teach the sixth class, and there 
 continue his course of instruction till he had presided 
 over the class of belles-lettres. 
 
 Providence seemed to guide Brother Isaac to this 
 house in order to bring him into intercourse with three 
 of tke chief Canada missionaries, whom the English had 
 just expelled after a most iniquitous aggression on that 
 colony. Father Charles Lalemant,''^ first Superior of 
 Quebec, Father Brebeuf,f and Father Masse, already 
 mentioned, returned to France in 1629 with the firm hope 
 and ardent desire of resuming their work at a future 
 day. As there was nothing to indicate when the mo- 
 ment would come, each received a position in the College 
 
 * Father Charles Lalemant made eight voyages across the Atlantic. 
 He was the first Superior at Quebec. Having returned to France for 
 good in 1838, he became Rector of Clermont College, Superior of the 
 professed house and vice-provincial. He died in 1674, at the age of 
 eighty-seven, The esteem he enjoyed led to his selection as one of 
 those proposed for the Bishopric to be erected in Canada. 
 
 f Father Brebeuf is the most popular missionary in Canada, on ac- 
 count of his virtues, his hardships and labors, and especially the hero- 
 ism of his last sacrifice. He underwent most frightful tortures at the 
 hands of the Iroquois in 1649. 
 
1 8 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 of Rouen. They waited for three years; then, through 
 the efforts of Champlain and the energetic administra- 
 tion of Richelieu, Canada was at last restored to France, 
 the generous laborers in the vineyard of the Lord were 
 successively restored to their beloved mission. 
 
 Brother Jogues was thus enabled to acquaint himself, 
 not only with the obstacles which the faith encountered 
 in that distant country, but also with the rigors of its 
 arctic climate, and the manifold hardships of that young 
 mission, already regarded as one of the most laborious 
 undertaken by the Society. The difficulties and suffer- 
 ings, far from damping his courage, only excited his 
 ardor; but as yet he could dream only of gratifying it 
 in the remote future. 
 
 To show himself more worthy of it, Brother Isaac gave 
 himself up wholly to his duties as professor and to the de- 
 velopment of the youth confided to his care. While stor- 
 ing their minds with human learning, he sought especially 
 to train them in the science of the saints. He would fain 
 have inspired them all with his horror of sin and his love 
 for virtue. His active zeal suggested a thousand de- 
 vices to attain this end. He stimulated especially a love 
 of prayer, the frequentation of the Sacraments, and a 
 tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin. His piety to- 
 wards the august Queen of Heaven induced him on a 
 solemn occasion to select her as the theme of a literary 
 exercise which had been assigned to him. At the end of 
 the collegiate year it was usual for one of the professors 
 to read in public at the distribution of prizes some 
 composition, the choice of which was left to himself. 
 Brother Jogues, then professor of the class of Humanity, 
 was selected for this exercise, and he delivered a short 
 Latin poem based on a fact related by Evagrius.* 
 
 * It was an ancient custom at Constantinople, when some particles 
 were left of the Sacred Body of our Lord at the Mass, to give them to 
 the little school-children. The child of a Jewish glass-blower, min- 
 gling among his classmates, received it. On his return home his fa- 
 
His Latin Poem. 19 
 
 This piece, devoted entirely to the glory of the Blessed 
 Virgin and of the Blessed Sacrament, was recited by 
 Brother Jogues, with an eloquence born of faith and en- 
 thusiasm. Unfortunately, the work of the young scholas- 
 tic has not come down to us; we only know that it won 
 the praise of the numerous audience. He was then 
 twenty-five years of age. 
 
 The hour for his theological studies had come at last. 
 He was sent to Clermont College,* Paris, to pursue them. 
 Yet this did not absorb all his time; he at the same time 
 filled the position of prefect over the students. This im- 
 portant trust was at that time confided to theological 
 students in the great colleges of Paris, Bourges, and La 
 Fleche. 
 
 Father Buteux, one of the Canadian missionaries who 
 knew Father Jogues most thoroughly, and who has left 
 
 ther asked him the cause of his delay. He told where he had been, 
 and that he had eaten with the other children. The Jew, enraged at 
 these words, threw his son into the raging furnace, where the glass was 
 melted. His mother, looking for her little child and not finding him, 
 roamed through the city, uttering piteous cries and offering fervent 
 prayers to God. Three days after, while standing near the door of 
 her husband's glass-house, she called her son by name aloud in a 
 transport of her grief. The child recognizing his mother's voice, in- 
 stantly replied from the interior of the furnace. The mother tore the 
 door open and saw her son standing in the midst of the burning coals, 
 utterly unharmed. She questioned him to learn how he could be 
 there safe and sound. "A woman robed in purple," he replied, 
 "came to see me and gave me water to put out the fire around me; 
 and she brought me something to eat whenever I was hungry." The 
 fact having been laid before the Emperor Justinian, he ordered the 
 mother and child to be baptized, in accordance with the desire they 
 expressed; and the father, who obstinately refused to become a Chris- 
 tian, was crucified for his crime at the entrance of the Fig-tree suburb 
 (Cat. III., part i, ch. 4). 
 
 * This college owes its name to William Duprat, Bishop of Cler- 
 mont, who founded it in the reign of Henry H. On the occasion of a 
 solemn visit made to it in 1682 by Louis XIV., it received the name 
 of Louis-le- Grand. 
 
20 Life of Father Jogttes. 
 
 us extended details of his life, says of him, when treat- 
 ing of this period of his studies: " It was at this moment 
 that I first saw him, and I sought to know him. I al- 
 ways discerned in him rare prudence, and a punctual 
 observance of the rule. This was all the more striking 
 in the college where he lived, because amid such sur- 
 roundings it is apt to become less strict. I had an 
 equal admiration and respect for his humility. He dis- 
 played it especially then, by his earnest entreaties to his 
 Superiors to be allowed to withdraw from the study of 
 theology, under the pretext of want of ability, and to be 
 sent to New France." 
 
 Isaac announced to his mother his change of resi- 
 dence and employment. " After having been a master," 
 he wrote on the loth of October, 1633, "here I am a 
 scholar again. This position is all the more agreeable 
 to me, because it confines me to the study of a holy and 
 sacred science, which is to render me better fitted than 
 ever to work for God's glory, by disposing me to be pro- 
 moted to holy orders in a few years. This is the grace 
 to which I aspire. May it be granted to me, and then 
 give greater efficacy to the prayers which I offer the Al- 
 mighty for our whole household !" 
 
 When they saw that he returned to Paris, the family 
 felt great pleasure, hoping to be more easily favored 
 with his presence. The marriage of his brother Philip 
 even seemed a favorable pretext for obtaining a visit 
 from him to Orleans, and his mother resolved to show 
 him that it was her desire ; but Isaac modestly excused 
 himself, alleging his studies and the charge over the 
 students confided to him. 
 
 It would seem that his reasons were not well received, 
 and that they drew upon him reproaches, which he felt 
 keenly. He obeyed an obligation to the law of duty in 
 thus renouncing the impulses of nature. The sacrifice 
 which he had made to God required him to forego the 
 lawful family celebrations, and he replied to his mother 
 
His Ordi7iation. 2i 
 
 with a firmness tempered by sincere love: "I never even 
 thought of laying the matter before my Superiors. The 
 pressing obligations of my position do not permit me 
 to leave the house a single day. Moreover, my presence 
 at that ceremony was not necessary. The prayers one 
 can offer for the happy result of such alliance, and that 
 as well at a distance, as on the spot, are all the affec- 
 tionate marks that I can give you of the interest I take 
 in your welfare. I beg my brothers and sisters to accept 
 the assurance I give them, that my prayers are often 
 offered for their welfare. This I shall do even more effica- 
 ciously, I hope, the coming year, in which I shall be 
 able to enjoy the happiness of being promoted to the 
 priesthood, unworthy as I am of such a favor." 
 
 This letter is dated April 25, 1635, and early in the 
 next year the fervent religious was ordained priest. At 
 the same time God disposed another favor in his be- 
 half, which he always regarded as crowning it. The 
 Superiors then announced to him that his aspirations 
 for the missions vv^ere about to be gratified; he was se- 
 lected for that of Canada. 
 
 An unforeseen circumstance and the increasing wants 
 of that remote field had caused missionaries to be sent 
 earlier than was originally designed. A large fleet was 
 then equipping for Canada, and it was important not to 
 lose the opportunity it afforded of greater safety — always 
 rare in those days. This decision gratified the great de- 
 sire of Father Jogues; he willingly abandoned his theo- 
 logical studies, although he had made only two years 
 of the course, and at once prepared to receive holy 
 orders. 
 
 On hearing of her son's ordination, the mother of 
 Isaac felt a holy emotion. For one of her faith such an 
 event was the happiness and glory of her life. In her 
 legitimate maternal ambition she solicited the favor of 
 receiving the first priestly blessing of the dearest of her 
 children. The Superiors willingly consented, as it was 
 
2 2 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 tlie most favorable means to dispose this Christian and 
 sensitive heart for the painful trial of a speedy separa- 
 tion — much more painful than that previously accom- 
 plished. 
 
 On the ist of February, 1636, Father Jogues announced 
 to his mother the impatiently desired tidings that he 
 would soon reach Orleans, and he begged her "to solicit 
 prayers for him in all quarters, that God might give him 
 the graces necessary to discharge so holy a ministry." 
 
 On the 5th of the month, after a short apparition in 
 his family, he secluded himself in the college to devote 
 his time to the exercises of a retreat, and to prepare 
 speedily to ascend the altar. The loth, the first Sunday 
 of Lent, was fixed for this great occasion. In presence 
 of all his kindred, of his religious brethren, and his many 
 friends, the newly ordained priest offered the august 
 Victim for the first time. His pious mother, affected to 
 tears, had the happiness of receiving holy communion 
 from the hands of her son, and of at last seeing her 
 heart's fondest wish accomplished. 
 
 Meanwhile her dear Isaac, as she delighted to call 
 him, was to ask of her the very next day a sacrifice more 
 painful than all she had hitherto made. He was to 
 break to her the announcement of his speedy departure 
 for his mission, and to bid her what seemed to be a last 
 farewell. Though most delicately conveyed, the unex- 
 pected tidings produced on her maternal heart an im- 
 pression that nothing could efface; her tears flowed 
 copiously; but amid the struggles and fears of nature 
 she heard the teachings of faith, and her feelings of 
 Christian resignation finally triumphed. The word of 
 the young apostle was already mighty; this was its first 
 victory. 
 
 The fleet for Canada set sail early in April, and before 
 embarking, Father Jogues was to make a retreat to take 
 the place of the third year of novitiate, which it would 
 no longer be possible for him to enjoy after he was 
 
Departure for Canada. 23 
 
 once on the mission. The Society of Jesus requires that 
 her sons, after tlie absorbing labor of teaching and study, 
 should withdraw to spend a whole year in solitude and 
 meditation, in order to revive in their souls the fervor 
 and practice of solid virtue. 
 
 Having fultilled all the duties of filial piety, Father 
 Jogues proceeded to the novitiate at Rouen, there to pass 
 the brief term left him, but he derived from it the great- 
 est possible benefit. There are hearts endowed with 
 such happy dispositions, that the}'' possess the secret 
 of turning everything to advantage. Their progress in 
 the way of virtue is so rapid that it cannot be measured 
 by the lengtli of their course. 
 
 Soon after the first of April, Father Jogues was to 
 proceed to Dieppe, where the fleet was preparing to 
 weigli anchor. Before leaving Rouen he wrote a few 
 words to comfort his mother. This letter is lost, but 
 this good son would not embark without again address- 
 ing her, to give that afiflicted heart a new token of his 
 filial piety, and some of those words of faith which re- 
 vive the courage. He addressed to her the following 
 letter, the autograph of which is preserved with reli- 
 gious respect in the family of the servant of God, and 
 which we copy literally : 
 
 *' Most Honored Mother : It would be in violation 
 of the first point of duty of a good son towards a good 
 mother if, when ready to embark at sea, I did not bid 
 you a last farewell. I wrote to you last month from 
 Rouen, by Mr. Tanzeau, who took charge of mv letters, 
 that I sailed from Dieppe, from which we expected to 
 clear about Holy Week; but contrary winds, and the 
 weather, which has been unfavorable, have detained us 
 until now, without permitting us to sail. I hope that 
 God will give us a good and happy voyage, both be- 
 cause a number of vessels are going together, and be- 
 cause especially a great many persons most pleasing 
 
24 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 to God are praying for us. Endeavor also, if you please, 
 to contribute something by your prayers to the safety 
 of our voyage, and chiefly by a generous resignation of 
 your will to that of God, conforming your desires 
 to those of the divine goodness, which can be only 
 most holy and honorable to us, since they spring from 
 the heart of a Father full of love for our welfare. 
 
 " I hope, as I said on another occasion, that if you take 
 this little affliction in a proper spirit, it will be most 
 pleasing to God, for whose sake it would become you to 
 give not one son only, but all the others, nay, life itself, 
 if it were necessary. Men for a little gain cross the seas, 
 enduring, at least, as much as we; and shall we not, for 
 God's love, do what men do for earthly interests ? 
 
 " Good-by, dear mother. I thank you for all the affec- 
 tion which you have ever shown me, and above all at our 
 last meeting. May God unite us in His Holy Paradise, 
 if we do not see each other again on earth! 
 
 "Present my most humble recommendations to my 
 brothers and sisters, to whose prayers, as to yours, I 
 commend m5^self in heart and love. 
 
 "Your most humble son and obedient servant in our 
 Lord, Isaac Jogues. 
 
 " Dieppe, Apnl 6, 1636. 
 
 " P. S. We sail to-morrow, please God — that is to say, 
 the second Sunday after Easter, or Monday morning at 
 latest. Our vessels are already out in the harbor. My 
 afl"ectionate excuses if I do not write to Mr. Houdelin." 
 
 This language, full of love, resignation, energy, de- 
 notes a heart prepared for combat, and already trained 
 to sacrifices of every kind. His virtue will throw still 
 greater lustre over the arena where God has in store 
 for him trials worthy of his courage. 
 
Canada, 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Canada— The Huron Mission— The Missionaries Fall Sick — 
 
 Their Recovery. 
 
 ^HE colony of Canada then dated back but a few 
 years, and might be considered as yet in the cradle; 
 and yet the country had been discovered more 
 than a century before. 
 
 Francis I., jealous of the Spanish and Portuguese con- 
 quests in America, longed to see the French standard 
 floating over some portion of the New World. The 
 Florentine Verrazani, to whom he entrusted the mission, 
 accomplished it at the cost of his life, with no other 
 reward than of having reached and bestowed on the 
 unknown country the name of New France. 
 
 Ten years after, Francis I. renewed the attempt, and 
 the illustrious Jacques Cartier of St. Malo planted the 
 cross on the same soil, and took possession of it in 
 the name of his King. He, moreover, pushed his dis- 
 covery up the river St. Lawrence, thus named by him, 
 and opened intercourse with the natives. In spite of 
 four successive voyages, and some attempts at coloniz- 
 ing, he did not succeed in forming any durable settle- 
 ment. The severity of the winters was not the least of 
 the obstacles he had to encounter. The death of that 
 intrepid navigator, and the misfortunes which over- 
 whelmed France arrested for a time all further opera- 
 tions. 
 
 More fortunate, or rather better served by circumstan- 
 ces and by men, Henry IV. was at last enabled to carry 
 into effect some of his predecessor's designs. In 1604 
 he began a settlement in Acadia, and four years later he 
 
26 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 dispatched Cliamplain to lay the foundation of Quebec. 
 
 An iniquitous invasion by the English destroyed all 
 these undertakings in 1628. They seized the rising 
 colony and sent the missionaries back to Europe. 
 
 Canada was restored to France in 1632, and Cham- 
 plain, who is justly regarded as the father of that colony, 
 was commissioned to raise it up again from its ruins. 
 With heroism in war, devotion to his religion and his 
 country, Cliamplain combined perseverance that nothing 
 could discourage, a magnanimity that nothing could 
 depress. 
 
 Feeling deeply the spiritual wants of that land, he had 
 sent some Recollect missionaries to it in 1615; and ten 
 years later those religious called upon the Jesuits to 
 share their labors. 
 
 The Mission of Canada was to receive a powerful 
 reinforcement in 1636. Five Jesuit Fathers and one 
 lay-brother sailed with the new Governor, Montmagny, 
 appointed to succeed Cliamplain, who had died the pre- 
 vious year. These missionaries were Peter Chastelain, 
 Charles Garnier,* Nicholas Adam, Paul Ragueneau,f 
 Isaac Jogues, and Brother Cauvet. The fleet, composed 
 of eight vessels, under command of Duplessis-Bochard, 
 weighed anchor on the 8th of April, and after a favorable 
 voyage of two months entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 The vessel on which Father Jogues was, anchored for a 
 short time at the island of St. Louis de Miscou, in the 
 entrance of Chaleur Bay, where the mission of St. 
 Charles had been established for two years, and not till 
 the 2d of July did he arrive at Quebec. 
 
 * Father Charles Garnier was born in Paris. He was a priest of 
 many and rare virtues. He spent only thirteen years in Canada, and 
 always among the Hurons. He was killed by the Iroquois while 
 hastening to minister to his neophytes, whom the savages were 
 slaughtering. He had just attained his forty-fourth year. 
 
 f Father Paul Ragueneau lived in Canada twenty-six years, Supe- 
 rior of the Missions there for twenty years. He died in Paris, A.D., 
 1680, at the age of threescore and three. 
 
Letter to Ills A/other. 27 
 
 It was not then a very important post; yet a few 
 houses began to cluster together on the crest of the pro- 
 montory, protected by the guns of the fort thrown up by 
 Champlain. Near by stood the modest residence of the 
 missionaries, and the chapel of Notre Dame de Recouv- 
 rance, the first sanctuary of the Upper Town and a pious 
 monument of the devotion of the first colonists towards 
 the Mother of God. The principal residence of the 
 Fathers was at Our Lady of the Angels,* more than a 
 mile away. 
 
 Father Jogues gave his mother an account of his voy- 
 age, at the moment when he was to take a canoe to 
 proceed to the Huron country: 
 
 "Dear Mother: At last it has pleased our Lord to 
 allow me to alight on the shores of New France, the goal 
 of my long aspirations. We sailed from Dieppe, April 
 8th, eight vessels together, and we arrived here eight 
 weeks after our departure. I landed at an island called 
 Miscou, where two of our Fathers serve the French, who 
 have begun a settlement there, and attempt the conver- 
 sion of the Indians found there. After spending a fort- 
 night, I embarked in another vessel that conveyed me to 
 Tadoussac, where large vessels lie to, while barks and 
 lighter vessels run up the St. Lawrence as far as Que- 
 bec, a French settlement which is growing every day. I 
 landed on the 2d of July, the feast of the Visitation of 
 Our Lady. 
 
 *Our Lady of the Angels, on the banks of the river Lairet, near 
 Quebec, recalls more ancient memories than the residence of the 
 Jesuit Fathers. There Jacques Cartier, the great explorer of Canada, 
 reared a little fort in 1534 to winter with his hardy sailors. Before 
 leaving its banks, where his company was decimated by scurvy, and 
 where he was forced to abandon one of his ships, he planted a huge 
 cross with the arms of France and the inscription, ''Franciscus piimus, 
 Dei gratia rex, regnat^ To it he made a pilgrimage in the snow, 
 pronouncing a vow to Our Lady of Roc-amadour. 
 
28 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 "My health has been so good, thank God, at sea and 
 on land that it has been a matter of wonder to all, it be- 
 ing very unusual for any one to make such a long voyage 
 without suffering a little from sea-sickness or nausea. 
 The vestments and chapel service have been a great com- 
 fort to me, as I have offered the holy sacrifice of Mass 
 every day the weather was favorable — a happiness I should 
 have been deprived of, had not our family provided me 
 with them. It was a great consolation to me, and one 
 which our Fathers did not enjoy the preceding years. 
 Officers and crew have profited by it ; as but for that the 
 eighty persons on board could not have been present at 
 the Holy Sacrifice for two months, whilst, owing to the 
 faculties I enjoyed, they all confessed and received com- 
 munion at Whitsunday, Ascension, and Corpus Christi. 
 God will reward you and Madam Houdelin for the good 
 you have enabled me to do. 
 
 "You shall have letters of mine every year, and I shall 
 expect yours. It will ever be a consolation for me to 
 hear from you and from our family, as I have no hope of 
 seeing you in our lifetime. May God in His goodness 
 unite us both in his Holy abode to praise Him for all 
 eternity ! For this we must work in all earnestness as long 
 as we live. Let us so husband the time granted unto us 
 that we may do in life what we will wish to have done 
 at our death. And oh ! what a comfort on that day 
 for a soul that departs in the satisfaction afforded by 
 conscience, that we have served God with as little 
 imperfection as we could, and that we have endeavored 
 in all things and all places to do what was most agree- 
 able to His Divine Majesty. I believe that such were the 
 thoughts and the motives which have urged us to beg 
 with so much importunity to be sent to these countries, 
 where, there being so much to suffer, we can also give 
 such sincere proof of our love for God. 
 
 "Were I able to give you good advice, or were you to 
 need it, I would advise you to place j^ourself in the 
 
The llui'on Mission. 29 
 
 hands of some holy director, to whom you should intrust 
 the guidance of your soul, and who would engage you 
 in a more assiduous practice of the Sacraments. Devo- 
 tion, wliich gives you pleasure, should more than ever 
 engross your utmost attention. Your advanced age and 
 the rest you now enjoy will render you the more adapted 
 for it. 
 
 " I write this to you at a distance of more than a thou- 
 sand leagues, and perhaps I shall be sent this year to a 
 nation called the Hurons, who live at a distance of more 
 tlian three hundred leagues. They give tokens of great 
 dispositions for embracing the Faith. It matters not 
 where we are, provided we rest in the arms of Providence 
 and in His holy favor. This is the prayer offered every 
 day at the altar for you and our family by him, who is, etc. 
 
 " Three Rivers,* August 20, 1636. 
 
 " P. S. I have just received orders to get ready to start 
 for the mission among the Hurons in two or three days." 
 
 On the occasion of the first Mass he offered in Canada 
 he thus feelingly wrote to his mother : " I do not know 
 what it is to enter Paradise ; but this I know, that it is 
 difficult to experience in this world a joy more excessive 
 and more overflowing than that I felt on my setting 
 foot in New France, and celebrating my first Mass here 
 on the day of the Visitation. I assure you it was indeed 
 a day of the visitation of the goodness of God and Our 
 Lady. I felt as if it were a Christmas day for me, and 
 that I was to be born again to a new life, and a life in 
 God." 
 
 How these letters are dictated by the best of sons — one 
 who never lost sight of his duties toward a loving mother, 
 and blendincr in admirable union his love for his family 
 
 * Three Rivers, on the St. Lawrence between J. Montreal and Quebec, 
 derives its name from the river which near it discharges its waters 
 into the St. Lawrence by three mouihs. It was founded by Cham- 
 plain in 1634. 
 
30 Life of Father Jogitcs. 
 
 and his love of God ! — sentiments equalled only by an 
 apostle's zeal for the salvation of souls. 
 
 When Father Jogues arrived in Canada there were on 
 the Mission eighteen priests and six lay-brothers. They 
 lived in six stations, scattered over a line of more than 
 one thousand miles, from Cape Breton to the shores of 
 Lake Huron. There were two at Cape Breton, two at 
 Miscou, two at Quebec, five at Our Lady of Angels, two 
 at Three Rivers, and five among the Hurons. 
 
 The new accessions from France were especially in- 
 tended for the Huron Mission. It was on it that the 
 French relied most for their success in opening the im- 
 mense countries of the West to religion and commerce. 
 Thus a twofold interest was felt in drawing that nation 
 closer to friendship and civilization through the propaga- 
 tion of the Gospel. It occupied a small territory on the 
 eastern shore of the lake called after them, and which 
 Champlain had at first named Mer douce (Fresh Sea). 
 The position of the tribe was very favorable to their 
 mode of life, devoted to trade, hunting, fishing, and to 
 agriculture to some extent. Divided into twenty villages, 
 the Hurons formed in 1635 a population of from thirty 
 to thirty-five thousand souls. The Faith had struck 
 some roots already ; but its growth was slow, and it was 
 attained only by the hardest labor, dangers, and priva- 
 tions of every kind. 
 
 The departure of Father Jogues for the country of 
 the Hurons was hastened by a fortuitous circumstance. 
 While he tarried at Three Rivers, awaiting an opportunity 
 to start, there arrived a convoy of young natives, whom 
 Father de Brebeuf had succeeded in banding together, 
 and whom he sent to Quebec to receive instruction there 
 so as to become subsequently the main-stay and propa- 
 gators of the faith in their country. Fathers Daniel'* 
 
 * Father Anthony Daniel, a native of Dieppe, went to Canada in 
 1632, and spent fifteen years on the Huron Mission, where he died 
 gloriously at the hands of the Iroquois, in 1648. 
 
The Huron Alission. 31 
 
 and Davost accompanied these youths. Father Jogues 
 had the happiness to witness their landing, and to ex- 
 perience some of the details of that apostolic life he was 
 so anxious to share. 
 
 Father Daniel's canoe led the rest. "At the sieht," 
 writes Father Le Jeune, " our heart was deeply moved. 
 The good Father's countenance was beaming with joy 
 and cheerfulness, but it was gaunt. He was barefooted, 
 with a paddle in his hand, his cassock in shreds, the 
 breviary hanging from his neck, and a worn-out shirt on 
 his back." But charity has a balm for all sufferings : a 
 most affectionate reception awaited the missionary and 
 his neophytes, and of course there was a feast in readi- 
 ness for the Indians who had escorted them. Almost all 
 belonged to the village of Ossossane, the most attached 
 to the French, who had surnamed it La Rochelle, its loca- 
 tion bearing some resemblance to the city of that name 
 in France. 
 
 After a few days' rest the Indians were ready to return. 
 Then a scene occurred which Father Jogues considered 
 as providential, and which decided his departure. In 
 the midst of a farewell feast some of the Indians made 
 the Jesuits a touching reproach, which showed their at- 
 tachment and esteem. They had not been asked to take 
 back with them any of the missionaries, perhaps from the 
 fact that Fathers Garnier and Chastelain had left for the 
 Huron country scarcely one month before. " What ! do 
 the French love us less, and none of them will come with 
 us now ?" said one of the chiefs. "Will they not replace 
 those v^^hom we have brought back, and shall we return 
 without a black-gown ?" 
 
 Father Le Jeune, Superior of the Canada Mission,* 
 
 * Father Paul Le Jeune abjured Protestantism in his youth, and 
 became one of the founders of the Canada Mission. He was Superior 
 for nearly fifteen years, and wrote most of its history. Having re- 
 turned to France in 1649 to become procurator of the Mission, he 
 died there in 1664, at the age of seventy-two. His merit led to his 
 
32 Life of Father JogMcs. 
 
 could not withstand the appeal, and to his extreme de- 
 light Father Jogues was appointed to accompany the 
 Hurons in their homeward journey. On the morrow he 
 started, taking his seat in a frail birch-canoe. It is not 
 without misgivings that a white man steps for the first 
 time aboard one of those light craft, to brave the 
 rapid currents and the vast lakes of Canada. The slight 
 framework is formed of slender poles, fastened at the 
 extremities between two stringpieces somewhat stronger, 
 which serve for rim. These are covered with bark of 
 the birch, of the thickness of a silver dollar. Threads of 
 the root of the cedar, an incorruptible tree, fasten to- 
 gether the pieces of bark. Seams and holes are calked 
 with rosin. These canoes vary in size. The smallest 
 will carry only three men. The largest will bear as 
 man}^ as twenty-four, with more than 3000 pounds of 
 freight. They are propelled by paddles, and from their 
 lightness are capable of great speed. Once in their 
 place the travellers were not allowed to shift their posi- 
 tion, as any movement tends to capsize the little craft. 
 Father Jogues well knew the difficulties of such naviga- 
 tion from Father de Brebeuf's experience transmitted to 
 his brethren: " However smooth the passage may appear, 
 there is enough to appall a heart not thoroughly morti- 
 fied. The skill of the Indians does not shorten the 
 journey, smooth the rocks, or avert the dangers. No 
 matter with whom you may be, you must make up 
 your mind to be at least three or four weeks on the 
 way, with no companions but men whom you have never 
 seen before, in a bark-canoe, in a most inconvenient 
 position, forbidden to move right or left, to be fifty 
 times a day in danger of capsizing or dashing against the 
 rocks. You are scorched by the sun in the da3'-time, and 
 the mosquitoes devour 5rou by night. Sometimes you 
 
 nomination, with those of Fathers Charles Lalemantand Paul Rague- 
 neau, for the episcopal see of Quebec (Archives of the Gesu, Rome). 
 
His Voyage. 3^ 
 
 have to ascend five or six falls in one day, and at nii^iit 
 all your refreshment is a little corn simply boiled in 
 water, and your bed the ground or a rough and bristling 
 rock; generally the sky is your canopy, with an un- 
 broken stillness for your lullaby." * 
 
 Father Jogues himself gives his mother an account of 
 part of this painful voyage in a letter dated June i, 1637. 
 It will enable us to appreciate this heart full of grati- 
 tude to God and zeal for His glory. 
 
 " Dear Mother : As only one opportunity is afforded 
 every year of writing to you, I cannot let it pass without 
 acquitting myself of my duty towards so good a mother. 
 I feel sure that you will be happy to acknowledge the 
 special providence with which Divine Goodness has led 
 me, since He has accorded me the grace of landing in 
 this Huron country, I wrote to you last year in the 
 month of August, when on the point of starting on my 
 journey. I left Three Rivers the 24th of August — St. 
 Bartholomew's Day. I was put in a birch-canoe that 
 could carry five or six persons at the utmost. It would 
 not be easy to give you in detail all the discomforts of 
 this mode of travel; but the love of God, who calls us to 
 these missions, and our desire to do something towards 
 the conversion of these poor barbarians, render it all 
 so sweet, that we would not exchange our hardships for 
 all the pleasures of earth. The traveller's food is a little 
 Indian corn, crushed between two stones, and boiled in 
 water innocent of all seasoning. We lay ourselves to 
 sleep on the ground, or on the sharp rocks bordering this 
 great river, by the light of the moon. You must sit in 
 the canoe in a very uncomfortable position. You can- 
 not stretch out your legs, for the place is narrow and 
 crowded. You dare not move lest you capsize. I was 
 forced to observe a strict silence, for I could not under 
 stand our Indians nor could they understand me. 
 
 * Relation, 1637, 
 
34 ^^f^ of Father Jogues. 
 
 ''Another surplus of pain and labor. We meet in this 
 journey some sixty to eighty water-falls, which descend 
 so furiously and so far that canoes going too near are 
 carried over and perish. As we were paddling against 
 the stream we were not exposed to this danger ; but 
 then we had often to land and march over rocks and 
 through tangled woods about one league to make a 
 detour, carrying on our backs all the luggage and even 
 the canoes.^' For my own part I carried not only my 
 own little baggage, but I also aided and relieved our 
 Indians as much as I could; and in the journeys caused 
 by the falls I have mentioned I was compelled to carry 
 on my shoulders a child ten or eleven years old, who 
 belonged to our caravan, and who had fallen sick." 
 
 But let us interrupt the letter to add some details, 
 which Father Jogues' modesty led him to treat too 
 briefl3^ That child had been placed under his charge 
 from the start. Sick after the seventh day, he became 
 a source of indescribable hardship to the missionary; but 
 charity does not stop at any sacrifice. The young Indian 
 grew so feeble that he could not walk, nor even get out 
 of the canoe. After consenting two or three times to 
 help Father Jogues, his uncouth guides refused to aid 
 the priest any more. Thus the care of the sick boy fell 
 wholly upon him, and he had to carry him on his back 
 whenever they landed; from his inexperience, and the 
 asperities of the ground, this became a labor of great 
 peril to both. More than once he endeavored to make 
 the guides understand his fears, but to no avail; until, 
 from dread lest some mishap should compromise them, 
 they agreed to carry the invalid on condition that the 
 missionary took charge of part of their baggage, consist- 
 ing of kettles, iron axes, and other heavy objects. The 
 pleasure of seeing his young charge protected from 
 danger gave the missionary renewed strength, and he did 
 
 * This is called making a portage. 
 
His Arrival. 35 
 
 not spare himself. As for the sick boy, he grew better 
 as they approached the Nipissings, and good nourish- 
 ment enabled him to end his journey in good health. 
 
 " But by great exertion," continues Father Jogues, 
 'instead of the twenty-five or thirty days ordinarily re- 
 quired for this voyage, it took me but nineteen days to 
 reach the spot where five of our Fathers resided, some 
 of whom have been in this country five or six years. 
 The two last-comers. Fathers Charles Gamier and Peter 
 Chastelain, had arrived only one month before me. 
 
 ''Thus has Providence vouchsafed to keep me full of 
 strength and health to this day. He grants me grace to 
 be far more contented amid tlie privations inseparable 
 from our position than if I were enjoying all the comforts 
 of the world. God makes Himself felt with far greater 
 sweetness. He guards us amongst the savages with so 
 much love, He gives such abundant consolations in the 
 little trials we have to endure, that we do not even think 
 of regretting what we have renounced for His sake. 
 Nothing can equal the satisfaction enjoyed in our 
 hearts while we impart the knowledge of the true God 
 to these heathen. About two hundred and forty have 
 received baptism this year: among them I have baptized 
 some who surely are now in heaven, as they were chil- 
 dren one or two 3^ears old. 
 
 " Can we think the life of man better employed than in 
 this o-ood work? What do I sav ? Would not all the 
 labors of a thousand men be well rewarded in the con- 
 version of a single soul gained to Jesus Christ ? I have 
 always felt a great love for this kind of life, and for a pro- 
 fession so excellent, and so akin to that of the Apostles. 
 Had I to work for this happiness alone, I would exert 
 myself to my utmost to obtain a favor, for which I 
 would fain give a thousand lives. 
 
 " Should you receive these lines, I entreat you, by the 
 bonds of the love of Jesus Christ, to give tlianks to the 
 Lord for this extraordinary favor He has bestowed upon 
 
J 
 
 6 Life of Father Jogites. 
 
 i-ne — a favor so earnestly wished and craved by many 
 servants of God endowed with qualities far above what 
 I possess." 
 
 On the nth of September, 1636, Father Jogues reached 
 the village of Ihonatiria, called St. Joseph, w^here the 
 missionaries had their residence. They all hastened to 
 the river-side to welcome the traveller. The arrival of a 
 new brother, who had come to share their labors and 
 their hopes, brought great joy to their humble cabins. 
 Father Jogues then recalled to mind the feeling and 
 affectionate invitation which Father de Brebeuf had ten- 
 dered to the future missionaries of the Hurons, and he 
 experienced its effects in himself. Here are the words : 
 " When you arrive among the Hurons," he wrote, "you 
 shall indeed meet with hearts overflowing with charity. 
 We will receive you with open arms, as an angel from 
 heaven. We shall all have every inclination to render 
 you services, but it will be almost beyond all possi- 
 bility to do so. We shall receive you in a cabin so 
 poor that I despair of finding one in France wretched 
 enough for me to say, 'See how you will be lodged!' 
 Fatigued and harassed as you may be, we can offer 
 you only a poor mat, and at utmost some skins for your 
 bedding ; and moreover, you will arrive in a season when 
 annoying little creatures, called touhac here, — in good 
 French, pieces,^ — will, night after night, prevent your 
 closing an eye, for in these regions they are far more 
 importunate than in France. The five or six winter 
 months are besieged with uninterrupted vexations, ex- 
 cessive cold, smoke, and the importunity of the Indians. 
 Our cabin is built merely of bark, but so well knit to- 
 gether that we have no need of going into the open air 
 to know the state of the weather. The smoke is often 
 so dense, so pungent, and so perverse, that for five or 
 six days at a time, unless you are well inured to it, it is 
 all you can do to make out a few words in the breviary." 
 
 * Fleas in English. 
 
The Missionaries Fall Sick. 3 7 
 
 Father Ragueneau, the historian of that time, gives 
 these touching details of the welcome Father Jogues 
 met with : '' I made all the preparations for his recep- 
 tion ; but oh, what a feast ! — a handful of little dried fish, 
 with a sprinkling of flour. I sent for a few ears of corn, 
 which we roasted for him after the fashion of the country. 
 But it is true that at heart, and to hear him, he never en- 
 joyed better cheer. The happiness felt at these meetings 
 seems to reflect in some sort the joy of the blessed on 
 their entrance into heaven, so full of sweetness is it !" * 
 
 This painful voyage, which served as a noviceship to 
 his apostolic life, was only the prelude to more serious 
 trials. The joy he experienced in having attained what 
 he had so ardently desired prevented his feeling at once 
 the effects of his hardships; but on the 17th of Septem- 
 ber he fell ill. What at first seemed a light sickness in 
 a few days showed alarming symptoms, and soon carried 
 him to the brink of the grave. With nothing but a mat 
 for his bed, like his brethren, and some decoction of 
 roots to assuage the burning fever, his courage was sup- 
 ported by the charity of his fellow-missionaries, his pa- 
 tience, and humble resignation to the will of God. Soon 
 after, the same disease attacked Fathers Gamier and 
 Chastelain, and two domestics. The missionaries' hut 
 was transformed into a hospital. Fathers de Brebeuf, 
 Peter Pijart, and Le Mercier alone escaped the disease, f 
 
 The last of tliese Fathers, who had charge of the sick, 
 gives the following affecting account of those days 
 of trial and anguish : " We then were almost without 
 domestics. Francis Petit-Pre, the only one in health, 
 was away day and night hunting. This was, under God, 
 our only resource for food. On the first days, as we had 
 no game, we had scarcely anything for our patients but 
 
 * Relation, 1637. 
 
 \ Father Le Mercier was twice Superior-General in Canada. After 
 his recall to France in 1673, he was sent to Cayenne as Visitor, and 
 died at Martinique in 1692, 
 
38 Life of Father Jogues, 
 
 a tea of wild purslane and sour grapes. These were 
 our first broths. True, we had a hen, but she did 
 not lay an ^%^ every day ; and what was one ^%^ 
 among so many sick persons ? It was amusing to see 
 us who remained well watch for the laying of that 
 egg ; then a consultation was to decide on the patient 
 to whom it should be given, as most in need of it, and 
 our patients debated who should refuse it. 
 
 " On the 24th of September Father Jogues grew so 
 much worse that we all thought he must be bled. We 
 had not been able to stay a bleeding at the nose so 
 copious that he could not take any food except with 
 
 great difficulty But where find a surgeon? We 
 
 were all so well skilled in this art that the sick man 
 did not know who would perform the operation, and 
 every man of us only waited the blessing of the Superior 
 to take up the lancet and strike the blow. How^ever, he 
 resolved to do it himself, as he had once before bled an 
 Indian successfully. It pleased God that this second 
 operation should also prove successful, and that what 
 was deficient in art should be abundantly supplied by 
 charity. . . . 
 
 '' God lavished His benedictions on us during this lit- 
 tle domestic affliction. Sick and well, none ever were 
 in better spirits. The sick were as willing to live 
 as to die, and their patience, piety, and devotion light- 
 ened the care we paid them day and night. As for 
 the Fathers, they enjoyed a blessing scarcely ever granted 
 in France — they received every morning the Holy Sacra- 
 ment of the altar. From this treasure they drew so much 
 holy resolution and so many good sentiments, that they 
 loved their position dearly, and preferred their poverty 
 to all the ease they might enjoy in France." * 
 
 This malady, which had visited the good Fathers be- 
 fore the contagion invaded the Huron villages, was pro- 
 
 * Relation de la Nouvelle France, 1636. 
 
Recovery of the Missionaries. 39 
 
 vidential in every respect. It taught them to rely, above 
 all, on God's help rather than human remedies ; then it 
 rendered tliem better able to do service to the Indians, 
 when, in their turn, they caught the disease. Their reme- 
 dies, already tested, gave them more confidence, and their 
 words gained in weight from this visible protection of the 
 Master of Life. Mad not the disease broken out among 
 them first, these ignorant and credulous people would 
 certainly have accused them as the cause of all their 
 misfortunes, and would have wreaked on them an un- 
 just revenge. Thus good does often come from evil, 
 and what seems as undeserved punishment is a benefit 
 at the hands of Providence. 
 
40 Life of Father Jogices, 
 
 CHAPTER III. • 
 
 Recovery of the Missionaries— The Huron Language— The 
 Epidemics — Celestial Favors. 
 
 ^jTgi^ ATHER JOGUES, in the full strength of manhood 
 'iLdT and with an excellent constitution, conquered his 
 disease. God reserved him for a more glorious end. 
 About the middle of October he felt so far recovered as 
 to be able to resume his work. The other patients had 
 a slow convalescence, and all sighed for the time when 
 they could again labor in the vineyard. However, one 
 task adapted to the state of their convalescence was 
 the study of the Huron language — the first indispens- 
 able preparation for the Mission. 
 
 The cabin had served as an hospital : it now became a 
 school-room ; and Father Jogues with the rest took his 
 place among the pupils of Father de Brebeuf, who was 
 proficient enough to be a teacher to others. But a knowl- 
 edge of that language was one of the hardest difficulties 
 of the Mission. Two missionaries, who had in France 
 given the best proofs of extrordinary talents, never mas- 
 tered this language so as to be able to use it in the pro- 
 pagation of the Gospel — its mechanism, constituent 
 elements, and syntax are so very peculiar ; for instance 
 many of our letters are wanting in their alphabet, such 
 as B, F, L, M, P, Q, X, Y. On the other hand, the Hu- 
 rons give the letters H and K a guttural articulation, 
 which is common to several other Indian languages, but 
 unknown to the French, and which was expressed by 
 Khi. Many of their words seemed formed only of vowels. 
 
Mission Life Auiono the Ihirons. 41 
 
 Father de Brebeuf remarks, that " undoubtedly this ab- 
 sence of labials is the reason why all Indians open their 
 lips so ungracefully." 
 
 Tiiere are no limits to their compound words, such is 
 the wealth of the language. Nouns and adjectives are 
 conjugated, and verbs undergo infinite modifications. 
 
 Before the French arrived, tliese tribes had no words 
 to express religion, virtue, and science, and most meta- 
 physical ideas were unknown to them ; accordingly, the 
 missionaries were long puzzled to find terms to express 
 our mysteries and explain them. They were often com- 
 pelled to employ a long string of words to express one. 
 
 Father Jogues applied himself earnestly to this uncon- 
 genial labor, and God blessed his exertions. He was soon 
 able to be of service. To spare his strength, Father de 
 Brebeuf would not at first permit him to undertake long 
 and painful excursions. He appointed him to superin- 
 tend the house, and the work of their domestics, as well 
 as the cultivation of the little field adjoining the cabin. 
 The Fathers had already turned to account a few grains 
 of wheat they had received from Europe mingled with 
 other provisions. Carefully grown, these had multiplied, 
 and the husbandmen looked forward to a little harvest, 
 which, in time of need, would supply altar breads. This 
 really came to pass. In 1637 they gathered half a bushel 
 of grain ; and moreover, they succeeded in making a 
 small keg of wine from the wild grapes which abounded 
 in those virgin forests. 
 
 To satisfy the Indians that the missionaries meant to 
 become identified with them, they adopted much of their 
 way of living as regards food and lodging. Father Jogues 
 adapted himself to all this with the greatest ease. It 
 seemed as if he had lived many years among them. In 
 spite of all the drawbacks of their position tiiey lived 
 up to the forms of a community life. 
 
 Two of the laborers in this Mission have left interest- 
 ing details of the lives of the Huron missionaries, a faith- 
 
42 Life oj Father Jogues. 
 
 ful portrait of their private life, with all its sacrifices, 
 privations, and constraints. Father Chaumonot * writes : 
 "Our dwellings are built of bark, like the Indians', with- 
 out any interior partition, except for a chapel. For the 
 want of tables and furniture, we eat on the floor and 
 drink out of cups made of bark. All our kitchen and 
 refectory ware consists of a large bark platter filled with 
 saganiite, which I can compare to nothing but the paste 
 used for papering walls. We are not much troubled with 
 thirst, for we never use salt, and our food is almost al- 
 ways liquid. Our bed consists of bark, on which we 
 spread a blanket. As for sheets, we have none, even for 
 the sick ; but the greatest inconvenience is the smoke, 
 which, for want of a chimney, fills up the whole cabin 
 and ruins all that we wish to preserve. In certain 
 winds it is unendurable, for it makes the eyes ache dread- 
 fully. In winter nights we have no other light than that 
 of the fire, by which we read our breviary, study the 
 language, and do all that is needed. By day, the open- 
 ing at the top of the cabin serves as a chimney and a 
 window." 
 
 Then Father Francis Duperron,f in a letter of April 27, 
 1639, gives us their distribution of time for each hour in 
 the day : " At four the bell rings for us to rise, then medi- 
 
 * Father Chaumonot left in Canada a glorious memory for zeal and 
 virtue. After mission work among the Hurons and Iroquois he was 
 for more than forty years in charge of the fugitive Hurons who had 
 taken refuge near Quebec. He left a most interesting autobiography. 
 He died at Quebec in 1693, at the age of eighty-two, after celebrat- 
 ing the golden jubilee of his priesthood, of his religious life, and of 
 his mission labors. 
 
 \ Father Francis Duperron arrived in Canada in 1638, labored among 
 the Hurons for twelve years, and returned to Europe after the destruc- 
 tion of that Mission. Though he was in Canada five years afterwards, 
 he was soon recalled. A touching letter is preserved at Rome, which 
 he addressed to the General of the Order, soliciting permission to return 
 to his Mission. He obtained it in 1665 ; but it was only to die there 
 the same year. His brother Joseph Imbert, was also a missionary in 
 Canada for seventeen years. He returned to France in 1658. 
 
The EpldeDiic. 43 
 
 tation, after which we celebrate Mass in turn until cisfht : 
 silence is kept in the meanwhile, each one being engaged in 
 his spiritual reading, or the recitation of the Little Hours. 
 At eight o'clock we open the door for the Indians, who 
 have access to the cabin until four in the afternoon. 
 Some of the Fathers go their lounds among the cabins. 
 At two o'clock the bell gives the sign for the Examina- 
 tion of Conscience, which is followed by dinner, during 
 which a chapter of the Bible is read, while at supper we 
 read the Fhilagie de /e'sus, by Father du Barry. We say 
 grace in Huron, for the sake of the Indians who are pres- 
 ent. 
 
 "At four o'clock we dismiss the Hurons who are not 
 Christians, and we recite together Matins and Lauds. 
 Then we hold a consultation of three quarters of an hour 
 on the progress or obstacles of the Mission. Then we 
 take up the study of the language until half-past six, 
 when we have supper. At eight o'clock the Litany and 
 Examination of Conscience." * 
 
 As soon as Father Jogues had fully recovered he 
 took his share in the apostolic labors of his brethren. 
 He accompanied those most familiar with the language 
 in their excursions ; he rehearsed the catechism with the 
 little ones, he taught them liow to pray, and adminis- 
 tered baptism to the dying. 
 
 Meanwhile the spiritual needs became ever more 
 pressing. A disease began to spread among the Indians. 
 Limited at first to the village where the Fathers resided, 
 it spread to the neighboring towns, and tlireatened the 
 whole country. The main effort of the Fathers was to find 
 out those who were sick, in order to assist, and, if possi- 
 ble prepare them for baptism. They organized regular 
 visits to the villages, and established a kind of medical 
 service, which became the best means to gain entrance 
 into the Ccibins. 
 
 * Manuscript in ihe Richelieu Library. 
 
44 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 The destitution in which the missionaries lived was ex- 
 treme; their medicines, reduced to the minimum, scarce- 
 ly deserved the name. A small package of senna was 
 divided into doses for more than fifty persons. The 
 smallest quantity had to serve as remedies, and God gave 
 them sometimes such virtue, that the Indians never 
 doubted their efficacy. The remedy frequently consisted 
 of two or three prunes, five or six raisins, a pinch of sugar 
 in water, a little slice of citron or orange, etc. 
 
 The blind confidence of these simple souls in whatever 
 was given them often gave rise to amusing scenes. Once 
 a chief came to ask the Fathers for something to relieve 
 his sister, who was suffering with a violent headache. He 
 pointed to some salve, which he had seen applied to an 
 abscess and had proved efficacious. In vain did the 
 Fathers endeavor to make him understand that it was a 
 different case altogether. He would have his own way. 
 The box of salves was opened, and he insisted that it was 
 just what he required. As he saw salves of different 
 colors, he begged for the white and red r.nd green, and 
 formed one plaster of them, which he laid on the centre 
 of his sister's forehead. His triumph was complete when 
 the next day the patient was relieved. 
 
 But the epidemic made immense ravages. The vil- 
 lage where the missionaries lived suffered the most, 
 and the misfortune was looked upon as a punishment 
 from God, for in this very spot had His graces met with 
 the greatest neglect and even opposition. The town w^as 
 so sadly decimated, that shorth^ after it was abandoned 
 and the inhabitants dispersed among the i.cighboring 
 villages. 
 
 "Although we were every day and all day near the 
 dying," wrote Father Jogues to his mother, May 7, 1638, 
 "in order to gain them to Jesus Christ, and in spite of 
 the pestilential air we breathed near them and around 
 them, not one of us fell sick. After this we should prove 
 ourselves truly ungrateful did we not thank the Lord 
 for so visible a protection on His part, and did we not 
 
An Indian Council. 45 
 
 lienceforvvard put all our trust in His paternal good- 
 ness." 
 
 The missionaries had not, indeed, awaited this extrem- 
 ity to draw upon themselves celestial favor. In union 
 with his fellow-missionaries and all the French who were 
 in tile Huron country. Father de Brebeuf, then Superior 
 of the Mission, had made a solemn vow to obtain protec- 
 tion against the scourge. The priests promised to offer 
 three Masses in honor of Our Lord, of Our Lady, and ot 
 St. Joseph, the patron of the country. Those who were 
 not priests were to offer three communions and four 
 rosaries for the same intention. 
 
 Although their success with the sick did not corre- 
 spond to their wishes and efforts, the missionaries did not 
 labor in vain. They acquired a better insight into the 
 Indian character, and heaven seemed ever to gain some 
 elect souls. Thus, in a letter to his brother Samuel, 
 a Capuchin, Father Jogues says: "During the epi- 
 demic the Fathers baptized more than one thousand two 
 hundred persons. Even in the village where they were 
 the most exposed to the perversity of the people, there 
 were always some anxious to follow the instructions of 
 our Fathers; about one hundred have been regenerated 
 in the waters of baptism, amongst them twenty-two little 
 children." Whole villages even, as at Ouenrio and Ossos- 
 sane, begged the intervention of the Fathers to avert the 
 scourge. 
 
 Father de Brebeuf selected for his companion Father 
 Jogues when he started for the latter village to meet the 
 wishes of the inhabitants. Father Jogues witnessed all 
 that the zeal of that great servant of God inspired him 
 to adopt at this time which could prove advantageous to 
 the faith. He saw the grand ceremonial followed by 
 those people when they discuss affairs of importance ; 
 and Father de Brebeuf took great pains to conform with 
 their rules most scrupulously in order to win their minds 
 more completely to his cause. Thus Father Jogues at- 
 tended one of the great councils of sachems and war chiefs, 
 
^6 Life of Father Jogucs. 
 
 Already the chief movers in the affair had mounted 
 the tops of the cabins, and had repeatedly raised the cry 
 of convocation, and at the appointed hour a large and 
 anxious assembly met. They desired to know what the 
 Black Robe iiad to say, and all eyes were riveted on his 
 person. 
 
 Father de Brebeuf first addressed a prayer to the 
 Great Spirit, and then distributed some pieces of to- 
 bacco, for Indians would regard themselves unfit for any 
 deliberation unless their calumet was lighted. Then he 
 threw into the midst of the assembly a moose-skin, two 
 hatchets, and eighty wampum beads. Any proposition 
 made to Indians must always be affirmed by presents. 
 At this point Father de Brebeuf, with all the freedom 
 which these steps gave him, solemnly told them that 
 Faith alone could remedy all their evils. He earnestly 
 urged them to abandon all their superstitious observ- 
 ances, and to implore God's mercy with perfect confi- 
 dence. " As a warrant of your good-will, and of the sin- 
 cerity of your dispositions, solemnly pledge yourselves,' 
 said he, *' to raise at once a chapel to the Great Spirit in 
 your village." The assembly ended, as usual, with a ban- 
 quet. The Indians all seemed to have been gained over; 
 but their natural inconstancy, and some unforeseen cir- 
 cumstances which occurred, retarded the execution of 
 the pious project. The Fathers had hastened back to 
 Ihonatiria, where a new storm had been raised against 
 the missionaries. 
 
 Some Indians who had been at Manhattan Island re- 
 ported that they had been warned by the whites living 
 there (the Dutch) of the danger they ran. " Be on your 
 guard," they said, " against these Catholic missionaries, 
 and above all, the Jesuits — woe to the country into which 
 they effect an entrance ; it will be at once made desolate 
 and utterly ruined: they dare show themselves in Eu- 
 rope no more, and wherever they are caught they are put 
 to death." 
 
Medici lie JUcn. 47 
 
 Tlieir gross and credulous minds, always easily im- 
 pressed when their interests are concerned, were soon in- 
 duced to believe these calumnies, which were magnified 
 by tile hatred and fanaticism of some very bad men 
 among them. They at once gave out that the Black 
 Gowns were the authors of the plague, and had in their 
 cabins the sources of all evils. According to some, it 
 was the pictures hung up in the chapel ; whilst others 
 avowed that it was the tabernacle on the altar, within 
 which was kept the body of a child killed in the woods 
 and preserved with great care. Everything used by the 
 missionaries, and their most trifling actions, received an 
 unfavorable interpretation. Every little act of devo- 
 tion, even the sign of the cross, was regarded as a spell 
 cast on them or the cloak of some evil design. A mis- 
 sionary's walk up and down, his recital of his breviary, 
 even the weathercock perched on a pole near the cabin, 
 all to their eyes portended mischief and mystery. The 
 boldest among them would come to the Fathers, entreat- 
 ing them earnestly, even with threats, to stop the scourge 
 or give up their incantations ; nor would they listen to 
 any explanation. 
 
 The hand of God evidently restrained those wicked 
 men ; for the Fathers, altogether defenceless amidst a peo- 
 ple who made so light of human life, remained perfectly 
 tranquil. No one dare touch them. This was beau- 
 tifully expressed by Father Jogues in a letter to his 
 mother : " God was far more powerful to protect those 
 who for His glory had thrown themselves into the arms 
 of His Providence, than men were wicked to hurt them." 
 
 It is especially in days of trial and sickness that hea- 
 then Indians resort to all sorts of superstitions. Their 
 simplicity leads them to adopt readily \tiiatever they im- 
 agine to be a means of relief. Their belief in dreams is 
 unlimited, and never did an Indian refuse anything re- 
 quired for the fulfilment of a dream. They study their 
 dreams carefully to find a remedy for their diseases ; and 
 
48 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 when they think they have discovered it, the remedy 
 must be employed at any cost. Tlie medicine-men, al- 
 ways ver}^ numerous among them, were the ordinary 
 and interested interpreters of their dreams. More- 
 over, they had recourse to numberless acts of super- 
 stition, which they palmed off as efficacious remedies. 
 Now they would blow on the sick with all their might to 
 drive off the evil spirits ; then they would ihrow into the 
 fire small pieces of tobacco as a sacrifice to the spirits, 
 who were adjured to protect the cabin. They could be 
 seen searching everywhere for the spell which they sup- 
 posed to be the source of the evil ; and when recovery 
 seemed certain, they had tact enough to pretend they had 
 just found it. They almost always had recourse to dances, 
 which Indians like, and which enter largely into their su- 
 perstition. Sometimes these dances were disgustingly 
 lascivious — generally only grotesque. The dancers as- 
 sumed the forms of hunchbacks orcripples, and hid behind 
 wooden masks of the most ridiculous and varied forms. 
 Afterwards the masks were attached to manikins placed 
 on the roofs of the cabin, for the purpose of frightening 
 away sickness, and the spirits that are the cause of death 
 In the midst of such coarse vagaries of idolatry, in the 
 presence of a stubborn resistance to the faith, against 
 every kind of calumny aimed at their work and baptism, 
 in continual danger of death, the missionaries had no 
 other comfort than to mourn at the foot of the altar, and 
 pray to God for that unfortunate people. Yet their fer- 
 vent hearts, burning with zeal for the glory of God, suf- 
 fered far more from all these impediments placed in the 
 way of the Gospel, than from all the privations entailed 
 by their residence among savages. 
 
 To feelings of this kind Father Jogues gave vent in writ- 
 ing to his mother, at a time when the missionaries were 
 denied admittance to any of the great towns. "It had 
 become impossible for us to enter," he wrote, ''and we 
 had to endure the harrowing pain of seeing more than a 
 
Celestial Favors. 49 
 
 hundred unfortunate people dying before our eyes who 
 in vain entreated our assistance." 
 
 This life, crucified in every aspect, might justly be re- 
 garded as a protracted martyrdom. Father Jerome Lale- 
 mant, after having endured its tortures in person, did 
 not hesitate to state, in the Relation of 1639 : ''I had 
 my doubts at first whether we could hope for the con- 
 version of this people without shedding blood. I must 
 acknowledge that since I am here and witness what oc- 
 curs every day,— I mean the struggles, the general attacks 
 and assaults of every kind, which tlie evangelical labor- 
 ers encounter every day, and at the same time their pa- 
 tience, iheir courage, their unflinching pursuit of their 
 aims, — I begin to doubt whether any other martyrdom is 
 requisite for the end for which we labor ; and I have not 
 the least doubt that many would be found who would 
 rather feel at once the keen edge of a hatchet on their 
 head, than endure for years a life such as we have to live 
 here every day." 
 
 Yet the divine Consoler, who dwelt in the midst of His 
 servants, and communed with them every day, upheld 
 their courage. He often rewarded all this long-suffering 
 with some of the unspeakable consolations which are 
 truly a foretaste of the holy joys of heaven. 
 
 About this time Father Jogues was deemed worthy of 
 one of these heavenly favors, and although it came to 
 him only in a dream, there w-ere such circumstances at- 
 tached to it, and its effects had been so beneficial, that 
 ills confessor requested him to record it in writing. We 
 are indebted to Father Ragueneau for an extract from 
 it in 1652, which we translate from the Latin : 
 
 " On Tuesday, May 4, 1637, the eve of the Ascension of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, while, after dinner, I was studying 
 the Huron language with Father Chastelain, I felt over- 
 come by sleep, and I begged him to allow me a moment 
 of rest. He advised me to visit the chapel, and rest 
 awhile before the Blessed Sacrament, remarking that he 
 
KQ Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 was in the habit of doing so, and always to the benefit of 
 his piety, and that in such sleep he had occasionally 
 enjoyed celestial happiness. 
 
 " I arose, but thinking that I could not without irrever- 
 ence sleep in the awful and adorable presence of my 
 sovereign Lord, I went to the adjoining woods, much 
 confused to know that others, even in their sleep, were 
 more united with God than I in the very act of prayer. 
 
 " I had scarcely lain down, when I fell asleep and 
 dreamed I was singing vespers with the other Fathers 
 and the domestics. On one side stood Father Peter 
 Pijart, * close by the door, and I was a little farther 
 on. I do not know who were on the other side, or in 
 what order. 
 
 " Father Pijart began the first verse of the psalm Verba 
 mea auribus percipe, Domine [Give ear, O Lord ! to my 
 words] (I do not exactly know the number of it) (Ps. v.). 
 As he could not continue it alone, we ended it with him. 
 "When the verse was ended, I seemed to be no longer 
 in our cabin, but in a place I knew not, when all at once 
 I heard verses sung (I forget which) which had refer- 
 ence to the happiness of the Saints, and the delights they 
 enjoy in the kingdom of heaven. The chanting was so 
 beautiful, and the melody of voices and instruments so 
 harmonious, that I have no recollection of ever having 
 heard the like, and it even seems to me that the most 
 perfect concerts are nothing compared to it. To com- 
 pare such harmony with that of earth would be insult- 
 ing. 
 
 <' Meanwhile this most admirable concert of the an- 
 gels excited in my heart a love of God so great, so ar- 
 dent, so burning, that, unable to bear such an overflow- 
 
 * Father Peter Pijart, after fifteen years on the Canada Mission, 
 returned to France in 1650. His elder brother, Claude, came over two 
 years after him, and died at Quebec m 1683, aged eighty-three, in 
 high repute for virtue. 
 
Celestial Favors. 51 
 
 ing of sweetness, my poorlieart seemed to melt and di- 
 late under this inexplicable wealth of divine love. I ex- 
 perienced this feeling especially as they sang the verse I 
 so well remember, lutroibijnits in tabcniaculuni ejKS, adora- 
 biiniis in loco ubi stetcrunt pedes ejus [We will go into His 
 tabernacle, we will adore in the place where His feet 
 stood (Ps. cxxxi. 7)]. 
 
 "While yet half asleep, I began at once to think that 
 it all was in accord with the words Father Chastelain had 
 spoken to me. 
 
 " I awoke soon after, and all disappeared, but there 
 lingered in my soul so great a consolation that its re- 
 membrance filled me with inexpressible delights. The 
 fruit I have derived is, it seems to me, that I feel more 
 drawn, for the love of our Lord, to pant after the celes- 
 tial country and eternal joys. Happy moment ! oh, how 
 short ! I do not think it lasted longer than it takes to 
 recite a Hail Mary. If, O Lord! thou dealest with us 
 thus in our exile, what will Thou give unto us in our 
 home ?" [St. Augustine.] 
 
52 J^if^ oj Father J ogtces. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 New Residences — Saint Mary — Mission among the Tionontate 
 Nation — Voyage to Sauit Sainte Marie. 
 
 HE dispersion of the villageof Ihonatiria was neces- 
 sarily followed by the departure of the missiona- 
 ries. They settled in two great villages, to which 
 they had already made regular visits, and where they had 
 a number of fervent converts. 
 
 Ossossane, called Conception by the Fathers, was al- 
 ready considered a residence, as a chapel, with a cabin 
 for the missionaries, had been established therefor more 
 than a year. Father Jogues had visited it several times, 
 and in 1639, writing to his brother Samuel, he says : 
 " Our poor Indians treat us as true friends. We have in 
 Ossossane a cabin thirteen fathoms in length. A chapel 
 has been built entirely of boards, which attracts the eyes 
 and the admiration of all the inhabitants. Besides the 
 conversations we hold every day in each cabin, we have 
 a public catechism class every Sunday in our own, when 
 many of the sachems of the nation attend, headed by a 
 family of Christians of seven or eight persons. Thus 
 does God still the tempest and bring peace ' at His 
 will.' " 
 
 The other village, which was especially to replace 
 Ihonatiria, was Teanausta3'ae, called also St. Joseph. It 
 was one of the largest in the country. Here the Faith 
 had warm followers as well as fierce enemies, who were 
 the earnest promoters of all the calumnies invented 
 against the Gospel and its apostles. To gain a com- 
 plete triumph over the systematic opposition which some 
 miscreants kept up against admitting the missionaries, 
 
New Residences, 53 
 
 Father de Brebeuf, after making sure of the presence of 
 devoted friends, boldly appeared before the assembly 
 of the sachems, pleaded his own cause, and gained it. 
 
 The first mass was celebrated in this town on the 25th 
 of June, 1638, in the cabin of the brave Stephen Totiri, 
 whom we shall meet again, sharing the captivity and tor- 
 tures of Father Jogues. This Father was one of the first 
 residents at the post. He happily began his ministry by 
 the baptism of an Iroquois prisoner, who was running 
 the horrible gauntlet of torture ; and in the first year he 
 regenerated in baptism forty-eight children and seventy- 
 two adults. 
 
 However, the foundation of these two residences satis- 
 fied neither the hopes of the missionaries nor the needs 
 of the country. Hence, in 1639, they resolved not to re- 
 main separated, but to select a central site, apart from 
 any Huron town and completely independent. This 
 they would make their centre of action, from which they 
 could proceed in any direction as they were required. 
 This course enabled them to consult quietly as to the best 
 means to forward the welfare of the Mission, and afforded 
 a place of rest to those whose courage exceeded their 
 strength, and for all when they wished to reanimate their 
 souls by the holy exercises of a retreat. They made 
 choice of a solitary spot in the northeastern part of the 
 Huron peninsula. It lay in the tribe of the Attaronchro- 
 nons, almost in the very centre of the land, and on the 
 banks of a small river (the Wye), which near it empties 
 into the great lake. It is a point from which there was 
 easy communication with all parts of the country. This 
 plan was strongly approved in Europe, and Cardinal 
 Richelieu, not content with mere words of commenda- 
 tion, promised a large sum to build a fort on the spot, 
 and maintain a small garrison. The fathers, in their iso- 
 lated position, needed this defence against the frequent 
 and sudden inroads of the Iroquois. 
 
 The new establishment was called The Residence of St. 
 
54 ^^y^ of Father Jogucs. 
 
 Mary, and work was commenced at once. A vast inclo- 
 sure of palisades formed a first rectangular defence; 
 part of the inclosed ground was to serve for tillage and 
 part for a cemetery. At the four corners a cross was 
 erected to show that it was dedicated to the Lord. 
 Within the palisade was the fort inclosing the house of 
 the French and the chapel. Not far from these were 
 two large cabins — one to serve as a hospital for sick In- 
 dians, the other a hospice for travellers. It soon became 
 a place of great resort for the Indians, especially for 
 the Christians. " The exterior splendor of our cere- 
 monies," writes Father Ragueneau; "the beauty of our 
 chapel, which, though poverty itself, is regarded in this 
 country as one of the wonders of the world; the masses, 
 sermons, vespers, processions, and benedictions, all per- 
 forrued with a pomp unknown to the Indians — gives them 
 some idea of the meijesty of God, whilst they are made 
 to understand that He is honored all over the world with 
 a worship a thousand times more solemn." 
 
 The catechumens came here to be finally instructed, 
 and the good Christians to advance in the practice of 
 their religion; the sick to obtain relief in body and 
 comfort in soul; some even to beg but one thing — the 
 privilege of dying near their fathers, and resting in 
 peace in blessed ground. 
 
 Father Jogues took an active part in the foundation of 
 the Residence of St. Mary, and from the very first he 
 was appointed to superintend the work of putting up 
 the palisade, which gave him charge over the domestics 
 and some fifteen laborers. They were the only French 
 then among the Hurons. The Governors of Canada 
 would not allow an}^ to settle except under the supervi- 
 sion of the missionaries, in order to prevent the great 
 disorders which had in early times given great scandal, 
 still brought up against religion. 
 
 Father Jogues found in them simple and docile hearts, 
 exemplary for their virtue and devotedness. There 
 
Residence of St. Mary. 55 
 
 were some among them who formed a special class in 
 Canada, and rendered the greatest services to the mis- 
 sion. The}'' were called donnes,"^ for they gave them- 
 selves by contract and for life to the service of the Mis- 
 sion, without pay. The Mission enjoyed the benefit of 
 their work, and were bound to provide forall-their wants 
 as long as they lived. They took the place of lay-broth- 
 ers, whom it was impossible to secure in number large 
 enough for the wants of the Mission; and not being 
 bound by vows, these donnes formed, as it were, an 
 intermediate class between the religious and servants. 
 At the time we write there were only six of them, but in 
 1649 there were as many as twenty-three. The care of 
 temporal affairs did not absorb Father Jogues' time so 
 exclusively that he could not aid the three Fathers at- 
 tached to the post in the labors of the ministry. He 
 took care of the numbers of Indians who visited them, 
 and made frequent excursions to four little villages in 
 the neighborhood, which had been left to the care of the 
 Fathers of Saint Mary. 
 
 A difficult mission was intrusted to his care in 1640. 
 He was detailed with Father Charles Garnier to attempt 
 the establishing of a mission in a neighboring nation 
 which had not yet been visited by the missionaries. Af- 
 ter being for a long time hostile to the Hurons, it had 
 just concluded a close alliance with them. Similar in 
 habits and languaii^e, it shared the same apprehensions 
 of danger from the Iroquois. This seemed the favorable 
 time to speak to them of tlic Faith. 
 
 * This new class and title, instituted by the members of the Society 
 of Jesus, and for thf-ir service excited criticism and complaint, which 
 were carried to Rome. Some regarded it as an innovation, and the 
 introduction of a kind of third order like that existing in several re 
 ligious orders, but not in use in the Society. Father Jerome Lale- 
 mant drew up in 1643 a memoir to justify this course and remove the 
 fears. He received the approbation of his Superiors (Archives of 
 the Gesu, Rome)., 
 
56 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 It was the nation of the Tionontates, called Petun or 
 Tobacco Indians by the French, on account of their 
 large trade in that plant, of which they seemed to have 
 almost a monopoly. They lived about thirty miles 
 southwest of the Hurons, in what are now called the 
 Blue Mountains. As there were no open roads or means 
 of transportation, travel in winter could be made only 
 on foot and with snow-shoes.* In that season, too, 
 the streams could not obstruct travel, nor was there 
 much danger from the Iroquois. But whether from fear 
 of the enemy or misgivings of the undertaking, the guides 
 of the missionaries played false at the moment of start- 
 ing. There was no otlier resource left but to trust to 
 vague information, which rendered their route any- 
 thing but certain. But heroic souls enjoy the loss of all 
 human means, in order to trust more generously to Di- 
 vine providence. And thus did these men of God act. 
 They started under the guidance of God and of His 
 holy angels. Before they had accomplished half the dis- 
 tance they lost their way, and were forced to stop and 
 pass the night in the woods. They had learned from 
 the Indians to clear the snow from the spot where they 
 intended to make their beds of spruce-branches, and to 
 raise around tliem a little breastwork as a shelter against 
 the wind. Then they lighted an immense fire to keep the 
 frost off, and lay down to sleep. 
 
 The next morning they started again at haphazard, 
 their whole provisions consisting of a piece of bread; 
 but at last, at eight o'clock at night, footsore and ex- 
 hausted, they reached the first hamlet of the Tionontate 
 nation. Well acquainted with the ready hospitality of 
 the Indians, with whom the stranger is always welcome, 
 they boldly entered the first cabin they reached to spend 
 the night. 
 
 * Snow-shoes are fastened firmly under the feet, and keep a person 
 from sinking in the snow. The French call them raquettes from their 
 resemblance to the racket used in some games of ball,. 
 
Visits the Tionontatcs. 57 
 
 They knew it not; but Providence was guiding iheni 
 by its hand for the salvation of a poor soul. The news 
 of the arrival of the black-gown was soon known. In a 
 few moments a young man arrived in haste, who wished 
 the missionaries for a woman lying sick in his cabin. 
 She was a poor creature at the point of death, and she 
 had but one desire — to be admitted to the prayer of the 
 French. The Fathers, hastening to the spot, found a pre- 
 destined soul filled with all the ineffable blessings of 
 grace. She had the happiness of receiving baptism and 
 breathed her last in peace. 
 
 But hell was alarmed at the coming triumphs of the 
 Failh: it let loose its agents, and the calumnies spread 
 among the Hurons found their way, with a tenfold in- 
 crease of terror, through all the villages. The two 
 Fathers inspired such terror that often women and chil- 
 dren fled at their approach. A chief with whom they 
 'lodged was a prey to the greatest apprehensions. He 
 told them his fears, and no explanations could allay them. 
 Their slightest actions, even their kneeling at prayer, 
 seemed to him some act of sorcery. He resorted to 
 every means to make them depart, as he could not vio- 
 late the laws of hospitality by driving them out. Above 
 all, he feared lest in a moment of exasperation some In- 
 dians might come and put the strangers to death in his 
 cabin; for among the Indians any one has a right to kill 
 a sorcerer, but no one wishes his own cabin defiled by 
 blood. 
 
 Persecution attained such a height that the missionaries 
 could scarcely remain two days at a time in one village. 
 Sometimes they would hear their hosts start up at night 
 and order them out of the house at once; others would 
 shout to them from outside that they must leave before 
 daybreak, and without stopping in the village, or else 
 they would tomahawk them. 
 
 The two Fathers had spent two months in these in- 
 cessant perils without having the least chance of making 
 
58 Life of Father J agues. 
 
 any stable mission: they resolved to return; yet their 
 labor had not been fruitless. They had surveyed the 
 ground and prepared tlie way. The next year, Father 
 Charles Garnier returned and formed a flourishing 
 church, known as the Mission of the Apostles, In 1649 
 he bedewed it with his blood. 
 
 By this time Father Jogues was looked upon as an ex- 
 perienced missionary, and was again detailed for import- 
 ant duties. 
 
 In 1641, some Indians of Algonquin origin, called Otta- 
 was,* descended from the shores of Lake Superior to 
 visit the Algonquin tribes dwelling near the Hurons, and 
 to witness their great Feast of the Dead, This was a 
 solemn occasion with these wild tribes, and its celebra- 
 tion occurred only every ten or twelve years. Some of 
 the missionaries who resided among the Hurons had at- 
 tended these Algonquin tribes, and reckoned among 
 them a good number of converts. These Fathers were 
 at hand, during this great gathering, in order to open 
 intercourse with the visiting tribes, and thus open new 
 paths for the Gospel. 
 
 Impressed with what they had heard of the prayer of 
 the French, and what they saw with their own eyes, the 
 Ottawas readily accepted the advances of the mission- 
 aries, who willinghr agreed to visit them in the fall, at 
 Sault Sainte-Marie,f when those nomadic tribes assem- 
 bled to catch white-fish. 
 
 Father Jogues, now well versed in the Huron language, 
 
 * The Ottawas were a tribe living on the upper lakes, and closely 
 connected with the Chippewas, called Sauteu.x by the French, from 
 their residing at Sault Sainte-Marie; but the word Ottawa was loosely 
 applied to all the Western Algonquins, and the Ottawa River received 
 its name from the fact that it was the route to the Ottawa country, — 
 Ed. 
 
 f The Hurons called this rapid Skiae, and the first French explorers 
 named it Sault de Gaston, It took the name of Sault Sainte Marie, 
 which it still retains, from a Mission founded there about 1669. 
 
The OUawas, 59 
 
 was associated with Father Cliarles Raymbault,* who 
 had mastered the Algonquin, and they took their depart- 
 ure for SaultSainte-Marie on the 17th of September, 1641. 
 Able to speak these two mother-tongues, they could con- 
 verse with any Indians they might encounter. They had 
 before them a journey of 250 miles, to be made in their 
 birch-canoe over the great Lake Huron, coasting the 
 northern shores, tlirough the forest of islets which border 
 it. Upwards of two thousand Indians were awaiting 
 them, and gave them a flattering reception. The Fathers 
 reciprocated as usual with presents and feasts. The chief 
 of the Chippewas desired something more: he raised his 
 voice in the name of his tribe, and made the strongest 
 appeal, in order to retain the missionaries among them. 
 Said he: "Stay with us: we will embrace you like brothers; 
 we will learn from you the prayer of the French, and we 
 will be obedient to your words " (Rel. 1641). 
 
 * Father Raymbault had been in Canada from 1637. but his delicate 
 constitution could not endure the hard Mission life. After this excur- 
 sion he returned to Quebec, utterly exhausted, and aware that the end 
 of the struggle had arrived. He died there October 22, 1642, aged forty- 
 one. "The self-denying man," says Bancroft, " who had glowed with 
 the hope of bearing the Gospel across the continent, through all the 
 American Barbary, even to the ocean that divides America from China, 
 ceased to live; and the body of this first apostle of Christianity to the 
 tribes of Michigan was buried in 'the particular sepulchre ' which the 
 justice of that age had 'erected expressly to honor the memory of the 
 illustrious Champlain, Thus the climate made one marty-r." He was 
 the first Jesuit who died in Canada. A touching incident is told of the 
 close of his life: He had long desired to gain to the Faith an Algon- 
 quin chief who had shown great kindness to the missionaries. He 
 did not gain him till the last moment, so that he may be said to have 
 died triumphant. " Mangouch," he said to him in a failing voice, "you 
 see that I am surely going to die. At this time I would not deceive 
 you. Believe me when I assure you that there is below a fire which 
 will burn for eternity those who refuse to believe." This truth, which 
 the Indian had frequently heard without heeding, now struck him like 
 a thunderbolt, when it came from the lips of a dying man. He be- 
 came a fervent Christian. 
 
6o Life oj Father J ogues. 
 
 It was not possible to yield at once to this earnest ap- 
 peal. The small number of missionaries, and the ever- 
 increasing wants of the Huron Mission forbade tiiem to 
 divide their forces. They had advanced so far only like 
 the bold explorers of new lands, to examine the soil, to 
 know the inhabitants, and prepare a way to the conquests 
 of Faith, when the proper time should arrive; but the 
 road was open, and the first seed planted. 
 
 The missionaries did not depart from this hospitable 
 land without leaving behind a token of their presence — a 
 mark, as it were, that they had taken possession in the 
 name of the Gospel. They raised a tall cross on the 
 banks of the river, to show the limits reached by the 
 preaching of its apostles. They made it face the im- 
 mense Valley of the Mississippi, to which their attention 
 had been called in a vague manner, but which they were 
 told was inhabited by numerous tribes of nations still 
 unknown. 
 
 The end had been attained. Furnished with valuable 
 information, the two envoys of the Faith returned to their 
 Huron Mission before winter. There was plenty of labor 
 in that field, but it attained success only at the cost of 
 many trials and sacrifices. 
 
 Father Jogues resumed his peaceful and humble duties 
 at the Residence of St. Mary; but the call to stern com- 
 bats was about to be sounded. He was to meet the most 
 formidable, the most ferocious enemy, both of the Hurons 
 and of the Christian Faith — the Iroquois.* 
 
 * According to Charlevoix, the name Iroquois was given to this 
 people by the French. It comes from the word Hiro or Hero — I have 
 said it, with which, like the old Romans, they ended their speeches, 
 and Kou^, a guttural cry, more or less prolonged, which they then 
 uttered to uphold their words. The learned George Horn sought a 
 more remote origin, but less probable. In his work De Origine 
 Americanorum he makes the people and the name descend from the 
 Ircans of Herodotus. 
 
The Iroquois, 6i 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Iroquois — Father Jogues goes down to Quebec — His 
 
 Captivity, 
 
 m^ LTHOUGH not the most numerous,* yet the Iro- 
 quois were the most terrible of all tribes then 
 known to the French in Canada. They did not 
 thirst after wealth, for the passion of riches does not en- 
 ter the heart of the savage, but they would admit no rival 
 in their ascendancy over the rest. Successful in all their 
 undertakings for fifty years past, they were drunk with 
 pride. Their name inspired terror far and near. All their 
 neighbors had learned at bitter cost to dread their war- 
 like valor, which was equalled only by its own cruelty. 
 Their arrogance, as well as their superiority over adjoin- 
 ing tribes, was increased by the fact that the Hollanders 
 of Manhattan had begun just then to supply them with 
 fire-arms. 
 
 The Iroquois formed a kind of federal republic, com- 
 posed of five cantons or nations, called by the French from 
 their own names, Agniers, Oneiouts, Onontagues, Goio- 
 goens, and Tsonnontouans, though the English colonists 
 styled them the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, 
 Senecas, and collectively the Five Nations. They were 
 commanded, like all Indian tribes, by chiefs or captains, 
 and public affairs were administered by the great coun- 
 cils of the Sachems. Each canton had its own separate 
 political existence, and was independent in the adminis- 
 tration of its internal affairs. In a common cause they 
 united and supported each other. 
 
 * According to the Relation of 1660, the Iroquois cantons then 
 had a population of 25,000, the warriors being one tenth that number. 
 
62 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 The geographical position favored their warlike in- 
 stincts, their hunts, and external relations. Ranged along 
 the southern shores of the Lake Ontario, and on the Mo- 
 hawk River, from the Niagara to the Hudson, they had 
 easy access on the west to the great lakes, and even to the 
 Mississippi, and on the east they could easily, in their 
 light canoes, reach the Atlantic. 
 
 The Agniers (Mohawks), nearest to the Dutch post of 
 Rensselaerswyck (the Albany of our day), where we 
 shall soon meet Father Jogues, carried on a brisk traf- 
 fic with the Europeans, exchanging their rich peltries, 
 the great object of mercantile cupidity, for arms employed 
 in war or hunting. But intercourse with the Dutch was 
 most fatal to the Indians, as it fostered their intense 
 avidity for spirituous liquors, and imbued them with feel- 
 ings of hatred against the Catholic faith and its apostles. 
 For some years the Mohawks had waged a relentless 
 war on the Indian tribes which were allied to the French, 
 and especially the Hurons and the Algonquins, who traded 
 the most with the colony in Canada. The Mohawks de- 
 scended by Lake Champlain and the river Richelieu, 
 long known by their name, and were ready to attack and 
 plunder the flotillas of canoes, as they made their way to 
 or from the French posts. 
 
 At this time the French had only little cities, or rather 
 posts, in those distant regions — Quebec and Three Riv- 
 ers. The palisades which inclosed them were guard- 
 ed only by a few soldiers. Had the Iroquois known 
 their weakness, and attacked with more skill, the colony 
 could not have resisted long. At first they seemed only 
 to covet the blood of the Indians and their goods; but 
 the presence of the French, whose dominion they feared, 
 and whose religion they hated as repugnant to their 
 savage instincts, goaded them to a war for the destruc- 
 tion of both the native tribes and the new-comers. They 
 constantly beset the Ottawa River. Their warriors, in 
 bands of twenty, fifty, or one hundred, were posted along 
 
SeuL to Quebec, 63 
 
 a line of more than two hundred and fifty miles, and in 
 most advantageous positions, so as to command all the 
 passes. A party escaping one band was sure to fall into 
 the hands of another. Well aware of the influence of 
 the French over their allies, the Iroquois were anxious to 
 capture a /^/^-/^<:^, and above all a black-gown. Father 
 Jogues became their victim. 
 
 The information we have as to the terrible sufferings 
 of his captivity and of accompanying events is drawn 
 from the recitals of Christian captives who succeeded in 
 making their escape, and from two long letters in which 
 the pious missionary relates the main incidents to his 
 Superiors. One of these, full of charm and candor, is 
 written in terse and elegant Latin; it is a precious record 
 of his trials, all the more entitled to credit from the fact 
 of its coming from the pen of a man who always avoided 
 publicity, and whose modesty only obedience could over- 
 come. Piety and humility are his plea for describing 
 these sad days in Latin: "I could more easily employ 
 the very words of our sacred books,"* he writes with 
 great simplicity; "they formed my greatest consolation 
 in my extreme trials, and at the same time this letter 
 will be less easily read." 
 
 His brethren, to whom he loved to unbosom his heart 
 in conversation, succeeded in obtaining from him many 
 details which he had buried in profound silence, and of 
 whose merit he seemed unconscious. In what we shall 
 relate it is Father Jogues, who to a great extent is the 
 narrator. 
 
 While returning from the Chippewas, Father Jogues 
 had, in his intercourse with God, apparently been favored 
 with some revelation of what was to befall him. While 
 prostrate before the Blessed Sacrament, and earnestly 
 beseeching our Lord to allow him to drink of the chalice 
 of His sufferings in order to labor more efficaciously for 
 
 *The references to the Bible are added by us; Father Jogues 
 cited only from memory. 
 
64 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 the glory of His holy name, he heard as it were a voice 
 replying to the aspirations of his heart, Thy prayer is 
 heard (Acts x. 31); thou shalt have what thou hast asked 
 (4 Kings ii. 10); take courage and be stro?ig (Jos. i. 6). 
 These words sank in his heart with an impression akin 
 to the certainty of faith. He never forgot them: amidst 
 his tortures they bore him up. He never doubted but 
 they had been uttered by Him who knows the future, 
 and who alone can make man invincible in struggles 
 which exceed our natural strength. 
 
 Father Jerome Lalemant,* then Superior of the Huron 
 Mission, unav/are of what had passed between God and 
 His servant, had chosen him for a very perilous under- 
 taking, — a journey to Quebec, — on business connected 
 with the Mission. While proposing to Father Jogues to 
 accept it, he left him free to decline the dangerous un- 
 dertaking. 
 
 At that time it was a most dangerous expedition, for 
 the great river swarmed with Iroquois warriors, who 
 seemed frantic with rage. To accept the task assigned 
 was risking almost certainly loss of liberty, and even of 
 
 life. 
 
 The year before the French had rejected peace, be- 
 cause the terms offered by the Iroquois were, as will be 
 seen, impossible. In February, 1641, two young men, 
 Francis Marguerie and Thomas Godefroy, were surprised 
 by the Iroquois while hunting. The track of their snow- 
 shoes enabled the enemy to surprise and carry them off 
 to their country. They were at first objects of curiosity. 
 Some Iroquois who had been prisoners among the 
 French took them under their protection, and one of 
 them, in recognition of former favors received from Mar- 
 guerie, declared boldly that the captives should not be 
 
 * Father Jerome Lalemant was twice Superior-General in Canada. 
 "He is the holiest man I ever knew," wrote the Ven. Mother Mary 
 of the Incarnation. He died at Quebec in 1673, aged eighty. 
 
At Three Rivers. 65 
 
 put to death; he even offered presents for their ransom. 
 The matter was debated in a council, and it was resolved 
 to employ the aid of the two Frenchmen in securing a 
 treaty 01 peace. Five hundred warriors set out on this 
 errand; but some of them took post along the great river 
 St. Lawrence to plunder the Hurons and Algonquins, 
 whilst the rest, to the number of three hundred and 
 fifty, arrived at Three Rivers in the beginning of June. 
 Early one morning a man was seen approaching alone 
 in a canoe, hoisting a white flag in token of peace. It was 
 Marguerie. He announced in the name of the Iroquois, 
 that he came to treat of peace with the French, but not 
 with the Indians. Privately he informed our people that 
 it was the plan of the Iroquois to conquer our allies, to 
 exterminate them, and thus to become masters of the 
 whole country. 
 
 The Governor of Quebec, on being informed of the 
 fact, went up to Three Rivers; and meanwhile the French- 
 man returned to the Iroquois with another Frenchman, 
 who took a large supply of food. Father Ragueneau, 
 also Superior of the Mission, visited their camp and was 
 well received; but they did not disguise their hostile feel- 
 ings towards the other Indians, and even during these 
 preliminaries some Algonquins were surprised and mur- 
 dered by Iroquois runners. 
 
 Governor de Montmagny arrived at last, and was re- 
 ceived with a salvo of musketry. Father Ragueneau 
 and Mr. Nicolet* were appointed to discuss the condi- 
 tions of peace. 
 
 A council was held in the camp of the Iroquois, on the 
 loth of June, with great solemnity. Onagan, one of the 
 chiefs, made an able speech, offered presents, and set the 
 two Frenchmen free. The Governor consented to a 
 
 * Nicolet, at first merely an Indian interpreter, deserves, for the ser- 
 vices he rendered, an honorable place in Canadian history. He ar- 
 rived in 1618, and was drowned in 1642. He is the first Frenchman 
 who reached the Mississippi, about 1639. 
 
66 Life of Fathei' Jogties. 
 
 peace provided his Indian allies were included. Seeing 
 that they could not attain their end, the Iroquois dissem- 
 bled, and while deferring their answ^er, they insulted the 
 French, and even fired on their boat. The Governor then 
 ordered a general discharge of his artillery; but the Indi- 
 ans had sought cover, and the following night they de- 
 camped. 
 
 This was the signal of a more bitter war than ever. 
 
 During this short armistice Father de Brebeuf had 
 left the Hurons in very bad health, and had escaped the 
 Iroquois, who lay in wait for him. Father Jogues was 
 not so fortunate. He knew that the negotiations were 
 broken off, and that hatred had revived in the hearts of 
 the Iroquois; but he had been made ready for the sacri- 
 fice long ere this. "They only proposed this voyage to 
 me," he said. "I received no command; I offered to go 
 the more willingly, as its necessity would have thrown 
 some better missionary than myself into the dangers we 
 foresaw." Thus was the victim prepared for the sacri- 
 fice in charity and humility. In his wonted deference 
 to the will of his Superior he took this proposal as an 
 order from heaven, and he prepared to fulfil it by a 
 retreat of eight days and a general confession. 
 
 On the 2d of June, 1642, four canoes were moored at 
 the little harbor of St Mary. They were freighted with 
 precious peltry, to be used by the Indians for barter- 
 ing in the colony. Twenty warriors, most of them 
 Christians, formed this party, which required tried cour- 
 age and energetic souls. Three Frenchmen, with Father 
 Jogues and Father Raymbault, whose shattered health 
 needed a change of climate, completed the caravan. 
 
 At a given signal, the paddles, plied with skill, sent the 
 canoes with thp intrepid travellers over the smooth waters, 
 amid the benedictions of the Fathers, and the God-speeds 
 of kindred and friends from the shore. It took thirty- 
 five days to reach Three Rivers. This passage of 
 more than six hundred miles was seldom accomplished 
 
At Three Rivers. 67 
 
 without alarm, hardships, and dangers. But no enemy 
 appeared. The only drawback they met was the wreck 
 of two canoes while shooting a rapid, and the loss of part 
 of their baggage. 
 
 During this long passage Father Jogues did not allow 
 his zeal to rest. He divided his time between the care 
 of his sick companion, and practices of piety, regularly 
 observed by the whole party. Prayers were said aloud 
 morning and evening, and he improved their precarious 
 situation to inspire them with fear lest they should die 
 in a state of mortal sin. Then he employed his time in 
 keeping up the fervor of the Christian converts by pious 
 discourses, and completed the instruction of the catechu- 
 mens, so that they should be prepared to receive baptism 
 in case of danger. Without tarrying long at Three 
 Rivers, the pious party soon passed on to Quebec, the 
 end of their journey. They were received with every 
 manifestation of joy, and with fervent thanks to God. 
 The Fathers in Quebec eagerly listened to the accounts of 
 the labors and sufferings of their brethren, and rejoiced at 
 the opportunity of being able to send them some help. 
 Great was the edification with which the colony of Que- 
 bec impressed the Indians. The convents of the Ursulines 
 and Hospital Nuns* seemed to attract their attention. 
 They never tired in visiting them ; all seemed wonderful 
 in their eyes. 
 
 Their surprise increased when they were told of all 
 that these holy virgins had sacrificed — their family ties, 
 the comforts of their native land, every convenience in 
 
 * These two precious houses, the supports of faith in Canada and 
 one of its glories, have continued uninterruptedly from 1639 to our 
 time, developing their mission of charity and zeal with the necessities 
 around them. The Duchess of Aiguillon, Richelieu's niece, founded 
 the Hotel-Dieu or Hospital at Quebec, at the same time that Madame 
 de la Peltrie, a rich young widow of Alen^on, established the Ursulines 
 there, with the celebrated Ven. Mother Mary of the Incarnation as 
 their Superior. 
 
68 Life of Father Jogiies. 
 
 life in order to come to encourage and teach them, im- 
 pelled only by the love of God and love of their neigh- 
 bors. 
 
 The Mission of Sillery, founded for the Algonquins 
 by the Commander of that name, two miles and a half 
 from the city, v^as then at the height of its fervor. The 
 Hurons were impressed as deeply as they had been by 
 the communities at Quebec. There they beheld the won- 
 ders wrought by prayer in hearts not long ago idolatrous, 
 and abandoned to vice and superstition. The change 
 filled them with esteem and love for the Faith. 
 
 The Indians soon transacted their business. The rich 
 furs were readily exchanged for hatchets, iron pots, glass 
 beads, knives, awls, blankets, fire-arms, powder and shot. 
 The barter was mutually advantageous, and was easily 
 
 effected. 
 
 Father Jogues meanwhile had received packages and 
 provisions to the amount of about two thousand dollars, 
 all to be appropriated to the Huron Mission,* There were 
 vestments, altar-plate, articles to decorate the churches, 
 and some books— a precious treasure for a country desti- 
 tute of everything. He was also intrusted with letters 
 for the missionaries. 
 
 After nineteen days spent in Quebec, and when all 
 arrangements had been made, the fervent missionary was 
 anxious to retrace his steps. He desired to rejoin his 
 brethren, and afford them some relief in their life of 
 privation. He re-embarked with the same courage and 
 trust in God that had inspired him at the outset. His 
 party had received an increase. Some Hurons who had 
 remained at Quebec from the previous year resolved to 
 profit by this opportunity of returning to their country. 
 The presence of the servant of God seemed to inspire 
 them with confidence. Two Frenchmen, Rene Goupil 
 
 *The Mission then comprised fourteen Jesuit Fathers, some lay- 
 brothers, and other Frenchmen in charge of their temporal affairs, in 
 all thirty-three persons (Relation, 1641-42). 
 
He sets 02U for his Mission. 6g 
 
 and William Couture, men of great virtue and tried 
 devotedness, took passage also for tlie Hurons. Both 
 were donne's of the Mission, and merited what Father 
 Jerome Lalemant said of t*hem in the Relation of 1643 : 
 " These two young men were above all praise in their 
 wav, and were fitted for this country." A young Huron 
 woman, Teresa Oiouhaton, from the town of Ossossane, 
 who for two years had been under the care of the Ursu- 
 lines, and had admirably profited by their training, joined 
 the party to return home with her uncle, Joseph Theon- 
 dechoren. Only by the authority of. Father Jogues 
 could she be prevailed on to leave the Sisters, to whom 
 she clung with the tenderest affection. Her love of vir- 
 tue made her shrink from the sight of scandals. But 
 the missionaries based great hopes on her example and 
 influence for the Faith. God had other designs in her 
 regard. Notwithstanding her youth, her virtue was to 
 shine amid tiie dangers and trials of captivity. 
 
 This pious party formed a fleet of twelve canoes, car- 
 rying forty persons. History has preserved the names 
 of some of those gallant companions of Father Jogues 
 — men who will play a glorious part in the sad scenes we 
 are soon to describe. Among them were Joseph Theon- 
 dechoren, Charles Tsondatsaa, Stephen Totiri and 
 another Stephen, Theodore, Paul Ononhoraton, and 
 above all, Eustace Ahasistari, as well as his nephew.* 
 Father Jogues left Quebec with his numerous com- 
 panions at the end of July. It was an event for the little 
 city : its pious inhabitants were too much interested in 
 the progress of the Faith not to crowd around them, help 
 them aboard, and give them a hearty God-speed, with a 
 thousand benedictions. 
 
 The convoy halted a short time at Three Rivers, where 
 Governor de Montmagnyf then w^is, carrying out a 
 
 *See Appendix. 
 
 f The Hurons and Iroquois called him Onnontio (great or beautiful 
 mountain), and the name became the official one of his successors, 
 to whom this term was always givea. 
 
70 Life of Father Jogties, 
 
 measure regarded as a highly important defence against 
 the Iroquois. By order of the Cardinal Prime Minister, 
 he was about to erect a fort at the mouth of the river by 
 which these savages made their inroads on the colony. 
 He named it Fort Richelieu.^- Foreseeing the danger to 
 which the missionary and his Hurons were exposed, the 
 Governor insisted upon detailing some soldiers for their 
 escort, but either from a feeling of pride or false security 
 the Huron chiefs obstinately refused the offer. An Indian 
 never believes in danger until he faces it. Yet they took 
 many precautions, and above all, they earnestly prayed 
 to Heaven to be taken under its protection. At Three 
 Rivers they celebrated the feast of St. Ignatius, and all 
 received Holy Communion. The next day, just before 
 embarking, the Hurons held a council, as is usual with 
 the Indians in critical affairs, in order to encourage each 
 other. It showed the influence which Faith had acquired 
 over their hearts. One of the chiefs said : " Is there any 
 amongst us who would renounce his belief in God were 
 he to be burned b}?" our enemies ? We are Christians to be 
 happy in heaven, not on this earth !" They all applauded 
 the words, and professed to be of the same sentiment. 
 
 Ahasistari spoke last, and he did it as a Christian hero : 
 ** Brothers, should I fall into the hands of the Iroquois, 
 I cannot hope for life ; but before I die I shall ask them, 
 ' What have the Europeans brought into their country ? — 
 hatchets, blankets, pots, guns. And I will say to them, 
 They love you not : they hide from you the most costly 
 of all ware, which the French give us without barter. 
 They have made us acquainted with a God who has 
 created all things, an eternal fire destined for those who 
 offend Him, and a place of happiness everlasting for those 
 
 *Now Sorel, or William Henry. This Fort Richelieu must not be 
 confounded with another of the same name erected by Champlain in 
 1634 on Isle Ste. Croix, thirty-seven miles above Quebec, but which was 
 not long maintained. 
 
TJicy leave Three Rivers, 71 
 
 who serve Him, when our souls and our bodies, which will 
 one day arise again, shall be in glory.' And I will say 
 again, ' Behold ijiy great happiness. Wreak now all your 
 cruelties on my body ; by your torments you will sepa- 
 rate my soul from it, but you cannot tear this hope from 
 my heart.' " Then turning to Charles Tsondatsaa : " My 
 brother, if it be God's will that I fall captive to the enemy, 
 and you escape, return to my country, bring my relations 
 together, and tell them, for the love of me, and much 
 more of themselves, to embrace the Prayer. Prayer alone 
 can strengthen and give comfort. If they follow the 
 part of Faith, we shall one day be united. God, the 
 Master of life, is all my hope ; and wherever I may be I 
 shall live and die for Ilim." 
 
 Such language carries us back to the time when the 
 Christians of the primitive Church encouraged each other 
 to martyrdom. How beautiful to witness in savage 
 hearts, yet infants in the Faith, the same resignation, the 
 same fervor, and the same earnestness ! 
 
 On the second day of August our travellers entered 
 their canoes and began their journey under happy aus- 
 pices. All seemed to favor their undertaking. The 
 first day they made thirty miles,* and in the evening they 
 landed on the bank facing the islands in Lake St. Peter,f 
 to camp for the night. They started betimes the next day, 
 hugging the shore, to avoid the current. Whilst some 
 at the head of the flotilla were on shore towing their 
 canoe, they were brought to a halt, a little more than 
 a mile after starting, by the discovery of a fresh Indian 
 trail on the sand. ' They are Iroquois," cried some. 
 " No ; Algonquins," others replied. The brave Ahasis- 
 tari, whose experience and virtue inspired respect, put 
 
 *Charlevoix("Historyof New France"), misled by a note of Mother 
 Mary of the Incarnation, incorrectly makes the capture of Father 
 Jogues occur fifteen or sixteen leagues from Quebec. 
 
 f A wide part of the river a litde above Three Rivers. 
 
72 Life of Father Joo7ies. 
 
 an end to the discussion by exclaiming, " Friend or 
 foe, what does it matter ? If we trust to this trail, they 
 are only a few ; what need we fear ?" In his brave im- 
 petuosity he forgot that they were in a hostile country, 
 and that all was to be feared from men whose cunning 
 was only equalled by their fury. 
 
 In fact, near by a band of seventy Iroquois lay in am- 
 bush, led by a Huron traitor adopted among the Mo- 
 hawks : a vile apostate'^ who used his knowledge of the 
 route usually followed by his countrymen to lie in wait 
 for them at a secure spot and surprise them as they 
 passed. Hidden among the reeds and rushes, they 
 awaited their prey. As soon as they saw it in reach they 
 rose, and with fearful yells poured in a volley of mus- 
 ketry. Only one Huron was v/ounded — in the hand ; 
 but many canoes were riddled, and their occupants took 
 refuge in the nearest woods, carrying along a number of 
 the Hurons before they had time to take in the situa- 
 tion and organize their defence. Disorder in an army 
 is almost always the forerunner of defeat, and if able 
 commanders can at times control its results, with Indi- 
 ans it is impossible. 
 
 Eustace, on beholding the enemy, fell on his knees, 
 and cried, "O God! in Thee alone I trust." For his 
 part. Father Jogues, forgetful of all but his priestly 
 duty, thought of the salvation of souls: he offered a 
 short prayer with those who were preparing to repel the 
 attack, and who indeed fought gallantly. His first care 
 was for Bernard Atieronhonte, the steersman of his canoe, 
 and the only one in it who had not yet been baptized, 
 although for some time a catechumen. He had himself 
 solicited this favor before confronting the risks of battle, 
 
 * Known as Mathurin's man, because, before his capture by the 
 Iroquois and adoption of their hatred of the French, he had guided to 
 Quebec a young man named Mathurin, who had rendered the Huron 
 missionaries great services, and who, returning to France, became a 
 Capuchin. 
 
Surprised by Mohawks, 73 
 
 and he received it with joy and calmness, while the bul- 
 lets were whizzing around and the welkin rang with the 
 war-cry. It was the last act of the priest in his free- 
 dom, and it was rewarded with God's benedictions; for 
 Bernard, after he had made his escape from the Iroquois, 
 always remained a faithful Christian. He related with 
 deep emotion the heroic charity of the good missionary 
 at that critical moment : " I thank God that I entered 
 the Church by such a way, and I shall never forget that 
 beautiful day. The self-devotion of my Father was 
 enough to confirm me in my faith. Who could, then, 
 withstand belief ? Indeed, these men who come to teach 
 us must be very certain of the truth they preach, and 
 look to God alone for the only reward they seek, for 
 Ondesonk* forgot himself altogether in the moment of 
 the greatest danger, to think only of me. Instead of 
 seeking safety for himself, he baptized me; he loved me 
 more than himself. Death here below had no terrors 
 for him, but he was alarmed for my eternal death." 
 
 Meanwhile a dozen Hurons stood their ground and 
 continued the struggle. Whilst gallantly fighting, they 
 saw some forty Iroquois, who lay in ambush on the 
 other side of the river, crossing to re-enforce their com- 
 rades. The odds became too great : they fled in haste, 
 leaving behind a few who still fought bravely on. At 
 their head was Rene Goupil, a young man of admirable 
 intrepidity and of still greater virtue. He soon found 
 himself almost alone, facing the whole host of enemies. 
 With some Hurons who fought beside him, he was at last 
 surrounded and taken. 
 
 Father Jogues had gained the shore, and, concealed 
 behind bushes and reeds near the battle-ground, watched 
 the fight, resigned to whatever its result might be. 
 The Iroquois passed by him several times in their pur- 
 suit of the fugitives, but had not seen him. Had he re- 
 
 * Father Jogues' Huron name. 
 
74 L^fo of FatJicr Jogttes. 
 
 mained there he would have escaped captivity; but let 
 us hear him express the feelings of his heart when he 
 beheld the complete defeat of the Hurons and the cap- 
 ture of the last of the warriors: "The thought of flight 
 never entered my mind ; besides, I was barefooted.* How 
 could I fly ? Could I abandon that good Frenchman, 
 the Hurons already captive, and those that would eventu- 
 ally be also taken, some of them not yet baptized ?" He 
 wavered not, and looking upon it as providential that a 
 chance was offered him to devote himself to the service 
 of God and the salvation of the poor Huron prisoners, 
 he resolved to brave all the tortures of the Iroquois 
 rather than abandon his neophytes to the fires of hell. 
 The good shepherd gave his life for his sheep. 
 
 He accordingly arose, and calling to one of the guard 
 placed over the prisoners, he cried: "Know that I am 
 their fellow-traveller, and it is proper that I should 
 share their captivity. You can take hold of me; with 
 all my heart I wish to partake their destiny." The Iro- 
 quois, fearing an ambush, dared not approach him. He 
 could not credit such noble devotedness and such a proof 
 of friendship; but assured by the manner of the servant 
 of God, and seeing no one near him, he came forward. 
 " He took me by the arms," writes Father Jogues, " and 
 placed me with those whom the world calls unfortunate. 
 I embraced Rene most affectionately, and said to him, 
 * O my brother, God's intention in our regard is myster- 
 ious; but He is the Lord: let Him do what is good in His 
 sight (i Kings iii. i8). As it hath pleased the Lord, 
 so it is done; blessed be the name of the Lord forever." 
 (Job i. 21.) 
 
 The youth threw himself on his knees, made his con- 
 fession, and offered his life to God. Profiting by the last 
 moments of freedom, the missionary gave his final in- 
 
 * Indians require all to enter the canoes barefooted, so as to bring 
 in no earth or sand. 
 
He gives himself up. 75 
 
 struction to the catechumens, and baptized them. This 
 occupation and administering other sacraments did not 
 cease, as from time to time other fugitives were brought 
 to the camp. How consoled the poor souls felt to fmd 
 their Father again ! Captivity, tortures, and death 
 ceased to be a terror. 
 
 The loss of a convoy which carried the supplies for 
 the Huron Mission for a whole year was irreparable. 
 The missionaries there were deprived of what was most 
 indispensable for the very necessaries of life. '' But God 
 gives us comfort," writes one of these apostolic laborers, 
 " for it aids our spiritual progress, which is the only al- 
 lurement to bring us here. Faith makes notable prog- 
 ress among our Hurons. Had this fleet of Huron 
 Christians and catechumens arrived safely, as we ex- 
 pected, the conversion of the country seemed almost 
 certain. It is one of the secrets to be revealed only in 
 eternity. But would you believe that we never roused 
 better courage, both for temporals and spirituals, than 
 since the capture of Father Jogues and our Hurons ? I 
 see these tribes more disposed than ever for a complete 
 conversion." 
 
76 jLife of Fathei^ Jogtces. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 Sufferings and Resignation of the Missionary — Execution of 
 Three Hurons — A Christian and Generous Death, 
 
 'HE chief Eustace left the field the last of all, and, 
 \S cutting his way through the heart of the enem}^, 
 ^ plunged into the woods. But, finding that the 
 missionary did not follow him, he reproached himself for 
 his flight, and could not bear to be separated from him. 
 Recalling to mind the pledge of never quitting his side, 
 he preferred to give himself up to his executioners rather 
 than break his word. He turned back to seek him, but 
 found him only by sharing his bonds. He unconsciously 
 only followed the example of his guide and pattern. *' O 
 my Father !" he cried, falling into his arms; " I swore to 
 thee that I would live and die at thy side; here we are 
 together again!" The missionary pressed him to his 
 heart, and bathed him in his tears. " I do not know 
 what reply I made to that touching greeting: I was so 
 affected, and my soul so oppressed with grief," wrote 
 Father Jogues. 
 
 William Couture, another Frenchman, had also stood 
 the first shock gallantly. But, carried on by the Hurons 
 who sought safety in flight, he dashed Avith them into the 
 adjoining forest. Young and fleet of foot, he was soon 
 out of gunshot and in a safe spot. Then his heart was 
 torn with remorse. He could not forgive himself for 
 having abandoned his beloved Father and left him to 
 the rage of the savages. He halted, hesitating whether 
 to return or keep on his flight. His better nature pre- 
 vailed, and he resolved to strike a blow to save his 
 
Couture s Captitre, "]"J 
 
 brethren or share their fate. As he turned back he came 
 upon five Iroquois. 
 
 One of them aimed at liim, but the gun flashed in the 
 pan. William fired, and laid his antagonist dead on the 
 spot. He was a chiefs The other four rushed upon 
 him like furies from hell, tore off his clothing, beat him 
 with clubs, tore out his nails, and chewed his fingers 
 with their teeth ; then they drove a sword through the 
 hand that had fired the fatal shot. The brave young 
 man bore it all with admirable patience. He even bore 
 his last wound with joy, thinking of our Saviour's 
 wounds, as he afterwards avowed to Father Jogues. 
 "Would to God," exclaims the missionary, ''that he 
 had escaped, and not come to swell our wretched num- 
 ber ! In such cases it is no comfort to have companions 
 in your misery, especially those you love as yourself. 
 But such are the men who, though seculars, and with 
 no motive of earthly interest, devote themselves to the 
 service of God and of the Society of Jesus in the Huron 
 Mission." 
 
 Meanwhile the Mohawks bound their prisoner, and, 
 proud of having a Frenchman in their hands, placed 
 him with the other prisoners. 
 
 "The moment I saw him," continues Father Jogues, 
 "bound and stripped of all clothing, I could not con- 
 tain myself, and, leaving my guards, I made my way 
 through the warriors who surrounded him, and throw- 
 ing my arms around his neck, I cried: 'Ah! courage, 
 my dear William; courage, my dear brother! I love 
 you now more than ever, for God in His goodness has 
 made you worthy to suffer for His holy name. Let not 
 these first sufferings and torments shake your constancy. 
 Terrible will be the tortures, but they will not last long, 
 and a glory without end will soon follow.' Couture 
 was deeply moved at these words, broken by sobs, and 
 replied, 'My Father, fear not: the goodness of God has 
 granted me too many graces. I deserve it not, and far 
 
78 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 less than all do I deserve the firmness and courage I feel 
 in my heart. I trust He who gave it to me will not with- 
 draw it ' " (MSS. of Father Buteux). 
 
 These manifestations of fraternal love were a matter 
 of wonder to the Indians, and aj: first a feeling of mercy 
 even sprang up in their hearts; but then, unable to 
 credit feelings so unlike their own, they imagined that 
 the missionary was congratulating the young man on his 
 exploit in killing one of their chiefs. They accordingly 
 rushed upon the man of God, stripped him of all his 
 clothes, except his shirt, and discharged upon him a 
 volley of blows with fists, sticks, and war-clubs. Father 
 Jogues fell to the ground insensible. He was just com- 
 ing to, when two young braves, who had not been there 
 to take part in the first onslaught, sprang at him like 
 two wild beasts, tore out his nails with their teeth, and 
 crunched the two forefingers until they had completely 
 crushed the bones of the last joint. 
 
 Good Rene Goupil was treated with the same cruelty. 
 Thus the Indians retaliated on the French for having 
 rejected their terms of peace the year before; yet these 
 acts of ferocity were but preliminaries of what was to 
 follow. As soon as all the warriors who had been in pur- 
 suit of the fugitives had reassembled, the whole band 
 hastened to recross the river with their captives, to the 
 mouth of the Iroquois."^ There they felt more secure, 
 and halted to divide the spoils. It was a large booty. 
 Besides what each Frenchman carried as his own, there 
 were twenty packages of church articles, vestments, 
 books, and other things for the missionaries. Valuable 
 as this treasure was for the Mission, it was almost worth- 
 less to the Indians; but these articles had the great at- 
 traction of novelty, and they were proud of having 
 taken them from the French. As they displayed article 
 
 * Now called the Richelieu or Sorel, the outlet of Lake Champlain 
 into the St. Lawrence. 
 
The liid/a/is divide the Spoils. 79 
 
 after article, they gave vent to their joy in shouts, and 
 their attention seemed riveted in their treasures. Their 
 distribution gave some respite to the prisoners, and 
 Father Jogues improved it to console and encourage 
 them, while affording the succors of religion. There 
 were twenty-three of them. 
 
 Before leaving this shore, the Iroquois, after their 
 wont, cut on the bark of trees a record of this their im- 
 portant exploit. By the aid of rude hieroglyphical marks 
 they recorded their victory, and the number and qual- 
 ity of their captives. It was easy to distinguish Father 
 Jogues from the rest. The Christians, \yho shortly after 
 discovered this sad record, wished to perpetuate and hal- 
 low its remembrance. They raised a cross on the spot. 
 It was proper that the sign of redemption should mark 
 the way of the heroes of Faith. 
 
 After the booty had been divided the enemy made 
 ready to enter their canoes with their prisoners, and re- 
 turn to their country. At the very moment of entering 
 the canoes, Ondouterraon, an old man of fourscore, 
 whom the missionary had just baptized, cried aloud, 
 "At my age one does not care to visit foreign countries, 
 and one cannot adapt himself to new ways of life. If 
 you wish to put me to death, why not do so now ?" No 
 sooner said than done: a blow from a tomahawk at once 
 laid him low. 
 
 The Iroquois started at last, and after ascending the 
 river which bears their name, entered Lake Champlain,* 
 
 * Named after the illustrious Champlain,who discovered it in 1609, 
 and defeated the Iroquois on its banks. Its Indian names were Pata- 
 wabouquc — alternation of water and land, alluding to the great many 
 islands and points; and Canadieri guaruiite, the lips or door of the 
 country. It was indeed the path from the valley of the Hudson to 
 that of the St. Lawrence. It was sometimes called Lake Corlaer, from 
 Arendt van Corlaer, commandant at Schenectady, who in 1650 saved 
 a Canadian war-party from the fury of the Iroquois. He was drowned 
 in the lake while on his way to visit the Governor of Canada. Lake 
 
8o Life of Father Jogties. 
 
 to cross it from end to end. The voyage proved the oc- 
 casion of increased torture to the prisoners. They often 
 spent days without food, and nights without sleep. 
 Hunger, heat, festering wounds swarming with vermin 
 and uncovered, the sting of clouds of mosquitoes, ren- 
 dered their situation terribly painful. At times, whilst 
 bound at the bottom of the canoes or tethered to pick- 
 ets, unable to snatch a moment of rest, their savage 
 keepers, especially young braves, would steal up and 
 amuse themselves by irritating and exasperating the 
 wounds of the fingers or the most sensitive parts of the 
 person, digging their long and sharp nails into them or 
 pricking them with awls. Tliey delighted especially to 
 torment the servant of God by plucking out his beard and 
 hair. But his interior tortures were even more acute 
 than those he suffered in body. " My heart suffered even 
 more," wrote Father Jogues, " wlien I beheld that band 
 of Christians, among whom I saw five old converts, the 
 mainstay of the rising church of the Hurons. More than 
 once I acknowledge I could not withhold my tears. I 
 was afflicted at their lot, and that of my other compan- 
 ions, and I was full of forebodings for the future. In fact, 
 I foresaw that the Iroquois were raising a barrier to the 
 progress of Faith among a great number of other tribes, 
 unless there came a very special interposition of Divine 
 Providence." Yet Father Jogues' only consolation amid 
 so many afflictions was to see the heroic resolve of his 
 companions, and to be able to comfort them by his chari- 
 table counsels. They needed them indeed for they were 
 only at the beginning of their trials. 
 
 On the eighth da}?^ of their march, they met two Iro- 
 quois runners, who brought the news that, at one day's 
 distance, two hundred Iroquois out on the war-path, were 
 
 Champlain from St. John's to Whitehall is about sixty-five miles long 
 and about ten wide. Many spots on its banks are famous for opera- 
 tions in the Old French War and the Revolution. 
 
The Island To7'ture. 8i 
 
 encamped on an island. The victorious parly made all 
 haste to reach them, and the captives knew at once what 
 was in store for them. It is worth noticing that it is an in- 
 stinct with the savages that they must nerve themselves 
 for war by acts of cruelty, and that ill-treatment of pris- 
 oners is an omen of success. Facts will afford a melan- 
 choly proof of the power of this fanatical idea. 
 
 When the Indians descried the captives they raised 
 yells of joy, and began to thank the Sun, who is 
 their god of war, for his delivering their foes into the 
 hands of their countrymen, and they discharged a volley 
 from their fire-arms. A platform was soon set up on a 
 neighboring hill, and each man cut in the woods a club 
 or thorny branch, according to his fancy, in order to re- 
 ceive the prisoners in a proper manner. 
 
 Before landing, and entering the double file of execu- 
 tioners lining the way from the shore to the platform, 
 the victims were stripped of all their clothes. The mis- 
 sionary was the last to land, that, being alone and walk- 
 ing slowly, he might offer a surer mark for their 
 blows. 
 
 We will let Father Jogues himself describe this horri- 
 ble scene: " They showered blows on us so that I fell 
 under their number and cruelty, on the rocky path lead- 
 ing to the hill. I thought that I must surely die under this 
 frightful torture. Either from weakness or cowardice, I 
 could not rise. God alone, for whose love and glory it 
 is sweet and glorious to suffer thus, knows how long and 
 how savagely they beat me. A cruel compassion prompt- 
 ed them to stop, that I might be taken to their country 
 alive. They carried me to the platform half dead, and 
 streaming with blood. The moment they saw me revive 
 a little, they made me come down, and overwhelmed me 
 with insults and imprecations, and again showered blows 
 on my head, back, and all over my body. I would 
 never end were I to tell all we Frenchmen had to en- 
 dure. They burned one of my fingers, and crushed an- 
 
82 Life of Father Jogties. 
 
 other with their teeth. Those that had been crushed 
 before were now so violently twisted that they have 
 remained horribly deformed, even since they healed. 
 My companions shared the same treatment. 
 
 "But God showed us that He had us in His care, and 
 that He wished not to discourage but to try us. In fact, 
 one of the Indians, who seemed not to be sated witli 
 cruelty and blood, came up to me wlien I could hardly 
 stand on my feet, and taking hold of my nose with one 
 hand prepared to cut it off with a large knife he held in 
 the other. What could I do? Satisfied that I would soon 
 be burned at a slow fire, I waited the blow without flinch- 
 ing, only in my heart offering a prayer to Heaven; but a 
 secret force held him back, and he let go. In less than 
 fifteen minutes he returned, as if ashamed of his weakness 
 and cowardice, and again prepared to carry out his 
 design. Again an invisible power repelled him, and he 
 slunk away. Had he proceeded in his attempt I should 
 have been put to death immediately. Indians never let 
 a prisoner so mutilated live long " (MSS., 1652). 
 
 When relating this episode of his tortures to Father 
 Buteux, the man of God added, that far from alarming 
 him, the savage appeared to him rather an instrument of 
 justice and mercy of God, and from his heart he ex- 
 claimed, " Lord, take my nose, and my head also !" 
 
 The Huron who suffered most was the brave and fer- 
 vent Eustace. His executioners cut off his two thumbs, 
 and through the wound of his left hand they drove a 
 sharp stick up to the elbow. He endured it all like a 
 true Christian hero; but Father Jogues, who had been 
 unmoved by his own tortures, wept at the sight of the 
 sufferings of his child. The intrepid convert saw the 
 tears, and addressing his torturers, said, "Do not think 
 that these are tears of weakness. No: it is no lack of 
 courage that makes them flow, but his love and affection 
 for me. You saw him shed no tears for his own suffer- 
 ings." The missionary, deeply affected, replied, " In- 
 
The Journey Continued. S 
 
 o 
 
 deed your sufferings I feel more than I did mine; and, in 
 spite of my wounds, my body suffers even less than my 
 heart. Courage, my poor brother: forget not that there 
 is another life ; God sees all, and He will reward us one 
 day for what we have suffered for His sake." "I know 
 it well, and I shall hold steadfast until death," answered 
 Eustace; and truly the disciple, worthy of his Master, 
 was a prodigy of patience, resignation, and intrepidity. 
 
 The Indians spent only one night on the island. They 
 resumed their journey the next day — one party towards 
 the St. Lawrence, and others for the Iroquois towns. 
 The latter met other bands of warriors proceeding to 
 attack the French, and the unfortunate prisoners on 
 every occasion paid the tribute of their blood. The 
 melancholy and bloody convoy continued until they 
 reached Point Ticonderoga, called by the French Caril- 
 lon, and well known for a glorious victory of Montcalm. 
 It was a stopping-place never passed by the Indians. 
 Here they landed to gather flints, which abound on the 
 shores, and to perform one of their superstitious rites, by 
 throwing bits of tobacco into the waters in order to pro- 
 pitiate a nation of invisible people who dwell there, and 
 prepare the flints for the benefit of travellers, who are 
 expected to repay them in tobacco. Should the offer be 
 niggardly their anger is roused: they excite the waves 
 and cause shipwrecks. A superstitious belief so like the 
 traditions of ancient Paganism, must have originated in 
 the fact that in consequence of the strong winds prevail- 
 ing at that place wrecks frequently occur. Father Jogues 
 could only lament such blind credulity. He did not 
 know their language well enough to disabuse them; but 
 he fervently prayed that the light of faith might come to 
 scatter such dense darkness. 
 
 One day more enabled the Iroquois to reach the southern 
 point of Lake George. It was the loth of August. There 
 remained still four days* march on land to reach the first 
 Iroquois town. The great heat and the pitiable condi- 
 
84 Life of Father Jog2tes. 
 
 tion of the prisoners made the passage extremely painful, 
 as they were forced to carry the heaviest part of the bag- 
 gage. Heedless of the Father's weakness and weariness, 
 Father Jogues' keeper put part of his burthen on his 
 bleeding and mangled shoulders. Yet with sentiments 
 of admirable charity and humanity he remarks : " How- 
 ever, they spared me somewhat, either because of my 
 feebleness or because I did not seem to mind it much 
 — so great was my pride even in captivity and in the 
 presence of death !" 
 
 The hardship of this march was rendered even more 
 intense by the want of all food ; their provisions being 
 exhausted, they lived on berries gathered in the woods. 
 On the second day the captives hoped for some relief. 
 Fires were lighted where they encamped, and the pots 
 were made ready. They thought a hunter had brought 
 in some game that was to be cooked. Vain hope ! To 
 quiet their hunger the Indians swallowed large draughts 
 of lukewarm water. They lay down supperless, and 
 next morning they resumed their march fasting. Hunger 
 made the Indians push on rapidly; but the French, ex- 
 hausted by their sufferings, slackened their steps in spite 
 of themselves. Towards night. Father Jogues, lagging 
 behind at some distance alone with Rene Goupil, advised 
 him to hide in the forest and escape from the savages. 
 "But you, my Father — what will become of you?" said 
 the pious young man. "For my part," replied the mis- 
 sionary, "I cannot do it: I will rather suffer everything 
 than leave so near death those whom I can at least con- 
 sole and nourish with the blood of Christ in the sacra- 
 ments of the Church." *' Then allow me to die with you, 
 my Father," replied pious Rene; "for I cannot desert 
 you." A young brave, noticing their slow progress, 
 waited, and reproving them as sluggards, ordered them 
 to take off their trousers; and thus they had to continue 
 their march in their shirts and drawers. 
 
 The convoy soon reached a small river called Oiogue, 
 
The Mohawk Cotmtry. 85 
 
 which means Beautiful River, and had to cross it. The 
 current was not very rapid, but the water was deep; the 
 Indians plunged into it at once, and forced Father Jogues 
 along, without caring whether he could swim; luckily 
 he could, or he would certainly have drowned (MSS., 
 Father Buteux). 
 
 Before following Father Jogues to the towns of the 
 Agniers (called Maquaas by the Dutch and Mohawks 
 by the English), let us say something of their geo- 
 graphical position, and of their towns. It was the first 
 Iroquois canton. On the north the French were their 
 neighbors, and the Dutch on the south. Their villages 
 were situated on the right bank of the river Mohawk. 
 They had three main towns, and sometimes a fourth; but 
 changes of name and position have led to much confu- 
 sion in history. 
 
 The first town on the east was over thirty miles from 
 Rensselaerswyck (now Albany). It was called OsserioUj 
 Osser/ienon, or Oneougioure, and lastly Holy Trifiity — the 
 name given it by Father Jogues. Later it became 
 Cahittaga, Gandawague, Caitghnawaga, or simply Anie^ 
 and lastly in 16']^ Saint Fete?-' s. It was inclosed within 
 two palisades, and contained about twenty-four large 
 cabins, which gives about six hundred inhabitants. The 
 second town, Aimdagaro or Gandagaron, was about six 
 miles farther up. The third, the largest of all, Tionnon- 
 toguen or Tioniiontego, was about eleven miles farther 
 west. This town was eventually called St. Marys* 
 
 At last, after thirteen days' f march, on the eve of the 
 
 * Not to confuse the reader, we have here substituted the results of 
 the careful exploration made of these town sites by Gen. John S. 
 Clark. Ossernenon is near the present station of Auriesville, in 
 Montgomery County; Tionnontoguen on a hill just south of Spraker's 
 Basin, about sixteen miles west of Ossernenon; Andagaron, between 
 them, and, like them, on the south side of the river. 
 
 f Father Bressani in his " Breve Relatione," and Father Alegambe 
 in his " Mortes Illustres," say eighteen days, and Charlevoix four 
 
86 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 Assumption of Our Lady, at three o'clock in the after- 
 noon, our travellers reached the bank of the second river, 
 three quarters of a mile from the village called Osser- 
 nenon. 
 
 Their usual signals, given from a distance by blow- 
 ing into large conch-shells pierced at the end, had been 
 heard, and the people in a mass swarmed to the shores 
 to receive the prisoners. Every man, woman, and child 
 rushed down, armed with sticks or iron rods. " I had 
 always thought," remarks the missionary, " that this day 
 of so much rejoicing in heaven would prove unto us a 
 day of suffering, and I was therefore thankful to my 
 Saviour Jesus, for the joys of heaven are purchased only 
 by partaking of His sufferings." The captives were wel- 
 comed by a shower of blows. But as the Indians hate a 
 bald-head above all, Father Jogues' drew upon himself 
 the largest amount of cruel treatment: his flesh was 
 hacked or torn with nails to the very bone. 
 
 An old Huron, who had formerly been taken prisoner, 
 but set free, seeing them, cried out, ''Frenchmen, you 
 are lost; there is no hope for you. Prepare to die; the 
 stakes are ready; you will be burned." A natural feel- 
 ing of compassion for his countrymen prompted him to 
 reveal to them and their allies the fate in store for them. 
 But even some Iroquois seemed moved to pity their lot 
 on beholding them reeking with blood. Hardened as 
 he was, the savage owner of the missionary approached, 
 and wiping the blood from his face, said, " Brother, 
 what a wretched state you are in!" Whether true or 
 feigned, this trait of compassion was accepted by the 
 martyr as a gift from heaven. 
 
 Meanwhile the Indians had crossed the river, but be- 
 fore clmibing the hill on which the village stood, they 
 halted a moment to thank the Sun for their prosper- 
 
 weeks ; but Father Jogues' narrative corrects the error, which does 
 not appear in the Relation of 1646-47, or in the precious Manuscript 
 of 1652. 
 
Fie enters Ossernenon. 87 
 
 ous expedition and rich booty. Then the lugubrious 
 triumphal march was marshalled. 
 
 At the he^id of the line strode Couture, for he was the 
 most guilty, having slain a distinguished chief. After 
 him followed the Hurons, at equal distances from each 
 other — Goupil in the centre. Father Jogues closed the 
 line. 
 
 Some of the Iroquois were stationed at intervals to check 
 the speed of the prisoners, and afford the executioners, 
 who lined the path, every opportunity to deal their blows 
 effectually. Then one of the chieftains addressed the 
 young braves, and told them how they should give a 
 hearty welcome to the prisoners. It was one of the 
 ironically cruel expressions in vogue for the savage re- 
 ception of captives. 
 
 "On beholding these preliminaries, so forcibly remind- 
 ing us of the Passion," says Father Jogues, "we recalled 
 the words of St. Augustine, 'Whoso shrinks from the 
 number of the scourged, forfeits his right to be num- 
 bered among the children' — Qui eximit se a numcro flagella- 
 torum, eximit se a mimero filioruin. We therefore offered 
 ourselves with our whole heart to the fatherly care of 
 God, as victims immolated to His good pleasure and to 
 His loving displeasure for the salvation of these tribes." 
 At a given signal, the procession started on this " narrow 
 path of heaven," as the saintly missioner calls it. At the 
 same time all arms were raised and swung in the air, 
 and a shower of blows descended on the victims. Father 
 Jogues seemed to behold his Saviour scourged at the Pil- 
 lar, and with David exclaimed, " The wicked have wrought 
 upon my back : they have lengthened their iniquity" (Ps. 
 cxxviii. 3). 
 
 Good Rene, horribly mangled and covered with blood, 
 fell exhausted — not a spot of white was visible in his 
 countenance except his eyes. He had no strength to as- 
 cend the platform, and was dragged up to it. " In this 
 condition," adds Father Jogues, " he was all the more 
 
88 ^{/^ of Father Jogues. 
 
 beautiful in our eyes, because he resembled him of 
 whom it is written, " We have thought him as it were a 
 leper, and as one struck by God;". . . . ''there is no 
 beauty in him, nor comeliness" (Isaias liii. 4, 2). 
 
 But there was something more in store for the heroic 
 Father to endure. An iron ball, weighing more than 
 two pounds, fastened to a sling, was hurled at him, and 
 struck him in the middle of the back. He fell on the 
 spot as though dead; but soon recovering his breath and 
 summoning all his strength, he rose bravely and reached 
 the platform. 
 
 When the prisoners had all reached this horrible stage, 
 which was to be so glorious for them, they were allowed 
 a- moment's respite; but it was not long before one of 
 the chiefs in a loud voice called upon the young 
 braves to caress the Frenchmen; for " they are traitors," 
 he continued: "they have broken their promises; they 
 have slaughtered our Iroquois." At this, an Indian 
 armed with a stout club ascended the platform, and de- 
 liberately dealt three blows on the back of the French- 
 men, but perceiving that the missionary had yet three 
 nails left, he tore them out with his teeth. Tlien the sav- 
 ages, armed with knives, fell upon the captives to cut off 
 their fingers, or slices of their flesh. As their cruelty is 
 gauged by the importance of the victim, they treated the 
 missionary as a chief by subjecting him to greater tor- 
 tures than the rest. The respect paid him by his compan- 
 ions won him this distinction. Soon after an aged man, 
 a famous magician of the land, and a bitter enemy of the 
 French, ascended the platform, followed by Jane, an Al- 
 gonquin Christian woman, captured two months before. 
 He ordered her to cut off Father Jogues' left thumb; 
 "for," he added, "I hate him the most." Three times 
 did the wretched woman recoil with horror; at last, un- 
 der threat of losing her life, she obeyed. With trem- 
 blino- hand, sick at heart, she cut or rather sawed off 
 the thumb at its root and threw it down. The man of 
 
His tJucinb cut off. 89 
 
 God did not utter a sigh. "I picked up the amput^ited 
 member," says he, ** and I presented it to Thee, living and 
 true God, in remembrance of the sacrifices which for tlie 
 last seven years I had offered on the altars of thy Church, 
 and as an atonement for the want of love and reverence 
 of wdiich I had been guilty in touching thy Holy Body." 
 But Couture, perceiving tliis, warned the missionary 
 that if the Iroquois observed him, they might force him 
 to eat the bloody thumb, lie hastily threw it far away. 
 
 " I bless the Lord," adds Father Jogues, " that he 
 vouchsafed to leave me the right thumb, tliat by this 
 letter I may beseech my Reverend Fathers and my 
 Brothers to offer their holy sacrifices, their prayers, their 
 good works, and their devotions in God's holy Church, 
 to which we have by two new titles become dear, for she 
 always prays for the afflicted and for prisoners." 
 
 Rene Goupil endured the same torture. They cut off 
 the thumb of his riglit liand at the first joint with an 
 oyster-shell; and during this cruel operation he was 
 heard repeating aloud the sacred names of Jesus, Mary, 
 and Joseph. 
 
 Blood flowed copiously from the wounds, and death 
 would soon have resulted; but an Indian perceived it, 
 and either from pity or from a desire of prolonging the 
 parade with the life of the victims, he ascended the plat- 
 form, stanched the wounds, and tearing some shreds of 
 Father Jogues' shirt, he bandaged tlie priest's and Gou- 
 pil's thumbs. This simple dressing sufficed, and God 
 permitted it to answer for better treatment. Wliile the 
 missionary was receiving this care, a woman came and 
 deprived liim of the shoes and the w^retched stockings 
 that had thus far been left to him. 
 
 As night approached, the captives were ordered down 
 from the platform and led to a cabin for the niglit. The 
 Indians, before they betook themselves to rest, gave their 
 victims some roasted ears of corn, and some water colored 
 with meal. It was very little after such a long fast and 
 
90 Life of Father Jogites. 
 
 such terrible treatment; but there was enough to keep 
 them alive, and afford their butchers the cruel hope of a 
 renewal of their torments. 
 
 But the night, far from being to the captives an oc- 
 casion of rest, was only the beginning of new tortures. 
 They spent it stretched on the ground, hands and feet 
 secured to four stakes driven in the earth. In this pos- 
 ture they could not move, and yet they were at once as- 
 sailed by swarms of insects, and the vermin which the 
 filthy habits of the Indians attract to their cabins to 
 multiply there. A more painful torment was that to 
 which they were subjected by the Indian children, who 
 were allowed to approach the prisoners and begin on 
 them their apprenticeship in cruelty. They evinced their 
 proficiency only too well. They amused themselves by 
 driving awls into the tenderest parts of the body, by 
 opening the wounds so as to make the blood flow, or by 
 throwing burning coals and hot cinders on the bodies of 
 the martyrs, all the while enjoying the useless efforts of 
 their victims to shake them off. 
 
 Proud of their victory, the victorious war-party took 
 pride in exhibiting their trophies in the other Mohawk 
 towns. 
 
 They first led their prisoners to the neighboring vil- 
 lage called Andagaron, some five or six miles off. 
 On the way the man of God had to undergo a new 
 humiliation. He thus relates it: 
 
 '•My jailer, undoubtedly afraid that he might lose the 
 chance of securing my shirt, took it from me at 
 once. He made me start on my march in this exposed 
 state, with nothing on me but a pair of wretched old 
 drawers. When I beheld myself in this state, I felt 
 bold enough to say to him, ' Why do you strip me so, 
 brother, when you have already got all the rest of my 
 property?' The Indian took pity on me, and gave me a 
 piece of coarse canvas in which my bundles had been 
 done up. There was enough of it to cover my shoulders 
 
At AndagaroiL. 91 
 
 and a part of my back; but my festering wounds could 
 not stand this rough, coarse texture. The sun was so 
 hot that during the march, my skin was baked as if in an 
 oven, and peeled off from my neck and arms." 
 
 The captives received the same welcome at this village 
 as in the former, and though it is contrary to custom 
 to make prisoners run the gauntlet more thaw twice, 
 they were not spared, and a refinement of cruelty was 
 added. As the crowd was smaller, the executioners 
 could take better aim. They struck particularly the 
 shin-bones, covering the legs with bruises, and causing 
 acute pain. The prisoners remained two days and two 
 nights in this village: by day on the pillory, exposed to 
 every sort of insult and ill-treatment; at night in a 
 cabin, at the mercy of the children. 
 
 Let us hear Father Jogues relate, with beautiful 
 candor, the feelings that then possessed his soul, and 
 which depict him so clearly to us as an apostle and a 
 martyr: "My soul was then in the deepest anguish. I 
 saw our enemies come up on the platform, cut off the 
 fingers of my companions, tie cords around their wrists, 
 and all so unmercifully that they fainted away. I 
 suffered in their sufferings, and the yearnings of my 
 affection were those of a most affectionate father wit- 
 nessing the sufferings of his own children ; for, with 
 the exception of a few old Christians, I had begotten 
 them all to Christ in baptism. However intense my 
 suffering, God granted me strength to console the French 
 and the Hurons who suffered with me. On the way, as 
 well as on the platform, I exhorted them together and 
 individually to bear with resignation and confidence 
 these torments, which have a great reward (Heb. x. 35); 
 to remember that through many tribulations we must 
 enter into the kingdom of God (Acts xiv. 21). I 
 warned them that the days foretold by our Saviour had 
 arrived in their behalf: 'Ye shall lament and weep, but 
 the world shall rejoice. . . . But your sorrow shall be 
 
Q2 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 turned into joy ' (John xvi. 20). And then again I added: 
 ' A woman, when she is in labor, liatli sorrow^, because her 
 hour is come; but when she has brought forth the child, 
 she remembereth no more the anguish for joy that a 
 man is born into the world ' (John xvi. 21). Believe, then, 
 my children, that after a few days of suffering you shall 
 enjoy everlasting happiness. And surely it was to me a 
 source of great and legitimate consolation to see them 
 so well prepared, especially the old Christians — Joseph, 
 Eustace, and the two others. Theodore had escaped 
 the day we reached the first town; but as a ball had 
 shattered his shoulder in the fight, he died while endeav- 
 oring to reach the French settlements." 
 
 The captives were then led toTionnontoguen, the third 
 Mohawk village, about sixteen miles from Ossernenon. 
 They were there welcomed as in the other villages, but 
 with less cruelty. On ascending the platform where 
 they were to be exhibited. Father Jogues was deeply 
 grieved to find four other Huron prisoners already pre- 
 pared for execution. These unhappy men were doomed 
 to death, but they were pagans; the servant of God, 
 touched at their condition, endeavored at least to aid 
 them spiritually. He approached them, and succeeded 
 in gaining their confidence by the interest he took in their 
 fate. They saw him forget his own sufferings to think 
 of theirs! On the threshold of eternity, they did not re- 
 fuse to hearken to words of hope. When the missionary 
 saw them disposed to receive the word of salvation, he 
 gave a summary instruction on the principal articles 
 of our faith, and with the aid of a few drops of water 
 which the rain had left on the leaves of corn given them 
 for food, he baptized them. The other two, condemned 
 as they were to perish in the fourth village, were 
 afterwards regenerated in the Vv^aters of baptism, w^hile 
 crossing a stream on the wa}^ 
 
 Such w^ere the consolations of faith which God be- 
 stowed on the apostolic heart of His servant and which 
 
Htiug up in a Cabin. » 93 
 
 supported his courage. He needed it for this new scene of 
 sorrow. The temperature had changed; heavy rains had 
 been succeeded by piercing cold winds, which made the 
 naked captives suffer intensely, and increased the pain 
 of their wounds. 
 
 Good William Couture had not yet lost any of his 
 fingers. An Indian undertook to repair the omission. 
 With the fragment of a shell, sharpened into a knife, he 
 sawed off one half of his right forefinger, and as he 
 could not cut the hard, tough sinew, he dragged it out 
 with such violence that the arm swelled prodigiously up 
 to the elbow. 
 
 The tortures inflicted by the younger Indians at night 
 were extremely cruel. " Our executioners," adds Father 
 Jogues with humility, '' first commanded us to sing, as is 
 usual with captives. We undertook to sing the song of 
 the Lord in a strange land (Ps. cxxxvi. 4). Could we 
 singanythingelse ? After the chant began the torments. 
 .... They suspended me by my arms, with bark ropes, 
 from two posts raised in the centre of the cabin. I 
 thought they were going to burn me, for such is the post- 
 ure usually given to those who are condemned to the 
 stake. 
 
 " To convince me that if I had suffered so far with 
 some courage and patience I owed it not to my own vir- 
 tue, but to Him 'that giveth strength to the weary' 
 (Isa. xl. 29), the Almighty, as it were, left me then to 
 myself in this new torment. I groaned for ' gladly 
 will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ 
 may dwell in me' (2 Cor. xii. 9), and the excess of my 
 sufferings made me implore my tormentors to loosen the 
 cords a little. But God justly permitted that the more 
 I entreated the closer and tighter the bonds were drawn. 
 After I had suffered for a quarter of an hour they cut 
 the ropes; had they not done so I should have died. I 
 thank Thee, O my Lord Jesus ! for having taught me by 
 this little trial how much Thou must have suffered on the 
 
94 L'^f^ of FatJier Jogites. 
 
 the cross, when Thy most holy body was so long hang- 
 ing from the cross, not by cords, but by nails cruelly 
 driven into Thy feet and hands." 
 
 Father Jogues owed the relief from his tortures to a 
 strange Indian who happened to come upon the scene. 
 He seemed affected by the sight, and without uttering a 
 word approached the sufferer and cut the cords. No one 
 dared oppose him. The man was rewarded for his chari- 
 table act, as the sequel will prove. God, who blesses the 
 slightest service rendered to the least of His little ones, 
 will not forget what is done for His most faithful servants, 
 and especially His apostolic men. 
 
 Two days were spent at this village, and then the 
 captives were brought back to Andagaron, where sen- 
 tence was at last to be pronounced on them. Thus were 
 they for seven days* marched from village to village and 
 from platform to platform.' At this place they were told 
 that they were to be burned alive that very day. 
 
 ''Although there is something horrible in this mode 
 of death," remarks Father Jogues, " the thought of God's 
 will, and the hope of a better life, free from sin, allevi- 
 ated all its rigors. I addressed my French and Huron 
 companions for the last time, and exhorted them to per- 
 severe to the end, ever remembering in the midst of their 
 sufferings of body and soul Him who had 'endured such 
 opposition from sinners against Himself, that you be not 
 wearied, fainting in your minds' (Heb. xii. 3). To- 
 morrow we shall all be united in the bosom of God, to 
 reign eternally." 
 
 Thus did Father Jogues strengthen the captives by his 
 words, but he did not neglect the grace of the Sacra- 
 ments. He had habituated them frequently to receive 
 absolution, and to nourish their souls by constant pious 
 aspirations to heaven. As they feared that they might 
 
 * Father Jogues gives this figure himself. Charlevoix (" Histoire de 
 la Nouvelle France," i. p. 238) has b)' an oversight put seven weeks. 
 
Eustace s Death, 95 
 
 be separated from each other, they had agreed among 
 themselves upon a certain sign, which meant *' I desire 
 absolution." They were to lay a hand on the breast and 
 raise the eyes to heaven. 
 
 Meanwhile the sachems of the village were dissatis- 
 fied at the resolution adopted by the warriors. They 
 insisted that no precipitate action should be taken, at 
 least in regard to the French, in hope that this course 
 would make the soldiers of the Canadian colony less eager 
 in pursuing the Iroquois warriors. The first sentence 
 was at last revoked, at least in part : only three Hurons 
 were sentenced to die — Eustace at Tionnontoguen, Paul 
 at Ossernenon, and Stephen (whose Indian name history 
 has not preserved) at Andagaron.the place where they 
 then were. 
 
 Eustace gave an admirable example of resignation 
 and courage. They applied fire to almost every part of 
 his body, and cut his throat with a knife. Father Jogues 
 adds a remark that savors of his days spent in the class- 
 room : ''While Indians doomed to death usually give 
 way to violent outbursts of fury against their execution- 
 ers, and to the last breath cry, '■ E:<oriare aliquis nostris 
 ex ossibus ultor ' — May an avenger arise from our bones.* 
 Eustace, prompted by the teachings of Christianity, 
 conjured the Hurons who witnessed his death not to be 
 deterred by this event from treating for peace with 
 the Mohawks, his persecutors and his murderers. In- 
 deed, his death was an act of forgiveness. With Eus- 
 tace perished his nephew, a wonderful young man, who, 
 after his baptism, never ceased repeating, '/ .fZ/rt;// be 
 happy in heaven.' He had promised his uncle that he 
 would never abandon him, even in the greatest dan- 
 gers ; and indeed, he was true to his word " (Relation, 
 1644). 
 
 Paul Ononchoraton was tomahawked, but not till 
 
 * Virgil's ^neid, Book iv. 625. 
 
q6 Life of FatJier Jogiics. 
 
 after he had passed through the ordeal of fire unflinch- 
 ingly. He was a young man, only twenty-five years of 
 age, but of admirable constancy and energy. The prin- 
 ciples of faith and Christian hope alone inspired his 
 courage, and made him despise death. 
 
 The Iroquois singled out as victims men of this stamp. 
 It was not only to exhaust gradually the power of their 
 enemies, but also to excite the emulation of their young 
 braves, and afford them an example of how a warrior 
 should die. 
 
 The good neophyte Paul had, during his last trials, 
 given the servant of God a proof of his attachment — thus 
 related by the latter: "When the Iroquois approached 
 to tear out my nails, or subject me to some new tor- 
 ture, Paul would offer himself and entreat them to spare 
 me and wreak their cruelty on him. May God repay 
 him a hundredfold, and with usury, for his admirable 
 charity that made him lay down his life for his friends 
 (John XV. 13), and for those who had begotten him in chains 
 (Philem. 10). 
 
 The death of the third captive was as holy and as 
 courageous as that of his brethren. Yet it was happier 
 in that he had the privilege of seeing Father Jogues by 
 his side to suggest thoughts of faith, and to encourage 
 him. 
 
 Such were these men, transformed by religion. They 
 had but just abandoned their rude ways and their idola- 
 trous prejudices; they were just born to the Faith, and 
 were able to become its heroes. This glorious triumph, 
 in which he had taken so active a part, caused Father 
 Jogues to return heartfelt thanks to God. Deprived 
 as he was of the crown of martyrdom, for which he 
 longed, he saw himself doomed to a cruel slavery, the 
 duration of which it was not in the power of man to mea- 
 sure. But this state presents to us with new lustre the 
 virtue of the servant of God. 
 
Captivity of Father Jog nes. 9 7 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Captivity of Father Jogues— The Dutch Interpose — New Dan- 
 gers — Murder of Rene Goupil — Consoling Dreams. 
 
 tN the evening of the day when the great council 
 had determined the fate of the prisoners, the 
 
 "^ Iroquois took William Couture, who retained 
 strength enough to walk, to Tionnontoguen, the farthest 
 town. When Indians spared a prisoner's life they gave 
 him to a family which had lost a member in war, in order 
 to replace him ; and the head of the family to whose hands 
 his fate was committed, obtained over the adopted 
 prisoner the right of life and death. No one else dare 
 strike him within the village. Father Jogues and Rene 
 Goupil, who appeared much weaker, were detained in the 
 first town, the residence of their captors. They were 
 doomed to slavery. 
 
 After such long fasts, after so many nights of pain 
 and sleeplessness, after so many blows and bruises and 
 wounds; above all, after such inward trials, these two 
 poor mutilated beings began to feel their sufferings fully, 
 and were completely prostrated. They could scarcely 
 stand or drag themselves about. Their hands were one 
 festering wound, so utterly useless to them that they 
 had to be fed like children. To recover their strength 
 they had only a little corn grits, and occasionally a half- 
 cooked piece of pumpkin: their bed was the bark of a 
 tree, their blanket a tattered deerskin, greasy, and 
 swarming with vermin. Their wounds, unbandaged 
 
98 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 and exposed, were night and day irritated by the sting 
 of insects, against which they were helpless to defend 
 themselves. Patience was their physician: but some 
 women took pity on them; bandaged their hands in 
 their way, and washed their wounds in cool water, which 
 arrested and reduced the inflammation. But Rene, 
 even more weakened than the missionary, and suffering 
 from the effects of the blows he had received on his head, 
 was rapidly failing. The savages saw it, and gave the 
 prisoners some more substantial food; but it was merely 
 some fish, and meat dried and reduced to powder, cooked 
 with their corn-meal. By this simple means the two 
 captives were restored to health. 
 
 The chiefs and sachems deliberated as to their posi- 
 tion. Some proposed that they should be sent back to 
 Three Rivers, in order to arrest a war which every day 
 thinned the ranks of their warriors. 
 
 This project was on the point of being carried out, 
 and men were actually selected to accompany them. 
 At the same time, the Dutch at Rensselaerswyck, which 
 was not forty miles from this town, having heard of 
 the capture of several Frenchmen, desired to interpose, 
 and obtain their deliverance. On the 7th of Septem- 
 ber, the eve of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, the 
 commandant of the fort, Arendt Van Corlaer; his in- 
 terpreter, Jean Labatie; and Jacob Jansen of Amster- 
 dam, went as ambassadors to the town of Andagaron, 
 and opened negotiations: they made flattering offers, 
 and a more attractive promise of two hundred dollars; 
 but to no avail. The Iroquois, under pretence of 
 not understanding the terms of the parley, — in fact, un- 
 willing either to displease their neighbors, or seem- 
 ingly to yield to their offices, — only spoke of an ex- 
 change of prisoners with the French which was to be 
 effected in a few days. Such was their intention un- 
 doubtedly; but an unforeseen circumstance prevented it, 
 and rekindled all their fury and hatred against the 
 
The DiUch Interpose. 99 
 
 French. The violent had prevailed at the last council, 
 and after the close of its stormy session the captives 
 would have been put to death had they been found. 
 Providence had permitted that they were then walking 
 in the fields, conversing on pious subjects. They were 
 sought, but in vain ; after the first outburst of savage 
 fury the minds of the Indians calmed down, and the 
 danger was averted once more. 
 
 The change in the disposition of the Iroquois was 
 caused by the news of a check sustained by a band of 
 warriors — the very braves whom the prisoners had 
 met on Lake Champlain, and by whom they had been 
 so wantonly saluted. These braves, continuing their 
 course, came to Fort Richelieu, which the French were 
 then erecting at the mouth of the river of the Iroquois. 
 The Indians thought it a favorable moment to over- 
 throw that barrier. Their number, which was some three 
 hundred, inspired complete confidence. They expected 
 to crush this handful of soldiers, and profiting by this 
 surprise, to demolish the work. It was only seven days 
 since the first axe had been struck into a tree of that un- 
 broken forest, but the inclosing palisade had already 
 been raised strong enough to shelter those at work. 
 Religion had come at the same time to bless the soil, 
 and the missionary who accompanied the expedition 
 had celebrated Mass on the 20th of August, the Feast of 
 St. Bernard. 
 
 Lurking at first in the neighboring woods, the Iroquois 
 formed three different bands, and at a given signal they 
 fell with a war-whoop on the workmen. But, fortunately, 
 Mr. de Montmagny had that day arrived with three well- 
 armed barques to inspect and direct the works. From 
 the deck of his brigantine he descried the Indians and 
 guessed their plan. Taking a canoe, he reached the 
 fort before the enemy. In a moment the little garrison 
 was under arms, and, following Durocher, the com- 
 mandant of the post, manned the palisade, ready for the 
 
lOO Life of FatJier Jogiies. 
 
 affray.* The Indian attack was made at different points 
 at once. An Iroquois chieftain was distinguished among 
 the rest by his tall figure, his particolored face, and red 
 deer-skin headpiece. He fought bravely at the head of 
 his party, and his example inspired his men. Suddenly a 
 ball stretched him lifeless on the ground. Almost at 
 the same moment two other Indians were killed and 
 several wounded. The assailants became demoralized: 
 some retreated, carrying the rest with them. A precipi- 
 tate and disorderly flight ensued. Brave at a first on- 
 slaught, Indians are easily disconcerted, and their energy 
 fails them if they meet with a firm resistance. The 
 French sustained some loss. Corporal Deslauriers was 
 killed, and the Sieur Martial, the Governor's secretary, 
 who took part in the affair, was wounded. 
 
 After this repulse the Indians returned home, humili- 
 ated, and enraged at heart. On learning that the French 
 prisoners were still alive, they determined at any cost to 
 wash away in their blood the affront they had received, 
 and atone for it by this easy victory. Providence, as 
 we have seen, baffled their wicked design. 
 
 Father Jogues and his companion then entered upon 
 the ordinary routine of a captive's existence — a preca- 
 rious situation, where life always hung on a thread. 
 Under the least pretext, the first comer might murder 
 them, provided it was not within the bounds of the town. 
 It was thus that good Rene was killed some time after. 
 In his captivity the pious young man wished to see God 
 glorified by all around him. Unable to address his 
 masters, whose language he could not speak, and who 
 
 " The military strength of Canada at this time may be noticed. It 
 was very insignificant. The garrison of Quebec consisted of fifteen 
 men, and cost the treasury 12,180 livres. Three Rivers had seventy, 
 and Montreal as many. An order of the Council of State (March 5, 
 1648) directs a captain and thirty men to be sent to the Hurons. 
 This made 115 men for the whole of Canada (Manuscript at the 
 Library of the Louvre). 
 
Fort Richclieit Attacked. loi 
 
 would only have been provoked by his words, as he well 
 knew, he drew unto him the little children, and taught 
 them how to make the sign of the cross. An old man 
 caught him making the sign on the forehead of his grand- 
 child, and even teaching the child to bless himself. The 
 sight aroused all his hatred and superstition. He called 
 one of his nephews and said, " Go kill that dog of a 
 Frenchman. The Hollanders tell us that the sign he has 
 made on my grandchild is not good. I fear lest some 
 evil will befall him." Unfortunately, the order was too 
 much to the taste of the young brave; he breathed only 
 vengeance since he learned that one of his relations had 
 been killed in the attack on Fort Richelieu. He had 
 only to find his victim outside the palisade, and unpro- 
 tected. An opportunity was soon found. 
 
 Full of gloomy forebodings Father Jogues endeavored 
 to maintain his disciple as well as himself in perfect 
 resignation to the will of God. When not at pray- 
 er, this was the ordinary subject of their conversation. 
 One evening the missionary and his disciple were walk- 
 ing in the woods near the town, when they saw the old 
 man's nephew and another 3'-oung brave approaching, 
 and were ordered to enter their cabin at once. " I had 
 a presentiment," writes Father Jogues : " of what was 
 going to happen, and I said to Goupil, 'My dear brother, 
 let us recommend ourselves to our Lord and our good 
 Mother the Blessed Virgin : these men have some evil 
 purpose, I fear, . . . We had shortly before offered our- 
 selves to our Lord with much earnestness, entreating 
 Him to accept our lives and our blood, and to unite them 
 to His life and blood for the salvation of these poor peo- 
 ple !" 
 
 The two captives turned their steps towards the village, 
 all the way saying their rosary. They had recited four 
 decades, when, as they neared the gate, the two Iroquois 
 following, one of them raised a tomahawk which he 
 had concealed under his robe, and dealt a violent blow 
 
I02 Life of Father Joo7ies. 
 
 on the head of poor Rene, who fell on his face, uttering 
 the most holy name of Jesus. " Happily," adds the good 
 Father, "we had often reminded one another to sanctify 
 our last word at our death, by pronouncing this most 
 holy name to gain the indulgence." 
 
 On beholding his companion fall lifeless, Father 
 Jogues turned back, and seeing the reeking hatchet in 
 the hand of the murderer, fell on his knees and uncov- 
 ering his head, awaited the same fate, offering his life 
 a sacrifice to God. But the Indian told him he had 
 nothing to fear, for he belonged to another family. Dis- 
 appointed in his hopes of a blessed martyrdom. Father 
 Jogues rose, and hearkening only to his grief and love, 
 threw himself on the body of "his dear Rene," as he 
 calls him; he imparted to him a last absolution, as he 
 was wont to do every other day; shed abundant tears 
 over him, and pressed him to his heart. In him he had 
 lost his spiritual son, his brother, the companion of his 
 sufferings and labors, the only comfort of his captivity. 
 He felt himself left to a dreary solitude. 
 
 "It was on the 29th of September, 1642," says Father 
 Jogues, " that this angel of innocence and martyr of 
 Jesus Christ was immolated, in his thirty-fifth year, for 
 Him who had given His life for his ransom. He had 
 consecrated his soul and his heart to God; his hand, 
 his very life, to the welfare of the poor Indians." 
 
 The two murderers tore the missionary from the body 
 of their victim, on which they dealt two blows with their 
 tomahawks, for fear the first had not been effectual. 
 Father Jogues was sent back to the family that had 
 adopted him. The rest of that day and the following 
 he did not go out, as he constantly expected a fate like 
 Rene's; for he had learned that his adoptive family had 
 also lost one of their young men in war; In place of ill- 
 treatment, he met kindness at the hand of his master, 
 who even examined the marks of blood on his person to 
 see whether he had been wounded. He put his hand 
 
Martyrdom of Rend. lo 
 
 J 
 
 over the missionary's heart to discover what impressions 
 it might betray; but on finding it perfectly calm, and 
 beating no more quickly than usual, he warned him, 
 "Do not go out of the town, unless in company with one 
 of us. There are some young madmen who are bent on 
 killing you. Be, then, on your guard." 
 
 Nor was this the only warning of danger that the ser- 
 vant of God had received : some told him openly; one 
 Indian asked him for his shoes, as he soon would have 
 no more need of them ; the good missionary gave them 
 up with a smile. 
 
 However, on the second day after Goupil's murder, 
 Father Jogues could not resist his desire to learn what 
 had become of the corpse, for the purpose of giving it a 
 proper burial. He set out to find it at the risk of his 
 life ; for armed young braves might be seen lurking 
 about, bent on mischief. An old man, with whom the 
 missionary had dwelt, met him on the outskirts of the 
 town, and divining his intention, tried to dissuade him: 
 "Where are you going? You have no sense ; they are 
 after you to take 3'our life, and you are hunting for a 
 carcass already half decayed ! Do you not see these 
 young braves down there waiting to kill you ?" The 
 man of God here remarks, " I feared nothing, for life 
 in the midst of so much anguish was only a torment; 
 whereas death in the pursuit of such an act of charity, 
 would be a real gain" (Phil. i. 21). 
 
 He therefore continued his way; but the old man di- 
 rected a good Algonquin, who had been adopted by the 
 Iroquois, to go with the missionary and to protect him. 
 They searched together, and at last found the body: after 
 the murder it had been turned over to the boys, who in 
 their turn had stripped it, and by a rope fastened to its 
 neck dragged it to the torrent that ran at the foot of the 
 village. The sides had been torn by dogs. The pitiable 
 condition of the corpse drew tears from Father Jogues, 
 and awakened all his grief. All he could do for the mo- 
 
104 ^{/^ of Father Jogiies, 
 
 ment was to lay the corpse in a deep eddy of the torrent, 
 concealing it under stones, in order to keep it from being 
 floated away, and protect it against famished animals. 
 He intended to return the next day with a spade, and 
 bury it secretly. 
 
 When he reached the cabin, two young braves re- 
 quested him to accompany them to a neighboring town: 
 the holy man readily detected their murderous design, 
 but he answered humbly, "I am not my own; ask my 
 master: if he consents, I am ready to go with you." This 
 spirit of obedience saved him, for his master stoutly 
 refused to let him go. 
 
 Father Jogues endeavored to pay the last offices of 
 respect and religion to Rene's remains the next day; but 
 his master, to save him from the treacherous designs of 
 ill-disposed men, sent him in another direction to work 
 in their field. But on the day after he succeeded in 
 starting early to seek the precious remains. Let us hear 
 him recount this act of fraternal devotion, which reveals 
 all the affection of his generous soul: "I went to the 
 spot w^here I had laid the remains. I climbed the hill, by 
 the foot of which the torrent runs; I descended it. I 
 went through the wood on the other side: my search was 
 useless. In spite of the depth of the water, which 
 came up to my waist, — for it had rained all night, — 
 and in spite of the cold (it was the ist of October), 
 I sounded with my feet and with my staff to see 
 whether the current had not carried the corpse farther 
 along. I asked every Indian I saw whether he knew 
 what had become of it; but as they are liars by nature, 
 and always answer in the affirmative without any regard 
 for the truth, they told me that it had been carried down 
 by the current to the river near by, which was untrue. 
 Oh, what sighs I uttered, what tears I shed, to mingle 
 with the waters of the torrent, while I chanted to Thee, 
 O my God, the psalms of Holy Church in the Office 
 of the Dead!" 
 
He Seeks Rend's Body. 105 
 
 The fact was that the young br^ives who had seen 
 Father Jogues hide the body of Rene, went stealthily, 
 took it up, and carried it to a neighboring wood. 
 "After the thaws," writes Father Jogues, "I went to the 
 spot pointed out to me, and gathered some bones partly 
 gnawed, left there by the dogs, wolves, and crows, and 
 especially a skull, fractured in several places. I rever- 
 ently kissed the hallowed relics, and hid them in the 
 earth, that I may one day, if such is God's will, enrich 
 with them a Christian and holy ground. He deserves 
 the name of martyr, not only because he has been mur- 
 dered by the enemies of God and His Churcli, and whilst 
 laboring in ardent charity for his neighbors; but more 
 than all because he was killed for being at prayer, and 
 notably for making the sign of the cross." 
 
 Thus did Father Jogues spend the two first months of 
 his captivity in almost constant fear and danger of death, 
 and he admired how Divine Providence, notwithstanding 
 the cunning and malice of his enemies, baffled their 
 guilty projects. He mentions several remarkable in- 
 cidents. One half-witted Indian insisted on having part 
 of the blanket which served as a robe by day and a 
 covering at night. " I would give it to you willingly," 
 said the missionary, "but you know that it is not enough 
 to protect me against the cold; and I would, moreover, 
 be in a state of nudity, to which we are not accustomed. 
 However, do as you choose." The reply, meek as it was, 
 provoked the wretch, who took it as an insult. He 
 darted off, bent on having his revenge on that dog of a 
 Frenchman, as he termed him. He confided to his 
 brother his plan of vengeance. They induced the mis- 
 sionary to enter the cabin at a certain hour, as the 
 punishment was to be inflicted there, with the master's 
 assent. The murderer of Rene, as an experienced hand, 
 was chosen for the execution of their plans; but he could 
 not be found, and the plan failed. Yet they thought to 
 retrieve their mishap on the morrow, and discussed the 
 
io6 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 matter in his very presence, not thinking he knew enough 
 of the language to understand them. *' I pretended," 
 he writes, " not to understand they were plotting against 
 me. 'I was as a dumb man, not opening my mouth: 
 and I became as a man that heareth not; and that hath 
 no reproofs in his mouth. For in thee, O Lord, have I 
 hoped ' (Ps. xxxvii. 14-16). I loved to recall to my mind 
 Him 'Who was led as a lamb to the slaughter' (Acts 
 viii. 34) and I wished to meet death with a prayer to God 
 that He would not ' turn back the evils upon my enemies, 
 and cut them off in His truth ' " (Ps. liii. 7). 
 
 The next day two women were commissioned to con- 
 duct him to an adjoining field, under pretence of bring- 
 ing back something, but in fact to deliver him into the 
 hands of his murderer, who was already posted there. 
 They had some pumpkins, corn, and other presents to 
 pay the assassin. When Father Jogues descried the 
 murderer of Rene at a distance, he once more commended 
 his soul to God, and went forward boldly, as it were, to 
 meet his sacrifice. But God would only accept the offer- 
 ing of his heart: as for himself, he felt in his humility 
 that he had been deprived of this crown of martrydom 
 because of his sins. The Indian passed him by harm- 
 lessly, ashamed, as it were, of his own wicked purpose. 
 
 In this precarious existence, and amid daily alarms. 
 Father Jogues had no heart to apply himself to learn the 
 language of the Iroquois: he thought that no benefit 
 would accrue from his labor. He divided his hours be- 
 tween his duties as a slave, forced to provide for the 
 wants of the cabin, and those of an apostle, bound to 
 encourage and support the poor Hurons, his companions 
 in captivity; and finally in practices of piety, the exer- 
 cises of religion, reading, and prayer. 
 
 He thus relates his pious ingenuity to keep alive his 
 fervor : " I avoided crowded places, and sought solitude: 
 there I entreated God ' to make His face shine upon His 
 servant' (Ps. cxviii. 135), and to ' grant him help from 
 
His Life Me?iaccd. 107 
 
 trouble ' (Ps. cvii. 13). * If I have become unto many as a 
 wonder ' (Ps. Ixx. 7), I owe it only to God, who so 
 wonderfully bore me up, and who, by a proof of His in- 
 finite goodness, often roused my drooping courage. I 
 found a refuge in the Holy Scriptures — my only source 
 * in the trouble which hath encompassed me ' (Ps. xxxi. 
 7). I venerated them, and desired to die while using 
 them. Of all the books that we were carrying to the 
 Hurons, I had saved only the Epistle of St. Paul to the 
 Hebrews, with the comments of Mgr. Anthony Go- 
 deau. Bishop of Grasse. I always carried this book with 
 me, as well as an indulgenced picture of St. Bruno, the 
 illustrious founder of the Carthusians, and a little wooden 
 cross I had myself made the best way I could. I wished 
 that wherever I should meet death, which I never lost 
 sight of, it should find me ready, resting on the Holy 
 Scriptures, which had always been my greatest comfort; 
 strengthened with the graces and indulgences of the 
 Most Holy Church, my mother, whom I have always 
 loved, but now more than ever; and lastly, armed with 
 the cross of my Redeemer." 
 
 The devout missionary subsequently had the happi- 
 ness of finding a '^ Following of Christ," and a " Little 
 Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary." Thus he was able to 
 add to his spiritual treasure. This was his only resource 
 to compensate for his being deprived of the happiness 
 of saying the Breviary and offering the Holy Sacrifice 
 of Mass. But God did not forget His servant in his 
 anguish, and more than once He comforted his soul abun- 
 dantly in pious dreams, which the missionary regarded 
 with gratitude as direct effects of the Divine goodness. 
 We translate from the Latin one of those mysterious 
 dreams, which did so much to rouse his courage and re- 
 animate his confidence. It was only at the order of his 
 Superior that he consented to relate what he humbly 
 called his reveries. The words of Holy Writ, which flow 
 from his pen as from a fountain, give it an additional 
 
io8 i^if^ of Father Jogites, 
 
 charm. It seems as if his memory followed the lead of 
 his heart. " I had left the town as usual, to give a freer 
 vent to my feelings before Thee, O my God, to offer 
 Thee my prayer, and '■ to set my tears in Thy sight ' 
 (Ps. Iv. 9). As I returned I found it all transformed: 
 the palisades which inclosed it seemed changed 
 into towers, with battlements and magnificent walls. 
 Yet I saw nothing that appeared new in these structures; 
 but it was an ancient city, already venerable for its an- 
 tiquity. Whilst I was doubting whether this was our 
 town, some Iroquois whom I knew assured me that it 
 was. Almost bewildered, I advanced, and passed the 
 first entrance, when, above the rising of the second, I 
 perceived L N, engraved in large letters, with the figure 
 of the Lamb that was slain. I was amazed, and could 
 not conceive how barbarians who had no idea of our 
 writing could have engraved those letters. While I was 
 thus endeavoring to solve this problem, I saw above it a 
 floating ribbon, with words explaining them: ' Laudent 
 Nomen Ejus ' — ' Let them praise His name ' (Ps. cxlix. 3). 
 Then my soul was, as it were, flooded with a great light, 
 which made me see in a most clear manner that the 
 name of God is praised above all by those who endeavor 
 in their trials to imitate the meekness of Him ' who 
 opened not His mouth ' to those who stripped Him, and 
 who ' was led as a sheep to the slaughter ' (Isaias liii. 7). 
 Encouraged by this vision, I passed through a second 
 gate, built of handsome stones, squared and polished. 
 It was a portico vaulted over, large and imposing. I 
 saw in its centre, yet a little on one side of the pathway, 
 an armory full of arquebuses, arrows, and ' all the ar- 
 mor of valiant men' (Cant. iv. 4). I saw no soldiers; 
 but I thought that I should, according to custom, salute 
 the guard as a mark of respect. As I took off my cap 
 towards them, a sentinel near by ordered me to halt. 
 Now, whether I had my face turned, or that the novelty 
 of all I saw had engrossed my entire attention, I did not 
 
A Mysterious Dream. 109 
 
 see or hear him. The sentry challenged me again in a 
 louder tone, ' Halt, I say.' Coming to my senses, I 
 halted. The soldier said, ' Is this the way you obey the 
 guard posted before the King's palace, that you have to 
 be challenged twice ? I will take you at once before our 
 judge and our commandant [I heard these two titles of 
 officer and magistrate], that your insolence may be pun- 
 ished as it deserves.' I replied, 'I assure you, my very 
 dear friend, I halted as soon as I heard you.' Not satis- 
 fied with my explanation, he led the way to the judge. 
 The gates of the palace were on the side where I stood, 
 yet a little farther from the armory. I entered. The 
 palace seemed to me like one of those halls called in 
 Europe Golden Halls, where judgment is held, or, rather, 
 like the halls in ancient monasteries known as chapters. 
 It was all on a scale of great magnificence. 
 
 **In this hall I beheld a venerable man, full of majesty, 
 like to ' the Ancient of Days ' (Dan. vii. 9). He wore a 
 scarlet robe of great beauty. He was not seated on his 
 throne, but walked about with a most benign counte- 
 nance, administering justice to his people. There was 
 a crowd, as we see in Europe, of all ranks. I recog- 
 nized some, who asked of me news about the Hurons. 
 I said to myself, 'Good! they know me, and know that 
 I have done nothing to deserve being brought before 
 this court. I shall be treated more indulgently.' 
 
 " But when the judge heard the charge laid against me 
 by the soldier, without a question he drew a rod from 
 what appeared to be like the fasces the lictors carried 
 before the Roman consuls, and scourged me long and 
 unmercifully on the shoulders, then on the neck, lastly 
 on the head, causing most intense pain. Though he 
 used only one hand, I think I suffered as much as when 
 I entered the first town of the Iroquois, when all the 
 youth of the place came to meet us, and welcomed us so 
 cruelly with blows from their clubs. I made no sign of 
 complaint; I did not groan; I received every blow with 
 
no Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 perfect resignation ; I endured it all with humility. 
 Then my judge, seemingly struck with admiration at my 
 patience, threw the rod aside, and embraced me most 
 affectionately. The pain was calmed, and I felt over- 
 come with an unspeakable and Divine consolation. In 
 the transport of this celestial joy, I kissed the hand that 
 had smitten me, and in the impulse of my delight I 
 cried, ' Thy rod, O God my King, and Thy staff, they 
 have comforted me' (Ps. xxii. 4). 
 
 " On that he led me to the door, and left me on the 
 threshold. When I came to myself, after mature delib- 
 eration on what I had seen, I could not but attribute to 
 God this uncommon experience, not only for the admi- 
 rable connection of circumstances, though I had not 
 thought of anything like it while awake, but for the 
 ardent love I felt when my judge embraced me and I 
 exclaimed, Thy rod. Months after, the mere remem- 
 brance drew tears from my eyes, and filled me with 
 unspeakable consolation." 
 
Winter I hint. 1 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Winter Hunt — Fasts — Father Jogues' Oratory — Celestial Com- 
 forts — Return to the Village— His Situation changed — He 
 studies Mohawk — He speaks of God — Fishing — Nev/ Dan- 
 gers — Torture of Prisoners. 
 
 tHE attempts on the missionary's life ceased at last; 
 animosity disappeared for a while, and he had an 
 interval of peace, although there was no relaxa- 
 tion of the rigor of his captivity. Winter brought on 
 additional labors and privations — it was the time for 
 deer-hunting, an exercise that could please none but 
 Indians. Father Jogues was given to a family as a 
 servant, and set out with them in the latter part of 
 October. The weather was severe, and the hunting- 
 ground was more than sixty miles distant, and the 
 march was made on foot. His wardrobe was in the 
 most miserable plight — one shirt and one pair of draw- 
 ers well worn out, his shoes broken, and his breeches and 
 stockings so ragged that his legs were bare. His feet 
 were soon bleeding from the sharp stones, the piercing 
 briars, and reeds; yet all he had to suffer on the way 
 was nothing compared to what he had to undergo during 
 the hunting. 
 
 As he was considered of no avail for the chase, he was 
 set apart for woman's work; that is, to cut wood and keep 
 up the fires in the cabins. Game was abundant at first, 
 and meat was about the only food of the hunters. The 
 diet proved healthy to Father Jogues, and it helped him 
 to recruit his strength; but he soon had to give it up 
 when he saw the idolatrous practices of his masters. For 
 
112 Life of FatJicr Jogues. 
 
 no sooner was an animal taken, than a part — usually that 
 considered the greatest delicacy — was raised aloft by one 
 of the old men, who offered it to the demon of the 
 hunt, saying, '^ Genius Aireskoi, behold, we offer thee 
 meat: feast on it, eat it, and show us where the deer 
 roam." 
 
 After once hearing the idolatrous invocation. Father 
 Jogues would never again touch meat, and said to the 
 Indians, '' I will never live on food offered to the 
 devil." Thus he contented himself with a little sagam- 
 ity and some parched grains of corn, and there was 
 little even of that, for in the abundance of game the 
 hunters despised Indian corn. "Often did I enter 
 the cabin at night," says he, "without having tasted 
 food the whole day, and I would find my Egyptians 
 gluttonly 'seated over the flesh-pots' smoking full 
 (Exod. xvi. 3); and although I might allege the best 
 reasons for allowing m3'Self to partake of their fare, I 
 did not once, thank God, fail in my resolution. When 
 suffering the pangs of hunger, I would say to God, 'We 
 shall be filled with the good things of Thy house ' (Ps. 
 Ixiv. 5); 'I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall ap- 
 pear' (Ps. xvi. 15); Thou shalt fulfil the yearnings of 
 Thy servant in the holy city of Thy celestial Jerusa- 
 lem." 
 
 However, the ever-suspicious mind of the savages 
 attributed Father Jogues' abstinence from meat to a 
 mark of contempt of their deity, and they held him 
 accountable for their ill-luck subsequently in their hunts. 
 Their former feelings of pity were changed into abhor- 
 rence and hatred. His presence seemed irksome to 
 them. His endeavor to learn Mohawk more perfectly 
 was stopped. They would not give him any explanation 
 or answer his questions any longer. They even refused 
 to listen to him when he endeavored to tell them, as he 
 had often done, the history of creation, of the fall of 
 Adam, the deluge, of the last judgment, and of hell. 
 
Oblations to A ireski. 113 
 
 Nor was this the only occasion when the credulous 
 superstition of this ignorant people exposed Father 
 Jogues to great danger. One of the Iroquois who had 
 fallen ill imagined, after a dream, that his recovery de- 
 pended on certain ceremonies and dances, in which 
 the missionary must take part, and he insisted that 
 he should lend it his presence, holding his book of 
 prayers in his hand. Now, a dream is so sacred an occur- 
 rence with the Indians, above all when in connection 
 with sickness, that it was unheard of that any one should 
 refuse to aid in its accomplishment. All the tribes of 
 North America were slaves to this belief. The relations 
 of the sick man called on Father Jogues and informed 
 him that the man's recovery was in his hands. '' You 
 have only to do," said they, "what he has seen in his 
 dream, and he is saved. It is very easy for you: you 
 pray like that every day; his recovery will be a triumph 
 for you." The Father smiled, and tried to make them 
 see the folly of their system. They insisted; he refused. 
 Other messengers called on him, and spoke of the 
 cruelty of letting a man thus suffer and die, when it was 
 such an easy thing to give him relief. It was all of no 
 avail: the missionary could not join in their foolish 
 notions, much less encourage them. Then the Indians 
 resolved to employ force, and some stalwart young men 
 were appointed to drag him to the dance. But Father 
 Jogues, learning their design, escaped from their hands 
 and fled to the woods. His agility was still such that 
 they could not overtake him. This resolute course 
 showed them how useless it was to try to overcome his 
 opposition, and they gave him no further trouble. 
 
 Thus did the life of the missionary alternate between 
 painful labor, privations of every kind, and continual an- 
 noyances. He could not pray any more in their pres- 
 ence, for they accused him of invoking evil spirits. He 
 could kneel no more in their sight, for a posture so un- 
 usual to them became suspicious. Winter soon added 
 
114 Life of Father Jogiies. 
 
 its rigors to this life of suffering. Heavy falls of snow 
 covered the frozen ground, and he was protected only by 
 a wretched and scanty deer-skin. Yet the Indians had 
 plenty of peltries for their trade, but never thought of 
 giving him any. Sometimes, at night, while shivering 
 with cold, he would succeed in drawing one of them over 
 his body, but as soon as discovered it was taken from 
 him amidst imprecations. He was continually benumbed 
 with cold, and at last his skin was all chapped and raw. 
 Nor was this all. His bodily sufferings were soon ex- 
 ceeded by interior anguish and pain, even more intense, 
 which threw the servant of God into the deepest dejec- 
 tion. He beheld "the sorrows of hell encompass him" 
 (Ps. cxiv. 3), "combats without, fears within" (2 Cor. 
 vii. 5). 
 
 Let us hear him portray what then passed in his soul, 
 and the remedy which faith supplied: 
 
 " I thought," he writes, " of my dear companions, whose 
 blood had so lately covered me, and I heard a report 
 that good William had also ended his life in most cruel 
 torments, and that a like end was in store for me on our 
 return to the town. Then the remembrance of my whole 
 life rushed back to me, with all its unfaithfulness to God, 
 and all its faults. I groaned to see myself die ' in the 
 midst of my days' (Is. xxxviii. 10), as if rejected by the 
 Lord, deprived of the sacraments of the Church, and 
 with no good works to propitiate my Judge. Thus tor- 
 mented with a desire to live and the fear of death, I 
 groaned, and cried to my God, When shall my grief and 
 my anguish come to an end ? When wilt Thou ' see my 
 abjection and my labor' (Ps. xxiv. 3); when wilt Thou 
 give me ' calm after the storm ' (Matt. viii. 26) ; when shall 
 ' my sorrow be turned into joy ? ' " (John xvi. 20). Then 
 he adds, in a lively sentiment of humility and confidence: 
 " I should have perished unless the Lord ' had shortened 
 the evil days ' (Mark xiii. 20); but I had recourse to my 
 support and ordinary refuge, the Holy Scriptures, of 
 
His Sufferings. 1 1 5 
 
 which I could recall some passages. They taught me to 
 see in God His goodness, and made me alive to the fact 
 that although deprived of all aids of piety, 'the just man 
 liveth by faith ' (Heb. x. 38). I often pondered on these 
 words: 'I followed the running waters' (Ps. i. 3) to en- 
 deavor to quench my thirst (2 Esd. ix. 20). On the law of 
 the Lord I meditated day and night (Ps. i. 2), for 'un- 
 less Thy law had been my meditation, I had then 
 perhaps perished in my abjection' (Ps. cxviii. 92); and 
 'perhaps the water had swallowed us up' (Ps. cxxiii. 4). 
 
 " But ' Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us to 
 be a prey to the teeth ' (Ps. cxxiii. 6) of my enemies, 
 'for now their hour seemed come and the power of 
 darkness' (Luke xxii. 53). 'I was pressed out of meas- 
 ure above my strength, so that I was weary even of life' 
 (2 Cor. i. 8). Meanwhile I repeated with Job, but in 
 another sense, 'Although God should kill me, I will 
 trust in Him ' " (Job xiii. 15). 
 
 In this state of bodily suffering and spiritual desola- 
 tion, Father Jogues' sole comfort was to retire to a little 
 rustic oratory, which he had constructed in the woods, a 
 short distance from the cabin. Hither he repaired as 
 soon as he had done his work as a slave, by laying in a 
 stock of wood for the day, and here, without fire or any 
 shelter but some fir branches to shield him against the 
 wind, he spent whole hours kneeling in the snow to con- 
 verse with his God, at the foot of a large cross which he 
 had cut in the bark of a tree. There he meditated and 
 prayed, read the " Following of Christ," and roused him- 
 self to a holy fervor, by thinking that he was almost 
 alone in loving and honoring the true God in that vast 
 country. 
 
 He did even more. Like a good religious, he endeav- 
 ored to follow as well as he could all the pious exercises 
 of community life, and as it was just the time when he 
 usually made his annual spiritual retreat, he devoted a 
 certain number of days to perform its holy exercises. 
 
1 1 6 Life of Father Jogites. 
 
 Meanwhile the Indians had noticed his long and fre- 
 quent absence. Accustomed to misinterpret all he did, 
 they watched and followed him to make sure that he was 
 not performing some witchcraft to injure them. They 
 did not disturb him when they saw that he was simply 
 engaged in prayer, but the young men amused them- 
 selves by trying to distract or alarm him. They rushed 
 on him, brandishing their tomahawks as if to strike him, 
 or fired arrows which fell around him. Sometimes they 
 raised a yell from behind, as if to warn him of some great 
 danger; at others they cut down trees near by, so as to 
 graze him as they fell. 
 
 But nothing could divert the servant of God from his 
 close colloquies with Heaven. He renewed his courage, 
 and learned by experience that the Almighty seemed to 
 choose that spot of predilection for bestowing favors on 
 him. We take from one of the Latin notes written by 
 him on his captivity the account of some of these favors, 
 which proved a source of abundant consolation to him. 
 ''While in the place," says he, "which I had chosen as 
 my retreat, I seemed to be in the company of several of 
 our Fathers whom I had known in life, and whose virtue 
 and merit I esteemed highly. I preserve a distinct rec- 
 ollection only of Father James Bertrix, Father Stephen 
 Binet, and Father Coton vaguely. I besought them with 
 all the ardor of my soul to commend me to the Cross, 
 that it might receive me as the disciple of Him whom it 
 had borne, and that it would not repulse a ' Citizen of 
 the Cross.' (This idea had never entered my mind even 
 in meditation). I was indeed born in Orleans, a city 
 the cathedral church of which is dedicated to the Holy 
 Cross." 
 
 "Another time, in the same solitude, I seemed, in my 
 sleep, to be transported to the Cloister of the Holy Cross 
 in my native city. Entering the store of a bookseller 
 whom I knew, I asked him whether he had not some edi- 
 fying book. He replied that he had one that he es- 
 
Union zuith God. 1 1 7 
 
 teemed greatly — ' The Lives of Illustrious Men.' I at 
 once felt a great desire to see it, asking only to borrow 
 it for a few days, promising to return it as soon as I had 
 read it in my room with two or three excellent friends. 
 The bookseller showed an unwillingness from the value 
 he attached to the book. During this time the persons 
 present were talking about tribulations and misfortunes, 
 and each one told what he had undergone. I had the 
 boldness to say myself, that I had suffered something 
 for God's sake; but not seeing the book come which I 
 desired so much, I asked one of the clerks to go and 
 bring it to me. As if without his master's knowledge, 
 the clerk went for the book and gave it to me. It had 
 scarcely touched my hands when I heard a voice say dis- 
 tinctly, 'This book contains the lives of men illustrious 
 for their piety, and stout hearts in war.' * I felt imbued 
 with this thought, that it is only ' through many tribula- 
 tions we must enter into the kingdom of God ' (Acts 
 xiv. 2i). When I came out full of joy with my book, I 
 saw the whole store full of crosses, and I said that I 
 would return, as I wished to buy many of different kinds." 
 Another day in the same place, when he was more 
 than usually depressed by the burthen of his sufferings, 
 and the contempt which the Indians showed for him, as 
 well as by the remorse of conscience and the anguish of his 
 soul, he had the following dream: " I distinctly heard 
 a voice, which reproached me for my perplexity, and 
 recommended me to ' think of the Lord ' only ' in good- 
 ness' (Wis. i. i), blindly 'casting all my care upon Him' 
 (i Pet. v. 7). This, too, was the advice of St. Bernard, ad- 
 dressed to his monks : ' Serve the Lord with that feeling 
 of love which casteth out fear, and does not even re- 
 gard the merit.' These two counsels," continues Father 
 Jogues, " suited my case, for I was giving way to ex- 
 cessive fear, but it was servile, not filial. I lacked con- 
 
 * Illustres pietate viros et fortia bello 
 Pectora. Virgil. 
 
1 1 8 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 fidence in God. I was distressed to see myself hurried 
 to judgment almost in the midst of my course, without 
 sending any good work before me, while I could but feel 
 greatly saddened by my numerous infidelities to God. 
 
 "The effect of these words was to rouse my courage 
 and fill me with such love for God, that in my trans- 
 port, even before I awoke, I added these words of St. 
 Bernard : * Not unreasonably does He ask our life, who 
 first ofave us His own.' 
 
 "These pious thoughts so expanded my heart, that 
 when the Indians proposed to return to the village, where 
 I expected to meet death, I set out full of joy." 
 
 This homeward march soon began. The servant of 
 God himself suggested it when he saw that his masters 
 seemed loath to put up with him. He knew well that 
 his charity and zeal would find opportunity for their ex- 
 ercise in the village. He accordingly asked permission 
 to go back with some of the Indians, and his masters 
 consented readily, as much to get rid of him, as to profit 
 by his journey, making him carry to their friends a good 
 load of dried meat. 
 
 Father Jogues submitted without a word to all they re- 
 quired, and started, loaded like a beast of burden. But if 
 this eight days' march on foot through the snows of Jan- 
 uary, and so loaded down, was painful for nature, it was 
 compensated by its influence on the heart of the apostle. 
 
 In this party was a woman carrying a heavy load on 
 her back, and also a young child. They came to a deep 
 and rapid torrent, which in that rigorous cold they 
 could not attempt to cross by swimming. Fortunately 
 there was a sort of bridge near, such as Indians un- 
 derstand making. It consisted of a tall pine tree which 
 they had cut down, adroitly directing its descent so 
 that it crossed from one bank to the other. The In- 
 dians boldly crossed this narrow path, but the poor 
 woman, encumbered by her double burden, and alarmed 
 at the swaying of this unsteady bridge, lost her balance 
 
A Winter March. 119 
 
 and fell into the water. At that moment the strap which 
 held her pack on her back, and which as usual passed 
 over her forehead, slipped down to her neck, and choked 
 her so that she could do nothing to save herself. 
 
 Father Jogues was following close behind. Seeing her 
 fall, and her danger, he did not hesitate a moment or 
 stop to count its risk to himself, but sprang into the 
 water. By his courage and dexterity, he fortunately 
 reached her and drew mother and child to the shore. It 
 was none too soon, for the child was well-nigh drowned. 
 The missionary hastened to regenerate it in the waters of 
 baptism, and two days after its little soul went to heaven 
 to pray for its deliverer. 
 
 Another of the missionary's companions on this jour- 
 ney was, though he did not recognize him, the old man 
 who had instigated good Rene's death. On the way, 
 won doubtless by the virtue of the man of God, he 
 showed compassion for his condition. He one day in- 
 vited him to share his meal ; but when he saw the mis- 
 sionary, before beginning to eat, make the sign of the 
 cross and pray, he said earnestly, " Do not do that : the 
 Dutch have told us that that sign is good for nothing, and 
 we hate that action as they do. It caused your comrade 
 to be killed, and will bring you to the same fate." " No 
 matter," replied the missionary firmly, " I shall never 
 cease to make it, because the Author of Life approves of 
 it. Come what will, I am ready to die." 
 
 This resolute and frank liberty silenced the Indian, 
 and instead of being offended at Father Jogues, he con- 
 tinued to show him kindness. It is a glory of virtue 
 that it can triumph over its enemies. 
 
 On reaching the village, and executing the orders 
 which he had received, Father Jogues' first care was to 
 seek to obtain some clothes not only to resist the rigor- 
 ous cold, but also to conform to rules of decency. He 
 had no alternative but to assume the character of one of 
 Christ's poor. He went from cabin to cabin begging 
 
I20 Life of Father Jogices. 
 
 something to cover him. In almost every one he met with 
 nothing but insults and jeers. Yet one Indian did fling 
 him a ragged old cloth; but a Dutchman who was just 
 then on a trading visit to the Mohawks, struck with ad- 
 miration at so much virtue and so much suffering, ob- 
 tained for him a suitable dress. 
 
 The servant of God felt his destitution all the more 
 keenly, because he saw the Indians every day wrapped 
 up, in the most grotesque way, in all the stuffs and clothes 
 they found in the packages intended for the Huron Mis- 
 sion. The sacred vestments had not been spared more 
 than the rest, and this profanation deeply grieved his 
 heart. He saw one Indian who had made himself leggins* 
 from the knee to the ankle of two veils intended for cov- 
 ering the chalice at Holy Mass. 
 
 Father Jogues did not enjoy a long rest at the village. 
 Those to whom he had brought presents from the hunt- 
 ing party wished to show their gratitude, and saw no 
 better way than to send the bearer back with a good 
 supply of corn. 
 
 It was hard for this man, exhausted by suffering and 
 privation, to make the long march again, and return to 
 a position of which he knew all the hardship. But 
 Father Jogues regarded his slavery only with the eyes of 
 faith, and without yielding to the repugnance of nature, 
 he prepared to obey. Not only was the load assigned to 
 him altogether beyond his strength, but the ground was 
 covered with a glare of ice that made progress almost 
 impossible. He set out, but slipped at every step, and 
 fell frequentl}^, without advancing on his journey. After 
 useless efforts he saw that he could never reach the hunt- 
 ing camp and resolved to return. 
 
 Without giving him credit for his good -will, or consid- 
 ering the difficulty of travelling, the Indians loaded him 
 with taunts and insults. They called him lazy, good-for- 
 
 * Indians are fond of adorning these richly. 
 
His StrejKjth Fails. 121 
 
 i» 
 
 nothing, deformed. They even reproached liim with the 
 scanty fare they allowed him. The servant of God bore 
 it all with humble resignation, and without a reply. 
 
 He submitted even more willingly, when the Indians, 
 to make his presence useful, assigned to him a task of 
 which they had long wished to rid themselves. They 
 appointed him to nurse a sick man whose body was one 
 ulcer. The stench he exhaled and the horror he inspired 
 drove all the Indians from him. This made him an ob- 
 ject dear to the man of God, and what made his sacri- 
 fice more meritorious was the fact that he recognized in 
 this man the one who had treated him so inhumanly 
 when he entered the first Mohawk town, and who had torn 
 out his nails. Father Jogues saw in this but a greater mo- 
 tive for remaining by him, and showing by his care what 
 Christian charity can do. 
 
 However, the people of the cabin to which Father 
 Jogues belonged, on returning from their winter hunt 
 called him back to work for them. Their manner toward 
 him had somewhat improved. His host's mother, whom 
 he called "aunt," especially showed kindness to him. 
 She began to admire and respect virtue such as had 
 hitherto been unknown among these Indians. At last 
 the other Indians gradually left him in peace, either tir- 
 ing of this prolonged persecution, or coming at last to 
 esteem him, overcome by his heroic patience. 
 
 As soon as Father Jogues saw calm restored around 
 him, and found his masters exact less labor from him, 
 he resumed his duties as a missionar^^ His first care was 
 to acquire the language of the people thoroughly. This 
 would enable him to make his presence among them use- 
 ful, and fit him to become their future apostle. He de- 
 voted himself to study with great ardor, and as his own- 
 er's cabin was a general meeting-place, where the public 
 affairs not only of the town, but in fact of the tribe, were 
 discussed, he found opportunity to speak in regard to 
 the faith and doctrines of the gospel with all the older 
 
12 2 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 men of the tribe. They plied him with questions as to 
 the sun, the moon, the figures seen on its face ; on the 
 size of the earth and of the ocean, the tides, etc. They 
 wished to know whether there was not a place where the 
 heavens touched the earth, whether heaven was a solid 
 vault ; and question followed question without end. 
 
 The missionary endeavored to reply by adapting his 
 explanation to their comprehension, and his answers ex- 
 cited their admiration wonderfully. He heard them say, 
 " How we should have missed it if we had killed this pris- 
 oner, as we have so often been on the point of doing !" 
 These conversations afforded the servant of God an op- 
 portunity of raising their minds by degrees from crea- 
 tures to a knowledge of the Creator, and of refuting their 
 absurd traditions, which ascribed the origin of the world 
 to a tortoise. He gradually grew so bold as to tell them 
 that the sun was not only not a God, or endowed with 
 mind and life, but that if, delighted with its beauty, they 
 took it to be a God, they should know how much the 
 Lord of it is more beautiful than it (Wisd. xiii. 3). He 
 showed them that their Aireskoi was only a demon, and 
 the father of lies, by pretending to be the author and pre- 
 server of life and all good things. 
 
 If faith required of man only conviction of the mind. 
 Father Jogues would easily have won a complete triumph; 
 but he found his teaching obstructed by the powerful 
 chains of the passions, superstitious habits, and the in- 
 tense aversion Indians feel for everything that is new. 
 The}?- readily admitted that he was right; but as to adopt- 
 ing his teaching, they often would merely tell him : "All 
 that is good for you, who live beyond the great lake 
 [ocean], but not for us." 
 
 The devil, who had till then ruled as undisputed lord 
 over this vast country, saw himself attacked, as it were, 
 in his last lines, and redoubled his efforts to check the 
 conquests of the Faith. 
 
 Yet, slave as he was, the apostolic ministry of Father 
 
Talks with the Sachems, 1 2 
 
 o 
 
 Jogues was not exercised in vain. The Almighty King of 
 these nations, as of all others on earth, was already choos- 
 ing His elect among them: not only among the children, 
 numbers of whom were baptized by the servant of God 
 when in danger of death, but also among the adults, sev- 
 eral of whom became docile to the voice of grace, and 
 sought the sacrament of regeneration. This was especi- 
 ally the case among the sick, who saw their last hour 
 approach, and also among the wretched victims of war, 
 condemned to undergo the horrors of the stake. 
 
 These labors did not satisfy the zeal of Father Jogues. 
 Availing himself of the partial liberty allowed him by his 
 owners, he visited the Huron captives in the neighboring 
 towns, where, like the faithful Israelites, these Christians 
 refused to bend the knee before Baal. He comforted 
 them and sustained them by his pious counsels, and by 
 enabling them to approach the sacrament of penance. 
 How often he had reason to bless God when he beheld 
 the salutary fruit which the preaching of the Gospel had 
 already produced! He found hearts imbued with Chris- 
 tianity only for a few days, yet gifted with admirable 
 purity, unshaken constancy, and a heroic resignation to 
 God's will. 
 
 After spending two months in these pious exercises, 
 Father Jogues was compelled to go on another journey. 
 It was the season for fishing. He set out with his " aunt" 
 and two other Indians. His duties were the same as on 
 the hunting excursion, but his treatment was much 
 milder. The fishing party halted on the banks of a little 
 lake only four days' march from the town.'^ 
 
 The fish caught here were very small, but generally 
 very abundant, though few at this time. They laid them 
 up carefully for their summer supply, after cleaning and 
 smoking them. They took as food at the time only the 
 intestmes, which they used to season their hommy. 
 
 * This was undoubtedly Saratoga Lake. 
 
124 ^^f^ of Father Jogues. 
 
 But Father Jogues was by this time inured to such 
 fare, and he adds with simplicity when describing it, 
 '' Custom, hunger, and want of everything renders toler- 
 able at least, if not agreeable, what nature often revolts 
 at." 
 
 These excursions, away from the towns and the noise 
 of the Iroquois, always had a charm for the servant of 
 God. They afforded him time and opportunity for 
 greater union with God. " How often in these journeys," 
 he writes, " and in that quiet wilderness, 'did we sit by 
 the rivers of Babylon, and weep while we remembered 
 thee, Sion ' (Ps. cxxxvi. i.) not only exulting that Sion 
 in heaven, but even thee, Jerusalem, praising thy God on 
 earth. ' How often, though in a strange land, did we sing 
 the canticle of the Lord,' and mountain and wildwood 
 resounded with the praises of their Maker, which from 
 their creation they had never heard ! How often on the 
 stately trees of the forest did I carve the most sacred 
 name of Jesus, that seeing it the demons might fly, who 
 tremble when they hear it ! How often, too, did I not 
 strip off the bark to form on them the Most Holy Cross 
 of the Lord, that the foe might fly before it, and that by 
 it Thou, O Lord my King, * mightest reign in the midst 
 of Thy enemies ' — the enemies of Thy cross, the mis- 
 believers and the pagans who dwell in that land, and the 
 demons who rule so powerfully there! I rejoiced, too, 
 that I had been led by the Lord into the wilderness, at 
 the very time when the Church recalls the story of His 
 Passion, so that I might more uninterruptedly remember 
 the course of its bitterness and gall, and my soul pine 
 away at the remembrance" (Jer. iii. 20). 
 
 As in his first excursion he had made a little oratory of 
 branches in the woods at the foot of a huge tree, on 
 which he had traced the form of the cross; hither, as 
 soon as his work as a slave was done, he returned to com- 
 mune with his God. "But," adds the pious missionary, 
 "I was not long allowed to enjoy this holy repose: in- 
 
His Devotions. 125 
 
 deed, too many days had I passed, unharmed by my 
 wonted terrors." 
 
 In fact a messenger had just come from the village to 
 warn the fishing-party that Algonquins had been seen 
 prowling around, and that they must return in haste to 
 escape the danger. Tiiis alarm was merely a stratagem 
 invented to bring the missionary back to the village, 
 where all preparations had been made to put him to 
 death. 
 
 The most unfavorable rumors were circulating as to 
 the fate of a band of ten Mohawk warriors who had 
 been out for a long time, and of whom there were no 
 tidings. A neighboring tribe asserted that they had be- 
 come victims to the cruelty of their enemies, and this 
 news was confirmed by a prisoner who had recently fal- 
 len into the hands of the Iroquois. They immediately 
 sacrificed him to the shade of one of the young warriors 
 for whom they mourned, and who was a son of the 
 master of the cabin to which Father Jogues belonged ; 
 but this victim did not seem noble enough in the eyes 
 of the grief-stricken father: he wished the missionary 
 also sacrificed. 
 
 His fate was decided; and the day of our Saviour's 
 death would also have been his last, had not God, who 
 had so often led him to the gates of death to draw him 
 back as if by a miracle, permitted them to learn in time 
 that the warriors were returning with twenty Abnaki 
 captives, and that they were within a day's march of the 
 town. 
 
 The missionary was no longer thought of, and on the 
 arrival of the victors there was nothing but festivity and 
 rejoicing. Five of the prisoners were doomed to the 
 most fearful tortures, the women and children being re- 
 served for slavery. These unhappy victims became im- 
 mediately the object of the missionary's ardent zeal. 
 He knew only a few w^ords of their language, but one of 
 the prisoners who spoke Huron acted as interpreter. 
 
126 Life of Father Jogites. 
 
 He instructed them without delay, and succeeded in 
 baptizing them before their execution, which took place 
 at Easter-tide. 
 
 This hideous spectacle was renewed at Pentecost. 
 Three young women and some children were brought 
 in, for the men had been killed in the battle. These 
 poor creatures, stripped of their clothing, were mutilated 
 and beaten as they entered the village. One of them 
 was even, contrary to custom, burned all over the body, 
 and then thrown on an immense pyre. She was in- 
 structed in the faith, and Father Jogues was on the alert 
 for an opportunity to baptize her. Seeing her on the 
 point of expiring, he ran up to her in the midst of the 
 flames, as if going to give her a drink of water, and 
 poured on her head the saving water, which cleansed her 
 and secured her everlasting happiness. 
 
 Father Jogues witnessed on this occasion idolatrous 
 practices of a character new to him, and of unheard 
 cruelty. Every time that the fire was applied to the 
 body of this poor woman, one of the sachems raised his 
 voice, crying, " Aireskoi, we offer thee this victim, which 
 we burn in thy honor. Sate thyself on her flesh, and 
 make us ever victorious over our enemies." Her body, 
 cut up, was distributed through the different villages 
 and eaten. 
 
 This bloody sacrifice was apparently, in the eyes of 
 the Iroquois, a reparation due their god, and the fulfil- 
 ment of a vow. They believed that they had incurred 
 his displeasure, because they had not eaten human flesh 
 for six months; and in a solemn sacrifice of two bears, 
 which they made in his honor, Father Jogues heard 
 them, and not without a shudder, utter these words: 
 " Justly dost thou punish us, O Aireskoi ! Lo ! this 
 long time we have taken no captives. . . . We have 
 sinned against thee in that we ate not the last captives 
 thrown into our hands; but, if we shall ever again cap- 
 
A Sacrifice to A ireskoi. 1 2 7 
 
 ture any, we promise thee to devour them as we now 
 consume these two bears." 
 
 These sad scenes were frequently repeated at this time 
 before the eyes of Father Jogues, and they plunged his 
 soul into the deepest affliction. But, in the hope of 
 being useful to these unfortunate victims, he remained 
 to attend them in their tortures, neglecting no means to 
 sustain and encourage them by thoughts of faith. 
 
 In a profound sentiment of humility he looked upon 
 himself as the cause of all these woes. " I certainly," 
 says he, "felt in my own person this punishment de- 
 served for my sins, and pronounced of old by God to His 
 people when He said 'their solemnities, their new-moons, 
 and all their festival-times' . . . * shall be turned into 
 mourning and lamentation' (Osee ii. 11; Amos viii. 10), 
 as Easter, and Whitsuntide, and the Nativity of St. John 
 the Baptist each brought sorrows on me, which increased 
 to agony.' . . . ' Wo is me, wherefore was I born to see 
 the ruin of my people ? ' (i Mach. ii. 7.) Verily, in these 
 and like heartrending cares, 'my life is wasted with grief, 
 and my years with sighs' (Ps. xxx. 2); 'for the Lord 
 hath corrected me for mine iniquity and hath made my 
 soul waste away as a spider' (xxxviii. 12). 'He hath 
 filled me with bitterness, he hath inebriated me with 
 wormwood ' (Lament, iii. i^); 'because the comforter, 
 the relief of my soul, is far from me' (i. 16); ' but in all 
 these things we overcome,' and by the favor of God will 
 overcome, ' because of Him that hath loved us ' (Rom. 
 viii. 37), until ' He come that is to come, and will not 
 delay ' (Heb. x. 37); ' until my day like that of a hireling 
 come' (Job vii. i), or 'my change be made' (xiv. 14)." 
 
128 Life of Father fogues. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Steps taken by the Chevalier de Montmagny to deliver Father 
 Jogues— The Missionary's Letters — His Resignation —A 
 Journey — Unexpected Meeting — Consolation. 
 
 ^HE deepest anxiety prevailed for a long time at 
 Quebec as to the fate of Father Jogues. The re- 
 port of his death spread, and even reached France, 
 where it produced the deepest impression. He was 
 mourned for by his family and fellow-religious, who yet 
 envied his happiness and his glory. 
 
 The news that he was still alive was brought to Que- 
 bec by a Huron who had shared his captivity, Joseph 
 Theondechoren, to whom allusion has already been made. 
 This good Christian had followed his owners in an ex- 
 cursion which they made to the banks of the St. Law- 
 rence. There he succeeded in baffling their vigilance, 
 and escaped from their hands. After a series of hard- 
 ships and dangers, he reached Three Rivers. 
 
 The Chevalier de Montmagny, anxious to learn what 
 was going on in the Iroquois country, and especially to 
 obtain tidings of Father Jogues, summoned the fugitive 
 before him. The detailed and affecting story of the suf- 
 ferings undergone by the man of God, and the danger 
 which still hourly threatened him, affected the Governor 
 all the more, because he felt himself utterly unable to 
 rescue him. The re-enforcements expected from France 
 had not arrived, and he feared that any vigorous action 
 against such bold enemies, instead of intimidating them, 
 if they were not crushed, would only increase their exas- 
 peration and hasten the death of all the prisoners. He 
 
The French Learn His Conditio7i. 129 
 
 wished, at all hazards, to save the life of a missionary 
 whose virtue and experience might prove so useful in 
 winning over these savages. He accordingly sought a 
 favorable opportunity for treating prudently this delicate 
 matter, and when he found one shortly after, he seized 
 it, but without avail. 
 
 On the 19th of October, 1642, a Sokoki* Indian, highly 
 esteemed in his tribe, was taken by the Algonquins near 
 Three Rivers. They condemned him to pass through 
 all the horrors of Indian torture. They had already 
 torn out his nails and cut off two of his fingers; one of his 
 feet had been pierced with a sharp stick, and his whole 
 body had been seamed with awls. Four young men had 
 tied his wrists with running knots, and drew it so cruelly 
 that the flesh was cut to the bone. The pain was so 
 intense that, notwithstanding his apparent impassibility, 
 he fell unconscious, and did not come to till water had 
 been thrown in his face. 
 
 As soon as the Governor heard of the prisoner's arrival 
 at Sillery, he hastened there with the intention of rescu- 
 ing him from death. A motive of humanity and religion 
 prompted his interference to prevent this act of cruel 
 barbarity, and, independently of this, he had another 
 motive, as worthy of his heart as of his faith. By means 
 of this prisoner, whose nation was in alliance with the 
 Iroquois, he hoped to obtain the deliverance of the mis- 
 sionary, whose wretched fate the whole colony and the 
 very Indians deplored. The Chevalier de Montmagny 
 accordingly asked and obtained the freedom of this 
 captive. 
 
 The Hospital Nuns received the unfortunate man into 
 their establishment at Sillery. His wounds were in a 
 horrible condition; worms and putrefaction made him 
 an object of disgust and pity; but the case did not baffle 
 the motherly care of active charity. 
 
 ■* A tribe living near the western border of Maine. 
 
130 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 When the patient, cured of his wounds, was able to 
 travel, he was loaded with presents, and the only return 
 asked of him was that he should urge the chiefs of his 
 tribe to interpose with their allies, the Iroquois, in order 
 to obtain the liberation of Father Jogues. 
 
 After having been so near death, the Sokoki returned 
 to his country, full of joy, to relate all the kindness and 
 liberality shown him. Praise of Onontio, the great chief 
 of the French, and of the black-gowns was constantly 
 on his lips, and all who heard him soon began to share 
 his gratitude. For, brutish as they were, these Indians 
 warmly entered into the feelings of one of their tribe, 
 when gratitude was to be shown for a favor or vengeance 
 taken for a wrong. 
 
 The Sokokis proved it. Every man felt indebted to 
 the generous benefactors of their countryman, and they 
 prepared at once to carry out his wishes. A solemn 
 embassy set out in the month of April to ask the Mohawks 
 to set Father Jogues free, and they offered the usual 
 presents to give weight to their words. 
 
 The Mohawks received the deputies with tlie usual 
 ceremonial in a public audience. The Sokoki orator 
 detailed at length the object of his coming, and the 
 claims of the French on their friendship. His natural 
 eloquence inspired him with arguments best able to 
 produce an impression, and he concluded by saying, 
 " My tribe think that they cannot do too much to please 
 men so generous, and as they know how highly the 
 French esteem Ondesonk, here is a belt of many thou- 
 sand beads of wampum to cut his bonds." With these 
 words he produced a letter from the Governor of Quebec, 
 which he solemnly placed in the hands of Father Jogues, 
 with every mark of respect and esteem. 
 
 The next day the Mohawk sachems assembled to 
 deliberate and announce their reply. It was not long 
 delayed, and it justified their reputation for perfidy and 
 
The Sokoki Embassy. 131 
 
 cunning: they accepted the presents and promised to set 
 the prisoner at liberty, and they said that they claimed 
 for themselves the honor of escorting Father Jogues back 
 to the French colony, but that they could not do so just 
 at that moment. These words were only a new decep- 
 tion. They were forgotten as soon as the ambassadors 
 departed. 
 
 Yet the demonstration of the Sokokis on behalf of 
 Father Jogues had not been altogether fruitless. It ex- 
 alted considerably in the eyes of the Iroquois the import- 
 ance of the missionary, and they began to treat him with 
 more respect. 
 
 If public dangers seemed thus provided against, 
 Father Jogues was not yet safe from private hate or ven- 
 geance. One day he saw a half-crazy Indian enter his 
 cabin, who rushed upon him and dealt him two blows on 
 the head with a war-club. The missionary was struck 
 to the ground; and if the assassin's arm raised for a third 
 blow had not been checked, his life would have ended 
 there. The guilty man retired calmly, without punish- 
 ment or even a reproach. 
 
 The only satisfaction that the servant of God received 
 was the tears of his aunt, whose devotedness and affec- 
 tion seemed to increase daily, while she lamented her 
 inability to protect him. When she could foresee a dan- 
 ger, she never lost a moment in warning him and aiding 
 him to escape it; but as she was in constant apprehension 
 that he would be suddenly attacked, and saw that the 
 sachems had really no intention of keeping the promise 
 they had made to the Sokokis, she at last advised Father 
 Jogues to escape, as the only means of ending his fearful 
 captivity, and almost certain death. 
 
 It was not, however, his own deliverance that preoccu- 
 pied Father Jogues; above that he held the interest of 
 religion and his country, and he soon bore noble testi- 
 mony to this heroic feeling. 
 
132 Ltf^ of Father Jogiies, 
 
 Having learned that other steps were proposed for his 
 relief, he desired his state of mind to be clearly known; 
 and listening only to patriotism, he resolved to write to 
 the Governor of Canada, and suggest measures which 
 might prove fatal to himself, but which were most 
 advantageous to the colony. Providence afforded him a 
 favorable opportunity of transmitting his letter to the 
 banks of the St. Lawrence. 
 
 During the summer a party of warriors from his vil- 
 lage prepared to march to the banks of the great river 
 in order to lie in wait for the French and their allies, 
 and one of them took his letter. According to the custom 
 of the Indians, he should have inserted this letter on the 
 cleft top of a stick, to be planted on the trail usually 
 taken by travellers. Whatever his motive was, he chose 
 to do something more. He approached Fort Richelieu. 
 
 On the 15th of August, 1643, the soldiers in the fort 
 perceived a solitary Indian approaching them on the 
 river. Before letting him come near, they asked his tribe 
 and his business. "I am an Iroquois," he replied, "and 
 I come as bearer of the word of Ondesonk, the black- 
 gown." On this statement he was permitted to enter 
 freely, and he really handed in a letter of the missionary 
 addressed to the Chevalier de Montmagny. 
 
 As he showed a desire to depart, the commandant of 
 the post compelled him to wait for some time, so as to 
 give the Governor an opportunity to send back an answer 
 to the missionary. Then a cannon was fired to announce 
 that the truce was over. Alarmed at this signal, which 
 they took for an attack on them, the Iroquois fled pre- 
 cipitately, abandoning their comrade. This, as we shall 
 see, gave new life to the hatred against Father Jogues. 
 
 His letter to the Governor was written partly in Latin, 
 partly in French, and partly in Huron, so as to make it 
 almost unintelligible if it fell into the enemy's hands. 
 The following is a translation of it, from a copy pre- 
 served in the archives of the Gesu at Rome : 
 
Lcthr to Canada. 133 
 
 " ViLLAGK OF THE Iroquois, June 30, 1643. 
 
 "My Lord : This is the fourth"^ letter I have written 
 since my detention as a prisoner in the hands of the 
 Iroquois. Time and paper both fail me, and prevent 
 my repeating here what I have said elsewhere at greater 
 length. 
 
 "We are still alive. Henry, taken prisoner by the 
 Iroquois near Montreal, on St. John's Eve, has been 
 brought among us. He did not indeed run the gauntlet 
 on entering the village, nor have his fingers been cut off, 
 as ours were. He and the Hurons brought in with him 
 are still alive. 
 
 " Fear constantly and everywhere the ambuscades of 
 these men, for bands of braves leave the village every 
 day to go on the war-path, and you must not think that 
 the riverf will be free from these savages before the end 
 of autumn. 
 
 "They are here to the number of seven hundred; pos- 
 sess three hundred guns, which they use with great skill; 
 and know several routes to reach the station of Three 
 Rivers. Fort Richelieu arrests them indeed somewhat, 
 but yet does not entirely prevent their raids. 
 
 " If the Iroquois had known that the Sokoki prisoner 
 was indebted to the French for his deliverance from the 
 hands of the Algonquins, they would, they say, have 
 spared the French who have been taken and killed near 
 Montreal. But it was already midwinter when this news 
 came to their knowledge. 
 
 " However, a new party has just taken the field. The 
 chief is the very same who commanded the expedition 
 which took us prisoners. They intend to attack the 
 French no less than the Algonquins. 
 
 " Do not, I beg you, take me personally into considera- 
 tion, and let no sympathy for me prevent your taking 
 
 *The three other letters mentioned by Father Jogues did not reach 
 their address. 
 
 f The St. Lawrence.. 
 
1 34 Life of Father fogues. 
 
 any measure that seems to you best fitted to advance the 
 greater glory of God. 
 
 " So far as I can divine, it is the design of the Iroquois 
 to capture all the Hurons, if it is possible; to put the 
 chiefs and a great part of the nation to death, and with 
 the rest to form one nation and one country. 
 
 " I shed tears over the lot of these unfortunate people, 
 most of whom are already Christians, the rest cate- 
 chumens, and well disposed to receive baptism. 
 
 " When will it be possible to apply a remedy at last 
 to so many evils ? Perhaps when there are no more 
 prisoners to take. 
 
 " I have here a Relation* written by our Fathers on 
 what had occurred among the Hurons, and some letters 
 written by the same Fathers. The Iroquois captured 
 them from the Hurons and handed them to me. 
 
 " The Dutch have made several efforts to deliver us, 
 but always to no purpose. They are now renewing their 
 attempts; but I think it will be with the same result. 
 
 "I form a resolution, which daily becomes more de- 
 cided, to remain here as long as it pleases Our Lord, 
 and not to seek to achieve my liberty, even if an oppor- 
 tunity offers. I do not wish to deprive the French, 
 Hurons, and Algonquins of the benefit they receive from 
 my ministry. I have administered baptism here to some, 
 several of whom have already soared to heaven. 
 
 " My only consolation amid my suffermgs is to think 
 of the most holy will of God, to which I most willingly 
 submit mine. 
 
 " I beg your Excellency to have the kindness to have 
 prayers said and Masses celebrated for us all, and 
 especially for him who is in Our Lord, 
 
 " Sir, your most humble and most obedient servant, 
 
 "Isaac Jogues, 
 " of the Society of Jesus'' 
 
 * It was the Annual Relation of the Huron Mission for 1642. It 
 was taken by the Iroquois from a convoy of Hurons, who were carry- 
 ing it to Quebec. 
 
His Resolution. 135 
 
 Father Vincent, the Superior in Canada, when insert- 
 ing this letter in the Relation of the Missions for 1644, 
 adds with holy admiration : " There is more juice here 
 than words. The tissue is excellent, although the hand 
 that formed these letters is all mangled. His style is 
 more sublime than that which emanates from the most 
 pompous schools of rhetoric. . . . Although his words 
 have drawn tears from our eyes, they have nevertheless 
 increased the joy of our hearts. Some of us rather envy 
 than compassionate him." 
 
 To this letter, a beautiful monument of the ardent zeal 
 and heroic patriotism of the servant of God, we must 
 add, as a complement, the close of that from which we 
 have drawn a part of the details of his captivity, and 
 which he wrote to his Provincial in France on the 5th of 
 August, 1643. He had at the time, while on a journey 
 with his owners, stopped at the Dutch post of Rens- 
 selaerswyck, called also Fort Orange.* 
 
 "Although I could in all probability escape either 
 through the Europeans or the Indian nations around us, 
 did I wish to fly, yet on this cross to which our Lord has 
 nailed me, with Himself (Gal. ii. 19), am I resolved by His 
 grace to live and die. For who in my absence would con- 
 sole the French captives ? who absolve the penitent ? who 
 remind the christened Huron of his duty ? who instruct 
 the prisoners constantly brought in ? who baptize them 
 dying, encourage them in their torments ? who cleanse 
 the infants in the saving waters ? who provide for the 
 salvation of the dying adult, the instruction of those in 
 health ? Indeed I cannot but think it a peculiar inter- 
 position of divine goodness, that while a nation, fallen 
 from the true Catholic religion, barred the entrance of 
 the Faith to these regions on one side, and on the other, 
 a fierce war between savage nations, and on their ac- 
 count with the French, I should have fallen into the 
 
 * Our present Albany. 
 
136 Life of Father Jogites, 
 
 hands of these Indians, who by the will of God reluctantly, 
 and I may say against their will, have thus far spared 
 my life, that through me, though unworthy, those might 
 be instructed, believe, and be baptized, who are pre- 
 destined to eternal life. Since the time when I was 
 taken, I have baptized seventy persons, children, young 
 people and old, of five different nations and languages, 
 that of 'every tribe, and people, and tongue, they might 
 stand in the sight of the Lamb ' (Apoc. vii. 9). 
 
 " Therefore do I daily bow my knee to my Lord and to 
 the Father of my Lord, that if it be for His glory, He may 
 confound all the designs of the Europeans and savages 
 for ransoming me or sending me back to the whites ; for 
 many of the Indians speak of my being restored, and the 
 Dutch, among whom I write this, have frequently of- 
 fered, and now again are offering, to rescue me and my 
 companions, I have visited them twice, and have been 
 most kindly welcomed ; they leave no stone unturned to 
 effect our deliverance, and have made many presents to 
 the Indians with whom I am, to induce them to treat me 
 humanely. 
 
 " But I am now weary of so long and so prolix a letter; 
 I therefore earnestly beg your Reverence ever to recog- 
 nize me, though unworthy, as one of yours; for though 
 a savage in dress and manner, and almost without God in 
 so tossed a life, yet as I have ever lived a son of the most 
 holy Church of Rome and of the Society, so do I wish to 
 die. Obtain for me from God, Reverend Father, by your 
 holy sacrifices, that though I have hitherto but ill-em- 
 ployed the means He gave me to attain the highest sanc- 
 tity, I may at least employ well this last occasion which 
 He offers me. Your bounty, surely, owes this to a son 
 who has recourse to you; for I lead a truly wretched 
 life, where every virtue is in danger: Faith in the dense 
 darkness of paganism, Hope in so long and hard trials, 
 Charity amid so much corruption, deprived of all the 
 sacraments. Purity is not, indeed, endangered here by 
 
Letter from Rensselaer swyck. 1 3 7 
 
 delights, but is tried, amid this promiscuous and intimate 
 intercourse of both sexes, by the perfect liberty of all in 
 hearing and doing what they please; and, most of all, in 
 their constant nakedness. For here, willing or not, you 
 must often see what elsewhere is shut out, not only from 
 wandering, but even from curious eyes. Hence I daily 
 groan to my God, begging Him not to leave me without 
 help amid the dead;— begging Him, I say, that amid such 
 impurity and such superstitious worship of the devil to 
 which He has exposed me, naked as it were, and un- 
 armed, 'my heart may be undefiled in His justifica- 
 tions ' (Ps. cxviii. 80), so that when that good Shep- 
 herd shall come, ' who will gather together the dispersed 
 of Israel' (Ps. cxlvi. 2), ' He may gather us from among 
 the nations to bless His holy name. Amen ! Amen ! ' 
 (Ps. cv. 47.) 
 
 " Your Reverence's most humble servant and son in 
 Christ, Isaac Jogues. 
 
 " Permit me through your Reverence to salute all my 
 dear Fathers and Brothers whom I tenderly love and 
 cherish in Christ, and to commend myself to their holy 
 sacrifices and prayers. 
 
 " Your most humble servant and son in Christ, 
 
 " Isaac Jogues. 
 
 " Rensselaerswyck, in New Netherland, August 5, 1643." 
 
 The repugnance which Father Jogues manifested for 
 seeing his term of captivity end, had no other motive 
 than the desire to advance more efficaciously the Glory 
 of God. But when he saw that he could not possibly 
 continue his zealous and charitable work, he did not re- 
 fuse to profit by the circumstances which Divine Provi- 
 dence disposed, in order to escape from the hands of his 
 executioners. This was soon to come to pass; yet God 
 first brought about one of those incidents which display 
 the goodness of the Almighty for His elect, and which 
 afford His apostles their richest reward here below. 
 
J 
 
 8 Life of FatJier Jogues. 
 
 A band of Iroquois chiefs had been selected to visit, as 
 representatives of the nation, a small tribe in the neigh- 
 borhood, which they regarded as a tributary, and from 
 which they expected some aid. Father Jogues' master 
 was one of the party, and he took his slave with him. 
 The distance to be travelled was nearly two hundred 
 miles. The march was a painful one: the Indians set 
 out as usual without any provisions, and contrary to 
 their expectations found no game on their route, and 
 were compelled to subsist on poor insipid berries they 
 gathered in the woods. The object of the Indians in 
 taking the missionary with them was to make an ostenta- 
 tious display of their power over other nations — even over 
 Europeans; but the Lord had other designs. He was 
 going to rev/ard a charitable act. 
 
 On reaching the town, Father Jogues at once proceed- 
 ed to visit the cabins, in order to baptize dying children 
 and to instruct the sick whom he found inclined to 
 hearken to him. What was his surprise, on entering one 
 of the first cabins he reached, to hear a young man 
 stretched on the ground and racked by pain, address 
 him by name ? 
 
 ''Do you not recognize me, Ondesonk," said the dying 
 man; "do you not remember the good turn I did you in 
 the Iroquois country, and how it relieved you ?" " I do 
 not recollect ever to have seen you," replied the Father; 
 "but that matters not: I thank you, since you did me a 
 service. What did you do for me ?" " It was in the 
 third Mohawk town," said the young man, "when you 
 were hung up, and could no longer endure your intense 
 sufferings: do you recollect an Indian coming up and 
 cutting the ropes?" "Yes, indeed," replied the mission- 
 ary; "many a time have I blessed the Lord for inspir- 
 ing him to do that charitable act. I have never met 
 him since, and I should be happy to see him, and, if I 
 could, show him all my gratitude." 
 
 "I did it myself," replied the sick man. 
 
Charity Repaid. 1 39 
 
 On hearing this, Father Jogues clasped him to his 
 breast, kissed him tenderly, shedding tears of gratitude 
 and compassion. " How grieved I am," said he, " to find 
 you in this pitiable condition ! Why can I not relieve 
 and help you ? Without knowing who you were, I have 
 often prayed to the Master of Life for you. You see my 
 extreme poverty; yet I wish to do you a greater favor 
 than you did me." 
 
 The Indian listened with astonishment. Then the mis- 
 sionary told him of God, the creator and rewarder; of 
 Jesus Christ and His sufferings, of eternity and its re- 
 wards. While he spoke, God acted interiorly on the well- 
 disposed heart; and, like the eunuch in the Acts of the 
 Apostles, the sick man soon asked, "What must I do 
 to please the Master of Life ?" " Believe in Him," said 
 the missionary, "and in His only Son, who died for us, 
 and receive baptism." 
 
 The soul of the neophyte opened to the light, and the 
 minister of Jesus Christ had the consolation of instruct- 
 ing him and receiving proof of his faith. He became a 
 Christian, and as the disease made rapid progress. Father 
 Jogues ere long saw him depart to heaven, full of hope, 
 and with no earthly regret. Thus did God reward a 
 hundredfold the man who took pity on His servant. 
 
140 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Father Jogues sets out for the Fishery — Fury of the Iroquois— 
 They wish to burn him — He is saved by a Dutch Captain — He 
 reaches Manhattan Island— Sails for France. 
 
 ^HE hour of deliverance approached; once more 
 Father Jogues accompanied his owners to a fish- 
 ing-station on the banks of the Hudson, about 
 twenty miles from Rensselaerswyck. It was this provi- 
 dential excursion which afforded him the means of es- 
 cape. We will hear him relate his flight in detail, in a 
 letter * which he wrote from that Dutch post to Father 
 Charles Lalemant on the 30th of August, 1643. 
 
 " On the very day of the feast of our Holy Father 
 Ignatius (July 31), I left the village where I was a pris- 
 oner to follow and accompany some Iroquois who were 
 going first to trade, then to fish. Having got through 
 their traffic, they proceeded to a place seven or eight 
 leagues below the Dutch post,t which is on the river 
 where we were fishing. While arranging our weirs for 
 the fish, a report reached us that an Iroquois war-party, 
 returned from the Huron land, had killed five or six on 
 the spot, and brought in four prisoners, two of whom 
 had been already burned at our village with more than 
 common cruelty. 
 
 "At these tidings my heart was rent with most keen and 
 bitter grief, that I had not seen, consoled, or baptized 
 these poor victims. Fearful that something of the kind 
 might happen again during my absence, I went to a good 
 old woman, who from her age and her care of me, as well 
 
 * Relation for 1643, p. 75- t Rensselaerswyck. 
 
Sets out for the Fishery. 141 
 
 as from her compassion for my sufferings, called me her 
 nephew, as I called her aunt. 'Aunt,' said I, 'I would 
 much rather go back to our cabin; I am very lonesome 
 here.' I did not indeed expect more comfort or less 
 pain at the village, where I suffered a continual martyr- 
 dom — compelled to witness before my eyes the horrible 
 cruelties they perpetrate — but my heart could not bear 
 that one should die without my affording him baptism. 
 'Go, nephew,' said this good woman, 'go, if you are 
 tired of this place, and take something to eat on the 
 way.' I accordingly embarked in the first canoe going 
 up to the village, always conducted and always accom- 
 panied by Iroquois. 
 
 "On reaching the Dutch post through which we had 
 to pass, I learned that our village was furious against 
 the French, and that they only awaited my return to 
 burn me. The reason of all was this: Among the war- 
 parties against the French, iVlgonquins, and Hurons 
 was one that resolved to go and prowl around Fort 
 Richelieu to spy the French and their Indian allies. A 
 certain Huron of this band, taken by the Iroquois and 
 naturalized among them, came to ask me for letters to 
 carry to the French, hoping perhaps to surprise some one 
 by this bait; but as I had no doubt the French would be 
 on their guard, I saw the importance of giving them 
 some inkling of the designs, arms, and treachery of our 
 enemy. I found means to get a bit of paper to write on. 
 The Dutch did me this charity. 
 
 " I knew well the danger to which I exposed myself. 
 I was well aware that if any mishap befell the party I 
 should be made responsible, and the blame thrown on 
 my letters. I foresaw my death, but it seemed to me 
 sweet and agreeable, employed for the public good, and 
 the consolation of our French, and the poor Indians who 
 listen to the word of Jesus Christ. My heart was undis- 
 turbed by fear at the sight of all that might happen — 
 God's glory was concerned. 
 
142 ^^^ of Father Jogues. 
 
 "So I gave my letter to the young brave, who never 
 returned. The story given by his comrades is that he 
 carried it to Fort Richelieu, and that as soon as the 
 French saw it, they fired their cannon at them; that, 
 alarmed at this, most of them took to flight all naked, 
 leaving one of their canoes, in which were three arque- 
 buses, powder, ball, and other articles. When this news 
 was brought into the village, the cry was raised that my 
 letter had caused them to be treated so. The rumor 
 spread around; it reached my ears; I was taunted with 
 the mishap; they talked of nothing but burning me; and 
 had I been found in the village when these braves re- 
 turned, fire, rage, and cruelty had deprived me of my 
 life. 
 
 " To increase my misfortune, another party, returning 
 from the neighborhood of Montreal, where they had laid 
 an ambush for the French, said that two of their party 
 had been killed and two wounded. All made me guilty 
 of these mishaps. They were now beside themselves 
 with rage, and impatient for my return. All these re- 
 ports I heard, offering myself unreservedly to our Lord, 
 and resigning myself, all in all, to His most holy will. 
 
 " The commander of the Dutch post where we were, 
 aware of the evil design of the savages, and aware, too, 
 that the Chevalier de Montmagny had prevented the 
 Canada Indians from coming to kill the Dutch, had of- 
 fered me means of escape. ' Here,' said he, 'lies a ves- 
 sel at anchor,* to sail in a few days. Get privately on 
 board. It is bound first to Virginia, whence it will carry 
 you to Bordeaux or Rochelle, where it must stop.' 
 Thanking him with much respect and courtesy, I told 
 him that the Iroquois would suspect them of favoring 
 my escape, and perhaps do some injury to their people. 
 * No, no,' he replied; 'do not fear; get on board; it is a 
 
 *The States-General of Holland had sent orders to all the com- 
 mandants in New Netherland to deliver Father Jogues, the Queen- 
 Regent of France having requested it in the most urgent manner. 
 
Urged to Escape. 143 
 
 fine opportunity, and you will never find a surer way of 
 escaping.' 
 
 " At these words my heart was perplexed. I doubted 
 whether it was not for the greater glory of our Lord to 
 expose myself to the danger of savage fury and flames, 
 in order to aid in the salvation of some soul. I there- 
 fore replied, ' This affair, sir, seems to me so important 
 that I cannot give you an answer on this spot; give me, 
 if you please, to-night to think it over. I will recom- 
 mend it to our Lord; I will examine the reasons on both 
 sides, and will tell you my final resolution in the morn- 
 ing.' Greatly astonished, he granted my request. The 
 night I spent in prayer, earnestly imploring our Lord not 
 to let me adopt a conclusion myself, but to give me light 
 to know His most holy will; that in all and through all, 
 even to the stake itself, I would follow it. The reasons 
 to retain me in the country were the consideration of the 
 French and Indians; I loved them, and felt so great a 
 desire to serve them, that I had resolved to pass the 
 rest of my days in this captivity for their salvation; but 
 now I beheld the face of affairs entirely changed. 
 
 " First, as for the three Frenchmen, brought prisoners 
 like myself into the country, one — Rene Goupil — had 
 already been massacred at my feet. This young man 
 was as pure as an angel. Henry, taken at Montreal, had 
 fled to the woods; because while he was beholding the 
 cruelties perpetrated on two Hurons roasted alive, some 
 Iroquois told him that they would treat him so, and me 
 too, as soon as I got back. This threat made him re- 
 solve to run the risk of starving in the woods, or being 
 devoured by some wild beast, rather than endure the 
 torments inflicted by these half-demons. He had not 
 been seen for seven days. As to William Couture, I 
 could scarcely see any means of being of service to him, 
 for he had been put in a village at a distance from mine, 
 and the Indians kept him so busy here and. there that I 
 could no longer find him. He had, moreover, himself 
 
1 44 J^tf^ of Father J agues. 
 
 told me, 'Father, try to escape; as soon as I see no 
 more of you I will manage to get off. You know well 
 that I remain in this captivity only for your sake; do 
 your best, then, to escape, for I cannot think of my own 
 liberty or life till I see you in safety.' Besides, this good 
 young friend had been given to an old man, who assured 
 him that he would let him go in peace if I could effect 
 my deliverance; so that I no longer saw any reason to 
 remain on account of the French. 
 
 "As to the Indians, instructing them was now out of 
 the question and almost hopeless; for the whole country 
 was so excited against me that I no longer found means 
 to speak to them or gain them; and the Algonquins and 
 Hurons kept aloof from me, as a victim destined to the 
 flames, because they feared to come in for a share of the 
 rage and hatred which the Iroquois bore me. I saw, too, 
 that I had some knowledge of their language, that I 
 knew their country and their strength, and that I could 
 perhaps contribute better to their salvation in other ways 
 than by remaining among them. All this knowledge, it 
 occurred to me, would die with me if I did not escape. 
 The wretches, too, had so little intention of giving us up, 
 that they committed an act of perfidy against the right 
 and custom of all these nations. An Indian of the 
 country of the Sokokis, allies of the Iroquois, having 
 been taken by the upper Algonquins and brought to 
 Three Rivers or Quebec as a prisoner, was delivered and 
 set at liberty by the intervention of the Governor of New 
 France, at the solicitation of our Fathers. The good 
 Indian, seeing that the French had saved his life, sent 
 beautiful presents in the month of April to deliver at 
 least one of the French. The Iroquois retained the 
 presents without setting one of us at liberty; a treachery 
 perhaps unexampled among these tribes, for they invari- 
 ably observe the law, that whoso touches or accepts the 
 present made him, must execute what is asked by the 
 present. Accordingly, when they do not wish to grant 
 
Mohawk III Faith. 145 
 
 what is desired, they send back the presents, or make 
 others in their stead. 
 
 " But to return to my purpose. Having weighed be- 
 fore God, with all possible abstraction from self, the rea- 
 sons for remaining among the Indians, and those for 
 leaving, I concluded that our Lord would be more 
 pleased with my taking the opportunity to escape. 
 
 " As soon as it was day I went to salute the Dutch Gov- 
 ernor, and told him the resolution I had come to before 
 God; he called for the officers of the ship, told them his 
 intentions, and exhorted them to receive and conceal me 
 — in a word, to carry me over to Europe. They replied 
 that if I could once set foot in their vessel, I was safe; I 
 should not leave it till I reached Bordeaux or Rochelle. 
 'Cheer up, then,' said the Governor; 'return with the 
 Indians, and this evening, or in the night, steal off quietly 
 and make for the river; there you will find a little boat, 
 which I will have ready to take you to the ship.' After 
 most humble thanks to all these gentlemen, I left the 
 Dutch, the better to conceal my design. In the evening 
 I retired with ten or twelve Iroquois to a barn,* where 
 we spent the night. Before lying down, I went out to 
 see where I could most easily escape. The dogs, then let 
 loose, ran at me, and a large and powerful one snapped 
 at my bare leg and bit it severely.! 
 
 "I immediately entered the barn; the Iroquois closed 
 the door securely, and to guard me better, came and lay 
 beside me, especially one who was in a manner appoint- 
 ed to watch me. Seeing myself beset with these mis- 
 
 *The barn, about one hundred feet long, belonged to a Dutchman 
 whose wife was an Iroquois. One end served as the house of the 
 family; the domestic animals were kept in the other end; the open 
 space in the middle was left to the companions of Father Jogues. 
 (MS. of Father Buteux). 
 
 f The farmer, roused by the noise, came with a candle to examine 
 the wound. Moved by pity, he tried to dress it, but the only remedy 
 he applied was a hair of the dog that bit him. (Same MS.). 
 
146 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 haps, and the barn well shut and surrounded by dogs 
 that would betray me if I attempted to go out, I almost 
 thought that I could not escape. I sweetly complained 
 to my God, that having given the thought of escaping, 
 ' He hath shut up my way with square stones, and in a 
 spacious place my feet ' (Lament, iii. 9). This whole 
 night also I spent without sleep; towards day I heard the 
 cocks crow; soon after a servant of the Dutch farmer 
 who had received us into his barn, entered by some door 
 I did not see. I went up to him softly, and not under- 
 standing his Flemish, made him a sign to stop the dogs 
 barking. He immediately went out, and I after him, as 
 soon as I had taken my little luggage, consisting of a 
 Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, an Imitation of Christ, 
 and a wooden cross, which I had made to keep me in 
 mind of my Saviour's sufferings. Having got out of the 
 barn without making any noise or waking my guards, I 
 climbed over a fence which inclosed the house, and ran 
 straight to the river where the ship was; it was as much 
 as my wounded leg could do, for the distance was a good 
 quarter of a league. I found the boat as I had been 
 told, but, as the tide had gone down, it was high and 
 dry. I pushed it to get it to the water, but finding it too 
 heavy, I called to the ship to send me their boat to take 
 me on board. There was no answer; I do not know 
 whether they heard me; be that as it may, no one ap- 
 peared, and day was now beginning to reveal to the Iro- 
 quois the robbery which I had made of myself, and I 
 feared to be surprised in my innocent crime. Weary of 
 hallooing, I returned to my boat, and praying to the Al- 
 mighty to increase my strength, I succeeded at last so 
 well, by working it slowly on and pushing stoutly, that f 
 got it into the water. As soon as it floated, I jumped in 
 and reached the vessel alone, unperceived by any Iro- 
 quois. I was immediately lodged in the bottom of the 
 hold, and to hide me they put a large box on the hatch. 
 I was two days and two nights in the hold of this ship, 
 
His Escape. 147 
 
 in such a state that I expected to be suffocated and die 
 of the stench, when I remembered poor Jonas, and 
 prayed Our Lord ' that I might not flee from His face ' 
 (Jonas i. 3), nor depart from His will; but on the con- 
 trary, ' that he would infatuate all counsels ' (2 Kings 
 XV. 31) that were not for His glory, and keep me in the 
 land of these heathen if He did not approve my retreat 
 and flight. 
 
 "The second night of my voluntary imprisonment, the 
 minister of the Hollanders * came to tell me that the 
 Iroquois had made much trouble, and that the Dutch 
 settlers were afraid that they would set fire to their houses 
 and kill their cattle. They have reason to fear them, for 
 they are armed with good arquebuses. ^ If,' I replied, 
 * for my sake this great tempest is upon you, cast me 
 into the sea' (Jonas i, 12). If this trouble has been 
 caused by me, I am ready to appease it at the loss of my 
 life. I never wished to escape to the injury of the 
 least man in the colony. 
 
 "At last, then, I had to leave my den; the sailors took 
 umbrage, saying ' that they had pledged their word in 
 case I could set foot on the ship, and that they were now 
 taking me off at the very moment when they should 
 have brought me, had I not been there; that I had put 
 my life in danger by escaping on their promise, and that, 
 cost what it might, they must stick to it.' This honest 
 bluntness touched me, but I begged them to let me go, 
 as the captain, who had opened to me the doorway of 
 escaping, now asked me back. I was taken to his house. 
 
 *The name of this benefactor of Father Jogues deserves to be 
 recorded. It was John Megapolensis; he was the first minister of 
 the place. He came from Holland with his wife and four children, 
 and the States-General fixed the sum for his maintenance. This cir- 
 cumstance of a Jesuit being saved by a Protestant minister is one 
 of the most striking episodes in this history. Domine Megapolensis 
 is the author of a short but interesting account of the Mohawks. 
 
148 Life of Father J agues, 
 
 where he kept me concealed. These comings and go- 
 ings were done by night, so that I was not discovered. 
 In all this proceeding I might have urged my own rea- 
 sons, but it was not for me to speak in my own cause, 
 but rather to follow the commands of others; I cheer- 
 fully submitted. At last the captain told me that we 
 must yield calmly to the storm, and wait till the minds 
 of the Indians were appeased: in this advice all con- 
 curred. Here, then, I am a voluntary prisoner in his 
 house, whence I write this. If you ask my thoughts in 
 all this affair, I will tell you first, that the vessel which 
 had wished to save me has gone off without me; second, 
 that if our Lord does not in an almost miraculous way 
 protect me, the Indians, who come and go here every 
 moment, will discover me; and if they ever believe that 
 I am still here, I must necessarily be restored to their 
 hands. 
 
 " Now, when they had such fury against me before 
 my flight, how will they treat me when I fall again into 
 their power? I shall die by no ordinary death; their 
 fire, rage, and new-devised cruelties will wring out my 
 life. Blessed be God's name forever ! We are ever in 
 the bosom of His Divine and adorable Providence. Vestri 
 capilli capitis numerati sunty nolite timere, 7?iultis passeribus 
 meliores estis vos; quorum unus non cadet super terram sine 
 patre vestro, — ' Yea, the very hairs of your head are num- 
 bered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than 
 many sparrows,' ' not one of whom falls to the earth 
 without your Father' (Matt. x. 30). 
 
 " I have been hidden ten or twelve days, and it is hardly 
 possible that an evil day will not come upon me. 
 
 "In the third place, you will see our great need of your 
 prayers, and of the holy sacrifices of all our Fathers. 
 Give us this alms, Ut reddat me Do7ninus, idoneum ad se 
 amandum^ fortem ad patiendum, co7istantem ad perseverandum 
 in suo amore et servitio, — ' that the Lord may render me fit 
 to love Him, patient to endure, constant to persevere in 
 
Hidden on Shoj^e. 149 
 
 His holy love and service.' This and a little New Testa- 
 ment from Europe are my sole desires. Pray for these 
 poor nations that burn and eat each other, that they 
 may come to a knowledge of their Creator, and render 
 Him the tribute of their love. Aleinor sum vcstri in vin- 
 culis meis^ — 'I am mindful of you in my bonds;' captivity 
 cannot enchain my remembrance. 
 
 "I am, in heart and affection, etc." 
 
 " Rensselaersvvyck, August 30, 1643." 
 
 While the commandant at Rensselaerswyck sought to 
 appease the Indians, who, numbering only ten or twelve, 
 could not excite in his mind any serious alarm, he was 
 perplexed to see a delegation come from the Mohawk 
 town about the middle of September to demand expla- 
 nations. The towns had been greatly excited when the 
 flight of the servant of God became known. The Dutch 
 were known to be accomplices, and the Mohawks wished 
 to hold them responsible. 
 
 The deputies, who had been selected from the leading 
 chiefs, came fully armed, and determined to get their 
 prisoner back, willingly or by force. The case seemed 
 desperate, but the commandant of the fort was not be in- 
 timidated by threats ; he sturdily maintained his posi- 
 tion, refusing to surrender him. 
 
 The clamor redoubled, and after several stormy inter- 
 views, they were on the point of resorting to violence, 
 when the brave Dutch captain boldly advanced to the 
 spokesman of the Mohawk party and said to him firmly, 
 "The Frenchman you are seeking is under my protec- 
 tion. I cannot give him up. If I surrendered him to 
 you, I would be false to my own honor and humanity. 
 You yourselves ought to be glad to have a motive for 
 justifying your conduct in the eyes of your countrymen, 
 and preventing them from committing a crime. You like 
 our nation. Well, you must know that there are rights 
 
150 I^if^ of Fathe7^ Jogues. 
 
 of protection which allied nations must respect. To set 
 these at defiance without some plausible reason would 
 lead to a rupture that would bring on us endless bloody- 
 wars. The course I have followed is sanctioned by all 
 the Dutch ; you esteem them enough, I think, to yield to 
 their wishes ; but to give you full satisfaction, here is 
 gold for the ransom of your prisoner." With this he 
 offered them three hundred livres. 
 
 These words, uttered in a tone of authority, which the 
 crisis suggested to a generous heart, prevailed : the Iro- 
 quois chief, influenced by the sight of the money, agreed 
 to a settlement, and withdrew with his party. 
 
 Though he had been ransomed, Father Jogues found 
 that he was not yet free. The Dutch had fears as to the 
 permanence of a peace so hastily made, and a new op- 
 portunity of sending him to Europe was impatiently 
 awaited. 
 
 The commandant then committed his guest to the 
 care of an old Dutchman, faithful, but hard, avaricious, 
 and unpitying. He lodged the missionary in a wretched 
 garret, where hunger, thirst, heat, and fear of the Iroquois 
 made every moment a torture ; but there too the servant 
 of God cast himself into the hands of Providence, like a 
 child in the arms of its mother. 
 
 This guardian, the commissary of the settlement, had 
 no care or respect for the missionary. He took him up 
 water every fortnight in a pail used to make lye. The 
 heat of the month of August and the taint of the vessel 
 made the water so vile that the disgusting liquid caused 
 the poor prisoner violent pains in the stomach. His food 
 was so scanty that it barely sufficed to keep him alive. 
 A little black bread and rancid butter, stewed pumpkin, 
 but no meat, was his ordinary diet, contrary to the com- 
 mandant's orders, who sent him from time to time a dish 
 from his own table, and who charged the man to provide 
 the missionary with all he required, but his orders were 
 disregarded. 
 
A Faithless Guaj^dian. 151 
 
 This almost complete isolation lasted six weeks : 
 Father Jogues spent them in converse with God and His 
 Saints. The Protestant minister sometimes came to see 
 him. One day he asked him how he was treated, and 
 whether he required anything. The missionary, who 
 had hitherto kept silence, and would have continued to do 
 so, had he not been directly questioned, replied that very 
 little was brought to him. " I was afraid so," replied the 
 minister; " the old fellow is an arrant miser, and keeps 
 what is sent to you." This was the fact. The command- 
 ant on learning the truth, sent Father Jogues bread 
 and meat, which were after that time delivered to him 
 without passing through the hands of the faithless host. 
 
 A torment more painful than abstinence imperilled the 
 life of Father Jogues. While he was on the vessel a 
 plaster made of ointment for scurf had been put on his 
 injured leg. It poisoned the wound, and gangrene was 
 setting in when the surgeon of the settlement was called, 
 and succeeded in checking the progress (^f the evil. 
 
 Independently of these physical sufferings the poor 
 Father was in constant alarm, and unable to leave his 
 hiding-place, as the Iroquois were all the while prowling 
 about the court of the fort, and often spent the night 
 there. He says in one of his letters, that he did not see 
 how the savages had failed a hundred times to one to 
 see him. The garret was divided into two rooms by thin 
 boards, so badly set up that there was a finger's width 
 between them. You could easily see from one side what 
 was in the other ; and one of these was his room. Now 
 the commissary kept in the outer room a part of the goods 
 and provisions which he sold. The Iroquois came there 
 constantly during the day, and were separated from their 
 prisoner by a mere partition of lath. The missionary at 
 these times hid behind some empty casks, remaining 
 there on some occasions three or four consecutive hours, 
 crouched down and motionless ; a position which 
 inflicted "a gehenna of torture," full of dread of being 
 
152 L^f^ of Father Jogiies. 
 
 betrayed by the slightest movement, and discovered by 
 his implacable enemies. 
 
 After this long trial, to which Divine Providence 
 wished to subject the virtue of His servant, the hour of 
 deliverance arrived at the moment when it was least ex- 
 pected. 
 
 The Governor of New Netherland resided at New 
 Amsterdam, now New York, one hundred and forty- 
 two miles below Rensselaerswyck. William Kieft, the 
 fifth Director-General of this rising colony, of which he 
 assumed the administration March 23, 1638, on hearing 
 of the missionary's sad condition and the dangers which 
 surrounded him, ordered the commandant to send him 
 down by the first vessel, with all the precautions pru- 
 dence could suggest. 
 
 There was just then a vessel lying there which was to 
 sail down the river the next day. The preparations re- 
 quired little time. The minister and some of the leading 
 inhabitants accompanied Father Jogues, who embarked 
 secretly. On the sail down the river, which took six 
 days, he received marks of cordial sympathy and benevo- 
 lence from his travelling companions. Domine Megapo- 
 lensis showed constant kindness toward him, and wished 
 to give a little entertainment to the crew in his honor, in 
 order to celebrate his happy deliverance. " Especially," 
 relates the hero of the adventure, " did he insist, when 
 we came to an island to which he wished to give my 
 name. Amid the noise of cannon and bottles each showed 
 his esteem after his own fashion." 
 
 Domine Megapolensis neglected no means of exciting 
 in their hearts a frank and hearty joy, and Father Jogues, 
 whom he called a very learned man, met tliese touching 
 marks of friendship with cordial gratitude. All admired 
 his modesty as much as his humility. 
 
 The Governor at Manhattan Island gave him a most 
 honorable reception, invited him to his table, and seated 
 him beside the pastor. He also provided for his pressing 
 
Sails Down the Hudson. 153 
 
 wants, and gave him suitable clothing to replace the rag- 
 ged and half-savage costume in which he was attired. 
 
 The presence of a Jesuit, a confessor of the Catholic 
 faith, amid a Protestant community excited lively curi- 
 osity. All flocked to see him, and they manifested the 
 deepest feeling on hearing an account of the hardships 
 which he had undergone. Some asked him what reward 
 the members of the Company of New France* would 
 pay him, for they imagined that he had been treated so 
 on account of their trade. Father Jogues undeceived 
 them, and explained the sanctity of his apostolic minis- 
 try. " No thought of earthly or transitory interest," 
 said he, "induced me to leave my own country; I sought 
 but one object, even when exposing myself to the dan- 
 gers into which I fell, and that was to announce the Gos- 
 pel to those who knew it not." 
 
 A young man employed by a merchant in that coun- 
 try, seeing him one day, ran to him, fell at his feet, and 
 covered his mutilated hands with kisses. He cried with 
 streaming eyes, ** Martyr of Jesus Christ! Martyr of 
 Jesus Christ !" The missionary, confused and affected, 
 embraced him affectionately. He sought to escape these 
 demonstrations, which wounded his humility. He asked 
 this man who sought to honor him whether he was a 
 Calvinist. " No," he replied, expressing himself as well 
 as he could, "I am a Pole and a Lutheran." Father 
 Jogues was unable to render any spiritual service to this 
 well-disposed soul ; he could not make himself under- 
 stood. 
 
 He had the same difficulty with a woman of Portu- 
 guese birth. On entering a house near the fort he was 
 
 *The Company of New France, founded in 1627, under the name 
 of the Company of One Hundred Associates, was projected by Riche- 
 lieu. It entered into all the rights and duties of the mercantile com- 
 panies which had till then monopolized the Canada trade, and who 
 thought more of their own interests than of those of the colony. 
 
154 I^tf^ of Father Jogues. 
 
 agreeably surprised to see on the chimney-piece a 
 picture of the Blessed Virgin and one of St. Aloysius 
 Gonzaga; he made inquiry, and found that the mistress 
 of the house was the wife of the ensign, and a Catholic. 
 Unfortunately she knew none of the languages which 
 Father Jogues spoke. 
 
 He found greater consolation in his intercourse with 
 a good Irish Catholic, who arrived during his stay from 
 the Virginia coast. When he heard that there was a Ca- 
 tholic priest in the place, it was his first and urgent duty 
 to show the servant of God all the interest he felt in his 
 condition, and to profit by his ministry to approach the 
 Sacraments. From him Father Jogues learned something 
 of the progress of the Faith in the colony of Maryland, 
 on the shores of the Cliesapeake. Founded a few years 
 before by Lord Baltimore to afford Catholics of the 
 British Isles a place where they could enjoy religious 
 liberty and peaceably live in the Faith, it received its 
 name in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria. Two Jesuit 
 Fathers, Andrew White* and John Altham, had accompa- 
 nied the first settlers to aid them spiritually and labor in 
 converting the Indians. 
 
 Meanwhile Father Jogues was constantly awaiting an 
 opportunity to proceed to Europe. In the month of No- 
 vember the Governor cheerfully offered him a passage 
 in a little vessel of fifty tons which he was despatching 
 in all haste to the Dutch Government to lay before it 
 grave occurrences which had taken place, and which 
 threatened to compromise seriously the future of the 
 colony. 
 
 A force of sixty well-armed settlers had undertaken to 
 exact reparation for the death of a Hollander whom a 
 drunken Indian had killed with an arrow. They went 
 
 * After twelve years' labor in the colony, a Protestant revolution 
 caused him to be sent back to England as a prisoner in 1645, and 
 he died there in 1656, at the age of seventy-seven. 
 
Sails to Eicrope. 155 
 
 out to surprise a band of Indians of the same tribe who 
 had fled to a small island, and they massacred eighty. 
 This was the signal for a bloody war. 
 
 The Indians retaliated, and caused immense destruc- 
 tion in the colony. The Dutch then resolved to crush 
 them. The Indians were pursued with such ferocity that 
 more than sixteen hundred perished in battle; the rest 
 made peace. But this result was more fatal than advan- 
 tageous to the Dutch. They soon felt that they had 
 alienated all the Indians and lost confidence with them. 
 
 It was important to lay the whole condition before the 
 States as soon as possible. 
 
 Accustomed to see in all things the action of Provi- 
 dence, Father Jogues thanked God for the opportunity it 
 afforded him of returning to Europe, and, furnished with 
 a letter of recommendation from the Governor, he em- 
 barked for Europe on the 5th of November ; but all the 
 precautions taken to facilitate the voyage could not 
 shield him from new annoyances and sufferings, which 
 the Almighty seemed constantly to raise up before him, 
 in order to give greater lustre to his virtue. 
 
1^6 L ije of Fathei'- Jog ues. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 An Uncomfortable Voyage — Father Jogues in Brittany— Touch- 
 ing Hospitality — College at Rennes — Arrives in Paris — 
 Words of the Sovereign Pontiff— Returns to Canada — At 
 Montreal — Couture's Delivery. 
 
 'FATHER JOGUES had an uncomfortable voyage. 
 The rough, prejudiced sailors did not show him 
 the compassion manifested to him in the Dutch 
 colony. They regarded the penniless Jesuit as an un- 
 welcome burden. Some ropes on deck were his cabin 
 and berth. When the sea was too rough he had to take 
 refuge in the hold with a swarm of cats and a most of- 
 fensive cargo. With no food but that given the sailors, 
 exposed to damp and cold, in very light clothing, and not 
 yet fully recovered from his hardships, privations, and 
 wounds, he continued his life of sacrifice and danger in 
 this small craft, which was tossed by every motion of the 
 waves. 
 
 As they neared the coast of Europe new trials arose. 
 They encountered a violent gale as they entered the 
 British Channel, and finding it necessary to seek refuge 
 in an English port, steered for Falmouth in Cornwall, 
 which still held out for Charles I. Two Parliament 
 vessels cruising off the coast gave chase to the Dutch 
 vessel to intercept it ; but it eluded them and entered the 
 port, where it anchored, towards the close of December, 
 1643. 
 
 To recruit after such a voyage nearly all the ship's 
 people went ashore for the night, leaving Father Jogues 
 alone with a sailor who was in charge of the vessel. In 
 
At Falmoitth. 157 
 
 the middle of the night it was boarded by prowlers, who 
 came to steal. They imagined that a vessel did not come 
 that distance without bringing some valuables. But 
 they were baffled, in spite of their search and threats. 
 They even put a pistol at Father Jogues' head, but did 
 not otherwise maltreat him. They contented themselves 
 with carrying off his hat, but took all the baggage of the 
 Dutch. 
 
 As soon as day broke Father Jogues hastened to report 
 to the captain what had happened, and while he was in 
 pursuit of the thieves, the missionary met a French sailor, 
 who, seeing that he was a fellow-countryman, invited 
 him to breakfast, and gave him an old coat and a sailor's 
 cap. When he learned his adventures, and found that 
 he was conversing with a priest of the Society of Jesus, 
 who was anxious to return to France, he was much 
 affected, and set to work to secure a passage for him. 
 
 He soon had the good-fortune to find a small vessel 
 clearing for Brittany, which agreed to take the missionary 
 on board. 
 
 Although a friend of the Frenchman, the Dutch cap- 
 tain did not like this, and was loth to let his passenger 
 go unless he paid his fare. He yielded at last to their 
 remonstrances, and trusting to a promise that he should 
 be indemnified on his arrival in Holland, allowed Father 
 Jogues to proceed directly to France. 
 
 The holy missionary embarked on Christmas eve on 
 this vessel, a collier, which put him ashore the next 
 morning on the coast of Lower Brittany, near Saint-Pol 
 de Leon.^" 
 
 What must not have been his joy to find himself once 
 more on Catholic soil ! What sighs of gratitude and 
 
 * Father Jogues says that he landed between Brest and Saint- Pol de 
 Leon. As the distance between the two places is nearly twenty-five 
 miles, the exact spot cannot be determined, but as it required five days 
 to reach Rennes on horseback, we must suppose that he landed near 
 Saint-Pol de Leon. 
 
158 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 love did there not rise from his heart to thank God for 
 having rescued him from so many perils and restored 
 him to liberty ! 
 
 His first thought was to go and prostrate himself at 
 the foot of the altar, and partake of the holy Eucharist, 
 of which he had been deprived for thirteen months and 
 more. He made his way to the nearest cottage in sight, 
 to ask the way to the church. 
 
 On learning that the ill-clad, unknown stranger was 
 anxious to receive holy communion, the pious villagers, 
 touched by his venerable air and his exhausted looks, 
 lent him a hat and a short cloak to enable him to go to 
 communion more becomingly. They had taken him for 
 some poor Irish Catholic flying from persecution, and 
 this thought increased the interest which his pious wish 
 inspired ; they pressed him to come back and take some 
 refreshment after he had satisfied his devotion. 
 
 It was the great festival of Christmas. The good 
 peasants were all out in their holiday garb, preparing to 
 attend the services of the solemnity. It was a happiness 
 to take the new-comer to the church. Joy filled the heart 
 of the servant of God to see himself surrounded by these 
 thoroughly Catholic Breton folk, but it was still greater 
 when he was enabled to approach the Sacraments of 
 Penance and the Eucharist, and join in offering the Sacri- 
 fice of the Mass. He then remembered with lively 
 gratitude the long days of his cruel captivity, and that 
 prolonged isolation amid heathen savages or people 
 estranged from the Church. "At that moment," he said 
 subsequently, " I seemed to begin once more to live, and 
 to enjoy all the happiness of my deliverance." 
 
 Father Jogues returned to his hosts after the service, 
 in order to take a little food, so necessary in his fatigued 
 and exhausted condition. The sight of his mutilated 
 hands excited the curiosity of these good peasants, and 
 they asked him without ceremony how such a misfortune 
 had befallen him. The missionary then related to them 
 
A Friendly Me reliant, 159 
 
 his long story, and these hearts, full of lively faith, heard 
 with deep respect and admiration the touching story 
 of those long sufferings endured for religion. It was 
 not mere compassion, but a genuine veneration, which 
 they experienced in the presence of the man of God. 
 He has himself related how deeply he was touched when 
 he saw the two daughters of this poor family show him 
 their pity according to their means, and ask a remem- 
 brance in his prayers. "They came," he says, "to offer 
 me their alms of a few sous, perhaps their whole store, 
 with so much humility and modesty, that my soul was 
 moved to tears." 
 
 However, Father Jogues had promised the captain 
 who had brought him to Brittany that he would return 
 to his vessel after he had performed his devotions. He 
 had scarcely reached it when a merchant from Rennes, 
 named Berson, whom business had brought to that part, 
 came on board to arrange some affairs with the captain. 
 
 Father Jogues perceived him, and ascertaining whence 
 he came, regarded his presence at that place as provi- 
 dential. Seizing a favorable moment, he approached 
 Berson, and touching him gently asked him to take pity 
 on him. 
 
 On seeing a man so attenuated and so ill-clad, Berson 
 took him for a beggar, and offered him a sou, which he 
 refused. Berson offered two, which were again refused. 
 After hesitating a moment, between fear and hope. Fath- 
 er Jogues resolved to make himself known, and whispered 
 to Berson, " My very dear sir, take compassion on me. 
 I am a Jesuit Father." 
 
 Surprised and affected, Berson promised to help him. 
 Till he had transacted his business, he sent Father 
 Jogues to one of his friends, who lived in a little town 
 about ten miles distant, where he joined him the next 
 day.* He immediately arranged to take Father Jogues 
 
 " * The account in Creuxius (Historia Canadensis), which has not been 
 followed by Chadevoix, is very confused as to what happened in Eng- 
 
1 60 L'^f^ of Father Jogites. 
 
 to the nearest Jesuit college, that at Rennes, regarding 
 it as a special favor that he could act as his guide.* 
 
 After five days' travel, Father Jogues, on the 5th of Jan- 
 uary, 1644, knocked at the door of the college, where he 
 was to meet his brethren of the Society once more. It 
 was early in the morning, and the porter had no suspicion 
 who the ill-clad man in the sailor-cap might be; but hear- 
 ing that the stranger wished to see the Father Rector to 
 o-ive him some information from Canada, the Brother- 
 porter at once went to notify the head of the house. The 
 Rector was just putting on his vestments to say Mass, 
 but yielding to a feeling of pity as much as of curiosity, 
 he preferred to defer the holy sacrifice for a moment. 
 '•' Perhaps," he said to himself, '' this poor man is in great 
 need; perhaps he brings us some important intelligence 
 from the noble apostles of those wild parts." 
 
 The Rector accordingly hastened down to the parlor 
 to see this traveller, who handed him the letters of rec- 
 ommendation given him by the Dutch Governor of New 
 Netherland. But without stopping to read them, the 
 Superior plied him with questions as to the country from 
 which he came, the condition of the Mission, and especi- 
 ally about Father Jogues. "Do you know him?" "Very 
 well," replied the stranger. "We have learned," con- 
 tinued the Rector, " his capture by the Iroquois, his cap- 
 tivity and sufferings ; but we do not know what fate has 
 befallen him. Is he dead, or is he still alive?" "He is 
 alive, he is free, and it is he himself who is addressing 
 you," said Father Jogues, falling at his Superior's feet 
 and asking his blessing. The Rector clasped him to his 
 heart, and took him into the house, where the whole 
 
 land and on the Breton coast. A typographical error, huronictwi for 
 brittanicuvi, increases the obscurity. 
 
 * The college at Rennes was founded in 1606, and soon became 
 very flourishing. In 1641 it had 1484 pupils, and was exceeded only 
 by Clermont College, Paris, which had 1800; that of Rouen, which had 
 1968; and La Fleche, which had more than two thousand. 
 
Let tc 7' from Rennes. i6i 
 
 community soon gathered to salute the heroic missionary. 
 He had many questions to answer, much sympathy to 
 receive, many to share his joy. Every one wished to kiss 
 with respect the scarred hands and hear the account of 
 his affecting captivity. How happy is the moment 
 when a brother tried by so many disasters, and given up 
 for lost, is found once more ! 
 
 Amid these transports of holy joy, all led the holy 
 missionary to the foot of the altar, still in his sailor garb, 
 to render just and fervent thanksgiving to God for this 
 wonderful series of signal benefits. 
 
 Although they repeat some of the events already relat- 
 ed, the reader will peruse with interest two letters writ- 
 ten by Father Jogues after his arrival at Rennes, as they 
 lay open his saintly soul. 
 
 One is addressed to a friend on the very day of his ar- 
 rival. 
 
 "At last my sins rendered me unworthy to die among 
 the Iroquois ! I am still alive, and God wills it so for my 
 amendment. At least I recognize it as a great favor that 
 He has permitted me to endure something. ' It is good 
 for me that Thou hast humbled me ; that I may learn 
 Thy justifications ' ( Ps. cxviii. 71). 
 
 " I sailed on the 5th of November from the Dutch set- 
 tlement on a barque of fifty tons, which brought me to 
 Falmouth, England, on Christmas eve, and I reached 
 Lower Brittany, between Brest and Saint-Pol de Leon, 
 on Christmas day, in time to have the consolation of hear- 
 ing Mass and performing my devotions. A good merchant 
 who met me brought me to Rennes, paying my expenses, 
 and I arrived here to-day, Feast of the Epiphany. 
 
 " What a happiness, after living so long among sav- 
 ages, and being thrown among Calvinists, Lutherans, 
 Anabaptists, and Puritans, to find myself among the ser- 
 vants of God in the Catholic Church, and to see myself in 
 tlie Society of Jesus ! It is a slight idea of the joy we 
 shall one day enjoy in heaven, if it please God, when ' He 
 
1 62 Life of Father Jogites. 
 
 will gather together the dispersed of Israel * ( Ps. cxlvi. 
 
 "When will God withdraw His hand from our poor 
 French and our poor Indians ? ' Woe is me: why was I 
 born to see the ruin of my people ?' (i Mac. ii. 7.) My 
 sins and the infidelities of my past life have made weighty 
 indeed the hand of God's majesty justly incensed against 
 us. 
 
 " I beg Your Reverence to obtain for me of our Lord a 
 perfect conversion, and that this little chastisement which 
 He has given me may serve, as He designed, to render 
 me better. Father Raymbault, Father Dolebeau, and 
 Father Davost, are then dead ? * They were ripe for 
 heaven, and New France has in one year lost three per- 
 sons who had labored greatly there. 
 
 " I do not know whether a copy of the ' Relation of the 
 Hurons ' has been received this year. It was sent down 
 to the French in the month of June, and was given to me 
 in the Iroquois country with a large package of letters 
 which our Fathers on the Huron Mission were sending 
 to France. Had I thought that God designed to deliver 
 me, I would have brought it with me when I went to 
 visit the Dutch. All was left in the cabin where I lived. 
 
 * Father Dolebeau came to Canada in 1640, and remained from that 
 time at the mission of Miscou, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Ill- 
 health compelled him to sail for France in 1643, but the vessel was 
 captured by three of the enemy's frigates, and while they were plun- 
 dering it, the magazine took fire and blew up. All on board perished. 
 Some historians confound the Jesuit Father Dolebeau with a Recollect 
 Father Dolbeau, who arrived in Canada in 1615, and returned to 
 France in 1629. 
 
 Father Ambrose Davost came to Canada in 1632 with Father An- 
 thony Daniel, and was employed at first at St. Anne, on the Island of 
 Cape Breton. He was then successively on the Huron Mission at 
 Quebec and Montreal. Suffering greatly from scurvy, he was sent 
 back to France in 1643, but died on the way, and the ocean was his 
 grave also. 
 
• Letter to Father Laleniaiit. 163 
 
 " The next time I will write a longer letter ; let this suf- 
 fice for the first day of my arrival. 
 " Rennes, January 5, 1644." 
 
 The second letter of Father Jogues was addressed to 
 Father Charles Lalemant, then Procurator of the Canada 
 Mission at Paris. 
 
 " Rennes, January 6, 1644. 
 
 " ' Now I know in very deed that the Lord hath sent 
 His angels and hath delivered me out of the hand of 
 Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the 
 Jews' (Acts xii. 11). The Iroquois came to the Dutch 
 post about the middle of September, and made a great 
 deal of disturbance, but at last received the presents 
 made by the captain who had me concealed. They 
 amounted to about three hundred livres, which I will en- 
 endeavor to repay. All things being quieted, I was sent to 
 Manhattan, where the Governor of the country resides. 
 He received me very kindly, gave me clothes, and pas- 
 sage i'n a vessel which crossed the ocean in mid-winter. 
 
 "Having reached England, I got on a collier's vessel, 
 which brought me to Lower Brittany, with a night-cap 
 on my head, in utter want of everything, as you landed 
 at St. Sebastian, but not after two shipwrecks." * 
 
 The mother of Father Jogues was still alive, and it is 
 easy to understand the anguish and perplexity of her 
 motherly heart when she heard of the sufferings of her 
 beloved son. He hastened to write to her the day after 
 he reached Rennes, but the letter has not been preserved 
 to our time. 
 
 The missionary did not remain long at Rennes. His 
 
 * Father Jogues alludes to two shipwrecks of Father Charles Lale- 
 mant. The first occurred on his unfortunate attempt to carry supplies 
 to his brethren in Canada in 1629. A storm prevented the vessel 
 from entering the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and drove it on the south side 
 of Cape Breton. Father Noyrot and Brother Malo lost their lives. 
 When returning to Europe that same year Father Charles Lalemant 
 was wrecked on the coast of Spain. 
 
164 ^^f^ of Father Jogtces, 
 
 Superior summoned him to Paris, where all impatiently 
 expected him. Everywhere he received the same wel- 
 come and excited the same interest. He was justly re- 
 garded as a Confessor of the Faith, and the marks of his 
 victory on his mutilated body were lovingly venerated 
 by all. 
 
 Queen Anne of Austria, when she heard of the arrival 
 of the missionary, whose virtues and travails she knew, 
 said in the presence of the courtiers, " Romances are 
 written every day which are a tissue of fictions : here is 
 one that is true, and that combines the wonderful with 
 the most admirable heroism." She wished to see the 
 missionary, and was moved to tears on beholding the 
 scarcely healed wounds inflicted by the cruelty of the 
 Iroquois. The sentiment she experienced was like that 
 displayed by Constantine to the Fathers of the Council 
 of Nice, when he respectfully kissed the wounds of those 
 glorious defenders of the Faith. 
 
 While Father Jogues remained in France a petition 
 was forwarded to Rome to obtain from the Sovereign 
 Pontiff faculty for him to say Mass, notwithstanding the 
 mutilated condition of his hands. The reputation of the 
 servant of God and the account of his combats had al- 
 ready reached the Eternal City. The Sovereign Pontiff, 
 Urban VIII., filled with admiration at such heroic cour- 
 age, replied in these famous words : ^^ Indignum esset 
 Christi martyrefu, Christi non bibere sanguinem'' — "It would 
 be unjust that a martyr for Christ should not drink the 
 blood of Christ." 
 
 The humble missionary was pained at the notoriety 
 and the honors paid him. People came out of devotion 
 to hear his Mass, where all admired his humility, mod- 
 esty, and piety. The more people spoke about him, the 
 more deeply he seemed impressed with his own nothing- 
 ness; and far from wishing to speak of his past sufferings, 
 it was a torture for him to hear others converse about it, 
 or to be obliged to show his maimed and distorted fin- 
 
His Modesty. 165 
 
 gers as a curiosity. His Superiors were even obliged to 
 recommend that his sensitiveness on this point should be 
 respected. 
 
 A soldier does not display the wounds he receives in 
 the service of his country more proudly than the servant 
 of God strove to hide the wounds which covered his body 
 and which, like St. Paul, he might call the stigmata of 
 Christ. 
 
 The repugnance of Father Jogues to be seen abroad 
 was the chief motive why he resisted the entreaties of 
 his family, who were anxious to enjoy his presence, and 
 to see more intimately his virtues, which were so gene- 
 rally recognized. Like Xavier, his model, he would not 
 yield to their pious wishes. This lawful consolation 
 seemed to him incompatible with the career of sacrifice 
 that he had embraced, and the apostolic ministry which 
 Providence had confided to him. Moreover, if his mod- 
 esty had something to undergo in the seclusion of 
 houses of his own order, how could it but shrink in 
 dread from what must be experienced if he appeared 
 publicly in places where he was so well known ? 
 
 This truly apostolic heart, from all the testimonies of 
 admiration, friendship, and veneration lavished on him, 
 drew only one conclusion — that he must return to the 
 field of battle where he had fought so valiantly. He 
 longed for his beloved Mission, with which he had 
 formed so close an alliance, cemented by his blood. One 
 of his confidential friends, who knew his ideas inti- 
 mately, said««Gf him, " He is as cheerful as though he 
 had suffered nothing ; he is as zealous to return to the 
 Hurons, amid all the dangers, as though he considered 
 the dangers a shelter and a port." 
 
 His Superiors did not wish to thwart his holy desire : 
 he had shown himself worthy of so noble a heritage, and 
 his heart always cherished the fond hope that he would 
 receive the crown of martyrdom, which he had seen so 
 often glittering above his head. 
 
1 66 Life of Father J0g2e.es, 
 
 Father Jogues had spent only a few months in France 
 when, in the spring of 1644, he resolved to take advan- 
 tage of a ship which was clearing at Rochelle for Canada, 
 and he embarked once more for his Mission. 
 
 His heart was more inflamed than ever with the desire 
 to labor for God's glory. The signal benefits that he 
 had received seemed to bind him more closely to the 
 divine service, and to require a more generous and com- 
 plete sacrifice of himself than ever. The voyage afforded 
 him more than one occasion to practise this zeal, and he 
 did not let them pass unimproved. 
 
 The vessel which bore him had scarcely lost sight of 
 the shores of France when the discontented sailors mu- 
 tinied against the captain, and formed a plot to compel 
 him to put back, on the pretext that the vessel was un- 
 seaworthy. After experiencing very violent winds, they 
 believed that she could not safely make a long voyage; 
 at all events, they resolved not to make it at their risk 
 and peril. 
 
 These murmurs reached the ears of Father Jogues, 
 and he easily saw how far this germ of insubordination 
 might carry the men. He interposed without hesitation, 
 and by his prudence and the ascendancy acquired by 
 his virtue, his words of peace found hearers. The men's 
 minds settled down, and order and harmony soon pre- 
 vailed in the ship. The presence of the holy priest in- 
 spired all with confidence, and seemed a more effica- 
 cious security than all the resources of human prudence. 
 They soon had tokens of God's special protection. 
 
 In the midst of the voyage the ship was assailed by a 
 furious storm. Hell seemed to have let loose all the 
 fury of the elements, and the danger seemed so great, 
 even to men the most inured to the sea, that all gave up 
 hope, and at once raised the fearful cry, " We must go 
 down!" 
 
 At that moment Father Jogues, kneeling in his cabin, 
 was piously reading the Holy Scriptures. The noise 
 
Voyage to Canada. 167 
 
 which he heard on deck recalled him from his consoling 
 contemplation, and he ran up his mind full of a passage 
 of the prophet Isaias, which he had just read, where God 
 reproaches His people with their prevarication. He re- 
 peated the passage aloud in an animated tone, to produce 
 in all hearts the thought of God, and induce them to 
 recur to His mercy. 
 
 His words produced fruit even in the most hardened 
 hearts. Alarmed at the presence of what seemed imminent 
 death, and touched by grace, these men were the first to 
 fall at the missionary's feet, to avow their faults and im- 
 plore pardon for them. God seemed to await the cry of 
 repentance to turn away the thunders of His wrath and 
 reduce the demon to impotence. The storm soon passed 
 away. A favorable wind impelled the ship and brought 
 it to the desired haven. Late in June Father Jogues 
 was able to embrace his brethren in Quebec, and rejoice 
 with them and all the inhabitants on the ways of Provi- 
 dence towards him. 
 
 The servant of God immediately placed himself in the 
 hands of the Rev. Father Vimont, the Superior of the 
 Mission, to resume his apostolical labors. He was at once 
 sent to Ville Marie, as Montreal is called in the language 
 of religion, one hundred and fifty miles above Quebec. 
 Indians of various tribes were beginning to frequent 
 this place, and Father Jogues' familiarity with their lan- 
 guages might prove of great use. 
 
 The foundation of tbis post dated back barely two 
 years. It was the western frontier post of the French, 
 and of course the most exposed. It had been established 
 in a delightful and fertile spot on the south side of Mont- 
 real Island, which had been visited by Jacques Cartier 
 in 1534. He gave the name of Mont-royal to the 
 high mountain that rises from its shore, and which 
 towers above the surrounding country like a king over 
 his subjects. At its foot the hardy navigator found the 
 
1 68 I^if^ of Father Jogues, 
 
 great Indian village of Hochelaga, where he was received 
 with the highest honor. 
 
 When Champlain reached this spot in 1611 the Indian 
 town had utterly vanished, but the beauty of the site, 
 the fertile soil, the teeming woods and waters, the facili- 
 ty it enjoyed for communicating with all parts of the 
 country, struck the able commander, and he marked the 
 spot as a post to be occupied as soon as possible. He 
 seemed to foresee the future importance of that city, and 
 the great strides it was to make. In commerce, wealth, 
 and population — now exceeding 150,000 souls — Montreal 
 is the most important city in Canada. 
 
 The foundation of this city was exclusively religious 
 in its character. A great servant of God, the venerable 
 Mr. Olier, founder of the Sulpitians, impelled by the 
 Spirit of God, gathered several zealous hearts to form in 
 Canada an active centre for propagating religion among 
 the Indian inhabitants of those parts. They were to ex- 
 clude from their plan every motive of interest, and all 
 human considerations. 
 
 The execution of this project was confided to a brave 
 and virtuous gentleman, Mr. de Maisonneuve, and he ar- 
 rived at the spot on the 17th of May, 1642, with the first 
 forty settlers, all animated with the same courage and 
 the same religious sentiment. They came in arms, for 
 at that time, in the very heat of the Iroquois war, men 
 had to be as ready to handle the musket as the plough. 
 
 To take possession, they planted the banner of France 
 and the symbol of Faith. Father Vimont had accom- 
 panied them, and the very first day he offered the holy 
 sacrifice in a humble bark chapel, to consecrate to God 
 the soil over which Satan had till then reigned as master. 
 
 Born under such auspices, the little colony expanded 
 under the salutary influence of religion, and always re- 
 tained that characteristic. Faith and piety formed its 
 soul; peace and harmony reigned there. Hence a chron- 
 icler of that time could say in truth, " If till now this 
 
VilLe Marie. 169 
 
 wilderness has been the domain of demons, it is now in- 
 habited by angels." 
 
 When Father Jogues arrived in Montreal, the bark 
 lodges had been replaced by substantial wooden houses. 
 A small hospital had already been erected, as well as a 
 chapel and missionary's house.* 
 
 The servant of God immediately began his labors 
 among the Indian travellers, who frequently landed at 
 this place, but he also devoted himself to maintain the 
 fervor of the little colony. Three years after, Father 
 Jerome Lalemant was to give this high testimony in re- 
 gard to his stay at this post: " His memory still lives 
 there. The odor of his virtues always revives and con- 
 soles all who had the happiness to know him and hold 
 intercourse with him." 
 
 The successful beginnings of Ville Marie were in 
 strange contrast with the agitation and panic then pre- 
 vailing through the whole colony. The Iroquois war 
 had assumed an alarming character of boldness and 
 fury. They infested every road. They seemed to have 
 arranged their plan of attack on a more extended scale 
 than ever, and with a strategic skill not to be expected 
 among Indians. Their warriors divided into ten bands, 
 were posted in a line covering all the ways of travel. 
 They had learned to occupy points from which they 
 could discern canoes or travellers ten or twelve miles off 
 without being themselves observed, and they never made 
 an attack unless they thought they were superior in 
 numbers. 
 
 It was insecure to travel even in the country of the 
 Hurons, and the Algonquins no longer dared to come 
 down to Quebec. " I would almost as soon be besieged 
 
 *The Jesuit Fathers had charge of the church in this rising city 
 only during its first fifteen years, — that is to say, till the arrival of the 
 Sulpitians sent by Mr. Olier, who became seigneurs and pastors of 
 the whole island. 
 
170 Life of Father Jogues, 
 
 by phantoms as by Iroquois," wrote Father Vimont. 
 "One is scarcely more visible than the other. When they 
 are at a distance, we suppose them to be at our very 
 doors; and they pounce on their prey when we imagine 
 them to be in their own country." 
 
 This difficulty had for three years prevented the French 
 from sending any supplies to the missionaries in the Hu- 
 ron country, and the Superior at Quebec rightly consid- 
 ered that they must be in great distress. Their clothes 
 were falling in tatters, and their provisions were exhaust- 
 ed. In the spring of 1644 it was decided to make an 
 attempt to carry them some relief. 
 
 There was then at Quebec a young missionary from 
 the Roman province. Father Joseph Bressani, who had 
 just arrived for the Canada Mission, for which he had 
 petitioned earnestly. He had made such an impression 
 for virtue and courage, that he was deemed fit to lead 
 this perilous expedition; but his Indian apostolate was 
 to begin by captivity and his preaching by suffering. 
 
 A young Frenchman and some Christian Hurons 
 formed his escort. To be ready for any event, they had 
 all prepared for this voyage as if they were to meet 
 death on the way. The Governor distributed arque- 
 buses among them; but the joy caused by this present, 
 which was at that time made only to Christians, was 
 the innocent cause of their ruin. Their constant firing 
 betrayed them to some Iroquois who formed an ambus- 
 cade on the banks of Lake Saint-Pierre. They arranged 
 their plan of surprise deliberately, so as to fall on the 
 convoy without giving the Hurons time to defend them- 
 selves. And so it turned out. One single Huron fell 
 in the attack. Father Bressani and all the neophytes 
 were taken prisoners and condemned to horrible tor- 
 tures. But after four months' captivity the missionary* 
 
 * Like Father Jogues, Father Bressani was the historian of his own 
 sufferings. His account, full of touching simplicity, is contained in 
 an interesting history of the Huron Mission which he published at 
 
Hope of Peace. i 7 1 
 
 was ransomed by the Dutch of Rensselaerswyck and 
 sent to Europe. 
 
 The news of the capture of Father Bressani and of his 
 neophytes filled the French colony with consternation. 
 Deprived of all succor from Europe, the Governor was 
 powerless to punish the Iroquois or lay down the law 
 to them. The few soldiers at his command barely en- 
 abled him to maintain the posts occupied by the French 
 so as to secure their respect. Fortunately the Iroquois 
 were not aware of the real weakness of the colony. 
 
 In this precarious situation Governor Montmagny saw 
 no resource except in a treaty of peace with these cruel 
 enemies, but he wished to make one that would not de- 
 tract from the honor of France. Fortunately for the 
 colony, a powerful party among the Iroquois also inclined 
 to peace, and made no secret of its wishes. They saw 
 that war was sapping the strength of the nation: their 
 warriors gradually disappeared, with none to succeed 
 them, so that the victories would ultimately become 
 disasters. They had, moreover, at that moment an 
 obstinate war to maintain against a powerful nation in 
 the South, and a diversion would be fatal to them. 
 
 When these dispositions were known, the Governor 
 sought an opportunity to open negotiations without 
 compromising the dignity of France, and he found one 
 soon after, in the latter part of the month of May. 
 
 Two Iroquois warriors had been captured by the 
 Algonquins, and according to custom they were con- 
 
 Macerata, in Italian, in 1653. A French translation appeared in Mont- 
 real, Canada, in 1852. Father Bressani returned to Canada in 1646, 
 and remained till the destruction of the Huron Mission three years 
 afterwards. On returning to the Roman province he produced great 
 fruit as a missionary, due less to his eloquence than to his fame as an 
 Indian missionary, and the glorious scars seen on his hands. Michaud's 
 "Bibliographie Universelle " and Didot's" Biographie Generale " make 
 two distinct men of the missionary, under the names Brassoni and 
 Bressani; and Father Patrignani in his Menology incorrectly gives 
 his name as Bresciani. 
 
172 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 demned to the stake. The Governor interposed, and 
 having obtained their deliverance, sent them home as a 
 testimony of his good-will, and to induce them to labor 
 to secure peace. He then endeavored to induce the 
 Hurons, who had so much to dread from the war with the 
 Iroquois, to take a similar step. He asked some of their 
 warriors to set free an Iroquois prisoner who had fallen 
 into their hands, and even made them presents to obtain 
 it. The pride of the Hurons took offence, and thirst for 
 vengeance made them obstinate. When he proposed it, 
 one of the chiefs made a reply which from any but the 
 mouth of a savage would have been an insult, whilst it 
 revealed a pride of character and the depth of the wound 
 inflicted on his nation: ''I am a man of war, and not a 
 trader; I have come to fight, not to barter. It is my 
 glory to take back not presents, but prisoners. I will 
 not touch your hatchets and kettles. If you are so anx- 
 ious to have this prisoner, take him. I am strong enough 
 to go and capture another. If I lose my life they will 
 say in my country, ' Onontio took their prisoner, and 
 they doomed themselves to death to capture another.'" 
 Charles, a Christian Huron, interposed in this con- 
 tention and spoke with more modesty and reason: " Be not 
 angry, Onontio," said he; " it is not to thwart you that we 
 act so; but our honor and our life are at stake. We have 
 promised our sachems to place in their hands any pris- 
 oner whom we took. As the soldiers around you obey 
 your command, so we must obey those who command 
 us. What reply could we make to the reproach of the 
 whole country, if when they knew we had made prison- 
 ers, they should see in our hands only hatchets and ket- 
 tles ? We should be condemned as men of no sense to 
 decide a matter of this kind without the direction of the 
 sachems. You wish peace; so do we; and our sachems 
 do not oppose it. If we released our prisoner, our life 
 would be compromised. The Iroquois are everywhere 
 on our route. If we meet them we need fear nothing, 
 
Peace Negotiations. 173 
 
 as we can show our prisoner unharmed, whom we wish 
 to deliver to our sachems as a means of securing peace." 
 
 To this judicious and well-considered speech there was 
 no reply. The Governor saw how much was to be 
 gained by allowing the Hurons to take the first step. 
 He did no more than urge them earnestly to do so, and 
 in fact the Huron sachems did send the prisoner back 
 to his tribe. 
 
 This generous conduct of the French and their allies 
 bore its fruit. The Mohawks also were stimulated to 
 show their generosity, and as a token of their good-will 
 they set at liberty William Couture, the young French- 
 man who was a fellow-prisoner with Father Jogues, and 
 sent him home accompanied by three Iroquois, who were 
 appointed to open negotiations for peace. 
 
 The arrival of this embassy was an event for the colony. 
 It reached Three Rivers on the 5th of July, 1644. The 
 whole French and Indian population flocked to the 
 shore. Kiotsaeton, whom the French nicknamed Le 
 Crochet, was the chief of the embassy. He was sup- 
 ported by Chief Atogouaekouan, or the Great Spoon. 
 " The latter," says Father Le Jeune, " was of fine stature, 
 well-formed, bold and eloquent, but treacherous and a 
 mocker." 
 
 Kiotsaeton was attired in his richest garments. Orna- 
 ments of every kind and color decked his head, his neck, 
 and his wrists. He stopped his canoe before reaching 
 the land, and before stepping ashore rose in the bow 
 and said to the crowd, '' I have left my country to come 
 and see you. I was told that I came to seek death, and 
 that I should never again see my native soil: I feared 
 naught. I have willingly exposed my life for the sake 
 of peace. I come in all confidence to bring you the 
 thoughts of the Iroquois." 
 
 The cannon of the fort saluted the arrival of the Iro- 
 quois. All was done to give an exalted idea of the power 
 and magnificence of the French. The hero of the hour, 
 
174 L^f^ of Father Jogices. 
 
 however, was good Couture, who had long been given 
 up for dead. Every one manifested his joy, and blessed 
 the Lord with him on his happy deliverance. Towards 
 the end his captivity had ceased to be rigorous. " The 
 Iroquois held him in esteem and reputation; and he 
 assumed the air of a chief, having acquired this credit 
 by his prudence and wisdom," says the Venerable Mother 
 Mary of the Incarnation, in one of her letters, "so amia- 
 ble is virtue even among savages." 
 
 The negotiations for peace brought Father Jogues 
 once more on the scene. He was summoned to Three 
 Rivers to aid in following them up. Without ceasing 
 to be an apostle, he was about to become a negotiator 
 For him it was the path of martyrdom. 
 
Assembly at Three Rivers. i 75 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 Great Assembly at Three Rivers— The Treaty of Peace — Father 
 Jogues among the Iroquois — A Toilsome Journey — He Returns 
 to Three Rivers. 
 
 y^jx N the 12th of July, 1644, a solemn assembly was con- 
 wy vened at Three Rivers, in the open square of the 
 fort. The Governor-General presided, having be- 
 side him Mr. de Champflour, commandant of the city, and 
 Father Vimont, representing Rev. Father Lalemant, 
 Superior of the Missions, who had been detained among 
 the Hurons. Sails from the shipping formed a vast tent. 
 A short distance before the arm-chair of the Chevalier de 
 Montmagny was a seat covered with spruce bark for the 
 Iroquois. Behind them stood the Algonquins, the Mon- 
 tagnais, and the Attikamegues. Hurons and French in- 
 termingled were arrayed on either side. 
 
 The Iroquois had planted two poles in the middle of 
 the open space, and the cord between them was to hold 
 the seventeen wampum belts,* which were their word. 
 
 This curious and animated scene depicts to the life the 
 manners and character of the Indian. A slave of the 
 
 * The Indians in this part of America made beads of the clam-shell, 
 which the English called luaiupiun, from its Algonquin name, and the 
 Yrznch porcelaine, from " porcella," the scientific name. The polished 
 glassy shell was broken into pieces, rubbed into beads, and pierced. 
 Of these they made single strings or collars, which served as adorn- 
 ment and a pledge and guarantee in solemn transactions. Beads in- 
 troduced by Europeans soon took the place of shells. The Iroquois 
 Confederacy still preserve ancient wampum belts received in negotia- 
 tions from the French. 
 
176 Life of Fatlie7^ Jogices. 
 
 senses, everything must speak to his eyes. He invests all 
 his words with imagery; and his imagination, ever in 
 contact with nature, borrows thence, in most cases, its 
 comparisons and illustrations. Good sense, eloquence, 
 and noble thought do not depend on education merely, 
 and under the rough exterior of these children of the 
 forest are often found the crafty diplomatist and the 
 pathetic orator. 
 
 When all were seated Kiotsaeton rose. He was at 
 once seen to be a man accustomed to such duties, and he 
 discharged them with a dignity that savored nothing of 
 barbarism; his memory seemed marvellous. He readily 
 explained the meaning of each belt, and the article of the 
 treaty which it symbolized, as fluently as though he had 
 a written document in his hands. Metaphors and figures 
 flowed as from a fountain, accompanied by expressive 
 and pantomimic gestures. 
 
 Taking up the first collar, he addressed the Governor- 
 General: ''Onontio, give ear to my voice. I am the 
 mouth of my whole nation. You hear all the Iroquois 
 when you listen to my words. My heart has no crooked 
 thoughts; my intentions are upright. We wish to forget 
 all our war-cries and change them to songs of joy." 
 Then he began to chant and gesticulate as he strode up 
 and down, his comrades beating time with a /// in ca- 
 dence, and strongly aspirated, sounded from the depth 
 of the chest. 
 
 Kiotsaeton often looked up to the sun, and grasped his 
 arms with his hands, as if to press out their warlike 
 strength, which had kept them so long equipped for war. 
 He soon resumed a calmer manner, and continued: 
 '' This belt which I present to you thanks you for sparing 
 the life of my brother, Tokrahenchiaron, whom you res- 
 cued from the fire and the teeth of theHurons; but why 
 did you let him set out alone ? If his canoe had capsized 
 who was there to help him right it ? If he had drowned 
 or perished by any other accident you would have heard 
 
Kiotsaetons Address. 177 
 
 no news of peace, and would perhaps have blamed us 
 for a fault tliat was all on your own side." 
 
 After hanging this belt on the cord, he took a second, 
 tied it around Couture's arm, tlien turning to the Gov- 
 ernor said: ''Father, tliis belt brings back your subject; 
 but I was far from saying, 'Take this canoe and go back 
 to Quebec' My mind would not have been at ease 
 till I heard positive tidings of his safe arrival. My 
 brother whom you sent back suffered much, and en- 
 countered many dangers. He had to carry his baggage 
 alone; to paddle all day, and drag his canoe around the 
 rapids. He had at the same time to be always on his 
 guard against being surprised." 
 
 Animated gesticulations accompanied all these words. 
 Sometimes you saw an Indian pushing his canoe along 
 with a pole, sometimes keeping off a wave or avoiding 
 a rock with his paddle. At one moment he was ex- 
 hausted and out of breath, then he regained courage and 
 rested for a time. Then he began to march like a man 
 making a portage, and pretended to stumble over a stone, 
 after which, as if lamed, he limped along in pain. " If 
 3^ou had even helped him to get beyond the most difficult 
 places ! Indeed, Father, I do not know where your mind 
 was when you sent back one of your children in that 
 way, alone and unaided. I did not act so with Couture. 
 I told him, ' Come, nephew, follow me. I will restore 
 you to your family at the risk of my life.' " 
 
 Each belt had thus its particular object. The fourth 
 declared that the Iroquois renounced all thoughts of 
 vengeance for their brethren slain by the Algonquins in 
 the spring, and he gave his thought this ingenious turn: 
 "As I came hither I passed by the field of the last bat- 
 tle, where these two brothers were taken prisoners. I 
 marched as fast as I could, so as not to see the blood of 
 my countrymen shed by Piescaret* and the Algonquins. 
 
 * A famous Algonquin chief. 
 
178 Lif^ of Father Jogties. 
 
 As their bodies are still unburied, I turned away my 
 eyes, that my wrath should not be enkindled." 
 
 He began to strike the ground and to listen; then he 
 went on: " I have heard the voice of my ancestors slain 
 of old by the Algonquins; they saw me burning for re- 
 venge; they said to me gently, 'Be good, grandson; 
 hearken not to resentment. It would be useless to tr}' and 
 deliver us from death. Think of the living and work 
 for them; avert the sword from above their heads, and 
 the fire kindled to consume them.'" 
 
 The fifth belt drove off the enemies' canoes. The sixth 
 smoothed the rapids on the way to the country of the 
 Iroquois. The eighth was to build a road. 
 
 " You v/ould have said," writes Father Vimont, " that 
 he was felling trees, lopping off branches, clearing away 
 woods, filling up the hollow spots with earth." " There," 
 said he, " is the road all clean, smooth, and straight." He 
 stooped towards the ground, looking to see whether 
 there were no thorns or wood, whether there was any 
 inequality that one could stumble over. "It is all 
 ready," he added; "the smoke of our cabins can be seen 
 from Quebec to the end of our country.* All obstacles 
 are removed." 
 
 The tenth belt, larger and finer than the rest, pro- 
 claimed peace between the French, Algonquins, and Mo- 
 hawks; and as a symbol of this union, the orator, while 
 still speaking, took a Frenchman and an Algonquin and 
 bound their arms together with the belt. 
 
 The eleventh belt promised a hospitable board. "We 
 have fish and game in plenty," said the orator. " Our 
 forests teem with stags, moose, deer, bears, and beavers. 
 Drive away the filthy hogs that defile your houses and 
 feed only on filth." 
 
 The twelfth belt banished all suspicions of perfidy that 
 were ascribed to them. The ambassador rose and beat 
 
 * More than three hundred miles. 
 
The Wampum Belts. 1 79 
 
 the air as if to scatter and drive away the clouds. *' Let 
 the sun and truth shine everywhere!" lie cried. 
 
 The thirteenth and fourteenth were addressed to the 
 Hurons. ''You formerly wished to make peace: five 
 years ago you had in your hands a bagful of belts and 
 other presents to ask our friendship. What prevented 
 you ? Your bag will fall to the ground; your presents 
 will be broken and scattered: then you will lose heart. 
 Why do you wait so long ?" 
 
 The fifteenth present was of much deeper interest than 
 the rest; and in spite of all the cunning eloquence of 
 Kiotsaeton he would have given grounds for the charge 
 of duplicity if in his position he did not seek in some 
 way to extenuate, as far as possible, the cruel conduct of 
 his countrymen. 
 
 He endeavored to justify their treatment of Father 
 Jogues and Father Bressani. " We wished to bring them 
 both back to you, but we could not accomplish our de- 
 sign. One escaped from our hands, in spite of us, and 
 the other insisted on being given up to the Dutch. We 
 yielded to his desire. We regret, not that they are free, 
 but that we don't know what has become of them. Per- 
 haps at the very moment that I am speaking of them 
 they have been swallowed up in the waves or have fallen 
 victims to some cruel enemy; but the Mohawks did not 
 intend to put them to death." 
 
 The Iroquois chief did not know that Father Jogues 
 was actually present at the meeting. At these words the 
 missionary could not help smiling. " For all these fine 
 words," said the missionary to those near him, ''the stake 
 was prepared and the executioners were in waiting. If 
 God had not rescued me from their hands, I should have 
 been well and thoroughly burned, and have endured a 
 hundred deaths in one ; but let him talk." 
 
 The seventeenth present had reference to Honateniate, 
 one of the two Iroquois prisoners rescued from the Al- 
 gonquins, and kept as hostages by the Governor till the 
 
i8o Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 return of the one who had gone to carry to his country- 
 men the first words of peace. His old mother had al- 
 ready lost her eldest son in the war, and Father Jogues 
 had been given to her to replace him. Having ascer- 
 tained that her second son was still alive, she had gone 
 to Kiotsaeton before he set out, and given him a belt 
 which she had often worn, and with all a mother's love 
 had begged him to offer it to the one who had saved her 
 son's life. 
 
 At the beginning of his captivity this young man had 
 been oppressed with a deadly fear and melancholy. 
 Nothing could divert his mind, and he seemed the prey 
 of the gloomiest despair. When he learned that Father 
 Jogues was at Three Rivers, he recalled his virtue, and 
 his mother's regard for him, and endeavored to see the 
 missionary. As soon as he perceived Father Jogues 
 he showed the liveliest feelings of joy; he seemed to 
 have found alike family and freedom. The missionary 
 consoled him, and restored his soul to peace and hope. 
 
 A Huron who was not well disposed to the French, 
 witnessing this imposing assemblage, endeavored to fill 
 the mind of the Iroquois chief with distrust, and to in- 
 spire him with suspicions as to the sincerity of their in- 
 tentions. The Mohawk shrewdly replied : '' I have my 
 face painted and striped on one side; the other is clean 
 and neat : on one side I do not see clearly; on the other 
 my sight is good. The painted side is the Huron side. 
 I do not see a bit there. The clean side is for the French: 
 I see there as clear as noon." The Huron slunk away 
 abashed, without another word. 
 
 Two days after, the Chevalier de Montmagny made 
 his reply, with the same pomp observed at the first session, 
 and at the same time offered fourteen presents. The 
 famous Piescaret, who had long been the terror of the 
 Iroquois, spoke for the Algonquins, and Noel Negaba- 
 mat, the fervent chief of Sillery, spoke for the Monta- 
 gnais. The other nations Kad no spokesmen. 
 
Mohawk Duplicity. i8i 
 
 Three discharges of cannon proclaimed the end of the 
 session. "It was," said the Governor, "to drive away 
 the evil air, and to carry the news of peace to all the 
 land." He then gave a great banquet to the ambassa- 
 dors, and several speeches were made there, for nothing 
 makes Indians more loquacious and eloquent than good- 
 cheer, and with them no important matter is transacted 
 without a banquet. 
 
 A mysterious incident, which seemed to prove the in- 
 sincerity of the Iroquois intentions, nearly broke off the 
 negotiations. After the public banquet the chief Kiot- 
 saeton solicited a private interview with the Governor, 
 saying that he had a present to make him. When he 
 was in the Chevalier's presence he told him that he in- 
 tended to conclude peace only with the French and Hu- 
 rons, but he did not wish to include the Algonquins.* 
 
 This unexpected statement displeased the Chevalier 
 de Montmagny, who refused the present, and would not 
 even look at it; he declared that he would never consent 
 to any such condition. The Mohawk chief was dis- 
 pleased at this refusal, and the treaty was on the point 
 of being broken off. Time was taken for reflection, and 
 the Governor in a second secret interview found a mid- 
 dle course. He explained to the Iroquois that there were 
 two kinds of Algonquins — the Christians who were like 
 French, and unless they were included he would never 
 make peace; the others, who were more independent, and 
 whose interests were not so closely united with the 
 French, should alone be excluded from the peace. This 
 distinction satisfied the ambassador, and the Algonquins 
 in question were admitted into the convention. The 
 Mohawks made this condition known in their country, 
 but the French did not openly avow it. 
 
 The happy results of this first assembly spread joy 
 through the colony, and revived liope everywhere. Yet 
 
 * Jesuit Journal. 
 
1 82 Life of Father Jogues, 
 
 it was only a preliminary of peace. The Iroquois am- 
 bassadors were to secure the approval of the treaty by 
 the sachems of their nation, and then return with more 
 ample powers. 
 
 On the other hand, Governor de Montmagny wished 
 the nations in alliance with the French, who were to 
 share as fully as themselves in the benefits of the peace, 
 to take an active part in its conclusion. They were all 
 convoked to, meet in September, and more than four 
 hundred Indians then gathered at Three Rivers — Hurons, 
 Attikamegues, Montagnais, Algonquins of the Island, 
 etc. Four Iroquois ambassadors, always attended by 
 Couture, who acted as interpreter, arrived at the place of 
 meeting, and great assemblies were then held, in which 
 all the Indian allies of the French without exception 
 took part. 
 
 All passed in order and perfect harmony. Unfortu- 
 nately only the Mohawk canton of the Iroquois league 
 took part in these negotiations; and notwithstanding 
 the hopes which the Mohawks gave of bringing in the 
 other cantons, they not only did not bind themselves to 
 it, but some of their warriors were seen attacking the 
 Algonquins and French near Montreal, or making raids 
 into the country of the Hurons. 
 
 But peace was really concluded with the Mohawks, 
 though the final ratification did not take place till 
 May, 1646. In one of these meetings the famous Kiot- 
 saeton, to show all his sympathy for the French, offered 
 the missionaries a wampum belt to console them for 
 the death of Father de Noiie,* who had been found 
 
 * Father de Noiie died February 2, 1646, at the age of sixty-three. 
 He went on foot by the frozen river from Three Rivers to Fort Riche- 
 lieu to extend his ministry to the little garrison. A snow-storm 
 completely concealed the horizon, and he lost his way. He was found 
 frozen to death on the shore, ten miles beyond the fort. He was on 
 his knees, his hands clasped on his breast, and his eyes open, raised to 
 heaven. He died as a martyr of duty and charity. 
 
Selected as Envoy. 183 
 
 frozen to death in the month of February. "Here," he 
 said, *' is something to warm the spot wliere the cold froze 
 the good Father. Put this present in your bosom to 
 divert your thoughts, which might sadden you." 
 
 Songs, dances, feasts, followed the solemn assemblies; 
 and men who had been arrayed against each other in 
 such bitter war were seen exulting in a common joy. 
 They were seen hunting together, and in peace, in the 
 very parts where they had laid their deadly ambuscades. 
 But they soon dispersed in different directions — some to 
 seek the remote shores of Lake Huron, others to strike 
 northward to their hunting-grounds, and the Iroquois to 
 return to their castles on the Mohawk River. 
 
 Up to this time Couture* alone had borne the word of 
 the French to the Iroquois, but rather as interpreter 
 than as ambassador. The Governor felt that to give 
 greater importance to this treaty its conclusion should be 
 confided to envoys of a higlier rank. 
 
 He cast his eyes on Father Jogues, who, during the 
 long negotiations for peace, had returned to Montreal, 
 and was continuing his labors there. The knowledge 
 which he possessed of the language and manners of the 
 Iroquois seemed to mark him out in advance for this dan- 
 gerous commission. He had purchased it dearly enough. 
 Moreover, he was going to fulfil a religious as well as a 
 political duty. He was not only the bearer of the words 
 of the French Governor, but went to prepare the way for 
 the Gospel. 
 
 The thought of confiding this apostleship to Father 
 Jogues preoccupied the Superior of the Canada Mission 
 
 * Couture went to Canada in his youth, and was at first employed 
 on the Huron Mission, and appears in 1640 in the list of domih. 
 In the catalogue of employments he is sometimes put down as joiner, 
 sometimes ad inulta, showing that he was ready in many capacities. 
 He negotiated the peace which put an end to his captivity. Being re- 
 leased from his engagement as a donn^, he married, and was the head 
 of a large family. He died in 1702, at the age of ninety-four. 
 
184 ^^f^ of Father Jogties. 
 
 from the moment that he saw the project of peace with 
 the Iroquois take a favorable turn. The hardships and 
 danger attending the enterprise required that it should 
 be treated with the utmost prudence and maturity. We 
 see it the topic of serious consultation in the month of 
 January, 1646, between Father Jerome Lalemant, Supe- 
 rior of the Mission, and Fathers Vimont, De Quen, d'Eu- 
 demare, and Peter Pijart, who were then in Quebec. We 
 find the result entered in these terms in the Register of 
 the Superior in that city: " Omnium consensu approbata 
 profectio" — "All unanimously approved the departure." 
 When the peace had become a realit}^ Father Lalemant 
 imparted to Father Jogues the wish to confide the Mis- 
 sion to him. We do not know in what terms the Superior 
 asked Father Jogues to make this act of heroic devoted- 
 ness; but we are so happy as to possess the reply of the 
 servant of God — as worthy of his humility as of his mag- 
 nanimity. 
 
 "Montreal, April, 1646. 
 
 "Reverend Father : The letter which it has pleased 
 your Reverence to write found me in my retreat and in 
 the exercises which I had begun, there being no canoe to 
 carry our letters. I chose this time, because the Indians, 
 being at the chase, allow us to enjoy a greater silence. 
 
 "Would you believe that, on opening your letter, my 
 heart was at first seized with a kind of fear that what I 
 desire, and what my soul should earnestly desire, might 
 not arrive. Poor nature, mindful of the past, trembled; 
 but our Lord, by His goodness, has given, and will again 
 restore it calm. 
 
 "Yes, Father, I will all that our Lord wills, and I will 
 it at the peril of a thousand lives. Oh ! how I should 
 regret to lose so glorious an occasion, when it may de- 
 pend only on me that some souls be saved ! I hope that 
 His goodness, which has not abandoned me in the hour 
 of trial, will aid me still. He and I are able to trample 
 pown every difficulty that can oppose the project. 
 
Letter from Montreal. 185 
 
 ''It is much to be '' in medio nationis prav(Z^' without Mass, 
 without Altar, without Confession, without Sacraments; 
 but His holy will and Divine Providence so will it. 
 
 "He who, by His holy grace, preserved us without 
 these helps for eighteen or twenty months, will not refuse 
 us the same favor, for we do not thrust ourselves into 
 this work, but undertake this voyage solely to please 
 Him, without consulting all the repugnances of nature. 
 
 "As to all these comings and goings of the Iroquois, 
 what I can say is, that I see very few from the first two 
 towns; yet it is with them chiefly that we are concerned, 
 as the last killed were of these villages. Scarcely any 
 have come, except from the last village, where Couture 
 was; and they profess, at least in words, not to come as 
 warriors in these parts. It is not, however, with these 
 last that we must dwell, but with those whom we do not 
 see. 
 
 " I thank you affectionately for sending me your Huron 
 principles. Send the rest when you please. What I need 
 is chiefly prayers, formularies for confession, et cjusdem 
 generis. I will thereby become your debtor, as I am al- 
 ready on so many grounds. I owe your Reverence the 
 account of the ' Capture and Death of good Rene Goupil,' 
 which I should have sent already. If the bearer of this 
 give me time, I will send it by him. 
 
 " If God wills that I go to the Iroquois, my companion 
 must be virtuous, docile, courageous, and willing to suffer 
 something for God. It would be well for him to know 
 how to make canoes, so that we can go and return with- 
 out calling on the Indians." 
 
 Father Lalemant had not presumed too much on the 
 courage of Father Jogues. He wrote on this point in 
 the Relation of 1645: "He was ready before the propo- 
 sition was made to him. He who had borne the weight 
 of the war was not a man to recoil in peace. He was 
 very glad to test their friendship after experiencing the 
 
1 86 Life of FatJier Jogues. 
 
 rage of their hatred. He was not ignorant of the incon- 
 stancy of these savages or of the difficulty of the roads. 
 He saw the dangers into which he plunged; but he who 
 runs no risk for God will never deal wholesale in the riches 
 of heaven." 
 
 The Iroquois ambassadors were pleased with the selec- 
 tion; and the French Governor, heartily applauding it, 
 gave him an official character, associating with Father 
 Jogues the lay-negotiator whom he had chosen, Mr. John 
 Bourdon, a good and devoted man, the engineer of the 
 colony.* 
 
 On seeing Father Jogues embark, the Christian Algon- 
 quins expressed their fears, and advised the missionary 
 not to speak of the Faith in his first intercourse. "There 
 is nothing," said they, " more repulsive at first than this 
 doctrine, which seems to exterminate all that men hold 
 dearest, and as your long robe preaches as much as your 
 lips, it will be more prudent to travel in a shorter habit." 
 
 This advice, dictated by prudence, was followed. It 
 was right to treat the sick as sick, and to humor the sus- 
 ceptibilities of prejudiced and irritable people. After 
 the example of the Apostle, the evangelical laborer must 
 be ready to bend to circumstances, and to "become all 
 things to all men," that he may gain them all to Christ. 
 
 "When I speak of an Iroquois mission," said Father 
 Jerome Lalemant, announcing in France in the Relation 
 of 1646 the departure of Father Jogues, "it seems to me 
 that I am talking of some dream; and yet it is a reality. 
 With good reason we have given it the name of * Mission 
 of the Martyrs; ' for, besides the cruelty which these sav- 
 ages have already inflicted on some persons devoted to 
 the salvation of souls, besides the pains and hardships 
 
 * John Bourdon had been in Canada since 1634, and enjoyed a high 
 repute for probity and intelligence. After being engineer, he became 
 Attorney-General of New France. He took an active part in pushing 
 discoveries on the coast of Labrador and in Esquimaux Bay. 
 
He Sets Out. 187 
 
 which those appointed for this mission must encounter, 
 we can say in truth, that it has aheady been ensanguined 
 with the blood of a martyr, inasmuch as the Frenchman 
 (Rene Goupil) who was killed at the feet of Father 
 Jogues lost his life for having formed the sign of our 
 Faith on some little Iroquois children. If we are per- 
 mitted to conjecture in matters that seem highly proba- 
 ble, we may believe that the designs we have formed 
 against the empire of Satan will not bear fruit till they 
 are irrigated with the blood of some other martyrs." 
 
 The whole colony was piously affected at the moment 
 when this grave step was taken, in the result of which 
 religion and the prosperity of New France were so deeply 
 interested. Public prayers were immediately begun in 
 all the churches to assure its success. 
 
 Father Jogues and Mr. Bourdon set out from Three 
 Rivers on the i6th of May, with four Mohawk deputies 
 who were to be their guides and introduce them to the 
 sachems. Two Algonquins appointed by their nation 
 to present to the Iroquois presents in the name of the 
 tribe to confirm the peace went also. 
 
 Notwithstanding the heat, the voyage up the river of the 
 Iroquois through Lake Champlain and Lake George was 
 accomplished happily. It was while crossing this last lake 
 on the 30th of May, the feast of Corpus Christi, that Father 
 Jogues gave it the name of Lac Saint- Sacrement"^ (Lake 
 of the Blessed Sacrament), which was retained by the 
 French while they ruled Canada. The Iroquois called 
 
 *Spofford in his Gazetteer, and other early American writers, ignorant 
 of the circumstances attending the giving of the name, state that it was 
 given on account of the purity of the water, confounding Baptism 
 with the Holy Eucharist, Yet this explanation was for years the only 
 one given in English and American works. The present name, Lake 
 George, due to some ambitious individual, or flatterer of the English 
 king, was given not long before the English conquest of Canada. 
 Mr. John G. Shea and Mr. Francis Parkman have proposed that ft be 
 called *' Lake Jogues." 
 
1 88 L'^f^ of Father Jogiies. 
 
 this sheet of water Andiatarocte (Where the Lake closes). 
 
 After reaching the extremity of this lake the travel- 
 lers had to make the hardest part of their journe}'', and 
 it had to be made on foot. With so small a party, and 
 bearing presents which constituted a considerable weight, 
 they had to look forward to a task severe enough to ex- 
 haust the stoutest men. The Algonquins were the first 
 to be discouraged. They decided to leave behind a 
 part of the twenty-four elk-skins wdiich they were ap- 
 pointed to carry, and they left them on the shore of the 
 lake, where they carefully concealed them, according to 
 Indian custom. As for Father Jogues, he was, according 
 to Mr. Bourdon, indefatigable. However, after two 
 days' march the Iroquois guides abandoned the idea of 
 going directly to the Mohawk town. Seeing their com- 
 panions exhausted they began to fear that they would be 
 reproached with not having sufficiently considered the 
 strength of their new allies. Accordingly, striking west- 
 ward, the}^ took up their march for a place called Ossa- 
 rague or Beaver Dam, a favorite resort of the Mohawks, 
 from its abounding in fish. There they hoped to find 
 some aid in carrying their baggage; and they were not 
 disappointed. 
 
 This swerving from their direct route, which seemed 
 merely fortuitous, was really a providential protection of 
 His elect by our Lord. At this spot Father Jogues found 
 Teresa, the young Christian Huron girl who had been 
 taken at the same time as himself, and who had since 
 remained a prisoner in the hands of the Mohawks. The 
 presence of the missionary filled her with joy. She ap- 
 proached the tribunal of penance, and the words of the 
 Father quickened her sentiments of faith and piety. Her 
 confidence revived when she learned all that had been 
 done at Quebec for her deliverance. "Courage!" said 
 the holy priest to her; "you shall be happy in heaven if 
 you persevere." 
 
 Her virtue had not diminished during her two years' 
 
Reach the Mohawk Castle. 1 89 
 
 captivity. The lessons of her good teachers, the nuns, 
 had borne fruit, and far from being ashamed of her bap- 
 tism, she gloried in it. As she had been deprived of her 
 rosary, she recited the prayers every day on her fingers, 
 or marked the decades with pebbles. Slie sometimes 
 said to her uncle, the wise and pious Joseph Teondechoren, 
 who was a captive with her for some months, but suc- 
 ceeded in escaping, **' If my mothers saw me with these 
 wicked Mohawks who know not God, they would feel 
 great pity for me." But if the Ursulines did not see 
 their pupil, they did not forget her; their affection in- 
 creased with her dangers, and was attested not only by 
 their prayers, but by their exertions in her behalf. 
 
 On the 4th of June our travellers descended the Hud- 
 son River and made a short stay at the Dutch settlement 
 of Rensselaerswyck, where the commandant of Fort Or- 
 ange received them with great courtesy. The Chevalier 
 de Montmagny had given Father Jogues letters saluting 
 and thanking the Dutch Governor, and the servant of 
 God was only too happy to be able to express in person 
 his gratitude to those who had saved his life. The am- 
 bassadors after two days' rest* continued their journey, 
 accompanied by several Iroquois who happened to be 
 at the settlement, and who divided the baggage among 
 them. At last on the evening of the next day, the little 
 caravan entered the Iroquois town of Oneougioure, for- 
 merly Osserion, to which Father Jogues gave the name 
 of the Holy Trinity. Two whole days were scarcely 
 enougli to gratify the curiosity of the people of the 
 country. They flocked from all parts to see the deputies. 
 Those who had formerly persecuted and tortured the 
 missionary, pretended to have lost all recollection of it, 
 and those who could not resist a feeling of compassion 
 at the sight of his tortures and resignation showed their 
 
 *The Relation of 1646 says the i6th, but the context enables the 
 reader to correct this typographical error. 
 
iQO ^ife of Father Jogues. 
 
 pleasure and happiness, on seeing him again under such 
 different conditions, and invested with so honorable a 
 title. 
 
 On the Toth of June a general assembly of the sachems 
 and chiefs of the country was held to receive the am- 
 bassadors. It was brilliant and solemn. The presents, 
 arranged in Indian style before the crowd of spectators, 
 attested the magnificence of the King of France, and his 
 pacific intentions. 
 
 Father Jogues, who was appointed to bear the word of 
 the Governor and of the French, was able to adapt him- 
 self in his language and manner to the ideas of this 
 nation. Amid a deep silence he raised his voice, and after 
 expressing the universal joy excited in the colony by the 
 sight of the Iroquois deputies, and the news of the peace 
 concluded between them, the French, Hurons, and Algon- 
 quins, he exclaimed, " The council-fire is kindled at Three 
 Rivers. It shall never be extinguished. The French 
 shall be your brethren : your enemies shall be their ene- 
 mies, and their arm shall be outstretched to defend you. 
 We were glad when we heard that you had flung far from 
 you the scalps of the Algonquins and Montagnais whom 
 the Sokokis massacred last year.* Here are five thou- 
 
 * The Sokokis had taken up arms against the Algonquins, and had 
 penetrated even to Quebec, scalping some Indians of that nation un- 
 der its very walls When they heard of the steps taken towards a gen- 
 eral peace, they wished to prevent any between the Iroquois and the 
 Algonquins. Brandishing their bloody trophies, they sent ambassa- 
 dors to the Iroquois, A council was held, and the Sokoki orator said, 
 " I have long heard you say that the Algonquins were your irrecon- 
 cilable enemies, and that you hated them even beyond the grave ; so 
 that if you could meet them in the next world your war would be 
 eternal. We are your allies ; we share your feelings and your inter- 
 est. Here are scalps of Algonquins whom we massacred: it is a present 
 that must gladden your heart. At the same time I give you this belt, 
 which will serve as a chain to bind us closely together;" and the 
 Sokoki laid a great wampum belt on the ground. 
 
 The Iroquois were indignant at this proposal. One of the chiefs 
 
Ptcblic Reception. 191 
 
 sand beads of wampum to break the fetters of the young 
 Frenchman who is still among you, and another belt of 
 five thousand for Teresa, that they may both be set at 
 liberty and may soon arrive at Quebec." 
 
 This liarangue was listened to with the deepest atten- 
 tion and the presents were gratefully received. The 
 Wolf clan, the most powerful in the nation, which had 
 shown Father Jogues kindness and respect during his 
 captivity, received a special present. 
 
 The missionary ambassador then spoke for the Algon- 
 quins, who had no acquaintance with the Mohawdc lan- 
 o-uage. They were, moreover, timid, and somewhat 
 ashamed, because they had left part of their presents 
 behind. They had only ten elk-skins. Father Jogues 
 excused them on account of a wound received by one of 
 their young men, as well as of the weight of the burden 
 and the difficulty of the wa}^ The assembly seemed sat- 
 isfied, and replied to the Algonquins by two presents; 
 it also made two to the Hurons. 
 
 The reply to Onontio and the French, which was the 
 very life of this negotiation, was given with much pomp 
 and solemnity. They lavished every mark of the sin- 
 cerest friendship. The French prisoner was released; 
 and the Indians hung on him a wampum belt of two 
 thousand beads. ^' Here," said they, " is the bond which 
 retained him. Take the prisoner and his chain, and do 
 Onontio's pleasure towards him." As to Teresa, who 
 
 rejecting the presents, replied: " We are surprised at your boldness 
 and temerity. You cast shame in our face. We consider you as 
 treacherous men. Onontio, with whom we have treated of peace, is not 
 a child. If we looked upon you with favor, he would have reason to 
 say, ' The Mohawks have not killed our allies, but their axe has. I 
 thought I was treating with real men; I have treated only with im- 
 postors.' This is not all. The Algonquins, learning that the scalps 
 of their brethren hang in our cabins, would scalp all the people in 
 their country. This is the fruit of your boldness. Withdraw, then, 
 and hide your scalps. As we have only one heart, we wish to have 
 only one tongue." 
 
ig2 Life of FatJier Jogties. 
 
 was married, they replied that she should be set free in 
 the village where she lived. " Here is a belt of fifteen 
 hundred beads," they added, "to guarantee our words." 
 
 The Wolf clan made its special present ; tliirty-six 
 fathoms of wampum assured the French that they 
 should always have an abode among them; and address- 
 ing Father Jogues, they said, ** You shall always have 
 among us a mat to rest on and a fire to warm you." 
 
 Father Jogues had perceived in the crowd some Iro- 
 quois of the other cantons, and among others, Ononda- 
 gas. He made them publicly a present of a thousand 
 beads of wampum. "We wish," he said to the chief, 
 "to salute you in your own country; take this present 
 to smooth the way, and that no one may be astonished 
 at our visit. Moreover, we have three paths to reach 
 you — one by the Mohawk, the other by the great lake 
 which you call Ontario,* the third by the Huron coun- 
 try." 
 
 These words seemed to surprise the Mohawks. " It is 
 better," said one of the sachems to him, " that you take 
 the route Onontio has traced. The others are too dan- 
 gerous ; you would find only warriors — men with painted 
 faces, always brandishing the hatchet and axe ; they 
 desire only to slay. There is no road surer than that 
 which leads here." 
 
 The orator, who had merely wished to make the Mo- 
 hawks feel that the French could be independent of 
 them if they chose to open intercourse with the other 
 cantons, continued his speech and offered his present. 
 The Onondagas accepted it, promising to convey it to 
 the sachems and chiefs of their nation. 
 
 The missionary had not amid these political negotia- 
 tions lost sight of the object of his desire and the secret 
 aim of his coming. He administered the sacraments to 
 
 * Ontario means " beautiful lake." This sheet of water was called 
 also by the French Lac Saint-Louis, Lac Frontenac, Lac des Iroquois, 
 Lake Cataracoui. It also bore tlie name of Lake Skanadario. 
 
His RettiVfi. 193 
 
 several Christian captives, Huron and Algonquin, and 
 taught them to bear their cross with merit. He visited 
 and relieved the sick, and opened heaven to several 
 dying children. 
 
 When the official meetings Avere over, the Mohawks 
 advised Father Jogues not to prolong his stay among 
 them. They hastened his departure, " because," they 
 said, "a band of Iroquois from the upper country had 
 started to lay ambuscades for the Hurons who were 
 going down to the French posts. They were to follow 
 the St. Lawrence and ascend the river of the Iroquois. 
 We do not believe that they will harm you if they meet 
 you, but we feel uneasy about your two Algonquin com- 
 panions." 
 
 The Father expressed his astonishment : " How ! do 
 you permit them to make war on your own land ?" " We 
 have notified them," was the reply. ''What then?" 
 added tlie French envoy. " Do they treat your words 
 with contempt? Do you not see that all the mischief 
 they do will be laid to your charge?" They seemed to 
 open their eyes to the unreasonableness of their conduct, 
 and promised to oppose, as the best remedy, everything 
 that could impair their loyalty. 
 
 Be that as it may, the commissioners having dis- 
 charged their duties, took the advice of the Mohawks, 
 and prepared to return. They left the town of the 
 Trinity on the i6th of June, and marched to Lac Saint- 
 Sacrement. There they made bark canoes, and on the 
 29th— the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul— they landed 
 at Three Rivers, and on the 3d of July reached Quebec. 
 
 * 
 
 * A contemporary manuscript, the Journal of the Superior of the 
 Jesuits at Quebec, informs us that Father Jogues wrote a detailed ac- 
 count of this embassy. This document was lost, with no little of the 
 Jesuit archives, after the English Government took possession of 
 them, when the last member of the Society of Jesus died in Canada 
 in 1800. 
 
194 Life of Father Jogues, 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Third Visit of Father Jogues to the Mohawks — Ill-treatment — 
 Division of Opinion in the Tribe — Father Jogues is put to 
 Death — Punishment of his Murderer. 
 
 'HE success of his visit inspired Father Jogues with 
 fresh ardor. To continue a work which opened 
 under such consoling auspices, he thought of go- 
 ing to spend the winter among the Iroquois. In the 
 candid desires of his heart, he alreadj^ beheld them list- 
 ening to his words, submitting to the teachings of his 
 Divine Master, embracing the Faith, and becoming one 
 of its glorious triumphs after having been its most in- 
 superable barrier. He thanked God for having chosen 
 him to be the instrument of such a merciful Providence 
 towards them, and in this sweet hope he rejoiced in 
 anticipation of the day when he should present to God, 
 as his beloved children, those who had hitherto been 
 his enemies and torturers. 
 
 But always impenetrable in His designs, the Almighty 
 was about to demand of him a higher testimony than is 
 borne by words: He wished the last drop of tliat gene- 
 rous blood which had already flowed for His glory. 
 Having entered the way of the cross, the minister of Christ 
 was not to tread any other, and his noble soul will never 
 falter. If he had not, like some of his brethren, the con- 
 solation of seeing the fruit of his exertions, he will none 
 the less bless the name of Him for whose sake he labor- 
 ed. He knew that he who sows and he who waters may 
 merit as much as he who gathers in the harvest. 
 
 The prospect of the missionary's again visiting the 
 
His Third Visit to the Mohawks. 195 
 
 Mohawk country seemed improbable. Yet it was dis- 
 cussed on the 9tli of July in a consultation held by Father 
 Lalemant with Fathers Le Jeune and Vimont, at which 
 Father Jogues was present, as being the one best versed 
 in the whole matter. The success of the attempt 
 seemed so doubtful that the project of wintering there 
 was suspended, " unless some favorable opportunity 
 offers." Meanwhile Father Jogues was sent back to 
 Montreal to resume his services among the Indians. 
 
 Soon after affairs took a favorable turn, although we 
 do not know how or why. The fact is stated in the 
 Journal of the Superior at Quebec, under the date of 
 July 21. Father Lalemant summoned Fathers Le Jeune, 
 Vimont, and De Quen to an important consultation, as 
 he calls it, and the decision arrived at is expressed in 
 these simple words: " Father Jogues' wintering among 
 the Iroquois decided upon." Yet the resolution was not 
 immediately carried out. There were preparations to 
 be made and companions to be selected. 
 
 Father Jogues did not go down to Quebec till the 
 month of August, and it was not till the 27th of Septem- 
 ber that he took up his route for the Iroquois. He was 
 accompanied by a young Frenchman, John De La Lande, 
 and by some Hurons, who were to take charge of his 
 canoe and baggage, and who availed themselves of this 
 opportunity to visit some of their kindred in captivity. 
 But soon alarmed at the rashness of this undertaking, 
 or disheartened by the dangers of navigation and the 
 hardships of the roads, these Hurons, all except one, 
 abandoned the missionary on the way. As for him, he 
 saw only a duty to fulfil, and he advanced full of con- 
 fidence. Independently of the religious object proposed, 
 he had also the mission to maintain the peace so solemnly 
 concluded, and he promised himself that he would profit 
 by it to cultivate the seed which he had already sown 
 on that ungrateful soil. 
 
 Among the Mohawks the feeling towards him was no 
 
196 Life of Fathe7^ Jogiies. 
 
 longer the same, and a great hostile excitement pre- 
 vailed in their minds. A violent animosity, born of dis- 
 trust, had succeeded to their peaceful intentions. The 
 cause was this : 
 
 When he left the Mohawk country at the close of the 
 embassy, Father Jogues, who already nourished the idea 
 and desire of returning, left a small box with his host, 
 containing his scanty travelling outfit and some religious 
 articles. He left it as a token that he would return, and 
 to avoid the trouble of carrying it back and forth. This 
 deposit seemed mysterious to several of these ignorant 
 and suspicious minds. They did not conceal their ap- 
 prehensions. They beheld in it a secret charm, which 
 was to work their ruin and misfortune for the whole 
 country. 
 
 Perceiving this provoking prejudice, the servant of 
 God had endeavored to dispel them by spreading before 
 them the articles which excited their fears. He opened 
 his trunk and exposed all its contents to the crowd; but 
 in minds once misled truth finds its way with more dif- 
 ficulty than falsehood. 
 
 At first they seemed to believe hin>, yet no sooner had 
 he departed than their fears increased and became con- 
 firmed. The most dreaded scourges seemed to pour 
 upon the country. First came a contagious disease, which 
 swept off many victims; and then appeared swarms of 
 worms, which destroyed almost the whole harvest. It 
 did not require all this to give calumny a triumph, and 
 to excite men's minds to the highest degree. The trunk, 
 the supposed instrument of witchcraft, was thrown into 
 the river, no one venturing to open it ; and for a month 
 before the missionary's arrival the enemies of the French 
 and of Christianity had succeeded in spreading every- 
 where hatred and vengeance against the man who was 
 looked upon as the author of all the woes. 
 
 Unaware of this hostile feeling, Father Jogues had 
 presentiments of evil during his journey, and did not 
 
His Last Letter. 197 
 
 dissemble the danger of his mission. Before setting out, 
 he wrote to a Jesuit in France, to whom he confided the 
 secrets of his heart, and imparted his apprehensions to 
 him. This precious monument of his zeal for God's 
 glory and his love for the cross proves that he did not 
 conceal from himself any of the risks which he was about 
 to run, and that he exposed himself to them with a cool 
 intrepidity equalled only by his obedience and self-abne- 
 gation. 
 
 " Alas, my dear Father, when shall I begin to love and 
 serve Him whose love for us had no beginning? When 
 shall I begin to give myself entirely to Him, who has 
 given Himself unreservedly to me ? Although I am very 
 miserable, a©^ have so misused the graces our Lord has 
 done me in this country, I do not despair, as He takes 
 care to render me better by giving me new occasions to 
 die to self, and unite myself inseparably to Him. 
 
 '' The Iroquois have come to make some presents to 
 our Governor to ransom some prisoners he held, and to 
 treat of peace with him in the name of the whole coun- 
 try. It has been concluded, to the great joy of the 
 French. It will last as long as pleases the Almighty. 
 
 " To maintain it, and see what can be done for the 
 instruction of these tribes, it is here deemed expedient 
 to send some Father. I have reason to think I shall be 
 sent, having some knowledge of the language and coun- 
 try. You see what need I have of the powerful aid of 
 prayers, being amidst these savages. I will have to 
 remain among them, almost without liberty to pray, 
 without Mass, without Sacraments, and be responsible 
 for every accident among the Iroquois, French, Algon- 
 quins, and others. But what do I say ? My hope is in 
 God, who needs not us to accomplish His designs. We 
 must endeavor to be faithful to Him, and not spoil His 
 work by our shortcomings. I trust you will obtain me 
 this favor of our Lord, that, having led so wretched a 
 life till now, I may at last begin to serve Him better^ 
 
iqS Life of Father Jogiies. 
 
 *' My heart tells me that if I have the happiness of 
 being employed in this mission, Ibo et non redibo; but I 
 shall be happy if our Lord will complete the sacrifice 
 where He has begun it, and make the little blood I have 
 shed in that land the earnest of what I would give from 
 every vein of my body and my heart. 
 
 "In a word, this people is ' a bloody spouse to me,' — 
 * in my blood have I espoused it to me ' (Exod. iv. 25). 
 May our good Master, who has purchased them in His 
 blood, open to them the door of His Gospel, as well as 
 to the four allied nations near them. 
 
 " Adieu, dear Father ; pray Him to unite me insepa- 
 rably to Him. Isaac Jogues, S. J." 
 
 These well-founded presentiments, and the desertion 
 of his companions almost at the very outset of the voy- 
 age, ought to have disheartened him completely. Far 
 from it. The thought and sight of death will not make 
 him falter ; he will march on as though he were going to 
 fulfil his most ardent desires. 
 
 Meanwhile the public calamities had acted violently 
 on this people. They excited to madness and fury these 
 fierce and credulous savages. In natural events they 
 beheld only effects of duplicity and ill-will, and they for- 
 got their recent promises of friendship. The agitation 
 kept increasing. The most sensible and prudent wished 
 the peace maintained, but the turbulent and irascible 
 prevailed ; and it was decided to renew the war against 
 the French, the Hurons, and the Algonquins, who were 
 regarded as treacherous men, plotting the ruin of the 
 Iroquois. 
 
 A war-party immediately took the field, aiming at 
 Montreal, and surprised two Frenchmen in the vicinity 
 of that city. Another band marched against Fort Riche- 
 lieu, and came upon Father Jogues two days' march from 
 their village. They fell upon the missionary and his com- 
 panion, stripped them of their garments, loaded them 
 
Treated as an E^ierny. 1 99 
 
 with insults, and led them off as prisoners. On the 19th 
 of October, 1646, these warriors made their triumphal 
 entry into the town where the servant of God had already- 
 passed a captivity of thirteen months.* 
 
 From all sides threats of death sounded in their ears. 
 Blows from fists and clubs soon accompanied these gloomy 
 heralds of their execution, ''You shall die to-morrow," 
 they were told; "do not fear — you shall not be burned; 
 your heads shall fall beneath our tomahawks, and we 
 will set them upon the palisades around our village to 
 show them for many a day to your brethren whom we 
 capture." 
 
 Father Jogues endeavored to show them how unworth- 
 ily they were acting, reminding them of his confidence in 
 placing himself in their hands, the invitations they had 
 given him to come and live among them, the promises 
 which they had solemnly made, the manner in which 
 the French had acted towards them, their treaty, their 
 plighted word, and finally the unhappy results that war 
 would draw down upon them. All was vain: a gloomy 
 silence told him that he was speaking to men who would 
 not hear. 
 
 This was not all: one furious savage sliced bits of flesh 
 from his arms and back and devoured them, saying, 
 " Let us see whether this white flesh is the flesh of a 
 Manitou" ! 
 
 The courage of the sufferer did not flinch. "No," he 
 replied; " I am only a man like you all, but I fear neither 
 death nor torments. Why do you put me to death ? I 
 have come to your country to cement peace, make the 
 earth solid, and teach you the way to heaven, and you 
 
 *The Relation of 1668 (like the missionary in his letter of May 2d) 
 speaks of eighteen months' captivity. It places his death at Ganda- 
 ouague (the Ossernenon of Father Jogues), the site of which General 
 John S. Clark has unmistakably shown to be the Indian town still to 
 be traced at Auriesville. Father Martin now recognizes Auriesville 
 to be the place of the death of Father Jogues. 
 
200 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 treat me like a wild beast ! Fear the chastisement of 
 the Master of life."* 
 
 Meanwhile a division arose in the tribe. The families 
 of the Wolf and Tortoisef wished to save the lives of the 
 prisoners, and made every effort to rescue them. " Kill 
 us," they said to their opponents, "rather than butcher 
 in this way men who have done us no harm, and who 
 come to us by faith of a treaty;" but the Bear family 
 stubbornly insisted that they must die. 
 
 It was a grave question, affecting the whole nation. It 
 was referred to a great council of sachems and chiefs, 
 which met at Tionnontogen, the largest of the Mohawk 
 towns, situated several miles farther west. Here the 
 peace party prevailed. It was decided that the prisoners 
 should enjoy life and liberty; but the party who thirsted 
 for their blood did not wait for the result of this resolu- 
 tion, and their crime was accomplished when the dele- 
 gates to the council returned to prevent it. 
 
 On the i8th of October some Mohawks of the Bear 
 family had secretly formed a wicked plot to execute by 
 themselves, and by their own private authority, this 
 odious crime. 
 
 On the evening of the iSthJ these Indians went to 
 Father Jogues and perfidiously invited him to take a meal 
 in their cabin. Accustomed to see in everything a mys- 
 terious disposition of Divine Providence, the servant of 
 God followed them humbly. It was the hour of his last 
 sacrifice. But sudden as was the blow which struck him, 
 
 * Manuscript of Father De Quen. 
 
 f Each Iroquois nation was made up of groups or families, each tak. 
 ing its name in most cases from some animal. To these families be- 
 longed the right of appointing sachems, who presided in the great 
 councils of the League. These sachems retain to this day the heredi- 
 tary names borne hundreds of years ago. Each family had also its 
 war-chiefs, 
 
 :}: Charlevoix incorrectly gives the 17th as the date; but see the Re- 
 lation for 1646-47, which is supported by the Manuscript of 1652 and 
 the letter of Father J. Lalemant in the Archives at the Gesu. 
 
His Death. 201 
 
 it was not unexpected by the faithful missionary. He 
 kept himself always ready for any event. At the moment 
 when Father Jogues crossed the threshold of the cabin 
 they dealt him a blow with a tomahawk which laid him 
 dead. His head was immediately cut off and set up on 
 one of the palisades encircling the place, the face turned 
 towards the road by which he had come. 
 
 Early the next morning his companion* and the Huron 
 who had guided them met tlie same fate, and their bodies 
 were cast into the river. This assassination was publicly 
 condemned by the principal sachem of the nation. " That 
 blow of the tomahawk," he said, "can bring us only mis- 
 fortune." But his power to punish the crime could ex- 
 tend no further. 
 
 Kiotsaeton, one of the deputies to the peace negotia- 
 tions in 1643, spoke boldly against this criminal perfidy, 
 and by the freedom of his language became an object of 
 suspicion to the wicked clan. Another Iroquois, sur- 
 named by the French "le Berger," also endeavored to 
 thwart the murder of the missionar3^ He was impelled 
 to do so by a sense of gratitude; for, having been taken 
 prisoner by the Algonquins, he owed liberty and life to 
 the interposition of Governor de Montmagny. But his 
 efforts to prevent the tragic end of Father Jogues were 
 in vain. When he saw the murderer raise his axe to 
 strike him he tried to ward off the blow, and received a 
 wound in the arm. This charitable act drew on him 
 heavenly blessings: he had the happiness to die a Chris- 
 tian, and with sentiments of deep piety, during a voyage 
 to France. t 
 
 *This young Frenchman, John De La Lande, was a native of Dieppe. 
 He undertook this journey simply from religious motives. The desire 
 of contributing to the glory of God, even at the risk of his life, had 
 impelled him to ask. as a favor, permission to accompany the intrepid 
 missionary. He found a crown worthy the aspiration of a heart full 
 
 of faith. 
 
 f This Indian had fallen into the hands of the Christian Algonquins 
 when religion was beginning to bring the Indian to more humane 
 
202 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 The old woman to whom Father Jogues belonged dur- 
 ing his captivity, who had taken care of him, and whom 
 he called his aunt, also opposed with resolution the pro- 
 ject for his death. '' You must kill me at the same blow," 
 she said. It was in vain; her brother, who was very far 
 from sharing her feelings-, was even one of the accom- 
 plices in his death, and betrayed the victim. 
 
 There were other proofs, too, of the division that pre- 
 vailed among the Mohawks after this deplorable execu- 
 tion. A chief who had a Huron prisoner in his hands 
 was so indignant at the conduct of his countrymen, that 
 he set him free, and sent him to tell the French that he 
 would not make war on them, and that the Algonquins 
 alone were his enemies. 
 
 The death of Father Jogues was not known in Can- 
 ada for a long time. A rumor came, but in a vague form, 
 on the report of some women who had escaped from the 
 Iroquois country, and on that of the Huron who had 
 been set at liberty. It was, however, soon suspected, and 
 
 ideas. "When this captive was solemnly received at the village of 
 Sillery a chief told him, "Do not fear ill-treatment: we have aban- 
 doned that cruel custom." When Berger saw his bonds broken he 
 could scarcely believe his eyes. He was treated with kindness when 
 he expected to undergo horrible tortures. The Governor, to whom 
 his case was referred, declared him free, praised his courage, expressed 
 friendship for him, and gave him presents. The Iroquois at once ex- 
 claimed, "This goes well; my body is delivered from death, I am 
 saved from the fire. Onontio, you gave me life: I thank you for it; I 
 shall never forget it. My whole tribe shall be grateful. The land is 
 about to become beautiful; the rivers shall be calm and smooth; peace 
 will make us all friends. Now I have no shade in my eyes. The 
 souls of my ancestors slain by the Algonquins have vanished. I have 
 them beneath my feet. Onontio, men must avow that you are good 
 and that we are bad, but our anger is extinguished." Then he began 
 to dance and sing in cadence. He suddenly stopped, seized a hatchej 
 and brandished it, gesticulating like a furious man. At last, throwing 
 away the hatchet, he said, " My fury is overcome. I lay down my 
 arms. I am your friend forever." He kept his word, and always 
 remained faithful to the French. 
 
Governor K left's Letter. 203 
 
 justly, when Iroquois war-parties were seen once more in- 
 festing the great river and renewing their depredations 
 and cruelties. 
 
 A letter from William Kieft, Governor of New Nether- 
 land, addressed to the Chevalier de Montmagny at last 
 confirmed all the apprehensions entertained. Altliough 
 dated in the month of November, 1646, it did not arrive 
 till June in the following year. 
 
 According to the Manuscript of 1652, it read : 
 
 " Monsieur, Monsieur : 
 
 " I wrote a reply to that which you were pleased to 
 honor me with by Father Jogues, dated May 15th, and I 
 sent it to Fort Orange to deliver it to said F. de Jogues; 
 but he not having returned as expected, it was not imme- 
 diately sent. This will serve, then, to thank your Excel- 
 lency for your remembrance of me, which I shall endeavor 
 to return, if it please God to give me an opportunity. 
 I send this through the Northern quarters, either by 
 means of the English or Monsieur d'Aulnay,* in order to 
 advise you of the massacre of F. Isaac de Jogues and his 
 companion, perpetrated by the barbarous and inhuman 
 Maquaas, or Iroquois; as also of their design to surprise 
 you, under color of a visit, as you will see by the enclosed 
 letter, which, though badly written and spelled, will, to 
 our great regret, give you all the particulars. I am sorry 
 that the subject of this is not more agreeable ; but the 
 importance of the affair has not permitted me to be 
 silent. Our minister abovef carefully inquired of the 
 chiefs of this canaille their reasons for the wretched act, 
 but he could get no answer from them but this, that the 
 said Father had left, among some articles that he had 
 left in their keeping, a devil, who had caused all their corn 
 or maize to be eaten up by worms. This is all I can 
 
 * D'Aulnay de Charnise was then French commandant in Acadia. 
 f At Rensselaersvvyck. 
 
204 ^?/^ <^f ^^^^^^^^ Jogues. 
 
 at present write to your Lordship. Praying God to vouch- 
 safe to guard you and yours from this treacherous na- 
 tion, and assuring you that I am 
 
 "Your most humble and obedient servant, 
 
 " William Kieft. 
 "Fort Amsterdam, in New Netherland, November 14, 1646." 
 
 The letter inclosed, written by Labatie, the Dutch in- 
 terpreter, was addressed to Mr. La Montague, a Hugue- 
 not doctor living on Manhattan Island, who held the 
 hio-hest place in the Colonial Council after the Director- 
 General; we give it with his style, according to the Man- 
 uscript of 1652.* 
 
 " Praised be God, at Fort Orange ! 
 
 " Monsieur, Monsieur La Montagne : 
 
 " I have not wished to lose this occasion of letting you 
 know my state of health. I am in good health, thank 
 God, and pray God that it may be so with you and your 
 children. 
 
 " I have not much more to tell you, but how the French 
 arrived the seventeenth of this present month at the Ma- 
 quaas fort. This is to let you know how those ungrateful 
 barbarians did not wait till they were fairly arrived at 
 their cabins, where they were stripped all naked, without 
 shirt, only they gave each a breech-cloth, 
 
 "The very day of their coming they began to threaten 
 them, and immediately with fists and clubs, saying: 
 'You shall die to-morrow! Do not be astonislicd, we 
 shall not burn you; take courage; we shall strike 3^ou 
 with an axe, and put your heads on the palisade, that 3^our 
 
 *The Relation of 1647, which Charlevoix follows, says that this let- 
 ter was addressed to Mr. Bourdon, Father Jogues' companion on his 
 first embassy. This does not agree with the contemporary manu- 
 scripts in our possession. The address bears the name of M. Lamon- 
 tagne, and the context shows that Labatie saw no way of communi- 
 cating with the French colony. 
 
Labaties Letter, 205 
 
 brothers may see you yet, when we take them.' You 
 must know that it was only the Bear nation that killed 
 them. Knowing that the Wolf and Tortoise tribes have 
 done all that they could to save their lives, and said 
 iigainst the Bear, * Kill us first ; ' but, alas, they are no 
 longer alive. Know, then, that the eighteenth, in the 
 evening, they came to call Isaac to supper. He got up 
 and went away with the savage to the Bear's lodge ; as 
 entering the lodge, there was a traitor with his hatchet 
 behind the door. On entering, he split open his head, 
 and at the same time cut off his head and put it on the 
 palisade. The next morning early he did the same with 
 the other, and threw their bodies into the river. Monsieur, 
 I have not been able to know or hear from any savage 
 why they killed them. 
 
 "Besides this, according to their envy and enterprise, 
 they are going with three or four hundred men to try 
 and surprise the French, to do the same as they did to 
 the others; but God grant they don't accomplish their 
 design. 
 
 " It would be desirable that Monsieur should be warned, 
 but there is no way to do it from here. Monsieur, I have 
 no more to write, but I remain 
 " Your very humble and affectionate servant and friend, 
 
 " Jean Labatie. 
 
 "Monsieur, I beg you (give) my baisemains (respects) 
 to the Governor. 
 
 "WriUen at Fort Orange, Oct. 30, 1646." 
 
 The Mohawks carried to the Dutch the missal, ritual, 
 breeches, and cassock of Father Jogues, in hopes, doubt- 
 less, of obtaining some reward. When the Dutch blamed 
 them for massacring the Frenchman in such a way, they 
 justified themselves by a falsehood aggravated by a ca- 
 lumny. They replied that the Jesuits did not think as 
 they did, and that they always had their arms ready to 
 kill the Dutch. 
 
2o6 Ltf(^ of Father Jogues. 
 
 God did not permit that the remains of the servant of 
 God should be recovered and preserved for our venera- 
 tion, but He glorified him by visiting a signal vengeance 
 on his murderers, and those of his companions, and by 
 the favors with which He has honored his name, as we 
 shall see. 
 
 The two young men who had put good Rene Goupil 
 to death before the eyes of the missionary were soon 
 seized with a disorder unknown in the country, and died 
 wretchedly. The woman who through a cowardly sub- 
 mission had cruelly cut off Father Jogues' thumb, as 
 well as those who mangled his fingers with their teeth 
 to crush out the bones, were all killed in succession soon 
 after. 
 
 The epidemic which spread in the country served as 
 an instrument of divine justice, and found many victims 
 among the most bloodthirsty Iroquois. 
 
 The assassin of Father Jogues merited a more exem- 
 plary punishment; but this chastisement was at the same 
 time a token of great mercy. God seems to have wished 
 to show, by one more example, the full power of the prayer 
 of the just man imploring pardon for his persecutors. 
 
 In fact, on the i6th of October, 1647, John Amiot,* a 
 young Frenchman, brought in to Sillery an Iroquois 
 whom he had just captured near Three Rivers. As the 
 Algonquins of that Mission had to avenge the death of 
 some of their people recently cut off by the Iroquois, the 
 Governor consented that an example should be made, and 
 delivered the prisoner to the Indians to undergo his fate, 
 forbidding the Algonquins, however, to prolong his tor- 
 tures or eat his flesh. He was obeyed. The prisoner did 
 not suffer an hour. He was put out of misery, and his 
 body was thrown into the river. During the eight or ten 
 
 * John Amiot had served in his youth on the Huron Mission. He 
 was ahke brave and virtuous, More than once he commanded parties 
 in pursuit of the Iroquois He was drowned with Francis Marguerie 
 before Three Rivers, in 1648. 
 
His iVhcrdercr Converted, 207 
 
 days which preceded his execution the missionaries be- 
 stowed every care on the prisoner, in order to prepare 
 him to die well. He listened with docility, and soon as- 
 tonished them by tlie remarkable evidence of his faith, 
 and his repentance for his sins. 
 
 A twofold interest attached to his fate: it had just 
 been discovered that he had been the murderer of the 
 servant of God. In conversation he had related at 
 length the persecutions and cruel treatment to which 
 the Iroquois had subjected the French, and especially 
 Father Jogues, whose virtue he extolled. He described, 
 as an eye-witness, the sudden outburst of one part of 
 the village against the missionary, and he declared that 
 his death was the work of but a few fanatics, who acted 
 in defiance of the judgment of the assembly of the three 
 towns. 
 
 He was asked the name of the murderer of John De 
 La Lande, and he gave it on the spot ; but when they 
 wished him to reveal the name of the one who had 
 tomahawked Father Jogues, he hung his head and 
 remained silent, as though ashamed of his crime. The 
 Huron who had escaped from the Mohawks and had just 
 arrived was cognizant of all the tragical events. He 
 recognized the murderer, and the guilty man did not 
 attempt to deny his crime. He seemed to think only of 
 detesting and expiating it. 
 
 He was soon deemed wortliy to receive baptism, and 
 in sign of peace and union with his victim he received 
 at the sacred font the name of Isaac* 
 
 These happy dispositions did not diminish for a mo- 
 ment. During his execution he uttered no complaint. 
 His lips pronounced no taunts to his torturers, and he 
 made neither bravado nor threats as victims generally 
 
 * In the Register of the Sillery Mission, under the date of 
 September i6, is this entry in the handwriting of Father Druillettes: 
 "Baptisavi Isaacum captivum Agnonguerronon (vulgo Iroquois) mox 
 comburendum . " 
 
2o8 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 do. Amid his pains he was heard exclaiming, ''Jesus, 
 Jesus!" He had said shortly before, "Antaiok [the 
 Indian name of the Frenchman who had taken him] is 
 the cause of my going to heaven. I am satisfied, and 
 thank him." 
 
 God employed men to execute His justice upon him, 
 at the same time that He granted his soul the benefit of 
 His most mysterious mercies. 
 
 The death of the servant of God which we have re- 
 lated was doubtless the immediate result of those 
 odious suspicions of witchcraft of which the Mohawks 
 believed themselves victims. Futile and ridiculous as 
 they seem to us, they were of a nature to exercise a 
 powerful influence on ignorant and superstitious minds. 
 When the material interests of a gross people are affect- 
 ed, inasmuch as they know no life but that of the senses, 
 they can be easily driven to the most violent excesses. 
 Like brutes, they dream only of violence when they think 
 themselves wounded; but less clear-sighted than ani- 
 mals, they are blinded by prejudice and ignorance, and 
 then often mistake falsehood for truth, and crime itself 
 for an act of virtue. 
 
 In this tragic termination of an apostolic life there is 
 something more, when it is studied by the light of faith. 
 Is it not the heroic consummation of a life of sacrifice, 
 which we admire as a martyr's death ? 
 
 When Father Charles Garnier, then a missionary 
 among the Hurons, and soon to be himself a victim to 
 the hatred of the Iroquois, announced the death to one 
 of his brothers in France, he did not hesitate to say, 
 " Hi sunt martyres caritatis et obedientiae" — "These are 
 martyrs of charity and obedience." 
 
 Father Jerome Lalemant, then Superior of the Canada 
 Mission, expresses himself in as decisive a manner in 
 the Relation of the Missions for 1647. "We have re- 
 spected this death," says he, "as the death of a martyr. 
 Although we were separated from one another when we 
 
Regarded as a Martyr. 209 
 
 learned it, several Fathers, without any previous 
 consultation, found that they could not bring themselves 
 to offer a requiem Mass for him, but they presented 
 the adorable sacrifice in thanksgiving for the benefits 
 which God had bestowed upon him. Seculars who 
 knew him best, and religious houses also, respected this 
 death, and were all inclined to invoke him rather than 
 pray for his soul. 
 
 "In fact, it is the thought of several learned men (and 
 this thought is more than reasonable) that he is really a 
 martyr in the eyes of God, who bears testimony before 
 heaven and earth, and who esteems the Faith and the 
 preaching of the Gospel more than his own life, losing it 
 in the perils into which he plunges for Christ's sake, pro- 
 testing before His face that he wishes to die in order to 
 make His Name known. This is a martyr's death in 
 the sight of the angels. And it was with this view that 
 Father Jogues gave his life to Jesus Christ and for Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 "I say even more: he not only took the means to 
 proclaim the Gospel, which caused his death, but we can 
 also aver that he was killed out of hatred for the doc- 
 trine of Christ. 
 
 "In fact, the Algonquins, the Hurons, and subse- 
 quently the Iroquois, persuaded by tlieir captives, have 
 had, and some of them still have, an extreme hatred and 
 horror of our doctrine, saying that it causes their death, 
 and contains charms and spells, which cause the de- 
 struction of their grain, and produce contagious and 
 epidemic diseases, such as now begin to ravage the 
 Iroquois. It is on this ground that we have been on 
 the point of being massacred in every place where we 
 have been, and even at present we are not without the 
 hope of enjoying that happiness some day. 
 
 " Now, just as formerly in the primitive Church, the 
 children of Jesus Christ were reproached with causing 
 misfortunes everywhere, and some were put to death on. 
 
2 1 o Life of Father Jogties, 
 
 that pretext, so are we persecuted because by our doc- 
 trine, which is only that of Jesus Christ, we depopulate 
 their countries, as they assert, and it was on this pretext 
 that they put Father Jogues to death. We may there- 
 fore regard him as a martyr before God." 
 
 The proper tribunals at Rome* have it now under 
 consideration whether proof exists to decide juridically 
 the martyrdom of the servant of God — that is, to prove 
 that his murderers were impelled by a hatred of the 
 Faith in putting him to death ; but we can meanwhile 
 console ourselves with the testimony of St. Cyprian, 
 who said to the Thibaritans (Epist. 56), " You are not 
 alone, for wherever you go you are with God. If flying 
 to the wilderness, if hiding in the mountains, you are 
 slain by robbers or devoured by a wild beast, or con- 
 sumed by hunger, thirst, or cold, or swept away by the 
 storm, what difference does the battle-field make ? 
 Jesus Christ contemplates you from heaven on high as 
 His soldiers battling for the glory of His Name, and you 
 shall have the same reward as he who has all the glory 
 of the combat, for an obscure death is not less glorious 
 than that which has the publicity of a triumph. For the 
 certainty of martyrdom it is enough to have as a wit- 
 ness Him who tries and crowns the martyr." 
 
 * Petitions for the Introduction of the Cause of Beatification of 
 Rene Goupil, Father Isaac Jogues, and the Iroquois virgin Catherine 
 Tegakwita have been recently presented to the Holy See in great 
 number. See note at end of volume. 
 
Virtues of Father Jogiies, 2 1 1 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Virtues of Father Jogues — Favors obtained by his Intercession. 
 
 ^iriAT'E should not do full justice to the virtues of 
 yy/^ Father Jogues if we passed over in silence some 
 more interior traits which have been passed by 
 in the narrative, and which have been transmitted by his 
 confidant and friend, Father Buteux, w^hose manuscripts 
 have fortunately escaped destruction. We must first 
 recognize that he possessed in a high degree the happy 
 qualities, which, according to Father de Brebeuf, ought 
 to characterize a Huron missionary. " To convert them," 
 said he, "requires not so much learning as goodness and 
 solid virtue. The four elements of an apostolic man in 
 New France are affability, humility, patience, and gener- 
 ous charity. Too ardent a zeal burns more than it warms, 
 and spoils everything. It requires great magnanimity 
 and condescendence to attract these Indians gradually. 
 They do not grasp our theology readily, but they under- 
 stand perfectly our humility and affability, and are won 
 by them" (Relation for 1636). 
 
 HUMILITY AND MORTIFICATION. 
 
 We readily borrow from Father Buteux this beautiful 
 tiiought, which he places at the head of his notes on the 
 virtue of Father Jogues. "I have always thought that 
 what was said and related in writing as to the lives of 
 the Saints was the smallest and least considerable part 
 of what they had done, and that scarcely any tiling was 
 
212 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 said of their interior, which is nevertheless the noblest 
 ornament of their life. * Omnis gloria filiae regis ab intus ' 
 — 'AH the glory of the king's daughter is within' (Ps. 
 xliv. 14). I thought that their humility made them con- 
 ceal the most wonderful external things that they had 
 done, such as miracles, or great sufferings and torments 
 which they had endured for the love of God. I was 
 confirmed in this thought last year, when I resided with 
 Father Jogues the greater part of the year. The solitude 
 in which we were, and the familiar conversations which I 
 had with him, caused me to admire his virtue and to dis- 
 cover many things which his humility had never shown, 
 and nevertheless I should not have known all that I shall 
 say, if I had not used the power which obedience gave 
 me over him — who was, however, my superior in every- 
 thing and for everything. 
 
 '' Humility is one of the virtues which I most admired 
 in him. It prevented my obtaining many details as to 
 his sufferings and struggles; he did not like to speak of 
 them. When urging him one day to tell me something 
 of what God had made his soul undergo in his captivity, 
 I could draw from him only these three words : 'Dies 
 isti mali ' — ' They were wretched days.' 
 
 "To hear him, the Society of Jesus had never had a 
 member less capable than himself of serving God, nor a 
 heart so ungrateful and unfaitliful to grace. He deemed 
 himself unworthy of the habit which he wore. When he 
 spoke of the favor which God had done him, to suffer 
 for His love, he siglied over the little profit he had de- 
 rived from it, and his tears flowed abundantly. One of 
 his great faults, with which he bitterly reproached him- 
 self, was that he had felt some pleasure in the thought 
 of death as the term of his fearful sufferings. 
 
 " How could I wring any words that seemed to con- 
 vey the slightest praise from the lips of a man who 
 always concealed himself in the shadow, in order to 
 cover up the signal graces which he had received from 
 
Hum ill ty and Mortification. 213 
 
 heaven — who was convinced that he did no good, and 
 that what came from others was always better? He 
 questioned me as a novice would have done as to the 
 manner in which he should make his meditation and his 
 thanksgiving after Mass. Shortly before his departure 
 for Quebec he wrote me that he would have liked to 
 spend another year with me in order to exercise himself 
 more solidly in virtue than he had done; 'yet,' he add- 
 ed, ' I would like better to return for the third time to 
 the Iroquois country.' 
 
 "I had to employ stratagems to obtain of him the in- 
 formation I succeeded in gathering: not but that he had 
 the perfect submission of obedience, but because he had 
 so low an opinion of himself, that it seemed impossible 
 for him to speak of himself except with contempt. He 
 seemed afflicted and constrained when any esteem was 
 shown him because he had suffered so much for Christ, 
 and when people asked to see his mutilated hands. 
 
 " On his return to France, the Queen had to repeat her 
 invitation twice before he could decide to appear before 
 her. He could not persuade himself that she really de- 
 sired it." 
 
 In a moment of unreserve he made with simplicity 
 this touching and humble avowal : ** God gave me from 
 my tenderest youth this pious regard for those who chas- 
 tised me, as I only too often deserved it. When I was a 
 schoolboy I took the ferule, and when I could even the 
 hand of the one who corrected me, to kiss it as a sign 
 of affectionate gratitude. But I did so especially among 
 the Iroquois, where, after life was granted to us, I did 
 not fail to kiss for several days in succession the posts 
 supporting the stage or scaffold on which we had suf- 
 fered; and the sight of that place of torture was a sub- 
 ject of consolation, thanksgiving, and gratitude to Our 
 Lord for the favor He had done me there. " 
 
 The last year of his life he spent in Montreal, and as 
 though he had a presentiment of his approaching death, 
 
2 14 ^if^^f Father Jogues. 
 
 he desired to make a more immediate preparation for it 
 by instituting a general review of his conscience from his 
 earliest years. "In this confession," says Father Buteux, 
 who received the avowal of his faults, "he showed all the 
 humility and candor of a child." 
 
 He could not bear to see any deference or special at- 
 tention paid to him, such as the feeble state of his health 
 seemed to call for. "I do not need anything," he said ; 
 " I do not wish when I go back among the Iroquois that 
 my wretched nature shall turn its head towards these 
 houses, where it has found so much ease. I want only 
 things absolutely necessary. Why should I give myself 
 these indulgences that I must look for in vain hereafter ? 
 God forbid that I should pamper the inclinations of my 
 body by granting it what it cannot always have !' 
 
 His fervor seemed to increase daily, and his devotion 
 to the Blessed Sacrament was the powerful means which 
 he employed to nourish his virtue. It was before this 
 hidden God that he loved to perform his spiritual exer- 
 cises; neither severe cold, nor excessive heat, nor impor- 
 tunate insects could divert him from his pious practices. 
 He heard all the masses that were said, and yet he la- 
 mented his tepidity. He longed, he said, to make up for 
 the time when he had been unable to offer that Divine 
 Sacrifice, and to supply, in anticipation, for the time 
 when he might be again deprived of that happiness. 
 
 Father Jogues' courage in suffering inspired Father 
 Buteux with this reflection: " I undertake this narrative," 
 says he, " first to show slack and cowardly souls, like my 
 own, how wrong we are to fly from pain and mortifica- 
 tion under the pretext of health, since this Father, who 
 has endured so much, is as sound and whole as ever; and 
 secondly, to give holy and courageous souls an occasion 
 to praise God and thank Him that He has still in these 
 times servants and faithful souls who ' fill up those things 
 that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ ' " (Col. i. 24). 
 
Charity and Chastity, 215 
 
 CHARITY AND CHASTITY. 
 
 His ardent charity for his brethren and for the Indians 
 is conspicuous in what we have related. Never amid his 
 sufferings and all the refinements of cruelty adopted by 
 his torturers did he feel the least aversion for them. On 
 the contrary, he felt sentiments of love and compassion 
 for the Iroquois; he desired their salvation, and prayed 
 incessantly for them. It was one of his consolations to 
 think that he had been the first to shed his blood for 
 God's glory amid that heathen nation, in tlie hope that 
 this holocaust would hasten their conversion. 
 
 The blindness of these people and their opposition to 
 the Faith deeply afflicted his soul. He regarded their 
 excessive cruelty to him with the compassionate pity of 
 a mother afflicted by the sight of a child seized with in- 
 sanity. On other occasions he considered them as the 
 rod of the Lord, appointed to punish his sins, and he 
 bowed with submission beneath His hand while adoring 
 His judgments. 
 
 His chastity, as angelic as his charity, excited the ad- 
 miration of the very savages. Like a vigilant sentinel, 
 he was always in arms to defend it. The rigorous treat- 
 ment to which he subjected his body, already so cruelly 
 tortured by these Indians, proves clearly that he had never 
 regarded it, except as a slave to be kept under, because 
 its revolt was always to be feared. The state of almost 
 perfect nudity in whicli he was left during a part of his 
 captivity was a more painful cross to him than all his 
 other sufferings. 
 
 A Dutch Protestant entering the cabin where he was 
 one day addressed some indecent words to him, and 
 spoke ironically of his shamefacedness. The servant of 
 God found in his zeal strength to denounce such lan- 
 o-uage. He showed the man the impropriety and sin of 
 
2i6 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 his conduct so clearly, that the Indians did him justice, 
 and declared openly that the French were not lewd and 
 dissolute, like the Dutch. His virtue thus exalted his 
 whole nation. 
 
 OBEDIENCE AND ZEAL. 
 
 On entering the religious state Father Jogues had fully 
 comprehended the true value of obedience, and the assist- 
 ance he would find in its practice. Naturally timid, fear- 
 ful, and even pusillanimous, he became bold and intrepid 
 when he fulfilled the will of his superiors. They knew 
 this so well, that in difficult conjunctures they felt that 
 they could rely on him as on a rock. When he heard the 
 word " Go," he knew no obstacle, he perceived no danger. 
 But, on the other hand, if he had a decision to make by 
 himself, he stopped to examine minutely the slightest 
 difficulties, while at the voice of his superiors he con- 
 sidered only how to execute a command and the will of 
 God. 
 
 This disposition did not escape the eye of the Indians. 
 On seeing him so docile to the voice of his masters, and 
 so firm in everything that concerned the glory of God, 
 they said to him, " Indeed, Ondesonk, it would have been 
 a pity to kill you, for you act the master when you think 
 proper, and the obedient child when a reasonable order 
 is given you." 
 
 In fact he was always ready to obey the meanest Indian 
 in lawful things, however humiliating they might be, but 
 he could withstand the most powerful of them when he 
 thought God's interests were at stake. It was by these 
 qualities that he was able to acquire a complete mastery 
 over several of them. They listened to him willingly, and 
 at last respected him. One of the most influential sachems 
 deemed it an honor to be visited by him, and when he 
 expected the missionary he prepared beforehand to wel- 
 come him as well as he could, and treat him properly. 
 
Obedience and Zeal. 217 
 
 The holy courage with which Father Jogues arrayed 
 himself against evil practices which he hoped to correct, 
 excited the admiration of the most sensible Indians, and 
 they often said to him, ''You speak too boldly: you will 
 get killed. If here, where you are a prisoner and with 
 none to sustain you, you resist us, what would you do if 
 you were free and among your own people ? You surely 
 would not speak in favor of the Iroquois." They were 
 ignorant alike of evangelical charity and intrepidity. 
 
 In the visits which Father Jogues made to the Dutch 
 during his captivity they invited him frequently to take 
 a little of those spirituous liquors which the Indians 
 C2\\^di fire-water^ and which they pressed on the natives so 
 nefariously in their trade. He constantly refused to taste 
 it, to show them his aversion for that drink which caused 
 drunkenness, debauchery, and a host of disorders. 
 
 During his captivity he had the consolation of baptiz- 
 ing more than sixty persons, for he let slip no opportunity 
 which Providence offered him of opening to souls the 
 gates of heaven. 
 
 His masters took him one day to a neighboring town 
 to witness the dances and games. He followed them, 
 but with another object than enjoyment. As soon as he 
 got there he slipped away from the crowd and the noise, 
 and glided into the cabins to comfort the sick and dying, 
 and administer baptism. In one of these dwellings he 
 found five little children prostrated by the same disease, 
 and ready to expire. Their parents had run off to the 
 merry-making, so that he had ample leisure to discharge 
 his ministry and regenerate them by the sacrament. 
 Three days after he ascertained that they had all gone 
 to heaven. 
 
 The zeal of which Father Jogues' whole life was the 
 constant expression was the real chain which kept him so 
 long a prisoner among the Mohawks. Several opportuni- 
 ties of escape had been given him, but he always repelled 
 the idea as a temptation, on account of the good to souls 
 
2i8 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 which he was effecting. If at last he consented to es- 
 cape, it was, as we have seen, on account of the well- 
 grounded fear lest his death should compromise the in- 
 terests of the Faith. It was, on the other hand, his con- 
 solation to think that he might perhaps be able some day 
 to evangelize those districts which he had bedewed with 
 his blood. 
 
 The Lord did, indeed, grant him the favor to return, 
 but it was to complete his sacrifice on the spot where he 
 had so heroically begun it. The blood of the martyr 
 was not shed in vain. He made that impious land fruit- 
 ful. Some years after. Faith went there to plant her 
 standard, and all Christian virtues were seen flourishing. 
 
 Another precious fruit of this magnanimous sacrifice 
 was to increase the ardor of his brethren and excite in 
 their hearts a holy emulation of zeal and virtue. Father 
 Jerome Lalemant wrote soon after: "The rage of the 
 Iroquois will not make the mystery of Christ's cross use- 
 less. We shall be captured, we shall be massacred, we 
 shall be burned: so be it. The noblest death is not on a 
 bed. I do not see one here who hangs his head. On 
 the contrary, all ask to go up to the Hurons, and all pro- 
 test that the fires of the Iroquois are one of their motives 
 for undertaking the dangerous journey" (Relation, 1647). 
 
 The death of the servant of God w^as only the prelude 
 of the terrible trials through which the 5"oung Canadian 
 Church was to pass. It was its bloodiest, but also its 
 most glorious epoch. 
 
 Emboldened by impunity and success, the Iroquois 
 spread on all sides, carrying terror and destruction every- 
 where. The Hurons and their missionaries were the 
 most sorely tried. In 1647 o"^ of their towns was utterly 
 destroyed, with all its inhabitants. The Iroquois made 
 the whole country one vast ruin. Fathers de Brebeuf, 
 Gabriel Lalemant, Charles Garnier, Anthony Daniel, per- 
 ished by their hands, as well as a great number of their 
 converts. But those days of misfortune w^ere days of 
 
His Power fill Intercessioji. 2 1 9 
 
 triumph for the Faith: in the school of adversity man of- 
 ten learns wisdom. The Hurons in great numbers be- 
 sought the boon of baptism. The}- acknowledged in the 
 trials of adversity the chastisement due to their long and 
 culpable resistance to grace. In their truly Christian 
 resignation they displayed a courage and an energy of 
 character which will stand higher even than their war- 
 like exploits as their strongest title to glory. 
 
 When the missionaries were at last able to enter the 
 Iroquois cantons they found the memory of the servant 
 of God still fresh in the minds of the tribe, and they more 
 than once experienced in a sensible manner the effect of 
 his powerful protection. 
 
 Father James de Lamberville, one of the apostles of the 
 Iroquois, himself obtained one of these signal favors in 
 behalf of a sick Iroquois. His relatives, strongly attached 
 to their superstitions and renowned for their fanaticism, 
 had employed every possible practice of the medicine- 
 men to obtain his recovery, but the disease kept making 
 alarming progress. The missionary, who had been in- 
 formed by some of his converts of the man's danger, made 
 ineffectual efforts to reach him. In this extremity he in- 
 voked Father Jogues to have the obstacles removed. His 
 prayer was not in vain. He had scarcely ended his invo- 
 cation when the doors so obstinately closed against him 
 seemed to open of themselves. The patient cheerfully 
 welcomed him, and showed every docility to his instruc- 
 tions. Grace had triumphed: the suitable disposition of 
 the dying man soon rendered him fit for baptism. On 
 recovering his health the new convert showed no relaxa- 
 tion, but continued faithful to his death (Relation, 1677). 
 
 The example and power of the servant of God bore 
 happy fruit even in France. Mother Catharine of St. 
 Augustine, the illustrious Hospital Nun of Quebec, whose 
 wonderful life was written by Father Ragueneau, was 
 indebted to Father Jogues for her vocation to Canada. 
 She became a novice in the convent at Bayeux at the age 
 
220 Life of Father Jogues, 
 
 of fifteen, but had already an ardent desire to devote her 
 life to the distant missions of America, and tliis desire 
 was shared by her sister, who was a professed Ursuline 
 nun. 
 
 But their parents, especially their father, Mr. de Long- 
 pre, opposed it so positively that the elder sister finally 
 abandoned the project entirely. Not so Catharine. Her 
 father, to strengthen his refusal, addressed a petition to 
 the judicial body, the " Parlement," and on her side 
 Catharine addressed Heaven in her behalf. She tri- 
 umphed. The Relation of the Canada Missions which 
 described the labors, the sufferings, and death of Father 
 Jogues had just reached France. It fell into the hands 
 of Mr. de Longpre, who read it with the liveliest interest. 
 The next night he felt himself very strongly moved to 
 yield to his daughter's wishes, so that on awakening he 
 felt his heart entirely changed. At that very moment, 
 and in the same manner, his wife, who was then at a con- 
 siderable distance, experienced the same change. It was 
 a warning of Heaven; they did not wish to incur the re- 
 proach of resisting the will of God, and gave their daugh- 
 ter the consent which she awaited. 
 
 A cure, which seems miraculous, occurred some years 
 afterwards in a community at Poitiers. A pious object 
 which had been used by Father Jogues was preserved 
 there. One of the nuns, named Mary Prevosterie, owed 
 her life to it. The opening of a large abscess was fol- 
 lowed by a malignant fever of the worst type. The pain 
 became acute, and in a short time intolerable. Recol- 
 lecting then the relic of Father Jogues, she implored the 
 Superior to lay it on her wound. At the first instant the 
 pain increased considerably, then itsuddenl)" ceased, and 
 the sick nun was completely cured. The next year, at 
 the same time and under the same circumstances, the 
 disease reappeared. The nun remembered the benefit 
 that she had received, but reproached herself with not 
 having been sufficiently grateful to her benefactor. She 
 
His Poiucrfztl Inlercession. 2 2 1 
 
 had recourse to him again, promising to make known, as 
 well as she could, the favor if she recovered. Her prayer 
 was again heard, and she obtained an immediate restora- 
 tion. An authentic act was immediately drawn up, with 
 the approbation of the Bishop, and was preserved in the 
 Archives of the Jesuits at Paris.* 
 
 *Creiixius, " Historia Canadensis," p. 499; Cassani, " Glorias del 
 segundo siglo de la Compania de Jesus." 
 
22 2 Life of Rend Goupil. 
 
 RENE GOUPIL AND HIS HEROIC 
 DEATH. 
 
 Translated from the Autograph of Father Jogues. 
 
 "Rene Goupil was a native of Angers, who, in the 
 bloom of life, earnestly asked admission into our noviti- 
 ate at Paris, where he remained some months with great 
 edification. His bodily ailments having deprived him of 
 the happiness of consecrating himself in the holy state of 
 religion as he had wished, he crossed over to New France, 
 as soon as he grew better, to serve the Society there, as 
 he had not had the happiness of giving himself to it in 
 the Old. And to do nothing of his own will, though 
 perfect master of his actions, he submitted himself en- 
 tirely to the direction of the Superior of the Mission, who 
 employed him for two whole j^ears in the meanest em- 
 ployments of the house, which he discharged with great 
 humility and charity. They also gave him the care of 
 tending the sick and wounded in the hospital, a post he 
 filled with great ability, for he was well skilled in sur- 
 gery, and with equal love and charity always beholding 
 our Lord in the person of his patients. So sweet an 
 odor of his goodness and other virtues did he leave in 
 that place, that his memory is still in benediction there. 
 
 "As we descended from the Hurons in July, 1642, we 
 asked the Rev. Father Vimont to let us take him, as the 
 Hurons greatly needed a surgeon, and he consented. It 
 were impossible to express the joy of this good young 
 man when the Superior told him to prepare for the voy- 
 age. He knew, withal, the great dangers on the river; 
 
Life of Rend Gotipil. 223 
 
 he knew how furious the Iroquois were against the 
 French: yet all jihis could not deter him from embark- 
 ing for Three Rivers, at the slightest sign of His will, 
 to whom he had voluntarily resigned all that concerned 
 him. 
 
 " We left there (Three Rivers) on the first of August, 
 the morrow of the Feast of our Holy Father. On the 
 second, we met the enemy, who, divided into two bands, 
 awaited us, with all the advantage which a large number 
 of picked men, fighting on land, can have over a smaller 
 one of all kinds on the water in bark canoes. 
 
 " Almost all the Hurons had fled into the woods, and, 
 having left us, we were taken. Here his virtue was 
 strikingly displayed; for as soon as he was taken, he 
 said, ' Father ! blessed be God, He has permitted it; He 
 has wished it; His holy will be done! I love it, I wish it, 
 I cherish it, I embrace it with all my heart.' While the 
 enemy pursued the fugitives, I confessed him and gave 
 him absolution, not knowing what was to befall us after 
 our capture. The enemy, having returned from the chase, 
 fell on us with their teeth, like furious dogs, tore out our 
 nails and crunched our fingers, all which he endured- with 
 great patience and courage. 
 
 "His presence of mind in so distressing an accident 
 was shown specially in his aiding me, in spite of the pain 
 of his wounds, in instructing, as far as he could, the 
 Huron prisoners who were not yet Christians. As I was 
 instructing them separately, and as they came to me, he 
 reminded me that a poor old man named Ondouterraon 
 might well be one of those to be killed on the spot, it 
 being then the custom always to sacrifice some one to 
 the heat of their rage. I instructed this old man care- 
 fully while the enemy were busied with the division of 
 the booty of twelve canoes, a part of which were laden 
 with necessaries for our Huron Fathers. The spoil be- 
 ing divided, they killed the poor old man almost at the 
 very moment when I had given him a new birth. Dur- 
 
224 Life of RenS GoupiL 
 
 ing our march to the enemy's country we had the addi- 
 tional consolation of being together; and here I witnessed 
 many virtues. 
 
 " On the way he was always absorbed in God. His 
 words and conversation were all in perfect submissive- 
 ness to the orders of Divine Providence and a voluntary 
 acceptance of the death which God sent him. He offered 
 himself to Him as a holocaust, to be reduced to ashes in 
 the fires of the Iroquois, which that good Father should 
 enkindle. In all, and by all, he sought means to please 
 Him. One day — it was soon after our capture — he told 
 me, while still on the way, ' Father ! God has always 
 given me a great desire to consecrate myself to His holy 
 service by the vows of religion in His holy Society; till 
 now, my sins have rendered me unworthy of this grace; 
 yet I hope that our Lord will accept the offering I wish 
 to make Him now, and to take, in the best manner that I 
 can, the vows of the Society, in the presence of my God 
 and before you.' Having permitted him, he pronounced 
 them with great devotion. 
 
 *' Wounded as he was, he dressed the wounds of others, 
 not only of the prisoners, but even of such of the enemy 
 as had received any wound in the combat. He also bled 
 a sick Iroquois, and did all with as much charity as if he 
 were doing it to his dearest friends. 
 
 "His humility and the obedience he paid to his cap- 
 tors confounded me. The Iroquois, who had us both in 
 their canoe, told me to take a paddle and use it. Proud 
 even in death, I would not. Some time after, they told 
 him to do it, and he immediately began to paddle; but 
 when he perceived that the Indians wished to compel me 
 to do so after his example, he begged my pardon. At 
 times, on the way, I suggested to him thoughts of flight, 
 as the liberty given us afforded him abundant oppor- 
 tunity. For my own part, I could not forsake a French- 
 man and twenty-four or five Huron prisoners. He would 
 
Life of Re lie Goicpil. 225 
 
 never do it, resigning himself entirely to the will of our 
 Lord, who inspired him with no such thought. 
 
 ''On the Lake (Champlain) we met two hundred Iro- 
 quois, who came to Richelieu when they began to build 
 the fort; they covered us with stripes, drenched us in 
 blood, and made us experience the rage of men possessed 
 by the devil. All these outrages and cruelties he en- 
 dured with great patience and charity for those who ill- 
 treated him. 
 
 " On entering the first town where we were so cruelly 
 treated, he showed extraordinary patience and mildness. 
 Having fallen under the hail of blows of clubs and iron 
 rods poured on us, and unable to rise, he was carried, as 
 it were, half-dead on the scaffold, where we were already^ 
 in the middle of the town, but in so pitiable a state that 
 he would have moved cruelty itself to compassion: he 
 was all livid with bruises, and in his face we could dis- 
 tinguish nothing but the white of his eyes; yet he was 
 the more beautiful in the eyes of angels as he was more 
 disfigured; and like Him of whom it is said, 'We have 
 seen Him as a leper,' etc.; 'There was in Him neither 
 comeliness nor beauty' (Isaias liii. 24). 
 
 " Scarcely had he, or even we, recovered breath, when 
 they came and gave him three blows on the shoulders 
 with a heavy club, as they had done to uSc After cut- 
 ting off a thumb from me as the most important, they 
 turned to him and cut off his right thumb at the first 
 joint. During this cruel operation he constantly re- 
 peated, 'Jesus, Mary, Joseph.' During the six days that 
 we were exposed to all those who chose to maltreat us, 
 he displayed extraordinary mildness; his breast was all 
 burned by the live coals and ashes which the boys threw 
 on his body when he was tied down on the ground at 
 night. Nature gave me more dexterity than him in 
 escaping some of these pains. 
 
 "After our life was granted us, just after we had been 
 warned to prepare to be burned, he fell sick in great 
 
226 Life of Rene Goupil. 
 
 want of everything, especially of food, for he was not 
 accustomed to theirs. Here truly it may be said, ^ Non 
 cibus utilis (Bgro.'* I could not relieve him, being also 
 sick, and not having one finger sound or whole. 
 
 "But I must hasten to his death, which wants nothing 
 to be that of a martyr. 
 
 "After we had been six weeks in the country, as con- 
 fusion arose in the councils of the Iroquois, some of whom 
 were for sending us back, we lost all hope, which in me 
 had never been sanguine, of seeing Three Rivers that 
 year. We consoled one another then at this disposal of 
 Providence, and prepared for all He should ordain in our 
 regard. He did not see the danger we were in so clearly: 
 I saw it better. This made me often tell him to hold 
 himself in readiness. Accordingly, one day when in our 
 mental pain we had gone out of the town to pray more 
 becomingly and undisturbed by noise, two young men 
 came after us and told us to return home. I had some 
 presentiment of what was to happen, and told him, *My 
 dear brother, let us recommend ourselves to our Lord 
 and to our good mother the Blessed Virgin: these men 
 have some evil design, as I think.' We had a little before 
 offered ourselves to our Lord with much devotion, be- 
 seeching Him to accept our lives and blood, and unite 
 them to His life and blood for the salvation of these poor 
 tribes. We were returning then towards the town, recit- 
 ing our beads, of which we had already said four decades. 
 Having stopped near the gate of the town to see what 
 they would say, one of these two Iroquois drew an axe 
 which he had hidden under his blanket, and dealt Rene 
 a blow on the head as he stood before him; he fell stiff 
 on his face on the ground, uttering the holy name of 
 Jesus, for we had often reminded each other to close our 
 voice and life with that holy name. I turned at the blow, 
 
 * " Food is not useful to the sick." 
 
Life of Rend Goiipil. 227 
 
 and seeing the reeking hatchet, fell on my knees to re- 
 ceive the blow that was to unite me to my loved com- 
 panion; but as they delayed I rose, ran to him, as he lay 
 expiring near me. They gave him two more blows on 
 the head and extinguished life, but not before I had 
 given him absolution, which, since our captivity, I had 
 given him regularly after his confession every other day. 
 " It was the [29th] day of September, the Feast of St. 
 Michael, that this angel in innocence and martyr of 
 Christ gave his life for Him who had given him His. 
 They commanded me to return to my cabin, where I 
 awaited during the rest of the day and the next the same 
 treatment. It was the belief of all that I would not wait 
 long, as they had begun it; and in fact for several days 
 they came to kill me, but our Lord prevented it by ways 
 which would take long to explain. Early the next morn- 
 ing I did not fail to start out to inquire where they had 
 thrown that blessed body, for I wished to inter it, cost 
 what it might. Some Iroquois who had a wish to save 
 me said, 'Thou hast no sense; thou seest that they seek 
 thee everywhere to kill thee, and thou goest out still — 
 thou wilt go to seek a body already half putrified, which 
 has been dragged far from here. Seest thou not those 
 young men going out who will kill thee when thou art 
 past the palisade ?' This did not stop me, and our Lord 
 gave me courage enough to be willing to die in that office 
 of charity. I go, I seek, and by the help of a captured 
 Algonquin become a real Iroquois, I find it. After he had 
 been killed the children had stripped him, and tying a 
 cord around his neck dragged him to a torrent which 
 runs at the foot of the town. The dogs had already 
 gnawed a part of his thighs. At this spectacle I could 
 not withhold my tears. 1 took the body, and, aided by 
 the Algonquin, I sank it in the water and covered it with 
 large stones to hide it, intending to return the next day 
 with a spade, when there was no one near, and dig a 
 grave and inter it. I thought the body well hidden, but 
 
228 Life of Rene GoupiL 
 
 perhaps some one saw us, especially of the youth, and 
 took it up. 
 
 "The next day, as they sought to kill me, my aunt sent 
 me to her field to escape, as I think; this compelled me 
 to defer it till the next day. It rained all night, so that 
 the torrent was extremely swelled; I borrowed a hoe in 
 another cabin, the better to conceal my design, but on 
 approaching the place could not find the blessed deposit; 
 I entered the water, already quite cold, I go and come, I 
 sound with my feet to see whether the water had not 
 raised and carried off the body, but I saw nothing. How 
 many tears I shed, which fell in the torrent, while I sang 
 as I could the psalms which the Church chants for the 
 dead! After all I found nothing, and a woman known 
 to me who passed by, seeing me in trouble, told me, when 
 I asked her whether she did not know what had been 
 done with it, that it had been dragged to the river, which 
 is a quarter of a league from there, and with which I was 
 not acquainted. This was false, the young men had taken 
 it up and dragged it to a neighboring wood, where dur- 
 ing the fall and winter it was the food of the dog, the 
 crow, and the fox. When I was told in the spring that 
 he had been dragged there, I went several times without 
 finding anything; at last, the fourth time, I found his 
 head and some half-gnawed bones, which I interred, in- 
 tending to carry them off, if taken back to Three Rivers, 
 as was then talked of. Repeatedly did I kiss them as 
 the bones of a martyr of Jesus Christ. 
 
 "I give him this title, not only because he was killed 
 by the enemies of God and His Church, in the exercise of 
 an ardent love for his neighbor, putting himself in evi- 
 dent perils for the love of God, but particularly because 
 he was Icilled for prayer, and expressly for the Holy 
 Cross. He was in a cabin where he prayed daily, which 
 scarcely pleased a superstitious old man there. One day 
 seeing a little child, three or four years old, in the cabin, 
 from an excess of devotion and a love of the cross, and 
 
Life of Rcnc^ GoupiL 229 
 
 in a simplicity which we, who are more prudent accord- 
 ing to the flesh, would not have had, he took off his cap, 
 and putting it on the child's head made the sign of the 
 cross on his body. The old man seeing it ordered a 
 young man in his cabin, who was starting on a war- 
 party, to kill him; and he obeyed the order, as we have 
 seen. 
 
 "The mother of the child herself, in a voyage which I 
 made with her, told me that he had been killed for that 
 sign of the cross; and the old man who had given the 
 order to kill him invited me one day to his cabin to din- 
 ner, but when I made the sign of the cross before begin- 
 ning, he said, 'There is what we hate; that is' what we 
 killed thy comrade for, and will kill thee too. Our 
 neighbors, the Europeans, do not make it.' Sometimes, 
 too, as I prayed on my knees in hunting time, they told 
 me that they hated that way of doing, and had killed 
 the other Frenchman for it, and would kill me too when 
 I got back to the village. 
 
 " I beg pardon of your Reverence for the precipitation 
 with which I write this, and my want of respect in so 
 doing. Excuse me, if you please; I feared to miss this 
 opportunity of discharging a debt I should long since 
 have discharged." 
 
2 30 Life of Father Jogites. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Geography of the Huron Country. Page 30. 
 
 |HE Huron country, which was eighteen to twenty 
 miles wide by twenty-five to thirty-seven miles long, 
 lay between latitude 40° and 45° N. and longitude 82° 
 30' and 83° W. To complete the geography, we ought to 
 give the position of the chief towns, but they have left 
 no trace. With their bark cabins and wooden palisades, 
 the Indians made no permanent foundations. The rav- 
 ages of fire or time sufficed to sweep away all but the 
 faintest vestiges. The only ruins to be found are those 
 of the two forts erected by the missionaries — one at St. 
 Mary, the other on Isle St. Joseph. 
 
 Only one ancient map lays down the Huron villages. 
 This is a little plan in the corner of a large map in a 
 work by Father Ducreux (Creuxius, " Historia Canaden- 
 sis," 1660). This work — which Father Charlevoix seems 
 not to have known or to have disregarded when he adopt- 
 ed the m aps of Bellin, which are very defective on this point 
 — did not escape the learned American historian Dr. Jared 
 Sparks of Cambridge. He was the first to call attention 
 to its importance. Though without a scale, and show- 
 ing that the engraver misread several names, it is of great 
 aid in identifying the relative position of the impor- 
 tant villages. By its help and the information scattered 
 through the " Relations de la Nouvelle France," and ex- 
 plorations made on the spot, we have endeavored to fix 
 the position of some of these towns. 
 
Appendix. 231 
 
 1. Ihonatiria, or St. Joseph (called also Ihoriatiria, Re- 
 lation 1640, and Jonatari in Charlevoix) had replaced 
 Otonacha, Champlain's landing-place. The old name, too, 
 had variations — Toanchen in Sagard; Toanche, Toachim, 
 and Teandeouiata in Father de Brebeuf. The Recollects 
 called it St. Nicholas and the port St. Joseph. It was 
 on a point running out into Lake Huron, about seven 
 and a half miles from St. Mary, ten from Ossossane, and 
 about seventeen from Teanaustayae. From it a large 
 island was visible on the lake. These data seem to in- 
 dicate the west entrance of what is now called Penetan- 
 guishene Bay. 
 
 2. Ossossane, which Champlain calls Caragouha, and 
 Brother Sagard Tequeunonkiae, also bore the name of St. 
 Gabriel (Sagard). Ducreux's map places this town on 
 the west side of the Huron peninsula, and there is a 
 little isolated promontory there which corresponds to all 
 the historical references. 
 
 3. Teanaustayae, Teanosteae (Register of Three Riv- 
 ers), received the name of St. Joseph in 1638, when 
 the village of Ihonatiria dispersed. This is the place 
 where Father Daniel perished in 1648, with seven hun- 
 dred Hurons. Ducreux's map and historical references 
 seem to indicate as its site a point now called Irish Set- 
 tlement, in the north of Medonte district. Traces of a 
 large Indian town, and especially fragments of coarse 
 pottery, are found here. 
 
 4. Cahiague (Champlain) or Contarea (Father de Bre- 
 beuf) was called St. John the Baptist. This village con- 
 tained two hundred and sixty cabins, which would rep- 
 resent nearly two thousand souls. It was near the large 
 Lake Ouentaron, now Simcoe, and another smaller lake. 
 It was the frontier Huron town on the east. Champlain 
 set out from it to attack the Iroquois in their own coun- 
 try. Its position must have been north of Lake Simcoe, 
 near the town of Orillia. 
 
 5. St. Louis was of recent origin in 1648; no Indian 
 
232 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 name is given for it in the Relations. It was only two 
 miles and a half from St. Mary, and near the mouth of 
 the little river which empties into a neighboring bay, now 
 called Hog Bay. It was in this village that Father de Bre- 
 beuf and Father Gabriel Lalemant were captured by the 
 Iroquois in 1649, but they were put to death in the vil- 
 lage of St. Ignatius, about two and a half miles distant. 
 
 6. There were two villages called St. Ignatius — the 
 one just mentioned, about five miles from St. Mary; 
 the other, known in Indian as Taenhatentaron, was 
 near the Iroquois frontier, between Teanaustayae and Ca- 
 hiague. We are inclined to think that its site was on 
 Lot 20, Concession 10, of the present district of Medonte. 
 Many Indian remains have been found there, pipes of 
 various kinds, collars of all varieties, fragments of ves- 
 sels, and more than two hundred iron hatchets of French 
 make. We visited near it one of the great Huron graves, 
 such as Father de Brebeuf describes in detail in the Re- 
 lations. It is a great circular pit about five yards in 
 diameter, in which great numbers of bones are still to 
 be seen. When it was discovered in 1844, kettles, pipes, 
 collars, fragments of peltry, — the usual articles used in 
 these solemn burials, — were found there. This town was 
 abandoned from fear of the Iroquois and removed nearer 
 St. Mary, in 1648, as we have said. It is the one shown on 
 Ducreux's map, on what is now called Sturgeon Bay. 
 
 7. St. Mary was not an Indian town, but a residence 
 for the missionaries and the French. There is no doubt 
 as to its site. Ducreux's map and the details given in 
 the Relations, point clearly enough to the right bank of a 
 little river, now called the Wye, east of the present vil- 
 lage of Penetanguishene. What is more, the ruins still 
 exist. The fort erected by the missionaries more than 
 two hundred years ago (1639) is still traceable, and we 
 drew a plan of it. The stone walls are still more than 
 three feet above ground. The curtains on the east and 
 northeast and the four bastions were of stone ; the 
 
Appendix. 233 
 
 other two curtains were doubtless formed of stout pali- 
 sades. The square base connected with the south bastion 
 probably supported a tower from which the approaches 
 could easily be seen. 
 
 The traces and dimensions of the ditch surrounding 
 the fort, and which could receive the water of the river, 
 and canoes, are still clearly visible. Three little basins, 
 which may have been shelters or landing-places, are also 
 to be seen. On the south an inclosure, in form of a redan, 
 defended by a ditch and parapet of earth, in all probabil- 
 ity was used by travelling Hurons to pitch their cabins. 
 By digging the- ground within the fort, we found at a 
 depth of some two feet traces of the fire kindled by the 
 missionaries in 1649, when they were compelled to fly 
 with their converts before the Iroquois invasion. This 
 fort contained the chapel and house for the missionaries 
 and the French, as well as the storehouses for provi- 
 sions; but outside there was a cemetery for Christian In- 
 dians, and a small field for cultivation. South of the fort, 
 in the redan rose a large cabin for pilgrims and a hos- 
 pice for the sick. " This hospital," adds Father Jerome 
 Lalemant, " is so separated from our dwelling, that not 
 only men and boys, but also women can be admitted." 
 
 8. Isle St. Joseph (in Huron, Ahoendoe, now Charity 
 Island) lies northeast of the Huron peninsula. After de- 
 stroying St. Mary on the Wye, the missionaries threw up 
 a regular fort on the southwest side of the island, and 
 gave it the name of St. Mary. The ruins still remain in 
 the midst of the woods. 
 
 B. 
 
 Stephen Totiri. Page 69. 
 
 Stephen Totiri is one of the glories of the Huron 
 Church. His family resided in the town of St. Joseph 
 (Teanaustayae), of which he was the model. He was ono 
 
234 Life of Fat her Jogues. 
 
 of those taken with Father Jogues; but having eluded 
 the vigilance of the Iroquois, he escaped, and returned 
 to his own country to proclaim the Faith. He was poor, 
 because all he owned had fallen into the hands of the 
 enemy; but this mattered little, and he made an offering 
 of it to God. The first news which Stephen heard on 
 his return was that his mother, Christine Sarihia, whom 
 he loved deeply, had died. He asked whether she 
 breathed her last as a good Christian, and on learning 
 that she had died in the most pious sentiments, he 
 clasped his hands, and raising his eyes to heaven, 
 said, " My God, who can mourn ? She is happy, she can 
 never more offend Thee. Provided I and mine die in the 
 Faith, I cannot regret this life for them or for me. Breth- 
 ren, let us say no more of what I have lost, but let us 
 think of the great blessings which await us in heaven. 
 Your tears and mine will be turned into joy, and the 
 heathens will know by our faces that we have faith and 
 the hope of heaven in our hearts. Let us go into the 
 chapel and praise God." 
 
 Stephen was a Christian in 1641 when the missionaries 
 wished to establish a residence in his village. He had 
 offered half his cabin for a chapel, and the first Mass was 
 said there on the 19th of March, the Feast of St. Joseph. 
 The sacrifice which he had made was an honor in his 
 eyes, and drew upon him many graces from heaven. He 
 received especially grace to profess his faith: it was rea- 
 sonable, resting on solid instruction. When the mis- 
 sionaries were absent, he and his wife instructed the 
 catechumens of both sexes in Christian doctrine, and dis- 
 charged this duty remarkably well. This chapel from 
 time to time drew upon him insults and threats. The 
 heathen party wished to force him from it in order to 
 destroy it. "I will leave it," he told them, ''but only 
 when the missionaries who instruct us themselves leave 
 the town, and then it will be to follow them wherever 
 they go. I am more attached to them than I am to my 
 
Appendix. 235 
 
 country and kindred, for they bring us the words of eter- 
 nal happiness. My soul does not depend on my body: 
 a moment can separate them; but you will never deprive 
 me of the Faith. 
 
 In 1643 the calumnies and hatred of the heathens in 
 the town assumed a more threatening character, because 
 they saw their most important men side with the mis- 
 sionaries and embrace the " Prayer." The Christians 
 held a meeting to concert steps to meet the storm. 
 Stephen, as one of the leading chiefs, presided. Each 
 one gave his advice; but the unanimous opinion coun- 
 selled patience and resignation. At last Stephen Totiri 
 summed up the discussion, and put the result in a few 
 words, which showed his faith : '' Brethren, since you 
 regard me as chief, this is the thought which God sug- 
 gests to me: Let us fear nothing but sin." 
 
 The missionaries saw in 1644 that they could not, 
 on account of their scanty number, continue the mission 
 which they had begun among the Neutral Nation.* 
 Stephen wished to do something by visiting the tribe 
 with his brother Paul: they showed wonderful zeal, and 
 met with great success. Their rosaries, worn around 
 their necks, according to the custom of the more fervent 
 Christians, attracted attention, excited curiosity, and en- 
 abled them to explain our doctrine and praise the 
 " Prayer." 
 
 Human respect had no hold on this energetic man: in 
 1646 an unfortunate Iroquois prisoner went through all 
 the horrors of the stake in his village. The idea that he 
 was going to die a heathen roused Stephen's zeal. Unable 
 to preserve his body from torture, he wished at least to try 
 and save his soul, and he undertook to instruct him. He 
 
 * The Neutral Nation owed this name among the French to its at- 
 titude in the war between the Iroquois and Hurons. It took no part 
 in that fierce struggle between the two nations, leaving free passage 
 to both parties through its territory, but not permitting any fighting 
 there. 
 
236 Life of Father Jogties. 
 
 alone had no firebrand or murderous implement in his 
 hand. " Fear not," he said, approaching the victim; " I 
 wish only your good. You are about to die, it is true; 
 if you will invoke with me my God, the Master of Life, 
 Him who created us and wishes to make us happy, your 
 soul will be able to enjoy happiness in another world. 
 Those who refuse to honor Him go with the demons to suf- 
 fer eternally." These words, uttered gently and with con- 
 viction, fell like a soothing balm on the sufferings of the 
 wretched man. " I have heard something like this from 
 Hurons whom we have burned," said the Iroquois; " they 
 were comforted by it even in the flames, awaiting the 
 great happiness of heaven. Is it true that it is really 
 so?" Stephen instructed him in the fundamental truths 
 of religion, and found a heart well disposed for the di- 
 vine seed. The Iroquois earnestly solicited baptism, and 
 Stephen, braving the indignation of the heathens, who in 
 their rage wished to prolong their victim's sufferings, 
 even after death, poured the saving water on his brow, 
 and heard him pronouncing, till his last sigh, words of 
 consolation, hope, and love. 
 
 On another occasion his love for the Faith and the holy 
 energy of his zeal excited admiration. Some boys, only 
 too apt to imitate the impiety of their parents, had pelted 
 with stones the cross which had just been erected with 
 great ceremony in the cemetery. They had even smeared 
 filth over it. 
 
 On hearing of this profanation Stephen's heart was 
 roused. He resolved that reparation must be made, and 
 he called a meeting of the chiefs for the purpose. 
 When evening came he went to the top of his cabin, 
 and in a voice of thunder raised the cry customary when 
 an enemy is seen or some great danger menaces a 
 town. The warriors all gathered, fully armed. " Trem- 
 ble, brethren," he cried, " the enemy is in our town. The 
 cemetery of the Christians has been profaned. God will 
 take vengeance. Stop your children, or you share their 
 
Appendix. 237 
 
 crime, and the punishment will fall on all. The bodies 
 of the dead are sacred things, and the heathens them- 
 selves respect them. No one would touch a paddle hung 
 up at a grave. You may overturn my cabin, strike me, 
 kill me rather; but when the things of God are assailed, 
 I wish, as long as I have a breath of life, to proclaim how 
 enormous a crime it is, and I will tell you what a terri- 
 ble thing it is to make God your enemy." 
 
 These words produced their effect : the parents 
 checked the insolence and impiety of their children. 
 
 C. 
 
 Teresa Oiouhaton. Page 69. 
 
 Teresa Oiouhaton was the daughter of a fervent Chris- 
 tian, Joseph Chiouatenhoua, who was the first to receive 
 baptism in the town of the Conception. He became a 
 genuine apostle and the pillar of the Mission, which he 
 supported with all the ardor of the most disinterested 
 zeal. The Iroquois massacred him in his field, in a raid 
 which they made into the Huron territory in 1640. His 
 brother, Teondechoren, who knew his desire to send his 
 daughter to the Ursulines at Quebec, undertook to take 
 her there some time after her father's death. While at 
 the convent she noticed that the nuns every year retired 
 apart for eight days and spent the time in silence. She 
 wished to do the same ; having noticed a grove in a re- 
 tired part of the convent grounds, she made a little cabin 
 of branches there, where she spent whole days without 
 uttering a word. The curiosity of the other Indian girls 
 at last revealed the mystery of her absence, and made 
 known her retreat by destroying its charm. 
 
 When her countrymen came to Quebec they always 
 visited her and her schoolmates: it was her pleasure to 
 act as interpreter when they went to the nuns to have 
 them repeat their catechism and prayers. Two of these 
 Hurons, who remained the whole winter in the town were 
 
J 
 
 8 Ltf^ of Father' Jogues. 
 
 a special object of her care. One of them a few days be- 
 fore his baptism wished to amuse himself at her expense, 
 and pretended to feel doubt and uncertainty. Said he, 
 " I cannot bring myself to believe all that the black- 
 gown teaches me; and besides, it is too strict a doctrine: 
 I must give up everything I like." More indignant than 
 grieved, Teresa forgot her youth and reproached him 
 sharply. " What has turned your head ?" she cried. 
 *' What are you thinking about? Don't you see that you 
 may die at any moment ? If you died this night you 
 would go to the demons in hell: think of all this, and re- 
 turn quickly." The Indian pretended to persist in his 
 hesitation and indifference. Teresa began to cry. Feeling 
 that she had exhausted her own arguments, she ran to 
 the nun who had charge of the neophytes. ''He is lost," 
 she told her with sobs; "he will not believe in God any 
 more, or obey Him. If I could have torn down the grat- 
 ing I would have beaten him." 
 
 The good religious endeavored in vain to persuade her 
 that it was only a trick and pretence. It required all the 
 influence of Father de Brebeuf, who was then at Quebec, 
 to quiet the fears of this good soul and comfort her. 
 
 Teresa could read, write, and speak French. Her 
 country-people were amazed at her learning, and flat- 
 tered to see her so virtuous. "These good Indians," 
 says Ven. Mother Mary of the Incarnation, "resemble 
 religious, they are so fervent " (Letter 25). Her uncle 
 came for her in 1642 ; he proposed to give her in mar- 
 riage, and he hoped that she would do wonders in the 
 Huron country, she was so pious and accomplished. The 
 young girl wished to remain with her teachers, to whom 
 she was strongly attached; but she yielded to the lesson 
 which Father Jogues gave her on the obedience due to 
 parents. She set out; and "by means of our friends," 
 wrote the venerable Superior whom we have just cited, 
 "we provided her with all she required for her marriage" 
 (Letter 35). 
 
Appendix. 239 
 
 Teresa was captured by the Mohawks at the same time 
 as Father Jogues. She was bound to one of her cousins, 
 aged, like herself, fifteen, and hurried off with the other 
 prisoners. She was not as badly treated as the men, and 
 fell to the lot of a young warrior, who married her. As 
 long as her uncle, Joseph Teondechoren, remained near 
 her he encouraged her by his example and his pious 
 words. After his escape from the hands of the enemy 
 he went to Quebec to tell the Ursulines of his niece's dis- 
 position. "She is not ashamed of her baptism," said he. 
 ''She prays to God publicly, and goes to confession to 
 Father Jogues every time he visits her village. I often 
 exhorted her to persevere in good and not lose courage. 
 Slie obeyed me in everything, and I am most grateful to 
 you. Mothers, for the pious education you have given 
 her. This does not prevent her from grieving to be 
 compelled to live in the midst of our cruel enemies. She 
 has suffered much from the cold and inclemency of win- 
 ter; she has even been very sick, but God has restored her 
 to health. I told her, 'Be patient; this life is short; your 
 troubles will end, and you will be happy in heaven if you 
 persevere.' She has no beads, and to say her rosary she 
 uses her fingers, or little pebbles which she lays on the 
 ground at each Hail Mary. She often spoke to me about 
 you. 'Alas !' said she, ' if the nuns saw me in this state 
 among these wicked Iroquois, who know not God, they 
 w^ould take pity on me.'" 
 
 We have seen that the Governor and the Ursulines of- 
 fered a ransom for her deliverance, which Father Jogues 
 presented to the Mohawks. Her marriage was an obstacle 
 to her liberation, or rather a pretext for deferring it; and 
 the treachery of those Indians, which made peace impos- 
 sible for several years, deprived her friends of all hope of 
 obtaining her liberty. She accordingly remained among 
 the heathens, but she preserved amidst them her faith 
 and her virtue. 
 
 Father Le Moyne found her at Onondaga in 1654, when 
 
240 Life of Father Joo2ces. 
 
 he went there to confirm a new treaty of peace between 
 the Iroquois and the French. She ran to meet him. He 
 was the only missionary whom she had seen after Father 
 Jogues. In order to profit better by his presence she in- 
 vited him to the house she occupied outside the village. 
 *' My God," cried the Father in his journal, " what a sweet 
 consolation to find so much faith in savage hearts living 
 in captivity, with no help but heaven ! God makes apos- 
 tles everywhere. This excellent woman had with her 
 a captive girl fifteen or sixteen years old, belonging to 
 the Neutral Nation, whom she loved as if she were her 
 own child. She had instructed her so well in the mys- 
 teries of the Faith, and had inspired her with such senti- 
 ments of piety in the prayers which they recited together 
 in this holy solitude, that I was utterly surprised. 'Why 
 did you not baptize her, sister?' said I, 'since she be- 
 lieves as you do, is a Christian in her life, and wishes to 
 live and die a Christian?' 'Alas! brother,' replied this 
 humble captive, " I did not know that it was lawful for 
 me to baptize, except in danger of death. But baptize 
 her now yourself, since you deem her worthy, and give 
 her my name.' It was the first adult baptism performed 
 in Onondaga, and we are indebted for it to the piety of 
 a Huron woman. The joy I experienced banished all 
 the hardships I had undergone" (Relation, 1654). 
 
 The consolation which Teresa had enjoyed in seeing a 
 black-gown once more, and approaching the Sacraments, 
 was complete, when she was so happy as to see the mis- 
 sionaries establish themselves permanently in the Iro- 
 quois cantons in 1657. She probably owed the preser- 
 vation of her life to their presence. Her husband was a 
 hard and cruel man. One day he ordered her to go a 
 day's journey and bring in some game that he had killed. 
 It was beyond her strength, but to disobey was to pro- 
 voke her death. She hastened to the missionary to pre- 
 pare for the sacrifice. Fortified b}'^ the grace of the Sac- 
 raments and the thoughts of faith, she returned to her 
 
Appeyidix. 241 
 
 tyrant and said calmly, *' You know that I am not able 
 to do what you order me; but here I am: kill me if you 
 like." This courage and coolness disarmed the savage, 
 and he abandoned his unreasonable order. 
 
 Teresa Oiouhaton persevered to the end in the same 
 sentiments, and preserved in her noble heart the sacred 
 seed implanted there in her younger days: from this 
 fruitful source her soul drew its strength, and the only 
 consolation which sweetens all the miseries of this life. 
 
 D. 
 
 Joseph Theondechoren. Page 69. 
 
 Joseph Theondechoren was the elder brother of Joseph 
 Chiouatenhoua, the first Huron who became a Christian 
 in the town of the Conception. After the death of the lat- 
 ter in 1640, Teondechoren reviewed in his mind the advice 
 which he had received from him. He reflected on what he 
 had heard him say of God, of His justice and His good- 
 ness, and he felt completely changed. Three days after 
 the funeral, he solicited baptism. He was put to the test; 
 for the missionaries, knowing that he was addicted to 
 gambling, superstition, and impurity, feared a relapse, and 
 that his resolution might be the result of a momentary im- 
 pulse, rather than of a solid and durable conviction. His 
 conversion was, however, sincere, and his perseverance 
 dispelled all doubts. He was baptized September 8, 
 1640. His wife soon followed his example, and received 
 the same grace at Easter 1641, taking the name of Cath- 
 arine. After his conversion Joseph related how for twen- 
 ty years he had served as an instrument to the devil. His 
 hands and lips were not at first fire-proof to take live coals 
 and heated pebbles, but after a dream he obtained this 
 power. He was able even to plunge his arm into a ket- 
 tle of boiling water without suffering any injury. It re- 
 quired courage to renounce all his superstitious practices, 
 
242 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 and his constancy was admirable in the assaults which 
 he had to sustain from the enemy of salvation and his 
 tools. He did more — he became a real apostle, and his 
 words were of fire. 
 
 As tlie missionaries resided in his cabin, he endeavored 
 to imitate them in everything and to conform to their 
 mode of life. He rose at the same hour, gave the same 
 time to prayer, and shared their labors. His heathen 
 friends could not understand his mode of acting, and 
 especially the blameless life he led. They said to him, 
 "But what have the black-gowns done to you to change 
 you so?" 'They have plucked out," said he, "all that 
 was evil in my soul. Believe in the ' Prayer ' yourselves, 
 as you should, and you will experience it better than 
 I can tell you" (Relation, 1642). 
 
 When he was told of some calumnies uttered against 
 him, he said, "Wait till the day of judgment, and you 
 will see how it is. Your wickedness does me good, for I 
 offer it to our Lord in satisfaction for my sins."* 
 
 So good a Christian was worthy to form part of Father 
 Jogues' convoy. When he was leaving his country to 
 go down to Quebec he addressed these words to all the 
 Christians present : " Brethren, I am about to go ; we 
 shall never perhaps have the consolation of seeing each 
 other again here below. I wish to speak to you as 
 though I were at the point of death. Whatever misfor- 
 tune may befall us, let us remember that we are Chris- 
 tians, that our hopes are in heaven, and that earth pos- 
 sesses nothing capable of satisfying a soul that has given 
 itself to God. For all eternity we shall have time to en- 
 joy this truth. It is enough now that faith shows it to 
 us. Let us never lose the grace that we received in holy 
 baptism. This is our treasure. If the devil or all hell 
 endeavors to deprive us of it, let us have greater ardor 
 for our salvation than he has for our destruction. Let 
 
 * Letter of Father Chaumonot. 
 
Appendix, 243 
 
 us watch night and day over ourselves, and have recourse 
 to prayer as often as we feel our heart attacked. Let us 
 esteem the gift of Faith, and love a God who has first 
 loved us; let all the efforts of our hatred be turned against 
 sin." 
 
 When he ceased he made all present kneel down, and 
 in the name of all he pronounced a protestation of fidel- 
 ity in God's service (Relation, 1644). 
 
 Joseph was taken prisoner, with his two brothers, his 
 son, and his niece, and like the other captives endured 
 with admirable courage torments and insults at the 
 hands of his executioners. He saw his son and one of 
 his brothers killed by the Iroquois. To support him in his 
 captivity he had recourse to prayer and the sacrament of 
 penance. He loved often to commune with God. "I 
 spoke to Him in my heart," he added, " as though we had 
 been two conversing together, and so I never wearied." 
 
 His devotion to the Blessed Virgin was very great: he 
 said his rosary every day, counting on his fingers. He 
 often recited it with Father Jogues, even in the streets of 
 the Mohawk town, unperceived by the heathens. "How 
 I love that prayer !" he said afterwards. " I never am 
 tired of saying it, and invoking the Mother of my God." 
 To this devotion he ascribed his deliverance from the 
 hands of his enemies. Joseph went twice to the Dutch 
 with his masters. One of these Protestants having seen 
 him make the sign of the cross, rebuked him for it, and 
 ridiculed the practice. Joseph listened, but, inaccessible 
 to human respect and firm in his faith, did not lay aside 
 the custom, but maintained it without ostentation and 
 without any cowardice. 
 
 In the spring of 1643 the Iroquois took him with them, 
 as well as his brother and another prisoner, on an expe- 
 dition to the St. Lawrence. The three Hurons succeeded 
 in escaping by night, and reached Three Rivers, where 
 they were so happy as to find Father de Brebeuf, and 
 then returned to their own country. There Joseph had 
 
244 ^^f^ of Father JogiLes. 
 
 more than one opportunity to show what the firmness 
 and resignation of a true Christian can effect. 
 
 On reaching his country he could not contain his joy 
 and his gratitude, and he said to the missionaries, " Truly 
 the God whom you preach and in whom I believe is 
 alone omnipotent and all good. He has conducted me 
 and protected me for a year amid a thousand perils, and 
 if He had wished that my body should suffer, it has only 
 been that my soul should feel that there are joys even in 
 suffering, and that there are no terrors for one who hopes 
 in God." 
 
 His words to the idolaters prove that the Holy Ghost 
 makes even the tongues of children eloquent. "You 
 feel joy to see me delivered from the cruelties of the 
 Iroquois," he said to those who congratulated him; 
 "while it saddens me to find you still under the bond- 
 age of the demons, and for my part I do not consider 
 myself as entirely free while I am in this world, where sin 
 can plunge me into a captivit}^ even more unhappy than 
 the one I have suffered. The tortures I endured were 
 horrible; what then must eternal fire be ? 
 
 " I am told that several rejoiced when they heard that 
 I had been taken prisoner, and that they made it a pre- 
 text for reviling the God whom I adore; that they pre- 
 tended that He was under their power; that the misery 
 into which He had permitted me to fall would prevent 
 others from following my example, and from serving a 
 master who had no power or will to render us forever 
 happy, since He did not begin in this life. Brethren, I 
 do not know God's designs in my regard. In my most 
 cruel sufferings I did not dare to ask of Him either life 
 or death, believing that I was a child who did not know 
 what is for my good, and that He, my Father and my 
 sovereign Master, had more wisdom to guide me, and 
 that He would never fail to love me, so long as I did not 
 fail to trust in Him. 
 
 " Here I am, delivered contrary to all my hopes. I do 
 
Appendix. 245 
 
 not know whether you have caused it by your horrid 
 blasphemies. 
 
 ''I believe that God wished to justify Himself in my 
 person, and show you that He had not forsaken me, and 
 that His power and love will never fail those who belong 
 to Him. 
 
 " I do not know for what death He reserves me, but 
 whatever misfortune may befall me, do not accuse Him: 
 it is enough that He has confounded you once before you 
 die. Your impiety cannot compel Him always to work 
 miracles. If you recognize neither His goodness nor 
 His power in this life, He will justify Himself forever at 
 the day of judgment. Then those who have blasphemed 
 against Him will be strangely disabused when they see 
 the eternal rewards which He prepared for us, even when 
 He seeemed to forsake us, and that for the impious there 
 is no longer anything but endless torments and despair." 
 
 After his return to his own country Theondechoren 
 formed one of a convoy of a hundred warriors who went 
 down to Quebec. They were attacked on the way by 
 the Iroquois, and sustained two serious reverses, in 
 which they lost several men, with nearly all their baggage 
 and goods. 
 
 Joseph, wounded in the shoulder, succeeded in escap- 
 ing to the woods; but he remained alone for two or three 
 days, losing blood freely, and with no one to assist him. 
 With failing strength, and believing that he was going 
 to die, he addressed this prayer to God. As he repeated 
 it subsequently to the missionaries, he said, " My God, 
 I continue to acknowledge that Thou art everywhere, my 
 God — on these rocks where I see myself forsaken, as in 
 the midst of my captivity, and my whole heart is consoled 
 by the single thought that wherever I am Thou dost wit- 
 ness my sufferings. I escaped from the enemy inorder to 
 die near my Fathers who have begotten me in the Faith. 
 But, my God, if Thou reservest this pleasure for me i» 
 heaven, blessed be Thou forever ! I die as willingly on 
 
246 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 these rocks as in the Huron country, for wherever I die 
 it is Thou alone who disposest of my life." 
 
 Meanwhile some of his companions found him, and 
 though still pagans, they were so touched by his words 
 that they took pity on him and carried him with them. 
 
 These were not the only trials which Joseph had to 
 undergo, and among the keenest must be enumerated 
 the jealousy of his second wife. Her constant re- 
 proaches culminated in anger, often shown in public. 
 In the midst of a banquet which Theondechoren was one 
 day giving to his friends, she misinterpreted a very in- 
 nocent action on his part. Blinded by passion, she took 
 her children, in presence of all his guests, and dragging 
 them to the door, said, " Come, let us seek another 
 home. You have no father; do you not see that he dis- 
 owns you, since he does not recognize me as his wife ?" 
 She rushed from the cabin into the depth of the wood. 
 Good Joseph remained unshaken before the storm; but 
 his mildness and constancy triumphed at last over her 
 angry and jealous disposition. 
 
 Let us cite for this good Christian the testimony of 
 Father Charles Garnier, who often lived under his roof: 
 " This good young man shames me, seeing how he ad- 
 vances in the service of God, for he has no heart or 
 thought or words, except for God. Sometimes the devil 
 suggests to him some evil thought, but he at once takes 
 a firebrand and applies it to his arm or hand, saying, 
 ' Can you suffer the fire of hell ? ' He once said to me, 
 'Brother, let me propose to you a doubt that I have. 
 Sometimes after being long at prayer it seems to me that 
 God, as it were, takes possession of my heart, and that I 
 have none but for Him; but I believe that I sometimes 
 commit a fault, when, finding myself in this state, I leave 
 prayer to go and work, or sometimes even to go and 
 rest.' He fears no man where God's glory is concerned " 
 (Letter of 1646). 
 
 When the Hurons were driven from their country by 
 
Appeiidix. 247 
 
 the Iroquois in 1649, Theondechoren retired with the mis- 
 sionaries to Ahoendae, or St. Joseph's Island, and the 
 next year he followed them with a good number of his 
 tribe to seek safety under the fort of Quebec, where he 
 continued to edify the French and Indians by liis admir- 
 able piety. More than four months before his death he 
 spoke frequently of the uncertainty of life, as if he had 
 had a presentiment of his fate, and he urged all to be 
 ever ready, for " we shall be surprised," said he. While 
 going to Tadoussac he perished in a storm, June 26, 1652. 
 
 E. 
 
 Charles Tsondatsaa. Page 69. 
 
 Charles Tsondatsaa was the son of a chief of the vil- 
 lage of Ossossane. With a feeling heart and upright 
 mind, he had never been opposed to the missionaries, 
 nor hostile to the Faith. He even opened his house to 
 the Jesuit Fathers when they were driven out on all 
 sides, and before he became a Christian he permitted 
 his children to be baptized. Yet he continued to act as 
 a medicine-man, and was regarded as a very expert one; 
 but he unhesitatingly sacrificed all the implements of his 
 evil craft when he resolved to take his place among the 
 catechumens. 
 
 He had already been soliciting baptism for a year 
 when Father de Brebeuf was obliged to go down to Que- 
 bec. Out of affection and devotedness for him, Charles 
 undertook to guide him. The only reward he sought 
 was his admission into the Church of God. During the 
 voyage his conduct was very edifying: no one was more 
 assiduous or more fervent in prayer than he; none more 
 eager to listen to the missionary's instructions. His ex- 
 cellent disposition made him notable as soon as he reached 
 Quebec, and the Governor wished to see and converse 
 with him. This increased his esteem for the neophyte, 
 
248 Life of Father Jogties. 
 
 and he asked that his baptism should be no longer de- 
 ferred; he even offered to be his godfather, and gave him 
 his own name. For the cause of religion, he invested 
 the ceremony with unusual pomp. It took place at 
 Sillery, in presence of all the Indians of that Mission. 
 
 Father de Brebeuf acted as interpreter, and put the 
 usual questions to elicit from the catechumen a public 
 testimony of his faith. The replies of Tsondatsaa, 
 made aloud and with ardent conviction, showed the deep 
 sincerity of his heart. After the ceremony the Gover- 
 nor embraced the neophyte, and made him a present of an 
 arquebuse, telling him, " I rejoice to see you a Christian. 
 Keep faithfully the word you have given to God. Bap- 
 tism will give you arms against your invisible enemies; 
 take this arquebuse to repel the visible enemies who 
 wish to exterminate your nation. You will exhort your 
 countrymen to follow your example; assure them of my 
 protection." 
 
 The chief of the Sillery Indians then addressed him, 
 saying, ''Brother, all the Indians whom you see here are 
 Christians. By embracing the Faith you become really 
 our brother. We have only one Father, who is in heaven, 
 and one mother. Holy Church. Your friends are our 
 friends, and your enemies our enemies. Since Onontiohas 
 given you a firearm, here is something to use with it;" 
 and he presented him a bag of powder. Charles' emo- 
 tion was so great that he could only stammer his thanks, 
 and renew his profession of faith, but in all proclaiming 
 his joy and happiness. On returning to his own coun- 
 try, Charles showed clearly that the Huron church 
 counted another valiant champion in him. He at once 
 invited the sachems and chiefs to a solemn banquet to 
 announce his conversion, and thus addressed them : " You 
 see a man who, since he left you, has become a Chris- 
 tian, and so firm a one, that he has resolved to die a 
 thousand deaths rather than renounce his religion. My 
 goods, my life, my courage, are yours — provided you re- 
 
Appendix. 249 
 
 quire nothing of me that displeases God. I do not know 
 much, but I offer to teach all who have any desire to imi- 
 tate me." He never deviated from this line of conduct. 
 When he spoke of what he had seen at Quebec he knew 
 not when to stop. Three things especially had charmed 
 him: the respect and obedience of the French for their 
 Governor; the piety and devotedness of the nuns; the 
 devotion and charity of the new Christians at Sillery. 
 
 The trials through which he passed gave new lustre 
 to his virtue, for he wa-s often exposed to the sarcasms 
 and persecutions of his kindred and neighbors. Imme- 
 diately after his baptism sickness and death struck down 
 those dearest to him. His heathen relatives ascribed 
 these misfortunes to his change, and wished to draw from 
 it arguments against his faith; but they failed. 
 
 Charles Tsondatsaa was, as we have seen, one o£ the 
 party who accompanied Father Jogues, and like him fell 
 into the hands of the Iroquois. He had the good for- 
 tune to escape from their hands; but he had lost all 
 he possessed. When he returned to his country he 
 said to his tribesmen : " I had never come back so rich 
 from any voyage. God has deprived me of all in a mo- 
 ment, to teach me that earthly goods are nothing, and 
 that it is only in heaven that our real hopes are. Faith 
 alone procures true joy. When, after escaping from death, 
 I found myself at Three Rivers among the Algonquins, 
 Montagnais, and French, whose language I knew not, 
 they consoled me, although they spoke an unknown 
 tongue. One wept with compassion on seeing me; another 
 raised his hand to point up to heaven. I understood with- 
 out hearing a word ; I felt an invisible hand confirming my 
 mind, and making me find happiness in all my losses." 
 
 Charles was always the model and pillar of the young 
 Huron church. One day, when he was returning very 
 weary from a long journey, he found his cabin in disor- 
 der. The cause of the grief was the serious illness of 
 his little niece, five years oM. "You are grieving in ad- 
 
250 Life of Father Jogties. 
 
 vance over her death," said he; "and what saddens me 
 most is that she has not been baptized." He ran out at 
 once, and hastened to the chief Christians to find one 
 who knew the mode of administering the Sacrament. At 
 last he met good Joseph Tlieondechoren, and brought him 
 to the cabin. The child received baptism. Charles 
 then addressed all present : ^'Now let us be comforted; 
 her soul is safe: she will soar away to heaven, and will 
 pray to God for us. For my part, I deem myself happy 
 that I have four children already in heaven; I invoke 
 them with consolation." Thus on all occasions this ex- 
 cellent convert sought to diffuse around him the faith 
 that filled his heart and the hope that sustained his soul. 
 His. old friends made many efforts to draw Charles back 
 into his old bad habits, but could not gain anything. He 
 always replied that he feared fire less then he feared sin. 
 They resolved to test it, and under the form of an act 
 of charity carried their temptation to cruelty. At the 
 close of a laborious day they invited him to take a vapor- 
 bath — a very common remedy among the§e people. A 
 cabin is prepared, and covered with bark and several 
 thick skins to prevent all evaporation. A small opening 
 is left at the bottom to push in stones, heated red-hot. 
 On these water is dropped, which rises in vapor and fills 
 the confined space.* Unsuspicious of their perfidious de- 
 sign, Charles entered the cabin, and they began to heat 
 it. The heat soon became excessive, and a real torture. 
 Ctiarles called out that the heat was sufficient for the 
 vapor-bath, and that if it was increased lie would stifle. 
 The author of this infernal stratagem then told Charles 
 tliat to satisfy a dream he had had the night before, he 
 must pronounce three words in favor of his tutelar de- 
 
 * These vapor-baths under the same form were found among several 
 ancient nations. Herodotus mentions the Scythians and Strabo the 
 Licedemonians and the Lusitanians. They also prevailed among the 
 Celts. 
 
Appendix. 2 5 r 
 
 mon, in order to avert a danger which threatened him. 
 "Do me this friendly service," he added, "and I will set 
 you free." Seeing that they wished to extort from him 
 by force what they could not obtain by persuasion, 
 Charles bravely answered, "Comrade, hell-fire is hotter 
 than this. To avoid one, I should be a fool to rush into 
 the other. You may kill me if you like, but you will 
 never get me to utter an impious word. I have no 
 tongue to commit a sin." He was urged not to persist 
 in his refusal, and not to be cruel to a friend. "And 
 after all," they said to him, " the compulsion used to you 
 will be a good excuse to the black-gowns. You know, 
 too, that there are remedies for all sins, and if you pre- 
 fer, we swear inviolable secrecy; they shall never know 
 a word about it." " Friends," replied the Christian hero, 
 " I do not fear men, my countrymen, or the French, or 
 the Iroquois ; but I fear God, whose eye sees the depth 
 of our conscience. Hope of pardon is good to excite to 
 repentance, but not to incite one to offend." Meanwhile 
 the heat was steadily rising. " Friends," cried Charles, 
 " I lack air, not courage; I cannot breathe, but know 
 that I will not yield." His feeble voice showed his weak- 
 ness, and his approaching end. The main author of this 
 cruel trick, seeing himself baffled, became furious, and 
 vomited a thousand blasphemies against the Faith and 
 the Christians ; but his accomplices, unwilling to push 
 the trial any further, at last blamed his obstinacy, and 
 forced him to give up his infernal work. 
 
 When they opened the cabin Charles was almost 
 dead. He recovered, however, and his only vengeance 
 was a kind look he gave his torturer, saying, " You killed 
 me, but you could not make me sin" (Relation, 1644). 
 
 Charles survived this fiery trial for a long time, and 
 continued to edify the Christians, and the very pagans. 
 He had the consolation of seeing more than one of his 
 persecutors embrace, like himself, the law of the Gos- 
 pel. 
 
252 Life of Father fogues. 
 
 Eustace Ahasistari. Page 69. 
 
 On account of his antecedents and his character, 
 Ahasistari was regarded by the whole nation as their 
 head chief. " He was in fact," says Father Charles Gar- 
 nier, " the greatest warrior in the land." He deserves to 
 be known. " The life of this man," wrote Father Jerome 
 Lalemant, " is only one succession of battles, and from 
 boyhood war was his only thought, and it was through 
 it that God made him a Christian. He belonged to the 
 village of Teanaustayae, or St. Joseph. Before bending 
 his neck to the yoke of faith, he had long been interiorly 
 urged by the Lord. He admired it, without yet fully 
 understanding it. He often, indeed, though in secret, 
 invoked the God of the Christians. A blind attachment 
 to the absurd native superstitions, always held him back. 
 He seemed so inveterately attached to them, that even 
 after his conversion the missionaries for some time enter- 
 tained doubts as to his sincerity. They kept him on 
 trial for three years before they yielded to his earnest 
 entreaty to be baptized. Yet his zeal for the Faith and 
 his desire to receive the sacrament of regeneration were 
 seen to be constantly on the increase. During the winter of 
 1 641 there was a renewal of fervor in his soul. It might 
 be thought that he had a presentiment of what was soon 
 to befall him. To give a higher idea of the Faith, the 
 missionaries had introduced the custom of admitting 
 some Indians to baptism at each one of the principal 
 holidays of the year. They all gathered in the chapel 
 at St. Mary, to give the ceremony all possible solemnity. 
 
 On the approach of Easter, Ahasistari felt interiorly 
 moved to take a new step to obtain his desire. He went 
 to St. Mary to plead his cause in person with the Supe- 
 rior of the Mission. *' I have the Faith in the bottom of 
 
Appendix. 253 
 
 my heart," he said, with admirable frankness and a holy- 
 ardor, "and my conduct last winter proves it. In a few 
 days I start on the war-path. If I die in battle, where 
 will my soul go without baptism ? If you could see into 
 my heart as clearly as the Master of Life does, I 
 should be a Christian now, and the fear of hell-fire would 
 not haunt me the moment I face death. I cannot bap- 
 tize myself; I can only tell you sincerely my desire. 
 After that, if my soul burns in hell, it is your fault; but 
 whatever you do, I shall always pray to God, since I 
 know Him, and He will perhaps show me mercy, for you 
 teach me that He is better than you." "But how did 
 the first thoughts of the Faith come to you ?" asked the 
 missionary. "Even before you were in the country," 
 said the Huron, " I had escaped a thousand dangers, in 
 which my comrades fell before my eyes. I saw clearly 
 that it was not to myself that I was indebted for being 
 rescued from these dangers. It came into my mind that 
 there was some more powerful genius, unknown to me, 
 who came to my aid. I was convinced that our belief 
 was mere folly, but I knew nothing better. As soon as 
 I heard of the God whom you preach, and what Jesus 
 Christ did on earth, I recognized the one who has pre- 
 served me, and I resolved to honor Him all my life. 
 When I go to war I commend myself to Him night and 
 morning. To Him I owe all my victories. In Him I be- 
 lieve, and I ask baptism from you, that after my death 
 He may show me mercy." 
 
 This open and energetic declaration affected the mis- 
 sionaries to tears. It was impossible to fetter such ar- 
 dent desire with new delays. On Holy Saturday, the 
 Chapel of St. Mary was arrayed in all its pomp. The 
 Christians attended in great numbers. Ahasistari and 
 several of his countrymen received the character of 
 children of the Church. He took the name of Eus- 
 tace. The next year, when our new-made Christian 
 heard of the perilous mission confided to Father Jogues, 
 
2 54 ^^y^ of Father Jogiies. 
 
 he was one of the first to offer to bear him company, 
 ready to defend him in case of attack, or die with him. 
 His prayers were heard. 
 
 G. Page 152. 
 
 We here insert in full the curious description of Man- 
 hattan Island and the Dutch colony which Father Jogues 
 himself wrote in 1646. We follow the autograph, which 
 Mr. John Gilmary Shea reproduced \x\ fac- simile in 1862, 
 with a translation and very valuable notes, of which we 
 have availed ourselves. 
 
 Novum Belgium. 
 
 " New Holland, which the Dutch call in Latin Novum 
 Belgium — in their own language, Nieuw Netherlands that 
 is to say. New Low Countries — is situated between Vir- 
 ginia and New England. The mouth of the river, which 
 some people call Nassau, or the Great North River, to 
 distinguish it from another which they call the South 
 River, and from some maps that I have recently seen I 
 think Maurice River, is at 40 deg. 30 min. The channel 
 is deep, fit for the largest ships, which ascend to Man- 
 hatte's Island, which is seven leagues in circuit, and on 
 which there is a fort to serve as the commencement of a 
 town to be built here, and to be called New Amsterdam. 
 
 " The fort, which is at the point of the island, about 
 five or six leagues from the mouth, is called Fort Am- 
 sterdam; it has four regular bastions, mounted with 
 several pieces of artillery. All these bastions and the 
 curtains were, in 1643, but mounds, most of which had 
 crumbled away, so that they entered the fort on all sides. 
 There were no ditches. For the garrison of the said fort, 
 and another which they had built still further up against 
 the incursions of the savages, their enemies, there were 
 sixty soldiers. They were beginning to face the gates 
 
Appc7idix. 255 
 
 and bastions with stone. Within the fort there was a 
 pretty large stone church, the house of the Governor, 
 whom they call Director-General, quite neatly built of 
 brick, the storehouses and barracks. 
 
 " On the Island of Manhattc, and in its environs, there 
 may well be four or five hundred men of different sects 
 and nations , the Director-General told me that there 
 were men of eighteen different languages; they are scat- 
 tered here and there on the river, above and below, as 
 the beauty and convenience of the spot invited each to 
 settle: some, mechanics, however, who ply their trade, are 
 ranged under the fort; all the others were exposed to the 
 incursions of the natives; who, in the year 1643, while I 
 was there, actually killed some twoscore Hollanders, and 
 burned many houses and barns full of wheat. 
 
 "The river, which is very straight, and runs due north 
 and south, is at least a league broad before the fort. 
 Ships lie at anchor in a bay which forms the other side 
 of the island, and can be defended from the fort. 
 
 " Shortly before I arrived there three large ships of 
 300 tons each had come to load wheat; two found car- 
 goes; the third could not be loaded, because the savages 
 had burned a part of their grain. These ships came from 
 the West Indies, where the West India Company usually 
 keeps up seventeen ships of war. 
 
 *' No religion is publicly exercised but the Calvinist, 
 and orders are to admit none but Calvinists, but this is 
 not observed; for there are in the colony besides the 
 Calvinists, Catholics, English Puritans, Lutherans, Ana- 
 baptists, here called Mnistes, etc., etc. When any one 
 comes to settle in the country they lend him horses, 
 cows, etc.; they give him provisions, all which he returns 
 as soon as he is at ease; and as to the land, after ten 
 years he pays to the West India Company the tenth of 
 the produce which he reaps. 
 
 "This country is bounded on the New England side 
 by a river which they call the Fresche River, which 
 
256 Life of Father Jogucs, 
 
 serves as a boundary between them and the EngUsh. 
 The English, however, come very near to them, choosing 
 to hold lands under the Hollanders, who ask nothing, 
 rather than depend on English lords, who exact rents, 
 and would fain be absolute. On the other side, south- 
 ward, towards Virginia, its limits are the river which 
 they call the South River, on which there is also a Dutch 
 settlement, but the Swedes have one at its mouth ex- 
 tremely well supplied with cannons and men. It is 
 believed that these Swedes are maintained by some Am- 
 sterdam merchants, who are not satisfied that the West 
 India Company should alone enjoy all the commerce of 
 these parts. It Is near this river that a gold mine is 
 reported to have been found. 
 
 " See in the work of the Sieur de Laet (^ Antwerp, the 
 table and chapter on New Belgium, as he sometimes 
 calls it, or the map ' Noya Anglia, Novum Belgium, et 
 Virginia.' 
 
 " It is about forty years since the Hollanders came to 
 these parts. The fort was begun in the year 1615; they 
 began to settle about twenty years ago, and there iS 
 already some little commerce with Virginia and New 
 England. 
 
 "The first comers found lands fit for use, formerly 
 cleared by the savages, who had fields here. Those 
 who came later have cleared the woods, which are most- 
 ly oak. The soil is good. Deer-hunting is abundant in 
 the fall. There are some houses built of stone; lime 
 they make of oyster-shells, great heaps of which are 
 found here, made formerly by the savages, who subsist 
 in part by that fishery. 
 
 " The climate is very mild. Lying at 4of deg., there 
 are many European fruits, as apples, pears, cherries. I 
 reached there in October, and found even then a con- 
 siderable quantity of peaches. 
 
 "Ascending the river to the 43d deg., you meet the 
 second Dutch settlement, which the tide reaches but 
 
Appendix. 257 
 
 does not pass. Ships of a hundred and a hundred and 
 twenty tons can come up to it. 
 
 "There are two things in this settlement (which is 
 called Renselaerswick, as if to say, settlement of Ren- 
 selaers, who is a rich Amsterdam merchant) — ist, a mis- 
 erable little fort called Fort Orange, built of logs, with 
 four or five pieces of Breteuil cannon, and as many 
 swivels. This has been reserved, and is maintained hy 
 the West India Company. This fort was formerly on an 
 island in the river; it is now on the mainland, towards 
 the Hiroquois, a little above the said island. 2d, a colony 
 sent here by this Renselaers, who is the patron. This 
 colony is composed of about a hundred persons, who 
 reside in some twenty-five or thirty houses built along 
 the river, as each found most convenient. In the prin- 
 cipal house lives the patron's agent; the minister has his 
 apart, in which service is performed. There is also a 
 kind of bailiff here, whom they call the Seneschal, who 
 administers justice. Their houses are merely of boards 
 and thatched, with no mason work except the chimneys. 
 The forest furnishing many large pines, they make 
 boards by means of their mills, which they have here 
 for the purpose. 
 
 "They found some pieces of ground all ready, which 
 the savages had formerly cleared, and in which they sow 
 wheat and oats for beer, and for their horses, of which 
 they have great numbers. There is little land fit for 
 tillage, being hemmed in by hills, which are poor soil. 
 This obliges them to separate, and they already occupy 
 two or three leagues of country. 
 
 "Trade is free to all; this gives the Indians all things 
 cheap, each of the Hollanders outbidding his neighbor, 
 and being satisfied provided he can gain some little 
 profit. 
 
 "This settlement is not more than twenty leagues from 
 the Agniehronons, who can be reached by land or water, 
 as the river on which the Iroquois lie falls into that 
 
258 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 which passes by the Dutch; but there are many low 
 rapids and a fall of a short half league, where the canoe 
 must be carried. 
 
 " There are many nations between the two Dutch set- 
 tlements, which are about thirty German leagues apart, 
 that is, about fifty or sixty French leagues. The Loups, 
 whom the Iroquois call Agotsagenens, are the nearest to 
 Renselaerswick and Fort Orange. War breaking out 
 some years ago between the Iroquois and the Loups, the 
 Dutch joined the latter against the former; but four men 
 having been taken and burned, they made peace. Since 
 then some nations near the sea have killed some Hol- 
 landers of the most distant settlement; the Hollanders 
 killed one hundred and fifty Indians, men, women, and 
 children. They having then, at intervals, killed forty 
 Hollanders, burned many houses, and com.mitted ravages, 
 estimated at the time that I was there at 200,000 liv. (two 
 hundred thousand livres), they raised troops in New Eng- 
 land. Accordingly, in the beginning of winter, the grass 
 being trampled down and some snow on the ground, they 
 gave them chase with six hundred men, keeping two hun- 
 dred always on the move and constantly relieving one 
 another; so that the Indians, shut up in a large island, 
 and unable to flee easily, on account of their women and 
 children, were cut to pieces to the number of sixteen 
 hundred, including women and children. This obliged 
 the rest of the Indians to make peace, which still con- 
 tinues. This occurred in 1643 and 1644." 
 
Sites of the Alohazuk Villages. 259 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The Identification of Mohawk Sites — The Pilgrim 
 Shrine — Recent Petitions for the Introduction 
 of the Cause of Beatification. 
 
 In the year 1884 was first published the result of the 
 very thorough investigations by General John S. Clark 
 of Auburn, N. Y., of the sites of the villages formerly 
 occupied by the Mohawk Nation. He has long been re- 
 cognized as the leading authority in this line of research, 
 and in the present case his labors were crowned with 
 the most gratifying success. Others who had been 
 working at the data independently, without the local 
 explorations and topographical attainments of General 
 Clark, had come to only negative results, which, how- 
 ever, confirmed in every particular the identification 
 now happily and finally made. The following brief 
 statement of the evidence has been reviewed by General 
 Clark, and agrees in all points with the verification 
 made by Dr. J. G. Shea and the writer in "The Pilgrim 
 of Our Lady of Martyrs." 
 
 1. The three Mohawk villages, Ossernenon, Andaga- 
 ron, and Tionnontoguen, from 1642 to their destruction 
 by fire at the hands of the French in 1666, were certainly 
 on the south bank of the Mohawk, and west of the 
 Schoharie River (as is clear from the contemporary maps 
 in Vanderdonck, the Relations, the Expedition of De 
 Tracy, Jolliet's Map, etc., and from the letters of Fathers 
 Jogues and Poncet). Louis Jolliet, who with Father 
 
26o Life of Father Jogues, 
 
 Marquette explored the Mississippi River, and who was 
 one of the best and most accurate hydrographers of his 
 time, as his many maps show, left one on which Osser- 
 nenon is shown in the angle between the Mohawk and 
 Schoharie rivers, where Auriesville railway-station now 
 is. 
 
 2. Father Jogues, in his account of the captivity and 
 journey of himself and Rene Goupil to the villages in 
 1642, says: ''We arrived at a small river distant about 
 a quarter of a league from the first Iroquois village" 
 (Relation 1647, p. 22). A quarter of a French league 
 was considerabl}^ less than three quarters of a mile; the 
 same distance is given in the MS. of 1652, taken from 
 the lips of Father Jogues himself by his Superior, Father 
 Buteux). In the account as given by Bressani, who had 
 been a captive in the same place, the words are: "On 
 the Eve of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, about 
 three o'clock, we reached a river which flows by their 
 first village; . . . both banks were filled with Iroquois, 
 who received us with clubs, sticks, and stones. They 
 then led us to their village on the top of the hill." The 
 MS. of 1652 says: ** On the other side of this river were 
 man}^ Iroquois who were waiting for the prisoners." 
 This locates the village south of the Mohawk, on a hill 
 a quarter of a league distant from the river. 
 
 3. In his account of the death of Rene, Father Jogues 
 says: " They told me that the body had been dragged 
 to a river a quarter of a league distant, with which I 
 was not acquainted." This can only apply to the Scho- 
 harie, as the Mohawk was in plain view of the village, 
 and Father Jogues must certainly have been thoroughly 
 well acquainted with it at this time; whereas the Scho- 
 harie was separated from the village by the hills and 
 woods between. The village then must have been on a 
 hill at a point between the Mohawk and Schoharie 
 rivers, about a quarter of a league distant from each. 
 At this exact point, on the hill near Auriesville Station, 
 
Sites of the Mohawk Villac^es 26 1 
 
 is found abundant evidence of an Indian village. These 
 two accounts alone taken together appear to be con- 
 clusive and unanswerable. (For an instance of the im- 
 possibility of otherwise according the data, see the 
 explanation formerly given of the two rivers by Dr. 
 Shea, "Catholic Missions," note, p. 218. At this time 
 (1854) it was commonly supposed that the villages were 
 on the north bank of the Mohawk.) 
 
 4. In addition, several allusions to the topography are 
 made by Father Jogues in the different accounts he gave 
 of his captivity. From the river to the foot of the hill 
 the bank was steep (MS. 1652; the word used is the old 
 French escors, now written c'core, or, more commonly, 
 accore, and still employed in naval engineering. It 
 signifies, not cliff-like, but simply a strongly inclined 
 ascent. The name is still given in Canada to a part of 
 the banks of the mouth of the Ottawa, near St. Vincent 
 de Paul, opposite Montreal Island. It exactly describes 
 the condition of the ascent from the river beach to the 
 plateau at the foot of the hill at Auriesville Station. 
 Up this Father Jogues and the other captives were 
 forced with a rush, pursued by sticks and stones; he 
 said pathetically to Father Buteux, "We climbed up 
 with great difficulty"). 
 
 Near the village was a ravine. In the same MS. of 
 1642 is given the further detail in regard to the pre- 
 cise spot of the ravine where he found the body of 
 Rene, that it was at the union of a small water-course 
 with a rivulet. The ravine, as now existing, could not 
 be more exactly described than by this and the other 
 details given of it in the different accounts. 
 
 •In all the accounts the hill of prayer, overlooking the 
 village, is mentioned; the MS. of 1652 describes it as it 
 still is— "a small hill, distant from the village a musket- 
 shot." 
 
 5. Besides all this, the first village was at a known 
 distance from Andagaron, the second cattle; and this 
 
262 Life of Father Jogues. 
 
 again a given distance from Tionnontoguen, the third. 
 Both of these are found at the precise points thus in- 
 dicated. 
 
 To sum up, a few only of these details thus verified 
 would render strongly probable the identification of the 
 sites; the meeting of all in one spot places it beyond 
 reasonable doubt; while the fact that no other spot of 
 the carefully explored Mohawk Valley verifies any num- 
 ber of them taken together, as General Clark from per- 
 sonal study of every site known by map, account, or 
 tradition declares positively, puts the matter beyond all 
 possible douUt, or, in other words, gives the conclusion 
 absolute certainty. 
 
 On the plateau the outline of the Indian town is still 
 visible, and remains of Indian occupation have been 
 constantly found there. The field in which are found 
 the chief remains of the Indian village has recently been 
 bought by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus. They 
 are now (1885) taking steps toward the erection of a 
 chapel on the site; this will restore the shrine of Notre 
 Dame de Foy, which existed in the flourishing mission 
 church among the Mohawks until broken up by the 
 threatened war between the French and English in 1684. 
 It will also serve as an historical commemoration of the 
 blood shed in this spot by Rene Goupil and Father 
 Jogues, and the many other French and Indian Chris- 
 tians here massacred, and of the edifying Christian 
 church which later on sprung from their blood, renew- 
 ing the holiness of the primitive age of Christianity in 
 the good Catherine Tegakwita and her companions. 
 
 All these circumstances, and the finding during the 
 necessary researches of the necessary documents for 
 taking up the Cause of Beatification, led to the presen- 
 tation of the whole matter before the Third Plenary 
 Council of Baltimore in December, 1884. This resulted 
 in a Conciliar petition to the Holy Father, Leo XIII., for 
 the formal introduction before the Sacred Congregation 
 
Petition for Beatification. 263 
 
 of Rites at Rome of the Cause of Beatification of the 
 three servants of God, Rene Goupil and Father Isaac 
 Jogues, both of the Society of Jesus, as Martyrs, and 
 Catherine Tegakwita as Virgin.* Since that time other 
 important petitions of the same nature liave also been 
 sent to Rome, especially from various members of the 
 venerable Canadian hierarchy, and from more than a 
 score of different Indian nations, each in their own lan- 
 guage. There are reasonable grounds for hoping that 
 Providence will at length, by the authoritative voice of 
 the head of His Church on earth, confirm those titles, 
 and that religious veneration and confidence which all 
 who have studied these holy lives have already in heart 
 bestowed on these true servants of God. 
 
 * Rev. Father Martin, who is still livinjj at an advanced age in 
 Paris, France, has taken an active interest in these recent labors. 
 He had already completed a life of Catharine Tegakwita some years 
 since, which still remains unpublished. To this and to the original 
 documents the author of a new life in English, nearly ready for pub- 
 lication, has had access. The details relating to the history of the 
 Mission of the Martyrs, and of the pilgrim shrine founded there and 
 now restored, are given in "The Pilgrim of Our Lady of Martyrs," 
 brought out by the Superior of the work, the Rev. Joseph Loyzance 
 of St. Joseph's Church, Troy, N. Y. 
 
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