ARQUETTE'S Illinois Prayer Book ^ ■«*>'• ':^ -,>*^_^ ■i ' !l (, f^X>^ r-i .^ ,^^1/ i -* 1*5? ///':' ^^i, '^ ^I TrA \ \^''- i : 4!* ■*'^ : / '-i* ■:. «s- ■ ~*^^ "1 ^, ■^ ^ %.■ .: % l//.^4^|r..f'^iiV ■? \i^'^ £^^ni^''^ V. A, ^ -^--Ml 1 ^\ J^ .N'. M \ &■' ■ m \\ H ) 1 1 > 'V a Ipvacces Ulinica: FACSIMILE OF PERE MARQUETTE'S ILLINOIS PRAYER BOOK. llt's History Hv THE Owner Coi.oNKL J. L. Hubert Nkilson, M. I). PUBLISHED HV THE ©ucbcc Xiterar^ anD Ibistorical Society 111 Coiiimeiiioiation of the SOO"" Anniversary of the Foiiiiilin!,' of Quebec, July, KtOK QUEBEC, 190S U. OF ILL UB. 300 copies munt•cl*c^. Itto. A£ presented to J- Mietov^ of the nDanuscdpt anb iPewter IP late, OME twenty years ago, while examining miscellaneous papers in my grand father's library, I found a slip of paper with the following lines in the hand-writing of my uncle, Samuel Neilson ' : " This pewter plate and spoon and the Prayer Book in the " language of the Illinois are relics of Pere Marquette, the mis- '■ sionary. They were for many years kept at the Mackinack " Mission, then brought to the Quebec College. Pere Cazot, " the last Jesuit, gave them to my father, thirty years ago, for having sent him the " Gase//e so long. " — S. N. Aug. 1828. " The slip evidently referred to the prayer book now reproduced in facsimile, and to the plate and spoon of which exact illustrations are also given. Our family tradi- tions corroborate the written testimony of my uncle's memorandum. TO m s 1 I. — Samuel Neilson succeeded his father, iu 1823, as proprietor, editor and printer of the Quebec Gazette, the official journal of the colony. [ 7 ] On the last leaf of the manuscript will be found written with ink and in the stj-le apparently contemporaneous with the original manuscript itself these words : " Fait par le P. CI. Allouez pour le P. Marquette. " The authorship is thus definitely assigned b)- the writer of this note to Pere Claude Allouez, and as the handwriting of the text closely resembles that of this famous missionary, the authenticity of the document may be considered as probable if not actually confirmed. It is known that Pere Allouez visited the Illinois tribes and opened missions among them fully three years before Pere Marquette arrived among them. He was at that time without doubt the only person qualified to translate into or compose prayers in the Illinois dialect, for the use of his successor: and it is therefore reasonable to surmise that during the early days of his missionary work, considering his imperfect knowledge of the Indian dialect, this little volume was Pere Marquette's constant companion. We may picture him trudging from village to village, reading from its pages to the groups of wandering savages the quaint prayers and hymns of the ritual, accompanying these devotions by more or less luminous and intelligible explanations of the fundamental dogmas and mysteries of the catholic faith. As this volume was neither cumbersome in size or weight, it was doubtless not forgotten when in May, 1673, Marquette started with Jolliet on the unknown trail which eventually led them — the first white men — to gaze upon the eddying and muddy waters of the great Mississippi River. On these [ 8 ] long and tedious journeys "the pewter plate and spoon " and ' Praeces Ilinicce doubtless formed part of his travelling equipment. In May 1675, Marquette feeling his health giving way determined to return to the head mission of St. Ignatius, three hundred miles away, on the island of Michili- mackinack. Weak and exhausted he started with two companions but his strength was not equal to his courage — he died during the journey — on the iqth of the month. A touching account of his death is given by Pere Claude Dablon, in his " Relations Inedites de la Nouvelle France, vol. II, pages 21-33, Paris, 1861." His companions reverently consigned his remains to the grave and continued their journey to St. Ignatius carrying with them the saintly missionary's eflfects. The Dablon story of his death sufficiently explains why some of Marquette's effects were preserved as relics and venerated as such by his brethern and his Indian converts for long years after his death. The friendly relations of my grandfather with the Jesuits explains how these relics came into his possession. He arrived in Quebec from Scotland in 1790. In 1 792, he inherited from his brother the Quebec Gazette and with it the appoint- ment of King's Printer. His office Books show that from that time until the death of Pere Casot, the last survivor of his order in Canada, he sent these good priests the [y] Gazette free of charge, and this is undoubtedly what Samuel Neilson referred to when he wrote that the relics were given for having " sent them the Gazette so long." My grandfather, even in those early days, was a most ardent and discriminating collector of Canadiana. He had already purchased many volumes, several manuscripts and some oil paintings from the Jesuit College. It was therefore quite natural that Father Cazot, as an expression of gratitude for the Gazette and other favours, should have added to his purchases these precious Marquette relics, knowing that they would be greatly appreciated and safely preserved by his young friend. Pierre Jean Joseph Cazot, of the Society of Jesus, was born at Pelesieu.x, diocese of Laon (Marquette's birthplace) France, Oct. 4, i 728. He died at Quebec, March 16, 1800, and his remains were buried in the chancel of the Basilica, — "Opfinii viri ct JHsti et timentis Deum eleemosynas Jacientis (Tob. 99). " He was endowed with a charming personality which endeared him to all, high and low, Protestant and Catholic. At his death, as pre-settled by the capitulations of 1759, the British Govern- ment became possessed of all the Jesuit properties in Canada. Their remaining movable and personal effects were inventoried and subsequently disposed of by public auction in 1 80 1. As neither of these relics, nor many volumes ' inscribed has having belonged I. — Mail}' old volumes bearing ou the title page the inscription "Collegii Kebeceus. Soc. [ 10] to the Jesuits, appear in the published official inventory of the Jesuit possessions which was printed in 1824 — it would seem that much of their personal belongings had been privately disposed of by gift or sale before 1801. ' The portrait of Father Cazot is reproduced from a rare contemporary engraving by Violet, in the collection of the writer. That of Father Marquette is the only like- ness existing with any presumption of genuineness, its history is given in the follow- ing extract : (Extract of Jesuit Relations and allied documents, edited by Reuben Gold Tluvaites. Vol. LXXI— Page 400 — an alleged portrait of Father Marquette): — "Father Jacques Mar- quette is not represented in the McNab - portraits because no likeness of that famous mission- ary was then known to exist. A letter of Father E. Mollet, then at Laon, France (the birth place of !\Iarquette') to Father Felix Martin, dated Aug. 19, 1840, and preserved in the Jesu, Catal. infer, an 1745.'' still form part of my Library — as well as a set of "Relations" printed bv Sebastien Cramoisv and the verv rare little volume "Regies | De La | Compagnie I De Jesus | Paris M. D C. XX. I. — For inventory See : "Report to the House of Assembly on Education in the Province of Quebec, 1824, pages 209 to 219 — or in the french version of the same, pages 226 to 238. 2. — A series of portraits of the early Jesuit Missionaries in New F'rance painted for .St. Mary's Jesuit College, Montreal, by the artist McNab. [ !■ ] archives of St. Mary's College, shows that at that time there was no tradition surviving in the Marquette family relative to the existence of a portrait of the famous missionary explorer.. ." . .." Out of this darkness there has at last come a hopeful ray of light. Feb. 19, 1900, the artist McNab wrote to the editor from Toronto declaring that he had discovered what he beleived to be a contemporary portrait of Marquette. . . McNab reported that in the winter of 1896-97, while walking along Little St. James street, Montreal, he overtook two french boys drawing a hand cart loaded with rubbish and scraps of broken boards on top of which was thrown an old panel, the shape of which attracted my attention. Picking it up I enquired as to where they had found it. — O, all of this wood is from an old house. — But they would not speak further whether from fear or ignorance, however they were pleased to part with it for a little silver.. . After keeping it until the autumn of 1899 he began to remove the dirt which was held fast by many coats of varnish . . with much time and great care. . . The face is a wonderful fine example of modeling and coloring and could be mistaken for a work of Rembrandt, were it not for the signature R. Roos, 1669, above which are two lines which I take as explanatory of the model ; though cracks and dirt have defaced most of the words ; save " Marquette de la Confrerie de Jesus " — which is quite legible. On the back of the panel.. . there has been carved "Pere Marquette.. . but not by a Contemporary. .." [ i-^ ] It is with pleasure that I have put this manuscript at the disposal of the Literary and Historical Society to be reproduced in a limited edition of 300 copies for distribu- tion to their Exchanges, exalted personages, Great Libraries and others, on the occa- sion of the Three Hundredth Celebration of the Foundinof of Quebec. J. L. H. N. Alleged Portrait of Jacques Marquette, S J. JOANNIS JOSEPHl CASOT, S-J. Enlarged stamp ON PLATE #^ 1 Enlarged 3tamp* ON SPOON Pere Marq.uette's Plate and Spoon (pewter) DIAMETER n INCHES DEPTH \i rNCHES WEIGHT 2 L8 4 OZ. *Apparently the name LH.S.U.S. and ^4.B. (Maria Beata?) T0t^U9t t C0(O« CO " •7/*^.^ ■%*0't. 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