CHAPTER IV.

OF THE CAPTURE AND DELIVERANCE OF FATHER JOSEPH

PONCET.

TH

.

HE Iroquois, having butchered some Frenchmen

in the month of June, at Cap rouge,-a place

distant three leagues, or thereabout, from the fort of Quebec,- surprised in the [47] same place, on the twentieth of the month of last August, Father Joseph Poncet and a Frenchman named Maturin Franchetot. This good Father, seeing that a poor French widow had some grain in the field, and lacked help to gather it in, went off in that direction to hunt up some good people who would be willing to aid in garnering her little harvest. He had just spoken to the Frenchman mentioned above, when some Iroquois, issuing from the neighboring forest, where they had been hidden in ambush, rushed upon them separately and unexpectedly, and dragged them away. The Father was bidden, upon his return, to commit to paper his capture and all his adventures; he obeyed with reluctance, desiring that his Crosses be known [48] only to the King of the crucified; but a part of his account was torn up by the English. After citing two or three short passages from a letter written on this subject, we shall follow, in this Chapter, what has come into our hands.

As soon as the news was brought to Quebec that the Iroquois had carried off Father Poncet, not only was general sadness felt on his account, as he was

conceut vne trifteffe generale: mais trente ou quarante François, & quelques Sauuages Chreftiens, prirent vne forte refolution de le retirer des mains de ces Barbares, quoy qu'il leur en couftaft. Ils monterent en canot le lendemain de sa prise, à dessein de preuenir l'Ennemy, l'allant attendre en quelque endroit où il deuoit [49] paffer, pour le furprendre au paffage. On fait icy tant de prieres, en public & en particulier, depuis leur depart, que ie ne puis penser autre chofe, ou que Dieu nous le rendra, ou que par fon moyen, il donnera la paix au dedans, & au dehors de ce pauure païs. Et plus bas dãs la mesme lettre, le P. Poncet fut pris le vingtiéme d'Aoust sur le foir, le vingt-vniéme, nos coureurs le fuiuirent fur la nuit, & voila, que le vingt-fixiéme, l'vn des canots qui eftoient allés donner la chasse aux voleurs, qui l'emmennent, nous rapporte nouuelle, que ces coureurs fe font arreftés aux Trois Riuieres, pour fecourir la Bourgade, infestée par cinq cens Iroquois, qui la tiennent bouclée, rodans aux enuirons de tous coftés. Ceux qui font retournez dans ce canot, nous [50] difent qu'ils ont trouué proche l'Ile de sainct Eloy, deux visages crayonnez auec du charbon, sur vn arbre, dont on auoit enleué l'écorce, & les noms du Pere Poncet, & de Mathurin Franchetot, écrits au deffous de ces deux vifages. De plus, qu'ils ont remontré [sc. rencontré] au mefme endroit, vn liure dans lequel eftoit efcrit le fens de ces paroles: Six Hurons Iroquifez, & quatre Anniehronnons, emmennent le P. Poncet, & Mathurin Franchetot, ils ne nous ont encore fait aucun mal. C'est leur coustume de traiter doucement leurs prifonniers, tant qu'ils font encor dans la crainte d'eftre attrappez. Voila

6

beloved by all; but thirty or forty Frenchmen, and some Christian Savages, firmly resolved to rescue him from the hands of those Barbarians, whatever it might cost them to do so. They launched their canoes on the day following his capture, purposing to forestall the Enemy by going to wait for them in some spot which they must [49] pass, in order to surprise them as they went by. So many prayers have been offered here, in public and in private, since their departure, that I can but think either that God will restore him to us, or that by his means he will give peace to this poor country, both within and without its borders.” And, farther down in the same letter: “ Father Poncet was captured on the twentieth of August, toward evening; on the twenty-first, toward night, our scouts followed him; and on the twenty-sixth, one of the canoes that had gone in pursuit of the robbers who were carrying him off brought back news to us that those scouts had stopped at Three Rivers to give help to the Village, as it was harassed by five hundred Iroquois,— who were holding it closely beset, and were prowling about the neighborhood in all directions. Those who returned in this canoe [50] told us that they found, near the Island of saint Eloy, two faces drawn with charcoal on a tree from which the bark had been removed, and the names of Father Poncet and Mathurin Franchetot written beneath these. Furthermore, they said they had found in the same place a book in which was written, in substance, these words: Six Hurons, turned Iroquois, and four Anniehronnons are carrying off Father Poncet and Mathurin Franchetot. They have not yet done us any injury. It is their custom to treat their prisoners gently as long as they

ce qui m'a efté recrit fur la prife de ce bon Pere. Venons maintenant aux lambeaux de fes memoires, dont ie feray vn petit abbregé.

[51] Nous arriuafmes, dit-il, à vne Riuiere fort rapide, où l'armée qui eftoit allée aux Trois Riuieres auoit campé. Le Barbare qui m'auoit pris au Cap rouge, m'osta le Reliquaire que ie portois au col, & le pendit au fien: comme il couroit, certain iour dãs les bois, ce Reliquaire s'ouurit, & toutes les Reliques furent perduës, il ne resta dans la petite boëte de cuiure, qui compofoit ce Reliquaire, qu'vn petit papier, fur lequel i'auois efcry de mon propre fang, comme i'eftois encore au païs des Hurons, les noms de nos Peres martyrifez en l'Amerique, & vne petite Oraifon, par laquelle ie demandois à Nostre Seigneur, vne mort violente pour fon feruice, & la grace d'y répandre tout mon fang. De forte, qu'ayant adroitement retiré ce papier, [52] d'entre les mains de ce Barbare, ie voyois fans ceffe deuant mes yeux, la fentence de ma mort, écrite de mon propre fang, fi bien que ie ne m'en pouuois dedire. I'auois neantmoins vne penfée, que ces grandes ames, & ces braues courages, qui m'auoient precedez en ce combat, auoient efté effectiuement immolez, comme ayans des vertus veritables, & que moy qui n'en auois que les ombres, & la figure, ne ferois crucifié qu'en peinture.

I'auois encor dans mon Breuiaire, vne Image de S. Ignace, auec Noftre Seigneur portant sa Croix, mystere propre de nostre Compagnie, auquel ayant toûjours efté fort affectionné, il luy a pleu de m'y donner quelque part, dans les fatigues extraordinaires que i'eus dans ce chemin, [53] l'Image de Noftre

are still in fear of being overtaken.'” That is what was written to me concerning this good Father's capture. Let us now come to the tattered remnants of his own account, of which I shall make a brief abridgment. [51] “ We arrived,” says he, “at a very rapid

a River, where the army that had gone to Three Rivers had camped. The Barbarian who had captured me at Cap rouge took away from me the Reliquary which I was wearing on my neck, and hung it to his own. One day, when he was running in the woods, this Reliquary flew open and all the Relics were lost,—there remaining in the little copper box composing the Reliquary only a small piece of paper on which I had written in my own blood, when I was still in the country of the Hurons, the names of our Fathers martyred in America, and a short Prayer in which I asked Our Lord for a violent death in his service, and the grace to shed all my blood for the same cause. It so happened that, when I had adroitly removed this paper [52] from that Barbarian's grasp, I saw constantly before my eyes the sentence of my death written in my own blood, so that I could not revoke it. Nevertheless, I had a feeling that those great souls and stout hearts who had preceded me in this conflict had been actually immolated, as having genuine virtues; and that I, who had only the shadows and faint likenesses thereof, would be crucified only in appearance.

I still had in my Breviary a Picture of St. Ignatius, with Our Lord bearing his Cross,- a mystery which well suited our Society; and in which, as I had always felt a strong affection for it, he was pleased to give me some share, in the extraordinary