glory of God, and our Fathers yearn day and night to realize them. They burn with desire to be among those happy ones exposed, not to chance, but to divine Providence, which will ever derive its glory – either from their labors, if ever they reach those lands of promise; or from their deaths, as it has done from those of the other Fathers who have been killed by the Iroquois when on such an enterprise. While awaiting this happy moment, which will come only too late, according to their desires, some are making ready for this glorious expedition by the study of the languages, without which [24] one can do nothing for the salvation of the Savages; others occupy themselves in cultivating the two Churches, the Algonkin and Huron, whom the dread of the enemies confines near us, and who are thus enabled to discharge all the duties of the best Christians.

Those who are obliged to withdraw inland for hunting well remember the instructions which are given them here. They often make a Church from a corner in the woods, whence their devotions penetrate Heaven just as well as from those great Temples where prayers are held with so much pomp. If they could take with them persons to whom they could turn for confession in times of danger, they could be far more securely held in religion.

This is what greatly distressed [25] a good Christian Algonkin woman, named Cecile Kouekoueaté. Falling sick in the midst of the woods, and seeing herself in extremity without being able to confess, she believed that she might make up for this in some fashion with a present of Beaver-skins, which she bequeathed to the Church of Three Rivers. Accordingly, she ordered her kinsmen to go thither in haste

lieu de fa Confeffion. Auffi-toft qu'elle eut expiré, ils fe hâterent de fe rendre aux Trois Riuieres, dans l'apprehenfion que leur parente ne fust en peine en l'autre monde. Eftant arriuez, ils s'addrefferent au Pere qui a foin des Sauuages, & luy dirent: Robe Noire, écoute la voix des morts, & non pas celle des viuans; ce n'eft pas nous qui te parlons, c'est vne defunte, qui a [26] enfermé fa voix dans ce paquet, auant que de mourir: elle luy a donné charge de te declarer tous fes pechez, puifqu'elle ne l'a pû faire de bouche: vostre écriture vous fait parler aux abfens; elle pretend faire par ces Caftors, ce que vous faites par vos papiers. Il y a quinze iours qu'elle eft morte; c'est Cecile Kouekoueaté: helas, qu'elle aura fouffert fur le chemin de Paradis! Faites donc au pluftoft que fon ame foit bien traitée dans toutes les cabanes, par où elle paffera, & qu'arriuant au Ciel, on ne la faffe pas attendre à la porte; mais qu'on la reçoiue comme vne perfonne qui a vefcu dans la Foy, & qui eft morte dans le defir du Paradis. Ces bonnes gens n'eftant pas encore inftruits, ni baptifez, méloient leurs fables auec nos veritez.

[27] Vne autre fois, vn de nos plus confiderables Algonkins, eftant furpris d'vne efpece de paralyfie, auec des conuulfions extraordinaires, & des contorfions de nerfs, qui le mettoient hors d'efperance de pouuoir gagner Kebec, d'où il eftoit éloigné de quinze à vingt lieües, dépesche, dans cette extremité, vn des fiens, pour nous en porter la nouuelle, & pour nous folliciter de prier Dieu pour luy. Ie ne fçay pas fi fes prieres ou les noftres, ou bien fi les vnes & les autres iointes enfemble, luy rendirent la fanté; mais il a depuis affeuré, après auoir receu le S.

after her death, and present her gift there, as a substitute for her Confession. As soon as she expired, they hastened to Three Rivers, fearing lest their kinswoman should find herself at a loss in the other world. Having arrived, they addressed themselves to the Father who has charge of the Savages, and said to him: "Black Gown, listen to the voice of the dead, and not to that of the living. It is not we who speak to thee; it is a departed woman, who, [26] before dying, enclosed her voice in this package. She has charged it to declare to thee all her sins, as she herself could not do so by word of mouth. Your handwriting enables you to speak to the absent; she intends to do, by means of these Beaver-skins, what you do by means of your papers. She died a fortnight ago; she is Cecile Kouekoueaté. Alas, how she must have suffered on the way to Paradise! See to it, then, as soon as possible, that her soul be well treated in all the cabins through which it shall pass; and that, on arriving at Heaven, she be not kept waiting at the door, but that she be received like a person who has lived in the Faith and has died in the desire for Paradise." These good people, as yet neither instructed nor baptized, confused their fables with our truths.

[27] At another time, one of our leading Algonkins was overtaken by a sort of paralysis accompanied by extraordinary convulsions and nervous contortions, which excluded him from the hope of being able to reach Kebec whence he was fifteen or twenty leagues distant. In this extremity, he despatched one of his people to bear the news to us, and entreat us to pray God for him. I know not whether his own prayers or ours, or both combined, restored his health; but

Sacrement, qu'il fe trouua guery tout d'vn coup, & que fes forces furent si soudainement rétablies, qu'il ne peut, qu'il ne l'attribue à vn effet tout miraculeux. Les derniers Sacremens operent fi [28] fouuent en eux de femblables merueilles, qu'vne des chofes qu'ils demandent auec plus distance [sc. d'instance], eft la fainte communion, fur tout quand ils font saisis de quelque violente maladie; car ils trouuent d'ordinaire la fanté dans ce Pain celefte, qui est souuent pour leur corps & pour leur ame vn vray Pain de vie.

Nous auons perdu deux de nos bonnes Chreftiennes, dit le Pere qui a le foin de l'Eglife Huronne, l'vne defquelle, nommée Cecile Garenhatfi, auoit demeuré deux ans chez les Meres Vrfulines, où elle auoit pris l'esprit d'vne devotion tres-rare, qu'elle a conferuée iufques à la mort; chofe affez ordinaire à celles qui ont le bonheur d'eftre eleuées dans ce Seminaire de pieté. Noftre Cecile donc eftant aux abois, fon Confeffeur luy [29] demanda fi elle n'auoit pas de regret de mourir; helas! mon Père, luy ditelle, i'aurois grand tort de craindre la mort, & de ne la pas defirer, puifqu'en me tirant de ce monde, elle me retirera des occafions d'offenfer Dieu. Il eft vray que i'efpère bien, que toutes mes confeffions ont effacé mes pechez, mais elles ne m'ont pas rendue impeccable: mais [ma] confolation eft, que ie la feray aprés cette miserable vie; & puifque l'amour n'est pas affez grand en moy, pour faire ce que la mort y fera, à la bonne heure, que la mort vienne pour me deliurer en mefme temps de la feruitude de ce corps, & de celle du péché.

Le mary de cette bonne femme eftoit pour lors à la chaffe, bien auant dans les bois, au moment qu'elle

he has since affirmed that, after having received the Blessed Sacrament, he found himself cured all at once, and that his strength returned to him so suddenly that he could but consider it a miracle. The last Sacraments so [28] often produce similar wonders in these people, that one of the things which they request with most urgency is holy communion, especially when they are seized with some violent sickness; for they usually find health in this celestial Bread, which often proves to them a true Bread of life for both body and soul.

"We have lost two of our good Christian women," says the Father who has charge of the Huron Church. One of them, named Cecile Garen hatsi, had sojourned two years with the Ursuline Mothers, where she had acquired a spirit of very rare devotion, which she preserved even until death,- something quite ordinary with those who have the good fortune to be trained in this Seminary of piety. Our Cecile, then, being in extremity, her Confessor [29] asked her whether she felt any regret to die. Alas! my Father," she said to him, "I would do very wrong to fear death and not to desire it, since by drawing me out of this world it will draw me away from occasions of offending God. It is true, I hope indeed that all my confessions have wiped out my sins, although they have not rendered me sinless; but my consolation is that I shall be so after this miserable life. And, since my love is not great enough to do what death will do,- very well, let death come to deliver me at the same time from the servitude of this body and from that of sin."

This good woman's husband was then hunting, far within the woods, at the moment when she