And

The freedom of the children in these countries is so great, and they prove so incapable of government and discipline, that, far from being able to hope for the conversion of the country through the instruction of the children, we must even despair of their instruction without the conversion of the parents. consequently, [22] all well considered, the first matter to which we should attend is the stability of the marriages of our Christians, who give us children that may in good time be reared in the fear of God and of their parents. Behold the only means of furnishing the Seminaries with young plants. To attain this, some charitable gifts would be wonderfully useful, by means of which we could obviate the difficulties that are encountered in bringing about, contrary to the immemorial custom of the country, the stability of marriages. Some thirty persons giving, once for all, an average of a dozen écus each, would insure fifty stable marriages here, which would after some time form a world, or rather a Paradise, entirely new, and still more if only there were some endowment for it. That will be as God shall please.

Meanwhile, the Seminary at Quebec may serve as a place to receive the children of our Christians who shall prove to be of good dispositions; it will serve, besides, for adults who shall desire in earnest to be instructed at leisure and more quietly, and [23] for this purpose may wish to be absent from their country for a time. Indeed, if those who return from the seminary are not promptly bound in marriage, the torrent of bad customs and bad company is so strong, that some miracle would be needed to enable them to resist it. The age, besides, of certain seminarists will give weight and authority to their words, and to

tels feminaristes donnera du poids & de l'authorité à leurs paroles, & au rapport de ce qu'ils auront veu de bien parmy la Chreftienté de Quebec.

Nous auons auffi pensé d'appliquer quelques-vns à la connoiffance de nouuelles langues. Nous iettions les yeux fur trois autres des Peuples plus voisins; sur celles des Algonquains efpars de tous coftez, & au Midy; & au Septentrion de noftre grand Lac: Sur celle de la Nation neutre qui est vne maistresse porte pour les païs Meridionaux; fur celle de la Nation des Puants, qui eft vn paffage des plus confiderables pour les païs Occidentaux, vn peu plus Septentrionaux : Mais nous ne nous fommes pas trouuez encore assez forts pour conferuer l'acquis, & fonger ensemble à tant de nouuelles conqueftes; de forte que nous auons iugé plus à propos de differer l'execution de ce dessein encore [24] pour quelque temps, & de nous contenter cependant de prendre l'occafion que Dieu nous enuoyoit à noftre porte, d'entrer en quelque nation de la langue des Neutres, par l'arriuée en ce païs des ɣeanohronons, qui s'y font refugiez, comme nous dirons cy-apres; lefquels faifoient vne des Nations affociées à la Nation neutre.

Nous auons d'autant plus facilement quitté la penfée de nous appliquer pour le present, à la langue des Algonquains, que nos Peres de Quebec & des trois riuieres s'y appliquent fortement. Nous esperons de là, quelque braue ouurier, qui vienne icy rompre la glace, & nous donner entrée & ouuerture parmy ces peuples qui font autour de nous, & n'ont l'vsage d'autre langue, que de l'Algonquine. Plaise à la diuine Majefté donner benediction à toutes ces penfées & entreprises.

the report of the good they will have seen among the Christian people of Quebec.

We have also thought of setting apart some for the study of new languages. We were considering three other languages, of Peoples that are nearest to us,—that of the Algonquains, scattered on all sides, both to the South and to the North of our great Lake; that of the neutral Nation, which is a main gateway for the Southern tribes; that of the Nation of the Stinkards, 14 which is one of the most important openings for the Western tribes, and somewhat more for the Northern. But we have not yet found ourselves strong enough to keep our acquisitions, and at the same time to dream of so many new conquests; so we have judged it wiser to defer the execution of this plan for [24] some time longer, and to content ourselves, meanwhile, with seizing the opportunity that God has sent to our doors,- that of entering a nation of the Neutral language through the arrival in this country of the Weanohronons, 15 who have taken refuge here, as we shall relate hereafter, and who formed one of the Nations allied with the neutral Nation.

We have the more readily given up the idea of applying ourselves to the Algonquain language, that our Fathers at Quebec and the three rivers are studying it diligently. We hope to get some brave worker from that quarter, who will come here to break the ice and give us entrance and opportunity among these tribes who are around us, who are familiar with no other language but the Algonquin. May it please his divine Majesty to give his blessing to all these ideas and enterprises.

NOTES TO VOL. XVI

(Figures in parentheses, following number of note, refer to pages of English text.)

I (p. 9). For sketch of the duchess d'Aiguillon, see vol. viii., note 62.

"

2 (p. 9).—This order of Hospital Nuns (vol. viii., note 64) was one of the oldest of the hospital orders in France. Laroche-Héron, in Servantes de Dieu en Canada (Montreal, 1855), p. 17, says: "The mother-house in Dieppe existed in France before the year 1250." De Launay states that the order was reformed and reëstablished in 1609, receiving its revised constitution in 1636.— Religieuses Hospitalières de Saint-Joseph (Paris, 1887), p. 79. Le Jeune says (vol. vii. of this series, pp. 287, 289) that the Dieppe hospital was one of the best regulated in Europe;" and he quotes a letter from its superior, describing the character and death of a little Indian girl placed under her care by Le Jeune in 1634. The nuns who founded the hospital at Quebec, as related in our text, were the following: Marie Guenet de St. Ignace (superior), aged 29; Anne le Cointre de St. Bernard, aged 28; and Marie Forestier de St. Bonaventure, aged 22. The duchess d'Aiguillon gave (Aug. 16, 1637), to establish the Quebec Hotel-Dieu, the sum of 22,400 livres; and again (Jan. 31, 1640), for its enlargement, 40, 500 livres. For historical sketch of this hospital, see Laroche-Héron, ut supra.

3 (p. 11). According to Littré, the term "election" was in olden times applied to the courts of first instance in which were decided all matters pertaining to taxes, levies, and excise; also to the district under the jurisdiction of each court. The judges of such court were termed "the elect," because they were originally chosen by election, for the duty of imposing taxes.

4 (p. 13).—Marie Guyard was born at Tours, France, Oct. 28, 1599; her father was either a dealer in or a manufacturer of silk, her mother the descendant of a noble family. At the age of eighteen, she married (though only in obedience to her parents) Claude Martin, a silk manufacturer of Tours, who died Oct. 19, 1619,- leaving to his widow a son (born in the preceding April), and but the fragments of his fortune, which had been, shortly before his death, swept away by unexpected reverses. Inclined to the religious life