they desired, I urged them to address him who made everything, and who alone is the Author of all blessings, of whom we had so often spoken to them, and to whom we would teach them to pray. This Nation is very docile, and when influenced by temporal considerations it can be bent as one pleases. They all replied that they put no faith in their soothsayers, and that they were deceivers; that they wished no other God than him whom we taught to them, and that they would do what we told them. I then told them that they must hate their sins, and resolve in earnest to serve that God whom we announced to them; that henceforth we would every day make a Procession to implore his help, that all Christians did this; that they should be constant and persevering, not losing courage if they were not immediately heard. We added to this a vow of nine Masses in honor of the glorious Spouse of our Lady, the Protector of the Hurons. We exposed also the Blessed Sacrament on the occasion of its Feast, which happened at that time.

[27] Now it happened that, exactly as the novena was completed, which was on the thirteenth of June, we could not finish the Procession on account of the rain, which followed very abundantly and lasted, with several intervals, the space of a month, with a great improvement and growth of the fruits of the earth; and because, as I have said, these sandy soils need rain almost every other day, another drought having occurred from the middle of July until the last of the month, we undertook another novena in honor of our Blessed Father St. Ignatius, through whose prayers we had, from the day after this novena began and since, such an abundance of rain that

nous eufmes dés le lendemain de la neufuaine encommencée, & du depuis, telle abondance de pluyes qu'elles firent parfaictement espier les bleds, & les amenerent à maturité, de forte qu'il y a eu ceste année autant de bled que de long temps.

Or ces pluyes ont fait deux biens; l'vn en ce qu'elles ont accreu les fruicts de la terre, & l'autre en ce qu'elles ont étouffé toutes les mauuaises opinions & volontez conçeuës contre Dieu, contre la Croix, & contre nous; car tous les Sauuages de noftre cognoiffance, & notamment de noftre village, font venus expreffément nous trouuer [28] pour nous dire qu'en effet Dieu eftoit bon, & que nous estions auffi bons, & qu'à l'auenir ils vouloient feruir Dieu, adioustant mille poüilles à l'encontre de leurs Arendio8ane, ou deuins. A Dieu foit pour iamais la gloire de tout; il permet la fechereffe des terres, pour arrouser les cœurs de fes benedictions.

L'année 1628. que les Anglois defirent [defirent] la flotte de la Compagnie de la Nouuelle France, dont la perte a esté la damnation de plufieurs Canadois, & le retardement de la conuerfion de quelques autres, come il est à croire, il m'arriua en ce pays vne histoire quafi pareille à la precedente, laquelle à raisõ de la conformité ie pense estre bo de raconter icy. La fechereffe eftoit extraordinaire par tout, mais fingulierement en nostre village, & aux enuirons. Cettes [certes] ie m'eftonnois de voir quelquesfois l'air tout chargé de nuées ailleurs, & ouyr bruire les tonnerres & au contraire en nos quartiers le Ciel y eftre tres pur, tres ferain, & tres ardent. Il fembloit mesme que les nuées fe diuifoient à l'abord de nostre contrée; Ce mefme fuppoft du diable, que i'ay nommé cy-deuant Tehorenhaegnon, estant prié de faire plouuoir,

it caused the corn to form perfect ears, and ripened them; so that there was this year as much corn as there has been for a long time.

Now these rains have produced two good results: one in that they have increased the fruits of the earth; the other that they stifled those false opinions and notions conceived against God, against the Cross, and against ourselves. For all the Savages that knew us, and especially those of our village, came expressly to see us, [28] to tell us that God was in truth good, and that we also were good; and that in the future they would serve God, adding a thousand abusive words in reference to all their Arendiowane, or soothsayers. To God be forever the glory of the whole; he permits the drought of the soil, to bedew all hearts with his blessings.

In the year 1628, when the English defeated the fleet of the Company of New France,2-whose loss was the damnation of many Canadians and the postponement of the conversion of many others, as may be believed, there happened to me in this country an incident almost the same as the preceding, which, by reason of its likeness to it, seems to me worth relating here. The drought was very great everywhere, but particularly so in our village and its neighborhood. I was indeed astonished, sometimes, to see the air heavily laden with clouds elsewhere, and to hear the thunders roaring; while in our neighborhood, on the contrary, the Sky was clear, very bright and very hot. It seemed even that the clouds separated as they approached our region. That same tool of the devil that I have mentioned before, Tehorenhaegnon, having been entreated to make rain, replied that he could not [29] make it; and that the

respondit qu'il ne le pouuoit [29] pas faire, & que le tonnerre qu'ils feignent estre vn oyfeau, auoir peur de la Croix qui eftoit deuant la maison des François, & que cefte couleur rouge dont elle eftoit peinte, eftoit comme vn feu ardent & flamboyant qui diuifoit les nuées en deux, quand elles venoient à passer par deffus.

Les Capitaines du village ayant entendu ces nouuelles me firent appeller, & me dirent; Mon nepueu, voila ce que dit vn tel, que responds-tu à cela? nous fommes perdus, car les bleds ne meuriront point. Si au moins nous mourrions par la main & les armes de nos ennemis, qui font prefts de venir fondre fur nous, encor à la bonne heure, nous ne languirions pas, mais si estans eschapez de leur fureur, nous tombons das la famine, c'eft aller de mal en pis, qu'en pense-tu? tu ne voudrois pas eftre cause de noftre mort? & puis il t'importe autant qu'à nous: nous ferions d'auis que tu abbatiffe cefte Croix, & que tu la cachaffe pour vn temps ou dedans ta Cabane, ou bien dans le lac, afin que le tonnerre & les nuées ne la voyent plus, & qu'ils n'en ayent plus de peur, & puis apres la moiffon tu la replanteras. A cela ie respondis, Pour moy iamais ie n'abbattray, ny ne cacheray la Croix [30] où eft mort celuy qui est la cause de tous nos biens. Pour vous fi vous la voulez abbatre, auisez-y ie ne pourray pas vous en empescher, mais prenez garde qu'en l'abbatant vous n'irritiez Dieu, & que vous n'accroiffiez voftre mifere. Croyezvous à cet abuser; il ne fçait ce qu'il dit, il y a plus d'vn an que ceste Croix a efté plantée voyez combien de fois il a pleu icy du depuis: c'est vn ignorant de dire que le tonnerre craint; ce n'eft pas vn animal, mais vne exhalaison seiche & embrafée, qui estant

thunder, which they pretend is a bird, was afraid of the Cross that was in front of the Frenchmen's house, and that the red color with which it was painted was like a fire burning and flaming, which divided the clouds in two when they passed above it.3

66

The Captains of the village, having heard these stories, sent for me and said, My nephew, here is what so-and-so says; what dost thou answer to it? We are ruined, for the corn will not ripen. If at least we should die by the hands and arms of our enemies who are ready to burst upon us, well and good, we should not at any rate pine away; but if, having escaped from their fury, we are exposed to famine, that would be to go from bad to worse. What dost thou think of it? Thou dost not wish to be the cause of our death? besides, it is of as much importance to thee as to us. We are of the opinion that thou shouldst take down that Cross, and hide it awhile in thy Cabin, or even in the lake, so that the thunder and the clouds may not see it, and no longer fear it; and then after the harvest thou mayest set it up again." To this I answered, "As for me, I shall never take down nor hide the Cross [30] where died he who is the cause of all our blessings. For yourselves, if you wish to take it down, consider the matter well; I shall not be able to hinder you, but take care that, in taking it down, you do not make God angry and increase your own misery. Do you believe in this deceiver? He does not know what he says. This Cross has been set up for more than a year, and you know how many times there has been rain here since. Only an ignorant person would say that the thunder is afraid; it is not an animal, it is a dry and burning exhalation which, being shut in,