[4] Part First.

CHAPTER FIRST.

OF THE CONVERSION, BAPTISM, AND HAPPY DEATH OF SOME HURONS; AND OF THE CONDITION OF CHRISTIANITY AMID THIS BARBARISM.

D

URING the present year, eighty-six have been baptized, and, adding to these the fourteen of last year, there are a hundred souls in all who, we believe, have been rescued from the service of the devil in this country since our return. Of this number God has called ten to Heaven,-six while they were young, and four more advanced in age. One of these, named François Sangwati, was Captain of our village. He had a naturally good disposition, and consented very willingly to be instructed and to receive Holy Baptism, a course he had previously praised and approved in others. I admired the tender Providence of God in the conversion of a woman, who is one of the four deceased. I baptized her [5] this Autumn at the village of Scanonaenrat,' when returning from the house of Louys de saincte Foy, where we had gone to instruct his parents. deafness of this sick woman, and the depths of the mysteries I brought to her notice, prevented her from sufficiently understanding me; and, besides, the accent of that Nation is a little different from

that of the Bears, with whom we live.

The

My own im

ceste ame, nous pourueut incontinent d'vn ieune hõme, lequel nous feruit de truchement. Il s'eftoit trouué auec nous en la Cabane de Louys, & nous auoit ouy discourir de nos mysteres, de forte qu'il en poffedoit defia vne bonne partie, & conceuoit fort bien ce que ie luy difois. On dit que ceste femme qui fut nommée Marie, dans fes plus grandes foibleffes, predit qu'elle ne mourroit de huict iours; ce qui arriua.

Ils ne recherchent prefque le Baptefme que pour la fanté. Nous tafchons de purifier cefte intention, & les disposer à receuoir également de la main de Dieu la maladie & la fanté, la mort & la vie, & leurs enfeignons que les eaux viuifiantes du S. [6] Baptesme, nous conferent principalement la vie de l'ame, & non celle du corps. Cependant ils ont ceste opinion si fort imprimée, que les baptisez, nommément les enfans, ne font plus maladifs, qu'ils l'auront tãtost diuulguée & publiée par tout, de forte qu'on nous apporte plufieurs enfans à baptifer de deux, de trois, voire mefmes de fept lieuës.

Au refte la diuine Bonté, qui agit en nous fuiuant la mesure de la Foy, a conferué iufques à prefent ces petits enfans en bonne fanté: de forte que la mort de ceux qui font decedez, a efté attribuée aux maladies incurables & defefperées dont ils estoient malades auparauant, & fi quelqu'autre a efté par fois atteint de quelque petite maladie, les parens bien qu'encores infideles, l'ont rapportée à la negligence & au mefpris qu'ils ont fait paroistre au feruice de Dieu.

Il y a en noftre village vne petite fille Chreftienne nommée Louyfe, laquelle à fix mois a commencé à marcher toute feule: les parens affeurent n'auoir encor

still less intelligible, and increased my difficulties. But Our Lord, who willed to save this soul, immediately sent us a young man, who served us as interpreter. He had been with us in the Cabin of Louys, and had heard us talking of our mysteries, so that he already knew a considerable part of them, and understood very well what I said. It is said that this woman, who was named Marie, in the midst of her greatest weakness foretold that she would not die for eight days; and so it happened.

They seek Baptism almost entirely as an aid to health. We try to purify this intention, and to lead them to receive from the hand of God alike sickness and health, death and life; and teach them that the life-giving waters of Holy [6] Baptism principally impart life to the soul, and not to the body. However, they have the opinion so deeply rooted that the baptized, especially the children, are no longer sickly, that soon they will have spread it abroad and published it everywhere. The result is that they are now bringing us children to baptize from two, three, yes, even seven leagues away.

Moreover, the divine Goodness which acts in us according to the measure of our Faith, has thus far preserved these little ones in good health; so that the death of those who have passed away has been attributed to incurable and hopeless maladies contracted beforehand; and, if another has occasionally suffered from some trifling ailment, the parents, although still unbelieving, have attributed it to the neglect and irreverence they have shown toward the service of God.

There is in our village a little Christian girl named Louyse, who at six months began to walk alone; the

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LES RELATIONS DES JÉSUITES

[VOL. 10

rien veu de femblable, & l'attribuent à l'efficace du S. Baptefme. beaucoup de ioye, que son petit [7] garçon, qui estoit Vn autre nous disoit vn iour auec presque toufiours malade, & comme tout etique auant le Baptefme, s'eftoit du depuis parfaictement bien porté. Seigneur va leur imprimant vne grande opinion de ce Cecy fuffira pour monftrer comme Noftre diuin Sacrement; laquelle fe fortifie par la bonne & entiere santé que Dieu nous donne, & qu'il a toufiours donnée à tous les François qui ont efté en ce pays: car, difent-ils, c'est merueille qu'horfmis vn feul qui eft mort icy de fa mort naturelle, tous les autres, depuis vingt-cinq ans ou enuiron qu'on y hante, n'ayent quafi pas efté malades.

encor.

De tout cecy on pourra facilement recueillir l'eftat prefent du Chriftianisme naiffant en ce pays, & l'efperance du futur. Deux ou trois chofes y feruiront à l'inftruction des Sauuages. Nous affemblons les La premiere eft la methode que nous tenons hommes le plus fouuent que nous pouuons, car leurs confeils, leurs feftins, leurs ieux, & leurs danfes ne nous permettent pas de les auoir icy à toute heure, ny tous les iours. Nous auons égard particulierement aux Anciens, d'autant que ce font eux qui determinent & decident des affaires, & tout fe fait fuiuant leurs aduis. [8] Tous viennent volontiers nous entendre, tous vniuerfellement difent qu'ils ont enuie d'aller au Ciel, & qu'ils redoutent ces braises ardentes de l'enfer: ils n'ont quafi rien à nous repliquer, nous fouhaitterions quelquesfois qu'ils propofaffent plus de doutes, ce qui nous donneroit toufiours plus d'occafio de leur déchiffrer par le menu nos faincts Myfteres. En verité les Cõmandemens de Dieu font tres-iuftes

parents declare they have seen nothing like it, and attribute it to the efficacy of Holy Baptism. Another person told us one day, with great delight, that his little [7] boy, who had always been sick and much emaciated before Baptism, had been very well since then. This will suffice to show how Our Lord is inspiring them with a high opinion of this divine Sacrament, which is strengthened by the perfect health God gives us, and which he has given to all the French who have been in this country; for, they say, it is very strange that, except a single man who died here from natural causes, all the others, during the twenty-five years or thereabout in which the French have been frequenting this region, have scarcely ever been sick.

From all this may be easily gathered the present state of the young Christianity of this country, and the hope for the future. Two or three things besides will help to the same end. The first is the method we pursue in the instruction of the Savages. We gather together the men as often as we can; for their councils, their feasts, their games, and their dances do not permit us to have them here at any hour, nor every day. We pay especial attention to the Old Men, inasmuch as they are the ones who determine and decide all matters, and everything is ordered by their advice. [8] All come willingly to hear us; all, without exception, say they have a desire to go to Heaven and fear the fiery torments of hell. They have hardly anything to answer us with; we could wish sometimes that they would bring forward more objections, which would always afford us better opportunity to explain our holy Mysteries in detail. Of a truth, the Commandments of God