her nation," says Charlevoix, "who entered into vows of perpetual virginity."

Tegahkouita now began to prescribe for herself the most rigid penance. She strewed her bed with thorns, rolled herself among briers and prickles, mixed up earth and ashes with her food, travelled amid ice and snow, with her feet naked, and then scorched them in the flames. Under this regimen, her health, as might naturally have been expected, rapidly declined, and she died at the early age of twentyfour, to the inexpressible sorrow of the college of Jesuits at Quebec. These, however, found some consolation in knowing that the effects of her virtue survived her. It was the Mohawk tribe," says Charlevoix," which gave to New France this Geneviève of North America, the illustrious Catharine Tegahkouita, whom Heaven has continued, for almost seventy years, to render celebrated by the performance of miracles, the authenticity of which will stand the proof of the most rigid inquiry."* And Father Cholenec thus concludes the long epistle he addressed to his superior, Père Augustin, on this interesting subject.

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"I confidently trust, my reverend father, that Heaven will not refuse to honour the memory of this virtuous young woman, by an infinity of miraculous cures; many of which indeed have already

Charlevoix, Hist. de la Nouvelle France, liv. ix.

been effected, and still continue to be performed, by her intercession. This is well known, not only among the Indians, but by the French at Quebec and Montreal, many of whom repair to her tomb in order to perform their vows, or to offer her their thanks for the favours which she has obtained for them from Heaven. I could detail to you a great number of these wonderful cures, attested by persons whose honour and judgment cannot be suspected; but I shall content myself by giving you the testimony of two persons of great virtue and merit, who experienced, in their own persons, the influence of the intercession of this holy girl, and who, in consequence, thought it their duty to leave to posterity a public record of their piety and gratitude.”*

The first of these certificates is from one of the fathers of the Jesuits, whom Charlevoix designates with a title of Persian-like length, Monsieur l'Abbé de la Colombiere, Grand Archidiacre et Grand Vicaire de Quebec, et Conseiller Clerc au Conseil Supérieur de la Nouvelle France.Monsieur l'Abbé thus deposes :

"Having been ill at Quebec last year, from January to June, of a slow fever, against which all the usual remedies proved ineffectual, and also attacked with a flux, which ipecacuanha itself could not cure; it was thought advisable I should make

*Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, vol. vi. p. 40.

a vow, that in case it pleased Heaven to put a stop to my malady, I should go to the mission of St. François Xavier, in order to offer up my prayers at the tomb of Catherine Tegahkouita. From that day the fever ceased, and the flux being also much diminished, I embarked some days afterwards to acquit myself of my vow, and scarcely had I proceeded a third part of the journey, when I found myself perfectly cured.

"I therefore feel that it would be unjust in me not to ascribe to the missions of Canada the glory which is their due; and to testify, as I now do, that I am indebted for my cure to this Iroquois virgin. I accordingly make the present attestation, not only to evince the sentiments of gratitude which I entertain, but also to express, as much as in my power, the confidence to be reposed upon the intercession of my benefactress, and thus incite others to imitate her virtues.

"Done at Ville Marie, this 14th day of September, 1696.

"J. DE LA COLOMBIERE,

“P. I. Chanoine de la Cathédrale de Quebec." The other certificate is presented to the faithful, by Capitaine de Luth, "one of the bravest officers," says Charlevoix, "whom the king has ever had in this colony.

“I, the undersigned, certify to all whom it may concern, that having, for three and twenty years,

been tormented with the gout, and suffering such pain as to have been deprived of rest for three months together, I addressed myself to Catherine Tegahkouita, the Iroquois virgin who died in odour of sanctity at the Sault St. Louis, and I promised to visit her tomb, if Heaven should please to remove my malady through her intercession. At the end of a nine days' fasting and devotion, which I performed to her honour, I was so completely cured, that for the last fifteen months I have not had the slightest fit of the gout.

"Done at Fort Frontenac, this 15th day of August, 1696.

"J. DE LUTH,

"Capitaine d'un détachement de la marine, Commandant au Fort Frontenac."*

Should any sceptical reader of the good Fathers Cholenec and Charlevoix suspect that the captain's gout was probably as much relieved by his own fasting, as by the good offices of an Iroquois nun, let him take warning from the lesson that was given to the doubting curate of La Chine. "On every anniversary of the death of La Bonne Catherinefor that is the name by which, in deference to the Holy See, she is honoured in Canada-the neighbouring parishes were in the habit of repairing to

Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, and also Charlevoix, Hist. de la Nouvelle France, liv. xiii.

the church, at the Sault St. Louis, near Montreal, to perform a solemn mass. The curate of La Chine, M. Remy, who had recently arrived from France, having been apprised of this custom, and that his predecessors had always conformed to it, declared that he did not think himself authorised to sanction, by his presence, a public religious solemnity not ordained by the church. Those of his parishioners who heard him make this remark, foretold that it would not be long before their new curate would be punished for his refusal; and, in fact, from that very day M. Remy fell dangerously sick." The historian, however, happily adds, that the worthy curate, " perceiving at once the cause of his sudden malady, made a vow to follow the pious example of his predecessors, upon which he was immediately restored to health!"* But enough of the supernatural cures thus gravely recorded by these sturdy disciples of Loyola in New France; to be equalled only by the miraculous recoveries effected by the celebrated medecine dance of the savage, or the conjuring feats of the Indian Powah.

* Charlevoix, Hist. de la Nouvelle France, liv. xii.

H