that the French were more powerful than Demons, that they commanded the fire; and that, if they wished to burn the villages of their enemies, they could soon do it.

On this Holyday our Church was full of people and of devotion, almost as [20] it is on an Easter day, all blessing God for having given us as a protector the foster father and Guardian Angel (so to speak) of Jesus Christ, his Son. It is, in my opinion, through his favor and through his merits, that the inhabitants of new France who live upon the banks of the great river saint Lawrence, have resolved to receive all the good customs of the old and to refuse admission to the bad ones.

Here is a holy law published and received with love and honor in the bosom of our churches,- that in these sacred places, where people go to adore the crucifix, so charged with ignominy, no attention whatever is paid to precedence; woe to him who, through pride, shall attempt to violate this holy custom. Alas, if we had to consider whose right it is to pass first when it is a question of adoring Jesus Christ bound to the cross, we should create a Babylon instead of a holy Sion, and we would go in pride to seek humility. I bless God that those persons who, according to the world, would be most concerned in these precedences, or in these indecorous actions, to call them thus, are the first to trample under foot these puerilities unworthy of a strong character. And to tell the truth, so long as we have a Governor [21] who is a friend of virtue and so long as we have free speech in the Church of God, the monster of ambition will have no Altar there. I almost forgot to

72

LES RELATIONS DES JÉSUITES

[VOL. 11

libre dans l'Eglise de Dieu, le monstre d'ambition n'y aura point d'Autel. I'oubliois quafi de dire que nous auons parlé de Dieu en sa maison, en langue Latine, Françoife, Montagnéfe, & Huronne; mais cela fe deduira plus particulierement és chapitres fuiuans.

Les vaiffeaux nous auoient laiffé deux perfonnes de la Religion pretenduë, elles fe font rangées à la verité de l'Eglife Catholique, & ont protesté publiquement qu'ils defiroient viure & mourir en cette faincte creance.

I'aurois icy vne priere à faire à tous ceux qui veulent porter iugement de l'eftat de noftre peuplade; c'est de fermer les yeux pendant que les nauires font à l'ancre, à nos ports, & de les ouurir à leur depart, ou quelque temps apres, dans la douce veuë de nos compatriotes, on fe veut refiouïr, & on tombe dans l'excez; les bonnes couftumes s'affoupiffent, le vice commance à vouloir leuer la tefte, on fait plus de degaft de boiffons, & de rafraichiffemens pendant ce temps-là, qu'en tout le refte de l'année. Ceux qui arriuent de nouueau, & qui ont leu dans la Relation, que tout procedoit [22] icy dans vn bon ordre, voyans quelques diffolutions nous condamnent aifément, & peut eftre couchent encor dans les lettres qu'ils enuoient en France l'arreft de noftre condamnation; ayans en effect quelque fuiet d'improuuer vn mal, auquel il eft affez difficile de remedier, mais quand la flotte est partie, que les visites ceffent, que l'Hyuer commance à nous rallier, qu'on prefte l'oreille à la parole de Dieu, & que ceux qui fe font emancipez, recognoiffent leurs fautes; alors ceux qui ont creu que le defordre regnoit en noftre Colonie, en louent auec ioye la pieté & la deuotion, pourueu qu'ils ne

say that we have spoken of God in his house in the Latin, French, Montagnés, and Huron tongues. But that will be taken up more in detail in the following chapters.

The ships had left us two persons of the pretended Religion. They have come over to the truth of the Catholic Church, and have publicly protested that they desired to live and die in this holy belief.

I have here a request to make, of all those who wish to express an opinion of the condition of our colony, to close their eyes while the ships are at anchor in our ports, and to open them at their departure, or shortly afterwards, to the agreeable sight of our countrymen. They wish to make merry, and they fall into excesses; their good habits grow drowsy, and vice begins to try to raise its head; there is a greater indulgence in drink and feasting during that time than in all the rest of the year. Those who have just arrived and who have read in the Relations that everything is done [22] here in an orderly way, seeing some dissoluteness, readily condemn us, and perhaps insert in the letters they write to France the sentence of our condemnation, having in fact some reason to disapprove an evil which it is difficult enough to remedy. But when the fleet has departed, when visits come to an end, when the Winter begins to rally us, how they lend ear to the word of God, and how those who have taken too much liberty recognize their shortcomings! Then those who thought that lawlessness reigned in our Colony, joyfully praise the piety and devotion thereof, provided they are not terrified and do not cry out that all is lost when they see, now and then, the misdeeds of a

s'effarent pas, & qu'ils ne crient point, que tout est perdu, pour voir les deffauts de temps en temps de quelques particuliers: car encor bien que ie louë, & que i'honore grandement nos François de la nouuelle France, ie ne nie pas, que nous n'aions des infirmes & des malades. Ie fçais qu'il y a des ames fales, qui par leurs paroles brutales fçandalifent les Sauuages; ces Barbares me difent affez fouuent, tu dis qu'il ne faut point desrober, & tes François nous ont pris telles choses; tu dis que les yurongnes iront en enfer dans les feux, vn tel fera donc damné, car il est toufiours yure. Il est certain, [23] qu'il vaudroit mieux eftre attaché à vne meule de moulin, & eftre ietté dans la mer, que de fçandalifer ces pauures infideles; & quiconque le fait rendra compte du fang de Iefus-Christ, qu'il empefche d'eftre appliqué à ces pauures ames: mais ces deffauts font de peu de perfonnes, & de gens de neant. Tous ceux qui tiennent icy quelque rang d'honneur, ne tombent point dans ces excez qui fe voilent, & fe cachent dans la nuict: car ils n'oferoient paroiftre à defcouuert. La vertu par la grace de noftre Seigneur marche icy la teste leuée, elle eft dans l'honneur & dans la gloire, le peché dans l'obscurité, & dans la confufion. Tous les principaux de noftre Colonie honorent la Religion, ie le dis auec ioye, & benediction de Dieu, ceux que fa bonté nous a donné pour commander, & ceux encor qui fe vont eftabliffant en ces contrées, gouftent, cheriffent, & veulent fuiure les maximes les plus finceres du vrai Chriftianifme. N'eft-ce pas vne chofe bien loüable d'accorder des foldats auec des artifans, des François ramaffez de diuers endroits auec des Sauuages, tenir tout en bride & dans vne profonde paix, gaigner

few individuals. For although I praise and greatly honor our French people of new France, I do not deny that we have some who are weak and diseased. I know there are loose fellows who scandalize the Savages through their brutal language. These Barbarians say to me quite often, "Thou sayest one must not steal, and yet thy French have taken from us such and such things; thou sayest drunkards will go into the fires of hell, then such and such a one will be damned, for he is always drunk." Surely [23] it would be far better to be tied to a millstone and thrown into the sea, than to scandalize these poor infidels; and whoever does it shall render an account for the blood of Jesus Christ which he prevents from being applied to these poor souls. But these are the faults of very few persons, and of those of no consequence. All those who hold an honorable position here do not fall into these excesses, which are covered and hidden by the night, for they would not dare to show themselves openly. Virtue, by the grace of our Lord, walks here with its head erect, in honor and in glory; sin, in obscurity and in confusion. All the principal personages of our Colony honor Religion; I say with joy and God's blessing, that those whom his goodness has given to command over us, and those also who are coming to establish themselves in these countries, enjoy, cherish, and wish to follow the most sincere maxims of true Christianity. Is it not a very praiseworthy thing to harmonize soldiers, and artisans, and Frenchmen, gathered from different regions, with Savages; to hold all in check and in profound peace, and to gain the affection of all? It is the skill, [24]