STEPHEN DE CARHEIL.

WHO has ever heard of Father de Carheil? It would Ꮤ not be rash to answer: very few. Even his biog

rapher, Father Orhand, calls him "the unknown," but he designates him at the same time as "the admirable unknown." De Rochemonteix does not hesitate to describe him as "the most illustrious missionary in the five Iroquois cantons." When one thinks of Jogues, Bressani, Chaumonot, Le Moyne, Ménard and others who were in the Mohawk Valley before him, such a tribute seems like an exaggeration. Like St. James in Spain, de Carheil was illustrious by his failure.

He was a Breton nobleman, and possessed in a marked degree the characteristics of his race. "A little hard," says Dablon, “like the granite of his own Brittany; as an Apostle he was overzealous."

Of course this was not said in depreciation of his worth, for the same writer informed the Provincial that "Fr. de Carheil was a holy man whose apostolic zeal finds that the savages do not correspond to the care he lavishes on them. But possibly he expects too much virtue at the start. At all events, if he does not sanctify the Indians, they are sanctifying him." "We expect great things from this father," Le Mercier wrote to the General of the Society, “because of the rare gifts he has received from God; notably a remarkable grace of prayer, an unusual contempt of everything that does not lead to God, and an incredible zeal in bringing souls to Christ."

The Venerable Mary of the Incarnation, who was a great authority in those days and who still retains her hold in Canada, grows enthusiastic in one of her many letters over "this young man of thirty-five or thereabouts, who is as fervent as possible, and already a great adept in the Iroquois

dialects." Finally the Archives of the Society record "his great linguistic powers, his theological knowledge, and note also his unusual tenacity of purpose which is guided by profound experience."

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Michelet and Voltaire used to say that the Jesuits set their stupids" one side and trained them to be missionaries so that the savages could cook and eat them." That certainly was not true of de Carheil. Had he remained in France he would have rivalled Vavasseur, Commire, Jouvency, and La Rue. He was an eminent litterateur, a remarkable philologist, a poet, an orator, a thinker and a writer. His powers as a linguist made him master Huron and Cayuga with extraordinary rapidity, and he has left works in both those languages which are still extant, and held in the highest esteem. The seeker will find them in Carayon's Documents Inedits.

His style as a writer is revealed in a letter published by Rochemonteix. It is dated December 3, 1664, and is addressed to the Father General. It is worth quoting, especially in its original Latin:

Reverende Adm. in Xo Pater, P. C.:

Qui dies magno Indiarum apostolo, S. Fr. Xaverio sacer est, is me admonet, ut R. A. Ptem Vestram quam possum vehementissime obtester per amorem Dei Domini Jesu crucifixi, ecclesiae, Societatis, animarum inter barbaros pereuntium, audebo etiam dicere per amorem paternum mei, ut mittat me aliquando ad exteras missiones, praesertim Japonicam, Sinicam, Syriacam, Canadensem; sin minus, in eas omnes, in quas commodum videbitur ad majorem Dei gloriam, sed omnino in aliquam mittat; idque obsecro, quam fieri celerrime poterit, certe ut tardissime, post theologiam, cujus tertium jam annum ingredior. Neque enim vocantem Deum jam ferre amplius possum qui me dies noctesque stimulat ut aliquando proficiscar."

The General must have smiled at this very imperatively submissive letter which says in a way that would not be

stopped that "the day sacred to St. Francis Xavier, the great apostle of the Indies, warns me to most vehemently entreat Your Paternity, for the love of God, of Jesus crucified, of the Church, of the Society, of the souls perishing in savage lands, to send me to the foreign missions, Japan, China, Syria, or Canada . And I ask that it be done as quickly as possible; certainly, at the latest after my theology, the third year of which I now begin. I cannot stand any longer the call of God which urges me day and night to go."

In spite of all this, he was not allowed to leave France. He was an orator of such exceptional power that much was expected of him in the pulpit, and it was only after two years that, yielding to what Father Oliva called "his incensissimus zelus," which was irresistible, and which had been exerting itself in persistent appeals for eight years, permission was granted, and de Carheil set off post haste for Canada May 12, 1666. He had to stay two years in Quebec, and it was not until 1668 that he entered New York.

He began his work among the Indians as soon as the opportunity presented itself. He appears to have left Quebec in company with Garagontié, who was assiduous in his efforts to obtain missionaries, and who, though an Onondaga himself, persuaded the Cayugas to build a chapel. Thither de Carheil betook himself.

Geographically Cayuga was most attractive, but unfortunately it was peopled by drunken and blood-thirsty savages who were constantly at war with each other or with the French and English, and whose evil propensities were quickened by the liquor which was poured into their country by the Dutch and English. De Carheil found there all the opportunity he wanted for the exercise of his zeal and the practice of sublime virtues. He wandered from wigwam to wigwam, only to be driven out with insults and blows, or trudged weary and hungry after his wild people on their hunting or predatory excursions, often seeing the

tomahawk or knife of some angry savage above his head. "We are perpetual victims here," he wrote, "and in hourly peril of being massacred."

These perils and hardships, however, only developed a marvellous patience in this strong, impetuous, and imperious man. Indeed, he was regarded by his brethren as a model of patience and perseverence, so persistent was his pursuit of the souls of those wretched people. But after five years, he broke down and became a shattered, nervous wreck. Unable to recover his strength by earthly means, he betook himself to the shrines of St. Anne de Beaupré, and of Our Lady of Foy, both of which were even in those days places of pious pilgrimage. He was thus New York's first pilgrim to St. Anne's. His prayers were answered and he returned to his post for another eight years of almost hopeless endeavor; insisting upon resuming his work amid the disappointments of his old mission, although Father Raffeix, who had temporarily replaced him, would have gladly held the difficult place. De Carheil was a grateful soul, for we are told that medals of St. Anne are still dug up at Cayuga. He evidently taught that devotion to his neophytes.

It was not so much the personal privations incident to his work as its apparent hopelessness that constituted his trial. The Relations tell us very frankly that "for nine consecutive years after de Carheil came to Cayuga, 350 baptisms were all that his heroism could put to his credit. Of these, many were children who died soon after their regeneration, or Huron captives who had felt the influence of Christianity elsewhere." As for the New York Iroquois, they were, at that time at least, impossible to reach. Humiliating as the confession is, it furnishes an answer to the frequently repeated calumny that these early Jesuits baptized their Indians indiscriminately. The very reverse is the case, and only after years of trial would they permit an adult savage to call himself a Christian.

In spite of the appalling contrast between the energy expended and the results achieved, he and his associates kept at their self-imposed task, fighting, as it were, in the dark. Still, the outlook was not altogether without an occasional gleam of hope. There were brilliant examples of Christian virtue, chiefly among the most conspicuous Indians. Over such men de Carheil seems to have exerted an exceptional power.

Into his cabin one day there strode a Cayuga chief. He was no other than the famous Saonchiowonga, who eight years before had appeared at the stockade of Montreal and demanded that the missionaries should renew their attempt to evangelize the tribes. To satisfy him, Le Moyne had gone for the fifth time among the Iroquois. What did Saonchiowonga mean by his abrupt entrance into the missionary's house? He was going to live there, not to dispossess its owner, but to observe him at close quarters and to see if his practice agreed with his preaching. After considerable time he expressed himself satisfied and asked for baptism. Knowing the wily Indian nature, de Carheil still hesitated, but at last consent was given. Saonchiowonga, however, was no ordinary man, and, as in the case of Garagontié, his baptism had to be made an event in the history of the tribe. He was sent to Quebec. Bishop Laval, who had just taken possession of his See, invested the ceremonies with unusual magnificence; the Intendant Talon stood godfather to the neophyte; the crowds of Indians who had come to witness the spectacle were treated with the greatest consideration, and a bounteous feast was spread for them at the expense of the city. Saonchiowonga returned to Cayuga, and by his blameless life and the instructions he gave his people kept up the drooping spirits of the missionaries.

Father de Carheil's difficulties in Cayuga increased as time went on. Drunkenness prevailed there, as at Onondaga, and the scenes enacted in the villages were indescribable. Men would chew off each other's noses and ears