CONTENTS OF VOL. XIV

PREFACE TO VOLUME XIV

DOCUMENTS:-

XXIX.

Relation de ce qui s'est passé en la

Novvelle France, en l'année 1637.

[Second installment of Part II., com-

pleting the document.] François

Joseph le Mercier; Ihonatiria, June 21,

1637

XXX. Relation de ce qvi s'est passé en la

Novvelle France, en l'année 1638.

[First installment, being Part I. of

the document.] Paul le Jeune; Three

Rivers, August 25, 1638

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA: VOLUME XIV

NOTES

5

. 113

. 281

. 285

IHS

1

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ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOL. XIV

I. Photographic facsimile of Du Quen's hand-
writing, selected from his copy of Chev-
alier de Sillery's donation to the Jesuits,
dated Paris, Feb. 22, 1639
Frontispiece

II. Photographic facsimile of title-page, Le

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PREFACE TO VOL. XIV

The greater part of Le Mercier's (Huron) contribution to the Relation of 1637 (Document XXIX.) was presented in our Vol. XIII. We now give the remainder of the Huron report, which thus closes the entire document.

Le Mercier continues his record of missionary labors among the plague-stricken Hurons, — nursing the sick, consoling the afflicted, and baptizing dying children and those adults who at the point of death turned to this rite as a protection from the fires of hell. In the intervals of these labors, the Fathers learn what they can of the native language, “all the secret of which," says the author, "consists in the conjugations of verbs." In this they are greatly aided by "some catechisms prepared for them last year by Louis de Sainte-Foy, upon the mysteries of the life, death, and passion of Our Lord."

In March, the missionaries submit to some of the clans certain questions-whether they are ready to believe in and accept the faith; whether they are willing that some of the Frenchmen should become allied to them by marriage; and if there is any probability of the reunion of the natives hereabout to those of the Bear clan, from whom they had become estranged. The second of these queries is readily answered in the affirmative; but they hesitate as to the others.