“ I learn that some one, blessed of heaven, thinks of founding a Seminary for young Hurons. Oh, holy thought! it is from these young plants that one is to expect good fruits. God be forever blessed for the care he takes of this new Colony, favoring it with the aid of persons who cherish these poor barbarians far more than they have ever loved themselves. ”

“ If the men of the world, in order to have Beaver skins, and codfish, and I know not what commodities, do not fear either the storms on the sea, or the Savages on land, or the sea, or death; how dreadful will be the confusion of God's servants for being afraid of these things, or of a few little hardships, in trying to win souls ransomed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, and empurpled by his blood of inestimable value? ”

“ And is there not great reason to blush for many Christian Nations, among whom one does not have to serve a long apprenticeship to their Grammar, to find oneself embarrassed and confused in company, if he has even a little regard for propriety? And if our ears are not yet sufficiently opened to give positive evidence of the unconcern or decency of their talk; are we blind, or are we incapable of recognizing a shameful gesture or action? ”

“ God, to see in this country delicate Maidens and little children of tenderest age come forth from a prison of wood, as the day comes forth from the darkness of night,—and enjoying, after all, as perfect health, notwithstanding the many hardships to which one is subjected in these floating habitations, as if they had been driving on the street in a carriage. ”

“ I had to find new men, to unload our slender baggage, to decide who should embark and who should remain, to choose among our packages those we were to carry, and to give orders as to the rest,—and all this in less than half an hour, when we would have needed entire days. Nevertheless, recognizing clearly that our embarkment was a decisive stroke for Heaven, we thought it necessary to put forth our utmost energies to resist the efforts of the common enemy of man's salvation, who, we doubted not, was mixed up in this matter. ”

“ One sees here old men, of eighty and a hundred years, who have hardly a gray hair. As to their intelligence, if we may 161 judge from their conduct and from their way of dealing with the French, they are not at a great disadvantage. You do not see in their gestures and bearing any foolishness or nonsense, but rather a certain gravity and natural modesty, which makes them agreeable. They are indeed so clever that, in order to disguise their language, they add to every word a syllable, which only serves to confuse the minds of those by whom they do not wish to be understood. ”

“ If delicate and refined women, actuated by we know not what interests, say some of them, have cast themselves bravely into the hazards of the deep, shall our hearts fail at the sight of the same dangers, since we do not claim to cross over into this land of Barbarism, except to honor and bless the God of the sea? ”

“ Perhaps we shall discover something more, when we become better versed in it; for it is not credible that the light of nature should be altogether extinct in them in this regard, when it is not in other more barbarous Nations, or that they never talk among themselves of that of which they cannot be entirely ignorant. For all that, we have not up to the present noticed any more Religion among these poor Savages than among brutes. ”

“ Mais nous leur dismes tout doucement; Souuenez vous, Messieurs, que Dieu est plus puissant pour nous defendre, que Lucifer pour nous persecuter: Que la mer s'esleue tant qu'elle voudra, si faut-il que Dieu soit le Maistre. ”

“ What we do for the Colony of New France may indeed be commendable, by reason of our zeal in the service of God, and our desire to aid our fellow-men; but to have therein the sympathy and the help of those who are experienced Masters in these virtues is to be rewarded from the beginning, and to receive one's full remuneration for the work of the first hours of the day. The gratitude which you express to us, is worthy of much more than all that we have done; but it would suit well what we desire to do when God shall have given us the grace to perform it. ”

“ But we must hope that, when they come to recognize the obligations they are under, together with all the Nations of the earth, to a God who made himself man for them, they will willingly submit to his most holy Laws, especially in that which concerns a virtue by means of which he wishes us to bear witness to and glorify without ceasing, in our bodies, him who for us has delivered his own up to torture, and who gives it to us every day as food, for this sole purpose. ”

“ They say that this Eataentsic fell from the Sky, where there are inhabitants as on earth; and, when she fell, she was with child. If you ask them who made the Sky and its inhabitants, they have no other reply than that they know nothing about it. And when we preach to them of one God, Creator of Heaven and earth, and of all things, and even when we talk to them of Hell and Paradise and of our other mysteries, the headstrong savages reply that this is good for our Country and not for theirs; that every Country has its own fashions. ”

“ We fear nothing so much as that our imperfections may prevent the conversion of these poor Savages; that is why we have all been minded to have recourse to Heaven and to the very holy Virgin, Mother of God, through whom God is accustomed to do what seems impossible, and to convert the hearts of the most abandoned. ”

“ But it belongs to God alone to choose those whom he will use, and whom he favors by taking them into New France, to make saints of them. Saint François Xavier said that there was an Island in the Orient which was quite capable of making a person lose his sight, by crying from excessive joy of the heart; I know not if our New France resembles this Island, but we know from experience that, if any one here gives himself up in earnest to God, he runs the risk of losing his sight, his life, his all, and with great joy, by dint of hard work ”

“ Add to this, if you please, that there is a multitude of workmen in France, who, for lack of employment or of owning a little land, pass their lives in poverty and wretched want. Many of them beg their bread from door to door; some of them resort to stealing and public brigandage, others to larceny and secret frauds, each one trying to obtain for himself what many cannot possess. Now as New France is so immense, so many inhabitants can be sent here that those who remain in the Mother Country will have enough honest work left them to do, without launching into those vices which ruin Republics ”

“ There are, besides, only superstitions, which we hope by the grace of God to change into true Religion, and, like spoils carried off from the enemy, to consecrate them to the honor of our Lord, and to profit by them for their special advantage. ”

“ There are no difficulties which daunt us; and, although the weakness and infirmity of our sex [22] is great, our Lord so powerfully fortifies and enhances our courage, that we are emboldened to say with saint Paul, we can do all in him who strengtheneth us; neither the sea nor tempests have horrors enough to frighten hearts which live and throb only for him who has given his own to redeem them, and who desire nothing so much as to be able to give theirs for his love and for the salvation of the Savages. ”

“ I sought last year a brave soul who might plant the great standard of charity in these lands; the mighty God of bounties has provided one. I learn that Madame de Combalet wishes to put her hand to the work, and found a Hospital in New France.62 See how it has pleased her to inform me of it: God having given me the desire to aid in the salvation of the poor Savages, it has seemed to me, after reading the Account which you have written of it, that what you consider can best serve for their conversion is the establishment in New France of Hospital Nuns. ”

“ I know, indeed, that the greater part of the Montagnais who were at the three Rivers when we embarked were sick, and that many of them died; and also that almost no one who returned by canoe from trading, was not afflicted with this contagion. It has been so universal among the Savages of our acquaintance that I do not know if one has escaped its attacks. All these poor people have been much inconvenienced by it, particularly during the Autumn, as much in their fishing as in their harvesting. Many crops are lying beneath the 89 snow; a large number of persons are dead ”

“ Besides, they endure hunger much better than we,—so well that after having fasted two or three entire days you will see them still paddling, carrying loads, singing, laughing, bantering, as if they had dined well. They are very lazy, are liars, thieves, pertinacious beggars. ”

“ Besides, if these Countries are peopled by our French, not only will this weaken the strength of the Foreigner,—who holds in his ships, in his towns, and in his armies, a great many of our Countrymen as hostages,—not only will it banish famine from the houses of a multitude of poor workman, but it will also strengthen France; for those who will be born in New France, will be French, and in case of need can render good service to their King,—a thing which cannot be expected from those who dwell 13 among our neighbors and outside the dominion of their Prince. ”

“ We began to distribute our baggage, and made presents to each one, to encourage them; and on the morrow, the seventh of the month, Monsieur du Plessis Bochard gave them still others, on the single consideration that they would embark us, and feasted all of them at a great feast of three large kettles. But the contagion 73 which spread among all these Tribes last year, with great destruction, having suddenly seized several of our Savages, and filled the rest with fear, again threw us into confusion, and put us to great trouble, seeing that we had to set out immediately. ”

“ Remember, Sirs, that God is more powerful to defend us, than Lucifer is to persecute us; that the sea may rise as high as it will, yet God must be its Master. Mirabiles elationes maris, mirabilis in altis Dominus. ”

“ Verily there is nothing so powerful as this device to win these poor Barbarians, nay, even to fill among them the seminaries for boys and girls. Our Lord be blessed, through time and through eternity. ”

“ What they do lack is the knowledge of God and of the service that they ought to render to him, as also of the state of the soul after death; it is wonderful that we have not yet been able to discover any trace of this knowledge in what we know of their language. ”

“ Their superstitions are infinite; their feasts, their medicines, their fishing, their hunting, their wars,—in short, almost their whole life turns upon this pivot; dreams, above all, have here great credit. ”

“ Such deeds go beyond her range, and yet they are the deeds and language of a thousand persons of merit, who are devoting themselves to the affairs of New France with as much and more of courage than they would give to their own in the Old. ”

“ It is true that these desires to live and to die in the Cross of Jesus are in keeping with their profession; but it is a thing much more astonishing to see men who are engaged, because of their great abilities, in the highest spheres of the affairs of the world, take their recreation in working for New France, so dearly do they love her. ”

“ There will be seen a notable change when the general Company shall enter into the complete [15] administration of affairs,—the determination being to disregard all gain, in order to better the condition of the country and to send over a large number of French people, without the Associates receiving for a long time any of the profit which shall accrue from New France. See how a disinterested man speaks of it! The inclinations of nature do not incite us to transfer to a barbarous land the advantages which we can enjoy in a well-governed Realm. ”

“ Les François seront-ils seuls entre toutes les Nations de la terre, priuez de l'honneur de se dilater, & de se respandre dans ce Nouueau Monde. La France beaucoup plus peuplée, que tous les autres Royaumes, n'aura des Habitans que pour soy? ou bien si ses enfans la quittent, s'en vont qui de-çà, qui de-là perdre le nom de François chez l'Estranger.
Shall the French, alone of all the Nations of the earth, be deprived of the honor of expanding and spreading over this New World? Shall France, much more populous than all the other Kingdoms, have Inhabitants only for itself? ”

“ It is on such dispositions and foundations that we hope, with the grace of God, to build the edifice of the Christian Religion among these people, who, besides, are already affectionately inclined toward us and have a great opinion of us. ”

“ It is so clear, so evident that there is a Divinity who has made Heaven and earth, that our Hurons cannot entirely ignore it. And although the eyes of their minds are very much obscured by the darkness of a long ignorance, by their vices and sins, they still see something of it. But they misapprehend him grossly, and, having the knowledge of God, they do not render him the honor, the love, nor the service which is his due. For they have neither Temples, nor Priests, nor Feasts, nor any ceremonies.
Ils disent qu'vne certaine femme nommée Eataentsic, est celle qui a fait la terre & les hommes. ”

“ They very willingly make the sign of the Cross, as they see us make it, raising their hands and eyes to Heaven and pronouncing the words, "Jesus, Mary," as we do,—so far that, having observed the honor we render to the Cross, these poor people paint it on their faces, chests, arms, and legs, without being asked to do so. ”