SETTLEMENTS AND MISSIONS OF THE SOCIETY IN NEW FRANCE.
AND that the Lord is with his servants and soldiers, the outcome has proved. For, in the beginning of this year 1703, while we are writing these things, there are numbered in this formerly solitary and unexplored country more than thirty very prosperous and well-equipped Missions of our Society, besides the college of Quebec. The first of these, in sight of Quebec, at the tenth mile-stone from the city, is called Lorette. Another is situated in the district of Tadoussac, on the shore of the river St. Lawrence, sixty leagues below Quebec toward the east. Three others, above Quebec itself, extend far into the North about lake St. John; one in that place which takes its name from the seven islands;[49] another in the district of Chigoutimini;[50] the third on the Saguenay river. There they minister to the Montagnais, the Papinachois, the Mistassins, and other wandering tribes. Now, if you journey towards the regions of the setting sun, and the source of the St. Lawrence river, you will find upon its northern bank a district called Three rivers, because there three rivers flow together: it is distant from Quebec seven or eight days' journey. Here, there formerly flourished the most successful Mission of the Algonquins; but it has been much weakened through the drunkenness induced by brandy, brought in by European merchants who thus wickedly derive an easy profit. But these losses are compensated by the virtue and piety of the Abenakis. Among them a mission of three stations has been established; one located among them, not far from Quebec, on the forty-sixth parallel of latitude, distinguished by the name and patronage of St. Francis de Sales: the other two are more remote, at a place named Nipisikouit. Across the St. Lawrence river, to the South, extend the five nations of the Iroquois. There are among them seven stations of the Evangelists, scattered through a hundred and fifty leagues. Of these, six were destroyed in the war which arose between the French and Iroquois, about the year 1682. Peace, together with the recall of the missionaries, in the year 1702 restored all things to their previous condition.[51] Among these Missions of the Iroquois, that one is especially flourishing which is named for St. Francis Xavier, at Montreal.[52]
Above the Iroquois, toward the west and North, between the fortieth and forty-fifth parallels, one may see two great lakes joined by a narrow strait; the larger one is called the lake of the Ilinois,[53] the other the lake of the Hurons.[54] These are separated by a large peninsula, at the point of which is situated the Mission of St. Ignatius, or Missilimakinac.[55] Above these two lakes there is a third, greater than either, called lake superior. At the entrance of this lake has been established the Mission of Ste. Marie at the Sault.[56] The space between this and two smaller lakes is occupied by the Outaouaki, among whom the Society has many stations. Three such citadels of religion (for thus it is proper to call the Missions), whence she leads forth her soldiers and unfurls her sacred standards, have been located about the lake of the Ilinois: the first, among the Puteatamis, and called the Mission of St. Joseph; another, among the Kikarous, Maskoutens, and Outagamies, and possessing the name of St. Francis Xavier:[57] the third, among the Oumiamis,[58] has the name of the Guardian Angel. Below the lakes which have been mentioned, above Florida, the Ilinois roam through most extensive territories. There, a very large station, named from the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mother, is divided into three Missions, and extends as far as the river Mississippi. Upon the banks of the same river is situated the mission of Baiogula, at the thirty-first parallel of latitude;[59] and it extends down that stream towards the gulf of Mexico. It has seemed best to explain these matters somewhat fully, because the individual facts here specified will be referred to in what is to be hereafter narrated concerning New France.
There remains unknown to Europeans, up to the present time, an immense portion of Canada, beyond the Mississippi river, situated beneath a milder sky, well-inhabited, and abounding in animal and vegetable life; the whole, deprived of true life and of salvation. This region calls to the generous soldiers of Christ. So is it, likewise, [324] with another region far dissimilar to that, around the frozen Hudson bay, from the fifty-fifth parallel to the sixtieth or seventieth; lying at the north, plunged in snows and frosts, it even more justly implores aid, as it is afflicted by more weighty ills. Here the Society, a few years ago, first began to plant its footsteps. That day will dawn, I hope, when it shall break through the barriers of dangers and toils. Not without great exertion are the gates of Tartarus, which hold burdened souls in unmerited bondage, broken down; nor did the Canadian Mission itself, now flourishing with so many settlements, all at once attain its full development. Grievously, through sixteen years did it, so to speak, stick in a rough road; indeed, it did not take shape until 1625, when it was extricated from its perplexities by the aid of Father Peter Coton, to whom it owed its origin, as the sixth Part of this History will more fully explain.
Now we return to the natal days, full of hardships and dangers, of the toilsome Mission, which, scarcely born, was almost exterminated in its cradle by the English.