CHAPTER XXXV. [i.e., xxxiv.]
[303 i.e., 305] WHAT PROGRESS THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION HAS MADE IN NEW FRANCE.
NOW some one, having heard all our story, with good reason will say: "Come now, here is a great deal of labor you have told us about, several laudable enterprises, and various rough and violent accidents, but is this all the profit there is in the advancement of the worship of God? Have you run, only to thus weary yourselves? expended, only for the sake of consuming? endured suffering, only to be abused for it in France? For if Canada does not furnish any other revenue, we can tell you that no one, unless he be a fool, works simply for the sake of suffering, [304 i.e., 306] or expends only to exhaust himself. But very truly says the holy Apostle, That he who planteth hopeth to gather fruit. What fruit then do you bring us from your labors?"
A cela ie responds que par tout, & aussi bien en France, qu'en Canada, il faut semer auant que moyssonner, & planter auant que recueillir, & ne point tant estre ou auare, ou impatient, qu'on vueille, comme les vsuriers, aussi tost le profit que le prest. Combiẽ que certes au seruice de Dieu il n'y auroit que despenses, & trauaux, elles ont de soy-mesme assez grand emolument, & salaire; non ja pour estre despenses & trauaux, ains pour estre preuues, & exercices [82]de nostre deuoir, & pieuse volonté enuers nostre liberal donateur de toutes choses nostre Dieu tout-puissant. Car il [305 i.e., 307] ne poise pas, ny n'estime nos conseils, & desseins à la balance & au poids des euenements, qui sont en sa main, & ordonnance; ains à la solidité de nostre vouloir, à la massiueté de l'entreprinse, à l'integrité de la deuotion, & deliberation.
To this I answer, that everywhere, in France as well as in Canada, it is necessary to sow before reaping, and to plant before gathering, and not to be so avaricious or impatient as to wish, like usurers, the profit at the same time as the loan. How true it is that, in the service of God, there should be nothing but expense and labor, these of themselves being a great enough reward and salary; not because they are expenses and labors, but because they are proofs and exercises of our duty and pious willingness towards the liberal donor of all gifts, our all-powerful God. For he [305 i.e., 307] does not weigh nor judge our counsels and designs in the balance and by the weight of the results, which are in his hand and ordinance; but by the firmness of our desire, the greatness of the enterprise, and the honesty of our devotion and purpose.
Il dispose les euenements comme il luy plaist, les rendant souuent plus heureux, & plus fructueux, que moins on les recognoit pour tels. Car celuy, qui plante n'est rien, ny celui qui arrouse; ains celui, qui donne accroissement; lequel accroissement se fait premierement soubs terre, & hors la veüe des hommes.
He arranges events as it pleases him, often rendering them the more happy and the more fruitful, the less one recognizes them as such. For he that planteth is nothing, nor he that watereth; but he who giveth the increase; and this increase is first made under the ground, and out of the sight of men.
Quant à moy, i'estime vn tres-grand profit en ce que nous auõs tousiours mieux, & mieux descouuert le naturel de ces terres, & païs: la disposition des habitans: le moyen de les pouuoir ayder: [306 i.e., 308] les contrarietez, qui peuuent suruenir au progrez de l'œuure: & les secours, qu'il faut opposer à l'ennemy. L'architecte qui fait, & deffaict ses plans & modeles iusques à la cinq, & sixiesme fois, ne se pense pas pour cela n'auoir rien faict en son premier, & second essay, lesquels il aura deffaits pour s'arrester, au sixiesme; Parce que, dira-il, ce dernier n'a sa perfectiõ, que de l'imperfectiõ des premiers. De mesme en est-il de l'orateur, qui efface & raye deux, & trois fois ce qu'il auoit escrit de premiere ardeur, parce que la beauté, & force des concepts, & paroles, qu'il substituë pour la quatriesme fois, luy naist de la reiection, & du desplaisir des precedentes. Aussi de vray, ce n'est pas autrement, que Dieu nous donne pour l'ordinaire la prudence, & l'ameliorement des choses; sinon [307 [84]i.e., 309] par diuerses experiences, & pour la pluspart de nos fautes & de celles d'autruy. Nous auons donc vne partie de nos pretensions, nous auons experimenté: nous sçauõs ce qu'il faut, & ce qui nuit: & où gist le poinct principal de l'affaire. Les moyens, qu'on a employé n'ont point esté si grands, ne si proportionnez à plus haute fin, qu'il faille nous beaucoup mescõtenter de ce que Dieu nous dõne.
For my part, I consider it a great advantage that we have learned more and more about the nature of these territories and lands, the character of the inhabitants, the means of helping them, [306 i.e., 308] the obstacles which are liable to arise against the progress of the work, and the help that must be given to oppose the enemy. The architect who makes and unmakes his plans and models even to the fifth and sixth time, does not think, for all that, that he has not accomplished anything in his first and second trials, which he has destroyed to stop at the sixth; for he will say that the perfection of the last, lies only in the imperfections of the first. It is thus also with the orator, who erases and scratches out twice and three times what he has written in his first enthusiasm, because the beauty and force of the ideas and words, which he substitutes for the fourth time, come to him from his rejection of, and dissatisfaction with, the preceding ones. So, in truth, it is not otherwise that God usually gives us prudence and the better management of things, only [307 i.e., 309] through various experiences, and for the most part through our own faults and those of others. We have done, then, a part of what we intended to do; we have experimented, we know what is necessary and what is harmful, and wherein lies the principal part of the work. The means which have been employed have not been so great, nor so proportioned to a higher purpose, that we should be greatly dissatisfied with what God gives us.
Mais encores d'autre costé c'est vn grand fruict, que la confiance & amitié que les Sauuages ont prinse auecques les François, par la grande familiarité, & hantise, qu'ils ont eu auec eux. Car tousiours faut-il mettre ceste base auant que d'esleuer le chapiteau; sçauoir est, de les nous rendre ou citoyens, ou bons hostes, & amis auant que de les auoir pour freres. Or ceste confiance, & ceste [308 i.e., 310] priuauté est ja si grande, que nous viuons entr'eux auec moins de crainte, que nous ne ferions dans Paris. Car dans Paris nous n'oserions dormir, que la porte bien verrouïllée; mais là nous ne la fermons que contre le vent, & si n'en dormons pas pour cela moins asseurez. Au commencement ils nous fuyoiẽt, & craignoyent: ores ils nous desirẽt. A nostre premiere descente, & visite de S. Sauueur, nous fismes semblant, que la place ne nous agreoyt pas, & que voulions aller autrepart, ces bonnes gents du lieu en pleuroyent, & lamentoyent. Au contraire, le Sagamo de Kadesquit, appellé Betsabes, s'en vint pour nous y attirer auec mille promesses, ayant ouy que nous pretendiõs de nous y aller loger. Est-ce peu que d'auoir ce si bon fondement de Iustice en nos peuplades, & ce tant [309 i.e., 311] asseuré gage de bon succez? Et ne faut point estimer que les autres Nations ayent porté ceste amitié aussi bien que nous. [86] Car nous sommes tesmoins oculaires, comme lesdicts Sauuages ayants rencontré vn auantage (à leur aduis) contre les Anglois, se ruerent sur eux furieusement, pensants comme ie croy tirer quelque reuenche de l'iniure, qui nous auoit esté faicte: mais le bon-heur ne les seconda pas en leur attaque. Pareillement, sur la fin de l'an 1611. les Holandois voulans seulement descendre au Cap de la Heue, pour y faire aiguade, nos Sauuages les assaillirent brusquement, & en defirent six, entre lesquels estoit le Capitaine du nauire. Il me semble, que nous serons indignes de ceste bienvueillance, si nous ne faisons, qu'elle leur profite à aymer celuy, de qui nous [310 i.e., 312] receuons tous nos biens.
But yet, on the other hand, it is a great result that the French have won the confidence and friendliness of the Savages, through the great familiarity and frequent intercourse which they have had with them. For the foundation must always be laid before raising the capital; that is, we must make them citizens, or good hosts and friends, before making them brothers. Now this confidence and this [308 i.e., 310] intimacy is already so great that we live among them with less fear than we would in Paris. For in Paris we can not sleep without having the doors well bolted; but there we close them against the wind only, and sleep no less securely for keeping them open. At first they fled from us, and feared us; now they wish us with them. When we first disembarked and visited St. Sauveur, and pretended that we did not like the place, and that we thought of going elsewhere, these simple natives wept and lamented. On the other hand, the Sagamore of Kadesquit, called "Betsabes,"[8] came to persuade us, with a thousand promises, to go to his place, having heard that we had some intention of making a settlement there. Is it a small thing to have such a foundation of Justice in our colonies, and this so [309 i.e., 311] sure pledge of great success? And we must not conclude that other nations have borne this friendship as well as we, for we are eyewitnesses to the fact that these Savages, having (as they supposed,) some advantage over the English, threw themselves upon them with fury, thinking, I believe, to get revenge for the injury that had been done us; but they were not successful in their attack. Likewise, towards the end of the year 1611, the Hollanders merely wishing to land at Cap de la Heve to take in some fresh water, our Savages assailed them fiercely, and made away with six of them, among whom was the Captain of the ship. It seems to me that we will be unworthy of this friendliness, if we do not so act that it may avail them in learning to love him, from whom we [310 i.e., 312] receive all our blessings.
Outre plus, quoy que les Iesuites n'ayent pas baptisé communement les adultes pour les raisons cy-deuant deduites: si les ont-ils catechisé tant qu'ils ont peu, & par les yeux, & par les oreilles. Par les yeux, dy-ie, leur faisant voir nos vs & ceremonies, & les y accoustumants. En nos Processions nous faisiõs aller les petits enfans au deuãt de la Croix, & faire quelque seruice, comme de porter les luminaires, ou autres choses; & tant eux que leurs peres y prenoyent du plaisir, comme s'ils eussent esté vrayement Chrestiens. Dieu mercy cela est ja communement gaigné, qu'ils ne veulent point mourir sans baptesme, se croyans estre miserables à iamais, s'ils trespassent sans iceluy, ou du moins, sans vne forte volonté d'iceluy, & sans douleur de leurs pechez.
Furthermore, although the Jesuits have not usually baptized adults, for the reasons heretofore stated, yet they have catechized them as well as they could, both through the eyes and the ears. Through the eyes, I say, making them see our usages and ceremonies and accustoming them thereto. In our Processions we had the little children march before the Cross, and perform some service, such as carrying the lights, or other things; and both they and their fathers take pleasure in this, as if they were really Christians. Thank God this much has already been accomplished, that they do not wish to die without baptism, believing that they will be forever miserable, if they pass away without it, or at least a strong desire for it, and without sorrow for their sins.
[311 i.e., 313] Le Patriarche Flesche (comme a esté dit) en auoit baptisé peut estre quatre vingts, les Iesuites seulemẽt vne vingtaine, & iceux petits enfans, [88]hormis trois, qui ont esté baptisés en extreme necessité de maladie, & sont allés iouïr de la vie bien-heureuse, apres auoir esté regenerés à icelle, comme aussi aucũs des petits enfans. Nous auions composé nostre Catechisme en Sauuageois, & commencions aucunement à pouuoir iargonner auec nos Catechumenes. Nous dressions vne nouuelle peuplade fort commode: c'estoit nostre Automne, nostre temps des fruicts: & voila que sur ce poinct l'enuieux de tout bien, & specialement, du salut humain est venu de malice à mettre le feu à nos trauaux, & nous emporter hors du champ. Le victorieux Iesus de sa puissante main: & inuincible [312 i.e., 314] sapience le confonde. Ainsi soit-il.
[311 i.e., 313] The Patriarch Flesche (as has been said) baptized perhaps eighty of them, the Jesuits only about twenty, and these were little children, except three, who were baptized in the last extremity of sickness, and thence have gone to enjoy a life of bliss, after having been born again in this life; as have also some of the little children. We had composed our Catechism in the Savage language, and had begun to be able to talk some kind of a jargon with our Catechumens. We were founding a new and very pleasant colony, it was our Autumn, our time of harvest. And lo, at this moment, the one who is jealous of all good, and particularly of human salvation, came and, wickedly setting fire to all our work, bore us away from the field. May the victorious Jesus, with his powerful hand, and invincible [312 i.e., 314] wisdom, confound him. Amen.