Preface.
THE Reverend Father Charles Lallemant, who wrote the following Letter, entered the Society of Jesus at the age of twenty years. In 1613, he accompanied M. de la Saussaye to Pentagoüet.[44] Argal took possession of this settlement, and Father Lallemant returned to France, whence he departed for Canada in 1625. This was the first time that the Jesuit Fathers had entered that Country. Several years later, he was sent with Father Philibert Noyrot, Agent for the Mission, to France, to seek aid for the Colony; and, having secured the means to load a ship with supplies, they embarked upon it toward the end of July, 1629. The ship was wrecked upon the Acadian coast; and it is this shipwreck and other subsequent events that the present letter describes. [O'Callaghan.]