Here, then, closes this wild and bloody act of the great drama of New France; and now let the curtain fall, while we ponder its meaning.
The cause of the failure of the Jesuits is obvious. The guns and tomahawks of the Iroquois were the ruin of their hopes. Could they have curbed or converted those ferocious bands, it is little less than certain that their dream would have become a reality. Savages tamed—not civilized, for that was scarcely possible—would have been distributed in communities through the valleys of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi, ruled by priests in the interest of Catholicity and of France. Their habits of agriculture would have been developed, and their instincts of mutual slaughter repressed. The swift decline of the Indian population would have been arrested; and it would have been made, through the fur-trade, a source of prosperity to New France. Unmolested by Indian enemies, and fed by a rich commerce, she would have put forth a vigorous growth. True to her far-reaching and adventurous genius, she would have occupied the West with traders, settlers, and garrisons, and cut up the virgin wilderness into fiefs, while as yet the colonies of England were but a weak and broken line along the shore of the Atlantic; and when at last the great conflict came, England and Liberty would have been confronted, not by a depleted antagonist, still feeble from the exhaustion of a starved and persecuted infancy, but by an athletic champion of the principles of Richelieu and of Loyola.
Liberty may thank the Iroquois, that, by their insensate fury, the plans of her adversary were brought to nought, and a peril and a woe averted from her future. They ruined the trade which was the life-blood of New France; they stopped the current of her arteries, and made all her early years a misery and a terror. Not that they changed her destinies. The contest on this continent between Liberty and Absolutism was never doubtful; but the triumph of the one would have been dearly bought, and the downfall of the other incomplete. Populations formed in the ideas and habits of a feudal monarchy, and controlled by a hierarchy profoundly hostile to freedom of thought, would have remained a hindrance and a stumbling-block in the way of that majestic experiment of which America is the field.
The Jesuits saw their hopes struck down; and their faith, though not shaken, was sorely tried. The Providence of God seemed in their eyes dark and inexplicable; but, from the stand-point of Liberty, that Providence is clear as the sun at noon. Meanwhile let those who have prevailed yield due honor to the defeated. Their virtues shine amidst the rubbish of error, like diamonds and gold in the gravel of the torrent.
But now new scenes succeed, and other actors enter on the stage, a hardy and valiant band, moulded to endure and dare,—the Discoverers of the Great West.
[INDEX]
The Roman Numerals refer to the introduction.
A.
Abenaquis, where found, [xxii]; ask for a missionary, [321].
Abraham, Plains of, whence the name, [335] note.
Adoption of prisoners as members of the tribe, [lxvi], [223], [309], [424], [444].
Adventures and sufferings of an Algonquin woman, [309]-[313]; of another, [313]-[316].
Agnier, a name for the Mohawks, [xlviii] note.
Aiguillon, Duchess d', founds a Hôtel-Dieu at Quebec, [181].
Albany, formerly Rensselaerswyck, its condition in 1643, [229].
Algonquins, a comprehensive term, [xx]; regions occupied by them in 1535, [xx]; the designation, how applied, ib. note; found in New England, [xxi]; their relation to the Iroquois, [xxi]; numbers, ib.; Algonquin missions, [368].
Allumette Island, [xxiv], [45]; its true position, [46].
Amikouas, or People of the Beaver, [lxviii] note; supposed descent from that animal, ib.
Amusements of the Indians, [xxxvi]; the Jesuits require them to be abandoned, [136].
Andacwandet, a strange method of cure, [xlii].
Andastes, where found in the early times, [xx], [xlvi]; fierce warriors, [xlvi]; identical with the Susquehannocks, ib. note; their aid sought by the Hurons, [341]; the result unsatisfactory, [344] seq.; war with the Mohawks, [441]; assisted by the Swedes from Delaware River, [442]; repulse an attack of the Iroquois, ib.; a party of Andaste boys defeat the Senecas and Cayugas, [443]; finally subdued by the Senecas, ib.
Aquanuscioni, or Iroquois, [xlviii] note.
Areskoui, the god of war, [lxxvii]; human sacrifices offered to him, ib.; a captive Iroquois sacrificed to him, [81].
Armouchiquois, a name applied to the Algonquins of New England, [xxi]; a strange account of them given by Champlain, [xxii] note.
Arts of life, as practised by the Hurons, [xxxi].
Assistaeronnons, or Nation of Fire. See Nation of Fire.
Ataentsic, a malignant deity; the moon, [lxxvi].
Atahocan, a dim conception of the Supreme Being, [lxxiv].
Atotarho of the Onondagas, [liv], [lvii].
Attendants of the Jesuits, [112] note, [132]. See Donnés.
Atticamegues, [xxiii], [286], [293]; attacked by the Iroquois, [420].
Attigouantans. See Hurons.
Attiwandarons, or Neutral Nation, why so called, [xliv]; their country, ib.; ferocious and cruel, [xlv]; licentious, ib.; their treatment of the dead, ib. See Neutral Nation.