* On the Onondaga mission, the authorities are Marie de
l'incarnation,
Lettres Historiques, and Relations des Jésuites, 1657 and
1658, where the story is told at length, accompanied with
several interesting letters and journals. Chaumonok in his
Autobiographie, speaks only of the
Seneca mission, and refers to the Relations for the rest.
Dollier de Casson, in his Histoire du Montréal, mentions
the arrival of the fugitives at that place, the sight of
which, he adds complacently, cured them of their fright. The
Journal des Supérieurs des Jésuites chronicles with its
usual brevity the ruin of the mission and the return of the
party to Quebec.
The Jesuits, in their account, say nothing of the
superstitious character of the feast. It is Marie de
l’Incarnation who lets out the secret. The Jesuit
Charlevoix, much to his credit, repeats the story without
reserve.
The Sulpitian ’Allet, in a memoir printed in the Morale
Pratique des Jésuites, says that the French placed effigies
of soldiers, made of straw, in the fort, to deceive the
Indians. He adds that the Jesuits found very little sympathy
at Quebec.
CHAPTER II.
1642-1661.
THE HOLY WARS OF MONTREAL.
Dauversière.—Mance and Bourgeoys.—Miracle.—A Pious Defaulter.— Jesuit and Sulpitian.—Montreal in 1659.—The Hospital Nuns.—The Nuns and the Iroquois.—More Miracles.—The Murdered Priests.—Brigeac and Closse.—Soldiers of the Holy Family.
On the 2d of July, 1659, the ship “St. André” lay in the harbor of Rochelle, crowded with passengers for Canada. She had served two years as a hospital for marines, and was infected with a contagious fever. Including the crew, some two hundred persons were on board, more than half of whom were bound for Montreal. Most of these were sturdy laborers, artisans, peasants, and soldiers, together with a troop of young women, their present or future partners; a portion of the company set down on the old record as “sixty virtuous men and thirty-two pious girls.” There were two priests also, Vignal and Le Maître, both destined to a speedy death at the hands of the Iroquois. But the most conspicuous among these passengers for Montreal were two groups of women in the habit of nuns, under the direction of Marguerite Bourgeoys and Jeanne Mance. Marguerite Bourgeoys, whose kind, womanly face bespoke her fitness for the task, was foundress of the school for female children at Montreal; her companion, a tall, austere figure, worn with suffering and care, was directress of the hospital. Both had returned to France for aid, and were now on their way back, each with three recruits, three being the mystic number, as a type of the Holy Family, to whose worship they were especially devoted.
Amid the bustle of departure, the shouts of sailors, the rattling of cordage, the flapping of sails, the tears and the embracings, an elderly man, with heavy plebeian features, sallow with disease, and in a sober, half-clerical dress, approached Mademoiselle Mance and her three nuns, and, turning his eyes to heaven, spread his hands over them in benediction. It was Le Boyer de la Dauversière, founder of the sisterhood of St. Joseph, to which the three nuns belonged. “Now, O Lord,” he exclaimed, with the look of one whose mission on earth is fulfilled, “permit thou thy servant to depart in peace!”