His embassy filled all with hope; and the next year, as the Onondagas, through a Christian chief, solicited the establishment of a mission by the Jesuit Fathers, Peter Joseph Chaumonot and Claude Dablon were selected. They reached Onondaga, and after a formal reception by the sachems with harangues and exchange of wampum belts, the missionaries were escorted to the spot given to them for their house and chapel. Two springs, one salt and one of clear, sparkling fresh water, still known as the Jesuits’ well, mark the knoll where St. Mary’s of Ganentaa was speedily erected. The Canadian missionaries, from their resources and alms contributed in France, spent large amounts to make this new central mission adapted for all the fond hopes planned for its future work in diffusing the gospel.
The missionaries found the greatest encouragement in the interest manifested, and in the numbers who came to solicit instruction. They labored assiduously to gather the unexpected harvest; but mistrust soon came, with reports of hostile action by the French. Dablon returned to Canada, and a party of French under Captain Dupuis set out to begin a settlement at Onondaga, while Fathers Le Mercier and Menard went to extend the missions. They were welcomed with all the formalities of Indian courtesy; and while Dupuis and his men prepared to form the settlement, the missionaries erected a second chapel at the Onondaga castle, which was attended from Ganentaa. Then René Menard began a mission among the Cayugas, and Chaumonot, passing still farther, visited the Seneca town of Gandagare, and that occupied by the Scanonaenrat, many of whom were already Christians, and more ready to embrace the faith. The Senecas themselves showed a disposition to listen to Christian doctrines. Finding the field thus full of promise, Chaumonot and Menard returned to Onondaga, whence they were despatched to Oneida. Here they found less promise, but there were captive Hurons to profit by their ministry.
LAKE ONTARIO AND THE IROQUOIS COUNTRY.
[From the Jesuit Relation of 1662-1663, showing the relative positions of the Five Nations, and Fort d’Orange (Albany).
Cf. this with map Pays des Cinq Nations Iroquoises, preserved in the Archives of the Marine at Paris, and engraved in Faillon, Histoire de la Colonie Française, iii. 196; and with one cited by Harrisse (no. 239), Le Lac Ontario avec les Lieux circonuoisins, et particulierement les Cinq Nations Iroquoises, l’Année 1688, which he would assign to Franquelin.—Ed.]
Meanwhile Father Le Moyne had visited the Mohawk canton from Canada, and prepared the way for a mission in that tribe.
Thus at the close of 1656 missionaries had visited each of the Five Nations, and all seemed ready for the establishment of new and thriving missions. The next year signs of danger appeared. A party of Hurons compelled to remove to Onondaga were nearly all massacred on the way, the missionaries Ragueneau and Duperon in vain endeavoring to stay the work of slaughter, which was coolly ascribed to them. The Mohawks, though they received Le Moyne, were openly hostile. They attacked a flotilla of Ottawas at Montreal, and slew the missionary Leonard Garreau, who was on his way to the far West, to establish missions on the upper lakes.
