[23] (p. [171]).—This was Joseph de la Roche-Daillon (written also d'Allion), a Récollet priest of the province of St. Denis, allied to the house of the counts du Lud (or Lude). He accompanied the Jesuit missionaries to Canada, and, after remaining at Quebec for a year, went to the Huron country with Brébeuf and De Nouë. In October, 1626, he visited the Neutral Nation, and spent the winter there. In the summer of 1628, he returned from the Huron mission to Quebec, remaining there until its capture; Champlain mentions his visit to "Father la Roche," just before that event, to ask if the Récollets could supply any grain to the colony. Sagard gives (Canada, pp. 880-892) a letter written to a friend by Daillon, describing his visit to the Neutrals; it is reproduced by Le Clercq (Shea's ed., vol. i., pp. 263-272). Harris (citing Noiseux's Liste chronologique) gives the date of Daillon's death as July 16, 1656.—Early Missions in Western Canada (Toronto, 1893), p. 56, note.
[24] (p. [171]).—The trading station: Three Rivers (see vol. [ii]., note [52]). This point was long a favorite fur-trade rendezvous for the Indians. The Récollet missionaries established a residence here in June, 1615, which was maintained until 1628. The fortified French settlement at Three Rivers was established by Champlain in July, 1634, to protect the Huron and Algonkin fur trade from the incursions of the Iroquois, and to serve as an outpost of defence for Quebec. The first colonist was Jacques Hertel, who in 1633 had obtained a grant of land there. The Jesuit missionaries were also among the proprietors of the new town, having obtained from the Company of New France (see note [21], ante), by a grant dated Feb. 15, 1634, six arpents of land at Three Rivers; but they did not secure possession of this till Montmagny delivered it to them (1637). However, within two months after La Violette, Champlain's lieutenant, had erected his stockade at Three Rivers, two of the Jesuit fathers,—Le Jeune and Buteux,—had established a residence there, which was for many years an important center of missionary work.—See Sulte's Can.-Français, vol. ii., pp. 48-54: he gives a list; containing also much genealogical information, of the early inhabitants of Three Rivers; and the document granting land there to the Society of Jesus, copied from Titres seigneuriaux (Quebec, 1852), p. 70. Cf. Ferland's Cours d'Histoire, vol. i., p. 270; he states that the church registers of Three Rivers are continuous since February, 1635; and that these records are the oldest existing in Canada. The first entry gives the exact date on which the settlement was begun—July 4, 1634.
Sulte has published, at Montreal, several works concerning this town: Histoire de la ville des Trois-Rivières (1870), Chronique trifluvienne (1879), and Album de l'Histoire des Trois-Rivières (1881).
[25] (p. [171]).—Father Nicholas Viel, then stationed at Montargis, France, was sent to the Canadian mission of the Récollets, with Brother Gabriel Sagard (see note [48], post), in 1623. Arriving at Quebec, June 28 of that year, they at once accompanied Father Joseph Le Caron to the Huron country, which they reached in August, and settled at the residence already established at Quieunonascaran. At the end of ten months, Le Caron and Sagard returned to Quebec, leaving Viel in charge of the mission. In the summer of 1625, he went with the Hurons on their annual trading voyage to Quebec, taking with him an Indian lad named Ahautsic, whom he had baptized and confirmed. A storm scattering the fleet, the three Hurons in his canoe viciously threw him and his disciple into the water, at the last rapid above Montreal, which from that time has borne the name of Sault au Récollet. Sagard and Le Clercq give full accounts of Father Viel's missionary work, and of his tragic death. The latter states that Viel left a dictionary of the Huron language, with other memoirs, in the hands of certain Frenchmen then living in the Huron country, who, later, conveyed the MSS. to Father Le Caron, at Quebec.
[26] (p. [171]).—Joseph Le Caron was one of the four Récollets who began the mission of that order in Canada (see note [22], ante). Verbal permission to engage in this work was given them by the papal nuncio at Paris, that their departure might not be delayed by waiting for the usual brief; for some unknown reason the issue of this paper was delayed until March 20, 1618. The original document is now in the departmental archives of France, according to Faillon (Col. Fr., vol. i., p. 146). It is addressed to Father Le Caron and other Récollet brothers and priests: Sagard copies it in his Canada, pp. 12-17.
Upon arriving at Tadoussac, May 25, 1615, Jamay (the superior) went with Le Caron to Three Rivers, where they at once proceeded to establish a sedentary mission for the Indians. Leaving this in the care of Jamay (whose headquarters were at Quebec), Le Caron departed for the Huron country, living with the savages at their town of Carhagouha (near Thunder Bay; later known as Toanché). Here he remained until the following May, meanwhile visiting with Champlain the Tobacco Nation and adjoining tribes. By these Indians he was cruelly treated, at the instigation of the medicine men (whom the French missionaries styled "sorcerers").
In July, 1616, the Récollet missionaries held at Quebec a conference with Champlain and other friends of their work, at which it was decided that they needed more missionaries, more French colonists, and a seminary for the education of Indian children. To obtain aid in these directions, Jamay and Le Caron soon afterwards went with Champlain to France, where at first they received but little help or encouragement. Jamay remained to forward the interests of the mission; while Le Caron, now appointed its superior, returned to Canada in the spring of 1617, accompanied by Father Paul Huet. A year later, desiring to work personally among the savages, Le Caron delegated to Father d'Olbeau his authority as superior, and spent a year at Tadoussac, with the Montagnais. During 1619-22, he labored at Quebec, then again wintered with the Montagnais; and in July, 1623, returned to the Huron mission, accompanied by Viel and Sagard (see notes [25], [48]). During his year's stay there, he did much to aid Champlain in securing the temporary treaty of peace which, in July, 1624, was concluded between the Iroquois, on one part, and the French and their savage allies on the other.
In August, 1625, Le Caron went to France on the affairs of the mission, and returned the following year with Brother Gervase Mohier and a reinforcement of Jesuit missionaries. He remained at Quebec, as superior of his mission, until 1629, when all the priests were sent back to France by Kirk. As the Récollets expected to resume work on the Canadian mission, Le Caron was appointed its procurator in France; but he died on March 29, 1632,—according to Le Clercq—through grief at the exclusion of his order from Canada.
Upon the invasion of Canada by the English, the Récollet missionaries had been urged by their savage disciples to take refuge with them in their towns, where they would be safe from attack, and could minister to the religious wants of the natives until the French should return. The fathers wished to accept this proposal; but as it was opposed by the council of Quebec, Le Caron felt obliged to decline it, for which he was afterwards blamed by some of his brethren in France.
Full details of his work are given by Le Clercq and Sagard: the former copies a letter written by La Caron to his provincial at Paris, Aug. 7, 1618; also fragments of memoirs sent by him to that officer in 1624.—See Shea's Le Clercq, vol. i., pp. 134-137, and 213-224. He is said to have prepared a dictionary of the Huron language (Ibid., p. 249). Other MSS. of his were burned in March, 1631, as a result of sanitary measures then taken against a contagious disease in the convent of St. Margaret, near Gisors, Normandy, of which he was superior.—See "Memorial of the Récollets, 1637," in Margry's Découvertes et établissements des Français dans l'Amérique septentrionale (Paris, 1876-86), vol. i., p. 11.