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NOW,
what were the results accomplished by the efforts of the
missionaries at this period of our history? When in their latest
hour they saw about them, as was very frequently the case, only the
wild children of the desert uttering cries of ferocious joy, had
they at least the consolation of discerning faithful disciples of
Christ concealed among their executioners? Alas! we must admit that
North America saw no renewal of the days when St. Peter converted on
one occasion, at his first preaching, three thousand persons, and
when St. Paul brought to Jesus by His word thousands of Gentiles.
Were the missionaries of the New World, then, less zealous, less
disinterested, less eloquent than the apostles of the early days of
the Church ? Let us listen to Mgr. Bourgard: "A few only among them,
like the Brazilian apostle, Father Anthony Vieyra, died a natural
death and found a grave in earth consecrated by the Church. Many,
like Father Marquette, who reconnoitred the whole course of the
Mississippi, succumbed to the burden of fatigue in the midst of the
desert, and were buried under the turf by their sorrowful comrades.
He had with him several Frenchmen, Fathers Badin, Deseille and
Petit; the two latter left their venerable remains among the wastes.
Others met death at the bedside of the plague-stricken, and were
martyrs to their charity, like Fathers Turgis and Dablon. An
incalculable number died in the desert, alone, deprived of all aid,
unknown to the whole world, and their bodies became the sustenance
of birds of prey. Several obtained the glorious crown of martyrdom;
such are the venerable Fathers Jogues, Corpo, Souel, Chabanel,
Ribourde, Brebeuf, Lalemant, etc. Now they fell under the blows of
raging Indians; now they were traitorously assassinated; again, they
were impaled." In what, then, must we seek for the cause of the
futility of these efforts ? All those who know the savages will
understand it; it is in the fickle character of these children of
the woods, a character more unstable and volatile than that of
infants. God alone knows what restless anxiety the conversions which
they succeeded in bringing about caused to the missionaries and the
pious Bishop of Petraea. Yet every day Mgr. de Laval ardently
prayed, not only for the flock confided to his care but also for the
souls which he had come from so far to seek to save from heathenism.
If one of these devout men of God had succeeded at the price of a
thousand dangers, of a thousand attempts, in proving to an Indian
the insanity, the folly of his belief in the juggleries of a
sorcerer, he must watch with jealous care lest his convert should
lapse from grace either through the sarcasms of the other redskins,
or through the attractions of some cannibal festival, or by the
temptation to satisfy an ancient grudge, or through the fear of
losing a coveted influence, or even through the apprehension of the
vengeance of the heathen. Did he think himself justified in
expecting to see his efforts crowned with success ? Suddenly he
would learn that the poor neophyte had been led astray by the sight
of a bottle of brandy, and that he had to begin again from the
beginning.
No greater success was attained in many efforts
which were exerted to give a -European stamp to the character of the
aborigines, than in divers attempts to train in civilized habits
young Indians brought up in the seminaries. And we know that if
success in this direction had been possible it would certainly have
been obtained by educators like the Jesuit Fathers. "With the French
admitted to the small seminary," says the Abbd Ferland, "six young
Indians were received; on the advice of the king they were all to be
brought up together. This union, which was thought likely to prove
useful to all, was not helpful to the savages, and became harmful to
the young Frenchmen. After a few trials it was understood that it
was impossible to adapt to the regular habits necessary for success
in a course of study these young scholars who had been reared in
complete freedom. Comradeship with Algonquin and Huron children, who
were incapable of limiting themselves to the observance of a college
rule, tended to give more force and persistence to the independent
ideas which were natural in the young French-Canadians, who received
from their fathers the love of liberty and the taste for an
adventurous life."
But we must not infer, therefore, that the
missionaries found no consolation in their troublous task. If
sometimes the savage blood revealed itself in the neophytes in
sudden insurrections, we must admit that the majority of the
converts devoted themselves to the practice of virtues with an
energy which often rose to heroism, and that already there began to
appear among them that holy fraternity which the gospel everywhere
brings to birth. The memoirs of the Jesuits furnish numerous
evidences of this. We shall cite only the following: " A band of
Hurons had come down to the Mission of St. Joseph. The Christians,
suffering a great dearth of provisions, asked each other, 4
Can we feed all those people ?' As they said this, behold, a number
of the Indians, disembarking from their little boats, go straight to
the chapel, fall upon their knees and say their prayers. An
Algonquin who had gone to salute the Holy Sacrament, having
perceived them, came to apprise his captain that these Hurons were
praying to God. 'Is it true?' said he. 'Come ! come ! we must no
longer debate whether we shall give them food or not; they are our
brothers, since they believe as well as we.'"
The conversion which caused the most joy to Mgr.
de Laval was that of Garakontid, the noted chief of the Iroquois
confederation. Accordingly he wished to baptize him himself in the
cathedral of Quebec, and the governor, M. de Courcelles, consented
to serve as godfather to the new follower of Christ. Up to this time
the missions to the Five Nations had been ephemeral; by the first
one Father Jogues had only been able to fertilize with his blood
this barbarous soil; the second, established at Gannentaha, escaped
the general massacre in 1658 only by a genuine miracle. This mission
was commanded by Captain Dupuis, and comprised fifty-five Frenchmen.
Five Jesuit Fathers were of the number, among them Fathers Chaumonot
and Dablon. Everything up to that time had gone wonderfully well in
the new establishment; the missionaries knew the Iroquois language
so well, and so well applied the rules of savage eloquence, that
they impressed all the surrounding tribes; accordingly they were
full of trust and dreamed of a rapid extension of the Catholic faith
in these territories. An Iroquois chief dispelled their illusion by
revealing to them the plans of their enemies; they were
already watched, and preparations were
on foot to cut off their retreat. In this peril the colonists took
counsel, and hastily constructed in the granaries of their quarters
a few boats, some canoes and a large barge, destined to transport
the provisions and the fugitives. They
had to hasten,
because the attack against their
establishment might take place at any moment, and they must profit
by the breaking up of the ice, which was impending. But how could
they transport this little flotilla to the river which flowed into
Lake Ontario twenty miles away without giving the alarm and being
massacred at the first step? They adopted a singular stratagem
derived from the customs of these people,, and one in which the
fugitives succeeded perfectly. "A young Frenchman adopted by an
Indian," relates Jacques de Beaudoncourt, "pretended to have a dream
by which he was warned to make a festival, 'to eat everything,' if
he did not wish to die presently. ' You are my son,' replied the
Iroquois chief, '1 do not want you to die; prepare the
feast and we shall eat everything.' No one was absent; some of the
French who were invited made music to charm the guests. They ate so
much, according to the rules of Indian civility, that they said to
their host, 'Take pity on us, and let us go and rest.' 'You want me
to die, then?' 'Oh, no!' And they betook themselves to
eating again as best they could. During this time the other
Frenchmen were carrying to the river the boats and provisions. When
all was ready the young man said: '1 take pity on you,
stop eating, I shall not die. I am going to have music played to
lull you to sleep.' And sleep was not long in coming, and the
French, slipping hastily away from the banquet hall, rejoined their
comrades. They had left the dogs and the fowls behind, in order the
better to deceive the savages; a heavy snow, falling at the moment
of their departure, had concealed all traces of their passage, and
the banqueters imagined that a powerful Manitou had carried away the
fugitives, who would not fail to come back and avenge themselves.
After thirteen days of toilsome navigation, the French arrived in
Montreal, having lost only three men from drowning during the
passage. It had been thought that they were all massacred, for the
plans of the Iroquois had become known in the colony; this escape
brought the greatest honour to Captain Dupuis, who had successfully
carried it out."
M. dArgenson, then governor, did not approve of
the retreat of the captain; this advanced bulwark protected the
whole colony, and he thought that the French should have held out to
the last man. This selfish opinion was disavowed by the great
majority; the real courage of a leader does not consist in having
all his comrades massacred to no purpose, but in saving by his calm
intrepidity the largest possible number of soldiers for his country.
The Iroquois were tricked but not disarmed.
Beside themselves with rage at the thought that so many victims
about to be sacrificed to their hatred had escaped their blows, and
desiring to end once for all the feud with their enemies, the
Onondagas, they persuaded the other nations to join them in a rush
upon Quebec. They succeeded easily, and twelve hundred savage
warriors assembled at Cleft Rock, on the outskirts of Montreal, and
exposed the colony to the most terrible danger which it had yet
experienced.
This was indeed a great peril; the dwellings
above Quebec were without defence, and separated so far from each
other that they stretched out nearly two leagues. But providentially
the plan of these terrible foes was made known to the inhabitants of
the town through an Iroquois prisoner. Immediately the most feverish
activity was exerted in preparations for defence; the country houses
and those of the Lower Town were abandoned, and the inhabitants took
refuge in the palace, in the fort, with the Ursulines, or with the
Jesuits; redoubts were raised, loop-holes bored and patrols
established. At Ville-Marie no fewer precautions were taken; the
governor surrounded a mill which he had erected in 1658, by a
palisade, a ditch, and four bastions well entrenched. It stood on a
height of the St. Louis Hill, and, called at first the Mill on the
Hill, it became later the citadel of Montreal. Anxiety still
prevailed everywhere, but God, who knows how to raise up, in the
very moment of despair, the instruments which He uses in His
infinite wisdom to protect the countries dear to His heart, that
same God who gave to France the heroic Joan of Arc, produced for
Canada an unexpected defender. Dollard and sixteen brave Mont-realers
were to offer themselves as victims to save the colony. Their
devotion, which surpasses all that history shows of splendid daring,
proves the exaltation of the souls of those early colonists.
One morning in the month of July, 1660, Dol-lard,
accompanied by sixteen valiant comrades, presented himself at the
altar of the church in Montreal; these Christian heroes came to ask
the God of the strong to bless the resolve which they had taken to
go and sacrifice themselves for their brothers. Immediately after
mass, tearing themselves from the embraces of their relatives, they
set out, and after a long and toilsome march arrived at the foot of
the Long Rapid, on the left bank of the Ottawa; the exact point
where they stopped is probably Greece's Point, five or six miles
above Carillon, for they knew that the Iroquois returning from the
hunt must pass this place. They installed themselves within a
wretched palisade, where they were joined almost at once by two
Indian chiefs who, having challenged each other's courage, sought an
occasion to surpass one another in valour. They were Anahotah'a, at
the head of forty Hurons, and Mdtiomegue, accompanied by four
Algonquins. They had not long to wait; two canoes bore the Iroquois
crews within musket shot; those who escaped the terrible volley
which received them and killed the majority of them, hastened to
warn the band of three hundred other Iroquois from whom they had
become detached. The Indians, relying on an easy victory, hastened
up, but they hurled themselves in vain upon the French, who,
sheltered by their weak palisade, crowned its stakes with the heads
of their enemies as these were beaten do™. Exasperated by this
unexpected check, the Iroquois broke up the canoes of their
adversaries, and, with the help of these fragments, which they set
on fire, attempted to burn the little fortress ; but a well
sustained fire prevented the rashest from approaching. Their pride
yielding to their thirst for vengeance, these three hundred men
found themselves too few before such intrepid enemies, and they sent
for aid to a band of five hundred of their people, who were camped
on the Richelieu Islands. These hastened to the attack, and eight
hundred men rushed upon a band of heroes strengthened by the
sentiment of duty, the love of country and faith in a happy future.
Futile efforts! The bullets made terrible havoc in their ranks, and
they recoiled again, carrying with them only the assurance that
their numbers had not paralyzed the courage of the French.
But the aspect of things was about to change,
owing to the cowardice of the Hurons. Water failed the besieged
tortured by thirst; they made sorties from time to time to procure
some, and could bring back in their small and insufficient vessels
only a few drops, obtained at the greatest peril. The Iroquois,
aware of this fact, profited by it in order to offer life and pardon
to the Indians who would go over to their side. No more was
necessary to persuade the Hurons, and suddenly
thirty of them followed La Mouehe, the nephew of the Huron chief,
and leaped over the palisades. The brave Anahotaha fired a pistol
shot at his nephew, but missed him. The Algonquins remained
faithful, and died bravely at their post. The Iroquois learned
through these deserters the real number of those who were resisting
them so boldly; they then took an oath to die to the last man rather
than renounce victory, rather than cast thus an everlasting
opprobrium on their nation. The bravest made a sort of shield with
fagots tied together, and, placing themselves in front of their
comrades, hurled themselves upon the palisades, attempting to tear
them up. The supreme moment of the struggle has come; Dollard is
aware of it. While his brothers in arms make frightful gaps in the
ranks of the savages by well-directed shots, he loads with grape
shot a musket which is to explode as it falls, and hurls it with all
his might. Unhappily, the branch of a tree stays the passage of the
terrible engine of destruction, which falls back upon the French and
makes a bloody gap among them. "Surrender!" cries La Mouche to
Anahotaha. "I have given my word to the French, I shall die with
them," replies the bold chief. Already some stakes were torn up, and
the Iroquois were about to rush like an avalanche through this
breach, when a new Horatius Codes, as brave as the Roman, made his
body a shield for his brothers, and soon the axe which he held in
his hand dripped with blood. He fell, and
was at once replaced. The French succumbed one by one; they were
seen brandishing their weapons up to the moment of their last
breath, and, riddled with wounds, they resisted to the last sigh.
Drunk with vengeance, the wild conquerors turned over the bodies to
find some still palpitating, that they might bind them to a stake of
torture; three were in their mortal agony, but they died before
being cast on the pyre. A single one was saved for the stake; he
heroically resisted the refinements of the most barbarous cruelty;
he showed no weakness, and did not cease to pray for his
executioners. Everything in this glorious deed of arms must compel
the admiration of the most remote posterity.
The wretched Hurons suffered the fate which they
had deserved; they were burned in the different villages. Five
escaped, and it was by their reports that men learned the details of
an exploit which saved the colony. The Iroquois, in fact,
considering what a handful of brave men had accomplished, took it
for granted that a frontal attack on such men could only result in
failure ; they changed their tactics, and had recourse anew to their
warfare of surprises and ambuscades, with the purpose of gradually
destroying the little colony.
The dangers which might be risked by attacking
so fierce a nation were, as may be seen, by no means imaginary. Many
would have retreated, and awaited a favourable occasion to try and
plant for the third time the cross in the Iroquois village. The sons
of Loyola did not hesitate; encouraged by Mgr. de Laval, they
retraced their steps to the Five Nations. This time Heaven
condescended to reward in a large measure their persistent efforts,
and the harvest was abundant. In a short time the number of churches
among these people had increased to ten.
The famous chief, Garakontie, whose conversion
to Christianity caused so much joy to the pious Bishop of Petraea
and to all the Christians of Canada, was endowed with a rare
intelligence, and all who approached him recognized in him a mind as
keen as it was profound. Not only did he keep faithfully the
promises which he had made on receiving baptism, but the gratitude
which he continued to feel towards the bishop and the missionaries
made him remain until his death the devoted friend of the French.
"He is an incomparable man," wrote Father Millet one day. "He is the
soul of all the good that is done here ; he supports the faith by
his influence; he maintains peace by his authority; he declares
himself so clearly for France that we may justly call him the
protector of the Crown in this country." Feeling life escaping, he
wished to give what the savages call their "farewell feast," a
touching custom, especially when Christianity comes to sanctify it.
His last words were for the venerable prelate, to whom he had vowed
a deep attachment and respect. "The guests having retired," wrote
Father Lamberville, "he called me to him. ' So we must part at
last,' said he to me; 'I am willing, since I hope to go to Heaven.'
He then begged me to tell my beads with him, which I did, together
with several Christians, and then he called me and said to me: 'I am
dying.' Then he gave up the ghost very peacefully." '
The labour demanded at this period by pastoral
visits in a diocese so extended may readily be imagined. Besides the
towns of Quebec, Montreal and Three Rivers, in which was centralized
the general activity, there were then several Christian villages,
those of Lorette, Ste. Foy, Sillery, the village of La Montagne at
Montreal, of the Sault St. Louis, and of the Prairie de la
Madeleine. Far from avoiding these trips, Mgr. de Laval took
pleasure in visiting all the cabins of the savages, one after
another, spreading the good Word, consoling the afflicted, and
himself administering the sacraments of the Church to those who
wished to receive them.
Father Dablon gives us in these terms the
narrative of the visit of the bishop to the Prairie de la Madeleine
in 1676. " This man," says he, speaking of the prelate, " this man,
great by birth and still greater by his virtues, which have been
quite recently the admiration of all France, and which on his last
voyage to Europe justly acquired for him the esteem and the approval
of the king; this great man, making the
rounds of his diocese, was conveyed in a little bark canoe by two
peasants, exposed to all the inclemencies of the climate, without
other retinue than a single ecclesiastic, and without carrying
anything but a wooden cross and the ornaments absolutely necessary
to a bishop
of gold, according to the expression of
authors in speaking of the first prelates of Christianity." |
