The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents 38

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents 38

il s'en mocqua; il le menaça des iugemens de Dieu, il repartit qu'il

endureroit aussi bien les feux dans l'enfer, qu'il auoit souffert le

froid pendant l'hyuer. Au commencement les Sauuages le tenoient [30]

dans leurs cabanes, mais venans à s'en lasser ils le placẽt dehors, le

voila abbrié du Ciel & d'vne escorce, on ne luy donne plus qu'vn peu

de poisson, & peu souuent: luy se doutãt quasi de ce que ie luy auois

predit; car il n'ignore pas les coustumes de sa nation, dit au Pere

Buteux qui s'en reuenoit faire vn tour à Kebec, Ton frere m'a dit que

si ie sortois de vostre maison, qu'il ne m'y receuroit iamais, i'y

voudrois bien estre maintenant, dis-luy, que s'il m'y veut receuoir,

qu'il en écriue à quelque François, & que ie m'y feray transporter à

la premiere occasion. Le Pere estãt arriué, & m'ayant donné cet aduis,

nous-nous transportasmes incontinent au fort de Kebec pour chercher

quelque occasion de le mander, desirans sauuer ce pauure miserable,

puis qu'il portoit le charactere de Chrestien: mais [31] ô iuste &

épouuantable vengeance du grand Dieu! nous trouuasmes en chemin vn

Montagnais, qui nous dit qu'incontinent apres le depart du Pere Buteux,

vn Sauuage auoit donné vn coup de hache à ce deplorable homme pẽdant la

nuict, qui luy auoit fait voler la ceruelle de la teste. Voila comme il

est passé en l'autre monde.

 

On the 3rd of November of the same year, Father Charles l'Allemant

baptized a young Savage about twenty-five years old, called by the

people of his nation _Matchonon_, surnamed by the French, Martin;

at baptism he received the name of Joseph. The judgments of God

are terrible; this poor wretch met with a horrible death. It was

of him I spoke in the second Chapter of the Relation of last year.

He would gladly, [24] if he had been able, have diverted the good

François Sasousmat from receiving the Faith; and, while one day

disputing with Father Brebeuf, he uttered this blasphemy, which

caused him to lose the life of the body and perhaps that of the

soul: "Thou tellest us that it is through the guidance of thy

God that we find something to eat; tell him that he may oppose,

with all his power, my taking Beavers and Elks; and you will see

that I shall not fail to take them, in spite of him." One of our

Frenchmen, seized with great zeal, hearing this impiety, was ready

to leap upon him, and would have beaten him soundly, had it not

been for the presence of the Father. This poor, impious wretch

has not, since this blasphemy, killed either Beaver or Elk. He

went up beyond the three Rivers, where illness prostrated him.

Father Brebeuf, when he was going up to the Hurons last year,

encountered him, and seeing him in [25] a pitiful state, asked him

how much game he had killed since his blasphemy; the poor man was

covered with confusion. The Father took pity on him, and said that

he would write to me about this meeting; and that he trusted that,

if he wished to ask God's forgiveness, and embrace his faith, he

would be succored. Some time after I had received the Father's

letter, we, Father Buteux and I, went to the new settlement of

the three Rivers, to begin the Residence of the Conception. We

found this blasphemer as naked as a worm, very sick, lying upon

the ground, his only possession being a wretched piece of bark,--a

cabin of Savages who were encamped there having refused him

shelter. His brother had brought him to a place near the French

settlement, and had left him there. [26] We asked him if he did

not see that it was the vengeance of God, that he had not captured

anything since his impious act. "I have not been able," said he,

"to capture anything, for I have been sick all the time." "But

dost thou not see that it is God who has punished thee by this

sickness?" "Perhaps thou sayest the truth," he answered me. I tried

to tell him that his brother had no pity on him, and he excused him

very readily,--"What wouldst thou have him do; how will he drag me

about in the forest where he is going to seek his living?" "But

thy people, have they no pity on thee? Why dost thou not ask these

Savages to take thee into their cabin, or else to give thee a small

piece of bark, to make a little one for thyself?" He did not even

dare ask them, they are so ashamed to beg from each other; but he

told me in a low voice to ask them to do it; I did so immediately

in his presence. At [27] first, they gave me no answer; but

finally a woman said that they were going elsewhere to camp, and

they had none too much bark for themselves. In short, this unhappy

man, seeing that the bark which brought us was returning to Kebec,

begged me to have him carried there, for we could find no place

for him; our house in this early stage was only some logs of wood,

fitted to each other, plastered over the cracks with a little clay,

and covered with grass; we had in all twelve feet square for the

Chapel and for our living room, awaiting the completion of a frame

building which was being constructed. So, realizing that it was

impossible for us to help him, I begged them to take him in the

bark, which they did, and carried him to Kebec, where the [28]

Savages deserted him. Father l'Allemant, seeing him abandoned,

had him come to our house, the very thing he desired; one of our

Brothers dressed his sores every day and the Father instructed him,

in order to prepare him for baptism. Now, as they supposed that

he was in danger of death, the Father baptized him, and they fed

and nursed him all winter. When I returned in the Spring from the

three Rivers, I was very glad to see him, hoping he would instruct

me in the knowledge of his language, and that I could teach him

more at leisure the truths of our belief. I had hardly arrived

when his brother came along, and he [the sick man], overjoyed to

see him, asked me to let him go with him to the three Rivers; I

did all I could to dissuade him, foreseeing his certain ruin if he

returned among the Savages, and promised all [29] assistance if

he would stay. "No," said he, "I want to go up the river to see

my relatives." Now, as I know the character of these Barbarians

very well, I told him that the Savages would soon throw him out

of their cabins; that they would give him nothing to eat, and, at

last becoming tired of him, they would kill him. He began to laugh,

saying to me that they would not go so far as that. I threatened

that, if he went away, we would not take him back again; but there

was no way of stopping him. When he reached the three Rivers,

Father Buteux, who was there, tried to make him see the evil that

might result from his having left us, but he merely laughed at him;

the Father threatened him with the judgments of God; he answered

that he could as well endure the fires in hell as he had borne the

cold during the winter. At first the Savages kept him [30] in their

cabins; but, getting tired of him, they put him out, and there he

lay, under the shelter of the Sky and a piece of bark; they gave

him only a little fish, and that not often. So he almost began to

fear what I had predicted for him, as he was not ignorant of the

customs of his nation. He said to Father Buteux, who was returning

to Kebec to make a visit, "Thy brother told me that, if I left your

house, he would never take me back again. I would like very much

to be there now; tell him that if he will receive me, he may write

to some Frenchman, and I will have myself taken there at the first

opportunity." When the Father arrived and reported this to me, we

immediately betook ourselves to the fort at Kebec, to seek some

opportunity to send for him, wishing to save this poor wretch since

he bore the mark of a Christian; but [31] oh, just and terrible

vengeance of the great God! On our way we met a Montagnais, who

told us that, immediately after the departure of Father Buteux, a

Savage had given this wretched man a blow from an axe, during the

night, which dashed his brains out of his head. So thus he passed

into the other world.

 

Le huictiéme du mesme mois de Nouembre Monsieur Giffart baptisa vn

petit enfant sauuage aagé d'enuiron six mois, le croyant si prés de

la mort qu'on n'auroit peu nous appeller, il surueseut encor quelque

temps, sa femme allaictoit ce pauure petit, & en auoit vn soin comme

s'il eust esté son propre enfant. Certaine nuict s'éueillant toute

pleine d'étonnement & de ioye, elle dit à son mary, qu'elle croyoit que

ce petit Ange estoit passé au [32] Ciel: Non, repart-il, ie le viens

tout maintenant de veoir, il vit encore. Ie vous supplie, replique-elle

d'y regarder encore vne fois, ie ne puis croire qu'il ne soit mort,

d'autant que ie viens de voir tout maintenant dans mon sommeil vne

grande troupe d'Anges qui le venoient querir. Ils le visitent donc, &

le trouuent trépassé, bien ioyeux d'auoir aydé à mettre au Ciel vne ame

qui benira Dieu dans toute l'estendue de l'eternité. Le sixiéme iour de

Ianuier de cette année mil six cens trente cinq, le Pere Lallemant laua

des eaux du sainct Baptesme vne petite fille aagée d'enuiron neuf à dix

ans, qu'vne famille Françoise éleue en sa maison: cette enfant ayant

fait prier le Pere de luy donner l'entrée en l'Eglise, l'examina sur sa

croyance, & la voyant suffisamment instruite, cognoissant d'ailleurs

qu'elle [33] n'auoit aucuns parens qui la peussent retirer des mains

de nos François, il en fit vn present au petit Iesus le iour des Roys:

elle a touiours continué depuis à bien faire, fuyant tellement les

Sauuages, qu'on ne luy sçauroit faire parler.

 

On the eighth of the same month, November, Monsieur Gissart[8]

baptized a little savage child, aged about six months, believing

him so near death that we could not be summoned; yet he lived on

for some time. His wife nursed this poor little child, and cared

for it as if it had been her own. One night, awakening full of

astonishment and joy, she said to her husband that she believed

this little Angel had gone to [32] Heaven; "No," he replied, "I

have just now been to see it, and it still lives." "I beg you,"

she answered, "to go and look again; I cannot believe that it is

not dead, as I have just seen in my sleep a great troop of Angels

coming to take it." So they went to see it again, and found that

it had passed away. They were very glad that they had helped send

to Heaven a soul that will bless God throughout all eternity. On

the sixth day of January of this year, one thousand six hundred and

thirty-five, Father Lallemant applied the waters of holy Baptism to

a little girl about nine or ten years of age, who is being reared

in the house of a French family. This child had some one ask the

Father to admit her into the Church; he examined her in regard

to her belief, and, seeing her sufficiently instructed, knowing

besides that she [33] had no relatives who could take her from the

hands of our French people, he made a present of her to the little

Jesus on Epiphany; she has continued to do well since then, fleeing

from the Savages, so that she cannot be induced to speak to them.

 

Le deuxiesme iour de Feurier la petite Sauuage qu'on porta en France

l'an passé, fut baptisée au Monastere des filles de la Misericorde,

c'est à dire, en l'Hospital de Dieppe: puis qu'elle estoit née en la

Nouuelle France, ie luy donneray place entre ceux de sa patrie, qui

ont esté faits enfans de Dieu ceste année. On l'auoit mise en pension

chez ces bonnes filles. Voicy ce que m'en écrit leur Mere Superieure,

aussi zelée & toute sa maison, pour le salut des pauures Sauuages,

que pas vne autre. Nostre petite Canadienne deceda le iour de la

Purification [34] de nostre Dame, de la petite verole qu'on ne pût

faire sortir, quoy qu'on y apportast tous les remedes possibles: elle

receut le baptesme demie heure auant sa mort, c'est quasi vn miracle

que nous ne fusmes point surprises, à raison que comme elle estoit

robuste pour son aage, elle ne paroissoit point si voisine de la mort

comme elle estoit ses funerailles furent honorées de belles ceremonies,

& de chants d'allegresse au lieu de l'Office des morts, puis que son

decés auoit suiuy de si prés son baptesme. Ceste enfant se faisoit

aimer d'vn chacun, elle estoit fort officieuse, tres-obeyssante, aussi

exacte à ne point entrer aux lieux defendus qu'vne Religieuse; & quand

on luy vouloit faire entrer, soit par mégarde, ou pour faire preuue

de son obeyssance, elle respondoit fort gentilement, Ie n'ay point

permission, [35] la Mere Superieure ne le veut pas. Elle sçauoit desia

plusieurs leçons de son Catechisme, & entendoit beaucoup de la lãgue

Françoise; c'est pourquoy nous luy auions fait conceuoir les trois

Articles principaux de nostre creance. Elle sçauoit fort bien dire que

le Manitou ne valoit rien, qu'elle ne vouloit plus retourner en Canada;

mais qu'elle vouloit estre Chrestienne & baptisée, sçachant bien qu'on

ne pouuoit aller au Ciel sans cela. Nous prenions toutes grand plaisir

en ces discours: pour trancher court, suffit de dire qu'elle taschoit

d'imiter tout le bien qu'elle voyoit faire selon sa capacité. Ce sont

les propres termes de la Reuerende Mere Elizabeth de sainct François

Superieure de cét Hospital, l'vn des mieux reglez de l'Europe; il ne

faut qu'entrer dans la sale des pauures, contempler [36] la modestie

des filles qui les seruent, considerer leur charité dans les plus

fascheuses maladies, ietter les yeux sur la netteté de ceste maison,

pour en sortir tout affectionné, & donner mille loüanges à nostre

Seigneur. Si vn Monastere semblable à celuy-là, estoit en la Nouuelle

France, leur charité feroit plus pour la conuersion des Sauuages, que toutes nos courses & nos paroles.