IT WAS A RARE BOOK

work. In 1668, M. de Courcelles, govefnor, interfered against such interprétation of the défenses promulgated by Rome and Paris, so that in 1672 the Pope ordered the discontinuance of ail publications from foreign missionaries, "even those of the Jesuit Fathers." The Marquette's narrative of the discovery of the Mississipi reached Europe in 1675, and was printed in Holland.^

It may be said that the circulation of the documents objected to lost its regularity, but was not stopped. The Jestiits' Relations continued to appear from time to time at various places, and were collected in différent parts of Europe.

But, to return to Canada, is it a wonder now that our amateurs of books possessed such a small number of the Jesuits' Relations at the beginning of the last century? Canada was certainly the last spot on the globe where the authors of those writings wished them to be read.

April 1898.

1 On Marquette's narrative see Mélanges historiques, V., p. 107-9. This relation has been printed in Holland in 1681 but the publisher, Estienne Michallet, was of Paris.

THE JËSUITS' RELATIONS AND ALLIED DOCUMENTS

Travels and Explorations of the Jesuits' Missionaries in New France, 1610-1791. — The Original French, Latin and Italian Texts, with English Translations and Notes.— Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites.

The édition of the Relations des Jésuites piiblished by the province of Québec in 1858 has now become somewhat scarce. Its three stout octavo volumes contain only the letters inserted in the Cramoisy séries (Paris) from 1632 till 1672, with two or three additional ones. It is a fair reproduction of the original text, but wàthout annotation. The O'Callaghan édition, subséquent to the Quebec one, is far superior to it, yet not complète.

The Thwaites édition, now being published, will mark an epoch in the historical literature of North America because of the abundance and value of the documents reproduced and the vast érudition utilized by the editorial staiï, the taste displayed by the printer and the careful arrangement. The original French, Latin and Italian texts in which the varions letters, narratives, descriptions, etc., were written are given with English translations and notes, making the collection a full record of small as well as great facts connected with the history of

the early explorations of Acadia, Canada, and ail the northern groups of the United States. Mr. Thwaites will cover one hundred and eighty years with his sixty volumes of this rare and valuable literature : rare becauge it is next to an impossibility to gather ail the scattered fragments into one hand, and valuable if you calculate either their high market price or the treasure of knowledge they add to our studies. Mr. Thwaites properly observes that: "The story of New France is also, in part, the story of much of New England, and of the states whose shores are washed by the Great Lakes and the Mississipi River. It may truly be said that the history of every one of our northern tier of commonwealths, from Maine to Minnesota, has its roots in the French régime. It is not true, as Bancroft avers, that the Jesuit was ever the pioneer of New France ; we now know that in this land, as elsewhere in ail âges, the trader nearly always preceeded the priest. But the trader was not a letterwriter or a diarist; hence we owe our intimate knowledge of New France, particularly in the sevententh century, chiefîy to the wandering missionaries of the Society of Jésus."

It is only right to mention in this place the editorial staff, as their names are vouchers for the correctness and the ability which makes the présent séries a commanding édition above ail previous ones : — Translator from the French, John Cutler Covert ; assistant translator from the French, Mary Sifton Pepper; translators from the Latin, William Frederick Giese and John Dorsey Wolcott; translator from the Italian, Mary Sifton Pepper; assistant editor, Emma Helen Blair. As for ^Ir. Thwaites, under whose direction this enormous investigation is accom-

132 THE JÉSUiTs' RELATIONS AND ALLlED DOCUMENTS

plished, it is neediess to discourse upon his extensive labours in this partlculaf field or to commend his control of the innumerable facts embodied in Such à work.

The first volume contains eigfht letters and five illustrative documents relative to the years 1610-1613 in Acadia. Marc Lescarbot opetts the list with his pamphlet on The Conversion of the Saifages. This clever man and capital observef resided in Acadia durîng the years 1606- 1607 and published several other works relative to the country. His érudition seems to hâve been extensive and Sound. He deals at the outset with the probable origin of the beliefs found amongst the Indiâns of America in fegard to the Création and such generalities. His main aim is to facilitate the spreading of Christianity throughout the newly discovered régions of the West. He reproves the Europeans for their lack of zeal. This brings on an examination of the doings of the explorers^ and he gradually concentrâtes his views upon Acadia, where De Monts and PoUtrincourt had fecently tried their hands at starting a colony with but slight success. Thèse pages are replète with curions information. The author shows how friendly the Indians were to the newcorners and exhibits their mânner of life, not omitting an account of the influence of the great Sagamore Merabertou and his family, ail of them wih several others "enroUed in the family of God by the cleansing water of hcly baptism" — ^^Jor Lescarbot was a strong believer in the conversion of ail who did not refuse to be christened.

The second document in the first volume îs "A Letter Missive in regard to the Conversion and Baptism of the Grand Sagamore of New France," written in Acadia (1610) by one Bertrand, a Huguenot layman, who des-

cribes the conversion of Membertou and his fellow Savages, and speaks with enthusiasm of the new country.

Just as this short letter of Bertrand and the book of Lescarbot were in the hands of the printer in Paris (1610) two Jesuit fathers received instructions to embark for Acadia. The Frenchmen of Port Royal and other localities in the colony were aiready divided between themselves ; the addition of the Jesuit élément was not calculated to smooth the situation. In fact the trouble began even before Fathers Pierre Biard and Ennemond Massé left France for their new destination.

Father Biard was a talented man. The three letters written by him in 1611 are the first productions of the Jesuit literature inserted in the volume now before us. There is also a letter from Father Massé of the same year. Father Biard, like Lescarbot, must be read line by line because the texture of his phrases holds so fast that every expression is a link in the chain. I will, nevertheless, try to give an idea of his style by quoting a few passages of his second letter dated from "Port Royal, New France, or Canada," June 11, 1611. During the winter the people at Port Royal thought wise to eut down their rations, "but such economy was of little avail, since Sieur de Poutrincourt did not lessen his liberality towards the Savages, fearing to alienate them from the Christian faith. He is truly a libéral and magnanimous gentleman, refusing ail recompense for the good he does them ; so when they are occasionally asked why they do not give him something in return for so many favours they are accustomed to answer cunningly : Endries ninan metaij Sagamo, that is to say : Monsieur does not care for our beaver skins. Nevertheless, they hâve now and then sent him some

134 THE JËSUITS' RELATIONS ANÔ ALLÎËD DOCUMENTS

pièces of elk-meat. . . But they (the French) had à good chance to economize when the winter came, for their ttiill froze up, and they had no way of making flour. Happily for theni they foiind a store of peas and beanâ which proved to be their manna and ambroâia for seven weeks. Then April came, but not the ship ; now it was J4,ist as well that the mill was frozen up, for they had nothing to put in the hopper. What were they to do? Hunger is a bad complaint. Some began to fish, others to dig. From their fishing they obtained some smelts and herrings ; from their digging some very good roots, called chiqueli, which were very abundant in certain places... The whole foundation of Christianity hère consists. after God, in this little settlement of a family (Membertou's) of about twenty persons. Messire Jessé Flesche, commonly called the Patriarch, 'has had charge of it; and, in the year that he has lived hère, has baptized about one hundred Savages. The trouble is that he has not been able to instruct them as he would hâve wished, because he did not know the language, and had nothing with which to support them ; for he who would minister to their soûls must at the same time résolve to nourish their bodies. This worthy man has shown great friendliness toward us, and thanked God for our coming."

The history of Acadia in 1610-1613 is merely that of an attempt to catéchise the aborigines ; every individual concerned in the management of the colony seems to hâve adopted this scheme as the main policy to pursue : Poutrincourt, Lescarbot, Bertrand, the Marchioness de Guercheville, the Missionaries Fléché, Biard, Massé, Quentin, Du Thet.

On the backîrround of the same scène were the trader.'*

Pontgravé, Latour, Bertrand and others, occupied in cajolery with Membertou and his people in order to procure beaver skins. Of course, thèse merchants kept an active rivalry between themselves, and Membertou reaped the benefit. As to actual settlers and tillers of the soil it is hardly possible to find more than a meagre commencement of such a colony. The men hired by De Monts and Poutrincourt, recruited in the towns and cities of France, were unfit to make a living in Acadia by their own industry. They could neither plough the land nor kill game in the forest nor fish. Their existence depended upon the provisions brought from Rouen.

At the end of the volume \ve hâve several papers dealing with the state of affairs of early Acadia, by Father Jouvency, a historian of the Society of Jésus who wrote (in Latin) one hundred years later — a précis of the expédition of Samuel Argall, in 1613.

Volume II contains three letters from Father Biard and one narrative by Lescarbot, ail concerning Acadia in 1612-1614. Biard has decidedly improved in his knowledge since the year 1611 ; a few months of résidence at Port Royal and two or three journeys into the wilderness opened a large field to his keen faculties of perception ; he is now conversant with the situation from the River Penobscot to Cape Breton and from Gaspé to the Bay of Fundy. No one before him, even Champlain, obtained so wide a view of the country. The climate, the nature of the soil, the forests, the physical characteristics of the varions régions, are fully and clearly described by him. The circumstances attending the opening of the religions missions in that new land are set forth in impressive language. The visits to savage tribes by

Father Massé and himself, wîth détails of conversions and baptisms, also a statement of the conditions and prospects of spiritual work among the aborigines, présent facts of high intcrest because they apply not only to the Indians of the East, but in their main features to ail the nations afterward discovered in other directions. He reviews with fairness the previous missionary enterprise of Fléché and the rival establishment at Mt. Désert. Then follows an account of the destruction of both establishments (1613) by Argall, and of the fate of the Jesuit prisoners in Virginia and England. The last letter of Father Biard, written during the winter of 1613-1614, is a remarkable document, bearing in its first part on the whole of New France as known by the explorers at that date, its geography, its climate, its people and their customs. The style of Father Biard is lively and his quaint old forms of speech very attractive. In his Latin this is hardly perceptible, but his French is that of Montaigne. When he tells us of a trip he made to a trading post on the St. Croix and St. John rivers, this first initiation to the life of the "coureurs de bois" makes things whirl in his head and he is at a loss to understand the merriment of thèse folk: "During the day, nothing but friendliness. But alas ! when evening came, I know not how, everything was turned topsy-turvy ; confusion, discord, rage, uproar reigned between our people and those of St. Malo. I do not doubt that a cursed band of furious and sanguinary spirits were hovering about ail this night, expecting every hour and moment a horrible massacre of the few Christians who were there. . . . The next day, this nocturnal storm ended in a beautiful and delightful calm, the dark shadows and spectres giving way to a

luminous peace."

Next follows Lescarbot's last relation of what took place in the voyage made Ijy Sieur de Poutrincourt. The author praises Poutrincourt for his exertions in Canada in behalf of both religion and civilization, and urges that he should be aided in his colonial enterprise as a necessary basis for religious work in this portion of the New World. The life at Port Royal is pictured in some détail ; its labors and privations are dwelt upon. He does not fail to exhibit, although cautiously, his dislike of the Jesuits, and endeavors to show that their coming to Port Royal involved delay and expense to the colonial niovement, thereby injuring Poutrincourt. The possibility of making Christians out of the wandering Indians puzzles his mind, whilst the conclusion of Biard's study of the case is that, despite ail the drawbacks, the Jesuit mission in Acadia has made a hopeful beginning.^

Volume III is wholly from the pen of Father Biard and may be called a full history of Acadia up to 1614. Supposing for a moment that we were at présent wholly deprived of books relating to the first connection of the Europeans with the shores of New Foundland. Cape Breton and Cape Cod, this sole production of Biard would be sufïicient to save the record of thèse facts from oblivion.

Beginning with the Bretons who discovered a part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1504, we are brought gradually to 1604, when De Monts settled in Acadia, a round period of a century, and during the ten subséquent years the struggles of the Normans, the French Bretons, the Jesuits, the English in varions sections of the coast are

1 The second volume is illustrated with four good engravings comprising maps and plans of Port Royal.

related with simplicity, but with many keen and even philosophical observations.

"What I saw there," he says, "was extrême poverty. Wretched cabins, open in many places ; our food, peas and beans, rather scarce in quantity ; our drink, pure water ; the clothes of our people ail in rags ; our supplies found in the woods from day to day ; our médecine a glass of vvine on great holidays : our restoratives, perchance a little feathered game ; the place uninhabited ; no footprints upon the paths ; our shoes only fit for the fireside. After this, go and say there is no winter in Canada. But at least do not say that the water hère is not excellent, and the air not healthful, for it is certainly wonderful."

Fresh air and drinkable water, such were the practical results of the schemes conceived by De Monts, Poutrincourt and Madame de Guercheville. In 1613 Acadia was abandoned a second time, and twenty years were to elapse before the French authorities should dévote their attention to it again. The Basques and the Bretons kept themselves busy as usual at the fisheries and enjoyed the liberty of trading furs with the Indians, which was no more contested by De Monts or Poutrincourt. The actual situation of Acadia has returned to what it was from 1504 to 1604, with this différence only, that Biencourt and Latour remained in the country with a few "coureurs de bois" in order to trade with the vessels coming yearly from France for that purpose. Thèse two typical adventurers used to gather the pelts they could get in barter with the Indians and in time sell them to the Bretons or other French navigators. In this pursuit they continually occupied the vast area of land and sea explored by them, but more especially the peninsula of Nova Scotia,

THË JËSUITS' RELATIONS ANt) ALLlED DOCUMENTS 139

where they planted trading posts or forts, at its southeril èxtremity.

Thus we are far from realizingf the dazzlingf conceptions of Poutrincoiirt, who imagined that he had created a barony for himself when he received the grant of thèse wild lands from De Monts and âfterwards from the King of France. Commerce was no object to him, he said. His son and Latour, who quarfeled because they found that immense domain too small for their cupidity, were traders and nothing else. Madame de Guercheville wished to civilized the Indians by the employment of good preachers and schoolmasters. De Monts was wholly given to trade. None of them ever thought of the necessary élément for the foundation of their pretended New France; they forgot entirely to send there a few rural families to make a beginning of the cultivation of the soil. The men they took with them were ail radically unfit to make a living in a new country.

Father Biard seems to hâve fealized that the French are not the sort of people to build a colony, when he shows how short-sighted they were during the years 1604-1613, but the example of 1608-1760 in Lower Canada demonstrates on a large scale their capacity in that respect. The explorations of the continent, Jesuit missions, war with the Indians, waf with the English, ail led up to a petty System of fur trade that was for the benefit of a few and of no avail to colonization. On the contrary, it ahvays worked against the agricultural community. but the "habitants" did the work the authorities were unable to understand. The lattcr was but a tiny shadow of what the English colonies possessed in that line. No industries, no self-support; thcn monopoly after monopoly ;

nothiiig provided for the future. Total : 1760.

Father Biard writes in 1616 that if another experiment should ever be tried it would be well to dismiss first the prétentions and out-of-place idea of feudal organization for a country without inhabitants save the unruly Savages. This advice was not followed by Richelieu, who established the Hundred Partners in 1627. Father Biard asks for the sélection of a suitable locality where an earnest and sound agricultural settlement could be made ; when this was done and the colony in a position to sustain itself in respect of the necessities of life it would be time to think of evangelization and fur trade. We ail know that France kept on the track of 1604 and did the reverse of what Father Biard advocated.