THE ORIGINAL FRENCH, LATIN, AND ITALIAN TEXTS, WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS AND NOTES; ILLUSTRATED BY PORTRAITS, MAPS, AND FACSIMILES

This information was taken from the following web site: http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/

DURING the present year, eighty-six have been baptized, and, adding to these the fourteen of last year, there are a hundred souls in all who, we believe, have been rescued from the service of the devil in this country since our return. Of this. number God has called ten to Heaven,—six while they were young, and four more advanced in age. One of these, named François Sangwati, was Captain of our village. He had a naturally good disposition, and consented very willingly to be instructed and to receive Holy Baptism, a course he had previously praised and approved in others. I admired the tender Providence of God in the conversion of a woman, who is one of the four deceased. I baptized her [5] this Autumn at the village of Scanonaenrat, when returning from the house of Louys de sainte Foy, where we had gone to instruct his parents. The deafness of this sick woman, and the depths of the mysteries I brought to her notice, prevented her from sufficiently understanding me; and, besides, the accent of that Nation is a little different from that of the Bears, with whom we live. My own imperfect acquaintance with the language rendered me [page 11] still less intelligible, and increased my difficulties. But Our Lord, who willed to save this soul, immediately sent us a young man, who served us as interpreter. He had been with us in the Cabin of Louys, and had heard us talking of our mysteries, so that he already knew a considerable part of them, and understood very well what I said. It is said that this woman, who was named Marie, in the midst of her greatest weakness foretold that she would not die for eight days; and so it happened.

They seek Baptism almost entirely as an aid to health. We try to purify this intention, and to lead them to receive from the hand of God alike sickness and health, death and life; and teach them that the life-giving waters of Holy [6] Baptism principally impart life to the soul, and not to the body. However, they have the opinion so deeply rooted that the baptized, especially the children, are no longer sickly, that soon they will have spread it abroad and published it everywhere. The result is that they are now bringing us children to baptize from two, three, yes, even seven leagues away.

Moreover, the divine Goodness which acts in us according to the measure of our Faith, has thus far preserved these little ones in good health; so that the death of those who have passed away has been attributed to incurable and hopeless maladies contracted beforehand; and, if another has occasionally suffered from some trifling ailment, the parents, although still unbelieving, have attributed it to the neglect and irreverence they have shown toward the service of God.

There is in our village a little Christian girl named Louyse, who at six months began to walk alone; the [page 13] parents declare they have seen nothing like it, and ,attribute it to the efficacy of Holy Baptism. Another person told us one day, with great delight, that his little [7] boy, who had always been sick and much emaciated before Baptism, had been very well since then. This will suffice to show how Our Lord is inspiring them with a high opinion of this divine Sacrament, which is strengthened by the perfect health God gives us, and which he has given to all the French who have been in this country; for, they say, it is very strange that, except a single man who died here from natural causes, all the others, during the twenty-five years or thereabout in which the, French have been frequenting this region, have scarcely ever been sick.

From all this may be easily gathered the present state of the young Christianity of this country, and the hope for the future. Two or three things besides will help to the same end. The first is the method we pursue in the instruction of the Savages. We gather together the men as often as we can; for their councils, their feasts, their games, and their dances do not permit us to have them here at any 'hour, nor every day. We pay especial attention to the Old Men, inasmuch as they are the ones who determine and decide all matters, and everything is ordered by their advice. [8] All come willingly to hear us; all, without exception, say they have a desire to go to Heaven and fear the fiery torments of hell. They have hardly anything to answer us with; we could wish sometimes that they would bring forward more objections, which would always afford us better opportunity to explain our holy Mysteries in detail. Of a truth, the Commandments of God [page 15] are very just and reasonable, and they must be less than men who find therein anything to censure. Our Hurons, who have as yet only the light of nature, have found them so noble, so agreeable to reason, that after having heard the explanation of them they would say, in admiration, ca chia attwain aa arrihwaa, "Certainly these are important matters, and worthy of being discussed in our councils; they speak the truth, they say nothing but what is to the purpose; we have never heard such discourse."

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[10] Moreover, the harmony of all points of Christian Doctrine pleases them wonderfully; "For," they say, " you always speak connectedly, and consistently with what you have said; you never wander off, you never speak save to the purpose; we, on the contrary, speak heedlessly, not knowing what we say." It is a characteristic of falsehood to embarrass itself in a multitude of contradictions.