In 1634, two Jesuits, Brebeuf and Daniel, left Quebec in company with a party of Huron Indians, who inhabited the wild forest regions east of the lake which bears their name. The journey was one of “three hundred leagues, now through the wild forest, now ascending the Ottawa, the great western tributary of the St. Lawrence, an impetuous river, abounding in falls, where the canoe had to be carried for leagues on the shoulders.” Thus by day encountering the perils and hardships of a journey through this savage country, and at night sleeping on the earth, they at length reached the Manitoulin, or Georgian Bay, the eastern branch of Lake Huron. On the borders of this lake a mission was soon established, and a little chapel erected, “built by the aid of the axe,” and consecrated to St. Joseph, where mass was celebrated and matins and vespers chanted, and the host administered to the Huron converts, who, touched by the doctrine of the Saviour, promulgated by these his devoted ministers, thronged to receive the symbols of divine love. The Christian villages of St. Louis and St. Ignatius arose in the wilderness, and the praises of God and Christ resounded in the Huron tongue. For fifteen years this successful mission was continued, other missionaries being soon attracted to this field of labour; for we are told by Bancroft, from, whom we shall freely borrow in this portion of our history, that “now and then one of these fathers would make a voyage to Quebec in a canoe, with two or three savages, paddle in hand, exhausted with rowing, his feet naked, his breviary hanging about his neck, his shirt unwashed, his cassock half-torn off his lean body, but with a face full of content, charmed with the life which he led, and inspiring by his air and by his words a strong desire to join him in his mission.” Jean de Brebeuf, the Huron missionary, was an ecstatic in his sufferings and devotions. Not satisfied with the toil and subjection of his body consequent on his arduous labours, he subjected himself to the rigours of penance and self-mortification, and was rewarded with beatific visions which exalted his pious raptures into ecstacy,—“What shall I render to thee, Jesus, my Lord, for all thy benefits? I will accept thy cup and invoke thy name!” exclaimed he, and registered a vow before God and the host of heaven, before St. Joseph and other saints, “never to shrink from martyrdom for Christ’s sake, but to receive the death-blow only with joy!”