Columbus and Other Heroes of American DiscoveryD'Anvers, N.
History
Columbus and Other Heroes of American Discovery
D'Anvers, N.
America -- Discovery and exploration; North America -- Discovery and exploration
From Albany, Jogues was unable to return direct to Canada, either
by sea or by land, and he therefore took ship for England, whence,
after suffering many things at the hands of Falmouth wreckers, he
managed to get back to the land of his adoption. Here he found all
the French stations in a state of horror-struck excitement, owing to
the increasing hostility of the Iroquois. A Father Bressain, who had
fallen into one of their ambushes, had seen his Huron comrades killed
and eaten, and had himself been rescued only at the last moment by
Dutch traders. Other horrors, too terrible to be related, had been
inflicted on the native converts to Christianity, and in 1645 a solemn
assembly of all the French authorities was held at Three Rivers, with
a view to the negotiation of peace with the terrible enemy. After much
private consultation among themselves, and many a picturesque palaver
with the Indian sachems, who came to the meeting decked out in all
their finery, the French were cheered by the conclusion of “eternal
peace” with the Five Nations. This peace actually lasted a whole year,
and at the end of that year seemed so little likely to be broken, that
Jogues, in spite of all his previous sufferings, resolved to venture
again to the south of the St. Lawrence, and try to win over some of
the Iroquois to Christianity.
In June, 1646, we find the heroic Jesuit embarking on the Iroquois,
now the Richelieu, escorted by four warriors of that nation and
two young Algonquins, his object being to found a church among the
Onondagas. He arrived safely at a little village at the head of a
small sheet of water connected with Lake Champlain, called by the
natives Andiatarocté, or the Gate of the Lake, to which he gave the
name of St. Sacrement. After a short cruise on the “Gate,” and the
presentation of gifts to the Iroquois chiefs and elders who happened
to be assembled on its banks, Jogues returned to the St. Lawrence
to report progress, and in September of the same year――this time
accompanied by a young Frenchman――he once more visited the Iroquois,
intending to settle among them and teach them Christianity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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