De Caen had brought out one or two Jesuit fathers with him, and others came with Champlain. Why the Recollets did not seize the first opportunity of returning to Canada is not very clear. In the year 1635 they had made arrangements for returning, but were requested by the intendant of the company in France to delay their departure. The next year they were plainly informed that the cardinal did not wish them to go to Canada. They were thus shut out from a mission-field which they had been the first to occupy, and it is not surprising that they felt considerably aggrieved, nor that they were disposed to attribute their exclusion to the machinations of the Jesuit order. The responsibility in the matter seems to have rested with the cardinal. It was he who sent out the Jesuit fathers; and not improbably he thought that there would be less friction and more progress if the field of New France were entrusted to a single order of ecclesiastics than if it were divided between two. The laborious, useful, and heroic life of Champlain was now drawing to a close. One of the last subjects that engaged his attention was the sale of liquor by traders and colonists to the Indians, a practice against which he issued the most stringent prohibitions, but which, as we shall have further occasion to see, proved a very difficult one to control. In the summer of 1635 he took advantage of the presence at Quebec of a large number of Hurons from the upper country to summon them and the French residents to a general assembly, in order that he might have an opportunity of urging upon them the duty and advantage of espousing the religion professed by the French. If their friendship with the French, he said, was to be maintained and strengthened, they must embrace the faith of the latter; and in that case God, who was all-powerful, would bless and protect them, and give them the victory over their enemies. They would also learn the arts of civilization, and in every way enjoy great happiness and prosperity. What impression this discourse made is not stated. In point of fact the Jesuits, who devoted themselves specially to mission work amongst the Hurons, had eventually a considerable measure of success in converting them to Christianity; but the unhappy tribe, instead of triumphing in war, became a more and more helpless prey to their heathen enemies, and, in about fifteen years from this date, were almost obliterated from the face of the earth.[2]