It was not long after Nicolet's return to Quebec, from his visit to "the People of the Sea," and neighboring nations, before he was assigned to Three Rivers by Champlain, where he was to continue his office of commissary and interpreter; for, on the ninth of December, 1635, he "came to give advice to the missionaries who were dwelling at the mission that a young Algonquin was sick; and that it would be proper to visit him."[93] And, again, on the seventh of the following month, he is found visiting, with one of the missionaries, a sick Indian, near the fort, at Three Rivers.[94] His official labors were performed to the great satisfaction of both French and Indians, by whom he was equally and sincerely loved. He was constantly assisting the missionaries, so far as his time would permit, in the conversion of the savages, whom he knew how to manage and direct as he desired, and with a skill that could hardly find its equal. His kindness won their esteem and respect. His charity seemed, indeed, to know no bounds.[95] As interpreter for one of the missionaries, he accompanied him from Three Rivers on a journey some leagues distant, on the twelfth of April, 1636, to visit some savages who were sick; thus constantly administering to their sufferings.[96] Notwithstanding the colonists of New France were living in a state of temporal and spiritual vassalage, yet the daring Nicolet, and others of the interpreters of Champlain, although devout Catholics and friendly to the establishment of missions among the Indian nations, were not Jesuits, nor in the service of these fathers; neither was their's the mission work, in any sense, which was so zealously prosecuted by these disciples of Loyola. They were a small class of men, whose home--some of them--was the forest, and their companions savages. They followed the Indians in their roamings, lived with them, grew familiar with their language, allied themselves, in some cases, with their women, and often became oracles in the camp and leaders on the war-path. Doubtless, when they returned from their rovings, they often had pressing need of penance and absolution. Several of them were men of great intelligence and an invincible courage. From hatred of restraint, and love of wild and adventurous independence, they encountered privations and dangers scarcely less than those to which the Jesuit exposed himself from motives widely different:--he, from religious zeal, charity, and the hope of paradise; they, simply because they liked it. Some of the best families of Canada claim descent from this vigorous and hardy stock.[97]