Nunc ærumnarum ac periculorum plenos natales referimus laboriosæ Missionis, quæ vix nata, in ipsis cunis per Anglos propemodùm extincta est. SETTLEMENTS AND MISSIONS OF THE SOCIETY IN NEW FRANCE. AND that the Lord is with his servants and soldiers, the outcome has proved. For, in the beginning of this year 1703, while we are writing these things, there are numbered in this formerly _solitary and unexplored country_ more than thirty very prosperous and well-equipped Missions of our Society, besides the college of Quebec. The first of these, in sight of Quebec, at the tenth mile-stone from the city, is called Lorette. Another is situated in the district of Tadoussac, on the shore of the river St. Lawrence, sixty leagues below Quebec toward the east. Three others, above Quebec itself, extend far into the North about lake St. John; one in that place which takes its name from the seven islands;[49] another in the district of Chigoutimini;[50] the third on the Saguenay river. There they minister to the Montagnais, the Papinachois, the Mistassins, and other wandering tribes. Now, if you journey towards the regions of the setting sun, and the source of the St. Lawrence river, you will find upon its northern bank a district called Three rivers, because there three rivers flow together: it is distant from Quebec seven or eight days' journey. Here, there formerly flourished the most successful Mission of the Algonquins; but it has been much weakened through the drunkenness induced by brandy, brought in by European merchants who thus wickedly derive an easy profit. But these losses are compensated by the virtue and piety of the Abenakis. Among them a mission of three stations has been established; one located among them, not far from Quebec, on the forty-sixth parallel of latitude, distinguished by the name and patronage of St. Francis de Sales: the other two are more remote, at a place named Nipisikouit. Across the St. Lawrence river, to the South, extend the five nations of the Iroquois. There are among them seven stations of the Evangelists, scattered through a hundred and fifty leagues. Of these, six were destroyed in the war which arose between the French and Iroquois, about the year 1682. Peace, together with the recall of the missionaries, in the year 1702 restored all things to their previous condition.[51] Among these Missions of the Iroquois, that one is especially flourishing which is named for St. Francis Xavier, at Montreal.[52]