There remains unknown to Europeans, up to the present time, an immense portion of Canada, beyond the Mississippi river, situated beneath a milder sky, well-inhabited, and abounding in animal and vegetable life; the whole, deprived of true life and of salvation. This region calls to the generous soldiers of Christ. So is it, likewise, [324] with another region far dissimilar to that, around the frozen Hudson bay, from the fifty-fifth parallel to the sixtieth or seventieth; lying at the north, plunged in snows and frosts, it even more justly implores aid, as it is afflicted by more weighty ills. Here the Society, a few years ago, first began to plant its footsteps. That day will dawn, I hope, when it shall break through the barriers of dangers and toils. Not without great exertion are the gates of Tartarus, which hold burdened souls in unmerited bondage, broken down; nor did the Canadian Mission itself, now flourishing with so many settlements, all at once attain its full development. Grievously, through sixteen years did it, so to speak, stick in a rough road; indeed, it did not take shape until 1625, when it was extricated from its perplexities by the aid of Father Peter Coton, to whom it owed its origin, as the sixth Part of this History will more fully explain. Now we return to the natal days, full of hardships and dangers, of the toilsome Mission, which, scarcely born, was almost exterminated in its cradle by the English. MISSIO CANADENSIS AB ANGLIS PROTURBATA. SOCIIS illic degentibus venerant auxilio Idibus Maii anni MDCXIII. Pater Quintinus, & Frater Gilbertus Thetus, regio diplomate instructi, quo facultas ipsis dabatur novi domicilii commodo loco ædificandi. Gallos reperiunt incumbentes in condendam urbem, & periculi, quod instabat, ignaros. Angli paucis ante annis occupaverant Virginiam. Hæc Americæ septentrionalis ad ortum portio maritima, inter Floridam Novamque Franciam sita, tricesimo sexto, septimo, & octavo gradibus substernitur. Eò cum tenderent Angli æstivis anni MDCXIII. mensibus, & inscii locorum errarent, ob exortam caliginem, quæ huic mari densissima solet per eos menses incubare, paulatim delapsi sunt ad littus, ubi Galli consederant, haud procul portu Sancti Salvatoris. Postquam cognoverunt Gallicas naves ibi consistere, arma expediunt, & in portum invehuntur. Interea Galli ancipiti opinione suspensi, amicos an hostes censerent, quos recta in suam stationem ventus inferebat, eventum trepidi opperiebantur. Brevi, quinam essent patuit. Angli facto impetu in Gallicum navigium, paucis instructum propugnatoribus, ceteris ad condenda domicilia digressis, id nullo negotio expugnant. THE CANADIAN MISSION DRIVEN OUT BY THE ENGLISH.