25. (p. 109)--Jessé Fléché, a secular priest from the diocese of Langres, was invited by Poutrincourt to accompany the first colony to Acadia. The papal nuncio gave him authority to absolve in all cases, except those reserved to the pope.--Faillon's _Col. Fr._, vol. i., p. 99. Poutrincourt evidently meant to Christianize Acadia without the aid of the Jesuits. The wholesale baptism of savages by Fléché, before the arrival of Biard and Massé, was, according to Faillon (_Ibid._, vol. i., p. 100), condemned as a profanation by good Catholics, "tous les théologiens, and notamment la Sorbonne."--Cf. also note 19, _ante_, and Sagard's _Histoire du Canada_, p. 97. He had been at Port Royal nearly a year before the arrival of the Jesuits. The name is variously spelled: Fleche, Fléche, Flèche, Fléché, Flesche, Fleuchy, and Fleuche; see Sulte's _Poutrincourt en Acadie_, p. 38. See Bourinot's picturesque description of the baptismal scene, in _Can. Royal Soc. Trans._, sec. ii, p. 73. Fléché was much esteemed by the Micmacs; his nickname, "Le Patriarch," is still current among them corrupted into "Patliasse," as the name for a priest.--See Ferland's _Cours d'Histoire_ (Quebec, 1861), vol. i, p. 80. 26. (p. 127)--The four letters here given (Biard, Jan. 21, June 10, and June 11, 1611; and Massé, June 11, 1611) are from Carayon's _Première Mission des Jésuites au Canada: Lettres et Documents Inédits_ (Paris, 1864). All of the documents in Carayon's collection will be published in this series, in chronological order, with that Editor's valuable footnotes. Auguste Carayon, S. J., a leading authority upon the history of his order in New France, was born in Saumur, France, 1813, and died in Poitiers, 1874. His principal works were: _Bibliographie historique de la Compagnie de Jésus; Catalogue des ouvrages relatifs à l'histoire des Jésuites depuis leur origine jusqu'à nos jours_ (Paris, 1864); _Documents inédits concernant la Compagnie de Jésus_ (Poitiers, 1863-1875, 18 vols.); _Première Mission des Jésuites au Canada_ (Paris, 1864); _Bannissement des Jésuites de la Louisiane_ (Paris, 1865); _Établissement de la Compagnie de Jésus à Brest, par Louis XIV._ (1865); _Prisons du Marquis de Pombal, ministre du Portugal, journal de 1759 à 1777_ (1865); _Notes historiques sur les parlements et les Jésuites au dix-huitième siécle_ (1867). Carayon also edited numerous important historical works, between 1864 and 1871.