VOCAT NOS huius anni CIↃ.IↃC.XI. instans iam atqʒ vrgens exitus ad recognoscendum coram Paternitate vestra principium, quo primùm Societas in has nouæ Franciæ regiones delata est: multorum quoque beneficiorum cumulus, quo nos diuina largitas in his & auspicādis, & sospitādis initijs prosecuta est, hoc exigit, vt in hoc tanquam temporum anníque portu actionum nostrarū, & tanquam velificationis seriem relegētes, Chariss: Patres Fratrésqʒ nostros inuitemus, & ad gaudium pro ijs, quæ feliciter [6] in nobis diuina manus operata est, & scilicet ad gemitum pariter & orationem pro ijs, quæ in animorum salute procuranda, segniter ipsi nequitérque multa deliquimus. Quod enim diutius antè Societas multísqʒ conatibus intenderat, vt aliquam suis laboribus posset huic quoq; siluaticæ genti opem & lucem Euangelio inferendo affere, id hoc ipsa demum anno videtur, vt in tenui exiguóque principio satis feliciter, próque desiderio esse assecuta. [5] Canadian Mission. REVEREND FATHER IN CHRIST, The peace of Christ be with you. The end of this year 1611, which is already so rapidly drawing near, invites me to write to your Reverence in acknowledgment of its beginning, in which our Society first penetrated into this territory of new France. The profusion of blessings and favors which the divine bounty has bestowed upon us while undertaking and sustaining this infant enterprise, requires that in this haven, as it were, of time and of the year we should, reviewing the course of our actions and the occurrences of our voyage, invite our dear Fathers and Brothers to share both in our rejoicing for those things which the hand of God has happily [6] effected through us, and, too, in our mourning and our prayers for our delinquencies and inefficiency in seeking the salvation of souls. The object sought by the Society for a long time previously and with many efforts, that it might in some degree impart help and light to this savage people also by its labors in bringing the Gospel among them, it seems at last to have attained in this year, with a small and slight beginning indeed, yet auspiciously and in accordance with its hopes.