SEQVITVR iam ex initio propositis tertium, nimirum vt exponatur, quonam tandē loco rem Christianam his in locis offenderimus. Certé ante hoc tempus vix vnquam à Gallis vacatum fuit conuertēdis incolarum ad Christum animis. Obstabant multa. Nam & peregrinabantur huc tantùm, non cōmorabantur: & qui commorari voluerunt, tam aduersis conflictati sunt casibus, vt ei rei dare operam sanè multam non potuerint. Deuehebantur duntaxat interdum nonnulli in Galliam, ibíq; baptizabantur, sed ijdem vt nec satis instituti, & à pastoribus destituti, simul ac in has oras remigrauerant, ad solita prorsus & vsitata reuoluebantur. Appulimus huc nos [24] vigesimâ secundâ Maij, ipso sacro Pentecostes die, anni huius CIↃ.IↃC.XI. Quo duntaxat anno is, quem sæpius appellare necesse est, D. Potrincurtius ad sedes hîc domiciliúmqʒ figendum peruenerat, secúmqʒ Sacerdotem sæcularem aduexerat. Is Sacerdos per eum annum dicitur capita ferè centum baptimo initiauisse; in his celebrem inter Sagamos, & de quo nos infra plura dicemus, Henricum Membertou cum familia vniuersa, hoc est cum tribus liberis iam cōiugibus. Sed, vt fit, cùm nec Sacerdos ipse, nec alius quisquam linguam nôsset, nisi quātum attinet ad vitæ & mercimoniorum necessitatem, erudiri videlicet neophyti non potuerunt. NOW FOLLOWS the third of the topics proposed in the beginning--the setting forth, namely, of the condition in which we found the Christian religion in this country. Certainly before this time scarcely any attention has ever been given by the French to converting the souls of the natives to Christ. There have been many obstacles. For the French only wandered through these regions, but did not remain here, and those who wished to remain were harassed by so many calamities that they assuredly could not give much thought to this matter. Some natives, it is true, were occasionally brought to France and baptized there, but these not being sufficiently instructed, and finding themselves without shepherds as soon as they returned to these shores, immediately resumed their former habits and traditions. We landed here [24] on the 22nd of May, on the holyday of Pentecost of this year 1611. In this very same year Sieur Potrincourt, whom I shall have occasion to mention several times, had come here to establish himself permanently, and had brought a secular Priest with him. This Priest, it is said, baptized nearly a hundred persons during the year, among them one of the most celebrated of the Chiefs, of whom we shall have to speak again later, Henry Membertou, with his whole family, that is, three children already married. But, since neither this Priest nor any one else knew their language, save so far as pertains to the merest necessities of intercourse and trade, the neophytes could of course not be instructed in our doctrines.