de Monsieur le Nonce, & autres signalez personnages de deça, lesquels on print pour parrins, comme ie l'ay écrit en madite Histoire. Mais ie ne voy point que ces parrins se soient souvenus de leurs filieuls, ni qu'ils leur ayent envoyé aucune chose pour les sustenter, ayder, & encourager à demeurer fermes en la Religion qu'ils ont receuë: Car pour du pain on leur fera croire ce que l'on voudra, & peu à peu leur terre [12] estant cultivée les nourrira. Mais il les faut ayder du commencement. Ce qu'a fait le sieur de Poutrincourt tant qu'il a peu, voire outrepassant son pouvoir il en a ieusné par apres, comme nous dirons ailleurs. RELIGION. Sieur de Poutrincourt had hardly taken breath after so many labors, when he sent for Membertou, chief and oldest Captain of this country, to refresh his memory in regard to some of the principles of the Christian Religion, which we had [10] previously taught him, and to instruct him more fully in things which concern the salvation of the soul; so that, he being converted, many others might follow his example. As in truth it came to pass. For after having been catechized for some time, and his family with him, he was baptized, as were also twenty others of his company, upon saint John the Baptist's day, 1610. [_Book 5. ch. 5. page 638._] I have enrolled their names in my History of New France, just as they are written over there in the baptismal register of the mother-Church, which is at Port Royal. The Pastor who accomplished this master-piece [_chef d'œuvre_] was Messire Jesse Fleuche, a native of Lantage, in the diocese of Langres; [_Commission._] he is a scholarly man, and received his commission from Monsieur, the Ambassador of the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome, who was then, and is still, in Paris. Not that a French Bishop might not have given it to him; but, as this one was chosen, I believe the said commission is as good from him (since he is a Bishop), as from another, although he is a stranger. However, I leave the consideration of this matter to those who have more interest in it than I have, it being a question that admits of dispute on both sides, since here he is not in his diocese. This Ambassador, called Robert Ubaldin,[18] gave him permission to hear confessions from all people over there, and to absolve them from all sins and crimes not strictly reserved to the Apostolic see; and to impose upon them penances, according to the character of the sin. Furthermore, he gave him power to consecrate and bless the chasubles, and other priestly vestments, and the altar furnishings, except [11] the Corporals, Chalices, and Patens. It is thus that I have seen it stated in the credentials granted to the said Fleuche, first Patriarch of those lands. I say patriarch, because that is what he was generally called: and this was an incentive to him to