I am truly grieved to say it, and would willingly be silent were it not necessity which constrains me, because, either through malice or very gross ignorance, they accuse the Jesuits of things in which nevertheless they have seemed truly sincere and faithful servants of God. But it is true that when they arrived in new France, they found that about eighty persons had already been baptized there (as they said); but they could not get the list of names, although they put themselves to some trouble to do so. Now, encountering some of these new converts, they tried to find out the extent of their knowledge, and for all found out that they did not know [109] even how to make the sign of the Cross; some did not know their Baptismal names, and when asked if they were Christians, they made signs to show that they had never heard the word. They did not know any prayers, nor articles of faith, and gave no evidence of any change from the past, always retaining the same old sorceries, coming to Church moreover, only as the unbaptized, that is, occasionally, for company's sake, or through curiosity, and not in a devotional spirit. Indeed some of our countrymen tell us, that when they were by themselves, they insolently made sport of our ceremonies, and that really, when they were well sounded, it was learned that they had accepted Baptism solely as a sign of friendship with the Normans, for thus they call us. An exception to this number was the great Membertou, for truly he [110] was a Christian at heart, and desired nothing better than to be able to receive thorough instruction so he could teach the others. Now the Jesuits, perceiving all these things, resolved not to baptize a single adult, unless he had, according to the Holy Canons, been well initiated and catechized. For they well understood that to do otherwise would not only be a profanation of Christianity, but also an injustice towards the Savages. For, inasmuch as it is an injustice to induce any one to sign a promise, or compulsory oath, without giving him to understand the conditions to which he binds himself: how much worse is it to force a rational being of competent age to make a solemn profession of the law of God (which is done through Baptism), when he has never before been a novice, nor [111] been made to understand the rules and duties of this profession? The Savages were not so stupid but that they knew enough to reproach us for this injustice, inasmuch as, after these baptisms of which we have spoken, when the Jesuits requested that they should give up Polygamy, and should live like Christians, since they were in duty bound to do so; they told them that we were wicked people, that we had tried to make them believe that they should agree to conditions that they had never understood, nor been able to understand.