The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 7: Quebec, Hurons, Cape Breton, 1634-1635
History
The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 7: Quebec, Hurons, Cape Breton, 1634-1635
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Indians of North America -- Canada; Jesuits -- Missions; Jesuits -- North America
saisons retournent en leur temps, & que tous les Astres gardent si
bien leur ordre, tu vois bien que les hommes n'ont point fait ces
merueilles, & qu'ils ne les gouuernent pas, il faut donc qu'il y ait
quelqu'vn plus noble que les hommes qui ait basty & qui gouuerne ceste
grande maison: or c'est celuy là que nous appellons Dieu, qui void
tout, & que nous ne voyons pas maintenant; mais nous le verrons apres
la mort, & nous serons bien-heureux à iamais auec luy si nous l'aymons
& si nous luy obeïssons. Tu ne sçais ce que tu dis, me repart-il,
apprends à parler & nous t'entendrons.
When they were full almost to bursting, the Sorcerer took his drum
and invited everyone to sing. The best singer was the one who
howled the loudest. At the end of this uproar, seeing that they
were in a very good humor, I asked permission to talk. This being
granted, I began to affirm the affection I had for them, "You
see," I said, "what love I bear you; I have not only left my own
country, which is beautiful and very pleasant, to come into your
[236] snows and vast woods, but I have also left the little house
we have in your lands, to follow you and learn your language; I
cherish you more than my brothers, since I have left them for love
of you; it is he who has made all who has given me this affection
for you, it is he who created the first man from whom we have all
descended; hence see how it is that, as we have the same father,
we are all brothers, and ought all to acknowledge the same Lord
and the same Captain; we ought all to believe in him, and obey his
will." The Sorcerer, stopping me, said in a loud voice, "When I
see him, I will believe in him, and not until then. How believe
in him whom we do not see?" I answered him: "When thou tellest
me that thy father or one of thy friends has said something, I
believe what he has said, supposing that he is not a liar, and yet
I have never seen thy father: also, thou believest that there is a
_Manitou_, and thou hast never seen him. Thou believest that there
are _Khichicouakhi_, or Spirits of light, and thou hast not seen
them." "Others have seen them," he answered. "Thou couldst not
tell," said I, [237] "neither when, nor how, nor in what way, nor
in what place they were seen; and I, I can tell thee the names of
those who have seen the Son of God upon earth,--when they saw him,
and in what place; what they have done, and in what countries they
have been." "Thy God," he replied, "has not come to our country,
and that is why we do not believe in him; make me see him and I
will believe in him." "Listen to me and thou wilt see him," said I.
"We have two kinds of sight, the sight of the eyes of the body, and
the sight of the eyes of the soul. What thou seest with the eyes of
the soul may be just as true as what thou seest with the eyes of
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