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
We left the banks of the great river on the 12th of November, as
I have [248] said, and pitched our camp near a torrent, traveling
in the way I have just described, each one carrying his pack. All
the Savages made sport of me because I was not a good pack horse,
being satisfied to carry my cloak, which was heavy enough; a small
bag in which I kept my little necessaries; and their sneers, which
were not as heavy as my body; and this was my load. My host and the
Apostate carried upon poles, crossed in the form of a stretcher,
the wife of the Sorcerer, who was very sick; they placed her on the
snow, while waiting for the cabin to be made, and there she passed
more than three hours without fire, and did not once complain nor
show any sign of impatience. I was more troubled about her than
she was about herself, for I often appealed to them to make at
least a little fire near her; but the answer was that she would get
warm when the cabin was made. These savages are hardened to such
sufferings; they expect if they fall sick to be paid in the same
coin. We sojourned three days at this station; and the following
[249] are some of the things I noted down in my memoirs during this
time.
C'est icy que les Sauuages consulterent les genies du iour, en la façon
que i'ay couché au Chapitre quatriesme: or comme ie m'estois ris de
ceste superstition, & qu'à toutes les occasions qui se rencontroient,
ie faisois voir que les mysteres du Sorcier n'estoient que ieux
d'enfans, m'efforçant de luy rauir ses oüailles pour les rendre auec
le temps à celuy qui les a rachetées au prix de son sang, cét homme
forcené fit le iour d'apres ceste consulte, que ie vay décrire.
It was here that the Savages consulted their genii of light, in the
manner I have described in Chapter four. Now as I had always shown
my amusement at this superstition, and on all possible occasions
had made them see that the mysteries of the Sorcerer were nothing
but child's play,--endeavoring to carry off his flock so that, in
time, I might deliver them up to him who had bought them with his
blood,--this unscrupulous man, the day afterward, went through with
the performance I am going to describe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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