The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 8: Quebec, Hurons, Cape Breton, 1634-1636
History
The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 8: Quebec, Hurons, Cape Breton, 1634-1636
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Indians of North America -- Canada; Jesuits -- Missions; Jesuits -- North America
this young prisoner, who was a strong man, tall and finely formed,
about making peace; they have been treating about it for a long
time, but at last it is concluded. In truth, I believe it will not
last long; [70] for the first impulse that seizes some hot-headed
fellow, at the remembrance that one of his relations was killed
by the Hiroquois, will make him go and surprise one of them, and
treacherously assassinate him; and thus the war will begin again.
Fidelity cannot be expected from people who have not the true Faith.
Le vingt-quatriesme du mesme mois grand nombre d'Algonquains estans
arriuez, ie m'en allay chercher par leur[s] cabanes, vne petite
fillette que i'auois baptisée, & nommée Marguerite l'ã passé: sa
mere me recogneut bien, & me dit qu'elle estoit morte, c'est autant
de gaigné pour le Ciel, ie ne l'auois pas fait Chrestienne qu'à fin
qu'elle y allast. Cõme ie vins à demãder des nouuelles du pere de cét
enfant que i'auois cõmencé d'instruire, vn Sauuage me respondit qu'il
estoit mort; à ceste [71] parole vne sienne fille aagée de dix-huict à
vingt ans, fit vn grand cry toute éplorée; on me fit signe que ie ne
parlasse point de la mort, dont le seul nom leur semble insupportable.
On the twenty-fourth of the same month, a great many Algonquains
having arrived, I went through their cabins, looking for a little
girl I had baptized and named Marguerite, the year before. Her
mother readily recognized me, and told me that she was dead; that
was so much gained for Heaven; I had only made her a Christian
that she might go there. When I came to ask news of the father of
the child whom I had begun to instruct, a Savage told me that he
was dead; at this [71] answer, one of his daughters, about eighteen
or twenty years old, uttered a loud cry and burst into tears; they
made me a sign that I should not speak of death, its very name
seeming to them unbearable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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