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
On the eighth of March occurred the death of the Savage woman named
Anne, of whom I have spoken in Chapter second; as the anguish of
death approached, she said at times to herself, _nitapoueten,
nitapoueten_, "I believe, I believe;" _nisadkihau, nisadkihau_, "I
love him, I love him;" _ouaskoucki nioui itoutan_, "I wish to go
to Heaven;" and once she said to me, as I was leaving her after
having instructed and [86] visited her in her sickness; "Thou hast
been a father to me up to the present; continue so until my death,
which will not be long; come back and see me very soon, and if
thou seest me so low I cannot speak, remember that I shall always
think of what thou hast said to me, and that I shall always believe
in my heart." As a Savage had informed me that she did not belong
to this region, I asked her a few days before her death about her
native country: she told me that the people of her Nation were
called _ouperigoue ouaouakhi_, that they dwelt farther back in
the interior, below Tadoussac, and on the same side; that they
could descend through the rivers from their country to the great
river saint Lawrence; that her Countrymen had no commerce with the
Europeans; "that is why," she said, "they use hatchets made of
stone;" that they have [87] Deer and Beavers in abundance, but very
few Elk; that they speak the Montagnais language, and that they
would certainly come and trade with the French, were it not that
the Savages of Tadoussac try to kill them when they encounter them.
I do not know whether these are the ones that we call Bersiamites,
some of whom have been cruelly massacred this year at Tadoussac.
These perfidious Savages received them very kindly, and, when they
had them in their power, treacherously put them to death.
Le cinquiesme d'Auril vn Sauuage Montaignais vint rapporter au Pere
Buteux, que nos Peres, & nos François qui les accompagnoient auoient
esté delaissez dans les bois, & liez à des arbres par les Hurons qui
les menoient en leur pays, lesquels [88] s'estans trouuez mal d'vne
certaine epidemie qui affligea l'Automne passé toutes ces Nations,
creurent que ceste maladie leur estoit causée par les François, ce qui
les auoit reduits à les traitter de la sorte, & ce sauuage asseuroit
auoir appris ceste nouuelle de la bouche de quelques Bissiriniens,
voisins des Hurons. Nous remismes toute ceste affaire entre les mains
de N. Seigneur, qui prendra nos vies dans les temps, & dans les
occasions qu'il luy plaira. Nous auiõs desia appris, comme i'escriuy
l'an passé des mauuaises nouuelles du P. Anthoine Daniel qu'on nous
faisoit quasi mort: mais en fin la bonté de Dieu nous a consolez; car
la pluspart de ces bruits se sont trouuez faux. Il est vray que le
Pere Daniel, & tous les autres, ont souffert incomparablement en leur
voyage, comme V. R. pourra veoir [89] par la Relation du Pere Brebeuf.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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