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
They tell us how the woman, named _Eataentsic_, fell from Heaven
[198] into the waters with which the earth was covered; and that
little by little, the earth became bare. I ask them who created the
Heaven in which this woman could not stay, and they remain mute;
as also when I press them to tell me who formed the earth, seeing
that it was beneath the waters before the fall of this woman. One
man asked me very cunningly, in this connection, where God was
before the creation of the world. The reply was more easy for me,
following St. Augustine, than the grasp of the question put to me
was for them. Another good old man, having fallen sick, did not
wish to hear of going to Heaven, saying he desired to go where his
ancestors were. Some days afterwards, he came to me and told me a
pleasant story: "Rejoice," he said, "for I have returned from the
country of souls, and I have found none there any longer; [199]
they have all gone to Heaven." There is nothing which does not
serve for salvation when God pleases, not even dreams.
Deux choses entre autres nous ont fort aydé, pour si peu de profit que
nous auons desia fait icy, par la grace de nostre Seigneur. La premiere
est, comme i'ay desia dit, la santé que Dieu nous a conseruée parmy
vne si grande & si vniuerselle contagion: car nos Hurons ont pensé que
s'ils croyoient en Dieu, & le seruoient comme nous, il[s] ne mouroient
pas en si grand nombre.
Two things among others have aided us very much in the little we
have been able to do here, by the grace of our Lord; the first is,
as I have already said, the good health that God has granted us in
the midst of sickness so general and so widespread. For our Hurons
have thought that, if they believed in God and served him as we do,
they would not die in so large numbers.
La seconde est l'assistance temporelle, qu'on a rendu aux malades.
Ayans apporté pour nous quelques petits rafraichissemens, nous leur en
donnions, à l'vn vn peu de prunes, à l'autre vn peu de raisins; aux
autres quelque autre chose. Les pauures gens venoient [200] de fort
loin pour en auoir tous leur part.
The second is the temporal assistance we have rendered to the sick.
Having brought for ourselves some few delicacies, we shared them
with them, giving to one a few prunes and to another a few raisins,
to others something else. The poor people came [200] from great
distances to get their share.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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