CHAP. xxxr. MISSIONS AMOXG THE MOXTAGXAIS. 177 



the early Jesuit missionaries in the following striking 

 paragraph quoted by Halkett : — ' Almost all the conquests 

 gained to Christianity by the Jesuits, are those mfants 

 who have received the rites of baptism, and those old 

 men who, at the point of death, find no inconvenience in 

 dying baptised.' This corresponds with what was long 

 before stated by Pere Lallement, in the account of his 

 early mission among the Hurons. ' We have this year 

 baptised more than a thousand, most of them afflicted 

 with the small-pox ; of whom a large proportion have 

 died, with every mark of having been received among 

 the elect. Of these there are more than three hundred 

 and sixty infants under seven years of age, without 

 counting upwards of a hundred other little childix-n, 

 who, having been baptised before, were cut off by the 

 same malady, and gathered by the angels as flowers in 

 Paradise. With respect to adult persons in good health, 

 there is Httle apparent success ; on the contrary, there 

 have been nothing but stoims and whirlwmds in that 

 quarter.' 



Of late years the Eoman Catholic missions among the 

 Montagnais have been resumed, and are now systema- 

 tically carried on ; but it is apparently regarded as 

 perfectly useless to impart to the Indians any other 

 knowledge than that of their religion — a system which 

 the pecuHar position of the Indians, in a country where 

 they must depend to a great extent upon hunting and 

 fishing, appears to render necessary. 



The Eoman Cathohc missions on the north shore of 

 the St. Lawrence and on the coasts of Labrador are of 

 three descriptions: — first, those of the Canadian families 



VOL. II. N 



