Section IL, 1885. [ 4S ] Trans. Roy. Soc. Can.^da. 



IV. — The Adventures of Isaac Jogues, S. J. 



By W. H. WiTHROW, D.D. 



(Read May 27, 1885.) 



Ill the early years of the seventeenth century a young lad might have been seen 

 daily entering the Jesuit Seminary of the old historic town of Orleans. He was already 

 an accomplished scholar, and might have won a distinguished reputation had- he turned 

 his attention to the cultivation of letters. But a nobler ambition possessed the soul of 

 Isaac Jogues — a name destined to be ilhistrious in the annals of Christian martyrdom. 

 His constitutional timidity shrank from the jostling conflict of life. His sensitive con- 

 science recoiled from its sordid aims. His religious susceptibilities yearned for higher 

 duties and purer enjoyments. He resolved to devote himself in youthful consecration to 

 a religious life. He therefore sought admission to the Order of Jesus, and after a singu- 

 larly devout novitiate assumed the irrevocable vows. But even the most ascetic 

 discipline failed to satisfy the sense of duty of the young neophyte. He longed to 

 devote himself to missionary labour, the especial vocation of his order. 



All eyes were then turned to the vast and mysterious regions of the West, where 

 was waged the streniious conflict between Christianity and paganism. The Annual 

 Relations' of the Jesuit Fathers kindled a fire of enthusiasm in many a pious mind 

 Burning to share these glorious toils, and, if need were, to sufler and to die, ad mnjorem 

 Dei gloriam,' Jogues obtained leave to join the Canadian Mission. 



On July 2nd, 1636, the young recruit arrived at Quebec. He forthwith set out, 

 accompanied by Fathers G-arnier and Châtelain to re-enforce the Huron Mission on the 

 shores of the Georgian Bay. After incredible hardships and exposure during a journey 

 of nine hundred miles by lake and river, over riigged portages and through arrowy rapids, 

 toiling at the paddle by day and sleeping on the cold damp ground by night, they at 

 length reached the forest mission, planted two years before by Fathers Brèbeuf and Daniel, 

 and destined to be fertilized by their blood. 



They were received with joy by the resident missionaries. " I prepared an entertain- 

 ment of what we had," writes Le Mercier : " a few dry fish and a little meal. But for heart 

 and mind was never better cheer. The joy we felt was like the happiness of the blessed 

 on their entrance into Paradise." But worn out by their iinwonted toil, exposure and 

 hardship, the new-comers, one after another, fell ill of a wasting fever. The Mission 

 House, says Mercier became an hospital ; but they had no other physician than the paternal 

 providence of God. 



' For forty years, 1632-1672, these Relations were annually published in Paris. They have been collected in 

 three large 8vo. volumes, and published by the Canadian Government, and have been closely followed in the text. 

 The quaint old French is followed verbalim in the footnotes. 



- The motto of the Jesuit Order. 



