46 W. H. WITHROW: 



Ou their recovery, having overcome prejudice and won many couverts to Christianity 

 by their saintly ministrations to the sick and dying Hnrous, smitten with the loathsome 

 small-pox which decimated their tribes, a new mission was at length projected for the 

 conversion of the Tobacco nation, a kindred people who wore still pagan. " This mission," 

 writes Lalemant, " has been the richest of all, since its crosses and sirfferings have been 

 the most abundant." ^ Jogues and Gamier set forth, with only their good angels for their 

 guides,- to bear the Gospel to these unknown savages. Towards dusk on the second day 

 they reached a pagan village, just in time to instruct and baptize an Indian womau, who, 

 as they expressed it, awaited only their arrival to die to all her miseries.' Through the 

 neighboring villages they sought out the sick and suffering — the scattered sheep of the 

 Good Shepherd ' — and sought to bring them to the true fold. 



The whole country was full of evil reports against the missionaries. The children 

 cried out, at the apparition of the black robed figures, that Famine and Pest were coming.' 

 Others lied at their approach. They could scarce find shelter from the winter storms. 

 They Avere driven from hut to hut, from town to town. They endured hunger, cold, 

 rain and snow. They were menaced with almost every form of death. But Christian 

 charity conquered savage hate, and a successful mission was planted. 



In the following year, 1640, we find Jogues associated with Father Pérou in charge of 

 the mission-fortress of Ste. Marie on the shores of the Georgian Bay. But while a single 

 pagan tribe was unvisited, the zeal of the missionaries knew no cessation. In 1641, there- 

 fore. Fathers Jogues and Raymbault went forth as the first envoys of Christendom to the 

 far West. For seventeen days they glided over unknown waters till they reached the 

 cataract which they named, in honour of their virgin patroness, the Sault Ste. Marie. 

 Here they planted the cross and preached its glad message five years before Eliot addressed 

 the Indians within six miles of Boston. Soon the Jesuits had taken possession of the 

 whole continent from Cape Breton to the Rocky Mountains, from Hudson Bay to the Gulf 

 of Mexico, save a narrow strip on the Atlantic coast ; and over that vast region they left 

 their footprints forever iu the names of innumerable lakes, rivers, mountains and other 

 great features of nature. 



In the spring of 1642, Jogues was commanded by his Superior to visit Quebec, on the 

 business of the mission in whose service he had spent six toilful years. The ubiquitous 

 Iroquois were on the war-path, thirsting for French or Huron blood. In five and thirty 

 days after leaving Ste. Marie, Jogues with his Hurons, worn with toil and travel, reached 

 Quebec. Having iu five days transacted their business, they began their return journey, 

 without giving an hour to pleasure or repose. 



There were forty pei-sons iu the party, four of them French — Jogues, two lay as- 

 sociates, Couture and Goupil, and another — the rest were Ilurous. On August 2nd, the 



' Cette mission a esté la plus riche tic toutes, puis que les croix et k\s souirraiieos y ont esté plus abondantes. 

 Relations, lti40, p. i)5. 



'' Prennant nos bons Anges pour guides. Ihid. 



^Nou6 arriuasmes sans doute où Dieu nous conduisoit, pour le salut d'vne auie prédestina, que n'attondoit 

 rien nostre venue pour mourir à toutes ces misères. Ibid. 



* Les brebis de Nostre Seigneur sont bien csgarées çà et là. Ihid., p. 90. 



^ Tout ce pays est remply de manuals bruits qui courent contre nous: les enfans ncjus voyant arriuer (pichpie 

 part s'escrient que la famine et la maladie viennent. Ihid,, 1040, p. 90. 



