6 JOHN LESPEEANCE ON 



could learn, nnrsed them iu illness, shared their hardships, and .died in their hamlets, either 

 through violence or from the wear of apostolic toil. The spirit of Canadian history cannot 

 be understood unless the lives and labours of these men are taken into account, and the simi- 

 lar work of the nuns is rehearsed from the beginning. The influence of the Hospitallers, 

 at Quebec and Montreal, under Madame De la Peltrie and Mdlle. Mance, of the Ursulines, 

 in the former, and the Congregation in the latter town, was preponderant from the first ; 

 and the student will lack a rare insight into the inner workings of the colony who over- 

 looks the writings of Mother Mary of the Incarnation. And the splendour of all this romance 

 is heightened by martyrdom. The slow and piecemeal tortures which Jogues underwent 

 for several years, and his fearful mutilation and death,' at the hands of the treacherous 

 Mohawks, remind one of Prometheus, and would be set down as incredible and impossible 

 in a modern work of fiction. No more exquisite sufieriug is read of in the annals of the 

 Eoman per.secutious. Daniel's body was not only hacked into shreds, but his remains 

 were flung into the fire, serving to crown the holocaust of his unfortunate Hurons. But 

 when we come to the northern pines, and within sight and sound of the blue waters of 

 Simcoe Lake, we are confronted by a tragedy than which none is recorded more sublime 

 and terrible in the drama of Greece. Brebœuf, the greatest of all the Jesuits of Canada, a 

 a giant in limb and heart, was tied to a stake ; his flesh slashed and eaten in his sight ; 

 his wounds blistered with red-hot stones and hatchet blades; his scalp torn away; and 

 on his head, boiling water poured thrice in mockery of christening; his feet cut off; his 

 chest cloven ; his heart torn out and eaten. If one would learn a lesson in the philosophy 

 of Canadian history, let him go to the Hotel Dieu, at Quebec, and stand before the silver 

 bust holding Brebœuf's head, and remember that this great martyr had blue blood in his 

 veins, had been pampered in his youth, was a nobleman of France and allied to the Eng- 

 lish house of Norfolk. And scarcely inferior will be the effect of the cruel death of the 

 gentle Lalemaut, Brebœuf's companion, who suffered only less because his weakly frame 

 was unable to stand more from the outrageous Iroquois. This was in the memorable 

 year 1649. For a hundred years after, and, indeed, up to our own time, the blood of the 

 martyrs has been the seed of the Church ; and the missions among Canadian Indians have 

 continued to flourish, until, if you want another insight into the m}'steries and romance 

 of the history of New France, you have only to cross to Caughnawaga, over against Mon- 

 treal, and inspect the low-browed ancient presbytery that overlooks the waters of the 

 Cascades. There are the relics of 200 years — the register of the Church from 1735 ; a 

 Jesuit ostensorium of 1669 ; an oil painting of Lafitau, the writer, who served there from 1*712 

 to 171*7 ; a wampum belt, two centuries old; a picture of St. Louis of France, patron of 

 Sault St. Louis, the first name given to the village by Charles X ; a Franciscan breviary, 

 used by the Eecollets vpheu there ; and the portrait, desk, arm-chair, and a book of 

 Charlevoix, the historian, who dwelt herein several years, while writing his works and 

 ministering to the Indians. There are also the remains and a full length picture of the 

 Iroquois Virgin and Saint, and her MS. life in the most elegant Ciceronian Latin by her 

 spiritual director. All these things, however slight in themselves, represent a fulness and 

 mellowness which are the outputs of an elaborate system embodying much sound human 

 philosophy. 



