[JAMES] THE DOWNFALL OF THE HURON NATION 321 



with the Eecollet Father Le Caxon he visited the Tobacco Nation on the 

 southern shore of Georgian Bay, and in May started on his return 

 journey to Quebec. The effect of Champlain's visit was to con- 

 Ifirm the Iroquois in the belief that the French were the allies of their 

 enemies. Champlain did not go down into the Neutral Ciountry, and we 

 can thus readily understand why his map is so faulty in its delineation 

 of Lake Erie. 



The mission of the Eecollet Fatliers gave place to that of the Jesuits, 

 and it is with the latter that our story of the Hurons is most intimately 

 concerned. We ought, however, in passing, to mention that it is to one 

 of the RecoUet missionaries, G-abriel Sagard, that we owe the first 

 history of the Hurons and a Dictionary of the Huron language published 

 in France in 1632. The new edition published in 1865 is the one 

 available for students. Although Brebeuf and de Noué had spent some 

 time among the Hurons between 1626 and 1629 the beginning of the 

 Jesuit Mission properljf so called, may be set down for the year 1634. It 

 lasted until 1619. In these fifteen years twenty-five Jesuit missionaries 

 carried on their work in Huronia, and five of this devoted band suffered 

 martyrdom in the Huron country. 



Time does not permit to tell the story of their missionary work in 

 detail — to be fully comprehended one must read the letters and records 

 preserved for "us in the Jesuit Relations now available in all large 

 Canadian libraries in that magnificent production put out some years ago 

 in 73 volumes by the Burrows Brothers of Cleveland. Or it may be that 

 you still remember the story told by Parkman, based on the Relations, 

 in his volume ''The Jesuits in North America." We must be brief in our 

 statement. The Jesuits after much perseverance and privation, reached 

 Huronia and took up their abode at Ihonatiria, which they named St. 

 Joseph. Gradually they sought out village after village endeavouring 

 to persuade the savages to embrace the faith of Christianity and to 

 permit their children to be baptised. With a view to permanency they 

 erected in 1639 a head-quarters of their own, choosiag a spot on the 

 River Wye, a little east of Penetanguishene. Here they enclosed a small 

 plot of ground with a stone wall and wooden barricade. Within they 

 erected their chapel, mission house and hospital, and without the walls a 

 hostel. From this place as a centre, which they called St. Mary, they 

 sent out their missionaries not only to all villages of the Hurons, but 

 alsio to the Tobacco Nation, and even down into the country of the 

 Neutrals. They kept up their communication with the Church at 

 Quebec by means of the trading parties that went down every summer 

 by way of the French River and the Ottawa. The sufferings of thisi 

 devoted band of missionaries can scarcely be realized. They were 



