56 THE HURON MISSION. [1634 



forth'? TDhere is some reason to think so. Yet it 

 was but the shadow of a moment; for his mascu- 

 line heart had lost the sense of fear, and his in- 

 trepid nature was fired with a zeal before which 

 doubts and uncertainties fled like the mists of the 

 morning. Not the grim enthusiasm of negation, 

 tearing up the weeds of rooted falsehood, or with 

 bold hand felling to the earth the baneful growth 

 of overshadowing abuses : his was the ancient faith 

 uncurtailed, redeemed from the decay of centuries, 

 kindled with a new hfe, and stimulated to a preter- 

 natural growth and fruitfulness. 



Brebeuf and his Huron companions having 

 landed, the Indians, throwing the missionary's bag- 

 gage on the ground, left him to his own resources ; 

 and, without heeding his remonstrances, set forth for 

 their respective villages, some twenty miles distant. 

 Thus abandoned, the priest kneeled, not to implore 

 succor in his perplexity, but to offer thanks to the 

 Providence which had shielded him thus far. Then, 

 rising, he pondered as to what course he should 

 take. He knew the spot well. It was on the 

 borders of the small inlet called Thunder Bay. In 

 the neighboring Huron town of Toanche he had 

 lived three years, preachmg and baptizing;^ but 

 Toanche had now ceased to exist. Here, Etienne 

 Brule, Champlain's adventurous interpreter, had re- 

 cently been murdered by the inhabitants, who, in 



1 From 1626 to 1629. There is no record of the events of this first 

 mission, which was ended with the English occupation of Quebec. Bre- 

 beuf liad previously spent the winter of 1625-26 among the Alg»nquiiis, 

 like Le Jeune in 1633-34.— Ze«re du P. Charles Lalemant au T. R. P. 

 Mutio Vitelleschi, 1 Aug., 1626, in Carayon. 



