1634-35.] ATTEMPTS AT CONVERSION. 6f3 



fortified towns, on tlie rumor of an approaching 

 war-party. The Jesuits promised them the aid of 

 the four Frenchmen armed with arquebuses, who 

 had come with them from Three Eivers. They 

 advised the Hurons to make their palisade forts, not, 

 as hitherto, in a circular form, but rectangular, 

 with small flanking towers at the corners for the 

 arquebuse-men. The Indians at once saw the 

 value of the advice, and soon after began to act 

 on it in the case of their great town of Ossossane, 

 or Eochelle.^ 



At every opportunity, the missionaries gathered 

 together the children of the village at their house. 

 On these occasions, Brebeuf, for greater solemnity, 

 put on a surplice, and the close, angular cap worn 

 by Jesuits in their convents. First he chanted the 

 Pater Noster^ translated by Father Daniel into 

 Huron rhymes, — the children chanting in their 

 turn. Next he taught them the sign of the cross ; 

 made them repeat the Ave, the Credo, and the 

 Commandments ; questioned them as to past in- 

 structions ; gave them briefly a few new ones ; and 

 dismissed them with a present of two or three 

 beads, raisins, or prunes. A great emulation was 

 kindled among this small fry of heathendom. The 

 priests, with amusement and delight, saw them 

 gathered in groups about the village, vying with 

 each other in making the sign of the cross, or in 

 repeating the rhymes they had learned. 



At times, the elders of the people, the reposi- 

 tories of its ancient traditions, were induced to 



1 Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 86. 



