1636-37.] PESTILENCE AMONG THE HURONS. 87 



begun to return to their household, when an unfore- 

 seen calamity demanded the exertion of all their 

 energies. 



The pestilence, which for two years past had 

 from time to time visited the Huron towns, now 

 returned with tenfold violence, and with it soon 

 appeared a new and fearful scourge, — the small- 

 pox. Terror was universal. The contagion in- 

 creased as autumn advanced ; and when winter 

 came, far from ceasing, as the priests had hoped, 

 its ravages were appalling. The season of Hui'on 

 festivity was turned to a season of mourning ; and 

 such was the despondency and dismay, that suicide 

 became frequent. The Jesuits, singly or in pau's, 

 journeyed in the depth of winter from village to 

 village, ministering to the sick, and seeking to com- 

 mend their religious teachings by their efforts to 

 relieve bodily distress. Happily, perhaps, for their 

 patients, they had no medicine but a little senna. 

 A few raisins were left, however ; and one or two 

 of these, with a spoonful of sweetened water, were 

 always eagerly accepted by the sufferers, who thought 

 them endowed with some mysterious and sovereign 

 efficacy. No house was left unvisited. As the mis- 

 sionary, physician at once to body and soul, entered 

 one of these smoky dens, he saw the inmates, their 

 heads muffled in their robes of skins, seated around 

 the fires in silent dejection. Everywhere was heard 

 the wail of sick and d}ing childi'en; and on or 

 under the platforms at the sides of the house 

 crouched squalid men and women, in all the stages 

 of the distemper. The Father approached, made 



