88 THE HURON AND THE JESUIT. [1636-37. 



inquiries, spoke words of kindness, administered 

 his harmless remedies, or offered a bowl of broth 

 made from game brought in by the Frenchman 

 who hunted for the mission.^ The body cared 

 for, he next addressed himself to the soul. " This 

 life is short, and very miserable. It matters little 

 whether we live or die." The patient remained 

 silent, or grumbled his dissent. The Jesuit, after 

 enlarging for a time, in broken Huron, on the 

 brevity and nothingness of mortal weal or woe, 

 passed next to the joys of Heaven and the pains 

 of Hell, which he set forth with his best rhetoric. 

 His pictures of infernal fires and torturing devils 

 were readily comprehended, if the listener had 

 consciousness enough to comprehend anything ; 

 but with respect to the advantages of the French 

 Paradise, he was slow of conviction. " I wish to 

 go where my relations and ancestors have gone," 

 was a common reply. " Heaven is a good place 

 for Frenchmen," said another ; '' but I wish to be 

 among Indians, for the French will give me nothing 

 to eat when I get there." ^ Often the patient was 

 stolidly silent ; sometimes he was hopelessly per- 

 verse and contradictory. Again, Nature triumphed 

 over Grace. " Which will you choose," demanded 



1 Game was so scarce in the Huron country, that it was greatly prizeil 

 as a hixury. Le Mercier speaks of an Indian, sixty years of age, who 

 walked twelve miles to taste the wild-fowl killed by the French hunter. 

 The ordinary food was corn, beans, pumpkins, and fish. 



2 It was scarcely possible to convince the Indians, that there was but 

 one God for themselves and the whites. The proposition was met by 

 such arguments as this : " If we had been of one father, we should know 

 how to make knives and coats as well as you." — Le Mercier, Relation dps 

 Hurons, 1637, 147. 



