1636-37.] DEATH-BED CONVERSIONS. 89 



the priest of a dying woman, " Heaven or Hell ? " 

 " Hell, if my children are there, as you say," re- 

 turned the mother. " Do they hunt in Heaven, 

 or make war, or go to feasts ? " asked an anxious 

 inquirer. " Oh, no ! " rephed the Father. " Then," 

 returned the querist, " I will not go. It is not 

 good to be lazy." But above all other obstacles 

 was the dread of starvation in the regions of the 

 blest. Nor, when the dying Indian had been in- 

 duced at last to express a desire for Paradise, was 

 it an easy matter to bring him to a due contri- 

 tion for his sins ; for he would deny with indig- 

 nation that he had ever committed any. When 

 at length, as sometimes happened, all these diffi- 

 culties gave way, and the patient had been brought 

 to what seemed to his instructor a fitting frame for 

 baptism, the priest, with contentment at his heart, 

 brought water in a cup or in the hollow of his 

 hand, touched his forehead with the mystic drop, 

 and snatched him from an eternity of woe. But 

 the convert, even after his baptism, did not always 

 manifest a satisfactory spiritual condition. " Why 

 did you baptize that Iroquois?" asked one of the 

 dying neophytes, speaking of the prisoner recently 

 tortured; "he will get to Heaven before us, and, 

 when he sees us coming, he will drive us out." ^ 



Thus did these worthy priests, too conscientious 

 to let these unfortunates die in peace, follow them 

 with benevolent persecutions to the hour of their 

 death. 



1 Most of the above traits are drawn from Le Mercier*s report of 1637 

 The rest are from Brebeuf. 



