132 PRIEST AND PAGAX. [1638-40. 



Ossossane and the tillages of the neighhorhood : 

 but the priests by no means confhied themselves 

 within these limits. They made distant excui'sions, 

 two in company, until every house in every Hiu'on 

 town had heard the amiunciation of the new doc- 

 trine. On these joiu'ueys, they carried blankets 

 or large mantles at then* backs, for sleeping in at 

 night, besides a supply of needles, awls, beads, and 

 other small articles, to pay for their lodging and 

 entertainment : for the Hiu'ons, hospitable without 

 stint to each other, expected full compensation 

 from the Jesuits. 



At Ossossane, the house of the Jesuits no lousier 

 served the double purpose of dwelling and chapel. 

 In 1638, they had in then- pay twelve artisans and 

 laborers, sent up from Quebec,^ who had built, 

 before the close of the year, a chapel of wood.^ 

 Hither they removed thek pictures and ornaments ; 

 and here, in winter, several fires were kept bimiing, 

 for the comfort of the half-naked converts.^ Of 

 these they now had at Ossossane about sixt}', — 

 a large, though evidently not a very solid nucleus 

 for the Huron chiuxh, — and they labored hard 

 and anxiously to confirm and multiply them. Of 

 a Sunday morning in winter, one could have seen 

 them coming to mass, often from a considerable 

 distance, ^' as naked," says Lalemant, '' as your 

 hand, except a skin over their backs like a mantle, 

 and, in the coldest weather, a few skins around 



1 Du Peron in Carayon, 173. 



2 "La chapelle est faite d'liiie charpente bien jolie, semblable presque 

 en facon et grandeur, a notre chapelle de St. Julien." — Ibid., 183. 



3 Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1639, 62. 



