164 QUEBEC AND ITS TENANTS. [1636-46. 



meagre as a skeleton, had thrown himself, with a 

 last effort of expiring ferocity, on an Iroquois pris- 

 oner, and torn off his ear with his teeth, was bap- 

 tized almost immediately.^ In the case of converts 

 in health there was far more preparation ; yet these 

 often apostatized. The various objects of instruc- 

 tion may all be included in one comprehensive 

 word, submission, — an abdication of will and judg- 

 ment in favor of the spiritual director, who was the 

 interpreter and vicegerent of God. The director's 

 function consisted in the enforcement of dogmas 

 by which he had himself been subdued, in which 

 he believed profoundly, and to which he often 

 clung with an absorbing enthusiasm. The Jesuits, 

 an Order thoroughly and vehemently reactive, had 

 revived in Europe the mediaeval type of Christianity, 

 with all its attendant superstitions. Of these the 

 Canadian missions bear abundant marks. Yet, on 

 the whole, the labors of the missionaries tended 

 greatly to the benefit of the Indians. Reclaimed, 

 as the Jesuits tried to reclaim them, from their 

 wandering life, settled in habits of peaceful indus- 

 try, and reduced to a passive and childlike obedi- 



1 " Ce seroit vne estrange cruaute de voir descendre vne ame toute 

 viuante dans les enfers, par le refus d'vn bien que lesus Christ luy a 

 acquis au prix de son sang." — Relation, 1637, 66 (Cramoisy). 



" Considerez d'autre cote la grande apprehension que nous avions sujet 

 de redouter la guerison ; pour autant que bien souvent etant gueris il ne 

 leur reste du St. Bapteme que le caractere." — Lettres de Gamier, MSS. 



It was not very easy to make an Indian comprehend the nature of 

 baptism. An Iroquois at Montreal, hearing a missionary speaking of the 

 water which cleansed the soul from sin, said that he was well acquainted 

 with it, as the Dutch had once given him so much that they were forced 

 to tie him, hand and foot, to prevent him from doing mischief. — Faillon, 

 II. 43. 



