1636-46.] FORESTERS. 165 



ence, they would have gained more than enough 

 to compensate them for the loss of their ferocious 

 and miserable independence. At least, they would 

 have escaped annihilation. The Society of Jesus 

 aspired to the mastery of all New France ; but the 

 methods of its ambition were consistent with a 

 Christian benevolence. Had this been otherwise, 

 it would have employed other instruments. It 

 would not have chosen a Jogues or a Garnier. 

 The Society had men for every work, and it used 

 them wisely. It utilized the apostolic virtues of 

 its Canadian missionaries, fanned their enthusiasm, 

 and decorated itself with their martyr crowns. With 

 joy and gratulation, it saw them rival in another 

 hemisphere the noble memory of its saint and hero, 

 Francis Xavier.^ 



I have spoken of the colonists as livmg in a 

 state of temporal and spiritual vassalage. To this 

 there was one exception, — a small class of men 

 whose home was the forest, and their companions 

 savages. They followed the Indians in their roam- 

 ings, lived with them, grew familiar with their 

 language, allied themselves with their women, and 

 often became oracles in the camp and leaders on the 

 war-path. Champlain's bold interpreter, Etienne 

 Brule, whose adventures I have recounted else- 

 where,^ may be taken as a type of this class. Of 

 the rest, the most conspicuous were Jean Nicollet, 

 Jacques Hertel, Fran9ois Marguerie, and Nicolas 



1 Enemies of the Jesuits, while denouncing them in unmeasured 

 terms, speak in strong eulogy of many of the Canadian missionaries. 

 See, for example, Steinmetz, History of the Jesuits, II. 415. 



2 "Pioneers of France," 377. 



