168 DEVOTEES AND NUNS. [1620-36. 



in the Indian towns.^ In the summer of 1636, 

 Father Daniel, descending from the Huron country, 

 worn, emaciated, his cassock patched and tattered, 

 and his shu't in rags, brought with him a boy, to 

 whom two others were soon added; and through 

 the influence of the interpreter, Nicollet, the num- 

 ber was afterwards increased by several more. One 

 of them ran away, two ate themselves to death, 

 a fourth was carried home by his father, while 

 three of those remaining stole a canoe, loaded it 

 with all they could lay their hands upon, and 

 escaped in triumph with their plunder.* 



The beginning was not hopeful ; but the Jesuits 

 persevered, and at length established their seminary 

 on a firm basis. The Marquis de Gamache had 

 given the Society six thousand crowns for founding 

 a college at Quebec. In 1637, a year before the 

 building of Harvard College, the Jesuits began a 

 wooden structure in the rear of the fort ; and here, 

 within one inclosure, was the Huron seminary and 

 the college for French boys. 



Meanwhile the female children of both races 

 were without instructors ; but a remedy was at 

 hand. At Alen9on, in 1603, was born Marie Made- 

 leine de Chauvigny, a scion of the haute noblesse 

 of Normandy. Seventeen years later she was a 

 young lady, abundantly wilful and superabundantly 

 enthusiastic, — one who, in other circumstances, 

 might perhaps have made a romantic elopement 



1 " M. de Montmagny cognoit bien I'importaiice de ee Seminaire pour 

 la gloire de Nostre Seigneur, et pour le Commerce de ces Messieurs." — 

 Relation, 1637, 209 (Cramoisy). 



2 Le Jeune, Relation, 1637, 55-59. Ibid., Relation, 1638, 28. 



