1644-45.] INFLUENCE OF THE MISSIONS. 319 



and invocations of St. Joseph. They built their 

 bark chapel at every camp, and no festival of the 

 Church passed unobserved. On Good Friday they 

 laid their best robe of beaver-skin on the snow, 

 placed on it a crucifix, and knelt around it in 

 prayer. What was their prayer ? It was a peti- 

 tion for the forgiveness and the conversion of their 

 enemies, the Iroquois.^ Those who know the in- 

 tensity and tenacity of an Indian's hatred will see 

 in this something more than a change from one 

 superstition to another. An idea had been pre- 

 sented to the mind of the savage, to which he had 

 previously been an utter stranger. This is the most 

 remarkable record of success in the whole body 

 of the Jesuit Relations ; but it is very far from 

 being the only evidence, that, in teaching the dog- 

 mas and observances of the Roman Church, the 

 missionaries taught also the morals of Christianity. 

 When we look for the results of these missions, we 

 soon become aware that the influence of the French 

 and the Jesuits extended far beyond the circle of 

 concerts. It eventually modified and softened the 

 manners of many unconverted tribes. In the wars 

 of the next century we do not often find those ex- 

 amples of diabolic atrocity with which the earlier 

 annals are crowded. The savage burned his ene- 

 mies alive, it is true, but he rarely ate them ; 

 neither did he torment them with the same delib- 

 eration and persistency. He was a savage still, 

 but not so often a devil. The improvement was 

 not great, but it was distinct ; and it seems to have 



1 Vimont, Relation, 1645, 16. 



