1650.] DKUILLETES SENT TO BOSTON. 323 



again received the missionary with a kindness which 

 showed no trace of jealousy or religious prejudice.^ 



Early in the summer Druilletes went to Quebec ; 

 and during the two following years, the Abenaquis, 

 for reasons which are not clear, were left without a 

 missionary. He spent another winter of extreme 

 hardship with the Algonquins on their winter rov- 

 ings, and during summer instructed the wandering 

 savages of Tadoussac. It was not until the autumn 

 of 1650 that he again descended the Kennebec. 

 This time he went as an envoy charged with the 

 negotiation of a treaty. His journey is worthy of 

 notice, since, with the unimportant exception of 

 Jogues's embassy to the Mohawks, it is the first 

 occasion on which the Canadian Jesuits appear in 

 a character distinctly political. Afterwards, when 

 the fervor and freshness of the missions had passed 

 away, they frequently did the work of political 

 agents among the Indians : but the Jesuit of the 

 earlier period was, with rare exceptions, a mis- 

 sionary only ; and though he was expected to exert 

 a powerful influence in gaining subjects and allies 

 for France, he was to do so by gathering them 

 under the wings of the Church. 



The Colony of Massachusetts had applied to the 

 French officials at Quebec, with a view to a recipro- 

 city of trade. The Iroquois had brought Canada 

 to extremity, and the French Governor conceived 

 the hope of gaining the powerful support of New 



' Winslow would scarcely have recognized his own name in the Jesuit 

 spelling, — "Le Sieur de Ilouinsland." In his journal of 1650 Pruillete.s 

 is more successful in his orthography, and spells it Winslau. 



