1645-48.] THE TORTURE. 351 



In regard to these atrocious scenes, which formed 

 the favorite Huron recreation of a summer night, 

 the Jesuits, it must be confessed, did not quite 

 come up to the requirements of modern sensibihty. 

 They were offended at them, it is true, and pre- 

 vented them when they could ; but they were 

 wholly given to the saving of souls, and held the 

 body in scorn, as the vile source of incalculable 

 mischief, worthy the worst inflictions that could be 

 put upon it. What were a few hours of suffering 

 to an eternity of bliss or woe ] If the victim were 

 heathen, these brief pangs were but the faint pre- 

 lude of an undying flame ; and if a Christian, 

 they were the fiery portal of Heaven. They 

 might, indeed, be a blessing ; since, accepted in 

 atonement for sin, they would shorten the torments 

 of Purgatory. Yet, while schooling themselves to 

 despise the body, and all the pain or pleasure that 

 pertained to it, the Fathers were emphatic on one 

 point. It must not be eaten. In the matter of 

 cannibalism, they were loud and vehement in in- 

 vective.^ 



would have them go. — See Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1642, 60, Ra- 

 gueneau, Ibid., 1648, 53, and several other passages. 



1 The following curious case of conversion at the stake, gravely re 

 lated by Lalemant, is worth preserving. 



" An Iroquois was to be burned at a tOAvn some way off. What con- 

 solation to set forth, in the hottest summer weather, to deliver this poor 

 victim from the hell prepared for him ! The Father approaches him, and 

 instructs him even in the midst of his torments. Forthwith the Faith 

 finds a place in his heart. He recognizes and adores, as the author of his 

 life, Him whose name he had never heard till the hour of his death. He 

 receives the grace of baptism, and breathes nothing but heaven. . . . 

 This newly made, but generous Christian, mounted on the scaffold which 

 is the place of his torture, in the sight of a thousand spectators, who are 



