1645-48.] THE FRENCH HEAVEN. 353 



It is not surprising, then, that proselytes were 

 difficult to make, or that, being made, they often 

 relapsed. The Jesuits complain that they had no 

 means of controlling their converts, and coercing 

 backsliders to stand fast; and they add, that the 

 Iroquois, by destroying the fur-trade, had broken 

 the principal bond between the Hurons and the 

 French, and greatly weakened the influence of 

 the mission.^ 



Among the slanders devised by the heathen party 

 against the teachers of the obnoxious doctrine was 

 one which found wdde credence, even among the 

 converts, and produced a great effect. They gave 

 out that a baptized Huron girl, who had lately died, 

 and was buried in the cemetery at Samte Marie, had 

 returned to life, and given a deplorable account of 

 the heaven of the French. No sooner had she 

 entered, — such was the story, — than they seized 

 her, chained her to a stake, and tormented her all 

 day with inconceivable cruelty. They did the 

 same to all the other converted Hurons ; for this 

 was the recreation of the French, and especially of 

 the Jesuits, in their celestial abode'. They baptized 

 Indians with no other object than that they might 

 have them to torment in heaven; to which end 

 they were willing to meet hardships and dangers in 

 this life, just as a war-party invades the enemy's 

 country at great risk that it may bring home pris- 

 oners to burn. After her painful experience, an 

 unknown friend secretly showed the gui a path 

 down to the earth; and she hastened thither to 



1 Lettre du P. Hierosme Lalemant, appended to the Relation of 1G45. 

 30* 



