368 SAINTE MARIE. [1648. 



but were not permitted to remain at night. There 

 was provision for the soul as well as the body ; and, 

 Christian or heathen, few left Sainte Marie with- 

 out a word of instruction or exhortation. Charity 

 was an instrument of conversion. 



Such, so far as we can reconstruct it from the 

 scattered hints remaining, was this singular estab- 

 lishment, at once military, monastic, and patriarchal. 

 The missions of which it was the basis were now 

 eleven in number. To those among the Hurons 

 already mentioned another had lately been added, 

 — that of Sainte Madeleine; and two others, called 

 St. Jean and St. Matthias, had been established in 

 the neighboring Tobacco Nation.^ The three re- 

 maining missions were all among tribes speaking 

 the Algonquin languages. Every winter, bands of 

 these savages, driven by famine and fear of the 

 Iroquois, sought harborage in the Huron country, 

 and the mission of Sainte Elisabeth was established 

 for their benefit. The next Algonquin mission was 

 that of Saint Esprit, embracing the Nipissings and 

 other tribes east and north-east of Lake Huron ; 

 and, lastly, the mission of St. Pierre included the 

 tribes at the outlet of Lake Superior, and through- 

 out a vast extent of surrounding wilderness.^ 



i The mission of the Neutral Nation had been abandoned for the time, 

 from the want of missionaries. The Jesuits had resolved on concentra- 

 tion, and on the thorough conversion of the Hurons, as a preliminary to 

 more extended efforts. 



2 Besides these tribes, the Jesuits had become more or less acquainted 

 with many others, also Algonquin on the west and south of Lake Huron ; 

 as well as with the Puans, or Winnebagoes, a Dacotah tribe between 

 Lake Michigan and the Mississippi. 



The Mission of Sault Sainte Marie, at the outlet of Lake Superior, 



