400 THE SANCTUARY. [1649-50. 



multitude but few had strength enough to labor, 

 scarcely any had made provision for the winter, 

 and numbers were already perishing from want, 

 dragging themselves from house to house, like liv- 

 ing skeletons. The priests had spared no effort 

 to meet the demands upon their charity. They 

 sent men during the autumn to buy smoked fish 

 from the Northern Algonquins, and employed In- 

 dians to gather acorns in the woods. Of this 

 miserable food they succeeded in collecting five 

 or six hundred bushels. To diminish its bitter- 

 ness, the Indians boiled it with ashes, or the priests 

 served it out to them pounded, and mixed with 

 corn.^ 



As winter advanced, the Huron houses became 

 a frightful spectacle. Their inmates were dying by 

 scores daily. The priests and their men buried the 

 bodies, and the Indians dug them from the earth 

 or the snow and fed on them, sometimes in secret 

 and sometimes openly ; although, notwithstanding 

 their superstitious feasts on the bodies of their en- 

 emies, their repugnance and horror were extreme 

 at the thought of devouring those of relatives and 

 friends.^ An epidemic presently appeared, to aid 



nous ne fussions morts miserables ; ils ont receu le sainct Baptesme, et 

 ie croy fermement que mourans tous de compagnie, nous ressusciterons 

 tous ensemble." — Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1650, 5. 



1 Eight hundred sacks of this mixture were given to the Hurons 

 (luring the winter. — Bressani, Relation Ahr€gee, 283. 



2 " Ce fut alors que nous fusmes contraints de voir des squeletes 

 mourantes, qui soustenoient vne vie miserable, mangeant iusqu'aux ordures 

 et les rebuts de la nature. Le gland estoit a la pluspart, ce que seroient 

 en France les mets les plus exquis. Les charognes mesme deterrees, les 

 restes des Renards et des Chiens ne faisoient point horr^ur, et se mange- 

 oient, quoy qu'en cachete : car quoy que les Hurons, nuant que la foy 



