402 THE SANCTUARY. [1649-50 



were dressed chiefly in skins. ^ They visited the 

 Indian houses, and gave to those whose necessi- 

 ties were most urgent small scraps of hide, sever- 

 ally stamped with a particular mark, and entitling 

 the recipients, on presenting them at the fort, to a 

 few acorns, a small quantity of boiled maize, or a 

 fragment of smoked fish, according to the stamp on 

 the leather ticket of each. Two hours before sun- 

 set the bell of the chapel again rang, and the relig- 

 ious exercises of the morning were repeated.^ 



Thus this miserable winter wore away, till the 

 opening spring brought new fears and new ne- 

 cessities.^ 



1 Lettre de RagueneoAi au G^n&al de la Compagnie de J€sus, Isle St. 

 Joseph, 13 Mars, 1650. 



2 Ragueneau, Relation des Rurons, 1650, 6, 7. 



3 Concerning the retreat of the Hurons to Isle St. Joseph, the principal 

 authorities are the Relations of 1649 and 1650, which are ample in detail, 

 and written with an excellent simplicity and modesty ; the Relation 

 Abr€g€e of Bressani ; the reports of the Father Superior to the General 

 of the Jesuits at Rome ; the manuscript of 1652, entitled Memoires touchant 

 la Mort et les Vertus des Peres, etc. ; the unpublished letters of Garr ier ; 

 and a letter of Chaumonot, written on the spot, and preserved in the 

 Relations. 



