410 CHABANEL. [1649. 



Garre^au and Grelon, in their mission of St. 

 Matthias, were exposed to other dangers than those 

 of the Iroquois. A report was spread, not only 

 that they were magicians, but that they had a se- 

 cret understandmg with the enemy. A nocturnal 

 council was called, and their death was decreed. 

 In the morning, a furious croAvd gathered before a 

 lodge which they were about to enter, screeching 

 and yelling after the manner of Indians when they 

 compel a prisoner to run the gantlet. The two 

 priests, giving no sign of fear, passed through the 

 crowd and entered the lodge unharmed. Hatchets 

 were brandished over them, but no one would be 

 the first to strike. Their converts were amazed at 

 their escape, and they themselves ascribed it to 

 the interposition of a protecting Providence. The 

 Huron missionaries were doubly in danger, — not 

 more from the Iroquois than from the blind rage of 

 those who should have been their friends.^ 



"My Lord Jesus Christ, who, in the admirable disposition of thy 

 paternal providence, hast willed that I, although most unworthy, should 

 be a co-laborer with the holy Apostles in this vineyard of the Hurons, — 

 I, Noel Chabanel, impelled by the desire of fulfilling thy holy will in ad- 

 vancing the conversion of the savages of this land to thy faith, do vow, in 

 the presence of the most holy sacrament of thy precious body and blood, 

 which is God's tabernacle among men, to remain perpetually attached to 

 this mission of the Hurons, understanding all things according to the in- 

 terpretation and disposal of the Superiors of the Society of Jesus. There- 

 fore I entreat thee to receive me as the perpetual servant of this mission, 

 and to render me worthy of so sublime a ministry. Amen. This 

 twentieth day o^ June, 1647." 



1 Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1650, 20. 



One of these two missionaries, Garreau, was afterwards killed by the 

 Iroquois, who shot him through the spine, in 1656, near Montreal. — De 

 Quen, Relation, 1656, 41. 



