1650.1 DEPARTUllE. 415 



nothing but bitter roots and acorns to keep them 

 ahve." ' 



The Jesuits were deeply moved. They con- 

 sulted together again and again, and prayed in 

 turn during forty hours without ceasing, that their 

 minds might be enlightened. At length they re- 

 solved to grant the petition of the two chiefs, and 

 save the poor remnant of the Hurons, by lead- 

 ing them to an asylum where there was at least a 

 hope of safety. Their resolution once taken, they 

 pushed their preparations with all speed, lest the 

 Iroquois might learn their purpose, and lie in wait 

 to cut them off. Canoes were made ready, and on 

 the tenth of June they began the voyage, with all 

 their French followers and about three hundred 

 Hurons. The Huron mission was abandoned. 



" It was not without tears," writes the Father 

 Superior, " that we left the country of our hopes and 

 our hearts, where our brethren had gloriously shed 

 their blood." ^ The fleet of canoes held its melan- 

 choly way along the shores where two years before 

 had been the seat of one of the chief savage com- 

 munities of the continent, and where now all was a 

 waste of death and desolation. Then they steered 

 northward, along the eastern coast of the Georgian 

 Bay, with its countless rocky islets ; and everywhere 

 they saw the traces of the Iroquois. When they 

 reached Lake Nipissing, they found it deserted, — 



1 Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1650, 25. It appears from tlie MS. 

 Journal des Sup€rienrs des J^suites, that a plan of bringing the remnant 

 of the Hurons to Quebec was discussed and approved by Lalemant and 

 his associates, in a council held by them at that place in April. 



2 Compare Bressani, Relation Ahr&j^e, 288. 



