6 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



to Huronia. Brebeuf and d'Aillon had arrived in Quebec in 1625 

 but probably postponed leaving for Huronia because the news of 

 Viel's death implied native hostility. De None returned to Quebec 

 in 1627, d'Aillon in 1628, and Brebeuf in 1629. This expedition pro- 

 duced no significant account of Huron culture. 



After the French had surrendered Quebec to the English in July 

 of 1629, missionary activity ceased until Canada was ceded back to 

 France in 1632. In 1634, the Jesuits resumed their missionary work 

 among the Huron when Brebeuf, accompanied by two other priests 

 and other Frenchmen, returned. 



The characteristics of the writers on the Huron are most easily 

 discussed in terms of familiar stereotypes. In the Jesuit Relations, 

 the Jesuits applied their almost intuitive devotion to scholarship to 

 the study of the Huron, as in other writings they applied it to West- 

 ern culture. In contrast, Champlain, the explorer, and Sagard, the 

 lay brother and member of the reformed Franciscan order, were less 

 scholarly but not necessarily less accurate. These differences in style 

 have present advantages. The Jesuits, consistent with their devotion 

 to religion, give extensive accounts of Huron religion (a difficult 

 subject at best) but treat in a more cursory manner other aspects of 

 Huron culture. In contrast, Champlain's and Sagard's accounts of 

 religion are grossly inadequate, but as both deal extensively with 

 aspects of Huron culture slighted by the Jesuits (particularly the life 

 cycle, descent, and subsistence techniques) , they provide an important 

 supplement to the latter's documents. 



Although both Champlain and Sagard were interested in the life 

 of the ordinary person, Sagard perhaps resembled most closely the 

 modern anthropologist. Unlike Champlain, he did not seek to lead 

 men or change their destinies, but rather recounted only what he saw 

 and did. Champlain, who saw himself as a man among men, went 

 on a war expedition with the Huron against the Iroquois, hunted big 

 game with the Indians and later wrote of his exploits — an early ver- 

 sion of Theodore Roosevelt. Sagard, a follower of St. Francis who 

 loved the plants, animals, and people of the new country, did not hunt 

 or fight. He was a participant-observer who joined a Huron fishing 

 expedition to better understand religious practices. 



As is apparent in his account, Sagard was learned, but not schol- 

 arly. This is substantiated by the fact that he based a sizable amount 

 of his description on that of Champlain. The reader of both recog- 

 nizes, even in translation, sentences and paragi'aphs which Sagard has 

 taken from Champlain. (In the compendium below, the number of 

 references to both Sagard and Champlain and not to the Jesuit Rela- 

 tions reflects the extent to which Sagard has used Champlain as a 

 guide.) This copying was not simple plagiarism: Sagard probably 

 omitted those data he did not observe, expanding, contracting, and re- 



