898 



MISSIONS 



[b. a. 



ported is in charge of a central organiza- 

 tion. 



Canada, East; Newfoundland, etc. — 

 Canada, being originally a French posses- 

 sion, the mission work for a century and 

 a half was almost entirely with the Catli- 

 olics. Port Royal, now Annapolis, Nova 

 Scotia, was founded in 1605, and the res- 

 ident priest, Father Fleche, divided his 

 attention between the French settlers and 

 the neighboring Micmac. In 1611 the 

 Jesuits, Fathers Peter Biard and Ene- 

 mond Masse, arrived from France, but 

 finding work among the Micmac made 

 difficult by the opposition of the govern- 

 or, they went to the Abnaki, among 

 whom they established a mission on Mt 

 Desert id., Maine, in 1613. The mission 

 was destroyed in its very beginning by 

 the English Captain Argall (see New 

 England). In 1619 work was resumed 

 among the Micmac and the Malecite of 

 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and lower 

 Quebec under the RecoUet Franciscans 

 and continued for at least half a century. 

 The most distinguished of these Recol- 

 lets was Father Chrestien Le Clercq, who, 

 while stationed at the Micmac mission of 

 Gaspe, at the mouth of the St Lawrence, 

 from 1655 to about 1665, mastered the 

 language and devised for it a system of 

 hieroglyphic writing which is still in use 

 in the tribe. Another of the same order 

 is said to have been the first to compile a 

 dictionary of a Canadian language, but 

 the work is now lost. The eastern mis- 

 sions continued, under varying auspices 

 and fortunes, until the taking of Louis- 

 burg, Nova Scotia, by the English in 1745, 

 when all the missionaries in Nova Scotia 

 and New Brunswick were either deported 

 or compelled to seek other refuge. In 

 theirabsence the Abbe Maillard,of Nova 

 Scotia, ministered for some years to the 

 Micmac and the Malecite, at first in secret 

 and then openly after the peace of 1760. 

 To him we owe a Micmac grammar and 

 a treatise on the customs of the Indians. 

 It was not until within the last centu- 

 ry, when international and sectarian jeal- 

 ousies had largely passed away, that the 

 work was resumed, continuing wdthout 

 interruption to the present time. 



Work was begun in 1615 by the Re- 

 collets among the roving Montagnais 

 and Algonkin of the Saguenay, Ottawa, 

 and lower St Lawrence region. The 

 pioneers were Fathers Dolbeau, Jamet, 

 and Du Plessis, together with Father Le 

 Caron in the Huron field. In 1636 Dol- 

 beau had extended his ministrations to 

 the outlying bands of the remote Eskimo 

 of Labrador. The principal missions were 

 established at Tadousac (Montagnais), 

 the great trading resort at the mouth of 

 the Saguenay; Gaspe (Montagnais and 

 Micmac) and Three Rivers (Montagnais 



and Algonkin), all in Quebec province; 

 Miscou, N. B., for the Micmac, and on 

 Georgian bay for the Hurons. In 1625 

 the Recollets called the Jesuits to their 

 aid, and a few years later withdrew en- 

 tirely, leaving the work to be continued 

 by the latter order. In 1637 the Jesuit 

 mission of St Joseph was founded by Le 

 Jeune at Sillery, near Quebec, and soon 

 became the most important colony of the 

 christianized Montagnais and Algonkin. 

 In 1646, at the request of the Abnaki, 

 Father Gabriel Druillettes was sent to 

 that tribe. In consequence of the later 

 New England wars, large numbers of the 

 Abnaki and other more southerly tribes 

 took refuge in the Canadian missions (see 

 New England). 



In 1641 Fathers Charles Raymbaultand 

 Isaac Jogues, among the Ottawa bands 

 on the headwaters of the river of that 

 name, accompanied a party to the far W. 

 and discovered the great L. Superior, 

 planting a cross and preaching in the 

 camps about the present Sault Ste Marie, 

 Mich. In the next year a regular mis- 

 sion was established among the Nipissing, 

 on the N. shore of the lake of the same 

 name. Other missions followed, con- 

 tinuing until the dispersion of the Algon- 

 kin tribes by the Iroquois in 1650. Most 

 of the fugitives fled westward, roving 

 along tlie shores of L. Superior without 

 missionary attention until visited by 

 the Jesuit Allouez in 1667. Other names 

 connected with this early Algonkin mis- 

 sion were those of Pijart, Garreau, and 

 the pioneer explorer Rene Menard. In 

 1657 the first Sulpicians arrived at Quebec 

 from France, and soon afterward began 

 work among the neighboring tribes, but 

 with principal attention to the Iroquois 

 colonies on both shores of L. Ontario, at 

 Quinte and Oswegatchie (see New York). 

 To this period belongs the wonderful ca- 

 noe voyage of discovery by the two Sul- 

 picians, Galinee and Dollier de Casson, 

 in 1669-70, from INIontreal up through the 

 great lakes to Mackinaw, where they were 

 welcomed by the Jesuits Dablon and 

 Marquette, and then home, by way of 

 French r. , Nipissing, and the Ottawa. No 

 less important was the discovery of an 

 overland route from the St Lawrence to 

 Hudson bay in 1671-72 by the Sieur St 

 Simon, accompanied by the Jesuit Charles 

 Albanel. Ascending the Saguenay from 

 Tadousac they crossed the divide, and 

 after 10 months of toilsome travel finally 

 reached the bay near the mouth of Ru- 

 pert r. , where Albanel, the first missionary 

 to penetrate this remote region, spent 

 some time preaching and baptizing among 

 the wandering Maskegon along the shore. 

 In 1720 a number of the christianized 

 Iroquois, with fragments of the Algonkin 

 bands, after years of shifting about, were 



