900 



MISSIONS 



[b. a. e. 



demies within a few years several towns 

 had been depoinilated and the tribe so 

 mucli weakened as to leave it an easy 

 prey for the invading Iroquois, whose 

 inroads now became more constant and 

 serious than liefore. 



In 1641 the Iroquois invaded the Huron 

 country in force, killed many, and car- 

 ried off many others to captivity. In 

 1648, after a temporary truce, they re- 

 sumed the war of extermination, with 

 perhaps 2,000 warriors well armed with 

 guns obtained from the Dutch, while the 

 Hurons had only bows. On July 4 Tea- 

 nanstayae, or St Joseph, on the site of 

 the present Barrie, was attacked and de- 

 stroyed, the missionary, Father Anthony 

 Daniel, killed with several hundred of his 

 flock, and about 700 others were carried 

 off as captives. The whole country was 

 ravaged throughout the fall and winter, 

 and one town after another destroyed or 

 abandoned. On Mar. 16, 1649, a thou- 

 sand warriors attacked St Ignatius town 

 and massacred practically the whole 

 population, after which they proceeded 

 at once to the neigliboring town of St 

 Louis, where the burning and massacre 

 were repeated, and two missionaries, 

 Brebeuf and Father Gabriel Lalemant, 

 killed after hours of the most horrible 

 tortures. An attack on St Marys, where 

 Father Ragueneau was stationed, was re- 

 pulsed, after which the Iroquois retired. 



This was the deathblow to the Huron 

 nation. Fifteen towns were abandoned 

 and the people scattered in every direc- 

 tion. Two whole town populations sub- 

 mitted to the conquerors and removed in 

 a body to the Seneca country. Others 

 fled to the Tionontati, who were now in 

 turn invaded by the Iroquois and com- 

 pelled, by burning and massacre, with 

 the killing of Fathers (Jarnier and Cha- 

 banel, to abandon their country and flee 

 with the rest. Others took refuge on the 

 islands of L. Huron^ Some joined the 

 Neutrals, who soon after met the same 

 fate. 



For the next 50 years the history of 

 the confederated Huron and Tionontati 

 remnants is a mere record of flight from 

 pursuing enemies — the Iroquois in the E. 

 and the Sioux in the W. A considerable 

 body which sought the protection of the 

 French, after several removals was finally 

 settled by Father M. J. Chaumonot in 

 1693 at (New) Lorette, near Quebec, 

 where their descendants still reside (see 

 Hurouit; Loretle). To Chaumonot we owe 

 a standard grammar and dictionary of 

 the Huron language, only the first of 

 which is yet published. In the mean- 

 time, in 165G-57, two-thirds of this band 

 had bodily removed to tlie Iroquois coun- 

 try to escape destruction. 



The other fugitives, composed largely or 

 principally of Tionontati, fied successively 

 to Manitoulin id. in L. Huron; Macki- 

 naw; the Noquet ids. in Green bay. Wis. ; 

 westward to the Mississippi; back to 

 Green bay, where they were visited by 

 the Jesuit Menard in 1660; to Chegoi- 

 megon, near the present Bayfield, Wis., 

 on the shore of L. Superior, where the 

 Jesuit Allouez miiustered to them for 

 several years; back, in 1670, to Macki- 

 naw, whence another party joined the 

 Iroquois, and finally down to Detroit, 

 Mich., when that post was founded in 

 1702. In 1751 a part of these, under 

 Father de la Richard, settled at San- 

 dusky, Ohio. From this period the 

 Wyandot, as they now 1)egan to be called, 

 took their jilace as the leading tribe of the 

 Ohio region and the j^rivileged lighters 

 of the confederate council fire. Their 

 last Jesuit missionary. Father Peter 

 Poller, died in 1781, after which they 

 were served by occasional visiting priests 

 and later by the Presbyterians and the 

 Methodists, until about the period of 

 their removal to Kansas in 1842 (see In- 

 terior t'^late^) . 



The work of the Episcopalians (Angli- 

 can Church) among the Iroquois of New 

 York, beginning about 1700 and contirm- 

 ing in Canada after the removal of a large 

 part of the confederacy from the United 

 States, has already been noted (see Mid- 

 dle Atknitic — New York). In 1763 Rev. 

 Thomas Wood of Nova Scotia, having 

 become ac(iuainted with the Abbe Mail- 

 lard and obtained the use of his Micmac 

 manuscript, applied himself to the study 

 of the language, dividing his ministra- 

 tions thenceforth between the Indians 

 and the whites until his death in 1778. He 

 preached in the native tongue, in which 

 he produced several religious translations. 

 This seems to have been the only work 

 recorded for this denomination in this 

 part of the Dominion, and in the official 

 Canadian Indian Report for 1906 no In- 

 dians are enumerated under this heading 

 in tlie provinces of Nova Scotia, New 

 Brunswick, or Prince Edward id. In 

 Quebec province the same report gives 

 this denomination 119 Indians, including 

 60 Abnaki at St Francis and 48 Montagn- 

 ais at Lake St John. 



In Ontario province, besides the work 

 already noted among the Iroquois, active 

 and successful missionary effort has been 

 carried on by the Episcopalians among 

 the various (-hippewa bands and others 

 since about 1S30. One of the principal 

 stations is that at (4arden River, opposite 

 Sault Ste Marie, l)egun in 1835 by Rev. 

 Mr McMurray, who was succeeded a few 

 years later by Rev. F. A. O'Meara, after- 

 ward stationed on Manitoulin id., and 



