BULL. 30] 



MISSIONS 



899 



gathered into a new mission settlement 

 at Oka, or Lake of the Two Moniitains 

 (Lac des Deux Monta^nes), also i<no\vii 

 under its Irocjuois name of Canawadaga, 

 on the N. bank of the St Lawrence, above 

 the island of MontreaL It still exists as 

 one of the jjriucipal Indian settlements. 



Among the earlier missionaries in this 

 region who have made iniportant con- 

 tributions to Algon(iuian philology may 

 be noted: Father Louis Andre, Jesuit, 

 who spent more than 40 years with the 

 Montagnais and the Algonkin, from 1()()9, 

 leaving behind liiin a manuscript diction- 

 ary of the Algonkin, besides a great 

 body of other material; Father Antonio 

 Silvy, Jesuit, of the same ]>erioil, author 

 of a manuscri|)t Montagnais dictionary; 

 Father Pierre Laure, Jesuit, with the 

 Montagnais, 1720-.S8, author of a manu- 

 script Montagnais grammar and diction- 

 ary, and other works; Father Jean Mathe- 

 vet, Sulpician, at Oka, 174() to 1781, the 

 author of an Abnaki dictionary; Father 

 Vincent Guichart, ministering to Algon- 

 kin and Iroquois at Oka from 1754 until 

 his death in 1793, master of both lan- 

 guages and author of a manuscript Algon- 

 kin grammar; the Abb6 Thavenet, Sul- 

 pician, at Oka, from about 1798 to 1815, 

 author of an Algonkin grannnar and 

 dictionary and other miscellany, still 

 in manuscript; Father J. B. La Brosse, 

 Jesuit, with the Montagnais and Malecite, 

 1754 to his death in 1782, author of a 

 numlier of religious and teaching works 

 in the Montagnais language. Among the 

 most distinguished laborers within the 

 last century in the Montagnais, Algonkin, 

 and Maskegon territories, stretching from 

 the St Lawrence to Hudson bay, may be 

 named Fathers Durocher(1829-73), Garin 

 (1 845-57 ),Laverlochere( 1845-51 ),Lebret 

 (1861-69), Gueguen (1864-88+), and 

 Prevost (1873-88+), all of the Oblate 

 order, and each the author of some im- 

 portant contribution to American philol- 

 ogy. Rev. Charles Guay has given atten- 

 tion to the language among the Micmac 

 of New Brunswick. In recent years the 

 most prominent name is that of Father 

 J. A. Cuoq, Sulpician, already noted, 

 missionary at Oka for more than half a 

 century, beginning in 1847, master of the 

 Mohawk and Aliionkm languages, and 

 author of a dictionary of each, besides 

 numerous other important linguistic 

 works. 



According to the official Canadian In- 

 dian Report for 1906 the Catholic Indians 

 of the five eastern provinces numbered 

 18,064, including all those of Prince 

 Edward id.. Nova Scotia, and New Bruns- 

 wick, nearly all those of Quebec, and 

 two-tifths of the Christian Indians of 

 Ontario. Every settlement of impor- 

 tance had a church, school, or visiting 



priest, the standard for industry being 

 fair, for temperance good, and for honesty 

 and general morality exceptionally high. 



The noted Huron mi.^sions hold a place 

 by themselves. The beginning was made 

 by the Recollet, Joseph le Caron, who 

 accompanied Champlain on his visit to 

 the Huron country iti 1615. The tribe 

 at that time occupied the shores of (Geor- 

 gian bay, Ontario, and with other incor- 

 porated bands may have numbered 10,000 

 souls or more (some estimates are much 

 higher), in from 15 to 30 towns or villages, 

 several of whi(;h were strongly i)alisaded. 

 They were proliably then of strength 

 equal to that of their hereditary enemies 

 and finiil destroyers, the Iroquois of New 

 York. In more or less close alliance with 

 the Ilurons were the cognate Tionontati 

 and Neutrals, farther to the s. and s. w., 

 in the peninsula between L. Erie and L. 

 Huron. Le Caron spent the winter with 

 the Hurons and Tionontati, established 

 the mission of St (iabriel, made a brief 

 dictionary of the language, and returned 

 to the French settlen)ents in the spring. 

 The work was continued for some years 

 by other RecoUets, Gabriel Sagard, au- 

 thor of a Huron dictionary and a history 

 of the Recollet missions, and Nicholas 

 Viel, who was murdered by an Indian 

 about 1624. In 1625 the Jesuits arrived 

 in Canada to assist the RecoUets, and the 

 next year the heroic Jean de Brebeuf and 

 another Jesuit, with Father Joseph Dal- 

 lion, Recollet, reached St (iabriel. The 

 Neutrals also were now visited, but with- 

 out successful result. The work was 

 brought to a temj)orary close by the 

 English occupancy of Canada in 1629. 



In 1634, after the restoration of French 

 control, the work was resumed, this time 

 by the Jesuits alone, with Brebeuf as 

 superior, assisted then or later by Fathers 

 Daniel, (farmer, Jogues, and others of 

 less note. The mission church of Im- 

 maculate Conception was built in 1637 at 

 Ossossani, one of the principal towns; 

 St Joseph was established at Teanan- 

 stayae, the capital, in the next year; the 

 principal war chief of the tribe was bap- 

 tized, and Christianity began to take root, 

 in spite of the suspicions engendered by 

 two wasting epidemic visitations, for 

 whicli the missionaries were held respon- 

 sible and solemnly condemned to death, 

 until the current of opposition was turned 

 by Brebeuf s courageous bearing. In 

 1639 there were 4 established missions 

 with 13 priests working in the Huron 

 country and visiting in the neighboring 

 tribes. St Marys, on Wye r. , had been 

 made the general lieadcjuarters. A visi- 

 tation of smallpox again spread terror 

 through the tribe and for a time rendered 

 the position of the missionaries unsafe. 

 In consequence of these successive epi- 



