First French Foot-Prints Beyond the Lakes. 105 



are preserved. As early as 1671 their headquarters were Macki- 

 naw, but they were constantly making excursions and establishing 

 out-stations in the parts beyond. In 1721 Father Chardon had 

 already labored among the Sacs about Green Bay till he had 

 given them up as beyond hope, and was studying "Winnebago in 

 order to preach to the tribe of that name. Other missionaries are 

 mentioned at later periods, and the town of De Pere, meaning 

 Fathers^ is said to derive its name from the fact that two Jesuits 

 suffered martyrdom there in 1765. In the interior of Wisconsin 

 there were also stations among the Kickapoos and Menomonies. 



Downward from the expedition of Joliet and Marquette, Wis- 

 consin was the favorite thoroughfare of missionaries as well as 

 others bound for the southwest. Such way-farers shunned the 

 east shore of Lake Michigan as infested by the Iroquois. If they 

 could buy permission of the Foxes they glided down the Wis- 

 consin river as the shortest and easiest route. Those who failed 

 to win Indian favor paddled along the Wisconsin shore of Lake 

 Michigan. 



It is a natural question, " What brought the Catholic fathers to 

 the farthest west at so early a day, while Protestant missionaries, 

 tbough abroad in New England before one European dwelt in 

 Montreal, had not penetrated half-way to the Hudson river?" 



It might have been predicted from the out-set by a philosoph.- 

 ical historian, that French missionaries would out-do all others 

 among our aborigines. They had already showed themselves 

 pre-eminent elsewhere. The French originated the crusades, and 

 from first to last they were the chief crusaders. It was natural 

 for them, changing tactics with the times, to be as zealous against 

 the infidels of the Occident as they had approved themselves 

 against those of the orient, and as persistent with litany and mass 

 as they had been with lance and mace. The presence and per- 

 sistence of Jesuits on our upper lakes and beyond them, more 

 than two centuries ago, is accounted for by one single word — 

 yes, by one syllable, namely Faith — their peculiar faith. 



The views I now present of Jesuit missions are of course those 

 of a non-Catholic. They must be or they could not be my own, 

 and no one would wish me either to dissimulate my own opinions 



