First French Foot-Prints Beyond the Lakes. 109 



fered no more from governmental jealousies. On the other hand 

 trade-policy and military power leaned on missions as their main 

 support. Missions were to explore the Mississippi, missions were 

 to win over savage hordes at once to the faith and to France, At 

 a momentous crisis, in 1685, the Jesuit, Engelran, at Mackinaw 

 adroitly kept the lake tribes from defection. The Marquis Du 

 Quesne used to say that Father Picquet was worth ten regiments. 

 One tribe was taught by the Fathers that Christ was a Frenchman 

 murdered by the English, and that the way to gain his favor was 

 to revenge his death. No wonder a chief called out, " O, that I 

 and my braves had caught those English crucifiers. We would 

 have taken off all their scalps." 



In those times, when the question arose which we are still vainly 

 essaying to answer, " How was America peopled ? how came the 

 Aborigines here? " it was a common saying of theologians that 

 the devil had led the Indians hither that they might be out of the 

 way of the gospel. Accordingly, whoever penetrated into the 

 utmost corner of the "West was sure that he beyond all others 

 was storming the donjon keep of Satan. 



This Jesuit storming party, full of hope and misnamed forlorn, 

 roved at will without passports, while others, if they lacked such 

 credentials, were put to death. 



Their first acquaintance with mosquitoes is thus recorded : " The 

 woods were full of a species of flies similar to the gnats which in 

 France are called cousins (that is, I suppose, ' poor relations '). 

 They are so importunate that one always has a multitude around 

 him watching for a chance to light on his face or on some part of 

 his body where the covering is so thin that their stings can easily 

 pierce it. As soon as they light they draw out blood and substi- 

 tute for it venom, which excites a strange uneasiness and a tumor 

 of two or three hours' duration." When they first saw a fire fly 

 they must have thought like Paddy that a mosquito had taken a 

 lantern in order to find his victims in the dark. 



In sending their underlings into the heart of New France, 

 Jesuit superiors were assured they could there repeat those 

 miracles of conversion and reconstruction which their order had 

 lately wrought in South America. 



