190 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Relation Derniere and in a letter addressed by an eye witness 

 named Bertrand to Ihe Sieur de la Tronchaie. ^ 



We need not take this occasion to review Parkman's rather 

 austere and injudicial portrayal of Poutrincourt's zealous efforts 

 to bring the aged Chief Membertou and his tribe into the church. 

 The deed was done in fervor; whether it was done to anticipate 

 the Jesuits in the same field, matters little now. The bajptism at 

 Port Royal stands as the achievement of a conviction supported 

 by resolution, the combination that has always done things that are 

 worth while. The old chief, having given his adherence to the new 

 religion, instilled his faith into all his tribe, perhaps whether they 

 liked it or not, until all the Micmacs under his control had sur- 

 rendered fully to the new religion. And thus at Annapolis began 

 the spiritual regeneration of the tribe till, under the labors of the 

 " Black-robes " and the " Bare-feet " alike, it extended throughout 

 the entire domain of the Micmacs in Acadia and Gaspesia. How- 

 ever historians, in the conventual repose of their libraries, may 

 construe the initial effort, the seed was planted and the occasion 

 of June 1910 showed something of the harvest. 



There was a far deeper meaning to this event — one which it 

 was not the purpose of the tercentenary to commemorate and was 

 obviously omitted, but it has stamped an elemental influence on the 

 history of this western continent. The Micmacs were the jEirst of 

 the American Indians to surrender to the white man's religion. 



1 The latter is quoted b}^ R. F, Pacifique in a souvenir brochure issued in 

 advance of the tercentennial: " Une Tribu privilegiee " — an illuminating 

 and erudite history of the tribe and a sympathetic analysis of the Micmac 

 psychology. This pamphlet is itself an important historical document, for 

 its author is, of all men, he who doubtless knows the Micmac people best, has 

 sojourned with them most, has received their confidences, soothed their 

 anxieties, advised them in their spiritual and secular interests oftenest. For 

 them he has printed prayer books, hymnaries and catechisms in their own 

 language and today issues a monthly journal, " Le Messager Micmac," in 

 their tongue. Thus incidentally to his spiritual labors he has rendered a 

 great service to philology and linguistics in helping to conserve this Souriquois 

 language. It is surely upon this learned and devout Franciscan that the 

 mantle of his confrere, LeClercq, the intrepid missioner to the " Savages " 

 in the Gaspe peninsula in the i6oo's, when the country was wild and they 

 were wilder, has fallen. He has succeeded to the labors of the devoted 

 Biard and Maillard. To the publication we have referred and to his later 

 " Souvenir " of the tercentenary, the writer (or indeed any writer on this 

 theme) must perforce be attentive and from them a constant borrower. 



