[
128]
the festival of the assumption was solemnized
on the island itself.
Henceforward, the hearth of the sacred fires of the Wyandots was consecrated to the Virgin.
‘There the
Mohawk and the feebler
Algonquin,’
Relation 1640, 1641, p. 211. |
said Le Jeune, ‘shall make their home; the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and a little child shall guide them.’
Yet the occupation of
Montreal did not immediately produce nearer relations with the
Huron missionaries,
who, for a period of three years, received, no supplies whatever,—so that their clothes fell in pieces; they had no wine for the chalice but the juices of the wild grape, and scarce bread enough for consecration.
Yet the efforts of the Jesuits were not limited even to the
Huron race.
Within thirteen years, this remote wil-
derness was visited by forty-two missionaries, members of the Society of Jesus, besides eighteen others, who, if not initiated, were yet chosen men, ready to shed their blood for their faith.
Twice or thrice a year, they all assembled at St. Mary's; for the rest of the time, they were scattered through the infidel tribes.
I would willingly trace their progress, as they gradually surveyed the coast of our republic, from the waters of the ‘Unghiara,’ or, as we write it, the
Niagara, to the head of
Lake Superior; but their narratives do but incidentally blend description with their details of conversions.
Yet the map which was prepared by the order, at
Paris, in 1660, proves that, in this earliest period, they had traced the highway of waters from
Lake Erie to
Lake Superior, and had gained a glimpse, at least, of
Lake Michigan.
Within six years after the recovery of
Canada, the
plan was formed of establishing missions, not only among the Algonquins in the north, but south of
Lake
Relation 1638, 1639. p. 23, 24. |
Huron, in Michigan, and at
Green Bay; thus to gain
