The Jesuit Missions | Page 5

or Tobacco Nation, then dwelling on the southern
shore of Nottawasaga Bay, a two-days' journey south-west of
Carhagouha. There had been as yet no direct communication between
the French and the Petuns, and the visitors were not kindly received.
The Petun sorcerers or medicine-men dreaded the influence of the
grey-robed friar, regarded him as a rival, and caused his teachings to be
derided. After an uncomfortable month Champlain and Le Caron
returned to Carhagouha, where they remained until the 20th of May,
and then set out for Quebec.
When Le Caron reached Quebec on the 11th of July (1616) he found
that his comrades had not been idle. A chapel had been built, in what is
now the Lower Town, close to the habitation, and here Father Jamay
ministered to the spiritual needs of the colonists and laboured among
the Indians camped in the vicinity of the trading-post. Father d'Olbeau
had been busy among the Montagnais, a wandering Algonquin tribe
between Tadoussac and Seven Islands, his reward being chiefly
suffering. The filth and smoke of the Indian wigwams tortured him, the
disgusting food of the natives filled him with loathing, and their vice
and indifference to his teaching weighed on his spirit.
The greatest trial the Recollets had to bear was the opposition of the

Company of St Malo and Rouen, which was composed largely of
Huguenots, and had a monopoly of the trade of New France. Many of
the traders were actively antagonistic to the spread of the Catholic
religion and they all viewed the work of the Recollets with hostility. It
was the aim of the missionaries to induce the Indians to settle near the
trading-posts in order that they might the more easily be reached with
the Gospel message. The traders had but one thought--the profits of the
fur trade; and, desiring to keep the Indians nomadic hunters of furs,
they opposed bringing them into fixed abodes and put every possible
obstacle in the way of the friars. Trained interpreters in the employ of
the company for both the Hurons and the various Algonquin tribes
were ordered not to assist the missionaries in acquiring a knowledge of
the native languages. The company was pledged to support six
missionaries, but the support was given with an unwilling, niggardly
hand.
At length, in 1621, as a result of the complaints of Champlain and the
Recollets, before the authorities in France, the Company of St Malo
and Rouen lost its charter, and the trading privileges were given to
William and Emery de Caen, uncle and nephew. But these men also
were Huguenots, and the unhappy condition of affairs continued in an
intensified form. Champlain, though the nominal head of the colony,
was unable to provide a remedy, for the real power was in the hands of
the Caens, who had in their employment practically the entire
population.
Yet, in spite of all the obstacles put in their way, the Recollets
continued their self-sacrificing labours. By the beginning of 1621 they
had a comfortable residence on the bank of the St Charles, on the spot
where now stands the General Hospital. Here they had been granted
two hundred acres of land, and they cultivated the soil, raising meagre
crops of rye, barley, maize, and wheat, and tending a few pigs, cows,
asses, and fowls. There were from time to time accessions to their ranks.
Between the years 1616 and 1623 the fathers Guillaume Poullain,
Georges le Baillif, Paul Huet, Jacques de la Foyer, Nicolas Viel, and
several lay brothers, the most noted among whom was Gabriel
Sagard-Theodat, laboured in New France. They made attempts to

christianize the Micmacs of Acadia, the Abnaki of the upper St John,
the Algonquin tribes of the lower St Lawrence, and the Nipissings of
the upper Ottawa. But the work among these roving bands proved most
disheartening, and once more the grey-robed friars turned to the
Hurons.
The end of August 1623 saw Le Caron, Viel, and Sagard in Huronia.
Until October they seem to have laboured in different settlements, Viel
at Toanche, a short distance from Penetanguishene Bay, Sagard at
Ossossane, near Dault's Bay, an indentation of Nottawasaga Bay, and
Le Caron at Carhagouha. It does not appear that they were able to make
much of an impression on the savages, though they had the satisfaction
of some baptisms. During the winter Sagard studied Indian habits and
ideas, and with Le Caron's assistance compiled a dictionary of the
Huron language. [Footnote: Sagard's observations were afterwards
given to the world in his 'Histoire du Canada et Voyages des Peres
Recollects en la Nouvelle-France.'] Then, an June 1624, Le Caron and
Sagard accompanied the annual canoe-fleet to Quebec, and Viel was
left alone in Huronia.
The Recollets were discouraged. They saw that the field was too large
and that