The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century

The Jesuits in North America in
the Seventeenth Century [with
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Title: The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century
Author: Francis Parkman

Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6933] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on February 13,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: Windows Code Page 1252
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
JESUITS IN NORTH AMERICA ***

This etext was produced by Ken Reeder
Thanks to Cyrille Héloir for French proofreading Transcription notes
are included as an appendix

FRANCE AND ENGLAND IN NORTH AMERICA.
A SERIES OF HISTORICAL NARRATIVES.
BY FRANCIS PARKMAN
PART SECOND.

THE JESUITS IN NORTH AMERICA IN THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY.
BY FRANCIS PARKMAN

PREFACE.
Few passages of history are more striking than those which record the
efforts of the earlier French Jesuits to convert the Indians. Full as they
are of dramatic and philosophic interest, bearing strongly on the
political destinies of America, and closely involved with the history of
its native population, it is wonderful that they have been left so long in
obscurity. While the infant colonies of England still clung feebly to the
shores of the Atlantic, events deeply ominous to their future were in
progress, unknown to them, in the very heart of the continent. It will be
seen, in the sequel of this volume, that civil and religious liberty found

strange allies in this Western World.
The sources of information concerning the early Jesuits of New France
are very copious. During a period of forty years, the Superior of the
Mission sent, every summer, long and detailed reports, embodying or
accompanied by the reports of his subordinates, to the Provincial of the
Order at Paris, where they were annually published, in duodecimo
volumes, forming the remarkable series known as the Jesuit Relations.
Though the productions of men of scholastic training, they are simple
and often crude in style, as might be expected of narratives hastily
written in Indian lodges or rude mission-houses in the forest, amid
annoyances and interruptions of all kinds. In respect to the value of
their contents, they are exceedingly unequal. Modest records of
marvellous adventures and sacrifices, and vivid pictures of forest-life,
alternate with prolix and monotonous details of the conversion of
individual savages, and the praiseworthy deportment of some
exemplary neophyte. With regard to the condition and character of the
primitive inhabitants of North America, it is impossible to exaggerate
their value as an authority. I should add, that the closest examination
has left me no doubt that these missionaries wrote in perfect good faith,
and that the Relations hold a high place as authentic and trustworthy
historical documents. They are very scarce, and no complete collection
of them exists in America. The entire series was, however, republished,
in 1858, by the Canadian government, in three large octavo volumes.
[ Both editions--the old and the new--are cited in the following pages.
Where the reference is to the old edition, it is indicated by the name of
the publisher (Cramoisy), appended to the citation, in brackets.
In extracts given in the notes, the antiquated orthography and
accentuation are preserved. ]
These form but a part of the surviving writings of the French-American
Jesuits. Many additional reports, memoirs, journals, and letters, official
and private, have come down to us; some of which have recently been
printed, while others remain in manuscript. Nearly every prominent
actor in the scenes to be described has left his own record of events in
which he bore part, in the shape of reports to his Superiors or letters to
his friends. I have studied and compared these authorities, as well as a
great mass of collateral evidence, with more than usual care, striving to
secure the greatest