New France and the European Conscience

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KENNEDY, John Hopkins, 1916NEW FRANCE AND THE EUROPEAN CONSCIENCE. 1: THE MATTER OF NEW FRANCE.

PART

Yale University, Ph.D., 1942 History, modern

University Microfilms, A XEROX Company , A nn Arbor, M ichigan

©C '

JOHN HOPKINS KENNEDY

1970

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

T H IS

DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED

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NSW FRANCE AND THE EUROPEAN CONSCIENCE

PART I The Matter of New France

John H. Kennedy

A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Yale Universi­ ty in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 1942

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resum

N ew F r a n c e a n d P a r t I: After Ca tho lic

the

the E u r o p e a n C o n s c i e n c e

The 1latter of New France

P r o t e s t a n t Re f o r ma ti on ,

From the ensuing controversies

a n d huma n nature,

pe riod of i m p e r i a l i s t i c

ze al v/hich vr a n c e u n d e r w - n t their new

France.

observations

savages — *wl th r e g a r d f am il y

and c u s t o m s

life,

—

s ol uti on o f

century,

the

the F r e n c h

ideas d e r i v e d f ro m t h e o l o g i c a l disputes, sources,

their

free will,

expansion and missionary

in the s e v e n t e e n t h

as from some o t h e r Fr om

o v e r grace,

man in this w o r l d .

Du ri ng the

oroj acted

the

so ci al an d r e l i g i o u s

th ey c r e a t e d a new b a s i s for the

p ro bl em s fa cing

vices,

the t h e o l o g i a n s o f

ch u r c h r e v i v e d the Q u e s t i o n s o f man's

relationships.

many

£

in a p p l i c a t i o n of the

to the

savages o f New

life and conduct of t h e

to their p e r s o n a l att ri bu te s,

religious

these

tendencies,

clerics and

as v/ell

virtues and

an d p o l i t i c a l

thought

l ay me n drew c e r t a i n c o n c l u s i o n s

wnici^had br o a d e ff ec ts . The facts a n d bacK

to France

the first ation,

the

c o n c l u s i o n s w h i c h these w r i t e r s

in tceir a c c o u n t s w e r e

place,

t-hoy r e c o r d e d

and ad ve r t i s e ,

the new

province.

fr om

Ideas w h i c h wo u l a be used,

tnrougnout

to

abandoned the

savages,

sane of

the m i s s i o n a r y

had a fur th er and

the c i v i l i z e d

phi l o se p h iquo ideas e x a m p l e of the

p r e s e n t e d below,

Europeans.

se cond

In

exploit­

place,

from resented

tne e ig ht ee nt n century,

as

Thus,

the

the a c t i v i t i e s of

indirect

for

the

saxe

cf the

sa l u t a r y effect,

for

Thes e (Observations m a d e m a n y practical

stimulated reform.

toge*:icr w i t h

sorts of uses.

those w r i t e r s

field,

taxe an a p o a r e n t l y

savages

In the

t.ielr facts,

pattern r e f o r m s .

hcunter-F.eformation in

to two

the w o r n of c o n v e r s i o n a n d

their a r g u m e n t s as w e ’l as

mo dels u p o n w ' i c h

out

re a y e d

some of

These

shape* a n d

the

observations are

the c o n c l u s i o n s d r a w n fr om

t.Vioin.

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PREFACE.

In the following pages I have tried to ehow what effect the Frenoh possession and development of Canada had upon French thought in the eighteenth century.

'In the process of

my researches, it has occurred to me that the history of that misunderstood era between Luther and Napoleon sorely needs to be revised, from a fresh point of view.

I am presumptuous

enough to say that I have also tried, after the model of Gab­ riel Monod and Carl Becker's Heavenly City of the EighteenthCentury Philosophers, to commence to open up new vistas for that revision.

This 4f

fk .n

44 /4 M ..

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33The Count de Luna, emissary of Philip II, said, "I know no other means £ p t effective r e f o n ^ but two.

Make good preaohers, and 1 soatter as widely as you oan the Company of Jesus.” The minister

of the emperor ooncurred with him.

The papal nunolo to Poland

reported that the Jesuits oould best reconvert the lapsed people of that land. Now at last the Society of Jesus had a clear direction. It set out to Impose upon Christians a blind obedlenoe to the deorees of the council of Trent.

Under the circumstances, it

appeared paradoxical that the theological champions of free will should seek to lead Europe to a form of authoritarian regulation, S»C.W\1 n e t etac+hy + k t CVS*y ko>*>e\/er,

which, some say, immobilized the free will.A This much-mooted free will was part of the relationship of man and God.

For the

end of freedom on that religious sphere, secular authoritarianism became a justifiable means. too often lose sight.

Of this distinction, anti-Jesuits

It is a real one, and despite the work

of the eighteenth-century philoeophes. will oontinue to be valid. Bearing in mind the true relationships of free will in the natural and in the supernatural spheres, it oannot be said that the Jesuits subjugated or deformed the ohurch.

They

were the representatives and the logical result of the postTridentine ohurch.

Happily, they have been checked in their

secular endeavors, by opposition within and without the church, beoause they did serve to stifle free thinking on subjeots not properly within their domain.

St Ignatius early laid down the

1. Cretineau-Joly, Compagnle de Jesus. I, 277. R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

1 polloy that "new opinions axe not to be admitted.”

Yet, even

in judging St Ignatiue with respeot to seoular ideas, we must bear in mind his historical oiroumstanoes.

Because of the

times, the first Jesuits set order above freedom in this world. And because of order, the Society of Jesus still guards the decisions of the council of Trent. The followers of St Ignatius have often been accused of destroying much:

on the contrary, they have not destroyed

enough, but have always tried to conserve as much as possible. For the early Jesuits, authority seemed to reside in possession rather than in right, which was made a justification for possi

ession.

This truly conservative point of view was exemplified

by every General Congregation of the society, which aimed to combat "dangerous novelties."

Specifically, we cite a letter

from a doctor of theology, involved in some dispute:

"It is

my earnest wish to follow the safest opinion in all questions, and those furthest removed from any taint of novelty."

In the

\

following year,

| | f i ! '

he sought a decision from the Holy See on the

safeness of his doctrines, as to whether they were free from v 3 teenturesomeness or not. Over against this typical conservatism, however, stood the Jesuit desire to win the people of Europe

back to the church.

1. Brucker, La Oompagnle de Jesus, p. 458. t-

f |

2. James Brodriok, The Life and Works of Blessed Robert Francis Cardinal Bellaxmlne. 8.J.. 154X-1631 (London. 1928). II. lo, 19. Hereafter cited as Brodriok, Bellaxmlne.

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St Ignatius stressed a reform of manners. the churoh needed a more flexible oreed.

For such a reform, Therefore, after

Trent, Oathollo theologians oonverted many issues of dogma into questions of interpretation.

By this process, dangerous opin-

ons beoame less susceptible to sohism and heresy.

To factions

inside the church, problems of interpretation brought as much woe as earlier schisms had.

But to the non-Oatholio world, the

churoh succeeded in presenting the appearance of a united edifice. *

*

*

By the foroe of events, then, the Jesuits based their theology and ethic upon the oanons and deorees of Trent.

The

oounoil had signified that St Thomas Aquinas was to be the chief guide to the churoh in matters of theology.

St Ignatius had

recommended St Thomas to his followers, and assigned him prece­ dence over Peter Lombard.

Although he so honored the great

scholastic before the council of Trent had pronounced on the matter, nevertheless the Jesuit Constitutions clearly asked for 1 a manual of theology more suited to the times. This request was not made in derogation of St Thomas, but with a view to deducing from his doctrines systematic rules which could apply to a reform of manners and morals —

always a dangerous pro­

cedure, as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries had already demonstrated. 1. Brucker, La Oompagnle de Jesus, pp. 456-458; A.F.W. Guettee, Hlstolre dee Jesuites (Paris. 1858-59), I, 297.

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36The Dominicans doubtless understood the motives behind suoh a request.

Jealous for the reputation of their

Angello Doctor, they assailed the Jesuits soon after Trent for wishing to show that religion oould be made less inaccessible to human intellignece, less majestic in dogma, and less rigid in preoept.

They further accused them of constructing a faith

more appropriate to human frailty, and to the oiroumstanoes of 1 the world, by Inventing a relaxed morality. The statements were true.

But they should not have been oouohed as accusations,

considering the historical sense whioh the Jesuits had of their mission? Without the penetrating epistemology whioh St Thomas had drilled into his followers; oast into a world whioh was absorbed more in social than in religious adjustments; and therefore primarily concerned with man's relation to God and the world, not with God's relation to man and the world —

the

Jesuits aoted chiefly as social reformers, and made their theology one means toward their end purpose. As a pivot, the Jesuit theories rested on the doctrine of grace.

For the corollaries to that dootrine governed the

increasingly important secular problem of the nature of man, and his political and social relationships.

Now, the oouncil

of Trent had defined only negatively a theoretioal position; and it remained for the Society of Jesus and their contemporaries to create a positive, workable statement concerning grace. 1. Oretineau-Joly, Ooapagnle de Jesus. Ill, 13.

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37All parties within the churoh oonaented to the general definition:

graoe was a supernatural gift whioh God

freely bestowed on rational or intellectual oreatures, so that they might attain to eternal life.

To it man had no claim;

without it he could not move "even the distanoe of a thought" toward heaven.

It functioned only in man's supernatural ac­

tivities, and not on the natural (e.g.. the social, political, economic, or domestic) level.

Although man could do good in

the natural order without graoe, it was usually necessary for the resistance of temptation even there.

Henoe the triumph

of good over evil in any situation was usually attributed to God's grace.

On the other hand, such divine grace had of necess­

ity to precede, accompany, and follow any human act that was 1 intended to have supernatural or salutary value. Under the canons of the sixth session of the council of Trent, all Catholics accepted that sanctifying grace was an habitual graoe which inhered in the subetanoe of the sou}., whioh

2 it renewed and sanctified by its mere presence. incompatible with mortal sin. the divine nature. i |

1

Thus it was

And it made men partakers of

Common adherence was also given to the

dlotum that the graoe which was neoessary for justification before God was inaccessible to man without the prevenient 3 inspiration of the Holy Ghost.

I

1. Brodrick, Bellarmlne. II, 1.

I

2. Canones et decreta Oonollll Trldentlnl; sees. VI, canon 11; p. 32.

I I

3. William E. Addis and Thomas Arnold, A Oflthollo Dictionary (London, 1917), article, "Graoe."

-38▲t this point arose the quarrels over graoe.

The

prooees of breaking it down into its functions and attributes, whioh had separated Luther and Oalvln from the Catholio commun­ ion, now threatened further heresies.

For a general definition,

sufficient grace was taken to be that whioh enabled the soul to do a supernatural act; efficacious grace was that whioh really e affected the purposes for which grace was granted. The dis­ putes arose over the manner in whioh these kinds of grace acted. The Dominicans, claiming to be the only true Thomists, returned to St Thomas1 arguments from oausation.

Graoe being a seoond

oause, they said, God moved it aocording to its nature.

Thus

the difference between the kinds of grace lay in their respec­ tive natures.

It had nothing to do with the nature or condi­

tion of the recipient.

So, sufficient graoe by its nature

enabled the reoipient to act.

Efficatious grace by its nature

enabled the recipient to act and he acted.

This distinction

preserved the freedom of the will, by saying that sufficient grace left man free and responsible for his demerits^ while efficacious grace left man free and oapable of merit. a

It was

rather rigid doctrine, which did not emphasize the respon­

sibility of man so much as it did the greatness of God. Not satisfied with this, the Jesuits carried refine­ ment even further, in an attempt to bring God closer to man. They said the Dominioan theory left too much to prevenient grace, and did not grant the will any true freedom.

So they

1. Addis and Arnold, A Catholic Dictionary. “Graoe.“

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-39lntroduoed the issue of the freedom of the will, as an essen­ tial faotor in the definition of graoe, and came oloser to eemi-Pelagianism.

Suffioient graoe, they declared, oonferred

upon the soul the means neoessary for supernatural aotivity, but at a time when it was frustrated of its effeot through the culpable obstinaoy of the human will.

Efficacious grace

conferred the same means, but in this case it produoed the effect desired by God.

(Of course, the effect desired by

| I I

God is always taken to be salvation.) The Jesuits argued from c the Scriptures and the Fathers that Efficacious grace was a

■

special gift of God to could not fail to win.

f(

some chosen souls, whose consent it It was accepted as a truth by faith

that all men's wills remained free under the influence of grace, and that they could reject it, though its powers prevailed 1 in the oase of the elect. As a device for preserving the freedom of the will, the Jesuits had seized upon the word oooperation, which they

| I | I. [

wrote into the fourth oanon of the sixth

Under their definition, the congruity of man with God became

|

henceforth o&me to be known as congruists.

[

depended ultimately upon the sclentla media, which reconciled

essential to salvation.

se66ion of Trent.

Those who subscribed to this doctrine Their position

the omnipotence and omniscienoe of God with the perfectly t

=

free action of the human will.

God gave

grace to those whom

he foresaw would accept it, under circumstances which would :

be suitable to its acceptance.

|

1. Brodrick, Bellarmlne. II, 2.

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-40Until 1566, men had regarded the divine knowledge under two different forme, for the sake of understanding it. God possessed the knowledge of present or future existing

i i

things, said the knowledge of things simply poesible.

\

however, Pedro de Fonseca, S.J., who taught philosophy at

5

Now,

Evora, brought forth a third form, whioh partook of the elements of the other two —

solentla media, knowledge of all

e

that might ever happen, under any possible or probably oom|

binations of olroumstanoes.

It was so called because it

dealt with knowledge of things in a state between things 1 which are and things which will be. The congruists claimed authority for their theory in St Augustinete

Dlversls Quaestlonlbus ad Slmpllclanum.

2

?

which treated of divine prescience in relation to penance. But they found more unimpeachable authority in the biblioal quotation of Ohrist:

"woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee,

i

Bethsaida; for if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the mira-

I

cles that have been wrought in you, they had long ago done 3 penance in sackcloth and ashes." Two other verses from the

I I

Gospels repeated or paraphrased what Christ said on the same 4 occasion. 1. Addis and Arnold, A Cathollo Dictionary, article "Grace;" Brucker, La Compagnle de Jdsus. p. 461. c , . 2. Sanftl Aurelli Augustini: Opera Omnia (Parisiis, 1841); Tomus Sextus, Liber II, (^uaestio 2. t 3. Matthew, 11:21 (Vulgate-Rheims version). j

4. Mathew, 11:23; Luke, 16:13.

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-41These distinctions were ooneonant with the dictum of St Ignatius that, while faith and graoe should be exalted, yet the prestige of good works and free will should not be impaired.

The Jesuits thought that by the use of solentla

media they had found a way to fulfill their leader's wishes. if

However —

and this should be borne constantly in mind —

their chief concern was to work out a rationale by whioh they could attract as many non-Cathollcs as possible back to the church. |

Primarily they were reformers, and they only utilized

theology when it suited their ends —

casu^ts, in the proper

'

sense of that word. I

Thus, their quarrels with other parties

inside the church never proceeded from the same starting point.

i

While the chief interest of the Dominioans, for example, lay k r

in the nature of God, the chief interest of the Jesuits was always in the relationships of men.

[

f

From the first, they met obstacles to their program

i

S

of regimenting and harmonizing all Catholic thought.

If they

had not run into open opposition at Trent, many covertly quesf r

tioned their doctrines.

Most of their theories were not ex-

t

plicit then, and became so only after differences forced them

|

to define their own position more clearly.

I [

The first man to speak out against the Jesuits was

t

Michel de Bay, a theologian at the University of Louvain, where

{

the Jesuits also oonduoted claosec.

t

appointed de Bay to the ohair of Holy Scripture there.

I-

afterward, he beoame chancellor of the university.

In 1551 Charles V had

At

8oon the

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-42third session of the counoll of Trent, he had found himself opposed to Laynez and Salmeron on the questions of justifioa1 tion and grace. The theological faculty of Paris had already censured his Pelagianism, when in 1567 Pius V condemned seventysix propositions of his teachings, although he did not promuli,

gate the bull.

At that time, de Bay submitted to the papacy;

but rather in the form of explanation and justifioation, than out of obedienoe. !

Going baok direotly to St Augustine, de Bay attempted

I

to correct the errors of Calvin and Luther.

But he utterly

I

Ignored the thousand years of theology which had passed since

I f |

the blBhop of Hippo wrote.

system which obliterated the distinction between the natural


_

AAT

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55 The publication of the Oonoordia immediately aroused a storm from the Dominloans, and sent Bannes scurrying off to Rome.

He evidently feared that Molina*s attempt to save human

freedom had destroyed the idea of the omnipotence and the in­ vincible will of God.

Beoause his major premise was the sup­

remacy of God, he sought the reason for the inseparable connec­ tion of graoe with human consent in its lntrlnslo force. The subscribed —

theory of physical premotion to which Bannez 1.e.. a movement of the soul by reason of the

ph^sls of

the moving grace —— was the general Dominican inter­

pretation

of St Thomas' Ideas on grace.

This premotion God

impressed on a free will in order to determine it to act, with infallible effect.

Without it, the free will oould not

direct itself even in the natural order.

That sort of premotion

indispensable to the supernatural good was called effloaciais /

grace.

This conception excluded completely the hypotheses of

^clentla media, as Bannez intended.

More than that,^since it

ruled out all consideration of consentA the Jesuits olalmed it destroyed the freedom of the will,

After man received such pre­

motion, how could he refuse it; and before, how could he attempt salutary acts?

Bellarmine condemned this Thomistic position

as being contrary to St Augustine, and fatal to sufficient graoe. VThile Mol ini em based the infallibility of grace on the divine prevision, Bannez deduced infallibility from the effect of the 3 very nature of the predetermining grace. 1. Cretineau-Joly, Compagnie de Je'sus. Ill, 17-18; Brodrick, Bellarmine. II, 24. 2

T'hirt.

tt. 25. and note 1; Brucker, La Compagnie de Jesus.

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— £6— Now the lines were drawn for a theological battle* Underlying the struggle of the interpretation of dogma, however, was the worldly struggle for power.

The Dominioans pretended

to be the sole true heirs of the rigid Thomistio tradition of the Kiddle Ages.

They resented the growth and intrusion of

the more adaptable Society of Jesus.

The papaoy understood the

reality of this controversy, as well as the disastrous results it oould have by creating a schism. For the first few years, the quarrel was oonflned only to arguments and debates in the lecture-halls and oounollchambers of Spain and Portugal.

But in 1594 Philip II and the

Grand Inquisitor appealed to the pope, Clement VIII.

Consequently

in June, the papal nuncio at Madrid announced the assumption of the question by the ouria,and imposed silence on all parties concerned.

He commissioned the Spanish bishops to transmit to

Clement VIII the evidenoe and causes of the difficulty. In order to create a diversion from the concerted attack on his book, Molina appeared at Madrid.

There he de­

nounced some of the doctrines of the Inquisition, whioh he claimed destroyed free will.

But the Inquisition refused to

answer him until he had cleared himself of Bannez' charges. In 1595, two sucoe8sive Grand Inquisitors of Spain were about to pronounce judgment against the Oonoordia when death prevented them.

The pope forbade their successor to render a deoision.

Now the fate of Mollnlsm was to be determined at Rome. 1. Gu^tee, Hlstolre des Jesultes, I, 308-309. R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-57There one commission had already oondenmed the Jesuit system.

But the pope did not believe in their thoroughness

or sincerity, and voided their verdict.

In 1597 he took the

whole question out of 8panish hands, and again imposed sllenoe. He further ordered from the Spanish oolleges, bishops, and theologians, their written opinions on Molinism.

As a result,

sixteen censures declared that the Oonoordla contained heresy. These pronouncements, however, by their nature, breached the rule of sllenoe which had been imposed, and did not yet satisfy the scrupulous pope. A Dominioan theologian exposed the core of the quarrel, and justified the hesitation of the pope, when he complained to Philip II of the intrusions of the Jesuits.

For

300 years, he asserted, the Dominicans had taught the system of St Thomas without objeotion from any side. men came in.

Now these new

By what right did they say that the teachings

of St Thomas were not enough?

Also, they were breaching the

rule of silence which the pope had imposed:

if not publioly,

at least just as effectively in their schools.

Finally, the

letter begged that the Jesuits be suppressed, along with 1 their corrosive dootrines. No sooner had the king of Spain forwarded this plea to Clement VIII, than Bannez boldly addressed the pope in like vein.

He asserted for the Dominicans a monopoly on the true

1. Gbettee, Hlstolre dee Jesuitee. I, 309-310.

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-58interpretation of St Augustine.

He further attaokfd the Jesuits,

who, despite the ban of silenoe, were leading the people into 1 Pelagian errors. In reply, Bellarmine, now very influential in Roman circles, pointed out to Bannez that it was the very question of interpretation which was At stake.

Thus, it oould not be aooepted

that, a priori, the Dominicans were oorreot, in order to intensify the silence which should allow for a final deoislon on the issue. At the same time, he advised the pope against holding long dis­ cussions.

He suggested that an end be made of the matter by a

prohibition against the oensuring or oiting as erroneous by either order, the teachings of the other on the pertinent ques2 tions. Clement rejected the theologian's far-sighted proposi­ tion, and thus postponed that identioal solution for ten years. Instead, he showed a determination to settle the vexatious question definitively.

He formally constituted the

Congregatio de Auxillis in November 1597, to hear and read all relevant material.

The Congregatio sat sixty-eight times under 3 Clement VIII, and seventeen times under his successor. Its /

/

1. Ghiettee, Hlstoire des Jesultes. I, 310,* Bannez* dooument ie presented in Brodrick, Bellarmine. II, 43-51. 2. Ibid.. II, 52. 3. For a oomplete, sesslon-by-session summary of the eighty-five sessions of the Congregatio de Auxillis, see Annales de la society des soi-dlsant Jesultes depuis 1552 .jusqu'en 1763. I, 695-811.

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-59final deoision followed the lines of Bellarmine's suggestion of 1597.

In reality, it accomplished nothing exoept to ex­

haust the subject, and to make of it a politioal issue.

Through­

out the deoade of its existence, the Congregatio handed down seven decisions; on only one of these did the pope act. In March 1598, before much material had arrived from Spain, its first oonolusions were handed down. very unfavorably against the Conoordia.

It pronounced

But it could not be

considered as a final decision, sinoe the chief matter for de­ bate had not even passed under the eyes of the consultants. At the end of March, the controversial writings arrived in Rome.

In the justificatory writings of the Jesuits, they

sought, "exclusively" of the Concordia, to establish their principles opposed to physical premotion.

The Dominicans, on

the other hand, embarrassed them by attacking only the Concordia. In this way, they forced many who did not entirely agree with Molina into the position of defending him, for the sake of the whole society.

Nevertheless, in November, the consultants

confirmed their first sentence, although in much modified form. Once again the major problem of schism stared the papaoy in the face.

The tremendous growth of the Society of

Jesus since Trent, and its firm allegiance to the decrees of the council, would make its disgrace dangerous, as Clement saw. Soon political factions began to take shape.

Although the

1. Brucker, La Oompagnle de Jesus, pp. 464-466.

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-

60 -

the pope was not a warm friend to the Jesuits, he saw their indispensatoility, and sought a comfortable compromise. Philip II favored the Domlnloans.

But

His son, who sucoeeded him

in 1598, vacillated between reverence for the policy of his father, and respeot for the growing strength of the Jesuits. His oouslns of Austria, notably the empress and the oardinalarchduke Albert, to whom Molina had dedioated his book, spon­ sored the Jesuit cause.

In France, a new king, striving for

greater stability, came out positively for the Jesuits, and thus deferred the papal condemnation.

Henry IV ordered his

representative at Rome, cardinal Duperron, to beg the pope to decide nothing at present.

If Molinism were condemned,

France might leave the churoh, the oardlnal threatened.

More­

over, congruism had by now become the oreed of the Sorbonne. It appeared that a schism in France would revive Protestant 1 spirits all over Europe, Under suoh pressure, Clement refused to ratify the censures of the Congregatio.

Instead, he brought together the

1. Compare the letter of Cardinal de Castro to Clement VIII, 20.V.1594, quoted in Br^drick, Bellarmine. II, 35-36. See also the reference to Berault-Bercastel1s Histoire de l^Egllse. in Cr£tineau-Joly, Oompagnle de J^sus. III. 18. note; Iblct.. Ill, 20; Brodrick, Bellarmine. II, 54; Guett^e, Histolre des J^suites, I, 313. At this point, the Jesuits became very oautlous. In 1599, the professors at Clermont were or­ dered by the Ratio Studiorum to mistrust ideals which appeared to be too personal, brilliant, new, or paradoxi­ cal. Those who were not obviously Thomists were forbidden to teach scholastic philosophy. Dupont-Ferrier, Du College de Clermont au Lvcd'e Louls-le-Grand. I, 162.

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61-

generals and theologians of the oonflloting parties.

In six

meetings, over the period of a year, they expounded their di­ vergent theories, but without an amicable reconciliation.

The

chief result of their discussions was to foroe the Dominicans to define their own position. footing with their rivals.

They were thus put on an equal

Afterward, the Congregatio again A

censured the Concordia, although no papal aotion

fourth examination took place in 1600, with no more tangible result.

Although Brodrick claims that by 1601 Clement VIII 1 had brought himself to decree against the Jesuits, no evi­ dence supports this surmise.

On the contrary, the Congregatio

held another investigation, and came to the same conclusions as its predecessors,

Ivery time the book underwent examination,

however, the firmness of the pope and the severity of the Congregatio^ diminished in force. After each condemnation, the Jesuits would claim that they did not understand the reasons for the censure, and would also solicit the intervention of a foreign prince.

The most

reliable of these was of course Henry IV, and continually they were gaining more support from Philip III.

In December 1604,

Duperron came to the aid of the Jesuits a second time, by re­ iterating his fears of schism and encouragement to the cause of the heretics.

If the Dominicans triumphed, it would be said

that the papacy was retreating from the stand it had taken against de Bay, and was making important concessions to the Protestant doctrines. 1. Compare Brodrick, Bellarmine. II, 56-57. R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-63The sixth and last investigation which Clement VIII conduoted lasted from Uaroh 1602 to January 1605; this time in the presence of the Supreme Pontiff himself, and the cardi­ nals of the Holy Office.

But, as Bellarmine reminded the pope

at the time, he still found himself incapable of reaching a definite decision. solution.

In Uaroh he died, without achieving any

Nevertheless, the new pope, Paul V, gave hopes of

an early solution of the matter.

He was anxious to finish off

the disouBBion8 immediately, without regard to the petty diff­ erences involved.

The Uollnists had refused to abide by any

of the verdiots rendered during Clement’s lifetime, under the pretenses, whloh were plausible, that they did not treat of the controversy comprehensively.

Now they finally obtained

the right to a full exposition of their theories. When Paul V ordered specifically a disoussion of physioal premotion, they assumed the offensive for the first time.

In another way, also, they seized the offensive:

by

a collateral attack on the relative worth of the authorities claimed by each party.

St Augustine and St Thomas might well

have supported what was Catholic dogma, they admitted.

But

as a matter of faith, it could not be determined that either one held such or such a specific doctrine, since that was utterly irrelevant here.

A definition of an article of faith

could bear only upon a doctrinal question itself; not upon its being accredited to one author or another.

Therefore the

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~63Jesuits asserted tbat they felt free to explain St Augustine and St Thomas in a sense contrary to the explanations of the 1 Dominioans, without interference from even the pope himself. This position they maintained throughout the seventh session. Suoh a nice distinction between fact and law, or doctrine and dogma, enlightened the perplexed Congregatio.

In

the ensuing examinations the controversy came to an end, by a fiat of Paul V.

First, he oollected the opinions of the con­

sulting oardinals.

Bellarmine and Duperron declared that the

theory of physical premotion was protestant, and that the Con­ cordia deserved no condemnation.

Cardinal Asooll, a Dominican,

spoke out for ©ensure; and two others favored the Dominicans, although without asking for censure.

Three neutral cardinals

requested that there be further discussion.

Bellarmine repeated

his moderate attitude of 1597, and advised a bull suspending

2 future controversy of the whole problem.

£n 28 August 1607,

the feast of St Augustine, Paul gave his final decision.

He

did not issue a bull, but decreed that since the issue was not concerned with a matter of dogmatic faith, there oould be no use in continuing the arguments.

Each party was to be permitted

to teach as it liked until futher notice, provided that there 3 were no mutual recriminations at any time. 1. Guettee, Hlstolre dee Je'sultes. I, 314; Gre't ineau-Joly, Compagnle de J^sus. Ill , 20. 2.

Ibid.. Ill, 21; Xavier-Uarie Le Bachelet,"Bellarmin et la France, n Etudes, OLXXV (1923), p. 400; Brodrick, Bellarmine. II, 64-65.

3.

Ibid., II, 65; Annales de lasocl^te des sol-disant Jdsiiltes dfrpuls 1552 iusqu'en 1763. I, 812-823.

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“64The Jansenists and other s have contended that Paul V was on the point of publishing a bull condemning Molinism when 1 he wae distracted by a quarrel with Venice. Such an edict, if 2 it did exist, wae declared null and void by Innocent X in 1654. Thus it was legally deolared never to have had any effeot. less to say, the policy of Paul V was the wise one:

Need­

the whole

matter did not constitute a dogmatic issue, but merely concerned the manner in which the conclusion of the issue had been reaohed. Therefore, it was not worth more trouble, or the risk of a schism.

Down to the present day, the papacy has maintained

Paul V *8 policy.

And while the Jesuit-Dominioan rivalry h^s

not died, it has faded more and more into the realm of histori­ cal problems, and has not agitated the churoh to the extent it did in 1598. In 1611, by order of the pope, the Inquisition decreed that no books concerning efficacious grace should be published 3 until further action by the Holy See. This ruling completed the work of Paul's decision of 1607.

Two years later, the

Jesuit general ordered his society to teach only congruism as defended by Bellarmine, and not the Molinism of Lessius or 4 Molina. But this command has not been strictly obeyed; ae a 1.Sretineau-Joly, Oompagnle de Jesus. Ill, 21; Guettee, Hlstoire des Jesultes"! I, 314; the "project" of this alleged bull is given in Annales de la soclefct des sol-dlsant Jesultes depuls 1552 .lusau'en 1763. Tj 823-832. 2. Addis and Arnold, A Catholic Dictionary, article "Grace."

3. Thomas J, Campbell, The Jesuits. 1534-1921 (New York, 1921), p. 21J 4. Annales de la socle'te des sol-dlsant Je'sultes depule 1552 .iusqu^n 1763. I, 850-851. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-65oollateral way to understanding oongruiem, many Jesuit professore have taught Molinism. The net result of the whole series of controversies from 1566 to 1607 was the extreme refinement of the notions of suffioient and effloacious grace.

In the prooess, Catholic

theologians became acutely aware of the distinctions between nature and supernature.

As they had not done for centuries,

they now regarded man in relation to his present as well as to his future states.

Whereas the theology of the pre-Tridentine

church had concentrated on God, and deduced man's position from the divine attributes, under the domination of the Thomlsts, now the character of God was assumed.

Upon that basis,

the problems of man could receive the treatment they deserved. This was the true result of the work of Molina and his colleagues. While they did destroy the purity of the older theology, they also humanized it, and, as the Dominicans asserted, made it more adaptable to human experience and needs.

Also, they

succeeded in making the Church Militant more flexible than it had been. dogmas.

They modernized it without destroying its ancient Now the church could proceed, without dogmatic com­

promise, to win back the world. *

*

*

Indeed, when Lesoarbot, the first traveller to de­ scribe the New France, told of the early conversions there, he undoubtedly had in mind the aims of the Counter-Reformation.

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66For he pref&oed his work with the biblical text justifying all missionary activity:

"and this Gospel of the kingdom shall be

preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, 1 and then shall the consummation come." Originally, this moti­ vation sustained the zeal and the labors of the Jesuits, and c their Rscollet, Capuchin, and SulplJSlan colleagues. They proposed solely the glorification of God and the salvation of 2 8 0 U lS .

As time passed, however, the religious impetus became interwoven with more mundane considerations.

In the first

plaoe, the missionaries perceived that without the aid of the seoular government, they could make but slow inroads on infidel barbarity.

Colonization by Frenchmen would accustom the savages

to European ways of thought and life, and make them more amen3 able to Christianity. Now, economic inducement had to be offered to prospective colonists.

Consequently, the mission­

aries advertised opportunities for the exploitation of the country. But independent colonization did not suffice, either. The French monarchy did not look with great favor on the free movement of its subjects from place to place.

Nor did the

1. Mathew, 24:14; Leecarbot, La Conversion des 8auvages; Jes. Rel., T, 59. 2. In this connection, it should be noted that New France and England were the two countries where the Society of Jesus most hoped to establish residences, after conversion should have indicated some preliminary success. The captive ohurch which the Iroquois humiliated resembled in Jesuit eyes, the captive ohurch in England. Le Jeune. Relation de...l*ann^e 1635; Jes. Rel., VII, 259; j d r S m e Lalemant. 8.J.. Relation . ,. Ss ~annd*»d for international distribution. R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

CHAPTER II. THE MISSIONARIES AMONG THE 3AVAGE9.

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The history of the missions from which these critical observations emanated may be divided into four periods.

In the

first, experinjpetal, phase of development, were laid the foun­ dations for the great expansion that characterized the second period, from 1632 to 1650.

Then there followed a long time

devoted to the sober consolidation of gains, to infrequent and hurried journeys to distant tribes, and to the establishement of only a few new missions.

In the last period, after approxi­

mately 1715, while the missionaries cultivated the St Lawrenoe valley more thoroughly, they also gave muoh of their energy to the attempts which the French soldiery was making to control the whole of the Mississippi valley. From the first, the priests who oame to New France had the official protection of the royal government at home. In 1610, pressure from the king had forced Poutrinoourt to bring over the first priest to set foot in French Canada. Jesse' Fleche", a secular If Langres, enthusiastically assumed the task of ministering to the religious needs of Poutrinoourt's little oolony at Port Royal, and sought to make as many con­ versions of the infidels as possible.

But he had not been

trained for missionary work, and failed to realize that some sort of spiritual preparation was necessary before the savages could receive baptism properly.

His record of conversions

appeared to Lescarbot and the Jesuits who followed him to have / / been at best unscrupulous, if not immoral. Fleche left no

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-83records whioh have been uncovered, and since he cannot be considered as anything but an extraordinary parish priest, 1 his story does not belong in the annals of the missions. Two years before Fle'ohe arrived in Acadia, Henry IV had written to Pope Paul V, informing His Holiness of his de-

2 sign to send missionaries to New Franoe.

Father Coton had

secured the appointment of the Jesuits, Biard and Masse'', to conduct a mission in Acadia.

In 1611, after delays caused by

the assassination of the king, the pair finally reached their destination.

The wilderness did not promise a rich harvest,

and thoroughly disheartened the pioneers; "surely we sow in 3 great poverty and tears." The prospects for the future inspired them, however, and they started their work with determination. By 1613 their affaire looked brighter.

The Marquise de Guerche-

ville, a great noblewoman at court and a lady-in-waiting to the queen-regent, had secured the patents of de Monts and Poutrinoourt, and turned her newly-acquired properties over to the Jesuits as her stewards.

Now other priests came over to

Acadia, and ventured westward to the Penobscot River. that year, the hopes of the Jesuits were dashed.

But in

English free-

1. Lescarbot, Voyage du sieur Poutrinoourt; Jes. Rel.. II, 154-161; Lescarbot, La Conversion dee sauvages. Jes. Rel,. I, 1CEB-113; Lettre du R. Biard au R.P. Christophe Baltazar; Jes. Rel. , I, 161, 165; Biard, Missio Canadensis; Jes. Ral.. II, 89. 2. Faillon, Hlstolre de la colonle franyalse en Canada. I, 97. 3. Lettre du R. P. Pierre Biard au T.-R» P. Claude Aquavlva. General de la Comnagnle de J S sue Ql.VI.16111: Jes. Rel.. I, 190.

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-84booters captured some of them, destroyed a new mission they had erected at the mouth of the Penobsoot, and drove them back to Europe.

Thus rudely dispersed, the Jesuits made no further

attempts in New France for over a decade. In the meantime, Champlain waB continuing the ex­ plorations he had commenced in 1603.

He 'had envisaged the future

greatness of Canada, and understood the need the country would have for missions.

If it was to be fruitful ground for the

development of French culture and commerce, conversion of the savage inhabitants was essential.

Therefore, in 1615, he 1 brought four Reoollets to his new village of Quebec. For ten years they toiled there, although without great results.

One

of them, Joseph le Caron, penetrated into the Huron region. Other Recollets joined their brethren at the Quebec mission, among them the lay brother, Gabriel Sagard-Theodat, the his­ torian of these early efforts.

Some independently revived

the work the Jesuits had started among the Micmacs of Acadia. But in 1624 they abandoned those eastern districts, and con­ centrated on Quebec. that

At this time they were beginning to feel

their resources would not permit them to carry on their

1.Sagard, Hlstolre du Canada. II, 774. The Recollets were a French order of the Observant branch of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans). The order was founded in 1595 as a party of strict monastic reform, and from 1606 it had its own provinces, the most important of them being that of St. Denis, which supertj/vfeed the Canadian ^missions. The Recollets could not take the name R^formes, since that had been given to French Calvinists; but took their name from the "houses of recollection" then being founded throughout Franoe, to which friars could retreat for prayer, penance, and contemplation.

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-85five missions without outside assistance.

The next year,

Father Piat sought the collaboration of the Society of Jesus, which, with its greater wealth and better organization, oould overcome, he thought, the obstaoles which stood in the path of 1 the Reoollets. Always eager to extend their efforts, the Jesuits agreed to come a second time to New France.

Yet again

the English interrupted them, when in 1629 they captured i^uebeo and Port Royal, and scattered French priests and colonists. But soon the English oonquerors surrendered New France, and in 1632 the missions were placed on a permanent footing.. By that time, the Recollets had departed from Quebec, and be­ queathed the remnant8 of their missions to the Jesuits, who found themselves in complete oontrol in New France.

Although

a few of the Franciscan order returned to Acadia between 1630 and 1633, their desultory efforts yielded little appreciable result.

At the same time, some Capuchins were ministering to

the religious needs of the settlers in the Penobscot and Kenne­ bec district.

But their efforts were isolated, and never assumed

great proportions. On the other hand, while the efforts of the older orders were but weakly supported, and laxly supervised from Europe, the Jesuits carefully fostered their growing establish­ ment in the new domain.

With headquarters in Quebec, they set

up several resident missions.

In 1634 Father Perrault founded

1. Sagard, Hjstoire du Canada. I, 95.

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the mieeion on Oape Breton Island.

The next year Turgis van

working among the Miecou Indians In the Gaspe country. Further 1 to the south, Father Druil^ttes went to the Kennebec region, and by 1646 he was proselyting Abenakls whom the Reoollets had failed to reaoh.

On the St Lawrence, they set up a thriving

Jesuit center at Tadoussac, whence they could easily gain the Lake of St John, the Labrador coast, or the region around Hudson/^ Bay.

This mission soon became the busy trading post

for the whole of the lower St Lawrence basin. But the Jesuit8 did not confine themselves to the coastal regions.

In 1633 Father Buteux began a mission at

Three Rivers, a more accessible station for the Indians than Quebec.

Four years later, Sillery was founded, as a palisaded

fort for the protection of the Montagnais against the marauding Iroquois,

Here the nuns opened a hospital, while the Montagnais

timidly ventured into the agricultural life.

But fear of the

Iroquois drove the nuns to refuge in Quebec in 1646; and the Montagnais soon fled to greater safety at Tadoussac, I / The work of Olier and of his Societe de Notre Dame brought about the foundation of Montreal in 1641.

Situated at

the confluence of the Ottawa and St Lawrence rivers, the town was calculated to connect the communities down-etream with the western tribes, who travelled eastward with their pelt6 on the spring floods of the Ottawa.

Although the Sulpician leader

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87was instrumental in starting the new settlement, for the first sixteen years it remained under the spiritual control of the Jesuits. The most significant phenomenon of this period of expansion, however, was not the Jesuit monopoly upon all the French colonies and neighboring Indian missions, but the foundation of the Huron mission.

Hundreds of miles from the

nearest white community, the Jesuits set up on the shores of Lake Huron, in the midst of the savages, and utterly depen­ dent on them, a residenoe which, it was hoped, would become the center for a great network of posts, ranging over all the western lands.

In 1626 two Jesuits had accompanied the

Recollet la Roche d'Aillon to the Huron country.

If they had

entertained any plans for the Hurons at that time, the English conquest had forced them to abandon them.

But in 1633 one of

the Jesuits, Jean de Brebeuf, returned to the west, and brought Christianity to the Hurons.

This heroic priest labored among

them until 1649.

Under his direction, seven other Jesuits came 1 out to preach and minister to the savages of that wild country.

At Ihonatiria, the greatest mission poet, they baptised hundreds, and hoped for thousands more converts. From Ihonatiria exploring parties set out for the west, to investigate the lands beyond the Great Lakes.

But the secur­

ity of the Jesuit mission among the Hurons —— in other respects 1. Lettre du R. Hlerosme Lalemant de la Oompagnle de Jesus a. Monselgneur 1 ♦Emlnentisslme Cardinal Due de Richelieu. (28.111.1640). Jes. Rel.. XVII. 218-225; Vimont, Relation de...1»annde 1640; Jes. Rel.. XVIII, 119, 127. R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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80

88 -

similar to the oolony in Paraguay, in its early stages of

development —

was tenuous at best.

The line of communications

with Montreal, the nearest eastern settlement, was constantly subject to attacks from the Iroquois.

In 1648-50 they rose in

great force and brutality, and soattered the Hurons before them, all over the Great Lakes region.

They expelled the Jesuits,

and destroyed forever the unity of the Hurons as a cohesive nation.

Some fled to the northwest, to the Nipissings; some

to the Miamis, south of Lake Erie; others wandered for a whole generation, later settling at Michilimackinac or near Detroit; others went into captivity with their conquerors.

Only a few

returned with the Jesuit fathers to the Lake of Orleans, and later to Lorette, near Quebec, where they took up farming, and gradually forgot their tribal life. With the dispersal of the Hurons, the Jesuits entered the third stage of the development of the missions.

They aban­

doned ambitiou8 attempts to oonvert people in the outlying districts.

Pending the subjugation of the Iroquois, they turned

to consolidate their work in the St Lawrence valley. 1666 did they once again venture westward.

Only in

In the meantime,

they reaped richer harvests in localities which they |g(ftd already commenced to cultivate, and intensified the Christianity of the neighboring savages. In Acadia, where the Capuchins had earlier been ex­ pelled, the Jesuit6 carried on the work of conversion and oivili-

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-89zation.

But in 1670 they, too, left the province, and after

three years the Recollete resumed the missionary labors there. After Druillette6 departed from the Kennebec missions, in 1657, the Jesuits tried to attract the Abenakis to Sillery, and later to St Francis de Sales.

But they failed to draw the

savages from their hunting grounds, and in 1688 another Jesuit returned to the Kennebec.

Simultaneously, a Recollet father

reappeared at the post on the banks of the St John River.

These

two priests, Bigot and Simon, again revived Christianity in this deserted region, a no-man1s-land between the hostile English and Frenoh.

In 1703 the Jesuits suoceeded to Simon*s mission

on the St John, and worked there amid unbelievable hardships until 1763. The Jesuits were carried even further afield when the IndianB residing around Tadoussac broke up their oommunity. The ravages of smallpox and Iroquois drove them toward the north, up the Saguenay River, across Lake St John, and to Hud­ s o n ^ Bay.

By 1671 the faithful Jesuits, ever in the first

canoes of the fugitives, established a mission post on the shores of that great northern sea. But long before this, the Society of Jesus had begun to lo6e some of its monopolies in New France.

In 1657 the

Jesuits were replaced by the Sulpicians in Montread, where they became seigneurs of the island, and assumed complete control of the village.

Only in 1692 did the Jesuits return to Montreal,

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4

-90and erect a residence there.

In 1658 the society reoeived a

still greater blow, with the appointment of Francois de Laval de Montmorency as vicar apostolio for Quebec, preparatory to his installation as first bishop of Quebec. arrival, the Jesuits suffered doubly.

After Laval's

While before, they alone

had represented Rome against the Galilean pretenses of the archbishop of Rouen to jurisdiction of the whole country, new they found a rival in their claims to represent Rome.

Thus,

while ultramontanism was not weakened, the Jesuits' share in its support was perforce diminished.

Secondly, and as a more

direct result, the Jesuits resigned most of their cures, whioh were now reorganized as regular parochial units under diocesan control.

They also relinquished many of their missions, es­

pecially in Acadia, in the Illinois oountry, and along the tributaries to the Mississippi.

Now gradually many of these

former missions were also transformed into parishes, under Laval and his successors.

Henceforth the Jesuits confined

their efforts to their college at Quebec, and to the Indian 1 missions which remained to them. Yet, in spite of all the compulsory contraction to wh^ijh the Jesuits were subject, the work of conversion and civ­ ilization continued to spread.

Although for fifteen years they

did not establish residences in the western oountry, several brave fathers undertook the perilous trails and portages, and 1. John G. Shea, "The Jesuits, Recollets and Indians," J. Winsor, Narrative and Oritloal History of Amerioa (Boston end New York, 1884-89), IY, 267.

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-91. were ready to brave the threat of Iroquois.

They wandered about

with small companies, baptising, forming friendships, investi­ gating the opportunities and localities for future permanent establishments, and then returned to Quebec, to record their discoveries.

Father Menard, S.J., ventured west in 1660, and

prepared the way for his colleague Allouez, who came out four years later.

With a crude chapel as a base from which to work,

Allouez travelled over the whole region of Lake Superior for twenty years.

Later, in the wake of his early successes, other

Jesuits joined him.

Their most notable work was to provide a

refuge for the Ottawas at Michilimaokinac in 1670, after the w

Sioux had driven that tribe eastward.

For the rest of the

period of the French rule, this post remained an important cen­ ter of trade and of religious devotion. About 1677, the provincial governor of New Franos, Louis de Buade, Count de Frontenac, began to fear the political growth of the Jesuits, and suspected that they cherished ambi­ tions to control the secular government.

Therefore, as a pre­

liminary step to displacing them, he uprooted them from their western missions, and substituted Recollet friars.

La Salle

sympathized with Frontenac in his distrust, and forced Hennepin and other Recollets to compete with them for the affections of the Indians.

But once again they were betrayed by their laok

of organization for far-flung and difficult projects, and by 1685 gave way to the Jesuits.

Now more of the black-robed men

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-92arrived In the west than ever before, and their travels made a network over the vast forests and waterways of the interior. The development of residences on the shores of the western lakes had been made possible only by the pacifioation of the Iroquois.

In the 1650s the Jesuits had begun to make

successful inroads against Iroquois hostility to Christianity and to the French.

Father Isaac Jogues had attempted to win

them over in 1646, and had obtained for his pains only a noble martyrdom.

While this undoubtedly satisfied the uttermost de­

mands of his personal piety, it did not accomplish his purpose. In 1653 another Jesuit tried to bring the Five Nations to terms, but in vain.

8ome years later, however, the missionaries

achieved a measure of success.

The Iroquois were being pressed

by

enemies on three sides:

on

the west by the Eries, and on the north by the French.

c ov e r

on the south by the Susquehannas, To

one flank while they dealt with the others, they made a

truce with the French.

They also assented to the erection of

a Jesuit mission among the Onondagas. four years.

This mission lasted

The constant state of agitation which the Iroquois

diplomacy fostered did not work to the advantage of the Jesuits. without the ultimate threat of French might behind them, fhay even the slight gains whioh^made might not have been realized.

And

The Mohawks alone refused to lay down their arms, and their bloody

prosecution of a sporadic war made the position of their

allies and of the missionaries most trying.

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-93From 1665 to 1667, however, the French beat the Mohawks Into submission, and they sued for peace with their conquerors.

Then for a short time there were missions In all

the Iroquois tribes' chief villages.

But even under these

circumstances, the Iroquois regarded the Jesuits as hostages, and their converted kinsmen as traitors.

For these maligned

and unfortunate savages, the Jesuits set up the mission of Caughnawaga on the St Lawrence, where they could seek refuge from their suspioious fellows.

For the same purpose, the

Sulpioians built missions at Kente, on Lake Ontario, and in Montreal.

Throughout the eighteenth century these three missions

prospered, and brought to the Indians who inhabited them a knowledge of the arts of an agricultural life, as well as the 1 benefits of Christianity. The other Iroquois missions were abandoned in 1687, due to the rising power of the English colony of New York, whioh sent out its own Catholic mission­ aries to compete witn the French.

Although later the Jesuits

attempted to reivive their position among the Iroquois, by 1708 all these endeavors had failed.

Henceforth their establish­

ments huddled along the shore of Lake Ontario and the St Law­ rence, and never ventured far into territory claimed by the E n g l i s h in New York. 1. The rate of conversion was slow, however, even near Quebec. For by 1685 the priests had converted 2216 savages in the whole upper St Lawrence valley. Hughes, History of the Society of Jesus in North America. II, 339.

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In the first years of the new century, the French priests could still boast more than thirty missions in New France.

Although they had been excluded from New York, and

their hold had been shaken in the west by Indian restlessness, and in the east by English naval attaoks; and although the political and military men obstructed their schemes by insisting upon the primacy of Galilean and secular rights over the truly religious interests, while the traders debauched the savages with brandy —

although, in short, the missionary had lost much

ground in New France, yet the missionary spirit still functioned vigorously.

Most of the missions clustered around the St Law­

rence, the capes and rivers of Acadia, north beyond the Sague1 nay, on the shores of Lake Michigan, or in the Illinois forests. But the gap between east and west, desolated of natives, and overrun at will by the Iroquois, made communication between upper and lower Canada difficult.

This situation did immeasur­

able harm to the French religious and military establishments, and contributed greatly to their downfall.

As a result of it,

the western missions gradually fell into the orbit of the new government of Louisiana, and turned their attentions from Quebec.

An uprising of the Fox Indians against the French

smoldered throughout the first half of the century, and prac­ tically demolished the missions in the Green Bay region.

This

1. Jouvency, Canadioae Mission!8 Relatio; Jes. Rel.. I, 219-221.

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-95irruption inoreaeed the dependence of the western establish­ ments upon New Orleans. As the century wore on, the missionary spirit lost its zeal. waned.

The enthusiasm, power, and numbers of the Jesuits

Little by little the Sulpicians, whose temporal as

well as spiritual rule over Montreal gave them great power and secure tenure, surpassed the Jesuits.

And as Montreal, grew

^nto a large town, the prestige of the Sulpicians increased. In 1721 they founded a great mission at the Lake of the Two 1 Mountains, which beoame the center for new activity. In 1750 they built La Presentation, on the right bank of the St Law2 xence, for Iroquois converts. Both of these missions stood in the old area, and did not open new fields for proselyting. They merely intensified the Christianity of the nearby Indians. After the expulsion of the Jesuits from French domains in 1762, and the surrender of New France to the English in the following year, much of the missionary activity died.

The

Spanish tolerated French priests yet awhile in Louisiana, and Maryland provided a shelter for some refugees, but the property and legal rights of the Jesuits had been confiscated. could do little more.

They

While the Sulpioians maintained their

position, and continued to minister to the Christian Indians, 1. Camille de Rochemonteix, Lee Je'suites et la Nouvelte France au XVIIIe siecle (Paris, 1906), p. 104. 2. Ibid., p. 103; Louis Bertrand, P.S.S., Bibliotheque sulplclenne (Paris, 1900), p. 331.

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-96their zeal for developing new territory had evaporated, and they remained oontent to govern and to direct what they had already won.

The Capuchins, never earnestly ooncemed with a

large establishment in New Franoe, had long since disappeared. The Reoollets likewise vanished.

Thus the Sulpicians and the

bishop of Quebec controlled the religious fortunes of the province, and settled down to slow and steady growth*

They

ignored for the immediate future the prospeots of propagating the faith among those many savages who were still ignorant of the true way to salvation. If in the large view, the activities of the mission­ aries seem ephemeral because they disappeared from the face of Canada's earth, nevertheless, the consequences of their work still remain in the hearts and beliefs of the Canadians, Indian and Frenoh. o f

But they also remain in the intellectual currents

Europe, lay and religious.

It is possible to pick out the

threads of this work among the manifestations of European thought o f

the last two centuries.

For from the observations whioh

acute men of religion made on the conduct and customs of the °avages, came a solid contribution to French thought, which deeply influenced the ideas and thought of the pre-revolutionary period, and, consequently, of our own time. t o

Let us turn, then,

the evidence to be gathered from these observations. *

*

*

Whoever reads the accounts whioh the missionaries have left, should bear constantly in mind their original motive

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-97of conversion and civilization,

In order to justify their work

in the eyes of others, many priests painted a glowing picture of the savage life.

After all, if the natives were portrayed

as hopelessly abandoned, who oould be expeoted to support the missions?

Yet notwithstanding this inevitable bias, the good

faith of the priests in writing as they did cannot be doubted. It is impossible that, for over 150 years, they could have so neatly contrived to waave all the pleasant facts together, and present an entirely misleading account of the idyllic life of the Indians.

In fact, many priests did not feel that savage

life was wholly delicious, and said as much.

But all of them

had to believe ultimately in their ability to reclaim the unregenerate for God's glory:

otherwise they would not have

undertaken the work in New France.

Consequently they had to

believe in the basic good will of those whom they sought to convert. For this study, however, it is not material whether th ey tude, of

wrote deliberate lies, were deluded by a theological atti­ or relayed the objective truth.

We are tracing the history

an idea, not recounting a factual narrative.

on ly

Therefore the

vital facts for us are what they did write, what they pub­

lished,

and what other people read.

This alone, and not the

truth as such, influenced the thought of other Frenchmen.

The

conglomerate results were the products of the Counter-Reforma­ ti on

theology and of the proselyting fervor.

The most obvious

result, the story of the missions, has been sketched above. Now

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-98romoC h to the delineation and criticism of the savage c h a r a c t e r b e

considered* At first, the missionaries sided with the muoh-maligned savages, and defended them from a superficial condemnation by Europeans who had not known them at first hand.

Sagard, as we

have seen, expressed a strong desire to correct current miscon­ ceptions about them.

The Jesuit Le Jeune, who wrote many of

the relations in the 1630s, deoried the general tendency to think thus "of our savages

imagining them to be ferooious

beasts, with nothing human about them but the self-evident 1 structure of their bodies." Right down through the eighteenth century, it was emphasized that the Indian, "although disfigured 2 by nature...was not less a man." Moreover, it was asserted often that common characteristics bound the Frenchman to his barbarism brother.

Fundamentally they were the same sort of men:

"this new world has the same nature as the old; it has its vir3 tues and vices as well as Europe." But while the elements of environment were similar, yet enough difference existed to effect contrasts between the lives of Frenchmen and of Indians. For example, Le Jeune wrote, after two years in Canada, "there is here a quantity of fine little girls, who, if they were well brought up, would be in no way inferior to our young French 4 girls."

1. Relation de. * .1 tanne/e 1638; Jes. Rel. . XV, 76. 2. Lettre du Pere * * * . Mlsslonaire ohez les Abnakis £17573; Jes. Rel.. LXX, 161. 3. Jerome Lalemant, Relation...es annees 1647 & 1648; Jes. Rel. . XXXII, 252. A

D„-|

ria

1

_TP>C _ R*»T .

X

33.

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•99Apparently, then, the Indians were regarded by the priests as no more peculiar a race than many other peoples. They put some in mind of other barbarians with whom the civil­ izing forces had come into contact.

When the Iroquois rose

against the French in the 1660s, the Jesuit Le Mercier likened them to the old German tribes, whom Rome with great courage had attempted to subdue; and he called upon the French to dis1 play a similar spirit in reducing them. In another way they partook of the universal aspects of humanity: they had natural reason, which induced some conception of law.

For if an Indian

broke an oath, he was told that his ancestors blushed for shame to see him violate the laws of nature, nations, and human 2 society. The divine light of reason whioh illumined the soul led the missionaries to think that it would be easy to convert the savages.

They were as p ;rfectitle as Europeans, since "souls

are all from the same stuff."

Le Jeune found these souls of

the Indians naturally good, but loaded down with evils which 3-t clung to an outcast race. While it is thus clear that the miseionaries assumed an essential community of body and soul '**\ ✓ 1. Relation.es anneee 1664 & 1665; Jes. Rel.. XLIX. 215. A”

2, Le Mercier, Relation...es annees 1653 & 1654; Jes. Rel.. XL, 181. 3«*4. Relation de...l,annee 1634; Jes. Rel. . VI, 229; compare Vlmont. Relation...Ss annees 1643 &~1644; Jes. Rel.. XXVI, 119.

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between the savages and the men of Europe, they did not make the same assumption with regard to the physical environment of the infidel barbarians. "Everything /Tn New France^ has the freedom of the earliest times," announced one delighted missionary after his 1 first sojourn in the wilderness. And even before they became Christians, it was found that they lived innocently, and brought 2 their children up "in the innocence of the first centuries." Father Enjalran, among the Abenakis, admitted that while their manner of life might truly have been called savage, yet their nature still appeared to him to be much more worthy of respect 3 than that of many Europeans. For: It seems that innocence, banished from the majority cf the empires and kingdoms of the universe, ha6 retired into the great forests where these people dwell. Their nature has something of the goodness of the terrestial Paradise before sin entered it. Their cuetoms have none of the luxury, ambition, avarice, or pleasures which corrupt our cities.' Even the pioneer Biard, sometimes a rash or obtuse critic, wrote b home that the savages were content with their simple lives. A century later, another Jesuit, Father Charlevoix substantiated what Biard had written, and declared that the Indians were com­ pletely happy.

This happiness he attributed to three conditions

1. Vimont, Relation...es annees 1644 & 1645; Jes. Rel.. XXVII, 2072. Dablon, Etat present des missions pendant l*annee 1675; Jes. Rel LIX, 253: Ragueneau. Relation...depuls l'gte' de l'annee 1651 juaques a l'ete de l ’annee 1652; Jes. Rel.. XXXVII, 152. 3. Jean Enjalran, S.J., Lettre a ♦♦♦ fsillery. 1676], Jes. Rel.. LX, l3iT‘ IS7. ✓ A

s

✓

4. Jerome Lalemant, Relation... es annees 1647 & 1648; Jes. Rel.. _ XXXII, 282. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-101whioh they enjoyed.

In the first plaoe, the savages thought

they were happy; secondly, they possessed the most precious of all nature'8 gifts (reason, presumably) ; and finally, they were ignorant of those false goods which the French esteemed so highly, and for whioh they traded goods of true worth.

As

proof of the Indians' esteem for their barbaric state, Charle­ voix wrote that the natives who were educated by the priests in seminaries and white communities snatohed the first chance they could to escape civilization, and to return to their hereditary 1 life. Ambition and avarice, the two tyrants who ruled Europe, were unknown to these happy people.

And, since they lacked

political offices which paid rich profits, they did not kill or intrigue to attain to high place or wealth, as Le Jeune ob2 served.

Thus, thought the missionaries, the crudeness of existence in Canada conduced to virtue.

Since “vice reigns in

towns much more than in forest s...association with animals is not so harmful as that of men, and. ..our savages live in great 3

innocence."

They shared their property in common, and were

satisfied with little of it.

Consequently,

thought Father

Chauchetiere, they developed their admirable traits of patience, 4 liberality, and moderation. Indeed, to show that they were 1. Charlevoix, Journal hl6torlque d'un voyage fait par 1 ‘ordrc du roi dans l'Amerlque Septentrlonale (Paris, 1744), II, 32-33. Hereafter cited as Charlevoix, Journal. The book was written in 1720-22, but not published until^the author pre­ sented his large Hlstolre et description ge*nerale de la Nouvelle France, which the Journal supplemented. 2. Relation de...1'annee 1634; Jes. Rel.. VI, 231. 3.XLaiemjnt. Relation...fee annees 1661 & 1662; Jes.Rel.t XLVII, 168. 4. Claude Chauchetiere. S.J.. Lettre au R.P. Jean Chauchetiere a *■----

:

—

I

■

---- =— =

-----—

rrrs------------------

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102true philosophers, Charlevoix told a story that when some Indians were in France, and saw all the riches and conveniences which the French enjoyed, they envied them only one thing: the richness and variety of their foods.

For while the Indians

1 had a passion for eating, they refused to live in French fashion. In the light of suoh noble characteristics, the pros­ pects for conversion looked favorable, for it appeared to Father Ragueneau that "the silence of the forests seems more fit to receive its 7T.e.. the Gospel

nfluence than the great bustle

2 of louvres and palaces."

Such unspoiled innocence also per­

mitted the priests to point their perpetual moral.

They saw

"in these savages the fine remnants of human nature whioh are 3 entirely corrupt among civilized peoples." But, with the passage of

time and the infiltration of Christian morality and European

customs, this situation would change.

Then, they admonished their

fellows at home, the people of Europe had best reform themselves. At

first they had sponsored and patronized the Indians.

they

would be shamed by the nobler Indians.

Soon

For, "if the bar­

barians, who are instructed only by the law of nature, have such noble sentiments of what is right, what reproaches will 4 they someday make to the libertine Christians...?" In addition to these homilies directed to their public, the missionaries at times implied that they would bring 1. Journal. II, 32. 2.

Relation...es annees 1651 & 1652; Jes. Rel., XXXVII, 192.

3. Chauchetiere, Lettre au R.P. Jean Chauchetiere; Jes.Rel.. LXIV, 131, 4.{jLalemantJ Relation...es annees 1659 & 1660: Jes.Rel.. XLV, 236. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-103about a progressive improvement among the Indiana,

There showed

through many of their writings the idea that someday the poor savage would look down in oontempt upon the Europeans, enmeshed in sins which they themselves had outgrown, due to the pristine purity of their background, which made the cultured background of Europe look sin-black in comparison.

This concept of a change

in standards wrought down through time was related to the idea of a change in standards wrought through differences of location. Cropping out sporadically in the Jesuit relations, it may be said to contain the germs of a restatement of the idea of pro­ gress, which had been buried during the tumultuous Renaissance. In the minds of the priests, the concept was involved with God's gratuities, which the eighteenth century lost sight of, as it adopted the idea of progress to its

own theories.

Until 1634 the missionaries were not very much troubled by the question whether the Indians had experienced or thought about change.

But in that year, Le Jeune filled a page of hi6

relation with a brief treatment of progress.

He first described

Aristotle’s three stages of cultural development.

In the be­

ginning, life centered on the means of preservation. men blended the agreeable with the necessary.

After that,

And finally,

after the demands of necessity and of pleasure were satisfied, the most progressive men dedicated themselves to contemplation and to research.

By these stages, Le Jeune imagined, the great

commonwealth of man had gradually perfected itself; necessity

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-104leading civility and culture, with knowledge bringing up the 1 rear. But for some reason, such a development had been denied the Indians.

By the mere passage and experience of centuries,

as Biard had said earlier, they should have come to some per­ fection in the arts, in science, and in philosophy.

But Biard

comolained that they remained absolutely barren of accomplish2 ment. An Indian confessed the fact to Le Jeune years later, and sought to exouse his people by saying, "if God had taught you no better /Than he did us7, and if your ancestors had left you only appetite and warfare, perhaps you would not be any 3 better people than we are now.11 The obvious conclusion to be drawn from this situa­ tion was that Christianity, which had been denied them, would repair all their difficulties.

Therefore, conversions and

civilization, even if dished out to the savages mechanically, would suffice to improve their deplorable condition.

Hitherto,

according to some lofty observers, all their pagan character­ istics reflected only stupidity and sterility.

Henceforth, even

a minimum of Christianity oould be fruitful for the amelioration of their state. But mo6t missionaries did not subscribe to this principle of cynicism.

All of them noticed the barbarities of

1. Relation d e . ^ l ’annee 1634; Jes. Rel. . VII, 7. 2. Relation de la Nouvelle France; Jes. Rel.. Ill, 111. 3.

Le Jeune, Relation de...ltannee 1639; Jes. Rel.. XVI, 158.

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105the Indians; they were inescapable.

But they —

and especially

the Jesuits, who had always been trained to watch moeurs — tolerated many savage customs which seemed beneficial to a new Christian society.

For it was not similarities or regimentation

which made for progress, among either Americans or Europeans: but a comparison of differences, conditions or traditions,

skillful adaptations to local

and careful selections from among

the differences. Accordingly,

Father Ragueneau cautioned those who

would quiokly condemn Indian customs which did not resemble those of other races.

Because of our narrow experiences,

it

was easy to call what looked strange an absurdity or a 6acri1 lege. Jouvency, years later, summed up all the aspects in which the Indians deviated from Continental ways, at least 600 differences.

But on that account he did not con­

clu de that the Indians were stupid: good as,

or better than,

also proclaimed that

and found

their customs he found as

the customs of France.

Ragueneau

it was not necessary for the Jesuits to

c o n d e m n as criminal or impious certain things which the Indians did t h e

in all innocence, merely because they did not understand 3 savage ways. (Such acts, it must be remembered, had tc be

on other levels than that of natural morality.

For the Indians

1. Relation...es annees 1647& 1 6 4 8 ; Jes. R a l .. XXXIII, 145. 2. De Reglone et Moribus Canadensium seu Barbarorum Novae Franclae Jes. Rel., I, 285. Hereafter cited as Jouvency, De Regione... Novae Franclae. 3. Relation...es annees 1647 & 1648; J e s . R e l .. XXXIII, 145.

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,106part loipated with all men in the natural reason granted by God. Only on the level of convention could they diverge from the behavior of others.) The natives themselves insisted upon recognition and respect for their customs. Jeune,

"Perhaps," said one of them to Le

"you had as much trouble in abandoning your ancient

1 customs when they began to preaoh the faith to you."

The Jesuit

passed this comment.on, possibly to humble the proud sophis­ tication of Richelieu's France.

And such remarks may well have

forced from him the earlier reflection on diversity: Oh, how feeble is the judgment of menl Some find beauty where others see only ugliness. The handsomest teeth in France are the whitest, in the Ualdive Islands whiteness of teeth is a deformity; they redden them to be beautiful. And in OochinChina,Pif I recall correctly, they paint them blaok. Who is right? Except in the realm of religion, the missionaries did not seek to answer that question, any more than the eighteenth-century secular thinkers did.

i £ S. t

God existed,

In religion, of course, since but one

only one answer could be correct.

should unite for His worship and service, in 3 as Father Le Mercier put it. The Hurons did

And all nations

the orthodox manner, not accept this

k :,

absolutist attitude even in the sphere of religion, however. I

They told the fathers that what was good for

f*

good for Canada; each country had its own fashions, even in 1. Le Jeune, 2.

France was not

Relation d e . ^ l ^ n n e e 1 6 3 8 ; Jes. R e l . . XIV, 133.

Relation d e . ^ l ' a n n e e 1633; Jes. Rel., V, 107.

3. Relation de...l»annee 1 6 3 7 ; Jes. Rel., XIII, 173.

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-107religion.

The French had one God, and the HuronB acclaimed

1-2 the God

they had learned from their ancestors. Except for this extremely

relativistic point of view

on matters of religion, the chief differences which the priests 3 noticed consisted of matters of taste and customary behavior.

! I

The world is full of variety and inconsistency, and stable permanenoe will never be found. If someone went up on a very high tower, whence he could see at his ease all the nations of the earth, he would have trouble in telling those that are wrong or right, foolish or wise, out of such strange variety and oonfusion?

>

Let us now turn to some of these specific varieties and discrepancies which impressed the missionaries. t

sides, they were struck with remarkable things.

On all

It has al­

ready been noticed that they posited the fundamental similar-

i [

ity,

in soul and essence, of the savages with white men of

Europe.

They found the atmosphere in which they lived, how-

r.

ever, entirely foreign.

Therefore, perhaps some of these

|

attributes could be transmuted to other societies, and some of

I I; f s L h

the more pleasant features of other societies could be in turn grafted onto this newly discovered way of life, without ruining its inherent purity.

The missionaries compared some of the

t i

traits they uncovered with similar phenomena of their homeland;

i

1-2.

i

Relation de...l*annee 1 6 3 7 ; J e s . R e l .. XIII, 171-173; Le Jeune. Relation d e . ..1*ann^e 1 6 3 5 ; Jes. Rel.. VIII, 119.

& 1 6 5 6 ; J es. Rel. . XLIV, 277-79, 283-97.

I

3. Relation...es annees 1657

I

4. I B I D ; Jes. R e l .. XLIV, 296-298.

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-108others they were content merely to mention.

And still others

they magnified and idealized, no doubt to correct some evil at home,

or to point some religious or social moral. This process of contrast and comparison permeated

their whole treatment of the savages, unconsciously.

I

They laid physical and mental characteristics

and alongside the corresponding traits of Frenchmen.

bare,

I

consciously and often

They considered,

if rather gingerly and sometimes prudishly,

the problems of the family, woman, and sex.

They wrote at

great length on the personal virtues and vices, and the religious

I

tendencies which the various tribes exhibited.

Finally, they

commented fully upon the political forms and conduct of the

F |

men who lived in such a nearly natural state.

Many things

j?

\

th e y did not compare with their own experiences,

p

tent to describe them.

I

writers and thinkers to choose, views o f

Among these things,

but were ccn-

it was for the later

in order to point their moral

up, and in order to sharpen the conceits and parables

their criticism. As each of the phases of Indian conduct is considered,

it should be borne in mind that the background of oongruism and

|

the zeal of the Counter-Reformation influenced every missionary.

|

In greater or less degree,

but al way s present,

the religious

i

\

h e r i t a g e colored the emotions and the intellects of the priests

|

in New France,

£

that

and it was through the prisms of their words

the pictures of the savages were reflected in Europe.

A

W y

i

* * *

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-109The French had nothing but admiration for the Indians as physical types. tioned.

Biard found them handsome and well-propor­

He felt that if the Europeans remained in the condition

which they reached at twenty-five, for the rest of their lives,

1 they would resemble the savages.

Many others commented on their

good

figures,

strength, and agility; it was especially noted

that

few men had those deformities which were bo common in Europe The Hurons, Sagard declared, were the nobility of the

whole race: they bore themselves like lords, and were "naturally 3 beautiful" to look at. Their facial expressions, which the Recollet Jamet likened to the Flemings, were modest and grave, 4 without being somber. The tribes of the middle St Lawrence valley Sagard designated as the bourgeoisie of the country: solidly built, and plain in appearance. were eases

the villagers:

poorly fed, thin,

5 and deformities among them.

But the Montagnais

and with many more dis-

Those who went to the west

foun d that the Illinois were like their eastern brothers, w e l l - f o r m e d and nimble.

I.

On the Mississippi, the Crees and

Relation de la Nouvelle France; Jes. R e l .. Ill, 75.

?■. Le Jeune, Relation de...llannee 1 6 3 2 ; Jes. Rel. . V 25; Sebastien Rasies, S.J.. Lettre & Monsieur son F r e r e ; J e s . R e l . . LXVII, 137; Sagard, Le grand voyage au pays dee Hurons (Paris, 1632), p. 179; Charlevoix, Journal. II, 3. 3.

Hi s t o l r e du Canada. I, 367.

4. Ibid.. I, 342; Jamet, Joyeuse," p. 438.

"Relation au Cardinal Francois de

HisUivtdv ±3*343.

■ m 1’ 367-

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-110-

1

Natchez were also called handsome, strong, sound men. In their youth, Bressani wrote, the savages were not dark, hut they became so through exposure and their practises of rubbing oinders into the skin, and of painting it.

They

I

|

were more healthy than the men of France, being without the

?■

•

s'

gout,

|

of over-indulgence.

i [ |

goiters, corpulence, hump-backs or shrivelled frames.

|

declared also that insanity was unknown to the Indians.

[

stone, rupture, or other diseases which were the price Nor were they afflicted generally by

2 ~

Biard

3

Not only were the savages on the whole better built than the French, but they had suppler, could stand great punishment.

stronger bodies, which

Charlevoix attributed their

!

|

strength to the fact that their mothers nursed the children

I

until they were as old as six or seven.

f

declared that their readiness to travel anywhere naked, in the

On top of that, he

f.

I;

woods, the water, the mud, or the snow,

rendered their muscles

1.P— Sf

f

' f .

I

flexible and their whole frames supple.

.

1. Jacques liarquette, 3.J., "An Account of the Discovery of Some New countries a.nd Nations in North America," Historical Collections of Louisiana (Philadelphia, 1850), series I, vol. Gabriel Mareet, S.J., "Brief an Patrem de Lamberville," > / 1 700/ Joseph Stocklein, Die Neue Yieltbott - mit allerhand Nachrichten dem MlsslonarTorum Soc. Jesu (Augsburg, 1726) . II, 84. These opinions are concurred in by Antione Silvy, S.J., whose Relation par lettres de l'Amerlque eeotentrlonale was edited and first oublished by Camille de Rochemonteix in Paris, in 1904. Since, due to the date of its publication, it could not have influenced any of the eighteenth-century writers, except perhaps, as de Roohemonteix claimed, Charlevoix's history, its evidence cannot be cited in the text. But for purposes of collaboration, it will at times be cited in foot-notes as Silvy, Relation.

f. Relation abreg/e de...la Nouvelle F r a n c e ; Jes.Rel., XXXVIII, 257. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-111-

Also, the savages surpassed the French in appearance. In fact, Le Jeune aaw "on the shoulders of these people the heads of Julius Caesar, Pompey, Augustus, Otto," and others whom he 1 had seen in France represented on paper or medallions. Father Vimont aloe perceived among them the lineaments of the olassic heroes.

A noble Indian, he said,

"bears on his forehead some­

thing worthy of empire...and one would call him a living por­ trait of those Caesars of whom we now see in Europe only blurred

2

!

images."

Indeed, the Indians themselves preferred the type of

facial beauty which resembled the classical: a large face, with

;

proportionately large features, 3 style of the ancient Caesars."

i

and black eyes,

"after the

But it was not only in appearance that the savages

jr

approximated perfection.

Their senses of sight,

smell, hearing, 4 and touch were developed to a degree which astonished Bressani. Charlevoix found all oftheir senses

I 1 '

external —

much superior to

—

internal as well as

a Frenchman'6.

robust creatures, they rarely fell ill.

Furthermore, being

Their endurance amazed

(from preceding page):

|

I

| §■ (i

3. Relation de la Nouvelle Fr an ce ; Jes. R e l .. Ill, 75. 4

Charlevoix, Journal. II, 3-4, 36; Luc Franpois Nau, S.J., Lettre au R.P. Richard, provincial de la province de Guyenne. a Bordeaux C^uebec, 17343; Jee. Re l .. LXVIII, 263; Silvy, Relation, p. 63.

1. Relation,de...1 *annee 1 6 3 4 ; Jes. Rel.. VI, 229.

- 112-

the priests,

since they could suffer hunger, oold, and pain

1-2 for long periods without any complaint.

There was a reason,

perhaps, for this, and for the fact that there was comparatively little disease among the savages, thought Jouvency.

The Indians

told him that in every man lay certain inborn desires, often unknown to their possessors, upon which their individual happi­ ness depended.

Now, they attributed one of the souroes of

disease to the sick man's mind, which might vea his body until he had acquired something which he craved, either consciously or unconsciously.

To ascertain what the sick man wanted consti­

tuted the chief function of the medicine man, or sooth-sayer. And since he could with comparative ease convince his patient that what he had just been given was what he craved, this form 3 of mental healing often succeeded. In other cases, however, Jouvency's explanation could not have been applied.

For since

medical knowledge was most rudimentary, the sick rapidly died. And the psychologic powers of the medicine men could not pre-

l

vail against the dread reality of fevers and the smallpox,

►

vhich regularly devastated some of the lees vigorous tribes.

*

i I I f. :

*

*

1x2. Bressani, Relation abregee de...la Nouvelle France; Jes. Rel XXXVIII, 259; Louis Hennepin, O.F.M., Description de la Louisiana (Paris, 1683), p. 14. Silvy, Journal . pp. 6-8, reported that they thought nothing of paddling 500 leagues, and that, even exhausted and wounded after battle, they carried their more seriously hurt companions back to safety. Jouvency,

De Regione...Novae Franclae; J e s . R e l .. I, 259.

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-113It was not only the near-perfeotion of their physiques which impressed the French,

for they soon discovered that these 1 untutored wild men possessed good minds as well. The souroe of their high intelligence was from the first unquestioningly traced hack to God. Hurons,

For, as the Jesuit Br/beuf said of the

they were not so barbarous as to have lost an excellent

2 common sense and a natural judgment —

two of God's gifts to

the first men, of which not even their fall had deprived them. This mental facility was general, moreover, according to the missionaries, who claimed they could discover no stupid or

3 sluggish people among the savages. The extent of their intelligence exceeded what scoffers in France imagined,•declared Le Clercq and Sagard, eager to en4 hance the nobility of their charges. In fact, the savages on 5 the whole were judged by Vimont to be as bright as Europeans. Many went beyond this modest claim, and declared that the despised Indian was more intelligent than the ordinary French peasant, 1. Le Jeune, Relation d e . ..11annee 1 6 3 4 ; Jee. He l.. VI, 229; Le Jeun e . 'Relation d e ^ . l ' a n n g e 1 6 3 9 ; Jes. R g l . . XVII, 199; Le Mercier. Relation ..3s.annees 1669 & 1 6 7 0 ; Jes.Rel. , LIII, 89. L . Eplstola P. Joannls de Brebeuf ad R. P. Mutlum Vltelleschl. Praepositua Generalem Socletatls Jesu. Romae /1636?/ Jes. Re l. . XI, 8. 3. Jouvency,

De Regione...Novae Franolae; Jes. R e l .. I, 279.

4. Sagard, Le grand voyage au nays des Hurons, p. 185; Chretien Le CJercq, O.F.M., Nouvelle Relation de la Gaspesie (Paris, 1691) , p. 394. 5. Relation...es annees 1644 & 1 6 4 5 ; J e s . R e l .. XXVIII, 63.

R eproduced with permission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-114alt hough the latter was not so full of evil superstitions and ignorance.

"Although they live in the woods, they are none­

theless men for it," and they yielded in nothing to the French 1 mind, said Charles Lalemant. Above all others, the Hurons were respected as being quicker,

shrewder, and cleverer in business

2 affairs than the most astute French bourgeois. The savages demonstrated their wit and acumen in many ways; but in none so effectively as oratory. could not write,

Since they

and had developed no written language aside

from a crude 6ign language, spoken eloquence remained their highest form of intellectual endeavor.

On all public occasions

flamboyant harangues were delivered in great numbers, and at great lengths. good judgment,

The fathers found that their clever understanding, and excellence at telling anecdotes, coupled

v,ith an ability to listen patiently, made the Indians naturally 3 good speakers, without formal training. Naturally quick, they 4 could, asserted barest, tell a joke subtly. Their keen memories for places,

directions, names,

and complicated negotiations and

event6 which might have transpired over a generation ago, made +heir speeches the only true,

if transitory,

records they possessed.

1. Relation...es annees 1645 & 1 6 4 6 ; J e s .R e l .. XXIX, 232; compare Le Jeune. Relation d e ^ . l ' a n n ^ e 1 6 3 4 ; J e s ,Re l .. VI, 231, Relation deY.. 1 'ann£e 1 6 3 5 ; Jes .Rel. . V II I,'*145 ; Silvy, Journal, p. 47. C . Lettre du p. Francois du Peron de la Compa>qile de Jesus au P: Joseph-Imbert cm Peron f|*27. IV. 1639J ; Jes.Rel., XV, 157; Compare Silvy, Journal. p. 66. 3. Le Jeune, Relation de...l'annee 1 6 3 2 ; Jes. R # 1 .. V, 25; Josephliarie Chaumonot, S.J., Lettre au R.P. Philippe Nappl'. superieur de la Maison Prcfesee a Rome f26.V.164Cj: Jes.Rel.. XVIII. 21. Bressani. Relation abre'gee de...la Nouvelle France; Jes. R e l . , YYYVTTT

9C1

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-115-

In their eloquence,

Charlevoix found evidence for the keenness

of their internal senses, as he chose to oall imagination,

1 acuteness, and vivaoity. Many of the missionaries did not thrill to Indian eloquence as did Charlevoix, however.

Their entrance into

every new village, their participation in every ceremony, their very theological discussions, were preceded, accompanied,

and

t

followed bv oratory.

"These people...do nothing without har2 angues," exploded Biard, in disgust over their prolix tedium. Others it struck with fascinated wonder.

Ragueneau,

for instance, claimed that an eloquent Indian oould sway people 3 < ven in the midst of France, by the power of his words. Charle­ voix described their style as being full of those luminous

t

features which would have won applause in Rome or Athens; force,

;

essence,

and p athos,. which cannot be acquired by art, and which 4 the Greeks admired among their barbarian neighbors. Rasies

■

reported one speech which was so notable for the flow of it6 language,

the appropriateness of it6 arguments,

its rhetoric,

r'iid its clear arrangement, that the most able orators of Europe could have matched it only with great difficulty.

1.

$ { f

And the

Journal. II, 6; compare Bressani, Relation abregee de...la Nouvelle Fr a n c e ; Jes. Rel. , XXXVIII, 261; Biard, Relation de la Nouvelle F rance; Jes. Rpl.. Ill, 23; Le Clercq, Nouvelle Relation de la Gaspesle, 127-28; Silvy, Journal, 189.

s I

2. Lettre du P. Pierre Biard au R. P.'Provincial a P a r i s ; Jes. R e l . . II, 44.

I

3. Relation.. .ee annees 1648 & 1649; Jes.R e l .. XXXIV, 209.

fjr

I | |

|

'

4. — Journal. —— — i II.j 7-8. V

\

5. Lettre a Monsieur son F re re ;

Jes. Re l «. LXVII,

163.

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-116-

speech of one man would have compared favorably with a passage 1 from Livy, It was recorded, if the subject had been more apt. But this speech-making was not only developed to a high degree of polish and finesse in itself: it was accompanied with the 2 greatest ceremony, and courtesies of the most elaborate sort. Such proprieties were evidently considered necessary in a comm[

unity where each grown male possessed the right, as will be

i

shown later, to express his opinion upon any subject whatsoever. But eloquence was not the only basis upon which the French judged the wit and intellect of the savages.

A Huron

girl, for example, demonstrated her brilliance to Le Mercier by learning to speak, read, and write French in less than two years, so that he thought she surpassed French girls of 3 her own age. At Detroit, Father Crespel found men whom he

L

I

considered to have a fund of common sense and judgment which would have made them admirable businessmen even in France,

I

hud they cultivated their minds by study.

Indeed, it was this

education which was essential to helping the savages to oonduct [:

lv

C I

vheir lives according to reason, not passion, said Sagard. 1. Le Jeune. Relation de..l'annee 1636; Jes. Rel., X, 245. ' 2. Ibid., Jes. Rel.. X, 213. 3. Relation...es annees 1652 & 1653; Jes. Rel.. XL, 228.

( I 1 I I I

4.

Emmanuel Crespel, O.F.M., "Voyages of Rev. Father Crespel in Canada and his Shipwreck while returning to France," /F^ankfort-on-the-Main, 1742/, John G. Shea, Perils of the Ocean and Wilderness (Boston, 1857), p. 150. Hereafter cited as Crespel,"Voyages.*

5. Histoire du Canada. I, 366.

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-117For it was clear to the missionaries that in their public and 1 private affairs, they watched after their interests wisely. The most important step, therefore, in the future progress of this benighted race, was education: first in the knowledge of God, and then in the ways of other men. Nevertheless, for this purpose, the missionaries did not find the Indians as amenable as they might have desired. Along with a certain reasonableness went a cleverness which was obscured and misled by evil.

"I cannot tell you how

cunning this nation is," wailed Le Jeune after his first 2 attempts to catechize the Algonquins around Quebec. Due to a

desire for peace, and a hatred of argument on matters

divorced from their experience, the Indians readily assented to

whatever they were taught.

But usually they learned it only

3 superficially, so tenacious were they of their old superstitions. This

was what Jouvency thought, and it had already been found

true

in Le Jeune*s experience.

A priest, he had written, could

pe r s u a d e

them of anything in hie presence, especially if

ma te r i a l

considerations entered in also.

o t t e n t iveness sho we d th r o u g h

forth.

Their diligenoe and

were, however, judged by the results which they If an Indian remained faithful to his new faith

a time of trouble, the fathers said that he had received

1. Le Clercq. premier etablissement de la foi dans la Nouvelle France (/^aris, 1691J New York, 1881), T] 215. Hereafter cited as Le Clercq, Premier Etablissement. 2 . Relation de...11ann£e 1632; J es. Rel., V, 72. 3.

Jouvency, De Regione...Novae Franclae; Jes. Bel.. I, 275.

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-118-

an Intuition from above that Christianity was true: that is, he received grace.

But if he drifted away from teaching in

which he had acquiesced, the fathers blamed his natural com­ placence, as they called it, or his cunning dissimulation. Indians, then, were clever; as clever as Europeans in eluding the arguments of the priests. The missionaries placed their highest hopes for the

i

1

conversion of the race in the children.

The young, not yet

j j

swallowed up in the ancient lore of their parents, could be more easily indoctrinated with new ideas. bright and

flivftigblC

So for the children,

with memories and observational powers

which caused Vimont to admire them, did the priests build seminaries.

'■

For them, more than for their elders, did they

travel countless painful miles.

And among them did they count

their most precious conversions.

As intelligent as the Conti­

nental children, they were destined to become the real corner­ stone of the church which should be raised in the wilderness of New France.

It is worthy of note in passing that the

Jesuits

*

end the deliterators of Trent had sought to disperse Catholic

|

instruction throughout Europe in the same manner, with the

t

I

intention of reaching the greatest possible number of the

|

young there.

i

1. Relation d e . ..1♦annee 1 6 3 5 ; Jes. R e l . . VIII, 163; Le Jeune, Relation de . ..1 *ann^e 1 6 3 6 ; Jes. R e l . . X, 41; compare R e l a t i o n . . . a n n e e s 1668 & 1 6 6 9 ; Jes. Rel.. LII, 203. 2. Vimont, Relation...es annees 1642 & 1 6 4 3 ; Jes. R e l .. XXIV, 93; Le Jeune. Relation de...l*annee 1632~T~Jes. R e l . , V, 33. 3. Le Jeune, Relation d e . ^ ^ a n n e e 1 6 3 9 ; Jes. Rel.. XVI, 179.

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-119Wlth such a store of good sense, Le Cleroq predicted that the Indinas would make a happy Christian nation when they 1 were properly educated. Why, then, it might be asked, if they were so intelligent, had the savages not already progressed further toward civilization, like other nations before they knew the Gospel?

The chief bar to cultural development, Olier

pointed out, was their harsh environment. fruit grudgingly in northern climates. methods were wretched.

The earth yielded

Indian agricultural

Therefore hunger forced them to hunt,

and to wander in pursuit of food.

Unable to settle down, they

had had to put aside the development of the mind and of its 2 worthy offspring, the arts and sciences, as Biard explained. Their most highly evolved art, singing, although not unharmonious to the French ear, was subordinated to martial uses, and did 3 not proceed beyond the war chant or the funeral lamentation. In all other fields, their accomplishments represented mere embryonic strivings.

Their very mental conceptions were con­

fined to items which were materially sensible.

Except in argu­

ment, they could not, according to Father Biard, apply reason to the use of even these material things.

Even their language,

while not so barbaric as the French had thought at first, was 4 harsh, inept, and clumsy in declension and conjugation. 1. Premier etablissement. I, 214. 2. Relation de la Nouvelle France; Jes. Rel.. Ill, 115; compare

Dablon. Relation...es annees 1672 & 1673; J es. Rei.. LVII, 221. 3. Bressani, Relation abregee de...la Nouvelle France; Jes. Rel..

XXXVIII, 262. 4. Lettre du P. Pierre Biard au R.P. Provincial a Paris; Jes. Rel.. II, 11-13; Lettre du P. Francois de Peron de la Compagnle de Jesus au P. JoseDh-Imbert du Peron: Jes. Rel.. XV. 157. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-120But the savages were far from being such "stupid

1 natives" as one caustic critic stigmatized them.

In fact,

their high intelligence made their education more important, if they were to be rescued from the blinding blackness into which ignorance had cast them. and Christianity,

Once oonquered for civilization

the priests felt they would shame all of sinful

Europe into reforms which state decrees could not enforce, and which only individuals could fully achieve. realized, perhaps,

Thus would be

that personal reformation of which the ortho­

dox humanists of the early sixteenth century had dreamed. *

In many respects,

*

*

in fact, the Indinas could already

shame their more civilized brothers across the ocean.

Prominentl

among these the missionaries displayed the ideal family rela­ tionship which they thought existed in every savage household. Although they never expressly contrasted family life among the Indians with that in Europe, their descriptions would come ready-made

to the pens of those who should seek in the future

to revitalize the family as a significant unit in European life. Aithin the tribal organization,

the Indian family was the basis

for most political and economic activity,

as well as furnishing

a criterion for individual behavior. When an Indian married, he did not espouse any relative in a direct or collateral line, however distant she might have

1. Relation Rerum Gestarum; Jes. Rel.. II, 218.

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-121 been.

On the oontrary, he usually took a wife outside his

clan, which was simply an enlarged and ramified family unit, but inside his tribe,

Such unions, Le Jeune wrote, served to

strengthen the bonds making for peace and cohesion between the

1 separate clane of a tribe.

Generally,

was not demanded for such marriages, often arranged the matches.

the parents'

consent

although in fact they

The chief of the tribe usually

had to give his consent, however, before a wedding could take place.

Suoh a system had the effect, Hennepin remarked, that

the Indians did not draw any lines on account of "quality", since estates and properties so nearly equalled each other throughout whole tribes. exist,

The practise of giving dower did not

it was claimed, and for this reason marriages were

only economically profitable when the manual or hunting skill of the mates made it so. contractual aspects,

Thus marriage lost some of its

since neither party created liabilities

2 for himself.

And when parents arranged the marriage,

it was

ascribed to a freindship between families rather than to economic motives on either side.

But,

whether matches of love

or convenience, an Indian marriage was much more simple than :'.ost European unions. The fact that polygamy was sometimes permitted, how­

ever, showed that men married for other reasons than mere con­ jugal love.

Despite the existence of this custome, many tribes

1. Relation de...1'annee 1635; Jes. R e l ., VIII, 11#, 127. 2. Vimont, Relation...es annees 1642 & 1 6 4 3 ; Jes. R e l .. XXV, 139; Hennepin Description de la Loulslane. p. 30; Situr de Diereville, The Travels of Several Learned Mlssioners of the Snod

^hemselvee equally men, and what they esteem most in I/.an is "

f & | |

m 1

"in this country all Hen believe

Thus the scale of subordination which prevailed in

I . Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century. introduction, p. xlix. 2. Biard,

Iflsslo Ganadeneis; Jes. Re l . , II, 73.

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-172-

Eruope wa6 broken in New France, for he found that no perrogatives whioh were attached to rank prejudiced the rights of any individual.

Nor did any preeminence which merit con­

ferred injure the pride or start a feeling of inferiority among others.

It wae a bad maxim, he held, that no man should

be indebted to another; but its corollary was excellent: no man should wrong a man who had not offended him. extension of these feelings of equality

the care which

the Jesuit saw the Indians took of their sick, widows and orphans.

Another

and of the

They were very hospitable,

and these

charitable functions were for the savages consequences of eouality which should be commonly shared by all men.

"To

enter men's hearts, you must somehow equal them," he con­ cluded from watching the Indians sharing equally all they possessed.

This was his mo r a l , which he clearly implied that

the French had to learn, charity.

since they no longer practised

The cause for it all, he reflected,

was that those

cold words, l_e inlen and le t t e n . were absent from the Indians' vocabulary.

Therefore they did not harden their hearts tc

1 each othdr, but showed a real charity. Another striking example of equality was related by father Orespel, when he told of his shipwreck of 1742.

A

savage who welcomed the survivors to his cabin, and offered 1. Journal. II, 11-13, 61-62.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-173-

thern his meager fare, replied thus when Creepel asked him why he was so hu mane : n o t all men equals? At least, ought they not to be? Your misfortune is a title of respect, and I regard it as a favor that Heaven...gives me an opportunity to do good to men w h o m miser/6y still pursues... I shall be glad to sympathize w i t h you over your recent sufferings; my sensibility will be a n e w consolation.

A r e

H e r e

i n d e e d

w e r e

e g a l i t a r i a n

o f

W h e n t h i s

+ h e

f u n c t i o n e d t w o

o f

. u n c i l

t h e

o r

T h e

w i e l d e d

P r o p e r l y p r i n c e s ,

t h e

w e

f o r m s

f i n d ,

r e l a t i v e a n d

s p e a k i n g , w r o t e

n a t u r a l l y , i n s i s t e d

i t

w a s

o n l y

s u c h

i n

e v e r y

i m p o r t a n c e

t h e

b u t

c r i t i c a l

t h e y

w e r e ,

t h e

o f

c h i e f

t h e

b u t

p o w e r

I n d i a n s

B r e s s a n i ,

a s

t h e y

u p o n

t r i b e :

p o w e r ;

c o l l e c t i v e

i n

t h a t

were g e n e r a l l y

T h e r e

i n d i v i d u a l

u l t i m a t e

a n d

e m b o d i e d

m a n

i n s t i t u t i o n s ,

l e a s t ,

w h i c h

e a c h

h i m s e l f ,

a t

s e n t i m e n t a l

men.'

e f f e c t i v e l y .

e n t i t i e s

m o s t

p o l i t i c a l

S i n c e

f o r

p e r s o n a l i t y

n ' 1' s o l u t e

t h e

e q u a l i t y ,

r i g h t s

and the c o u n c i l . h i s

t h i s

u s e f u l l y

p o l i t i c a l

w i t h

t o

the p o l i t i c a l

t h a t

d e l i g h t

r u d i m e n t a r y .

m a x i m u m

t i m e s

t u r n

a n d

a n d

t o

e i g h t e e n t h - c e n t u r y

w e

l i b e r t y

were f e w

w o r d s

h a d o n l y

c h i e f ,

u s u a l l y o f

t h e

v a r i e d t h e

t r i b e .

n e i t h e r

k i n g s

n o r

c h i e f s ,

w h o

w i e l d e d

S i n c e

t h e

s a v a g e s

2 r

h o s t

a

:• r e n t e d c o u l d

q u e s t i o n a b l e t h e

s e e ,

e x e r c i s e

h e

w r o t e

a m o u n t

o f

a u t h o r i t y .

o f

a n y

a u t h o r i t y

t h a t

t h e

c h i e f s

h a d

a s

f a r

n o

a s

L e

J e u n e

r i g h t

t o

o b e d i e n c e

1. ‘'Voyagee," p. 199. 2 .

R e l a t i o n

a b r ^ g e e

d e . . l a

N o u v e l l e

F r a n c e ;

J e s . F . e l . ,

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XXXVI I I ,

2 6 o

-174on any count, although their fellows often held them in high 1 respect. Charlevoix qualified this rather broad statement by saying that while the chief had formally no power,

since

he was guided by reason, honor, and zeal for his nation, and since his office indicated that he was brave, lucky, and disinterested,

reason dictated that the independent men

should follow him.

H e find it written elsewhere that the

chiefs conducted the course of popular action rather by pray­ ers,

exhortations, and example, than

by command.

In return,

they

were supposed to receive the good will of their tribe.

Vimont added that the chiefs always refrained from the use of violence, because they lacked the adequate authority. And except in rare cases, usually concerning extraordinarily

2 brash youths,

they seldom reproved the faults of their people.

'These opinions bore out Charlevoix's conclusions, fining them still further,

while re­

and clearly described the indefinite

limits nf a chief's powers. As a rule,

.pen

succession to the

ability rather than upon birth,

office cf chief depended although if the former

requisites were satisfied, they could be combined.

d e e m e d

Vimont

it intolerable pride in the son of a chief to boast

T . Relation d e ..11annee 1 6 7 9 ; J e s . Re l .. XVI, 155. Charlevoix, Journal. I, 395< 397; Sagard, Le grand voyage / au nays des H ur on s. p. 197; Le Jeune, Relation de...l'annee 1634 ; Jes . R e l . . VI, 231; Vimont, Relation...ee annees' 1643 & 1 5 4 4 ' J e s . R e l . , XXVI, 17-19; Jerome Lalemant, Relation...es~ann£es 1645 & 1 6 4 6 ; Jes. R e l ., XXIX, 81, 99.

R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-175that he had ruled from his earliest youth, and had been born to rule:

"]/am like a tree —

7

to which I impart vigor," positions.

men are the branches thereof,

1 All chiefs were elected to their

But if the rule of election was a formality to

mask the hereditary nature of a dyanastic succession, the son of a chief seldom succeeded his father.

Usually the chief's

sister’s son, about whose legitimacy there could be little doubt, was chosen to replaoe him. |

Le Jeune reported that in

the majority of places among the northern tribes, the chiefs were selected from the bravest and best in the clan. was the more ancient practise.

This

And some who followed in

"•heir fathers* footsteps did so only by their own worth,

2 end through no hereditary right. The position of the chief was justly regarded as a weighty one, of his power.

involving many duties, despite the insubstantiality Cne chief wished to resign his dignity, and

leaded that he retained it only because the proper person or th° post had hitherto been too young and inexperienced *o perform the duties of the office.

In such cases,

it

• .pared that a regent governed in the name of the immature 3 hief, usually a hereditary ruler, Yihen a new chief replaced 1. Relation de . ..l*annee 1 6 4 1 ; Jes. R e l ., XX, 157. 5. Sagard, Le grand voyage au pays des Hurons. p. 197; Le Jeune, Relation de.V.l'annee 1 6 3 9 ; Jes. R e l .. XVI, 135; Charlevoix, Journal.1.394. Ibid. ; I, 395; Vimont, Relation. . .es anne'es 1542 & 1 6 4 3 ; Jes. R e l .. XXV, 155.

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-176an old one, he assumed all the latter*s obligations, which

r.ere often personal, and his duties, which consisted in super­ vising the decrees of the council, and war parties.

and regulating the hunting

None of the missionaries, however, mentioned

the privileges which a chief enjoyed, and it must therefore

1 be assumed that none existed.

The only honors pertaining to

h i s office were a certain amount of attention and honor, and 2 obedience in emergencies, theoretically.

Also, when he was

elected, his clan gathered to sing his praises: this brave man,

as Vimont rendered one of their songs, would save the

nation from the dangers that threatened it; his liberality /.'ould banish poverty.

And as an earnest of his performance,

1.-• forthwith distributed gifts to the poor and to the leading 3 of the clan.

Other offices were infrequent.

For there was little

for more than one person to do, except to harangue in council, and that was the right of every mature male in the village. :ut in the large towns, which did not provide a residence for th~- great chief of the whole trite, Sagard came across as many .

three local chiefs.

An assessor and a lieutenant of the

rreat chief would cry out the necessary public notices, and 4 supervise their execution, if they could. Such pronouncements 1. Vimont,

Relation d e . . . I 1annee 1 6 4 2 ; J e s . R e l ., XXIII, 167.

Vimont, Relation...es annees 1643 & 1 6 4 4 ; J e s .R e l .. XXVI, 157, 3. Ibid.; Jes. R e l .. XXVI, 159, 163. Histoire du Canada; I, 390; Le grand voyage au pays aes Hurons. p. 198.

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- 1 77-

deal t mainly with declarations of war.

And these offices

were almost entirely limited to the Huron villages, where the population was denser and more settled. The council was the other important politioal unit. According to Charlevoix, tody of assistants,

it was divided into three groups: a

or councillors; a body of elders, being

all those who had attained to full maturity; and a body of warriors, being all men capable of bearing arms.

Each family

had the right to elect a councillor, who assisted the chief,

1 end safeguarded its interests in advising him. were apparently —

The councillors

if the term is not grandiloquent — adminis­

trators of petty matters; for the elders formulated the policy f the clan.

Among the elders, the proceedings of the council

™r -re conducted, ity, ability, b

the Jesuit father said, with a wisdom, matur­

and probity which would have honored the Athenian

Areopagus or the Roman Senate of the sunniest days of the

!

'public.

Precipitation,

high passion,

and self-interest were

I I'f i

’ --nt when these ancients conferred,7 and their guiding mowere honor and the welfare of the nation.

I p

It was the ancient and honored men of each clan who

[

directed the policies of the community, 4 -

v. p r o b l e m s

1. Journal,

of reel importance,

I, 395-295,

and deliberated on

such as war,

peace, the

400.

‘ • ih id., 1 , 333.

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-178ac c e p t a n c e

of d e p u t a t i o n s

f r o m f o r e i g n tribeB,

and the elc ti on s

1 of chiefs.

Larger, tribal councils, which Sagard called

general assemblies,

included representatives of distant allied

2 dt

friendly nations.

The councils met under the chairman­

ship of the chief, who could try to gain his points by eloquent persuasion,

supplication,

or remonstrance.

But they remained

open forums for the expression of everyone's opinion.

A

majority of votes usually determined the course of action,

7

if

u

ve are tc believe Sagard.

The chiefs depended upon the advice

of the elders in council for aid in managing the affairs which might come up for consideration. the majority's decisions,

submit to them.

Those who disagreed with

however, were not legnlly bound to

If they wished,

they could pursue an indepen­

dent course.

Only their reason and their personal expediency 4 ultimately controlled their own subsequent behavior. On at least one occasion, all the chiefs and elders •' a clan assembled in council to discuss whether they should ;u'Cpt Christianity or not.

F-

After orderly end lengthy harangues,

trey voted on the question by secret ballot,

according to the

1. Sagard, Histolre du Canada, I, 339; Je'roine Lalemant, Relation es annees 1645 & 1 5 4 6 ; Jes. Rel.. XXX, 61; compare Silvy, Journ al, pp. 82-83. 2. Le grand voyage au pays des Hurons, p. 200. 3.

Ibid.,

p. 197.

Vimont, Relation...es annees 1S43 & 1 6 4 4 ; Jes. R e l . . XXVI, 16JL; Charlevoix, Jou rna l. I, 392;, de Rochemonteix, Lee Jesuites et la Nouvelle France au XVIIe siecle. II, 8.

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1 testimony of Vimont, an eye-witness.

Another time, Le Meroier

watched a council reach the decision that certain captives should not he killed, because if they were killed, a new war would break out, entailing further loss of life for them-

2 selves as well as for their enemies.

Such sporadic events as

these claimed the attention of the council. no

The ancients kept

records, aside from their individual memories.

The mission­

aries have left us no evidence of any regular calendar which they kept, nor any more definite functions than what we have described. But apparently the council remained the most formal body of legal constitution which the Indians possessed.

They

did have a crude sort of treasury, as the Jesuit Vimont re­ vealed, but it was not a universal institution.

0 f t en the

chief acted as custodian of the public presents.

From the

aggregation of common property which it represented, the elders decreed that there should be distributions made for

On

benefit of the poor. „annee 1636; Jes. Rel.. X, 331. 4. Ibid.; Jes. Ral.. X, 233; Charlevoix, Journal. I, 395.

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-1851 town crying.

Yet when Father Vimont appealed to a chief to

recover a crufix for him, the savage who had taken it returned it within a very short time.

It would have been more exact

of Du Peron to have said with Le Jeune that, here as else­ where, his power was not despotic.

He had no force with which

to compel obedience, and his government represented merely 2 the civil good of the village or country. When the chief adopted a course of action, he acted merely privately, if he wished, without consulting others.

But then he. merely

exercised his individual rights, and used no political author­ ity.

If a man who had been chief, manifested a desire to

regain that post, his desire could be gratified only after a 3 meeting of the council. Thus, the position of chief had little consistency in itself, but fell between the influenoe of a private personage, and the most impressive and popular authority of the council. The Hurons al60 possessed a treasury.

For they in­

dulged in a sort of venality, by which men of questionable character, who were ambitious to become chiefs, could elude 4 their disqualifications by contributing to the public coffers. A chief was named to act as treasurer of the community.

He,

1. Lettre du P. Francois du Peron de la Compagnie de Jesus au P. Joseph-Impert du Peron; Jes. Rel.. XV, 157. 2. Le Jeune, Relation de...l'ann^e 1636; Jes. Rel.. X, 233; Vimont, Relation de...l*ann^e 1 6 4 6 ; Jes. Rel.. XIX, 215. 3. Dablon, Relation...es ann/es 1672 & 1673; Jes. Rel. . L V I I , ^

compare Le Jeune. Relation de...l*ann£e 1636; Jes. Rel., X, 235. 4. Ibid., Jes. Rel.. X, 235. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-186after the advice, consent, or consultation of the council, could control the disbursements.

In every village, the chief

in charge of the treasury collected the porcelain collars, hatchets, knives, and glass beads whioh were to be used for 1 ransom, or for gifts made in negotiations of war or peace. 7/e are casually informed by Father Charlevoix, a generally trustworthy minister of God, that women could name councillors a m o n g the Hurons, and that they often chose members of thbir own sex.

He went further, and wrote that women were the chief

policy-makers among the Hurons, as well as the Iroquois nations, 2 and that the chiefs were merely their lieutenants. As he is usually credible, it is unreasonable to disoredit this state­ ment, without any evidence to the contrary. But aside from the formal minimum, the Hurons had few laws.

They dealt with legal problems as they occurred, 3 in the council for the most part. Sagard proclaimed that a

multitude of laws did not make for good government, and then justified his idealization of the Huron communities, guided 4 merely by custom, on this ground. Murderers, for instance, did not meet with judicial death, he wrote; instead, the whole village in which the murder had happened recompensed 1. Sagard, Hlstolre du Canada. II, 754-75E. 2. Journal. I, 396-397. Jd.QA.r'd., d.¥ ClM. dij 3 ./Battt.Ti. 388. 4. Ibid., I, 388; compare Le Jeune, Relation de...l'ann^e 1636; Jes. Rel., X, 215.

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-187the family of the victime with rich gifts of prescribed value, 1 in the presence of the humiliated murderer. "These people are very suspicious, especially where life is involved." Therefore, it was observed, sorcerers who were caught in the act could be killed on the spot.

Sorcerers, or those

who used poison or caused death by charms, could bo other­ wise punished severely; often by trials, which consisted of 2 accusation, with or without defense, and judgment. Thieves, whom Le Jeune thought abounded among the Hurons, were no more tolerated than sorcerers.

The best remedy against them

was the complete and utter destitution of the robber’s cabin, 3 his clothing, and the clothing of his family as well. In the field of what might be designated criminal law, all tribes were equally backward; the Iroquois as well as the others.

But the public organization of the Iroquois

nations surpassed all the other American tribes.

Each of the

Five Nations elected its own chiefs, and from among these men and the ancients of each nation, a federative council was composed, which directed the general conduct on the larger issues of war, embassies, and peace, among the nations, and with outside tribes.

A body of hereditary oligarchs headed

each nation, and from them were the chiefs elected.

Yet the

democratic right of individuals to speak and act as they wished 1. Relation de...l*annee 1636; Jes. Rel.. X, 217. 2. Ibid.; Jes. Rel.. X. 223; Le Mercier, Relation de...l'ann£e 1637; Jes. Pel.. XIII, 157, and Jes. Rel.. XIV, 37, 3. Relation de. ..1'anne'e 1636; Jes. Rel.. X, 223; Charlevoix, Journal. I, 406. R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-188w?s carefully safeguarded.

For Dablon found that here as

elsewhere, the Indians oherished liberty more than life.

It

was this government which Father Chauchetiere called the government of pure nature, wherein many things were happily

■

Each tribe elected two chiefs: one managed the affairs

I

of war and government; the other supervised the remaining

II

ceremonies.

I

by majority vote in the tribal council, from among those

I

men who had the ability and merit for the exercise of the

■

office; for the Iroquois chiefs received more obedience than

II

most chiefs.

I

form of command, but like the other chiefs, they ruled by

I

I

advice, contractual relationships, and supplication.

I

the Iroquois, there was a subordinate class of chieftyis,

I

who had definitely assigned minor tasks, and whose rank was

I

clearly delineated.

I

oligarchy, rose to their offices by ability and bravery, and

I

2

Chauchetiere reported that election was secured

3

Their authority, however, did not take the

4

Among

They probably came from the hereditary

^

8

made up the class from which the

great chiefs were selected.

I ■ I I I

1. Dablon, Relation...es ann^es 1670 & 1671; Jes. Rel.. LV, 91; Chauchetl&re. Narration annuelle de la Mission du Sault depuls sa fondation lusques h. 1 1an1686; Jes. Rel.. LXIIIr 163; Lettre du PSre Mlsslonalre ohez les Abnakis: Jes. Rel.. LXX, 137.

I I

2.

I

3. Ibid.; Jes. Rel.. LXIII, 163.

I I

4. De Rochemonteix, Les J^sultes slecle. II, 7.

I I

5, Compare Parkman, Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century, intftfiduction, p. lvii.

Chauchetiere, Narration annuelle de la Mission du Sault depuls sa fondation lusques k l*an 1686; Jes.Rel.'. LXIII. 163.

et la Nouvelle France au XVIIa

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-189In the council8 of the Iroquois, the councillors were e not bound individually by the common decisions of the assembly. In theory they never sacrificed their private liberty for the general good. majority.

But generally, all submitted to the wish of the

People who had not attended or spoken at the councils

could not, wrote Le Mercier, be coerced into obeying its de1 cisions; but in effect they did, guided perhaps by their common stydse.

In the grand assembly of the Five Nations,

fifty sachems sat to form the federated government.

It was

these men who determined the nations to negotiate peace with 2 the French in 1641. Here sat "the gathered wisdom of the 3 nation," whose decisions needed unanimity to become binding. Thus they safeguarded both private and national rights, while, at the same time, as Parkman remarked, "never since the days of Sparta were individual life and national life more completely 4 fused into one." In accordance with such extreme personal liberties, there existed among the Iroquois neither gibbet nor prison. Each man lived as his fancy dictated. condition,

But,

Father Bruyae expressed surprise to find that these

5 savages were not daily at each others* throats. 1. Relation...es annees 1669 & 1 6 7 0 ; Jes. R e l .. LIII, 283. 2. Vimont, Relation d e ... 1 1annexe 1 6 4 1 ; Jes. R e l . . XXI, 29. 3. Quoted from Parkman, Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century, introduction, p. lvii. 4. Ibid.. introduction, p. lx. 5. Lettre a

; J_.es. Re l . . LI, 125; compare Silvy, Journal, p. 190.

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-190-

Among the6e tribes, although perhaps not as a federa­ tive affair, on the evidence of Dablon, there did exist public 1 treasuries. Whether there was inter-tribal finance, we have not been told.

But it is improbably that funds would be large

or portable enough to make such a complicated economy practicable. With the Nipissir.g Indians, the office of chief apparently had less respect paid to it than among most tribes.

he was expected to distribute beaver and moose hides, "to make himself known, and to be received with applause into his office.

= to

For Vimont told that when the chief was elected by the council,

Now, no mention is made in the accounts of other tribes, that the men elected had to make themselves known.

Indeed, they

were already known, by the same merits and reputation which obtained their exalted position for them. Likewise in the Illinois tribes, as Father Marest wrote, liberty was made much of.

If, as in other places, it

bred all the vices, yet it also engendered the affability and

w i t

cf the people, he and his Jesuit colleague Vivier discovered.

All men seemed equal to the Illinois, and consequently they appeared to live in great peace. to no laws.

They subjected themselves

Therefore the chief exerted no authority over

his fellows; if he had threatened to use force, Marest was 3 sure that they would have been disobeyed and deserted. So, 1. Relatlon'ea annees 1673 & 1673; Jes. Rel.. LVII, 61. 2. Relation de...11annde 1642; Jes. Rel.. XXIII, 216-217. 3. Lettie au F3re Germon; Jes. Rel.. LXVI, 221; Vivier, Lettre au Pdre Jee.'Tel.. LXIX, 147.

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-191-

when a man was elevated to that position, he excused himself from it, and would aooept the responsibility only after he had received a promise of obedience from the whole clan. Then his first move was the right royal one of making pro1 vision for the protection and sustenance of widows and orphans. The most despotic government with which the mission­ aries came into contact was that furthest from their base, ^nd properly outside of the jurisdiction of New France: the Natchez of the lower Mississippi, whither priests were sent from Quebec before the organization of missions in Louisiana. A more elaborate ceremonial and a more rigid hierarchy pre­ vailed among these people, tainted, perhaps, by the oustoms of the Mexican Indians.

The chieftqp6hip wa6 heredijltary,

and ran to the oldest living son of the chief's oldest sister. The chief had the right of life and death over his subjects, as did the mother of his heir.

Father Le Petit described

the chief as the absolute master over all the lives and property

2 within his domain.

This extreme submission to the chief was

exceptional, the Jesuit du Poisson found, and he was shocked after having worked in the freer, more individualistic northern 3 tribes. Charlevoix noted that his subjects bowed before the 4 chief as he approached, and acted most servilely to him. 1. Vivier, Lettre au Pere ***Caux Illinois, 175Q[] ; Jes. Rel.. LXIX, 227. 2. Lettre au Pere d'Avaugour, Procureur des Missions de l'Amerlque Septentrlonale; Jes. Rel.. LXVIII, 131-133; Hennepin, Nouvelles d^couvertes d'un trfes grand pays (Utrecht, 1697), p. 306; Charlevoix, Journal, II, 177. 3. Paul du Poisson, S.J., Lettre au P. ♦**faux Akensas, 1727J ; Jes. Rf»l.. LXVI I, 311. *

» ------- w

i no

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-192-

Moreover, he nominated all his political subordinates, and /

they became his alter egos, enjoying his privileges and 1 immunities, as well as being responsible to him alone. In the north country there had been no privileges worth sharing.

Nor had social or economic distinction separ­

ated members of the same tribe.

Each man had self-reliantly

stood on his own feet, according to the accounts of the missionaries, or followed the lead of the man whom his judg­ ment told him was the wisest or the strongest.

It was from

these northern Indians that the French priests dr#w the models who confronted them with remarkable traits in every phase of life and conduct.

Back in France, as the relations and narra­

tives of journeys poured in during the aging centuries, they were experiencing the growing weight of centralized power. In the political field, it was the atomistic, relatively a-legal life of the free savage which struck the missionaries with the most force.

In other fields they had been most

strongly impressed by the virtuous innocence in which the untutored savages lived and died, which made them as perfectible as Europeans, while being already more nearly perfect.

For the outstanding example of what the priests saw in the Indians nothing could be more fit than two paragraphs from Father Charlevoix, who at one point in his history profeesea not to find much of interest in discussing the political

1. Le Petit, Lettre au Pere d 'Avaugour, Proc#ureur des Missions de l'Am^rlque Septentrlonale; J es. Rel*, LXV1II, 137» Charlevoix, Journal, II, lb}. R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-1931

customs of the Indians. Finally, to draw for you briefly the portrait of these peoples with a savage exterior, and manners and habits which appear oompletely to belong to barbarism: One notices in them a society exempt from almost all the defects whioh so often upset the charms of our own. They appear to laok passion, but they are self-controlled, and sometimes by a principle which the most violent and unrestrained passion oan inspire in those who no longer listen to reason. They seem to lead the most miserable lives in the world, and perhaps they were the only happy people on earth before the knowledge of the things which motivate and seduce us had aroused in them a cupidity which ignorance retained in subjection, and which has however not yet made great ravages among them. You per­ ceive in them a mixture of the fiercest and the softest manners, of the defects of carnivorous beasts, and of the virtues and qualities of the heart and the head which do the greatest honor to humanity. At first one would believe they have no form of government, that they knew neither laws nor subordina­ tion, and that living in independence, they let themselves be led along courses of conduct solely through the most uncon­ trolled hazard or caprice. However they enjoy almost all the advantages which a well-regulated authority can procure for the most polished nations. Born free and independent, they hold even the shadow of despotic power in horror; but they rarely avoid certain principles and usages founded on rood sense, which substitute for laws and which supply in some fashion a legitimate authority. All constraint revolts them, but reason alone keeps them in a sort of subordination, which, although voluntary, nevertheless attains to its end, which they have set for themselves. I/.an, whom they would greatly esteem, would find them docile enough, and would make them do almost all that he could wish; but it is not easy to gain their esteem for this. They surren­ der it only to merit, and to a superior merit of which they ere quite as good judges as those among us who pride themselves more for being good judges. Above all they fasten upon appear­ ance, and it is perhaps not men of the world whom they would most easily respect. It is a fact thaty they have for people none of those regards which seduce us, and that, studying only nature, they know it well. As they are not slaves to ambition or interest, and as these two passions hardly exist among them, which have enfeebled in us that sentiment for humanity which the Author of Nature has engraved on our hearts, the inequality of conditions is not necessary to them for the maintenance of society. A

1. Journal, I, 390. 3. Ibid., II, 59-61.

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CHAPTER III. THE LAYMEN AND THE SAVAGES.

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Although the priests were exact and prolix recorders of their accomplishments and observations, they were by no means the only articulate Frenchmen who wrote about the savages In this period.

Uany other types of men traveled and explored

the Canadian wildernesses: professional explorers, soldiers, military administrators, settler^, olerks, and genteel travel­ ers.

They too sent home letters about the Indians which

they intended for publication, or which the recipients thought were worthy of publication.

Some of these laymen set them­

selves to recording their experiences after they had returned to their native shores, in an atmosphere more conducive to reflection about the things they saw which would interest or instruct their compatriots.

Although their accounts concern­

ing the Indians did not equal in volume the relations of the missionaries, yet they are as worthy of consideration.

For

their observations were as strongly motivated, and as pur­ poseful . The motives which caused the laymen to present their books to the reading public resembled closely the motives of the priests.

Yet a great difference existed between the two

groups of books, relative in large degree to the variations in the characters of the individual lay writers.

Since the

personality of each one of these men of the world influenced his writings, it has seemed fitting to consider the more prominent of them separately, at greater length.

But before

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-195entering upon a di 6 c u b 6 ion of that sort, a brief general resume of their various purposes appears necessary.

In the

order of their importance, as expressed by their writings, their motives were: the zeal for conversion, eoonomic gain, dynastic oonauest, colonization, exploration, and refuge from Europe. The importanoe which the businessmen and the explorers of the period attaohed to the propagation of the faith arose from two sources.

Primarily, it grew out of the intellectual

and politloal atmosphere of the era of reconstruction following upon the wars of the League, which made religious enthusiasms of great social significance.

But it also developed out of

the theologioal and emotional temper of the times, whioh would later produce suoh movements as Jansenism and Quietism, as well as this missionary zeal among the orthodox.

The

thoughtful Frenchman combined his religious and politloal memories and aspirations, and one of the results was a keen interest in the missions of New France, Coupled with this sincere piety went a natural desire for economic gain, which the bourgeois did not consider in­ compatible with their religious sympathies.

In addition,

alongside the trading and commercial olass, the monarchy AtU He ciwtft continued to take an active part in the exploitation^of New France.

Under tht tutelage of the great cardinal-ministers

and the royal confessors, the dynasty of Franoe combined its

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-196-

■

apostolic ambitions with its meroantilistic and diplomatio

I

policies.

■

at home as well as in the new province, recognized the mutual

I

interdependence of the elements of conversion, economic profit,

■

and

I

nately, but with sincerity, they thought to advance all three

I

causes simultaneously.

The soldiers and the administrators of the crown,

military and politloal domination.

I

Therefore, indiscrlmi-

Indirectly, of course, colonization remained a ooroll-

I

ary to the mercantilistio and imperialistic theories of the

I

time.

I

of the laymen, that it can be oonsidered as a separate factor

I

motivating them.

I

to the innate curiosity of many men of action, who could

I

satisfy their craving only by roaming unknown lands.

K

they relayed their discoveries to those at home, who itched

I

with an impelling desire to know all about everything.

I

New Franoe provided a refuge for men who had fled their home-

I

land because it offered them no respectable livelihood, or

I

who found its social or political life unoongenial.

I

it offered escape; to others, a new life.

I

But colonization was so heavily emphasized in the works

The fifth aim, exploration, gave release

In turn,

Finally,

some

A distinctly new tone pervaded this literature dealing

I

with New Franoe —

and only the factual writings, as opposed

I

to the exotic or the imaginative, are under consideration.

I

the one hand, the priests felt certain of the reasons for their

I

work, and they seldom explained themselves or their writings.

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On

-197On the other hand, these men of the world were not so certain of their premisses.

Consequently, when one of them notioed

a manifestation of savage virtue, for lnstanoe, whioh was better than the corresponding condition at home, he did not rest content to expose the fact, and to let the reader infer the contrast and its moral value for himself, as the priests would have done.

He exaggerated the new and better condition,

stretched his points into lengthy sermons, upon even the smallest subjects, and hammered away more directly at the Continental evil whioh he wished to see reformed. felt less sure of himself and his raisons d*Stre —

Because he and this

was especially evident in the eighteenth-century writings — the layman appeared to be more didaotio. The second great difference between the religious and the secular writers lay in their subject-matter.

Only a few

priests, like Father Charlevoix, journeyed to New Franoe for the specific purpose of observing the Indians: most of them went there on the business of conversion, and their comments on customs and institutions were incidental in their work and in their writings.

On the other hand, the explorers and olerks

found more time and leisure to observe the savages, and there­ fore their remarks penetrated oustoms and oonduot more acutely. This was especially true when they dealt with matters concern­ ing the position of women, and politloal affairs.

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-198The first man to take notice of the savages did not write with a deep perception of their oustoms.

Slnoe he wan

primarily a sailor and a navigator, he made no suoh pretenses. Jacques Cartier, with whom the history of Canada began, spent all his life around St-Malo, and devoted himself to the sea. From 1534 to 1542 he made three voyages of exploration along the coasts and the rlver-mouths of the new land.

In his last

book, which he wrote the year the oounoil of Trent convened, Cartier revealed that he had drunk deep of the spirit of the Counter-Reformation.

He wished, he wrote, to reestablish and

to spread the Roman Catholic religion wherever it did not then flourish.

First the faith had been planted in the Holy

Land, to the east of Europe.

Afterwards, with the passage

of time, it was carried among the peoples of the Continent. Finally, following the course of the sun, it was progressing westward.

The King of Spain had set the example to the French,

who should follow in his steps, and spread the faith In un1 known and Infidel lands. Thus it was that Cartier rationalised his discoveries, as the pioneer, blazing a trail for the men of God.

After he had known the savages longer, he felt that

"by what we have seen and been able to understand of these people,... they should be easy to tame — by the benevolence 2 of God in His holy compassion." Due to the limitations of 1. Jacques Cartier, Brief reolt & succlncte narration de la navigation faicte fee ysles de Canada (Paris /1545/ 1863), pp. 3-5. Hereafter olted ae Cartier, Brief reclt & suooinote narration. 2. Ibid., p. 32a.

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-199-

bls environment and of his eduoation, Oartier did not attain to a oomprehension of economic or scientific attitudes with regard to the new country.

But he typified the man of action,

who explored first for God and they for his king. After Cartier, the first important critic of savage life was a man who came from a world utterly foreign to the sea and all that pertained to it.

Uarc Lesoarbot was not a

sailor, but a bourgeois landsman, an introverted intellectual, and a critio of sooiety.

He was born at Vervins, between

1570 and 1580, and probably died around 1630. noble blood — du Presle" —

His olaim to

he signed himself "seigneur de Saint Audebert may be safely ignored.

But he apparently re­

ceived an eduoation worthy of a nobleman.

A poetaster and

an advocate in the Parlement of Paris before he journeyed to New France, he later found employ as an ambassador's secretary

in Switzerland from 1611 to 1616, and subsequently entered 1 the commissary of the marine in Paris. Apparently some hostil­ ity in Franoe drove Lesoarbot to seek a temporary refuge abroad. As a result, he sailed to Acadia with Poutrinoourt in 1606, and for a year visited among the Uiomacs and Armouohiquois who dwelt along the coast. That Lesoarbot was well-read can be gathered from his references to classical and mediaeval authors.

In his

/

1. Biographie universelle artiole "Lesoarbot"; Edouard Rott, Histoire de la Representation Diplomatique de la Franoe auprSs dee oantons suisses. de leurs allitfs et de leurs conftfdtfr^s (Paris. 1906). III. 1099. 1123. ^

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-200Histolre de la Nouvelle Franoe. for instance, he quoted from almost every significant pagan and Christian writer of the 1 past. His general attitude may be grasped only by a thorough reading of his diversified works.

But in hie constant use

of the authors of antiquity, and in his comparisons of social and political phenomena in different countries, it is evident that he was groping toward a causal interpretation of history. As is the case with most pioneers in historiography, however, his indiscriminate acceptance of legends as facts blurred the clarity of his thought, and misled the directness of his attempts to develop a new type of historical criticism. In his religious sympathies, like most of the French humanists, Lesoarbot supported the Galilean cause. When / / writing of the papal nuncio's commissioning Fleohe to baptise and to convert in Acadia, he remarked, "not that a Frenoh bishop oould not have done it;" but he conceded that in spite of the faot that the nuncio was a foreigner, the commission was as good from him as from another.

This first historian

of New France also insisted that politloal institutions should precede religious ones in the foundation of the new province. A state had to be established before a ohurch could prosper. For the state had the duty of providing for the spiritual needs 2 of its people. The reverse, he implied, was not necessarily 1. See Nouvelle France, pp. 12, 386, 389-390, 555, 604, 649, 655, 659, 666, 668, 676, 691, 702, 708-709, 718-719, 728731, 736, 786-787, 790, '792, 794, 801-803, 817-818, 835, 837, 841-844, 864, 926-927, for a few examples. 2. Lesoarbot, Voyage du sleur Poutrlnoourt; Jes« Rel«, II, 137*

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-301the case.

Out of regard for the welfare of the state, and

out of his Gallicanism, Lesoarbot attaoked also the soheme of settling the Jesuits in Aoadia, although he was a good Catholic,

In his Conversion des Sauvages. he wrote of:

a certain olass of men in whom one cannot have complete confidence, who make it their business to censure all who do not agree with their maxims, and wish to command everywhere. It is enough to be watched by others, without having these preaohers, against whom even the greatest kings oannot defend themselves, keep complete records of every aowe of your body and soul. And then, what purpose would m o many men of that sort serve over there ^Jn Acadij^ at present, if they did not wish to devote themselves to the cultivation of the soil? The reasons for Lesoarbot1s coming to New France have always been unknown.

He may have wished merely to satisfy

his curiosity to travel and to see novelties.

But it appears

that he permitted his readers a truer glimpse of his real reasons when he wrote that he wished to "flee a corrupted world," which apparently had wrought some injustice upon him.

He added with a touch of bitterness that he wanted to

live in repose by agreeable work in the New World, and to

2 flee the hard life to whioh he saw men in France reduoed. The refugee did not write merely to oultivate his own talents and pleasures, or to satisfy public interest, how­ ever.

Although he turned hiB back on France as a place to

live, he nevertheless tried to convince the bourgeoisie and 1. La Conversion des Snuvagew; Jes. Rel.. I, 80-82. 2. Nouvelle Franoe. pp. 502-503.

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202-

the nobility of their obligation to aid in the work whioh was commencing in New Franoe: conversion, settlement, and civilization.

He prefaced the Conversion des Sauvages with

a flattering letter to Marie de Medici, in order to enlist 1 her finanoial assistance for missions and for military posts. In the body of this work, Lescaxbot oomplained of the oowardice and the slovenliness of the people of his time.

At

home, they failed to reclaim those who wandered about in a morass of error; abroad, they neglected their ohanoes to exalt, glorify, and broadoast the name of Qod where it was unknown.

It was shameful, he soolded, that a country named

France —

a name so venerable! —

should be so unchristian.

The wealthy men in the churoh and the laity should assist

2 the development of New Franoe, with all their resources. The reason for Lesoarbot's castigation of his con­ temporaries was his zeal for the conversion of the heathen savages.

He wrote:

The spirit of God is potent to drop on this field /of New France7 a new dew, which will bring forth again what the hail has beaten down and laid waste. May God by His grace so order everything that it will rewound to His glory and to the edi­ fication of these people, for whom all Christians ought to pray continually to His divine bounty, so that He may be pleased to approve and advance the work which it has pleased Him to aid now for the exaltation of His name, and the sal­ vation of His creatures.5 Surely, no more pious prayer for the sucoess of the missions 1. La Conversion des 8auvages; Jes. Rel.. I, 55. 2.

Ibid. ; Jes. Rel.. I, 63; Nouvelle France, pp.

712-713.

3. La Conversion des Sauvages; Jes. Rel.. I, 80. R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

203could be found in all the writings of the priests.

Specifi­

cally, Lesoarbot further pleaded for the establishment of Frenoh oolonies at Tadoussao, Gaspe, Oampseau, St Croix, and Pentago£t, in order to influence the savages who lived at those places.

He also wished that some missions could be

dispatched into the lands of the Iroquois and the Armouohiquois, 1 whose agricultural society would favor the work of proselyting. Indeed, his express purpose in writing another of his short tracts was to induce the Frenoh to cultivate New France, and thus to lead to the fold of Christ, as he put it, so many

2 who now remained without government or religion.

In the same

book, he published a letter whioh Poutrincourt had forwarded to the Pope, asking that His Holiness approve, ratify, and patronize a movement for the propagation of the faith in the 3 new country. Like Olier some years later, Lesoarbot stressed the advantages whioh the Europeans enjoyed over the savages, and for whioh they were indebted to God.

They should give Him

thanks for these benefits, not only in their civil life, but also for the revelation of the way to salvation.

The historian

1. La Conversion des 3auvages. Jes. Rel.. I, 83-35. 2. Lesoarbot, La defaite des sauvages armouchlquois par le Sagamos. Membertou et see alliez sauvages (/Paris. 16077 Boston, 1927), p. 105. Hereafter cited as Lesoarbot, La d^falte des sauvages armouohiqools. 3. Nouvelle France, pp. 605-608.

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-304sought to shame the men at home into a ooneoiousness of their position: We, horn in the knowledge of the true God, and under a law of oharity — will we not have the zeal, not only to civilize, hut to lead to the road of salvation, so many aimless people capable of all good things, who are heyond the ocean without God, without law, without religion, living in a pitiful ignoranoe?1 But an appeal to the piety of merely the people of Franoe did not suffloe for Lesoarhot.

In bis introduction

to the Hlstolre de la Nouvelle Franoe. he told the young king how glorious the conquest of New Franoe would he for his kingdom.

The anolent Greeks and Romans would have hurst with

pride to have civilized so many nations, and to have erected

2 such great colonies as Franoe oould set up in this new region. It was not only the ideas of conversion, conquest, and colonization which Lesoarhot bore in min^ however.

For,

like Champlain, he envisaged the future economic greatness of New Franoe, and he asked that serious consideration he given to its exploitation.

As a result of the reconstruction

of Henry IV's regime, the historian felt that many discontented Frenchmen would welcome the opportunity to make a fresh start somewhere.

If finanoial cares at home oppressed them, they

should oome to New France, wheie they oould live and work in innocence.

He knew that many of them were unhappy, due to a

1. Nouvelle Franoe. introduction, p. 7. 2. Ibid.. introduction, p. 6.

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-205laok of land or of work.

In the new country, the poor oould

become rloh on the land, and heavy dues and tithes would not vex the farmers.

But If Frenchmen had become so weak

and soft as to refuse to take up farming or fishing for a living, he oould only feel pity for them, and tell them what opportunities they missed by Ignoring the prospects which 1 New Franoe offered them. For the enlightenment of those who doubted the riches of the country, Lescarbot counted off what lay in store for the enterprising.

The waters adjaoent to Acadia abounded in

herring, smelts, sardines, barbel, cod, seals, lobsters, crabs, cockles, mussels, snails, struge/on, and salmon.

The banks

2 of the St Lawrence teemed with game.

And although he abused

those who were making a shameless and usurious profit from the fur trade, because it obstructed the work of the mission­ aries, he nevertheless admitted that "the hope of temporal 3 gain /Tn furs7 is not vain." Furthermore, there lurked in the back of his mind, the idea that the St Lawrence provided an outlet for a northwest passage, by which China and the East Indies could be reached.

Thus not only would explora­

tion in New France employ the idle youth in reviving the feeble trade of the mother country: but also their efforts might result in the discovery of this passage.

Such a dis-

1. Nouvelle Franoe. pp. 708, 921. 2. La Conversion des 9auvages; Jes. Rel.. I, 69, 101. 3. Ibid.; Jes. Rel.. I, 89.

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covery would yield much profit from the trade in drugs and spices.

Then Frenchmen would no longer be foroed to pay the

Spaniards the high prices to which their monopoly of the trade 1 routes entitled them. This combination of the growth of French trade with the employment of all the man-power of the country at useful work reflected Lesoarbot's acquaintance with the ideas of the eoonomic reformers of Henry IV's government. Here the reader oan catch a glimpse of what Oolbert and Talon later intended that Canadian economy should accomplish. Thus it is clear that Lesoarbot felt the influenoe of all the forces which motivated those who had an interest in New France.

But, in addition, he expressed a personal

reason for some of his writings.

In the Conversion des

Sauvages. he stated that he wished to praise Poutrincourt, that good man who courted danger in order to convert God's 2 lost sheep, and thus undertook a job fit for the clergy. He wanted also to show Poutrincourt1s virtues and economic

losses, and to create, through sympathy for the explorer, 3 more solicitude among the public for affairs in Acadia. Because the nobles in France were unconcerned with aiding Poutrincourt, that noble soul was being victimized.

Besides,

1. La Conversion des Sauvages; Jes. Rel.. I, 91. 2. Ibid.; Jes. Rel., I, 63-65. 3. Lescarbot, Voyage du sleur Poutrincourt; Jes. Rel.. II, 129.

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-207he had not even secured a monopoly on the fur trade, and consequently had lost money, due to the competition of others. If a monopoly were vested in one person, the oost of the skins would he halved, while the monopolist and the crown 1 would hoth reap more profits. If much spaoe has been devoted to Lesoarhot's atti­ tude toward New Franoe, it is because he best typified the lay critic, in his actions and in the expression of his ideas.

Unlike the explorers and the coureurs de bole, who

put their thoughts down in plain, un-literary language, he could write artistically.

In addition, the combination of

hi6 personal, religious, and social motives made him more tolerant, as well as more comprehensive, than any other man who wrote about the savages.

There were others as

sophisticated, but none so complex, in their conception of the utility and the obligations involved in the cultivation of New France.

And those whose ideas were simpler and more

direct, expressed themselves no more clearly than Lesoarbot. Two examples of the simple terms in which some of these motives could be couched came from two contemporaries of Lescarbot.

The Sieur des Combes, a soldier who accompanied

De Monts or Poutrincourt to Acadia, wrote in 1609 that preachers should be sent over to the new land, since the 1. Lescarbot, Voyage du sieur Poutrincourt; Jes.Rel.. II, 147, 127.

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-208savages were very dooile.

He added that with 500 men the 1 whole territory oould be conquered for the king. In this unrefleotlve statement of religious and dynastic loyalties could be found the more common expression of the motives

Aw

which caused people to take^interest in New France.

Another

companion of Poutrincourt, M. Bertrand, wrote to a friend in Paris, the Sieur de la Tronchaie, that "it is delightful to trade over here and to make fine profits."

Then he proposed

that De la Tronchaie sieze the present moment to share the 2 glorious profits, for a proportionate cash Investment. Bertrand made the baldest statement of the trader's reasons for being concerned with New France. After the pleas of Lescarbot, and while that dilletante was sampling the delicaoies of savage life along the coast, a man of far greater solidity and of deep talents was building the foundations for French rule in the new province.

Samuel de Champlain of Saintonge had first learned

of New France as a navigator and explorer, in 2 302.

But

before he died in 1635, his enthusiasms led him to supervise and to participate aotively in the political and religious constitution of the oountry.

In addition, he wrote four large

books publicizing his accomplishments, and outlining what needed to be done for the future development of his adopted 1. Le sieur Des Combes. Copple d'une lettre envoyee de la Nouvelle France (/Paris, 1609/ Boston, 1926), pp. ll, 14. 2. Bertrand, Lettre missive touchant la Conversion et Baptesme du grand Sagamos de la Nouvelle Fraoe; Jes.Rel.. I, 112-123.

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809country.

It was Champlain who brought the Recollets to

Quebeo, the first inland mission in New France.

In 1613

he organized a trading oompany to exploit the oolony, among men of Rouen, Le Havre, and St-Halo.

Although the Vicdroy

of New France dissolved this company in 1620, he merged some of it8 members, including Champlain, into his new company, which was being formed by the Huguenot merohantfc De Caen. When Richelieu broke up this latter company in 1627, he retained Champlain as a semi-official adviser for his own Company of New France, or the Company of the Hundred Asso­ ciates, as it became popularly known.

In that capacity,

1 Champlain directed the fortunes of Canada for many years. From his connections with the bourgeois of the sea­ ports, and with the royal government, and from his patronage of the Recollets, the reasons for Champlain's interest in New France become clear.

He once wrote that his discoveries

were dear to him chiefly because he planned to bring the natives of the new land to the knowledge of God, and to

2 withdraw them from a life of brutality, without law or faith for, as will later be shown, he did not hold the uncultivated savage in high esteem.

Champlain wrote that be had always

wanted to make the. lily of France and the Roman Catholic 1. Jes. Rel.. IV, 256-257; Faillon, Histolre de la colonle franpalse en Canada. I, 550-551. 2. Samuel de Champlain, Voyages et descouvertes faites en la Nouvelle France depuls l'annde 1615 jusques a la fin de l rann4e 1618 (/Paris. 1619/ Quebec. 1870). pp. 1. 111. Hereafter cited as Champlain, Voyages et descouvertes. Compare O.M. Jouve, Les Franclscalns et le Canada. (Quebec, 1915), p. 2. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-210religion burgeon together in New France. he had oontinued his navigations.

For that reason

Also for the sake of that

goal, he begged Marie de Medioi to continue to patronize 1 his efforts. It was also out of religious zeal, he asserted in his seoond book, that he had brought the Recollets overseas. Here he followed the arguments of Lescarbot for convincing the French at home of their charitable duties.

The nobles

and the ecclesiastics should aid in the planting of the faith, or they would some day answer to God for the loss of so many

2 6 0 uls.

In 1621, with the propagation of the faith fixed

firmly in his mind, Champlain called a general assembly of the representatives of all phases of life in the oolony, at Quebec.

The assembly petitioned the home government for a

seminary for the education of the savages.

It also agreed

that the preservation of New France depended upon the exclu­ sive maintenance and spread of the Catholio religion, and 3 upon the dissemination of royal justice. Although the cardi­ nal dissolved the Huguenot trading company in 1627, and thus gratified some of the demands of the assembly, many of their pleas went unheeded for years.

In 1632, however, the aging

1. Samuel de Champlain, Les voyages du Sieur de Champlain Xaintongeols. capitaine ordinaire pour le Roy en la marine (/Parle. 1613/ Quebec. 1870). pp. v-vl. Hereafter cited as Champlain, Les voyages du 8ieur de Champlain. 2. Champlain, Voyages et descouvertes. pp. 2-12, 89. 3. Le Clercq, Premier etabllssement de la fol. pp. 195, 198.

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-211explorer again presented these requests to the government. He wrote that the most Illustrious laurels within the reach of kings consisted in converting infidels to Christianity: "the conversion of one infidel is worth more than the conquest 1 of a kingdom." But in France, the Most Christian King and his cardinal were intent upon winning battles in order to triumph over the Habsburgs.

While economic greed and the

Iroquois threatened to ruin the chanoes of conversion, the clamorings of a mere layman went ignored, without regard for the purity of his intentions, or the reality of his claims. It did not seriously disturb Champlain, however, that the government did turn a deaf ear to his proposals.

For he

felt that the king would eventually see what great work the missionaries had done without his support. rush forward with abundant aid.

Then he would

And it was, after all, the

2 conversions themselves whioh were most rewarding.

Therefore,

Champlain turned his attentions to the people of Franoe, and sought to reach them through his writings, as well as through his contacts among the Hundred Associates.

He told his com­

patriots that the savages wished men and women to settle among them, so that by example they could learn law, religion, and 1. Samuel de Champlain, Les voyages de la Nouvelle France ocoldentale. dlcte Canada falte par le Sr. de Champlain (/Paris, 1632_ J Quebec, 1870), pp. 8-9. Hereafter cited as Champlain, Les voyages de la Nouvelle France. 2. Champlain, Voyages et descouvertes. p. 111.

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>212 the customs of Europeans.

It was much more difficult to learn

these things by hearsay from the priests.

"As they are only

savages, nothing but time and the frequentation of a civilized people can render them more polished."

By this method, Cham­

plain hoped that the wandering tribes oould be induoed to settle down, as well as christianized.

Such a task, of con­

version and civilization, was the king's true mission; but others oould show him the way by their example. had still another advantage.

Colonization

For by the cultivation of the

soil and its natural products, New Franoe would acquire the necessities of life for itself, and thus would not remain

2 forever dependent upon Europe for these things. While it is olear that Champlain held the interests of religion above those of the king, yet he did not admit this when he addressed the Indians.

For they conceived an

early hostility to Christianity, it must be remembered, whioh the patience and the perseverance of the missionaries over­ came only slowly.

Champlain told the savages that if they

wished to be friendly with the French, they had to worship the French God.

Thus would they prosper in war, and thus

would they become rich.

In order to become as civilized a 3 nation as the French, they had to become Christians first.

1. Champlain, Voyages et descouvertes. pp. 88, 111. 2. Champlain, Les voyages de la Nouvelle France, p. 4. 3. Le Jeune, Relation de...l'annee 1635; Jes. Rel., VII, 288; VIII, 49. --------

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-213While from such words it might have appeared that Champlain made the conversion the means to satisfying political ambi­ tions, yet his actions made it clear that he did not think of Christianity merely as offering the natives a means to artistio and scientific development.

Like the priests, he

considered that the cause of the king and the cause of God went hand in hand, in mutual assistance. Regardless of his piety, whioh cannot be doubted, Champlain nevertheless remained always a soldier and an explorer.

In his mind, the glory of Louis XIII ranked second

to the glory of God, whose standard, he wrote, the royal 1 standard should follow in the west as it had in the east. ’.Then he convoked the general assembly at Quebec, the delegates petitioned the king to preserve New France by his arms.

Since

the other nations of Europe knew of its advantages, through such books as those of Lescarbot, they would stop at nothing to wrest it from France.

Therefore, the assembly begged,

2 the king should supply them with adequate protection. many years these requests received little attention.

For And

before sufficient military aid arrived, in the 1660s, England had once more taken Acadia and Quebec, while the Iroquois had destroyed the link between western and eastern Canada. 1. Champlain, Voyages et descouvertes. p. iv. 2. Le Clercq, Premier etabllssement de la foi. pp. 181, 191-193, 195-196.

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214Du ring the last y e & T B of Champlain's life, his efforts on behalf of the propagation of the faith and the proteotion of the royal domain were somewhat stifled by the cautious polioy of the Hundred Associates.

Richelieu's preoccupation

with Germany, it is true, was largely responsible for the early neglect of New France, at a time when careful develop­ ment of its potentialities would have been of vital importance. But not entirely: the Hundred Associates were solicitous only for their profits.

Although conversion and oonquest promised

higher profits in the long run, the bourgeois of the company lusted after quiok returns, and gave no thought to the future. In 1627 Richelieu formed the Company of New France, tl* 9

chiefly^to exclude Huguenots from New France and from its trade.

On 29 April 1627, the king granted the company its

articles.

Under them, the Associates undertook to send 200-

300 men to the colony annually for fifteen years, and to provide for them for three years after their arrival.

These

immigrants, it was stipulated, were to be exclusively French Catholics.

In every community whioh would be established,

three ecclesiastics were to be supported by the company for the fifteen-year period.

In return, the Associates received

two warships of 200-300 tons eaoh, fully equipped and ready to sail, saving victuals.

If the ships were lost or destroyed

except in a war against the king's enemies, the Associates agreed to replaoe them.

They also obtained in perpetuity all

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-215of New France from Florida to the Arotlo Circle, and from Newfoundland to Lake Superior, with all therein oontalned. »»*#*•/*» They could erect seignories In the country, which had*to be oonfirmed by the king.

All the profits to be derived

from the land accrued to the company until 1643, except for profits from the fishing of cod and whales, which was declared to be a trade open to all French subjects.

Finally, the

Associates were permitted to include in their ranks ecoles1 ia8tics, noblemen, and royal officers, as well as bourgeois. Each Associate contributed 1,000 llvres to the capital of the company, while the king donated 200,000 llvres.

Within

the company, since many of its members were unaoquainted with business, smaller orivate organizations were formed to take

2 charge of the trade. and

The personnel of the company was varied,

may be said to have represented a cross-section of the

forward-locking elements in French life.

Thirty-six royal

officers, mostly councillors and royal secretaries, headed the list.

Then followed nineteen merchants, seven lawyers

who were not royal officers, two sea captains, including Cham­ plain, a doctor, a printer (Cramoisy, who published the Jesuit Relations) , and two churchmen, including Richelieu. 1. "Articles d'£tablissement,"“Articles accordez par le roy," Collection de Manuscrlts. oontenant lettres. memolres. et autres documents hlstorlques relatlfs a la Nouvelle France (Quebec. 1883-95). I. 64-70. Hereafter cited as Manuscrlts relatlfs a la Nouvelle France. 2. "Estat^ de la depense qui a este faicte par la Compagnie de la Nouvelle France," Manuscrlts relatlfs *a la Nouvelle France. I, 75.

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-216From these groups, sixty-one men were middle-class, and forty came from the nobility (d'e'pee. dejrdbe, and ecclesiastical.) As for the geographical distribution, most of the Associates came from the ports: twenty-seven from Paris, nine from Rouen, four eaoh from Dieppe and Bordeaux, two from Le Havre, Saintonge, and Soissons, and one eaoh from Calais, Boulogne, Beauvais, and Lyon.

The residence of the remainder was not

stated.

But since they were mainly royal officers, it would 1 be safe to conclude that many of them came from Paris. Such was the constitution of the Hundred Associates.

Now, what

were the purposes of this great organization for economic exploitation? The original polioy behind its formation represented an extension of the policy of Henry IV.

Colonization and the

exclusion of the Huguenots were Richelieu's chief aims.

But,

because he paid little attention to the colony, in comparison with his efforts on other matters, the desire among the Associates for commercial gain soon got the upper hand in the circles which effectively directed the work of the company. Yet the king had not founded the company for such base pur­ poses.

He declared that he permitted the creation of this

company impelled by the thought that, with the divine assis1. "Nome, sumom8 et qualitez des associez," Manuscrlts relatlfs a. la Nouvelle France. I, 80-85. Compare Franciscus Creuxius, S.J., Hlstorla canadensis (Parisiis, 1664), pp. c-ciiii.

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-217tance, he would lead the savages to a knowledge of the true God, and would civilize them.

For itself, the oompany origi­

nally professed its aims to be the recognition of Christianity by the Indians, the establishment of a civil life in the new land, and the growth of the royal authority.

It accepted

the idea that it was to act merely as a ohannel through which 1 the royal and clerical authorities oould operate. The savages who were converted, they proposed to regard as native French-

2 men, in order to accelerate the spread of royal power. Although it was launched with royal favor and the cardinal's blessing, the company did not prosper.

Sopn after

the death of Richelieu, it dropped its proprietary attributes, and remained thenceforth a commercial company.

In 1645, in

accordance with the articles of foundation, the Associates transferred their debts and their fur monopoly to a oompany in Quebec.

By 1651 they complained to the general of the

Jesuits that their only purpose had been the glory of God, and that in carrying out their contracts, they had lost more than 1.200.000 livres.

In 1663 they abandoned their charter 3 end surrendered their seignorial rights to the crown.

1. "Articles d'etablissement,11 Manuscrlts relatlfs a la Nouvelle France. I, 62-64. 2. "Articles accordez par le roy," Manuscrlts relatlfs \ la Nouvelle Franoe. I, 70. 3. Jes. Rel.. IV, 258; Lettre de Ms. les Associe's de la Compagnle de la Nouvelle Franoe au T.R.P. G£ndral de la Oompagnle de J£sus. & Rome /Paris. VI.1651/; Jes. Rel.. XXXVI. 69.

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-218The period in which the Hundred Associates flourished, and co-inoidentally the period in which the missions spread furthest, and looked with greatest hopes for gains in the future, were years in which the publication of accounts by laymen criticizing the savages was at its ebb.

From approxi­

mately 1630 to 1650, the only writings were the barest of treatises on navigation, or trade reports.

But soon after­

ward, the critical literature began to grow again.

It

differed slightly from that of the earlier period, in that most of the men who now wrote about the savages were amateurs. They seldom explored, but more often merely traveled.

Not

literary men, they were journalists or pamphleteersy or diarists; not religious men, but men interested in religion ae a phenomenon to be observed and studied.

These new men

wrote more critically, at greater length, and with a sharper eye to contrasts than their predecessors or their clerioal contemporaries. A typical representative of this new generation could be found in Pierre, Sieur Boucher.

His true and natural

history of New France was published in 1663, when he had already litfed a full and active life, and was about to retire to hi6 estates for the second half of his ninety-five yeare. Born in France in 1622, Boucher had come to New Franoe with his father, who had been attracted by the writings of Champlain. In 1639 the youth contracted to work with the Jesuits in the

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-219Georgian Bay region, and b/ 1645 he was interpreting all the native tongues for the French at Three Rivers.

Three years

later, Boucher married an Indian woman, who soon died.

In

1655, aside from commanding the militia at Three Rivers, and managing the largest store in the whole province, he acted as governor and judge there.

From 1660 to 1662 Boucher

visited France, and appealed to the young king for military aid against the Iroquois.

He also sought subscriptions from

people whouhe tried to persuade to oome to Canada as colonists. At Versailles the king ennobled Bouoher, who thus became the first of a new Canadian nobility.

When the Sieur Bouoher

retired to his fiefs at Boucherville in 1667, he took up the style of life practised by the French patriarohs on their 1 country manors, and founded the first dynasty in the new land. There were no selfish interests which motivated Boucher, either in his efforts to develop New Franoe, or in the writing of hi6 book,

He merely wished to see the country

which he knew well and loved intensely realize its fullest potentialities, without profit or gain to himself.

As he

told Colbert, he wrote to inform people at home about the beauties of the new country, and to inspire them to add to the glory of the king by exploiting it.

It deserved to be

more densely populated, and could easily absorb all the surplus 1. Benjamin Suite, "Pierre Boucher et son livre," Memolres de la Soole'te rovale du Canada. 1896, I, 99-107, 109.

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220 -

from the homeland, which was then overflowing into other countries in Europe, and being totally lost to France.

Boucher

added, in his note to the reader of his book, that he wished to disabuse the public of many misconceptions concerning New France, and to make prospective colonists acquainted with the 1 land before their arrival. A perusal of his ohapter-headings demonstrates that Boucher accomplished what he set out to do in his book.

He

first described the town of Quebec, and then the geography of the various districts of the province.

Then followed

chapters devoted to its trees, animals, birds, fish, grains, and the customs, marriage, and warfare of the savages.

The

last .two chapters were concerned with "answers to questions which have been put to the author when he was in France." Because of its factual character, Boucher's account was duller than most of its predecessors, although it was certainly the most complete description which had yet appeared on the subject.

And it achieved the author's expressed aim of

spreading information abroad. Another example of much the same sort of writing could be found in the Description geographlque et historique dee Costes de l'Amerlque Septentrlonale. of Nicolas Denys.

From 1632 to 1672 Denys represented the king in Acadia, and 1. Pierre, Sieur Boucher, Hlstolre veritable et naturelle des moeurs et productions du pays de la Nouvelle France (/Paris, 1663/ Montreal,, 1882), pp. 1-6. Hereafter cited as Boucher, Hlstolre veritable et naturelle.

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developed large holdings there, from which he anticipated rich profits.

He was deeply Interested in making Acadia more

profitable, especially with regard to its shipping, fisheries, and mines.

Therefore he dedicated his book to Louis XIV,

with the express purpose of enlisting his interest in the country more deeply.

Denys recounted to the reader, both

to satisfy curiosity, and to stimulate the interest of the prospective investor, the many riches which lay waiting for 1 the venturesome in New France. But the economic motive 6tood foremost in his mind, and any gratification which the curious might have derived from the book was purely incidental on the part of Denys.

The old-style interests of the explorer and the soldier were revived when Robert Cavelier de la Salle's deeds became publicized.

From 1669 to 1687 he explored the

Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, in the interest of the king.

Although educated by the Jesuits, he was not much

given to writing, and left the major work of recording his journeys to his devoted followers, who published after their leader had been treacherously assassinated.

Among these

followers were the one-handed Italian adventurer, Henri de

Tonti, often called "of the Iron Hand;" La Salle's brother, 1. Nouvelle biographle generale. article "Denys"; Nicolas Denys. Description g^ographlque et hlstorique des Costes de l'Am^rlque Septentrionale (71672/ Toronto, 1908). pp. 87-88, 90-92. Hereafter cited as Denys, Description geographlque et hlstorique.

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Jean Cavelier, a seoular priest; and the soldiers Henri Joutel and Mathieu Sagean. It is easy to learn La Salle’s JL motives fromAreading of their writings. Primarily he ex­ plored the Mississippi in order to spread the Gospel there, secondarily to add to the luster of the king by his conquests, 1 and also to discover and to seoure new riches for France. In contrast to La Salle was the Sieur Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac, also a soldier and an explorer in the pay of the king.

Cadillao's ohief interest, however, lay not

in exploration or warfare, but in administration, whioh he carried out as a military governor in various localities around the Great Lakes.

Conversion appeared unimportant to

him: it had its uses only when it strengthened politioal ties 2 with the Indians. When he founded Detroit, Oadillao asked that some priests be sent there, in order to teach the savages to speak the French language.

That, he felt, and not Christ­

ianity, was the best method of oivilizing them.

Civilization,

end afterwards the indoctrination of religious loyalties appeared to Cadillac to be the logical order of things: 3 "subjects of the king, and afterwards...Christians." Like 1. Gabriel Gravier, Decouvertes et ^tabllssements de Cavelier de La Salle (Paris, 1870), pp. 229-230. Hereafter cited as Gravier, Decouvertes et ^tabllssements. 2. Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac, "Papers," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society Historical Collection. XXX, 167 /31.VIII.1703/. Hereafter cited as Cadillac, Papers. 3. Ibid., pp. 99 /TB.X.17007, 166 £ 5 l . VIII.17037

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-223Lescarbot, he felt that settlement should precede conversion, and that the state should receive first consideration over the church in the foundation of a new society. As the soldier wrote in a letter of August 1703, his second reason for founding Detroit was not merely to make it a trading post, but far more to preserve what trade the French had already secured.

By the beginning of the eighteenth

century, the English were competing hotly for the Indian trade, along the southern fringes of New France, as well as in the Hudson Bay country.

In its district, Detroit was in­

tended by its founder to stop that rivalry, and to protect the French monopoly.

Cadillac had large personal investments

in this commeroe, and his own economic interests may well A * * Stliitr,

have affected what was also a state policy.

Pew Mrs taet

motive, however, he did not grasp firmly the large outlines of state policy.

For his last motive, he wrote, was the

/jrather short-sighted^ one of strengthening French military control in the region of the upper Great Lakes, in order to over-awe the Indians by the proximity of large French garri­ sons.

Since he did not expressly or implicitly connect thi5

military scheme with political projects, it is safe to assume that Cadillac did not understand French policy with regard to the province as a whole. In 1703 there appeared in London and The Hague two criticisms of the savages by a man of a stamp entirely different

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-224-

from any who had yet committed their observations to paper. Louis-Armand de Lom d'Arce, Baron de Lahontan, was olearly of the eighteenth oentury: a wandering, literate oynic, he fulfilled no speoifio function in society, and yet succeeded in justifying his misadventures in the intellectual olimate of the period. family.

Lahontan was born in 1666, of an old Bearnais

His father had bought a barony in 1664, and when

he died, heavy in debt, the estate became involved inextri­ cably in litigations, and useless to its owners.

Thus, a

priori, as it were, Lahontan grew up a landless nobleman. His education, although its source is unknown, was apparently good.

He showed up in New France for the first time in

1683, as a lieutenant in the Bourbon regiment.

For three

years he behaved with normal circumspection, and by 1687 he was commanding the post at Fort St Joseph, later the site of Detroit.

At that time, however, in direct disregard of

his orders, Lahontan left his post, and took his men on a long trip of exploration to the west. Lahontan returned to Michilimackinac in the spring of 1689, and received no reprimand then for his extraordinary behavior.

He made extravagant claims about what he had seen

and where he had been; but no one has ever been able to establish his alleged route, or to connect his vague descrip1. Louis Armand, baron de Lahontan, Memo ires de l^merlque Septentrlonale. ou la suitte des voyages de M. le baron de Lahontan (Gilbert Ohlnard. ed., Baltimore, 1931), introduction, pp. 5-11. Hereafter cited as Lahontan, Memolres.

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-225tions with specifio things in the west.

Although he was

not disciplined for his actions, there oan he no doubt that this irregular conduct accounted for muoh of the misfortune which henceforth dogged him.

In 1690 he aided his friend

Frontenac in the successful defense of Quebec against the English.

Afterward he carried the news of this triumph back

to France, where he hoped to settle down.

He returned with

the hopes also of clearing the titles to his property in Bearn.

But Lahontan met with no success in the courts.

Soon

he was ordered back to New Franoe for military duty, by the Count de Pontchartrain, Chancellor of France and Minister of the Marine. the Atlantic.

Embittered ana frustrated, Lahontan recrossed After a restless year in Canada, he again went

to France, and was a second time sent out by Pontchartrain. This time he abandoned ship at Newfoundland, and fled to

1 Portugal. In the ensuing years, Lahontan18 life was shrouded in mystery.

Afraid of lettres de cachet if he appeared in

France, the outcast wandered about Europe.

In 1694 he showed

up in Amsterdam, and after sojourning in Germany and Denmark, made bold to go .to Paris on a safe-conduct.

But Pontchar­

train persisted in ignoring his pleas to have his estate matters settled, and exiled him to Bearn.

There arrest still

1. Lahontan, Memoires. introduction, pp. 12, 15-16.

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-226threat ened him, and he fled to Spain.

In 1698 he was in

The Hague, and he spent the next five years in wandering un­ employment.

As a last resort, in 1703 he published his three

books on America, heard of him.

Then for seven years more nothing was

But in 1710 he was living at the oourt of

the Eldotor of Hanover, apparently esteemed by the German

1 princes, who admired the modern tone of hie books. Only two of Lahontan1s books can be oonsidered to contain factual treatments of the savages, his Nouveaux voyages, and the Me'moires de l lAm^rique Septentrionale. The third book oonsists entirely of a philosophical discussion between the baron and an Indian wise beyond his enviroment. Because of its imaginary quality, it cannot be regarded as a factual account. factual material.

But the other two books contained muoh All three were widely read.

By 1751 the

Nouveaux voyages went through seventeen editions, and had been translated into German, Dutoh, and English. The temper of these two books was clearly phllosophique. In the first place, Lahontan was the first man since Lescarbot w h o

attacked the Jesuits and their work in New France.

He

denied the truth of much that they had written in the Relations, and accused them of perverting facte to suit their own ends, although he never stated clearly what he thought their ends were.

Because of this attack, the books created a great

1. Lahontan, Memoires; introduction, pp. 16, 18.

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-227soandal when they first came out.

Perhaps it was the broad

effects whioh they had that caused their author to go into obscure hiding for the next seven years.

Nor was Lahontan

merely anti-Jesuit: he also accused the Recollets of twisting thr truth, and of making the Indians out to be more Stupid

1 and villanous than they actually were. The baron claimed to have written his Memoires in the form of letters to a cousin in Franoe while he was in Canada.

He alleged that he wrote with striot fidelity, of

things as they were, without flattering or sparing anyone. The governor of New France, Frontenao, who was incidentally a seoond cousin to his enemy Pontchartrain, had assisted 2 him with the revision of certain passages, he claimed. Lahontan felt that the administrative and judicial branches of the French government had misused him, and he gave vent to his bitterness in these books.

He filled them with

reflections on the corruption and the misery of life in France, in contrast with the pure life of the lowly savages, '/ithout considering the culpability of his father for involv­ ing hie estates in debt, Lahontan blamed the government of Louis XIV for their sequestration.

As a result, he raged

against the ministers of the church and of the state on every issue, and sponsored what he oalled the equality and the 3 anarchy of the Americans. 1. Lahontan, Memoires. introduction, pp. 19j 92. 2. Ibid.; "Preface," p. 80. 3. Ibid.; "Prefaoe," pp. 82-84; "Au lecteur," pp. 75-78. R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-228Sinoe the Indians were not reduoed to genuflecting before demi-gods known as ministers of state, Lahontan con­ sidered them less savage than the French.

An enemy of organized

Continental society of his day, he could write, "it seems to me that you must be blind not to see that ownership of goods (I do not say ownership of women) is the sole source of all

1 the disorders which trouble the society of Europeans."

He

who reads Lahontan's works must bear in mind that he was escaping conditions which he could not tolerate, like Les­ carbot earlier; with a grudge against the government, like Voltaire; with an antipathy for organized and disciplined society, like Rousseau —

a restless malcontent, with literary

talent, enterprise, and pretensions far beyond his real worth.

But Lahontan was one of the first critics of the

savages who spoke out openly against the government of France, and

contrasted it with the idealized government of the savages,

to the disadvantage of the former society. 7/ith the cynical and rather destructive oriticism of Lahontan1s writings, the fine enthusiasm for conversion, civilization and conquest seemed to vanish from the books of those who went to New France.

Like the missionaries in

the opening decades of the new century, the explorers lost their fervor, and the soldiers their initiative.

Generally,

henceforth, the laymen contented themselves with relaying 1. Lahontan, Memoires. "Au lecteur," p. 77;'‘Preface," p. 82.

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-829home Information about the new lands which their predecessors had opened up.

Typical of this new lassitude was the work

of the Chetfalier de Bonrepos, who in 1720 wrote for "Mademoiselle D***" a Description du Mississippi, in order that she might shine in the salon, and talk wittily and intelligently about

1 life in Louisiana.

Bonrepos was thus following the lead of

Fontenelle, in the literary dissemination of scientific knowledge among the educated olasses of France.

But he wrote

solely to satisfy a vicarious ouriosity, after a casual journey.

He did not present a case for religion, the state,

or even profits. Claude Lebeau also went to New France with no parti­ cular purpose except to flee France, as Lescarbot and others had done before him. Parlement of Paris.

Lebeau claimed to be an advocate of the In 1729 his father, a member of the

Swiss guard, secured his deportation from the country.

He

remained in the new country for two years, had a romantic and hazardous affair with an Iroquois woman, and lived among

2 many tribes while he was running the woods.

Apparently an

adventurous and attractive rake, he was up-to-date by reason of his hatred for his teachers, "who were themselves slaves 1. Chevalier Q e Bonrepos, Description du Mississippi. (Paris, 1720) . "Epitre drfdics.toire.11 2. Compare Rossel and Jenny. Hlstolre de la lltte'rature SulsBe (Lauspnne, Berne, 1910), I, 182, and Rossel, Histolre iltteraire de la Suisse romande (Geneva, Bale, Lyon, 1889), I, 444-445.

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-2301 of a vile interest," and very probably Jesuits.

This libertin­

ism alone would have sufficed to explain the fact that his book went rapidly through four editions after its publication in 1738.

But Lebeau also injected into the book some pioar-

esque tales of love and danger in the forests, and thereby appealed to many of his compatriots who were starved for sentiment and romance. In spite of the allegations of several ignorant bibliographers, however, Lebeau's book was not an incredible composite of sheer fiction.

A close reading of it indicates

a keen insight into the ways of the Indians, and a very ob­ jective attitude.

Lebeau bore few grudges: he had been ordered

to New France, and was determined to enjoy his punishment. His portrait of a race living only by natural laws and de­ serving the admiration of people with more government was sincere and realistic.

In his dedicatory epistle, he wrote

that the Indians embodied the contrasts of the most eminent virtues and the most horrifying vices.

In addition, the

preface of his Avantures stated that he wished to correct the false impressions which Lahontan had created.

He himself found

that his own experiences substantiated much of what the missionaries had written.

Thus he gave the lie to the angry

2 baron, on the basis of facts, not prejudices.

For it is clear

1. C. Lebeau, Avantures du Sr. C. Lebeau ou voyage curleux et nouveau parml les sautages de l'Am^rlque 9eptentrionale (Amsterdam, 1738), II, 2. Hereafter cited as Lebeau, Avantures. 2. Ibid.; "Epitre dedicatoire," "Preface," and I, 264-265, 268.

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231that Lebeau seldom bad much truck with priests.

He acoused

Lahontan of putting his own ideas into the mouths of the Indians, and of perverting the truth for the sake of modern ideas —

one of the rare attacks by a layman in the entire

century upon the most patent fault of all the philosonhes. At all times Lebeau looked carefully into the motives and the actions of the savages, and, despite the romanticized frame­ work for his acoount, he produced a remarkably trenchant commentary of the Indians1 ways.

But at no time did he

betray any of the older motivations for writing about New France.

He merely related facts, like Bonrepos, without

any other purpose than to spread information. The last Frenchman to deal with New France and its savages while that province remained in French hands was Thomas Pichon, who in 1760 published his memoir^s of Cape Breton, where he lived for nine years. Pichon commenced his oareer as a lawyer.

Like Lescarbot, Later he filled

administrative posts in the ministry of war.

But during

the War of the Austrian Succession, Pichon felt that his government did not trust him.

This suspicion intensified

a natural mistrust of people, and he left the service of the king.

In 1749 he went to Cape Breton as secretary to the

governor.

When the English took over the island, he went

to London, where he married a w^dow of moderate means, after changing his name to Tyrell.

Tyrell became a minor literary

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232light in the city, and assiduously cultivated letters and 1 literary people until he died in 1781. Like Boucher, Denys, or Bonrepos, Pichon wrote out of a deeire to satisfy the public curiosity.

But he had a

didactic purpose in mind as well: "the recital of the manners, taste, and prejudices of the Indians or savages primarily attracts curiosity and induces reflections which can become

2 exceedingly advantageous for those who deal with them."

He

favored religion as a means for oivilizing the savages, not as the end of civilizing them.

By their use of religion,

the French had not perfected the virtues of the savages, or removed their vices: they had merely changed their customs, without favorable results.

Religion, though the best force

for civilizing, should be imposed with care.

The Catholic

doctrines had to be adapted, here as elsewhere, to local 3 customs and ideas. Furthermore, the Indians could be won over by sentiment and by an appeal to their true natures; but not by the harsh method of conquest.

Pichon's most

consistent point, which he never tired of emphasizing, was that the Indians were rational creatures, who should be 4 treated accordingly. Pichon always adhered closely to the 1. Biographle unlverselle. article "Pichon." 2. Thomas Pichon, Lettres et Memoires iyir servir a l'histoire Naturelle. Civile et Politique du Cap Breton (La Haye. Londres, 1760), p. ix. Hereafter cited as Pichon, Histolre du Cap Breton. 3. Ibid. ; pp. 9S, 101. 4. Ibid. ; p. 115.

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-233facts which he observed, and drew his oonolusions direotly from them —

a practise for which his administrative and

legal career undoubtedly prepared him.

He represented quite

adequately that eighteenth-century type who stood half-way between the man of faith and the philosophe. and who was, because of his adherence to reality, more tolerant than either. Although the observations which all these men made with regard to thp savages were made contemporaneously with the missionaries' writings, a comparison of the contents of the writings of the two groups will show, as has been suggested above, significant differences.

The laymen pushed their

points home with more insistence, and with a more obvious intent to reform their compatriots by example.

They expressed

keener interest in the conduct and the appearance of women than the celibate men of the cloth.

Their expositions of

the political, social, and economic atmosphere of oommunity life tended more directly toward revolutionary ideas than did the works of the orthodox priests.

And lastly, their

writings assumed a more personalized flavor.

For while

the missionaries received relatively uniform educations, many laymen lacked all formal shhooling.

With these salient

points in mind, it would be well to turn to their specific observations, as they appeared before the French reading public. *

♦

*

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— 234— When Oartier beached hie boats on the shore near Hochelaga, he marked well the size and the strength of the natives, and worried for fear his men, exhausted after their hard voyage, would find them hostile.

For he saw that the

Indians were of good figure and height, and reckoned that 1 they could easily overcome his followers in a fight. Roberval also noticed with admiration that the savages were 2 well-proportioned. Des Oombes remarked on their physioal beauty, and also made the peculiar observation that the natives were as white as snow.

The women he found to be 3 pretty and delicate in their manners and appearance. Othdr writers almost unanimously concurred in these opinions.

It

i8 small wonder that as a result of these descriptions, the art of the period, with deadening monotony, depicted the savages as a noble-browed, muscular people, without apparent 4 defects or physioal irregularities of any sort. Those who 1. Jacques Oartier, Dlscours du voyage fait par le capltalne Iacques Oartier aux Terres-neufves de Canadas, Noremb&gue. Hochelage. Labrador et pays adlacens. dlte nouvelle France (/Rouen, 1598/ Paris, 1865), p. 27. Hereafter cited a6 Oartier, Dlscours du voyage. 2. Jean-Francois de la Roque, "Le voyage de Jean-Franpois de la Roque, Chefalier sieur de Roberval aux pays de Canada, Saguenay et Hochelaga..." Soclete lltte'raire et hlstorlque de Quebec. Ill, Voyages de d^couverte au Canada entre les annees T534*b«d 1542 (Quebec. 1843), p. 94. 3. Des Oombes, Copple d'une lettre envoyee de la Nouvelle France, p. 13. 4. Lescarbot, Nouvelle France, p. 386; Samuel de Champlain, Des Sauvages (Quebec. 1870). p. 18; Le Page du Pratz,. Hlstolre de la Loulslane (Paris, 1758), II, 308; Grader, D^couvertes et ^tabllssements. p. 54; Lahontan, M^moires. p. 93.

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235were variously held to be the most graceful in shape and the most noble in bearing were the Illinois, the Hurons, and the Arkansas.

But the explorers oould find no Indians who were

deformed, blind, or lame, unless it might have been from some 1 untoward accident. In his treatment of the Mississippi Indians, Le Page du Pratz wrote that while many people in Europe could be found who grew to be giants, or who remained dwarfs, yet no suoh monstrosities as these oould be found 2 in America. The women, whose appearance the missionaries scrupu­ lously avoided mentioning, were held by the laymen to be possessed of much beauty, and of seductive charms.

La Salle's

men, for instance, thought that the Musoogulge women were so exquisitely beautiful that they must have had a fountain of 3 youth among them. And because the women of the Taensa clans ■fere so attractive, it was asserted that they stimulated the development of manners and culture in the whole tribe, since it was laid down as a maxim that peoples were as polished as 4 their women were beautiful. Sagean wrote that the Arkansas 1. Lebeau, Avantures. I, 306; Gravier, Decouvertes et e'tabllssements. p. 186; Boucher, Hlstolre veritable et^ naturelle. pp. 96-97; Lahontanr M^molres. p. 93; Pere Marquette et Sr. Joliet.^ Voyages et d^couvertes de quelques pave et nations de l'Amerlaue Seotentrlonale (Paris /1681/ 1845) , p. 21; Antoine de Lamothe-Cadillac, "Ilelation du sieur de Lamothe-Cadillac,” Pierre liargry, Deoouvertes et eftabllBsements des Francals dans l'ouest et dans le ~sud de l'Am^rlque Seotentrlonale (1614-1754)(Paris. 1879-88) V, 86. This compilation of documents will hereafter be cited a s Margry, Decouvertes et etabllssements des Franpals. 2. Le Page du Pratz, Hlstolre de la Louisiane. II, 309. 3. Gravier, D6couvertes et gtabllssements. p. 55. 4. Ibid.; p. 190. R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-236women were as fair to look upon and as modest as the women 1 of his homeland. But there was one man, the critical and sophisticated Lahontan, who did not suhsorihe to these eulogies.

He wrote that while the Indian women had better

than average figures, and were thus pleasing to look at, yet they were so dull and heavy a6 to cover up whatever 2 charms they might have had. Such a oomment coming from Lahontan, who reluctantly deprecated the savages at any time, must be taken as true with regard to the St Lawrence tribes. Like the missionaries, the explorers and the ooureurs de bols appreciated the physical endurance and the resistance of the Indians, and gave them full credit for these excellent qualities.

In the coldest days, wrote Cartier, most of the

savages went about naked; he would not have believed this 3 fact, if he had not seen them himself. The Sieur de Tonti perceived that most of the savages were so inured to rain and to the other hardships of the country that their bodies became almost insensible, and that the soles of their feet 4 withstood the prioks of sharp thorns and rocks. Lebeau, who lived among them for two years, knew that they were at all 1. Mathieu Sfigean, Extralt de la relation des avantures et voyage de Mathieu SSLgean (Nouvelle York. 1863), p. 20. Hereafter oited as Sdgean, Relation. 2. Lahontan, Memoires, p. 93. 3. Cartier, Brief reclt & succlncte narration, p. 32a. 4. Henri de Tonti, Nouvelles decouvertes dans l'Ame'rlque Septentrlonale par M. de la Sale (/1697/ New York, 1814). p. 226. Hereafter cited as Tonti, Nouvelles decouvertes. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-237-

1 times light on their feet, strong, and agile.

When it oame

to aarrying heavy weights, Lahontan thought that the Indiana were not so strong as the majority of Frenchmen, but he felt

2 that they surpassed them in endurance.

To explain this, the

Sieur de Diereville wrote that providence had endowed the Indians with great strength and ability to endure privation and hardship, in proportion as it had assigned them a rough 3 climate in which to live. It Was not so apparent to the laymen as it was to the priest8 that the savages' senses had attained to a rather high stage of development; one of them at least sought to convey some idea of the keenness of the olfactory sense. Diereville told a story of an Indian who, while hunting 4 beer, could smell his quarry a quarter of a league away. Perhaps it was this aame Indian who figured in a yet more remarkable tale that demonstrated the acuteness of the savage nose indoors.

For an Indian one day crawled into a house

where he had never been before, and asked his unwilling host for 8ome brandy, undoubtedly for medicinal purposes.

The s t t U t *

1. Lebeau, Avantures. I, 306. /

2. Memolres. p. 93. 3. Sieur de Diereville, Relation of the voyage to Port Royal in Acadia ftW Wpw TTrnnqP { (Virmpn 1 7 D R / trancl at.pri h v M r a Clarence Webster, Toronto, 1933}, p. 127. Hereafter cited as Diereville, Voyage to Port Royal. 4. Ibid.; p. 128.

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-238told him there was no brandy in the house.

But the Indian

said he smelled a bottle of it in the cupboard, and this ol^factory accuracy shamed hi6 host into pouring out some of hie precious liquor for his visitor.

Such keen sensitivity,

however, was the exception, for no other lay writer mentioned these physical attributes of the Indians. Aside from these qualities, it was also noted that

2 the savages were seldom subject to disease.

While Tonti

recorded rather obtusely that women were free "from that 3 natural incommodity to which ours are liable," it was gener­ ally conceded that the Indians were not physically perfect. For if they escaped most of the Continental ills, they did fall victims to the pox.

In Canada emallpoxwasepidemic,

while in the Mississippi valley the great pox raged 4 the same vehemence.

with

The best proof of the fine health of the Indians was not the absence of disease, however, but the hoary ages to which many of them attained.

Lescarbot wrote that, according

to Pliny, the Pandorians lived to be 200 years old, and the people of Taprobane were still agile at 100.

This was also

1. Die'reville, Voyage to Port Royal, p. 175. 2. Lahontan, Memolres. pp. 95, 124. 3. Nouvelles de'couvettes. p. 227. 4. Lahontan, Memolres. p. 124.

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-239true of the Indians, who retained all their teeth, and showed not a grey hair when they passed the first century mark. Their rigorous lives and the stern measures by which they regulated their welfare permitted them to live to 140 or 160. The historian claimed that they could live to 300, if, in their youth, they had the foresight to control their diet more carefully, and to store some of their food supplies, instead of devouring it all at once.

But, he admitted, it

was this very disregard of the commodities of life that im1 proved their health in the first place — those same commo­ dities for which the Frenoh tormented themselves, and which included methods for the conservation and the oontrol of food supplies. Lewcarbot doubtless took the word of the natives on their ages, without questioning them.

For when Denys

asked the old men of the Micmacs how old they were, they 2 replied that they were nearly 100. Lahontan related that a man who died at sixty was considered short-lived, while 3 they usually lived to be 100. Perhaps Le Page du Pratz gave the key to those fabulous ages, when he wrote that many men 4 lived long enough to become great-great-grandfathers. Now in Europe, where the span between generations averaged close to twenty-five years, such ancestors would have survived to 1. Nouvelle France, p. 859. 2. Denys, Description geographlque et hlstorlque. p. 400. ✓ 3. Memoires. p. 95. 4. Histolre de la Loulslane. II, 313. R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-240125.

But In Amerioa, where the marriage age was considerably

under twenty, it was possible that many vigorous old men lived to approach 100, and to see their great-great-grandchildren.

Thus it is demonstrable that these accounts of

agee had a rational basis, and were not sheer fantasy. A strange phenomenon which the missionaries did not care to discuss in their relations, or of which they remained ignorant, was the hermaphroditism (i.e.. apparently homo­ sexuality) oommon among the Illinois and the Miamis.

Father

Sagard may have hinted timidly at such abnormalities when he referred to the great power which climate exeroised over the humors.

For as many different climates as he found, so

also did he find correspondingly different customs and di1 vergent spirits. The men who went with La Salle noticed that hermaphrodites abounded along the Wabash and the Mississ­ ippi.

Like Sagard, Tonti felt that the cause for them might

have been the strange effect of the climate, but he did not

2 develop his theory fully enough for the reader to tell. It is evident that the explorers and the diarists were generally more observant of physical appearances than were the clerics.

Their discussions of women, longevity, and

1. Sagard, Hlstoire du Panada. I, 366. 2. Jean Cavelier, Relation du voyage entreflrls par feu M . Robert Cavelier, sieur de la. Salle (Manate. 1858) . p. 46. Hereafter cited as Cavelier, Relation du voyage. Tonti, Nouvelles decouvertes. p. 238.

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-141hermaphrodites resulted naturally from a more human and a more personal interest in the savages than the priests were capable of, preSccupied as the latter were with souls and spiritual welfare.

The men who traded and paddled with the

savages did not set themselves apart as a distinot class from their companions, and consequently they became more intimately acquainted with their private lives. * • * On the other hand, the men of the world did resemble the priests much more closely in the great respect they had for the mental abilities of the savages. them —

But since many of

especially in the eighteenth century —

formed incorrect

ideas concerning the functions of the human reason, they dwelt at greater length, and more purposefully, upon the fine rational powers which they supposed the Indians possessed. Pichon, who was constantly pleading for a juster appreciation of the savages, felt that reason worked more 6trongly in them than in the men of France.

Therefore,

although they knew neither law nor subordination, he felt that they enjoyed almost all the advantages which a wellregulated authority procured for the less rational French. He held the Indians up as exemplars for the sophisticated Continentals; Do you not see in them certain marks of that simplicity of sentiment by which it would be so easy for us to profit?

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-242And is It not a more worthy undertaking for a reasonable man to serve the common weal and the political foroes whioh appear to him to defer to his wishes rather than to mock them? Do you wish models? I can give them to you.* According to Lahontan, the 6avages knew that reason was the

2 finest gift they had received from God.

But, since reason

was supreme, and made man more perfect than irrational beings, they wondered why men fought with each other.

They concluded

that reason constituted the greatest instrument for evil in man, since, if he did not think and talk, he would not make 3 war without regard for humanity and good faith. Other men did not moralize so strongly about the amount and the uses of the Indians' reason as did Lahontan. Samuel de Champlain, for example, recognized that they had a clear judgment, and that they responded well to what they were told.

He oonoluded from this that whoever would teach

them how to till fields would render them a great service. For then they would settle down, and develop the arts whioh 4 reason fostered. He had, he added, learned of their natural good sense by discussions wherein they displayed a clear 5

desire to know more of God.

Also Boucher found, from atten-

1. Pichon, Histoire du Cap Breton, pp. 93, 128. /

2. Memotoes. p. 108. 3. Ibid.< p. 143.

4. Des Sauvages. p. 13. 5.

Champlain, Voyages et descouverte6. p. 88.

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-243dance at their councils and speeches, that they had a good 1 enough common sense, and an excellent wit. Cadillac, who knew the savages well and spent many days in negotiations with them, wrote that they naturally possessed fine intelligence. But since they were not educated to the same concepts as the Europeans, they regarded what the French talked about as mere

2 chimeras.

Pichon concurred, in asserting that the Indians

had at least as good judgment as those Frenohmen who set them&iyQves up as fine judges of character and events.

Among

the French, moreover, he felt that art had destroyed the natural good will of the reason, which in the Indians remained 3 unspoiled. The savages showed themselves quite able to apply their reason to the practioal problems which confronted them. Tonti reported that they looked shapply to their true interests, end therefore they were fully equipped to transact business 4 in political and commercial affairs. Nicolas Gueudeville, who parroted many of Lahontan's ideas in his essay on New France which was published in Chatelain's Atlas hlstorlque. wrote that although they were ignorant, the Indians had a 1. Histolre veritable et naturelle. p. 118. 2. Cadillac, "Relation du 6ieur de Lamothe-Cadillac," Margry, Decouvertes et etablissements des Franyals. V, 86. 3. Hlstoire du Cap Breton, p. 99. 4. Nouvelles decouvertes. p. 223.

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244keen eye to their own interest, and an excellent memory in 1 trading. Ordinarily, another wrote, the savages were intell­ igent, and it was rare to find among them such blockheads

2 as there were among the French peasants.

Lebeau agreed, and

drew examples from his personal experience to show that they possessed infinitely more intelligence than the oommon people 3 in France. Another phase of their intelligence was revealed in their eloquence.

Pichon wrote that he heard a speech given

by one savage which would have compared favorably with an address in the Academy; except that the former had only a necessary merit, while the latter would be full of empty 4 words and boring flattery. According to Denys, the funeral orations of the Micmacs furnished a fine lesson in the use of words to people who, like the French, considered them5 selves very polished and wiser than the savages. Their 1. Nicolas Gueudeville, in H. A. Chatelain, Atlas historlque; ou nouvelle Introduction a 1 'histoire....avec des disser­ tations. ..par M. Gueudeville (Amsterdam. 1738). VI. 90. Hereafter Cited as Gueudeville, Atlas historlque. 2. Boucher, Hlstolre veritable et naturelle. p. 100. 3. Avantures. I, 303, 310-311. 4. Histoire du Cap Breton, pp. 113-114. 5. Description ge'ographique et historlwue. p. 437.

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-245language was desoribed as resembling the oriental tongues: it had the same rich expression, the same turns of phrase, the same flowery style, and the same taste for metaphor and allegory. Aside from their eloquence, there were other mani­ festations of a rational and creative spirit.

The Micmacs

and the Armouchiquois displayed a skill allegedly as great 1 as Europeans in the art of wood and stone sculpture. Among the southern Indians, Tonti found that the fields of know­ ledge were not narrowly limited.

For they plotted the

courses of the sun, the moon, and the planets sufficiently

2 veil to forecast the weather. Some writers claimed that reason was innate in the savages' nature.

For this reason, Pichon argued that they

kept their laws and customs in their hearts, where a just sense always guided them, unless some extreme need stifled this interior voice of conscience.

They had no use, then, 3 for laws or for administrative officials. To prove his point,

Pichon might have cited Tonti's statement that the Illinois, with no other aid than natural reason, curbed their sensual vices with rigorous punishments, although they hated all 4 manner of restraints. Indeed, Lescarbot had already written 1. Lescarbot, Nouvelle France, p. 719. 2. Tonti, Nouvelles decouvertes. p. 224.

3. Histoire du Cap Breton, p. 98. 4. Tonti, Nouvelles decouvertes. p. 228.

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-246that the Indians did not lack intelligence, and would make 1

good Christians if they were civilized and accustomed to trades. Then would arise the prosperous and productive New France of which all men dreamed.

And because they possessed this

divine gift of reason, only God's graoe was needed to aid

2 the French to reform their vices and their barbarisms. From reason the men of the world expected the result for which the clerics also prayed: a spiritual and material improvement in the condition of the Indians, culminating in the creation of a rich and happy land.

If the laymen

emphasized the practical use of the reason, for business matters, rather than the reason as a means to knowledge of God, the reason for this stress should be ascribed to their more earthly occupations and attitudes. with the exception of Lahontan —

But stbstantially —

both groups assumed that

the fine minds of the Indians could be put to the same bene­ ficial uses. * * * Perhaps the most revealing accounts of the explorers end the traders could be found in their treatments of the family and the position of woman.

Where the priests had

lifted their soutanes and stepped deftly around these subjects 1. Nouvelle France, p. 555. 2. Boucher, Histoire veritable et naturelle. p. 134.

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-247with vague generalities, or had indulged in tirades against sexual promiscuity, these men were more informative on de­ tails, and less hysterical or self-conscious about the oppo­ site sex. As to the regulations which hedged marriage about, the laymen knew less than the priests, who naturally made it their business to learn the native prejudices and limita­ tions on that subject.

Denys reported of the Micmacs that 1 marriages were prohibited within the second degree. But he was alone in telling his readers of the barriers which con­ sanguinity §hrew up to marriages.

On the other hand, many

of the writers gave copious information about love-making, and the betrothal customs of the savages.

Diereville, who

kept a sly eye on marital relations, remarked that courting did not last long, if the suitor happened to be a successful hunter.

For the pelts which he offered obtained the consent 2 of the parents of his intended bride. These pelts did not consitutefcl a dowry for the bride.

They represented the pur­

chase price of a servant, whom the father lost and the husband ✓ 1. Description geographlque et historlque. p. 410. 2. Diereville, Voyage to Port Royal, pp. 141-142. J.C.0., a soldier who fought in the wars of 1754-61, implied that most families could not inter-marry. His book, Travels in New France (Harrisburg, 1941) wa6 the first published in 1887, and therefore its evidence can be used here only for corroborative purposes. See Travels in New France. p. 143, for marriage restrictions.

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-248gained.

Apparently the cynical Diereville wanted Europeans

to think that Indian marriages were not love matches.

Indeed,

Lahontan asserted that they were not: Indians never loved, but contented themselves with tender friendships, coupled 1 with instinctive sexual gratification. Thus he thought to preserve from contamination what he thought constituted the rational faculty of his savages. Cadillac also noticed the strange substitute for dower rights whioh prevailed among the Indians.

While Euro­

pean girls were necessarily endowed at their wedding, on the other hand, since the savage girls consituted part of their families1 wealth, the suitors had to pay for their wives

2 when they deprived their families of their services.

Denys

described this period in which the hunter sought the pelts he needed as one of probation, during which he lived with 3 hie bride’s family. Under such circumstances, it was diffi­ cult to distinguish between a probationary period, a trial marriage, of which several men wrote, and the formal marriage state.

It was perhaps due to this confusion that Boucher

stated that married couoles lived together for years, without consummating their marriage.

Diereville, however, felt that

1. Lahontan, Melnolres. p. 116. 2. Cadillac, "Relation du sieur de Lamothe-Cadillac," Margry, Decouvertes et e'tabllssements des Franpais. V, 166. Compare J.C.B. . Travtl/fls in New France, p. 143. 3. Denys, Description ge'ographique et historlque. p. 407. 4. Boucher, Histoire veritable et naturelle. p. 107.

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-249regardlese of the conditions under which they lived together, the couples did not live long in chastity. so, he wrote.

They used to do

But in recent years, they had realized that

they were wasting in chastity the most precious years 6f their life, and they no longer hesitated to share the marriage 1 ted early. After the marriage might come the divorce, an estab­ lished practise among the infidel savages, which was in no respect rare or disgraceful.

But as Boucher wrote, since

each person was careful not to offend his fellows, divorces 2 actually were infrequent. Except for the members of royal families in the southern tribes, only the men could initiate a rupture of the marital relationship.

As Nicolas Perrot

brutally put it, the wife could not independently abandon her husband, because he was her master, and had bought and 3 paid for her. This dependent state of women was only one example of what Lescarbot chose to call the terrible degradation of women among the savages.

He wrote that they also were segre­

gated from the men at meals, and they were not permitted to 1. Die'reville, Voyage to Port Royal, p. 144. 2. Boucher, Hlstolre veritable et naturelle. pp. 108-109; Le Page du Pratz, Hlstolre de la Louislane. II, 387; Lahontan, Memolres. p. 120. 3. Nicolas Perrot, Memolre sur les moeurs. coustumes et relllglon des sauvages de L*Am£rlque Septentrionale (Leipzig. Paris, 1864), p. 22. Hereafter cited as Perrc^t, Moeurs. coustumes et relllglon des sauvages. Although Perot’s book was first published,in 1864, his evidence and opinions are included here because they wielded a great influence on the books of Father Charlevoix. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-250attend their councils.

The historian compared this sad state

with the condition of women among the early Gauls and Germans, 1 where they occupied a privileged position. Polygamy, the most obvious evidence of this degrada­ tion, was brought out by the missionaries, and was stressed even more heavily by the men of the world.

Cartier, who spent

little actual time with them, remarked that the Montagnais regulated marriage well, aside from the fact that they took two or three wives apiece, who could not remarry if their 2 husband died. But this state of affairs did not shock him seriously. By

Nor, paradoxically enough, did it shock Lescarbot.

natural usage, he wrote, the savages kept many wives,

as men

had in the first days of the birth and the rebirth

of the world.

In defending polygamy, he wrote that the

toleration which God had shown to the ancient fathers in this respect,

and which was in the law of nature, had not been

revoked expressly by Biblical law. more

Bolstering his argument

strongly, he referred to "the honest natural liberty, through so many centuries has been approved by every-

which tody

3 outside the Roman Empire," and which permitted polygamy.

That

practise did not appear to him so degrading as segrega-

tion$.

For, despite polygamy, the women were not the jealou6

1. Nouvelle France, p. 33.c . Compare J.C.B., Travels in New France, p. 140. 2. Cartier, Brief revolt & succincte narration, p. 31a. 3. Lescarbot, Nouvelle France, pp. 670-671.

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-251-

partner e in a marriage.

It was the husbands who wrathfully

killed or repudiated faithless wives, and insisted upon a 1 sort of marital monopoly. The wives had to remain faithful

2 while their husbands roamed.

Des Combes reported that they

3 would kill themselves rather than play their husbands false. The practise of polygamy flourished broadly through­ out the country, and was especially noticed among the Iro­ quois, Hurons, Montagnais, Hudson/£ Bay Indians, Illinois, and the Arkansas. w a s

Among these same tribes, stern punishment 4 meted out for breaches in fidelity. On the other hand,

contrary to so many authorities citing the tyranny of the husbands, Lahontan wrote that, since the savages were rational creatures, they never fell prey to jealousy, and laughed S heartily at the French for doing so. Such a statement, how­ ever, in the face of overwhelming opposition, cannot be 1. Lescarbot, Nouvelle France, p. 331. 2 .

Champlain, Des Sauvages. New France, p. 142.

3 .

Lee Combes, Copnle d'une lettre envoyee de la Nouvelle France. p. 13.

p .

19. Compare J.C.B., Travels in

4. Boucher, Histoire veritable et naturelle. p. 108; Sagean, Relation-! p. 21; Perrot. Moeurs. coustumes et relllglon cies 6auvages. p. 22; llarauette & Joliet. Voyages et decouvertes de quelques pays et nations de l'Amerique Septentrlonale. p? 20; "Mdmoire sur les sauvages Abenakis par 11. le Cardinal" £1723) , Manuscrlts relatlfs a la Nouvelle France. Ill, 95; Claude Le Roy Bacqueville de la Potherie, Hlstolre de l^merlque Septentrlonale (Paiis, 1722), I, 127. 5. Lahontan, Ifemolres. p. 121.

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-252credited as more than a deduotion of Lahontan’s from his premise that the savages were rational.

To say this is not

to say that this is what those in Franoe believed when they read such a statement in Lahontan's Memoires, it must be remembered. The existence of the family as a unit appeared to matter more to the casual explorer or to the diarist than it did to the priests.

The former found it a happy model after

which the Europeans could pattern their domestic reforms. In spite of their tolerance with regard to divorce, Lescarbot found that the Indians cherished deep family affections.

The

proof of that, he felt, was that the children supported their 1 parents in their old age. Also, it was true that many Indians took only one wife for their whole life.

Indeed, Pierre

Radisson, who lived with the savages for years, wrote that his Cree foster-parents had enjoyed wedded bliss for forty 2 years. Champlain asserted that the members of the Neutral Nation conducted their domestic affairs with all possible propriety, and that the women lived in the closest harmony 3 with their spouses. In the Illinois country, La Salle saw mutual married love, without the misery and prostitution 1. Nouvelle France, p. 707. 2. Lahontan, Memoires, p. 120; Pierre-Esprit Radisson, Voyages (Boston, 1835), p. 63. 3. Chamolain, Voyages et decouvertes.^. {1*

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-253-

which was said to be so common elsewhere, but with much 1 respect for the head of the family. As Radisson wrote in his pidgin English, the Orees "are of a good nature, and not great whore masters

,_7 having but one wife, and are 2 J_ more_7 satisfied than any others that I knewed." But conjugal love was not the only manifestation of happy family relations which these men observed.

Lescar­

bot wrote that savage mothers had more love for their chil­ dren than European mothers: in New France the women themselves nursed their children, and did not put them out to vicious and corrupt wet nurses.

They thus preserved that law which

nature had planted in the hearts of all creatures except cebauched women.

Like the German women of Tacitus, these

mothers performed a noble family function when they nourished their voung in this manner.

Thev did not serve merely to 3 inflame vile passions, a6 on the Continent. Such infant nursing intensified the bonds of love

betwee n

Children and their parents.

Consequently, while in

France fathers and sons indulged in law-suits against each other,

in New France, the young were seen to protect, defend,

and support their aged parents,

'ffhen parents in France lived

1. Gravier, De'couvertes et e'tabllssements. p. 54. 2. Radisson, Voyages, p. 223.

3. Lescarbot, Nouvelle France, pp. 705-706.

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-254for a long time, their eons complained of it, despoiled them 1 while they still walked, and buried them naked. In the new country, the savages grieved for their elders long after 2 they had died. If the family life ofk the whole was better among the Indians than among the French, Lescarbot attributed this to the fact that the former had not filled the earth with their teeming generation.

In New France there was still 3 room for comfortable and happy living. The respect which was paid to the old men of each clan greatly impressed many writers beside Lescarbot.

The

old men remained the heads of their cabins until they died. Le Page du Pratz reported that "their opinions are decrees." Their paternal superiority was supreme as long as they lived, 4 "as it was in the first days of the world." Even when the young people utterly ignored their^athers, they never failed to honor the old men: as though they were oraclee, wrote 5 Laho.itan, since they always obeyed them. The old men called the young their sons, and the latter paid them what was due 6 from sons.

1. Lescarbot, Nouvelle France, pp. 331, 887. 2. Boucher, Histolre veritable et naturelle. p. 118. 3. Lescarbot, Nouvelle France, p. 708. 4. HiBtolre de la Louisiane. II, 313, 386. 5. Memoirea. p. 103. 6. Perrot, Moeurs. coustumes et relllgion des sauvages. p. 72.

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-255If the explorers suggested that the ohildren did not always render that ideal regard for their parents which could have been wished, it certainly was not true that the parents were remiss in their affections.

They loved their offspring

intensely, and their friends, allies, and members of their 1 tribes in proportion. But especially did they lavish tender­ ness upon their children. to do as they wished.

For they gave them every liberty

Cadillac wrote that the young could

dispose of any of the family's property, and could deliberate

2 in family councils. Discipline for the children never took the form of threats or physical violence.

The Indians believed that the

nature of the young should be left alone, to develop unham­ pered.

’.Then the young grew up, it was expected that they 3 would know better, and see their earlier mistakes. As a result, Denys found that they obtained everything they asked for, and were never allowed to cry for what they

lacked.

Even the greatest personages in the tribe gave way to their whims.

According to rueful report, this extravagant love 4 of children prevailed throughout all the American tribes. *

*

*

1. "Recit d'un ami de l'abbe Gallinee," Margry, De'couvertes et etablissements des Fran^als. I, 352. 2. Cadillac, "Relation du sieur de Lamothe-Cadillac," Margry, Ibid. ; V, 103; Compare J.C.B., Travels in New France. 148. 3. Lebeau, Avantures. 11^, 67. 4. Denys, Description geographtque et historique. p. 404; "Recit d'un ami de l'abbe Gallinee. Margry. Decouvettes et Etablissements des Franpals. I, 348.

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-256Although a deep family affeotion was a well-marked virtue in the savages, it was not the only one whioh the lay­ men saw.

Such a picture of the happy families, without more,

would have conveyed the impression that the Indians were well-nigh perfect creatures.

But every writer recognized

that they were merly human, and had many faults: "these

1 people of whom we shall speak are men like ourselves." Even Pichon admitted their faults, when he wrote that they were the equals of Europeans; but he insisted that they were in reality superior to what the Europeans imagined them to be. Although their bad habits and appearance made them seem barbarous, yet they did not nourish barbarous sentiments

2 in their hearts. de 1a. Potherie,

"They are men like us," wrote Bacqueville "who do not lack good sense and are more

easily capable of receiving the imprint of true religion 3 than many others." An examination of their virtues and vices, then, resulted as normally from the train of thought prevalent among the laymen as it did among the priests. When Lescarbot first came across the Indians, he rose immediately to their defense, and proclaimed that they were not lacking in virtue.

For, as Aristotle had written, "each

4 man has in him from birth the principles and seeds of virtue." 1. Lescarbot, Nouvelle France, p. 7; Lebeau, Avantures. II, 256. 2. Pichon, Histoire du Oap Breton, pp. 95-96. 3. Histoire de l tAmerlque Septentrlonale. 1, 117. 4. Quoted in Lescarbot, Nouvelle France, p. 882.

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-257Forthwith Lescarbot insisted that "our savages, although naked, do not lack the virtues which are found among civ­ ilized men."

They were possessed of valor, fidelity, liberal­

ity, humanity, great hospitality, much judgment, and reason, by means of which they sagely assembled for long discussions on vital matters.

They were not envious, hypocritical, or

ambitiot*; and if they did not know God, neither did they blaspheme. Nor did he think they poisoned or corrupted 1 chastity. On the other hand, the Indians were not imprudent: they knew the meaning of fear, unlike the ancient Gauls: fear of the acts of God, of death, dishonor, and reproaoh.

Having

such virtues, balanced by such fears, the Indians were in mediocrity, "the seat of virtue."

And while the virtues

of strength and courage were obscured and rendered imperfect by vindictiveness, which made them descend to brutality, yet that brutality characterized all nations which were blinded by ignorance of the true God, and could be repaired through 2 the effects of conversion. Because men of the world are usually not so apt to look to the moral springs of actions, or to judge behavior so strictly as clerics, these lay writers found less to censure in the Indians than the missionaries found.

They

1. Lescarbot, Nouvelle France, p. 8; La Conversion des Sauvages: Jes. Rel.. I, 93. 2. Lescarbot, Nouvelle France, pp. 832-883.

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-258reported more of the conduct of the savages as being good, and less as constituting vice or fault.

Perhaps this was

due to a lower morality among the observers themselves.

But

it could also be ascribed to a keener observation, and to closer acquaintance with the intimate customs and thoughts of the savages. Others, then, agreed with Lescarbot.

The traveler

Peter Kalm praised the savages for their good natural qualities, 1 their hospitality, and their respect for oaths. Lebeau wrote that they displayed such praiseworthy traits as love of country, love of glory, and a heroic grandeur of the soul 2 which made them willing to suffer all perils and misfortunes. Pichon put the case most truthfully when he wrote that "the mixture of the most opposite manners, of the faults of the most ferocious beasts, with the qualities of heart and head most honored among men, at first appeared to us a monstrous combination in them."

This feeling wore off, however, when

he saw that their only passions were simple and natural ones; 3 and therefore he exalted their reason. In the light of these paradoxical opinions, it would be proper to investigate more closely what these men thought of the virtues and the vices of the savages.

But first an examination of their reflections

about the Indians' environment is in order. 1. Peter Kalm, "Voyages de Kalm en Am/rique," Memolres de la socle'te hlstorlque de Montreal. 7 e livraison (Montreal, 1880), p. 29. 2. Lebeau, Avantures. "Epitre d^dicatoire." 3* Histoire du Can Breton, pp. 97, 105. Compare J.C.B., Travels in New France, p. 140. R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-259Gene rally, the Frenchmen considered that the savages dwelt in the greatest innocence and bliss in the world, and envied them their paradise.

The Sieur des Combes wrote that

God had rendered the savages a hundred times happier in their brute life than the French in all their ostentatious and 1 pompous ceremonies. Aocording to Bacqueville de la Potherie, the Indians around H u d s o n ^ B a y lived almost as one would have lived in the golden age, wild among the woods: "when his mountain wife would spread his aylvan couch with foliage 2 and straw and furs from the nearby beasts." Lescarbot found the fashion of life a. I 1antique, and much to his liking.

The

Indians pursued the noble tasks of war, the hunt, and faloonry. L'en subsisted only on what God had given them, and not on each other: so that they were not cannibals /like the French, 3 he implied^7, but were much more human. "We must say of them th; t they are truly noble, having no ungenerous actions, in the chase or war or in domestic life —

that is the way most

of the world has lived from the beginning."

And in their

innocence, they showed they were happy; for who but Indians would greet a stranger as they had greeted Poutrincourt when they first saw hie ship loom ujjfon their coast, with singing

and dancing? "Oh, happy people, indeed a thousand times moreso than those over here /in France/ who make themselves adored, if 4 they knew God and His redemption!" 1. Copole q'une lettre envoyee de la Nouvelle France, p. 10. 2. Kistoire de l'Amerlque Septentrionale. I, 117^118. 3. Nouvelle France, pp. 360, 903. 4- Ibid.; pp. 903, 554. R eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

-260Years later, Chateaubriand reflected these thoughts of Lescarbot, when he wrote that "the Indian was not a savage; European civilization did not aot upon the pure state of

1 nature, it acted upon a commencing Amerioan civilization." Tftiile few men in the seventeenth or the eighteenth century would have subscribed to the latter part of that sentence — the material aspect of civilization would not have seemed so important to them — the first statement.

yet many would have themselves made Le Page du Pratz wrote that "it is very

wrong to call savages these men who can make good use of their reason, who think correctly, have prudence, good faith, /and/ generosity more than certain civilized nations who would not tolerate comparison with these."

Yet he claimed

a natural superiority for the French over the Indians, by 2 reason of "our faith, our knowledge, and our arts." Pichon also envied these humble savages their inno­ cence.

Before they knew the things which did not depend

entirely ppon the individual, he wrote, they were the only happy people An earth; but now these seductive things had to a certain extent changed their tastes and desires. tion had not yet led them into bondage, however.

Ambi­

Their sole

interests still lay in the immediate and momentary satisfaction of their urgent needs, and involved no dangerous passions. 1. Quoted in Gravier, Decouvertes et e'tabllssements. p. 55. 2. Histoire de la Loulsiane. I, 88, II, 322.

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-361For, studying nature only, they oould peroeive in it the malneprlnge of action, better than the Continentals, whose attentions were infinlteslmally dissipated by a thousand knew its path

things; and letting nature -

*

—

poxx o u v x y ♦

Taking up the lead of the embittered Lahontan, Gueudevihle relayed on to the Frenoh public the faot that the savages lived more at their ease than many of the seedy nobility of Franoe.

"More men than we are, in all their

manners worthy of the primitive slmplloity of the anoient day8 , they are savages only in name, and in the imagination

2 of a people abandoned to inoonstanoy and to soft living.* These Indians, the baron had written, did not perplex them­ selves with litigations and multifarious laws, but took delight in dwelling on mountain-tops or in the deepest oaves, where eaoh tended to his own affairs.

Nations whioh had not

been corrupted by the dangerous proximity of Europeans had 3 neither Tuum and Ueum, laws, judges, nor priests. For once Lebeau agreed with Lahontan, when he wrote that the savages were happier, without many of the necessities of life, al­ though they lacked also letters, soienoes, laws, temples, and religion.

He did not blame them for their laok of ln-

1. Plohon, Histoire du Pan Breton, pp. 97, 100. 2. Gueudeville, Atlas hlstorlaue. VI, 83, 90. 3. Lahontan, Memolres. ■Pre'faoe," p. 81.

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-263vent ivenae 8 In the arte, hut admired a moderation whloh made them content with eo little. If moat men ohoruseed approval and envy of the savage life, at least one writer registered a vigorous dissent. After the Sieur de Die'reville had sojourned In Aoadla hut a short time, he hegan to regret his Paris.

He wrote:

To what a wilderness, oh heaven, Have I oomej Nothing before my eyes But streams and forests, huts of mud And oottages; though well-prepared For the condition of this plaoe, How one oan live here I don't know. Oh, what a soene of poverty! Already I, with hut a taste, Have had enough of this New Franoe 3 And here what penanoe for the Old I'll do. When the explorers oaae down to a speolflo descrip­ tion of the manners and the hahits of these lotus-eaters, however, their Idyl faded. Oartler found the savages rude 3 and untamed, and Des Oomhes wrote seventy years later that although they were very brutal, they were beginning to olvl4 lize themselves, and to assume European manners. Champlain thought the savages were pleasant and well-mannered enough, on the other hand, hut he remarked something sad and gloomy 1. Avantures. I, 308-310. 2. Voyage to Port Roval. p. 83. 3. Cartier, Relation orlglnale du voyage de Jaoaues Oartler au Canada en 1534 (Paris. 1&67]. p. 13: Oartler. Dlsoours du voyage, p. 38. 4. Des Oomhes, Popple d'une lettre envoyee de la Nouvelle Franoe. p. 13.

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•863In their demeanor.

Lebeau also notload this taciturnity,

but he wrote that although they oonoealed their emotions, they were affable people.

This retloenoe did not amount

to dignity, however; aooordlng to Lesoarbot, they laoked a real knowledge of what oonstltuted dignity.

As proof,

he gleefully desorlbed the absurd pomp with whioh the Ulomao chief Membertou demanded that, upon his every arrival at

2 Port Royal, a oannon be fired in his honor. This sombemess may best be defined as gravity. Tontl of the Iron Hand wrote that the gravity of the Louisiana Indians lent muoh authority to their bearing, and secured 3 for them the respeot of their fellows. Even Champlain noticed that the Indians he enoountered spoke cautiously, in order 4 to make themselves olearly understood by all. Being without laws, judges, and priests, it was argued that their nature and their reason made them naturally grave, sinoe their every aot and word had to be carefully weighed in the light of it8 effects upon those hearby.

For this reason, they

struok an attitude half-way between gaiety and melancholy. Also for this reason arose those polite manners whioh restrained 1. Champlain, Voyages et desoouvertes. p. 81; Lebeau, Avantures. I, 307. 2. Nouvelle Franoe. p. 8 8 6 . 3. Nouvelles deoouvertes. p. 226. 4. Dee Swuvages. p. 13.

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-264two men from talking at once, but made each hear the other 1 out, with patlenoe and oourteey. "Serious by temperament, this eooiety Is oompletely instlnotive, whioh renders them very circumspect In their words and aotions," wrote Gueude-

2 vllle. As a result of this oiroumspeotion in political affairs, the savages also carried on their every-day communi­ cations with the same consideration and affability.

As Tonti

wrote, the Louisiana women were very solioitous for their husbands, and followed their natural instlnots in all that they did; therefore they behaved seriously without affeotation.

The nature of the Illinois was also traotable, and

they were naturally pleasant, although he warned his readers that their ounnlng made them appear dooile and 006'perative, 3 when in aotual fact they were not. Joliet reported that the Indians to the west of the Mississippi were also obliging 4 and pleasant, without losing their grave demeanor. 1. Lahontan v Memo ires, p. J98; "Rebit d'un ami de l'abbe/* G a l U n e e M a r g r y , Debouvertes et etabllseements des Franoals. I, 350. 2. Gueudeville, Atlas hlstorlque. VI, 90. 3. Tonti, Nou^Lles debouvertes. p. 226; Marquette & Joliet, Voyages et ddoouvertee de ouelques pays et nations de l*AmerlQue geptentrlonale. p. 30; La 8 alle. "Lettre A un de ses assooibs,^ ££9.IX.168QJ, Margry, D^oouvertee et d’ tabllssements des Franpals. II, 33. 4. Louis Joliet, "Relation de la Nouvelle Franoe," Margry, Deoouvertes et Etabllseements des Franpals. I, 260.

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s -265The gravity whioh these travelers notloed in the savages was, of oourse, a manifestation of what Father Le Jeune ohose to oall their stoicism.

In all oiroumstanoes,

they seldom lost their patience with eaoh other, and appeared always to be masters of themselves.

Lebeau wrote that because

of their honor and the greatness of their hearts, the savages never grew angry.

Again he was agreeing with Lahontan, who

wrote that they never quarrelled, or insulted or oursed eaoh other, because eaoh was his own master, and every other 1 person*e equal. If, for instance, the father of a family learned of the death of one of his children, he would say, "that's nothing;" or "that's good," if he heard of a viotory

2 over an enemy tribe.

Moreover, the men never wept, as suoh

a display of emotion was oonsldered beneath them.

Even at

3 a funeral it would have been held unworthy of them.

They

suffered beatings and torture in sllenoe; perhaps beoause they kept in mind the delights of a future vengeanoe. ✓

Die.’-evllle was ...astonished by their fortitude In agonising moments suoh as these. Torture and flames they stolidly endure And die without a groan; for it beseems 4 They say, a woman only to ory out in pain.

1. Lebeau, Avantures. I, 309; Lahontan, Merinoires, p. 116. 2* Ibid., P. 99. 3. Perrot, Moeurs, ooustumes et relliglon dee sauvages. p. 33. 4. "Reoit d'un ami de l'abbe Oallinee," Margry, Deoouvertes et etabllsegments des Franoals. I, 349; Diereville, Voyage to Port RoVal. P. 186.

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-266While suoh gravity may have partaken of the medioorlty whioh Uaro Lescarbot signified as the "seat of virtue,* yet to him the moderation of the savages had more Important manifestations.

The Indians were not gluttons like the men

of Europe; here Lescarbot mentioned the man who ate one veal and one mutton before Oharles V, and was still hungry. But for the sake of the truth, he found himself foroed to admit that the savages were not perfeotly temperate: they avidly devoured as much meat as they oould lay their hands on.

Otherwise, however, they were no more reprehensible

than Europeans in this respeot.

The satisfaction of their

other oravlngs also was moderate, due to their habit of smok­ ing tobaoco: this oombatted the "functions of Venus.■ Thus Lescarbot found that their temperance generally harmonized with their medloority, and oontrolled the voluptuousness of the body, because of their strong wills.

Although they ate

on the ground and wiped their hands on the hair of their dogs, like the Gauls, the ancient Germans, and the Turks, this crudeness did not detract from their virtuous innooenoe in 1 the estimation of Lesoarbot. Lesoarbot also was the first traveler in Hew Franoe to state that the Indians usually were friendly to others. When Poutrinoourt returned on his second trip to Port Royal, 1. Lescarbot, Nouvelle Franoe. pp. 829, 840, 875, 884. Compare J.O.B., Travels in Hew Franoe. p. 141.

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367tbe natives were overjoyed, and pointed out how they had preserved the old buildings which the Trenoh had ereoted on their first trip.

They inquired of all their friends who

had not oome baok, and they did not flee from the landing 1 parties, as they often did from the Spaniards. Their inherent reserve made them courteous, as well.

For they did not poke

and gawk at the armor, personal aoooutrements, and the mirrors 3

of the French.

Ihen La Salle had been welcomed by the Ar­

kansas, the savages did not burst into his oabin, but waited 3 outside in silenoe, to oatoh an admiring glimpse of him. In faot, probably most Frenohmen would have agreed with Lesoarbot that gentility and oourtesy were as well known to the Indians 4 as to the Frenoh. Their great hospitality further exemplified their courtesy.

Lesoarbot wrote that it resembled the hospitality

of the ancient Gauls, whioh now was preserved only among the Frenoh nobility.

Like the Gauls, the Indians praotically

forced passers-by and strangers to stop at their oabins for refreshment.

Suoh a ohaxaoterietio was a natural human trait, 5 whioh the Frenoh, to their intense shame, had long since lost. 1. Lescarbot, La Conversion dee 8 auvagee: Jes. Rel.. I, 69. 2. Lescarbot, Nouvelle Franoe. p. 38. 3. Gravier, DSoouvertes et etabllssements. p. 186. 4. Lesoarbot, La Conversion des 8 auvages: Jes. Rel. , I, 69. 5. Lesoarbot, Nouvelle Franoe. pp. 841-8#2.

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3

-367-*A) Iren where suoh hospitality was not sincerely proferred, Lesoarbot said he did not dare to crltioise the Indians, sinoe the men of Europe failed even more grievously in the same 1 respect. Perrot considered their hospitality the most praise­ worthy of all their virtues, and wrote that it far surpassed 3 the liberality of the Continental nations. Along the Miss­ issippi, the explorers found that all the tribes received them well.

Some even built large new oabins to lodge their

white guests in, while all were solicitous to their wants, 3 and spread before them their finest foods* The Indians expected no compensation for these attentions, and even surrendered their own sleeping plaoes to men they had never 4 seen before. Sieur Oendron wrote that the Hurons, whom he found melancholy and sullen, were nevertheless very bospi5 table to strangers. A complete description of what this strenuous generosity meant to the savages can be discovered in some of the 1. Lesoarbot, Nouvelle Franoe. p. 8 8 6 . 2. Perrot, Moeurs. ooustumes et relllglon des sauvages. p. 69. 3. Gravier, Deoouvertes et atabllssements. p. 331; Cavelier, Relation du voyage, pp. 30. 39. 46; Marquette & Joliet, Voyages et deoouvertes de quelques pays et nations de lUunerique 8 eptentrlonale. p. 39. 4. Boucher, Histoire veritable et naturelle. p. 117. 5. Franpois, Sieur Gendron, Quelques Paxtlcularltez du pays des Hurons en la Nouvlle France (/Paris. 1660/ Albany." 1668^, pp. 16-17. "

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368laymen's aooounts.

In the first place, the visitor had to

taste of what was best in the oabin.

Then he was made to

sit down, his shoes were taken off, he was massaged, sweated in a building oonstruoted for that purpose, fed again, and regaled by the leading men of the village while he dined. If there happened to be any festivals, the visitor was taken to them as an honored guest.

When he decided that the

time had oome to depart, over the strong persuasion of his host to stay on, the latter packed his guest's bundle, and put In It the finest furs or food in the cabin.

In return, the

guest might have given him a fur whioh he had brought with 1 him from some other plaoe, but that was not necessary. This praotlse of making presents arose from a desire to be considered generous, rather than to be friendly, accord­ ing to the skeptioal Perrot.

But his orlticism apparently

applied only to the Abenaki, whom the neighboring French had taught to oonserve what they had, unless they exchanged it for something of great value, like a high reputation among people whose esteem was desired.

By proximity with the Frenoh,

they had become more avarioious and "Interposes* than they 2 had originally been. 1. "Recilj, d'un ami de l'abbe Gallinee,” Margry, Decouvertes et etabllssements des Franoals. I, 350; Perrot, Moeurs. ooustumes et relllglon des sauvages. pp. 69-71; "MSmoTre but les sauvages ADenakis par M. ie Cardinal," D-72^)^ Manusorlts relatlfs a la Nouvelle Franoe. Ill, 100. 2. Perrot, Moeurs. ooustumes et relllglon des sauvages. p. 70.

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!

-269Even if, ae some people felt, the Indians lacked manners, they possessed something still more valuable: that 1 natural humanity whioh more olvllised people sooraed, This sentiment found easy expression in suoh an organization as the tribe, where a strong bond was thought to unite all the members of a olan —

ohief, beggar, and infant were pesrs,

and aided eaoh other.

Anyone oould freely reprimand his

geed neighbor, if he did it with all possible moderation. Lescarbot wrote with wonder that the savages usually lived in common: the most perfeot life, the life of the ancient golden age.

In their oommon life, the Indians "have fehat

mutual charity whioh has been t o m from us slnoe Mine and Thine were born."

There were no classes in the tribes:

2 "all are rich because all labor.”

Beaouse of this spiritual

community, Bouoher oould wtlte that the savages did not mistreat eaoh other, but acted with mutual compassion.

When

acoidente or deaths occurred, whole villages sympathized with the unfortunate persons concerned. were punotilliously paid.

Visits of oondolenoe

On suoh oocaslon, the bereaved

and the caller smoked the pipe in turn, without breaking the 1. Gueudeville, Atlas hlatorlaue. VI, 8 8 . 2. Perrot, Moeurs. ooustumes et relllglon des sauvages. p. 72. Lescarbot. Nouvelle France, p. 841: Lesoarbot. La Conver­ sion des 8 auyages: Jes. ftel.. I, 93. Le Page du Pratz, Histoire de la Louislane. II. 394, reported, exceptionally, a hereditary olass of nobles among the Natchez Indians.

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-2701

dignified silenoe whioh surrounded the oeremony.

The In­

dians also exhibited their oharlty by oaring for old people

2 and for orphans who oould not fend for themselves.

When

a family was found in need, the ohief of the olan oolleoted grain for them, from whoever wished to give, as much as he 3 would. Lebeau, who perhaps lived more intimately with the savages than any other men who wrote about them exoept Radis son, wrote that in general they were very charitable, and that their generosity would oonfotind with shame every nation in 4 Europe. Lesoarbot also remarked that in their poverty they were liberal, and felt it wonderful that they should make gif18 to such comparatively rloh men as Poutrlnoourt.

But

they made gifts beoause they hated to sell things, and at first they Boo m e d the haggling French merchant, who wasted 5 hours bargaining over one beaver skin. When one of the Jesuits fled from the English to the Indians in 1613, each of them received half a galette of biscuit, "which is considerable for these people." Di^revllle supported Lesoarbot, for he 1. Boucher, Histoire veritable et naturelle. pp. 117-118; Perrot, Moeurs. ooustumes et relllglon des sauvages. p. 73. ✓ 3. "Memoire aur les sauvages Abenakis par U. le Cardinal," Manusorits relatlfs a la Nouvelle Franoe. Ill, 101. 3. Bouoher, Histoire veritable et naturelle. p. 117. 4. Avantures. I, 308. 5. Nouvelle Franoe. pp. 885-886.

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271knew that savages who had food always shared it with those who were hungry.

In addition, they always put food aside 1 for chanoe visitors. But food was not the only thing whioh the savages

shared.

They divided their oatohes of beaver with hunters

who had had no luck, or gave away slaves to replaoe people

2 who had been taken from families by death or war.

Since

this liberality was highly esteemed, the ohiefs, the most respected men in the villages, were the poorest.

When they

first took offioe, they made presents to all, and they re­ tained their popularity by oontinual largesse.

Pichon thought

he could explain the cause of this liberality.

For nothing,

he wrote, was easier to acquire than a generous and sensible heart; and yet the facility of obtaining it was further augmented by the oheapness of the price necessary to make 3 use of it on earth. Since, then, he seemed to be saying, the savages were reasonable and virtuous, they oould lead stain­ less lives on earth, aided by a natural Inclination toward virtue whioh included generoty&ty among its attributes.

But

they remained infidels, and thus oould not hope for a future life of bliss. 1. Nouvelle France, p. 682; Diereville, Voyage to Port Royal. 163. 2 . Lahontan, Memoires, p. 95.

3. Pichon, Histoire de Cap Breton, pp. 106, 114; Bouoher, Histoire veritable et naturelle. p v 102; "Recit ^'un ami de l'abbe Oalllnee,1^ Margry, Deoouvertes et etabllseemente des Franpals , I, 351.

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-372In wartime, exceptions to this charity were recog­ nized, as in even the most civilized states.

For when they

waged battle, Lesoarbot considered that they were clement if they saved the women and. the ohildren of villages whioh they laid waste.

They took them into servitude, according,

the historian wrote, to an ancient right which had been introduced into all the nations of the old world,*whioh had nonetheless infringed natural liberty.

The humanity and the

olemenoy of the Illinois was especially commended by those who traveled to the west. 2 ful than their neighbors.

They were in every way more meroi-

Along with suoh smiling oharlty, went a pleasing modesty, which delighted the laymen as much a£ it did the missionary fathers.

In describing the dress of the savages,

Lesoarbot wrote that "the shameful parts" were always con3 cealed by a bit of deer or beaver skin. And even when the weather became very hot, the men still oovered themselves, although they

might drop their skins to the waist.

For

various oauses, he reflected, many nations had not subscribed to the three reasons why clothing was necessary.

After the

fall of Adam, men had worn olothes to keep warm, for oonven1. Lescarbot, Nouvelle France, pp. 73, 887. 2. Marquette & Joliet, Voyages et deoouvertes de cuelques pays et nations de l ’Axb^ricue Septentrionale. p. 26; Tonti. Houvelles deoouvertes. p. 237. 3. Nouvelle Franoe. pp. 38, 791; Radisson, Voyages, p. 226.

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-273ienoe, and to cover their shame.

Now most of the naked

nations, like the Piots, the Brasilians, and the Ethiopians, were either ignorant or were never threatened with frigid 1 blasts. Over and above these reasons, however, modesty was natural, and therefore beoomlng to the Indians.

When they

did go about nude, whioh was rarely the oaae, the youths of the tribes were not thereby rendered morally loose.

On

the contrary, Lesoarbot claimed that he had never seen an immodest gesture or look: the Indians were less subjeot to this vioe than were his compatriots.

Nudity, the Indians

told Lahontan, stifled good behavior only by suoh uses and

2 oonnotatlons as Europeans attached to it. Further, the Indians were very sensitive to the proprieties, as Diereville related in a simple tale of domestic tragedy whioh grew out of an unintentional aot of Immodesty.

Their natural functions they oaxefully oonoealed 3 from everyone. If, as many suspected, they were not truly modest, Perrot felt that at least their external manners surpassed those of Continental peoples. For instance, they 4 never used disgraceful words. And while oourtshlp involved caresses, Boucher wrote that it was conducted without the 1. Lesoarbot, Nouvelle France, pp. 790-791. 2. Ibid.: p. 829; Lahontan, Memoires. p. 94. 3. D^reville, Voyage to Port Royal, pp. 164-166. 4. Perrot, Moeurs. ooustumes et relllglon des sauvages. p. 25.

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-274slight 681 indeoency, whioh would have constituted a orime 1 among the savages. Further ewidenoe for the modesty of the women, especially in their oourtships, was given by s£gean

2 and Joliet, who both knew the Mississippi tribes well.

On

the other hand,- the Indians did not oonsider that the Frenoh praotlsed either ohastity or oharity with amazing suooess, 8 inoe they had heard that Franoe abounded in poverty and

3 debauchery.

Thus, in respeot of these virtues, they already

appeared the superiors of their Ohristian oonquerors. It must not be assumed, however, from what the explorers and soldiers wrote, that they esteemed the Indians merely for their soft and civilizing characteristics.

Many

took for granted their bravery and their courage, and failed to mention it speolfloally, although they devoted pages to recounting brave deeds in battle and on the hunt.

Lesoarbot

knew that they were strong and courageous, and that they did 4 not hesitate to challenge double their number of enemies. In addition, they were upright and honest in their dealings with eaoh other and with strangers. of knavery, and held lying in horror.

They remained Ignorant Truth, valor, and

uprightness were their most elemental qualities, one apologist 5 a 8 eerted. * * »

1. Histoire veritable et naturelle. p. 106. 2. Sagean, Relation, p. 20; Marquette & Joliet, Voyages et deoouvertes de ouelaues pays et nations de 1 ’Amerlque Septentrlonale. p. 22. 3. "Reel\ d'un ami de l ’abbe Gallinee," Margry, Deoouvertes et etabllssements des Franoals. I, 348. 4. Nouvelle France, p. 882. f 5. Baoqueville de la Potherle, Histoire de 1 'Amerlque 3eptenReproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

375By their very recognition of the eesential humanity of the Indians, the lay writers knew that the savages were also possessed of serious faults, as well as shining virtues. The latter were held to outnumber the former, however.

And

it was devoutly hoped that the savages were not so vioious that oonvereion oould not nullify most of their defects* Pichon admitted that savage soolety was not exempt from all the failings whioh so often marred the pleasantness of European eooiety; but he insisted at the same time that the Indians held an advantage over the Europeans, in that their 1 fault8 were fewer. Men who knew them well found their vloes manifold and grave; they were gross, stupid, morally corrupt, naturally superstitious, fickle, lazy, ungrateful, suspicious, treaoherous, vindlotive, deoeltful, oruel, brutal even in their pleasures, and malicious.

But because of their poverty 2 they were not abandoned to luxury. Lesoarbot found that the Armouohlquols were vioious and bloodthirsty.

But he asoribed

these traits to the density of their population, a conscious­ ness of their own military strength, and their agrarian 3 economy. Another found the savages timid, abusive of women, 4 and Importunate beggars. But perhaps it would be better to turn to speolflo references to these various defects in their character. 1. Histoire du Gap Breton, p. 96. 2. Lebeau, Avantures. I, 269, 310. 3. Lescarbot, Houvelle Franoe. p. 715. 4. Bouoher, Histoire ve'ritable et naturelle. p. 96.

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-276One of the faults whioh most offended the Frenoh soldiers was their pride and vanity, when they were expected to regard the foreigners in their midst as oonquerors.

Cad­

Illinois, who considered all other tribes as the merest beasts, oompared with themselves: "Illinois" signified "man.

* CO

illac wrote that the Indians around Detroit were naturally 1 vain. Joliet concurred in this opinion oonoerning the

Perrot also felt that they were entirely too vainglorious in their actions.

In debauch or valor, insolence or hunting, t Immodesty or generosity, he wrote that their egt^Lsm made

Itself painfully evident.

In one word, ambition was one of

the strongest passions whioh animated them.

Even their

vengeance partook of ambition rather than oourage, slnoe these people were really the most oowardly in the world. Because glory and ambition ruled their notions, they of course seemed to parade themselves presumptuously before the French.

Perrot felt that they were suoh cowards that they

would have paled at the thought of war, if they did not paint themselves, and thus embolden themselves to frighten others like them, who would be terrified by suoh dreadful faces.

Only their rashness made them enterprising, he wrote,

for they almost always fought from ambush.

Thus, the bravura

1. Cadillao, Papers, p. 167 £*1.VIII.170$. 2. Marquette & Joliet, Voyages et deoouverte/is de oueldues pay8 et nations de"l*Am