mattersofthemoment

This is the first of a series of postings on our recent Quebec-New Brunswick road trip.

For sometime now we have wanted to go back to Montreal and visit some old haunts.  Well this was the year.  We drove to Montreal stopping first at 6815 Sherbrooke Street W (near Cavendish) to see Dave’s grandmother’s apartment building.  Nana as we called her, lived here from about 1954 to 84.  Dave has fond memories of visiting her here as a child.  I can still smell the clean soapy smell of her apartment and that particular musty smell of the lobby as you entered.  To us Montreal was a big city then and now.  I remember marvelling at the buses, the traffic and the excitement of it all.  “Hatwatter” (with the accent on the last syllable) the bus drivers used to announce at Atwater Ave on our way downtown.

The balcony of the left was hers, very cool at the time.

The pedestrian tunnel‎ under Sherbrooke to the park across the street is long gone. I remember loving at it as a kid – imagine walking under the roadway above?   The big swings in the park that I so much enjoyed, have been replaced with a play structure and little kiddy swings.  Trains still whistle by at one end like I recall.  It is a peaceful fun place that I will always remember.

Next we drove to mom’s house on Beaconsfield Ave in NDG where she grew up and then to her church, Knox Kensington Presbyterian, a few blocks away.  We then headed for Mount Royal Cemetery.  Luckily I had brought the plot number and we found Papa and Nana Ward’s gravesite quickly.

Dave’s Grandmother Mary, Uncle Charlie, mom Mary, Uncle Bud and Papa Ward, c. 1930

Before we went to our AirB&B apt on rue Hotel de Ville, we toured St. Joseph’s Oratory.  Dave forgot his sunglasses there right after the picture below was taken lol.

We were lucky and found found free parking on the street as host David greeted us warmly in front of the AirB&B.   He was very helpful and recommended some good restaurants and sites to see. There was no A/C nor did the TV work.  We had fans and as we were not there to watch TV, all was fine. That night we strolled to Old Montreal, just a few blocks away and had a great dinner of wine and nachos at Jardin Nelson, right beside the jazz trio – great!

Montreal is truly an exciting city to visit or live in. There is a cosmopolitan vibe you don’t find in many other places. This time I used my rusty French and people responded in French!  The lack of French is not an impediment as nearly everyone speaks English, and many other languages too.

After a pit stop at Ben and Gerry’s in Place Jacques Cartier, we headed home for the night after a great day one!

In the 1690’s, the policy of Louis IV became expansionist and aimed at hemming in the British east of the Appalachians.  To secure this strategy, Pierre accepted a mission to Louisiana to find the mouth of the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico and select a good site to block entry into the river by other nations.  Accompanied by brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, in October 1698, he sailed with 4 vessels.  After successfully locating the mouth of the Mississippi, he established a temporary fort on Biloxi Bay (Fort Maurepas, present day Ocean Springs, Miss.) and leaves a garrison of 81 including his brother Bienville in charge and returns to France.

Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville was awarded the cross of the Order of St. Louis, the first Canadian born to receive it.  In 1700 he returns to Louisiana and builds Fort Mississippi, 40 miles inland on the river.  He argues for colonization of Louisiana to contain the rapid expansion of the English in the Carolinas.  Adequate resources were not initially forthcoming.  In a 3rd voyage, he establishes Fort Saint-Louis at Mobile (Alabama).  He advocates policy to befriend the Indian tribes in the Mississippi basin by means of trade and religious missionaries in order to strengthen the French presence.

Statue of Pierre d’Iberville in Cuba

Iberville’s health is deteriorating due to malaria attacks and he writes his memoirs while back in France.  In 1705 he is well enough to lead a squadron of 20 vessels to the Spice Islands of Martinique, Guadalupe and Nevis in the British West Indies.  It was during this campaign of fear that accusations of fraud, illicit trade and manipulation of the King’s stores were aimed at the Pierre and his brother Serigny.  In July 1706, Iberville suddenly dies while on a stopover in Havana, likely due to complications from yellow fever.  He is buried in the Church of San Cristóbal (Havana Cathedral).

Pierre had married Marie-Thérèse Pollet in 1693 and had 5 children.  They lived mostly in France.  After Pierre’s death his great fortune was tied up in the aftermath of the “Nevis Affair”.  An inquiry found him guilty of fraud and his estate was ordered to pay back 112,000 livres.  Hi wife remarried and moved to Paris but this debt drained her inheritance.

I would like to finish with a quote from Bernard Pothier’s excellent on-line biography of Pierre that I have used for this mattersofthemoment series:

“However devoid of military or political consequence the career of Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville may now appear, his achievements are nevertheless of lasting significance. Indeed Iberville’s exploits, like those of no other in New France, illustrate the physical and moral strength, the resourcefulness and adaptability that were required in some measure of the whole colonial society to survive and prosper in the exacting wilderness conditions of North America. The fierce patriotism, the bravery, even the savage cruelty, which characterized Iberville’s campaigns against the English, were to a lesser degree the qualities essential to all life and progress in early North America. In this context, Iberville is an important figure, and is beyond doubt the first truly Canadian hero.”

Postscript.

Bienville, Iberville’s younger brother was left to govern the slow growing Louisiana colony.  In the spring of 1718, he founded New Orleans which becomes its capital.  It was named after Philippe II, Duke of Orleans.  In 1723, Governor Bienville moved into his new home in the French Quarter, in what is now the Custom House.  Thus it is a Canadian born who is the founder of one of the most culturally unique cities in North America.  If you google Iberville or Bienville, you will find dozens of towns, schools and communities which proudly bare these names today. This is living Canadian history folks.  Thanks for reading.

Custom House, New Orleans

We left the Canadian adventurer Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville in France getting ready for the 1692 season of war against the English in New France.  It was not to be.  The two ships he was given were required to escort a supply convoy to New France and arrived in Quebec too late to make the voyage to Hudson Bay before ice would set in.  The same thing happened in 1693.  Finally, in 1694, Pierre was appointed commander of an expedition force to remove the British from York Fort in Hudson’s Bay; his life long goal.

Setting sail from La Rochelle, the shrewd 36 year old agrees to pay the crew’s wages and cover their supplies.  In exchange, the French crown provides the vessels and military supplies and grants Iberville a monopoly of trade in Hudson’s Bay until 1697.  The directors of the Compagnie du Nord are outraged at these generous terms afforded Pierre.  However, they had not contributed adequate resources leading to previous failure, feels Pierre. He agrees to share all booty and profits with his men.

Arriving at the mouth of the Hayes River on Sept 24, he lands a party to reconnoitre York Fort and begins preparation for a long winter siege.  In October, he summons the English to surrender and surprisingly, they do. Though well supplied with men, heavy cannon, food, and trade goods, governor Thomas Walsh had neglected to lay in firewood, ignoring earlier warnings of an impending French attack.  That winter, there was much hardship and scurvy takes the lives of many Englishmen, French sailors and Canadians too.  In the late spring of 1695, York Fort, now renamed Fort Bourbon, is left in charge of the French and Iberville returns to France.  During his campaign there, the Indians had brought 450 canoe loads of rich pelts to trade.

Iberville had finally captured the Hudson Bay Company’s most lucrative station and his own star shone more brightly than ever.  He sets his sights on further adventure.  In 1696 Iberville sets out from France with 3 vessels to attack English stations along the Atlantic coast from the New England – Acadia boundary north to St John’s Newfoundland.  Iberville quickly routes 2 defensive frigates at the mouth of the St John River.  He then besieged Fort William Henry, 200 miles west of St John with 25 regulars from Acadia and 240 Abenakis.  The English fort capitulated as soon as the French set up their batteries on Aug 15.

Iberville than sailed to Placentia (Plaisance), the French capital of Newfoundland, determined to route the English from the island.  It is to be one of his most daring, ingenious and cruelest campaigns ever.  Iberville marches his men across the Avalon Peninsula (this had never been done before by a military force) and proceeds to attack station after station, killing, looting and utterly destroying the fishing settlements of the English.  There is an excellent detailed story of his campaign worth a read here.  It is truly a gruesome result.  36 settlements are destroyed, 200 persons are killed, 700 are taken prisoner.  Thousands of pounds of cod are taken and marketed by Iberville and others.   It was not to be for long though as immediately following his departure, an English squadron and 2000 troops land in St John’s to induce the survivors to return and rebuild their settlements.

Le Pélican 2

Meanwhile, the English have reestablished themselves in Hudson’s Bay.  Iberville joins a squadron from France heading there led by his brother Serigny.  Iberville’s lead ship, the Pelican with 44 guns, becomes separated from the others in the fog.  He is attacked by 3 English war ships – the Hampshire 56 guns, the Dering 36 guns and the Hudson’s Bay 32 guns.  Iberville engages in a duel, carries out brilliant naval manoeuvres and sinks the Hampshire.  The Hudson’s Bay is captured and sinks.  Iberville’s vessel the Pelican is severely damaged and abandoned.  His men regroup in a camp near York Fort and the next day the 3 remaining French vessels arrive.  After 5 days of light skirmishing, York Fort is surrendered to the French for a second time.  This had been Iberville’s swiftest and most brilliant campaign.

Iberville managed to have his monopoly at Fort Bourbon extended to 1699.  Returning to France in 1697, the hero of Hudson Bay was about to be drawn into an entirely new theatre of adventure: Louisiana, which was henceforth to play an important role in France’s revised imperial designs.  Conclusion of this riveting Canadian history will follow next time.

(Source material http://www.biographi.ca/)

It was men like the Le Moyne brothers, especially Pierre d’Iberville, inspired by the endurance, techniques and cruelty of the Indians, who adopted similar guerilla warfare techniques by becoming even more ruthless in their lightning attacks on the English.  This integration with Indian culture, fierceness and technique prolonged the survival of New France until 1760 against much superior English odds.

In 1689 the population of New France numbered 14,000.  It’s territory consisted of Acadia on the Atlantic coast, Canada along the St Lawrence River and Great Lakes and Louisiana from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico along the Mississippi River.  It controlled such a vast territory by allying itself with dozens of Indian tribes, by having a centralized military command structure and strategically placed defensive forts. English settlers number 154,000 (a 12 to 1 advantage) in North America in 1689.  However, they are hemmed in by the French allied Indian tribes in multiple colonies along the East coast.  They rely on local militia for protection and are unable to cooperate with each other efficiently.  Their only major Indian allies are the Iroquois tribes of NY.

Back home in Europe, to contain Louis IV’s ambitions, England joins with the Dutch, Austria and eventually Spain and Savoy in the Nine Years War against France, known as King William’s War in North America.  In August 1689, news of this having reached the English colonies first, 1500 Iroquois are emboldened to attack Lachine just outside Montreal.  Many French settlers are killed (reports range from 25 to 250) and the settlement is burnt to the ground.

In retaliation, Governor Frontenac sends a force of 210 led by Pierre’s brother Jacques, with Pierre 2nd in command and another brother Francois de Bienville, to attack Corlaer (Schenectady) outside of Albany, NY in Feb 1690.   They catch the town completely unawares, killing as many as 60 inhabitants, taking 25 prisoners and 50 horses back to Montreal after burning the settlement to the ground.

Pierre is rewarded with a Seigneury on Bai des Chaleurs in Gaspé but quickly disposes of the land.  He is neither interested nor temperamentally suited to the life of a seigneur.  Instead, that summer he returns to Hudson’s Bay with a small fleet of 3 ships, 30 guns and 80 men.  The English traders at York Fort are ready for a fight and chase Iberville away with a ship of 36 guns.  Pierre then attacks New Severn, an outpost, capturing it and thousands of rich pelts.  He winters in James Bay before returning to Quebec and thence to France in late 1691, to prepare for the next campaign.  The goal of the expulsion of the English from Hudson’s Bay was to elude him for several years to come.

(to be continued,  with gratitude for source material from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, http://www.biographi.ca/en/index.php )

Pierre Le Moyne Le Sieur d’Iberville (Valliants sculptures, Ottawa)

Of all the heroes of the French Regime in Canada, this guy – Pierre Le Moyne le Sieur d’Iberville (1661-1706) is the most intriguing to me.  Soldier, ship captain, explorer, trader, colonizer and adventurer – what a life he had!

The third son of Charles de Moyne, he was born in Ville-Marie (Montreal) in 1661.  He eventually had two sisters and eleven brothers.  His father Charles, arriving from Dieppe at the age of 15, started as an indentured servant to the Jesuit missionaries in Huronia.  He moved to Ville-Marie in 1646, helping to fight off the Iroquois. He also served as a peaceful emissary to the many Indian tribes allied with the French.  He eventually founds the Compagnie du Nord and becomes one of the wealthiest men in Montreal.

Pierre had an upbringing punctuated with boating on the St. Lawrence and regular church services.  His military career begins in 1686 when he and two of his brothers join an expedition to route the English trader interlopers from Hudson’s Bay.  You may recall the story of Radisson and Groseilliers.  These two couriers du bois deserted to England after they are not allowed to keep their huge stock of high quality furs from the North because they had not been licensed for this trade.  The English then agree to establish several trading posts in Hudson’s Bay in order to divert the lucrative fur trade away from New France.

After an exhausting voyage up the Ottawa River to Lake Temiskaming, the French reach James Bay and quickly route 3 English forts.  D’Iberville distinguishes himself as the bravest of the brave with sword or onboard a ship.  He is made governor of the three new French Forts and spends the winter of 1687 with 40 compatriots in Moose Fort in James Bay.

With the English fur trade now disrupted, D’Iberville and his men await fresh foodstuffs and supplies.  When none are forthcoming by summer, he returns first to Quebec and then to France.  He seeks to promote the advantages of a sea approach to the fur trade in Hudson’s Bay and to garner trade goods and support to lure more Indians away from Port Nelson, the English trading site still going strong.

In this he was successful.  He takes command of the excellent escort vessel Le Soleil d’Afrique and sails her back to Quebec. Returning the James Bay, in September of 1688, two English vessels attempt to reestablish English control but are routed by D’Iberville.  During the winter of 1688-89, there is much misery and bad faith on both sides and the 85 English held in limbo are no match for the fierce wilderness hardened French.  25 English die of scurvy and exposure after D’Iberville refuses their request to hunt for fresh game.  His reputation as a swashbuckling privateer who gives no quarter is firmly established.  His goal to expel the English from Hudson’s Bay will elude him for a few more years.  Meanwhile he is recalled to Montreal for a new military campaign.  His career is just starting as is the huge fortune that he will acquire.

(To be continued.)

The Jesuits failed to convert the Huron to Christianity before destruction of the latter by the powerful Iroquois tribes.  They did not see any good in the Huron culture or spirituality that needed saving.  Instead they saw it as an obstacle to Christian conversion that must be undermined, if not destroyed.  They failed to see that God was already at work in the Huron and that they too were God’s children.  They accepted the failure of their mission as the will of God.

Nowadays, the missionary approach is much different.  A missionary, e.g., of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, still goes where the Church does not go.  But first, they seek to walk with the people, get to know them, their problems and needs and only then, adapt the Gospel message to their culture, belief system and circumstance.

Pope John Paul II wrote in his 1990 encyclical Redemptis missio:

“The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church. Since salvation is offered to all, it must be made concretely available to all. But it is clear that today, as in the past, many people do not have an opportunity to come to know or accept the gospel revelation or to enter the Church. The social and cultural conditions in which they live do not permit this, and frequently they have been brought up in other religious traditions. For such people salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation. This grace comes from Christ; it is the result of his Sacrifice and is communicated by the Holy Spirit. It enables each person to attain salvation through his or her free cooperation.”

So did the Jesuits accomplish anything good in Huronia?  Yes, they were taking the gospel to the world which is what Christ told his apostles to do.  For the greater glory of God, souls are to be saved from the fires of Hell through conversion to Christian beliefs.  The cause of the Huron nation destruction was not the fault of the Jesuits, but of the warring Iroquois Confederacy who were bent on increasing commercial trade.

However Christ told his disciples (MT 10:14, MK 6:11, LK 9:5) that if any place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and move on.  Clearly the Jesuits did not move on in the face of obvious resistance.  Instead, they sought to undermine the spiritual beliefs and practices of the Huron.  Christ did not give instructions to his apostles like this.  Indigenous people have human rights too.

It has been almost 30 years since George Erasmus, Chief of First Nations accused the Catholic Church of having destroyed native culture, language and traditions in Canada.  As Co-chair of the 1991 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, he erupted in an an emotional tirade after a presentation by the Catholic agency, Development and Peace.

Since then we have seen many apologies from Catholic Bishops and Religious Congregations for this and other abuses that have taken place against indigenous peoples of Canada in the name of God and the Church.

Francis Jennings in The Founders of America, (1993) said that all such mission systems as the Jesuit in Huronia were intended and functioned in their various ways, to establish colonial domination over the Indians involved (p188).  David Treuer in The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee (2018), says the Jesuits were not as bad as the Franciscans and Dominicans.  Native American Trade Schools in the United States did a lot of good according to Treuer, an Ojibwe from Minnesota.  In addition to teaching trades and language skills, natives from historically warring tribes got to know each other for the first time, realized they had common interests and decided to bury the axe.

Hence much good has come out of Jesuit and subsequent missionary work and joint Christian initiatives in Canada.  Nevertheless we must not get complacent in our relationship with First Nations as the recent Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Enquiry into Missing and Dead Indigenous Women reminds us.  Many of us harbour misconceptions, misunderstandings and mistrust of our First Nations brothers and sisters, who after all, are the original peoples of Canada.  Happy Canada Day!

Happy National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada!

As most know the story line I will paraphrase Proff. Eccles conclusion and also from Angus J. Macdougall, SJ’s excellent booklet on Brébeuf below.

Just as the fruits of the Jesuit mission to Huronia were bearing fruit, the menace of the Iroquois loomed larger again.  Recall that the Iroquois Confederacy, located in western NY and allied with the English colonists in Albany, sought to take over the Huron role of middlemen in the lucrative fur trade between western tribes and the colonial powers.

In 1648 a 250 strong party of Huron paddled to Trois Rivieres and enroute, routed an attacking  Iroquois war party.  However while they were gone, an even stronger Iroquois war party attacked St Joseph mission and a neighbouring village in Huronia.  Of a total population of 3000, about 700 Huron were killed or captured, mostly women and children.  Fr. Antoine Daniel, SJ was killed too.

That winter was a cruel one.  Over 6000 persons took refuge in St. Marie as starvation stared them all in the face.  On March 15, 1649, a war party of some 1200 Iroquois attacked St-Ignace in complete surprise, breaching the palisade and over running the village.  After two unsuccessful attacks on nearby St-Louis, the same result occurred the next day.  Frs. Jean Brébeuf, SJ and Gabriel Lalemant, SJ who were visiting St. Louis at the time, baptised catachumens at the breach, urging the Huron to die bravely.  They themselves refusing to flee, were captured.  Both villages were burnt to the ground.

Not far away at the fortified St.-Marie mission, the French and Huron prepared for a last stand.  300 brave Huron from La Conception sortied out and inflicted severe losses on the Iroquois before being overwhelmed by much superior numbers.  Fearing the arrival of other large Huron relief forces, the Iroquois then withdrew.  This was on March 19 which was the Feast of St. Joseph.  The French attributed their deliverance to his special protection.  St Joseph is the patron saint of Canada

Frs. Brébeuf and Lalement were martyred after being gruesomely tortured.  (In 1930, they along with six of their fellow Jesuit missionaries were canonized by Pope Pius XI.)  In the weeks that followed, 15 additional Huron villages were abandoned out of fear of further Iroquois attacks.  Two months later the missionaries would burn and abandon St.-Marie, their pride and joy.  The final withdrawl of the Jesuits occurred in 1650 as the Huron nation had been destroyed.  This they sadly believed was clearly part of God’s grand design.  The Jesuits then moved further west and established a new mission on the southern shore of Lake Superior.

The Iroquois themselves having suffered severe losses, negotiated a peace treaty with the French in 1653.  The Jesuits were then allowed to establish themselves in the villages of the Five Nations.  While free to trade in both Montreal and Albany, the role of middleman eluded them, as the Ottawa Nation centered around Michilimackinac took over this role from the Huron.  Remnants of the Huron survived, dispersing to the west and south

And so ends the story of the Jesuit and Huron Nation.  You can see all this amazing history by visiting the Canadian Martyrs Shrine and the neighbouring St.-Marie Among the Huron restored village in Midland, Ontario.  Here are a few pics from our visit there a few years back.  Thank you Proff. Eccles and Fr. Macdougall, SJ for your painstaking research and analysis.

St. Marie showing the Palisades

Canadian Martyrs Shrine Church

Monogram of the name of Jesus Christ

Our Lady in the Garden

We learned last time from W. J. Eccles in the The Canadian Frontier 1534-1760, that the Jesuits established themselves in missions in Huronia during the period 1632-39.  Their goal was to convert the Huron Nation, some 30,000 strong, to Christianity.

Prof Eccles continues: “The Indians found little that appealed to them in the Christian way of life.  Moreover, the attempts by the Jesuits to make them change many of their established customs did not sit well.  The Indians lived without laws and with very few restraints; each man or woman was free to live as he/she thought best, and crimes were punished by the victim or his kin, not by the collectivity.  The only restraint on action was the normal desire to be held in esteem by his/her community.

Women were the masters of their own bodies and from puberty until pregnancy they gave themselves to any male that pleased them.  To the Jesuits this was a carnal sin.  Some others of the French, the men sent by the fur trade companies to establish good trade relations, found the Indian moral standards very acceptable and took full advantage of the Indian girls lack of sexual inhibitions.  Thus when the Jesuits tried to persuade the Huron to lead chaste lives, they met a cool reception.  If chastity was such a good thing, why did all the French Christians not practice it, they asked.  To this the missionaries were hard pressed to find an answer.

The Jesuits found that before they could hope to enjoy and real success, they had to undermine the old beliefs of the Huron, and in so doing, they helped to destroy their culture.  One approach was to demonstrate that the Indians reliance on dreams to govern their future actions was inefficacious.  Once a few Huron had been converted and openly rejected the belief in dreams, and if they had as much luck in the hunt as the pagans, the latter began to doubt their old beliefs.

If the Huron were occasionally impressed by the efficacy of the Jesuit prayers, they were quick to blame them when something went amiss.  And amiss it did.  It appears about 15,000 Huron, many of them children, died in the 1630s when a European disease for which they had no resistance, attacked their villages.  The missionaries saw this as the work of Satan but were quick to take advantage.  Previously, they feared baptizing an Indian unless they were reasonably certain that henceforth, she/he would lead a Christian life.   The missionaries were now able to baptize the dying by the hundreds.  Because the Jesuits were blamed for the disease, they encountered more resistance than ever but took satisfaction that thousands had gone to heaven that otherwise would have been barred to them.

No sooner had the plague run its course and began to abate, than another, and even worse disaster stuck the Huron.  The Iroquois anxious to gain more control of the fur trade, negotiated a commercial alliance and peace treaty with the Huron and French in 1645.  However they gained nothing by this accord and soon embarked on a war of extermination against the Huron.

In 1647 their sudden assaults forced the Huron to abandon some of their outlying villages and withdraw to the more populous villages near St. Marie for protection.  At or near St. Marie Mission were some 13 Huron villages.  During that year, 3,000 persons had been given shelter and food.  Converts numbered in the thousands and over 2,000 in all had been baptized; however a large number of the last had been moribund.  Attempts were made to renew the peace treaty and to arrange a military alliance with the Andastes, a fierce Iroquois Nation in the Susquehanna Valley (in NY and PA) hostile to the Five Nations Confederacy.  The Jesuits remained confident that the Iroquois assaults could be curbed and they started to see some success to their missionary efforts at last.”

(To be concluded next time…)

We celebrate National Indigenous History Month in Canada during June: https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1466616436543/1534874922512

I thought I would share a few excerpts from a history book I am reading.  It concerns the first interactions of the Jesuits with the Huron Nation in New France during the first half of the 17th century.

Prof. Eccles writes:

“It was in the west in Huronia, a vast area bounded by Georgian Bay, Lakes Huron, Erie, Ontario, and Simcoe that the Jesuits concentrated their major effort to convert the natives to Christianity. The Huron, estimated to number some 30 to 35 thousand, had obtained a more advanced culture than the Algonkin nations.  Living in semi-permanent villages, they depended on agriculture for their main food supplies and traded their surplus of corn with the northern and western tribes for furs.  Between 1634 and 1639, the Jesuits established 3 missions here, the largest of which was called Ste. Marie… As many as 65 French resided there at one time, priests, lay brothers, servants, a surgeon, an apothecary, and a number of artisans…These tiny outposts separated from the settlements on the St. Lawrence by hundreds of miles of wilderness, formed a unique frontier, a frontier of the intellect.  There the products of the highly sophisticated Baroque civilization confronted the Stone Age.

…The Huron had a religion of their own which sufficed for their needs, and which they showed a great reluctance to abandon.  Theirs was a cruel world in which sudden death could come at any time.  In seeking to explain chance events and the phenomena of nature that affected their lives at every turn, they had developed a deep-rooted set of mystic beliefs.  For them, the natural world, inanimate objects as well as animals, were inhabited by spirits; some were benevolent, some malevolent, all had to be placated, appeased or at least acknowledged.  They believed that in their dreams they were in communication with the spirit world; thus, to dream of success in the hunt ensured it; to dream of disaster caused plans to be abandoned.  Some among them were able to induce conditions of hysteria in themselves, and in this way communicate with spirits.  These were the shamans, the wisemen, who healed the sick with simple remedies of magic, and gave advice on what action to take to cope with major problems.  They were the priests of the Huron culture. Others possessed supernatural powers but used them malevolently; these were the sorcerers, and they had to be appeased.

…One great difficulty in any attempt to understand the Huron religious beliefs was that their beliefs were passed from one generation to the next orally.  The Indians had developed a large body of myths and legends to account for the inexplicable in nature, and although some Jesuits sought to understand these beliefs, the language barrier and the desire to impose their own alien beliefs made real understanding virtually impossible.  Yet this primitive religion was intricately interwoven into the whole of Indian life and society.  The early Recollets and then the Jesuits discovered that the Indians appeared to believe in a supreme being and in an after life, hence in the immortality of the soul.  The problem than became whether these beliefs could be accepted in essence and amended in accord with Christian beliefs, or whether they had to be destroyed, eradicated, then replaced by a pure Christian creed.  Initially the Jesuits, appalled at the strange mores and practices of the Huron, sought to eradicate and impose.  As they came to understand these Indians better, they discovered how impossible such a task is so they came to accept much and seek to build on it.

…Fr. Paul Le Jeune writes in Vol. IV of the Jesuit Relations : Our lives depend upon a single thread; and if, wherever we are in the world, we are to expect death every hour and to be prepared for it.  Your cabin is only chaff that might be burned down at any moment, despite all your care to prevent accidents, the malice of the Savages gives special cause for almost perpetual fear; a malcontent may burn you down, or cleave your head open in some lonely spot.  And then you are responsible for the sterility or fecundity of the earth, under penalty of your life; you are the cause of droughts; if you cannot make rain, they speak of nothing less than making away with you.”

Huron Chief Nicolas Arendanki by Marianne S L’Heureux

Such was the nature of the first interactions between the Jesuit missionaries and the Huron in New France.  Proff. William J. Eccles has done a superb job in capturing this encounter.  William (1917-98) was a professor of history at the University of Toronto who wrote extensively on the French era in Canada.

To be continued.

​This is a remarkable little book. It tells the very intimate story of the relationship between the Five Iroquois Nations of Western NY, the British and the French in 17th century colonial times. Written in 1727 and 1747 and often quoting first hand sources, makes it a very interesting  pre-confederation Canadian history read.

Covering the latter years of the Beaver Wars, 1663-1700, it starts and ends with interesting anecdotal facts:

–  the Iroquois or “longhouse people” were originally agricultural people raising corn, squash and beans, “the three sisters”.  Journeying north they were taught how to hunt and trap by the Algonquin peoples around Trois Riviere. On one of these early expeditions, the young Iroquois hunters faired very well outdoing their Algonquin hosts. In a fit of jealous rage the hosts murdered their visiting friends thus setting up a bitter war of retaliation that lasted almost 100 years.

– after peace was finally negotiated between the French and the Iroquois around 1700, there was an exchange of prisoners. Strangely enough most of the French and other native prisoners who were returned to Canada, freely chose to return to or remain with their Iroquois hosts for the rest of their days.

In between these bookends thousands of colonists, warring natives and indeed whole first nations were wiped out e.g., the Huron Nation in 1648, in an unrelenting series of attacks and brutal violence. The powerful Iroquois sought to become the middle men in the lucrative fur trade between the tribes near Lake Superior and the colonial powers in the east.  Although they greatly expanded their territory, they never quite succeeded as tribes further to the west took over once the Huron were gone..

The author spares no quarter in describing cannibalism and torture e.g., burning of prisoners alive that even the French succumbed to, to demoralize the other side. The British in Albany, always promising to come to the Iroquois aid in seeking to annihilate the French, never quite do setting the stage for the future abrogation of treaty rights that America became famous for. The Jesuits had a toe hold and counselled the Iroquois to break their relationship with the English in Albany. The Christian Mohawks in Caughnawaga near Montreal are called the “praying indians” and remained loyal to the French.

There are many detailed accounts of peace meetings between the Iroquois “sachems” or chiefs, the English and the French during which wampum belts and beaver pelts were laid down and gifted to signify honesty and commitment during negotiations. In the end. I was left with a sense of wonder and awe at the way the Five Nations conducted themselves with integrity throughout this violent period of our history.

I give it a 9 out of 10 rating and wished it were longer.