CHAPTER XX.

THE FRENCH IN THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

Origin of the Hostility of the Iroquois to the French-Settlement of Canada-Plans of the French respecting the Indians—The Jesuits-Their Work in America-Success of their Missions-The Early Missionaries-Foundation of a College at Quebec-Efforts of the Jesuits to Convert the Iroquois-Father Jogues-Death of Ahasistari-Father Alloüez-The Missions on the Upper Lakes-Father Marquette-His Exploration of the Upper Mississippi-Death of Marquette-La Salle-Efforts of France to secure the Valley of the Mississippi-La Salle Descends the Mississippi to its Mouth-His Effort to Colonize the Lower Mississippi—The First Colony in Texas-Its Failure-Death of La Salle-Lemoine d'Ibberville-Settlement of Louisiana-Colony of Biloxi-Settlement of Mobile-Crozat's Monopoly-Founding of New Orleans-Detroit FoundedSlow Growth of the French Colonies-Occupation of the Ohio Valley by the FrenchWars with the Indians-Extermination of the Natchez Tribe-War with the Chickasawa

E have already spoken of the explorations of Samuel Champlain in Canada and in the northern part of New York. It is necessary now, in order to obtain a proper comprehension of the period at which we have arrived, to go back to the time of his discoveries and trace the efforts of France to extend her dominion over the great valley of the Mississippi. We have seen Champlain in one of his last expeditions accompanying a war party of the Hurons and Algonquins against their inveterate enemies, the Iroquois, or Five Nations. By his aid the former were enabled to defeat the Iroquois, and that great confederacy thus became the bitter and uncompromising enemies of the French nation. They cherished this hostility to the latest period of the dominion of France in Canada, and no effort of the French governors was ever able to overcome it.

The efforts of Champlain established the settlement of Canada upon a sure basis of success, and after his death settlers came over to Canada from France in considerable numbers. Quebec became an important place, and other settlements were founded. It was apparent from the first that the French colonies must occupy a very different footing from those of England. The soil and the climate were both unfavorable to agriculture, and the French settlements were of necessity organized chiefly as trading-posts. The trade in furs was immensely valuable, and the French sought to secure the exclusive possession of it. To this end

it was indispensable to secure the friendship of the Indians, especially of those tribes inhabiting the country to the north and west of the great lakes.

In 1634, three years before the death of Champlain, Louis XIII. granted a charter to a company of French nobles and merchants, bestowing upon them the entire region embraced in the valley of the St. Lawrence, then known as New France. Richelieu and Champlain, who were members of this company, were wise enough to understand that their countrymen were not suited to the task of colonization, and that if France was to found an empire in the new world, it must be by civilizing and Christianizing the Indians, and bringing them under the rule of her king, and not by seeking to people Canada with Frenchmen. From this time it became the policy of France to bring the savages under her sway. The efforts of the settlers in Canada were mainly devoted to trading with the Indians, and no attempt was made to found an agricultural state.

Champlain had conceived a sincere desire for the conversion of the savages to Christianity, and had employed several priests of the order of St. Francis as his companions, and these had gained sufficient success among the savages to give ground for the hope that the red men might yet be brought into the fold of Christ. Father Le Caron, one of this order, had penetrated far up the St. Lawrence, had explored the southern coast of Lake Ontario, and had even entered Lake Huron. He brought back tidings of thousands of the sons of the forest living in darkness and superstition, ignorant of the gospel, and dying "in the bondage of their sins." In France a sudden enthusiasm was awakened in behalf of the savages, and at court zeal for the conversion of the Indians became the sure road to distinction. Much of this was the result of genuine disinterested regard for the welfare of the red men, but much also waз due to the conviction that by such a course the power of France would be most surely established in Canada.

The missions were placed entirely in the hands of the Jesuits, an order well suited to the task demanded of it. It had been established by its founder for the express design of defeating the influences and the work of the Reformation, and its members were chosen with especial regard to their fitness for the duties required of them. They were to meet and refute the arguments by which the Reformers justified their withdrawal from the Roman Church, to beat back the advancing wave of Protestantism, and bring all Christendom once more in humble submission to the feet of the Roman pontiff. The Reformers had made a most successful use of education in winning men from Rome; the Jesuits would take their own weapons against the Protestants. They would no longer com

mand absolute and unquestioning submission to their church; but would educate the people to accept the faith of Rome as the result of study and investigation; and in order that study and investigation should lead to this desired result, the control of these processes should be placed exclusively in the hands of the members of the Jesuit order, who should direct them as they deemed best. Such a task required a band of devoted men, carefully trained for their special work; and such an order the Jesuits became. Surrendering his conscience and will to the direction of his superiors, and sinking his personality in that of his order, the Jesuit became a mere intellectual machine in the hands of his superior. Bound by a most solemn oath to obey without inquiry or hesitation the commands of the Pope, or the superiors of the order, the Jesuit holds himself in readiness to execute instantly, and to the best of his ability, any task imposed upon him. Neither fatigue, danger, hunger, nor suffering, was to stand in his way of perfect and unhesitating obedience. No distance was to be considered an obstacle, and no lack of ordinary facilities of travel was to prevent him from attempting to reach the fields in which he was ordered to labor. The merit of obedience in his eyes atoned for every other short-coming; devotion to the church, the glory of making proselytes, made even suffering pleasure and death a triumph, if met in the discharge of duty. Such an order was in every way qualified for the work of Christianizing the savages, and America offered the noblest field to which its energies had yet been invited. There, cut off from the ambitious schemes and corrupt influences which had enlisted their powers in Europe, the Jesuits could achieve, and did achieve their noblest and most useful triumphs. There, their influence was for good alone, and their labors stand in striking contrast with those which won for the order the universal execration of Europe. Not only did they win the honor of gaining many converts to the Christian faith, but they were the means of extending the dominion of their country far beyond the boundaries of Canada, and of bringing the great valley of the Mississippi under the authority of France.

By the year 1536 there were thirteen Jesuit missionaries in Canada laboring among the Indians. Not content with remaining around the posts, they pushed out beyond the frontier settlements into the boundless forest, making new converts and important discoveries. Each convert was regarded as a subject of France and the equal of the whites, and the kindliest relations were established between the French and the natives. Many of the traders took them Indian wives, and from these marriages sprang the class of half-breeds afterwards so numerous in Canada.

The limits of Canada were too narrow for the ambition of the Jesuits;

they burned to carry Christianity to the tribes in the more distant regions beyond the lakes. In the autumn of 1634 Fathers Brabeuf and Daniel accompanied a party of Hurons, who had come to Quebec on a trading expedition, to their home on the shores of the lake which bears their name. It was a long and difficult journey of nine hundred miles, and it taxed the endurance of the missionaries to the utmost, but they persevered, and finally gained a resting-place at the Huron villages on Georgian bay and Lake Simcoe. There they erected a rude chapel in a little grove, and celebrated the mysteries of their religion in the midst of the wondering red men, who looked on with awe and not without interest. Six missions were soon established among the Indian villages in this part of the lake, and converts began to reward the labors of the

devoted priests. Father Brabeuf had not an idle moment. The first four hours of the day were passed in prayer and in the flagellation of his body; he wore a shirt of hair, and his fasts were frequent and severe. The remainder of the day was given to catechizing and teaching the Indians. As he passed along the streets of the village he would ring his little bell, and in this way summon the warriors to converse with him upon the mysteries of the Christian faith. He spent fifteen years in his labors among the Indians, and hundreds of converts were by means of him gained to Christ among the dusky children of the forest.

The great Huron chief, Ahasistari, was among the converts of Father Brabeuf. "Before you came to this country," he said to the missionary, "when I have incurred the greatest perils and have alone escaped, I have