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Page 25 text:
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trip to Quebec necessary ; and Father Jogues was chosen to lead the expedition. It was a journey involving extreme danger. The Iro- quois were on the warpath and the route lay between their villages and those of the Hurons. The trip was begun in early June and they arrived safely in mid-July. For the time, at least, they were to be spared. After spending two weeks in Quebec, Jogues and some forty persons, including four Frenchmen, started to return on August 1 . One of the Frenchmen was Rene Goupil, the donne. He had made the journey to New France, determined to work for the missions. When he heard of Father Jogues ' presence in Quebec, he went to him and asked to be taken to work among the Hurons. Father Vimont, the Superior of New France, recom- mended him highly ; and Jogues accepted his offer. Scarcely a day out, they were ambushed and taken captive by the Iroquois. What followed can only be described by the principal victim, Father Jogues. . . . assailing me with their fists and knotty sticks, they left me half dead on the ground; and, a little later, they also tore off my nails, and bit with their teeth my two forefingers, causing me incred- ible pain. They did the same thing to Rene Goupil. Afterwards they were taken to a village as captives. This is a description, in part, of what happened to them in that village. . . . our wounds, not healed, had putrefied, so that the worms dropped from them ... at the gate of the village an Indian drew a hatchet and struck Rene ' s head with it. He fell, half dead; but remembered, according to the agreement made between us, to invoke the most Holy Name of Jesus ... I gave the last abolution to my dear companion, who still breathed; but whose life the barbarian finally took away with two more blows. Jogues tells how the Indians dragged Rene ' s body through the village and threw it into the river; how he spent hours in the icy water attempting to find the corpse, in spite of the savages threats to kill him for so doing. It was not until the following Spring that he found the martyr ' s bones; and reverently buried them. In these words Jogues pays tri- bute to his young companion, the first of the eight to die: He was a man of unusual simplicity and innocence of life, of invincible patience and very conformable to the Divine Will. Jogues was made a slave of one of the Mo- hawk families, and for more than a year he lived as a drudge, his life in constant danger. At last he escaped with the aid of the Dutch and went to France. When he arrived in Paris to report to his provincial, he was so much in demand, that he longed to escape and return to his mission. The queen, Anne of Austria, insisted on seeing him, and hearing his story. From the Pope he received a special permis- sion to offer the Holy Sacrifice with his muti- lated hands. His will prevailed; and in 1644 he set sail for Canada once more. When he arrived, he was sent to Montreal. He bided his time, waiting until he could return to Huronia, working meanwhile among the savages around Montreal. Unexpectedly, the Iroquois sent an embassy to sue for peace. They arrived on July 5, 1644; and after lengthy proceedings peace was concluded in May, 1646. Jogues was selected to head a French mis- sion, which was to meet the Iroquois chiefs at Ossernon, their principal village. The dan- gerous mission proved successful ; and Jogues returned to Quebec in safety after two months. But, determined to return to the Mohawks as a missionary, he had left behind a box of pious articles at Ossernon.
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Page 26 text:
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When he received the permission of his superiors to return to the Iroquois, he tried to find a companion. It is essential that he, who accompanies me, must be virtuous, docile to direction, courageous, one who will suffer any- thing for Christ. In the young donne Jean de Lalande, he found the exact counterpart of his description. On the 24th of September, they set out together with high hopes for their work among the Mohawks. The box which Jogues had left behind was the cause of his death. The Indians blamed it for bringing on an epidemic and a poor har- vest. When they heard that Jogues was re- turning to their villages, they waylaid him two days before his arrival there, stripped and ill-treated him and Lalande, and dragged them to a village as prisoners. On the eight- eenth of October, Jogues was invited to a meal. As he entered the cabin, he was treacherously tomahawked. His head was cut off, and set upon a pole facing the route he had traveled. The next day, his young companion was mur- dered in the same fashion; and their bodies were thrown into the river. Thus the missions lost one of their greatest members; and two souls, of unconquered faith and courage, were united with God. The Hurons had begun to embrace the faith in large numbers after Jogues left; and the number of missionaries among them in- creased to twenty-one. Among these was Father Antoine Daniel who had returned in 1639, after his seminary failed, because the parents could not bear to be separated from their children. There was an extraordinary growth, not only in the number of converts, but in the actual virtue of the people. All the reports of the time were encouraging. In fact, the Hurons were gradually becoming Catho- lics; and in time, they might all, if peace prevailed, have been converted. But the Iro- quois renewed their attacks with increased ferocity, and destroyed whole vi llages instead of merely ambushing stray bands. On July 4, 1648, they appeared at St. Joseph II, just as Father Daniel was finishing Mass. The people were in an agony of terror. Father Daniel hastily baptized and absolved those, who desired it, and as the Iroquois, who had heard that there were many persons con- gregated in the church, approached, he said, Flee, my brothers, and bear with you your Faith even to the last sigh. As for me, I must face death here, as long as I shall see here any soul to be gained for heaven; and dying here to save you, my life is no longer anything to me; we shall see one another again in heaven. Then he calmly strode out to meet the enemy who stopped in surprise to see a lone man coming toward them. They surrounded him and pierced him with arrows. He received a mortal wound from a gun; and fell to the ground, pronouncing the name of Jesus. Within a year, on March 16, 1649, the Iro- quois attacked a village at which Brebeuf and Lalemant were stationed. They perpe- trated the most hideous tortures on the inhabi- tants and the two missionaries. The priests were beaten with sticks, necklaces of red-hot
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