Perils of the ocean and wilderness

Preface

No works are more popular, or generally read, than those describing the perils by sea and land, through which the writers have passed; and one work of fiction, the Robinson Crusoe of Defoe, will ever be a favorite from its apparent reality, its combination of perils from shipwreck and perils from the barbarous savage, which the imaginary hero recounts.

No fiction can equal the real sufferings of every kind endured by the early missionaries to this country. Like Saint Paul, they might indeed speak of their perils — perils by sea, perils by land, perils from robbers, perils from false brethren. Fortunately for our edification, many of them left narratives of their adventures, and some of these, we have gathered in this volume from various sources, which we might call original. They comprise Father Charles Lalemant's narrative of his shipwreck off Cape Breton, taken fron^^the Voyages de Chamr

Vi. PREFACE.

flain^ published at Paris in 1632 ; the narrative of Father Jogues' captivity, taken from a sworn copy, preserved at Montreal, and from that printed in the Societas Militans of Tanner ; the captivity and death of Eene Goupil from the autograph of the martyred Jogues ; Letters of Father Jogues from the Relations de la Noiwelle France^ and sworn copies ; the captivity of Father Bressani, from his work Breve Relatione^ published at Macerata, in 1653 ; and the thrilling account given by Father Crespel of his shipwreck on Anticosti, being the whole of the little volume published by him at Frankfort, Maine, in 1742.

New York, Anniversary of the death \ of Father Jogues, 1856. \

JOHN GILMARY SHEA.

PERILS

Chapter I

THE SHTPWRECK OF FATHER CHARLES LALEMANT, PHILIBERT NOYEor AND OTELERS, OFF CAPE BRETON.

Tete writer of the following letter was one of the most eminent of the early Jesuit missionaries in Canada, where several others of his family were distinguished, and one, the illustrious Father Gabriel Lalemant, died a martyr to his zeal for the conversion of the Indians.

Father Charles Lalemant, a son of the Sieur Lalemant, LAeutenant Criminel of Paris, was born in that city in 1587. He entered the Society of Jesus at the age of twenty, and was soon followed by his two brothers, Jerome and Louis, the latter a celebrated ascetical author. Father Charles was one of the missionaries at the colony of St. Savior's, on Mount Desert Island, in Maine, in 1613, and was there taken prisoner. He was subsequently Rector of the College at Paris, but was again sent to Canada, in 1625. Two years afterwards he returned to France for supplies, but, on reaching the mouth of the St. Lawrence, in the summer of 1629, the captain learned that Quebec had been taken by the English. In endeavoring to sail back, the vessel was lost. Father Lalemant thus describes the shipwreck, in a letter to his Superior. We translate from the French, as published by the illustrious Champlain, in the edition of his voyages which appeared at Paris in 1632.

LETTER.

'^ ' The Lord chastising has chastised me ; but he hath not delivered me over to death.'" — (Psalms cxvii. 18.) A chastisement the more severe, as the shipwreck has been attended by the death of the Rev. Father Philibert Noyrot, and of our brother, Louis Malot, two men who would, it seems to me, have been of great service to our seminary. Yet, as God has so disposed, we must seek consolation in his holy will, out of which there never was a solid or contented mind, and I am sure that experience has shown your reverence that the bitterness of our sorrows, steeped in the sweetness of God's good pleasure, when a soul binds itself indissolubly to that, loses all or most of its gall, or, if some sighs yet remain for past or present afflictions, it is only to aspire the more for heaven, and meritoriously perfect that conformity in which the soul has resolved to spend the rest of its days.

" Of the four members of our Society in the ship, God, dividing equally, has taken two and left the two others. These two good religious, well disposed, and resigned to death, will serve as victims to appease God's wrath justly excited against us for our faults, and to render his goodness favorable henceforth to the success of our designs.

" What destroyed our vessel was a violent southwester, which arose when we were off the coast ; it was so impetuous that, with all the care and diligence of our captain and crew, with all the vows and prayers which we could oifer to avert the blow, we could not avoid being driven on tlie rocks, on the S6th day after our departuife, feast of St. Bartholomew, about 9 o'clock in the evening. Of, twenty-four that were in the vessel, only ten escaped ; the rest were engulphed in the waves. Father Noyrot's two nephews shared their uncle's fate. We interred the bodies of several, among others, of Father Noyrot and Brother Louis. Of seven others, we have had no tidings in spite of all our search.

*' To tell you how Father Yieuxport and I escaped, would be difficult, and I believe that God alone knows, who, according to the designs of his divine providence, has preserved us ; for, for my own part, not deeming it possible, humanly speaking, to avoid the dangers, I had resolved to stay in the cabin with Brother Louis, preparing ourselves to receive the death stroke, which could not be delayed over three Misereres, when I heard some one calling me on deck. Supposing that my assistance was needed, I ran up and found that it was Father Noyrot, who asked me to give him absolution. After giving it, and singing the Salve Regina with him, I had to stay on deck ; for there was no way to get below ; for the sea was so high and the wind so furious, that, in less than a moment, the side on the rock went to pieces. I was close by Father Noyrot when a wave broke so impetuously against the side where we were standing, that it dashed it to pieces, and separated me from Father Noyrot, from whose lips I heard these last words : ' Into thy hands I commend my spirit.' For my own part, this same wave left me struggling amid four fragments of the wreck, two of which struck me so violently on the chest, and the other two on the back, that I expected to be killed before sinking forever ; but, just then, another wave disengaged me from the fragments, sweeping off my cap and slippers, and scattered the rest of the ship over the sea. I fortunately fell on a plank to which I clnng ; it was connected with the rest of the sid€ of the ship.

There we were then at the m^ercy of the waves, which did not spare us, rising I cannot tell how many feet above our heads, and then breaking over us. After floating thus a long while in the dark, for night had set in, I perceived, on looking around me, that I was near the shore of what seemed to be an island, which almost surrounded us, and was covered with brambles. Looking a little more attentively, I made out six persons not far from me, two of whom perceiving me, urged me to do my best to join them ; this was not easy, for I was greatly enfeebled by the blows I had received from the fragments of the wreck. I exerted myself, however, so much that, by the help of my planks, I at last reached them, and by their aid got on the mainmast, which was still fast to part of the ship. I was not here long ; for, as we got nearer the island, our sailors quickly got ashore, and, by their help, all the rest of us were soon there. There we were, seven in all ; I had no hat or shoes ; my cassock and clothes all torn, and my body so bruised that I could scarcely stand up, and, in fact, they had to support me to enable me to reach the wood. I had two severe contusions on the legs, especially the right one, which is still painful ; my hands cloven open and bruised ; my hip torn, and my chest much injured. We now retired to the wood wet as we came from the sea. Our first care was to thank God for preserving us, and to pray for those who were lost. That done, we lay down close by each other in order to try and get warm, but the ground and the grass, still wet with the heavy rain, was not much fitted to dry us.

Thus we spent the rest of the night, during which Father Vieuxport, who, thank God, was unhurt, slept well. The next morning, at daybreak,. we began to examine the spot where we were, and found it to be an island from which we could pass to the main land. On the shore we found many things that the sea had thrown up ; among which I picked up two shoes, a cap, hat, cassock, and other necessary articles. Above all. Providence sent us, in our want, five kegs of wine, ten pieces of pork, oil, bread, cheese, and a gun and powder, which enabled us to strike a fire. After we had thus gathered all we could, on St. Louis' day, all set to work to do their best to build a boat out of fragments of the wreck, in which to coast along till we found a fishing-smack. We set to work with the v/retched tools we found, and it was pretty well advanced on the fourth day, when we perceived a craft sailing towards the spot where we were. They took on board one of our sailors, who swam out near to where they were passing, and took him to their captain. That worthy man, hearing of our misfortunes, let down his boat, and came ashore to ofier us a passage. "We were thus saved ; for, the next day, we all slept on board. It was a Basque vessel, fishing about a league and a half from the rock where we struck, and, as their fishing season was far from being gone, we stayed with them the rest of August and all the month of September. On the first of October, an Indian came to tell the captain that, if he did not sail, he ran a risk of being taken by the English.

This news made him give up his fishing, and prepare for the voyage home. The same Indian told us that Captain Daniel was building a house twenty -five leagues ofi", and had some Frenchmen there with one of our fathers. Father Vieuxport had already pressed me very hard to let him stay with this Indian, who was really one of the best that could be found. I now told him, " Here, father, is a means of satisfying your reverence. Father Vimont will not be sorry to have a companion. This Indian offers to take you to Daniel's place ; if you wish to stay there, you may ; if you wish to spend a few months with the Indians and learn the language, you may do so, and both Father Vimont and yourself will be satisfied." The good father was quite delighted at "the opportunity, and set off" in the Indian's canoe. I let him have all we had saved, except the large painting which our Basque captain had taken, and which I would have made him give up, if another • disaster had not befallen us. We left the coast on the sixth of October, and after more violent storms than I had yet ever seen, on the fortieth day of our voyage, as we were entering a port near San Sebastian in Spain, we were a second time wrecked. The vessel went into a thousand pieces, and all the fish was lost. All that I could do was to get into a boat in slippers and nightcap as I was, and, in that guise, go to our Father's at San Sebastian. I left there a week after, and, on the 20th of the pres ent month, reached Bourdevac, near Bordeaux.

" Such was the issue of our voyage, by which you may see how great reason we have to be thankful to God.

Charles Lalemant, S, J,

Bordeaux^ November 22, 1629."

OCEAN AND WILDEHNESS. 15

Although thus twice wrecked, and once a prisoner, Father Lalemant was not to be repulsed from the Canada mission. He came out again in 1634, and began his projected school at Quebec. After attending Champlain on his death-bed, he returned to France, and died at the advanced age of eighty-seven, haAing been successively rector of the colleges of Rouen, La Fleche, and Paris, and being, at the time of his death, Superior of the Professed House in his native city. Besides the foregoing narrative of his shipwreck, he wrote a Relation of the first Jesuit mission to Canada, published in the Mercure Franpais, and " Entretiens sur la vie cacMe de Jesus Christ dans V Eucharistie" a new edition of which has just been published m France, edited by Father A. Cadres.

CHAPTEE II.

CAPTIVITY or FATHER ISAAC JOGUES AMONG THE MOHAWKS.

Father Isaac Jogues, the writer of the following narrative, was born at Orleans, in France, in 1607, and, embracing the rule of St. Ignatius, became a member of the Society of Jesus, in 1624. Although a poet and scholar, he sought a foreign mission, and was sent to Canada soon after his ordination in 1636. After a short stay at Miscou, he proceeded to the country of the Wendats or Hurons, in Upper Canada, and remained there amid every privation till 1642, when he was sent to Quebec by his Superior for necessaries of various kinds. On his return voyage, he was taken prisoner, and he thus relates his sufferings in a letter written from Henssalaerwick, now Albany, to the Provincial in Prance. The letter, which is in a pure and classic Latin, was first published by Alegambe, in his Mories Illustres, and subsequently by Tanner, in his Societas Militans, both rare works. A sworn copy of the original letter is preserved at Montreal in manuscript.

narrative.

Reverend Father in Christ — ^the Peace of Christ. — Wishing, as I do, to write to your reverence, I hesitate first in which language to address you, for, after such long disuse, almost equally forgetful of both, I find equal difficulty in each. Two reasons, however.

induce me to employ the less common idiom. I shall be better able to use the words of Holy Scripture, which have been, at all times, my greatest consolation : " Amid the tribulations which have found us exceedingly." — Psalms xlv. 2. I also wished this letter to be less open to all. The exceeding charity of your reverence, which, in other days, overlooked my manifold transgressions, will excuse, in a man for eight years a companion and associate of savages, nay, a savage now himself in form and dress, whatever may be wanting in decorum or correctness. I fear more that, wanting in language, I may be still more so in knowledge, " nor know the time of my visitation," nor remember what character I here bear imposed on me by God as a preacher of his gospel, a Jesuit and a priest. This induced me to write to your reverence that, if this letter should ever reach your hands, I may, though lying here in this hard land, amid Iroquois and Maaquas, be helped by your masses, and the prayers of your whole province. This, I am in hopes, will be more earnestly given, when, fi'om the perusal of this letter, you shall see, both how much I am indebted to the Almighty, and in what need I am of the prayers of the pious, in which, I am aware, I have a powerful shield.

We sailed from the Huron territory on the 13th of June, 1642, in four small boats, here called canoes ; we were twenty-three souls in all, five of us being French. This line of travel is, in itself, most difficult for many reasons, and especially because, in no less than forty places, both canoes and baggage had to be carried by land on the shoulders. It was now too full of danger

2* from fear of the enemy, who, every year, by lying in wait on the roads to the French settlements, carry off many as prisoners ; and, indeed. Father John Brebeuf was all but taken the year before. Besides this, not long before they carried off two Frenchmen, but afterwards brought them back to their countrymen unharmed, demanding peace on most unjust terms, and then conducted themselves in a very hostile manner, so that they were driven off by the cannons of the fort. On this, they declared that, if they took another Frenchman prisoner, they would torture him cruelly, like their other captives, and burn him alive by a slow fire. The Superior, conscious of the dangers I was exposed to on this journey, which was, however, absolutely necessary for God's glory, so assigned the task to me, that I might decline it if I chose ; " I did not, however, resist; I did not go back ; " (Isaias 1. 5 ;) but willingly and cheerfully accepted this mission imposed upon me by obedience and charity. Had I decKned it, it would have fallen to another, far more worthy than myself.

Having, therefore, loosed from St. Mary's of the Hurons, amid ever-varying fears of the enemy, dangers of every kind, losses by land and water, we at last, on the thirtieth day after our departure, reached in safety the Conception of the Blessed Virgin. This is a French settlement or colony, called Three Bivers, from a most charming stream near it, which discharges itself into the great river St. Lawrence, by three mouths. We returned hearty thanks to God, and remained here and at Quebec about two weeks.

The business which had brought us, having been concluded, we celebrated the feast of our holy Father

Ignatius, and, on tlie second of August, were once more on our way for Huronia. The second day after our departure had just dawned, when, by the early light, some of our party discovered fresh foot-prints on the shore. AVhile some were maintaining that they were the trail of the enemy, others, that of a friendly party, Eustace Ahatsistari, to whom, for his gallant feats of arms, all yielded the first rank, exclaimed: " Brothers ! be they the bravest of the foe, for such I judge them by their trail, they are no more than three canoes, and we number enough not to dread such a handful of the enemy." We were, in fact, forty, for some other had joined us.

We consequently urged on oui way, but had scarcely advanced a mile, when we fell into an ambush of the enemy, who lay in two divisions on the opposite banks of the river, to the number of seventy in twelve canoes.

As soon as we reached the spot where they lay in ambush, they poured in a volley of musketry from the reeds and tall grass, where they lurked. Our canoes were riddled, but, though well supplied with fire-arms, they killed none, one Huron only being shot through the hand. At the first report of the fire-arms, the Hurons, almost to a man, abandoned 'the canoes, which, to avoid the more rapid current of the centre of the river, were advancing close by the bank, and in headlong flight, plunged into the thickest of the woods. We, four Frenchmen, left with a few, either already Christians, or at least Catechumens, ofiering up a prayer to Christ, faced the enemy. We were, however, outnumbered, being scarcely twelve or fourteen against thirty ; yet we fought on, till our comrades, seeing fresh

J^O PERILSOFTHE

canoes shoot out from the opposite bank of the river, lost heart and fled. Then a Frenchman named Hene Goupil, who Vas fighting with the bravest, was taken with some of the Hurons. When I saw this, I neither could, nor cared to fiy. Where, indeed, could I escape, barefooted as I was ? Conceal myself amid the reeds and tall grass, I could indeed, and thus escape ; but could I leave a countryman, and the unchristened Hurons already taken or soon to be? As the enemy, in hot pursuit of the fugitives, had passed on, leaving me standing on the battle-field, I called out to one of those who remained to guard the prisoners, and bade him make me a fellow captive to his French captive, that, as I had been his companion on the way, so would I be in his dangers and death. Scarce giving credit to vvhat he heard, and fearful for himself, he advanced and led me to the other prisoners.

Dearest brother, I then exclaimed, wonderfully hath God dealt with us ! " but he is the Lord, let him do what is good in his sight;" — 1 Kings iii. 18. "As it hath pleased him, so hath it come to pass, blessed be his name ; " then, hearing his confession, I gave him absolution. I now turned to the Huron prisoners, and, instruGting them one by one, ba,ptized them ; as new prisoners were constantly taken in their flight, my labor was constantly renewed. At length Eustace Ahatsistari, that famous Christian chief, was brought in ; when he saw me, he exclaimed, " Solemnly did I swear, brother, that I would live or die by thee." What I answered, I know not, so had grief overcome me. Last of all, William Couture was dragged in ; he too, had set out from Huronia with me. When he saw all in confusion, he had, with the rest, taken to the woods, and, being a young- man endowed with great gifts in body as well as in mind, had, by his great agility, left the enemy far behind. When he looked around and could see nothing of me, " Shall I," he said to himself, "abandon my dear Father, a prisoner in the hands of savages, and' fly without him ? Not I." Then returning by the path whicb he had taken in flight, he gave himself up to the enemy. Would that he had fl.ed, nor swelled our mournful band ! for, in such a case, it is no comfort to have companions, especially those whom jou love as yourself. Yet such are the souls, who, though but laymen, (v/ith no views of earthly reward,) serve God and the Society among the Hurons.

It is painful to think, even, of all his terrible sufferings. Their hate was enkindled against all the French, but especially against him, as they knew that one of their bravest had fallen by his hand in the fight. He was accordingly first stripped naked, all his nails torn out, his very fingers gnawed, and a broad-sword driven through his right hand. Mindful of the wounds of pur Lord Jesus Christ, he bore, as he afterwards told me, this pain, though most acute, with great joy.

When I beheld him, thus bound and naked, I could not contain myself, but, leaving my keepers, I rushed through the midst of the savages who had brought him, embraced him most tenderly, exhorted him to offer all this to God for himself, and those at whose hands he suffered. They at first looked on in wonder at my proceedings ; then, as if recollecting themselves, and gathering all their rage, they fell upon me, and, with their fists, thongs, and a club, beat nie till I fell senseless. Two of them then dragged me back to where I had been before, and scarcely had I begun to breathe, when some others, attacking me, tore out, by biting, almost all my nails, and crunched my two fore-fingers with their teeth, giving me intense pain. The same was done "to Eene Goupil, the Huron captives being left untouched.

When all had come in from the pursuit, in which two Hurons were killed, they carried us across the river, and there shared the plunder of the twelve canoes, (for eight had joined ns.} This wa§ very great, for, independent of what each Frenchman had with him, we had twenty packages containing church plate and vestments, books and other articles of the kind ; a rich cargo indeed, considering the poverty of our Huron mission. While they were dividing the plunder, I completed the instruction of such as were unchristened, and baptized them. Among the rest was one sere, octogenarian chief, who, when ordered to enter the canoe to be borne off with the rest, exclaimed, '' How shall I, a hoary old man, go to a strange and foreign land? Never! here will I die." As he absolutely refused to go, they slew him on the very spot where he had just been baptized.

Raising then a joyful shout w^hich made the forest ring, " as conquerors who rejoice after taking a prey," ( Isaias ix. o, ) they bore us off, twenty-two captives, towards their own land ; three had been killed. By the favor of God our sufferings on that march, which lasted thirteen* days, were indeed great — hunger, and

* The Italian version of F. Bressani and the Latin, as given by Alegambe, say 88. The context suffices to correct this typographical fault, which is not in the Relation of 1646-7.

OCEAN AND WILDERNESS. 2S

heat, and menaces, tlie savage fury of the Indians, the intense pain of our untended and now putrefying wounds, swarming even with worms; but no trial came harder upon me than when, five or six days after, they would come up to us, weary with the march, and in cold blood, with minds in no wise aroused by passion, pluck out our hair and beard, and drive their nails, which are always very sharp, deep into parts most tender and sensitive to the slightest impression. But this was outward; my internal sufferings affected me still more when I beheld that funeral procession of doomed Christians pass before my eyes, among them five old converts, the main pillars of the infant Huron church.

Indeed, I ingenuously admit, that I was aga,in and again unable to withold my tears, mourning over their lot and that of my other companions, and full of anxious^ solicitude for the future. For I beheld the way to the Christian mith closed by these Iroquois, on the Hurons, and countless other nations, unless they were checked by some seasonable dispensation of Divine Providence.

On the eighth day we fell in with a troop of two hundred Indians * going out to fight. And as it is the custom for the savages, when out on war parties, to initiate themselves as it were by cruelty, under the belief that their success will be greater as they shall have been more cruel, they thus received us. First rendering thanks to the sun, which they imagine presides over war, they congratulated their countrymen by a joyful volley of musketry. Each then cut off some stout clubs in the neighboring wood in order to receive us.

* This was on an island in Lake Champlain. Here the Latin text inserts gome details not in the MS. of 1652.

M PERILSOFTHE

When, therefore, we landed from the canoes, they fell upon us from both sides with their clubs, with such fury, that I, who was the last, and therefore most exposed to their blows, sank, overcome by their number and severity, before I had accomplished half the rocky way that led to the hill on which a stage had been erected for us. I thought I should soon die there ; and so, partly because I could not, partly because I cared not, I did not arise. How long they spent their fury on me, he knows for whose love and sake I suffered all, and for whom it is delightful and glorious to suffer. — Moved at length by a cruel mercy, and wishing to carry me into their country alive, they refrained from beating me. And, thus half dead, and drenched in blood, they bore me to the stage. I had scarce begun to breathe, when tjiey ordered me to come down, to load me with scoffs and insults, and countless blows on my head and shoulders, and indeed on my whole body. I should be tedious were I to attem.pt to tell all that the French prisoners suffered. They burnt one of my fingers, and crunched another with their teeth ; others already thus mangled, they so wrenched by the tattered nerve, that, even now, though healed, they are frightfully deformed. Xor indeed was the lot of my fellow-sufferers much better.

But one thing showed that God watched over us, and was trying us rather than casting us off. One of these savages, breathing nought but blood and cruelty, came up to me, scarce able to stand on my feet, and, seizing my nose with one hand, prepared to cut it off with a large knife which he held in the other. What could I do ? Believing that I was soon to be burnt at the stake^ unmoved, I awaited the stroke, groaning to my God in heart ; when stayed, as if by a supernatural power, he drew back his hand in the very act of cutting. About a quarter of an hour after, he returned, and as if condemning his cowardice and faint-heartedness, again prepared to do it ; when again held back by some unseen hand, he departed. Had he carried out his design, my fate was sealed, for it is not their custom to grant life to captives thus mutilated. At length, late at night, and last of all, I was taken to my captorsT, without receiving a morsel of food, which I had scarcely touched for several days. The rest of the night I spent in great pain.