Black-robes : or Sketches of missions and ministers in the wilderness and on the border

Contents

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I. — The Priest and the Parson of Two Hundred Years Ago . 7

II. The Missionary Among The Savages Of Superior

THE Ottawa, Menomonee, Chippewa, Illinois, and other Indian nations inhabiting the regions bordering upon the waters of Superior and Michigan, formed part of the great Algonquin family, which, having its connecting links through other intermediate tribes, extended along the line of lakes to the eastern seaboard, including and terminating with the powerful clans of the Abenakis in Maine. Within this belt of territory, and edging upon the lake which bears their name, lay the possessions of the Hurons or Wyandots, a people deriving their lineage and language from the Iroquois, but bound to the Algonquins, as was inevitable from their geographical position, by the more reliable ties of sympathy and interest.

Voyages for the purposes of trade were common between the Ottawas and the other kindred tribes of the West, and their allies, the Hurons, of the East. Straggling parties would make the excursion at almost any season of the year, except, perhaps, in the dead of winter; but the great tours happened more rarely, and were undertaken when the months were propitious, offering fair skies, a (16)

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genial atmosphere, open water, and the promise of supplies, in the game and the growth of the woods, for subsistence on the way. From sixty to a hundred or more canoes would gather at some convenient harbor on Green Bay, or on the Saut Ste. Marie, into which would be packed the cargoes of peltries and copper, their chief articles of export, when the flotilla, manned with some five persons to each bark, forming altogether quite a numerous party, would start upon their voyage. After the Old World had sent over its colonies to the New, and the settlements that sprang up on the seacoast and along the rivers began to exhibit their superior attractions, these voyages were continued farther down the St. Lawrence, until at length Quebec, the frontier town of the French, became the terminus of the trade. Here the native foresters could supply themselves at a cheap rate, according to their estimate of values, with the foreign commodities that suited their simple tastes, — beads, bits of glass, ribbons, rings, and the like, — while the barterers with whom they dealt were disposed to believe that they had not been outbargained in the furs and skins received in exchange.

While tarrying at port, social intercourse was not neglected between dealers and customers, and while the Frenchman excited the admiration and taxed the credulity of his visitor with descriptions of the marvels of his native land, the Indian, ambitious to maintain his national importance as well,

2* would reciprocate with stories of the wonders of the distant interior where he inhabited, — of its mighty rivers and fresh-water seas, of its illimitable prairies, and of the populous tribes that filled the region. Tempted by these representations, Nicolet, one of the earliest and most adventurous pioneers of New France, determined upon a voyage of exploration. A ready familiarity with the Algonquin tongue qualified him peculiarly for the undertaking. He made the expedition, visiting the "Sea Tribe," in the neighborhood of Green Bay, and having returned, offered his own testimony in confirmation of the statements made by the native traders.

Among the national festivals of the Algonquins was one of peculiar solemnity, entitled the Feast of the Dead, recurring, periodically, every tenth year, and held at some chosen locality in the country of the Hurons. On these events, delegations from all the tribes, far and near, were accustomed to assemble, bearing with them the bones of their dead of the last decade, dug from their graves, and brought for final sepulture in the one common depository consecrated to that use, but more particularly attracted, no doubt, by the feasts, the songs and dances, the games, and the torchlight processions which were the ceremonial accompaniments of the occasion. The period for a return of this festival happened in 1641, and was attended, among the rest, by a representation of Chippewas from the Saut Ste. Marie.

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The Jesuit missionaries were not slow to take advantage of so promising an opportunity to urge the claims of the Faith upon these strange barbarians. So eloquently did they press their appeals, and such was their gentle and winning manner, that they found favor in the eyes of the savages, who made earnest entreaty that some of their number should accompany them in the backward voyage to their lodges in the far land. Ever since the return of Nicolet, several years previously, the good fathers had contemplated the establishment of a mission in that quarter, and now that Providence had opened a way, they promptly and thankfully accepted the invitation. Preliminarily to a positive occupation of the ground, Fathers Jogues and Raymbault were appointed to undertake the journey, explore the country, and fix upon a station. Coasting Lake Huron in their canoes, after a voyage of seventeen days, made peculiarly pleasurable by the charming scenery that skirted their progress, and the genial summer atmosphere, redolent with the rich balm of pines, through which they floated, they arrived on the 4th of July at the Saut, to be met with the hearty welcome of two thousand Indians.

The wonders narrated by the old traders at Quebec were repeated. The missionaries were told of the great plains that stretched south and west, away from the lakes, and of the populous tribes — the Miamis, the Sacs and Foxes, the

Kickapoos, and the Pottawotamies — by which they were inhabited. Rumors, too, were rehearsed of vaster regions lying still farther beyond ; of the river of rivers, — the Mesipi they called it, — that had its broad course there, and of the Nadowessi, mighty and terrible, a nation of hunters and of a thousand warriors, that occupied the land. The missionaries were filled with wonder at the recital. Their hearts overflowed with compassion for the multitudes living and perishing thus in ignorance, and instantly would they have committed themselves to the work of their enlightenment, only that, as yet, the laborers were too few in the field of the Hurons, and the successes established there, through so much toil, too precious, to allow of the risk to the spiritual perseverance of the newly elect, that might ensue upon their withdrawal. But there was to be no final abandonment of the ground. They tarried for some days, sharing the hospitalities of their Chippewa friends, planted a cross on the site near the river where now stands the Gathedral of St. Mary, as the distinguishing emblem of their creed, and for evidence to such as might follow that they had been before, and were entitled to come again, to hold and to possess for the French and for the Faith, and then, launching their canoes, they glided out into the rapids of the Ste. Marie and floated away on their homeward-bound voyage. They never returned. Raymbault died, perishing from exposure. Jogues followed ultimately, hurried to his reward by the murderous blow of an Iroquois assassin.

A party of Ottowas, under guidance of a pair of wandering traders, who, in pursuit of their calling, some two years before had strayed upon them, visited the Hurons in 1656, and made request for a Black-Robe to join them on their return. Two of the fathers, Leonard Garreau and Gabriel Druilletes, — that man of " incomparable charity," — were accordingly commissioned for that purpose. Upon starting they took with them a company of Frenchmen, with the view of planting a white settlement among the natives at the Saut. The attending Frenchmen, soon wearying of the society of their savage co-voyageurs } and perhaps not uninfluenced by a regard for their personal safety, withdrew in a body from the enterprise. The missionaries were not to be deterred by the spiritless example of the deserters, but manfully continued their advance. Paddling their way against the tide of the river, they had proceeded as far as the island of Montreal, when they were suddenly attacked by a party of Iroquois, lurking secretly in await for them. Garreau fell fatally wounded under the first fire. The Ottowas deserted their canoes and took to the shore. Here, gathering behind defenses hastily thrown up, they sheltered themselves until escape was practicable, when they stole away, abandoning Druilletes, whom they would not allow to go with them, to whatever fate might overtake him.

But when the Jesuit resolved he accomplished. In his lexicon there was no such word as fail. Did persecution, armed with tortures, interpose to prevent him ? He might writhe under its inflictions, but he would not be hindered. Did certain death lie visibly before him in the way? Xo matter to the devotee whose daily invocation was that he might be found worthy, if the reward were not beyond his desert, to win the crown of martyrdom.

The establishment of the Saut Ste. Marie mission was deferred, but not abandoned, because of the disaster at Montreal Island. In 1660 another trading fleet of sixty canoes, laden with the ordinary freightage, arrived from Superior at Quebec. Three hundred Ottowas manned the expedition. They reiterated the request which had been urged by their brethren four years before, that a servant of the " God of the Prayer" should go back with them on their return. The Superior, Father Lallemand, listened to their prayer, and cast his eyes around to find the fitting candidate for the embassy. Among the enlisted in the sacerdotal service was a veteran, who, in earlier years, had toiled with Brebeuf, Jogues, Gamier, and Bressani, of saintly remembrance, and participated in all their trying experiences, save only the last, by which their earthly connection had been severed. Hard service had done its equal share with the frosts of fifty-six winters to whiten his hair, and the keenedged weapons of his enemies had left their deeper grooves than the well-marked furrows of time, on his cheek. Sixteen years' devotion to it had not diminished his ardor in the cause to which he was plighted. His physical frame, constitutionally delicate, would have rendered him incompetent for missionary duty, save that its energies, through a severe and uninterrupted process of discipline, had been trained to extraordinary endurance. His manners were those of a rarely accomplished, highly polished Christian gentleman. He was zealous in his Master's cause, but his zeal was of a temperate type, kept evenly quick and warm by the "live coals," rather than stimulatively ardent by the fitful flashes from off the altar.

Rene Menard was the man for the post. If the Superior, after having indicated his choice, hesitated on account of the age and infirmities of the priest to confirm it, "Fear not," said the worthy associate of the old martyrs. " He who feeds the young raven, and clothes the lily of the field, will take care of his servants." The venerable father was nominated, and forthwith started upon the mission.

The savage traders had been liberal in their offers of kind treatment. No sooner had they got fairly under way with their fleet, however, than the native treachery of their hearts began to betray itself. Indignities were heaped upon the grayheaded priest, especially by Le Brochet, a principal chief of the party, whose example failed not to provoke a like behavior on the part of his inferiors.

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He was made to perform their most menial services. He was compelled to toil at the oar from dawn till dark, and to contribute his more than equal share in the transportation of their burdens at the portages. He was forbidden his accustomed devotions; made the object of mockery and derision; robbed of his breviary, which the ruffianly wretches hurled into the water; yet patiently he endured it all, "and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth." Famine overtook the party on its way, when all were reduced to the extremity of subsisting on berries, barks, roots, acorns, and the tripe de roc he, a woodland moss, gathered as they might find it, here and there, on the rocks.

Arrived at the Saut at last, the Indians cast the unhappy missionary ashore, and left him provisionless, shelterless, barefooted, and with only the tatters of his threadbare robe for protection against the weather. Yet the soul of the heroic old man did not fail him. As of wont, his daily orisons ascended to heaven. As of wont, his lips gave breath to praise, the recesses of the woods wakening as they had never wakened before, to the strange song of the New Adoration, — the Salve Regina, — and the floods clapping their hands to the glad music of the Ave Maris Stella. For several days he was reduced for sustenance to the use of dry bones crushed to a coarse powder between stones and thus made edible. Some of his red-skin companions at length relented, sought him out, and conducted him to where their wigwams were pitched, miles away at Keweenaw Bay. Upon their extermination as a tribe, in 1649, by the Iroquois, a crippled remnant of the Hurons took refuge with the Ottowas. Ten years' exposure to the old superstitions may have dimmed, but had not obliterated, the religious impressions of these unfortunate exiles. As soon as Father Rene appeared among them, these sheep of the old flock gathered fondly about him, and with the stray wanderers of the scattered cote of St. Mary's on the Wye, he formed the nucleus of a new fold at St. Theresa's Bay, — as designated by him, — on Lake Superior. Such was the establishment of the first permanent mission in the Far West. Menard was not to be allowed, without dispute, to administer to the spiritual wants of his flock. The Ottowa people, under unworthy example of their chiefs, who were violent in their opposition to the faith of "the Prayer," drove the pious father from their cabins. He constructed for himself a rude shelter of fir-branches, through which the winds had almost unobstructed passage, and this was his lodge through the long, bitter months of a northern winter, — this his only protection against its storms, and snows, and cold. His labors were limited to the sick and equally suffering with himself among the unfriendly tribe, but were not without their recompense. Several baptisms are mentioned among the fruits of his efforts.

In the spring, having learned of a group of refugee Wyandots, inhabiting an island in Green Bay, he determined upon a visit to that quarter. The route was ascertained to be an exceedingly difficult and dangerous one, His friends advised him against the undertaking. "God calls me thither," he replied. " I must go if it cost me my life." Embarking in a canoe accordingly, attended by his proved friend the Donne, John Guerin, together with a small party of Hurons, he started upon the hazardous voyage. The way was long, following the devious current of the Menomonee, and laborious from the many crossings overland necessary, in order to avoid the various rapids in the river. Before having proceeded very far, the Indians, with accustomed infidelity, deserted the missionaries, who with wonted perseverance, however, continued to press on. At one of the portages, Guerin started in advance of his aged companion. The latter, with a dubious trail to follow, drifted out of the true course and lost his way. Guerin, more fortunate, made the crossing successfully, and awaited anxiously the arrival of the priest. He never appeared. Diligent search was made for him. The bag he carried, his breviary, and portions of his apparel were found long afterwards in the huts of some of the savages, but never a trace of the body of the missionary. Rene Menard, the last surviving of the Fathers in the Faith who had been first to bear the tidings of Redemption to the barbarians of the New World, had followed, by the same path whither they had gone, and the company of apostles on earth stood again complete as the circle of martyrs in Paradise.

But the Cross had been planted in the soil of the tribes on the Great Lake, and it was not to be abandoned. Claudius Allouez was appointed to fill the place made vacant by the loss of the venerable Rene. He accepted the commission cheerfully, joined the Ottowa flotilla at Montreal, in the summer of 1665, and by the month of September was in his allotted field of labor. ■ His first tarrying-point was at the bay of St. Theresa, where he was met and welcomed by some of the native converts of Menard. Thence he coasted along the lake, until, early in October, he had reached the charming bay of Chegoimegon. Here he encountered an assemblage of savages, representing the various clans of Algonquins, gathered in from their several cantons along the coast, and wrought up to a high pitch of enthusiasm, in view of a contemplated descent upon the encampments of their common enemy, the Sioux. The priest looked on with feelings of painful regret. It was a matter of prime importance for his purpose that the martial fever should be quieted, and, if possible, the threatened warfare obviated. While the more youthful warriors, therefore, with their battle-songs and dances, were busy adding fuel to the fire of excitement, the prudent missionary invited their elders apart,

— the sachems and experienced veterans of the clans, — and labored to convince them of the inexpediency of the proposed adventure. His counsels prevailed, and the undertaking was abandoned.

Allouez then built a chapel, on a spot which he designated as La Pointe du Saint Esprit, and thus prepared himself for the opening of his work among the tribes.

The difficulties which he had to encounter were many, and hard to overcome. The superstitions of the Indian — dear to him as the traditional inheritance of his fathers — were most to his choice, moreover, because their mysteries, of a type in their sublimation with the real circumstances of his life, lay within the range and aptitude of his unsophisticated habits of thinking. His objects of worship had to be plainly visible somehow, in the shadow at least, if not in the substance. The idea of a spirit imperceptible to sense, and unidentified with some special feature or other of nature, such as the sun, the winds, the water, the woods, was one beyond his grasp of comprehension. When the missionary, therefore, undertook to tear to pieces the structure of the old religion, he had the prejudices, firmly rooted as the growth of ages in a congenial soil could make them, to contend against; while when, on the other hand, he sought to substitute a knowledge of the faith of his Master, he encountered the harder task of attempting to build up without the material for reconstruction,

— the language of the savage being destitute of terms to represent the abstractions of his creed.

Then there were the social and domestic usages to correct; favorite practices not inconsistent with the native conception of morality, but scarcely comporting with the ethics of the new doctrine. Marriage, in its sacramental sense, was an unknown institution among the people. Man and woman, with perhaps a gift of wampum passed between them, — as a "consideration" for the longer or shorter term of accommodation that might follow, rather than as the pledge of a permanent compact, — would take to the same wigwam, but the relation thus contracted might be dissolved at any time as caprice decided, and either, or both, of the parties remain at liberty to enter into new alliances upon the same convenient terms. When the pair thus associating happened to have outlived the ardencies of youth, they usually kept up the companionship for years, — perhaps for life; but this fidelity was maintained from motives of convenience commonly rather than from tenderness of attachment, the woman acting pretty much in the capacity of slave, hoeing the corn, cracking the hominy, and attending generally to the domestic drudgery, while the man, making his amusements his occupation, provided the luxuries of the chase for the larder, or "filled his red-stone pipe for smoking," and took his ease in his cabin.

Polygamy, besides, was prevalent. Indeed, their

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customs — and their customs were their law — allowed the almost unrestricted indulgence of desire, and their grossness in this respect was so open, so shameless, so abominable, that the very brutes that roamed their forests were paragons of decency in comparison.

But Father Allouez did not despair of his mission. The chapel which he had erected, the novel appointments of its interior, the unaccustomed services, and the strange doctrines of the new religion, all combined to excite the curiosity of the natives; and from far and near, Nepissings and Kikapoos, Saulteurs and Pottawottamies, they gathered in to see the Black-Robe, and to listen to the marvelous tidings which he proclaimed. His attention being invited to these various tribes, he undertook a pilgrimage through their several territories, distributing his lessons of counsel and instruction in all their villages. As the fruit of his first winter's labor he was able to report the baptism of eightyfour subjects, principally children, but including several adults. Having continued at his work through two years, he returned to Quebec, tarried for two days, reported to his Superior, laid in a small stock of such supplies as were more pressingly needed at his Western post, engaged the services of an assistant, Father Louis Nicholas, and turned his face again towards Chegoimegon.

In his old field once more, Allouez applied himself with new industry to his labors. Missions were permanently established among the Ottowas, Chippewas, and Nepissings. But his efforts were not restricted to these tribes. He established his posts in the communities of the Miamis ; built his oratories of mats and bark among the Sacs and Winnebagoes ; and thus, season by season, migrated from scene to scene, until the news of redemption had been declared to twenty-five tribes, and eighty souls had been gathered by baptism into the fold of Christ. The Kiskakons, as a nation, under his preaching, adopted the faith of the Cross. From Lapointe Allouez proceeded to Green Bay, and his first mass being celebrated on the festival of St. Francis Xavier, the post was designated by that title. From that point as a centre he kept up an active intercourse with the various tribes of the region, explained the mysteries of the Prayer, opened chapels for instruction, waited upon the sick, and discharged the practical duties of his office in such a manner as secured the confidence of the natives, gave force to his influence, and aided him materially in the profitable prosecution of his labors. Hundreds were baptized, including chiefs and others of the distinguished among the people, some of whom, like Kekakoung, a converted Kiskakon, became preachers themselves of the creed of their adoption. Our Father, translated into their tongue, grew to be the familiar prayer of the wigwam, and Kyrie Eleison the accustomed chant at their devotions. Schools were instituted, where the children were taught the form of worship, and indoctrinated in the rudimentary elements of the Christian confession.

After the death of Marquette, Allouez, in 1676, went, under commission, to the Illinois tribe, to nil the place of that deceased missionary. He reached their territory in April, and at once took possession of the quarters which had been occupied by his illustrious predecessor. Since Marquette's time the population, gathered in from their temporary migrations, had multiplied materially, so that where he had found but one race and seventy-four cabins, his successor discovered three hundred and fifty-one lodges, accommodating eight tribes. On the day of the Feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross, the missionary planted a model of the emblem appropriate to the day, twenty-five feet high, which continued to stand long years afterwards as a monument to his zeal and enterprise. With occasional intervals, Allouez remained with this people till 1679, when, relinquishing the charge, he returned to Mascoutens.

III

MARQUETTE, HIS COTEMPORARIES AND SUCCESSORS, AND WHAT THEY ACCOMPLISHED.

IN the spring of 1668, James Marquette, accompanied by Le Boesme, a worthy brother of the Order of Jesus, took boat at Quebec and launched out upon the long journey to the Northwest. After the usual voyage along the romantic coast of Lake Huron, accomplished without incident worthy of mention, the reverend adventurers, entering the Saut Ste. Marie, and winding their course amid the isles that gem its channel, reached their point of destination, and disembarked on its southern shore, at the foot of the rapids. Here they erected a station, and, without delay, Marquette commenced the exercise of his priestly functions. His fame had preceded him in that distant wilderness, so that the savages poured in from every quarter to hear him. The assemblies that gathered at the summons for services were large, attentive, and apparently interested, so that sanguine expectations were entertained of fruitful results to his labor. But his hopes were not to be realized. Curiosity — their chief attracting motive — once gratified, his hearers gradually dropped off,

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or, if they lingered, betrayed no evidence of any impression that might be regarded as profitable or hopeful. Despairing of success, he determined to change his scene of operations, and accordingly, in the early autumn of the year following, removed to the mission opened by Allouez, at Lapointe, after a weary and trying passage of thirty days' continuance, made through desolate reaches of snow and ice. The inhabitants of two of the villages which were planted in the neighborhood, old converts of the Hurons in exile, received him kindly. Long estrangement from the influence of enlightened teachers had caused the decay of religion among them, and a partial relapse into the old superstitions ; but, although not without opposition, especially from the tribes of adjoining settlements, the lost ground was speedily recovered.

Marquette had listened to the legends that were told of the river of incomparable magnitude that rolled away to the west, and of the formidable nation — the Dacotahs — that swarmed the vast lands beyond. The spirit of adventure stirred sympathetically in his bosom with the zeal of the religieuse, and he resolved that, so soon as opportunity pointed the way, he would meet its hazards and put the rumor to the proof. The Winnebagoes, a tribe of the Dacotahs, and the only one east of the Mississippi, occupied the region bordering on the western extremity of Lake Superior. As a helpful preliminary to the grand project held in view, the missionary was anxious to secure the friendly favor of this people, and opened up negotiations which he hoped would result in an invitation to visit them; but, when on the eve of accomplishment, his plans were suddenly foiled. Some treachery of the Hurons offended their neighbors, and gave rise to a war which eventuated in their forced retreat to the quarter formerly occupied by them at Mackinaw. Marquette was compelled to retire with his friends. Here, amid the group of cabins in the new settlement, he erected a chapel and established the mission of St. Ignatius. But the spot was a dreary, inhospitable one, and offered indifferent prospect of good to be accomplished.

While yet at Lapointe, the eminent father had taken advantage of the presence of a prisoner from that tribe to have himself instructed in the dialect of the Illinois. That nation, an extensive and" powerful one, occupied the country lying between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, contiguous to the territory of the Dacotahs on the west, and, save by the partial interposition of the Miami district, reaching between the southern limit of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, by the Iroquois on the east, both dreaded enemies, between the opposite pressure of which they were doomed to be finally crushed out of existence. Defeated in his original plan of opening up a way of approach to the Dacotahs, or Sioux, through the Winnebagoes, Marqujtte determined to make the trial by a more southerly route through the territory of the Illinois. Accordingly, as early as was practicable in the spring of 1673, armed for his only defense with cross, beads, and breviary, he turned his face towards the setting sun, and started forth upon his enterprise. Mascoutens was the first point of attainment fixed upon, but finding the place deserted, he resumed his course, pushing westwardly until striking the Wisconsin, he embarked upon its waters in a canoe, and committing himself to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Immaculate, commenced his voyage. Day after day his frail craft glided on with the flow of the current; distance after distance, traced lingeringly along the winding channel of the stream, was measured, until, after a week of time and one hundred and twenty miles of progress, on the memorable 17th of June the mouth of the tributary was reached, and the successful explorer found himself afloat on the broad bosom of the Mississippi.

Upon his return from that distinguished adventure, instead of retracing his course by the Wisconsin, he struck into the Illinois, and ascended that river until having reached a settlement of the Peorias he decided, at their earnest solicitation, to tarry a few days in their town. He next proceeded to the Kaskaskias, another clan of the Illinois, who received him with a welcome so cordial that he promised, as soon as possible, to revisit their village and establish a mission there. After a brief stay with this hospitable people, amply rewarded by the privilege of conferring the rite of baptism upon a dying child, he bade them an affectionate adieu, and having crossed the intervening prairie, returned by lake to Mackinaw.

The severe exposures to which he had been subjected in this expedition told seriously upon the health of the enterprising missionary. He had been attacked with dysentery in his travels. Resisting the remedies applied for its correction, the disease assumed a chronic type, and was rapidly wearing away his strength. That his end was approaching was painfully evident. But the purpose upon which he was bent was not to be thwarted by any hinderance short of death. Had he not pledged himself to the benighted Kaskaskian savages that he would return to declare to them the glad news of Redemption? Let consequences happen as they might, the promise must be made good.