when our merchandise failed, these missionaries thought they could do no further service among

Another and grievous vexation experienced by the missionaries, arose from the enmity of the native Sorcerers. These Jugglers, called by the English Powahs, a name adopted from the Indians in their neighbourhood, and also known, in the languages of the country, by the names of Medeu, Hitch Lalage, Loache, &c., and by the French termed Jongleurs, every where opposed themselves to the Christian missions. They generally officiate in the threefold capacity of physician, priest, and prophet; and their influence over their countrymen has been universal. Hakluyt, in the account he gives of Laudonnière's early description of the Floridas (1560), says, "They have their priests, to whom they give great credit, because they are

Hennepin, ii. ch. 30.

"The office and dutie of the Powah," says Purchas, "is to be exercised principally in calling upon the Devill, and curing diseases of the sicke or wounded. The common people joyne with him in the exercise of Invocation, but doe not assent, or as we may say amen, to that he saith; yet sometime breake out into a short musicall note with him. The Powah is eager and free in speech, fierce in countenance, and joyneth many antick and laborious gestures with the same, over the partie diseased."-Purchas his Pilgrimes, part iv. book x, ch. 5.

great magicians, great soothsayers, and callers of devils. These priests serve them instead of phisitions and chyrurgions."* Charlevoix, and the other missionaries of New France, lament deeply, in their writings, the obstructions which the Jongleurs every where opposed to their labours. These men considered the French priests as intruders upon their vocation; and they accordingly seldom failed to exert their influence to the molestation and, frequently, the destruction of the missionaries. The Indians regarded their sorcerers as endowed with supernatural powers, looking upon them with fearful and superstitious apprehension. They even ascribed to the Christian missionaries the performance of miracles, and this created a rancour and jealousy among their own conjurors, which often caused much violence, and placed the missions in extreme danger.

In the year 1636, the Jesuit missions among the Hurons received an addition to their numbers; but the situation of those who composed them became now more perilous than ever. In consequence of the hostilities which again broke out between the Hurons and the Iroquois, the missionaries were doomed to share in all the terrors of Indian warfare. Under the circumstances in which they were placed, they could not avoid accom

panying the Hurons in their war expeditions; and although they probably did not often engage in active hostility, they were frequently present in their conflicts, and underwent great personal danger while performing their religious duties, baptizing the dying savages, and endeavouring to convert to Christianity the captured warriors before they were consigned alive to the flames by their enemies.

Charlevoix has given an account of the cruelties practised upon an Iroquois prisoner, taken during the war; and as this Indian was the first adult person belonging to that celebrated confederacy who had received the rite of baptism, the historian has been induced to present to his readers, at full length, the particulars of his fate. He takes his statement from Father Brebeuf, who, as well as another missionary, was present at the scene which occurred upon that occasion. It is not necessary to follow him through all his horrible details; but the proceedings with respect to this Iroquois captive may be noticed, as they exhibit the singular mixture of savage and of generous feelings, so conspicuous among those North American tribes, whom the Jesuits endeavoured to convert to Christianity.

When the prisoner was brought to a village where the missionaries happened to reside, a council was held by the Huron sachems, or elders, to deliberate upon what should be done with their captive; and

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it was decided that he should be delivered to an old. Huron chief, to replace, if he chose, one of his own nephews, whom he had lost in the war, or to deal with him in any other mode he might think proper. As soon as Brebeuf was informed of what was going on, he went to the Iroquois, in order to afford him every consolation, and to extend to him the benefit of religious instruction, and the rites of the church. He was permitted to communicate freely with the captive, whom he found dressed and ornamented in a superior manner, and perfectly tranquil and composed. Upon approaching him, however, Brebeuf observed that one of his hands had been crushed between two stones, and a finger pulled off; and that they had likewise cut off two fingers of the other hand with a hatchet: the joints of his arms were also dreadfully burnt, and a deep wound appeared in one of them. These injuries had been inflicted while led in triumph to the place where the sachems held their council to determine upon the ultimate fate of their prisoner. After he was brought to the village where the council was assembled, the captive was treated with the utmost kindness and attention, though well guarded to prevent his escape. The missionaries were permitted to attend him; and Brebeuf states that he received religious instruction with satisfaction, and was thereupon baptized.

The prisoner was now marched from village to

village, till they at length reached the residence of the Huron chief to whom he was to be presented, and who, as yet, had given no decision as to his future fate. When a captive was thus presented to an Indian, the latter sometimes adopted him, and sometimes doomed him to suffer death. No other person had the slightest authority with respect to him, this right being deemed sacred and inviolable. The Iroquois prisoner appeared before the Huron with the countenance and demeanour of a man equally indifferent to life or death. He was not long kept in suspense. "My nephew," said the old Huron chief, "you cannot know the pleasure which I received, when I heard you were to belong to me. I imagined that he whom I had lost had again risen in you, and that you would occupy his place. I had already spread a mat for you in my cabin, and looked forward in the hope of passing the rest of my days with you in tranquillity and peace; but the state in which I find you compels me to change my resolution. The pains and inconveniences you suffer would only make life a burden to you, and in shortening your days you cannot but think I do you a service: it is they who have thus mutilated you that have caused this determination. Have courage, therefore, my nephew; prepare for death this night. Shew that you are a man; and be not cast down by the dread of torments."