carried him to New York, where he was subjected to all the horrors of Indian cruelty-was made to run the gauntlet three times; his finger nails were torn out; his hands and feet dislocated and mutilated, and his left thumb cut off. He was held captive by the Indians for fifteen months. Concerning the captivity of Father Jogues, Bancroft writes: "Roaming through

FATHER ISAAC JOGUES

the stately forests of the Mohawk Valley, he wrote the name of Jesus on the bark of the trees, graved the cross, and entered into possession of these regions in the name of God, often lifting up his voice in a solitary chant." Through the kindness of the Dutch Governor Kieft, Father Jogues escaped and from New York was conveyed to France. He was everywhere received with

honor, and, notwithstanding his mutilated hands, Pope Urban VIII granted him special permission to read Holy Mass, saying: "It would be wrong to prevent the martyr of Christ from drinking the Blood of Christ." His heart, however, was with the Indians, and he boarded the first vessel that left France for America. Returning to Canada and once more entering New York, the scene of his former suffering, he received the long-coveted crown of martyrdom at the hands of the Mohawks (1646).

88. Fathers Breboeuf, and Lallemand. Father Breboeuf, S. J. (1593-1649), styled by Spalding the "Xavier of the Hurons, came to the Canadian missions (1625). He soon mastered the difficult Huron language and became "all to all, in order to gain all to Christ."

Father Gabriel Lallemand, S. J. (1610-1649), the "Aloysius of the Huron Mission," called by Bancroft the "Gentle

Lallemand," was a co-laborer of Father Breboeuf. Both of these illustrious missionaries were seized by the Iroquois and cruelly tortured. Father Breboeuf suffered for nearly three hours; Father Lallemand much longer. Spalding, speaking of the death of Lallemand and Breboeuf, says: "The former was a lamb, the latter a lion. The lion and the lamb were immolated together for their love of God and of their neighbor. Yet did. the lamb die much more slowly than the lion."

89. Father Daniel-Father Rene Menard-Father Claude Allouez. Father Daniel, S. J. (1648), while employed in missionary labors among the Hurons, was killed at the foot of the altar during an Iroquois massacre.

Father Rene Menard, S. J., a survivor of the Huron missions. and former companion of Fathers Jogues and Breboeuf, labored among the Ottawas, and after incredible hardships and wanderings, founded a mission on Keweenaw Bay, northern Michigan. He was lost in the forests and never again heard from (1661).

Father Claude Allouez, S. J., undismayed by the fate of Father Menard, carried the Gospel through what is now Wisconsin and northern Michigan, and established a mission at Green Bay. He was joined by Fathers Marquette and Dablon, and the three founded (1669) St. Mary's, the oldest city in Michigan. They employed themselves in evangelizing the vast regions extending from Green Bay to the head of Lake Superior.

90. Noted Indian Converts. Most of the early missionaries in French America met a violent death. Their noble ranks, thinned by hardships, fierce tortures, and agonizing deaths, were filled anew by great souls who pressed forward to share in the toil and dangers of the missionaries. Step by step, vast numbers from every tribe were won over for Christ and civilization. Even the fierce Iroquois finally yielded to the benign influences of faith. Foremost among them was Garacontie, the great chief of the Five Nations, who was baptized by Bishop

Laval in the Cathedral of Quebec and became the bulwark of Christianity. At his baptism were present, the French governor as sponsor, and other Frenchmen of noble rank, lordly sachems from the Hurons on Lake Huron, gentle Mohegan chiefs from the banks of the Hudson, faithful Abnakis from the valley of

LILY OF THE MOHAWKS

the St. Lawrence, stately Chippewas from Lake Superior, and noble Iroquois from every tribe in New York. Another notable Indian convert was the great Mohawk chief, Kryn. Coming under the influence of the Christian village of La Prairie, he soon became a devout Catholic. When his tribe would not listen to his pleadings that they become worshipers of the true God, he raised his wild war cry for the last time in the streets of the village, and, gathering a number of devoted followers, knelt with them amid the graves of his fathers and uttered a fervent prayer for his nation. Then he arose, and, with streaming eyes, led his followers to the village of La Prairie on the St. Lawrence.

Catherine Tekawitha, styled the "Lily of the Mohawks," was born in New York on the very soil drenched with the blood of Father Jogues. Becoming an orphan at an early age, she lived with an uncle who has hostile toward the Christians. She was secretly baptized and henceforward gave herself entirely to God, devoting her time to prayer, to the practice of austerities and kindly deeds. She fled from her uncle's rage to La Prairie, where, after a chaste, austere, and saintly life, she died as she had lived, with the holy names of Jesus

and Mary upon her lips. Catherine's grave became an object of veneration where the rich and poor of every race came and knelt to pay her homage. This devotion, rewarded by God with miraculous cures, still subsists, and a large cross marks the spot where repose the remains of the "Lily of the Mohawks."

91. The Missionaries, the Pioneers of Discovery, Exploration, and Civilization. The missionaries were the first white men to sail on our great rivers and lakes, to admire our mighty

cataracts and rapids, to penetrate and traverse our majestic forests.

A Jesuit discovered the salt springs of New York (Father Le Moyne, 1654); a Franciscan drew attention to the oil springs of Pennsylvania (Father de la Roche, 1627); a Jesuit lay brother first worked the copper mines on Lake Superior; the first sugar cane was raised by Jesuits in New Orleans. The missionaries introduced the cultivation of wheat and the use of the plow. They founded the first schools and the first college (Quebec, 1635) and set up the first printing press (Father Richard) in the North.

The pioneer missionaries wrote descriptions of all they had seen and experienced and sent them to the superior in France. This remarkable series of letters has been collected into seventy-five volumes called the "Jesuit Relations" (1610-1691) of which there is an English translation edited by Reuben G. Thwaites.

92. First Nuns in New France. The hospital nuns from Dieppe opened a public hospital at Quebec. They received into it not only the sufferers among the emigrants, but the maimed, the sick, and the blind from the numerous tribes between the Kennebec and the St. Lawrence. The Ursuline nuns came to Quebec (1639) and established a convent into which they received the dusky daughters of the wilderness for religious and secular instruction.

93. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary in North America. The early Spanish explorers came with the banner of Mary; the name of the ship of Columbus was St. Mary; the earliest shrines were reared under her invocation; bay and river and mountain received the hallowed name; the first city on the mainland that became a bishop's see was St. Mary's. The ardent sons of France chose the icy realms of Canada to plant the Lilies of France, but its rigors could not chill devotion to Mary. Montreal Island saw a city rise with the name of Ville Marie. As the missionaries made their way westward, the worship of St. Mary marked their path till the great Mississippi, the River of the Immaculate Conception, bore them down toward those Spanish realms where every officer swore to defend the Immaculate Conception.