NORTH AMERICA’S PIONEERS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 29, 5 August 1925, Page 13

NORTH AMERICA’S PIONEERS

tv: - .r - ■ (By Francis X. Talbot, S.J, in America.)

VA « . I I . ' i . • ' . • if* Amateur - tourists - found little pleasure -in beautiful Quebec in the early days of the t sixteen: hundreds. In those days the only . attractive feature of Canada was the scenery.- | i Otherwise it as an uncouth land of starva- ( { tion, insects, and tomahawks. Amateur missionaries were quite as useless as tourists. It was not a period, such as this, when the • missioner can live as comfortably in a native village as he can at home, when' he gathers a congregation more docile than that of a metropolitan church', and when he regularly receives a, cheque to cover his evangelical labors. The seventeenth-century, missioner . needed to be a man of courage and endurance, on© who lived life savagely with the I nomad and who risked life recklessly. He had to be as daring: as the dashing cavalier who ambitioned to rule a colonial empire’ as hardy as the seasoned soldier ho fought for 'j: it, as intense in his work as the trader who came for peltries, and as anxious to leave , his home as the escaped criminal. Cavalier : f and soldier, rover, trader, adventurer and bad-man, all combined with the missioner to form that colorful group of exiles who brought the old world to the new. There was fascination in early America, there was high romance, but there was ruthless drudgery and an ever present tragedy. 1 In the beginning of this week, June 22., 23, 24, Quebec celebrated the three hundredth anniversary of the coming of the Jesuits to New France. These first “black robes” and their immediate followers are the men who i made the history of what is now Canada and A the northern portions of the United States. r They have been memorialised by monuments and tablets, their names have been given to rivers, lakes, and towns, and, on Sunday last, * they were accorded even greater honor when eight of them were solemnly proclaimed mar- :■ tyrs of . Christ. First Arrival of the Jesuits. Though the tercentenary of the landing of the Jesuits in New France is celebrated this year, it does not commemorate the first arrival of the Jesuits in the northern part of America. That occurred in 1611. Henry IV of France was determined to have a part in the spoils of the new world. He sent several expeditions across-the seas and finally established a community in Acadia, the land which helped later to make Longfellow fa- ; mous. Henry’s colonial ambitions, however, , did not,outrun his desire for the conversion of ■ * the natives. It .is a noteworthy fact that / Henry, and following him, Marie de Medicis, always placed as an essential condition in ' their colonial grants that the Commandant . * should make positive and determined efforts Vto bring the Faith to the savages. When the Calvinist lieutenant-general, de Monts, * led the expedition in 1604 he had with him a r- ’ priest, Aubry. In 1610, another priest, I Fleche, was taken for the express purpose of converting the natives, and a third accompanied Champlain about the same time. j Henry was very anxious to entrust the x mission to the Society of Jesus. In accord-

with his desire,- Father Coton, the famous royal confessor, appointed two priests, . Ennemond » Masse and Pierre Biard, to go to New France. They were willing and anxious but unable to find passage. From 1608 to 1611 they haunted the port of embarkation. Intrigue and subterfuge prevented them from sailing. The Calvinist, merchants, who practically controlled the trading companies, did not want the Jesuits in the new settlement, and the Catholic leaders believed the vile calumnies that were then being spread against the Jesuits in France. Henry kept invoking his royal power, but plausible reasons for disobeying his wish were always found. If Henry had not, at this time, been so insistent, if his court, and especially the Marquise de Guercheville, had not been so generous in their donations, the Jesuits would probably never have been able to place a single hero in New France. Masse and Biard finally embarked in 1611 at Dieppe. This was made possible only through the generosity of the Marquise de Guercheville who had bought the shares of the Calvinists in the trading company. That spring, . the two pioneers landed at PortRoyal in Acadia, Two years later, after a bitter struggle with the hostile authorities in the colony, they established a missionary base in what is now Maine. But in July, 1613, some English ships from Virginia, and English ships are forever hovering; over the history of New France, pounced on the helpless missionary settlement, robbed and burned it, and dragged off the inhabitants. Biard and Masse, after rough and thrilling experiences, eventually reached France by devious routes, Canadian Pioneer Missioners. The two Jesuits who first brought the Cross to New France were remarkable men. Biard was born in 1567. Before his voyage, he was a professor of theology and after his forcible return from Acadia he again occupied the lecture platform. He then went on preaching tours through central ‘France and finally died in service as a military chaplain in 1622. Masse had a longer and more picturesque record. For ten years after his return he w-as stationed at the most famous Jesuit college in France, La Fleche, where many of the Canadian missioners and martyrs were then studying. He talked of New France incessantly and kept inspiring the future apostles with romantii zeal. He returned to New France in 1625 and was again ejected. Undeterred, lie made his third voyage in 1633 and thirteen years later, at the age of seventy-two, died at Sillery, near Quebec. Missionaries to the Indians. With the establishment of new colonies along the St. Lawrence, and especially at Quebec, a new call as made for missionaries •to the Indians. When Champlain, was appointed lieutenant in 1612 he was given very definite instructions to establish the Catholic Faith among the natives and to maintain its

profession and exercise. , Champlain did not ■ need the instructions, for he himself was Jan apostle. He appealed' for assistance te the \ Recollects, a Franciscan branch. la 161 S, three Franciscan- priests and a • laj-brothar came to Quebec. The tercentenary of their :, coming was fittingly celebrated ten years ago. Too great honor cannot be paid to these noble men. As did the Jesuits a few | years later, they travelled and suffered with i the savages, catechised and founded schools for them, wrote Indian dictionaries and ; fought valiantly for Christ in, every .conceivable way. • Although the Recollects labored untiringly,.* they were not satisfied with their progress. According to their own account, they were| too. weak to struggle against the interference of the French in Quebec, they had no powerful patrons at Court, they had no income to support their work, and they were not sure of obtaining successors from France. Accordingly, they resolved, through pure and disinterested love of God, to appeal for help,, to ’an Order that was supposed to enjoy all the advantages that they lacked. In 1624,: the Reccollects of Qndbec sent Father Fiat, to France to invite the Jesuit* to-New F ranee. . • it: Jesuit Recruits. Masse, meanwhile, had been praying for the privilege of going to Canada and had been inspiring the younger brethren with the same longings. But all the zeal and the desires were apparently' sterile. No Jesuit could enter the field without the authorisation and even request of the Recollects. 1 The coming of Father Fiat was regarded as a near-miracle. When he laid his request before the Viceroy and the Jesuit Superior, they saw in it the hand of God. And when recruits were asked among the Jesuits, dozens of volunteers came forward. As in 1608, Calvinistic hostility had to be reckoned with. The Huguenot merchants protested; they refused passage, they appealed to the Viceroy, and they even tried to bribe the Recollects to retract their invitation. The Viceroy was firm and the Recollects were seeking the honor of God. On April 24, 1625, three Jesuit priests, Lalemant, de Brebeuf and the veteran Masse, and two brothers, Charton and Buret, set sail from Dieppe, arriving in Quebec on June 15. They were not received as conquering heroes. Pamphlets containing vicious calumnies against the .Jesuits had preceded them and were spread among the settlers. Catholics as well as Protestants, of whom there was a large number, refused to receive the missioners. The Calvinist, d© Caen, who ruled the colony in Champlain’s absence, told them that' he had no place for them. The Recollects were their only friends. These zealous men housed and fed the newcomers until a parcel of land was granted and a rude dwelling, Notre-Dame des t 'Arises, was erected. Gradually, opposition died away and the Jesuits strode bravely forth to the conquest of the new field. ' Down the St. Lawrence. The record of these first Jesuits who sailed down the St. Lawrence should be written in blood and gold. Masse and Charles Lale-

■.*r r *'^-:', r '--'‘/'■ 'l':''''^*V‘ v '>' ' ' ' viv ' ; --■' ; mant, uncle of the martyr, Gabriel, labored, suffered, and died for. their savages. De : Brebeuf became a martyr in fact. The ReCollects .were divinely guided in ; their choice jb cv i m .. , , . . . jbf helpers. Tenacity and optimism were required for the Canadian mission, and the f T ' > i ',i - v , Jesuits had these qualities superabundantly. Whether • through stupidity or rare vision, they never thought that they were beaten. When decadent whites had to be reckoned with, they fought them at Quebec and at Paris, When there was famine, they starved ; when there were sacrifices to be made, they suffered; when they were disgusted with the customs of thir savage children,' they swallowed their tastes ; when they were threatened with death, they prepared their death feasts with lavish spreads! They kept on winning step by step until they finally won. - Two more priests, Noyrot and do Noue, and, another brother arrived in 1626. But the first establishment along the St. Lawrence was n6t to last long. In 1629, the English captured Quebec and hustled Franciscans, Jesuits, and all the colonists aboard ship and returned them to France. When Canada was again restored to France in 1632, . the Jesuits were with the first ships that returned to New i France. That year came Fathers Le Jeune and de None, Daniel, and Davost. / The following year arrived de Brebeuf and Masse and in the next few years the recruits included Jogues, Gamier, Ragueneau, Le Moyne, and the rest of the glorious calendar, some of whom have already •been, named the first Martyrs of North America. . ' , Jesuits’ Record in North America. From these seeds, the Jesuit contribution 1 to North America has increased magnificently -.with the years. In the first few years they had established schools for natives and French in and around Quebec. In 1635, they founded the college which rightly claims th be the oldest institution of higher learning in North America. This college offered ''a course of studies that equalled the best in Europe. During those early years, too, they established hospitals, orphanages, and schools with the assistance of the noble Ursulines and Hospital Sisters. From’ Quebec passed endless processions of missionaries to the natives. . Some of these retraced their , path down to the mouth, of the St. Lawrence and ■ then struck up the Saguenay’ some went North to Hudson Bay and some South to New York. Very many pioneered to the West, past Montreal and Three Rivers, to the Great Lakes, to the present Wisconsin and Ohio, down the Mississippi and even to the Gulf of Mexico. All Quebec and its environs as well as half the border line between the United States and Canada are redolent with the memory of the Jesuit discoveries and settlements. 1 Ip Quebec’s tercentenary celebration is not to be limited to Quebec. It is one of the really important commemorations in this year that is rich with anniversaries of Revolutionary ■4 arid nioneering exploits. ,