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The Jesuit Relations Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America

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The Jesuit Relations Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America THE BEDFORD SERIES IN HISTORY AND CULTURE The Jesuit Relations Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America Edited with an Introduction by Allan Greer University of Toronto SUB Gottingen 211 414 999 2000 A 1966 BEDFORD/ST. MARTIN'S Boston • New York Contents Foreword iii Preface v LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS xiii Introduction: Native North America and the French Jesuits 1 The Society of Jesus in Europe and Abroad 3 Iroquoians and Algonquians 6 The Colonization of New France 9 The Canadian Missions 11 The Jesuit Relations and Their Readers 14 Confronting the Other: The Problem of Cultural and Historical Difference 16 1. Montagnais Hunters of the Northern Woodlands 20 Paul Le Jeune Winters with Mestigoif s Band, 1633-1634 21 Paul Le Jeune, Journal [of a Winter Hunt], 1634 23 Paul Le Jeune, On Their Hunting and Fishing, 1634 26 The Montagnais Described 28 Paul Le Jeune, On the Beliefs, Superstitions, and Errors of the Montagnais Indians, 1634 28 Paul Le Jeune, On the Good Things Which Are Found among the Indians, 1634 32 ix CONTENTS How to Settle Disputes and Discipline Children 35 Paul Le Jeune, What Occurred in New France in the Year 1633, 1633 36 2. Jean de Brebeuf on the Hurons 37 Language 38 Jean de Brebeuf, Of the Language of the Hurons, 1636 38 Religion, Myth, and Ritual 41 Jean de Brebeuf, What the Hurons Think about Their Origin, 1636 41 Jean de Brebeuf, Tliat the Hurons Recognize Some Divinity; Of Their Superstitions and of Their Faith in Dreams, 1636 46 Jean de Brebeuf, Concerning Feasts, Dances . and What They Call Ononharoia, 1636 48 Law and Government 50 Jean de Brebeuf, Of the Polity of the Hurons and of Their Government, 1636 51 Jean de Brebeuf, Of the Order the Hurons Observe in Their Councils, 1636 59 The Huron Feast of the Dead 61 Jean de Brebeuf, Of the Solemn Feast of the Dead, 1636 61 3. Disease and Medicine 70 Huron Medical Practices 72 Jean de Brebeuf, [Cure by Lacrosse], 1636 72 Jerome Lalemant, [Cure by Gambling], 1639 73 Jerome Lalemant, [Satisfying the Soul's Desires], 1639 75 The Influenza Epidemic of 1637 78 Francois Le Mercier, The Malady with Which Our Little Household Has Been Afflicted, 1637 79 Francois Le Mercier, The Help We Have Given to the Sick of Our Village, 1637 81 Francois Le Mercier, Ossossane Afflicted with the Contagion, 1637 82 CONTENTS XI Francois Le Mercier, Of the Hurons Baptized This Year, 1638, 1638 89 Smallpox among the Hurons, 1639 89 Jerome Lalemant, Of the Persecutions Excited against Us, 1640 90 A Medical Duel: Father Allouez and the Potawotamis 91 Claude Allouez, Of the Mission to the Potawotamis, 1666-1667 92 4. Diplomacy and War 94 Peace Negotiations at Three Rivers, 1645 95 Barthelemy Vimont, Treaty of Peace between the French, Iroquois, and Other Nations, 1644-1645 96 Iroquois Attacks on die Algonquins, 1647 106 Jerome Lalemant, Some Iroquois Surprised after Defeating the Algonquins; A Woman Kills an Iroquois and Escapes, 1647 106 The Hurons Annihilated, 1649 111 Paul Ragueneau, Of the Capture of the Villages of the Mission of St. Ignace, in the Month of March of the Year 1649, 1648-1649 112 5. Writings on the Natural Environment 119 Montagnais Explanations of a Solar Eclipse 119 Paul Le Jeune, Of Their Customs and Their Belief, 1637 120 The Moral Qualities of Animals 122 Jerome Lalemant, Various Matters, 1647-1648 122 Earthquakes, Comets, and Other Prophetic Signs 123 Jerome Lalemant, Three Suns and Other Aerial Phenomena Which Appeared in New France, 1662-1663 124 Jerome Lalemant, Universal Earthquake in Canada and Its Marvelous Effects, 1662-1663 126 Francois Le Mercier, Of the Comets and Extraordinary Signs That Have Appeared at Quebec and in Its Vicinity, 1664-1665 131 XU CONTENTS Nature as a Storehouse of Resources 132 Francois Le Mercier, Of the Condition of Canada over the Last Two Years, 1666-1667 132 6. Missions to the Iroquois 136 Mission to tiie Mohawk Country, 1667 137 Francois Le Mercier, Of the Mission ofSte. Marie among the Mohawk Iroquois, 1667-1668 137 The Mohawks Converted 140 Jean Pierron, Of the Mission of the Martyrs in the Country of the Mohawks, or the Lower Iroquois, 1669-1670 141 The Iroquois Mission of Sault St. Louis/Kahnawake 146 Claude Chauchetiere, Letter of October 14, 1682, 1682 147 7. Martyrs and Mystics 155 The Ordeal of Isaac Jogues 155 Jerome Lalemant, How Father Isaac Jogues Was Taken by the Iroquois, and What He Suffered on His First Entrance into Their Country, 1647 157 A Native Saint 171 P. F. X. de Charlevoix, Catherine Tegahkouita: An Iroquois Virgin, 1744 172 8. Exploring the Mississippi 186 Jacques Marquette, On the First Voyage by Father Marquette toward New Mexico and How the Idea Was Conceived, 1674 188 APPENDICES Chronology of Events Related to the Jesuit Relations (1534-1773) 212 Questions for Consideration 214 Selected Bibliography 215 Index 218.
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