Letter 110

From Quebec to her son. Summer 1647.
The Iroquois break the peace. the death of Fr. Jogues. The progress of the Gospel. The example of virtue given by some.

My very dear son,

Every year I send you an account of the graces and blessings God pours on this new Church, so it is only right to share with you the affections He permits. Sometimes He consoles us like a loving father, sometimes like a severe judge He chastises us, and me especially who more than anyone, anger Him by my continual infidelities. He made us feel the weight of His hand this year by a blow, very painful for those zealous for the salvation of souls. It is the breaking of the peace by the perfidious Iroquois, followed by the death of a great number of Christians, French and Indian as well as Fr. Jogues.

What drove these Barbarians to break the peace that we thought so firmly established was the hatred of our Faith and of prayer instilled into them by some Huron captives. These said that the new ways brought all sorts of evil on the nation such as infectious diseases and the comparative failure of the hunting and fishing. About the same time the epidemic attacked their nation and spread through their villages carrying off many people.

The infected air caused a disease in the corn that destroyed almost the whole crop. All this confirmed for them what the Hurons said. Fr. Jogues had visited them, bringing confirmation of the peace on the part of the Governor and all the Christians, French and Indian. As a guarantee that he would return he left with his host a box containing some books and church furnishings. They decided it was demons he had left among them and that they caused all the misfortune. All this and their fickleness, their inability to keep a promise and the prospect of the deprivation of the spoils of war made them forget their promises to us, and solemnly swear to destroy their old enemies. At the same time they sent presents to the Iroquois nations of the North, the Oneidas and others, inviting them to join the alliance, and these readily consented. Meantime the Governor, knowing nothing of the change of attitude, arranged that some Frenchmen with some Hurons would go to visit the Iroquois. Fr. Jogues, who had already watered the ungrateful land with some of his blood, joined the group to advise and help them on the journey. They set Out from Three Rivers September 24, 1646 and reached the Iroquois Agneronons, after a fatiguing journey, October 17. They met with a totally unexpected reception. They were stripped naked, taken into the cabins to be ill treated, beaten with fists or sticks and taunted, “Don’t be surprised at this. You will die tomorrow. No you will not be burned. You will be struck by the hatchet, and your heads staked on the posts of the paling around our village, to be seen by your brothers when we have taken them”. They saw at once that their captors were embittered and there was no hope of mercy. They used the little time left them to prepare for death. The next day passed peacefully making them think the Barbarians had softened a little. But in the evening a member of the Bear tribe was bringing Fr. Jogues into his cabin for supper, when another Indian, standing behind the door, struck the priest with a hatchet and he fell dead. They did the same to a young Frenchman, Jean de La Lande from Dieppe, sent to accompany Fr. Jogues. Their heads were fixed on the palisade, and their bodies thrown into the river. Thus this great servant of God consummated his sacrifice. We honour him as a Martyr, and rightly so, for he was murdered through hatred of our holy Faith and prayer which these heathens take for incantations, magic and sorcery. We can say that he was three times a martyr, that is every time he went to the Iroquois nations. The first time he did not die, but he suffered enough to cause his death; the second time he suffered and died only in desire, his heart continually consumed with longing for martyrdom, the third time God granted him the favour for which his heart had so long yearned.

It seems God had promised him this grace, for he wrote to a friend in prophetic strain: “I’ll go but I will not come back”, as if he awaited the happy moment with holy impatience. Oh, how sweet it is to die for Jesus Christ! That is why His servants so ardently desire to suffer. As the Saints always want to do good to their enemies, no doubt, being in Heaven, he asked God for the salvation of his slayer, for some time later the man was taken by the French, converted, baptised, condemned to death and died with truly Christian sentiments.

Having killed the Father’s companions, the Iroquois went on the warpath to surprise the French and their Indian allies before they could hear the news of the broken treaty and prepare to defend themselves. They came to Montreal where they captured three Hurons and two Frenchmen. They pillaged a few rather isolated French homesteads, taking everything, while the owners were in Church. Two Algonquins from Three Rivers, with their wives, had gone about six miles, seeking an elk killed by Hurons. These fell into the hands of the Iroquois who then devastated the whole countryside. Hearing from their captives that the Algonquins had gone to the Hunt in two divisions, one group going north, the other south, they divided in two to pursue. It was easy to track the footsteps of so many, so they soon came on the cabins with the women and children and baggage. They seized all and went in search of the men. They met the famous Pieskaret, returning alone, without a care in the world, but well armed. They knew he would sell his life dear and though alone he could do them much damage, so they pretended friendship and acceptance of the Peace. He believed them and began to sing his peace song. When he least expected one of them came behind struck him with a sword and he fell dead. They scalped him, as became a Captain, and proceeded to round up the hunters and bring them to the cabins. Taken completely by surprise, these made no resistance. It was a sad reunion of families in captivity when they thought peace was established.

The hunters who went south were captured too. Our good Christians and neophytes were moving from their huts to go further into the woods. Encumbered with women, children and baggage, they had no chance of defending themselves. Marie, John Baptist’s wife, was at the back with her son and saw the enemy attacking the Huron who was acting as rear guard. She shouted to her husband to run and tell those in front. But he, a valiant man, would not flee, took his weapon and slew the leading attacker, but was in turn mown down. The rest were cornered and none escaped. Bernard, brave and noble, killed his assailant, but unsupported, he was killed in turn. The captives were led to a designated place to join the other group.

The following day the members of the other band arrived in the same place amid whoops and shouts of victory as is their custom when leading their prisoners in triumph. Our good Christians, seeing one another in the same plight, bound, bruised and covered with wounds, could communicate only with looks of mutual compassion, dispirited, sad and bitter as they were. John Taouichkaron did not lose heart amid the general desolation. He stood up confident and fearless, and in a tone of assurance addressed the group: “Courage, brothers, let us not abandon Faith and Prayer. The pride of our enemies will soon pass away. Our torments, though great will not last. Having endured with patience, we’ll have eternal rest in Heaven. Let no one be shaken in his Faith. Though in misery, we are not forsaken by God. Let us get down on our knees and pray to Him with courage and patience”.

At this not only the Christians and catechumens but also their relatives knelt. One of them said the prayers aloud; the others answered as usual. Then they sung hymns to console themselves in the deep affliction to which His Providence had reduced them. The Iroquois were astonished. One of them began to laugh. Marie, John Baptist’s wife, spoke with Christian dignity to a renegade among them whom she recognised saying: “Tell your people not to mock at holy things. It is our custom to pray to Him-Who-Made-All in the sufferings He sends us. He will chastise those who despise Him, and you especially, who like a coward turned your back on Him”. Others mocked but the pervert, conscience-stricken, hung his head and treated the prayers with respect. The Christians remained steadfast amid taunts and mockery. They made The Sign of the Cross on their children’s faces and got them to say the rosary using their fingers, the Barbarians having taken all their aids to devotion.

Before going further, they burned alive a Christian so badly wounded that they feared he would die on the way, and so get an easy death. More cruel than wild beasts, they crucified a three year old child who had been baptised, driving pointed sticks into his hands and feet, and stretching the little body on the bark of a tree. 0 happy infant to have merited in his innocence the honour of a death like that of Jesus Christ! Who would not envy this holy Innocent, more blessed in my opinion than those whose deaths honoured the Birth of Our Saviour?

The afflicted group were brought to the Iroquois country and received as prisoners of war, with blows of sticks and burning tire-brands thrust into their sides. Two big scaffolds were erected, one for the men and one for the women, where they were exposed naked to the derision and taunts of all. They asked for Fr. Jogues to hear their confessions and baptise the catechumens.

Their request was treated with mockery. Some Algonquins, for a long time captives among the Iroquois, whispered to them that the Father had been killed and his head spiked on the palisade. Seeing no prospect of gentle treatment or of a priest, they turned to God alone for help and consolation. When their captors got tired mocking them, they brought them into three Agneronon villages in succession. In the first their nails were pulled off, in the second their fingers were cut off, in the third they were burned, everywhere they were beaten with sticks, adding fresh wounds to those already inflicted. The lives of the women, girls and children were spared but the men and youths were distributed among the villages to be burned, boiled and roasted. The Christian who had led the prayers was horribly tortured. All night they burned him from feet to waist, next day they burned him waist to neck, reserving his head for the following night. But they saw that he was dying and threw the whole body into the fire. He never uttered a word of complaint nor showed any signs of discouragement. Faith gave him interior strength and enabled him make acts of resignation to God’s Will. He constantly turned his eyes to Heaven, as the place to which he aspired and would soon go.

Call him a martyr if you like, but certainly prayer was the cause of his suffering; he was more cruelly tortured than the other captives because he was the leader in prayer. We got the details from some who escaped, especially from Marie, John Baptist’s wife. The story of her escape is worth sending to you. Once before she had been a prisoner of the Onondagneronon Iroquois and was recognised. She was asked to come outside the village, as if for a kindly word. They took her partly willing, partly by force, and hid her in the forest, promising to come back for her next day, as they did. They had to pass the village of the man who took her prisoner and to whom she belonged by the laws of war. Fearing he would see her and claim her, they covered her with a sack and left her some food for the night. She rested for a while, and then under cover of darkness came near the village. The whooping and yelling told her they were burning one of her nation. It occurred to her that was what they were planning for her too as fugitives are rarely pardoned, she had grounds for thinking so. She had heard young people who were looking at her carefully, ask one another what part of her body was most to their taste. One answered that the feet cooked in the cinders would be good. She knew their language, did not let her terror appear, but decided that only flight would save her from death. At once she set out in the direction of home, taking a beaten path lest her tracks would betray her.

She hid in a den in a dense forest not far from the village for ten days and ten nights, slipping out at night to glean ears of maize left by the reapers in the neighbouring fields. She managed to get very little, but had to live on it for a journey of more than two months. During the day she watched Iroquois passing quite close to her and recognised her captors. Lack of provisions caused her to lose heart, but the worst moment came one day as she watched a big Iroquois, hatchet on shoulder, coming directly towards her. She prepared for death but when the man was almost beside her, God made him change direction and go into the deep forest. This act of Providence did not raise her courage. Even if she escaped to her own country she would die of cold and hunger in the snow and forests. If she returned to either of the two villages she would be burned alive, if she remained in her hide out she would die of hunger or be recaptured. She decided that self inflicted death would be a good action and easier. She prayed and commended herself to God, took her belt fastened it around her neck with a running knot, tied the end to a tree and proceeded to hang herself, the cord broke. She tried again with the same result. Then her eyes were opened to see God’s protecting hand over her. God did not want her to die. She must save her life by flight. No food? He who feeds the birds of the air and the beasts of the forest is sufficiently powerful and good to help her who believed and hoped in Him. She prayed, begging His guidance and faced into the trackless forest. She had no food but the few ears of corn she had gleaned, no compass but the sun, no road or path. When her provisions ran out, she scraped the ground for soft roots, when the frost prevented her digging, she turned to the trees, chewed the twigs for the sap and the inner bark for food. She suffered unspeakably from cold and hunger. But God never abandons those who trust in Him in their need. She found a hatchet where Iroquois had camped. That saved her life. She managed with sticks and timber to strike a light and have a fire at night. This she carefully extinguished before dawn lest the smoke betray her. She came on little turtles and these provided her with food for a few days. In the evenings having said her prayers, she made a fire, ate, warmed herself and slept. All day she walked and prayed. She met Iroquois that were going hunting, they did not see her. They had left their canoe on the riverbank till they would return. She jumped into the canoe and paddled away quite happy, except for the fear of meeting her enemies and the worry of not knowing where she was. Finally she found herself in the Big River, the St. Lawrence, on the way to French territory. She went from island to island, subsisting on birds’ eggs.

She made a long wooden sword, hardening the point in the fire. With it she caught a sturgeon five or six feet long. She drove deer and beaver into the river, followed them in her canoe, cornered them, killed them with the hatchet, took all the meat she wanted. and still had a supply when she reached Three Rivers. Here she was recognised at once for she and John Baptist were well known. The welcome was a mixture of joy and grief. She was completely inhibited. She was presented to Madame d’Ailleboust, wife of the Governor, a lady loved by the Indians. Madame and her ladies did all they could to console and comfort her, assuring her she should dry her tears as she was among relatives and friends. “And that is what makes me cry” she said, “to see myself amid places and people where my husband. my child and I were so loved. My tears were dried long ago but the memory of that friendship has reopened the floodgates”. Having paid the debt to natural affection and rested a little, she told the story of the capture of the neophytes and the subsequent events, as I have just written it to you. Several other women freed by the Iroquois, arrived later and confirmed her account.

Since then the Algonquins are continuously on the alert and there have been acts of hostility between them and the Iroquois. An Algonquin of the Little Nation got into his canoe with his wife to warn his compatriots to be on their guard and to tell them of the capture and massacre of their relatives near Three Rivers. He had not gone far when he saw a canoe with seven or eight Iroquois. He told his wife he would like to attack them if she agreed. She answered him that she would follow him willingly, to live or die with him. They encouraged each other and hastened to I reach the enemy canoe. Before they were seen they discovered it was accompanied by four others, filled with men shouting like conquerors. He changed his mind, disembarked on the opposite bank of the river and fired a shot, as if he were on the side of the Iroquois and wanted to know how they got on. These thinking it was a group of their own people, raised forty shouts, firing a shot at each shout. That meant they had taken forty of his people prisoners. He lost no time, picked up his wife whom he had left on the opposite bank, and went as far as a group they had left not long before. They told them what they had seen and exhorted them not to lose the chance of avenging the dead and freeing their captive brothers. Seven young men agreed to go with him, and at once they paddled after the Iroquois. Carefully they slipped alongside in the dark to reconnoitre. There were five canoes, in each more potential defenders than attackers, so they decided to attack at midnight when the enemy were m their first sleep, two to man each of the three bigger boats and one each for the two others.

The Christians said their prayers, and at midnight attacked the Iroquois striking and killing all before them. The sleepers awakened could see nothing, did not know what happened and shouted: “Who is there?” For answer they got blows of hatchet and sword. A big Iroquois pierced by a sword, grappled with his assailant and broke the sword. The other shook him off and having no weapon, used stones. The big Iroquois followed him and was getting the upper hand when another Algonquin joined and gave him the fatal blow. The carnage was awful and seemed worse in the dark. Ten Iroquois were killed, others wounded, the captives freed, the booty seized. The liberated captives urged their liberators to get away quickly. There were Iroquois in great numbers hiding nearby and these would avenge the slaughter. So they scalped the dead; the skins and other merchandise pillaged from French allies they floated down the river.

The Iroquois who were hiding had other captives, among them a woman whom they were dragging after them in their usual inhuman way. At night they tied her to four stakes stuck in the ground in the form of a St. Andrew’s cross. One night she noticed that the tying on one arm had loosened, she wriggled her arm free. She untied the other arm, and then her two feet. All the Iroquois were dead asleep. She stepped over them without wakening anybody. At the door of the cabin she found a hatchet, took it and with savage fury dealt the nearest Iroquois a blow on the head. The man did not die immediately. He made a noise and wakened the others. They lit a torch. Finding their comrade steeped in blood, they looked for the murderer. They saw that the woman was missing. The young people ran after her but failed to find her. She was hidden in a hollow tree trunk that she had noticed the day before near the cabin. She heard all the noise made over the death of their comrade. When the noise died down and her pursuers had gone in one direction, she ran in the other. When daylight came they fanned out searching for her tracks and finding them, they followed her for two whole days. They came so close that she thought the end had come. She saw a pond near where the beavers build, dived in surfacing only to breathe. The baffled Iroquois gave up and returned to where they came from. Seeing that she was free she walked through the forest for thirty five days, a piece of bark for clothing, roots, currants and wild fruit for food, when she could find any. She swam across little rivers, to cross the big rivers she made a raft of logs tied by a cord of bark. She felt safer when she had crossed though she did not know where she was. She walked along the bank until she found an old hatchet. With it she made a canoe of bark and floated down the river.

She saw Hurons going fishing but not knowing whether they were friends or enemies she hid in the wood. Anyhow she was naked, and these American woman though barbarians are very proper and modest. Seeing that she was coming near dwelling houses, she walked only at night. About ten o’clock one night she came near the French settlement at Three Rivers. She was seen by some Hurons who ran after her to find out who she was. She fled, shouting to them not to come near that she was naked and had escaped from the Iroquois. One man threw her his hood with a kind of dress to cover her, then she introduced herself and told of her adventures. They brought her to Three Rivers, and the kindness of her reception amazed her. She found it incredible that a stranger should be treated to such good things. She thought she was imagining everything as her nation did not treat strangers so. She had never seen French people, she had only heard that they harmed no one and did good to all.

Such is the confusion caused by the Iroquois that the other nations dare not leave their homeland to trade with their allies or to seek instruction. At the same time as God is afflicting His Church on one side He is consoling it in another. The Fathers of the Huron Mission have written to say that the Andantes, who live near Virginia and are friends of the Hurons, having heard of the way the Hurons were treated by the Iroquois, offered to come to help the Hurons if they so wished. The offer was joyfully accepted and a deputation of eight was sent to renew the alliance and to confirm the offer. The head of the delegation is an excellent Christian, as are four of the delegates, the remaining four not yet. This development is favourable, not only does it provide the Hurons with means of self-defence but it opens vast harvest fields, if the Gospel workers can use the opportunity. But such an enterprise will take time and roads clearer than they are at present.

The fervour of our new Christians is another source of consolation. At times they are so transported with zeal that they burst out in the middle of a sermon interrupting the priest; to tell the thoughts that arise in their hearts. The priest in charge of the Sillery Mission was one day inveigling against drunkenness, the result of drinking wine or whiskey. An Indian interrupted: “No it is I who am the coward. I am the guilty one. I aroused the anger of Him-Who-Made All. Young people be wiser. Do not follow the path where I went astray. Walk straight and ask the priest to pray to Him-Who-Made All to think kindly of me”.

On the Feast of the Purification the same Father distributed the candles and explained the ceremony. A tribal captain interrupted with his own discourse: “Brothers, how deeply we are indebted to the priest for teaching us these beautiful truths. Think of the meaning of this flame you carry in your hands. It tells us that Jesus Christ is our day and our light. He has given us the Spirit in giving us the Faith and knowledge of the Heavenly Truths. By His Light he shows us the road to happiness. May these torches teach us that Jesus Christ was consumed for our salvation. Let these same torches burning out in our hands teach us that we ought to burn for His Love, be consumed for His service. Among us there are young and old. All are burning out, all are in the way to death. But why are they wearing out? To provide for the needs of the flesh? How much happier to be consumed for love of Jesus” This same captain was at a sermon on St. Catherine and her Faith and constancy amid torments, he burst out suddenly: “Now that is being a Christian, to prize the faith above life. Must a girl put us to shame! Too many of us are becoming deaf and blind. They stop their ears to instruction, close their eyes to holy things. Let us take courage, Brothers. Let us remain strong and constant in Faith. Let not hunger, thirst, sickness, even death itself shake our resolution to believe in God and obey him to our last breath”. I leave you to think if such fervour does not win hearts that are zealous for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

A captain with his men going to spy out the Iroquois in order to wage war on them, passed Montreal where he was given a great feast. Having well dined he thanked his hosts saying: “Formerly when given a good meal we said: ‘This banquet will make known your name throughout the world. All the nations will think you generous people who saved men’s lives”. But I have dropped the old customs. Now it is to God I turn when people are good to me and I say to Him “Oh You-Who-Made-All, You are Good. Help those who help us. Make them love you always. Keep the devil from harming them. Give them a place with us in Paradise”. Such was that Good Christian’s Grace after meals.

We continually see similar acts of virtue at our grille. A Huron whom Sr. St. Joseph was instructing was pressed by his compatriots to go with them to the hunt. He told them he could not decide to go without consulting his Mother directress. They jeered at him, saying he was not a man but a woman. He hung his head and said nothing but was deeply hurt. He went and told all to Sr. St. Joseph. She consoled him and advised him to take the insult like a Christian, patient and forgiving enemies. He explained that it was an unpardonable insult to be called a woman! But he wanted to be a Christian so he must imitate Jesus Christ. Seeing such good dispositions she advised him to go with the others. He went and came back safely. But if he forgave his enemy, God took care of the penalty. The detractor was captured by the Iroquois.

The Attikamek continue to be fervent. Those not yet Christian are asking for instruction. They are good, gentle and docile, and make war only on animals. Their natural goodness leads them to superstition. They have prophets and diviners who claim to foretell the future, actually they are sorcerers or magicians, apparently in league with the devil. They use little drums, chants, whistling to cure illnesses. They use small tents to consult the spirits of the air, and divine by fire the outcome of illness, where to hunt, where to find a hidden enemy or such like. But they are fundamentally docile and candid, and reject the superstitions when their folly is made clear to them, and they are instructed in the truths of Faith. They find our holy religion more satisfying to heart and mind than were the empty incantations. I spoke to you several times of our good Marie, wife of Bernard who was killed by the Iroquois. Five days after her arrival a young Attikamek came and presented herself to her. Marie did not know her, but spoke to her the way Christian Indians usually speak to infidels. “I was captured by the Iroquois”, she told her, “and suffered all the tortures they inflict, but these are nothing compared to what you will suffer in hell if you are not a Christian”. “I am a Christian” was the reply, “but I have a pagan husband. He has another wife and I want to leave him. He hates the Faith and prayer”. Marie embraced her saying: “If you knew the value of Faith you would prize it above everything, even above life itself. We cannot sufficiently esteem it. He gathers all the nations and makes them one. It makes the Christians my relatives so that they treat me as their sister. It makes me love you though you are not of my nation. I do not know you. It does not matter to me whether you live or die, where you come from or where you are going. I do not know how it happens, but I know I love you because I believe in God and you do too. That is why I cannot refrain from giving you good advice. Leave you husband with his wife. Don’t return to him. He will make you give up the Faith and that would be the greatest evil that would befall you, besides you might be captured by the Iroquois and tortured. Oh, if you knew the misery of captivity and how a Christian suffers when far from the house of Prayer! You envy the birds of the air. You say to them: ’if only I could fly and pray to God with the Christians’! If you see a distant mountain you long to be on its summit, away from captivity. Death is sweeter than bondage.

If your husband makes you give up the Faith and you escape the Iroquois you will fall into the hands of devils who will torment you in everlasting fire, and exchange temporal for eternal suffering”. The exhortation had its effect, the woman decided not to return to him who was no longer her husband. This is a little of the fruit this new Church has produced this year. Offer it to Our Lord that He may be pleased to make it more fruitful for His Glory.

From Quebec, 1647. 
p. 124 – 131.