USA > New York > Pioneer history of the Holland Purchase of western New York : embracing some account of the ancient remains > Part 11
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But in after times Protestantism had its tyrannies and persecu- tions; its intemperate zeal, bigotry and coereive auxiliaries; its banishments, proscriptions, and tribunals of faith. Did the disciples of LOYOLA in other countries avail themselves of the inquisition; enforce cruel, world-forsaking monastic vows; the disciples of CALVIN in New England, erected the gibbet and hunted to the scaffold, the non-conformist, the heretic, and the unhappy men and women whom their dark superstition accused of witchcraft.
The wrongs that were perpetrated in the old world by the institute of the Jesuits, cannot fairly be made to dim the lustre of
* From a friend's manuscript.
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the forest advent of the faithful men of the order that pioneered the way to civilization in this region. The wrong doing-the intolerance and bigoted persecutions of the early Puritans identified with colonization in another quarter, should be hardly remembered in view of the part their descendants have finally borne, in rearing our proud fabric of religious and political freedom.
The Institute of LOYOLA has had a chequered existence; unex- ampled success at one period, decline and proscription at another. For a long period enjoying the high favor of a succession of Popes, then suppressed by one, to be soon restored to favor by another. It was founded near the middle of the sixteenth century, and had an almost uninterrupted career of success, upon a scale of mag- nificence but feebly indicated in the preceding pages. In 1759, JOSEPH I, of Portugal, declared the Jesuits traitors and rebels, confiscated their goods and banished them. In 1762 the institution was declared "incompatible with the institutions of France," and the Jesuits received orders to abandon their houses and colleges, and adopt a secular dress. Soon after, they were accused of fomenting a popular insurrection in Madrid, and expelled from Spanish territory. The example was speedily followed by the King of Naples, and the Duke of Parma. In 1773 the order was suppressed by a bull from Pope CLEMENT XIV. For forty-one years the order had no existence save in its scattered and proscribed adherents. In 1814, PIvs VII published the bull for its resto- ration. From that period to the present, the order has been constantly progressive. It has revived many of its missionary stations, re-opened its colleges, convents and hospitals; and again been dispersing its missionaries over the globe.
The whole number of Jesuits that came to this country from their first advent in 1611, up to 1833, was twelve hundred. When France ceded their possessions east of the Mississippi, to England in 1763, they were forbidden to recruit their numbers; thus as the old members died, the communities became extinct. The whole, or the greater part of the property of the Jesuits has been held by the British government. The Catholic institutions in the United States and Canada, have now, with few exceptions, no connection with them.
It only remains to speak of the remote results of these early missionary efforts. So far as they bear upon our country now,
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they may seem slight and unworthy of notice; yet they form a prominent feature in our colonial history.
The immediate results of the Jesuit missions, were hopeful and stimulating. So long as the natives had no patterns of christianity to follow but the apostle, bringing his own and his Redeemer's cross among them, they could only revere the new religion, and wrestle against it, as passion warring with conscience. Under such influences, christian virtues were blooming along the path of the messengers from Norridgewok to the bay of Che-goi-me-gon. It is a pleasing relief to turn aside from the almost unremitted din of battle which raged around the progress of settlement in this land, and the wrangling encounters of opinion within the borders of New England, to the quiet heroism of the Jesuits, as they went forth carrying the "Prayer" (as the Indians termed their religion,) building chapels where the rude wigwams had been man's only resting place, and bringing whole villages from the wild wonder of an indefinite fear, to the subdued awe of worshipping believers; -- the moral prodigy, the emblem of earth's redemption, the sway of the man of peace, over the men of war. It is a singular fact that these missionaries succeeded in fixing religious principle without the tedious and patient process of literary education and subtle reasoning. In an early part of the eighteenth century an effort was made on the part of the Protestants to draw off the Abenakis from their attachments to the faith of the Jesuits. The Rev. JOSEPH BAXTER, of Medfield, Mass., was despatched on this work, but was obliged to return after being patiently heard, confessing himself foiled by the unwillingness of the natives to learn any better way. The immediate results of the Jesuit missions were blessed. Of the remote results, little is to be said in praise. It was something that, by their carrying the cross of life before the artillery of death, souls of the red men might be enrolled among the redeemed from every kindred, ere the white man had spoiled their religion and blotted out their name. But the danger which the Jesuits foresaw, came upon their converts. The remote result was as they feared. Said Father MAREST, writing from Kaskasias in Illinois :- " should any of the whites who came among us make a profession of licentiousness, or perhaps irreligion, their pernicious example would make a deeper impression upon the minds of the Indians than all that we could say to preserve them from the same
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disorders. They would not fail to reproach us as they have already done in some places, that we take advantage of the facility with which they believe us; that the laws of christianity are not as severe as we represent them to be; since it is not to be credited that persons as enlightened as the French, and brought up in the bosom of religion, would be willing to rush to their own destruction, and precipitate themselves into hell, if it were true that such and such an action merited a punishment so terrible." The danger was more than the missionary feared; it was first the insinuating pestilence of corruption, and then the sword of extermination. Mark the transformation in the beautiful lines of WHITTIER:
"On the brow of a hill which slopes to meet The flowing river and bathe at its feet, A rude and mishapely chapel stands, Built up in that wild by unskilled hands ; Yet the traveller knows it a place of prayer, For the holy sign of the cross is there ; And should he chance at that place to be, Of a Sabbath morn on some hallowed day, Well might the traveller start to see The tall dark forms that take their way From the birch canoe on the river shore, And the forest paths to that chapel door ; And marvel to mark the naked knees, And the dusky foreheads bending there,-
And, stretching his long thin arms over these, In blessing and in prayer, Like a shrouded spectre, pale and tall, In his coarse white vesture, Father RALLE."
But now,
"No wigwam smoke is curling there ; The very earth is scorched and bare ; And they pause and listen to catch a sound Of breathing life, but there comes not one, Save the fox's bark, and the rabbit's bound ; And here and there on the blackening ground,
NOTE .- Father Ralle was a missionary among the Abenakis, in 1724. His mission station was upon the Kennebec in Maine, near the village of Norridgewok. In the war which the English and their Indian allies waged against the Abenakis, he was a victim. When a hostile band approached his village of converts, he presented himself, in hopes to save his flock ; but fell under a discharge of musketry. So says the Jesuit Relations. Hutchinson says he shut himself up in a wigwam, from which he firedupon the English. A cross and a rude monument marked the spot until 1833, when an acre of land was purchased including the site of Ralle's church and his grave, and over his grave a shaft erected twenty feet high, surmounted by a cross, in the presence of a large concourse of people. Bishop Fenwick directed the ceremonies, and delivered an address. Delegates from the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, and Canada Indians were present.
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White bones are glistening in the sun, And where the house of prayer arose, And the holy hymn at daylight's close, And the aged priest stood up to bless The children of the wilderness, There is nought save ashes sodden and dank,
And the birehen boats of the Norridgewok,
Tethered to tree and stump and rock, Rotting along the river bank."
The Jesuits faded away with the decline, or end of French dominion east of the Mississippi, in 1763. There is little beyond such relics as are found of Father RALLE, (see preceding note,) to mark their advent here. At the west, their presence can be but dimly traced; the religion they inculcated exists among some of the Indian tribes, but hardly sufficient to identify it; the rude cross occasionally found at the head of an Indian grave, is perhaps as distinct evidence as any that exists, (other than faithful records,) of the early visit and long stay of the Catholic missionaries, upon the borders of our western lakes, and in the upper vallies of the Mississippi. Among the Indians of Western New York, all that remains to mark the Jesuit missionary advent, is the form of the cross in their silver ornaments.
How different has been the destiny of the Protestant advent upon the shores of New England! The Pilgrim Fathers - cotem- porary with the Jesuits,-spread their faith among the natives, with nearly as little success perhaps; but they maintained their ground, became a part of the great fabric of religious and political freedom that was rearing; their impress is indelibly stamped upon our country and its institutions.
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CHAPTER III.
PROGRESS OF COLONIZATION, PROMINENT EVENTS CONNECTED WITH IT, FROM 1627 TO 1763.
This embraces a period of one hundred and thirty-six years; or, the entire French occupancy from the period of effectual colonization under CHAMPLAIN upon the St. Lawrence, to that of English conquest, and the end of French dominion east of the Mississippi.
The long succession of interesting events; the details of the French and Indian, and French and English wars; belong to our general history. For the purposes of local history it will only be necessary to embrace, with any considerable degree of minute- ness, such portions of them as had a direct local relation.
But little success attended the first efforts of colonization upon the St. Lawrence. Fourteen years after the founding of Quebec, (in 1662) the population was reduced to fifty souls. The ill-success was principally owing to the hostilities of the Iroquois; that had been first excited by the unfortunate alliance of CHAMPLAIN with the Hurons; the rivalry between different interests in the fur trade; and jarring and discord arising out of a mixed population of Catho- lics and Protestants, who brought to the New World much of the intolerance that characterized that period. Most of the colonists were mere adventurers; more intent upon present gain, if indeed most of them had any definite purposes beyond the freedom from restraint, the perfect liberty that an ill-governed far off colony offered to them; than upon any well regulated efforts at colonization.
In order to adjust dissensions that existed in the colony, produce harmony of effort, and generally, to strengthen the colonial enter- prize, in 1627 Cardinal RICHELIEU organized what was called the
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company of New France-or, company of an Hundred Partners. The primary object of the association, was the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith, by the co-operation of the zealous Jesuits; the secondary, an extension of the fur trade, of commerce generally, and to discover a route to the Pacific ocean and China through the great rivers and lakes of New France. This company was invested not only with a monopoly of trade, but with a religious monopoly; protestants and "other heretics" were entirely excluded. An inauspicious commencement :- monopoly and bigotry went hand in hand. It was in the order of Providence that neither, in whatever form they might assume, should have any permanent success upon this side of the Atlantic.
The company stipulated to send to New France, three hundred tradesmen, and to supply them with all necessary utensils for three years; after which time they were to grant to each workman sufficient land for his support, and grain for seed. . The company also stipulated to colonize the lands embraced in their charter, with six thousand inhabitants, before the year 1643, and to provide each settlement with three Catholic priests, whom they were to support for fifteen years. The cleared land was then to be granted to the Catholic clergy for the maintenance of the church. Certain prerogatives were at the same time secured to the king; such as religious supremacy, homage as sovereign of the country, the right of nominating commandants of the forts and the officers of justice, and on each succession to the throne the acknowledgement of a crown of gold weighing thirteen marks. The company had also the right of conferring titles of distinction, some of which were required to be confirmed by the king. The right to traffic in peltries, and engage in other commerce, other than the cod and whale fisheries, was at the same time granted in the charter. The king presented the company two ships of war, upon condition that the value should be refunded, if fifteen hundred French inhabitants were not transported into the country in the first ten years. The descendants of Frenchmen inhabiting New France, and all savages who should be converted to the Catholic faith, were permitted to enjoy the same privileges as natural born subjects; and all artificers sent out by the company, who had spent six years in the French colony, were permitted to return and settle in any town in France.
The design of the government, was to strengthen the claims of France to territory in North America. The company, as was
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afterwards demonstrated, designed to benefit themselves, through the extension of the fur trade.
CHAMPLAIN Was appointed Governor. For the first few years, the colony, from various causes connected with its remote position from the parent country; the hardships of the forest, and the hos- tility of the Iroquois, suffered extremely, and was almost upon the point of breaking down. Ships that had been sent out with sup- plies had been captured by Sir DAVID KERTH, then in the employ- ment of the British Crown. The depredations of the Iroquois kept the colony in check, diminished their numbers, and crippled their exertions, until the year 1629, when the French adventurers were involved in the deepest distress. KERTH who had succeeded in cutting off several expeditions of supply vessels from France, and finally reducing them almost to starvation, sailed up the St. Law- rence and made an easy conquest of Quebec, on the 20th, July, 1629. In October following, CHAMPLAIN returned to France; most of his company, however, having remained in Canada.
About this period, a peace was concluded between England and France, by the treaty of St. Germainc. This restored to France, Quebec, with its other possessions upon this continent. CHAMPLAIN resumed the government of Canada. The Jesuits with their accustomed zeal commenced anew their efforts; and from this period to the final English conquests in 1759, a rivalship and growing hostility, partly religious and partly commercial, took place between the English and French colonists, which was evinced by mutual aggressions, at some periods, while profound peace existed between their respective sovereigns in Europe.
CHAMPLAIN in his return from France to resume his office of governor, came with a squadron provided with necessary supplies and armaments. A better organization of the colonial enterprise was had; measures were adopted to reconcile existing difficulties, growing out of the immoral principles of the emigrants, and to prevent the introduction into the colony of any but those of fair character.
NOTE .- The colonization of New France, commenced but with little regard to the character of the colonists. It was rather such as could be induced to come out, than such as the Company would have preferred. The prisons and work houses of France, a discharged soldiery, and those generally with whom no change could be for the worse, formed a large portion of the early colonists. The Baron la Hontan, who came out to Quebec in the year 1683, speaks of this as well as all things that came under his observation, with much freedom: - " Most of the inhabitants are a free sort of people that removed hither from France and brought with them but little money to set up
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In 1635 a college of the order of Jesuits was established at Quebec, which was of great advantage in improving the morals of the people, that had grown to a state of open licentiousness.
At this period the colony suffered a great misfortune in the death of CHAMPLAIN. "With a mind warmed into enthusiasm by the vast domain of wilderness that was stretched out before him, and the glorious visions of future grandeur which its resources opened; a man of extraordinary hardihood and the clearest judgment; a brave officer and a scientific seaman; his keen forecast discerned, in the magnificent prospect of the country which he occupied, the elements of a mighty empire of which he had hoped to be founder. With a stout heart and ardent zeal, he had entered upon the project of colonization; he had disseminated valuable knowledge of its resources by his explorations; and had cut the way through hordes of savages, for the subsequent successful progress of the French towards the lakes." *
During the administration of MONTNEAGNY, who succeeded CHAMPLAIN, the colony made but little progress, except in the extension of its trade in furs.
The religious institutions of the Jesuits about this period, were considerably augmented; a seminary was established at Sillery, near Quebec; the convent of St. Ursula at Quebec, established by Madame de la PELTRIE, a young widow of rank, who had engaged several Sisters of the Ursulines at Tours, with whom she sailed from Dieppe in a vessel which she chartered at her own expense.
withal. The rest are those who were soldiers about thirty or forty years ago, at which time the regiment of Carigan was broken up." * *
* " After this, several ships were sent hither from France, with a cargo of women of an ordinary reputation. The vestal virgins were heaped up, (if I may so speak), one above another, in three different apartments, where the bridegrooms singled out their brides just as a butcher does a ewe from amongst a flock of sheep. In these three seraglios there was such a variety and change of diet as could satisfy the most whimsical appetites ; for here was some big, somne little, some fair, some brown, some fat and some meagre. In fine. every one might be fitted to his mind: - and indeed the market had such a run, that in fifteen days time they were all disposed of. I am told that the fattest went off best, under the apprehension that these being less active, would keep truer to their engage-
* * " In some ments, and hold out better against the nipping cold of winter." *
parts of the world to which vicious European women are transported, the mob of those countries do seriously believe that their sins are so defaced by the ridiculous christening I took notice of before, that they are looked upon ever after as ladies of virtue, of *
honor, and untarnished conduct of life." * * " After the choice was determined the marriage was concluded upon the spot, in the presence of a priest and a public notary ; and the next day the Governor General, bestowed upon the married couple, a bull, a cow, a hog, a sow, a cock, a hen, two barrels of salt meat and eleven crowns."
* History of Illinois.
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A. seminary of the order of St. Sulpicious was also founded at Montreal.
The Company of New France came short of fulfilling their charter. Little was done by them either to encourage the settle- ment of the country, or for the advancement of agriculture, the fur trade almost engrossing their attention. In the remote points of the wilderness, forts of rude construction had been erected; but these were merely posts of defence, or depots of the trade, the dominions of which, at that early period, stretched through tracks of wilderness large enough for kingdoms. The energies of the colonists were cramped by the Iroquois, who hung like hungry wolves around the track of the colonists, seeking to glut their vengeance against the French by butchering the people, and plun- dering the settlements whenever opportunities occurred.
In 1640 Montreal was selected to be the nearest rendezvous for converted Indians. The event was celebrated by a solemn mass. In August of the same year, in the presence of the French gath- ered from all parts of Canada, and of the native warriors sum- moned from the wilderness, the festival of the assumption was solemnized on the Island itself. In 1647, the traders and mission- aries had broken out from the St. Lawrence and advanced as far as the shores of Lake Huron. Previous to 1666, trading posts were established at Michillimackinac, Sault St. Maric, Green Bay, Chicago, and St. Joseph.
The progress of the missionaries and traders was slow around the shores of the western lakes. After one post was established, it was in most instances the work of years to advance and occupy another position. In 1665, Father CLAUDE ALLOUEZ entered the great village of the Chippeways at the bay of Che-goi-me-gon. A council was convened at the time, to prepare for threatened hostilities with the Sioux of the Mississippi. "The soldiers of France," said ALLOUEZ, "will smooth the path between the Chip- peways and Quebec, brush the pirate canoes from the intervening rivers, and leave to the Five Nations, no alternative, but peace or destruction." The admiring savages, who then for the first time looked upon the face of a white man, were amazed at the picture he displayed of "hell and the last judgement." He soon lighted the Catholic torch at the council fires of more than twenty different nations. The Chippeways pitched their tents near his cabin to receive instruction. The Pottowotamies came hither from lake
1
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Michigan, and invited him to their homes. The Sacs and Foxes imitated their example, and the Illinois, diminished in numbers and glory by repeated wars with the Sioux of the Mississippi on the one hand, and the Iroquois, or Five Nations, armed with muskets, on the other, came hither to rehearse their sorrows.
MARQUETTE was the pioneer beyond the lakes. He was early at St. Mary's, with ALLOUEZ, assisting in the conversion of the Indians, and in extending the influence of France. "He belonged to that extraordinary class of men (the Jesuit missionaries,) who, mingling happiness with suffering, purshased for themselves undy- ing glory. Exposed to the inclemencies of nature and to savage hostilities, he took his life in his hand and bade them defiance; waded through water and through snows without the comfort of a fire, subsisted on pounded maize, and was frequently without food, except the unwholesome moss he gathered from the rocks. He labored incessantly in the cause of his Redeemer-slept with- out a resting place, and travelled far and wide, but never without peril. Still, said he, life in the wilderness has charms-his heart swelled with rapture as he moved over waters transparent as the most limpid fountain. Living like a patriarch beneath his tent. each day selecting a new site for his dwelling, which he erected in a few minutes, with a never failing floor of green, inlaid with flowers provided by nature; his encampment on the prairie resem- bled the pillar of stones where JACOB felt the presence of God, the venerable oaks around his tent-the tree of Mamre, beneath which ABRAHAM broke bread with the angels."*
The ministers of Louis the XIV. and COLBERT, with TALON, the intendant of the colony, had formed a plan to extend the power of France from sea to sea. A vague idea had been obtained from the natives, that a great river flowed through the country beyond the Lakes, in a southerly direction. MARQUETTE, selecting for his companion, JOLIET, a citizen of Quebec, and for his guide, a young Indian of the Illinois tribe, undertook the mission of its discovery.
Previous to his departure, a great council was held at St. Mary's .. Invitations were sent to all the tribes around and beyond the head waters of lake Superior, even to the wandering hordes of the remotest north; to the Pottawatomies at Green Bay, and to the Miamis of Chicago. St. LUSAN appeared as the delegate of
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