Chabanel, Ribourde, Brébeuf, Lalemant, etc. Now they fell under the
blows of raging Indians; now they were traitorously assassinated; again,
they were impaled." In what, then, must we seek for the cause of the
futility of these efforts? All those who know the savages will
understand it; it is in the fickle character of these children of the
woods, a character more unstable and volatile than that of infants. God
alone knows what restless anxiety the conversions which they succeeded
in bringing about caused to the missionaries and the pious Bishop of
Petræa. Yet every day Mgr. de Laval ardently prayed, not only for the
flock confided to his care but also for the souls which he had come from
so far to seek to save from heathenism. If one of these devout men of
God had succeeded at the price of a thousand dangers, of a thousand
attempts, in proving to an Indian the insanity, the folly of his belief
in the juggleries of a sorcerer, he must watch with jealous care lest
his convert should lapse from grace either through the sarcasms of the
other redskins, or through the attractions of some cannibal festival, or
by the temptation to satisfy an ancient grudge, or through the fear of
losing a coveted influence, or even through the apprehension of the
vengeance of the heathen. Did he think himself justified in expecting to
see his efforts crowned with success? Suddenly he would learn that the
poor neophyte had been led astray by the sight of a bottle of brandy,
and that he had to begin again from the beginning.

No greater success was attained in many efforts which were exerted to
give a European stamp to the character of the aborigines, than in divers
attempts to train in civilized habits young Indians brought up in the
seminaries. And we know that if success in this direction had been
possible it would certainly have been obtained by educators like the
Jesuit Fathers. "With the French admitted to the small seminary," says
the Abbé Ferland, "six young Indians were received; on the advice of the