CHRONICLES OF CANADA
Edited by George M. Wrong and H. H. Langton
In thirty-two volumes

Volume 4


THE JESUIT MISSIONS
A Chronicle of the Cross in the Wilderness

By THOMAS GUTHRIE MARQUIS
TORONTO, 1916



CHAPTER I

THE RECOLLET FRIARS

For seven years the colony which Champlain founded at
the rock of Quebec lived without priests. [Footnote:
For the general history of the period covered by the
first four chapters of the present narrative, see 'The
Founder of New France' in this Series.] Perhaps the lack
was not seriously felt, for most of the twoscore inmates
of the settlement were Huguenot traders. But out in the
great land, in every direction from the rude dwellings
that housed the pioneers of Canada, roamed savage tribes,
living, said Champlain, 'like brute beasts.' It was
Champlain's ardent desire to reclaim these beings of the