trading-posts or wandered to the hunting grounds of the
Indians, where they lived in squalor and vice. The avarice
of the traders was bearing its natural fruit, and the
untiring efforts of Champlain, a devoted, zealous patriot,
had been unavailing to counteract it. The colony sorely
needed the self-sacrificing Jesuits, but for whom it
would soon undoubtedly have been cast off by the mother
country as a worthless burden. To them Canada, indeed,
owed its life; for when the king grew weary of spending
treasure on this unprofitable colony, the stirring appeals
of the Relations [Footnote: It was a rule of the Society
of Jesus that each of its missionaries should write a
report of his work. These reports, known as Relations,
were generally printed and sold by the booksellers of
Paris. About forty volumes of the Relations from the
missions of Canada were published between 1632 and 1672
and widely read in France.] moved both king and people
to sustain it until the time arrived when New France was
valued as a barrier against New England.

Scarcely had the Jesuits made themselves at home in the
convent of the Recollets when they began planning for
the mission. It was decided that Lalemant and Masse should
remain at Quebec; but Brebeuf, believing, like the
Recollets, that little of permanent value could be done
among the ever-shifting Algonquins, desired to start at
once for the populous towns of Huronia. In July, in
company with the Recollet La Roche de Daillon, Brebeuf
set out for Three Rivers. The Indians--Hurons, Algonquins,
and Ottawas--had gathered at Cape Victory, a promontory