militant and powerful Society of Jesus.



CHAPTER II

THE JESUITS AT QUEBEC

The 15th of June 1625 was a significant day for the colony
of New France. On that morning a blunt-prowed, high-pooped
vessel cast anchor before the little trading village that
clustered about the base of the great cliff at Quebec.
It was a ship belonging to the Caens, and it came laden
to the hatches with supplies for the colonists and goods
for trade with the Indians. But, what was more important,
it had as passengers the Jesuits who had been sent to
the aid of the Recollets, the first of the followers of
Loyola to enter the St Lawrence--Fathers Charles Lalemant,
Ennemond Masse, Jean de Brebeuf, and two lay brothers of
the Society. These black-robed priests were the forerunners
of an army of men who, bearing the Cross instead of the
sword and labouring at their arduous tasks in humility
and obedience but with dauntless courage and unflagging
zeal, were to make their influence felt from Hudson Bay
to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the sea-girt shores of
Cape Breton to the wind-swept plains of the Great West.
They were the vanguard of an army of true soldiers, of
whom the words

Theirs not to reason why,