on the lake which bears their name. Here was a hopeful basis of
indefinite conquests; for, the Hurons won over, the Faith would spread in
wider and wider circles, embracing, one by one, the kindred tribes,--the
Tobacco Nation, the Neutrals, the Eries, and the Andastes. Nay, in His
own time, God might lead into His fold even the potent and ferocious
Iroquois.

The way was pathless and long, by rock and torrent and the gloom of
savage forests. The goal was more dreary yet. Toil, hardship, famine,
filth, sickness, solitude, insult,--all that is most revolting to men
nurtured among arts and letters, all that is most terrific to monastic
credulity: such were the promise and the reality of the Huron mission.
In the eyes of the Jesuits, the Huron country was the innermost
stronghold of Satan, his castle and his donjon-keep. [ "Une des
principales forteresses & comme un donjon des Demons."--Lalemant,
Relation des Hurons, 1639, 100 (Cramoisy). ] All the weapons of his
malice were prepared against the bold invader who should assail him in
this, the heart of his ancient domain. Far from shrinking, the priest's
zeal rose to tenfold ardor. He signed the cross, invoked St. Ignatius,
St. Francis Xavier, or St. Francis Borgia, kissed his reliquary, said
nine masses to the Virgin, and stood prompt to battle with all the hosts
of Hell.

A life sequestered from social intercourse, and remote from every prize
which ambition holds worth the pursuit, or a lonely death, under forms,
perhaps, the most appalling,--these were the missionaries' alternatives.
Their maligners may taunt them, if they will, with credulity,
superstition, or a blind enthusiasm; but slander itself cannot accuse
them of hypocrisy or ambition. Doubtless, in their propagandism, they
were acting in concurrence with a mundane policy; but, for the present at