The above extract is given as one out of many illustrations of the
confidence with which the priests rested on the actual and direct aid of
their celestial guardians. To St. Joseph, in particular, they find no
words for their gratitude. ]

In spite of the hostility of the sorcerers, and the transient commotion
raised by the red cross, the Jesuits had gained the confidence and
good-will of the Huron population. Their patience, their kindness,
their intrepidity, their manifest disinterestedness, the blamelessness of
their lives, and the tact which, in the utmost fervors of their zeal,
never failed them, had won the hearts of these wayward savages; and
chiefs of distant villages came to urge that they would make their abode
with them. [ Brebeuf preserves a speech made to him by one of these
chiefs, as a specimen of Huron eloquence.--Relation des Hurons, 1636,
123. ] As yet, the results of the mission had been faint and few; but
the priests toiled on courageously, high in hope that an abundant harvest
of souls would one day reward their labors.




CHAPTER VII.

1636, 1637.

THE FEAST OF THE DEAD.


HURON GRAVES.--PREPARATION FOR THE CEREMONY.--DISINTERMENT.--
THE MOURNING.--THE FUNERAL MARCH.--THE GREAT SEPULCHRE.--