CHAPTER X.

1637-1640.

PERSECUTION.


OSSOSSANE.--THE NEW CHAPEL.--A TRIUMPH OF THE FAITH.--
THE NETHER POWERS.--SIGNS OF A TEMPEST.--SLANDERS.--
RAGE AGAINST THE JESUITS.--THEIR BOLDNESS AND PERSISTENCY.--
NOCTURNAL COUNCIL.--DANGER OF THE PRIESTS.--BREBEUF'S LETTER.--
NARROW ESCAPES.--WOES AND CONSOLATIONS.


The town of Ossossane, or Rochelle, stood, as we have seen, on the
borders of Lake Huron, at the skirts of a gloomy wilderness of pine.
Thither, in May, 1637, repaired Father Pijart, to found, in this, one of
the largest of the Huron towns, the new mission of the Immaculate
Conception. [ The doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin,
recently sanctioned by the Pope, has long been a favorite tenet of the
Jesuits. ] The Indians had promised Brebeuf to build a house for the
black-robes, and Pijart found the work in progress. There were at this
time about fifty dwellings in the town, each containing eight or ten
families. The quadrangular fort already alluded to had now been
completed by the Indians, under the instruction of the priests.
[ Lettres de Garnier, MSS. It was of upright pickets, ten feet high
with flanking towers at two angles. ]