The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century by Francis Parkman
page 210 of 486 (43%)
page 210 of 486 (43%)
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Indians were dismissed, the door closed, and the evening spent in writing,
reading, studying the language, devotion, and conversation on the affairs of the mission. The local missions here referred to embraced Ossossane and the villages of the neighborhood; but the priests by no means confined themselves within these limits. They made distant excursions, two in company, until every house in every Huron town had heard the annunciation of the new doctrine. On these journeys, they carried blankets or large mantles at their backs, for sleeping in at night, besides a supply of needles, awls, beads, and other small articles, to pay for their lodging and entertainment: for the Hurons, hospitable without stint to each other, expected full compensation from the Jesuits. At Ossossane, the house of the Jesuits no longer served the double purpose of dwelling and chapel. In 1638, they had in their pay twelve artisans and laborers, sent up from Quebec, [ Du Peron in Carayon, 173. ] who had built, before the close of the year, a chapel of wood. [ "La chapelle est faite d'une charpente bien jolie, semblable presque en facon et grandeur, a notre chapelle de St. Julien."--Ibid., 183. ] Hither they removed their pictures and ornaments; and here, in winter, several fires were kept burning, for the comfort of the half-naked converts. [ Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1639, 62. ] Of these they now had at Ossossane about sixty,--a large, though evidently not a very solid nucleus for the Huron church,--and they labored hard and anxiously to confirm and multiply them. Of a Sunday morning in winter, one could have seen them coming to mass, often from a considerable distance, "as naked," says Lalemant, "as your hand, except a skin over their backs like a mantle, and, in the coldest weather, a few skins around their feet and legs." They knelt, mingled with the French mechanics, before the |
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