In the days of French supremacy Canada com prised Maine and northern New York. From Orr till 1760, with short intervals of absence, the Jesuits labored among the Indians of Maine and converted most of them. In the list of their Maine missionaries the two most conspicuous names are Druillettes and Rale; the former by reason of his relations with the colony of Massa chusetts, the latter by reason of his death at the hands of Massachusetts troops. In 1726 the In dians of Maine became the subjects of England. After 1760. until early in the present century, they were left without missionaries, yet they did not lose the faith. Perhaps, for all we know, priests from Canada made them stealthy visits, and the Indians frequently visited the Canadian missions. Parents baptized and instructed their children. Every Sunday they assembled in the chapels of their villages, and before the priestless altars chanted mass and vespers, the Gregorian melodies being handed down from generation to generation. When the War of Independence was declared, the Indians of Maine joined the army of Washington. To-day one thousand descend ants of the neophytes of Druillettes and Rale hold the faith and sing the chants of their Cath olic forefathers in the diocese of Portland, Maine.
Northern New York was the home of the fierce Iroquois. who were ever the determined enemies of the French and the allies of the English in the contest of those two nations for supremacy in America. All Canada was in terror of these savages. "No man." says Parkman, "could hunt, fish, till the fields, or cut a tree in the forest, without peril to his scalp." "I had as lief," writes a Jesuit, "be beset by goblins as by the Iroquois; the one arc about as invisible as the other; our oeople are kept in a closer confinement than ever were monks or nuns in our smallest convenes in France." These savages first came in contact with the French missionaries (1642) when they captured Father Jogues on his way to the Huron country, now the province of Ontario. Jogues was run through the gauntlet in every village, was tied to the stake to be gashed and slowly burned, had his hands mutilated and was pre served from final death only to be made a slave. He was released by the kindness and generosity of the Dutch of Fort Orange (now Albany), was sent down the Hudson to Manhattan, and thence made his way to France. The heroic missionary returned to the Iroquois country in 1646, was again put through his former tortures and finally brained by a tomahawk. October t8. 1646. The scene of his death was the present village of Auriesville, Montgomery county, N. Y.; a small
Catholic chapel marks the spot. Fathers Bressani (1644) and Poncet (1653) were likewise subjected to the cruelties of these savages, and by the shed ding of their blood prepared the Iroquois soil for the Gospel seed. It was in 1654 that missions were permanently established among them; and they were continued with great success until 1687. During this period God's grace produced mar velous holiness in many a child of the forest ; warriors, proud and cruel, were turned into hum ble and merciful servants of the cross; women and maidens were made as chaste and virtuous as the female saints and martyrs of the first Chris tian centuries; the chapels were frequented morning and evening, and the hymns of the old Church resounded throughout the woods of northern New York. According to the Relations of the Jesuits, between the years 1668 and 1678, there were two thousand two hundred and twenty one baptisms in these missions. These figures, however, give an incomplete idea of the work done, for the reason that it was the policy of the fathers to lengthen the catechumenate of their dusky disciples so that the number of attendants at instructions and services was far beyond that of the baptized. The political jealousies and the almost constant wars between France and Eng land put an end to this work of God. To-day remnants of the Iroquois tribes, still Catholic, are to he found in Canada to the number of about three thousand.
In the Northwest, along the shores of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, were numerous Algonquin tribes that were first visited by the Jesuit missionaries in 1641. Permanent stations were established among them some twenty years later. In 1661 Father Menard established a mis sion in Keweenaw Bay, and in 166; Father Al louez set up a mission in Ashland Bay. Thence forth missionary work in the West was reduced to a system, and central points were chosen for mission sites. Such a point was Sault Ste. Marie, a noted fishing place; for then, as to-day, the rapids were full of whitefish, and Indians from a distance came thither in crowds. Another cen ter was La Pointe (now Ashland). N ichili mackinaw (now Mackinaw) and the great Mani toulin islands were also chosen as mission sites. There was another spot in that western country famous for fish and game—Green Bay. In its neighborhood were a motley crowd of dusky in habitants—Nenominees, Pottowatomies, Winne bagos, Sacs, Mascout ins, Miamis, Kickapoos, Outagamies. As early as 1669 Allouez founded there the mission of St. Francis Xavier. These were the early mission posts.