Francis Parkman

"Praised be God, behold two thirds of our company safe in France, telling their strange adventures to their relatives and friends. And now you will wish to know what befell the rest of us." Thus writes Father Biard, who with his companions in misfortune, fourteen in all, prisoners on board Argall's ship and the prize, were borne captive to Virginia.

by Francis Parkman

 ENTHUSIASM FOR THE MISSION. - SICKNESS OF THE PRIESTS. - 
 THE PEST AMONG THE HURONS. - THE JESUIT ON HIS ROUNDS. - 
 EFFORTS AT CONVERSION. - PRIESTS AND SORCERERS. - THE MAN-DEVIL. - 
 THE MAGICIAN'S PRESCRIPTION. - INDIAN DOCTORS AND PATIENTS. - 
 COVERT BAPTISMS. - SELF-DEVOTION OF THE JESUITS.

 HOPES OF THE MISSION. - CHRISTIAN AND HEATHEN. - BODY AND SOUL. - 
 POSITION OF PROSELYTES. - THE HURON GIRL'S VISIT TO HEAVEN. - A CRISIS. - 
 HURON JUSTICE. - MURDER AND ATONEMENT. - HOPES AND FEARS.

Few passages of history are more striking than those which record the efforts of the earlier French Jesuits to convert the Indians. Full as they are of dramatic and philosophic interest, bearing strongly on the political destinies of America, and closely involved with the history of its native population, it is wonderful that they have been left so long in obscurity. While the infant colonies of England still clung feebly to the shores of the Atlantic, events deeply ominous to their future were in progress, unknown to them, in the very heart of the continent.

 JEAN DE BREBEUF. - CHARLES GARNIER. - JOSEPH MARIE CHAUMONOT. - 
 NOEL CHABANEL. - ISAAC JOGUES. - OTHER JESUITS. - NATURE OF THEIR FAITH. - 
 SUPERNATURALISM. - VISIONS. - MIRACLES.

 THE CENTRE OF THE MISSIONS. - FORT. - CONVENT. - HOSPITAL. - CARAVANSARY. - 
 CHURCH. - THE INMATES OF SAINTE MARIE. - DOMESTIC ECONOMY. - MISSIONS. - 
 A MEETING OF JESUITS. - THE DEAD MISSIONARY.

NATIVE TRIBES.

 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.

 HURON TRADERS. - BATTLE AT THREE RIVERS. - ST. JOSEPH. - 
 ONSET OF THE IROQUOIS. - DEATH OF DANIEL. - THE TOWN DESTROYED.