the rest of the time they were scattered through the infidel 'ribes. ... 10. The first missionaries among the Hurons-Fathers De Brebeuf, Daniel, and Lallemand-all fell glorious martyrs to their devoted zeal. Father Reymbault soon after fell a victim to the climate, and died in Quebec (1642). His associate, Father Jogues, who with him had first planted the cross 'n Michigan, was reserved for a still more disastrous, though glorious, fate. He was taken prisoner by the fierce Mohawks, and was made to run the gauntlet at three different Mohawk villages. 11. For days and nights he was abandoned to hunger and every torment which petulant youth could contrive. But yet there was consolation;—an ear of Indian corn on the stalk was thrown to the good Father; and see, to the broad blade there clung little drops of dew, or of water-enough to baptize two captive neophytes. He had expected death; but the Mohawks, satisfied, perhaps, with his sufferings, or awed at his sanctity, spared his life, and his liberty was enlarged. 12. On a hill apart, he carved a long cross on a tree; and there, in the solitude, meditated the Imitation of Christ, and soothed his griefs by reflecting that he alone, in that vast region, adored the true God of earth and heaven. Roaming through the stately forests of the Mohawk valley, he wrote the name of Jesus on the bark of trees, engraved the cross, and entered into possession of these countries in the name of God-often lifting up his voice in a solitary chant. Thus did France bring. its banner and its faith to the confines of Albany. The missionary himself was humanely ransomed from captivity by the Dutch, and sailing for France, soon returned to Canada. 13. Similar was the fate of Father Bressani. Taken prisoner while on his way to the Hurons; beaten, mangled, mutilated; driven barefoot over rough paths, through briers and thickets; scourged by a whole village; burned, tortured, wounded, and scarred;―he was an eye-witness to the fate of one of his com panions, who was boiled and eaten. Yet some mysterious awe protected his life, and he, too, was humanely rescued by the Dutch. 16. CATHOLIC MISSIONS-continued. 1. IN 1655, Fathers Chaumont and Dablon were sent on a mission among the tribes of New York. They were hospi tably welcomed at Onondaga, the principal village of that tribe. A general convention was held at their desire; and before the multitudinous assembly of the chiefs and the whol Ieople gathered under the open sky, among the primeval forests, the presents were delivered; and the Italian Jesuit, with much gesture after the Italian manner, discoursed so elo.. quently to the crowd, that it seemed to Dablon as if the word of God had been preached to all the nations of that laud. On the next day, the chiefs and others crowded round the Jesuits with their songs of welcome. 2. "Happy land," they sang, "happy land, in which the Jesuits are to dwell!" and the chief led' the chorus, "Glad tidings! glad tidings! It is well that we have spoken together it is well that we have a heavenly message." At once a chapel sprung into existence, and by the zeal of the nation was finished in a day. "For marble and precious stones," writes Dablon, "we employed only bark; but the path to heaven is as open through a roof of bark as through arched ceilings of silver and gold." The savages showed themselves susceptible of the excitements of religious ecstasy; and there, in the heart of New York, the solemn services of the Roman (Catholic) Church were chanted as securely as in any part of Christendom. 3. The Cayugas also desired a missionary, and they received the fearless René Mesnard. In their village a chapel was erected, with mats for the tapestry; and there the pictures of the Saviour and of the Virgin mother were unfolded to the admiring children of the wilderness. The Oneidas also listened to the missionary; and early in 1657, Chaumont reached the most fertile and densely peopled lands of the Senecas. The Jesuit priests published their faith from the Mohawk to the Genesee. The Missions stretched westward along Lake Superior to the waters of the Mississippi. Two young fur-traders, having travelled to the West five hundred leagues, returned in 1656, attended by a number of savages from the Mississippi valley, who demanded missionaries for their country. 4. Their request was eagerly granted; and Gabriel Drenillettes, the same who carried the cross through the forests of Maine, and Leonard Gareau, of old a missionary among the Hurons, were selected as the first religious envoys to a land of sacrifices, shadows, and deaths. The canoes are launched; the tawny warriors embark; the oars flash, and words of triumph and joy mingle with their last adieus. But just below Montreal, a band of Mohawks, enemies to the Ottawas, awaited the convoy: in the affray Gareau was mortally wounded, and the fleet dispersed. ... 5. But the Jesuits were still fired with zeal to carry the cross westward. . "If the Five Nations," they said, "can penetrate these regions, to satiate their passion for blood; if mercantile enterprise can bring furs from the plains of the Sioux; why cannot the cross be borne to their cabins !" The zeal of Francis de Laval, the Bishop of Quebec, kindled with a desire himself to enter on the mission; but the lot fell to René Mesnard. He was charged to visit Greer Bay and Lake Superior, and on a convenient inlet to establish a residence as a common place of assembly for the surrounding nations. 6. His departure was immediate (A. D. 1660), and with few preparations; for he trusted-such are his words-"in the Providence which feeds the little birds of the desert, and clothes the wild flowers of the forests." Every personal motive seemed to retain him in Quebec; but powerful instincts impelled him to the enterprise. Obedient to his vows, the aged man entered on the path that was red with the blood of his predecessors, and made haste to scatter the seeds of truth through the wilderness, even though the sower cast his seed in weeping. "In three or four months," he wrote to a friend, "you may add me to the memento of deaths." 7. His prediction was verified. Several months after, while his attendant was employed in the labor of transporting the cance, he was lost in the forest, and never seen more. Long afterwards, his cassock and breviary were kept as amulets among the Sioux. . . . . . Similar was the death of the great Father Marquette, the discoverer of the Mississippi. Joliet returned to Quebec to announce the discovery. The unaspiring Marquette remained to preach the gospel to the Miamis, who dwelt in the north of Illinois around Chicago. Two years afterwards (A. D. 1675), sailing from Chicago to Mackinaw, he entered a little river in Michigan. 8. Erecting an altar, he said mass after the rites of the Catholic Church; then, begging the men who conducted his canoe to leave him alone for a half-hour, "In the darkling wood, Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks At the end of half an hour they went to seek him, and he was no more. world, had fallen asleep on the margin of the stream which bears his name. Near its mouth the canoe-men dug his grave in the sand. Ever after, the forest rangers, if in danger on Lake Michigan, would invoke his name. The people of the West will build his monument. 17. MARY STUART'S LAST PRAYER. SMYTHE. HON. J. G. SMYTHE has written some of the sweetest ballads in the Engush language; those particularly in connection with the house of Stuart, are distinguished for their beauty and pathos. 1. A LONELY mourner kneels in prayer before the Virgin's fare With white hands clasp'd for Jesus' sake-so her prayer may not be vain ; Wan is her cheek, and very pale-her voice is low and fain And tears are in her eyes the while she makes her humble plaint. Oh, little could you deem, from her sad and humble mien, That she was once the Bride of France, and still was Seot land's Queen! 3. "O Mary mother! Mary mother! be my help and stay! Be with me still as thou hast been, and strengthen me to-day; For many a time, with heavy heart, all weary of its grief, I solace sought in thy blest thought, and ever found relief: For thou, too, wert a Queen on earth, and men were harsh to thee! And cruel things and rude they said, as they have said to me! 3. "Oh, gentlemen of Scotland! oh, cavaliers of France ! How each and all had grasp'd his sword and seized his angry lance, If lady-love, or sister dear, or nearer, dearer bride, Had been like me, your friendless liege, insulted and belied! But these are sinful thoughts, and sad—I should not mind me now Of faith forsworn, or broken pledge, or false or fruitless vow! 1 "But thou, dear Mary-Mary mine! hast ever look'd the same, With pleasant mien and smile serene, on her who bore thy name: Oh, grant that when anon I go to death, I may not see Nor axe, nor block, nor headsman-but thee, and only thee! Then 'twill be told, in coming times, how Mary gave her grace To die as Stuart, Guise, should die-of Charlemagne's fear less race !" 18. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. THOMAS D'AROY MCGEE. T. D. MOGEE is a native of Carlingford, county Louth, Ireland. Though still comparatively young, he has achieved an immense amount of literary labor. As an orator he has few, if any, superiors at the present day. As a prose writer his works are chiefly historical and biographical, many of them possessing a high order of merit, such as his Popular History of Ireland, Irish Settlers in America, Catholic History of America, Gallery of Irish Writers, &c., &c. As a statesman and politican he has already attained the first rink in the Canadian House of Assembly, where he represents the city of Montreal. |