Public-domain ebook

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 2: Acadia, 1612-1614

Language: en1,100 downloads on Project Gutenberg

Subjects

Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France)Indians of North America -- Canada Jesuits -- Missions Jesuits -- North America

In: History - Other·History - American·History - Religious

Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #45256.

About this book

The volume gathers a series of reports, letters, and narrative excerpts that document the early Jesuit presence in Acadia between 1612 and 1614. It opens with a “graphic recital” by Father Pierre Biard, describing his journeys with Port‑Royal settlers to French trading posts on the St. Croix and St. John rivers, an Etchemin settlement near present‑day Castine, and an English fishing station on the Kennebec. Subsequent sections catalogue the missionaries’ observations of New France’s geography, climate, and Indigenous peoples, recount the establishment and hardships of the Port‑Royal mission, and include a translated letter from Biard to his provincial superior that details daily religious duties, linguistic obstacles, and the limited success of early baptisms. The work also incorporates Lescarbot’s account of Poutrincourt’s 1610 expedition, a description of the short‑lived St. Sauveur settlement, and reflections on the Jesuits’ “hopeful beginning” despite setbacks.

Written in a formal, seventeenth‑century French style that alternates between earnest missionary prose and detailed ethnographic observation, the text retains its original bilingual character, offering both French and English translations. Readers with an interest in colonial North‑American history, early missionary activity, or the cultural encounters between French settlers and Indigenous peoples will find the volume rewarding. Its meticulous primary‑source material appeals especially to scholars, historians, and enthusiasts of early Canadian and Jesuit studies who appreciate the period’s theological language and the gritty realities of frontier life.

Who appears in The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 2

Father Pierre BiardMiddle‑aged French Jesuit priest in black cassock with white tonsure, short brown hair, trimmed beard, solemn expression
Jean de Biencourt, Sieur de PoutrincourtTall French nobleman of early 1600s, long wavy hair, trimmed moustache, fur‑trimmed doublet, leather boots, dignified bearing

The opening · free to read

Following is a synopsis of the documents contained in the present volume:

IX. The indefatigable Biard presents, herein, a graphic recital of his work among the Acadian savages, and particularly his journeys into the wilderness. His report of a trip with a party of Port Royalists to French trading posts on the St. Croix and St. John rivers, to an Etchemin town probably on the site of the present Castine, Me., and to an English fishing station on the Kennebec, is full of interest.

X. Herein, Biard sends to the general of his order a full report concerning: (1) New France, its physical characteristics, and its aborigines; (2) the circumstances attending the opening of the Jesuit mission in Acadia; (3) Fléché's work previous to the coming of the Jesuits; (4) visits to savage tribes by Massé and himself, with descriptions of conversions and baptisms, and a statement of the conditions and prospects of spiritual work among the aborigines.

XI. Lescarbot's Relation Dernière gives an account of Poutrincourt's voyage to New France, in 1610; of the conversion and baptism of the savage chief, Membertou, and others, by the priest, Fléché; of Biencourt's return to France; and of the experiences of Poutrincourt at Port Royal. The writer praises Poutrincourt for his exertions in Canada in behalf of both religion and civilization; and urges that he should be aided in his colonial enterprise, as a necessary basis for religious work in this portion of the New World. He gives a list of the sponsors of the baptized Indians, who included many of the French nobility and clergy. The life at Port Royal is pictured in some detail; its labors and privations are dwelt upon; and the customs of the natives described. Lescarbot does not fail, although cautiously, to exhibit his dislike of the Jesuits, and endeavors to show that their coming to Port Royal involved delay and expense to the colonial enterprise, thereby injuring Poutrincourt. Our author's closing chapter devoutly catalogues the "Effects of God's Grace in New France;" he describes how Providence cared for the colonists in their distress, saved them from shipwreck, kindly disposed the savages toward them and the Christian religion, and returned to the Frenchmen their ship, in time to prevent starvation. The rescue of Aubry is also mentioned.

XII. The Relatio Rerum Gestarum (1613 & 1614) opens with a description of New France, its geography, its climate, its peoples and their customs. The experience of the Jesuit fathers at Port Royal is related at length, from their own point of view. A description is given of the settlement of St. Sauveur, on Mount Desert Island, and its destruction by the Virginian, Argall. Then follows an account of the life of the Jesuit prisoners, in Virginia and England. The conclusion is reached that, despite these drawbacks, the Jesuit mission in Canada has made a hopeful beginning.