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William Blake

Does the Eagle know what is in the pit?

Or wilt thou go ask the Mole:

Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod?

Or Love in a golden bowl?

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noun

One who, or that which, accelerates.

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THE EARLY MISSIONARIES 41

63 lines
Frank O'Hara·1926–1966
ain (1632), the Jesuits were given entire control of theIndian missions. In 1634 Father Brebeuf returned to his Hurons, accom-panied by Fathers Davost and Daniel, and laid the founda-tion of what has been called the greatest Jesuit mission inthe history of New France. Fathers Charles Garnier andIsaac Jogues, — both later to suffer martyrdom at the handsof the Indians, — and other priests were soon added to thestaff of the mission. Buildings of a permanent characterwere erected and preparations made to carry the work ofthe missions far into the interior. In 1641 Fathers Raim-bault and Jogues traveled as far west as Sault SainteMarie, the outlet of Lake Superior. Other missionaryjourneys were made into the neighboring regions. The promise of the great foundation among the Huronswas, however, cut short by the furious attacks of the Iro-quois. In July, 1648, the chief town of the Hurons wasdestroyed and Father Daniel killed. The next year the warwas renewed, and after cruel tortures Fathers Brebeuf andGabriel Lalement met death at the hands of the Iroquois.The same year Fathers Chabanel and Garnier were killedby the savages. The Huron nation was almost annihilated,and the missions in which twenty-nine priests had been en-gaged had to be abandoned. 41. The Attempt to Establish Missions among the Iro-quois. — Father Jogues was captured by the Iroquois in1642 while on his way to secure supplies for the Huron mis-sions. He was tortured, mutilated, and for thirteen monthsheld as a slave at Auriesville about forty miles west of Al-bany on the Mohawk. René Goupil, a young physicianwho was with him, was put to death, but Father Jogues wasrescued by the Dutch and taken to Europe. Four years (42 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES later (1646) he returned to the Iroquois on a peace missionwhich seemed successful. But later in the same year, whenhe appeared among them as a missionary, he was horriblybeaten and cut with knives and finally killed near LakeGeorge. Some years afterward other attempts were madeto convert the Iroquois, but in 1658 the missionaries with-drew on account of a threat of a general massacre of theFrench. Two years later, in 1660, a request came from the Iroquoisfor missionaries, and Father Le Moyne, who had alreadylabored among them, answered the call. By 1668 a missionhad been established in each of the five chief tribes of theIroquois Confederacy, and the work promised success, whenthe growth of the English power in the Iroquois countrycompelled the missionaries to withdraw. 42. The Ottawa Mission. — The Ottawa Indians werethe first of the tribes beyond Lake Huron to trade with theFrench and so their name was given to the whole region ofthe Upper Lakes. As we have seen, Fathers Jogues andRaimbault visited Sault Sainte Marie, the outlet of LakeSuperior, in 1641. Nineteen years later Father Menardarrived in what is now Wisconsin to minister to Hurons whohad fled from the Iroquois. He perished in the wilds ofWisconsin in 1661. Father Claude Allouez reached Che-quamegon Bay, near the western end of Lake Superior, inOctober, 1665, where he built a chapel of bark for his Indiancharges. For thirty years he labored among the Indiansof the Upper Mississippi region, establishing missions atGreen Bay, on the Miami, and, with Father Marquette,at Kaskaskia. Of Father Marquette we shall hear later.