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282 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND

plentiful provisions were sent for his consumption, the
old miser barely gave him "as much as was necessary not
to live, but not to die." Then the frequent visits of
the Indians for purposes of trade to the room next to
the garret, separated from it by planks with large
intervening cracks, compelled Jogues to crouch behind
casks, to avoid discovery, but at the price of great pain
in the members of his body. Finally, gangrene began
to manifest itself in the wound inflicted by the dog on
his leg, but the kind ministration of the surgeon of the
settlement saved his life also from this danger.

Meanwhile, the Director General of the province had
learned that Father Jogues was not very much at ease
in the vicinity of the Mohawks, who were induced by
the Dutch towards the middle of September finally to
accept some presents to the amount of three hundred
livres. Then in accordance with the instructions of
William Kieft, Father Jogues was taken by boat to New
Amsterdam. The Dutch minister, who had shown him
much kindness accompanied him down the Hudson
River. "He was supplied with a number of bottles,
which he dealt out lavishly, — especially on coming to
an Island, to which he wished that my name should be
given with the noise of cannon and of bottles." Jogues
quaintly and naively remarks that "each one manifests
his love in his own fashion." On his arrival at
New Amsterdam, the Director General received him
very humanely and furnished him with good raiment,
of which he stood sorely in need. The inhabitants of
the town gave the Jesuit missionary every token of
regard and esteem. A Lutheran Pole, meeting him in a
retired spot, fell at his feet, kissed his mutilated hands



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284 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND

body/ Finally, all the savages clamored for his death
by fire, but an old woman, to whom he had been given
in the place of her grandfather, killed some time before
in an encounter with the Hurons, ransomed the mis-
sionary with a belt of wampum, worth about thirty-five
livres. He was received into her cabin, but her daughters
could not bear the sight of him on account of the
horrible appearance of his mangled body.^ Meanwhile,
the Dutch gave him good reason to hope for his ransom,
which was finally effected without much difficulty, as
the Indians held him in little esteem, because of his
want of skill for everything, and because they believed
that he would never get well of his ailments.^ The old
woman ordered her son to take him to the Dutch and to
deliver him into their hands after receiving some
presents in return. The Dutch received the Jesuit,
naked and with his fingers maimed and bleeding, in great
kindness and satisfied the Indian with presents to the
amount of about two hundred livres.* He was clothed,
placed under the care of the surgeon, and almost daily
fed at the table of the Dutch minister.^ After he had
been restored to health, he was brought to New Amster-
dam, where he was finally placed on a ship, manned by
Huguenots, sailing for Europe. He carried with him
this letter of safe-conduct: "We, William Kieft,
Director General, and the Council of New Netherland,

^ Details given by Bressani himself in his Relation of 1653. Jes.
Rels. xxxix.

2 Rel. 1643-44 by Vimont. Jes. Rels. xxvi. 49.

3 Letter of Bressani from New Amsterdam. August 31, 1644,
Jes. Rels. xxxix. 77.

* Ibid. p. 78-79 with note 8.

^ Letter of Megapolensis and Drisius to Classis of Amsterdam.
Sept. 28, 1658. Eccl. Recs. N. Y. i. 437.



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286 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND

step into the canoe on this dangerous mission, they
warned him not to speak in the beginning of the faith
which was so repulsive to the Iroquois, as it seemed to
exterminate everything that men held most dear. They
also advised him to wear shorter apparel, as the long
robe preached as well as the lips, and the warning was
heeded.* On his arrival in the Mohawk country, his
efforts to have the peace ratified by the Indians were
successful. However, some savages with distrustful
minds did not look with favor on a little box, which the
Father left as a pledge of his return to the country, as
they imagined that it enclosed some disastrous mis-
fortune. Father Jogues opened the chest and showed
these Indians that it contained no other mystery than
some small necessaries, for which he might have use
on his return.^ This conclusion of a peace with the
fierce Mohawks raised in the hearts of the Jesuits great
hopes oi their final conversion. In the following sum-
mer, Father Jogues was,in fact, appointed to begin among
these Indians a new mission under the patronage of the
Holy Martyrs. He planned to spend the winter in the
Mohawk country to begin with solidity the instruction
of those infidels.^ Meanwhile, superstition had again
poisoned the minds of the savages against the mission-
ary in spite of all their former professions of undying
friendship. Upon his arrival on the 1 7th of October,
1646, Father Jogues was stripped naked, loaded with
blows and threatened with death on the following day.
The savages kept their promise in spite of the opposition

^ Rel. 1645-6 by Lalemant in Jes. Rels. xxix. 47, 49.
2 Rel. 1645-6 by Lalemant in Jes. Rels. xxix 55, 57.
^ Bressani's Relation of 1653. Jes. Rels. xxxix. 235-36.






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288 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND

have never been repaid, so that we think that, when
complaints reach France, they will take care of their
countrymen."^

Two years later on August 20, 1653, a band of
marauding Iroquois, during an incursion into Canada,
captured Father Joseph Poncet and another French-
man, Maturin Franchetot, while the Jesuit was speaking
to the latter in his field to induce him to garner the
little harvest of a poor French widow. On the arrival
of these Indians in the Mohawk country, their prisoners
were stripped of their clothing and compelled to run
the gauntlet under a shower of blows. Later in the day ,
Father Poncet lost the first finger of his left hand, which
was cut off by a child at the bidding of a savage in
response to the request of an Indian woman. Mean-
while, the Mohawks, who were besieging Three Rivers,
met with greater resistance than they had anticipated,
and began to sue for peace, but the French refused to
begin any negotiations, unless the Jesuit Father and his
fellow-prisoner were restored. 'The Indian chief
pleaded ignorance of the capture of these Frenchmen
and immediately ordered two canoes to return to the
Mohawk country to prevent any harm from being done
to the prisoners, and to procure their release if still
alive. ^ Franchetot had already been burned to death
on the eighth of September, while the life of Father
Poncet had been saved through his adoption by a good
old woman in the place of a brother, killed or captured
some time before. The Indian, who brought the mes-

^ Letter of Directors to Stuyvesant. March 21, 165 1. Col. Docs.
N. Y. xiii. 28.

2 Relation. 1652-53. Jes. Rels. xl. 171.



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apo RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND

promise them to return the next summer.^ Meanwhile,
the Indian Councils gathered the presents and selected
the embassy for the solemn conclusion of peace with
the French. Father Poncet with his conductor and the
other Iroquois finally arrived at Montreal on October
24th, and on the sixth of November the great affair of
peace, so ardently desired, was brought to a close in
Quebec' The Mohawks left four of their number as
hostages with the French, while two young soldiers
volunteered to go to the Mohawk country in the same
capacity at the request of the savages. In the calcu-
lation of the Mohawks, the peace was only a preliminary
step to obtain the removal of the Hurons to their own
country, which had been secretly proposed to the latter
at the very time that they were discussing the con-
clusion of the peace with the French.^

During the winter of 1654, the Onondagas
came to Quebec to strengthen the peace that
they had already negotiated in the preceding
fall. They also made the same secret proposals
to the Hurons, who did not dare to refuse in their
anxiety for peace, but demanded first a dwelling
for the black robes, their teachers, whom they would

* The Relation of 1656-7 gives a curious fact, which may be
mentioned here in its own words. "A woman, who was very ill at
Onontagh6, had dreamed that she required a black gown to
effect her cure. But, as the recent cruel massacre of our Fathers
by those Barbarians deprived them of all hope of being able to ob-
tain one from us, they applied to the Dutch, who sold them at a
very high price the wretched cassock of Father Poncet, who had
shortly before been despoiled of it by the Annienhronnons. The
woman attributed her cure to it, and wished to keep it all her life as
a precious relic." Jes. Rels xliii. 273.

^Relation of 1652-53. Jes. Rels. xl. 119-157.

^Relation of 1653-54. Jes. Rels. xli. 47-49.









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292 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND

Mohawks were disappointed by the fact that they had
been forestalled by the Onondagas. The chief in a
clever speech made their complaint known to the
French. "Ought not one to enter a house by the door,
and not by the chimney or roof of the cabin, unless he
be a thief, and wish to take the inmates by surprise?
We, the five Iroquois Nations, compose but one cabin;
we maintain but one fire ; and we have, from time im-
memorial, dwelt under one and the same roof. Well,
then, will you not enter the cabin by the door, which
is at the ground floor of the house? It is with us
Mohawks, that you should begin; whereas you, by
beginning with the Onondagas, try to enter by the roof
and through the chimney. Have you no fear that the
smoke may blind you, our fire not being extinguished
and that you may fall from the top to the bottom,
having nothing solid on which to plant your feet?"
The French Governor assured the Mohawks that
Father Le Moyne would also go to their country and
gave him letters to deliver to the Jesuit missionary to
inform him to that effect, but the Father had gained
such a start that the Mohawk chief could not overtake
him.^ Father Le Moyne, on his arrival in the Onondaga
country, received every evidence of good will on the
part of the savages, who at this time had great fear of
the issue of an impending war with the powerful Erie
tribes or the Cat Nation. The chief of the Onondagas,
speaking in the name of the Five Iroquois Nations,
again told Father Le Moyne that it was their wish to
acknowledge Him of whom he had told them, who is
the master of their lives, and who was unknown to them,

^Relation. 1653-54. Jes. Rels. xli. 87-89.



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294 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND

he was trying to discover the presence of the enemy for
the sake of the Christian savages at work in the fields,
whom he wished to warn. Persons were killed and
taken captive on either side. Finally, the Mohawks,
weary of the war, brought back the French captives and
requested the restoration of their own Indians. They
agreed not to attack the French any longer, nor to bear
arms below Three Rivers, but they refused to discon-
tinue the war against the Algonquins and Hurons,
whom they might find above that village on the river
of St. Lawrence. Father Le Moyne was now sent to the
Mohawks to take back the prisoners, captured by the
French, and "also to cement that peace, as well as it
can be cemented with the Infidels who are allied to
Heretics."^ The Jesuit left Montreal on this mission,
August 17, 1655, with twelve Iroquois and two
Frenchmen. A month later the party reached their des-
tination, where the Father was received with "extraor-
dinary cordiality." A council was held, which passed
in many exchanges of courtesy. Le Moyne then
pushed on to the Dutch settlement where he was also
received ''with great demonstration of affection by the
Dutch," from whom he learned of the attack of the
River Indians upon New Amsterdam. On his return
to the Mohawks, he almost met death at the hands of a
a madman, who finally was calmed by a quickwitted
Indian squaw's suggestion to kill her dog in the place
of the missionary. However, a Huron Christian had his
head split without ceremony upon a mere suspicion
that he had revealed to the Father some of the designs,

^ Introduction to Copies of two Letters sent from New France.
1656. Jes. Rel. xli. 201-223.



295






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296 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND

were not content. In a solemn council, on the 29th of
February, the Savages told the Fathers, that they were
tired of any further postponement of the French settle-
ment, for which they had been waiting from year to
year. In the event of further delay, they threatened to
break the peace, which they had concluded with the
French under this condition. A few days later, Father
Dablon, realizing the urgency of the matter, set out
for Canada with some Indian guides, and, after a weary
journey through snow, ice and rain, arrived at Montreal
on the 30th of March. All preparations for the new set-
tlement were completed on the 1 7th of May. A band
of about fifty Frenchmen, with Father Francis le
Mercier, Father Rene Menard and Father Jacques
Fremin, and Brothers Ambroise Broar and Joseph
Boursier, accompanied Father Dablon back to Onon-
daga, where they arrived on the eleventh of July.

News of this French settlement at Onondaga soon
reached the Dutch Province. Although the Jesuits
believed that the Dutch were glad that they dwelt in
these places, and reported that the Dutch were even
willing to bring them horses and other commodities,^
the Directors of the Amsterdam Chamber, informed by
Stuyvesant of a French settlement among the Senecas,
expressed their dissatisfaction, as the matter could only
be to the disadvantage of the Province of New Nether-
land and its inhabitants. There is no doubt that
their suspicions were well founded, for the Jesuits

back from Kebec without greater esteem and affection for our
mysteries, and without a desire to be instructed and to embrace the
Faith; they say that they experience quite different feeUngs when
they return from the Dutch settlements." Jes. Rels. xliv. 45.
1 Relation of 1656-57. Jes. Rels. xliii. 185.












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298 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND

Cat Nation. A number of murders committed by the
Iroquois at Montreal confirmed the fears of the French^
and resulted in the arrest of all the Iroquois found in
Montreal, Three Rivers and Quebec.^ War was inevit-
able. The destruction of the French settlers had
already been determined, when they escaped in a body,
while the savages were overcome by sleep after a
generous feast given by the French. After a perilous
journey, they reached Montreal on the 3d of April, but
three Frenchmen had lost their lives in the rapids of the
St. Lawrence.^

The Onondaga settlement had been the source of
much jealousy to the Mohawks. However, a Huron clan
had also been forced to settle in the Mohawk country, in
the spring of 1655, to obtain the peace, for which the
Hurons sued, after their enemies had surprised their
village on the Isle of Orleans. On his visit to the
Mohawks in the summer. Father LeMoyne found these
Hurons reduced to a state of slavery. "The husband
was separated from the wife, and the children from
their parents; in short they were serving those Bar-
barians as beasts of burden." As in the preceding
year the missionary's labors were mainly claimed by
this suffering flock among the heathen Mohawks. Like
a good shepherd, ' 'he consoled the afflicted ; he taught
the ignorant; he heard the confessions of those who
came to him; he baptized the children; he made all
pray to God ; he exhorted all to persevere in the Faith
and in avoiding sin." Little success followed his efforts
with the Mohawks themselves. Nevertheless, he never

1 Rel. 1657-58. Jes. Rel. xliv. 155-6.

2 Letter of Paul Raguenau. Ibid. 175-183.



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300 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND

taught the Indians anything more than to make the
sign of the Cross and such Hke superstitions."^ The
missionary told the minister that he wanted only to
chat. He informed him of the existence of wonderful
mineral springs in the western part of the country inha-
bited by the Iroquois. There was a spring of salt water
from which he had obtained excellent salt by boiling
the water; there was an oil spring, which the Indians
used to anoint their hair ; and there was another spring
of hot sulphurous water, in which paper and dry
materials became ignited. The minister could not
decide, whether all this was true, or whether it was a
mere Jesuit lie, and so he mentioned the whole matter
on the authority of the Jesuit to his ecclesiastical su-
periors in Holland.^

1 The Dutch seem to have been under the impression that the
conversion of the Indians to Christianity wrought by the Jesuits
was superficial. Thus while Van der Donck admits that "the
Jesuits have taken great pains and trouble in Canada to convert the
Indians to the Roman Church," he believes that the Indians profess
that religion only "outwardly," and so "inasmuch as they are not
well instructed in its fundamental principles, they fall off lightly and
make sport of the subject and its doctrine." Van der Donck's au-
thority for this statement is the alleged experience of a Dutch mer-
chant on a trading trip to Canada in 1639, who plied an Indian
chief with liquor, loosening his tongue and imagiantion. "After he
had drank two or three glasses of wine, . . . the chief said that he had
been instructed so far that he often said mass among the Indians,
and that on a certain occasion the place where the altar stood
caught fire by accident, and our people made preparations to put
out the fire, which he forbade them to do, saying that God who
stands there is almighty, and he will put out the fire himself; and
we waited with great attention, but the fire continued till all was
burned up, with your Almighty God himself and with all the fine
things about him. Since that time I have never held to that re-
ligion, but regard the sun and the moon much more, as being better
than all your Gods are ; for they warm the earth and cause the fruits
to grow, when your lovely Gods cannot preserve themselves from
the fire." Van der Donck. A Description of New Netherland.
N. Y. Hist. Society Coll. 2nd. Ser. i. (1841), p. 214.

2 "The Springs, which are as numerous as they are wonderful,
are nearly all minerals. Our little lake (Onondaga) which is only



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302 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND

French Governor, who immediately took counsel with
the principal inhabitants of Canada in regard to this
matter. There was no objection raised to the com-
merce of the Dutch with Canada, as the Dutch had
long been received in French ports as friends and allies
of the Crown. The French Governor only stipulated
that their ships were to observe the same customs, as
the French vessels, which excluded all participation in
the Indian trade and the public exercise on land of
any religion that was opposed to the Roman faith. ^
Father Le Moyne communicated this reply to the
Dutch from Fort Orange on April 7,1658, and expressed
regret that he was unable to accompany the first ship
to Quebec, as he had planned to do, inasmuch as he
would have with him, on his journey to Canada, "his
sailors of the woods. "^ The Mohawks, in their negotia-
tions for the release of the prisoners held by the French,
had promised to bring back Father Le Moyne to
Canada in the spring. They stopped at Fort Orange
previous to their departure and the Jesuit took the
opportunity to send a long letter to the Dutch minister,
who had been a Catholic until his twenty-third year,
when he had left the Church of Rome to become a
follower of John Calvin. To win back the minister to

identified. There are several magnesian springs, but not located as
in the text. I think it was one of the common springs, highly-
charged with sulphate of lime. John Bartram saw one of these in
1743, at Onondaga; but it was not oderous, being above the gypsum
rocks. Cf . allusions to the mineral springs of that region, in Robert
Munro's Description of the Genesee Country (N. Y. 1804; reprinted
in N. Y. Doc. Hist. ii. 679-689.") — W. M. Beauchamp. Note
21. Jes. Rels. xliii. 326.

^ Letter of Governor D'Aillebout to Father Le Moyne, Quebec.
February 18, 1658. O'Callaghan. Hist, of New Netherland. ii. p.

364.

2 Letter. Ibid.



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304 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND

validity of a council did not depend on the approval of
the Pope, but on its conformity with the Word of God —
of course according to the Reformed interpretation —
which alone assured the presence of the Holy Spirit,
while Popes and Councils often contradicted one
another. Megapolensis could not deny Calvin's depar-
ture from the Christian belief obtaining in the world
before his day, but he represented Calvin's teaching as a
restoration of the Gospel of Christ in its "purity,"
inasmuch as Calvin had discerned anew "the pure doc-
trines" of election, founded solely on the good pleasure
of God, of Christ as the only sacrifice for sin and only
mediator with God, of good works, done out of gratitude
and for the glory of God, and not from the selfish
motive of reward. The Dutch, minister, therefore, did
not allow the charge of heresy against Calvin, "who
brought back the doctrine of Christ's merits," while
the Jesuits, putting off even the name of Christian,
took refuge "in the fictitious merits, indulgences, and
satisfactions" of Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier.
He, therefore, tells Le Moyne to omit some names in his
list of heretics and insert in their place various Orders
of Monks and several Orders of Nuns. Finally Mega-
polensis implored the Jesuit in his advancing age to
ponder on his responsibility to Christ for his steward-
ship, as he was profaning the holy ordinance of Christ
in baptizing Indians, when they were willing to make
the sign of the cross, and sometimes even when half
dead. The Dutch minister promised to pray for
Le Moyne "that he may be delivered from his errors
and led to the true knowledge of Christ." The first
ship dispatched from New Amsterdam to Canada






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3o6 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND

ed with presents and also some prisoners and directed to
invite the Elders to visit the Governor for the conclu-
sion of a general peace with all the Nations. Good
treatment was promised to the Mohawk prisoners, who
were retained in captivity.^ Shortly after the return
of the Mohawks to their own country, fifteen of the
oldest chiefs presented themselves at Fort Orange and
requested the Dutch authorities to give them an
interpreter, who was to assist them in the exchange of
four French prisoners for Six Mohawk captives and in
the conclusion of a peace with all the Indians of that
region. The Dutch replied that they had no person
who was able to act in such a capacity, but the Mohawks
refused to allow such an excuse. "When ye were at
war with the Indians, we went to the Manhattans and
used our best endeavors to procure you peace. Ye are
bound, therefore, now to befriend us on this occasion."
The public crier was then sent around to offer one
hundred guilders to any person, who would consent
to act as interpreter to these Mohawks. One of the
Company's soldiers, Henry Martin, volunteered and
set out with the Mohawks, who promised to bring
him back in safety at the end of forty days.^

On their arrival, the Mohawks, calling the attention
of the French to the fact that the Captain of New Hol-
land was their companion in this embassy, told the
French Governor to seek the means of establishing a
firm peace, but appointed the Mohawk village as the
place of the council, in which all their nations would