ater to a child, and, apparently by accident, drop some
on its head, and at the same time pronounce the sacramental words.
Some Indians believed for a long time that the books and strings of
beads were the embodiment of witchcraft. But the persistency of the
priests was at last rewarded by the conversion, or at all events the
semblance of conversion, of large numbers of Hurons. It would seem,
according as their fears of the Iroquois increased, the Hurons gave
greater confidence to the French, and became more dependent on their
counsel. In fact, in some respects, they lost their spirit of
self-reliance. In some villages the converts at last exceeded the
number of unbelievers. By {141} 1647 there were eighteen priests
engaged in the work of eleven missions, chiefly in the Huron country,
but also among the Algonquin tribes on the east and northeast of Lake
Huron or at the outlet of Lake Superior. Each mission had its little
chapel, and a bell, generally hanging on a tree. One central mission
house had been built at Ste. Marie close to a little river, now known
as the Wye, which falls into Thunder Bay, an inlet of Matchedash Bay.
This was a fortified station in the form of a parallelogram,
constructed partly of masonry, and partly of wooden palisades,
strengthened by two bastions containing magazines. The chapel and its
pictures attracted the special admiration of the Indians, whose
imagination was at last reached by the embellished ceremonies of the
Jesuits' church. The priests, thoroughly understanding the
superstitious character of the Indians, made a lavish use of pictorial
representations of pain and sufferings and rewards, allotted to bad and
good. Father Le Jeune tells us that "such holy pictures are most
useful object-lessons for the Indians." On one occasion he made a
special request for "three, four, or five devils, tormenting a soul
with a variety of punishments--one using fire, another serpents, and
another pincers." The mission house was also constantly full of
Indians, not simply enjoying these pictures, but participating also in
the generous hospitality of the Fathers.

It was in 1648 that the first blow descended on this unhappy people who
were in three years' time to be blotted out as a warlike, united nation
in {142} America. In that year the Iroquois attacked the mission of
St. Joseph (Teanaustaye), fifteen miles from Ste. Marie, where in 1638
a famous Iroquois, Ononkwaya, had been tortured.