tworthiness, were
composed "The Relations," which, annually made public, were of double
service,--in reporting the hopeful labors of those already in the hard
and dreary field, and in quickening the fervent zeal for new accessions
to it. From these Relations, and from the voluminous and equally rich
private correspondence between the missionaries and their European
friends, Mr. Parkman, contributing what he has learned from other
sources, is able to construct for us a continuous narrative, which
anticipates every question we might ask, and informs us fully on every
point of interest in his theme. He describes to us the Jesuit living on
visions and dreams, reinforcing his spirit by meditations, and keeping
his enthusiasm up to the needed point by assuring himself, on
emergencies, of the direct interposition of the saints in his behalf. He
makes us join the travelling party of the missionary as he avails
himself of an Indian escort to penetrate into the wilderness, sharing
its perils and its annoyances, aggravated always, even when not created,
by the shiftlessness of his companions. We are initiated into all the
methods and appliances of travel, of hunting, of encamping, of
lodge-building, of feasting and starving, on the trail and in the
village. The resources of forest life as presented by Thoreau, who had
houses into which he might bring up at night, the furnishings of a
wardrobe, and the comfort of salt, will be found on comparison to
obtrude many broad contrasts with the realities encountered by the
Jesuits and their entertainers. These all-enduring, patient men, born
amid the luxuries of civilized life, left all behind them when they
embarked in the canoe which was itself, with its contents, to be carried
as a burden over the frequent portages connecting streams or avoiding
cataracts. The first care of the "Black-Robes" was to provide the
vessels and materials for the mass, with paper, pen, and ink. A few
trinkets, and perhaps some implements of the rudest home-use, completed
their outfit. They were disgusted, all but infuriated, by the filth and
vermin, the loathsome familiarities, and the blinding smoke of the
wigwam. Their feelings as civilized men were outraged by the fiendish
barbarities of which they were spectators. Their lives always hung on a
thread, at the mercy of caprice, jealousy, superstition, and hate, which
were always active in savage breasts. Yet they toiled and suffered and
persevered and hoped, a