been effected, and still continue to be perforined, by her intercession. This is well known, not only among the Indians, but by the French at Quebec and Montreal, many of whom repair to her tomb in order to perform their vows, or to offer her their thanks for the favours which she has obtained for them from Heaven. I could detail to you a great number of these wonderful cures, attested by persons whose honour and judgment cannot be suspected; but I shall content myself by giving you the testimony of two persons of great virtue and merit, who experienced, in their own persons, the influence of the intercession of this holy girl, and who, in consequence, thought it their duty to leave to posterity a public record of their piety and gratitude."*

The first of these certificates is from one of the fathers of the Jesuits, whom Charlevoix designates with a title of Persian-like length, Monsieur l'Abbé de la Colombiere, Grand Archidiacre et Grand Vicaire de Quebec, et Conseiller Clerc au Conseil Supérieur de la Nouvelle France.Monsieur l'Abbé thus deposes:

-

"Having been ill at Quebec last year, from January to June, of a slow fever, against which all the usual remedies proved ineffectual, and also attacked with a flux, which ipecacuanha itself could not cure; it was thought advisable I should make

*Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, vol. vi. p. 40.

a vow, that in case it pleased Heaven to put a stop to my malady, I should go to the mission of St. François Xavier, in order to offer up my prayers at the tomb of Catherine Tegahkouita. From that day the fever ceased, and the flux being also much diminished, I embarked some days afterwards to acquit myself of my vow, and scarcely had I proceeded a third part of the journey, when I found myself perfectly cured.

"I therefore feel that it would be unjust in me not to ascribe to the missions of Canada the glory which is their due; and to testify, as I now do, that I am indebted for my cure to this Iroquois virgin. I accordingly make the present attestation, not only to evince the sentiments of gratitude which I entertain, but also to express, as much as in my power, the confidence to be reposed upon the intercession of my benefactress, and thus incite others to imitate her virtues.

"Done at Ville Marie, this 14th day of September, 1696.

"J. DE LA COLOMBIERE, "P. I. Chanoine de la Cathédrale de Quebec." The other certificate is presented to the faithful, by Capitaine de Luth, "one of the bravest officers,' says Charlevoix, "whom the king has ever had in this colony.

"I, the undersigned, certify to all whom it may concern, that having, for three and twenty years,

been tormented with the gout, and suffering such pain as to have been deprived of rest for three months together, I addressed myself to Catherine Tegahkouita, the Iroquois virgin who died in odour of sanctity at the Sault St. Louis, and I promised to visit her tomb, if Heaven should please to remove my malady through her intercession. At the end of a nine days' fasting and devotion, which I performed to her honour, I was so completely cured, that for the last fifteen months I have not had the slightest fit of the gout.

"Done at Fort Frontenac, this 15th day of August, 1696.

"J. DE LUTH,

"Capitaine d'un détachement de la marine, Commandant au Fort Frontenac."*

Should any sceptical reader of the good Fathers Cholenec and Charlevoix suspect that the captain's gout was probably as much relieved by his own. fasting, as by the good offices of an Iroquois nun, let him take warning from the lesson that was given to the doubting curate of La Chine. "On every anniversary of the death of La Bonne Catherinefor that is the name by which, in deference to the Holy See, she is honoured in Canada-the neighbouring parishes were in the habit of repairing to

*Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, and also Charlevoix, Hist. de la Nouvelle France, liv. xiii.

the church, at the Sault St. Louis, near Montreal, to perform a solemn mass. The curate of La Chine, M. Remy, who had recently arrived from France, having been apprised of this custom, and that his predecessors had always conformed to it, declared that he did not think himself authorised to sanction, by his presence, a public religious solemnity not ordained by the church. Those of his parishioners who heard him make this remark, foretold that it would not be long before their new curate would be punished for his refusal; and, in fact, from that very day M. Remy fell dangerously sick." The historian, however, happily adds, that the worthy curate, "perceiving at once the cause of his sudden malady, made a vow to follow the pious example of his predecessors, upon which he was immediately restored to health!"* But enough of the supernatural cures thus gravely recorded by these sturdy disciples of Loyola in New France; to be equalled only by the miraculous recoveries effected by the celebrated medecine dance of the savage, or the conjuring feats of the Indian Powah.

* Charlevoix, Hist. de la Nouvelle France, liv. xii.

H

CHAPTER V.

FRIENDLY CONDUCT

OF

THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS TOWARDS THE EARLY EUROPEAN SETBY THEM TO THE TLERS

KINDNESS SHEWN

DUTCH COLONISTS UPON THE HUDSON-SIMILAR CONDUCT TOWARDS THE ENGLISH SETTLERS IN VIRGINIA STORY OF POCAHONTAS.

HAVING noticed the injudicious system which appears to have been so generally pursued with respect to the Indians, by the civil, military, and religious authorities of New France, we may now turn our attention to the early settlers in other parts of the North American continent. In doing so, it will be found that the Europeans, on their first arrival, every where met with kindness and cordiality from the natives, and that the Indian good-will which had been shewn to Cartier, and others of the early French discoverers of the countries situated upon the St. Lawrence, was in like manner experienced by the Dutch settlers upon the banks of the Hudson, and by the first British colonists in Virginia, and New England.

With regard to the reception which the Indians gave to the Dutch on their arrival, there cannot perhaps be a better delineation than what was conveyed