awe," says Bancroft, "protected his life, and he, too, was at last humanely rescued by the Dutch."

A year after the capture of Father Bressani, the French, still anxious to secure possession of the Iroquois country, seek a treaty of peace with the Five Nations. A meeting is held at Three Rivers, in 1645, at which Couture, the lay-Jesuit captured with Father Jogues, in the dress of an Iroquois, is present, exerting great influence with his adopted Indian friends. Jogues and Bressani, who remained only a short time in Europe, are also in the council. All agree to smooth the forest path and hide the tomahawk. The Iroquois say, "Let the sun shine on all the land between us." The Algonquins join in the agreement. "There is peace" says Parkman, "in the dark and blood-stained wilderness. The lynx, the panther and the wolf, have made a covenant of love; but who will be their surety?"

The Iroquois ambassadors acted, without doubt, in sincerity, but the wayward, capricious, and ungoverned nature of the Indian parties to the treaty, and the fact that the Mohawks alone had represented the Confederacy, made it desirable that further steps should be taken to ratify the covenant. Couture had returned to winter among the Mohawks, that he might exert his influence to hold them to their pledges; but an agent of more acknowledged weight, one, too, who knows their language and character well, must be sent. All things pointed to Father Jogues as the man, and it was proposed that the errand should be "half political and half religious; for not only was he to be a bearer of gifts, wampum belts and messages from the governor, but he was also to found a new mission, christened in advance with a prophetic name, The Mission of the Martyrs."*

"For two years past Jogues has been at Montreal, and it is here that he receives the order of his superior to proceed to the Mohawk towns. At first nature asserts itself, and he recoils involuntarily at the thought of the horrors of which his scarred body and mutilated hands are a living memento. It is a transient weakness, and he prepares to depart with more than willingness, giving thanks to Heaven that he has been found worthy to suffer and die for the saving of souls and the greater glory of God." *

In company with Sieur Bourdon, the governor's engineer, Jogues departs. They are hospitably received; the peace is ratified, and they return to Quebec through a tranquil wilderness.

But the Mohawks have requested a missionary, asking particularly

* Packman's History of the Jesuits in North America, p. 298.

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for Jogues himself. In anticipation of that result, on his visit he left behind his trunk containing the sacred vessels. But indications of the bad faith of the Iroquois already appear, making the question of his return a very serious one. His superior holds a council. Political as well as religious considerations enter into the question, for France looks to the conquest of the territory of New York, and the Church must prepare the way. After full deliberation Jogues receives orders to repair to that dangerous post. "I shall go, but shall never return," are his prophetic farewell words. On the 24th of August, 1646, five days before Druellett's departure for the Abenakis mission, with dark forebodings, Jogues sets out for the dreaded Mohawk country, accompanied by a young lay-brother, Lalande, and several Huron converts. On their way they meet Indians who warn them of a change of feeling in the Mohawk towns, and the Hurons, alarmed, refused to advance further; but Jogues, naturally the most timid man in the company, and the devoted Lalande, proceed on their way. Arriving among the Mohawks they find the rumors true. They are immediately seized, stripped, and treated as prisoners. A pestilence had ravaged the cabins, and caterpillars had devoured the crops of the canton, which, in their superstition, the Indians attribute to the mysterious trunk Jogues left behind, and no protestations or explanations will avail. He is condemned as an enchanter, notwithstanding some remonstrated and stood firm for the Frenchmen. A savage crowd assembles, beating them with sticks and fists. "You shall die to-morrow, but you shall not be burned," they cry; "you shall die by our hatchets." In vain does Father Jogues plead that he is not an enemy. Deaf to all reason, they commence the work of butchery. Cutting thin strips of flesh from his arms and back, they say, "Let us see if this white flesh is that of an Otki." "I am but a man like yourselves," replies the fearless confessor, "though I fear not death nor your tortures." Tranquil in spirit he approaches the cabin where the death festival is held, and in passing through the door, receives the death-blow.

Thus died Isaac Jogues. Among the sons of Loyola no purer or more illustrious example of virtue and sublime devotion has been

seen.

The founder of the Mohawk mission, his sufferings, rather than his labors, give him the most prominent place in its annals. Such were the New York Indians whom the Jesuits at Quebec sought to convert to the papacy and make subservient to the accomplishment of their schemes; but these powerful tribes proved to be the bulwarks raised up by Providence, and stationed all along

that long line of the State of New York, for the protection of Protestant colonies against the machinations of the papacy. It would be interesting to sketch the attempts of the Jesuits in the seventeenth century to found missions among this people. It would furnish many thrilling pages, examples of heroic adventure, sublime endurance, and lofty devotion, but all in vain. The failure frustrated a gigantic political scheme of territorial extension, and saved the continent to Protestantism.

Section 2.-The English in Maryland.

As early as 1570, the attention of the Jesuits in Florida was called to the region of the Chesapeake, and eight priests were sent to found a mission there; but they encountered the implacable hatred of the natives, and all soon perished by violence. More than sixty years passed before the attempt was renewed. In the meantime, Roman Catholic missions and settlements had been founded in the south, from Florida to the Pacific, and in the north, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Lake Huron. Hitherto no colony of English Roman Catholics had been undertaken; but the way was preparing.

The Jesuits, intent upon securing the continent to the papacy, seem to have determined to insert a wedge between the Protestant colonies in Virginia and those of New York and New England. If successful it would ultimately secure to them the great Atlantic coast region, which had fallen out of the hands of the papal nations. With a Catholic colony in the center, and the steadily encroaching lines of the Spanish Jesuits in the south and the French Jesuits in the north, and the cherished antagonism of the Indians against the English, they shrewdly calculated to gain the desired end. But if such a colony were planted it is evident that it must be composed of English papists, for England was in possession of the coast from Nova Scotia to Florida. What subtle hand shall direct the scheme? Let us see.

Father Andrew White was born in London in 1579, and educated at Douai, in a college instituted to train priests for England. On receiving orders he was sent to London to exercise his ministry in secrecy, as the penal laws then made necessary. This he was not long allowed to do, but with forty-six others was sentenced to perpetual banishment. Forced to retire to the continent, he resolved to enter the Society of Jesus, and, at the close of his

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novitiate, returned to England. After ten years in London he was called to a professor's chair in the Jesuit college near Seville. But in a few years this eminent Jesuit returned again to England, and became an intimate acquaintance and adviser of Lord Baltimore.

Sir George Calvert, a member of the Privy Council of James I., abjured Anglicanism and relinquished his positions at court. His sovereign, intent upon retaining his services, made him a peer of Ireland, under the title of Lord Baltimore. He solicited and obtained a grant of territory on the coast of America, with a charter allowing freedom of worship to Roman Catholics. On the death of Lord Baltimore, his oldest son Cecil proving incompetent to execute his plan, it was committed to another son, Leonard.

Accompanied by Father Andrew White, Father John Altham, and two lay brothers, the expedition sailed from England Nov. 22d, 1633, with St. Ignatius as their chosen patron. On the 3d of March, the day of the Feast of the Annunciation, they reached the mouth of the Chesapeake. Landing on Blackstone Island, they offered the sacrifice of the mass, raised the cross as a trophy to Christ, and chanted on bended knees the litany of the

cross.

From the friendly Yoacomico and his tribe, a site was purchased for the city of St. Mary's, and a wigwam for a chapel. Missions were established among the Indians, the Conestogues being the dominant tribe. Father White prepared a grammar, dictionary, and catechism in the Indian dialect. Many difficulties were encountered; some priests died; but others arrived in 1635 and 1636. Missions were established at Mettapany, on Kent Island and Kittamaquindi. Chilomacon, the chief, received Father White cordially, and installed him in his own lodge, where the missionary taught the dogmas of the Church. The chief and his braves were deeply impressed, and renounced polygamy.

In a general council, the chief and his family abandoned their ancient superstitions, accepted Christ, and received baptism. Indian wars sometimes interrupted, but the mission went on, and new missionaries came from England. Under a wise administration the dreary wilderness was converted into a prosperous colony.

It was not long, however, before they suffered from the opposition of the Virginia planters, which cast a gloom over their history. The civil war in England, the defeat of the papal party, and the enactment of severe laws against them, produced not a little disquietude and commotion in the Maryland Colony.

In 1644, Clayborne, the evil genius, raised a rebellion, expelled

the governor, and the next year sent off the priests prisoners to England. After an absence of three years they returned. But a new storm soon arose; the priests were under the ban of condemnation, and could officiate only in secret. The Indian missions in Maryland were then closed forever.

Freedom of Religion.

From the beginning, the Maryland Colony was characterized by a broader and more liberal religious policy than any other, until the settlement of Pennsylvania, about fifty years later. Lord Baltimore and his associates have been highly praised for the constitutional guarantees in form of religious liberty. It is probable, however, that the conditions of the grant to the original proprietors required the toleration of all those religious bodies which were allowed by the crown at home. An eminent Roman Catholic writer, De Courcey, has taken this view. But, to whatever the toleration of the Protestants by the Catholic colony of Maryland is due, it is, nevertheless, the just verdict of impartial history, that, "under the enlightened policy of Lord Baltimore, the colony steadily advanced in prosperity, increasing both in comfort and in numbers. Roman Catholics and Protestants alike found protection and security, and lived in harmony." t

Toward the close of that century, the Catholics fell into a minority, and, in 1704, bishops and priests were prohibited by law from saying mass and exercising other spiritual functions, except in private houses. They also suffered from other oppressive enactments. No churches were allowed to be built, and, at the time of the Revolution their priests numbered only twenty.

Section 3.-The French on the Great Lakes and in the Mississippi Valley.

Upon the rugged picturesque peninsula interlocked by Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, a region varied by undulations, tablelands, and mountains, rigorous in climate, rich in minerals and furs, and abounding in streams, rapids and water-falls, two great aboriginal races met. The fierce Dahcotas or Sioux, called by the Jesuits

*History of the Catholic Church in the United States. By Henry De Courcey. New York. Edward Dunigan & Bro., 1857, p. 30.

History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland. By Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D.D., New York. 1839. By John S. Taylor, Р 30.

See a fuller statement in the chapter on the Church and State in the Colonies-Intolerance in Maryland.