The Jesuit Relations: an invaluable legacy, revisited

22 Friday May 2015

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, Explorers, History, Missionaries

Tags

explorers, Jacques Marquette, Louis Jolliet, Missionaries, New France, Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France, Reuben Gold Thwaites, Society of Jesus

Père Marquette and the Indians [at the Mississippi River], oil painting (1869) by Wilhelm Lamprecht (1838–1906), at Marquette University[I]

Travel

Several visitors to North America have left precious accounts of their trips as well as fine analysis of the people whose lands they visited. For instance, in recent years, Alexis de Tocqueville‘s (29 July 1805, Paris – 16 April 1859, Cannes) two-volume Democracy in America (De la démocratie en Amérique), published in 1840 and 1845, has received a great deal of attention.

The Jesuit Relations

Reuben Gold Thwaites: the Editor (portrayed to the right, below)

However, one could and perhaps should include The Jesuit Relations (73 volumes, 1896-1901), among works in which Europeans have described North America. The Jesuit Relations have been edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites, as The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France 1610-1791. Having had the privilege of reading some volumes of the Relations attentively and browsing through every volume, it is possible for me to say that Mr Thwaites’ edition is not only extremely interesting, but also quite easy to read. It has been translated into English (a parallel translation) from the French, Italian and Latin.[ii]

Richelieu and New France

Every year the Jesuits working in Canada sent a report (une relation) to their superiors in France. According to The Canadian Encyclopedia,

“[a]s a result of Cardinal Richelieu‘s decision to enlist the Jesuits in colonizing French North America, the early history of settlement was systematically and colourfully documented by priests attempting to convert the Indians and also to attract support at home for their project.”[iii]

Compilation and publication

The Jesuit Relations were compiled by missionaries “in the field,” (The Canadian Encyclopedia), edited by their Quebec superior and sent to the Paris office of the Society of Jesus. They were printed in France by Sébastien Cramoisy. These texts constitute the finest and most complete account of life in Nouvelle-France (New France) beginning in 1632, under Richelieu and Louis XIII, and ending in 1672, twelve years after Louis XIV ascended to the throne (1660).

Documents were sent after 1672, but not systematically.

Contents of the Jesuit Relations: a mixture

The Jesuits told everything. Wikipedia lists: “Marriages and Marriage Customs, Courtship, Divorce, Social Status of Women, Songs and Singing, Dances, and Games and Recreation.” The Relations are a mélange (mixture) blending the activities of Amerindians, the progress of missionaries and the daily life of settlers. Moreover, they include accounts of explorers.

Henry P. Bosse

Minneiska, Minn., 1885

Jacques Marquette, S. J. and Louis Jolliet: Explorations down the Mississippi River

Among accounts of explorers, the Jesuit Relations include a relation by Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette (1 June 1637 – 18 May 1675), who was allowed to accompany French-Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet (21 September 1645 – last seen May 1700). They founded Sault Ste. Marie (now in Ontario, Canada) and later founded St. Ignace, Michigan, in the current United States. They reported the first accurate data on the course of the Mississippi. Two years later, Père Marquette and other missionaries were the first Europeans to spend a winter near Chicago.[iv]

Voyageurs

Métis

They left from St. Ignace on 18 May 1673 with two canoes and five voyageurs of French-Amerindian ancestry (Métis) and entered the Mississippi on 19 June 1673. They travelled down the Mississippi, nearly reaching the Gulf of Mexico. Two years later, Père Marquette was exposed to dysentery and died prematurely. As for Jolliet, he was not heard of after May 1700.

Conclusion

the “bon sauvage”

The Jesuit Relations are, therefore, eclectic, and they were widely read in the 18th century as “exciting travel literature.” They are the birthplace of the “Bon Sauvage,” who will be used later to provide a silent, yet eloquent, indictment of French society. They constitute invaluable “ethnographic and documentary sources.”[v]

Sources and Resources

The Jesuit Relations.1 (Internet Archive)
The Jesuit Relations.2 (Internet Archive)
_________________________
[i] Images are from Wikipedia, unless otherwise indicated.
[ii] Lacombe, Michèle. “Jesuit Relations”. The Canadian Encyclopedia.
Toronto: Historica Canada, 2006. Web. 8 Feb 2006.
[iii] Michèle Lacombe, op. cit.
[iv] “Jacques Marquette.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/366090/Jacques-Marquette>
[v] Michèle Lacombe, op. cit.

Le Révérend Père Jacques Marquette, S. J., by Wilhelm Lamprecht

Paul Robeson – The Old Man River

Missionaries and the Noble Savage: Père Marquette & Gabriel Sagard

17 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Black Robe, Brian Moore, Gabriel Sagard, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Jacques Marquette, Jesuit, Mississippi River, New France, Noble savage, Récollets

Pere_Marquette

The Noble Savage

This post’s main feature could be the above depiction, by Wilhelm Lamprecht (1838-1906), of Father Jacques Marquette or Père Marquette, S.J., pointing to the Mississippi River, surrounded by Métis or Amerindians. I have used this painting in one of two posts on The Jesuit Relations, a yearly account by Jesuit missionaries of events in New France. In these posts, I indicated that Jesuit Relations were the birthplace of the Noble Savage.

In the Jesuit Relations and in the accounts of other missionaries, the Amerindian is often described as morally superior to Europeans and, especially, to the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) inhabiting New France: Canada and Acadie. Therefore, before we discuss the nineteenth-century sentimentalist portrait of the Noble Savage or bon Sauvage, we should remember the missionaries to New France: the Récollets, and the Jesuits.

The Récollets or Recollects

The Récollets were the first missionaries to travel to New France. Brother Gabriel Sagard (fl. 1614–1636) arrived in New France on 28 June 1623 and was sent to accompany Father Viel. They travelled to Lake Huron to join Récollets, who had come to New France in 1615. Sagard wrote Le grand voyage au pays des Hurons (Paris, 1632), an Histoire du Canada (1636), in which Le grand voyage is retold, and a Dictionary of the Huron Language.

An English translation of Le grand voyage by historian George M. Wrong was published by the Champlain Society in 1939 as Sagard’s Long journey to the country of the Hurons. It can be read online at the Champlain Society website [click on Long journey… ]. In 2009, John Steckley edited and published an authoritative edition of [Sagard’s] Dictionary of the Huron language. (Gabriel Sagard, Wikipedia)

Teyoninhokarawen (John Norton)

John Norton (Teyoninhokarawen) (b.c. 1760s Scotland (?)- d.after 1826, likely born and educated in Scotland, had a Scottish mother and a father who was born Cherokee in Tennessee but raised from boyhood with the English.

John Norton was adopted as Mohawk. He distinguished himself as the leader of Iroquois warriors who fought on behalf of Great Britain against the United States in the War of 1812. Commissioned as a major, he was the military leader of warriors from the Six Nations of the Grand River who fought against American invaders at Queenston Heights, Stoney Creek, and Chippawa.

We know that “savages” were not always “noble savages.” The Iroquois tribes (SENECA, CAYUGA, ONEIDA, ONONDAGA and MOHAWK) were enemies of French-speaking settlers. I should note, therefore, that the five Amerindians who took Jolliet and Marquette down the Mississippi were bons sauvages. In fact, they were French Amerindians, or Métis.

So it would appear that métissage occurred from the earliest days of New France and that it may have occurred because Amerindians were bons sauvages. They were the voyageur‘s guides. How would the voyageurs have succeeded in their mission had the Amerindians not been “Noble Savages” who actually prepared their food: sagamité? Such were the Amerindians Jacques Marquette and Gabriel Sagard attempted to convert to Roman Catholicism.

Métissage itself provides proof of affinities not only between Canadiens and Amerindians, but also between British settlers and Amerindians. Although métissage was less frequent between the British and Amerindians, it happened. John Norton, a Métis born in Scotland to an Amerindian father, a Cherokee, and a Scottish mother, became a Mohawk Chief.

Conclusion

In the accounts of missionaries, the Amerindian is not always a bon sauvage. On the contrary. Amerindians tortured and killed several missionaries, but they were sometimes confused about their role. Converting Amerindians could become a moral dilemma. Why convert a people whose behaviour was different, but morally acceptable? The ambivalence of missionaries towards Amerindians and that of Amerindians towards the missionaries is central to Black Robe, a film mentioned below.

I admire the many “Black Robes” who learned Amerindian languages or otherwise expressed true devotion towards members of their little flock. I also admire such men as François de Laval (30 April 1623 – 6 May 1708), the first Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec and a member of the distinguished Montmorency family, who threatened to excommunicate and probably did excommunicate French fur traders who gave alcohol to Amerindians in exchange for precious pelts.

One may read The Jesuit Relations Online (just click on the title).

The Jesuit Relations: an Invaluable Legacy, 15 March 2012
More on the Jesuit Relations, 16 March 2012

Black Robe, a novel and a film, was discussed by one of my WordPress colleagues. But I cannot find the relevant blog. Black Robe is a 1991 film directed by Australian Bruce Beresford. The screenplay was written by Irish-Canadian author Brian Moore, who adapted it from his novel of the same name. The film stars Lothaire Bluteau and can be watched online. It was produced by an Australian and Canadian team and filmed in Quebec. I used to show it to my students. Below is part of the film. It is not the video I used previously. It featured French composer Georges Delerue (12 March 1925 – 20 March 1992), and it was exquisite, but it was removed.