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 MISSIONS

384

MISSIONS

1871; Nova Scotia, 2103; Quebec, 792G; Ontario, 6319; Manitoba, 1734; Saskatchewan, 2939; Al- berta, 1S73; Northwest Territories, 2252; Yukon Territory, 59, and British Columbia, 11,470. These are the official figures, which represent only the treaty Indians. In so far at least as the present vicariates Apostolic of Athabivsca and of Mackenzie are con- cerned, they are manifestly out of proportion with the actual population, since the Catholic Indians and halfbreeds of those territories alone are locally esti- mated at 11,000 and 5,000 respectively, with perhaps 500 native Protestants. 55,000 is a fairly accurate figure for the total of the Catholics among the Cana- dian Indians.

For books bearing on the Catholic missions in Canada see the bibliogmpby after the article Huron. Also: —

Beqo. Historu of British Columbia (Toronto, 1894); Beoo, (a namesake of foregoing), The Creation of Manitoba (Toronto, 1871); Idem, History of the North-west, 3 vols. (Toronto. 1894); Benoit, Vie de Mgr Tache, 2 vols. (Montreal, 1904); Bodlton, Reminiscences of the Northwest Rebellions (Toronto, 18S6); Bdr- TIN, Vie de Catherine Tekahgwita (Montreal): Dugas, Monsei- gneur Provencher (Montreal, 1889); Idem. Histoire veridique dcs Faits qui ant prepare le Mouvcment des Metis (Montreal, 1905); Idem. Histoire de VOuest Canadien de 1822 a ISBB (Montreal, 1906); H.\RORAVE, Red River (Montreal. 1871); Hill, Manitoba (Toronto, 1890); Jones, Relation inedite du R. P. Pierre Laure, S.J. (Montreal, 1889); Idem, The Aulneau Collection (Montreal, 1893): JONQOET, Monseigneur Grandin (Montreal. 1903); Lind- say, Notre-Dame de la Jeune Lorette (Montreal, 1900)- Martin, Huronset Iroquois (Paris, 1898): Maurault, Histoire des Abena- kis (Sorel. 1866); Morice..4u Pot/s de VOurs noir (Paris, 1897); Idem, History of the Northern Interior of British Columbia (To- ronto, 1904); Idem. Dietionnaire historique des Canadiens et des Metis francais de VOuest (Quebec, 1907); Idem, History of the Catholic Church in Western Canada, 2 vols. (Toronto, 1910); Mitlv-VNt, The History of the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 (To- ronto, 1886) ; Paquet, Fragments de VHistoire religieuse et civile de la paroisse de St Nicolas (Ij^vis, 1894); Petitot, Chez les Grands Esquimaux (Paris, 1.887); Idem, En route pour la Mer Glaciale (Paris, 1888); Idem, Quinze Ans sous le Cercle Polaire (Paris, 1889); Idem, Aulour du Grand Lac des Esclaves (Paris, 1891): Idem, Exploration de la Region du Grand Lac des Ours (Paris, 1893); Piolet, Les missions catholiques franpaises au XIX' siicle. VI (Paris, s. d.), 51-164; Somerset, The Land of the Muskeg (London, 1855); Sodlerin, Le P^re Laverlochere (Paris, s. d.).

Periodicals: Annales de la Propagation de la Foi (Lyons) ; Mis- sions de la Congregation des Oblates de Marie Immaculee (Paris, 1862-1910); Notiees necrologiques des O. M. I. (Paris); Rapports sur les Missions du Diocese de Quebec (Quebec).

A. G. MORICE.

Missions, C.\tholic Indian, of the United States. — The spiritual welfare of the native tribes of America was a subject of deep concern to the Gov- ernments of Catholic Spain and France from the very discovery of the Western Continent. To this fact all the early patents bear witness. That granted to Ayllon in 1532 for exploration and settlement along the Florida coast, as quoted by Shea, is typical: " Whereas our principal intent in the discovery of new lands is that the inhabitants and natives thereof, who are without the light or knowledge of faith, may be brought to understand the truth of our holy Catholic Faith, that they may come to a knowledge thereof, and become Christians and be saved, and this is the chief motive that you are to bear and hold in this affair, and to this end it is proper that religious persons should accompany you, by these presents I empower you to carry to the said land the religious whom you may judge necessary, and the vestments and other things needful for the observance of Divine worship; and I command that whatever you shall thus expend in transporting the said religious, as well as in main- taining them and giving them what is needful, and in their support, and for the vestments and other articles required for the Divine worship, shall be paid entirely from the rents and profits which in any manner .shall belong to us in the said land." With few exceptions secular priests and missionaries ac- companied every Spanish expedition of discovery. The first Mass celebrated within the present limits of the United States was probably that offered up by the priests of Ponce de Leon's expedition at the BOuth-westem point of Florida in 1521. The next

was celebrated by the noted Dominican Antonio de Montesinos, the earliest opponent of Indian slavery, at .'Vyllon's temporary colony of San Miguel de Guan- dape in Virginia in 152t), eighty years liefore the found- ing of Jamestown.

I. South-Eastern States (Virginia to Alabama, Inclusive). — The whole south-eastern portion of the United States, extending westwards to or beyond the Mississippi, was known in the early Spanisli period untler the general name of Florida. Although at least fifteen priests had lost their lives in this region with the expeditions of Narvaez and De Soto in 1 527-28 and 1539-42, an attempt to evangelize the native tribes was made in 1549 by the Dominican Luis Cancer, the apostle of Guatemala, under a royal commission granted at his own request for the conversion of Florida. Forced by the obstinacy of the ship-captain to land at Tampa Bay among the fierce Calusa, instead of being given an opportunity to search out a frientUy tribe. Father Cancer and his two companions had hardly touched the shore when they were killed by the assembled savages in sight of the ship, being thus the first missionary martyrs of the eastern L'nited States. St. Augustine, Florida, the first permanent settlement in the eastern United States, was founded by Men^ndez in 1505. In the next year, at the re- quest of the King of ,Spain, three Jesuits were sent out, one of whom. Father Pedro Martinez, having landed with a small party on (Cumberland Island on the Georgia coast, was attacked and murdered by the savages. The other two Jesuits, Father Juan Rogel and Brother Francisco de Villareal, after spending a winter studying the language, proceeded to work among the (^"alusa tribe in southern Florida. Rein- forced by ten more Jesuits in 15GS, they went over to Havana to establish there a school for Indian boys from Florida. Father Juan Bautista Segura, as Jesuit vice-provincial, then took charge of the Florida mission, establishing stations among the Calusa, Tegesta, and Tocobaga tribes of the south and west coasts, while Father Antonio Sedeno and Brother Domingo Bilez began the first tScorgia mission on Guale (St. Simon's?) Island among the Y.imasee, in whose language Brother B:iez prepared a grammar and a catechism. In 1509 Father Rogel with several other Jesuits began work in South Carolina among the Crista (Edisto) and others in the neighbourhood of the Spanish post of Santa Elena. After about a year, the results proving unsatisfactory, both the Crista and the Guale missions were abandoned, the mission- aries returning to Havana with a number of boys for the Indian school.

In 1570 Father Segura, accompanied by Father Luis de Quiros and seven (?) novices and lay broth- ers, all Jesuits, together with four instructed Indian youths, undertook a mission among the Powhatan In- dians in what is now Virginia. The guide and inter- preter on whom they depended to bring them into touch with the natives was a young Indian of the region, who was the brother of a local chief and had been brought off by a Spanish e.tpedition nine years bt-iore, educated under the Dominicans in Mexico and Spain, and baptized under the name and title of Don Luis de Velasco. Their destination was Axacan (Cshacon) — supposed by Shea to have been on the Rappahannock — but more probably situated farther south. They met with friendly reception, and a log chapel was erected (September, 1570), but, before the winter was over, Don Luis proved treacherous, and under his leadership the Indians attacked the mission (February, 1571) and massacred the entire party with the exception of one Indian boy, who was spared, and finally escaped to tell the tale. The massacre was avenged on the principals liy Menf^ndez a year later. In consequence of the .small result in Florida the Jesuits were shortly afterwards transferred to the more promising field of Mexico. Years afterwards, on