Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/162

138 with bodies exhausted by fatigues and broken with age, but still preserving all the vigor of the apostolic spirit, and I have thought it but right to do them here the same justice universally done them in the country of their labors."

The French missionaries were not, however, favored with any success among the Iroquois or Five Nations, but met with unyielding and fierce opposition. These Five Nations or allied communities, comprising the Senecas, the Cayugas, the Onondagas, the Oneidas, and the Mohawks, occupied the country between the banks of the St. Lawrence and the Hudson. Against these tribes, soon after his arrival in Canada, Champlain had joined the Algonquins and Hurons in a warlike expedition, an impolitic interference, which was punished by these implacable savages with an inveterate hostility to his country and their allies. They menaced the infant settlement of Quebec, and waylaid, as we have seen, the Jesuit missionaries, until the French were compelled to sue for peace. Nothing therefore was so much desired as their conversion. During a temporary pacification, Jogues set out again on this perilous mission, from which he never again returned, being put to death soon after his arrival among the Mohawks.

The Dutch having supplied the Iroquois with fire-arms, the war broke out with increased ferocity; the missionaries were cruelly tortured and put to death, and the terrified colonists lived in daily dread of massacre. Even Quebec itself was not safe. The Huron missions were entirely broken up, and the French became so dispirited as to ask aid from New England against the Indians; but we are sorry to say it was denied. After two or three years, the Iroquois consented to a peace (1654). The occasion was embraced for fresh efforts by the Jesuits to plant the cross among their vengeful adversaries, and this time, happily, with somewhat better success. Some Christian Hurons, who had become captives to the Mohawks, paved the way for the reception of Le Moyne, while Mesnard repaired to the Cayugas, and Chaumont and Dablon. visited the other tribes. At first, their success seemed to be great, but they soon discovered that they had only lulled, not subdued, the passions of these ferocious warriors, and that their lives hung by a single thread. Some Frenchmen had ventured to establish a colony on the banks of the Oswego; collisions took place with Indians; and a third time war again burst forth. The distress was now so extreme, that the Company of New France, reduced to a mere handful, resigned in 1662, to the king, a colony which they were unable to defend, by whom it was transferred to the new West India Company, just then formed by Colbert. The protection, implored by the Jesuits was immediately afforded, and a French regiment commanded by Tracy, who was appointed viceroy, repaired to Quebec, a measure which at length effectually restrained the persevering hostility of the Five Nations.