6. Missionaries in the Far West. The Discovery of the Mississippi River. A Feast Among the Native Peoples. Christianity in the Valley of the “Father of Waters.” The Life of Converted Native Peoples. – Conclusion

Meanwhile, while the wild nature of the Iroquois had not yet been subdued and they were the scourge of all neighboring tribes, the Jesuits penetrated into distant lands with their preaching of Christianity and civilization. Distant tribes, constantly threatened by the savage Iroquois, proved inclined to form an alliance with the French, in whom they hoped to find support in their struggle against the Iroquois. These lands were still quite unknown. But if the Iroquois penetrated there to satisfy their bloodthirst, why should not the peaceful messengers of the cross do likewise? Among the Jesuits of Quebec, several zealous missionaries were found who declared their readiness to go and preach to these peoples. The bishop of Quebec, Laval, himself proposed to undertake this missionary field, but the lot fell to the Jesuit René Ménard. In 1660, he set out on his journey, with almost no great preparation, relying, by his own words, “on Providence, which feeds the little birds of the desert and clothes the wild flowers of the forests”[1]. After a long and exhausting journey, he arrived at the devastated ashes of the Huron missions and then set out to the far west, never to return. It is supposed that he lost his way in impassable forests and perished from hunger. Some of his belongings were later found among the Sioux savages[2]. Thus ended the first attempt at missionary work in the far west. But its fate did not frighten the valiant heralds of the cross. In 1665, a new missionary, Allouez, set out on the same path, and he achieved his goal more successfully. Passing through the great lakes, he arrived in the country of the Chippewas, who had never seen a white man and gathered from all nearby villages to look at him. The Jesuit assembled a popular council, proposed trade with the French and help against the Iroquois. Over the course of a year, he lived among them, built a chapel, and taught the savages to sing the Pater and Ave. Moving from one tribe to another, he encountered the Illinois, who aroused his curiosity with stories of a great river on whose banks they lived. “They have no forests,” he says, “but instead vast prairies where herds of deer and buffalo and other animals graze on tall grass. Their country,” he notes, “is the best field for the gospel”[3]. Penetrating farther west, he reached the country of the Sioux, and from them also heard of the great river, and was the first of the Europeans to learn its name, recording it in his report in somewhat abbreviated form: Messippi[4]. It was not he, however, to whom belongs the final discovery and exploration of this river. This belongs to another Jesuit, Marquette, who was the first to travel nearly its entire length in a frail canoe and first determined its direction and its mouth.

The Jesuit Marquette arrived in Quebec in 1666, labored for several years in the missionary field among tribes scattered in the vicinity of the great lakes, and there too first heard of the great river, the “father of waters.” He resolved to penetrate to its banks and earnestly prayed that he would be the first to have the honor of discovering and spreading the gospel among the peoples dwelling on its banks. To his great fortune, he found support in the governor of Canada, who warmly embraced his idea, gave him as an assistant the learned Frenchman Joliet, with whom Marquette began preparations for the expedition, sketched out a rough map of the river based on inquiries from the Native peoples, and on May 17, 1673, two canoes with Marquette, Joliet, and five companions set out from Lake Michigan into unknown waters. The Native peoples recounted all manner of horrors about this distant land and said: “these peoples never spare foreigners; their mutual wars fill the banks of the river with bands of warriors; the Great River abounds in monsters that devour both people and canoes; excessive heat brings death.” But the valiant Jesuits answered all these warnings: “I gladly lay down my life for the salvation of souls”[5]. A month later, the travelers finally entered the long-desired Mississippi River, “with such joy,” notes Marquette, “as I cannot express.” The learned Jesuit was a very observant man and in his letter recorded all the peculiarities of the river and its banks, and this record is of the greatest natural-historical interest. Their canoes rapidly descended the current of the great river, passing through a wilderness “terrible in its complete absence of human beings.” Finally, on June 25th, they saw the trace of human feet on the bank and a path leading to a beautiful prairie. There they landed and set out to find a village. These were the first white men ever to set foot on the soil of present-day Illinois. In the distance, they saw a Native village. Committing themselves to God’s care, they decided to announce themselves with shouts. The Native peoples heard and an old man came out to meet them, greeting them by signs. But the language of this tribe proved incomprehensible to Marquette. The man invited the travelers to his lodge, and they went under the devouring gaze of crowds of savages. Marquette announced that he was a messenger of the Great Spirit, who had instructed him to teach them to know Him, and his companion (Joliet) represented the great chief of the French people in Canada, who had defeated the Iroquois and bestows peace on all peoples. The Native chief listened attentively and himself addressed them with a grand speech, which was recorded by Marquette and presents an interesting example of Native natural eloquence[6]. After this reception, the Native peoples prepared a great feast for the guests. “It consisted of four courses,” writes the Jesuit, “and we were obliged to participate in it according to all their rules. The first dish was a large bowl with sagamité—a Native dish, boiled in water and seasoned with fat. The master of ceremonies, taking a spoon of sagamité, held it three or four times to my mouth, as we do with children. He did the same with Joliet. For the second course, he brought a dish containing three fish; he took pains to remove the bones, and, blowing on them to cool them, put a piece in my mouth, like the way we feed birds. For the third course, they brought a large dog that had just been killed; but learning that we did not eat it, they removed it. Finally, the fourth course consisted of a piece of wild ox, and the fattest parts of it were placed in my mouth”[7]. The Native peoples liked the white men so much that six hundred of them accompanied them to the canoes.

The travelers continued on and after many adventures and perils reached the mouth of the Arkansas River. There they met Native peoples who already knew Europeans and traded with the Spanish, and could finally determine where the mouth of the Mississippi was located. At first they had supposed that this river emptied into the California Gulf, but now they became convinced “that the Mississippi certainly has its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico. This was all they were seeking, and so they decided to return, especially since continuing farther they could fall into the hands of the Spanish, who were then at war with the French. On July 17, they turned their canoes around and began the difficult journey against the current of the river. This entire journey, attended with many hardships and dangers, is remarkable even for its length alone. In frail canoes, these travelers covered more than 2,700 miles. “If all this journey,” says Marquette, “had led only to the salvation of a single soul, I would have considered all its hardships rewarded; and I have reason to think so, for when I was returning and passing the Illinois peoples, they brought to me a dying child, whom I baptized shortly before he died”[8].

The fame of the discovery made by Marquette spread throughout the world, aroused the ambitions of the French, who hastened to extract commercial and political advantages from it. But for the missionary himself, the salvation of the soul was most precious. He soon returned to the newly discovered country, preached the gospel to the Native peoples, who proved to be a peaceful and simple-hearted tribe, and there died in 1675. “The good missionary,” says the historian, “died on the bank of the stream bearing his name. Near its mouth, the paddlers dug a grave for him in the sand. But later, forest wanderers in danger would invoke his name. The peoples of the west would raise him a monument”[9].

After Marquette, a succession of other missionaries came forward who, using the path already opened, could boldly carry the preaching of the cross. Among them, Gravier was particularly notable, who was the first to establish an organized mission, studied the language of the Illinois, and reduced it to grammatical rules[10]. Thanks to the efforts of a succession of missionaries, the Illinois were already by the beginning of the eighteenth century Christians for the most part, zealously fulfilling the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. In a letter from 1712, the Jesuit Marest wrote the following about them, which at the same time generally characterizes the missionary methods of the Jesuits:

“Christianity has softened the wild manners of the Illinois, and their behavior is now distinguished by pleasantness and propriety, so that some Frenchmen have even married their daughters. We find in them besides obedience and zeal for the performance of Christian virtues. In our mission, we observe the following order every day. Early in the morning, we gather the catechumens in the church, where they pray, receive instruction, and sing certain hymns. When they depart, mass begins, attended by all Christians, men on one side and women on the other; then they pray, are given instruction, after which each goes to their work. We then spend our time visiting the sick, give them necessary medicines, instruct and comfort those who are in sorrow. In the afternoon, there is catechetical instruction, attended by all, Christians and catechumens, men and children, young and old, and each one, regardless of age and rank, answers the questions posed by the missionary. As these people have no books and are by nature careless, they would soon forget the principles of religion if they were not continually reminded of them through these almost uninterrupted lessons. Our visits to the huts occupy the rest of the day. In the evening, all gather again in the church, listen to the instruction given them, pray, and sing certain hymns. On Sundays and holidays, besides the usual pious exercises, there is an instruction given after evening prayers. The zeal with which these good neophytes go to church at all hours is remarkable. They interrupt their work and run from distant places just to arrive at the proper time. They ordinarily end the day with private gatherings in their own dwellings, men separate from women, and there they repeat prayers with singing, sing hymns until deep in the night. These hymns are the best instruction for them, which they most easily retain, as the words are set to melodies with which they are familiar and which they like. They often approach the sacraments, and among them it is customary to confess and take communion once every two weeks. We have been forced to appoint special days on which they must confess, otherwise they would not allow us time to perform our own duties. These are Friday and Sunday of every week, when we hear them, and on those days we are besieged by a crowd of penitents. The care we take of the sick inspires them with trust in us, and it is at such moments that we especially reap the fruits of our labor. Their obedience is complete, and we generally have the comfort of seeing them die in peace and with firm hope soon to be united with God in heaven”[11].

Thus Christianity succeeded in transforming the savages, those very savages about whom the same Jesuit says that “they first had to be made into men, and then one could labor to make them Christians”[12]. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, Roman Catholicism, through the extraordinary energy and enterprise of the sons of Loyola, had thus succeeded in spreading among the majority of the tribes inhabiting the North American continent. It seemed that this vast continent had been forever brought under the dominion of the Roman curia, which sought compensation for the lost lands in Europe, and it hoped to lean on it when the volcanic movements that shook its historical throne in the Old World occurred. But this hope was not destined to be fulfilled. Soon a vigorous resettlement of Europeans on the new continent began, a fierce struggle broke out between the newcomers and the natives, and for the latter it was fatal. Relying on their military superiority, the colonists mercilessly exterminated the Native peoples, so that entire tribes either perished from bullets or retreated into the wilderness[13]. With the Native peoples perished the fruits of the missionary labors of the Jesuits. Finally, a difficult time also came for the Jesuits themselves. With the increase of the Protestant population, which made up the majority of the settlers, and with the establishment of English dominion in the country, severe laws began to be enacted against Roman Catholicism in general and against the Jesuits in particular, which ultimately deprived them of the possibility of activity, so that not only was it impossible to develop missionary work, but it was even impossible to preserve the fruits gained by previous labors.

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