8
CHAPTER
1
THE COLLISION OF CULTURES
PAUL LE JEUNE AND JEROME LALEMANT: FROM
hundred men, called adventurers, encompassing artisans, soldiers, gentlemen, and a
few farmers, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and in May 1607 established a fort
and plantation-a term that meant "settlement" to them-off of the Chesapeake
Bay. They named both the river and their small settlement after their monarch
instead of adopting the names in use by those already there. Naming signaled taking
possession.
Captain John Smith, admitted to the colony's governing council in June 1607 and
then elected its president in the fall of 1608, strove to control the adventurers and
subordinate the Native Americans. Powhatan (Wahunsonacock), the paramount
chief (mamanatowick) of the Powhatan Chiefdom that encompassed hundreds of
miles and about thirty tribes, including the Pamunkey, Chickahominy, and Mattaponi, however, expected the newcomers to acknowledge his authority and respect his
people's property and privileges.
From, ed., "The Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia," in Captain John Smith:
Writings with Other Narratives of Roanoke, Jamestown, and the. Fi~st ~nglis~ Settlement .of
America (New York: Library of America, 2007), pp. 83-84. [Ed1tonal msertwns appear m
square brackets-Ed.]
*
*
*
Captaine Smithes discourse
to Powhatan.
Powhatan, though I had many courses to have made
my provision, yet beleeving your promises to supply
my wants, I neglected all, to satisfie your desire, and
to testifie my love, I sent you my men for your building, neglecting my owner what your people had you
have engrossed, forbidding them our trade, and nowe
you thinke by consuming the time, wee shall consume for want, not having to fulfill your strange
demandes. As for swords, and gunnes, I told you long
agoe, I had none to spare. And you shall knowe, those
I have, can keepe me from want, yet steale, or wrong
you I will not, nor dissolve that friendship, wee have
mutually promised, except you constraine mee by
your bad usage.
The king having attentively listned to this discourse; promised, that both hee and his Country
would spare him what they could, the which within
2 daies, they should receave.
Powhatans reply and flattery.
Yet Captaine Smith, (saith the king) some doubt I
have of your comming hither, that makes me not so
kindly seeke to relieve you as I would; for many
do informe me, your comming is not for trade, but to
invade my people and possesse my Country, who dare
not come to bring you corne, seeing you thus armed
with your men. To deere us of this feare, leave abord
your weapons, for here they are needlesse we being all
friends and for ever Powhatans.
With many such discourses they spent the day,
quartring that night in the kings houses. The next
day ...
Whilst we expected the comming in of the countrie, we wrangled out of the king 10 quarters of come
for a copper kettle .... Wherewith each seeming well
contented; Powhatan began to expostulate the difference betwixt peace and war, after this manner.
Powhatans discourse of
peace and warre.
Captaine Smith you may understand, that I; having
seene the death of all my people thrice, and not one
living of those 3 generations, but my selfe, I knowe the
difference of peace and warre, better then any in my
Countrie. But now I am old, and ere long must die, my
brethren, namely Opichapam, Opechankanough, and
Kekataugh, my two sisters, and their two daughters,
are distinctly each others successours, I wish their
experiences no lesse then mine, and your love to
them, no lesse then mine to you; but this brute [information bruited about] from Nansamund that you are
come to destroy my Countrie, so much affrighteth all
my people, as they dare not visit you; what will it
availe you, to take that perforce, you may quietly have
with love, or to destroy them that provide you food?
what can you get by war, when we can hide our provision and flie to the woodes, whereby you must famish
by wronging us your friends; and whie are you thus
jealous of our loves, seeing us unarmed, and both doe,
and are willing still to feed you with that you cannot
get but by our labours? think you I am so simple not
to knowe, it is better to eate good meate, lie well, and
sleepe quietly with my women and children, laugh
and be merrie with you, have copper, hatchets, or
The Jesuit Relations (1640)
what I want, being your friend; then bee forced to flie
from al, to lie cold in the woods, feed upon acorns,
roots, and such trash, and be so hunted by you, that I
can neither rest, eat, nor sleepe; but my tired men
must watch, and if a twig but breake, everie one erie
there comes Captaine Smith, then must I flie I knowe
not whether, and thus with miserable feare end my
miserable life; leaving my pleasures to such youths as
you, which through your rash unadvisednesse, may
quickly as miserably en de, for want of that you never
knowe how to find? Let this therefore assure you of
our loves and everie yeare our friendly trade shall furnish you with corne, and now also if you would come
in friendly manner to see us, and not thus with your
gunnes and swords, as to invade your foes.
*
*
*
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What did Smith accuse Powhatan of doing?
Was his message a promise or a warning?
2. What suspicions did Powhatan have of Smith?
3. How did Powhatan try to promote peace? Was
his message a promise or a warning?
4. What does this exchange reveal about both
leaders and the relations between their peoples?
PAUl lE JEUNE AND jEROME lALEMANT
FRoM
9
The jesuit Relations (1640)
The Jesuit priests Paul LeJeune and Jerome Lalemant were missionaries to the
native peoples in the territories claimed by France. In the Relation of 1640, Father
L.e feune reported from Quebec while Father Lalemant corresponded from the misst~n ~mon~the Hurons. These highly educated and dedicated men, along with other
mtsswnanes, learned the languages and gained an understanding of the cultures of
the native peoples as they lived among them and worked to convert them to Christianity.. They wrote extensively of their experiences among the Algonquin and
Iroquotan peo?les. While the missionaries expressed some appreciation of certain
aspects of nattve cultures, such as a lack of avariciousness, they did not see the
PAUL LEJEUNE AND JEROME LALEMANT: FROM
10
CHAPTER
1
The Jesuit Relations (1640)
11
THE COLLISION OF CULTURES
cultures as civilized. Their observations thus reveal not only native ways but also
how Europeans thought of Indians in comparison to themselves. In 1639 and 1640, a
smallpox epidemic spread through the St. Lawrence Valley and into the interior of
Canada. Reports on the contagion show not only its fatal course but also how
women in religious orders were integral to the mission. On the other hand, the
reports also show how the spreading sickness increased the animosity of many
natives toward the priests in their midst. Some Native Americans saw the "Black
Robes" as evil sorcerers while the missionaries, in turn, often denigrated the natives'
spirits and spiritual leaders as demons.
From Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and
Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610-1791. Volume XIX: Quebec and
Hurons: 1640 (Cleveland: The Burrow Brothers Co., 1898), pp. 9-13, 21-25, 87-97, 115-17.
[Editorial insertions appear in brackets-Ed.]
age, and sex, can agree so well. In France, a Nun has
to be on her guard every day in our houses, to prevent disputes among our poor, or to quell them; and
all winter we have not observed the least discord
among our sick Savages,-not even a slight quarrel
has arisen.
"The remedies that we brought from Europe are
very good for the Savages, who have no difficulty in
taking our medicines, nor in having themselves
bled. The love of the mothers toward their children
is very great, for they take in their own mouths the
medicine intended for their children, and then pass
it into the mouths of their little ones." Thus the
good Mother wrote to me.
*
Of the Hospital.
The hospital Nuns arrived at Kebec on the first day
of the month of August of last year. Scarcely had
they disembarked before they found themselves
overwhelmed with patients. The hall of the Hospital being too small, it was necessary to erect some
cabins, fashioned like those of the Savages, in their
garden. Not having enough furniture for so many
people, they had to cut in two or three pieces part of
the blankets and sheets they had brought for these
poor sick people. In a word, instead of taking a
little rest, and refreshing themselves after the great
discomforts they had suffered upon the sea, they
found themselves so burdened and occupied that
we had fear of losing them and their hospital at its
very birth. The sick came from all directions in
such numbers, their stench was so insupportable,
the heat so great, the fresh food so scarce and so
poor, in a country so new and strange, that I do not
know how these good sisters, who almost had not
even leisure in which to take a little sleep, endured
all these hardships .... All the French born in the
country were attacked by this contagion, as well as
the Savages ....
In brief, from the month of August until the
month of May, more than one hundred patients
entered the hospital, and more than two hundred
poor Savages found relief there, either in temporary
treatment or in sleeping there one or two nights, or
more. There have been seen as many as ten, twelve,
twenty, or thirty of them at a time. Twenty poor
sick people have received holy Baptism there; and
about twenty-four, quitting this house of mercy,
have entered the regions of glory....
... Father Claude Pijard, who has had charge
of the instruction of the poor of this house, during
the entire winter, has given me a little relation,
couched in these terms: "In the morning, we had
the Savages say prayers, and, some time after, the
holy Mass was celebrated, at which those who had
been baptized were present; after dinner, we had
them recite the catechism, and then gave them a
little explanation of it, usually adding some pious
story that one of the Savages repeated. In the evening, they made their examination of conscience;
they confessed and received communion every two
weeks, and would have done so oftener if we had
permitted them. They showed their devotion by
often visiting the most holy Sacrament, by saying
their rosary several times a day, by singing spiritual
canticles, which have succeeded their barbarous
songs,-in short, by fasting throughout the sacred
forty days, for those who could do so ...."
*
*
*
"I have often wondered," says the Mother [Superior], "how these persons, so different in country,
*
*
The Savages who leave the hospital, and who
come to see us again at St. Joseph, or at the three
Rivers, say a thousand pleasant things about thes~
good Nuns. They call them "the good," "the liberal," "the charitable." The Mother Superior having
fallen sick, these poor Savages were very sorry, the
sick blaming themselves for it. "It is we who have
made her sick," they said; "she loves us too much;
why does she do so much for us?" When this good
Mother, having recovered, entered the hall of the
poor, they knew not how to welcome her enough.
They have good reason to love these good Mothers:
for I do not know that parents have so sweet, so
strong, and so constant an affection for their children as these good women have for their patients. I
have often seen them so overwhelmed that they
were utterly exhausted; yet I have never heard
them complain, either of the too great number
of their patients, or of the infection, or of the trouble they gave them. They have hearts so loving and
so tender towards these poor people that, if occasionally some little present were given them, one
could be very certain that they would not taste it,
however greatly they might need it, everything
being dedicated and consecrated to their sick. This
charity had to be moderated, and an order was
given them to eat at least a part of the little gifts
that were made to them, especially when they were
not strong. I am not surprised if the Savages, who
recognize very clearly this great charity, love, cherish, and honor them.
Father Buteux wrote, some days ago, to the
Reverend Father Superior that a woman who had
remained a long time at the hospital did a great deal
of good among the Savages of her nation, instructing them with much fervor. This is the common
practice of those who have passed the winter in this
holy house; they afterwards preach to their compatriots with great zeal.
*
*
*
[Of the Condition
of the Country.]
Let us come to the disease which, having put everything in desolation, gave us much exercise, but was
also an occasion of much consolation to us,-God
having given us hardly any other harvest than from
that quarter.
It was upon the return from the journey
which the Hurons had made to Kebec, that it
started in the country,-our Hurons, while again
on their way up here, having thoughtlessly mingled with the Algonquins, whom they met on the
route, most of whom were infected with smallpox.
The first Huron who introduced it came ashore at
the foot of our house, newly built on the bank of a
lake,-whence being carried to his own village,
about a league distant from us, he died straightway after. Without being a great prophet, one
could assure one's self that the evil would soon
be spread abroad through all these regions: for
the Hurons-no matter what plague or contagion they may have-live in the midst of their
sick, in the same indifference, and community of
all things, as if they were in perfect health. In
fact, in a few days, almost all those in the cabin of
the deceased found themselves infected; then the
evil spread from house to house, from village to
village, and finally became scattered throughout
the country.
12
CHAPTER
1
PAUL LEJEUNE AND JEROME LALEMANT: FROM
THE COLLISION OF CULTURES
Of the Persecutions Excited
Against Us.
The villages nearer to our new house having been
the first ones attacked, and most afflicted, the devil
,did not fail to seize his opportunity for reawakening all the old imaginations, and causing the former complaints of us, and of our sojourn in these
quarters, to be renewed; as if it were the sole cause
of all their misfortunes, and especially of the sick.
They no longer speak of aught else, they cry aloud
that the French must be massacred. These barbarians animate one another to that effect; the death
of their nearest relatives takes away their reason,
and increases their rage against us so strongly in
each village that the best informed can hardly
believe that we can survive so horrible a storm.
They observed, with some sort of reason, that, since
our arrival in these lands, those who had been the
nearest to us, had happened to be the most ruined
by the diseases, and that the whole villages of
those who had received us now appeared utterly
exterminated; and certainly, they said, the same
would be the fate of all the others if the course of
this misfortune were not stopped by the massacre
of those who were the cause of it. This was a common opinion, not only in private conversation but
in the general councils held on this account, where
the plurality of the votes went for our death,there being only a few elders who thought they
greatly obliged us by resolving upon banishment.
What powerfully confirmed this false imagination was that, at the same time, they saw us dispersed throughout the country,-seeking all sorts of
ways to enter the cabins, instructing and baptizing
those most ill with a care which they had never seen.
No doubt, they said, it must needs be that we had a
secret understanding with the disease (for they
believe that it is a demon), since we alone were all full
of life and health, although we constantly breathed
nothing but a totally infected air,-staying whole
days close by the side of the most foul-smelling
patients, for whom every one felt horror; no doubt
we carried the trouble with us, since, wherever we set
foot, either death or disease followed us.
In consequence of all these sayings, many had
us in abomination; they expelled us from their cabins, and did not allow us to approach their sick,
and especially children: not even to lay eyes on
them,-in a word, we were dreaded as the greatest
sorcerers on earth.
Wherein truly it must be acknowledged that
these poor people are in some sense excusable. For
it has happened very often, and has been remarked
more than a hundred times, that where we were
most welcome, where we baptized most people,
there it was in fact where they died the most; and,
on the contrary, in the cabins to which we were
denied entrance, although they were sometimes
sick to extremity, at the end of a few days one saw
every person prosperously cured. We shall see in
heaven the secret, but ever adorable, judgments of
God therein ....
The reasons which we have thus far adduced, on
account of which the barbarians suspect us of being
the cause of their diseases, seem to have some foundation; but the devil did not stop there,-it would
be a miracle if he did not build the worst of his calumnies on sheer lies.
Robert le Coq, one of our domestics, had
returned from Kebec in a state of sickness which
caused as much horror as compassion to all those
who had courage enough to examine the ulcers
with which all his limbs were covered. Never
would a Huron have believed that a body so
filled with miseries could have returned to health;
regarding him then as good as dead, there were
found slanderers so assured in their falsehood that
they publicly maintained that this young Frenchman had told them in confidence that the Jesuits
alone were the authors and the cause of the diseases
which from year to year kept depopulating the
country....
*
*
*
But let us return to our Savages, excited against
us on account of the disease, and to those impostors who had maintained that Robert le Coq had so
confidentially informed them of the black magic
arts and the execrable spells with which we were
causing them all to die. It was not very difficult to
refute these calumnies, since he who was said to
have been the sole source of all these rumors-not
being dead, as they had supposed, but having
recovered perfect health-could belie all those who
previously maintained they had heard the thing
from his lips. But what? falsehood gets the better of
the truth; the slanderers find more credit than the
one who justifies us ... but the demons are like
thunders, which make more noise than they do
harm,-for all these threats have had but little
effect. We are alive, thank God, all full of life and
health. It is indeed true that the crosses have been
stricken down from above our houses; that people
have entered our cabins, hatchet in hand, in order
to deal some evil blow there; they have, it is said,
awaited some of ours on the roads, with the intention of killing them; the hatchet has been lifted
above others, and the blow brought within a finger-length of their bare heads; the Crucifixes
which were carried to the sick have been violently
snatched from us; blows with a club have been
mightily inflicted upon one of our missionaries, to
prevent him from conferring some baptism. Sed
nondum usque ad sanguinem restitimus; our blood
and our lives have not yet been poured out for him
to whom we owe all our hearts. Our soul is in our
hands, and this is the greatest favor that we hope
to receive from the great Master who employs us,namely, to die for his holy name, after having suffered much.
Not that I do not forever praise this great God
of goodness, for having thus far protected us with
so much love: for it is truly an unspeakable happiness for us, in the midst of this barbarism, to hear
the roarings of the demons, and to see all hell and
almost all men animated and filled with fury
against a little handful of people who would not
The Jesuit Relations (1640)
13
defend themselves; to see ourselves shut up in a
place fifteen hundred leagues from our native land,
where all the powers of the earth could not warrant us against the anger of the weakest man who
might have designs on our lives, and where we have
not even a bag of corn which has not been furnished us by those who incessantly parley about
killing us; and to feel at the same time so special a
confidence in the goodness of God, so firm an
assurance in the midst of dangers, a zeal so active,
and a courage so resolute to do all and to suffer all
for the glory of our Master, so indefatigable a constancy in the labors which increase from day to
day. So that it is easy to conceive that God is the
one who espouses our cause; that it is he alone
who protects us, and that his providence takes
pleasure in manifesting itself where we see least of
the human.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Was saving the sick or saving souls the first pri-
ority for the missionaries? How did the former
affect the latter?
2. How did LeJeune describe the Indians, nuns,
and priests? What did those descriptions reveal
of his beliefs about the three groups?
3. How does Lalemant believe the disease spread?
What did the Hurons believe caused and spread
the disease? What do those sentiments reveal
about how these people explained catastrophe?
4. How did Lalemant react to the increasing animosity and aggressiveness of the Hurons? What
does that say about the influence of religious
beliefs in European expansion?
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