HURON
573
HURON
son of the year fixed for their celebration, but they
were ordered by the sorcerer or magician for special
purposes, as to satisfy ondinoncs or dreams, and were
manifestly offered up to some evil spirit. These sacri-
fices are expressly mentioned in the Relation of 1639
(Queb. ed., 94, 1-2; 97, 2; Clev. ed., XVII, 195, 197,
211) and in that of 1640 (Queb. ed., 93, 1; Clev. ed.,
XX, 35). Nor were burnt offerings wanting, as may
be seen recorded in the Relation of 1637 (C^ueb. ed.,
lOS, 2; Clev. ed., XIII, 31) and that of 1642 (Queb.
ed., 84, 1; Clev. ed., XXIII, 159, 173).
The foregoing presentment of the religion of the Hurons, though by no means exhaustive, forcibly suggests two inferences, especially if taken together with the beliefs and observances of the other branches of the same parent stock and those of the neighbouring tribes of North American Indians. The first is that they were a decadent race, fallen from a state of civil- ization more or less advanced, and which at some remote period was grounded on a clearer perception of a Supreme Being, evinced by the not yet extinct sense of an obligation to recognize Him as their first begin- ning and last end. This would imply also a revelation vouchsafed in centuries gone by; shreds of such a revelation could still be discerned in their beliefs, several of which supposed some knowledge of the Biblical history of the human race, though that knowledge was all but obliterated. The second con- clusion tends to confirm Father de Br6beuf's judg- ment, previously cited, that, while still retaining, as they did, a knowledge of Ciod, however imperfect, the Hurons were the victims of all kinds of superstitions and delusions, which tinged the most serious as well as the most indifferent acts of their everyday life. But above all else, their dreams, interpreted by their soothsayers and sorcerers, and their mysterious ail- ments with the accompanying divinations of their medicine-men, had brought them so low, and had so perverted their better natures that the most vile and degrading forms of devil-worship were held in honour.
7. Their History. — Nothing is known of the history of the Hurons before the visit of Jacques Cartier to the shores of the St. Lawrence in 1535. It is at this date that conjecture begins to take the shape of history. The two principal villages which this explorer found, occupying respectively the actual sites of Quebec and Montreal, were Stadacona and Hoeholaga. By far the most probable opinion is that these were inhaljited by some branch of the Huron-Iroquois race. The Sul- pician writer Etienne Michel Faillon, may be said to have transformed that theory into an almost absolute certainty. His proofs to this effect are based on the customs and traditions of both Algonquins and Hurons, and, what is most conclusive, on the two vocaljularies compiled by Cartier, contained in his first and second relation, and which comprise about one hundred and sixty words. The Abb6 Faillon states rival theories fairly and tlispassionately and, to all appearances, refutes them successfully. Another Sulpician priest, J. A. Cuoq, in his " Lexique de la Langue Iroquoise", following in the wake of Faillon develops at greater length the argument liased on the similarity of the words in Cartier's lists to the Huron- Iroquois dialects, and their utter incompatiljility with any form of the Algonquin tongue. Strongly cor- roborating this contention is the fact, to which refer- ence has already been made, of the finding in 1860 of fragments of Huron-Iroquois pottery and other relics within the present limits of Montreal, and which at the time formed the subject matter of Principal (later Sir WiUiam) Daw.son's monograph.
An interval of over sixty years elapsed between Jacques Cartier's expeditions and Champlain's first coming in 1603. A great change had taken place. Stadacona and Hochelaga had disappeared, and the tribes along the shores of the St. Lawrence were no longer those of Huron-Iroquois stock, but Algonquin.
The various details of how this transformation was
effected are a matter of mere surmise, and the theories
advanced as to its cause are too uncertain, too conflicts
ing, and too lengthy to find place here. What is cer-
tain is that meanwhile a deadly feud had sundered the
Hurons and the Iroquois. The Hurons proper were
now found occupying the northern part of what is at
present Simcoe County in Ontario, with the neigh-
bouring Petun, or Tobacco, Nation to the west, and
the Neutrals to the south-west. The hostile tribes of
the Iroquois held possession of that part of New York
State bordering on the Mohawk River and extending
westward to the Genesee, if not farther. The Algon-
quins, who now inhabited the country abandoned by
tlie Huron-Iroquois, along the Lower St. Lawrence,
were in alliance with the Hurons proper.
Champlain, with a view of cementing the already existing friendship between the French and their nearest neighbours, the Algonquins and Hurons, was led to espouse their cause. Nor was this the only object of his so doing. Bands of Iroquois infested the St. Lawrence, and were a serious hindrance to the trade which had sprung up between the Hurons and the French. In 1609 he, with two Frenchmen, headed a party of Algonquins and Hurons, ascended the Richelieu River to Lake Champlain, named after him by right of discovery, met the enemy near what is now Crown Point, and there won an easy victory (30 July), thanks to the execution wrought by his fire-arms, to which the Iroquois were unaccustomed. A second successful encounter with the Iroquois took place 19 July, 1610, at Cap du Massacre, three or four miles above the modern town of Sorel. Though this inter- vention of Champlain was bitterly resented by the Iroquois, and rankled in their breasts, their thirst for vengeance antl their hatred for lioth French and Hurons was intensified beyond measure by the expe- dition of 1615. This was set on foot in Huronia itself, and, headed by Champlain, penetrated into the very heart of the Iroquois Country. There the invading band, on 11 October, attacked a stronghold lying to the south of what is now Oneida Lake, or, to be pre- cise, situated on Nichol's Pond, three miles east of Perryville, in New York State. The time of this raid, so barren in good results for the Hurons, coincitled with the coming of the first missionary to Huronia, the Recollect Father Joseph Le Caron. He and Cham- plain had set out from the lower country almost to- gether, the former between the 6th and 8th of July, the latter on the 9th. In the beginning of August, Champlain, laefore starting on his long march to the Iroquois, visited him at Carhagouha; and on the 12th of that month (1615) piously assisted at the first Mass ever celebrated in the present province of Ontario. This event took place within the limits of what is now the parish of Lafontaine, in the Diocese of Toronto.
The history of the Hurons from this date, until their forced migration from Huronia in 1649 and 1650, may be summarized as one continuous and fierce struggle with the Iroquois. The latter harassed them in their yearly bartering expeditions to Three Rivers and Quebec, endeavouring, as skilful strategists, to cut them off from their base of supplies. They lay in ambush for them at every vantage-point along the difficult waterways of the Ottawa and the St. Law- rence. When the Hurons were the weaker party, they were attacked and either massacred on the spot or reserved for torture at the stake; and when they were the stronger, the wily Iroquois hung upon their trail and cut off every straggler. At times the Hurons scored a triumph, but these were few and far between. Thus things went on from year to year, the Hurons gradually growing weaker in numbers and resources. Meanwhile they received but little help from their French allies, for the colonists, sadly neglected by their mother country, had all they covild do to protect themselves. But a time came when the Iroquois
