HURON
574
HURON
found their adversaries sufficiently reduced in strength
to attack tliem in their homes. In truth, they had
all along kept war parties on foot, who prowled
through the forests in or near Huronia, to attack
isolated bauds, or at least to spy out the condition
of the country, and report when the Huron villages
were all but defenceless through the absence of the
braves on hunting expeditions or for purposes of
traffic. The first telling blow fell on Contarea (Kon-
tarea, or Kontareia) in June, 1G42. This was a
populous village of the Arendarrhonons, or Rock Clan,
lying to the extreme east, and one of the strongest
frontier posts of the whole country. Neither age nor
sex was spared, and those who survived the conflict
were led off into captivity, or held for torture by slow
fire. No particulars as to the mode of attack or
defence are known, as there was no resident mission-
ary, the inhabitants of Contarea never having allowed
one within its pale; they had even more than once
openly defied the Christian God to do His worst.
Contarea stood about five miles south-west of the
present town of Orillia.
It may be of interest to note here that all the great inroads of the Iroquois seem to have proceeded from some temporary strategic base established in the region east of Lakes Couchiching and Simcoe, and to have crossed into Iluronia at the Narrows so accu- rately described by Champlain. The next village of the Rock Clan, which lay nearest to Orillia, itself close by the narrows, was St-.Jcan Baptiste. Its braves had sustained many losses after the fall of Contarea, but the outlook Ijecame so threatening in 1647 that its inhabitants early in 1548 abandoned what they now considered an untenable position, and betook them- selves to other Huron villages which promised greater security. By this move St. Joseph II, or Teanaostaiae, a village of the Attignenonghac, or Cord, Clan, was left expo.sed to attacks from the east; nor were they slow in coming. At early dawn, on 4 July of that same year, 1()4.S, the Iroquois band sur- prised and carriefl it l)y assault. Once masters of the place, they massacred and captured all whom they found within the palisade. Many, however, by timely flight had reached a place of safety. The intrepid Father Antoine Daniel had just finished Mass when the first alarm rang out. Robed in sur- plice and stole, for the administration of the Sacra- ments of Baptism and Penance, he presented him- self unexpectedly l)efore the stream of inrushing savages. His sudden appearance and his fearless bearing overawed them for an instant, and they stood rooted to the ground. But it was only for an instant. Recovering themselves, they vented their fury on the faithful missionary who was offering his life for the safety of the fugitives. Shot down mercilessly, every savage had a hand in the mutilation of his body, which was at last thrown into the now blazing chapel. This diversion, the shepherd's death, meant the escape of many of his flock. The neighliouring village of Ekhiondastsaan, which was situated a little farther towards the west, shared at the same time the fate of Teanaostaiae.
On 10 March of the following year St-Ignace II and St-Louis, two villages attended from Ste-Marie I, the local centre of the mission of the .\taronchronons (i. e. the People beyond the Fens), were in turn destroyed. The former, lying about six miles to the .south-east of Fort Ste-Marie I, was attacked before daybreak. Its defenders were nearly all abroad on divers expeditions, never dreaming tliat their enemy would hazard an attack before the s\immer months. Brcssani says that the .site of this village was so well chosen, and its fort itieat ions so admiralily planned, that, with ordinary vigilance, it was impregnable for savages. But the approarh was made so stealthily that an entrance was efl'ected before the careless and unwatchful inhaljitants were roused from their
slumber. Only two Hurons escaped butchery or
capture, and, half-clad, made their way through the
snow to St-Louis, tiiree miles nearer to Fort Ste-
Marie I, and there gave the alarm. The mission-
aries Jean de Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemant, then
present in the village, refused to seek safetv in flight
with the other non-combatants, pleading that it was
their duty to remain to baptize, shrive, and comfort
the dying. After a desperate resistance — the de-
fenders being a mere handful when compared with the
thousand attacking savages — this second village was
taken and destroyed, while the captives were hurried
back to St-Ignace to be tortured.
What the two captive missionaries endured is simply indescribable, and appears to be unparalleled in the long catalogue of martyrdoms, undergone for the P'aith, in the annals of God's Church. The Iroquois were adepts in the diabolical art of in- flicting the most excruciating tortures by fire, while so nursing the victim as to prolong to the utmost his hours of agony. Their hatred of the teachings of Christianity was manifested on this occasion by their thrice pouring boiling water on the mutilated mis- sionaries in derision of holy baptism, while they mockingly exhorted the sufferers to be grateful to their tormentors for baptizing them so well, and for affording them such an occasion to merit liy their sufferings greater joys in heaven, according to the doctrine they had preached. It must lie remembered that many apostate Hurons were mingled with the Iroquois mvaders. Father de Brebeuf, a man of powerful build, long inured to sulfering, and who by his uncon<|uerable zeal even in the midst of the flames had drawn upon himself the fiercest resent- ment of the heathens, succumbed after four hours of torture on the evening of 16 March. Father Gabriel Lalemant, a man of frail constitution, survived, in spite of all his suffering, until the following day.
.^s they dwelt farther west and north-west, no at- tack thus far had been made on the One-White-Lodgc Clan at St-Michel (Scanonaenrat). nor on the Bear Clan (.\ttignaouantan, or .Atinniaoenten), who occu- pied the region now forming Tiny Township, and whose principal stronghold was Ossossan(, or La Con- ception. At that time this village was almost wholly peopled by f('rvent Christians. When the news reached them of the disasters befalling their country, they immediately took action. On the morning of 17 March a party of three hundred warriors, hastily gath- ered from 6ssossan(f' and Arenta (Ste-Madeleine), posted themselves in ambush in the neighbourhood of the stricken villages while awaiting reinforcements. Their advance party, however, fell in unexpectedly with some two hvmdred of the enemy who were recon- noitring in force in view of an attack on Fort Ste- Marie I. A skirmish followed in which the Huron detachment suffered severe loss anil was driven back to within .sight of the French fort. Meanwhile the main body of the Bear Clan had succeeded in inter- cepting a strong force of Iroquois, whom they com- pelled to seek .shelter within the palisade of St-Louis, left intact when the village was destroyed. After an ob.stinate struggle the Hurons forced an entrance and, not counting the slain, captured about thirty warriors. Scarcely had they time to congratulate themselves on their success when the whole bulk of the Iroijuois anny, amounting even yet to nearly a thousand braves, was upon theiu, and they in turn found them- selves beleaguered within St-Louis, the defences of which, taken and retaken within a few hours, could now offer but slight (irotection. Though reduced to about on<' hun<lreil ami fifty fighting men. the courage of the little band of Christians %vas not shaken. Tlie vmeven contest raged not only throughout the re- mainder of the day, but, as fre<iuent sorties were made, and as renewed a.ssaults followed each repulse, was prolonged far into the night. By sheer weight of
