The first publication on this subject, in this country, was made about two years ago. An American having accidentally found a copy of the above work in a bookstore in Europe, purchased it, and selecting the letters with regard to our own country, published a literal translation with notes and a preface.* Of the character of this volume, we cannot give a better idea than by quoting a few passages from the preface.

"There is no page of our country's history more touching and romantic, than that which records the labors and sufferings of the Jesuit Missionaries. In these western wilds they were the earliest pioneers of civilization and faith. The wild hunter, or the adventurous traveler, who, penetrating the forests, came to new and strange tribes, often found that years before, the disciples of Loyola had preceded him in that wilderness. Traditions of the 'black robes' still lingered among the Indians. On some moss grown tree they pointed out the traces of their work, and in wonder he deciphered, carved side by side on its trunk, the emblem of our salvation and the lilies of the Bourbons. Amid the snows of Hudson's Bay-among the woody islands and beautiful inlets of the St. Lawrence-by the council fires of the Hurons and the Algonquins at the sources of the Mississippi, where, first of the white men, their eyes looked upon the Falls of St. Anthony, and then traced down the course of the bounding river, as it rushed onward to earn its title of 'Father of Waters'—on the vast prairies of Illinois and Missouri-among the blue hills which hem in the salubrious dwellings of the Cherokees-and in the thick canebrakes of Louisiana-everywhere were found the members of the Society of Jesus.'"

And the story of their sufferings is thus concluded :—

"Most of them too were martyrs to their faith. It will be noticed in reading this volume, how few of their number "died the common death of all men," or slept at last in the grounds which the church had consecrated. Some, like Jogues, and du Poisson, and Souel, sunk beneath the blows of the infuriated savages, and their bodies were thrown out to feed the vulture, whose shriek, as he flapped his wings above them, had been their only requiem.

*The early Jesuit Missions in North America; by the Rev. W. Ingraham Kip, M. A., corresponding member of the New York Historical Society. New York, Wiley & Putnam, 1846.

Others, like Brebeuf and Zallemand, and Senat, died at the stake, and their ashes "flew no marble tells us whither," while the the dusky sons of the forest stood around, and mingled their wild yells of triumph with the martyr's dying prayers. Others again, like the aged Marquette, sinking beneath years of toil, fell asleep in the wilderness, and their sorrowing companions dug their graves in the green turf, where for many years the rude forest savage stopped to invoke their names, and bow in prayer before the cross which marked the spot."

Among the letters, was that of Father Marest describing the mission of Hudson's Bay in 1694. Having been excluded, however, by the size of the volume, we have procured it from the author for publication in our magazine. After the lapse of seventeen years from the date of this letter, Father Marest was laboring among the Illinois Indians, and one of the most interesting leters in the volume of which we have spoken, is that describing his adventures on the western prairies. We now proceed to his letter on Hudson's Bay; furnished us by Rev. Dr. W. INGRAHAM KIP.

I.
LETTER.

Of Father Gabriel Marest, Missionary of the Society of Jesus, to Father de Lamberville, of the same Society, Procurator of the Mission in Canada.

MY REVEREND FATHER,

The peace of our Lord be with you.

It is rather late to ask me the news from Hudson's Bay. I was much more in a condition to give it to you, when I crossed over again into France, in returning from the prisons at Plymouth.All that I am now able to do is, to send you some extracts from a brief journal which I kept at that time, and of which I have preserved a copy. It begins with our departure from Quebec, and is continued until the return of the ships which carried us to the Bay. It is perhaps however best that I should first make you acquainted with what I learned at Quebec, partly with respect to the first discovery of Hudson's Bay, and partly concerning some subsequent events of which I heard from two Jesuits who had made the same voyage before me.

It is now more than 200 years that navigators of different nations have been endeavoring to open a new route to China and Japan by the North; yet none of them have been able to suc ceed, for God has placed in their way an invincible obstacle in the mountains of ice with which those seas abound. It was with the same design that in 1611, the famous Hudson, an Englishman, penetrated more than 500 leagues beyond his predecessors, by the great Bay which to our day bears his name, and in which he passed the winter. In the Spring of the following year he wished to continue his course, but his stores began to fail, and disease weakened his crew, so that he found himself obliged to return to England. Two years afterwards, he made a second attempt, and in 1614 advanced even to the 82d degree. But he was so often in danger of perishing, and found such difficulty in returning, that since that time, neither he nor any one else have dared to undertake to advance so far.

Nevertheless, the English merchants, to profit by the voyages and discoveries of their countrymen, have since made an establishment on Hudson's Bay. Their object was, to conduct a trade in furs with the many Southern Indians, who, during the heat of summer, come in their canoes down the rivers which empty into the Bay. At first, they only built some houses in which to pass the winter and await the arrival of the Indians. They had much to suffer there, and many of them died of the scurvy. But as the furs which the savages brought to this Bay were remarkably fine, and the profits of course proportionably great, the English were not repulsed by the variableness of the atmosphere or the severity of the climate. They were not however left in undisputed possession, for the French in Canada wished also to establish themselves in the same way, and claimed that as many of the neighboring countries were part of the same continent as new France, they had a right to trade to the 51°, and even much higher.

A misunderstanding of course grew up between the two nations; each built some forts for the purpose of protecting itself from the insults of the other. But the frequent maladies and the continual dangers to which they were exposed, rendered the French unwilling to undertake these expeditions without having their Chaplain with them. It was in this capacity therefore that Father Dalmas, a native of Tours, embarked for Hudson's Bay.

Having arrived there he offered to remain in the fort, as well to serve the French who were stationed there in garrison, as to have an opportunity of learning the language of the Morians who brought thither their furs in the summer. He wished in this way to qualify himself at length to preach the Gospel among them.But the ships which should have brought their provisions in the following year, having been always driven off by the violence of head winds, the greater part of those who remained in the fort, perished by famine or disease. At last their number was reduced to eight individuals, five of whom having departed on a hunting expedition on the snow in the woods, there remained in the fort only Father Dalmas, the surgeon, and a tool-maker.

On their return, four or five days afterwards, they were very much surprised not to find either the Father or the Surgeon.They of course demanded of the tool-maker what had become of them, but the embarrassment with which he received them, the contradictory answers he gave, and some traces of blood which they perceived on the snow, induced them to seize the miserable man and place him in irons. Finding himself thus arrested, and being pressed also by remorse of conscience, he confessed that having been long at variance with the surgeon he had one morning murdered him, and then drawn his body to the river where he thrust it through a hole he had made in the ice. Having immediately returned to the fort, he found the Father in the Chapel preparing to say mass. The unhappy man asked to speak with him, but the Father put him off till after service, which he performed as usual.

Mass being ended, he confessed to the priest what had happened, declaring the despair he felt, and his fear lest the others on their return should put him to death. "It is not that which you have most to fear," answered the father, "for we are a very small number, and they have too much need of your services, to wish to put you to death. Should they show any intention of doing so, I promise you I will oppose it to the utmost of my power. But I exhort you to confess before God the enormity of your crime, and to do penance for it. You have need to appease the anger of God, and I that of men." The Father added, that if he wished him to do so, he would go and meet those who were returning from the hunt, endeavor to soften them, and gain from them a promise that he would not harm them on their arrival.

The tool-maker accepted this offer, appeared to be composed, and the Father departed. But scarcely had he left the fort, when this miserable man found himself troubled anew; dark forebodings filled his mind, and he became possessed with the notion, that the Father would deceive him, and had gone to find the others, only to prejudice them against him.

With this idea, he took his axe and gun to run after the Father. Perceiving him at a distance by the river, he called to him to wait, which the missionary did. As soon as he came up, he reproached him for being a traitor, and intending to betray him, at the same time giving him a blow with his gun which severely wounded him. To escape from the fury of this infatuated man, the Father threw himself upon a large cake of ice which was floating in the water. The tool-maker sprang after him, and struck him down with two blows of his axe which he inflicted on his head. After having cast his body under the same piece of ice on which the Father had taken refuge, he returned to the fort, where the five others shortly after arrived.

They had resolved to guard him in this manner until the arrival of the first ships in which he could be sent back; but before assistance could arrive, the English attacked the fort. Those who guarded it had taken the precaution to keep all their cannons loaded, and were thus prepared to make a furious discharge upon their enemies whenever they made their approaches. This heavy fire, which wounded and killed many of their men, made them think there was yet a strong party in the fort, and they therefore retreated with the determination to come back with a greater force. They did in fact return, and prepared to attack the place in form. The five French therefore who guarded it, finding themselves not in a condition to resist, escaped by night through one of the embrasures of the cannon, and gained the woods, leaving the tool-maker alone and bound as he was. They of course never knew what the English thought of it, or what account of himself he gave them. But of the five persons who went out of the fort, three died on the road, and only two arrived, after great fatigues, at Montreal. It was from them that I received this account which I have now given you.

The accident which had happened to Father Dalmas, did not however deter Father Sylvie from returning some time after