Untitled - Libr@rsi

1651-52] RELATION OF ibsi-52 245
great woods,— or, rather, although all the woods and
all the rivers of these regions are naught but roads
made for men and wild beasts, and for fishes,—
yet
one can take the shortest or the longest way, the
easiest or the most difficult, to arrive at the end and
destination he has in view. Now the Boatmen and
Guides conducting the Father took some new routes
that they had never traveled; and we have since
learned that all those who had taken them before
had either died of fatigue and hunger, or had thought
they were going to die. After paddling and walk-
ing for a fortnight, by swollen streams and very bad
roads, when they thought they were approaching the
country of the Abnaquiois, they found [80] they had
not yet accomplished a third part of their journey;
and, to increase their misfortune, they were at the
end of their supplies and provisions. The Father,
seeing his people in this extreme destitution, had
recourse to the God of men and animals,— offering
him the sacrifice of his Son in those great forests ;
and conjuring him, by the Blood shed by him for
these people, to succor them in their necessity. The
end of his sacrifice was the end of their want. As
he was leaving the Altar, a valiant Catechumen, who
had plunged into these forest-depths to seek some
remedy for their famine, came to offer him three
Moose or Elks, which he had just killed. This
manna, restoring life to them, was not received without
astonishment and thanksgiving. The less they
were expecting it and the more their need of it, the
greater was their joy at tasting it. It is true, after
one good meal, they had from it many very poor
ones; for they salted, after the custom of the
Savages, what was left them of their feast,— that is