Untitled - Libr@rsi

1651-62] RELATION OF i6si-52 261
must often enough endure in these expeditions. The
Father and his dear companion sustained life for ten
whole days without eating anything, after having
fasted during the whole of Lent. At length they
bethought themselves to boil their shoes, and afterward
the Father's undershirt, which was made of
Elk-skin and ;
when the snow had melted, they also
cooked the cords or lacings of the snowshoes which,
when it was deep, they used to keep themselves from
sinking. All this seemed to them to have a good
taste ; the divine grace gives a marvelous seasoning
to bitter doses that are taken for Jesus Christ's sake.
In a word, they arrived at Kebec on the Monday after
Easter, with no strength or vigor beyond that which,
zeal for the saving of souls can impart to a skeleton.
Non ex solo pane vivit liomo. The Spirit of God is a
good [92] and substantial nutriment. The emaciated
countenance and exhausted body of this good Father
did not deter another from setting out, with five or
six Neophytes, in little bark Canoes, to go to the
shores of Acadia and, by that route, find an easier
approach to the tribes called Etechemins, Abnaquiois,
Sokoquiois, Sourikois, Chaouanaquiois, Mahin-
ganiois, Amirgankaniois, and numerous other savage
nations, which are sedentary, and have villages of a
thousand or two thousand fighting men. But let us
continue the remaining account of the Mission
carried on among the Abnaquiois.