Libr@rsi

56 - 58] RELA TION OF 1656s? 79
[209] EXTRACT FROM ANOTHER LETTER SENT BY THE
SAME SHIP.
PRAISE God that Your Reverence still continues
1 in charge of our affairs; but I am somewhat
surprised that you should nevertheless in a different
speak to us
tone than usual. Where is the time
when you wrote to us that we had nothing to fear,
and that God sent you what was needed to succor us
in this extremity of the world ? How comes it that
you now complain of our excessive expenditure?
We are in a country where the expense is much
than in that of the Hurons where we can
greater ;
expect no aid from these countries; among treacherous
and perfidious people, who have been in the
habit of ill-treating us for a long time. Here is a
gathering of captives, brought from all parts, who,
after all, are capable of being made children of God.
I have baptized for my share over four hundred in
the past year. We walk with heads [210] erect amid
dangers, insults, hootings, calumnies, hatchets, and
knives, with which they very often pursue us, with
intentions of puting us to death. We are almost daily
on the point of being massacred:
et ecce vivimus. And you write to
Quasi morientesy
us that you can
no longer maintain this Mission. I prefer, my Rev-
erend Father, to abide by the last words of your
Letter, which tell us that, after all, if we do well
on our side, God will on his part do what is necessary.
Yes, assuredly he will succor us if we seek
his glory, and if we expose our lives in applying his
blood to these poor abandoned Souls. That is what
all our Fathers are doing here, with incredible pains
and labor. If God, who has brought us into this