As one delves into the origins of Canada’s history and begins to study the making of New France, one inevitably encounters documents of primary importance. There are the diaries of Samuel de Champlain, geographer and founder of Quebec in 1608; there is the interesting account of the Recollet friar, Gabriel Sagard, The Long Journey to the Country of the Hurons and there is that unique collection known simply as the Jesuit Relations.
These Relations, spanning some forty years and constituting a lengthy, continuous commentary on the history of the time, offer us a rich and impressive historical documentation.
So naturally questions flow out of our curiosity: What are these Jesuit Relations? When did they begin? Who wrote them, and why? Are they still available today? To reply to such questions is the purpose of this essay.
The origin of the Relations
Pierre Biard, a Jesuit, arrived in Acadia as early as June, 1611. He composed certain letters and reports relative to this missionary activity, but these were never considered popular publications such as our Relations, and to be sure, most of his writings became public only in the 19th century.
The first Relation, composed by the Jesuit Paul le Jeune at Quebec on August 28th, 1632, was sent to his superior in France, Father Barthelemy Jacquinot, as a report of his trip to the New World. It was intended to be a private report between the missionary and his superior the Provincial in Paris. Such reports were de rigueur in the Jesuit tradition of open and helpful communication, considered so necessary by Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Jesuits.
Father Jacquinot, however, was so taken with the account and its lively style that he wished to circulate it among a wider audience. Accordingly he had it printed by Sebastien Cramoisy. After its publication it became a best-seller overnight! The New World, now seen through the eyes of an observant and articulate witness right on the spot, captivated the imaginations of readers in France.
After such initial success, it was natural to continue the publication of subsequent reports, but now, of course, with added care and precision. After all, such an annual report, read by so many people in France, could serve the mission extremely well both by stirring up sympathetic attention for the efforts of evangelization and by winning needed spiritual and material support. In earlier days, letters from the great apostle to the Indies, Francis Xavier, had aroused much enthusiasm and support.
Structure of the Relations
Relations or reports, then, were simply the annual communications of the superior in Quebec to his higher superior, the Provincial in Paris. The Relation from Canada would be made up of various written reports and letters, as well as oral observations, that had come from Jesuit missionaries in the field. These would be edited to some extent by the Quebec superior, put in some kind of order and then, along with anything added by the superior himself, would be sent by ship to the Provincial in France.
On reception of this material, the Jesuit Provincial in Paris would review it, perhaps trim it a bit and ready it for publication. All these Relations, with the exception of the one for 1637, were printed by Cramoisy of Paris. This is why the original edition is referred to as Cramoisys. The 1637 issue was printed by Jean le Boullenger of Rouen.
The authors
The author of the first ten Relations (1632-1641) was Paul le Jeune, whose natural gifts of narration served him well in drawing up excellent and vivid accounts of what was taking place in New France. Of course in time, much of his work came ready made from the land of Huronia where the reports carefully written by missionaries there fitted easily into the larger Relation.
Other famous authors, renowned for their own sure grasp of detail and interesting presentation, were Jerome Lalemant, author of the Relations for 1646 to 1650 (in part) and 1660 to 1664, and Paul Rageneau, author of the memorable Huron Relations for 1648-1650, of which the 1648-1649 account became the whole Relation sent by Lalemant to France. Ragueneau also wrote the general Relations of 1650 and 1651.
The Relations, written usually in simple unvarnished prose, were composed mainly in French and occasionally in Latin. There was also an abridged Italian version, the work of Francesco Giuseppe Bressani, himself a famous missionary among the Hurons. This Italian Relation was published in 1653.
The content
The Relations concerned themselves mainly with the apostolic efforts of the Jesuits and their associates. But they touched on a number of other aspects of life in New France. Foremost then in these records were the missionaries’ travels, methods of organization, studies of the people and of the language, actual instruction and spiritual ministrations.
But these same Relations also spoke of geographical details. We learn about rivers, lakes, streams, weather, trips, forecasts, earthquakes and storms. To this day they have preserved for us invaluable information about the flora and fauna of 17th century Canada, especially eastern Canada and the adjacent United States. And they also contain an immense amount of information about the Indians, the original inhabitants of the land: their physical traits, their beliefs and customs, tribal divisions and government, occupations and livelihood, rivalries, wars, alliances, dealings with French, English and Dutch, their games, their hunting, fishing, dwellings, food, and so much else.
Indeed, the reports and covering letters provide a mind of precious information about so many aspect so native, civil and ecclesiastical life in the New World; the beginnings and development of Quebec and Montreal, life in Old Huronia, the fur trade, and the desperate struggle for survival in the teeth of unremitting Iroquois attacks.
Those who wrote such long accounts were an intelligent, well educated, self disciplined group dedicated to the preaching of the gospel and the loving service of the native peoples. In a sense, it is a wonder that they wrote anything at all, so absorbed were they in their ordinary tasks. They had to compose their reports as best they could, on a trip, in an Indian village, by the light of a flickering fire, in a smoke filled cabin, and amid much hubbub and distractions.
In general the authors were objective and realistic, but, at times, they could be severe in their condemnation of native practices, possibly over severe, and this was recognized in a penetrating observation by Paul Ragueneau, one of the greatest Jesuits in 17th century Canada.
Ragueneua’s remark
“Had I to give counsel to those beginning to labor for the conversion of the Indians, I would willingly say a word of advice to them which experience will, I think, make them acknowledge as being more important that it seems at first sight.
“Namely: one must be very careful before condemning a thousand things among their customs, which greatly offend minds formed and fashioned in another world. It is easy to call irreligion what is merely stupidity, to see something as diabolical which is nothing more than human. And so one thinks that he is obliged to forbid as impious certain things done in all innocence, or, at most, only silly things and not at all malicious.
“These could be abolished more gently and, I would say, more efficaciously by bringing the Indians themselves gradually to see the absurdity of them, to laugh at them and so abandon them…
“It is difficult to see everything in one day, and time is the most faithful instructor that one can consult.
“I have no hesitation in saying that we have been too severe on this point, and that God strengthened the courage of our Christians beyond that of common virtue, when they deprived themselves not only of harmless amusements, in regard to which we raised scruples in their minds, but also of the greatest pleasures of life, which we found it difficult to allow them to enjoy, because there seemed to them something irreligious in these, which made us fear the presence of sin.
“Better still, it would perhaps been wiser at the beginning to be severe, as the Apostles were in regard to the use of things offered to idols, and of animals smothered in their own blood.
“Be that as it may, we see that such severity is no longer necessary, and that in many things we can be less rigorous than in the past. This will doubtless open the way to heaven for many persons who have not those abundant graces for displaying such heroic virtue, though they have enough to enable them to live as good Christians. The kingdom of heaven has crowns of very different value, and the Church cannot be equally holy in all its members”(Thw. JR, 33:144- 1466).
Cessation of publication
The Jesuit Relations as we know them, ceased publication with remarkable suddenness in 1673. What had happened? For some time there had been a bitter controversy over the so-called Chinese Rites. Pope Clement X wishing to stop the acrimonious debate and calm ruffled spirits, issued, on April 6, 1673, a Papal Brief (Creditae nobis coelitus) which forbade further publication of mission reports unless they bore explicitly the official approval of Propaganda, the Roman Congregation overseeing all missionary activity.
Why did the Jesuits not obtain such approval for their Relations? It seems at this very time the government of Louis XIV, very gallican and jealous of its rights, did not recognize the action of any Roman Congregations in French territory. Hence, although the French king was anxious to see the Relations continue, the Jesuits, out of loyalty and obedience to the Holy See, felt obliged to terminate publication of the interesting and valuable series.
The Huron Relations
From 1635 to 1650, the Huron Relation formed an important part of the general Jesuit Relation. It was duly sent to Quebec each summer, with the exception of 1646-1647, to be included in the Relation drawn up and sent by the Jesuit superior there. The Huron Relation for 1648-1649 served as the whole Relation for that year, so remarkable was it for the memorable events in Huronia, including the accounts of various martyrdoms.
The Huron reports or relations were usually written by the superiors of the Huron mission. The first superior in Huronia was Jean de Brebeuf who held the charge from 1634 to 1638 when Father Jerome Lalemant succeeded him. Lalemant, named superior of the Canadian mission seven years later, surrendered the Huron office to Paul Ragueneau in 1645, and Ragueneau carried on til 1650 which marked the demise of the mission to Huronia.
Brebeuf composed the reports for 1635 and 1636; a fellow missionary Francois le Mercier composed those of 1637 and 1638. The others were written in turn by Lalemant and Ragueneau.
It was Brebeuf, the, who sent down to Quebec the first of the Huron Relations, that of 1635. He actually wrote about events in 1634 and the first half of 1635 up to the date of composition, i.e. May 27, 1635. Brebeuf had just returned to the Hurons in 1634, after an earlier stay among them in 1626-1629. At the time of writing he was in the newly built, Indian-style, Jesuit residence of Ihonatiria. This Huron Relation of 1635 is assuredly one of the more interesting and valuable reports from Huronia.
The editions
There exist, of course, today very few of the original Cramoisys. However, in 1858 the Quebec edition, subsidized by the Canadian government, was published in three bulky volumes. Even though this edition has some shortcomings, it preserves for us the Relations of the 17th century. A more complete and monumental study was undertaken towards the end of the 19th century under the generous editorship of Reuben Thwaites. this edition, in seventy-three volumes, and with a highly useful index, was published in Cleveland between 1896 and 1901 under the title The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents.
This edition presents the original text along with an English translation. The translation, however at times leaves much to be desired.
It is from the Thwaites edition (volume 8) that we have taken the original text of Brebeuf’s Huron Relation for 1635. However, we offer here our own translation of the French text with the intention of providing an exact yet idiomatic version.
For anyone anxious to have a thorough knowledge of the Jesuit Relations – their origin, authorship, historicity, content, etc., we can only recommend the excellent and reliable work of Leon Pouliot, S.J., Etude sur les Relations des Jesuites de la Nouvelle-France (1632- 1672), Montreal, Collection des Studia; Paris, Desclee de Brouwer and Cie.,1940.