The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1872-09-27
THE JOURNAL.
contin,.ed tirom the First Paqe.

Continued from the First Page.
oions from the Gulf of Mexico to
the icy pole. Cortez had destroyed
the Empire of the Montezumas.
Pizarro at this very time was bear !
ing the Spanish banner bathed in
blood to float above the walls of
vanquished Quito. DeSoto was with
him. He had not yet beheld the |
Mississippi. The whole continent
to the northward was a wilderness
where now is the busy hive of forty |
millions. Cartier returned to Que
bee and to Europe, and France
plunged in the horrors of fratr1cidal
ar,sought not to follow up the New
World discoveries for nearly three
fourths of a century. After the laps
of sixty eight years, hitherward to
Montreal came Champlain in 1903.
Hechaloga had vanished. The IrO-
quois had been driven away. The
Algonquins had taken their places.
Montreal thence forward became the
great furtrading and rendezyousing
point of all the Indian tribes from
Hudson's Bay to the headwaters OF
Lake Superior. From Montreal
went forth that long line of French
adventures, heroes, and missionar-
les whose achievements are the most
remarkable in early American his
tory. What wonderful career was
that of Champlain, foremost pioneer
Of the American forests, hero and
zealot to whom the salvation of a
soul was of greater moment than the
the conquest of an empire. Whist
New England was a solitude, and
Smith of Virginia was cautiously
hugging the shores of the Chesa-
peake and the James, behold Champ
lain of Montreal journing with two
others q, band of Hurons and Algon-
quins, espousing their cause against
the Iroquois, sailing up Lake Champ
lain, gazing upon the Adirondack
and the Green Mountains OF Yer
mont and with the sharp ring Of his
arquebus turning the tide OF battle
against the Mohawks fiercest of the
five nations of New York, those
American Romans whose name was
a terror to all other Indian nations
from the Illinois to Labrador.
See him again just from Partisan
coprts with a handful of men, and
Franciscan Friars for his compan-
ions, sailing from Montreal hundreds
of miles up the Ottawa, shooting the
rapids. crossing westward and plant
ing the Cross, the Lilies Of the
Bourbons, and saying masses on the
shores of Lake Huron; embarklng
in Birch canoes with q band of HUI
rons for the opposite shores of On
tario, landing at Oswego, and doing
fierce battle with the Seneeas in
Western New York.
Then came the Jesuits, than whom
no greater, more unselfsh and de
voted heroes can be found in Amer
can annals. Religious zeal inspired
the colonization of Canada, as it did
that of New England, but it was OF
a different character, and 1t strikes
us the balance, is in many respects,
in favor of France. In the English
scheme, which was purely selfish, the
Indian ''stood like a cipher in the
great account. In the French he was
@all in ALL" His redemption was
everything. Theirs was a mission
zeal. 'Not a cape was turned, noI
river entered but Jesuit led the
way" The dark passions of savage
cruelty, kindled by the fires of relig-
ious bigotry, fercer than the fires OF
the Mohawks, at times blackened
their record with crime during the
French and Colonial wars, but the
account was oftimes balanced. There
are few darker pictures than that OF
the English depopulating French Ar
cadia Nova Scotia) and scattering
its inhabitants from Massachusetts
to Georgia, husbands and wives, pa
rents and children, forever sundered
because of difference in nationality
and religion.
To Montreal in 1912 came Mais
sonneuve and conscerated the place
as Vile Main which name it long
bore. In the following year was
solemnized the festival of the As
sumption before thousands of assem-
bled Indians. He had been preced
ed bv Fathers Daniel Breboeu
LaIlemand, Jarques and a score o
others. Born of the reaction which
; followed the Reformation the Jes
uits ia New France burned with ;
zeal to re-conquer in the new worlt
what had been lost to the church IL
the old.
Follow them up the Ottawa
, thousand miles to the Huron mis-
I sions, penetrating Central NeV
York, threading the forest streams
! nearing their chapels in the Hurol
: woods, telling the story of the Sa
7 viour to Indian braves, Carrying tn
name of Jesus and the lilies o
France on the forest trees, taxing
possessiong of the country every
where in the name of God and Kim
Louis, prisoners among the Iroquoi
running the gauntlet, in the agonie
of death seizing upon drops Of wa
ter from husks of corn to baptiz
their Indian converts, burning at tn
: stake, and heroically suffering dealt
: with every torture which savag
cruelty could invent.
Later still through Montreal cam
: Marquette, Allonez, Joliet La Sale
and a host of others, soldiers ant
: priests together, exploring the chail
of the great lakes even to MackinaV
! and Duluth, down the Fox and tn
: Wisconsin, down the Illinois, dow
the Miamis, down the floods OF tn
: Mississippi, rearing the cross ant
the colors of France on every bluf
from St. Anthony to New Orleans
announcing to the world that the Fa
ther of the waters emptied into tn
ocean not in Virginia nor in Cali
; fornia, and returning on foot through
the highlands of Ohio to the St
Lawrence. The whole story OF th'
French in America as related il
Parkmans charming histories, reads
lilo n fiction DurinU the hundred