The Irish standard., 1896-03-28

| S3lOi VI LllS NiSCOSCIy VI Wv 41lAooAs's5ApP
! river, which is in American eyes the
! greatest achievement next to the discoy.
cry of America, is fore yer connected Will
his name. But to the A. p. A. it is sufh.
cient that Marquette was a, Jesuit. They
! forget, or rather they do not know, the
part taken in the exploration and settle.
ment of our country by these same Jes-
| 1lits, and the time seems opportune tc
call attention to a few facts connected
with the labOrs of the Catholic mission
aries. Other orders we're represented
among them-Franciscans Dominicans
Capuchins, Recollects, Oblates, Sulplcians
but the Jesuits were the ones who bore
the principal in the opening up of the
wilderness, and willingly gave UP theil
lives by hundreds for the spread of the
Gospel but who are now made the mark
for sneers and abuse of men ignorant OF
their countrys history and blinded by
fanatical hatred.
Bancroft says in his history of the
United States, speaking Of the Society CT
Jesus: "Its members were by their rules
never to become prelates, and could gain
power and distinction only by Influence
over mind. Their vows were poverty,
chastity, absolute obedience and con-
slant readiness to go on missions against
heresy or heathenism. Their Colleges be-
came the best schools in the world. I'm
mediately on the institution OF the order
it's missionaries, kindling with a he
roism that defined every danger and en-
dured every toll, made their way to the
erds of the earth; they raised the emblem
OF mans salvation on the MOluccas, in
Japan, in India, in Thibet, in Cochin
China and in China: they penetrated
Ethiopia and reached the Abyssinians:
they planted missions among the Caffres
in California, on the banks Of the Mar
anhon, in the plains of Paraguay; they
invited the widest of barbarians to the
civilization of Christianity
In 1866 Jesuit missionaries were sent
to Florida, which in the following year
was formed into a vice province Of the or
der, and a school for the children of the
Florida Indians was commenced in Ha-
vana Q56S). On the invitation of Vir-
ginian chief, called by the Spaniards Don
Luis, Father Segura, the vice-provincial,
with seven members of the order and
some Indian youths who had been edu-
Gated at Havana, undertook to establish
a new mission on the banks of the Chesa-
peake, or st. Mary's Bay. But the IN
dian proved to he traitor, and Father
Segura with all his companions but one
lost their lives 157O. This led the .]e-
suits to abandon Florida for Mexico. The
first mission Of the Jesllits in California
was established by Father Eusebius
Kuhn, or Ixino, 1888; gradually they
founded sixteen mission stations, each Of
which was generally directed by one mis-
sionary In 1911 they established their
first mission in the French possession in
America. The mission was interrupted
for a time by the English, who i'll 1929
took. Quebec and carried Off the mission
aries, but their work was resumed in 1888
and for nearly half a century they Wles-
tied with paganism in the northern wilds.S
Quebec remained their center, whence
Jesuit missionaries were sent far and
wide. The most distant effort made by
them was a mission in Arkansas. When
Louisiana was settled Jesuits were sent
from France to undertake missions on the
Lower Mississippi, which were made sub
iect to the superior at New Orleans.
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