THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
Letter of Father Thierry Beschefer
to the Reverend Father Provincial
(Quebec, October 21, 1683)
Beschefer, Father Thierry, "Letter of Father Thierry Beschefer,
Superior of the Missions of the Society of Jesus in Canada, to the
Reverend Father Provincial of the Province of France,"
Jesuit Relations, vol. 62, pp. 190-267.
pp. 205, 207, 209,
211, 213.
With regard to the superstitions of the miamis, He has not much trouble in disabusing them about these, because nearly all consist in the very strict observance of certain Fasts of several Days' (page 207) duration- which the old men cause the Youth to undergo, in order that they may discover during their sleep the object upon which their good fortune depends; and no sooner had The father shown Them the vanity of those dreams than the young men, delighted to be freed from that obligation, which to them seemed a very hard one, abandoned the fasts. The old men have also been compelled to admit that their only reason- which they had nevertheless covered with the spacious pretext of Religion- was to inure their Young men to fatigue, and to prevent their becoming too heavy.
God, however, compelled even the Father to observe with them a very rigorous fast throughout a winter, during which he accompanied them in the woods. Their food for a somewhat Long time consisted only of a few miserable roots that the women dug out of the ground; and even of these there was but very little for each, owing to their great number, for There were eighty Cabins. Consequently, as He himself writes, He was Like Him qui cupiebat implere ventrem suum de siliquise porcorum et saepe nemo ill dabat.
This did not prevent him from laboring throughout the winter to Instruct them, but with sufferings and fatigue which Might have overcome the most robust. The country through which he journeyed consisted entirely of damp prairies and marshes, or valleys full of water, separated by one another only by a few eminences covered with fine timber and dry soil. He was compelled to pass through eleven or twelve of those marshes in one Day; sometimes even it was one continuous marsh. As the ice is not thick in that country, They frequently sank Up to their knees in water. The cold, which in that (page 209) region is not great enough to freeze it completely, is nevertheless sufficient to make itself keenly felt. The dearth of food did not allow the savages to remain Long in one spot. He had to turn to the best account the moments that they could give him for their Instruction. Even the time during which they journeyed was entirely occupied in doing this. He approached sometimes one and sometimes another. A few of them occasionally gathered around him; The heavy burdens with which They were loaded, which did not allow Them to take three steps without breaking through the ice, did not prevent Them from listening to the father, or him from Instructing them. Thus these fatigues, which showed them How much the father loved them, were a powerful inducement to make them Believe Those truths, to preach which so much trouble was taken without any other Object in view than their salvation. Many Chaouanons whom he found among the Miamis (these are tribes who live much Farther away Toward the South, whom the Iroquois war has compelled to abandon their own country) were so affected by it that they said aloud that the Father was very different from the Europeans in their land. I think that these are the english, from whom They receive no tokens of friendship, and who take no trouble to Instruct Them. In fact, those heretics pay no heed to their salvation, saying that they look upon Them as beasts; and that Paradise is not for that sort of people. The Father did not fail to Show them that he was animated with very different sentiments toward them; that he looked upon Them as men, in Whom He recognized the image of a God who had Created them, who had died for them, and who (page 211) destined them to the same happiness as the Europeans.
The Ilinois are the last to whom we have borne The Light of The Gospel. The first who Even labored for their Instruction was Father Jacques Marquette- who, from time to time, saw some of them at the point of saint Esprit, at the extremity of Lake superior, where He was then on a mission. He went to their country for the first time ten years Ago, while on a long journey that he made with sieur Joliet, two hundred leagues beyond the first Villages of the Ilinois, descending The Great River Mississippi. He returned thither two year afterward, and preached Jesus Christ to them; but He died, while returning from the mission, in a wretched Cabin on the Shore of Lake Ilinois, As has been seen in the preceding relations. Father Alloues continued his mission. But the Iroquois waged war on these people, and these Barbarians persuaded themselves that The french had been concerned in That war, because they were allies of the Iroquois. This irritated them to such an extent that they resolved to slay the first frenchman who should set foot in their country. The father Nevertheless went thither, hoping that the scourge with which God had chastised them for their misdeeds would make them more docile. He made Them See that he knew very well the resolution that they had taken, but that his zeal for Their salvation, and for teaching Them to Know a God who loved them had made him neglect the preservation of his own life. This Confidence wins Them; They Thank Him, and say that now it is true that The Black Gown loves Them, and that he is their father; that is the name which we assume among them, (page 213) because that of "brother" does not Inspire Them with sufficient respect while that of "son" indicates a submission of which They make use to command us, as They do the Slaves whom they have adopted; and this divests the missionary of The authority which is necessary for Instructing them.
The Father took advantage of this ardor to speak to them regarding the matter of their salvation. He erected a Chapel, the walls of which consisted of Rushes only. They hastened thither in so great numbers that, as the Chapel was too small to Contain all of them, They opened It on all Sides to satisfy Their desire of learning Things which, as They said, were of great Importance to them. Although the father inveighed in the strongest manner in the world against Their vices,- such as hatred, murder, and impurity,- They nevertheless listened to Him with admirable attention. They followed him everywhere, so as not to lose a word of what he might say; and They gave him no rest either by Day or by night. But such Importunity is very agreeable to a man who considers it the first fruit of his labors, and one which leads him to hope for something still better. We shall, however, be obliged to discontinue that mission, because the Iroquois,- irritated still further by the death of a Captain of sonnontouan, killed among the Kiskakons by some Ilinois who were there,- have gone to continue the war with more ardor. Their purpose is, to avenge that death, and, if possible, to exterminate that nation- over whom They have already obtained great advantages, although the latter were formerly the terror of the more remote tribes toward the west.
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