George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 3, 15th edition.

[152] establishment of permanent missions, to be accompa-

Chap. XX.}

nied by little colonies of French emigrants;—and such was his own fervor, such the earnestness with which

Relation 1666, 7. 129.

he was seconded, that, in two days, with another priest, Louis Nicolas, for his companion, he was on his way, returning to the mission at Chegoimegon.

The prevalence of peace favored the progress of

1668.

French dominion; the company of the West Indies, resigning its monopoly of the fur trade, gave an impulse to Canadian enterprise; a recruit of missionaries had arrived from France; and Claude Dablon and James Marquette repaired to the Chippewas at the Sault, to establish the mission of St. Mary. It is the oldest settlement begun by Europeans within the present limits of the commonwealth of Michigan.

For the succeeding years, the illustrious triumvirate, Allouez, Dablon, and Marquette, were employed in confirming the influence of France in the vast regions that extend from Green Bay to the head of Lake Superior,—mingling happiness with suffering, and winning enduring glory by their fearless perseverance. For to what inclemencies, from nature and from man, was each missionary among the barbarians exposed! He defies the severity of climate, wading through water or through snows, without the comfort of fire; having no bread but pounded maize, and often no food but the unwholesome moss from the rocks; laboring incessantly; exposed to live, as it were, without nourishment, to sleep without a resting-place, to travel far, and always incurring perils,—to carry his life in his hand, or rather daily, and oftener than every day, to hold it up as a target, expecting captivity, death from the tomahawk, tortures, fire. And yet the simplicity and the freedom of life in the wilderness had