The Franciscans were the first to undertake missions in New Mexico (1539). Several of the missionaries suffered martyrdom in their attempts to convert the natives, but it was only after 1597 that any considerable progress was made. In Texas the earliest real effort at introducing Christianity among the natives was made in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. The work of the Franciscans was disturbed by rebellions among the Indians and by war, but notwithstanding these obstacles several flourishing Indian settlements were established. In 1813 the Spanish Cortes issued a decree that the missions in Texas should be secularised.[14]
Although others had preceded him, yet the honour of discovering Canada[15] is assigned generally to Jacques Cartier who made three voyages to the country (1534-42). Early in the seventeenth century the two Jesuits Biard and Masse arrived and began the conversion of the Indian tribes settled in Acadia, which embraced Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In 1608 Samuel de Champlain, "the Father of New France"arrived and laid the foundation of Quebec. He invited the Franciscan Recollects to preach to the Indian tribes, namely, the Algonquins and the Hurons (1615). The Franciscans went to work with a will, preaching to the people and opening schools for the young, but finding their numbers too few for the mighty task, they invited the Jesuits to come to their assistance (1625). Several Jesuits including Fathers Brebeuf and Lallemant hastened to Canada and undertook missions to the Hurons.
The invasion and capture of Quebec in 1629 by the English interrupted the work for a time, but on the restoration of the territory to France in 1632 the Jesuits continued their labours with renewed vigour. The fierce tribe of the Iroquois were the strongest opponents of the Christian missionaries, many of whom they put to death. Father Jogues was put to death in 1646, and a little later Fathers Daniel, Brebeuf, and Lallement together with several of their companions met a similar fate.
But notwithstanding these reverses the work of Christianising the native races of Canada proceeded apace. In 1642 the city of Montreal was founded, and in 1657 the superior of the Sulpicians despatched several of his community to labour in the new colony. Two years later Francois de Montmorency-Laval arrived as first bishop and vicar-apostolic of New France. West and east the missionaries continued to win new conquests for the Church. The English, however, gave great trouble to the missionaries by stirring up the Indian tribes to make war on the Christian settlements. Nor was the French colony, practically deserted as it had been by the mother country, able to hold its own against the English colonists. In 1713 France ceded to England Acadia, Newfoundland, and the Hudson Bay territory. In Acadia the Catholic missions had been very successful, but in 1755 the unfortunate Catholics, who refused to take the oath that was tendered to them, were seized and deported. In 1759 Quebec was taken, and by the Treaty of Paris (1763) Canada passed under the dominion of the English.
Many French missionaries from Canada worked in the district stretching from the St. Lawrence to Lake Superior, and missions were established by the Jesuits in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. In 1673 Father Marquette (1636-75) undertook a journey southward to visit the great river about which he had heard from the Indians, and to open up new fields of work for himself and his associates. He succeeded in reaching the Mississippi, and sailed down the river as far as the mouth of Arkansas. As a result of the information acquired from those who returned from this voyage of exploration, expeditions were sent out by the French to take possession of the new territories and to erect fortifications against the further advance westward of the English colonists. The city of New Orleans was founded in 1717.
Missionaries--Capuchins, Jesuits, and priests of the Society for Foreign Missions--preached the gospel with great success to the natives in Louisiana, Mississippi, Iowa, Arkansas, and Ohio.
The Jesuits, under the leadership of Father White, who settled in the colony founded in Maryland (1534), devoted themselves to the conversion of the Indians, but the expulsion of Lord Baltimore in 1644and the victory of the Puritans led to the almost complete destruction of these Indian missions.
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[1] Launay, /Histoire generale de la Societe des Missions-Etrangeres/, 1894.
[2] Coleridge, /Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier/, 1902.
[3] Bertrand, /La Mission du Madure/, 1847.
[4] Brucker, /Le Pere Mattieu Ricci/ (/Etudes/, 1910).
[5] Daniel, /Histoire apologetique de la conduite des Jesuites de la Chine/, 1724. Pray, /Historia Controvers. de ritibus Sinicis/, 1724.
[6] Pages, /Histoire de la religion chretienne au Japan, 1598-1651/, 1869.
[7] Dutto, /The Life of Bartolome de las Casas and the First Leaves of American Ecclesiastical History/, 1902.
[8] De Berbourg, /Histoire des nations civilisees du Mexique et de l'Amerique centrale/, 1851.
[9] Beauchamp, /Histoire du Bresil/, 3 vols., 1815.
[10] Demersay, /Histoire ... du Paraquay et des Etablissements des Jesuites/, 1860-4.
[11] De Moussy, /Memoire historique sur la decadence et la ruine des Missions de Jesuites/ 1865. Weld, /The Suppression of the Society of Jesus in the Portuguese Dominions/, 1877.
[12] Shea, /Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes/, 1857. Hughes, /The History of the Society of Jesus in North America/, vol. i.
(Text), 1907.
[13] Engelhardt, /The Missions and Missionaries of California/, 1908.
[14] Shea, op. cit., pp. 76-88.
[15] /The Jesuit Relations/, 1896-1901. Leclerc, /Etablissement de la foi dans la nouvelle France/, 1680. Campbell, /Pioneer Priests of North America/, 1908.