Letter from Father Vivier, Missionary among
the Ilinois, to Father * * * .
M
|
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Dear Friend,
Pax Christi.
When
one leaves France for distant countries, it is not difficult to make promises
to one’s friends; but, when the time comes, it is no slight task to keep them,
especially during the first years. We have here but a single opportunity, once
a year, for sending our letters to France. It is therefore necessary to devote
an entire week to writing, without interruption, if one wish to fulfill all
one’s promises. Moreover, what we have to write of this country is so little
curious and so little edifying that it is hardly worth while to take up a pen.
It is less for the purpose of gratifying your curiosity than of responding to
the friendship that you display for me, that I write to you to-day. Let us try,
nevertheless, to give you some idea of the country, of its inhabitants, and of
our occupations. The Illinois country lies about the 39th degree of north
latitude, about g degrees from new Orleans, the capital of the whole Colony.
The climate is very much like that of France, with this difference, that the
winter here is not so long and is less continuous, and the heat in summer is a
little greater. The country in general is covered with an alternation of plains
and forests, and is watered by very fine rivers. Wild cattle, deer, elk, bears,
and wild turkeys abound everywhere, in all seasons, except near the inhabited portions. It is usually
necessary to go one or two leagues to find deer, and seven or eight to find
oxen. During a portion of the autumn, through the winter, and during a portion
of the spring, the country is overrun with swans, bustards, geese, ducks of
three kinds wild pigeons, and teal. There are also certain bird: as large as
hens, which are called pheasants in this country, but which I would rather name
“ grouse; ‘I they are not, however, equal in my opinion to the European grouse.
I speak not of partridges or of hares, because no one condescends to shoot at
them. The plants, trees, and vegetables that have been brought from France or
from Canada, grow fairly well. As a rule, the country can produce all things
needed to support life, and even to make it agreeable.
There
are three classes of inhabitants: French, Negroes, and Savages; to say nothing
of Half-breeds born of the one or the other, — as a rule, against the Law of
God. There are 5 French Villages and 3 Villages of Savages within a distance of
21 leagues, between the Mississipi and another river called the Kaskaskias. In
the five French Villages there may be eleven hundred white people, three
hundred black, and about sixty red slaves, otherwise Savages. The three
Illinois Villages do not contain more than eight hundred Savages, of all ages.
The majority of the French settled in this country devote themselves to the
cultivation of the soil. They sow quantities of wheat; they rear cattle brought
from France, also pigs
and horses in great numbers. This, with hunting, enables them to live very
comfortably. There is no fear of famine in this Country; there is always three
times as much food as can be
consumed. Besides wheat, maize — otherwise “Turkish corn” — grows Plentifully
every year, and quantities Of flour are Conveyed to new Orleans, Let us
consider the Savages in particular. Nothing but erroneous ideas are conceived
of them in Europe; they are hardly believed to be men. This is a gross error.
The Savages, and especially the Illinois, are of a very gentle and sociable
nature. They have wit, and seem to have more than our peasants — as much, at
least, as most Frenchmen. This is due to the freedom in which they are reared;
respect never makes them timid. As there is neither rank nor dignity among
them, all men seem equal to them. An Illinois would speak as boldly to the King
of France as to the lowest of his subjects. Most of them are capable of
sustaining a conversation with any person, provided no question be treated of
that is beyond their sphere of knowledge. They submit to raillery very well;
they know not what it is to dispute and get angry while conversing. They never
interrupt you in conversation. I found in them many qualities that are lacking
in civilized peoples. They are distributed in cabins; a cabin is a sort of room
in common, in which there are generally from 15 to 20 persons. They all live in
great peace, which is due, in a great measure, to the fact that each one is
allowed to do what he pleases. From the beginning of October to the middle of
March, they hunt at a distance of forty or fifty leagues from their Village;
and, in the middle of March, they return to their Village. Then the women sow
the maize. As to the men, with the exception of a little hunting now and then,
they lead a thoroughly idle life; they chat and smoke, and that is all. As a rule, the Illinois are very
lazy and greatly addicted to brandy; this is the cause of the insignificant
results that we obtain among them. Formerly, we had Missionaries in the three
Villages. The Gentlemen of the Missions étrangères have charge of one of the
three. We abandoned the second through lack of a Missionary, and because we
obtained but scanty results. We confined ourselves to the third, which alone is
larger than the two others. We number two Priests there, but the harvest does
not correspond to our labors. If these Missions have no greater success, it is
not through the fault of those who have preceded us, for their memory is still
held in veneration among French and Illinois. It is perhaps due to the bad
example of the French, who are continually mingled with these people; to the
brandy that is sold to them, and above all to their disposition which is
certainly opposed to all restraint, and consequently to any Religion. When the
first Missionaries came among the Illinois, we see, by the writings which they
have left us, that they counted five thousand persons of all ages in that
Nation. To-day we count but two thousand. It should be observed that, in
addition to these three Villages which I have mentioned, there is a fourth one
of the same Nation, eighty leagues from here, almost as large as the three
others. You may judge by this how much they have diminished in the period of
sixty years. I commend myself to your holy sacrifices, in the union whereof I
have the honor to be, etc.
Among the Illinois, this 8th_of
June, 1750.
