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Conjured his Reverence likewise, to spare no Pains in order to efface the ill Impressions that have been made upon the Mind of the Governor, by the Complaints of some Missionaires, in relation to the Hurons, whom they have endeavoured to represent as an inconstant nation, perfidious and barbarous, only for having conducted themselves according to those Customs of their Nation, received from their Ancestors. The Hurons, say they, have killed, have eat the Prisoners, which they made when a Descent has been attempted upon their Coasts: They are therefore the most barbarous Savages, they are Anthropophages, they are Monsters - Good God! could they do otherwise? let us judge of it without Prejudice.
They see arrive upon their Coasts Enemies, who to their Eyes appear entirely terrible, monstrous, supernatural, who have Thunder and Lighning [sic] at their Disposal, and are almost invulnerable. How many Prodigies! How is it possible not to be terrified by them! If the Hurons, in defending their Lives, have the Happiness to seize upon one of these redoubtable Enemies, why are they not to kill them for their own Safety? It would be Imprudence to spare them. Yes, say they, but why then eat them? For what Reason would you not have them eat them? 'Tis their Custom to treat in this Manner all the Enemies they can take. Would you think a Shooter reasonable, who having never seen any but red Partridges, should not kill a grey one that came into his Canton? or that having killed it, and seeing it fat and good,m should hide it in the Earth to perish, rather than eat it? We should never judge so rashly, if leaving off our Prejudices, we would put ourselves in the Place of those whose Judges we want to be.
If the People of this new World, preventing [sic? pre-empting?] us in the Art of Navigation, had first come to make a Discovery upon our Coasts, what would they not have had to relate of France at their return home? Having discovered an unknown Land to the North West, would they say, we resolved to land there in order to take possession of it in the Name of the Chief of our Nation, and to make our Gods be adored there. Some Fishers, whom we endeavoured to seize upon to inform ourselves of the Country, and of the People that inhabited it, having fled to a large neighbouring Habitation, these Barbarians, instead of offering us Tobacco and Maiz, or at least suffering us to hunt and take in Water, rained upon us a Storm of large round black Stones, whcih strucjk us down without our seeing the Hands that cast them at us. There was nothing but Smoak, Lightning, and dreadful Claps of Thunder. Those of our Company whom we had set ashore, finding themselves struck, and not knowing against whom to defend themselves, regained our Canoes and put off to Sea. Then several of these Savages came from under their Habitations, as the wild Beasts come out from their Dens when the Night approaches. They appeared to us to be entirely covered with Skins of different Colours, of an extraordinary Figure, and dressed in such a Manner that one would imagine it must be painful for them to move. They examined with Attention our Dead extended upon the Shore, and instead of eating the new-killed Flesh, they covered it under the Earth ignominously, despising it more than the Orignacs, or the meanest Beast of their Forests.
The Necessity of procuring Water and Provisions obliged us nevertheless to land at some Days Voyage from thence in a Place which seemed uninhabited, and where notwithstanding this we were immediately surrounded by Figures resembling the first, but less shy. We could only see their Faces and their Hands, the pale and livid Colour of which they have not Sense enough to hide, by covering it with the different Paintings we which know so well how to make use of. We presented to them the Calumet of Peace, and some of our finest Skins; after which they came up to us, speaking to us in an odd Language, of which we could not comprehend a Word. We made them, however, comprehend by our Signs, that we stood in need of Water and Provisions: They brought us a kind of Sakgamite hard and baked, of which they eat themselves first, and which we thought tolerably good. They drank also before us of a prepared Water, whose Colour was suspicious to us. Thery brought it in little round Skins, which were hard, transparent, and very well wrought; but we durst not drink of it; and they were obliged to give us Water, with which we filled our Goatskins.
We remarked, during some Days that we staid to take Provisions, that these Savages had no Gods, at least we did not see that they had any to whom they did Homage. They have nevertheless a superstitious Veneration for Grasshoppers, Bats and Lizards; for they several times prevented us from eating of them, and seemed to look upon us with Horror when we attempted it. It is probably also, that they believe after this Life there is no other in the Country of the Dead; for when any one dies in their Cantons, though it is one of their Chiefs, they neither give him Maiz, nor Utensils, nor Arms, nor even Slaves to serve him in the other world.
We had Compassion upon the Blindness of these unhappy Wretches. We followed them one Day into a Place where they carried one of their Dead singing before him, and which we imagined to be a Temple. Our Piaces [footnote: priests] advertised to us to carry with us our great God Vitzliputzli, whom they shewed to them, exhorting them to acknowledge their Error, and profit by the Advantage they had of being able to cast their Eyes upon the greatest of the Gods; but far from prostrating themselves before him as our Piaces, and adoring him together with them, these impious Wretches had the Insolence to overthrow with a profane Hand this dreadful God, to break his Legs, and tear off his Wings: At this Spectacle, seized with a just Horror, the Priests of Vitzliputzli flew upon these infamous Men to revenge our God by their Death and the Pillage of the Temple; but, less strong than couragious, our Piaces were seized upon and closely bound; as to us, having hastily regained our Canoes, we escaped from their furious Hands : But we had the Chagrin before our Departure, to see our terrible God devoured in the Flames, in the View of our little Fleet.
I ask you now, added Mademoiselle du Clos, if an American that made this Relation would be unreasonable? No, certainly, replied I, you plead extremely well the Cause of your Savages. I am no longer surprized that you are pleased with being here : You are become entirely an American. You prefer this Habitation to Paris, your Cabbin to the Louvre, and the Hurons to the French. You say too much, returned she; that would be preferring the rough Diamond before the polished; but at least this proves, that the Savages might think of the French, what the French now think of the Savages.
