For more than 400 years, Jesuits working in Canada have written about their daily life and mission. Originally, their letters were published as The Jesuit Relations (Relations des jésuites). This blog,  igNation, continues that tradition with a new series entitled: Getting to Know the Relations.

Using excerpts chosen from the first 200 hundred years of these documents, the series presents vignettes which speak to the timeless heart of Jesuit endeavour: the promotion of discernment in order to help people find God in all things.

These excerpts are found in The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents – Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in North America (1610 – 1791), selected and edited by Edna Kenton, and published in 1954 by the Vanguard Press. That edition uses the word “savages” throughout. In these excerpts that word has been replaced by “the people who were here before we arrived” or “the people here.”)

Today: When business interests take over

As things became more settled in New France, Jesuit mission posts began to play an important commercial role for France. This is from a “private” memoir written in 1750 containing commercial intelligence and sent back to France by Claude Coquart SJ.  

There are two wintering-places for hunting the seal at Sept Iles: Pointe a la Croix and the seven islands themselves. The success of this hunting depends upon the ice. When it is not in too great quantity, and when the winds are not too violent, the yield is much larger. Last year, there were only from 30 to 35 casks of oil, but it was a poor year; there is generally more.

The peltries are not so numerous as at Chekoutimi, but they are of better quality. They have obtained as many as 800 fine martens, some beavers, and a great many caribou-hides. The River Moisy, 5 leagues below Sept Isles, by which most of the [people who were here before we arrived] come from the interior, has given its name to these beautiful and so highly valued martens.

The post of Sept Isles has seldom failed to be profitable while Dufresne has managed it, but he is hardly in a condition to continue his winter enterprises. The voyages that he has to make into the interior at the end of June have ruined him. Yet upon this voyage depends the success of the trade. The man who is at the post today is his pupil, perhaps he will succeed as did his master.

The Mingan people are injuring Sept Isles. This post is 30 leagues from them [about 45 kms], and the limits of the domain are at Riviere aux Huitres, two leagues farther down than the River Moisy. The Mingan come as far as the Riviere aux Huitres to hunt, and sometimes debauch the [women] of Sept isles. Protest has often been made against this proximity, but how remedy it?

Salmon fishing might be made a business at Sept Isles, if it were kept up every year. It is done in July and in 15 or 18 days the fishing is over, and I have been assured that they could easily catch some twenty caskfuls. If the agent had nets, and gave proper orders to the engagés [hired help] who remain at the post during his journey into the interior, this fishing would be done without anyone's noticing it.

It is true that the ship from Sept Isles would arrive at Quebec 5 days later, but what would that matter? It would always get there before the 5th of August, and would have more time than it needed to prepare for its return. The expenses would not be increased, since the engagés are contracted for the year; and as, besides, they have nothing very important to do at that season. By making all these little advantages avail, each post would increase profits. That is all I can say regarding the posts; if my knowledge is: limited, it is correct.

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