DISCOVERIES  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.            91
ans, by order of the marquis d'Enonville, then governor-general of the country, conquered those northern parts where, as the French arms are still gloriously maintained, the zeal of the Jesuit fathers is employed in publishing the gospel.
The unwearied charity of those illustrious missionaries advanced their labors with much more success during the present epoch, among the Ottawa nations, seconded by the great zeal of Frontenac's protection, and the ascendant which the wisdom of the governor had acquired over the savages. A magnificent church, furnished with the richest vestments, was built at the mission of St. Mary's of the sault; that of the bay of the Fetid (Green bay), and Michilimakinak island, were more and more increased by the gathering of Indian tribes. The missions around Lake Condé (Superior) further north, were also increased. This lake alone is one hundred and fifty miles long, sixty wide, and about five hundred in circuit, inhabited by different nations, whence we may form an idea of the labors of the missionaries in five or six establishments. Finally, in the last years of M. de Frontenac's first administration, Sieur du Luth, a man of talent and experience opened a way to the missionaries and the gospel in many different nations turning toward the north of that lake, where he even built a fort. He advanced as far as the lake of the Issati, called Lake Buade, from the family name of M. de Frontenac, planting the arms of his majesty in several nations on the right and left, where the missionaries still make every effort to introduce Christianity, the only fruit of which indeed consists in the baptism of some dying children, and in rendering adults inexcusable at God's judgment by the gospel preached to them.*
* The promise of a general account of discoveries made, and his praise of the Jesuit missionaries in the preceding pages, must excite