FAKKATIVE
A VOYAGE MADE TO THE   ILINOIS,
BY
FATHER CLAUDE ALLOUEZ*
SECTION   I.
FATHER   ALLOUEZ   SETS   OUT  ON   THE   ICE.—A   YOUNG   MAN   KILLED  BY  A BEAR.—VENGEANCE TAKEN.—VARIOUS CURIOSITIES ON THE WAY.
WHILE preparing for my departure, as the weather was not yet suitable, I made some visits in the bay where I baptized two sick adults, one of whom died next day; the other lived a month longer; he was a poor old man, who
* " Father Claude Allouez, has imperishably connected his name with the progress of discovery in the west," says Bancroft. Unhonored among us now, he was not inferior in zeal or ability to any of the great missionaries of his time. He is not, indeed, encircled with that halo of sanctity which characterizes the first Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries of New France, nor do his writings display the learning and refinement which show in some the greatness of their sacrifice; but, as a fearless and devoted missionary, one faithful to his high calling, a man of zeal and worth, he is entitled to every honor. No record tells us the time or place of his birth. We meet him first as a Jesuit, seeking a foreign mission. An entry in his journal has been preserved, in which, under the date of March 3d, 1657, he expresses his rapture on receiving permission to embark for Canada. That he was not led by any erroneous idea of the field which he solicited, we know by his own words. He sought only to labor and suffer; man can not command results, nor will his reward depend upon them.   " To convert our barbarians, or savages, of Canada,"