Mr. Fisher then opened his portmanteau and drew forth a letter, which he presented to my friend Mac, exclaiming in a voice of thunder, “Read that, gentlemen, and hear what Mr. Thane thinks of your conduct.”  We read and trembled; Mac’s defiance of the authority of the priests offended them mortally; a formal complaint was consequently preferred against the innocent and the guilty, (although there was no guilt in fact, unless speaking Gaelic to the wood-nymphs could be so construed,) and drew upon us the censures this dreadful missive conveyed.  The magnate remained a few days, and on his departure for town, we resumed our usual pastimes, but selected a different path to Captain Ducharme’s.  The Fathers had requested, when this establishment was first formed, that some of the Company’s officers should attend church on Sundays for the purpose of showing a good example to the natives.  I did so, on my part, very regularly until Christmas Eve, when having witnessed the ceremonies of the midnight mass, I determined on remaining at home in future.  I shuddered with horror at the idolatrous rites, as they appeared to me, which were enacted on that occasion.  The ceremonies commenced with the celebration of mass; then followed the introduction of the “Infant Jesus,” borne by four of the choristers, attired in surplices of white linen.  The image being placed by them on a sofa in front of the altar, the superior of the seminary made his debut, retiring to the railing that surrounds the altar, when he knelt, and bending low his head apparently in devout adoration, he arose, then advanced two steps towards the altar and knelt again; he knelt the third time close to the side of the image, which he devoutly embraced, then withdrew:  the younger priests performed the same ceremonies; and after them every one of their congregation:  yet these people protest that their religion has no connexion with idolatry, and that the representations of Protestants regarding it are false and calumnious.  If we credit them, however, we must belie the evidence of our own senses; but the fact is, there are not a few Roman Catholics who speak with very little respect themselves of some of these mummeries.

CHAPTER IV.

PORTAGE DES CHATS—­TACTICS OF OUR OPPONENTS—­TREACHERY OF AN IROQUOIS—­FIERCE, YET LUDICROUS NATURE OF THE OPPOSITION.

MR. Fisher returned from town in the month of March; he had learnt that our opponents intended to shift the scene of operations to the Chats, (where the greater number of the Indians pass on their way going to or returning from their hunting grounds,) and were making preparations of a very extensive nature for the spring competition.  The Company were not tardy in adopting such measures as were deemed the most efficient to meet them on their own terms.  We understood that they had hired two bullies for the purpose of deciding the matter par voie de fait.