The front gate of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons
Sainte-Marie, a Catholic missionary community, was constructed by French Jesuits in 1639. By 1649 it was home to one-fifth of the European population of New France, second in size only to Québec. In a report written in 1649, Father Paul Ragueneau listed the European inhabitants as 18 priests, 4 brothers, 23 volunteer labourers, 7 hired labourers, 4 boys and 9 soldiers. Approximately 3000 Wendat (as the Huron called themselves) lived there at that time. The Wendat population was decimated by disease and by Iroquois raiding parties. The mission was burned by the Jesuits who abandoned it in 1649 when they moved to Christian Island. The following year they and many of their Wendat followers left the area to seek permanent refuge at Québec.
| Reference Materials on Sale from Amazon.com: The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) by Allan Greer (Editor) Black Robe: A Novel by Brian Moore Black Robe DVD The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century by Francis Parkman, Conrad E. Heidenreich (Introduction), Jose Brandao (Introduction) The Indians of Canada by Diamond Jenness Indian Legends of Canada by Ella Elizabeth Clark American Indian Myths and Legends by Richard Erdoes (Editor), Alfonso Ortiz (Editor) For an Amerindian Autohistory: An Essay on the Foundations of a Social Ethic (McGill-Queen's Native and Northern Series) by Georges E. Sioui, Sheila Fischman (Translator), Bruce G. Trigger (Introduction) |  |