Page 193 - Transcriptions d'actes notariés - Tome 20 - 1682-1686

their decisions imposed no obligations on anyone. The women were the
drudges, ior the men were hunters and warriors who never stooped to
menial tasks. Unlike the Hurons, with whom they were friendly, the
Nipiseings do not seem to have practiced any form of agriculture. In
religion they were worshippers 01 the aun and moon. Soreerers and
shamans were very numerous and influeutial in the tribe. The Jesuits
thought these were devil-worshippers. Innumerahle auper5titious eere-
rnonies and sacri6eial offeriugs to the spirits of the dead, and to animal
spirits, were their most charaeteristie praetiees. hlorality was praelieally
unkuown aniong the Nipissings, and the grea test obstacle the mission-
aties met with was a deep-seated adi1ii:lion to polygarny, and other lorms
of ~hamelessness in sex hehavi~ur.~~~'
Father Claude Pijart was the aptistle of tlie Nipissings. The tribe
had eonie doiun for the winter of 1640-41 tii rvhat is now the Parry Sound
distriet. There Pijart ancl Father Charles Raymbault began instructirig
lhem in November. 1M0, atid they eontinued the work a11 the following
winter. In the spring 01 1641 Pijart, aeeoinpanierl now hy Father René
Ménard,U4) followed them north to their suninier eamps. Acroes rivers,
lakes aiid iniiuntains the two Jesuits travelled after them, cufferiiip
ineredible indigtiit ies and hardships to win this degraded people Tor
Christ. Fathe r Pi jar! worked nine years altogether arnorig the Njpi~sings.
There were alniost insurmouritable obstacles in the way of ~heir ronver-
sion, but he had succecded at last in iorming a srnall Chrjstiau cominnnity
when the great blow of 1649-50 fell. For ~he Iroquois invasi0113 of those
years not only destroyed al1 ~he niissions in Hrirouia, and the Jeauits
were forced out of the whole Georgian Bay area, but the wat drove ttibe
after tribe north and weat Iroin thejr usual habitats in niirtheastetn
Ontario. The Nipissings Red wilh iheir nei~hborirs, the Amikoues, ot
Amikouet~,c'~' to the Lake Nipigon region.Iio' It was there that Father
Allouez found the relics of Pijari'a Christians iri 1667.

III
AIlouez tells the story of his trip to Lake Nipigori in his journal,
extracts from which were publiahed in the Relation for 1&56-67.(171
"On ihr sixth of May of ~his year, 1667, 1 embarked in a Canoe with
IWO Savag~s IO serve me as guidc~, ~hroughnu~ lhis Journey, Meeting

I 'ai Sco "The Nipiaiinga" in the TwentyaNinih Archeological Report. 1917, being
vari al lhe Appendir 10 ihc Repn of ihe h1inists~ of Eduraiion, Oniario,
pp. 9-23.
(14) RaymLault accom,ppenied Farher Isaac Jogues in Sadt Ste. Marie during ihe
suinmer of 1641. He thpn rciurnd to Queliec wherr Iic dird laie in 1M2.
1131 These famely inhabjted the Algome district between ihe Xipissing ierritorg
and ~hr Ojibway lands around Seult Sle. Marie. See B. Sulie, "La Baie
Verte et le Lac Supérieur, 1665." (Trens. of the Royel Smirty of Canada, 3rd
series, VI, section i. pp. 3-34)
(la) Nicolas Permt, "Mémoire sur les Mœurs, Cousturn~a et Religion dcs Sauvages
de 1'AmCrique Sepienirionale", publii pour le premigrc lois par Ic R.P. J.
Tailhen, SJ. (hipug ~t Perig 18643, p. 81.
(17) JR, voI.LI, pp. 63und IolL