dine seated on stools round the fire, with our platters on the ground. At noon I begin the school for the children, which lasts two hours. Sometimes I have but two or three scholars. Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays the school closes at one o'clock, at which time we teach the most notable of the settlement, whether Christians or not; on Thursdays only the Christians and catechumens; Sunday morning the Christians only. At the public Mass there is a sermon; before the Mass the holy water is consecrated with singing, and at the offertory the sacred bread is distributed among the savages. On the great feasts we have singing and the Mass. After dinner on Sunday, at one o'clock, we chant the Vespers; then comes instruction of Christians and catechumens. At five we chant the Compline, and Saturday evening the Salve with the Litanies of the Virgin. On the same day, at the close of the school, there is a little catechising of the children; and during the month there is a public catechising for the whole settlement, besides the daily instruction which is given in their cabins. At four o'clock in the afternoon we exclude the savages, and say in quiet together our matins and lauds, at the end of which we consult for three quarters of an hour on the progress or the obstacles in the way of the faith in these regions; then we study the language in conference, till supper time, which is at half-past six; at eight we have the Litanies and the examination of conscience, and then to bed. We have here no whole night's repose as in France. All the Fathers and our domestics, except one or two, myself being one, rise four or five times each night, as the fashion of resting here is on a mat with all your clothes on. Since I came from France I have never taken off my cassock except to change my underclothing. Thank God! I have found no inconvenience in it, and I daily realize how little will satisfy nature; and I believe that we are subjects rather for envy than compassion. For ourselves we do not envy the condition of any one in our France, — ‘Better is a day in Thy courts than a thousand,’ etc. It is true that we have the reality, as you do, only in a picture. How precious is the gift of the Faith! We have to deal with a people which has been wholly enslaved to the Devil ever since the deluge.”
In a manuscript letter of Father Garnier, to a friend in
France, copied by Mr. Parkman, we have a confidential
disclosure which shows a shrewd conception of the means
