Marie, near the site of the present
town of Penetanguishene. Here, at St. Joseph, after years of incessant
labour, of discomforts and discouragements without parallel in the
annals of our country, the ardent souls whose enthusiasm for faith and
duty had become the dominant principle of their life, were swept away
in the red tide of blood that was opened by the Iroquois. One still
fair morning in the summer of 1648, while most of the warriors were
absent at the chase, and a company of devout worshippers were
celebrating Mass in the Mission Chapel, their brutish enemies
descended upon their peaceful domains, and by means of every torture
conceivable to the savage imagination practically exterminated the
tribe. Before the century had half-ended the mission post of St.
Ignace was similarly invaded by the Iroquois, who, after they wearied
of the pastime of hacking the flesh off their prisoners with tomahawks
and hatchets, and scorching them with red-hot irons, bound them at
last to the stake and mercifully allowed the swift-mounting flames to
end their sufferings. Whole families were bound in their houses before
the town was set on fire, and their wild cries mingled with the wilder
laughter of their inhuman captors.
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