" The
arrangements agreed upon comprised, in addition to dispositions of a
permanent nature at the three principal localities named above, the
sending forward one of the Recollets, Joseph le Caron, into the distant
regions occupied by the Huron tribes, which up to this time had not been
visited by any European.[3] Thus, under Champlain's auspices, were the
first foundations laid for establishing in Canada the faith and services
of the Church of Rome; and especially, in the first instance, for
commencing the "missions to the Indians," which have survived the
vicissitudes of more than two centuries, and subsist to this day in forms
and localities regulated by the progress of civilization on this
continent.
[3] Henceforward the history of the colony, as well as that of the
gradual extension of discovery westward, is inseparably associated
with the proceedings of the religious missionaries, who were the
real pioneers of French influence among the tribes of the interior.
During the winter of 1618 the colony was reduced to the verge of
extinction through the defection of its fickle allies, the Indians. The
station at Three Rivers had become to them a great place of resort; and
while many hundreds of savages were assembled there a quarrel occurred at
Quebec between some Indians and colonists, the particulars of which have
not been very clearly transmitted.
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