the Catholic Church, in which he was born and educated, and by whose
influences he was exclusively surrounded.

Two years were devoted to intense study. Then, for twelve years, he was
employed in teaching and in many laborious and self-denying duties. As
was natural, with a young man of his ardent nature and glowing spirit
of enterprise, he was very desirous of conveying the glad tidings of
the Gospel to those distant nations who had never even heard of the
name of Jesus.

Canada and its savage tribes were then attracting much attention in
France. Wonderful stories were told of the St. Lawrence River, and of
the series of majestic lakes, spreading far away into the unknown
interior, and whose shores were crowded with Indian tribes of strange
aspect, language, and customs.

In the year 1666, Marquette set sail from France, On the 20th of
September, he landed, on the banks of the St. Lawrence, at a little
hamlet of French log-cabins and Indian wigwams, called Quebec. He was
then but twenty-nine years of age. There was, at that time, another
missionary, M. Allouez, on an exploring tour far away upon the majestic
lakes of the interior. With adventurous footsteps he was traversing
prairie solitudes and forest glooms, upon which no eye of civilized man
had ever yet looked. His birch canoe, paddled by Indian guides, glided
over solitary waters hundreds of leagues beyond the remotest frontier
stations.

There was quite an important trading-post at the mouth of Saguenay
River. This was a remarkable stream, which entered the St. Lawrence
about one hundred and twenty miles below Quebec. It came rushing down,
from unknown regions of the north, with very rapid flood, entering the
St. Lawrence at a point where that majestic river was eleven miles in
width.

Here the French government had established one of the most important
commercial and religious stations of that day. At certain seasons of
the year it presented an extraordinary wild and picturesque aspect of
busy life. There were countless Indian tribes, clustered in villages
along the banks of the St. Lawrence, the Saguenay, and their tributary
streams. In the early summer, the Indians came by hundreds, in fleets
of canoes--men, women and children--to this great mart of traffic. They
came in their gayest attire, reared their wigwams on the plain, kindled
their fires, and engaged in all the barbaric sports of Indian gala
days. The scene presented was so full of life and beau