not camp together, and
the white men were scattered alone among the savages. Robberies
increased till, when Brebeuf reached Georgian Bay, thirty days from
leaving Three Rivers, he had little left but the bundles he had carried
for himself.

Brebeuf had been to the Huron country before with Etienne Brule,
Champlain's pathfinder; but of the first mission no record exists.
Brebeuf found that Brule had been murdered near the modern Penetang;
and the Indians had scarcely brought the priest's canoe ashore, when
they bolted through the woods, leaving him to follow as best he could.

{84} Take a map of modern Ontario. Draw a circle round Georgian Bay,
running from Muskoka through Lake Simcoe and up into Manitoulin Island.
Here, on the very stamping ground of the summer tourist, was the scene
of the Jesuits' Huron mission.

[Illustration: GEORGIAN BAY]

When Brebeuf's tall frame emerged from the woods, the whole village of
Ihonateria dashed out to welcome him, shouting, "He has come! He has
come again! Behold, the Black Robe has come again!" Young braves
willingly ran back through the forest for the baggage, which the
voyageurs had thrown aside; and at one o'clock in the morning, as the
messengers came through the moonlit forest, Brebeuf took up his abode
in the house of the leading chief. Later came Fathers Davost and
Daniel. By October the Indians had built the missionaries their
wigwam, a bark-covered house of logs, thirty-six feet long, divided
into three rooms, reception room, living quarters, church. In the
entrance hall assembled the Indians, squatting on the floor, gazing in
astonishment at the religious pictures on the wall, and, above all, at
the clock.

{85} "What does he say?" they would ask, listening solemnly to the
ticking.

"He says 'Hang on the kettle,'" Brebeuf would answer as the clock
struck twelve, and the whole conclave would be given a simple meal of
corn porridge; but at four the clock sang a different song.

"It says 'Get up and go home,'" Brebeuf would explain, and the Indians
would file out, knowing well that the Black Robes were to engage in
prayer.

No holiday in the wildwoods was the Jesuit mission. Chapel bell called
to service at four in the morning. Eight was the breakfast hour. The
morning was passed teaching, preaching, visiting. At two o'clock was
dinner, when a chapter of the Bible was read. After four the Indians
were dismissed, and the missionaries met to compare no