The Egyptian's Take Over Summary

The Jesuit’s Take Over

In 1632, there were French Catholic missionaries that were sent to New France to convert the First Nations into Catholics and to save them from being savages, and they would do this by forcing them to live their way, these people were called the Jesuits. They would also have to make them our allies. When the Jesuits got to New France and went on with their mission, they wrote journals and reports on their progress that would be sent back to their homeland, these documents are known as The Jesuit Relations. Their information might have been inflated due to the fact that their stories were being sold and it was probably written in a way that they would be able sell a lot of copies. The way these documents were written

shows that they are in some sort of chronological order, first they would convert the First Nations into Catholics, then settle into New France by fishing and exporting fur, and the built a strong enough relationship that they would fight with them. The whole point of the Jesuit Relations was to promote a new style of life to get people to go to New France and expand their land, because back then it was thought that the more land someone had, the wealthier they are. Since New France was such a big piece of land full of resources that they thought no one collected yet, they needed people to defend their new found land from anyone who would want to take it from them. That is why the Jesuits went there, they observe the land and the First Nations and try to make the place seem better than it actually is, in hopes of getting as much people there as possible. Due to the fact New France was not a desirable place to live, not many people wanted to go on a boat for many hours to a place that had bizarre winters and blazing summers, so they thought that the First Nations would be able to fight with them, that is why they tried so hard to change them.

The Jesuits think of themselves as superior to the First Nations, barely even thought of them as human beings. The Jesuit’s wanted to “make something out of our wandering Savages.” (Page 28) They would refer to them as, savages, barbarians, and at one point, human wolves. These terms are demeaning to the First Nations for the reason that it is as if they do not even view them as humans but animals. Considering their lack of what the Jesuits thinks is the only knowledge that matters, it automatically makes them smarter than the “savages,” they did not consider that there are different kinds of knowledge and different ways of beings smart. At one point they called the First Nations “our savages,” they think that they are entitled to the First Nations because they are not as intelligent as them. That is what makes the Jesuits rather arrogant. They wanted to change the First Nations into refined French Catholics. One of their ways to transform the “savages into angels” (page 16) was to baptise their children and basically get rid of their knowledge of their cultural background and replace it with French culture. The Jesuits thought that their way of living was the only way to live, and that they were far more superior to any other nation. The French wanted their people to “bear in mind that they are leaving France, a Country full of comfort and politeness, to come to a Country of rudeness and barbarism.” (Page 26-27) It is as if they do not believe that the First Nations could be anything more than savages. Imagine how surprised the Jesuits were when they found a young First Nations girl that “has nothing savage about her except her appearance and color; her sweetness, her docility, her modesty, her obedience, would cause her to pass for a young well-born French girl, fully susceptible of education.” (Page 27) If she were born French, she would have been perfect, it is implied that they are saying she is too good to be one of those “savages.” The Jesuits believe that “to be a Barbarian and a good Christian, to live as a Savage and as a child of God, are two very different things.” (Page 24) They claimed that they would “daily see men crying with hunger at our doors, whom we are constantly favoring and who have no other support than our Frenchmen,” (page 64) and they thought of this as their opportunity the get what they want from the First Nations. Although they would help those in need, they were very picky on who would they would be able to help. They “will not cherish them to the extent of taking the morsel from our own mouths to assist them in their needs; that we will observe very carefully those who perpetrate any public indecency, or who take part in these outrages and insane acts.” (Page 65) If the First Nations do something that they do not approve of then they will not be helped. It is almost as if they are trying to train them.

It is heavily implied that the Jesuits wanted to strip the First Nations of their ethnic background. First, the Jesuits brainwashed the First Nations into thinking that if they baptised their sick children, then they will not die. One of the first kids that they baptised was really sick, he was on the verge of death. (Page 5) The father wanted to baptise their child, but the mother was against it, up until she finally gave in and baptised her son. Miraculously, he slowly started getting better. They were tricked and scared into thinking that their children will burn eternally in the flames of hell. To some extent they mocked the “mothers themselves [for] bringing their children to Baptism when they see them in danger of death; and some weep bitterly when they hear it said that their children are in the flames, for not having wished to believe, or that they are deprived of the pleasures of Heaven because they were not baptized.” (Page 25-26) In a few cases the children on the verge of dying actually got better after getting baptised and slowly the rest of the First Nations were baptising their children in hopes of them getting better and if not they would at least spend eternity in heaven according to the Christians. The Jesuits relied on the First Nation’s fear of hell to move on with their plan. After the baptisms, at a certain age the kids would get taken away and put into a residential school where they would learn more about the French people’s culture and religion. The Jesuits thought the First Nations “must almost […] forget their own language” (page 24) in order to fit in with them. Even though they were frightened into baptising their children and tricked into giving away their children, the documents claimed that the First Nations and the Jesuits loved each other.

The observations of the Jesuits cannot be considered “factual information,” due to the fact that they are the ones writing history, they are making themselves sound like the “good guys.” Now, we simply cannot know if everything is completely true.

Back then the French did not know much about the First Nations, all they knew was what they observed. They sent the Jesuits to New France thinking that the First Nations needed their help, they thought that with their help the First Nation’s way of living could live up to their standards. The Jesuits believed that because they did not believe in their God, that is the reason things are happening the way they are now with many of their people dying, but little did they know that the Jesuits brought germs and viruses that, like the Jesuits, are foreign to the First Nations and they do not have the antibodies to protect themselves. Due to the Jesuits lack of knowledge about the First Nations, it seems as if their documents are considered factual. The documents the Jesuits wrote gives people now insight on why things are the way they are. Could have intentionally left the bad things out. The documents may be biased because these documents are being sent back to France to produce funds for their mission in New France. They were simply trying to get more money and people to New France and so they decided to inflate what they

wrote.

These documents give us insight on what happened back then and gives us the perspective of the Jesuits, but it is rather bias in light of the fact that we do not know the First Nations side of this story. From reading the Jesuit Relations, as readers it is clear that they are not happy about having to change for the Jesuits, but what if there is more too it? No one can tell if the Jesuits were lying about what was going on in New France. It is hard to trust these documents and believe they are 100% true. They basically educated and trained the First Nations people into defending the French. Everything the Jesuits did was to make French more powerful and they were willing to bend the truth a little bit if they had too. The Jesuits claimed that their “neighboring Savages depend greatly upon” (page 65) them. They had a hard time with the Jesuits when they went to war because they did not understand what they were saying without a translator and so receiving orders what be rather difficult. The whole point to the Jesuits going to New France was to ally with the First Nations like “the fingers of the hand,” (page 70) and that everything they put them through was an act of friendship. These documents cannot be used as “factual information,” because they left out what they would do to those kids in the residential school and how the First Nations were really treated. There are so many gaps to what happened that no one could ever fill in.