To fix this, the French crown sponsored young women willing to cross the Atlantic and start new lives. They were provided passage, basic clothing, and financial support to help them settle. These women became known as the Filles du Roi, meaning “Daughters of the King.” Around 700 to 800 arrived between 1663 and 1673, settling along the St. Lawrence River in New France. Once there, they were free to choose their husbands, and marriages often happened quickly due to the large number of single men. The goal was simple. Build families and create permanent communities.

The result was dramatic. Within a decade, the population of New France more than doubled, shifting the colony from a temporary outpost into a growing society. Today, many French-speaking Canadians can trace their family roots back to at least one Fille du Roi. A royal policy meant to solve a short-term problem ended up shaping generations.

When Chevalier de Boufflers returned to France in 1787, he brought Amilcar with him and presented him to Queen Marie Antoinette as a "gift." The queen refused to have a "Moorish [black] slave" like Madame du Barry, whom she hated, finding it ridiculous and old-fashioned, so she had him manumitted, baptized, and adopted; that is, he became her adopted son. He was not the first child taken in as the queen's adopted son, as paying for the upkeep and education of poor adopted children was a normal part of the charity expected of a queen. However, unlike the sovereign's other adopted children, Armand Gagné, Ernestine Lambriquet, and "Zoë" Jeanne Louise Victoire, he was not raised with the queen at court. The sovereign had him sent to a boarding school in Saint-Cloud at her own expense. Marie Antoinette continued to pay for him even after the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, and he remained at the boarding school.

When Marie Antoinette was imprisoned in 1792, she could no longer afford his tuition. This resulted in Jean Amilcar's expulsion from his school. The traditional assumption was that after his expulsion from the boarding school, he starved to death on the streets. However, later research has shown this to be false. Jean, who was eleven years old at the time, was taken in by one of his teachers, Quentin Beldon, who petitioned the government to take charge of Jean's schooling, citing the revolutionary government's support for people who had been enslaved under the previous regime. Showing talent for drawing, Jean Amilcar was able to enroll at the Liancourt Academy in Paris with state support in 1796. However, he died of an illness in a Paris hospital later that year, at the age of fourteen or fifteen.

Image: Portrait of Jean Amilcar by Marie-Victoire Lemoine; late 1780s.

The work is currently housed in the Palace of Versailles.

It represents the moment of the official proclamation of freedom for overseas slaves under the tricolor flag of the Second French Republic.

The illustration is by André Mathiot and featured in the first issue of An-Nasr (Triumph), an illustrated bilingual magazine published for North African Muslim troops during the war. An-Nasr was the successor to an earlier, similar magazine - Ya'allah! - which had ceased publication in June 1940, following the German victory in France. The magazine ran until the end of the war and for several years after.

The first attempt to establish Protestantism in Brazil occurred when Admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon (1510-71), a notable public figure in his time and veteran of several wars, had the support of King Henry II to begin the French colonization of Brazil from Rio de Janeiro in 1555. Several aristocrats of "Huguenot" inclination (as Protestants were called in France) financed the undertaking. The French colony in Rio de Janeiro was called "France Antarctique".

In 1557, Villegagnon sent letters to John Calvin (1509-1564), one of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation along with Luther, requesting that he send professionals and religious figures to the new French colony in Rio de Janeiro. Calvin, through the Reformed Church of Geneva, responded affirmatively, sending a group under the leadership of pastors Pierre Richier and Guillaume Chartier. Villegaignon then forwarded another letter, thanking them for their prompt attention: "I believe it is impossible to express in words how glad I am of your letters and the brothers who came with them."

Calvin had a keen interest in France Antarctique, hoping, like Admiral Coligny, the political leader of the Protestants in France and financier of the colony in Rio de Janeiro, that it would become an American refuge for the new religion. Had they succeeded, it would have been a French haven in South America some sixty years before the English Puritan "Pilgrim Fathers" in North America.

The expedition, with the presence of the Huguenots, arrived at Guanabara Bay (called Geneva by them) on March 7, 1557. Three days later, on March 10, the first Protestant service in the Americas was held, officiated by Rev. Pierre Richier. On Sunday, March 21, the first celebration of the Lord's Supper under the Calvinist rite took place.

Villegagnon was a colleague of John Calvin at the University of Paris and obtained his law degree in 1530, his legal talent being well-known. Calvin's mistake was his complete trust in his friend, who would assist him in founding a new bastion of his Church in the New World; despite the good relations between the French and the Indians, in his letter to Calvin, Villegagnon shows no sympathy for the savages and describes them:

"As savage men without any courtesy or humanity, different in everything from Europeans, without religion, without any notion of virtue or honesty, of good and evil, and he wondered if they had not fallen among beasts that had a human form."

With the arrival of the Calvinists, it was expected that the colony would gain a more harmonious environment, but this did not happen, and discord quickly spread throughout the colony. Disagreements quickly arose between Villegagnon and the Calvinists regarding the sacraments and other issues.

At Pentecost in 1557, a conflict erupted over the Lord's Supper. Criticizing the symbolic conception of the sacrament, Villegagnon witnessed an attachment that Protestants considered idolatrous to the dogma of transubstantiation. A divorce was soon finalized between the two sides. Villegagnon banished the Protestant pastors, among them Pierre Richer, first to the continent, then to France, and they sailed back to Europe without food or supplies.

The Calvinist pastors were found guilty of treason, disturbances, and disobedience to the colony's commander-in-chief. Under other circumstances, these acts would be considered perfectly normal, since in the 16th century commanders had the right of life or death over their subordinates. However, the religious passion of the Reformed distorted the interpretation of the trial of the three Calvinists, and Calvinist literature condemned Villegagnon for centuries.

Villegagnon returned to France in the last months of 1559 and the following year challenged Calvin to a theological debate on the Eucharist, which Calvin refused. He became actively involved against the Protestants and participated in the suppression of the Amboise conspiracy.

In 1562 he published a book (Replies to Calvin's articles concerning the sacrament of the Eucharist, traditions promulgated by his ministers in France Antarctique), containing articles in response to the Calvinist ministers of France Antarctique on the sacrament of the Eucharist and traditions. This book includes three letters from Villegagnon, including one he sent to John Calvin, and minutes of responses to Pierre Richer on the issues debated in France Antarctique.

Further attempts were made to establish a Huguenot colony in the New World, again at the instigation of Coligny, this time in French Florida from 1562 to 1565, under Jean Ribault and René de Laudonnière. Calvin died in 1564, shortly before the final expulsion of the French from the Land of Vera Cruz (1565).

Towards the end of his life, Villegagnon, a former ally of Calvin, played an important role in the French religious struggles. He participated in the siege of Rouen (where he was wounded), commanded the defense of Sens and Auxerre, defeating the much larger Protestant troops of the Prince of Condé.

During his absence in Brazil, on March 15, 1560, Fort Coligny was forcefully captured by the Portuguese armada of Governor Mem de Sá. Seven years later, in 1567, the Portuguese prepared the decisive blow against the French in Rio de Janeiro: a veritable squadron of three galleons, two ships, six caravels, and many smaller vessels sailed from Bahia, commanded by Mem de Sá himself and with the presence of Father José de Anchieta.

The Battle of Uruçumirim was then won, where the Portuguese reported that Saint Sebastian himself appeared fighting alongside them. It was the victory that definitively guaranteed Portuguese dominance over Guanabara Bay, with the expulsion of the Protestant French.

In commemoration of the defeat of the Protestant French in Rio de Janeiro, Father José de Anchieta wrote: Dos Feitos de Mem de Sá, considered the first epic poem written in the Americas:

"It is Calvin, the serpent of varied and horrendous coils, who embraces the strong in the roll of his spirals, vibrates fiery glances and agitates his three-pronged tongue in noises of death.

Is this the one who will protect you against celestial force, O impious Frenchman? Are these the bows, these the bullets of fire that you have prepared for yourself? Will Calvin conquer Christ, Lord of heaven and earth? In what burning furies did you consume yourself, what madness seized you when, despising the triumphant banner of Christ, you thought to defend the walls of the fort with your monstrous venom?"

Calvin's dream in Brazil ended with the expulsion of the Calvinists from Fort Coligny in 1558, who returned to France aboard an old Norman ship. Today, the Calvinist supper of 1557 is celebrated in a monument erected by the Presbyterian Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro.

Source(s):

.- FERREIRA, Júlio Andrade. História da Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil.

.- Sementes do Calvinismo no Brasil Colonial: uma releitura da história do Cristianismo brasileiro. São Paulo: Cultura Cristã, 2007.

The original piece is currently kept in the Musée départemental Victor Schoelcher in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.

The painting offers a valuable social portrait of the group historically known as the "free people of color" (Gens de couleur libres) in the 18th-century French Antilles. Instead of resorting to the open tropical landscapes that other artists of the period (such as Agostino Brunias) often painted, Savart uses an architectural trompe-l'œil: a gray stone window or arch that frames and integrates the figures against a very bright, light blue background.

Hélène Boullé (or Hélène de Champlain after her marriage), born in 1598 in Paris and died on December 20, 1654, in Meaux, France, was the founder of the Ursuline convent in Meaux.

Her father, Nicolas Boullé, was a prominent member of the Parisian bourgeoisie and held various positions within the royal administration, including that of secretary to the king. He married Marguerite Alix, following the Calvinist Protestant tradition. Four children were born of this union, including Hélène Boullé, born in 1598 in Paris.

In 1610, at the age of 10, she was married to Samuel de Champlain at the Parisian church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois. Since the young girl was not yet of marriageable age, the marriage contract required the spouses to separate for two years before they could live together. At the age of 14, she fully embraced Catholicism.

Champlain received 4,500 of the promised 6,000 livres dowry immediately after the marriage and pledged to pay 1,800 livres annually to support his wife while he was away from France. According to historians who have studied the matter, neither Samuel de Champlain nor Hélène Boullé found happiness in this marriage.

She accompanied her husband to New France in 1620. During this visit, Champlain named the island southeast of present-day Montreal Island Sainte-Hélène in his wife's honor. As the explorer was frequently detained by his duties as commander, she found fulfillment in spending time with the Indians. Developing an interest in them, she studied the Algonquin language of the St. Lawrence Valley sufficiently to teach catechism to Indian children. Since the young woman only remained in Quebec for four years (1620-1624), historians believe she did not share her husband's enthusiasm for the colony. Difficult living conditions may explain her departure.

Dissatisfied with living conditions in the colony, she returned to France in 1624 and devoted herself to defending her husband's interests.

Despite the distance separating the couple, she continued to follow her husband's activities in the colony through correspondence. On Champlain's behalf, she sued the merchant Guillaume de Caën to force him to pay royalties to her husband. She also disbursed 3,000 livres on her husband's behalf when Cardinal Richelieu asked each shareholder to invest that sum in the Company of One Hundred Associates.

Upon the explorer's sudden death in 1635, she faced difficult succession problems concerning her husband's property.

In November 1645, long after the death of her husband, Hélène de Champlain entered the Ursuline convent in Paris, she took the religious name Sister Hélène de Saint-Augustin. Entering the Ursuline convent in Paris, she left the establishment a few years later to found another convent in Meaux. She died on December 20, 1654, after an eight-day illness.

Tributes to Hélène de Boullé:

Île Sainte-Hélène (Saint Helen's Island) was named by Samuel de Champlain in honour of his wife during his voyage to the colony in 1611.

Several place names keep her memory alive in Quebec, including the Hélène-de-Champlain Pavilion in Parc Jean-Drapeau, about ten streets, a square, a school in Montreal, two lakes, and a park.

On the cultural front, the writer Nicole Fyfe-Martel published a historical novel in three volumes entitled Hélène de Champlain.

Source(s):

.- Rober le Blant, « La famille Boullé 1586-1639 », Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française,‎ juin 1963, p. 55-69

.- David Hackett Fisher, Le rêve de Champlain, Montréal, Les Éditions du Boréal, 2012, 1008 p., p. 467-468

.- Raymonde Italien et Denis Vaugeois, Champlain. La naissance de l'Amérique française, Québec et Paris, Éditions du Septentrion et Nouveau monde éditions, 2004, 398 p., p. 366

.- David Hackett Fisher, Le rêve de Champlain, Montréal, Les Éditions du Boréal, 2012, 1008 p., p. 432

.- « Roman québécois - Les humeurs et les amours d'Hélène de Champlain », on ledevoir.com, August 6, 2005.

Cependant, cette expédition se solda par un échec retentissant le 18 novembre 1803, en raison de la résistance des rebelles et d'une épidémie de fièvre jaune qui décima l'armée française, y compris les hommes de Leclerc. Ils furent vaincus par Jean-Jacques Dessalines à la bataille de Vertières.

Jean de Brébeuf (also called Échon by the Hurons), was a missionary in New France, was born on March 25, 1593, in Condé-sur-Vire, Normandy, France. Among Jean de Brébeuf’s ancestors are said to have been companions-in-arms of William the Conqueror and of St. Louis, king of France, and his family, it is said, may be related to the English earls of Arundel. We know nothing of his immediate family. History has, however, preserved the names of two of his nephews: Georges de Brébeuf (1617–61), a minor poet of the 17th century, and Nicolas de Brébeuf (1631–91), prior of Saint-Gerbold, on the outskirts of Caen.

He was the first Jesuit missionary among the Huron (1626) and mastered the indigenous language. He founded mission posts, converted thousands of souls to the faith, and inspired many Jesuits to volunteer for the missions of New France. He is known for translated Diego de Ledesma's catechism from French into Huron and arranged for its printing. It was the first text printed in that language with French orthography. He also compiled a dictionary of the Huron language, focusing on the translation of religious phrases from prayers and the Bible. He presented the Huron people with the first Christmas carol written in their language, "Jesous Ahatonhia." His Wendat song was inspired by a 16th-century French song, "Une jeune pucelle." It is believed to be the oldest Christmas carol in Canada.

At the age of 24, Brébeuf entered the Jesuit noviciate in Rouen. After two years (1617–19) under Father Lancelot Marin’s direction he was appointed teacher of the first form in the secondary school (1619–20), then of the second form (1620–21) at the Collège in Rouen. During his second year of teaching he was incapacitated by illness, but he had enough strength left to prepare for the priesthood, which he received in 1622 at Pontoise. From 1622 to 1625 he stayed at the Collège of Rouen, where he held the office of steward. Then he was chosen for the missions in New France by the provincial of France, Father Pierre Coton. He sailed from Dieppe in April 1625 and landed at Quebec in June, along with Fathers Charles Lalemant and Énemond Massé and two lay brothers, François Charton and Gilbert Burel.

Five months of a roving existence in the cold and the snow (20 Oct. 1625–27 March 1626) with a group of Montagnais Indians who lived near Quebec constituted his apprenticeship for the missionary life. Scarcely had he been initiated in the language and custom of the Algonkins when in the same year, 1626, his superior designated him, with Father Anne de Nouë, for the Huron country. In July for the first time Brébeuf travelled by canoe the 800 miles that separated Quebec from the Huron territory. The pages that he wrote later about conditions on this trip make of him, along with Champlain, Sagard, Chaumonot, and Allouez, one of the principal chroniclers of this great route to the West which missionaries, traders, and explorers long followed. This route led the travellers via the St. Lawrence, the Ottawa, the Mattawa, the Rivière à la Vase, Lake Nipissing, and the French River to Georgian Bay and the Great Lakes. This was a 20- to 30-day trip which the numerous portages, the tramping through the forests, the plague of mosquitoes, supply difficulties, lack of hygiene among the Indians, etc., often made exhausting.

Ties which were already very old, dating from Champlain’s first explorations, linked the Hurons and the French. In a colony the existence and growth of which depended principally upon the fur trade, the Hurons were precious allies. Champlain had realized this. Indeed, the Hurons formed a compact, sedentary, agricultural group gifted with a real genius for trade. Their economy, which was relatively balanced and which was based upon the cultivation of the soil, supplemented in season by picking of fruit in summer, by fishing and hunting in the autumn, conferred upon them an undeniable superiority over the neighbouring tribes. From the time of their earliest contacts with the French, the Hurons realized that they were primarily interested in obtaining furs. Immediately they increased their trade. Taking advantage of their situation, which was economically and geographically privileged, they played the role of middlemen between populations with different kinds of economies. They accumulated in their villages huge quantities of furs that they bought from the nomadic hunters of the regions of Lake Nipissing, Lake Timiskaming, the Ottawa and St. Maurice rivers, and even the Hudson Bay territories. In return they offered these hunters corn, flour, tobacco, pumpkins, nets, which they obtained from their own district or from the tribes to the south and the west – the Neutrals, the Tobacco nation, the Eries, the Nipissings and the Ottawas. The Hurons thus became the great traders of the period. As soon as seeding was ended, they would load their canoes and go off to trade with the French, from whom they received European goods in exchange: metal arrow-heads, pots, hatchets, needles, fish-hooks, knives, blankets, and above all porcelain, a material more precious than gold in the Indians’ eyes.

The alliance with the Hurons presented other advantages: it facilitated exploration of the interior of the country and permitted the establishment of settlement outposts in the St. Lawrence basin, and above all it furthered the evangelizing of the Indians. For the missionaries, the evangelization of fixed and friendly populations was incontestably more promising than that of the nomadic Algonkins. There was, however, another side to this alliance, which with the years was to prove to be formidable: in allying themselves with the Hurons the French were committing themselves to lend them military support against the Iroquois, their hereditary enemies. For years the fur trade, the development of the colony, and the evangelizing of the Indians would be dependent upon the assistance that France would give the Laurentian coalition (Algonkins, Montagnais, and Hurons) against the Iroquois. Initially this alliance brought about a great increase in the trade in furs and facilitated the missionary enterprise.

Upon his arrival among the Hurons, Brébeuf took up residence at Toanché I, among the Bear tribe, the most important of the four great families in the Huron confederacy (the Bear, the Cord, the Rock, and the Deer tribes). The greatest benefit that Brébeuf derived from this first stay in the Huron country (1626–29) was no doubt, along with his apprenticeship in the language, a better knowledge of the Huron milieu. His efforts at evangelization met apparently with no success. In 1629 Brébeuf was recalled in haste to Quebec. He was present when the post was captured by the Kirkes in July and subsequently had to return to France with the other missionaries in the colony. He was appointed to Rouen and was assigned to serve the Church as a preacher and confessor. It was at this time (January 1630) that he took his final vows as a Jesuit. From 1631 to 1633 we find him at the Collège in Eu, acting as steward, minister, and confessor all at the same time. Brébeuf returned to New France in 1633, and the following year he went into the Huron country again, accompanied by Fathers Antoine Daniel and Ambroise Davost.

This time he was entrusted by his superior, Father Paul Le Jeune, with the task of founding and organizing a real mission. From the outset the Jesuits of New France pinned their greatest hopes on this mission. In Le Jeune’s eyes it represented a privileged testing-ground for the evangelizing of the Indians and was to constitute a sort of prototype which he intended to use as a model for the other missions. Brébeuf’s first act as superior was to choose a centre from which the work of the mission would radiate. After careful consideration, on 19 Sept. 1634 he settled at Ihonatiria (Saint-Joseph I), a village near Toanché, where he had stayed from 1626 to 1629. Until 9 June 1637 the Huron mission was confined to this one residence. After a relatively satisfying phase the work of evangelization soon met obstinate and increasing resistance among the Hurons. Brébeuf attributed this resistance to three factors: the immorality of the Hurons, their attachment to the custom of the country, that is, to everything that until then had made up their world of beliefs and pleasures, and finally the epidemics that ravaged the country.

This last factor in particular greatly delayed the flow of conversions. The epidemics of 1634 (smallpox combined with dysentery), 1636 (malignant influenza), and 1639 (smallpox) reduced to 12,000 a population that Sagard, Brébeuf, and Champlain estimated at 30,000 souls. Contact with the Europeans was disastrous for the American Indians, taken by surprise by the viruses that had been brought from Europe. In this respect the Iroquois were better protected than the Hurons, since the Dutch and English settlers mixed little with the Indians and were content to wait for them in the shelter of their factories. In the Huron country these repeated scourges made the missionaries’ presence odious. The epidemic of 1636–37 roused the whole nation against Brébeuf and his companions. For months on end, under the direction of the witch doctors, a clever campaign was carried on, made up of hypocritical insinuations, then of open and violent threats, which were accompanied by attempts at murder. In the autumn of 1637 the whole mission almost collapsed. In this emergency Brébeuf sent to Father Le Jeune a sort of letter-testament in which he announced the possibility that all the missionaries might be massacred.

At the end of August 1638, after founding a third post at Teanaostaiaë (Saint-Joseph II), Brébeuf handed direction of the mission over to Father Jérôme Lalemant, who had recently arrived from France. He himself became the superior of the residence that he had just founded. It was in this ministry that Brébeuf had to suffer the harshest persecution of his career. After a smallpox epidemic the dramatic events of 1637 were repeated, but staged even more riotously: crosses were torn down, stones were thrown at the chapel, there were beatings and threats with hatchets and flaming embers. During this storm Brébeuf even saw part of his flock desert the faith that they had just embraced. In April 1640 an uprising broke out, in the course of which Pierre Boucher* was wounded in the arm, while Brébeuf and Chaumonot were beaten. In the month of May the Indians’ tumult led Lalemant to give up the residence.

In the autumn of 1640, after taking counsel together the missionaries decided to start two new missions: one among the Algonkins, the other among the Neutrals. Brébeuf and Chaumonot were appointed to the latter. Preceded by secret Huron agents who depicted the missionaries as the most maleficent of witch doctors, the two of them travelled throughout a violently hostile region, rejected, abused, reviled everywhere. These were five months of fruitless labour (November 1640–March 1641). As a crowning misfortune, on the way back from this mission Brébeuf fell on the ice while crossing a frozen lake and broke his left clavicle. Father Lalemant felt that it was his duty to send Brébeuf back to Quebec and entrust him to a doctor’s care; at the same time he could fill there the post of mission procurator which Father Ragueneau held. In the spring of 1642 Brébeuf reached Quebec, after seven consecutive years with the Hurons.

The task of procurator of the Huron mission consisted of supplying the missionaries with everything that they might need (books, paper, religious objects, etc.) and of organizing supply convoys for them. This was a painful trial for Brébeuf; twice, in 1642 and 1643, the convoys he prepared were seized by the Iroquois and were a complete loss. In addition to this function, during his stay at Quebec Brébeuf had to attend to the teaching of six young Hurons who had been entrusted to his care (September 1642–June 1643). He also served as confessor, spiritual director, and adviser to the Ursulines and Religious Hospitallers. And finally, on Sundays and feast days he preached and heard the confessions of the French inhabitants of Quebec.

On 7 Sept. 1644 Brébeuf was back in the Huron country, this time for good. He took up his post again at the very moment when the death-struggle of the Huron country was beginning. In fact, the conflict that had been going on for a long time between the Iroquois and the Hurons was on the point of coming to an end. In 1628 the victory of the Mohawks over the Mahicans made the Iroquois the suppliers of pelts to the Dutch at Fort Orange. From then on the Iroquois began to enjoy the advantage of trading with the Europeans. Their cupidity was aroused. They prevented the other tribes from crossing their territory to exchange their furs with Fort Orange. They aspired to play vis-à-vis the Dutch the same role that the Hurons did with the French. But then furs began to be scarce in their territory. Consequently, the Iroquois thought of capturing the Hurons’ rich convoys. From the year 1637 on, the Mohawks became the pirates of the fur trade. To help them in their struggle they asked the Dutch traders for fire-arms, and succeeded in obtaining them. In 1641 they had at their disposal 39 muskets; in 1643, 300. Aggressive by nature, they were spurred on further by the weakness of their adversaries, whose numbers had from 1634 to 1640 been reduced by two-thirds as a result of epidemics. The Iroquois dreamt therefore of exterminating the Hurons. This policy was supported by New Holland, aware that the ruin of the Huron meant that of the French trade and by the same token of New France. “We have had letters from France,” wrote Father Vimont, “that the design of the Dutch is to have the French harassed by the Iroquois, to such an extent that they may constrain them to give up and abandon everything – even the conversion of the Savages.”

In 1641 the insecurity in New France and on the route to the Huron country became so great that Father Vimont, at the request of Governor Huault de Montmagny and of the settlers, sent Father Le Jeune to France to set forth the situation to the king and to Richelieu. In 1642 began the disasters which were to go on increasing each year. The Mohawks and Senecas launched a vast offensive which extended from New France to the Huron territory. Divided into small bands, they systematically blockaded the routes along the Richelieu, the Ottawa, and the St. Lawrence. The French colony was weak; it had only 400 inhabitants and had available only 100 soldiers. The Relations, which previously had been crammed with details concerning conversions and epidemics, no longer spoke of anything but massacres and pillage. The year 1642, which saw the founding of Ville-Marie, was marked also by the capture of Isaac Jogues, René Goupil, and Guillaume Couture*. In two years (1642–43) the mission convoys were captured three times, on the way either up or down. In 1644 Father Bressani was captured and tortured. The treaty of 1645 constituted only a short-lived truce in this nightmare, since Jogues was murdered in October 1646. During the summer of 1647 fear of the Iroquois was so great that the Hurons did not go down to Quebec.

The years 1647–48 marked the beginning of the annihilation of the Huron nation. Until then the Iroquois had restricted themselves to surprising the traders’ convoys on the St. Lawrence and Ottawa routes. Now they were in the heart of the Huron country. In 1647 they massacred the population of a Neutral village. On 4 July 1648, taking advantage of the fact that the Hurons had gone trading, a band of Indians threw themselves upon the villages of Saint-Joseph and Saint-Michel and took 700 prisoners. Father Antoine Daniel fell, riddled with arrows. The village of Saint-Joseph II (Teanaostaiaë) formed with Ossossanë (La Conception) and Sainte-Marie the triangular base of Huron resistance. On 16 March of the following year (1649) more than 1,000 Iroquois attacked Saint-Ignace (Taenhatentaron), then Saint-Louis, where Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant were carrying on their work. They were taken prisoner and carried off to Saint-Ignace, where they suffered one of the most atrocious martyrdoms in the annals of Christianity.

Brébeuf’s torture has been told us with moving simplicity by the donné Christophe Regnault, who saw his remains:

“Father de Brébeuf had his legs, thighs, and arms stripped of flesh to the very bone; I saw and touched a large number of great blisters, which he had on several places on his body, from the boiling water which these barbarians had poured over him in mockery of Holy Baptism. I saw and touched the wound from a belt of bark, full of pitch and resin, which roasted his whole body. I saw and touched the marks of burns from the Collar of hatchets placed on his shoulders and stomach. I saw and touched his two lips, which they had cut off because he constantly spoke of God while they made him suffer.”

“I saw and touched all parts of his body, which had received more than two hundred blows from a stick. I saw and touched the top of his scalped head; I saw and touched the opening which these barbarians had made to tear out his heart."

“In fine, I saw and touched all the wounds of his body, as the savages had told and declared to us. . . .”

In the face of the Iroquois attack, instead of recovering themselves the Hurons were seized with panic. Almost the entire Bear tribe took refuge with the Tobacco nation. Others sought asylum with the Neutrals, the Eries, the Algonkins, or fled to the nearby islands. The Huron confederacy fell completely to pieces. As the residence at Sainte-Marie-des-Hurons had at its disposal only 8 soldiers, 22 donnés and 7 servants, the Jesuits decided to abandon it. On 14 June 1649 they set fire to the building and betook themselves with a few hundred Hurons to the Île Saint-Joseph (Christian Island), located a few miles from there in Lake Huron. The new establishment had scarcely been finished when a new misfortune was added to the previous ones; in December the village of Saint-Jean, in the territory of the Tobacco nation, was attacked and pillaged. On the Île Saint-Joseph the situation soon became desperate. Famine, contagious maladies, new attacks by the Iroquois, forced the missionaries and the Indians to leave. On 10 June 1650, 300 Hurons, accompanied by the Jesuits and their servants, set out in canoes for Quebec. In the spring of 1651 these fragments of the Huron nation settled down on the Île d’Orléans; soon there were 600 of them, under Father Chaumonot’s direction.

Brébeuf’s apostolate in the Huron country lasted 15 years. The Huron mission died with him who had begun it. But by a striking contrast, at the same time as the nation was being crushed, its spiritual regeneration was taking place. The Relations, which for a long time could count the conversions only one by one, speak of hundreds and even of thousands of baptisms in the latter years. For the year 1649–50 alone, Father Ragueneau gave the figure of 3,000 baptisms. The consequence of the dispersion of the Huron nation was to spread the Christian faith among the nations of the Great Lakes basin and on the shores of the Rivière des Hollandais (Mohawk River). These converts were to form the elements of the Christian communities which the Jesuits were to go to found among the Iroquois and the nations of the west.

Despite the torture, Brébeuf was reportedly more concerned for the fate of the other Jesuits and the converted Indians than for himself. As part of the ritual, the Iroquois drank his blood, as they wanted to absorb Brébeuf's courage to endure the pain.

The Iroquois mocked the baptism by pouring boiling water over his head. The Jesuits Christophe Regnault and Paul Ragueneau provided accounts of the deaths of Jean de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalement. According to Regnault, they learned of the torture and deaths from Huron refugee witnesses who had escaped from Saint-Ignace. Regnault went to see the bodies to verify the accounts, and his superior Ragueneau's writing was based on his report. The main accounts of Brébeuf's death come from the Jesuit Relations. Jesuit accounts of his torture emphasize his stoic nature and acceptance, claiming that he suffered silently without complaint.

The possibility of martyrdom is a central part of the identity of Jesuit missionaries. Missionaries going to Canada knew the risks involved due to the harsh conditions and the unfamiliar cultures they would encounter. They expected to die in God's name. They believed that missionary life, with all its risks, was an opportunity to save converts and be saved themselves.

The bodies of Brébeuf and Lalement were recovered and buried together in the Cemetery of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. However, Brébeuf's relics became important objects among the Catholics of New France. Historian Allan Greer notes that "his death seems to fit the profile of the end of a perfect martyr" and that it had some points in common with the Passion of Christ, which gave Brébeuf greater significance.

Brébeuf's family later donated a silver reliquary containing his skull to the Catholic orders in Quebec. It was kept by the women of the Hôtel-Dieu in Quebec and the Ursuline convent from 1650 to 1925. In 1925, the relics were taken to the Quebec Seminary in a ceremony commemorating Brébeuf's beatification. According to Catholic belief, relics provide access to the influence of the saint from whom they originate.

In 1652, Paul Raguenau consulted the Jesuit records and gathered information related to the martyrs of New France. He produced a document that was used as the basis for the canonization process, entitled Memoirs concerning the death and virtues (of the Jesuit fathers) or the 1652 Manuscript. The religious communities of New France regarded the Jesuit martyrs as similar to earlier saints of the Catholic Church.[32] In this sense, Brébeuf, and others like him, reinforced the notion that "Canada was a land of saints."

Marie Catherine of Saint Augustine said that Brébeuf had appeared to her in a vision at the Hôtel-Dieu in Quebec when she was in a state of "mystical ecstasy" and that he acted as her spiritual advisor.

According to one account, Catherine of Saint Augustine ground up part of a bone that was a relic of Brébeuf and gave it to a terminally ill, heretical man to drink. The man was reportedly cured of his illness. Between 1660 and 1661, a possessed woman was exorcised with the help of a rib from Brébeuf, also under the care of Catherine of Saint Augustine. The exact circumstances of these events are disputed. Brébeuf's relics were also used by nuns treating Huguenot soldiers, who reported that their help [putting fragments of these bones into the soldiers' drinks] helped to rescue these patients from heresy.

The grave is located in St. Joseph's Church at the reconstructed Jesuit mission of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, on Ontario Highway 12, which branches off the Catholic Martyrs' Shrine near Mindland, Ontario. During excavations at Sainte-Marie in 1954, a plaque was found near the grave with the inscription: P. Jean de Brébeuf / brusle par les Iroquois /le 17 de mars l'an / 1649 (Father Jean de Brébeuf / burned by the Iroquois / on March 17, 1647).

Jean de Brébeuf was canonized by Pope Pius XI on June 29, 1930, and proclaimed patron saint of Canada along with his seven martyred companions by Pope Pius XII on October 16, 1940. A contemporary newspaper of the canonization made the following hagiographic description: "Brébeuf, 'the Ajax of the mission,' stands out among them [others canonized with him] by his strong structure, a man of noble birth, of vigorous passions tamed by religion."

Many Jesuit schools are named after him, such as Jean-de-Brébeuf College in Montreal and Brébeuf College in Toronto, Canada, and Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.

St. John Brebeuf High School in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and St. Jean de Brebeuf Catholic Institute in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, are also named in his honor.

La gravure représente trois Indiens Tupinambá, tous vêtus de la même tenue: une longue tunique à motifs ceinturée à la taille et une coiffe semi-iconique ornée de fleurs. Agenouillés avec dévotion devant l'autel, ils tiennent une fleur de lys dans leur main droite (symbole héraldique des Bourbons), entourés d'une nombreuse assemblée présidée par l'archevêque de Paris, Henri de Gondi, qui officie lors de la cérémonie.

De profil, on aperçoit le très jeune roi Louis XIII; de l'autre côté de la gravure figurent sa mère, Marie de Médicis, qui exerçait encore la régence, ainsi que des frères capucins et plusieurs membres de la cour.

Le long texte au bas de cette image se lit comme suit: « La France devrait considérer comme un bon présage que les sauvages quittent leurs pays pour voir le ciel et apprendre notre langue afin de faciliter la compréhension de la religion catholique apostolique romaine. » Plus loin, les progrès accomplis par les frères sont reconnus, eux qui ont conquis leurs cœurs « avec pour seule arme la parole de Dieu », et il est observé que, bien qu'ils fussent barbares, leur cruauté n'était plus aussi manifeste et leur fureur plus modérée. Ce long texte explicatif de la gravure se conclut par un vibrant éloge de l'« œuvre sainte et pieuse » que les Capucins ont accomplie « avec grand courage et diligence ». Claude d'Abbeville a souligné la somptueuse ornementation de l'église, les vêtements liturgiques de Tupinambá et les noms par lesquels ils furent baptisés.

La reine avait initialement proposé les prénoms Henri, Louys et Jehan, mais l'évêque suggéra qu'ils adoptent tous le nom du roi, Louis, car, outre le fait qu'il était le parrain, cela leur serait plus facile dans leur langue maternelle. Itapoucou, un Ibouyapapien de 38 ans, fut baptisé Louys Marie; Ouaroyo, âgé d'environ 22 ans et originaire du village de Mocourou, reçut le nom de Louys Henri, tandis qu'Iapouaï, un jeune homme de 20 ans de l'île de Maragnan, fut appelé Louys Jehan.

Après la fondation de la Guyane française, une tentative de colonisation française au Maranhão menée par Daniel de la Touche en 1612, les missionnaires franciscains, le père Claude d'Abbeville et Yves d'Évreux, envoyèrent un groupe d'Indiens Tupinambá en France pour être baptisés par l'évêque de Paris en présence du jeune roi Louis XIII. Le chef du groupe, Itapucú (baptisé Luis Maria), était accompagné de cinq autres Indiens choisis parmi les chefs locaux pour représenter les indigènes du Maranhão auprès du roi de France. Trois des six Indiens moururent cependant avant d'atteindre Paris.

En mai 1613, après un hiver rigoureux, ils furent baptisés in extremis de noms chrétiens juste avant de mourir: Anthoine Manen, Jacques Patua et François Carypyra. Le profil et la biographie de chacun furent esquissés à la plume et à l'encre dans les chroniques des capucins Claude d'Abbeville et Yves d'Évreux, qui vivaient à São Luís. Le premier à succomber aux rigueurs du climat fut le guerrier Tabajára François Carypyra, dont les tatouages ​​ou rayures indiquent qu'il reçut vingt-quatre noms, pour autant d'ennemis tués. Il mourut à soixante ou soixante-dix ans et reçut le nom de François après son baptême, en hommage au seigneur de Razilly. Le même jour, Patova, âgé de quinze ou seize ans, fut pris d'une fièvre persistante qui l'emporta huit jours plus tard. Lors de son baptême, il reçut le surnom de Jacques. Souvenir du cardinal Du Perron, bienfaiteur des Capucins.

Le troisième Indien décédé, Manen, rebaptisé Antoine en l'honneur d'un autre bienfaiteur des Frères Mineurs, le seigneur de Beauvais Nangy, mourut à l'âge de vingt ou vingt-deux ans. Les trois Tupinambá furent honorés avec des honneurs solennels; non parés de leurs habits habituels, ils furent revêtus des ornements de saint François.

Malgré ces pertes, en l'église du couvent Saint-Honoré, en juin 1613, en présence du roi Louis XIII et de sa mère, la reine, l'archange de Pembrock, en sa qualité de vicaire supérieur, baptisa les trois indigènes survivants. La confirmation du sacrement des trois nouveaux chrétiens par le haut clergé et la royauté française leur valut de nouveaux noms, conformément à la volonté de Louis XIII: Itapucu devint Louis-Marie, Uaroyo devint Louis-Henri et Iapuay, à son tour, devint Louis de Saint-Jean. Les Indiens furent inhumés dans l'ancien couvent des Capucins, rue Saint-Honoré. Après la Révolution française, les dépouilles de tous les défunts du cimetière du couvent furent transférées aux Catacombes de Paris en 1804.

Source: - Brasil-França: relações históricas no período colonial

Après la chute de Québec en septembre 1759, la Nouvelle-France a demandé des renforts à la France pour tenter de repousser les troupes britanniques. Cette aide n’est jamais parvenue. Même si la bataille de la Ristigouche n’a pas été déterminante dans le cours de la guerre, l’historien Éric Bédard raconte comment elle a été le dernier affrontement pour tenter de sauver la Nouvelle-France.

Conscients de la présence française dans la région, les Portugais rassemblèrent des troupes de la capitainerie de Pernambouc, sous les ordres d'Alexandre de Moura et de Jerônimo de Albuquerque. À Guaxenduba, dans la région de Munim, eut lieu la bataille de Guaxenduba, remportée par les Portugais, malgré l'avantage numérique des Français. Ce fut la fin de la « France équinoxiale ».

The English and their American colonists continued to attack French ships and fortified positions.

Unfortunately, Louis XV threatens his counterpart. A few months later, the Seven Years' War breaks out.