From the first discovery of the North and South American continents by European explorers, they knew that they were not the only inhabitants of their new land. Just in the territory that is known today as Canada, there were hundreds of tribes that predated European settlers. The area around the Great Lakes and the St. Laurence River was one place with a large amount of these native groups, and in the 1600’s there was a rise of interest by the French to colonize the area. The Huron Tribe, located between Lake Smile and the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron were one of the tribes where the French set up a Jesuit mission, designed to convert the First Nations to a less ‘savage’ Christian group . The Jesuits and Huron’s admired each other for putting up a strong front through the Iroquois war because of the mutual benefit. At the same time they showed great distain for one another because of the difference in their society’s evolutionary progress, their religious views and their opinions on gender equality.
In a group of writings about the recollections of the Jesuit Missionaries in the Quebec area, the relationship between the Jesuits and the Huron’s can be analyzed based on first hand experiences. These papers are called the Jesuit Relations and were written by an assortment of…show more content… In the sixteenth edition of the relations written in 1639 by Jesuit priest Jerome Lalemont these feelings were brought to light. In his words, “The importunity of these Barbarians, lazy to the last degree, becoming unbearable, and henceforward almost profitless, since we have found the secret of their language ”. Once the Jesuits got settled in and got to know the Huron’s, their true feeling about the group came to life. They grew to hate the Huron’s ‘lazy’ way of life. The Jesuits were not pleased with the little amount of effort they were putting into the Christian