The Hillsborough Recorder

From the Quebec Star

INDIAN IOYETTE.

It is now more than two centuries
since Abatsi-tari was numbered among
the warriors of the Huron nation. He was without comparison the
most distinguished of the chiefs who
sustained the fortunes of this tribe,
against the arms and the treacheries
of the Iroquois.

To occupy such a rank with such
a nation was no mean enterprise—for
we are told that in skill, in martial
resources, in bravery—
Yrndais-u, rd.ilhthfthiy
North American Indian
that hlnx artes toem 1—
-tmte swhor. an —.i— that
this ms . jgheruta -wh
Slater thsn ohr f ti
1nht ie-I. it y well h
qr h
iP. to at all
"rA1s
:1
::t
1:
Whirml"
asdethis orate and rmd r.r
o salt as Gind Sath. e sght not
to c t t
Fri 1 1n n
an lfare p
Nortama.11
time of Charles ix tr n saer.
dinary romu's'orr-w.
the feats of Abatsi-tari. and though
he himself does not give credence to them, yet he admits that this
was a most distinguished man. At
Loretto at this day the old men tell
you many wonderful stories of him.
He had long resisted the introduction
of Christianity and zealously
maintained the ancient usages and
the religion of his ancestors. There
were circumstances favourable however
to the introduction of Christianity.

To a superior mind like that of
Abatsi-tari the vulgar superstitions
of his own nation could not yield
otherwise appreciated but at their true
value, and he must soon have felt the
superior purity and wisdom of the
dispensation which the missionaries
inculcated a knowledge of. He
solicited from them the rite of Baptism,
which the Priests deferred from
time to time, and at last at a general
meeting he was asked the cause,
which induced this change in him.
His answer was as follows:

"Brethren, my mind was filled
with this thought before you came
hither from the other side of the great
lake. I have often encountered great
dangers, and have been saved when
all the warriors accompanied me, fell
around me like leaves of the trees in
the autumn. I said then to myself
surely some powerful invisible Being
protects the days of Abatsi-tari, and
I could never bring myself to believe
that that Being was not infinitely superior
to the Beings which we adored
by us red men (red believed
the tales wise are recounted amongst
us of derous, and several had I heard
the name of the God of the Christians
than I felt that it was he to whom I
had been so often indebted for my life
and liberty. Obstinately attached, as
I appeared to you, to the customs and
traditions of my nation, I was, nevertheless,
within impelled to adore Him
alone, and if I have deterred so long