And the missions, instead of following servilely in the track of bloody conquest to assume the tutelage of subjugated and enslaved races, were to share with the soldier and the trader the perilous adventures of exploration, and not so much to be supported and defended as to be themselves the support and protection of the settlements, through the influence of Christian love and self-sacrifice over the savage heart.

Such elements of moral dignity, as well as of imperial grandeur, marked the plans for the French occupation of North America.
To a wonderful extent those charged with this enterprise were worthy of the task.

Among the military and civil leaders of it, from Champlain to Montcalm, were men that would have honored the best days of French chivalry.

The energy and daring of the French explorers, whether traders or missionaries, have not been equaled in the pioneer work of other races.

And the annals of Christian martyrdom may be searched in vain for more heroic examples of devotion to the work of the gospel than those which adorn the history of the French missions in North America.