Mărturii ale misionarilor şi sălbaticii Canadei

Primul volum al Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (JRAD) cuprinde lucrarea lui Marc Lescarbot, The Conversion of the Savages who have been baptized in New France during this year, 1610 (publicată iniţial la Paris: Jean Millot, 1610), dar şi o serie de scrisori. Aspectul central al seriei JRAD, în general, este relatarea muncii misionare a preoţilor iezuiţi în America de Nord. Documentele cuprinse în acest context ne aduc în faţă o lume „sălbatică” şi virgină.

Marc Lescarbot scoate în evidenţă unele din calităţile căpeteniei tribului, numite Sagamore, „[i]t is true that they sometimes make him presents of Beaver skins and other things, when he is occupied in curing the sick, or in questioning his demon (whom he calls Aoutem) to have news of some future event or of the absent: for, as each village, or company of Savages, has an Aoutmoin, or Prophet, who performs this office, Membertou is the one who, from time immemorial, has practiced this art among his followers” (p. 75). Această căpetenie, pe care o chema Membertou, s-a creştinat, astfel că „[t]his Sagamore, being a Christian, by his good example might have caused a great number of others to become Christians” (p. 81). Deci, odată ce căpetenia a dat un exemplu comunităţii, aceasta din urmă a devenit mai apropiată de religia creştină.

A fost motiv de bucurie şi pentru M. Bertrand creştinarea acestei mari căpetenii şi a familiei acestuia, după cum reiese dintr-o scrisoare a sa, deoarece „[…] with as much enthusiasm, fervor, and zeal for Religion as would have been instructed in it for three or four years. He has promise to have the others baptized, or else make war upon them” (A Letter Missive in Regard to the Conversion and Baptism of the grand Sagamore of New France, who was, before the arrival of the French, its chief and sovereign. Sent from Port Royal, in New France, to Sieur de la Tronchaie, dated June 28, 1610. Paris: Jean Regnoul, 1610. p. 121).

Iezuitul Pierre Biard într-o scrisoare (Letter from Father Biard, to Reverend Father Christopher Baltazar, Provincial of France, at Paris. Port Royal, New France, June 10, 1611. p. 165) constată mai multe fapte „[s]o there is scarcely any change in them after their baptism. The same savagery and the same manners, or but little different, the same customs, ceremonies, usages, fashions, and vices remain, at least as far as can be learned; no attention being paid to any distinction of time, days, officers, exercises, prayers, duties, virtues, or spritual remedies”. Dar nu se opreşte aici, acesta vine şi cu alte precizări importante: „[t]he nation is savage, wandering and full of bad habits; the people few and isolated. They are, I say, savage, haunting the woods, ignorant, lawless and rude: they are wanderers, with nothing to attach them to a place, neither homes nor relationship, neither possessions nor love of country; as a people they have bad habits, are extremely lazy, gluttonous, profane, treacherous, cruel in their revenge, and given up to all kinds of lewdness, men and women alike, the men having several wives and abandoning them to others, and the women only serving them as slaves, whom they strike and beat unmercifully, and who dare not complain; and after being half killed, if it so please the murderer, they must laugh and caress him” (p. 173).

Un alt preot iezuit, Joseph Jouvency ( An Account of the Canadian Mission. From the year 1611 until the year 1613, with the condition of the same Mission in the years 1703 and 1710. Rome: Giorgio Placko, 1710.), are o opinie destul de negativă faţă de nativii canadieni deoarece afirmă „[n]othing fouler and more hideous than the savage Canadians could have been imagined, before they began to soften under the influence of religion […]” (p. 205). Acesta continuă în Concerning the Country and Manners of the Canadians, or the Savages of New France (Rome: Giorgio Placko, 1710) cu o descrierie semnificativă: „[t]hey believe that another source of disease is the hidden arts and the charms of sorcerers, which they seek to avert by means of absurd ceremonies” (p. 261) sau „[t]here is among them no system of religion, or care of it. They honor a Deity who has no definite character or regular code of worship. They perceive, however, through the twilight, as it were, that some deity does exist” (p. 287).

În concluzie, acest scurt survol prin paginile primului volum al Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents scoate în evidenţă imaginea misionarilor francezi asupra nativilor canadieni. Construită din punctul de vedere al misiunii lor lumea „sălbaticilor” trebuia în mod clar schimbată, trebuia creştinată. Competiţia cu protestanţii i-au făcut să pătrundă foarte mult pe teritoriul necunoscut, alături de exploratori, dar mai ales datorită dorinţei fierbinţi de a scoate din întuneric pe cât mai mulţi dintre nativi.