the St. Lawrence. He might have escaped, but there were with him converts that had not yet been baptized-and when did a Jesuit missionary seek to save his own life at what he believed the risk of a soul? In several villages he was compelled to run the gauntlet, and was tortured with hunger and thirst. Similar wast the fate of Father Bressani. Taken prisoner while on his way to the Hurons; beaten, mangled, mutilated, driven bare-footed over rough paths, through briers and thickets; scourged by a whole village; burned, tortured, wounded and scarred-he was eyewitness to the fate of one of his companions, who was boiled and eaten. Yet some mysterious awe protected his life, and he, as well as Jogues, was humanely rescued by the Dutch. The devoted missionaries encountered danger and suffering in every form; from the perils of nature as well as the inhumanity of savages. Some were drowned on their way to their missions; some starved to death; others, losing their way among pathless snows, perished by intense cold. Eventually each solitary mission among the Hurons became a special point of attraction to the invading Iroquois, and liable to the horrors of an Indian massacre. Such was the fate of the village of St. Joseph. On the morning of 4th July, 1648, when the warriors were absent on a chase, the village was attacked by the Mohawks. A group of women and children flew to the missionary, Father Anthony Daniel, to escape the tomahawk, as if his lips, uttering messages of love, could pronounce a spell that would curb the madness of destruction. Those who had formerly scoffed at his mission, implored the benefit of baptism. He bade them ask forgiveness of God, and dipping his handkerchief in water, baptized the crowd of suppliants. Just then the palisades were forced; but instead of flying, he ran to the wigwams to baptize the sick, give absolution, and then, when the wigwams were set on fire and the Mohawks approached his chapel, he serenely advanced to resign his life as a sacrifice to his vows. As they drew near, they discharged at him a flight of arrows. All gashed and rent with wounds, he addressed to them, with surprising energy, the affectionate messages of Divine mercy and grace. The fatal blow was given the name of Jesus died on his lips-the wilderness gave him a grave, and the Huron nation were his mourners. The next year the villages of St. Ignatius and St. Louis were destroyed by the Iroquois. In this last were Brebeuf and Lallemand. They might both have escaped; but they remained to bend over the dying converts and give them baptism. They were taken prisoners. Brebœuf was set apart on a scaffold, and in the midst of every outrage, rebuked his persecutors and encouraged his Huron converts. They cut off his lower lip and nose; applied burning torches to his body; burned his gums, and thrust hot iron down his throat. Deprived of his voice, his assured countenance and confiding eye still bore witness to his firmness. The delicate Lallemand was stripped naked, and enveloped from head to foot with bark full of rosin. Brought into the presence of Brebœuf, he exclaimed, "We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men." The fine bark was set on fire, and when it was in a blaze, boiling water was poured on the heads of both the missionaries. The voice of Lallemand was choked by the thick smoke; but the fire having snapped his bonds, he lifted his hands to Heaven, imploring the aid of Him who is an aid to the weak. Brebeuf was scalped while yet alive, and died after a torture of three hours; the sufferings of Lallemand were protracted for seventeen hours. The lives of both had been a continual heroism; their deaths were the astonishment of their executioners. These massacres quenched not enthusiasm; the Jesuits never receded one foot; but, as in a brave army new troops press forward to fill the places of the fallen, there were never wanting heroism and enterprise in behalf of the Cross and French dominion. CURIOSITIES AT MICHILIMACKINAC. NOTHING can present a more picturesque and refreshing spectacle to the traveler, wearied with the lifeless monotony of a voyage through Lake Huron, than the first sight of the island of Michilimackinac, which rises from the watery horizon in lofty bluffs, imprinting a rugged outline along the sky, and capped with a fortress on which the American flag is seen waving against the blue heavens. The name is a compound of the word missi or missil. signifying "great," and mackinac, the Indian word for "turtle," from a fancied resemblance of the island to a great turtle lying upon the water. It is a spot of much interest, aside from its romantic beauty, in consequence of its historical associations and natural curiosities. It is nine miles in circumference, and its extreme elevation above the lake over three hundred feet. The town is pleasantly situated around a small bay at the southern extremity of the island, and contains a few hundred souls, which are sometime swelled to one or two thousand by the influx of voyageurs, traders and Indians. On these occasions its beautiful harbor is seen checkered with American vessels at anchor, and Indian canoes rapidly shooting across the water in every direction. It was formerly the seat of an extensive fur trade; at present it is noted for the great amount of trout and white fish annually exported. Fort Mackinac stands on a rocky bluff overlooking the town. The ruins of Fort Holmes are on the apex of the island. It was built by the British in the war of 1812, under the name of Fort George, and changed to its present appellation after the surrender to the Americans, in compliment to the memory of Major Holmes, who fell in the attack upon the island. The old town of Michilimackinac stood on the extreme point of the Peninsula of Michigan, nine miles south of the island. Eight years before La Salle's expedition, Father Marquette, the French missionary, visited this spot with a party of Hurons, upon whom he prevailed to locate themselves. A fort was soon constructed, and it became an important post. It continued to be the seat of the fur trade, and the undisturbed rendezvous of the Indian tribes during the whole period that the crown of France exercised jurisdiction over the Canadas. The island of Michilimackinac, or Mackinaw, contains three objects of natural curiosity. The Arched Rock is a natural arch projecting from the precipice on the northeastern side of the island, about a mile from the town, and elevated one hundred and forty feet above the water. Its abutments are the calcareous rock common to the island, and have been created by the falling down of enormous masses of the rock, leaving the chasm. It is about ninety feet in height, and is crowned with an arch of near sixty feet sweep. From its great elevation, the view through the arch upon the wide expanse of water, is of singular beauty and grandeur. The Natural Pyramid is a lone standing rock, upon the top of the bluff, of probably thirty feet in width at the base, by eighty or ninety in height, of a rugged appearance, and supporting in its crevices a few stunted cedars. It pleases chiefly by its novelty, so unlike anything to be found in other parts of the world; and in first approaching it, gives the idea of a work of art. The Skull Rock is chiefly noted for a cavern, which appears to have been an ancient receptacle of human bones. The entrance is low and narrow. It is here that Alexander Henry was secreted by a friendly Indian, after the horrid massacre of the British garrison at old Michilimackinac, in 1763. LIFE AMONG THE PRAIRIE DOGS. THE prairie dog, like the buffalo, retreats before the advance of civilization, and is now to be found only on the vast plains between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. A recent traveler gives the annexed description of these singular animals and their cities, which, unknown to map makers, dot the immense prairies of the far West. These little follows select for their towns a level piece of prairie, with a sandy or gravelly soil, out of which they can excavate their dwellings with great facility. Being of a very sociable disposition, they choose to live in a large community where laws exist for the public good; and there is less danger to be apprehended from the attacks of their numerous and crafty enemies. Their towns equal in extent and population the largest cities of Europe; some extending many miles in length, with considerable regularity in their 4. tit honses of a uniform style of architecture. Alovernment may be styled republican, yet their chief magistrate, who, generally a imposing appearance, resides in a the center of the town, where he se top, regarding with dignified is of the busy population-some s the winter supply of roots, es: while many, their work se tops, watching the gambols aded. The owl, who on or rock on which to build ng, where she may in the rattlesnake, in spite with similar hospitalr many a childless dog to the partiality of the delicate prairie ewhat longer than r. and with a head :J. it is also fur swer is excited, einting, have kura, denses, amused He tins. Their Pound, and at the er, and then descendLe a track of such cor scattered over the els will admit, lars lastly their diss Bundy exhibited Jut two or three, who until the enemy ensual somerset, ctly still for sevs head cautiously Sed that the coast was stark, by the way, gaz that name to the wooden toy dog, which essing the bellows under the New giver, ethers are soon seen assurd et their security, play and Ta a fer delay, rattlesnakes issue from their melves on the sanny side of the hillock, erecting ads, and rattling an angry note of warning it, |