Father Paul Le Jeune: “Brief Relation of the Journey to New France”
(1632)Document Text
My Reverend Father [Barthelamy Jacquinot]:
Having been notified by you on the last day of March that I should embark as early as possible at Havre de grace, to sail directly for New France, the joy and happiness that I felt in my soul was so great that I believe I have experienced nothing like it for twenty years, nor has any letter been so welcome to me. I left Dieppe the next day, and, going to Roüen, Father de Nouë, our Brother Gilbert, and I united in one company. Being in Havre, we went to pay our respects to monsieur du Pont, nephew of Monseigneur the Cardinal, who gave us a passport signed by his own hand, in which he said that it was the wish of the Cardinal that we should go to New France. We are under peculiar obligations to the benevolence of monsieur the Curé of Havre, and of the Ursuline Mothers; for, as we had not foreseen our departure, if Father Charles Lallemant, of Roüen, and these good people in Havre, had not assisted us in the hasty preparations...
Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed. Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France: 1610–1791, vol. 5. Cleveland: Burrows Brothers, 1897.
