The Jesuit Reports from North America, 1610-1764

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A modern English translation of the Jesuit Relations, actual reports from North America by French Jesuits concerning their experiences with Native American tribes right through the years 1610-1764. This book is 50% longer than the Bible, containing a tremendous amount of historical content spanning over 100 years.

Stories of Europeans’ first encounters with native Americans, exploration, warfare, murder, disease, torture, and cannibalism; all these are contained in the massive document you hold in your hands, and it all occurred right here in North America right through the 1600s.

In early 2014, I found online a set of documents called the “Jesuit Relations”. These reports, called “Relations”, as in “relating” events to someone, were written by an order of French Catholic priests called Jesuits. Beginning in 1610, in mostly annual reports, the Jesuits wrote about their travels in “New France”, meaning northeast Canada and America. These reports are the most extensive written documentation we have on the American Indians from near the time when they first encountered Europeans. Actually, there were some tribes who had not seen a European until the coming of a lonely “black robe”, which is how the native Americans ceaselessly referred to the Jesuits.

These Jesuit missionaries wrote annual reports on their time with quite a lot of native American tribes. The totality of their work is massive; this document contains over 1.2 million words, and this is after much editing to make the document more succinct. As a point of reference, the Bible contains less than 810,000 words.

Finding these documents was surprising to me, not only as a result of their content, but because I had not heard mention of them before. How could this treasure-trove of early American history be so unknown? And so I made up our minds to attempt to bring them to the public in a new, more modern edition.

The Jesuit Relations were written prior to 1800; the translation from French to English was completed in 1901, so they have been in the public domain for many years. Why should you read this new version, and not rely on the original translation? Here is a partial list of changes I made over the course of almost two years to make it easier and more enjoyable for the modern reader:

Translated archaic English to modern English. For example, “thee” becomes “you”, and “mayest” becomes “may”.

Standardized the names of many native American tribes. For example, “Agnies”, “Gannieges”, “Moaghs”, and “Annierronnons” all transform “Mohawks”, their more modern name.

Standardized the archaic names of many places. For example, “Manhate”, “Manate”, “Manathe”, “Manhattes”, and “Manade” all transform “Manhattan”.

Converted archaic currencies to gold and silver coins. More often than not of thumb, you’ll be able to think of a gold coin as $10, and a silver coin as $1. A “double gold coin” would be $20, and a “half gold coin” would be $5.

Converted archaic units of measure to their modern American equivalents. For example, a “league” becomes 2.5 miles.

Translated some sections of Latin to English. My thanks to Google Translate for this.

Deleted all letter closings. For example, “I remain Your Paternity’s Very humble and very obedient servant,”.

Removed most stories of baptisms that conclude only in death by sickness; there were many, many of these.

Removed most prayers, particularly if they were not specific to native Americans by some means.

Removed many references to God’s mercy, and exhortations to God, which occurred in many sentences. For example, the sentence: “But yet the mercy of God shines out there as much as in any other place; for, notwithstanding all these contrary dispositions, we have baptized there, in spite of the demons and hell, more than 250 persons, mostly at the height of the disease,” becomes: “We have baptized there more than 250 persons, mostly at the height of the disease.”

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