Brébeuf, Jean de

(1593-1649)

   Born of a noble family of Normandy. Came to Canada, 1625; spent the winter of 1625-1626 among the Algonquins. In the latter year, after a long and difficult journey by way of the Ottawa and Lake Nipissing, reached the villages of the Hurons, on Georgian Bay, where he established the first mission. Returned to Quebec in 1629, and in 1634 re-established the Huron mission. In 1640 made an unsuccessful attempt to establish a mission among the intractable Neutral Nation, north of Lake Erie. Returned to the Huron mission, where, in 1649, he was captured by the Iroquois, and burned at the stake with unmentionable cruelties. His skull is preserved in the Hôtel-Dieu at Quebec.

   Index: Ch Sails for New France on De Caën's vessel, 152; returns to College of Rouen, 207; returns to Canada, 228; goes to Huron country, 249. L Sufferings and death of, 5, 62.

   Bib.: Parkman, Jesuits in North America; Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1649; Colby, Canadian Types of the Old Régime.