Information for Salvation: Natural Knowledge in the Jesuit Relations, 1616–65

The Jesuit Relations, annual reports about the North American missions that the Society of Jesus compiled and printed in France, include often lengthy evaluations of climactic conditions, soils, and the unique fauna and flora that the missionaries encountered in their travels. The reports also include detailed assessments of natural phenomena such as eclipses, comets, and the great Charlevoix earthquake of 1663. Most scholars have seen these as incidental details, focusing their attention instead on the Relations’ ethnographic elements and the information they provide about interactions between missionaries and indigenous peoples. I argue, however, that the descriptions of nature in the Relations were an integral part of the Jesuits' campaigns to convert native souls. These descriptions played an important role in the  effort to promote the mission to readers in France who could support their work. Believing the permanent settlement of semi-nomadic tribes to be an essential first step in their conversion, early missionaries such as Pierre Biard and Paul LeJeune offered detailed analysis of the forests, waterways, and seasonal changes in Acadia and the Saint Lawrence River Valley in order to lay an inviting foundation for colonization. Later missionaries devoted more attention to the natural oddities that they found in New France in their efforts to intrigue curious aristocrats who could offer financial support. While emphasizing the roles that the Jesuits’ descriptions of the natural characteristics of New France played in promoting the mission, this paper will also situate the Jesuits’ writings within the context of the Society’s wider effort to advance understanding of God through natural inquiry. In doing so, it will contribute to broader discussions of the intersections of faith, knowledge, and cross-cultural interaction in the early modern world.