teanaustaye

Updated: May 11, 2025

As the town of Ihonatiria, where the Jesuits had made their first abode, was ruined by the pestilence, the mission established there, and known by the name of St. Joseph, was removed, in the summer of 1638, to Teanaustaye, a large town at the foot of a range of hills near the southern borders of the Huron territory.

Francis Parkman - The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century

The house at Teanaustaye, and the house and chapel at Ossossane, were abandoned, and all was concentrated at this spot. On one hand, it had a short water communication with Lake Huron; and on the other, its central position gave the readiest access to every part of the Huron territory.

Francis Parkman - The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century

The town was in a blaze; when the flames reached the church, they flung the priest into it, and both were consumed together. Daniel was born at Dieppe, and was forty-eight years old at the time of his death. Teanaustaye was a heap of ashes, and the victors took up their march with a train of nearly seven hundred prisoners, many of whom they killed on the way.

Francis Parkman - The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century

Even in death he took his revenge; for it was thought an augury of disaster to the victors, if no cry of pain could he extorted from the sufferer, and, on the present occasion, he displayed an unflinching courage, rare even among Indian warriors. His execution took place at the town of Teanaustaye, called St. Joseph by the Jesuits.

Francis Parkman - The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century

The oft-mentioned town of Teanaustaye, or St. Joseph, lay on the south-eastern frontier of the Huron country, near the foot of a range of forest-covered hills, and about fifteen miles from Sainte Marie. It had been the chief town of the nation, and its population, by the Indian standard, was still large; for it had four hundred families, and at least two thousand inhabitants.

Francis Parkman - The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century

Many more had been slain in the town and the neighboring forest, where the pursuers hunted them down, and where women, crouching for refuge among thickets, were betrayed by the cries and wailing of their infants. The triumph of the Iroquois did not end here; for a neighboring fortified town, included within the circle of Daniel's mission, shared the fate of Teanaustaye.

Francis Parkman - The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century