The Jesuit Relations (1610–1791)

The yearly reports of Jesuit missionaries in New France: one of the richest records of early contact between Europeans and Native peoples.

For nearly two centuries, French Jesuit missionaries in what is now Canada and the northern United States sent detailed reports home to Paris. Edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites into 73 volumes, they describe missions among the Wendat (Huron), Innu and Haudenosaunee peoples, the martyrdom of missionaries, and the devastating epidemics that followed European arrival.

They are read today as a record of faith and courage and also of the cultural upheaval that colonization brought.

Part of the Boston Made Reader’s special collection Courage, Conscience & Service. Every book and document here is free to read.