he had five sonnes and five daughters
which

Sir Anthony deceased the 27th of May
An. Dni. 1538 and the said Dame

"1

Maud

Sir Anthony was twice married, as this epitaph shows: by his first wife Dorothy, daughter of Sir Henry Willoughby, he had no issue, but his second wife brought him a numerous family. She was the eldest daughter and co-heir of Richard Cotton, of Hempstall Ridwell, in the county of Stafford ;* eldest son of Sir Richard Cotton, knight; he acquired considerable property in Hampstall Ridwell and Pike Ridwell by this marriage. His fourth son was William Fitzherbert, who married Elizabeth, and not Isabel, as erroneously stated in our number for September; she was the daughter and coheir of Humphry Swinnerton: the fruit of this marriage was an only child, Thomas Fitzherbert, whom we have already noticed in the same number. We are now enabled from the kindness of a literary friend to add the following to our former statement. This Thomas married Miss East, daughter and heir of — East, Esq. of Bledlow, in the county of Buckinghamshire, and had issue, Edward Fitzherbert, who on the decease of his cousin Sir John Fitzherbert, of Norbury, became heir of Sir Anthony, the judge. From him is descended Thomas Fitzherbert, Esq. the present owner of Swinnerton and Norbury. In Norbury church are many monuments of ths Fitzherbert family, and the windows contain a vast quantity of stained glass representing legends, arms, &c. and at Swinnerton is a portrait of Thomas Fitzherbert, who sometime after the death of his wife became a

Richard Cotton bore the coat of Ridwell-Argent, a bend sable, between three plates, two in chief one in base. The paternal coat of Cotton was azure, a spread eagle argent, which was borne by the Cotton's of Connington, in Huntingdonshire, descended from William the youngest brother of Richard. Basil Fitzherbert of Norbury and Swinnerton, a descendant of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, married Jane, only child of John Cotton, of Gedding Abbots, in Huntingdonshire, by Frances his wife, daughter and co-heir of John Giffords, of White Ladies. Thomas Cotton, of Gedding Abbots, the father of John Cotton, was second son of Thomas Cotton, of Connington in Huntingdonshire, descended from William, son of Sir Richard Cotton, of Hampstall Ridwell, above named.

secular priest, although for many years before his death he was a distinguished member of the Society of Jesus. From the above our kind corespondent H. W. will perceive that his conjecture was well founded. We again thank him for his communication, and doubt not that he will feel satisfied, that the truth of his opinion has been fully substantiated.

CATHOLIC MISSIONS.

From Father Sebastian Rasle, S. J. to his Brother.

dele

Nantrantsouak, Oct. 12, 1723.

My dear Brother,

I can no longer refrain from satisfying the friendly anxiety which you have expressed in all your letters to become rather more minutely acquainted with my occupations, and with the character of those savage nations, amongst which, divine Providence has placed me for so many years. I the more readily comply with your wishes in this respect, because I am well convinced that I shall thereby gratify your affection still more than your curiosity.

I embarked at La Rochelle, on the 23rd of July, in the year 1689, and arrived at Quebec the 13th Oct. in the same year, after a prosperous voyage of three months. I immediately set about learning the languages of our savages, which is very difficult; for it is not enough to study their terms and their signification only, and to acquire a stock of words and phrases, but it is likewise essential to give them the idiom and arrangement peculiar to the savages, which can be attained only by constant intercourse with these people.

I therefore took up my abode in a village of the Abnakise nation, which is situated in a forest only three leagues distant from Quebec. This village was inhabited by two hundred savages, for the most part christians. Their huts were laid out in a very similar manner to houses in towns; an inclosure of high stakes well joined together, formed a species of wall, which served them as a protection against the incursions of

their enemies. Their huts are soon erected: they fix poles in the ground which meet at the top, and which they cover with thick coats of bark. Their fire, which is made in the centre of the hut, is surrounded by rush mats, on which they sit by day and sleep by night. War and hunting form the occupations of the men, whilst the employment of the women is to remain at home and make baskets, bags, boxes, dishes, &c. out of the bark of trees. They sew the bark with roots, and make several kinds of furniture, which are very neatly finished. The canoes are likewise formed of a single piece of bark, but the largest of them can scarce contain six or seven people. With such canoes constructed of bark, hardly as thick as a crown-piece, do these savages traverse arms of the sea, navigate the most dangerous rivers, and trust themselves to lakes of four or five hundred leagues in circumference. I have thus made several excursions without any risk. Once however, in passing St. Laurence's River, I was suddenly surrounded by immense flakes of ice, which shivered our canoe; whereupon the two savages who were conducting me, exclaimed, " we are lost, all is over, we must perish!" They, however, by an exertion sprang upon one of the floating masses of ice; 1 imitated their example, and after having extricated the canoe, we carried it to the extremity of our frozen island. We were then obliged to betake ourselves again to the canoe to reach another mass of ice, and thus leaping from one to another, we at length arrived at the opposite bank of the river without any other inconvenience than that of being very wet and perished with the cold.

Nothing can equal the fondness of these savages for their children. At their birth, the parents lay them upon a short plank or board, covered with a kind of stuff and with a small bear's skin, in which they wrap them up, and this serves as a cradle; the mothers carry them on their backs, in a manner at once easy to the children and themselves. The boys are scarcely able to walk, before they are taught to bend the bow: they become so expert in this art, that at the early age of ten or twelve years, they never miss the bird at which they shoot. Their dexterity has surprised me, and I should be unwilling to credit it, had I not witnessed it myself.

my

On first interconrse with the savages, nothing gave me so much disgust as to be obliged to take my meals with them; for nothing, indeed, could be more repulsive: after having filled their caldron with meat, they let it boil at most for three quarters of an hour, they then take it from the fire, serve it up in bark porringers, and distribute it to every one in the hut. They all gnaw with their teeth this meat as they would a piece of bread. My appetite was not increased by such a scene, and they soon perceived my disgust; "why don't you eat?" exclaimed they: I answered that I was not accustomed to eat meat in such a manner, and that too without bread. "You must get the better of yourself," replied they, "is that so difficult for a patriarch who knows so well how to pray? We are compelled to overcome ourselves, in order to believe in things that we do not see." After such language, there is no room to deliberate, for we must conform to their manners and customs, if we wish to deserve their confidence and gain them over to Jesus Christ. Their meals are not regular like in Europe, as they live from hand to mouth as long as they have any thing to feast on, they consume it, quite careless how they shall live for the following days. They are particularly fond of tobacco; the men, women and girls are almost incessantly smoaking. A small gift of that plant would be more acceptable to them than a present of their weight in gold.

At the commencement of June, and when the snow is nearly all dissolved, they sow skamgnar, which is what we call Turkey or India wheat. Their mode of sowing it, is to make with their fingers, or with a small stick, several holes in the earth, and to cast into each eight or nine seeds, which they cover with the same earth they had removed for making the hole. Their har vest takes place at about the end of August.

It was amidst these people, who are considered as the least accomplished of all our savages, that I served my missionary apprenticeship. My chief occupation was the study of their language, which I found difficult to learn, especially as there were no other masters than savages to teach it. They have several characters which they express with the throat only, without any motion of the lips; of this number, ou is an exam

ple, for which reason, in writing it, we note it with a figure of 8 to distinguish it from the other characters. I spent a part of the day in their huts to hear them talk. I was obliged to pay much attention to combine what they said, and to guess their meaning; sometimes I hit upon the right sense, but most frequently was mistaken, because being unaccustomed to the pronunciation of their guttural letters, I repeated only half the word, which caused them to laugh at my expense.

At length after five months continual application I succeeded in understanding all their terms, but I did not yet express myself to their satisfaction. I had still much to learn in order to catch the idiom and genius of the language, which is very different in both these respects from our European tongues. To gain time, and to enable me more quickly to perform my functions, I made choice of several savages who were the most intelligent, and who spake their language the best: I repeated to them uncouthly a few articles of our catechism, which they rendered for me in all the delicacy of their tongue. I committed their expressions immediately to paper, and I thus, in a short time, composed a dictionary, as well as a catechism, which contained the principles and mysteries of religion.

It cannot be denied but that the language of the savages possess real beauties, and that their manner and turn of expression are peculiarly energetic; but I will give you an example of this assertion. If I asked you why God created you? you would answer, to know, love and serve him, and thereby to deserve eternal glory. If I put the same question to a savage, in the phraseology of his tongue he would answer me as follows: "the great Genius has thought thus of us: let them know me, love me, honor me, and obey me, and then I will grant them admission into my illustrious felicity." If I wished to tell you in their style that you would have much difficulty in learning the savage language, this is the mode in which I should express myself. "I think thus of you, my dear Brother, that he will have difficulty in learning the savage language." I had lived near two years with the Abnakis, when I was recalled by my superiors, who destined me for the Mission of the Illinois, as successor to the Missionary who had lately died amongst that people. I there