Colonizer or Colonized: The Hidden Stories of Early Modern French Culture

Chapter 4. France's Colonial History: From Sauvages into Civilized, French Catholics

91 c h a p t e r 4 France’s Colonial History From Sauvages into Civilized French Catholics Something there is that doesn’t love a wall. —robert Frost, “Mending Wall” (1919) Conversion is a loving form of destruction. —louise erdrich, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001) Barbarians at the Gate in 1613, barbarians arrived at the gates of France. But they were not there to break them down. They did not have to. They were invited guests. louis Xiii and the regent queen, Marie de Médecis, as well as the Capuchin order, were their hosts.1 These barbarians were native american boys from the Tupinamba tribe in Brazil. Capuchin Father Claude d’abbeville, admiral François razilly,2 and lieutenant General ravadière had spent six months in Maragnan, Brazil, to expand “the empire of the Cross” and to establish a French colony. now the members of this expedition were bringing the boys to France. no sooner had they all set foot in le Havre than hordes of French people honored the native americans with processions, ceremonies, and cannon fire. Crowds gathered around them: “there was no one, neither old nor young who did not wish to know about us and rejoice in our arrival,” wrote Father d’abbeville.3 in le Havre, the native americans were made to perform— they had to enter the church and recite the ave Maria and the Pater noster france’s colonial relation to the new world 92 in their language. They did not disappoint. While the crowds in le Havre were supposedly swept away by their joy at this spectacle, the crowds in Paris were preparing for their own spectacles. They had plenty of time to get ready because the native americans would spend weeks being paraded through the streets of the many towns and villages along the way, made to repeat their performance in countless churches before endless crowds. When they arrived in rouen, Malherbe, the seventeenth-century poet, was there. Witness to their procession into the city, he was not so enthralled with the event, although he was relieved that at least they were clothed: “We had them dressed in a French way; because according to their customs they go around naked except for a rag that they put over their shameful private parts.”4 Finally on 12 april they made their entrance into Paris, where they were greeted by “many people of quality [who] expressed their happiness at our holy and fortunate conquest. They were pleased to see the poor sauvages dressed up in their handsome feathers , holding maracas in their hands.”5 d’abbeville described their reception: “Who would have thought that the people of Paris, so accustomed to seeing rare, new things would have been so moved by the arrival of these indians? How many times have they seen people from foreign, barbarian nations in this city, without blinking an eye? and now with the coming of these poor indians , all Paris is aflutter, each one feeling in his heart an inexplicable joy. . . . all the streets were filled with people running to see what they could hardly believe .”6 Behind the scenes, many preparations were under way. The king entrusted the Marquis de Courtenault to take care of the boys’ education—to instruct them in Catholic doctrine and in French manners and customs. as one approached the rue St. Honoré, one could hear the echoes of hammers pounding away as construction workers erected a special, oversized altar in the Capuchin Church. Father d’abbeville and admiral razilly wanted to enable the anticipated overflow crowd to witness the two key events that were already the talk of the town. in the presence of the king and queen, the Tupinamba boys were to be baptized. Then they were to be married to French girls. This story of the native americans in Paris marked a foundational moment in the history of what would become France’s most enduring stance towards the other—assimilation. The state and church officially fostered a colonial strategy that sought to transform sauvages into French Catholics, rendering them capable of being included in the community. This chapter describes how the relations de voyage portrayed the nation’s assimilation policy to readers in France. i argue that assimilation presented a thorny boundary dilemma: it blurred the lines of demarcation between the barbaric and the civilized. Figure 1. Fran...