The French and the English enlisted missionaries, traders, and soldiers to compete for native souls, land, pelts, and allegiance
French began by recruiting the Recollects (mendicant Franciscan order) but poverty, lack of manpower, and the philosophy of civilizing before christianizing led them to call for Jesuit assistance ten years later
The Jesuits
Numerous, well financed, educated, flexible
Literate
The major key to their success was their ability to read and write, as well as their possession of printed books
They adopted a philosophy to win the confidence of the natives and convert them religiously
They insinuated themselves into native life in hopes of supplanting traditional shamans as spiritual counselors to people who seldom distinguished the religious from the secular
When they succeeded, they either
Converted large portions of tribes and villages to Catholicism
Gathered their neophytes into one of the seven reserves along the St. Lawrence
The Protestant Jesuits suffered from the reputation of the Englishmen as land-grabbers
Unsuccessful outside of southern New England
The French won the contest for converts in North America