DREUILLETTES, Gabriel, Jesuit, born in France in 1593; died in Quebec in 1681. He came to this country in August 1643, and was sent the next year to winter among the Algonquins. Here he lost his sight, which he recovered in an extraordinary manner miraculously, as he supposed. In 1650 he was sent to Boston to propose a perpetual alliance between the French and English colonies independent of any wars between the sovereigns of England and France. From some of the writings of Father Dreuillettes it would appear that a proposal to this effect had come from the elder Winthrop. Dreuillettes set oat in August 1650, and after much suffering reached Coussinook (Augusta) and presented his credentials to John Winthrop, the Plymouth agent, who went with him to Boston. There he saw Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, who referred him to Plymouth, as Kennebec was under the jurisdiction of that colony.

He was received favorably by Governor Bradford, but found that only the commissioners of the united colonies had power to enter into any treaty. After many unsuccessful efforts to influence the delegates of the colonies, he returned to Kennebec, visiting the English missionary John Eliot on the way, and then went to Quebec. Full details of his journey are given in his "Narr4 du voyage faiet pour les missions," and in his "Epistola ad Dora Joannem Winthrop." He was next placed among the Montagnais, Kristineaux, Papinachois, and Abnakis. He accompanied a French expedition to the west in 1656, and made an unsuccessful attempt to reach Hudson's bay. by land in 1661. After instructing Marquette in the Indian dialect, he followed him to the west, and, although broken by age and infirmities, he labored at Sault St. Marie up to 1679, when he returned to Quebec.