 At the age of 18, he entered the services of the Jesuits and spent four years with the Huron missions at Georgian Bay (see Sainte-Marie among the Hurons).He spoke fluent Iroquoian languages, of which Huron is a dialect.In 1641, Governor Charles Huault de Montmagny took him into his service as a soldier in the garrison of Quebec city, but especially as an interpreter and agent to the Indian tribes due to his familiarity with the Huron dialect.