Opening
MONTREAL
1535-1914
UNDER THE FRENCH RÉGIME
1535-1760
By
WILLIAM HENRY ATHERTON, Ph. D.
_Qui manet in patria et patriam cognoscere temnit Is mihi non civis, sed peregrinus erit_
VOLUME I
ILLUSTRATED
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY MONTREAL VANCOUVER CHICAGO 1914
Chapter I
1535-1542
HOCHELAGA
THE ARRIVAL OF JACQUES CARTIER AT HOCHELAGA ON HIS SECOND VOYAGE TO CANADA--HIS ROYAL COMMISSION--THE FRUITLESS DEVICE OF DONNACONA TO FRIGHTEN CARTIER FROM VISITING HOCHELAGA--THE DIFFICULTY OF CROSSING LAKE ST. PETER--THE ARRIVAL AND RECEPTION AT HOCHELAGA--JACQUES CARTIER THE FIRST HISTORIAN OF MONTREAL--DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN--CARTIER RECITES THE FIRST CHAPTER OF ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL OVER AGOHANNA, THE LORD OF THE COUNTRY--MOUNT ROYAL NAMED AND VISITED--CARTIER'S ACCOUNT OF THE VIEW FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP--CARTIER'S SECOND VISIT IN 1540 TO HOCHELAGA AND TO TUTONAGUY, THE SITE OF THE FUTURE MONTREAL--THE PROBABLE VISIT OF DE ROBERVAL IN 1542. NOTES: THE SITE OF HOCHELAGA--HOCHELAGA'S CIVILIZATION--CANADA--GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF MOUNT ROYAL AND THE MONTEREGIAN HILLS. 1
Chapter II
1516-1627
COLONIZATION
UNDER THE EARLY TRADING COMPANIES OF NEW FRANCE
FRENCH COLONIZATION, A CHRISTIANIZING MOVEMENT--THE CROSS AND CROWN--ROBERVAL'S COMMISSION TO COLONIZE CANADA AND HOCHELAGA--FEUDALISM PROJECTED--CRIMINALS AND MALEFACTORS TO BE SENT AS COLONISTS--JACQUES CARTIER SAILS IN ADVANCE--CHARLESBOURG ROYAL, THE FIRST COLONY, STARTED--CARTIER SAILS FOR HOCHELAGA AND PASSES TUTONAGUY--CARTIER SAILS SECRETLY FOR FRANCE--CHARLESBOURG A FAILURE--DEATH OF CARTIER--HIS GREAT NEPHEW, NOEL, VISITS THE GREAT SAULT IN 1557--THE FIRST PRIVATE MONOPOLY TO NOEL AND OTHERS--THE FIRST ROYAL TRADE MONOPOLY TO DE LA ROCHE--THE EDICT OF NANTES--CHAUVIN, A HUGUENOT, SECURES A TRADE MONOPOLY--TADOUSSAC, THE COURT OF KING PETAUD--EYMARD DE CHASTES RECEIVES A COMMISSION AND ENGAGES THE SERVICES OF A ROYAL GEOGRAPHER, SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN--CHAMPLAIN'S FIRST VISIT TO THE SAULT--DE MONTS, SUCCEEDING DE CHASTES, RETAINS CHAMPLAIN AS HIS LIEUTENANT--QUEBEC CHOSEN BY CHAMPLAIN--CHAMPLAIN BECOMES A COMPANY PROMOTER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, THE SHAREHOLDERS BEING MOSTLY HUGUENOTS, THE PRINCE DE CONDE, GOVERNOR GENERAL--CHAMPLAIN'S BLUNDER IN ALLYING HIMSELF WITH THE ALGONQUINS AND HURONS AGAINST THE IROQUOIS, AFTERWARDS THE CAUSE OF IROQUOIS HOSTILITIES AGAINST THE FUTURE MONTREAL--THE COMING OF THE "RECOLLECTS"--CHAMPLAIN'S ATTEMPT AT A REAL COLONIZING SETTLEMENT AT QUEBEC--THE JESUITS ARRIVE--THE COMPANY OF ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES 23
Chapter III
1603-1625
THE GREAT SAULT
CHAMPLAIN THE FIRST TRADER
THE HISTORY OF HOCHELAGA AFTER CARTIER'S VISIT--CHAMPLAIN, THE FIRST CARTOGRAPHER OF THE ISLAND OF MONTREAL--ITS DESCRIPTION IN 1603--CHAMPLAIN EXPLORES THE NEIGHBORHOOD--PLACE ROYALE IN 1611--ST. HELEN'S ISLAND NAMED--THE FIRST TRADING TRANSACTION RECORDED--CHAMPLAIN SHOOTS THE RAPIDS, 1613--THE EXPLORATION OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY--1615 THE FIRST MASS IN CANADA AT RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES--1625 THE DROWNING OF VIEL AND AHUNTSIC AT SAULT-AU-RECOLLET--THE INTENTION OF CHAMPLAIN TO MAKE A PERMANENT SETTLEMENT ON THE ISLAND 35
Chapter IV
1627-1641
COLONIZATION
UNDER THE COMPANY OF ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES
THE CHARTER OF THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES THE BASIS OF THE SEIGNEURIAL SYSTEM TO BE AFTERWARDS ESTABLISHED AT MONTREAL--THE ENGLISH IN 1629 CAPTURE QUEBEC--1632, CANADA AGAIN CEDED TO THE FRENCH--1633, THE COMING OF THE JESUITS--THE RECOLLECTS DO NOT RETURN--THREE RIVERS IS ESTABLISHED--DESCRIPTION OF COLONIAL LIFE AT QUEBEC--DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN IN 1635--THE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS TO BE IMITATED AFTERWARDS AT MONTREAL--THE "RELATIONS DES JESUITES"--THE IROQUOIS BEGIN THEIR ATTACKS--THE NEWS OF A REINFORCEMENT AND DISAPPOINTMENT THAT MONTREAL HAS BEEN CHOSEN AS ITS HEADQUARTERS 49
Chapter V
1640-1641
MONTREAL
THE COMPANY OF NOTRE DAME DE MONTREAL
PREVIOUS COLONIZATION REVIEWED--MONTREAL CEDED TO SIEUR DE CHAUSSEE IN 1636 AND LATER TO DE LAUSON--THE DESIGN OF THE SETTLEMENT OF MONTREAL ENTERS THE MIND OF M. DE LA DAUVERSIERE--THE FIRST ASSOCIATES OF THE COMPANY OF NOTRE DAME DE MONTREAL--THE CESSION OF THE ISLAND OF MONTREAL TO THEM IN 1640--THE RELIGIOUS NATURE OF THE NEW COLONIZING COMPANY--TRADING FACILITIES CRIPPLED--POLITICAL DEPENDENCE ON QUEBEC SAFEGUARDED--M. OLIER FOUNDS THE CONGREGATION OF ST. SULPICE IN PARIS IN VIEW OF THE MONTREAL MISSION--PREPARATIONS FOR THE FOUNDATION AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FULLY ORGANIZED SETTLEMENT OF "VILLA MARIE"--PAUL DE CHOMEDEY DE MAISONNEUVE CHOSEN AS LOCAL GOVERNOR--THE CALL OF JEANNE MANCE TO FOUND THE HOTEL DIEU--THE EXPEDITION STARTS--MAISONNEUVE ARRIVES AT QUEBEC--THE FIRST CLASH OF THE GOVERNORS--MONTMAGNY OFFERS THE ISLE OF ORLEANS FOR THE NEW SETTLEMENT--MAISONNEUVE IS FIRM FOR THE ISLAND OF MONTREAL--THE FIRST FORMAL POSSESSION OF MONTREAL AT PLACE ROYALE--WINTER AT ST. MICHEL AND STE. FOY--FRICTION BETWEEN THE RIVAL GOVERNORS 57
Chapter VI
1642-1643
VILLE MARIE
FOUNDED BY PAUL DE CHOMEDEY DE MAISONNEUVE
THE DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION FROM MONTREAL--THE ARRIVAL AT PLACE ROYALE--THE "VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS" AND MASS ON THE "COMMON"--VIMONT'S PROPHECY--ACTIVITIES OF ENCAMPMENT--THE FIRST REINFORCEMENT--THE FIRST QUASI-PAROCHIAL CHAPEL BUILT IN WOOD--ALGONQUINS VISIT THE CAMP--FLOODS AND THE PILGRIMAGE TO THE MOUNTAIN--PEACEFUL DAYS--PRIMITIVE FERVOUR AND SIMPLICITY--THE DREADED IROQUOIS AT LAST APPEAR--FIRST ATTACK--THE FIRST CEMETERY--"CASTLE DANGEROUS"--THE ARRIVAL OF THE SECOND REINFORCEMENT--Les Véritables Motifs. NOTES: THE HURONS, ALGONQUINS AND IROQUOIS 73
Chapter VII
1644-1651
PROGRESS AND WAR
THE COMPANY OF MONTREAL CONFIRMED BY LOUIS XIV--MAISONNEUVE REAPPOINTED GOVERNOR--A SYNDIC ELECTED; THE FIRST STEP IN REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT--THE BUILDING OF THE HOTEL-DIEU--MILITARY HISTORY--PILOT, THE WATCHDOG OF THE FORT--THE EXPLOIT OF PLACE D'ARMES--FEAR OF IROQUOIS--LABARRE'S REINFORCEMENT--AGRICULTURE BEGINS--MONTREAL'S FREE TRADE MOVEMENT--THE FIRST IROQUOIS WAR IS OVER--MAISONNEUVE GOES TO FRANCE--THE PROMOTION IN PARIS OF A BISHOPRIC FOR MONTREAL--CHARLES LE MOYNE--THE FORTIFICATIONS OF THE FORT--WAR AGAIN--THE SALARIES OF THE GOVERNOR OF QUEBEC, THREE RIVERS AND MONTREAL--THE CAMP VOLANT--FINANCIAL GLOOM IN MONTREAL--MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION--A PICTURE OF MONTREAL--A TAX PERILOUS, SUDDEN AND FREQUENT--THE HOTEL-DIEU A FORTRESS FOR FOUR YEARS--THE ABANDONMENT OF THE SETTLEMENT THREATENED--MAISONNEUVE GOES TO FRANCE FOR SUCCOUR--THE SKELETON SOLDIERS--MONTREAL A FORLORN HOPE 87
Chapter VIII
1652-3
CRITICAL YEARS
LAMBERT CLOSSE, COMMANDANT
MAISONNEUVE'S SUCCESS IN PARIS--MADAME DE BULLION'S DONATIONS--"PARMENDA"--THE EXPLOIT OF LAMBERT CLOSSE--THE PHANTOM SHIP--MONTREAL REPORTED AT QUEBEC TO BE BLOTTED OUT--PROPOSALS OF PEACE FROM THE ONONDAGAS--MARCH OF MOHAWKS ON MONTREAL--CHARLES LE MOYNE AND ANONTAHA TO PARLEY FOR PEACE--A PATCHED UP PEACE--THE END OF THE SECOND IROQUOIS WAR 105
Chapter IX
1653-4
THE SECOND FOUNDATION OF MONTREAL
THE GREAT REINFORCEMENT OF 1653
MAISONNEUVE RETURNS WITH A RELIEF FORCE--THE MONTREAL CONTINGENT THE SAVIOURS OF CANADA--THE ORIGIN AND TRADES OF THE NEW COLONISTS--MARGUERITE BOURGEOYS, THE FIRST SCHOOLMISTRESS, ARRIVES--HER CALL--SHIP FEVER--ARRIVAL AT QUEBEC--THE GOVERNOR OF QUEBEC WOULD RETAIN THE RELIEF CONTINGENT--MAISONNEUVE FIRM FOR MONTREAL--THE WORK OF CONSOLIDATING THE ENLARGED COLONY AT VILLE MARIE--BUILDING ACTIVITIES--AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONS--MARRIAGE CONTRACTS--JEANNE MANCE AND MARGUERITE BOURGEOYS, THE MOTHERS OF THE SETTLEMENT--THE KNIGHTLY MAISONNEUVE, A "Chevalier sans reproche"--THE MILITARY CONFRATERNITY--THE MOUNTAIN CROSS REPLACED--MEDICAL CONTRACTS--THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTREAL--THE ELECTION OF A SYNDIC--THE "NEW" CEMETERY--THE NEW "PARISH" CHURCH--THE MARRIAGE OF CHARLES LE MOYNE WITH CATHERINE PRIMOT--A RARE SCANDAL--THE PRIMITIVE FERVOUR STILL MAINTAINED 111
Chapter X
1654-1657
IROQUOIS AND JESUITS
THE DEPARTURE OF THE JESUITS
RENEWAL OF HOSTILITIES IN THE SPRING--PEACE--WAMPUM NECKLACES AND BELTS--MONTREAL HEADQUARTERS OF PEACE PARLEYS--AUTUMN ATTACKS--"LA BARRIQUE"--MONTREAL LEFT SEVERELY ALONE--CHIEF "LA GRANDE ARMES"--M. DE LAUSON PERSECUTING MONTREAL--THE COMPLETION OF THE PARISH CHURCH--PENDING ECCLESIASTICAL CHANGES IN MONTREAL--NOTES: BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES ON THE EARLY JESUIT MISSIONARIES IN MONTREAL--PONCET--JOGUES--LE MOYNE--BUTEAUX--DRUILLETTES--ALBANEL--LE JEUNE--PARKMAN'S ESTIMATE OF THE SUCCESS OF THE JESUIT MISSIONS--DR. GRANT'S APPRECIATION OF THEIR WORK 123
Chapter XI
1655-1658
THE COMING OF THE SULPICIANS
(1657)
MAISONNEUVE GOES TO FRANCE--ARRANGES FOR HOSPITALIERES AND SULPICIANS--BISHOPRIC FOR NEW FRANCE--THE NOMINATIONS OF DE QUEYLUS AND LAVAL--THE APPOINTMENT DELAYED--THE DEATH OF M. OLIER--THE ARRIVAL OF DE QUEYLUS AND MAISONNEUVE AT QUEBEC--TWO RIVAL "GRANDS VICAIRES"--DE QUEYLUS GOES TO MONTREAL AND QUICKLY RETURNS TO RULE THE CHURCH IN QUEBEC--THE INTRUSION RESENTED--THE SULPICIANS IN MONTREAL--TRIBUTE TO THEM AS CIVIC AND RELIGIOUS ADMINISTRATORS--IROQUOIS HOSTILITIES RESUMED--THE HEAD OF JEAN ST. PERE--THE CHURCH IN MONTREAL TAKES ON "PARISH" PRETENSIONS--CHURCH WARDENS AND "LA FABRIQUE"--THE FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE--THE FLIGHT TO MONTREAL FROM ONONDAGA--PRECAUTIONARY ORDINANCES BY MAISONNEUVE--FORTIFIED REDOUBTS--THE ECCLESIASTICAL DISPUTE SETTLED--DE QUEN "GRAND VICAIRE" OF QUEBEC, DE QUEYLUS OF MONTREAL--BON SECOURS CHURCH DELAYED--JEANNE MANCE AND MARGUERITE BOURGEOYS VISIT FRANCE 137
Chapter XII
1659
THE NEW REINFORCEMENT FOR MONTREAL
THE COMING OF LAVAL
RETROSPECT OF MAISONNEUVE'S JUDICIAL SENTENCES--FIRST DEATH SENTENCE--INJURIOUS LANGUAGE--CALUMNY--BANISHMENT--GAMES OF CHANCE, DRUNKENNESS AND BLASPHEMY, ETC., FORBIDDEN--THE GOVERNOR GENERAL AND THE LOCAL GOVERNOR OF MONTREAL--A PESSIMISTIC PICTURE OF MONTREAL IN 1659--A BISHOP FOR NEW FRANCE--LAVAL, CONSECRATED BISHOP OF PETREA IN ARABIA, ARRIVES AT QUEBEC AS VICAR APOSTOLIC--DE QUEYLUS RECALLED TO FRANCE--THE REINFORCEMENT ARRIVES WITH JEANNE MANCE AND MARGUERITE BOURGEOYS--THE STORY OF ITS JOURNEY--DIFFICULTIES AT LA FLECHE--SHIP FEVER ON THE ST. ANDRE--DIFFICULTIES AT QUEBEC--LAVAL WOULD RETAIN THE HOSPITALIERES BROUGHT BY JEANNE MANCE--THEY ARE FINALLY ALLOWED TO PROCEED TO THE HOTEL-DIEU OF MONTREAL 151
Chapter XIII
1660
HOW MONTREAL SAVED NEW FRANCE
DOLLARD'S EXPLOIT AT THE LONG SAULT
UNIVERSAL FEAR OF IROQUOIS IN THE COLONY--THE GARRISON OFFICERS AT MONTREAL--ADAM DOLLARD, SIEUR DES ORMEAUX--THE PERMISSION FROM THE GOVERNOR TO LEAD AN ATTACK UP COUNTRY--HIS COMPANIONS--PREPARATIONS--WILLS AND THE SACRAMENTS--THE FLOTILLA OF CANOES--THE LONG SAULT REACHED--THE DILAPIDATED IROQUOIS WAR CAMP--ANONTAHA AND MITIWEMEG--THE AMBUSH AND ATTACK--THE RETREAT TO THE STOCKADE--THE SIEGE--THIRST--THE ALGONQUINS DESERT--FIVE HUNDRED IROQUOIS ALLIES ARRIVE--THE TERRIBLE ATTACK AND RESISTANCE--A GLORIOUS DEFEAT--RADISSON'S ACCOUNT--THE INVENTORY OF DOLLARD--UNPAID BILLS--THE NAMES OF THE "COMPANIONS"--NEW FRANCE SAVED--A CONVOY OF BEAVER SKINS REACHES MONTREAL--A REINFORCEMENT OF TROOPS FROM FRANCE ASKED FOR TO WIPE OUT THE IROQUOIS 163
Chapter XIV
1661-1662
HOSTILITIES AND LOSSES
MONTREAL THE THEATRE OF IROQUOIS CARNAGE--THE FIRST SULPICIAN SLAUGHTERED, M. LE MAITRE--THE SECOND, M. VIGNAL--THE FIRST VISIT OF LAVAL TO MONTREAL--THE ABBE DE QUEYLUS AGAIN APPEARS--ECCLESIASTICAL DISPUTES LEGAL, NOT PERSONAL--THE DEATH OF LAMBERT CLOSSE--THE EXPLOIT OF PICOTE DE BELESTRE--MAISONNEUVE'S ORDINANCE AGAINST SALE OF LIQUOR TO INDIANS--INDIAN ORGIES AND BLOODSHED--THE GOVERNOR GENERAL AT QUEBEC DISAPPROVES OF MAISONNEUVE'S ACTION--THE FAMOUS LIQUOR TRAFFIC DISPUTES--JEANNE MANCE LEAVES FOR FRANCE 173
Chapter XV
1663-1664
THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL AND THE SEIGNEURS OF THE ISLAND
GREAT CHANGES, PHYSICAL AND POLITICAL
MILITIA SQUADS ESTABLISHED--THE FORMATION OF THE CONFRATERNITY OF THE HOLY FAMILY--THE EARTHQUAKE AT MONTREAL--POLITICAL CHANGES--THE RESIGNATION OF THE COMPANY OF ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES--CANADA BECOMES A CROWN COLONY--THE TRANSFER OF THE SEIGNEURY OF THE ISLAND FROM THE COMPANY OF MONTREAL TO THE "GENTLEMEN OF THE SEMINARY"--ROYAL GOVERNMENT--THE APPOINTMENT OF THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL--CHANGE IN THE MONTREAL JUDICIAL SYSTEM--FORMER HOME RULE PRIVILEGES RESCINDED--MONTREAL UNDER QUEBEC--PIERRE BOUCHER'S DESCRIPTION OF CANADA AND MONTREAL--SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PERIOD--MONTREAL SOLDIERY--THE ELECTION OF POLICE JUDGES--ATTEMPT TO SUPPLANT MAISONNEUVE AS LOCAL GOVERNOR--DISCORD IN THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL 181
Chapter XVI
1665
THE RECALL OF DE MAISONNEUVE
THE GOVERNOR GENERAL DE COURCELLES AND THE INTENDANT TALON ARRIVE--THE DUAL REIGN INHARMONIOUS--SIEUR DE TRACY, LIEUTENANT GENERAL OF THE KING FOR NORTH AMERICA, ARRIVES--THE CARIGNAN-SALLIERES REGIMENT--CAPTURE OF CHARLES LE MOYNE BY IROQUOIS--BUILDING OF OUTLYING FORTS--PREPARATIONS FOR WAR--THE DISMISSAL OF MAISONNEUVE--AN UNRECOGNIZED MAN--HIS MONUMENT--MAISONNEUVE IN PARIS--A TRUE CANADIAN 191
Chapter XVII
1666-1670
THE SUBDUAL OF THE IROQUOIS
THE END OF THE HEROIC AGE
PRIMITIVE EXPEDITIONS UNDER DE COURCELLES, SOREL AND DE TRACY--THE ROYAL TROOPS AND THE MONTREAL "BLUE COATS"--DOLLIER DE CASSON, THE SOLDIER CHAPLAIN--THE VICTORY OVER THE IROQUOIS--THE HOTEL-DIEU AT MONTREAL RECEIVES THE SICK AND WOUNDED--THE CONFIRMATION OF THE GENTLEMEN OF THE SEMINARY AS SEIGNEURS--THE LIEUTENANT GENERAL AND INTENDANT IN MONTREAL--THE "DIME"--THE CENSUS OF 1667--MORE CLERGY NEEDED--THE ABBE DE QUEYLUS RETURNS, WELCOMED BY LAVAL AND MADE VICAR GENERAL--REINFORCEMENT OF SULPICIANS--THEIR FIRST MISSION AT KENTE--THE RETURN OF THE RECOLLECTS--THE ARRIVAL OF PERROT AS LOCAL GOVERNOR OF MONTREAL 195
Chapter XVIII
1671-1672
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM ESTABLISHED
THE SEIGNEURS OF THE MONTREAL DISTRICT
SUBURBAN GROWTH--THE EARLIEST OUTLYING FIEFS--PRAEDIA MILITARIA--MILITARY SEIGNEURIES OF THE MONTREAL DISTRICT--THE FEUDAL SYSTEM--THE "NOBLESSE"--THE "PARISHES"--"CENS ET RENTES"--"LODS ET VENTES"--TRIBUTE TO THE FEUDALISM OF THE CLERICAL "SEIGNEURS OF MONTREAL"--MUNICIPAL OFFICERS--ORDER IN PROCESSIONS--THE CHURCH WARDENS--THE SOLDIER COLONISTS--CATTLE BREEDING, HORSES, ASSES--AGRICULTURE--NEW CONCESSIONS--LAWS REGULATING OPENING UP THE LAND--FIRST PUBLIC ROADS AND BRIDGES AT MONTREAL--NOTE: FORTS AND REDOUBTS 203
Chapter XIX
1666-1672
ECONOMICAL PROGRESS
INDUSTRIES, TRADE AND LABOUR
COMMERCE--MINING--SHIP BUILDING--INDUSTRIES--A "MUNICIPAL" BREWERY--THE FIRST MARKET--PRICES--LABOUR--MEDICAL MEN 213
Chapter XX
1666-1672
COLONIZATION AND POPULATION
ENCOURAGEMENT OF MARRIAGE--BACHELORS TAXED--"FILLES DU ROI"--DOWRIES--PENSIONS FOR LARGE FAMILIES--MONTREAL HEALTHY FOR WOMEN--NOTE ON IMMIGRATION 215
Chapter XXI
1667-1672
EXPEDITIONS FROM MONTREAL
LA SALLE--DOLLIER DE CASSON--DE COURCELLES
A FEUDAL VILLAGE AND ITS YOUNG SEIGNEUR--LA SALLE'S JESUIT TRAINING--AN EX-JESUIT--THE SEIGNEURY OF ST. SULPICE--SOLD--THE FEVER FOR EXPLORATION--LA SALLE, DOLLIER DE CASSON AND GALINEE--SOLDIER OUTRAGES ON INDIANS--THE EXPEDITION TO LAKES ERIE AND ONTARIO--LA SALLE RETURNS--HIS SEIGNEURY NICKNAMED "LA CHINE"--THE SULPICIANS TAKE POSSESSION OF LAKE ERIE FOR LOUIS XIV--RETURN TO MONTREAL--DE GALINEE'S MAP--THE SUBSEQUENT EXPEDITION OF THE GOVERNOR GENERAL, DE COURCELLES 221
Chapter XXII
1667-1672
EDUCATION
AT QUEBEC: JACQUES LEBER, JEANNE LEBER, CHARLES LE MOYNE (OF LONGUEUIL), LOUIS PRUDHOMME--MARGUERITE BOURGEOYS' SCHOOL AT MONTREAL--"GALLICIZING" INDIAN CHILDREN--GANNENSAGONAS--THE SULPICIANS AT GENTILLY--THE JESUITS AT MADELEINE LA PRAIRIE 229
Chapter XXIII
1666-1672
GARRISON LIFE--SLACKENING MORALS
SIEUR DE LA FREDIERE--LIQUOR TRAFFIC WITH THE INDIANS--SOLDIERS MURDER INDIANS--THE CARION-DE LORMEAU DUEL--THE FIRST BALL IN CANADA--LARCENIES, ETC.--A CORNER IN WHEAT--THE "VOLUNTAIRES," OR DAY LABOURERS--THE TAVERNS--A POLICE RAID--"HOTEL" LIFE--BLASPHEMY PUNISHED--THE LORDS' VINEYARDS RUINED 233
Chapter XXIV
1671-1673
NOTABLE LOSSES
DE QUEYLUS FINALLY LEAVES VILLE MARIE--DE COURCELLES AND TALON RECALLED--TRIBUTE TO THEIR ADMINISTRATION--MGR. DE LAVAL ABSENT FOR THREE YEARS--THREE DEATHS--MADAME DE PELTRIE--MARIE L'INCARNATION--JEANNE MANGE--HER LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT 239
Chapter XXV
1672-1675
TOWN PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURE
THE FOUNDATION OF THE PARISH CHURCH AND BON SECOURS CHAPEL
THE FIRST STREET SURVEY--"LOW" TOWN AND "UPPER" TOWN--THE ORIGIN OF THE NAMES OF THE STREETS--COMPLAINTS AGAINST CITIZENS STILL CULTIVATING THE STREETS--ORDERS TO BEGIN BUILDING--THE NEW PARISH CHURCH--THE FOUNDATION STONES AND PLAQUES--THE DEMOLITION OF THE FORT FORBIDDEN--THE CHURCH OF BON SECOURS--THE POWDER MAGAZINE IN ITS GARRET--A PICTURE OF MONTREAL 241
Chapter XXVI
1672-1682
ALTERCATIONS
FRONTENAC'S FIRST TERM OF GOVERNORSHIP
I. THE RIVAL GOVERNORS
II. CHURCH AND STATE
III. THE GOVERNOR, THE INTENDANT AND THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL
I. THE TWO GOVERNORS--PERROT--ILE PERROT--REMONSTRANCES OF CITIZENS--FRONTENAC--A "VICE-ROI"--GENEROUS ATTEMPT TO GRANT REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT RESTRAINED--FORT FRONTENAC (OR KINGSTON)--CORVEES--THE GOVERNOR GENERAL--EXPEDITION STARTS FOR MONTREAL--LA SALLE--THE FRONTENAC-PERROT DUEL COMMENCES--PERROT IMPRISONED--COUREURS DE BOIS--DULUTH--CHICAGO--FRONTENAC RULES MONTREAL
II. THE FRONTENAC-FENELON DUEL--THE EASTER SERMON IN THE HOTEL-DIEU--LA SALLE PRESENT IN THE CHAPEL--M. FENELON RESIGNS FROM THE SULPICIANS--THE TRIAL BEFORE THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL--THE MONTREAL PARTY PRESENT THEIR CASE IN FRANCE--FRONTENAC AND FENELON REPRIMANDED, PERROT IN PRISON--PERROT QUICKLY RELEASED AND SENT BACK AS LOCAL GOVERNOR OF MONTREAL
III. THE MONTREAL COMPLAINTS HAVE A RESULT--THE REARRANGEMENT OF THE POSITIONS OF HONOUR IN THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL--THE GOVERNOR AND THE INTENDANT, DUCHESNEAU--RIVAL FACTIONS--CENTRALIZATION AND HOME RULE THE CAUSE OF FRENCH FAILURE IN CANADA--PERROT MADE GOVERNOR OF ACADIA 247
Chapter XXVII
1672-1683
TRADE AT MONTREAL UNDER FRONTENAC AND PERROT
WEST INDIA COMPANY SUPPRESSED--MONTREAL HEAD OF FUR INDUSTRY--EXPEDITIONS--MARQUETTE--JOLIET--THE ANNUAL FAIRS--LAVAL RETURNS--THE "CONGREGATION" CONFIRMED--THE INDIAN MISSIONS--CATHERINE TEKAKWITHA--THE "FORT DES MESSIEURS"--EXPLORATIONS--LA SALLE, DULUTH, HENNEPIN--LOUISIANA NAMED--THE GOVERNOR GENERAL AND THE INTENDANT--FACTIONS AT MONTREAL, "A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES!"--FRONTENAC AND DUCHESNEAU RECALLED 265
Chapter XXVIII
1683-1687
WAR AGAIN. THE IROQUOIS. NEW YORK AND HUDSON'S BAY
THE GOVERNMENTS OF DE LA BARRE AND DENONVILLE
GOVERNOR DE LA BARRE OPPOSES LA SALLE--THE POW-WOW IN THE NEW PARISH CHURCH--WAR PREPARATIONS AT MONTREAL--THE DISEASE-STRICKEN EXPEDITIONS RETURN--LAVAL LEAVES FOR FRANCE--THE PIONEER PAPER MONEY INVENTED TO PAY THE SOLDIERS--NOTES ON "CARDS" AND CURRENCY DURING FRENCH REGIME--GOVERNOR DENONVILLE AND MGR. DE ST. VALLIER ARRIVE--CALLIERES BECOMES GOVERNOR OF MONTREAL--A GLOOMY REPORT ON THE "YOUTH" AND DRAMSHOPS--MGR. DE ST. VALLIER'S MANDEMENT OF THE VANITY OF THE WOMEN--THE FORTIFICATIONS REPAIRED--SALE OF ARMS CONDEMNED--THE STRUGGLE FOR CANADA BY THE ENGLISH OF NEW YORK--THE STRUGGLE FOR HUDSON'S BAY--THE PARTY FROM MONTREAL UNDER THE SONS OF CHARLES LE MOYNE--THE DEATH OF LA SALLE--OTHER MONTREAL DISCOVERERS--A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPRECIATION OF LA SALLE'S CHARACTER 273
Chapter XXIX
1687-1689
IROQUOIS REVENGE
DENONVILLE'S TREACHERY AND THE MASSACRE OF LACHINE
ST. HELEN'S ISLAND A MILITARY STATION--FORT FRONTENAC--DENONVILLE'S TREACHERY--THE FEAST--INDIANS FOR THE GALLEYS OF FRANCE--THE WAR MARCH AGAINST THE SENECAS--THE RETURN--MONTREAL AN INCLOSED FORTRESS--DE CALLIERES' PLAN FOR THE INVASION OF NEW YORK--THE STRUGGLE FOR TRADE SUPREMACY--MONTREAL BESIEGED--KONDIARONK, THE RAT, KILLS THE PEACE--DENONVILLE RECALLED--CALLIERES' PLAN FAILS--THE MASSACRE AT LACHINE--DENONVILLE'S TREACHERY REVENGED. NOTE: THE EXPLOIT AT THE RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES 285
Chapter XXX
1689-1698
MONTREAL PROWESS AT HOME AND ABROAD
FRONTENAC'S SECOND TERM OF GOVERNMENT
FRONTENAC RETURNS--REVIEW AT MONTREAL--INDIANS FROM THE GALLEYS SENT WITH PEACE OVERTURES--NEW ENGLAND TO BE ATTACKED--THE MONTREAL LEADERS--THREE SUCCESSFUL EXPEDITIONS--RETALIATION MEDITATED BY THE ENGLISH--TRADE FLOWING BACK TO MONTREAL--THE GRAND COUNCIL IN THE MARKET--FRONTENAC LEADS THE WAR DANCE--JOHN SCHUYLER'S PARTY AGAINST MONTREAL RETIRES--SIR WILLIAM PHIPPS SEIZES QUEBEC--THE MONTREAL CONTINGENT--PETER SCHUYLER DEFEATED AT LA PRAIRIE--THE COLONY IN DIRE DANGER--MADELEINE DE VERCHERES, HER DEED OF ARMES--THE EXPEDITION VIA CHAMBLY--ARRIVAL OF FURS FROM MICHILLIMACKINAC--FRONTENAC, THE SAVIOUR OF THE COUNTRY--MONTREAL PROWESS EAST AND WEST--A PLEIAD OF MONTREAL NAMES--THE LE MOYNE FAMILY--NEWFOUNDLAND--HUDSON'S BAY--FORT FRONTENAC AGAIN--THE DEATH OF FRONTENAC 293
Chapter XXXI
1688-1698
SOCIAL, CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS PROGRESS
THE PICKET ENCLOSURE--FORTIFICATIONS STRENGTHENED--GARRISON JEALOUSIES--PRESEANCE--THE "CONGREGATION" BURNT DOWN--A POOR LAW BOARD--TO QUEBEC ON FOOT--THE CHURCH OF THE "CONGREGATION" ON FIRE--THE ENCLOSING OF A RECLUSE--THE JESUIT RESIDENCE--THE RECOLLECTS--THE "PRIE DIEU" INCIDENT--MGR. DE ST. VALLIER'S BENEFACTIONS--THE FRERES CHARON--FIRST GENERAL HOSPITAL--TECHNICAL EDUCATION--THE SEMINARY BEING BUILT--SULPICIAN ADMINISTRATION--THE MARKET PLACE. NOTE: THE GENTLEMEN OF THE SEMINARY 305
Chapter XXXII
1698-1703
THE GREAT INDIAN PEACE SIGNED AT MONTREAL. THE FOUNDATION OF DETROIT
THE GOVERNMENT OF DE CALLIERES
DE CALLIERES--PREPARATIONS FOR PEACE--DEATH OF THE "RAT"--THE GREAT PEACE SIGNED AT MONTREAL--LA MOTTE-CARDILLAC--THE FOUNDATION OF DETROIT--THE DEATH OF MARGUERITE BOURGEOYS 315
Chapter XXXIII
1697-1713
FROM THE TREATY OF RYSWICK TO THE TREATY OF UTRECHT QUEEN ANNE'S WAR
MONTREAL SAVED BY LAND AND WATER
"THE FRENCH HAVE ALWAYS COMMENCED HOSTILITIES IN CANADA"--SAMUEL VECHT IN MONTREAL--MONTREAL TO BE INVADED BY WOOD CREEK--NICHOLSON'S ARMY ROUTED BY DYSENTERY--THE "BOSTONNAIS" PLAN A SECOND DESCENT ON MONTREAL--JEANNE LEBER'S STANDARD--THE EXPEDITION OF SIR HOVENDER WALKER AGAINST QUEBEC--THE VOW OF THE MONTREAL LADIES--"OUR LADY OF VICTORIES" BUILT IN COMMEMORATION--PEACE OF UTRECHT--COMPARISON BETWEEN NEW ENGLAND AND NEW FRANCE. NOTE: THE CHATEAU DE RAMEZAY 323
Chapter XXXIV
1700-1721
HALF A CENTURY OF PEACE AND PROGRESS
CIVIC SIDE LIGHTS
I.
THE LONG PEACE--THE TWO GOVERNORS--TAVERN LICENSES--PERMIT TO MARRY--CULTIVATION OF HEMP--FIRST ATTEMPT OF THE LACHINE CANAL BY THE SEIGNEURS--GEDEON DE CATALOGNE--CHAUSSEGROS DE LERY--"SEDITIOUS ASSEMBLIES"--CLAUDE DE RAMEZAY--WAR PRICES--LINEN AND CLOTH INDUSTRIES DEVELOPED--AN ORDINANCE AGAINST DIRTY STREETS--AGAINST PIGS IN THE HOUSES--MARKET REGULATIONS--THE USE OF THE COMMONS--SALE OF LIQUOR TO SAVAGES--THE SEIGNEURS AND THE HABITANTS--REGULATIONS CONCERNING TANNERS, SHOEMAKERS AND BUTCHERS--ENGLISH MERCHANDISE NOT TO BE TOLERATED AT MONTREAL--A MARKET FOR CANADIAN PRODUCTS DESIRED--CONCENTRATION IN THE EAST VERSUS EXPANSION IN THE WEST--CONGES--FAST DRIVING--ROAD MAKING--HORSE BREEDING RESTRAINED--PIGS TO BE MUZZLED--LIQUOR LICENSES OVERHAULED--SNOW-SHOEING TO BE CULTIVATED--DIVERSE NATIONAL ORIGINS--A MARBLE QUARRY--THE DEATH OF A RECLUSE--MURDERER BURNT IN EFFIGY--CARD MONEY--A "BOURSE" FOR THE MERCHANTS--PATENTS OF NOBILITY TO THE LEBER AND LE MOYNE FAMILIES--PARTRIDGE SHOOTING--A "CURE ALL" PATENT MEDICINE--POSTAL SERVICE--A PICTURE OF MONTREAL ABOUT 1721 BY CHARLEVOIX 331
Chapter XXXV
1721-1748
SIDE LIGHTS OF CIVIC PROGRESS
II
THE FIRE OF 1721--BUILDING REGULATIONS--STONE ENCOURAGED--TOWN EMBELLISHMENT--CITY PLANNING--THE FORTIFICATIONS--PEW RENTING--CHATEAU DE VAUDREUIL--TRADE WITH NEW ENGLAND FORBIDDEN--ILLICIT LIQUOR TRAFFIC--DEATHS OF DE RAMEZAY AND DE VAUDREUIL--EVEN NATURALIZED STRANGERS FORBIDDEN TO TRADE--DESCRIPTION OF INDIAN LIFE AT MONTREAL--MONTREAL IS FOLLOWED BY QUEBEC IN THE REFORM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES--VERENDRYE'S EXPEDITION FROM MONTREAL--RELIGIOUS ASYLUM FORBIDDEN--FIRST SAILING VESSEL OF LAKE SUPERIOR--THE "OUTRAGED CRUCIFIX"--SORCERY, MAGIC AND SACRILEGE--THE LEGEND OF THE RED CROSS--PUNISHMENT OF "BREAKING ALIVE" IN THE MARKET PLACE--CARE OF FOUNDLINGS--SULPICIANS FOUND LA PRESENTATION--SKATING IN THE STREETS; FAST DRIVING. NOTES: THE DISCOVERIES OF LA VERENDRYE--CHATEAU VAUDREUIL 347
Chapter XXXVI
1749-1755
SIDELIGHTS OF CIVIC PROGRESS
III
PETER KALM--THE FIRST SWEDES IN MONTREAL--THE FRENCH WOMEN CONTRASTED WITH THOSE OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES--DOMESTIC ECONOMY--THE MEN EXTREMELY CIVIL--MECHANICAL TRADES BACKWARD--WATCHMAKERS--THE TREATY OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE CELEBRATED--PAPER MONEY--WAGES--PEN PICTURE OF MONTREAL IN 1749--ITS BUILDINGS AND THEIR PURPOSES--FRIDAY, MARKET DAY--THERMOMETRICAL AND CLIMATIC OBSERVATIONS--NATURAL HISTORY CULTIVATED--MONTREAL THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE INDIAN TRADE--THE GOODS FOR BARTER--THE LADIES MORE POLISHED AND VOLATILE AT QUEBEC BUT MORE MODEST AND INDUSTRIOUS AT MONTREAL--ECONOMIC FACTS--WINE AND SPRUCE BEER--PRICES AND COST OF LIVING--CONSENTS TO MARRIAGE--SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC CUSTOMS--FRANQUET'S JOURNEY FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL BY RIVER, FIVE DAYS--POUCHOT'S APPRECIATIONS OF CANADIANS--THE TRADE SYSTEM OF THE COUNTRY--GOVERNMENTAL MAGAZINES AND UP-COUNTRY FORTS--PRIVATE TRADE AT THE POSTS--ITINERANT PEDDLERS. NOTE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARISH CHURCH 359
XXXVII. EDUCATION--PRIMARY, SECONDARY AND TECHNICAL
A RECORD FROM 1657 TO 1760
FRENCH PRONUNCIATION--SCHOOL FOR GIRLS--THE CONGREGATION--BOARDING SCHOOLS--SCHOOLS OF DOMESTIC ECONOMY--NORMAL SCHOOLS--SCHOOLS FOR BOYS--ABBE SOUART FIRST SCHOOLMASTER--THE FIRST ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS--SCHOOL BOOKS--BOOKS ON PEDAGOGY--LATIN SCHOOLS, THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF THE PERIOD--LATIN BOOKS--ATTEMPT AT A CLASSICAL COLLEGE--FAILURE--TECHNICAL EDUCATION--JEAN FRANÇOIS CHARON--THE GENERAL HOSPITAL--ARTS AND MANUFACTURES--LES FRERES CHARON--A NORMAL SCHOOL FOR CANADA AT ROCHELLE PROJECTED--FRERE TURC GOES TO ST. DOMINGO--THE BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS INVITED TWICE TO COME TO CANADA--BROTHER DENIS AND PACIFICUS IN MONTREAL--THE FRERES CHARON IN EVIL DAYS--THE HOSPITAL TRANSFERRED TO MADAME D'YOUVILLE 377
Chapter XXXVIII
1747
THE GENERAL HOSPITAL OF MONTREAL UNDER MADAME D'YOUVILLE
MADAME D'YOUVILLE--TIMOTHEE DE SILVAIN--CONFRATERNITY OF THE HOLY FAMILY--"SOEURS GRISES"--PERSEVERANCE THROUGH OPPOSITION--FIRE OF 1745--PROVISIONAL CONTROL OF HOSPITAL--ATTEMPT TO ANNEX THE GENERAL HOSPITAL TO THAT OF QUEBEC--THE "GREY NUNS" FORMERLY APPROVED AS "SISTERS OF CHARITY" 387
XXXIX. MONTREAL, MILITARY HEADQUARTERS
THE FINAL STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY--THE SEVEN YEARS, 1756-1763--THE CAMPAIGN OF 1756 (OSWEGO)--THE WINTER AT MONTREAL
REVIEW--CELERON DE BIENVILLE--DE VAUDREUIL--MONTCALM--HIS MILITARY AND HOUSEHOLD STAFF--DE LEVIS, BOURLAMAQUE, BOUGAINVILLE--CHATEAU DE VAUDREUIL--THE MEETING OF MONTCALM AND DE VAUDREUIL--MONTCALM'S POSITION--THE THREE MILITARY ARMS--THE MILITIA, MARINE, REGULARS--THE RED ALLIES--CAPITULATION OF OSWEGO--SACKING--TE DEUM IN THE PARISH CHURCH--THE TWO PREJUGES--WINTER IN MONTREAL--GAMING AT QUEBEC--A WINTER WAR PARTY--SOCIAL GAYETIES AT MONTREAL--SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS--SHIPS AWAITED 391
Chapter XL
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1657
THE SIEGE OF WILLIAM HENRY--WINTER GAYETY AND GAUNT FAMINE
SHIPS ARRIVE--NEWS OF GREAT INTERNATIONAL WAR--RED ALLIES IN MONTREAL--STRONG LIQUOR--PREPARATIONS FOR WAR--FORT WILLIAM HENRY FALLS--ARRIVAL OF SAVAGES AND TWO HUNDRED ENGLISH PRISONERS--CANNIBALISM--THE PAPER MONEY--FEAR OF FAMINE--MONTCALM'S LETTER TO TROOPS ON RETRENCHMENT--A SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE--GAMING AMID SOCIAL MISERY--HORSE FLESH FOR THE SOLDIERS--DE LEVIS PUTS DOWN A REVOLT--THE "HUNGER STRIKE"--THE LETTERS OF MONTCALM--BIGOT AND LA GRANDE SOCIETE--"LA FRIPONNE" AT MONTREAL--MURRAY'S CRITICISM. NOTE: THE PECULATORS 403
Chapter XLI
1758
THE VICTORY OF CARILLON
A WINTER OF GAYETY AND FOREBODING
SIXTY LEAGUES ON THE ICE--SHIPS ARRIVE--FAMINE CEASES--ENGLISH MOBILIZATION--TICONDEROGA (CARILLON)--MILITARY JEALOUSIES--SAINT-SAUVEUR--RECONCILIATION OF MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL--ENMITIES RENEWED--WINTER IN MONTREAL--HIGH COST OF LIVING--THE "ENCYCLOPEDIA"--AVARICE AND GRAFT--MADAME DE VAUDREUIL 415
Chapter XLII
1759
THE FALL OF QUEBEC
MONTREAL THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT
THE SPRING ICE SHOVE--NEWS FROM FRANCE--MILITARY HONOURS SENT BUT POOR REINFORCEMENTS--PROJECTED FRENCH INVASION OF ENGLAND--GLOOM IN CANADA--THE MONTREAL MILITIA AT THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC--FALL OF QUEBEC, MONTREAL SEAT OF GOVERNMENT--THE WINTER ATTEMPT TO REGAIN QUEBEC--THE EXPECTED FRENCH FLEET NEVER ARRIVES--RETREAT OF FRENCH TO MONTREAL 425
Chapter XLIII
1760
THE FALL OF MONTREAL
THE CAPITULATION
THE LAST STAND AT MONTREAL--THE APPROACH OF THE BRITISH ARMIES--SURRENDER OF ARMS BY FRENCH ON THE ROUTE--PAPER MONEY VALUELESS--MURRAY'S ADVANCE FROM QUEBEC--HAVILAND'S PROGRESS FROM LAKE CHAMPLAIN--AMHERST'S DESCENT FROM OSWEGO--MONTREAL WITHIN AND WITHOUT--THE COUNCIL OF WAR IN THE CHATEAU VAUDREUIL--THE TERMS OF CAPITULATION--THE NEGOTIATIONS WITH AMHERST--HONOURS OF WAR REFUSED--DE LEVIS' CHAGRIN--THE CAPITULATION SIGNED--THE CONDITIONS--FORMAL POSSESSION OF TOWN BY THE BRITISH--THE END OF THE FRENCH REGIME 431
APPENDIX I
THE GOVERNMENT OF LA NOUVELLE FRANCE
THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTREAL UNDER LA NOUVELLE FRANCE--ROYAL COMMISSIONS--VICEROYS--GOVERNORS--INTENDANTS--BISHOPS--FRENCH AND ENGLISH SOVEREIGNS--LOCAL GOVERNORS OF MONTREAL--THE SEIGNEURS OF THE SEMINARY 441
APPENDIX II
AN INVENTORY OF THE CHARTS AND PLANS OF THE ISLAND AND TOWN OF MONTREAL UP TO 1760 447
AUTHOR'S FOREWORD
The history now being prepared seems necessary; for we are at a period of great flux and change and progress. The city is being transformed, modernized and enlarged before our very eyes. Old landmarks are daily disappearing and there is a danger of numerous memories of the past passing with them.
We are growing so wonderfully in wealth through the importance of our commerce and in the size of our population by the accretion of newcomers of many national origins and creeds, to whom for the most part the history of the romantic story of Montreal is a sealed books, that a fuller presentation of our development and growth is called for, to supplement previous sketches and to meet the conditions of the hour.
It is hardly needful, therefore, to offer any apology for the present undertaking. For if the continuity of a city's growth and development is to be preserved in the memory of the citizens of each generation, this can only be done through the medium of an historical survey, issued at certain suitable intervals, such as the one now offered, connecting the present with the past, and presenting to the new generation, out of the intricate chain of events and varying vicissitudes that have woven themselves into the texture of the city's organic life, the story of those forces which have moulded its growth and have produced those resultant characteristic features which make it the individualized city of today and none other.
Montreal being a unique city, with a personality of its own, its history, beyond that of any city of the new world, is particularly interesting and fruitful for such a retrospect. Dealing with the fortunes of several peoples, the original inhabitants of Hochelaga visited by Jacques Cartier in 1535, the French colonists from 1642 and the Anglo-Saxons and Gaels from their influx in 1760, together with the steady addition of those of other national origins of later years, the story of Montreal, passing over the greater part of four centuries, is full of romance and colour and quickly moving incidents; of compelling interest to the ordinary student, but how much more so to those who have any way leagued their fortunes with it, and assisted in its progress and in its making!
Such cannot dip into the pages of the history of this ancient and modern city without finding fresh motives for renewed enthusiasm and for deeper pride.
For Montreal is still in the making, with its future before it.
The present work is especially dedicated to those who would realize the duties of good citizenship and it is the hope of the writer that it may serve to deepen the sense of civic pride now happily being cultivated here. To foster this civic pride is the justifying reason why he has been induced by his friends to launch on a long and laborious task, sweetened though it may be by the pleasure anticipated of communion with the scenes and thoughts and deeds of a romantic past and a wonderfully progressive present.
All history is profitable. Perhaps, however, civic history has not been cultivated sufficiently. The present work is an attempt to repair this by interesting Montrealers in their citizenship so that by placing before them the deeds of the doers of the past, they may realize they are dwellers in no mean city. We would hope that something of the spirit of love for their cities, of the Romans, Athenians, or Florentines, might be reincarnated, here in Montreal. Good citizenship would then be thoroughly understood as the outcome of a passionate love of all that is upright, noble and uplifting in human conduct, applied to the life of a city by which it shall be made beautiful and lovable in the sight of God and man. For this purpose the life story of any city that has reached any eminence and has a worthy past should be known by good citizens so that they begin to love it with a personal love.
For like each nation, each city has its own individuality, its own characteristic entity, its own form of life which must be made the most of by art and thoughtful love.
This is not merely true of the physical being of a city from the city planner's point of view. There is also a specific character in the spiritual, artistic, moral and practical life of every city that has grown into virility and made an impress on the world.
Every such city is unique; it has its predominant virtues and failings. You may partially eliminate the latter and enlarge the former, but the city being human--the product of the sum total of the qualities and defects of its inhabitants--it takes on a character, a personality, a mentality all its own.
Civic history then leads us to delve down into the origins of things to find out the causes and sources of that ultimate city character which we see reflected today in such a city as Montreal.
The research is fascinating and satisfactory to the citizen who would know his surroundings, and live in them intelligently with consideration for the diverse view points of those of his fellow citizens who have different national origins and divergent mental outlooks from his own.
Yet while this city character is in a way fixed, still it is not so stable but that it will be susceptible to further development in the times that are to come with new problems and new situations to grapple with.
The peculiar pleasure of the reading of the history of Montreal will be to witness the development of its present character from the earliest date of the small pioneering, religious settlement of French colonists, living simple and uneventful days, but chequered by the constant fear of the forays of Indian marauders on to the "Castle Dangerous" of Ville Marie, through its more mature periods of city formation, then onward through the difficult days of the fusion of the French and English civilization starting in 1760, to the complex life of the great and prosperous cosmopolitan city of today, the port and commercial centre of Canada--the old and new régimes making one harmonious unity, but with its component parts easily discernible. The city's motto is aptly chosen, "Concordia Salus."
Much there will be learned in the history of Montreal of the past that will explain the present and the mentality of its people. Tout savoir, c'est tout pardonner.
A clue to the future will also be afforded beforehand. Certainly it will be seen that Montreal is great and will be greater still, because great thoughts, high ideals, strenuous purposes have been born and fostered within its walls.
The thinking student will witness the law of cause and effect, of action, and reaction, ever at work, and will read design where the undisciplined mind would only see chaos and blind forces at work.
Recognizing that the city is a living organism with a personality of its own, he will watch with ever increasing interest the life emerging from the seed and at work in all the varying stages of its growth and development. He will see the first rude beginning of the city, its struggles for existence, its organized life in its social and municipal aspects, its beginnings of art and learning, the building of its churches, the conscious struggles of its people to realize itself, the troubles of its household, the battle of virtue and vice, its relation to other cities, the story of its attacks from without, the conflicts with opposing ideas, the influx of new elements into the population, the adaptation of the organism to new habits of government and thought, to new methods of business, and the inauguration of untried and new industrial enterprises, the growth of its harbour, and its internal and external commerce, the conception of its own destiny as one of the great cities of the world--all these and more it is the purpose of a history of Montreal to unfold to the thoughtful citizen who would understand the life in which he is playing his part not as a blind factor but as an intelligent co-operator in the intricate and absorbing game of life.
But let it not be thought that while peering into the past we shall become blind to the present. In this "History of Montreal" we shall picture the busy world as we see it round us. Here are heroic and saintly deeds being done today in our midst. The foundations of new and mighty works even surpassing those of the past are being laid in the regions of religion, philanthropy, art, science, commerce, engineering, government and city planning this very hour, and their builders are unconsciously building unto fame.
Besides, therefore, portraying the past, we would wish to present a moving picture of the continued development of Montreal from the beginning, tracing it to the living present from the "mustard seed" so long ago spoken of by Père Vimont in reference to the handful of his fellow pioneers assembled at Mass on the day of the arrival on May 18, 1642, at the historic spot marked today by the monument in Place Royale, to the mighty tree of his prophecy that now has covered the whole Island of Montreal, and by the boldness, foresight and enterprise of Montreal's master builders, has stretched its conquering arms of streams and iron across the mighty continent discovered by Jacques Cartier in 1535.
What Montreal was and is, we know. Its future we can only surmise. But it is bound to be a great one. Its position, with its mountain in the centre and its encircling waterways, with the glorious St. Lawrence at its feet, proclaims it as the ideal location for one of the greatest cities in the world. It is no cause for wonder that Jacques Cartier, visiting it in 1535, after naming the mountain "Mount Royal" in honour of his king, Francis I of France, should have commended it as favourable for a settlement in his description of his voyage to Hochelaga, and that Champlain in 1611 should have made it his trading post and further endorsed it as a suitable place for a permanent settlement, and that Maisonneuve should have carried it into execution in 1642. They had the instinct of the city planner--that is all.
That they did not err, the history of Montreal will abundantly show.
WILLIAM HENRY ATHERTON.
Preface
"QUI MANET IN PATRIA ET PATRIAM COGNOSCERE TEMNIT IS MIHI NON CIVIS, SED PEREGRINUS ERIT"
In placing before the public the first volume of the History of Montreal, under the title of "Under the French Régime," I would first dedicate it to a group of prominent lovers of the city, truly deserving the name of good citizens, who originally encouraged me to undertake the historical researches necessary for this work in the view that an orderly narration of the city's origins and gradual development would thereby foster the right spirit of civic pride in those who do not merely dwell in this ancient and new city, but have linked their fortunes with it at least for a while.
Secondly, it is dedicated to those who endorsed the above invitation by subscribing for copies, thus making publication possible.
Thirdly, it is dedicated to all good citizens of Montreal, whether by birth or adoption, who will welcome this attempt to interest them in their citizenship.
Further, it is offered to all students of the civic life and progress of our Canadian cities through the medium of the historical method. May it encourage a healthy Canadian civic consciousness begotten of the records of the doings of the early makers of our Canadian cities.
May it encourage the careful keeping of early historical documents, especially among those new municipalities now growing up in the new Canada of today.
* * * * *
I wish to take this opportunity of thanking those who have especially made my way easy in this first volume by affording me access to books or documents. Among these are: Mr. W. D. Lighthall, president of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal, who was also the first to encourage this present work, Dr. A. Doughty, Mr. C. H. Gould, of the McGill University Library, Mr. Crevecoeur, of the Fraser Institute, and to other representatives of public and private libraries. To Mr. E. Z. Massicotte, the careful archivist of the district of Montreal, I am especially indebted for much courteous and valuable assistance of which the following pages will give many indications. In general, the sources consulted are sufficiently indicated in the text or foot notes. They will be seen to be the best available.
I beg to thank those who have helped me to illustrate the work and particularly Mr. Edgar Gariépy, who has keenly aided me.
September, 1914. WILLIAM HENRY ATHERTON.
HISTORY OF MONTREAL
Chapter I
1535-1542
HOCHELAGA
THE ARRIVAL OF JACQUES CARTIER AT HOCHELAGA ON HIS SECOND VOYAGE TO CANADA--HIS ROYAL COMMISSION--THE FRUITLESS DEVICE OF DONNACONA TO FRIGHTEN CARTIER FROM VISITING HOCHELAGA--THE DIFFICULTY OF CROSSING LAKE ST. PETER--THE ARRIVAL AND RECEPTION AT HOCHELAGA--JACQUES CARTIER THE FIRST HISTORIAN OF MONTREAL--DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN--CARTIER RECITES THE FIRST CHAPTER OF ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL OVER AGOHANNA, THE LORD OF THE COUNTRY--MOUNT ROYAL NAMED AND VISITED--CARTIER'S ACCOUNT OF THE VIEW FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP--CARTIER'S SECOND VISIT IN 1540 TO HOCHELAGA AND TO TUTONAGUY, THE SITE OF THE FUTURE MONTREAL--THE PROBABLE VISIT OF DE ROBERVAL IN 1542. NOTES: THE SITE OF HOCHELAGA--HOCHELAGA'S CIVILIZATION--CANADA--GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF MOUNT ROYAL AND THE MONTEREGIAN HILLS.
The story of Montreal, as far as authentic historical documents are concerned, begins with Saturday, October 2, 1535. On that day, the Indian natives of Hochelaga had been quickly apprised that two strange large vessels containing many palefaced wanderers, wonderfully attired and speaking an unknown tongue, had come up the river, and were now lying off its sloping margin. The people immediately prepare quickly to receive them with a hospitality of which we shall hear. The women busy themselves in preparing their presents while the men hurriedly run down the hill slope to the water's edge, to be soon also followed by the women and children. There they found a good gathering of swarthy and bronzed men of the sea, mariners from St. Malo, to the number of twenty-eight, simple men, but adored by the natives as superior beings. All hail to them! Would that of the seventy-four[1] names we have preserved to us, of those who sailed from St. Malo, we had those of them who were privileged to come up to Hochelaga, as we must yet call it.
Besides the sailors, there are, however, six whose dress and bearing mark them out as men of some distinction, as indeed they are; for one is Claude du Pont Briand, cup bearer to My Lord the Dauphin; the second and third, gentlemen adventurers of some rank, Charles de la Pommeraye and Jehan Gouion; the fourth and fifth are the bronzed and rugged captains of the small fleet lying down the river at Lake St. Peter, Guillaume le Breton, captain of the Emerillon, and Marc Jalobert, captain of the Petite Hermine, brother-in-law of the sixth. This last, a firm set man of forty-five years, and of commanding appearance, is none other than Jacques Cartier, captain of the Grande Hermine, pilot and captain general of the fleet, and he has come with a royal commission[2] explore new seas and lands for his sovereign maste Francis I of France, whose flags proudly wave from the prows of either vessel now tossing in the Hochelagan waters.
Jacques Cartier claims notice, for he is at once the discoverer and the first historian of Montreal. He is a mariner, of a dignified profession, and was born in 1491, though De Costa and others say, in 1494, at the seaport of St. Malo in Brittany, the fertile cradle of many hardy daring corsairs and adventurers on the waters. Early the young son of Jamet Cartier and Geseline Jansart seems to have turned his thoughts to a seafaring life as he met the bronzed mariners arriving at the wharves of St. Malo, and telling strange stories of their perils and triumphs. On the 2d of May, 1519, being now a master pilot, he married Catherine des Granches, the daughter of the high constable of the city.
We know only imperfectly of his wanderings on the sea after this. He seems to have gone to Brazil. But he probably joined the band of those Norman ships going to Newfoundland on their fishing expeditions, and became well acquainted with the waters thereabout, and able to pilot them to some good purpose.
How Cartier became interested in discovering the passage to the Northwest we do not know; though it was the dream of so many navigators at that time to find a way to China and the east ports of India. To the man who should find it there would be undying fame, and many there were who strove for it. Probably Cartier believed that he should find the long expected route to India through one of the openings in the coast in the vicinity of Newfoundland, then thought to be but a projection of the eastern coast of Asia! At any rate, in 1533, we find him being introduced to Francis I of France by the high admiral of France, Phillipe Chabot, Sieur de Brion, to endeavour to persuade the king to allow him the means to secure the western passage for his royal master and the flag of France. The permission was granted, the vice admiral, the Sieur de Meilleraye personally undertaking to supervise the equipment of the vessels, and Cartier now is to be ranked among those others whose names have come down to us as leaders of expeditions.
We next find him armed with the Royal Commission, preparing to fit his vessels, and seeking for St. Malo men to man them in the service of the king. He had his difficulties in meeting the obstructions and jealousies that stood in his way. But on the 20th of April, 1534, he sailed with pilots, masters and seamen to the number of sixty, who were solemnly sworn by the vice admiral, Sieur de Meilleraye. It is not the purpose of this book to describe the discovery of Canada which Cartier made on this first voyage although the task is a fascinating one, since we have his own recital to follow. On July 24th, having planted on the coast of Gaspé a cross of the length of thirty feet bearing a shield adorned with the fleur-de-lys and inscribed "Vive le Roi de France," he made preparations for the return home, reaching St. Malo on September 5th.
But he had not, as yet, stumbled upon the discovery of the mouth of the St. Lawrence, up which the kingdom of the Hochelagans lay, on which we are to fix our gaze. The news of his discoveries were received with enthusiasm, and on the Friday in Pentecost week, May 19, 1535, we find Jacques Cartier and his men sailing away from St. Malo, after having confessed themselves and received the benedictions of the archbishop and the godspeeds of their friends. The names of those accompanying Cartier--"pilots, masters and seamen, and others"--are preserved in the archives of St. Malo, numbering seventy-four, of whom several were of some distinction and twelve at least were related to him by blood or marriage, some led thither perhaps by the hope of trade. Two of the names are those of Dom Guillaume le Breton and Dom Antoine. It has been claimed the title Dom indicates that they were probably secular priests, and acted as chaplains, according to the general custom when the expedition was a royal mission. But this is not likely; in this case Guillaume le Breton was the captain of the Emerillon. Among those not mentioned in the list of Carrier's men were two young Indians, Taignoagny and Agaya, whom Cartier had seized at Gaspé before leaving to return to France, after his first voyages, and whose appearance in France created unusual interest. These were now to be useful as interpreters to the tribes to be visited. Cartier had however to regret some of their dealings on his behalf. Charity begins at home and so it did with these French-veneered Indians on mingling with their own.
The Royal Commission signed by Phillipe de Chabot, admiral of France, and giving greeting "to the Captain and Master Pilot Jacques Cartier of St. Malo," dated October 31, 1534, may here be quoted in part.
"We have commissioned and deputed, commission and depute you by the will and command of the King to conduct, direct, and employ three ships, equipped and provisioned each for fifteen months for the accomplishment of the voyage to the lands by you already begun and discovered beyond the Newlands; * * * the said three ships you shall take, and hire the number of pilots, masters and seamen as shall seem to you to be fitting and necessary for the accomplishment of this voyage. * * * We charge and command all the said pilots, masters and seamen, and others who shall be on the same ships, to obey and follow you for the service of the King in this as above, as they would do to ourselves, without any contradiction or refusal, and this under pains customary in such cases to those who are found disobedient and acting contrary."
The three ships that had been assigned to him were the Grande Hermine, the Petite Hermine and the Emerillon, the first being a tall ship of 126 burthen and the others of sixty and forty respectively, and they were provisioned for fifteen months. How the expedition encountered storms and tempests, delaying its progress until they reached the Strait of St. Peter, where familiar objects began to meet the eyes of the captive Indians on board; how they eagerly pointed out to Cartier the way into Canada; how they told him of the gold to be found in the land of the Saguenay; how Cartier visited the lordly Donnacona, lord of Canada; how at last on his resolve to pursue the journey to the land of Hochelaga he found himself in the great river of Canada which he named St. Lawrence; how he passed up the river by mountain and lowland, headlands and harbours, meadows, brush and forests, scattering saints' names on his way to Stadaconé[3] whence he determined to push his way to Hochelaga before winter--can be read at length in the recital of the second voyage of Jacques Cartier.
It is legitimate only for us to place before our readers that part concerning the approach to Hochelaga. Hitherto, on his journey, Cartier had received all help in his progress from the friendly natives; but effort was made to dissuade him from going up to Hochelaga. Cartier, however, always made reply that notwithstanding every difficulty he would go there if it were possible to him "because he had commandment from the king to go the farthest that he could." On the contrary the lordly savage Donnacona and the two captives, Dom Agaya and Taignoagny, used every device to turn the captain from his quest. An attempt will be made hereafter to prevent a visit to Montreal as we shall see when we speak of Maisonneuve and the settlement of Ville Marie.
Carrier's account has the following for September 18th:[4]
"HOW THE SAID DONNACONA, TAIGNOAGNY, AND OTHERS DEVISED AN ARTIFICE AND HAD THREE MEN DRESSED IN THE GUISE OF DEVILS, FEIGNING TO HAVE COME FROM CUDOUAGNY, THEIR GOD, FOR TO HINDER US FROM GOING TO THE SAID HOCHELAGA.[5]
"The next day, the 18th of the said month, thinking always to hinder us from going to Hochelaga, they devised a grand scheme which they effected thus: They had three men attired in the style of three devils, that had horns as long as one's arms, and were clothed in skins of dogs, black and white, and had their faces painted as black as coal, and they caused them to be put into one of their boats unknown to us, and then came with their band near our ships as they had been accustomed, who kept themselves in the woods without appearing for two hours, waiting till the time and the tide should come for the arrival of the said boat, at which time they all came forth, and presented themselves before our said ships without approaching them as they were wont to do; and asked them if they wanted to have the boat, whereupon the said Taignoagny replied to them, not at that time, but that presently he would enter into the said ships. And suddenly came the said boat wherein were the three men appearing to be three devils, having put horns on their heads, and he in the midst made a marvelous speech in coming, and they passed along our ships with their said boat, without in any wise turning their looks toward us, and went on striking and running on shore with their said boat; and, all at once, the said Lord Donnacona and his people seized the said boat and the said three men, the which were let fall to the bottom of it like dead men, and they carried the whole together into the woods, which were distant from the said ships a stone's throw; and not a single person remained before our said ships, but all withdrew themselves. And they, having retired, began a declamation and a discourse that we heard from our ships, which lasted half an hour. After which the said Taignoagny and Dom Agaya marched from the said woods toward us, having their hands joined, and their hats under their elbows, causing great admiration. And the said Taignoagny began to speak and cry out three times, 'Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!' raising his eyes toward heaven. Then Dom Agaya began to say, 'Jesus Maria! Jacques Cartier,' looking toward heaven like the other, the captain seeing their gestures and ceremonies, began to ask what was the matter, and what it was new that had happened, who responded that there were piteous news, saying 'Nenny, est il bon,' and the said captain demanded of them afresh what it was, and they replied that their God, named Cudouagny, had spoken at Hochelaga, and that the three men aforesaid had come from him to announce to them the tidings that there was so much ice and snow that they would all die. With which words we all fell to laughing and to tell that their God Cudouagny was but a fool, and that he knew not what he said, and that they should say it to his messengers and that Jesus would guard them well from the cold if they would believe in him. And then the said Taignoagny and his companion asked the said captain if he had spoken to Jesus and he replied that his priests[6] had spoken to him and that he would make fair weather; whereupon they thanked the said captain very much, and returned into the woods to tell the news to the others, who came out of the said woods immediately, feigning to be delighted with the said words thus spoken by the said captain. And to show that they were delighted with them, as soon as they were before the ships they began with a common voice to utter three shrieks and howls, which is their token of joy, and betook themselves to dancing and singing, as they had done from custom. But for conclusion, the said Taignoagny and Dom Agaya told our said captain that the said Donnacona would not that any of them should go with him to Hochelaga if he did not leave a hostage, who should abide ashore with the said Donnacona. To which he replied to them that if they had not decided to go there with good courage they might remain and that for him he would not leave off making efforts to go there."
We have seen the manifest disinclination of Donnacona's party to allow the discoverers to proceed to Hochelaga. Was it because the Hochelagans were a hostile people or was it from selfish reasons to keep the presents of the generous strangers for themselves? At any rate, Cartier sets out for Hochelaga and on Tuesday, September 26th, enters Lake St. Peter with a pinnace and two boats. This lake was not named by Cartier, but subsequently it was named Lac d'Angoulesme, either in honour of his birthplace or more probably that of Francis I, who was Count of Angoulême. It was left for Champlain entering upon the lake, on the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, June 29, 1603, to give it its present name. Cartier's pinnace could not cross Lake St. Peter owing to the shallowness of the water[7] which forced him to take the boats to Hochelaga, starting about six miles below St. Mary's current. The journey through Lake St. Peter and the arrival at Hochelaga must now be followed in the words of Jacques Cartier, the first historian of Montreal (Phinney Baxter, pp. 157-171).
"The said twenty-eighth day of September we came into a great lake and shoal of the said river, about five or six leagues broad and twelve long, and navigated that day up the said lake without finding shallowing or deepening, and coming to one of the ends of the said lake, not any passage or egress appeared to us; it seemed rather to be completely closed without any stream. And we found at the said end but a fathom and a half, wherefore it behooved us to lay to and heave out our anchor, and go to seek passage with our boats. And we found that there were four or five streams all flowing from the said river into this lake and coming from the said Hochelaga; but, by their flowing out so, there are bars and passages made by the course of the water, where there was then only a fathom in depth. And the said bars being passed, there are four or five fathoms, which was at the time of year of the lowest waters, as we saw by the flow of the said waters that they increased more than two fathoms by pike.
"All these streams flow by and surround five or six fair islands[8] which form the head of said lake; then they come together about fifteen leagues above all into one. That day we went to one of them, where we found five men, who were hunting wild beasts, the which came as familiarly to our boats as if they had seen us all their lives, without having fear or apprehension; and our said boats having come to land, one of these men took our captain in his arms and carried him ashore as lightly as he would have carried a child of five years, so large and strong was this man. We found they had a great pile of wild rats,[9] which live in the water, and are as large as rabbits, and wonderfully good to eat, of which they made a present to our captain, who gave them knives and paternosters for recompense. We asked them by sign if that was the way to Hochelaga; they answered us yes, and that it was still three days journey to go there.
"HOW THE CAPTAIN HAD THE BOATS FITTED OUT FOR TO GO TO THE SAID HOCHELAGA, AND LEFT THE PINNACE, OWING TO THE DIFFICULTY OF THE PASSAGE; AND HOW HE CAME TO THE SAID HOCHELAGA, AND THE RECEPTION THAT THE PEOPLE GAVE US AT OUR ARRIVAL.
"The next day our captain, seeing that it was not possible then to be able to pass the said pinnace, had the boats victualed and fitted out, and put in provisions for the longest time that he possibly could and that the said boats could take in, and set out with them accompanied with a part of the gentlemen,--to wit, Claude du Pont Briand, grand cupbearer to my lord the Dauphin, Charles de la Pommeraye, Jehan Gouion, with twenty-eight mariners, including with them Marc Jalobert and Guillaume le Breton, having the charge under the said Cartier,--for to go up the said river the farthest that it might be possible for us. And we navigated with weather at will until the second day of October, when we arrived at the said Hochelaga, which is about forty-five leagues distant from the place where the said pinnace was left, during which time and on the way we found many folks of the country, the which brought fish and other victuals, dancing and showing great joy at our coming. And to attract and hold them in amity with us, the said captain gave them for recompense some knives, paternosters, and other trivial goods, with which they were much content. And we having arrived at the said Hochelaga, more than a thousand persons presented themselves before us, men, women and children alike, the which gave us a good reception as ever father did to child, showing marvelous joy; for the men in one band danced, the women on the other side and the children on the other, the which brought us store of fish and of their bread made of coarse millet,[10] which they cast into our said boats in the way that it seemed as if it tumbled from the air. Seeing this, our said captain landed with a number of his men, and as soon as he was landed they gathered all about him, and about all the others, giving them an unrestrained welcome. And the women brought their children in their arms to make them touch the said captain and others, making a rejoicing which lasted more than half an hour. And our captain, witnessing their liberality and good will, caused all the women to be seated and ranged in order, and gave them certain paternosters of tin and other trifling things, and to a part of the men knives. Then he retired on board the said boats to sup and pass the night, while these people remained on the shore of the said river nearest the said boats all night making fires and dancing, crying all the time 'Aguyaze,' which is their expression of mirth and joy.
"HOW THE CAPTAIN WITH GENTLEMEN, AND TWENTY-FIVE SEAMEN, WELL ARMED AND IN GOOD ORDER, WENT TO THE TOWN OF HOCHELAGA, AND OF THE SITUATION OF THE SAID PLACE.
"The next day, in the early morning, the captain attired himself and had his men put in order to go to see the town and habitation of the said people, and a mountain that is adjacent to their said town, whither the gentleman and twenty mariners went with the said captain, and left the rest for the guard of the boats, and took three men of the said Town of Hochelaga to bring and conduct them to the said place. And we, being on the road, found it as well beaten as it might be possible to behold, and the fairest and best land, all full of oaks as fine as there be in a forest of France under the which all the ground was covered with acorns. And we, having marched about a league and a half, found on the way one of the chief lords of the Town of Hochelaga, accompanied by a number of persons, the which made us a sign that we should rest at the said place near a fire that they had made by the said road, which we did, and then the said lord began to make a discourse and oration, as heretofore is said to be their custom of showing joy and familiarity, this lord thereby showing welcome to the said captain and his company; the which captain gave him a couple of hatchets and a couple of knives, with a cross and memorial of the crucifixion, which he made him kiss, and hung it on his neck, for which he rendered thanks to the said captain. This done, we marched farther on, and about half a league from there we began to find the land cultivated, and fair, large fields full of grain of their country, which is like Brazil millet, as big or bigger than peas, on which they live just as we do on wheat; and in the midst of these fields is located and seated the Town of Hochelaga, near to and adjoining a mountain, which is cultivated round about it and highly fertile, from the summit of which one sees a very great distance. We named the said mountain Mont Royal. The said town is quite round and inclosed with timbers in three rows in the style of a pyramid, crossed at the top, having the middle row in the style of a perpendicular line; and ranged with timbers laid along, well joined and tied in their manner, and is in height about two pikes. There is in this town but one gate and entrance, which fastens with bars, upon which and in many places of the said inclosure there are kinds of galleries and ladders to mount to them, which are furnished with rocks and stones for the guard and defense of it.
"There are within this town about fifty long houses of about fifty paces or more each, and twelve or fifteen paces wide and all made of timbers covered and garnished with great pieces of bark and strips of the said timber, as broad as tables, well tied artificially according to their manner. And within these there are many lodgings and chambers, and in the middle of these houses there is a great room on the ground where they make their fire and live in common; after that the men retire with their wives and children to their said chambers. Likewise they have granaries at the top of their houses where they put their corn of which they make their bread, which they call 'carraconny,'[11] and they make it in the manner following: They have mortars of wood as for braying flax, and beat the said corn into powder with pestles of wood; then they mix it into paste and make round cakes of it, which they put on a broad stone which is hot; then they cover it with hot stones, and so bake their bread instead of in an oven. They make likewise many stews of the said corn, and beans and peas of which they have enough, and also of big cucumbers and other fruits. They have also in their houses great vessels like tons, where they put their fish, eels and others, the which they dry in the smoke during the summer and live upon it in the winter. And of this they make a great store, as we have seen by experience. All their living is without any taste of salt, and they lie on barks of trees stretched upon the earth, with wretched coverings of skins from which they make their clothing--namely, wolves, beavers, martens, foxes, wild cats, deer, stags, and other wild beasts; but the most part of them go almost entirely naked. The most precious thing that they have in their world is 'esnogny,'[12] the which is white as snow, and they take it into the same river from the cornibotz[13] in the manner which follows: When a man heserved death, or when they have taken any enemies in war, they kill them, then cut them into the buttocks, thighs, and shoulders with great gashes; afterward in the places where the said esnogny is they sink the said body to the bottom of the water, and leave it ten or twelve hours, then draw it up and find within the said gashes and incisions the said cornibots, of which they make bead money and use it as we do gold and silver, and hold it the most precious thing in the world. It has the virtue of stanching blood from the nostrils, because we have tried it.
"All the said people give themselves only to tillage and fishing for a living; for the goods of this world they make no account, because they have no knowledge of them, and as they budge not from their country, and do not go about like those of Canada[14] and of the Saguenay. Notwithstanding the said Canadians are their subjects, with eight or nine other peoples who are upon the said river.
"HOW WE ARRIVED AT THE SAID TOWN AND OF THE RECEPTION WHICH WAS MADE UP THERE, AND HOW THE CAPTAIN MADE THEM PRESENTS; AND OTHER THINGS THAT THE SAID CAPTAIN DID, AS SHALL BE SEEN IN THIS CHAPTER.
"When we had arrived near the town, a great number of the inhabitants of it presented themselves before us, who after their fashion of doing, gave us a good reception; and by our guides and conductors we were brought to the middle of the town, where there was a place between the houses the extent of a stone's throw or about in a square, who made us a sign that we should stop at the said place, which we did. And suddenly all the women and girls of the said town assembled together, a part of whom were burdened with children in their arms, and who came to us to stroke our faces, arms, and other places upon our bodies that they could touch; weeping with joy to see us; giving us the best welcome that was possible to them, and making signs to us that it might please us to touch their said children. After the which things the men made the women retire, and seated themselves on the ground about us, as if we might wish to play a mystery. And, suddenly, a number of men came again, who brought each a square mat in the fashion of a carpet, and spread them out upon the ground in the middle of the said place and made us rest upon them. After which things were thus done there was brought by nine or ten men the king and lord of the country, whom they all call in their language Agohanna, who was seated upon a great skin of a stag; and they came to set him down in the said place upon the said mats beside our captain, making us a sign that he was their lord and king. This Agohanna was about the age of fifty years and was not better appareled than the others, save that he had about his head a kind of red band for a crown, made of the quills of porcupines and this lord was wholly impotent and diseased in his limbs.
"After he had made his sign of salutation to the said captain and to his folks, making them evident signs that they should make them very welcome, he showed his arms and legs to the said captain, praying that he would touch them, as though he would beg healing and health from him; and then the captain began to stroke his arms and legs with his hands; whereupon the said Agohanna took the band and crown that he had upon his head and gave it to our captain: and immediately there were brought to the said captain many sick ones, as blind, one-eyed, lame, impotent, and folks so very old that the lids of their eyes hung down even upon their cheeks, setting and laying them down nigh to our said captain for him to touch them, so that it seemed as if God had descended there in order to cure them.
"Our said captain, seeing the mystery and faith of this said people, recited the Gospel of St. John; to wit, the In principio, making the sign of the cross on the poor sick ones, praying God that he might give them knowledge of our holy faith and the passion of our Saviour, and the grace to receive Christianity and baptism. Then our said captain took a prayer book and read full loudly, word by word, the passion of our Lord, so that all the bystanders could hear it, while all these poor people kept a great silence and were marvelously good hearers, looking up to heaven and making the same ceremonies that they saw us make; after which the captain made all the men range themselves on one side, the women on another, and the children another, and gave to the chiefs hatchets, to the others knives, and to the women paternosters and other trifling articles; then he threw into the midst of the place among the little children some small rings and Agnus Dei of tin, at which they showed a marvelous joy. This done the said captain commanded the trumpets and other instruments of music to sound, with which the said people were greatly delighted; after which things we took leave of them and withdrew. Seeing this, the women put themselves before us for to stop us, and brought us of their victuals, which they had prepared for us, as fish, stews, beans and other things, thinking to make us eat and dine at the said place; and because their victuals were not to our taste and had no savor of salt, we thanked them, making them a sign that we did not need to eat.
"After we had issued from the said town many men and women came to conduct us upon the mountain aforesaid, which was by us named Mont Royal, distant from the said place some quarter of a league; and we, being upon this mountain, had sight and observance of more than thirty leagues round about it. Toward the north of which is a range of mountains which stretches east and west, and toward the south as well; between which mountains the land is the fairest that it may be possible to see, smooth, level, and tillable; and in the middle of the said lands we saw the said river, beyond the place where our boats were left, where there is a waterfall,[15] the most impetuous that it may be possible to see, and which it was impossible for us to pass. And we saw this river as far as we could discern, grand, broad and extensive, which flowed toward the southwest and passed near three fair, round mountains which we saw and estimated that they were about fifteen leagues from us. And we were told and shown by signs by our said three men of the country who had conducted us that there were three such falls of water on the said river like that where our said boats were, but we could not understand what the distance was between the one and the other. Then they showed us by signs that, the said falls being passed, one could navigate more than three moons by the said river; and beyond they showed us that along the said mountains, being toward the north, there is a great stream, which descends from the west like the said river.[16] We reckoned that this is the stream which passed by the realm and province of Saguenay, and, without having made them any request or sign, they took the chain from the captain's whistle, which was of silver, and the haft of a poniard, the which was of copper, yellow like gold, which hung at the side of one of our mariners, and showed that it came from above the said river, and that there were Agojuda, which is to say evil folk, the which are armed even to the fingerhowing us the style of their armor, which is of cords and of wood laced and woven together, giving us to understand that the said Agojuda carried on continual war against one another; but by default of speech we could not learn how far it was to the said country. Our captain showed them some red copper,[17] which they call caignetdaze, pointing them toward the said place, and asking by signs if it came from there, and they began to shake their heads, saying no, and showing that it came from Saguenay, which is to the contrary of the preceding. After which things thus seen and understood, we withdrew to our boats, which was not without being conducted by a great number of the said people, of which part of them, when they saw our folk weary, loaded them upon themselves, as upon horsesd carried them. And we, having arrived at our said boats, made sail to return to our pinnace, for doubt that there might be some hindrance; which departure was not made without great regret of the said people, for as far as they could follow us down the said river they would follow us, and we accomplished so much that we arrived at our said pinnace Monday, the fourth day of October."
The reader must have been struck with the pride of the Hochelagans in conducting their visitors to the mountain as well as at the accurate and picturesque description given by Cartier of the scene that met his delighted gaze. Today the same beautiful sight may be seen by the visitor who makes his way to the "lookout" or the observatory. The landscape at his feet has been covered with a busy city and its suburbs, its manufactories, its public buildings and its homes and villas, but still it appears as if all these were peeping out of a garden. All around the green fields and pleasant meadows are there as of yore. From this height the disfigurements of the lower city are not visible. Montreal has been described as a beautiful lady handsomely gowned, but whose skirt fringes are sadly mud and dust stained.
The river has been spanned by gigantic bridges but the main grand lines of the landscape are those that Cartier gazed upon. There at the south is the great St. Lawrence with its islands on its bosom, now studded with ocean going steamers; beyond there is the great sweep of the St. Lawrence Valley, broken abruptly by the solitary mountain ridges of Montarville, St. Bruno, Beloeil, Rougemont, Yamaska, and Mount Johnson--a volcanic sisterhood of which Mount Royal is itself a member--and hemmed in on the horizon by the cloudlike ridges of the Green and Adirondack mountains. Looking to the west are the Lachine Rapids and beyond the Lake St. Louis, and to the north the Rivière des Prairies or the Back River is seen, at the head of which lies the bright surface of the Lake of the Two Mountains. Far away hemming in the horizon on that side runs the hoary Laurentian Range, the oldest hills known to geology. All this apart from the works of civilization Cartier saw from the mountain which has only of late years been planned to intensify its beauty and usefulness. We are now looking forward to the day when that same city around the mountain will also bear the mark of an intelligible plan to intensify the beauty of the city and make it by art, as it is by nature, one of the finest cities in the world, worthy of the jewel standing out--the pride of its city--Mount Royal. Cartier saw the island from the point of view of Greater Mount Royal. In this he resembles those who today see a Greater Montreal. Modern Hochelagans are as proud of their mountain as those of old. D'Arcy McGee imagines Jacques Cartier telling of it on his return to St. Malo:
He told them of the Algonquin braves--the hunters of the wild, Of how the Indian mother in the forest rocks her child; Of how, poor souls, they fancy in every living thing A spirit good or evil, that claims their worshipping; Of how they brought their sick and maim'd for him to breathe upon, And of the wonders wrought for them through the Gospel of St. John.
He told them of the river whose mighty current gave Its freshness for a hundred leagues to Ocean's briny wave; He told them of the glorious scene presented to his sight, What time he rear'd the cross and crown on Hochelaga's height, And of the fortress cliff that keeps of Canada the key, And they welcomed back Jacques Cartier from his perils o'er the sea.
On Tuesday, September 4th, Jacques Cartier regained his pinnace and on Wednesday, September 5th, he passed thence on his way to Stadaconé. At Stadaconé, on May 3d, the festival of the Holy Cross, he planted the cross and inscribed it with the royal name and title, "Franciscus Primus Dei Gratia." There he treacherously seized Donnacona and his friends Dom Agaya and Taignoagny and took them to France. On July 6th, 1636, he reached St. Malo "by the grace of the Creator, whom we pray, making an end of our navigation to grant us his grace and Paradise at the end. Amen."
CARTIER'S SECOND VISIT TO HOCHELAGA, 1540
When Cartier appeared before the King, Francis I, after his second voyage there is no doubt that he would have enthusiastically recommended the country of Hochelaga, especially that island, on which was the mountain to which he had given the title "Mont Royal" as the site of a settlement, for in Jacques Cartier's commission, dated October 17, 1540, in preparation for the third voyage, we read:
"And among others we have sent there our dear and well beloved Jacques Cartier, who has discovered the large countries of Canada and Hochelaga, making an end of Asia, on the western side, which country he found, as he reported to us, furnished with many good commodities, and the people thereof well formed in body and limb, and well disposed in spirit and understanding, of whom he likewise brought us a certain number, whom we have for a long time supported and instructed in our holy faith[18] with our said subjects, in consideration of which and seeing their good intentions, we have considered and decided to send back the said Cartier to the said country of Canada and Hochelaga, and as far as the land of Saguenay, if we can reach there with a good number of ships of our said subjects of good intentions and of all conditions, arts and industries, in order to enter farther into the said countries to converse with the said peoples thereof, and if necessary, live with them in order to accomplish better our said intention and to do a thing agreeable to God our Creator and Redeemer and which may be for the promoting of his holy sacred name and of our mother the Holy Catholic church, of which we are called and named the first son."
Yet before he signed this commission five years had passed. For up to this Francis had troubles enough at home, with his kingdom invaded by Charles V of Spain and his throne threatened, to prevent his giving thought to Hochelaga in the West. But on June 15, 1538, the truce between France and Spain gave him more leisure for colonization schemes and the extension of the empire. Especially did he desire it to turn to the western hemisphere, for he looked with jealous eyes upon the activity of the King of Spain in that direction. "I should like to see the clause in our father Adam's will which bequeathed to him this fine heritage."
There is no doubt that Cartier's action in seizing Donnacona, Taignoagny and Dom Agaya and others, and taking them to France, from which they never returned, was the beginning of the cause of the hostility of the Indians. At first these had received Cartier kindly, but they could not be expected to forget this treachery in the loss of their friends. Mather, alluding to a similar piece of treachery by an English captain some time before the arrival of the Pilgrim Colony declares that "it laid the foundation of grievous annoyances to all the English endeavors of settlements, especially in the northern parts of the island, for several years ensuing. The Indians would never forget or forgive this injury."
We have no record of Hochelaga till September 7-11, 1540. For this we are again indebted to Cartier's account of his third voyage. Luckily this has been partially preserved in Hakluyt's translation, which is that of the "Bref Récit," the only version known. On Wednesday (September 7, 1541) Cartier left the proposed French settlement, Charlesbourg Royal, about four leagues beyond the harbour of St. Croix, with two boats, to visit Hochelaga and the rapids above it. Following Hakluyt we learn:
"How after the departure of the two ships which were sent back to Brittany, and that the fort was begun to be builded, the captain prepared two boats to go up the great river to discover the passage of the three saults or falls of the river." While awaiting the arrival of Roberval in command of the first colonizing party Cartier went up to the sault from Charlesbourg Royal on September 7th, "and we sailed with so prosperous a wind that we arrived the 11th day of the month at the first sault of water, which is two leagues distant from the Town of Tutonaguy."[19]
There is no further description of Tutonaguy, which we take to be the site of Montreal. Cartier mentions that finding it impossible to get up against the course of the sault he came on shore to a beaten path going towards the first sault. "And on the way and soon after, we found an habitation of people which made us great cheer and entertained us very hospitably." Four young men conducted them to another hospitable people who lived over against the second sault. We may perhaps conclude that those of the first sault were islanders of Montreal and we are pleased that their hospitality was forthcoming as is always that of our modern city. But we regret that Jacques Cartier appears to have made no stay at Tutonaguy.
With this we take leave of Cartier. Canadians have one grudge against him, for there seems no doubt that his description of the severity of our climate delayed colonization here, but his account of Montreal is satisfactory to us. We are not writing his life, but Montreal can rejoice in having been discovered by a worthy man. We are glad that Francis I recognized his merits as we find him spoken of, in an act of the Chapter of St. Malo, September 29, 1549, as Sieur de Limoilou, and in another act, of February 5, 1550, as a "noble man." Unfortunately as he did not leave any child by his wife, Catherine Desgranges, he did not pass on his title of nobility to anyone. Jacques Cartier is worthy of recognition as among the great men of his time, and Montreal is proud of its discoverer and first historian.
ROBERVAL'S PROBABLE VISIT TO HOCHELAGA, 1542
The next French visit to Hochelaga can only be surmised. We have the record as follows, which gives us an indication of such a possible visit: It is found in Hakluyt's description of the
"COURSE OF JEAN ALPHONSE, CHIEF PILOT TO MONSIEUR ROBERVAL 1542.
"By the nature of the climate the lands towards Hochelaga are better and better and more fruitful; and this land is fit for figs and pears; and I think that gold and silver will be found here according as the people of the country say." It is likely that it received a visit from "John Francis de la Rocque, knight, Lord of Roberval," whose voyage from his fort in Canada is related by Hakluyt "to the countries of Canada, Saguenay and Hochelaga with three tall ships and 200 persons, both men and women, and children, begun in April, 1542, in which parts he remained the same summer and all the next winter." On the 6th of June about 6 o'clock in the morning, Monsieur Roberval, the king's lieutenant general in the countries of Canada, Saguenay and Hochelaga, "set sail for the country of the Saguenay and sailed against the stream in which voyage their whole furniture was of eight barks, as well great as small and to the number of three score and ten persons, with the aforesaid general." Unfortunately the rest of this voyage is wanting. We know that de Roberval's party contained many undesirables and not good matter for citizenship and we are glad, that if these did visit Montreal, they did not stay there.
Montreal would never have been proud of itself with such an origin.
NOTE I
THE SITE OF HOCHELAGA
Where did Jacques Cartier land on the island of Montreal in 1535? We should very much like to know this. All we know is the naming of the mountain. There is a portion of Montreal called Hochelaga, being to the southwest of the present city, but there is no contention that this is the original part of the island, on which Jacques Cartier landed. The "Bref Récit" of Cartier's voyage states that he landed two leagues from the Indian town, which was a quarter of a league from the mountain. Hakluyt makes the latter distance a league. The Abbé Faillon in "La Colonie Française" thinks that Cartier ascended the river to the Lachine Rapids. There is more reason to believe he stayed on his way opposite Nun's Island. A theory advanced in November 19, 1860, by Sir William Dawson, principal of McGill College, in a discourse before the Natural History Society of Montreal, locates the site of Hochelaga in the space between Metcalfe and Mansfield streets in one direction and Burnside Place and Sherbrooke Street in the other.
"Doctor Dawson founded his opinion after the examination of some Indian relics excavated by some workmen in November, 1860, near Mansfield Street, in the sandy ridge of a terrace immediately north of Sherbrooke Street. They exhumed two skeletons, and with them or near them were found jawbones of a beaver and of a dog, with a fragment of an earthen vessel and of a hollow cylinder of red clay. The skeletons were in a sitting or crouching posture, as was the mode of burial with certain early Indian tribes. Among other relics previously found and exhibited on this occasion was an instrument made of bone, found among the remains, which exactly fitted the marks on some of the pottery, the large end having been fashioned like a cup, and the small end artificially tapered to a point. There were also several knives and chisels of sharpened bone, in tolerable preservation and some singular counters which are supposed to have been used in play, the Indians being inveterate gamblers. The most interesting relics were tobacco pipes, handsomely fashioned in the shape of lotus flowers, with the hole through the stem perfectly preserved. I have thought it well to enumerate these finds because they are now at the Natural History Museum of the city, and several gentlemen, antiquarians and archæologists have also private collections of their own. May not they serve the reader's imagination to conjure up and reconstruct for himself a picture of the village life of the earliest known inhabitants of Montreal in place of a labored description of the present writer."[20]
Describing Cartier's walk toward Hochelaga Mr. Stanley Bagg (Numa), in the "Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal, July, 1873, Vol. II, p. 14, says: "Where the brook crosses McGill College ground, he was met by a deputation of the aborigines; afterwards he came into the presence of their king, was conducted through corn-fields to the town and subsequently ascended the mountain. Cartier's description of the locality, taken in connection with the statement of the missionaries, and the discovery of Indian antiquities, place the Town of Hochelaga on the space between Mansfield Street to a little west of Metcalfe Street in one direction and in the other from a little south of Burnside Place to within sixty yards of Sherbrooke Street. In this area, several skeletons, hundreds of old fireplaces, indications of huts, bones of wild animals, pottery and implements of stone and bone have been found."
NOTE II
HOCHELAGA CIVILIZATION
In order to present a picture of these early settlers around Mount Royal the following description from Jacques Cartier's second voyage may be of avail:
"OF THE MANNER OF LIVING OF THE PEOPLE OF THE SAID LAND, AND OF CERTAIN CONDITIONS, BELIEF, AND MANNER OF MAKING WHAT THEY HAVE
"The said people have not any belief in God which may avail, for they believe in one whom they call Cudouagny, and they say that he speaks frequently to them and tells them what the weather should be. They say also that when he is angry with them he throws dirt in their eyes. They believe also that when they depart they go to the stars, then go declining to the horizon like the said stars, then pass into fair fields toward plains of beautiful trees, flowers and sumptuous fruits. After they had given us to understand these things we showed them their error and said that their Cudouagny is an evil spirit who abuses them, and said that there is only one God, who is in heaven, who gives us all things necessary, and is the Creator of all things, and that in Him only should we believe, and that it was necessary to be baptised or go to hell. Many other things of our faith were shown them which they readily believed, and called their Cudouagny, Agojuda, so that many times they prayed our captain to have them baptised. And the said Lord Taignoagny, Dom Agaya, and all the people of their town, came there for the purpose of being baptised; but because we knew not their intention and sincerity and that there was none that could show them the faith there, excuse was made to them, and it was told Taignoagny and Dom Agaya that they should make them understand that we should return another voyage, and would bring priests and holy oil, giving them to understand for excuse that one could not be baptised without the said holy oil, which they believed because they saw several children baptised in Brittany, and of the promise that the captain made them to return they were very joyous and thanked him.
"The said people live in almost a community of goods, rather of the style of the Brazilians, and are wholly clothed with skin of wild beasts, and poorly enough. In winter they are shod with stockings and shoes, and in summer they go barefoot. They keep the order of marriage, save that they take two or three wives, and after the husband is dead the wives never remarry, but wear mourning for the said dead all their lives, and besmear their faces with coal-dust and with grease as thick as the thickness of a knife; and by that one knows that they are widows. They have another custom very bad for their girls; for after they are of age to marry they are all put into a common house, abandoned to everybody who desires them until they have found their match. And all this we have seen by experience, for we have seen the houses as full of the said girls as is a school of boys in France. And, moreover, gaming according to their manner is held in the said houses, where they stake all that they have, even to the covering of their nature. They do not any great work, and with little pieces of wood about the size of a half-sword cultivate their land whereon they raise their corn, which they call Zis, the which is as big as peas, of the same grain in growth as in Brazil. Likewise they have a great quantity of great melons, cucumbers, and pumpkins, peas and beans of all colours, not of the kind of ours. They have also an herb of which during the summer they make a great store for the winter, the which they greatly esteem, and the men only use it in the manner following: They have it dried in the sun and carry it about their necks in a little beast's skin in place of a bag, with a horn of stone or wood; then by and by they make powder of the said herb and put it in one of the ends of the said horn, then put a coal fire thereon and suck at the other end so long that they fill their bodies with smoke; insomuch that it comes out by the mouth and nostrils as by a chimney funnel; and they say that it keeps them healthy and warm, and they never go without having their said things. We have tried the said smoke, which, after being put into our mouths, seemed to be powder of pepper put therein, it was so hot. The women of the said country work beyond comparison more than the men, as well in fishing, of which they make a great business, as in tilling and other things; and men, women and children alike are more hardened to the cold than beasts, for with the greatest cold that we may have seen, the which was extreme and bitter, they came over the ice and snow every day to our ships, the most part of them almost entirely naked, which is an incredible thing to one who has not seen it. They take during the said ice and snow a great quantity of wild beasts, as deer, stags, and bears, of which they brought us but very little, because they were stingy of their victuals. They eat their flesh wholly raw, after having been dried by the smoke, and likewise their fish. By what we have seen and been able to learn of this said people it seems to me that they might be easy to tame in such fashion as one might desire. God by his divine compassion bestow upon them his regard. Amen."
NOTE III--CANADA
Canada was limited by Cartier to the region between the Isle of Bacchus (Isle d'Orleans) and Hochelaga. There can be no doubt that the word Canada is derived from Cannata or Kannata, which in Iroquois signifies a collection of dwellings, in other words a settlement, and it is probable that when the Indians were asked by the French the name of their country, they replied pointing to their dwellings, "Cannata," which their interrogators applied in a broader sense than was intended.
NOTE IV--GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF MOUNT ROYAL
The following geological study of Mount Royal prepared by Dean F. D. Adams of McGill University for the Geological Survey Department of the Federal Government cannot fail to be of interest to students of Montreal:
"In the Province of Quebec, between the enormous expanse of the Laurentian highlands to the northwest, constituting the 'Canadian Shield,' and the disturbed and folded tract of country which marks the Appalachian uplift, there is a great plain underlain by nearly horizontal rocks of lower Palæozoic age. This plain, while really showing slight differences of level from place to place, seems to the casual observer perfectly flat. Its surface is mantled with a fertile soil consisting of drift redistributed upon its surface by the sea, which covered it at the close of the Glacial times. The uniform expanse of this plain, however, is broken by several isolated hills composed of igneous rocks, which rise abruptly from it and which constitute very striking features of the landscape.
"From the top of Mount Royal the other hills referred to can all be seen rising from the plain to the east; while to the north the plain stretches away unbroken to the foot of the Laurentian plateau.
"The hills under consideration, while by no means 'mere hummocks,' being situated in such a country of low relief, seem to be higher than they really are and are always referred to locally as 'mountains.'
"These mountains, whose positions are shown on the accompanying map, are eight in number, their names and their height above sea level being as follows:
"Mount Royal 769.6 feet. Montarville or St. Bruno 715 " (O'Neil) Beloeil 1,437 " (Leroy) Rougemont 1,250 " Yamaska 1,470 " (Young) Shefford 1,725 " Brome 1,755 " Mount Johnson or Monnoir 875 "
"They have been called the Monteregian Hills from Mount Royal ('Mons Regius'), which is the best known member of the group and may be taken as their type.
"Brome Mountain is by far the largest member of the group, having an area of 30 square miles. Shefford comes next in size, having an area of rather less than nine square miles; while Mount Johnson, which is very much smaller than any of the others, has an area of only .422 of one square mile.
"Of these eight, the first six, as Logan notes, 'stand pretty nearly in a straight line,' running approximately east and west, Mount Royal being the most westerly, and the others following in the order in which they are enumerated above, until Shefford Mountain, the most easterly member of the series, is reached. Mount Johnson and Brome Mountain lie on a line parallel to them, a short distance to the south, Rougemont being the nearest neighbour to Mount Johnson and Brome Mountain immediately south of Shefford. It is highly probable, in view of this distribution, that these ancient volcanic mountains are, as is usual in such occurrences, arranged along some line or lines of weakness or deep-seated fracture. The 'pretty nearly straight line' referred to by Logan, on which the first six mountains of the group are situated, must be considered either as a single line with a rather sharp curve in the middle or as made up of two shorter straight lines, each with three mountains, diverging from one another at an angle of about thirty degrees, with Montarville at the point of intersection. Mount Johnson and Brome Mountain might then be considered as situated on short subsidiary fractures.
"The distance from Brome Mountain, the most easterly member of the Monteregian Hills, to Mount Royal the most westerly, is 50 miles (80 km.). For a few miles to the east and west of these mountains respectively, however, evidences of the igneous activity of the system are manifested in the occurrence of occasional dykes or small stocks of the consanguineous rocks of the series, the extreme easterly representative of these being a little stock exposed about a mile and a half east of Eastman, on the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and the most westerly being a series of dykes and a small stock at La Trappe, on the Lake of Two Mountains. Similarly, the most northerly extension is represented by a sheet intercalated between strata of the Chazy limestone in the bed of the Little River, near St. Lin, 15 miles (24 km.) north of St. Lin Junction. It is difficult to say just how far to the south the last evidences of the Monteregian activity are found, but scattered dykes of bostonite, camptonite and monchiquite have been described by Kemp and Marsters from the shores of Lake Champlain (out of which flows the River Richelieu), to a distance of 90 miles (145 km.) or more south of Mount Johnson.
"The Monteregian Hills are a series of ancient plutonic intrusions. Some of them (e. g. Brome Mountain) are apparently denuded laccoliths, one of them (Mount Johnson) is a typical neck or pipe, and it is probable that some, if not all, of them, represent the substructures of volcanoes which at one time were in active eruption in this region.
"It is impossible to determine accurately the date of these intrusions. In the case of Mount Royal, however, inclusions of Lower Devonian limestone are found in the intruded rock, so that the intrusions forming the mountain are later than Lower Devonian time.
"Since Dresser by another line of evidence, has shown that the intrusion of Mount Shefford probably took place before late Carboniferous time, the Monteregian intrusions probably date back to the late Devonian or early Carboniferous period.
"It must be noted that while six of these mountains rise from the horizontal strata of the plain, the two most easterly members of the group, namely Shefford and Brome, while still to the west of the axis of that range, lie well within the folded belt of the Appalachians, although, owing to the extensive denudation from which the region has suffered, this folding has had but little influence on the local topography. About La Trappe, at the extreme westerly extension of the Monteregian area, the dykes of the series cut rocks of Laurentian age, which here form an outlier of the great Laurentian protaxis on the north.
"The Monteregian Hills form an exceptionally distinct and well marked petrographical province, being composed of consanguineous rocks of very interesting and rather unusual type. These are characterized by a high content of alkali and in the main intrusion of almost every mountain two distinct types are found associated with one another, representing the products of the differentiation of the original magma.
"These are--
"(a) Nepheline syenite, in some cases replaced by or associated with pulaskite, tawite, akerite or nordmarkite.
"(b) Essexite, in some cases represented by theralite, yamaskite, rougemonite, or rouvillite.
"It may be mentioned that yamaskite is a very basic rock type characterized by a great predominance of pyroxene, basaltic hornblende and ilmenite, with about two per cent of anorthite. Rougemonite consists largely of anorthite with pyroxene as the only important ferro-magnesian constituent. Rouvillite is a highly feldspathic variety of theralite.
GEOLOGY OF MOUNT ROYAL
"Mount Royal consists of a body of intrusive plutonic rock penetrating the nearly horizontal limestone of the Trenton formation (Ordovician). It consists of two main intrusions composed of essexite and nepheline syenite respectively, of which the nepheline syenite is the later followed by a swarm of dykes and sheets of consanguineous rocks which cut not only the main intrusions, but also penetrate the surrounding limestones in all directions. The intrusive rock in some places tilts up the limestones while elsewhere about the mountain these maintain their horizontal attitude. The intrusion may be essentially laccolitic in character, or it may represent the plutonic basis of a volcano. The erosion has been so long continued that it has been impossible as yet to reach a definite conclusion on this point.
"The greater part of the plain through which the mountain rises, and which is underlaid by Ordovician strata, is mantled by drift which also covers the slopes of the mountain. This drift, and in some places the underlying rock, has been terraced by a series of well defined beaches, which mark the successive stages of the retreat of the sea at the close of the Glacial age.
"The City of Montreal is built upon these drift deposits, and lies upon the slopes of Mount Royal and upon the plain about its foot. The development of the city was largely influenced by the position of the main beaches above mentioned.
"At a number of places on the slopes of Mount Royal and in its vicinity there are remarkable developments of igneous breccia. This has as a matrix one or other of the dyke rocks of the series, while the included fragments consist in part of the Trenton limestone, often associated with fragments of the other underlying stratified rocks traversed by the dykes in their upward passage. These fragments are frequently so numerous that they constitute a large part of the whole mass. Perhaps the most remarkable of these breccias is that which occurs on St. Helen's Island in the harbor of Montreal, and which is unique among these occurrences in that it contains fragments of rocks which are more recent in age than any of the sedimentary strata now found in the district.
"At the present time a tunnel, about three and a half miles in length, is being driven through Mount Royal by the Canadian Northern Railway, in order to gain an entrance from the westward to their proposed terminals in the vicinity of the corner of Dorchester and Ste. Monique streets, in the City of Montreal. It has afforded an excellent opportunity of studying the distribution of dykes, sheets, etc., as well as fresher specimens of many of the rock types of the district. Already about two miles and a half of the sub-heading have been driven. More minute description, in detail, of the various explored strata of rock is to be found in the same work."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The company is said to be 110.
[2] This commission was dated October 31, 1534.
[3] Stadaconé is the site of Quebec. Stadaconé is "wing" in Huron Iroquois, so called because of the formation of the point between the St. Lawrence and the St. Charles rivers.
[4] The translation of the second voyage of Jacques Cartier which we are using with his permission is that made by Mr. James Phinney Baxter and published in 1906 in his "Memoir of Jacques Cartier." We have not chosen Hakluyt's for the following reasons: In the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris there are three contemporary manuscripts, numbered 55 5644 and 5653, which vary very slightly. That numbered 5653 was probably the copy used for a publication of the second voyage issued at Paris in 1545 under the title of "Bref Récit" and appeared translated into English by Hakluyt in 1600. In comparing the other manuscript it has been found that numerous errors and omissions occurred in the version printed under the title of the Bref Récit including the omission of two entire chapters. Doctor Baxter has therefore translated the manuscript 5589 and it is a portion of this that we present to the readers.
[5] Hochelaga is Huron Iroquois for "at the Beavers Dam."
[6] This might indicate that there were chaplains with Cartier, if he had perhaps not deluded the savages, as likely he did.
[7] The history of the efforts of the Montreal merchants to deepen the channels dates from the same cause. The success of the navigation to Montreal has followed the varying increases in depth of this channel.
[8] The present Sorel Islands, the streams being the channels between them.
[9] The Algonquin word is Mooskouessou.
[10] Maize or Indian corn.
[11] Lescarbot has it caracona. The word is Huron Iroquois.
[12] "Esnogny," the wampum of the Abenaki.
[13] Shells.
[14] Cartier's Canada was limited to the region between the Isle Bacchus and Hochelaga.
[15] The Lachine Rapids.
[16] The Ottawa.
[17] Probably from the region of Lake Superior.
[18] Donnacona, Dom Agaya and Taignoagny were baptized, as it appears by the register of St. Malo. Donnacona, being the so-called King of the Savages, was doubtless named François for the king. The following is a translation in the entry in the registry: "This day, Notre Dame XXVth of March, the year one thousand five hundred and thirty-eight, were baptized three savage men from the party of Canada, taken in the said country by the honest man, Jacques Cartier, captain for the King, our Sire, for the discovery of the said lands. The first was named Charles, by the venerable and discreet master Charles de Champ Girault, dean and canon of the said places principal sponsor; and secondary sponsor, Monsieur the Lieutenant and Seigneur de la Verderye; and godmother Catherine Des Granges. And the second was named François, the name of the King, our Sire, by the honest man, Jacques Cartier, principal godfather; and secondary godfather Master Pierre le Gobien; godmother, Madame le Lieutenant Seigneur de la Verderye. The third was named ---- by Master Servan May ---- of the said place, and secondary godfather, Jehan Nouël; and godmother Guillemette Maingard."
[19] Montreal is known in Iroquois as "Tioktiaki" which the Abbé Faillon has identified as Tutonaguy.
[20] Sandham's "Ville Marie Past and Present."
Chapter II
1516-1627
COLONIZATION
UNDER THE EARLY TRADING COMPANIES OF NEW FRANCE
FRENCH COLONIZATION, A CHRISTIANIZING MOVEMENT--THE CROSS AND THE CROWN--ROBERVAL'S COMMISSION TO COLONIZE CANADA AND HOCHELAGA--FEUDALISM PROJECTED--CRIMINALS AND MALEFACTORS TO BE SENT AS COLONISTS--JACQUES CARTIER SAILS IN ADVANCE--CHARLESBOURG ROYAL, THE FIRST COLONY, STARTED--CARTIER SAILS FOR HOCHELAGA AND PASSES TUTONAGUY--CARTIER SAILS SECRETLY FOR FRANCE--CHARLESBOURG A FAILURE--DEATH OF CARTIER--HIS GREAT NEPHEW, NOEL, VISITS THE GREAT SAULT IN 1557--THE FIRST PRIVATE MONOPOLY TO NOEL AND OTHERS--THE FIRST ROYAL TRADE MONOPOLY TO DE LA ROCHE--THE EDICT OF NANTES--CHAUVIN, A HUGUENOT, SECURES A TRADE MONOPOLY--TADOUSSAC, THE COURT OF KING PETAUD--EYMARD DE CHASTES RECEIVES A COMMISSION AND ENGAGES THE SERVICES OF A ROYAL GEOGRAPHER, SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN--CHAMPLAIN's FIRST VISIT TO THE SAULT--DE MONTS, SUCCEEDING DE CHASTES, RETAINS CHAMPLAIN AS HIS LIEUTENANT--QUEBEC CHOSEN BY CHAMPLAIN--CHAMPLAIN BECOMES A COMPANY PROMOTER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, THE SHAREHOLDERS BEING MOSTLY HUGUENOTS, THE PRINCE DE CONDE, GOVERNOR GENERAL--CHAMPLAIN's BLUNDER IN ALLYING HIMSELF WITH THE ALGONQUINS AND HURONS AGAINST THE IROQUOIS, AFTERWARDS THE CAUSE OF IROQUOIS HOSTILITIES AGAINST THE FUTURE MONTREAL--THE COMING OF THE "RECOLLECTS"--CHAMPLAIN'S ATTEMPT AT A REAL COLONIZING SETTLEMENT AT QUEBEC--THE JESUITS ARRIVE--THE COMPANY OF ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES.
As the origin of Montreal is bound up so closely with the history of the colonization of La Nouvelle France, it is well to place it in relation with this movement, otherwise Montreal will appear as detached from its mission in the growth and development of Canada.
The date usually assigned for the discovery of Canada is April 5, 1409, but the knowledge of Canada begins only with Jacques Cartier. Long, however, before him, the fishing grounds of Newfoundland had seen navigators from Dieppe, St. Malo, La Rochelle, Honfleur and other ports of France, besides those of Cornwall, Devonshire and the Channel Islands. Brave mariners, Normands, Bretons and Basques, besides being familiar with Newfoundland, knew vaguely of the existence of Canada, although that name had not been yet attached to this country. Other nations also were represented in these fishing regions, but it was reserved to Cartier definitely to discover it, and to Francis I of France, to attempt to colonize and christianize it.
It must be conceded that the religious policy played a great part, as the commissions granted to Cartier, Champlain, and others, as well as the report of these and the relations of their discoveries, amply testify. Lescarbot, no good Catholic, acknowledges that: "Our kings in enterprising these movements for discovery, have had another end than that of our neighbours (the English and the Dutch). For I see by their commissions that these smack only of the advancement of the Christian religion without any present profit."
It is this lofty missionary spirit that we must read into the adventurous motives of the first discoverers and founders of Canada--La Nouvelle France--of Quebec and Montreal in particular, else nothing but a sordid desire for trade, mixed perhaps with adventure, is to be the story of the origin of our great country. Unless the religious character and close touch with the supernatural, possessed by the first inhabitants are appreciated, the romance of the accounts of the early historians will have no attraction for our readers nor will the key to the understanding of the history of Canada till the occupation by the British in 1760 be supplied.
We must look upon Jacques Cartier, when as the bearer of a Royal Commission, he left St. Malo, on April 20, 1534, to conquer new lands for Christianity, as dignified by this side of his duty--to promote the glory of God and that of France. Consequently his progress up the River St. Lawrence to Hochelaga is marked by such incidents as the distribution of rosaries and pious objects, emblems of the faith he believed in, and the planting at Gaspé of a cross thirty feet high, in the middle of which was a shield with three fleurs de lis, with the inscription, cut into the wood, "Vive Le Roi de France." His course and that of Champlain, up the St. Lawrence is strewn with a number of places named after the festivals of the church, all dignifying an otherwise prosaic catalogue of discoveries. The cross and the crown of France may therefore be considered the emblems of the French occupation.
It is not the purpose of this book to detail Cartier's voyages, three of which we have recounted by himself, those of 1534, 1535-36, and 1540. We have, however, chosen several extracts from the second voyage, as these relate especially to Montreal. We wish to gather the results of his work. He left no permanent settlement and established no trading posts but he claimed the land for France and his accounts to the king and the ministers and his published voyages of the country of Canada, Hochelaga and Saguenay, kept before his countrymen the existence of a great land in the West worth the colonizing.
Cartier's commission in the first voyage was that of "Captain and Master Pilot of the King;" in the second, "Captain General and Master Pilot." When he was sent on his third voyage, a new element entered into the view of Canada. At the head of the expedition was placed a gentleman of Picardy, Jean François de la Rocque Seigneur de Roberval, whom Francis I playfully styled the Petty King of Vimeux, and whom he appointed his lieutenant and governor in the countries of Canada and Hochelaga, with Jacques Cartier as "the Captain General and leader of the ships." His commission is dated October 20, 1540. This was to be the first colonizing movement.
Jean François de la Rocque's letters patent were granted by Francis I, on January 15, 1540. It reads, having learnt of the discovery of countries, "the which have been found furnished with very good commodities, and the people thereof well formed in body and limb and well disposed in disposition and understanding, of which have also been brought us others having the appearance of good inclination. In consideration of which things we have considered and determined to send again into the same countries of Canada and Hochelaga and others circumjacent, as well as into all transmarine and maritime countries inhabited, not possessed nor granted, by any Christian princes, some goodly number of gentlemen, our subjects, as well men of war as common people of each sex, and other craftsmen and mechanics in order to enter further into the said countries; and as far as into the land of the Saguenay and all other countries aforesaid, for the purpose of discoursing with the said peoples therein, if it can be done, and to dwell in the said lands and countries, there to construct and build towns and forts, temples and churches in the communication of our Holy Catholic Faith and Christian doctrine, to constitute and establish laws in our name, together with officers of justice to make them live according to equity and order and in the fear and love of God, to the end that they may better conform to our purpose and do the things agreeable to God, our Creator, Saviour and Redeemer, which may be to the sanctification of His Holy Name and to the increase of our Holy Faith and the growth of our Mother of the Holy Catholic Church, of the which we are said to be and entitled the first son," etc.
The text of the letters patent following is a very long one, it enters most minutely, and in a most legal and formal manner, into the details of the powers of the governor which are to be very great and foresee a thoroughly organized kingdom with all the elements of feudalism with his fiefs and seigneuries--in fact a Nouvelle France!
On January 15th, Roberval's Royal Commission empowering him to take the means for the equipment, was signed at Fontainebleau. It gave to "our said lieutenant full authority, charge, commission and special mandate to provide and furnish of himself all things necessary to said army and to levy or cause to be levied in all parts, places and precincts of our realm as shall seem to him good, paying therefor reasonably, and as is meet, and to take men of war, or artisans and others of divers conditions in order to carry them with him on the said voyage, provided that this may be of their own good will and accord, and likewise also provisions, victuals, arms, artillery, arquebuses, powder, saltpeter, pikes and other offensive and defensive weapons, and generally all clothing, instruments and other things suitable for the equipment, despatch and efficiency of this army," etc. The supply of volunteers for this expedition does not seem to have been sufficiently encouraging, for, dated February 7th, we have an order by Francis I, for delivery of prisoners to Jehan François de la Rocque. This document after re-stating the terms of the commissions, already given, in view of the wish of the King that the expedition shall sail on the 15th of April, at the latest, states "and on account of the long distance from the said country and the fear of shipwreck and maritime risks, and others regretting to leave their goods, relatives and friends, fearing to make the said voyage; and, peradventure as a number, who would willingly make the same journey, might object to remain in the same country after the return of our said lieutenant, by means of which, through want of having a competent number of men for service, and other volunteers to people the said countries, the undertaking of the said voyage could not be accomplished so soon, and as we desire, and as it is requisite for the weal of the human creatures dwelling in the said country without law and without knowledge of God and of his holy faith, which we wish to increase and augment by a great zeal, a thing if it were not accomplished, which would cause us very great regret, considering the great benefit and public weal which would proceed from the said enterprise, and as we have enjoined and verbally commanded our said lieutenant to diligently execute our said will and intention, to depart and commence the said voyage by the fifteenth of April next ensuing, at farthest if it can be accomplished," etc. * * * "We desire to employ clemency, in doing a good and meritorious work, towards some criminals and malefactors, that by this they may recognize the Creator by rendering him thanks and amending their lives, we have thought proper to have given and delivered to our said lieutenant, his clerks and deputies, to the full number that he shall advise of the said criminals and malefactors detained in the jails and state prisons of our parliament and of other jurisdictions, * * * such as they shall desire to choose and select, condemned and judged as has been said, always excepting the imprisoned criminals to whom we are not accustomed to give pardon * * * commuting the penalty of death into an honest and useful voyage, with the condition that when the said persons return home again from the said voyage without permission from us, they shall be executed in the place in which they may have been condemned, immediately and without hope of pardon."
An extract from the Parliament Registers at Rouen of March 9th, giving power to Roberval to have the prisoners transferred from its jails to him limits the choice somewhat by "excepting the prisoners who shall be held in cases and crimes of heresy and high treason in the first degree, of counterfeiting money and other too monstrous cases and crimes."
Roberval could not get his party together for April. Indeed it seemed that he needed Jacques Cartier's assistance, for on October 17, 1540, we find him receiving a commission similar to Roberval's to take over fifty prisoners. In this charge he is allowed and permitted "to take the little galleon, called L'Emerillon which he now has of us, the which is already old and rotten, in order to serve in repairing those of the ships which shall have need of it," without rendering any account of it. But it was not till May 23d of the year following, 1541, that Cartier set sail with five ships, well furnished and victualed for two years. He went without Roberval, because as the King had sent Cartier letters "whereby he did expressly charge him to depart and set sail immediately upon the sight and receipt thereof, on pain of incurring his displeasure, and as Roberval had not got his artillery, powder and ammunitions ready he told Cartier to go on ahead and he would prepare a ship or two at Honfleur whither he expected his things were to come. Having mustered and reviewed "the gentleman soldiers and mariners which were retained and chosen for the performance of the said voyage, he gave unto Captain Cartier full authority to depart and go before and to govern all things as if he had been there in person."
So Cartier sailed away, on May 23d. We will leave the misfortunes on the way to be read in Cartier's memoir of the third voyage. At last, however, Cartier arrived at the mouth of what is now Cape Rouge River and found a spot where a fort should be built on the high point now called Redclyffe. This fort he called Charlesbourg Royal, doubtless after Charles, Duke of Orléans, son of Francis I. He put three of the vessels in haven, and after the two others were emptied of all that was destined for the colony, Cartier sent them back and with them in command Marc Jalobert, his brother-in-law, and Etienne Noël, his nephew, to tell King Francis that they had begun to construct a fort, but that Monsieur de Roberval was not yet come and that he feared that by occasion of contrary winds and tempests he was driven back to France. They departed for St. Malo on September 2d.
Things were progressing at the fort; the land was tilled and the fort was begun to be built; but now a party consisting of Cartier, Martin de Painport, with other gentlemen, and the remnant of the mariners, departed with two boats "with victuals to go as far as Hochelaga of purpose to view and understand the fashion of the Saults of water." The Viscount de Beaupré stayed behind for the guarding and government of all things in the fort. Cartier's party reached the rapids passing Tutonaguy, which we identify as the site of Montreal, but we have no record of his staying there. Cartier's memoirs of the voyage break off here. However, as we are interested only in the colonizing movement, we get sufficient information from Roberval's account of his voyage of the fate of the Charlesbourg attempt. Roberval says that Cartier left for France at the end of September, 1541, and that he himself after having set sail from Honfleur, on the 16th of April, 1542, arrived at Newfoundland on the 7th of June following, where he found Cartier on his way home. Cartier explained that he had left the fort because he had not been able, with his little troupe, to resist the savages who roamed daily around the fort, and were very harassing. However, Cartier and his men praised the country highly, as being very rich and fertile, adding that they had taken away many diamonds, and a certain quantity of gold ore which Roberval examined and found good. Roberval had arrived with three great vessels fitted out at the expense of the King, with 200 souls, men and women and some gentlemen, among them being the Sieur de Lenneterre, his lieutenant, Lespinay, his ensign, the Captain Guinecourt, and the pilot, Jean Alphonse. He ordered Cartier to retrace his steps to Charlesbourg, believing that the new recruitment was able to resist the attacks of the enemy. But Cartier, and his following, departed secretly the following night. Whether or not this flight was disloyal, or born of fear, or of vainglory, since Roberval asserted, that Cartier had fled being desirous of getting first to France to acquaint the king of his discoveries, certain it is that it was wise. For this first royal colonizing party composed of so many men and women from the jails of France was fated to be a most lamentable failure. Famine and lawlessness marked its sojourn at Charlesbourg. It was well that New France should not be born of such material for citizenship. This voyage has an interest for Montrealers in that Roberval passed by it on a voyage to the Sault.
Cartier never seems to have been blamed by the king for his desertion of Roberval, but, it is said, he was sent back to recall him for more useful service in France. Of this fourth voyage of Jacques Cartier we have no record. We find him settled in France, ennobled and known as the Sieur de Limoilou, although there is a tradition, not well founded, that he made a fifth voyage to Canada. He lived an honoured man in St. Malo to his death. In the margin of the old record of the Town of St. Malo under date of September 1, 1557, we find the following:
"This said Wednesday about five o'clock in the morning died Jacques Cartier."
Cartier's name is no longer to be associated with the further history of Canada, except in the memory of a grateful people, who will come to admire the memory of this brave sailor, daring adventurer, missionary and historian--the discoverer of Canada and Montreal. We shall see, however, how this spirit of enterprise for Canadian extension was carried on by his nephews.
We cannot help feeling sorry for Roberval. He was a young man of energy and had great ideas as a colonizer. He went out, according to Charlevoix, with the Royal Commission as "Lord of Norumberga, Viceroy and Lieutenant General of Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland, Belle-Isle, Carpunt, Labrador, the Great Bay and Baccalaos." He was recalled for more useful service!
After Cartier had ceased visiting the St. Lawrence, the care of the French government for the development and colonization of Canada seems to have been neglected from 1543 to 1603. Cartier's discoveries were not appreciated; it was reserved for Champlain three-quarters of a century later, to follow in his footsteps. As Champlain is the trader par excellence of Canada and of Montreal, we may now briefly trace the history of our trade.
Although discovery and colonization were so long abandoned still the banks of Newfoundland and the mouth of the St. Lawrence were frequented yearly by hardy Normans and Bretons as before, for the cod and whale fishery there.[21] Trading with the natives in peltry became insensibly mingled with the occupation of fisherman and Tadoussac grew to be a public market for this sort of commerce and exchange. There we would have found many good friends of Jacques Cartier, among them Capt. Marc Jalobert, his brother-in-law, who visited Hochelaga in 1535 and Etienne Noël, his nephew, also a sturdy captain under Cartier in his third voyage. There, too, would have been Jacques Noël, his great-nephew, who reports in a letter of 1557 that he had gone on his uncle's traces up the St. Lawrence as far as the Great Sault. This visit to Hochelaga makes us interested in him, the more so, as it was this Noël, associated with Sieur de la Jaunaye-Chaton and the nephew of Jacques Cartier, who in 1558 applied to Henry III for a charter similar to that granted by Francis I to their uncle, appealing for this favour on the ground that their uncle had spent, from his own pocket in the service of the king in the voyage of 1541, a sum in excess of that which he had received from the king, and had been allowed no recompense; nor had indeed his heirs. Warned by the failures and the expenses of the past the King demurred. Cartier's nephew then compromised. They offered to renew their uncle's design and to form a French colony in Canada to Christianize the savages, all at their own expense, provided that the king would grant them the sole privilege for twelve years of trading with the inhabitants, principally in peltry and that he would forbid interference of rivals with them in this privilege and in the exploitation of a mine discovered by them. To this the King consented by a favour of January 14, 1588. This monopoly, the first of its kind, was soon revoked at the instance of jealous rival traders of St. Malo who obtained a revocation of the charter on the 5th of May following for they considered that the good things coming from Jacques Cartier's discoveries were to be shared in by all of St. Malo, since they belonged to all and not to his nephews alone.
This attempt to obtain a private monopoly having failed, we are surprised to find a monopoly being granted in 1589 by Henry IV to a gentleman of Brittany, the Sieur de la Roche, apparently in accordance with a promise given verbally or otherwise by Henry III at sometime before his assassination in August, 1659. This document was one similar to that granted by Francis I to Roberval and it made de la Roche the king's lieutenant governor in New France--with real vice-regal privileges. The commission differed in this from Roberval's that it gave power to the lieutenant general to choose merchants to accompany him and forbade all others to trade in the same regions without his consent under penalty of confiscation of merchandise and vessels. Again a miserable fiasco was to take place. The lieutenant governor had to draw upon the jails and galleys for his colonists. He arrived with sixty men under the direction of pilot Chedotel at Sable Island, twenty-five leagues to the south of the Island of Cape Breton. Arrived there he disembarked, according to Lescarbot, the greater part of those he had drawn from the prisons, left them provisions and merchandise, and promised to return for them as soon as he had found on the mainland, a suitable place for settlement. Taking a little bark, he went to the Acadian coast, but on returning was surprised by so violent a wind that he was driven back to France in less than twelve days. The fate of the abandoned colonists had better be told by Champlain. In the description of his voyages, dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu and published in 1632, Champlain's criticism of de la Roche's expedition was "that the fault of this attempt at colonizing was that this marquis did not have some one experienced in such matters explore and reconnoitre, before assuming so excessive an outlay." On the other hand we can be glad that Canada did not start her origin as a colony with such stuff as composed the greater part of Roberval's and de la Roche's consignments.
In 1598 the Edict of Nantes had been published in France and it was soon to affect Canada in this wise. In France it had restored civil and religious liberty to the Huguenots, Protestants or French Calvinists. The spirit of conciliation was in the air and Huguenots now began to take their place in the judicature and financial posts, and in the army. Next year we find a sailor merchant of St. Malo named Dupont Gravé soliciting a commission for Sieur Chauvin, of Normandy, a Huguenot, a man of great skill and experience in navigation, captain in the King's navy and of some influence at the court. As the King remembered the good services of M. Chauvin he granted a monopoly to him on the condition that no one should trade in Canada unless he had Chauvin's permission and should settle in the country and make a home there. Chauvin was to bear all the expenses, and he was to take 500 men to fortify the country and defend it, and to teach the Catholic faith to the Indians.
Tadoussac was chosen as the headquarters. Thither Chauvin and Dupont Gravé and a Huguenot, Pierre Dugas, Sieur de Monts, a prospector who came out on "pleasure," went with an advance party. Tadoussac had been well enough for a summer trading post but, says Champlain, "if there is an ounce of cold forty leagues up the river there is a pound at Tadoussac." However, they fixed up a guardlike building of wood, 25 feet long by 18 wide, and 8 feet high. This was to harbour seventeen men and provisions. "Behold them there very warm for the winter," chuckles Champlain, who had no love for the Huguenots. The leaders went to France and during the winter the settlement at Tadoussac was "the Court of King Pétaud; each one wished to command. Laziness, idleness, and the diseases that attacked those remaining, reduced them to great want and obliged them to give themselves up to the savages, who kindly harboured them and they left their lodging. Some died miserably; others suffered a great deal while waiting for the return of the ships." In the next year a second voyage as fruitless as the first was made, by Chauvin. He assayed another but fell into an illness which sent him to another world. We have Champlain's comment in the account published in 1632 on this attempt at colonization. "The trouble with this undertaking was giving to a man of opposing religion a commission to establish a nursery for the Catholic Apostolic and Roman faith[22] of which the heretics have such a horror and abomination. These are the defects that must be mentioned in regard to the enterprise."
After the death of Chauvin, the same commission of lieutenant general was applied for, by Eymard de Chastes, Knight of Malta, Commander of Lormetan, Grand Master of the Order of St. Lazarus and Governor of Dieppe. Henry IV granted it and de Chaste should have made a good colonizer for he intimated that in making his application it was in the intention of betaking himself thither in person and of devoting the rest of his years to the service of God and that of his king, but he was not to live long. In order to meet the expenses of the expedition Commander de Chastes formed a company of several of the principal merchants of Rouen and elsewhere. He chose the explorer, Dupont Gravé, to direct the flotilla as before to Tadoussac, and he desired him to associate with himself in his further explorations for which he had received a commission from the king, a young captain of Saintonge, who had already given undoubted proof of his ability as a zealous, courageous and intelligent explorer.
This was none other than Samuel de Champlain, whose name is to be connected this very year of 1603 with Montreal and more lastingly in 1611. He is to become entitled to be called the founder of La Nouvelle France. De Champlain had been living at Dieppe after his return from a visit of two years to the West Indies and New Spain, for which he had started early in 1599 in command of a French ship chartered by the Spanish authorities and in which he had sailed under his uncle, a man of distinction, in the previous year. During this period he had the opportunity of observing and studying a European colony before trying to found one himself. His "Brief discours des choses plus remarquables que Samuel Champlain de Brouage a reconnues aux Indes Occidentales, au voyage qu' il y a fait," was the result of this experience.
Champlain was now thirty-six years of age, having been born about the year 1567 at Brouage, a small seaport town in the old province of Saintonge, southeast of Rochefort and opposite the island of Oléron. Champlain's father was a sailor, being a captain of the marine; his uncle's position we have seen. Hence we do not wonder, when he tells us of himself: "From my earliest years the art of navigation attracted me, made me love the sea and drove me to expose myself nearly all my life to the wild waves of the ocean. It has made me explore the coasts of a part of the lands of America, and principally those of 'La Nouvelle France,' where I have always had the desire to cause the lily to flourish with the only Catholic religion, Apostolic and Roman." But Champlain was also a soldier, for, having taken up the cause of Henry IV in the troublous times of the League, he had served in Brittany under Maréchals de Daumont de St. Luc and de Brissac and held during several years the rank of Maréchal de Logis in the royal army. He held this position till May 2, 1598, when peace between France and Spain was established by the treaty of Vervins. Then again he turned to the sea and went with his uncle to Spain, and afterward to Spanish America as we have said. On his return he seems to be in favour with, and in the service of, the King. He is in receipt of a pension, either for his services in the army, or, as it has been supposed, because the King, having been shown the notes and topographical sketches taken by Champlain in his late voyage, had given him the title of Royal Geographer; but when Commander de Chastes, who doubtless also had seen the manuscripts, offered him a post in his new expedition, Champlain told him he must obtain the king's permission for him to embark as indeed de Chastes did. Moreover, the king commissioned Champlain to report faithfully on his discoveries.
So Dupont Gravé and Champlain set out for Tadoussac and on the 18th of June, reaching it, made for the Grand Sault. They passed by Quebec, "which is a strait of the River of Canada, and anchored till Monday, June 28th, and thence proceeding examined and named Three Rivers and found it good for a future settlement." Finally on Wednesday, July 2, the feast of the Visitation, they reached the entrance of the Sault. We will reserve this visit to its proper chapter. After their exploration on July 4th they turned back to Tadoussac and thence to France, where they learned of the death of the worthy Commander de Chastes at Dieppe on Tuesday, May 13, 1603. To replace de Chastes, that same Sieur de Monts, who prospected Tadoussac with Chauvin, now took command of the reins of government as lieutenant general, having applied for a similar charter as the last. He was a Huguenot and was Governor of Paris for the Protestant party. He continued the same association, employing Dupont Gravé and Champlain. With them was the gentleman adventurer, the Sieur de Poutrincourt. They set sail from Havre on the 7th of March, 1604, this time for Acadia. A site, since called "Port Royal," was chosen by Poutrincourt and granted on condition he should return.
After having abandoned Acadia in 1607, de Monts now turned his attention to Canada. He did this the more readily because the king gave him for one year the exclusive right of the fur trade. Champlain, hitherto a man subordinate, was charged by the lieutenant general as his lieutenant. Champlain sailed from France on the 13th of April, arrived at Tadoussac on the 3d of June and ascending the St. Lawrence, named Cape Tourment and Montmorency Falls and, reaching Stadaconé, he chose that place called Kébec by the natives and began to take possession of it in the name of M. de Monts, and to construct a fort. Champlain's instinct as a city planner was distinctly manifested in the choice of the bold promontory whose bases are washed by the Rivers St. Lawrence, Cap Rouge and St. Charles and whose outlook from the promontory above is one of the grandest in the world. There were twenty-eight men sent by de Monts for the expedition. A plot having arisen among these to kill Champlain, one of the conspirators was beheaded and three others were sent back to France. Soon, also, some twenty died of scurvy or of dysentery caused by the eating of eels to excess. The colony was now a cipher. Meanwhile, in France, de Monts' one year's monopoly was revoked owing to the jealousy of the merchants there. The question of the sale of the habitation of Quebec came up, as the post appeared to be unnecessary if there was to be no monopoly. Sieur de Monts remained governor general. Seeing the danger of de Monts' enterprise breaking up, through the trading with the savages being thrown open to other traders, Champlain began to look out for himself and to cast his eyes on the Great Sault as a trading post for himself. Thither he now went, as shall be related hereafter.
About this time, as the prohibition of trading had been removed from private individuals, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the river was a scene of rival barks of greedy, avaricious, envious people without harmony and without chief. On his return to France as de Monts wished to resign his command, Champlain went to court to get permission to form a company with exclusive rights and he was advised to invite Charles de Bourbon, Count of Soissons, to accept the governor generalship on the ground that his powerful protectorate would control order among the traders in Canadian waters. This was accepted, and after the necessary documents had been made out, but before being published, the count died. The Prince de Condé, Henri de Bourbon, then accepting the protectorate, received his commission, and named Samuel de Champlain his lieutenant. But the commission was not published, owing to representations being made to the Prince de Condé that such an association was prejudicial to trade. The delay was doubtless annoying to Champlain. However, as the old company was not yet dissolved, Champlain, not wishing to lose the fur trade for the current year, ran off again to Canada. On his return to France he went to Fontainebleau, where the King and the Prince of Condé were.
Champlain was now successful as a company promoter. He contrived to get his opposing merchants to come into the scheme themselves, and form a company, of which they made him the managing director in Canada, with a yearly salary of two hundred écus for looking after their interests. The Prince of Condé became the governor general and the commission gave a monopoly for eleven years. The usual powers were given as we have seen before of absolute power, the proviso of bringing the savages to the light of the Holy Roman and Catholic and Apostolic religion being included as usual. This seems strange considering that all the merchants of the new company were Huguenot Protestants.
On arriving in Canada Champlain soon made his first great mistake. He was about to commence the great work of colonization of La Nouvelle France, in which he was to succeed, but his first important step was a great blunder and one from which La Nouvelle France was to suffer for many years. The whole story of the Iroquois attacks, which terrorized the French settlements and Montreal for so many years, is bound up in the policy now initiated by the colonial builder of Canada. It will be remembered that in the commissions granted to those sent out to Canada, side by side with the duty of taking every means to attract the natives to Christianity, was the privilege to contract alliances with the natives and if they did not keep their treaties to force them by open warfare, and to make peace or war--but all this, be it understood, in accordance with the dignity of a great power and following established methods of diplomacy. Champlain's fault lies in this, that having arrived in Canada in the spring of 1605 as the representative of the king of France, he was tempted, for the sake of the petty reason of securing traffic facilities, to jeopardize the future by taking sides with the Algonquins and Hurons, who were then in open warfare with the Iroquois. Instead of remembering that the future peace of the colony depended on his neutrality, he went with the few men of the colony against the Iroquois, and with his modern weapons caused deadly havoc among the bewildered Iroquois, who thenceforth became the irreconcilable enemy of the Frenchmen. They never forgot this needless intrusion of the Frenchmen into their quarrels; thus they were implacable in their attacks on their Algonquin allies, and were ready later to ally themselves with the English in their campaign against the colony. It certainly made the work of Christianizing and civilizing the people later very difficult. Champlain's blunder at the battle of Lake Champlain on July 29, 1609, has been avoided in subsequent colonization schemes of other nations as far as possible. This is one of the uses of history.
So far we have seen that the two chief conditions, on which the trading companies were granted their monopolies, were those of taking steps to colonize and to Christianize. Neither had been observed. The merchants were there for business and nothing else. Be it said, however, to Champlain's credit that he was more ready than any of the others to carry out both conditions. In 1615 he secured the four Recollect Fathers of whom we shall speak. Their memoirs reveal a pitiable state of irreligion, and apathy towards the policy of French colonization and Christianizing the natives. Thus in Quebec, in 1617, there were only fifty to sixty Frenchmen, in 1620 only sixty men, women and children and religious all told. There seems to have been only one family, that of the colonist, Louis Hébert, and he had a sorry time to make a living. Louis Hébert was an apothecary and thus he was useful to be tolerated, by the merchants. Some day Hébert will have a monument raised to Him to commemorate his efforts to commence agriculture in Canada.
Towards the end of the year Champlain's blunder begins to have its fruits, for the savages around Quebec determined to exterminate the French settlement. In the sequel, they satisfied their vengeance by killing only two secretly, but it was a sign of more to follow. Meanwhile what were the gentlemen with the high sounding titles of governor general and viceroy of the king doing to carry on the wonderful scheme outlined in their commissions? They were like modern titled directors of speculating companies, drawing their fees. Thus the Prince of Condé drew 1,000 écus, then while he was in prison his successor to the fees, the Maréchal de Thémines drew 5,000, to be followed by 11,000 drawn by the Duke de Montmorency, a young man of twenty-five years, appointed governor general in 1618. This was a drain on the merchants. Still it was better than losing their privileges.
The new governor general, Montmorency, appointed Champlain his particular lieutenant. In fact, Champlain may be called the acting governor. This looked at last like a real attempt to make a true settlement. Champlain now brought Madame de Champlain out and others, and with them Madame Champlain brought her furniture. The Recollect Father, Denis Jamay, came back with two other Recollects. The day after arrival at Quebec, after mass and a sermon in the chapel exhorting all the colonists to obedience to the king, they all assembled and the commission of His Majesty to Montmorency was read, as well as that of Montmorency to Champlain as his lieutenant. The cannon spoke amid the cries of "Vive le Roi" and Champlain took possession of the Habitation in the name of the Duke of Montmorency. It became Government House. Obliged by his commission to carry on justice, Champlain now looked out for the most capable men in the country to act with him on the bench of justice. The king's procuratorship fell to Louis Hébert, while the office of lieutenant de prevost was taken by Gilbert Coursera, and a man named Nicholas became the clerk of the Court of Quebec. Champlain took the direction of the "police."
Building activities were now taking place. The Recollects commenced the foundations for a convent and a seminary, for the native children, under the name of Notre Dame des Anges, the stone being laid by Father Jean d'Olbeau on June 3d. Champlain began to build another habitation on the hill which he named the Fort St. Louis. He also began tilling the ground and making a garden, a work which he delighted in. He was seconded in such enterprises by the Recollects. He next prepared to receive cattle. But there were only forty-five people at the habitation and the company was not sending more. In order to better things Montmorency in 1621 formed another company opposed to that of which M. de Monts was still head and he placed in command two Huguenots, Guillaume de Caen and Emery de Caen, uncle and nephew. The new company was opposed to the old but a union was effected between them: still with no better results. In the beginning of 1625 Henri de Lévy, Duke de Vantadour, a pious nobleman who afterwards became a religious, succeeded his uncle, the Duke de Montmorency, as governor general. Negotiations pending the introduction of Jesuits, on the request of the Recollects, were now concluded. Accordingly he sent at his own expense Fathers Lalement, Brébeuf, Massé and two lay brothers, who arrived in the absence of Champlain and were coldly received by de Caen, who offered them no hospitality. The Recollects, however, entertained them at their convent, for two years and a half, until their own buildings were ready. In 1627, a year of great famine, the above company was supplanted by the famous Company of One Hundred Partners or Associates.
FOOTNOTES:
[21] For the purposes of trade the connection with Canada never ceased. In 1578 there were 100 French vessels at Newfoundland besides 200 Spanish, Portugese and English vessels. (Kingsford, Vol. I, Page 12.)
[22] In a note by Kingsford, Vol. I, Page 24, he wishes to substantiate his theory that Champlain was Huguenot by quoting his words: "C'est plus facile de planter la fois Chrestienne" as meaning Christianity distinguished from the Roman Catholic point of view. Taken in conjunction with these words above Kingsford's theory cannot be upheld.
Chapter III
1603-1625
THE GREAT SAULT
CHAMPLAIN THE FIRST TRADER
THE HISTORY OF HOCHELAGA AFTER CARTIER'S VISIT--CHAMPLAIN, THE FIRST CARTOGRAPHER OF THE ISLAND OF MONTREAL--ITS DESCRIPTION IN 1603--CHAMPLAIN EXPLORES THE NEIGHBORHOOD--PLACE ROYALE IN 1611--ST. HELEN'S ISLAND NAMED--THE FIRST TRADING TRANSACTION RECORDED--CHAMPLAIN SHOOTS THE RAPIDS, 1613--THE EXPLORATION OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY--1615 THE FIRST MASS IN CANADA AT RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES--1625 THE DROWNING OF VIEL AND AHUNTSIC AT SAULT-AU-RECOLLET--THE INTENTION OF CHAMPLAIN TO MAKE A PERMANENT SETTLEMENT ON THE ISLAND.
The name of Samuel de Champlain is next to be more closely associated with Montreal. For, although the date connecting him with his first visit to this site is 1603, and that of Cartier's visit in 1535, Montreal had not been visited or dwelt upon by any distinguished European that we can attach a name to, with any certainty.
During all this time, according to tradition, sad things had occurred at Hochelaga.
"The fate of this Indian town," says Mr. Arthur Weir in "Montreal, the Metropolis of Canada," "is shrouded in the mists of antiquity. There is reason to believe that here was enacted a tragedy similar to that which resulted in the destruction of Troy. According to Mr. Peter Dooyentate Clarke, the historian of the Wyandots, himself a descendant of the tribe, the Senecas and Wyandots, or Hurons, lived side by side at Hochelaga, until in an evil moment a stern chief of the Senecas refused to permit his son to marry a Huron maiden. The damsel thereupon rejected all suitors and promised to marry only him who should kill the chief who had thus offended her.
"A youthful Huron, more amorous than wise, fulfilled the terms of the vow and won the girl. But the Senecas adopted the cause of their murdered chief, and made war upon the Hurons, whom they almost exterminated with the assistance of the other tribes of the Iroquois, driving their more peaceful and civilized neighbours to the very lake that now bears their name." However true or false this legend, it is certain that when Champlain visited the island in 1603 the Indian town was gone and desolation prevailed.
Another version of the same tradition is given by Mr. Bourinot, in "The Story of Canada," where he tells the popular tradition handed down by the Indians, "that the Hurons and Iroquois, branches of the same family, speaking dialects of one common language, were living at one time in villages, not far from each other,--the Hurons probably at Hochelaga and the Senecas on the other side of the mountain. It was against the law of the two communities for their men and women to intermarry, but the potent influence of true love, so rare in an Indian's bosom, soon broke this command. A Huron girl entered a cabin of an Iroquois chief as his wife. It was an unhappy marriage, the husband killed the wife in an angry moment. This was a serious matter, requiring a council meeting of the two tribes. Murder must be avenged or liberal compensation given to the friends of the dead. The council decided that the woman deserved death, but the verdict did not please all her relatives, one of whom went off secretly and killed an Iroquois warrior. Then, both tribes took up the hatchet, and went on the warpath against each other, with the result, that the Village of Hochelaga, with all the women and children, was destroyed, and the Hurons, who were probably beaten, left the St. Lawrence and eventually found a new home on Lake Huron."--See Horatio Hale's "Fall of Hochelaga" in Journal of American Folklore, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1894.
If Cartier was the discoverer of "Hochelaga," the Island of Montreal, it is to Champlain's honour that he was the first trader and the first designator of the site of the present City of Montreal. He was the first city planner in that he saw the possibilities of Montreal as a trading port, having all the attractions for a future settlement. It had a beautiful mountain with gentle slopes to the river at its base, and a natural harbour; it was the natural rendezvous of all the tribes bordering on the river beyond the saults, the last of which is that now known as the Lachine Rapids; it was the port for the fur trade of the hinterland beyond. Both Cartier and Champlain also noted the wonderful fertility of its soil and the beauty of its surroundings. As then, so today, Montreal's position, placed at the head of Atlantic navigation, the natural headquarters of the Gulf trade, that of the St. Lawrence and of the Great Lakes, centre of attraction and terminus of all the great railroads of the West and from the United States, secures it an undoubted future as a great commercial centre. It is to Champlain's credit that in his own day he realized the geographical value of Montreal as a trading centre, indicated by the natural laws for shipment and transportation, albeit he contemplated it only with the limited vision of a fur trader whose clients were the savages from the back country and their freight vessels, canoes laden with peltry. He looked ahead.
In July, 1603, Champlain reached the rapids of the sault above Montreal. Champlain says that it used to be called Hochelaga but now the Sault. When he reached it there was nothing of the old villages left. Luckily Champlain was a cartographer and historian, and we have the account of visits to Montreal which we now reproduce; but it must be remembered that he always speaks of the site as "the Sault," "the grand Sault," or "the Sault St. Louis."
The first quotations shall be from the account of his voyage in 1603. This was published in 1604 in Paris under the title, "Des Sauvages, ou Voyage de Sammuel Champlain de Brouage faict en la France Nouvelle, l'an mil six cens trois." This was made into English and published in "Purchas', His Pilgrimes," London, 1625.
"At length we came this very day to the entrance of the Sault or Fall of the Great River of Canada with favourable wind; and we met with an Ile, which is almost in the middest of the said entrance, which is a quarter of a league long, and passed on the South side of the said Ile, where there was not past three, four or five feet water, and sometimes a fathome or two, and straight on the sudden we found again not past three or foure foot. There are many Rockes and small islands, whereon there is no wood, and they are even with the water. From the beginning of the aforesaid Ile, which is in the middest of the entrance the water beginneth to run with a great force. Although we had the wind very good, yet we could not with all our might make any great way; neuerthelesse wee passed the said Ile which is at the entrance of the Sault or Fall. When wee perceived that we could go no further, we came to an anchor on the North Shoare ouer against a small Iland, which aboundeth for the most part with those kinds of fruits which I have spoken of before. Without all delay we made ready our Skiffe which wee had made of purpose to pass the said Sault: whereinto the said Monsieur du Pont and my selfe entered with certaine Sauages, which we had brought with vs to show vs the way. Departing from our Pinnace, we were scarce gone three hundred paces, but we were forced to come out, and caused certain mariners to free our Skiffe. The canoa of the Sauages passed easily. Wee met with an infinite number of small Rockes, which were euen with the water, on which we touched often times. There be two great Ilands one on the North Side which containeth some fifteene leagues in length, and almost as much in breadth, beginning some twelve leagues vp within the River of Canada, going towards the River of the Irocois and endeth beyond the Sault. The Iland which is on the South Side is some four leagues long and some halfe league broad. There is also another island which is neare to that on the North Side which may bee some halfe a league long, and some quarter broad; and another small iland which is between that on the North Side, and another nearer to the South Shoare, whereby we passed the entrance of the Sault. This entrance being passed, there is a kind of Lake, wherein all these Ilands are, some five leagues long and almost as broad, wherein are many small Ilands which are Rockes. There is a Mountaine neere the said Sault which discovereth farre into the Countrie and a Little River which falleth from the said Mountaine into the Lake. On the South Side there are some three or foure Mountaines which seem to be about fifteen or sixteen leagues within the Land. There are also two Rivers; one which goeth to the first Lake of the River of the Irocois by which sometimes the Algoumequins invade them: and another which is neer unto the Sault, which runneth not farre into the countrey."
On this voyage he describes the Sault. Since he is later, in 1611, to shoot it, we may record his impression of it in 1603. "At our coming neere to the said Sault with our Skiffe and Canoa, I assure you, I neuer saw any stream of water to fall down with such force as this doth; although it be not very high, being not in some places past one or two fathoms, and at the most three. It falleth as it were steppe by steppe: and in euery place where it hath some small height, it maketh a strong boyling with the force and strength of the running of the water. In the breadth of the said Sault, which may containe some league, there are many broad Rockes, and almost in the middest, there are very narrow and long Ilands, where there is a fall as well on the side of the said Iles which are toward the South, as on the North Side: where it is so dangerous that it is not possible for any man to pass with any boat how small so-euer it be."
In his voyage in 1603 he makes mention of an island of a quarter of a league in length and of another on the north about fifteen leagues long which overlooked the lands for a long distance. He does not mention the name of either, but the former was St. Paul's island or Nuns' island and the latter Hochelaga. Up to Champlain no one has recorded or noticed that Montreal was an island.
As early as 1610 Lescarbot had remarked that of all the islands in the River St. Lawrence, the most suitable for commerce was without contradiction that of Montreal. ("La Conversion des Sauvages Baptisés en Canada.")
Champlain certainly looked upon the locality of the Sault as a suitable place for a permanent establishment, when he commenced operations at Place Royale. He continued in this belief.
"My Savage Arontal," he says in his "Voyages of 1615-1616," published in 1627, "being at Quebec that to attract his people to us we should make a habitation at the Sault, which would give them the surety of the passage of the river and would protect them against their enemies and that as soon as we should have built a house, they would come in numbers to live with us as brothers, a thing which I promised them and answered them I would do as soon as possible."
There is reason to believe that the spot he had in mind to do this is the island which he had noted in his voyage of 1603, but to which he later gave the name of St. Helen.[23] This is most probable in view of his late marriage five months before with Hélène Boullé, for it could not have been given, as other names in the river had been, owing to the coincidence of a church feast day with the day of discovery, for Champlain arrived at Place Royale on the 28th of May and the feast of St. Helen fell on the 18th of August following, when he was in France.
We know that Champlain had gone to the "Sault" in 1603, but he makes no mention of the site of Montreal in his account. However, with regard to the year of 1611, he gives us many interesting details.
From these excerpts from the account of 1603 we may, therefore, sum up the following conclusions: (1) that (according to Laverdière) the place where Champlain "came to an anchor on the North Shoare over against one small island," was the little island formerly existing opposite the Place Royale (which was not, however, named till 1611) and now joined to the main land by the present harbour piers; (2) that incidentally he thus indicates the site of the present harbour of Montreal; that Champlain was the first to note that Montreal, or Hochelaga, was an island, this being deduced from his description of the great island (not named by him) "on the north side which continueth some fifteen leagues in length and almost as much in breadth," etc; (3) that the "mountain neere the said Sault which discovereth farre into the country" is the same as that named by Jacques Cartier as Mount Royal while "the Little River which falleth from the said mountain into the lake" is the Rivière des Prairies; (4) that while he gives no names beyond that of Sault yet he has left us a very clear indication that he was familiar with the site of the present Island of Montreal. From the above quotations there is no explicit mention of the suitability of the Island of Montreal as a future trading post, yet there is little doubt but that Champlain had it in his mind as such when the occasion should serve.
EXPLANATION OF MAP ON OPPOSITE PAGE
A--Piece of land which I ordered to be cleared. B--Small pond. C--Small island where I had a stone wall erected. D--Small stream where barques are lying. E--Prairies where Indians encamp when coming to this country. F--Mountains seen at a distance. G--Small pond. H--Mount Royal. I--Small stream. L--The "Saut." M--Place where the Indians from the north begin their "portage." N--Place where one of our men and an Indian were drowned. O--Small, rocky island. P--Other small island where birds build their nests. Q--"Heron" Island. R--Other islands of the "Saut." S--Small island. T--Round Islet. V--Other islet, half of which is covered with water. W--Other islet where water fowls are found. Y--Prairies. Z--Small river. 2--Rather fine and large island. 3--Places which appear bare at low water and where the current is very strong. 4--Prairies covered with water (swamps). 5--Rather low and marshy land. 6--Other small island. 7--Small rocks. S--Helen's Island. 9--Small island barren of trees. 10--Marshes in the "Grand Saut."
Their adventurers afterward went up to the Sault which became the goal of many of the "free" traders and prospectors who coursed the St. Lawrence during the period, already described, of the temporary removal of the prohibition against private traders. Certain it is that as early as 1610 Lescarbot had remarked that of all the islands in the river St. Lawrence the most suitable for commerce was without contradiction that of Montreal. (Cf. "La Conversion des Sauvages Baptisés En Canada.") But it was reserved for Champlain in 1611 to put this notion into effect and to become the pioneer trader and the first harbour builder of Montreal. His own narration of the events of 1611 may serve to prove these claims.
THE CHOICE OF MONTREAL AS A TRADING POST
"In the year 1611, I took back my savage to those of his tribe, who were to come to Sault St. Louis, intending to get my servant whom they had as a hostage. I left Quebec, May 20 (21), and arrived at these great rapids[24] the 28th of the month. I immediately went in a canoe with the savage which I had taken to France and one of our men. After having looked on all sides, not only in the woods, but also along the river bank, to find a suitable place for the site of a settlement, and to prepare a place in which to build, I went eight leagues by land, along the rapids through the woods, which are rather open, and as far as the lake,[25] where our savages took me. There I contemplated the country very much in detail. But in all that I saw I did not find any place at all more suitable than a little spot which is just where the barks and shallops can come easily, either with a strong wind or by a winding course, because of the strength of the current. Above this place (which we named La Place Royale), a league from Mount Royal, there are a great many little rocks and shoals, which are dangerous."
THE SITUATION OF PLACE ROYALE DESCRIBED
"And near this Place Royale there is a little river running back a goodly way into the interior, all along which there are more than sixty acres of cleared land, like meadows, where one might sow grain and make gardens. Formerly savages tilled there. There were also a great number of other beautiful meadows, to support as many cattle as one wishes, and all kinds of trees that we have in our forests at home, with a great many vines, walnuts, plum trees, cherries, strawberries and other kinds which are very good to eat. Among others there is one very excellent, which has a sweet taste resembling that of plantains (which is a fruit of the Indies), and is as white as snow, with a leaf like that of the nettle, and running on trees or the ground like ivy. Fishing is very good there, and there are all the kinds that we have in France, and a great many others that we do not have, which are very good; as is also game of all kinds; and hunting is good, stags, hinds, does, caribous, rabbits, lynxes, bears, beavers and other little animals which so abound that while we were at these rapids we never were without them."
PLACE ROYALE CLEARED AND A HARBOUR REVETMENT WALL BUILT
"After having made a careful exploration, then, and found this place one of the most beautiful on this river, I at once had the woods cut down[26] and cleared from this Place Royale, to make it level and ready for building. Water can easily be made to flow around it, making a little island of it, and a settlement can be made there as one may wish.
"There is a little island[27] twenty fathoms from this Place Royale which is about one hundred paces long, whereon could be put up a good, well defended set of buildings. There are also a great many meadows containing good potter's clay, whether for bricks or to build with, which is a great convenience. I had some of it worked up, and made a wall of it four feet thick, and from three to four feet high and ten fathoms long, to see how it would last in the winter when then the floods came down, which in my opinion, would not rise to this wall although the land is about twelve feet above that river, which is quite high."
ST. HELEN'S ISLAND NAMED
"In the middle of the river there is an island about three-quarters of a league in circumference, where a good and strong town could be built and I named it Ile de Ste. Hélène.[28] These rapids descend into a sort of lake where there are two or three islands and some beautiful meadows."
CHAMPLAIN PLANTS GARDENS
"While waiting for the savages I had two gardens made: one in the meadows and the other in the woods which I had cleared; and the second day of June I sowed some seeds in them, which came up in perfect condition and in a little while, which showed the goodness of the soil.
"I resolved to send Savignon, our savage, with another, to meet those of his country, in order to make them come quickly; and they hesitated to go in our canoe which they distrusted, for it was not good for much."
CHAMPLAIN EXPLORES THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
"On the seventh I went to explore a little river[29] by which sometimes the savages go to war, which leads to the rapids of the river of the Iroquois.[30] It is very pleasant, with meadows on it, more than three leagues in circumference, and a great deal of land which could be tilled. It is one league from the great rapids[31] and a league and a half from Place Royale.
"On the ninth our savage arrived. He had been a little way beyond the lake,[32] which is about ten leagues long, that I have seen before. He did not meet anything there, and could not go any further, because their canoe gave out and they were obliged to return."
This savage reported the loss of the life of a young man, Louis, who had lost his life in the rapids. There is a discussion as to whether Champlain called the rapids the Sault "St. Louis" in commemoration of this event or in honour of Louis XIII of France, who began reigning the year previously and from whom Champlain had received a commission to build storehouses for the fur trade near the rapids. The solution I leave to the choice of the reader. At this time "Heron" island at the St. Louis rapids received its name. There seems no doubt that if Champlain had as thoroughly investigated the possibilities and advantages of climate, soil and natural position as a trading centre of Montreal in 1603 as he did in 1611, he would have chosen Montreal, for the settlement in 1603, instead of Quebec, which was after all de Monts' choice. In the account of 1603 Champlain had said: "The air is softer and more temperate than at any other place that I have seen in this country."
In this same account of 1611 we get a picture of the first trading reported at Montreal which is worth recording.
THE FIRST TRADING TRANSACTION AT MONTREAL
"On the 13th of this month (June 13, 1611), 200 Huron savages with the chiefs, Ochateguin, Iroquet, and Tregourote, brothers of our savage, brought back my lad. We were very glad to see them, and I went to meet them with a canoe and our savage. Meantime, they advanced quietly in order, our men preparing to give them a salvo with the arquebuses and some small pieces. As they were approaching, they began to shout all together, and one of their chiefs commanded their addresses to be made, in which they praised us highly, calling us truthful, in that I had kept my word to them, to come to find them at these rapids. After they had given three more shouts, a volley of musketry was fired twice, which astonished them so much that they asked me to tell them that there should not be any shooting, saying that the greater number of them never had seen Christians before, nor heard thunderings of that sort, and that they were afraid of its doing them harm.... After a good deal of discourse they made me a present of 100 beavers. I gave them in exchange some other kinds of merchandise."
CHAMPLAIN THE FIRST WHITE MAN TO SHOOT THE RAPIDS
These Indians camped about with Champlain for some days till they returned to their own part of the rapids, "some leagues into the woods." Champlain accompanied them. He now tells of his historic shooting the rapids which we may place as happening on the 17th of June, 1611.
"When I had finished with them I begged them to take me back in our despatch boat. To do this they prepared eight canoes to run the rapids, and stripped themselves naked, and made me take off everything but my shirt; for often it happens that some are lost in shooting the rapids; therefore they keep close to one another, to aid one another promptly if a canoe should happen to capsize. They said to me, 'If by chance yours should happen to turn over, as you do not know how to swim, on no account abandon it, but hold on to the little sticks that are in the middle, for we will save you easily.' I assure you that those who have not seen or passed this place in these little boats that they have, could not pass it without great fear, even the most self-possessed persons in the world. But these people are so skillful in shooting these rapids that it is easy for them. I did it with them--a thing that I never had done, nor had any Christian, except my youth--and we came to our barks where I lodged a large number of them."
The next day, the 18th of June, the party broke up; Champlain set out for Quebec, which he says he reached on the 19th, shortly to leave for France. He describes the parting at Montreal thus: "After they had traded the little that they had, they separated into three groups--one to go to war, one to go up the rapids--they set out on the 18th day of this month, and we also."
The quotations I have chosen cover nearly four weeks of Champlain's dwelling at his new post. I have let him speak himself. The picture he draws enables us to construct in our imagination the picturesque situation of our city at this time.
GRAND SAULT, 1613
In 1613 Champlain tells us in his journal published in 1632, that having left Quebec on March 13th he arrived at the Sault on the 21st. He does not mention stopping at his trading post at Place Royale; he must have visited it and done some trading and put his boats up; but he set out on May 27th in his canoes "from the Isle of St. Hélène" with four Frenchmen and a savage. His object was at present to discover the Mer du Nord, lately discovered by Hudson and of which a map had appeared in Paris in 1612. One of the four Frenchmen with him in his canoes was named Nicholas de Vignau. This man had been sent in preceding years to make discoveries for Champlain and in 1612, while in Paris, this man reported to Champlain that he had seen this same "Mer du Nord." Champlain consequently took him with him to lead the way, with the result that can be judged from his own description of de Vignau, as "the boldest liar that had been seen for a long time." It was on this fruitless exploration that on the Portage route by way of Muskrat and Mudlakes, Champlain lost his astrolabe, the instrument then used for astronomical observation. Near this place he ceases giving the correct latitudes as he had been doing. Two hundred and fifty-four years later, a farmer on an August day unearthed an old brass astrolabe of Paris make, dated 1603. We may safely conclude it was Champlain's.
On the voyage up the Ottawa he described the visit to Allumette Island, 45° 47'. "After having observed the poorness of the soil, I asked them how they enjoyed cultivating so poor a country, in view of the fact that there was some much better, than that they left deserted and abandoned at the Rapids of St. Louis. They answered me that they were obliged to do so to keep themselves secure and that the roughness of the place served them as a bulwark against their enemies. But they said that if I would make a settlement a Frenchman at the Rapids of St. Louis, as I had promised to do, they would leave their dwelling place to come and settle near us, being assured that their enemies would not do them harm while we were with them. I told them that this year we should make preparations with wood and stones to make a fort next year and cultivate the land. When they heard this they gave a great shout, as a sign of applause. After this the conference finished."
After having explored the Ottawa River they returned from the fruitless search for the Northern sea on June 17th and continued their course till "we reached the barks and were saluted by some discharges of canon, at which some of the savages were delighted and others very much astonished, never having heard such music. Having landed, Sieur de Maisonneuve[33] de Saint Malo came to me with the passport for three vessels from Monseigneur the Prince. As soon as I had seen it, I let him and his men enjoy the benefit of it, like ourselves, and had the savages told that they might trade the next day." The place of the barks would, undoubtedly, be the little harbour at Place Royale described in the account of 1611, and near his trading fort.
After having made de Vignau confess himself of his lie, "as the savages would not have him, no matter how much I begged them, we left him to the protection of God." Champlain then left for Tadoussac, at which he arrived on July 6th, whence he shortly sailed to France.
On this journey in France, Champlain set about to secure clergy and through the intervention of Sieur Hoüel, secretary of the king, he got the Recollect Fathers whom he said "would be the right ones there, both for residence at our settlement and for the conversion of the infidels. I agreed with this opinion, as they are without ambition and live altogether in conformity to the rule of St. Francis."
On April 24, 1615, Champlain left Honfleur with four Franciscan Recollects Denis Jamay, Jean d'Olbeau, Joseph le Caron and the lay brother, Pacifique du Plessis, reaching Tadoussac on May 25th. The Recollects he left at Quebec whence he hastened to the Sault, soon to be followed by Father Jean le Caron. The importance that Champlain gives to his trading post at the rapids to which he hurried will be seen from the following quotation. On arriving at Tadoussac, "we began to set men to work to fit up our barks, in order to go to Quebec, the place of our settlement, and to the great Rapids of St. Louis, the great gathering place of the savages who come there to trade. Immediately upon my arrival at the rapids I visited these people who were very anxious to see us and delighted at our return, from their hopes that we would give them some of our number to help them in their wars against their enemies. They explained that it would be hard for them to come to us if we did not assist them, because the Iroquois, their old enemies, were always along the trail and kept the passage closed to them. Besides I had always promised to aid them in their wars, as they gave us to understand through their interpreter. Whereupon I perceived that it was very necessary to assist them, not only to make them love us more, but also to pave the way for my undertakings and discoveries, which to all appearance could not be accomplished except by their help; and also because this would be to them a sort of first step and preparation to coming into Christianity; and to secure this I decided to go thither and explore their country and aid them in their wars, in order to oblige them to show me what they had so many times promised to.
"I had them all gather to tell them my intention, upon hearing which they promised to furnish us 2,500 men of war, who would do wonders, while I on my part, was to bring, for the same purpose as many men as I could; which I promised them, being very glad to see them come to so wise a decision. Then I began to explain to them the methods to follow in fighting in which they took a singular pleasure. When all the matters were decided upon, we separated with the intention of returning to carry out our undertaking."
This alliance which Champlain then made against the Iroquois will help to explain the prolonged animosity of these against the Hurons, and later their allies, the settlers of Ville Marie, under Maisonneuve. But, as yet Champlain's fort was only a summer trading post, and such it remained till 1642. He had it in his mind to make it a regular settlement, and it would seem likely to become so.
On the occasion of the above gathering mass was said by the Recollects for the first time in Canada, at least since the time of Cartier.
We may briefly narrate the events leading up to this. Owing to the trading monopolies being granted on condition that the conversion of the savages to the Catholic faith should be attempted and owing to the discontentment existing at the continued unfulfillment of this condition, de Monts and other merchants found that they would have to take means to comply with it or lose their monopoly.
The merchants were keener on the peltry trade than on the civilization of the country. They did not welcome colonists from France nor did they desire the Indians to settle down in their neighbourhood. They wanted them to get busy to bring in their furs. They were there for business solely, although their charter said otherwise.
So it was, with bad grace, they had to yield. Champlain must, however, be disassociated from this opposition. For he had willingly undertaken the negotiations to obtain the Recollect Fathers through the intermediary of the pious Sieur de Hoüel, the controller general of the salt mines of Brouage, one of the few members of the de Monts company that was not a Huguenot; accordingly after some negotiations during the winter of 1614 and 1615, the four Franciscan Recollects mentioned, three priests, Denis Jamay, superior, Jean d'Olbeau, Joseph le Caron, and Brother Pacifique du Plessis embarked with Champlain at Honfleur on April 24, 1615, on the St. Etienne, one of the company's ships commanded by Dupont Gravé. They arrived at Tadoussac in a month.
On their arrival in Quebec in the beginning of June three of them stayed to lay out their dwelling and build their chapel, but Father Joseph le Caron, a very eager and apostolic man, went straight off to the Indians at the Sault. Becoming quickly acquainted with the mode of life of the natives there and desirous of their conversion to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, he determined to spend the winter with them. "In Canada and its Provinces," Father Lewis Drummond says that on his journey down, le Caron met Champlain and Father Denis Jamay at Rivière des Prairies. They tried to persuade him not to winter with the Indians. But he hastened to Quebec, reaching it on June 20, and on his return to Rivière des Prairies met Champlain and Father Jamay there, and mass was celebrated. His object in hurrying back to Quebec was to obtain the necessary altar equipment and other missionary necessaries.
On arriving at the Isle of Montreal he met Champlain and his canoes at the entrance of the Rivière des Prairies. These no doubt were preparing for the exploration of the Ottawa.
There on June 24, 1615, the feast of St. Jean Baptiste, afterwards taken for the patronal feast of Canada, Fathers Denis and Joseph sang mass at their portable altar on the banks of the Rivière des Prairies. "With all devotion," Champlain chronicles, "before these peoples who were in admiration at the ceremonies and at the vestments which seemed to them so beautiful as being something they had never seen before; for these religious are the first who had celebrated the holy mass there."[34] (This solemn occasion was followed by the chanting of the Te Deum to the accompaniment of a fusillade of small artillery with all the pomp that circumstances permitted.) Father Denis Jamay went back to Quebec to minister to the French Catholics and to form a sedentary mission for the natives; while there also he could excur to Threvers as a mission post. He was helped by Brother Pacifique du Plessis. Jean le Caron now joined a band of Hurons and passed the winter with them in one of their stockades called Carhagouaha defended by a triple palisade of wood to the height of thirty feet. Father Jean d'Olbeau departed for Quebec, on December 2d, to share the fortunes of the Montagnais below Tadoussac.
While treating of the early history of the Recollects we may now anticipate by a few years a circumstance of tragic importance. In the year 1625 there occurred at the Sault-au-Récollet an event which has given it its name. This year, the Recollect father, Nicholas Viel, had gone two years before with Fathers Joseph le Caron and Gabriel Sagard, to the country of the Hurons. They were now invited by the Hurons to descend the river to trade with the settlement at Quebec. Father Viel had accepted the invitation because he wished to make his annual spiritual retreat at the Convent of Notre Dame des Anges and he took with him one of his Indian neophytes, whom he had instructed and baptized, a young boy named Ahuntsic. Among the convoy, in the same canoe, were some Indians who were secretly ill disposed to the missionary and when they found themselves separated from the other canoes by bad weather on the river, they fell upon Father Viel and Ahuntsic in the last sault near to Montreal and the swift flowing rapids soon submerged them in their deep waters. The spots of Ahuntsic and Sault-au-Récollet commemorate this event although the disaster occurred at the latter place as said.
Later in the summer of 1615 Champlain redeemed his pledge to explore the Indian country. On the 9th of July, 1615, Champlain left the fort with two men, one of whom was his servant, and another an interpreter, and ten savages to manage the two canoes on a voyage of exploration. Father le Caron had already gone ahead. Champlain's expedition with the allied tribes into the country of the Iroquois was one of the most important undertakings of his life--both on account of the length of the journey and the knowledge he obtained of the lake region. He lost prestige by this journey, however, both with the Indians and his French Canadians. It is not to our purpose to follow him on this voyage but we cannot refrain from mentioning the Huron village of Carhagouaha which lay between Nottawasaga Bay and Lake Simcoe. It was to this village that Father le Caron bent his steps, and where Champlain joined him on August 12th. The triple palisades, long houses, containing several households and other distinctive features of the village of Hochelaga discovered by Cartier, were there reproduced. He returned to the post at the end of June, 1616, and there he found Sieur du Pont. "We also saw," he says, "all the holy Fathers (Father Jamay and Brother du Plessis) who had remained at our settlement and they were very glad to see us and we to see them." Thus the Recollect fathers having left "our" settlement at Quebec had come up to Montreal as we may call the post at the Rapids. From their arrival dates the ecclesiastical life of our city and the introduction of Christianity. Champlain left the Sault on the 8th day of July, 1616, reaching Quebec on July 11. Shortly, on August 3d, he sailed to France.
Champlain was a good advertising agent, as the following shows: "During my sojourn at the settlement I had some of the common corn cut--that is, the French corn that had been planted there--which was very beautiful, in order to carry some to France, to show that this soil is very good and fertile. There was also some very fine Indian corn and some grafts and trees that we had brought thither." This contrasts favourably with the gloomy report given to France by Jacques Cartier of the Canadian climate, which doubtless influenced the delay of organized colonization. It is evident that Champlain was still thinking of making Montreal a permanent settlement. From the memoirs of 1615-16 we learn that Champlain before leaving for France took with him to Quebec an Indian, Daronthal or Aronthal, whom he called his host. This man, after admiring the buildings and the civilization of the settlement of Quebec, and being desirous that his people should become better acquainted with the religion of the Christians "in order to learn to serve God and to understand our way of living," suggested that they should be attracted to live with the settlers.
"He suggested," says Champlain, "that for the advancement of this work, we should make another settlement at the St. Louis rapids, so as to give them a safe passage of the river, for fear of their enemies; and said that once they would come in great numbers to us to live there like brothers. I promised to do this as soon as I could." Daronthal was sent back with this promise to his companions at St. Louis rapids, but it was reserved for Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, twenty-six years later to carry it out.
FOOTNOTES:
[23] Through the intervention of and in the presence of Pierre du Gas, Sieur de Monts, as the matrimonial contract dated Paris, December 27, 1610, states, Champlain had contracted to marry after two years Hélène de Boullé, a young girl not yet in her twelfth year and not yet marriageable, the daughter of Nicolas Boullé, secretary of the King's Chamber, a Huguenot like his friend de Monts. In this contract Champlain made her heiress of all the property that he might be able to leave, and her parents consented to give him before the marriage 6,000 livres.
On the 29th of December, in the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, Champlain was handed over four thousand five hundred of the promised livres. On the next day the marriage took place. Hélène Boullé became a Catholic after two years. Shortly after the marriage Champlain left for New France, leaving his wife behind. We find him at the Grand Sault on May 28, 1611.
[24] The Lachine Rapids.
[25] Lake of Two Mountains.
[26] Dollier de Casson says in his "Historic de Montréal" that Champlain cut down many trees for firewood and also to guarantee himself against ambuscades.
[27] Ile Normandin.
[28] Registers of Notre Dame record that, on the 19th of August, 1664, two young men, Pierre Magnan and Jacques Dufresne, were slain here by Iroquois.
It was used sometimes by the French as a military station; for in June, 1687, the Chevalier de Vaudreuil posted both the regular troops and the militia there in readiness to march against the Iroquois. Thither it is alleged the Marquis de Lévis, commanding the last French army in 1760, withdrew, and here burnt his flags in the presence of his army the night previous to surrendering the colony to the English. Louis Honoré Frechette, the national French-Canadian poet, bases upon this his poem, entitled "All Lost but Honour."
In 1688 the island was acquired by Charles Le Moyne, Sieur de Longueuil, who gave the name of Ste. Hélène to one of his most distinguished sons. During the eighteenth century (from before 1723), his descendants, the Barons of Longueuil, whose territory lay just opposite, had a residence here, the ruins of which, once surrounded with gardens, are to be seen upon it on the east side. The Government acquired it from them by arrangement during the War of 1812, and later by purchase in 1818, for military purposes. It ceded the park portion to the city in 1874.
Almost adjoining it, at the lower extremity, is Ile Ronde, a small low island.
Both islands are interesting geologically from the occurrence there of a remarkable breccia containing inclusions of Devonian Limestone, and also from the existence of some rare types of dyke rock.
[29] The St. Lambert River.
[30] The Richelieu.
[31] Sault St. Louis Rapids, now known as the Lachine Rapids.
[32] The Lake of Two Mountains.
[33] Who is this Maisonneuve appearing as a privileged trader with the passport of the prince, doubtless the Prince de Condé, Henri de Bourbon, viceroy of Canada and head of Champlain's company? Evidently he was a person of some consequence from the ease with which Champlain granted him permission to trade at his settlement. Can it be, as Kingsford and others ingeniously try to prove, Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, who was later to found Montreal as a settlement in 1642, acting for "La Compagnie de Montreal?" (1) No. Chomedey was from Paris; the de Maisonneuve mentioned above is from St. Malo. (2) de Maisonneuve was a common enough name. There were even several of that name in Montreal in 1667.
[34] Mass was only said at Quebec for the first time on June 25, 1615, by which time they had built their chapel. The priority of the Island of Montreal in its claim to the first mass is substantiated by the "Mémoires des Recollects" of 1637 which distinctly say that "the first mass was celebrated at Rivière des Prairies and the second at Quebec."
Chapter IV
1627-1641
COLONIZATION
UNDER THE COMPANY OF ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES
THE CHARTER OF THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES THE BASIS OF THE SEIGNEURIAL SYSTEM TO BE AFTERWARDS ESTABLISHED AT MONTREAL--THE ENGLISH IN 1629 CAPTURE QUEBEC--1632, CANADA AGAIN CEDED TO THE FRENCH--1633, THE COMING OF THE JESUITS--THE RECOLLECTS DO NOT RETURN--THREE RIVERS IS ESTABLISHED--DESCRIPTION OF COLONIAL LIFE AT QUEBEC--DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN IN 1635--THE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS TO BE IMITATED AFTERWARDS AT MONTREAL--THE "RELATIONS DES JESUITES"--THE IROQUOIS BEGIN THEIR ATTACKS--THE NEWS OF A REINFORCEMENT AND DISAPPOINTMENT THAT MONTREAL HAS BEEN CHOSEN AS ITS HEADQUARTERS.
On April 29, 1627, Richelieu, the Superintendent of Marine and Commerce, securing the resignation of the Duke de Vantadour and annulling the privileges of de Caen and his associates with suitable indemnities, formed a new association under the title of the "Hundred Associates of the Company of New France," among whom were many gentlemen of rank. It was resolved that in the following year of 1628 a colony of two to three hundred men of all trades, all professing the Catholic religion, would be sent over--to be increased in the following fifteen years to four thousand, of both sexes. At that time the sole population of New France was seventy-six souls.
It is well here to consider the conditions of the charter now given, for it is the ground plan of all subsequent French Canadian colonization schemes, and Montreal will be affected by it. We have seen the Huguenots were now to be excluded (not, however, from engaging in commerce in Canada, but only from settling there). From all points of view, political and religious and colonial, this was necessary. To show that there was to be no harshness in the execution of this we may only point out that Champlain was in charge and he knew Huguenots well and had worked harmoniously with them. We have seen that since the companies had been mainly Huguenots, colonization had not succeeded owing to mutual jealousies. If Canada was to be saved, it was by colonization, and this could never be carried out with a divided people. Even Huguenots realized this point. For at the time they were enjoying full privileges of citizenship as has been said. Hence it was only by imposing law and order and uniformity of religious belief, that happy and contented communities could be expected to spread in Canada.
Richelieu at this time was eager to form a powerful navy and he thought the possession of thriving colonies would advance the scheme. Hence it was a wise policy that was now inaugurated. Unfortunately engrossing interests at home did not allow Richelieu to pursue his scheme for government promotion of colonization on the broad basis originally projected by him.
To carry out the conditions of receiving the number of colonists the King obliged the Company of One Hundred Associates to lodge, board and maintain for three years all the French they should transport to the colony. After which, they could be discharged from their obligation, if they had put the colonists in the way of making their own living, either by distributing them on cleared land and supplying them with grain for a first crop, or otherwise. To provide for the maintenance of the established church there should be three ecclesiastics in each of the settlements to be formed during fifteen years, maintained in food and lodging and in everything necessary for the exercise of their ministry. In compensation for their outlay in advance, the king handed over to the Associates the Seigneury of Quebec and of the whole of New France, with the reserve of fealty and homage and a crown of gold of the weight of eight marks, to be paid at each succeeding reign, and finally, of the institution of officers of Sovereign Justice to be nominated and presented by the Associates, when it should be deemed proper to have them appointed. Moreover, Louis XIII made a gift to the Associates of two war vessels of three hundred tons, ready equipped for sailing, and four culverins, with this clause, however, that if at the end of the first ten years they had not carried over fifteen hundred French of both sexes, they should pay the price of the aforesaid vessels. Among other privileges the king granted twelve patents of nobility signed, sealed and delivered, with a blank space left for the names of those of the Associates who shall be presented by the company and who shall enjoy with their heirs, born in lawful wedlock, these privileges for all time, thus starting the Seigneurial Land Tenure system which in 1854 yielded to that of freehold.
With regard to commerce, the company should have perpetual privileges in the peltry traffic of New France, and for fifteen years only, all other commerce by land and sea with the reservation of the cod and whale fishery which should be free to all French traders. The colonists not maintained at the expense of the Associates should be free to trade with the natives for peltry provided that they forthwith hand over the peltry to the company which shall be obliged to purchase at the rate of forty sols, Tours currency, for each beaver skin. In consequence, the privileges accorded previously to Guillaume de Caen and his associates were revoked by the same edict, and trade in Canada was interdicted to them and other subjects of the kingdom, under pain of confiscation of their vessels and merchandise to the benefit of the new company. Cardinal Richelieu, however, allowed Guillaume de Caen, the privilege of the peltry trade for one year in indemnification for the loss of his charter.
So started the Company of the One Hundred Associates under the happiest auspices, endowed with almost sovereign power and having a leader of the state as its patron, for at its head was Cardinal Richelieu, who, without the title of lieutenant general which he perhaps thought unnecessary, seeing that he connected the work of colonization with his position as head of the navy, exercised the same authority. On the 27th of April, 1628, Louis XIII sent Champlain his commission as "commander in New France in the absence of our very dear and well beloved cousin, the Cardinal de Richelieu, grand master, chief and superintendent of the navigation and commerce of France." Champlain did not receive his commission on behalf of the company until he reached Dieppe in 1629, after the occupation of Quebec by the English.
The first attempt to carry out the charter was in 1628, when vessels were equipped and victualled under the orders of de Roquemont, one of the chief associates. Their first object was to succour Quebec, then in famine. A number of artisans and their families started and never reached their destination, for in the gulf their ships were seized by David Kerth, a master mariner of Dieppe in pay of the English government and in command of its fleet attacking the colonies. War had broken out between England and France and hostilities soon extended to America, and a fleet of ships was sent to invade the settlements of New France and in particular to capture Quebec.
It is not our duty to tell the story of Quebec or to recount the noble defence of Champlain till the fall of the city on July 29, 1629, when Louis Kerth, the brother of the admiral, installed himself as the governor general, representing the English. The state of the colony at the end of this siege interests us. Of the French, there only remained at Quebec the families of the widow of Hébert and of their son-in-law, Couillard, and these intended to leave after the harvest, but in the event they were constrained to stay. The rest passed over by way of Tadoussac into France and with them Champlain, who went to England to call upon the French ambassador, urging him to demand the restitution of Quebec on the ground that it had been captured two months after the expiration of the short war between the two nations. Canada as a province quoad civilia was under Normandy, and hence it became to be believed that it was also quoad sacra under Normandy.
It is now 1632, the year of the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye when Acadia and Canada were again ceded to the French. For three years Louis Kerth kept Quebec in the name of England and on July 13, he formally handed over a heap of ruins to Emery de Caen, who conducted the first contingent of the returning French. "But for our habitation," says Champlain, "my people have found it utterly consumed along with good beaver skins valued at 40,000 livres."
Meanwhile, the Company of the Hundred Associates was again empowered to resume possession and Champlain was commissioned anew as acting governor of all the country along the St. Lawrence, and was appointed commander of the fleet of three vessels bearing new colonists. He arrived at Quebec with a good nucleus for the revived colony on May 23, 1633, and was received by a salute of cannon by Emery de Caen. Among the colonists brought by him there were persons of distinction who, wearied with religious dissensions in their own provinces, sought in New France that tranquility denied them in the old, and many rural labourers and artisans of different trades. As these were mostly from the diocese of Rouen, the clergy now arriving were the Jesuits, Fathers Massé and Brébeuf, sent under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Rouen. The Recollects were no longer allowed to return, on the ground that, theirs being an order which could not own property or revenues, they were unsuitable for a country where means were needed to gather together the Indians in settlements in buildings in which they could band together to be instructed. The chapel of the Recollects destroyed by the English was rebuilt. The work of reconstruction of the settlement now began in earnest. What interests us now is to learn that on July 1st of this year Champlain, at the request of the Indian allies, sent many workmen to Three Rivers to construct a fort and a fur factory there. Although Three Rivers had been used as a trading post, it had only been so temporarily, in the same manner that Montreal, or the post of the Sault St. Louis, had been the meeting place for the natives and traders engaged in the fur traffic.
At Quebec there was now great harmony. A lasting colony was established. Piety and religion flourished and the seeds of a good and noble population for Canada were sown. After many struggles success seemed now to be rewarding the efforts of Champlain. One shudders to think of what the future of Canada had been if the "convict" colonies of Roberval and la Roche had come to any permanency. We may note now two important movements helping to civilize the natives, which show the real desire of the new régime to fulfill its vocation. The first was the endeavour made by Champlain to nip in the bud the sale of intoxicating liquors to the natives in exchange for peltry already introduced by the preceding companies and by the English under Kerth. Champlain forbade anyone to trade wine or eau de vie with the natives under penalty of corporal punishment and the loss of their salaries as servants of the company. The second was the establishment by the Jesuits of a free boarding school for boys in the house of Notre Dame des Anges left them by the Recollects for the instruction of the Huron children. This method of civilization of the natives already employed by the Recollects was considered a most useful preliminary to the civilization of the natives by thus Gallicizing and Christianizing them, and attracted many.
That all these institutions were in line with Champlain's policy we see in Champlain's letter to Cardinal Richelieu, dated August 15, 1635. After saying that some of the Indians were sedentary and lived in villages and towns, while others were migratory hunters and fishers, all led by no other desire than to have a number of Frenchmen and religious teachers to instruct them in the faith, he adds, "We require but 120 men light armed for protection against the arrows. Possessing them, with two or three thousand more Indians, our allies, in a year we can render ourselves absolute masters of all these peoples by bringing among them the necessary good government and this policy would increase the worship of religion and an inconceivable commerce. The whole for the glory of God." In the last phrase we may see Champlain's whole policy unfolded.
But the days of Samuel de Champlain, Sieur de Brouage, were drawing to a close. To found this colony he had suffered many perils by land and sea, many fatigues, privations and opposition of friends and enemies. Paralysis now weakened his splendid physique and sturdy form, and after two months and a half of suffering he died on Christmas day, December 25, 1635. His death was most edifying, as the Jesuit chronicler relates. His obsequies were attended by the grief-stricken colony in a body, the settlers, the soldiers, the captains and the religious.
Father Lalemant officiated and Father Lejeune pronounced the funeral oration: Samuel de Champlain merits well of Canada. His death was apparently foreseen, for after the above ceremony while the gathering was still present, letters which had been left in the hands of Father Lejeune by the Company, to be opened after the death of Champlain, were publicly read announcing the appointment by letters patent of the Messieurs de la Compagnie of M. Bras-de-Fer de Chateaufort, the commandant of the young fort at Three Rivers, as acting governor ad interim for Mgr. the Duke of Richelieu, while awaiting the successor of Champlain to be named by the king.
The arrival of the ships from France, the next year, were eagerly looked forward to, albeit with some anxiety, for France being at war with Spain many doubted whether they would arrive, but to their delight they came in greater number than could have been expected, and on the night preceding the eleventh day of June, the new governor nominated by the Company and approved by the king arrived. This was Charles Hualt de Montmagny, Knight of Malta. The reception he received next morning was most imposing. He was met officially at the harbour, and conducted to the chapel of Notre Dame de Recouvrance, and thence to the parish church where a Te Deum was sung with prayers for the king. Then he mounted to the fortress where M. de Chateaufort, the temporary governor, handed over the keys amid the roar of cannon and the salvos of musketry. With M. de Montmagny there arrived a convoy of forty-five colonists--a notable increase. Among these were some families of note such as those of M. de Repentigny and M. de la Potherie. Next year, there came others, with many persons of distinction. A certain element of official dignity now began to prevail. It was de Montmagny's chief work to organize and strengthen the defences of the colony in preparation against the attacks of the Iroquois. At Quebec the governor reinforced the redoubt built by Champlain on the river by a platform and added more cannon to the battery. This new military aspect of the colony is described by the chronicler in the "Relations of the Jesuits for 1636."
"The morning gun (or the beat of the drum at dawn in the garrison) awakens us every morning. We see the sentinels put on post; the guard house is always well manned; each squad has its days of duty. It is a pleasure to see our soldiers at military exercises in the sweet time of peace ... in a word, our fortress of Quebec is guarded in peace so as to be a place of importance, in the heat of war."
With the assistance of M. Chateaufort, reinstated as commandant of the growing fort at Three Rivers, the palisaded stockade there was reinforced with two main buildings, a storehouse and a platform for the cannons. These external signs of power were necessary to impress the natives, both their allies, the Hurons and Algonquins, should they prove treacherous, as well as the fierce Iroquois, the deadly enemies of both. The little garrisons had need to be well prepared for eventualities.
At this time several foundations in the colony were established, by private charity, to Christianize the natives and to encourage them to live a sedentary life and to till the ground. A mission village was built for them by the Jesuits in 1638 at Sillery, on the banks of the St. Lawrence, at a distance of four miles from Quebec, the funds being supplied by the charity of a member of the Hundred Associates, a distinguished commander of Malta, Noël Brulart de Sillery, a former Minister of State. At Three Rivers in 1641 similar action was taken. A third was desired by the missionaries at the Rivière des Prairies at the north of the Island of Montreal, as a central position for missionary effort among the up-country tribes.
Tadoussac was visited by the missionaries from time to time, but was too desolate a spot to attract the natives to dwell there permanently. The Jesuits had thought of establishing themselves at Ile Jésus, for there is an act of August 16, 1638, giving it to them at Three Rivers and signed by Montmagny.
We have seen the establishment of a school for the Indian boys by the Jesuits. We are now to record a similar one for girls, but who should undertake inch a work for them? Two noble ladies of France were to answer this question. The year 1639 saw the arrival at Quebec, on August 1st, of a party of brave ladies whom we may know as the pioneers of all those numerous philanthropic organizations and good works controlled by the devoted women of Canada of today. These were the ladies sent from France by Madame la Duchesse d'Aiguillon, the niece of Cardinal Richelieu, and by Madame de la Peltrie, to assist the struggling colony there.
I will here introduce the reader to what are known as the "Relations." These are a series of letters or reports which were written by the Jesuit missionaries in Nouvelle France, starting from the arrival of Fathers Lalemant and Lejeune and continued long after. They have now been collected and published, and are the most valuable historical sources of this early period. They are written to the superiors of their order in France, sent by the Company's boats, and were the source of encouragement and inspiration to their religious brethren who eagerly read them and desired to follow in their writers' footsteps in the mission field of New France. Many others besides the Jesuits saw these letters. The news contained in them was eagerly looked for by many good ladies and gentlemen of France who were interested in the progress of this romantic settlement among the savages in a far-off land. The birth struggles of the new colony, the devotion and self sacrifices of the pioneers, attracted their imagination and stirred their sympathy and generosity.[35]
In 1634-35 Father Lejeune had written exposing the need of some establishment to take care of the girls abandoned by the Indians and of another for education similar to that, for boys, already constructed. This "Relation" was read by the niece of Cardinal Richelieu, Madame la Duchesse d'Aiguillon, and she wrote to the Jesuits: "God having given me the desire to aid in the salvation of these poor savages, after having read the report you have made of them, it seems to me that what you believe would be of most service to their conversion is the establishment of the Religeuses Hospitalières in New France; in consequence I have resolved to send there this year six labourers to clear the land and construct dwellings for these good ladies."
The foundation of a community of Ursuline nuns to undertake the education of the young Indian girls was also similarly inspired this year, by a good lady whose name is associated with the foundation of Montreal. This was Madeleine de Chauvigny, the widow of M. de la Peltrie, a gentleman of means who had died five and a half years previously. Madame de la Peltrie had long felt impelled to the religious life, but had been obliged by her father to marry. Being now free she was anxious to devote her life to good works. But not having decided whether it should be in New France or elsewhere she fell dangerously ill, whereupon she made a vow that if she regained her health she would devote her life and her property to New France. She recovered quickly. It is related that the physician on visiting her, remarked in surprise: "Madame, your illness has fled to Canada." The coincidence of this remark with her own thoughts struck her imagination and her only thought was now to make the necessary preparations.
There was at Tours an Ursuline nun named Mother Marie de l'Incarnation, who was very interested in New France. This was known to Madame de la Peltrie who now approached her so that shortly permission was granted by the Archbishop of Tours to Mother Marie to be joined by Mother Marie de Savonnine de St. Joseph of the same convent, and by Mother Cécile de Ste. Croix from the Ursuline convent of Dieppe. Thus it was that Madame de la Peltrie found herself at Quebec with these three and the three "Hospitalières" sent by Madame d'Aiguillon, viz.: Sisters Marie de St. Ignace, Superior, Anne de St. Bernard and Marie de St. Bonaventure.
We must imagine the religious enthusiasm of the colonists at their arrival and the eagerness with which the two new institutions were begun, that of the hospital at Quebec and of the Ursuline convent at Sillery.
But soon gloom was cast upon the little colony. Money and workmen from the Company in France were needed and they came not. The explanation is that the small sum of 300,000 livres, the original capital subscribed by the One Hundred Associates, was dwindling, the expenses being necessarily great, and the company of ladies and gentlemen composing it, not being as practical as they were pious, so that although they placed the commercial side of their affairs in the hands of traders, these mainly looked after their own interests rather than those of the colony.
The development of the struggling institutions lately mentioned was hindered. To add to the general distress, on the 4th day of June, 1640, a fire quickly consumed the Church of Notre Dame de Recouvrance, the house of the Jesuits and the governor's chapel, which were all of resinous wood.
What a loss this must have been to the handful of colonists who numbered in all in the year 1641 only 200! The mention of this number reminds us of the charter given to the Company in 1627, and the reader is advised to turn back and see how its conditions of colonization have been filled. Outside the three religious communities and the persons engaged in their service, the rest was composed of the servants of the Company engaged in commerce. To add to their other troubles the Iroquois again began their hostilities, declaring war against the French and the Hurons. In the autumn of 1640 they captured two of the French belonging to the garrison of Three Rivers. These were eventually recaptured and the governor, M. de Montmagny, offered terms of peace if they would conclude a universal peace with the Huron allies. During the night, which the Iroquois had demanded to think over this proposition, they treacherously laid plans to fall upon the French next day, in which they were routed, escaping however at night in the shadows of the woods.
Meanwhile news had also arrived of the ill treatment of the Jesuit missionaries, Chaumont, Garnier, Poncet and Pijart, scattered away the Indian tribes. All Quebec was in alarm and consternation, and nowhere was there more fear than at the Indian village under the charge of the Hospitalières sisters at Sillery, four miles from the garrison. Such was the depression in the colony that in 1641 Father Viniont, now superior of the Jesuits in Quebec, wrote home:
"It is going to be destroyed if it is not strongly and quickly succoured. The trade of the Company, the colony of the French and the religion which is now beginning to flourish among the savages, are at the lowest point, if they do not quell the Iroquois. Fifty Iroquois, since the Dutch have given them fire-arms, are capable of driving the 200 colonists out of the country."
It was in these desperate straits that news came of a reinforcement to be sent to the colony; but what must have been their disappointment and misgivings when they realized that the new Company had resolved upon Montreal, sixty leagues away up at the Sault St. Louis, as their rendezvous. And that the projected expedition was determined on definitely, was made clear when the supply of provisions for the new colony arrived at Quebec in 1840, very opportunely, however, for they served for the use of the famished garrison, since the Company of One Hundred Associates had neglected to provide their usual supply.
FOOTNOTE:
[35] The earliest relation was written in 1614; then follows one for 1626; and after a break of six years, they proceed in regular succession from 1632-1672.