Chapter V…

Chapter V

1640-1641

MONTREAL

THE COMPANY OF NOTRE DAME DE MONTREAL[36]

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.

The survey of the colonization of New France up to 1641 shows that it had been singularly unfruitful. The government of France had never been more than lukewarm after Cartier's voyages. He had given a poor account of the climate of the country, and the loss of a quarter of his crew from scurvy must have confirmed it. Roberval sent on a government expedition, lost fifty of his company and thereafter the private companies all had their disasters from famine and disease to record, beginning with that of Chauvin's, who, having left sixteen men at Tadoussac for the winter, found eleven there on his return.

Were it not for the insatiable desire for commercial gain, through fur monopolies, Canada would have been utterly deserted. There were no industries developed to attract colonists. There had been no gold mines or other treasures exploited to create rushes into a new and harsh country, such as that of the Yukon of late years.

Agriculture, under difficult circumstances, and unsupported by government, or by the companies pledged to encourage it, had also failed. At the end of little more than one hundred years after Jacques Cartier's visit to the St. Lawrence there were only 200 Frenchmen near its waters. Of these about a hundred were fur traders, and their employees, at once furriers and soldiers; and the rest for the greater part were the religious, of three institutions, and their dependents.

As a further anti-colonizing influence, there was to be reckoned with, the love of the French for their own land. The traveler and historian, Lescarbot, himself a Frenchman and a good colonist, speaking of colonizing had said: "If we fail, we must attribute it partly to ourselves who are located in too goodly a land to wish to leave it, and need be in no fear of finding a subsistence therein."

The same sentiment had prevailed up to 1641. But there had been one element alone, which can justly claim to have had some lasting influence and success in the colonizing movement, and that had been the spirit of religious adventure fostered by Champlain, which made the small garrison of Quebec into a small, but not insignificant or undignified, centre of colonization.

We are to see this same desire to bear the light of Christianity and civilization, as the prime moving force of the new movement to settle in Canada, animating the founders of the new Company of Montreal, which is now to appear.

Hence it is necessary to read into the story of the foundation of Montreal that of the heroism of virtue and of high purpose, of spiritual and physical endurance.

We have followed the history of Montreal from its discovery by Jacques Cartier in 1535, to the coming of Champlain in 1603, and his choice in 1611 of La Place Royale as the site of a future settlement, ratified by him and others for a period of many years. Still the site of the port at the Grand Sault had never become more than an annual trading port towards which it was the aim of the traders to push, at the opening of navigation, to meet the natives at this most convenient spot at the end of the Ottawa Valley.

It was reserved for the new Company of Montreal, by the powers given it by their charter granted on December 17, 1640, to put this long cherished idea of a permanent settlement into realization.

The various steps leading to this must now be traced. We have seen that the Company of New France, that of the Hundred Associates or Partners, was in possession of the country from 1627. Among other powers the Associates had the privilege of making certain concessions, but it was not until the death of Champlain, anticipated as we have seen during the two months' illness and more before it occurred on Christmas day, 1635, that the privilege seems to have been used under the following circumstances.

We have seen that Champlain had clearly meditated a settlement at Montreal and no doubt meant to make it his own headquarters. Circumstances had not allowed him to pursue his design. His important position at Quebec since had left him little leisure for that in the troublous times following. Still it is curious to note that his fortifications placed on Ile Ronde in 1611 seemed to have given him a lien on the site of Montreal, for we hear of no private person being granted it till after his death in December, 1635. It is only on the 15th of January, following, that such a transaction is announced at the annual meeting of the Hundred Associates in Paris, held in the house of M. Jean de Lauson, the intendant of the Company.

In the edict of the establishment of this Company, in order to facilitate the exercise of his functions, the king had ordered, that as the whole of the members could not be expected to participate in the active administration of its affairs, a dozen of them could be elected directors with sole and full power under the presidency of the intendant to buy, sell and distribute the lands.

In order to limit the powers of this executive, the eleventh article of the edict declared that no concession of land exceeding two hundred arpents could be valid, without the signature of twenty of the Associates made in the presence of the intendant of the Company.

M. Lauson had been named intendant since 1627, being at that time Councillor of State and President of the Great Council. At the annual meeting of the Associates, on January 15, 1636, some most important concessions were granted which affect Montreal. M. Jacques Gérard, Chevalier, Sieur de la Chaussée, made application in due form for the Island of Montreal. Sieur Simon le Maitre made application for the seigneury, afterwards called de Lauson, and another, Jacques Castillon, for that part of the Isles of Orleans called hereafter the Seigneurie de Charny, after the name of one of de Lauson's sons. These concessions were granted and signed by de Lauson as the intendant. Shortly afterward when de Lauson relinquished the post of intendant, these three, who were his friends, and had lent their names for his purpose, transferred the properties to him. Indeed in the act of April 30, 1638, by which M. de Chaussée ceded the "Ile de Montréal" he expressly says that he had accepted it only to give de Lauson pleasure and to lend his name. At the same meeting several other concessions were put through in behalf of the eldest son of de Lauson, viz.: with the reserve of the islands of Montreal and Orleans, all the other islands formed by the River St. Lawrence, and the exclusive right of fishing and navigation of the whole extent of this river. Finally, as if these islands, without number, were not sufficient, the same eldest son received more than sixty leagues of land facing the River St. Lawrence, beginning from the River St. Francis, on Lake St. Pierre, and reaching up the river to above Sault St. Louis. This concession, known hereafter under the name of La Citière, comprised, according to the deed of possession July 29, 1636, a part of the territory now belonging to the United States--the whole little lot making what would have been a European kingdom. Certainly M. de Lauson was feathering his nest and that of his children before giving up the intendancy. There was the obligation, however, which the Company placed on the above persons that they should send men to the relief of the colony. This was evidently looked upon as a legal formality, of no serious moment. Similar clauses had been inserted in so many New France company charters already and this could be equally disregarded, as it was. However, this illegal omission of duty was made use of, later, as we shall see, when these concessions were annulled and revoked by the Company of One Hundred Associates by their ordinance of December 17, 1640.

The design of the settlement of the Island of Montreal, however, was soon to enter into the mind of a pious, enthusiastic, and some would say, visionary person, M. Jérome le Royer Sieur de la Dauversière, a "receveur général des finances" at La Flèche in Anjou.

The Abbé Faillon relates the conception of this design as occurring to the devout M. de la Dauversière when present at mass with his wife and children on February 2, the feast of the Purification, 1635 or 1636, when, after having received holy communion, he became convinced that it was his duty to establish an order of lady Hospitalières, to take St. Joseph as their patron; to establish in Montreal a Hôtel-Dieu to be directed by these nuns; that the Holy Family should be particularly honoured in this island; that the effect of this inspiration was a revelation to him, as he had never conceived the project before, even remotely; and, moreover, his knowledge of Montreal had hitherto been as vague as that of Canada.

But Dollier de Casson, who was afterwards the parish priest of Montreal, an old-time soldier, a learned and pious, but practical man, although a great believer in Providence, gives a less mystical account in his history of Montreal written from 1672 to 1673.

There he relates the origin of the design of the establishment of Montreal as due to the reading of one of the "Jesuit Relations," which had fallen into de la Dauversière's hands. There the writer spoke strongly of the Island of Montreal as being the most suitable place in the country for the purpose of establishing a mission and receiving the savages. In reading this, M. de la Dauversière was at once much touched.

He became enthusiastic and already saw the vision of a French colony settled at Montreal christianizing the natives. Montreal seems to have so obsessed his mind that he was never tired of speaking of it, depicting its position, the geography of its location, its beauty, its fertility, its size, with such minuteness and vividness, that all who heard him felt that he had been directly inspired with this knowledge, for little was known of Montreal owing to the wars which had left so little opportunity for exploring it well, that it was with difficulty that even a rough idea of it could be furnished. De la Dauversière saw himself called to give himself up to the conversion of the savages; but still doubtful as to whether this idea was from God or not, he betook himself to his Jesuit friend and confessor, Father Chauveau, rector of the college at La Flèche.

"Have no doubt, Monsieur," was the reply. "Engage in it in good earnest."

There was then at La Flèche under the roof of M. de la Dauversière, a gentleman of ample means who had come to live with him "as in a school of piety so as to learn to serve our Lord better," This was M. Pierre Chevrier, Baron de Fancamp, who afterwards forsook the world and joined the new order of secular priests under the name of the "Seminary of St. Sulpice."

According to Dollier de Casson, M. Fancamp had also read with similar emotion the same account which had influenced his friend. On his return from the "Jesuits" M. de la Dauversière immediately related the reply he had received and forthwith M. le Baron offered to associate himself with him in his design and they both resolved to go to Paris together to form some charitable body which should be ready to contribute to the enterprise. A dramatic meeting took place there.[37]

"M. de la Dauversière," so says Dollier de Casson, "betook himself to a mansion whither our lord conducted M. Olier." This is the celebrated M. Olier who was afterwards the founder of the Seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris and, indirectly, that of Montreal.

Dollier de Casson continues: "These two servants of Jesus Christ meeting in this mansion, were on a sudden enlightened by a heavenly and altogether extraordinary gleam. They forthwith saluted one another and embraced. They knew one another to the very depths of their souls, like St. Francis and St. Dominic, without speaking, without anyone having said a word to either of them, and without having previously seen one another. After these tender embraces M. Olier said to M. Dauversière:

"I know your design. I am going to recommend it to God at the holy altar."

This said, he left them and went to say holy mass, which M. Dauversière heard, with a devotion altogether difficult to express when the mind is not aglow with the same fire that consumed these great men. Thanksgiving over, M. Olier gave M. de la Dauversière one hundred pistoles, saying to him: "Take this then to commence the work of God!" Thus the first interview ended.

Dollier de Casson leaves his readers to imagine with what joy and eagerness this news is received by the "dear Baron le Fancamp." This M. Fancamp afterwards became a priest and joined Dollier de Casson at Montreal and no doubt he had told the first historian of Ville Marie his story himself per longum et latum. Three new associates, friends of M. Olier, were induced to finance the new venture, of whom the first was the Baron de Renty, a man of admirable qualities, pious and filled with apostolic zeal. These six, forming the nucleus of the Société de Notre Dame de Montréal, determined to fit out an expedition to embark in the spring of 1641.

But as yet they had no claim on the Island of Montreal. As we have learned, this had been ceded to M. de la Chaussée in 1636 and transferred to M. de Lauson in 1638, who had become the intendant of Dauphigny where he was now residing. With daring boldness M. de la Dauversière and M. de Fancamp, journeyed to Vienne in Dauphigny to arrange terms with him for the cession of the island to them. De Lauson had not colonized it, or carried out any of the conditions requiring its being tilled, but he was not easily disposed to relinquish what was a valuable possession for the advancement of his family, the more so as he learned that his interests were jeopardized by the new company. He therefore refused to discuss the question.

A second attempt and visit were made, this time with success, for M. de la Dauversière had secured in the meantime the powerful co-operation of Father Charles Lalemant, who had been the first Jesuit superior of the Canadian missions, having been sent out in 1621.

Lalemant knew Canada well and had great influence with the Company of the Hundred Associates. He had been superior of the church of Notre Dame de Recouvrance in Quebec, as well as Champlain's confessor, and had had naturally many official relations with M. de Lauson in his capacity as intendant of the company. As he was held in great esteem by M. de Lauson, Father Lalemant, who since his return from Canada two years before was now the procurator of the missions of the society, was a powerful advocate for the cession.

Accordingly the cession was granted by deed dated Vienne, August 7, 1640, to Pierre Chevrier, écuyer, Sieur de Fancamp, and Jérome de Royer, Sieur de la Dauversière. This declares "that M. Jean de Lauson cedes, has given and transferred, purely and simply the Island of Montreal, situated on the River St. Lawrence, above Lake St. Peter, entirely as it was given by the gentlemen of the Company of New France to M. de la Chaussée for them and theirs to enjoy, having regard to the same duties and conditions expressed in the act of the fifteenth of January, 1636."

A second contract was signed, the same afternoon, by which "M. de Lauson as much in his own name as the legitimate administrator for Francis de Lauson, écuyer, Sieur de Lyrée, his son, yields to them the right of navigation and passage on all the extent of the River St. Lawrence as well as the right of fishing in this river, within ten leagues around the Island of Montreal and that in consideration of the great number of men which they are to cause to pass into this island to people the colony and to aid to till the lands adjoining those of the said Sieur de Lyrée, with the duty of giving him each year six pounds of fish, as a token of simple acknowledgment."

In December following the general assembly of the Company of the Hundred Associates or the "Société de Nouvelle France" was held in Paris in the house of M. Bordier, secretary of His Majesty's council and a former director of the Company.

The whole project of the establishment of the new company for Montreal was discussed and its conclusions drawn up in a deed of concession, to M. de Fancamp and M. de la Dauversière, dated December 17, 1640. It annulled and revoked all the concessions granted by the act of the Company dated January 15, 1636, to M. de Chaussée as well as the concessions and transferences made thereafter of the same "pretended rights," the whole being null and revoked through failure of the execution of the conditions imposed within the time ordered. In the perusal of this act we can see the relations of the two companies. That of the Associates of Montreal is clearly regarded as a purely religious body anxious to aid the parent body in its very great desire to establish a strong colony in New France to instruct the savage peoples of that place in the knowledge of God and to draw them to civilized life. Thus they are very ready to grant them lands to aid in this praiseworthy enterprise, to wit: etc., which are clearly defined. In granting this they restricted the concession originally made to M. de Chaussée of the whole island by reserving to themselves the head of the island by a line drawn from the Rivière des Prairies up to Lake St. Louis to the distance of about four leagues from the mountain. In compensation they granted what afterwards became known as la Seigneurie de St. Sulpice.

"Moreover, an extent of land two leagues wide along the River St. Lawrence by six leagues deep in the aforesaid lands, to be taken on the north side of the same bank where the Assumption River empties into the said St. Lawrence River, and to begin at a post which will be planted on that same bank at a distance of two leagues from the mouth of the same Assumption River, the rest of the said two leagues of frontage to be taken in a direction running towards the said St. Lawrence River; whatever lies between the Rivière des Prairies and Assumption River and between Assumption River and the above mentioned fort, being reserved to the said company proposing to set up thereon later as forts and habitations."--Edits et Ord., Quebec, p. 21.

The object of the above restriction is clear. The Company of New France was primarily a trading concern and it wished to secure its rights to the north of Montreal as a trading centre for which it was so well adapted by nature, as it was the natural goal of all the Indian peltry from beyond the Sault. It reserved rights therefore to build forts and habitations there.

It next outlined the political and municipal position of the future colony in respect to the Company. The Sieurs Chevrier (de Fancamp), de la Dauversière and their successors were obliged, to show their faith and homage, to take to the fort St. Louis at Quebec in New France, or other place afterwards designated by the Company, at each change of possessor, as payment, a piece of gold of the weight of one ounce stamped with the seal of the Company of New France; to present besides other signs of acknowledgments of feudal tenure; even to furnish their aveux et dénombrement,[38] the whole in conformity with the custom of Paris,--a land tenure system which prevailed for so long afterward in Canada.

In the matter of Justice, dependence was to be placed on the Sovereign Court which was to be established at Quebec or otherwise, to which appeal could be made from the local judges appointed by the Montreal Company.

Montreal was, thus, crippled beforehand, in its trade extension. The fur trade with the Indians was only allowed as far as the need and use of private persons were concerned. All peltry, over and above this, was to be handed over to the agents of the Company of New France at a price fixed by it, on the pain of confiscation. Montreal's pretensions to future independence were guarded against, by it being forbidden to build any fortress or citadel, this privilege being reserved to the Company should it afterward desire land for these forts and for the settlement and housings of the officers and men around them. In case the Company desired a fort on the mountain, it required five arpents around it, etc. Nevertheless the seigneurs of Montreal might retrench or fortify themselves as much as necessary to protect themselves against the incursions of the savages.

Further limitations were placed on the sources of future population. No grants of land were to be given to those already settled in New France, at Quebec, Three Rivers or elsewhere, but only to those who came expressly to people the lands. In order to insure this, the Seigneurs Chevrier and le Royer were to send a number of men by the next shipment made by the Company.

Finally after the clause annulling the gift of de Lauson as stated above, the document gives order to M. de Montmagny, the governor, to put the said seigneurs in possession of the lands.

Throughout this document there is no mention of the "Company of Montreal." The deed is made out to the two named and to their successors, but it was evidently understood that these were acting for others with no other pretension than belonging to a number of associates of the "Company of Montreal."[39]

Let us return to M. Olier. At the time we are speaking of, this young priest, a man of less than twenty-eight years of age, was a missionary for the country people. He had returned from these to Paris to take a decision on a most important subject, which was, whether or not he should accept the episcopal see of a pious prelate who had been urging its acceptance by him for over eighteen months.

On the feast of the Purification, February 2, 1636, with this need for decision on his mind, M. Olier having retired to the abbey church of St. Germaies-Prés to seek in prayer the solution to his perplexity, believed that he had received a supernatural light.

"Having prayed for some time," he relates in after years, "at morning prayer I heard these words, 'you need to consume yourself in me, so that I may work my whole will in you; and I wish that you may be a light to illumine the Gentiles; lumen ad revelationem Gentium.'"

This appeared to him a clear call to refuse the offer of the episcopate, which was not among the Gentiles.

At this same time his spiritual director, Père de Coudreu, the general of the Oratorians, and the holy St. Vincent de Paul, were also thinking out Olier's decision for him. On this same day, then, Père de Coudreu's decision that he ought to renounce the episcopacy coming to Olier, he believed that it was his mission to remain a simple priest, and go at once to Canada to be allied to the Gentiles there. With difficulty he is restrained by his director. He is all aglow with zeal, he prays God, as his autobiographical memoirs tell, "to send me to Montreal in Canada, where they should build the first chapel, under the title of the Ever-Blessed Virgin and a Christian town under the name of Ville Marie, which is a work of marvelous importance."

Olier retired towards the end of 1641, to the Village of Vaugiraud, where he surrounded himself with some young ecclesiastics who placed themselves under his direction.[40] Thus he founded the Seminary of St. Sulpice, the early fruits of which were directed towards Canada. Thus we shall see, that through his sons, he became the lumen ad revelationem of his prayers. M. Olier is therefore to be considered one of the founders of Canada as he is already one of the first three associates who are to form the new company of Notre Dame de Montréal.

M. Fancamp must shortly have been introduced to Olier, for we learn that conjointly with M. Olier he sent out to Quebec in 1640, twenty tons of provisions and tools, begging the Jesuit superior of the mission to hold them in reserve for the reinforcement they proposed to send to Montreal the year following before commencing the projected establishment.

It can but be said that the concession of the Great Company was liberal and well meaning. Indeed the same day of the concession, December 17, 1640, it engaged itself to transport on its own vessels at its own expense, thirty men chosen by the Messieurs de Montréal as well as thirty tons of provisions destined for their sustenance; also to write to M. de Montmagny to give them two sites, one at the port of Quebec and the other at Three Rivers, where they might house their provisions in safety.

Great preparations were now the order of the day. Exhaustive plans were prepared for the gradual development of the Colony of Montreal, year by year ahead. Rarely has any settlement ever been thought out so completely. It had the experience of the Colony of Quebec to fall back upon. Quebec had its three organized institutions, its clergy residence, its hospital and its school for the young savages. Ville Marie should have its similar ones. In the place of the Jesuits it should have a community of resident secular priests. This was not to oust the Jesuits, who consented to this from the beginning, as they wished to follow their vocation to evangelize the country far and wide, the constitution of their order not designing them to be parish priests. In the meantime they undertook to look after the spiritual needs of the young settlement from their headquarters at Quebec. The plan for the personnel to take charge of the other institutions had not yet matured.

Documents, in the archives of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, at Paris, relating to this period, show the fervour of those now planning "by the goodness of God to see in a short time a new church arise which shall imitate the purity and the charity of the primitive church."

The Associates, being in the necessity of sending out their first consignment of men according to their agreement, it became necessary to choose a governor, dignified, brave and wise, and a good Christian, a man to command against the attacks of the fierce Iroquois and to build up the civil life of the community. How the choice fell upon Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, a gentleman of Champagne, must now be told. Here we follow Dollier de Casson and contemporary chroniclers. Paul de Chomedey, though still young, being commonly thought to be within his fortieth year, had followed the career of arms since his thirteenth year, and had given the first proofs of his courage in the war against the Dutch. Amid the dissipations of a soldier's life, Colonel de Maisonneuve had retained his probity and purity unsullied. He loved his profession, but he often desired to exercise it in some far-off country, where the gaieties and distractions in which he now found himself a solitary man should not be forced upon him, so that he might serve God more easily, and remain faithful to his high purposes. Thus he was in the world but not of it. De Chomedey had a sister to whom he was devoted, a member of the Congregation of Notre Dame at Troyes, that ancient birthplace of warriors, poets and saints, on the Seine. This good woman, they say, desired to partake of the romantic and apostolic life of the Ursulines Hospitalières at Quebec, as related by the Jesuits in their letters then being printed and circulated in France. Doubtless by her whole-souled enthusiasm she had already turned her brother's thoughts in the same direction of self-sacrifice.

In the dispositions, happening while visiting the house of a friend, to put his hand by chance upon a copy of these "Relations," in turning over the leaves he came across the name of Father Lalemant, the former superior of the Canadian missions, whom he knew to be now in Paris. The thought came to him that perhaps he might find congenial occupation in Canada. Thereupon visiting the good Jesuit, he opened his heart to him.

About this same time M. de la Dauversière called upon Father Lalemant and told him of the difficulty of the Associates in finding a suitable leader for their enterprise.

"I know," said Lalemant, "a gentleman of Champagne who perhaps will suit your purpose," and he advocated the qualities of his recent visitor. He told M. de la Dauversière of the address of Maisonneuve's hôtel. Desirous of becoming acquainted with Maisonneuve, M. Dauversière took up his abode there also, and sought an early opportunity of becoming casually acquainted with him at table. In order to sound him, he placed before the guests his embarrassment in the choice of a leader of his expedition. M. de Maisonneuve apparently did not manifest more interest than his fellow guests at table, but on rising he took M. de la Dauversière aside and invited him to his apartment. When alone, Maisonneuve told him frankly of his interest in the conversation at table. He explained in addition to his own experience in arms, that he had a yearly income of 2,000 livres. "I have no view of personal interest. I can live on my revenue, which is sufficient for me, and I would glad-heartedly employ my purse and my life in this new enterprise, with no other ambition but that of serving God and the King, in my profession." If his services were agreeable to the Company he would gladly command the expedition himself, and was ready to start at once.

It is needless to say that such a man was a God-send to the six associates who had only 25,000 écus, according to Dollier de Casson, but 50,000, according to Mother Jucherau in her history of the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec. Preparations were made for departure. The King, in confirming the cession of Montreal, had given power to name its governors and to have artillery and other munitions of war. M. Maisonneuve was appointed governor and he was charged, together with M. de Fancamp, to prepare the equipment of provisions and implements, etc., and to find only unmarried men, strong and able, to till the ground, or to work at different trades, and to bear arms against the Iroquois. M. de Maisonneuve had some difficulty in persuading his father to give his consent to his departure. Paul was the only son, and the only hope of his noble and ancient family, and could he wreck his career? Paul assured him that on the contrary his reputation lay before him in the new country. At last the father gave his willing consent.

To Troyes Paul de Chomedey then journeyed to bid adieux to his sister, Madame de Chuly, and to Soeur Louise de Marie, his other sister, at the convent. There he had to refuse the offer of four of the nuns to accompany him, to emulate at Montreal the example of the Ursulines of Quebec. But judging the time not yet ripe for such an institution at Ville Marie, he gave a promise that when it should be more peopled he would employ them. His sister wrote on a statue, which they gave him to take away as a pledge of their mutual engagement, this inscription in letters of gold

"Sainte mère de Dieu, pure vierge au coeur loyal, Gardez-nous une place en votre Montréal."

The spring had come; the expedition was ready to depart from Rochelle, but the mother of the future colony was wanting. These hardy men needed the solicitude and refining influence of a woman in their midst.

The call of Jeanne Mance to fill this rôle is full of romance. This devoted lady was then about thirty-three years of age, having been born towards the year 1606 at Nogent-le-Roi, about four leagues from Langres, of one of the most honourable families of the district. She was a modest girl, of great virtue, who from an early age had taken a vow of perpetual chastity, but although she never entered the religious life, she always nevertheless remained an unmarried lay woman. Towards the middle of April of 1640 she had heard for the first time of the devotedness of Madame de la Peltrie, who had just taken the Ursulines to Quebec, and of the generosity of the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, who had founded the house for the "Hospitalières." Though of frail health, yet she had a daring spirit that dominated her soul so that a strong attraction for a like sacrifice came to her. She, too, would offer her services for Canada. Seeking advice she was told to seek Father Lalemant in Paris. Thither she went from Langres on May 30th. She saw Father Lalemant, but the future of the foundation of Montreal was then uncertain, and he was then going to Dauphigny with M. Dauversière to see M. de Lauson, as related. He could give no decided advice.

Jeanne now consulted Father de St. Jure, the rector of the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Paris. He confirmed her in her vocation, and she now acquainted her reluctant relatives with her firm intention of going to the mission field of Canada. That winter, in Paris, she visited Père Rapin, provincial of the Recollects, who entering into her designs, introduced her to Madame de Bullion, a rich and charitable lady, the widow of Claude de Bullion, the superintendent of finance and keeper of the seals under Louis XIII. He was a rich man, very worldly, clever and courageous, but he had a good heart and had endowed a hospital for the Franciscan Cordeliers, and in which he had died on the night of December 22-23, 1640, leaving behind him four sons and one daughter.

When Jeanne Mance called upon the surviving widow, a few weeks later, there was laid the foundations of a life-long friendship. At Jeanne's fourth visit, Madame de Bullion asked her if she could undertake the charge of a hospital which she had herself resolved to found in New France, when opportunity occurred.

The remembrance of her frail health now made Jeanne recoil before such a responsibility. Still, though she feared that she could not be of much service in this regard, she left herself in the hands of God. Nothing more was then settled. Jeanne was still determined to reach the vessels soon about to start for New France, and on calling on Madame de Bullion to take leave before departing to embark this good lady gave her a purse of 1200 livres to help her in her good work, with a pledge of more to come, when Jeanne should have arrived at her destination and had written an account of the state of affairs, as she found them, regarding the foundation of a hospital. For many years Madame de Bullion's name remained a secret to the colonists. Jeanne Mance was even instructed to write to her, under cover of the name of Père Rapin.

Neither Jeanne nor her benefactress then knew of the venture of Montreal. This she did not learn till visiting the Jesuit La Place at Rochelle, where she met the Baron de Fancamp who told her of its details. The following day, Jeanne Mance met M. de la Dauversière, whose enthusiasm made her resolve to accept his offer and that of the Associates, to join the Montreal expedition. While they were waiting to sail she begged M. de la Dauversière to put the plan of the new venture into writing and to give her copies so that she might send one with a letter in her own handwriting to Madame la Princesse de Condé, to Madame la Chancelière, and, above all, to Madame de Bullion. These parcels M. de la Dauversière took with him back to Paris, with fruitful result.

All was now ready, and one of the ships had set sail. The carpenter, upon whom they relied so much, had deserted, but on putting the vessel back, luckily another was found on shore willing to go.

Jeanne Mance was now on her vessel.[41] Her only anxiety was that she should be the only woman at the new settlement of Montreal, among a good-hearted but rough body of men. Shortly before this a circumstance occurred at Dieppe, whence the other ships of the expedition were embarking, which gave her great joy. Two of the workmen engaged were found to be married men, and on their refusing to go without their wives, their condition had been accepted. In addition a young and virtuous girl of Dieppe, seized with a sudden desire to join the expedition, had forced her way on to the ship, against all opposition. She too was accepted for Montreal, and Mademoiselle Mance not only would have companions but she would find in the young girl a faithful assistant to nurse the sick at Ville Marie.

The expedition was divided into three ships. On one was M. de Maisonneuve with about twenty-five, including a priest, M. Antoine Fauls, destined for the Ursulines at Quebec. On the second was Jeanne Mance and a dozen men for Montreal with the Jesuit, Father La Place. The third ship had sailed ahead from Dieppe with the three women spoken of and ten men. These were the first to arrive at Quebec and they set to work to build a store at the water's edge, at the spot directed by M. de Montmagny, the governor. The vessel bearing Jeanne Mance reached Quebec on August 8, 1641; that of M. de Maisonneuve did not arrive till August 20th. After having sailed for eight days together, the vessels were separated by the wind, for the rest of the voyage.

Great as was the joy at receiving Mademoiselle Mance at the garrison, the delay of M. de Maisonneuve, while causing his friends uneasiness and apprehension, gave many of the Great Company's agents at Quebec an opportunity of further criticising the "foolhardy enterprise" (la folle entreprise) of Les Messieurs de Montréal, so inauspiciously begun.

At last Maisonneuve's vessel arrived, sadly leaking and battered by the winds which had made him thrice put back to France, causing him to lose on the occasions three or four of his men, one of them, a most needed man for the settlement, his surgeon. Arriving, however, at Tadoussac, the undaunted Maisonneuve met M. de Courpon, the admiral of the fleet of the Company of New France, one of his intimate friends. M. de Courpon offered his own surgeon and this man straightway gaily accepting, put his belongings on board. Against all expectation Maisonneuve's vessel sailed into Quebec on August 20th.[42]

On arriving at Quebec, Maisonneuve must have found himself the centre of anxious thoughts and criticisms. Jeanne Mance would have told him of this. He would soon gauge public opinion on his official visits.

It would have been the governor of Quebec that Maisonneuve visited first. To Governor Montmagny, the position of Maisonneuve was, at least, strange. Quebec was designed to be the seat of government as the act of December 17, 1640, had clearly marked out. Montreal was to derive her power from it. Yet Maisonneuve came with the governor's commission for Montreal and power from the King himself, to have artillery, munitions of war and soldiers, and a right to appoint officers of the future colony on a basis of home rule. Both men must have scented a future clash at Montreal. Yet hostility must not be read too quickly into Montmagny's action. He was a gentleman and a broadminded man although he was one of those who thought the expedition "a foolish enterprise." Dollier de Casson has recorded the result of this interview. Montmagny's words were:

"You know that the war with the Iroquois has recommenced, and that they declared it last month at Lake St. Peter, in a fashion that makes them appear more active than ever against us. You cannot then, reasonably, think of settling in a place so far removed from Quebec as Montreal. You must change your resolution; if you wish it, you will be given the Island of Orleans, instead. Besides, the season would be too advanced for you to be able to settle at Montreal before the winter, even had you thought of so doing."

M. Maisonneuve's reply was dignified and calm.

"What you say sir, would be good, if they had sent me to Canada to deliberate on the choice of a suitable post, but the Company which sends me, having determined that I shall go to Montreal, my honour is at stake, and you will not take it ill that I proceed thither to start a colony. But owing to the season being so far advanced, you will take it kindly if I am satisfied to go with the more active young men, to reconnoitre this post before winter, so as to see in what place I can encamp next spring with all my party."

Maisonneuve's next visit would have been to the clergy represented by Father Vimont, superior of the Jesuits. Strong in influence with the Company, his views are worth recording. For this we must fall back on the "Relations." The Jesuits in France had promoted the new settlement of Montreal. In the past the writers of the "Relations" had foreseen the need of utilizing the position at the Sault for a permanent centre for religious activities, and this meant a settled garrison to withstand the inroads of the fury and impetuosity of the Iroquois. Yet of late, the perilous position of the tottering garrison of Quebec had been so patent that they felt that concentration was the policy of the hour. As a result of the interview Father Vimont wrote this year to France: "We have received pleasure at the sight of the gentlemen of Montreal because their design, if it is successful, is entirely to the Glory of our God. M. de Maisonneuve, who commands these men, has arrived so late that he will have wisdom enough, not to ascend higher than Quebec for this year; but God grant that the Iroquois close not the way, when there is question of advancing further.... Some one will say," he continues, "this enterprise is full of expense and difficulties; these gentlemen will find mountains where they expect to find valleys. I will not say to these gentlemen that they will find the roads strewn with roses; the cross, suffering, and great outlays are the foundation stones of the house of God.... But patience will put the last touch to this great work."

We may imagine de Maisonneuve's conversation with this serious sympathizer would have been on these lines and his courage would not have been diminished.

In spite of de Maisonneuve's firm resolution, Montmagny still hoped to win him over. He called a meeting of the principal inhabitants to consider the position. It was a question of concentration or disintegration--the Island of Orleans under the shadow of Quebec; or Montreal, 180 miles away in advance of civilization, at the mercy of the hostile Iroquois? It was a serious question for "la colonie française."

When the meeting assembled, and before anything had been decided, de Maisonneuve spoke like a man of courage and one accustomed to the profession of a soldier. He explained that he had not come to settle in the Island of Orleans, but to lay the foundation of a town on the Island of Montreal, and that even should this project be more perilous than they had told him it was, he would carry it on, should it cost him his life. "I am not come to deliberate," he concluded, "but to act. Were all the trees on the Island of Montreal to be changed into so many Iroquois it is a point of duty and honour for me to go there and establish a colony."

The meeting broke up without any further deliberation. The clear and courageous expression of the governor of Montreal had won the day.

Dollier de Casson tells us that Montmagny was gained over by this straight-forward speech. He was a Chevalier of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, a soldier and a gentleman. He put no further opposition, but was anxious to put the governor of Montreal in possession of his post according to the instructions from his Company.

On October 10th, he, himself, with Father Vimont and others, left Quebec, and arrived with de Maisonneuve at Montreal, on October 14th. The customary formalities of taking possession were concluded on October 15th. The site chosen was that we know as La Place Royale.

On his way down to Quebec, de Maisonneuve stayed a day with a venerable old man, M. Pierre de Puiseaux, Sieur de Montrenault, who had built a house at a post called Ste. Foy. This house, as well as that of St. Michel, at which Madame de la Peltrie was living, he generously offered to Maisonneuve, together with all his farm stock and furniture, for the use of the expedition. This unexpected gift Maisonneuve accepted only conditionally on its acceptance being ratified by the Company of Montreal. The offer of St. Michel,[43] which was then considered the bijou house of Canada, was most opportune for M. de Maisonneuve, besides having quarters for the winter time for Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance, Madame de la Peltrie, who had associated herself with the Montreal project, and himself, might with M. de Puiseaux superintend the necessary preparations for the voyage, while at Ste. Foy, at which he had left the surgeon and the carpenters, the oaks were being cut down, and barks were being constructed large enough to carry the party and all their effects to Montreal.

Meanwhile, the care of the stores for all the Montreal party, during this winter of 1641-2, was under the skillful management of Jeanne Mance, who endeared herself to all. Moreover the colonists learned to know one another and their future governor, who went among them day by day, encouraged them. It seemed already Montreal. Soon de Maisonneuve's feast day, the Conversion of St. Paul, coming round on January 25th, Paul de Chomedey gave his men a little feast in honour of the occasion. The men fired salutes from the artillery they had brought.

Nearby, in Quebec, the noise of the cannon was heard. Its governor, touchy for his official prerogatives, interpreted this as an infringement of his dignity, and he caused Jean Gorry, who had fired the cannon, to be seized and imprisoned. On the first day of February Jean Gorry being now released, Maisonneuve gave a feast and paid particular honour to the unfortunate Jean. The governor of Montreal knew that Montmagny had exceeded his power, but it was not then the time to provoke an open quarrel.

Montmagny heard of this second exploit and summoned several of Maisonneuve's men, who had been present at the feast, to testify on oath what had happened. The affair blew over, and the governors resumed pleasant relations, probably because Montmagny found that he was in the wrong and had read a petty challenge in the harmless salute which was quite permissible under the commission, given by the king to the governor of Montreal, for his men to bear arms. Still this incident is significant and worth recording, in view of the friction and jealousy to arise between the future governors of the rival cities of Quebec and Montreal.

FOOTNOTES:

[36] Ville Marie is the name of the town appearing in all the official documents till 1705, when for the first time that of Montreal appears. Montreal, in the form of the "Island of Montreal," had, however, been used long before. The document containing the transition from Ville Marie to Montreal has been recently brought to public attention by Mr. E. Z. Massicotte, city archivist.

[37] It was in one of the galleries of the "Château de Meudon" where the two unexpectedly met. Dauversière, it is thought, had gone there to the keeper of the seals who was then at the palace. The second conference after Thanksgiving was in the park grounds of the château and lasted three hours. (Cf. Faillon.)

[38] Consisted in an avowal of the grant of the seigneury from the Crown and the census of the seigneury with the names of the concessionaires, the amount of the lands granted them and under cultivation, together with the number of heads of cattle, etc.

[39] In fact both of these swore to this explicitly before the notaries of the King, Pourcelle and Chaussiere, on March 25, 1644. (Edits et Ord., Quebec I, pp. 26-27.) On March 21, 1650, there was also signed an act by the Associates which gave to the last survivor, excluding all heirs, the forts, habitations, etc., conceded to the members of the Company of Montreal. (Edits et Ord., p. 27.)

[40] "La Compagnie de Prêtres de St. Sulpice" was founded at Vaugirard, near Paris, in January, 1642, by M. Jean Jacques Olier de Verneuil, who was born in Paris on September 20, 1608, and died April 2, 1657. The establishment of the seminary at St. Sulpice, in Paris, was commenced on August 15, 1642. It was erected into a community on October 23, 1645, and was confirmed by letters patent by Cardinal Chighi, legate a latere for France.

[41] For Jeanne Mance's future assistants de la Dauversière had established, in 1639, a young community of "Filles Hospitalières" at La Flèche, although it had been in existence elsewhere since 1636, who were to prepare themselves for the Hôtel-Dieu of Ville Marie. The order at La Flèche was erected on October 25, 1643, by Mgr. Claude de Rueil, bishop of Angers, and approved by Pope Alexander VII by a brief of January 19, 1666. The Sisters for Montreal did not arrive till 1659.

[42] Dollier de Casson, de Belmont and de la Tour put the date for August 20th, Sister Morin for October, Montgolfier for September. The "Relations" say that the season was "very advanced."

[43] St. Michel is the site of the present "Spencer Wood."

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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.

During the months of February, March and April, the boat construction went busily on at Ste. Foy. At length when the ice-bound river broke up and the last floes had swept past to the gulf beyond, M. de Maisonneuve's flotilla, loaded with provisions, furniture and tools, besides little pieces of artillery and ammunition, set sail to Montreal on May 8th. It consisted of a pinnace, a little vessel with three masts, a gabarre or flat-bottomed transport barge with sails, and two barques or chaloupes. On one of these latter M. de Montmagny, the governor of Quebec, fittingly led the way with M. de Maisonneuve; with the expedition were several black-robed Jesuits, including Father Barthélemy Vimont, the superior of the Canadian mission, and Father Poncet, the first missionary for Ville Marie. There were also M. de Puiseaux, Madame de la Peltrie, and her maid, Charlotte Barré, Jeanne Mance, and the rest of the twenty-one colonists, six of whom belonged to the household of Nicholas Godé, the joiner.

On the 17th, as evening fell, they came in sight of Montreal and cantiques rent the air. On this day M. Montmagny again[44] put M. de Maisonneuve formally in possession of the island. Setting sail early next morning, before daybreak, the rising sun delighted their eyes with the beautiful meadows smiling with a profusion of flowers of variegated colours. At last they reached the islet at the mouth of the stream, which, so long ago, Champlain spoke of as a safe haven, until they reached hard by the spot named by him, La Place Royale. Within this watered mead, de Maisonneuve had decided to build his settlement and fort. As he put foot to the soil, inspired by the solemnity of the moment, lie fell on his knees in thanksgiving to God, and was quickly followed by all his party. They broke forth into heartfelt psalms or hymns of joyful gratitude. In the meadow, a spot was chosen for the mass of thanksgiving. Quickly the altar was arranged under the direction of Mademoiselle Mance and Madame de la Peltrie. When all were gathered round it in this open air temple,--the silence only broken by the twittering of the numerous birds, the flapping of wings of the wild fowl and their shrill cries as they winged their flight above the river to the south, the sighing of the trees; the swish of the meadow plants swaying in the morning breeze and the murmuring of the little haven-stream on which the chaloupes were tossing; the subdued, sonorous rush of the water on the mighty St. Lawrence at its mouth, where the pinnace and gabare were riding at anchor,--the superior of the missions of Canada, Father Vimont, intoned the grand old solemn chant of Christian ritual, the Veni Creator Spiritus, and the voices of all joined in with heartfelt unison. Then followed the Grand Mass, the first that had ever been celebrated at Villa Marie,[45] and all the while the growing sun shone full upon the slopes of Mount Royal, ever mounting upward and onward to its wooded peak.

The scene is one of life and colour. The rich hues of the vestments of the priests, the shining white linen of the altar, the gleaming sacred ornaments, the picturesque costumes of Montmagny and de Maisonneuve, the ladies and gentlemen around them, the varied dresses of the artisans and the arquebusiers, whose weapons glint in the sun, fill in a picture worthy of the mountain background, such as should inspire any artist's brush.

And now the action of the Sacrifice was suspended and Father Vimont broke the sice and earnestly spoke to the worshippers. His words have become famous, pregnant as they were with prophetic meaning. We thank Dollier de Casson for having preserved them.

"That which you see, gentlemen, is only a grain of mustard seed, but it is cast by hands so pious and so animated with faith and religion, that it must be that God has great designs for it, since He makes use of such instruments for His work. I doubt not, but that this little grain may produce a great tree, that it will make wonderful progress some day, that it will multiply itself, and stretch out on every side."

Never was prophecy more true, when we realize the present greatness of Montreal and remember the distinguished sons and daughters it has sent over the world. For Montreal has been the home of great discoverers, religious founders, missionaries and pioneers of civilization, and captains of industry. It is the mother of the cities of the northwest and its future is still before it.

The mass ended, the Sacred Host is left exposed throughout the day, as though the island were a cathedral shrine. For a sanctuary lamp the women, not having any oil, placed with pious zeal a number of "fireflies" in a phial, which, as evening stole on, shone like little clusters of tapers in the vesper gloom.

Next morning the actuaries of an encampment occupied all. Around the temporary altar, the camp tents were pitched, a chapel of bark was constructed,[46] and trees were cut down to surround the colony with an intrenchment of stakes and a ditch, the governor, Montmagny, felling the first tree, after which he proceeded to Quebec. But Madame de la Peltrie and M. de Puiseaux remained. On August 15th the first reinforcement of thirteen men arrived, sent under M. de Repentigny, as admiral of the Company's vessels by the Associates at Paris, through the funds collected, as mentioned, on February 2d. With them there came a most useful man to the colony, the pious and brave carpenter, Gilbert Barbier, surnamed "Minimus" for his short stature. Altar, furniture and other valuables arrived, and Gilbert Barbier immediately set about constructing a worthy chapel of wood, while wings were added to make the mission settlement house.

Meanwhile, during the summer, the vessels plied between Yule Marie and St. Michel to bring up the rest of the stores and ammunition left behind. These reduced the guard to but a score of men, but as yet, the Iroquois had not got scent of the new settlement. On August 15 the new chapel was completed and used for service--a framework building of about ten feet square which did service as a conventual and quasi parochial chapel till the beginning of 1659.[47]

So passed the happy days unmolested by any foe. A friendly band of Algonquins visited the camp and after witnessing a religious procession on Assumption day, 1642, journeyed with the governor to the summit of Mount Royal. While there, it is related that two of their body, aged men, told the bystanders that they belonged to the race formerly inhabiting this island. Stretching out their arms to the slopes on the west and the south sides of the mountain they exclaimed: "Behold the places where once there were villages flourishing in numbers, whence our ancestors were driven by our enemies. Thus it is that this island became deserted and uninhabited." "My grandfather," said one old man, "tilled the earth at this place. The Indian corn grew well then." And taking up the soil in his hands: "See the richness of it," he cried, "how good it is!" Charmed with this discourse they were pressed to stay and live happily with their friends, the white men, but the wandering habits of these forest children finally prevailed.

In the month of December, the safety of the colony was threatened by the floods of the St. Lawrence which advanced over the low lying lands towards the fort. With simple faith, M. Maisonneuve planted a cross over against the invading waters, and the "Relations" of this year, tell how the floods receded on Christmas day.

In pious gratitude M. Maisonneuve would erect a permanent cross on the mountain. A trail was blazed and cut, and on the feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1643, a procession formed, M. Maisonneuve leading, carrying the cross on his shoulders and followed by others bearing the wood for its pedestal. On reaching the summit, Père Duperon had an altar erected, and celebrated mass after the cross had been blessed and erected. At this time, there seemed to have been two priests attached to the mission. This was the origin of the annual pilgrimage, since discontinued. On the feast of St. Joseph, March 19, 1643, the main building, or the Habitation, containing the chapel of Notre Dame, the stores, and dwelling rooms for sixty persons, was completed. In front they placed the small pieces of artillery and then celebrated the occasion with a cannonade.

The life within resembled that of a religious community. For the most part they lived in common, offering a picture of the fervour and simplicity of the primitive church. Closed up for nearly eleven years for mutual safety within the fort, they learned to live a life of charity and holiness. The days were as yet uneventful, and the round of work and prayer and recreation bound them together in peace and comfort. Not only the governor and the leaders of the settlement, but all the rough soldiers and workmen led a fervent and exemplary life. The hand of obedience pressed lightly on them, and a willing service was granted by all. The "Relations" of the annals of this period are full of praise of the sanctity and peace of these early days. "One saw," says Sister Morin in the Annales of the Hôtel-Dieu, "no public sins, nor enmities, nor bitternesses; they were united in charity, ever full of esteem and affection one for another, and ready to serve one another on all occasions."

The ideal of the pious Associates of the Company of Notre Dame de Montreal at Paris was being fulfilled.

The governor, in his apostolic zeal, established confraternities among the men and women, for the conversion of the savages, for this was the motive that had inspired the foundation of this far off outpost of civilization.

The singleness of purpose of the settlers at Montreal was not lost upon the Hurons, who spoke of it to their different tribes, so that many now began to arrive. In February of 1643 a band of Algonquin braves came by, leaving their wives and children in camp while they went forth on the warpath against their enemies, the Iroquois. A few days later they were visited by Algonquin hunters, for there was much sport around. The chief of this band stayed behind with his wife, desirous to live a civilized life, and the parish register records their baptism and their Christian marriage, on March 7th, of that year, the first to be recorded in the marriage book. Soon, this was followed by the baptism of the wife and children of his uncle, a famous orator among the Algonquins, who was known as "Borgne de l'Ile." The registers finally record his baptism and his Christian marriage.

Montreal was soon to experience the effects of the alliance of the Hurons with the French, as well as some of the disasters prophesied by Montmagny to Maisonneuve at Quebec, from the war which had been declared a month before Maisonneuve's arrival. Other parts of the country had already been suffering. In 1642 Father Vimont in the "Relations" had written that the Iroquois had sworn a cruel war against the French. They blocked up all the passage of our great river, hindering commerce and menacing the whole country with ruin.

On the 2d of August, 1643, at Three Rivers, an attack was made by them on the fort and they killed or took prisoners a party of twenty-three to twenty-eight Huron allies, and with them the heroic and saintly Jesuit, Isaac Jogues, and two young Frenchmen. The saintly Jogues was subjected to much in treatment. After having cut off the thumb of his right hand and bitten off one of his fingers, they tore his nails out with their teeth, and put fire under the extremities of his mutilated fingers. Having done this they tore off his cassock and clothed him in the garb of a savage. Though he escaped, he was reserved for a martyr's death, on October 18, 1646, among the Onondagas. The year previously he had ministered to the infant church at Montreal.

At the new fort on the Iroquois River, designed by Montmagny, on August 13, 1643, the Iroquois swept down after seven days, and captured some prisoners whom they told that 700 of them were banding together and would fall upon the French colony in the beginning of next spring.

Great fear for Montreal, the solitary and most advanced port, was entertained in the spring at Quebec. Still this concerted attack was not yet to be realized. Yet the immunity of Montreal was not to last long.

There was a method in the madness of the Iroquois. They hated the French because of their alliance with the Christian Hurons and they did their best to cut off the peltry trade of the Northwest from them and divert it to Albany and New Amsterdam. This naturally suited the Dutch. To carry this plan out, the Iroquois, small in numbers but expert military tacticians, had established an uninterrupted line of lookout posts from Three Rivers to the portage of the Chaudières (Ottawa). Starting from this as their working point, they divided their fighting men into ten sections, two of which remained at this exposed post. The third section was stationed at the foot of the Long Sault, the fourth above Montreal, the fifth on the island, the sixth on the Rivière des Prairies, the seventh on Lac St. Pierre, the eighth not far from Fort Richelieu on the Sorel, the ninth near Three Rivers, while the tenth formed a flying squadron to carry devastation when the opportunity presented itself. Few could break past them in safety. Even Jogues had not been successful.

Soon the number of baptisms registered for this year reached the number of seventy or eighty. These were busy days for the few ladies of Montreal.[48]

The frequent visitations of the savages were a drain on the stores of the community, and we learn from Dollier de Casson that in the spring of 1644 more serious efforts were made under d'Ailleboust to raise wheat. To the delight of all, this was abundantly successful. Up to 1643 only vegetables had been cultivated.

Thus passed the peaceful days along, for though there was much hardship incidental to a pioneering life in a new country so far removed from communication with civilization, still, all were happy, since so far the dreaded Iroquois had not appeared. But in July of that year, 1643, a friendly troupe of Algonquins passed by. There was great joy in the camp, for it was the occasion of the baptism of the four-year-old child of one of the chiefs. M. Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance were happy to be its godparents. The Indians were invited to return with their families next spring, and live with them. They promised to do so. No doubt they told others of their trip, for the colony was again shortly visited.[49]

The Hurons came to be regarded by the Iroquois as the allies of the hated white men. The establishment of the fort of Montreal was an additional reason for exterminating the Hurons. In consequence the register of baptism, for the year of 1644, only records one ceremony. This is significant, for it marked the presence in the neighbourhood at last of the dreaded Iroquois, who kept the Hurons from visiting this year. The circumstance of the presence of the Iroquois in the neighbourhood became known to this fort one day in 1643, when a party of ten Algonquins ran terror-stricken into camp, trembling and afraid of their shadows. Outside the fort were the baffled pursuers too small in numbers to attack it. One of their tribe had been slain by the fugitive Algonquins, who had directed their steps to friendly shelter without being overtaken. From that time forward, there was dread of Iroquois surprises in the camp. It was now at last discovered; stealthily and noiselessly the balked enemy reconnoitered the camp and retired to the woods to spread the news to the tribe and to prepare for an attack. For, unknown to the fort, the country was infested with them--sworn to make war upon the French. In June, a party of them were at Lachine, being joined by a party of unarmed Hurons whom they had surprised with their canoes laden with peltry. The treacherous Hurons, who had been in the past kindly received at the fort, to conciliate their captors, now pointed it out to them for an attack.

Unsuspecting any attack, six men from the fort, cutting wood about two hundred feet distant, were surprised by forty Iroquois on the 9th of June. They fought bravely; but three were killed and the rest taken prisoners. The body of Guillaume Boissier dit Güilling was found that day and buried but the bodies of Bernard Berté from Lyons and Pierre Laforest dit L'Auvergnat were not found till later, and were buried three days after by Father Davost.

The archæologist will be pleased that the place of the first cemetery is recorded by the chroniclers. At the corner of the angle of the meadow, where the River St. Pierre joined the St. Lawrence, a little cemetery was made and fenced around with piles[50] to save the dead from molestation.

On the day after, some of the treacherous Hurons fled into the camp and told the awful tale of slaughter committed by the Iroquois during the night. The Hurons had spent the night insulting the French prisoners until sleep had closed their eyes, when the Iroquois fell upon them and slashed to pieces those who could not escape. Then taking the thirteen Huron canoes they loaded them with peltry; they descended the river with the three French prisoners in the sight of the onlookers of the fort, who were too few to pursue them.

What happened to the prisoners was graphically told later when one of them arrived at the camp.

He told how the design of his captors had been to descend to a point whence they could land and cut their way through the woods, to the place now known as Chambly. But having too heavy a load of beaver skins to carry, on landing they destroyed their canoes with their axes, as their custom was to render them useless.

When they were in the woods, some four or five leagues from the place whence they left the river, their care of their prisoners became less guarded. He had been set to boil a kettle, and taking the opportunity of being sent to gather wood for the fire, he had eluded his captors and had come to the spot where he had landed. Finding one of the canoes less damaged than the others, he plugged up the dents made by the Iroquois hatchets, and loading it with a few skins, had then paddled up to Ville Marie. The soldiers of the fort went for the rest of the peltries and M. de Maisonneuve distributed them, but kept none fur himself.[51] The fate of the other two prisoners was told later by a Huron who escaped from the Iroquois. We are not told their names by the "Relations" of 1643, but one whose Christian name was Henri, having seen his companion, as well as two Hurons, burnt at a slow fire, had escaped, only to be recaptured for the same terrible fate.

For the rest of that year, apprehension of ambuscades kept the colony within the walls of the fort as far as possible. Even to leave the threshold of their homes was to risk danger.

"Tant il est vrai," adds M. Dollier de Casson, "que dans ces temps on était plus en assurance de ce qu'on avait franchi le seuil de sa porte." From this time begins the history of "Castle Dangerous," as we may term this period of the nascent city, now commencing, when there began a constant struggle with the daily risks of life. It was during this early anxiety that good news came to allay some of the alarm, and this was brought by the governor of Quebec.

For, meanwhile in France, during the winter, the eyes of many were turned onto the infant colony. Praise and criticism alike were freely distributed. The great Company, stung by reflections on their own inactivity, repented of having given their charter to a company which they feared might prove a rival, and would have revoked it, but for the ratification it had received from the King. There were many, however, who in high places strongly approved of the aims and objects of the Company of Montreal.[52] A letter is extant, from Louis XIII himself, written at St. Germain-en-Laye, on February 21st, which was written to M. Montmagny, the agent of the Great Company at Quebec, bidding him "assist and favour in every way in his power, the Seigneur de Maisonneuve in such manner that there shall be no trouble or hindrance." This was one of the last acts of this noble prince, who died on May 24th following, but his kindness to Montreal will always be remembered. It was he who gave the Company of Montreal besides presents of artillery the vessel of 250 tons, which, under the name of Notre Dame de Montréal, was now crossing the ocean bringing new colonists and their effects.

In the month of July, 1643, the colony was delighted with the presence of M. Montmagny, who announced the approaching convoy sent by the Associates, under the guidance of one who was destined to be an able lieutenant to M. Maisonneuve. This was M. Louis d'Ailleboust, Seigneur de Coulonges, a man of an illustrious family that had given distinguished sons to the church and state. The vessels, bringing him and his party of colonists for Montreal, arrived at Quebec on Assumption day, 1643, and soon they reached the fort. Among them, to the great delight of Jeanne Mance, was his noble lady, Barbe de Boulogne. Jean de Saint-Père, the first notary, was also with them. For Jeanne Mance, M. d'Ailleboust brought a message, of which we shall hear later. M. d'Ailleboust was a skillful engineer, and under his guidance the wooden stockade was reinforced with two bastions, which the fear of attacks from the Iroquois had rendered most desirable. This enclosure now began to be called the "Fort" or the "Château."

The religious care of the colony at this time was that exercised by the Jesuit Fathers,[53] whose headquarters were at Quebec. As we have seen, they willingly consented to serve this mission until M. Olier had prepared for the Associates a succession of secular priests formed by his hand for the special purpose of Montreal. The time was now come for M. Olier's company to leave Vaugirard, to which he had gone in 1641, and to follow him to Paris to the parish of St. Sulpice, where he was now training in his Seminary of St. Sulpice, a goodly number of young priests suitable for the Canadian mission of Ville Marie. These were ready to go, but as yet a technical difficulty of ecclesiastical canon law stood in the way.

Since the re-occupation of Quebec by the French in 1632, after the departure of the English under Kerth, the Jesuits had been sent under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Rouen, and this see had continued to claim the Catholics of New France as its diocesans.

To M. Olier it appeared that Canada, being a foreign mission, the privilege of sending clergy belonged directly to Rome; accordingly the Associates of Montreal addressed a letter to Pope Urbain VIII, asking him to authorize the papal nuncio then in Paris to give the ordinary powers of missioners, to those whom they would send to Ville Marie.

This document, preserved in the archives of Versailles, contains, in addition to the above request, others asking for certain routine grants and privileges. The answer from Rome, while granting the latter, ignored the main request. There seemed to be no desire at present, at Rome, to conflict with the privileges of Rouen, or with the prescriptive rights of the Jesuits. Then too there was opposition then being threatened by the Great Company. Matters, therefore, stood where they were.

Indeed any other course taken at this time would have been very unwise. Especially as the state of feeling of unrest reflected in France this year by the "véritables motifs" was doubtless known at the Vatican through the papal nuncio, who was at this period in Paris, as we have seen.

Before passing from the events of 1643, notice must be taken of a remarkable document which appeared in Paris this year. This was "Les Véritables Motifs," one of the historical documental sources of this early period.

It was published in a volume of 127 pages in quarto, very likely having been printed in Paris, but bearing no names of place, printer or author. M. l'abbé Faillon, the author of "La Colonie Française," thinks it was written by a former judge, M. Laisné de la Marguerie, who had left the world to associate himself with M. Olier. On the contrary, however, the abbé Verreau thinks that it is the production of M. Olier himself, for reasons which we prefer to follow.

The full title of the book, "Véritables Motifs de Messieurs et Dames de la Société de Notre Dame de Montréal, pour la Conversion des Sauvages," is an indication at once, of an apologia for the erection of the Montreal mission for the conversion of the infidels. It seems strange in these days that such self-defence should be necessary. But the document reveals that there was strong opposition to, and misunderstanding of, the "raison d'être" of a purely religious colony. We may suspect that the objections formulated must have been from the Company of New France in a spirit of jealousy.

The chief objections were (1) That it was contrary to the established custom of the Catholic church to have lay people, and especially ladies, enterprising a mission for the conversion of infidels.

(2) That this work was not needed for the salvation of the heathen, as they argued in the case of infidel peoples in the absence of revelation, they were invincibly ignorant, and that the light of reason alone sufficed for their salvation.

(3) That the work of the Associates was a piece of ostentatious piety; that in the past it had sufficed for pious people to give their alms secretly to be administered by others for the good of religion. There was no need to establish a company for the purpose.

(4) That this Company injured the interests of others, viz: the Company of the Hundred Associates, the Jesuits, who had been given the charge of the Canadian missions, and finally the poor of France, for charity begins at home.

(5) That the Association of Montreal, not having any other foundation but that of Christian charity, it is bound to be a financial failure, and that the enterprise would fall through, owing to lack of enthusiasm and consequent shortage of funds.

(6) Finally, that the enterprise was ill considered, badly planned and rash; that South America would have been a better place for such a settlement; that Montreal was unfitted for French people to live in on account of the cruel cold and the excessive length of the winter; that they would be more exposed than ever to the butcheries of the Iroquois, who would infallibly cut them into pieces; that a work of such consequence could only be carried on by the King's government on account of the enormous expenses entailed, and it was folly for private persons to dare to tempt God openly.

The answer to these objections is continued in the 127 pages of quarto alluded to. We will leave them to the imagination. Without giving the reply we need only refer the reader to the year 1643 and the practical solution now going on at Montreal in the year of 1914.[54]

On the 2d of February, another scene in the romantic story of Montreal was enacted in Paris in the Church of Notre Dame. There at six o'clock in the morning Olier said mass at the altar of the Holy Virgin, surrounded by the members of the Association of Montreal, who now had reached as many as thirty-five. The lay members, many of distinguished rank, (for Jeanne Mance's letter on her departure to M. Dauversière had helped in this), communicated, while the priests celebrated at neighbouring altars in the vast cathedral.

They consecrated the Island of Montreal to the Holy Family and placed it particularly under the protection of Mary, whose name they gave to the city of "Ville Marie," and from that day the seal of the Associates bore the Virgin's statue with the legend "Notre Dame de Montréal." On this day the Associates gave a sum of 40,000 livres, to be devoted to defray the expenses of a new expedition.

NOTE

THE HURONS, ALGONQUINS AND IROQUOIS

HURONS

The Hurons were the Wendots or Wyandots, and were divided into various clans or families, such as the Bears, the Rocks, the Cords, etc. They were the parent stock of the five Iroquois Nations and were related to the Petuns and Neutrals, their neighbours on Lake Huron, or Attegouestan, as they called it. They were also connected by blood with the Undastes or Susquehannas of Pennsylvania. The derivation of the name of Hurons, as the Wyandots were called by the French, is fanciful but apparently authentic. When Champlain, in 1609, was visited at Quebec by a tribe of these Wyandots to sell peltry from the far-off Northwest regions, the irregular tufts of hair on their half-shaven heads seemed to the Frenchman to represent bristles (la hure) on the back of an angry boar. "Quelle hure!" they exclaimed, and those possessing the stock of bristles they called "Hurons."

Their country was eight hundred or nine hundred miles away from Quebec, around Lake Huron. "Roughly speaking," says the Rev. T. J. Campbell in his "Pioneer Priests of North America," "the territory of the Hurons was at the head of Georgian Bay, with Lake Simcoe on the east, the Severn River and Matchedash Bay on the north, Nottawasaga Bay on the west, and was separated from the Neutrals on the south by what would now be a line drawn from the present town of Collingwood over to Hawkstone on Lake Simcoe. The train for Toronto, north of Midland and Penetanguishena, runs through the old habitat of the Hurons."

Many of the clergy who served Montreal had laboured among them. In the beginning the Hurons would not listen to any allusion to Christianity. Success only began in 1639, and lasted but for ten years, for before the end of 1650 as a distinct people they had vanished, being exterminated by their implacable foe, the Iroquois.

THE ALGONQUINS

The Algonquins are said to derive their name from the word Algonquin, "the place where they spear the fish," i. e., the front of the canoe.

They were once a great race. Indeed today they number 95,000 of which 35,000 are in the United States and the rest in Canada. Their hereditary enemy, the Iroquois, were not so numerous, and thus we find Champlain allying himself with the Algonquins against the scanty sixteen or seventeen thousand Iroquois who lived in the New York territory. But herein lay Champlain's mistake. The Algonquins were wanderers and not warriors. They were a simple, stupid people, who neither cultivated the ground nor learned any textile arts and had no settled habitations. They were all worshipers of the Manitou, shameless in their immoralities and just as cruel to their captives, as were the Iroquois. They were, owing to their nomadic life, a prey to the latter and a difficulty to the few missionaries to Christianize them adequately, for every group would have necessitated a priest to follow them in the hunt for game or fish, as they wandered from place to place.

Yet, portions of them, being less fierce than other tribes of their race, welcomed the missionaries, who sympathized with them in their poverty and wretchedness. Thus at Montreal, as at Three Rivers and Quebec, these were the basis of the Indian converts.

"When the Algonquins were a great nation they claimed," says the author of the "Pioneer Priests of North America," "as their own, almost all the upper regions of the North American continent, and even out in the Atlantic there was no one to dispute Newfoundland with them, except an inconsiderable and now forgotten people, known as the Beothuken. Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, and all the country from Labrador to Alaska was theirs, except where the Esquimaux lived in the East, the Kitunabaus in the far Northwest, and the Hurons, Petuns and Neutrals in the region near Georgian Bay. In what is now the United States, New England was counted as their country, and though their deadly enemy, the Iroquois, had somehow or other seized the greater portion of New York, yet the strip along the Hudson belonged to the Algonquins, as also New Jersey, a part of Virginia, and North Carolina, Kentucky, Illinois and Wisconsin."

Algonquin is the generic name, but its many subdivisions and tribes have their specific names such as those set down in ethnological tables as the Abenaakis, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Crees, Delawares, Foxes, Illinois, Kickapoos, Mohicans, Massachusetts, Menominees, Montagnais, Mohawks, Narragansetts, Nepinues, Ojibways, Ottawas, Powhattans, Sacs, Shawnees, Wampanoags, Wappingers, etc.

IROQUOIS

The Iroquois were descendants of the Indians whom Jacques Cartier had met on the banks of the St. Lawrence, in 1634. But at this time they had drifted mysteriously to what is now New York territory, their central seat, that of their confederacy or league of five nations, being at Onondaga.

They were never numerous but they were very warlike. Although they lost many in war, by disease and drunkenness, for they were filthy and immoral in their habits, they recruited their strength by adopting captives seized in their raids.

They lived in palisaded towns and were more intelligent than the other races. Their houses, unsanitary and overrun with vermin, were arched constructions, sometimes of 120 feet in length and were covered with bark. In the centre of the lodge were the fires of the separate families, who were divided into stalls. The smoke escaped as best it could. They did not cultivate the land because they were so often on the warpath, neither did they devote much energy in cultivating the textile arts; hence they wore the skins of animals.

They had very vague notions of a Supreme Being, their chief object of worship being Agreskoué, the God of War, who had to be propitiated with gifts and even by human sacrifices. Theirs has been described by General Clark as literally "devil worship." They had no priesthood as such, but each brave had his oki or manitou, adopted after a protracted period of seclusion and fasting. They had their medicine men, who seemed to the missionaries to use diabolical arts in their incantations, spells and dances. Many of their sorcerers, however, were childish charlatans. They were immoral, thieves, liars, gamblers; they allowed their children to run wild, their women to grow up depraved and corrupt from girlhood. They were cruel and cannibals. The orgies of the dream feasts were unspeakably atrocious, especially after the introduction of "fire water."

They were called by the French collectively "Iroquois," by the English the "Five Nations," whereas they styled themselves the Hodenosaunee, a People of the Long House, because of the shape of their lodges. They were joined by the Tuscaroras about 1721 and from then on they were called by the English the "Six Nations."

As to their name the Bureau of American Ethnology derives it from an Algonquin word, "Iriakhoué," meaning "real adders." Charlevoix gives a descriptive derivation from hero, or hiro, meaning "I have spoken," with which they terminated their discourses with the suffix que, or some equivalent gutteral sound which expressed pain or pleasures, according to the intonation. Thus the French called them "Iroquois."

The five nations were named as follows:

(English) (French) (Iroquois)

_The Five Hodenosaunee Nations_ Iroquois (People of the Long House)

Mohawks, Agniers, Ganeagono (People of the Flint), Oneidas, Onneyutus, Oneyotekiano (Granite People), Onondagas, Onontagués, Onundagono (Hill People), Cayuga, Gogogouins, Gwengwhehons (Muckland People), Senecas. Tsonnontouans. Mundawono (Great Hill People).

"The Six Nations, Indians in Canada," by J. B. Mackenzie, gives some modern characteristics of the Iroquois, observed on the Grand River, after a length of experience and intimate knowledge of the appearance and manners and racial customs, which may be quoted to illustrate the life of their ancestors of the period we are now treating. The reserve, the writer notices, comprises the Township of Tuscarora (about twelve miles square) with an insignificant strip of territory in the Township of Onondaga--both of these lying within the County of Brant and a small portion of the Township of Oneida, in the adjoining County of Haldimand.

The following present-day characteristics are noted: The Indian maintains a better average as to height than his white brother, say at about 5 ft. 8-1/2 in. He is straight and is rarely "bowlegged." The Indian would appear to be built more for fleetness than for strength; litheness and agility are with him, marked characteristics. The dignity of chief among the Indians is attained upon the principle of heredity succession. In case of the death of a chief, this did not necessarily devolve upon the next of kin. The naming of his successor with the privilege of determining whether or not he fulfills, in point of character and capacity, the qualifications requisite to maintain worthily the position, is confided to the women of the dead chief's family, whose tribe has been deprived of one of its heads. They are given a wide latitude in choosing; so long as they recognize through their appointment the governing, basic theory of kinship to the deceased ruler, their nomination will be unreservedly approved.

The chiefs are looked upon as the fathers of the tribe. In the earlier days when the demon of war was about, wisdom and bravery were the chief requisites.

Oratory is still of supreme importance with the modern Indian. In this he is well equipped with a deep, powerful voice of rare volume and resonance. He has great facility of gesture and marvelous control of facial expression, which becomes the index of his emotions--a perfect mirror of his imaginative soul. It is no wonder then that, we hear of chiefs and orators of old haranguing for hours, for, even today, the undivided, keen attention bestowed on an orator, the unflagging interest evinced, the genuine and sympathetic appreciation his more ambitious flights evoke, the liberal applause exhorted by periods, when denunciation, scorn, or other strong mood that may possess the speaker is expressed--periods at which he has been aroused to withering, or flaming invective--all make us vividly realize the powerful oratory of their predecessors. The contemplative and esthetic bent of the Indian, living amidst nature's simplicities and deeply impressed by them, overflowed in the similes and metaphors of his speech. There is no doubt of his rightful claim to eloquence. The present-day Christian Indian "believes vaguely in the existence of a Supreme Being, though his idea of that Being's benignity and consideration relates solely to an earthly oversight of him, a parental concern for his daily wants. His conception of future happiness is wholly sensual--bound up, in many cases, with the theories of an unrestrained indulgence of animal appetite, and a whole-souled abandonment to riotous diversion. That estimate of an hereafter, which has gained his unreserved, his heartfelt approbation--one, in the more complete idealizing of which these coarser fancies constitute familiar adjuvants--adopts for cardinal, for constant factor, his thoroughgoing addiction, in some renovated state of being, to pastimes found congenial and appeasing in life--their undisturbed enthroning, as it were. Joyously, anticipation clings to a haunt delectable--happily and charmingly contrived to embosom spacious parks immure seductive coverts; refreshed soothingly his spirits by dreams of illimitable, virgin preserves, which should be stocked with unnumbered game, and where--equipped to perfection for the chase--he should plunge with satiety into its vehement pursuit."

"It has been said that the Indian, agog for some ample scheme of ethics, is much more prone to follow the evil than the moral practices of the whites.... There can be no doubt, I fancy, that were the Indian to be thrown continuously with a corrupt community amongst the whites--should he consort freely with a class with whom a lower order of morality obtains--his acquisition of higher knowledge, instead of giving him better and finer tastes, must inevitably make him more skilled in planning works of iniquity."

The writer draws attention to the sardonic delight the humorous Indian takes in perpetrating some dire practical joke on his victim. The same trait was shown in this early period, when the brave would calmly smoke his pipe and grimly watch the Christian missionary's finger forcibly placed in it, gradually frizzle away.

The modern Iroquois is a supremely indolent creature--fasting stoically when food does not come easily, but ever ready for unbounded feasting.

The effect of spirituous liquors on him is the same as of old, and justifies the attempts of the Montreal clergy to suppress its traffic to the natives. "Intoxicants," says the writer quoted, "when freely used by the Indian, cloud, often wholly dethrone his reason, annul his self-control; madly slaying all the gentler, enkindle and set ablaze all the baser, emotions of his nature, impelling him to acts vile, inhuman, bestial; with direful transforming power, make the man a fiend, leave him, in short, the mere sport of demoniac passion. It may be thought that this is an overdrawn sketch, and that, even if it were true--which I aver it to be--full exposure of its fearsome aspect, its sombre outlines, might well have been withheld."

FOOTNOTES:

[44] Dollier de Casson says that Montreal was all handed over on October 15, 1641. Vimont, who was an eye witness, gives the date as May 17, 1642. See "Relations for 1642." We combine both accounts.

[45] The scene was the angular tongue of low-lying land, known by Dollier de Casson who came in 1666, on September 7, as "the Common," its memory being preserved by Common Street, watered on the south by the lapping waters of the great St. Lawrence and on the east by the narrow river St. Peter, long since dried up, which, meandering from the northwest, skirted the meadow on the north and emptied itself into the main stream. At this point and up this harbour the flotilla came to anchor. On the third side of this triangle was a marshy land which was dried up by Dollier de Casson and became the "domaine des Seigneurs."

[46] Later this chapel gave place to another 25 feet long by 26 broad, the former room now becoming a "parloir." The new meeting place in the fort is sometimes spoken of as the chapel or the church. The abbé, Louis Bertrand de la Tour, says there was a church in 1645. We may thus put it earlier.--"Annales des Hospitalières par la Soeur Morin."

[47] "The house of the fort," says Sister Morin in her Annals, "existed till 1682 or 1683, when they finished demolishing it, although it was only of wood, where is at present the house of M. de Callières, our governor today." On July 2nd, 1688, de Callières obtained a concession of the land occupied by the fort. The land book (livre terrier) of the Seminary has the description: "Quinze perches et demie de front sur le fleuve, à continuer à pareille larguer jusqu'au bord de la petite rivière; en superficie 1882 1/2 touses, avec droit de passage, sur la pointe en avant, appartenant aux Seigneurs." This point was the original cemetery till 1654. From Callières' building the Place Royale began to be spoken of as the Pointe à Callières. Jacques Viger, one of the fathers of historical researches in Montreal, said that in his early days he had seen the ruins of de Callières' house.

[48] The parish register has frequent records of their names as sponsors for the baptized Indian children. They were proud of the honour. Among the names frequently occurring in the following few years are Madame d'Ailleboust, Jeanne Mance, Philipine de Boulogne, Charlotte Barré, Catherine Lezeau and Madame de la Peltrie. Next year, 1644, there is only one baptism recorded; the Iroquois were on the warpath and had driven the Hurons away. The godmother on this occasion was Madame de la Peltrie. The date, January 21, 1644, in the parish register fixing this, shows that she had spent the winter of 1643-4 in Montreal. She left, when the river opened in the spring, to return to the Ursulines of Quebec, whose establishment she had founded and with whom she resided till her death. Her stay in Montreal had been prolonged by her interest in the new foundation, and by her desire to help it in its early struggles. Her departure was deeply regretted by the colony, and by none more than by Jeanne Mance, for there were all too few ladies to help in the devoted work. M. de Puiseaux left at the same time. Madame de la Peltrie's character has been frequently discussed. Kingsford in his "History of Canada" devotes two pages to her. As Montreal only had her presence for less than two years we have given this note as the impression left of her by all the Montreal chroniclers. Kingsford says, Vol. I, p. 165: "Much romance has been thrown over a somewhat commonplace character. Her portraits remain. A more coquettish, heartless form of beauty is seldom to be found, either under the adornment of fashion or the hood and veil of the devotee." Madame de la Peltrie never became a nun. It is to be feared that Kingsford theorized on matters of Catholic custom through lack of adequate knowledge, or appreciation.

[49] In the parish church of Notre Dame there is still preserved the first register of the births, marriages and deaths. It is a manuscript volume in quarto composed of five note-books. The earliest entries are in Latin and are ratified by either Père Poncet or Père Duperon, who served the mission. The first registers were probably written on fly sheets in 1646 and afterwards copied, for until June 24th the handwriting appears to be that of a copyist. There are certain blanks as if the names had been forgotten. The baptismal book appears to start with an error. The first baptism, that of an Indian child, is put down for April 28, 1642 (this is probably the date of Father Poncet's appointment), whereas Père Vimont in his "Relations" for 1642, says it was on July 1st. The second baptism took place on October 9th. Several other baptisms are marked down for the month of March, 1643, but the copyist, better informed, has written "August" between the lines. In those days handwriting and spelling were not "de rigueur."

[50] This spot, named Pointe à Callières, "ad confluxium magni et parvi fluminis," was at the junction of the River St. Peter and the St. Lawrence opposite Ile Normandin, and took its name from the house of the governor, then Chevalier Hector de Callières, built there in 1668. It is now occupied by the custom house (1914). The plans of the Château Callières are preserved in the plans of Montreal, 1723, by M. de Catalogne, and in those of 1761 by M. P. Labrosse. This remained a cemetery till 1654, when, owing to the inundations, the burials were transferred to a plot occupied in part today by that Place d'Armes, which, being in the neighbourhood of the hospital, was called in the act of burial of 1654 the "new hospital cemetery." The bodies were not removed, out of respect, till 1793, when the land had been ceded by the seigneurs to Louis Guy, notary, by an act passed before Joseph Papineau, November 22, 1749. The Hôtel-Dieu ground was used as the cemetery for twenty-five years.

[51] Dollier de Casson tells this story, which he had from eye-witnesses; de Maisonneuve was a very generous and unselfish man.

[52] The more so, as the publication of the "véritables motifs," issued by the Associates of the Company of Montreal in defense of the settlement in clearly stating its aims and justifying the singlemindedness of its promoters, had gained it many friends, among whom were many in high places.

[53] The Jesuits had charge of the mission from April 28, 1643, and continued it up to August 12, 1657. The Sulpicians then took it over, their first act recorded in the first registers of births, marriages and sepultures being on August 28, 1657.

[54] One value of the "Motifs" for modern day readers is that it gives the foundation of Montreal the note of inspiration which is a mark not claimed by many other cities.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

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.

Louis XIII, who died on May 14, 1643, was succeeded by his young son, Louis XIV, then a child of five years of age. The policy of his father in regard to Montreal was continued by him, through the Queen Regent under the advice of the Duke of Orléans, uncle of the king, and of Prince Henri de Condé, former viceroy of Canada, who gave the "Company of Montreal" by new letters patent, dated February 13, 1644, in the name of the king, the most powerful and honourable recognition, ratifying all previous powers given. In particular, it gave it power to make and receive pious legacies and foundations for the savages and for other Christian movements. The position of the governor of Montreal is again made clear, "and to allow the inhabitants of Montreal to live in peace, police and concord, we permit the Associates to commission a captain or local governor whom they shall desire to name themselves for us."--(Edits et Ordonnances, I, 24-25.)

The king ordered M. de Montmagny to promulgate these letters. To make M. de Maisonneuve's position clearer, the Associates, in accord with the above royal permit, confirmed him anew by a commission, dated March 26, 1644, as local governor (gouverneur particulier de ce pays).

This year de Maisonneuve's initiative had brought about that the town was erected into a municipal corporation and that the civil interests should be watched by a syndic or tribune of the people. This officer was elected to represent the colonists, to look after the general good of the island, to see after the taxes for the upkeep of the garrison and to bring to justice those who damaged others' property. It was, however, an honorary position and was subject to election, no one being allowed to continue for more than three successive years. The election was usually held in the "hangar" or the dépôt of "the Company of Montreal," whither the inhabitants for the most part usually resorted for all necessary clothing, utensils, and even provisions. Later on, the elections took place in the hall of the seminary or that of the fort.

This first step of popular representation was then an advanced movement. Montreal was thus ahead of Quebec, which did not have a syndic till 1663. In 1672, as we shall see, even this slight concession to self government was deplored, and Frontenac, who started with broad views of interesting the people in their affairs, by continuing them in their separate classes, was told from France by the Minister Colbert to desist and even gradually to suppress the syndic's office.

When d'Ailleboust arrived in August, 1643, he had brought an important communication for Jeanne Mance from her friend the "unknown benefactress," whom we know as Madame de Bullion. This good lady was resolved to establish a hospital. She had set aside an annual income of 2,000 livres for this purpose and now in addition sent 12,000 livres to build and furnish it, besides 200 livres to be employed according to the discretion of Jeanne Mance.

But sickness had been singularly absent up to this. A few rooms reserved in the mission house had so far sufficed for hospital purposes. Indeed, Jeanne Mance had recommended that the money should be devoted to the upkeep of the Jesuit missions among the Hurons, a proposition which did not please Madame de Bullion, who insisted in carrying on her pious design.

Thus on January 14th of this year (1664) she had placed a fund, 42,000 livres, to endow the hospital, 6,000 of which were to be employed at once on building operations. So, confident that the work was now completed, she sent a convoy of furniture and a present of 2,000 livres for Jeanne Mance for current expenses. This persistency forced de Maisonneuve to postpone other activities and he now diverted the work of his carpenters to the new foundation. In choosing the site for it, mindful of the danger of floods, he chose an elevated spot a short distance outside the fort across the streamlet St. Pierre,[55] and built the first Hôtel-Dieu of Montreal, a building 60 feet long by 24 broad, containing a room for Jeanne Mance, one for the attendants and two for the sick. A little stone chapel was annexed, about nine to ten feet square, which was furnished with requirements for the altar next year by the Company. On October 8th, the hospital, dedicated according to the pious wish of its founder "au nom et en honneur de St. Joseph," was ready to receive the sick. It was also furnished by the Associates with all the appliances necessary.[56] Jeanne Mance must have felt at last happy on entering on her life-long vocation.

The hospital had its modest farm of four arpents, with its two bulls, three cows and twenty sheep. M. de Maisonneuve's carpenters surrounded it with a strong palisade as a protection, should the Iroquois venture to attack it by night.

Hardly had the hospital been completed than the anxiety of Jeanne Mance as to its utility was dispersed, for it was immediately needed for the sick and wounded who filled it on account of the daily attacks of the Iroquois. Indeed they were soon obliged to add another hall, the two rooms mentioned not being sufficient.

We now resume the military history of Montreal.

After the loss of five of his men in June, 1643, de Maisonneuve issued orders to safeguard his handful of men and women. When the men went out of the fort to their work, the sound of the bell gathered them so that they should go forth together, armed, and at dinner time it again recalled them in the same fashion. This precaution was necessary to guard them against the surprises of the Iroquois who sometimes remained for days together hidden in the adjoining woods or brush, watching, cat-like, on the ground or in the trees for an opportunity to sally forth and cut off any straggler. Then they would retreat with extreme agility back to their accustomed lairs.

The more impatient of his men were all for attacking the enemy in the woods, but the governor restrained them, urging the extreme imprudence of so slight a force attempting to cope with an unknown number, in a mode of warfare in which the enemy were so experienced. Nor could he run the risk of losing one of his brave defenders.

A valuable assistance was provided by the watch dogs of the fort brought from France. We are responsible to Dollier de Casson, and Father Lalemant in the "Relations" of 1647, for the story of a bitch named Pilot who every morning made the tour of the fort's environs, accompanied by her pups, to discover the hiding places of the Iroquois. Should they scent the Iroquois they would turn quickly on their course, and barking and yelping furiously in the direction of the enemy, would convey the news to the fort. Thus many a lurking snare was avoided by the settlers.

The mother was indefatigable in her duty. If one of the pups became lazy or stubborn she would bite it to make it go on. Should, however, one of them turn back and escape, in the midst of the round, a beating assuredly awaited it when Pilot returned into camp.[57]

On an occasion when the barking and yelping were more insistent than usual, proclaiming the nearness of the foe, the impetuous ones of the camp would again approach the governor, asking if they were never to oust the Iroquois by an attack. The governor's policy of delay was still maintained. "My brave boys," he said, "it is most unwise."

But now rendered impatient, murmurs arose in camp and doubt was cast upon the governor's courage. This coming to his ears, and fearing, lest his prudence, being taken for pusillanimity should thus lower his prestige and power of command, he determined for once to change his tactics.

The chance offered shortly, for on May 30th of this year (1644), the persistent barking of the dogs brought the malcontents to him with their querulous cry again: "Monsieur, shall we never go against the foe?" To their surprise the calm, brusque reply of the soldier met them: "Yes, you shall meet the foe; prepare at once for attack; but let each one be as brave as his word. I myself will lead you!"

There was hurry in the camp, each one of the men sought his gun, his ammunition, and his racquettes, or Indian snowshoes, for the snow was deep. But there was an insufficiency of the latter. At last the scanty force of forty men was mustered. The governor put the fort into the hands of M. d'Ailleboust, and giving him directions to follow out should he himself never return from the fray, he led his men towards the foe.

When the Iroquois had noticed this, dividing their force of two hundred into several bands, they put themselves in ambuscades and awaited the approach of the men from the fort. As these entered into the woods, they were met with shots from the Iroquois' muskets on all sides.

Seeing his men thus attacked by so large a force, M. de Maisonneuve ordered them to get behind the trees, as the Iroquois were, and then ensued a brisk exchange of shots on either side, so long and furious that their ammunition giving out and several of his men being already killed or wounded, de Maisonneuve ordered a retreat. This was no easy matter, for they were badly equipped with the snowshoes, and those who had none sank deep into the snow and were hindered in their retreat while the Iroquois were all well shod and skillful in their use, so that, as Dollier de Casson relates:

"Qu'à peine étions-nous de l'infanterie, au rapport de cavalerie."

At this period of unrest and danger the hospital was being built outside the tort, a quadrilateral building, 320 feet in length and an enclosure flanked by four stone bastions which were connected by a wooden curtain twelve feet high. In carrying the wood for construction a beaten path had been made to it, so that the snow was hard and firm, and progress was easy here without the need of snowshoes. Thither, under Maisonneuve's directions, the Frenchmen hurried as best they could, turning to face the enemy, from time to time, to return their shots. When they reached the footpath, they ran headlong to the fort at the top of their speed, terrified by the number of Iroquois pursuing them, and leaving their commander to fall behind, alone and unprotected.

Meanwhile those left behind in the fort, hearing the uproar, and seeing their approach, and mistaking them for the enemy, one of them imprudently fired the cannon which stood already directed towards that road to guard it during the building operations. Providentially the fuse failed.[58]

The abandoned leader was now face to face with the Iroquois with a pistol in either hand, fearful each moment of being seized by them. Thus he kept them at bay. Meanwhile the Iroquois, recognizing him as the governor, wished to capture him alive to make a show of him to their tribes and to reserve him for greater cruelties, and so they delayed a little till their captain came up, to leave to him the honour of the capture. The chief now leaped forward towards de Maisonneuve and was almost on his shoulders, when the governor fired one of his pistols. The pistol did not act and the savage leaped upon him in fury and seized him by the neck, but raising his other pistol above his shoulders the governor laid the chief stiff and dead upon the ground, to the indignation of the surrounding Iroquois watching this single combat. They hurried at once to secure the dead body of the chief. In their anxiety lest there should be any force returning from the fort to seize their chieftain's body, and bear it away as a trophy of victory against the Iroquois, their attention was diverted from the governor who, on the fall of his opponent, had fled and been allowed to escape to the fort.

This act of courage silenced all suspicion of personal cowardice on the part of the governor. His former policy was now commended, and the men protested they would never expose themselves rashly, again.

The parish records of Ville Marie this year reveal the absence of Indian baptisms. This is due to the fear of the Hurons in approaching the beleaguered fort. In addition the approaches were cut off. For in the spring of this year the Iroquois were divided into ten bands, scattered here and there on the St. Lawrence, breathing fury against the French, the Hurons and the Algonquins. The Island of Montreal itself had been visited by one of these bands at the Rivière des Prairies, and by another, with whom the recent fight described, took place.

Thus the whole country was in alarm, when, in the summer of 1644, a reinforcement from France arrived, sent by the queen regent and the Company of One Hundred Associates, of sixty men to be divided among the various posts. With them came another force for Montreal sent at the expense of the Company of Montreal. At this time Fort Richelieu was in great danger and the new addition was much valued.

The new expedition was under the command of the Sieur Labarre, who then came on to settle at Montreal in the summer with a number of new colonists. The early historians speak very slightingly of this man. He appears to have had the reputation of being very religious. At Rochelle he carried a large string of rosary beads in his girdle, and he also had a crucifix which he had almost incessantly before his eyes, so as to be considered an apostolic man. Hence his appointment. But this great "hypocrite" was found out in the intimate village life of Montreal and he was asked very shortly to retire to France as we shall see.

This year marks the beginning of agriculture in Montreal. Wheat had been sown principally through the initiative of Louis d'Ailleboust, who had come in the previous year.

But the difficulty of tilling and sowing the ground, when the workers had to carry their arms with them amid the danger of such surprises as we have described, rendered agriculture precarious, and in consequence the grain produced this year was not sufficient to support even the small colony. Its provisions had still to be sent from France.

The year 1645 started with an important change in the attitude of the Company of New France. Public opinion in the motherland had been drawn to Canadian affairs. The Montreal venture and the publication of the "Véritables Motifs" had thrown discredit on the Company as a colonizing force. This body at first no doubt blustered somewhat, but finally, from fear of being looked upon as mere private speculators, it was ready to listen to reason. There had been representation from Quebec from the colonists there that the monopoly of the fur trade by the Company menaced commerce and prevented Frenchmen coming to Canada. A modification or suppression of this monopoly as the only means of increasing and firmly "establishing the colony" was demanded.

Accordingly, after having considered these matters at its annual meeting in December, we find the Company at a subsequent one, on January 7th, making, at the demand of the queen regent and the solicitation of the Jesuits, a treaty with the colonists of New France, by which they handed over to them the trade in peltry excluding that of Acadia, Miscou and Cape Breton. This treaty was concluded between the Company and the representatives of the colonists, MM. de Repentigny and Godefroi, on January 14, 1644, and ratified by the king on July 13, 1645.--(Edits et Ordonnances.)

The history, therefore, of free trade for Montreal starts from this period, for we have seen how it had been crippled in its original charter. Still the troublous times it had been undergoing had not allowed them at Montreal to feel their restrictions, just as the times still ahead were not suitable for availing themselves of their new privileges, for war paralyzed commerce. If truth be told, the deputation from Canada had obtained a beautiful scheme on paper; the Company came out the winner.

The document is worthy of consideration.

After conceding to the "habitans du dit pays," present and to come, the right and license of the trade in skins and peltry in New France ... it orders that the said "habitans" shall for the future keep up the colony of New France, and shall discharge for the Company the ordinary expenses hitherto paid by it for the maintenance and appointments of ecclesiastics, governor, lieutenants, captains, soldiers and garrisons in the forts and habitations, and that in consideration of the expenses already incurred by the Company.

The Company, however, was to retain the name, titles, authority, rights and powers accorded in its original edict of establishment and to remain in full ownership, possession, judiciary, seigneurial tenure of all the country and extent of the lands of New France.

Thus it placed all responsibility on the inhabitants themselves. Montreal would not suffer very much, because, being a private corporation, it had already offered to maintain itself at its own cost.

The year 1645 opened again with Iroquois attacks, "but," says Dollier de Casson, "God has been favourable to us."

The men of the fort even killed some of their assailants, and owing to the wise soldiership of the governor, not one of his own were killed, all this year.

Meanwhile, the Indian allies still kept away. But on September 7th the fort welcomed a body of sixty of them who came under the escort of a band of the soldiers sent out from France the previous year. These latter had been ordered on arriving to winter with the Hurons and protect them from the Iroquois, and they were now on their way back to the governor of Quebec with a load of skins to the value of thirty to forty thousand livres.

It will be remembered that the disposition of the peltry was now in the hands of the colonists themselves on condition that they should maintain the upkeep of the departments of church and state. On arriving in Quebec there was a disagreement as to the disposal of the profits of the sale. Finally the colonists devoted part of their proceeds to the construction of the Jesuit house there.

This year also de Montmagny and the inhabitants applied the product of 1,250 beaver skins to their new church being constructed at Quebec and dedicated to Our Lady of Peace in view of the conclusion of peace, now heartily desired.

The possibilities of trade must have appealed to the Montrealers from the arrival of the above party, the more so as their restrictions had been removed.

This month, the negotiations for peace were concluded at a representative gathering of Iroquois and the French allies with the French party under de Montmagny and thus the first Iroquois war was over.

Peace now gave M. de Maisonneuve an opportunity to go to France to arrange the affairs of his father; so putting his own in order, he left the government of Ville Marie in the good hands of his lieutenant, Louis d'Ailleboust. He departed, to the great grief of all the fort gathered at the harbour mouth, but with the promise of a speedy return. M. de Maisonneuve left Quebec on October 20th, on one of the Company's ships bearing their season's fur skins to France. He "deported," as we would say, with him the "undesirable" Sieur de Labarre, whose hypocrisy had been unmasked in Montreal, "when it became known," as Dollier de Casson quaintly relates, "he was frequently taking promenades in the wood with an Indian woman whom he had defiled (qu'il engrossa). There was no more of the saint about this man than his chapelet and his deceitful look, for under the guise of virtue he hid a very wicked life which has made him since finish his days behind a 'bar' which was heavier than his name of Barre."

This year the Jesuit missioners in charge of Ville Marie were Fathers Buteaux and Isaac Jogues. Both of these men were zealous pioneers. Each bore on his body the marks of Iroquois' ill treatment. Yet they did not ask to be recalled to France and rest on their laurels. Father Jogues had, however, been recalled after his mutilation, but his missionary zeal prompted him to return. He profited by the peace, which brought many of the Iroquois out of curiosity to the fort, to make friends with them as he wished to work among their tribes shortly.

After Maisonneuve had concluded the arrangement of his father's affairs he was free for many conferences with members of the Company of Montreal. Ever since they had written to the pope in 1643 it was their great desire, and that of Maisonneuve especially, it being thought that peace was concluded, to establish a bishopric in Canada. As they had agreed to support the expense of maintaining such a post, preferably at Montreal, they arranged that one of their number, a M. Legauffre, a secular priest who had a private fortune of his own, should be nominated to fill the episcopal see.

His unexpected death now came, but he left a legacy of 30,000 livres towards the founding of a see.

In the meeting of the bishops at the general assembly of the clergy on May 25, 1646, Mgr. Godeau, bishop of Grasse, promoted the movement for the establishment of the see, and in July, at the meeting of July 11th, Cardinal Mazarin promised to employ his services with his majesty towards that end, while he also promised 1,200 écus. But as at Quebec and Three Rivers there was no desire for a bishop, especially in view of the uncertain nature of the peace, the negotiations were eventually discontinued, as it became evident that the state of the country was too unsettled. Still the progressive Montrealers had by their enterprise and initiative suggested the establishment of a see, which was erected later on the coming of Laval.

A notable personage now enters into the story of Montreal, Charles le Moyne. He was then a young man of twenty years of age, but he had been already in the colony since 1641 and had traveled in the service of the Jesuits on their Huron missions. Thus he had acquired the knowledge of their language and that of the Iroquois, and it was with the purpose of being useful to the fort at Montreal, as an interpreter with the Iroquois, that he had been sent by de Montmagny to supply a need which the fort had experienced in dealing with the Indians.

M. de Maisonneuve returned at Quebec on September 20th, but hardly had he arrived there than he received a letter from M. Dauversière that his brother-in-law had been assassinated and that his mother was contemplating a second marriage; the latter, seeming to be looked upon as a ruinous event for the family, he had to cross back immediately to France to stay its execution. He sailed for that country on October 31st, but while waiting for the boat to go he transacted some business in Quebec and returned to M. Puiseaux his original donation to the Company of Montreal, of the fiefs of St. Michel and St. Foy and the other gifts which he had given in his early enthusiasm, but which he afterwards reclaimed.

In recompense the Company of Montreal was reimbursed for the improvements made on the land at St. Michel. This action of M. Puiseaux is attributed to his failing faculties. However, by his will made at Rochelle next year, June 21st, he gave the land of Ste. Foy for the maintenance of the future bishop.

During the calm, which was soon to be perturbed, Charles d'Ailleboust completed his fortifications with four regular bastions, so well constructed that the fort exterior was the pride of Canada. The fault was the delay in not having chosen another site, for even now the floods and the ice-pushes from the St. Lawrence threatened many times to upheave the fortifications, and by 1672 the fort was in ruins. Yet for the present they were of avail and inspired fear in the Iroquois and pride in the colonists. Agriculture was largely advanced by d'Ailleboust by cultivating lands for himself and having the same done for the settlement.

But war was again looming ahead. Signs were not wanting by the gradual dispersal of the Indian allies from the fort during the late autumn. On November 17th, three Hurons who were at Ville Marie, having gone to the hunt, returned, with the loss of one of their companions. A few days after, having gone in search of him, they were captured by a band of Iroquois. On November 30, 1646, two Frenchmen were taken at a distance from the camp. Thus it became evident that the peace had never been thoroughly intended, for news came in on all sides of disasters from the Iroquois. The year 1647 passed in troublous vexations. To the great joy of the settlement M. de Maisonneuve returned in the spring of 1648 and found that life was indeed a warfare.

The wars of the Iroquois were fiercer than ever. Fear filled the hearts of all the Montrealers. The fort was the centre of surprises. Yet this year the first windmill was constructed by de Maisonneuve, at what is still known as Windmill Point. It was built with loopholes for musketry, so that the mill was intended not only to grind the wheat but to be an advanced redoubt and a challenge to the Iroquois to show them that the French were not ready to abandon their field of glory. On October 21st Charles d'Ailleboust went to France whence he would return as the governor general.

A word should now be said of the government of the country. By a decree of the king in 1647 it had been arranged that the government of the country should be left in the matter of police, commerce and war in the hands of three, viz., the governor general, the superior of the Jesuits and the governor of Montreal.

The governor of Quebec was given a salary of 25,000 livres, with the privilege of having sent to him each year, without expense, seventy tons of freight by the vessels of the fleet on the condition that he should provide the fort with arms and ammunitions. He was to have, besides, his own private lieutenant, another at Three Rivers, and finally sixty-six garrison men who should be maintained at the expense of the stores. It was further settled that the governor general should journey into the country as he should judge fit.

As to the local governor of Montreal his salary should be 10,000 livres, with thirty tons of freight, and he was to support a garrison of thirty men. Finally 5,000 livres were granted annually to the superior of the Jesuits for their missions.

These privileges of the royal decision did not give pleasure to many in the colony. M. de Maisonneuve seems to have opposed them in France. It was alleged that M. de Montmagny, in the frequent absence from Quebec, of the superior of the Jesuits on missions, and that of the governor of Montreal, was practically sole ruler; that he was drawing too large a salary and was not fulfilling the conditions imposed upon him in safeguarding the other outposts of the colony. Thus there was dissatisfaction among the colonists, and M. Charles d'Ailleboust with M. des Chastelets went to France to procure amendments.

M. de Montmagny was about to be recalled. His rule was considered inefficient. A mémoire by M. de la Chesnaye says that there was a secret cabal intriguing against the governor, composed of a few of the chief families, who went to France to enrich themselves, and got one of their own named as governor general. This alludes to de Maisonneuve, des Chastelets and d'Ailleboust. The former is known to have refused a nomination to the post and des Chastelets and d'Ailleboust, among other things, asked for a reduction of the salary of the governor general from 25,000 livres to 10,000.

On the 5th of March, 1648, these amendments passed. In addition the governing council of Canada was now to be composed of the governor general, the superior of the Jesuits, and MM. de Chavigny, Godefroy of Quebec, and Giffard, to which body the local governors of Three Rivers and Montreal should be added when they should happen to be in Quebec.

Finally the king ordered that it would be necessary for two at least of the councillors to deliberate with the governor. The salary of the governor general was reduced to 10,000 livres, the sixty tons of freight to twelve, and his garrison to twelve men, and it was ruled that the local governors of Montreal and Three Rivers should each receive 3,000 livres, six tons of freight and six soldiers.

The 19,000 livres over should be partially employed in raising a "camp volant," or flying squadron drawn from men of existing garrisons if there should be sufficient so disposable, or if not, it should be raised as soon as possible. In the summer this flying squadron should guard all the passages by land and water under the command of some capable officer to be appointed by the governor, and in the winter it should be distributed in the garrisons to sally forth thence to beat the bush and to rove around.

The rest of the 19,000 livres should be employed in purchasing arms and ammunition. Besides this flying squadron the king allowed a company formed by the settlers at their own expense to act as the necessary escort to the Hurons or the missionaries. For the support of this, trading was allowed on these journeys on the condition of bringing the skins to the government stores at Quebec and sold at the price fixed by the Quebec council.

These changes were not received with favour by the old party and d'Ailleboust was made to realize this on his way back. However, he came to Quebec as governor general on August 20th and was received with "generous magnanimity" by Montmagny, who left on September 23d. Madame d'Ailleboust and her sister, Phillipine de Boulogne, joined the governor at Quebec. There was grief at Montreal in losing them, but this was tempered by its pride in furnishing the governor general from its midst.

A few words are needed in further explanation of the "camp volant" above alluded to.

"In 1642," according to Benjamin Suite, Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal, 1879, "there were no less than seventy soldiers at Three Rivers whose duty it was, not only to defend that place against the Iroquois, but to patrol Lake St. Peter also. The same year only fifteen soldiers were quartered at Quebec--a much less exposed position than Three Rivers. In the year 1644 some troops were sent to Canada by Anne d'Autriche. Twenty-three of these soldiers accompanied the Hurons, the missionaries and a few Frenchmen, who went to the Georgian Bay that summer. M. Ferland says that the garrison of Montreal numbered thirty men in 1647; but he evidently means the thirty men placed under the orders of Jean Bourdon for reconnaissance purposes on Lake St. Peter." These were "soldiers" from 1642; from 1649 there were volunteers, and from 1651, if not before, a sedentary militia was established.

About 1647 Montmagny had considered a project for forming an active militia to be on the lookout against the Iroquois, but his resources were too slender. In the spring of 1649 the "camp volant" was organized under the command of Charles J. d'Ailleboust de Musseaux, nephew of the new governor general, M. d'Ailleboust. It numbered forty men and its duty consisted in patrolling on the St. Lawrence between Montreal and Three Rivers.

After the slaughter of Sieur Duplessis Kerbodot, nephew of M. Lauson, now governing and the successor of de Musseaux, on August 19th, together with fifteen Frenchmen, the "camp volant" became disorganized for the winter, but it was apparently reformed in the summer of 1653. After that it seems to have been neglected during the government of D'Argenson and D'Avaugour. In fact a body of regular troops was required to check the Iroquois, and not mere militia, whose men could not attend to their farm and other business and at the same time keep beating the country nearly all the year round. Hence the request for troops, of Father Lejeune in 1660, and Pierre Boucher in 1661. In 1663 a body of militia was organized at Montreal.

The next spring, 1640, the "camp volant" of forty men was sent to Montreal under the command of the nephew of the new governor, Charles d'Ailleboust des Musseaux, to help to repulse the Iroquois. About the same time the new governor went to pay his first official visit to Ville Marie.

He communicated the king's order as above, and among other instructions he communicated directions from the Company of Montreal. One, touching the administration of the Hôtel-Dieu, regulated that the surgeon of this house should attend the sick of the island gratuitously, both French and Indians, and that the administration accounts of the hospital should be rendered annually to the governor of Montreal, the ecclesiastical superior and to the syndics of the inhabitants, who should sign an act to be sent to Paris.

During this stay the governor, on May 3rd, put the Jesuits[59] formally in possession of the Seigneurie de Madeleine on the south side of the St. Lawrence, comprising land two leagues in length by four in depth, stretching from St. Helen's island towards the Sault St. Louis. This had been granted by François de Lauson on April 1, 1647.

Sad news had been brought to Jeanne Mance by the governor that many of the Associates were losing their interest in Montreal and were diverting their charities to the missions in the Levant. Anxious to get further news she went to Quebec in the summer and there she found that Père Rapin, the Recollect, her intermediary with Madame de Bullion, was dead; that the Company of Montreal was almost dissolved; that M. de la Dauversière was dangerously ill; that his affairs had become entangled, and he was now a bankrupt. As he had money in trust for Madame de Bullion, this was a blow for the colony.

The outlook for Montreal was now financially gloomy. Ville Marie was also surrounded by war. Jeanne Mance therefore set sail from Quebec on September 8th to interest her friends in the struggling settlement. In this she was very successful. Madame de Bullion received her with kindness and gave her a sum of money to engage workmen to till lands to support the hospital. The Associates renewed their interest, and in order to guarantee the continuance of their Seigneurie a new act was drawn up to supplement that of March 25, 1644, in which M. de Fancamp and M. de la Dauversière had sworn that they were occupiers of Montreal in the name of a company, so that these nine remaining members were now publicly named and signed their names, making at the same time a mutual donation, reciprocal and irrevocable, by which they handed over to the last surviving of them the forts, habitations and outhouses, etc., belonging to the said Company. This was signed before the Notaries Pourcelle and Chaussiere on March 21, 1650.[60]

The Company gave the hospital also 200 arpents of land. Jeanne Mance saw many of the associates privately and stimulated their interest, as well as that, of others. In the month of September, 1650, she arrived at Quebec with some labourers and some virtuous marriageable girls, leaving it on September 25th for Montreal and arriving there three days before the feast of All Saints (November 1st).[61]

The year 1650 may be chronicled as that of the first general movement towards agriculture. The constant fear of Iroquois' attacks had kept the settlers pent up within the walls of the fort, although there had been since 1643 individual attempts by Charles d'Ailleboust and others outside.[62] The activity started by Jeanne Mance in putting into cultivation the 200 arpents lately conceded by the Associates of the Company of Montreal to the Hôtel-Dieu encouraged others to take to the land and to build their dwellings on the concessions which they now demanded from M. Maisonneuve, since it was now thought there was a likelihood of peace.

These early grants were only of thirty arpents and to ensure as great protection as possible against Iroquois attacks, they were clustered around the fort and the brewery. In granting these lands, however, the seigneurs stipulated that they could be exchanged later for others at a remote distance, for the location at present used was reserved for the future city, for the building of the market place, the port and other public purposes.

What may be called the history of mutual building societies now starts, for as the number of workmen were limited, the inhabitants, led by the motives of fraternal charity and public spirit, formed associations to help one another in the clearing of their lots and in the construction of their homes. Thus a contract dated November 15, 1650, between Jean des Carris and Jean Le Duc, binds them to assist each other to build at common expense a ho, for each, on a clearing, of ten acres each, made by them, and that if one of them fell sick the work should be continued by the other without remuneration.

In the present case after the clearing had been made and the house built on Jean des Carris' concession, the war intervening would not allow similar work to be done on that of Jean Le Duc, and in consequence Jean Le Duc received from his partner 580 livres in recompense for his services.

The harvest of this year was very successful; "particularly at Montreal where the lands are very excellent," is the account in the "Relations."

It is not difficult now to present a picture of Montreal or Ville Marie of this period. On the northeast portion of the triangular piece of land watered on the east and north by the little River St. Peter and on the south by the St. Lawrence, there was the fort and the new concessions with their wooden buildings being erected thereon; on the southern portion there was a long sweep of ground, an arpent in depth and forty in length, along the banks of the river westward, on which the cattle of the soldiers and others who were now becoming farmers were allowed to stray. This was known as "the Common"[63] and was granted to Jean de Saint Père as the syndic for the people in October, 1651, on the understanding that it should revert to the seigneurs when they should need it for city expansion. In this common, which was protected by the fort and the houses above, the animals, under the care of a watchman, were safe from immediate attack, since all approaching this pasturage must necessarily venture from afar and be visible. At the west end of the common was the windmill near the river.[64] Across the little river there were the houses of M. Maisonneuve and that of the Hôtel-Dieu. This comprised the situation.

In spite of the pictures of progress and contentment we have presented as existing towards the end of 1649 and the earlier part of 1650, we must remember that Montreal was frequently the rendezvous of bands of Hurons and their Jesuit missionaries, who told of their flight from the cruelty of the Iroquois; of forts destroyed, pillaged, of burnings and massacres. Montreal itself, they were told, was soon be the object of attack. Hence the bands did not delay. After the horrible scenes that had occurred at St. Louis[65] in July of 1650 the missionaries brought down three or four hundred Lake Hurons, the relics of three to four thousand, to Ville Marie, where they stayed only two days. The "Relation" of this year says: "This is an advantageous situation for the settlement of the savages, but as it is the frontier of the Iroquois, whom our Hurons flee from, more than death itself, they could not determine to start their colony then."

Dollier de Casson gives us this insight into the fear caused at Ville Marie by these visits and their recitals of disaster. The evident reflection then was, "If we who are only a handful of Europeans, do not offer a firmer and more vigorous resistance than 30,000 Hurons have done, then we must reconcile ourselves to be burnt alive at a slow fire with all the refinements of unheard of cruelty."

But this year Montreal was able to breathe in comparative peace. A picture of Montreal of this year is presented by Père P. Ragueneau, the Jesuit superior of the missions, writing from Quebec on October 8th to Father Picolomini, the general of the order at Rouen: "At Montreal there are barely sixty Frenchmen, twenty Hurons, a few Algonquins and two of our fathers. They cannot leave this fort, which is always very much exposed."

In the spring of 1651, a perilous period began. Speaking of this year the Jesuit "Relations" say in general: "It is a marvel that the French of Ville Marie were not exterminated by the frequent surprises of Iroquois bands." Other contemporaneous chroniclers repeat the same. Sister Morin, in the "Annals of the Hôtel-Dieu of Montreal," writes: "Often ten men of Ville Marie, or less, have been seen holding their own against fifty or eighty Iroquois, who have acquired for themselves a great reputation in all Canada and in France, and the Iroquois have several times avowed that three men of Montreal have inspired them with more fear than six from elsewhere."

The attacks now were very frequent and sudden. Although the garrison fought well and bravely, its losses were severe compared with those of the Iroquois, who though losing more men, yet were able to replace them.

Some of these encounters have been preserved to us. The following occurred on May 6, 1651: On this day, Jean Boudard had left his house with a man named Jean Chicot when suddenly they found themselves surprised by eight or ten Iroquois. Chicot ran for safety to a tree recently cut down and hid himself there, but Boudard, making headlong for his home, met his wife, Catherine Mercier, not far from it. Asking her whether the dwelling was open she replied: "No, I have locked it!" "Ah!" cried he, "then it is death for both of us! Let us fly at once." In their flight, the wife could not keep pace with him and, being left behind, was seized by the Indians. Hearing her cries the husband returned and attacked them with fisticuffs, so violently that, not being able to master him otherwise, they massacred him on the spot. The cries and confusion aroused three of the settlers, Charles Le Moyne, Archambault and another, who, running to render assistance, were seen falling into an ambuscade of forty Indians behind the hospital. Discovering their mistake they made a retreat to the front door of the hospital which luckily was open, having escaped a brisk fusillade, as Le Moyne well knew by the hole in his hat. With the captive woman, the Indians who had surprised Boudard then sought the hiding place of Chicot. He defended himself with his feet and hands so vigorously that fearing, lest he should be assisted by the Frenchmen they now saw approaching, they took his scalp, taking a piece of his skull with it. This they carried with them as a trophy, as well as the head of Boudard, who was commonly known as "Grand Jean." Jean Chicot did not die, however, till nearly fourteen years later, but Catherine Mercier was brutally burned after having been inhumanly disfigured,[66] during the summer of the same year in the Iroquois camp.

Four days later another alarm aroused the fort. About two hours after midnight, a band of forty Iroquois attacked the brewery and some of the houses. Two of these, belonging to Urbain Tessier dit Lavigne and Michel Chauvin, they burned, and the brewery would have been reduced to ashes if the guard of four men within, had not repulsed their attack with vigour and put them to flight.

On the 18th of June, on a Sunday morning, a party of four, probably returning to their newly constructed houses from the church in the fort, was surprised between the fort and Point St. Charles by a large body of Iroquois. These four ran to a hut used as a kind of watch house or redoubt, overlooking a quantity of felled timber, where they were quickly joined by Urbain Tessier and, resolving to sell their lives dearly, they kept up a lively fusillade on the enemy.

The noise attracted de Maisonneuve in camp and he sent a relief party under Charles Le Moyne with such success that the Iroquois were put to flight, leaving behind them twenty-five to thirty men dead on the field, independently of those who were taken prisoners. On the French side only four were wounded, although one of them, Léonard Lucault dit Barbot, died two days afterwards, being buried in the cemetery. Belmont, in his "Histoire du Canada," mentions another among the dead, but the parish register only mentions one.

Thus, amid such daily hostilities, was life insecurely led by the settlers, since it was not safe to venture even a few yards from their houses without pistol, musket or sword.

Jeanne Mance, in a memoir to be found among the archives of the seminary at Quebec, tells how the governor now obliged all the colonists to leave their newly constructed houses and retire with their families to the safety of the fort. She herself was forced to leave the hospital. Maisonneuve turned this into a military outpost to guard the isolated redoubts scattered here and there in the field and to protect the workmen, by placing in it a squad of soldiers. He had two pieces of cannon taken there and swivel guns for the windows of the granaries, and he had loopholes cut into the walls of the building all around, even in the chapel which served as an artillery armoury.

In this way the hospital became a fortress for four years and a half. On July 26th the wisdom of Maisonneuve's arrangement was evident. Marguerite Bourgeoys is responsible for the story. On this day 200 Iroquois had concealed themselves in a trench originally built as a defence for the hospital, and which, descending from a height nearby, close to the place where St. Jean Baptiste street is today, crossed the site of St. Paul street.

All of a sudden the concealed foes disclosed their presence by attempting to take possession of the building and to set it on fire. Meanwhile the garrison within, consisting of Lambert Closse,[67] the town major, and sixteen of his men made a vigorous and valorous defence against the 200 from 6 o'clock in the morning to 6 at night, and losing only one man, Denis Archambault, who met his death by a splinter from the cast iron cannon which had exploded, killing him on the spot, but without dealing death to the enemy outside. The cannon was fired by himself. Finally the enemy were forced to retreat, burning a neighbouring house in revenge for their loss of men.

Other engagements of a like nature took place but the details have not been recorded. Three Rivers and Quebec were in similar straits. Disaster, loss, and want of reinforcement for two years had reduced Montreal to but about fifty defenders, so that there was now open talk of abandoning it and leaving Canada.

One hope remained, suggested to the governor by Jeanne Mance; it was that the 22,000 livres put aside as the revenue for the hospital might be diverted to the expense of sending out a reinforcement to save Montreal, and she thought that she might interpret her "unknown benefactress'" goodwill as agreeable to this, seeing the extremity in which Montreal now stood.

But de Maisonneuve accepted the offer only on the condition that in exchange Mademoiselle Mance should receive for the hospital 100 arpents of the domain of the seigneurs. Meanwhile he could go to France and call on the unknown benefactress herself whose name was now divulged to him. Mademoiselle Mance tells how "M. de Maisonneuve determined on departing for France, told me that if he could not obtain at least 100 men, he would return no more to Ville Marie; and in this case he would order me to return to France with all our party." Thus the abandonment of the settlement was now threatened.

Before leaving M. de Maisonneuve named the nephew of Louis d'Ailleboust, M. Charles d'Ailleboust, Sieur des Musseaux, to be the governor of Montreal in his stead.

In the meantime the new governor general, M. de Lauson, of whom we have spoken already, had arrived on October 13th to succeed M. Louis d'Ailleboust at Quebec. This was no good tidings for Montreal, for as Dollier de Casson remarks, the new governor made known "his good feelings towards the Messieurs de Montréal" and the good treatment they ought to hope from him by retrenching 1,000 from the 4,000 livres granted by the general Company for the upkeep of the governor and his garrison.[68]

"I do not wish," says he, "to say anything touching the conduct of this gentleman towards this island, more especially as I wish to believe that he has always had the very best of intentions, although he was always wise to his own interest since if he had more frequently strengthened the embankment here, the Iroquois inundations would not have so easily taken their course towards Quebec and they would not have done the mischief they did, for they have not always respected even his own family."

De Maisonneuve before leaving for France persuaded the governor of Quebec to send ten men as a reinforcement to Ville Marie. Dollier de Casson, the quondam soldier now priest, treating this quaintly as follows, says facetiously that de Lauson kept his promise, "sending their arms in advance," meaning that he sent none at all. This is confirmed by M. de Belmont, who says that "M. de Lauson sent, in spite of his own wish, ten soldiers without arms and provisions." "But he sent them so late," says Dollier, probably on the testimony of eye-witnesses, "and put them on a chaloupe so poorly clad that they almost froze to death, and they were taken for living spectres coming, as mere skeletons, to confront the hardships of the winter. It was a rather surprising thing to see them arrive in this turnout at this season, considering that it was the 10th of December; so much so that it seemed doubtful whether they were men or not, this only being cleared up when they were seen close at hand; moreover in constitution these men were most sickly, two of them being mere boys, though in truth they have become since very good settlers, of whom one is called Saint Ange and the other, Lachapelle. These poor soldiers were no sooner here than their hosts proceeded to warm them up as well as they could, by giving them good cheer and good clothing, and then they came to be of service in repelling the Iroquois whom we had to deal with at close quarters every day."

Surely Montreal must have been looked upon as a forlorn hope!

NOTE

THE EXPLOIT OF PLACE D'ARMES

The site of this is claimed by the Abbé Rousseau in his "Maisonneuve," page 77, as the space in front of the fort known as the Place d'Armes, afterwards the market place and now known as Custom House Square, and the road abutting the new buildings of the Hôtel-Dieu arising at the corner of St. Joseph Street (St. Sulpice) and the corner of St. Paul Street.

The Abbé Faillon, Vol. II, page 25, "Histoire de la Colonie Française," argues for the present Place d'Armes in front of Notre Dame Parish Church. M. L. A. Huguet Latour, the first editor of the Annuaire de Ville Marie, holds the same view.

There was a blazed trail, running up the slope of St. Sulpice Street, which probably went up to the mountain where de Maisonneuve placed his cross. In a map of 1680 such a road ran by the northwest corner of the present Place d'Armes.

Faillon claims it was here that the exploit took place; the argument of time and distance for the action as related by de Casson being more congruous for this position than at the lower position just outside the fort in the sight of the defenders within. But it must be remembered that the present Place d'Armes did not get its name from this exploit. This name does not appear till 1717, when Chassegros de Léry, engineer of New France, forwarded to France a lengthy report as to the advantage of Montreal for the purposes of fortifications. In this report he said:

"I have marked a place d'armes, in front of the parish church where might afterwards be moved a number of barracks, the houses which are in that place being of small value."

During the year the work was commenced, but from lack of funds it was discontinued. Up to 1721 no further progress was made but in that year it was fairly entered upon and de Léry superintended it. (Vide "Canadiana," Vol. I, pp. 47, 63, 77; notes of John Talon Lespérance, Henry Platt, Wm. McLennan.)

Let us compromise and say that most of the action took place on St. Sulpice Street, between the present and the old Place d'Armes, the latter incidents of the story taking place near the old Place d'Armes.

FOOTNOTES:

[55] The position now can be located as at the east corner of St. Sulpice (originally St. Joseph) Street and St. Paul Street.

[56] There are still preserved in the present Hôtel-Dieu some jars and other articles of the original dispensary, as well as Mademoiselle Bullion's gifts of furniture.

[57] The dog Pilot has been immortalized in Hébert's de Maisonneuve monument in Place d'Armes, Montreal.

[58] The parish register of March 30, 1644, records that the French lost in this encounter J. Matenac and P. Bizot, besides Guillaume Lebeau, mortally wounded.

[59] At this time in the Huron country and its neighbourhood there were eighteen Jesuit priests, four lay brothers, twenty-three men serving without pay, seven hired men and eight soldiers.

[60] Names of Associates signing: Jean Jacques Olier, priest, curé of the Church of St. Sulpice; Alexandre de Rageois de Bretonvilliers; Nicholas Barreau, priest; Roger Duplessis, Seigneur de Liancourt; Henri Louis Hubert, Seigneur de Montmart, king's councillor and master of requests; Bertrand Drouart, Esquire; and Louis Séguier, Seigneur de St. Germain, who all occupied the Isle of Montreal as well for themselves as for MM. d'Ailleboust and Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve.

[61] The first concession and notarial act known, signed by Jean St. Père, dates from this year, as also does the first of the acts of the government of M. de Maisonneuve. (See Hist. Soc. Records.)

[62] Among others Pierre Gadbois, Lucien Richomme, Blaise Juillet, Léonard Lucault dit Barbier, François Godé and Godefroy de Normanville. From 1650 to 1672 ninety-four houses were built.

[63] The name of "Common" Street records the locality of this "common."

[64] At the present Windmill Point.

[65] The Jesuits, Jean de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant, nephew of Father Charles Lalemant, S. J., were killed by the Iroquois at St. Louis on the 16th and 17th of March, 1649.

[66] "Relations," 1651.

[67] Lambert Closse came in 1648. He was second in command of the garrison. He was of noble family. Contemporary writers call him indifferently sergeant-major of the garrison, major of the garrison, major of this place, or "of the fort" or "of the town" or "of Montreal." He also acted as notary.

[68] Montreal fared ill, whereas the salary of the governor of Quebec was raised 2,000 livres and that of Three Rivers reached 5,200 and 50 horses, the 3,000 livres granted to the governor of Montreal had been increased to 4,000. This news had been brought to Montreal by Louis d'Ailleboust. It was now reduced again to 3,000.

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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.

M. de Maisonneuve was absent for nearly three years and during that time Montreal was in a critical position. The inhabitants were cooped up within the fortress or in the Hôtel-Dieu for fear of the Iroquois. The danger of going out of these limits was only too clearly seen when the cattle guardian, Antoine Roos, was slain at his work on the common in front, on May 26th.

Anxiety was felt as to M. de Maisonneuve's success in Paris. News was accordingly eagerly awaited. Thus it was that in June Jeanne Mance went to Three Rivers under the escort of Major Closse and proceeded on the way to Quebec under that of M. Duplessis Kerbodot, the governor of Three Rivers. On arriving there she had almost dared to hope to hear that M. de Maisonneuve had already arrived, but instead a long letter awaited her. In this, the governor related his visit to Madame de Bullion, telling how he had approached Madame adroitly, without discovering to her his knowledge of her benefactions as the founder of the Hôtel-Dieu. Not only did this lady not take any steps to show her disapproval of Mademoiselle Mance's action in making the exchange of the hospital revenue, but she gave in addition 20,000 livres more as an anonymous gift, placing it in the hands of the president of the Company of Montreal, M. de Lamoignon, for the purpose of raising a convoy for Montreal under M. de Maisonneuve. Thus, in all, this good lady had contributed 42,000 towards the 75,000 livres for the new expedition of 115 men provided by the Company. The letter then informed Mademoiselle Mance that he would return the next year; meanwhile the preparations would be hastened.

With this good news Jeanne Mance returned as soon as possible to Montreal. New hope was thus infused into the settlement. On July 29th, however, the state of hostilities is again revealed to us by the record of the brave exploit of Martine Messier, the wife of Antoine Primot.

Three Iroquois, who had hidden themselves in the wheat at a distance of two musket shots from the fort, fell upon her unexpectedly. She defended herself like a lioness, fighting with her hands and feet. To quell her loud cries for help they gave her three or four stunning blows with their axes. Thinking her dead, as she sank to the ground, one of them threw himself over the prostrate body to take her scalp as his trophy, when suddenly our Amazon, coming to herself, raised herself, more furious than ever, seized him with such violence "par un endroit que la pudeur nous défend de nommer," that he could not free himself, although he did not cease striking her with the head of the axe. But she held on tightly, until at last she fell to the ground exhausted, thus affording her assailant what he most wanted at that moment, an opportunity to escape from the relief party now running from all parts of the fort to her rescue.

On reaching the spot where the poor woman lay bathed in her blood, one of the men assisting her to rise, moved by a natural sentiment of friendship and compassion, embraced her. But this seems to have made her confused, for she administered a sound slap in the face of this affectionate sympathizer, to the great surprise of the bystanders, who exclaimed: "What are you doing? This man was only showing his sympathy to you, without any thought of ill. Why do you strike him?"

"Par menda!" she exclaimed in her patois. "I thought he wanted to kiss me!"

Madame Primot did not die, but she was long afterwards known as "Parmenda," whose valour and modesty were lovingly held in tradition, as typical of the noble women of these early pioneering days, in which virtue and courage flourished side by side.

The severe treatment received at Montreal turned the Iroquois to Three Rivers, and in a skirmish on August 19th they killed the governor, M. Duplessis Kerbodot.

In October, however, Montreal was the scene of fresh fighting. Dollier de Casson has rescued the story of this from oblivion, from so many others not recorded.

On the 19th of this month, the barking of the dogs indicated the direction of an Iroquois ambuscade. The brave town major, Lambert Closse, ever ready to fly to the post of peril, started out at once with twenty-four armed men to reconnoitre the situation. But though brave, he was prudent; he therefore sent three of his soldiers ahead. La Lochetière,[69] Baston (or Bastoin) and another, ordering them to proceed within gunshot no further than a certain position marked out by him. La Lochetière, however, in his eagerness pushed a little ahead of his companions, and the more easily to discover the whereabouts of the enemy, he climbed a tree, intending to discover from this lookout if the enemy were hiding in a thicket.

But, without him knowing it, there was an ambush of them at the foot of the tree, and as soon as he had climbed it they raised their usual war cry, and were about to fire on him. No less alert than brave, La Lochetière seized his musket, fired straight at one of them, who was aiming at himself, killing his man, but paying the penalty of death at the same instant from his victim's gun. The other two scouts also received a volley, from which they were lucky to escape.

Major Chase quickly put his men in order, but, finding his party surrounded, he directed them to make a rush to a wretched shack near at hand, belonging to an old settler, M. Prud'homme, who had eagerly invited them to enter as quickly as possible, for the enemy were surrounding it. This done, the party made loopholes in the walls for their guns and prepared to open a brisk fire on the besiegers--all except one coward, who, falling flat on the ground, could not be induced by threats or blows to rise. But the Iroquois were now firing at close quarters all around the house and their balls riddled the scanty walls so that one of them struck Laviolette, one of the fighters of the fort, completely disabling him. The loopholes now being ready, the French party answered the Iroquois with such effect that after the first rounds the ground was strewn with the dusky bodies of the slain. The hurly-burly went on, the Iroquois fighting while they attempted to carry away their wounded and dead, until, fearing a dearth of ammunition, Major Closse was only too glad to accept the offer of Baston, whose prowess as a runner was well known, to make a dash to the fort and bring back a reinforcement of men.

Accordingly, under cover of the fire of the defenders of the house, the door was opened and Baston, speeding forth, escaped while the Iroquois were recovering from this last fusillade.

Soon he returned with eight or ten men, all that could be spared, and two pieces of cannon charged with canister shot. Between the scene of battle and the fort there was a screen of trees under cover of which the reinforcement made its way and thus escaped the attention of the savages till it suddenly appeared in view on this side of the screen and commenced firing on the Iroquois. Major Closse's party now went into the open to join fire also and a brisk and hot interchange took place. But the enemy were being overmastered and made their best to retreat, carrying with them their dead as far as possible, according to their custom. Dollier de Casson does not give the number of the enemy slain. "Usually," he says, "they decimated their losses, but, speaking of this occasion, they owned that 'we all died there.'"

M. de Belmont in his history states that more than fifty of the Iroquois were wounded and twenty killed. On the French side the only one killed was La Lochetière, and one wounded, Laviolette.

This was only one of the brave actions which surrounded the fame of the warlike Lambert Closse as revealed in the early chronicles.

Thus the fort of Montreal was the scene of many such conflicts, unassisted by the "camp volant," which de Lauson had suppressed in 1652. Père Mercier, in his "Relations of the Year 1653," writes: "There has passed no month of the year in which the Iroquois have not stealthily visited Ville Marie, attempting to surprise it. But they have had no great success. The settlers have assisted one another with so much determination and courage that as soon as a gunshot is heard in any direction, they run thither quickly, without any dread of the dangers besetting them."

At Quebec, it was announced that Montreal had been blotted out. In the spring of 1653 the governor of Quebec, anxious for news of this advanced post, had sent a barque thither, giving the commander instructions that he should not approach the fort, unless he had proof certain that the French were there, adding that if he did not see any, he was to come back to Quebec, for fear that the Iroquois, having captured Ville Marie, might be lying in ambush to capture them also. The barque advanced near the fort in a dense fog, and anchored. But seeing no one and hearing no signal, they obeyed their instructions literally enough, and went back to Quebec with the dire tale of the destruction of the French colonists. The wiseacres no doubt said that the inevitable had occurred at last.

Meanwhile in the fort, the keen-eyed had seen the vague outline of a vessel, but others said it was a phantom of the imagination, and when later the mist rolled away and they saw no ship, these were satisfied with their diagnosis until news came later from Quebec that it was a veritable vessel after all.

In this abandoned state, we are told by the chroniclers how the Montrealers, under the direction of the Jesuits of the fort, earnestly prayed for peace.

As if in answer to their petition, on June 26, 1653, an embassy of sixty Iroquois of the nation of the Onondagas (Onontaquis) appeared at the fort with a proposal of peace. As they came unarmed, they were treated kindly, presents were exchanged, and the day was one of public rejoicing. On returning to their country, passing by the village of the Oneidas (Onneyuts), they exhibited their presents and spoke in high praise of the French of Montreal. "They are devils when attacked," they said, "but most courteous and affable when treated as friends." And they protested that they were about to enter into a firm and solid alliance with them. Touched by these discourses, the Oneida Iroquois (Onneyuts) would also enter into an alliance with Montreal, and they sent an embassy with a great porcelain necklace, asking for peace, which was concluded. But there were three others of the Five Nations who had not made peace, for though they were allied amongst themselves they reserved their independence. These were the Mohawks (Agniers), the Senecas (the Tsonnoutouans), and the Cayugas (Gogogouins).

Three weeks after this, 600 Mohawks marched on Montreal. We have no records of this attack, but they retired to Three Rivers to seize the port there. Quebec now also trembled for itself, and it was at this time that de Lauson reestablished the "camp volant." In September of this year peace was again concluded, for a time, between the French and the Iroquois. As Montreal had a large share in bringing this about we must relate the following circumstances leading to it.

At the time of the descent, of the Iroquois above mentioned, on Montreal, there was present in the fort a band of Hurons, and among them one, the bravest of all, named Anontaha. On one occasion these Hurons had discovered the tracks of a party of lurking Iroquois meditating mischief for Montreal. They combined with the French and on August 25th they surrounded the Iroquois, and after a sharp struggle beat them off, leading four or five Iroquois chiefs, or men of importance, to the fort. These captives told of the projected raids of extermination on Three Rivers and Quebec. The acting governor, knowing of the importance of these Iroquois in the camp, called a meeting of his counsellors, and it was determined that Charles Le Moyne, the interpreter, should persuade Anontaha to go to Three Rivers and parley for peace with the Iroquois, offering to hand them over their chiefs in captivity in Montreal. This was done on August 24th and peace was concluded later. Dollier de Casson says of this: "Finally there was made a sudden patched-up peace in which our enemies acquiesced, solely to regain their own people and to have an opportunity of surprising us later. We well knew their rascally motives, but, as they were stronger than we, we accepted their conditions, 'et en passions par là où ils voulaient.'"

Thus ended the second Iroquois war.

FOOTNOTE:

[69] The parish register gives Etienne Thibault. The Abbé Faillon reads Etienne Thibault dit La Lochetière. (Massicotte gives the date as October 14.)

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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.

The arrival of M. de Maisonneuve's expedition was eagerly awaited by the whole French colony of Canada. For the addition of newcomers, men able to bear arms, meant more resources against the common enemy, and consequently surer stability for the whole French population.

The picture presented at this period of war is distressing. Montreal was a besieged fortress; Three Rivers similarly, and the Town of Quebec was described, on the arrival of de Maisonneuve, as only holding five or six houses in Upper Town, while in the Lower there were only the storehouses of the Jesuits and that of Montreal. The "Relation" of 1653 says "that the store of Montreal has not bought a single beaver skin for a year. At Three Rivers, the little sold has gone to strengthen the fortifications. At Quebec, there is only poverty." Thus there was extreme discontent through inability to pay private debts or those due to the government for the upkeep of the colony, which by the cession of the trading rights to the people now devolved upon them and not on the great Company. Thus they looked for a continuation of the peace just declared and a return to trade. It was hoped that Maisonneuve's contingent would make for both. Consequently it was with great joy and a solemn Te Deum in the church that its arrival at Quebec was hailed on September 22nd. The governor of Montreal and his new colonists were the saviours of the country!

We may now briefly relate the history of the organization of this relief force. When de Maisonneuve had made sure of the necessary funds, he proceeded with M. de la Dauversière, the procurator of the Company of Montreal, to gather the right men. They must be young, brave, have a trade, be of irreproachable morals, and able to bear arms; in other words, be ready to help to found and organize a settlement, and put up with the variety of trying difficulties incidental to such a dangerous pioneering outpost. These men were hired for the work, and they guaranteed their services to the Company for five years at Montreal, on the condition of being fed and lodged, in addition to wages paid them, besides being provided with tools, etc., for the exercise of their callings. After the five years expired, they might return to France at the expense of the Company. These were recruited from Picardy, Champagne, Normandy, L'Ile de France, Touraine, Burgundy, but principally from Maine and Anjou, and especially from the neighbourhood of La Flèche, the home of M. de la Dauversière.

We are able to locate the origin and point out the profession of nearly each one of those coming with Maisonneuve's force, since we have the old original acts of Notary Lafousse, of La Flèche, giving the contracts between 118 of the men and the agents of the Company of Montreal, signed during the course of March, April and May of 1653. There were 38 others who signed in other places, making the total, according to Faillon, of 154, all able to bear arms. Of these, some deserted, some died on the passage out, and, according to M. de Belmont, only 105 reached Montreal.[70] But these were all picked men and chosen with care; there were three surgeons, three millers, two bakers, a brewer, a cooper, a coppersmith, a pastry cook, four weavers, a tailor, a hatter, three shoemakers, a maker of sabots, a cutler, two armourers, three masons, a stonecutter, four tilers, nine carpenters, two joiners, an edgetool maker, a nail maker, a saw maker, a paviour, two gardeners, a farrier, sixty tillers or labourers for cultivating the soil, of whom several were sawyers, etc.

The absence of womankind is noticeable in this list, but a few ladies were provided for the settlement in this way. Before the day for the departure, fixed for June 20, 1653, de Maisonneuve visited his sisters, Madame de Chuly and la Soeur Louise de Ste. Marie, who both lived at Troyes, the latter being a nun of the Congregation of Notre-Dame there, to bid them adieu. It will be remembered that the good nuns of Troyes were very anxious to emulate the example of the Ursulines of Quebec by sending representatives of their order to Montreal to found an establishment there. De Maisonneuve had promised to make use of their offer of services, when the time should be ready, but no one who has followed the story of the chequered days of the city so far, will blame the governor of Montreal for still refusing to receive as yet a cloistered nunnery in his beleaguered fort. But there happened to be a young woman of thirty-three years of age then living with Madame de Chuly at Troyes, a lay woman belonging to a pious association under the direction of the Sisters of the Congregation, who had long heard of the thrilling story of the doings at Ville Marie from Madame de Chuly and the ladies of the convent. She had, indeed, communicated her idea to de Maisonneuve's sister, of devoting herself to the work in Montreal, so that Marguerite Bourgeoys, as was her name, had been promised to be received into their institute when they should realize their project of going to Canada.

It was then, in the convent parloir, that the good nuns introduced this young person to de Maisonneuve, who doubtless asked her kindly, gravely and courteously, if she dared brave the ocean and live in a little settlement among rough soldiers and teach school to little Indian children of the forests, and make Christians of them, and thus do good work for God. Needless to say his offer was accepted. All necessary permissions were granted,[71] but Marguerite momentarily hesitated to give herself to the conduct of a strange gentleman whom she had only met on this occasion.

"Fear not, my child," was the reply of her spiritual adviser, who knew the integrity of the upright governor. "Put yourself in his hands as into those of one of the first knights of the Queen of Angels. Go to Ville Marie with all confidence."

Thus she arrived at St. Nazaire, the port of departure, near Nantes; but to her great surprise and pleasure she found a small group of her own sex to accompany her on the voyage--several young girls, and one or two married women accompanying their husbands. The expedition started on June 20th in the Saint Nicholas de Nantes, and barely had it made 150 leagues on its way than it was found necessary to put back to St. Nazaire, for the ship's timbers were rotten and she made water fast. At first it was thought, with so many hands on board, that by working at the pumps they could proceed, there being then over one hundred men of the Montreal party. But "having turned back at last, when they were nearing land they would have perished," says Marguerite Bourgeoys, "without the succour which, by the grace of God, the people of this place (St. Nazaire) gave us."

In the Annals of the Hôtel-Dieu, an instance is related as occurring on this voyage which illustrates the character of simplicity of M. de Maisonneuve, with whom Marguerite Bourgeoys was now to become acquainted. Madame de Chuly had taken care to provide her brother with a wardrobe of very fine linen and such lace work as gentlemen of position then wore. It happened that a few days after the ship had set sail, the package which Marguerite Bourgeoys had made of these was swept into the sea and, despite all her efforts, she was unable to recover it.

Not knowing M. de Maisonneuve's character, and fearing that this loss, which could not be repaired in Canada, might grieve a gentleman of fashion such as she considered M. de Maisonneuve might be, she told him of the misfortune with great apprehension, but to her relief the governor of Montreal made light of it, laughingly remarking that "both he and she were well rid of the care of such vanities." Later Marguerite Bourgeoys was to learn of his extreme simplicity in all that surrounded his private life.

Marguerite tells how M. de Maisonneuve on putting back to St. Nazaire placed all his soldiers on a small island nearby to prevent them from deserting, for they now feared the journey, having become excited and alarmed and believing "they were being led to perdition." Some of them threw themselves into the waves to escape. Another ship was chartered, and set sail on July 20th, taking up the men from the island. But soon fresh disaster--"ship" fever--broke out and many were laid low. In these days of commodious sailing in a well appointed and sanitary steamer that takes less than a week to come from Europe to Canada we do not realize sufficiently the hardships of the early immigrant days. This voyage took two months; the ship, maybe, a crazy tub of a sailing vessel--the overcrowded accommodation of the most primitive order; the provisions of the coarsest kind, and water scarce. Can we wonder that before the journey ended we learn that out of the 113 men hired by the Company of Montreal, eight had died? We may well imagine the great grief of de Maisonneuve, for every man to him was a cherished possession.

This period brought out the sterling character of Marguerite Bourgeoys, who undertook the care of the nursing. Throughout the sickness she was indefatigable, taking the men their meals, assisting the surgeons, preparing the men for death, and nursing the others into convalescence. Night and day she was lavish of her charity. It is related that she would not accept a place with de Maisonneuve's party at table, but would take her food and whatever delicacies there might be given by them to distribute among the sufferers, while she herself was satisfied with the common rations, and scarce portions at that.

Her zeal knew no relaxation, for, whether in sickness or in health, the soldiers welcomed her as their nurse, their friend, their instructress, their leader at the morning and night prayers, and singing and spiritual reading. Thus she laid the foundations of that lasting respect which the men of Montreal ever had for her.

At last the hoped-for recruitment reached the enfeebled garrison of Quebec on September 22nd. There was Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance awaiting the vessel to receive M. de Maisonneuve, to tell him of the perilous fate of Montreal and to hear from him all the news of the good things in store for it, for she was keen to hurry back to carry the glad tidings thither.

We can imagine the courtly Maisonneuve now introducing to the lady of the Hôtel-Dieu the new assistant that she was to have in the care and training of the young of Montreal, Marguerite Bourgeoys of Troyes, whom she would find of good sense and kindly heart, a virtuous and excellent companion, and a powerful aid for the good work in the settlement. Thus began an enduring friendship between these noble women.

It will be noticed that at this second foundation of Montreal, which is now about to begin, history repeats itself. M. de Lauson, seeing Quebec in its own dire necessity of defenders, would now prevent M. de Maisonneuve from taking his convoy up country. But the governor of Montreal firmly insisted on carrying out the project and he would not leave behind him a single man of those who had cost the Company of Montreal so much.

Moreover, Maisonneuve had a lettre de cachet which the King, Louis XIV, had granted the Company of Montreal on April 8, 1653, in which he approved of the renewed appointment of Maisonneuve as governor, giving him all power to continue the establishment of the settlement at Montreal.

Thus silenced, the governor of Quebec could only resist by refusing to provide transportation facilities by river. Thus it was that the necessity of obtaining boats delayed Maisonneuve at Quebec for a month. Meanwhile Marguerite nursed those still sick from the voyage and presided over the distribution of the stores and the provisions as Jeanne Mance had done in 1641.

It was during this time that the Ursulines of Quebec made overtures to her to join their party; thus they thought that they might have a branch establishment in Montreal.[72] But the future schoolmistress of Montreal already saw her own vocation clearly before her. At length the boats were ready and Maisonneuve sailed, last of all, with the satisfaction of seeing that he did not leave one of his men behind him. Ville Marie was reached on November 16, 1653.

On reaching Montreal, de Maisonneuve set about the work of consolidating his colony. The elements he had chosen in his contingent of 105 men, who, together with those already on the ground, formed the nucleus of his future city, had in them the potentialities of a well-constituted and progressive civic society. They were of different trades, so that mutual help of a diversified nature could be given, albeit they were all soldiers in that they each bore arms, ready to build up the City of God, even as the builders of the temple of old had gone about their work with trowel in one hand and sword in the other. He found his men, whom the hardships of the journey may have daunted, now enthusiastic for the ideal Christian life opening up to them and disposed to make a permanent home with him. Consequently, in the course of December they were ready to listen at the Sunday services, in the fort chapel, to his overtures, made in the public announcements before the sermon, stating the terms on which those that were willing to forego their contract of remaining only for five years and then being taken back to France, might be encouraged to build their permanent homes and take up land.

The governor's intention was to induce them to abandon the advances of money made in France, and later, on their arrival in Canada, on condition of building their houses on an arpent of land granted on the site chosen for the town and cultivating thirty acres on the slopes of St. Louis or St. Joseph, in the vicinity, with the additional consideration of a certain sum of money to provide the means to settle, the latter sum being forfeited if they should ever quit the Island of Montreal.

On the first day of January, 1654, André Demers thus received 400 livres and two days afterwards Jean des Carris and Jean Le Duc received 900 on the above promise, soon to be followed in the same month and that of February by many others on similar terms. These sums may seem modest, but it was an age of simplicity and they were adequate.

The wooden homes the settlers built on their one arpent were of the simplest, and on the arrival of the last immigration there was much activity in felling and carpentering. They assisted one another in building their little houses of thirty feet, and the bachelors lived in common till they had built their own homes or "shacks," as the contracts prove.

The number of houses outside the fort began to grow. M. de Maisonneuve increased the buildings of the hospital, and Jeanne Mance went back to live there, protected from the Iroquois attacks by two redoubts he had constructed hard by, in which were placed two pieces of cannon and other artillery. The houses of the habitants were built detached from one another, but clustered, facing one another for mutual protection. In the walls they had loopholes made so that each home was a fortress with armed men inside. By 1659 there were about forty of these. The fort began to be abandoned. Repairs were neglected on the bastions, already battered by the ice shoves. Soon it sheltered the governor, the d'Ailleboust family, the town major and his ordinary garrison, and some others, among whom was Marguerite Bourgeoys.

The lands cultivated were mostly on the St. Louis slopes, and to protect them Maisonneuve built a redoubt of twenty feet square and sixteen in height, with a chimney. In 1654 he built another in this section and gave the workers an indemnity of 300 livres.

All were very busy at their trades, for everything now had to be made "in Canada." No one disdained manual labor, following the example of the governor and d'Ailleboust and others, such as the town major, Lambert Closse; Charles Le Moyne, interpreter and storekeeper for the Company; the Notary Saint Père. Gilbert Barbier, the carpenter, who was now dignified as fiscal procurator and justice of the peace, had a busy time superintending and lending a hand to the rapidly arising homesteads.

On their side, the women were not less engaged, baking the bread and preparing the meals, combing the wool, spinning and weaving and making the simple garments. Thirteen years later, when Marguerite Bourgeoys formed her first community of two helpers, Marie Barbier, daughter of Gilbert, the first Canadian girl to be received into the Congregation of Notre-Dame of Montreal, could be seen in her religious habit going to and from the pasturage grounds of the common, leading the cattle and often bearing on her shoulders the flour which she had previously taken as wheat to be ground at the mill. In similar attire could have been seen Sister Crolo, tending the farm. And when not thus occupied, Marguerite Bourgeoys and her companions were busy sewing and cutting, to clothe the women and natives.

But in 1654 Marguerite Bourgeoys, the future schoolmistress, had not gathered her community together, and she was not overburdened in this office, for there was only one French girl, Jeanne Loisel, who, born in Montreal on July 21, 1649, was now about 4-1/2 years of age. This girl, who remained with Marguerite Bourgeoys till she was married, was the first child to live to any age. For hitherto all that had been born had died in their tender years. One child, the adopted daughter of Parmenda, who had been born a year before coming to Montreal, had, however, prospered, and she was shortly to be married, as we shall see.

The contracts of marriage, preserved in the city archives of this period, gave an insight in the life of the time. The contract of marriage of Louis Prud'homme with Roberte Gadois reveals that her father gave his daughter, besides the sum of 500 livres, a complete bed, fifty ells of silk, a cow and its calf, six dishes, six plates and a pewter pot--luxuries in these primitive times.[73]

In a contract of the year 1650, we find that the bridegroom, of well-to-do means, as a gift to his bride, gave, in his marriage settlement, the sum of fifty to sixty livres and his residence in his principal house; and on her part she would bring her dowry of 500 livres.

Up to 1654 there had been only ten marriages between the French settlers, the first having taken place in 1647, after the return of Maisonneuve on his first visit to France, when he brought with him for this purpose "some virtuous young women." Marriages flourished again in 1650, when Jeanne Mance also returned with some eligible partners. We find in November of this year that Louis Prud'homme, of whom we have spoken, married Roberte Gadois; and Gilbert Barbier, Catherine de Lavaux. In 1651 the notary, Jean Saint Père, married Maturine Godé, the daughter of Nicholas Godé, whose family came over with Maisonneuve at the first foundation of Montreal. On the occasion of his marriage, in recompense "for his good and faithful service rendered during eight years," Maisonneuve, in addition to the gift of forty arpents, promised him six arpents of land, to be cultivated by him, meanwhile granting him the enjoyment of six others already tilled near to the fort.

In 1654 there were naturally more marriages, and thirteen are therefore registered. Of these early marriages, especially of this year, there are many descendants still living.

Thus for some time Marguerite Bourgeoys, with the exception of Jeanne Loisel, would have to exercise her care with Jeanne Mance in assisting the newly-born children, visiting the sick, consoling the afflicted, washing the linen or mending the clothing of the poor and the soldiers, burying the dead and following the call of self-sacrifice everywhere. Otherwise she dwelt within the fort with M. de Maisonneuve, looking after his domestic arrangements, in a position of friendship and trust but not of domestic service. Indeed, with Jeanne Mance she became his wise adviser, for both seemed to have been largely consulted in the affairs of the settlement.

It will be remembered that Marguerite Bourgeoys, who had taken a vow of perpetual chastity in France, had been heard to place herself in the hands of M. de Maisonneuve as in those of "one of the first Chevaliers of the Angels."

Scrutiny into the life of de Maisonneuve, a "chevalier sans reproche," reveals us a singularly pure character. About this time the governor had doubts whether he should take a wife, but, not feeling himself called to the married state, he took, according to custom of the time, a vow of virginity, so that his biographers speak of him as being a religious without the habit. He was a man of prayer and devoted to duty, sincere, unaffected and unostentatious, seeking neither praise nor flattery, and undepressed by slights and contradictions. His life ideals were high and saintly, and his whole conduct was that of a Christian knight, a model to all under him. His household was simply furnished; his table was frugal; he had only one servant, and this man was the cook and general servant. In his dress ordinarily he followed the habits of the people, wearing the tuque, or capot, and grey tunic which have come down to us in some of the costumes of the snowshoe clubs of Montreal of today. Yet, not unmindful of his dignity as governor, on important occasions he would be habited as fitting his rank as a soldier and a gentleman.

He never strove to make his post serve to increase his fortune, although, like his lieutenants, he could have legitimately traded in peltry, then beginning to be very profitable. He seems rather to have embraced the "Lady Poverty" and to have been singularly unselfish and altruistic. Dollier de Casson tells us, as an example of his magnanimity and generosity, how, ever ready to recompense the good actions of his soldiers, he would deprive himself of his provisions, even those on his own table, to give them away. "On one occasion," says this historian, "when the savages came to trade at this place, noticing that one of his soldiers who had often given proofs of courage against the enemy was in extreme depression, and having found out on enquiry that it was caused by having nothing to trade with the Indians who were then here, he thereupon led him into his own room, and, since the man was a tailor, gave him all the cloth stuffs he could find, even to the curtains of his bed, to make into wearing apparel which he might sell to the Indians." Thus he sent the young soldier away happy. Such generosity endeared him to his men.

The military organization of Montreal may be said to have become solidified this year. For hitherto, beyond readiness to respond to the call to arms, the soldier's sense of duty and esprit de corps had not been cultivated.

The governor took this work of formation into his own hands and chose sixty-three of his most devoted men and erected a military confraternity with the title of the "Soldiers of the Blessed Virgin." He was proud to command these himself. These met in religious meetings and the knightly de Maisonneuve would address them with glowing words of encouragement to acquit themselves like good Christians and soldiers. These were the governor's guard of honour, which came into prominence whenever there was a great religious ceremony or civil function, such as the reception of a distinguished visitor to the island.

During the week, each of these in turn had the duty of sentinel, parading the fields, on the lookout for traces of the dreaded Iroquois. To be selected one of this military order was a high favour. One of the privileges of this guard of honour was to escort Mademoiselle Bourgeoys, shortly after her arrival, to the mountain to visit the cross placed there by de Maisonneuve in 1642, but now found to have been destroyed by the Iroquois in the recent war. It was immediately replanted, under her direction, by Gilbert Barbier and four other men, who placed a palisading around it. This monument was the Mecca of pilgrimages until the occupation by the British in 1760.

The necessity of providing themselves with the needful and indispensable objects of life stimulated the industry and inventiveness of all, so that each man fulfilled many rôles. In addition, the spirit of enterprise and initiative was encouraged by the cancellation of their contracts made with the Company in France for mostly all now were independent workers, anxious to make good for their own interests. Still the Company had the onus of providing the public works, and the contracts of this period show that it paid just salaries for services rendered.

We have an insight into the medical history of the city in a contract made by the first surgeon, Etienne Bouchard, on March 30, 1655, with twenty-six families to treat them regularly for a certain sum. To these were shortly added others to the number, in all, of forty-six. This shows that the cancellation of the original contract, by which the surgeon was appointed to give free medical treatment to all the inhabitants, was a consequence of the new order of things.

The government of the settlement was very simple. Besides the governor, there was a fiscal procurator or treasurer, a public notary, a keeper of the storehouse of the Company, and a syndic.

The last named office was first filled in 1644, when Louis XIV gave the Company of Montreal the right to erect a corporation. The syndic was elected by a plurality of votes from the inhabitants themselves to represent their interest and thus became a tribune of the people. He had the privilege with those of Quebec and Three Rivers of assisting at the election of the two councillors (or three in the absence of the governor), who were chosen to compose the General Council of Nouvelle France, with the governor general and the ecclesiastical superior, for the time being, in Canada. They were even privileged to represent the interests of their corporation at the council meetings and to have a "voix délibérative" in these same matters.

By a royal act of 1647 the syndics could only be appointed for three years, and by another of 1648 they could not negotiate any loan for their corporations without the express sanction of the council at Quebec, under pain of nullity, damages and interests incurred by the syndics themselves.

The election of a syndic was a simple matter at Montreal. The inhabitants had first to get the leave of the governor to call a meeting. The public notary employed by the Company called this and presided. Placing before the electors the names of likely persons for the office, he called upon them to subscribe their names or their marks to the candidate of their choice. On the votes being counted, the person elected might refuse the honour, but the spirit of civic duty always prompted him to respond to the call. He then promised to discharge his duties faithfully, and the retiring syndic would hand over to his successor the care of the documents of the corporation, the contracts of property, etc., and other titles such as that already granted to the syndic for the people in 1651, when forty arpents were given over to them for a "common."

In the year 1654 it would have been the syndic who received the grant made to the corporation by the governor on behalf of the Seigneurs of Montreal, of land for the new cemetery, given on the condition that if this changed its place, it should revert to the Seigneurs.

The little cemetery, in which for twelve years the first brave defenders of the Castle Dangerous of Montreal had been buried, had this year to be abandoned and the bodies removed to higher ground, for the constant floods of the St. Lawrence had sadly ill used the little palisaded God's acre at "the Point," or the corner of the junction of the rivulet St. Pierre and the main stream.

The "new cemetery," as it was called in the burial register on the date December 11, 1654, was placed on a portion of the ground belonging to the Hôtel-Dieu, bun above the latter, at a point today occupied by the southern portion of the Place d'Armes and the piazza steps of Notre Dame Church. It was at the head of what was the second street or tract called St. Joseph Street, and nowadays St. Sulpice, while at the bottom, at the southwest corner bounded by St. Paul Street, was the Hôtel-Dieu. This cemetery was used for the next twenty-four years.[74]

The expense of these changes was borne by the parishioners and not by the Company--another sign of the times. We know this, for the salaries paid are still to be seen in the original document in which it is recorded that Gilbert Barbier, the carpenter who erected the cross, gave the half of his salary as a contribution, to the church.

The church towards which Gilbert Barbier gave his donation was probably not the mission chapel which had been so long the centre of parish life and piety in the fort itself, but towards a new one that already, on June 29th of this year, had been determined on to be started as soon as possible owing to the increase of population from the reinforcement of 1653.

On this day, the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, the syndic had called a meeting of the habitants in the presence of the governor, when Jean Saint Père was elected by a majority of votes to act as the "receiver of alms," or treasurer for funds for a new church. He was to keep account of all sums given to him, with the names of the donors and should furnish a financial statement every three months to the governor. In addition it was ruled that all donations in grain, or in kind, subject to deterioration, should be sold by the treasurer to the highest bidder, provided that the auction should be publicly announced by a notice affixed to the fort gate three days in advance of the sale. Finally, the treasurer should hand over the sums received by him, when required, to the director of the church building to be erected by the citizens in the presence of the governor when there shall be need for such an appointment. Besides the private donations M. de Maisonneuve, as the administrator of justice, applied the court fines to the church fund.

But it was not till August 28, 1656, that the foundations of the new church were laid. In the meantime the people still worshiped in the fort chapel, now become too small for its increased population through the recent influx of the troops of soldiers and the women. It had many dear memories symbolized by the baptisms, marriages and deaths, and the feasts and festivals of the year. At its services the Jesuit missionaries, such as Isaac Jogues, Poncet, Buteaux and others, had officiated with mutilated limbs, a living instance of the ever brooding presence of the revengeful Iroquois.[75] In this little mission chapel many a prayer had gone forth for the relief which tardily came.

But it was too small and must give place to another--a real parish church, large, dignified and commodious, to meet the needs of the expanding corporation. The cherished decorations and the altar furniture and plate, which were gifts from rich friends in France, would still be a link between the old and the new, and thus its memory would be kept forever green.

The old chapel church still continued its work. It witnessed, on May 28th of the year following, 1654, the marriage of Charles Le Moyne with the adopted daughter of Antoine Primot and Martine Mercier, his wife, whom we know as the valiant and chaste Parmenda. This girl, Catherine Thierry, probably a niece of Madame Primot, had been brought as a child of one year to Montreal in 1642, and she was commonly known as Catherine Primot and was now fourteen years of age. This union begot the famous Le Moyne family. Their first home was on the arpent town lot near the hospital. On February 3rd the fort chapel witnessed the marriage of Jean Gervaise and Anne Archambault, who also reared one of the most numerous and honourable families of Montreal. This was the fourth marriage of the thirteen occurring this year.

The history of Anne Archambault gives us an insight into one of the few scandals of the time. This was Anne's second marriage, having been married before the church in Quebec in July, 1647, to a Michel Chauvin, dit Ste Suzanne who had been sent out by de la Dauversière to Montreal in the service of the Company in 1644.

In 1650 Louis Prud'homme, of whom we have made mention already, had on a voyage to France discovered that Chauvin had deserted his wife, and on returning to Montreal he had notified the authorities, so that on October 8, 1650, Chauvin acknowledged freely before Jean Saint Père, the official notary of justice, that some seven years before leaving France for Canada he had married Louise de Liles. He then hurriedly departed for Quebec and took the first boat back to France. Anne Archambault had one child by this scoundrel, born on April 5th following. To sympathize with her Jeanne Mance and M. Charles d'Ailleboust des Musseaux were the godparents.

To the great joy of the colony, Anne Archambault was honourably remarried on February 3, 1654, to Jean Gervaise, one of the recruits brought over by de Maisonneuve in the previous autumn. The esteem of the public was manifested to offset the unaccustomed scandal that had arisen in their midst. One child, Charlotte Chauvin, was reared by these two and for this purpose the governor gave special assistance on behalf of the Company. At this time there were also several orphans, children of soldiers that had died in battle with the Iroquois, and for these de Maisonneuve also provided.

Thus the spirit of fervour, charity and uprightness of morals was exercised in the life of this primitive church of the settlement. Sister Morin, in the Annals of the Hôtel-Dieu, writes of these early times: "Nothing was put under key in these days, neither the houses, chests, or cellars; everything was left open without anyone repenting of their trustfulness. Those who were in easy circumstances hastened to lend their assistance to others less fortunate, and gave it spontaneously without waiting to be called upon, making it a pleasure to forestall all needs and to give their marks of affection and esteem to one another."

The words of Longfellow, written so long after, of Grandpré, the home of Evangeline, might be well applied to Ville Marie at this date:

"Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their windows; But their dwellings were open as day, and the hearts of the owners. There the richest were poor, and the poorest lived in abundance."

FOOTNOTES:

[70] How many of those hired sailed for Montreal? An unedited list containing 102 names has lately been found in the archives of the Seminary of St. Sulpice at Montreal by Mr. C. O. Bertrand, and has been reproduced with notes by Mr. E. Z. Massicotte in the Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal for October, 1913 (Third Series, Vol. X). The original number of engagés, according to Faillon, taken from the notarial contracts before Maître Lafousse at La Flèche, was 154. But examination shows that, owing to several duplications, this must be reduced to 150. Before sailing at St. Nazaire only 103, according to Faillon, answered the call. But on the examination of Faillon's list, it is seen that the number was 102, which corresponds with the newly found list.

Marguerite Bourgeoys says that there were about 120 passengers, of whom 108 were "soldiers," as she calls the engagés. The Abbé de Belmont gives 105 soldiers. Mr. Massicotte, from a study of the contracts of marriages shortly after the arrival of the recruits of 1653 and other sources, supplies the eighteen missing members thus: A married woman, two single women, four men, M. de Maisonneuve, Marguerite Bourgeoys, and nine others who are mentioned by the latter as "quelques filles," who were brought for marriageable purposes.

Marguerite Bourgeoys mentions that eight were buried at sea. Of the 102 in the list mentioned above, Mr. Massicotte finds eleven names that never occur in any of the documents of the period at Montreal. Hence he concludes that their owners never reached Montreal and that therefore eight at least of them correspond to those that were buried in the ocean.

[71] For she was now thirty-three years of age, having been born on April 17, 1620, in the town of Troyes in Champagne. Her mother had died when Marguerite was still young, and early she developed that motherly thoughtfulness and mature judgment which fitted her later in the settlement for her matronly solicitude for soldiers and children of the fort at Montreal, as since her mother's death she had had the care of her father's children. He, too, had lately died and she was now free to follow a life of sacrifice.

[72] It was with the view of seeing the possibility of establishing such a branch that Madame de la Peltrie had delayed in Montreal till the spring of 1644.

[73] The simplicity of life in a pioneering settlement in New France less than a century later can be more readily understood if we but glance at the simple and severe customs prevailing in England previously to this. It is related of Queen Elizabeth that in the third year of her reign she received a present of knitted black silk stockings, an unheard of thing hitherto; in 1588 she appeared, in public, mounted on the crupper of her horse, behind her chamberlain, for it was after this date that carriages came into vogue.

[74] The act of November 28th by Père Pijart mentions only "cemeterio," that is the old cemetery at Pointe à Callières. The act of December 11th, however, has clear mention of the change to the new cemetery. "In novo hospitalis Domus cemeterio Franciscus Lachot sepultus a me Claudio Pijart, Societatis Jesu Sacerdote"--In the new cemetery of the hospital Francis Lachot was buried by me Claude Pijart, priest of the Society of Jesus.

[75] Most of the earliest Jesuits had served them at least in passing through, on their adventurous work of Christianizing the redskins of Canada; of such Bancroft, the historian, has said: "Not a cape was turned, not a river entered, but a Jesuit led the way."

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