Chapter XXXV
1721-1748
SIDE LIGHTS OF CIVIC PROGRESS
II
THE FIRE OF 1721--BUILDING REGULATIONS--STONE ENCOURAGED--TOWN EMBELLISHMENT--CITY PLANNING--THE FORTIFICATIONS--PEW RENTING--CHATEAU DE VAUDREUIL--TRADE WITH NEW ENGLAND FORBIDDEN--ILLICIT LIQUOR TRAFFIC--DEATHS OF DE RAMEZAY AND DE VAUDREUIL--EVEN NATURALIZED STRANGERS FORBIDDEN TO TRADE--DESCRIPTION OF INDIAN LIFE AT MONTREAL--MONTREAL IS FOLLOWED BY QUEBEC IN THE REFORM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES--VERENDRYE'S EXPEDITION FROM MONTREAL--RELIGIOUS ASYLUM FORBIDDEN--FIRST SAILING VESSEL OF LAKE SUPERIOR--THE "OUTRAGED CRUCIFIX"--SORCERY, MAGIC AND SACRILEGE--THE LEGEND OF THE RED CROSS--PUNISHMENT OF "BREAKING ALIVE" IN THE MARKET PLACE--CARE OF FOUNDLINGS--SULPICIANS FOUND LA PRESENTATION--SKATING IN THE STREETS; FAST DRIVING. NOTES: THE DISCOVERIES OF LA VERENDRYE--CHATEAU VAUDREUIL.
A disastrous fire having occurred on June 19, 1721, an ordonnance was prepared by Intendant Bégon, who was in Montreal, to regulate the reconstruction of the buildings. The preamble gives us an insight into the architectural construction of the town. "On the representation to us by Sieur de Léry, King's engineer, after the examination made by him, it has been noticed that the greater part of the houses were only of wood, or of framework, and roofed with carpentry, and this has increased the spread of the fire, and that like accidents so prejudicial to the inhabitants of the town, could be avoided to the further good of the town, by making the streets regular, for they are not large enough nor straight enough; that while this cannot be done without individuals suffering, yet at the present moment, seeing that there are only ruins in the streets, it would be easy for individuals, before rebuilding, to conform with the alignment which shall be drawn up by the Engineer, the following precautions should be observed...." The employment of stone is greatly encouraged. In the living part of the town only buildings of stone and of two stories should replace the burned ones.
This added to the beauty of the town and we are gratified to learn that the example of Montreal led the Intendant Claude Thomas Dupuy, on June 7, 1727, to issue an ordonnance for Quebec and the other towns, to take similar precautions against fire, adding that this would also be a means to beautify this town (embellir cette ville). A further ordonnance on fire prevention was issued by Gilles Hocquart, the intendant, when present in Montreal on July 12, 1724.
To the year 1722 we may attribute the beginning of work on the fortifications of Montreal under Chaussegros de Léry. Up to that date there had been much talk of building a worthy defence around the city, but still the old wooden palisading was continued. The truth is that the Montrealers ever have been sluggards in city planning; they have never taken a forward move until forced by a crisis. "Prevention being better than cure," never rose beyond a theory. The same tardiness has been shown in hygienic and sanitary and general civic improvement. The wars with the Indians had produced a brave race of Montrealers, so that they relied rather on their personal valour than on fortifications. In the moment of danger, the wisdom of having strong fortifications was felt by all, but the danger passed, they became forgetful and apathetic again. In 1693 the palisade built by de Callières was restored, and in 1709 de Longueuil had called a meeting in the Seminary Hall, "where," says the Engineer de Catalogue, "each one was given the liberty to speak out his mind; as there were no troups and few inhabitants, it was proposed to curtail the town by a fourth, by making a palisading at St. Francis Xavier Street, cutting down the fruit gardens of the Recollects (in the northwest) and others; but as I thought differently, I made them see that fifty men in the mill and granary of the Seigneurs were sufficient to defend this part and the more retrenchments and enclosures the enemy should find to force, the more obstacles he would find in forcing the rest of the town." Thus all things remained in the same state as before.
But other counsels prevailed in 1716 when the government determined to improve the fortifications and the Regent imposed on the town a contribution of 6,000 livres, of which 2,000 had to be paid by the Seigneurs and the rest by the religious communities and the inhabitants, without exception. The works, however, did not begin till 1722. The new walls of rough stone, ornamented with barbicans, were eighteen feet high, four feet thick at their base and three feet at the top. They presented thirteen bastions, four facing the St. Lawrence, four giving on the Little River, and the five others, which were armed with little pieces of artillery, faced three on the north, and two on the west. There were five gates and five posterns. The space enclosed was about 110 arpents (ninety-three acres). The fortifications were never completely finished. As intended by de Léry they might have been strong for he wrote to France on August 17, 1717, "I have determined to commence an inclosure capable to resist the artillery that the English might bring from Orange." Yet a French officer, quoted by Sandham, in "Montreal and Its Fortifications," as present in the city during Amherst's siege of Montreal in 1760, which was to end in the Capitulation, writes of the results as follows: "Montreal was in no way susceptible of a defense. It was surrounded with walls built with design only to preserve the inhabitants from the incursions of the Indians, little imagining at that time that it would become the theatre of a regular war and that one day they would see formidable armies of well disciplined troops before its walls. We were, however, all pent up in that miserable bad place without provisions, a thousand times worse than a position in an open field, whose pitiful walls could not resist two hours' cannonade without being leveled to the ground, when we would have been forced to surrender at discretion if the English had insisted upon it."[174]
The extent of the paternal supervision of France, over what we should consider trifles, is shown in a royal decree of June 9, 1723, on the subject of the renting of pews in the churches, to the following effect: that widows, remaining such, shall enjoy those pews granted to their husbands by paying the same rent; that with regard to children, whose father and mother are dead, their seats shall be put up for auction, and given to the highest bidder, but they shall have the preference, if they pay the same price as that offered by the last bidder.
In 1723, de Vaudreuil commenced the building of his Château.
In 1724 the King found it necessary by a decree of May 22d to prohibit peltry being conveyed into New England or the returning from there with merchandise. As Montreal was evidently the recognized business point of distribution, whence the trouble had arisen, the King ordered all who should have permission from the Governor General or his representative to cross the frontier, to declare at Montreal the quantity and quality of the effects taken, making a similar declaration on their return.
Students watching the progress of the liquor traffic will not be surprised at the skillful adroitness of illicit traders, in evading detection. An edict of de Vaudreuil and Intendant Bégon of May 22, 1725, ordered all those who possessed birch bark canoes to make a declaration of them to the nearest greffe (record office) within a fortnight of the publication. The object was to frustrate illicit traders who made use of the light weight of these canoes to carry liquor into the woods and then to hide there and thence distribute the liquor without arousing the attention of the authorities. The canoe was also doubtless to be watched as a means of illicit trade in furs. No less a person than the lieutenant-general of the government of Montreal, Sieur François Marie Bouat, was condemned in 1719, to a month's imprisonment, and was suspended from his office, for having sent a canoe up-country for trading purposes. The deliberations of the court martial are dated October 18, 1719. The suspension was raised by the King on June 2, 1720.
The year 1724 saw the death of the governor of Montreal, Claude de Ramezay, who was succeeded by Charles LeMoyne, first Baron of Longueuil.
On October 25, 1725, the Governor General de Vaudreuil also died. He was succeeded as administrator by the Baron of Longueuil. In 1726 the Marquis de Beauharnois became Governor General and Thomas Claude Dupuy Intendant, his first act being signed on December 1st of the same year.
In 1727, a special edict concerning commerce with outsiders was issued by the King.[175] Title VI enacts that "strangers established in Our Colonies, even naturalized, cannot be merchants, brokers or commercial agents under any form, on a penalty of 3,000 livres, applicable to the denounceand of perpetual banishment from Our Colonies. We permit them only to make use of their lands and dwellings, and to trade only in provisions which come from their lands. We forbid all merchants and traders established in old said Colonies to have any clerk, assistant, bookkeeper or other persons engaged in their business who are strangers, although they may be naturalized...."
Clearly the modern cosmopolitan character of Montreal was not foreseen.
A decree of the Sovereign Council of February 16, 1682, had already been made, forbidding the transportation by habitants or others of peltries to Manhattan or Orange or other places, and back, under pain of confiscation of their peltry, money, attire, canoes and other effects seized on their departure or return. This was promulgated at Montreal by Sergeant Lorry about March 8th of the same year.
A letter of 1730,[176] giving a description of Indian dress, love making, feasts, burials, fills in the picture of this period and keeps us in touch with the Indian population of Montreal and its district.
"Would you like to learn how they dress--how they marry--how they are buried? First you must know that several tribes go completely naked and wear but the fig leaf. In Montreal you may meet many stately and well proportioned savages, walking about in a state of nudity, as proud in their bearing as if they wore good clothes. Some have on a shirt only; others have a covering negligently thrown over one shoulder.
"Christianized Indians are differently habited. The Iroquois put the shirt over their wearing apparel, and over the shirt another raiment which encloses a portion of the head, which is always bare. The men generally wear garments over their shirts; the latter, when new, is generally very white, but is used until it gets perfectly dark and disgustingly greasy. They sometimes shave a portion of their head, or else they comb one-half of their hair back, the other half front. They occasionally tie up a tuft of hair very tight on the top of the head, so as to look like a plume on a horse's head, rising towards the skies. At other times, some allow a long tress of hair to fall over their face: it interferes with their eating, but that has to be put up with. They smear their ears with a white substance or their face with blue, vermillion, black. They are more elaborate in their war-toilet--lavish of paint--than a coquette would be in dressing,--so that they may conceal the paleness which fear might engender. They are profuse of gold and silver brocade, porcelain necklaces, bracelets of beads--the women, especially in their youth. This is their jewelry, their diamonds, the value whereof sometimes reach 1,000 francs. The Abenakis enclose their heads in a small cap embroidered with beads or ornamented with brocade. They wrap their legs in leggings with a fringe three or four inches long. Their shoes consist of socks, with plaits around the toe, covering the foot. All this has its charm in their eyes: they are as vain of dress as any Frenchman.
"The pagan tribe, whenever any love is felt, marry without any ceremonial. The pair will discover whether they love one another in silence--Indian-like. One of the caresses consists in throwing the loved one a small pebble, or grains of Indian corn, or else some other object which cannot hurt. The swain, on throwing the pebble, is bound to look in the opposite direction, to make believe he did not do it. Should the adored one return it, matters look well, else the game is up.
"The Christianized Indians are married before the church, without contract of marriage and without stipulations, because an Indian cannot hold real estate and cannot bequeath to his children. The wealthiest is the mightiest hunter. This favored individual in his village passes for a grand match.
"Bravery and great warriors they think much of--they constitute them their chiefs. Poverty is no disgrace at the council board, and an orator in rags will speak out as boldly, as successfully, as if he were decked out in gold cloth. They come thus badly habited in the presence of the governor, indulge in long harangues and touch his hand fearlessly. When ladies are present at these interviews, they honour them thus--seize their hand and shake it in token of friendship. Before I was a nun, I was present at some of these ceremonies and, having won their good opinion, they would extend to me a hand which was disgusting in the extreme, but which I had cheerfully to accept for fear of offending them. They are sometimes asked to dine at the governor's table. Unlucky are their neighbours, especially when they happen to be ladies,--they are so filthy in their persons."[177]
Gilles Hocquart no doubt struck terror into the hearts of some of the defaulters at Montreal on July 22, 1730, when he ordered all the merchants and other business men without exception to repair immediately to the Governor of Montreal to have their weights and measures reformed, verified, sealed and marked with the fleur de lis. Although there had been legislation before, still complaints had been brought to him that there was wanting uniformity in the city on this hand, some giving too short measure and others, strangely, too long. Two years later, on August 9, 1732, Hocquart did the same good turn for Quebec. In business methods Montrealers like to be pioneers and it is to be noticed that the preamble of this ordonnance Hocquart gives as a reason for the new move, the success at Montreal, "ainsi que nous l'avons pratiqué pour la ville de Montréal."
In 1731 Montreal traders sent out the Chevalier Varennes de la Vérendrye to hunt, trade and to find the Pacific. In 1735 he built Fort Rouge, on the site of the City of Winnipeg and in 1743 he and his sons were the first white men to see the Rocky Mountains.
A decree of February 19, 1732, strikes a blow at the system of religious asylum being granted to fugitives from justice. "We forbid all curés, ecclesiastics, and secular and regular communities of either sex, harbouring or giving asylum to all deserters, vagabonds and persons charged with crimes, under penalty of loss of our favour, and of the seizure of their property and of deprivation of their privileges."
About 1736 the first sailing vessel on Lake Superior was constructed and furnished through Montreal commercial enterprise.[178]
In a letter, dated October 22, 1730, it is mentioned that Governor Beauharnois had that spring sent orders to the officer commanding Chouamigon (La Plante) to make an examination of the copper mine alleged to have been discovered in the vicinity. Nothing very satisfactory eventuated. The Sieur Denys de la Ronde, who succeeded as commandant, had faith, however, in the mines and had obtained a concession to work copper mines at Lake Superior. In 1736, a son of de la Ronde, visited an isle in search of copper. De la Ronde, the father, in 1740, on his way to La Pointe, was taken sick at Mackinac and returned to Montreal, but he did not despair of finding valuable copper mines. The colonial officers, in a dispatch, wrote as to de la Ronde, that "this officer has been ordered with his son to build at the River Ste. Anne, a house of logs 200 feet long, with a fort and curtain, which he assures us he has executed. He has had other expenses on account of the mines, such as the voyage and presents for the Indians. He has constructed, at his own expense, a bark of forty tons on Lake Superior, and was obliged to transport the rigging and materials for the vessel as far as Sault Ste. Marie in canoes. The post of Chouamigon was given to him as gratuity to defray expenses. A merchant of Montreal, named Charley St. Ange, furnished de la Ronde with goods, and miners named Forestier were employed in prospecting."
To the date of 1742 belong the following sidelight of the methods of execution of justice:
"Under the title of 'The Outraged Crucifix,' in the 'Choses et Autres,' of M. Faucher de St. Maurice, an interesting historical sidelight is given of the first half of the eighteenth century, of a charge of sorcery, magic and sacrilege in Montreal against a soldier named Flavart de Beaufort, then belonging to the garrison. He was a "farceur," who had only wished to amuse himself at the expense of the credulity of the poor. But as the good Montrealers of the period did not suffer any ridicule of holy things, the affair had a tragic ending.
"On August 27, 1742, the King's procurator brought him in guilty under the three heads of accusation,--sorcery, magic, and sacrilege,--and demanded that in fitting reparation Charles François Flavart de Beaufort should be condemned "in his shirt, the rope round his neck, holding between his hands a torch of burning wax of the weight of two pounds, bare-headed and on his knees, before the great door and the principal entrance of the parish church of this town, on the first day of the market, to say and to declare aloud and intelligibly, that wickedly and ill advised he had profaned the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ Crucified for the purposes of divination ... and moreover he is condemned to be beaten and whipped with rods, through the squares and public thoroughfare of this town and to be banished from the boundaries of this jurisdiction for three years and be held to keep his ban.
"On the 30th these conclusions were ratified by the judgment of the court of Montreal, which further added that "Flavart de Beaufort should be conducted by the hangman, the 'executeur de haute justice,' bearing the inscription in front and behind--'Profaner of Holy things,'--This done, we have condemned him to serve as a convict in the galleys of the King for the space of five years.
"(Signed) Guiton de Monrepos."
Flavart, however, appealed against this sentence to the sovereign council at Quebec, which but confirmed the above sentence, remitting, however, two years from his services in the galleys. The above sentence was carried out as a certificate bears out, dated Friday, October 5, 1742, and signed by M. Fr. Daine, councillor, and M. Porlier, greffier.
The incident left a lasting impression, for the clergy was shocked at the sacrilege. By a mandement of September 10, 1742, the bishop, Monseigneur de Pont Briand, ordered an amende honorable and a procession from the parish church to that of Bonsecours. Two years later, having obtained the cross from the authorities, the bishop instituted the feast of the Outraged Crucifix. This was to be celebrated the first Friday in March, each year; and in 1804 Monseigneur du Plessis changed the day to the first day of October, attaching to this a day of plenary indulgence, obtained by a papal brief, dated March 28, 1802.
The legend of The Red Cross, illustrating further the methods of civil punishment of this period, may be here told. Over one hundred and fifty years ago, this part of the island, from the summit of the mountain to the pebbly shore of the St. Lawrence, was a thickly wooded forest. Where Dorchester Street exists today, there was then a narrow path, beaten by the feet of the passers-by from Lachine, St. Laurent and the environs. It bore, however, the high sounding title of: "The King's Highway." Here and there, at irregular distances, a few farms bordered the simple thoroughfare. At the point where today Guy Street crosses Dorchester lived an honest farmer, Jean Favre and his wife, Marie-Anne Bastien. Being an industrious couple, they were supposed to have realized a good sum from the produce of their prosperous farm, which sum, in all probability, they hoarded away in some corner of their dwelling. In the same spot where now stand the iron gates, which open on the avenue going up to the Convent Church, was a small house occupied by a petty farmer, named Belisle. The demon of covetousness had taken hold of his soul and the unfortunate man brooding constantly over his neighbour's supposed wealth, resolved to become its possessor.
The month of May, 1752, had again decked nature in its garb of green. The sun, his daily course over, had sunk behind the mountain and the last echoes of the evening Angelus bell had ceased to vibrate on the air. Peace and security seemed to reign throughout the colony, as the shades of night crept over the island, lulling its inhabitants to slumber and to rest.
Alas! an unholy shadow lured on by the evil one, glided through the darkness, with the tread of the panther to seize its prey, and drew near the dwelling of Favre. Suspecting no ill, the honest man sat quietly smoking near the hearth, from whence a brisk fire cast a mellow light through the room, showing the table, with its two covers set for the evening meal. Finally rising, the farmer took from his pocket a key with which he opened a cupboard near at hand,--drew forth a small well filled sack and added to its contents the proceeds of the day's sale. Through the open shutter, from outside, the wretched Belisle, with glaring eyes, watched every movement of Favre, while his hands kept spasmodically clutching the knife he held. Wresting from his bosom the pistol, hid therein, he burst, like a wild beast, into the dwelling and fired at the old man, then finished him with the knife. The wife, terrified by the unusual noise, rushed in from an adjoining room and was at once attacked by the murderer, who plunged the knife repeatedly into her breast, and then crushed in her skull with the blow of a spade which he found near by. Side by side lay the unfortunate husband and wife, victims of man's cupidity. For a moment the murderer contemplated his work, then, like another Cain, he fled from the spot, haunted by the dread spectre of the "Lex talionis."
The absence of the old couple gave rise to surmises. Search was made and the horrible crime discovered. Suspicion rested on Belisle, who was soon after arrested, tried and convicted. The following copy of the "Réquisitoire du Procureur du Roi," dated 6th June, 1752, shows that the terrible punishment of "breaking alive" was then in force under the French régime in Canada. Belisle was condemned to "torture ordinary and extraordinary," then to be broken alive on a scaffold erected in the market place (the present Custom House Square) in this city.
This awful sentence was carried out to the letter, his body buried in Guy Street,[179] and the Red Cross erected to mark the spot, as fully described in the following document historically valuable:--
Extract from the Requisition of the King's Attorney
"I require for the King that Jean Baptiste Goyer dit Belisle be arraigned and convicted of having wilfully and feloniously killed the said Jean Favre by a pistol shot and several stabs with a knife, and of having similarly killed the said Marie-Anne Bastien, wife of the said Favre, with a spade and a knife; and of having stolen the money that was in their house; for punishment of which that he be condemned to have his arms, legs, thighs and backbone broken at noon, he alive, on a scaffold which shall be erected for that purpose in the market place of this city: then, on a rack, his face turned towards the sky, he be left to die. The said Jean Baptiste Goyer dit Belisle, being previously put to the torture ordinary and extraordinary, his dead body shall be carried by the executioner to the highway which lies between the house lately occupied by the said accused and the house lately occupied by the said Jean Favre and his wife. The goods and chattels of the said Jean Baptiste Goyer dit Belisle confiscated to the king, or for the benefit of those who may have a right to them, or of those not liable to confiscation, the sum of 300 livres fine being previously set apart, in case that confiscation could not be made for the benefit of His Majesty.
"Done at Montreal this 6th June, 1752.
"(Signed) Foucher."
An ordonnance with respect to the care of the foundlings of Montreal was issued by Intendant Hocquart on March 12, 1748. It allows us to see how the government undertook the preliminary cost of child rearing by providing nurses for the first eighteen months; after that the children should be "hired out" to good habitants of town or country until the age of eighteen to twenty years. Hocquart notices with surprise that of the bastards, who survived the first eighteen months, there were four born in 1743, six in 1744, ten in 1745, who are still being cared for in 1748 at the expense of the King; they were to be soon "hired;" and the Sieur Foucher, then procureur du roi, who seems to have been responsible for the great delay, is informed that if the like occurs again he will have to pay out of his own purse the expense incurred during the long time intervening.
Students following the story of explorations from Montreal will find that in September, 1748, a Sulpician, M. l'Abbé Picquet, began a fort at La Présentation (Ogdensburg). He is to be found early in the summer of 1751 with six Canadians and five Indians, beginning the circuit of Lake Ontario. On June 26th he reached Toronto, where he found a band of Messessagas. On June 28th he reached Niagara and on July 12th the mouth of the Genessee, where he visited the falls.
Two of Intendant Bigot's[180] earliest ordonnances are of interest in that the first, issued on December 24, 1748, evidently in view of the Christmas and New Year season, forbids sliding or skating on the streets, which, "it has come to our knowledge," is practiced by children and even grown-ups; the reason alleged being danger to the passers by, who are not able to get out of the way quick enough; children who are caught will be put into prison until their parents or guardians have paid the fine of 10 livres. The second is leveled against fast drivers, who are to be fined 20 livres for galloping their horses in the street. This is dated December 28th. These, however, mostly concerned Quebec, as far as we know, but probably similar regulations were needed at Montreal.
NOTE I
THE DISCOVERIES OF LA VERENDRYE
Sieur Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de la Vérendrye was born in Three Rivers, the home of Radisson, in 1686. He was the son of René Gaultier de Varennes and Marie Boucher, daughter of the governor of Three Rivers, who was married as a young girl of twelve years on September 12, 1667. At the age of fourteen he, too, determined to be a discoverer. At eighteen he was fighting in New England, at nineteen in Newfoundland and at twenty-three in Europe at the battle of Malplaquet, where he was carried off the field with nine wounds. In his twenty-ninth year he returned to Canada and was relegated to the obscure fur posts in the north, eating his heart out till between 1728-1730 at Nepigon, a lonely post north of Michilimackinac. He heard of a "great river flowing west." Perhaps this was the great western sea which Russia and France both wished to secure. Accordingly he descended to Quebec and in the winter of 1730-1731 he placed his dreams of discovery before the Governor, the Marquis Charles de Beauharnois. He obtained the government prestige and patronage and a monopoly of the fur trade in the countries he might discover.
He turned to Montreal traders for the goods to trade and a company was formed. On June 8, 1731, he left Montreal with his three sons, Jean Pierre, François and Louis, the eldest only being eighteen years of age, among the band of fifty adventurers, coureurs de bois, voyageurs and Indian interpreters, to discover the fabled western sea and so acquire great glory and probably wealth. He reached familiar ground at Michilimackinac and then after seventy-eight days from Montreal he touched Kaministiquia after a month's coasting from the Straits of Mackinaw. As he went onward he established fur posts and sent east cargoes of furs but not enough for his partners so that in the winter of 1734-35 Vérendrye was back in Montreal, leaving his party up-country. He managed to get credit and back he went with the Jesuit Aulneau to his search. Little fur could he send to redeem his debts. Instead he was to meet misfortune in the loss of his eldest son, Jean, the Jesuit Aulneau, and a party of voyageurs who were treacherously slaughtered by the Sioux on Massacre Island on the night of June 8, 1736, five years after most of the party had left Montreal. In September, 1738, Vérendrye entered, the first white man, the Red River for the forks of the Assiniboine. But he found not the western sea but the great western Canadian prairie lands. On December 3, 1738, he entered the village of the Indians. There he learned vaguely of a people in the west who lived on the shores of water bitter for drinking. After that his sons went on courageously for the western sea, while he went back to Montreal for supplies and to contest the lawsuits of his partners who had seized all his posts and properties to meet his creditors. But his sons found only a sea of prairie, a sea of mountains and two great rivers, the Saskatchewan and the Missouri, and reached the foothills of the northern Rockies on New Year's Day, in 1743. At the end of July they were back again at the Assiniboine River.
Vérendrye had failed as a trader; moreover he was the object of the jealousy of the traders who wrongfully accused him of private speculation and who now desired to exploit the trade of the trail he had blazed along the Assiniboine and the Missouri. The ruined man was recalled to Quebec in 1746 and M. de Noyelles was given his command. Governors Beauharnois and de la Galissonière were believers in his honesty. He was decorated with the Order of the Cross of St. Louis and given permission to continue his explorations. His constitution was broken and on December 6, 1749, while preparing for a further quest, he died suddenly at Montreal. But he had opened the door to the west, leaving it to another fur trader of Montreal, Alexander Mackenzie, to be the first to cross the Rockies and to reach, by land, on July 22, 1793, the Pacific Ocean--the western sea, the dream of Cartier, LaSalle and Vérendrye at last come true!
NOTE II
CHATEAU VAUDREUIL
The Château de Vaudreuil was commenced in 1723, as it appears from the following inscription, found May 15, 1806, under the foundation stone at the southwest angle.
Cetter pierre. a. esté posée par Dame Louise Elizabeth. Jouabere. femme. du haut. et. puissent, seigneur, Philippe. de Rigaud Chevalier. Marquis. de Vaudreuil. grand Croix. de l'ordre militaire, de St. Louis Gouverneur et lieutenant, general pour le roy. de toute. la nouvelle France Septentrionale En 1723 le 15 May. Sept Maison appartien à Monsieur le Marquis de Vaudreuil.
The Château Vaudreuil or Hôtel de Vaudreuil occupied with its ground, acquired in 1721, a large tract of land between St. Paul Street and Notre-Dame and included what is now known as Jacques Cartier Square. After the cession in 1763, on April 12th, the son of the builder, the Marquis Pierre de Rigaud, and his lady, then living at Paris in their hotel, Rue de Deux Boulles, sold the estate to Messire Michel Chartier, Chevalier et Seigneur de Lothbinière, ordinarily dwelling in the town of Quebec, Canada, but being at present in Paris. In 1771 M. de Lothbinière sold the Château Vaudreuil to M. Joseph Fleury Deschambault de la Gorgendière. In 1773 the latter sold it on July 26th to the church wardens of the parish of Notre-Dame, for the establishment of a colony. The building was opened as a school on the following October 1st under the name of Collège de St. Raphael. This was the continuation of a college founded about 1767 in the priests' house at Longue Pointe by a priest of St. Sulpice, J. B. Curatteau de la Blaiserie. St. Raphael's College remained here till June 6, 1803, when it was reduced to ashes. It was then transferred to College Street in 1804, being rebuilt at the expense of the Seminary of St. Sulpice. In 1806, on October 20th, it was opened under the name of the Collège ou Petit Séminaire de Montréal.
On December 14, 1803, the Vaudreuil estate with the ruined college and its dependencies was sold by the church wardens to two merchants, MM. Jean Baptiste Durocher and Joseph Périnault, for a sum of 3,000 guineas. During the month of December, 1803, these divided their land as well as that which they had bought from the seminary, as follows:
1. They have left for the public use a place named the New Market, 172 French feet in breadth on Notre-Dame Street and 175 on St. Paul Street, without comprising St. Charles Street, which terminated this market on the northeast and that of "La Fabrique," which terminated it at the southwest. The said place extending in length from Notre Dame Street to St. Paul Street, a distance of about 388 feet.
2. The rest of the land on the southwest of the market and Fabrique Street was divided into eight holdings and sold to eight persons on December 26th and 27th.
FOOTNOTES:
[174] The work of demolition of the useless fortifications began in 1804 to make room for local expansion.
[175] The Marquis de Beauharnois became governor-general in 1726, holding the post till 1747. In dealing with his government and that of his successors, till the Seven Years' War, we shall pursue the chronological method as before.
[176] From a MSS. Letter of Soeur Ste. Hélène--1730.
[177] Translated from the "Revue Canadienne" for February, 1876, pp. 108-9.
[178] The first ship built in Canada to sail the inland waters was that built by a Montrealer, Sieur de la Salle, in 1667, when, with his ship carpenters from France, he constructed the Griffon on Lake Erie, near Niagara, to explore the waters of the west.
[179] The exigencies of the time requiring the highway to be widened, the Red Cross was removed inside the fence, on property belonging to the Seminary St. Sulpice, to which land it gave its name.
When the Grey Nuns, in 1869, became, in turn, proprietors of the land, which they purchased from St. Sulpice, in order to erect thereon the new convent, the Sisters had the Red Cross raised, about 1870, on a mound, within their grounds. It occupies a pretty spot inside the enclosure, where Dorchester and Guy streets meet, and from its elevated position can be partly seen by persons passing outside.
[180] François Bigot was commissioned on January 1, 1748; he arrived at Quebec on August 25th.
Chapter XXXVI
1749-1755
SIDELIGHTS OF CIVIC PROGRESS
III
PETER KALM--THE FIRST SWEDES IN MONTREAL--THE FRENCH WOMEN CONTRASTED WITH THOSE OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES--DOMESTIC ECONOMY--THE MEN EXTREMELY CIVIL--MECHANICAL TRADES BACKWARD--WATCHMAKERS--THE TREATY OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE CELEBRATED--PAPER MONEY--WAGES--PEN PICTURE OF MONTREAL IN 1749--ITS BUILDINGS AND THEIR PURPOSES--FRIDAY, MARKET DAY--THERMOMETRICAL AND CLIMATIC OBSERVATIONS--NATURAL HISTORY CULTIVATED--MONTREAL THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE INDIAN TRADE--THE GOODS FOR BARTER--THE LADIES MORE POLISHED AND VOLATILE AT QUEBEC BUT MORE MODEST AND INDUSTRIOUS AT MONTREAL--ECONOMIC FACTS--WINE AND SPRUCE BEER--PRICES AND COST OF LIVING--CONSENTS TO MARRIAGE--SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC CUSTOMS--FRANQUET'S JOURNEY FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL BY RIVER, FIVE DAYS--POUCHOT'S APPRECIATIONS OF CANADIANS--THE TRADE SYSTEM OF THE COUNTRY--GOVERNMENTAL MAGAZINES AND UP-COUNTRY FORTS--PRIVATE TRADE AT THE POSTS--ITINERANT PEDDLERS. NOTE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARISH CHURCH.
For a final picture of Montreal life in the closing years before the Seven Years' War, which ended in the capitulation of the city, we may rely on a visitor's account.
In the year 1749 Peter Kalm, a professor of economy in the University of Aobo in Swedish Finland, and a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, was in Canada and visited Montreal. He had also in the preceding years been in the English states, and he afterwards published his "Travels into North America," containing its natural history, with the civil, ecclesiastical and commercial state of the country, the manners of the inhabitants and several curious and important remarks on various subjects. This work was translated into English by John Reinhold Forster, F. A. S., and printed in 1771, from which little known work we quote.
On July 24th on his arrival at Montreal he was met at the gate of the town by a great crowd of people, anxious to see the Swedes. "We were assured we were the first Swedes that ever came to Montreal." He was most courteously received by Baron de Longueuil, then vice governor, but daily expecting his promotion from France.[181]
"The difference," he remarks, "between the manner and customs of the French in Montreal and Canada, and those of the English in the American Colonies, is as great as that between the manners of those two nations in Europe. The women in general are handsome here; they are well bred, and virtuous with an innocent and becoming freedom. They dress out very fine on Sundays, and though on the other days they do not take much pains with other parts of their dress, yet they are very fond of adorning their heads, the hair of which is always curled and powdered, and ornamented with glittering bodkins and aigrettes. Every day but Sunday they wear a little neat jacket, and a short petticoat which hardly reaches half the leg, and in this particular they seem to imitate the Indian women. The heels of their shoes are high, and very narrow, and it is surprising how they walk on them.
"In their knowledge of economy, they greatly surpass the English women in the plantations, who indeed have taken the liberty of throwing all the burthen of housekeeping upon their husbands and sit in their chairs all day with folded arms. The women in Canada on the contrary do not spare themselves, especially among the common people, where they are always in the fields, meadows, stables, etc., and do not dislike any work whatsoever. However, they seem rather remiss in regard to the cleaning of the utensils and apartments; for sometimes the floors, both in the town and country, were hardly cleaned once in six months, which is a disagreeable sight to one who comes from amongst the Dutch and English, where the constant scouring and scrubbing of the floors is reckoned as important as the exercise of religion itself. To prevent the thick dust which is thus left on the floor, from being noxious to the health, the women wet it several times a day, which renders it more consistent; repeating the aspersion as often as the dust is dry and rises again. Upon the whole, however, they are not averse to the taking a part in all the business of housekeeping; and I have with pleasure seen the daughters of the better sort of people, and of the governor himself, not too finely dressed, and going into kitchens and cellars, to look that everything be done as it ought.
"The men are extremely civil and take their hats off to every person indifferently whom they meet on the streets. It is customary to return a visit the day after you have received one; though one should have some scores to pay in one day." After some digressions on the natural history of the country, he continues: "Mechanics, such as architecture, cabinet making, turning and the like, were not as yet so forward here as this ought to be; and the English in that respect outdo the French. The chief cause of this is that scarce any other people than dismissed soldiers come to settle here, who have not had any opportunity of learning a mechanical trade but have sometimes accidentally and through necessity been obliged to turn to it. There are, however, some who have a good notion of mechanics, and I saw a person here who made very good clocks, and watches, though he had but very little instruction."
M. Benjamin Sulte on this remarks: "A few years before the conquest there was a Canadian named Dubois, a carpenter by trade, residing in Montreal. I believe he was the man alluded to by Kalm. Dubois, having been asked on several occasions to repair and regulate timepieces belonging to people who had procured them from France, readily perceived that he could understand their mechanism and he soon went into that business on an extensive scale. His name became famous all around the island and his customers increased considerably. Most of the tools required for the art he had thus adopted were not to be obtained in Canada, but his imaginative power was great and he made them himself without much trouble. It is said that he even invented new models for clocks and introduced many clever improvements, which were looked upon in those days as really marvelous."
Another Canadian, called Champagne, also a carpenter of Montreal, closely followed Dubois' steps. His remarkable skill often attracted the attention of men of high class. He seems to have been gifted with indomitable energy. One day, M. Brassier, a priest of St. Sulpice congregation, described to him some of the beautiful clocks he had seen while living in France (before 1745), especially those ornamented with carillons (chimes), sounding the hours and other fractions of time. Champagne dreamed over this and finally set to work. The result was an elaborate and astonishing mechanism, to which the whole of Montreal paid a tribute of admiration. (See "Le Spectateur," Montreal, 16 September, 1813.) Champagne died about the year 1790.
In an entry on July 27th, Kalm alludes probably to the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, proclaimed on October 8, 1748: "The peace, which was concluded between France and England, was proclaimed this day. The soldiers were under arms, the artillery on the walls was fired off, and some salutes were given by the small fire-arms. All night some fireworks were exhibited and the whole town was illuminated. All the streets were crowded with people till late at night. The governor invited me to supper and to partake of the joy of the inhabitants. There were present a number of officers and persons of distinction; and the festival concluded with the greatest joy."
On July 28th Kalm went with the governor, now Charles Le Moyne, 2d Baron de Longueuil, to a little island named Magdalene, "which is his own property." For August 1st he remarks that the governor general, though commonly residing in Quebec, so as to be near the ships arriving in summer, spent the winter in Montreal. "The Governor de la Galissonière[182] is said to like Montreal better than Quebec, and indeed the situation of the former is by far the more agreeable one."
Kalm adds to our knowledge some notes to explain the practice at this period of the card money already recorded as instituted by de Meulles.
"They have in Canada," he recites, "scarce any other but paper money. I hardly ever saw any coin, except French sols, consisting of brass, with a very small mixture of silver; they were quite thin by constant circulation, and were valued at a sol and a half. The bills are not printed, but written. Their origin is as follows: The French king having found it very dangerous to send money for the pay of the troops, and other purposes, over to Canada, on account of privateers, shipwrecks, and other accidents; he ordered that instead of it the intendant, or king's steward, at Quebec, or the commissary at Montreal, is to write bills for the value of the sums which are due to the troops, and which he distributes to each soldier. On these bills is inscribed, that they bear the value of such or such a sum, till next October; and they are signed by the intendant, or the commissary; and in the interval they bear the value of money. In the month of October, at a certain stated time, every one brings the bills in his possession to the intendant at Quebec, or the commissary at Montreal, who exchanges them for bills of exchange upon France, which are paid there in lawful money, at the king's exchequer, as soon as they are presented. If the money is not yet wanted, the bill may be kept till next October, when it may be exchanged by one of those gentlemen, for a bill upon France. The paper money can only be delivered in October, and exchanged for bills upon France. They are of different values, and some do not exceed a livre, and perhaps some are still less. Towards autumn when the merchants' ships come in from France, the merchants endeavor to get as many bills as they can and change them for bills upon the French treasury. These bills are partly printed, spaces being left for the name, sum, etc. But the first bill, or paper currency is all wrote, and is therefore subject to be counterfeited, which has sometimes been done, but the great punishments, which have been inflicted upon the authors of these forged bills, and which generally are capital, have deterred people from attempting it again; so that examples of this kind are very scarce at present. As there is a great want of small coin here, the buyers, or sellers, were frequently obliged to suffer a small loss, and could pay no intermediate prices between one livre and two."
The wages given could not fail to interest this student of affairs. "They commonly give one hundred and fifty livres a year to a faithful and diligent footman, and to a maid-servant of the same character, one hundred livres. A journeyman to an artist gets three or four livres a day, and a common labouring man gets thirty or forty sols a day. The scarcity of labouring people occasions the wages to be so high; for almost everybody finds it so easy to set up as a farmer in this uncultivated country, where he can live well, and at a small expense, that he does not care to serve and work for others."
We have given pen pictures of Montreal at various periods. Here is Kalm's for 1749: "Montreal is the second town in Canada, in regard to size and wealth; but it is the first on account of its fine situation and mild climate. Somewhat above the town, the river St. Lawrence divides into several branches, and by that means forms several islands, among which the Isle of Montreal is the greatest. It is ten French miles long, and near four broad, in its broadest part. The town of Montreal is built on the eastern side of the island, and close to one of the most considerable branches of the river St. Lawrence; and thus it receives a very pleasant and advantageous situation. The town has a quadrangular form, or rather it is a rectangular parallelogram, the long and eastern side of which extends along the great branch of the river. On the other side it is surrounded with excellent corn-fields, charming meadows, and delightful woods. It has got the name of Montreal from a great mountain, about half a mile westwards of the town, and lifting its head far above the woods. Mons. Cartier, one of the first Frenchmen who surveyed Canada more accurately, called this mountain, on his arrival in this island, in the year 1535, when he visited the mountain, and the Indian town Hochelaga near it. The priests who, according to the Roman Catholic way, would call every place in this country after some saint or other, called Montreal, Ville Marie, but they have not been able to make this name general, for it has always kept its first name.
"It is pretty well fortified, and surrounded with a high and thick wall. On the east side it has the river St. Lawrence, and on all the other sides a deep ditch filled with water, which secures the inhabitants against all danger from the sudden incursions of the enemy's troops. However, it cannot long stand a regular siege, because it requires a great garrison, on account of its extent; and because it consists chiefly of wooden houses. Here are several churches, of which I shall only mention that belonging to the friars of the order of St. Sulpitius, that of the Jesuits, that of the Franciscan friars, that belonging to the nunnery, and that of the hospital, of which the first is, however, by far the finest, both in regard to its outward and inward ornaments, not only in this place, but in all Canada. The priests of the Seminary of St. Sulpitius have a fine, large house, where they live together. The college of the Franciscan friars is likewise spacious, and has good walls, but it is not so magnificent as the former. The college of the Jesuits is small, but well built. To each of these three buildings are annexed fine large gardens, for the amusement, health and use of the communities to which they belong.
"Some of the houses in the town are built of stone, but most of them are of timber, though very neatly built. Each of the better sort of houses has a door towards the street, with a seat on each side of it, for amusement and recreation in the morning and evening. The long streets are broad and strait, and divided at right angles by the short ones; some are paved, but most of them very uneven. The gates of the town are numerous; on the east side of the town towards the river are five, two great and three lesser ones; and on the other side are likewise several. The governor general of Canada, when he is at Montreal, resides in the castle, which the government hires for that purpose of the family of Vaudreuil; but the governor of Montreal is obliged to buy or hire a house in town; though I was told that the government contributed towards paying the rents.
"In the town is a nunnery, and without its walls half a one;[183] for though the last was quite ready, however, it had not yet been confirmed by the pope. In the first they do not receive every girl that offers herself; for their parents must pay about five hundred écus, or crowns, for them. Some indeed are admitted for three hundred écus, but they are obliged to serve those who pay more than they. No poor girls are taken in.
"The king has erected a hospital for sick soldiers here. The sick person there is provided with everything he wants, and the king pays twelve sols every day for his stay, attendance, etc. The surgeons are paid by the king. When an officer is brought to this hospital, who is fallen sick in the service of the crown, he receives victuals and attendance gratis; but if he has got sickness in the execution of his private concerns, and comes to be cured here, he must pay it out of his own purse. When there is room enough in the hospital, they likewise take in some of the sick inhabitants of the town and country. They have the medicines, and the attendance of the surgeons, gratis, but must pay twelve sols per day for meat, etc.
"Every Friday is a market-day, when the country people come to the town with provisions, and those who want them must supply themselves on that day, because it is the only market-day in the whole week. On that day likewise a number of Indians come to town, to sell their goods and buy others."
He had some conversations with the priests of the seminary, one of whom, Monsieur Gillion, who had a particular taste for mathematics and astronomy, had drawn a meridian in the garden of the seminary, which Kalm said he had examined repeatedly by the sun and stars and found to be very exact. According to Monsieur Gillion's observation, the latitude of Montreal is forty-five degrees and twenty-seven minutes....
He then viewed the thermometrical observations made in Montreal by Monsieur Pontarion from the beginning of 1749. He made use of Réaumur's thermometer, which he placed sometimes in a window half open, and sometimes in one quite open, and accordingly it will seldom mark the greatest degree of cold in the air. However, I shall give a short abstract of his observations for the winter months:
"In January the greatest cold was on the 18th day of the month, when the Réaumurian thermometer was twenty-three below the freezing point. The least degree of cold was on the 31st of the same month, when it was just at the freezing point, but most of the days of this month it was from twelve to fifteen degrees below the freezing point. In February the greatest cold was on the 19th and 25th, when the thermometer was fourteen degrees below freezing point; and the least was on the 3rd day of that month, when it rose eight degrees above the freezing point; but it was generally eleven degrees below it. In March the greatest cold was on the 3rd, when it was ten degrees below the freezing point, and on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th it was mildest, being fifteen degrees above it; in general it was four degrees below it. In April the greatest degree of cold happened on the 7th, the thermometer being five degrees below the freezing point; the 25th was the mildest day, it being twenty-five degrees above the freezing point; but in general it was twelve degrees above it. These are the contents chiefly of Mons. Pontarion's observations during those months. But I found, by the manner he made his observations, that the cold had every day been from four to six degrees greater than he had marked it."
He had likewise marked in his journal that the ice in the River St. Lawrence broke on the 3d of April at Montreal, and only on the 20th day of that month at Quebec. "On the 3d of May some trees began to flower at Montreal, and on the 12th the hoary frost was so great that the trees were quite covered with it, as with snow. The ice in the river close to this town is every winter above a French foot thick, and sometimes it is two of such feet, as I was informed by all whom I consulted on that head.
"Several of the friars here told me that the summers were remarkably longer in Canada, since its cultivation, than they used to be before; it begins earlier, and ends later. The winters, on the other hand, are much shorter; but the friars were of opinion that they were as hard as formerly, though they were not of the same duration; and likewise, that the summer at present was no hotter than it used to be. The coldest winds at Montreal are those from the north and northwest."
Kalm in several places speaks in praise of the efforts of the advancement of natural history in Canada.
"Great efforts are here made for the advancement of natural history, and there are few places in the world where such good regulations are made for this useful purpose." He speaks of the governor's interest in it.
On August 2d early in the morning he set out on the river with the second major of Montreal, M. de Sermonville, for Quebec. On September 15th he returned to Montreal in the evening at 4 o'clock.
His next item of historical interest occurs on September 22d in his journal. As it has relation to Montreal as the headquarters of the Indian trade, it is worth reproducing.
"September the 22d. The French in Canada carry on a great trade with the Indians; and though it was formerly the only trade of this extensive country, yet its inhabitants were considerably enriched by it. At present, they have besides the Indian goods, several other articles which are exported from hence. The Indians in this neighbourhood, who go hunting in winter like the other Indian nations, commonly bring their furs and skins to sale in the neighbouring French towns; however this is not sufficient. The Indians who live at a greater distance, never come to Canada at all; and, lest they should bring their goods to the English as the English go to them, the French are obliged to undertake journeys, and purchase the Indian goods in the country of the Indians. This trade is chiefly carried on at Montreal, and a great number of young and old men every year, undertake long and troublesome voyages for that purpose, carrying with them such goods as they know the Indians like, and are in want of. It is not necessary to take money on such a journey, as the Indians do not value it; and indeed I think the French, who go on these journeys, scarce ever take a sol or penny with them.
"I will now enumerate the chief goods which the French carry with them for this trade, and which have a good run among the Indians.
"Muskets, powder, shot, and balls. The Europeans have taught the Indians in their neighbourhood the use of fire-arms, and they have laid aside their bows and arrows, which were formerly their only arms, and make use of muskets. If the Europeans should now refuse to supply the Indians with muskets, they would be starved to death; as almost all their food consists of the flesh of the animals, which they hunt; or they would be irritated to such a degree as to attack the Europeans. The Indians have hitherto never tried to make muskets or similar fire-arms; and their great indolence does not even allow them to mend those muskets which they have got. They leave this entirely to the Europeans. As the Europeans came into North America, they were very careful not to give the Indians any fire-arms. But in the wars between the French and English, each party gave their Indian allies fire-arms, in order to weaken the force of the enemy. The French lay the blame upon the Dutch settlers in Albany, saying that they began, in 1642, to give their Indians fire-arms, and taught them the use of them in order to weaken the French. The inhabitants of Albany, on the contrary, assert, that the French first introduced this custom, as they would have been too weak to resist the combined force of the Dutch and English in the colonies. Be this as it will, it is certain that the Indians buy muskets from the Europeans, and know at present better how to make use of them, than some of their teachers. It is likewise certain, that the Europeans gain considerably by their trade in muskets and ammunition.
"Pieces of white cloth, or of a coarse uncut cloth. The Indians constantly wear such pieces of cloth, wrapping them round their bodies. Sometimes they hang them over their shoulders; in warm weather, they fasten them round the middle; and in cold weather, they put them over the head. Both their men and women wear these pieces of cloth, which have commonly several blue or red stripes on the edge.
"Blue or red cloth. Of this the Indian women make their petticoats, which reach only to their knees. They generally choose the blue colour.
"Shirts and shifts of linen. As soon as an Indian fellow, or one of their women, have put on a shirt, they never wash it, or strip it off, till it is entirely torn in pieces.
"Pieces of cloth, which they wrap round their legs instead of stockings, like the Russians.
"Hatchets, knives, scissors, needles, and a steel to strike fire with. These instruments are now common among the Indians. They all take these instruments from the Europeans, and reckon the hatchets and knives much better, than those which they formerly made of stones and bones. The stone hatchets of the ancient Indians are very rare in Canada.
"Kettles of copper or brass, sometimes tinned in the inside. In these the Indians now boil all their meat, and they have a very great run with them. They formerly made use of earthen or wooden pots, into which they poured water, or whatever else they wanted to boil. They do not want iron boilers, because they cannot be easily carried on their continual journeys, and would not bear such falls and knocks as their kettles are subject to.
"Ear-rings of different sizes, commonly of brass, and sometimes of tin. They are worn by both men and women, though the use of them is not general.
"Vermillion. With this they paint their face, shirt, and several parts of the body. They formerly made use of a reddish earth, which is to be found in the country; but, as the Europeans brought them vermillion, they thought nothing was comparable to it in colour. Many persons have told me, that they had heard their fathers mention, that the first Frenchmen who came over here, got a great heap of furs from the Indians, for three times as much cinnabar as would lie on the tip of a knife.
"Verdigrease, to paint their faces green. For the black colour, they make use of the soot at the bottom of their kettle, and daub their whole face with it.
"Looking glasses. The Indians are very much pleased with them, and make use of them chiefly when they want to paint themselves. The men constantly carry their looking glasses with them on all their journeys; but the women do not. The men, upon the whole, are more fond of dressing than the women.
"Burning glasses. These are excellent pieces of furniture in the opinion of the Indians, because they serve to light the pipe without any trouble, which an indolent Indian is very fond of.
"Tobacco is bought by the northern Indian, in whose country it will not grow. The southern Indians always plant as much of it as they want for their own consumption. Tobacco has a great run amongst the northern Indians, and it has been observed that the further they live to the northward, the more they smoke of tobacco.
"Wampum, or, as they are here called, porcelanes. They are made of a particular kind of shells, and turned into little short cylindrical beads, and serve the Indians for money and ornament.
"Glass beads, of a small size, and white or other colours. The Indian women know how to fasten them in their ribbands, pouches, and clothes.
"Brass and steel wire, for several kinds of work.
"Brandy, which the Indians value above all other goods than can be brought them; nor have they anything, though ever so dear to them, which they would not give away for this liquor. But, on account of the many irregularities, which are caused by the use of brandy, the sale of it has been prohibited under severe penalties; however, they do not always pay an implicit obedience to this order.
"These are the chief goods which the French carry to the Indians, and they have a good run among them.
"The goods which they bring back from the Indians consist entirely in furs. The French get them in exchange for their goods, together with all the necessary provisions they want on the journey. The furs are of two kinds; the best are the northern ones, and the worst sort those from the South.
"It is inconceivable what hardships the people in Canada must undergo on their journeys. Sometimes they must carry their goods a great way by land; frequently they are abused by the Indians, and sometimes they are killed by them. They often suffer hunger, thirst, heat, and cold, and are bit by gnats, and exposed to the bites of poisonous snakes, and other dangerous animals and insects. These destroy a great part of the youth in Canada, and prevent the people from growing old. By this means, however, they become such brave soldiers, and so inured to fatigue, that none of them fear danger or hardships. Many of them settle among the Indians far from Canada, marry Indian women, and never come back again."
Under the same date, September 22d, he reverts to the ladies of Montreal. Having seen those of Quebec he can now compare them. Montreal ladies owe him a debt of gratitude.
"The ladies in Canada are generally of two kinds; some come over from France, and the rest native; the former possess the politeness peculiar to the French nation; the latter may be divided into those of Quebec and Montreal. The first of these are equal to the French ladies in good breeding, having the advantage of frequently conversing with the French gentlemen and ladies, who come every summer with the king's ships, stay several weeks at Quebec, but seldom go to Montreal. The ladies of this last place are accused by the French of partaking too much of the pride of the Indians, and of being much wanting in French good breeding. What I have mentioned above of their dressing their heads too assiduously, is the case with all the ladies throughout Canada. Their hair is always curled, even when they are at home in a dirty jacket, and short, coarse petticoat, that does not reach to the middle of their legs. On those days when they pay or receive visits, they dress so gayly that one is almost induced to think their parents possessed the greatest dignities in the state. The Frenchmen, who considered things in their true light, complained very much that a great part of the ladies in Canada had got into the pernicious custom of taking too much care of their dress, and squandering all their fortunes, and more, upon it instead of sparing something fur future times. They are no less attentive to have the newest fashions; and they laugh at each other, when they are not dressed to each other's fancy. But what they get as new fashions, are grown old, and laid aside in France; for the ships coming but once every year from thence, the people in Canada consider that as the new fashion for the whole year, which the people on board brought with them, or which they imposed upon them as new.
"The ladies in Canada, or especially at Montreal, are very ready to laugh at any blunders strangers make in speaking; but they are very excusable. People laugh at what appears uncommon and ridiculous. In Canada nobody ever hears the French language spoken by any but Frenchmen; for strangers seldom come thither; and the Indians are naturally too proud to learn French, but oblige the French to learn their language. From hence it naturally follows that the nice Canada ladies cannot hear anything uncommon without laughing at it. One of the first questions they propose to a stranger is, whether he is married? The next, how he likes the ladies in the country and whether he thinks them handsomer than those of his own country? And the third, whether he will take one home with him? There are some differences between the ladies of Quebec and those of Montreal; those of the last place seemed to be generally handsomer than those of the former. Their behaviour likewise seemed to me to be somewhat too free at Quebec, and of a more becoming modesty at Montreal.
"The ladies at Quebec, especially the unmarried ones, are not very industrious. A girl of eighteen is reckoned very poorly off, if she cannot enumerate at least twenty lovers. These young ladies, especially those of a higher rank, get up at seven, and dress till nine, drinking their coffee at the same time. When they are dressed, they place themselves near a window that opens into the street, take up some needlework, and sew a stitch now and then; but turn their eyes into the street most of the time. When a young fellow comes in, whether they are acquainted with him or not, they immediately lay aside their work, sit down by him, and begin to chat, laugh, joke, and invent double-entendres; and this is reckoned being very witty. In this manner they frequently pass the whole day, leaving their mothers to do all the business in the house.
"In Montreal, the girls are not quite so volatile, but more industrious. They are always at their needlework, or doing some necessary business in the house. They are likewise cheerful and content; and nobody can say that they want either wit, or charm. Their fault is, that they think too well of themselves. However, the daughters of people of all ranks, without exception, go to market, and carry home what they have bought. They rise as soon and go to bed as late as any of the people in the house. I have been assured that, in general, their fortunes are not considerable; which are rendered still more scarce by the number of children, and the small revenues in a house. The girls at Montreal are very much displeased that those at Quebec get husbands sooner than they. The reason of this is, that many young gentlemen who come over from France with the ships, are captivated by the ladies at Quebec, and marry them; but as these gentlemen seldom go up to Montreal, the girls there are not often so happy as those of the former place."
A few economic facts noted by Kalm on this second visit are:
"Wine is almost the only liquor which people above the vulgar are used to drink.[184] They make a kind of spruce beer of the top of the white fir, which they drink in summer; but the use of it is not general; and it is seldom drank by people of quality. Thus great sums go annually out of the country for wine; as they have no vines here, of which they could make a liquor that is fit to be drank. The common people drink water; for it is not yet customary here to brew beer of malt; and there are not orchards large enough to supply the people with apples for making cider. Some of the people of rank, who possess large orchards, sometimes, out of curiosity, get a small quantity of cider made. The great people here, who are used from their youth to drink nothing but wine, are greatly at a loss in time of war, when all the ships which brought wine are intercepted by the English privateers. Towards the end of the last war, they gave two hundred and fifty francs and even one hundred écus, for a barrique, or hogshead of wine.
"The present price of several things, I have been told by some of the greatest merchants here, is as follows: A middling horse costs forty francs and upwards; a good horse is valued at an hundred francs or more. A cow is now sold for fifty francs; but people can remember the time when they were sold for ten écus. A sheep costs five or six livres at present; but last year, when everything was dear, it cost eight or ten francs. A hog of one year old, and two hundred, or an hundred and fifty pound weight, is sold at fifteen francs. M. Couagne, the merchant, told me that he had seen a hog of four hundred weight among the Indians. A chicken is sold for ten or twelve sols; and a turkey for twenty sols. A minot of wheat sold for an écu last year; but at present it costs forty sols. Maize is always of the same price with wheat because here is but little of it; and it is all made use of by those who go to trade with the Indians. A minot of oats costs sometimes from fifteen to twenty sols; but of late years it has been sold for twenty-five or thirty sols. Pease bear always the same price with wheat. A pound of butter costs commonly about eight or ten sols; but last year it rose up to sixteen sols. A dozen of eggs used to cost but three sols; however, now are sold for five. They make no cheese at Montreal; nor is there any to be had, except what is got from abroad. A watermelon generally costs five or six sols; but if of a large size, from fifteen to twenty.
"There are as yet no manufacturers established in Canada; probably because France will not lose the advantage of selling off its own goods here. However, both the inhabitants of Canada and the Indians are very ill off for want of them in times of war.
"Those persons who want to be 'married must have the consent of their parents. However, the judge may give them leave to marry, if the parents oppose their union, without any valid reason. Likewise, if the man be thirty years of age, and the woman twenty-six, they may marry, without further waiting for their parents' consent."
A few social customs may conclude this chapter, as illuminative of the times. According to M. Gaspé, the frugality of the Canadians was exemplary. Meats only appeared on the table on feast days, or days of great rejoicing. A vegetarian diet mostly required but milk, eggs, fish, pea soup, a porridge of crushed Indian wheat, pancakes, coarse bread, fruit and vegetables, did not prevent them from enjoying vigorous health and strength. "A poor man," says Marie de l'Incarnation, "would have eight children or more, who during the winter go bare-headed and barefooted, with a little covering on their backs and living only on eels and a little bread; with all that, they are big and fat."
Simplicity ruled at table; pocket knives served the habitants at their meals, the men having homemade ones. A blacksmith manufactured the blade, and the wooden handles made by the man were decorated with engravings on tin. As these instruments were not supplied with a spring, the owners had to constantly keep the blade down in position by the pressure of their fingers. But the ingenious made the operation easier by means of a little button placed at the part of the blade joining the handle. The practiced habitant was quite skillful in its use, but the novice pinched his fingers horribly--a little apprenticeship being necessary. The women made use of ordinary pocket knives bought at the shop keeper's.[185]
The habitants, says M. de Baudoncourt, did not drink tea. Each one carried his knife when invited to dinner anywhere. For breakfast in the morning, a small crust of bread moistened in cognac sufficed.
In the Province of Quebec the ancient dîme (tithe) still exists. It consists in the twenty-sixth of all the crops. To be exempt, it is sufficient to declare that one is not a Catholic. This dîme is paid without difficulty and is even popular. The curé himself pays it also, in this wise: when a family has a twenty-sixth child it is taken with great pomp to the presbytery, and the curé becomes its godfather and is charged with its upbringing. The fecundity of the French Canadian race is such that this method of reprisal on the curé is not rare. One of the late ministers of state was a "twenty-sixth" child, brought up by the curé of his parish.[186]
The children of the farming classes formerly did not eat at table with their parents, until after their first communion. In the families of easier circumstances, a little low table was reserved for their use; but generally the children took their meal on a log block. There were many of these in the kitchen, which was sometimes the only room the habitant possessed. These logs supplied the dearth of chairs and were useful also to cut up and chop the meat upon, for the mince pies and patés for feast days. It was only necessary to turn the block over, according to need.[187]
Travel in this period was a very difficult matter. There were few roads and these not very passable; there were no highroads but the rivers and lakes. We have an idea of the length of a journey from Quebec to Montreal from the narration of Franquet, who, as king's engineer, was visiting Canada in 1750. He left Quebec on July 24th, at 2:30 P. M., and did not arrive at Montreal until July 30th, at 10 A. M. But he had stayed a day at Three Rivers, and thus the journey was only of five days' duration! However, it was very enjoyable on the intendant's gondola, for Bigot was always hospitable and he wined and dined the distinguished official under the silken awnings of the cabin on his flat bateau.
M. Pouchot's "Memoirs upon the Late War in North America between the French and English, 1755-60," gives a contemporary impression of value, which may fill up the gallery of pictures of Montreal life before the close of the French régime.
"It appears strange," he says, "from the little care and aid given to increase it, that this colony, which was so long very feeble and often ready to perish with misery, for the little help it got from France, should, notwithstanding this, have gained a population of 30,000 souls.[188] From this we may infer that the climate is fine and the soil fertile. It is not unusual to find from grandfather to grandchildren as many as sixty persons.
"The Canadians are very well formed. Robust, active, endure pain and fatigue admirably, and are accustomed to long and painful journeys for their trade, which they accomplish with great address and patience. These voyages are usually made very deliberately, on account of the kind of life which they lead on these occasions. They are brave, love war, and are ardent patriots. They evince a strong attachment to their mother country, and their little knowledge of the world renders them volunteer braggarts and liars, being little informed upon any subject.
"There is no country where women lead a happier life than in Canada. The men show them great attentions and spare them all the fatigues they can. We might also add that they deserve all this, being modest, of comely figure, vivacious in spirit and full of intrigue. It is only through them that their husbands procure employment, which puts them at ease and above the common lot. There prevails in the villages a tone of good society which we could not expect in a country so remote. They dance and demean themselves very gracefully, and this without master."
Before concluding this chapter we may here also quote Pouchot's appreciation of the trade conditions of Canada at the end of the French régime, since it supplements former notes on this head and helps us to understand the position of Montreal as the center of the up-country fur trade at the end of the French régime.
The trade of Canada, he tells us, "is made on the king's account and by individuals. The intendant has the general direction of this business. The king has magazines at Quebec, Montreal, St. Johns, Chambly and Carillon, and for the posts further up at La Présentation, Niagara, Frontenac, the fort at the Portage, at Presqu'lle, Rivière aux Boeufs and at Fort Duquesne.
"The magazine at Quebec is a dépôt to supply that at Montreal and also issues supplies for trade with our domiciliated Indians, the Abenakis, and others down the river. The magazine at Montreal furnishes merchandises to all the posts above mentioned. Its trade directly with them was but small until the king appointed a commissary. These magazines furnish all the provisions for the war, as well as for trade and for the king's service. They also in part supply the artillery.
"The king has at all these places storekeepers nominated by the intendant, to whom they report direct. The intendant has under him a commissary of ordnance of the marine, who remains at Montreal to attend to the details of the upper country."
The writer criticizes as unsuitable for Indians much of the merchandise sent out, as mirrors mounted on morocco, silk stuffs and remnants of various other fabrics, handkerchiefs, hose, and in short, all the remnants of the shops. There was much waste for the king--much reversion of his profits--but still it was a very profitable trade.
"The Indians gave in exchange for these goods the skins of roebucks, stags, bears, beavers, otters, pécans, squirrels, martens, lynxes, foxes, muskrats, wood-rats, wolves, caribous and moose. They trade also for bread, pork, salt, prunes, molasses, all kinds of meats and fish, bears' oil, which they value more than goose oil, and the down of aquatic birds. All these different exchanges are reduced in value to the beaver skin, which is commonly reckoned as a bottle of brandy at thirty sols. A pound of castor is valued at four livres, ten sols, and skins weigh from two and a half to three pounds. The price of our goods varies with the distance of the localities."
The second kind of trade was carried by individuals.
The posts in the interior were assigned to officers in favour. They took with them a storekeeper to trade for them. "As they had no money, they found merchants at Quebec and Montreal who supplied, upon credit, all the goods necessary, which they called equipping them. They agreed upon their prices, and gave peltry to the merchants in return. They had to earn profits for both parties. These officers had often to negotiate for the king with the natives near the posts and to give them goods as presents. They were paid by the intendant upon the approval and order of the governor. This occasioned many hypothecated accounts which turned to the most certain profit of these commandants, especially in time of war.
"These commandants, as well as private traders, were obliged to take out licenses from the governor, which cost from four to five hundred livres, in order to be allowed to carry their goods to the post and to charge some effects to the king's account. This feature always presented a prominent obstacle to trade establishments of Canada, as they were obliged to take out these licenses every time they wished to go into the interior of the country. The most distant posts in the Northwest were the most highly coveted, on account of the abundance and low prices of peltries and the high price of goods.
"A third kind of trade was followed by these traders, or coureurs de bois, who, having laden some canoes with merchandise and halving the licenses, went to the homes of the natives outside the gates of our posts, where they awaited the Indians in their villages, to which they followed them, till their return from the chase, and came back after trading with their canoes laden, at considerable profit. Those especially who were in condition to purchase goods at first hand made a fortune very quickly; but to do this it was necessary to determine to lead a most miserable and painful life. These different traders, upon their return to France, might show an amount of 2,500,000 livres."
NOTE
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARISH CHURCH
The parish church, being the center of many of the activities of the small community, deserves special mention, as its history affords students of manners and customs interesting glimpses of the period.
The new parish church was not finished till 1678. Examination of the records of the church will supplement the previous chapters of "sidelights" of the spirit and practices of the time.
1675, April 15th, there is a donation to the church of a miraculous statue of the Blessed Virgin by M. de Fancamp, with a certificate of a miracle operated in his presence by the said image.
1678, MM. Charles Lemoyne, of Longueuil, and Jacques LeBer, merchants, give a lamp of silver of the weight of ten marks, or about the value of 492 livres of French money.
1683, June 16th, there is the blessing of a bell, given by M. l'Abbé? Pierre Chevrier, Baron de Fancamp, January, 1683.
In 1691 there is a record on July 2d of a deliberation on the construction of benches for the church.
1694, January 24th, there is mention of increase of wages of thirty-six livres for Tourangeau, the bedel, on condition that he will take charge of winding the clock of the church.
1697, March 21st, this is a mandement of Mgr. de St. Vallier approving of the building of the church and inducing the Marguilliers to undertake the construction of a tower and a choir.
In 1697 Pierre LeBer, bourgeois, of Montreal, touched with the particular devotion to the Blessed Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin, formed the design of building, in her honour, a chapel outside the town on the common, and having addressed himself for that purpose to M. Dollier de Casson, superior of the seminary, he was granted an arpent square on May 11, 1697, and the chapel was built. The place was known as St. Anne's. The ruins of the chapel were to be seen in 1823.
1700, January 17th, the right of sepulture in the chapel of L'Enfant Jesus, built on the right hand transept of the church, was granted to the sisters of the Congregation.
In 1706, at a meeting on August 20th, the citizens contributed the sum of 1,414 livres, of which 1,000 was from M. de Belmont for the seminary, for the erection of the tower.
1708, April 19th, M. de Belmont, superior of the seminary, and M. Yves Priat, curé, made a vow to build a chapel in honor of St. Roch. This was apparently built at the base of the bell tower meanwhile erected.
1708, August 25th, and 1710, 1712, January 12, 1713, record foundations for masses in perpetuity by Mlle. Jeanne LeBer, Mme. Jeanne Dumouchel, Pierre Biron, merchant, the latter's husband, and M. François de Belmont and M. and Mme. Pierre Biron respectively. Such donations occur regularly in after years.
In 1713 the organist, M. Dubrisson, was given on May 1st, 100 livres salary for a year.
1720, July 20th, there was a meeting on the subject of the tower again and the construction of a portail, or entrance façade.
1720, August 4th, there is recorded a deliberation for the construction of a belfry, capable of housing four bells, the whole in cut stone, with "une flèche de charpentier couverte d'ardoise," and 375 livres were given by the citizens to the effect.
1722, June 4th, at a meeting of the church wardens it is determined that the belfry cannot be placed in front of the church but on the southeast, and that one shall be made to the right of the portail similar to the first one. This was approved by the citizens on June 21st.
1722, June 24th, there is a change of opinion recorded. At a meeting of wardens and citizens it was resolved that the belfry should not be continued on the southeast corner, but on the northwest. This regulation was never afterwards changed.
1723, February 24th, a contract for masonry was made with one Jourdain for the construction of a belfry.
1723, June 27th, Nicholas Bourdeau is named the second bedel in place of the late Quenneville, first bedel, with 150 livres salary; he is to furnish besom brushes, water for the blessed waters at Easter and Pentecost, to clear away the spider webs, to make visits every evening around the church, to close the door well and finally to do all that the late Quenneville did; he is to see after the payment of bench dues under the Marguilliers, to sweep the church, to take care to close the doors well morning and evening, to sound the "Angelus" and ring the bells in times of thunder storms.
1725, May 1st, the benches in the rood loft are to be let for hire, ten livres for the first row, those four behind, one livre less in proportion for each until the last; moreover, ten livres are to be charged for their making. On the same day a capot and vest of Kazamet, valued at forty-five livres, was to be given to the organist, Caron, each year.
1725, June 10th, the tower is commenced, but as the rain and bad weather are damaging it and funds are low for affairs, a loan of money is to be obtained.
1728, May 1st, a Sieur Pierre Latour, a founder, engages to make a bell for the parish of the weight of 1,200 pounds, or thereabouts, the "fabrique" furnishing him the materials and paying him besides 400 livres in addition to his salary of fifteen francs a month until the work is finished.
1730, September 8th, the same engages to make another bell on similar terms.
1731, January 14th, it is agreed that there shall be a canvass for the building of St. Amable Chapel.
1734, February 14th, a chapel to St. Anne parallel to that of St. Amable is determined, upon the ground chosen for burial purposes.
1734, March 14th, it is agreed that the Chapel of St. Anne shall extend from the apse of the St. Joseph Chapel to the tower which serves as a belfry, that it shall have three casements similar to those of the tower and of the same height, a doorway below four feet long, the window sashes glazed and fixed with iron fittings, with timber work, covering and vault following the plan given by Sieur Anger; that it shall have a cellar of the length and breadth of the chapel, dug eight feet below with a stone vaulting, with an opening to pass the bodies to be buried there, and to be whitewashed above; that the excavation shall be transported to the "new cemetery" or the Hôtel Dieu Cemetery, as the second burial place was sometimes called.
1739, February 15th, there shall be a chapel joining the church of this parish on the cemetery side when the Chapel of St. Amable is built, following the plan and arrangement made with Sieur Labrosse. December 27th, Périnault dit le Marche, the organist, is given the sum of thirty livres annually.
1742, April 29th, an agreement is made with Dominique Janson de la Palme for the windows of the church in consideration of 100 francs for each window.
1743, June 30th, the nomination occurs of Pierre Compe, second bedel, in place of the defunct Mongineau, chief bedel, without other salaries and perquisites. December 27th, the sacristy is to be lengthened.
1751, May 1st, a "suisse," or head porter, shall be appointed for the guardianship of the church.
1755, September 28th, an indication of war alarms is seen in the authorization of M. Thomas Dufy Desaulniers to have brought over from France the tapestry hangings for the reposoire for Holy Thursday, but if war is declared he is not to have them come.
For the year 1757 the parish church, commenced in 1672, being found too small, a larger one was thought of and the principal citizens, in view of building a church of 300 feet in length, agreed among themselves to buy certain lands (afterwards bought in 1823).
It was agreed on January 30, 1757, at a meeting of the church wardens, that a suitable place for the church would be the Place d'Armes, and that it would be necessary to buy another place for the Place d'Armes;[189] that opposite the Jesuit residence there were several pieces of land belonging to private individuals, among others a plot of about sixty feet frontage and eighty feet in depth belonging to Mlle. Demuy. The Place d'Armes then commenced in the middle of what was afterwards St. James Street and occupied the site on which the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Trust buildings stand in 1914. The war interrupted their building projects till 1823. The intervening poverty caused by their losses and the departure of many of their rich parishioners was a cause of the delay.
FOOTNOTES:
[181] The governor of Montreal was Jean Baptiste Roch de Ramezay, 1739-49. Charles le Moyne, second baron, received his commission in 1749 and governed till 1755. In 1752 he acted as administrator of the colony till the appointment of de Vaudreuil.
[182] Comte de la Galissonière acted as governor for de la Jonquière in captivity; the latter undertook the government of the colony from 1749 to 1752.
[183] This was the General Hospital first established by the Charon Frères and taken over by Madame d'Youville in 1747.
[184] There was a brewery in Montreal near the fort before the arrival of Talon and there were private breweries for homemade beer elsewhere, but it is to Talon's initiative that breweries on a commercial basis and on a larger scale were started as a means of making use of the superfluous wheat after harvest and to counteract the disorders caused by the traffic of eau de vie, by making a less harmful drink manufactured for more general consumption. In 1668 the Sovereign Council gave the monopoly of selling beer for ten years to those who should establish breweries, though it left the liberty of families making their own for private consumption. [Cf. Faillon, Histoire de la Colonie Française, Vol. III.]
[185] Les Anciens Canadiens--P. A. de Gaspé.
[186] "Histoire populaire du Canada," by Jacques de Baudoncourt.
[187] Les Anciens Canadiens.--P. A. de Gaspé.
[188] This is erroneous.
[189] The site contemplated was that afterwards bought. It was described in 1824 by Roy Portelance, Toussaint Peltier (Père) and Charles Coté (Père) as situated on the Place d'Armes, containing a frontage of 180 feet and 94 of depth, stretching from Fortification Lane bounded on one side by Mr. Dillon's house and on the other by Dr. Leodel's. On this ground there was built a house in stone of two stories covered in white metal, of sixty feet frontage, thirty-two in depth, with other houses in wood.
XXXVII. EDUCATION--PRIMARY, SECONDARY AND TECHNICAL
A RECORD FROM 1657 TO 1760
FRENCH PRONUNCIATION--SCHOOL FOR GIRLS--THE CONGREGATION--BOARDING SCHOOLS--SCHOOLS OF DOMESTIC ECONOMY--NORMAL SCHOOLS--SCHOOLS FOR BOYS--ABBE SOUART FIRST SCHOOLMASTER--THE FIRST ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS--SCHOOL BOOKS--BOOKS ON PEDAGOGY--LATIN SCHOOLS, THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF THE PERIOD--LATIN BOOKS--ATTEMPT AT A CLASSICAL COLLEGE--FAILURE--TECHNICAL EDUCATION--JEAN FRANÇOIS CHARON--THE GENERAL HOSPITAL--ARTS AND MANUFACTURES--LES FRERES CHARON--A NORMAL SCHOOL FOR CANADA AT ROCHELLE PROJECTED--FRERE TURC GOES TO ST. DOMINGO--THE BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS INVITED TWICE TO COME TO CANADA--BROTHER DENIS AND PACIFICUS IN MONTREAL--THE FRERES CHARON IN EVIL DAYS--THE HOSPITAL TRANSFERRED TO MADAME D'YOUVILLE.
At various points in this story there has been indicated the first beginnings of the educational system of Montreal under the French régime. We may now present a short résumé of the various systems in vogue from 1657 to 1760. We have seen that the education began with Marguerite Bourgeoys in a very humble way, such as was needed in a community composed mainly of the children of labourers, mechanics and soldiers; for there were few of the bourgeois class, and less of the gentry. Many there were of the first colonists who could not read or write, a fact not to be wondered at, from those who came from small provincial towns or country places in the days when the three R's were rare. Yet they were not ignorant or unpolished, for great care was taken in their choice. It must, also, be fairly conceded from an examination of their signatures that a good number could read, write and count.[190] Even their French accent was not barbarous. It seems to have preserved a singular purity, although naturally marked with an admixture of the patois of Normandy, and of the northern districts of Maine and Poitou. Yet a surprising democratic uniformity seems to have arisen in their speech which struck Talon in 1667, as it did also subsequent serious writers such as Leclerc, Charlevoix and la Potherie. A similar uniformity in speaking English among Canadians of diverse national origins is noticed by those coming from England today.
Although some attempt at teaching had been made as early as 1616 at Three Rivers by the Recollect lay brother, Pacifique Duplessis, and at Tadoussac by Father Joseph Le Caron about the same time, the first regular school in the colony was opened in Quebec, in 1635, by the inhabitants, who built a schoolhouse near the fort, under the auspices of the Jesuits, Lejeune, Lalemant and de Quen. The latter was replaced in 1637 by Davost. We mention these since all but Lalemant later served the Montreal Mission. In 1635 the Jesuits established their college at Quebec for primary instruction in the first instance to young French and Indian children. This was the origin of the "petites écoles" of Canada. Later, Latin, grammar, mathematics, rhetoric and philosophy were added to the college course.[191]
SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
School was not begun in Montreal till 1657, when the first schoolmistress, Marguerite Bourgeoys, assisted by Soeur Pacaud, opened her school in a stable given by M. de Maisonneuve. Till that date there had been no children of school age, and Marguerite had remained four years after her arrival in charge of the governor's domestic affairs, waiting to fulfill the mission of teaching she had come upon. The first school certainly was a mixed one of boys and girls. Later, the Sulpicians taught the boys about 1661 at the earliest date. In the autumn of 1658 she went to France to obtain other teachers, and in the meantime handed over her work to two of the "Hospitalières de Québec" sisters, de la Nativité and St. Paul, who came to take charge of the hospital during the absence of Jeanne Mance, who was accompanied by Marguerite Bourgeoys. The three new workers for the schools of Montreal were Sisters Chatel, Crolo and Raisin. On May 21, 1669, permission was given by Bishop Laval to the teachers to instruct children throughout his diocese. The beginning of the Congregation of Notre Dame as a teaching order now must be noticed. In 1670 the foundress visited France again and obtained letters patent for her congregation from the king, dated May, 1671, and registered at the parliament on June 24th following. It was not till August 6, 1676, that Laval formally approved of the congregation. On June 24th following the sisters of the mother house accepted the rules drawn up for them by Bishop de St. Vallier and on August 4th following the missionary sisters, established at the Island of Orleans and of Château Richer, accepted the same community rules.
A regulation of 1686 to the missionary sisters states that "Although the sisters ought to teach the children gratuitously, they may, however, take twenty sols a year from them to furnish the Latin and French books necessary, for which they shall pay each year on entrance. The children shall furnish, also, the wood to maintain the school fires. The origin of boarding schools may be traced to the same date, for in consideration of their great poverty the sisters could take pensionnaires if they could find suitable accommodations which would give them a more easy means of livelihood." Mgr. de Laval wrote in 1676 that the sisters were teaching in Montreal and other places. Faillon interprets this as including the parishes of Champlain and Batiscan. The house at Champlain was burned in 1676. The school of Pointe aux Trembles was established about 1693. Lachine had its school about 1680, the Ile d'Orleans, in 1685.
Another form of education undertaken was through the formation of the "congregation of extern girls" beyond school age, who met on Sundays for religious instruction. In 1686 on the occasion of a visit to Montreal of Bishop de St. Vallier the sisters were then teaching more than twenty older girls in domestic arts, to enable them to earn their living in service. This may be accounted the origin of the "écoles ménagères" or schools of domestic economy. In this same year the governor of New France, Denonville, recommended to the minister in France that the sisters could commence some manufactures "if you would have the goodness to make them some subsidy."
The origin of the normal school for girls may be traced to the novitiate which was now preparing future teachers for Montreal and the rural districts of the province. To aid the community in their work, Bishop de St. Vallier gave a perpetual grant on September 7, 1693, of 600 livres of France, or 800 of this country, to aid the communities to furnish teachers in the other parishes. This was followed by additional grants. In 1691 the sisters were called by St. Vallier to Quebec where, besides managing a house of charity, they established a free school in the Lower Town to supplement the education given by the Ursulines, working, however, outside the class at female occupations to support themselves. The sisters remained in Quebec till 1659, when the siege forced them to return to Montreal. Their convent in Lower Town was burned and it was not till 1769 that they returned to Lower Town.
SCHOOLS FOR BOYS
The date of origin of the schools for boys in Montreal is in some doubt. The Sulpicians came in 1657. But the Abbé Faillon in his "Histoire de la Colonie Française au Canada" says that Marguerite Bourgeoys taught the boys at her school till about 1666. It is almost certain that the Abbé Souart was what he loved to sign himself, "superior of the Seminary of Montreal, first curé of the town and the first schoolmaster of this country," doubtless meaning Montreal District, for already the Jesuits had been schoolmasters in Quebec since 1635. The good abbé was superior of the seminary from 1661 to 1668, he was curé from 1657 to 1677 and the manuscript of the seminary cited by Jacques Viger bears out that "M. Souart during his superiority, made several foundations, among others the steps for the commencement of the establishment of les petites écoles." In an act of 1686 he is spoken of as the former curé of Notre Dame of this town, "who formed (a fait) the first schools of this place." Let him, therefore, have the credit of the first schoolmaster of Montreal under the French régime. He was, however, assisted in the formation of the schools by two Sulpicians, MM. Guillaume Bailly and Mathieu Ranuyer, who arrived after some time. M. Bailly was charged with the Mountain Mission. Six years later, in 1672, M. Rémy, a subdeacon, came from France to teach. M. Barthélemy, a priest, also helped for a time. M. Certin arrived in 1683, M. de la Faye in 1684, and both taught in the school. About 1685 there was talk of a boarding school for scholars from afar. M. Certin, who died in 1687, seems to have been the director, urging this with M. Tronson, the superior in Paris. In 1686 there was the first attempt at a new school commission, which was to carry on the existing schools or others if judged convenient, through the formation of an Association of Citizens of Ville Marie. The associates were Mathurin Rouiller, Nicholas Barbier, Philibert Roy, an ecclesiastical student, and Jacob Thomolet. The object was favoured by the Sulpicians, who seemed to have desired to found schools to be taught by others than themselves. Hence it was that in the act of September 15th we find M. Souart giving 1,000 livres, and M. de la Faye a half arpent of land with a house on it (in fact, his own schoolhouse and grounds on Notre Dame Street opposite the seminary) to Sieur Mathurin Rouiller, a devoted and pious man of exemplary life, and his associates, who would all seem to have acted as schoolmasters. This association did not succeed longer than seven years, for by October 9, 1693, all the school grounds, properties and furnishings were returned to the Gentlemen of St. Sulpice. The Abbé Chaigneau now took the direction. M. Antoine Forget, a simple tonsured cleric, who arrived in July, 1701, and left for France in 1715, taught during these fourteen years. He was followed in 1716 by M. Jean Jacques Talbot, a cleric in minor orders, who taught for about forty years. M. Jean Girard, a simple tonsured cleric, arrived in 1724 and died here February 25, 1765. During this forty years, besides teaching he was the parish organist and choirmaster. Besides these teachers named there were others, either simple clerics or laymen, who furthered the work of the director of the petites écoles. The schools were opened gratuitously, but the public were invited to give voluntary subscriptions, and for the purpose the syndic, accompanied by the clerk of justice, made a canvass of private persons each year. If it was not successful the seminary supplied the deficit. (Faillon, "Histoire de la Colonie Française," Vol. III, page 265.)
Since there was no printing press in Canada, the books used in the schoolrooms were brought over from France, such as the "Petit Alphabet," the "Grand Alphabet;" then the Psalter and the "Pensées Chretiennes," the "Introduction to a Devout Life;" for the more advanced, books on pedagogy, politeness, and deciphering of manuscripts and contracts. The last two were important branches of a finished education in the days when printing was undeveloped. A note found in the papers of the late Abbé Verreau tells us that in 1740 and 1742 the gentlemen of the seminary received from France alphabets, psalters, and offices of the Blessed Virgin and numerous copies of "L'Instruction de la Jeunesse" and "L'Instruction Chretienne" for the girls. On the list of 1742 for M. Talbot, schoolmaster at Montreal, there were twelve copies "l'Ecole Paroissiale." This was a handbook on pedagogy for teachers. While some of these may have been for the sisters of the congregation, it was likely that others were for his assistant teachers or the masters of branch schools for boys which were doubtless being established in the rural parishes, following the example of Lachine, which already had its schools before 1686. Probably there was a little school at Contrecoeur, Boucherville, Longueuil, or Pointe aux Trembles, served by the Sulpicians, which needed a guide book for the school, in the curé's presbytery, taught by himself or by a pious layman. The education was of a simple character, with religion playing a dominant part in it.
LATIN SCHOOLS
In addition to the primary education of the petites écoles, there were Latin schools. These classes were started by the Jesuits in Quebec about 1637 and were introduced by them into Montreal about 1694, at least after they had taken up their residence in 1692. About 1695 the Sulpicians were anxious also to undertake the work, but as the Jesuits were already in the field, such work being in their institute, the project of regular Latin classes was abandoned. Yet the teaching of Latin was in time included in their courses. Gervais Lefebre, a young man of eighteen years, entered the Seminary of Quebec in 1703, after having made his course of humanities and a year of philosophy with the Gentlemen of the Seminary of Montreal. The account books of the Seminary of Quebec for 1730 show that this year six "rudiments," four "methods," six "Phèdre" and a dozen "Despanticière" were sent to the Seminary of Montreal. In 1742 the latter in obtaining from France its own books received the letters of Cicero, a dozen rudiments, six "Imitation of Christ" in Latin. The Latin teachers in the beginning were probably the clerics who taught the primary schools, such as M. Léonard Chaigneau, François Vachon de Belmont, Mathieu Ranuyer, Pierre Rémy, Antoine Forget, Jean Jacques Talbot, and Jean Girard. Later the Latin class was intrusted to the priests, among whom were Guillaume Chambon, Jean Claude Methevet, Mathieu Guillon, Charles de Metry Creitte, and Jean Baptiste Curatteau.[192]
The Jesuits had been permitted by Bishop de St. Vallier to found on August 22, 1692, a residence in Montreal. It was their ambition to reproduce here their successful college courses started so humbly in 1635. In 1694, as we learn from two letters of the Jesuit, Père Claude de la Chauchetière, written from Montreal, in the months of August and September, there was an attempt to found a classical college. Already, at least for a year, school had been kept by him for fifteen scholars and some grown-up young officers of the troops. But funds were scarce and he needed teachers, for he says that he himself expected to be necessary for the missions and might be called away any time. At this time there were only two or three Jesuits available for the church, residence, and the care of transient Indians, as well as for the direction of the first congregation of men erected canonically in their church under the title of the Assumption of Our Lady.[193] Father de la Chauchetière's letter of September 20, 1694, tells us: "I am here like a bird on a branch, ready to fly on the first opportunity.... We have a kind of college here which is not founded. I have some scholars who are good cinquiesmes, but I have others who have beards on their chins, to whom I teach marine and fortification, and other mathematical subjects. One of my scholars is a pilot in the fleet going north.[194] We are very badly housed as far as the buildings are concerned, but we have a very good view, on an arpent of land outside the town. Our church is about half an arpent distant from us. The garden is between us and to get to the church we are exposed to the rain, the wind and the snow, because we have no means of building. We ask our reverend superior only for a little building of twenty feet at the end of the church, but he has no means of helping us."
This "kind of a college" having no funds but maintained at the expense of the Jesuits, never rose beyond the dignity of a Latin school, with the added splendour of teaching a few of His Majesty's pilots. For thirty-three years, the Jesuits allowed the i that they had caressed for a while, a college like that of Quebec, to slumber. Although the view was good, funds were scarce and Father de la Chauchetière went to his dear savages again. In 1727 the inhabitants, desirous of a classical college in their town, to avoid sending their boys to Quebec for the purpose, petitioned the governor, Beauharnois. Their preamble shows that all the population, "military officers, law officers, the bourgeoise, the merchants and the inhabitants, moved very keenly by the ignorance and laziness of their children that had given rise to lamentable disorders, have recourse to you to pray you, humbly and very urgently, to second their good intentions, by procuring them the means of maintaining youths in order, and of inspiring them with those sentiments of submission necessary to render these children, at the same time good servants of the king, as well as of God." The petition then prays for the choice of the Jesuits for the purpose and for government subsidy for the foundation. This request was well received by Beauharnois, who transmitted it to the minister, at the same time announcing that the Intendant Dupuy would join to the common letter, a memorial of the Jesuits on the same subject. This the intendant did not choose to send. Indeed, he wrote discountenancing the expenditure on the ground that it was better to complete the courses at Quebec before establishing another college at Montreal, thus avoiding two imperfect foundations. He had a brilliant alternative. "Unless," he wrote, "you should so arrange that the classes wanting at Quebec should be supplied at Montreal, which would give the youths the opportunity of seeing the whole of the colony and forming connections, by those of Montreal going to Quebec to commence their course or those from Quebec finishing at Montreal, or vice-versa, if the contrary was more expedient." On May 12, 1728, Maurepas wrote to Beauharnois that the enterprise of the college at Montreal would be too burdensome on the king. In 1731 Beauharnois with the Intendant Hocquart again exerted his efforts to obtain a subsidy for a classical course at Montreal under the control of the Jesuits, but in vain. In 1736 Hocquart, seeing that he could not get all he asked, determined to ask for less and advised the appointment by the government of a technical master at Quebec and Montreal to teach geometry, fortification and geography to the cadets who were not able to follow the courses already in vogue at both places. This failed again. Thus the college of the Jesuit residents never rose beyond the dignity of a Latin school, or the high school of the period.[195]
TECHNICAL EDUCATION AT MONTREAL
The beginning of technical education in Montreal must be attributed to Jean François Charon, the founder of the Frères Hospitaliers de St. Joseph de la Croix, who was born at Quebec, where he was baptized on September 9, 1654. He was blessed with a considerable fortune for the time, which he wished to consecrate to the relief of the sick, the weak and orphans. As far back as 1688 it was his desire to found a hospital for this purpose and he gathered around him among other associates Pierre LeBer, brother of the recluse, and Jean Fredin. On October 28, 1688, he had conceded to him by Dollier de Casson, under private seal, a piece of ground on which to found a house of charity. In 1692 the king had by letters patent, given permission for the establishment at Quebec and in other places where they were necessary, a general hospital and houses of charity. Montreal was not slow in availing themselves of this privilege. Champigny, writing to the minister in November, 1693, says: "The establishment of a hospital at Montreal with the king's permission, has started with the building of a very fine house to which Sieur Charon, the principal founder, has joined two good farms which will support eighty to one hundred persons. This will effect all the good that can be desired, in instructing the young and in employing them in manufactures and in teaching them trades. As they have expressed a wish to commence next spring a brickyard near their house, I believe that you will not disapprove of the permission given by me to a soldier, a tiler and brickmaker to work there." The letters patent for M. Charon's hospital, signed by the king in 1694, on the request of Bishop St. Vallier, Frontenac and de Champigny specifically adds to the hospital aims that of teaching trades to the young. Five years later, in 1699, new letters patent were granted, permitting the establishment of art manufactures and handicrafts in the house and inclosure of the hospital brothers of Montreal. Thus it is clearly seen that Charon laid great stress on the technical educational side of his charitable work. He cannot, however, claim to be the pioneer of technical education in Canada. Laval must be ever remembered in this regard. He had solemnly opened the petit séminaire at Quebec on October 9, 1668, with thirteen scholars, seven French and six savages, out of which he desired to find candidates for a native clergy. He quickly found that some were not apt for study or the ecclesiastical state and he bethought himself of establishing a second course where the pupils might learn to earn their livelihood. A school of "arts et métiers" of considerable importance for the time, grew up simultaneously, both at the seminary and at its country branch of St. Joachim at Cap Tourment where the bishop owned two farms and to which boys were sent for their elementary education and to apply themselves to those works to which they showed the greatest aptitude. In 1685 Mgr. de St. Vallier in the absence of Mgr. Laval and with the assistance of Denonville, had great schemes for the aggrandizement of St. Joachim as a classical college also, but after a year's trial it came to naught. On his return in 1688, Laval reverted to his original plan of St. Joachim as mainly a technical school and in 1693 founded six burses for its pupils. By 1705 it appears to have been, properly speaking, an agricultural school or a model farm. By 1715 it became both an elementary and a Latin school and continued as such till the end of the French domination, whether it maintained its purpose as a school of arts et métiers not being so certain. In 1685 at St. Joachim the "arts and métiers" were flourishing with joinery, sculpture, painting, gilding, etc. There were tailors, shoemakers, edged-tool makers, sawyers, tilers, etc., engaged to teach their trades to the young students.
When Charon and his associates were planning their hospital and school, they had St. Joachim in view as an ideal to reproduce in Montreal. They essayed also to make it a normal school to form teachers for the rural parishes and in this they were seconded by the intendant, Raudot, who wrote in 1707, in their favour for government support. In passing, it may be noted that in 1707, at least, the Charon Frères were teaching navigation and fortification. Unfortunately at this time other matters, concerning the frères hospitaliers as a body having pretentions to be recognized as a religious community, began to occupy the attention of France. The minister, de Pontchartrain, ordered Raudot to publish an ordinance as he did on December 14, 1708, enjoining the hospitaliers to quit their religious uniform, the black capot, the silk ceinture and the rabat and to take no vows, those being declared null, already made. They were to be only laymen living in a community. There was great opposition at this time to the multiplication of religious orders of the more severe types. On June 6, 1708, we find that the king expressed, through the minister, his desire that the sisters of the Congregation should not be cloistered, as he thought this would render him less useful. He also hears that the hospitaliers of the general hospital under M. Charon wished to take a religious uniform and that they are wearing the rabat and taking simple vows. He desires that this shall cease. Later, on May 10, 1710, the king still refuses their insistent demand for recognition as a religious fraternity, on the grounds that their letters patent were granted on the condition that they should take no vows. In 1717 the Charon Brothers, assisted by the Sulpicians, opened a school for boys at Pointe aux Trembles, near Montreal. In 1718, however, the marine department came tardily to their assistance and decided to allow a sum of 3,000 livres for the maintenance of the public school of the hospital, and that of six masters for the parishes of the diocese, and on July 5, 1718, announced to Bégon that the funds for this purpose were to be taken from those originally allotted since 1670 for the encouragement of marriages.
In 1718 and 1719 François Charon was in Paris and he then preferred a request to the king to confirm by letters patent a normal school to be taught by a religious community to be settled at Rochelle to train up teachers for Canada. This community, not named, was undoubtedly the Sons of St. John Baptiste de la Salle, or the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Indeed the Abbé Guibert in his "Histoire de St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle" tells us that two days after certain brothers had been designated for this far off mission and their passage money paid, the permission was cancelled, one of the contributing causes being that it was learned from M. Charon, that de la Salle's brothers would be separated throughout the parishes, an idea militating directly against the spirit of community life. The normal school at Rochelle was not realized. In the autumn of 1719, while bringing over six teachers from France, on the Chameau, François Charon died on the vessel. His loss was a great blow to his institute. His name should be ever held in respect. Frère Turc was now nominated superior by Bishop de St. Vallier and the Sulpicians made it possible for schools to be opened in their parishes of Pointe aux Trembles, Boucherville, Longueuil, Batiscan and Three Rivers.
But although Vaudreuil, the governor, and Bégon, the intendant, may have, in 1718, looked propitiously on the needfulness of the scheme, it was left to de Ramezay to vilify the brothers. On October 4, 1721, the governor of Montreal wrote in exaggerated terms to the council of the marine department that the new teachers were mostly inefficient and incapable, neglectful of their duties to the children and to the eleven old men in the hospital, consuming the goods of the poor instead of being at work in the parishes as expected, that three of those brought by M. Charon had left the community and those remaining were as worthless. He concluded by asking that the money granted up to this time to the Frères Charon should be given to the nuns of the Hôtel Dieu. In spite of de Ramezay's protest the grant of 3,000 livres accorded since 1718, was ratified on March 22, 1722, viz., that 375 livres should be paid annually for the support of eight teachers, two in the hospital, six in the parishes. The instruction was free though voluntary contributions were allowable from the inhabitants to supplement the grant. In the spring of 1723 the home government, taking interest in the movement, gave a passage on the king's ship to twelve men for the service of the hospital and the schools. On their arrival they were distributed according to the orders of Brother Chretien Turc, now superior. In spite of this apparent progress, a rumour was prevalent in Canada that the Charon Frères were about to be suppressed by the court. This was due to the imprudence of Brother Chretien, who, having gone to France to renew the question of a normal school at La Rochelle, was accused of escaping[196] his financial embarrassments caused by the loan raised by him in the name of his community by fleeing from his creditors to the Spanish portion of the Isle of St. Domingo. The Charon Brothers began now to lose the confidence of the people, although they were sustained by the bishop and the continuance of the government grant. Even this was withdrawn in 1730 on the alleged grounds of inefficiency in carrying out the duties for which it was given. In 1737 a second futile attempt was made to induce the Brothers of the Christian Schools to come to Canada. Indeed, Brothers Denis and Pacificus came to Montreal to survey the situation. At last, on October 19, 1745, the two remaining brothers of the moribund institute asked to be relieved of the direction of the hospital. This was acceded to in 1747. The last superior, Michel André, died in June and on August 27th following, by a regulation of the bishop, the governor and the intendant, the charge of the hospital was transferred to Madame d'Youville, who became the foundress of the Grey Nuns, who still continue the work to this day. The people received the change as inevitable. The Charon Frères had outlived their usefulness. François Charon deserves well of Montreal. He initiated a system admirably progressive for the time. Had his followers been as self-sacrificing and as competent as their founder, the noble work he planned would not have fallen on evil days. None the less, their work does not meet from some modern French historians the just appreciation it undoubtedly received from competent authors in its early flourishing days.
FOOTNOTES:
[190] Garneau, Histoire du Canada, Edit. of 1859, Vol. II, page 104; Joseph Edmond Roy, Histoire de la Seigneurie de Lauson, Vol. I, page 495; Benjamin Suite, Histoire de la Ville de Trois Rivières, Vol. I, page 3; Phileas Gagnon, Recensements du Canada, 1871, Vol. IV. The student of the Educational System of New France should consult the work by M. L'Abbé Amédée Gosselin of Laval University, Quebec, entitled "L'Instruction au Canada Sous le régime Français."
[191] Harvard was founded in 1836. On October 28, 1836, the general court of Boston voted 400 pounds sterling for the foundation of a school destined for ministers. John Harvard arrived in 1837. He died in 1838, leaving a legacy to the school, founded two years previously, of four to five hundred pounds sterling and his library.
[192] It was this latter, who was afterwards, under the English rule, to be the first superior at the Petit Séminaire, opened officially in 1773 as the classical college of St. Raphael, the foundations of which he had laid at his presbytery at Longue Pointe. St. Raphael's College is continued under the name of the "College de Montreal" situated on Sherbrooke Street, adjoining the Grand Séminaire, both being on the historical site of the Mountain Mission.
[193] This still flourishes in its various branches in the parishes of Montreal.
[194] In 1694 an expedition was being prepared for Hudson's Bay, but the voyage being long, it was thought good to give the officers a professor of mathematics to occupy them on their way. Father de la Chauchetière was thought of, but eventually another Jesuit, Father de Silvy, an excellent mathematician, was chosen.
[195] In 1773 under the British régime the Society was suppressed by the papal brief "Dominus ac Redemptor." Gradually the members became extinct in Canada. The last of the number in Montreal, whose death was registered in 1791, was Father J. B. Well, celebrated for the length of his sermons, as well as for his goodness of heart. The last Jesuit in Quebec was Father Casot, who died in 1800. The Jesuit estates then were annexed by the crown. It was not till 1847 that the second attempt at a clerical college was made with success when the Jesuits rehabilitated, as an order, after having been recalled to Canada by Bishop Ignace Bourget of Montreal, commenced the present college of Ste. Marie on Bleury Street, which was not ready for occupation till 1851. A school was, however, opened in 1848 in a frame house still standing in 1914 on the southeast corner of St. Alexander and Dorchester Streets. The Church of the Gesu on Bleury Street was not opened for service till December 3, 1865.
[196] In justice to Chretien Turc it must be said that his object was rather to raise funds by embarking on a mercantile project so as to restore the fortunes of the Montreal hospital. Here he failed again, being a man of good heart, but of no business capacity. He left an honoured name in St. Domingo as a worker in charitable causes, but he begged to be relieved of the financial responsibility.
Chapter XXXVIII
1747
THE GENERAL HOSPITAL OF MONTREAL UNDER MADAME D'YOUVILLE
MADAME D'YOUVILLE--TIMOTHEE DE SILVAIN--CONFRATERNITY OF THE HOLY FAMILY--"SOEURS GRISES"--PERSEVERANCE THROUGH OPPOSITION--FIRE OF 1745--PROVISIONAL CONTROL OF HOSPITAL--ATTEMPT TO ANNEX THE GENERAL HOSPITAL TO THAT OF QUEBEC--THE "GREY NUNS" FORMERLY APPROVED AS "SISTERS OF CHARITY."
It was only in 1747 that the tottering fortunes of the Hôpital Général were handed over to Madame d'Youville, but she had long before been designated for this work by M. Louis Normant du Faradon, who had become the superior of the seminary as the successor of M. de Belmont, who died on May 22, 1732. This lady who now enters into the life of Montreal deserves more than passing notice. Marie Marguerite de Lajemmerais was born at Varennes, near the Island of Montreal, on October 15, 1701. Her father, Christophe Dufrost de Lajemmerais, or La Gesmerais, a Breton gentil homme, came to New France in 1687 and served bravely as an ensign under de Denonville against the Iroquois, when he risked his life a number of times and escaped being burned alive by the savages. He was raised to the lieutenancy and under Frontenac he became the commandant of Cataracoui. In 1701, on January 18, he married Marie Renée de Varennes, daughter of René Gauthier de Varennes, who died governor of Three Rivers, and granddaughter of Pierre Boucher de Boucherville. Marie Marguerite was the first of six children left at the death of Captain La Gesmerais, in 1708, in poor circumstances. The widow was married to an Irish gentleman of the name of Timothée de Silvain (or Sullivan), who had received his letters of naturalization and an honorary brevet as king's physician in 1724. He accordingly practiced medicine in Montreal to the satisfaction of the seminary and the general public and with the favour of his patron, M. de Vaudreuil. But on the latter's death the other doctors of Canada disputed his right to practice, but unsuccessfully. M. de Silvain as a good Irishman got into trouble with the Sieur de Monrepos, the justice of Montreal, 1744, and a warrant for his arrest was issued. But owing to the mediation of his brother-in-law, captain of the guard, M. de Varennes, he escaped. But de Varennes was permanently deprived of his command in consequence. Whatever his qualities as a medical man, Madame de Vaudreuil, writing to the minister of marine in 1777, in favor of a cadetship for the youngest of his stepsons, states that M. de Silvain had been a true father and had spared no efforts to give the children an education.
On August 12, 1722, Marie Marguerite de Lajemmerais married, in the parish church, a gentleman of Montreal, M. François Madeleine You d'Youville. It was an unhappy marriage, ending in great poverty through the dissipation and extravagance of the husband who died unexpectedly on July 4, 1730, after eight years of married life, leaving considerable debts, and two boys. Three other children had already died and a fourth died a little after its birth, on July 16, 1730. The widow d'Youville in her grief, without neglecting the education of her children, found consolation in devoting herself to the poor, especially of the hospital of the Charon Frères. In addition she gave proof of executive ability as a member of the ladies of the confraternity of the Holy Family, as treasurer, assistant and superior. Such qualities pointed her out to M. Lescöat, her Sulpician director, and to M. Normant, who succeeded him, as the one who could save the utter decay of the hospital. In 1737 Madame d'Youville associated with herself in her charitable work for the poor a virtuous girl, Louise Thaumur Lasource, a daughter of a physician of the town, to whom were added on December 31st two others, Mademoiselle Demers and Mademoiselle Cusson. These finally on October 30, 1738, having rented a house, undertook the care of four or five poor persons, whose numbers soon rose to six. This move met opposition in certain quarters since it was shrewdly guessed that it was the intention of the seigneurs of the seminary, the directors of the new formation, to prepare this band of women to succeed to the care of the hospital. On All Saints' Day, November 1st, as they were leaving their new home, the women were subjected to insults and stone throwing. The foul calumny was quickly insinuated that they supported themselves by selling intoxicating liquors to the savages and were not above indulging in them themselves. Hence they called them the Soeurs Grises, the word, grises, besides meaning grey, also conveying the approbrious suggestion of drunkenness. In France the name "Soeurs Grises" was given to the devoted daughters of Saint Vincent de Paul, whose grey habits were familiar among the poor and wretched. It was an honoured name. But in Montreal the wits used it in another sense. Time has since had its revenge. The hubbub was so great that one of the Recollect Fathers publicly refused holy communion to Madame d'Youville and her companions. A petition signed by M. Boisberthelot de Beaucourt, the governor of Montreal, by eight officers of the troops and twenty others, was sent to M. Maurepas, minister of marine, protesting the action being taken by M. Normant in preparing to seize the house for the Soeurs Grises as soon as the hospital should cease. They prayed the minister to engage the Brothers of the Christian Schools to incorporate the remaining Hospital Brothers into their institute and thus perpetuate the institution, now ready to close for want of subjects.
The sons of de la Salle could not accept Canada, as we have seen. Unless the Sulpicians trained up Madame d'Youville's devoted band, none others were forthcoming to continue the hospital and it must inevitably close. And as to the seminary seizing on the property of the Charon Frères, this was but rightful, as M. Tronson, the superior of the Seminary of St. Sulpice at Paris, in the original donation of the vast amount of ground for their institution had stipulated that if the hospital should cease, the lands and the buildings thereon should revert to the seigneurs, unless the brothers should prefer to reimburse the price of the land. This had now become impossible.
Meanwhile the four ladies pursued their course, providing the means of sustenance for themselves and their poor by their own needlework till death struck down Mademoiselle Cusson on February 20, 1741. To add to her afflictions Madame d'Youville was afflicted with a knee trouble for six or seven years, which kept her inactive to her chair. Hardly had she recovered when on the last day of January, 1745, an hour after midnight, the house was burned down to the delight of her enemies, who according to her biographer, M. Sattin, exclaimed: "You see that violet flame? It is caused by the burning of the eau de vie kept for the savages." The fire drew the sisterhood nearer to one another and on February 2d, by an act passed before M. Normant, they put all their goods in common and drew up a religious rule of life. A house was offered them by a rich trader, M. Fontblanche, but this the governor, M. de Beaucourt, seized on as more suitable for himself. A charitable Madame Lacorne offered her house, but this was shortly afterwards relinquished for a more commodious one near the parish church to house the three ladies and their nine poor dependants. Meanwhile, things were going from bad to worse at the Hôpital Général, so that at last the administrators of the hospital by letters of August 27, 1747, handed over the provisional control to Madame d'Youville, one of the conditions being that the two remaining hospital brothers should be cared for. This happened under the governor general, the Marquis de Beauharnois, and Intendant Hocquart. The work of making the sadly needed repairs to the dilapidated buildings occupied September and on October 7th Madame d'Youville and her companions took up residence. These latter were Mlles, Thaumur, Demers, Rainville, Laforme, Verroneau and Mlle. Despuis, who remained nine years as a boarder. The hospital now began to realize its title of général, for none but four old men were found there. Soon the number of sick and weak began to increase of either sex without exception of age or condition and the aims of its original charter were being realized. An early side development was the establishment in the top part of the building of a refuge for fallen women, which the soldiers of the town called "Jericho." But changes in government were occurring. M. de Beauharnois was replaced by M. de La Galissonière while awaiting the release of M. de la Jonquière, detained a prisoner in England. The Intendant Hocquart was replaced by M. Bigot.
New schemes were soon on foot, one of which was to unite the General Hospital to the Hôtel Dieu of Quebec or of Montreal, or to General Hospital of Quebec, which latter was approved of by M. de la Jonquière, recently arrived in the colony, and M. Bigot, in a letter to the minister on October 1, 1749. The object was to lessen expenses by curtailing the number of public institutions. But its justice did not appeal to the Montrealers, who were asked to transfer their aged and sick to Quebec, when the Hôpital Général had been founded by Montreal charity for the infirm of their own town. Accordingly, Madame d'Youville and her companions, backed up by M. Normant, petitioned the governor general, the intendant and the bishop, but with little success, owing to the predilection of M. Bigot for the general hospital at Quebec.
On November 23, 1750, an ordinance secretly prepared at Quebec on October 15th, was suddenly proclaimed in Montreal announcing by the sound of the drum that the transfer of the hospital to Quebec was to take place and that the nuns of Quebec could at once sell all the buildings, together with furniture, not easily removable to Quebec, and that those who were opposed to the sale could make their protests to M. Bigot with three months! A curious derangement of the usual practice. It is related that Madame d'Youville was out marketing for her poor when she heard the announcement, for the first time, of her downfall. The people, who by this had changed in their opinions toward the "Soeur Grises" murmured long and loud against this injustice to Montreal in favour of Quebec. A petition was drawn up by M. Normant addressed to the minister and a copy was made to be sent by way of a request to the bishop, the governor general and the intendant, both being signed by the ecclesiastics of the seminary and by more than eighty notables of the town, as the head of whom were the governor, then M. de Longueuil, the lieutenant of the king, the town major, the officers and the magistrates. This petition showed that the union of the hospitals of Montreal and Quebec was null, being contrary to the express word of Louis XIV, given to the citizens in 1692, two years before the foundation of this establishment, namely, that the hospital should subsist in perpetuity at Montreal without being able to change its place or the nature of its pious work, and concluded that as the private charity of many had founded this hospital the ordinance of October 15th could not be legitimate. This petition Madame d'Youville took to Quebec. But while being kindly received by the governor she received scant courtesy from M. Bigot. Meanwhile the case had gone to France, the Quebec religious had begun to take legal possession of the hospital lands and to remove the furniture to Quebec, and July, the time for the evacuation of the hospital by Madame d'Youville, was approaching. At last M. Bigot received the letter of July 2, 1751, of the minister to the governor general and the intendant, ordering the suspension of the execution of the ordinance of October 15, 1750.
Finally on June 3, 1753, letters patent were signed by the king at Versailles, handing over the privileges granted in 1694 to Madame d'Youville and her companions to the number of twelve administratrices. The community received their habit, which was approved by a mandement, of Mgr. de Pontbriant on June 15, 1755. The sisters chose the grey costume, now so familiar, and which was then known in France as "café au lait." They wished to preserve the name of "Grey Sisters" or Soeur Grises given them first in derision. They received their formal investiture of their habits on August 25th at the hands of their patron, M. Normant. Their formal name was, however, "Sisters of Charity."
XXXIX. MONTREAL, MILITARY HEADQUARTERS
THE FINAL STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY--THE SEVEN YEARS, 1756-1763--THE CAMPAIGN OF 1756 (OSWEGO)--THE WINTER AT MONTREAL
REVIEW--CELERON DE BIENVILLE--DE VAUDREUIL--MONTCALM--HIS MILITARY AND HOUSEHOLD STAFF--DE LEVIS, BOURLAMAQUE, BOUGAINVILLE--CHATEAU DE VAUDREUIL--THE MEETING OF MONTCALM AND DE VAUDREUIL--MONTCALM'S POSITION--THE THREE MILITARY ARMS--THE MILITIA, MARINE, REGULARS--THE RED ALLIES--CAPITULATION OF OSWEGO--SACKING--TE DEUM IN THE PARISH CHURCH--THE TWO PREJUGES--WINTER IN MONTREAL--GAMING AT QUEBEC--A WINTER WAR PARTY--SOCIAL GAYETIES AT MONTREAL--SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS--SHIPS AWAITED.
The long peace during which Montreal had made great progress was at last to end. The Seven Years' War began formally in 1750, when France, Austria and Russia entered the lists against England and Prussia, and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. We are now to study the history of Montreal in the period during which the final struggle for the mastery between the English and the French powers was being fiercely maintained. Montreal played a peculiar part as the headquarters of military operations, to be directed for defence and offence, by way of Lake Champlain, against the heart of the British settlements. This was the most natural point of attack, as the other two routes for the invasion of Canada offered little encouragement--the lower St. Lawrence on the east being guarded by the natural and almost impregnable fortress of Quebec, the upper St. Lawrence on the west being protected by a long chain of dangerous rapids. If we delay on the events of 1756-60, it is because this was the crucial and pivotal point of Canadian history and Montreal was for the most part the headquarters of de Vaudreuil and Montcalm, who directed the military operations thence. Before entering on these fateful years, let us review the situation.
The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was concluded on October 8, 1748. By it an official and fictitious peace ruled between England and France, but in the colonies the rival powers were still disputing the possession of territories and influence, whether in India or in America. In the latter country there were frequent skirmishes on the frontiers of Acadia. In the summer of 1749 Galissonière, the hump-backed but high-minded administrator general, sent out to vindicate French rights in the valley of Ohio, Céleron de Bienville, one of the Le Moynes, a chevalier of St. Louis and a captain in the colonial troops. Leaving Lachine on June 15th, he took with him twenty-three birchwood canoes, with fourteen officers and cadets, twenty soldiers, a hundred and eighty Canadians and a band of Indians, to the district of the Ohio and the Alleghenies, where he buried six leaden plates at various places, to mark French occupation.
The same policy of vindication was followed under the Sieur de la Jonquière, made governor, on August 16th of the same year, and the Marquis du Quesne, succeeding him August 7, 1752. This activity provoked the recriminations of Virginia and the other colonies west of the Alleghenies, the treacherous slaying of the young Coulon de Jumonville and nine of his band, on May 28, 1754, being one of the events which woke up Canada and France to the farcical make-believe of peace between the two nations. England was ready to declare war, but France, weakened after the Austrian Succession, impoverished in her finances, with a decadent marine service, immersed in religious and parliamentary troubles, and its people loaded with taxes, sought to temporize and to stave off the inevitable crisis.
In the month of January, 1755, the English government provoked the French to defend Canada, by sending Major General Braddock, with two regiments, to command the regular and colonial troops. Accordingly on May 3, 1755, a squadron of fourteen ships sailed from Brest, bearing about three thousand soldiers for America, under the command of Admiral Dubois de la Motte. With the fleet were M. de Vaudreuil, son of the former Governor of Montreal, himself now governor general elect, his appointment being dated from July 1Oth, and the Baron de Dieskau, commissioned as commandant of the troops which were sent out. Their journey was interrupted by the English pirates, who captured the Alcide and the Lis, making prisoners of M. Rigaud de Vaudreuil, brother of the governor general, and himself the Governor of Three Rivers, several officers and eight companies. Similar acts of piracy, directly countenanced by the English government, were being committed on the seas, and they provoked lively indignation in France. But, although the Marquis de Mirepoix, the French ambassador at the Court of St. James in London, was recalled and shots were being interchanged in America, so that Baron de Dieskau was wounded and taken prisoner at Lake George by General William Johnson, yet conflicting views in France between the parties led by the Count d'Argenson, minister of war, and M. de Machault, minister of marine, delayed any decision that year.
In January, 1756, however, it became necessary to look around in France for a successor to Dieskau and to prepare a new body of troops for Canada, to be sent that spring. D'Argenson's choice fell upon the Marquis Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, then at Montpellier, a soldier of forty-four years of age, who had seen many campaigns. Montcalm lost no time in arranging his staff and household retinue. Since these are to figure in the life of Montreal of their period, we give their names. His first aide-de-camp was Louis Antoine de Bougainville, of whom Montcalm wrote in his journal: "He is a young man of light, and literary ability, a great geometrician, known for his work on the integral calculus; he belongs to the Royal Society of London, and aspires to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, where he could have had a place, had he not preferred to go to America to learn the trade of war and to give proofs of his good will." He was highly recommended to the new maréchal de camp, a dignity equivalent to that of a general of brigade. Bougainville was named, before leaving, Capitaine réformé. The second aide was M. de la Rochebeaucour, "a gentleman of good birth from Poitou, a lieutenant in Montcalm's cavalry," The third, a working aide-de-camp, acting as secretary, was an under-officer of the Flanders Regiment, named Marcel, a sergeant, who now became lieutenant réformé.
Among his household attendants he included "a cook and his assistant, a demi valet-de-chambre, Grison, Joseph, Dejean, as first lacqueys, and two other men in livery." "I am going away in great style, with the young surgeons whom the king is sending."
His military staff appointed by the king included, as brigadier, François Gaston, Chevalier de Lévis, cousin of the Marquis de Mirepoix, recently the French ambassador in London but now named lieutenant general of Languedoc, and M. de Bourlamaque as colonel. The Chevalier de Lévis was in his thirty-seventh year, being born in 1719; he had served in one of the regiments of the marine department in the campaign in Bohemia in 1741-42; he was at the battle of Dettingen and took an active part in the campaigns on the Rhine from 1743 to 1756. This gallant soldier, already distinguished for his bravery and military qualities, has left his name in Canadian history. Colonel Bourlamaque had been captain and staff adjutant in the Dauphin Regiment. With Montcalm's staff there were also two engineers, des Combles and Desandrouins.
At Brest, the point of departure, the two battalions of the La Sarre and Royal-Roussillon, each composed of thirteen companies, were ready to depart, when Montcalm arrived on March 21st, and met the personnel of his staff. By the 26th the battalions were all embarked on three vessels. Montcalm and Bougainville were on the Licorne, commanded by M. de la Rigaudière, and with Captain Pelegrin, of whom Montcalm wrote to his family before departing that "he could sail the Saint Lawrence with his eyes shut," The rest were distributed on the other vessels, the Sauvage and the Sirène. But the Licorne was prevented from leaving the roadstead till April 3d.
At last, after a stormy voyage, the Licorne reached Quebec on May 13th, a few hours before Montcalm, who, in his eagerness to reach Quebec, had disembarked the day before to make the rest of the journey by calèche. On arriving at the capital the honours were paid to the new general by the Intendant Bigot in the absence of the Governor de Vaudreuil, then in Montreal.[197] Speaking of the magnificence of the dinner and the good cheer provided by Bigot, Montcalm wrote in his journal that a "Parisian would have been surprised at the profusion of the good things of every kind." In their turn Monseigneur de Pontbriand and the Chevalier de Longueuil and others entertained him.
Montcalm sent a courier at once to Montreal to announce his arrival, but contrary winds and the bad state of the roads prevented his own departure till May 23d. Reaching Montreal on May 26th, he was received with courtesy by the governor general, Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, the son of Philippe de Vaudreuil, Governor of New France from 1703 to 1725. He was announced with the welcome of cannon, "an honour which was not due me in France," he wrote in his journal, "but in point of honours there are particular usages in the colonies."
The meeting was at the Château de Vaudreuil, the almost permanent residence of the governor since the outbreak of the war and his military headquarters during the years of 1756-1760, although Quebec still continued to be the capital of government and the religious Vatican of Canada till 1759. Montreal was thus a focus of activity, of military and social splendour, such as it had never been before. Château Vaudreuil was the centre of much official life and formality. Staff officers, officers, soldiers and redskins, brilliant extremes in their picturesque costumes, were to be seen hurrying to and fro, the Esplanade and quay fronting the château presenting a busy and ever changing coloured throng. Then there was the constant arrival of fresh convoys, and the military movements of the soldiers through the streets to the sound of fife and drum. All this gave Montreal an unaccustomed animation and brilliancy. With Montcalm's advent there would soon arrive his own fashionable entourage, his household staff and his military staff from France, to add still greater éclat. Soon, too, the regiments of La Sarre and Royal-Roussillon would come to invade the town's resources and to add to its gayety, its love adventures and its scandal, before they were sent out to various danger points to offset the perilous war preparations now being made by the English.
Already the Béarn regiment had been sent to Niagara; those of La Reine and Languedoc were at Carillon; Guyenne was on the road to Fort Frontenac, whither shortly La Sarre would join them. The destination of Royal-Roussillon regiment was not so quickly made known. The La Sarre regiment left Quebec in two divisions on June 5th and 6th and arrived at Montreal by water on June 13th and 16th. The Royal-Roussillon made the journey by land, the first division leaving Quebec on June 10th and the second on June 11th, reaching Montreal after eight or nine days' march. Relative to the water journey, an officer of La Sarre thus describes the arrival at Montreal: "We arrived at Montreal, where M. le Général awaited us, to dispose of his army. Montreal is a very large town and very exposed to conflagrations, its houses being all built of wood. The 'ton français' prevails; the vocation for marriage is in favour, and there are very pretty girls who entertain us. We have already had five of our officers married. 'On y est orgueilleux quoique pauvre, et il n'y a que le particulier qui y régit des postes en état de suffire au train qu'ils menent.'"
The meeting of the governor general with his commander in chief may be thus described: Montcalm was a thorough Frenchman, and Vaudreuil a native Canadian. Born in Quebec on November 22, 1698, Vaudreuil had served most of his time in this colony save when he exercised the functions of governor in Louisiana from 1743 to 1745. He was the embodiment of that préjugé colonial, which existed against officials from the mother country; while Montcalm stood for a corresponding préjugé métropolitain. This antipathy was the fruitful seed of much discord, and increased the agonies of the death struggle of the French régime. Therefore, although Vaudreuil received Montcalm with affability, it was not unmixed with jealousy. Before the arrival of Montcalm, Vaudreuil had protested to the minister of war, that there was no need of a general officer from France at the head of the Canadian battalions, which preferred to fight under one of their own commanders, who understood the mode of warfare suitable in this country, while those from France were disdainful of the Canadian troops. This was the prevalent opinion shared by the greater part of the Canadian officers. Indeed, it was the ordinary conflict between colonial susceptibility and European haughtiness, not unknown even today.
The interview, however, seems to have left a good impression on both sides. In the letter of Vaudreuil, written to d'Argenson, the minister of war, on June 8th, and that of Montcalm to de Machault, minister of marine, both express mutual admiration of one another. At the same time, writing more freely to d'Argenson, his patron, Montcalm says, "M. de Vaudreuil pays particular respect to the savages, loves the Canadians, knows the country, has good sense, but is tame and a little weak, and I get on well with him."
Vaudreuil's natural weakness for the Canadians, due to his birth and education, was enhanced by his marriage with Fleury de la Gorgendière, a Canadian, the widow of François de Verrier, an officer of the marine troops, by whom she had a son and daughter. Madame de Vaudreuil had no children by the second marriage, but she had many relatives in the colony and maintained the reputation of being exceedingly jealous of their advancement.
What was Montcalm's position? His commission, signed by Louis XV, at Versailles, on March 17, 1756, places him in all things under "Our Governor General in New France," and the instructions of his majesty to Montcalm are still more precise. He was to be the executive officer, with power of representation. "In a word," says his majesty, "it will be the duty of the governor general to rule and arrange everything for the military operations. The Sieur de Montcalm will be held to execute the orders given him. He will, however, be able to make suitable representations in accordance with the projects entrusted to his execution. But if the governor general believes he has reason sufficient, not to defer to them, and to persist in his dispositions, the Sieur de Montcalm will conform without difficulty or delay." This definition of duties, while it clipped somewhat the wings of the initiative of the ambitious maréchal de camp, nevertheless had the merit of clearness.
Let us now see the threefold composition of the forces in the little Canadian army, over which Vaudreuil and Montcalm are to have control--the land troops, the marine and the militia forces. The militia or yeomanry forces were composed of all the male population from fifteen to sixty years of age. This was, as we know, the oldest part of the service. Every parish and district had been organized in companies with capitaines de la côte, chosen from the most substantial men of the district, who would muster their men when required for war purposes. Their dress and equipment was similar to the regular soldiers and when in service they were fed at the king's expense, but received no pay, although they had a right for remuneration when called upon for corvées, for convoys and transports. In 1756 the Canadian militia numbered as high as 14,000 men, but, except at the end of the war, when the final crisis approached, there were never more than 4,000 in active service at once, since the necessity of having to attend to their crops made frequent returns to their parishes imperative. Canada had reason to be proud of her sturdy and brave yeoman militia.
The second military arm was the marine service or the marine troops. Not that they served on the sea or inland waters, but they were so denominated because they were under the jurisdiction of the minister of marine affairs. This service had been in Canada for over fifty years and constituted a permanent standing force, having charge of the garrisons and posts, and were employed for the defence of the frontier and the maintenance of order in the colony. Most of the officers were Canadian by birth; some came from France and became settled colonists here. Many of the prominent explorers and military leaders had held commissions in this force. In 1756 these troops formed thirty companies of sixty-five men, making a total of 1,950 men.
The third and main branch was the land troops or regulars, specially sent from France. We have seen this method pursued before in former emergencies. At present the troops in Canada were the second battalions of the regular infantry belonging to the regiments, called after the names of the provinces or regions, from which they were raised, of La Reine, Guyenne, Béarn and Languedoc. These made a contingent of 2,100 men, being composed of forty-eight companies of fusiliers of forty men each, and four companies of grenadiers of forty-five men each. Disasters on the voyage out, sickness, and the battle at Lake George had reduced their numbers, at the arrival of Montcalm, to an effective force of 1,652 men. Add to these the 1,050 men belonging to the second battalions of the La Sarre and Royal-Roussillon Regiments. In the month of June, of this year 1756, the Chevalier de Montreuil, major general of the troops, made the following recapitulation: La Reine, 327 men; Languedoc, 326; Guyenne, 492; Béarn, 498; La Sarre, 515; Royal-Roussillon, 520; to which it is necessary to add 150 volunteers and 918 recruits, giving a total of 3,752 men, not counting the officers.
Such were the three forces to be directed from the military capital of Montreal.
Montcalm, settled in Montreal, had a busy time keeping his staff in constant activity, only hoping, however, for peace for that winter, which was not to be. Among those whom he met constantly were M. Doreil of the commissary department, the boastful and somewhat inefficient Chevalier de Montreuil, adjutant major general of the troops, and the notorious Intendant Bigot, who came from Quebec to organize the provisions of the regiments and whose activity, at first, very favourably impressed Montcalm.
He soon became acquainted with his red allies. On June 3d, according to his journal, he received a complimentary visit from the Iroquois of Sault St. Louis, who came with their "ladies" to compliment him on his arrival and to felicitate Onontio, the governor. They gave Montcalm a necklace and he assured them that he would visit them in return. Writing on June 16th to his wife, he describes this occasion: "They are a dirty gentry, even when fresh from their toilet, at which they pass all their time; you would hardly believe it, but the men always carry to war, along with their tomahawks and guns, a mirror, by which they daub their faces with various colours, and arrange feathers on their heads, and rings in their ears and noses. They think it a great beauty to mutilate the lobes of their ears at an early age, so as to stretch them till they fall on the shoulders. Often they wear no shirt at all, but only a laced jacket; you would take them for devils or masqueraders. They would exercise the patience of an angel. Moreover, these gentry wage war with astonishing cruelty, slaying women and children alike: They scalp you most skilfully, an operation from which one ordinarily dies.... In general all that Père Charlevoix[198] says is true--with the exception of their burning their prisoners; that has almost gone out of fashion."
Meanwhile the military plans were being completed. As news came that the English were mostly menacing the frontier of Lake St. Sacrement (Lake George), it was decided to send the Royal-Roussillon Regiment to Carillon (called by the savages Ticonderoga), where the forces were concentrating. Thither also, at the command of the governor, went Montcalm, on June 27th, accompanied by the Chevaliers de Lévis and Montreuil. There he worked hard for twelve days with indefatigable zeal, preparing the forts to be able to resist English attacks and organizing the military and commissariat departments. Leaving Lévis in command, he returned to Montreal on July 16th at the call of the governor. He had had his first experience of the home infantry and the differences between Canadian conditions in campaigning and those of France. He had learned that the Canadian soldier was very independent, and that the savages needed special treatment. Yet he wrote to his family at this time that he had succeeded at present with the Canadians, and with the Indians, whose bearings he had also taken.
Montcalm was recalled to undertake the siege and capture of Chouaguen (Oswego), a stronghold of the English and the key of the situation. This project, being meditated by Vaudreuil from the first days of his governorship, was undoubtedly hazardous and problematical, and Montcalm and Lévis and the others from France had always feared failure, unless a combination of lucky conditions should favour them. Vaudreuil, in spite of a certain hesitancy, still believed it was possible, as indeed did Bigot, and Montcalm set out from Lachine on July 21st with his aide-de-camp Bougainville. They made their portages successfully around the rapids of the Sault, so that they reached the post of La Présentation on the 27th, arriving at Frontenac on the 29th, where he hoped to find the battalions of La Sarre, Guyenne and Béarn already there, with de Bourlamaque, M. Rigaud de Vaudreuil, brother of the governor general, and a body of colonial troops, Canadians and Indians, to the number of 1,500 men, and engineers and artillery, and then he would attempt to make a landing, hard by Oswego, in preparation for the siege. We cannot follow the story of the fall of Oswego. Suffice it to say that within ten days after embarking from Frontenac on August 4th, Fort Chouaguen or Oswego, hitherto thought impregnable, had capitulated on August 14th to Montcalm.
That same night he sent an officer to Vaudreuil at Montreal to bear to him the five flags of the regiments of Shirley, Pepperell and Schuyler. The story of the riotous sacking of the post is sad reading but Montcalm cannot be justly accused of countenancing it. "The Canadians and Indians," says Parkman (Wolfe and Montcalm, I, p. 413), "broke through all restraint and fell to plundering. There was an opening of rum barrels and a scene of drunkenness in which some of the prisoners had their share; while others tried to escape in the confusion and were tomahawked by the excited savages. Many more would have been butchered but for the efforts of Montcalm, who by unstinted promises succeeded in appeasing his ferocious allies, whom he dared not offend. 'It will cost the king,' he says, 'eight or ten thousand livres in presents.'"
From the 16th to the 20th of August the work of demolition was continued. By the 21st at the place where five days before the powerful English fort of Oswego stood nothing but burning ruins remained, on which Montcalm caused a cross and a stake with the arms of France to be placed, bearing these inscriptions:
In hoc signo vincunt," and Manibus date lilia plenis."
After the fall of Oswego, Montcalm having embarked on August 23d, arrived at Montreal on the 26th, wearied out but buoyed up by his triumph after a month's absence, during which he had traversed over six hundred and fifty miles, taken three forts, captured a war flotilla, made prisoner an army and seized from the enemy an immense store of provisions, and secured for France the undisputed rule over the majestic Ontario. Chouaguen had been the apple of discord and its fall was a decisive success for the colony.
The joyful colony met in the churches to celebrate the victory. In the parish church of Montreal, three days after Montcalm's return, an imposing ceremony occurred at which the solemn Te Deum was sung and M. de Bourlamaque and M. de Rigaud, in the name of the governor general, publicly presented the conquered English flags to the Abbé de Tonnancour, a member of the diocesan chapter. Outside the church the public joy was made manifest by many effusions of the Canadian muse. One set of song verses from an anonymous Pindar, addressed to the governor general, comes down to us, beginning:
_Nous célebrons du grand Vaudreuil La sagesse et la gloire Toute l'Angleterre est en deuil Au bruit de sa victoire._
The bishop of Quebec, Monseigneur de Pontbriand, published a mandement, of thanksgiving, full of patriotic enthusiasm and appreciation of Vaudreuil, and calling the taking of Oswego the "action, the most memorable that has taken place since the founding of the colony, ... it is the more astonishing since we have had only three of our men killed and ten to twelve wounded. The Canadians, the troops from France and the colonial forces, even the savages, have signalized by their mutual emulation their zeal for the fatherland and the service of his majesty."
Not all were entirely pleased with this mandement, for there were allusions to "timid spirits," which Montcalm and his chief officers took to refer to themselves for their previous doubts on the hazardous possibility of capturing Fort Chouaguen, for they knew the prevalent opinion, held by the Canadians, that the French troops, because unaccustomed, did not understand guerrilla warfare, in which, however, the colonial troops had become very expert. Vaudreuil was triumphant, success justified him. In his dispatches to the minister he has no praise for Montcalm, whom he represents as timorous, vacillating, and indisposed to undertake the siege. On the other hand, the Canadian officers, Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, his brother, and the Chevalier de Mercier, were accredited with being the moving and dominant spirits. Family pride manifests itself frequently in such expressions, as "my brother" did this, "my brother" did that, while his own egotism finds play in similar uses of the first person, varied by "My brother and I."
Montcalm's private judgment of these was written on August 17th from Oswego to de Lévis at Carillon: "Do you remember that Mercier is an ignoramus and a weak man ... all the rest are not worth the trouble of speaking about, even my first lieutenant general, Rigaud." Of the Canadian militia he wrote this appreciation to d'Argenson, the minister of war, "I have employed them usefully but not at works exposed to the fire of the enemy. They know neither discipline nor subordination; j'en ferais dans six mois des grenadiers, et, actuellement, je me garderais bien d'y faire autant de cas que le malheureux Monsieur Dieskau y en a fait, pour avoir trop écouté les propos avantageux des Canadiens, qui se croient, sur tous les points, la première nation du monde."
Once more in the above conflict we see the presence of the préjugé colonial and the préjugé métropolitain again in evidence. It existed between the two protagonists of the period, Vaudreuil and Montcalm, and it was there with the officers and rank and file of both parties. Five months of acquaintance had formed for Vaudreuil a profound aversion to Montcalm, while the latter judged the former a mediocre and vain man, suspected his sincerity, thought him a double dealer, a victim to favoritism, and conceived an antipathy which unhappily daily increased.
After the fall of Oswego, Montcalm visited St. Jean and Carillon, and as it became evident by the end of October that the campaign was finished for the year, the troops were disposed for winter quarters, the regiment of La Sarre being placed at Pointe aux Trembles, Longue Pointe, Rivière des Prairies, Lachine and Pointe Claire; that of Béarn at Boucherville, Longueuil and La Prairie, and the Languedoc Regiment at Montreal itself. The other regiments from France were placed at Quebec, Chambly, St. Charles and St. Antoine, along the Richelieu river. Three Rivers had no French troops.
Montcalm spent the winter in Montreal, with the exception of a trip to Quebec in January, for a month. On November 24th his letter to Bourlamaque from Montreal gives an indication of a time of leisure, for amusement. "M. le Chevalier (de Lévis) passes the time socially at Madame de Pénisseault's house. He has been to a great supper party at M. Martel's. As for myself I play at backgammon, or I have a hand at whist with my general, Madame Varin occasionally, or Madame d'Eschambault." From the end of November to the end of December the audiences with visiting delegations of Indians occupied the attention of Vaudreuil and the military authorities. Montcalm spent the New Year's day alone but on January 3d he joined Vaudreuil and de Lévis at Quebec, whither they had gone on December 31st. His object was to visit the troops garrisoned there under Bourlamaque. The presence of the distinguished visitors in Quebec gave rise to a series of brilliant receptions and balls in an already brilliant season, at which the Intendant Bigot surpassed even himself by his splendour. The fashionable gayety of the capital, then numbering about twelve hundred souls, at this period of peril, is saddening, being only equalled by the venality and corruption abounding. Montcalm reports, "Quebec has appeared to me as a town of very high tone; I do not believe that in France there are a dozen surpassing Quebec in society." He had to note that excessive gaming was the order of the day. The Intendant Bigot indulged his taste in it and Vaudreuil also complacently permitted the extravagances, although many of the officers were ruined by them.
During his stay in Quebec, Montcalm carried out the policy, so energetically inaugurated by Talon, of inducing the soldiery to marry with the view of settling down. But he did not approve so much of the marriages of his officers, for he feared that they would make mediocre marriages, as some indeed did, with the rashness of youth. Montcalm enjoyed his stay in Quebec; its gayeties appealed to him more than those of Montreal, whither he returned shortly.
During the months of February, March and April, Vaudreuil organized from Montreal one of those winter war parties at which the Canadians were past masters. Having received news at Three Rivers, where he was ill from pleurisy, that there had been a brush between an English and a French party at Carillon, he conceived the project of sending a war party to try a coup de main against Fort William Henry, at the head of Lake St. Sacrement (Lake George). This enterprise, directed from Montreal, resulted in an appreciable success, in that it broke down the preparations of the English in that part, for a campaign against the French.
This war aroused fresh dissensions between Vaudreuil and Montcalm, the latter complaining of the expense and also imagining that the governor wished to put in relief the colonial and militia forces to the detriment of the battalions from France. Montcalm in his letter to the minister of marine on April 24th could not, however, but acknowledge the success of these severe manoeuvres, with their snowshoe marches over lakes and through forests, and terrible tempests, and the bivouacs by night under the cold stars. Yet he added with pride that "the Canadians have been astonished to see that our officers and soldiers have not been a whit behind them in method of war and march, to which they were not accustomed. It must, however, be admitted that in Europe they have no idea of the hardships which one is obliged to endure during the six weeks of marching and sleeping, as it were, always on the snow or the ice, and of being reduced to bread and lard, and often having to drag or to carry provisions, for fifteen days." He also mentions that the winter had been very severe, "the thermometer being many times down to twenty-seven, often eighteen to twenty, and nearly always from twelve to fifteen, minus. There has been an astonishing quantity of snow."
Yet these military preoccupations did not hinder the gay routine of social engagements at headquarters during this winter of 1757. The presence of the governor general, Montcalm, de Lévis and the military staff gave much éclat and life to Montreal with its succession of balls, receptions and dinners. Never had Montreal seen such a carnival. In all this, as befitting his high rank, the general had to share. In his correspondence with Bourlamaque, Montcalm gives us in his letter of February 14th a picture of the fashionable society of the time.
"Since being here I pass my time giving big dinners to parties of fifteen or sixteen persons and sometimes suppers, aussi nombreux sans en être plus gaillards. Il faut souhaiter que l'hiver prochain on en puisse faire qui puissent dédommager. On Sunday, I gathered together the ladies from France, with the exception of Madame Parfouru, who did me the honour to visit me, three days ago; in seeing her I perceived that love has powerful attractions, of which one can render no reasonable account; not by the impression which she has made on my part, but especially by that which she has made on her husband. Wednesday, a gathering at the house of Madame Varin;[199] Thursday, a ball at that of the Chevalier de Lévis, who had invited sixty-five 'dames ou demoiselles.' Thirty would have been enough, so many men being away in the war. The hall was brilliantly illuminated; it is as large as the intendant's; much ceremony and attentive hospitality, refreshments, in abundance, all the night, of every kind and species, and the party did not leave till seven o'clock in the morning. I, however, who had given up the gay life of my stay at Quebec, went to bed at an early hour. I had had, however, the same day, a supper for eight ladies, in honour of Madame Varin. Tomorrow I shall give another for half a dozen. I do not know yet to whom it is to be given, but I am inclined to think it will be Madame Rochebeaucour. The gallant chevalier is giving us another ball. The public imagined that our aides-de-camp were to give a mardi gras; but I have advised them to wait until after Easter and after the success of our detachment, when it will be more suitable to give public marks of joy."
Amidst these gayeties and his official duties in preparation for the hazardous campaigns of spring, Montcalm did not neglect to write to his family, for whom he prepares, for the departure of the boats in spring, chatty accounts of his daily doings, interspersing them with amusing Canadian sketches. He tells his wife on April 16th of the doings of his household staff, his men, the gayeties. "Everything is very expensive. One must live according to one's rank and I do it. Every day, sixteen persons at table. Once a week with the governor general, and with M. de Lévis, who also lives well. He has given three fine balls. As for myself,--up to Lent, besides the dinners, great supper parties with ladies three times a week." He speaks of the games of chance he could not refuse, the impromptu dancing parties after the suppers; very expensive, not very entertaining and oftentimes boresome. "... I have had my assistant cook married, for I am bent on peopling the colony. Eighty soldier marriages this winter and two of officers.... The ladies are witty, courteous and pious. At Quebec, they are gamesters; at Montreal conversations and the dance prevail." He speaks highly of his good relations with de Lévis, Bourlamaque, the colonial and militia troops, the savages; of his intense desire to rejoin them and his impatient desire for peace; of the likelihood of the commencement of military operations on the frontier of Lake St. Sacrement on the 12th or 15th of May. "... Adieu, my sweetheart, I adore and love you, I embrace my daughter, my mother."
The winter gayeties of Montreal this year did not close without an additional zest being imparted by the visit of a contingent of ladies from Quebec. "Mesdames de St. Ours[200] and de Beaubassin and Mesdemoiselles de Longueuil and Drucour arrived yesterday evening," wrote Montcalm on March 14th to Bourlamaque at Quebec; this meant renewed exchange of hospitality.
Meanwhile spring had arrived and as yet the boats from France had not appeared with the provisions for the troops. Quebec was menaced with a famine. The intendant was obliged to distute 2,000 bushels of grain to the habitants to seed their lands and there was a fear of want of flour, as the 14th of May had already passed. Montreal, less poor in wheat, sent some down to Quebec. This penury paralyzed operations, for it was impossible to put the troops in motion without provisions. Their objective was the frontier of Lake St. Sacrement. The governor wished to concentrate at Carillon as great an army as possible, to attempt the siege of Fort William Henry. This scarcity of provisions became daily more alarming, as May came to an end. There was talk of horse flesh being supplied instead of pork. At last the news came that the David and the Jason of Bordeaux, laden with provisions, arms, and men, were coming up the river, bringing news from France, that would give new zest to the conversation, after being so long sequestered, during the winter seclusion, from contact with the mother country.
FOOTNOTES:
[197] Henri Marie Dubreuil de Pontbriand had been consecrated Bishop of Quebec on April 9, 1741.
[198] "L'Histoire de la Nouvelle France," published in 1744.
[199] M. Varin was in charge of the commissariat of the marine department of Montreal. In 1733 he had married at Montreal, Charlotte de Beaujeu, daughter of Louis de Beaujeu, Chevalier de St. Louis, major in the colonial troops.
[200] Madame de St. Ours was a daughter of Louis Henri Deschamps, Seigneur de la Rivière-Ouelle. Madame Beaubassin, whose society was sought by Montcalm, was the wife of Pierre Hertel, Sieur de Beaubassin, and daughter of Jean Jarret de Verchères, Seigneur de Verchères. She was therefore a niece of Madeleine de Verchères, of heroic fame. The Mesdemoiselles de Longueuil were daughters of the Lieutenant of the King at Quebec, and the Mesdemoiselles de Drucour, probably those of the Commandant of Louisbourg.
Chapter XL
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1657
THE SIEGE OF WILLIAM HENRY--WINTER GAYETY AND GAUNT FAMINE
SHIPS ARRIVE--NEWS OF GREAT INTERNATIONAL WAR--RED ALLIES IN MONTREAL--STRONG LIQUOR--PREPARATIONS FOR WAR--FORT WILLIAM HENRY FALLS--ARRIVAL OF SAVAGES AND TWO HUNDRED ENGLISH PRISONERS--CANNIBALISM--THE PAPER MONEY--FEAR OF FAMINE--MONTCALM'S LETTER TO TROOPS ON RETRENCHMENT--A SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE--GAMING AMID SOCIAL MISERY--HORSE FLESH FOR THE SOLDIERS--DE LEVIS PUTS DOWN A REVOLT--THE "HUNGER STRIKE"--THE LETTERS OF MONTCALM--BIGOT AND LA GRANDE SOCIETE--"LA FRIPONNE" AT MONTREAL--MURRAY'S CRITICISM. NOTE: THE PECULATORS.
The ships brought news of grave changes in France. The result of the alliance between Austria and France, concluded on May 1, 1756, had been that France had now become embroiled in a great international war. There had also been an attempt of assassination on the life of Louis XV. But what particularly affected the government of Montreal was the information that the minister of war, d'Argenson, and of marine, de Machault, had been succeeded respectively by M. de Paulmy and M. de Mauras--due to the influence of Madame de Pompadour. These changes were not looked upon with too much favour by those responsible for Canada in the critical period it was now in. To Montcalm the serious loss of his patron, d'Argenson, was somewhat mitigated by the knowledge that M. de Paulmy, the minister succeeding, was d'Argenson's nephew. The change of M. de Machault, with whom Montcalm had had less relations, was less distasteful, as the new minister, de Mauras, was the brother-in-law of Madame Hérault, the protectress of his first aide-de-camp, Bougainville; moreover, there were common ties between the de Hérault family and that of Montcalm.
The vessels from France had lightened the strain of provisioning the army, but the needs of the army and the gatherings at Montreal of a vast number of redskins, attracted by the success at Oswego to take up the axe against the English and share in the campaign, caused Vaudreuil, acting on a suggestion made by Montcalm as early as March, to send Martel, the storekeeper, around the Montreal district to commandeer rations for a month for 12,800 men. On June 22d, more than eight hundred of these wild allies were encamped around Montreal, and 300 more were expected from Détroit. According to the enumeration in Montcalm's journal there were: 400 Ottawans,[201] 100 Poutéouatamies, about four hundred Puants, Sakés, Folles-Avoines and Iowas. The latter had never been seen before at Montreal and their language was unknown.
The streets and public places saw an incessant passing to and fro of dusky braves, armed for the warpath, with lances, bows and arrows, with bodies almost entirely naked, or loosely draped in their beaver or buffalo coverings, vividly painted in red or blue or black, with their heads shaven except for the topknots, in which were stuck the tufts of multicoloured feathers. A great number were of colossal stature; and these copper-coloured giants, fierce in aspect, guttural in speech, and strikingly tattooed, moved around the town, ight to the citizens, and mingled with the French officers and soldiers, whose brilliant European uniforms produced a strange contrast with their barbaric but picturesque accoutrements. Sometimes they would be seen wending their way, with their interpreters, to the Château de Vaudreuil to pay their respects to the governor, whose inexhaustible patience offered no rebuff to their interminable deputations. Now, they would go in a band to carry on their Indian dances before the houses of the chief officials.
Montreal with its bronzed soldiery, who had warred beyond the Rhine, crossed the Alps and braved the suns of Italy, presented in this meeting of two races, two civilizations so widely divergent, a wonderfully moving and dramatic spectacle. But there was a pitiable reverse to this picture. At times when the strong liquors had seized them, their camps became veritable pandemoniums, and revolting scenes were enacted. Already presentiments of horrible extravagances were experienced by the officers from France, such as Bougainville, who wrote of his fierce, drunken and bloodthirsty allies to Madame de Hérault on June 30th: "I will tell you that we count on two sieges and a battle, and your child trembles at the horrors he will be forced to witness. There will be difficulty in restraining the savages from up country, who are the fiercest of men and great cannibals. Listen to what their chiefs said just three days ago to M. de Montcalm, 'My father, do not count upon our giving quarter to the English. We have with us young men, who have not yet drunk of this broth (blood). This fresh flesh has led them hither from the ends of the universe. They have to learn to wield the knife and to plunge it into an English heart.' Such are our companions, ... what a spectacle for a human heart!"
Everything was now ready for the campaign. By the 18th of June Montcalm was with de Lévis at St. John; thence he proceeded to Chambly to inspect the troops, and the military roads, and suitable places for camping. By the end of June the troops were ordered to move, and on July 2d de Lévis went to take command of the troops at Carillon. On July 9th Vaudreuil gave his instructions to General Montcalm. He was to take Fort George (or Fort William Henry) and then, on its fall, he was to go to the siege of Fort Lydius (or Fort Edward), situated fifteen miles from Fort George and from Lake St. Sacrement. That same day Montcalm with Bougainville went to the Lake of Two Mountains to join in the war song with the Algonquins and the Nipissings of the district and he returned to Montreal on July 11th, having received the name of Goroniatsigoa, that is to say, the "Great Sky in Anger." On the 12th, Montcalm departed for Montreal for St. John, which he left on July 15th with the colonial officers, de Rigaud, Dumas, de St. Ours, de Bonne and many others under the escort of the Guyenne grenadiers and a small detachment of Ottawans. Three days afterwards he arrived at Carillon.
Meanwhile Vaudreuil remained at Montreal, directing the war from his cabinet. We cannot follow this campaign in detail, but we may pursue the fortunes of Montcalm somewhat. On July 29th he found himself, with 7,819 men, advancing to Fort William Henry, his force composed of 2,570 land troops; colonials and militia, 3,470; gunners, 180; and Indian allies, 1,599. On August 1st he began the siege of William Henry, held by Colonel Monroe with 2,200 men. On August 9th Colonel Monroe perforce capitulated, having hung out the white flag at 7 a. m. that morning. It was a glorious victory, but marred by the shameful extravagances, feared by Montcalm and the others, of the Indians, who, glutted with victory, broke the capitulation agreement.
This event may be summed up in the account given in Bancroft's "History of the United States," II, p. 467:
"To make the capitulation inviolably binding on the Indians, Montcalm summoned their war chiefs to council. The English were to depart under an escort with the honors of war on a pledge not to serve against the French for eighteen months; they were to abandon all but their private effects; every Canadian or French Indian captive was to be liberated. The Indians applauded; the capitulation was signed. Late on the 9th the French entered the fort and the English retired to their entrenched camp. Montcalm had kept all intoxicating drinks from the savages; but they obtained them of the English, and all night long were wild with dances, songs and revelry. The Abenakis of Acadia inflamed other tribes by recalling their sufferings from English perfidy and power. At daybreak, they gathered round the entrenchments, and as the terrified English soldiers filed off, began to plunder them, and incited one another to use the tomahawk. Twenty, perhaps even thirty,[202] persons were massacred, while very many were made prisoners. Officers and soldiers, stripped of everything, fled to the woods, to the fort, to the tents of the French. To arrest the disorder Lévis plunged into the tumult, daring death a thousand times. French officers received wounds in rescuing the captives, and stood at their tents as sentries over those they recovered. 'Kill me,' cried Montcalm, using prayers and menaces and promises, 'but spare the English who are under my protection,' and he urged the troops to defend themselves. The march to Fort Edward (Fort Lydius) was a flight; not more than six hundred reached there in a body. From the French camp Montcalm collected together more than four hundred, who were dismissed with a great escort, and he sent Vaudreuil[203] to ransom those whom the Indians had carried away."
Bougainville's journal tells how "the savages (those from up country) arrived in a mob at Montreal with about two hundred English. M. de Vaudreuil reprimanded them for having violated the capituion treaty; they excused themselves and threw the blame on the domiciliated tribes settled with the French. It was announced that they must give up the English prisoners unjustly captured and they would be paid two barrels of eau-de-vie apiece for them." Even with this shameful ransom the savages released their prisoners only with reluctance, "for," says Bougainville, "on the 15th, at two o'clock in the afternoon, in the presence of the whole town, they killed one of them, put him into the kettle and forced his unfortunate compatriots to feed on him."
On the same evening, at Lake George, the columns of smoke from the heaps of cinders and the last flickering flames from the dying fires were the only indications of the site where eight days before the bastions of Fort William Henry had stood. The campaign was virtually over and Montcalm returned to Montreal at the beginning of September, a victorious general. But he had not attempted to take Fort Edward or Lydius, much to the chagrin of Vaudreuil. The reasons for this, as given by his aide-de-camp, in a letter to the minister of war on August 18th, seem sufficient. "The extreme difficulty of making a portage of ten leagues without oxen or horses, with an army almost worn out with fatigue and want of food, the lack of ammunition, the necessity of sending the Canadians back to gather in their harvests, already ripe, the departure of all the redskins from the upper countries, as well as nearly all of the more civilized ones nearer home: such are the invincible obstacles which did not permit us to march immediately to Fort Edward." Grave reasons, enough, but they did not satisfy the governor general, who had watched the situation from the comfortable quarters of Government House, eighty leagues from the theatre of war, and he did not hesitate to send his complaints to France, insinuating the inefficiency of Montcalm, his strained relations with the colonial officers and want of consideration for the home forces and unwise treatment of the savages. On the other hand, the letters of Bougainville go to show the extreme popularity of the general with all classes. We cannot enter into a discussion of the rights and wrongs of their bitter controversy; we quote it as a sidelight, illustrating the division in the highest circles of Montreal during this period--the préjugé colonial and the préjugé métropolitain, over again![204]
When Montcalm went to Quebec in September after the victory of William Henry he tells us that he found the air of the town "very commercial and stock jobbing." It was the time of the year when the card money was exchanged for letters of exchange on the treasurer of the marine department in France. The same activity would therefore be engaging Montreal. From September 1st to September 20th the people were bringing in to the treasurer the card money and the money orders which, besides the current coinage, which was very scarce, constituted the monetary system of the colony. The card money, created by the Intendant de Meulles, was equivalent to our bills on the government of Canada. But with the increase of the public expenditures, it was thought fit to have recourse to another instrument of exchange, and the intendants had sent out, under their sole signatures, "ordonnances" bearing an order number and an indication of their nominal value, inscribed in figures and in writing. These cards and ordonnances had currency only in the limits of Canada. It was necessary, therefore, that they should be transformed into other values, for commercial needs of importation and the financial relations between the colony and France. Thus, every autumn the treasurer exchanged them for paper negotiable outside the country. From the 1st of September to the 20th he gave "bonds" or their equivalent, and these were taken from the 1st of October to the 20th to the bureaux of the intendant, who gave in return the letters of exchange on the marine deparment of France. Thus the colony paid its bill to the mother country. The system worked well till 1753. But afterwards, owing to the deplorable financial conditions and the growing expenditures in Canada, the ministers adopted a system of delayed payments in three terms. Montcalm, in his journal, alludes to this practice. "The intendant regulates the terms of payments. Last year they were made payable during the year in three payments. This year they are made payable in three years, viz., a quarter in 1758, a half in 1759, and another quarter in 1760."[205]
In the middle of October, news came to the garrison of Montreal by an open letter of Montcalm on October 14th, sent through de Lévis, to the lieutenant colonels of his regiments, of the retrenchments ordered in the food supplies owing to the harvests having been ruined by frosts and rains that year, and to the provisions expected from France not having been sent through error. "We are about to find ourselves," ended the letter in an eloquent and soldierly appeal, "in most critical circumstances for want of good supplies. We are in need of bread this year; the means that they are about taking to supply it will make us in need of meat next year. Whatever difficulties the troops in the country experience in living with the habitants, their soldiers will have less to complain of than will those who are in the town garrisons. The times are going to be harder than at Prague in certain respects. I am, at the same time, persuaded that this is going to be the finest opportunity of glory for the land troops, as I am sure, in advance, that they will lend themselves to it entirely in the best taste, and that we shall hear no complaints or jeremiads on the rarity of supplies, seeing there is no remedy. Thus we are ready to give the example of frugality necessary by the retrenchment of our table fare and expenses, and I venture to say that that officer, who in place of priding himself on his good cheer, on spending and entertaining, like every French officer accustomed to notions of rank and liberality, will live the most meanly, will give the surest marks of his love for his country, for the king's service, and will be worthy of the greatest praise."
This letter, which did honour to the general, was written in consequence of a meeting called in Quebec on October 13th by Vaudreuil, at which Montcalm, Bigot, Péan and the commissary general, Cadet, were present to consider the terrible question of failing provisions. The Intendant Bigot submitted an exposé of the situation. The commissariat department contained only 1,500 quarts of flour; the quests in the southern districts had only returned 2,000 hundredweights; the government of Montreal could only furnish 600, to that of Quebec.
It was then decided that, commencing from November 1st, each soldier would receive the following rations every eight days: a half pound of bread every day, and a quarter pound of peas, six pounds of beef and two pounds of codfish for the eight days. In December they would begin to be given horseflesh--this to continue in January and February; pork was to be kept for the autumn. Montcalm made several judicious propositions, one being that soldiers should be dispersed into those villages where none were as yet quartered, and that the example of frugality, and retrenchment should be immediately set by himself, the governor general, the intendant and the others. This self-denying ordinance was at once generously acted upon. Writing to de Lévis next day, enclosing the open letter as above, Montcalm, speaking of the new régime of retrenchment, says: "All the colony applauds; the intendant not so much. He loves display."
Yet, sad to relate, in spite of these noble resolutions, the gayeties among the rulers of the colony, were soon revived at Quebec, while misery and famine were gnawing at the vitals of the common people. Bigot continued giving his luxurious receptions; music, sumptuous fêtes, dances and balls, illicit amours and gaming, went on fast and furiously in his house, with Vaudreuil complacently assisting. Even Montcalm was present at the great banquets and lost his money at the gaming tables like the rest. Many of his officers were becoming ruined. At times he would get qualms of conscience and he would write in his journal: "We are amusing ourselves and thinking of nothing; all is going and will go to the devil!" Again: "In spite of the public misery, balls and fearful gaming!" Then he would write to the batallions that if they played in any but the privileged houses (such as those of the intendant "out of the consideration due to him") he would punish them, adding that even in this case, he would expect them to play discreetly. Then he would make a resolution only to go to the intendant's house in the morning. "The tone of decency, of polite manners, of good society is banished from the home where it ought to be." Yet he frequented the house of Bigot and that of his paramour, La Péan, as at Montreal de Lévis was the constant visitor of Madame Pénisseault.
Meanwhile misery reigned in the colony. The people in Quebec continued to have no bread. In the country places wheat was rare, and an ordinance was passed to prevent the inhabitants from milling the grain necessary for seeding purposes.
From October 19th the rations of the troops had been reduced to a pound of bread, a quarter pound of pork and four ounces of peas. On November 1st, they were further reduced. Finally in December the troops and the people had to eat horseflesh. At Montreal when the first distribution of this was made it was perceived that a revolt was fermenting among them and that they had been incited by the people to make resistance. Being warned that the soldiers were refusing the rations and were leaving the canteen, de Lévis ran thither, ordered the company to be reassembled and in their presence made them cut some horseflesh for himself and commanded the grenadiers also to take some. These wished to make some representations, but he checked them, enjoining on them obedience and threatening to hang the first man that flinched, adding that he would listen to them after the distribution.
The grenadiers, thus subdued, took their meat and their example was followed by all the companies. Then they had the liberty to air their grievances. After having listened to them, de Lévis harangued them, disabusing them of the popular prejudice being aroused against horseflesh. "Horse meat was a healthy dish; that it was often eaten in besieged towns; that he would have an eye to it that the animals slaughtered should be in good condition; that he himself dined on it daily;[206] that the land troops ought to give a good example, etc." There were no more difficulties. They seem even to have taken to the dish, according to the following incident related in de Lévis' journal: "On 'the day of the Kings' (January 6), 1758, eight grenadiers of the Béarn regiment brought M. de Lévis a dish of horse meat prepared in their own fashion, which was very good. The chevalier made them sit down and dine, and ordered them some wine and two dishes of horse prepared by his own cooks, who proved to be not as good as theirs. In addition he gave them four louis, so that the company should celebrate the feast and drink to his health."
The ladies of Montreal were among the first to stir up resistance. When the first partial substitution of horseflesh for beef was made, they trouped tumultuously to the doors of the Château Vaudreuil. The governor allowed four of them to enter and asked them what they wanted. They replied that they wanted bread. Vaudreuil told them that he had none to give them; that even the troops were on short rations, but that he was going to kill horses and cattle to assist the poor in this time of misery. They replied that horseflesh was repugnant to them; that the horse was the friend of man; that religion forbade it to be killed, and that they would rather die than eat it. The governor then told them that this was mere nonsense; that horse was good meat, and he dismissed them, affirming that if they created any more disturbance he would put them in prison and hang half of them.
Thus was the "hunger strike" of 1757 dealt with.
The letters of Montcalm from Montreal, which have been carefully studied by M. Thomas Chapais in his "Montcalm," published in 1911, reveal to us a sad state of corruption and venality in high places at Quebec and Montreal. We may quote M. Chapais' estimate of the situation. In answer to the charge that Montcalm hated the Canadians he says: "This is not so; he loved our people and appreciated their real qualities at their true value. He wrote to M. Moras (the minister of marine) on July 11, 1767: 'What a colony! What a people!... They are all thoroughly men of character and courage!' He had sympathy for the 'Canadian simple habitant,' who for his part loved and respected him, and Montcalm had reason to believe, as he said, that he was popular. But he had little esteem for a great number of the Canadian high functionaries and officers of the country. He criticized their vanity, their spirit of boastfulness, their duplicity and their unscrupulousness. We believe that he was too inclined to generalize to the point of pushing his antipathies too far. He did not guard himself against the anti-colonial prejudice, with which the troops of the line were certainly affected and which, in spite of himself, made his judgment err at times. A Canadian historian is wounded in his national 'amour propre' in reading the journal and letters of Montcalm. The allusions to Canadian insincerity, Canadian braggadocio, Canadian rudeness, occurred too frequently for our liking. And we rightly find that the spirit of ill-humour and caustic carping is too easily indulged in, to the detriment of the sons of the soil. But we must not, for this reason, tax with injustice and with blind prejudice all the severe strictures passed by Montcalm. Hélas! We are forced to agree that he had under his eyes spectacles of a nature calculated to ruffle an honest soul and a clear-sighted mind, pretentious incapacity, insatiable cupidity, shameless indelicacy and dishonesty. And we ought not to be astonished that bitter expressions had been ready to mount from his heart to his lips. Doubtless distinctions have to be made and Montcalm knew how to make them. Thus we find frequently from his pen eulogiums on de Villiers, de Contrecoeur, de Ligneris, de la Naudière, de Langy, Marin and many other Canadian officers. But when he denounces the robberies of Cadet, of Péan, of Duchesneau and of so many other peculators, can we accuse him with injustice because these were born in Canada?"
This leads us to speak of the "grande société" of functionaries who were waxing rich at the public expense at Quebec and Montreal. The chief of these was Bigot, the intendant, a Frenchman; with him were the Canadians, Cadet, Péan, Duchesnaux; and acting in concert with them at Montreal was the Frenchman Varin, in charge of the commissariat department, who had associated with him Martel, the keeper of the stores, and the Sieur de Pénisseault, whom they placed in charge of a store to monopolize the commerce of Montreal. This is known as "La Friponne," or "The Cheat," after the parent one at Quebec.
This notorious group of men, with whom were others less conspicuous, were then in the very height of their successful efforts to "get rich quick," in the system of peculation and robbery established by Bigot.
Bigot was a type of the adventurer that helped to ruin Canada. His great objective was to make his fortune as quickly as possible. Eager for pleasure, a dissolute gamester, fastidious in his tastes, pushing his love of luxury to incredible excesses, he had need to make money quickly to satisfy his craving for the enjoyments of life. Withal, he was an intelligent, active worker, full of resources and address, clever to surmount obstacles and even to render great services to the country in difficult situations.
From his arrival in Canada he had joined illicitly in commerce with the Gradis, shipowners of Bordeaux, as well as with Bréard, controller of the marine at Quebec, whom he had interested in his business affairs in order to buy his complicity.
The intendant juggled away the rights of His Majesty's customs in declaring the merchandise brought in by his Bordeaux accomplices, as that of the king. The royal stores were always found to be needing just those articles, which their vessels always had in abundance. The sales were concluded under fictitious names or of those who lent them for the nefarious purpose. The controller, Bréard, complacently signed the invoices and marked fictitious prices. Finally Bigot bought these goods for the king at an extravagant rate. Others became associated with the embezzlers and soon it became a public scandal. Among those daring speculators were the infamous triumvirate, of whom two were men of low extraction but of undoubted ability, Duchesneau, Bigot's secretary, the son of a Quebec shoemaker; Cadet, the son of a butcher and himself once a cattle watcher of a Charlesbourg habitant; the third was Hugues Péan, Sieur de Levandière, son of a former adjutant at Quebec.
The illicit liaison of this man's wife with Bigot and the complacent acquiescence of Péan in the arrangement was public property. Like Louis XV, Bigot had his Pompadour and her influence was considerable.
The extent of misery to which these schemers drove the common people seems almost incredible. These associates, with whom Bigot and the triumvirate were popularly connected and whom the public designated "la grande société" soon came to lay their hands on all "le grande commerce." A spacious building was constructed near the intendancy, on ground belonging to the crown. Vast storehouses were built there. The ostensible object was to sell goods by retail, but in reality the design was to warehouse all the goods habitually needed by the government stores. Each year Bigot had to send to the court a list of the goods necessary for government purposes for the coming year. This was always left incomplete. Hence in a short time there was a dearth, and then it was found by the luckiest of chances that the stores of the associates always had just the desired articles in stock. Thus retail merchants were excluded by this monopoly and prices were raised, and the privileged establishment was baptized by the long-suffering public under the name of "La Friponne" (the cheat).
It has been thought useful to describe the methods of "La Friponne" of Quebec in order to explain the similar one, set up in Montreal by Varin, the head of the government commissariat here. He is described as born in France, of low extraction, small in figure and of an unattractive appearance, a liar, arrogant, capricious, headstrong and a libertine. In order to become rich, in imitation of the Quebec monopolists, he laid violent hands on the supplies for the posts above Montreal, and not to compromise himself personally he associated with himself Martel, the king's storekeeper of the town. Varin and Martel equipped the camps and did large business. They set up a store on similar lines to those at Quebec, which also the people were not slow in nicknaming "La Friponne." Over this was placed the Sieur de Pénisseault, an able manager, but who had the reputation of having left France under a cloud. The newsmongers of the salons of this period say that Péan stood in well with Madame Pénisseault regardless of consequences until he gallantly yielded his place to a more brilliant star in the person of the dashing Chevalier de Lévis. The morals of Paris and Versailles were being reflected in the humbler salons of Quebec and Montreal.
Before leaving Pénisseault it may be added that he was the appointed agent at Montreal of Cadet, who had been appointed in 1756 commissary general of the stores in Canada. Herein was a new opportunity for battening on the treasury which was exercised to its utmost. Pénisseault was assisted in Montreal by the hunchback, Maurin, deformed in mind as in body, but a clever and avaricious trader, though at times ostentatiously generous. These two had been terribly scourged by the pen of the annalist of the period. ("Mémoires de Sieur de C.," p. 87.)
Another source of illicit revenue came to these latter in conjunction with the associates of "La Grande Société," which is attested in the final judgment rendered in Paris in 1763, when tardy justice meted out more or less adequate reward to this ring of embezzlers. We may conclude this chapter with General Murray's criticism as follows:
"The small salaries given by the French government to the civil officers in general made them neglect their duty and wreck their invention to cheat and trick both king and people. This was carried to such a length that many instances may be cited of clerks and men in petty offices with yearly salaries of only six or eight hundred livres, raising to themselves, in the compass of three or four years, fortunes of three or four hundred thousand." (Observation in General Murray's Report in 1762 on the State of the Government During the French Administration.)
NOTE
THE PECULATORS
The number of those afterwards accused of peculation[207] was fifty-five, including the governor, Pierre de Rigaud; Marquis de Vaudreuil and his secretary, Saint-Sauveur; the intendant, Bigot; Varin, his sub-delegate; and Duchesneau, his secretary; Bréard, controller of the marine department; Estèbe, the keeper of the king's stores in Quebec; Cadet, commissary general of supplies for Canada; Corpron, merchant, and his agent; Péan, captain and aide-major of the marine troops in Canada; Le Mercier, the commander of artillery in Canada. All these were well known at Montreal, but we may add to them the following who were stationed here and who acted as the associates of the peculators whose headquarters had been at Quebec before the change of government to Montreal; Martel de Saint-Antoine, La Barthe, Fayolle, keepers of the king's stores at Montreal; Maurin, Pénisseault, merchants, partners and agents of Cadet in his offices here; Le Moyne-Despins, a merchant employed in furnishing provisions to the army; Martel, of the marine commissariat; and Salvat, employed in the stores department. The rest were either commandants of forts or storekeepers.
Of the fifty-five accused, twenty-one, and these the chiefs, alone appeared, having undergone a long imprisonment in the Bastille; the rest were judged in their absence. The final judgment was pronounced on December 10, 1763, of which the following is a partial résumé:
Bigot--Perpetual banishment; property confiscated; 1,000 livres of fine and 1,500,000 livres restitution.
Varin--Perpetual banishment; property confiscated; 1,000 livres of fine and 800,000 livres restitution.
Cadet--Nine years' banishment; 500 livres of fine and 600,000 livres restitution.
Duchesnaux--Five years' banishment; 50 livres of fine and 300,000 livres restitution.
Pénisseault--Nine years' banishment; 500 livres of fine and 600,000 livres restitution.
Maurin--Nine years' banishment; 500 livres of fine and 600,000 livres restitution.
Corpron--Condemned to be admonished in parliament; 6 livres to the poor and 600,000 livres restitution.
Martel de Saint-Antoine--Six livres to the poor and 100,000 livres restitution.
Estèbe--Six livres to the poor and 30,000 livres restitution.
With incarceration of the offenders until the amounts should be paid.
The Marquis de Vaudreuil, Le Mercier and Fayolle were acquitted; La Barthe, hors de cours, or "not proven." Péan's sentence was not pronounced till June 25, 1764; he was then declared hors de cours, but in view of his illegitimate gains he was condemned to restore 600,000 livres and to be kept in the Bastille until restitution had been made.
FOOTNOTES:
[201] The Ottawans or the "Sauteux" from Michilimackinac were the first to arrive and on the 14th they waited on Montcalm to compliment him on the victory of Oswego. The slight and small figure of the general astonished them, but the light that leaped from the piercing eyes of the little man revealed to them a great leader: "My father," they said, "when we heard news of the great things you have done we counted on finding you tall like the great pines of the forest, but now we see you, we find the grandeur of the pines in your eyes. We look upon you as an eagle and your children are ready to do great deeds with you."
[202] Father Roubard, who was an eye witness, says: "The massacre was not, however, as considerable as so much fury would seem to make us fear; it hardly amounted to forty or fifty men"; and, Lévis wrote on his side, "that fifty scalps had been taken."
[203] I. e., sent them to Vaudreuil in Montreal.
[204] Those wishing to follow this interesting causerie should read "Montcalm" by M. Thomas Chapais, 1911. It is a notable contribution to the history of the period.
[205] Cf. General Murray's Report, Constitutional Documents, Canadian Archives, English Version, p. 49.
[206] At Quebec, the people took more kindly to the new fare. Montcalm was the first to give a good example. He had it served up at his own table in every form except as soup, and he enumerates some of them: "Petits pâtés de cheval à l'espagnol: cheval à la mode; escaloppe de cheval; filet de cheval à la broche avec une poivrade bien liée; semelles de cheval au gratin; langue de cheval au miroton; frigoussé de cheval; langue de cheval boucanée, meilleure que celle d'orignal; gâteau de cheval, comme les gâteaux de lièvre."
[207] Cf. "Jugement rendu souverainement et en dernier resort dans l'Affaire du Canada, 10 Decembre, 1763." Dussieux, p. 169.