Montreal, 1535-1914. Vol. 1. Under the French Régime, 1535-1760
by William H. Atherton · English · Gutenberg #47809 · 1,449,073 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Montreal, 1535-1914. Vol. 1. Under the French Régime, 1535-1760
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: Montreal, 1535-1914. Vol. 1. Under the French Régime, 1535-1760
Author: William H. Atherton
Release date: December 29, 2014 [eBook #47809]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47809
Credits: Produced by Charlene Taylor, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe,
Christian Boissonnas and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
images generously made available by The Internet
Archive/Canadian Libraries)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MONTREAL, 1535-1914. VOL. 1. UNDER THE FRENCH RÉGIME, 1535-1760 ***
[Illustration: Wm. H. Atherton.]
MONTREAL
1535-1914
UNDER THE FRENCH RÉGIME
1535-1760
By
WILLIAM HENRY ATHERTON, Ph. D.
_Qui manet in patria et patriam cognoscere temnit
Is mihi non civis, sed peregrinus erit_
VOLUME I
[Illustration]
ILLUSTRATED
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
MONTREAL VANCOUVER CHICAGO
1914
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
1535-1542
HOCHELAGA
THE ARRIVAL OF JACQUES CARTIER AT HOCHELAGA ON HIS SECOND
VOYAGE TO CANADA--HIS ROYAL COMMISSION--THE FRUITLESS DEVICE
OF DONNACONA TO FRIGHTEN CARTIER FROM VISITING HOCHELAGA--THE
DIFFICULTY OF CROSSING LAKE ST. PETER--THE ARRIVAL AND
RECEPTION AT HOCHELAGA--JACQUES CARTIER THE FIRST HISTORIAN OF
MONTREAL--DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN--CARTIER RECITES THE FIRST CHAPTER
OF ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL OVER AGOHANNA, THE LORD OF THE COUNTRY--MOUNT
ROYAL NAMED AND VISITED--CARTIER'S ACCOUNT OF THE VIEW FROM THE
MOUNTAIN TOP--CARTIER'S SECOND VISIT IN 1540 TO HOCHELAGA AND TO
TUTONAGUY, THE SITE OF THE FUTURE MONTREAL--THE PROBABLE VISIT OF
DE ROBERVAL IN 1542. NOTES: THE SITE OF HOCHELAGA--HOCHELAGA'S
CIVILIZATION--CANADA--GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF MOUNT ROYAL AND THE
MONTEREGIAN HILLS. 1
CHAPTER II
1516-1627
COLONIZATION
UNDER THE EARLY TRADING COMPANIES OF NEW FRANCE
FRENCH COLONIZATION, A CHRISTIANIZING MOVEMENT--THE CROSS
AND CROWN--ROBERVAL'S COMMISSION TO COLONIZE CANADA AND
HOCHELAGA--FEUDALISM PROJECTED--CRIMINALS AND MALEFACTORS TO BE
SENT AS COLONISTS--JACQUES CARTIER SAILS IN ADVANCE--CHARLESBOURG
ROYAL, THE FIRST COLONY, STARTED--CARTIER SAILS FOR HOCHELAGA AND
PASSES TUTONAGUY--CARTIER SAILS SECRETLY FOR FRANCE--CHARLESBOURG
A FAILURE--DEATH OF CARTIER--HIS GREAT NEPHEW, NOEL, VISITS THE
GREAT SAULT IN 1557--THE FIRST PRIVATE MONOPOLY TO NOEL AND
OTHERS--THE FIRST ROYAL TRADE MONOPOLY TO DE LA ROCHE--THE EDICT OF
NANTES--CHAUVIN, A HUGUENOT, SECURES A TRADE MONOPOLY--TADOUSSAC,
THE COURT OF KING PETAUD--EYMARD DE CHASTES RECEIVES A COMMISSION
AND ENGAGES THE SERVICES OF A ROYAL GEOGRAPHER, SAMUEL DE
CHAMPLAIN--CHAMPLAIN'S FIRST VISIT TO THE SAULT--DE MONTS, SUCCEEDING
DE CHASTES, RETAINS CHAMPLAIN AS HIS LIEUTENANT--QUEBEC CHOSEN
BY CHAMPLAIN--CHAMPLAIN BECOMES A COMPANY PROMOTER AND MANAGING
DIRECTOR, THE SHAREHOLDERS BEING MOSTLY HUGUENOTS, THE PRINCE DE
CONDE, GOVERNOR GENERAL--CHAMPLAIN'S BLUNDER IN ALLYING HIMSELF WITH
THE ALGONQUINS AND HURONS AGAINST THE IROQUOIS, AFTERWARDS THE CAUSE
OF IROQUOIS HOSTILITIES AGAINST THE FUTURE MONTREAL--THE COMING OF
THE "RECOLLECTS"--CHAMPLAIN'S ATTEMPT AT A REAL COLONIZING SETTLEMENT
AT QUEBEC--THE JESUITS ARRIVE--THE COMPANY OF ONE HUNDRED
ASSOCIATES 23
CHAPTER III
1603-1625
THE GREAT SAULT
CHAMPLAIN THE FIRST TRADER
THE HISTORY OF HOCHELAGA AFTER CARTIER'S VISIT--CHAMPLAIN, THE
FIRST CARTOGRAPHER OF THE ISLAND OF MONTREAL--ITS DESCRIPTION
IN 1603--CHAMPLAIN EXPLORES THE NEIGHBORHOOD--PLACE ROYALE IN
1611--ST. HELEN'S ISLAND NAMED--THE FIRST TRADING TRANSACTION
RECORDED--CHAMPLAIN SHOOTS THE RAPIDS, 1613--THE EXPLORATION
OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY--1615 THE FIRST MASS IN CANADA AT RIVIERE
DES PRAIRIES--1625 THE DROWNING OF VIEL AND AHUNTSIC AT
SAULT-AU-RECOLLET--THE INTENTION OF CHAMPLAIN TO MAKE A PERMANENT
SETTLEMENT ON THE ISLAND 35
CHAPTER IV
1627-1641
COLONIZATION
UNDER THE COMPANY OF ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES
THE CHARTER OF THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES THE BASIS OF THE SEIGNEURIAL
SYSTEM TO BE AFTERWARDS ESTABLISHED AT MONTREAL--THE ENGLISH IN
1629 CAPTURE QUEBEC--1632, CANADA AGAIN CEDED TO THE FRENCH--1633,
THE COMING OF THE JESUITS--THE RECOLLECTS DO NOT RETURN--THREE
RIVERS IS ESTABLISHED--DESCRIPTION OF COLONIAL LIFE AT QUEBEC--DEATH
OF CHAMPLAIN IN 1635--THE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS TO BE IMITATED
AFTERWARDS AT MONTREAL--THE "RELATIONS DES JESUITES"--THE IROQUOIS
BEGIN THEIR ATTACKS--THE NEWS OF A REINFORCEMENT AND DISAPPOINTMENT
THAT MONTREAL HAS BEEN CHOSEN AS ITS HEADQUARTERS 49
CHAPTER V
1640-1641
MONTREAL
THE COMPANY OF NOTRE DAME DE MONTREAL
PREVIOUS COLONIZATION REVIEWED--MONTREAL CEDED TO SIEUR DE CHAUSSEE
IN 1636 AND LATER TO DE LAUSON--THE DESIGN OF THE SETTLEMENT
OF MONTREAL ENTERS THE MIND OF M. DE LA DAUVERSIERE--THE FIRST
ASSOCIATES OF THE COMPANY OF NOTRE DAME DE MONTREAL--THE CESSION
OF THE ISLAND OF MONTREAL TO THEM IN 1640--THE RELIGIOUS NATURE OF
THE NEW COLONIZING COMPANY--TRADING FACILITIES CRIPPLED--POLITICAL
DEPENDENCE ON QUEBEC SAFEGUARDED--M. OLIER FOUNDS THE CONGREGATION OF
ST. SULPICE IN PARIS IN VIEW OF THE MONTREAL MISSION--PREPARATIONS
FOR THE FOUNDATION AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FULLY ORGANIZED
SETTLEMENT OF "VILLA MARIE"--PAUL DE CHOMEDEY DE MAISONNEUVE CHOSEN
AS LOCAL GOVERNOR--THE CALL OF JEANNE MANCE TO FOUND THE HOTEL
DIEU--THE EXPEDITION STARTS--MAISONNEUVE ARRIVES AT QUEBEC--THE FIRST
CLASH OF THE GOVERNORS--MONTMAGNY OFFERS THE ISLE OF ORLEANS FOR THE
NEW SETTLEMENT--MAISONNEUVE IS FIRM FOR THE ISLAND OF MONTREAL--THE
FIRST FORMAL POSSESSION OF MONTREAL AT PLACE ROYALE--WINTER AT ST.
MICHEL AND STE. FOY--FRICTION BETWEEN THE RIVAL GOVERNORS 57
CHAPTER VI
1642-1643
VILLE MARIE
FOUNDED BY PAUL DE CHOMEDEY DE MAISONNEUVE
THE DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION FROM MONTREAL--THE ARRIVAL
AT PLACE ROYALE--THE "VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS" AND MASS ON THE
"COMMON"--VIMONT'S PROPHECY--ACTIVITIES OF ENCAMPMENT--THE
FIRST REINFORCEMENT--THE FIRST QUASI-PAROCHIAL CHAPEL BUILT IN
WOOD--ALGONQUINS VISIT THE CAMP--FLOODS AND THE PILGRIMAGE TO THE
MOUNTAIN--PEACEFUL DAYS--PRIMITIVE FERVOUR AND SIMPLICITY--THE
DREADED IROQUOIS AT LAST APPEAR--FIRST ATTACK--THE FIRST
CEMETERY--"CASTLE DANGEROUS"--THE ARRIVAL OF THE SECOND
REINFORCEMENT--_Les Véritables Motifs_. NOTES: THE HURONS,
ALGONQUINS AND IROQUOIS 73
CHAPTER VII
1644-1651
PROGRESS AND WAR
THE COMPANY OF MONTREAL CONFIRMED BY LOUIS XIV--MAISONNEUVE
REAPPOINTED GOVERNOR--A SYNDIC ELECTED; THE FIRST STEP IN
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT--THE BUILDING OF THE HOTEL-DIEU--MILITARY
HISTORY--PILOT, THE WATCHDOG OF THE FORT--THE EXPLOIT OF PLACE
D'ARMES--FEAR OF IROQUOIS--LABARRE'S REINFORCEMENT--AGRICULTURE
BEGINS--MONTREAL'S FREE TRADE MOVEMENT--THE FIRST IROQUOIS WAR
IS OVER--MAISONNEUVE GOES TO FRANCE--THE PROMOTION IN PARIS OF A
BISHOPRIC FOR MONTREAL--CHARLES LE MOYNE--THE FORTIFICATIONS OF THE
FORT--WAR AGAIN--THE SALARIES OF THE GOVERNOR OF QUEBEC, THREE RIVERS
AND MONTREAL--THE CAMP VOLANT--FINANCIAL GLOOM IN MONTREAL--MUTUAL
BENEFIT ASSOCIATION--A PICTURE OF MONTREAL--A TAX PERILOUS, SUDDEN
AND FREQUENT--THE HOTEL-DIEU A FORTRESS FOR FOUR YEARS--THE
ABANDONMENT OF THE SETTLEMENT THREATENED--MAISONNEUVE GOES TO FRANCE
FOR SUCCOUR--THE SKELETON SOLDIERS--MONTREAL A FORLORN HOPE 87
CHAPTER VIII
1652-3
CRITICAL YEARS
LAMBERT CLOSSE, COMMANDANT
MAISONNEUVE'S SUCCESS IN PARIS--MADAME DE BULLION'S
DONATIONS--"PARMENDA"--THE EXPLOIT OF LAMBERT CLOSSE--THE PHANTOM
SHIP--MONTREAL REPORTED AT QUEBEC TO BE BLOTTED OUT--PROPOSALS OF
PEACE FROM THE ONONDAGAS--MARCH OF MOHAWKS ON MONTREAL--CHARLES LE
MOYNE AND ANONTAHA TO PARLEY FOR PEACE--A PATCHED UP PEACE--THE END
OF THE SECOND IROQUOIS WAR 105
CHAPTER IX
1653-4
THE SECOND FOUNDATION OF MONTREAL
THE GREAT REINFORCEMENT OF 1653
MAISONNEUVE RETURNS WITH A RELIEF FORCE--THE MONTREAL CONTINGENT
THE SAVIOURS OF CANADA--THE ORIGIN AND TRADES OF THE NEW
COLONISTS--MARGUERITE BOURGEOYS, THE FIRST SCHOOLMISTRESS,
ARRIVES--HER CALL--SHIP FEVER--ARRIVAL AT QUEBEC--THE GOVERNOR
OF QUEBEC WOULD RETAIN THE RELIEF CONTINGENT--MAISONNEUVE FIRM
FOR MONTREAL--THE WORK OF CONSOLIDATING THE ENLARGED COLONY AT
VILLE MARIE--BUILDING ACTIVITIES--AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL
OCCUPATIONS--MARRIAGE CONTRACTS--JEANNE MANCE AND MARGUERITE
BOURGEOYS, THE MOTHERS OF THE SETTLEMENT--THE KNIGHTLY MAISONNEUVE, A
"_Chevalier sans reproche_"--THE MILITARY CONFRATERNITY--THE
MOUNTAIN CROSS REPLACED--MEDICAL CONTRACTS--THE GOVERNMENT OF
MONTREAL--THE ELECTION OF A SYNDIC--THE "NEW" CEMETERY--THE NEW
"PARISH" CHURCH--THE MARRIAGE OF CHARLES LE MOYNE WITH CATHERINE
PRIMOT--A RARE SCANDAL--THE PRIMITIVE FERVOUR STILL MAINTAINED 111
CHAPTER X
1654-1657
IROQUOIS AND JESUITS
THE DEPARTURE OF THE JESUITS
RENEWAL OF HOSTILITIES IN THE SPRING--PEACE--WAMPUM NECKLACES AND
BELTS--MONTREAL HEADQUARTERS OF PEACE PARLEYS--AUTUMN ATTACKS--"LA
BARRIQUE"--MONTREAL LEFT SEVERELY ALONE--CHIEF "LA GRANDE
ARMES"--M. DE LAUSON PERSECUTING MONTREAL--THE COMPLETION OF THE
PARISH CHURCH--PENDING ECCLESIASTICAL CHANGES IN MONTREAL--NOTES:
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES ON THE EARLY JESUIT MISSIONARIES IN
MONTREAL--PONCET--JOGUES--LE MOYNE--BUTEAUX--DRUILLETTES--ALBANEL--LE
JEUNE--PARKMAN'S ESTIMATE OF THE SUCCESS OF THE JESUIT MISSIONS--DR.
GRANT'S APPRECIATION OF THEIR WORK 123
CHAPTER XI
1655-1658
THE COMING OF THE SULPICIANS
(1657)
MAISONNEUVE GOES TO FRANCE--ARRANGES FOR HOSPITALIERES AND
SULPICIANS--BISHOPRIC FOR NEW FRANCE--THE NOMINATIONS OF DE
QUEYLUS AND LAVAL--THE APPOINTMENT DELAYED--THE DEATH OF M.
OLIER--THE ARRIVAL OF DE QUEYLUS AND MAISONNEUVE AT QUEBEC--TWO
RIVAL "GRANDS VICAIRES"--DE QUEYLUS GOES TO MONTREAL AND
QUICKLY RETURNS TO RULE THE CHURCH IN QUEBEC--THE INTRUSION
RESENTED--THE SULPICIANS IN MONTREAL--TRIBUTE TO THEM AS CIVIC
AND RELIGIOUS ADMINISTRATORS--IROQUOIS HOSTILITIES RESUMED--THE
HEAD OF JEAN ST. PERE--THE CHURCH IN MONTREAL TAKES ON "PARISH"
PRETENSIONS--CHURCH WARDENS AND "LA FABRIQUE"--THE FIRST SCHOOL
HOUSE--THE FLIGHT TO MONTREAL FROM ONONDAGA--PRECAUTIONARY
ORDINANCES BY MAISONNEUVE--FORTIFIED REDOUBTS--THE ECCLESIASTICAL
DISPUTE SETTLED--DE QUEN "GRAND VICAIRE" OF QUEBEC, DE QUEYLUS OF
MONTREAL--BON SECOURS CHURCH DELAYED--JEANNE MANCE AND MARGUERITE
BOURGEOYS VISIT FRANCE 137
CHAPTER XII
1659
THE NEW REINFORCEMENT FOR MONTREAL
THE COMING OF LAVAL
RETROSPECT OF MAISONNEUVE'S JUDICIAL SENTENCES--FIRST DEATH
SENTENCE--INJURIOUS LANGUAGE--CALUMNY--BANISHMENT--GAMES OF CHANCE,
DRUNKENNESS AND BLASPHEMY, ETC., FORBIDDEN--THE GOVERNOR GENERAL AND
THE LOCAL GOVERNOR OF MONTREAL--A PESSIMISTIC PICTURE OF MONTREAL IN
1659--A BISHOP FOR NEW FRANCE--LAVAL, CONSECRATED BISHOP OF PETREA IN
ARABIA, ARRIVES AT QUEBEC AS VICAR APOSTOLIC--DE QUEYLUS RECALLED TO
FRANCE--THE REINFORCEMENT ARRIVES WITH JEANNE MANCE AND MARGUERITE
BOURGEOYS--THE STORY OF ITS JOURNEY--DIFFICULTIES AT LA FLECHE--SHIP
FEVER ON THE ST. ANDRE--DIFFICULTIES AT QUEBEC--LAVAL WOULD RETAIN
THE HOSPITALIERES BROUGHT BY JEANNE MANCE--THEY ARE FINALLY ALLOWED
TO PROCEED TO THE HOTEL-DIEU OF MONTREAL 151
CHAPTER XIII
1660
HOW MONTREAL SAVED NEW FRANCE
DOLLARD'S EXPLOIT AT THE LONG SAULT
UNIVERSAL FEAR OF IROQUOIS IN THE COLONY--THE GARRISON
OFFICERS AT MONTREAL--ADAM DOLLARD, SIEUR DES ORMEAUX--THE
PERMISSION FROM THE GOVERNOR TO LEAD AN ATTACK UP COUNTRY--HIS
COMPANIONS--PREPARATIONS--WILLS AND THE SACRAMENTS--THE FLOTILLA
OF CANOES--THE LONG SAULT REACHED--THE DILAPIDATED IROQUOIS WAR
CAMP--ANONTAHA AND MITIWEMEG--THE AMBUSH AND ATTACK--THE RETREAT
TO THE STOCKADE--THE SIEGE--THIRST--THE ALGONQUINS DESERT--FIVE
HUNDRED IROQUOIS ALLIES ARRIVE--THE TERRIBLE ATTACK AND RESISTANCE--A
GLORIOUS DEFEAT--RADISSON'S ACCOUNT--THE INVENTORY OF DOLLARD--UNPAID
BILLS--THE NAMES OF THE "COMPANIONS"--NEW FRANCE SAVED--A CONVOY OF
BEAVER SKINS REACHES MONTREAL--A REINFORCEMENT OF TROOPS FROM FRANCE
ASKED FOR TO WIPE OUT THE IROQUOIS 163
CHAPTER XIV
1661-1662
HOSTILITIES AND LOSSES
MONTREAL THE THEATRE OF IROQUOIS CARNAGE--THE FIRST SULPICIAN
SLAUGHTERED, M. LE MAITRE--THE SECOND, M. VIGNAL--THE FIRST VISIT OF
LAVAL TO MONTREAL--THE ABBE DE QUEYLUS AGAIN APPEARS--ECCLESIASTICAL
DISPUTES LEGAL, NOT PERSONAL--THE DEATH OF LAMBERT CLOSSE--THE
EXPLOIT OF PICOTE DE BELESTRE--MAISONNEUVE'S ORDINANCE AGAINST SALE
OF LIQUOR TO INDIANS--INDIAN ORGIES AND BLOODSHED--THE GOVERNOR
GENERAL AT QUEBEC DISAPPROVES OF MAISONNEUVE'S ACTION--THE FAMOUS
LIQUOR TRAFFIC DISPUTES--JEANNE MANCE LEAVES FOR FRANCE 173
CHAPTER XV
1663-1664
THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL AND THE SEIGNEURS OF THE ISLAND
GREAT CHANGES, PHYSICAL AND POLITICAL
MILITIA SQUADS ESTABLISHED--THE FORMATION OF THE CONFRATERNITY OF
THE HOLY FAMILY--THE EARTHQUAKE AT MONTREAL--POLITICAL CHANGES--THE
RESIGNATION OF THE COMPANY OF ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES--CANADA BECOMES
A CROWN COLONY--THE TRANSFER OF THE SEIGNEURY OF THE ISLAND FROM
THE COMPANY OF MONTREAL TO THE "GENTLEMEN OF THE SEMINARY"--ROYAL
GOVERNMENT--THE APPOINTMENT OF THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL--CHANGE
IN THE MONTREAL JUDICIAL SYSTEM--FORMER HOME RULE PRIVILEGES
RESCINDED--MONTREAL UNDER QUEBEC--PIERRE BOUCHER'S DESCRIPTION
OF CANADA AND MONTREAL--SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PERIOD--MONTREAL
SOLDIERY--THE ELECTION OF POLICE JUDGES--ATTEMPT TO SUPPLANT
MAISONNEUVE AS LOCAL GOVERNOR--DISCORD IN THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL 181
CHAPTER XVI
1665
THE RECALL OF DE MAISONNEUVE
THE GOVERNOR GENERAL DE COURCELLES AND THE INTENDANT TALON
ARRIVE--THE DUAL REIGN INHARMONIOUS--SIEUR DE TRACY,
LIEUTENANT GENERAL OF THE KING FOR NORTH AMERICA, ARRIVES--THE
CARIGNAN-SALLIERES REGIMENT--CAPTURE OF CHARLES LE MOYNE
BY IROQUOIS--BUILDING OF OUTLYING FORTS--PREPARATIONS FOR
WAR--THE DISMISSAL OF MAISONNEUVE--AN UNRECOGNIZED MAN--HIS
MONUMENT--MAISONNEUVE IN PARIS--A TRUE CANADIAN 191
CHAPTER XVII
1666-1670
THE SUBDUAL OF THE IROQUOIS
THE END OF THE HEROIC AGE
PRIMITIVE EXPEDITIONS UNDER DE COURCELLES, SOREL AND DE TRACY--THE
ROYAL TROOPS AND THE MONTREAL "BLUE COATS"--DOLLIER DE CASSON, THE
SOLDIER CHAPLAIN--THE VICTORY OVER THE IROQUOIS--THE HOTEL-DIEU AT
MONTREAL RECEIVES THE SICK AND WOUNDED--THE CONFIRMATION OF THE
GENTLEMEN OF THE SEMINARY AS SEIGNEURS--THE LIEUTENANT GENERAL AND
INTENDANT IN MONTREAL--THE "DIME"--THE CENSUS OF 1667--MORE CLERGY
NEEDED--THE ABBE DE QUEYLUS RETURNS, WELCOMED BY LAVAL AND MADE
VICAR GENERAL--REINFORCEMENT OF SULPICIANS--THEIR FIRST MISSION AT
KENTE--THE RETURN OF THE RECOLLECTS--THE ARRIVAL OF PERROT AS LOCAL
GOVERNOR OF MONTREAL 195
CHAPTER XVIII
1671-1672
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM ESTABLISHED
THE SEIGNEURS OF THE MONTREAL DISTRICT
SUBURBAN GROWTH--THE EARLIEST OUTLYING FIEFS--PRAEDIA
MILITARIA--MILITARY SEIGNEURIES OF THE MONTREAL DISTRICT--THE FEUDAL
SYSTEM--THE "NOBLESSE"--THE "PARISHES"--"CENS ET RENTES"--"LODS
ET VENTES"--TRIBUTE TO THE FEUDALISM OF THE CLERICAL "SEIGNEURS
OF MONTREAL"--MUNICIPAL OFFICERS--ORDER IN PROCESSIONS--THE
CHURCH WARDENS--THE SOLDIER COLONISTS--CATTLE BREEDING, HORSES,
ASSES--AGRICULTURE--NEW CONCESSIONS--LAWS REGULATING OPENING UP THE
LAND--FIRST PUBLIC ROADS AND BRIDGES AT MONTREAL--NOTE: FORTS AND
REDOUBTS 203
CHAPTER XIX
1666-1672
ECONOMICAL PROGRESS
INDUSTRIES, TRADE AND LABOUR
COMMERCE--MINING--SHIP BUILDING--INDUSTRIES--A "MUNICIPAL"
BREWERY--THE FIRST MARKET--PRICES--LABOUR--MEDICAL MEN 213
CHAPTER XX
1666-1672
COLONIZATION AND POPULATION
ENCOURAGEMENT OF MARRIAGE--BACHELORS TAXED--"FILLES DU
ROI"--DOWRIES--PENSIONS FOR LARGE FAMILIES--MONTREAL HEALTHY FOR
WOMEN--NOTE ON IMMIGRATION 215
CHAPTER XXI
1667-1672
EXPEDITIONS FROM MONTREAL
LA SALLE--DOLLIER DE CASSON--DE COURCELLES
A FEUDAL VILLAGE AND ITS YOUNG SEIGNEUR--LA SALLE'S JESUIT
TRAINING--AN EX-JESUIT--THE SEIGNEURY OF ST. SULPICE--SOLD--THE FEVER
FOR EXPLORATION--LA SALLE, DOLLIER DE CASSON AND GALINEE--SOLDIER
OUTRAGES ON INDIANS--THE EXPEDITION TO LAKES ERIE AND ONTARIO--LA
SALLE RETURNS--HIS SEIGNEURY NICKNAMED "LA CHINE"--THE SULPICIANS
TAKE POSSESSION OF LAKE ERIE FOR LOUIS XIV--RETURN TO MONTREAL--DE
GALINEE'S MAP--THE SUBSEQUENT EXPEDITION OF THE GOVERNOR GENERAL, DE
COURCELLES 221
CHAPTER XXII
1667-1672
EDUCATION
AT QUEBEC: JACQUES LEBER, JEANNE LEBER, CHARLES LE MOYNE (OF
LONGUEUIL), LOUIS PRUDHOMME--MARGUERITE BOURGEOYS' SCHOOL AT
MONTREAL--"GALLICIZING" INDIAN CHILDREN--GANNENSAGONAS--THE
SULPICIANS AT GENTILLY--THE JESUITS AT MADELEINE LA PRAIRIE 229
CHAPTER XXIII
1666-1672
GARRISON LIFE--SLACKENING MORALS
SIEUR DE LA FREDIERE--LIQUOR TRAFFIC WITH THE INDIANS--SOLDIERS
MURDER INDIANS--THE CARION-DE LORMEAU DUEL--THE FIRST BALL IN
CANADA--LARCENIES, ETC.--A CORNER IN WHEAT--THE "VOLUNTAIRES," OR
DAY LABOURERS--THE TAVERNS--A POLICE RAID--"HOTEL" LIFE--BLASPHEMY
PUNISHED--THE LORDS' VINEYARDS RUINED 233
CHAPTER XXIV
1671-1673
NOTABLE LOSSES
DE QUEYLUS FINALLY LEAVES VILLE MARIE--DE COURCELLES AND TALON
RECALLED--TRIBUTE TO THEIR ADMINISTRATION--MGR. DE LAVAL
ABSENT FOR THREE YEARS--THREE DEATHS--MADAME DE PELTRIE--MARIE
L'INCARNATION--JEANNE MANGE--HER LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT 239
CHAPTER XXV
1672-1675
TOWN PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURE
THE FOUNDATION OF THE PARISH CHURCH AND BON SECOURS CHAPEL
THE FIRST STREET SURVEY--"LOW" TOWN AND "UPPER" TOWN--THE ORIGIN
OF THE NAMES OF THE STREETS--COMPLAINTS AGAINST CITIZENS STILL
CULTIVATING THE STREETS--ORDERS TO BEGIN BUILDING--THE NEW PARISH
CHURCH--THE FOUNDATION STONES AND PLAQUES--THE DEMOLITION OF THE FORT
FORBIDDEN--THE CHURCH OF BON SECOURS--THE POWDER MAGAZINE IN ITS
GARRET--A PICTURE OF MONTREAL 241
CHAPTER XXVI
1672-1682
ALTERCATIONS
FRONTENAC'S FIRST TERM OF GOVERNORSHIP
I. THE RIVAL GOVERNORS
II. CHURCH AND STATE
III. THE GOVERNOR, THE INTENDANT AND THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL
I. THE TWO GOVERNORS--PERROT--ILE PERROT--REMONSTRANCES OF
CITIZENS--FRONTENAC--A "VICE-ROI"--GENEROUS ATTEMPT TO GRANT
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT RESTRAINED--FORT FRONTENAC (OR
KINGSTON)--CORVEES--THE GOVERNOR GENERAL--EXPEDITION STARTS FOR
MONTREAL--LA SALLE--THE FRONTENAC-PERROT DUEL COMMENCES--PERROT
IMPRISONED--COUREURS DE BOIS--DULUTH--CHICAGO--FRONTENAC RULES
MONTREAL
II. THE FRONTENAC-FENELON DUEL--THE EASTER SERMON IN THE
HOTEL-DIEU--LA SALLE PRESENT IN THE CHAPEL--M. FENELON RESIGNS
FROM THE SULPICIANS--THE TRIAL BEFORE THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL--THE
MONTREAL PARTY PRESENT THEIR CASE IN FRANCE--FRONTENAC AND FENELON
REPRIMANDED, PERROT IN PRISON--PERROT QUICKLY RELEASED AND SENT BACK
AS LOCAL GOVERNOR OF MONTREAL
III. THE MONTREAL COMPLAINTS HAVE A RESULT--THE REARRANGEMENT OF
THE POSITIONS OF HONOUR IN THE SOVEREIGN COUNCIL--THE GOVERNOR AND
THE INTENDANT, DUCHESNEAU--RIVAL FACTIONS--CENTRALIZATION AND HOME
RULE THE CAUSE OF FRENCH FAILURE IN CANADA--PERROT MADE GOVERNOR OF
ACADIA 247
CHAPTER XXVII
1672-1683
TRADE AT MONTREAL UNDER FRONTENAC AND PERROT
WEST INDIA COMPANY SUPPRESSED--MONTREAL HEAD OF FUR
INDUSTRY--EXPEDITIONS--MARQUETTE--JOLIET--THE ANNUAL FAIRS--LAVAL
RETURNS--THE "CONGREGATION" CONFIRMED--THE INDIAN MISSIONS--CATHERINE
TEKAKWITHA--THE "FORT DES MESSIEURS"--EXPLORATIONS--LA SALLE,
DULUTH, HENNEPIN--LOUISIANA NAMED--THE GOVERNOR GENERAL AND
THE INTENDANT--FACTIONS AT MONTREAL, "A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR
HOUSES!"--FRONTENAC AND DUCHESNEAU RECALLED 265
CHAPTER XXVIII
1683-1687
WAR AGAIN. THE IROQUOIS. NEW YORK AND HUDSON'S BAY
THE GOVERNMENTS OF DE LA BARRE AND DENONVILLE
GOVERNOR DE LA BARRE OPPOSES LA SALLE--THE POW-WOW IN THE NEW
PARISH CHURCH--WAR PREPARATIONS AT MONTREAL--THE DISEASE-STRICKEN
EXPEDITIONS RETURN--LAVAL LEAVES FOR FRANCE--THE PIONEER PAPER
MONEY INVENTED TO PAY THE SOLDIERS--NOTES ON "CARDS" AND CURRENCY
DURING FRENCH REGIME--GOVERNOR DENONVILLE AND MGR. DE ST. VALLIER
ARRIVE--CALLIERES BECOMES GOVERNOR OF MONTREAL--A GLOOMY REPORT
ON THE "YOUTH" AND DRAMSHOPS--MGR. DE ST. VALLIER'S MANDEMENT OF
THE VANITY OF THE WOMEN--THE FORTIFICATIONS REPAIRED--SALE OF ARMS
CONDEMNED--THE STRUGGLE FOR CANADA BY THE ENGLISH OF NEW YORK--THE
STRUGGLE FOR HUDSON'S BAY--THE PARTY FROM MONTREAL UNDER THE
SONS OF CHARLES LE MOYNE--THE DEATH OF LA SALLE--OTHER MONTREAL
DISCOVERERS--A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPRECIATION OF LA SALLE'S CHARACTER 273
CHAPTER XXIX
1687-1689
IROQUOIS REVENGE
DENONVILLE'S TREACHERY AND THE MASSACRE OF LACHINE
ST. HELEN'S ISLAND A MILITARY STATION--FORT FRONTENAC--DENONVILLE'S
TREACHERY--THE FEAST--INDIANS FOR THE GALLEYS OF FRANCE--THE
WAR MARCH AGAINST THE SENECAS--THE RETURN--MONTREAL AN INCLOSED
FORTRESS--DE CALLIERES' PLAN FOR THE INVASION OF NEW YORK--THE
STRUGGLE FOR TRADE SUPREMACY--MONTREAL BESIEGED--KONDIARONK, THE RAT,
KILLS THE PEACE--DENONVILLE RECALLED--CALLIERES' PLAN FAILS--THE
MASSACRE AT LACHINE--DENONVILLE'S TREACHERY REVENGED. NOTE: THE
EXPLOIT AT THE RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES 285
CHAPTER XXX
1689-1698
MONTREAL PROWESS AT HOME AND ABROAD
FRONTENAC'S SECOND TERM OF GOVERNMENT
FRONTENAC RETURNS--REVIEW AT MONTREAL--INDIANS FROM THE GALLEYS
SENT WITH PEACE OVERTURES--NEW ENGLAND TO BE ATTACKED--THE MONTREAL
LEADERS--THREE SUCCESSFUL EXPEDITIONS--RETALIATION MEDITATED BY THE
ENGLISH--TRADE FLOWING BACK TO MONTREAL--THE GRAND COUNCIL IN THE
MARKET--FRONTENAC LEADS THE WAR DANCE--JOHN SCHUYLER'S PARTY AGAINST
MONTREAL RETIRES--SIR WILLIAM PHIPPS SEIZES QUEBEC--THE MONTREAL
CONTINGENT--PETER SCHUYLER DEFEATED AT LA PRAIRIE--THE COLONY IN DIRE
DANGER--MADELEINE DE VERCHERES, HER DEED OF ARMES--THE EXPEDITION
VIA CHAMBLY--ARRIVAL OF FURS FROM MICHILLIMACKINAC--FRONTENAC, THE
SAVIOUR OF THE COUNTRY--MONTREAL PROWESS EAST AND WEST--A PLEIAD OF
MONTREAL NAMES--THE LE MOYNE FAMILY--NEWFOUNDLAND--HUDSON'S BAY--FORT
FRONTENAC AGAIN--THE DEATH OF FRONTENAC 293
CHAPTER XXXI
1688-1698
SOCIAL, CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS PROGRESS
THE PICKET ENCLOSURE--FORTIFICATIONS STRENGTHENED--GARRISON
JEALOUSIES--PRESEANCE--THE "CONGREGATION" BURNT DOWN--A POOR
LAW BOARD--TO QUEBEC ON FOOT--THE CHURCH OF THE "CONGREGATION"
ON FIRE--THE ENCLOSING OF A RECLUSE--THE JESUIT RESIDENCE--THE
RECOLLECTS--THE "PRIE DIEU" INCIDENT--MGR. DE ST. VALLIER'S
BENEFACTIONS--THE FRERES CHARON--FIRST GENERAL HOSPITAL--TECHNICAL
EDUCATION--THE SEMINARY BEING BUILT--SULPICIAN ADMINISTRATION--THE
MARKET PLACE. NOTE: THE GENTLEMEN OF THE SEMINARY 305
CHAPTER XXXII
1698-1703
THE GREAT INDIAN PEACE SIGNED AT MONTREAL. THE FOUNDATION OF DETROIT
THE GOVERNMENT OF DE CALLIERES
DE CALLIERES--PREPARATIONS FOR PEACE--DEATH OF THE "RAT"--THE GREAT
PEACE SIGNED AT MONTREAL--LA MOTTE-CARDILLAC--THE FOUNDATION OF
DETROIT--THE DEATH OF MARGUERITE BOURGEOYS 315
CHAPTER XXXIII
1697-1713
FROM THE TREATY OF RYSWICK TO THE TREATY OF UTRECHT QUEEN ANNE'S WAR
MONTREAL SAVED BY LAND AND WATER
"THE FRENCH HAVE ALWAYS COMMENCED HOSTILITIES IN CANADA"--SAMUEL
VECHT IN MONTREAL--MONTREAL TO BE INVADED BY WOOD CREEK--NICHOLSON'S
ARMY ROUTED BY DYSENTERY--THE "BOSTONNAIS" PLAN A SECOND DESCENT ON
MONTREAL--JEANNE LEBER'S STANDARD--THE EXPEDITION OF SIR HOVENDER
WALKER AGAINST QUEBEC--THE VOW OF THE MONTREAL LADIES--"OUR LADY
OF VICTORIES" BUILT IN COMMEMORATION--PEACE OF UTRECHT--COMPARISON
BETWEEN NEW ENGLAND AND NEW FRANCE. NOTE: THE CHATEAU DE RAMEZAY 323
CHAPTER XXXIV
1700-1721
HALF A CENTURY OF PEACE AND PROGRESS
CIVIC SIDE LIGHTS
I.
THE LONG PEACE--THE TWO GOVERNORS--TAVERN LICENSES--PERMIT
TO MARRY--CULTIVATION OF HEMP--FIRST ATTEMPT OF THE LACHINE
CANAL BY THE SEIGNEURS--GEDEON DE CATALOGNE--CHAUSSEGROS DE
LERY--"SEDITIOUS ASSEMBLIES"--CLAUDE DE RAMEZAY--WAR PRICES--LINEN
AND CLOTH INDUSTRIES DEVELOPED--AN ORDINANCE AGAINST DIRTY
STREETS--AGAINST PIGS IN THE HOUSES--MARKET REGULATIONS--THE USE
OF THE COMMONS--SALE OF LIQUOR TO SAVAGES--THE SEIGNEURS AND
THE HABITANTS--REGULATIONS CONCERNING TANNERS, SHOEMAKERS AND
BUTCHERS--ENGLISH MERCHANDISE NOT TO BE TOLERATED AT MONTREAL--A
MARKET FOR CANADIAN PRODUCTS DESIRED--CONCENTRATION IN THE
EAST VERSUS EXPANSION IN THE WEST--CONGES--FAST DRIVING--ROAD
MAKING--HORSE BREEDING RESTRAINED--PIGS TO BE MUZZLED--LIQUOR
LICENSES OVERHAULED--SNOW-SHOEING TO BE CULTIVATED--DIVERSE NATIONAL
ORIGINS--A MARBLE QUARRY--THE DEATH OF A RECLUSE--MURDERER BURNT IN
EFFIGY--CARD MONEY--A "BOURSE" FOR THE MERCHANTS--PATENTS OF NOBILITY
TO THE LEBER AND LE MOYNE FAMILIES--PARTRIDGE SHOOTING--A "CURE ALL"
PATENT MEDICINE--POSTAL SERVICE--A PICTURE OF MONTREAL ABOUT 1721 BY
CHARLEVOIX 331
CHAPTER XXXV
1721-1748
SIDE LIGHTS OF CIVIC PROGRESS
II
THE FIRE OF 1721--BUILDING REGULATIONS--STONE ENCOURAGED--TOWN
EMBELLISHMENT--CITY PLANNING--THE FORTIFICATIONS--PEW
RENTING--CHATEAU DE VAUDREUIL--TRADE WITH NEW ENGLAND
FORBIDDEN--ILLICIT LIQUOR TRAFFIC--DEATHS OF DE RAMEZAY AND DE
VAUDREUIL--EVEN NATURALIZED STRANGERS FORBIDDEN TO TRADE--DESCRIPTION
OF INDIAN LIFE AT MONTREAL--MONTREAL IS FOLLOWED BY QUEBEC IN
THE REFORM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES--VERENDRYE'S EXPEDITION FROM
MONTREAL--RELIGIOUS ASYLUM FORBIDDEN--FIRST SAILING VESSEL OF LAKE
SUPERIOR--THE "OUTRAGED CRUCIFIX"--SORCERY, MAGIC AND SACRILEGE--THE
LEGEND OF THE RED CROSS--PUNISHMENT OF "BREAKING ALIVE" IN THE MARKET
PLACE--CARE OF FOUNDLINGS--SULPICIANS FOUND LA PRESENTATION--SKATING
IN THE STREETS; FAST DRIVING. NOTES: THE DISCOVERIES OF LA
VERENDRYE--CHATEAU VAUDREUIL 347
CHAPTER XXXVI
1749-1755
SIDELIGHTS OF CIVIC PROGRESS
III
PETER KALM--THE FIRST SWEDES IN MONTREAL--THE FRENCH WOMEN CONTRASTED
WITH THOSE OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES--DOMESTIC ECONOMY--THE MEN
EXTREMELY CIVIL--MECHANICAL TRADES BACKWARD--WATCHMAKERS--THE TREATY
OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE CELEBRATED--PAPER MONEY--WAGES--PEN PICTURE OF
MONTREAL IN 1749--ITS BUILDINGS AND THEIR PURPOSES--FRIDAY, MARKET
DAY--THERMOMETRICAL AND CLIMATIC OBSERVATIONS--NATURAL HISTORY
CULTIVATED--MONTREAL THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE INDIAN TRADE--THE GOODS
FOR BARTER--THE LADIES MORE POLISHED AND VOLATILE AT QUEBEC BUT
MORE MODEST AND INDUSTRIOUS AT MONTREAL--ECONOMIC FACTS--WINE AND
SPRUCE BEER--PRICES AND COST OF LIVING--CONSENTS TO MARRIAGE--SOCIAL
AND DOMESTIC CUSTOMS--FRANQUET'S JOURNEY FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL
BY RIVER, FIVE DAYS--POUCHOT'S APPRECIATIONS OF CANADIANS--THE
TRADE SYSTEM OF THE COUNTRY--GOVERNMENTAL MAGAZINES AND UP-COUNTRY
FORTS--PRIVATE TRADE AT THE POSTS--ITINERANT PEDDLERS. NOTE: THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARISH CHURCH 359
CHAPTER XXXVII
EDUCATION--PRIMARY, SECONDARY AND TECHNICAL
A RECORD FROM 1657 TO 1760
FRENCH PRONUNCIATION--SCHOOL FOR GIRLS--THE CONGREGATION--BOARDING
SCHOOLS--SCHOOLS OF DOMESTIC ECONOMY--NORMAL SCHOOLS--SCHOOLS
FOR BOYS--ABBE SOUART FIRST SCHOOLMASTER--THE FIRST ASSOCIATION
OF TEACHERS--SCHOOL BOOKS--BOOKS ON PEDAGOGY--LATIN SCHOOLS, THE
HIGH SCHOOLS OF THE PERIOD--LATIN BOOKS--ATTEMPT AT A CLASSICAL
COLLEGE--FAILURE--TECHNICAL EDUCATION--JEAN FRANÇOIS CHARON--THE
GENERAL HOSPITAL--ARTS AND MANUFACTURES--LES FRERES CHARON--A NORMAL
SCHOOL FOR CANADA AT ROCHELLE PROJECTED--FRERE TURC GOES TO ST.
DOMINGO--THE BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS INVITED TWICE TO COME
TO CANADA--BROTHER DENIS AND PACIFICUS IN MONTREAL--THE FRERES CHARON
IN EVIL DAYS--THE HOSPITAL TRANSFERRED TO MADAME D'YOUVILLE 377
CHAPTER XXXVIII
1747
THE GENERAL HOSPITAL OF MONTREAL UNDER MADAME D'YOUVILLE
MADAME D'YOUVILLE--TIMOTHEE DE SILVAIN--CONFRATERNITY OF THE HOLY
FAMILY--"SOEURS GRISES"--PERSEVERANCE THROUGH OPPOSITION--FIRE OF
1745--PROVISIONAL CONTROL OF HOSPITAL--ATTEMPT TO ANNEX THE GENERAL
HOSPITAL TO THAT OF QUEBEC--THE "GREY NUNS" FORMERLY APPROVED AS
"SISTERS OF CHARITY" 387
CHAPTER XXXIX
MONTREAL, MILITARY HEADQUARTERS
THE FINAL STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY--THE SEVEN YEARS, 1756-1763--THE
CAMPAIGN OF 1756 (OSWEGO)--THE WINTER AT MONTREAL
REVIEW--CELERON DE BIENVILLE--DE VAUDREUIL--MONTCALM--HIS MILITARY
AND HOUSEHOLD STAFF--DE LEVIS, BOURLAMAQUE, BOUGAINVILLE--CHATEAU
DE VAUDREUIL--THE MEETING OF MONTCALM AND DE VAUDREUIL--MONTCALM'S
POSITION--THE THREE MILITARY ARMS--THE MILITIA, MARINE, REGULARS--THE
RED ALLIES--CAPITULATION OF OSWEGO--SACKING--TE DEUM IN THE PARISH
CHURCH--THE TWO PREJUGES--WINTER IN MONTREAL--GAMING AT QUEBEC--A
WINTER WAR PARTY--SOCIAL GAYETIES AT MONTREAL--SCARCITY OF
PROVISIONS--SHIPS AWAITED 391
CHAPTER XL
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1657
THE SIEGE OF WILLIAM HENRY--WINTER GAYETY AND GAUNT FAMINE
SHIPS ARRIVE--NEWS OF GREAT INTERNATIONAL WAR--RED ALLIES IN
MONTREAL--STRONG LIQUOR--PREPARATIONS FOR WAR--FORT WILLIAM
HENRY FALLS--ARRIVAL OF SAVAGES AND TWO HUNDRED ENGLISH
PRISONERS--CANNIBALISM--THE PAPER MONEY--FEAR OF FAMINE--MONTCALM'S
LETTER TO TROOPS ON RETRENCHMENT--A SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE--GAMING
AMID SOCIAL MISERY--HORSE FLESH FOR THE SOLDIERS--DE LEVIS PUTS DOWN
A REVOLT--THE "HUNGER STRIKE"--THE LETTERS OF MONTCALM--BIGOT AND LA
GRANDE SOCIETE--"LA FRIPONNE" AT MONTREAL--MURRAY'S CRITICISM. NOTE:
THE PECULATORS 403
CHAPTER XLI
1758
THE VICTORY OF CARILLON
A WINTER OF GAYETY AND FOREBODING
SIXTY LEAGUES ON THE ICE--SHIPS ARRIVE--FAMINE CEASES--ENGLISH
MOBILIZATION--TICONDEROGA (CARILLON)--MILITARY
JEALOUSIES--SAINT-SAUVEUR--RECONCILIATION OF MONTCALM AND
VAUDREUIL--ENMITIES RENEWED--WINTER IN MONTREAL--HIGH COST OF
LIVING--THE "ENCYCLOPEDIA"--AVARICE AND GRAFT--MADAME DE VAUDREUIL 415
CHAPTER XLII
1759
THE FALL OF QUEBEC
MONTREAL THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT
THE SPRING ICE SHOVE--NEWS FROM FRANCE--MILITARY HONOURS SENT BUT
POOR REINFORCEMENTS--PROJECTED FRENCH INVASION OF ENGLAND--GLOOM IN
CANADA--THE MONTREAL MILITIA AT THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC--FALL OF QUEBEC,
MONTREAL SEAT OF GOVERNMENT--THE WINTER ATTEMPT TO REGAIN QUEBEC--THE
EXPECTED FRENCH FLEET NEVER ARRIVES--RETREAT OF FRENCH TO MONTREAL 425
CHAPTER XLIII
1760
THE FALL OF MONTREAL
THE CAPITULATION
THE LAST STAND AT MONTREAL--THE APPROACH OF THE BRITISH
ARMIES--SURRENDER OF ARMS BY FRENCH ON THE ROUTE--PAPER MONEY
VALUELESS--MURRAY'S ADVANCE FROM QUEBEC--HAVILAND'S PROGRESS FROM
LAKE CHAMPLAIN--AMHERST'S DESCENT FROM OSWEGO--MONTREAL WITHIN
AND WITHOUT--THE COUNCIL OF WAR IN THE CHATEAU VAUDREUIL--THE
TERMS OF CAPITULATION--THE NEGOTIATIONS WITH AMHERST--HONOURS
OF WAR REFUSED--DE LEVIS' CHAGRIN--THE CAPITULATION SIGNED--THE
CONDITIONS--FORMAL POSSESSION OF TOWN BY THE BRITISH--THE END OF THE
FRENCH REGIME 431
APPENDIX I
THE GOVERNMENT OF LA NOUVELLE FRANCE
THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTREAL UNDER LA NOUVELLE FRANCE--ROYAL
COMMISSIONS--VICEROYS--GOVERNORS--INTENDANTS--BISHOPS--FRENCH AND
ENGLISH SOVEREIGNS--LOCAL GOVERNORS OF MONTREAL--THE SEIGNEURS OF THE
SEMINARY 441
APPENDIX II
AN INVENTORY OF THE CHARTS AND PLANS OF THE ISLAND AND TOWN OF
MONTREAL UP TO 1760 447
AUTHOR'S FOREWORD
The history now being prepared seems necessary; for we are at a period
of great flux and change and progress. The city is being transformed,
modernized and enlarged before our very eyes. Old landmarks are daily
disappearing and there is a danger of numerous memories of the past
passing with them.
We are growing so wonderfully in wealth through the importance of
our commerce and in the size of our population by the accretion of
newcomers of many national origins and creeds, to whom for the most
part the history of the romantic story of Montreal is a sealed books,
that a fuller presentation of our development and growth is called for,
to supplement previous sketches and to meet the conditions of the hour.
It is hardly needful, therefore, to offer any apology for the
present undertaking. For if the continuity of a city's growth and
development is to be preserved in the memory of the citizens of each
generation, this can only be done through the medium of an historical
survey, issued at certain suitable intervals, such as the one now
offered, connecting the present with the past, and presenting to the
new generation, out of the intricate chain of events and varying
vicissitudes that have woven themselves into the texture of the city's
organic life, the story of those forces which have moulded its growth
and have produced those resultant characteristic features which make it
the individualized city of today and none other.
Montreal being a unique city, with a personality of its own, its
history, beyond that of any city of the new world, is particularly
interesting and fruitful for such a retrospect. Dealing with the
fortunes of several peoples, the original inhabitants of Hochelaga
visited by Jacques Cartier in 1535, the French colonists from 1642 and
the Anglo-Saxons and Gaels from their influx in 1760, together with the
steady addition of those of other national origins of later years, the
story of Montreal, passing over the greater part of four centuries, is
full of romance and colour and quickly moving incidents; of compelling
interest to the ordinary student, but how much more so to those who
have any way leagued their fortunes with it, and assisted in its
progress and in its making!
Such cannot dip into the pages of the history of this ancient and
modern city without finding fresh motives for renewed enthusiasm and
for deeper pride.
For Montreal is still in the making, with its future before it.
The present work is especially dedicated to those who would realize the
duties of good citizenship and it is the hope of the writer that it may
serve to deepen the sense of civic pride now happily being cultivated
here. To foster this civic pride is the justifying reason why he has
been induced by his friends to launch on a long and laborious task,
sweetened though it may be by the pleasure anticipated of communion
with the scenes and thoughts and deeds of a romantic past and a
wonderfully progressive present.
All history is profitable. Perhaps, however, civic history has not
been cultivated sufficiently. The present work is an attempt to
repair this by interesting Montrealers in their citizenship so that
by placing before them the deeds of the doers of the past, they may
realize they are dwellers in no mean city. We would hope that something
of the spirit of love for their cities, of the Romans, Athenians, or
Florentines, might be reincarnated, here in Montreal. Good citizenship
would then be thoroughly understood as the outcome of a passionate love
of all that is upright, noble and uplifting in human conduct, applied
to the life of a city by which it shall be made beautiful and lovable
in the sight of God and man. For this purpose the life story of any
city that has reached any eminence and has a worthy past should be
known by good citizens so that they begin to love it with a _personal_
love.
For like each nation, each city has its own individuality, its own
characteristic entity, its own form of life which must be made the most
of by art and thoughtful love.
This is not merely true of the physical being of a city from the city
planner's point of view. There is also a specific character in the
spiritual, artistic, moral and practical life of every city that has
grown into virility and made an impress on the world.
Every such city is unique; it has its predominant virtues and failings.
You may partially eliminate the latter and enlarge the former, but the
city being human--the product of the sum total of the qualities and
defects of its inhabitants--it takes on a character, a personality, a
mentality all its own.
Civic history then leads us to delve down into the origins of things to
find out the causes and sources of that ultimate city character which
we see reflected today in such a city as Montreal.
The research is fascinating and satisfactory to the citizen who
would know his surroundings, and live in them intelligently with
consideration for the diverse view points of those of his fellow
citizens who have different national origins and divergent mental
outlooks from his own.
Yet while this city character is in a way fixed, still it is not so
stable but that it will be susceptible to further development in the
times that are to come with new problems and new situations to grapple
with.
The peculiar pleasure of the reading of the history of Montreal will be
to witness the development of its present character from the earliest
date of the small pioneering, religious settlement of French colonists,
living simple and uneventful days, but chequered by the constant fear
of the forays of Indian marauders on to the "Castle Dangerous" of Ville
Marie, through its more mature periods of city formation, then onward
through the difficult days of the fusion of the French and English
civilization starting in 1760, to the complex life of the great and
prosperous cosmopolitan city of today, the port and commercial centre
of Canada--the old and new _régimes_ making one harmonious unity, but
with its component parts easily discernible. The city's motto is aptly
chosen, "_Concordia Salus_."
Much there will be learned in the history of Montreal of the past that
will explain the present and the mentality of its people. _Tout savoir,
c'est tout pardonner._
A clue to the future will also be afforded beforehand. Certainly it
will be seen that Montreal is great and will be greater still, because
great thoughts, high ideals, strenuous purposes have been born and
fostered within its walls.
The thinking student will witness the law of cause and effect, of
action, and reaction, ever at work, and will read design where the
undisciplined mind would only see chaos and blind forces at work.
Recognizing that the city is a living organism with a personality of
its own, he will watch with ever increasing interest the life emerging
from the seed and at work in all the varying stages of its growth and
development. He will see the first rude beginning of the city, its
struggles for existence, its organized life in its social and municipal
aspects, its beginnings of art and learning, the building of its
churches, the conscious struggles of its people to realize itself, the
troubles of its household, the battle of virtue and vice, its relation
to other cities, the story of its attacks from without, the conflicts
with opposing ideas, the influx of new elements into the population,
the adaptation of the organism to new habits of government and thought,
to new methods of business, and the inauguration of untried and new
industrial enterprises, the growth of its harbour, and its internal
and external commerce, the conception of its own destiny as one of the
great cities of the world--all these and more it is the purpose of
a history of Montreal to unfold to the thoughtful citizen who would
understand the life in which he is playing his part not as a blind
factor but as an intelligent co-operator in the intricate and absorbing
game of life.
But let it not be thought that while peering into the past we shall
become blind to the present. In this "History of Montreal" we shall
picture the busy world as we see it round us. Here are heroic and
saintly deeds being done today in our midst. The foundations of new and
mighty works even surpassing those of the past are being laid in the
regions of religion, philanthropy, art, science, commerce, engineering,
government and city planning this very hour, and their builders are
unconsciously building unto fame.
Besides, therefore, portraying the past, we would wish to present
a moving picture of the continued development of Montreal from the
beginning, tracing it to the living present from the "mustard seed"
so long ago spoken of by Père Vimont in reference to the handful of
his fellow pioneers assembled at Mass on the day of the arrival on May
18, 1642, at the historic spot marked today by the monument in Place
Royale, to the _mighty_ tree of his prophecy that now has covered the
whole Island of Montreal, and by the boldness, foresight and enterprise
of Montreal's master builders, has stretched its conquering arms of
streams and iron across the mighty continent discovered by Jacques
Cartier in 1535.
What Montreal was and is, we know. Its future we can only surmise.
But it is bound to be a great one. Its position, with its mountain
in the centre and its encircling waterways, with the glorious St.
Lawrence at its feet, proclaims it as the ideal location for one of the
greatest cities in the world. It is no cause for wonder that Jacques
Cartier, visiting it in 1535, after naming the mountain "Mount Royal"
in honour of his king, Francis I of France, should have commended it
as favourable for a settlement in his description of his voyage to
Hochelaga, and that Champlain in 1611 should have made it his trading
post and further endorsed it as a suitable place for a permanent
settlement, and that Maisonneuve should have carried it into execution
in 1642. They had the instinct of the city planner--that is all.
That they did not err, the history of Montreal will abundantly show.
WILLIAM HENRY ATHERTON.
PREFACE
"QUI MANET IN PATRIA ET PATRIAM COGNOSCERE TEMNIT
IS MIHI NON CIVIS, SED PEREGRINUS ERIT"
In placing before the public the first volume of the History of
Montreal, under the title of "Under the French Régime," I would first
dedicate it to a group of prominent lovers of the city, truly deserving
the name of good citizens, who originally encouraged me to undertake
the historical researches necessary for this work in the view that
an orderly narration of the city's origins and gradual development
would thereby foster the right spirit of civic pride in those who do
not merely dwell in this ancient and new city, but have linked their
fortunes with it at least for a while.
Secondly, it is dedicated to those who endorsed the above invitation by
subscribing for copies, thus making publication possible.
Thirdly, it is dedicated to all good citizens of Montreal, whether by
birth or adoption, who will welcome this attempt to interest them in
their citizenship.
Further, it is offered to all students of the civic life and progress
of our Canadian cities through the medium of the historical method. May
it encourage a healthy Canadian civic consciousness begotten of the
records of the doings of the early makers of our Canadian cities.
May it encourage the careful keeping of early historical documents,
especially among those new municipalities now growing up in the new
Canada of today.
* * * * *
I wish to take this opportunity of thanking those who have especially
made my way easy in this first volume by affording me access to books
or documents. Among these are: Mr. W. D. Lighthall, president of the
Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal, who was also the first
to encourage this present work, Dr. A. Doughty, Mr. C. H. Gould, of the
McGill University Library, Mr. Crevecoeur, of the Fraser Institute, and
to other representatives of public and private libraries. To Mr. E. Z.
Massicotte, the careful archivist of the district of Montreal, I am
especially indebted for much courteous and valuable assistance of which
the following pages will give many indications. In general, the sources
consulted are sufficiently indicated in the text or foot notes. They
will be seen to be the best available.
I beg to thank those who have helped me to illustrate the work and
particularly Mr. Edgar Gariépy, who has keenly aided me.
September, 1914. WILLIAM HENRY ATHERTON.
HISTORY OF MONTREAL
CHAPTER I
1535-1542
HOCHELAGA
THE ARRIVAL OF JACQUES CARTIER AT HOCHELAGA ON HIS SECOND
VOYAGE TO CANADA--HIS ROYAL COMMISSION--THE FRUITLESS DEVICE
OF DONNACONA TO FRIGHTEN CARTIER FROM VISITING HOCHELAGA--THE
DIFFICULTY OF CROSSING LAKE ST. PETER--THE ARRIVAL AND
RECEPTION AT HOCHELAGA--JACQUES CARTIER THE FIRST HISTORIAN OF
MONTREAL--DESCRIPTION OF THE TOWN--CARTIER RECITES THE FIRST
CHAPTER OF ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL OVER AGOHANNA, THE LORD OF THE
COUNTRY--MOUNT ROYAL NAMED AND VISITED--CARTIER'S ACCOUNT OF THE
VIEW FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP--CARTIER'S SECOND VISIT IN 1540 TO
HOCHELAGA AND TO TUTONAGUY, THE SITE OF THE FUTURE MONTREAL--THE
PROBABLE VISIT OF DE ROBERVAL IN 1542. NOTES: THE SITE OF
HOCHELAGA--HOCHELAGA'S CIVILIZATION--CANADA--GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF
MOUNT ROYAL AND THE MONTEREGIAN HILLS.
The story of Montreal, as far as authentic historical documents are
concerned, begins with Saturday, October 2, 1535. On that day, the
Indian natives of Hochelaga had been quickly apprised that two strange
large vessels containing many palefaced wanderers, wonderfully attired
and speaking an unknown tongue, had come up the river, and were now
lying off its sloping margin. The people immediately prepare quickly
to receive them with a hospitality of which we shall hear. The women
busy themselves in preparing their presents while the men hurriedly run
down the hill slope to the water's edge, to be soon also followed by
the women and children. There they found a good gathering of swarthy
and bronzed men of the sea, mariners from St. Malo, to the number of
twenty-eight, simple men, but adored by the natives as superior beings.
All hail to them! Would that of the seventy-four[1] names we have
preserved to us, of those who sailed from St. Malo, we had those of
them who were privileged to come up to Hochelaga, as we must yet call
it.
Besides the sailors, there are, however, six whose dress and bearing
mark them out as men of some distinction, as indeed they are; for one
is Claude du Pont Briand, cup bearer to My Lord the Dauphin; the second
and third, gentlemen adventurers of some rank, Charles de la Pommeraye
and Jehan Gouion; the fourth and fifth are the bronzed and rugged
captains of the small fleet lying down the river at Lake St. Peter,
Guillaume le Breton, captain of the Emerillon, and Marc Jalobert,
captain of the Petite Hermine, brother-in-law of the sixth. This last,
a firm set man of forty-five years, and of commanding appearance,
is none other than Jacques Cartier, captain of the Grande Hermine,
pilot and captain general of the fleet, and he has come with a royal
commission[2] explore new seas and lands for his sovereign maste
Francis I of France, whose flags proudly wave from the prows of either
vessel now tossing in the Hochelagan waters.
Jacques Cartier claims notice, for he is at once the discoverer and
the first historian of Montreal. He is a mariner, of a dignified
profession, and was born in 1491, though De Costa and others say, in
1494, at the seaport of St. Malo in Brittany, the fertile cradle of
many hardy daring corsairs and adventurers on the waters. Early the
young son of Jamet Cartier and Geseline Jansart seems to have turned
his thoughts to a seafaring life as he met the bronzed mariners
arriving at the wharves of St. Malo, and telling strange stories of
their perils and triumphs. On the 2d of May, 1519, being now a master
pilot, he married Catherine des Granches, the daughter of the high
constable of the city.
[Illustration: JACQUES CARTIER
(After a traditional drawing)]
[Illustration: MANOR HOUSE OF CARTIER AT LIMOILOU NEAR ST. MALO
(Interior View)]
We know only imperfectly of his wanderings on the sea after this. He
seems to have gone to Brazil. But he probably joined the band of those
Norman ships going to Newfoundland on their fishing expeditions, and
became well acquainted with the waters thereabout, and able to pilot
them to some good purpose.
How Cartier became interested in discovering the passage to the
Northwest we do not know; though it was the dream of so many navigators
at that time to find a way to China and the east ports of India. To the
man who should find it there would be undying fame, and many there were
who strove for it. Probably Cartier believed that he should find the
long expected route to India through one of the openings in the coast
in the vicinity of Newfoundland, then thought to be but a projection
of the eastern coast of Asia! At any rate, in 1533, we find him being
introduced to Francis I of France by the high admiral of France,
Phillipe Chabot, Sieur de Brion, to endeavour to persuade the king to
allow him the means to secure the western passage for his royal master
and the flag of France. The permission was granted, the vice admiral,
the Sieur de Meilleraye personally undertaking to supervise the
equipment of the vessels, and Cartier now is to be ranked among those
others whose names have come down to us as leaders of expeditions.
[Illustration: This wooden medallion, 20 inches in diameter, bears on
the back the deeply carved date 1704 and the initials J. C. It was
found between outer and inner "skins" of an ancient house in the French
fishing village of Cape des Roziers at the mouth of the St. Lawrence
River, November, 1908, and was the stern shield of some French vessel
wrecked on that coast. The face is alleged to be that of Jacques
Cartier, the discoverer of Canada, and is the oldest known portrait of
him. The claim is made by Dr. John M. Clarke of Albany, state geologist
of New York.]
We next find him armed with the Royal Commission, preparing to fit
his vessels, and seeking for St. Malo men to man them in the service
of the king. He had his difficulties in meeting the obstructions and
jealousies that stood in his way. But on the 20th of April, 1534, he
sailed with pilots, masters and seamen to the number of sixty, who were
solemnly sworn by the vice admiral, Sieur de Meilleraye. It is not the
purpose of this book to describe the discovery of Canada which Cartier
made on this first voyage although the task is a fascinating one, since
we have his own recital to follow. On July 24th, having planted on the
coast of Gaspé a cross of the length of thirty feet bearing a shield
adorned with the _fleur-de-lys_ and inscribed "Vive le Roi de France,"
he made preparations for the return home, reaching St. Malo on
September 5th.
But he had not, as yet, stumbled upon the discovery of the mouth of the
St. Lawrence, up which the kingdom of the Hochelagans lay, on which we
are to fix our gaze. The news of his discoveries were received with
enthusiasm, and on the Friday in Pentecost week, May 19, 1535, we find
Jacques Cartier and his men sailing away from St. Malo, after having
confessed themselves and received the benedictions of the archbishop
and the godspeeds of their friends. The names of those accompanying
Cartier--"pilots, masters and seamen, and others"--are preserved in
the archives of St. Malo, numbering seventy-four, of whom several were
of some distinction and twelve at least were related to him by blood
or marriage, some led thither perhaps by the hope of trade. Two of the
names are those of Dom Guillaume le Breton and Dom Antoine. It has
been claimed the title Dom indicates that they were probably secular
priests, and acted as chaplains, according to the general custom when
the expedition was a royal mission. But this is not likely; in this
case Guillaume le Breton was the captain of the Emerillon. Among those
not mentioned in the list of Carrier's men were two young Indians,
Taignoagny and Agaya, whom Cartier had seized at Gaspé before leaving
to return to France, after his first voyages, and whose appearance
in France created unusual interest. These were now to be useful as
interpreters to the tribes to be visited. Cartier had however to regret
some of their dealings on his behalf. Charity begins at home and so it
did with these French-veneered Indians on mingling with their own.
The Royal Commission signed by Phillipe de Chabot, admiral of France,
and giving greeting "to the Captain and Master Pilot Jacques Cartier of
St. Malo," dated October 31, 1534, may here be quoted in part.
"We have commissioned and deputed, commission and depute you by the
will and command of the King to conduct, direct, and employ three
ships, equipped and provisioned each for fifteen months for the
accomplishment of the voyage to the lands by you already begun and
discovered beyond the Newlands; * * * the said three ships you shall
take, and hire the number of pilots, masters and seamen as shall seem
to you to be fitting and necessary for the accomplishment of this
voyage. * * * We charge and command all the said pilots, masters and
seamen, and others who shall be on the same ships, to obey and follow
you for the service of the King in this as above, as they would do to
ourselves, without any contradiction or refusal, and this under pains
customary in such cases to those who are found disobedient and acting
contrary."
[Illustration: JACQUES CARTIER'S SHIPS IN THE ST. LAWRENCE]
[Illustration: THE CLOSING PORTION OF JACQUES CARTIER'S LIST OF SEAMEN]
The three ships that had been assigned to him were the Grande Hermine,
the Petite Hermine and the Emerillon, the first being a tall ship of
126 burthen and the others of sixty and forty respectively, and they
were provisioned for fifteen months. How the expedition encountered
storms and tempests, delaying its progress until they reached the
Strait of St. Peter, where familiar objects began to meet the eyes of
the captive Indians on board; how they eagerly pointed out to Cartier
the way into Canada; how they told him of the gold to be found in the
land of the Saguenay; how Cartier visited the lordly Donnacona, lord of
Canada; how at last on his resolve to pursue the journey to the land
of Hochelaga he found himself in the great river of Canada which he
named St. Lawrence; how he passed up the river by mountain and lowland,
headlands and harbours, meadows, brush and forests, scattering saints'
names on his way to Stadaconé[3] whence he determined to push his way
to Hochelaga before winter--can be read at length in the recital of the
second voyage of Jacques Cartier.
[Illustration: A CONFERENCE WITH THE INDIANS AT STADACONE]
It is legitimate only for us to place before our readers that part
concerning the approach to Hochelaga. Hitherto, on his journey, Cartier
had received all help in his progress from the friendly natives; but
effort was made to dissuade him from going up to Hochelaga. Cartier,
however, always made reply that notwithstanding every difficulty he
would go there if it were possible to him "because he had commandment
from the king to go the farthest that he could." On the contrary the
lordly savage Donnacona and the two captives, Dom Agaya and Taignoagny,
used every device to turn the captain from his quest. An attempt will
be made hereafter to prevent a visit to Montreal as we shall see when
we speak of Maisonneuve and the settlement of Ville Marie.
[Illustration: MANUSCRIPT OF NO. 5589 OF CARTIER'S SECOND VOYAGE]
Carrier's account has the following for September 18th:[4]
"HOW THE SAID DONNACONA, TAIGNOAGNY, AND OTHERS DEVISED AN
ARTIFICE AND HAD THREE MEN DRESSED IN THE GUISE OF DEVILS,
FEIGNING TO HAVE COME FROM CUDOUAGNY, THEIR GOD, FOR TO HINDER US
FROM GOING TO THE SAID HOCHELAGA.[5]
"The next day, the 18th of the said month, thinking always to hinder
us from going to Hochelaga, they devised a grand scheme which they
effected thus: They had three men attired in the style of three devils,
that had horns as long as one's arms, and were clothed in skins of
dogs, black and white, and had their faces painted as black as coal,
and they caused them to be put into one of their boats unknown to
us, and then came with their band near our ships as they had been
accustomed, who kept themselves in the woods without appearing for two
hours, waiting till the time and the tide should come for the arrival
of the said boat, at which time they all came forth, and presented
themselves before our said ships without approaching them as they
were wont to do; and asked them if they wanted to have the boat,
whereupon the said Taignoagny replied to them, not at that time, but
that presently he would enter into the said ships. And suddenly came
the said boat wherein were the three men appearing to be three devils,
having put horns on their heads, and he in the midst made a marvelous
speech in coming, and they passed along our ships with their said boat,
without in any wise turning their looks toward us, and went on striking
and running on shore with their said boat; and, all at once, the said
Lord Donnacona and his people seized the said boat and the said three
men, the which were let fall to the bottom of it like dead men, and
they carried the whole together into the woods, which were distant
from the said ships a stone's throw; and not a single person remained
before our said ships, but all withdrew themselves. And they, having
retired, began a declamation and a discourse that we heard from our
ships, which lasted half an hour. After which the said Taignoagny and
Dom Agaya marched from the said woods toward us, having their hands
joined, and their hats under their elbows, causing great admiration.
And the said Taignoagny began to speak and cry out three times, 'Jesus!
Jesus! Jesus!' raising his eyes toward heaven. Then Dom Agaya began
to say, 'Jesus Maria! Jacques Cartier,' looking toward heaven like
the other, the captain seeing their gestures and ceremonies, began to
ask what was the matter, and what it was new that had happened, who
responded that there were piteous news, saying 'Nenny, est il bon,' and
the said captain demanded of them afresh what it was, and they replied
that their God, named Cudouagny, had spoken at Hochelaga, and that the
three men aforesaid had come from him to announce to them the tidings
that there was so much ice and snow that they would all die. With which
words we all fell to laughing and to tell that their God Cudouagny was
but a fool, and that he knew not what he said, and that they should
say it to his messengers and that Jesus would guard them well from the
cold if they would believe in him. And then the said Taignoagny and
his companion asked the said captain if he had spoken to Jesus and he
replied that his priests[6] had spoken to him and that he would make
fair weather; whereupon they thanked the said captain very much, and
returned into the woods to tell the news to the others, who came out
of the said woods immediately, feigning to be delighted with the said
words thus spoken by the said captain. And to show that they were
delighted with them, as soon as they were before the ships they began
with a common voice to utter three shrieks and howls, which is their
token of joy, and betook themselves to dancing and singing, as they
had done from custom. But for conclusion, the said Taignoagny and Dom
Agaya told our said captain that the said Donnacona would not that any
of them should go with him to Hochelaga if he did not leave a hostage,
who should abide ashore with the said Donnacona. To which he replied to
them that if they had not decided to go there with good courage they
might remain and that for him he would not leave off making efforts to
go there."
We have seen the manifest disinclination of Donnacona's party to
allow the discoverers to proceed to Hochelaga. Was it because the
Hochelagans were a hostile people or was it from selfish reasons to
keep the presents of the generous strangers for themselves? At any
rate, Cartier sets out for Hochelaga and on Tuesday, September 26th,
enters Lake St. Peter with a pinnace and two boats. This lake was not
named by Cartier, but subsequently it was named Lac d'Angoulesme,
either in honour of his birthplace or more probably that of Francis
I, who was Count of Angoulême. It was left for Champlain entering upon
the lake, on the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, June 29, 1603, to give
it its present name. Cartier's pinnace could not cross Lake St. Peter
owing to the shallowness of the water[7] which forced him to take the
boats to Hochelaga, starting about six miles below St. Mary's current.
The journey through Lake St. Peter and the arrival at Hochelaga must
now be followed in the words of Jacques Cartier, the first historian of
Montreal (Phinney Baxter, pp. 157-171).
[Illustration: THE RECEPTION OF JACQUES CARTIER AT HOCHELAGA
(A section of the palisaded town is shown. D in the center is King
Agohama's abode.)]
"The said twenty-eighth day of September we came into a great lake
and shoal of the said river, about five or six leagues broad and
twelve long, and navigated that day up the said lake without finding
shallowing or deepening, and coming to one of the ends of the said
lake, not any passage or egress appeared to us; it seemed rather to be
completely closed without any stream. And we found at the said end but
a fathom and a half, wherefore it behooved us to lay to and heave out
our anchor, and go to seek passage with our boats. And we found that
there were four or five streams all flowing from the said river into
this lake and coming from the said Hochelaga; but, by their flowing out
so, there are bars and passages made by the course of the water, where
there was then only a fathom in depth. And the said bars being passed,
there are four or five fathoms, which was at the time of year of the
lowest waters, as we saw by the flow of the said waters that they
increased more than two fathoms by pike.
"All these streams flow by and surround five or six fair islands[8]
which form the head of said lake; then they come together about fifteen
leagues above all into one. That day we went to one of them, where
we found five men, who were hunting wild beasts, the which came as
familiarly to our boats as if they had seen us all their lives, without
having fear or apprehension; and our said boats having come to land,
one of these men took our captain in his arms and carried him ashore as
lightly as he would have carried a child of five years, so large and
strong was this man. We found they had a great pile of wild rats,[9]
which live in the water, and are as large as rabbits, and wonderfully
good to eat, of which they made a present to our captain, who gave them
knives and paternosters for recompense. We asked them by sign if that
was the way to Hochelaga; they answered us yes, and that it was still
three days journey to go there.
"HOW THE CAPTAIN HAD THE BOATS FITTED OUT FOR TO GO TO THE SAID
HOCHELAGA, AND LEFT THE PINNACE, OWING TO THE DIFFICULTY OF THE
PASSAGE; AND HOW HE CAME TO THE SAID HOCHELAGA, AND THE RECEPTION
THAT THE PEOPLE GAVE US AT OUR ARRIVAL.
"The next day our captain, seeing that it was not possible then to be
able to pass the said pinnace, had the boats victualed and fitted out,
and put in provisions for the longest time that he possibly could and
that the said boats could take in, and set out with them accompanied
with a part of the gentlemen,--to wit, Claude du Pont Briand, grand
cupbearer to my lord the Dauphin, Charles de la Pommeraye, Jehan
Gouion, with twenty-eight mariners, including with them Marc Jalobert
and Guillaume le Breton, having the charge under the said Cartier,--for
to go up the said river the farthest that it might be possible for us.
And we navigated with weather at will until the second day of October,
when we arrived at the said Hochelaga, which is about forty-five
leagues distant from the place where the said pinnace was left, during
which time and on the way we found many folks of the country, the which
brought fish and other victuals, dancing and showing great joy at our
coming. And to attract and hold them in amity with us, the said captain
gave them for recompense some knives, paternosters, and other trivial
goods, with which they were much content. And we having arrived at
the said Hochelaga, more than a thousand persons presented themselves
before us, men, women and children alike, the which gave us a good
reception as ever father did to child, showing marvelous joy; for the
men in one band danced, the women on the other side and the children on
the other, the which brought us store of fish and of their bread made
of coarse millet,[10] which they cast into our said boats in the way
that it seemed as if it tumbled from the air. Seeing this, our said
captain landed with a number of his men, and as soon as he was landed
they gathered all about him, and about all the others, giving them an
unrestrained welcome. And the women brought their children in their
arms to make them touch the said captain and others, making a rejoicing
which lasted more than half an hour. And our captain, witnessing their
liberality and good will, caused all the women to be seated and ranged
in order, and gave them certain paternosters of tin and other trifling
things, and to a part of the men knives. Then he retired on board the
said boats to sup and pass the night, while these people remained on
the shore of the said river nearest the said boats all night making
fires and dancing, crying all the time 'Aguyaze,' which is their
expression of mirth and joy.
"HOW THE CAPTAIN WITH GENTLEMEN, AND TWENTY-FIVE SEAMEN, WELL
ARMED AND IN GOOD ORDER, WENT TO THE TOWN OF HOCHELAGA, AND OF THE
SITUATION OF THE SAID PLACE.
"The next day, in the early morning, the captain attired himself
and had his men put in order to go to see the town and habitation
of the said people, and a mountain that is adjacent to their said
town, whither the gentleman and twenty mariners went with the said
captain, and left the rest for the guard of the boats, and took three
men of the said Town of Hochelaga to bring and conduct them to the
said place. And we, being on the road, found it as well beaten as it
might be possible to behold, and the fairest and best land, all full
of oaks as fine as there be in a forest of France under the which all
the ground was covered with acorns. And we, having marched about a
league and a half, found on the way one of the chief lords of the Town
of Hochelaga, accompanied by a number of persons, the which made us a
sign that we should rest at the said place near a fire that they had
made by the said road, which we did, and then the said lord began to
make a discourse and oration, as heretofore is said to be their custom
of showing joy and familiarity, this lord thereby showing welcome to
the said captain and his company; the which captain gave him a couple
of hatchets and a couple of knives, with a cross and memorial of the
crucifixion, which he made him kiss, and hung it on his neck, for
which he rendered thanks to the said captain. This done, we marched
farther on, and about half a league from there we began to find the
land cultivated, and fair, large fields full of grain of their country,
which is like Brazil millet, as big or bigger than peas, on which
they live just as we do on wheat; and in the midst of these fields
is located and seated the Town of Hochelaga, near to and adjoining a
mountain, which is cultivated round about it and highly fertile, from
the summit of which one sees a very great distance. We named the said
mountain Mont Royal. The said town is quite round and inclosed with
timbers in three rows in the style of a pyramid, crossed at the top,
having the middle row in the style of a perpendicular line; and ranged
with timbers laid along, well joined and tied in their manner, and
is in height about two pikes. There is in this town but one gate and
entrance, which fastens with bars, upon which and in many places of
the said inclosure there are kinds of galleries and ladders to mount
to them, which are furnished with rocks and stones for the guard and
defense of it.
"There are within this town about fifty long houses of about fifty
paces or more each, and twelve or fifteen paces wide and all made of
timbers covered and garnished with great pieces of bark and strips of
the said timber, as broad as tables, well tied artificially according
to their manner. And within these there are many lodgings and chambers,
and in the middle of these houses there is a great room on the ground
where they make their fire and live in common; after that the men
retire with their wives and children to their said chambers. Likewise
they have granaries at the top of their houses where they put their
corn of which they make their bread, which they call 'carraconny,'[11]
and they make it in the manner following: They have mortars of wood
as for braying flax, and beat the said corn into powder with pestles
of wood; then they mix it into paste and make round cakes of it,
which they put on a broad stone which is hot; then they cover it with
hot stones, and so bake their bread instead of in an oven. They make
likewise many stews of the said corn, and beans and peas of which they
have enough, and also of big cucumbers and other fruits. They have also
in their houses great vessels like tons, where they put their fish,
eels and others, the which they dry in the smoke during the summer and
live upon it in the winter. And of this they make a great store, as we
have seen by experience. All their living is without any taste of salt,
and they lie on barks of trees stretched upon the earth, with wretched
coverings of skins from which they make their clothing--namely, wolves,
beavers, martens, foxes, wild cats, deer, stags, and other wild beasts;
but the most part of them go almost entirely naked. The most precious
thing that they have in their world is 'esnogny,'[12] the which is
white as snow, and they take it into the same river from the
cornibotz[13] in the manner which follows: When a man heserved
death, or when they have taken any enemies in war, they kill them, then
cut them into the buttocks, thighs, and shoulders with great gashes;
afterward in the places where the said esnogny is they sink the said
body to the bottom of the water, and leave it ten or twelve hours,
then draw it up and find within the said gashes and incisions the said
cornibots, of which they make bead money and use it as we do gold and
silver, and hold it the most precious thing in the world. It has the
virtue of stanching blood from the nostrils, because we have tried it.
"All the said people give themselves only to tillage and fishing for a
living; for the goods of this world they make no account, because they
have no knowledge of them, and as they budge not from their country,
and do not go about like those of Canada[14] and of the Saguenay.
Notwithstanding the said Canadians are their subjects, with eight or
nine other peoples who are upon the said river.
"HOW WE ARRIVED AT THE SAID TOWN AND OF THE RECEPTION WHICH WAS
MADE UP THERE, AND HOW THE CAPTAIN MADE THEM PRESENTS; AND OTHER
THINGS THAT THE SAID CAPTAIN DID, AS SHALL BE SEEN IN THIS CHAPTER.
"When we had arrived near the town, a great number of the inhabitants
of it presented themselves before us, who after their fashion of doing,
gave us a good reception; and by our guides and conductors we were
brought to the middle of the town, where there was a place between the
houses the extent of a stone's throw or about in a square, who made
us a sign that we should stop at the said place, which we did. And
suddenly all the women and girls of the said town assembled together,
a part of whom were burdened with children in their arms, and who came
to us to stroke our faces, arms, and other places upon our bodies
that they could touch; weeping with joy to see us; giving us the best
welcome that was possible to them, and making signs to us that it might
please us to touch their said children. After the which things the men
made the women retire, and seated themselves on the ground about us,
as if we might wish to play a mystery. And, suddenly, a number of men
came again, who brought each a square mat in the fashion of a carpet,
and spread them out upon the ground in the middle of the said place
and made us rest upon them. After which things were thus done there
was brought by nine or ten men the king and lord of the country, whom
they all call in their language Agohanna, who was seated upon a great
skin of a stag; and they came to set him down in the said place upon
the said mats beside our captain, making us a sign that he was their
lord and king. This Agohanna was about the age of fifty years and was
not better appareled than the others, save that he had about his head a
kind of red band for a crown, made of the quills of porcupines and this
lord was wholly impotent and diseased in his limbs.
"After he had made his sign of salutation to the said captain and to
his folks, making them evident signs that they should make them very
welcome, he showed his arms and legs to the said captain, praying that
he would touch them, as though he would beg healing and health from
him; and then the captain began to stroke his arms and legs with his
hands; whereupon the said Agohanna took the band and crown that he
had upon his head and gave it to our captain: and immediately there
were brought to the said captain many sick ones, as blind, one-eyed,
lame, impotent, and folks so very old that the lids of their eyes hung
down even upon their cheeks, setting and laying them down nigh to our
said captain for him to touch them, so that it seemed as if God had
descended there in order to cure them.
"Our said captain, seeing the mystery and faith of this said people,
recited the Gospel of St. John; to wit, the _In principio_, making the
sign of the cross on the poor sick ones, praying God that he might give
them knowledge of our holy faith and the passion of our Saviour, and
the grace to receive Christianity and baptism. Then our said captain
took a prayer book and read full loudly, word by word, the passion of
our Lord, so that all the bystanders could hear it, while all these
poor people kept a great silence and were marvelously good hearers,
looking up to heaven and making the same ceremonies that they saw us
make; after which the captain made all the men range themselves on one
side, the women on another, and the children another, and gave to the
chiefs hatchets, to the others knives, and to the women paternosters
and other trifling articles; then he threw into the midst of the place
among the little children some small rings and Agnus Dei of tin, at
which they showed a marvelous joy. This done the said captain commanded
the trumpets and other instruments of music to sound, with which the
said people were greatly delighted; after which things we took leave of
them and withdrew. Seeing this, the women put themselves before us for
to stop us, and brought us of their victuals, which they had prepared
for us, as fish, stews, beans and other things, thinking to make us eat
and dine at the said place; and because their victuals were not to our
taste and had no savor of salt, we thanked them, making them a sign
that we did not need to eat.
"After we had issued from the said town many men and women came to
conduct us upon the mountain aforesaid, which was by us named Mont
Royal, distant from the said place some quarter of a league; and
we, being upon this mountain, had sight and observance of more than
thirty leagues round about it. Toward the north of which is a range
of mountains which stretches east and west, and toward the south as
well; between which mountains the land is the fairest that it may be
possible to see, smooth, level, and tillable; and in the middle of the
said lands we saw the said river, beyond the place where our boats were
left, where there is a waterfall,[15] the most impetuous that it may
be possible to see, and which it was impossible for us to pass. And we
saw this river as far as we could discern, grand, broad and extensive,
which flowed toward the southwest and passed near three fair, round
mountains which we saw and estimated that they were about fifteen
leagues from us. And we were told and shown by signs by our said three
men of the country who had conducted us that there were three such
falls of water on the said river like that where our said boats were,
but we could not understand what the distance was between the one and
the other. Then they showed us by signs that, the said falls being
passed, one could navigate more than three moons by the said river; and
beyond they showed us that along the said mountains, being toward the
north, there is a great stream, which descends from the west like the
said river.[16] We reckoned that this is the stream which passed by
the realm and province of Saguenay, and, without having made them any
request or sign, they took the chain from the captain's whistle, which
was of silver, and the haft of a poniard, the which was of copper,
yellow like gold, which hung at the side of one of our mariners, and
showed that it came from above the said river, and that there were
Agojuda, which is to say evil folk, the which are armed even to the
fingerhowing us the style of their armor, which is of cords and of
wood laced and woven together, giving us to understand that the said
Agojuda carried on continual war against one another; but by default
of speech we could not learn how far it was to the said country. Our
captain showed them some red copper,[17] which they call _caignetdaze_,
pointing them toward the said place, and asking by signs if it came
from there, and they began to shake their heads, saying no, and showing
that it came from Saguenay, which is to the contrary of the preceding.
After which things thus seen and understood, we withdrew to our boats,
which was not without being conducted by a great number of the said
people, of which part of them, when they saw our folk weary, loaded
them upon themselves, as upon horsesd carried them. And we, having
arrived at our said boats, made sail to return to our pinnace, for
doubt that there might be some hindrance; which departure was not made
without great regret of the said people, for as far as they could
follow us down the said river they would follow us, and we accomplished
so much that we arrived at our said pinnace Monday, the fourth day of
October."
The reader must have been struck with the pride of the Hochelagans in
conducting their visitors to the mountain as well as at the accurate
and picturesque description given by Cartier of the scene that met
his delighted gaze. Today the same beautiful sight may be seen by
the visitor who makes his way to the "lookout" or the observatory.
The landscape at his feet has been covered with a busy city and its
suburbs, its manufactories, its public buildings and its homes and
villas, but still it appears as if all these were peeping out of a
garden. All around the green fields and pleasant meadows are there as
of yore. From this height the disfigurements of the lower city are not
visible. Montreal has been described as a beautiful lady handsomely
gowned, but whose skirt fringes are sadly mud and dust stained.
The river has been spanned by gigantic bridges but the main grand
lines of the landscape are those that Cartier gazed upon. There at the
south is the great St. Lawrence with its islands on its bosom, now
studded with ocean going steamers; beyond there is the great sweep
of the St. Lawrence Valley, broken abruptly by the solitary mountain
ridges of Montarville, St. Bruno, Beloeil, Rougemont, Yamaska, and
Mount Johnson--a volcanic sisterhood of which Mount Royal is itself a
member--and hemmed in on the horizon by the cloudlike ridges of the
Green and Adirondack mountains. Looking to the west are the Lachine
Rapids and beyond the Lake St. Louis, and to the north the Rivière des
Prairies or the Back River is seen, at the head of which lies the
bright surface of the Lake of the Two Mountains. Far away hemming in
the horizon on that side runs the hoary Laurentian Range, the oldest
hills known to geology. All this apart from the works of civilization
Cartier saw from the mountain which has only of late years been planned
to intensify its beauty and usefulness. We are now looking forward to
the day when that same city around the mountain will also bear the mark
of an intelligible plan to intensify the beauty of the city and make
it by art, as it is by nature, one of the finest cities in the world,
worthy of the jewel standing out--the pride of its city--Mount Royal.
Cartier saw the island from the point of view of Greater Mount Royal.
In this he resembles those who today see a Greater Montreal. Modern
Hochelagans are as proud of their mountain as those of old. D'Arcy
McGee imagines Jacques Cartier telling of it on his return to St. Malo:
He told them of the Algonquin braves--the hunters of the wild,
Of how the Indian mother in the forest rocks her child;
Of how, poor souls, they fancy in every living thing
A spirit good or evil, that claims their worshipping;
Of how they brought their sick and maim'd for him to breathe upon,
And of the wonders wrought for them through the Gospel of St. John.
He told them of the river whose mighty current gave
Its freshness for a hundred leagues to Ocean's briny wave;
He told them of the glorious scene presented to his sight,
What time he rear'd the cross and crown on Hochelaga's height,
And of the fortress cliff that keeps of Canada the key,
And they welcomed back Jacques Cartier from his perils o'er the sea.
On Tuesday, September 4th, Jacques Cartier regained his pinnace and on
Wednesday, September 5th, he passed thence on his way to Stadaconé.
At Stadaconé, on May 3d, the festival of the Holy Cross, he planted
the cross and inscribed it with the royal name and title, "Franciscus
Primus Dei Gratia." There he treacherously seized Donnacona and his
friends Dom Agaya and Taignoagny and took them to France. On July 6th,
1636, he reached St. Malo "by the grace of the Creator, whom we pray,
making an end of our navigation to grant us his grace and Paradise at
the end. Amen."
CARTIER'S SECOND VISIT TO HOCHELAGA, 1540
When Cartier appeared before the King, Francis I, after his second
voyage there is no doubt that he would have enthusiastically
recommended the country of Hochelaga, especially that island, on which
was the mountain to which he had given the title "Mont Royal" as the
site of a settlement, for in Jacques Cartier's commission, dated
October 17, 1540, in preparation for the third voyage, we read:
"And among others we have sent there our dear and well beloved
Jacques Cartier, who has discovered the large countries of Canada and
Hochelaga, making an end of Asia, on the western side, which country
he found, as he reported to us, furnished with many good commodities,
and the people thereof well formed in body and limb, and well disposed
in spirit and understanding, of whom he likewise brought us a certain
number, whom we have for a long time supported and instructed in our
holy faith[18] with our said subjects, in consideration of which and
seeing their good intentions, we have considered and decided to send
back the said Cartier to the said country of Canada and Hochelaga,
and as far as the land of Saguenay, if we can reach there with a
good number of ships of our said subjects of good intentions and of
all conditions, arts and industries, in order to enter farther into
the said countries to converse with the said peoples thereof, and
if necessary, live with them in order to accomplish better our said
intention and to do a thing agreeable to God our Creator and Redeemer
and which may be for the promoting of his holy sacred name and of our
mother the Holy Catholic church, of which we are called and named the
first son."
Yet before he signed this commission five years had passed. For up to
this Francis had troubles enough at home, with his kingdom invaded by
Charles V of Spain and his throne threatened, to prevent his giving
thought to Hochelaga in the West. But on June 15, 1538, the truce
between France and Spain gave him more leisure for colonization schemes
and the extension of the empire. Especially did he desire it to turn
to the western hemisphere, for he looked with jealous eyes upon the
activity of the King of Spain in that direction. "I should like to see
the clause in our father Adam's will which bequeathed to him this fine
heritage."
There is no doubt that Cartier's action in seizing Donnacona,
Taignoagny and Dom Agaya and others, and taking them to France, from
which they never returned, was the beginning of the cause of the
hostility of the Indians. At first these had received Cartier kindly,
but they could not be expected to forget this treachery in the loss
of their friends. Mather, alluding to a similar piece of treachery by
an English captain some time before the arrival of the Pilgrim Colony
declares that "it laid the foundation of grievous annoyances to all the
English endeavors of settlements, especially in the northern parts of
the island, for several years ensuing. The Indians would never forget
or forgive this injury."
We have no record of Hochelaga till September 7-11, 1540. For this we
are again indebted to Cartier's account of his third voyage. Luckily
this has been partially preserved in Hakluyt's translation, which
is that of the "Bref Récit," the only version known. On Wednesday
(September 7, 1541) Cartier left the proposed French settlement,
Charlesbourg Royal, about four leagues beyond the harbour of St. Croix,
with two boats, to visit Hochelaga and the rapids above it. Following
Hakluyt we learn:
"How after the departure of the two ships which were sent back to
Brittany, and that the fort was begun to be builded, the captain
prepared two boats to go up the great river to discover the passage of
the three saults or falls of the river." While awaiting the arrival of
Roberval in command of the first colonizing party Cartier went up to
the sault from Charlesbourg Royal on September 7th, "and we sailed with
so prosperous a wind that we arrived the 11th day of the month at the
first sault of water, which is two leagues distant from the Town of
Tutonaguy."[19]
There is no further description of Tutonaguy, which we take to be the
site of Montreal. Cartier mentions that finding it impossible to get up
against the course of the sault he came on shore to a beaten path going
towards the first sault. "And on the way and soon after, we found an
habitation of people which made us great cheer and entertained us very
hospitably." Four young men conducted them to another hospitable people
who lived over against the second sault. We may perhaps conclude that
those of the first sault were islanders of Montreal and we are pleased
that their hospitality was forthcoming as is always that of our modern
city. But we regret that Jacques Cartier appears to have made no stay
at Tutonaguy.
With this we take leave of Cartier. Canadians have one grudge against
him, for there seems no doubt that his description of the severity of
our climate delayed colonization here, but his account of Montreal
is satisfactory to us. We are not writing his life, but Montreal can
rejoice in having been discovered by a worthy man. We are glad that
Francis I recognized his merits as we find him spoken of, in an act of
the Chapter of St. Malo, September 29, 1549, as Sieur de Limoilou, and
in another act, of February 5, 1550, as a "noble man." Unfortunately as
he did not leave any child by his wife, Catherine Desgranges, he did
not pass on his title of nobility to anyone. Jacques Cartier is worthy
of recognition as among the great men of his time, and Montreal is
proud of its discoverer and first historian.
ROBERVAL'S PROBABLE VISIT TO HOCHELAGA, 1542
The next French visit to Hochelaga can only be surmised. We have the
record as follows, which gives us an indication of such a possible
visit: It is found in Hakluyt's description of the
"COURSE OF JEAN ALPHONSE, CHIEF PILOT TO MONSIEUR ROBERVAL 1542.
"By the nature of the climate the lands towards Hochelaga are better
and better and more fruitful; and this land is fit for figs and pears;
and I think that gold and silver will be found here according as the
people of the country say." It is likely that it received a visit from
"John Francis de la Rocque, knight, Lord of Roberval," whose voyage
from his fort in Canada is related by Hakluyt "to the countries of
Canada, Saguenay and Hochelaga with three tall ships and 200 persons,
both men and women, and children, begun in April, 1542, in which parts
he remained the same summer and all the next winter." On the 6th of
June about 6 o'clock in the morning, Monsieur Roberval, the king's
lieutenant general in the countries of Canada, Saguenay and Hochelaga,
"set sail for the country of the Saguenay and sailed against the stream
in which voyage their whole furniture was of eight barks, as well great
as small and to the number of three score and ten persons, with the
aforesaid general." Unfortunately the rest of this voyage is wanting.
We know that de Roberval's party contained many undesirables and not
good matter for citizenship and we are glad, that if these did visit
Montreal, they did not stay there.
Montreal would never have been proud of itself with such an origin.
NOTE I
THE SITE OF HOCHELAGA
Where did Jacques Cartier land on the island of Montreal in 1535? We
should very much like to know this. All we know is the naming of the
mountain. There is a portion of Montreal called Hochelaga, being to
the southwest of the present city, but there is no contention that
this is the original part of the island, on which Jacques Cartier
landed. The "Bref Récit" of Cartier's voyage states that he landed two
leagues from the Indian town, which was a quarter of a league from the
mountain. Hakluyt makes the latter distance a league. The Abbé Faillon
in "La Colonie Française" thinks that Cartier ascended the river to the
Lachine Rapids. There is more reason to believe he stayed on his way
opposite Nun's Island. A theory advanced in November 19, 1860, by Sir
William Dawson, principal of McGill College, in a discourse before the
Natural History Society of Montreal, locates the site of Hochelaga in
the space between Metcalfe and Mansfield streets in one direction and
Burnside Place and Sherbrooke Street in the other.
"Doctor Dawson founded his opinion after the examination of some
Indian relics excavated by some workmen in November, 1860, near
Mansfield Street, in the sandy ridge of a terrace immediately north of
Sherbrooke Street. They exhumed two skeletons, and with them or near
them were found jawbones of a beaver and of a dog, with a fragment of
an earthen vessel and of a hollow cylinder of red clay. The skeletons
were in a sitting or crouching posture, as was the mode of burial
with certain early Indian tribes. Among other relics previously found
and exhibited on this occasion was an instrument made of bone, found
among the remains, which exactly fitted the marks on some of the
pottery, the large end having been fashioned like a cup, and the small
end artificially tapered to a point. There were also several knives
and chisels of sharpened bone, in tolerable preservation and some
singular counters which are supposed to have been used in play, the
Indians being inveterate gamblers. The most interesting relics were
tobacco pipes, handsomely fashioned in the shape of lotus flowers,
with the hole through the stem perfectly preserved. I have thought
it well to enumerate these finds because they are now at the Natural
History Museum of the city, and several gentlemen, antiquarians and
archæologists have also private collections of their own. May not
they serve the reader's imagination to conjure up and reconstruct for
himself a picture of the village life of the earliest known inhabitants
of Montreal in place of a labored description of the present
writer."[20]
Describing Cartier's walk toward Hochelaga Mr. Stanley Bagg (Numa),
in the "Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal, July, 1873, Vol.
II, p. 14, says: "Where the brook crosses McGill College ground, he
was met by a deputation of the aborigines; afterwards he came into the
presence of their king, was conducted through corn-fields to the town
and subsequently ascended the mountain. Cartier's description of the
locality, taken in connection with the statement of the missionaries,
and the discovery of Indian antiquities, place the Town of Hochelaga on
the space between Mansfield Street to a little west of Metcalfe Street
in one direction and in the other from a little south of Burnside Place
to within sixty yards of Sherbrooke Street. In this area, several
skeletons, hundreds of old fireplaces, indications of huts, bones of
wild animals, pottery and implements of stone and bone have been found."
NOTE II
HOCHELAGA CIVILIZATION
In order to present a picture of these early settlers around Mount
Royal the following description from Jacques Cartier's second voyage
may be of avail:
"OF THE MANNER OF LIVING OF THE PEOPLE OF THE SAID LAND, AND OF
CERTAIN CONDITIONS, BELIEF, AND MANNER OF MAKING WHAT THEY HAVE
"The said people have not any belief in God which may avail, for they
believe in one whom they call Cudouagny, and they say that he speaks
frequently to them and tells them what the weather should be. They say
also that when he is angry with them he throws dirt in their eyes.
They believe also that when they depart they go to the stars, then
go declining to the horizon like the said stars, then pass into fair
fields toward plains of beautiful trees, flowers and sumptuous fruits.
After they had given us to understand these things we showed them their
error and said that their Cudouagny is an evil spirit who abuses them,
and said that there is only one God, who is in heaven, who gives us all
things necessary, and is the Creator of all things, and that in Him
only should we believe, and that it was necessary to be baptised or
go to hell. Many other things of our faith were shown them which they
readily believed, and called their Cudouagny, Agojuda, so that many
times they prayed our captain to have them baptised. And the said Lord
Taignoagny, Dom Agaya, and all the people of their town, came there for
the purpose of being baptised; but because we knew not their intention
and sincerity and that there was none that could show them the faith
there, excuse was made to them, and it was told Taignoagny and Dom
Agaya that they should make them understand that we should return
another voyage, and would bring priests and holy oil, giving them
to understand for excuse that one could not be baptised without the
said holy oil, which they believed because they saw several children
baptised in Brittany, and of the promise that the captain made them to
return they were very joyous and thanked him.
"The said people live in almost a community of goods, rather of the
style of the Brazilians, and are wholly clothed with skin of wild
beasts, and poorly enough. In winter they are shod with stockings and
shoes, and in summer they go barefoot. They keep the order of marriage,
save that they take two or three wives, and after the husband is dead
the wives never remarry, but wear mourning for the said dead all
their lives, and besmear their faces with coal-dust and with grease
as thick as the thickness of a knife; and by that one knows that they
are widows. They have another custom very bad for their girls; for
after they are of age to marry they are all put into a common house,
abandoned to everybody who desires them until they have found their
match. And all this we have seen by experience, for we have seen the
houses as full of the said girls as is a school of boys in France.
And, moreover, gaming according to their manner is held in the said
houses, where they stake all that they have, even to the covering of
their nature. They do not any great work, and with little pieces of
wood about the size of a half-sword cultivate their land whereon they
raise their corn, which they call Zis, the which is as big as peas,
of the same grain in growth as in Brazil. Likewise they have a great
quantity of great melons, cucumbers, and pumpkins, peas and beans of
all colours, not of the kind of ours. They have also an herb of which
during the summer they make a great store for the winter, the which
they greatly esteem, and the men only use it in the manner following:
They have it dried in the sun and carry it about their necks in a
little beast's skin in place of a bag, with a horn of stone or wood;
then by and by they make powder of the said herb and put it in one of
the ends of the said horn, then put a coal fire thereon and suck at
the other end so long that they fill their bodies with smoke; insomuch
that it comes out by the mouth and nostrils as by a chimney funnel; and
they say that it keeps them healthy and warm, and they never go without
having their said things. We have tried the said smoke, which, after
being put into our mouths, seemed to be powder of pepper put therein,
it was so hot. The women of the said country work beyond comparison
more than the men, as well in fishing, of which they make a great
business, as in tilling and other things; and men, women and children
alike are more hardened to the cold than beasts, for with the greatest
cold that we may have seen, the which was extreme and bitter, they came
over the ice and snow every day to our ships, the most part of them
almost entirely naked, which is an incredible thing to one who has not
seen it. They take during the said ice and snow a great quantity of
wild beasts, as deer, stags, and bears, of which they brought us but
very little, because they were stingy of their victuals. They eat their
flesh wholly raw, after having been dried by the smoke, and likewise
their fish. By what we have seen and been able to learn of this said
people it seems to me that they might be easy to tame in such fashion
as one might desire. God by his divine compassion bestow upon them his
regard. Amen."
NOTE III--CANADA
Canada was limited by Cartier to the region between the Isle of Bacchus
(Isle d'Orleans) and Hochelaga. There can be no doubt that the word
Canada is derived from Cannata or Kannata, which in Iroquois signifies
a collection of dwellings, in other words a settlement, and it is
probable that when the Indians were asked by the French the name of
their country, they replied pointing to their dwellings, "Cannata,"
which their interrogators applied in a broader sense than was intended.
NOTE IV--GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF MOUNT ROYAL
The following geological study of Mount Royal prepared by Dean F. D.
Adams of McGill University for the Geological Survey Department of
the Federal Government cannot fail to be of interest to students of
Montreal:
"In the Province of Quebec, between the enormous expanse of the
Laurentian highlands to the northwest, constituting the 'Canadian
Shield,' and the disturbed and folded tract of country which marks
the Appalachian uplift, there is a great plain underlain by nearly
horizontal rocks of lower Palæozoic age. This plain, while really
showing slight differences of level from place to place, seems to the
casual observer perfectly flat. Its surface is mantled with a fertile
soil consisting of drift redistributed upon its surface by the sea,
which covered it at the close of the Glacial times. The uniform expanse
of this plain, however, is broken by several isolated hills composed of
igneous rocks, which rise abruptly from it and which constitute very
striking features of the landscape.
"From the top of Mount Royal the other hills referred to can all be
seen rising from the plain to the east; while to the north the plain
stretches away unbroken to the foot of the Laurentian plateau.
"The hills under consideration, while by no means 'mere hummocks,'
being situated in such a country of low relief, seem to be higher than
they really are and are always referred to locally as 'mountains.'
"These mountains, whose positions are shown on the accompanying map,
are eight in number, their names and their height above sea level being
as follows:
"Mount Royal 769.6 feet.
Montarville or St. Bruno 715 " (O'Neil)
Beloeil 1,437 " (Leroy)
Rougemont 1,250 "
Yamaska 1,470 " (Young)
Shefford 1,725 "
Brome 1,755 "
Mount Johnson or Monnoir 875 "
"They have been called the Monteregian Hills from Mount Royal ('Mons
Regius'), which is the best known member of the group and may be taken
as their type.
"Brome Mountain is by far the largest member of the group, having an
area of 30 square miles. Shefford comes next in size, having an area of
rather less than nine square miles; while Mount Johnson, which is very
much smaller than any of the others, has an area of only .422 of one
square mile.
"Of these eight, the first six, as Logan notes, 'stand pretty nearly
in a straight line,' running approximately east and west, Mount Royal
being the most westerly, and the others following in the order in which
they are enumerated above, until Shefford Mountain, the most easterly
member of the series, is reached. Mount Johnson and Brome Mountain lie
on a line parallel to them, a short distance to the south, Rougemont
being the nearest neighbour to Mount Johnson and Brome Mountain
immediately south of Shefford. It is highly probable, in view of this
distribution, that these ancient volcanic mountains are, as is usual
in such occurrences, arranged along some line or lines of weakness or
deep-seated fracture. The 'pretty nearly straight line' referred to
by Logan, on which the first six mountains of the group are situated,
must be considered either as a single line with a rather sharp curve
in the middle or as made up of two shorter straight lines, each with
three mountains, diverging from one another at an angle of about thirty
degrees, with Montarville at the point of intersection. Mount Johnson
and Brome Mountain might then be considered as situated on short
subsidiary fractures.
"The distance from Brome Mountain, the most easterly member of the
Monteregian Hills, to Mount Royal the most westerly, is 50 miles
(80 km.). For a few miles to the east and west of these mountains
respectively, however, evidences of the igneous activity of the system
are manifested in the occurrence of occasional dykes or small stocks
of the consanguineous rocks of the series, the extreme easterly
representative of these being a little stock exposed about a mile and
a half east of Eastman, on the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway,
and the most westerly being a series of dykes and a small stock at La
Trappe, on the Lake of Two Mountains. Similarly, the most northerly
extension is represented by a sheet intercalated between strata of the
Chazy limestone in the bed of the Little River, near St. Lin, 15 miles
(24 km.) north of St. Lin Junction. It is difficult to say just how far
to the south the last evidences of the Monteregian activity are found,
but scattered dykes of bostonite, camptonite and monchiquite have been
described by Kemp and Marsters from the shores of Lake Champlain (out
of which flows the River Richelieu), to a distance of 90 miles (145
km.) or more south of Mount Johnson.
"The Monteregian Hills are a series of ancient plutonic intrusions.
Some of them (e. g. Brome Mountain) are apparently denuded laccoliths,
one of them (Mount Johnson) is a typical neck or pipe, and it is
probable that some, if not all, of them, represent the substructures of
volcanoes which at one time were in active eruption in this region.
"It is impossible to determine accurately the date of these intrusions.
In the case of Mount Royal, however, inclusions of Lower Devonian
limestone are found in the intruded rock, so that the intrusions
forming the mountain are later than Lower Devonian time.
"Since Dresser by another line of evidence, has shown that the
intrusion of Mount Shefford probably took place before late
Carboniferous time, the Monteregian intrusions probably date back to
the late Devonian or early Carboniferous period.
"It must be noted that while six of these mountains rise from the
horizontal strata of the plain, the two most easterly members of the
group, namely Shefford and Brome, while still to the west of the axis
of that range, lie well within the folded belt of the Appalachians,
although, owing to the extensive denudation from which the region
has suffered, this folding has had but little influence on the local
topography. About La Trappe, at the extreme westerly extension of the
Monteregian area, the dykes of the series cut rocks of Laurentian age,
which here form an outlier of the great Laurentian protaxis on the
north.
"The Monteregian Hills form an exceptionally distinct and well marked
petrographical province, being composed of consanguineous rocks of very
interesting and rather unusual type. These are characterized by a high
content of alkali and in the main intrusion of almost every mountain
two distinct types are found associated with one another, representing
the products of the differentiation of the original magma.
"These are--
"(a) Nepheline syenite, in some cases replaced by or associated
with pulaskite, tawite, akerite or nordmarkite.
"(b) Essexite, in some cases represented by theralite, yamaskite,
rougemonite, or rouvillite.
"It may be mentioned that yamaskite is a very basic rock type
characterized by a great predominance of pyroxene, basaltic hornblende
and ilmenite, with about two per cent of anorthite. Rougemonite
consists largely of anorthite with pyroxene as the only important
ferro-magnesian constituent. Rouvillite is a highly feldspathic variety
of theralite.
GEOLOGY OF MOUNT ROYAL
"Mount Royal consists of a body of intrusive plutonic rock penetrating
the nearly horizontal limestone of the Trenton formation (Ordovician).
It consists of two main intrusions composed of essexite and nepheline
syenite respectively, of which the nepheline syenite is the later
followed by a swarm of dykes and sheets of consanguineous rocks which
cut not only the main intrusions, but also penetrate the surrounding
limestones in all directions. The intrusive rock in some places tilts
up the limestones while elsewhere about the mountain these maintain
their horizontal attitude. The intrusion may be essentially laccolitic
in character, or it may represent the plutonic basis of a volcano. The
erosion has been so long continued that it has been impossible as yet
to reach a definite conclusion on this point.
"The greater part of the plain through which the mountain rises, and
which is underlaid by Ordovician strata, is mantled by drift which also
covers the slopes of the mountain. This drift, and in some places the
underlying rock, has been terraced by a series of well defined beaches,
which mark the successive stages of the retreat of the sea at the close
of the Glacial age.
"The City of Montreal is built upon these drift deposits, and lies
upon the slopes of Mount Royal and upon the plain about its foot. The
development of the city was largely influenced by the position of the
main beaches above mentioned.
"At a number of places on the slopes of Mount Royal and in its vicinity
there are remarkable developments of igneous breccia. This has as a
matrix one or other of the dyke rocks of the series, while the included
fragments consist in part of the Trenton limestone, often associated
with fragments of the other underlying stratified rocks traversed by
the dykes in their upward passage. These fragments are frequently so
numerous that they constitute a large part of the whole mass. Perhaps
the most remarkable of these breccias is that which occurs on St.
Helen's Island in the harbor of Montreal, and which is unique among
these occurrences in that it contains fragments of rocks which are
more recent in age than any of the sedimentary strata now found in the
district.
"At the present time a tunnel, about three and a half miles in
length, is being driven through Mount Royal by the Canadian Northern
Railway, in order to gain an entrance from the westward to their
proposed terminals in the vicinity of the corner of Dorchester and Ste.
Monique streets, in the City of Montreal. It has afforded an excellent
opportunity of studying the distribution of dykes, sheets, etc., as
well as fresher specimens of many of the rock types of the district.
Already about two miles and a half of the sub-heading have been driven.
More minute description, in detail, of the various explored strata of
rock is to be found in the same work."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The company is said to be 110.
[2] This commission was dated October 31, 1534.
[3] Stadaconé is the site of Quebec. Stadaconé is "wing" in Huron
Iroquois, so called because of the formation of the point between the
St. Lawrence and the St. Charles rivers.
[4] The translation of the second voyage of Jacques Cartier which we
are using with his permission is that made by Mr. James Phinney Baxter
and published in 1906 in his "Memoir of Jacques Cartier." We have
not chosen Hakluyt's for the following reasons: In the Bibliothèque
Nationale of Paris there are three contemporary manuscripts, numbered
55 5644 and 5653, which vary very slightly. That numbered 5653 was
probably the copy used for a publication of the second voyage issued at
Paris in 1545 under the title of "Bref Récit" and appeared translated
into English by Hakluyt in 1600. In comparing the other manuscript
it has been found that numerous errors and omissions occurred in
the version printed under the title of the Bref Récit including the
omission of two entire chapters. Doctor Baxter has therefore translated
the manuscript 5589 and it is a portion of this that we present to the
readers.
[5] Hochelaga is Huron Iroquois for "at the Beavers Dam."
[6] This might indicate that there were chaplains with Cartier, if he
had perhaps not deluded the savages, as likely he did.
[7] The history of the efforts of the Montreal merchants to deepen the
channels dates from the same cause. The success of the navigation to
Montreal has followed the varying increases in depth of this channel.
[8] The present Sorel Islands, the streams being the channels between
them.
[9] The Algonquin word is Mooskouessou.
[10] Maize or Indian corn.
[11] Lescarbot has it caracona. The word is Huron Iroquois.
[12] "Esnogny," the wampum of the Abenaki.
[13] Shells.
[14] Cartier's Canada was limited to the region between the Isle
Bacchus and Hochelaga.
[15] The Lachine Rapids.
[16] The Ottawa.
[17] Probably from the region of Lake Superior.
[18] Donnacona, Dom Agaya and Taignoagny were baptized, as it appears
by the register of St. Malo. Donnacona, being the so-called King of the
Savages, was doubtless named François for the king. The following is a
translation in the entry in the registry: "This day, Notre Dame XXVth
of March, the year one thousand five hundred and thirty-eight, were
baptized three savage men from the party of Canada, taken in the said
country by the honest man, Jacques Cartier, captain for the King, our
Sire, for the discovery of the said lands. The first was named Charles,
by the venerable and discreet master Charles de Champ Girault, dean
and canon of the said places principal sponsor; and secondary sponsor,
Monsieur the Lieutenant and Seigneur de la Verderye; and godmother
Catherine Des Granges. And the second was named François, the name
of the King, our Sire, by the honest man, Jacques Cartier, principal
godfather; and secondary godfather Master Pierre le Gobien; godmother,
Madame le Lieutenant Seigneur de la Verderye. The third was named ----
by Master Servan May ---- of the said place, and secondary godfather,
Jehan Nouël; and godmother Guillemette Maingard."
[19] Montreal is known in Iroquois as "Tioktiaki" which the Abbé
Faillon has identified as Tutonaguy.
[20] Sandham's "Ville Marie Past and Present."
CHAPTER II
1516-1627
COLONIZATION
UNDER THE EARLY TRADING COMPANIES
OF NEW FRANCE
FRENCH COLONIZATION, A CHRISTIANIZING MOVEMENT--THE CROSS
AND THE CROWN--ROBERVAL'S COMMISSION TO COLONIZE CANADA AND
HOCHELAGA--FEUDALISM PROJECTED--CRIMINALS AND MALEFACTORS TO BE
SENT AS COLONISTS--JACQUES CARTIER SAILS IN ADVANCE--CHARLESBOURG
ROYAL, THE FIRST COLONY, STARTED--CARTIER SAILS FOR HOCHELAGA AND
PASSES TUTONAGUY--CARTIER SAILS SECRETLY FOR FRANCE--CHARLESBOURG
A FAILURE--DEATH OF CARTIER--HIS GREAT NEPHEW, NOEL, VISITS
THE GREAT SAULT IN 1557--THE FIRST PRIVATE MONOPOLY TO NOEL
AND OTHERS--THE FIRST ROYAL TRADE MONOPOLY TO DE LA ROCHE--THE
EDICT OF NANTES--CHAUVIN, A HUGUENOT, SECURES A TRADE
MONOPOLY--TADOUSSAC, THE COURT OF KING PETAUD--EYMARD DE CHASTES
RECEIVES A COMMISSION AND ENGAGES THE SERVICES OF A ROYAL
GEOGRAPHER, SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN--CHAMPLAIN's FIRST VISIT TO THE
SAULT--DE MONTS, SUCCEEDING DE CHASTES, RETAINS CHAMPLAIN AS
HIS LIEUTENANT--QUEBEC CHOSEN BY CHAMPLAIN--CHAMPLAIN BECOMES
A COMPANY PROMOTER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, THE SHAREHOLDERS
BEING MOSTLY HUGUENOTS, THE PRINCE DE CONDE, GOVERNOR
GENERAL--CHAMPLAIN's BLUNDER IN ALLYING HIMSELF WITH THE
ALGONQUINS AND HURONS AGAINST THE IROQUOIS, AFTERWARDS THE CAUSE
OF IROQUOIS HOSTILITIES AGAINST THE FUTURE MONTREAL--THE COMING
OF THE "RECOLLECTS"--CHAMPLAIN'S ATTEMPT AT A REAL COLONIZING
SETTLEMENT AT QUEBEC--THE JESUITS ARRIVE--THE COMPANY OF ONE
HUNDRED ASSOCIATES.
As the origin of Montreal is bound up so closely with the history of
the colonization of La Nouvelle France, it is well to place it in
relation with this movement, otherwise Montreal will appear as detached
from its mission in the growth and development of Canada.
The date usually assigned for the discovery of Canada is April 5,
1409, but the knowledge of Canada begins only with Jacques Cartier.
Long, however, before him, the fishing grounds of Newfoundland had
seen navigators from Dieppe, St. Malo, La Rochelle, Honfleur and other
ports of France, besides those of Cornwall, Devonshire and the Channel
Islands. Brave mariners, Normands, Bretons and Basques, besides being
familiar with Newfoundland, knew vaguely of the existence of Canada,
although that name had not been yet attached to this country. Other
nations also were represented in these fishing regions, but it was
reserved to Cartier definitely to discover it, and to Francis I of
France, to attempt to colonize and christianize it.
It must be conceded that the religious policy played a great part, as
the commissions granted to Cartier, Champlain, and others, as well
as the report of these and the relations of their discoveries, amply
testify. Lescarbot, no good Catholic, acknowledges that: "Our kings in
enterprising these movements for discovery, have had another end than
that of our neighbours (the English and the Dutch). For I see by their
commissions that these smack only of the advancement of the Christian
religion without any present profit."
It is this lofty missionary spirit that we must read into the
adventurous motives of the first discoverers and founders of Canada--La
Nouvelle France--of Quebec and Montreal in particular, else nothing
but a sordid desire for trade, mixed perhaps with adventure, is to be
the story of the origin of our great country. Unless the religious
character and close touch with the supernatural, possessed by the first
inhabitants are appreciated, the romance of the accounts of the early
historians will have no attraction for our readers nor will the key to
the understanding of the history of Canada till the occupation by the
British in 1760 be supplied.
We must look upon Jacques Cartier, when as the bearer of a Royal
Commission, he left St. Malo, on April 20, 1534, to conquer new lands
for Christianity, as dignified by this side of his duty--to promote
the glory of God and that of France. Consequently his progress up the
River St. Lawrence to Hochelaga is marked by such incidents as the
distribution of rosaries and pious objects, emblems of the faith he
believed in, and the planting at Gaspé of a cross thirty feet high, in
the middle of which was a shield with three _fleurs de lis_, with the
inscription, cut into the wood, "Vive Le Roi de France." His course
and that of Champlain, up the St. Lawrence is strewn with a number
of places named after the festivals of the church, all dignifying an
otherwise prosaic catalogue of discoveries. The cross and the crown of
France may therefore be considered the emblems of the French occupation.
It is not the purpose of this book to detail Cartier's voyages, three
of which we have recounted by himself, those of 1534, 1535-36, and
1540. We have, however, chosen several extracts from the second voyage,
as these relate especially to Montreal. We wish to gather the results
of his work. He left no permanent settlement and established no trading
posts but he claimed the land for France and his accounts to the king
and the ministers and his published voyages of the country of Canada,
Hochelaga and Saguenay, kept before his countrymen the existence of a
great land in the West worth the colonizing.
Cartier's commission in the first voyage was that of "Captain and
Master Pilot of the King;" in the second, "Captain General and Master
Pilot." When he was sent on his third voyage, a new element entered
into the view of Canada. At the head of the expedition was placed a
gentleman of Picardy, Jean François de la Rocque Seigneur de Roberval,
whom Francis I playfully styled the Petty King of Vimeux, and whom he
appointed his lieutenant and governor in the countries of Canada and
Hochelaga, with Jacques Cartier as "the Captain General and leader of
the ships." His commission is dated October 20, 1540. This was to be
the first colonizing movement.
Jean François de la Rocque's letters patent were granted by Francis
I, on January 15, 1540. It reads, having learnt of the discovery
of countries, "the which have been found furnished with very good
commodities, and the people thereof well formed in body and limb and
well disposed in disposition and understanding, of which have also
been brought us others having the appearance of good inclination. In
consideration of which things we have considered and determined to
send again into the same countries of Canada and Hochelaga and others
circumjacent, as well as into all transmarine and maritime countries
inhabited, not possessed nor granted, by any Christian princes, some
goodly number of gentlemen, our subjects, as well men of war as common
people of each sex, and other craftsmen and mechanics in order to
enter further into the said countries; and as far as into the land of
the Saguenay and all other countries aforesaid, for the purpose of
discoursing with the said peoples therein, if it can be done, and to
dwell in the said lands and countries, there to construct and build
towns and forts, temples and churches in the communication of our Holy
Catholic Faith and Christian doctrine, to constitute and establish
laws in our name, together with officers of justice to make them live
according to equity and order and in the fear and love of God, to the
end that they may better conform to our purpose and do the things
agreeable to God, our Creator, Saviour and Redeemer, which may be to
the sanctification of His Holy Name and to the increase of our Holy
Faith and the growth of our Mother of the Holy Catholic Church, of the
which we are said to be and entitled the first son," etc.
The text of the letters patent following is a very long one, it enters
most minutely, and in a most legal and formal manner, into the details
of the powers of the governor which are to be very great and foresee a
thoroughly organized kingdom with all the elements of feudalism with
his fiefs and seigneuries--in fact a Nouvelle France!
On January 15th, Roberval's Royal Commission empowering him to take
the means for the equipment, was signed at Fontainebleau. It gave to
"our said lieutenant full authority, charge, commission and special
mandate to provide and furnish of himself all things necessary to
said army and to levy or cause to be levied in all parts, places and
precincts of our realm as shall seem to him good, paying therefor
reasonably, and as is meet, and to take men of war, or artisans and
others of divers conditions in order to carry them with him on the said
voyage, provided that this may be of their own good will and accord,
and likewise also provisions, victuals, arms, artillery, arquebuses,
powder, saltpeter, pikes and other offensive and defensive weapons, and
generally all clothing, instruments and other things suitable for the
equipment, despatch and efficiency of this army," etc. The supply of
volunteers for this expedition does not seem to have been sufficiently
encouraging, for, dated February 7th, we have an order by Francis I,
for delivery of prisoners to Jehan François de la Rocque. This document
after re-stating the terms of the commissions, already given, in view
of the wish of the King that the expedition shall sail on the 15th
of April, at the latest, states "and on account of the long distance
from the said country and the fear of shipwreck and maritime risks,
and others regretting to leave their goods, relatives and friends,
fearing to make the said voyage; and, peradventure as a number, who
would willingly make the same journey, might object to remain in the
same country after the return of our said lieutenant, by means of
which, through want of having a competent number of men for service,
and other volunteers to people the said countries, the undertaking of
the said voyage could not be accomplished so soon, and as we desire,
and as it is requisite for the weal of the human creatures dwelling
in the said country without law and without knowledge of God and of
his holy faith, which we wish to increase and augment by a great zeal,
a thing if it were not accomplished, which would cause us very great
regret, considering the great benefit and public weal which would
proceed from the said enterprise, and as we have enjoined and verbally
commanded our said lieutenant to diligently execute our said will and
intention, to depart and commence the said voyage by the fifteenth of
April next ensuing, at farthest if it can be accomplished," etc. * * *
"We desire to employ clemency, in doing a good and meritorious work,
towards some criminals and malefactors, that by this they may recognize
the Creator by rendering him thanks and amending their lives, we have
thought proper to have given and delivered to our said lieutenant,
his clerks and deputies, to the full number that he shall advise of
the said criminals and malefactors detained in the jails and state
prisons of our parliament and of other jurisdictions, * * * such as
they shall desire to choose and select, condemned and judged as has
been said, always excepting the imprisoned criminals to whom we are not
accustomed to give pardon * * * commuting the penalty of death into an
honest and useful voyage, with the condition that when the said persons
return home again from the said voyage without permission from us, they
shall be executed in the place in which they may have been condemned,
immediately and without hope of pardon."
An extract from the Parliament Registers at Rouen of March 9th, giving
power to Roberval to have the prisoners transferred from its jails to
him limits the choice somewhat by "excepting the prisoners who shall
be held in cases and crimes of heresy and high treason in the first
degree, of counterfeiting money and other too monstrous cases and
crimes."
Roberval could not get his party together for April. Indeed it seemed
that he needed Jacques Cartier's assistance, for on October 17, 1540,
we find him receiving a commission similar to Roberval's to take over
fifty prisoners. In this charge he is allowed and permitted "to take
the little galleon, called L'Emerillon which he now has of us, the
which is already old and rotten, in order to serve in repairing those
of the ships which shall have need of it," without rendering any
account of it. But it was not till May 23d of the year following, 1541,
that Cartier set sail with five ships, well furnished and victualed
for two years. He went without Roberval, because as the King had sent
Cartier letters "whereby he did expressly charge him to depart and
set sail immediately upon the sight and receipt thereof, on pain of
incurring his displeasure, and as Roberval had not got his artillery,
powder and ammunitions ready he told Cartier to go on ahead and he
would prepare a ship or two at Honfleur whither he expected his things
were to come. Having mustered and reviewed "the gentleman soldiers and
mariners which were retained and chosen for the performance of the said
voyage, he gave unto Captain Cartier full authority to depart and go
before and to govern all things as if he had been there in person."
So Cartier sailed away, on May 23d. We will leave the misfortunes on
the way to be read in Cartier's memoir of the third voyage. At last,
however, Cartier arrived at the mouth of what is now Cape Rouge River
and found a spot where a fort should be built on the high point now
called Redclyffe. This fort he called Charlesbourg Royal, doubtless
after Charles, Duke of Orléans, son of Francis I. He put three of the
vessels in haven, and after the two others were emptied of all that
was destined for the colony, Cartier sent them back and with them
in command Marc Jalobert, his brother-in-law, and Etienne Noël, his
nephew, to tell King Francis that they had begun to construct a fort,
but that Monsieur de Roberval was not yet come and that he feared
that by occasion of contrary winds and tempests he was driven back to
France. They departed for St. Malo on September 2d.
Things were progressing at the fort; the land was tilled and the fort
was begun to be built; but now a party consisting of Cartier, Martin
de Painport, with other gentlemen, and the remnant of the mariners,
departed with two boats "with victuals to go as far as Hochelaga of
purpose to view and understand the fashion of the Saults of water."
The Viscount de Beaupré stayed behind for the guarding and government
of all things in the fort. Cartier's party reached the rapids passing
Tutonaguy, which we identify as the site of Montreal, but we have no
record of his staying there. Cartier's memoirs of the voyage break off
here. However, as we are interested only in the colonizing movement,
we get sufficient information from Roberval's account of his voyage of
the fate of the Charlesbourg attempt. Roberval says that Cartier left
for France at the end of September, 1541, and that he himself after
having set sail from Honfleur, on the 16th of April, 1542, arrived at
Newfoundland on the 7th of June following, where he found Cartier on
his way home. Cartier explained that he had left the fort because he
had not been able, with his little troupe, to resist the savages who
roamed daily around the fort, and were very harassing. However, Cartier
and his men praised the country highly, as being very rich and fertile,
adding that they had taken away many diamonds, and a certain quantity
of gold ore which Roberval examined and found good. Roberval had
arrived with three great vessels fitted out at the expense of the King,
with 200 souls, men and women and some gentlemen, among them being the
Sieur de Lenneterre, his lieutenant, Lespinay, his ensign, the Captain
Guinecourt, and the pilot, Jean Alphonse. He ordered Cartier to retrace
his steps to Charlesbourg, believing that the new recruitment was able
to resist the attacks of the enemy. But Cartier, and his following,
departed secretly the following night. Whether or not this flight was
disloyal, or born of fear, or of vainglory, since Roberval asserted,
that Cartier had fled being desirous of getting first to France to
acquaint the king of his discoveries, certain it is that it was wise.
For this first royal colonizing party composed of so many men and women
from the jails of France was fated to be a most lamentable failure.
Famine and lawlessness marked its sojourn at Charlesbourg. It was well
that New France should not be born of such material for citizenship.
This voyage has an interest for Montrealers in that Roberval passed by
it on a voyage to the Sault.
Cartier never seems to have been blamed by the king for his desertion
of Roberval, but, it is said, he was sent back to recall him for more
useful service in France. Of this fourth voyage of Jacques Cartier
we have no record. We find him settled in France, ennobled and known
as the Sieur de Limoilou, although there is a tradition, not well
founded, that he made a fifth voyage to Canada. He lived an honoured
man in St. Malo to his death. In the margin of the old record of the
Town of St. Malo under date of September 1, 1557, we find the following:
"This said Wednesday about five o'clock in the morning died
Jacques Cartier."
Cartier's name is no longer to be associated with the further history
of Canada, except in the memory of a grateful people, who will come to
admire the memory of this brave sailor, daring adventurer, missionary
and historian--the discoverer of Canada and Montreal. We shall see,
however, how this spirit of enterprise for Canadian extension was
carried on by his nephews.
We cannot help feeling sorry for Roberval. He was a young man of
energy and had great ideas as a colonizer. He went out, according to
Charlevoix, with the Royal Commission as "Lord of Norumberga, Viceroy
and Lieutenant General of Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland,
Belle-Isle, Carpunt, Labrador, the Great Bay and Baccalaos." He was
recalled for more useful service!
After Cartier had ceased visiting the St. Lawrence, the care of the
French government for the development and colonization of Canada seems
to have been neglected from 1543 to 1603. Cartier's discoveries were
not appreciated; it was reserved for Champlain three-quarters of a
century later, to follow in his footsteps. As Champlain is the trader
_par excellence_ of Canada and of Montreal, we may now briefly trace
the history of our trade.
Although discovery and colonization were so long abandoned still the
banks of Newfoundland and the mouth of the St. Lawrence were frequented
yearly by hardy Normans and Bretons as before, for the cod and whale
fishery there.[21] Trading with the natives in peltry became insensibly
mingled with the occupation of fisherman and Tadoussac grew to be a
public market for this sort of commerce and exchange. There we would
have found many good friends of Jacques Cartier, among them Capt. Marc
Jalobert, his brother-in-law, who visited Hochelaga in 1535 and Etienne
Noël, his nephew, also a sturdy captain under Cartier in his third
voyage. There, too, would have been Jacques Noël, his great-nephew,
who reports in a letter of 1557 that he had gone on his uncle's
traces up the St. Lawrence as far as the Great Sault. This visit to
Hochelaga makes us interested in him, the more so, as it was this Noël,
associated with Sieur de la Jaunaye-Chaton and the nephew of Jacques
Cartier, who in 1558 applied to Henry III for a charter similar to that
granted by Francis I to their uncle, appealing for this favour on the
ground that their uncle had spent, from his own pocket in the service
of the king in the voyage of 1541, a sum in excess of that which he had
received from the king, and had been allowed no recompense; nor had
indeed his heirs. Warned by the failures and the expenses of the past
the King demurred. Cartier's nephew then compromised. They offered to
renew their uncle's design and to form a French colony in Canada to
Christianize the savages, all at their own expense, provided that the
king would grant them the sole privilege for twelve years of trading
with the inhabitants, principally in peltry and that he would forbid
interference of rivals with them in this privilege and in the
exploitation of a mine discovered by them. To this the King consented
by a favour of January 14, 1588. This monopoly, the first of its kind,
was soon revoked at the instance of jealous rival traders of St. Malo
who obtained a revocation of the charter on the 5th of May following
for they considered that the good things coming from Jacques Cartier's
discoveries were to be shared in by all of St. Malo, since they
belonged to all and not to his nephews alone.
This attempt to obtain a private monopoly having failed, we are
surprised to find a monopoly being granted in 1589 by Henry IV to a
gentleman of Brittany, the Sieur de la Roche, apparently in accordance
with a promise given verbally or otherwise by Henry III at sometime
before his assassination in August, 1659. This document was one similar
to that granted by Francis I to Roberval and it made de la Roche
the king's lieutenant governor in New France--with real vice-regal
privileges. The commission differed in this from Roberval's that it
gave power to the lieutenant general to choose merchants to accompany
him and forbade all others to trade in the same regions without his
consent under penalty of confiscation of merchandise and vessels.
Again a miserable fiasco was to take place. The lieutenant governor
had to draw upon the jails and galleys for his colonists. He arrived
with sixty men under the direction of pilot Chedotel at Sable Island,
twenty-five leagues to the south of the Island of Cape Breton. Arrived
there he disembarked, according to Lescarbot, the greater part of those
he had drawn from the prisons, left them provisions and merchandise,
and promised to return for them as soon as he had found on the
mainland, a suitable place for settlement. Taking a little bark, he
went to the Acadian coast, but on returning was surprised by so violent
a wind that he was driven back to France in less than twelve days. The
fate of the abandoned colonists had better be told by Champlain. In
the description of his voyages, dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu and
published in 1632, Champlain's criticism of de la Roche's expedition
was "that the fault of this attempt at colonizing was that this
marquis did not have some one experienced in such matters explore and
reconnoitre, before assuming so excessive an outlay." On the other hand
we can be glad that Canada did not start her origin as a colony with
such stuff as composed the greater part of Roberval's and de la Roche's
consignments.
In 1598 the Edict of Nantes had been published in France and it was
soon to affect Canada in this wise. In France it had restored civil and
religious liberty to the Huguenots, Protestants or French Calvinists.
The spirit of conciliation was in the air and Huguenots now began to
take their place in the judicature and financial posts, and in the
army. Next year we find a sailor merchant of St. Malo named Dupont
Gravé soliciting a commission for Sieur Chauvin, of Normandy, a
Huguenot, a man of great skill and experience in navigation, captain
in the King's navy and of some influence at the court. As the King
remembered the good services of M. Chauvin he granted a monopoly to
him on the condition that no one should trade in Canada unless he had
Chauvin's permission and should settle in the country and make a home
there. Chauvin was to bear all the expenses, and he was to take 500 men
to fortify the country and defend it, and to teach the Catholic faith
to the Indians.
Tadoussac was chosen as the headquarters. Thither Chauvin and Dupont
Gravé and a Huguenot, Pierre Dugas, Sieur de Monts, a prospector who
came out on "pleasure," went with an advance party. Tadoussac had
been well enough for a summer trading post but, says Champlain, "if
there is an ounce of cold forty leagues up the river there is a pound
at Tadoussac." However, they fixed up a guardlike building of wood, 25
feet long by 18 wide, and 8 feet high. This was to harbour seventeen
men and provisions. "Behold them there very warm for the winter,"
chuckles Champlain, who had no love for the Huguenots. The leaders went
to France and during the winter the settlement at Tadoussac was "the
Court of King Pétaud; each one wished to command. Laziness, idleness,
and the diseases that attacked those remaining, reduced them to great
want and obliged them to give themselves up to the savages, who kindly
harboured them and they left their lodging. Some died miserably; others
suffered a great deal while waiting for the return of the ships." In
the next year a second voyage as fruitless as the first was made, by
Chauvin. He assayed another but fell into an illness which sent him to
another world. We have Champlain's comment in the account published
in 1632 on this attempt at colonization. "The trouble with this
undertaking was giving to a man of opposing religion a commission to
establish a nursery for the Catholic Apostolic and Roman faith[22] of
which the heretics have such a horror and abomination. These are the
defects that must be mentioned in regard to the enterprise."
After the death of Chauvin, the same commission of lieutenant general
was applied for, by Eymard de Chastes, Knight of Malta, Commander of
Lormetan, Grand Master of the Order of St. Lazarus and Governor of
Dieppe. Henry IV granted it and de Chaste should have made a good
colonizer for he intimated that in making his application it was in the
intention of betaking himself thither in person and of devoting the
rest of his years to the service of God and that of his king, but he
was not to live long. In order to meet the expenses of the expedition
Commander de Chastes formed a company of several of the principal
merchants of Rouen and elsewhere. He chose the explorer, Dupont Gravé,
to direct the flotilla as before to Tadoussac, and he desired him to
associate with himself in his further explorations for which he had
received a commission from the king, a young captain of Saintonge,
who had already given undoubted proof of his ability as a zealous,
courageous and intelligent explorer.
This was none other than Samuel de Champlain, whose name is to be
connected this very year of 1603 with Montreal and more lastingly in
1611. He is to become entitled to be called the founder of La Nouvelle
France. De Champlain had been living at Dieppe after his return from
a visit of two years to the West Indies and New Spain, for which he
had started early in 1599 in command of a French ship chartered by the
Spanish authorities and in which he had sailed under his uncle, a man
of distinction, in the previous year. During this period he had the
opportunity of observing and studying a European colony before trying
to found one himself. His "_Brief discours des choses plus remarquables
que Samuel Champlain de Brouage a reconnues aux Indes Occidentales, au
voyage qu' il y a fait_," was the result of this experience.
Champlain was now thirty-six years of age, having been born about the
year 1567 at Brouage, a small seaport town in the old province of
Saintonge, southeast of Rochefort and opposite the island of Oléron.
Champlain's father was a sailor, being a captain of the marine; his
uncle's position we have seen. Hence we do not wonder, when he tells
us of himself: "From my earliest years the art of navigation attracted
me, made me love the sea and drove me to expose myself nearly all
my life to the wild waves of the ocean. It has made me explore the
coasts of a part of the lands of America, and principally those of 'La
Nouvelle France,' where I have always had the desire to cause the lily
to flourish with the only Catholic religion, Apostolic and Roman." But
Champlain was also a soldier, for, having taken up the cause of Henry
IV in the troublous times of the League, he had served in Brittany
under Maréchals de Daumont de St. Luc and de Brissac and held during
several years the rank of Maréchal de Logis in the royal army. He held
this position till May 2, 1598, when peace between France and Spain
was established by the treaty of Vervins. Then again he turned to the
sea and went with his uncle to Spain, and afterward to Spanish America
as we have said. On his return he seems to be in favour with, and in
the service of, the King. He is in receipt of a pension, either for
his services in the army, or, as it has been supposed, because the
King, having been shown the notes and topographical sketches taken
by Champlain in his late voyage, had given him the title of Royal
Geographer; but when Commander de Chastes, who doubtless also had seen
the manuscripts, offered him a post in his new expedition, Champlain
told him he must obtain the king's permission for him to embark as
indeed de Chastes did. Moreover, the king commissioned Champlain to
report faithfully on his discoveries.
So Dupont Gravé and Champlain set out for Tadoussac and on the 18th of
June, reaching it, made for the Grand Sault. They passed by Quebec,
"which is a strait of the River of Canada, and anchored till Monday,
June 28th, and thence proceeding examined and named Three Rivers and
found it good for a future settlement." Finally on Wednesday, July 2,
the feast of the Visitation, they reached the entrance of the Sault. We
will reserve this visit to its proper chapter. After their exploration
on July 4th they turned back to Tadoussac and thence to France, where
they learned of the death of the worthy Commander de Chastes at Dieppe
on Tuesday, May 13, 1603. To replace de Chastes, that same Sieur de
Monts, who prospected Tadoussac with Chauvin, now took command of the
reins of government as lieutenant general, having applied for a similar
charter as the last. He was a Huguenot and was Governor of Paris for
the Protestant party. He continued the same association, employing
Dupont Gravé and Champlain. With them was the gentleman adventurer, the
Sieur de Poutrincourt. They set sail from Havre on the 7th of March,
1604, this time for Acadia. A site, since called "Port Royal," was
chosen by Poutrincourt and granted on condition he should return.
After having abandoned Acadia in 1607, de Monts now turned his
attention to Canada. He did this the more readily because the king
gave him for one year the exclusive right of the fur trade. Champlain,
hitherto a man subordinate, was charged by the lieutenant general as
his lieutenant. Champlain sailed from France on the 13th of April,
arrived at Tadoussac on the 3d of June and ascending the St. Lawrence,
named Cape Tourment and Montmorency Falls and, reaching Stadaconé,
he chose that place called Kébec by the natives and began to take
possession of it in the name of M. de Monts, and to construct a fort.
Champlain's instinct as a city planner was distinctly manifested
in the choice of the bold promontory whose bases are washed by the
Rivers St. Lawrence, Cap Rouge and St. Charles and whose outlook from
the promontory above is one of the grandest in the world. There were
twenty-eight men sent by de Monts for the expedition. A plot having
arisen among these to kill Champlain, one of the conspirators was
beheaded and three others were sent back to France. Soon, also, some
twenty died of scurvy or of dysentery caused by the eating of eels to
excess. The colony was now a cipher. Meanwhile, in France, de Monts'
one year's monopoly was revoked owing to the jealousy of the merchants
there. The question of the sale of the habitation of Quebec came up,
as the post appeared to be unnecessary if there was to be no monopoly.
Sieur de Monts remained governor general. Seeing the danger of de
Monts' enterprise breaking up, through the trading with the savages
being thrown open to other traders, Champlain began to look out for
himself and to cast his eyes on the Great Sault as a trading post for
himself. Thither he now went, as shall be related hereafter.
About this time, as the prohibition of trading had been removed from
private individuals, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the river was a scene
of rival barks of greedy, avaricious, envious people without harmony
and without chief. On his return to France as de Monts wished to
resign his command, Champlain went to court to get permission to form
a company with exclusive rights and he was advised to invite Charles
de Bourbon, Count of Soissons, to accept the governor generalship on
the ground that his powerful protectorate would control order among
the traders in Canadian waters. This was accepted, and after the
necessary documents had been made out, but before being published,
the count died. The Prince de Condé, Henri de Bourbon, then accepting
the protectorate, received his commission, and named Samuel de
Champlain his lieutenant. But the commission was not published, owing
to representations being made to the Prince de Condé that such an
association was prejudicial to trade. The delay was doubtless annoying
to Champlain. However, as the old company was not yet dissolved,
Champlain, not wishing to lose the fur trade for the current year, ran
off again to Canada. On his return to France he went to Fontainebleau,
where the King and the Prince of Condé were.
Champlain was now successful as a company promoter. He contrived to get
his opposing merchants to come into the scheme themselves, and form a
company, of which they made him the managing director in Canada, with
a yearly salary of two hundred écus for looking after their interests.
The Prince of Condé became the governor general and the commission gave
a monopoly for eleven years. The usual powers were given as we have
seen before of absolute power, the proviso of bringing the savages
to the light of the Holy Roman and Catholic and Apostolic religion
being included as usual. This seems strange considering that all the
merchants of the new company were Huguenot Protestants.
On arriving in Canada Champlain soon made his first great mistake. He
was about to commence the great work of colonization of La Nouvelle
France, in which he was to succeed, but his first important step was
a great blunder and one from which La Nouvelle France was to suffer
for many years. The whole story of the Iroquois attacks, which
terrorized the French settlements and Montreal for so many years, is
bound up in the policy now initiated by the colonial builder of Canada.
It will be remembered that in the commissions granted to those sent
out to Canada, side by side with the duty of taking every means to
attract the natives to Christianity, was the privilege to contract
alliances with the natives and if they did not keep their treaties to
force them by open warfare, and to make peace or war--but all this,
be it understood, in accordance with the dignity of a great power and
following established methods of diplomacy. Champlain's fault lies
in this, that having arrived in Canada in the spring of 1605 as the
representative of the king of France, he was tempted, for the sake of
the petty reason of securing traffic facilities, to jeopardize the
future by taking sides with the Algonquins and Hurons, who were then in
open warfare with the Iroquois. Instead of remembering that the future
peace of the colony depended on his neutrality, he went with the few
men of the colony against the Iroquois, and with his modern weapons
caused deadly havoc among the bewildered Iroquois, who thenceforth
became the irreconcilable enemy of the Frenchmen. They never forgot
this needless intrusion of the Frenchmen into their quarrels; thus
they were implacable in their attacks on their Algonquin allies, and
were ready later to ally themselves with the English in their campaign
against the colony. It certainly made the work of Christianizing and
civilizing the people later very difficult. Champlain's blunder at
the battle of Lake Champlain on July 29, 1609, has been avoided in
subsequent colonization schemes of other nations as far as possible.
This is one of the uses of history.
[Illustration: CHAMPLAIN'S PICTURE OF HIS FIGHT WITH THE IROQUOIS]
So far we have seen that the two chief conditions, on which the trading
companies were granted their monopolies, were those of taking steps to
colonize and to Christianize. Neither had been observed. The merchants
were there for business and nothing else. Be it said, however, to
Champlain's credit that he was more ready than any of the others to
carry out both conditions. In 1615 he secured the four Recollect
Fathers of whom we shall speak. Their memoirs reveal a pitiable state
of irreligion, and apathy towards the policy of French colonization and
Christianizing the natives. Thus in Quebec, in 1617, there were only
fifty to sixty Frenchmen, in 1620 only sixty men, women and children
and religious all told. There seems to have been only one family,
that of the colonist, Louis Hébert, and he had a sorry time to make
a living. Louis Hébert was an apothecary and thus he was useful to
be tolerated, by the merchants. Some day Hébert will have a monument
raised to Him to commemorate his efforts to commence agriculture in
Canada.
Towards the end of the year Champlain's blunder begins to have its
fruits, for the savages around Quebec determined to exterminate the
French settlement. In the sequel, they satisfied their vengeance
by killing only two secretly, but it was a sign of more to follow.
Meanwhile what were the gentlemen with the high sounding titles
of governor general and viceroy of the king doing to carry on the
wonderful scheme outlined in their commissions? They were like modern
titled directors of speculating companies, drawing their fees. Thus
the Prince of Condé drew 1,000 _écus_, then while he was in prison
his successor to the fees, the Maréchal de Thémines drew 5,000, to
be followed by 11,000 drawn by the Duke de Montmorency, a young man
of twenty-five years, appointed governor general in 1618. This was
a drain on the merchants. Still it was better than losing their
privileges.
The new governor general, Montmorency, appointed Champlain his
particular lieutenant. In fact, Champlain may be called the acting
governor. This looked at last like a real attempt to make a true
settlement. Champlain now brought Madame de Champlain out and others,
and with them Madame Champlain brought her furniture. The Recollect
Father, Denis Jamay, came back with two other Recollects. The day after
arrival at Quebec, after mass and a sermon in the chapel exhorting all
the colonists to obedience to the king, they all assembled and the
commission of His Majesty to Montmorency was read, as well as that of
Montmorency to Champlain as his lieutenant. The cannon spoke amid the
cries of "Vive le Roi" and Champlain took possession of the Habitation
in the name of the Duke of Montmorency. It became Government House.
Obliged by his commission to carry on justice, Champlain now looked out
for the most capable men in the country to act with him on the bench
of justice. The king's procuratorship fell to Louis Hébert, while the
office of _lieutenant de prevost_ was taken by Gilbert Coursera, and a
man named Nicholas became the clerk of the Court of Quebec. Champlain
took the direction of the "_police_."
Building activities were now taking place. The Recollects commenced
the foundations for a convent and a seminary, for the native children,
under the name of Notre Dame des Anges, the stone being laid by Father
Jean d'Olbeau on June 3d. Champlain began to build another habitation
on the hill which he named the Fort St. Louis. He also began tilling
the ground and making a garden, a work which he delighted in. He was
seconded in such enterprises by the Recollects. He next prepared to
receive cattle. But there were only forty-five people at the habitation
and the company was not sending more. In order to better things
Montmorency in 1621 formed another company opposed to that of which
M. de Monts was still head and he placed in command two Huguenots,
Guillaume de Caen and Emery de Caen, uncle and nephew. The new company
was opposed to the old but a union was effected between them: still
with no better results. In the beginning of 1625 Henri de Lévy, Duke
de Vantadour, a pious nobleman who afterwards became a religious,
succeeded his uncle, the Duke de Montmorency, as governor general.
Negotiations pending the introduction of Jesuits, on the request of the
Recollects, were now concluded. Accordingly he sent at his own expense
Fathers Lalement, Brébeuf, Massé and two lay brothers, who arrived
in the absence of Champlain and were coldly received by de Caen, who
offered them no hospitality. The Recollects, however, entertained them
at their convent, for two years and a half, until their own buildings
were ready. In 1627, a year of great famine, the above company was
supplanted by the famous Company of One Hundred Partners or Associates.
FOOTNOTES:
[21] For the purposes of trade the connection with Canada never ceased.
In 1578 there were 100 French vessels at Newfoundland besides 200
Spanish, Portugese and English vessels. (Kingsford, Vol. I, Page 12.)
[22] In a note by Kingsford, Vol. I, Page 24, he wishes to substantiate
his theory that Champlain was Huguenot by quoting his words: "C'est
plus facile de planter la fois Chrestienne" as meaning Christianity
distinguished from the Roman Catholic point of view. Taken in
conjunction with these words above Kingsford's theory cannot be upheld.
CHAPTER III
1603-1625
THE GREAT SAULT
CHAMPLAIN THE FIRST TRADER
THE HISTORY OF HOCHELAGA AFTER CARTIER'S VISIT--CHAMPLAIN, THE
FIRST CARTOGRAPHER OF THE ISLAND OF MONTREAL--ITS DESCRIPTION
IN 1603--CHAMPLAIN EXPLORES THE NEIGHBORHOOD--PLACE ROYALE IN
1611--ST. HELEN'S ISLAND NAMED--THE FIRST TRADING TRANSACTION
RECORDED--CHAMPLAIN SHOOTS THE RAPIDS, 1613--THE EXPLORATION
OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY--1615 THE FIRST MASS IN CANADA AT RIVIERE
DES PRAIRIES--1625 THE DROWNING OF VIEL AND AHUNTSIC AT
SAULT-AU-RECOLLET--THE INTENTION OF CHAMPLAIN TO MAKE A PERMANENT
SETTLEMENT ON THE ISLAND.
The name of Samuel de Champlain is next to be more closely associated
with Montreal. For, although the date connecting him with his first
visit to this site is 1603, and that of Cartier's visit in 1535,
Montreal had not been visited or dwelt upon by any distinguished
European that we can attach a name to, with any certainty.
During all this time, according to tradition, sad things had occurred
at Hochelaga.
"The fate of this Indian town," says Mr. Arthur Weir in "Montreal, the
Metropolis of Canada," "is shrouded in the mists of antiquity. There
is reason to believe that here was enacted a tragedy similar to that
which resulted in the destruction of Troy. According to Mr. Peter
Dooyentate Clarke, the historian of the Wyandots, himself a descendant
of the tribe, the Senecas and Wyandots, or Hurons, lived side by side
at Hochelaga, until in an evil moment a stern chief of the Senecas
refused to permit his son to marry a Huron maiden. The damsel thereupon
rejected all suitors and promised to marry only him who should kill the
chief who had thus offended her.
"A youthful Huron, more amorous than wise, fulfilled the terms of
the vow and won the girl. But the Senecas adopted the cause of their
murdered chief, and made war upon the Hurons, whom they almost
exterminated with the assistance of the other tribes of the Iroquois,
driving their more peaceful and civilized neighbours to the very lake
that now bears their name." However true or false this legend, it is
certain that when Champlain visited the island in 1603 the Indian town
was gone and desolation prevailed.
Another version of the same tradition is given by Mr. Bourinot, in
"The Story of Canada," where he tells the popular tradition handed
down by the Indians, "that the Hurons and Iroquois, branches of the
same family, speaking dialects of one common language, were living at
one time in villages, not far from each other,--the Hurons probably
at Hochelaga and the Senecas on the other side of the mountain. It
was against the law of the two communities for their men and women
to intermarry, but the potent influence of true love, so rare in an
Indian's bosom, soon broke this command. A Huron girl entered a cabin
of an Iroquois chief as his wife. It was an unhappy marriage, the
husband killed the wife in an angry moment. This was a serious matter,
requiring a council meeting of the two tribes. Murder must be avenged
or liberal compensation given to the friends of the dead. The council
decided that the woman deserved death, but the verdict did not please
all her relatives, one of whom went off secretly and killed an Iroquois
warrior. Then, both tribes took up the hatchet, and went on the warpath
against each other, with the result, that the Village of Hochelaga,
with all the women and children, was destroyed, and the Hurons, who
were probably beaten, left the St. Lawrence and eventually found a new
home on Lake Huron."--See Horatio Hale's "Fall of Hochelaga" in Journal
of American Folklore, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1894.
If Cartier was the discoverer of "Hochelaga," the Island of Montreal,
it is to Champlain's honour that he was the first trader and the first
designator of the site of the present City of Montreal. He was the
first city planner in that he saw the possibilities of Montreal as a
trading port, having all the attractions for a future settlement. It
had a beautiful mountain with gentle slopes to the river at its base,
and a natural harbour; it was the natural rendezvous of all the tribes
bordering on the river beyond the _saults_, the last of which is that
now known as the Lachine Rapids; it was the port for the fur trade
of the hinterland beyond. Both Cartier and Champlain also noted the
wonderful fertility of its soil and the beauty of its surroundings. As
then, so today, Montreal's position, placed at the head of Atlantic
navigation, the natural headquarters of the Gulf trade, that of the
St. Lawrence and of the Great Lakes, centre of attraction and terminus
of all the great railroads of the West and from the United States,
secures it an undoubted future as a great commercial centre. It is to
Champlain's credit that in his own day he realized the geographical
value of Montreal as a trading centre, indicated by the natural laws
for shipment and transportation, albeit he contemplated it only with
the limited vision of a fur trader whose clients were the savages from
the back country and their freight vessels, canoes laden with peltry.
He looked ahead.
[Illustration: The first trader at Montreal]
In July, 1603, Champlain reached the rapids of the sault above
Montreal. Champlain says that it used to be called Hochelaga but now
the Sault. When he reached it there was nothing of the old villages
left. Luckily Champlain was a cartographer and historian, and we have
the account of visits to Montreal which we now reproduce; but it must
be remembered that he always speaks of the site as "the Sault," "the
grand Sault," or "the Sault St. Louis."
The first quotations shall be from the account of his voyage in 1603.
This was published in 1604 in Paris under the title, "_Des Sauvages,
ou Voyage de Sammuel Champlain de Brouage faict en la France Nouvelle,
l'an mil six cens trois_." This was made into English and published in
"Purchas', His Pilgrimes," London, 1625.
"At length we came this very day to the entrance of the Sault or Fall
of the Great River of Canada with favourable wind; and we met with an
Ile, which is almost in the middest of the said entrance, which is a
quarter of a league long, and passed on the South side of the said Ile,
where there was not past three, four or five feet water, and sometimes
a fathome or two, and straight on the sudden we found again not past
three or foure foot. There are many Rockes and small islands, whereon
there is no wood, and they are even with the water. From the beginning
of the aforesaid Ile, which is in the middest of the entrance the
water beginneth to run with a great force. Although we had the wind
very good, yet we could not with all our might make any great way;
neuerthelesse wee passed the said Ile which is at the entrance of the
Sault or Fall. When wee perceived that we could go no further, we came
to an anchor on the North Shoare ouer against a small Iland, which
aboundeth for the most part with those kinds of fruits which I have
spoken of before. Without all delay we made ready our Skiffe which wee
had made of purpose to pass the said Sault: whereinto the said Monsieur
du Pont and my selfe entered with certaine Sauages, which we had
brought with vs to show vs the way. Departing from our Pinnace, we were
scarce gone three hundred paces, but we were forced to come out, and
caused certain mariners to free our Skiffe. The canoa of the Sauages
passed easily. Wee met with an infinite number of small Rockes, which
were euen with the water, on which we touched often times. There be
two great Ilands one on the North Side which containeth some fifteene
leagues in length, and almost as much in breadth, beginning some twelve
leagues vp within the River of Canada, going towards the River of the
Irocois and endeth beyond the Sault. The Iland which is on the South
Side is some four leagues long and some halfe league broad. There is
also another island which is neare to that on the North Side which may
bee some halfe a league long, and some quarter broad; and another small
iland which is between that on the North Side, and another nearer to
the South Shoare, whereby we passed the entrance of the Sault. This
entrance being passed, there is a kind of Lake, wherein all these
Ilands are, some five leagues long and almost as broad, wherein are
many small Ilands which are Rockes. There is a Mountaine neere the said
Sault which discovereth farre into the Countrie and a Little River
which falleth from the said Mountaine into the Lake. On the South
Side there are some three or foure Mountaines which seem to be about
fifteen or sixteen leagues within the Land. There are also two Rivers;
one which goeth to the first Lake of the River of the Irocois by which
sometimes the Algoumequins invade them: and another which is neer unto
the Sault, which runneth not farre into the countrey."
On this voyage he describes the Sault. Since he is later, in 1611, to
shoot it, we may record his impression of it in 1603. "At our coming
neere to the said Sault with our Skiffe and Canoa, I assure you, I
neuer saw any stream of water to fall down with such force as this
doth; although it be not very high, being not in some places past one
or two fathoms, and at the most three. It falleth as it were steppe by
steppe: and in euery place where it hath some small height, it maketh a
strong boyling with the force and strength of the running of the water.
In the breadth of the said Sault, which may containe some league, there
are many broad Rockes, and almost in the middest, there are very narrow
and long Ilands, where there is a fall as well on the side of the said
Iles which are toward the South, as on the North Side: where it is so
dangerous that it is not possible for any man to pass with any boat how
small so-euer it be."
In his voyage in 1603 he makes mention of an island of a quarter of a
league in length and of another on the north about fifteen leagues long
which overlooked the lands for a long distance. He does not mention
the name of either, but the former was St. Paul's island or Nuns'
island and the latter Hochelaga. Up to Champlain no one has recorded or
noticed that Montreal was an island.
As early as 1610 Lescarbot had remarked that of all the islands in
the River St. Lawrence, the most suitable for commerce was without
contradiction that of Montreal. ("La Conversion des Sauvages Baptisés
en Canada.")
Champlain certainly looked upon the locality of the Sault as a suitable
place for a permanent establishment, when he commenced operations at
Place Royale. He continued in this belief.
"My Savage Arontal," he says in his "Voyages of 1615-1616," published
in 1627, "being at Quebec that to attract his people to us we should
make a habitation at the Sault, which would give them the surety of
the passage of the river and would protect them against their enemies
and that as soon as we should have built a house, they would come in
numbers to live with us as brothers, a thing which I promised them and
answered them I would do as soon as possible."
There is reason to believe that the spot he had in mind to do this is
the island which he had noted in his voyage of 1603, but to which he
later gave the name of St. Helen.[23] This is most probable in view of
his late marriage five months before with Hélène Boullé, for it could
not have been given, as other names in the river had been, owing to
the coincidence of a church feast day with the day of discovery, for
Champlain arrived at Place Royale on the 28th of May and the feast of
St. Helen fell on the 18th of August following, when he was in France.
We know that Champlain had gone to the "Sault" in 1603, but he makes no
mention of the site of Montreal in his account. However, with regard to
the year of 1611, he gives us many interesting details.
From these excerpts from the account of 1603 we may, therefore, sum up
the following conclusions: (1) that (according to Laverdière) the place
where Champlain "came to an anchor on the North Shoare over against one
small island," was the little island formerly existing opposite the
Place Royale (which was not, however, named till 1611) and now joined
to the main land by the present harbour piers; (2) that incidentally
he thus indicates the site of the present harbour of Montreal; that
Champlain was the first to note that Montreal, or Hochelaga, was an
island, this being deduced from his description of the great island
(not named by him) "on the north side which continueth some fifteen
leagues in length and almost as much in breadth," etc; (3) that the
"mountain neere the said Sault which discovereth farre into the
country" is the same as that named by Jacques Cartier as Mount Royal
while "the Little River which falleth from the said mountain into the
lake" is the Rivière des Prairies; (4) that while he gives no names
beyond that of Sault yet he has left us a very clear indication that he
was familiar with the site of the present Island of Montreal. From the
above quotations there is no explicit mention of the suitability of the
Island of Montreal as a future trading post, yet there is little doubt
but that Champlain had it in his mind as such when the occasion should
serve.
[Illustration: FIGURATIVE MAP
Sketch of Sault St. Louis (Kahnawake) and part of the south shore of
the Island of Montreal made by Champlain in 1611
(See opposite page for explanation)]
EXPLANATION OF MAP ON OPPOSITE PAGE
A--Piece of land which I ordered to be cleared.
B--Small pond.
C--Small island where I had a stone wall erected.
D--Small stream where barques are lying.
E--Prairies where Indians encamp when coming to this country.
F--Mountains seen at a distance.
G--Small pond.
H--Mount Royal.
I--Small stream.
L--The "Saut."
M--Place where the Indians from the north begin their "portage."
N--Place where one of our men and an Indian were drowned.
O--Small, rocky island.
P--Other small island where birds build their nests.
Q--"Heron" Island.
R--Other islands of the "Saut."
S--Small island.
T--Round Islet.
V--Other islet, half of which is covered with water.
W--Other islet where water fowls are found.
Y--Prairies.
Z--Small river.
2--Rather fine and large island.
3--Places which appear bare at low water and where the current is
very strong.
4--Prairies covered with water (swamps).
5--Rather low and marshy land.
6--Other small island.
7--Small rocks.
S--Helen's Island.
9--Small island barren of trees.
10--Marshes in the "Grand Saut."
Their adventurers afterward went up to the Sault which became the goal
of many of the "free" traders and prospectors who coursed the St.
Lawrence during the period, already described, of the temporary removal
of the prohibition against private traders. Certain it is that as early
as 1610 Lescarbot had remarked that of all the islands in the river St.
Lawrence the most suitable for commerce was without contradiction that
of Montreal. (Cf. "La Conversion des Sauvages Baptisés En Canada.") But
it was reserved for Champlain in 1611 to put this notion into effect
and to become the pioneer trader and the first harbour builder of
Montreal. His own narration of the events of 1611 may serve to prove
these claims.
THE CHOICE OF MONTREAL AS A TRADING POST
"In the year 1611, I took back my savage to those of his tribe, who
were to come to Sault St. Louis, intending to get my servant whom they
had as a hostage. I left Quebec, May 20 (21), and arrived at these
great rapids[24] the 28th of the month. I immediately went in a canoe
with the savage which I had taken to France and one of our men. After
having looked on all sides, not only in the woods, but also along the
river bank, to find a suitable place for the site of a settlement, and
to prepare a place in which to build, I went eight leagues by land,
along the rapids through the woods, which are rather open, and as far
as the lake,[25] where our savages took me. There I contemplated the
country very much in detail. But in all that I saw I did not find any
place at all more suitable than a little spot which is just where the
barks and shallops can come easily, either with a strong wind or by
a winding course, because of the strength of the current. Above this
place (which we named La Place Royale), a league from Mount Royal,
there are a great many little rocks and shoals, which are dangerous."
THE SITUATION OF PLACE ROYALE DESCRIBED
"And near this Place Royale there is a little river running back a
goodly way into the interior, all along which there are more than sixty
acres of cleared land, like meadows, where one might sow grain and
make gardens. Formerly savages tilled there. There were also a great
number of other beautiful meadows, to support as many cattle as one
wishes, and all kinds of trees that we have in our forests at home,
with a great many vines, walnuts, plum trees, cherries, strawberries
and other kinds which are very good to eat. Among others there is one
very excellent, which has a sweet taste resembling that of plantains
(which is a fruit of the Indies), and is as white as snow, with a leaf
like that of the nettle, and running on trees or the ground like ivy.
Fishing is very good there, and there are all the kinds that we have
in France, and a great many others that we do not have, which are
very good; as is also game of all kinds; and hunting is good, stags,
hinds, does, caribous, rabbits, lynxes, bears, beavers and other little
animals which so abound that while we were at these rapids we never
were without them."
PLACE ROYALE CLEARED AND A HARBOUR REVETMENT WALL BUILT
"After having made a careful exploration, then, and found this place
one of the most beautiful on this river, I at once had the woods cut
down[26] and cleared from this Place Royale, to make it level and ready
for building. Water can easily be made to flow around it, making a
little island of it, and a settlement can be made there as one may wish.
"There is a little island[27] twenty fathoms from this Place Royale
which is about one hundred paces long, whereon could be put up a good,
well defended set of buildings. There are also a great many meadows
containing good potter's clay, whether for bricks or to build with,
which is a great convenience. I had some of it worked up, and made a
wall of it four feet thick, and from three to four feet high and ten
fathoms long, to see how it would last in the winter when then the
floods came down, which in my opinion, would not rise to this wall
although the land is about twelve feet above that river, which is quite
high."
ST. HELEN'S ISLAND NAMED
"In the middle of the river there is an island about three-quarters
of a league in circumference, where a good and strong town could be
built and I named it Ile de Ste. Hélène.[28] These rapids descend into
a sort of lake where there are two or three islands and some beautiful
meadows."
CHAMPLAIN PLANTS GARDENS
"While waiting for the savages I had two gardens made: one in the
meadows and the other in the woods which I had cleared; and the second
day of June I sowed some seeds in them, which came up in perfect
condition and in a little while, which showed the goodness of the soil.
"I resolved to send Savignon, our savage, with another, to meet those
of his country, in order to make them come quickly; and they hesitated
to go in our canoe which they distrusted, for it was not good for much."
CHAMPLAIN EXPLORES THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
"On the seventh I went to explore a little river[29] by which sometimes
the savages go to war, which leads to the rapids of the river of the
Iroquois.[30] It is very pleasant, with meadows on it, more than three
leagues in circumference, and a great deal of land which could be
tilled. It is one league from the great rapids[31] and a league and a
half from Place Royale.
"On the ninth our savage arrived. He had been a little way beyond the
lake,[32] which is about ten leagues long, that I have seen before.
He did not meet anything there, and could not go any further, because
their canoe gave out and they were obliged to return."
This savage reported the loss of the life of a young man, Louis, who
had lost his life in the rapids. There is a discussion as to whether
Champlain called the rapids the Sault "St. Louis" in commemoration of
this event or in honour of Louis XIII of France, who began reigning
the year previously and from whom Champlain had received a commission
to build storehouses for the fur trade near the rapids. The solution
I leave to the choice of the reader. At this time "Heron" island at
the St. Louis rapids received its name. There seems no doubt that
if Champlain had as thoroughly investigated the possibilities and
advantages of climate, soil and natural position as a trading centre
of Montreal in 1603 as he did in 1611, he would have chosen Montreal,
for the settlement in 1603, instead of Quebec, which was after all de
Monts' choice. In the account of 1603 Champlain had said: "The air is
softer and more temperate than at any other place that I have seen in
this country."
In this same account of 1611 we get a picture of the first trading
reported at Montreal which is worth recording.
THE FIRST TRADING TRANSACTION AT MONTREAL
"On the 13th of this month (June 13, 1611), 200 Huron savages with the
chiefs, Ochateguin, Iroquet, and Tregourote, brothers of our savage,
brought back my lad. We were very glad to see them, and I went to meet
them with a canoe and our savage. Meantime, they advanced quietly in
order, our men preparing to give them a salvo with the arquebuses and
some small pieces. As they were approaching, they began to shout all
together, and one of their chiefs commanded their addresses to be made,
in which they praised us highly, calling us truthful, in that I had
kept my word to them, to come to find them at these rapids. After they
had given three more shouts, a volley of musketry was fired twice,
which astonished them so much that they asked me to tell them that
there should not be any shooting, saying that the greater number of
them never had seen Christians before, nor heard thunderings of that
sort, and that they were afraid of its doing them harm.... After a good
deal of discourse they made me a present of 100 beavers. I gave them in
exchange some other kinds of merchandise."
CHAMPLAIN THE FIRST WHITE MAN TO SHOOT THE RAPIDS
These Indians camped about with Champlain for some days till they
returned to their own part of the rapids, "some leagues into the
woods." Champlain accompanied them. He now tells of his historic
shooting the rapids which we may place as happening on the 17th of
June, 1611.
"When I had finished with them I begged them to take me back in our
despatch boat. To do this they prepared eight canoes to run the rapids,
and stripped themselves naked, and made me take off everything but my
shirt; for often it happens that some are lost in shooting the rapids;
therefore they keep close to one another, to aid one another promptly
if a canoe should happen to capsize. They said to me, 'If by chance
yours should happen to turn over, as you do not know how to swim, on no
account abandon it, but hold on to the little sticks that are in the
middle, for we will save you easily.' I assure you that those who have
not seen or passed this place in these little boats that they have,
could not pass it without great fear, even the most self-possessed
persons in the world. But these people are so skillful in shooting
these rapids that it is easy for them. I did it with them--a thing that
I never had done, nor had any Christian, except my youth--and we came
to our barks where I lodged a large number of them."
The next day, the 18th of June, the party broke up; Champlain set out
for Quebec, which he says he reached on the 19th, shortly to leave for
France. He describes the parting at Montreal thus: "After they had
traded the little that they had, they separated into three groups--one
to go to war, one to go up the rapids--they set out on the 18th day of
this month, and we also."
The quotations I have chosen cover nearly four weeks of Champlain's
dwelling at his new post. I have let him speak himself. The picture
he draws enables us to construct in our imagination the picturesque
situation of our city at this time.
GRAND SAULT, 1613
In 1613 Champlain tells us in his journal published in 1632, that
having left Quebec on March 13th he arrived at the Sault on the 21st.
He does not mention stopping at his trading post at Place Royale; he
must have visited it and done some trading and put his boats up; but
he set out on May 27th in his canoes "from the Isle of St. Hélène" with
four Frenchmen and a savage. His object was at present to discover
the Mer du Nord, lately discovered by Hudson and of which a map had
appeared in Paris in 1612. One of the four Frenchmen with him in
his canoes was named Nicholas de Vignau. This man had been sent in
preceding years to make discoveries for Champlain and in 1612, while
in Paris, this man reported to Champlain that he had seen this same
"Mer du Nord." Champlain consequently took him with him to lead the
way, with the result that can be judged from his own description of de
Vignau, as "the boldest liar that had been seen for a long time." It
was on this fruitless exploration that on the Portage route by way of
Muskrat and Mudlakes, Champlain lost his astrolabe, the instrument then
used for astronomical observation. Near this place he ceases giving
the correct latitudes as he had been doing. Two hundred and fifty-four
years later, a farmer on an August day unearthed an old brass astrolabe
of Paris make, dated 1603. We may safely conclude it was Champlain's.
On the voyage up the Ottawa he described the visit to Allumette Island,
45° 47'. "After having observed the poorness of the soil, I asked them
how they enjoyed cultivating so poor a country, in view of the fact
that there was some much better, than that they left deserted and
abandoned at the Rapids of St. Louis. They answered me that they were
obliged to do so to keep themselves secure and that the roughness of
the place served them as a bulwark against their enemies. But they said
that if I would make a settlement a Frenchman at the Rapids of St.
Louis, as I had promised to do, they would leave their dwelling place
to come and settle near us, being assured that their enemies would not
do them harm while we were with them. I told them that this year we
should make preparations with wood and stones to make a fort next year
and cultivate the land. When they heard this they gave a great shout,
as a sign of applause. After this the conference finished."
After having explored the Ottawa River they returned from the fruitless
search for the Northern sea on June 17th and continued their course
till "we reached the barks and were saluted by some discharges of
canon, at which some of the savages were delighted and others very
much astonished, never having heard such music. Having landed, Sieur
de Maisonneuve[33] de Saint Malo came to me with the passport for
three vessels from Monseigneur the Prince. As soon as I had seen it, I
let him and his men enjoy the benefit of it, like ourselves, and had
the savages told that they might trade the next day." The place of
the barks would, undoubtedly, be the little harbour at Place Royale
described in the account of 1611, and near his trading fort.
After having made de Vignau confess himself of his lie, "as the savages
would not have him, no matter how much I begged them, we left him to
the protection of God." Champlain then left for Tadoussac, at which he
arrived on July 6th, whence he shortly sailed to France.
[Illustration: MODERN TADOUSSAC]
On this journey in France, Champlain set about to secure clergy and
through the intervention of Sieur Hoüel, secretary of the king, he got
the Recollect Fathers whom he said "would be the right ones there, both
for residence at our settlement and for the conversion of the infidels.
I agreed with this opinion, as they are without ambition and live
altogether in conformity to the rule of St. Francis."
On April 24, 1615, Champlain left Honfleur with four Franciscan
Recollects Denis Jamay, Jean d'Olbeau, Joseph le Caron and the lay
brother, Pacifique du Plessis, reaching Tadoussac on May 25th. The
Recollects he left at Quebec whence he hastened to the Sault, soon to
be followed by Father Jean le Caron. The importance that Champlain
gives to his trading post at the rapids to which he hurried will be
seen from the following quotation. On arriving at Tadoussac, "we began
to set men to work to fit up our barks, in order to go to Quebec,
the place of our settlement, and to the great Rapids of St. Louis,
the great gathering place of the savages who come there to trade.
Immediately upon my arrival at the rapids I visited these people who
were very anxious to see us and delighted at our return, from their
hopes that we would give them some of our number to help them in
their wars against their enemies. They explained that it would be
hard for them to come to us if we did not assist them, because the
Iroquois, their old enemies, were always along the trail and kept the
passage closed to them. Besides I had always promised to aid them in
their wars, as they gave us to understand through their interpreter.
Whereupon I perceived that it was very necessary to assist them,
not only to make them love us more, but also to pave the way for my
undertakings and discoveries, which to all appearance could not be
accomplished except by their help; and also because this would be to
them a sort of first step and preparation to coming into Christianity;
and to secure this I decided to go thither and explore their country
and aid them in their wars, in order to oblige them to show me what
they had so many times promised to.
"I had them all gather to tell them my intention, upon hearing which
they promised to furnish us 2,500 men of war, who would do wonders,
while I on my part, was to bring, for the same purpose as many men as
I could; which I promised them, being very glad to see them come to
so wise a decision. Then I began to explain to them the methods to
follow in fighting in which they took a singular pleasure. When all the
matters were decided upon, we separated with the intention of returning
to carry out our undertaking."
This alliance which Champlain then made against the Iroquois will help
to explain the prolonged animosity of these against the Hurons, and
later their allies, the settlers of Ville Marie, under Maisonneuve.
But, as yet Champlain's fort was only a summer trading post, and such
it remained till 1642. He had it in his mind to make it a regular
settlement, and it would seem likely to become so.
On the occasion of the above gathering mass was said by the Recollects
for the first time in Canada, at least since the time of Cartier.
We may briefly narrate the events leading up to this. Owing to the
trading monopolies being granted on condition that the conversion of
the savages to the Catholic faith should be attempted and owing to
the discontentment existing at the continued unfulfillment of this
condition, de Monts and other merchants found that they would have to
take means to comply with it or lose their monopoly.
The merchants were keener on the peltry trade than on the civilization
of the country. They did not welcome colonists from France nor did they
desire the Indians to settle down in their neighbourhood. They wanted
them to get busy to bring in their furs. They were there for business
solely, although their charter said otherwise.
So it was, with bad grace, they had to yield. Champlain must,
however, be disassociated from this opposition. For he had willingly
undertaken the negotiations to obtain the Recollect Fathers through the
intermediary of the pious Sieur de Hoüel, the controller general of the
salt mines of Brouage, one of the few members of the de Monts company
that was not a Huguenot; accordingly after some negotiations during
the winter of 1614 and 1615, the four Franciscan Recollects mentioned,
three priests, Denis Jamay, superior, Jean d'Olbeau, Joseph le Caron,
and Brother Pacifique du Plessis embarked with Champlain at Honfleur
on April 24, 1615, on the St. Etienne, one of the company's ships
commanded by Dupont Gravé. They arrived at Tadoussac in a month.
On their arrival in Quebec in the beginning of June three of them
stayed to lay out their dwelling and build their chapel, but Father
Joseph le Caron, a very eager and apostolic man, went straight off to
the Indians at the Sault. Becoming quickly acquainted with the mode
of life of the natives there and desirous of their conversion to the
knowledge of Jesus Christ, he determined to spend the winter with
them. "In Canada and its Provinces," Father Lewis Drummond says that
on his journey down, le Caron met Champlain and Father Denis Jamay at
Rivière des Prairies. They tried to persuade him not to winter with the
Indians. But he hastened to Quebec, reaching it on June 20, and on his
return to Rivière des Prairies met Champlain and Father Jamay there,
and mass was celebrated. His object in hurrying back to Quebec was to
obtain the necessary altar equipment and other missionary necessaries.
On arriving at the Isle of Montreal he met Champlain and his canoes at
the entrance of the Rivière des Prairies. These no doubt were preparing
for the exploration of the Ottawa.
There on June 24, 1615, the feast of St. Jean Baptiste, afterwards
taken for the patronal feast of Canada, Fathers Denis and Joseph sang
mass at their portable altar on the banks of the Rivière des Prairies.
"With all devotion," Champlain chronicles, "before these peoples who
were in admiration at the ceremonies and at the vestments which seemed
to them so beautiful as being something they had never seen before;
for these religious are the first who had celebrated the holy mass
there."[34] (This solemn occasion was followed by the chanting of
the Te Deum to the accompaniment of a fusillade of small artillery
with all the pomp that circumstances permitted.) Father Denis Jamay
went back to Quebec to minister to the French Catholics and to form
a sedentary mission for the natives; while there also he could excur
to Threvers as a mission post. He was helped by Brother Pacifique
du Plessis. Jean le Caron now joined a band of Hurons and passed the
winter with them in one of their stockades called Carhagouaha defended
by a triple palisade of wood to the height of thirty feet. Father Jean
d'Olbeau departed for Quebec, on December 2d, to share the fortunes of
the Montagnais below Tadoussac.
[Illustration: THE FIRST MASS IN CANADA AT RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES, JUNE
24, 1615
(After George Delfosse)]
While treating of the early history of the Recollects we may now
anticipate by a few years a circumstance of tragic importance. In the
year 1625 there occurred at the Sault-au-Récollet an event which has
given it its name. This year, the Recollect father, Nicholas Viel,
had gone two years before with Fathers Joseph le Caron and Gabriel
Sagard, to the country of the Hurons. They were now invited by the
Hurons to descend the river to trade with the settlement at Quebec.
Father Viel had accepted the invitation because he wished to make his
annual spiritual retreat at the Convent of Notre Dame des Anges and
he took with him one of his Indian neophytes, whom he had instructed
and baptized, a young boy named Ahuntsic. Among the convoy, in the
same canoe, were some Indians who were secretly ill disposed to the
missionary and when they found themselves separated from the other
canoes by bad weather on the river, they fell upon Father Viel and
Ahuntsic in the last sault near to Montreal and the swift flowing
rapids soon submerged them in their deep waters. The spots of Ahuntsic
and Sault-au-Récollet commemorate this event although the disaster
occurred at the latter place as said.
[Illustration: THE MARTYRDOM OF THE RECOLLET VIEL AND THE NEOPHYTE
AHUNTSIC AT SAULT-AU-RECOLLET. (After George Delfosse)]
Later in the summer of 1615 Champlain redeemed his pledge to explore
the Indian country. On the 9th of July, 1615, Champlain left the fort
with two men, one of whom was his servant, and another an interpreter,
and ten savages to manage the two canoes on a voyage of exploration.
Father le Caron had already gone ahead. Champlain's expedition with
the allied tribes into the country of the Iroquois was one of the most
important undertakings of his life--both on account of the length of
the journey and the knowledge he obtained of the lake region. He lost
prestige by this journey, however, both with the Indians and his French
Canadians. It is not to our purpose to follow him on this voyage but we
cannot refrain from mentioning the Huron village of Carhagouaha which
lay between Nottawasaga Bay and Lake Simcoe. It was to this village
that Father le Caron bent his steps, and where Champlain joined him
on August 12th. The triple palisades, long houses, containing several
households and other distinctive features of the village of Hochelaga
discovered by Cartier, were there reproduced. He returned to the post
at the end of June, 1616, and there he found Sieur du Pont. "We also
saw," he says, "all the holy Fathers (Father Jamay and Brother du
Plessis) who had remained at our settlement and they were very glad
to see us and we to see them." Thus the Recollect fathers having left
"our" settlement at Quebec had come up to Montreal as we may call the
post at the Rapids. From their arrival dates the ecclesiastical life of
our city and the introduction of Christianity. Champlain left the Sault
on the 8th day of July, 1616, reaching Quebec on July 11. Shortly, on
August 3d, he sailed to France.
Champlain was a good advertising agent, as the following shows: "During
my sojourn at the settlement I had some of the common corn cut--that
is, the French corn that had been planted there--which was very
beautiful, in order to carry some to France, to show that this soil
is very good and fertile. There was also some very fine Indian corn
and some grafts and trees that we had brought thither." This contrasts
favourably with the gloomy report given to France by Jacques Cartier of
the Canadian climate, which doubtless influenced the delay of organized
colonization. It is evident that Champlain was still thinking of making
Montreal a permanent settlement. From the memoirs of 1615-16 we learn
that Champlain before leaving for France took with him to Quebec an
Indian, Daronthal or Aronthal, whom he called his host. This man,
after admiring the buildings and the civilization of the settlement
of Quebec, and being desirous that his people should become better
acquainted with the religion of the Christians "in order to learn to
serve God and to understand our way of living," suggested that they
should be attracted to live with the settlers.
"He suggested," says Champlain, "that for the advancement of this work,
we should make another settlement at the St. Louis rapids, so as to
give them a safe passage of the river, for fear of their enemies; and
said that once they would come in great numbers to us to live there
like brothers. I promised to do this as soon as I could." Daronthal was
sent back with this promise to his companions at St. Louis rapids, but
it was reserved for Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, twenty-six
years later to carry it out.
FOOTNOTES:
[23] Through the intervention of and in the presence of Pierre du Gas,
Sieur de Monts, as the matrimonial contract dated Paris, December
27, 1610, states, Champlain had contracted to marry after two years
Hélène de Boullé, a young girl not yet in her twelfth year and not
yet marriageable, the daughter of Nicolas Boullé, secretary of the
King's Chamber, a Huguenot like his friend de Monts. In this contract
Champlain made her heiress of all the property that he might be able to
leave, and her parents consented to give him before the marriage 6,000
_livres_.
On the 29th of December, in the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois,
Champlain was handed over four thousand five hundred of the promised
_livres_. On the next day the marriage took place. Hélène Boullé became
a Catholic after two years. Shortly after the marriage Champlain left
for New France, leaving his wife behind. We find him at the Grand Sault
on May 28, 1611.
[24] The Lachine Rapids.
[25] Lake of Two Mountains.
[26] Dollier de Casson says in his "Historic de Montréal" that
Champlain cut down many trees for firewood and also to guarantee
himself against ambuscades.
[27] Ile Normandin.
[28] Registers of Notre Dame record that, on the 19th of August, 1664,
two young men, Pierre Magnan and Jacques Dufresne, were slain here by
Iroquois.
It was used sometimes by the French as a military station; for in June,
1687, the Chevalier de Vaudreuil posted both the regular troops and the
militia there in readiness to march against the Iroquois. Thither it is
alleged the Marquis de Lévis, commanding the last French army in 1760,
withdrew, and here burnt his flags in the presence of his army the
night previous to surrendering the colony to the English. Louis Honoré
Frechette, the national French-Canadian poet, bases upon this his poem,
entitled "All Lost but Honour."
In 1688 the island was acquired by Charles Le Moyne, Sieur de
Longueuil, who gave the name of Ste. Hélène to one of his most
distinguished sons. During the eighteenth century (from before 1723),
his descendants, the Barons of Longueuil, whose territory lay just
opposite, had a residence here, the ruins of which, once surrounded
with gardens, are to be seen upon it on the east side. The Government
acquired it from them by arrangement during the War of 1812, and later
by purchase in 1818, for military purposes. It ceded the park portion
to the city in 1874.
Almost adjoining it, at the lower extremity, is Ile Ronde, a small low
island.
Both islands are interesting geologically from the occurrence there of
a remarkable breccia containing inclusions of Devonian Limestone, and
also from the existence of some rare types of dyke rock.
[29] The St. Lambert River.
[30] The Richelieu.
[31] Sault St. Louis Rapids, now known as the Lachine Rapids.
[32] The Lake of Two Mountains.
[33] Who is this Maisonneuve appearing as a privileged trader with
the passport of the prince, doubtless the Prince de Condé, Henri de
Bourbon, viceroy of Canada and head of Champlain's company? Evidently
he was a person of some consequence from the ease with which Champlain
granted him permission to trade at his settlement. Can it be, as
Kingsford and others ingeniously try to prove, Paul Chomedey de
Maisonneuve, who was later to found Montreal as a settlement in 1642,
acting for "La Compagnie de Montreal?" (1) No. Chomedey was from Paris;
the de Maisonneuve mentioned above is from St. Malo. (2) de Maisonneuve
was a common enough name. There were even several of that name in
Montreal in 1667.
[34] Mass was only said at Quebec for the first time on June 25, 1615,
by which time they had built their chapel. The priority of the Island
of Montreal in its claim to the first mass is substantiated by the
"_Mémoires des Recollects_" of 1637 which distinctly say that "the
first mass was celebrated at Rivière des Prairies and the second at
Quebec."
CHAPTER IV
1627-1641
COLONIZATION
UNDER THE COMPANY OF ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES
THE CHARTER OF THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES THE BASIS OF THE SEIGNEURIAL
SYSTEM TO BE AFTERWARDS ESTABLISHED AT MONTREAL--THE ENGLISH
IN 1629 CAPTURE QUEBEC--1632, CANADA AGAIN CEDED TO THE
FRENCH--1633, THE COMING OF THE JESUITS--THE RECOLLECTS DO NOT
RETURN--THREE RIVERS IS ESTABLISHED--DESCRIPTION OF COLONIAL
LIFE AT QUEBEC--DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN IN 1635--THE RELIGIOUS
INSTITUTIONS TO BE IMITATED AFTERWARDS AT MONTREAL--THE "RELATIONS
DES JESUITES"--THE IROQUOIS BEGIN THEIR ATTACKS--THE NEWS OF A
REINFORCEMENT AND DISAPPOINTMENT THAT MONTREAL HAS BEEN CHOSEN AS
ITS HEADQUARTERS.
On April 29, 1627, Richelieu, the Superintendent of Marine and
Commerce, securing the resignation of the Duke de Vantadour and
annulling the privileges of de Caen and his associates with suitable
indemnities, formed a
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/47809