1645-1651.
PRIEST AND PURITAN.
Miscou • Tadoussac • Journeys of De Quen • Druilletes • His Winter with
the Montagnais • Influence of the Missions • The Abenaquis • Druilletes
on the Kennebec • His Embassy to Boston • Gibbons • Dudley • Bradford •
Eliot • Endicott • French and Puritan Colonization • Failure of
Druilletes's Embassy • New Regulations • New-Year's Day at Quebec.
Before passing to the closing scenes of this wilderness drama, we will
touch briefly on a few points aside from its main action, yet essential
to an understanding of the scope of the mission. Besides their
establishments at Quebec, Sillery, Three Rivers, and the neighborhood of
Lake Huron, the Jesuits had an outlying post at the island of Miscou, on
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, near the entrance of the Bay of Chaleurs,
where they instructed the wandering savages of those shores, and
confessed the French fishermen. The island was unhealthy in the extreme.
Several of the priests sickened and died; and scarcely one convert
repaid their toils. There was a more successful mission at Tadoussac, or
Sadilege, as the neighboring Indians called it. In winter, this place
was a solitude; but in summer, when the Montagnais gathered from their
hunting-grounds to meet the French traders, Jesuits came yearly from
Quebec to instruct them in the Faith. Some times they followed them
northward, into wilds where, at this day, a white man rarely penetrates.
Thus, in 1646, De Quen ascended the Saguenay, and, by a series of
rivers, torrents, lakes, and rapids, reached a Montagnais horde called
the Nation of the Porcupine, where he found that the teachings at
Tadoussac had borne fruit, and that the converts had planted a cross on
the borders of the savage lake where they dwelt. There was a kindred
band, the Nation of the White Fish, among the rocks and forests north of
Three Rivers. They proved tractable beyond all others, threw away their
"medicines" or fetiches, burned their magic drums, renounced their
medicine-songs, and accepted instead rosaries, crucifixes, and versions
of Catholic hymns.
In a former chapter, we followed Father Paul Le Jeune on his winter
roamings, with a band of Montagnais, among the forests on the northern
boundary of Maine. Now Father Gabriel Druilletes sets forth on a similar
excursion, but with one essential difference. Le Jeune's companions were
heathen, who persecuted him day and night with their gibes and sarcasms.
Those of Druilletes were all converts, who looked on him as a friend and
a father. There were prayers, confessions, masses, and invocations of
St. Joseph. They built their bark chapel at every camp, and no festival
of the Church passed unobserved. On Good Friday they laid their best
robe of beaver-skin on the snow, placed on it a crucifix, and knelt
around it in prayer. What was their prayer? It was a petition for the
forgiveness and the conversion of their enemies, the Iroquois. [1] Those
who know the intensity and tenacity of an Indian's hatred will see in
this something more than a change from one superstition to another. An
idea had been presented to the mind of the savage, to which he had
previously been an utter stranger. This is the most remarkable record of
success in the whole body of the Jesuit Relations; but it is very far
from being the only evidence, that, in teaching the dogmas and
observances of the Roman Church, the missionaries taught also the morals
of Christianity. When we look for the results of these missions, we soon
become aware that the influence of the French and the Jesuits extended
far beyond the circle of converts. It eventually modified and softened
the manners of many unconverted tribes. In the wars of the next century
we do not often find those examples of diabolic atrocity with which the
earlier annals are crowded. The savage burned his enemies alive, it is
true, but he rarely ate them; neither did he torment them with the same
deliberation and persistency. He was a savage still, but not so often a
devil. The improvement was not great, but it was distinct; and it seems
to have taken place wherever Indian tribes were in close relations with
any respectable community of white men. Thus Philip's war in New
England, cruel as it was, was less ferocious, judging from Canadian
experience, than it would have been, if a generation of civilized
intercourse had not worn down the sharpest asperities of barbarism. Yet
it was to French priests and colonists, mingled as they were soon to be
among the tribes of the vast interior, that the change is chiefly to be
ascribed. In this softening of manners, such as it was, and in the
obedient Catholicity of a few hundred tamed savages gathered at
stationary missions in various parts of Canada, we find, after a century
had elapsed, all the results of the heroic toil of the Jesuits. The
missions had failed, because the Indians had ceased to exist. Of the
great tribes on whom rested the hopes of the early Canadian Fathers,
nearly all were virtually extinct. The missionaries built laboriously
and well, but they were doomed to build on a failing foundation. The
Indians melted away, not because civilization destroyed them, but
because their own ferocity and intractable indolence made it impossible
that they should exist in its presence. Either the plastic energies of a
higher race or the servile pliancy of a lower one would, each in its
way, have preserved them: as it was, their extinction was a foregone
conclusion. As for the religion which the Jesuits taught them, however
Protestants may carp at it, it was the only form of Christianity likely
to take root in their crude and barbarous nature.
[1] Vimont, Relation, 1645, 16.
To return to Druilletes. The smoke of the wigwam blinded him; and it is
no matter of surprise to hear that he was cured by a miracle. He
returned from his winter roving to Quebec in high health, and soon set
forth on a new mission. On the River Kennebec, in the present State of
Maine, dwelt the Abenaquis, an Algonquin people, destined hereafter to
become a thorn in the sides of the New-England colonists. Some of them
had visited their friends, the Christian Indians of Sillery. Here they
became converted, went home, and preached the Faith to their countrymen,
and this to such purpose that the Abenaquis sent to Quebec to ask for a
missionary. Apart from the saving of souls, there were solid reasons for
acceding to their request. The Abenaquis were near the colonies of New
England,--indeed, the Plymouth colony, under its charter, claimed
jurisdiction over them; and in case of rupture, they would prove
serviceable friends or dangerous enemies to New France. [2] Their
messengers were favorably received; and Druilletes was ordered to
proceed upon the new mission.
[2] Charlevoix, I. 280, gives this as a motive of the mission.
He left Sillery, with a party of Indians, on the twenty-ninth of August,
1646, [3] and following, as it seems, the route by which, a hundred and
twenty-nine years later, the soldiers of Arnold made their way to
Quebec, he reached the waters of the Kennebec and descended to the
Abenaqui villages. Here he nursed the sick, baptized the dying, and gave
such instruction as, in his ignorance of the language, he was able.
Apparently he had been ordered to reconnoitre; for he presently
descended the river from Norridgewock to the first English trading-post,
where Augusta now stands. Thence he continued his journey to the sea,
and followed the coast in a canoe to the Penobscot, visiting seven or
eight English posts on the way, where, to his surprise, he was very well
received. At the Penobscot he found several Capuchin friars, under their
Superior, Father Ignace, who welcomed him with the utmost cordiality.
Returning, he again ascended the Kennebec to the English post at
Augusta. At a spot three miles above the Indians had gathered in
considerable numbers, and here they built him a chapel after their
fashion. He remained till midwinter, catechizing and baptizing, and
waging war so successfully against the Indian sorcerers, that
medicine-bags were thrown away, and charms and incantations were
supplanted by prayers. In January the whole troop set off on their grand
hunt, Druilletes following them,--"with toil," says the chronicler, "too
great to buy the kingdoms of this world, but very small as a price for
the Kingdom of Heaven." [4] They encamped on Moosehead Lake, where new
disputes with the "medicine-men" ensued, and the Father again remained
master of the field. When, after a prosperous hunt, the party returned
to the English trading-house, John Winslow, the agent in charge, again
received the missionary with a kindness which showed no trace of
jealousy or religious prejudice. [5]
[3] Lalemant, Relation, 1647, 51.
[4] Lalemant, Relation, 1647, 54. For an account of this mission, see
also Maurault, Histoire des Abenakis, 116-156.
[5] Winslow would scarcely have recognized his own name in the Jesuit
spelling,--"Le Sieur de Houinslaud." In his journal of 1650 Druilletes
is more successful in his orthography, and spells it Winslau.
Early in the summer Druilletes went to Quebec; and during the two
following years, the Abenaquis, for reasons which are not clear, were
left without a missionary. He spent another winter of extreme hardship
with the Algonquins on their winter rovings, and during summer
instructed the wandering savages of Tadoussac. It was not until the
autumn of 1650 that he again descended the Kennebec. This time he went
as an envoy charged with the negotiation of a treaty. His journey is
worthy of notice, since, with the unimportant exception of Jogues's
embassy to the Mohawks, it is the first occasion on which the Canadian
Jesuits appear in a character distinctly political. Afterwards, when the
fervor and freshness of the missions had passed away, they frequently
did the work of political agents among the Indians: but the Jesuit of
the earlier period was, with rare exceptions, a missionary only; and
though he was expected to exert a powerful influence in gaining subjects
and allies for France, he was to do so by gathering them under the wings
of the Church.
The Colony of Massachusetts had applied to the French officials at
Quebec, with a view to a reciprocity of trade. The Iroquois had brought
Canada to extremity, and the French Governor conceived the hope of
gaining the powerful support of New England by granting the desired
privileges on condition of military aid. But, as the Puritans would
scarcely see it for their interest to provoke a dangerous enemy, who had
thus far never molested them, it was resolved to urge the proposed
alliance as a point of duty. The Abenaquis had suffered from Mohawk
inroads; and the French, assuming for the occasion that they were under
the jurisdiction of the English colonies, argued that they were bound to
protect them. Druilletes went in a double character,--as an envoy of the
government at Quebec, and as an agent of his Abenaqui flock, who had
been advised to petition for English assistance. The time seemed
inauspicious for a Jesuit visit to Boston; for not only had it been
announced as foremost among the objects in colonizing New England, "to
raise a bulwark against the kingdom of Antichrist, which the Jesuits
labor to rear up in all places of the world," [6] but, three years
before, the Legislature of Massachusetts had enacted, that Jesuits
entering the colony should be expelled, and, if they returned, hanged.
[7]
[6] Considerations for the Plantation in New England.--See Hutchinson,
Collection, 27. Mr. Savage thinks that this paper was by Winthrop. See
Savage's Winthrop. I. 360, note.
[7] See the Act, in Hazard, 550.
Nevertheless, on the first of September, Druilletes set forth from
Quebec with a Christian chief of Sillery, crossed forests, mountains,
and torrents, and reached Norridgewock, the highest Abenaqui settlement
on the Kennebec. Thence he descended to the English trading-house at
Augusta, where his fast friend, the Puritan Winslow, gave him a warm
welcome, entertained him hospitably, and promised to forward the object
of his mission. He went with him, at great personal inconvenience, to
Merrymeeting Bay, where Druilletes embarked in an English vessel for
Boston. The passage was stormy, and the wind ahead. He was forced to
land at Cape Ann, or, as he calls it, Kepane, whence, partly on foot,
partly in boats along the shore, he made his way to Boston. The
three-hilled city of the Puritans lay chill and dreary under a December
sky, as the priest crossed in a boat from the neighboring peninsula of
Charlestown.
Winslow was agent for the merchant, Edward Gibbons, a personage of note,
whose life presents curious phases,--a reveller of Merry Mount, a bold
sailor, a member of the church, an adventurous trader, an associate of
buccaneers, a magistrate of the commonwealth, and a major-general. [8]
The Jesuit, with credentials from the Governor of Canada and letters
from Winslow, met a reception widely different from that which the law
enjoined against persons of his profession. [9] Gibbons welcomed him
heartily, prayed him to accept no other lodging than his house while he
remained in Boston, and gave him the key of a chamber, in order that he
might pray after his own fashion, without fear of disturbance. An
accurate Catholic writer thinks it likely that he brought with him the
means of celebrating the Mass. [10] If so, the house of the Puritan was,
no doubt, desecrated by that Popish abomination; but be this as it may,
Massachusetts, in the person of her magistrate, became the gracious host
of one of those whom, next to the Devil and an Anglican bishop, she most
abhorred.
[8] An account of him will be found in Palfrey, Hist. of New England,
II. 225, note.
[9] In the Act, an exception, however, was made in favor of Jesuits
coming as ambassadors or envoys from their government, who were declared
not liable to the penalty of hanging.
[10] J. G. Shea, in Boston Pilot.
On the next day, Gibbons took his guest to Roxbury,--called Rogsbray by
Druilletes,--to see the Governor, the harsh and narrow Dudley, grown
gray in repellent virtue and grim honesty. Some half a century before,
he had served in France, under Henry the Fourth; but he had forgotten
his French, and called for an interpreter to explain the visitor's
credentials. He received Druilletes with courtesy, and promised to call
the magistrates together on the following Tuesday to hear his proposals.
They met accordingly, and Druilletes was asked to dine with them. The
old Governor sat at the head of the table, and after dinner invited the
guest to open the business of his embassy. They listened to him, desired
him to withdraw, and, after consulting among themselves, sent for him to
join them again at supper, when they made him an answer, of which the
record is lost, but which evidently was not definitive.
As the Abenaqui Indians were within the jurisdiction of Plymouth, [11]
Druilletes proceeded thither in his character of their agent. Here,
again, he was received with courtesy and kindness. Governor Bradford
invited him to dine, and, as it was Friday, considerately gave him a
dinner of fish. Druilletes conceived great hope that the colony could be
wrought upon to give the desired assistance; for some of the chief
inhabitants had an interest in the trade with the Abenaquis. [12] He
came back by land to Boston, stopping again at Roxbury on the way. It
was night when he arrived; and, after the usual custom, he took lodging
with the minister. Here were several young Indians, pupils of his host:
for he was no other than the celebrated Eliot, who, during the past
summer, had established his mission at Natick, [13] and was now
laboring, in the fulness of his zeal, in the work of civilization and
conversion. There was great sympathy between the two missionaries; and
Eliot prayed his guest to spend the winter with him.
[11] For the documents on the title of Plymouth to lands on the
Kennebec, see Drake's additions to Baylies's History of New Plymouth,
36, where they are illustrated by an ancient map. The patent was
obtained as early as 1628, and a trading-house soon after established.
[12] The Record of the Colony of Plymouth, June 5, 1651, contains,
however, the entry, "The Court declare themselves not to be willing to
aid them (the French) in their design, or to grant them liberty to go
through their jurisdiction for the aforesaid purpose" (to attack the
Mohawks).
[13] See Palfrey, New England, II. 336.
At Salem, which Druilletes also visited, in company with the minister of
Marblehead, he had an interview with the stern, but manly, Endicott,
who, he says, spoke French, and expressed both interest and good-will
towards the objects of the expedition. As the envoy had no money left,
Endicott paid his charges, and asked him to dine with the magistrates.
[14]
[14] On Druilletes's visit to New England, see his journal, entitled
Narré du Voyage faict pour la Mission des Abenaquois, et des
Connoissances tiréz de la Nouvelle Angleterre et des Dispositions des
Magistrats de cette Republique pour le Secours contre les Iroquois. See
also Druilletes, Rapport sur le Résultat de ses Négotiations, in
Ferland, Notes sur les Registres, 95.
Druilletes was evidently struck with the thrift and vigor of these
sturdy young colonies, and the strength of their population. He says
that Boston, meaning Massachusetts, could alone furnish four thousand
fighting men, and that the four united colonies could count forty
thousand souls. [15] These numbers may be challenged; but, at all
events, the contrast was striking with the attenuated and suffering
bands of priests, nuns, and fur-traders on the St. Lawrence. About
twenty-one thousand persons had come from Old to New England, with the
resolve of making it their home; and though this immigration had
virtually ceased, the natural increase had been great. The necessity, or
the strong desire, of escaping from persecution had given the impulse to
Puritan colonization; while, on the other hand, none but good Catholics,
the favored class of France, were tolerated in Canada. These had no
motive for exchanging the comforts of home and the smiles of Fortune for
a starving wilderness and the scalping-knives of the Iroquois. The
Huguenots would have emigrated in swarms; but they were rigidly
forbidden. The zeal of propagandism and the fur-trade were, as we have
seen, the vital forces of New France. Of her feeble population, the best
part was bound to perpetual chastity; while the fur-traders and those in
their service rarely brought their wives to the wilderness. The
fur-trader, moreover, is always the worst of colonists; since the
increase of population, by diminishing the numbers of the fur-bearing
animals, is adverse to his interest. But behind all this there was in
the religious ideal of the rival colonies an influence which alone would
have gone far to produce the contrast in material growth.
[15] Druilletes, Reflexions touchant ce qu'on peut esperer de la
Nouvelle Angleterre contre l'Irocquois (sic), appended to his journal.
To the mind of the Puritan, heaven was God's throne; but no less was the
earth His footstool: and each in its degree and its kind had its demands
on man. He held it a duty to labor and to multiply; and, building on the
Old Testament quite as much as on the New, thought that a reward on
earth as well as in heaven awaited those who were faithful to the law.
Doubtless, such a belief is widely open to abuse, and it would be folly
to pretend that it escaped abuse in New England; but there was in it an
element manly, healthful, and invigorating. On the other hand, those who
shaped the character, and in great measure the destiny, of New France
had always on their lips the nothingness and the vanity of life. For
them, time was nothing but a preparation for eternity, and the highest
virtue consisted in a renunciation of all the cares, toils, and
interests of earth. That such a doctrine has often been joined to an
intense worldliness, all history proclaims; but with this we have at
present nothing to do. If all mankind acted on it in good faith, the
world would sink into decrepitude. It is the monastic idea carried into
the wide field of active life, and is like the error of those who, in
their zeal to cultivate their higher nature, suffer the neglected body
to dwindle and pine, till body and mind alike lapse into feebleness and
disease.
Druilletes returned to the Abenaquis, and thence to Quebec, full of hope
that the object of his mission was in a fair way of accomplishment. The
Governor, d'Ailleboust, [16] who had succeeded Montmagny, called his
council, and Druilletes was again dispatched to New England, together
with one of the principal inhabitants of Quebec, Jean Paul Godefroy.
[17] They repaired to New Haven, and appeared before the Commissioners
of the Four Colonies, then in session there; but their errand proved
bootless. The Commissioners refused either to declare war or to permit
volunteers to be raised in New England against the Iroquois. The
Puritan, like his descendant, would not fight without a reason. The bait
of free-trade with Canada failed to tempt him; and the envoys retraced
their steps, with a flat, though courteous refusal. [18]
[16] The same who, with his wife, had joined the colonists of Montreal.
See ante, (page 264).
[17] He was one of the Governor's council.--Ferland, Notes sur les
Registres, 67.
[18] On Druilletes's second embassy, see Lettre écrite par le Conseil de
Quebec aux Commissionaires de la Nouvelle Angleterre, in Charlevoix, I.
287; Extrait des Registres de l'Ancien Conseil de Quebec, Ibid., I. 288;
Copy of a Letter from the Commissioners of the United Colonies to the
Governor of Canada, in Hazard, II. 183; Answare to the Propositions
presented by the honered French Agents, Ibid., II. 184; and Hutchinson,
Collection of Papers, 166. Also, Records of the Commissioners of the
United Colonies, Sept. 5, 1651; and Commission of Druilletes and
Godefroy, in N. Y. Col. Docs., IX. 6.
Now let us stop for a moment at Quebec, and observe some notable changes
that had taken place in the affairs of the colony. The Company of the
Hundred Associates, whose outlay had been great and their profit small,
transferred to the inhabitants of the colony their monopoly of the
fur-trade, and with it their debts. The inhabitants also assumed their
obligations to furnish arms, munitions, soldiers, and works of defence,
to pay the Governor and other officials, introduce emigrants, and
contribute to support the missions. The Company was to receive, besides,
an annual acknowledgement of a thousand pounds of beaver, and was to
retain all seigniorial rights. The inhabitants were to form a
corporation, of which any one of them might be a member; and no
individual could trade on his own account, except on condition of
selling at a fixed price to the magazine of this new company. [19]
[19] Articles accordés entre les Directeurs et Associés de la Compagnie
de la Nelle France et les Députés des Habitans du dit Pays, 6 Mars,
1645. MS.
This change took place in 1645. It was followed, in 1647, by the
establishment of a Council, composed of the Governor-General, the
Superior of the Jesuits, and the Governor of Montreal, who were invested
with absolute powers, legislative, judicial, and executive. The
Governor-General had an appointment of twenty-five thousand livres,
besides the privilege of bringing over seventy tons of freight, yearly,
in the Company's ships. Out of this he was required to pay the soldiers,
repair the forts, and supply arms and munitions. Ten thousand livres and
thirty tons of freight, with similar conditions, were assigned to the
Governor of Montreal. Under these circumstances, one cannot wonder that
the colony was but indifferently defended against the Iroquois, and that
the King had to send soldiers to save it from destruction. In the next
year, at the instance of Maisonneuve, another change was made. A
specified sum was set apart for purposes of defence, and the salaries of
the Governors were proportionably reduced. The Governor-General,
Montmagny, though he seems to have done better than could reasonably
have been expected, was removed; and, as Maisonneuve declined the
office, d'Ailleboust, another Montrealist, was appointed to it. This
movement, indeed, had been accomplished by the interest of the Montreal
party; for already there was no slight jealousy between Quebec and her
rival.
The Council was reorganized, and now consisted of the Governor, the
Superior of the Jesuits, and three of the principal inhabitants. [20]
These last were to be chosen every three years by the Council itself, in
conjunction with the Syndics of Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers. The
Syndic was an officer elected by the inhabitants of the community to
which he belonged, to manage its affairs. Hence a slight ingredient of
liberty was introduced into the new organization.
[20] The Governors of Montreal and Three Rivers, when present, had also
seats in the Council.
The colony, since the transfer of the fur-trade, had become a resident
corporation of merchants, with the Governor and Council at its head.
They were at once the directors of a trading company, a legislative
assembly, a court of justice, and an executive body: more even than
this, for they regulated the private affairs of families and
individuals. The appointment and payment of clerks and the examining of
accounts mingled with high functions of government; and the new
corporation of the inhabitants seems to have been managed with very
little consultation of its members. How the Father Superior acquitted
himself in his capacity of director of a fur-company is nowhere
recorded. [21]
[21] Those curious in regard to these new regulations will find an
account of them, at greater length, in Ferland and Faillon.
As for Montreal, though it had given a Governor to the colony, its
prospects were far from hopeful. The ridiculous Dauversière, its chief
founder, was sick and bankrupt; and the Associates of Montreal, once so
full of zeal and so abounding in wealth, were reduced to nine persons.
What it had left of vitality was in the enthusiastic Mademoiselle Mance,
the earnest and disinterested soldier, Maisonneuve, and the priest,
Olier, with his new Seminary of St. Sulpice.
Let us visit Quebec in midwinter. We pass the warehouses and dwellings
of the lower town, and as we climb the zigzag way now called Mountain
Street, the frozen river, the roofs, the summits of the cliff, and all
the broad landscape below and around us glare in the sharp sunlight with
a dazzling whiteness. At the top, scarcely a private house is to be
seen; but, instead, a fort, a church, a hospital, a cemetery, a house of
the Jesuits, and an Ursuline convent. Yet, regardless of the keen air,
soldiers, Jesuits, servants, officials, women, all of the little
community who are not cloistered, are abroad and astir. Despite the
gloom of the times, an unwonted cheer enlivens this rocky perch of
France and the Faith; for it is New-Year's Day, and there is an active
interchange of greetings and presents. Thanks to the nimble pen of the
Father Superior, we know what each gave and what each received. He thus
writes in his private journal:--
"The soldiers went with their guns to salute Monsieur the Governor; and
so did also the inhabitants in a body. He was beforehand with us, and
came here at seven o'clock to wish us a happy New-Year, each in turn,
one after another. I went to see him after mass. Another time we must be
beforehand with him. M. Giffard also came to see us. The Hospital nuns
sent us letters of compliment very early in the morning; and the
Ursulines sent us some beautiful presents, with candles, rosaries, a
crucifix, etc., and, at dinner-time, two excellent pies. I sent them two
images, in enamel, of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier. We gave to M.
Giffard Father Bonnet's book on the life of Our Lord; to M. des
Châtelets, a little volume on Eternity; to M. Bourdon, a telescope and
compass; and to others, reliquaries, rosaries, medals, images, etc. I
went to see M. Giffard, M. Couillard, and Mademoiselle de Repentigny.
The Ursulines sent to beg that I would come and see them before the end
of the day. I went, and paid my compliments also to Madame de la
Peltrie, who sent us some presents. I was near leaving this out, which
would have been a sad oversight. We gave a crucifix to the woman who
washes the church-linen, a bottle of eau-de-vie to Abraham, four
handkerchiefs to his wife, some books of devotion to others, and two
handkerchiefs to Robert Hache. He asked for two more, and we gave them
to him." [22]
[22] Journal des Supérieurs des Jésuites, MS. Only fragments of this
curious record are extant. It was begun by Lalemant in 1645. For the
privilege of having what remains of it copied I am indebted to M.
Jacques Viger. The entry translated above is of Jan. 1, 1646. Of the
persons named in it, Giffard was seigneur of Beauport, and a member of
the Council; Des Châtelets was one of the earliest settlers, and
connected by marriage with Giffard; Couillard was son-in-law of the
first settler, Hébert; Mademoiselle de Repentigny was daughter of Le
Gardeur de Repentigny, commander of the fleet; Madame de la Peltrie has
been described already; Bourdon was chief engineer of the colony;
Abraham was Abraham Martin, pilot for the King on the St. Lawrence, from
whom the historic Plains of Abraham received their name. (See Ferland,
Notes sur Registres, 16.) The rest were servants, or persons of humble
station.