QUEBEC.
Appearance of Quebec.--Gibraltar of America.--Fortifications and
Walls.--The Walled City.--Churches, Nunneries and Hospitals.--
Views from the Cliff.--Upper Town.--Lower Town.--Manufactures.--
Public Buildings.--Plains of Abraham.--Falls of Montmorenci.--
Sledding on the "Cone."--History of Quebec.--Capture of the
City by the British.--Death of Generals Wolfe and Montcalm.--
Disaster under General Murray.--Ceding of Canada, by France,
to England.--Attack by American Forces under Montgomery and
Arnold.--Death of Montgomery.--Capital of Lower Canada and of
the Province of Quebec.
Of all the cities and towns on the American continent, not one wears
such an Old-World expression as Quebec. Not even St. Augustine, in
Florida, with its narrow streets, and quaint, overhanging balconies, so
takes the traveler back to a past age, as that fortified city on the
lower St. Lawrence. It is not French in any modern sense. But the city
and its inhabitants belong to a France now passed away, the France of
St. Louis, the _fleur-de-lis_, and a dominant priesthood. An offshoot
from such a France, now blotted out and forgotten in the crowding of
events during the last century, it has remained oblivious of all the
changes in the parent country, and not even British rule, and the
infusion of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic blood have been able to more than
partially obliterate its early characteristics.
Quebec is situated at the confluence of the St. Charles River with the
St. Lawrence, on the northern side of a point of land which projects
between these two rivers. This point ends in an abrupt headland, three
hundred and thirty-three feet above the level of the river; and its
precipitous sides, crowned with an almost impregnable fortress, have won
for it the name of the "Gibraltar of America." The most elevated part of
this promontory is called Cape Diamond, since at one time numerous
quartz crystals were found there; and upon this is placed the citadel,
occupying forty acres. From the citadel a line of wall runs towards the
St. Charles River, until it reaches the brow of the bluff. Continuing
around this bluff towards the St. Lawrence, it finally completes a
circle of nearly three miles in circumference, by again connecting with
the citadel. This encircling wall originally had five gates, but four of
these were removed some time ago. They are now being replaced by more
ornamental ones. The old St. Louis Gate, opening upon the street of that
name, is being replaced by the Kent Gate, in honor of Queen Victoria's
father, who spent the summer of 1791 near Quebec. Dufferin Gate is being
erected on St. Patrick street; Palace and Hope gates are to be replaced
by castellated gates; while a light iron bridge is to occupy the site of
the Prescott Gate.
The old city is contained within this walled inclosure, and here, in the
narrow, tortuous, mediA|val streets, are the stately churches, venerable
convents, and other edifices, many of them dating back to the period of
the French occupation of the city. The houses are tall, with narrow
windows and irregular gables, two or three stories high, and roofed,
like the public buildings, with shining tin. A very large part of the
city within the walls is, however, taken up with the buildings and
grounds of the great religious corporations. Monks, priests, and nuns,
seemingly belonging to another age and another civilization than our
own, are jostled in the street by officers whose dress and manners are
those of the nineteenth century. French is quite as frequently heard as
English; and everywhere the old and the new, the past century and the
present, seem inextricably mingled. The past has, however, set its
ineffaceable stamp upon the city and its people. There is none of the
hurry and push of most American cities, seen even, to a degree, in
Montreal. To-day seems long enough for its duties and its pleasures, and
to-morrow is left to take care of itself. Even the public buildings have
the stamp of antiquity upon them, and are, in consequence, interesting,
though few of them are architecturally beautiful.
The churches of Quebec have none of the grandeur of those of Montreal.
Most prominent among them is the Anglican Cathedral, a plain, gray stone
edifice in St. Ann street. The Basilica of Quebec, formerly the
Cathedral, is capable of seating four thousand persons, and with a plain
exterior, contains some invaluable art treasures in the form of original
paintings by Vandyke, Caracci, Halle and others. The remains of
Champlain, the founder and first governor of Quebec, lie within the
Basilica. The Ursuline Convent is in Garden street, north of Market
Square, and is composed of a group of buildings surrounded by beautiful
grounds. It was founded in 1639, originally for the education of Indian
girls, and is now devoted to the education of girls of the white race.
The remains of Montcalm are buried within the convent grounds, in an
excavation made by the bursting of a shell, during the engagement in
which he lost his life. The Gray Nunnery, the Black Nunnery, and Hotel
Dieu with its convent and hospital, under the charge of the Sisters of
the Sacred Blood, of Dieppe, are among the Roman Catholic religious
institutions of the city. In the hospital of the Hotel Dieu ten thousand
patients are gratuitously cared for annually.
Durham Terrace lies along the edge of the cliff overlooking the St.
Lawrence. It occupies the site of the old chateau of St. Louis, built by
Champlain in 1620, and destroyed by fire in 1834. The outlook from this
terrace is one of the finest in the world; though the view from the
Grand Battery is conceded to be even finer. Looking down from an
elevation of nearly three hundred and fifty feet, the lower town, the
majestic St. Lawrence and the smaller stream of St. Charles rolling away
in the distance, and a vast stretch of country varied by hills and
plains, woodlands and mountains, are spread out before the spectator,
making one of the most beautiful pictures of which it is possible to
conceive.
The walled city, with the suburbs of St. Louis and St. John between the
walls to the eastward, and the Plains of Abraham to the westward, is
known as the upper town. The lower town is reached from the upper by the
Cote de la Montagne, or Mountain street, a very steep and winding
street, and lies below the cliff, principally to the northward, though
it encircles the base of the promontory. Here, in the lower town, is the
business portion of the city, with all its modern additions. The narrow
strand between the cliff and the rivers is occupied by breweries,
distilleries, manufactories, and numerous ship-yards; while the many
coves of the St. Lawrence, from Champlain street to Cape Rouge, are
filled with acres of vast lumber rafts. Quebec is one of the greatest
lumber and timber markets in America, supplying all the seaboard cities
of the United States. It also builds many ships, and produces sawed
lumber, boots and shoes, furniture, iron ware and machinery.
The Custom House occupies the extreme point between the St. Lawrence and
St. Charles rivers. It is Doric in architecture, surmounted by a dome,
and has a columned facade reached by an imposing flight of steps. The
Marine Hospital, built in imitation of the Temple of the Muses on the
banks of the Ilissus, is situated near the St. Charles River. The Marine
and Emigrants' Hospital is not far away. The General Hospital, an
immense cluster of buildings further up the river, was founded in 1693,
and is in charge of the nuns of St. Augustine.
The Plains of Abraham, lying back of Quebec, near the St. Lawrence, and
the scene of the famous encounter between the forces of Wolfe and
Montcalm, are fast being encroached upon by suburban residences, large
conventual establishments, and churches. The Martello towers are four
circular stone structures, erected upon the Plains to defend the
approaches of the city. On the plains, near the St. Foye road, is a
monument composed of a handsome iron column, surmounted by a bronze
statue of Bellona, presented by Prince Napoleon, and erected in 1854, to
commemorate the victory won by the Chevalier de Leris over General
Murray, in 1760. The Mount Hermon Cemetery, beautifully laid out on the
edge of the precipice which overhangs the St. Lawrence, lies about three
miles out, on the St. Louis road.
It is imperative upon the stranger, in Quebec, to visit the Falls of
Montmorenci, eight miles distant, and among the most beautiful in
America. A volume of water fifty feet wide makes a leap of two hundred
and fifty feet, down a sheer rock face, into a boiling and turbulent
basin. During the winter the spray which is continually flying from this
cataract congeals and falls like snow, until it builds up an eminence
which is known as the Cone. This Cone, in favorable seasons, sometimes
reaches an altitude of one hundred and twenty feet. To visit the Falls
in sleighs, over the frozen river, and to ride down the Cone on
hand-sleds, or "toboggins," as they are locally called, is considered
the very climax of enjoyment by the inhabitants of Quebec. The Cone is
in the form of a sugar loaf, quite as white and almost as firm. Up its
steep sides the pleasure seekers toil with their sleds, and then glide
from the top, impelled by the steepness alone, rushing down the slope
with fearful velocity, and sometimes out on the ice of the river for
hundreds of yards, until the force is spent. The interior of the Cone is
not unfrequently hollowed out in the shape of a room, and a bar is set
up, for the benefit of thirsty pleasure seekers.
About a mile above Montmorenci Falls are the Natural Steps, a series of
ledges cut in the limestone rock by the action of the river, each step
about a foot in height, and as regular in its formation as though it was
the work of man.
There are points of interest nearer Quebec, among which are the Isle of
Orleans, a beautiful and romantic place, laid out with charming drives,
and reached by ferry; _Chateau Bigot_, an antique and massive ruin,
standing at the foot of the Charlesbourg mountain; and still further
away, Lorette, an ancient village of the Huron Indians.
Quebec, the oldest city in British America, was settled in 1608, the
spot having been visited by Cartier, in 1534. Its history is an
exceedingly interesting and varied one. Twenty-one years after its
founding it was seized by the British, who did not restore it to France
until 1632. In 1690 and in 1711 the British made unsuccessful maritime
assaults upon it It continued to be the centre of French trade and
civilization, and of the Roman Catholic missions in North America,
until, in 1759, it fell into the hands of the British. The Fleur-de-lis
fluttered from the citadel of Quebec for two hundred and twenty years,
with the exception of the three years from 1629 to 1632, when Sir David
Kirke placed the fortification in the hands of England.
In 1759, during the Seven Years' War, the English, under General Wolfe,
attacked the city and bombarded it. An attempt had been previously made
to land British troops at Montmorenci, which had been frustrated by
Montcalm, resulting in a loss of five hundred men. But on the occasion
of the present attack Wolfe had conceived the idea of landing his troops
above the town. He pushed his fleet stealthily up the river, under the
brow of the frowning precipice and beneath the very shadow of the
fortifications. Passing above the city, he effected a landing where the
acclivity was a little less steep than at other places, and the troops
dragged themselves up, and actually brought with them several pieces of
ordnance. All this was under cover of night; and when day dawned the
British army with its artillery was found in line of battle on the
Plains of Abraham. Wolfe had eight thousand men, while the French troops
numbered ten thousand. Montcalm believed he could easily drive the
British into the river or compel them to surrender, and so threw the
whole force of his attack upon the English right, which rested on the
river. But in the French army were only five battalions of French
soldiers, the balance being Indians and Canadians. The French right,
composed of these undisciplined troops, was easily routed and the French
left was ultimately broken. Five days later the British were in complete
possession of Quebec. But before this victory was fairly assured to the
English troops, both the French and English armies had lost their
commanders.
The spot where Wolfe fell in the memorable battle of September
thirteenth, 1759, is marked by an unpretending column. A monument was
shipped from Paris, to commemorate the death of Montcalm, but it never
reached Quebec, the vessel which conveyed it having been lost at sea. A
lengthy inscription upon this monument, after giving the Marquis de
Montcalm's name and many titles, and depicting in glowing words his
character and his brilliant achievements as a soldier, says: "Having
with various artifices long baffled a great enemy, headed by an expert
and intrepid commander, and a fleet furnished with all warlike stores,
compelled at length to an engagement, he fell--in the first rank--in the
first onset, warm with those hopes of religion which he had always
cherished, to the inexpressible loss of his own army, and not without
the regret of the enemy's, September fourteenth, 1759, of his age
forty-eight. His weeping countrymen deposited the remains of their
excellent General in a grave which a fallen bomb in bursting had
excavated for him, recommending them to the generous faith of their
enemies." Whether the "generous faith" of their friends was equally to
be trusted each one must judge for himself; for in the chapel of the
Ursuline Convent of Quebec, among the curiosities exhibited to the
visitor, is the skull of the Marquis de Montcalm.
In April, of the following year, the British very nearly lost what Wolfe
had gained for them. General Murray went out to the Plains of Abraham,
with three thousand men, to meet the French, under Chevalier de Leris,
losing no less than one thousand men, and all his guns, which numbered
twenty, and being compelled to retreat within the walls. The arrival of
a British squadron brought him timely relief, and compelled the French
to retreat, with the loss of all their artillery. The treaty of peace
made between Louis Fifteenth and England, in 1763, ceded the whole of
the French Canadian possessions to the British. In December, 1775,
during the war of the Revolution, a small American force, under General
Montgomery, made an attack upon the fortress, but was repulsed with the
loss of their commander and seven hundred men. Arnold preceded
Montgomery, making an astonishing march, and enduring untold perils, by
the Kennebec and Chaudiere. Following the course pursued by Wolfe, he
placed his troops upon the Plains of Abraham; but when Montgomery joined
him, from Montreal, it was found they had no heavy artillery, and the
only alternatives were, to retreat, or to carry the place by storm.
Deciding on the latter course, two columns, headed by Arnold and
Montgomery, rushed forward. The latter carried the intrenchment, and was
proceeding toward a second work, when he and the officers who followed
him were swept down before a gun loaded with grape. Arnold was carried
from the field, wounded, and the attempt on Quebec was a most disastrous
failure.
Quebec remained the chief city of Canada until the western settlements
were erected into a separate Province, as Canada West, when it became
the Capital of Canada East. In 1867, the British North American
Provinces were united, in the Dominion of Canada. Canada East, or Lower
Canada, as a Province, took the name of the city, and the city of Quebec
became the Capital of the Province. The population of Quebec was, in
1871, 58,699, of whom a large proportion are descendants of the early
French settlers, though many English, Scotch and Irish, have domiciled
themselves within it, and form, really, its most enterprising and
energetic citizens.