The delta of the great Ottawa--the "river of the traders," as the
Indians named it, debouching by several mouths into the St. Lawrence,
of which it is the chief tributary, makes a number of islands, and
Montreal stands on the southeastern side of the largest of them, with
the broad river flowing in front. St. Mary's current runs strongly
past the quays, and out there are the pretty wooded mounds of St.
Helen's Island, named after Helen Boullé, the child-wife of Samuel de
Champlain, the first European woman who came to Canada. She was only
twelve years old when he married her, he being aged forty-four, and
after his death she became an Ursuline nun. The miles of city
water-front are superbly faced with long-walled quays of solid
limestone masonry, and marked by jutting piers enclosing basins for
the protection of the shipping against the powerful current. At the
extremities of the rows of shipping, on either hand, up and down
stream, loom the huge grain elevators. The piers are about ten feet
lower than the walled embankment fronting the city, this being done to
allow the ice to pass over them when it breaks up at the end of
winter, the movement--called the "Ice Shove"--being an imposing sight.
The elongated Victoria Bridge stands upon its row of gray limestone
piers guarding the horizon up-river to the southward. Many storehouses
and stately buildings rise behind the wharves, and beyond these are
myriads of steeples, spires and domes, with the lofty Notre Dame
towers in front. The background is made by the imposing mountain
giving Montreal its name, called Mont Real originally, and now known
as Mount Royal, rising to an elevation of nine hundred feet. Few
cities of its size can boast so many fine buildings. The excellent
building-stone of the neighborhood, a gray limestone, is utilized
extensively, and this adds to the ornamental appearance, the city
rising upon a series of terraces stretching back from the river and
giving many good sites for construction. Numerous, massive and
elaborate, the multitude of costly houses devoted to religion, trade
and private residences are both a surprise and a charm. Mount Royal,
rising boldly behind them, gives not only a noble background to the
view from the river, but also a grand point of outlook, displaying
their beauties to the utmost. The city has wide streets, generally
lined with trees, and various public squares adding to the
attractiveness.
But the most prominent characteristic of the Canadian metropolis is
the astonishing number of its convents, churches, and pious houses
for religious and charitable uses. Churches are everywhere, built by
all denominations, many being most elaborate and costly. The religious
zeal of the community, holding all kinds of ecclesiastical belief, has
found special vent in the universal development of church building.
This commendable trait is their natural heritage, for the earliest
French settlements on the St. Lawrence were largely due to religious
zeal. When Jacques Cartier ascended the St. Lawrence upon his second
voyage in 1535, he heard from the Indians at Quebec of a greater town
far up the river, and bent upon exploration, he sailed in boats up to
the Iroquois settlement of Hochelaga. Wrapped in forests behind it
rose the great mountain which he named Mont Real, the "royal
mountain," and in front, encompassed with corn-fields, was the Indian
village, surrounded by triple rows of palisades. Landing, Cartier's
party were admitted within the defensive walls to the central public
square, where the squaws examined them with the greatest curiosity,
and the sick and lame Indians were brought up to be healed, the
ancient historian writes, "as if a god had come down among them." No
sooner had Cartier landed and been thus welcomed than he gave thanks
to Heaven, and the warriors sat in silence while he read aloud the
Passion of Our Lord, though they understood not a word. The religious
services over, he distributed presents, and the French trumpeters
sounded a warlike melody, vastly pleasing the Indians. They conducted
Cartier's party to the summit of the mountain and showed them an
extensive view over unbroken forests for many miles to the dark
Adirondacks far away and the distant lighter green mountains, which he
called the "Monts Verts," to the eastward. There is a tablet placed in
Metcalfe Street near Sherbrooke Street which marks the supposed site
of the Indian village of Hochelaga. In 1608, when Champlain came,
Hochelaga had disappeared. The fierce Hurons had destroyed the village
and driven out the Iroquois, who had gone far south to the Mohawk
Valley.
For three-quarters of a century the French seem to have waited after
Cartier's voyages, before they made any serious attempt at settlement.
Then there came a great religious revival, and they planned to combine
religion and conquest in a series of expeditions in the early
seventeenth century under the auspices of patron saints and sinners
whose names are numerously reproduced in the nomenclature of Quebec
Province, in mountains, rivers, lakes, bays, capes, counties, towns
and streets. It was chiefly due to Champlain, however, that the French
foothold was obtained. This great explorer, known as the "Father of
Canada," was noted alike for personal bravery and religious fervor.
His occupations in the New World were perilous journeys, prayers and
fighting. He firmly planted the French race in America, and every
characteristic then given "New France," as Canada was called, remains
to-day in the Province of Quebec. His noted saying is preserved in the
Canadian chronicles, that "the salvation of one soul is of more
importance than the founding of a new empire." His system was to take
possession for the Church and the French king, and then erect a cross
and a chapel, around which the colony grew. During the half-century
succeeding Champlain's first voyage, many Recollet and Jesuit
missionary priests came over, traversing the country and making
converts among the Indians, so that there were established
settlements, half-religious and half-military, forming alliances with
the neighboring Huron and Algonquin Indians, and ultimately waging the
almost perpetual wars with their English and Iroquois foes to the
southward. Champlain, in 1608, founded Quebec, where Cartier had
previously discovered the Indian village of Stadacona, meaning the
"narrowing of the river." Champlain also, in subsequent voyages,
discovered Lakes Champlain, Ontario and Nipissing.