[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."