1603-1625
THE GREAT SAULT
CHAMPLAIN THE FIRST TRADER
THE HISTORY OF HOCHELAGA AFTER CARTIER'S VISIT--CHAMPLAIN, THE
FIRST CARTOGRAPHER OF THE ISLAND OF MONTREAL--ITS DESCRIPTION
IN 1603--CHAMPLAIN EXPLORES THE NEIGHBORHOOD--PLACE ROYALE IN
1611--ST. HELEN'S ISLAND NAMED--THE FIRST TRADING TRANSACTION
RECORDED--CHAMPLAIN SHOOTS THE RAPIDS, 1613--THE EXPLORATION
OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY--1615 THE FIRST MASS IN CANADA AT RIVIERE
DES PRAIRIES--1625 THE DROWNING OF VIEL AND AHUNTSIC AT
SAULT-AU-RECOLLET--THE INTENTION OF CHAMPLAIN TO MAKE A PERMANENT
SETTLEMENT ON THE ISLAND.
The name of Samuel de Champlain is next to be more closely associated
with Montreal. For, although the date connecting him with his first
visit to this site is 1603, and that of Cartier's visit in 1535,
Montreal had not been visited or dwelt upon by any distinguished
European that we can attach a name to, with any certainty.
During all this time, according to tradition, sad things had occurred
at Hochelaga.
"The fate of this Indian town," says Mr. Arthur Weir in "Montreal, the
Metropolis of Canada," "is shrouded in the mists of antiquity. There
is reason to believe that here was enacted a tragedy similar to that
which resulted in the destruction of Troy. According to Mr. Peter
Dooyentate Clarke, the historian of the Wyandots, himself a descendant
of the tribe, the Senecas and Wyandots, or Hurons, lived side by side
at Hochelaga, until in an evil moment a stern chief of the Senecas
refused to permit his son to marry a Huron maiden. The damsel thereupon
rejected all suitors and promised to marry only him who should kill the
chief who had thus offended her.
"A youthful Huron, more amorous than wise, fulfilled the terms of
the vow and won the girl. But the Senecas adopted the cause of their
murdered chief, and made war upon the Hurons, whom they almost
exterminated with the assistance of the other tribes of the Iroquois,
driving their more peaceful and civilized neighbours to the very lake
that now bears their name." However true or false this legend, it is
certain that when Champlain visited the island in 1603 the Indian town
was gone and desolation prevailed.
Another version of the same tradition is given by Mr. Bourinot, in
"The Story of Canada," where he tells the popular tradition handed
down by the Indians, "that the Hurons and Iroquois, branches of the
same family, speaking dialects of one common language, were living at
one time in villages, not far from each other,--the Hurons probably
at Hochelaga and the Senecas on the other side of the mountain. It
was against the law of the two communities for their men and women
to intermarry, but the potent influence of true love, so rare in an
Indian's bosom, soon broke this command. A Huron girl entered a cabin
of an Iroquois chief as his wife. It was an unhappy marriage, the
husband killed the wife in an angry moment. This was a serious matter,
requiring a council meeting of the two tribes. Murder must be avenged
or liberal compensation given to the friends of the dead. The council
decided that the woman deserved death, but the verdict did not please
all her relatives, one of whom went off secretly and killed an Iroquois
warrior. Then, both tribes took up the hatchet, and went on the warpath
against each other, with the result, that the Village of Hochelaga,
with all the women and children, was destroyed, and the Hurons, who
were probably beaten, left the St. Lawrence and eventually found a new
home on Lake Huron."--See Horatio Hale's "Fall of Hochelaga" in Journal
of American Folklore, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1894.
If Cartier was the discoverer of "Hochelaga," the Island of Montreal,
it is to Champlain's honour that he was the first trader and the first
designator of the site of the present City of Montreal. He was the
first city planner in that he saw the possibilities of Montreal as a
trading port, having all the attractions for a future settlement. It
had a beautiful mountain with gentle slopes to the river at its base,
and a natural harbour; it was the natural rendezvous of all the tribes
bordering on the river beyond the _saults_, the last of which is that
now known as the Lachine Rapids; it was the port for the fur trade
of the hinterland beyond. Both Cartier and Champlain also noted the
wonderful fertility of its soil and the beauty of its surroundings. As
then, so today, Montreal's position, placed at the head of Atlantic
navigation, the natural headquarters of the Gulf trade, that of the
St. Lawrence and of the Great Lakes, centre of attraction and terminus
of all the great railroads of the West and from the United States,
secures it an undoubted future as a great commercial centre. It is to
Champlain's credit that in his own day he realized the geographical
value of Montreal as a trading centre, indicated by the natural laws
for shipment and transportation, albeit he contemplated it only with
the limited vision of a fur trader whose clients were the savages from
the back country and their freight vessels, canoes laden with peltry.
He looked ahead.
[Illustration: The first trader at Montreal]
In July, 1603, Champlain reached the rapids of the sault above
Montreal. Champlain says that it used to be called Hochelaga but now
the Sault. When he reached it there was nothing of the old villages
left. Luckily Champlain was a cartographer and historian, and we have
the account of visits to Montreal which we now reproduce; but it must
be remembered that he always speaks of the site as "the Sault," "the
grand Sault," or "the Sault St. Louis."
The first quotations shall be from the account of his voyage in 1603.
This was published in 1604 in Paris under the title, "_Des Sauvages,
ou Voyage de Sammuel Champlain de Brouage faict en la France Nouvelle,
l'an mil six cens trois_." This was made into English and published in
"Purchas', His Pilgrimes," London, 1625.
"At length we came this very day to the entrance of the Sault or Fall
of the Great River of Canada with favourable wind; and we met with an
Ile, which is almost in the middest of the said entrance, which is a
quarter of a league long, and passed on the South side of the said Ile,
where there was not past three, four or five feet water, and sometimes
a fathome or two, and straight on the sudden we found again not past
three or foure foot. There are many Rockes and small islands, whereon
there is no wood, and they are even with the water. From the beginning
of the aforesaid Ile, which is in the middest of the entrance the
water beginneth to run with a great force. Although we had the wind
very good, yet we could not with all our might make any great way;
neuerthelesse wee passed the said Ile which is at the entrance of the
Sault or Fall. When wee perceived that we could go no further, we came
to an anchor on the North Shoare ouer against a small Iland, which
aboundeth for the most part with those kinds of fruits which I have
spoken of before. Without all delay we made ready our Skiffe which wee
had made of purpose to pass the said Sault: whereinto the said Monsieur
du Pont and my selfe entered with certaine Sauages, which we had
brought with vs to show vs the way. Departing from our Pinnace, we were
scarce gone three hundred paces, but we were forced to come out, and
caused certain mariners to free our Skiffe. The canoa of the Sauages
passed easily. Wee met with an infinite number of small Rockes, which
were euen with the water, on which we touched often times. There be
two great Ilands one on the North Side which containeth some fifteene
leagues in length, and almost as much in breadth, beginning some twelve
leagues vp within the River of Canada, going towards the River of the
Irocois and endeth beyond the Sault. The Iland which is on the South
Side is some four leagues long and some halfe league broad. There is
also another island which is neare to that on the North Side which may
bee some halfe a league long, and some quarter broad; and another small
iland which is between that on the North Side, and another nearer to
the South Shoare, whereby we passed the entrance of the Sault. This
entrance being passed, there is a kind of Lake, wherein all these
Ilands are, some five leagues long and almost as broad, wherein are
many small Ilands which are Rockes. There is a Mountaine neere the said
Sault which discovereth farre into the Countrie and a Little River
which falleth from the said Mountaine into the Lake. On the South
Side there are some three or foure Mountaines which seem to be about
fifteen or sixteen leagues within the Land. There are also two Rivers;
one which goeth to the first Lake of the River of the Irocois by which
sometimes the Algoumequins invade them: and another which is neer unto
the Sault, which runneth not farre into the countrey."
On this voyage he describes the Sault. Since he is later, in 1611, to
shoot it, we may record his impression of it in 1603. "At our coming
neere to the said Sault with our Skiffe and Canoa, I assure you, I
neuer saw any stream of water to fall down with such force as this
doth; although it be not very high, being not in some places past one
or two fathoms, and at the most three. It falleth as it were steppe by
steppe: and in euery place where it hath some small height, it maketh a
strong boyling with the force and strength of the running of the water.
In the breadth of the said Sault, which may containe some league, there
are many broad Rockes, and almost in the middest, there are very narrow
and long Ilands, where there is a fall as well on the side of the said
Iles which are toward the South, as on the North Side: where it is so
dangerous that it is not possible for any man to pass with any boat how
small so-euer it be."
In his voyage in 1603 he makes mention of an island of a quarter of a
league in length and of another on the north about fifteen leagues long
which overlooked the lands for a long distance. He does not mention
the name of either, but the former was St. Paul's island or Nuns'
island and the latter Hochelaga. Up to Champlain no one has recorded or
noticed that Montreal was an island.
As early as 1610 Lescarbot had remarked that of all the islands in
the River St. Lawrence, the most suitable for commerce was without
contradiction that of Montreal. ("La Conversion des Sauvages Baptisés
en Canada.")
Champlain certainly looked upon the locality of the Sault as a suitable
place for a permanent establishment, when he commenced operations at
Place Royale. He continued in this belief.
"My Savage Arontal," he says in his "Voyages of 1615-1616," published
in 1627, "being at Quebec that to attract his people to us we should
make a habitation at the Sault, which would give them the surety of
the passage of the river and would protect them against their enemies
and that as soon as we should have built a house, they would come in
numbers to live with us as brothers, a thing which I promised them and
answered them I would do as soon as possible."
There is reason to believe that the spot he had in mind to do this is
the island which he had noted in his voyage of 1603, but to which he
later gave the name of St. Helen.[23] This is most probable in view of
his late marriage five months before with Hélène Boullé, for it could
not have been given, as other names in the river had been, owing to
the coincidence of a church feast day with the day of discovery, for
Champlain arrived at Place Royale on the 28th of May and the feast of
St. Helen fell on the 18th of August following, when he was in France.
We know that Champlain had gone to the "Sault" in 1603, but he makes no
mention of the site of Montreal in his account. However, with regard to
the year of 1611, he gives us many interesting details.
From these excerpts from the account of 1603 we may, therefore, sum up
the following conclusions: (1) that (according to Laverdière) the place
where Champlain "came to an anchor on the North Shoare over against one
small island," was the little island formerly existing opposite the
Place Royale (which was not, however, named till 1611) and now joined
to the main land by the present harbour piers; (2) that incidentally
he thus indicates the site of the present harbour of Montreal; that
Champlain was the first to note that Montreal, or Hochelaga, was an
island, this being deduced from his description of the great island
(not named by him) "on the north side which continueth some fifteen
leagues in length and almost as much in breadth," etc; (3) that the
"mountain neere the said Sault which discovereth farre into the
country" is the same as that named by Jacques Cartier as Mount Royal
while "the Little River which falleth from the said mountain into the
lake" is the Rivière des Prairies; (4) that while he gives no names
beyond that of Sault yet he has left us a very clear indication that he
was familiar with the site of the present Island of Montreal. From the
above quotations there is no explicit mention of the suitability of the
Island of Montreal as a future trading post, yet there is little doubt
but that Champlain had it in his mind as such when the occasion should
serve.
[Illustration: FIGURATIVE MAP
Sketch of Sault St. Louis (Kahnawake) and part of the south shore of
the Island of Montreal made by Champlain in 1611
(See opposite page for explanation)]
EXPLANATION OF MAP ON OPPOSITE PAGE
A--Piece of land which I ordered to be cleared.
B--Small pond.
C--Small island where I had a stone wall erected.
D--Small stream where barques are lying.
E--Prairies where Indians encamp when coming to this country.
F--Mountains seen at a distance.
G--Small pond.
H--Mount Royal.
I--Small stream.
L--The "Saut."
M--Place where the Indians from the north begin their "portage."
N--Place where one of our men and an Indian were drowned.
O--Small, rocky island.
P--Other small island where birds build their nests.
Q--"Heron" Island.
R--Other islands of the "Saut."
S--Small island.
T--Round Islet.
V--Other islet, half of which is covered with water.
W--Other islet where water fowls are found.
Y--Prairies.
Z--Small river.
2--Rather fine and large island.
3--Places which appear bare at low water and where the current is
very strong.
4--Prairies covered with water (swamps).
5--Rather low and marshy land.
6--Other small island.
7--Small rocks.
S--Helen's Island.
9--Small island barren of trees.
10--Marshes in the "Grand Saut."
Their adventurers afterward went up to the Sault which became the goal
of many of the "free" traders and prospectors who coursed the St.
Lawrence during the period, already described, of the temporary removal
of the prohibition against private traders. Certain it is that as early
as 1610 Lescarbot had remarked that of all the islands in the river St.
Lawrence the most suitable for commerce was without contradiction that
of Montreal. (Cf. "La Conversion des Sauvages Baptisés En Canada.") But
it was reserved for Champlain in 1611 to put this notion into effect
and to become the pioneer trader and the first harbour builder of
Montreal. His own narration of the events of 1611 may serve to prove
these claims.
THE CHOICE OF MONTREAL AS A TRADING POST
"In the year 1611, I took back my savage to those of his tribe, who
were to come to Sault St. Louis, intending to get my servant whom they
had as a hostage. I left Quebec, May 20 (21), and arrived at these
great rapids[24] the 28th of the month. I immediately went in a canoe
with the savage which I had taken to France and one of our men. After
having looked on all sides, not only in the woods, but also along the
river bank, to find a suitable place for the site of a settlement, and
to prepare a place in which to build, I went eight leagues by land,
along the rapids through the woods, which are rather open, and as far
as the lake,[25] where our savages took me. There I contemplated the
country very much in detail. But in all that I saw I did not find any
place at all more suitable than a little spot which is just where the
barks and shallops can come easily, either with a strong wind or by
a winding course, because of the strength of the current. Above this
place (which we named La Place Royale), a league from Mount Royal,
there are a great many little rocks and shoals, which are dangerous."
THE SITUATION OF PLACE ROYALE DESCRIBED
"And near this Place Royale there is a little river running back a
goodly way into the interior, all along which there are more than sixty
acres of cleared land, like meadows, where one might sow grain and
make gardens. Formerly savages tilled there. There were also a great
number of other beautiful meadows, to support as many cattle as one
wishes, and all kinds of trees that we have in our forests at home,
with a great many vines, walnuts, plum trees, cherries, strawberries
and other kinds which are very good to eat. Among others there is one
very excellent, which has a sweet taste resembling that of plantains
(which is a fruit of the Indies), and is as white as snow, with a leaf
like that of the nettle, and running on trees or the ground like ivy.
Fishing is very good there, and there are all the kinds that we have
in France, and a great many others that we do not have, which are
very good; as is also game of all kinds; and hunting is good, stags,
hinds, does, caribous, rabbits, lynxes, bears, beavers and other little
animals which so abound that while we were at these rapids we never
were without them."
PLACE ROYALE CLEARED AND A HARBOUR REVETMENT WALL BUILT
"After having made a careful exploration, then, and found this place
one of the most beautiful on this river, I at once had the woods cut
down[26] and cleared from this Place Royale, to make it level and ready
for building. Water can easily be made to flow around it, making a
little island of it, and a settlement can be made there as one may wish.
"There is a little island[27] twenty fathoms from this Place Royale
which is about one hundred paces long, whereon could be put up a good,
well defended set of buildings. There are also a great many meadows
containing good potter's clay, whether for bricks or to build with,
which is a great convenience. I had some of it worked up, and made a
wall of it four feet thick, and from three to four feet high and ten
fathoms long, to see how it would last in the winter when then the
floods came down, which in my opinion, would not rise to this wall
although the land is about twelve feet above that river, which is quite
high."
ST. HELEN'S ISLAND NAMED
"In the middle of the river there is an island about three-quarters
of a league in circumference, where a good and strong town could be
built and I named it Ile de Ste. Hélène.[28] These rapids descend into
a sort of lake where there are two or three islands and some beautiful
meadows."
CHAMPLAIN PLANTS GARDENS
"While waiting for the savages I had two gardens made: one in the
meadows and the other in the woods which I had cleared; and the second
day of June I sowed some seeds in them, which came up in perfect
condition and in a little while, which showed the goodness of the soil.
"I resolved to send Savignon, our savage, with another, to meet those
of his country, in order to make them come quickly; and they hesitated
to go in our canoe which they distrusted, for it was not good for much."
CHAMPLAIN EXPLORES THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
"On the seventh I went to explore a little river[29] by which sometimes
the savages go to war, which leads to the rapids of the river of the
Iroquois.[30] It is very pleasant, with meadows on it, more than three
leagues in circumference, and a great deal of land which could be
tilled. It is one league from the great rapids[31] and a league and a
half from Place Royale.
"On the ninth our savage arrived. He had been a little way beyond the
lake,[32] which is about ten leagues long, that I have seen before.
He did not meet anything there, and could not go any further, because
their canoe gave out and they were obliged to return."
This savage reported the loss of the life of a young man, Louis, who
had lost his life in the rapids. There is a discussion as to whether
Champlain called the rapids the Sault "St. Louis" in commemoration of
this event or in honour of Louis XIII of France, who began reigning
the year previously and from whom Champlain had received a commission
to build storehouses for the fur trade near the rapids. The solution
I leave to the choice of the reader. At this time "Heron" island at
the St. Louis rapids received its name. There seems no doubt that
if Champlain had as thoroughly investigated the possibilities and
advantages of climate, soil and natural position as a trading centre
of Montreal in 1603 as he did in 1611, he would have chosen Montreal,
for the settlement in 1603, instead of Quebec, which was after all de
Monts' choice. In the account of 1603 Champlain had said: "The air is
softer and more temperate than at any other place that I have seen in
this country."
In this same account of 1611 we get a picture of the first trading
reported at Montreal which is worth recording.
THE FIRST TRADING TRANSACTION AT MONTREAL
"On the 13th of this month (June 13, 1611), 200 Huron savages with the
chiefs, Ochateguin, Iroquet, and Tregourote, brothers of our savage,
brought back my lad. We were very glad to see them, and I went to meet
them with a canoe and our savage. Meantime, they advanced quietly in
order, our men preparing to give them a salvo with the arquebuses and
some small pieces. As they were approaching, they began to shout all
together, and one of their chiefs commanded their addresses to be made,
in which they praised us highly, calling us truthful, in that I had
kept my word to them, to come to find them at these rapids. After they
had given three more shouts, a volley of musketry was fired twice,
which astonished them so much that they asked me to tell them that
there should not be any shooting, saying that the greater number of
them never had seen Christians before, nor heard thunderings of that
sort, and that they were afraid of its doing them harm.... After a good
deal of discourse they made me a present of 100 beavers. I gave them in
exchange some other kinds of merchandise."
CHAMPLAIN THE FIRST WHITE MAN TO SHOOT THE RAPIDS
These Indians camped about with Champlain for some days till they
returned to their own part of the rapids, "some leagues into the
woods." Champlain accompanied them. He now tells of his historic
shooting the rapids which we may place as happening on the 17th of
June, 1611.
"When I had finished with them I begged them to take me back in our
despatch boat. To do this they prepared eight canoes to run the rapids,
and stripped themselves naked, and made me take off everything but my
shirt; for often it happens that some are lost in shooting the rapids;
therefore they keep close to one another, to aid one another promptly
if a canoe should happen to capsize. They said to me, 'If by chance
yours should happen to turn over, as you do not know how to swim, on no
account abandon it, but hold on to the little sticks that are in the
middle, for we will save you easily.' I assure you that those who have
not seen or passed this place in these little boats that they have,
could not pass it without great fear, even the most self-possessed
persons in the world. But these people are so skillful in shooting
these rapids that it is easy for them. I did it with them--a thing that
I never had done, nor had any Christian, except my youth--and we came
to our barks where I lodged a large number of them."
The next day, the 18th of June, the party broke up; Champlain set out
for Quebec, which he says he reached on the 19th, shortly to leave for
France. He describes the parting at Montreal thus: "After they had
traded the little that they had, they separated into three groups--one
to go to war, one to go up the rapids--they set out on the 18th day of
this month, and we also."
The quotations I have chosen cover nearly four weeks of Champlain's
dwelling at his new post. I have let him speak himself. The picture
he draws enables us to construct in our imagination the picturesque
situation of our city at this time.
GRAND SAULT, 1613
In 1613 Champlain tells us in his journal published in 1632, that
having left Quebec on March 13th he arrived at the Sault on the 21st.
He does not mention stopping at his trading post at Place Royale; he
must have visited it and done some trading and put his boats up; but
he set out on May 27th in his canoes "from the Isle of St. Hélène" with
four Frenchmen and a savage. His object was at present to discover
the Mer du Nord, lately discovered by Hudson and of which a map had
appeared in Paris in 1612. One of the four Frenchmen with him in
his canoes was named Nicholas de Vignau. This man had been sent in
preceding years to make discoveries for Champlain and in 1612, while
in Paris, this man reported to Champlain that he had seen this same
"Mer du Nord." Champlain consequently took him with him to lead the
way, with the result that can be judged from his own description of de
Vignau, as "the boldest liar that had been seen for a long time." It
was on this fruitless exploration that on the Portage route by way of
Muskrat and Mudlakes, Champlain lost his astrolabe, the instrument then
used for astronomical observation. Near this place he ceases giving
the correct latitudes as he had been doing. Two hundred and fifty-four
years later, a farmer on an August day unearthed an old brass astrolabe
of Paris make, dated 1603. We may safely conclude it was Champlain's.
On the voyage up the Ottawa he described the visit to Allumette Island,
45° 47'. "After having observed the poorness of the soil, I asked them
how they enjoyed cultivating so poor a country, in view of the fact
that there was some much better, than that they left deserted and
abandoned at the Rapids of St. Louis. They answered me that they were
obliged to do so to keep themselves secure and that the roughness of
the place served them as a bulwark against their enemies. But they said
that if I would make a settlement a Frenchman at the Rapids of St.
Louis, as I had promised to do, they would leave their dwelling place
to come and settle near us, being assured that their enemies would not
do them harm while we were with them. I told them that this year we
should make preparations with wood and stones to make a fort next year
and cultivate the land. When they heard this they gave a great shout,
as a sign of applause. After this the conference finished."
After having explored the Ottawa River they returned from the fruitless
search for the Northern sea on June 17th and continued their course
till "we reached the barks and were saluted by some discharges of
canon, at which some of the savages were delighted and others very
much astonished, never having heard such music. Having landed, Sieur
de Maisonneuve[33] de Saint Malo came to me with the passport for
three vessels from Monseigneur the Prince. As soon as I had seen it, I
let him and his men enjoy the benefit of it, like ourselves, and had
the savages told that they might trade the next day." The place of
the barks would, undoubtedly, be the little harbour at Place Royale
described in the account of 1611, and near his trading fort.
After having made de Vignau confess himself of his lie, "as the savages
would not have him, no matter how much I begged them, we left him to
the protection of God." Champlain then left for Tadoussac, at which he
arrived on July 6th, whence he shortly sailed to France.
[Illustration: MODERN TADOUSSAC]
On this journey in France, Champlain set about to secure clergy and
through the intervention of Sieur Hoüel, secretary of the king, he got
the Recollect Fathers whom he said "would be the right ones there, both
for residence at our settlement and for the conversion of the infidels.
I agreed with this opinion, as they are without ambition and live
altogether in conformity to the rule of St. Francis."
On April 24, 1615, Champlain left Honfleur with four Franciscan
Recollects Denis Jamay, Jean d'Olbeau, Joseph le Caron and the lay
brother, Pacifique du Plessis, reaching Tadoussac on May 25th. The
Recollects he left at Quebec whence he hastened to the Sault, soon to
be followed by Father Jean le Caron. The importance that Champlain
gives to his trading post at the rapids to which he hurried will be
seen from the following quotation. On arriving at Tadoussac, "we began
to set men to work to fit up our barks, in order to go to Quebec,
the place of our settlement, and to the great Rapids of St. Louis,
the great gathering place of the savages who come there to trade.
Immediately upon my arrival at the rapids I visited these people who
were very anxious to see us and delighted at our return, from their
hopes that we would give them some of our number to help them in
their wars against their enemies. They explained that it would be
hard for them to come to us if we did not assist them, because the
Iroquois, their old enemies, were always along the trail and kept the
passage closed to them. Besides I had always promised to aid them in
their wars, as they gave us to understand through their interpreter.
Whereupon I perceived that it was very necessary to assist them,
not only to make them love us more, but also to pave the way for my
undertakings and discoveries, which to all appearance could not be
accomplished except by their help; and also because this would be to
them a sort of first step and preparation to coming into Christianity;
and to secure this I decided to go thither and explore their country
and aid them in their wars, in order to oblige them to show me what
they had so many times promised to.
"I had them all gather to tell them my intention, upon hearing which
they promised to furnish us 2,500 men of war, who would do wonders,
while I on my part, was to bring, for the same purpose as many men as
I could; which I promised them, being very glad to see them come to
so wise a decision. Then I began to explain to them the methods to
follow in fighting in which they took a singular pleasure. When all the
matters were decided upon, we separated with the intention of returning
to carry out our undertaking."
This alliance which Champlain then made against the Iroquois will help
to explain the prolonged animosity of these against the Hurons, and
later their allies, the settlers of Ville Marie, under Maisonneuve.
But, as yet Champlain's fort was only a summer trading post, and such
it remained till 1642. He had it in his mind to make it a regular
settlement, and it would seem likely to become so.
On the occasion of the above gathering mass was said by the Recollects
for the first time in Canada, at least since the time of Cartier.
We may briefly narrate the events leading up to this. Owing to the
trading monopolies being granted on condition that the conversion of
the savages to the Catholic faith should be attempted and owing to
the discontentment existing at the continued unfulfillment of this
condition, de Monts and other merchants found that they would have to
take means to comply with it or lose their monopoly.
The merchants were keener on the peltry trade than on the civilization
of the country. They did not welcome colonists from France nor did they
desire the Indians to settle down in their neighbourhood. They wanted
them to get busy to bring in their furs. They were there for business
solely, although their charter said otherwise.
So it was, with bad grace, they had to yield. Champlain must,
however, be disassociated from this opposition. For he had willingly
undertaken the negotiations to obtain the Recollect Fathers through the
intermediary of the pious Sieur de Hoüel, the controller general of the
salt mines of Brouage, one of the few members of the de Monts company
that was not a Huguenot; accordingly after some negotiations during
the winter of 1614 and 1615, the four Franciscan Recollects mentioned,
three priests, Denis Jamay, superior, Jean d'Olbeau, Joseph le Caron,
and Brother Pacifique du Plessis embarked with Champlain at Honfleur
on April 24, 1615, on the St. Etienne, one of the company's ships
commanded by Dupont Gravé. They arrived at Tadoussac in a month.
On their arrival in Quebec in the beginning of June three of them
stayed to lay out their dwelling and build their chapel, but Father
Joseph le Caron, a very eager and apostolic man, went straight off to
the Indians at the Sault. Becoming quickly acquainted with the mode
of life of the natives there and desirous of their conversion to the
knowledge of Jesus Christ, he determined to spend the winter with
them. "In Canada and its Provinces," Father Lewis Drummond says that
on his journey down, le Caron met Champlain and Father Denis Jamay at
Rivière des Prairies. They tried to persuade him not to winter with the
Indians. But he hastened to Quebec, reaching it on June 20, and on his
return to Rivière des Prairies met Champlain and Father Jamay there,
and mass was celebrated. His object in hurrying back to Quebec was to
obtain the necessary altar equipment and other missionary necessaries.
On arriving at the Isle of Montreal he met Champlain and his canoes at
the entrance of the Rivière des Prairies. These no doubt were preparing
for the exploration of the Ottawa.
There on June 24, 1615, the feast of St. Jean Baptiste, afterwards
taken for the patronal feast of Canada, Fathers Denis and Joseph sang
mass at their portable altar on the banks of the Rivière des Prairies.
"With all devotion," Champlain chronicles, "before these peoples who
were in admiration at the ceremonies and at the vestments which seemed
to them so beautiful as being something they had never seen before;
for these religious are the first who had celebrated the holy mass
there."[34] (This solemn occasion was followed by the chanting of
the Te Deum to the accompaniment of a fusillade of small artillery
with all the pomp that circumstances permitted.) Father Denis Jamay
went back to Quebec to minister to the French Catholics and to form
a sedentary mission for the natives; while there also he could excur
to Threvers as a mission post. He was helped by Brother Pacifique
du Plessis. Jean le Caron now joined a band of Hurons and passed the
winter with them in one of their stockades called Carhagouaha defended
by a triple palisade of wood to the height of thirty feet. Father Jean
d'Olbeau departed for Quebec, on December 2d, to share the fortunes of
the Montagnais below Tadoussac.
[Illustration: THE FIRST MASS IN CANADA AT RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES, JUNE
24, 1615
(After George Delfosse)]
While treating of the early history of the Recollects we may now
anticipate by a few years a circumstance of tragic importance. In the
year 1625 there occurred at the Sault-au-Récollet an event which has
given it its name. This year, the Recollect father, Nicholas Viel,
had gone two years before with Fathers Joseph le Caron and Gabriel
Sagard, to the country of the Hurons. They were now invited by the
Hurons to descend the river to trade with the settlement at Quebec.
Father Viel had accepted the invitation because he wished to make his
annual spiritual retreat at the Convent of Notre Dame des Anges and
he took with him one of his Indian neophytes, whom he had instructed
and baptized, a young boy named Ahuntsic. Among the convoy, in the
same canoe, were some Indians who were secretly ill disposed to the
missionary and when they found themselves separated from the other
canoes by bad weather on the river, they fell upon Father Viel and
Ahuntsic in the last sault near to Montreal and the swift flowing
rapids soon submerged them in their deep waters. The spots of Ahuntsic
and Sault-au-Récollet commemorate this event although the disaster
occurred at the latter place as said.
[Illustration: THE MARTYRDOM OF THE RECOLLET VIEL AND THE NEOPHYTE
AHUNTSIC AT SAULT-AU-RECOLLET. (After George Delfosse)]
Later in the summer of 1615 Champlain redeemed his pledge to explore
the Indian country. On the 9th of July, 1615, Champlain left the fort
with two men, one of whom was his servant, and another an interpreter,
and ten savages to manage the two canoes on a voyage of exploration.
Father le Caron had already gone ahead. Champlain's expedition with
the allied tribes into the country of the Iroquois was one of the most
important undertakings of his life--both on account of the length of
the journey and the knowledge he obtained of the lake region. He lost
prestige by this journey, however, both with the Indians and his French
Canadians. It is not to our purpose to follow him on this voyage but we
cannot refrain from mentioning the Huron village of Carhagouaha which
lay between Nottawasaga Bay and Lake Simcoe. It was to this village
that Father le Caron bent his steps, and where Champlain joined him
on August 12th. The triple palisades, long houses, containing several
households and other distinctive features of the village of Hochelaga
discovered by Cartier, were there reproduced. He returned to the post
at the end of June, 1616, and there he found Sieur du Pont. "We also
saw," he says, "all the holy Fathers (Father Jamay and Brother du
Plessis) who had remained at our settlement and they were very glad
to see us and we to see them." Thus the Recollect fathers having left
"our" settlement at Quebec had come up to Montreal as we may call the
post at the Rapids. From their arrival dates the ecclesiastical life of
our city and the introduction of Christianity. Champlain left the Sault
on the 8th day of July, 1616, reaching Quebec on July 11. Shortly, on
August 3d, he sailed to France.
Champlain was a good advertising agent, as the following shows: "During
my sojourn at the settlement I had some of the common corn cut--that
is, the French corn that had been planted there--which was very
beautiful, in order to carry some to France, to show that this soil
is very good and fertile. There was also some very fine Indian corn
and some grafts and trees that we had brought thither." This contrasts
favourably with the gloomy report given to France by Jacques Cartier of
the Canadian climate, which doubtless influenced the delay of organized
colonization. It is evident that Champlain was still thinking of making
Montreal a permanent settlement. From the memoirs of 1615-16 we learn
that Champlain before leaving for France took with him to Quebec an
Indian, Daronthal or Aronthal, whom he called his host. This man,
after admiring the buildings and the civilization of the settlement
of Quebec, and being desirous that his people should become better
acquainted with the religion of the Christians "in order to learn to
serve God and to understand our way of living," suggested that they
should be attracted to live with the settlers.
"He suggested," says Champlain, "that for the advancement of this work,
we should make another settlement at the St. Louis rapids, so as to
give them a safe passage of the river, for fear of their enemies; and
said that once they would come in great numbers to us to live there
like brothers. I promised to do this as soon as I could." Daronthal was
sent back with this promise to his companions at St. Louis rapids, but
it was reserved for Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, twenty-six
years later to carry it out.
FOOTNOTES:
[23] Through the intervention of and in the presence of Pierre du Gas,
Sieur de Monts, as the matrimonial contract dated Paris, December
27, 1610, states, Champlain had contracted to marry after two years
Hélène de Boullé, a young girl not yet in her twelfth year and not
yet marriageable, the daughter of Nicolas Boullé, secretary of the
King's Chamber, a Huguenot like his friend de Monts. In this contract
Champlain made her heiress of all the property that he might be able to
leave, and her parents consented to give him before the marriage 6,000
_livres_.
On the 29th of December, in the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois,
Champlain was handed over four thousand five hundred of the promised
_livres_. On the next day the marriage took place. Hélène Boullé became
a Catholic after two years. Shortly after the marriage Champlain left
for New France, leaving his wife behind. We find him at the Grand Sault
on May 28, 1611.
[24] The Lachine Rapids.
[25] Lake of Two Mountains.
[26] Dollier de Casson says in his "Historic de Montréal" that
Champlain cut down many trees for firewood and also to guarantee
himself against ambuscades.
[27] Ile Normandin.
[28] Registers of Notre Dame record that, on the 19th of August, 1664,
two young men, Pierre Magnan and Jacques Dufresne, were slain here by
Iroquois.
It was used sometimes by the French as a military station; for in June,
1687, the Chevalier de Vaudreuil posted both the regular troops and the
militia there in readiness to march against the Iroquois. Thither it is
alleged the Marquis de Lévis, commanding the last French army in 1760,
withdrew, and here burnt his flags in the presence of his army the
night previous to surrendering the colony to the English. Louis Honoré
Frechette, the national French-Canadian poet, bases upon this his poem,
entitled "All Lost but Honour."
In 1688 the island was acquired by Charles Le Moyne, Sieur de
Longueuil, who gave the name of Ste. Hélène to one of his most
distinguished sons. During the eighteenth century (from before 1723),
his descendants, the Barons of Longueuil, whose territory lay just
opposite, had a residence here, the ruins of which, once surrounded
with gardens, are to be seen upon it on the east side. The Government
acquired it from them by arrangement during the War of 1812, and later
by purchase in 1818, for military purposes. It ceded the park portion
to the city in 1874.
Almost adjoining it, at the lower extremity, is Ile Ronde, a small low
island.
Both islands are interesting geologically from the occurrence there of
a remarkable breccia containing inclusions of Devonian Limestone, and
also from the existence of some rare types of dyke rock.
[29] The St. Lambert River.
[30] The Richelieu.
[31] Sault St. Louis Rapids, now known as the Lachine Rapids.
[32] The Lake of Two Mountains.
[33] Who is this Maisonneuve appearing as a privileged trader with
the passport of the prince, doubtless the Prince de Condé, Henri de
Bourbon, viceroy of Canada and head of Champlain's company? Evidently
he was a person of some consequence from the ease with which Champlain
granted him permission to trade at his settlement. Can it be, as
Kingsford and others ingeniously try to prove, Paul Chomedey de
Maisonneuve, who was later to found Montreal as a settlement in 1642,
acting for "La Compagnie de Montreal?" (1) No. Chomedey was from Paris;
the de Maisonneuve mentioned above is from St. Malo. (2) de Maisonneuve
was a common enough name. There were even several of that name in
Montreal in 1667.
[34] Mass was only said at Quebec for the first time on June 25, 1615,
by which time they had built their chapel. The priority of the Island
of Montreal in its claim to the first mass is substantiated by the
"_Mémoires des Recollects_" of 1637 which distinctly say that "the
first mass was celebrated at Rivière des Prairies and the second at
Quebec."