FOOTNOTES:
[55] The position now can be located as at the east corner of St. Sulpice (originally St. Joseph) Street and St. Paul Street.
[56] There are still preserved in the present Hôtel-Dieu some jars and other articles of the original dispensary, as well as Mademoiselle Bullion's gifts of furniture.
[57] The dog Pilot has been immortalized in Hébert's de Maisonneuve monument in Place d'Armes, Montreal.
[58] The parish register of March 30, 1644, records that the French lost in this encounter J. Matenac and P. Bizot, besides Guillaume Lebeau, mortally wounded.
[59] At this time in the Huron country and its neighbourhood there were eighteen Jesuit priests, four lay brothers, twenty-three men serving without pay, seven hired men and eight soldiers.
[60] Names of Associates signing: Jean Jacques Olier, priest, curé of the Church of St. Sulpice; Alexandre de Rageois de Bretonvilliers; Nicholas Barreau, priest; Roger Duplessis, Seigneur de Liancourt; Henri Louis Hubert, Seigneur de Montmart, king's councillor and master of requests; Bertrand Drouart, Esquire; and Louis Séguier, Seigneur de St. Germain, who all occupied the Isle of Montreal as well for themselves as for MM. d'Ailleboust and Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve.
[61] The first concession and notarial act known, signed by Jean St. Père, dates from this year, as also does the first of the acts of the government of M. de Maisonneuve. (See Hist. Soc. Records.)
[62] Among others Pierre Gadbois, Lucien Richomme, Blaise Juillet, Léonard Lucault dit Barbier, François Godé and Godefroy de Normanville. From 1650 to 1672 ninety-four houses were built.
[63] The name of "Common" Street records the locality of this "common."
[64] At the present Windmill Point.
[65] The Jesuits, Jean de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant, nephew of Father Charles Lalemant, S. J., were killed by the Iroquois at St. Louis on the 16th and 17th of March, 1649.
[66] "Relations," 1651.
[67] Lambert Closse came in 1648. He was second in command of the garrison. He was of noble family. Contemporary writers call him indifferently sergeant-major of the garrison, major of the garrison, major of this place, or "of the fort" or "of the town" or "of Montreal." He also acted as notary.
[68] Montreal fared ill, whereas the salary of the governor of Quebec was raised 2,000 livres and that of Three Rivers reached 5,200 and 50 horses, the 3,000 livres granted to the governor of Montreal had been increased to 4,000. This news had been brought to Montreal by Louis d'Ailleboust. It was now reduced again to 3,000.
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.
M. de Maisonneuve was absent for nearly three years and during that time Montreal was in a critical position. The inhabitants were cooped up within the fortress or in the Hôtel-Dieu for fear of the Iroquois. The danger of going out of these limits was only too clearly seen when the cattle guardian, Antoine Roos, was slain at his work on the common in front, on May 26th.
Anxiety was felt as to M. de Maisonneuve's success in Paris. News was accordingly eagerly awaited. Thus it was that in June Jeanne Mance went to Three Rivers under the escort of Major Closse and proceeded on the way to Quebec under that of M. Duplessis Kerbodot, the governor of Three Rivers. On arriving there she had almost dared to hope to hear that M. de Maisonneuve had already arrived, but instead a long letter awaited her. In this, the governor related his visit to Madame de Bullion, telling how he had approached Madame adroitly, without discovering to her his knowledge of her benefactions as the founder of the Hôtel-Dieu. Not only did this lady not take any steps to show her disapproval of Mademoiselle Mance's action in making the exchange of the hospital revenue, but she gave in addition 20,000 livres more as an anonymous gift, placing it in the hands of the president of the Company of Montreal, M. de Lamoignon, for the purpose of raising a convoy for Montreal under M. de Maisonneuve. Thus, in all, this good lady had contributed 42,000 towards the 75,000 livres for the new expedition of 115 men provided by the Company. The letter then informed Mademoiselle Mance that he would return the next year; meanwhile the preparations would be hastened.
With this good news Jeanne Mance returned as soon as possible to Montreal. New hope was thus infused into the settlement. On July 29th, however, the state of hostilities is again revealed to us by the record of the brave exploit of Martine Messier, the wife of Antoine Primot.
Three Iroquois, who had hidden themselves in the wheat at a distance of two musket shots from the fort, fell upon her unexpectedly. She defended herself like a lioness, fighting with her hands and feet. To quell her loud cries for help they gave her three or four stunning blows with their axes. Thinking her dead, as she sank to the ground, one of them threw himself over the prostrate body to take her scalp as his trophy, when suddenly our Amazon, coming to herself, raised herself, more furious than ever, seized him with such violence "par un endroit que la pudeur nous défend de nommer," that he could not free himself, although he did not cease striking her with the head of the axe. But she held on tightly, until at last she fell to the ground exhausted, thus affording her assailant what he most wanted at that moment, an opportunity to escape from the relief party now running from all parts of the fort to her rescue.
On reaching the spot where the poor woman lay bathed in her blood, one of the men assisting her to rise, moved by a natural sentiment of friendship and compassion, embraced her. But this seems to have made her confused, for she administered a sound slap in the face of this affectionate sympathizer, to the great surprise of the bystanders, who exclaimed: "What are you doing? This man was only showing his sympathy to you, without any thought of ill. Why do you strike him?"
"Par menda!" she exclaimed in her patois. "I thought he wanted to kiss me!"
Madame Primot did not die, but she was long afterwards known as "Parmenda," whose valour and modesty were lovingly held in tradition, as typical of the noble women of these early pioneering days, in which virtue and courage flourished side by side.
"PARMENDA"
(By Philippe Hébert.)
The severe treatment received at Montreal turned the Iroquois to Three Rivers, and in a skirmish on August 19th they killed the governor, M. Duplessis Kerbodot.
In October, however, Montreal was the scene of fresh fighting. Dollier de Casson has rescued the story of this from oblivion, from so many others not recorded.
On the 19th of this month, the barking of the dogs indicated the direction of an Iroquois ambuscade. The brave town major, Lambert Closse, ever ready to fly to the post of peril, started out at once with twenty-four armed men to reconnoitre the situation. But though brave, he was prudent; he therefore sent three of his soldiers ahead. La Lochetière, [69] Baston (or Bastoin) and another, ordering them to proceed within gunshot no further than a certain position marked out by him. La Lochetière, however, in his eagerness pushed a little ahead of his companions, and the more easily to discover the whereabouts of the enemy, he climbed a tree, intending to discover from this lookout if the enemy were hiding in a thicket.
But, without him knowing it, there was an ambush of them at the foot of the tree, and as soon as he had climbed it they raised their usual war cry, and were about to fire on him. No less alert than brave, La Lochetière seized his musket, fired straight at one of them, who was aiming at himself, killing his man, but paying the penalty of death at the same instant from his victim's gun. The other two scouts also received a volley, from which they were lucky to escape.
Major Chase quickly put his men in order, but, finding his party surrounded, he directed them to make a rush to a wretched shack near at hand, belonging to an old settler, M. Prud'homme, who had eagerly invited them to enter as quickly as possible, for the enemy were surrounding it. This done, the party made loopholes in the walls for their guns and prepared to open a brisk fire on the besiegers—all except one coward, who, falling flat on the ground, could not be induced by threats or blows to rise. But the Iroquois were now firing at close quarters all around the house and their balls riddled the scanty walls so that one of them struck Laviolette, one of the fighters of the fort, completely disabling him. The loopholes now being ready, the French party answered the Iroquois with such effect that after the first rounds the ground was strewn with the dusky bodies of the slain. The hurly-burly went on, the Iroquois fighting while they attempted to carry away their wounded and dead, until, fearing a dearth of ammunition, Major Closse was only too glad to accept the offer of Baston, whose prowess as a runner was well known, to make a dash to the fort and bring back a reinforcement of men.
Accordingly, under cover of the fire of the defenders of the house, the door was opened and Baston, speeding forth, escaped while the Iroquois were recovering from this last fusillade.
Soon he returned with eight or ten men, all that could be spared, and two pieces of cannon charged with canister shot. Between the scene of battle and the fort there was a screen of trees under cover of which the reinforcement made its way and thus escaped the attention of the savages till it suddenly appeared in view on this side of the screen and commenced firing on the Iroquois. Major Closse's party now went into the open to join fire also and a brisk and hot interchange took place. But the enemy were being overmastered and made their best to retreat, carrying with them their dead as far as possible, according to their custom. Dollier de Casson does not give the number of the enemy slain. "Usually," he says, "they decimated their losses, but, speaking of this occasion, they owned that 'we all died there.'"
M. de Belmont in his history states that more than fifty of the Iroquois were wounded and twenty killed. On the French side the only one killed was La Lochetière, and one wounded, Laviolette.
This was only one of the brave actions which surrounded the fame of the warlike Lambert Closse as revealed in the early chronicles.
LAMBERT CLOSSE
(By Philippe Hébert)
Thus the fort of Montreal was the scene of many such conflicts, unassisted by the "camp volant," which de Lauson had suppressed in 1652. Père Mercier, in his "Relations of the Year 1653," writes: "There has passed no month of the year in which the Iroquois have not stealthily visited Ville Marie, attempting to surprise it. But they have had no great success. The settlers have assisted one another with so much determination and courage that as soon as a gunshot is heard in any direction, they run thither quickly, without any dread of the dangers besetting them."
At Quebec, it was announced that Montreal had been blotted out. In the spring of 1653 the governor of Quebec, anxious for news of this advanced post, had sent a barque thither, giving the commander instructions that he should not approach the fort, unless he had proof certain that the French were there, adding that if he did not see any, he was to come back to Quebec, for fear that the Iroquois, having captured Ville Marie, might be lying in ambush to capture them also. The barque advanced near the fort in a dense fog, and anchored. But seeing no one and hearing no signal, they obeyed their instructions literally enough, and went back to Quebec with the dire tale of the destruction of the French colonists. The wiseacres no doubt said that the inevitable had occurred at last.
Meanwhile in the fort, the keen-eyed had seen the vague outline of a vessel, but others said it was a phantom of the imagination, and when later the mist rolled away and they saw no ship, these were satisfied with their diagnosis until news came later from Quebec that it was a veritable vessel after all.
In this abandoned state, we are told by the chroniclers how the Montrealers, under the direction of the Jesuits of the fort, earnestly prayed for peace.
As if in answer to their petition, on June 26, 1653, an embassy of sixty Iroquois of the nation of the Onondagas (Onontaquis) appeared at the fort with a proposal of peace. As they came unarmed, they were treated kindly, presents were exchanged, and the day was one of public rejoicing. On returning to their country, passing by the village of the Oneidas (Onneyuts), they exhibited their presents and spoke in high praise of the French of Montreal. "They are devils when attacked," they said, "but most courteous and affable when treated as friends." And they protested that they were about to enter into a firm and solid alliance with them. Touched by these discourses, the Oneida Iroquois (Onneyuts) would also enter into an alliance with Montreal, and they sent an embassy with a great porcelain necklace, asking for peace, which was concluded. But there were three others of the Five Nations who had not made peace, for though they were allied amongst themselves they reserved their independence. These were the Mohawks (Agniers), the Senecas (the Tsonnoutouans), and the Cayugas (Gogogouins).
Three weeks after this, 600 Mohawks marched on Montreal. We have no records of this attack, but they retired to Three Rivers to seize the port there. Quebec now also trembled for itself, and it was at this time that de Lauson reestablished the "camp volant." In September of this year peace was again concluded, for a time, between the French and the Iroquois. As Montreal had a large share in bringing this about we must relate the following circumstances leading to it.
At the time of the descent, of the Iroquois above mentioned, on Montreal, there was present in the fort a band of Hurons, and among them one, the bravest of all, named Anontaha. On one occasion these Hurons had discovered the tracks of a party of lurking Iroquois meditating mischief for Montreal. They combined with the French and on August 25th they surrounded the Iroquois, and after a sharp struggle beat them off, leading four or five Iroquois chiefs, or men of importance, to the fort. These captives told of the projected raids of extermination on Three Rivers and Quebec. The acting governor, knowing of the importance of these Iroquois in the camp, called a meeting of his counsellors, and it was determined that Charles Le Moyne, the interpreter, should persuade Anontaha to go to Three Rivers and parley for peace with the Iroquois, offering to hand them over their chiefs in captivity in Montreal. This was done on August 24th and peace was concluded later. Dollier de Casson says of this: "Finally there was made a sudden patched-up peace in which our enemies acquiesced, solely to regain their own people and to have an opportunity of surprising us later. We well knew their rascally motives, but, as they were stronger than we, we accepted their conditions, 'et en passions par là où ils voulaient.'"
Thus ended the second Iroquois war.
FOOTNOTE:
[69] The parish register gives Etienne Thibault. The Abbé Faillon reads Etienne Thibault dit La Lochetière. (Massicotte gives the date as October 14.)
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.
The arrival of M. de Maisonneuve's expedition was eagerly awaited by the whole French colony of Canada. For the addition of newcomers, men able to bear arms, meant more resources against the common enemy, and consequently surer stability for the whole French population.
The picture presented at this period of war is distressing. Montreal was a besieged fortress; Three Rivers similarly, and the Town of Quebec was described, on the arrival of de Maisonneuve, as only holding five or six houses in Upper Town, while in the Lower there were only the storehouses of the Jesuits and that of Montreal. The "Relation" of 1653 says "that the store of Montreal has not bought a single beaver skin for a year. At Three Rivers, the little sold has gone to strengthen the fortifications. At Quebec, there is only poverty." Thus there was extreme discontent through inability to pay private debts or those due to the government for the upkeep of the colony, which by the cession of the trading rights to the people now devolved upon them and not on the great Company. Thus they looked for a continuation of the peace just declared and a return to trade. It was hoped that Maisonneuve's contingent would make for both. Consequently it was with great joy and a solemn Te Deum in the church that its arrival at Quebec was hailed on September 22nd. The governor of Montreal and his new colonists were the saviours of the country!
We may now briefly relate the history of the organization of this relief force. When de Maisonneuve had made sure of the necessary funds, he proceeded with M. de la Dauversière, the procurator of the Company of Montreal, to gather the right men. They must be young, brave, have a trade, be of irreproachable morals, and able to bear arms; in other words, be ready to help to found and organize a settlement, and put up with the variety of trying difficulties incidental to such a dangerous pioneering outpost. These men were hired for the work, and they guaranteed their services to the Company for five years at Montreal, on the condition of being fed and lodged, in addition to wages paid them, besides being provided with tools, etc., for the exercise of their callings. After the five years expired, they might return to France at the expense of the Company. These were recruited from Picardy, Champagne, Normandy, L'Ile de France, Touraine, Burgundy, but principally from Maine and Anjou, and especially from the neighbourhood of La Flèche, the home of M. de la Dauversière.
We are able to locate the origin and point out the profession of nearly each one of those coming with Maisonneuve's force, since we have the old original acts of Notary Lafousse, of La Flèche, giving the contracts between 118 of the men and the agents of the Company of Montreal, signed during the course of March, April and May of 1653. There were 38 others who signed in other places, making the total, according to Faillon, of 154, all able to bear arms. Of these, some deserted, some died on the passage out, and, according to M. de Belmont, only 105 reached Montreal. [70] But these were all picked men and chosen with care; there were three surgeons, three millers, two bakers, a brewer, a cooper, a coppersmith, a pastry cook, four weavers, a tailor, a hatter, three shoemakers, a maker of sabots, a cutler, two armourers, three masons, a stonecutter, four tilers, nine carpenters, two joiners, an edgetool maker, a nail maker, a saw maker, a paviour, two gardeners, a farrier, sixty tillers or labourers for cultivating the soil, of whom several were sawyers, etc.
The absence of womankind is noticeable in this list, but a few ladies were provided for the settlement in this way. Before the day for the departure, fixed for June 20, 1653, de Maisonneuve visited his sisters, Madame de Chuly and la Sœur Louise de Ste. Marie, who both lived at Troyes, the latter being a nun of the Congregation of Notre-Dame there, to bid them adieu. It will be remembered that the good nuns of Troyes were very anxious to emulate the example of the Ursulines of Quebec by sending representatives of their order to Montreal to found an establishment there. De Maisonneuve had promised to make use of their offer of services, when the time should be ready, but no one who has followed the story of the chequered days of the city so far, will blame the governor of Montreal for still refusing to receive as yet a cloistered nunnery in his beleaguered fort. But there happened to be a young woman of thirty-three years of age then living with Madame de Chuly at Troyes, a lay woman belonging to a pious association under the direction of the Sisters of the Congregation, who had long heard of the thrilling story of the doings at Ville Marie from Madame de Chuly and the ladies of the convent. She had, indeed, communicated her idea to de Maisonneuve's sister, of devoting herself to the work in Montreal, so that Marguerite Bourgeoys, as was her name, had been promised to be received into their institute when they should realize their project of going to Canada.
It was then, in the convent parloir, that the good nuns introduced this young person to de Maisonneuve, who doubtless asked her kindly, gravely and courteously, if she dared brave the ocean and live in a little settlement among rough soldiers and teach school to little Indian children of the forests, and make Christians of them, and thus do good work for God. Needless to say his offer was accepted. All necessary permissions were granted, [71] but Marguerite momentarily hesitated to give herself to the conduct of a strange gentleman whom she had only met on this occasion.
"Fear not, my child," was the reply of her spiritual adviser, who knew the integrity of the upright governor. "Put yourself in his hands as into those of one of the first knights of the Queen of Angels. Go to Ville Marie with all confidence."
Thus she arrived at St. Nazaire, the port of departure, near Nantes; but to her great surprise and pleasure she found a small group of her own sex to accompany her on the voyage—several young girls, and one or two married women accompanying their husbands. The expedition started on June 20th in the Saint Nicholas de Nantes, and barely had it made 150 leagues on its way than it was found necessary to put back to St. Nazaire, for the ship's timbers were rotten and she made water fast. At first it was thought, with so many hands on board, that by working at the pumps they could proceed, there being then over one hundred men of the Montreal party. But "having turned back at last, when they were nearing land they would have perished," says Marguerite Bourgeoys, "without the succour which, by the grace of God, the people of this place (St. Nazaire) gave us."
In the Annals of the Hôtel-Dieu, an instance is related as occurring on this voyage which illustrates the character of simplicity of M. de Maisonneuve, with whom Marguerite Bourgeoys was now to become acquainted. Madame de Chuly had taken care to provide her brother with a wardrobe of very fine linen and such lace work as gentlemen of position then wore. It happened that a few days after the ship had set sail, the package which Marguerite Bourgeoys had made of these was swept into the sea and, despite all her efforts, she was unable to recover it.
Not knowing M. de Maisonneuve's character, and fearing that this loss, which could not be repaired in Canada, might grieve a gentleman of fashion such as she considered M. de Maisonneuve might be, she told him of the misfortune with great apprehension, but to her relief the governor of Montreal made light of it, laughingly remarking that "both he and she were well rid of the care of such vanities." Later Marguerite Bourgeoys was to learn of his extreme simplicity in all that surrounded his private life.
Marguerite tells how M. de Maisonneuve on putting back to St. Nazaire placed all his soldiers on a small island nearby to prevent them from deserting, for they now feared the journey, having become excited and alarmed and believing "they were being led to perdition." Some of them threw themselves into the waves to escape. Another ship was chartered, and set sail on July 20th, taking up the men from the island. But soon fresh disaster—"ship" fever—broke out and many were laid low. In these days of commodious sailing in a well appointed and sanitary steamer that takes less than a week to come from Europe to Canada we do not realize sufficiently the hardships of the early immigrant days. This voyage took two months; the ship, maybe, a crazy tub of a sailing vessel—the overcrowded accommodation of the most primitive order; the provisions of the coarsest kind, and water scarce. Can we wonder that before the journey ended we learn that out of the 113 men hired by the Company of Montreal, eight had died? We may well imagine the great grief of de Maisonneuve, for every man to him was a cherished possession.
This period brought out the sterling character of Marguerite Bourgeoys, who undertook the care of the nursing. Throughout the sickness she was indefatigable, taking the men their meals, assisting the surgeons, preparing the men for death, and nursing the others into convalescence. Night and day she was lavish of her charity. It is related that she would not accept a place with de Maisonneuve's party at table, but would take her food and whatever delicacies there might be given by them to distribute among the sufferers, while she herself was satisfied with the common rations, and scarce portions at that.
Her zeal knew no relaxation, for, whether in sickness or in health, the soldiers welcomed her as their nurse, their friend, their instructress, their leader at the morning and night prayers, and singing and spiritual reading. Thus she laid the foundations of that lasting respect which the men of Montreal ever had for her.
At last the hoped-for recruitment reached the enfeebled garrison of Quebec on September 22nd. There was Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance awaiting the vessel to receive M. de Maisonneuve, to tell him of the perilous fate of Montreal and to hear from him all the news of the good things in store for it, for she was keen to hurry back to carry the glad tidings thither.
We can imagine the courtly Maisonneuve now introducing to the lady of the Hôtel-Dieu the new assistant that she was to have in the care and training of the young of Montreal, Marguerite Bourgeoys of Troyes, whom she would find of good sense and kindly heart, a virtuous and excellent companion, and a powerful aid for the good work in the settlement. Thus began an enduring friendship between these noble women.
It will be noticed that at this second foundation of Montreal, which is now about to begin, history repeats itself. M. de Lauson, seeing Quebec in its own dire necessity of defenders, would now prevent M. de Maisonneuve from taking his convoy up country. But the governor of Montreal firmly insisted on carrying out the project and he would not leave behind him a single man of those who had cost the Company of Montreal so much.
Moreover, Maisonneuve had a lettre de cachet which the King, Louis XIV, had granted the Company of Montreal on April 8, 1653, in which he approved of the renewed appointment of Maisonneuve as governor, giving him all power to continue the establishment of the settlement at Montreal.
Thus silenced, the governor of Quebec could only resist by refusing to provide transportation facilities by river. Thus it was that the necessity of obtaining boats delayed Maisonneuve at Quebec for a month. Meanwhile Marguerite nursed those still sick from the voyage and presided over the distribution of the stores and the provisions as Jeanne Mance had done in 1641.
It was during this time that the Ursulines of Quebec made overtures to her to join their party; thus they thought that they might have a branch establishment in Montreal. [72] But the future schoolmistress of Montreal already saw her own vocation clearly before her. At length the boats were ready and Maisonneuve sailed, last of all, with the satisfaction of seeing that he did not leave one of his men behind him. Ville Marie was reached on November 16, 1653.
On reaching Montreal, de Maisonneuve set about the work of consolidating his colony. The elements he had chosen in his contingent of 105 men, who, together with those already on the ground, formed the nucleus of his future city, had in them the potentialities of a well-constituted and progressive civic society. They were of different trades, so that mutual help of a diversified nature could be given, albeit they were all soldiers in that they each bore arms, ready to build up the City of God, even as the builders of the temple of old had gone about their work with trowel in one hand and sword in the other. He found his men, whom the hardships of the journey may have daunted, now enthusiastic for the ideal Christian life opening up to them and disposed to make a permanent home with him. Consequently, in the course of December they were ready to listen at the Sunday services, in the fort chapel, to his overtures, made in the public announcements before the sermon, stating the terms on which those that were willing to forego their contract of remaining only for five years and then being taken back to France, might be encouraged to build their permanent homes and take up land.
The governor's intention was to induce them to abandon the advances of money made in France, and later, on their arrival in Canada, on condition of building their houses on an arpent of land granted on the site chosen for the town and cultivating thirty acres on the slopes of St. Louis or St. Joseph, in the vicinity, with the additional consideration of a certain sum of money to provide the means to settle, the latter sum being forfeited if they should ever quit the Island of Montreal.
On the first day of January, 1654, André Demers thus received 400 livres and two days afterwards Jean des Carris and Jean Le Duc received 900 on the above promise, soon to be followed in the same month and that of February by many others on similar terms. These sums may seem modest, but it was an age of simplicity and they were adequate.
The wooden homes the settlers built on their one arpent were of the simplest, and on the arrival of the last immigration there was much activity in felling and carpentering. They assisted one another in building their little houses of thirty feet, and the bachelors lived in common till they had built their own homes or "shacks," as the contracts prove.
The number of houses outside the fort began to grow. M. de Maisonneuve increased the buildings of the hospital, and Jeanne Mance went back to live there, protected from the Iroquois attacks by two redoubts he had constructed hard by, in which were placed two pieces of cannon and other artillery. The houses of the habitants were built detached from one another, but clustered, facing one another for mutual protection. In the walls they had loopholes made so that each home was a fortress with armed men inside. By 1659 there were about forty of these. The fort began to be abandoned. Repairs were neglected on the bastions, already battered by the ice shoves. Soon it sheltered the governor, the d'Ailleboust family, the town major and his ordinary garrison, and some others, among whom was Marguerite Bourgeoys.
The lands cultivated were mostly on the St. Louis slopes, and to protect them Maisonneuve built a redoubt of twenty feet square and sixteen in height, with a chimney. In 1654 he built another in this section and gave the workers an indemnity of 300 livres.
All were very busy at their trades, for everything now had to be made "in Canada." No one disdained manual labor, following the example of the governor and d'Ailleboust and others, such as the town major, Lambert Closse; Charles Le Moyne, interpreter and storekeeper for the Company; the Notary Saint Père. Gilbert Barbier, the carpenter, who was now dignified as fiscal procurator and justice of the peace, had a busy time superintending and lending a hand to the rapidly arising homesteads.
On their side, the women were not less engaged, baking the bread and preparing the meals, combing the wool, spinning and weaving and making the simple garments. Thirteen years later, when Marguerite Bourgeoys formed her first community of two helpers, Marie Barbier, daughter of Gilbert, the first Canadian girl to be received into the Congregation of Notre-Dame of Montreal, could be seen in her religious habit going to and from the pasturage grounds of the common, leading the cattle and often bearing on her shoulders the flour which she had previously taken as wheat to be ground at the mill. In similar attire could have been seen Sister Crolo, tending the farm. And when not thus occupied, Marguerite Bourgeoys and her companions were busy sewing and cutting, to clothe the women and natives.
But in 1654 Marguerite Bourgeoys, the future schoolmistress, had not gathered her community together, and she was not overburdened in this office, for there was only one French girl, Jeanne Loisel, who, born in Montreal on July 21, 1649, was now about 4½ years of age. This girl, who remained with Marguerite Bourgeoys till she was married, was the first child to live to any age. For hitherto all that had been born had died in their tender years. One child, the adopted daughter of Parmenda, who had been born a year before coming to Montreal, had, however, prospered, and she was shortly to be married, as we shall see.
The contracts of marriage, preserved in the city archives of this period, gave an insight in the life of the time. The contract of marriage of Louis Prud'homme with Roberte Gadois reveals that her father gave his daughter, besides the sum of 500 livres, a complete bed, fifty ells of silk, a cow and its calf, six dishes, six plates and a pewter pot—luxuries in these primitive times. [73]
In a contract of the year 1650, we find that the bridegroom, of well-to-do means, as a gift to his bride, gave, in his marriage settlement, the sum of fifty to sixty livres and his residence in his principal house; and on her part she would bring her dowry of 500 livres.
Up to 1654 there had been only ten marriages between the French settlers, the first having taken place in 1647, after the return of Maisonneuve on his first visit to France, when he brought with him for this purpose "some virtuous young women." Marriages flourished again in 1650, when Jeanne Mance also returned with some eligible partners. We find in November of this year that Louis Prud'homme, of whom we have spoken, married Roberte Gadois; and Gilbert Barbier, Catherine de Lavaux. In 1651 the notary, Jean Saint Père, married Maturine Godé, the daughter of Nicholas Godé, whose family came over with Maisonneuve at the first foundation of Montreal. On the occasion of his marriage, in recompense "for his good and faithful service rendered during eight years," Maisonneuve, in addition to the gift of forty arpents, promised him six arpents of land, to be cultivated by him, meanwhile granting him the enjoyment of six others already tilled near to the fort.
In 1654 there were naturally more marriages, and thirteen are therefore registered. Of these early marriages, especially of this year, there are many descendants still living.
Thus for some time Marguerite Bourgeoys, with the exception of Jeanne Loisel, would have to exercise her care with Jeanne Mance in assisting the newly-born children, visiting the sick, consoling the afflicted, washing the linen or mending the clothing of the poor and the soldiers, burying the dead and following the call of self-sacrifice everywhere. Otherwise she dwelt within the fort with M. de Maisonneuve, looking after his domestic arrangements, in a position of friendship and trust but not of domestic service. Indeed, with Jeanne Mance she became his wise adviser, for both seemed to have been largely consulted in the affairs of the settlement.
It will be remembered that Marguerite Bourgeoys, who had taken a vow of perpetual chastity in France, had been heard to place herself in the hands of M. de Maisonneuve as in those of "one of the first Chevaliers of the Angels."
Scrutiny into the life of de Maisonneuve, a "chevalier sans reproche," reveals us a singularly pure character. About this time the governor had doubts whether he should take a wife, but, not feeling himself called to the married state, he took, according to custom of the time, a vow of virginity, so that his biographers speak of him as being a religious without the habit. He was a man of prayer and devoted to duty, sincere, unaffected and unostentatious, seeking neither praise nor flattery, and undepressed by slights and contradictions. His life ideals were high and saintly, and his whole conduct was that of a Christian knight, a model to all under him. His household was simply furnished; his table was frugal; he had only one servant, and this man was the cook and general servant. In his dress ordinarily he followed the habits of the people, wearing the tuque, or capot, and grey tunic which have come down to us in some of the costumes of the snowshoe clubs of Montreal of today. Yet, not unmindful of his dignity as governor, on important occasions he would be habited as fitting his rank as a soldier and a gentleman.
He never strove to make his post serve to increase his fortune, although, like his lieutenants, he could have legitimately traded in peltry, then beginning to be very profitable. He seems rather to have embraced the "Lady Poverty" and to have been singularly unselfish and altruistic. Dollier de Casson tells us, as an example of his magnanimity and generosity, how, ever ready to recompense the good actions of his soldiers, he would deprive himself of his provisions, even those on his own table, to give them away. "On one occasion," says this historian, "when the savages came to trade at this place, noticing that one of his soldiers who had often given proofs of courage against the enemy was in extreme depression, and having found out on enquiry that it was caused by having nothing to trade with the Indians who were then here, he thereupon led him into his own room, and, since the man was a tailor, gave him all the cloth stuffs he could find, even to the curtains of his bed, to make into wearing apparel which he might sell to the Indians." Thus he sent the young soldier away happy. Such generosity endeared him to his men.
The military organization of Montreal may be said to have become solidified this year. For hitherto, beyond readiness to respond to the call to arms, the soldier's sense of duty and esprit de corps had not been cultivated.
The governor took this work of formation into his own hands and chose sixty-three of his most devoted men and erected a military confraternity with the title of the "Soldiers of the Blessed Virgin." He was proud to command these himself. These met in religious meetings and the knightly de Maisonneuve would address them with glowing words of encouragement to acquit themselves like good Christians and soldiers. These were the governor's guard of honour, which came into prominence whenever there was a great religious ceremony or civil function, such as the reception of a distinguished visitor to the island.
During the week, each of these in turn had the duty of sentinel, parading the fields, on the lookout for traces of the dreaded Iroquois. To be selected one of this military order was a high favour. One of the privileges of this guard of honour was to escort Mademoiselle Bourgeoys, shortly after her arrival, to the mountain to visit the cross placed there by de Maisonneuve in 1642, but now found to have been destroyed by the Iroquois in the recent war. It was immediately replanted, under her direction, by Gilbert Barbier and four other men, who placed a palisading around it. This monument was the Mecca of pilgrimages until the occupation by the British in 1760.
The necessity of providing themselves with the needful and indispensable objects of life stimulated the industry and inventiveness of all, so that each man fulfilled many rôles. In addition, the spirit of enterprise and initiative was encouraged by the cancellation of their contracts made with the Company in France for mostly all now were independent workers, anxious to make good for their own interests. Still the Company had the onus of providing the public works, and the contracts of this period show that it paid just salaries for services rendered.
We have an insight into the medical history of the city in a contract made by the first surgeon, Etienne Bouchard, on March 30, 1655, with twenty-six families to treat them regularly for a certain sum. To these were shortly added others to the number, in all, of forty-six. This shows that the cancellation of the original contract, by which the surgeon was appointed to give free medical treatment to all the inhabitants, was a consequence of the new order of things.
The government of the settlement was very simple. Besides the governor, there was a fiscal procurator or treasurer, a public notary, a keeper of the storehouse of the Company, and a syndic.
The last named office was first filled in 1644, when Louis XIV gave the Company of Montreal the right to erect a corporation. The syndic was elected by a plurality of votes from the inhabitants themselves to represent their interest and thus became a tribune of the people. He had the privilege with those of Quebec and Three Rivers of assisting at the election of the two councillors (or three in the absence of the governor), who were chosen to compose the General Council of Nouvelle France, with the governor general and the ecclesiastical superior, for the time being, in Canada. They were even privileged to represent the interests of their corporation at the council meetings and to have a "voix délibérative" in these same matters.
By a royal act of 1647 the syndics could only be appointed for three years, and by another of 1648 they could not negotiate any loan for their corporations without the express sanction of the council at Quebec, under pain of nullity, damages and interests incurred by the syndics themselves.
The election of a syndic was a simple matter at Montreal. The inhabitants had first to get the leave of the governor to call a meeting. The public notary employed by the Company called this and presided. Placing before the electors the names of likely persons for the office, he called upon them to subscribe their names or their marks to the candidate of their choice. On the votes being counted, the person elected might refuse the honour, but the spirit of civic duty always prompted him to respond to the call. He then promised to discharge his duties faithfully, and the retiring syndic would hand over to his successor the care of the documents of the corporation, the contracts of property, etc., and other titles such as that already granted to the syndic for the people in 1651, when forty arpents were given over to them for a "common."
In the year 1654 it would have been the syndic who received the grant made to the corporation by the governor on behalf of the Seigneurs of Montreal, of land for the new cemetery, given on the condition that if this changed its place, it should revert to the Seigneurs.
The little cemetery, in which for twelve years the first brave defenders of the Castle Dangerous of Montreal had been buried, had this year to be abandoned and the bodies removed to higher ground, for the constant floods of the St. Lawrence had sadly ill used the little palisaded God's acre at "the Point," or the corner of the junction of the rivulet St. Pierre and the main stream.
The "new cemetery," as it was called in the burial register on the date December 11, 1654, was placed on a portion of the ground belonging to the Hôtel-Dieu, bun above the latter, at a point today occupied by the southern portion of the Place d'Armes and the piazza steps of Notre Dame Church. It was at the head of what was the second street or tract called St. Joseph Street, and nowadays St. Sulpice, while at the bottom, at the southwest corner bounded by St. Paul Street, was the Hôtel-Dieu. This cemetery was used for the next twenty-four years. [74]
The expense of these changes was borne by the parishioners and not by the Company—another sign of the times. We know this, for the salaries paid are still to be seen in the original document in which it is recorded that Gilbert Barbier, the carpenter who erected the cross, gave the half of his salary as a contribution, to the church.
The church towards which Gilbert Barbier gave his donation was probably not the mission chapel which had been so long the centre of parish life and piety in the fort itself, but towards a new one that already, on June 29th of this year, had been determined on to be started as soon as possible owing to the increase of population from the reinforcement of 1653.
On this day, the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, the syndic had called a meeting of the habitants in the presence of the governor, when Jean Saint Père was elected by a majority of votes to act as the "receiver of alms," or treasurer for funds for a new church. He was to keep account of all sums given to him, with the names of the donors and should furnish a financial statement every three months to the governor. In addition it was ruled that all donations in grain, or in kind, subject to deterioration, should be sold by the treasurer to the highest bidder, provided that the auction should be publicly announced by a notice affixed to the fort gate three days in advance of the sale. Finally, the treasurer should hand over the sums received by him, when required, to the director of the church building to be erected by the citizens in the presence of the governor when there shall be need for such an appointment. Besides the private donations M. de Maisonneuve, as the administrator of justice, applied the court fines to the church fund.
But it was not till August 28, 1656, that the foundations of the new church were laid. In the meantime the people still worshiped in the fort chapel, now become too small for its increased population through the recent influx of the troops of soldiers and the women. It had many dear memories symbolized by the baptisms, marriages and deaths, and the feasts and festivals of the year. At its services the Jesuit missionaries, such as Isaac Jogues, Poncet, Buteaux and others, had officiated with mutilated limbs, a living instance of the ever brooding presence of the revengeful Iroquois. [75] In this little mission chapel many a prayer had gone forth for the relief which tardily came.
But it was too small and must give place to another—a real parish church, large, dignified and commodious, to meet the needs of the expanding corporation. The cherished decorations and the altar furniture and plate, which were gifts from rich friends in France, would still be a link between the old and the new, and thus its memory would be kept forever green.
The old chapel church still continued its work. It witnessed, on May 28th of the year following, 1654, the marriage of Charles Le Moyne with the adopted daughter of Antoine Primot and Martine Mercier, his wife, whom we know as the valiant and chaste Parmenda. This girl, Catherine Thierry, probably a niece of Madame Primot, had been brought as a child of one year to Montreal in 1642, and she was commonly known as Catherine Primot and was now fourteen years of age. This union begot the famous Le Moyne family. Their first home was on the arpent town lot near the hospital. On February 3rd the fort chapel witnessed the marriage of Jean Gervaise and Anne Archambault, who also reared one of the most numerous and honourable families of Montreal. This was the fourth marriage of the thirteen occurring this year.
The history of Anne Archambault gives us an insight into one of the few scandals of the time. This was Anne's second marriage, having been married before the church in Quebec in July, 1647, to a Michel Chauvin, dit Ste Suzanne who had been sent out by de la Dauversière to Montreal in the service of the Company in 1644.
In 1650 Louis Prud'homme, of whom we have made mention already, had on a voyage to France discovered that Chauvin had deserted his wife, and on returning to Montreal he had notified the authorities, so that on October 8, 1650, Chauvin acknowledged freely before Jean Saint Père, the official notary of justice, that some seven years before leaving France for Canada he had married Louise de Liles. He then hurriedly departed for Quebec and took the first boat back to France. Anne Archambault had one child by this scoundrel, born on April 5th following. To sympathize with her Jeanne Mance and M. Charles d'Ailleboust des Musseaux were the godparents.
To the great joy of the colony, Anne Archambault was honourably remarried on February 3, 1654, to Jean Gervaise, one of the recruits brought over by de Maisonneuve in the previous autumn. The esteem of the public was manifested to offset the unaccustomed scandal that had arisen in their midst. One child, Charlotte Chauvin, was reared by these two and for this purpose the governor gave special assistance on behalf of the Company. At this time there were also several orphans, children of soldiers that had died in battle with the Iroquois, and for these de Maisonneuve also provided.
Thus the spirit of fervour, charity and uprightness of morals was exercised in the life of this primitive church of the settlement. Sister Morin, in the Annals of the Hôtel-Dieu, writes of these early times: "Nothing was put under key in these days, neither the houses, chests, or cellars; everything was left open without anyone repenting of their trustfulness. Those who were in easy circumstances hastened to lend their assistance to others less fortunate, and gave it spontaneously without waiting to be called upon, making it a pleasure to forestall all needs and to give their marks of affection and esteem to one another."
The words of Longfellow, written so long after, of Grandpré, the home of Evangeline, might be well applied to Ville Marie at this date:
"Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their windows; But their dwellings were open as day, and the hearts of the owners. There the richest were poor, and the poorest lived in abundance."