Several gifts were made for the decoration of the church of Notre Dame de la Recouvrance. Duplessis-Bochart presented two pictures, one representing the Blessed Virgin, and the other the Holy Family. De Castillon, seignior of the Island of Orleans, offered four small pictures, one of St. Ignace de Loyola, of St. François Xavier, of St. Stanislas de Kostka, and of St. Louis de Gonzagne, and also a large engraving of Notre Dame. Champlain had also placed on one of the walls a painting which had been rescued from the shipwreck during Father Noyrot's voyage.
During the year after Champlain's death, the Jesuits consecrated the church of Notre Dame de la Recouvrance under the name of the Immaculate Conception, which from that date was the special patron of the parochial church of Quebec.
The inauguration of this patronage afforded an opportunity for public rejoicing. On December 7th, 1636, a flag was hoisted on the fort and the cannon were fired many times. On the 8th, the day observed by the church in honour of the Immaculate Conception, the citizens fired a salute from the muskets at dawn, and they all assisted at mass, and received the Holy Communion. Devotion to the Mother of God soon became general among the people, who were characterized as moral and honest.
Notre Dame de la Recouvrance was burnt on June 14th, 1640. In a few hours the residence of the Jesuits, the parochial church, and the chapel of Champlain, where his bones had been placed, were destroyed. The Relation of 1640 gives a short description of the catastrophe: "A rather violent wind, the extreme drouth, the oily wood of the fir of which these buildings were constructed, kindled a fire so quick and violent that hardly anything could be done. All the vessels and the bells and chalices were melted; the stuffs some virtuous persons had sent to us to clothe a few seminarists, or poor savages, were consumed in this same sacrifice. Those truly royal garments that His Majesty had sent to our savages to be used in public functions, to honour the liberality of so great a king, were engulfed in this fiery wreck, which reduced us to the hospital, for we had to go and take lodgings in the hall of the poor, until monsieur, our governor, loaned us a house, and after being lodged therein, the hall of the sick had to be changed into a church." This conflagration was a great loss. The registers were burnt, and the Jesuits had to reproduce them from memory. The chief buildings of Quebec had disappeared, and it was seventeen years before a new church was built.
CHAPTER XIV
THE GROWTH OF QUEBEC
A quarter of a century had elapsed since the founding of Quebec, and still it could scarcely be regarded as other than a village, while in some parts of New France colonization was absolutely null. Agriculture had received some attention in the vicinity of Quebec, but it was on such a small scale that it should be termed gardening rather than farming.