He told me that he had read Lord Granville's despatch of October, 1789, to Lord Dorchester, which I had recommended to his attention, and he seemed to think a re-union of the Provinces a desirable object….
H. W. RYLAND."
(Christie's History of Canada.)
[304] In 1871, Mr. John Henderson Galbraith expired at Mount Lilac, leaving to his widow his beautiful country-seat, on which he had expended some $25,000. The foundry or machine shop was closed, and under the intelligent care of Miss Elizabeth Galbraith, Mount Lilac continues to produce each summer ambrosial fruit and exquisite flowers.
[305] Originally a brewery owned by Intendant Talon, and sold to the French King, in 1686 for 15,000 écus. Later on the Intendant's Palace, in magnificence rivalled the Château St. Louis.
[306] Kahir-Koubat "a meandering stream" Ahatsistari's house (formerly "Poplar Grove," the homestead of L. T. McPherson, Esq.), on the north bank of the St. Charles, was called Kahir-Koubat by N. Monpetit. Here formerly dwelt, we are told, Col. De Salaberry, the hero of Châteauguay, until 1814.
[307] Beyond the unmistakable vestiges of its having been of early French construction, there is nothing known of the origin under French rule, of Bigot's little Château. History is replete with details about his peculations and final punishment in the Bastile of France; possibly the legends in prose and in verse, which mantle round the time-worn rein, have no other foundation than the fictions of the poet and the novelist. Thanks to Amédée Papineau, W. Kirby, Jos. Mannette, Beaumanoir, Bigot's Château, is now immortalized in song.
[308] Ahatsistari, such the name of the former great Huron warrior, which Mr. Montpetit was allowed to assume when recently elected Honorary Chief of the Council of Sachems, possibly for the service rendered to the tribe as their historiographer.
[309] The French named the Wyandats, Hurons, from their style of wearing their hair—erect and thrown back, giving their head, says the Historian Ferland, the appearance of a boar's head, "une hure de sanglier."
[310] The Dutch called them Maquas; the English, Mohawks, probably from the name of the river Mohawk which flows into the Hudson.