DEAR SIR,—I have much pleasure in acceding to your request to send you a note of some circumstances connected with the city, in which seventy-one years of my life—now verging towards eighty— have been spent. I am familiar with no part of Nelson's career, except what I heard from my mother's own lips respecting this brave man. My mother was gifted with a remarkable memory, and recollected well having herself seen Captain Nelson, when in 1782, he commanded at Quebec the sloop-of-war Albemarle. "He was erect, stern of aspect and wore, as was then customary, the queue or pigtail," she often repeated. Her idea of the Quebec young lady to whom he had taken such a violent fancy, was that her name was Woolsey—an aunt or elder sister, perhaps, of the late John W. Woolsey, Esq., President for some years of the Quebec Bank, who died in 1852, at a very advanced age. According to her, it was a Mr. Davidson who prevented the imprudent marriage contemplated.
As to the doings of the press gangs in the Lower Town and suburbs, I can speak from what I saw more than once. Impressing seamen lasted at Quebec from 1807, until after the battle of Waterloo. The terror these sea-faring gentlemen created was great. I remember a fine young fellow who refused to surrender, being shot through the back with a holster pistol and dying of the wound, this was in 1807. I can name the following as being seized by press gangs * * * * * Soon ruses were resorted to by the gay fellows who wandered after night fall in quest of amusement in the highways and byways. Her Majesty's soldiers were, of course, exempt of being impressed into the naval service; so, that our roving city youths would either borrow coats, or get some made, similar to the soldiers', to elude the press gang. These ruses were, however, soon stopped, the press gang, having secured the services of two city constables, Rosa and ———, who could spot every city youth and point out the counterfeits.
R. URQUHART.
Quebec, 1st August, 1876.
Parallel with St. Peter street, runs Notre Dame street, which leads us to the little Church of the Lower Town, named Notre Dame de la Victoire, in remembrance of the victory achieved in 1690 over Sir William Phipps. This church was, at a later period, called "Notre Dame des Victoires," in commemoration of the dispersion by a storm of Admiral Walker's squadron, in 1711. Bishop Laval had projected the erection of this modest little church, but the building of it was performed in 1688, under the auspices of his successor, Bishop St. Vallier, out of funds provided by the Lower Town ladies. The corner of these streets (St. Peter and Sous-le-Fort streets) is probably the site of the "Abitation," close to the walks and garden plots where Champlain cultivated roses and carnations, about the year 1615.
Fronting the Church of "Notre Dame des Victoires," and on the site now occupied as Blanchard's Hotel, the ladies of the Ursulines, in 1639, found a refuge in a humble residence, a sort of shop or store, owned at that period by the Sieur Juchereau des Châtelets, at the foot of the path (sentier), leading up to the mountain (foot of Mountain street), and where the then Governor, M. de Montmagny, as is related, sent them their first Quebec meal.
The locality possesses other pleasant memories: the good, the youthful, the beautiful Madame de Champlain, about the year 1620, here catechised and instructed, under the shade of the trees, the young Huron Indians, in the principles of Christianity. History has related their surprise and joy on seeing their features reflected in the small mirror which their benefactress wore suspended at her side, "close to her heart," as they said, according to the then prevailing custom.
In 1682 a conflagration broke out in the Lower Town, which, besides the numerous vaults and stores, reduced into ashes a considerable portion of the buildings. Denonville, on the 20th August, 1685, wrote to Paris, asking His Most Christian Majesty to contribute 200 crowns worth of leather fire-buckets, and in 1691 the historical Dutch pump was imported to throw water on fires. At a later period, 1688, "Notre Dame de la Victoire" Church was begun on part of the ruins. Let us open the second volume of the "Cours d'Histoire du Canada," by the Abbé Ferland, and let us read: "Other ruins existed in 1684, in the commercial centre of the Lower Town; these ruins consisted of blackened and dilapidated walls. Champlain's old warehouse, which, from the hands of the Company (Compagnie de la Nouvelle France), had passed into those of the King (Louis XIV.), had remained in the same state as when left after the great fire which, some years previously, had devastated the Lower Town."
In 1684 Monseigneur de Laval obtained this site or emplacement from M. de la Barre for the purpose of erecting a supplementary chapel for the use of the inhabitants in the Lower Town. This gift, however, was ratified only later, in favor of M. de St. Valier, in the month of September, 1685. Messieurs de Denonville and de Meules caused a clear and plain title or patent of this locality to be issued for the purpose of erecting a church which, in the course of time, was built by the worthy Bishop and named "Notre Dame de la Victoire." The landing for small craft, in the vicinity of the old market (now the Finlay [94] Market), was called "La Place du Débarquement," or simply "La Place."
It is in this vicinity, a little to the west, under the silent shade of a wood near the garden which Champlain had laid out, that the historical interview, in 1608, which saved the colony, took place. The secret was of the greatest importance; it is not to be wondered at if Champlain's trusty pilot, Captain Testu, deemed it proper to draw the founder of Quebec aside into the neighbouring wood and make known to him the villanous plot which one of the accomplices, Antoine Natel, lock-smith, had first disclosed to him under the greatest secrecy. The chief of the conspiracy was one Jean du Val, who had come to the country with Champlain.