It is on record that Champlain, after his return to Quebec, in 1633, "had taken care to refit a battery which he had planted on a level with the river near the warehouse, the guns of which commanded the passage between Quebec and the opposite shore." [97] Now, in 1683, "this cannon battery, erected in the Lower Town, almost surrounded on all sides by houses, stood at some distance from the edge of the river, and caused some inconvenience to the public; the then Governor, Lefebvre de la Barre [98] having sought out a much more advantageous locality towards the Point of Rocks (Pointe des Roches) west of the Cul-de-Sac, [99] and on the margin of the said river at high-water mark, which would more efficiently command and sweep the harbour, and which would cause far less inconvenience to the houses in the said Lower Town," considered it fit to remove the said battery, and the Reverend Jesuit Fathers having proposed to contribute towards the expenses which would be incurred in so doing, he made them a grant "of a portion of the lot of ground (emplacement) situated in front of the site on which is now planted the said cannon battery, * * * * between the street or high road for wheeled vehicles coming from the harbour [100] and the so-called St. Peter street."
Here then we have the origin of the Napoleon wharf and a very distinct mention of St. Peter street. The building erected near this site was sold on the 22nd October, 1763, to William Grant, Esquire, who, on the 19th December, 1763, also purchased the remainder of the ground down to low- water mark, from Thomas Mills, Esquire, Town Major, who had shortly before obtained a grant or patent of it, the 7th December, 1763, from Governor Murray, in recognition, as is stated in the preamble of the patent, of his military services. This property which, at a later period, belonged to the late William Burns, was by him conveyed, the 16th October, 1806, to the late J. M. Woolsey. The Napoleon wharf, purchased in 1842 by the late Julien Chouinard from the late Frs. Buteau, forms at present part of the Estate Chouinard; in reality, it is composed of two wharves joined into one; the western portion is named "The Queen's Wharf," and was Mr. Woolsey's property.
The highway which leads from the Cape towards this wharf is named "Sous- le-Fort" street, which sufficiently denotes its position; this street, the oldest, probably dates from the year 1620, when the foundations of Fort St. Louis were laid; we may presume that, in 1663, the street terminated at "la Pointe des Roches." In the last century "Sous-le-Fort" street was graced by the residences, among others, of Fleury de la Jannière, brother of Fleury de la Gorgendière, brother-in-law of the Governor de Vaudreuil.
In this street also stood the house of M. George Allsop, [101] the head of the opposition in Governor Cramahé's Council. His neighbour was M. d'Amours des Plaines, Councillor of the Superior Council; further on, stood the residence of M. Cuvillier, the father of the Honorable Austin Cuvillier, in 1844 Speaker of the House of Assembly. In this street also existed the warehouse of M. Cugnet, the lessee of the Domaine of Labrador.
We must not confound the Napoleon wharf, sold by J. O. Brunet to Francois Buteau, with the Queen's wharf, the property of the late J. W. Woolsey. On the Queen's wharf, in a dwelling, since converted into a tavern, in 1846 one of the wittiest members of the Quebec Bar, Auguste Soulard, Esq., opened a law office for the especial convenience of his numerous country clients. After office hours it was the rendezvous of many young barristers, who have since made their mark: Messieurs T. Fournier, Justice of the Supreme Court; A. Plamondon, Judge of the Superior Court; N. Casault, Judge of the Superior Court; Jean Taché, Frederick Braun, L. Fiset, J. M. Hudon and others. From the king's wharf to the king's forges (the ruins of which were discovered at the beginning of the century, a little further up than the king's store), there are but a few steps.
François Bellet, M.P. for the county of Buckingham from 1815 to 1820, resided on the property of the late Julien Chouinard, at the corner of St. Peter and Sous-le-Fort streets. He combined parliamentary duties, it seems, with a sea-faring life, being styled "Capitaine de Bâtiment" in a power of attorney before Martin A. Dumas, N.P., at Quebec, dated 9th September, 1796, in which as attorney and agent for Revd. "Messire Louis Payet, prêtre, curé de la paroisse de St. Antoine, au Nord de la Rivière Richelieu," he sells to Monsieur Thomas Lee, later on an M.P.P., his negro slave, named Rose, for the sum of "500 livres et vingt sols,"—about $100 of our currency. The traffic in human flesh became extinct in Canada in 1803 by legislative enactment. The bluest blood of our Southern neighbours was shed to keep it up in the model Republic sixty years subsequently. [102] In the space between the Queen's wharf and the jetty on the west, belonging to the Imperial authorities and called the king's wharf, there existed a bay or landing place, much prized by our ancestors, which afforded a harbour for the coasting vessels and small river crafts, called the "Cul-de-Sac." There, also, the ships which were overtaken by an early winter lingered until the sunny days of April released them from their icy fetters. There the ships were put into winter quarters, and securely bedded on a foundation or bed of clay; wrecked vessels also came hither to undergo repairs. The Cul-de-Sac, with its uses and marine traditions, had, in by-gone days, an important function in our incomparable sea-port. In this vicinity, Vaudreuil, in 1759, planted a battery.
The old Custom House (now the Department of Marine), was built on this site in 1833. In 1815 the Custom House was on McCallum's wharf. The Cul-de-Sac recalls "the first chapel which served as a Parish Church at Quebec," that which Champlain caused to be built in the Lower Town in 1615, where the name of Champlain is identified with the street which was bounded by this chapel. The Revd. Fathers Récollets there performed their clerical functions up to the period of the taking of Quebec by the brothers Kertk, that is from 1615 to 1629, (Laverdière.)
Nothing less than the urgent necessity of providing the public with a convenient market-place, and the small coasting steamers with suitable wharves, could move the municipal authorities to construct the wharves now existing, and there, in 1856, to erect out of the materials of the old Parliament House, the spacious Champlain Hall, so conspicuous at present. The king's wharf and the king's stores, two hundred and fifty feet in length, with a guard house, built on the same site in 1821, possess also their marine and military traditions. The "Queen's Own" volunteers, Capt. Rayside, were quartered there during the stirring times of 1837-38, when "Bob Symes" dreamed each night of a new conspiracy against the British crown, and M. Aubin perpetuated, in his famous journal "Le Fantasque" the memory of this loyal magistrate.
How many saucy frigates, how many proud English Admirals, have made fast their boats at the steps of this wharf! Jacques Cartier, Champlain, Nelson, Bourgainville, Cook, Vauclain, Montgomery, Boxer, Sir Rodney Mundy, poor Captain Burgoyne, of the ill-fated iron-clad Captain, Sir Leopold McClintock, [103] have, one after the other, trodden over this picturesque landing place, commanded as it is by the guns of Cape Diamond. Since about a century, the street which bears the venerated name of the founder of Quebec, Champlain street, unmindful of its ancient Gallic traditions, is almost exclusively the headquarters of our Hibernian population. An ominous-looking black-board, affixed to one of the projecting rocks of the Cape, indicates the spot below where one of their countrymen, Brigadier-General Richard Montgomery, with his two aides- de-camp, Cheeseman and McPherson, received their death wounds during a violent snow storm about five o'clock in the morning, the 31st December, 1775. On this disastrous morning the post was guarded by Canadian militiamen, Messieurs Chabot and Picard. Captain Barnesfare, an English mariner, had pointed the cannon; Coffin and Sergeant Hugh McQuarters applied the match. At the eastern extremity, under the stairs, now styled "Breakneck Steps," according to Messrs. Casgrain and Laverdière, was discovered Champlain's tomb, though a rival antiquary, M. S. Drapeau, says that he is not certain of this. [104]
A little to the west is Cap Blanc, inhabited by a small knot of French- Canadians and some Irish; near by, was launched in October, 1750, the Orignal, a King's ship, built at Quebec; at that period the lily flag of France floated over the bastions of Cape Diamond; the Orignal, in being launched, broke her back and sank. Among the notabilities of Cap Blanc, one is bound to recall the athletic stevedore and pugilist, Jacques Etienne Blais. Should the fearless man's record not reach remote posterity, pointing him out as the Tom Sayers of Cap Blanc, it cannot fail to be handed down as the benefactor of the handsome new church of Notre Dame de la Garde, erected on the shore in 1878, the site of which was munificently given by him on the 17th June, 1877. Jacques Blais, now (1881) very aged, though still vigorous, in his best days by his prowess re-called that prince of Quebec raftsmen so graphically delineated by Chas Lanman.