[1] Histoire de la Colonie Française en Canada, vol. i. p. 79.
[2] According to the Jesuit Relations for 1643-4, the Hurons cried out in their despair: "The Iroquois, our mortal enemies, do not believe in God, have no love for prayer, commit all kinds of crimes, and nevertheless they prosper. We, since we have abandoned the customs of our fathers, are slaughtered and burnt, our villages are destroyed. What good do we get by lending ear to the Gospel, if conversion and death walk hand in hand?" Garneau, who quotes this passage, adds: "One tribe of them that had counted its warriors by hundreds was now reduced to thirty."
[3] Les Jésuites et la Nouvelle France. Vol. i. Introduction, p. xv. More than two centuries earlier the pious Superior of the Ursuline Convent, Mère de l'Incarnation, had referred, in her own gentle way, to their incompleteness. "If," she says, "any one is disposed to conclude that the labours of the convent are useless because no mention is made of them in the Relations, the inference must equally be drawn that Monseigneur the Bishop is useless; that his Seminary is useless; that the Seminary of the Jesuit fathers themselves is useless; that the ecclesiastics of Montreal are useless; and that finally the Hospital nuns are useless; because of none of these persons or things do the Relations say a word. Nothing is mentioned save what relates to the progress of the Gospel; and, even so, lots of things are cut out after the record gets to France."—Letires Spirituelles, edition of 1681, p. 259.
[4] Jesuits in North America, chap. xv.
[5] See the excellent monograph by M. Thos. Chapais, Jean Talon, Intendant de la Nouvelle France, Quebec, 1904.
[6] See particularly the interesting work of Mr. Ernest Myrand, Frontenac et ses Amis, Quebec, 1902.
[7] It was not till 1717 that the merchants of Montreal and Quebec were allowed to meet and discuss business affairs.
[8] Quoted by Faillon, vol. iii. p. 432.
[9] This office was held by Colbert (in connection with a general control of marine, finance, and public works) from 1669 to the date of his death, 6th September 1683; by his son, the Marquis of Seignelay, from 1683 to the date of his own death, 3rd November 1690; and from that time to the conclusion of the period covered by this narrative by the Marquis of Pontchartrain.
[10] Through the influence of Talon, the king was induced in the year 1668 to sign a decree permitting the Récollets to return to Canada, and reinstating them in their former possessions. Père Leclercq, Récollet, says they were very much wanted. "For thirty years," to quote his words, "complaint was made in Canada that consciences were being burdened; and the more the colony increased in population the greater was the outcry. I sincerely hope that there was no real occasion for it, and that the great rigour of the [Jesuit] clergy was useful and necessary. Still the Frenchman loves liberty, and under all skies is opposed to constraint, even in religion."