At Montreal, the fugitives were received with tender solicitude and the graphic details recounted at length. Thus the first attempt to plant Christianity in New York territory, after two years had come to a disastrous end.
Radisson, the half-civilized Frenchman, who had spent his early manhood as an adopted Iroquois, had accompanied Ragueneau from Montreal to Onondaga and back, tells the story in his "Travels." He dwells mostly on the occurrences of the feast, when the Indians gorged themselves so, that it was suggested to the priest by a Frenchman, probably by Radisson himself, that the fugitives should massacre them in their helpless drunken stupor and sleep—a suggestion which Ragueneau repudiated.
The surprise of the Onondagas next day was afterwards learned. "When night had given place to day," wrote Ragueneau, "darkness to light, the barbarians awoke from sleep and, leaving their cabins, roved around our well-locked house. They were astonished at the profound silence that reigned there. They saw no one going in or out. They heard no voice. They thought at first that we were at prayer or in council but, the day advancing, and the prayers not coming to an end, they knocked at the door. The dogs, which we had designedly left behind, answered by barking." Radisson's account adds that the idea of a religious ceremony going on within was stimulated by a pig who had a bell rope attached to his leg, so that whenever he moved the bell pealed.
"The cock crows which they heard in the morning," says Ragueneau, "and the noise of the dogs, made them think that the masters were not far off, and they recovered their patience, which they had lost. But at length the sun began to go down, and no person answering either to the voice of men or the cries of the dogs, they scaled the house to see what might be the condition of our men in this terrible silence. Astonishment now gave place to fright. They opened the door; the chiefs enter, descend to the cellar and mount to the garret. Not a Frenchman made his appearance, dead or alive. They thought they had to deal with devils."
This was further borne in upon them, because they had seen no boats. A search in the woods not revealing the fugitives, they came to the conclusion that the Frenchmen had vanished, and might as mysteriously reappear, to fall upon their village.
The news of this disaster and the fear of a terrible uprisal at the hands of the frustrated Iroquois caused the governor to issue the ordinance of March 18, 1658, which was promulgated by Bénigne Basset, the successor to Notary Saint Père. In this the habitants were again ordered as formerly to provide themselves with arms and to fortify their houses; not to endanger their lives, but to work as far as possible in groups; to retire to their homes at the sound of the bell at night and not to leave until next morning without absolute necessity. They were not to go far for their hunting expeditions without special permission, and they were not to use any of the canots or chaloupes that were not their own without the express consent of the proprietors, unless it was a case of saving life.
Such precautions as these manifested the prudence of the governor and was the reason why there had been only one Frenchman killed between the date of the Point St. Charles massacre, October, 1657, to April, 1660. This solitary death was that of Sylvester Vacher dit Saint Julien, who was slain in 1659 near the Lac des Loutres close to the town. We may mention here several of the means adopted this year and the following to secure public safety. On the east, a new mill was built on a rising mound, afterwards called Citadel Hill, which was later the site of Dalhousie Square and is now the site of the Viger station. This was fortified as a redoubt and, together with the old fort mill at Windmill Point on the west, guarded the river front.
In addition the Sulpicians built two fortified farmhouses as redoubts or citadels in the extreme ends of the settlement to guard the labourers there—that of Ste. Marie on the east and that of St. Gabriel, named after M. Gabriel de Queylus, on the west. M. de Queylus interested himself in city planning also and he mapped out the lines on which the city should extend. An important protection was also secured by the construction of a well of one hundred feet in diameter, built by Jacques Archambault at the order of the governor, "in the middle of the court," or of the "place d'armes" of the fort, as it read in the contract of October 8, 1658. So far the water used had been supplied by the river, but fear of invasion and siege, and possible burning of the fort by the Iroquois, rendered this precaution very wise. In the next year, 1659, a similar well was placed in the hospital garden by order of M. de Queylus, and in the following year, 1660, a third contract was signed by Jacques Archambault for Charles Le Moyne, Jacques Leber and Jacques Tessard, for the mutual assistance of their houses near the hospital; and during this year also a storehouse of 60 by 30 feet was built by Francis Bailly dit Lafleur in the interior of the fort to guard the grain of the hospital.
