The above money was not to be paid, however, till ten years after, when Mademoiselle Mance gave them a deed of acquittance in 1669, made out by Maître Basset, the town clerk.
At last the recruit force for Montreal was ready and it embarked on the St. André (Captain Poulet) on June 29th. Besides the ladies with the two foundresses, there were two Sulpicians, MM. de Vignal and Le Maître, and a body of sixty-two men, and forty-seven women, or marriageable girls honest families, most of whom were from Marans in Saintonge and more or less interrelated, who were sent out at the expense of the company and of the Hôtel-Dieu, the third of the trilogy of religious institutions to minister at Montreal in this early period. There were other settlers who paid their own expenses. In addition there were sixteen or seventeen young women for Quebec.
The St. André, containing about two hundred souls, set sail for Rochelle on July 2d. It was a veritable pesthouse of infection, having been used as a hospital troop-ship two years ago, and it had never been quarantined, so that hardly were they on their way when the contagion declared itself. The food of the emigrants was the poorest; the accommodations of the barest and most primitive description; the supply of fresh water very limited. For two months sickness and furious tempests and contrary winds afflicted the wretched vessel. Eight or ten died, but most were sick, among them Marguerite Bourgeoys but principally Jeanne Mance, who was reduced to the last extremity. The ship became a hospital and among the devoted nurses none were more so than the women for the Hôtel-Dieu of Montreal.
At last Quebec harbour was reached on September 7th but disembarkation took place next day. Here the sick were landed, a work in which Mgr. de Laval gave his personal service, "tending the sick and making their beds," as the Annales of the Hôtel-Dieu relate. The hospital was filled with the convalescents but the rest of the Montreal party put up at the storehouse sheds of the "Magasin de Montréal."
Marguerite Bourgeoys was the first to be able to lead her party from Quebec and she arrived at Montreal just a year after her departure, on September 29th, carrying the little Thibaudeau baby (the three other Thibaudeau children had died on the ocean) that she had tended on the voyage and which she had allowed the father to nurse at Quebec, but he, unlucky wight, having let it get burned, she had again taken care of the poor sufferer on the journey up the river.
Mademoiselle Mance remained behind, still too sick to travel. Moreover, the opposition of the vicar apostolic Monseigneur de Laval, to the Hospitalières for Montreal, had to be met. He examined their constitution, drawn up by a married man, M. de la Dauversière, and found it different from other congregations. They wore secular clothing. Though erected canonically in October, 1643, they only took simple vows and they had not yet received the approbation of Rome. He thought it would be better for them to go back to France or seek admission to the Hospitalières of the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec, a constituted regular institution, which could form a branch to serve Montreal. But their superior, Judith de Moreau de Brésoles, and her companions, did not acquiesce with either suggestion.
Moreover, a practical difficulty of money matters prevented this, for the Associates of Montreal had declared they would withdraw their alms altogether, if any others went to the Hôtel-Dieu but those already chosen, and in addition if the Quebec Sisterhood should take up the Hôtel-Dieu at Montreal, that part of the foundation given by Madame d'Aiguillon for Quebec should be diverted to Montreal. This solved the difficulty for, as Mère Jucherau, in the Annales of the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec, says: "Monseigneur liked to keep up our community with its revenue rather than to share our funds between two houses, neither of which could support the other."
On October 2d the Hôtel-Dieu Sisters of Montreal left with full authorization to exercise their work until ordered otherwise. On October 20th they received from Maisonneuve the act of the "prise de possession" of the Hôtel-Dieu, dated from the governor's house, which was still in the fort. On October 26th the St. André returned to France, bearing the Abbé de Queylus, as before related. Jeanne Mance started a week later for Montreal but she was here on November 3d and had the satisfaction of being present at the marriage of the widow, "Miss" Bardillières, whom she had left in charge of the hospital and who now wedded Jacques Testard, Sieur de la Forest. It was a notable wedding, the witnesses' names including, besides Jeanne Mance, those of Maisonneuve and the governor of Three Rivers and many notables. Hospital work has since conduced to match-making in Montreal as heretofore. [83]
FOOTNOTES:
[80] Records of punishment for injurious words are also to be found on May 20, 1660; September 20, 1662; August, 1663; June, 1665. Women figure largely in these cases.