[33] Who is this Maisonneuve appearing as a privileged trader with the passport of the prince, doubtless the Prince de Condé, Henri de Bourbon, viceroy of Canada and head of Champlain's company? Evidently he was a person of some consequence from the ease with which Champlain granted him permission to trade at his settlement. Can it be, as Kingsford and others ingeniously try to prove, Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, who was later to found Montreal as a settlement in 1642, acting for "La Compagnie de Montreal?" (1) No. Chomedey was from Paris; the de Maisonneuve mentioned above is from St. Malo. (2) de Maisonneuve was a common enough name. There were even several of that name in Montreal in 1667.
[34] Mass was only said at Quebec for the first time on June 25, 1615, by which time they had built their chapel. The priority of the Island of Montreal in its claim to the first mass is substantiated by the "Mémoires des Recollects" of 1637 which distinctly say that "the first mass was celebrated at Rivière des Prairies and the second at Quebec."
CHAPTER IV
1627-1641
COLONIZATION
UNDER THE COMPANY OF ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES
THE CHARTER OF THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES THE BASIS OF THE SEIGNEURIAL SYSTEM TO BE AFTERWARDS ESTABLISHED AT MONTREAL—THE ENGLISH IN 1629 CAPTURE QUEBEC—1632, CANADA AGAIN CEDED TO THE FRENCH—1633, THE COMING OF THE JESUITS—THE RECOLLECTS DO NOT RETURN—THREE RIVERS IS ESTABLISHED—DESCRIPTION OF COLONIAL LIFE AT QUEBEC—DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN IN 1635—THE RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS TO BE IMITATED AFTERWARDS AT MONTREAL—THE "RELATIONS DES JESUITES"—THE IROQUOIS BEGIN THEIR ATTACKS—THE NEWS OF A REINFORCEMENT AND DISAPPOINTMENT THAT MONTREAL HAS BEEN CHOSEN AS ITS HEADQUARTERS.
On April 29, 1627, Richelieu, the Superintendent of Marine and Commerce, securing the resignation of the Duke de Vantadour and annulling the privileges of de Caen and his associates with suitable indemnities, formed a new association under the title of the "Hundred Associates of the Company of New France," among whom were many gentlemen of rank. It was resolved that in the following year of 1628 a colony of two to three hundred men of all trades, all professing the Catholic religion, would be sent over—to be increased in the following fifteen years to four thousand, of both sexes. At that time the sole population of New France was seventy-six souls.