But the days of Samuel de Champlain, Sieur de Brouage, were drawing to a close. To found this colony he had suffered many perils by land and sea, many fatigues, privations and opposition of friends and enemies. Paralysis now weakened his splendid physique and sturdy form, and after two months and a half of suffering he died on Christmas day, December 25, 1635. His death was most edifying, as the Jesuit chronicler relates. His obsequies were attended by the grief-stricken colony in a body, the settlers, the soldiers, the captains and the religious.
Father Lalemant officiated and Father Lejeune pronounced the funeral oration: Samuel de Champlain merits well of Canada. His death was apparently foreseen, for after the above ceremony while the gathering was still present, letters which had been left in the hands of Father Lejeune by the Company, to be opened after the death of Champlain, were publicly read announcing the appointment by letters patent of the Messieurs de la Compagnie of M. Bras-de-Fer de Chateaufort, the commandant of the young fort at Three Rivers, as acting governor ad interim for Mgr. the Duke of Richelieu, while awaiting the successor of Champlain to be named by the king.
The arrival of the ships from France, the next year, were eagerly looked forward to, albeit with some anxiety, for France being at war with Spain many doubted whether they would arrive, but to their delight they came in greater number than could have been expected, and on the night preceding the eleventh day of June, the new governor nominated by the Company and approved by the king arrived. This was Charles Hualt de Montmagny, Knight of Malta. The reception he received next morning was most imposing. He was met officially at the harbour, and conducted to the chapel of Notre Dame de Recouvrance, and thence to the parish church where a Te Deum was sung with prayers for the king. Then he mounted to the fortress where M. de Chateaufort, the temporary governor, handed over the keys amid the roar of cannon and the salvos of musketry. With M. de Montmagny there arrived a convoy of forty-five colonists—a notable increase. Among these were some families of note such as those of M. de Repentigny and M. de la Potherie. Next year, there came others, with many persons of distinction. A certain element of official dignity now began to prevail. It was de Montmagny's chief work to organize and strengthen the defences of the colony in preparation against the attacks of the Iroquois. At Quebec the governor reinforced the redoubt built by Champlain on the river by a platform and added more cannon to the battery. This new military aspect of the colony is described by the chronicler in the "Relations of the Jesuits for 1636."
"The morning gun (or the beat of the drum at dawn in the garrison) awakens us every morning. We see the sentinels put on post; the guard house is always well manned; each squad has its days of duty. It is a pleasure to see our soldiers at military exercises in the sweet time of peace ... in a word, our fortress of Quebec is guarded in peace so as to be a place of importance, in the heat of war."
With the assistance of M. Chateaufort, reinstated as commandant of the growing fort at Three Rivers, the palisaded stockade there was reinforced with two main buildings, a storehouse and a platform for the cannons. These external signs of power were necessary to impress the natives, both their allies, the Hurons and Algonquins, should they prove treacherous, as well as the fierce Iroquois, the deadly enemies of both. The little garrisons had need to be well prepared for eventualities.
At this time several foundations in the colony were established, by private charity, to Christianize the natives and to encourage them to live a sedentary life and to till the ground. A mission village was built for them by the Jesuits in 1638 at Sillery, on the banks of the St. Lawrence, at a distance of four miles from Quebec, the funds being supplied by the charity of a member of the Hundred Associates, a distinguished commander of Malta, Noël Brulart de Sillery, a former Minister of State. At Three Rivers in 1641 similar action was taken. A third was desired by the missionaries at the Rivière des Prairies at the north of the Island of Montreal, as a central position for missionary effort among the up-country tribes.
Tadoussac was visited by the missionaries from time to time, but was too desolate a spot to attract the natives to dwell there permanently. The Jesuits had thought of establishing themselves at Ile Jésus, for there is an act of August 16, 1638, giving it to them at Three Rivers and signed by Montmagny.
We have seen the establishment of a school for the Indian boys by the Jesuits. We are now to record a similar one for girls, but who should undertake inch a work for them? Two noble ladies of France were to answer this question. The year 1639 saw the arrival at Quebec, on August 1st, of a party of brave ladies whom we may know as the pioneers of all those numerous philanthropic organizations and good works controlled by the devoted women of Canada of today. These were the ladies sent from France by Madame la Duchesse d'Aiguillon, the niece of Cardinal Richelieu, and by Madame de la Peltrie, to assist the struggling colony there.
I will here introduce the reader to what are known as the "Relations." These are a series of letters or reports which were written by the Jesuit missionaries in Nouvelle France, starting from the arrival of Fathers Lalemant and Lejeune and continued long after. They have now been collected and published, and are the most valuable historical sources of this early period. They are written to the superiors of their order in France, sent by the Company's boats, and were the source of encouragement and inspiration to their religious brethren who eagerly read them and desired to follow in their writers' footsteps in the mission field of New France. Many others besides the Jesuits saw these letters. The news contained in them was eagerly looked for by many good ladies and gentlemen of France who were interested in the progress of this romantic settlement among the savages in a far-off land. The birth struggles of the new colony, the devotion and self sacrifices of the pioneers, attracted their imagination and stirred their sympathy and generosity. [35]
In 1634-35 Father Lejeune had written exposing the need of some establishment to take care of the girls abandoned by the Indians and of another for education similar to that, for boys, already constructed. This "Relation" was read by the niece of Cardinal Richelieu, Madame la Duchesse d'Aiguillon, and she wrote to the Jesuits: "God having given me the desire to aid in the salvation of these poor savages, after having read the report you have made of them, it seems to me that what you believe would be of most service to their conversion is the establishment of the Religeuses Hospitalières in New France; in consequence I have resolved to send there this year six labourers to clear the land and construct dwellings for these good ladies."