VENERABLE MERE MARIE DE L'INCARNATION

We must imagine the religious enthusiasm of the colonists at their arrival and the eagerness with which the two new institutions were begun, that of the hospital at Quebec and of the Ursuline convent at Sillery.

But soon gloom was cast upon the little colony. Money and workmen from the Company in France were needed and they came not. The explanation is that the small sum of 300,000 livres, the original capital subscribed by the One Hundred Associates, was dwindling, the expenses being necessarily great, and the company of ladies and gentlemen composing it, not being as practical as they were pious, so that although they placed the commercial side of their affairs in the hands of traders, these mainly looked after their own interests rather than those of the colony.

The development of the struggling institutions lately mentioned was hindered. To add to the general distress, on the 4th day of June, 1640, a fire quickly consumed the Church of Notre Dame de Recouvrance, the house of the Jesuits and the governor's chapel, which were all of resinous wood.

What a loss this must have been to the handful of colonists who numbered in all in the year 1641 only 200! The mention of this number reminds us of the charter given to the Company in 1627, and the reader is advised to turn back and see how its conditions of colonization have been filled. Outside the three religious communities and the persons engaged in their service, the rest was composed of the servants of the Company engaged in commerce. To add to their other troubles the Iroquois again began their hostilities, declaring war against the French and the Hurons. In the autumn of 1640 they captured two of the French belonging to the garrison of Three Rivers. These were eventually recaptured and the governor, M. de Montmagny, offered terms of peace if they would conclude a universal peace with the Huron allies. During the night, which the Iroquois had demanded to think over this proposition, they treacherously laid plans to fall upon the French next day, in which they were routed, escaping however at night in the shadows of the woods.

Meanwhile news had also arrived of the ill treatment of the Jesuit missionaries, Chaumont, Garnier, Poncet and Pijart, scattered away the Indian tribes. All Quebec was in alarm and consternation, and nowhere was there more fear than at the Indian village under the charge of the Hospitalières sisters at Sillery, four miles from the garrison. Such was the depression in the colony that in 1641 Father Viniont, now superior of the Jesuits in Quebec, wrote home:

"It is going to be destroyed if it is not strongly and quickly succoured. The trade of the Company, the colony of the French and the religion which is now beginning to flourish among the savages, are at the lowest point, if they do not quell the Iroquois. Fifty Iroquois, since the Dutch have given them fire-arms, are capable of driving the 200 colonists out of the country."

It was in these desperate straits that news came of a reinforcement to be sent to the colony; but what must have been their disappointment and misgivings when they realized that the new Company had resolved upon Montreal, sixty leagues away up at the Sault St. Louis, as their rendezvous. And that the projected expedition was determined on definitely, was made clear when the supply of provisions for the new colony arrived at Quebec in 1840, very opportunely, however, for they served for the use of the famished garrison, since the Company of One Hundred Associates had neglected to provide their usual supply.

FOOTNOTE:

[35] The earliest relation was written in 1614; then follows one for 1626; and after a break of six years, they proceed in regular succession from 1632-1672.