The outlook for Montreal was now financially gloomy. Ville Marie was also surrounded by war. Jeanne Mance therefore set sail from Quebec on September 8th to interest her friends in the struggling settlement. In this she was very successful. Madame de Bullion received her with kindness and gave her a sum of money to engage workmen to till lands to support the hospital. The Associates renewed their interest, and in order to guarantee the continuance of their Seigneurie a new act was drawn up to supplement that of March 25, 1644, in which M. de Fancamp and M. de la Dauversière had sworn that they were occupiers of Montreal in the name of a company, so that these nine remaining members were now publicly named and signed their names, making at the same time a mutual donation, reciprocal and irrevocable, by which they handed over to the last surviving of them the forts, habitations and outhouses, etc., belonging to the said Company. This was signed before the Notaries Pourcelle and Chaussiere on March 21, 1650. [60]
The Company gave the hospital also 200 arpents of land. Jeanne Mance saw many of the associates privately and stimulated their interest, as well as that, of others. In the month of September, 1650, she arrived at Quebec with some labourers and some virtuous marriageable girls, leaving it on September 25th for Montreal and arriving there three days before the feast of All Saints (November 1st). [61]
The year 1650 may be chronicled as that of the first general movement towards agriculture. The constant fear of Iroquois' attacks had kept the settlers pent up within the walls of the fort, although there had been since 1643 individual attempts by Charles d'Ailleboust and others outside. [62] The activity started by Jeanne Mance in putting into cultivation the 200 arpents lately conceded by the Associates of the Company of Montreal to the Hôtel-Dieu encouraged others to take to the land and to build their dwellings on the concessions which they now demanded from M. Maisonneuve, since it was now thought there was a likelihood of peace.
These early grants were only of thirty arpents and to ensure as great protection as possible against Iroquois attacks, they were clustered around the fort and the brewery. In granting these lands, however, the seigneurs stipulated that they could be exchanged later for others at a remote distance, for the location at present used was reserved for the future city, for the building of the market place, the port and other public purposes.
What may be called the history of mutual building societies now starts, for as the number of workmen were limited, the inhabitants, led by the motives of fraternal charity and public spirit, formed associations to help one another in the clearing of their lots and in the construction of their homes. Thus a contract dated November 15, 1650, between Jean des Carris and Jean Le Duc, binds them to assist each other to build at common expense a ho, for each, on a clearing, of ten acres each, made by them, and that if one of them fell sick the work should be continued by the other without remuneration.
In the present case after the clearing had been made and the house built on Jean des Carris' concession, the war intervening would not allow similar work to be done on that of Jean Le Duc, and in consequence Jean Le Duc received from his partner 580 livres in recompense for his services.
The harvest of this year was very successful; "particularly at Montreal where the lands are very excellent," is the account in the "Relations."
It is not difficult now to present a picture of Montreal or Ville Marie of this period. On the northeast portion of the triangular piece of land watered on the east and north by the little River St. Peter and on the south by the St. Lawrence, there was the fort and the new concessions with their wooden buildings being erected thereon; on the southern portion there was a long sweep of ground, an arpent in depth and forty in length, along the banks of the river westward, on which the cattle of the soldiers and others who were now becoming farmers were allowed to stray. This was known as "the Common" [63] and was granted to Jean de Saint Père as the syndic for the people in October, 1651, on the understanding that it should revert to the seigneurs when they should need it for city expansion. In this common, which was protected by the fort and the houses above, the animals, under the care of a watchman, were safe from immediate attack, since all approaching this pasturage must necessarily venture from afar and be visible. At the west end of the common was the windmill near the river. [64] Across the little river there were the houses of M. Maisonneuve and that of the Hôtel-Dieu. This comprised the situation.
In spite of the pictures of progress and contentment we have presented as existing towards the end of 1649 and the earlier part of 1650, we must remember that Montreal was frequently the rendezvous of bands of Hurons and their Jesuit missionaries, who told of their flight from the cruelty of the Iroquois; of forts destroyed, pillaged, of burnings and massacres. Montreal itself, they were told, was soon be the object of attack. Hence the bands did not delay. After the horrible scenes that had occurred at St. Louis [65] in July of 1650 the missionaries brought down three or four hundred Lake Hurons, the relics of three to four thousand, to Ville Marie, where they stayed only two days. The "Relation" of this year says: "This is an advantageous situation for the settlement of the savages, but as it is the frontier of the Iroquois, whom our Hurons flee from, more than death itself, they could not determine to start their colony then."
Dollier de Casson gives us this insight into the fear caused at Ville Marie by these visits and their recitals of disaster. The evident reflection then was, "If we who are only a handful of Europeans, do not offer a firmer and more vigorous resistance than 30,000 Hurons have done, then we must reconcile ourselves to be burnt alive at a slow fire with all the refinements of unheard of cruelty."