1655-1658

THE COMING OF THE SULPICIANS

(1657)

MAISONNEUVE GOES TO FRANCE—ARRANGES FOR HOSPITALIERES AND SULPICIANS—BISHOPRIC FOR NEW FRANCE—THE NOMINATIONS OF DE QUEYLUS AND LAVAL—THE APPOINTMENT DELAYED—THE DEATH OF M. OLIER—THE ARRIVAL OF DE QUEYLUS AND MAISONNEUVE AT QUEBEC—TWO RIVAL "GRANDS VICAIRES"—DE QUEYLUS GOES TO MONTREAL AND QUICKLY RETURNS TO RULE THE CHURCH IN QUEBEC—THE INTRUSION RESENTED—THE SULPICIANS IN MONTREAL—TRIBUTE TO THEM AS CIVIC AND RELIGIOUS ADMINISTRATORS—IROQUOIS HOSTILITIES RESUMED—THE HEAD OF JEAN ST. PERE—THE CHURCH IN MONTREAL TAKES ON "PARISH" PRETENSIONS—CHURCH WARDENS AND "LA FABRIQUE"—THE FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE—THE FLIGHT TO MONTREAL FROM ONONDAGA—PRECAUTIONARY ORDINANCES BY MAISONNEUVE—FORTIFIED REDOUBTS—THE ECCLESIASTICAL DISPUTE SETTLED—DE QUEN "GRAND VICAIRE" OF QUEBEC, DE QUEYLUS OF MONTREAL—BON SECOURS CHURCH DELAYED—JEANNE MANCE AND MARGUERITE BOURGEOYS VISIT FRANCE.

In the autumn of 1655, profiting by the peace concluded, and seeing the progress of the town well under way, the governor left Montreal under the charge of Lambert Closse, and sailed for France. His object was threefold (1) to promote the erection of an episcopal seat in Canada; (2) to secure, as originally arranged, permanent parish priests for Montreal from M. Olier's Seminary of St. Sulpice, since the Jesuits, being missionaries, desired their men to be ready to visit the far-off tribes; and (3) to bring back the sisters of the Institute of HospitaliÈres, erected lately by M. de la DauversiÈre, in view of the service of the HÔtel-Dieu.

On arriving in France, an agreement was entered into by which three or four of the HospitaliÈres of La FlÈche should come to Montreal when all was ready. M. Olier, who had wished to finish his days in Canada, chose for Maisonneuve three of his priests, Gabriel de Queylus, whom he named superior; Gabriel Souart, Dominic Galinier, and a deacon, M. d'Allet.

In the choice of M. Gabriel de ThubiÈres de LÉvy Queylus as superior, the Associates saw their likely nominee as the bishop whom they wished to have in the see of New France. They had him in view in promoting the creation of the episcopal see before the assembly of the bishops on August 9, 1656, through the good services of Mgr. Godeau, Bishop of Vence. This was again brought up before the assembly on January 10, 1657, and Cardinal Mazarin, then present, undertook to interest the king in the formation of the episcopal see as desired. On this occasion the name of the AbbÉ de Queylus was mentioned to Cardinal Mazarin by the bishop of Vence as a man of approved "probity, capacity and zeal, who possesses an abbacy of considerable value. He is willing to sacrifice himself in this new episcopate, in a barbarous country, so far from all consolation; and his person is agreeable to the Jesuit fathers." (ProcÈs Verbal of the General Assembly, January 10, 1657.)

M. de Queylus had many and great qualifications. He was a doctor of theology. His capacity and zeal had been shown as the superior of the community of the parish of St. Sulpice at Paris, when he was Olier's right hand man. He had laboured in the ecclesiastical reform of several dioceses in Languedoc and had established the diocesan Seminary of Viviers, which he sustained by his liberality. He enjoyed the abbacy of Loc Dieu. He had a private income—a valuable thing for a bishop in a poor diocese; and his choice, it was alleged, was likely to please the Jesuits.

This latter was an important argument, for this Order had been on the ground so long, that they were the most fitted to understand the needs of a missionary country, and of the natives whose languages they spoke. They were zealous, able men, who had become necessary, and their blood had been freely spent in the work of colonization and Christianity. It would have been most appropriate to have chosen a bishop from among them, except that the democratic spirit of the order is against the acceptance of dignities, unless forced upon them. Seeing this, it was etiquette and the wisdom of the Church not to impose an ecclesiastical superior above them, without consulting their wishes.

But there is no proof of the above assertion that the Jesuits approved of de Queylus; indeed, on the contrary, as soon as they learned of his nomination in the same month of January, they proposed the AbbÉ FranÇois de Laval de Montmorency, to the king, as their candidate for the projected see of New France. This opposition shelved the immediate question of the appointment of a bishop, which was delayed till the consecration of Laval on December 8, 1658.

Meanwhile M. Olier thought that there should be no delay in the Sulpicians taking up the pastoral work of Montreal. Accordingly we find M. de Queylus and his three companions at Nantes waiting to embark, when the sad news came that M. Olier had died at Paris on Easter Monday, April 2, 1657.

This was a great blow, since M. Olier was looked upon as the soul of the Montreal mission. The departure was postponed till the middle of May. In the meantime the missionaries had recourse to the Archbishop of Rouen with whom, by prescription, the jurisdiction of New France lay, seeing that it had not been revoked by the Holy See in 1643. From him they received by letters dated April 22, 1657, all the accustomed powers granted on such occasions to Canadian missionaries. But the AbbÉ de Queylus received, in addition a "proprio motu" from the archbishop, appointing him his "grand vicar for all New France." This was a false step on the part of the Archbishop of Rouen and M. de Queylus, for it put, even the superior of the Jesuit missionaries under the local superior of Montreal, a most unwise proceeding. Secondly, the archbishop forgot that already the Jesuit superior had been granted similar powers and he had not revoked them. He should certainly have foreseen inevitable friction. To Rouen is to be attributed the long drawn out battle now to commence between Quebec and Montreal.

On May 17, 1657, the four missionaries set sail with M. de Maisonneuve, M. and Mme. d'Ailleboust and other passengers.

On reaching the Isle of Orleans, two leagues from Quebec, Maisonneuve and the Montreal party disembarked, desirous to proceed immediately by another vessel to Montreal. But M. d'Ailleboust, arriving at Quebec on July 29th, announced the coming of the Sulpicians, so that kind-hearted PÈre de Quen, formerly in charge of Montreal and now superior of the Jesuit missions, immediately set forth for the Ile d'Orleans to call upon them. He congratulated Queylus on his letters of vicar general, and induced him to come to Quebec. It is strange that de Queylus, with the letters he bore, did not call directly upon the Jesuit superior whom he was to supplant. There is no doubt that the position of the AbbÉ Queylus was not understood by the Jesuits. Faillon, in his history of "La Colonie FranÇaise," says quite wrongly that there was an express clause, in the authorization of the new grand vicar, now disclosed to Father de Quen, especially mentioning the immediate cession of those powers already granted to the Jesuit superior of the missionaries. M. de Queylus, no doubt in good faith read this into his letters but he weakly explained that he would confine the exercise of his powers to Montreal. The letter of the archbishop certainly did not specifically revoke previous powers given to the Jesuits. Father de Quen as a canonist pointed out that it was more consistent that the AbbÉ de Queylus, in doubt as to the revocation of the Jesuits' powers, should follow out the full powers of universal jurisdiction claimed by him. On this the grand vicar, who did not need much pressure, made with the assent of PÈre de Quen an official visit of the parish church which was under the charge of Father Poncet, the first Jesuit missionary at Montreal in 1642. Father de Quen's action was weak, but wise, as he thought, at this time. M. de Queylus confirmed the friendly Father Poncet in the government of the parish of Quebec and handed to him the bull of indulgence of Pope Alexander VII on the occasion of his exaltation to the pontificate.

Father de Quen explained his temporizing acquiescence in a manuscript letter, in Latin to the general of the society, of September 3, 1658. "It is true that I did not wish to exercise any act [of jurisdiction, as a vicar general] from that day on which M. l'AbbÉ Queylus laid his letters patent of authority before me lest any evil should thence arrive; however, I could not, nor would not, yield my jurisdiction (potestatus et res) until I became certain that it had been revoked by his Eminence the Archbishop of Rouen, who had granted it to me." Thus the Jesuit acted constitutionally and wisely. Rouen would now be approached by him.

In the meantime, after having been recognized as "grand vicaire" M. de Queylus with the Sulpicians proceeded to Ville Marie. On August 12th PÈre Claude Pijart, the missionary, gave over the exercise of his ministry to M. Gabriel Souart who now became the curÉ or parish priest. Father Pijart remained in Montreal for some time, but, on September 3rd, he was in Quebec, where he was appointed to take the place of PÈre Poncet, in the charge of the parish church. PÈre Poncet, though a zealous and enterprising man, had shown himself a difficult subject, and his obedience and his spirit of independence had been already called in question in a letter to Rome. As this may be accounted the beginning of the ecclesiastical trouble between Montreal and Quebec we will follow PÈre Pijart.

On arriving at Quebec, PÈre Pijart found that the injudicious PÈre Poncet had been deposed from his office by his superior, PÈre de Quen, as a consequence of his promulgation of the bull left behind by the grand vicar, announcing the opening of the jubilee for August 12th. PÈre de Quen, now no longer acting as grand vicar, but still the superior of the Jesuit missions of Canada, had apparently been ignorant of the arrival of this bull, and he considered that as his religious superior and that of most of the clergy in the country he should have had notification of it and he deposed the parish priest, PÈre Poncet,—a power which he had arranged with M. de Queylus to retain as a religious superior according to acknowledged ecclesiastical etiquette. The position was a new one. Time only could straighten out the inevitable difficulties arising in a double rÉgime now commencing. PÈre Poncet meanwhile, appointed to the Indian mission of Onondaga started the year previously, left Quebec on August 28th and, passing by Montreal, informed the "grand vicaire" of the loss of his parish. The latter impetuously prevailed on him to suspend his journey, forgetful that in his inexperience he was committing a new breach of church etiquette in interfering with the orders of the Jesuit superior to his own subject, and together they arrived, with M. d'Ailleboust and the deacon, M. d'Allet, acting as Queylus' secretary, at Quebec on September 12th.

On September 18th, Father Poncet was sent by de Quen back to France, a sad return for an heroic man but obedience for the Jesuit is the formal test of heroism.

M. d'Ailleboust was now called upon to act as governor general, replacing M. de Lauson-Charny ad interim, till another was formally appointed. On arriving M. Queylus, superseding Father Pijart, unwisely and ambitiously took up the functions of parish priest himself in the hitherto Jesuit church and remained there for a year. This was open hostility. He was assisted on occasions by the chaplain of the Ursulines, M. Guillaume Vignal, and that of the HÔtel-Dieu, M. Jean Lebey, both secular priests. M. Queylus lived at the chÂteau with the governor general while the Jesuits inhabited the official presbytery. The position was electrical and there was open hostility. There were two factions. Occasional interchange of courtesies and ministry were, however, carried on and a semblance of diplomatic peace at last arrived at, so that d'Argenson, the new governor general, writing on September 5, 1658, a year later, says: "I was surprised, after having heard in France of the little differences between the reverend Jesuits and M. l'AbbÉ de Queylus, to see the union between them and the church entirely at peace." He recommended, however, the appointment of a bishop as a solution of the difficulty. D'Argenson had arrived unexpectedly at Quebec on July 11th. He brought over powers to settle the ecclesiastical "impasse." During the year the Jesuits had communicated with the archbishop of Rouen, Mgr. de Harlay, and a brief of March 30, 1656, written in French, arranged that there should be two "grands vicaires," one for the Quebec district in the person of the superior of the Jesuits, and M. de Queylus, who should exercise his jurisdiction in that of Montreal only. This was not communicated to M. de Queylus till August 8th. He was at first inclined to dispute the situation, but d'Argenson, assuring him of the cognizance of the Company of Montreal of this matter, he "peacefully" acquiesced, departing from Quebec on August 21st with M. and Mme. d'Ailleboust, whose presence was no longer required there. During his stay in Quebec M. Queylus founded the church of Ste. Anne de BeauprÉ, since, the great Canadian shrine, the scene of many pilgrimages, and in many ways showed himself a progressive administrator. He was certainly an active man, with the defects of his qualities.

The explanation of the letter brought by d'Argenson is as follows: Shortly after the surprise received by the appearance of the Sulpician vicar general the superior of the Jesuits, PÈre de Quen wrote to Father Brisacier, the Jesuit rector of the college at Rouen, to ask him to enquire of his Grace the Archbishop of Rouen if he had withdrawn his faculties as vicar general or not.

He also wrote at the same time to the general of the order, Goswin Nickel, acquainting him of the new situation in Canada. On December 17, 1657, the general himself also wrote to Father Brisacier in Latin as follows: "Father J. de Quen, superior of the Canadian missions, has written to me on September 20th of this year, that he and his subjects are being harassed by the AbbÉ de Queylus, sent out there last summer by his Eminence the Archbishop of Rouen, to act as his vicar general, asserting that the marriages celebrated by fathers acting as parish priests are null; that they are abusing the power and jurisdiction of the vicar general which they had obtained; that he could dispose of our men 'ad libitum,' and other things which have no little disturbed the nascent church. The evil might increase from day to day unless his Grace the Archbishop, through his zeal and piety, will early look into the matter. Your Reverence will see whether you can obtain from him either that the power of this abbÉ may be revoked or that he shall so treat with ours that he shall have come to New France not for its destruction but for its upbuilding." (Arch. Gen., 89.)

The final response to the difficulty came to Quebec on July 11, 1658, when the letter of Mgr. de Harlay, the archbishop of Rouen, arrived.

"To put an end to the differences," he says, "which have intervened between the Sieur AbbÉ de Queylus and the venerable superior of the Jesuits of the house of Quebec, both our grands vicaires in the part of our diocese called La Nouvelle France, until it may be more amply provided for by your authority, we have ordered that Sieur AbbÉ de Queylus shall exercise hereafter and from the day of the present ordinance, the vicariate which we have given him, according to the powers we have given him, in the extent of the Island of Montreal; as also the superior of the Jesuits of the house of Quebec shall exercise the same powers that we have accorded him, without either one or the other of the two grands vicaires being able to undertake anything in their different territories without the consent of the one and the other." This act was made and signed at Paris on March 30, 1658.

It would certainly appear then that Father de Quen's powers had never been revoked, that AbbÉ de Queylus had forced the sense of his letters patent accorded April 22, 1657, since in giving him an extended jurisdiction he did not revoke previous powers given. There were to be two independent parallel vicariates under Rouen. In a later letter of September 3, 1658, of Father de Quen to the general of his order, he interprets the above as a confirmation of his previous powers, and not a new concession.

"The Most Eminent Archbishop of Rouen has sent me letters in which he confirms the power conceded by him to us now since many years, of vicar general of Quebec and in other adjacent places. He has written also to the AbbÉ de Queylus a letter which has constituted him vicar general in the Island of Montreal only." (Arch. Gen., S. J.)

In spite of the storm clouds gathered over them, the arrival of the Sulpicians at Montreal was welcomed. They represented to the colonists, the Company of Notre-Dame de Montreal that had brought them out. M. de Queylus was wealthy and a member of the Company of Montreal, and the others were self supporting members of a body, to whom it had already been proposed by the Company to hand over the seigneury of the whole island, as indeed happened in 1663. This meant material advancement for the church and progress for the settlement. Although the Jesuits were very much loved by the people, their number was small, they had no settled income and frequently they were called to absent themselves from Montreal. The permanent presence of four Sulpicians, with the prospects of an assured continuity, was indeed gratifying also from a spiritual point of view. The honour of receiving them fell to Jeanne Mance, and they were allotted the large room in the hospital, which was at once the refectory, recreation, study, and bedroom, all in one. There they remained till the stone house named the Seminary was built for them. M. Souart being a doctor could also be on hand for assistance to the hospital sick.

Meanwhile, the peaceful situation at Ville Marie, during the above negotiations, claims our attention.

The advent of the Sulpicians marks the growth of organized progress in the development of the religious and civic life of Montreal. It was due to them that the church began to take on parish proportions, one of their first acts being the foundation of the "Oeuvre de Fabrique" soon to be chronicled. It was the mission of the Jesuits to be the hardy pioneers to succour the spiritual needs during their early days of the handful of struggling settlers; that of the Sulpicians to develop the sense of civic administration and to guide it for many generations. A modern historian [78] writing in 1887, pays the following tribute to the Sulpicians:

"Thus not only the city but the entire Island of Montreal today possesses an ecclestiastico-civil status, that is now denied even to Rome. This circumstance must never be overlooked, for it has been far-reaching in its influence. Montreal's first lessons in Christian civilization were taken under the auspices I have just described—among the best, it may safely be said, that the France of the period could furnish—and every Protestant church, as well as every other institution in the city, has felt the powerful sway of the gentlemen of the Seminary."

The position of the Catholic Church in the city with its many beautiful churches and educational establishments stands largely as a monument to the important seeds sown in this coming in 1657.

M. de Queylus did not stay long in Ville Marie, for on September 3rd he started for Quebec, as said, to assume the control of the parish church.

On October 25, 1857, the Sulpicians were to experience their first taste of war, for they had three burials in one day in the same sepulchre. On this day, Nicholas GodÉ was building his house at Point St. Charles, assisted by his son-in-law, Jean Saint PÈre, the notary, and Jacques NoËl, their hired assistant, when several of a band of Indians who had been in the neighbourhood, approached the house and were hospitably treated. After a meal the three had gone unarmed on the roof, which they were covering, when their guests treacherously fired at them, and their hosts came toppling off the roof like wounded sparrows. Nicholas GodÉ and Jacques NoËl they scalped, but cutting the head off Jean Saint PÈre, they fled with it, to exhibit his handsome headpiece to their braves.

Dollier de Casson, who arrived in Montreal later, says that he heard the following story from the lips of trustworthy persons, among them a man, whom Marguerite Bourgeoys in her memoirs names a M. CuillÉrier, who having been a prisoner among the Iroquois spoke their language, and had heard the story from the savages themselves, that the head of Jean Saint PÈre proved a trouble to them, for he reproached them in very good Iroquois in such words as these: "You kill us, and you do many cruel things to us; you wish to wipe out the French in this country. You will not come to your wish. You will have to take care, for one day we shall be your masters and you will obey us." And this, although the deceased knew no word of Iroquois; wherever they were, day and night, they heard the voice; in their vexation they scalped the head and threw the troublesome skull away, but they still heard the accusing voice. Dollier de Casson believed the story and thought he must not pass it over in obscurity. A modern historian would explain that the frightened Indians only heard subjectively the voice of their accusing conscience.

Not ignoring this sign of the approaching outbreak of hostilities, d'Ailleboust, at Quebec, gave instructions, on November 1st, that all Iroquois approaching the forts should be seized, looking upon the late act as a declaration of war.

Two Iroquois had been seized by de Maisonneuve, one of them an Onondagan, but not wishing by these arrests to compromise the Jesuits at the mission at Onondaga he sent this Indian with three letters addressed to them, asking them to explain the massacre at Point St. Charles and telling them that the prisoners were being retained in honourable custody, until it was learned whether the late attack had been made by their people or not.

Amid such anxious times the new church, begun in 1656, was rapidly nearing completion, assisted by the funds provided by the Sulpicians. It was a modest building of wood and stood on the corner of St. Joseph (St. Sulpice Street of today) and St. Paul. There it stood till 1678, the first "parish" church, till it was given over entirely to the hospital for the sick.

The church at Montreal now took on parochial airs and pretentions although it was not canonically erected as a parish till 1678, and it must have its marguilliers, or church wardens. Accordingly at an election held November 21, 1657, Louis Prud'homme, Jean Gervaise and Gilbert Barbier were appointed. This day must be taken as the birthday of the foundation of the parish of Montreal. The parish or at least the establishment of the "Fabrique" or corporation for the management of the temporals of the church school was next to be set up. A stable in stone, 36 by 18 feet, situated near the hospital, with a plot of playing ground of forty-eight perches, was donated by the Company through Maisonneuve by act of January 22, 1658. "The present concession made to be of service for the instruction of the girls of Montreal as well as for the dwelling for the said Marguerite Bourgeoys, and after her decease, to perpetuity," this latter being inserted because it was understood that Marguerite would found a body to continue the work after her. She was then thirty-eight years of age. The donation was accepted and witnessed by the chief officers of the community: M. Souart, curÉ; M. Galinier, vicaire; the then church wardens; Marin Jannot, syndic; Lambert Closse, "major of the island," Mademoiselle Mance, administratrice of the hospital, and Charles Le Moyne, storekeeper of the Company.

Montreal of today is perhaps the greatest educational centre on this continent. It receives its students from all parts. Let us then glance at the description given by Marguerite Bourgeoys, in her memoirs, of the humble beginnings of the first home of education in Montreal: "Four years after my arrival M. de Maisonneuve was good enough to give me a stone stable to make a school of it and to lodge there persons to conduct it. This stable has served as a dovecot and a home for cattle. It had a granary loft above to sleep in, to which it was necessary to ascend by an outside staircase. I had it cleaned and a chimney put in, and all that was necessary for schoolkeeping." School was opened on April 30. She was assisted by Marguerite Picard who on November 5 married Nicholas GodÉ and afterwards became Madame Lamontagne, Sieur de la Montague, son of Nicholas, the joiner, who came in 1642. The girls too old to go to school Marguerite formed, on July 2, 1658, into a pious girls' club, or sodality, on the lines of the Congregation of Externes at Troyes, of which she herself had been a member. Thus the house became known as the "Congregation."

The next date of interest this year (1658) is that of April 3rd, "when," says Dollier de Casson, "fifty Frenchmen reached here under the command of M. Dupuis, with the Jesuit fathers who had been forced to leave the mission of Onondaga for fear of being burned alive by the Iroquois. Several of their people, less disposed than they to death by being burned alive, as well as to any other kind which Providence might please to send, had such a fright that they were only cured when they came in sight of Montreal, a like miracle occurring here several times."

This is the sequel of the letters sent by Maisonneuve, and its story must be told. The letters were not delivered, but instead the treacherous Indian messenger told the Onondagas that the French had just allied themselves with the Algonquins to make war against them. This angering the Onondagans, they concerted with the Mohawks and a delegation went to Quebec, arriving on January 3, 1658, to demand the return of their twelve prisoners detained as hostages. But M. d'Ailleboust gave them little satisfaction and they departed in February.

In the same month a secret gathering was held, at AgniÉ of a few of the most influential heads of all the Iroquois nations, and there was sworn a war of extermination of the whites if their captives were not returned, and they would commence with the settlement of the black robes at Onondaga, which had been settled with them at their own invitation in 1656. A Christian Iroquois revealed this plot to the missionaries at Onondaga and these communicated it to Quebec. But how to escape from their own impending slaughter, the like of which had been witnessed on August 3, 1657, when seven Christians had been slain, by these same Onondagas before the horrified eyes of Father Ragueneau, then on his way, to be similarly repeated when, on reaching Onondaga, some of the Christian captives were burned, including several women and their infant children.

As Father Ragueneau was among the fugitives that came to Montreal with Zacharie Dupuis, we may take his story as substantially that which the terrified party told to the horror-stricken Montrealers but with more harrowing details. But first a note on the relater. Paul Ragueneau, born in Paris in 1605, came to Canada when he was thirty-one years of age. In 1646 he was superior of the Huron missions. He was an ideal superior and was very much valued by de Lauson and d'Avaugour on the supreme council. He left Canada in 1662 and acted as the procurator for the Canadian missions in Paris. He died in 1680, on September 3. A year after Father Dablon had sailed with his fifty Frenchmen over Lake Onondaga he was followed by Paul Ragueneau in August, 1657, with a band of thirteen or sixteen Senecas, thirty Onondagas and about fifty Christian Hurons. On the way there was a general butchery of the Hurons by the rest of the party which Ragueneau was forced to witness. When he reached Onondaga his practiced eye took in the unsettled situation. The lives of the French colonists were treacherously foresworn to Indian butchery. This plot became clearer as the autumn passed. In the early months of 1658, Ragueneau, who was superior, called in gradually the missionaries from the outstations and it was arranged with Dupuis, the French commandant, to make a secret flight on the night of March 21, 1658.

Ragueneau's official account of this, to be found in the "Relations" of this year, is as follows: "The resolution was taken to quit the country forthwith, even though the difficulties seemed unsurmountable. To supply the want of canoes we built, in secret, two boats of a novel structure to pass the rapids. They were flat-bottomed and could carry considerable freight, with fourteen or fifteen men on each. We had, besides, four Algonquin and four Iroquois canoes. The difficulty was to build and launch them without being detected, for without secrecy we could only expect a general massacre.

"After succeeding in finishing the boats we invited the savages in our neighbourhood to a solemn banquet, and spared neither the noise of drums nor instruments of music, to deceive them as to our purpose. At the feast, every one vied with each other in uttering the most piercing shrieks, now of revelry, now of war. The savages sang and danced in French fashion, and the French after the manner of the Indians. Presents were given and the greatest tumult was kept up to cover the noise of forty of our people outside, who were launching the boats. The feast was concluded, the guests retired and were soon overpowered by sleep, and we slipped out by the back way to the boats.

"The little lake on which we sailed in the darkness of the night froze as we advanced. God, however, delivered us and, after having advanced all night and all the following day, we arrived in the evening at Lake Ontario. The first day was the most dangerous. Ten or twelve Iroquois could have intercepted us, for the river was narrow, and ten leagues down the stream it leaped over a frightful precipice. It took us four hours to carry our boats around it, through a dense and unknown forest. The perils in which we walked made us shudder after we escaped them. We had no bed at night but the snow, after having passed entire days in icy water.

"Ten days after our departure we reached the St. Lawrence, but it was frozen and we had to cut a channel through the ice. Two days after our little fleet nearly foundered in the rapids. We were in the Long Sault without knowing it. We found ourselves in the midst of breakers, with rocks on all sides, against which the mountains of water flung us at every stroke of our paddles. The cries of our people, mingling with the roar of the waters, added to the horror of the scene. One of our canoes was engulfed in the breakers and barred the passage through which we all had to pass. Three Frenchmen were drowned there; a fourth fortunately saved himself by clinging to the canoe. He was picked up at the foot of the Sault just as his strength was giving out and he was letting go his hold. On the 3rd of April we landed at Montreal at the beginning of the night."

At Montreal, the fugitives were received with tender solicitude and the graphic details recounted at length. Thus the first attempt to plant Christianity in New York territory, after two years had come to a disastrous end.

Radisson, the half-civilized Frenchman, who had spent his early manhood as an adopted Iroquois, had accompanied Ragueneau from Montreal to Onondaga and back, tells the story in his "Travels." He dwells mostly on the occurrences of the feast, when the Indians gorged themselves so, that it was suggested to the priest by a Frenchman, probably by Radisson himself, that the fugitives should massacre them in their helpless drunken stupor and sleep—a suggestion which Ragueneau repudiated.

The surprise of the Onondagas next day was afterwards learned. "When night had given place to day," wrote Ragueneau, "darkness to light, the barbarians awoke from sleep and, leaving their cabins, roved around our well-locked house. They were astonished at the profound silence that reigned there. They saw no one going in or out. They heard no voice. They thought at first that we were at prayer or in council but, the day advancing, and the prayers not coming to an end, they knocked at the door. The dogs, which we had designedly left behind, answered by barking." Radisson's account adds that the idea of a religious ceremony going on within was stimulated by a pig who had a bell rope attached to his leg, so that whenever he moved the bell pealed.

"The cock crows which they heard in the morning," says Ragueneau, "and the noise of the dogs, made them think that the masters were not far off, and they recovered their patience, which they had lost. But at length the sun began to go down, and no person answering either to the voice of men or the cries of the dogs, they scaled the house to see what might be the condition of our men in this terrible silence. Astonishment now gave place to fright. They opened the door; the chiefs enter, descend to the cellar and mount to the garret. Not a Frenchman made his appearance, dead or alive. They thought they had to deal with devils."

This was further borne in upon them, because they had seen no boats. A search in the woods not revealing the fugitives, they came to the conclusion that the Frenchmen had vanished, and might as mysteriously reappear, to fall upon their village.

The news of this disaster and the fear of a terrible uprisal at the hands of the frustrated Iroquois caused the governor to issue the ordinance of March 18, 1658, which was promulgated by BÉnigne Basset, the successor to Notary Saint PÈre. In this the habitants were again ordered as formerly to provide themselves with arms and to fortify their houses; not to endanger their lives, but to work as far as possible in groups; to retire to their homes at the sound of the bell at night and not to leave until next morning without absolute necessity. They were not to go far for their hunting expeditions without special permission, and they were not to use any of the canots or chaloupes that were not their own without the express consent of the proprietors, unless it was a case of saving life.

Such precautions as these manifested the prudence of the governor and was the reason why there had been only one Frenchman killed between the date of the Point St. Charles massacre, October, 1657, to April, 1660. This solitary death was that of Sylvester Vacher dit Saint Julien, who was slain in 1659 near the Lac des Loutres close to the town. We may mention here several of the means adopted this year and the following to secure public safety. On the east, a new mill was built on a rising mound, afterwards called Citadel Hill, which was later the site of Dalhousie Square and is now the site of the Viger station. This was fortified as a redoubt and, together with the old fort mill at Windmill Point on the west, guarded the river front.

In addition the Sulpicians built two fortified farmhouses as redoubts or citadels in the extreme ends of the settlement to guard the labourers there—that of Ste. Marie on the east and that of St. Gabriel, named after M. Gabriel de Queylus, on the west. M. de Queylus interested himself in city planning also and he mapped out the lines on which the city should extend. An important protection was also secured by the construction of a well of one hundred feet in diameter, built by Jacques Archambault at the order of the governor, "in the middle of the court," or of the "place d'armes" of the fort, as it read in the contract of October 8, 1658. So far the water used had been supplied by the river, but fear of invasion and siege, and possible burning of the fort by the Iroquois, rendered this precaution very wise. In the next year, 1659, a similar well was placed in the hospital garden by order of M. de Queylus, and in the following year, 1660, a third contract was signed by Jacques Archambault for Charles Le Moyne, Jacques Leber and Jacques Tessard, for the mutual assistance of their houses near the hospital; and during this year also a storehouse of 60 by 30 feet was built by Francis Bailly dit Lafleur in the interior of the fort to guard the grain of the hospital.

The war was now in full swing.

After the visit of the refugees from Onondaga, the Montrealers in 1658 were in daily fear, for while Three Rivers was being attacked about June 13th by the Iroquois, a similar onslaught was valiantly repulsed at Ville Marie. At Quebec the new governor general, Pierre de Voyer, vicomte d'Argenson, who had arrived on July 11th, experienced his first acquaintance with his hazardous position, when he was aroused at his meal on the next day by the cry of "aux armes."

Such excitements added to his anxieties in settling the dispute as to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, occupied him constantly. These being solved satisfactorily for a time, to the great delight of the Montrealers, the "grand vicaire" of the district of Montreal, M. de Queylus, arrived about the end of August, 1658.

"On August 21st, he had left Quebec 'aegre' (with chagrin)," wrote Father Vimont in a later letter to the general: "but to the great joy of the Jesuits, who had a stormy time with M. de Queylus during his conflict there." On the 26th of August Father Pijart, now at Quebec, writes to his superior in Rome, "Vivimus hic quieti, ex quo Dominus Abbas de Queylus mandato Domini archiepiscopi Rhotomagensis alio abiit—We are living here in peace since the AbbÉ de Queylus has gone elsewhere by order of the archbishop of Rouen." (Arch. Gen. S. J.)

The Sulpician, Dollier de Casson's, account runs thus: "He went to console Montreal by his presence and to dwell there to the great happiness of all, especially to the lively satisfaction of MM. Souart and Galinier, who did not fear to advance well in front in the wood without any apprehension of the Iroquois, to get ahead of his bark coming up the river to testify to the joy that they had at his return." He was followed by six persons from Quebec who filled three chaloupes. In this dangerous time such protection was necessary. M. Faillon, in his history, says that it seems that the greater part of this company "joined to do him honour."

Certainly his advent would have given no one at Montreal more satisfaction than Marguerite Bourgeoys and Mademoiselle Mance, who were waiting for him.

In the spring of 1657 Marguerite Bourgeoys became interested in building a chapel in wood on land granted for the purpose by Maisonneuve, at some distance from her home. The ecclesiastical superior was then PÈre Pijart, who gave her permission and named it in advance "Notre-Dame de Bon Secours." "Our Lady of Good Help," as a standing prayer against the Iroquois. PÈre SimÉon Le Moyne laid the first stone in the spring of 1657, and Lambert Closse, acting governor during the absence of M. de Maisonneuve, placed the necessary inscriptions on a copper plate. Marguerite and her sisters laboured themselves and were helped by the settlers; some carted sand, others wood, and others acted as masons. Everyone was personally approached by her for some service, however small. In the spring of 1658 she applied to obtain the permission of M. de Queylus, then still in Quebec, but he ordered her to suspend her work till his return, which was not until the last week of August, for he did not wish any other enterprise to conflict with the establishment of the parish church. Thus the operations came to a standstill till 1659, when it was finished. [79] The arrival, therefore, of M. de Queylus was awaited with anxiety by Marguerite Bourgeoys and Jeanne Mance. The latter, having fallen on the ice on January 28th, 1657, had been suffering with a dislocated right wrist and had lost the use of her hand in spite of the efforts of the local surgeons. She had found herself useless for her hospital work. Thus she was desirous of the help of the HospitaliÈres of St. Joseph, promised but not sent, since the buildings to accommodate them had not yet been constructed. Besides, there were not enough funds to maintain them, so that now Jeanne Mance approached M. Queylus with her idea of visiting Madame de Bullion for the additional funds and then to bring back the HospitaliÈres. In addition she could consult the best physicians in France on the cure of her wrist. The grand vicaire approved of her journey.

At the same time Marguerite Bourgeoys, seeing herself without workers for the future development of her teaching institution, asked permission to accompany Mademoiselle Mance, who needed assistance in her crippled condition, and to seek teachers among her old friends of the Congregation of Troyes.

But although M. de Queylus had consented to the plan of Jeanne Mance, he nevertheless was desirous of seeing the hospital work undertaken by a branch of the Quebec HospitaliÈres, whose acquaintance he had made. Consequently under the pretext of change of air, he had two of them sent on to Montreal, and these arrived two days before the departure of Jeanne Mance and Marguerite Bourgeoys.

Jeanne Mance, however, had no intention of giving the control of the hospital to any but the La FlÈche HospitaliÈres, and being, by the act of foundation, the administratrix of the HÔtel-Dieu, she appointed a pious widow known as "Mademoiselle" de la BardillÈre, to replace her, and the continuance of the Quebec nuns in Montreal was only justified by the acceptance of the invitation of Marguerite Bourgeoys to teach school during her absence. The two foundresses left Ville Marie on September 20, 1658, and embarked at Quebec on a merchant vessel on October 14th. They proceeded to La FlÈche to see M. de la DauversiÈre and thence to Paris. At the touch of the casket containing the heart of M. Olier, her biographers tell of the complete cure of Jeanne Mance's helpless wrist and hand, the news of which spread among the pious ladies and supporters of the Company of Montreal, and created a great sensation in Paris.