1721-1748

SIDE LIGHTS OF CIVIC PROGRESS

II

THE FIRE OF 1721—BUILDING REGULATIONS—STONE ENCOURAGED—TOWN EMBELLISHMENT—CITY PLANNING—THE FORTIFICATIONS—PEW RENTING—CHATEAU DE VAUDREUIL—TRADE WITH NEW ENGLAND FORBIDDEN—ILLICIT LIQUOR TRAFFIC—DEATHS OF DE RAMEZAY AND DE VAUDREUIL—EVEN NATURALIZED STRANGERS FORBIDDEN TO TRADE—DESCRIPTION OF INDIAN LIFE AT MONTREAL—MONTREAL IS FOLLOWED BY QUEBEC IN THE REFORM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES—VERENDRYE'S EXPEDITION FROM MONTREAL—RELIGIOUS ASYLUM FORBIDDEN—FIRST SAILING VESSEL OF LAKE SUPERIOR—THE "OUTRAGED CRUCIFIX"—SORCERY, MAGIC AND SACRILEGE—THE LEGEND OF THE RED CROSS—PUNISHMENT OF "BREAKING ALIVE" IN THE MARKET PLACE—CARE OF FOUNDLINGS—SULPICIANS FOUND LA PRESENTATION—SKATING IN THE STREETS; FAST DRIVING. NOTES: THE DISCOVERIES OF LA VERENDRYE—CHATEAU VAUDREUIL.

A disastrous fire having occurred on June 19, 1721, an ordonnance was prepared by Intendant BÉgon, who was in Montreal, to regulate the reconstruction of the buildings. The preamble gives us an insight into the architectural construction of the town. "On the representation to us by Sieur de LÉry, King's engineer, after the examination made by him, it has been noticed that the greater part of the houses were only of wood, or of framework, and roofed with carpentry, and this has increased the spread of the fire, and that like accidents so prejudicial to the inhabitants of the town, could be avoided to the further good of the town, by making the streets regular, for they are not large enough nor straight enough; that while this cannot be done without individuals suffering, yet at the present moment, seeing that there are only ruins in the streets, it would be easy for individuals, before rebuilding, to conform with the alignment which shall be drawn up by the Engineer, the following precautions should be observed...." The employment of stone is greatly encouraged. In the living part of the town only buildings of stone and of two stories should replace the burned ones.

This added to the beauty of the town and we are gratified to learn that the example of Montreal led the Intendant Claude Thomas Dupuy, on June 7, 1727, to issue an ordonnance for Quebec and the other towns, to take similar precautions against fire, adding that this would also be a means to beautify this town (embellir cette ville). A further ordonnance on fire prevention was issued by Gilles Hocquart, the intendant, when present in Montreal on July 12, 1724.

To the year 1722 we may attribute the beginning of work on the fortifications of Montreal under Chaussegros de LÉry. Up to that date there had been much talk of building a worthy defence around the city, but still the old wooden palisading was continued. The truth is that the Montrealers ever have been sluggards in city planning; they have never taken a forward move until forced by a crisis. "Prevention being better than cure," never rose beyond a theory. The same tardiness has been shown in hygienic and sanitary and general civic improvement. The wars with the Indians had produced a brave race of Montrealers, so that they relied rather on their personal valour than on fortifications. In the moment of danger, the wisdom of having strong fortifications was felt by all, but the danger passed, they became forgetful and apathetic again. In 1693 the palisade built by de CalliÈres was restored, and in 1709 de Longueuil had called a meeting in the Seminary Hall, "where," says the Engineer de Catalogue, "each one was given the liberty to speak out his mind; as there were no troups and few inhabitants, it was proposed to curtail the town by a fourth, by making a palisading at St. Francis Xavier Street, cutting down the fruit gardens of the Recollects (in the northwest) and others; but as I thought differently, I made them see that fifty men in the mill and granary of the Seigneurs were sufficient to defend this part and the more retrenchments and enclosures the enemy should find to force, the more obstacles he would find in forcing the rest of the town." Thus all things remained in the same state as before.

But other counsels prevailed in 1716 when the government determined to improve the fortifications and the Regent imposed on the town a contribution of 6,000 livres, of which 2,000 had to be paid by the Seigneurs and the rest by the religious communities and the inhabitants, without exception. The works, however, did not begin till 1722. The new walls of rough stone, ornamented with barbicans, were eighteen feet high, four feet thick at their base and three feet at the top. They presented thirteen bastions, four facing the St. Lawrence, four giving on the Little River, and the five others, which were armed with little pieces of artillery, faced three on the north, and two on the west. There were five gates and five posterns. The space enclosed was about 110 arpents (ninety-three acres). The fortifications were never completely finished. As intended by de LÉry they might have been strong for he wrote to France on August 17, 1717, "I have determined to commence an inclosure capable to resist the artillery that the English might bring from Orange." Yet a French officer, quoted by Sandham, in "Montreal and Its Fortifications," as present in the city during Amherst's siege of Montreal in 1760, which was to end in the Capitulation, writes of the results as follows: "Montreal was in no way susceptible of a defense. It was surrounded with walls built with design only to preserve the inhabitants from the incursions of the Indians, little imagining at that time that it would become the theatre of a regular war and that one day they would see formidable armies of well disciplined troops before its walls. We were, however, all pent up in that miserable bad place without provisions, a thousand times worse than a position in an open field, whose pitiful walls could not resist two hours' cannonade without being leveled to the ground, when we would have been forced to surrender at discretion if the English had insisted upon it." [174]

The extent of the paternal supervision of France, over what we should consider trifles, is shown in a royal decree of June 9, 1723, on the subject of the renting of pews in the churches, to the following effect: that widows, remaining such, shall enjoy those pews granted to their husbands by paying the same rent; that with regard to children, whose father and mother are dead, their seats shall be put up for auction, and given to the highest bidder, but they shall have the preference, if they pay the same price as that offered by the last bidder.

In 1723, de Vaudreuil commenced the building of his ChÂteau.

In 1724 the King found it necessary by a decree of May 22d to prohibit peltry being conveyed into New England or the returning from there with merchandise. As Montreal was evidently the recognized business point of distribution, whence the trouble had arisen, the King ordered all who should have permission from the Governor General or his representative to cross the frontier, to declare at Montreal the quantity and quality of the effects taken, making a similar declaration on their return.

Students watching the progress of the liquor traffic will not be surprised at the skillful adroitness of illicit traders, in evading detection. An edict of de Vaudreuil and Intendant BÉgon of May 22, 1725, ordered all those who possessed birch bark canoes to make a declaration of them to the nearest greffe (record office) within a fortnight of the publication. The object was to frustrate illicit traders who made use of the light weight of these canoes to carry liquor into the woods and then to hide there and thence distribute the liquor without arousing the attention of the authorities. The canoe was also doubtless to be watched as a means of illicit trade in furs. No less a person than the lieutenant-general of the government of Montreal, Sieur FranÇois Marie Bouat, was condemned in 1719, to a month's imprisonment, and was suspended from his office, for having sent a canoe up-country for trading purposes. The deliberations of the court martial are dated October 18, 1719. The suspension was raised by the King on June 2, 1720.

The year 1724 saw the death of the governor of Montreal, Claude de Ramezay, who was succeeded by Charles LeMoyne, first Baron of Longueuil.

On October 25, 1725, the Governor General de Vaudreuil also died. He was succeeded as administrator by the Baron of Longueuil. In 1726 the Marquis de Beauharnois became Governor General and Thomas Claude Dupuy Intendant, his first act being signed on December 1st of the same year.

In 1727, a special edict concerning commerce with outsiders was issued by the King. [175] Title VI enacts that "strangers established in Our Colonies, even naturalized, cannot be merchants, brokers or commercial agents under any form, on a penalty of 3,000 livres, applicable to the denounceand of perpetual banishment from Our Colonies. We permit them only to make use of their lands and dwellings, and to trade only in provisions which come from their lands. We forbid all merchants and traders established in old said Colonies to have any clerk, assistant, bookkeeper or other persons engaged in their business who are strangers, although they may be naturalized...."

Clearly the modern cosmopolitan character of Montreal was not foreseen.

A decree of the Sovereign Council of February 16, 1682, had already been made, forbidding the transportation by habitants or others of peltries to Manhattan or Orange or other places, and back, under pain of confiscation of their peltry, money, attire, canoes and other effects seized on their departure or return. This was promulgated at Montreal by Sergeant Lorry about March 8th of the same year.

A letter of 1730, [176] giving a description of Indian dress, love making, feasts, burials, fills in the picture of this period and keeps us in touch with the Indian population of Montreal and its district.

"Would you like to learn how they dress—how they marry—how they are buried? First you must know that several tribes go completely naked and wear but the fig leaf. In Montreal you may meet many stately and well proportioned savages, walking about in a state of nudity, as proud in their bearing as if they wore good clothes. Some have on a shirt only; others have a covering negligently thrown over one shoulder.

"Christianized Indians are differently habited. The Iroquois put the shirt over their wearing apparel, and over the shirt another raiment which encloses a portion of the head, which is always bare. The men generally wear garments over their shirts; the latter, when new, is generally very white, but is used until it gets perfectly dark and disgustingly greasy. They sometimes shave a portion of their head, or else they comb one-half of their hair back, the other half front. They occasionally tie up a tuft of hair very tight on the top of the head, so as to look like a plume on a horse's head, rising towards the skies. At other times, some allow a long tress of hair to fall over their face: it interferes with their eating, but that has to be put up with. They smear their ears with a white substance or their face with blue, vermillion, black. They are more elaborate in their war-toilet—lavish of paint—than a coquette would be in dressing,—so that they may conceal the paleness which fear might engender. They are profuse of gold and silver brocade, porcelain necklaces, bracelets of beads—the women, especially in their youth. This is their jewelry, their diamonds, the value whereof sometimes reach 1,000 francs. The Abenakis enclose their heads in a small cap embroidered with beads or ornamented with brocade. They wrap their legs in leggings with a fringe three or four inches long. Their shoes consist of socks, with plaits around the toe, covering the foot. All this has its charm in their eyes: they are as vain of dress as any Frenchman.

"The pagan tribe, whenever any love is felt, marry without any ceremonial. The pair will discover whether they love one another in silence—Indian-like. One of the caresses consists in throwing the loved one a small pebble, or grains of Indian corn, or else some other object which cannot hurt. The swain, on throwing the pebble, is bound to look in the opposite direction, to make believe he did not do it. Should the adored one return it, matters look well, else the game is up.

"The Christianized Indians are married before the church, without contract of marriage and without stipulations, because an Indian cannot hold real estate and cannot bequeath to his children. The wealthiest is the mightiest hunter. This favored individual in his village passes for a grand match.

"Bravery and great warriors they think much of—they constitute them their chiefs. Poverty is no disgrace at the council board, and an orator in rags will speak out as boldly, as successfully, as if he were decked out in gold cloth. They come thus badly habited in the presence of the governor, indulge in long harangues and touch his hand fearlessly. When ladies are present at these interviews, they honour them thus—seize their hand and shake it in token of friendship. Before I was a nun, I was present at some of these ceremonies and, having won their good opinion, they would extend to me a hand which was disgusting in the extreme, but which I had cheerfully to accept for fear of offending them. They are sometimes asked to dine at the governor's table. Unlucky are their neighbours, especially when they happen to be ladies,—they are so filthy in their persons." [177]

Gilles Hocquart no doubt struck terror into the hearts of some of the defaulters at Montreal on July 22, 1730, when he ordered all the merchants and other business men without exception to repair immediately to the Governor of Montreal to have their weights and measures reformed, verified, sealed and marked with the fleur de lis. Although there had been legislation before, still complaints had been brought to him that there was wanting uniformity in the city on this hand, some giving too short measure and others, strangely, too long. Two years later, on August 9, 1732, Hocquart did the same good turn for Quebec. In business methods Montrealers like to be pioneers and it is to be noticed that the preamble of this ordonnance Hocquart gives as a reason for the new move, the success at Montreal, "ainsi que nous l'avons pratiquÉ pour la ville de MontrÉal."

In 1731 Montreal traders sent out the Chevalier Varennes de la VÉrendrye to hunt, trade and to find the Pacific. In 1735 he built Fort Rouge, on the site of the City of Winnipeg and in 1743 he and his sons were the first white men to see the Rocky Mountains.

A decree of February 19, 1732, strikes a blow at the system of religious asylum being granted to fugitives from justice. "We forbid all curÉs, ecclesiastics, and secular and regular communities of either sex, harbouring or giving asylum to all deserters, vagabonds and persons charged with crimes, under penalty of loss of our favour, and of the seizure of their property and of deprivation of their privileges."

About 1736 the first sailing vessel on Lake Superior was constructed and furnished through Montreal commercial enterprise. [178]

In a letter, dated October 22, 1730, it is mentioned that Governor Beauharnois had that spring sent orders to the officer commanding Chouamigon (La Plante) to make an examination of the copper mine alleged to have been discovered in the vicinity. Nothing very satisfactory eventuated. The Sieur Denys de la Ronde, who succeeded as commandant, had faith, however, in the mines and had obtained a concession to work copper mines at Lake Superior. In 1736, a son of de la Ronde, visited an isle in search of copper. De la Ronde, the father, in 1740, on his way to La Pointe, was taken sick at Mackinac and returned to Montreal, but he did not despair of finding valuable copper mines. The colonial officers, in a dispatch, wrote as to de la Ronde, that "this officer has been ordered with his son to build at the River Ste. Anne, a house of logs 200 feet long, with a fort and curtain, which he assures us he has executed. He has had other expenses on account of the mines, such as the voyage and presents for the Indians. He has constructed, at his own expense, a bark of forty tons on Lake Superior, and was obliged to transport the rigging and materials for the vessel as far as Sault Ste. Marie in canoes. The post of Chouamigon was given to him as gratuity to defray expenses. A merchant of Montreal, named Charley St. Ange, furnished de la Ronde with goods, and miners named Forestier were employed in prospecting."

To the date of 1742 belong the following sidelight of the methods of execution of justice:

"Under the title of 'The Outraged Crucifix,' in the 'Choses et Autres,' of M. Faucher de St. Maurice, an interesting historical sidelight is given of the first half of the eighteenth century, of a charge of sorcery, magic and sacrilege in Montreal against a soldier named Flavart de Beaufort, then belonging to the garrison. He was a "farceur," who had only wished to amuse himself at the expense of the credulity of the poor. But as the good Montrealers of the period did not suffer any ridicule of holy things, the affair had a tragic ending.

On August 27, 1742, the King's procurator brought him in guilty under the three heads of accusation,—sorcery, magic, and sacrilege,—and demanded that in fitting reparation Charles FranÇois Flavart de Beaufort should be condemned "in his shirt, the rope round his neck, holding between his hands a torch of burning wax of the weight of two pounds, bare-headed and on his knees, before the great door and the principal entrance of the parish church of this town, on the first day of the market, to say and to declare aloud and intelligibly, that wickedly and ill advised he had profaned the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ Crucified for the purposes of divination ... and moreover he is condemned to be beaten and whipped with rods, through the squares and public thoroughfare of this town and to be banished from the boundaries of this jurisdiction for three years and be held to keep his ban.

"On the 30th these conclusions were ratified by the judgment of the court of Montreal, which further added that "Flavart de Beaufort should be conducted by the hangman, the 'executeur de haute justice,' bearing the inscription in front and behind—'Profaner of Holy things,'—This done, we have condemned him to serve as a convict in the galleys of the King for the space of five years.

"(Signed) Guiton de Monrepos."

Flavart, however, appealed against this sentence to the sovereign council at Quebec, which but confirmed the above sentence, remitting, however, two years from his services in the galleys. The above sentence was carried out as a certificate bears out, dated Friday, October 5, 1742, and signed by M. Fr. Daine, councillor, and M. Porlier, greffier.

The incident left a lasting impression, for the clergy was shocked at the sacrilege. By a mandement of September 10, 1742, the bishop, Monseigneur de Pont Briand, ordered an amende honorable and a procession from the parish church to that of Bonsecours. Two years later, having obtained the cross from the authorities, the bishop instituted the feast of the Outraged Crucifix. This was to be celebrated the first Friday in March, each year; and in 1804 Monseigneur du Plessis changed the day to the first day of October, attaching to this a day of plenary indulgence, obtained by a papal brief, dated March 28, 1802.

The legend of The Red Cross, illustrating further the methods of civil punishment of this period, may be here told. Over one hundred and fifty years ago, this part of the island, from the summit of the mountain to the pebbly shore of the St. Lawrence, was a thickly wooded forest. Where Dorchester Street exists today, there was then a narrow path, beaten by the feet of the passers-by from Lachine, St. Laurent and the environs. It bore, however, the high sounding title of: "The King's Highway." Here and there, at irregular distances, a few farms bordered the simple thoroughfare. At the point where today Guy Street crosses Dorchester lived an honest farmer, Jean Favre and his wife, Marie-Anne Bastien. Being an industrious couple, they were supposed to have realized a good sum from the produce of their prosperous farm, which sum, in all probability, they hoarded away in some corner of their dwelling. In the same spot where now stand the iron gates, which open on the avenue going up to the Convent Church, was a small house occupied by a petty farmer, named Belisle. The demon of covetousness had taken hold of his soul and the unfortunate man brooding constantly over his neighbour's supposed wealth, resolved to become its possessor.

The month of May, 1752, had again decked nature in its garb of green. The sun, his daily course over, had sunk behind the mountain and the last echoes of the evening Angelus bell had ceased to vibrate on the air. Peace and security seemed to reign throughout the colony, as the shades of night crept over the island, lulling its inhabitants to slumber and to rest.

Alas! an unholy shadow lured on by the evil one, glided through the darkness, with the tread of the panther to seize its prey, and drew near the dwelling of Favre. Suspecting no ill, the honest man sat quietly smoking near the hearth, from whence a brisk fire cast a mellow light through the room, showing the table, with its two covers set for the evening meal. Finally rising, the farmer took from his pocket a key with which he opened a cupboard near at hand,—drew forth a small well filled sack and added to its contents the proceeds of the day's sale. Through the open shutter, from outside, the wretched Belisle, with glaring eyes, watched every movement of Favre, while his hands kept spasmodically clutching the knife he held. Wresting from his bosom the pistol, hid therein, he burst, like a wild beast, into the dwelling and fired at the old man, then finished him with the knife. The wife, terrified by the unusual noise, rushed in from an adjoining room and was at once attacked by the murderer, who plunged the knife repeatedly into her breast, and then crushed in her skull with the blow of a spade which he found near by. Side by side lay the unfortunate husband and wife, victims of man's cupidity. For a moment the murderer contemplated his work, then, like another Cain, he fled from the spot, haunted by the dread spectre of the "Lex talionis."

The absence of the old couple gave rise to surmises. Search was made and the horrible crime discovered. Suspicion rested on Belisle, who was soon after arrested, tried and convicted. The following copy of the "RÉquisitoire du Procureur du Roi," dated 6th June, 1752, shows that the terrible punishment of "breaking alive" was then in force under the French rÉgime in Canada. Belisle was condemned to "torture ordinary and extraordinary," then to be broken alive on a scaffold erected in the market place (the present Custom House Square) in this city.

This awful sentence was carried out to the letter, his body buried in Guy Street, [179] and the Red Cross erected to mark the spot, as fully described in the following document historically valuable:—

Extract from the Requisition of the King's Attorney

"I require for the King that Jean Baptiste Goyer dit Belisle be arraigned and convicted of having wilfully and feloniously killed the said Jean Favre by a pistol shot and several stabs with a knife, and of having similarly killed the said Marie-Anne Bastien, wife of the said Favre, with a spade and a knife; and of having stolen the money that was in their house; for punishment of which that he be condemned to have his arms, legs, thighs and backbone broken at noon, he alive, on a scaffold which shall be erected for that purpose in the market place of this city: then, on a rack, his face turned towards the sky, he be left to die. The said Jean Baptiste Goyer dit Belisle, being previously put to the torture ordinary and extraordinary, his dead body shall be carried by the executioner to the highway which lies between the house lately occupied by the said accused and the house lately occupied by the said Jean Favre and his wife. The goods and chattels of the said Jean Baptiste Goyer dit Belisle confiscated to the king, or for the benefit of those who may have a right to them, or of those not liable to confiscation, the sum of 300 livres fine being previously set apart, in case that confiscation could not be made for the benefit of His Majesty.
"Done at Montreal this 6th June, 1752.

"(Signed) Foucher."

An ordonnance with respect to the care of the foundlings of Montreal was issued by Intendant Hocquart on March 12, 1748. It allows us to see how the government undertook the preliminary cost of child rearing by providing nurses for the first eighteen months; after that the children should be "hired out" to good habitants of town or country until the age of eighteen to twenty years. Hocquart notices with surprise that of the bastards, who survived the first eighteen months, there were four born in 1743, six in 1744, ten in 1745, who are still being cared for in 1748 at the expense of the King; they were to be soon "hired;" and the Sieur Foucher, then procureur du roi, who seems to have been responsible for the great delay, is informed that if the like occurs again he will have to pay out of his own purse the expense incurred during the long time intervening.

Students following the story of explorations from Montreal will find that in September, 1748, a Sulpician, M. l'AbbÉ Picquet, began a fort at La PrÉsentation (Ogdensburg). He is to be found early in the summer of 1751 with six Canadians and five Indians, beginning the circuit of Lake Ontario. On June 26th he reached Toronto, where he found a band of Messessagas. On June 28th he reached Niagara and on July 12th the mouth of the Genessee, where he visited the falls.

Two of Intendant Bigot's [180] earliest ordonnances are of interest in that the first, issued on December 24, 1748, evidently in view of the Christmas and New Year season, forbids sliding or skating on the streets, which, "it has come to our knowledge," is practiced by children and even grown-ups; the reason alleged being danger to the passers by, who are not able to get out of the way quick enough; children who are caught will be put into prison until their parents or guardians have paid the fine of 10 livres. The second is leveled against fast drivers, who are to be fined 20 livres for galloping their horses in the street. This is dated December 28th. These, however, mostly concerned Quebec, as far as we know, but probably similar regulations were needed at Montreal.

NOTE I

THE DISCOVERIES OF LA VERENDRYE

Sieur Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de la VÉrendrye was born in Three Rivers, the home of Radisson, in 1686. He was the son of RenÉ Gaultier de Varennes and Marie Boucher, daughter of the governor of Three Rivers, who was married as a young girl of twelve years on September 12, 1667. At the age of fourteen he, too, determined to be a discoverer. At eighteen he was fighting in New England, at nineteen in Newfoundland and at twenty-three in Europe at the battle of Malplaquet, where he was carried off the field with nine wounds. In his twenty-ninth year he returned to Canada and was relegated to the obscure fur posts in the north, eating his heart out till between 1728-1730 at Nepigon, a lonely post north of Michilimackinac. He heard of a "great river flowing west." Perhaps this was the great western sea which Russia and France both wished to secure. Accordingly he descended to Quebec and in the winter of 1730-1731 he placed his dreams of discovery before the Governor, the Marquis Charles de Beauharnois. He obtained the government prestige and patronage and a monopoly of the fur trade in the countries he might discover.

He turned to Montreal traders for the goods to trade and a company was formed. On June 8, 1731, he left Montreal with his three sons, Jean Pierre, FranÇois and Louis, the eldest only being eighteen years of age, among the band of fifty adventurers, coureurs de bois, voyageurs and Indian interpreters, to discover the fabled western sea and so acquire great glory and probably wealth. He reached familiar ground at Michilimackinac and then after seventy-eight days from Montreal he touched Kaministiquia after a month's coasting from the Straits of Mackinaw. As he went onward he established fur posts and sent east cargoes of furs but not enough for his partners so that in the winter of 1734-35 VÉrendrye was back in Montreal, leaving his party up-country. He managed to get credit and back he went with the Jesuit Aulneau to his search. Little fur could he send to redeem his debts. Instead he was to meet misfortune in the loss of his eldest son, Jean, the Jesuit Aulneau, and a party of voyageurs who were treacherously slaughtered by the Sioux on Massacre Island on the night of June 8, 1736, five years after most of the party had left Montreal. In September, 1738, VÉrendrye entered, the first white man, the Red River for the forks of the Assiniboine. But he found not the western sea but the great western Canadian prairie lands. On December 3, 1738, he entered the village of the Indians. There he learned vaguely of a people in the west who lived on the shores of water bitter for drinking. After that his sons went on courageously for the western sea, while he went back to Montreal for supplies and to contest the lawsuits of his partners who had seized all his posts and properties to meet his creditors. But his sons found only a sea of prairie, a sea of mountains and two great rivers, the Saskatchewan and the Missouri, and reached the foothills of the northern Rockies on New Year's Day, in 1743. At the end of July they were back again at the Assiniboine River.

VÉrendrye had failed as a trader; moreover he was the object of the jealousy of the traders who wrongfully accused him of private speculation and who now desired to exploit the trade of the trail he had blazed along the Assiniboine and the Missouri. The ruined man was recalled to Quebec in 1746 and M. de Noyelles was given his command. Governors Beauharnois and de la GalissoniÈre were believers in his honesty. He was decorated with the Order of the Cross of St. Louis and given permission to continue his explorations. His constitution was broken and on December 6, 1749, while preparing for a further quest, he died suddenly at Montreal. But he had opened the door to the west, leaving it to another fur trader of Montreal, Alexander Mackenzie, to be the first to cross the Rockies and to reach, by land, on July 22, 1793, the Pacific Ocean—the western sea, the dream of Cartier, LaSalle and VÉrendrye at last come true!

NOTE II

CHATEAU VAUDREUIL

The ChÂteau de Vaudreuil was commenced in 1723, as it appears from the following inscription, found May 15, 1806, under the foundation stone at the southwest angle.

Cetter pierre. a. estÉ posÉe par Dame Louise Elizabeth. Jouabere. femme.
du haut. et. puissent, seigneur, Philippe. de Rigaud Chevalier.
Marquis. de Vaudreuil. grand Croix. de l'ordre militaire, de
St. Louis Gouverneur et lieutenant, general pour le roy.
>de toute. la nouvelle France Septentrionale
En 1723 le 15 May.
Sept Maison appartien À Monsieur le Marquis de Vaudreuil.

The ChÂteau Vaudreuil or HÔtel de Vaudreuil occupied with its ground, acquired in 1721, a large tract of land between St. Paul Street and Notre-Dame and included what is now known as Jacques Cartier Square. After the cession in 1763, on April 12th, the son of the builder, the Marquis Pierre de Rigaud, and his lady, then living at Paris in their hotel, Rue de Deux Boulles, sold the estate to Messire Michel Chartier, Chevalier et Seigneur de LothbiniÈre, ordinarily dwelling in the town of Quebec, Canada, but being at present in Paris. In 1771 M. de LothbiniÈre sold the ChÂteau Vaudreuil to M. Joseph Fleury Deschambault de la GorgendiÈre. In 1773 the latter sold it on July 26th to the church wardens of the parish of Notre-Dame, for the establishment of a colony. The building was opened as a school on the following October 1st under the name of CollÈge de St. Raphael. This was the continuation of a college founded about 1767 in the priests' house at Longue Pointe by a priest of St. Sulpice, J. B. Curatteau de la Blaiserie. St. Raphael's College remained here till June 6, 1803, when it was reduced to ashes. It was then transferred to College Street in 1804, being rebuilt at the expense of the Seminary of St. Sulpice. In 1806, on October 20th, it was opened under the name of the CollÈge ou Petit SÉminaire de MontrÉal.

On December 14, 1803, the Vaudreuil estate with the ruined college and its dependencies was sold by the church wardens to two merchants, MM. Jean Baptiste Durocher and Joseph PÉrinault, for a sum of 3,000 guineas. During the month of December, 1803, these divided their land as well as that which they had bought from the seminary, as follows:

1. They have left for the public use a place named the New Market, 172 French feet in breadth on Notre-Dame Street and 175 on St. Paul Street, without comprising St. Charles Street, which terminated this market on the northeast and that of "La Fabrique," which terminated it at the southwest. The said place extending in length from Notre Dame Street to St. Paul Street, a distance of about 388 feet.

2. The rest of the land on the southwest of the market and Fabrique Street was divided into eight holdings and sold to eight persons on December 26th and 27th.