Glass. 
 Book. 
 
 -+/ 
 
 H.F.KIMBALL 
 BOOKSELLER 
 
 QUEBEC 
 
St. PAUL'S, NEW YORK. 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE 
 
 BY 
 
 J. M. HARPER, 
 
 The Author of "Our Jeanies." 
 
 DEDICATED 
 TO 
 
 SIR JAMES M. LeMOINE, D.C.L., 
 Spencer Grange, Quebec. 
 
A I 
 
 ■03 H3 
 
 TBANSFERRED Ff?OM 
 BEAQi'NQ ROOM 
 
 ^ 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 This is the third of the series of the his- 
 torical hrochures which the writer is prepar- 
 ing for Canadian readers and those who 
 visit us. The success which has attended 
 the others, it is to be hoped, will be 
 graciously extended to this one also. The 
 visitor will find its pages a ready guidance 
 while learning the topography of the 
 ancient capital, a little bit at a time; and 
 the young Canadian may not regret the 
 labour required to commit to memory the 
 verses that are meant to embody one of the 
 most exciting chapters in the history of our 
 colonial development and broadening 
 loyalty. 
 
DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 
 
 It is a far cry, as a Scotsman would say, 
 from the seething crowds of Broadway, 
 where old St. Paul's has weathered the 
 changes of a century or so, to the silent 
 crevices of Cape Diamond, which overlooks 
 the spacious harbour of Quebec. The rear 
 of the sacred edifice, so well known 
 to the citizens of New York, is adorned wifh 
 a monument which tells us how the remains 
 of General Richard Montgomery, who fell 
 at Quebec, December 31st, 1775, were deposit- 
 ed under its base within the chancel window, 
 in the year 1818; while on the scarred flank 
 of the rock of Quebec, on its southern side, 
 there is to be seen a well-worn inscription, 
 also intimating that the said Richard Mont- 
 eoraerv met his fate near the foot of the 
 precipice on which the Citadel of the ancient 
 capital of Canada is built. Those who 
 would understand the plan of the siege of 
 1775, and the topography of the ground 
 encompassed by Montgomery and Arnold, 
 would do well to begin their investigations 
 at the foot of Cote de Lamontagne, common- 
 
4 TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 
 
 ly called Mountain Hill, — -ftrst, by taking a 
 drive eastward along Notre Dame and 
 Cliamplain Streets as far as Wolfe's Gove, 
 and thence upwards and across from St. 
 Louis Road to the St. Foye Road as far as 
 Holland House, at the head of what is 
 known as Sandy Hill; and second, by taking 
 a walk along Sault-au-Matelot and Sous- 
 le-Cap Streets, ascending the successive 
 inclines that lead to the site of Hope Gate, 
 and then proceeding from the Battery to the 
 foot of Palace Street, On the drive west- 
 ward, the points of interest to be taken 
 note of en route are: the Church of Notre 
 Dame des Victoires; Mountain Hill and 
 little Champlain street; the Champlain 
 Market House; the buildings around the 
 King's Wharf; the scene of the Landslide; 
 the buildings on the Allans' Wharf ; the 
 Ruisseau St. Denis at Wolfe's Cove; and 
 the plaislrs of Wolfesfield and Holland 
 Farm. Attention is given to these places 
 seriatim in another part of this work. The 
 SEime is done for the points of interest in 
 the direction to be taken eastward by the 
 visitor; these being the buildings in the 
 neighbourhood of the Quebec Bank; " the 
 Rock of Dog Lane"; the Battery; the Ram- 
 parts; the Hotel Dieu; and the building now 
 known as Boswell's Brewery, occupying as 
 it does, the site of the Intendant's Palace. 
 The changes which have taken place in the 
 "lay of the streets" since 1775 are best 
 understood by locating with some care the 
 Cul-de-Sac of Champlain's time, the little 
 
TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 5 
 
 bay which has long been filled in, and which 
 forms the present site of the Champlain 
 Market Place. This inlet, wherein small 
 craft used to discharge their cargoes or 
 were moored during the winter months, 
 extended inwards as far as the line of Little 
 Champlain Street, and was bounded on the 
 east by the houses of Sous-le-Fort Street, 
 and on the west by the King's Wharf. At 
 the foot of Sous-le-Fort Street, where stood 
 Champlain'^s Habitation, there was an open 
 space, in 1775, — the site of the Royal Battery 
 of the French regime; and at its head there 
 was the old stairway-link between Cote de 
 Lamontagne and Little Champlain Street. 
 Champlain Street proper had its origin at 
 the open waters of the Cul-de-Sac and ran 
 along the river front, as a carriage way, 
 as far as Pres-de-Ville, which is described 
 as being on the further side of the King's 
 Wharf past the old King's Forges. There 
 can be no doubt therefore that the memorial 
 sign-board attached to the side of the crevice, 
 leading from the enclosure of the Allan's 
 Wharf to the Citadel, indicates the exact 
 site of the barricade attacked by Mont- 
 gomery. Beyond Pres-de-Ville there extend- 
 ed a footpath round Cape Diamond, but this 
 was hardly to be distinguished from the 
 shore-line, which was always passable in 
 summer as far as Wolfe's Cove for people on 
 foot. The course followed by Montgomery, 
 therefore, after he had descended the steep 
 of Wolve's Cove on his way to Pres-de-Ville, 
 was beset with the winter difficulties to be 
 
Q TOrOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 
 
 seen at any time during the months of 
 December and January near the tide-line of 
 the river beyond Sillery or New Liverpool. 
 
 The plan matured by Montgomery for the 
 taking of the city was so simple and the 
 only one feasible, that it is a wonder he 
 remained so long out at Holland House 
 without putting it into execution. Arnord 
 was in f?t. Roch sauandering his strength 
 and ammunition against Palace Gate and 
 its blockhouse; and when he was dislodged 
 from the Palace his principal vantage- 
 ground, on its being unroofed by the 
 besieged, there was nothing for him to do 
 but to wait till Montgomery was ready to 
 move from his encampment, and so combine 
 in a simultaneous assault, by way of the 
 steep street leading into the upper town, 
 from the river front on the south side. But 
 the true condition of affairs within the walls 
 was not so well known to the leader of the 
 invaders as were the dissensions in his own 
 ranks. Delay had brought him no success. 
 Indeed, he seems to Have been more or less 
 the dupe of circumstances, living in a fool's 
 paradise, from the moment he arrived before 
 Quebec, if one would explain his inaction 
 and the remarkable letters he sent to Carle- 
 ton and the citizens. And when at lengtn 
 he made up his mind to do something, before 
 his soldiers could legally demand a release, 
 it was hardly to be expected that other than 
 failure would come of his assault. Carleton 
 certainly stood in no fear of his advance 
 
 There is no intention to place on record 
 
"The House where lay the General dead." 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 The Angelus in the gloaming, ringing peace in 
 
 time of strife, 
 Scndeth echo through the streetlets that makes 
 
 a jar of Hfe, 
 While rumours, — ghastly rumours — scurry 
 
 thieflike through the town, 
 From citadel to suburb, making French and 
 
 English frown 
 At fate, that lingers brooding, near basilica and 
 
 fane, 
 Over colony and empire whose weal seems on 
 
 the wane. 
 
10 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 The shadows bear the presage, on record much 
 
 the same, 
 When the good old city dared withstand a 
 
 foreign foeman's claim, — 
 When the rivals, France and England, deadly 
 
 duel fought afield, 
 Leaving prestige well protected under Britain's 
 
 broader shield ; 
 With citizenship a brotherhood that flouts the 
 
 common foe. 
 And claims its own the pride to aid its own in 
 
 weal or woe. 
 
 Yea, the shadows bear a presage, with no 
 
 prophet near at hand, 
 To read aright the tidings dire that linger 
 
 through the land ; 
 For alas ! St. Johns is taken, Mount Royal 
 
 sore beset, 
 And the Richelieu's great waterway gives joy 
 
 to foe elate, 
 Waylaying brave Sir Guy's descent near by the 
 
 confluence-coigne 
 Where Chambly's rapids, run their course, the 
 
 proud St. Lawrence join. 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. U 
 
 God save us ! Who's the messenger that brings 
 
 the tidings dire ? 
 Whence comes he ? Give us patience ! Is he 
 
 friend or foeman's hire ? 
 What say the men that govern us — the men Sir 
 
 Guy has sworn 
 To man the walls and guard the gates against 
 
 the invader's scorn ? 
 Is there no one near to tell us what is false or 
 
 what is true ? 
 Is there no one near to tell us what 'tis the best 
 
 to do ? 
 
 The moon in ragged radiance looks askance 
 upon the scene ; 
 
 The drifting clouds fringe spire and dome as 
 with a sackcloth screen ; 
 
 And the crowd is growing wider around the 
 Barracks Square, 
 
 With the human streamlets closing in, from 
 every thoroughfare : 
 
 A vocal tremor fills the air, — a cry is heard 
 beyond, 
 
 Where the Chateau stands a sentinel on conse- 
 crated ground. 
 
12 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 As from reservoir to cistern, the Place runs 
 
 o'er in turn, 
 And the news Hke wildfire blazes forth, as heart 
 
 and temper burn; — 
 '' The good Sir Guy is home again ! List to 
 
 the cannon's boom ! 
 " Hurrah for hope ! Hurrah for joy ! Away 
 
 with doubting gloom ! 
 " What ! Montreal has fallen ? Three Rivers, 
 
 too, you say ? 
 '' What of it, now that Carleton is with us in 
 
 our fray ? 
 
 '' Perchance poor Monsieur Arnold, with his 
 
 tattered crew of braves, 
 " Will dance again round Port St. Louis, to tell 
 
 us we are slaves ; 
 '' A second challenge he may send, decreeing 
 
 still our doom, 
 " Or bring a host from Pointe-aux-Trembles, 
 
 without the walls to fume ; 
 " But he'll find, with all his bluster or yet 
 
 Montgomery's aid, 
 "' That the colours of the British flag are never 
 
 like to fade." 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 13 
 
 Thus spake brave Maitre Thompson, beside the 
 
 Chateau's gate, 
 Where stood his comrades under arms the 
 
 general to await ; 
 Full well he knew how far the walls could check 
 
 the approaching foe, 
 Since, under orders night and day, he had been 
 
 to and fro, 
 From the Palais to the Citadel, making good 
 
 the new defence, 
 A blockhouse here, a picket there, with palisades 
 
 condense. 
 
 '* Fear comes and goes, yet Arnold knew a fear 
 no more than we, 
 
 " When hardship stayed his timorous march 
 beyond the friendly sea, 
 
 *' When through the pathless wilderness, across 
 Megantic's heights, 
 
 *' He traced the toilsome Chaudiere by a thous- 
 and dismal lights : — 
 
 " The British flag flaunts freedom, but is its 
 freedom free ? 
 
 " Perchance 'tis ours to find elsewhere a truer 
 liberty." 
 
14 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 Bold be ye Adam Lymbtirner, in presence thus 
 
 to speak, 
 Since ears there are fell keen to hear, and minds 
 
 as sure to leak. 
 Some say 'twas Humiphreys carried yon a letter 
 
 from without : — 
 Was't then your hope of liberty made him a 
 
 welcome scout ? 
 Was't then you thought it safer far, to make a 
 
 foe a friend, — 
 A patriot or a traitor, your country to defend ? 
 
 Not so spake Maitre Thompson, though the 
 words were on his tongue. 
 
 For the general then was passing in, while yet 
 the plaudits rung ; 
 
 But his face flashed indignation on the coterie 
 near by. 
 
 And Adam felt the lightning force of the over- 
 seer's eye ; 
 
 " God take such traitorous townsmen !" was 
 all the goodman said. 
 
 As Captain Owen sent him word to join the 
 men he led. 
 
The Site of the "Second Barricade.'^ 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 15 
 
 That night was consummation, — no doubt, far 
 
 less despair ; 
 A master mind was in command, his will was 
 
 everywhere ; 
 As he sat within his council and heard what 
 
 had been done 
 To make secure the city walls, the bastions one 
 
 by one. 
 As he heard the tidings from around, — the 
 
 numbers of the foe, 
 Within was courage, and without, joy took 
 
 the place of woe. 
 
 And soon the story went the rounds in every 
 
 street and lane 
 Of the risk the good Sir Guy had run to reach 
 
 Quebec again ; 
 How his fleet had neared L.avaltrie, where 
 
 Easton lay in force. 
 Defiance in his outer line, resistance his 
 
 resource ; 
 How the fateful winds opposing, despair sat 
 
 vulture-like 
 From every mast and broken spar to watch the 
 
 invader strike. 
 
16 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 For brave Bouchette, the keen ' La Tourtre/ 
 when tales were in the wind, 
 
 Of an evening down in Notre Dame, the com- 
 pany being kind. 
 
 Would tell how he and Lanaudiere, took 
 matters well in hand. 
 
 And swore an oath that coiitc que coittc, the devil 
 to command. 
 
 They'd find a channel safe enough, the general 
 in their charge, 
 
 Round He du Pas to St. Maurice in the pilot's 
 swiftest barge. 
 
 " By Jove, you well may say it, — the night was 
 
 black as pitch, 
 " And every passage in our way looked black as 
 
 midnight ditch : 
 " Our mufBed oars abandoned, we paddled with 
 
 our hands, 
 " Stealing through the weed-grown reaches, and 
 
 whispering our commands : 
 " Was there doubt the foe were watching, — 
 
 were watching as they could ? 
 '' Oh, how we blessed the darkness, that hid us 
 
 in its hood ! 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 17 
 
 " Yes, a blessing is the darkness, as the general 
 
 often said, 
 '' You know the way, mon chcr Boiichettc, and I 
 
 am not afraid ; 
 " But we'll reach the safer open, before the 
 
 dawn of day, 
 *' And then your stalwart oarsmen, with ne'er a 
 
 hand to stay, 
 " Will sweep the wide St. Peter's, with speed of 
 
 fleetest crew, 
 '' To save Quebec, — 'tis all that's left, — to bless 
 
 Quebec and you. 
 
 '' To save Quebec ! God grant it ! and his 
 
 words came free at last, 
 " The dawn is here, the waters safe, up with 
 
 your makeshift mast ; 
 '' With wind and arm in favour, and current 
 
 swift beside, 
 " By noon we'll reach Three Rivers whatever 
 
 may betide ! 
 " 'Tis there we'll find some tidings of Arnold's 
 
 late attack ; 
 " Be brave my men, a patriot's stroke, until 
 
 your muscles crack !" 
 
18 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 "And the men rowed fierce like fighters, a- 
 
 fighting with their fate, 
 " God save Quebec, their watchword, giving nerve 
 
 to love and hate ; 
 *' And still the general urged them on, the tiller 
 
 in his hand, 
 " Until the barge found moorage safe, near 
 
 Laviolette's favoured strand ; 
 " My gratitude, brave comrades ! Such loyalty 
 
 is life, — 
 
 " And he leaped ashore to dare the first, the 
 tidings of the strife. 
 
 '' And soon came yeoman Frazer, staunch 
 royalist and brave ; 
 
 " In haste across the fields he came and grateful 
 greeting gave : 
 
 " Some rebels have been here, he said, a- 
 
 straggling east and west, 
 " And fain were we to follow, their fighting 
 
 gear to test : 
 " And now we shall, my general, — ah, pardon, 
 
 may I not ? 
 " 'Tis only sixteen seasons since with Wolfe we 
 
 both have fought. 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 19 
 
 '' But scarcely had the veterans grasped each 
 
 other by the hand, — 
 *',The townsfolk ear and eye intent, — the 
 
 marvellous in demand, — 
 ** When there came a later tidings that the foe 
 
 six hundred strong, 
 '•' Machiche had crossed, full bent on harm, to 
 
 reach the town erelong : 
 •'• Then haste ye, men, the general said, haste for 
 
 a country's weal, 
 '' God saving us, we'll dare outrun the rascals 
 
 in their zeal ! 
 
 "And haste we did I tell ye, a mouthful ta'en 
 in haste, 
 
 '* The wind still in our favour to bend the make- 
 shift mast ; 
 
 •' And aye the general urged us on, the tiller in 
 his hand, 
 
 ''Their zeal is nought to ours, he'd say, while 
 yet our zeal he fanned. 
 
 " Some craft no doubt is hovering where Arnold 
 safely hides ; 
 
 " So, on, my hearties — keep the time, — keep 
 heart whate'er betides !" 
 
20 THE MONTGOMEKY SIEGE. 
 
 Thus brave Bouchette would gossip, when tales 
 
 were in the wind 
 Of an evening down in Notre Dame, to keep the 
 
 company kind, 
 Or further tell of hazards on the way to Point 
 
 Platon 
 Where the rapids made the river the crests of 
 
 danger don. 
 Where the curvings of the northern banks 
 
 round many a pleasant bight 
 Them led to Pointe-aux-Trembles with Arnold's 
 
 tents in sight. 
 
 And oft, — the wine-cup lingering, — Bouchette 
 
 would sing with pride : 
 *' Ho, there, my hearties, — keep the time, — keep 
 
 heart whate'er betide ! 
 *' Ho, here's to Napier's frigate that met us on 
 
 our way ! 
 " What care we now since Carleton is with us in 
 
 our fray ! 
 " Hurrah for hope! hurrah for joy! — away with 
 
 doubting gloom ! 
 " For the good Sir Guy is home again, — home 
 
 to Quebec, our home !" 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 21 
 
 Far other tales of daring had whilom gone the 
 
 rounds, 
 In the dingy doubtful rendezvous of Sault-au- 
 
 Matelot's bounds, 
 Where the slinking disaffected would seek the 
 
 midnight hour 
 To entertain some wretched spy, or plan some 
 
 change of power, — 
 Less bold than Adam Lymburner in openness 
 
 to speak, 
 Afraid of ears fell keen to hear, if not of minds 
 
 that leak. 
 
 'Tis said no word escapeth the. phonograph of 
 
 time — 
 No thought of secret daring — no ecstasy of 
 
 crime ; 
 And if the Neptune's time-worn walls their 
 
 record would reveal 
 Of guests hob-nobbing unawares, rebellion to 
 
 conceal, 
 What a tale of double-dealing— of bravery 
 
 perchance — 
 In these doubtful restless days of yore, its annals 
 
 might enhance ! 
 
22 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 For was It not the hostel, in the years between 
 
 the wars, 
 Of mine host, the bonhomme Tache, whose fame 
 
 had reached the stars, 
 The trysting-place of traders, the haih'ng-ground 
 
 of cheer, 
 A focus-point of welcome, diverging far and 
 
 near ? 
 
 Was it not where burly Benedict, a-mannered 
 
 blufif and bold. 
 Made courtship to the valour that is weakness 
 
 when 'tis sold ? 
 
 I know you've heard the story of his march 
 
 across the plain. 
 Where the Kennebec its sources finds, within 
 
 the woods of Maine, — 
 Of his daring on Dead River, his camp at Spider 
 
 Lake, 
 His muster where the Chaudiere goes brawling 
 
 through the brake, 
 
 His bravings in the wilderness by cataract and 
 fell. 
 
 His triumphs over forest foes incredible to 
 tell ; 
 
The "Neptune Inn" (Restored.) 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 23 
 
 But had you known Sir Boniface, the Neptune's 
 
 lusty host, 
 The phonograph of time perchance had not its 
 
 records lost, 
 Of guests hob-nobbing unawares, rebellion to 
 
 conceal. 
 Dire tales of double-dealing, delivered under 
 
 seal, 
 When ambitious burly Benedict, with manners 
 
 bluff and bold, 
 A- dallied with a double fate presaging shame 
 
 for gold. 
 
 W^ithin a blearing darkness, remote from public 
 
 ken, 
 One night the disaffected sought audience yet 
 
 again, 
 In Tache's secret chamber, as rang the midnight 
 
 hour, 
 Running chances with the populace, to plan a 
 
 change of power ; 
 I'^or known it was, through Mercier, with tidings 
 
 from the foe, 
 That burly boastful Benedict would strike 
 
 another blow. 
 
24 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 And when the Hght gave entrance, with silent 
 
 call of roll, 
 The phonograph of time made haste to turn its 
 
 record's scroll : 
 There was Francois Sourde, the tanner, with 
 
 Caldwell as ally, 
 And Judas Duggan, barber bold, and three of 
 
 kindred fry. 
 And Ancien Boulanger, of sapient vacant mind, 
 Whose vapourings made a proverb of the 
 
 veerings of the wind. 
 
 There was Adam d'Eaux and Pierre Le Jeune, 
 
 with Mercier's clan near by, 
 And lurking near, with furtive glance, Jules 
 
 Turque, the quondam spy, 
 And one or two of Arnold's friends, who knew 
 
 him in the days 
 He bargained in the hostel-halls or joined the 
 
 trader's frays ; 
 Nor least of all was Williams near, the man who 
 
 knew no fear, 
 Till danger stood him face to face or shouted in 
 
 his ear. 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE, 25 
 
 "Why should we budge ?" as first he was, in 
 
 whisperings thus to speak, 
 " You have your rights and hopes beside, with 
 
 vengeance yet to wreak ; 
 " The invader gives us better terms than 
 
 Carleton proclaims, 
 
 *' The freedom of the future has in it prouder 
 
 aims ; 
 " Then budge we not ! Together stand, and 
 
 claim our own reward ! — 
 ''A challenge give in mustering strength, and 
 
 mystify the guard ! 
 
 '• What lesson is there yet to learn of England's 
 
 cruel might ? 
 '' Escaping, risk ye yet again the hateful 
 
 tyrant's blight ? 
 ** Is Bigot dead to live again, in seigneur's 
 
 grasping wrath, 
 '' As save we from oppression's chains a living 
 
 worse than death ? 
 •'*' Are mothers', wives' and children's cries again 
 
 to rend our ears, 
 " With famine stalking through the land, their 
 
 only food our tears ?" 
 
26 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 Then, others having spoken, Le Turque took up 
 
 the word, 
 With a message in his tasseled tuque, 'twas time 
 
 he should be heard : 
 Ho\v came he by the message, the ramparts so 
 
 secure. 
 Nor spy nor scout assured enough to cHmb the 
 
 countermure ? 
 " 'Twas a woman, grey and haggard, from the 
 
 cove beyond the heath, 
 " Had given him the message, Montgomery's 
 
 name beneath." 
 
 And they Hstened to the daring, with the furtive 
 
 in their eyes. 
 Cupidity and cunning gloating over promised 
 
 prize, 
 While 'twas read how pending carnage avoided 
 
 still might be. 
 If a townsman only could be found the gates to 
 
 open free : — 
 Ay, if traitor only could be found, to act the 
 
 coward's part. 
 Planning ruin for his city, bringing shame to 
 
 patriot's heart. 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 2? 
 
 But scarce had ceased the reading, when 
 
 Williams, pale with dread, 
 Made whisper of a distant din — a something's 
 
 hurried tread : 
 'Tis nothing ! No ! Yet nearer still the rush is 
 
 in the street, 
 And the Neptune's door, loud shaken, hastens 
 
 Tache to his feet ! 
 What's that ? And that ? Make haste, ye fools: 
 
 Ha,ha, no time to run, 
 For the corridors run counter, while there's 
 
 seizing one by one ! 
 
 '' So ho, my hearties, caught at last ! God send 
 
 you grace in time !" 
 And the captain of the town's patrol made 
 
 laughter somewhat grim. 
 " The general needs a score of you, to soothe an 
 
 anxious hour, 
 " So make ye ready running, there are places 
 
 else to scour ; 
 ''' The Chateau's near ; Sir Guy is there ; the 
 
 jail is on the hill ; 
 " We'll give you quarters for the night, so march 
 
 ye will-or-nill." 
 
28 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 And the grey is in the dawning, snell winter 
 
 in the air, 
 V/hen the populace, in a day or more, to Louis 
 
 Gate repair ; 
 For the wretched disaffected are ordered, man 
 
 b\' man, 
 To leave the precincts of the town, the traitress 
 
 in their van ; 
 Sir Guy has spurned the foe within, to dare the 
 
 foe without, 
 Ali courtesy suspending to treason, spy or 
 
 scout. 
 
 And even Adam Lymburner, as the overseer 
 
 said. 
 No longer sought the public ways, his 
 
 sympathies to spread, 
 But found retreat within the woods of Begon's 
 
 Hermitage, 
 His soul to soothe in solitude, his judgment 
 
 better gauge. 
 That the British flag waves freedom, a freedom 
 
 that is free. 
 With little hope to find elsewhere a truer 
 
 liberty. 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 29 
 
 The days were at their shortest, there was hurt- 
 
 Hng in the air 
 As December, breeding bitter blasts, was 
 
 nursing its despair ; 
 A reckless foe, a ruler stern, — to do or die in 
 
 both, 
 The one in guise of liberty, the other true as 
 
 oath 
 Kicrnal ! What the issue ? God wot, there's 
 
 only one ! 
 Tliough the marchings out of Chambly seemed 
 
 a holiday begun. 
 
 Within the city's palisades, beneath the bastion's 
 
 frown, 
 No quarter's given to cowardice, no grace to 
 
 idle brawn ; 
 No loyalty inactive : — '' Ho there, a willing 
 
 hand ! 
 '' Keep watch and ward at yonder nook, attend 
 
 the countermand ! 
 '' Sir Guy's behest is law within, his word is 
 
 faith enough, — 
 " A man to fear, a man to love, ay, ay, of 
 
 British stuff !" 
 
30 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 And even now the brave Bouchette had oft to 
 
 be restrained : — 
 ''' The foe, by Jove, what is the foe ? The scruff 
 
 of humankind ! 
 " Give me my sword and Lanaudiere, with 
 
 matters well in hand, 
 ** And, coiitc que coiite, the horde of them, the 
 
 devil to command, 
 " We'll put en route to Boston beach, and crave 
 
 no rich reward : 
 " Ay, ay, fear not ; to save Quebec, we'll soon 
 
 relieve the guard ! " 
 
 But the wise Sir Guy craves patience and makes 
 
 defence secure ; 
 Urging citizen and soldier insultings to endure; 
 The walls bemanned to westward, the Palace 
 
 Gate enclosed, 
 The vantage-nooks and ledges, with outlooks 
 
 well disposed. 
 Give assurance to the barricades along the 
 
 river's line, 
 From Pres-de-Ville the outer guard to Sault- 
 
 au-Matelot's chine. 
 
GENERAL Sir GUY CARLETON. 
 (Lord Dorchester.) 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 31 
 
 And still the watchful days and nights keep 
 
 lingering into weeks, 
 \Vith a message scorned from Holland House, 
 
 'mid cannonading freaks, 
 Or yet deserter slinking near, and faltering ta'en 
 
 within. 
 To tell his tale of failing hearts, nathless the 
 
 open din : 
 And Barnsfare and McQuarters, with a hint 
 
 how things will be, 
 
 Keep a keener guard than ever, in the cause of 
 liberty. 
 
 And Maitre Thompson labours on, with his 
 hundred men or more. 
 
 No blockhouse uninspected from the Palais to 
 the shore : 
 
 " We'll dare the devils and their ploys," 'twas 
 
 his with pride to say : 
 '• They little reck what old Quebec can gather 
 
 for the fray : 
 " The day they came from Levis I fired the 
 
 bastion's gun, 
 
 " And, do ye know, the rascals ran as if their 
 dargue was done ; 
 
32 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 " But once give Jones the signal, Dupre, 
 
 Chabot, P^icard, 
 ' With kindred watch-dogs, true as steel, their 
 
 mystery will mar : 
 ' With a Caldwell and Mackenzie and a 
 
 Hamilton to boot, 
 ' Sir Guy, our freedom's champion, will rout 
 
 them horse and foot : 
 ' The poor old Palais lies full low, o'erturned 
 
 by friendly blow, 
 • But lower still, the day quite near, shall 
 
 yonder dastard foe 
 
 ' Be driven back from every glade. What 
 
 daring brings them here ? 
 ' Is this their land — their hearth-and-home ? 
 
 Think they we quake with fear ? 
 
 ' Ha, ha, my lads, 'tis ours to fight for what is 
 
 yet our own ! 
 ' En has with those who soon will reap what 
 
 they have wildly sown ! 
 ' They little reck what old Quebec can muster 
 
 for the fray : 
 ' We'll dare the devils and their ploys, our 
 
 trust in God alway." 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 33 
 
 Indeed so ill the secret was kept beyond the 
 
 town, 
 Tliat from citadel to water's edge, the invaders' 
 
 plans w^ere known ; 
 /Vnd when the year had run its course beyond 
 
 the Christmastide, 
 There was waiting for their coming, as if 'twere 
 
 naught to hide, — 
 One band approaching from the A use, the other 
 
 by St. Roch, 
 To meet at foot of thoroughfare to escalade the 
 rock. 
 
 The night is dark, the sifting snow wreathes 
 high its rampart walls, — 
 
 A fitting hour for mischief's deeds, wrath- 
 winged with fitful squalls. 
 
 Expectation stands on tiptoe, though no mur- 
 murings are heard, 
 
 Revealing passion's wakefulness, by any idle 
 word : 
 
 For Barnsfare and McQuarters, now knowing 
 what's to be, 
 
 Have instant duty well in hand, in the cause of 
 liberty. 
 
34 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 And Malcolm Frazer has betimes good use for 
 
 both his eyes, 
 With forecast's surety in his soul to anticipate 
 
 surprise : 
 " Did ye not see that tongue of fire ? Why, 
 
 there it is again ! 
 " A signal ? Yea, the truth at last ! Our 
 
 watching's not in vain ! 
 '' Ho, there, ye guards, arouse ye ! Ring out 
 
 the town's alarms ! 
 '' The foe is hither marching : to arms, to arms, 
 
 to arms !" 
 
 And in the RecoUets' Convent, the governor 
 takes his place, 
 
 There is calmness in his bearing, a smile upon 
 his face, 
 
 " Stand by your posts, each man his own, you 
 know them well, I trow, 
 
 " There is danger only when disgrace be- 
 smirches fealty's vow : 
 
 " If barricade or picket fail, no likely fate to be, 
 
 " Here on this crowning ground I'll wait the 
 hour for you and me. 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 35 
 
 '' The cannonading yonder is feigning of its 
 
 kind, 
 " 'Tis from below the struggle comes ; so wing 
 
 ye with the wind, 
 *•' Each to his own, brave comrades ; stand by 
 
 the barricades : 
 " Faitli in one's king and country — a soldier's — 
 
 seldom fades, 
 '* Your baptism, perchance severe, will bring its 
 
 own reward : 
 " Stand by ye then, march with your men, and 
 
 instant join the guard ! " 
 
 No further word is spoken, no need for counter- 
 mand ; 
 
 All else is ordered as before, each knows his 
 own conmiand : 
 
 For the good Sir Guy had chosen subalterns 
 faithful, true. 
 
 From the loyalty within the town, when the 
 traitorous withdrew ; 
 
 And he watches for their tidings by the beetling 
 hillside's brow 
 
 From the outer posts of Pres-de-Villc and 
 Sault-au-Matelot. 
 
■ 36 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 And, as he stands, the din of war comes distant 
 
 to his ear, 
 A muffled sound near Palace Gate, a sound of 
 
 seeming- fear ; 
 Then louder as if bolder, men's shoutings fill 
 
 the air : 
 Is the picket yet in danger ? Is there in these 
 
 cries despair ? 
 But the governor, trained a soldier, is silent as 
 
 a king. 
 And awaits for surety's message his faithful 
 
 scouts will bring. 
 
 " What, ho, they're past the Palais!" corroborate 
 
 tidings come, 
 '"' The demon Arnold at their head, with 
 
 rataplan of drum ; 
 " Their marching now an open game, they 
 
 thread the Canoterie, 
 **' The shipyards on their outer flank, the Battery 
 
 on their lee, 
 " Will they dare the deadly danger from the 
 
 ramparts overhead ? — 
 
 " Ah, there it is — the first to fall — a shower-bath 
 raining lead ! " 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. .37 
 
 And still another voice brings tale : " They're 
 
 at the barricade ! — 
 " Forlorn the hope before them, behind a whole 
 
 brigade : 
 '* The snow is in their bloodshot eyes, the cold 
 
 their senses stuns, 
 " 'Tis hand to hand, no quarter now, they've 
 
 thrown away their guns : 
 " They say their leader's fallen, and Morgan 
 
 takes his place ; 
 '' What cheering's that ? Is't ours or theirs ? 
 
 It cannot mean disgrace ? 
 
 '' Disgrace to us? It cannot be! The barricade 
 
 is ta'en ! 
 " Who told you that ? Is Caldwell there ? Ay, 
 
 ear, and eye, and brain ! 
 '■' Lymburner's house is in his hands, where 
 
 centring passions roar, 
 *' The windows bringing in relays, while the 
 
 invader's at the door : 
 '' Brave, say ye ? No one braver ! List to his 
 
 musketry ! 
 "' Can heroic strife be closer ? Wait till the 
 
 rascals flee !" 
 
38 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 For flee they must the din declares, attacked in 
 
 front and rear, 
 With Nairne, Damboiirges, and all the rest at 
 
 last in full career. 
 A pause ! a cheer ! a mighty cry ! Is't true the 
 
 day is ours ? 
 God save Quebec ! Quebec is saved, since God 
 
 thus owns her powers ! 
 Hurrah for hope ! Hurrah for joy ! Away 
 
 with doubting gloom ! 
 Tor the good Sir Guy is home again^iome to 
 
 Quebec, our home ! 
 
 But Pres-dc-Ville, I pray thee! Is the leader 
 
 overcome ? 
 Ay, hours agone ! At early dawn he met his 
 
 sudden doom ! 
 Amid the snow his body lies, his sword-hand in 
 
 the air ; 
 Around him, dead, his comrades : his followers 
 
 in despair ; 
 For Farnsfare and McQuarters knowing well 
 
 what was to be, 
 Had no failing in their courage in the cause of 
 
 liberty. 
 
I— ( 
 O 
 
 I 
 
 O 
 
 hH 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 39 
 
 The tale is brief. A Hazard blindly thrown in 
 
 fortune's face, — 
 To do or die in action, — since delay forebode 
 
 disgrace ! 
 The day is at its breaking, the wind a thousand 
 
 darts, 
 Frost-pointed, piercing keenly, while the foot of 
 
 soldier parts 
 The curving drifts below the cliffs, as best a 
 
 soldier may, 
 When obstacles of nature, as of arms, are in his 
 
 way. 
 
 There's no hiding of their errand now, as a 
 
 keen-eyed guardsman says, 
 And theirs will be the welcome soon that stills 
 
 ambition's craze : 
 See how they brave the ice-floes, to overtake 
 
 the path 
 That labours round Cape Diamond to further 
 
 fateful wrath ! 
 They dream, perchance, we're sleeping, as we 
 
 rest upon our arms ; 
 Ay, ay, they'll hardly waken us till nearer our 
 
 alarms ! 
 
40 THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 
 
 Now they turn the ledge's limits, whence the 
 
 picket's been withdrawn : 
 The fools ! they're daring nearer ! be ready 
 
 man to man ! 
 Ah, how the storm goes raging ! Just wait an 
 
 instant more ! 
 Hush ! There they are, a handful ! Now let 
 
 the volleys roiar ! 
 There's no resisting fire like that ! ah, ha, they 
 
 disappear ! 
 Another volley once again, and victory is 
 
 near ! 
 
 And when Montgomery's orderly, with but an 
 
 hour to live, 
 Was borne in time within the camp, he had no 
 
 word to give 
 Of his masters fate, though well he knew how 
 
 far his cause was lost ; 
 But he told how brave a word was his, with 
 
 little heart to boast, 
 As he led his men from Holland House across 
 
 the snow-bound plain. 
 With fate contending step by step to end the 
 
 dread campaign. 
 
THE MONTGOMERY SIEGE. 41 
 
 " Forward," he cried, — our leader cried, — 
 
 '' disaster lies behind ! 
 " If foe there be, we'll dare the worst, in teeth 
 
 of every wind : 
 '' The outer post's abandoned ; perchance the 
 
 inner fort ; 
 " So hand to hand, I dare demand extremity's 
 
 support ; 
 '* If hardship has beset our path, the prize is 
 
 near at hand ; 
 '' So, onward press, my gallants, 'tis our country 
 
 gives command," 
 
 And as they soothed the sergeant's couch, and 
 
 sought for further word. 
 If his leader was among the first to pass the 
 
 outer guard ; 
 " Who knows may say," the poor man sighed ; 
 
 *' he safety may have found, 
 '' To nerve his followers' courage, my comrades 
 
 yet beyond, — 
 " A restive band, God knows how far, since a 
 
 soldier may not tell !" 
 And weird the word came from his lips, alas ! 
 
 the last to fall. 
 
4*2 THE MONTGOMEUY SIEGE. 
 
 Fate ! folly ! was't a soldier's dream, — his 
 
 death ,a nation's birth ? 
 His sword the emblem of a cause, or but a 
 
 soldier's worth ? 
 Crown him with pride ! He has been crowned. 
 
 But what of those who stood 
 Against his ill-timed onset, — of Carleton the 
 
 good ? 
 Of Farnsfare and McQuarters, daring w^ell what 
 
 was to be, 
 Ey faith abiding hand to hand in the cause of 
 liberty ? 
 
BIOGRAPHY OF SIR GUY CARLETON. 
 
 Sir Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dor- 
 chester, was the third son of General Sir 
 Guy Carleton, of Newry, Ireland, being born 
 at Strabane on September 3rd, 1724. Having 
 entered the Guards as a youth, he received 
 a lieutenancy in the 72nd Foot when twenty- 
 four years of age, and served in Germany, 
 where he was distinguished for his efficiency 
 as an officer and his bravery in the field. 
 With the rank of Colonel he accompanied 
 Wolfe in his expedition against Quebec, 
 during which campaign he acted as quarter- 
 master-general. He had also to take 
 charge of the engineering department, for 
 Wolfe soon found that his engineers had 
 little experience and less zeal. In the strug- 
 gle which ensued, and which was to decide 
 the ownership of Canada, Carleton had 
 command of an attack on Pointe-aux-Trem- 
 bles, was wounded at the Battle of the 
 Plains, and served under Murray at the 
 Battle of St. Foye. He acted as brigadier in 
 the expedition against Belle Isle, as quarter- 
 master in the siege of Havana, and was 
 
44 SIR GUY CAELETON. 
 
 wounded at the capture of the Spanish 
 redoubt on More Hill. In 1766 he arrived 
 at Quebec, with a commission to act as 
 administrator of the government of Canada 
 in the event of the absence of the governor; 
 and later, on October 25th, 1769, succeeded 
 General Murray as governor-in-chief of the 
 colony. On assuming this important office, 
 he quickly gained the public regard, from 
 the fairness and consideration with which 
 he treated the inhabitants, among whom at 
 the time of his appointment, there was much 
 dissatisfaction. The French element of the 
 population were making demands for the 
 restoration of the French civil law and 
 custom. Carleton listened to their petitions, 
 and after making a study of the situation, 
 arranged for the careful compiling and 
 revising of the Coutume de Paris, which 
 embodied the civil law; while the criminal 
 law of England was declared to be in force. 
 In 1770 Carleton returned to England on 
 leave, of absence, and while he was away 
 petitions were prepared asking for the 
 inauguration of a House of Assembly in 
 accordance with the terms of the Royaf 
 Proclamation of 1763. These requests were 
 ultimately granted by the passing of the 
 Quebec Act in 1775. During the same year 
 the American Revolution broke out, shortly 
 after Carleton's return to Canada, and all 
 his energy was required to save British 
 America to the Crown. After the capture 
 of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the "Gates 
 of Canada," by the Continental forces, as 
 
SIR GUY CARLETON. 45 
 
 they were called, the governor summoned 
 the seUjneiirs, and called upon them to enroll 
 their censUaires in the militia. The 
 Jidhltants refused to take up arms, and Carle- 
 ton declared martial law. Upon the continued 
 refusal of the habitants to serve in the 
 country's defence, Bishop Briand, at the 
 governor's request, issued a pastoral letter, 
 urging the people to respond to the call 
 made upon them. Even this had but little 
 effect, so that Carleton had to prepare for the 
 defence of the colony with very few troops 
 at his command. He, however, divided this 
 meagre armament as best he could, to guard 
 the various approaches to the interior, and 
 set out himself for Montreal, where his 
 further appeals to the French-Canadians 
 were again met with indifference. By this 
 time the country was in a critical phase of 
 its existence. It was threatened with what 
 geemed likely to prove an effective invasion 
 by a hostile force, while all was not peace 
 and harmony within its borders. The 
 English population was to a great extent 
 disloyal, being jealous of the privileges 
 granted to the French portion of the popula- 
 tion by the Quebec Act, and, on the other 
 hand, the latter refused to join in the 
 defence of the government which had grant- 
 ed them these privileges. The capture of 
 the forts at Chambly and St. Johns by 
 Montgomery's forces was followed by an 
 attack on Montreal, which also fell tempor- 
 arily into the hands of the invaders. Sir 
 Guy, however, escaped just as Montgomery 
 
46 SIR GUY CARLETON. 
 
 was entering the town, and passing silently 
 down the river, reached Quebec on Novem- 
 ber 19th, an event which without doubt 
 saved Canada to Britain. Here he found 
 consternation reigning as a result of the 
 siege inaugurated by Arnold, who had 
 arrived before the walls by way of the 
 Chaudiere valley. How the governor 
 grasped the situation at once, expelled the 
 disaffected from the town, and, imparting 
 his own fixedness of purpose and energy to 
 the little garrison, succeeded in frustrating 
 the besiegers' every attempt to effect an 
 entrance, is a matter of history. In 1766, 
 Carleton organized an expedition against 
 the revolted colonies and defeated Arnold's 
 flotilla on Lake Champlain. The following 
 year he was superseded in the command by 
 Burgoyne, who proved comparatively incom- 
 petent; but in 1781 he succeeded Sir Henry 
 Clinton as commander of the British forces 
 in North America, and in 1786 was apponted 
 Governor-General of Canada, having been 
 raised to the peerage, as Lord Dorchester, 
 shortly before his appointment. On his 
 arrival he immediately assembled the Legis- 
 lative Council and formed its members into 
 committees to enquire into the state of the 
 €;ducation, commerce, laws, and police 
 protection in the country, the chief justice 
 having charge of the investigation into the 
 condition of legal affairs. These enquiries 
 showed that things were in a very indiffer- 
 ent state in every particular; and to remedy 
 the evils thus discovered, the Constitutional 
 
Major General Richard Montgfomery, 
 after the portrait by C. W. Peale. 
 
LORD DORCHESTER. 47 
 
 Act of 1791 was passed by the British Parlia- 
 ment, after having been submitted to Lord 
 Dorchester for revision. Canada lost one of 
 the best friends she ever had when Lord 
 Dorchester took his departure from her 
 shores on July 9th, 1796. His kindliness, 
 justice, sound common sense and love for 
 constitutional government endeared him to 
 all classes of Canadians, who have ever 
 justly regarded him as having been instru- 
 mental in securing for them the freedom 
 which they enjoy. He died at Maidenhead, 
 England, on the tenth of November, 1808. 
 
 BIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD MONT- 
 GOMERY. 
 
 Richard Montg-omery, the general in 
 command of the forces which besieged 
 Quebec in December, 1775, and who lost hi» 
 life during the attack upon that stronghold 
 on the morning of the 1st of January, 1776, 
 was an Irishman by birth. He was born in 
 December, 1736, near Peltrim, Dublin, and 
 received his education at Trinity College. 
 Early in life he chose as his calling the 
 army, being attached to the Seventeenth 
 Regiment when eighteen years of age. He 
 served under Wolfe at the siege of Louis- 
 bourg, and later, in 1759, was with Amherst 
 on Lake Champlain, and with Haviland in 
 the following year. He received a captaincy 
 in 1762, and as such saw further service at 
 Martinique and Havana. Throughout the 
 
48 RICIIAIJD MONTGOMERY. 
 
 Seven Years War he acquired mn.ch experi- 
 ence and some distinction as a soldier; and 
 lool^ed forward to gaining his majority on 
 his return to Ireland. Failing in this, he 
 sold his commission and betook himself to 
 America, arriving in New York, where he 
 married Janet, eldest daughter of a former 
 friend of his. Judge Robert R. Livingston. 
 It seems to have been his intention, upon 
 his marriage, to retire definitely from a 
 military career, and to content himself with 
 the retirement of his own home circle. Pur- 
 chasing a Tarm at Rhinebeck, he built a:, 
 house and mill, and settled down to a life 
 of rural ease. Embracing, however, the 
 political views of his wife's immediate rela- 
 tives, who were all ultra-colonial in their 
 opinions, he was not long allowed to remain 
 in seclusion. Possessed of more than ordi- 
 nary ability, and thoroughly schooled in the 
 art of warfare, his services were of too much 
 value to the embryo nation to be lightly 
 set aside. In 1775, he was chosen by the 
 electors of the county of Dutchess to repre- 
 sent them at the first provincial convention 
 in New York, being almost immediately 
 appointed a brigadier-general in the army, 
 which was being organized by Washington, 
 — a position which it is said he accepted 
 with some reluctance. 
 
 Montgomery was convinced of the strate- 
 gic advantage to be gained by the acquisition 
 of Canada, and, while relieving Schuyler at 
 Ticonderoga, received despatches from 
 General Washington, outlining a plan of 
 
KICHARD MONTGOMERY. 49 
 
 campaign having that for its object. Being 
 thus connected with the enterprise, Mont- 
 gomery found himself ere long in command 
 of the invading expedition, and conducted 
 personally the capture of St. Johns and 
 Montreal, and ultimately the attack on 
 Quebec, where, as has been said, he was 
 abruptly cut off in the prime of his life. 
 The motives which influenced Montgomery 
 in joining the colonial forces against the 
 royal master of his earlier years have been 
 the subject of much discussion among 
 historical writers and others; but in view of 
 his apparent general character and marked 
 talent, it is only fair to give him the benefit 
 of any doubt there may be. As regards his 
 change of allegiance, his position was not 
 greatly different from that of his compan- 
 ions in the struggle which lost to England 
 the American colonies. 
 
 BIOGRAPHY OP BENEDICT ARNOLD. 
 
 Benedict Arnold, second in command to 
 General Montgomery in the attack on 
 Quebec in December, 1775, was a native of 
 America, being born at Norwich, in Connec- 
 ticut, on the 14th of January, 1741. When 
 very young he enlisted as a soldier, but 
 deserted from the ranks shortly afterward, 
 and worked as an apothecary's assistant in 
 his native place. Removing to Now Haven, 
 in 1762, he carried on business as a druggist 
 and bookseller, becoming after a time a 
 property owner and assuming the title of 
 
50 BENEDICT ARNOLD. 
 
 general. Failing in business, lie entered the 
 service of the State of Massachussetts, early 
 in 1775, with the rank of colonel; and a few 
 months later was entrusted with the 
 command of the two battalions, consisting 
 of about eleven hundred men, sent by 
 Washington against Quebec. His success 
 in leading this force on its terrible march 
 through the trackless wilderness of Maine 
 and the valley of the Chaudiere, proved 
 that he was a man of daring bravery and 
 wonderful endurance. Having effected a 
 meeting with Montgomery before the walls 
 of Quebec, he took part in the attack and 
 was seriously wounded. For his services in 
 this connection he was appointed a briga- 
 dier-general; and in 1776, was in command 
 of a small ileet, — engaging in a naval fight 
 on Lake Champlain, in which, though not 
 successful, he showed a great deal of 
 courage and skill. Notwithstanding the 
 recognition given to his intrepidity, he was 
 not promoted to the rank of major-general 
 until 1777, although several officers who 
 were his juniors received that distinction 
 before him. This was a cause of much 
 annoyance to him, and made him discon- 
 tented with his position in the service. He 
 was present at the battles of Bemis Heights 
 and Stillwater, on the latter occasion show- 
 ing an utter lack of subordination to the 
 general in command. In this engagement 
 he was again seriously wounded, being 
 rendered unfit for service for some time. 
 In 1778, Congress gave him the command 
 
BENEDICT ARNOLD. 51 
 
 at Philadelphia, where he married, as his 
 second wife, Margaret, daughter of Edward 
 Shippen, who afterwards became chief-jus- 
 tice of Pennsylvania. Having during his 
 tenure of this office, incurred heavy pecu- 
 niary obligations and made a number of 
 enemies, he was tried by court-martial on a 
 variety of charges; and, though he was 
 acquitted, the general-in-chief was ordered 
 to reprimand him. So convinced, however, 
 was Washington of Arnold's ability and 
 freedom from fault, that he praised rather 
 than censured him. In 1780, at his own 
 seeking, he was given command at West 
 Point, an important military post, and 
 almost immediately entered into negotia- 
 tions with the British authorities to hand it 
 over to them. The arrangements for the 
 carrying out of this act of treachery were 
 practically completed, when Major Andre, 
 who was acting for the British general in 
 the matter, was captured and the plot 
 was discovered. Arnold fled and sought 
 refuge on the Vulture, a British war vessel, 
 on September 25th, and escaped to New 
 York, where he joined the British army. He 
 was commissioned to lead an expedition 
 from that point against Virginia, where he 
 greatly harassed the colonists in that part 
 of the country, and did much damage to 
 their property. He received £6,300 from 
 the British Government for his proffered 
 services; and, retiring to England, as the 
 war was drawing to a close, died in London, 
 little regretted, in June, 1801. 
 
TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 
 
 St. Paul's Chapel, situated at the lower 
 end of Broadway, was erected in 1776, and 
 is the oldest building of colonial origin in 
 New York. It was the only building of 
 importance that escaped in the burning of 
 the city in 1776, and for twelve years there- 
 after was the parish church. The inaugu- 
 ration procession of General George Wash- 
 ington was received in this place of worship 
 by Bishop Provoost on the 30th of April, 
 1789, the newly elected president being 
 accompanied by both Houses of Congress 
 and the members of the Cabinet. The pew 
 is still shown which the President occupied 
 as a member of the church between the 
 years 1789 and 1791. As has been said, the 
 remains of General Montgomery were de- 
 posited within the precincts of this chapel 
 in 1818, and from the monument erected to 
 his memory may be read the following 
 inscription: " This monument is erected by 
 the order of Congress, 25th January, 1776, to 
 transmit to posterity a grateful remem- 
 brance of the patriotism, conduct, enterprise 
 
54 TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 
 
 and perseverence of General Richard Mont- 
 gomery, who after a series of successes and 
 amidst the most discouraging difficulties, 
 fell in the attack of Quebec, 31st December, 
 1775, aged 37 years The State of New- 
 York caused the remains of Major-General 
 Richard Montgomery to be conveyed from 
 Quebec and deposited beneath this monu- 
 ment, the 8th day of July, 1818." What 
 a quiet retreat out of the swirl of 
 life in the streets around ! What a crowd- 
 ing of memories, amid the crowding of the 
 great city's interests! There is no need for 
 a service to sanctify the soul of the wayfarer 
 here. The old sounding-board of the pulpit 
 has its lesson of the past to teach, as has 
 almost nearly every other object near by, 
 from the old graveyard without, to the old 
 pews within. The church itself is a relic 
 of old colonial times; and, when one 
 examines the coat-of-arms of the Prince of 
 Wales above the old-fashioned pulpit, he 
 wonders how it comes to be there after all 
 that has been said and done. The modest 
 card he holds in his hand, however, tells 
 him the story of its escape from the hands 
 of the iconoclasts, and American and 
 Britisher are alike glad to-day that it did 
 so escape, in presence of the international 
 sympathy that gives a guarantee of the 
 world's greater progress in the years to 
 come. 
 
 Notre Dame des Victoires. — This church 
 is situated on what was called originally the 
 Grande Place of lower town, in Quebec, and 
 
TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 55 
 
 later the Place du Marche. The site for it 
 was secured after some delay by Bishop 
 Laval in 1648, and the church itself was 
 opened as a place of worship in 
 1688, two years previous to the siege 
 by Sir William Phipps. After this 
 event, it was called Notre Dame de la 
 Victoire. and when the tidings was borne 
 to the town that the projected siege by 
 Admiral Walker in 1711 had been abandon- 
 ed, on account of the shipwreck of the 
 squadron under his command, the name was 
 changed to the plural form, Notre Dame 
 des Victoires, as a memorial of both events. 
 The interior of the church was destroyed 
 during the siege of 1759, and the relics it 
 contained lost. Among the curios destroyed 
 there was a picture of Quebec in flames' 
 bearing a prophetic inscription declaring 
 that lower town would be destroyed by fire 
 some time previous to 1760, as well as a flag 
 captured from Phipps during the memorable 
 contest in the harbour. Notre Dame Street 
 extends from Mountain Hill westward to 
 Champlain Market, receiving its name no 
 doubt from the above church. In olden- 
 times it led directly to the open waters of 
 the Cul-de-Sac, and was once a busy 
 thoroughfare on market days with the 
 Marche de la Place in front of it. This 
 open space formed part of the enclosures 
 of the Habitation of Champlain. In front 
 of the church stood the pillory, and within 
 the open space of the square the scaffold 
 for executions used to be erected. In 1641, 
 
5G TOrOGEAPHICAL NOTES. 
 
 there stood in the centre of the square, 
 where the fountain now is, a wooden statue 
 of Louis XIII., which was superseded by one 
 in bronze in 1667, a gift from M. de Cham- 
 pigny. The first church ever erected in 
 Quebec stood at the head of the Cul-de-Sac, 
 at the foot of tlie narrow pathway now 
 obviated by Breakneck Steps. It was under 
 the supervision of Father Dolbeau, who 
 arrived in Canada in 1615, with his associate 
 Recollets, Father Jamay and Father Le 
 Caron; and there is a record of the Te Deum 
 sung witliin its walls on the arrival of 
 Madame Champlain, as well as on account 
 of its destruction in the siege of 1629. While 
 digging at the foot of the stairway in 1856 
 the foundations of this chapel were laid 
 bare, and a vault exposed containing the 
 remains of a human skeleton. At first it 
 was thought that the remains were those of 
 Champlain himself, but they were afterwards 
 identified as those of Father Duplessis, the 
 first of the Recollets to die in Quebec. 
 
 Mountain Hill, or Cote de Lamontagne. — 
 As the visitor takes his way down Mountain 
 Hill, he may wish to pause for a moment 
 for an explanation of the strange name the 
 thoroughfare has had ever since the city had 
 an English resident. The street was open- 
 ed up by Champlain when he was drawing 
 stone and building material from the vicinity 
 of the Habitation, to use in the construction 
 of Fort St. Louis. The declivity which ran 
 from the graveyard to Sous-le-Fort Street, 
 and which is now indicated by the line of 
 
TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 57 
 
 Breakneck Steps, he found too steep, and so 
 ho opened up a new scntier to connect with 
 what was called Cote du Magasin, which 
 ran parallel with the direction of the present 
 Notre Dame and St. Peter Streets. At first 
 the roadway was very narrow. Then it was 
 widened after the fire of 1682, after which 
 houses began to be built first on one side 
 and then on the other. John Neilson, of the 
 (lazcttc, had his printing house opposite the 
 opening leading to the steps, in one of the 
 houses which was removed after Prescott 
 Gate had disappeared. The narae of the 
 street was given to it in honour of one of 
 its residents, Mr. Lamontagne. Hence the 
 term Mountain Hill is its own appropriate 
 name, and no misnomer; while, as a street, 
 it should be called in French Rue or Cote 
 de Lamontagne, and not de la Montague. 
 
 Champlain Street, which extends along 
 the base of Cape Diamond from the Cham- 
 plain market place to the city limits, has 
 many objects of interest to examine along 
 its winding course. Prominent among these 
 are : Little Champlain Street, formerly a 
 business centre of the town; the old Guard 
 House at the entrance to the wharves of the 
 Marine and Fisheries Department; the scene 
 of the Landslide of 1889; the Anglican 
 Chapel; the Norwegian Schoolhouse; the 
 great ladder-like stairway leading to the 
 Cove-fields ; the Diamond Harbour Chapel ; 
 and the remains of the old harbour of 
 Quebec. 
 
 Of these the Market-Hall itself takes a 
 
58 TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 
 
 noticeable prominence. The space around 
 it formed the little bay so long known as 
 the Cul-de-Sac, — the inner harbour of 
 Quebec in its early days. The spacious 
 building was erected in 1858, out of the 
 materials of the old Parliament House, 
 which stood on the site at the head of 
 Mountain Hill now known as the Frontenac 
 Park. The architect had instructions to 
 retain the form of the building as it was to 
 be seen when parliament assembled in its 
 halls, and this was done with the exception 
 of the dome and the wings. The visitor, 
 therefore, in examining the exterior of this 
 market-house is virtually looking at the 
 Quebec Parliament Building as it was seen 
 at the time of the union of the two Canadas. 
 Little Cham pi a ill ^Street was formerly called 
 Rue de Meules in honour of the Intendant 
 of that name. At the time of Champlain, 
 this street bounded the governor's gardens 
 on the north, having at its easterji extremity 
 the little wooden church erected by the 
 Recollets in 1615. It is specially described 
 by Charles Lever in his "Con Cregan," and 
 is said to have been at one time one of the 
 city's important commercial centres. Behind 
 one of the houses facing the short stairway 
 connecting the two Champlain Streets, there 
 is still to be seen what was once known as 
 Champlain's Fountain, — a spring of clear 
 cold water trickling from the living rock. 
 It is mentioned in several public documents, 
 but its exact position was unknown for 
 years until Mr. P. B. Casgrain brought it 
 
TOrOCiliAPIlICAL NOTES. 59 
 
 to light. In the eighteenth century tlie 
 tide ran up to the base of the cliff, and there 
 was no ChampLain Street beyond Pres-de- 
 Ville, when Montgomery made his march, 
 there being no houses on the beach all the 
 way to Siliery. Hugh McQuarters, the 
 artillery sergeant who had charge of the 
 guns at Pres-de-Ville, had his residence in 
 the street, where he died in 1812. So far the 
 house in which he lived has not been identi- 
 fied. 
 
 Breakneck Steps have been in existence 
 since the year 1660 according to a plan of 
 the town bearing that date, previous to that 
 time there being only a pathway leading to 
 or from the little church which Champlain 
 built at the head of Sous-le-Fort Street" 
 overlooking the Cul-de-Sac. In 1706, for 
 some cause or another, the Superior Council 
 ordered the steps to be so narrowed above 
 and below that only one person could pass 
 at a time. The present iron stairway was 
 erected in 1895, as part of the earlier city 
 improvements, the old wooden steps being 
 removed none too soon. 
 
 The King's Wharf and Storehouses. — 
 At the junction of the two Champlain Streets, 
 there is a grouping of quaint buildings 
 which cannot but attract the eye of the 
 visitor. The old building with its cannon- 
 protected gateway and ancient-looking 
 dingy guard-house was once the King's 
 Arsenal or Military Storehouse, while the 
 more modern building to the west along the 
 line of the street was once the Custom 
 
63 TOrOGRAnilCAL NOTES. 
 
 House, and is now occupied by tlie Quebec 
 brancii of the Marine and Fisheries Depart- 
 ment. Tlie wharves within are tlie property 
 of the federal government and have formed 
 scenes of many memorable public receptions 
 of distinguished guests arriving by water. 
 The spaces within also witnessed the gather- 
 ing of the troops during the Rebellion of 
 1837, as well as during the excitement of 
 the Fenian Raid. By a careful examination 
 of the limits of the wharfage some idea can 
 be formed of the compass of the Cul-de-Sac, 
 with what is now called the Napoleon 
 Wharf at its eastern bend and the govern- 
 ment wharves at the western. In one of 
 the buildings, a sad spectacle was presented 
 to the citizens of Quebec on the 19th of 
 September, 1889, when a morgue had to be 
 improvised for the bodies of the victims of 
 the terrible landslide. The effects of that 
 catastrophe may still be seen a few hundred 
 yards further on at the end of the Dufferln 
 Terrace where the face of the rock parted 
 from the hillside and in its descent over- 
 whelmed several dv/ellings, burying in the 
 debris from fifty to sixty persons. The 
 bodies were placed side by side in a chamber 
 of the old Custom House as they were dug 
 out one by one; a memorial of the lamen- 
 table awe-inspiring spectacle having been 
 handed down to us in the following verses: 
 
 Have you heard the dh-eful tidings 
 Trembling in the morning air, — 
 
TOPOGRArHlCAL NOTES. 61 
 
 Death that harbours with disaster. 
 
 Bringing on the town despair? 
 All last nighi from eve' to daybreak, 
 
 Roared the tempest, pouring down, 
 Lashing like some blinding fury, 
 Through the highways torrents grown. 
 
 What, you have not heard the tidings, 
 
 How the storm did not abate, 
 As the darkness deep as Egypt's 
 
 Settled like a coming fate! 
 Why, 'twas flood and earthquake rending 
 
 Rock and terrace-strand in twain, 
 Crashing with relentless downfall, 
 
 Rack and ruin in its train! 
 
 Up and to the work of rescue; 
 
 Brothers help us; sisters, pray: 
 Dig for life; tear out the timbers; 
 
 Heave the boulders from our way! 
 Hark, a sound beneath the debris! 
 
 Hark, again, a human sigh! 
 Dig for love; O, dig in earnest! 
 
 Dare we pause when one may die! 
 
 What, you say, 'tis yet another, — 
 
 A fair-haired laddie, limp and dend ! 
 O God, to think how many, many, 
 
 Lie upon the morgue's cold bed! 
 Young and old, men, women, children! — 
 
 What of that?. Again that cry! — 
 Yes, 'tis there, though faint and feeble. 
 
 Up, and every sinew ply! 
 
 To the work, a thousand helpers! 
 Should we save but one 'twere well! 
 
62 TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 
 
 The sounds below come near and nearer. 
 Making every heart-ache swell: 
 
 He's dead you say? No, no, he's living! 
 Be tender, lift him out with care! 
 
 Would that all had thus been rescued! 
 Alas; the wish but brings despair! 
 
 He dies; he's dead; the last one dead! 
 
 Count them? No, we may not stay! 
 Such lament makes hope a ruin; 
 
 Let us help those whom we may. 
 
 Alas, for us and for our city! 
 
 Alas, for those who victims fell! 
 Alas, for weeping kindred, wailing. 
 
 As the verger tolls the knell! 
 Crash it came; No moment's warning: 
 
 Down it plunged, dire avalanche: 
 Rock and ruin, breaking, bursting. 
 
 Making all the world blanche. 
 
 Pres-de-Ville was situated near the gate- 
 way leading to the Allans' Wharf. There 
 was but a short distance, as Caldwell says, 
 between the King's wharf and the King's 
 forges, which must have been situated near 
 the base of the landslide just referred to. 
 It will be noticed that one of the Allans' 
 storehouses has about it an interesting look 
 of age. It was at one time a brewery, 
 standing at the end of the roadway passable 
 for vehicles and occupying the site of the 
 Potash, or Mr. Simon Frazer's house near 
 which Farnsfare and McQuartors were 
 stationed the morning of Montgomery's 
 
QUEBEC. 
 
TOPOGEAPHICAL XOTES. C3 
 
 advance. The configuration and projection 
 of the rock, here indicates how suitable the 
 locality was for an outpost, as well as how 
 necessary to have an outlook round the 
 angle, to watch the advance of an invader. 
 An incident is recorded by Kingsford which 
 shews how isolated Pres-'de-Ville was con- 
 sidered to be, by those who had guarded it 
 so well. Shortly after the repulse of Mont- 
 gomery, "some old woman came in with an 
 account that the other division of the 
 enemy had surprised the post at Sault-au- 
 Matelot, and was in possession of the lower 
 town. Some of the detachment commenced 
 to conceal their arms, others to offer to 
 throw them in the river. Such fear was 
 shown that a Mr. Coffin, who had taken 
 refuge in the house adjoining the barricade, 
 with his wife and twelve children, drew his 
 bayonet and declared he would put to death 
 the first man who laid by his arms or 
 attempted to abandon the post. With the 
 assistance of the seamen two guns were 
 pointed in the direction of the city, in case 
 they should be assailed from that direction, 
 though Arnold's force was at that moment 
 surrendering as prisoners of war." 
 
 Cape Diamond is the name given to the 
 rock on which the Citadel is built, and 
 which extends beyond the platform exten- 
 sion of the Duff erin' Terrace proper to the 
 old French outv/orks. The first name given 
 to the rock was Mont de Cast, bestowed 
 upon it by Champlain in honour of his 
 superior officer, De Monts. But the crop of 
 
G4 TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 
 
 transparent quartzite crystals which recur 
 in its strata led to the use of the name it 
 continues to possess. It is supposed that 
 the great rock, which is over three hundred 
 feet in height, led from its striking appear- 
 ance to the naming of the city itself; though 
 no one will now ever be able to tell which 
 of Jacques Cartier's men it was that shouted 
 in admiration when he first saw it, "Que 
 becque! What a cape!" It is interesting 
 to know that Quebec, that is Kcpav or Eelbec, 
 Kelibec, in the Algonquin language means a 
 narrow place, or a place shut in, which the 
 harbour of Quebec certainly seems to be as 
 we approach it from outside. 
 
 The Ruisseau St. Denis and Wolfesfield 
 are of the deepest interest to those who 
 would study the sieges of 1759 and 1775. 
 From the front of the house, the natural 
 pathway can be seen along the line of the 
 burn up which Major John Hale made his 
 way on the morning of the 13th of Septem- 
 ber, 1759, while his master took possession 
 of Vergor's outpost on the other side of the 
 scnticr leading direct from the Cove itself. 
 Near the turn of the road in a corner of the 
 Marchmont grounds may still be seen 
 the remains of the French entrenchments, 
 which Montgomery must have passed on 
 his way to meet his fate at Pres-de-Ville. 
 The first house on the grounds was erected 
 by Captain Kenelm Chandler who died as 
 seigneur of Nicolet, in 1853. 
 
 Holland House, — a long high-peaked struc- 
 ture, situated on the St. Foye Road near 
 
TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 65 
 
 the top of Sandy Hill and a little to 
 the right of the site of Mr. Ross's present 
 villa, — was not known by that name until 
 it came into the possession of Major Samuel 
 Holland, in 1780. It had been originally 
 built in 1740 by Mr. Jean Tache, a merchant 
 of lower town, and ancestor of Sir Etienne 
 Tache of later political fame. Beyond the 
 interest attached to the place as the head- 
 quarters of Montgomery in 1775, it has a 
 history of its own, in connection with the 
 annals of Quebec society, beginning with a 
 visit of the Duke of Cornwall's great-grand- 
 father, and ending with the death of Judge 
 Okill Stuart, the last of the owners of the 
 original Holland Farm, which extended 
 from the St. Foye to St. Michael's Chapel, 
 and contained over two hundred acres. 
 
 The Quebec Bank stands on an historic 
 spot of much interest to any one trying to 
 learn the topography of the siege of 1775. 
 It was here the Lymburners' offices and 
 storehouses stood, with some dwellings, 
 opposite, belonging to Joseph Levy the Jew. 
 The second barricade, which Morgan beset 
 after Arnold had been wounded, was built 
 ai the junction of Sault-au-Matelot and Dog 
 Lane. Arnold's detachment had taken lad- 
 ders with them, and under Morgan's 
 command these had been placed in position 
 outside the barricades, and finally a lodge- 
 ment for one of them was made on the inner 
 side. Meantime the besieged took posses- 
 sion of the houses above mentioned, pouring 
 from the windows in the rear a deadly fire 
 
66 TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 
 
 upon those of the enemy who had been 
 able to get within the barricade. The 
 ladder within the barricade was at lengtn 
 seized by the defenders and placed against 
 the gable of one of the houses, thus enabling 
 a stream of Caldwell's men to pass into the 
 upper rooms, while Morgan's men were 
 rushing in by the street door, only to be 
 driven out at the point of the bayonet. For 
 a time after this the scene within the second 
 barricade was a hand to hand contest, along 
 towards Des Soeurs Street, where there was 
 a third line of defence. But the reserves 
 under several British officers came pouring 
 in from behind, and when the invaders saw 
 this they immediately threw down their 
 arms. When they were being conducted 
 back as prisoners, the corner house against 
 which the ladder stood had to be passed 
 through, each prisoner entering by the front 
 door and descending from the upper window 
 into the street outside the barricade; but, 
 as there were over four hundred prisoners 
 taken, the barricade itself was finally open- 
 ed to give space for a general march back 
 to Palace Gate and thence to the Seminary 
 v/here it was decided the prisoners should 
 be located. • 
 
 Of the Quebec Bank itself, it may be said, 
 that it was organized in 1818 with a propos- 
 ed capital of $600,000. It has had its 
 charter amended several times, and after 
 the disturbances of 1831, during which the 
 banks were obliged to suspend operations, 
 a Royal charter was secured during the 
 
TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 67 
 
 reign of William IV. The present building 
 was erected in 1863. On the wharf which 
 once extended from the neighbouring site, 
 were built the stores of the Hudson's Bay 
 Company, and the situation of this wharf 
 so near St. Peter Street, as late as 1823, 
 indicates the remarkable changes that have 
 been made in the river front since that date. 
 
 ''The Rock of Dog- Lane."— Before St. 
 Paul Street had been laid out as a connect- 
 ing thoroughfare between lower town and 
 St. Roch, there was only a narrow pathway 
 along the shore line, wide enough for the 
 foot passenger, and frequented by the boys 
 and their dog-sleds or little carts in searchi 
 of kindling wood near the shinyards or 
 along high water mark. It runs from 
 Dambourges Street to St. James Street, and 
 provides ample material to the student of 
 the lower aspects of life, as well as to the 
 artist in search of the picturesque that is 
 unique in its presentations. The great 
 angular ledge that shoots into the alley-way, 
 formed a suitable place for the erection of the 
 first of the barricades that impeded Arnold's 
 march on his way to join Montgomery at 
 the foot of Mountain Hill. Between this 
 rock and the second barricade near Adam 
 Lymburner's house. Arnold was wounded 
 in the leg and had to be carried to the 
 rear. 
 
 The Ramrtarts, extend from the head of 
 Mountain Hill to the site of Palace Gate. 
 They played an important part in the siege 
 of 1775. Carleton had detachments placed 
 
68 TOrOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 
 
 along the whole line of this roadway, and 
 as the five companies of the enemy passed 
 along the Canoterie and Dog Lane, they 
 received successive volleys from the troops 
 above. The Battery has a commanding 
 position at the south-eastern end of the 
 Ramparts, adjoining the Frontenac Park, 
 which has a history of its own, as the site 
 of the former Parliament Buildings, and 
 previous to that as the site of the Bishop's 
 Palace which once overlooked Prescott Gate. 
 The Intendant's Palace was situated at 
 the foot of Palace Hill, there being still some 
 remnants of its original walls to be seen 
 within the precincts of what is called Bos- 
 well's Brewery. It was a spacious buiFding 
 extending over what would now constitute 
 two or three blocks, having an enclosed 
 frontage laid out in parterres that ran 
 towards the St. Charles. Strange that the 
 site should originally have been occupied 
 by a brewery as it is now. This first 
 brewery was built by Intendant Talon in 
 1655, and was removed by his successor in 
 office, Intendant de Meules, who at his own 
 expense erected the first group of buildings 
 that went by the name of the "Palais." 
 These were destroyed during their occupancy 
 by Intendant Begon. The structures were, 
 however, rebuilt a few years after on even a 
 larger scale than before, with the main 
 entrance a little within the line of St. Valier 
 Street; and when it was finished no less 
 than twenty buildings were grouped round 
 the main structure, including the goverri- 
 
TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 69 
 
 ment offices and the notorious L<i Fiiponne, 
 which stood near what is now the entrance 
 to the present brewery. When Quebec fell 
 into British hands in 1759, the place was 
 used as a barracks, as was also the ola 
 Jesuits' College ; and when Arnold drove 
 out Carleton's men from it in 1775, seeking 
 to make a near place of refuge for his own 
 men, the artillery around Palace Gate direc- 
 ted a destructive fire against it, and reduced 
 it to ruins. From this time, until its sur- 
 roundings were t^ken possession of for 
 building nurpo^es. the wide space familiarly 
 called "the Palais" extended from what is 
 now St. Nicholas Street, to the eastern end of 
 St. Valier Street, and when the greater part 
 of it was divided into building lots, a portion 
 was retained to be used as the Commis- 
 sariat's fuel yard. The ruins of the Palace 
 itself were standing as late as 1845, the year 
 of the great conflagration which swept St. 
 Poch. It had been previously used bv the 
 military authorities as a storehouse and 
 stable, while the vaults were rented as wine 
 cellars, and ice-houses; but the great heat 
 generated by the fire reduced the walls to a 
 crumbling mas<?. and sad to relate, many 
 unfortunates who had taken refuge in the 
 cellars, lost their lives in thp ruins. A visit 
 to the site is of the srreatpst interest not 
 only to those who would study carefully the 
 topoerapbv of the surroundine-s. but to the 
 readers of the Chmi d'Or, by William iCirby. 
 who graphically depicts the scenes enacted 
 within its walls during the regime of that 
 
70 TOPOGRxVPHTCAL NOTBS. 
 
 libertine-oppressor, Intendant Bigot. In this 
 connection, it may be said that the Intendant 
 as an official was little inferior in point of 
 rank to the governor himself. He was presi- 
 dent of the Sovereign Council and had the 
 superintendency of four departments namely 
 Justice, Police, Finance and Marine. 
 
 The Hotel Dieu, as it at present stands, 
 is a development from a very humble-look- 
 ing structure erected, in 1639, through the 
 liberality of the Duchess d'Aiguillon, who 
 had received a deed of the land, on which 
 it stood, from the "Company of One Hundred 
 Associates." The Duchess and her uncle, 
 Cardinal Richelieu, endowed the institution, 
 and with the revenues derived from this 
 endowment and the properties which have 
 come, by grants and legacies, into the hands 
 of the community of nuns controlling its 
 affairs, the institution has now for its habi- 
 tation one of the most imposing structures 
 in the city. Its proximity to the site of 
 the Palace Gate connects it with the story 
 of the siege of 1775. The primary function 
 of the institution is to provide for the indi- 
 gent sick. The Chapel is of some interest, 
 possessing, as it does, several valuable 
 pictures and interesting relics such as the 
 Crucifjx 0//^r«r/(', and a bone of Breboeuf, the 
 martyr-missionary. The first great advance 
 made by the institution was in 1654, when 
 Governor Lauzon laid the foundation-stone 
 of the new hospital chapel. Further addi- 
 tions were made in 1672, under the patron- 
 age of Intendant Talon, when a brass plate 
 
TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 71 
 
 bearing record of the liberality of those who 
 had assisted the institution at its inception 
 and afterwards, was inserted in the founda- 
 tion-stone of the main building. The latest 
 improvements were made in 1890, when its 
 present magnificent facade was added, and 
 its enclosures completed. 
 
 The Seminary of Quebec provided a 
 retreat for the ofncers of Arnold who were 
 taken prisoners in 1775. It was first opened 
 as a training school for priests in 1663; and, 
 as early as 1688, it had an attachment in its 
 school for boys, first opened in the house of 
 Madame Couillard, the daughter of Louis 
 Hebert, who may be looked upon as the 
 first French settler in Canada. The farm 
 of the latter covered the ground to the 
 north-east of the present site of the Basilica, 
 near v/hich stood the Chapelle de la Recouv- 
 rance built by Champlain on his return to 
 Canada, after Sir David Kirke's siege. 
 Hebert's farm-house seems to have stood on 
 the ground now occupied by the Bishop's 
 Palace, while the gardens of the Seminary 
 and University buildings occupy what was 
 the frontage-lands of his farm. From 
 the theological school for priests and the 
 day-school for boys were finally developed 
 the (j)rnid Si'minaire and the Petit ^eminairc, 
 both of which still continue as schools 
 within the quaint high-storied buildings of 
 the spacious court-yard of Laval. The 
 main entrance to the Seminary is at the 
 head of Fabrique Street, between the 
 Basilica and the Seminary Chapel, and this 
 
72 TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 
 
 is also one of the entrances to the Laval 
 University, the latest development of Bishop 
 Laval's early educational enterprise. The 
 Superior of the Seminary is also Rector of 
 the University, and while the professors of 
 the latter may be Roman Catholic or Protes- 
 tant, the teachers of the former are in orders 
 and consist of agreges and auxillaires. The 
 agreges are members of the corporation, 
 being represented on the council and having 
 with it the indirect supervision of the affairs 
 of the whole institution. The revenues of 
 the Seminary are derived from landed pro- 
 perty that has marvellously increased in its 
 proportions as well as in its value, from the 
 days of its founder. There are over five 
 hundred students in attendance, while the 
 equipment includes a well arranged museum 
 and a library of 140,000 volumes. 
 
 What used to be an object of great inter- 
 est to the visitor, namely, the old Seminary 
 Chapel built in 1670, has been replaced by 
 the present modern structure. The oVd. 
 chapel contained a number of very valuable 
 paintings, master-pieces of the early French 
 schools, — but the most of these were destroy- 
 ed when the building was burned in 1888. It 
 was for a time used as the parish church 
 while the Basilica was being repaired from 
 the ruinous effects of the siege of 1759. One 
 of the most magnificent of the numerous 
 engrossing views of the city is to be seen 
 from the roof of the university building 
 proper. 
 
LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTES. 
 
 '^Tlie Angelus in the gloamiii^^." — Since 
 the appearance of the celebrated painting by 
 Millet, "the Angelus," has become a popular 
 term, designating a devotion in the Roman 
 Catholic Church in memory of the Annun- 
 ciation. At the ringing of the church bell 
 at sunrise, noon, and sunset, the faithful 
 are expected to repeat an Ave after three 
 scriptural texts, as in Millet's representa- 
 tion of a man and woman hearing the signal 
 while at work on the field. The word 
 "gloaming" carries the same meaning as the 
 word from which it is derived, namely the 
 Anglo-Saxon, glom, twilight. 
 
 '' From Citadel to Suburb." — The term 
 "suburbs" still remains, being applied to the 
 parts of the city outside the walls, the 
 suburbs of St. John, St. Roch, and St. 
 Sauveur being still used as a distinction from 
 upper and lower town. (1.) The suburb of 
 St. John extends along the northern section 
 of the plateau from the city walls without, 
 as far as the Banlieu, being intersected by 
 the thoroughfares of St. John Street, 
 
74: LITERARY NOTES. 
 
 D'Aiguillon Street, and Richelieu Street. 
 (2.) The suburb of St. Roch extends from 
 the "Palais" to the Boulevard Langelier, 
 being intersected by the two main thorough- 
 fares of St. Valier Street, and St. Joseph 
 Street. (3.) The suburb of St. Sauveur 
 extends westward from the BoulevarcT- 
 Langelier to the city limits, being 
 traversed by St. Valier Street, the 
 longest thoroughfare in the city. In 
 early times the suburb of St. John was the 
 most populous of the city's outskirts, and 
 bore anything but an enviable reputation. 
 St. Roch has always been the section speci- 
 ally resided in by the French-speaking 
 citizens; or as it has been put, "the English 
 held the summit of the plateau with the 
 French on their one hand, and the Irish on 
 the other." 
 
 '< When the rivals France and Eng- 
 land." — The contest between Wolfe and 
 Montcalm for the possession of the city was 
 an outcome of the general European quarrel 
 between France and England during the 
 Seven Years' War. See "The Battle of the 
 Plains." 
 
 '' Under Britain's broader shield." — Per- 
 haps the strongest element in the loyalty of 
 the French race in Canada is the conviction 
 that there is a wider measure of liberty to 
 be had for them under British rule, than 
 there would have been had Canada continu- 
 ed a French colony. The national celebra- 
 tion of Dominion Day, and Empire Day are 
 even yet, however, but little shared in by 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. 75 
 
 the French-speaking Canadian in some parts 
 of Canada. 
 
 " For alas ! St. Johns is taken." — The 
 old fort of St. Johns, of the Eastern Town- 
 ships, is still an object of interest to the 
 visitor, as is also the He aux Noix, where 
 Montgomery had his encampment with 
 Schuyler. The facts of the siege are briefly 
 these. On September 6th, 1775, Schuyler, 
 with forces less than a thousand, and sup- 
 ported by Montgomery, marched to within 
 a couple of miles of the fortress; but, 
 without even reconnoitring, far less investi- 
 gating, the forces were ordered back to He 
 aux Noix. Schuyler who seems to have 
 been in ill-health at the time, indicated so 
 little of the soldier, that congress finally 
 placed the command entirely in the hands 
 of Montgomery. That commander's first 
 movement was to march a band of five 
 iiundred of his men to the north of St. 
 Johns, which, driving back a sally from the 
 fort, took up its position at the junction of 
 the roads to Chambly and Montreal. Subse- 
 quently the invaders erected a battery to 
 the north-west, within two hundred and 
 fifty yards of the fort; and kept up a 
 constant fire on the place. Carleton was 
 in the meantime engaged in mustering a 
 force in Montreal, to send to the relief of 
 the besieged, but this having been scattered 
 by the Green Mountain Boys, there was 
 nothing left for the garrison of St. Johns 
 to do, but to march out with the honours of 
 
76 LITERAKY NOTES. 
 
 war. The siege had lasted fifty days, 
 ending on the 3rd of November, 1775. 
 
 ^' Mount Royal sore beset." — The citizens 
 of Montreal had valiantly withstood the 
 vapourings of Ethan Allan, and were looking 
 forward to final relief, when Carleion's force 
 was dispersed. Nine days after the capture 
 of St. Johns, Montgomery unopposed took 
 possession of Montreal, and at once began 
 to make his preparations for advancing on 
 Quebec, where Arnold was awaiting his 
 arrival. 
 
 '' Near by the confluence-coigne." — After 
 a course of eighty miles from Lake Cham- 
 plain the Richelieu empties its waters into 
 Lake St. Peter, the expansion of the St. 
 Lawrence. It is interrupted by the rapids 
 of St. Johns and Chambly. The modern 
 town of Sorel is built on a commanding 
 site on its right bank, at the junction of the 
 two streams, and forms a resort of great 
 interest to the literary man. Here M. de 
 Tracy bult a fort as early as 1665, while 
 the governors of Canada made it the place 
 of their summer residence for many years. 
 Under the name of Fort William Henry, it 
 holds a prominent place in the annals of the 
 country. In the centre of the town is an 
 antiquated reserve, commemorating the 
 importance of the place in olden times. 
 
 ^'Around the Barracks Square." — The 
 Jesuits' Barracks was once a well-known 
 structure in Quebec, its site being now 
 occupied by the City Hall. The front of the 
 building was in line with the street, and 
 
HISTOKICAL NOTES. 77 
 
 included a quadrangle of ample dimensions 
 behind. Its history forms a central thread 
 in the history of the city itself, and very 
 appropriately has its site been converted 
 into the surroundings of the new Hotel de 
 Ville. In 1637 the Jesuits, who had their 
 headquarters at first on the little Lairec, 
 obtained from the Company of New France 
 a grant of twelve acres of land in the city 
 on which to erect a seminary, a church and 
 residence. The foundations of the main 
 building, which ran from Fabrique Street, 
 were laid in 1647, and of the chapel in 1650. 
 For over a hundred years the order had 
 tt eir Canadian headquarters in this building. 
 In 1765, General James Murray had the 
 premises fitted up as a barracks, and the 
 court and garden laid out as a parade 
 ground, and as such it continued until the 
 withdrawal of the British troops in 1871. 
 In 1873 the buildings were demolished in 
 the passion which first seized the citizens for 
 modernizing the town. During the demoli- 
 tion of the building several interesting relics 
 were discovered, but so regardless of the 
 past were the leaders of the movement in 
 favour of city improvements, that even the 
 memorial stone which stood over the old 
 gateway has not been preserved; while the 
 box, containing the relics and coins collect- 
 ed, was so carelessly looked after 'chat it 
 was broken open one night and its contents 
 stolen. Indeed the hasty spirit of the 
 iconoclasts was to be seen in the fact that, 
 for nearly twenty years after the demolition 
 
78 LITERARY NOTES. 
 
 of the building, its squalid ruins lay as an 
 eyesore to everybody who had to look upon 
 the old "Barracks Square," which has now, 
 through the enterprise of Mayor Parent, 
 become one of the central beauty spots or 
 the city, 
 
 *'' The Place runs o'er in turn." — The 
 Place d'Armes, known sometimes as "the 
 Ring," is represented in many old engrav- 
 ings as an important meeting-place of the 
 "sociabilities" of early times, the rendez- 
 vous of the tandem-club, snowshoe revellers, 
 etc. An excellent object lesson on the early 
 history of the colony can be given from one 
 of the restful nooks near its fountain; for, 
 looking towards St. Anne Street, have we 
 not the site of the Chateau St. Louis to the 
 right, and the site of the Recollet Church to 
 the left, with the old Union Hotel in 
 Morgan's warehouse, the old Chien D'Or 
 supplanted by the Post-Office Building, the 
 old Court House out-marvelled by the 
 present Palais de Justice, and the Chateau 
 Haldimand obliterated by that splendid 
 caravanserai, the Chateau Frontenac. It 
 is easy to know how it came to be known 
 as the Place d'Armes being near the old 
 Grande Place of Champlain's time and the 
 Fort St. Louis, with the palisades of the 
 protected Hurgns alongside of it. 
 
 " "Will dance again round Port St. 
 Louis." — On the 3rd of September, 1775, as 
 Overseer Thompson tells us in his diary. 
 "Colonel Arnold, with a party of upward of 
 seven hundred Americans, came out of the 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. 79 
 
 woods at the settlements on the River Chau- 
 diere; and on the 9th they marched to Point 
 Levis where they showed themselves on the 
 bank, immediately opposite the town of 
 Quebec. On the 14th, in the night, they 
 passed across the St. Lawrence, and paraded 
 in front of Port St. Louis, at about three- 
 hundred yards distance, where they saluted 
 the town with three cheers, in full expecta- 
 tion, no doubt, that the gates would be 
 opened for their reception. At this juncture, 
 I was on Cape Diamond bastion, and levelled 
 and fired a 24-pounder at them, which had 
 the effect of making them disperse hastily 
 and retire to Point-aux-Trembles." 
 
 '^Thus spake brave Maitre Thompson." — 
 James Thompson, the overseer of public 
 works during the siege of 1775, has left in 
 his journal a description of the events of 
 that exacting time which has been of great 
 service to the compiler of the history of 
 the siege. Of the man himself, it may be 
 recorded that he was a native of Tain, Scot- 
 land. At the early age of twenty-six, he 
 accompanied the Frazer Highlanders to 
 Louisbourg, and a year later arrived in 
 Quebec as a volunteer with Captain Baillie. 
 He was hospital sergeant at the time of the 
 battle on the Plains of Abraham, and was 
 thereafter appointed overseer of public 
 works. For over seventy years his stalwart 
 frame was a well-known object on the 
 streets of Quebec, his experiences as nar- 
 rated by himself being always a welcome 
 story to the citizens and their visitors. He 
 
so LITERARY NOTES. 
 
 was a soldier of undoubted valour and a man 
 of unbending integrity, loyal to the core, 
 and impatient of anything that seemed to 
 detract from the prowess of Great Britain. 
 He was very proud of being the possessor 
 of Montgomery's sword, and liked to tell in 
 his own words the story of how it came to 
 be his: "On its having been ascertained 
 that Montgomery's division had withdrawn, 
 a party went out to view the effects of the 
 shot, when as the snow had fallen on the 
 previous night about knee deep, the only 
 part of a body that appeared above the 
 level of the snow was that of the general 
 himself, whose hand and part of the left 
 arm was in an erect position but the body 
 was much distorted, the knees being drawn 
 up towards the head; the other bodies that 
 were found at the moment were those of his 
 aides-de-camp Cheeseman and MacPherson 
 and one sergeant. The whole were frozen 
 stiff. Montgomery's sword — and he was the 
 only officer of that army that I ever perceiv- 
 ed to have one, — was close by his side, and 
 as soon as it was discovered, \\hich was 
 first by a drummer-boy. who made a snatch 
 at it on the spur of the moment, and no 
 doubt considered it liis lawful prize, but I 
 made him deliver it up to me, and some 
 time after I made him a present of seven 
 shillings and sixpence by way of prize money. 
 
 As it is lighter and shorter than 
 
 my own sword. I have adopted it and wore 
 it in lieu. Having some business at the 
 • Seminaire ' where there was a number of 
 
HISTOKICAL NOTES. 81 
 
 American officers, prisoners of war, of 
 General Arnold's division, I had occasion 
 to be much vexed with myself for having it 
 with me, for the instant they observed it 
 to have been their general's they were 
 much affected by the recollections that it 
 seemed to bring back to their minds; indeed 
 several of them wept audibly. I took care, 
 however, in mercy to the feelings of these 
 ill-fated gentlemen, that whenever I had to 
 go to the Seminary afterwards to leave the 
 sword behind me." One of the last public 
 acts of the old overseer was when, as senior 
 mason, he gave, in 1827, the three mystic 
 taps to the foundation stone of the monu- 
 ment in the Governor's Garden, in the 
 presence of the vast multitude present. He 
 died at his residence in Ursule Street in 1830, 
 at the advanced age of ninety-eight. 
 
 ''Where the Chateau stands a sentinel." — 
 The Chateau St. Louis, the old Government 
 House of Canada, stood on what is now the 
 corner of the Dufferin Terrace nearest the 
 Post Office. This famous site was originally 
 occupied by the Fort St. Louis, which was 
 erected by Champlain and which was the 
 place wherein he died. Later on, the 
 Chateau St. Louis took the place of the Fort, 
 having been improved by Frontenac, rebuilt 
 and enlarged by Haldimand and others, and 
 finally burned in 1834, when Lord Aylmer 
 was governor-general. What Quebec is to 
 Canada, this spot is to Quebec, and the 
 visitor cannot make too much of it, if he 
 would understand the remote historic 
 
82 LITERARY NOTES. 
 
 periods of the ancient capital. The Chateau 
 Haldimand, for years in use as a Normal 
 school, was the last of the go\'ernment 
 buildings to disappear from the prospect 
 point now occupied by the Champlain 
 monument, and the Chateau Frontenac. The 
 history of the old chateau has been carefully 
 written by M. Ernest Gagnon, while the 
 descriptive poem Dominus Doml, published 
 at the time of the uncovering of the Cham- 
 plain monument, portrays the within and 
 the without of what was once the home of 
 Champlain, Frontenac, Carleton, Dalhousie 
 and Durham. (See the brochure The Old 
 Chateau.) 
 
 " He traced the toilsome Chaudiere." — 
 The following is the account given by 
 Bancroft, the historian, of Arnold's memor- 
 able march: "After they took leave of the 
 settlements and houses at Norridgewock, 
 their fatiguing and hazardous course lay up 
 the swift Kennebec, and they conveyed arms 
 and stores through the thick woods of a 
 rough, uninhabited, and almost trackless 
 wild; now rowing, now dragging their 
 boats, now bearing them on their backs 
 round rapids and cataracts, across morasses, 
 and over craggy highlands. On the tenth 
 the party reached the dividing ridge between 
 the Kennebec and Dead Rivers. Their road 
 now lay through forests of pine, balsam fir, 
 cedar, cypress, hemlock and yellow birch, 
 and over three ponds that lay hid among 
 the trees and were full of trout. After 
 passing them, they had no choice but to 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. S3 
 
 bear their boats, baggage, stores, and am- 
 munition across a swamp, which was over- 
 grown with bushes and white moss, often 
 sinking knee deep in the wet turf and bogs. 
 
 " On the 15th the main body were on the 
 banks of the Dead River; following its 
 direction a distance of eighty-three miles. 
 Encountering upon it seventeen falls, large 
 enough to make portages necessary, and 
 near its source a series of small ponds 
 choked with fallen trees, in ten or twelve 
 days more they arrived at the carrying-place 
 of the Chaudiere. 
 
 " The mountains had been clad in snow 
 since September; winter was howling around 
 them, and their course was still to the 
 north. On the night preceding the 28th of 
 October some of the party encamped on the 
 height of land that divides the waters of 
 the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic. As they 
 advanced their sufferings increased. Some 
 went bare-foot for days together. Their 
 clothes had become so torn, they were 
 almost naked, and in their march were 
 lacerated with thorns; at night they had no 
 couch or covering but branches of ever- 
 greens. Often for successive days and 
 nights they were exposed to cold, drenching 
 storms, and had to cross streams that were 
 swelling with the torrents of rain. Their 
 provisions failed, so that they even ate the 
 faithful dogs that followed them into th^ 
 wilderness. 
 
 " Many a man, vainly struggling to march 
 on, sank down exhausted, stiffening with 
 
84 LITERARY NOTES. 
 
 cold and death. Here and there a helpless 
 Invalid was left behind, with perhaps a 
 soldier to hunt for a red squirrel, a jay, or 
 a hawk, or various roots and plants for his 
 food, and to watch his expiring breath. 
 
 " The men had hauled up their harges 
 nearly all the way for one hundred and 
 eighty miles, had carried them on their 
 shoulders near forty miles, through hideous 
 woods and mountains, often to their knees 
 in mire, over swamps and bogs almost 
 impenetrable, which they were obliged to 
 cross three or four times to fetch their 
 baggage; and yet starving, deserted, with 
 an enemy's country and uncertainty ahead, 
 officers and men, inspired with the love of 
 liberty and their country, pushed on with 
 invincible fortitude." 
 
 We have another view of the same march 
 from the pen of our Canadian Historian, Dr. 
 Kingsford, who tells us that the difficulties 
 to be encountered could only have been of 
 an ordinary character, and one has only to 
 analyse the picture of Mr. Bancroft with 
 the eye of a true woodsman to see that it is 
 not a little overdrawn. Still there was 
 courage enough indicated in the undertak- 
 ing as a whole to have made a hero of 
 Arnold for all time with his fellow-country- 
 men had not after events cicatrized their 
 hero-worship. 
 
 '' Bold be ye Adam. Lymburner." — The 
 Lymburners filled some space in the com- 
 mercial activities of Quebec at the time of 
 the American invasion, and there is every 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. 85 
 
 evidence, that the representations of the 
 poem are not without foundation. Their 
 storehouses stood on the site occupied at a 
 subsequent period by the Hudson's Bay; 
 Company and at present occupied by the 
 Quebec Bank. There were three merchants 
 of the name of Lymburner in Quebec at 
 the time of the siege. Adam, as Sir James 
 LeMoine ^ays, being the cleverest of the 
 three, though he was perhaps more distin- 
 guished for his forensic abilities and know- 
 ledge of constitutional law than for his 
 allegiance to British interests in Canada. 
 In 1791, Adam Lymburner was sent to 
 England to suggest amendments to the new 
 constitution the Imperial authorities were 
 preparing for Canada. He died at the ripe 
 age of ninety years in London, England. 
 
 ^' Some say 'twas Humphreys." — Captain 
 Humphreys was associated with Morgan in 
 his command of the Virginia Riflemen, and 
 met his death during the siege of 1775. It 
 seems, however, that Arnold had others 
 whom he could commission to confer with 
 his personal friends in the beleagured town, 
 friends whom he had made when he visited 
 Quebec in his earlier years; and possibly 
 the services of the "amiable Humphreys," 
 who was killed in Sault-au-Matelot Street, 
 should have been represented as having 
 been rendered by another. 
 
 ^* How his fleet had neared Lavaltrie.'' — 
 The station on the Canadian Pacific Railway 
 between Three Rivers and Montreal is eight 
 miles from the village of the same name, 
 
86 LITERARY NOTES. 
 
 situated on the north bank of the St. Law- 
 rence. On the island opposite the village 
 there are now two lighthouses, which 
 illuminate at night the former mooring- 
 place of Easton's boats, that once lay in 
 wait for Governor Carleton on his way to 
 save Quebec from the invaders. 
 
 " For brave Bouchette, the keen La 
 Tourtre.'' — Captain Bouchette had won for 
 himself from his associates the title of "The 
 Wild Pigeon" (La Tourtre) on account of his 
 swift and active movements. He was a 
 resident of Quebec, living in St. Peter Street, 
 when that thoroughfare was the principal 
 residential street. The name of the boat 
 in which he set sail with the governor from. 
 Lavaltrie accompanied by Lanaudiere the 
 aide-de-camp, has survived, it having been 
 called Le Gaspc, Captain Bouchette is not to 
 be confounded with Joseph Bouchette the 
 topographist and historian. 
 
 " Round He du Pas to St. Maurice.'' — 
 Between the Berthier side of the river and 
 the Sorel side, at the head of Lake St. Peter, 
 there is an archipelago of which one of the 
 largest islands is He du Pas, immediately 
 opposite Berthier-en-haut. The scene of 
 "the weed-grown reaches" is one well-known 
 to every sportsman who has explored this 
 archipelago in search of the wild fowl that 
 make the district one of their favourite 
 breeding grounds. St. Maurice originally 
 designated the district which is drained by 
 the river of that name and which extended 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. 87 
 
 far beyond the present limits of the county, 
 of which Three Rivers is the chef lieu. 
 
 " Near Laviolette's favoured strand." — 
 On the public square of Three Rivers, near 
 the site of the old Habitation, stands the 
 statue of Laviolette, the founder of the city 
 in 1634. The story of early days in Three 
 Rivers has been attractively told by the 
 Canadian historian, Mr. Benjamin Suite. 
 
 " And soon came yeoman Frazer." — The 
 Frazer Highlanders, who took part against 
 the French in Canada in 1759, remained, 
 many of them, in the country, and made 
 excellent settlers: and the reprisal of time, 
 the quarrel-healer, is seen in the fact that 
 there are still Frazer families settled along 
 the St. Lawrence whose English and Gaelic 
 have alike disappeared in the patois of the 
 Juihitaut. The Frazer mentioned here is 
 historic; he was a well-to-do lumber mer- 
 chant and a loyalist to boot. 
 
 " On the way to Point Platon." — Below 
 Portneuf there is to be seen one of the most 
 picturesque of the narrowings of the St. 
 Lawrence, where a forest-crowned promon- 
 tory runs down to the river line, and 
 declines so far as to give a mooring-place 
 for the river steamboats. This has long 
 been the residence of the de Lotbinieres, 
 the seigneurs of the county of that name. 
 
 There is a Pointe-aux-Trembles (en bas) 
 and a Pointe-aux-Trembles (en haut). The 
 former, which was the scene of Arnold's 
 encampment, is situated on the river line 
 about eight miles from Pont Rouge station. 
 
88 LITERARY NOTES. 
 
 To reach it by land from Quebec, one takes 
 as the shortest route the highway that runs 
 through St. Augustine; and no more beauti- 
 ful drive can be imagined. 
 
 '' Ho, here's to Napier's frigate." — At 
 the foot of what were known in those days 
 as the Richelieu Rapids, but which have 
 since been removed by blasting, Carleton 
 met Captain Napier in his sloop of war. 
 Being received on board, the governor at 
 once proceeded from Point Platon, past 
 Pointe-aux-Trembles, to Quebec, where he 
 arrived on Sunday afternoon, the 19th of 
 November. 
 
 ^' And if the Neptune's time-worn 
 walls." — The Neptune Inn was an old cafe 
 or restaurant in the building so long occu- 
 pied by the Clironicle Printing Offices. It 
 has again been opened as a hostelry and 
 club-house. In 1759 the building was in the 
 possession of Jean Tache, though there is 
 no historic warrant for the poetic license 
 which represents the "honliomme Tache" as 
 the landlord of a hotel in lower town at the 
 time of the Montgomery siege. The efRgy 
 of the sea-god with his tangled locks and 
 trident used to adorn the facade of the inn, 
 and in its restored form, as the home of the 
 Quebec Yacht Club, it is doubly appropriate 
 to have the emblem restored. In 1822 the 
 merchants of lower town met one day in the 
 front room of the hostelry and organized 
 the Merchants' Exchange, the forerunner of 
 the present Quebec Board of Trade. 
 
 " Of his daring on Dead River."— The 
 
HISTOKICAL NOTES. 89 
 
 Dead River is a tributary of the Kennebec, 
 having its source on the eastern side of the 
 boundary line near Lake Megantic. The 
 Kennebec itself rises in Moosehead Lake, 
 and, in its rapid descent towards Augusta, 
 affords excellent water power. The tide 
 ascends to the large dam which has been 
 built across the river at Augusta. There is 
 navigation below Augusta, and small craft 
 can ascend as far as Waterville. The head- 
 waters drain a region which may well be 
 called the earthly "happy hunting grounds" 
 of the sportsman. The lakes abound in 
 fish and the forest in large game such as 
 the moose, bear, and red deer. 
 
 '' His cam.p at Spider Lake." — The spot 
 where Arnold made muster of his men as 
 they came out of the forest is still indicated 
 at the head of Lake Megantic. A club- 
 house has been erected near Spider Lake 
 for the use of the sportsmen who frequent 
 the neighbourhood, and whose operations 
 have been celebrated in verse by Mr. George 
 Flint, the pioneer of the district. 
 
 ^^ Nor least of all was Williams near." — 
 Kingsford, the historian, says that while 
 Arnold was crossing the river to reach 
 Quebec, "one Williams ascended the pulpit 
 in the Bishop's chapel and made a long 
 address in favour of giving up the place. 
 Colonel McLean, who had arrived on the 
 12th, on proceeding to the upper town, heard^ 
 of the meeting and entered the church. He 
 caused Williams to discontinue his address 
 and descend from the pulpit, and his appeal 
 
90 LITEEAKY NOTES. 
 
 was effectual in preventing this cowardly 
 advice being adopted." 
 
 Of the names mentioned in the stanzas 
 referring to Williams, three others at least 
 are historic, namely Diiggan, the traitorous 
 barber, Caldwell an'd Mercier. John Mercier, 
 who seems to have been a friend of Arnold's 
 of several years' standing, was the person to 
 whom the latter addressed a letter, while 
 he was on the march from Lake Megantic. 
 In this letter his advance at the head of two 
 thousand troops is announced, and a request 
 made that the Canadian friends, for whom 
 the expedition had been undertaken, should 
 rally round his standard as soon as Quebec 
 was invested. The letter was intercepted, 
 the Indian to whom it was entrusted having 
 either been taken prisoner or having betray- 
 ed his trust. 
 
 '' Is Bigot dead to live again?" — The 
 sufferings, to which the colonists were sub- 
 jected by the extravagances of this profligate 
 ruler, have been frequently narrated; and 
 no story in Canadian History is better 
 known than that of the tyrannical exactions 
 of "La Friponne," the general store and 
 warehouse he had established within the 
 precincts of the Palace, in order that his 
 own coffers might be replenished from the 
 profits. 
 
 ** Sir Guy has spurned the foe within." — 
 The rapid success of Montgomery, as Ban- 
 croft says, had emboldened a party in 
 Quebec, to confess a willingness to receive 
 him on terms of capitulation. But Carleton 
 
HISTOEICAL NOTES. 91 
 
 ordered all persons who would not join in 
 the defence of the town, to leave it within 
 four days. And Kingsford adds: "One of 
 the first items of intelligence Montgomery 
 must have received was that the active 
 sympathisers on whom he most counted, had 
 been ordered outside the walls." 
 
 '' The woods of Begon's Hermitage." — 
 The story of the Chateau Bigot has given 
 William Kirby and others material for the 
 building up of a romantic age of their own 
 creation in Canadian literature. There has 
 lately, however, arisen a doubt in regard to 
 the identification of the ruined Hermitage 
 beyond Charlesbourg, as the country resi- 
 dence of the profligate Bigot. A theory has 
 been advanced that the material so finely 
 spun into literary ware, has no other begin- 
 ning than the confusing of the two names 
 Begon and Bigot. 
 
 " With a message scorned from Holland 
 House." — Carleton had adopted a policy of 
 silence towards Montgomery all through 
 the campaign, even from the time he arrived 
 before St. Johns; and though repeated 
 attempts were made to get the governor to 
 make reply, the letters from Montgomery 
 and Arnold were treated with silence, which 
 could only be construed into contempt. Here 
 it may be said, that in nothing does Mont- 
 gomery appear to less advantage than in his 
 letters to Carleton and the citizens of the 
 beleaguered city, as any one may judge by 
 reading them in extenso from the pages of 
 Kingsford. 
 
92 LITEEARY NOTES. 
 
 " Or deserter slinking near." — Carleton 
 was made acquainted of nearly every move- 
 ment in Montgomery's camp by deserters. 
 As Kingsford says, "The severity of the 
 weather gave some encouragement to the 
 defenders, that during its continuance no 
 attack would be attempted, but news of such 
 a design was brought in by every deserter. 
 Vvhat particularly established this belief 
 was the reappearance of one Joshua Wolf, 
 clerk to Colonel Caldwell. He had been 
 taken prisoner when attempting to save 
 some property of the latter, who was owner 
 of a farm known as Sans Bruit, some few 
 miles to the west of the city. Wolf had 
 made his appearance with a deserter with 
 whom he had made his escape. He reported 
 that Montgomery intended to storm the city 
 and had promised them the plunder of the 
 place as an incentive to their somewhat 
 unwilling obedience." 
 
 '^ As if their dargue was done." — It is 
 but natural to find Maitre Thompson, a 
 native-born Scotsman, using such an expres- 
 sive Scottish term as "dargue," which simply 
 means a day's work or a task to be accom- 
 plished. 
 
 '^ The marching out of Chambly, seemed 
 a holiday begun." — The difficulties of Mont- 
 gomery's position, as Kingsford says, must 
 have powerfully forced themselves upon his 
 mind. " However boastfully he may have 
 described the force under his own command, 
 he knew that it was so composed as to be 
 entirely unfit for the trying duty of storming 
 
HISTOEICAL NOTES. 93 
 
 the walls of the city. The garrison of St. 
 Johns and Chambly had been a simple 
 cannonade., and towards the close of the 
 siege the men had suffered from exposure to 
 the severity of the climate. The garrison 
 of St. Johns had capitulated from the pros- 
 pect of starvation, and from the certainty 
 that no help could be given them in their 
 emergency. The progress of Montgomery's 
 force, from the banks of the Richelieu to 
 its position before Quebec, had been little 
 more than a military promenade." 
 
 '* But once give Jones the signal." — The 
 names mentioned in this stanza are all of 
 historic origin; illustrating the loyalty of 
 the French-Canadians to the British cause 
 in the person of Colonel Lecompte Dupre, 
 an officer of zeal and ability, who had charge 
 of the Canadian militia, and who rendered 
 great service during the whole siege. 
 Chabot and Picard were the officers in 
 charge of Pres-de-Ville, having under them 
 a force of thirty Canadians, eight British 
 militiamen with nine British seamen to 
 work the guns as artillerymen under 
 Captain Barnsfare and Sergeant Hugh 
 McQuarters, of the Royal Artillary. Major 
 Henry Caldwell, who had the provincial 
 rank of Lieutenant-Colonel at the time or 
 the siege of 1775, had served under General 
 Wolfe as deputy quartermaster-general, 
 Captains Mackenzie and Hamilton were 
 in charge of four hundred seamen; Captain 
 Jones commanded the artillery of the 
 defence. 
 
94 LITERARY NOTES. 
 
 *' One band approaching' from the 
 Anse.'' — The name originally given to 
 Wolfe's Cove, was the Anse au Foulon, the 
 Vv'ider cove to the eastward, nearer Pres-de- 
 Ville, being called Anse deis Meres. The 
 origin of the latter name is easily traced to 
 the grant of land given to the Nuns, which 
 extends to the water's edge; the former 
 meaning the "shore-line to the fulling mill." 
 
 ** For Barnsfare and McQuarters." — 
 There is little to be said about these two 
 brave Britishers who withstood the ap- 
 proach of the enemy, save what is known of 
 their bravery on the morning of Montgom- 
 ery's death. It is but right that there 
 should be some direct memorial of their 
 daring preserved in the city they saved. 
 Captain Barnsfare was master of a trans- 
 port laid up in the harbour during the 
 winter. Of McQuarters the following is 
 selected from Overseer Thompson's diary;. 
 "The sergeant who had charge of the 
 barrier-guard, Hugh McQuarters — where 
 there was a gun kept loaded with grape and 
 musket-balls, levelled every evening in the 
 direction of the said footpath — had oi*ders 
 to be vigilant, and when assured of an 
 approach by any body of men, to fire the 
 guns. It was General Montgomery's fate to 
 be amongst the leading files of the storming 
 party; and the precision with which 
 McQuarters acquitted himself of the orders 
 he had received, resulted in the death of 
 the general, two aides-de-camp, and a 
 sergeant; at least these were all that could 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. 95 
 
 be found after the search made at dawn of 
 day next morning." 
 
 '' And Malcolm Frazer has betimes." — 
 On the night of Sunday the 31st of Decem- 
 ber, Captain Malcolm Frazer, of the Emi- 
 grants, was in command of the main guard. 
 Shortly after four on the morning of the 
 1st of January, 1776, he perceived two 
 rockets thrown up from beyond Cape 
 Diamond; he at once understood that it 
 was a signal for some purpose, and to his 
 mind was so threatening that it could not be 
 allowed to pass without notice. He imme- 
 diately ordered the guards to turn out, 
 calling the alarm as he passed through St! 
 Louis Street. [This note has to be credited 
 to Kingsford though it has been alleged 
 that his dates are wrong. Montgomery was 
 killed on the morning of the 31st of Decem- 
 ber, 1775, as the monument raised to his 
 memory in St. Paul's, New York, rightly 
 declares.] 
 
 "■ And in the Recollets' Convent."— The 
 buildings of the Recollet Convent occupied 
 the site now enclosed as the grounds of the 
 Anglican Cathedral, Garden Street receiv- 
 ing its name from its proximity to the 
 gardens of the monks. The Recollect 
 church was built on the site of the present 
 Palais de Justice, having its front entrance 
 facing Place d'Armes, with its spire in the 
 rear. The Convent was a large quadrangu- 
 lar building two stories in height, with 
 rooms in it set apart as prison chambers. 
 Within its walls as well as within the walls 
 
96 LITERARY NOTES. 
 
 Of the Seminary, the prisoners of war taken 
 iu Sault-au-Matelot Street were immured 
 for several months. 
 
 '' What, ho, they're past the Palais !"— 
 Judge Henry has left a graphic record of 
 the march to Sault au Mateiot Street. He 
 was an eye witness to that part of the siege, 
 being a stripling of only seventeen years. 
 '• When we came to Craig's House, near Pal- 
 ace Gate, a horrible roar of canon took place 
 and a ringing of all the bells of the city, 
 which are very numerous, and of all sizes. 
 Arnold, leading the forlorn hope, advanced, 
 perhaps, one hundred yards, before the main 
 body. After these followed Lamb's artiller- 
 ists. Morgan's company led in the secondary 
 part of the column of infantry. Smith's 
 followed, headed by Steele; the Captain, 
 from particular causes, being absent. 
 Hendrick's company succeeded, and the 
 eastern men, so far as known to me, followed 
 in due order. The snow was deeper in the 
 fields, because of the nature of the ground. 
 The path made by Arnold, Lamb and 
 Morgan was almost imperceptible, because 
 of the falling snow. Covering the locks of 
 our guns with the lappets of our coats, 
 holding down our heads (for it was impos- 
 sible to bear up our faces against the 
 imperious storm of wind and snow), we ran 
 along the foot of the hill in single file. 
 Along the first of our run, from Palace 
 Gate, for several hundred paces, there stood 
 a range of isolated buildings, which seemed 
 to be storehouses; we passed these quickly 
 
HISTORICAL NOTES. 97 
 
 in single file, pretty wide apart. The 
 interstices were from thirty to fifty yards. 
 In these intervals, we received a tremen- 
 dous fire of musketry from the ramparts 
 above us. Here we lost some brave men, 
 when powerless to return the salutes we 
 received, as the enemy was covered by his 
 impregnable defences. They were even 
 sightless to us; we could see nothing but 
 the blaze from the muzzles of their mus- 
 kets." 
 
 *' They thread the Canoterie." — The Cote 
 de la Canotrie lies at the eastern end of St. 
 Valier Street, near St. Andrew's Square, 
 v/here stands the depot of the Lake St. John 
 Railway. The term Canoterie was given to 
 the locality on account of its being a 
 mooring-place for boats in early times, 
 before St. Paul Street and St. John Street 
 were connected by a properly laid out 
 thoroughfare. As a street "the Canoterie" 
 extends from Dambourges Street to SI. 
 Valier Street. 
 
 ^' For flee they must the din declares." — 
 In his description, Judge Henry says that 
 from the first barrier to the second, there 
 was a circular course along the sides of 
 houses and partly through a street, probably 
 of three hundred yards or more. "This 
 second barrier," he says, "was erected 
 across and near the mouth of a narrow 
 street adjacent to the foot of the hill, whicli 
 opened into a larger, leading soon into the 
 the main body of the lower town." With 
 such a description in his hand the visitor 
 
98 LITERARY NOTES. 
 
 can readily identify the locality near the 
 site of the Quebec Bank. "Here it was," 
 spys Henry, "that the most serious conten- 
 tion took place; this became the bone of 
 strife. The admiral Montgomery, by this 
 time, (though it was unknown to us) was 
 no more; yet, we expected momentarily to 
 join him. The firing on that side of the 
 fortress ceased, his division fell under the 
 command of Colonel Campbell, of New York 
 line, a worthless chief, who retreated with- 
 out making an effort in pursuance of the 
 general's original plans. The inevitable 
 consequence was that the whole of the 
 forces on that side of the city, and those 
 who were opposed to the dastardly persons 
 employed to make the false attacks, 
 embodied and came down to oppose our 
 division. Here was sharp-shooting. We 
 were on the disadvantageous side of the 
 barrier, for such a purpose. Confined in a 
 narrow street, hardly more than twenty feet 
 wide, and on the lower ground, scarcely a 
 ball well aimed or otherwise, but must take 
 effect on us. Morgan, Hendricks, Steele, 
 Humphreys and a crowd of every class of the 
 army, had gathered into the narrow pass, 
 attempting to surmount the barrier, upon a 
 rising ground, the cannon of which much 
 over-topped the height of the barrier, hence 
 we were assailed by grape-shot In abun- 
 dance. This erection was called the plat- 
 form. Again, within the barrier, and close 
 into it, were two ranges of musketeers, 
 armed with musket and bayonet, ready to 
 
HISTOEICAL NOTES. 99 
 
 receive those who might venture the dan- 
 gerous leap. Add to all this that the enemy- 
 occupied the upper chambers of the houses 
 in the interior of the barrier, on both sides 
 of the street, from the windows of which 
 we became fair marks. The enemy having 
 the advantage of the ground in front, a vast 
 superiority of numbers, dry and better 
 arms, gave them an irresistible power, in so 
 narrow a space. Humphreys upon a mound 
 which was speedily erected, attended by 
 many brave men, attempted to scale the 
 barrier, but was compelled to retreat, by 
 the formidable phalanx of bayonets within, 
 and the weight of fire from the platform 
 and buildings. Morgan, brave to temerity, 
 stormed and raged; Hendricks, Steele, 
 Nichols, Humphreys, equally brave, were 
 sedate, though under a tremendous fire. The 
 platform, which was within our view, was 
 evacuated by the accuracy of our fire, and 
 few persons dared venture there again. Now 
 it was that the necessity of occupancy of 
 the houses, on our side of the barrier, 
 became apparent. Orders were given by 
 Morgan to that effect. We entered. This 
 was near daylight. The houses were a 
 shelter, from which we might fire with 
 much accuracy. Yet, even here, some 
 valuable lives were lost. Hendricks, when 
 aiming his rifle at some prominent person, 
 died by a straggling ball through his heart. 
 He staggered a few feet backwards, and 
 fell upon a bed, where he instantly expired. 
 He was an ornament of our little society. 
 
100 LITERARY NOTES. 
 
 The amiable Humphreys died by a like kind 
 of wound, but it was in the street, before 
 we entered the buildings. Many other brave 
 men fell at this place; among these were 
 Lieutenant Cooper, of Connecticut, and 
 perhaps fiflty or sixty non-commissioned 
 officers and privates. Captain Lamb, of 
 the New York artillerists, had nearly one- 
 half of his face carried away, by a grape or 
 canister shot. My friend Steele lost three 
 of his fingers, as he was presenting his gun 
 to fire; Captain Hubbard and Lieutenant 
 Fisdle, were all among the wounded. When 
 we reflect upon the whole of the dangers 
 of this barricade, and the formidable force 
 that came to annoy us, it is a matter of sur- 
 prise that so many should escape death and 
 wounding as did." 
 
 '' But Pres-de-Ville, I pray thee."— The 
 exact spot where the barrier was erect- 
 ed is immediately described in the 
 Thompson diary, and gives no room for 
 doubt as to its locality. " The barrier 
 crossed the narrow road under the mountain, 
 immediately opposite to the west end of a 
 building which stands on the south, and was 
 formerly occupied by Mr. Racey as a brew- 
 ery." With such a description any visitor 
 can readily identify the place of Montgom- 
 ery's death as between the deeper crevice 
 and the present Allans' storehouse, which 
 was the brewery in question. 
 
 '^ And when Montgomery's orderly." — 
 The enemy having retired, as James Thomp- 
 son says, thirteen bodies were found in the 
 
HISTOKICAL NOTES. 101 
 
 snow, and Montgomery's orderly sergeant, 
 desperately wounded but yet alive, was 
 brought into the guard room. On being 
 asked if the General himself had been killed, 
 the sergeant evaded the question by reply- 
 ing that he had not seen him for some time, 
 although he could not but have known the 
 fact. This faithful sergeant died in about 
 an hour after. 
 
 ^^ A restive band, God knows how far!" — 
 Mr. Thompson says that he never could 
 ascertain whether the defection of Mont- 
 gomery's followers was in consequence of 
 the fail of their leader or whether owing to 
 their being panic-struck, a consequence so 
 peculiar to an unlooked-for shock in the 
 dead of the night and when almost on the 
 point of coming into action; added to which 
 the meeting of an obstruction in the barrier 
 where one was not expected to exist. As 
 was afterwards learned, the men's engage- 
 ments were to terminate on the 31st of 
 December, and it was well known that Mont- 
 gomery had had difficulty in obtaining a 
 willing consent to his plan of attack. 
 Montgomery himself has left this record of 
 his men when he first took charge of them 
 at lie aux Noix. "They are the worst stuff 
 imaginable for soldiers. They are homesick, 
 their regiments are melted away, and yet 
 not any man dead of any distemper. There 
 is such an equality among them that the 
 officers have no authority, and there are 
 very few among them in whose spirit I have 
 confidence; the privates are all generals, 
 
102 LITEBARY NOTES. 
 
 but not soldiers, and so jealous that it is 
 impossible, though a man risk his person, 
 to escape the imputation of treachery." And 
 as Bancroft says, " Of the first regiment of 
 the Yorkers he gave a far worse account; 
 adding: ' The master of Hindostan could 
 not recompense me for this summer's work; 
 I have envied every wounded man who has 
 had so good an apology for retiring from a 
 scene where no credit can be obtained. O 
 fortunate husbandmen; would I were at 
 my plough again !' " 
 
 And Bancroft further narrates how, "as 
 the time for assault drew near, three 
 captains in Arnold's battalion, whose term 
 of office was soon to expire, created dissen- 
 sion and showed a mutinous disaffection to 
 the service. Montgomery repaired to their 
 quarters and in a few words gave them leave 
 to stand aside, saying that he would compel 
 nc> one, nor wanted with him anyone who 
 went with reluctance. His words recalled 
 the officers to their duty, but the incident 
 hurried Montgomery into a resolution to 
 attempt gaining Quebec before the first of 
 January, when his legal authority would 
 cease." 
 

 >i 
 
 
THE EARLIEST 
 BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 
 J. M; HARPER, 
 
 Author of " Our Jeames," etc. 
 
 DEDICATED 
 
 TO 
 
 PRINCE GEORGE, 
 DUKE OF CORNWALL AND YORK, 
 
 ON THK OCCASION OF 
 
 Hls Visit to Canada 
 In 1901, 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 The success of the first of these historical 
 booklets which has now reached its third 
 edition, has encouraged the author to place 
 in the hands of the public another of the 
 series. The plan of the present work, as 
 of the other, is more for the student of 
 Canadian history in his novitiate, than for 
 the critic who thinks that everything should 
 be written up to his high standard of liter- 
 ary excellence. Indeed the verdict, on such 
 elementary works as those of this series 
 that is likely to be thought the most of, is 
 the verdict that has been matured by 
 noticing the character of the effect produced. 
 If our young people are to become the pos- 
 sessors of the true patriotism that comes 
 from knowledge and not from unthinking 
 excitement, the knowledge that begets the 
 true patriotism, if it is to be attractive, 
 must be presented, as is attempted in these 
 historical hrochiircs, in the simplest phrase- 
 ology and literary style. 
 
THE EARLIEST BEGINNINGS 
 OF CANADA. 
 
 Britain's claim to Canadian territory 
 has been established by discovery as well 
 as by conquest; and to John Cabot, the 
 Venetian, sailing from Bristol under the 
 auspices of the King of England, is due 
 the honour of having set up on the 
 shores of the western continent the 
 standard of prior possession in behalf of 
 England in 1497. 
 
 The success of Columbus had hardly 
 been noised abroad among the nations, 
 when this naturalized citizen of Venice 
 found his way to England with his wife 
 and three sons, to lay before Henry VII. 
 his plans in connection with transatlan- 
 tic discovery and exploration. He was 
 skilled as a chart -maker, and had proved 
 his enterprise as a merchant, as well as 
 his hardihood as a navigator, during 
 sundry voyages in the Orient. The 
 
b EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 (late of his arrival in England is not 
 definitely known ; but it is on record 
 that he was permitted to lay his pro- 
 posals before the King in 1495., and that 
 he succeeded in securing his commission 
 a year later. One cannot but smile at 
 the manner of his arguments before the 
 king, as the envoy of the Duke of Milan 
 has reported it: 
 
 "But Master John has set his mind on 
 something greater, for he expects to go 
 further on towards the East, w'here he 
 thinks all the spices of the world, and 
 also the precious stones, originate. He 
 says that in former times he was at 
 Mecca, whither spices are brought by 
 caravans from distant countries. Those 
 who brought these spices to market on 
 being asked where they grew, answered 
 that they did not know, but that other 
 caravans came to their homes with such 
 merchandise from distant countries, and 
 these latter caravans again say that they 
 are brought to them from other remote 
 regions. And he argues thus, — that if 
 the Orientals affirmed to the Southern- 
 ers that these things come from a dis- 
 tance from them, and so from hand to 
 hand, presupposing the rotundity of the 
 
JOHN CABOT SETS SAIL. 
 
 earth, it must be that the last ones get 
 them at the north towards the west. 
 And this he said in such a way, that, the 
 king, who is wise and not very lavish, 
 has put some faith in him. and is in- 
 clined to fit out some ships for his use." 
 
 The patent issued to Cabot gave him 
 warrant to search out unknown lands in 
 the north-western seas, to take formal 
 possession of them in the name of 
 England, to assume the responsibility of 
 the cost of the expedition, and to pay 
 one-fifth of the gain, should there be 
 any, into the king's exchequer. 
 
 The story of Cabot's memorable 
 voyage comes to us almost in his own 
 words, and is a complete refutal of the 
 historical narratives that have given the 
 honour of discovering the continent of 
 North America to his son Sebastian. In 
 the early part of May, 1497, the expedi- 
 tion set out from Bristol with a com- 
 pany and crew of eighteen men in one 
 small vessel. " Having passed the 
 western limits of Hibernia," as Soncino, 
 the aforesaid envoy, says, *' Master John 
 stood to the northward and began to 
 steer westward, leaving after a few days 
 the north star on his right hand; and 
 
8 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 having- wandered alDOiit considerably, he 
 fell in at last with terra firma, where he 
 planted the royal banner and took pos- 
 session of the territory on behalf of the 
 king." 
 
 It was not until after the 24th of June, 
 when seven hundred leagues had been 
 traversed, that land was first seen. The 
 exact spot of landing cannot now be 
 ascertained, though it must have been 
 somewhere near the eastern extremity 
 of Cape Breton Island, if a map said to 
 have been drawn by Sebastian Cabot, 
 wdio could hardly have been of the 
 expedition unless as a stripling, is to be 
 believed. There is no authentic evi- 
 dence, beyond Sebastian's own state- 
 ment, that he shared in the expedition 
 of 1497, and there are grave reasons for 
 suspecting that the son, who afterwards 
 made such a distinguished name for 
 himself in other undertakings, was little 
 inclined to make too much of his 
 father's renown, while vaunting his 
 own. 
 
 After taking possession of the New 
 Lands, as they were at first called, in 
 the name of the King of England, ihe 
 navigator made a voyage along the 
 
DISCOVERY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. 'J 
 
 coast line of the newly discovered terri- 
 tory, though there is no chart extant 
 that indicates the direction he took. 
 Soncino, who evidently had all he tells 
 us about the expedition from John 
 Cabot's own lips, says that Master John, 
 as he calls him, had the description of 
 the world in a chart, and also in a solid 
 globe made by himself, from which he 
 could show where he landed, and the 
 lands toward the east which he had 
 passed considerably beyond the terra 
 prima vista. There is further evidence 
 that it was the father and not the son 
 who discovered what is now called 
 Prince Edward Island, if that province 
 and Cape Breton are to be identified as 
 the two islands which the former is said 
 to have seen on his starboard, as he 
 turned his prow homewards from the 
 extreme limits of his voyage, when his 
 provisions began to run low. 
 
 On his return much was made of both 
 discovery and discoverer. The mer- 
 chants of Bristol readily put their faith 
 in the Venetian, as did also the king. He 
 had brought back with him no tangible 
 evidences of abounding wealth. But 
 he was able to report that the lands that 
 
10 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 he had visited were temperate in cHmate 
 and yet warm enough for the cultivation 
 of silk, wooded w'ith deep groves of what 
 looked like Brazil wood, and having 
 sea-waters alive with fish of every kind. 
 '' I have heard Master John and his 
 comrades declare," says Soncino, "that 
 there can be brought home from the 
 New Lands so many fish that the king- 
 dom will no longer have any need of 
 Iceland, from which our greatest stores 
 of stock-fish come." The king made a 
 present of money to the navigator, and 
 executed an agreement to pay him a 
 pension chargeable to the seaport of 
 Bristol ; and we are told that under 
 circumstances thus improved the ex- 
 plorer, with a vanity ill-concealed, at 
 once assumed the bearing of a gentle- 
 man, dressing himself in silk, and ac- 
 cepting the courtesy of the title of 
 admiral. With his globe and chart in 
 hand, and making the most of his argu- 
 ment that the wealth of the east was of a 
 surety to be found by sailing westward, 
 a second expedition was favourably 
 discussed and finally agreed upon. ''His 
 Majesty will fit out some ships in spring 
 for the said Master John," says his 
 
ENCOURAGEMENT TO CABOT. 11 
 
 friend Soncino, "and will besides give 
 him several convicts. They will go to 
 the new country, to make a colony of 
 it, and by means of trading with it, a 
 greater storehouse of spices will be 
 established in London than the one that 
 now exists in Alexandria." 
 
 While the second expedition, consist- 
 ing of six vessels and as many men as 
 were willing to go, was on the way of 
 being organized, its prospects were 
 freely discussed in the public places of 
 Bristol and London, where Cabot had 
 been welcomed as the most renowned 
 man of his day. The hopes of the nation 
 were in a flutter over his discoveries. 
 We are told that the chief men of the 
 enterprise were of Bristol, great sailors, 
 who felt at their ease about it as an in- 
 vestment, since the voyage was only 
 one of fifteen days and the storms less 
 frequent beyond Hibernia than in the 
 narrower seas nearer home. The ab- 
 surdity of some of the fluttering hopes 
 did not escape the humorous Italian, 
 who has told us so much that is pleasant 
 reading about his friend Master John. 
 
 'T have talked with a Burgundian," 
 he says, ''a comrade of Master John, 
 
12 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 who confirms everything he has told 
 me, and wishes to return to the newly 
 discovered country, because the Admi- 
 ral (for so Master John already entitles 
 himself), has given him an island. And 
 he has given another island to a 
 Genoese barber. Both of these gentle- 
 men regard themselves as counts, while 
 my Lord Admiral esteems himself 
 nothing less than a Prince. I think 
 that with this second expedition there 
 will go several poor Italian monks who 
 have all been promised bishoprics. 
 Being a friend of the Admiral's, I am 
 sure, if I wished to go thither, I should 
 get an archbishopric." 
 
 The second expedition sailed early in 
 May, 1498, and as the charter says, it 
 was under the sole command of John 
 Cabot, none of his sons' names being 
 mentioned. One of the six vessels was 
 forced to put back to Ireland in a dis- 
 abled condition, but strange to say, the 
 records here fail us, and when we next 
 read of the expedition from reports pub- 
 lished some time after, the son's name 
 takes the place of the father's, while 
 only one voyage, the voyage of 1497, 
 is spoken of, with the events, which 
 
JOHN CABOT'S SECOND VOYAGE. 13 
 
 could only have happened during the 
 second expedition, attached. In a word, 
 the name of John Cabot, except as the 
 father of the distinguished Sebastian 
 Cabot, is not mentioned in any of these 
 later reports, as the discoverer of 
 America. We hear the last of him 
 when he set sail from Bristol in 1498. 
 
 The following may be taken as the 
 record of the expedition of 1498, though 
 it is culled from reports derived origi- 
 nally from conversations with the son: 
 
 ''With a company of three hundred 
 men, the little fleet steered its way in 
 the direction of the north-west. In due 
 course the navigators came to a coast 
 running to the north, which they follow- 
 ed to a great distance, and where they 
 found in the month of July large bodies 
 of ice floating in the water, and almost 
 continual daylight. Failing to find the 
 passage sought, they turned their prows, 
 and sought refreshment at Baccalaos 
 (Cape Breton). Thence coasting south- 
 ward, they ran to about the latitude of 
 Gibraltar, still in search of a passage to 
 the wealth of the east, when, their pro- 
 visions failing, they were obliged to 
 return to England. 
 
14 EAELIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 " They landed in several places, saw 
 natives dressed in skins of beasts and 
 making use of copper implements. They 
 found the fish in such great abundance 
 that the progress of the ships was some- 
 times impeded. The bears, which were 
 in great plenty, caught the fish for food, 
 — plunging into the water, fastening 
 their claws into them, and dragging 
 them to shore." 
 
 Such is all there is to tell of the dis- 
 covery of Canada by John Cabot. 
 How interested we all would be if 
 another of Soncino's quaintly written 
 letters were to turn up to inform us of 
 the final fate of his friend Master John, 
 and thus possibly provide an explana- 
 tion of the remarkable reticence of 
 Master John's distinguished son in 
 regard to the issue of his father's last 
 enterprises. 
 
JOHN CABOT'S PREDECESSORS. 
 
 Christopher Columbus has a claim beyond 
 all others as the discoverer of America ; for 
 if, before his time, there were traditions 
 afloat about the existence of a western con- 
 tinent, these traditions came to light as 
 verified fact only through the enterprise of 
 the great Genoese navigator. That his 
 name should only be associated with por- 
 tions of the continent he discovered is still 
 a matter of historic regret, as it is of still 
 more regret that no place "of importance as 
 yet, by its name, commemorates the dis- 
 coveries made by Cabot. That Amerigo 
 Vespucci, the Florentine, should have had 
 the great honour of having a continent 
 named after him arose from the fact that 
 when his book, describing his voyages to 
 the west, first appeared, the continent had 
 been for fifteen years without a name, and 
 as no one undertook to refute the false 
 assertion that the Florentine, and not the 
 Genoese or Venetian, had first set foot on 
 the mainland, the New Lands came to be 
 known as America. That Sebastian Cabot 
 
16 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CAx\ADA. 
 
 should not have contradicted Amerigo's 
 story is as much of a marvel as is his 
 remissness in other matters pertaining to 
 his father's renown. 
 
 The traditions which may or may not 
 have reached the ears of Columbus, before 
 he set sail in 1492, have now taken their 
 place as authentic elements in the history 
 of Canada. The story of Eric the Red is 
 now recognized as the romantic opening 
 chapter in the history of the era of dis- 
 covery in the west. The story, as told by 
 the author of this brochure in his History of 
 the Maritime Provinces of Canada, is as 
 follows : — 
 
 " While the nations bordering on the 
 Mediterranean were growing rich, giving 
 themselves up to a life of luxury and ease, 
 the Northern tribes of Europe were eking 
 out a scanty livelihood from the fisheries 
 off their coasts, and from the produce of 
 their comparatively barren soil. The con- 
 trast in the manner of living could not, in 
 the nature of human progress, exist long 
 among neighbouring races. The Northmen, 
 desiring a share of the wealth of the South, 
 turned their experience as sailors and fish- 
 ermen to account, and became pirates. 
 
 " One of these pirates or sea-kings was 
 Eric the Red, who, after amassing con- 
 siderable wealth, attained to some distinc- 
 tion in his native country, Norway. His 
 influence and wealth, however, did not save 
 him from subsequent disgrace and punish- 
 ment ; for, on being found guilty of an 
 
VOYAGES OF ERIC THE RED. 17 
 
 outrageous murder, committed for a purpose 
 repugnant even to his neighbours, whose 
 only morality was a rude form of chivalry, 
 he was heavily fined, and banished from the 
 land. This took place in the beginning of 
 the tenth century. * 
 
 " Erie, thus driven from his home, 
 embarked his family and movable property 
 in three ships, and set out for Iceland, — an 
 island well known at this time to the North- 
 men, having been discovered by Gardar, a 
 Swedish navigator, in 853, and colonized by 
 Ingolf, a Norwegian, eleven years after- 
 wards. Here he found a rude republic in 
 existence, and a hardy industrious people 
 labouring to develop the rugged resources 
 which Providence had placed within their 
 reach. But this was not the place in which 
 a man of Eric's self-will and cruel nature 
 could flourish, for, after giving continued 
 annoyance to the inhabitants and authori- 
 ties of the island, he was outlawed a second 
 time, and forced to flee for safety to some 
 less civilized shore. 
 
 "Again the old viking set sail towards the 
 west. The flshermen of Iceland, in their long 
 voyages, had seen the high snow-bound 
 mountains of a country near the setting sun ; 
 and this knowledge was Eric's only chart, 
 guiding him to the land which he named 
 Greenland, and which he colonized with emi- 
 grants from the island which had banished 
 him. There for many years, he ruled as a 
 king ; there he died. 
 
 " Eric had three sons, whose names were 
 
18 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 Lief, Thorwold and Thorstein. Chiefly by 
 their industry and example, the colony of 
 Greenland prospered ; but in them the bold 
 restlessness of their father appeared in an 
 oft-repeated desire to set out on some 
 daring expedition. Lief, on returning from 
 Norway, where he had been converted to 
 Christianity, and whence he brought out a 
 number of missionaries, learned that during 
 a voyage to Greenland, an Icelander, named 
 Biorne, had been driven westward by adverse 
 winds, and had there seen the shores of 
 other lands, very different in natural fea- 
 tures from those around Cape Farewell. 
 He at once set out to verify Biorne's 
 statement. 
 
 " Sailing towards the south-west, he soon 
 descried the land mentioned by Biorne, and 
 there disembarked with several of his crew, 
 intending to investigate the character of 
 the country thoroughly. But the periodic 
 fogs, the scarcity of -vegetation, and the 
 sharp, biting blasts which blew among the 
 numerous icebergs clinging to the shores, 
 cooled the navigator's zeal, and sent him 
 back to his ship, from the deck of which he 
 named the country HdJuJaud, — the land of 
 naked rocks. This was evidently New- 
 foundland. 
 
 " Still intent on discovery, Lief sailed 
 further south, and in a few days reached 
 another land, flat in surface, sandy in soil, 
 and covered with forests. This, which was 
 probably Nova Scotia, he named Mavldand. 
 Farther in the same direction, he cast 
 
EXPLORATION OF WESTERN LANDS. 19 
 
 anchor off an island lying some distance 
 from the mainland. With this discovery he 
 was more satisfied than with the others ; 
 for here he found the days and nights 
 nearly equal, the climate mild and genial, 
 and dew upon the grass, which tasted sweet 
 like honey. Thence he proceeded across a 
 tract of water, and arrived at a country 
 intersected with rivers and numerous 
 streams, where fodder for cattle was abund- 
 ant, and the winter comparatively mild. 
 Here he remained for many months to ex- 
 plore the interior, finding grapes and wild 
 maize for a plentiful cargo on his return. 
 He called the country Vhihind, now Massa- 
 chusetts, where both wild grapes and maize 
 covered a large part of the country when it 
 was first colonized by the Puritan fathers. 
 
 " On Lief's return to Greenland, Thorwald, 
 the second son of Eric, set out in the same 
 ship, and arrived in safety at Vinland, where 
 stood the huts which his brother had 
 erected. In one of his expeditions towards 
 the country lying north of Vinland, he and 
 his companions were attacked by the abori- 
 gines. Having been slain during one of 
 these attacks, his followers buried him near 
 Lief's huts, and returned to Greenland. 
 
 " Thorstein, the third son, then sailed 
 with his wife and a number of colonists, 
 thinking to settle permanently in the 
 country of Vinland. There he died. His 
 widow, on her return to Greenland, married 
 a man named Thorfinne, and induced him 
 to settle in the land discovered by her 
 
20 EAKLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 brothers. Thorfinne wisely followed her 
 advice, and became rich and prosperous. 
 
 " Other voyages took place after this, for 
 we are told that Eric, Bishop of Greenland, 
 departed for Vinland, in 1121, for the pur- 
 pose of converting his countrymen, who had 
 fallen away from the Christian faith." 
 
 Other traditions, more recent in their 
 growth, support the claim that the country 
 was visited by French sailors four years 
 before the first voyage of Columbus, and 
 that Columbus had heard not only of such a 
 visit but was conversant with the story of 
 Eric and his sons. Parkman also tells us 
 that Columbus had learned from one asking 
 to serve under him, in the expedition of 
 1492, that Cousin, a navigator of Dieppe, 
 being at sea off the African coast, was 
 forced westward by adverse winds and cur- 
 rents to within sight of an unknown shore, 
 where he descried the mouth of a great 
 river. There can be no doubt that the 
 Breton and Basque fishermen were accus- 
 tomed to make annual visits to Baccalaos, 
 as the Cape Breton and Newfoundland fish- 
 ing regions were called by them. There is 
 reason to believe that the fisheries of the 
 Banks of Newfoundland were known even 
 prior to Cabot's time. They were at least 
 frequented in 1577, by French and Spanish 
 fishermen, as many as fifty vessels taking 
 part in the trade in the years immediately 
 preceding Cartier's visits. Early in the six- 
 teenth century a sea captain of Honfleur 
 and another of Dieppe had cruised round 
 
PRE-COLUMBIAN INDIANS, 21 
 
 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while Baron de 
 Lery tried to make a settlement on Sable 
 Island in 1578, leaving cattle there which 
 were afterwards of service in keeiDing the 
 colonists, deserted by De la Roche, alive 
 until relief came from France. All these 
 traditions, however, do not detract from the 
 renown of Columbus, Cabot and Cartier, 
 a trio of heroic navigators to be remem- 
 bered with pride by every child of Canada. 
 
 The Pre-Columbian Indians. The first of 
 the great migrations into Canada ought to 
 be identified with the general Mongolian 
 migration into America from Asia by way 
 of Behring Strait, though the discussion of 
 the possibilities of its ever or never having 
 occurred has no place here. When the 
 French settlers took up the lands on or 
 near- the St. Lawrence or the great lakes, 
 they found small communities of natives 
 scattered all over the country. The manner 
 of living of these tribes, seemingly isolated 
 from one another was very much the same: 
 the fur-bearing animals of the forest pro- 
 vided them with clothing and animal food, 
 — maize, tobacco, and wild fruits being the 
 principal vegetable products they could 
 depend upon. These tribes had wider 
 groupings into families or nations, of which 
 the more important, found in what is now 
 Canadian territory, were the Sioux, the Al- 
 gonquins and the Hurons, 
 
 The Sioux had their northern home along 
 the Assiniboine and Lake Winnipeg. They 
 included the subsidiary tribes of the western 
 
22 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 parts of Canadian territory, exclusive, 
 moreover, of tlie aborigines of British Co- 
 lumbia, the Eskimos, and the Beothicks of 
 Newfoundland. Preceding these were the 
 " very ancient men" or mound-builders, 
 whose way of living can only be surmised 
 from the relics dug from their burial places. 
 These consist for the most part of speci- 
 mens of rude pottery, some primitive con- 
 trivances in copper, and a few stone 
 implements evidently used in canoe-making 
 and the pursuits of the chase. 
 
 The Algonquins were to be found along 
 the northern shores of the River and Gulf of 
 St. Lawrence, around the Bay of Fundy, the 
 River Ottawa, and the western shores of 
 Lake Huron. They included the following 
 tribes: the Bersiamites, Montagnais, Attic- 
 amigues, Ottawas, Crees, Ojibaways, Chip- 
 pewas, Abenaquis, Milicetes, Micmacs, etc. 
 
 The Hurons occupied the peninsula 
 bounded by the first three of the great lakes 
 and included the Iroquois, the Eries, and 
 the Neutral Nations. The Five Nations, — 
 the Mohawks, the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cay- 
 ugas, and Senecas, — were subsidiary cantons 
 of the Iroquois, which as a distinct tribe 
 was also divided up into eight clans, the 
 clanship running through the five nations 
 promiscuously, and confined in no way to 
 the tribal limits. 
 
JOHN CABOT'S SUCCESSORS. 
 
 Sebastian Cabot, the son of John Cabot, 
 who may have accompanied his father on 
 his first voyage of discovery, and whoge 
 name has been erroneously associated with 
 the origin of the second exiiedition to 
 America sanctioned by Henry VH., was born 
 in Venice. The exact date of his birth is 
 uncertain. The first we hear of him is when 
 he accompanied his father to England at 
 the time when the discovery of America by 
 Columbus was producing Its first excitement 
 in Europe. After his father's death, he 
 seems to have arranged with Sir Thomas 
 Pert an expedition in search of a North- 
 west passage, and in which he is said to have 
 discovered the entrance to Hudson's Bay. 
 There are doubts, however, whether such an 
 expedition ever took place. His subsequent 
 career was a cosmopolitan one. At the 
 instance of Charles V. of Spain, by whom he 
 had been made grand pilot, he commanded 
 an expedition to South America. On his 
 return, he was condemned to banishment in 
 Africa, though it cannot be said that the 
 sentence was ever carried out. Then he 
 
24 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANABA. 
 
 offered his services to his native place, but 
 was unable to make good his promises. In 
 1546 he returned to England as promoter of 
 a north-east route to China and improved 
 commercial relationships between England 
 and northern ports. Edward VI. granted 
 him a pension for his services to his adopted 
 country, and the bounty was continued by 
 Queen Mary. He died in London, in the 
 year 1557. 
 
 John Verazzano, whose birth in Florence 
 is dated 1480, has been given historical 
 rank as the most prominent of Cabot's 
 successors, having spent a very busy life 
 as traveller, corsair and explorer under 
 the patronage of the French government. 
 His first great achievement was the capture 
 of a treasure-ship on its way from Mexico 
 to Spain, laden with the spoils of Monte- 
 zuma's wealth, and his safe delivery of it 
 to the King of France. His subsequent 
 explorations of the whole of the eastern 
 coast line from Florida to Newfoundland 
 would have given more colour to the claim 
 which the French subsequently made to the 
 possession of the whole of North America, 
 had the Cabots not been there before him, 
 and had the honesty of his allegations not 
 been impugned. Few of the Florentine's 
 undertakings were above reproach, and it 
 is not strange that there has been a long 
 continued controversy as to the genuineness 
 of Verazzano's letter to the king describing 
 his achievements in the west. One of his 
 
o 
 
 CD 
 
 a* 
 
 g3 
 
 
 ft 
 
 0) 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 
VERAZZANO'S CAREET5, 25 
 
 last enterprises associated him with Admiral 
 Philippe de Brion-Chabot, Cartier's friend, 
 and some of the prominent merchants of St. 
 Malo. In 1527 a company was formed in 
 which Chabot was interested for the impor- 
 tation of spices from the east. Verazzano 
 was appointed commander of the first expe- 
 dition under terms which did not preclude 
 him from giving hostile attention to any- 
 Spanish merchantmen that should happen 
 to fall in his way. The enterprise was the 
 corsair's last misfortune ; for he was seized 
 as he was passing near the coast of Spain 
 and executed at the little village of Pico, in 
 New Castile. 
 
 The romance of Verazzano's career has 
 made a hero of him in certain quarters, and 
 tradition has thrown the usual mist of un- 
 certainty around the story of his life. If 
 his own words are to be trusted, he was the 
 first navigator to visit the shores of North 
 Carolina, from thence, with varied experi- 
 ences among the aborigines, passing along 
 the shores of Virginia and Maryland, enter- 
 ing the Bays of New York and Narragansett, 
 the surf-beaten rocks of Maine, and finally 
 visiting the resorts of the Basque fishermen 
 in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. But as 
 has been said, there are very grave doubts 
 about the truth of this as the Smith-Murphy 
 controversy has revealed. Indeed, Mr. 
 Murphy declares that Verazzano's letter 
 could not have been written by him, that 
 there is no state record of the King of 
 France ever having encouraged the Floren- 
 
26 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 tine, that the description of the coast and 
 some of the pliysical characteristics of tlie 
 country he claimed to have visited and of 
 the manners and customs of its inhabitants 
 is false and evidently written by some one 
 who had no personal experience of the 
 scenes ; and, finally, that Verazzano, at the 
 time of his pretended discovery, was actu- 
 ally engaged in a corsairial expedition 
 sailing under the French flag in a different 
 part of the ocean. 
 
 And whatever foundation there is for 
 these allegations, the mystery of Cabot's 
 taking off is repeated in the case of Veraz- 
 zano. The record of his execution as a pirate 
 comes from a Spanish source, while 
 Ramusio, the supposed writer of his letter 
 to the king, says that he was killed and 
 eaten by savages in sight of his followers, 
 though Parkman thinks that he was living 
 in Rome at the time when Jacques Cartier 
 was engaged with his explorations in the 
 St. Lawrence. 
 
JACQUES CARTIER. 
 
 In the year 1888, on the fete-day of 
 St. Jean Baptiste, a vast assemblage col- 
 lected on the outskirts of the city of 
 Quebec, at the head of the first winding 
 of the St. Charles, to celebrate the un- 
 veiling of the Jacques Cartier Monu- 
 ment, which had just been erected near 
 the scene of that intrepid sailor's first 
 winter encampment in Canada. It was 
 a day to be remembered. It was the 
 festival of the patron saint of the 
 French- Canadians, as it was also the 
 anniversary of the discovery of the 
 northern part of the American continent 
 by Cabot. It was a day on which the 
 marvellous growth of things in the 
 great Canadian confederation was to be 
 witnessed, not only in the stretching 
 panorama of the prosperous city that 
 
28 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 lilled the eye to the southward, with its 
 busy havens and factories below, and its 
 towering civic, provincial and ecclesi- 
 astical edifices on the hillside beyond, 
 but in the immense throng near by, as 
 well as in the personnel of those who had 
 been called upon to take a leading part 
 in the imposing ceremonies ; for were 
 there not a hundred thousand people 
 present, presided over by the governor- 
 general of a Canada stretching from 
 ocean to ocean, by the first cardinal- 
 archbishop who ever had ecclesiastical 
 sway in the New World, by a Canadian- 
 born lieutenant-governor, and other 
 high dignitaries and officials of the new 
 nation that had had its birth in 1867. 
 
 The spot on which the monument 
 stands still indicates in its natnra loci the 
 reasons why the sailor of St. Malo chose 
 it for his wintering station. Here the 
 tideway is narrow, and the ebb, which 
 always leaves a broad shore-line, show- 
 ed him how far his little vessels, when 
 anchored in the soft mud, would be safe 
 from the ice dangers of a more open 
 moorage; while the land position gave 
 him isolation from the Stadacona 
 encampments on the great plateau be- 
 
caktiee's encampment. 29 
 
 yond. Besides, with the little mud- 
 stained Lairet on the one side, and the 
 St. Charles in front, it was a site easily 
 fortified, and this was surely a con- 
 sideration of no little moment for a 
 colony that had to lay its foundations 
 amid the uncertainty of a land hitherto 
 unexplored. 
 
 The leader of the band of colonists 
 had been in Canada before, but it was 
 only as an explorer and not as a colo- 
 nizer that he had cruised around the 
 shores of the open gulf. He had set 
 sail on his first voyage in 1534 under 
 the auspices of King Francis I. of 
 France, having been selected, on the 
 advice of Philippe de Brion-Chabot, the 
 Admiral of France, as a navigator com- 
 petent to face the dangers of the 
 Atlantic, and brave enough to assert the 
 claim of his royal master to some 
 share of a continent which the 
 Spaniards had come to regard as 
 theirs and theirs only, though Columl^us 
 had never ventured further northward 
 than the Bahamas. Sailing on the 20th 
 day of April, and returning early in the 
 following September, Cartier had only 
 seen the summer aspect of the country. 
 
3D EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 There had been little or no hardship to 
 encounter. In his time, Newfoundland 
 was no terra incognita to Europeans, for 
 after Cabot's memorable voyage in 
 1497, and Verrazano's expedition in 
 1524, the valuable fisheries on the great 
 submarine plateaus near the shores of 
 that island had been noised abroad, and 
 more than one Breton fisherman 
 through hope of gain had found his 
 way there. Besides, the visits the skil- 
 ful mariner had made to He St. Jean, 
 Miramichi Bay, Chaleur Bay, and Gaspe 
 Peninsula, were more or less the excur- 
 sions of a yachtsman who never loses 
 the reckoning of a sure way back again. 
 But now there were heavier responsi- 
 bilities to assume. The company he 
 had brought out with him, in his three 
 vessels, was one in which an element of 
 nobility w^as to be found, for, with the 
 forty or fiftv possible settlers that had 
 been induced to accompany him, several 
 gentlemen of note, such as Charles de la 
 Pomeraye, Claude de Pontbriand, and 
 Phillippe Rougemont d'Ambroise, had 
 joined in the colonizing venture, leaving 
 behind them in France, when they 
 sailed, the spirit of expectation in high 
 
cartier's marriage. 31 
 
 places, which it would be all but a dis- 
 grace to disappoint. 
 
 On the morning of the i6th of May, 
 1535, a special service was held in the 
 Cathedral of St. Malo, in honour of the 
 expedition which was to sail in three 
 days' time. Officers and sailors were 
 received by the bishop of the diocese, 
 amid a pressing throng of the fellow- 
 townsmen of the intrepid commander. 
 He had spent forty years of his life, boy 
 and man, amongst them. His grand- 
 father had been a native and life resi- 
 dent of the place, as had also his father, 
 and the day was remembered when the 
 youthful sailor. Jacques Cartier himself, 
 had led to the altar Catherine des 
 Granches, the daughter of the constable 
 of the town, M. Jacques des Granches, 
 who is said to have been a man of 
 means, and a citizen of considerable 
 influence. As a skilful mariner and 
 privateersman Cartier had in course of 
 time acquired some property of his own 
 in St. Malo, having a winter residence 
 in the street which ran past the Hospital 
 of St. Thomas, as well as the chateau out 
 at Limoilou in the outskirts of the town, 
 whose quaint archway and enclosures 
 
32 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OP CANADA. 
 
 had no doubt become, after the fame of 
 his first voyage, as much an object of 
 interest to the people living in and 
 around St. Malo, as are its picture rep- 
 resentations at the present moment to 
 every Canadian. As a man of means, 
 a skilful seaman, and a citizen of fearless 
 integrity, he had gained the confidence 
 of that high official, the Admiral of 
 France, and even the ear of the king 
 himself; and when the news spread 
 through St. Malo that he had received 
 his commission to make a second 
 voyage across the ocean in search of a 
 new realm for his royal master to 
 govern, he and his companions had 
 naturally become the heroes of the hour. 
 And what a solemn service that must 
 have been in the old Cathedral! Men 
 bold enough to undertake the most 
 dangerous experiment, with their own 
 lives and the lives of others in their hand, 
 and yet humbly submitting themselves to 
 God as they piously besought Him to 
 protect them from the dangers of the 
 deep, and the uncertainties of a region 
 yet to be discovered! At length, con- 
 fession having been made, and a special 
 mass celebrated, Carticr and his com- 
 
CARTIER VISITS BELLEISLE. 33 
 
 panions left the sacred precincts, and 
 with the blessing of the bishop upon 
 them, gave themselves up to the final 
 preparations for the sailing which took 
 place on the 19th day of May, amid a 
 crowd of anxious onlookers, waving 
 their adieus. 
 
 The three little vessels, — the largest 
 the Grande Hcnninc, only of a hundred 
 tons burden, and the smallest, the 
 Eiucrillou, a mere pinnace of forty tons, 
 — had hardly lost sight of land when a 
 severe storm scattered them; l)ut so 
 skilfully were they under control, so 
 sure were their captains in their reckon- 
 ing, that thev all met again according to 
 agreement, in the passage of White 
 Sand Island, the Belleisle of to-day. 
 Cautiously hugging the for1:)idding coast- 
 line of Labrador, even now so unlike in 
 its character to its romantic name, they 
 cast anchor for the moment in the 
 estuary of what is known as the St. 
 John's River of Saguenay, on the loth 
 of August. Cartier turning to his cal- 
 endar, found that the loth of August 
 was the fete-day of St. Lawrence, and, 
 at once calling the little haven the Bay 
 of St. Lawrence, afterwards applied the 
 
34 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 same name to the wider sea outside, as 
 he sailed across it in a westward direc- 
 tion, past the great island of Anticosti, 
 which for a similar pious reason he 
 named Assumption. 
 
 While at Gaspe on his previous voy- 
 age, Cartier had entrapped two of the 
 natives of that region. These he had 
 taken to France with him, and while 
 there they had been able to pick up 
 sufficient French to make themselves 
 intelligible. From them, however, 
 Cartier seems to have kept the inner 
 secret of his expedition, namely the 
 finding of a passage to Asia, until he 
 had passed Assumption, and when he at 
 last broached the subject to them, they 
 could only shake their heads and tell 
 him of the great river they were enter- 
 ing, whose banks rapidly contracted, 
 until, many miles up, the way was inter- 
 rupted by shallows and rapids. And 
 the report of the Indians was soon 
 verified by the freshening of the water 
 as they approached the mouth of the 
 Saguenay, and beheld the wide-spread- 
 ing shore flats laid bare by the ebbing 
 of the tide. Thinking for the moment 
 to explore the great tributary current, 
 
THE OUTER ST. LAWRENCE. 35 
 
 the navigator turned aside and came in 
 sight of several canoes out hunting seal, 
 which, at first fleeing from his approach, 
 halted and drew nearer, when the voices 
 of the Indians on board the Grande 
 Hcrminc hailed them. After being 
 hospitably entertained by the tribes 
 around Tadoussac, and possibly warned 
 by them against going further up the 
 gorge of the Saguenay, Cartier continu- 
 ed the ascent of the main river, and 
 again came in sight of a number of 
 canoes near an island covered with 
 coiidricrs or hazel-nut trees. The sav- 
 ages in charge of the canoes, were, it 
 seems, out on a whale hunt, and when 
 congratulations had been interchanged 
 the Frenchmen were invited to share in 
 the sport. One of the marine animals 
 taken, which Cartier himself describes 
 as being as shapely in form as a grey- 
 hound, was no doubt the Beluga 
 Catadon, or white whale, whose bones 
 so often turn up in the post-pliocene 
 clay of the St. Lawrence. On leaving 
 the dusky whale-hunters, he w^as inform- 
 ed of the existence of a large Indian 
 settlement called Stadacona situated 
 further up the river, near Ouebeio or 
 
36 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 Quelibec, the narrow place of the 
 waters; and he had not proceeded very 
 far on his upward course, when he was 
 met by the chief of the settlement in the 
 person of Donnacona on his way down 
 to meet the white-faced strangers in 
 their strange-looking vessels. The 
 chief, we are told, addressed them in a 
 set oration, delivered in true native 
 style with many gesticulations and 
 rhetorical mannerisms. 
 
 It was now near the middle of Sep- 
 tember, and it behooved the explorers 
 to keep their eyes open for a suitable 
 place whereon they might build for 
 themselves a station, at which they 
 should test the rigours of a winter that 
 bound all things up, as they were told, 
 in snow and ice. 
 
 Taking the channel between a long 
 island and the northern woodland, they 
 anchored near the shore of the former, 
 which Cartier called the He de Bacchus 
 from the abundance of vines that were 
 found growing on its slopes, — a name 
 that has since been changed to the 
 Island of Orleans. The newcomers 
 were soon engaged in exploring the 
 tidal line for a site, and at last entering 
 
POSITION OF OLD STADACONA. 37 
 
 the curving mouth of the tributary of 
 the St. Lawrence, they selected the 
 memorable site on which, strange to 
 say, the Jesuits ninety years afterwards 
 established their first mission in Canada, 
 and near which the modern village of 
 Stadacona now stands. As was his 
 pious custom, Cartier named the river 
 the St. Croix, — the day on which he 
 arrived in its channel, the 14th of Sep- 
 tember, being the fete for the salutation 
 of the Holy Cross. The stream which 
 is still spoken of as " the Little River," 
 received the name of the St. Charles 
 from the Jesuits in 1625, in honour of M. 
 Charles de Boues, a benefactor of their 
 order. 
 
 The old Stadacona over which Don- 
 nacona held sway was situated on the 
 great rock plateau to the south along 
 its northern edge near what is now 
 known as the Ramparts; and on the day 
 the French arrived, a friendly demon- 
 stration was made by its inhabitants as 
 they crowded out to the tongue of land 
 now known as Hare Point. Donna- 
 cona himself, however, kept aloof from 
 the rejoicings, and the two natives, 
 whom Cartier had taken to France, also 
 
38 EAKLIEST BEGINNINGS 01* CANADA. 
 
 kept out of the way, as if repentant of 
 their friendly relations with the French 
 commander. Among the confidences 
 between them and the chief, the ex- 
 plorer's purpose to sail further up the 
 river, even as far as the great Hoche- 
 laga, had leaked out, and since such a 
 voyage seems to have been looked upon 
 by Donnacona as an indirect interfer- 
 ence with his personal interests, he 
 determined to throw every obstacle in 
 the way of the venture. Even after a 
 friendly compact had been struck be- 
 tween Cartier and Donnacona's own 
 subjects, and the two natives who had 
 sailed with the expedition from France 
 had returned to the ships, and every- 
 thing was ready on board the Emerillon 
 to sail from Quebec, the old chief 
 thought to deter Cartier by pretending 
 to call to his assistance the demons 
 which were supposed even by the 
 French themselves to fill the forests 
 around. Dressing up several of his 
 tribe as devils from Hochelaga, repre- 
 sentatives of the great spirit Cudraguy 
 of the upper St. Lawrence, he brought 
 them into the commander's presence. 
 But the drama with its blood curdling 
 
THE ST. LAWRENCE IN AUTUMN. 39 
 
 whoopings, and its threatening antics 
 was only a drama with Cartier, and on 
 the third day, leaving his two ships in 
 the safe-keeping of a sufihcient garrison, 
 he set sail with fifty of his men past the 
 towering rock of Quebec, variegated 
 with all the deep-toned tints of early 
 autumn. 
 
 Those who have sailed on the St. 
 Lawrence for miles, must have noticed 
 the many stretches of shore line that 
 have remained unchanged since Cartier's 
 time, save for the cutting of the heavier 
 timber. As one passes these stretches, 
 it needs but little effort of the imagina- 
 tion to picture the feelings of the 
 mariner of St. Malo and his companions 
 as they proceeded on their western 
 course towards what seemed always to 
 be in their minds, the great eastern 
 continent of Cathay and its mythical 
 limits. The maples were beginning to 
 bespangle the woods with their crimson 
 and gold, and the great oaks and birches 
 and stately poplars were interlining the 
 evergreen of the forest with a relieving 
 streak of sepia. The majesty of the 
 great stream must have been a continual 
 source of marvel to the strangers, as 
 
40 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 new vistas of water and woodland 
 revealed themselves beyond every curv- 
 ing headland. Tacking- by day, and 
 anchoring by night, the little Emcrillon 
 fought its way bravely against the cur- 
 rent, and half the distance between 
 Stadacona and Hochelaga had been 
 accomplished without mishap. But 
 beyond the large treble-mouthed tribu- 
 tary, now known as the St. Maurice, the 
 St. Lawrence widens out into one of its 
 greater expansions, and before the chan- 
 nel was improved for vessels seeking an 
 inner port beyond, the upper end of 
 this expansion was interrupted by rapids 
 impassable to a vessel of heavy draught. 
 The Emcrillon was only forty tons 
 burden, but Cartier thought it best to 
 leave her at anchorage near the shore of 
 Lake Angouleme (St. Peter) and pursue 
 his investigations in the two boats that 
 had been towed from Quebec. 
 
 At length, after a thirteen days' 
 voyage, the Frenchmen came in sight 
 of the hill of Hochelaga. They landed 
 at a creek which they called St. Mary's, 
 three miles from the village itself, and, 
 news of their arrival instantly spreading, 
 crowds of natives, bringing with them 
 
HOCHELAGA PROSPEROUS. 41 
 
 supplies of food, and other tokens of 
 good-will, came from all parts of the 
 island to greet the pale-faced strangers. 
 And the reception which Cartier receiv- 
 ed when once he was taken to the 
 Indian capital, is as interesting to read 
 as any story ever told. 
 
 Hochelaga was only one of many 
 villages on the island, as Cartier very 
 soon learned. It was however the 
 largest of these, containing about 
 fifteen hundred people, and being the 
 residence of the most influential of the 
 chiefs. What tribe the inhabitants were 
 of there is now no means of definitely 
 ascertaining, since every vestige of the 
 settlement had disappeared when Cham- 
 plain made his famous visit to the local- 
 ity in 1611. At the time of Cartier's 
 visit the place was certainly at the high 
 tide of its prosperity — as prosperity 
 goes among the Indian tribes. The 
 village itself was situated on a fertile 
 plain with tillage carried to the very 
 foot of the rising ground behind it. 
 The pathway leading from St. Mary's 
 was well beaten and ran easy of access 
 through the level fields, that still bore 
 traces of having yielded rich harvests of 
 
42 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 maize, and were bordered by groves of 
 great oak trees as pleasant to look upon 
 as any in France. On the way towards 
 the village, the Frenchmen were met 
 half-way by one of ithe chiefs, who, 
 causing a fire to be lighted by the road- 
 side, invited his guests to be seated 
 around it, while listening to an elabo- 
 rate harangue of welcome ; and as a 
 return Cartier presented the chief with 
 a couple of axes and knives, not forget- 
 ting a crucifix which he hung round 
 the swarthy heathen's neck and made 
 him kiss. 
 
 Then came the final march to the 
 village. The place was circular in plan 
 with a triple palisade fence running all 
 around it. There was but one entrance, 
 a gateway guarded by moveable barriers, 
 while at intervals on the inner side of 
 the wall were erected platforms, near 
 which were heaped mounds of stones and 
 pebbles as ammunition against possible 
 besiegers. In the centre was placed the 
 public square or assembly ground, 
 around which were grouped the dwel- 
 lings or birch bark houses. The 
 wigwam of nomadic life had, for the 
 time, given way to the tenement of per- 
 
THE AGE OF STONE. 43 
 
 manent abode, for Cartier, in describing 
 one of the houses, says it was a building 
 of about a hundred and fifty feet in 
 length and forty-five in breadth, con- 
 structed of a wooden frame covered 
 with great pieces of bark sewed together, 
 and divided up into halls and chambers, 
 for the accommodation of single fami- 
 lies. Above these were arranged rooms 
 for the harvests of grain and roots, 
 while, within the groups of tenements, 
 wide courtyards were enclosed and 
 covered in, where groups of families 
 did their cooking and lived in common 
 during the day. It was the Age of 
 Stone and community of property 
 with the Hochelagans in 1534. Their 
 weapons and industrial implements 
 were made of the native rock, and, as 
 Cartier further says, content to earn a 
 living by farming and fishing, they 
 made no account of the luxuries of this 
 life, because they had no knowledge of 
 them around their permanent home 
 near the mountain. 
 
 There was a hurried crowding of the 
 villagers from all parts when Cartier 
 and his followers were conducted 
 within the central square. The matrons 
 
44 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 and maidens, with children in their arms, 
 pressed forward to kiss the strangers, 
 and, weeping for joy, besought them to 
 touch the children by way of a blessing. 
 Such men as these must be skilled 
 medicine-men, the direct agents of 
 Manitou perhaps, and forthwith the 
 sick, the blind and the impotent were 
 brought to the commander with the 
 request that he would lay his hands 
 upon them and heal them. And 
 among these came old Agouhanna him- 
 self, the palsied " lord and king of the 
 country," who, approaching the com- 
 pany of explorers on the shoulders of 
 nine or ten of his subjects, took the por- 
 cupine-woven wreath of royalty from his 
 head with trembling hands and placed it 
 upon Cartier's brow, beseeching him to 
 touch his shrunken limbs and make him 
 whole. Manitou was surely come. God 
 had descended from heaven. The 
 age of St. Peter and St. Paul was repeat- 
 ing itself in the presence of the good 
 Catholics of St. Malo. And what was the 
 leader to do since the virtue of healing 
 was no element of his piety? What 
 could he do, but make the sign of the 
 cross, recite a portion of the gospel of 
 
CARTIER ON MOUNT ROYAL. 45 
 
 St. John, and with service book in 
 hand read the "Passion of Christ" from 
 beginning to end ? To the reHgious 
 ceremony — the first Christian service 
 ever held in Canada, — the natives 
 attended with the stoicism of their race, 
 and when it was ended made merry, 
 Hke children, over the distribution of 
 hatchets, knives and trinkets, and the 
 flourish of trumpets that followed. It 
 was a momentous day for Hochelaga, 
 a momentous day for Canada. And 
 when Cartier afterwards ascended 
 Mount Royal and beheld the magnifi- 
 cent view of hill and plain, of river and 
 island, that spread out before his gaze, 
 there was in the interest it excited in 
 him and his companions a prognostic 
 of the time when Mount Royal would 
 give its name to Montreal and preserve 
 in that great metropolis the prestige 
 which once pointed out Hochelaga as 
 the largest and most important centre 
 of population in the country. 
 
 When Cartier returned to Quebec, 
 the nights were beginning to tell of the 
 approach of winter. During his 
 absence the men he had left behind had 
 erected a rude fortification and sur- 
 
46 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA.. 
 
 mounted it with some of the pieces of 
 artillery taken from the vessels. There 
 was no immediate necessity for the 
 action, for the residents of Stadacona 
 were peaceable and friendly. They 
 were present in numbers to receive the 
 commander on his return, and friendly 
 visits were interchanged until winter 
 came, between the little settlement of 
 the St. Croix and the encampment on 
 the hill a mile' away. Even in Decem- 
 ber, when the eastern blizzards and 
 piercing north winds kept the thinly 
 clad Frenchmen within their camp to 
 huddle round the fire, the natives would 
 push their way through the deep snow- 
 drifts to give greeting to the prisoners 
 within, or bring them presents of food. 
 At length these visits suddenly ceased, 
 and Cartier was not to know the cause 
 until the plague of scurvy had run its 
 course through the Indian encampment 
 and had made a prey of his own little 
 community. This painful disease, so 
 often spoken of as the sailor's malady, 
 is induced chiefly by prolonged priva- 
 tion from fresh vegetable and animal 
 food. Emaciation, followed by loathsome 
 skin discolourings and dysentery, ending 
 
NEED FOE A CLERGYMAN. 47 
 
 in death from exhaustion, is its usual 
 course; and when Cartier saw his com- 
 panions become its victims day by day 
 "his heart was moved with compassion 
 and his soul filled with sore distress." 
 
 More than once the navigator regret- 
 ted that there was no priest among his 
 band of pioneers. The natives of 
 Hochelaga, as has been indicated, were 
 ready to meet half-way anv missionary 
 enterprise in their behalf. ' They had 
 virtually used the praver of the Psalmist 
 in Cartier's hearing, ''Cause us to know 
 thy way that we may walk therein." And 
 just as religiously inclined had he found 
 the natives of Stadacona.- It would prob- 
 ably be difficult to get them to give up 
 their practice of scouring the woods for 
 the scalps of their enemies, — for these 
 emblems of torturing victory were 
 common enough around their dwellings. 
 But they had earnestlv desired to be 
 baptized according to the Christian 
 forms, and but for the insurmoimtable 
 prejudices against a man, even of 
 Cartier's orthodoxy, assuming the pro- 
 fessional duties of the clerical of^ce. the 
 sympathetic mariner might have follow- 
 ed up his efforts as a lay preacher, by 
 
48 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 organizing a mission amongst them. 
 All he could do, however, was to pro- 
 mise them "a man of God" in his next 
 expedition, and to continue to regret, 
 on his own account, that no father of 
 religion was near by to give consolation 
 and absolution to his poor disease- 
 stricken companions as they continued 
 to die before his eyes. 
 
 The day without hope had come upon 
 the expedition. Even the lengthening 
 days of February had in them no breath 
 of spring. Twenty-five of the pioneers 
 had succumbed to their sufferings, and 
 the living left behind had barely 
 strength enough to scoop out the neces- 
 sary graves for them in the snow 
 wreaths without. At any moment the 
 Indians might descend upon the wretch- 
 ed camp and make an end of it, as they 
 had of the abandoned Petite H ermine. 
 They had been seen hovering around 
 as if to spy out the condition of affairs; 
 and, to deceive them, Cartier had caused 
 a great clamouring to be made within as 
 of men too busy at work to give heed 
 to anything without. 
 
 At length a special and united appeal 
 was made directly to heaven. They 
 

 :3 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 
 rO 
 
A SHORT PILGRIMAGE. 49 
 
 would brave the spying of the Indians, 
 and make a procession to the slope 
 over which the great cross now extends 
 its arms in front of the monument. Plac- 
 ing the picture of the Virgin Mary in a 
 shrine rudely constructed near a great 
 tree, Cartier led his companions forth 
 on the shortest of pilgrimages to salute 
 the Mother of Heaven and to beseech 
 her intercession. There was no priest 
 to celebrate mass, as there was on the 
 great day of commemoration in 1888, 
 but while his emaciated and death- 
 stricken followers knelt tremblingly in 
 the snow in presence of the image, the 
 commander read aloud the prayers for 
 the sick and distressed, and extracts 
 from the Psalms. It was a terrible 
 ordeal for them all, and when young- 
 Philippe Rougemont died that night, it 
 seemed for the moment as if even 
 heaven had deserted them. 
 
 At last, one morning while walking 
 by the river, Cartier, who had puzzled 
 over the fell disease even to the point 
 of holding an autopsy on poor Philippe 
 Rougemont's body, was informed by an 
 Indian that anicda was a sure cure for 
 the disease which was threatening his 
 
50 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 camp with extinction. And what this 
 amcda was the elated explorer was not 
 long in finding out and applying as a 
 remedy to his sick comrades. The 
 medicine was a simple decoction of the 
 leaves of a variety of spruce, and, as 
 Cartier mirthfully says, so marvellous 
 w^ere its curative effects that in six days 
 the men had drunk "a tree as large as 
 a French oak." 
 
 When the advent of spring had 
 thawed the icicles from the palisades of 
 the little fort, hope had come back to 
 the pioneers, though it was a hope that 
 led them to prepare for their return 
 voyage to France. The marvellous tales 
 they had heard from the natives of a 
 land abounding in gold and precious 
 stones that lay beyond Hochelaga, had 
 no influence with men who had endured 
 so much in one season. The coloniza- 
 tion of the country was only for an 
 expedition better equipped than theirs 
 had been. Such an expedition might 
 be arranged for next year. In the 
 meantime the summer scents of la belle 
 Franee was what they longed for, and 
 the sooner the return voyage began the 
 better. 
 
CARTIER RETURNS. 51 
 
 Even Cartier himself made no effort 
 to delay the return to France. The 
 rivers teemed with fish and the forest 
 with fur-bearing animals, and here and 
 there patches of fertility were to be seen 
 in the meadows and around the Indian 
 clearings ; but all these sources of wealth 
 would keep, and hence he encouraged 
 his followers to have everything ready 
 for the return voyage on the 6th of 
 May. On Holy Rood Day he set up a 
 cross, with some show of ceremony, 
 and to it afftxed the superscription, in 
 Latin, "Francis I. reigns King of the 
 French, by the grace of God." 
 
 The last incident of this memorable 
 winter's sojourn in New France, throws 
 an unfavorable light, it is thought, upon 
 the integrity of the commander. Don- 
 nacona and his subjects had told him 
 many marvellous stories about the 
 wealth of the country far to the west, 
 and Cartier, no doubt anxious that his 
 royal master should hear these tales di- 
 rectly corrt)borated, determined to seize 
 the old chief and carry him to France ac- 
 companied by one or two of his tribes- 
 men. In pursuance of this object he caus- 
 ed the king of Stadacdna to be seized and 
 
52 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 carried on board just as the vessels 
 were weighing anchor, resisting the 
 piteous importunities of the natives, as 
 they crowded on the shore and offered 
 ransom for their ruler. But when it is 
 known that Donnacona himself assured 
 his subjects, as they -persevered in fol- 
 lowing up with their canoes the 
 departing vessels as far as the lie aiix 
 Condrcs, that he was willing to go and 
 would assuredly return to them, 
 Cartier's conduct may be somewhat ex- 
 cused. Indeed, before the Frenchmen 
 left with their captives, the tribesmen of 
 Stadacona made peace with the com- 
 mander, and, as a free gift, presented 
 him with the ransom they had offered 
 for their king, consisting of .valuable 
 bundles of beaver skins, a great wam- 
 pum belt, and a red copper knife from 
 the Saguenay. 
 
 Thus ended Cartier's second voyage. 
 Though unpropitious weather detained 
 him at the mouth of the river and in the 
 gulf, he was able to visit Gaspe again, 
 and greet the great cross he had set up 
 the year before. He also visited Brion 
 Island of the Magdalen group, and 
 explored the southern coast of New- 
 
cartier's first voyage. 53 
 
 foundland. Finally he left Cape Race 
 on the 1 6th of June, and, after an un- 
 eventful voyage across the Atlantic, 
 arrived at St. Malo on the first of July, 
 1536. 
 
 Cartier's First Voyage liad taken place 
 a year before the date of the above 
 recorded expedition and ten years after 
 John Verazzano, the Florentine navigator, 
 had by his alleged transatlantic discover- 
 ies under the auspices of Francis I. given 
 the French a seeming claim to the contin- 
 ent of America. During these ten years 
 the wars in which France was engaged 
 made the corsair's occupation a busy and 
 remunerative one ; and it was only when 
 the Treaty of Cambrai brought about peace 
 that the navigators of the period, with their 
 occupation as privateersmen virtually gone, 
 turned their attention to schemes of ex- 
 ploration beyond the seas, in the territory 
 which had been called since Cabot's time the 
 New Lands. As one of these sons of 
 hardihood, Cartier had made friends with 
 Philippe de Brion-Chabot, the Admiral of 
 France and boon com_panion of the king, 
 and, when the war came to an end, he had, 
 through such a prominent courtier, suffi- 
 cient influence at court to secure a commis- 
 sion to follow up Verazzano's explorations. 
 
 He received such a commission in 1533, 
 and set sail on the 20th of April, 1534. The 
 voyage across was a speedy one, since he 
 
54 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 reached Cape Bonavista on the 10th of May. 
 The command included two vessels of fifty 
 tons each and a company of one hundred 
 and sixty-two men. After a delay of ten 
 days, the explorers sailed northwards to 
 the Island of Birds, where they amused 
 themselves by firing into the thick fiocks of 
 sea-fowl, and by watching a large bear as 
 it fearlessly swam out to devour the vic- 
 tim.s. But sterner work w?s in store for 
 them, when the ice baffled their attempts to 
 enter the Straits of Belleisle, and drove 
 them to take doubtful shelter in one of the 
 small harbours of the Labrador coast, which 
 Cartier, in honour of the most westerly sea- 
 port of France, named Port Brest. The 
 fact that Port Brest was visited by a trad- 
 ing vessel from Rochelle, while Cartier's 
 exploring parties were investigating the 
 neighbouring shores, goes to show that the 
 St. Malo navigator was as yet in no un- 
 known land. Even from the days of 
 Cabot, fishermen were to be found on the 
 great fishing grounds of the Banks of New- 
 foundland, as may be read of, on another 
 page. 
 
 With the aid of a map, the reader can 
 follow with increasing interest the course 
 pursued by Cartier after he had passed 
 through the straits to the open gulf be- 
 yond. His exploring parties had located 
 and named several of the small harbours 
 on the Labrador coast, such as St. Anthony, 
 St. Servans, and St. John River ; but the 
 reports brought back from these places 
 
CARTIER IN THE GULF. 55 
 
 were all of the same kind : " The land was 
 so forbidding in its appearance that it could 
 hardly be other than the land allotted to 
 Cain." The explorers reported that the 
 country was not uninhabited, but the sav- 
 ages they had caught sight of were said to 
 be so "wild and unruly, hailing from the 
 mainland out of warmer regions," as to be 
 altogether unworthy closer attention. 
 
 The first object of interest, after the ex- 
 plorers had sailed from Port Brest, past 
 Point Rich and Cape Aiguille, was the Bird 
 Rocks which lie to the north-east of the 
 Magdalen group, and whose steep whitened 
 sea-walls, the home of the ganet and gull, 
 continue to excite the attention of the pass- 
 engers of our modern ocean steamships, as 
 much as they did the followers of Cartier 
 from the poops of their fifty-ton caravels. 
 Not far from the Bird Rocks is Brion 
 Island — a name given by Cartier in honour 
 of his patron, which still indicates it — and 
 this the navigator describes as a place "six 
 miles long, and full of beautiful trees, mea- 
 dows and flowers, though the shores are 
 guarded by sea monsters with tusks as 
 large as elephants." From Brion Island 
 the explorers pass'ed to another island "very 
 high and pointed at one end," which cannot 
 but be identified as the Prince Edward 
 Island of to-day ; and the yachtsman who 
 has lingered in sight of the sand-dunes and 
 sheltering bays, in the safe waters of the 
 north shore of that province, can bear wit- 
 ness to the terrorless nature of the scene. 
 
56 EAKL1E8T BEGINNINGS OF CANADA, 
 
 It was not until the vessels had anchored 
 in Miramichi Bay (Bay of Boats) that there 
 seemed to be any danger. Here the native 
 Micmacs came out in a great fleet of canoes, 
 and crowded around the new comers so im- 
 pedingly, that Cartier had to fire a cannon 
 to keep them at a safe distance. On the 
 8th of July, the two little vessels entered 
 the wide mouth of the Bay Chaleur, and 
 when they had crossed to the other side, 
 the explorers again made acquaintance with 
 the aborigines, though these were less 
 threatening in their attitude, and evidently 
 belonged to a different tribe. But Chaleur 
 Bay gave as little evidence of its being a 
 possible channel through the land to the 
 longed-for Cathay as had the Bay of Boats; 
 and when anchorage had been found near 
 the entrance to Gaspe Basin, the mariner of 
 St. Malo, being now, at least, where no 
 European had ever been before, decided to 
 take possession of the only prize within 
 his reach. Cathay with its fabulous re- 
 sources, or even the way to it, was little 
 likely to be found during what there was 
 left of the summer months, and it was time 
 for the grateful commander to be doing 
 som_ething for his royal master. There was 
 only one prize to be had, and rough and 
 valueless as it seemed, there was nothing 
 left for him but to take possession of it in 
 the name of Francis I. of France. 
 
 The day on which the ceremony took 
 place was the 24th of July. A large white 
 cross, thirty feet high, with a shield at- 
 
CAKTIER CLAIMS THE COUNTRY. 57 
 
 taclied, was erected in presence of the ships' 
 crews and tlie assembled natives. The 
 escutcheon had engraved upon it the fleur- 
 de-lis (the blossom emblem of France) and 
 the words " Vive le Roi de Prance." When 
 the cross was firmly placed, the French- 
 men knelt around it, and with an "Ave" 
 from the lips of their leader, laid claim to 
 the territory near and beyond, in the name 
 of their king and country. The ceremony 
 was so simple and unmistakable in its sig- 
 nificance, that the natives knew enough of 
 it to protest against the taking of their 
 country from them. Even the old chief, 
 accompanied by his two sons, seconded the 
 protest in person on board of Cartier's ves- 
 sel. We are not told how Cartier replied 
 to the protest, but 'his followers set them- 
 selves to appease the father by decorating 
 the sons with white shirts, coloured jerseys, 
 and red caps, flinging around their necks 
 glittering brass chains and amusing them 
 in sundry other ways. The effect produced 
 seemed to please alike the old corsair of 
 St. Malo, and the Souriquois chief. Indeed 
 the boys were so taken with their new 
 friends that they elected to remain with 
 them for the night while their fathers went 
 on shore, and when Cartier set sail next 
 morning two specimens of " native flesh 
 and blood" were safe on their way to France 
 as presents for His Most Gracious Majesty 
 the King. 
 
 That is all that came of Cartier's first 
 voyage. The route to the Orient by the 
 
58 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 west had not been discovered ; nor did the 
 navigator find out till afterwards how near 
 he had been to the mouth of the great river 
 it was his to navigate in the subsequent 
 year, and in connection with which his 
 name has com.e to be immortalized in the 
 history Of Canada. 
 
 Cartier's Third Voyage is the prelude 
 to Roberval's attempt at colonization at 
 Cap Rouge in 1542. Five years had gone 
 by since Cartier's return from his second 
 voyage. As a cause for this, some have 
 blamed the St. Malo navigator for having 
 circulated a poor report of the country, yet 
 unappeased cupidity on the part of king 
 and courtiers had perhaps more to do with 
 the neglect than anything else. The way 
 to the east had not been found by way of 
 the west, and no treasures of gold and pre- 
 cious stones had made up for the mishap. 
 
 The king, however, was at last roused to 
 listen again to his master pilot and his 
 patrons. On the 15th of January, 1540, Jean 
 Prangois de la Roche, Sieur de Roberval, a 
 nobleman of Picardy, was created Viceroy 
 and Lieutenant-General of Canada, Hoche- 
 laga, Saguenay, Newfoundland, Belleisle, 
 Labrador and Baccalaos. These names are 
 significant. Cartier had evidently not lost 
 heart, and the news soon reacihed St. Malo 
 that he had been appointed captain-general 
 and master pilot of the expedition to fol- 
 lovv^. For this expedition five vessels were 
 soon on the stocks at St. Malo, built with 
 
CARTIEU'S EETURX TO CANADA. 59 
 
 the approval of king and viceroy and under 
 the eye of the captain-general. The object 
 of the voyage is expressly given in the 
 words of the report, namely, that " they 
 might discover more than was done in some 
 voyages, and attain if possible to a know- 
 ledge of the country of the Saguenay, 
 whereof the people brought by Cartier, as is 
 declared, mentioned to the king tliat there 
 were great riches and very good lands." 
 
 Only three of the ships would be ready, 
 it seems, to sail early in May and the king, 
 impatient at the delay — for in the light of 
 the Pope's Bull which granted all America 
 to the Spaniards, there had been some in- 
 ternational trouble over the matter — order- 
 ed Roberval to send Cartier forward at once. 
 Cartier thereupon set sail on May 23rd, 1541. 
 His intention was to visit Stadacona and 
 the St. Croix again for purposes of settle- 
 ment as well as exploration. But the de- 
 lays of his departure pursued him. Storms 
 beset every mile of his way across the 
 ocean, and over three months had passed 
 before he could make the turn of the chan- 
 nel past the Island of Bacchus, or hold his 
 first reception with the natives as they 
 crowded round his ships to hear of their 
 chief Donnacona and the others. Cartier 
 had to tell them that Donnacona was dead, 
 but, to appease with a subterfuge, he led 
 them to infer that the others were doing 
 well and living luxuriously in Prance, 
 whereas all of them had died except one 
 little girl. Agona, the new chief, pretend- 
 
60 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 ing to believe all that Cartier told them, 
 took the leather crown or Indian fillet from 
 his own head and placed it on the head of 
 the captain-general, adorning at the same 
 time his wrists with bracelets. Tliere 
 were some acclamations of joy during the 
 ceremony, but reciprocal distrust found its 
 way alike into the 'heart of savages and 
 Frenchmen, and, in view of such, there was 
 nothing strange in Cartier's selecting an- 
 other site for a wintering encampment fur- 
 ther up the river, away from Stadacona. 
 
 Sailing up the St. Lawrence one still sees, 
 nine miles from Quebec, a strange-looking 
 gap in the river's northern bank. Through 
 the gap tliere is an entrance to the valley 
 of the St. Charles so well defined that many 
 believe that the St. Lawrence must have 
 passed that way in prehistoric times. Be 
 this as it may, the north-eastern embank- 
 ment presents almost as prepossessing a 
 site for a city as Cape Diamond itself, and 
 no doubt Cartier saw its suitableness as 
 such when he sailed up the river away from 
 his former allies. With a fort above and a 
 fort below, there was ample safety for his 
 encampment, until Roberval should appear 
 upon the scene and the buildings for the 
 proposed capital were fairly under way. 
 
 For the first day or two there was very 
 little done. The tropical heat of August 
 was not favourable to hard work, and the 
 pioneers gave themselves up to little ex- 
 ploration parties in search of what was in 
 everyone's mind, the riches of the East, 
 
CHAKLESBOURG ROYAL. 61 
 
 The irregular quartz crystals found in the 
 surface deposits of the cliff and the yellow 
 scales of pyrites found in the slaty forma- 
 tions fostered in them the notion that such 
 a search would not be in vain. Even Car- 
 tier was of the same opinion. And when 
 the forts had been completed, the captain- 
 general left the encampment in charge of 
 Viscomte de Beaupre, master of one of the 
 vessels, as he went off on a visit up the 
 river to Hochelaga. 
 
 The news of Cartier's third arrival in the 
 country had already been carried to Hoche- 
 laga, but when the explorer reached the 
 place with the intention of surmounting the 
 rapids above, under the guidance of his 
 friends of Mount Royal, he found that they 
 had been put on their guard against him. 
 He was even told that their chief had gone 
 to Quebec to plot against him with the 
 chief of Stadacona. Under suc'h circum- 
 stances he could only think of returning to 
 Cap Rouge. To place a hostile tribe be- 
 tween him and his capital would be sui- 
 cidal. Before turning his back on Mount 
 Royal, however, he is said to have sur- 
 mounted the Lachine Rapids by careful por- 
 taging, and to have reached the mouth of 
 the Ottav/a. 
 
 Meanwhile, what of Roberval ? Had he 
 arrived at Charlesbourg Royal, as the en- 
 campment at Cap Rouge had been named ? 
 Before Cartier left for Hochelaga he had 
 sent two of his captains back to France, 
 and these had been met by Roberval in 
 
62 EAKLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 Newfoundland on his way out. No mess- 
 age of his superior officer's arrival, how- 
 ever, could have yet reached Cartier's ears. 
 The blustering winds of October were be- 
 ginning to sweep across the vast expanses of 
 the mig'hty river he had discovered and 
 with which he was now becoming familiar, 
 as he traversed it on his return, to meet 
 his associate. What was to be the out- 
 come of his present enterprise ? Would 
 Charlesbourg Royal meet the same fate as 
 the settlement at St. Croix ? Was there 
 to be discontent or co-operation ? Was 
 Roberval a man of whom to be jealous ? 
 Would he be waiting at Cap Rouge to give 
 him welcome ? 
 
 There are two sides to the story of the 
 quarrel between Roberval and Cartier. 
 Whether they passed the winter of 1541 at 
 Cap Rouge in the same encampment or not, 
 it i^ in^possible to siy. They were certainly 
 both in Ccinada during that winter, the date 
 of Roberval's departure from France at- 
 tested by the official record proving this ; 
 and there could therefore have been no 
 meeting of the two at St. John's, Newfound- 
 land, — the one coming from France, and 
 the other sailing for France. Roberval 
 set sail from Honfleur on the 22nd of Aug- 
 ust, 1541, and not, as Hakluyt says," from 
 Rochelle on the 14th of April, 1642. In a 
 word, Cartier and Roberval arrived in Can- 
 ada the same year, and the story of their 
 quarrel as told by Parkman and others is 
 one of those myths which history finds it so 
 difficult to miss repeating. 
 
CARTIER AND EOBERYAL. 63 
 
 The fleets, as atte.^ted by lately discovered 
 documents, are these. Cartier set sail on 
 the 23rd of May, 1541. In the month of 
 July following, the king complained to par- 
 liament of Roberval's delay in following up 
 his master pilot. On the 18th of August 
 Roberval sent a message from Honfleur that 
 he would sail from that port for America 
 in four days, and the official record proves 
 that he kept his word. Thus it is clearly 
 proved that Roberval did not delay a whole 
 year in joining the proposed colony in New 
 France, but arrived at Quebec in the aut- 
 umn of 1541, sending from that place two 
 of his vessels back to France, as Cartier 
 had done a month or so earlier. Whether 
 he was at Cap Rouge when Cartier returned 
 from his visit up the river or not cannot 
 now be known. There is no evidence, 
 however, that the lieutenant-general anc 
 captain-general had an open rupture, and 
 the fact that the king subsequently extend- 
 ed his favor to Cartier, is almost conclusive 
 that the failure of Roberval's scheme of 
 colonization was not to be traced to Car- 
 tier's jealousy, but to the discontent and 
 disaffection of the colonists. If there had 
 been any foundation for the story, Cartier 
 would hardly have been the man selected 
 to go out on a fourth voyage to Canada to 
 bring Roberval home in 1543. 
 
 The fate of Charlesbourg Royal as locat- 
 ed by Cartier is mixed up with the fate of 
 France Royale, the name given to Roberval's 
 settlement. Parkman takes for granted 
 
64 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 that the two places are one and the same, 
 and locating them both at Cap Rouge thus 
 describes Roberval's regime with a free 
 pen : — 
 
 " Roberval held his course up the St. 
 Lawrence, and dropped anchor before the 
 heights of Cap Rouge. His company land- 
 ed; there were bivouacs along the strand, 
 a hubbub of pick and spade, axe, saw and 
 hammer ; and soon in the wilderness up 
 rose a goodly structure, half barrack, half 
 castle, with two towers, two spacious halls, 
 a kitchen, chambers, store-rooms, work- 
 shops, cellars, garrets, a well, an oven and 
 two water-mills. It stood on that bold 
 acclivity Where Cartier had before en- 
 trenched himself, the St. Lawrence in front, 
 and, on the right, the river of Cap Rouge. 
 Here all the colony housed under the same 
 roof, like one of the experimental communi- 
 ties of recent days, — officers, soldiers, no- 
 bles, artisans, labourers, and convicts, with 
 the women and children, in whom lay the 
 future of New France. 
 
 " Experience and forecast had alike been 
 wanting. There were storehouses, but no 
 stores; mills, but no grist; an ample oven, 
 and a woeful dearth of bread. It was only 
 when two of the ships had sailed for France 
 that they took account of their provision 
 and discovered its lamentable shortcoming. 
 Winter and famine followed. They bought 
 fish from the Indians, dug roots and boiled 
 them in whale oil. Disease broke out, and, 
 before spring, killed one third of the col- 
 
SETTLEMENT OF CAP ROUGE. 65 
 
 oiiy. The rest would have quarrelled, mu- 
 tinied, and otherwise aggravated their In- 
 evitable woes, but disorder was dangerous 
 under the iron rule of the inexorable Rober- 
 val. Michel Gaillon was detected in a 
 petty theft, and forthwith hanged. Jean 
 de Nantes, for a mere venial offence, was 
 kept in irons. The quarrels of men, the 
 scolding of women, were alike requited at 
 the whipping-post, 'by which means/ 
 quaintly says the narrative, ' they lived in 
 peace.' Thevet, while calling himself the 
 intimate friend of the viceroy, gives to his 
 history a darker colouring. Forced to un- 
 ceasing labour, and chafed by arbitrary rules, 
 some of the soldiers fell under his displea- 
 sure, and six of them, formerly his favour- 
 ites, were hanged in one day. Others were 
 banished to an island, and there held in 
 fetters ; while for various light offences 
 several, both m_en and women, were shot. 
 Even the Indians were moved to pity, and 
 wept at the sight of their woes. 
 
 "And here, midway, our guide deserts 
 us ; the ancient narrative is broken, and 
 the lattei part is lost, leaving us to divine 
 as best we may, the future of the ill-starred 
 colony. That it did not long survive is 
 certain. It is said that the king, in great 
 need of Roberval, sent Cartier to bring 
 him home. It is said, too, that in after 
 years, the viceroy essayed to repossess him- 
 self of his transatlantic domain and lost 
 his life in his attempt. Thevet, on the 
 other hand, with ample means of learning 
 
66 EAKLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 the truth afRrms that Roberval was slain 
 at night, near the Church of the Innocents, 
 in the heart of Paris." 
 
 The last we hear of Jacques Cartier Is 
 when he and Roberval were summoned to 
 appear before the king, after Cartier had 
 brought the latter back from, Canada. Ke 
 continued to live in St. Malo until the da.y 
 of his death, which probably occurred iii 
 1555. 
 
 Cartier's Successors. — Some two miles 
 above the port of Dartmouth in England, 
 as Anthony Froude the historian tells us, 
 there has stood for centuries the manor- 
 house of Greenway, on a projecting angle of 
 land which runs out into the river at the 
 head of one of its most beautiful reaches. 
 The water runs deep all the way to it from 
 the sea and the largest vessels may ride 
 with safety within a stone's throw of the 
 windows. Here it was, that three little 
 boys, who were afterwards to have their 
 names known as navigators were wont to 
 play as sailors, — in the summer evenings 
 doubtless rowing down with the tide to the 
 port to marvel at the quaint figure-heads 
 and carved prows of the ships which 
 thronged it, or climbing on board, and lis- 
 tening with beating hearts to the mariners' 
 tales of the lands beyond the sunset. These 
 three lads were no other than Humphrey 
 Gilbert, his brother Adrian, and his half- 
 brother Walter Raleigh, and it is just pos- 
 sible that at times, they were joined in 
 
SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. 67 
 
 their boyish expeditions by a sailor lad of 
 the adjoining parish of Sandwich, John 
 Davis by name. Of Humphrey Gilbert and 
 John Davis, the early history of our country, 
 even in epitome, has always something of 
 interest to say. 
 
 Sir Humphrey Gilbert was born in 1539. 
 From the famous school of Eton he passed 
 to Oxford, with the intention of finally 
 taking up the profession of the law ; but 
 changing his mind, he entered the army and 
 won renown in suppressing the Irish rebel- 
 lion of 1570, was appointed governor of 
 Munster, and had bestowed upon nim the 
 honour of knighthood. 
 
 But it is not in his soldiering that we 
 read the romance of his life. His fate seems 
 to have been solved when he put pen to 
 paper and gave to the world a treatise on 
 the Isicw Passage to Cathay, a subject which 
 was engrossing the world's attention in his 
 day. Nothing had come of Cartier's voy- 
 ages save a definite knowledge that there 
 was a continent to explore. The fishermen 
 continued to ply their vocation at the ap- 
 proaches to the gulf which he had explored, 
 and the harbour of St. John's was beginning 
 to be known as one of their places of rendez- 
 vous coming and going. But there was 
 surely something more than this to come 
 of the New Lands. If there was not to be 
 found in them any surprising wealth of 
 silver and gold and precious stones, there 
 was at least a pathway, to discover through 
 them, to places where one could not fail to 
 
68 EARLIEST BEGINNJJSfGS OF CANADA. 
 
 find these natural treasures. And when Sir 
 Humphrey appeared before Queen Elizabeth, 
 as John Cabot had appeared before her 
 grandfather, the outcome of his representa- 
 tions was very much the same; he was 
 armed with a royal warrant to take posses- 
 sion of any uncolonized lands in North 
 America upon payment of one-fifth of all 
 the gold and silver found in them. 
 
 There was a heroism in Sir Humphrey 
 Gilbert's standard of living strikingly ex- 
 emplified in his memorial to the queen 
 which closes with these words: — "Never 
 mJslike with me for taking in hand any 
 laudable and honest enterprise, for, if 
 through pleasure or idleness we purchase 
 shame, pleasure vanisheth, but the shame 
 abidsth for ever. Give me leave, therefore, 
 vrithout offence, always to live and die in 
 this mind ; that he is not worthy to live at 
 all that for fear or danger of death, shun- 
 neth his country's service and his own 
 honour, seeing that death is inevitable and 
 the fame of virtue immortal ; wherefore in 
 this behalf I despise either changing or 
 fearing (nnitarc vel tlmcrc spernoj." And 
 we know that these were no empty words 
 but the creed of a brave man, who, while 
 battling with the storms of the Atlantic, 
 within an hour or two of the sinking of his 
 vessel, could encourage his men by assuring 
 them that they were as near heaven by sea 
 as by land. 
 
 As in the case of Cabot, we have the 
 record of Gilbert's most memorable voyage 
 
SIR IT. GILBERT AT NEWFOUNDLAND. 69 
 
 from one who knew him personally. The 
 first two voyages he undertook, with Walter 
 Raleigh as an associate, came to nought. 
 In the third a fleet of five ships sailed from 
 the port of Dartmouth, not without the 
 foreboding on the part of the queen that she 
 would never see its commander again. As 
 a last favour she sent a jewel to him and 
 asked Raleigh to have his picture taken for 
 her before he set sail. 
 
 As Mr. Froude tells us, quoting from the 
 Dartmouth merchant who accompanied Sir 
 Humphrey, the fleet consisted of the Ralrif/h, 
 the Delight, the Golden Tlinde, the HicaUoiv, 
 and the Squirrel, the first being a bark of 
 two hundred tons and the latter a frigate 
 of ten tons. " We were in all," says Mr. 
 Fronde's eye-witness, " two hundred and 
 sixty men, among whom were of every 
 faculty good choice. Besides, for the solace 
 of our own people and the allurement of the 
 savages, we were provided with music in 
 good variety, not omitting the least toys, as 
 morris-dancers, hobby horses, and May-like 
 conceits to delight the savage people." 
 
 The expedition reached Newfoundland 
 without accident. St. John's was taken pos- 
 session of and a colony left there ; and Sir 
 Humphrey then set out exploring along the 
 coast to the south, he himself doing all the 
 work in his little ten-ton cutter, since the 
 service was too dangerous for the larger 
 vessels to venture on. One of these had ■ 
 remained at St. John's. He was now accom- 
 panied by the Delirjlit and the Golden Hinde, 
 
70 EARLIEST BEOIAXINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 and these two keeping as near to the shore 
 as they dared, he spent what remained of 
 the summer examining every creek and bay, 
 marking the soundings, taking the bearings 
 of the possible harbours, and risking his 
 life, as he was obliged to do in such a 
 service, in thus leading, as it were, the for- 
 lorn hope in the conquest of the New World. 
 How dangerous it was we shall presently 
 see. It was towards the end of August. 
 " The weather was fine and pleasant, yet not 
 without token of a coming storm, and most 
 of the evening had been spent in the Delight, 
 like the swan that singeth before her death, 
 in the sounding of drums, trumpets, and 
 fifes, with the winding of cornets and haut- 
 boys, and in the end of the jollitv with the 
 battle and ringing of doleful knells." 
 
 Two days after came the storm. The 
 Dclif/M struck upon a bank, and went down 
 in sight of the other vessels, which were un- 
 able to render her any help. Sir Humph- 
 rey's papers, among other things, were all 
 lost in her, at the time considered by him 
 an irreparable misfortune. But it was little 
 matter; he was never to need them. 
 
 The Golden Hinde and the Squirrel were 
 now left alone of the five ships. The provi- 
 sions were running short and the summer 
 was closing. Both crews were on short 
 allowance; and yet it was not without dif- 
 ficulty that the commander was prevailed 
 upon to be satisfied with what he had done, 
 and to set' sail for England. 
 
 The return voyage was inaugurated with 
 
A CURIOUS MO>"STER. 71 
 
 an omen which the leader made less of than 
 his followers. It was the age in which the 
 new was ever being looked upon as some- 
 thing uncanny, and we must not lose sight 
 of the fact when we read that when the ex- 
 plorers had changed their course on their 
 way back to England, there passed along 
 between them and the land " a very lion, to 
 their seeming, in shape, hair, and colour; not 
 swimming after the manner of a beast by 
 moving his feet, but rather sliding upon the 
 water, with his whole body, except his legs, 
 in sight, neither yet diving under and rising 
 again as is the manner of whales and por- 
 poises, but confidently showing himself 
 without hiding, in face of open gestures' 
 from those on board. Thus did the monster 
 pass along turning his head to and fro, 
 yawning and gaping wide, with ugly demon- 
 strations of long teeth and glaring eyes, 
 and as if to bid farewell to those on board, 
 ran right against the Hinde, sending forth a 
 horrible voice with roaring and bellowing 
 like a lion." In the minds of many of the 
 crew, this was nothing short of a visitant 
 from the nether world giving them a send- 
 off presaging misfortune. Sir Humphrey, 
 however, counselled them to look upon it 
 as a good omen, though the after event did 
 not bear out his interpretation. 
 
 Had Sir Humphrey kept to the largest of 
 his vessels all would have been well with 
 him personally, but in spite of the impor- 
 tunities of captain, master, and friends, he 
 kept to the Squirrel, declaring that he would 
 
72 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 not forsake the little company with whom 
 he had passed so many storms and perils. 
 On the 2nd of September, after many days 
 at sea, he went on board the Golden Hindc, 
 " to make merry with us," as the narrator 
 puts it. He greatly deplored the loss of his 
 books and papers, but he was full of con- 
 fidence from what he had seen, and talked 
 with eagerness and warmth of the new ex- 
 pedition for the following spring. There 
 were some of his companions who believed 
 that Sir Humphrey was keeping to himself 
 some secret discovery he had made, and 
 they tried hard to extract it from him. 
 They could, however, make nothing of his 
 odd, ironical answers, and their sorrow at 
 the catastrophe which followed was sadly 
 blended with disappointment that such a 
 secret should have perished. 
 
 When they were more than half way to 
 England, a storm like unto the tempest 
 which beset St. Paul at Melita, came down 
 upon Sir Humphrey and his ships. Tossed 
 about on his cockle shell of a frigate, he 
 would sometimes pass near the fioldcn 
 Jlinde and shout greeting across the stormy 
 waters. 
 
 " On Monday, the 9th of September, in the 
 afternoon, the frigate was near cast away 
 oppressed by the waves, but at that time 
 recovered, and giving forth signs of joy. Sir 
 Humphrey, sitting abaft with a book in his 
 hand, cried out to us in the Hinde as often 
 as we approached him : * Be of good cheer, 
 boys, we are as near to heaven by sea as by 
 
THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 73 
 
 land.' This he did not fail to reiterate, well 
 beseeming a soldier resolute in Jesus Christ, 
 as can be testified of him. The same Monday 
 night, about twelve of the clock, or not long 
 after, the frigate being anead of tlie Oohlen 
 lliiidc, the lights of the former suddenly 
 disappeared, and our watch cried out that 
 the General was cast away." 
 
 Thus was the sowing made, without any 
 immediate seeming of a coming harvest. 
 As Froude says, such was Sir Humphrey 
 Gilbert, still in the prime of his life when 
 the Atlantic swallowed him. Like the 
 gleam of a landscape lit suddenly for a 
 moment by the lightning, these few scenes 
 flash down to us across the centuries, but 
 what a life must that have been of which 
 this was the conclusion. 
 
 The Arctic Regions have a history of 
 their own, drawn from the records of the 
 various expeditions in search of a North- 
 west passage, and extending from the days 
 of Frobisher and Gilbert to the final success 
 of McLure and McClintock. An old map 
 has led to the surmise that Sebastian Cabot 
 sailed as far north as Cumberland Island 
 or Melville Peninsula ; but Sir Martin 
 Frobisher may with certainty be looked 
 upon as the first of the long line of Arctic 
 explorers, leaving, as he has done, a geo- 
 graphical memorial of his visit in the name 
 of one of the entrances to Hudson Bay from 
 Davis Strait. For fifteen years he laboured to 
 find a patron, and when he at last succeeded 
 
74 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 in forming a company, he was able to count 
 among the subscribers, Queen Elizabeth, 
 who invested four thousand pounds, Lord 
 Burleigh, the Earl of Warwick, the Earl of 
 Leicester, Sir Philip Sydney, Sir Thomas 
 Gresham, Sir Francis Walsingham and 
 others scarcely less conspicuous in that 
 generation. The first expedition consisted 
 of two small vessels. On the 28th of July, 
 1576, Frobisher reached that part of what is 
 now called Baffin Land, which still bears 
 the name he gave to it of Mcta Incognita. 
 Taking possession of this region, in the 
 name of England, he gave orders to his 
 company, if by any possible means they 
 could ^et ashore, to bring him whatever 
 they could find, " living or dead, stock or 
 stone in token of Christian possession." 
 Some of the men returned to him with flow- 
 ers, some with grass, and one brought a 
 piece of black stone " like unto sea coal," 
 and with this as a specimen of the mineral 
 wealth of the country, and with a captured 
 native as a specimen of its inhabitants he 
 returned to England. 
 
 This piece of mineral finally saved his 
 credit. Presenting it to one of his associ- 
 ates, that gentleman's wife accidentally 
 threw it into the fire where it remained 
 some time when it was taken out and 
 quenched in vinegar. It tnen appeared of a 
 bright golden colour, and on being sub- 
 mitted to an assayer in London was said Co 
 be rich in gold. 
 
 No sooner was the news of this spread in 
 
FEOCISIIEE SENT BACK. 75 
 
 the right quarter than there arose an eager- 
 ness to send out a second expedition. Tlie 
 gold fever has never been difficult to stir 
 up, and Frobisher was twice sent back to 
 make further explorations under the auspices 
 of gold-seekers, and with more than a 
 hundred men to work the prospective mines. 
 On the second voyage he secured about two 
 hundred tons of ore, and on the third over 
 thirteen hundred tons, but it was finally 
 proved to be of little value, and the interest 
 in Frobisher's enterprise soon died out. It 
 is said that a house of stone and lime was 
 erected at one of the summer rendezvous in 
 which were deposited some articles that 
 might afterwards lead to its identification. 
 
 Subsequent to this, Frobisher was asso- 
 ciated with Sir Francis Drake in his voyage 
 to the West Indies. In 1588 he was knighted 
 for services against the Spanish Armada. 
 In 1594 he was sent to France to aid Henry 
 IV., and while attacking that monarch's 
 enemies at Croyzon near Brest, he received 
 his death wound, of which he finally expired 
 at Plymouth in the autumn of 1594, though 
 he was able to bring back in safety the fleet 
 under his command. 
 
 The fate of Sir Humphrey Gilbert did not 
 deter others from following in his track in 
 search of the sea channel in the north 
 which had foiled Frobisher's efforts. The 
 sailor lad, who had possibly joined in the 
 games of boyhood with the Gilberts and 
 Raleigh in the neighbourhood of Dartmouth, 
 had no doubt been influenced by Sir 
 
76 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 Humphrey's book, when he made up his 
 mind to set sail for western Greenland. 
 John Davis has left his name to the spa- 
 cious coast-water that lies between Green- 
 land and Baffin Land. Sailing from Dart- 
 mouth and entering by the route taken by 
 Frobisher, he examined the " Land of 
 Desolation," as he called the western coast 
 of Greenland, and discovered a bay to which 
 he gave the name of his early playmate, 
 calling it Gilbert Sound. On his return he 
 published a pamphlet in which he set forth 
 the grounds of his belief that a North-west 
 Passage existed. He made in all three voy- 
 ages to the Arctic regions. He died at sea 
 near the coast of Malacca in 1605. 
 
 Henry Hudson is another of the many in- 
 trepid sailors who have left their names as 
 legacies to the Arctic regions. He had made 
 a name for himself as a navigator years 
 before he took charge of an expedition to 
 the Arctic coast-waters. In 1608, he made 
 a voyage to Nova Zembla, discovering the 
 island of Jan Mayen so well known to the 
 readers of the literature of Arctic explora- 
 tions. Sailing afterwards under the auspices 
 of the Dutch India Company he discovered 
 Hudson River and explored it as far as 
 Albany. In 1610, he undertook, under Eng- 
 lish auspices, to follow up the discoveries of 
 Frobisher and Davis, exploring Hudson 
 Strait, and discovering Hudson Bay. The 
 last scene of his life is a pathetic one. 
 
 Three months had been spent in exploring 
 the great inland sea which will always bear 
 
BAFFIN IN THE AECTIC BEGIONS. 77 
 
 the name of the intrepid navigator. The 
 grip of winter seized his ships early in 
 November, and held them firm until the fol- 
 lowing June, when, strange to say, with the 
 prospect of relief before the crew, a mutiny 
 arose. The explorer failed to subdue the mal- 
 contents, who won over the majority to their 
 way of thinking, and, finally forcing Hudson 
 with his son, and six others, into a shell 
 of a boat, left them to perish in the great 
 unexplored waters of the north. Nothing 
 was ever heard of them again, though the 
 scandal of their desertion was made public, 
 when the mutineers, after encountering 
 great perils and privations, again set foot in 
 Ens:land in 1611. 
 
 William Baffin, another of the brave 
 mariners who made their fame amid the 
 icebergs of the Far North, gave his name to 
 the great Arctic coast-water whose entrance 
 is Davis Strait. Sailing further north than 
 any of his predecessors, he affixed the names 
 of the promoters of his enterprise, and of 
 some of his personal friends to Smith 
 Sound, Wolstenholme Sound, Cape Dudley 
 Diggs, Hakluyt Island, Lancaster Sound, 
 Jones Sound, and Gary Islands. 
 
 Following Baffin came a long list of navi- 
 gators, whose names are still read of in the 
 pages of our geographies, such as Fox, 
 James, Middleton, Mackenzie and Barrow, 
 not to mention Parry and Franklin whose 
 expeditions formed the prelude to the actual 
 discovery of the North-west Passage by 
 Captain McLure, The search for Sir John 
 
78 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 Franklin, with the romantic interest that 
 surrounded it for years, led to McClintock's 
 rescue of McLure, and the exploration of 
 seven thousand miles of coast-line along the 
 northern limits of Canada, which the Cana- 
 dian government will no doubt in time 
 follow up. 
 
 Captain James Cook, the celebrated 
 navigator, whose life story is a romance in 
 itself, has given his name to Canadian his- 
 tory in more ways than one. Born of humble 
 parentage in 1728, he was brought up in the 
 Yorkshire village of Marton, England. After 
 some years of experience as an ordinary 
 seaman, he joined the navy in his twenty- 
 seventh year; and had climbed up to being 
 the master of a sloop at the siege of Quebec 
 in 1759 under General Wolfe. After his 
 fame had been established as the first cir- 
 cumnavigator of the globe, he was engaged 
 by the British Government to make sundry 
 explorations, and among them one to 
 Behring Sea, to solve if possible the mystery 
 of a North-west Passage from the Pacinc 
 side. The mysteries of the Arctic regions 
 have always had, and still have, an attrac- 
 tion for the fame seeker, and Captain Cook 
 was willing enough to accept the commis- 
 sion of discovery, which gave him charge of 
 two vessels, the Resolution and Blscovcrij, 
 and included instructions to examine the 
 coast-line from the forty-fifth parallel to 
 the limits of the north. 
 
 As early as 1592, the waters between what 
 
CAPTAIN COOK AT NOOTKA. 79 
 
 is now called Vancouver Island and the 
 mainland of Canada had been examined by 
 a Spanish sailor in the employ of the vice- 
 roy of Mexico, — a visit which, though long 
 considered apocryphal, has given the sailor's 
 name, Jnan de Fuca, to the strait between 
 the United States and British Columbia. In 
 1748, Behring, the Danish navigator, under 
 the auspices of Russia had worked his way 
 from the strait which bears his name along 
 the Pacific coast as far south as Mount St. 
 Elias, the highest mountain peak in Canada; 
 while Queen Charlotte Islands, Nootka 
 Sound, and the mouth of the Columbia River 
 had been located by Juan Perez, the Span- 
 iard, and others. 
 
 To the expedition of Captain Cook may be 
 traced the beginnings of trade in this remote 
 region which is said to have had the ele- 
 ments of its earliest population from the 
 Mongolian tribes of Asia. The weather was 
 so unpropitious for exploration purposes 
 during his visit, that he was unable to iden- 
 tify the country around Nootka Sound as 
 forming part of a large island. Indeed he 
 went so far as to discredit the existence of 
 the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and Queen 
 Charlotte Sound, having no chance to hug 
 the shore very closely as he passed north- 
 wards to Behring Strait. 
 
 It was on this the third of his greater 
 voyages that Captain Cook was cruelly put 
 to death on the Sandwich Islands, which he 
 had touched at on his way home from the 
 Arctic circle. While in the north, his asso- 
 
80 EAELIEST BEGIXXINGS OF CAXADA. 
 
 ciates had collected costly stores of furs 
 from the natives; and when, on their return 
 from the south seas, after the death of their 
 master, they spread reports of the great 
 wealth that was to be had from sea and 
 land in the regions they had visited, there 
 arose great eagerness on the part of the fur 
 merchants of London to open up a trade in 
 the Northern Pacific. Captain Cook's post- 
 humous report was given to the world in 
 1784, — a year ripe with expectations also for 
 Eastern Canada in the Loyalist migration, 
 and Nootka Sound soon became a mooring 
 place for trading fleets from all parts of the 
 world. And here it is in what has been 
 called the " Nootka affair " that we may find 
 the very beginnings of the political history 
 of the great western maritime province of 
 Canada. 
 
 Among the traders who found their way 
 to Nootka was one Captain Meares, a British 
 subject, who had made successive voyages 
 to China and the East Indies. When he 
 arrived at Nootka in 1788, he set up a trad- 
 ing establishment, erecting a storehouse 
 and fortifying its approaches. The land on 
 which he placed his trading house he had 
 purchased with due formality from the 
 native chief of the district, and the idea 
 possibly never came into his head that there 
 could be any dispute about his pronerty not 
 being on British soil. About a year after 
 he had left Nootka, however, Don Estevan 
 M-artinez, the commander of a Spanish ex- 
 ploring- expedition, arrived one day in the 
 
CAPTAIN VANCOUVER. 81 
 
 harbour, and seized everything in the name 
 of his country, confiscating the vessels, and 
 talking into custody their crews. Such 
 conduct was an outrage on the feelings of 
 every true-hearted Briton when the news 
 reached England, and a demand was at once 
 made, at the instance of parliament, that 
 Spain should give immediate satisfaction, 
 by releasing the property confiscated and by 
 paying an indemnity to the captive seamen. 
 The demand brought Spain to see the right 
 of the question. She paid nearly a quarter 
 of a million of dollars in arranging matters; 
 !nnd Britain, to close the dispute for all 
 time, sent Captain George Vancouver out to 
 arrange the final steps towards restitution, 
 and to make a survey ol the whole territory. 
 Vancouver's enterprise has been trebly 
 commemorated in the west, by his name 
 being attached to the island he explored, to 
 the town on the Columbia in Washington 
 Territory, and to the growing emporium in 
 the New Westminster District, British 
 Columbia. The survey which was placed in 
 his charge led to a close examination of the 
 whole coast line from the mouth of the 
 Columbia northwards ; and, when it came 
 to be completed, the idea that there was a 
 sea-way somewhere leading from the Pacific 
 to Hudson Bay was given its quietus. 
 Further than this, however, and the meting 
 out of justice to the traders of Nootka, the 
 visit of Vancouver led directly to no per- 
 manent settlement of the country. Indeed, 
 when we look for the earliest stages of 
 
82 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 colonial development in the west, we must 
 follow the movements of the North-west 
 Company and its rival and successor, the 
 Hudson's Bay Company. 
 
 Sir Alexander Mackenzie, whose name 
 is attached to the largest river basin in 
 Canada, was the first to make his way to 
 the western coast across Canadian territory. 
 He was a native of Inverness, Scotland, and 
 while yet a lad entered the service of the 
 North-west Company. He spent eight years 
 of his life as employee of that great fur 
 trading organization at their station on Lake 
 Athabaska, where he conceived the idea of 
 exploring the regions north and east of that 
 remote inland water. To prepare himself 
 for the work, he returned to his native land, 
 spending a full year in studying astronomy 
 and navigation, and supplying himself with 
 canoes and companions. Previous to this 
 he had followed the great river that bears 
 his name to the tideway of the Arctic Ocean, 
 and when he set out from Fort Chippewayan 
 on the 10th of October, 1792, with his twelve 
 associates and four canoes to find a way 
 overland to the Pacific Ocean, he had an ex- 
 perience to associate his name with, which 
 few men of his time had. By June of the 
 following year he was no further than the 
 southernmost source of the Peace River. 
 Portaging the height of land between this 
 and what he thought at the time to be the 
 Columbia, his canoes were launched in the 
 waters of what is now known as the Fraser 
 
MAKQUIS DE LA ROCHE. 83 
 
 River. From this he passed westward across 
 the country and reached the Pacific on the 
 20th of July. Returning to Britain in 1801, 
 he immediately set himself to prepare an 
 account of his voyaging, which he eventu- 
 ally completed in a quarto volume of five or 
 six hundred pages entitled Voyages from 
 Montreal through the Continent of North 
 America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans. He 
 received the honour of knighthood in 1802, 
 and died at Dalhousie, Scotland, in 1820. 
 
 Marquis de La Roche.— The search for 
 a North-west passage to the wealth of 
 the east had finally no first place in the 
 minds of those who sought to visit the 
 shores of the New World. There was a 
 wealth to share in, nearer than the east. 
 The fisheries of Newfoundland and Cape 
 Breton Island were in themselves a tangible 
 inducement to the European merchant in 
 his early efforts to colonize our country, and 
 from the rich return which these fisheries 
 gave may be traced the locating of perman- 
 ent abodes along the sea-board. 
 
 Before the sixteenth century was far into 
 its fourth quarter there were to be seen 
 annually around St. John's, Baccalaos and 
 Canso, a fleet of nearly four hundred vessels 
 engaged in the fishing business, and it was 
 no unusual thing to meet sailor-fishermen 
 who had been " across the water " thirty or 
 forty times. Nor were these sailor-fisher- 
 men long in finding out from the native 
 tribes that a more lucrative trade than the 
 
84 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 curing of codfish, was at tlie merclaant's 
 door ; and, when opportunity arose, they 
 were often able to show specimens of the 
 rich furs and walrus tusks that had bean 
 bestowed upon them by their dusky friends 
 for a handful of glass beads or an almost 
 valueless piece of ironware. 
 
 Such stories were not long in travelling. 
 Before long, as Parkman affirms, the west- 
 ern seaport merchants and adventurers 
 began to turn their eyes towards America, 
 not like the Spaniards, seeking treasures of 
 silver and gold, but the more modest gains 
 of codfish and train oil, beaver skins and 
 marine ivory. And the enterprises of these 
 merchant-adventurers make in many ways 
 as interesting reading as the most romantic 
 of tales, as is to be exemplified in the story 
 of the French nobleman whose name stands 
 at the head of this paragraph, in the story 
 which Francis Parkman has made so 
 familiar through his marvellous word 
 painting. 
 
 Lord Selkirk and the Red River Settle- 
 ment. — Thomas Douglas, fifth Earl of 
 Selkirk, was born in Scotland in the year 
 1771. Early in the nineteenth century he 
 turned his attention to British America 
 as a suitable place of settlement for emi- 
 grants from the Highlands of Scotland, and 
 made a careful study of all the conditions 
 relating to the new world. As early as 1802 
 he asked for a grant of land in the region 
 of the Red River, for the purpose of founding 
 
LORD SELKIRK AJ>7D CQLO^'TZATTO^'. 85 
 
 a colony ; but as the territory he asked for 
 was situated within the limits ceded by its 
 charter to the Hudson's Bay Company, the 
 Imperial autJiorities refused his request. 
 He was however told that he might find in 
 Prince Edward Island or in what is now the 
 province of Ontario a tract that might suit 
 his purpose as well. In 1803 he accordingly 
 arranged for the carrying of three ship- 
 loads of immigrants to Prince Edward 
 Island, who settled in that part of the island 
 at present known as Queen's County. In 
 the course of the next few years he brought 
 out about 4,000 settlers from Scotland. The 
 results of these efforts not seeming to be 
 satisfactory to him, he afterwards attempted 
 to open up certain sections of Upper Canada, 
 and founded the Baldoon Settlement in 
 Kent county. These attempts were not 
 attended with success. Lord Selkirk, during 
 his visits to the country, became familiar 
 with the workings of the great fur-trading 
 companies, the Hudson's Bay Company and 
 the North-west Company, learning not only 
 of the rivalry which existed between them, 
 but becoming acquainted with the men who 
 formed them and gaining an insight into 
 the value and importance of the peltry 
 trade. Never losing sight, however, of 
 the idea of ^colonization, he seemed more 
 than ever to regard the v^illey of the Red 
 River as a most suitable place to establish 
 the settlement he had in view. Finding 
 that he could not get a grant of land in that 
 region direct from the government, he 
 
86 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA, 
 
 thought it might be possible to arrive at the 
 desired end by acquiring a controlling in- 
 terest in the Hudson's Bay Company. He 
 cccord'ingly put forth another efrorrt, and 
 in 1811 a tract comprising 116,000 square 
 miles was ceded to him for the purpose of 
 establishing a colony. This was not accom- 
 plished without a great deal of opposition, 
 inspired by the North-west Company and 
 its friends. 
 
 As soon as the grant was an assured fact, 
 Selkirk immediately set to work to turn the 
 tide of emigration from the Scottish High- 
 lands in the direction of the region over 
 which he had just obtained control. An 
 expedition was soon under way, accom- 
 panied by Captain Miles Macdonell who held 
 a commission from Lord Selkirk and the 
 Hudson's Bay Company as first governor of 
 the newly founded colony. This expedition 
 left Stornoway on the 26th of July, 1811, but 
 did not arrive at York Factory until the 24th 
 of September. As the season was too far 
 advanced to think of traversing the seven 
 hundred miles necessary to reach their 
 destination, the winter was passed in the 
 vicinity of York Factory. This occasioned 
 much suffering and privation to the poor 
 settlers. The following summer the Red 
 River valley was reached, where the 
 intending colonists were harassed in many 
 ways by the agents of the North-west Com- 
 pany. At the approach of winter, refuge was 
 sought at Pembina, where there was a 
 Hudson's Bay post ; and in the following 
 
BLOODSHED IN THE NORTH-AVEST. 87 
 
 spring tlie undaunted settlers returned to 
 their prospective lionies and set about their 
 task of cultivating the soil. At this time 
 they established Fort Douglas as a centre. 
 The next winter was likewise spent at Pem- 
 bina, the population having, during the 
 preceding spring, been increased by a second 
 migration consisting for the most part of 
 Irish peasants, who after a winter of untold 
 privation also reached the Red River. 
 
 It was at this time that the persistent 
 attacks of the North-west Company on the 
 young colony began. This corporation and 
 its supporters had always looked upon 
 Selkirk's colonizing schemes as not alto- 
 gether disinterested, and seemed to regard 
 them as an attempt to interfere with their 
 trade. These attacks, and the quarrels they 
 led to, seriously hindered the growth of the 
 settlement, especially as inducements were 
 offered to the new colonists to abandon their 
 homes. The strife went so far as to lead 
 to the killing of Governor Semple of the 
 Hudson's Bay Company in a hand to hand 
 battle which took place during the summer 
 of 1816. In the meantime attempts were 
 being made to combine the two rival com- 
 panies ; though Lord Selkirk's offers in this 
 direction were at first rejected. 
 
 Hearing of the attacks made upon his 
 colony by the agents of the North-west 
 Company, Selkirk, being in Canada, began 
 a counter movement against their forts and 
 posts, and, with a hurriedly enlisted force, 
 seized Fort William and the posts at Fond 
 
88 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OP CANADA. 
 
 (Ill Lae, Michipicoten and Rainy Lake, with 
 their stores consisting largely of valu- 
 able furs. Pushing on to the Red River, 
 his little army re-took Fort Douglas, which 
 had been occupied by the North-west Com- 
 pany, and the colonists were again estab- 
 lished in the homesteads they had abandoned. 
 
 Thereupon ensued a number of actions at 
 law, in which Lord Selkirk was anything 
 but successful. The governor-general sent 
 to the scene of the trouble two commis- 
 sioners to carry out the instructions of the 
 Imperial authorities. While respecting the 
 warrant of these commissioners, Lord 
 Selkirk spent much time in arranging 
 matters in such a way as to establish the 
 colony more securely. The spiritual needs 
 of the settlers and the education of their 
 children having at length been provided for, 
 the noble colonizer left for England and did 
 not again visit the Red River. The relations 
 between the two companies remained in an 
 unsatisfactory condition so long as Selkirk 
 retained control of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
 pany's affairs. During all this time the 
 settlers were compelled to endure hardships 
 of every description, and for seven or eight 
 years they must have been brought many 
 times well nigh to despair. All credit is 
 due to their steadfastness of purpose. 
 
 After Lord Selkirk's death, which occurred 
 on the 8th of April, 1820, the rival com- 
 panies joined forces, the whole fur trade of 
 the great north-west being carried on in 
 the name of the Hudson's Bay Company. 
 
THE III'DSOJs^'S HAY COMPANY. 89 
 
 From these beginnings sprang the present 
 province of Manitoba, which was admitted 
 into the Canadian confederation in 1870. 
 Previous to this, in 1869, the rights of the 
 Hudson's Bay monopoly had been purchased, 
 and the region known as Rupert's Land and 
 the North-West Territory formally trans- 
 ferred to the Dominion Government. 
 
 The Hudson's Bay Company. — In study- 
 ing the history of Canada's development, 
 the Hudson's Bay Company must of neces- 
 sity attract attention. Founded in 1670, 
 under the patronage of King Charles H. 
 for the benefit of Prince Rupert, cousin 
 to the king, and a few of his intimate 
 friends, it had given to it powers and rights 
 in the New World, which were almost un- 
 limited. Its charter gave it control of what 
 was called Rupert's Land, including the 
 whole extent of country drained by the 
 tributary streams of Hudson Bay and 
 Hudson Strait. This meant a monopoly 
 of all the trade at the time possible in this 
 territory, although for over one hundred 
 years the company did not carry its opera- 
 tions inland to any extent. It then came 
 into competition with the North-west Com- 
 pany of Montreal, a competition which 
 ended only with the joining of the two com- 
 panies in 1821. By virtue of the powers 
 granted to the two corporations, the new 
 concern had entire control of all the country 
 from Davis Strait to Mount St. Elias, and 
 from the Arctic Ocean to the Californias. 
 
90 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 Twenty years later, however, their dominion 
 was lessened as a result of the giving up of 
 Oregon and other great tracts to the United 
 States. This gradual restriction was also 
 hastened by the organization and develop- 
 ment which led to the birth of the Dominion 
 of Canada. 
 
 The deed which brought the Hudson's Bay 
 Company into existence made its jurisdic- 
 tion complete over the territory granted to 
 it, with the power to engage in war with 
 non-Christian peoples. The letters-patent 
 also fixed the constitution of the company. 
 The administration of its affairs is carried 
 on by a governor and committee in England, 
 assisted by a governor and council in 
 Canada, and every shareholder has a vote 
 for every share of stock he owns. The 
 local officers in charge of the trading posts 
 are called factors. The profits are divided 
 among the owners and the various officers 
 according to a fixed scale. Although engaged 
 in a very general business, the company's 
 chief source of revenue has always been the 
 fur trade. At the same time it is interest- 
 ing to note that a very great impetus was 
 given to its commerce by the recent dis- 
 coveries of gold in the Yukon district. 
 
 Founding of Halifax. — In view of the 
 importance of Chebucto Bay as a strategic 
 point for the protection of British interests 
 in America, the Board of Trade and Planta- 
 tions, in 1749, at the request of the New 
 England colonists, sent out about 3,000 
 
FOUNDING OF HALIFAX AND ST. JOIIX. 91 
 
 immigrants under the care of the Hon. 
 Edward Cornwallis (afterwards Lord Corn- 
 wrjlis), first governor of Nova Scotia, to 
 form the nucleus of their colonization plans. 
 The majority of these settlers, who arrived 
 at their new homes towards the end of June, 
 were retired army men and their families. 
 As soon as the settlement was an assured 
 fact, it received the name it still bears, in 
 honour of the Earl of Halifax, president of 
 the Board under whose auspices the move- 
 ment had been inaugurated. The population 
 increased steadily, being added to by the 
 arrival of Irish and German immigrants. 
 Halifax from the first was one of the princi- 
 pal military and naval stations on the 
 Atlantic seaboard, and it is so still. Here, 
 three years after the forming of the little 
 colony, was published the first Canadian 
 nev/spaper, the Halifax Gazette. As an 
 indication of the value, from the very begin- 
 ning, of Halifax as a basis for military 
 operations, there is the fact that it was the 
 rendezvous of the force which captured 
 Louisbourg in 1758, and that it was used by 
 Wolfe in the following year as the remote 
 base for his operations against the French 
 in Canada. 
 
 Founding of St. John.— On the 24th day of 
 June — an anniversary famous in Canada 
 —in the year 1604, Champlain and DeMonts 
 visited the inlet now known as St. John 
 harbour ; but it was nearly sixty years 
 later before any attempt at permanent set- 
 
92 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 tlement was made in this vicinity. About 
 this time Charles de la Tour founded the 
 fort named after him, on the east side of 
 the harbour, and carried on an extensive 
 trade with the Indians for a number of 
 years. Becoming embroiled, however, with 
 his rival, D'Aulnay Charnisay, of Port 
 Royal, the latter attacked Fort La Tour in 
 1643. La Tour escaped to New England and 
 returned with a force sufficient to compel 
 the besieger to retire, but in 1645, during 
 the absence of La Tour, Charnisay made 
 another attack on his enemy's stronghold. 
 The gallant manner in which the heroic 
 wife, Madame La Tour, defended her hus- 
 band's property,, has been celebrated by poet 
 and historian. The fort only succumbed to 
 treachery from within, and the entire garri- 
 son was hanged before the eyes of the noble 
 woman who had done so much to secure its 
 safety. Charnisay, after destroying Fort 
 La Tour, built another on the other side of 
 the harbour. Upon his death, however, in 
 1650, La Tour, whose wife had died of a 
 broken heart, after the capture of the fort, 
 married his former enemy's widow and 
 again assumed control of affairs. Although 
 about the year 1762 a settlement was 
 founded by a small body of men from New 
 England, the actual founding of St. John 
 dates from 1783, when 10,000 United Empire 
 Loyalists arrived. The settlement, which 
 arose from this migration, was called Parr 
 Town, but shortly afterwards received the 
 name by which the city is now known. 
 
rOET LA JOIE. 93 
 
 Early Settlement of Prince Edward 
 Island. — Although there is reason to believe 
 that the island was discovered by Cabot in 
 1497, and it is certain that it was visited by 
 Cartier in the early part of the six- 
 teenth century, no attempt was made to 
 colonize its fertile lands for nearly two 
 hundred years. Under the name of He i^t. 
 Jean, it was included by the French as part 
 of Acadia, and in 1663 was granted to a 
 captain of the French navy, Sieur Doublet, 
 who, in engaging in the fisheries, built a 
 number of huts for his fishermen. The first 
 permanent settlers, however, were Acadians 
 who came over from the mainland in 1713, 
 at the time of the cession of Nova Scotia 
 to the English. The subsequent expulsion 
 of the Acadians from Nova Scotia added 
 considerably to the population. The island 
 was ruled by the governor of Port la Joie, 
 which was built opposite the site of 
 Charlottetown, the present capital of the 
 province. When Port la Joie was captured 
 by the force sent out under Lord Rollo, the 
 island passed into the hands of the English 
 and was later formally ceded in 1763, when 
 it was annexed for purposes of government 
 to Nova Scotia, together with Cape Breton. 
 Various schemes were proposed for the 
 peopling of the island, which at the time of 
 the cession had a population of not more 
 than one hundred and fifty ; but it was not 
 until 1767 that any definite steps in this 
 direction were taken by the authorities, 
 when the whole land surface was divided 
 
94 EAELIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 into sixty-seven lots or tov/nships of twenty 
 tliousand acres each. These townships were 
 apportioned by lot to about one hundred 
 grantees, upon the condition that a certain 
 number of suitable settlers should without 
 delay be placed on the land apportioned to 
 each. Very little effort was put forth by 
 the grantees to fulfil the conditions imposed, 
 and it was only when this system of tenure 
 was modified by legislation, that the coloni- 
 zation of the island advanced in anything 
 like a satisfactory manner. Immigrants 
 began to arrive in increasing numbers, and, 
 as has already been mentioned, the Earl of 
 Selkirk brought out about eight hundred 
 Highlanders, who before long became pros- 
 perous farmers. In 1770 the Island of St. 
 John was made a separate province, and in 
 1800 its name was changed to Prince Edward 
 Island, in honour of the Duke of Kent, 
 grandfather of King Edward VII. Six years 
 after the four Canadian provinces had 
 formed a confederation, the province entered 
 the union. Charlottetown, the capital, is of 
 historic interest in connection with the 
 birth of the Dominion, as being the place 
 where was held the conference which first 
 gave a definite form to the idea of a 
 Canadian federation. 
 
 The United Em.pire Loyalists. — In speak- 
 ing of the early settlement of Canada, 
 mention must of necessity be made of the 
 brave men and women who, at the time of 
 the secession of the United States from their 
 
THE LOYALISTS. 95 
 
 British connection, chose rather to seek 
 new homes for themselves than change 
 their allegiance. The United Empire Loyal- . 
 ists, as they liked to be called and as they 
 are known in history, were an important 
 element in the moulding of Canada into the 
 prosperous country it now is. At the close 
 of the War of Independence, these sturdy 
 settlers were deprived of their property, and 
 even their lives were in some instances 
 threatened ; and in view of this state of 
 affairs, the British authorities came to their 
 aid, by voting more than three million 
 pounds sterling and furnishing ships to con- 
 vey them and their families to Canada. At 
 the same time arrangements were made to 
 provide homes for them in the Maritime 
 Provinces and in the fertile sections of what 
 is now called the province of Ontario. 
 Numbers of them also found their way to 
 the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada. 
 In this way the country secured as an addi- 
 tion to its growing population many excel- 
 lent settlers, whose descendants continue to 
 be notable for their patriotism and loyalty 
 to the Crown. Among the first of the Loyal- 
 ists to cross the boundary line were those 
 who, in 1778 and the following year, arrived 
 at Machiche, on the shores of Lake St. 
 Peter, at Chambly, St. John's, Point Claire 
 and Beauce, and in the neighbourhood of 
 Sorel. Others, in 1784, established them- 
 selves at Cataraqui, in Upper Canada, and 
 from there settled the region along the Bay 
 of Quinte, while many, selecting the lands 
 
96 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 to the north of Lake Ontario, afterwards 
 founded as a centre the settlement which is 
 now the city of Toronto. The island of 
 Cape Breton also received over six hundred 
 families, while those who left their farmn 
 in the New England states in 1783, were 
 taken to the richer sections of Nova Scotia, 
 settling eventually in the valley of the St. 
 John river, at Shelburne and in Prince 
 Edward Island. The new comers and their 
 immediate descendants received grants of 
 land from the government, and those in 
 need were assisted in other ways. Their 
 numbers increased rapidly, so that within 
 ten years from the exodus, over 41,-500 
 Loyalists had found peaceful homes in the 
 land of their adoption. An Imperial order 
 in council of November 9th, 1789, provided 
 that " all Loyalists who had joined the 
 cause of Great Britain before the treaty of 
 separation of 1783, together with their 
 children of both sexes, have the distinction 
 of using the letters U.E. after their names, 
 thus preserving the memory of their devo- 
 tion to a United Empire." 
 
 Sir William Alexander received from 
 James I. a grant of the territory between 
 the Bay of Fundy and the River St. Law- 
 rence in 1614, — a concession which was 
 confirmed by Charles I., who at the same 
 time instituted the order of Baronets of 
 Nova Scotia, to give eclat to the proposed 
 settlement of the country. Sir William died 
 
 in lfi40. 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 
 
 The government of the Province of 
 Ontario, in arranging for the decoration of 
 the Legislative Buildings at Toronto, has 
 decided to embellish the entrance hall and 
 stairway with paintings illustrative of the 
 history and development of Canada, Among 
 the proposed subjects of these works of art 
 are the following, which are of interest in 
 connection with the early beginnings of the 
 •country. 
 
 Indians. — The early navigators so called 
 the aborigines of the West Indies, under the 
 delusion that they had reached the shores 
 of Asia, but the name was afterwards 
 applied to the natives of America in general. 
 As a race the American Indian appears to 
 be peculiar to this continent, having charac- 
 teristics which are not found in the other 
 groups of the human family. The Indian 
 population of New Prance, including Acadia, 
 in 1665 was estimated at about 17,500. 
 There are now, according to the latest 
 returns, nearly 100,000 in Canada. These 
 are for the most part confined to the 
 " reserves," and are looked upon as wards 
 of the government, being under the direct 
 
98 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 care and supervision oi the Department of 
 Indian Affairs at Ottawa. 
 
 Northmen is the name given to the early- 
 inhabitants of northern Europe, but more 
 particularly to the ancient Scandinavians. 
 An account of their visits to the New World 
 has already been given. 
 
 Cabot and the Discovery of" Cape Breton 
 have been spoken of in preceding pages of 
 this booklet. 
 
 Cartier at Quebec. — The exploits of 
 Cartier and his brave followers at Stadacona 
 have also been described, 
 
 Maisonneuve and the Founding- of 
 Montreal. — The present metropolis of 
 Canada was nothing but a trading post up 
 to the year 1642, on the 18th of May of 
 which year the town of Ville Murk' dc 
 Moiitrml was formally founded by Paul de 
 Chomedy, Sieur de Maisonneuve, acting for 
 the Conipaguie de Montreal. The object of 
 its establishment was religious rather than 
 commercial, it being regarded as the founda- 
 tion stone of a " Kingdom of God " which 
 was to be instituted in New France, and 
 Ville Marie was to be a centre for the 
 Christianizing of America. In 1663, by free 
 gift from the Company of Montreal, the 
 Seminary of St. Sulpice became the owner 
 of the island on which the city stands, and 
 since that time has continued to possess the 
 
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 99 
 
 seigniorial rights. Maisonneuve's memory 
 is preserved by a monument in the Place 
 d'Armes, as well as in the name of a pros- 
 perous suburban town lying to the east of 
 the metropolis. 
 
 Franklin on the Arctic Ocean. — Sir John 
 Franklin was born in Lincolnshire, Eng- 
 land, in 1786. He was a mariner from his 
 earliest years, and saw service in the 
 engagements of Copenhagen, Trafalgar and 
 New Orleans. His fame, however, is more 
 intimately connected with exploration in 
 northern latitudes, he having commanded 
 expeditions to the Arctic regions in 1818, 
 1819 and 1825. He received the honour of 
 knighthood in 1829, and was for a time 
 governor of Tasmania. His last visit to the 
 frozen north was in 1845, when he set out 
 with two vessels, the Erchus and Terror. 
 The unfortunate explorer was never seen 
 again, though numerous expeditions were 
 sent out to search for him. Many traces of 
 the party were found, and, in 1859, McClin- 
 tock discovered at Point Victory documents 
 which seemed to show beyond a doubt that 
 Franklin died near Lancaster Sound in 
 June, 1847. Franklin's name is perpetuated 
 in various ways on the maps of the North 
 Polar regions, as in Franklin Bay and 
 Franklin Channel. 
 
 Founding- of Port Royal. — When De 
 Monts and Champlain visited the beautiful 
 bay now known as Annapolis Basin, in 1604, 
 
100 EAELTEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA, 
 
 one of their companions, the Baron de 
 Poutrincourt, being much impressed with 
 the appearance of the surrounding country, 
 decided to found a settlement on the shores 
 of the inlet. Having secured a grant of 
 land, he established a post and called it 
 Port Royal. In 1605, those who survived 
 the fate of the settlement at St. Croix 
 removed to Port Royal, and in the following 
 year the arrival of a number of colonists 
 from France further increased the popula- 
 tion. The site was, however, abandoned in 
 1607, owing to the king having recalled the 
 privileges he had granted to De Monts ; but 
 three years later Poutrincourt re-established 
 the settlement. In 1613 Captain Argall led 
 a force from Virginia against it and des- 
 troyed what had become a flourishing 
 colony, an act which was inspired by the 
 Jesuits, whose enmity Poutrincourt had 
 incurred. For a long period Port Royal was 
 the bone of contention between the powers 
 striving for supremacy in the New 
 World, and to this no doubt may be ascribed 
 the fact that it ceased to have any import- 
 ance save as a basis of warlike operations. 
 The place was finally occupied by the 
 English in 1710, when it received the name 
 it now bears, Annapolis. 
 
 Discovery of the Saskatchewan Valley 
 by Verandrye. — Pierre Gautier de Varennes 
 de la Verandrye was a native of Canada, 
 being born at Three Rivers in November, 
 1685. After serving in the French army, he 
 
HENNEPIN AT NIAGABA. 101 
 
 later devoted himself to exploring the far 
 west of his native country. In 1732 he 
 crossed the Lake of the Woods, and the 
 following year descended the Winnipeg 
 river, building a fort on the lake of that 
 name. He even penetrated as far west as 
 the Rockies, and in 1749 ascended the Sas- 
 katchewan river, establishing Fort Dauphin 
 at what is now called The Forks. Veran- 
 drye died at Quebec in December, 1749. 
 
 McKenzie's Discovery of the Pacific has 
 been referred to in speaking of the work 
 done by that daring explorer. 
 
 Hennepin at Niagara Falls. — Louis Hen- 
 nepin, known in history as Father Hennepin, 
 a Franciscan missionary, was born in 
 Flanders in 1640, and came to Canada in 
 1675. After his arrival he became greatly 
 interested in the exploration of the un- 
 known regions of what he describes as iin 
 ires grand pays. To him is given the credit 
 of discovering the famous cataract on 
 Niagara river, in 1678, and he was later 
 associated with LaSalle in his expeditions 
 to the great lakes and the Mississippi 
 river. His works dealing with his discover- 
 ies are of great interest to students of 
 history. He died in the year 1706 at 
 Utrecht. 
 
 Founding of Fort Frontenac. — This fort 
 was established by Count Frontenac, gov- 
 ernor of New France, in 1683, at the point 
 
102 EAKLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 where the St. Lawrence river issues from 
 Lake Ontario, and LaSalle was placed in 
 charge of it. Not long after it was built, 
 the Iroquois destroyed' it, hut it was restored 
 by Frontenac in 1695. On the occupation of 
 that section of the country by the United 
 Empire Loyalists, the name of the settle- 
 ment at the fort was changed to Kingston. 
 
 Launch of the '^ Griffon." — The name of 
 Rene Robert Cavalier de LaSalle is con- 
 nected rather with the early history of the 
 United States than with that of Canada, 
 although he was associated with Frontenac 
 in his efforts to strengthen and develop New 
 France. Having visited the great lakes 
 and established Fort Niagara, he built a 
 vessel intended for the navigation of these 
 waters. The craft, which has been spoken 
 of as the first built in Upper Canada, was 
 launched in the waters of Lake Erie in 1679, 
 and was called the " Griffon." The vessel 
 was most unfortunate, however. On her 
 first voyage she sailed through lakes Erie 
 and Huron and reached Lake Michigan, but 
 in returning was wrecked before she 
 reached the Niagara river, to the loss of her 
 valuable cargo of furs. 
 
 The North-west Company at Fort 
 William. — This great fur-trading enter- 
 prise has been referred to in connection 
 with the Hudson's Bay Company. Fort 
 William, from a mere trading post, has 
 become a flourishing town and is now 
 
GLENGAKRY SETTLEMENT. 103 
 
 largely engaged in the handling of grain, 
 being admirably situated on the western 
 shore of Lake Superior. 
 
 Founding' of Fort Eouille. — This was a 
 small trading post established on the north- 
 ern shore of Lake Ontario by the French, 
 in 1749, during the administration of de La 
 Galissoniere, It afterwards became known 
 as York, and eventually received the name 
 of Toronto, which it now bears. 
 
 French Settlement on the Detroit River. 
 
 — The site of the present city of Detroit was 
 first visited by the French in 1610, although 
 the first permanent settlement was not made 
 until 1701, when Fort Ponchartrain was 
 established, with Sieur de la Motte Cadillac 
 as governor. In 1763 it came under British 
 dominion, and afterwards under that of the 
 United States, in 1787. 
 
 Hig-hland Settlement at Glengarry. — 
 What is now the county of Glengarry, in 
 the province of Ontario, was first settled by 
 United Empire Loyalists, whose migrations 
 are spoken of elsewhere. Those who sought 
 refuge from oppression on the virgin soil 
 of the most easterly corner of Upper Canada, 
 on the shores of Lake St. Francis, were for 
 the most part natives of the Higlilands of 
 Scotland, and not long after their establish- 
 ment on their Glengarry homesteads, their 
 numbers were added to by the arrival of a 
 body of Scotch immigrants who came out 
 
104 EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CANADA. 
 
 under the care of Bishop Macdonnell. 
 Among the early settlers of the county were 
 many military men, and Glengarry has pro- 
 duced a race of soldiers, whose deeds of 
 valour, during the war of 1812, a:nd later, 
 in the troublous times of 1837-38, have ever 
 been the pride of their compatriots. 
 
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