Picturesque Quebec
by
James MacPherson Le Moine
Part 10 out of 14
On ascending a hill (Clearihue's) to the north, the eye gathers in the
contour of a dense grove, hiding in its drooping folds "Auvergne," the
former secluded country seat of Chief Justice Jonathan Sewell, now owned
by George Alford, Esq.
A mile to the north, in the deep recesses of Bourg-Royal, rest the fast
crumbling and now insignificant ruins of the only rural _Château_ of
French origin round Quebec. Was it built by Talon, or by Bigot? an
unfathomable mystery. Silence and desertion reign supreme, where of yore
Bigot's heartless wassailers used to meet and gamble away King Louis's
card money and _piastres_.
"And sunk are the voices that sounded in mirth.
And empty the goblets and dreary the hearth!"
The tower or boudoir, where was immured the Algonquin maid Caroline, the
beautiful, that too has crumbled to dust.
We are now at Lorette.
_TAHOURENCHE._
"I'm the chieftain of this mountain,
Times and seasons found me here,
My drink has been the crystal fountain,
My fare the wild moose or the deer."
(_The_ HURON CHIEF, _by Adam Kidd_).
There exists a faithful portrait of this noble savage, such as drawn by
himself and presented, we believe, to the Laval University at Quebec; for
glimpses of his origin, home and surroundings, we are indebted to an
honorary chief of the tribe, Ahatsistari. [308]
Paul _Tahourenché_ (François Xavier Picard), Great Chief of the Lorette
Hurons, was born at Indian Lorette in 1810; he is consequently at present
71 years of age. He is tall, erect, well proportioned, dignified in face
and deportment; when habited in his Indian regalia: blue frock coat, with
bright buttons and medals, plumed fur cap, leggings of colored cloth,
bright sash and armlets, with war axe, he looks the _beau ideal_ of a
respectable Huron warrior, shorn of the ferocity of other days. Of the
line of Huron chiefs which proceeded him we can furnish but a very meagre
history. Adam Kidd, who wrote a poem entitled the _Huron Chief_ in 1829,
and who paid that year a visit to the Lorette Indians and saw their oldest
chief, _Oui-a-ra-lih-to_, having unfortunately failed to fulfil the
promise he then made of publishing the traditions and legends of the tribe
furnished him on that occasion, an omission which, we hope, will yet be
supplied by an educated Huron; the Revd. Mr. Vincent. Of _Oui-a-ra-lih-
to_, we learn from Mr. Kidd: "This venerable patriarch, who is now (in
1829) approaching the precincts of a century, is the grandson of _Tsa-a-
ra-lih-to_, head chief of the Hurons during the war of 1759. _Oui-a-ra-
lih-to_, with about thirty-five warriors of the Indian village of Lorette
in conjunction with the Iroquois and Algonquins, was actually engaged in
the army of Burgoyne, a name unworthy to be associated with the noble
spirit of Indian heroism. During my visit to this old chief--May, 1829--he
willingly furnished me with an account of the distinguished warriors, and
the traditions of different tribes, which are still fresh in his memory,
and are handed from father to son, with the precision, interest and
admiration that the tales and exploits of Ossian and his heroes are
circulated in their original purity to this day among the Irish." Mr. Kidd
alludes also to another great chief, _Atsistari_, who flourished in 1637,
and who may have been the same as the Huron Saul _Ahatsistari_, who lived
in 1642.
Of the powerful tribes of the aborigines who, in remote periods, infested
the forests, lakes and streams of Canada, none by their prowess in war,
wisdom in council, success as tillers of the soil, intelligent and lofty
bearing, surpassed the Wyandats, or Hurons. [309] They numbered 15,000
souls, according to the historian Ferland, 40,000 according to Bouchette,
and chiefly inhabited the country bordering on Lake Huron and Simcoe; they
might, says Sagard, have been styled the "nobles" among savages in
contradistinction to that other powerful confederacy, more democratic in
their ways, also speaking the Huron language, and known as the Five
Nations (Mohawks,[310] Oneydoes, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas), styled
by the French the Iroquois, or Hiroquois, from the habit of their orators
of closing their orations with the word "Hiro"--_I have said_.
'Tis a curious fact that the aborigines whom Jacques Cartier had found
masters of the soil, at Hochelaga (Montreal,) and Stadacona (Quebec,) in
1535, sixty-eight years later on, in 1603, when Champlain visited these
Indian towns, had disappeared: a different race had succeeded them. Though
it opens a wide field to conjecture, recent investigations seem to
indicate that it was the Huron-Iroquois nation who, in 1535, were the
_enfants du sol_ at both places, and that in the interim the Algonquins
had, after bloody wars, dispersed and expelled the Huron-Iroquois. The
savages with whom the early French settlers held intercourse can be
comprised under two specific heads--the Algonquins and the Huron-Iroquois
--the language of each differing as much, observes the learned Abbé
Faillon, as French does from Chinese.
It would take us beyond the limit of this sketch to recapitulate the
series of massacres which reduced these warlike savages, the Hurons, from
their high estate to that of a dispersed, nomadic tribe, and placed the
Iroquois or Mohawks, at one time nearly destroyed by the Hurons, in the
ascendant.
Their final overthrow may be said to date back to the great Indian
massacres of 1648-9, at their towns, or missions, on the shores of Lakes
Simcoe, the first mission being founded in 1615 by the Friar LeCaron,
accompanied by twelve soldiers sent by Champlain in advance of his own
party. The Jesuit mission was attacked by the Iroquois in 1648; St. Louis,
St. Joseph [311], St. Ignace [312], Ste. Marie [313], St. Jean [314],
successively fell, or were threatened; all the inmates who escaped sought
safety in flight; the protracted sufferings of the missionaries Bréboeuf
and Gabriel Lallemant have furnished one of the brightest pages of
Christian heroism in New France. Bréboeuf expired on the 16th March and
Lallemant on 17th March, 1649. A party of Hurons sought Manitoulin Island,
then called Ekaentoton, a few fled to Virginia; others succeeded in
obtaining protection on the south shore of Lake Erie, from the Erie tribe,
only to share, later on, the dire fate of the nation who had dared to
incorporate them in its sparse ranks.
Father P. Ragueneau (the first writer, by the by, who makes mention of
Niagara Falls--_Relations de_ 1648,) escorted three or four hundred
of these terror-stricken people to Quebec on the 26th July, 1650, and
lodged them in the Island of Orleans, at a spot since called _L'Anse du
Fort_, where they were joined, in 1651, by a party of Hurons, who in
1649, on hearing of the massacre of their western brethren, had asked to
winter at Quebec. For ten years past a group of Algonquins, Montagnais and
Hurons, amidst incessant alarms, had been located in the picturesque
parish of Sillery; they, too, were in quest of a more secure asylum.
Negotiations were soon entered into between them and their persecuted
friends of the West; a plan was put forth to combine. On the 29th March,
1651, the Sillery Indians, many of whom were Hurons united with the
western brethren, sought a shelter, though a very insecure one, in a
fortified nook, adjoining their missionary's house, on the land of
Eléonore de Grandmaison, purchased for them at _l'Anse du Fort_, in
the Island of Orleans, on the south side of the point opposite Quebec.
Here they set to tilling the soil with some success, cultivating chiefly
Indian corn, their numbers being occasionally increased during the year
1650, by their fugitive brethren of the West, until they counted above 600
souls. Even under the guns of the picket Fort of Orleans, which had
changed its name to Ile St. Marie, in remembrance of their former
residency, the tomahawk and scalping-knife reached them; on the 20th May,
1656, eighty-six of their number were carried away captives, and six
killed, by the ferocious Iroquois; and on the 4th June, 1656, again they
had to fly before their merciless tormentors. The big guns of Fort St.
Louis, which then stood at the north-west extremity of the spot on which
the Dufferin Terrace has lately been erected, seemed to the Hurons a more
effectual protection than the howitzers of _Anse du Fort_, so they
begged from Governor d'Aillebout for leave to nestle under them in 1658.
'Twas granted. When the Marquis de Tracy had arranged a truce with the
Iroquois in 1665, the Huron refugees prepared to bid adieu to city life
and to city dust. Two years later we find them ensconced at Beauport,
where others had squatted on land belonging to the Jesuits; they stopped
there one year, and suddenly left, in 1669, to pitch their wigwams for a
few years at Côte St. Michel, four and a half miles from Quebec, at the
Mission of Notre Dame de Foye, now called St. Foye. On the 29th December,
1673, restless and alarmed, the helpless sons of the forest sought the
seclusion, leafy shades and green fields _Ancienne Lorette_. [315]
Here they dwelled nearly twenty-five years. The youths had grown up to
manhood, with the terrible memories of the past still fresh on their
minds. One fine day, allured by hopes of more abundant game, they packed
up their household gods, and finally, in 1697, they went and settled on
the elevated _plateau_, close to the foaming rapids of St. Ambroise,
now known as Indian, or _Jeune_, Lorette.
"Tis here we shall now find them, 336 souls all told, [316] living in
comparative ease, successful traders, exemplary Christians, but fast
decaying Hurons.
"The Hurons," says Ahatsistari, [317] "are divided into four families:
that of the _Deer_; of the _Tortoise_; of the _Bear_; of the _Wolf_. Thus,
the great Chief François Xavier Picard--Tahourenché--is a _Deer_, and his
son Paul is a _Tortoise_, because (Her Highness) Madame _Tahourenché_ is a
_Tortoise_; a lithe, handsome woman for all that.
"Each family has its chief, or war captain; he is elected by choice. The
four war captains chose two council chiefs, the six united select a grand
chief, either from among themselves or from among the honorary chiefs, if
they think proper."
We append a letter, from Sister Ste. Helene, descriptive of Indian
customs, in 1730. Civilization and Christianity have sensibly modified,
some will say, improved the Red Skins since then.
_INDIAN DRESS--LOVE MAKING-FEASTS—BURIALS._
From a MS. Letter of _Soeur Ste. Hélène_, published by Abbé Verrault.
"Would you like to learn how they dress--how they marry--how they are
buried? First, you must know that several tribes go completely naked,
and wear but the fig-leaf. In Montreal, you meet many stately and
well-proportioned savages, walking about in this state of nudity, as
proud in their bearing, as if they wore good clothes. Some have on a
shirt only; others have a covering negligently thrown over one
shoulder. Christianized Indians are differently habited. The Iroquois
put their shirt over their wearing apparel, and over the shirt another
raiment, which encloses a portion of the head, which is always bare.
The men generally wear garments over their shirts; the latter, when
new, is generally very white, but is used until it gets perfectly dark
and disgustingly greasy. They sometimes shave a portion of their head,
or else they comb one half of their hair back, the other half front.
They occasionally tie up a tuft of hair very tight on the top of the
head, rising towards the skies. At other times some allow a long tress
of hair to fall over their face: it interferes with their eating, but
it has to be put up with. They smear their ears with a white
substance, or their face with blue, vermillion and black. They are
more elaborate in their war-toilette than a coquette would be in
dressing--in order to conceal the paleness which fear might engender.
They are profuse of gold and silver brocade, porcelain necklaces,
bracelets of beads--the women, especially in their youth. This is
their jewellery, their diamonds, the value whereof sometimes reaches
1,000 francs. The Abenaqis enclose their heads in a small cap
embroidered with beads or ornamented with brocade. They wrap their
legs in leggings with a fringe three or four inches long. Their shoes
consist of socks, with plaits round the toe, covering the foot. All
this has its charm in their eyes; they are as vain of dress as any
Frenchman. The pagan tribes, whenever love is felt, marry without any
ceremonial. The pair will discover whether they love one another in
silence, Indian-like. One of the caresses consists in throwing to the
loved one a small pebble, or grains of Indian corn, or else some other
object which cannot hurt. The swain, on throwing the pebble, is bound
to look in the opposite direction, to make believe he did not do it.
Should the adored one return it, matters look well, else, the game is
up.
"The Christianized Indians are married in face of the church, without
any contract of marriage and without stipulations, because an Indian
cannot own real estate and cannot bequeath to his children. The
wealthiest is the mightiest hunter. This favored individual, in his
village, passes for a grand match. Bravery and great warriors they
think much of--they constitute the latter their chiefs. Poverty is no
disgrace at the council board, and an orator in rags will speak out as
boldly, as successfully, as if he were decked out in gold cloth. They
come thus poorly habited in the presence of the Governor, indulge in
long harangues, and touch his hand fearlessly. When ladies are present
at these interviews, they honor them thus--seize their hand and shake
it in token of friendship. Before I became a nun I was present at some
of these ceremonies, and having won their good opinion, they would
extend to me a hand which was disgusting in the extreme, but which I
had cheerfully to accept for fear of offending them. They are
sometimes asked to dine at the Governor's table. Unlucky are their
neighbors, especially when they happen to be ladies, they are so
filthy in their persons.--1730."--_Revue Canadienne_, page 108-9.
Such the Montreal Indians in 1730.
The Lorette Chapel dates back, as well as the _Old Mill_, to 1731. In
1862 the Chapel suffered much by fire. The tribe occupies land reserved by
Government, under the regulations of the Indian Bureau of Ottawa. "Indian
Lorette comprises from forty to fifty cottages, on the _plateau_ of
the falls--spread out, without design, over an area of about twenty square
acres. In the centre runs the kings highway, the outer half sloping down,
towards the St. Charles. The most prominent objects are the church, a
grist mill and Mr. Reid's paper mill; close by a wooden fence encloses
'God's acre,' in the centre of which a cross marks the tomb of Chief
Nicholas." [318] It is indeed, "a wild spot, covered with the primitive
forest and seamed by a deep and tortuous ravine, where the St. Charles
foams, white as a snow drift, over the black ledges, and where the
sunshine struggles through matted boughs of the pine and the fir, to bask
for brief moments on the mossy rocks, or flash on the hurrying waters....
Here, to this day, the tourist finds the remnants of a lost people,
harmless weavers of baskets and sewers of mocassins, the Huron blood fast
bleaching out of them."
Of "free and independent electors" none here exist, the little Lorette
world goes on smoothly without them. "No Huron on the Reserve can vote. No
white man is allowed to settle within the sacred precincts of the Huron
kingdom, composed, 1st, of the lofty _Plateau_ of the village of
Indian Lorette, which the tribe occupy. 2nd. Of the forty square acres,
about a mile and a half to the north-west of the village. 3rd. Of the
Rocmont settlement, in the adjoining County of Portneuf, in the very heart
of the Laurentine Mountains, ceded to the Hurons by Government, as a
compensation for the Seigniory of St. Gabriel, of which Government took
possession, and to which the Hurons set up a claim.
"In all that which pertains to the occupation, the possession and the
administration of these fragments of its ancient extensive territory, the
usages and customs of the tribe have force of law. The village is governed
by a Council of Sachems; in cases of misunderstandings an appeal lies to
the Ottawa Bureau, under the control of the Minister of the Interior (our
"Downing street" wisely abstaining from interference except on very urgent
occasions). Lands descend by right of inheritance; the Huron Council alone
being authorized to issue location tickets; none are granted but to Huron
boys, strangers being excluded. Of course, these disabilities affect the
denizens of the reserve only; a Huron (and there are some,
_Tahourenche_, Vincent and others) owning lands in his own right
elsewhere, and paying taxes and tithes, enjoys the rights and immunities
of any other British subject."
From the date of the Lorette Indian settlement in 1697, down to the year
of the capitulation of Quebec--1759--the annals of the tribe afford but
few stirring incidents: an annual bear, beaver, or cariboo hunt; the
return of a war party, with its scalps--English, probably--as the tribe
had a wholesome terror of the Iroquois; an occasional _pow wow_ as to
how many warriors could be spared to assist their trusted and brave
allies, the French of Quebec, against the heretical soldiers of Old or New
England.
We are in possession of no facts to show that these Christianised Hurons
differed much from other Christianised Indians; church services, war
councils, feasting, smoking, dancing, scalping, fishing and hunting,
filling in, agreeably, socially, or usefully, the daily routine of their
existence. Civilization, as understood by christianised or by pagan
savages, has never inspired us with unqualified admiration. The various
siege narratives we have perused, whilst they bring in the Indian allies,
at the close of the battle, to "finish off" the wounded at Montmorency, in
July, 1759; at the plains of Abraham, in September 1759; at St. Foye, in
April, 1760, generally mention the Abenaquis for this delicate office of
_friseurs_. The terror, nay, the horror, which the use of the tomahawk and
scalping knife inspired to the British soldiery, was often greater than
their fear of the French sabres and French musquetoons.
British rule, in 1759, if it did bring the Hurons less of campaigning and
fewer scalps, was the harbinger of domestic peace and stable homes, with
very remunerative contracts each fall for several thousands of pairs of
snow-shoes, cariboo mocassins and mittens for the English regiments
tenanting the Citadel of Quebec, whose wealthy officers every winter
scoured the Laurentine range, north of the city, in quest of deer, bear
and cariboo, under the experienced guidance of Gros Louis, Sioui, Vincent,
and other famous Huron Nimrods.
The chronicles of the settlement proclaim the valour and wisdom of some of
their early chiefs, conspicuous appears the renowned Ahatsistari, surnamed
the Huron Saul, from his early hostility to missionaries; death closed his
career, on the verdant banks of Lake Huron, in 1642, a convert to
missionary teachings.
At the departure of the French, in 1759, a new allegiance was forced on
the sons of the forest, St. George and his dragon for them took the place
of St. Louis and his lilies. The _Deer_, the _Bear_, the _Tortoise_ and
the _Wolf_ tribe, however, have managed to live on most friendly terms
with the _Dragon_. In 1776, Lorette sent its contingent of painted and
plumed warriors to fight General Burgoyne's inglorious campaigns. The
services rendered to England by her swarthy allies in the war of 1812-14
were marked, for years a distribution of presents took place from the
Quebec Commissariat and Indian Department. Proudly did the Hurons, as well
as the Abenaquis, Montagnais, Micmac and Malicite Indians bear the snow-
white blankets, scarlet cloth and hunting-knives awarded them by George
the King, and by the victors of Waterloo. Each year, at midsummer, the
Indians in their canoes, with their live freight of hunters, their copper-
coloured squaws and black-eyed papooses, rushed from Labrador, Gaspé,
Restigouche, Baie des Chaleurs, and pitched their tents on a strip of land
at Lévi, hence called Indian Cove, the city itself being closed to the
grim monarchs of the woods, reputed ugly customers when in their cups. A
special envoy, however, was sent to the Lorette Indians on similar
occasions. The Indians settled on Canadian soil were distinguished for
their loyalty to England, who has ever treated them more mercifully than
did "Uncle Sam."
The war between England and the United States in 1812 brought the Lorette
braves again to the front, and the future hero of Châteauguay, Col. De
Salaberry, was sent to enlist them. Col. De Salaberry attended in person
on the tribe, at Indian Lorette. A grand pow-wow had been convoked. The
sons of the forest eagerly sent in their names and got in readiness when
the Colonel returned a few days later to inform them that the Government
had decided to retain them as a reserve in the event of Quebec being
attacked from the Kennebec.
Notwithstanding this announcement, six Hurons (among whom were Joseph and
Stanislas Vincent) claimed with loud cries the right to accompany the
Canadian _Voltigeurs_, commanded by the Colonel.
At Châteauguay, where 300 Canadians so gloriously repelled 7,000 invaders,
the brothers Vincent swam across the river to capture and make prisoners,
the flying Yankees.
These swarthy warriors had but a faint idea of what military discipline
meant, and thinking that, the battle being over, they could return to
Lorette, left accordingly. This was a flagrant case of desertion. Nothing
short of the brave Colonel's earnest entreaties, sufficed to procure a
pardon for the redskins. A letter was written to Col. De Salaberry by his
father, late M.P. for the county, on this subject; it has been preserved.
The Hurons attended at Beauport at the unveiling of the monument of De
Salaberry on the 27th of June, 1880, and subscribed bountifully to the
building fund.
What with war medals, clothing, ammunition, fertile lands specially
reserved at Lorette, on the Restigouche, at Nouvelle, Isle Verte,
Caughnawaga, St. Regis, &c., the "untutored savage," shielded by a
beneficent legislation, watched over by zealous missionaries, was at times
an object of envy to his white brethren. Age or infirmity, seldom war,
tore him away from this vale of sorrow, to join the great Indian
"majority" in those happy hunting grounds promised to him by his Sachems.
The Hurons were ever ready to parade their paint, feathers, and tomahawks,
at the arrival of every new Governor at Quebec, and to assure Ononthio,
[319] of their undying attachment and unswerving loyalty to their great
father or august mother "who dwells on the other side of the Great Lake."
These traditions have descended even to the time when _Ononthio_ was
merely a Lieutenant-Governor under Confederation. We recollect meeting, in
31st March, 1873, a stately deputation, composed of twenty-three Hurons
from Lorette, returning from Clermont, the country seat of Lieutenant-
Governor Caron, where they had danced the war-dance for the ladies, and
harangued, as follows, the respected Laird of Clermont, just then
appointed Lieutenant-Governor:--
ONONTHIO:--
Aisten tiothi non8a [320] tisohon dekha hiatanonstati deson8a8en-dio
daskemion tesontamai denon8a ation datito8anens tesanonron-h8a nionde,
aon8a deson8a8endio de8a desakatade; a8eti desanon-ronk8anion datito8anens
chia ta skenrale the kiolaoutou8ison tothi chia hiaha a8eti dechienha
totinahiontati desten de sendete ataki atichiai a8eti alatonthara
deskemion ichionthe desten tiodeti aisten orachichiai.
Rev. Prosper _Sa8atonen_. The Memory Man. (Rev. Mr. Vincent, a chief's
son, then _Vicaire_ at Sillery.)
Paul _Tahourenché_, 1st Chief. The Dawn of Day.
Maurice _Agnolin_, 2nd Chief. The Bear.
Francis _Sassennio_. The Victor of Fire.
Gaspard _Ondiaralethe_. The Canoe Bearer.
Philippe _Theon8atlasta_. He stands upright.
Joseph Gonzague _Odt'o rohann_. He who does not forget.
Paul Jr. _Theianontakhen_. Two United Mountains.
Honoré _Telanontouohe_. The Sentry.
A. N. Montpetit _Ahatsistari_. The Fearless Man.--And others, in
all 23 warriors.
[_Translation._]
"The chiefs, the warriors, the women and children of our tribe, greet you.
The man of the woods also likes to render homage to merit: he loves to see
in his chiefs those precious qualities which constitute the statesman.
"All these gifts of the Great Spirit, wisdom in council, prudence in
execution, and that sagacity we exact in the Captains of our nation, you
possess them all in an eminent degree.
"We warmly applaud your appointment to the exalted post of Lieutenant-
Governor of the Province of Quebec, and feel happy in taking advantage of
the occasion to present our congratulations.
"May we also be allowed to renew the assurance of our devotion towards our
august Mother, who dwells on the other side of the Great Lake, as well as
to the land of our forefathers.
"Accept for you, for Mrs. Caron and your family, our best wishes."
_CHÂTEAU BIGOT._
ITS HISTORY AND ROMANCE.
"Ensconced 'mid trees this château stood—
'Mid flowers each aisle and porch;
At eve soft music charmed the ear—
High blazed the festive torch.
But, ah! a sad and mournful tale
Was hers who so enjoyed
The transient bliss of these fair shades—
By youth and love decoyed,
Her lord was true--yet he was false,
False--false--as sin and hell—
To former plights and vows he gave
To one that loved him well."
_The Hermitage._
From time immemorial an antique and crumbling ruin, standing in solitary
loneliness, in the centre of a clearing at the foot of the Charlesbourg
mountain, some five miles from Quebec, has been visited by the young and
the curious. It was once a two story stone building, with ponderous walls.
In length it is fifty-five feet by thirty-five feet broad--pierced for six
windows in each story, with a well-proportioned door, in the centre. In
1843, at the date of my first visit, the floor of the second story was yet
tolerably strong: I ascended to it by a rickety, old staircase. The ruin
was sketched in 1858, by Col. Benj. Lossing, and reproduced in _Harper's
Magazine_ for January, 1859. The lofty mountain to the north-west of it
is called _La Montagne des Ormes_; for more than a century, the
Charlesbourg peasantry designate the ruin as _La Maison de la Montagne_.
The English have christened it the _Hermitage_, whilst to the French
portion of the population, it is known as Château-Bigot, or Beaumanoir;
and truly, were it not on account of the associations which surround the
time-worn pile, few would take the trouble to go and look at the dreary
object.
The land on which it stands was formerly included in the _Fief de la
Trinité_ granted between 1640 and 1650 to Monsieur Denis, a gentleman
from La Rochelle, in France, the ancestor of the numerous clans of Denis,
Denis de la Ronde, Denis de Vitré, &c. The seigniory was subsequently sold
to Monseigneur de Laval, a descendant of the Montmorency's, who founded in
1663 the Seminary of Quebec, and one of the most illustrious prelates in
New France, the portion towards the Mountain was dismembered. When the
Intendant Talon formed his Baronie Des Islets [321] he annexed to it
certain lands of the _Fief de la Trinité_, amongst others that part
on which now stands the remains of the old château, of which he seems to
have been the builder, but which he subsequently sold. Bigot having
acquired it long after, enlarged and improved it very much. He was a
luxurious French gentleman, who, more than one hundred years ago, held the
exalted post of Intendant or Administrator under the French Crown, in
Canada. [322] In those days the forests which skirted the city were
abundantly stocked with game: deer, of several varieties, bears, foxes,
perhaps even that noble and lordly animal, now extinct in eastern Canada,
the Canadian stag, or Wapiti, roamed in herds over the Laurentian chain of
mountains, and were shot within a few miles of the Château St. Louis. This
may have been one of the chief reasons why the French Lucullus erected the
little _château_, which to this day bears his name--a resting place for
himself and friends after the chase. The profound seclusion of the spot,
combined with its beautiful scenery, would have rendered it attractive
during the summer months, even without the sweet repose it had in store
for a tired hunter. Tradition ascribes to it other purposes, and
amusements less permissible than those of the chase. A tragical occurrence
enshrines the old building with a tinge of mystery which the pen of the
novelist has woven into a thrilling romance.
François Bigot, thirteenth and last Intendant of the Kings of France in
Canada, was born in the Province of Guienne, and descended of a family
distinguished by professional eminence at the French bar. His commission
bears date "10th June, 1747." The Intendant had the charge of four
departments: Justice, Police, Finance and Marine. He had previously filled
the post of Intendant in Louisiana, and also at Louisburg. The
disaffection and revolt caused by his rapacity in that city, were mainly
instrumental in producing its downfall and surrender to the English
commander, Pepperell, in 1745. Living at a time when tainted morals and
official corruption ruled at court, he seems to have taken his standard of
morality from the mother country; his malversations in office, his
extensive frauds on the treasury, more than £400,000; his colossal
speculations in provisions and commissariat supplies furnished by the
French government to the colonists during a famine; his dissolute conduct
and final downfall, are fruitful themes wherefrom the historian can draw
wholesome lessons for all generations. Whether his Charlesbourg (then
called Bourg Royal) castle was used as the receptacle of some of his most
valuable booty, or whether it was merely a kind of Lilliputian _Parc au
Cerfs_, such as his royal master had, tradition does not say. It would
appear, however, that it was kept up by the plunder wrung from sorrowing
colonists, and that the large profits he made by paring from the scanty
pittance the French government allowed the starving residents, were here
lavished in gambling, riot and luxury.
In May, 1757, the population of Quebec was reduced to subsist on four
ounces of bread per diem, one lb. of beef, HORSE-FLESH or CODFISH; and in
April of the following year, the miserable allowance was reduced to one
half. "At this time," remarks our historian, Garneau, "famished men were
seen sinking to the earth in the street from exhaustion."
Such were the times during which Louis XV.'s minion would retire to his
Sardanapalian retreat, to gorge himself at leisure on the life blood of
the Canadian people, whose welfare he had sworn to watch over! Such, the
doings in the colony in the days of La Pompadour. The results of this
misrule were soon apparent: _the British lion placed his paw on the
coveted morsel_. The loss of Canada was viewed, if not by the nation,
at least by the French Court, with indifference, to use the terms of one
of Her Britannic Majesty's ministers, when its fate and possible loss were
canvassed one century later in the British Parliament, "without
apprehension or regret." Voltaire gave his friends a banquet at Ferney, in
commemoration of the event; the court favourite congratulated His Majesty,
that since he had got rid of these "fifteen hundred leagues of frozen
country," he had now a chance of sleeping in peace; the minister Choiseul
urged Louis XV. to sign the final treaty of 1763, saying that Canada would
be _un embarras_ to the English, and that if they were wise they
would have nothing to do with it. In the meantime the red cross of St.
George was waving over the battlements on which the lily-spangled banner
of the Bourbons had proudly sat with but one interruption for one hundred
and fifty years, the infamous Bigot was provisionally consigned to a
dungeon in the Bastille--subsequently tried and exiled to Bordeaux; his
property was confiscated, whilst his confederates and abettors, such as
Varin, Bréard, Maurin, Corpron, Martel, Estèbe and others, were also tried
and punished by fine, imprisonment and confiscation: one Penisseault, a
government clerk (a butcher's son by birth), who had married in the
colony, but whose pretty wife accompanied the Chevalier de Lévis on his
return to France, seems to have fared better than the rest.
But to revert to the château walls as I saw them on the 4th of June, 1863.
During a ramble with an English friend through the woods, which gave us an
opportunity of providing ourselves with wild flowers to strew over the
tomb of its fair "Rosamond," [323] such as the marsh marigold, clintonia,
uvularia, the star flower, veronica, kalmia, trillium, and Canadian
violets, we unexpectedly struck on the old ruin. One of the first things
that attracted our notice was the singularly corroding effect the easterly
wind has on stone and mortar in Canada; the east gable being indented and
much more eaten away than that exposed to the western blast. Of the
original structure nothing is left now standing but the two gables and the
division walls; they are all three of great thickness; certainly no modern
house is built in the manner this seems to have been. It had two stories,
with rooms in the attic, and deep cellars; a communication existed from
one cellar to the other through the division wall. There is also visible a
very small door cut through the cellar wall of the west gable; it leads to
a vaulted apartment of some eight feet square; the small mound of masonry
which covered it might originally have been effectually hidden from view
by a plantation of trees over it. What could this have been built for,
asked my romantic friend? Was it intended to secure some of the
Intendant's plate or other portion of his ill-gotten treasure? Or else as
the Abbé Ferland suggests: [324] "Was it to store the fruity old Port and
sparkling Moselle of the club of the Barons, who held their jovial
meetings there about the beginning of this century?" Was it his
mistresses' secret _boudoir_ when the Intendant's lady visited the
château, like the Woodstock tower to which Royal Henry picked his way
through "Love's Ladder?" _Quien sabe?_ Who can unravel the mystery?
It may have served for the foundation of the tower which existed when Mr.
Papineau visited and described the place fifty years ago. The heavy cedar
rafters, more than one hundred years old, are to this day sound: one has
been broken by the fall, probably of some heavy stones. There are several
indentures in the walls for fire-places, which are built of cut masonry;
from the angle of one a song sparrow flew out uttering an anxious note. We
searched and discovered the bird's nest, with five spotted, dusky eggs in
it. How strange! in the midst of ruin and decay, the sweet tokens of hope,
love and harmony! What cared the child of song if her innocent offspring
were reared amidst these mouldering relics of the past, mayhap a guilty
past? Could she not teach them to warble sweetly, even from the roof which
echoed the dying sighs of the Algonquin maid? Red alder trees grew rank
and vigorous amongst the disjointed masonry, which had crumbled from the
walls into the cellar; no trace existed of the wooden staircase mentioned
by Mr. Papineau; the timber of the roof had rotted away or been used for
camp fires by those who frequent and fish the elfish stream which winds
its way over a pebbly ledge towards Beauport. It is well stocked with
small trout, which seem to breed in great numbers in the dam near the
Château--a stream, did we say?
"A hidden brook,
In the leafy mouth of June,
That to the sleeping woods all night
Singeth a quiet tune"
"Enough! enough! cried my poetic companion. The fate of the fair maid, the
song of birds, the rustling of groves, the murmur of yonder brook,--does
not all this remind you of the accents of our laurel-crowned poet, he who
sang of Claribel?"
Those who wish to visit the Hermitage, are strongly advised to take the
cart-road which leads easterly from the Charlesbourg church, turning up.
Pedestrians prefer the route through the fields; they may, in this case,
leave their vehicle at Gaspard Huot's boarding-house--a little higher than
the church at Charlesbourg,--and then walk through the fields, skirting,
during the greater part of the road, the trout stream I have previously
mentioned; but by all means _let them take a guide_ with them.
Let us now translate and condense, from the interesting narrative of a
visit paid to the Hermitage in 1831, by Mr. Amédée Papineau and his
talented father, the Hon. Louis Joseph Papineau, the legend which attaches
to it:
CAROLINE, OR THE ALGONQUIN MAID.
(BY AMÉDÉE PAPINEAU.)
"We drove, my father and I, with our vehicle to the foot of the
mountain, and there, took a foot-path which led us through a dense
wood. We encountered and crossed a rivulet, and then ascended a
plateau cleared of wood, a most enchanting place; behind us and on our
right was a thick forest: on our left the eye rested on boundless
green fields, diversified [325] with golden harvests and with the neat
white cottages of the peasantry. In the distance was visible the broad
and placid waters of the St. Lawrence, at the foot of the citadel of
Quebec, and also the shining cupolas and tin roofs of the city houses;
in front of us, a confused mass of ruins, crenelated walls embedded in
moss and rank grass, together with a tower half destroyed, beams, and
the mouldering remains of a roof. After viewing the _tout ensemble_,
we attentively examined each portion in detail--every fragment was
interesting to us; we with difficulty made our way over the wall,
ascending the upper stories by a staircase which creaked and trembled
under our weight. With the assistance of a lighted candle we
penetrated into the damp and cavernous cellars, carefully exploring
every nook and corner, listening to the sound of our own footsteps,
and occasionally startled by the rustling of bats which we disturbed
in their dismal retreat. I was young, and consequently very
impressionable. I had just left college; these extraordinary sounds
and objects would at times make me feel very uneasy. I pressed close
to my father and dared scarcely breathe; the remembrance of this
subterranean exploration will not easily be forgotten. What were my
sensations when I saw a tombstone, the reader can imagine? 'Here we
are at last,' exclaimed my father and echo repeated his words.
Carefully did we view this monument; presently we detected the letter
'C,' nearly obliterated by the action of time; after remaining there a
few moments, to my unspeakable delight we made our exit from the
chamber of death, and stepping over the ruins, we again alighted on
the green sward. Evidently where we stood had formerly been a garden;
we could still make out the avenues, the walks and plots, over which
plum, lilac and apple trees grew wild.
"I had not yet uttered a word, but my curiosity getting the better of
my fear, I demanded an explanation of this mysterious tombstone. My
father beckoned me towards a shady old maple; we both sat on the turf,
and he then told me as follows:--You have, no doubt, my son, heard of
a French Intendant, of the name of Bigot, who had charge of the public
funds in Canada somewhere about the year 1757; you have also read how
he squandered these moneys and how his Christian Majesty had him sent
to the Bastille when he returned to France, and had his property
confiscated. All this you know. I shall now tell you what, probably,
you do not know. This Intendant attempted to lead in Canada the same
dissolute life which the old _noblesse_ led in France before the
Revolution had _levelled_ all classes. He it was who built this
country seat, of which you now contemplate the ruins. Here he came to
seek relaxation from the cares of office; here he prepared
entertainments to which the rank and fashion of Quebec, including the
Governor General, eagerly flocked; nothing was wanting to complete the
_éclat_ of this _little_ Versailles. Hunting was a favorite pastime of
our ancestors, and Bigot was a mighty hunter. As active as a chamois,
as daring as a lion was this indefatigable Nimrod, in the pursuit of
bears and moose.
"On one occasion, when tracking with some sporting friends an old bear
whom he had wounded, he was led over mountainous ridges and ravines
very far from the castle. Nothing could restrain him; on he went in
advance of every one, until the bloody trail brought him on the
wounded animal, which he soon dispatched.
"During the chase the sun had gradually sunk over the western hills;
the shades of evening were fast descending; how was the lord of the
manor to find his way back? he was alone in a thick forest; in this
emergency his heart did not fail him,--he hoped by the light of the
moon to be able to return to his stray companions. Wearily he walked
on, ascending once or twice a lofty tree, in order to see further, but
all in vain; soon the unpleasant conviction dawned on him that like
others in similar cases, he had been walking round a circle. Worn out
and exhausted with fatigue and hunger, he sat down to ponder on what
course he should adopt. The Queen of night, at that moment shedding
her silvery rays around, only helped to show the hunter how hopeless
was his present position. Amidst these mournful reflections, his ear
was startled by the sound of footsteps close by; his spirits rose at
the prospect of help being at hand; soon he perceived the outlines of
a moving white object. Was it a phantom which his disordered
imagination had conjured up; terrified he seized his trusty gun and
was in the act of firing, when the apparition, rapidly advancing
toward him, assumed quite a human form; a little figure stood before
him with eyes as black as night, and raven tresses flowing to the
night wind; a spotless garment enveloped in its ample folds this airy
and graceful spectre. Was it a sylph, the spirit of the wilderness?
Was it Diana, the goddess of the chase, favoring one of her most
ardent votaries with a glimpse of her form divine? It was neither. It
was an Algonquin beauty, one of those ideal types whose white skin
betray their hybrid origin--a mixture of European blood with that of
the aboriginal races. It was Caroline, a child of love, born on the
shores of the great Ottawa river; a French officer was her sire, and
the powerful Algonquin tribe of the Beaver claimed her mother.
"The Canadian Nimrod, struck at the sight of such extraordinary
beauty, asked her name, and after relating his adventure, he begged of
her to shew him the way to the castle in the neighborhood, as she must
be familiar with every path in the forest. Such is the story told of
the first meeting between the Indian beauty and the Canadian Minister
of Finance and Feudal Judge in the year 175--.
"The Intendant was a married man; [326] his lady resided in the
capital of Canada. She seldom accompanied her husband on his hunting
excursions, but soon it was whispered that something more than the
pursuit of wild animals attracted him to his country seat; an intrigue
with an Indian beauty was hinted at. These discreditable rumors came
to the ears of her ladyship; she made several visits to the castle in
hopes of verifying her worst fears; jealousy is a watchful sentinel.
"The Intendant's dormitory was on the ground floor of the building; it
is supposed the Indian girl occupied a secret apartment on the flat
above; that her boudoir was reached through a long narrow passage,
ending with a hidden staircase opening on the large room which
overlooked the garden.
"The King, therefore, for his defence
Against the furious Queen,
At Woodstock builded such a bower,
As never yet was seen.
Most curiously that bower was built,
Of stone and timber strong."
(Ballad of Fair Rosamond.)
"Let us now see what took place on this identical spot on the 2nd
July, 176--. It is night; the hall clock has just struck eleven; the
murmur of the neighboring brook, gently wafted on the night wind, is
scarcely audible; the Song Sparrow [327] has nearly finished his
evening hymn, while the _Sweet Canada_ [328] bird, from the top
of an old pine, merrily peals forth his shrill clarion. Silence the
most profound pervades the whole castle; every light is extinguished;
the pale rays of the moon slumber softly on the oak floor, reflected
as they are through the gothic windows; every inmate is wrapped in
sleep, even fair Rosamond who has just retired. Suddenly her door is
violently thrust open; a masked person, with one bound rushes to her
bed-side, and without saying a word, plunges a dagger to the hilt in
her breast. Uttering a piercing shriek, the victim springs in the air
and falls heavily on the floor. The Intendant, hearing the noise,
hurries up stairs, raises the unhappy girl who has just time to point
to the fatal weapon, still in the wound, and then falls back in his
arms a lifeless corpse. The whole household are soon on foot; search
is made for the murderer, but no clue is discovered. Some of the
inmates fancied they had seen the figure of a woman rush down the
secret stair and disappear in the woods about the time the murder took
place. A variety of stories were circulated, some pretended to trace
the crime to the Intendant's wife, whilst others alleged that the
avenging mother of the creole was the assassin; some again urged that
Caroline's father had attempted to wipe off the stain on the honour of
his tribe, by himself despatching his erring child. A profound mystery
to this day surrounds the whole transaction. Caroline was buried in
the cellar of the castle, and the letter 'C' engraved on her
tombstone, which, my son, you have just seen."
Half a century has now elapsed since the period mentioned in this
narrative. In vain do we search for several of the leading characteristics
on which Mr. Papineau descants so eloquently; time, the great destroyer,
has obliterated many traces. Nothing meets one's view but mouldering
walls, over which green moss and rank weeds cluster profusely.
Unmistakable indications of a former garden there certainly are, such as
the outlines of walks over which French cherry, apple and gooseberry trees
grow in wild luxuriance. I took home from the ruins a piece of bone; this
decayed piece of mortality may have formed part of Caroline's big toe, for
aught I can establish to the contrary; Château-Bigot brought back to my
mind other remembrances of the past. I recollected reading that pending
the panic consequent on the surrender of Quebec in 1759, the non-
combatants of the city crowded within its walls; this time not to
realized, but to seek concealment until Mars had inscribed another victory
on the British flag. Who would be prepared to swear that later, when
Arnold and Montgomery had possession of the environs of Quebec, during the
greater portion of the winter, of 1775-6, some of those prudent English
merchants, (Adam Lymburner at their head), who awaited at Charlesbourg and
Beauport the issue of the contest, did not take a quiet drive, to Château-
Bigot, were it only to indulge in a philosophical disquisition on the
mutability of human events?
We are indebted to Mr. John D. Stewart of Quebec for a copy of the
following letter from his grandfather, written in 1776, from the Château.
(Mr. Charles Stewart, father of the late Mr. Charles Grey Stewart,
Comptroller of Customs, to his father.)
"HERMITAGE, June 25th, 1776.
"MY DEAR FATHER,--I was overjoyed to hear by a letter from Mr. Gray,
that you and my dear mother were in good health. Nothing can give me
greater pleasure than to hear so. I was very sorry to hear that my
sister had been ill. I hope she is now getting better.
We have been here for this winter in a very dismal situation. The
rebels came here and blocked up the town of Quebec, at the end of
November. I had been not at all well for two months previous, and at
that time had not got better with a pain which obliged me to stay in
the country, where I had been all the summer, although greatly against
my inclination. I was allowed to remain peaceably by the rebels, until
the middle of January, when I was taken and carried with sword and
(fixed) bayonets before their general; the reason why, was, that after
their attack upon the town on the 31st December, the Yankees were
obliged to demand assistance of the country people to join them. I had
spoken and done what I could to hinder the people of the village where
I resided from going and taking arms with them. This came to light,
and I was told at their head-quarters their general, one Arnold, a
horse jockey or shipmaster, who then had the command, threatened to
send me over to the (New England) colonies. After being detained a ...
and two days, Arnold asked me, if he had not seen me before in Quebec.
I said he had, and put him in remembrance of having once dined with
him; upon which he said, on condition that I gave my word of honour
not to meddle in the matter, he would allow me to go away. I told him
the inhabitants were a parcel of scoundrels, and beyond a gentleman's
notice; upon this I got off, and remained for upwards of two months
without molestation, till the tracks of persons going to town from
Beauport had been observed; the country people immediately suspected
me, and came with drawn cutlasses to take me; luckily I was from home,
having gone two days before about fifteen miles to see an
acquaintance, and when I got back they had found out who had gone in
(to town). The ill-nature of the peasants to me made me very uneasy on
account of all the papers I had of Mr. Gray's, and dreading their
malice much, I determined to go from them. I found out a place about
five miles up amongst the woods, the Hermitage which being vacant I
immediately retired to it, and carried all my papers with me. Mr.
Peter Stewart had gone from his house in Beauport, down with his
family to the Posts, and gave me the charge of it, and having heard
that they (the Yankees) were going to put 150 men in it, I sent all
his furniture, &c., to the house I had taken, so that I had my house
all furnished; this was in the beginning of March; since which I have
remained there. The people who left the town in the fall have not been
allowed to go back. A Mr. Vi... one of the most considerable
merchants, went in immediately after the 6th of May, (the day when the
town people made a sally with about 900 men in all, who drove nigh
3000 of the Yankees from their camp, and relieved the town) and was
sent to prison and kept several days. Major John Nairn was so obliging
as to come out 8 or 9 days after that affair to see me; he asked me
why I had not been in town. I told him the reason; I had got no pass.
The next day he sent me one; except another, this is the only one
which had been granted by the Governor as yet, and it is thought some
won't be allowed to go in this summer, why, I cannot say. Every person
had liberty to leave or stay by a proclamation for that purpose, but
as it is military law, no person dare say it is wrong
I am going now again to remain in town, having now learned a little of
the French. I understand every word almost that is said, although I
cannot speak it as well; however I could wish that my brother John
knew as much of it. I three days ago wrote him they were gone to
Halifax, but am told they are to go from there to New York soon....
I am at present studying a little of the French law. If I do not make
use it, it will do me no harm. I expect you have had letters from my
brother Andrew....
I wish you would send me your vouchers of all your Jamaica debts I
could go easily from here to there. If I cannot get money I can get
rum, which sells and will sell, at a great price in this place. I can
only stay there a few months."
Nor must we forget the jolly pic-nics the barons held there some eighty
years ago. [329]
On quitting these silent halls, from which the light of other days had
departed, and from whence the voice of revelry seems to have fled forever,
I re-crossed the little brook, already mentioned, musing on the past. The
solitude which surrounds the dwelling and the tomb of the dark-haired
child of the wilderness, involuntarily brought to mind that beautiful
passage of Ossian, [330] relating to the daughter of Reuthamir, the
"white-bosomed" Moina:--"I have seen the walls of Balclutha, but they
were desolate. The fire had resounded in the halls, and the voice of the
people is heard no more. The thistle shook there its lonely head; the moss
whistled to the wind. The fox looked out of the windows, the rank grass of
the wall waved round its head. Desolate is the dwelling of Moina, silence
is in the house.... Raise the, song of mourning, O bards! over the land of
strangers. They have but fallen before us: for one day, we must fall."
L'INTENDANT BIGOT--ROMANCE CANADIENNE.
PAR JOS. MARMETTE.
After perusing the Legend of _Caroline, the Algonquin Maid_, the lover of
Canadian story, can find a more artistically woven plot in one of Mr.
Marmette's historical novels L'Intendant Bigot. The following passage
is from a short critique we recently published thereon:
"It is within the portals of Beaumanoir (Château-Bigot) that several
of the most thrilling scenes in Mr. Marmette's novel are supposed to
have taken place. A worthy veteran of noble birth, M. de Rochebrune,
had died in Quebec through neglect and hunger, on the very steps of
Bigot's luxurious palace, then facing the St Charles, leaving an only
daughter, as virtuous as she was beautiful. One day, whilst returning
through the fields (where St. Rochs has since been built) from
visiting a nun in the General Hospital, she was unexpectedly seized by
a strong arm and thrown on a swift horse, whose rider never stopped
until he had deposited his victim at Bigot's country seat,
Charlesbourg. The name of this cold-blooded villain was Soumois. He
was a minion of the mighty and unscrupulous Bigot. Mdlle. de
Rochebrune had a lover. A dashing young French officer was Raoul de
Beaulac. Maddened with love and rage he closely watched Bigot's
movements in the city, and determined to repossess his treasure, it
mattered not, at what sacrifice. Bigot's was a difficult game to play.
He had a _liaison_ with one of the most fascinating and fashionable
married ladies of Quebec, and was thus prevented from hastening to see
the fair prey awaiting him at Beaumanoir. Raoul played a bold game,
and calling jealousy to his help, he went and confided the deed to
Madame Pean, Bigot's fair charmer, entreating her immediate
interference, and after some hairbreadth escapes, arrived at the
Château with her just in time to save Mdlle de Rochebrune from
dishonor.
Madame Pean was returning to the city with Mdlle de Rochebrune and
Raoul, when on driving past the walls of the Intendant's palace, close
to the spot where Desfosses street now begins, her carriage was
attacked by a band of armed men--a reconnoitering party from Wolfe's
fleet, anchored at Montmorency. A scuffle ensued, shots were fired,
and some of the assailants killed; but in the _mêlée_ Mdlle. de
Rochebrune was seized and hurried into the English boat commanded by
one Capt. Brown. During the remainder of the summer the Canadian maid,
treated with every species of respect, remained a prisoner on board
the admiral's ship. (It is singular that Admiral Durell, whose beloved
young son was at the time a prisoner of war at Three Rivers, did not
propose an exchange of prisoners.) In the darkness and confusion which
attended the disembarking of Wolfe's army on the night of the 12th of
September, 1759, at Sillery, Mdlle. de Rochebrune slipped down the
side of the vessel, and getting into one of the smaller boats, drifted
ashore with the tide, and landed at Cap Rouge, just as her lover
Raoul, who was a Lieutenant in La Roche-Beaucour's Cavalry was
patrolling the heights of Sillery. Overpowered with joy, she rode
behind him back to the city, and left him on nearing her home; but, to
her horror, she spied dodging her footsteps her arch enemy the
Intendant, and fell down in a species of fit, which turned out to be
catalepsy. This furnishes, of course, a very moving _tableau_. The
fair girl---supposed to be dead---was laid out in her shroud, when
Raoul, during the confusion of that terrible day for French Rule, the
13th September, calling to see her, finds her a corpse just ready for
interment. Fortunately for the heroine, a bombshell forgotten in the
yard, all at once and in the nick of time igniting, explodes,
shattering the tenement in fragments. The concussion recalls Mdlle. de
Rochebrune to life; a happy marriage soon after ensues. The chief
character in the novel, the Intendant sails shortly after for France,
where he was imprisoned, as history states, in the Bastile, during
fifteen months, and his ill-gotten gains confiscated. All this, with
the exception of Mdlle. de Rochebrune's career, is strictly
historical."
_THE FALLS OF THE CHAUDIÈRE_.
A tourist of a cultured mind and familiar with classic lore, standing on
the lofty brow of the _Chaudière_, might, without any peculiar flights of
imagination, fancy he beholds around him a solitary dell of that lovely
TEMPE immortalized in song:
"Est nemos Haemoniae, praerupta quod undique claudit
Silva; vocant Tempe; per quae Peneus ab imo
Effusus Pindo, spumosis volvitur undis,
Dejectuque gravi tenues agitantia fumos
Nubila conducit, sommasque aspergine silvas
Impluit, et sonitu plus quam vicina fatigat."
_Ovid Met_. I--568.
The Falls of the _Chaudière_, in their chief features, differ entirely
from the majestic cascade of Montmorency.
"To a person who desires nothing more than the primary and sudden electric
feeling of an overpowering and rapturous surprise, the cascade of
Montmorency would certainly be preferable, but to the visitor, whose
understanding and sensibilities are animated by an infusion of antiquated
romance, the Falls of the _Chaudière_ would be more attractive." [331]
This favourite resort of tourists is accessible by two modes of travel. We
would assuredly advise visitors, both on account of the striking objects
to be met with, to select the water route, going the land route on their
return; a small steamer plies daily, for a 10 cent fare, at stated hours,
from the Lower Town market place, touching at Sillery and skirting the
dark frowning cliffs of Cape Diamond, amidst the shipping, affording a
unique view of the mural-crowned city. After stopping five minutes at the
Sillery wharf, the steamer crosses over and lands its passengers nearly
opposite the R. C. Church of St. Romuald, which, with its frescoed ceiling
and ornate interior is one of the handsomest temples of worship round
Quebec. Vehicles are abundant at Levi and at St. Romuald; an hour's drive
will land the tourist on the weird and romantic brink of the
_Chaudière_, either by following the lower road on the beach, skirting the
adjoining highland, or taking the road on the heights.
"Although yielding in grandeur to Niagara and Montmorency, it possesses
features more interesting than either. The river, in its course of one
hundred miles over a rugged bed, full of rapids and falls, is here
narrowed to a width of between three hundred and four hundred feet, and is
precipitated over a height of about one hundred and thirty feet,
preserving the characteristic features of its _boiling_ waters, till
it mingles with the St. Lawrence. Hence it has received the appropriate
name of _Chaudière_ or _Caldron_. Instead of descending in one continuous
sheet, it is divided by large projecting rocks into three channels or
cataracts, which, however, unite before reaching the basin below. A
globular figure is imparted to the descending volumes of brilliant white
foam, in consequence of the deep excavations of the rocks, and the clouds
of spray produce in the sunshine a brilliant variety of prismatic colours.
The dark-green foliage of the dense forests that overhang the torrent on
both sides, forms a striking contrast with its snow-white foam.
"The wild diversity of rocks, the foliage of the overhanging woods, the
rapid motion, the effulgent brightness and the--deeply solemn sound of the
cataracts, all combine to present a rich assemblage of objects highly
attractive, especially when the visitor, emerging from the wood, is
instantaneously surprised by the delightful scene. Below, the view is
greatly changed, and the falls produce an additionally strong and vivid
impression.
"If strangers view the Falls from one side of the river only, the prospect
from the eastern shore is recommended as preferable.
"The Falls of Montmorency are not immediately surrounded by any rugged
scenery, calculated to strengthen and perpetuate the peculiar emotion
which is excited by the first glimpse of the cascade, but the dreary
wildness in the foliage of the encircling forest, the total absence of
every vestige of human improvement, and the tumultuous waves and commotion
and effulgence that incessantly occupy the mind and rivet the senses of
the beholder in the survey of the _Chaudière_, conjoined with the wider
expansion and larger quantity of water in the stream, in the opinion
of many visitors more than compensate for the greater elevation from which
the waters of the Montmorency are precipitated."
On returning to the town of Levi, the tourist, taking the upper road, may
visit the Falls of Etchemin, where have existed for close on a century,
the extensive saw mills of Sir John Caldwell. They are now owned by Henry
Atkinson, Esq.
APPENDIX
[See p. 4.]
_JACQUES CARTIER'S OFFICERS AND CREW._
_Liste de l'Équipage_ de Jacques Cartier, conservée dans les archives
de St. Malo, France--revue avec soin sur le _fac-similé_ par C. H.
Laverdière, Ptre., Bibliothécaire de l'Université Laval, 22 novembre,
1859.
Jacques Cartier, capne.
Thomas Fourmont, Me. de la nef.
Guille. Le breton Bastille, capne. et pilote du Galion.
Jacq. Maingar, me. du Galion.
Marc Jalobert, capne. et pilote du Courlieu.
Guille. de Marié, me. de Courlieu.
Laurent Boulain.
Estienne Nouel.
Pierre Esmery dict Talbot.
Michel Herué.
Estienne Reumevel.
Michel Audiepore.
Bertrande Samboste.
Richard Lebay, Faucamps.
Lucas père Sr., ou Lucas Jacq, Sr., Fammys.
François Guiteault, Apoticaire.
Georges Mabille.
Guillme. Sequart, charpentier.
Robin Le Fort.
Samson Ripault, barbier.
Françoys Guillet.
Guillme. Esnault, charpentier.
Jehan Dabin, charpentier.
Jehan Duuert.
Julien Golet.
Thomas Boulain.
Michel Philipot.
Jehan Hamel.
Jehan Fleury.
Guille. Guilbert.
Colas Barbe.
Laurens Gaillot.
Guille. Bochier.
Michel Eon.
Jean Anthoine.
Michel Maingard.
Jehan Margen.
Bertrand Apuril.
Giles Staffin.
Geoffrey Olliuier.
Guille. de Guernezé
Eustache Grossin.
Guillme. Allierte.
Jehan Ravy.
Pierres Marquier, trompet.
Guille. Legentilhomme.
Raoullet Maingard.
Françoys Duault.
Herué Henry.
Yvon Legal.
Anthoine Alierte.
Jehan Colas.
Jacq Poinsault.
Dom Guille. Le Breton.
Dom Antoine.
Philipe Thomas, charpentier.
Jacq. Duboys.
Julien Plantiruet.
Jehan Go.
Jehan Legentilhomme.
Michel Douquais, charpentier.
Jehan Aismery, charpentier.
Pierre Maingart.
Lucas Clauier.
Goulset Riou.
Jehan Jacq. de Morbihan.
Pierre Nyel.
Legendre Estienne Leblanc.
Jehan Pierres.
Jehan Commuyres.
Anthoine Desgranches.
Louys Donayrer.
Pierre Coupeaulx.
Pierres Jonchée.
_74 signatures; the subsequent seven signatures were added in the answer
to the Quebec Prize Historical Questions, submitted in_ 1879.
Jean Gouyon.
Charles Gaillot.
Claude de Pontbrians.
Charles de la Pommeraye.
Jean Poullet.
Philippe Rougemont.
De Goyelle.
"_JACQUES QUARTIER, THE PILOT._"
"Gerald, eleventh Earl of Kildare, was born on the 26th of February, 1525.
He was ten years of age at the time of his brother's arrest, and then
lying ill with the small-pox at Donore in the County Kildare. He was
committed to the care of his tutor, Thomas Leverous, who conveyed him in a
large basket into Offaly to his sister, Lady Mary O'Connor. There he
remained until he perfectly recovered. The misfortunes of his family had
excited great sympathy for the boy over the whole of Ireland. This made
the government anxious to have him in their power; and they endeavored
accordingly to induce O'Brien to surrender him to them. About the 5th of
March, 1540, Lady Eleanor O'Donnel, suspecting that it was the intention
of her husband to surrender Gerald to the English Government, resolved to
send him away. She engaged a merchant vessel of St. Malo which happened to
be in Donegal Bay, to convey a small party to the coast of Brittany.
"Bartholomew Warner, an agent of the English Government, sends the
following account of this transaction to Sir John Wallop, the English
Ambassador in France:
"'After ther departing from Yrlande they arryved at Murles (Morlaix) wher,
as he was well receyvyd of the Captayne, whiche leadde him throughe the
towne by the hande, wher he tarryed 3 or 4 days, and strayghtwayes, the
captayne sent word to Monsieur de Chattebriande off ther arrivying ther.
* * * * And from thens they came in the sayde shippe to Saynt Malo, where
he was also well receyvyd of them of the Town, and specially of Jacques
Quartier, the pilot, which your Lordship spake off at my being at
Rouene.'"--_The Earls of Kildare and their Ancestors, from_ 1057 _to_
1773, by the Marquis of Kildare. 3rd edition, pp. 179, 196.
_DISCOVERY OF THE REMAINS OF JACQUES CARTIER'S VESSEL, THE "PETITE
HERMINE."_
(_Note for pages 429-431-455._)
On the 25th of August, 1843, there was much commotion among the
antiquarians of our old city. Mr. Jos. Hamel, the city surveyor, had
thought it proper to call the attention of the Literary and Historical
Society to the remains of a vessel lying at the brook St. Michel, which
falls into the River St. Charles on the north bank about half way between
the General Hospital and old Dorchester Bridge. This vessel was supposed
to be the _Petite Hermine_, one of Jacques Cartier's vessels left by
him at the place where he wintered in 1535-6.
"The existence of this vessel had been known to persons frequenting the
place for a great many years. Part of it, the farthest out in the stream,
had been carried away for firewood or otherwise, and the forepart of the
vessel was covered with clay and earth from the adjoining bank to the
depth of six or seven feet. This was in great part removed, leaving the
keel and part of the planking and ribs visible. The vessel had been built
of large-grained oak, which was mostly in a good state of preservation,
although discolored, and the iron spikes and bolts were still strong. The
bolts in the keel, contrary to the usual practice, had been placed in from
below. This is the spot where Jacques Cartier, is supposed to have
wintered. The tide rises in the entrance of the brook, where the vessel
lies, about six or seven feet. This entrance forms a semi-circular cove,
on each side of which towards the St. Charles, the earth is elevated so as
to have the appearance of a breastwork; the bank to the west of the cove
is about eighteen feet high, and it was then covered with thick brush
which prevented its being fully examined. The distance of the place from
town is about one mile; the road is over the Dorchester Bridge and along
the north bank of the St. Charles."--(_Quebec Gazette_, August 30, 1843).
(_From the Quebec Gazette, 30th August_, 1843.)
"In the last number (August 25th, inst.,) of _Le Canadien_ there is
an article of deep interest to the Canadian antiquarian: The long agitated
question as to the _where_ or _whereabouts_ Jacques Cartier, on his second
voyage from France to this continent spent the winter of 1535-6; whether
at the embouchure of the river bearing his name emptying into the St.
Lawrence some ten or eleven leagues above Quebec, or in the little river
St. Charles to the north of and at the foot of the promontory on which
Quebec is built, is now, it would seem, about to be solved and
satisfactorily set at rest by the recent discovery of the remains of a
vessel, doubtless of European construction, supposed to be those of _La
Petite Hermine_, of about 60 tons burthen, one of the three (_La Grande
Hermine_, _La Petite Hermine_, and _L'Emerillon_), with which on the 19th
of May, 1535, that intrepid navigator left St. Malo.
The article alluded to, which we believe to be the work of the editor
himself (Mr. McDonald) of _Le Canadien_, logically establishes from
Jacques Cartier's narrative that the place of his wintering, or Sainte
Croix, as he named it, can be none other than the little river St.
Charles, as we now call it. "Coasting," says he, "the said island
(Orleans) we found at the upper end of it an expanse of water very
beautiful and pleasant, at which place there is a little river and bar
harbor with two or three fathoms of water, which we found to be a place
suitable for putting our vessels in safety. We called it _Ste. Croix_,
because on that day, (14th September) we arrived there. Near this place
there are natives, whose chief is Donnacona and who lives there, which
place is called Stadaconé," (now Quebec). Cartier observes in another part
of his narrative that _Sainte Croix_ was situate half a league from _and
to the north_ of Quebec. Again, speaking of the residence (Stadacone) of
Donnacona, he says, "_under which high land towards the north_ is the
river and harbour Sainte Croix, at which place we remained from the 15th
of September, to the 16th of May, 1536, where the vessels remained dry."
* * * * *
"We now translate from _Le Canadien_:--'At the invitation of Mr. Jos.
Hamel, City Surveyor, Hon. Wm. Sheppard, the President, and (G. B.)
Faribault, Vice-President of the Literary and Historical Society of
Quebec, went with him on Saturday, the 19th instant, (1843) to visit the
place, and according to the position of the _debris_ of the vessel,
the nature of the wood it is composed of, and the character of the stones
(ballast) they found at the bottom, they were satisfied that all the
probabilities are in favor of Mr. Hamel's hypothesis.
"'On a report of this visit, the Council of the Literary and Historical
Society assembled on Monday last, and resolved on laying open the
_debris_, leaving it to Mr. Faribault, the Vice-President, to make,
with Mr. Hamel, the necessary arrangements for the execution. The members
of the Council having no funds at their disposal, that they can legally
apply to this purpose, have so far carried it on at their own expense.
"'Some valuable evidences of the ancient existence of this vessel have
been gathered. We shall speak of them in giving an account of the
exhumation in progress, under the direction of Messrs. Faribault and
Hamel. All those who can throw any light on the subject, either of their
own knowledge or by what they may have learnt by tradition, are earnestly
solicited to impart the same at the Office of _Le Canadien_.'
"Those gentlemen ought not to be allowed to carry on this work at their
sole expense. The country, the world, are interested in it. This continent
in 1535, from end to end one vast wilderness, the imagination can scarcely
figure to itself a more awful solitude than that in which, during the
winter of 1535-6 Cartier and his faithful followers, amidst savages in an
unknown country, during a Canadian winter, at a thousand leagues from
their native land, were buried in the dreary swamp (for it then must have
been little better) of _Sainte Croix_ now the beautiful valley of the
St. Charles, covered with cheerful cottages and a redundant population.
Look to-day from the Citadel of _Stadaconé_ in all directions north,
south, east, west, than which under heaven, there is not a more splendid
panorama, and think of what it was when Cartier and his comrades first
looked upon it. Contrast his landing on the flinty rock at the base of
Cape Diamond, the 14th September, 1535, and reception by a few gaping
savages, with that of the present Governor-General, Sir Charles Metcalfe;
amidst acclaiming thousands, on the 25th (Aug. 1843)--the manner of
passing a winter at Stadaconé in 1535-6 and at the same place in 1842-3.
What changes have the three centuries wrought! What recollections have
they left! And what changes will not the next three hundred years bring
about? More wonderful probably than those we admire to-day. But come what
may of that which men sometimes call great and glorious, nothing can
obliterate or eclipse the honors justly due to the memory of the
celebrated navigator and his comrades, who first "coasting the said island
(now Orleans) found at the end of it an expanse of water very beautiful
and pleasant, and a little bar harbour," ('hable,' as he calls it,) and
wintered there at about half a league northward of and under the highland
of Stadaconé."
"During the dismal winter Jacques Cartier must have passed in his new
quarters at _Ste. Croix_, he lost, by sickness contracted, it is said,
from the natives, but more probably from scurvy, twenty-five of his
men. This obliged him to abandon one of his three vessels (_La Petite
Hermine_ it is believed) which he left in her winter quarters, returning
with the two others to France. The _locale_ of the _débris_ or remains,
not only corresponds with the description given by Jacques Cartier of Ste.
Croix, but also with the attention and particular care that might be
expected from a skilful commander, in the selection of a safe spot in an
unknown region where never an European had been before him, for wintering
his vessels. They lie in the bottom of a small creek or gulley, known as
the _ruisseau St. Michel_, into which the tides regularly flow, on the
property of Charles Smith, Esq., on the north side of the St. Charles and
at about half a mile following the bends of the river above the site of
the old Dorchester Bridge.--They are a little up the creek at about an
acre from its mouth, and their position (where a sudden or short turn of
the creek renders it next to impossible that she should be forced out of
it by any rush of water in the spring or efforts of the ice,) evinces at
once the precaution and the judgment of the commander in his choice of the
spot. But small portions of her remaining timber (oak) are visible through
the mud, but they are bitumanised and black as ebony, and after reposing
in that spot 307 years, seem, as far as by chopping them with axes or
spades, and probing by iron rods or picks, can be ascertained, sound as
the day they were brought thither. The merit of the discovery belongs to
our fellow townsman, Mr. Joseph Hamel, the City Surveyor."
Quebec, 28th August, 1843.
_"LE CANON DE BRONZE."--THE BRONZE CANNON._
"A few years ago an ancient cannon of peculiar make, and supposed to have
been of Spanish construction, was found in the river St. Lawrence,
opposite the Parish of Champlain, in the District of Three Rivers. It is
now in the Museum of Mr. Chasseur, and will repay the visit of the curious
stranger. The ingenious writer of the Treatise upon this piece of
ordnance, published in the second volume of the TRANSACTIONS of the
Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, has endeavoured to show that it
belonged to Verazzani,--that the latter perished before the second voyage
of Jacques Cartier, either by scurvy or shipwreck, on his way up the river
towards Hochelaga. He also endeavors, with great stretch of fancy, to
explain and account for the pantomime enacted by the Indians in the
presence of Jacques Cartier, in order to dissuade him from proceeding to
Hochelaga so late in the season, by their recollection and allusion to the
death of Verazzani, some nine or ten years before. But if they had really
known anything respecting the fate of this navigator--and it must have
been fresh in their memory, if we recall to mind how comparatively short a
period had elapsed--is it not most likely that they would have found
means, through the two interpreters to communicate it to Cartier? Yet it
appears that the latter never so much as heard of it, either at Hochelai,
now the Richelieu, where he was on friendly terms with the chief of the
village--or at Hochelaga, where it must have been known--or when he
wintered at Ste. Croix, in the little river St. Charles--nor yet when he
passed a second winter at Carouge! The best evidence, however, that the
Indian pantomime had no reference to Verazzani, and to disprove at once
the truth of the tradition respecting his death in any part of the St.
Lawrence, is to show, which we shall do on good authority, that at the
very time when Cartier was passing the winter at Ste. Croix, Verazzani was
actually alive in Italy. From a letter of Annibal Caro, quoted by
Tiraboschi, an author of undoubted reputation, in the Storie della
Literature Italiana, Vol. VII. part I. pp. 261, 462, it is proved that
Verazzani was living in 1537, a year after the pantomime at Ste. Croix!
While on the subject of the Canon de Bronze it may be noted that
Charlevoix mentions also a tradition, that Jacques Cartier himself was
shipwrecked at the mouth of the river called by his name, with the loss of
one of his vessels. From this it has been supposed that the Canon de
Bronze was lost on that occasion; and an erroneous inscription to that
effect has been engraved upon it. In the first place the cannon was not
found at the mouth of the River Jacques Cartier, but opposite the Parish
of Champlain; in the next, no shipwreck was ever suffered by Jacques
Cartier, who wintered in fact at the mouth of the little river St.
Charles. The tradition as to his shipwreck, and to the loss of one of his
vessels, most probably arose from the well known circumstance of his
having returned to France with two ships, instead of three, with which he
left St. Malo. Having lost so many men by scurvy during his first winter
in Canada, he was under the necessity of abandoning one of them, which lay
in the harbour of Ste. Croix. The people of Champlain having possessed
themselves of the old iron to be found on the vessel, it of course soon
fell to pieces, and in process of time arose the tradition that Jacques
Cartier had been shipwrecked. The removal of the scene of his supposed
disaster from the St. Charles to the River Jacques Cartier. was an error
of Charlevoix.
Before we conclude this notice of Verazzani: it may be mentioned, that in
the Strozzi Library at Florence, is preserved a manuscript, in which he is
said to have given with great minuteness, a description of all the
countries which he had visited during his voyage, and from which, says
Tiraboschi, we derive the intelligence, that he had formed the design, in
common with the other navigators of that era, of attempting a passage
through those seas to the East Indies. It is much to be desired, that some
Italian Scholar would favor the world with the publication of this
manuscript of Verazzani."
[_See pages_ 71-72.]
_THE FRENCH WHO REMAINED IN QUEBEC AFTER ITS CAPITULATION TO THE BRITISH
IN 1629._
(_From the Canadian Antiquarian_)
In Canadian annals there is no period veiled deeper in Cimmerian darkness,
than the short era of the occupation of Quebec by the English under Louis
Kirke, extending from the 14th July 1629, to 13th July, 1632. The absence
of diaries, of regular histories, no doubt makes it difficult to
reconstruct, in minute details, the nascent city of 1629. Deep researches,
however, in the English and French archives have recently brought to the
surface many curious incidents. To the Abbé Faillon, who, in addition to
the usual sources of information had access to the archives of the
Propaganda at Rome, the cause of history is deeply indebted, though one
must occasionally regret his partiality towards Montreal which so often
obscures his judgment. Another useful source to draw from for our
historians, will be found in a very recent work on the conquest of Canada
in 1629 by a descendant of Louis Kirke, an Oxford graduate, it is
published in England.
Those who fancy reading the present to the past, will be pleased to meet
in those two last writers a quaint account of the theological feud
agitating the Rock in 1629. Religious controversies were then, as now, the
order of the day. But bluff Commander Kirke had a happy way of getting rid
of bad theology. His Excellency, whose ancestors hailed from France, was a
Huguenot, a staunch believer in John Calvin. Of his trusty garrison of 90
men a goodly portion were calvinists, the rest, however, with the chaplain
of the forces, were disciples of Luther. The squabble, from theology,
degenerated into disloyalty to the constituted authorities, a conspiracy
was hatched to overthrow the Governor's rule and murder Kirke. His
Reverence the Lutheran minister was supposed to be in some way accessory
to the plot, which Kirke found means to suppress with a high hand, and His
Reverence, without the slightest regard to the cut of his coat, was
arrested and detained a prisoner for six months in the Jesuit's residence
on the banks of the St. Charles, near Hare Point, from which he emerged,
let us hope, a wiser, if not a better man. History has failed to disclose
the name of the Lutheran minister.
Elsewhere [332] we have furnished a summary of the French families who
remained in Quebec in 1629, after the departure of Champlain and
capitulation of the place to the British. Students of Canadian history are
indebted to Mr. Stanislas Drapeau, of Ottawa, for a still fuller account,
which we shall take the liberty to translate.
"Over and above the English garrison of Quebec, numbering 90 men, we can
make out that twenty-eight French remained. The inmates of Quebec that
winter amounted to 118 persons, as follows:
1. GUILLAUME HOBOU--Marie Rollet, his wife, widow of the late Louis
Hébert, Guillaume Hébert son of Louis Hébert.
2. GUILLAUME COUILLARD, son-in-law of the late Louis Hébert.--Guillemette
Hébert, his wife, Louise, aged four years, Marguerite, aged three years,
Louis, aged two years, their children.
3. ABRAHAM MARTIN.--Marguerite Langlois, his wife; Anne, aged twenty-five
years; Marguerite, aged five years; Hélène, aged two years, their
children.
4. PIERRE DESPORTES.--Francois Langlois, his wife; Hélène Langlois.
5. NICHOLAS PIVERT.--Marguerite Lesage, his wife; Marguerite Lesage, his
little neice; Adrien du Chesne, Surgeon.
NICOLET; FROIDEMOUCHE; LE COQ., carpenter; PIERRE ROY, of Paris, coach-
builder; ETIENNE BRUSLÉ, of Champigny, interpreter of the Hurons; NICOLAS
MARSOLAIS, of Rouen, interpreter of the Montagnais; GROS JEAN, of Dieppe,
interpreter of the Algonquins.
ENGLISH GARRISON.--Louis Kirke, Commandant and Governor;... Minister of
Religion; Le Baillif, of Amiens, clerk to Kirke; 88 men, officers, and
soldiers."
_THE ARMS OF THE DOMINION._
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES TO THE GOVERNOR GENERAL.
DOWNING STREET, October 14, 1868.
My Lord,--I have the honour to enclose a certified copy of 26th May, Her
Majesty's Warrant of Assignment of 1868, Armorial Bearings for the
Dominion and Provinces of Canada, which has been duly enrolled in Her
Majesty's College of Arms, and I have to request that your Lordship will
take such steps as may be necessary for carrying Her Majesty's gracious
intentions into effect.
I have, &c,
(Signed) BUCKINGHAM AND CHANDOS.
TO THE GOVERNOR, THE RIGHT HON. VISC. MONK, &c., &c.
VICTORIA R.
VICTORIA, by the grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith, &c.
To our right trusty and well-beloved councillor Edward George Fitzalan
Howard, (commonly called Lord Edward George Fitzalan Howard), deputy to
our right trusty and right entirely beloved cousin, Henry, Duke of
Norfolk, Earl Marshal, and our Hereditary Marshal of England--Greeting:
Whereas, etc,... We were empowered to declare after a certain day therein
appointed, that the Provinces of Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick should
form one Dominion under the name of Canada, etc.,... and after the first
day of July, 1867, the said Provinces should form and be one Dominion
under the name of Canada accordingly.
And forasmuch as it is Our Royal will and pleasure that for the greater
honour and distinction of the said Provinces, certain Armorial Ensigns
should be assigned to them;
Know Ye, therefore, that We, of Our Princely Grace and special favour have
granted and assigned, and by these presents do grant and assign the
Armorial Ensigns following, that is to say:
FOR THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO
Vert a sprig of three Leaves of Maple slipped, or on a chief Argent the
Cross of St. George.
FOR THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC
Or on a Fess Gules between two Fluer de Lis in chief Azure, and a sprig of
three Leaves of Maple slipped vert in base, a Lion passant guardant or
FOR THE PROVINCE OF NOVA SCOTIA
Or on a Fess Wavy Azure between three Thistles proper, a Salmon Naiant
Argent
FOR THE PROVINCE OF NEW BRUNSWICK
Or on Waves a Lymphad, or Ancient Galley, with Oars in action, proper on a
chief Gules a Lion passant guardant or, as the same are severally depicted
in the margin hereof, to be borne for the said respective Provinces on
Seals, Shields, Banners, Flags or otherwise, according to the Laws of Arms
And we are further pleased to declare that the said United Province of
Canada, being one Dominion under the name of Canada, shall, upon all
occasions that may be required, use a common Seal, to be called the "Great
Seal of Canada," which said seal shall be composed of the Arms of the said
four Provinces quarterly, all of which armorial bearings are set forth in
our Royal Warrant
Our Will and Pleasure is that you, Edward George Fitzalan Howard,
(commonly called Lord Edward George Fitzalan Howard) Deputy to our said
Earl Marshal, to whom the cognizance of matters of this nature doth
properly belong, do require and command that this Our Concession and
Declaration be recorded in our college of arms, in order that Our Officers
of Arms and all other Public Functionaries whom it may concern may take
full notice and knowledge thereof in their several and respective
departments. And for so doing this shall be your Warrant, given at our
Court at St James, this twenty-sixth day of May, in the thirty-first year
of Our Reign
By Her Majesty's command,
(Signed) BUCKINGHAM AND CHANDOS
"SEAL OF THE DOMINION OF CANADA--Messrs J. G. and A. B. Wyon have now on
view, at 287 Regent Street, impressions from the seals of the four
provinces of Canada and the Great Seal of the Dominion, just completed,
with the gold medal that has been struck in commemoration of the union of
the provinces. They are all designed and executed in a very high style of
art. Of the seals, that for the Dominion is, of coarse, the largest. It
represents the Queen seated under a Gothic canopy and holding the ball and
sceptre, while the wings of the canopy contain the shields of the
Provinces--two on either side--hanging on the stem of an oak. These Gothic
canopies occupy nearly the whole of the middle space of the seal, the
ground between them and the border is covered with a rich diaper, and a
shield bearing the Royal Arms of England fills the space beneath the
centre canopy. The border of the seal bears the inscription, "Victoria,
Dei Gratia, Britanniae Regina, F. D. In Canada Sigillum." This work would
add to the reputation of any other seal engraver, though it can hardly do
so to that of the Messrs Wyon, whose productions have long enjoyed a high
and deserved celebrity. The seal is well filled, as it should be in a
Gothic design, but it is not crowded, the ornaments are all very pure in
style, and the whole is in the most perfect keeping. The execution is not
less remarkable, the relief is extremely high in parts (although it does
not at first appear to be so, owing to the breadth of the composition),
but, in spite of this difficulty, the truth, sharpness, and finish of
every part have been preserved as well as they could possibly be on a
medal, or even on a coin. The smaller seals for the provinces are engraved
on one general design. The crown surmounts a central shield bearing the
Royal Arms, below which is a smaller shield bearing the arms of the
particular province--New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec, or Nova Scotia. The
Royal motto on a flowing ribbon fills up the space at the sides; a border
adapted to the outline of the design runs outside this, and touches the
circular border of the seal containing the legend. These seals are no less
remarkable for carefulness of execution than the one to which we have
referred. The medal which has been struck to commemorate the confederation
of the provinces is in solid gold, and is so large and massive that its
value in metal alone is £50. On the obverse there is a head of the Queen,
for which Her Majesty recently gave Mr. Wyon sittings; the reverse bears
an allegorical design--Britannia seated and holding the scroll of
confederation, with figures representing the four provinces grouped around
her. Ontario holds the sheaf and sickle; Quebec, the paddle; Nova Scotia,
the mining spade; and New Brunswick the forest axe. Britannia carries her
trident and the lion crouches by her side. The following inscription runs
round a raised border: "Juventas et Patrius Vigor Canada Instaurata 1867."
The relief on this side is extremely bold, and the composition, modelling
and finish are such as to leave little to be desired. The treatment of the
head on the obverse is broad and simple; the hair is hidden by a sort of
hood of flowing drapery confined by a plain coronet, and the surface is
but little broken anywhere. The ornaments are massive rather than rich;
there is a plain pendant in the ear, and a miniature of the Prince Consort
is attached to a necklace of very chaste design."--_Morning Chronicle,
Quebec._
[_See page_ 148.]
_MILITIA UNIFORMS._
Canadian militiamen will be interested in the following letter which
appeared in the Toronto _Globe_.
SIR,--I observe in your "Notes from the Capital" a paragraph to the effect
that Major-General Luard has taken exception to the gold lace worn by
certain arms of the active militia. I am aware that this point has been
raised before, and perhaps it is not a very material issue; but there is a
feature--an historical one--in connection with the subject that deserves
attention, and I remember when the militia was more active than now, in
the face of danger to the peace of the country, this historical point was
brought into prominence. I simply suggest that a certain warrant signed by
the King after the war of 1812 be unearthed. I believe it lies somewhere
in the militia archives, having been transferred from the Public Record
Office. According to an old officer, now dead, who was familiar with it,
this warrant authorises the Canadian militia--a royal force, by the way--
to wear the same uniform as His Majesty's "Royal Regiments." Hence it is
that the characteristic features of the royal livery has been assumed by
the artillery and the other arms of the service. My informant, who had
served in 1812, also stated that it was owing to an accident that silver
was assumed in 1862, the contractor in London, who supplied, in great
haste, uniforms for the militia at the time of the Trent affair, assuming
that "militia" uniforms must be after the style of the English force,
which bears silver ornaments. The Canadian militia is, of course, on a
different footing, and takes precedence after the regular army. I think,
therefore, that for the sake of history and the prominent position of the
Canadian militia in a warlike sense, and in view of services rendered,
such as no other militia in the British service ever rendered, this point
is worthy of revival and investigation. Apart from this there is the fact
that a change of dress is a source of expense and embarrassment to
officers. I have served in various corps for seventeen years, and I know.
L. A. M. L.
[_See page_ 24.]
_HORSES._
"L'un des premiers soins du Monarque fut d'y faire passer (au Canada), à
ses frais, des chevaux, tant pour faciliter aux colons les travaux de
l'agriculture, que pour leur procurer leur commodité particulière, attendu
que jusque-là ils n'avaient pu marcher qu'à l'aide de raquettes pendant
l'hiver. Le 16 juillet 1665 on débarqua à Québec douze chevaux, les
premiers envoyés de France par le Roi. Il était naturel que les sauvages,
à qui ces animaux étaient entièrement inconnus, témoignassent une grande
surprise en voyant ces _orignaux de France_: c'est ainsi qu'ils les
appelaient, par comparaison avec ces animaux du pays, n'ayant pas de mots
dans leur langue pour les désigner. Ce qu'ils admiraient surtout,
c'étaient qu'ils fussent si traitables et si dociles sons la main de leurs
cavaliers, qui les faisaient marcher à leur fantaisie. [333] Sa Majesté a
encore envoyé des chevaux, écrivait en 1667 la mère Marie de
l'Incarnation, et on nous a donné pour notre part deux belles juments et
un cheval, tant pour la charrue que pour le charroi. [334] "L'année 1670,
le Roi envoya pareillement un étalon et douze juments, et les fit
distribuer aux gentilshommes du pays, les plus zélés pour la culture des
terres: une jument à M. Talon, deux juments à M. de Chambly avec un
étalon, une à M. de Sorel, une à M. de Contrecoeur, une à M. de Saint-
Ours, une à M. de Varenne, deux juments à M. de Lachesnaye, une à M. de
Latouche, une à M. de Repentigny, enfin la douzième à M. Le Ber. Voici les
conditions auxquelles le Roi faisaient ces sortes de dons aux
particuliers, ils devaient les nourrir pendant trois ans: et si par leur
faute, quelqu'un de ces animaux venaient à mourir, celui à qui il avait
été donné était obligé de donner au receveur du Roi la somme de deux cents
livres. Dans l'autre cas, il pouvait le vendre après les trois ans
expirés, ainsi que les poulains qu'il aurait pu avoir; mais avec charge au
bout de trois ans, de donner au receveur de Sa Majesté un poulain d'un an
pour chaque cheval, ou la somme de cent livres. Il était pareillement
ordonné que, lorsque ces poulains que le Roi faisait élever et nourrir
seraient parvenus à leur troisième année, on les distribuer ait à d'autres
particuliers, et toujours aux mêmes conditions. [335] Comme on le voit,
ces conditions ne pouvaient être plus avantageuses aux particuliers, ni au
pays en général; aussi Colbert, qui avait tant à coeur de voir fleurir la
colonie, écrivait à M. Talon, le 11 février 1671. "Je tiendrai la main à
ce qu'il soit envoyé en Canada des cavales et des ânesses, afin de
multiplier ces espèces si nécessaires à la commodité des habitants." [336]
De tous les animaux domestiques envoyés par le Roi dans la Nouvelle-
France, les chevaux furent, en effet, ceux qui s'y multiplièrent le plus,
quoique le nombre des autres y augmentât d'une manière étonnante. [337]--
(_L'Histoire de la Colonie Française en Canada_, Faillon, Vol. III, p.
222.)
_EXPORTATION OF CANADIAN CATTLE TO EUROPE._
According to the statistics furnished by Mr. McEachran, V.S., and
Government Inspector of live stock, the total shipments for 1879 from
Montreal and Quebec from toe opening to the close of navigation, as
compared with the two previous years, are as follows:--
1879 1878 1877
Cattle... 24,823 18,665 6,940
Sheep.... 78,792 41,250 9,500
Hogs..... 4,745 2,078 430
The great majority of animals shipped from Quebec were forwarded by sail
from Montreal, and large as the increased shipments of cattle, sheep and
hogs this year are over 1878 and 1877, the exports next year will
doubtless show a still large increase as compared with those of 1879--
[Quebec _Mercury_, 18th Nov., 1879.]
Mr. J. A. Couture, veterinary surgeon, the officer in charge of the Point
Levi cattle quarantine, furnishes the following figures regarding the
Canadian Cattle Trade during the season of 1879. The total number of live
stock shipped at Montreal was 17,101 head of cattle, 59,907 sheep, and
3,468 hogs. From this port the shipments were 4,000 head of cattle, 17,274
sheep, and 188 hogs; or a grand total from the two shipping ports of
21,112 head of cattle; 77,181 sheep and 3,656 hogs. The estimated value of
this live stock is--cattle, $1,111,200; sheep, $771,810; and hogs,
$52,720; or a grand total of $2,935,730. The value of the forage exported
with this stock for food, averaging the trip of each steamship at ten
days, is placed at $92,690; and the estimated sums paid to the various
steamship lines for freight is $583,900.--[Quebec _Mercury_, 24th Nov.,
1879.]
[_See page_ 200.]
_SHIP-BUILDING AT QUEBEC UNDER FRENCH DOMINATION._
"La construction des vaisseaux était une autre branche d'industrie que
Louis XIV avait à coeur d'introduire en Canada; et dans ce dessin, il eut
soin d'y faire passer tous les ouvriers nécessaires, ainsi que d'autres,
pour préparer des bois propres à cette construction et les transporter en
France. Peu après son arrivée en Canada, M. Talon donna tous ses soins à
un objet de si grande importance. "Il faut couper des bois de toute sorte,
lit-on dans la Relation de 1667, qui se trouvent par tout le Canada, et
qui donnent facilité aux Français et aux autres, qui viennent s'y
habituer, de s'y loger dès leur arrivée. Il fait faire des matures, dont
il envoie cette année des essais à la Rochelle pour servir à la marine. Il
s'est appliqué, de plus, aux bois propres à la construction des vaisseaux,
dont l'épreuve a été faite en ce pays par la bâtisse d'une barque, qui se
trouve de bon service, et d'un gros vaisseau tout prêt à être mis à
l'eau." [338] Dans l'état de la dépense du Roi pour l'année 1671, nous
lisons cet article remarquable: "Quarante-mille livres pour être employées
à la construction des vaisseaux qui se font en Canada, comme aussi à la
coupe et à la façon des bois envoyés de ce pays pour les constructions qui
se font dans les ports du royaume." [339] Le premier de ces vaisseaux,
auxquels on travaillait l'année 1672, devait être du poids de quatre a
cinq cents tonneaux; et, dans le même temps, on se disposait à en
construire un autre plus considérable encore, dont tous les matériaux
étaient déjà prêts. [340] L'un de ces bâtiments étant enfin achevé, on
demanda au Roi qu'il voulût bien le laisser dans la colonie, ce qui
pourtant n'eut pas lieu." [341]--_Histoire de la Colonie Française en
Canada_, Faillon, Vol. III, p. 256.
Extract from "_Mémoires et Relations sur l'Histoire Ancienne du Canada_
d'après des Manuscrits récemment obtenus des Archives et Bureaux Publics,
en France."
(Publiés sous la direction de la Société Littéraire et Historique de
Québec, 1840. (1748.))--"Il y a une Construction royale établie à Québec;
le Roy y entretient un Constructeur-en-chef, et tous les ouvriers
nécessaires; mais cette construction est aujourd'hui décriée, et l'on dit
que le Roy va la faire cesser pour les raisons suivantes:
En premier lieu, on prétend que les vaisseaux bâtis à Québec coûtent
beaucoup plus que ceux bâtis dans les ports de France; mais on n'ajoute
pas que ce n'est qu'en apparence, attendu qu'il passe sur le compte de la
construction beaucoup de dépenses qui n'y ont aucun rapport.
En second lieu, que ces vaisseaux jusqu'a présent ont été de très-peu de
durée; d'où l'on conclut que les bois du Canada ne valent rien.
Pour juger sainement de la qualité de ces bois, il faut entrer dans le
détail de ce qui en regarde la coupe, le transport à Québec, et l'employ à
la construction.
Premièrement: Ces bois du Canada sont extrêmement droits, ce n'est qu'avec
beaucoup de peine qu'on trouve dans leurs racines des bois tords, propres
à la construction.
Deuxièmement: Jusqu'à présent on n'a exploité que les Chênières les plus
voisines des rivières, et conséquemment situées dans les lieux bas, a
cause de la facilité de transport.
Troisièmement: Les bois sont coupés en hiver; on les traîne sur la neige
jusques au bord des rivières et des lacs; lorsque la fonte des neiges et
des glaces a rendu la navigation libre, on les met en radeaux pour les
descendre à Québec, où ils restent longtems dans l'eau, avant d'être tirés
à terre, et où ils en contractent une mousse qui les échauffe; encore
imbibés d'eau, ils sont exposés dans un chantier à toute l'ardeur du
soleil de l'été; l'hiver qui succède les couvre une seconde fois de neige,
que le printems fait fondre, et ainsi successivement jusqu'a ce qu'ils
soient employés; enfin, ils restent deux ans sur les chantiers, où de
nouveau ils essuyent deux fois l'extrémité du froid et du chaud qu'on sent
dans ce climat.
Voilà les causes du peu de durée de ces vaisseaux:
Si on coupoit les bois sur les hauteurs; s'ils étoient transportés à
Québec dans des barques; si on les garantissoit des injures du tems dans
des hangars, et si les vaisseaux ne restoient qu'une année sur les
chantiers il est évident qu'ils dureroient plus longtems. Dans la
démolition de ceux qui ont été condamnés en France, on a reconnu que les
bordages s'etoient bien conservés, et qu'ils étoient aussi bons que ceux
qu'on tire de Sède; mais que les membres en étoient pourris. Est-il
étonnant que les bois tords pris à la racine d'arbres qui avoient le pied
dans l'eau qu'on n'a pas eu attention de faire sécher à couvert,
s'échauffent quand ils se trouvent enfermés entre deux bordages?
Je ne vois donc pas que les raisons alléguées centre les vaisseaux de
Québec soient suffisantes pour en faire cesser la construction. Je dis
plus, que le Roy fait en Canada, celle de la construction me paroit la
plus nécessaire, et celle qui peut devenir la plus utile. Tout esprit non
prévenu sera forcé de convenir qu'on y fera construire des vaisseaux avec
plus d'économie que dans les ports de France, toutes les fois qu'on ne
confondra pas d'autres dépenses avec celles de la construction.
D'ailleurs, il est important qu'il y ait à Québec un certain nombre de
charpentiers et de calfats; il en manque aujourd'hui, malgré ceux que le
Roy entretient; et lorsque les particuliers en ont besoin au printems, ils
n'en trouvent point; un calfat se paye six francs pour une marée. J'avoue
qu'alors tous les travaux de cette espèce sont pressés; mais ordinairement
un charpentier gagne trois à quatre francs par jour avec les particuliers.
Indépendamment de l'intérêt des particuliers, les vaisseaux qui viennent à
Québec, ont quelques fois besoin d'un radoub, et dans le nombre des
navires marchands, il y en a toujours quelqu'un qu'il est nécessaire de
radouber par des accidents arrivés dans la traversée. Si le Roy faisoit
cesser ici la construction de ses vaisseaux, tous les ouvriers qui y sont
employés seroient forcés d'aller chercher du travail ailleurs.
Enfin, on a besoin en Canada de petits bâtiments pour les postes de la
pêche, pour le commerce de Québec, à Montréal, pour le cabotage de la
rivière, pour la traite à Gaspé et à Louisbourg; et cette partie de la
construction est si fort négligée ici, que les Anglois de ce continent
fournissent une partie des bâtimens pour la navigation dans l'intérieur de
notre Colonie. Ce n'est pas que leurs bois sont meilleurs, ou leurs
bâtimens mieux construits que les nôtres, mais ils les donnent à meilleur
marche. Aussi voyons-nous dans toutes nos places maritimes des navires
marchands construits dans la Nouvelle-Angleterre.
Loin donc de prendre le parti d'abandonner la Construction royale, parti
préjudiciable à la Colonie, et j'ose dire à l'État, il seroit nécessaire
non-seulement que le Roy continuât à faire construire des vaisseaux en
Canada, mais encore qu'il encourageât des entrepreneurs pour la
construction de bâtimens marchands. La gratification de vingt francs par
tonneau, accordée aux particuliers qui feroient passer en France des
bâtimens construits en Canada, ne suffroit pas aujourd'huy pour les
engager à cet égard dans des entreprises d'un certaine considération; la
main d'oeuvre est hors de prix, et les entrepreneurs seraient forcés de
faire venir de France les voiles, cordages et autres agrès.
Il faudroit, indépendamment de la gratification, que le Roy fît passer à
Québec une partie de ses agrès, et qu'il les donnât aux entrepreneurs à un
prix raisonnable: il faudroit en outre qu'il leur procureroit un frêt pour
les bâtimens qu'ils envoyeroient en France, et il le leur procureroit en
ordonnant qu'on reçut dans ses ports les planches, bordages, merrains,
plançons de chêne, mâtures et autres articles de cette espèce, dont ces
bâtimens seroient chargés, au même prix qu'il les paye aux fournisseurs
qui tirent tous ces articles de l'étranger; en prenant ces mesures, le
Canada fourniroit les bâtimens nécessaires pour le commerce intérieur de
la Colonie, dispenseroit la France d'avoir recours aux Anglois pour les
navires qui manquent à son commerce en Europe, et que les Anglois
construisent dans le même continent où nous avons de si vastes
possessions; les mâtures du Canada, estimées autant que celles que nous
tirons du Nord à grands frais, ne seroient pas pour nous en pure perte;
ces exploitations devenant considérables, faciliteroient la culture des
terres, en désertant des cantons qui, peut-être, ne le seront jamais;
enfin cette construction, établie sur le pied où on le propose, coûteroit
sans doute, au Roy; mais cette dépense, sagement économisée, feroit partie
de celles que nous avons dit être nécessaires pour la balance du commerce
de cette Colonie avec la France."
I have furnished elsewhere, a sketch and a tabular statement showing the
gradual progress in ship-building, under French Rule and under English
Rule, from 1787 down to 1875.--_Vide_ QUEBEC PAST AND PRESENT, page 434-9.
[_See page 219._]
_THE CONQUEST OF NEW YORK._
"Louis XIV," says Parkman, "commanded that eighteen thousand unoffending
persons should be stripped of all they possessed, and cast out to the
mercy of the wilderness. The atrocity of the plan is matched by its folly.
The King gave explicit orders, but he gave neither ships nor men enough to
accomplish them; and the Dutch farmers, goaded to desperation, would have
cut his sixteen hundred soldiers to pieces." [342]
"Si parmy les habitans de la Nouvelle-York il se trouve des Catholiques de
la fidélité desquels il croye se pouvoir asseurer, il pourra les laisser
dans leurs habitations, après leur avoir fait prester serment de fidélité
à Sa Majesté.... Il pourra aussi garder, s'il le juge à propos, des
artisans et autres gens de service nécessaires pour l'a culture des
terres, ou pour travailler aux fortifications, en qualité de
prisonniers.... Il faut retenir en prison les officiers et les principaux
habitans desquels on pourrat retirer des rançons. A l'esgard de tous les
autres estrangers (_ceux que ne sont pas Français_), hommes, femmes
et enfans, sa Majesté trouve à propos qu'ils soient mis hors de la Colonie
et envoyez a la Nouvelle Angleterre, a la Pennsylvanie ou en d'autres
endroits qu il jugera à propos par mer ou par terre, ensemble ou
séparément le tout suivant qu il trouvera plus seur pour les dissiper et
empescher qu en se réunissant ils ne puissent donner occasion à des
entreprises contre cette Colonie. Il envoyera en France les Français
fugitifs qu'il y pourra trouver et particulièrement ceux de la Religion
Prétendue-Reformée (_Huguenots_)--(New York Col. Docs. IX 422)
_Vide--Le Roy à Denonville, 7 juin 1689 le Ministre à Denonville, même
date, le Ministre à Frontenac, même date ordre du Roy à Vaudreuil, même
date le Roy au Sieur de la Coffinère; même date, Champagny au Ministre, 16
Nov. 1689_
_COPY OF THE EPITAPH PREPARED BY THE ACADÉMIE DES INSCRIPTIONS AT PARIS
FOR THE MARQUIS OF MONTCALM'S TOMB._
Leave was asked by the French Government to have the marble tablet, on
which this epitaph was inscribed, sent out to Quebec, and granted by the
English Government (_Vide_ William Pitt's Letter, 10th April, 1761).
This inscription, from some cause or other, never reached Quebec.
EPITAPH
Hic jacet
Utroque in orbe aeternum victurus,
LUDOVICUS JOSEPHUS DE MONTCALM GOZON
Marchio Sancti Verani, Baro Gabriaci,
Ordinis Sancti Ludovici Commendator,
Legatus Generalis Exercituum Gallicorum
Egregius et Civis et Miles,
Nullius rei appetens praeterquam verae laudis
Ingenio felici et literis exculto
Omnes Militiae gradus per continua decora emensus,
Omnium Belli Artium, temporum, discriminum gnarus,
In Italia, in Bohemia, in Germania
Dux industrius
Mandata sibi ita semper gerens ut majoribus par haberetur,
Jam clarus periculis
Ad tutandam Canadensem Provinciam missu
Parva militum manu Hostium copias non semel repulit,
Propugnacula cepit viris armisque instructissima
Algoris, mediae, vigiliarum, laboris patiens,
Suis ucice prospiciens immemor sui,
Hostis acer, victor mansuetus
Fortunam virtute, virium inopiam peritia et celeritate compensavit,
Imminens Coloniae fatum et consilio et manu per quadriennium sustinuit
Tandem ingentem Exercitum Duce strenuo et audaci,
Classemque omni bellorum mole gravem,
Mulitiplici prudentia diu ludificatus
Vi pertractus ad dimicandum,
In prima acie, in primo conflictu vulneratus,
Religioni quam semper coluerat innitens,
Magno suoram desiderio, nec sine hostium moerore,
Extinctus est
Die XIV. Sept, A. D. MDCCLIX. aetat. XLVIII.
Mortales optimi ducis exuvias in excavata humo,
Quam globus bellicus decidens dissiliensque defoderat,
Galli lugentes deposuerunt,
Et generosae hostium fidei commendarunt
_The Annual Register for 1762._
_THE FRENCH REFUGEES OF OXFORD, MASS._
An elegantly printed volume has just issued from the press of Noyes, Snow
and Co., Worcester, Mass, from the pen of George F. Daniels, containing a
succinct history of one of the earliest Massachusetts towns--the town of
Oxford; we think we cannot introduce it to the reader more appropriately,
than in the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, whose graceful introduction
prefaces the volume.
Oliver Wendell Holmes to George F. Daniels:--"Of all my father's
historical studies," says the Autocrat of the Breakfast-table, "none ever
interested me so much as his 'Memoir of the French Protestants who settled
at Oxford, in 1686,'--all the circumstances connected with that second
Colony of Pilgrim-Fathers, are such as to invest it with singular
attraction for the student of history, the antiquary, the genealogist. It
carries us back to the memories of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, to
the generous Edict of Nantes, and the gallant soldier-king, who issued it;
to the days of the Grand Monarque, and the cruel act of revocation which
drove into exile hundreds of thousands of the best subjects of France--
among them the little band which was planted in our Massachusetts half-
tamed wilderness. It leads the explorer who loves to linger around the
places consecrated by human enterprise, efforts, trials, triumphs,
sufferings, to localities still marked with the fading traces of the
strangers who, there found a refuge for a few brief years, and then
wandered forth to know their homes no more. It tells the lovers of family
history where the un-English names which he is constantly meeting with--
Bowdoin, Faneuil, Sigourney--found their origin, and under what skies were
moulded the type of lineaments, unlike those of Anglo-Saxon parentage,
which he finds among certain of his acquaintance, and it may be in his own
family or himself. And what romance can be fuller of interest than the
story of this hunted handful of Protestants leaving, some of them at an
hour's warning, all that was dear to them, and voluntarily wrecking
themselves, as it were, on this shore, where the savage and the wolf were
waiting ready to dispute possession with the feeble intruders. They came
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