Chapter V: Modern Quebec (9)

Jusqu'à présent la chose se lit bien, le sens en est raisonnable et
positif. Supposant le chirurgien un homme instruit et lettré,
l'inscription latine se complète d'elle-même. Mais, hélas! il y un
mais,--la lettre C avant Gifart me trouble un peu. Comme je n'ai sous
la main aucun volume, aucune tradition du temps à consulter, je suis
obligé de m'en tenir aux correspondances de journaux, et je trouve
dans toutes le prénom de _Robert_--ce qui ne commence pas du tout
par un C! [299] Mais le C, le malheureux C, ne serait-il pas
l'initiale de Cloutier, le charpentier ou l'entrepreneur avec lequel
Gifart avait fait un contrat à Mortaigne, le 14 mars 1634, quatre mois
à peu près avant la pose de la première pierre? Alors il faudrait lire
j'ai été plantée par Cloutier, Gifart étant seigneur de ce lieu.

Je m'arrête, le souvenir de _certaine_ inscription sur certain
_pont_ vient troubler toutes ces belles spéculations. A force de
vouloir être _savant_, on pourrait faire dire à Robert Gifart des
choses qu'il n'a jamais pensées.

Si, après tout, ce Gifart n'était pas _savant_, et qu'il eut voulu
dire par I. H. S., Jésus-Christ, et M. I. A., Maria, ce serait trop
fort--J'aimerais mieux la théorie de M. le Dr. Marsden, et de M.
Bédard, _Maria, Joachim, Anna_. Le 25 juillet étant la fête de
saint Jacques, et la vigile de saint Joachim, il serait plus
raisonnable de penser qu'on aurait mis la construction du premier
Manoir canadien sous la protection et les auspices du saint du jour

Reste a savoir si la Saint Jacques se fêtait le 25 juillet, la Saint
Joachim le 26, en l'an de notre Seigneur 1634.

Je laisse à d'autres de mieux trouver.

Quoiqu'il en soit, cette date 1634, est un centenaire mémorable, car
c'est en 1534 que Jacques Cartier, visita le golfe Saint-Laurent et
c'est en 1535, qu'il remonta notre beau fleuve jusqu'à Hochelaga, cent
ans avant la première concession seigneuriale de Beauport.

J'ai l'honneur d'être, Monsieur,
votre humble servt.,
Cte. d'ORSONNENS

L'INSCRIPTION DU MANOIR DE BEAUPORT.

Parmi une masse de vieux documents que je possède, concernant la
seigneurie de Beauport et ses seigneurs, j'ai trouve le reçu suivant:

"Je, soussigné, confesse avoir reçu un billet de cent cinquante livres
de monsieur de Beauport, pour ce qu'il m'avait promis pour faire sa
bâtisse de logis de Beauport.

"faict ce 27ième juillet 1642.

"P. CLUST."

Cela donnerait peut-être une explication des abréviations "P. C." de
l'inscription trouvée dans les ruines du vieux manoir.

En effet, il est loisible de supposer que cet architecte a fait ce que
ses confrères modernes font encore, et qu'il a gravé ses initiales sur
l'inscription commémorative de la pose de la première pierre
_plantée dans la bâtisse de Beauport_.

H. J. J. DUCHESNAY.

La Beauce, 14 avril, 1881.

_H. V'S LETTER._

(ABBÉ H. VERREAU?)

_Une relique historique_.

La _Minerve_ a publié l'inscription de la plaque trouvée à Beauport.
Le _Journal de Québec_ l'a reproduite aussi; mais avec une certaine
différence. Pour l'étude des personnes éloignées et pour l'utilité de
la science, il est bien désirable qu'on en prenne de nombreuses
impressions sur plâtre. Si madame Gugy accorde la permission
nécessaire, elle méritera certainement la reconnaissance de ceux qui
étudient notre histoire.

Il paraît que le dernier chiffre de la date se lit avec difficulté. Il
est toutefois très important de le déterminer avec toute la précision
possible.

A mes yeux, la date du 25 juillet entraîne plusieurs conséquences qui
disparaissent avec un autre chiffre.

I. Le 25 juillet est consacré à l'apôtre saint Jacques-le-Majeur. Ne
peut-on pas traduire le second groupe trilittère M. J. A. par
_Majori Jacobo Apostolo_, Le premier groupe, si connu d'ailleurs,
étant latin, il est naturel de supposer que le second l'est aussi.

II. La fête de saint Jacques-le-Majeur, qui tombait un mardi en 1634,
était chômée; par conséquent les travaux serviles ont dû être suspendu
ce jour-là.

III. Le même jour, 25 juillet 1634, Robert Gifart assistait à un
mariage à Québec, ce qui peut expliquer pourquoi il était remplacé à
Beauport par son fils Charles.

Mais la pose de la pierre angulaire d'une simple maison, un jour de
grande fête, me semble difficile à expliquer, qu'on veuille ou non y
faire intervenir les cérémonies de la Religion.

L'expression _Je été plantée_ offre aussi une difficulté. A cette
époque on faisait de nombreuses fautes d'orthographe, mais on avait
presque toujours le mot propre.

Il est bien vrai qu'en terme d'architecture, on disait _planter un
édifice_ pour l'_asseoir sur la maçonnerie de ses fondements_, mais je
ne sache pas qu'on ait dit _planter_ les pierres des fondements.

Cette plaque n'aurait-elle pas été destinée à une croix plantée à
l'endroit que Giffard voulait défricher?

Il est d'autant plus naturel qu'il ait commencé ses travaux par cet
acte de foi qu'il devait songer à faire bâtir une église près de sa
demeure. Dans cette supposition, on s'explique facilement que la croix
ait été plantée un jour de fête solennelle où tout le monde surtout à
cette époque, devait vaquer à ses devoirs religieux. Je vois dans les
_Archives_ de Beauport par Mgr. Langevin que la maison de Giffard,
d'après M. Ferland, devait être plus près de la petite rivière que le
manoir actuel.

C. Giffard, qui est désigné comme seigneur de Beauport, est le fils de
Robert. Il était né en France et devait être encore assez jeune. C'est
de lui que parle le _Journal_ des Jésuites en disant que le fils
de M. Giffard passa en France en 1646, avec d'autres jeunes gens 'tous
fripons pour la plupart qui avait fait mille pièces à l'autre voyage
et on donnait à tous de grands appointements.'

Ce 28 octobre il était parrain, et il s'embarquait le 31.

Il n'est plus question de lui après cette date, soit qu'il ait renoncé
au Canada, soit qu'il ait péri prématurément. Le père repris sa
seigneurie de Beauport qu'il fit agrandir le mieux put.

P. S.--En écrivant ce qui précède, j'étais un peu pressé; j'aurais dû
remarquer cependant que sous la lettre C, les lecteurs ne pouvaient
deviner le prénom du jeune seigneur de Beauport. Il s'appelait
_Charles_, et devait être né en France comme sa soeur _Marie_, qui
devint Madame de la Ferté.

Dans l'intérêt de vos lecteurs je ferai remarquer que le _Dictionnaire
Généalogique_ renferme, à l'article Giffard, certaines erreurs. Ainsi,
_Françoise_ qui commence l'article est la même que _Marie Françoise_
qui le termine; elle se fit religieuse à l'Hôtel-Dieu. L'épouse de
_Jean Juchereau de la Ferté_ fut _Marie_ née en France, puisque son
contrat de mariage en 1645 la dite "âgée de 17 ans environ" ce qui
reporte sa naissance vers 1628. Charles assiste et signe un contrat.
Ce n'est pas _Robert Giffard_, mais son fils _Joseph_, dont le corps
fut transporté à la cathédrale, le 31 décembre 1705.

_MOUNT LILAC, BEAUPORT._

Some thirty years ago, I saw, for the first time, the picturesque old manor of the Rylands at Beauport, this was in its classic days. Later on, I viewed it, mossy and forlorn, in what some might style its "non age". Of this, hereafter.

The _Château_ stood embowered amidst lilac groves and other ornamental shrubs, so far as I can recollect, with a background of elms, white birch, spruce, &c. Its vaulted, lofty and well-proportioned dining-room, with antique, morocco-covered chairs, and carved _buffets_ to store massive plate, its spacious hall and graceful winding staircase, its commanding position on the crest of the Beauport ridge, affording a striking view of Quebec, its well-stocked orchard, umbrageous plantations, and ample stables, from which issued, among other choice bits of blood, in 1842, the celebrated racer "Emigrant": several circumstances, in fact, conspired to impress it favorably on my youthful mind. On that occasion, I found _le milord anglais_ (as a waggish Canadian peasant called him) under his ancestral roof.

Recalling our parish annals of early times, I used then to think that should England ever (which God forbid) hand back to its ancient masters "these fifteen thousand acres of snow," satirized by Voltaire, ridiculed by Madame de Pompadour, cruelly and basely deserted by Louis XV, in their hour of trial, here existed a ready-made manor for the Giffards and Duchesnays of the future, where their descendants could becomingly receive fealty and homage. (_foi et homage_) from their feudal retainers. There was, however, nothing here to remind one of the lordly pageantry of other times--the days of absolutism--of the dark era, the age of _lettres de cachet_, _corvées_, _lods et ventes_, and other feudal burthens, when the flag of the Bourbons floated over the fortress of New France. In 1846, at the time of my visit, in vain would you have sought in the farm yard for a live seigniorial capon (_un chapon vif et en plumes_) though possibly in the larder, at Christmas, you might have discovered some fat, tender turkeys, or a juicy haunch of venison. Of _vin ordinaire_ ne'er a trace, but judging from the samples on the table, perhaps much mellow Madeira, and "London Stout" might have been stored in the cellars. Everywhere, in fact, was apparent English comfort, English cheer. On the walls of the banqueting apartment, or within the antique red-leathered portfolios strewn round, you would have run a greater chance of meeting face to face with the portraits of Lord Dorchester, Genl. Prescott, Sir Robert Shore Milnes, Sir James Craig, the Duke of Richmond, and other English Governors, the cherished friends of the Rylands than with the powdered head of his most sacred Majesty, the Great Louis, or the ruffled bust and sensual countenance of the voluptuous Louis XV.... But let us see more of Mount Lilac and its present belongings.

Facing the glittering cupolas of Quebec, there is a fertile area of meadow and cornfield stretching from Dorchester bridge to the deep ravine and Falls over which the Montmorency, _La Vache_, hangs its milk-white curtain of spray. On the river shore, in 1759, stood Montcalm's earth and field works of defence. Parallel to them and distant about half a mile, the highway, over which H.R.H. Prince Edward's equipage pranced daily, during the summers of 1791-3, now a macadamized road, ascends by a gentle rise, through a double row of whitewashed cottages, about seven miles, to the brow of the roaring cataract spanned over by a substantial bridge, half way, looms out the Roman Catholic temple of worship--a stately edifice, filled to overflowing on Sundays, the parochial charge in 1841 of the Rev. Charles Chiniquy, under whose auspices was built the Temperance Monument on the main road, a little past the Beauport Asylum. This constitutes the parish of Beauport, one of the first settled in the Province. It was conceded by the Company of New France, on the 31st December, 1635, to a French surgeon of some note, "le sieur Robert Giffard." Surgeon Giffard had not only skill as a chirurgeon to recommend him, he could plead services, nay captivity undergone in the colonial cause. An important man in his day was this feudal magnate Giffard, to whom fealty and homage were rendered with becoming pomp, by his _consitaires_, the Bellangers--Guions--Langlois--Parents--Marcoux, of 1635, whose descendents, still bearing the old Perche or Norman name, occupy to this day the white cottages to be seen on all sides.

On the highest site of this limestone ridge, a clever, influential, refined, and wealthy Briton, the Hon. Henry Wistius Ryland, for years Civil Secretary, Clerk of the Executive Council, a member of the Legislative Council, with other appointments, purchased from Col. Johnston, a lot, then a wilderness, for a country seat in 1805. Mr. Ryland had come out to Canada with Lord Dorchester in 1795, as his secretary, at the instance, we believe, of Lord Liverpool, his protector, at the age of 21 he was acting as Paymaster of two army corps, during the War of Independence in America.

For more than thirty years, Mr. Ryland enjoyed the favour, nay the intimacy of every ruler (except Sir George Prevost) which this then mis- ruled colony owed to Downing Street.

Antipathies of race had been on the increase at Quebec, ever since the parliamentary era of 1791; there was the French party, [300] led by fiery and able politicians, and the English oligarchy occupying nearly all the offices, and avenues to power. French armies under Napoleon I. swayed the destinies of continental Europe, their victories occasionally must have awakened here a responsive echo among their down-trodden fellow-countrymen cowardly deserted by France in 1759, whilst Nelson's victories of the Nile, of Trafalgar, of Copenhagen, and finally the field of Waterloo, had buoyed up to an extravagant pitch the spirits of the English minority of Quebec, which a French parliamentary majority had so often trammelled. It was during the major part of that stormy period that Hon. Herman Wistius Ryland, advised by the able Chief Justice Jonathan Sewell,--was in reality entrusted with the helm of state. He was, as Christie the historian observes, considered the "Fountain head of power." This subtle _diplomat_ (for such will be his title in history), however hostile in his attitude he might have appeared towards the French Canadian nationality, succeeded in retaining to the last the respect of the French Canadian peasantry who surrounded him.

Probably never at any time did he wield more power than under the administration of Sir James H. Craig. His views were so much in unison with those of Sir James, that His Excellency deputed him to England with a public mission threefold in its scope, the ostensible object of which was first "to endeavor to get the Imperial Government to amend or suspend the Constitution; secondly, to render the Government independent of the people, by appropriating towards it the revenues accruing from the estates of the Sulpicians [301] of Montreal, and of the Order of the Jesuits; thirdly to seize the patronage exercised by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Quebec,--the _cures_ or church livings in his diocese; contending that no Roman Catholic Bishop really existed in Canada, (but merely a superintendent of _curés_), none having been recognized by the Crown.

It has been stated that he had a fair chance of succeeding on two points, had not the great Lord Chancellor, Eldon, intervened to thwart his scheme. The correspondence exchanged between Mr. Ryland and His Excellency, Sir James H. Craig, preserved in the sixth volume of Christie's _History of Canada_, exhibits Mr. Ryland at his best, and has led some to infer that, had he been cast in a different sphere, where his talents and attainments would have been more properly appreciated and directed, he would have played a very conspicuous part. "We find the Beauport statesman in 1810, in London, [302] consulted on Canadian affairs by the leading English politicians and some of the proudest peers. The honored guest of English noblemen, [303] he appears at no disadvantage, sips their old port unawed, cosily seated at their mahogany. It must be borne in mind that, in 1810, Lord Castlereagh and Lord Liverpool had their hands pretty full with continental politics, perhaps too much so, to heed poor distant Canada.

Shortly after the arrival, at Quebec, of the Earl of Durham, viz., on the 29th July, 1838, the Hon. H. W. Ryland expired at his country seat at Beauport, aged 78 years. He was born in 1760 at Northampton in England, of a very ancient Saxon family, dating back to Edward the Confessor. Wm. Ryland his great grandfather having successfully defended Oxford against Oliver Cromwell, while his sons fought on the other side.

Mount Lilac then reverted to his son, George Herman Ryland, Esq., now Registrar at Montreal, who added much to the charms of the spot. It was offered to Lord Metcalfe subsequently as a country seat, but for reasons which it is unnecessary to enter into, the negotiations fell through. Mr. Ryland occupied it till his removal from the Quebec to the Montreal Registry, Office. Some years back the property was purchased by Mr. James Dinning, Quebec, who reserved for himself the farm, one hundred and five acres in extent, and sold in 1856, the house and twenty-three acres thereunto attached to a wealthy and whimsical old ironfounder of Quebec, Mr. John H. Galbraith. This thrifty tradesman, in order to keep his hand in order, like Thackeray's hero, continued the pursuit of his former occupation, the smelting of ore, even under the perfumed groves of Mount Lilac, and erected there an extensive grapery and conservatory, and a foundry as well; the same furnace blast thus served to produce, under glass, fragrant flowers--exquisite grapes--melting peaches, as well as solid pig iron and first class stove plates.

Mount Lilac owed a divided allegiance to Vulcan and Flora. Which of the home products pleased, the most the worthy Mr. Galbraith? is still an open question. [304]

_A VISIT TO THE INDIAN LORETTE._

Of the many attractive sites in the environs of the city, few contain in a greater degree than the Huron village of Lorette during the leafy months of June, July and September, picturesque scenery, combined with a wealth of historical associations. The nine miles intervening between Quebec and the rustic _auberge_ of the village, thanks to an excellent turnpike, can be spanned in little more than an hour. I shall now attempt to recapitulate some of the sights and incidents of travel which recently befell me, whilst escorting to Lorette an Old World tourist, of very high literary estate.

With a mellow autumnal sun, just sufficient to bronze the sombre tints, lingering at the close of the Indian summer, we left the St. Louis Hotel, the headquarters of tourists, and rapidly drove through _Fabrique_ and Palace streets, towards the unsightly gap in our city walls, of yore yclept Palace Gate, which all Lord Dufferin's _prestige_ failed to protect against vandalism, but which, thanks to his initiative, we expect yet to see _bridged over_ with, graceful turrets and Norman towers.

A turn to the west brought us opposite to the scarcely perceptible ruins of the Palace [305] of the French Intendants, destroyed by the English shells in 1775, to dislodge Arnold and Montgomery's New England soldiery.

The park which intervened formerly between it and the St. Charles was many years back converted into a wood yard to store the fuel for the garrison, a portion now is used as a cattle market, opposite, stands the station and freight sheds of the Q. M. O. & O. Railway, the road skirts the park towards the populous St. Roch suburbs, rebuilt and transformed since the great fire of the 28th May, 1845, which destroyed 1,600 houses, occupying the site of former spacious pasture grounds for the city cows, styled by the early French _La Vacherie_. In a trice we reach Dorchester bridge, the second one, built there in 1822, the first, opened with great pomp by His Excellency Lord Dorchester in 1789, having been constructed a few acres to the west, and called after him. The bridge, as a means of crossing from one shore to the other, is an undoubted improvement on the scow used up to 1789.

One of the first objects on quitting the bridge and diverging westward to the Charlesbourg road, on the river bank, is the stately, solid, antique mansion of the late C. Smith, Esq, who at one time owned nearly all the broad acres intervening between the house and _Gros Pin_. It took for a time the name of Smithville and was inherited by several members of his family, who built cosy houses round it. These green fields, fringed with white birch and spruce plantations, are watered by the St. Charles, the _Kahir-Koubat_ [306] of ancient days. In rear of one of the first villas _Ringfield_, owned by Geo. Holmes Parke, Esq., runs the diminutive stream, the _Lairet_, at the confluence of which Jacques Cartier wintered in 1535- 6, leaving, there one of his ships, the _Petite-Hermine_, of 60 tons, whose decayed oak timbers were exhumed in 1843, by Jos. Hamel, City Surveyor of Quebec. A very remarkable vestige of French domination exists behind the villa of Mr. Parke--a circular field (hence the name Ring- field) covering about twelve acres, surrounded by a ditch, with an earth work about twenty feet high, to the east, to shield its inmates from the shot of Wolfe's fleet lying at the entrance of the St. Charles, before Quebec. A minute description has been given by General Levi's aide-de- camp, the _Chevalier_ Johnstone, [307] of what was going on in this earthwork, where at noon, on the 13th Sept., 1759, were mustered the disorganized French squadrons in full retreat from the Plains of Abraham toward their camp at Beauport. Here, on that fatal day, was debated the surrender of the colony--the close of French rule: here also, close by, in 1535-6, was the cradle of French power, the first settlement and winter quarters of the French pioneers--Jacques Cartier's hardy little band.

From this spot, at eight o'clock that night (13th Sept.), began the French retreat towards the Charlesbourg church; at 4 a.m. next day the army was at Cap Rouge, disordered, panic-stricken! Oh! where was the heroic Levi!

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-FEASTSBURIALS._

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.