Picturesque Quebec, By James Macpherson Le Moine










































































































































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In 1626, the Pope (Barberini), Urban the VIII., having proclaimed a
jubilee, the ex-ambassador, as if a new light - Page 101
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In 1626, The Pope (Barberini), Urban The VIII., Having Proclaimed A Jubilee, The Ex-Ambassador, As If A New Light Had Dawned On Him, And Under The Guidance Of A Man Famous For His Pious And Ascetic Life, Vincent De Paul, Determined To Reform His House And Whole Life.

Thus, a few years after, viz., in 1632, the Commandeur de Sillery sold to Cardinal Richelieu his sumptuous and

Princely hotel in Paris, called Sillery, entered Holy Orders in 1634, and devoted all the energy of his mind and his immense wealth to the propagation of the faith amongst the aborigines of Canada, having been induced to do so by the Commandeur de Razili, who had previously solicited him to join the company des "Cents Associes," or Hundred Partners, of which Razili was a member.

The Commandeur de Sillery inaugurated his benevolent purpose by placing 12,000 livres in the hands of Father Charles Lalemant, a zealous Jesuit; this was the beginning of the mission which, through gratitude to its founder, was called Sillery - it was distant about four miles and a half from Quebec, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence; date of the foundation, July, 1637. [171] History has preserved a letter addressed from Paris by the Commandeur de Sillery to the Chevalier de Montmagny, governor of the colony, in which the benevolent man asked the Governor to ratify a grant of "twelve arpents" made to him in the city itself by the company of the Hundred Partners, and also to ratify a promised grant of other lands to open a seminary or school to educate Algonquin and Montagnais children, although, at the request of the Indians, the settlement became, in 1638, more extensive, and comprised also the residence of the christianized Indians. Negabamat and Nenasesenat were the first to establish their families there. On the last day of June, 1665, we will find the eloquent Negabamat, then a resident of Quebec, sent by his tribe to harangue and compliment the great Marquis of Tracy on his arrival at Quebec. (Relations, 1665, p. 4.) Father LeJeune, a learned Jesuit, had charge and control over the workmen who were sent out from France at the expense of the Commandeur de Sillery; and on the 22nd February, 1639, a permanent bequest was authentically recorded in favor of the mission by the Commandeur placing at interest, secured on the Hotel-de-Ville at Paris, a sum of 20,000 livres tournois. Palisades had been used originally to protect the settlement; in 1651, the Governor of Quebec, Jean de Lauzon, strengthened the palisades and added redoubts. [172] In 1647 the church of the mission had been placed under the invocation of St. Michael the Archangel; hence Sillery Cove, once called St. Joseph's, was, in 1647, named St Michael's Cove.

The Commandeur de Sillery extended his munificence to several other missionary establishments in Canada and other places. What with the building of churches, monasteries and hospitals in Champagne, France; at Annecy, Savoy; at Paris, and elsewhere, he must, indeed, have been for those days a veritable Rothschild in worldly wealth.

This worthy ecclesiastic died in Paris on the 26th September, 1640, at the age of sixty-three years, bequeathing his immense wealth to the Hotel-Dieu of that city. Such was, in a few words, the noble career of one of the large-minded pioneers of civilization in primitive Canada, le Commandeur Noel Brulart de Sillery - such the origin of the name of "Our Parish," our sweet Canadian Windermere.

One of the first incidents, two years after the opening of the mission, was the visit paid to it by Madame de la Peltrie, the benevolent founder of the Ursuline Convent at Quebec. This took place on the 2nd August, 1639, the day after her arrival from Dieppe and stately reception by the Governor, M. deMontmagny, who had asked her to dinner the day previous. This same year the nuns called Hospitalieres (Hotel-Dieu) opened a temporary hospital at Sillery, as the inmates and resident Indians suffered fearfully from the ravages of small-pox. In attempting a sketch of the Sillery of ancient days, we cannot follow a truer nor pleasanter guide than the old historian of Canada in the interesting notes he published on this locality in 1855, after having minutely examined every inch of ground. "A year after their arrival at Quebec," says Abbe Ferland, "in August, 1640, the Hospitalieres nuns, desirous of being closer to the Sillery mission, where they were having their convent built according to the wishes of the Duchess D'Aiguillon, left Quebec and located themselves in the house of M. de Puiseaux. They removed from this house at the beginning of the year 1641 to take possession of their convent, a mile distant. During that winter no other French inhabitants resided near them except the missionaries, and they suffered much from cold and want. But the following year they had the happiness to have in the neighbourhood a good number of their countrymen. M. de Maisonneuve, Mlle. Mance, the soldiers and farmers recently arrived from France, took up their abode at M. de Puiseaux.... They spent the winter there, and paid us frequent visits, to our mutual satisfaction." [173]

The mission of St. Joseph at Sillery being constantly threatened by the Five Nations, the Hospitalieres ladies were compelled to leave their convent and seek refuge in Quebec on the 29th May, 1644, having thus spent about three years and a half amongst the savages. [174] The locality where they then resided still goes under the name of "Convent Cove."

"Monsieur Pierre Puiseaux, Sieur de l'habitation de Sainte Foye, after whom was, called Pointe-a-Pizeau, at Sillery, seems to have been a personage of no mean importance in his day. Having realized a large fortune in the West Indies, he had followed Champlain to Canada, bent on devoting his wealth to the conversion of the aboriginal tribes. His manor stood, according to the Abbe Ferland, on that spot in St Michael's Cove on which the St. Michael's Hotel [175] - long kept by Mr. W. Scott - was subsequently built, to judge from the heavy foundation walls there.

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