The Indian Youths Were For Instantly Stripping The Prisoners, In
Order To Compel The Governor Of The Colony To Repair The Injury Suffered
By The Loss Of The Peltry.
One of them, more thoughtful than the rest,
suggested to refer the matter to the missionary father, informing him
At
the same time that in cases of robbery it was the Indian custom to lay
hold of the first individual they met belonging to the family or nation of
the suspected robber, strip him of his property, and retain it until the
family or nation repaired the wrong. The father succeeded, by appealing to
them as Christians, to release the prisoners. Fortunately, the real thief,
who was not a Frenchman, became alarmed, and had the beaver skin restored.
Old writers of that day occasionally let us into quaint glimpses of a
churchman's tribulations in those primitive times. The historian Faillon
tells some strange things about Bishop Laval and Governor D'Argenson:
their squabble about holy bread. (Histoire de la Colonie Francaise en
Canada, vol. ii., p. 467.) At page 470, is an account of a country
girl, ordered to be brought to town by Bishop Laval and shut up in the
Hotel-Dieu, she being considered under a spell, cast on her by a miller
whom she had rejected when he popped the question: the diabolical suitor
was jailed as a punishment. Champlain relates how a pugnacious parson was
dealt with by a pugnacious clergyman of a different persuasion respecting
some knotty controversial points. The arguments, however irresistible they
may have been, Champlain observes, were not edifying either to the savages
or to the French: "J'ay veu le ministre et nostre cure s'entre battre e
coup de poing sur le differend de la religion. Je ne scay pas qui estait
le plus vaillant et qui donnait le meilleur coup; mais je scay tres bien
que le ministre se plaignoit quelque fois au Sieur de Mons (Calviniste,
directeur de la compagnie) d'avoir este battu et vuoidoient en ceste
faccon les poincts de controverse. Je vois laisse a penser si cela estait
beau a voir; les sauvages estoient tantot d'un cote, tantot de l'autre, et
les Francois meslez selon leur diverse croyance, disaient pis que pendre
de l'une et de l'autre religion." The fighting parson had evidently caught
a tartar. However, this controversial sparring did not take place at
Sillery.
The winter of 1666 was marked by a novel incident in the annals of the
settlement. On the 9th of January, [183] 1666, the Governor of the colony,
M. de Courcelles, with M. du Gas as second in command, and M. de Salampar,
a volunteer, together with two hundred colonists who had volunteered, and
three hundred soldiers of the dashing regiment of Carignan, [184] which
the viceroy, the proud Marquis de Tracy, had brought over from Europe,
after their return from their campaign in Hungary, sallied forth from the
capital on snow-shoes. A century and a half later one might have met, with
his gaudy state carriage and outriders, on that same road, another
viceroy - this time an English one, as proud, as fond of display, as the
Marquis de Tracy - with the Queen's Household Troops, the British
Grenadiers, and Coldstream Guards - the Earl of Durham, one of our ablest,
if not one of the most popular of our administrators. Let us now follow
the French Governor of 1666, heading his light-hearted soldiers along the
St. Louis road, all on snow-shoes, each man, His Excellency included,
carrying on his back from 25 to 30 lbs. of biscuit, &c. The little army is
bound towards the frontiers of New Holland (the State of New York) on a
900 miles' tramp (no railroads in those days), in the severest season of
the year, to chastise some hostile Indian tribes, after incorporating in
its ranks, during its march, the Three Rivers and Montreal reinforcements.
History tells of the intense suffering [185] experienced during the
expedition by these brave men, some of them more accustomed to Paris
salons than to Canadian forest warfare on snow-shoes, with spruce
boughs and snow-drifts for beds. But let us not anticipate. We must be
content to accompany them on that day to the Sillery settlement, a march
quite sufficient for us degenerate Canadians of the nineteenth century.
Picture to yourself, our worthy friend, the hurry and scurry at the
Missionary residence on that day - with what zest the chilled warriors
crowd round the fires of the Indian wigwams, the number of pipes of peace
they smoked with the chiefs, the fierce love the gallant Frenchmen swore
to the blackeyed Montagnais and Algonquin houris of Sillery, whilst
probably His Excellency and staff were seated in the residency close by,
resorting to cordials and all those creature comforts to be found in
monasteries, not forgetting Grande Chartreuse, to restore circulation
through their benumbed frames! - How the reverend fathers showered down the
blessings of St. Michael, the patron saint of the parish, on the youth and
chivalry of France! - How the Sillery duennas, the Capitainesses, closely
watched the gallant sons of Mars lest some of them [186] should attempt to
induce their guileless neophytes to seek again the forest wilds, and roam
at large - the willing wives of white men!
We shall clip a page from Father Barthelemy Vimont's Journal of the
Sillery Mission, (Relations des Jesuits, 1643, pp. 12, 13, 14) an
authentic record, illustrative of the mode of living there; it will, we
are sure, gladden the heart even of an anchorite: -
"In 1643, the St. Joseph or Sillery settlement was composed of between
thirty-five and forty Indian families, who lived there the whole year
round except during the hunting season; other nomadic savages occasionally
tarried at the settlement to procure food, or to receive religious
instruction. That year there were yet but four houses built in the
European fashion; the Algonquins were located in that part of the village
close to the French residences; the Montagnais, on the opposite side; the
houses accommodate chiefs only, their followers reside in bark huts until
we can furnish proper dwellings for them all.
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