In This Manner Was Spent The
Winter Season Of 1642-3, The French Ships Left The St Lawrence For France
On The 7th October, 1642; A Period Of Profound Quiet Followed.
Our Indians
continued to catch eels, (this catch begins in September) - a providential
means of subsistence during winter.
The French settlers salt their eels,
the Indians smoke theirs to preserve them. The fishing having ended about
the beginning of November, they removed their provisions to their houses,
when thirteen canoes of Atichamegues Indians arrived, the crews requesting
permission to winter there and be instructed in the Christian religion.
They camped in the neighborhood of the Montagnais, near to Jean Baptiste,
the chief or captain of these savages, and placed themselves under the
charge of Father Buteux, who undertook to christianize both, whilst Father
Dequen superintended the religious welfare of the Algonquins. Each day all
the Indians attended regularly to mass, prayers, and religious
instruction. Catechism is taught to the children, and the smartest amongst
them receive slight presents to encourage them, such as knives, bread,
beads, hats, sometimes a hatchet for the biggest boys. Every evening
Father Dequen calls at every hut and summons the inmates to evening
prayers at the chapel. The Hospitalieres nuns also perform their
part in the pious work; Father Buteux discharged similar duties amongst
the Montagnais and Atichamegues neophytes. The Atichamegues have located
themselves on a small height back of Sillery. 'When the Reverend Father
visits them each evening, during the prevalence of snow storms, he picks
his way in the forest, lantern in hand, but sometimes losing his footing,
he rolls down the hill.' Thus passed for the Sillery Indians, the early
portion of the winter. In the middle of January they all came and located
themselves about a quarter of a league from Quebec, to make tobogins and
began the first hunt, which lasted about three weeks. Each day they
travelled a quarter of a league to Quebec to attend mass, generally at the
chapel of the Ursuline Convent, where Father Buteux and also the nuns
instructed them. In February they sought the deep woods to hunt the
moose." "On my return to Sillery," adds Father Vimont, "twelve or thirteen
infirm old Indians, women and children, who had been left behind, followed
me to the Hospital, where we had to provide for them until the return, at
Easter, of the hunting party."
Whilst the savage hordes were being thus reclaimed from barbarism at
Sillery, a civilized community a few hundred miles to the east of it were
descending to the level of savages. We read in Hutchinson's History of
Massachusetts Bay, of our Puritan brethren of Boston, occasionally
roasting defenceless women for witchcraft; thus perished, in 1645,
Margaret Jones; and a few years after, in 1656, Mrs. Ann Hibbens, the lady
of a respectable Boston merchant. Christians cutting one another's throats
for the love of God. O, civilization, where is thy boast!
During the winter of 1656-7, Sillery contained, of Indians alone, about
two hundred souls.
Let us now sum up the characteristics of the Sillery of ancient days in a
few happy words, borrowed from the Notes [187] published in 1855 on
that locality, by the learned Abbe Ferland.
"A map of Quebec by Champlain exhibits, about a league above the youthful
city, a point jutting out into the St. Lawrence, and which is covered with
Indian wigwams. Later on this point received the name of Puiseaux, from
the first owner of the Fief St. Michael, bounded by it to the southwest.
[188] On this very point at present stands the handsome St. Columba
church, surrounded by a village." [189]
"Opposite to it is the Lauzon shore, with its river Bruyante [190]
(the 'Etchemin'), its shipyards, its numerous shipping, the terminus of
the Grand Trunk Railway; the villages and churches of Notre Dame de Levis,
St. Jean Chrysostome and Saint Romuald. To your right and to your left the
St. Lawrence is visible for some twelve or fifteen miles, covered with
inward and outward bound ships. Towards the east the landscape is closed
by Cap Tourment, twelve leagues distant, and by the cultivated heights of
the Petite Montagne of St. Fereol, exhibiting in succession the
Cote de Beaupre, (Beauport), (L'Ange Gardien, &c.) the green slopes
of the Island of Orleans, Cape Diamond, crowned with its citadel, and
having at its feet a forest of masts, Abraham's Plains, the Coves and
their humming, busy noises, St. Michael's Coves forming a graceful curve
from Wolfe's cove to Pointe a Puiseaux. Within this area thrilling events
once took place, and round these diverse objects historical souvenirs
cluster, recalling some of the most important occurrences in North
America; the contest of two powerful nations for the sovereignty of the
New World; an important episode of the revolution which gave birth to the
adjoining Republic. Such were some of the events of which these localities
were the theatre. Each square inch of land, in fact, was measured by the
footsteps of some of the most remarkable men in the history of America:
Jacques Cartier, Champlain, Frontenac, Laval, Phipps, d'Iberville, Wolfe,
Montcalm, Arnold, Montgomery, have each of them, at some time or other,
trod over this expanse.
"Close by, in St. Michael's Cove, M. de Maisonneuve and Mademoiselle Mance
passed their first Canadian winter, with the colonists intended to found
Montreal. Turn your eyes towards the west, and although the panorama is
less extensive, still it awakens some glorious memories. At Cap Rouge,
Jacques Cartier established his quarters, close to the river's edge, the
second winter he spent in Canada, and was succeeded in that spot by
Roberval, at the head of his ephemeral colony. Near the entrance of the
Chaudiere river stood the tents of the Abnoquiois, the Etchemins and the
Souriquois Indians, when they came from the shores of New England to smoke
the calumet of peace with their brethren the French; the river Chaudiere
in those days was the highway which connected their country with Canada.
Closer to Pointe a Puiseaux is Sillery Cove where the Jesuit Fathers were
wont to assemble and instruct the Algonquin and Montagnais Indians, who
were desirous of becoming Christians.
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