This volume, purporting to be a sequel to "QUEBEC PAST AND PRESENT,"
published in 1876, is intended to complete the history of the city. New
and interesting details will be found in these pages, about the locality,
where Samuel de Champlain located his settlement in 1608, together with a
rapid glance at incidents, sights, objects, edifices, city gates and other
improvements, both ancient and modern, which an antiquarian's ramble round
the streets, squares, promenades, monuments, public and private edifices,
&c., may disclose. It will, it is hoped, be found a copious repository of
historical, topographical, legendary, industrial and antiquarian lore -
garnered not without some trouble from authorities difficult of access to
the general reader. May it prove not merely a faithful mirror of the past,
but also an authentic record of the present!
THE SKETCH OF THE ENVIRONS OF QUEBEC will take the tourist or student of
history beyond the ramparts of Old Stadacona, to the memorable area - the
Plains of Abraham - where, one century back and more, took place the hard-
fought duel which caused the collapse of French power in the New World,
established British rule on our shores, and hastened the birth of the
great Commonwealth founded by George Washington, by removing from the
British Provinces, south of us, the counterpoise of French dominion. More
than once French Canada had threatened the New England Settlements; more
than once it had acted like a barrier to the expansion and consolidation
of the conquering Anglo-Saxon race.
THE ENVIRONS OF QUEBEC are, indeed, classic soil, trodden by the footsteps
of many of the most remarkable men in American History: Cartier,
Champlain, Phipps, d'Iberville, Laval, Frontenac, La Galissonnere, Wolfe,
Montcalm, Levis, Amherst, Murray, Guy Carleton, Nelson, Cook,
Bougainville, Jervis, Montgomery, Arnold, DeSalaberry, Brock and others.
Here, in early times, on the shore of the majestic St. Lawrence, stood the
wigwam and canoe of the marauding savage; here, was heard the clang of
French sabre and Scotch claymore in deadly encounter - the din of battle
on the tented field; here, - but no further - had surged the wave of
American invasion; here, have bivouaced on more than one gory battle-
field, the gay warrior from the banks of the Seine, the staunch musketeers
of Old England, the unerring riflemen of New York, Massachusetts and Rhode
Island. Another spot calculated to interest us is the vast expanse from
the Plains to Cap Rouge, round by Ste. Foye to the city, for which I
intend to use its former more general name, Sillery: the ground is not new
for us, as its annals and country seats furnished, in 1865, materials for
sketches, published that year under the title of Maple Leaves. These
sketches having long since disappeared from book-stores, at the request of
several enlightened patrons, I re-publish from them some selections, with
anecdotes and annotations. Several other sites round Quebec - Beauport,
Charlesbourg, the Falls of Montmorency and of the Chaudiere, Chateau
Bigot, Lorette and its Hurons - will, of necessity, find a resting place in
this repertory of Quebec history, which closes a labour of love, the
series of works on Canada, commenced by me in 1861.
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