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.
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