"The Sillery Settlement Contained During The Winter Of 1646-7, Of Indians
Only, About Two Hundred Souls.
Two roads led from Quebec to the
settlement, one the Grande Allee or St. Louis Road, the other the Cove
Road, skirting the beach.
Two grist mills stood in the neighbourhood: one
on the St. Denis streamlet which crosses the Grande Allee road (from
Thornhill to Spencer Wood) - the dam seems to have been on the Spencer Wood
property. 'This mill, and the fief on which it was built, belonged
to M. Juchereau,' one of the ancestors of the Duchesnays. 'Another mill
existed on the Bell Borne brook,' which crosses the main road, the
boundary between Spencer Grange and Woodfield. Any one visiting these two
streamlets during the August droughts will be struck with their
diminutiveness, compared to the time when they turned the two grist mills
two hundred years back: the clearing of the adjoining forests, whence they
take their source, may account for the metamorphosis."
The perusal of the Rev. Mr. Ferland's work brings us to another
occurrence, which, although foreign to the object of this sketch, deserves
notice: -
"The first horse [179] seen in Canada was landed from a French vessel
about the 20th June, 1647, and presented as a gift to His Excellency
Governor Montmagny." Another incident deserving of mention occurs under
date of 20th August, 1653. The Iroquois [180] surprised at Cap Rouge Rev.
Father J. Antoine Poncet and a peasant named Mathurin Tranchelot, and
carried them off to their country.
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