"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.
