A chapel sprang, as it were, instantly into being, for the enthusiasm of the Indians finished it in a day; and the services of the Romish Church were chanted in the Mohawk tongue. Christianity was thus planted among the Onondagas, who dwelling on the banks of the Oswego, which was included within the charter of the Hundred Associates, was claimed as a part of the French empire. Chaumonot made his way to “the more fertile and densely-peopled land” of the Senecas, the most powerful tribe of the confederacy, while René Mesnard was reserved as a missionary by the Cayugas, and a chapel erected in their village, the interior of which was hung with mats, on which were displayed pictures of the Virgin and the Infant Saviour which attracted the admiring gaze of the converts. While Christian missions were thus established throughout the other nations, the chapel of the Onondagas becoming too small for its increasing worshippers, was enlarged, and for a moment it seemed as if the religion of peace had taken root in the blood-stained soil of the Five Nations. At the close of 1657, Jesuit priests published their faith from the Mohawk to the Genesee, Onondaga remaining the central station. A little colony of fifty Frenchman was also established on the Oswego.[9] But neither settlements nor missionary labours could change the nature of the inveterate savage. A war of extermination was carried on by them against their neighbours, the Eries; and the tortures of the captives, even women and children, which were brought to the villages, called forth protests from the missionaries. These excited the displeasure of the Indians, and three Frenchmen were murdered. In vain was aid solicited from Canada; the growing ill-will of the Onondagas compelled the missionaries to abandon their chapel and the colonists their settlement. The Mohawks obliged Le Moyne to depart; and the following year war again broke out with the Five Nations. The same year the first bishop of New France, the able Montigny, arrived at Quebec, and the island of Montreal having been granted in fief to the Seminary of St. Sulpice, at Paris, a deputation of monks came over, and the foundation of the present city was laid, by the establishment of a hospital, to serve in which religious women came from France. “To the unassisted energy of Margeurite Bourgeoise,” says Hildreth, “the institution of the Daughters of the Congregation owes its origin. With no other resource than her courage and her confidence in God, she undertook the establishment of a convent at Montreal, to secure to all female children, however poor and destitute, a useful and respectable education. The whole island of Montreal, in fact, resembled a religious community.”