The puritanic rigidity of life in New England was equalled by that of catholic Montreal. As a picture of the manners of those days in that religious city, we may give the description of La Hontan:—“We have here a misanthropical bigot of a curé, under whose spiritual despotism play and visiting the ladies are reckoned among the deadly sins. If you have the misfortune to be on his black list, he launches at you publicly from the pulpit. In order to keep well with Messieurs the priests of St. Sulpice, our temporal lords, it is necessary to communicate once a month. No one dare be absent from great masses and sermons. These Arguses have their eyes constantly on the conduct of the women and the girls. Fathers and husbands may sleep in all assurance, unless they have suspicion of these vigilant sentinels themselves. Of all the vexation of these disturbers, I find none so intolerable as their war upon books. None are to be found here but books of devotion. All others are prohibited and condemned to the flames.” While civilisation was labouring to establish itself in the north, the adventurous Jesuits had penetrated to the far west. In 1656, two young fur-traders returned to St. Louis, after a two years’ travel of 500 leagues, bringing back with them a great number of Ottawas. They related wonderful and exciting histories of vast lakes in the west, and numerous tribes of Indians, as yet unknown to the white man. New fields were opened for commerce and missionary labours. Gabriel Dreuillettes, formerly missionary in Maine, and Louis Gareau, an old Huron missionary, were deputed to this service, and accompanied by the Ottawas, returned with them in their canoes. But the Mohawks, enemies of the Ottawas, attacked the little fleet and Gareau was killed. In 1660, two other fur-traders, who had passed the winter on the banks of Lake Superior, returned to Quebec, again escorted by a great number of canoes rowed by Algonquins and laden with peltry. The Mohawks and their confederate nations had carried on a war of extermination against the Eries, and were now advancing against other nations lying more to the south and west. The Algonquins, therefore, besought an alliance with the French against these powerful enemies.