Famous Firesides of French CanadaAlloway, Mary Wilson
History
Famous Firesides of French Canada
Alloway, Mary Wilson
Québec (Province) -- History
"The graceful figure of the first lady of Canada, gliding noiselessly
along by the murmuring waters of the St. Lawrence, showering everywhere
smiles and kindness, a help-mate to her noble lord, and a pattern of
purity and refinement, was indeed a vision of female loveliness" which
time cannot obliterate nor forgetfulness dim. The domestic life of the
colony dates from about the time of her arrival, the first regular
register of marriage being entered in the following year; two months
after the first nuptial ceremony was performed in New England. The
first christening took place in the same year, 1621, the ordinance being
administered to the infant son of Abraham Martin, _dit L'Ecossais_,
pilot of the river St. Lawrence. This old pilot, named in the journal of
the Jesuits as _Maitre_ Abraham, has bequeathed his name to the famous
Plains, on which was decided the destiny of New France.
It was indeed a sorry day for the settlement when the inhabitants, on
the 16th of August, 1624, saw the white sails of Champlain's vessel
disappear behind what is now Point Levis, carrying back, alas! forever,
to the shores of her beloved France, Madame de Champlain, sighing for
the mystic life of the cloister, tired out by the incessant alarms and
the Indian ferocities spread around the Fort during the frequent
absences of her husband and her favourite brother, Eustache Bouille. The
daintily-nurtured French lady must have found the quiet of the old-world
convent a very haven of peace and rest. She died at Mieux, an Ursuline
Nun, in the order which subsequently was to be so closely identified
with the religious history of her wilderness home.
But monastic retreat had no attractions for the founder of Fort St.
Louis. Parkman says: "Champlain, though in Paris is restless. He is
enamoured of the New World, whose rugged charms have seized his fancy
and his heart. His restless thoughts revert to the fog-wrapped coasts,
the piney odours of the forests, the noise of waters and the sharp and
piercing sunlight so dear to his remembrance."
Among these he was destined to lay down his well worn armour at the
command of death, the only enemy before whom he ever retreated; for on
Christmas Day, 1635, in a chamber in the Fort at Quebec, "breathless and
cold lay the hardy frame which war, the wilderness and the sea had
buffeted so long in vain. The chevalier, crusader, romance-loving
explorer and practical navigator lay still in death," leaving the memory
of a courage that was matchless and a patience that was sublime.
For over two hundred and sixty years, no monument stood to celebrate
this true patriot's name, but now his statue stands in his city, near to
where he laid the foundations and built the Chateau St. Louis. Most
unfortunately his last resting place is unknown, notwithstanding the
laborious and learned efforts of the many distinguished antiquarians of
Quebec.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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