France and England in North America, Part IV: The Old Régime In Canada — John Shaqi
France and England in North America, Part IV: The Old Régime In CanadaParkman, Francis
History
France and England in North America, Part IV: The Old Régime In Canada
Parkman, Francis
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France)
While Mademoiselle Mance was gaining recruits in La Flèche, Marguerite
Bourgeoys was no less successful in her native town of Troyes, and she
rejoined her companions at Rochelle, accompanied by Sisters Châtel,
Crolo, and Raisin, her destined assistants in the school at Montreal.
Meanwhile, the Sulpitians and others interested in the pious enterprise,
had spared no effort to gather men to strengthen the colony, and young
women to serve as their wives; and all were now mustered at Rochelle,
waiting for embarkation. Their waiting was a long one. Laval, bishop
at Quebec, was allied to the Jesuits, and looked on the colonists of
Montreal with more than coldness. Sulpitian writers say that his agents
used every effort to discourage them, and that certain persons at
Rochelle told the master of the ship in which the emigrants were to sail
that they were not to be trusted to pay their passage-money. Hereupon
ensued a delay of more than two months before means could be found to
quiet the scruples of the prudent commander. At length the anchor was
weighed, and the dreary voyage begun.
The woe-begone company, crowded in the filthy and infected ship, were
tossed for two months more on the relentless sea, buffeted by repeated
storms, and wasted by a contagious fever, which attacked nearly all of
them and reduced Mademoiselle Mance to extremity. Eight or ten died and
were dropped overboard, after a prayer from the two priests. At length
land hove in sight; the piny odors of the forest regaled their languid
senses as they sailed up the broad estuary of the St. Lawrence and
anchored under the rock of Quebec.
High aloft, on the brink of the cliff, they saw the _fleur-de-lis_
waving above the fort of St. Louis, and, beyond, the cross on the tower
of the cathedral traced against the sky; the houses of the merchants
on the strand below, and boats and canoes drawn up along the bank. The
bishop and the Jesuits greeted them as coworkers in a holy cause, with
an unction not wholly sincere. Though a unit against heresy, the pious
founders of New France were far from unity among themselves. To the
thinking of the Jesuits, Montreal was a government within a government,
a wheel within a wheel. This rival Sulpitian settlement was, in their
eyes, an element of disorganization adverse to the disciplined harmony
of the Canadian Church, which they would fain have seen, with its focus
at Quebec, radiating light unrefracted to the uttermost parts of the
colony. That is to say, they wished to control it unchecked, through
their ally, the bishop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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