THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTREAL UNDER LA NOUVELLE FRANCE--ROYAL COMMISSIONS--VICEROYS--GOVERNORS--INTENDANTS--BISHOPS--FRENCH AND ENGLISH SOVEREIGNS--LOCAL GOVERNORS OF MONTREAL--THE SEIGNEURS OF THE SEMINARY 441 APPENDIX II AN INVENTORY OF THE CHARTS AND PLANS OF THE ISLAND AND TOWN OF MONTREAL UP TO 1760 447 AUTHOR'S FOREWORD The history now being prepared seems necessary; for we are at a period of great flux and change and progress. The city is being transformed, modernized and enlarged before our very eyes. Old landmarks are daily disappearing and there is a danger of numerous memories of the past passing with them. We are growing so wonderfully in wealth through the importance of our commerce and in the size of our population by the accretion of newcomers of many national origins and creeds, to whom for the most part the history of the romantic story of Montreal is a sealed books, that a fuller presentation of our development and growth is called for, to supplement previous sketches and to meet the conditions of the hour. It is hardly needful, therefore, to offer any apology for the present undertaking. For if the continuity of a city's growth and development is to be preserved in the memory of the citizens of each generation, this can only be done through the medium of an historical survey, issued at certain suitable intervals, such as the one now offered, connecting the present with the past, and presenting to the new generation, out of the intricate chain of events and varying vicissitudes that have woven themselves into the texture of the city's organic life, the story of those forces which have moulded its growth and have produced those resultant characteristic features which make it the individualized city of today and none other. Montreal being a unique city, with a personality of its own, its history, beyond that of any city of the new world, is particularly interesting and fruitful for such a retrospect. Dealing with the fortunes of several peoples, the original inhabitants of Hochelaga visited by Jacques Cartier in 1535, the French colonists from 1642 and the Anglo-Saxons and Gaels from their influx in 1760, together with the steady addition of those of other national origins of later years, the story of Montreal, passing over the greater part of four centuries, is full of romance and colour and quickly moving incidents; of compelling interest to the ordinary student, but how much more so to those who have any way leagued their fortunes with it, and assisted in its progress and in its making! Such cannot dip into the pages of the history of this ancient and modern city without finding fresh motives for renewed enthusiasm and for deeper pride. For Montreal is still in the making, with its future before it.