It is not difficult now to present a picture of Montreal or Ville Marie of this period. On the northeast portion of the triangular piece of land watered on the east and north by the little River St. Peter and on the south by the St. Lawrence, there was the fort and the new concessions with their wooden buildings being erected thereon; on the southern portion there was a long sweep of ground, an arpent in depth and forty in length, along the banks of the river westward, on which the cattle of the soldiers and others who were now becoming farmers were allowed to stray. This was known as "the Common"[63] and was granted to Jean de Saint Père as the syndic for the people in October, 1651, on the understanding that it should revert to the seigneurs when they should need it for city expansion. In this common, which was protected by the fort and the houses above, the animals, under the care of a watchman, were safe from immediate attack, since all approaching this pasturage must necessarily venture from afar and be visible. At the west end of the common was the windmill near the river.[64] Across the little river there were the houses of M. Maisonneuve and that of the Hôtel-Dieu. This comprised the situation. In spite of the pictures of progress and contentment we have presented as existing towards the end of 1649 and the earlier part of 1650, we must remember that Montreal was frequently the rendezvous of bands of Hurons and their Jesuit missionaries, who told of their flight from the cruelty of the Iroquois; of forts destroyed, pillaged, of burnings and massacres. Montreal itself, they were told, was soon be the object of attack. Hence the bands did not delay. After the horrible scenes that had occurred at St. Louis[65] in July of 1650 the missionaries brought down three or four hundred Lake Hurons, the relics of three to four thousand, to Ville Marie, where they stayed only two days. The "Relation" of this year says: "This is an advantageous situation for the settlement of the savages, but as it is the frontier of the Iroquois, whom our Hurons flee from, more than death itself, they could not determine to start their colony then." Dollier de Casson gives us this insight into the fear caused at Ville Marie by these visits and their recitals of disaster. The evident reflection then was, "If we who are only a handful of Europeans, do not offer a firmer and more vigorous resistance than 30,000 Hurons have done, then we must reconcile ourselves to be burnt alive at a slow fire with all the refinements of unheard of cruelty." But this year Montreal was able to breathe in comparative peace. A picture of Montreal of this year is presented by Père P. Ragueneau, the Jesuit superior of the missions, writing from Quebec on October 8th to Father Picolomini, the general of the order at Rouen: "At Montreal there are barely sixty Frenchmen, twenty Hurons, a few Algonquins and two of our fathers. They cannot leave this fort, which is always very much exposed."