In addition the Sulpicians built two fortified farmhouses as redoubts
or citadels in the extreme ends of the settlement to guard the
labourers there--that of Ste. Marie on the east and that of St.
Gabriel, named after M. Gabriel de Queylus, on the west. M. de Queylus
interested himself in city planning also and he mapped out the lines on
which the city should extend. An important protection was also secured
by the construction of a well of one hundred feet in diameter, built
by Jacques Archambault at the order of the governor, "in the middle of
the court," or of the "place d'armes" of the fort, as it read in the
contract of October 8, 1658. So far the water used had been supplied by
the river, but fear of invasion and siege, and possible burning of the
fort by the Iroquois, rendered this precaution very wise. In the next
year, 1659, a similar well was placed in the hospital garden by order
of M. de Queylus, and in the following year, 1660, a third contract
was signed by Jacques Archambault for Charles Le Moyne, Jacques Leber
and Jacques Tessard, for the mutual assistance of their houses near
the hospital; and during this year also a storehouse of 60 by 30 feet
was built by Francis Bailly dit Lafleur in the interior of the fort to
guard the grain of the hospital.
[Illustration: ST. GABRIEL'S FARM HOUSE]
[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL OR ACTUAL CHAPEL, ST. GABRIEL'S FARM HOUSE]
[Illustration: COMMUNITY HALL, ST. GABRIEL'S FARM HOUSE]
The war was now in full swing.
After the visit of the refugees from Onondaga, the Montrealers in 1658
were in daily fear, for while Three Rivers was being attacked about
June 13th by the Iroquois, a similar onslaught was valiantly repulsed
at Ville Marie. At Quebec the new governor general, Pierre de Voyer,
vicomte d'Argenson, who had arrived on July 11th, experienced his first
acquaintance with his hazardous position, when he was aroused at his
meal on the next day by the cry of "aux armes."
Such excitements added to his anxieties in settling the dispute as
to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, occupied him constantly. These
being solved satisfactorily for a time, to the great delight of the
Montrealers, the "grand vicaire" of the district of Montreal, M. de
Queylus, arrived about the end of August, 1658.
"On August 21st, he had left Quebec 'aegre' (with chagrin)," wrote
Father Vimont in a later letter to the general: "but to the great joy
of the Jesuits, who had a stormy time with M. de Queylus during his
conflict there." On the 26th of August Father Pijart, now at Quebec,
writes to his superior in Rome, "Vivimus hic quieti, ex quo Dominus
Abbas de Queylus mandato Domini archiepiscopi Rhotomagensis alio
abiit--We are living here in peace since the Abbé de Queylus has gone
elsewhere by order of the archbishop of Rouen." (Arch. Gen. S. J.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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