_Paul de Chomedey_ _L. Closse_ _Issabelle Moyen_ _Paul Ragueneau_ _Jeanne Mance_ _Claude Pijart_ _Marie Moyen_ _François le Mercier_ _François Duperon_ _Marin Jannot_ _Jacques Vautié_ _P. Gadoys_ _N. G._ (_Nicolas Gadois_) _R. Le Cavelier_ _Jehan Gervaise_ _Nicolas hubert_ _Marguerite_ _Gilbert barbier_ _Landreau_ _Jacques picot_ _Catherine primoit_ _Maturine Godé_ _Caterine de la vaux_ _Janne Lemoine_ _Chartier_ This marriage contract between Lambert Closse and Elizabeth Moyen must have been signed by Jean de St. Père, the first notary of Montreal, but his signature appears to have faded. The flourishes or _paraphes_ at the end of the names were customary at the period to insure against imitation. This is now the place to introduce the famous quarrels about the liquor trade, which were of passionate interest in New France in the seventeenth century. It is claimed by the French that the English were the first to introduce the liquor curse to the natives, in payment for furs. When the French returned to Quebec the traders followed suit in spite of the prohibitions of Champlain, Montmagny, d'Ailleboust, de Maisonneuve, de Queylus and Laval. The letters of the Jesuit missionaries and the contemporary memorialists reveal a shameful story of vice, mingled with that of the establishment of a Christian civilization. Drink made the savages and the Christian neophytes yield to the most deplorable depths of immorality and barbarous brutality. The delights of conviviality gave way to disgusting debaucheries, quarrels and bloody fights. Fathers slaughtered their children; husbands, their wives; and the women became veritable furies. Children, boys and girls, were all demoralized. After a night's carouse the cabins of the Indians were a gruesome sight, heartbreaking to those responsible for the morality of the country. The good nuns were shocked at naked men and women running amuck in the streets of Quebec, clearing all before them at the point of the sword. Notwithstanding prohibitions and ordinances, the scenes of carouses and of carnage continued, because the minority, the traders, maintained the right as necessary for trade alliances with the natives, asserting that they were not responsible for the abuse. On his arrival Laval fought the custom fiercely and finally found himself forced, on May 6, 1660, to fulminate the terrors of the church's excommunication "ipso facto" against the traffickers, and in this he was supported by the Jesuit missionaries. This had a decided effect, backed up by the severe sanctions, even those of death, promulgated by the secular arm of the state, represented by the Baron d'Avaugour.