On their arrival in Quebec in the beginning of June three of them stayed to lay out their dwelling and build their chapel, but Father Joseph le Caron, a very eager and apostolic man, went straight off to the Indians at the Sault. Becoming quickly acquainted with the mode of life of the natives there and desirous of their conversion to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, he determined to spend the winter with them. "In Canada and its Provinces," Father Lewis Drummond says that on his journey down, le Caron met Champlain and Father Denis Jamay at Rivière des Prairies. They tried to persuade him not to winter with the Indians. But he hastened to Quebec, reaching it on June 20, and on his return to Rivière des Prairies met Champlain and Father Jamay there, and mass was celebrated. His object in hurrying back to Quebec was to obtain the necessary altar equipment and other missionary necessaries. On arriving at the Isle of Montreal he met Champlain and his canoes at the entrance of the Rivière des Prairies. These no doubt were preparing for the exploration of the Ottawa. There on June 24, 1615, the feast of St. Jean Baptiste, afterwards taken for the patronal feast of Canada, Fathers Denis and Joseph sang mass at their portable altar on the banks of the Rivière des Prairies. "With all devotion," Champlain chronicles, "before these peoples who were in admiration at the ceremonies and at the vestments which seemed to them so beautiful as being something they had never seen before; for these religious are the first who had celebrated the holy mass there."[34] (This solemn occasion was followed by the chanting of the Te Deum to the accompaniment of a fusillade of small artillery with all the pomp that circumstances permitted.) Father Denis Jamay went back to Quebec to minister to the French Catholics and to form a sedentary mission for the natives; while there also he could excur to Threvers as a mission post. He was helped by Brother Pacifique du Plessis. Jean le Caron now joined a band of Hurons and passed the winter with them in one of their stockades called Carhagouaha defended by a triple palisade of wood to the height of thirty feet. Father Jean d'Olbeau departed for Quebec, on December 2d, to share the fortunes of the Montagnais below Tadoussac. [Illustration: THE FIRST MASS IN CANADA AT RIVIERE DES PRAIRIES, JUNE 24, 1615 (After George Delfosse)]