[28] Registers of Notre Dame record that, on the 19th of August, 1664,
two young men, Pierre Magnan and Jacques Dufresne, were slain here by
Iroquois.
It was used sometimes by the French as a military station; for in June,
1687, the Chevalier de Vaudreuil posted both the regular troops and the
militia there in readiness to march against the Iroquois. Thither it is
alleged the Marquis de Lévis, commanding the last French army in 1760,
withdrew, and here burnt his flags in the presence of his army the
night previous to surrendering the colony to the English. Louis Honoré
Frechette, the national French-Canadian poet, bases upon this his poem,
entitled "All Lost but Honour."
In 1688 the island was acquired by Charles Le Moyne, Sieur de
Longueuil, who gave the name of Ste. Hélène to one of his most
distinguished sons. During the eighteenth century (from before 1723),
his descendants, the Barons of Longueuil, whose territory lay just
opposite, had a residence here, the ruins of which, once surrounded
with gardens, are to be seen upon it on the east side. The Government
acquired it from them by arrangement during the War of 1812, and later
by purchase in 1818, for military purposes. It ceded the park portion
to the city in 1874.
Almost adjoining it, at the lower extremity, is Ile Ronde, a small low
island.
Both islands are interesting geologically from the occurrence there of
a remarkable breccia containing inclusions of Devonian Limestone, and
also from the existence of some rare types of dyke rock.
[29] The St. Lambert River.
[30] The Richelieu.
[31] Sault St. Louis Rapids, now known as the Lachine Rapids.
[32] The Lake of Two Mountains.
[33] Who is this Maisonneuve appearing as a privileged trader with
the passport of the prince, doubtless the Prince de Condé, Henri de
Bourbon, viceroy of Canada and head of Champlain's company? Evidently
he was a person of some consequence from the ease with which Champlain
granted him permission to trade at his settlement. Can it be, as
Kingsford and others ingeniously try to prove, Paul Chomedey de
Maisonneuve, who was later to found Montreal as a settlement in 1642,
acting for "La Compagnie de Montreal?" (1) No. Chomedey was from Paris;
the de Maisonneuve mentioned above is from St. Malo. (2) de Maisonneuve
was a common enough name. There were even several of that name in
Montreal in 1667.
[34] Mass was only said at Quebec for the first time on June 25, 1615,
by which time they had built their chapel. The priority of the Island
of Montreal in its claim to the first mass is substantiated by the
"_Mémoires des Recollects_" of 1637 which distinctly say that "the
first mass was celebrated at Rivière des Prairies and the second at
Quebec."
CHAPTER IV
1627-1641
COLONIZATION
UNDER THE COMPANY OF ONE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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