In the year 1644 Charlevoix says, "L'isle de Montreal se peuploit insensiblement, et la piete de ces nouveaux colons disposoit peu a peu les sauvages qui les approchoient a se soumettre au jong de la foi." In 1657, however, it was considered that "les premiers possesseurs de l'isle n'avoient pas pousse l'etablissement autant qu'on avoit d'abord espere." and it was therefore ceded to the Seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris. From that time the establishment made a rapid progress, M. de Maisonneuve still continuing its governor, after it had changed masters. He was a man of ability and piety: under his auspices the order of "Filles de la Congregation" was established at Montreal by Margaret Bourgeois, who had accompanied the first settlers on the island from France. For the details of this admirable institution see Charlevoix, tom. ii., p. 94. He speaks of it with justice as one of the brightest ornaments of New France. "Jusqu' en l'annee 1692, la justice particuliere de Montreal appartenoit a Messieurs du Seminaire de St. Sulpice, en qualite de seigneurs. Ils en donnerent alors leur demission au roi, a condition que l'exercice leur en resteroit dans l'enclos de leur seminaire, et dans leur ferme de St. Gabriel, avec la propriete perpetuelle et incommutable du Greffe de la justice royale, qui seroit etablie dans l'isle, et la nomination du premier juge."--Charlevoix, tom. ii., p. 140.] [Footnote 376: The kindness of the missionaries has been one of the causes that has perpetuated a kindly feeling toward the French. Among the American Indians, "a person, even in times of hostility, speaking French will find security from the attachment of the people to every thing that is French."--Imlay, p. 8. "To do justice to truth, the French missionaries in general have invariably distinguished themselves every where by an exemplary life, befitting their profession. Their religious sincerity, their apostolic charity, their insinuating kindness, their heroic patience, their remoteness from austerity and fanaticism, fix in these countries memorable epochs in the annals of Christianity; and while the memory of a Del Vilde, a Vodilla, &c., will be held in everlasting execration by all truly Christian hearts, that of a Daniel, a Brebeuf, &c., will never lose any of that veneration which the history of discoveries and missions has so justly conferred upon them. Hence that predilection which the savages manifest for the French, a predilection which they naturally find in the recesses of their souls, cherished by the traditions which their fathers have left in favor of the first apostles of Canada, then called New France."--Beltrami's _Travels_, 1823. The authority of this passage, Chateaubriand observes, is the stronger, as the writer is severe in his condemnation of the modern Jesuit.]