Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Indians of North America -- Canada
"Tadoussac, one hundred and forty miles below Quebec, is a post
belonging to the Hudson Bay Company, and is the residence of one of its
partners and an agent. They alone are allowed to trade with the Indians
in the interior. At Tadoussac is a Roman Catholic chapel, a store and
warehouse, and some eight or ten dwellings. Here is erected a
flag-staff, surrounded by several pieces of cannon, on an eminence
elevated about fifty feet, and overlooking the inner warehouse, where is
a sufficient depth of water to float the largest vessels. This place was
early settled by the French, who are said to have here erected the first
dwelling built of stone and mortar in Canada, and the remains of it are
still to be seen. The view is exceedingly picturesque from this point.
The southern shore of the St. Lawrence may be traced, even with the
naked eye, for many a league; the undulating line of snow-white cottages
stretching far away to the east and west; while the scene is rendered
gay and animated by the frequent passage of the merchant vessel plowing
its way toward the port of Quebec, or hurrying upon the descending tide
to the Gulf; while, from the summit of the hill upon which Tadoussac
stands, the sublime and impressive scenery of the Saguenay rises to
view."--_Picturesque Tourist_, p. 267 (New York, 1844).]
[Footnote 99: "The colony that was sent to Canada this year was among
the number of those things that had not my approbation; there was no
kind of riches to be expected from all those countries of the New World
which are beyond the fortieth degree of latitude. His majesty gave the
conduct of this expedition to the Sieur de Monts."--_Memoirs of Sully_,
b. xvi., p. 241, English translation.]
[Footnote 100: The pious Romanist, Champlain, thus details the
inconveniences caused by the different creeds of the Frenchmen composing
the expedition of De Monts: "Il se trouva quelque chose a redire en
cette entreprise, qui est en ce que deux religions contraires ne font
jamais un grand fruit pour la gloire de Dieu parmi les infideles que
l'on veut convertir. J'ai vu le ministre et notre cure s'entre battre a
coups de poing, sur le differend de la religion. Je ne scais pas qui
etoit le plus vaillant et qui donnoit le meilleur coup, mas je scais
tres bien que le ministre se plaignoit quelquefois au Sieur de Monts
d'avoir ete battue, et vuidoit en cette facon les points de
controversie. Je vous laisse a penser si cela etoit beau a voir; les
sauvages etoient tantot d'une partie, tantot d'une autre, et les
Francois meles selon leurs diverses croyances, disoit pis que pendre de
l'une et de l'autre religion, quoique le Sieur de Monts y apportat la
paix le plus qu'il pouvoit."--_Voyages de la Nouvelle France
Occidentale, dite Canada, faits par le Sieur de Champlain a Paris_,
1632.]
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