Since apparently I shall not have the honour of writing you another letter from this place, for our ship awaits only a favourable wind to sail, allow me to assure you that I am leaving full of gratitude for all the kindness and favours bestowed on me by the king and yourself. Knowing that the best way to show my gratitude is to do good service to His Majesty, and that the best title to future benevolence lies in strenuous effort for the successful execution of his wishes, I shall do my utmost to attain that end in the charge I am going to fill. I pray for your protection and help, which will surely be needed, and if my endeavours should not be crowned with success, at least it will not be for want of zeal and fidelity. A few hours after having written these farewell lines, Talon, in company with M. de Courcelle, set sail on the Saint Sebastien for Canada, where he was to make for himself an imperishable name. CHAPTER II NEW FRANCE IN 1665 Let us take a glance over the colony at the time when Courcelle and Talon landed at Quebec after an ocean journey--there were no fast lines then--of one hundred and seventeen days. In 1665 Canada had only three settled districts: Quebec, Three Rivers, and Ville-Marie or Montreal. Quebec, the chief town, bore the proud title of the capital of New France. Yet it contained barely seventy houses with about five hundred and fifty inhabitants. Then, as now, it consisted of a lower and an upper town. In the lower town were to be found the king's stores and the merchants' shops and residences. The public officials and the clergy and members of the religious orders lived in the upper town, where stood the principal buildings of the capital--the Chateau Saint-Louis, the Bishop's Palace, the Cathedral, the Jesuits' College and Chapel, and the monasteries of the Ursulines and of the Hotel-Dieu sisters. Francois de Laval de Montmorency, bishop of Petraea and vicar apostolic for Canada, was the spiritual head of the colony. He had arrived from France six years earlier, in 1659, and was destined to spend the remainder of his life, nearly half a century, in the service of the Church in Canada. Because of his noble character and many virtues, his strong intellect, and his devotion to the public weal, he will ever rank as one of the greatest figures in Canadian history. His vicar-general was Henri de Bernieres, who was also parish priest of Quebec and superior of the seminary founded by the bishop in 1663. The superior of the Jesuits was Father Le Mercier. The saintly Marie de l'Incarnation was mother superior of the Ursulines, and Mother Saint Bonaventure of the Hotel-Dieu.