Cadillac landed at the narrowest part of the river, where the city now stands, and began to build the little village which was to survive without a break the conflicts of the coming century. In this wilderness, inhabited only by wild beasts and savages, the first thought must be for defence; only when that was provided, could the settlers turn to plans for their own shelter from wind and weather. On the first rise of ground back from the river, along the line of the present Jefferson Avenue, Cadillac marked out a space of a little less than an acre, with a width of about two city blocks and a depth of one, which was to be enclosed by a palisade. Small trees were hewn in the forest and fashioned into sharply pointed pickets which were driven into the ground as closely as possible, thus forming a solid fence ten or twelve feet high. At the four corners were bastions of stout oak pickets from which the soldiers could shoot along the line of the palisade. Inside the stockade, Cadillac laid out a street twelve feet wide, and assigned small lots to the settlers and soldiers. The settlers bought theirs outright, but Cadillac retained the ownership of the others. Fifty hours after their landing, on the day sacred to St. Anne, they began the foundation of a chapel on the very spot where St. Anne’s church stands to-day. In a month the chapel was completed by a rude cross placed over the door, and a bell summoned the colonists to daily prayers. When the storehouse and magazine for ammunition were also finished the people set to work on their own log huts. Trees were cut in the forest, and the rough-hewn logs were hauled to the spot. There a framework was set up, the logs were fitted into it, and the cracks were filled with mortar and mud. Last of all the top was covered with a roof of birch bark, or was thatched with grass. Land outside the stockade was assigned for agriculture, each soldier having a half acre for cultivation, and the civilians larger tracts. That very year wheat was sown for the next summer. With remarkable speed the settlement sprang up in the wilderness, and before the end of August took on an appearance of stability and permanence. Cadillac now summoned the Indians to council and urged them to build settlements in the vicinity. He was wise enough to see that if a sufficient number of friendly Indians located near by, traders would come to buy their furs, the colony could rely on greater numbers in case of attack, and the scanty three months’ supply of provisions brought from Montreal could be eked out by food bought from Indian hunters. Three large villages sprang up, and within eight months the population of the strait was some six thousand people, whites and Indians.