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Sulpice, it is recorded that the land on which it stands was ceded to the Governor of Montreal in the year 1660, just eighteen years after Maisonneuve, its founder, planted the silken Fleur-de-Lys of France on the shores of the savage Redman, and one hundred years before the tri-cross of England floated for the first time from the ramparts.
There was an altar in the open air, decorated with a taste that betokened no less of good nurture than of piety; and around it clustered the tents that sheltered the commandant, Maisonneuve, the two ladies, Madame de la Peltrie and Mademoiselle Mance, and the soldiers and laborers of the expedition.
She had neither ground nor money, but Divine Providence provided both, as M. de Maisonneuve, whose devotion to the Blessed Virgin always prompted him to assist her, had already given a deed of the property they then occupied, and added to it fifty rods adjoining, with the clause that if the Congregation decided, in the future, to build on a more extended plan, for which the present site would not be suitable, the said fifty rods were to be deeded to the hospital, in the vicinity, all which was legally arranged in the month of February, 1658.
There were, they said, no inhabitants on the island of Montreal, it was in the direct route of the Mohawks, who annually haunted the Ottawa and St Lawrence, and swift destruction would surely be the fate of the colony. But Maisonneuve could not be moved from his fixed purpose; he would go to Montreal even 'if every tree on that island were to be changed to an Iroquois.
They knew beforehand that French arms and gunpowder were rather formidable opponents, especially if they should happen to meet another de Maisonneuve, and, as usual, had recourse to concealment. They formed their ambuscade in a ditch which they dug on the very ground that now forms the garden of the Congregation convent.
In position it was well adapted for the fur trade, and after the British took possession in 1760 it became the emporium of a great traffic in the fur-fields of the north and west. But its glorious days are those of its infancy, the days of Maisonneuve and Daulac, of Jeanne Mance and Marguerite Bourgeoys, of Rene de Galinee and Dollier de Casson.
His first Canadian ancestor, Augustin Hebert, was one of the little band of soldier colonists who, under the leadership of Maisonneuve founded Montreal in 1641. Hebert's granddaughter married a soldier of the regiment Carignan-Salieres, Francois Cotineau dit Champlaurier. The Heberts were from Normandy, Cotineau from Savoy.
He pressed close upon Maisonneuve, who snapped a pistol at him, which missed fire. The Iroquois, who had ducked to avoid the shot, rose erect, and sprang forward to seize him, when Maisonneuve, with his remaining pistol, shot him dead. Then ensued a curious spectacle, not infrequent in Indian battles.
Being strengthened in her resolution by his approval, and full of confidence in God and His Holy Mother, she went directly to M. de Maisonneuve to ask for a suitable tract of land on which to erect the building. This he gave most willingly, as there was nothing dearer to him than to promote devotion to the Mother of God by every means in his power.
Yet it was not Quebec but Montreal, that God intended to be the centre of her missionary zeal, and that of her spiritual daughters. She therefore made but a short stay in the capital, and could not rest until she arrived at her final destination, accompanied by M. de Maisonneuve. Words would be quite inadequate to express the joy she felt on approaching Montreal.
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