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The districts of Quebec and Three Rivers were quiet as the grave with the exception, perhaps, of an occasional village like Montmagny, where Étienne P. Taché, afterwards a colleague of Sir John Macdonald and prime minister of Canada, was the centre of a local agitation. Yet it is easy to see that the rebellion might have been much more serious.
Bold and enterprising, endowed with indomitable perseverance and rare practical faculties, an explorer of distant forests, an intrepid negotiator with the savage tribes, a wise and patient administrator, indulgent towards all, in spite of his ardent devotion, Samuel de Champlain had presented the rare intermixture of the heroic qualities of past times with the zeal for science and the practical talents of modern ages; he was replaced in his government by a knight of Malta, M. de Montmagny.
An envoy from New England visited Quebec, and proposed to the French governor the establishment of a peace between the two colonies of New France and New England, which was not to be broken even should the parent states go to war. Governor Montmagny consented, on condition that the Iroquois were to be put down. He was so willing that he sent an envoy to Boston to ratify a treaty.
Guillaume de Caën appointed de la Ralde as his lieutenant to protect the trade in the Gulf of St. Lawrence against the Basques and others, especially at Percé, Gaspé, and Miscou. From the year 1627, de la Ralde ceased to be of importance, as his fortunes followed the de Caëns. Champlain died within Fort St. Louis, and the Governor Montmagny had the building restored under the title of Château St.
These doubts, as he himself tells us, agitated the mind of the Father Superior, Le Jeune; but they were happily set at rest, when, on a morning in June, he saw a ship anchoring in the basin below, and, hastening with his brethren to the landing-place, was there met by Charles Huault de Montmagny, a Knight of Malta, followed by a train of officers and gentlemen.
So the big man, of the two captives, rose to make a speech in reply to the offer by the governor. He addressed him as "Onontio," or, in the Mohawk tongue, "Great Mountain," which was the translation of the name Montmagny. "Onontio," he said, "I am saved from the fire; my body is delivered from death. Onontio, you have given me my life. I thank you for it. I will never forget it.
The Sieur de Maisonneuve, a gallant soldier and a loyal devotee of the Church, was the active leader of the enterprise, with Jeanne Mance, an ardent young religionist of high motives and fine character, as his principal coadjutor. Fortune dealt kindly with the project, and Montreal began its history in 1642. A few years later Montmagny gave up his post and returned to France.
Montmagny was wroth when this was reported to him; and, on the ground that what had passed was "contrary to the service of the King and the authority of the Governor," he summoned Gory and six others before him, and put them separately under oath. Their evidence failed to establish a case against their commander; but thenceforth there was great coldness between the powers of Quebec and Montreal.
They were met at the landing-place by the whole population headed by the Governor-General, Monsieur de Montmagny, and the Jesuit Fathers of the colony, and after mutual salutations, were escorted to the church, where the holy Sacrifice was offered with all the solemnity that circumstances permitted, the ceremony concluding with the Te Deum.
Champfleur, the commandant, went out to them with urgent remonstrances, and at length prevailed on them to leave their victim without further injury, until Montmagny, the Governor, should arrive. He came with all dispatch, not wholly from a motive of humanity, but partly in the hope that the three captives might be made instrumental in concluding a peace with their countrymen.
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