United States or Niue ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


What seemingly insurmountable obstacles presented themselves to her view. She must undertake a voyage of many thousand leagues, must traverse immense and unknown seas, must expect to live in the wilds of primeval forests, exposed to the fury of cruel savages, who unceasingly attacked the weak ramparts of Ville-Marie. And what means did she possess to surmount these difficulties? Had she credit?

Her second batch of postulants had already obtained in Paris the approbation of M. de Laval, who received their primary engagements, and she ardently desired that her first beloved companions should enjoy the same precious advantage, having labored with her faithfully for twelve years at Ville-Marie.

A few days after, as they were talking about old times in Ville-Marie, he desired to show her some papers, and laying his hand by chance on a shelf of the library, took down a paper, which proved to be the identical note for 132 livres, that she had believed lost. After the death of M. Blondel, it had been placed for safe-keeping in the hands of M. de Maisonneuve.

He embarked in the autumn of 1671. To the keen regret of the population of Ville-Marie, which owed him so much, M. de Queylus, Abbé de Loc-Dieu and superior of the Seminary of Montreal for the last three years, went to France at the same time as his ecclesiastical superior.

He laid the foundations of the new city, under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin naming it Ville-Marie, City of Mary. He had two sisters in the city of Troyes, one a religieuse of the Congregation of Notre Dame, the other a secular lady Mme. de Chuly, of whom mention has been made.

The holy Foundress supported at this mission several Iroquois girls, free of charge, forming them to habits of virtue, and inducing them to inspire their companions with similar sentiments. She also kept a certain number of these children of the forest among the boarders at Ville-Marie, one or two of whom afterwards became members of the Congregation, and were most useful on the mission schools.

The Jesuits replaced them, and were able, thanks to the munificence of the son of the Marquis de Gamache, to add a college to their elementary school at Quebec. At Ville-Marie the Sulpicians, with never-failing abnegation, not content with the toil of their ministry, lent themselves to the arduous task of teaching; the venerable superior himself, M. Souart, took the modest title of headmaster.

In consequence of the decision of M. de Olier, the body of the venerable Sister Bourgeois was buried beneath the parish church, the day following her decease, with such religious ceremonial and solemnity as Ville-Marie had never witnessed until that day.

I explained to them my desire of procuring a few young girls, who would be willing to accompany me as teachers to Ville-Marie, and also that I would be glad to get one or two healthy persons to attend to our domestic work. My purpose was highly approved of by them, but I was assured it would be difficult to carry it into execution.

At Ville-Marie no fewer precautions were taken; the governor surrounded a mill which he had erected in 1658, by a palisade, a ditch, and four bastions well entrenched. It stood on a height of the St. Louis Hill, and, called at first the Mill on the Hill, it became later the citadel of Montreal.