4 JOHN LESPEEANCB ON 



settlement was made at Port Royal, which lasted till 1613. But Champlain, who had not 

 favoured this diversion, withdrew before that time, and sailing for the St. Lawrence, M'ith 

 Pontgravé, laid the foundations of Quebec, in 1608. His career, from that date till 1635, 

 when he died, was a series of voyages, adventures, mishaps, hardships, négociations with 

 the French court and French companies, wars and treaties with Indians, administrative 

 details, and the balancing of hostile parties. Although a Catholic himself, he managed 

 the presence of Huguenots in the colony with a measure of success. 



No less successful, and more romantic, is Maisonneuve's settlement of Montreal. A 

 soldier broken to arms, he went forth from France ou a higher military expedition, which 

 was the fruit of a vision and supernatural impulse. He" carried it out with the spiritual 

 help of Marguerite Bourgeoys and Mile. Mance. "When the Grovernor, De Montmagny, 

 would dissuade him from the danger of settling in the island of Montreal, his only reply 

 was that he would go even if all the trees there were turned into Iroquois. The solemn 

 high mass sung on the classic tongue of laud, known as Pointe-à-Callière ; the carrying of 

 the cross on his shoulders to the top of Mount Royal ; the single-file sally, out of the oaken 

 gates, on snowshoes, to meet the skulking Indian who frightened the nuns and their little 

 wards ; the forbearing stand taken against the covetousness of trappers and the greed of 

 tradesmen rulers, — all these deeds sprang from a lofty soul, and were wrought with a 

 dash of Christian bravery. " Maisonneuve was a great man, knightly in bearing, brave 

 as a lion, and deA^out as a monk," was what I wrote of him in "Picturesque Canada," 

 and what was repeated by M. Rousseau in his life of the founder of Villemarie, and I am 

 proud to say it again in this presence. Maisonneuve was a lay friar, but no bigot, and 

 ruled his mingled elements with so steady a hand that he was upbraided for it, and at 

 length removed. He died at Paris, in a lonely cell decked with hangings and other tokens 

 of Villemarie, and his last looks were turned toward the cross on the mountain beyond 

 the sea. 



II. 



After the romance of discovery and settlement comes that of exploration and adven- 

 ture. Brilliant as are the scenes of Central and South American chivalry, in the search of 

 unknown lands, under Ponce de Leon, Cortez and Pizarro ; in her bush-rangers and 

 coureurs des bois, Canada had a set of shrewd, hardy and fearless men who did much to 

 open the vast country lying beyond the St. Lawrence and the lakes, and who, down even 

 to our own time, have achieved wonders for the civilization of the great "West. It was 

 Champlain who discovered the Ottawa River from its mouth to G-eorgian Bay, and pierced 

 to the famed and ill-starred peninsula where dwelt the Hurons, between Nottawasaga Bay 

 and Lake Simcoe. It was he who likewise first explored the Richelieu from Sorel to the 

 lake bearing his name, and then to Lake St. Sacrament, now called George, and Lake 

 Ontario. The Jesuit Marquette and Joliet the trapper discovered the waters of the 

 Mississippi down to the Arkansas ; Hennepin, the Recollet, named the Falls of St. 

 Anthony or Minnehaha ; La Salle, a man of genius, explored the Father of "Waters to its 

 mouth ; Nicolet made very valuable explorations in the west ; Dablou and Dollier du 

 Casson described the Niagara Falls, and the great lakes, Ontario, Erie and Huron ; Druil- 

 lette was the pioneer of white men in the mighty woods of Maine, and De la Verandrye 



