154 QUEBEC AND ITS TENANTS. [1640. 



vested in a council composed of the governor, Le 

 Jeune, and the syndic, an official supposed to rep- 

 resent the interests of the inhabitants.^ There was 

 no tribunal of justice, and the governor pronounced 

 summarily on all comj)laints. The church adjoined 

 the fort ; and before it was planted a stake bearing 

 a placard with a prohibition against blasphemy, 

 drunkenness, or neglect of mass and other relig- 

 ious rites. To the stake w^as also attached a 

 chain and ii'on collar ; and hard by was a wooden 

 horse, whereon a culprit was now and then mounted 

 by way of example and warning.^ In a community 

 so absolutely priest-governed, overt offences were, 

 however, rare; and, except on the annual arrival 

 of the ships from France, when the rock swarmed 

 with godless sailors, Quebec was a model of deco- 

 rum, and wore, as its chroniclers tell us, an aspect 

 unspeakably edifying. 



In the year 1640, various new establishments 

 of religion and charity might have been seen at 

 Quebec. There was the beginning of a college 

 and a seminary for Huron children, an embryo Ur- 

 suline convent, an incipient hospital, and a new 

 Algonquin mission at a place called Sillery, four 

 miles distant. Champlam's fort had been enlarged 

 and partly rebuilt in stone by Montmagny, who 

 had also laid out streets on the site of the future 

 city, though as yet the streets had no houses. 

 Behind the fort, and very near it, stood the church 

 and a house for the Jesuits. Both were of pine 



1 Le Clerc, Etahlissement de la Foy, Chap. XV. 



2 Le Jpune, Relation, 1636, 153, 154 (Cramoisy). 



