1640.J THE HUNDRED ASSOCIATES. 155 



wood ; and this year, 1640, both were burned to 

 the ground, to be afterwards rebuilt in stone. The 

 Jesuits, however, continued to occupy theu' rude 

 mission-house of Notre-Dame des Anges, on the 

 St. Charles, where we first found them. 



The country around Quebec was still an un- 

 broken wilderness, with the exception of a small 

 clearing made by the Sieur GifFard on his seigniory 

 of Beauport, another made by M. de Puiseaux 

 between Quebec and Sillery, and possibly one or 

 two feeble attempts in other quarters.^ The total 

 population did not much exceed two hundred, in- 

 cluding women and children. Of this number, 

 by far the greater part were agents of the fur com- 

 pany kno^vn as the Hundred Associates, and men 

 in their employ. Some of these had brought over 

 their families. The remaining inhabitants were 

 priests, nuns, and a very few colonists. 



The Company of the Hundred Associates was 

 bound by its charter to send to Canada four thou- 

 sand colonists before the year 1643.^ It had nei- 

 ther the means nor the will to fulfil this engage- 

 ment. Some of its members were willing to make 

 personal sacrifices for promoting the missions, and 

 building up a colony purely Catholic. Others 

 thought only of the profits of trade ; and the prac- 

 tical aff'airs of the company had passed enthely 



1 For Giffard, Puiseaux, and other colonists, compare Langevin, Notes 

 sur les Archives de Notre-Dame de BeaupoH, 5, 6, 7 ; Ferland, Notes sur les 

 Archives de N. D. de Quebec, 22, 24 (1863) ; Ibid., Cours d'Histoire du 

 Canada, I. 266 ; Le Jeune, Relation, 1636, 45 ; Faillon, Histoire de la Colo 

 nie Franqaise, I. c. iv., v. 



2 See " Pioneers of France," 899. 



