182 DEVOTEES AND NUNS. [1639, 



sang in choir on deck, or heard mass in the cabin. 

 Once, on a misty morning, a wild cry of alarm 

 startled crew and passengers alike. A huge ice- 

 berg was drifting close upon them. The peril was 

 extreme. Madame de la Peltrie clung to Marie 

 de rincarnation, who stood perfectly calm, and 

 gathered her gown about her feet that she might 

 drown with decency. It is scarcely necessary to 

 say that they were saved by a vow to the Vii'gin 

 and St. Joseph. Vimont offered it in behalf of all 

 the company, and the ship glided into the open sea, 

 unharmed. 



They arrived at Tadoussac on the fifteenth of 

 July ; and the nuns ascended to Quebec in a small 

 craft deeply laden with salted codfish j on which, 

 uncooked, they subsisted until the first of August, 

 when they reached their destination. Cannon 

 roared welcome from the fort and batteries ; all 

 labor ceased ; the storehouses were closed ; and 

 the zealous Montmagny, with a train of priests and 

 soldiers, met the new-comers at the landing. All 

 the nuns fell prostrate, and kissed the sacred soil 

 of Canada.^ They heard mass at the church, 

 dined at the fort, and presently set forth to visit 

 the new settlement of Sillery, four miles above 

 Quebec. 



Noel Brulart de Sillery, a Knight of Malta, who 

 had once filled the highest offices under the Queen 

 Marie de Medicis, had now severed his connection 



1 Juchereau, 14 ; Le Clerc, II. 38 ; Ragueneau, Vie de Catherine de St. 

 Aiigustin, " Epistre dedicatoire ; " Le Jeune, Relation, 1639, Chap, II. ; 

 Charlevoix, Vie de Marie de V Incarnation, 264 ; " Acte de Reception," in 

 Les Ursidines de Quebec, I. 21. 



