1639.] BRULART DE SILLERY. 183 



with his Order, renounced the world, and become a 

 priest. He devoted his vast revenues — for a dis- 

 pensation of the Pope had freed him from his vow 

 of poverty — to the founding of rehgious estabhsh- 

 ments.^ Among other endowments, he had placed 

 an ample fund in the hands of the Jesuits for the 

 formation of a settlement of Christian Indians at 

 the spot which still bears his name. On the strand 

 of Sillery, between the river and the woody heights 

 behind, were clustered the small log-cabins of a 

 number of Algonquin converts, together with a 

 church, a mission-house, and an infirmary, — the 

 whole siuTOunded by a palisade. It was to this 

 place that the six nuns were now conducted by 

 the Jesuits. The scene delighted and edified them ; 

 and, in the transports of their zeal, they seized and 

 kissed every female Indian child on whom they 

 could lay hands, " without minding," says Father 

 Le Jeune, " whether they were dirty or not." 

 " Love and charity," he adds, " triumphed over 

 every human consideration." ^ 



The nuns of the Hotel-Dieu soon after took up 

 theu' abode at Sillery, whence they removed to 

 a house built for them at Quebec by their found- 

 ress, the Duchesse d'Aiguillon. The Ursulines, 

 in the absence of better quarters, were lodged at 

 "first in a small wooden tenement under the rock of 



1 See Vie de Vlllustre Serviteur de Dieu Noel Brulart de Sillery; also 

 Etudes et Recherches BiograpMques sur le Chevalier Noel Brulart de Sillery ; 

 and several documents in Martin's translation of Bressani, Appendix IV. 



2 " . . . sans prendre garde si ces petits enfans sauvages estoient sales 

 ou non ; . . . la loy d'amour et de charite' Temportoit par dessus toutes 

 les considerations humaine^." — Relation, 1639, 26 (Cramoisy). 



