1640.] NOTRE-DAME DE MONTREAL. 193 



end a band of priests and women were to invade 

 the wilderness, and take post between the fangs of 

 the Iroquois. But first they must make a colony, 

 and to do so must raise money. Olier had pious 

 and wealthy penitents ; Dauversiere had a friend, 

 the Baron de Fancamp, devout as himself and far 

 richer. Anxious for his soul, and satisfied that 

 the enterprise was an inspiration of God, he was 

 eager to bear part in it. Olier soon found three 

 others ; and the six together formed the germ of 

 the Society of Notre-Dame de Montreal. Among 

 them they raised the sum of seventy-five thousand 

 livres, equivalent to about as many dollars at the 

 present day.^ 



Now to look for a moment at their plan. Their 

 eulogists say, and with perfect truth, that, from a 

 worldly point of view, it was mere folly. The 

 partners mutually bound themselves to seek no 



1 DoUier de Casson, Histoire de Montreal, MS. ; also Belmont, Histoire 

 (ill Canada, 2. Juchereau doubles the sum. Faillon agrees with Dollier. 



On all that relates to the early annals of Montreal a flood of new light 

 has been thrown by the Abbe Faillon. As a priest of St. Sulpice, he had 

 ready access to the archives of the Seminaries of Montreal and Paris, and 

 to numerous other ecclesiastical depositories, which would have been 

 closed hopelessly against a layman and a heretic. It is impossible to 

 commend too highly the zeal, diligence, exactness, and extent of his con- 

 scientious researches. His credulity is enormous, and he is completely 

 in sympathy with the supernaturalists of whom he writes : in other 

 words, he identifies himself with his theme, and is indeed a fragment of 

 the seventeenth century, still extant in the nineteenth. He is minute to 

 prolixity, and abounds in extracts and citations from the ancient manu- 

 scripts which his labors have unearthed. In short, the Abbe is a prodigy 

 of patience and industry ; and if he taxes the patience of his readers, he 

 also rewards it abundantly. Such of his original authorities as have 

 proved accessible are before me, including a considerable number of 

 manuscripts. Among these, that of Dollier de Casson, Histoire de Mont- 

 real, as cited above, is the most important. The copy in my possession 

 was made from the original in the Mazarin Library. 



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