262 VILLEMARIE. [1642. 



inclosed with a strong palisade, and their altar 

 covered by a provisional chapel, built, in the Hu- 

 ron mode, of bark. Soon afterward, their canvas 

 habitations were supplanted by solid structures of 

 wood, and the feeble germ of a future city began 

 to take root. 



The Iroquois had not yet found them out ; nor 

 did they discover them till they had had ample time 

 to fortify themselves. Meanwhile, on a Sunday, 

 they would stroll at their leisure over the adjacent 

 meadow and in the shade of the bordering forest, 

 where, as the old chronicler tells us, the grass was 

 gay with wild-flowers, and the branches with the 

 flutter and song of many strange birds. ^ 



The day of the Assumption of the Virgin was 

 celebrated with befitting solemnity. There was 

 mass in then' bark chapel ; then a Te Deum ; then 

 public instruction of certain Indians who chanced 

 to be at Montreal; then a procession of all the 

 colonists after vespers, to the admhation of the 

 redskinned beholders. Cannon, too, were fired, in 

 honor of their celestial patroness. " Their thunder 

 made all the island echo," writes Father Vimont; 

 " and the demons, though used to thunderbolts, 

 were scared at a noise which told them of the love 

 we bear our great Mistress ; and I have scarcely 

 any doubt that the tutelary angels of the savages 

 of New France have marked this day in the calen- 

 dar of Paradise." ^ 



1 Dollier de Casson, MS. 



2 Vimont, Relation, 1642, 38. Compare Le Clerc, Premier Etablisse- 

 ment de la Foy, II. 51. 



