— 291 — 



general that Champlain had been buried at the foot of 

 the Breakneck steps, at the eastern point of Little, 

 Champlain street. Cultured foreign tourists, used al 

 the local influence they could command to probe, by per- 

 sonal inspection, this worrying secret of the past ; some, 

 the most intrepid among them, when not too portly, 

 tried to squeeze themselves down the narrow trap 

 leading to the diminutive Herculaneum under Sous-le- 

 Fort street, to study, on the spot, the mysterious inscrip- 

 tion and copy it. 



Slender tourists might be making the attempt yet, 

 had not one of the Menteiths of 1866, the Abbe Casgrain, 

 on the 4th November, 1875, manly and fairly come 

 out in print in the Opinion Publique, with new docu- 

 ments obtained by him since 1866, casting much doubt 

 on his previous published opinion. In this issue of the 

 Montreal journal the Abbe Casgrain, after alluding to 

 the publication by the Prince Society of Boston of an 

 English annotated translation of the voyages of Cham- 

 plain, states that the publishers have applied to him for 

 further information in their task of annotating the 

 passage of Les (Euvres de Champlain, relating to his 

 death and last resting place ; that in order to lay before 

 them every document bearing on the subject, the Abbe 

 has thought proper to give publicity to certain docu- 

 ments which have come into his possession since the 

 publication of his brochure, in 1866, Y Opinion Publi- 

 que/ 4th November, 1875.) The Abbe Casgrain lays 

 particular stress on a document discovered hy himself 

 and his friend, Abbe Laverdiere, among the historical 

 papers bequeathed to the Laval University by G-. B. Fari- 

 bault, Past-President of the Literary and Historical 

 Society, and bearing date 10th February, 1649. By dint 

 of patient researches Mr. Casgrain discovered in the 

 archives of the Court-House other documents explana- 

 tory of the first, and by which he makes out that the 

 Chapelle de Champlain was situated on the site of the 

 present Post Office, in the yard in rear of the same. 



