— 26 — 



Chateau St Louis, the recent arrivals from sea : thirty- 

 four formidable ships- of- war, which, after rounding 

 Pointe Levy, at dawn, had taken position at 10 o'clock 

 a. m. ; the smaller craft lying towards Beauport, whilst 

 the flag-ship and larger vessels had anchored in the 

 stream. This meant war : life or death to the alarmed 

 denizens of the beleaguered citadel. 



But what was Quebec in 1690 ? Champlain's cher- 

 ished settlement of 1608 had had time to expand, 

 increasing in population, growing stronger as a military 

 post. 



Its first residents, 'tis true, had long been gathered to 

 their fathers ; the old Scotchman, Abraham Martin, 

 King's pilot ; that universal genius, the land surveyor, 

 Jean Bourdon ; the trusty apothecary, Louis Hebert, 

 first settler in the upper town ; Guillaume Couillard, 

 patron of the Basilica ; the hardy and skilful interpreters, 

 Nicholas Marsolet, Jean Nicolet, were no more, but they 

 had left descendants, sons and many grandsons, great- 

 grandsons innumerable. By the influx of colonists from 

 Normandy, Brittany, Perche, etc., the population had" 

 increased to 1,500 souls. When Champlain left Quebec 

 on the arrival of Capt. Kirke, in 1629, 22 persons, viz., 7 

 men, 8 women and 7 children, constituted the French 

 population of Quebec. 



Talon and Hocquart, ablest of Intendants, had, with 

 the help of the wise Colbert, been the avowed promoters 

 of colonization, commerce, manufactures, ship-building, 

 in the Great Louis' pet colony. The higher grades of 

 education had been cared for — some think even too 

 much : the Jesuits College founded in 1635 ; the Sdmi- 

 naire des Missions Etrangeres, created in 1663, the 

 Petit Sdminaire, in 1668. Well regulated conventual 

 institutions, fostered by pious noble French ladies, 

 taught the young idea to shoot, whilst a progressive 

 but absolute ecclesiastic, of noble birth (Monsignor de 

 Laval-Montmorency), had taken charge of the church 



