( tf& ) 



They reckon but about feven or eight hundred 

 fouls on the Three Rivers ; but it has in its neigh- 

 bourhood fufficient wherewithal to enrich a great 

 city. There is exceeding plentiful iron mines, which 

 may be made to turn to account whenever it is judg- 

 ed proper *. However, notwithftanding the fmall 

 number of inhabitants in this place, its fituation 

 renders it of vaft importance, and it is alfo one of the 

 mod ancient eftablifhments in the colony. This 

 poll has always, even from the moft early times, 

 had a governor. He has a thoufand crowns falary, 

 with an Etat Major. Here is a convent of Re- 

 collets ; a very fine parifh church, where the fame 

 fathers officiate, and a noble hofpital adjoining to a 

 convent of Urfuline nuns, to the number of forty, 

 who ferve the hofpital. This is alfo a foundation 

 of M. de St. Vallier. As early as the year 1650, 

 the fenefchal or high fteward of New France, whofe 

 jurifdiclion was abforbed in that of the fupreme ^ 

 council of Quebec, and of the intendant, had a 

 lieutenant at the Three Rivers ; at this day this 

 city has an ordinary tribunal for criminal matters, 

 the chief of which is a lieutenant general. 



This city owes its origin to the great concourfe 

 of Indians, of different nations, at this place in the 

 beginning of the colony. There reforted to it chiefly 

 feveral from the moft diftant quarters of the north 

 by way of the Three Rivers, which have given this 

 city its name, and which are navigable a great way 

 upwards. The fituation of the place joined to the 

 great trade carried on at it, induced fome French 

 to fettle here, and the nearnefs of the river Sorel, 

 then called the Iroquois river, and of which I mall 

 foon take notice, obliged the governors general to 



* They are now actually working them, and they produce 

 fome of the beft iron in the world. 



build 



