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In front of the seigniory is the village of La 

 Nativite deNotreDame, or La Prairie, formerly 

 called Fort de la Prairie, from having once had 

 a rude defence, honoured with that name, thrown 

 up to protect its few inhabitants from the sur- 

 prises or open attacks of the five native tribes 

 of Iroquois, who possessed the country in its 

 vicinity. Such posts were established at many 

 places in the early periods of the colony, while 

 the Indians remained sufficiently powerful to 

 resist and often repel the encroachments of the 

 settlers, although at present none of them retain 

 a vestige of their ancient form, and very few 

 even the name by which they were originally 

 known. La Nativite is now a flourishing, hand- 

 some village of 100 well-built houses ; nearly 

 one-fourth of them are of stone, in a very good 

 style, giving an air of neatness and respecta- 

 bility to the whole. Within the parish there is a 

 school, not very considerable indeed, although 

 in the centre of a numerous population; yet 

 as the good effects of such an establishment, 

 however humble in its rudiments, will not fail 

 to be experienced, its advantages will undoubt- 

 edly be rendered extensively beneficial to the 

 rising generation. A convent of the sisters of 

 Notre Dame, missionaries from the community 

 formerly founded at Montreal by Madame Bour- 

 geois, is in a much better conditiori, where all 



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