469 



approach to it, up Mountain Street, both en- 

 filaded and flanked by many guns of large 

 caUbre ; thence a line of defence connects 

 with the grand batter}^, a work of great strength, 

 armed with a formidable train of twenty-four 

 pounders, and commanding the bason and pas*- 

 sage of the river ; from hence another line is car- 

 ried on past the Hope and Palace Gates, both 

 protected by similar defences to those of the 

 Lower Town Gate, until it forms a junction 

 with the bastion of the Coteau da Palais. 

 The General Hospital stands on the bank of the 

 River St. Charles, about a mile distant from 

 the city, in a healthy, pleasant situation, sur- 

 rounded by fine fields and meadows, having its 

 front towards the road called Chemin de FHo- 

 pital General; it was founded in 1693, by 

 Monsieur St. Vallier, Bishop of Quebec, for 

 the relief of sick and disabled poor of all de- 

 scriptions ; it is governed by a superieure, La 

 Reverende Mere St. Joseph, (Esther Chalou) 

 at the head of forty-four nuns. It has a regular 

 handsome front, two hundred and twenty-eight 

 feet in length, and forms nearly a square; the 

 main body of the building is thirty-three feet 

 in breadth, but on the south-west side a range, 

 one hundred and thirty feet in length, projecting 

 from it, is fifty feet in breadth. Detached from 

 the principal edifice, and on the opposite side of 



