The Picture Gallery of Canadian History Vol. I
Notes on Part Three
Page 129
Charnisay built a fort and established a settlement, the second Port Royal, about six miles from De Mont's Port Royal of 1605-1613. This new settlement was on the south side of the Annapolis Basin. After its capture by the British in 1710 its name was changed to Annapolis Royal, in honour of Queen Anne.
For the history of Acadia, read New England's Outpost, by Dr. J. B. Brebner, and Le Drame Acadien, by Antoine Bernard
Page 130
For the story of La Tour and his wife see Canada's Past in Pictures, The Ryerson Press, Toronto.
Page 131
The picture gives an idea of the arms and costumes of the time. At close quarters the fight was carried on with pistols, swords, and pikes sixteen feet long. Some of the combatants probably wore steel helmets and breastplates, while others would be clad in wide-skirted coats of thick buff leather. The cannon were of small calibre, three or four inches, in comparison with their heavy construction, with very thick barrels of cast iron or brass, and wheels bound with iron bands.
Page 134
J. J. Olier, 1608-1657, a Paris priest, took a leading part in the Catholic revival of religion in France. With La Dauversiere, he founded the missionary society of Notre Dame de Montreal, which received a grant of the island. He sent out four priests of Saint Sulpice in 1657 to establish the Seminary of Montreal.
Paul Chomedy de Maisonneuve, 1612-1676, served in the army. He came to Canada as leader of the missionary settlement of Montreal, which he established in 1642, and of which he was Governor for twenty-two years.
Philippe Hebert, R.C.A., was one of the most distinguished Canadian sculptors. He executed many public statues, of which the Maisonneuve monument was perhaps the most important. The figures at the base represent Lambert Closse, Jeanne Mance, and Charles Le Moine.
Page 135
The Seminary of St. Sulpice, on Notre Dame Street, Montreal, is especially interesting historically since its buildings still appear much as they did two centuries and a half ago. Situated in the midst of the business section of the city, its quiet courtyard, its secluded private garden, its loopholed stone wall and timedarkened masonry belong to an age far removed from the bustling noisy modern world that surrounds it.
The central building dates from about 1683, and was constructed by the Superior, Dallier de Casson, he who thirteen years before had made the exploration of the Great Lakes with deGalinee (See pp.155 and 191). The projecting wings were built a few years later, probably at the end of the seventeenth century or early in the eighteenth. The central doorway, from the stonecarved date above it, 1740, is a later addition. The picturesque belfry and clock face which crowns the facade is said to have been erected early in the eighteenth century, and was the only clock and bell that publicly gave the time for more than a hundred years.
Several of the Sulpicians had a practical knowledge of architecture, and from their plans and under their supervision, these buildings and others, as well as numerous churches, were erected. Besides Dallier de Casson, the Abbe Vachon de Belmont was responsible for the construction of a large portion of the building on Notre Dame Street, while he was at the same time the architect of the Mission and Fort of the Mountain, of which only the towers on Sherbrooke Street remain.
Le Vieux Seminaire, by l'abbe Olivier Maurault, gives an intimate and detailed account of its history and the life within its walls.
Page 137
The ash tree under which tradition says that Mother Marie taught her Indian pupils, shattered by storms and broken by years, survived until 1873, when its stump was dug out of the garden in excavating the foundations for an extension of the convent buildings.
It was difficult to induce the Indian children to wear the clothing of the whites, and it is not strange that they should have preferred their own loose easy buckskin garments and soft moccasins to the tight-laced bodices and stiff clumsy boots or wooden sabots of the French of that period. Doubtless a compromise was made in most cases, and their clothing in consequence was a mixture of Indian and white fashions and materials.
Page 139
The Hotel Dieu, Quebec, was the first hospital established in North America, north of Mexico.
Page 140
We do not know who painted or drew the portraits of many of the personages connected with the early history of Canada, nor how authentic some of them may be. That of Marguerite Bourgeoys is said to have been painted by our first known Canadian-born artist, Pierre Le Ber, brother of the pious recluse of Montreal, Jeanne Le Ber. This portrait of Marguerite Bourgeoys probably depicts her features truly, and formed the basis of the engraving made in France by C. Simonneau (1656- 1728) which is here reproduced.
The headdress which Marguerite Bourgeoys is depicted as wearing was known as a Miramion. This was so named after Madame de Miramion, a French widow, who founded an association of women devoted to work among the poor. They wore a sort of thick, black kerchief, which was tied under the chin in a large bow with flowing ends. The name of their foundress naturally became attached to their familiar head-covering.
In 1680 Mother Bourgeoys went to France to seek advice in drawing up rules for the Sisters of the Congregation, which she had established in Montreal. Among others she consulted Mme. de Miramion, whose association in many ways resembled her own. She adopted many of their regulations, and apparently copied the pattern of their head-dress.
The origin and meaning of this word have been described in the Bulletin des Recherches Historiques, February and April, 1933, by E. Z. Massicotte, to whose researches we are indebted for information on numerous details of the daily life of Canada's past.
Page 141
Many of the earliest churches were built of wood, sometimes of logs in palisade form, covered with planks and roofed with thatch. But as soon as the means of the parishioners made it possible, they built more substantial churches of wooden framework, filled in with rubble, or with field stones and mortar, or of solid stone wall construction. In 1681 there were only seven churches built of stone in the colony, besides those in the city of Quebec. All the others were of wood, in log or frame construction. Today there exist only about twenty churches which were built during the French regime, and nearly all of these have undergone considerable alteration. In some cases only their foundations can be assigned definitely to that period.
The architectural style prevalent during the eighteenth century and well into the first half of the nineteenth was that of the late Renaissance, classic in origin and feeling, and sometimes referred to as Jesuit or Baroque. This was the contemporary style in France and throughout almost all Europe, and it is possible that some of the plans for Canadian churches were prepared in the mother country. We know the names, however, of several architects, sculptors and church builders, natives of New France, such as Levasseur, Baillarge and Quevillon, in whose families the profession was carried on for two or three generations.
The typical early French Canadian church was built to withstand a rigorous climate. The steep roofs shed the snow, the plain, flat walls without projecting ornament gave no lodgment to water, ice or snow. In general the churches fitted admirably into their landscape surroundings. Their beauty consists principally in their harmonious proportions, and the contrast between the massive simplicity of the building and the slender grace of the spires and open belfries.
Fire was a constant menace to all wooden structures, especially in the days of primitive methods of heating. The early churches were not heated. Sometimes there was an open brazier with charcoal to warm the chancel, and the priest had to wear heavy woollen garments under his vestments, while the congregation carried various heating devices such as foot warmers into their seats. Sometimes a heated room was provided in the priest's house where the worshippers might warm themselves. Roofing was a problem for both houses and churches. Wooden shingles were a fire hazard. There was no satisfactory slate to be found in Canada, and tiles were expensive to manufacture, difficult to fasten on the steep roofs, and cracked under severe frost. A roof covering affording better fire protection was found in sheets of tin, which came into use probably as early as the middle of the eighteenth century.
See Old Churches of the Province of Quebec, published by the Commission of Historic Monuments, Quebec, and monographs by Professor Ramsay Traquair, McGill University, Montreal, and Dr. Marius Barbeau, the leading authorities on early French Canadian building.
Pages 142 and 143
Note that if the chimneys are set at the sides of the gables it shows that the house is divided lengthwise of the building, so as to place one fireplace in the front portion and the other in the rear. When the chimney is set astride of the gable the house is divided from front to back, with a fireplace midway of the wall at each end. Double chimneys with a high stone parapet extending above the roof were adopted for houses with fireplaces in the upper storey, especially in Montreal and other towns where houses were built adjoining each other. The parapet was intended to prevent the flames from a burning roof communicating to its neighbour. As a further protection the roofs of some houses were lined with stone or mortar, and sometimes the floor of the upper storey was also paved with stone, so that though the attic burned the lower part of the house was spared. Tin covered roofs and iron shutters later added to fire protection. The overhanging curved eaves shed the snow and icicles toward the road, beyond the doorway and footpath.
Page 144
A fireplace with a recess in the wall for the dog's revolving cage is to be seen in the vaulted kitchen in the basement of the Chateau de Ramezay, Montreal.
Pages 146 and 147
Early seventeenth century furniture and interior decoration was square and angular in character. Chair backs came no higher than the shoulders, legs were either straight and square in section or with corners slightly bevelled, sometimes the legs and uprights of the back were twisted in spirals alternating with spindles and straight pieces at junction points.
This tendency toward curving shapes increased during the century until straight lines had almost disappeared. At the same time the height of the back increased, extending above the head, so that the general shape of the chair was perpendicular rather than square. This upward movement coincided with higher ceilings and the upright panelling of the walls, while at the same time the earlier low chests or "armoires" developed into taller chests of drawers, wardrobes and "highboys."
During the first half of the century seats and backs of chairs generally were covered with leather, fastened by large-headed brass nails set close together. Sometimes the seat leathers were cut into ornamental fringes around their borders. Gradually materials such as silk, stout cloth, plush and velvet, came into use. These fabrics were often decorated with floral designs, stamped, woven or embroidered, and were gathered into frills and fastened with braid along the borders.
Beds were of the four-poster type, the wooden framework entirely hidden by canvas or leather canopies and corner strips falling to the floor, while drapery curtains enclosed the whole, to exclude the draughts.
Dining tables were long, and capable of extension by various devices. Benches as well as chairs were used to seat the guests.
The foregoing notes describe, and the drawings depict the furniture of the better houses, much of which was brought from France. In the pioneer homes on the frontier, and in most of the habitant houses, the furniture was much simpler, often being hand-made; but the proportions and general shape were much the same as those pictured and described. For chair seats deerskin or rushes or splints of inner elm bark were used, while the backs were made of wooden slats and rails. The earliest beds were bunks, made of poles driven into the walls and supported by posts, covered with pine or spruce twigs or marsh hay. As conditions improved mattresses were used, stuffed with these materials or with feathers, and built-in beds were made of planks entirely enclosing the sleeping place from floor to ceiling, with a sliding door and wooden barred ventilating panel. Low, roughly squared logs were used as seats and dining tables for the younger children until well into the nineteenth century in many habitant homes.
Page 148
Among the first needs of a settlement was a mill for sawing logs, and another for grinding grain. Both sawmills and grist mills were built on the streams and run by a water-wheel. For grinding grain, windmills were used also. These were built along the shore of the St. Lawrence and the other broad rivers where their sails could get the full sweep of the breezes.
Several of these early windmills are standing today, though no longer in use. They are built of roughly dressed stone, heavily mortared, with walls two or three feet thick. They are circular in form, and three storeys high, surmounted by a high conical wooden attic or top storey, which can be turned round on a cog-wheel built on the top of the wall, so that the wings can be set to catch the wind from any quarter. On the opposite side to the wings a long beam slopes from the roof to the ground, where a small wheel is attached to it. This beam is pushed around until the right position is reached, when the wings, over which canvas sails are stretched, begin to revolve.
Early forts, whether on the frontier or in the more settled seigneuries, were generally built of logs set upright into the ground side by side to form a palisade. The logs usually were sunk about three feet into the earth, and extended fifteen or sixteen feet above the ground. Their tops were pointed, and along the inside of the palisade was built a platform on which the defenders could stand to fire over the top, or through loop-holes cut high enough to make it impossible for the attackers to put their own guns through them and thus shoot those inside. In most cases at the angles of the fort were placed blockhouses, built of heavy logs laid horizontally. These corner blockhouses, called bastions, projected beyond the palisades and were pierced by loop-holes through which the defenders could fire along the outside line of the connecting palisade, which was called the curtain. Sometimes a blockhouse was built over the entrance gateway, and a few small cannon were mounted there and in the bastions.
The more important forts were surrounded by a ditch, and the earth dug out was thrown up on the inner side to make an embankment in which the palisades were set. Over the ditch or moat, at the entrance, was a hinged bridge, which could be drawn up by ropes or chains to close the gateway in times of danger.
Page 149
There is no authentic portrait of Frontenac. Some years ago an engraving purporting to represent him on his deathbed was circulated in Quebec; but in 1891 it was proved to be really the portrait of a Swiss theologian, Heidegger, engraved in 1778 for Lavater's book on physiognomy. Hebert's admirable statue of Frontenac in Quebec, is a spirited imaginative conception which vividly expresses the character of the fiery governor. One small detail is incorrect, Frontenac is shown wearing the sash and order of St. Louis. This was not conferred upon him until 1696, six years after his defiance of Sir William Phips, which the statue depicts, and which took place three years before the order was founded.
Jean Talon (1625-1694) was the greatest Intendant of New France. Under his administration of a little more than five years, 1665-1668 and 1669-1672, commerce and industry were stimulated, the population increased, and colonization was organized and extended. See Jean Talon, Intendant de la Nouvelle France, by Thomas Chapais, Quebec, 1904.
Alexandre de Prouville, Marquis de Tracy (1603-1670) was an able military officer. Appointed Lieutenant-General of the French possessions in America, he arrived at Quebec in the summer of 1665. He spent eighteen months in Canada. His principal undertaking was an expedition which he led into the Iroquois country in 1666 which inflicted great damage to their villages.
In the latter half of the seventeenth century it became the fashion for men to wear wigs. At the same time the moustache and the beard disappeared, and for the next hundred years or more, in civilized society, the face was clean-shaven. No doubt, however, sailors, explorers and soldiers in the wilderness allowed their beards to grow, as did missionary priests, to whom special permission was granted. Almost without exception, the portraits of the eighteenth century until towards its last years, show clean-shaven faces.
There were many styles of wigs-some introduced by the caprice of fashion, some adopted by the professions, the law, the church, the army. Only a few broad differences can here be indicated. The full-bottomed wig, extending down the back and breast and over the shoulders in a mass of curls, gradually grew smaller, until about 1725 the wig fell no lower on the sides than the ears, and was gathered into a tail at the back. All later variations were confined to various styles of curling, frizzing, braiding, etc., within this area.
Mistakes are sometimes made in imaginative pictures or in dramatic representations by dressing a character in a costume copied from an authentic likeness of the person, but painted at time either later or earlier than that of the play or picture to be produced.
Page 150
The regiment of Carignan was the first body of troops belonging to the French regular army sent to Canada. The arrival of these veterans, numbering from twelve to fifteen hundred, was an important addition to the strength of the colony, where never more than one hundred and fifty soldiers had ever been assembled before.
They arrived in the summer of 1665, after several years active service, their last campaign being in Hungary against the Turks. After marching on foot across Europe, they made the tedious Atlantic voyage in crowded, ill-provided, fever-infected ships, and on their arrival were sent as quickly as possible to build forts on the Richelieu River, the gateway through which the Iroquois invaded Canada. By the end of autumn four forts were built and garrisoned. Duty in a new frontier post was itself no easy task, but there was still more arduous work ahead of them.
Many of the Carignan veterans settled along the frontier in the neighbourhood of Montreal. Some became Indian traders or coureurs-de-bois, while others found employment in the towns. Several of their officers received grants of land and became seigneurs. Their names survive today in the names of such places as Sorel, Chambly, Lavaltrie, Vercheres, St. Ours, Contrecoeur, Varennes, and others.
The drawing shows the Carignan parade uniform: brown coat, grey stockings, white belt, black low-crowned hat with wide turned-up brim. In winter they no doubt wore fur caps, leggings and moccasins. The Canadian militia wore thick homespun or blanket coats, and woollen caps or tuques. Those from the Quebec district were clothed in red, those from Three Rivers in white, and those of Montreal in blue.
For detailed history of the Carignan regiment and its Canadian connections consult Le Regiment de Carignan, by Benjamin Suite, 1922, and the book bearing the same title, which completes Suite's work, by Regis Roy and G. Malchelosse 1925, both published by G. Ducharme, Montreal.
The "Runners of the Woods" or Coureurs-de-Bois greatly aided the French explorers in penetrating into the interior of the continent. They served as canoemen and were invaluable as scouts and explorers. They adopted many of the habits of life of the Indians. They wore moccasins and fur caps, leggings, and buckskin coats, cut into fringes at the shoulders and skirts and along the seams, and ornamented with beads and dyed porcupine quills. They meared their faces with grease and paint, as did the Indians, as a protection against mosquitoes and black flies, while at times of festivity they donned gay coloured laced coats of French cloth, feathered hats, and silk scarves and sashes.
Page 151
Among the instruments used by travellers to find their positions was the cross-staff, generally in use on ships. It consisted of a staff, along which was slid a cross-bar set at right angles, which could be fixed tightly at any required distance by a screw. The observer applied his eye to one end of the staff and raised it until it was in line with the sun or star by which he measured. He then moved the cross-bar along the staff until its lower extremity touched the horizon. If the sun was high, the distance from the near end of the staff to the bar was short; if low, the bar would have to be moved farther along the staff. This was marked at regular intervals, which gave the degree of the sun's altitude above the horizon. From this the observer could calculate roughly his position.
The astrolabe was a flat circular plate of brass, divided intoadegrees, across the face of which moved a bar pivoted on the centre. The bar was pierced with an eyelet through which the traveller sighted the sun. The point on the circle at which the bar rested when in line with the eye and the sun gave the degree of the sun's elevation. From this angle the latitude was calculated. In order to take a correct observation it was necessary to hold the astrolabe in an exactly perpendicular position. It was therefore suspended by a ring at the top from the thumb or finger of the observer, or from the projecting branch of a tree, or, if on shipboard, from some portion of the rigging. The astrolabe was slightly thicker at the bottom and had a short projection to give it more steadiness when thus suspended. Some pictures show Champlain holding an astrolabe by this projection at the base, supposing that it was a handle, but this was not the way it was used. See picture on page 92, showing Champlain using his astrolabe on the Ottawa, and Canada's Past in Pictures for the story of its loss and recovery.
The astrolabe was superseded by the quadrant and the sextant in taking astronomical observations.
Page 153
By the middle of the seventeenth century marked changes in costume had occurred. The sleeveless short outer jerkin gave place to a coat with sleeves and long skirts extending to the knees. It was an age of ribbons and laces, frills, feathers, buttons and braid.
Compare the male costumes shown in pictures on pages 130, 150, 157.
Page 154
Charles Huot, the painter of the picture here reproduced, was born in Quebec in 1855, worked in Europe from 1874 until 1886, when he returned to Canada. He lived for several years at Sillery, where he died in 1930.
He is probably best known by his large mural decorations in the Legislative Building in Quebec. These consist of two large wall paintings, one in the Assembly Chamber, depicting the meeting of the First Legislature of Lower Canada in 1792, and the other in the Council Chamber, portraying the first sitting of the Sovereign Council of New France, while another painting of allegorical character decorates the ceiling of the Assembly Chamber. These are the most important works of their kind in the country, and represent the most ambitious project for the decoration of a public building which Canada has undertaken.
The painting of the Meeting of the Sovereign Council occupies a panel twelve feet high and thirty feet long, above the Speaker's Chair. It was the last work of the painter, who died before it was finished. Messrs. Charles Maillard and Ivan Neilson, of the Quebec School of Fine Arts, completed the picture. The details of architecture, costume and furnishings have been studied with care, and the picture is an accurate historical record as well as an admirable decoration.
Page 155
In 1669 two Sulpician priests, Francois Dollier de Casson and Rene de Brehant de Galinee left Montreal on a missionary exploration of the West by way of the Great Lakes. Dr. James H. Coyne has translated their narrative of the expedition with an introduction and explanatory notes which add greatly to the interest of the original story. It was published by The Ontario Historical Society, Toronto.
The party reached the neighbourhood of modern Port Dover on Lake Erie in the middle of October. Here, in a sheltered spot on Black Creek where it joins the River Lynn, they built a couple of small cabins wherein they spent the winter.
On Passion Sunday, March 23rd, 1670, on the cliff overlooking the lake shore, they put up a cross bearing the Royal Arms and an inscription stating that they and seven other Frenchmen had been the first Europeans to winter there and that they had taken possession of the country in the name of Louis XIV. In 1922 the Sites and Monuments Board of Canada erected a memorial cross on the cliff to mark their discovery of the north shore of Lake Erie.
Their journey took them as far as Sault Ste. Marie and from there back to Montreal by the Ottawa River after nearly a year's absence.
Page 157
St. Lusson holds in one hand a sod of earth. This was part of the procedure in taking possession of land. This ceremony was performed by discoverers and often also by seigneurs on entering on territory granted them by the king. Sometimes a twig taken from a tree was used as a symbol. Explorers frequently marked the ownership of their sovereign by erecting a cross, as did Cartier, or by burying an inscribed metal plate, like La Verendrye. St. Lusson, in addition to taking the sod, put up a cross bearing a metal plate engraved with the King's arms.
The rights of the native inhabitants to their country were ignored, and it is doubtful whether, during the French regime, any treaty was made with the Indians which included a purchase or a formal surrender of their lands.
Page 163
Hennepin's own book gives us the first detailed description of Niagara Falls. It contains also the first picture of them, an engraving on which the drawing herein is based. The engraving probably was made from a drawing by Hennepin, or from his own description and under his supervision. It is out of proportion, but its general features give an accurate idea of the falls at his time, and is valuable because it shows the changes that have taken place in their shape since he saw them. On the right of the picture, in front of the western end of the Horse Shoe Fall, is seen a small cross fall which plunges over an overhanging rock projecting from the edge of the cliff. This fall no longer exists, for the rock, later known as Table Rock, split off and fell some years ago, and the course of the river has altered considerably, owing to the gradual wearing away of the crest of the Falls.
Hennepin is wearing the brown grey robe of the Franciscan order, of which the Recollets, to which body he belonged, was a branch. Around his waist is girt a knotted cord, and over his head is pulled the pointed hood, which could be thrown back to hang behind his shoulders. The rules of his order prescribed that he should wear sandals on his bare feet; but in severe weather and when travelling through the wilderness he would wear moccasins.
Page 165
In 1679 La Salle began the building of a vessel on a creek on the east bank of the Niagara near Lake Erie. She was named The Griffon, in honour of Frontenac, whose coat of arms bore that mythical monster. On August 7th, La Salle and his followers embarked, and the vessel, the first to sail on the upper lakes, proceeded on her voyage to Green Bay, Lake Michigan. Here she was laden with furs, and in the middle of September was sent back to Niagara with orders to return as soon as her cargo was discharged. Meanwhile La Salle proceeded to the southern end of the lake, where he was to await The Griffon bringing the supplies he needed for his journey down the Mississippi. He watched and waited in vain until December, when reluctantly he set out to winter in the Illinois country. No word of the fate of The Griffon reached him; somewhere in Lake Huron or Lake Michigan she was wrecked; but to this day no one knows how or where.
Hennepin's Voyages contains an engraving depicting the building of The Griffon, but we cannot tell how authentic any of its details are, and some of them are absurdly incorrect, such as the inclusion of a palm tree in the landscape setting.
Page 166
From the earliest times, voyageurs, both Indians and whites, on their way up and down the Great Lakes, followed the route between Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Humber and the Holland River and Lake Simcoe. Though it entailed an overland march of about thirty miles, much of it through rough, hilly country, it avoided the roundabout journey by way of Niagara, Lake Erie, the Detroit and St. Clair, and Lake Huron.
La Salle passed over it three, or possibly four times. In August, 1681, he spent about three weeks in getting his canoes and baggage over the carrying place, on his way to the Mississippi. Eight months later, in April, 1682, he reached the mouth of the great river, the first white man to trace it to its outlet into the Gulf of Mexico.
The canoes he used were twenty feet long and three feet wide, capable of carrying twelve hundredweight of merchandise. It was probably the arduous labour involved in transporting these heavy loads over the rugged hills of the height of land that made La Salle call them mountains, although at most they are only about eleven hundred feet above sea-level.
The name Toronto was originally applied to Lake Simcoe and the region between it and the southern shore of Georgian Bay. The word does not appear on maps before 1673, and was first mentioned by La Salle.
The history of the Toronto Carrying Place is told with complete and picturesque detail in Toronto During the French Regime, by Dr. Percy]. Robinson, The Ryerson Press, Toronto.
Page 167
The history of a country includes the history of its literature, its arts and its sciences. This collection therefore includes some pictorial records of Canada's development in these directions. Michel Sarrazin has been called the founder of Canadian science. He was born in 1659, in Burgundy, of a family long connected with the law. His own inclinations led him to the study of the physical sciences and the practice of surgery. He came to Canada in 1685, and was appointed surgeon-major to the troops. In 1694 he returned to France, gained the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and returned to Canada in 1697.
While in France he frequented the society of scientists, among them the great botanist, Tournefort, then also studying medicine. Tournefort nominated him as corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences. Sarrazin sent to him and to Reaumur, the celebrated physicist, zoological and botanical specimens, among them two hundred plants for the Royal Gardens, as well as memoirs and descriptions of many Canadian animals and plants. He dissected and made microscopical examinations of the porcupine, the beaver, the muskrat and the seal, the blueberry, the sugar-maple, and the pitcher-plant. This latter species received its scientific name, Sarracenia, in honour of his researches.
In attendance upon the sick at the Hotel Dieu he contracted ship's fever, from which he died in 1735.
His most eminent successor was Jean Francois Gaultier, born in Normandy, who came to Canada in 1742 as a King's Doctor, and like Sarrazin died while attending the sick soldiers brought in the fleet in 1756. He also carried on scientific researches in meteorology, in the effect of climate on health, and in botany. He communicated papers on these subjects to the Academy, and his name also is commemorated in that of a native plant, the wintergreen, known scientifically as Gaultheria.
Pages 169 and 170
The story of D'Iberville's exploits in Hudson Bay is told in The History of North America, by Bacqueville de la Potherie, 1722. An English translation has been published by The Champlain Society, Toronto, in Documents Relating to the Early History of Hudson Bay, edited with introduction and notes by Dr. J. B. Tyrrell.
In September, 1697, D'Iberville, with his ship, The Pelican, defeated three English vessels near Fort Nelson. Two days after his victory, The Pelican and an English vessel he had captured in the fight were wrecked in a gale with the loss of several of his men. The rest reached the shore and suffered severely from cold and exposure. Next day three others of his ships arrived, and the French attacked the fort so vigorously that it was forced to surrender four days later.
Page 171
Henry Kelsey, a young man in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, was sent, in 1690, to establish trade relations with the Indians of the plains. He spent two years among them, and penetrated farther into the prairie than any previous white man, but his route and the distance he travelled are not certainly known. He was the first white man to see and describe the muskox, the grizzly bear and the buffalo.
His journals and letters have been published by the Public Archives of Canada in The Kelsey Papers, with an introduction by Sir Arthur Doughty and Professor Chester Martin, which gives all the information available concerning Kelsey, his journey, his connection with the Company, and his subsequent career.
Pages 174 and 175
The area in the city of Quebec where now are situated the Chateau Frontenac, the Governor's Garden, Dufferin Terrace, and the Bishop's Palace, was occupied from the time of Champlain, throughout the French regime, and during the earlier years of British rule by the successive residences of various governors, generally known as the Fort or the Chateau St. Louis. The illustrations, taken from contemporary prints or plans, show the appearance of the promontory at different periods until the conquest.
Page 177
Note the gradual change from the long rapier of the early seventeenth century, which was worn almost upright and suspended from a baldric over the right shoulder, to the shorter sword of the late eighteenth century, worn almost horizontally, and later hung from a belt around the waist.
Kirby, in the first page of his romance, The Golden Dog, makes a minor error in describing officers in 1748 as leaning on their swords. This would scarcely have been possible: it was contrary to the custom of the time, and it is doubtful whether the short sling from the cross-belt to the scabbard would admit of it. Only in the early nineteenth century could this be done, when cavalry and artillery swords were hung by longer slings from the waist belt.
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