But The Iroquois
Having Scented Their Prey In Their New Abode, Made A Raid On The Island,
Butchered Seventy-One Of Them, And Carried Away Some Prisoners.
The
unfortunate redskins soon left the Island in dismay, and for protection,
encamped in the city of Quebec itself,
Under the cannon of the fort,
constructed by Governor d'Aillebout to receive them, near the Jesuits
College (at Cote de St. Michel); in 1667, they settled on the northerly
frontier of Sillery, [195] in Notre Dame de Foy [now St. Foye]; restless
and scared, they again shifted they quarters on the 29th December, 1693,
and pitched their erratic tents at Ancienne Lorette, which place they also
abandoned many years afterwards to go and settle at Jeune or Indian
Lorette, where the remnants of this once warlike race [196] (the nobles
amongst Indian tribes) exist, now crossed with their Caucasian brethren,
and vegetate in obscurity - exotic trees transplanted far from their native
wilds.
Shall we venture to assert that Sillery equals in size some of the German
principalities, and that, important though it be, like European dynasties,
it has had its periods of splendor succeeded by eras of medieval
obscurity. From 1700 down to the time of the conquest, we appeal in vain
to the records of the past for any historical event connected with it;
everywhere reigns supreme a Cimmerian darkness. But if the page of history
is silent, the chronicles of the ton furnish some tit-bits of drawing-
room chit-chat. Thus, as stated in Hawkins' celebrated Historical Picture
of Quebec, [197] the northern portion of the parish skirting the St. Foye
road "was the favorite drive of the Canadian belle." In these few words,
of Hawkins is involved an intricate question for the salons, a problem to
solve, more abstruse than the one which agitated the Grecian cities
respecting the birth of Homer. Who then was the Canadian Belle of former
days? The Nestors of the present generation still speak with admiration of
a fascinating stranger who, close to the end of the last century, used to
drive on the St. Foye road, when a royal duke lived in the city, in what
is now styled "The Kent House," on St. Louis street. The name of this
distinguished traveller, a lady of European birth, was Madame St. Laurent;
but, kind reader, have patience. The Canadian belle who thus enjoyed her
drives in the environs of Quebec was not Madame St. Laurent, as it is
distinctly stated at page 170 of Hawkins that this occurred before the
conquest, viz., 1759. Might it have been that vision of female loveliness,
that spotless and beautiful Mrs. De Lery, whose presentation at court,
with her handsome husband, shortly after the conquest, elicited from His
Majesty George III. the expression which history has preserved, "If such
are all my new Canadian subjects, I have indeed made a conquest;" or must
we picture to ourselves as the Canadian belle that peerless beauty, that
witty and aspiring Madame Hughes Pean, Intendant Bigot's fair charmer,
mysteriously hinted at, in all the old Quebec guide books, as "Mrs.
P - - ." Madame Hughes Pean, [198] whose husband was Town Major of Quebec,
owned a seigniory in the vicinity of the city - some say at St. Vallier,
where Mons Pean used to load with corn the vessels he dispatched
elsewhere; she also was one of the gay revellers at the romantic
Hermitage, Bigot's shooting lodge at Charlesbourg. Old memoirs seem to
favour this version. Be this as it may the St. Foy road was a favorite
drive even a century before the present day; so says Hawkins' historical
work on Quebec - no mean authority, considering that the materials thereof
were furnished by that accomplished scholar and eminent barrister, the
late Andrew Stuart, father of the present Judge Stuart, and compiled by
the late Dr. John Charlton Fisher, one of the able joint editors of the
New York Albion, and father of Mrs. Ed. Burstall, late of Sillery. Who
was the reigning belle in 1759, we confess that all our antiquarian lore
has failed to satisfactorily unravel. The battles of 1759 and 1760 have
rendered Sillery, St. Foye, and the Plains of Abraham classic ground. The
details of these events, having appeared elsewhere, [199] the reader is
referred to them.
Those of the present day desirous to ascertain the exact spot in the
environs of Quebec where past events have taken place, ought to be careful
not to be misled by subsequent territorial divisions for municipal or
canonical purposes. Many may not be aware that our forefathers included
under the denomination of Abraham's Heights that plateau of comparatively
level ground extending in a south-easterly direction from the Coteau
Ste. Genevieve towards the lofty banks which line the River St.
Lawrence, covering the greatest part of the land on which subsequently
have been built the St. Lewis and St. John's suburbs, the hilly portion
towards the city and river, where stands the Asile Champetre; thence
south-east, being then called Buttes a Nepveu; the land close by, between
the Plains and Pointe a Puiseaux, as Cote St. Michael; the ascent from the
valley of the St. Charles towards this plateau was through the hill known
as Cote d'Abraham. The locality afterwards known as Woodfield and Spencer
Wood, in the fief of St. Michael, was designated as the wood of Sames,
thus called after a celebrated French ecclesiastic of Quebec, Bishop
Dosquet, who owned there a country seat in 1753 - then known as Sames -
later on, as Woodfield. To the west lay the Gomin Wood - which had taken
its name from a French botanist, Dr. Gomin, who had located himself on
land on which it is said, Coulonge Cottage was subsequently built in order
to study the Flora of Sillery, which is very varied and rich.
The old Sillery settlement, which lay within the limits of the parish of
Ste. Foye, was, in 1855, placed under the distinguished tutelage of a
Saint, dear to those who hail from the Emerald Isle, and called St.
Columba of Sillery.
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