. 1642

ALFRED SANDHAM

The history of Montreal dates back to October, 1535, when
Jacques Cartier first landed on the island. An Indian village,
called Hochelaga, existed here at this time. Its outline was
circular; and it was encompassed by three rows of palisades, or
rather picket fences, one within the other, well secured and
put together. A single entrance was left in this rude
fortification, but guarded with pikes and stakes, and every
precaution taken against siege or attack. Cartier named the
place Mount Royal, from the elevation that rose in rear of the
site, a little way back from the river St. Lawrence. It first
began to be settled by Europeans in 1542, and exactly one
century afterward the spot destined for the city was, with due
solemnities, consecrated at the era of Maissoneuve and named
Ville Marie, a designation which it retained for a long period.
In 1760 it was taken by the English. Since then it has taken
great leaps in the way of progress until to-day it is the chief
commercial city in Canada and the largest city in the Dominion.
Montreal has the further advantage, in its natural situation,
of being at the head of ocean navigation. Its population
to-day, including suburbs, is in the neighborhood of 350,000.

On the death of Champlain (on December 25, 1635), M. de Montmagny was
appointed governor of New France; but so little attention was paid to
the wants of the colony that its prosperity was much retarded, the fur
trade alone being conducted with any spirit. But great vigor was
manifested in religious matters and several institutions were erected.
In 1630 the Hotel Dieu, at Quebec, was founded by three nuns sent out by
the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, and Madame de la Peltrie brought out from
France at her own charge another body of nuns, who established the
Ursuline convent. The peopling and fortifying of the island of Montreal,
with the view of repressing the incursions of the Iroquois and the
conversion of the Indians, had occupied the entire attention of the
first missionaries, and in 1640 the whole of this domain was ceded to a
company for that purpose.

Jerome le Royer de la Dauversiere, a collector of taxes at La Fleche, in
Anjou, and a young priest of Paris, Jean Jacques Olier by name, having
met each other, formed the idea of establishing at Montreal three
religious communities: one of priests