The Great Intendant | Page 3

immediately of Jean Talon and recommended to the king his appointment as intendant of New France. Talon's commission is dated March 23, 1665.
The minister drafted for the intendant's guidance a long letter of instructions. It dealt with the mutual relations of Church and State, and set forth the Gallican principles of the day; it discussed the question of assistance to the recently created West India Company; the contemplated war against the Iroquois and how it might successfully be carried on; the Sovereign Council and the administration of justice; the settlement of the colony and the advisability of concentrating the population; the importance of fostering trade and industry; the question of tithes for the maintenance of the Church; the establishment of shipbuilding yards and the encouragement of agriculture. This document was signed by Louis XIV at Paris on March 27, 1665.
On receiving his commission and his instructions, Talon took leave of the king and the minister, and proceeded to make preparations for his arduous mission and for the long journey which it involved. By April 22 he was at La Rochelle, to arrange for the embarkation of settlers, working men, and supplies. He attended the review of the troops that were bound for New France, and reported to Colbert that the companies were at their full strength, well equipped and in the best of spirits. During this time he spared no pains to acquire information about the new country where he was to work and live. Finally, by May 24, everything was in readiness, and he wrote to Colbert:
Since apparently I shall not have the honour of writing you another letter from this place, for our ship awaits only a favourable wind to sail, allow me to assure you that I am leaving full of gratitude for all the kindness and favours bestowed on me by the king and yourself. Knowing that the best way to show my gratitude is to do good service to His Majesty, and that the best title to future benevolence lies in strenuous effort for the successful execution of his wishes, I shall do my utmost to attain that end in the charge I am going to fill. I pray for your protection and help, which will surely be needed, and if my endeavours should not be crowned with success, at least it will not be for want of zeal and fidelity.
A few hours after having written these farewell lines, Talon, in company with M. de Courcelle, set sail on the Saint Sebastien for Canada, where he was to make for himself an imperishable name.

CHAPTER II
NEW FRANCE IN 1665
Let us take a glance over the colony at the time when Courcelle and Talon landed at Quebec after an ocean journey--there were no fast lines then--of one hundred and seventeen days.
In 1665 Canada had only three settled districts: Quebec, Three Rivers, and Ville-Marie or Montreal. Quebec, the chief town, bore the proud title of the capital of New France. Yet it contained barely seventy houses with about five hundred and fifty inhabitants. Then, as now, it consisted of a lower and an upper town. In the lower town were to be found the king's stores and the merchants' shops and residences. The public officials and the clergy and members of the religious orders lived in the upper town, where stood the principal buildings of the capital--the Chateau Saint-Louis, the Bishop's Palace, the Cathedral, the Jesuits' College and Chapel, and the monasteries of the Ursulines and of the Hotel-Dieu sisters.
Francois de Laval de Montmorency, bishop of Petraea and vicar apostolic for Canada, was the spiritual head of the colony. He had arrived from France six years earlier, in 1659, and was destined to spend the remainder of his life, nearly half a century, in the service of the Church in Canada. Because of his noble character and many virtues, his strong intellect, and his devotion to the public weal, he will ever rank as one of the greatest figures in Canadian history. His vicar-general was Henri de Bernieres, who was also parish priest of Quebec and superior of the seminary founded by the bishop in 1663. The superior of the Jesuits was Father Le Mercier. The saintly Marie de l'Incarnation was mother superior of the Ursulines, and Mother Saint Bonaventure of the Hotel-Dieu.
It may be interesting to recall the names of some of the notable citizens of Quebec at that time, other than the high officials. There were Michel Filion and Pierre Duquet, notaries; Jean Madry, surgeon to the king's majesty; Jean Le Mire, the future syndic des habitants; Madame d'Ailleboust, widow of a former governor; Madame Couillard, widow of Guillaume Couillard and daughter of Louis Hebert, the first tiller of the soil; Madame de Repentigny, widow of 'Admiral' de Repentigny, to use the grandiloquent expression of old