Xotre-Dame-des-Anges
GAP IlOUGE 127
reigned in the place ; ècorbutic disease broke out ; tlie Indians threatened constantly. Eoberval us&d fraely his powers to "whip and to hang and to put iu irons. Cap Bouge is the first localit}' in Canada that was privileged to behold the beautiful scenery of nature artistically adomed \rith the gallows-tree.
Cartier, however, had not been idle in France. He won i lawsuit against Eoberval for non-fulfilment of contract. Moreover, he persuaded the king to abandon the enterprise of Canada, as being of no avail whaterer, at least for the présent, and so got orders to proceed to Charlesbourg and bring away the \rhole colony. For this purpose, he sailed in the autumn of 1543, and returaed to France the foUowing summer vrith. the dehrls of the settlement.
The good Algonquins congratulated themselves on the departure of the hated strangers; and no sooner hai they seen the ships well in the channel, by the Isle of Orléans, than they attacked the palisades, and laid everv-thing level with the ground on the spot -vrhere the French had resided.
On digging near the entrance of Cap Rouge river, about fifty years ago, a lirae-kiln still filled with calcareous stone partly bumed was dis^'overed eight feet under ground, looking as if work had been suddenly interrupted, by fear or otherwise, for the wood half burnt, but already reduced alniost to eharcoal, was found in the fire-tplace.
In one of his descriptions Cartier says of France-Roy: '''The river is one hundred and twenty feet wide; a vessel drawing three fathoms can enter it at high tide, and at low water the channel is -only one foot deep. On both sides of the river there are good and fine lands full of trees as large and beautiful as any that can be seen in the world, and of various kinds. The oaks are abundant, the best I ever saw
128 CAP EOUGE
in my life. The maple trees, cedar.=-, birch and otliers are superior to the same kinds in France. On the south side of the river, wild vines loaded with grapes cover the place... The promontory upon which is placed one of our forts is on the east side of the entranc-e, high and steep, but we hâve opened a double ascent ( A) "P its flank, and thus the npper fort protects the main one -which is bebw, as well as the ships."
Ninety-three years afi>er thèse events, I meet the name of Cap Eouge for the first time, in a letter written by Father Le Jeune, during a trip from Quehec to Three Eiyers, in a sloop: "August, 1637, passing opposite Cap Eouge"', he says. "WTiether any actual settlers were cultivating the beautiful Yalley at that time I cannot say. The whole province had only sixty families in 1637, of vfhich twelve are recorded in Three Eivers, and forty-eight in and around Québec, on the north shore, and more particularly at Beauport.
The next mention of Caip Eouge is in 1648 without any (particular dctails; but in 1650, Father Eagueneau states iï\ his report he had that year paid a visit to the people of Cap Eouge. This would show something like an attempt at colonizatiom "We will find out "who were the 'Tiabitants" m question.
The Journal of the Eeverend Jesuit Fathers has an entry under date of 27th April 1651, which reads as follovrs: — "About seven o'doek in the moming, Nicolas Pinel and his son Gilles were attacked in their clearing by two Iroquois, who nearly succeeded in taking them alive. Boisverdun fired at the marauders, without resuit. Mcolas and his son threw themselves down the mountain-side in their flight. Thèse Iroquois, having joined others in the direction of N'opee's house, fired an arquebus shot into the door of the farm-
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house. Ail the uiglit the dogs barked. iu the neigbbourhood." This affair took place at Cap Rouge.
Nicolas Pinel, from la EocheJIe, arrived in Canada before 1644, with his wife and six children. Gilles was bom in 1635. Nicolas mortally wounded, died at Québec sooii after the aboTe fight. His four sons married in this country,. and their descendants are still amongst us.
Charles Gautier dit BoisTerdun was from Paris, and came to Canada before 1646. His family still exists hère.
Xopce, or rather Noce, w'hose real uame was Eené Mézeray, was in Canada as far back as 1636 at least. In 1645, he iived on the settlement of M. de Chavigny de la Cbevrotière at Deschambault, where he married Nicole-Madeleine, daughter of Pierre Garemand. He must hâve removed to Cap Eouge and taken a lot there, I hâve reason to believe that !Mézeray was a cousin of the "well known historian of that nanie because both were of the same âge and came from the same part of Normandy.
In September following, the Iroquois came again to Cap Bouge but a detachment from Québec chased them away. Sillery is ver^^ close to Québec. This land had been given to the Jesuit Fathers in 1647. From there to DuMaure or St. Auj^uslin (Cap Eouge), a space of forty-five acres frontage remi^ired in its primitive state. This intermediate piOperty vra? given on 8th February 1652, to Louis d: I.;urzon, sieur de la Citière, and took the name of GaudarriUe, after the mother of Lauzon, Marie Gaudard. The letters patent mention a road from Québec to Cap Eouge, and some if net ail of the inhabitants of Cap Eouge: Antoine Martin dit Montpellier, Nicolas Chaigncau, Pierre Garemand, François Boulé, Eené Mézeray, François Boucher, Charles Gautier dit
Boisverdun, Guillaume Boisset, Pierre Gallet, Jacques Archambault, Xicolas Euelle, Etienne Dumets (6).
The wife of Chaigneau was killed by the Iroquois in lier ovm house, in September 1651. Garemand was captured by a band of tlie same Indians on lOth June 1653, with îiis son, but the boy was ransomed by the Jesuits and continued the family. Boulé was killed by the Iroquois soon after. The others, namely Martin, Mézeray, Boucher, Gautier, Boisset, Gallet, Archambault, Euelle and Dumets, are found in Cap Bouge about 1660-67. Ail of them hare left large familles.
The habitants of the aettlements in the yicinity of Qutjbec haying been call upon to sélect a s}Tidic for each place, with a view to the transaction of public business with the authorities of the colony, Thomas Hayot was elected for Cap Eouge, on 9th August 1653. This first officiai représentative of old France-Roy had come from Perche, Normandy, in 1637, and had been employed as farmer by the Jesuits at Beauport for uine or ten years. His descendants are numerous in Canada now-a-days. Of course I could tell you the origin — and the sequel -^ of ail the m-en whose names appear in this article; but that would be more appropriate to a work on gen^logy.
There was a redoubt at Cap Rouge in 1653, for it is mentioned, the summer of that year, on the occasion of several raids being made by the Iroquois around the place. Curiou5ly enough, the Sokokis of southwestem Maine and New Hampshire used to come with the Iroquois as far as Québec in those years. Most of the time they pretended to be friendly to the 'Freneh, but they were not so.
The seigniorj' of Cap Rouge, known later on by the name of De Maure, formed at first part and parcel of the