hen several Christian villages, those of Lorette, Ste. Foy,
Sillery, the village of La Montagne at Montreal, of the Sault St. Louis,
and of the Prairie de la Madeleine. Far from avoiding these trips, Mgr.
de Laval took pleasure in visiting all the cabins of the savages, one
after another, spreading the good Word, consoling the afflicted, and
himself administering the sacraments of the Church to those who wished
to receive them.

Father Dablon gives us in these terms the narrative of the visit of the
bishop to the Prairie de la Madeleine in 1676. "This man," says he,
speaking of the prelate, "this man, great by birth and still greater by
his virtues, which have been quite recently the admiration of all
France, and which on his last voyage to Europe justly acquired for him
the esteem and the approval of the king; this great man, making the
rounds of his diocese, was conveyed in a little bark canoe by two
peasants, exposed to all the inclemencies of the climate, without other
retinue than a single ecclesiastic, and without carrying anything but a
wooden cross and the ornaments absolutely necessary to a _bishop of
gold_, according to the expression of authors in speaking of the first
prelates of Christianity."

[The expedition of Dollard is related in detail by Dollier de
Casson, and by Mother Mary of the Incarnation in her letters. The
Abbe de Belmont gives a further account of the episode in his
history. The _Jesuit Relations_ place the scene of the affair at
the Chaudiere Falls. The sceptically-minded are referred to
Kingsford's _History of Canada_, vol. I., p. 261, where a less
romantic view of the affair is taken.]--Editors' Note on the
Dollard Episode.

CHAPTER VI

SETTLEMENT OF THE COLONY

To the great joy of Mgr. de Laval the colony was about to develop
suddenly, thanks to the establishment in the fertile plains of New
France of the time-expired soldiers of the regiment of Carignan. The
importance of the peopling of his diocese had always been capital in the
eyes of the bishop, and we have seen him at work obtaining from the
court new consignments of colonists. Accordingly, in the year 1663,
three hundred persons had embarked at La Rochelle for Canada.
Unfortunately, the majority of these passengers were quite young people,
clerks or students, in quest of adventure, who had never worked with
their hands. The consequences of this deplorable emigration were
disast