d many times. On the 8th, the day observed by the church
in honour of the Immaculate Conception, the citizens fired a salute from
the muskets at dawn, and they all assisted at mass, and received the
Holy Communion. Devotion to the Mother of God soon became general among
the people, who were characterized as moral and honest.

Notre Dame de la Recouvrance was burnt on June 14th, 1640. In a few
hours the residence of the Jesuits, the parochial church, and the chapel
of Champlain, where his bones had been placed, were destroyed. The
Relation of 1640 gives a short description of the catastrophe: "A rather
violent wind, the extreme drouth, the oily wood of the fir of which
these buildings were constructed, kindled a fire so quick and violent
that hardly anything could be done. All the vessels and the bells and
chalices were melted; the stuffs some virtuous persons had sent to us to
clothe a few seminarists, or poor savages, were consumed in this same
sacrifice. Those truly royal garments that His Majesty had sent to our
savages to be used in public functions, to honour the liberality of so
great a king, were engulfed in this fiery wreck, which reduced us to the
hospital, for we had to go and take lodgings in the hall of the poor,
until monsieur, our governor, loaned us a house, and after being lodged
therein, the hall of the sick had to be changed into a church." This
conflagration was a great loss. The registers were burnt, and the
Jesuits had to reproduce them from memory. The chief buildings of Quebec
had disappeared, and it was seventeen years before a new church was
built.

CHAPTER XIV

THE GROWTH OF QUEBEC

A quarter of a century had elapsed since the founding of Quebec, and
still it could scarcely be regarded as other than a village, while in
some parts of New France colonization was absolutely null. Agriculture
had received some attention in the vicinity of Quebec, but it was on
such a small scale that it should be termed gardening rather than
farming.

Charlevoix writes: "The fort of Quebec, surrounded by a few wretched
houses and some sheds, two or three cabins on the island of Montreal, as
many, perhaps, at Tadousac, and at some other points on the river St.
Lawrence, to accommodate fishers and traders, a settlement begun at
Three Rivers and the ruins of Port Royal, this was all that constituted
New France--the sole fruit of the discoveries of Verrazzani, Jacques
Cartier, de Roberval, Champlain, of t