as yet the means to erect a parish church. In the vicinity
there were the beginnings of settlement at Cap-de-la-
Magdeleine, Batiscan, and Champlain. Among the important
families of Three Rivers were those of Godefroy, Hertel,
Le Neuf, Crevier, Boucher, Poulin, Volant, Lemaitre,
Rivard, and Ameau. Michel Le Neuf du Herisson was juge
royal, and Severin Ameau was notary and registrar of the
court.

Montreal or Ville-Marie was scarcely more important than
Three Rivers. The population of the whole district numbered
only 625. A fort built by Maisonneuve and Ailleboust at
Pointe-a-Callieres; the house of the Sulpicians at the
foot of the present Saint-Sulpice Street; the Hotel-Dieu
on the other side of that street; the convent of the
Congregation sisters facing the Hotel-Dieu; a few houses
scattered along the road called 'de la Commune,' now
Saint-Paul Street; and on the rising ground towards the
Place d'Armes of later years a few more dwellings--these
constituted the Montreal of primitive days. On the top
of the hill called 'Coteau Saint-Louis' was erected an
intrenched mill--'Moulin du Coteau'--which could be used
as a redoubt to protect the inhabitants. The Sulpicians'
house, the Hotel-Dieu, the convent of the Congregation,
and the houses of the Place d'Armes and of 'la Commune'
were connected with the fort by footpaths. Before 1672
there were no streets laid out. The only place of public
worship was the Hotel-Dieu chapel, fifty feet in length
by thirty in width. The superior of the Sulpicians was
Abbe Souart. Mother Mace was superioress of the Hotel-Dieu,