themselves to agriculture, retaining in his own service about thirty
married people of various avocations, so that religion rather than
worldly interest should range under his standard.

Among the emigrants, the nobility were represented by such names as De
Beletre, Closse and Mignon; merchants, by Lemoine, Lebert, Charly, etc.;
mechanics and farmers, by Caron, Barbier, Archambault, Cavalier, Decari,
and others. In the spring of 1641 all these different classes of people
met at La Rochelle, from which port they were to embark. M. Dauversiere
was everywhere--now at Paris, now at Rochelle--and all were ready to
depart, when the idea suddenly struck him that a man of prudence,
experience, and authority was still wanted to govern the miscellaneous
crowd, and take the lead in the young colony. It was now the month of
May, and the embarkation had not yet taken place because of this void.
But Providence did not forsake him, and the want was supplied in a
rather remarkable manner. Being one day in Paris he was invited to dine
at the house of an intimate friend. During the conversation the subject
of colonizing Montreal was discussed, as it was his absorbing idea, and
he spoke of the embarrassing want that delayed him. After dinner one of
the guests, until then a stranger to him, but who had listened very
attentively to the colonization plan, of which he had not before heard,
freely offered to accompany the expedition. "I am a gentleman of about
forty years of age," he said, "I have spent my youth honorably in the
King's service, and flatter myself with having acquired both experience
and reputation. A desire to devote myself to the service of God in some
way or other has induced me to withdraw from the service of his majesty,
and I have lived for some time in a simple, quiet way, on a pension of
two thousand livres, which is sufficient for my subsistence, but I see
in the enterprise you have undertaken for the honor of the Mother of God
so special a field for the spread of our holy religion, that if my