in after years, the Indians assembled by hundreds, to embrace
Christianity, and receive instruction from the priests and the Sisters
of the Congregation. The first time M. de Maisonneuve conducted Margaret
Bourgeois to the time-honored cross, he was obliged to have an escort of
thirty men, lest the Iroquois should surprise and maltreat them. What
then must have been her disappointment and grief to find it thrown down
and broken. The Indians had watched their opportunity to insult the
Christian standard, yet wonderful to relate, the statue of the Blessed
Virgin was not in the least injured. She resolved on the spot to erect a
third cross, with M. de Maisonneuve's permission, which she of course
obtained, and for three days and nights they labored together on the
mountain until the pious work was completed. This time they surrounded
it with a strong palisade of stakes, and for years the colonists were in
the habit of making annual pilgrimages to it. It was still standing in
1760, when the English became masters of Montreal, but from that time it
was seen no more. Sister Bourgeois soon after her arrival, commenced her
labor of Christian love. Ville-Marie then contained about fifty houses
scattered here and there, with a fort for the garrison. A few colonists
settled in the surrounding country, where they made successful attempts
to cultivate the ground, and some converted savages erected cabins in
the vicinity. These constituted the entire population of Montreal at
that remote period, and our heroine visited each house daily, like the
Apostles of old, to animate the people with a portion of her own zeal in
the discharge of their religious duties. She was to be found everywhere
that the good of her fellow-creatures required, either waiting on the
sick, consoling the afflicted, instructing the ignorant, washing and
mending--gratis--the clothing of the poor soldiers, preparing the dead
for burial, or despoiling herself of necessaries in favor of the
destitute, which was the routine of her daily life. And it might be
truly said in the words of Scripture, that her days were full. We have