reached a pleasant spot at the extremity of the Pointe-aux-Lievres,
a tract of meadow land nearly inclosed by a sudden bend of the
St. Charles. Here lay a canoe or skiff; and, paddling across the narrow
stream, Le Jeune saw on the meadow, two hundred yards from the bank,
a square inclosure formed of palisades, like a modern picket fort of the
Indian frontier. [ 1 ] Within this inclosure were two buildings, one of
which had been half burned by the English, and was not yet repaired.
It served as storehouse, stable, workshop, and bakery. Opposite stood
the principal building, a structure of planks, plastered with mud,
and thatched with long grass from the meadows. It consisted of one story,
a garret, and a cellar, and contained four principal rooms, of which one
served as chapel, another as refectory, another as kitchen, and the
fourth as a lodging for workmen. The furniture of all was plain in the
extreme. Until the preceding year, the chapel had had no other ornament
than a sheet on which were glued two coarse engravings; but the priests
had now decorated their altar with an image of a dove representing the
Holy Ghost, an image of Loyola, another of Xavier, and three images of
the Virgin. Four cells opened from the refectory, the largest of which
was eight feet square. In these lodged six priests, while two lay
brothers found shelter in the garret. The house had been hastily built,
eight years before, and now leaked in all parts. Such was the Residence
of Notre-Dame des Anges. Here was nourished the germ of a vast
enterprise, and this was the cradle of the great mission of New France.
[ 2 ]

[ 1 This must have been very near the point where the streamlet called
the River Lairet enters the St. Charles. The place has a triple historic
interest. The wintering-place of Cartier in 1535-6 (see "Pioneers of
France") seems to have been here. Here, too, in 1759, Montcalm's bridge
of boats crossed the St. Charles; and in a large intrenchment, which