The founding of the present city dates from 1642 and it was marked by voices and visions and dreams and signs. Its inception is shrouded in mysticism; there was Dauversiere who whipped himself with a scourge of small chains; there was Olier who afterward founded the Sulpician Seminary, to whom came a revelation as the choir was chanting Lumen ad revelationem gentiunt. These two men were miraculously brought together in the church of Notre Dame de Paris, and to them in an ecstasy the Virgin appeared. All these things are set forth in the Relations des Jesuites.
The proposal was to found at Montreal three communities, one of secular priests, to direct the colonists and convert the Indians; one of nuns to nurse the sick; and one to teach the Faith to children white and red alike. This was at a time when, from the condition of In dian warfare, it was like entering a kennel of wolves. The soldier captain of the expedition of 40 men was Paul de Chomedy Sieur de Maisonneuve, a valiant and sober mat of grave demeanor and full of courage. Accompanying the expedition was the devoted Jeanne Mance. Arriving at Quebec they encountered only jealousy and distrust. It was then the leader cried: °I have not come to deliberate hut to act; it is my duty and my honour to found a colony at Montreal, and I would go if every tree were an Iroquois? Upon the 17th of May 1642 this strange expedition arrived at the foot of Saint Mary's current. Maisonneuve sprang ashore on the spot where the Customs House now stands. In the words of the officiating priest, Pere Vimont, "tents were pitched, camp fires were lighted, evening fell and mass was celebrated. Fire-flies caught and imprisoned in a phial upon the altar served as lights? An al tar was raised, and kneeling together the ad venturers heard the voice of the priest: are a grain of mustard-seed that shall rise and grow till its branches overshadow the earth. You are few but your work is the work of God. His smile is upon you and your children will fill the land? To trace the trials and growth of the Colony would be to write the romance of Christian chivalry.
As a result of the victory which Wolfe ob tained over Montcalm on the Plains of Abra ham, Canada fell to the British, and Montreal formally capitulated to General Amherst on 8 Sept. 1760. When the war of the American
Revolution broke out, operations were directed against Canada. Montreal yielded to Brigadier General Wooster, and General Carleton was obliged to withdraw to Quebec. During the winter of 1775-76 the Commissioners of Con gress, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase and Charles Carroll, took counsel as to how they might detach Canada from its allegiance to the British Crown, which had lasted only six years. The ecclesiastical authorities, with the astute ness of their race, took the occasion to drive a hard bargain with England, by which their re ligion and laws were guaranteed to them for ever. To England Canada was, in the mocking words of Voltaire, nothing more than a few acres of snow, and the mother country adopted an easy way out of her difficulties. The Com missioners were outwitted and resorted to force. The expedition, which was sent to Quebec un der General Montgomery, received no support on the way, and it was, ultimately' defeated and its commander slain before the barriers of Quebec.
Monuments, Parks and Public Buildings. — Place d'Armes is a small enclosure sur rounded by several noble buildings. The parish church of Notre Dame, with the seminary of the Sulpicians, occupies the southern side. The Bank of Montreal with its classic front faces the .church, and upon either hand are large buildings for commercial purposes. The most notable feature of the Place d'Armes is the statue erected in honor of Sieur Chomedy de Maisonneuve, the founder of Montreal. He is i represented in bronze, in the costume of the 17th century, holding a fleur-de-lis banner. The granite pedestal shows the inscription: "Paul de Chomedy de Maisonneuve, Fondoteur de Montreal, 1642.)) It rests upon a fountain and displays bas-reliefs representing Maisonneuve killing the Indian chief ; the founding of Ville Marie; the death of Lambert Closse defending his enclosure near Saint Lambert Hill ; the heroic death of Dollard, who fell with his com panions at the Long-Sault on the Ottawa, and saved the colony. At the four corners are life size bronze figures, representing an Indian, a colonist, with the legendary dog Pilote, a soldier and Jeanne Mance, all finely done by Philip Hebert, the Canadian sculptor.