Marguerite Bourgeoys says that there were about 120 passengers, of whom 108 were "soldiers," as she calls the engagés. The Abbé de Belmont gives 105 soldiers. Mr. Massicotte, from a study of the contracts of marriages shortly after the arrival of the recruits of 1653 and other sources, supplies the eighteen missing members thus: A married woman, two single women, four men, M. de Maisonneuve, Marguerite Bourgeoys, and nine others who are mentioned by the latter as "quelques filles," who were brought for marriageable purposes.
Marguerite Bourgeoys mentions that eight were buried at sea. Of the 102 in the list mentioned above, Mr. Massicotte finds eleven names that never occur in any of the documents of the period at Montreal. Hence he concludes that their owners never reached Montreal and that therefore eight at least of them correspond to those that were buried in the ocean.
[71] For she was now thirty-three years of age, having been born on April 17, 1620, in the town of Troyes in Champagne. Her mother had died when Marguerite was still young, and early she developed that motherly thoughtfulness and mature judgment which fitted her later in the settlement for her matronly solicitude for soldiers and children of the fort at Montreal, as since her mother's death she had had the care of her father's children. He, too, had lately died and she was now free to follow a life of sacrifice.
[72] It was with the view of seeing the possibility of establishing such a branch that Madame de la Peltrie had delayed in Montreal till the spring of 1644.
[73] The simplicity of life in a pioneering settlement in New France less than a century later can be more readily understood if we but glance at the simple and severe customs prevailing in England previously to this. It is related of Queen Elizabeth that in the third year of her reign she received a present of knitted black silk stockings, an unheard of thing hitherto; in 1588 she appeared, in public, mounted on the crupper of her horse, behind her chamberlain, for it was after this date that carriages came into vogue.
[74] The act of November 28th by Père Pijart mentions only "cemeterio," that is the old cemetery at Pointe à Callières. The act of December 11th, however, has clear mention of the change to the new cemetery. "_In novo hospitalis Domus cemeterio Franciscus Lachot sepultus a me Claudio Pijart, Societatis Jesu Sacerdote_"--In the new cemetery of the hospital Francis Lachot was buried by me Claude Pijart, priest of the Society of Jesus.