Surely Montreal must have been looked upon as a forlorn hope!
The site of this is claimed by the Abbé Rousseau in his "Maisonneuve," page 77, as the space in front of the fort known as the Place d'Armes, afterwards the market place and now known as Custom House Square, and the road abutting the new buildings of the Hôtel-Dieu arising at the corner of St. Joseph Street (St. Sulpice) and the corner of St. Paul Street.
The Abbé Faillon, Vol. II, page 25, "Histoire de la Colonie Française," argues for the present Place d'Armes in front of Notre Dame Parish Church. M. L. A. Huguet Latour, the first editor of the _Annuaire de Ville Marie_, holds the same view.
There was a blazed trail, running up the slope of St. Sulpice Street, which probably went up to the mountain where de Maisonneuve placed his cross. In a map of 1680 such a road ran by the northwest corner of the present Place d'Armes.
Faillon claims it was here that the exploit took place; the argument of time and distance for the action as related by de Casson being more congruous for this position than at the lower position just outside the fort in the sight of the defenders within. But it must be remembered that the present _Place d'Armes_ did not get its name from this exploit. This name does not appear till 1717, when Chassegros de Léry, engineer of New France, forwarded to France a lengthy report as to the advantage of Montreal for the purposes of fortifications. In this report he said:
"I have marked a _place d'armes_, in front of the parish church where might afterwards be moved a number of barracks, the houses which are in that place being of small value."
During the year the work was commenced, but from lack of funds it was discontinued. Up to 1721 no further progress was made but in that year it was fairly entered upon and de Léry superintended it. (_Vide_ "Canadiana," Vol. I, pp. 47, 63, 77; notes of John Talon Lespérance, Henry Platt, Wm. McLennan.)
Let us compromise and say that most of the action took place on St. Sulpice Street, between the present and the old _Place d'Armes_, the latter incidents of the story taking place near the old _Place d'Armes_.
[55] The position now can be located as at the east corner of St. Sulpice (originally St. Joseph) Street and St. Paul Street.