The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1873-01-24

that, after three months of heroic
and successful defence, Montcaln
amazed at the news that reached him
from Quebec, on the morning Of
Sept. 18th, 1859, yet confident OF
victory, hastily withdrew his forces
to confront the enemy on the plains
of Abraham.
The road to the falls of Mont
moreney is now thickly bordered or
either side with French cottages,
and midway is the pretty village Of
BEAUFORT, the central point of Mont
calm's intrenched camp. The carts
of the habitans drawn by dogs.
after the European custom, sugges-
ted to US for the first time, the ap-
propriatness Of such expressions as
working like a dog" 'leading a
dogs life" French peasant girls.
with bare feet and ankles, would
trot for rods beside the carriages of
American tourists, offering for sale
the most fragrant Of boquets. At
the midway watering troughs, half
dozen glasses of sparkling water,
would be presented calling for gifts
of silver and copper. Then these
little peasant girls would bring forth
their small treasures of American
nickles and coppers, asking to have
them exchanged for Canada coin,
saying american money non good"
Thus were we reminded if not
humiliated by French peasant
girls, away up here near the Falls
of MOntmorency, that not only were
American paper and silver at a dis
count, but American copper also,
and American nickles of no account
whatever.
A few miles to the left of this
road, is the Indian village Of Lorette.
It contains a remnant of the once
powerful Huron Nation. whose wig
wan fires $50 years ago, blazed
amidst the Canadian forest of Lake
Huron. History has no sadder rec
ord than that of the iIl-fated Hurons.
The Iroquois, of Central New York
had decreed the determination of
this branch oftheir own family, their
bravest foes in the wars which they
waged for Indian supremacy. French
Missionaries nor French soldiers
could save them from destruction.
Across the portage of Niagara, the
lakes and the st. Lawrence poured
the fierce tide of Iroquois invasion,
lighting up the Huron woods which
for forty years had echoed the chap
el bells Of the Jesuits, with the glare
of blazing villages and with the
scourges of war and famine, crush
ing the Huron tribes to the very
earth.
The Jesuit Missionaries fell hero
ically at their posts of duty, absolv-
ing and baptizing by aspersion
hundreds as they sank beneath the
tomahawk, or perished amidst the
burning dwellings.
The relics of these martyrs may
be found in many of the Canadian
Converts. The skull of the martyr
Brebeuf, is piously cared for by the
Ursuline Nuns in the Hotel Dieu, at
Quebec. Whilst a remnant of the
Hurons escaped, by way of Macki-
nav, to the praries of the West, and
driven thence by the Sioux, finally set
tied at Detroit, and along the banks
of our own Sandusky, where they
were known as Wyandots, still others,
after that terrible winter of 1850, in |
which so many thousands of the
Hurons perished Of starvation, on the
Island of st. Joseph in Lake Huron,
besought the Missionaries to take
them to Quebec. Even here they
were scarcely safe, as the Iroquois
war parties which in the middle of
the 18th century secured the whole |
country from Labrador and Hud-
sons Bay to the Mississippi, attacked
them beneath the very cannon of |
Quebec. In the Indian village of
Lorette, live the last of the Hurons,
every trace of Huron blood rapidly
disappearing, through intermarriag-
es with the French. With the des-
truction Of the Hurons failed the
most successful attempt ever made
to Christianize the American Indi-
ans.
THE FALLS OF MoNTMoRENCY.
The waters of the Montmorency |
river make their plunge over the falls
about forty rods from the junction
of the river with the st. Lawrence.
The Falls are about 100 feet higher
than Niagara, but the volume of
water discharged is scarcely three
times as great as that discharged
over the Bridal Veil at Niagara. The
finest point of observation is on the
eastern side of the river. On the
side is the former residence
of the Duke of Kent, the father of
Queen Victoria. Four towers are
still standing, from which some
years since hung suspension bridge
directly over the brow Of the Cat
aract.