Where the settlers to Quebec stopped at the beginning of the 17th centurye century? Of course, the ships anchored at Tadoussac, one of the oldest anchorage points in New World waters, but also in other places known to the pilots, prescribed by the elements and forced by the uncertain times of navigation without instruments. In sight of Quebec, at a time when the winds and the waters were unfavorable, it was sometimes necessary to resolve to set foot on the island of Orleans for a while before being able to finish the voyage as well as possible. So it was with the first members of two important religious communities, the Ursulines and the Augustines, who arrived on a day of heavy weather. Where had they stopped, like others before and after them? The mystery remains to this day, despite travel reports, but it may well be illuminated by the update on the role played by a dark cave.
The historian Pierre Lahoud estimates, after studying the documents of the time, that it is in the Maranda cave and in its immediate surroundings, on a natural beach, that these first colonists took refuge, on the eve of undertaking the last step to lead them in this tiny colonial settlement that was Quebec, founded in 1608. This cave and its surroundings were at the very least the place which ensured the survival, he believes, of the passengers led by the men of Captain Bontemps, on a day of heavy weather, Sunday July 31, 1639.
Jacob Bontemps was used to the seas of the world. A former Caribbean privateer, accustomed to the African coast, he made the crossing to New France at least four times. This experienced sailor was a member of the Compagnie des Cent-Associés, which was trying to ensure European settlement. Although the man undoubtedly had the roughness proper to the exercise of his profession, he remains nonetheless very pious.
In the spring of 1639, his ship, the Saint Joseph, almost sinking because of an iceberg. Marie de l’Incarnation, the big pen of the expedition, notes that the captain has given up his room to them, “which is beautiful and spacious, and where we will be separated from the noise of the ship”. The 350 ton boat has 75 crew. To defend itself as much as to attack, it carries 21 pieces of cannon and 40 muskets.
the Saint Joseph stops at Tadoussac. The governor, of Montmagny, is warned of the arrival of this handful of religious. These, in a hurry to finally arrive, will find to board a smaller vessel whose holds are full of dried cod, which “gave off a rather bad smell”, we read in the Annales des Hospitalières. Until Quebec, the trip on the river was terrible. “During the few days and nights that we stayed there, we suffered a great deal of necessity. The bread having failed us, we were obliged to collect the crumbs from the hold, where there was more rat droppings than biscuits; we took the trouble to peel them to have a little, which we ate with raw dry cod, not having enough to cook it. “
Shelter
But where does this exhausted crew end up getting? “We thought for a long time that it was at the tip of the island, at the end of Sainte-Pétronille, that our foundresses had to stop,” explains To have to Sister Céline Dionne, Superior of the Ursulines. “I went there. It’s rocky. Very rocky. It’s hard to imagine a boat stopping there. “
In fact, everything suggests that the sailors who go up the “Canada River”, as the St. Lawrence has long been called, are more familiar with these waters than one might think. At the height of the Île d’Orléans, they used to take shelter, with their buildings, in a small bay where there is still a cave which, in popular language, at least until the middle of the XIXe century, bore the name of… Bontemps. This cave located in the vicinity of Sainte-Pétronille, now known under the name of Maranda cave, allows from its surroundings, on the beach, to see the city of Quebec, as the documents of the religious of the time indicate it. .
“Oral tradition says that the cave served as a refuge for captains while the beach was used by sailors,” explains Pierre Lahoud. “The surname Bontemps is almost non-existent in New France. The toponym of the cave therefore more probably derives from the presence of the captain in this cove, ”the very one who was responsible for transporting the nuns, including Marie de l’Incarnation.
The place has been preserved over time. It remains largely unchanged to this day. Located on private property, it is not accessible to the public. “There is a natural beach and a cove there which, luckily, has not been altered by riprap of all kinds” explains Pierre Lahoud. “The small bay starts from the shore and forms a natural haven with its beach and dense plant cover. “
Commemoration
Until around 1965, Sister Lise Tanguay remembers in an interview with To have to, the Augustinians, of whom she now heads, commemorate their arrival in the country by systematically bringing a pie to the Jesuits. Each 1is August, the Jesuits receive a raspberry pie. ” 1is August is the date, in 1639, when our community arrived in Quebec. “
Embarked on May 4, 1639 on Captain Bontemps’ boat, three Augustines, as well as three Ursulines, were on board. And also five Jesuits. Refugee on the Île d’Orléans with a few sailors, this soaked and exhausted crew found food on raspberries. Hence the nod to the Jesuits by the Augustines.
The anniversary continues to be celebrated each year among the Augustinians. At 1is August, at the table of these nuns and their proteges, raspberries reign supreme. “We eat raspberries, all kinds of things in fact, but with raspberries. Even a raspberry aperitif, ”says Sister Tanguay.
In a letter that she wrote in 1639, at the end of the summer, to explain to her superior their arrival in the New World, Marie de l’Incarnation indicates that when they had hopes of finally landing in Quebec, “ the tide being opposite and the wind not being favorable to us, we had to wait until the next day and as the place was beautiful and the disembarkation easy we were put ashore at the Île d’Orléans, which, for the time being, was not not inhabited; they made a hut there like the savages ”. The next morning, they finally arrived in Quebec. In front of the governor, after a three-month crossing, everyone was in a very sorry state.
Watch video
–
