La Salle and the discovery of the great West - North Central ...

*10 CAVELIER DE LA SALLE. [1666.under the French law, of the inheritance of hisfather, who had died not long before. An allowancewas made to him of three or (as is elsewhere stated)four hundred livres a year, the capital of which waspaid over to him ;and with this pittance he sailed forCanada, to seek his fortune, in the spring of 1666.Next, we find him at Montreal. In anothervolume, we have seen how an association of enthusiasticdevotees had made a settlement at this place. 2Having in some measure accomplished its work, itwas now dissolved; and the corporation of priests,styled the Seminary of St. Sulpice, which had takena prominent part in the enterprise, and, indeed, hadbeen created with a view to it, was now the proprietorand the feudal lord of Montreal. It was destined toretain its seignorial rights until the abolition of thefeudal tenures ofCanada in our own day, and it stillholds vast possessions in the city and island. Theseworthy ecclesiastics, models of a discreet and soberconservatism, were holding a post with which aband of veteran soldiers or warlike frontiersmenwould have been better matched. Montreal was perhapsthe most dangerous place in Canada. In timei It does not appear what vows La Salle had taken. By a recentordinance (1666), persons entering religious orders could not takethe final vows before the age of twenty-five. By the family papersabove mentioned, it appears, however, that he had brought himselfunder the operation of the law, which debarred those who, havingentered religious orders, afterwards withdrew, from claiming theInheritance of relatives who had died after their entrance.* The Jesuits in North America, chap. xv.