Plaisance was located on the bay of that name, a magnificent bay, 60 miles wide and 90 miles deep, strewn with islands and stocked with fish, with a harbour easy to fortify and a beach large enough to dry the fish of a thousand vessels; fog, occurring frequently on the coasts of the island, was there almost unknown. Add to that the enchantment of magnificent scenery and we can understand why the French gave to that place the name of Plaisance. At the top of a crag of more than a hundred feet high was built Fort Saint-Louis, where there was quartered from 1687 a garrison of, twenty-five men under the command of a major, who was in 1689 M. Pastour de Costebelle. He shared authority with the governor, and in the light of the strife engendered by this dual authority, one thinks involuntarily of the rivalries which occurred so frequently between governors and intendants in New France. The Recollet Sixte le Tac who, as we shall see, went to Plaisance in 1689 and described that place the same year of his visit, adds to the few preceding facts:
"Whatever may have been the origin of that discovery (Newfoundland), it is certain that all the nations of Europe come there freely to the fishery. The French resort principally on the South coast, where they have three or four strong places convenient for drying cod for which they fish on the banks that lie along Newfoundland, namely Plaisance, the Bay of Trepassey, that of all the Saints and the Saint-Pierre Islands. Plaisance which is in a strait is the largest; there come there every year 50 or 60 ships which return laden with fish, some fifty inhabitants who are established there during the winter catch as much as they can and sell it easily. The island is not suitable for growing grain, the fishing vessels carry with them flour, biscuits and all their provisions.
Besides Plaisance, there were at that time eight other French settlements on the coast; the census of Newfoundland for 1691 shows them with the figure of their respective populations; they are: Pointe-Verte, Petit Plaisance, the Saint-Pierre Islands, Lissardie, Fortune Bay, Grand Bank, Harbour Breton and Hermitage. The total population of all those places in 1691, including Plaisance, was only 48 men, 27 women and 75 children; Plaisance alone counted in 1691, 17 men, 14 women and 55 children; the garrison is not included in those figures.
Was there a missionary at Plaisance before the establishment of the Recollets in 1689 ? There was certainly a chaplain for the fort, it seems that there had also been, at least for a year, a priest for the needs of the inhabitants. Indeed, the King ordered, on the 24th of March, 1688, the passage of ecclesiastics to Newfoundland; moreover, in a letter to the Minister, of the date of 4 September, 1689, the Governor of Plaisance writes:
"I assure you, My Lord, that two secular priests, one on the Beach and the other at the Fort, are all that are needed ...
Perhaps, but the mission was uncertain. In order to ensure there the permanence of divine service, Monsigneur de Saint-Vallier, on the eve of undertaking a second voyage to Acadia, decided to erect that mission into a parish and to entrust it to the Recollets, as well as the chaplaincy of the Fort. The difficulties which could arise from the last part of the programme were smoothed away by a letter of cachet of the King which recalled the functioning chaplain. Monsigneur de Saint-Vallier addressed to the Commissary-Provincial of the Recollets at Quebec, as well as to the two religious destined for the foundation of Plaisance, Fathers Sixte le Tax and Joseph Denis, Letters Patent for that establishment. The text of those letters, drafted in Latin, have not yet, to my knowledge, been published, unless in the English version; here is the French translation made from the original.
"Jean, etc......
To our well-beloved brothers Seraphin Georgeme, Guardian of the Monastery of the Recollets of Our Lady of the Angels near Quebec, and to the other religious of that community destined as missionaries to the Island of Newfoundland, Salvation in the Lord.
As our pastoral care demands of us, we are about to set out in a few days to visit the more remote regions of Our diocese and chiefly the island called Newfoundland. Wishing to provide for the salvation and the spiritual advancement of the inhabitants of the Island and of all the foreigners who resort there each year, we have resolved to adjoin you to us as the companions of our voyage and of our labours. In doing this, our plan is that you may have, in the village called Plaisance, a house or even a Monastery in order that you may be able more easily to work for the salvation of those people. But, as for the erection of such a house or Monastery you need the permission both of the King and of the Bishop, permission which, you ask for humbly, We, by these Presents, as far as is in our power, grant you fully and irrevocably every authority which should come from the Bishop. It will be permitted to you then, by virtue and after the receipt of this letter, to construct in the said village a house or a Monastery with the resources that pious benefactors will furnish you, and you will be able to lead there a life conformable to the and customs of your Order. In addition, to the extent that it is in our power to grant it and the statutes of your Order permit it, it is our will that the chapel already constructed in the said village, the sacred vessels intended for divine worship, as well as the priestly vestments that you will find when you visit there, should be yours for all of the time that you reside there. You will be able, with our approval or with that of our Vicars General, whichever is appropriate, to exercise the holy ministry, among the faithful as well as among others who may be living in the village or in neighbouring places. We wish also that the faculty which we grant you will serve to obtain the Royal licence, licence which His Most Christian Majesty, as we hope, will grant you I without difficulty.
In the meantime, the said permission is granted to you on Our part only on the condition that you will be always ready to exercise the pastoral charge there, whether by yourselves or by other religious of your Order sent by the Guardian or other Superior of the Monastery of Our Lady of Angels near Quebec, and provided beforehand with our approval or that of our Vicars-General. Lastly, desiring to come to your aid in a work so useful for the salvation of souls, we have decided to entrust and to give to your Order the said parish of Plaisance erected already or yet to be erected by us. Up to the present, the service of this parish had not been entrusted to a permanent pastor because neither Our illustrious predecessor nor We, had established one in that place.
Therefore, by these Presents, as much as lies in our power and under the authority of the Holy See, we entrust and unite to your Order and declare so entrusted and united the said parish of Plaisance on the condition always that a designated religious, approved by us or by our Vicars-General, and presented by the Reverend rather Guardian or other Superior of Our Lady of Angels near Quebec, should reside in the said house or Monastery in order to exercise there the pastoral charge. But in all this, we do not wish to impair to any extent the authority of the said Guardian over his subjects. We desire also that you may receive the alms of the King and the gifts of charitable persons, and We. grant you the tithes and other offerings. In testimony of which we send you the within Letters signed by Our hand, fortified by Cur seal and countersigned by Our secretary. Quebec, the year thousand six hundred and eighty-nine, the twenty-third of one the month of April.
The Recollets, as well as the Bishop, anticipated, then, the Royal ratification for the establishment at Plaisance. It is probable that this ratification was granted as early as 1689; in any case, in March 1692, Louis XIV confirmed to the Recollets all their establishments present and future in Canada, in Acadia and Newfoundland, including in particular those of Plaisance and of the Saint-Pierre Islands, where they were also established.
In view of his planned voyage with the Recollets, Monsigneur de Saint-Vallier chartered, on the 19th of January 1689, a ship commanded by captain Lallemant. The contract, made before the Notary Genaple, is shown in the index as being filed in the registry of that Notary, but it is not in the judicial archives of Quebec, it has been removed. Unfortunately, M. J.Edmond Roy, who had an authentic copy of that contract, has not been able to find it, in spite of his desire to do me a courtesy. After all, this gap in the registry of Genaple does not matter very much; it is unlikely, indeed, that in the contract, Monsigneur de Saint-Vallier explained his plan for the foundation of the Recollets at Plaisance ...
Our travellers the Bishop, Fathers Sixte le Tac and Joseph Denis, and undoubtedly also Brother Didace (Pelletier), and at least one secular priest embarked, then, at Quebec, in the spring of 1689, early enough to arrive at Plaisance the 21st of June, as we learn from a letter from the Governor of Plaisance to the Minister, under date of 29 July 1689:
"My Lord, the Bishop of Quebec, arrived here the 21st of June and set out again on the 21st of the current month. He brought me a letter of cachet from the King with an order to cause the chaplain of this place to embark. I executed it punctually. He has established two Recollets as Cure' and Chaplain and asked me to pay to those fathers the balance of the salary of the chaplain for the present year. I have done so immediately, although I have not been advised if the moneys have been paid in France or sent, so I give myself the honour of requesting repayment from you, but it seems hard to me not to have a chaplain at the Fort, because they are quartered on the Beach for their convenience and we must cross the water."
It is, indeed, on the Beach that the Recollets established themselves. The 7th of September, their Trustee at Plaisance, M. Pastour (de Costebelle), major at the fort, signed the contract of purchase, for the sum of 1,200 livres, of the house, the beach, four barques and the fishing stage of a livyer of the place, George Jougla, whose health could not withstand the climate of Newfoundland, and who was returning to France. Jougla granted the full possession and free enjoyment of everything, as he had it himself, "with the reservation of that which he granted to My Lord the Governor by a note of the last of May, 1689. I do not know the nature of this reservation. The following day, 8 September, the Governor ratified the agreement. According to the same M. Parat, the consideration of 1,200 livres was paid with the "gifts" made to the Recollets at Plaisance, which proves that their establishment was agreeable to the inhabitants, it was less agreeable to the Governor, as we shall see.
The land of the Recollets was bounded on the north by the church and on the east it abutted the fish flake of the Governor; the house of the Recollets was itself in front of this fish flake.
Before the purchase was even made, M. Parat announced it to the Minister, the 4th of September, and he complained:
"Father Sixte le Tac goes to France. He will tell you that I made much difficulty in the plan they have to make enclosures for the public welfare. The beaches are scare and lacking beach I shall fail to have more for the inhabitants..."
The beaches were scarce, said M. Parat. This does not agree with what we have seen above, that the beaches of Plaisance could dry the fish of a thousand vessels. It must be admitted also that the displeasure which the Governor showed in seeing the beaches turned into gardens, he extended to the inhabitants, as well as to the Recollets. In what he adds in his letter of 4 September, the cloven hoof appears:
"I assure you, my Lord, that two seculars, one on the Beach and the other at the Fort, are all that are needed, and also my Lord the Bishop has only one priest at St.Pierre. You know that those monks are never satisfied and that they always have toothing stones. They say that having bought the place, it is lawful for them to do with it as they will, but the interests of other people intervene, and in view of the manner in which they buy and pay it is easy to acquire."
Really! But was not the purchase regular? And what then did M. Parat wish falsely to insinuate as to the manner of the sale and of the payment? His ill humour is obvious against the establishment of the Recollets, whom he linked with the grudge he harbored for Monsigneur de Saint-Vallier.
The Bishop indeed, during the whole month which he spent at Plaisance in order to put in train the foundation of the Recollets and to visit perhaps the posts on the coast, had the courage to force the Governor to put away the wife of an inhabitant, with whom he was living common law. Inde irae. M. Parat admitted it to M. Pastour (de Costebelle), whom he accused of denouncing him to the Bishop, he harbored a grudge for the Bishop himself, and his resentment was extended to the Recollets.
A letter of M. Pastour (de Costebelle) to the Minister, of the 18th September 1689, shows us very well a different view of the problem:
"I shall tell you, my Lord, that M. Parat, not knowing anything less than the business of the Post where fortune has Put him, taking offence at all things and, in particular, my own self because he desires very much not to have witnesses of his actions in a country so distant as this, has treated me the most unworthily in the world, at the door of the church, having given me the lie with several other insults which I believed it was incumbent on me to endure, unless I were willing to lose the good cause that I had, and if you wish that I should tell you a part of the reason why I shall tell you, my Lord, that it was only because of a seat that my Lord, the Bishop, allowed me to put in the church, as he could have done for a plain civilian and to tell you the truth, all of this arises only because my Lord, the Bishop, deprived him of that married woman whom he was keeping which has cramped very much his life style and of which he believes that I was the cause, as if everyone did not come to put a complaint against him as soon as my Lord, the Bishop, had arrived, and the greatest pat of all, my Lord, is that I helped with my advice the Reverend Fathers Recollets whom my Lord, the Bishop, has placed in this country only having done so at his request and with my name, they being minors, in the purchase which had to be made of a house for their monastery, and as those good fathers have made much difficulty for him in many things, they have not been exempt any more than I from his rudeness even in the church, as you will learn from the Superior whom you will see at Versailles".
The following year 1690, M. Parat, whom the King had to rebuke, besides the scandal of his common law union and his injustices, for the taking of Plaisance by the English of which I shall speak in a moment was recalled, June 23, and replaced by M. de Brouillan. The appointment of the new Governor was dated the first of June, but it was not before the month of September that M. de Bouillan made his appearance at Plaisance which his predecessor had just reluctantly left.
The Minister placed on the 1st of April, 1692, the Governor of Plaisance under the authority of the Governor of Quebec, M. de Frontenac, and intimated to him at the same time that in case of complaints against the Recollets, he must direct them to the Bishop of Quebec, Newfoundland found itself, so to speak, annexed to New France for civil matters as well for spiritual.
I assume that relations were more cordial between the new Governor and the Recollets, because in 1694, probably the Royal approval is dated March 22, 1695 M. de Brouillan granted to the monks land to enlarge their residence and to open a cemetery. For his part, my Lord de Saint-Vallier writing on the 15th of October, 1693, to the Definiteur of the Recollets of the Province of Saint-Denis, stated to the Fathers Definiteurs that the Governor and the inhabitants of Plaisance appeared to him to have "a great esteem and affection" for their fathers.
But let us go back, to witness the establishment of the Recollets at Plaisance. Father Sixte le Tac was named Superior of the mission; My Lord de Saint-Vallier appointed rather (Joseph) Denis cure with the title and office of Vicar-General. Everything having been arranged, the Bishop left Plaisance on the 21st of July on the vessel which had brought him from Quebec to go first to the Saint-Pierre Islands and from there to Acadia. One of the Recollets probably Father (Joseph) Denis accompanied him to the Saint-Pierre Islands. M. Parat, in order to protect the Bishop against English corsairs, arranged for his escort by M. Pastour (de Costebelle) with a detachment of soldiers. At the Saint-Pierre Islands My lord de Saint Vallier blessed a chapel which was constructed during the preceding year and left there a secular priest brought from Quebec. The plan of the Bishop was to entrust this last mentioned mission to the Recollets, as soon as they could put monks there; that happened a year later or perhaps not until 1692.
As soon as My Lord de Saint-Vallier resumed his trip to Acadia, M. Pastcour (de Costebelle), the soldiers and the Recollet were brought back to Plaisance on a boat of twelve tons, fitted out and armed for this purpose by M. Parat. That vessel also carried bread to Plaisance which was very scarce at that place. This happened in the first part of the month of August. The contract of purchase of the house of the Recollets was signed on the 7th of September, and a few days later, Father Sixte le Tac embarked for France. He carried there letters from My Lord de Saint-Vallier to the Court and to the Provincial of the Recollets from whom the prelate requested immediately monks for the missions of Canada, and especially for Newfoundland and the Saint-Pierre Islands, where there was needed immediately, he explained, five or six missionaries.
To carry to Paris letters of My Lord de Saint-Vallier could not have been the chief reason for the voyage of Father Sixte le Tac. Did he not go, in his capacity of Superior of the mission, to expose to the Minister the conduct of the'Governor and his vexations at the place of the Recollets?
It does not appear that Father Sixte le Tac returned to Plaisance, and I do not know if a colleague was adjoined to Father Joseph (Denis). M. Parat found that two secular priests, one on the beach and the other at the fort, "was all that was needed". M. Pastour (de Costebelle) was of a contrary opinion and granted even that Father Joseph (Denis) had a companion on the departure of Father Sixte le Tac, M. Pastour (de Costebelle) did not think the number sufficient. A little after the departure of M. Parat in 1690, he wrote to the Minister under date of September 1:
"As I believe, my Lord, that M. Parat, having left his governorship, I have a right to command in his stead until the King shall have provided a governor, I see myself obliged to explain several matters to you and chiefly the necessity which there is for the glory of God and the salvation of many souls who have lived until the present time in a great blindness to Christianity to support the establishment of the Fathers Recollets whom My Lord the Bishop of Quebec has put in this country as missionaries. You would not believe, My Lord, the good that would accrue if there, were three or four monks because of the distance of several inhabitants who live worse than savages unless one goes to seek them out and instruct them.
The following year he returns to the attack:
"I finish where I should have begun, which is the spiritual sphere for which I believe one could not do better than to support the establishment of the Reverend Fathexs Recollets whom My Lord, the Bishop of Quebec, has caused to come here and in increasing their number to be in a position to continue the results which they have already had and to be able to go to instruct people who live worse than savages, if one does not go to seek them out in order to teach them the importance of their salvation."
Those letters of M. Pastour (de Costebelle) show us a little the difficulties of the ministry in Newfoundland. We know that the inhabitants were scattered on several points of the coast, where the missionary must visit them. There were also here and there some English or Huguenots to convert or to instruct. The relations between the English and the French resulted sometimes in those happy results. It is not that those relations were friendly. I have said that Newfoundland was a possession vigorously diluted by the two races and its history, until the cession of the Island to England in 1713, by the Treaty of Utrecht, and its evacuation by the French, is nothing but a bloody and sad history of rivalry, of actions on land and on sea, of seizures of the property of the adversary, to which were added the attacks of English pirates and French renegades against the French posts. The official correspondence of the Governors of Plaisance is, so to say, full of this strife to which the Court did not grant sufficiently effective attention as elsewhere in Canada in order to cause them to turn always to the advantage of the French colonists.
At the time of the establishment of the Recollets, it was no different. Thus, in the month of February, 1690, forty-five English freebooters surprised Plaisance. The Governor and the commander of the fort were taken in their beds and the soldiers scattered at the time were made prisoners and disarmed. The people were moved by prudence to surrender in order to prevent the massacre of the prisoners with which they were threatened. Then, everybody was imprisoned in the church, while the pirates pillaged the houses and storehouses and seized arms, military stores and provisions with which they loaded their vessel. It was not until their departure that the prisoners were released, after an imprisonment of six weeks, in the depth of winter, in a church without fire and with starvation staring them in the face.
Retaliation was not lacking. On May 20, 1690, Captain Lelande set out from Saint-Malo at the head of four vessels, with his destination Chapeau-Rouge, on the coast of Newfoundland. Arriving there, he learned of the pillage of Plaisance. He carried help immediately to the Governor and to the inhabitants, then, putting sail on the Saint-Francois, he hastened to chastise the pirates. It was the 13th of the month of August; threedays afterwards, he arrived at the entrace of Torillon (sic) on the coast of New England, the lair of the freebooters. He forced the entrance to the stronghold and cast anchor between an English ship of war of twenty-four guns, which was in the roads, and the fortified strong point. The Saint-Francois resisted valiantly the two volleys of shot fired from the ship and from the fort, and in her turn firing from both sides, dismantled the advanced fortifications. Then he directed a brisk fire against the castle and the English ship. Captain Lalande himself aimed a gun at the enemy ship with such good luck that he killed all of the English officers one after the other; after a fight of four hours he was master of the ship. He put part of his men on board her and the two vessels aimed their guns against the stronghold; soon a detachment landed, which on its part flew to the assault of the castle and the fortified houses, with such vigour that the enemy took to flight. Lalande was master of the place which he delivered to plunder. He had twenty-three men killed or wounded.
That was all very well, but this retaliation was the warrant for a new vengeance on the part of the freebooters against the French of Newfoundland! The inhabitants of Plaisance did not hold any illusions, and everybody while rejoicing at the brilliant feat of the brave Lalande, feared the consequences of it. The squadron of the Captain from Saint-Malo was no longer there to protect them, and in case of need to avenge them. The missionary at Plaisance, Father Joseph Denis, gave voice to the general uneasiness when he addressed to the Minister on the 29th of August, 1690, this Poignant letter which one cannot read without emotion:
"Plaisance, 28 August 1690.
My Lord.
I feel obliged as missionary of My Lord of Quebec in this place to take the liberty to write you these few words to pray you, My Lord, to have pity on a poor people exposed to the fury of a thousand English brigands and pirates and renegades who, pillaged by the frigates of Saint-Malo, are spread over all this island and do no less than to threaten this poor colony with complete destruction.
We have every reason, My Lord, to fear it by the sad proof we had of it last winter, and if after having been despoiled of everything and an imprisonment of six weeks in the church during the depth of winter, we had our lives spared, that was against the wishes of the English inhabitants who wished to spare only the women so that they might take them to live with them in their houses, but God who does not wish the death of the sinner, did not allow the pirates to be of their mind.
As this is the way in which things have happened, as well as other disturbances which have occurred here, permit me, My Lord, to keep silent, believing that it is not permitted to a poor monk of St. Francis to know how to bring peace, and if he cannot do that, to plead before God and to offer him ceaselessly his prayers and votive offerings that he will inspire you, My Lord, with the remedy necessary for all that you will learn from the person of the Governor who has believed himself obliged to go and make it known to you Pray then, Your Excellency, by the bowels of charity and of compassion of Our Lord and of His Holy Mother, to have pity on almost thirty families exposed not only to the ordinary cruelty of the English, but still more to the inhumanity of wretches who have neither faith nor law.
Pardon, My Lord, it is not so necessary to excite you to pity for the poor unfortunates, since naturally you are everything that is good and charitable.
It is in this confidence that we await quick help and relief with the small forces we have, praying you to be assured that all our lives we shall offer to God our prayers and our petitions for the preservation of your illustrious person and I particularly, who am with every respect in the love of Jesus and Mary,
Your very humble and very obedient servant.
F. Joseph Denys Recollet.
Did France send the aid so urgently requested? In any case, the King did for Plaisance the good turn of sending to it a new Governor, in the person of M. de Brouillan, who was not the man to allow himself to be taken in bed, like his predecessor. Captain Lalande, for his part, had restored Fort Saint-Louis to a state of defence and there does not appear to have been an enterprise against Plaisance before 1692, when the governor of New England in person, Sir William Phips, for whom his brilliant farce in 1690 before Quebec was not enough, came to seek his seat at Plaisance at the head of a squadron of five ships. Phips beat a shameful retreat being repulsed by the guns of the Fort and about sixty Basque sailors. William of England did not bring him good luck; it is indeed that magic name which he presented to M. de Brouillan requiring him to surrender the place. He had no more success than at Quebec two years before.
It is perhaps in that same year of 1692, and not 1690, that the pastoral letter of My Lord de Saint-Vallier to the inhabitants of Plaisance and the Saint-Pierre islands must be dated. Here is, first of all, the letter before the short discussion that it gives rise to:
"Jean, by the Grace of God and of the Holy Apostolic Sea, Bishop of Quebec and New France.
To our dear children the people of Plaisance and of the Saint-Pierre Islands, Salvation and Blessing.
I wish very much for your consolation, my very dear children in Our Lord, to make known to you by this letter that I have not forgotten you before Him; I believe that I cannot give you better evidence of it than to indicate to you that I have taken all the care in the world to provide some good religious Recollets to go to live among you; as I am convinced that our temporal troubles arise not a little from the lack of care that we take to put an end to our sins, I pray you by this letter to make a true repentance in order that You may enter into the spirit of the Church and of the Sovereign Pontiff whom Our Lord has deigned to give us in these unhappy times of war for the consolation of the Christian world; prepare yourselves, then, my very dear children, to receive the graces that He wishes you to obtain during the Jubilee. It is not so much the remission of sin that you will be able to obtain, it is rather the abundance of grace that you will be able to receive. I pray, Our Lord, to console you in your present poverty by bestowing on you His grace and His gifts, I pray him with all my heart to give You a holy fear of offending Him and His holy love: These are the prayers that I offer and that I shall continue to offer for you with all the affection and all the love of which I am capable.
Jean, Bishop of Quebec.
This letter, like several others of my Lord de Saint-Vallier is not dated. By the place which it holds in the manuscript register of the Episcopal records, following immediately a record of the 16th December, 1692, one can deduce that it was probably written in 1692. Its immediate proximity to the above mentioned letter of 16th December 1692, which announced to Canada, in setting the date of the opening at 9 February 1693, the Jubilee of the accession to the Sovereign Pontificate of Innocent XII, elected Pope 12 July 1691, strengthens further this conclusion. Indeed it will be noted that, in his letter to the people of Plaisance and of the Saint-Pierre Islands, My Lord de Saint-Vallier made reference to the election of a new pope and to the Jubilee which on that occasion the faithful of Canada as of the whole world were invited to partake in.
For those reasons and others explained above, it will be permitted to me, I think, to differ in opinion from Abbe H. R. Casgrain who places in the year 1690 the letter of My Lord de Saint-Vallier to the people of Plaisance and of the Saint-Pierre Islands.
"In 1690", he writes, "wishing to prove to the inhabitants of Plaisance and of Saint-Pierre that he had not forgotten them, he addressed to them a pastoral letter full of exhortations for good, and he promised them Recollets to go to live permanently and live among them."
Those last words and those of My Lord de Saint-Vallier which they, recall do not rule out the year 1692? It is certainly in 1689 that the Bishop of Quebec procured for the inhabitants of Plaisance,"an establishment of "good religious Recollets". Very well! I find on the contrary, in this illusion to the establishment of the Recollets a new argument in favour of the year 1692.
We recall that of the two Recollets at Plaisance, Father Sixte le Tac had gone to France in 1689. There remained Father Denis. But, according to a source, second hand it is true, Father Denis himself had left Plaisance since 1690, and was found at the See of Quebec that year. Those facts, uncertain when taken separately, but compared with the words of My Lord de Saint-Vallier and confirmed by the absolute silence which pertains about the Recollets of Plaisance, between the years 1690 and 1692, incline me to think indeed that the Recollets of Quebec left that post vacant for a year or two. For what reasons? Perhaps because of the numberless difficulties inevitably accompanying an endless war, difficulties of which the letter of Father Denis above quoted furnished us with a striking example; perhaps above all because of a lack of monks.
Well, My Lord de Saint-Vallier, who went to France in the spring of 1691, worked with the Superiors of the Province of Saint-Denis to obtain a larger number of monks for the needs of the Canadian church. The Bishop had indeed formed the plan to have the Recollets participate, in the service of the missions and parishes in a larger measure than My Lord de Laval. With this in mind and to assure for the present and future establishments of the Recollets all the stability that was desirable, in concert with the superiors of the Province, he petitioned the King for Letters Patent approving all those establishments. The Letters were delivered in the spring of 1692. From that time, assured of the permanence of the houses they would establish in Canada, assured also of the good-will of the Bishop and in order to share in his plans, the Province of Saint-Denis caused a larger number of monks to go to the Canadian mission.
The Bishop of Quebec, on his return to Canada in 1692, was thenceforth certain not to be without Recollets for his missions and he was able to write to the people of Plaisance as well as to those of the Saint-Pierre islands to the service of whom, we have seen, the Bishop had committed in 1689 a secular priest until he would be able to give them Recollets he was able to write to them as evidence that he had not forgotten them, as he put it:
"I have taken all the care in the world to provide some good religious Recollets to go and live among you."
But there is proof more convincing still, if that were possible, of the abandonment about 1690 and the resumption, in 1692, of the mission of Plaisance.
During his visit to Paris in 1692, Monsigneur de Saint-Vallier, in the interests of his vast diocese, employed himself vigourously, as will be seen, at the Court in favour of the Recollets. in the course of fhe current negotiations, the Bishop arranged an official interview on 17 March 1692, between the Recollets of Paris and M. de Lagny, "President of Commerce and Navigation for France". To the secretary of the Province, delegated for this interview, M. de Lagny explained the plans of the King for the missions of the Recollets in Canada. His Majesty ordered them, among other things, "to furnish monks for the Islands of Plaisance and of Saint-Pierre and they would find their living there and they would be furnished with the other things necessary for the establishment." In the course of the conversation, the talk returned to Plaisance and M. de Lagny explained that if the Recollets had "intelligent people there, they could deal in fish as a Project of the Province, that fish sold there for not less than six livres a quintal and that the King would give us the fourteen francs per quintal reserved as taxes and that we could have the port free."
The interview ended with all kinds of assurances of the Protection of the King and with the most courteous wishes towards the Recollets.
Well, I ask, what do the orders of the King and the fine words of M. de Lagny on the subject of Plaisance indicate, if not the abandonment of the post by the Recollets and the very lively desire of the Bishop and of the King to see them returning there ?
And so, all this agrees well with the passage in the letter that the Bishop of Quebec addressed to the Fathers Definiteurs of the Province of Saint-Denis, the 16th of October, 1693:
"I am very glad to thank you for the care you have taken to sustain your Mission of Plaisance. I believe that it will give you satisfaction in the end."
Is there not indicated in those words an allusion very evident to the precarious state of the Mission of Plaisance before 1692? It is at that point that the Recollets intended to abandon it. They left it even for a time, but on the entreaty of the Bishop and at the wish of the King, they took up the burden again with a new courage and care for which the Bishop thanked them; and to sustain their zeal, he expressed to them the confidence he had that this Mission until then unwelcome to them would give them satisfaction in the end.
The Recollets of the Province of Saint-Denis served at Plaisance and the Saint Pierre Islands until the year 1701, when they were replaced by the Recollets of Brittany. When Newfoundland was ceded to the English in 1713, those monks went with the people of Plaisance, the greater part of them Bretons like their missionaries, to Cape Breton.
My essay ends here. I have set as my objective to speak of the circumstances in which the establishment of the Reecollets of the Province of Saint-Denis was effected in Newfoundland and not to relate the history however short and lightly burdened it may be, of that establishment until 1701.
A fact worthy of note is that at the end of the eighteenth century when, after a long period of interdiction during the penal days, the Church was able to send missionaries to Newfoundland, they were still monks of St. Francis who were chosen for those Apostolic labours. They came from Ireland, Newfoundland having become an English-speaking country.
And when the church was able to establish an episcopal See in Newfoundland, it was a Franciscan who first occupied it and in the course of the nineteenth century, his successors in the See of St. John's were almost all enrolled in the Order of St. Francis.
As I was delivering the manuscript of this study to the Director of New France, he informed me that according to the notes on the missions of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit in Canada, communicated to him by Reverend Father A. David, C. S. Sp. of Detroit, the Recollets had a mission in the Saint-Pierre, islands from the year 1685. Great was my perturbation. I hastened to write on this subject to Reverend Father David, who replied with the greatest courtesy. Here is his letter under date of 16 October with the document which accompanied it:
"I have said a word, indeed, about the Recollets, in my notes delivered to M. Lindsay, but I do not possess any document relative to this question.
As for the date of 1685, I have drawn it from the manuscript notes of Reverend Father Jerome Schwindenhammer on file at Paris in the archives of the Seminary of the Holy Spirit.
The lamented Father Jerome who died in 1899, was a patient and erudite analyst. He dedicated twenty years to his arduous historical research relative to the Congregation of the Holy Spirit and its missions. His work forms a true monument of at least thirty large volumes in octavo of 500 pages, full of curious documents, with the most irrefutable evidence, the letters of the missionaries themselves and the records of the Ministry of Marine and of our Congregation.
Unhappily, like a number of scholars, the author has not always indicated his sources, and this is precisely the case in the question which you are interested in. Where did Father Jerome find this date ? I do not know.
Not being able to do more, and that to my great regret, I must content myself with supplying you with a copy of the passage where he speaks of the mission of the Recollets in Newfoundland and in the Islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Rogo te, habe me excusatum. He could not be more obliging. Here is then the passage of Father
Jerome: "With respect to the Islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, they had first of all, like Newfoundland, secular priests; but the Bishop of Quebec having had reason not to be satisfied with them, sent them back to France, about 1685, and replaced them with Recollets.
In 1687, there was in that colony, seven churches: one at the Fort of Plaisance (Newfoundland); a second in the same town of Plaisance; a third at Pointe-Verte; a fourth at Petit-Plaisance; a fifth at St. Mary's (Newfoundland); a sixth at Saint-Pierre; and the seventh at Miquelon.
About 1700, those missionaries, having had problems with the administration, left that colony to return to Quebec. As the salary was then only from 150 to 300 livres, it was impossible to find secular priests for the service so difficult of those exacting stations. Recourse was had then to the Recollets of the Province of Brittany. In 1701, they came, three of them, to take up the work abandoned by their confreres of Quebec.
Father Anthony established his residence at Saint-Pierre and was charged with the care of the inhabitants of Saint-Pierre and those of Miquelon. One of those Recollets received from the Bishop -of Quebec the powers of Vicar-General.
How I regret the absence of references to the sources from which the analyst has drawn his information! To the extent that this allows one to fix his attention there, this passage of the Reverend Father is suddenly suggestive of new facts.
So, about 1685, the Bishop of Quebec would have entrusted to the Recollets the Islands of Saint-Pierre. It cannot be questioned that for Monsigneur de Saint-Vallier, this act on his part would be very plausible. It is noted indeed that on his first voyage to Canada, in 1685, he wished to make himself pleasing to the monks, to the Recollets especially, in view of the new policy which he was about to adopt for the service of the parishes and the missions, it appeared necessary to him to support the religious bodies. But assuming the devolution of the Islands of Saint-Pierre to the Recollets about 1685, it remains at least doubtful that they were established there so soon.
Reverend rather Jerome writes that there were, in 1687, in the colony of Newfoundland including in it the Saint-Pierre Islands seven churches. The statement has certainly a considerable weight and it is not devoid of some plausibility.
If one will recall the text of the "Order of the King" cited in a note at the beginning of this study in which His Majesty ordered in 1689 the passage of the ecclesiastics to Newfoundland, one will note that the Bishop sent them there for the work of Cures of the said island.
In addition, in the Letters Patent granting the parish and the fort of Plaisance to the Recollects in 1689, Monsigneur de Saint-Vallier is very explicit: he entrusts to them these posts without any mention of the service of other places in the island where there were, nevertheless, people to be attended to; this fact is really curious. One should not, nevertheless hasten to conclude that there existed in the Island of Newfoundland, in 1687, churches with resident missionaries. The state f the population established by the census of 1691 in 1687 the situation ought to have been substantially, if not exactly, the same removes from this conclusion, it seems, all likelihood. Here is that census:
Men Women Boys Girls Soldiers
Plaisance 17 14 31 21 43
Pointe-Verte 3 2 5 4 7
Petit Plaisance 4 2 2 2 10
Saint-Pierre Islands 13 5 3 3 0
Lissardie 2 1 0 0 0
Fortune Bay 2 2 1 1 0
Grand Bank 4 1 1 1 0
Harbor Breton 0 0 0 0 0
Hermitage 1 0 0 0 0
(Signed) Pastour.If we take into account that those places fishing stations where, from the spring to the fall, the population increased by some hundreds of fishermen, it is not improbable that there were then some priests for the service of those people. Were they chaplains coming with the ships and returning to France with them 9 Yes, without doubt and under the same hypothesis, churches chapels rather would have had their raison d'etre, not for the resident people, but for the fishermen. Sub judice lis est.
To this post-script, already rather long, I shall add nevertheless for the use of those who wish to write on the religious history of Newfoundland before the Recollets, the following passage from a letter of Mother Marie of the Incarnation. She writes to her son on the 6th of November, 1662:
"M. de Monts ... A gentleman whom His Majesty sent to reconnoitre the country ... took possession on the way of the fort of Plaisance in Newfoundland, where there is a codfishery in a strait, about 600 leagues from France and where the English or the Dutch wish to make themselves masters. He left there 30 soldiers to guard it with an ecclesiastic and provisions for the winter."
