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The great authorities at first hand for the earlier history of French Canada and of Montreal are the narratives written by Jacques Cartier and by Samuel de Champlain. With these are the collection of reports, letters, and documents gathered by the Society of Jesus and known as the Jesuit Relations; and the History of Montreal, written by Dollier de Casson in 1672. Notable firsthand material about Montreal of the Old Regime (1721) is found in the La Nouvelle France of Father Charlevoix, published in 1744, and in the celebrated Travels (1749) in North America of Peter Kalm, the Swedish naturalist. By the time the Conquest is reached and the age of newspapers, journals, and government reports, firsthand documents became as numerous as Maisonneuve's Iroquois.

But all writers are indebted, and none more than the present, to certain great sources of information, secondhand in the historic sense, but representing the labors of a lifetime and the search of libraries and repositories inaccessible to the public at large. Here the volumes of Francis Parkman, a marvelous blending of genius and accuracy, of picturesque charm and reliable fact, have never been excelled. Nor are they likely to be. Too many newer historians are afraid to be interesting for fear of being thought shallow, afraid of any attempt at humor and in any case unable to call it into their service, omit all mention of scenery and wind and weather as immaterial to history, and thus substitute for the moving, animated narrative of a Macaulay or a Parkman a dull, indigestible record of facts that defeats its own end and buries the past in oblivion. Conspicuous exceptions break the rule, but the trend is all too obvious.

Nor can anyone write of Montreal without paying tribute to the monumental work of Dr. W. P. Atherton, whose three volumes on Montreal, its history and its institutions, are beyond competition. Talleyrand once said of Jeremy Bentham's works, "Pillaged by everybody, he is still rich." So let it be with Dr. Atherton. We all acknowledge our debt only to leave it unpaid and borrow more. I have not attempted to include in this book any general bibliography of Montreal. I have only indicated in the notes certain firsthand authorities for corroboration of the text where the matter is curious or contentious.

But I have to acknowledge here in the composition of this book debts of a more intimate and personal kind. I have the honor to be a member, since its foundation, of the University Club of Montreal, whose club building occupies, as said in this book, the center of the site of Hochelaga. Several of my fellow members belong to old Montreal families, French and English, who have transmitted and treasured information, maps, papers, pictures, relics. These they have kindly placed at my disposal. I should wish to make honorable mention here of my friends Mr. Stanley Coristine, Mr. Arthur Terroux, and Col. Fred Gaudet, not if this meets their eye, but taking care that it shall meet their eye. I am also greatly indebted to my old friends Dr. John L. Todd and Mrs. Todd, the owners and occupants of Boisbriant, the beautiful estate at Senneville that was the fief and Seigneurie le Ber, as mentioned in the text.

I am greatly indebted, as I have been on many previous occasions, to my old friend Mr. Murray Gibbon of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Not only has he supplied me with material from his ample resources but also with advice and suggestion from his ample brain.

I am under a very special obligation for my chapter on McGill University to my friend and colleague of many years, Professor Thomas Matthews, registrar of the university, without whose help and guidance I should hardly have ventured on ground, fertile and familiar, but in its very fertility favoring the weeds of hidden error. It is only fair to say that if any of these errors still remain uneradicated the full credit must be given to Mr. Matthews. I am under a similar obligation to another old friend and former colleague of my own department, Professor John Culliton, who has very kindly checked over the economic material of this book, with a view to eliminating errors. Any left are his.

I have also received most valuable help in regard to the present medical curriculum of the college from my friend Dr. E. Kenneth Smith, one of the latest of its graduates on the roll of the faculty and certain, I am sure, to prove worthy of it. It is proper to add that in the preparation of this book I have from first to last been greatly aided by the continuous and courteous assistance of the highly trained staff of the Library of McGill University. In this connection it is proper also to express my appreciation of the research work in the library done for me by Mrs. H. T. Shaw.

Acknowledging all these debts, I feel also that I owe a good deal of this book to my own industry and effort.

McGill University Stephen Leacock 1942