Canoes filled with peaceful Hurons sallied forth, and the wharves were almost blotted out of sight with crowding humanity.
Many notable faces could be identified here and there among the pressing throng on the wharves.

Some were there to meet friends or relatives; some wanted the news from France; some came for mail to be delivered to the various points along the river.

Prominent among them was Governor Lauson, a grey-haired, kindly civilian, who, though a shrewd speculator, was by no means the man to be at the head of the government in Canada.

He was pulled this way and that, first by the Company, then by the priests, then by the seigneurs.

Depredations by the Indians remained unpunished; and the fear of the great white father grew less and less.