Often in the foreground of the habitant’s life, always in the background at least, stand the Church and the priest.  Malbaie, like a hundred other populous, present-day Roman Catholic parishes, was nursed in the first instance by the travelling missionary.  In winter he could go on snow shoes but his usual means of travel in a country, covered by forests, but with a net-work of lakes and rivers, was by canoe.  Malbaie could be reached either from Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, one of the earliest mission stations in Canada, or from Baie St. Paul in the other direction.  The St. Lawrence was oftentimes a perilous route.  Its waves rise at times huge as those of Ocean itself; a frail canoe could only hug the shore and at times would be storm bound for days.  The missionary travelled usually with an attendant.  They carried a portable chapel with the vessels necessary for the celebration of the mass.  We have a description of the arrival of one of these missionaries, the Abbe Morel, as long ago as in 1683, at Riviere Ouelle where one now takes the ferry to cross to Murray Bay.  A group of people stand on the shore watching a small black object round a distant point.  As it comes nearer they see it is a birch bark canoe, paddled by two men.  In a short time the bow of the canoe has touched the sandy beach where stands the waiting group.  As the figure in the bow rises a long black cassock falls down to his feet; he is the long expected missionary come to celebrate mass.  With the sun sinking behind the mountains of the north shore, a kind of triumphal procession escorts the missionary to one of the neighbouring houses.  The evening is spent in preparation for the service of the morrow.  The priest hears confessions and imposes penances.  At daybreak on the following morning the people begin to gather, some coming by land from the neighbouring clearings, others, in birch bark canoes, from points more distant.  Perhaps fifty persons gather before the house.  Meanwhile in its best room the portable altar has been arranged.  Silence falls upon the people as they enter the door.  The mass begins; after the gospel the priest preaches a practical sermon with impressive solemnity.  The mass over, a second service, vespers, soon follows.  Then the people separate.  Before the priest leaves he says the office of the dead over a grave made, it may be, many weeks ago, he baptizes children born since his last visit, and perhaps marries one or more bashful couples.  “How beautiful upon the mountains,” says a Canadian historian of the work of these devoted men, “are the feet of those who bring the gospel of peace."[29] Such a scene we may be sure was enacted many a time for the benefit of the scattered sheep at Malbaie before and after the arrival of Colonel Nairne.