Page:Lacrosse- The National Game of Canada (New Edition).djvu/10

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PREFACE.
ix

here. The game first met with popularity in Montreal about thirteen years ago, when the Iroquois Indians of Caughnawaga introduced it as a field sport. The origin and early existence, thirty years ago, of the regularly organized Montreal Club—the Alma Mater of the game—and its several matches with the red-skins, only one of which it won, may make an interesting chapter in the history of Lacrosse at some future day. Among the original members of the Club, alive to-day, are Mr. N. H. Hughes, still President; Judge Coursol, Messrs. Romeo Stephens, and Wm. Lamothe, of Montreal; and Mr. Gouin, Prothonotary, at Sorel. Mr. Lamontagne was one of the crack-players of the early time; and our big friend, "Baptiste," the pilot of the Lachine Rapids, was then as great a master of the crosse as he is now of the helm. I shall be much indebted for information furnished me respecting the early matches and life of the Montreal Club.