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diff --git a/12523-0.txt b/12523-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06eba2f --- /dev/null +++ b/12523-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4901 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12523 *** + +CRUSADERS OF NEW FRANCE + + + + +THE CHRONICLES OF AMERICA SERIES + +ALLEN JOHNSON EDITOR + +GERHARD R. LOMER +CHARLES W. JEFFERYS +ASSISTANT EDITORS + + + + +CRUSADERS OF NEW FRANCE + +A CHRONICLE OF THE FLEUR-DE-LIS IN THE WILDERNESS + +BY WILLIAM BENNETT MUNRO + + +1918 + + + To my good friend + FATHER HENRI BEAUDÉ + (_Henri d'Arles_) + this tribute to the men + of his race and faith is + affectionately inscribed. + + + + +CONTENTS + +I. FRANCE OF THE BOURBONS +II. A VOYAGEUR OF BRITTANY +III. THE FOUNDING OF NEW FRANCE +IV. THE AGE OF LOUIS QUATORZE +V. THE IRON GOVERNOR +VI. LA SALLE AND THE VOYAGEURS +VII. THE CHURCH IN NEW FRANCE +VIII. SEIGNEURS OF OLD CANADA +IX. THE COUREURS-DE-BOIS +X. AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND TRADE +XI. HOW THE PEOPLE LIVED +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE +INDEX + + + + +CRUSADERS OF NEW FRANCE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FRANCE OF THE BOURBONS + + +France, when she undertook the creation of a Bourbon empire beyond the +seas, was the first nation of Europe. Her population was larger than +that of Spain, and three times that of England. Her army in the days +of Louis Quatorze, numbering nearly a half-million in all ranks, was +larger than that of Rome at the height of the imperial power. No +nation since the fall of Roman supremacy had possessed such resources +for conquering and colonizing new lands. By the middle of the +seventeenth century Spain had ceased to be a dangerous rival; Germany +and Italy were at the time little more than geographical expressions, +while England was in the throes of the Puritan Revolution. + +Nor was it only in the arts of war that the hegemony of the Bourbon +kingdom stood unquestioned. In art and education, in manners and +fashions, France also dominated the ideas of the old continent, the +dictator of social tastes as well as the grim warrior among the +nations. In the second half of the seventeenth century France might +justly claim to be both the heart and the head of Europe. Small wonder +it was that the leaders of such a nation should demand to see the +"clause in Adam's will" which bequeathed the New World to Spain and +Portugal. Small wonder, indeed, that the first nation of Europe should +insist upon a place in the sun to which her people might go to trade, +to make land yield its increase, and to widen the Bourbon sway. If +ever there was a land able and ready to take up the white man's +burden, it was the France of Louis XIV. + +The power and prestige of France at this time may be traced, in the +main, to three sources. First there were the physical features, the +compactness of the kingdom, a fertile soil, a propitious climate, and +a frontage upon two great seas. In an age when so much of a nation's +wealth came from agriculture these were factors of great importance. +Only in commerce did the French people at this time find themselves +outstripped by their neighbors. Although both the Atlantic and the +Mediterranean bathed the shores of France, her people were being +outdistanced on the seas by the English and the Dutch, whose +commercial companies were exploiting the wealth of the new continents +both east and west. Yet in France there was food enough for all and to +spare; it was only because the means of distributing it were so poor +that some got more and others less than they required. France was +supporting at this time a population half as large as that of today. + +Then there were qualities of race which helped to make the nation +great. At all periods in their history the French have shown an almost +inexhaustible stamina, an ability to bear disasters, and to rise from +them quickly, a courage and persistence that no obstacles seem able to +thwart. How often in the course of the centuries has France been torn +apart by internecine strife or thrown prostrate by her enemies only to +astonish the world by a superb display of recuperative powers! It was +France that first among the kingdoms of Europe rose from feudal chaos +to orderly nationalism; it was France that first among continental +countries after the Middle Ages established the reign of law +throughout a powerful realm. Though wars and turmoils almost without +end were a heavy drain upon Gallic vitality for many generations, +France achieved steady progress to primacy in the arts of peace. +None but a marvellous people could have made such efforts without +exhaustion, yet even now in the twentieth century the astounding vigor +of this race has not ceased to compel the admiration of mankind. + +In the seventeenth century, moreover, France owed much of her national +power to a highly-centralized and closely-knit scheme of government. +Under Richelieu the strength of the monarchy had been enhanced and the +power of the nobility broken. When he began his personal rule, Louis +XIV continued his work of consolidation and in the years of his long +reign managed to centralize in the throne every vestige of political +power. The famous saying attributed to him, "The State! I am the +State!" embodied no idle boast. Nowhere was there a trace of +representative government, nowhere a constitutional check on the +royal power. There were councils of different sorts and with varied +jurisdictions, but men sat in them at the King's behest and were +removable at his will. There were _parlements_, too, but to mention +them without explanation would be only to let the term mislead, for +they were not representative bodies or parliaments in the ordinary +sense: their powers were chiefly judicial and they were no barrier in +the way of the steady march to absolutism. The political structure of +the Bourbon realm in the age of Louis XIV and afterwards was simple: +all the lines of control ran upwards and to a common center. And all +this made for unity and autocratic efficiency in finance, in war, and +in foreign affairs. + +Another feature which fitted the nation for an imperial destiny was +the possession of a united and militant church. With heresy the +Gallican branch of the Catholic Church had fought a fierce struggle, +but, before the seventeenth century was far advanced, the battle had +been won. There were heretics in France even after Richelieu's time, +but they were no longer a source of serious discord. The Church, +now victorious over its foes, became militant, ready to carry its +missionary efforts to other lands--ready, in fact, for a new crusade. + +These four factors, rare geographical advantages, racial qualities +of a high order, a strongly centralized scheme of government, and a +militant church, contributed largely to the prestige which France +possessed among European nations in the seventeenth, century. With all +these advantages she should have been the first and not the last to +get a firm footing in the new continents. Historians have recorded +their reasons why France did not seriously enter the field of American +colonization as early as England, but these reasons do not impress one +as being good. Foreign wars and internal religious strife are commonly +given and accepted as the true cause of French tardiness in following +up the pioneer work of Jacques Cartier and others. Yet not all the +energy of nearly twenty million people was being absorbed in these +troubles. There were men and money to spare, had the importance of the +work overseas only been adequately realized. + +The main reason why France was last in the field is to be found in the +failure of her kings and ministers to realize until late in the day +how vast the possibilities of the new continent really were. In a +highly centralized and not over-populated state the authorities must +lead the way in colonial enterprises; the people will not of their +own initiative seek out and follow opportunities to colonize distant +lands. And in France the authorities were not ready to lead. Sully, +who stood supreme among the royal advisers in the closing years of +the sixteenth century, was opposed to colonial ventures under all +circumstances. "Far-off possessions," he declared, "are not suited to +the temperament or to the genius of Frenchmen, who to my great regret +have neither the perseverance nor the foresight needed for such +enterprises, but who ordinarily apply their vigor, minds, and courage +to things which are immediately at hand and constantly before their +eyes." Colonies beyond the seas, he believed, "would never be anything +but a great expense." That, indeed, was the orthodox notion in circles +surrounding the seat of royal power, and it was a difficult notion to +dislodge. + +Never until the time of Richelieu was any intimation of the great +colonial opportunity, now quickly slipping by, allowed to reach +the throne, and then it was only an inkling, making but a slight +impression and soon virtually forgotten. Richelieu's great Company of +1627 made a brave start, but it did not hold the Cardinal's interest +very long. Mazarin, who succeeded Richelieu, took no interest in the +New World; the tortuous problems of European diplomacy appealed far +more strongly to his Italian imagination than did the vision of a New +France beyond the seas. It was not until Colbert took the reins +that official France really displayed an interest in the work of +colonization at all proportionate to the nation's power and resources. + +Colbert was admirably fitted to become the herald of a greater France. +Coming from the ranks of the _bourgeoisie_, he was a man of affairs, +not a cleric or a courtier as his predecessors in office had been. He +had a clear conception of what he wanted and unwearied industry in +moving towards the desired end. His devotion to the King was beyond +question; he had native ability, patience, sound ideas, and a firm +will. Given a fair opportunity, he would have accomplished far more +for the glory of the fleur-de-lis in the region of the St. Lawrence +and the Great Lakes of America. But a thousand problems of home +administration were crowded upon him, problems of finance, of +industry, of ecclesiastical adjustment, and of social reconstruction. +In the first few years of his term as minister he could still find a +little time and thought for Canada, and during this short period he +personally conducted the correspondence with the colonial officials; +but after 1669 all this was turned over to the Minister of Marine, and +Colbert himself figured directly in the affairs of the colony no more. +The great minister of Louis XIV is remembered far more for his work at +home than for his services to New France. + +As for the French monarchs of the seventeenth century, Louis XIV was +the first and only one to take an active and enduring interest in the +great crusade to the northern wilderness. He began his personal reign +about 1660 with a genuine display of zeal for the establishment of a +colony which would by its rapid growth and prosperity soon crowd the +English off the new continent. In the selection of officials to carry +out his policy, his judgment, when not subjected to sinister pressure, +was excellent, as shown in his choice of Frontenac. Nor did the King's +interest in the colony slacken in the face of discouragement. It kept +on to the end of his reign, although diminishing somewhat towards the +close. It could not well do otherwise than weaken during the European +disasters which marked his later years. By the death of Louis XIV in +1715 the colony lost its most unwavering friend. The shrewdest of +French historians, De Tocqueville, has somewhere remarked that "the +physiognomy of a government may be best judged in the colonies.... +When I wish to study the spirit and faults of the administration of +Louis XIV," he writes, "I must go to Canada, for its deformity is +there seen as through a microscope." That is entirely true. The +history of New France in its picturesque alternation of sunshine and +shadow, of victory and defeat, of pageant and tragedy, is a chronicle +that is Gallic to the core. In the early annals of the northland one +can find silhouetted in sharp relief examples of all that was best and +all that was worst in the life of Old France. The political framework +of the colony, with its strict centralization, the paternal regulation +of industry and commerce, the flood of missionary zeal which poured +in upon it, the heroism and courage of its priests and voyageurs, the +venality of its administrative officials, the anachronism of a feudal +land-tenure, the bizarre externals of its social life, the versatility +of its people--all these reflected the paternity of New France. + +The most striking weakness of French colonial policy in the +seventeenth century was its failure to realize how vastly different +was the environment of North America from that of Central Europe. +Institutions were transplanted bodily, and then amazement was +expressed at Versailles because they did not seem to thrive in the new +soil. Detailed instructions to officials in New France were framed by +men who had not the slightest grasp of the colony's needs or problems. +One busybody wrote to the colonial Intendant that a bake-oven should +be established in every seigneury and that the _habitants_ should +be ordered to bring their dough there to be made into bread. The +Intendant had to remind him that, in the long cold winters of the St. +Lawrence valley, the dough would be frozen stiff if the habitants, +with their dwellings so widely scattered, were required to do +anything of the kind. Another martinet gravely informed the colonial +authorities that, as a protection against Indian attacks "all the +seigneuries should be palisaded." And some of the seigneurial estates +were eight or ten miles square! The dogmatic way in which the colonial +officials were told to do this and that, to encourage one thing and +to discourage another, all by superiors who displayed an astounding +ignorance of New World conditions, must have been a severe trial to +the patience of those hard-working officials who were never without +great practical difficulties immediately before their eyes. + +Not enough heed was paid, moreover, to the advice of men who were on +the spot. It is true that the recommendations sent home to France by +the Governor and by the Intendant were often contradictory, but even +where the two officials were agreed there was no certainty that their +counsel would be taken. With greater freedom and discretion the +colonial government could have accomplished much more in the way of +developing trade and industry; but for every step the acquiescence of +the home authorities had first to be secured. To obtain this consent +always entailed a great loss of time, and when the approval arrived +the opportunity too often had passed. From November until May there +was absolutely no communication between Quebec and Paris save that in +a great emergency, if France and England happened to be at peace, a +dispatch might be sent by dint of great hardship to Boston with a +precarious chance that it would get across to the French ambassador in +London. Ordinarily the officials sent their requests for instructions +by the home-going vessels from Quebec in the autumn and received their +answers by the ships which came in the following spring. If any plans +were formulated after the last ship sailed in October, it ordinarily +took eighteen months before the royal approval could be had for +putting them into effect. The routine machinery of paternalism thus +ran with exasperating slowness. + +There was, however, one mitigating feature in the situation. The hand +of home authority was rigid and its beckonings were precise; but as +a practical matter it could be, and sometimes was, disregarded +altogether. Not that the colonial officials ever defied the King or +his ministers, or ever failed to profess their intent to follow the +royal instructions loyally and to the letter. They had a much safer +plan. When the provisions of a royal decree seemed impractical or +unwise, it was easy enough to let them stand unenforced. Such decrees +were duly registered in the records of the Sovereign Council at Quebec +and were then promptly pigeonholed so that no one outside the little +circle of officials at the Château de St. Louis ever heard of them. +In one case a new intendant on coming to the colony unearthed a royal +mandate of great importance which had been kept from public knowledge +for twenty years. + +Absolutism, paternalism, and religious solidarity were characteristic +of both France and her colonies in the great century of overseas +expansion. There was no self-government, no freedom of individual +initiative, and very little heresy either at home or abroad. +The factors which made France strong in Europe, her unity, her +subordination of all other things to the military needs of the nation, +her fostering of the sense of nationalism--these appeared prominently +in Canada and helped to make the colony strong as well. Historians of +New France have been at pains to explain why the colony ultimately +succumbed to the combined attacks of New England by land and of Old +England by sea. For a full century New France had as its next-door +neighbor a group of English colonies whose combined populations +outnumbered her own at a ratio of about fifteen to one. The relative +numbers and resources of the two areas were about the same, +proportionately, as those of the United States and Canada at the +present day. The marvel is not that French dominion in America finally +came to an end but that it managed to endure so long. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A VOYAGEUR OF BRITTANY + + +The closing quarter of the fifteenth century in Europe has usually +been regarded by historians as marking the end of the Middle Ages. The +era of feudal chaos had drawn to a close and states were being +welded together under the leadership of strong dynasties. With this +consolidation came the desire for expansion, for acquiring new lands, +and for opening up new channels of influence. Spain, Portugal, and +England were first in the field of active exploration, searching for +stores of precious metals and for new routes to the coasts of Ormuz +and of India. In this quest for a short route to the half-fabulous +empires of Asia they had literally stumbled upon a new continent which +they had made haste to exploit. France, meanwhile, was dissipating her +energies on Spanish and Italian battlefields. It was not until the +peace of Cambrai in 1529 ended the struggle with Spain that France +gave any attention to the work of gaining some foothold in the New +World. By that time Spain had become firmly entrenched in the lands +which border the Caribbean Sea; her galleons were already bearing home +their rich cargoes of silver bullion. Portugal, England, and even +Holland had already turned with zeal to the exploration of new +lands in the East and the West: French fishermen, it is true, were +lengthening their voyages to the west; every year now the rugged old +Norman and Breton seaports were sending their fleets of small vessels +to gather the harvests of the sea. But official France took no active +interest in the regions toward which they went. Five years after the +peace of Cambrai the Breton port of St. Malo became the starting point +of the first French voyageur to the St. Lawrence. Francis I had been +persuaded to turn his thoughts from gaming and gallantries to the +trading prospects of his kingdom, with the result that in 1534 Jacques +Cartier was able to set out on his first voyage of discovery. Cartier +is described in the records of the time as a corsair--which means that +he had made a business of roving the seas to despoil the enemies of +France. St. Malo, his birthplace and home, on the coast of Brittany, +faces the English Channel somewhat south of Jersey, the nearest of the +Channel Islands. The town is set on high ground which projects out +into the sea, forming an almost landlocked harbor where ships may ride +at ease during the most tumultuous gales. It had long been a notable +nursery of hardy fishermen and adventurous navigators, men who had +pressed their way to all the coasts of Europe and beyond. + +Cartier was one of these hardy sailors. His fathers before him had +been mariners, and he had himself learned the way of the great waters +while yet a mere youth. Before his expedition of 1534 Jacques Cartier +had probably made a voyage to Brazil and had in all probability more +than once visited the Newfoundland fishing-banks. Although, when +he sailed from St. Malo to become the pathfinder of a new Bourbon +imperialism, he was forty-three years of age and in the prime of his +days, we know very little of his youth and early manhood. It is enough +that he had attained the rank of a master-pilot and that, from his +skill in seamanship, he was considered the most dependable man in +all the kingdom to serve his august sovereign in this important +enterprise. + +Cartier shipped his crew at St. Malo, and on the 20th of April, 1534, +headed his two small ships across the great Atlantic. His company +numbered only threescore souls in all. Favored by steady winds his +vessels made good progress, and within three weeks he sighted the +shores of Newfoundland where he put into one of the many small harbors +to rest and refit his ships. Then, turning northward, the expedition +passed through the straits of Belle Isle and into the Gulf of St. +Lawrence. Coasting along the northern shore of the Gulf for a short +distance, Cartier headed his ships due southward, keeping close to the +western shore of the great island almost its whole length; he then +struck across the lower Gulf and, moving northward once more, reached +the Baie des Chaleurs on the 6th July. Here the boats were sent ashore +and the French were able to do a little trading with the Indians. +About a week later, Cartier went northward once more and soon sought +shelter from a violent gulf storm by anchoring in Gaspé Bay. On the +headland there he planted a great wooden cross with the arms of +France, the first symbol of Bourbon dominion in the New Land, and the +same symbol that successive explorers, chanting the _Vexilla Regis_, +were in time to set aloft from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of +Mexico. It was the augury of the white man's coming. + +Crossing next to the southerly shore of Anticosti the voyageurs almost +circled the island until the constant and adverse winds which +Cartier met in the gradually narrowing channel forced him to defer +indefinitely his hope of finding a western passage, and he therefore +headed his ships back to Belle Isle. It was now mid-August, and the +season of autumnal storms was drawing near. Cartier had come to +explore, to search for a westward route to the Indies, to look for +precious metals, not to establish a colony. He accordingly decided to +set sail for home and, with favoring winds, was able to reach St. Malo +in the early days of September. + +In one sense the voyage of 1534 had been a failure. No stores of +mineral wealth had been discovered and no short route to Cipango or +Cathay. Yet the spirit of exploration had been awakened. Carrier's +recital of his voyage had aroused the interest of both the King and +his people, so that the navigator's request for better equipment to +make another voyage was readily granted. On May 19, 1535, Cartier once +more set forth from St. Malo, this time with three vessels and with a +royal patent, empowering him to take possession of new lands in his +sovereign's name. With Cartier on this voyage there were over one +hundred men, of whom the majority were hardened Malouins, veterans of +the sea. How he found accommodation for all of them, with supplies and +provisions, in three small vessels whose total burden was only two +hundred and twenty tons, is not least among the mysteries of this +remarkable voyage.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The shipbuilders old measure for determining tonnage was +to multiply the length of a vessel minus three-quarters of the beam by +the beam, then to multiply the product by one-half the beam, then +to divide this final product by 94. The resulting quotient was the +tonnage. On this basis Cartier's three ships were 67 feet length by 23 +feet beam, 57 feet length by 17 feet beam, and 48 feet length by 17 +feet beam, respectively.] + +The trip across the ocean was boisterous, and the clumsy caravels had +a hard time breasting the waves. The ships were soon separated by +alternate storms and fog so that all three did not meet at their +appointed rendezvous in the Straits of Belle Isle until the last week +in July. Then moving westward along the north, shore of the Gulf, they +passed Anticosti, crossed to the Gaspé shore, circled back as far as +the Mingan islands, and then resumed a westward course up the great +river. As the vessels stemmed the current but slowly, it was well into +September when they cast anchor before the Indian village of Stadacona +which occupied the present site of Lower Quebec. + +Since it was now too late in the season to think of returning at once +to France, Cartier decided to spend the winter at this point. Two of +the ships were therefore drawn into the mouth of a brook which entered +the river just below the village, while the Frenchmen established +acquaintance with the savages and made preparations for a trip farther +up the river in the smallest vessel. Using as interpreters two young +Indians whom he had captured in the Gaspé region during his first +voyage in the preceding year, Cartier was able to learn from the +Indians at Stadacona that there was another settlement of importance +at Hochelaga, now Montreal. The navigator decided to use the remaining +days of autumn in a visit to this settlement, although the Stadacona +Indians strenuously objected, declaring that there were all manner +of dangers and difficulties in the way. With his smallest vessel and +about half of his men, Cartier, however, made his way up the river +during the last fortnight in September. + +Near the point where the largest of the St. Lawrence rapids bars the +river gateway to the west the Frenchman found Hochelaga nestling +between the mountain and the shore, in the midst of "goodly and large +fields full of corn such as the country yieldeth." The Indian village, +which consisted of about fifty houses, was encircled by three courses +of palisades, one within the other. The natives received their +visitors with great cordiality, and after a liberal distribution +of trinkets the French learned from them some vague snatches of +information about the rivers and great lakes which lay to the westward +"where a man might travel on the face of the waters for many moons in +the same direction." But as winter was near Cartier found it necessary +to hurry back to Stadacona, where the remaining members of his +expedition had built a small fort or _habitation_ during his absence. + +Everything was made ready for the long season of cold and snow, but +the winter came on with unusual severity. The neighboring Indians grew +so hostile that the French hardly dared to venture from their narrow +quarters. Supplies ran low, and to make matters worse the pestilence +of scurvy came upon the camp. In February almost the entire company +was stricken down and nearly one quarter of them had died before the +emaciated survivors learned from the Indians that the bark of a white +spruce tree boiled in water would afford a cure. The Frenchmen dosed +themselves with the Indian remedy, using a whole tree in less than +a week, but with such revivifying results that Cartier hailed the +discovery as a genuine miracle. When spring appeared, the remnant of +the company, now restored to health and vigor, gladly began their +preparations for a return to France. There was no ardor among them for +a further exploration of this inhospitable land. As there were not +enough men to handle all three of the ships, they abandoned one of +them, whose timbers were uncovered from the mudbank in 1843, more than +three centuries later. Before leaving Stadacona, however, Cartier +decided to take Donnacona, the head of the village, and several other +Indians as presents to the French King. It was natural enough that +the master-pilot should wish to bring his sovereign some impressive +souvenir from the new domains, yet this sort of treachery and +ingratitude was unpardonable. Donnacona and all these captives but one +little Indian maiden died in France, and his people did not readily +forget the lesson of European duplicity. By July the expedition was +back in the harbor of St. Malo, and Cartier was promptly at work +preparing for the King a journal of his experiences. + +Cartier's account of his voyage which has come down to us contains +many interesting details concerning the topography and life of the new +land. The Malouin captain was a good navigator as seafaring went in +his day, a good judge of distance at sea, and a keen observer of +landmarks. But he was not a discriminating chronicler of those things +which we would now wish to understand--for example, the relationship +and status of the various Indian tribes with which he came into +contact. All manner of Indian customs are superficially described, +particularly those which presented to the French the aspect of +novelty, but we are left altogether uncertain as to whether the +Indians at Stadacona in Cartier's time were of Huron or Iroquois +or Algonquin stock. The navigator did not describe with sufficient +clearness, or with a due differentiation of the important from the +trivial, those things which ethnologists would now like to know. + +It must have been a disappointment not to be able to lay before the +King any promise of great mineral wealth to be found in the new +territory. While at Hochelaga Cartier had gleaned from the savages +some vague allusions to sources of silver and copper in the far +northwest, but that was all. He had not found a northern Eldorado, nor +had his quest of a new route to the Indies been a whit more fruitful. +Cartier had set out with this as his main motive, but had succeeded +only in finding that there was no such route by way of the St. +Lawrence. Though the King was much interested in his recital of +courage and hardships, he was not fired with zeal for spending good +money in the immediate equipping of another expedition to these +inhospitable shores. + +Not for five years after his return in 1536, therefore, did Cartier +again set out for the St. Lawrence. This time his sponsor was the +Sieur de Roberval, a nobleman of Picardy, who had acquired an ambition +to colonize a portion of the new territory and who had obtained the +royal endorsement of his scheme. The royal patronage was not difficult +to obtain when no funds were sought. Accordingly in 1540 Roberval, who +was duly appointed viceroy of the country, enlisted the assistance of +Cartier in carrying out his plans. It was arranged that Cartier with +three ships should sail from St. Malo in the spring of 1541, while +Roberval's part of the expedition should set forth at the same time +from Honfleur. But when May arrived Roberval was not ready and +Cartier's ships set sail alone, with the understanding that Roberval +would follow. Cartier in due course reached Newfoundland, where for +six weeks he awaited his viceroy. At length, his patience exhausted, +he determined to push on alone to Stadacona, where he arrived toward +the end of August. The ships were unloaded and two of the vessels were +sent back to France. The rest of the expedition prepared to winter at +Cap Rouge, a short distance above the settlement. Once more Cartier +made a short trip up the river to Hochelaga, but with no important +incidents, and here the voyageur's journal comes to an end. He +may have written more, but if so the pages have never been found. +Henceforth the evidence as to his doings is less extensive and less +reliable. On his return he and his band seem to have passed the winter +at Cap Rouge more comfortably than the first hibernation six years +before, for the French had now learned the winter hygiene of the +northern regions. The Indians, however, grew steadily more hostile +as the months went by, and Cartier, fearing that his small following +might not fare well in the event of a general assault, deemed it wise +to start for France when the river opened in the spring of 1542. + +Cartier set sail from Quebec in May. Taking the southern route through +the Gulf he entered, early in June, the harbor of what is now St. +John's, Newfoundland. There, according to Hakluyt, the Breton +navigator and his belated viceroy, Roberval, anchored their ships side +by side, Roberval, who had been delayed nearly a year, was now on his +way to join Cartier at Quebec and had put into the Newfoundland harbor +to refit his ships after a stormy voyage. What passed between the two +on the occasion of this meeting will never be known with certainly. We +have only the brief statement that after a spirited interview Cartier +was ordered by his chief to turn his ships about and accompany the +expedition back to Quebec. Instead of doing so, he spread his sails +during the night and slipped homeward to St. Malo, leaving the viceroy +to his own resources. There are difficulties in the way of accepting +this story, however, although it is not absolutely inconsistent +with the official records, as some later historians seem to have +assumed.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History of +America_, vol. iv., 58.] + +At any rate it was in no pleasant humor that Roberval now proceeded +to the St. Lawrence and up to Cap Rouge, where he took possession of +Carrier's post, sowed some grain and vegetables, and endeavored +to prepare for the winter. His company of followers, having been +recruited from the jails of France, proved as unruly as might have +been expected. Discipline and order could only be maintained by the +exercise of great severity. One of the malefactors was executed; +others were given the lash in generous measure. The winter, moreover, +proved to be terribly cold; supplies ran low, and the scurvy once +again got beyond control. If anything, the conditions were even worse +than those which Cartier had to endure seven years before. When spring +arrived the survivors had no thought of anything but a prompt return +to France. But Roberval bade most of them wait until with a small +party he ventured a trip to the territory near what is now Three +Rivers and the mouth of the St. Maurice. Apparently the whole party +made its way safely back to France before the autumn, but as to how or +when we have no record. There is some evidence that Cartier was sent +out with a relief expedition in 1543, but in any case, both he and +Roberval were in France during the spring of the next year, for they +then appeared there in court to settle respective accounts of expenses +incurred in the badly managed enterprise. + +Of Carrier's later life little is known save that he lived at St. Malo +until he died in 1557. With the exception of his journals, which cover +only a part of his explorations, none of his writings or maps has come +down to us. That he prepared maps is highly probable, for he was an +explorer in the royal service. But diligent search on the part of +antiquarians has not brought them to light. His portrait in the town +hall at St. Malo shows us a man of firm and strong features with jaws +tight-set, a high forehead, and penetrating eyes. Unhappily it is of +relatively recent workmanship and as a likeness of the great Malouin +its trustworthiness is at least questionable. Fearless and untiring, +however, his own indisputable achievements amply prove him to have +been. The tasks set before him were difficult to perform; he was often +in tight places and he came through unscathed. As a navigator he +possessed a skill that ranked with the best of his time. His was +an intrepid sailor-soul. If his voyages resulted in no permanent +establishment, that was not altogether Cartier's fault. He was sent +out on his first two voyages as an explorer, to find new trade routes, +or stores of gold and silver or a rich land to exploit. On his third +voyage, when a scheme of colonization was in hand, the failure of +Roberval to do his part proved the undoing of the entire plan. There +is no reason to believe that faint-heartedness or lack of courage had +any place in Carrier's sturdy frame. + +For sixty years following the ill-starred ventures of 1541-1542 no +serious attempts were made to gain for France any real footing in the +regions of the St. Lawrence. This is not altogether surprising, for +there were troubles in plenty at home. Huguenots and Catholics had +ranged themselves in civil strife; the wars of the Fronde were +convulsing the land, and it was not until the very end of the +sixteenth century that France settled down to peace within her own +borders. Norman and Breton fishermen continued their yearly trips to +the fishing-banks, but during the whole latter half of the sixteenth +century no vessel, so far as we know, ever made its way beyond the +Saguenay. Some schemes of colonization, without official support, were +launched during this interval; but in all such cases the expeditions +set forth to warmer lands, to Brazil and to Florida. In neither +direction, however, did any marked success attend these praiseworthy +examples of private initiative. + +The great valley of the St. Lawrence during these six decades remained +a land of mystery. The navigators of Europe still clung to the vision +of a westward passage whose eastern portal must be hidden among +the bays or estuaries of this silent land, but none was bold or +persevering enough to seek it to the end. As for the great continent +itself, Europe had not the slightest inkling of what it held in store +for future generations of mankind. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE FOUNDING OF NEW FRANCE + + +In the closing years of the sixteenth century the spirit of French +expansion, which had remained so strangely inactive for nearly three +generations, once again began to manifest itself. The Sieur de La +Roche, another Breton nobleman, the merchant traders, Pontgravé of St. +Malo and Chauvin of Honfleur, came forward one after the other with +plans for colonizing the unknown land. Unhappily these plans were not +easily matured into stern realities. The ambitious project of La Roche +came to grief on the barren sands of Sable Island. The adventurous +merchants, for their part, obtained a monopoly of the trade and for a +few years exploited the rich peltry regions of the St. Lawrence, but +they made no serious attempts at actual settlement. Finally they lost +the monopoly, which passed in 1603 to the Sieur de Chastes, a royal +favorite and commandant at Dieppe. + +It is at this point that Samuel Champlain first becomes associated +with the pioneer history of New France. Given the opportunity to sail +with an expedition which De Chastes sent out in 1603, Champlain gladly +accepted and from this time to the end of his days he never relaxed +his whole-souled interest in the design to establish a French dominion +in these western lands. With his accession to the ranks of the +voyageurs real progress in the field of colonization was for the first +time assured. Champlain encountered many setbacks during his initial +years as a colonizer, but he persevered to the end. When he had +finished his work, France had obtained a footing in the St. Lawrence +valley which was not shaken for nearly a hundred and fifty years. + +Champlain was born in 1567 at the seaport of Brouage, on the Bay of +Biscay, so that he was only thirty-six years of age when he set out +on his first voyage to America. His forbears belonged to the lesser +gentry of Saintonge, and from them he inherited a roving strain. Long +before reaching middle manhood he had learned to face dangers, both +as a soldier in the wars of the League and as a sailor to the Spanish +Main. With a love of adventure he combined rare powers of description, +so much so that the narrative of his early voyages to this region had +attracted the King's attention and had won for him the title of royal +geographer. His ideas were bold and clear; he had an inflexible will +and great patience in battling with discouragements. Possessing these +qualities, Champlain was in every way fitted to become the founder of +New France. + +The expedition of 1603 proceeded to the St. Lawrence, where some +of the party landed at the mouth of the Saguenay to trade with the +Indians. The remainder, including Champlain, made their way up the +river to the Indian village at Hochelaga, which they now found in +ruins, savage warfare having turned the place into a solitude. +Champlain busied himself with some study of the country's resources +and the customs of the aborigines; but on the whole the prospects of +the St. Lawrence valley did not move the explorers to enthusiasm. +Descending the great river again, they rejoined their comrades at the +Saguenay, and, taking their cargoes of furs aboard, the whole party +sailed back to France in the autumn. There they found that De Chastes, +the sponsor for their enterprise, had died during their absence. + +The death of De Chastes upset matters badly, for with it the trade +monopoly had lapsed. But things were promptly set right again by a +royal act which granted the monopoly anew. This time it went to the +Sieur de Monts, a prominent Huguenot nobleman, then governor of Pons, +with whom Champlain was on friendly terms. To quiet the clamors of +rival traders, however, it was stipulated that Monts should organize a +company and should be bound to take into his enterprise any who might +wish to associate themselves with him. The company, in return for its +trading monopoly, was to transport to the new domains at least one +hundred settlers each year. + +Little difficulty was encountered in organizing the company, since +various merchants of St. Malo, Honfleur, Rouen, and Rochelle were +eager to take shares. Preparations for sending out an expedition on a +much larger scale than on any previous occasion were soon under way, +and in 1604 two well-equipped vessels set forth. One of them went to +the old trading-post at the Saguenay; the other went southward to +the regions of Acadia. On board the latter were De Monts himself, +Champlain as chief geographer, and a young adventurer from the ranks +of the _noblesse_, Biencourt de Poutrincourt. The personnel of this +expedition was excellent: it contained no convicts; most of its +members were artisans and sturdy yeomen. Rounding the tip of the Nova +Scotian peninsula, these vessels came to anchor in the haven of Port +Royal, now Annapolis. Not satisfied with the prospects there, however, +they coasted around the Bay of Fundy, and finally reached the island +in Passamaquoddy Bay which they named St. Croix. Here on June 25, +1604, the party decided to found their settlement. Work on the +buildings was at once commenced, and soon the little colony was safely +housed. In the autumn Poutrincourt was dispatched with one vessel and +a crew back to France, while Champlain and the rest prepared to spend +the winter in their new island home. + +The choice of St. Croix as a location proved singularly unfortunate; +the winter was long and severe, and the preparations that had been +made were soon found to be inadequate. Once more there were sufferings +such as Cartier and his men had undergone during the terrible winter +of 1534-1535 at Quebec. There were no brooks or springs close at hand, +and no fresh water except such as could be had by melting snow. The +storehouse had no cellar, and in consequence the vegetables froze, so +that the company was reduced to salted meat as the chief staple of +diet. Scurvy ravaged the camp, and before the snows melted nearly +two-fifths of the party had died. Not until June, moreover, did a +vessel arrive from France with, fresh stores and more colonists. + +The experience of this first winter must have indeed "produced +discontent," as Champlain rather mildly expressed it, but it did not +impel De Monts to abandon his plans. St. Croix, however, was given up +and, after a futile search for a better location on the New England +coast, the colony moved across the bay to Port Royal, where the +buildings were reconstructed. In the autumn De Monts went back to +France, leaving Champlain, Pontgravé, and forty-three others to spend +the winter of 1605-1606 in Acadia. During this hibernation the fates +were far more kind. The season proved milder, the bitter lessons of +the previous season had not gone unlearned, and scurvy did not make +serious headway. But when June came and De Monts had not returned from +France with fresh supplies, there was general discouragement; so much +so that plans for the entire abandonment of the place were on the eve +of being carried out when a large vessel rounded the point on its way +into the Basin. Aboard were Poutrincourt and Marc Lescarbot, together +with more settlers and supplies. Lescarbot was a Parisian lawyer in +search of adventure, a man who combined wit with wisdom, one of the +pleasantest figures in the annals of American colonization. He was +destined to gain a place in literary history as the interesting +chronicler of this little colony's all-too-brief existence. These +arrivals put new heart into the men, and they set to work sowing grain +and vegetables, which grew in such abundance that the storehouses were +filled to their capacity. The ensuing winter found the company with an +ample store of everything. The season of ice and snow passed quickly, +thanks largely to Champlain's successful endeavor to keep the +colonists in good health and spirits by exercise, by variety in diet, +and by divers gaieties under the auspices of his _Ordre de Bon Temps_, +a spontaneous social organization created for the purpose of banishing +cares and worries from the little settlement. It seemed as though the +colony had been established to stay. + +But with the spring of 1607 came news which quickly put an end to all +this optimism. Rival merchants had been clamoring against the monopoly +of the De Monts company. Despite the fact that De Monts was a Huguenot +and thus a shining target for the shafts of bigotry, these protests +had for three years failed to move the King; but now they had gained +their point, and the monopoly had come to an end. This meant that +there would be no more ships with settlers or supplies. As the colony +could not yet hope to exist on its own resources, there was no +alternative but to abandon the site and return to France, and this the +whole party reluctantly proceeded to do. + +On arrival in France the affairs of the company were wound up, and De +Monts found himself a heavy loser. He was not yet ready to quit the +game, however, and Champlain with the aid of Pontgravé was able to +convince him that a new venture in the St. Lawrence region might +yield profits even without the protection of a monopoly. Thus out of +misfortune and failure arose the plans which led to the founding of a +permanent outpost of empire at Quebec. + +In the spring of 1608 Champlain and Pontgravé once again set sail for +the St. Lawrence. The latter delayed at the Saguenay to trade, while +Champlain pushed on to the site of the old Stadacona, where at the +foot of the cliff he laid the foundations of the new Quebec, the first +permanent settlement of Europeans in the territory of New France. +On the shore below the rocky steep several houses were built, and +measures were taken to defend them in case of an Indian attack. Here +Champlain's party spent the winter of 1608-1609. + +With the experience gained at St. Croix and Port Royal it should have +been possible to provide for all eventualities, yet difficulties in +profusion were encountered during these winter months. First there was +the unearthing of a conspiracy against Champlain. Those concerned in +it were speedily punished, but the execution of the chief culprit gave +to the new settlement a rather ominous beginning. Then came a season +of zero weather, and the scurvy came with it. Champlain had heard of +the remedy used by Cartier, but the tribes which had been at Stadacona +in Cartier's time had now disappeared, and there was no one to point +out the old-time remedy to the suffering garrison. So the scourge +went on unchecked. The ravages of disease were so severe that, when +a relief ship arrived in the early summer of 1609, all but eight of +Champlain's party had succumbed. + +Yet there was no thought of abandoning the settlement. The beginnings +of Canada made astounding demands upon the fortitude and stamina of +these dauntless voyageurs, but their store of courage was far from the +point of exhaustion. They were ready not only to stay but to explore +the territory inland, to traverse its rivers and lakes, to trudge +through its forests afoot that they might find out for the King's +information what resources the vast land held in its silent expanses. +After due deliberation, therefore, it was decided that Champlain and +four others should accompany a party of Huron and Algonquin Indians +upon one of their forays into the country of the Iroquois, this being +the only way in which the Frenchmen could be sure of their redskin +guides. So the new allies set forth to the southeastward, passing up +the Richelieu River and, traversing the lake which now bears his name, +Champlain and his Indian friends came upon a war party of Iroquois +near Ticonderoga and a forest fight ensued. The muskets of the French +terrified the enemy tribesmen and they fled in disorder. In itself +the incident was not of much account nor were its consequences so +far-reaching as some historians would have us believe. It is true that +Champlain's action put the French, for the moment in the bad graces +of the Iroquois; but the conclusion that this foray was chiefly +responsible for the hostility of the great tribes during the whole +ensuing century is altogether without proper historical foundation. + +Revenge has always been a prominent trait of redskin character, but +it could never of itself have determined the alignment of the +Five Nations against the French during a period of nearly eight +generations. From the situation of their territories, the Iroquois +were the natural allies of the English and Dutch on the one hand, and +the natural foes of the French on the other. Trade soon became the +Alpha and the Omega of all tribal diplomacy, and the Iroquois were +discerning enough to realize that their natural rôle was to serve as +middlemen between the western Indians and the English. Their very +livelihood, indeed, depended on their success in diverting the flow of +the fur trade through the Iroquois territories, for by the middle +of the seventeenth century there were no beavers left in their own +country. Such a situation meant that they must promote trade between +the western Indians and the English, at Albany; but to promote trade +with the English meant friendship with the English, and friendship +with the English meant enmity with the French. Here is the true key to +the long series of quarrels in which the Five Nations and New France +engaged. Champlain's little escapade at Ticonderoga was a mere +incident and the Iroquois would have soon forgotten it if their +economic interests had required them to do so. "Trade and peace," said +an Iroquois chief to the French on one occasion, "we take to be +one thing." He was right; they have been one thing in all ages. As +companions, trade and the flag have been inseparable in all lands. The +expedition of 1609 had, however, some results besides the discomfiture +of an Iroquois raiding party. It disclosed to the French a water-route +which led almost to the upper reaches of the Hudson. The spot where +Champlain put the Iroquois to flight is within thirty leagues of +Albany. It was by this route that the French and English came so often +into warring contact during the next one hundred and fifty years. + +Explorations, the care of his little settlement at Quebec, trading +operations, and two visits to France occupied Champlain's attention +during the next few years. Down to this time no white man's foot had +ever trodden the vast wilderness beyond the rapids above Hochelaga. +Stories had filtered through concerning great waters far to the West +and North, of hidden minerals there, and of fertile lands. Champlain +was determined to see these things for himself and it was to that end +that he made his two great trips to the interior, in 1613 and 1616, +respectively. + +The expedition of 1613 was not a journey of indefinite exploration; it +had a very definite end in view. A few years previously Champlain had +sent into the villages of the Algonquins on the upper Ottawa River a +young Frenchman named Vignau, in order that by living for a time among +these people he might learn their language and become useful as +an interpreter. In 1612 Vignau came back with a marvelous story +concerning a trip which he had made with his Algonquin friends to the +Great North Sea where he had seen the wreck of an English vessel. This +striking news inflamed Champlain's desire to find out whether this was +not the route for which both Cartier and he himself had so eagerly +searched--the western passage to Cathay and the Indies. There is +evidence that the explorer from the first doubted the truth of +Vignau's story, but in 1613 he decided to make sure and started up the +Ottawa River, taking the young man with him to point the way. + +After a fatiguing journey the party at length reached the Algonquin +encampment on Allumette Island in the upper Ottawa, where his doubts +were fully confirmed. Vignau, the Algonquins assured Champlain, was an +impostor; he had never been out of their sight, had never seen a Great +North Sea; the English shipwreck was a figment of his imagination. +"Overcome with wrath." writes Champlain, "I had him removed from my +presence, being unable to bear the sight of him." The party went no +further, but returned to Quebec. As for the impostor, the generosity +of his leader in the end allowed him to go unpunished. Though the +expedition had been in one sense a fool's errand and Champlain felt +himself badly duped, yet it was not without its usefulness, for it +gave him an opportunity to learn much concerning the methods of +wilderness travel, the customs of the Indians and the extent to which +they might be relied upon. The Algonquins and the Hurons had proved +their friendship, but what they most desired, it now appeared, was +that the French should give them substantial aid in another expedition +against the Iroquois. + +This was the basis upon which, arrangements were made for Champlain's +next journey to the interior, the longest and most daring enterprise +in his whole career of exploration. In 1615 the Brouage navigator +with a small party once again ascended the Ottawa, crossed to Lake +Nipissing and thence made his way down the French. River to the +Georgian Bay, or Lake of the Hurons as it was then called. Near +the shores of the bay he found the villages of the Hurons with the +Récollet Father Le Caron already at work among the tribesmen. Adding a +large band of Indians to his party, the explorer-now struck southeast +and, by following the chain of small lakes and rivers which lie +between Matchedash Bay and the Bay of Quinte, he eventually reached +Lake Ontario. The territory pleased Champlain greatly, and he recorded +his enthusiastic opinion of its fertility. Crossing the head of Lake +Ontario in their canoes the party then headed for the country of the +Iroquois south of Oneida Lake, where lay a palisaded village of the +Onondagas. This they attacked, but after three hours' fighting were +repulsed, Champlain being wounded in the knee by an Iroquois arrow. + +The eleven Frenchmen with their horde of Indians then retreated +cautiously; but the Onondagas made no serious attempt at pursuit, and +in due course Champlain with his party recrossed Lake Ontario safely. +The Frenchmen were now eager to get back to Quebec by descending +the St. Lawrence, but their Indian allies would not hear of this +desertion. The whole expedition therefore plodded on to the shores of +the Georgian Bay, following a route somewhat north of the one by which +it had come. There the Frenchmen spent a tedious winter. Champlain was +anxious to make use of the time by exploring the upper lakes, but the +task of settling some wretched feuds among his Huron and Algonquin +friends took most of his time and energy. The winter gave him +opportunity, however, to learn a great deal more about the daily life +of the savages, their abodes, their customs, their agriculture, their +amusements, and their folklore. All this information went into his +journals and would have been of priceless value had not the Jesuits +who came later proved to be such untiring chroniclers of every detail. + +When spring came, Champlain left the Huron country and by way of Lake +Nipissing and the Ottawa once more reached his own people at Quebec. +It took him forty days to make the journey from the Georgian Bay to +the present site of Montreal. + +Arriving at Quebec, where he was hailed as one risen from the dead, +Champlain found that things in France had taken a new turn. They had, +in fact, taken many twists and turns during the nine years since De +Monts had financed the first voyage to the St. Lawrence. In the first +place, De Monts had lost the last vestige of his influence at court; +as a Huguenot he could not expect to have retained it under the stern +regency which followed the assassination of Henry IV in 1610. Then a +half-dozen makeshift arrangements came in the ensuing years. It was +always the same story faithfully repeated in its broad outlines. Some +friendly nobleman would obtain from the King appointment as viceroy +of New France and at the same time a trading monopoly for a term of +years, always promising to send out some settlers in return. The +monopoly would then be sublet, and Champlain would be recognized as +a sort of viceroy's deputy. And all for a colony in which the white +population did not yet number fifty souls! + +Despite the small population, however, Champlain's task at Quebec was +difficult and exacting. His sponsors in France had no interest in the +permanent upbuilding of the colony; they sent out very few settlers, +and gave him little in the way of funds. The traders who came to +the St. Lawrence each summer were an unruly and boisterous crew who +quarreled with the Indians and among themselves. At times, indeed, +Champlain was sorely tempted to throw up the undertaking in disgust. +But his patience held out until 1627, when the rise of Richelieu in +France put the affairs of the colony upon a new and more active +basis. For a quarter of a century, France had been letting golden +opportunities slip by while the colonies and trade of her rivals were +forging ahead. Spain and Portugal were secure in the South. England +had gained firm footholds both in Virginia and on Massachusetts Bay. +Even Holland had a strong commercial company in the field. This was a +situation which no far-sighted Frenchman could endure. Hence Cardinal +Richelieu, when he became chief minister of Louis XIII, undertook to +see that France should have her share of New World spoils. "No realm +is so well situated as France," he declared, "to be mistress of the +seas or so rich in all things needful." The cardinal-minister combined +fertility in ideas with such a genius for organization that his plans +were quickly under way. Unhappily his talent for details, for the +efficient handling of little things, was not nearly so great, and some +of his arrangements went sadly awry in consequence. + +At any rate Richelieu in 1627 prevailed upon the King to abolish the +office of viceroy, to cancel all trading privileges, and to permit the +organization of a great colonizing company, one that might hope to +rival the English and Dutch commercial organizations. This was formed +under the name of the Company of New France, or the Company of One +Hundred Associates, as it was more commonly called from the fact that +its membership was restricted to one hundred shareholders, each of +whom contributed three thousand _livres_. The cardinal himself, the +ministers of state, noblemen, and courtesans of Paris, as well as +merchants of the port towns, all figured in the list of stockholders. +The subscription lists contained an imposing array of names. + +The powers of the new Company, moreover, were as imposing as its +personnel. To it was granted a perpetual monopoly of the fur trade +and of all other commerce with rights of suzerainty over all the +territories of New France and Acadia. It was to govern these lands, +levy taxes, establish courts, appoint officials, and even bestow +titles of nobility. In return the Company undertook to convey to the +colony not less than two hundred settlers per year, and to provide +them with subsistence until they could become self-supporting. It was +stipulated, however, that no Huguenots or other heretics should be +among the immigrants. + +The Hundred Associates entered upon this portentous task with +promptness and enthusiasm. Early in 1628 a fleet of eighteen vessels +freighted with equipment, settlers, and supplies set sail from Dieppe +for the St. Lawrence to begin operations. But the time of its arrival +was highly inopportune, for France was now at war with England, and it +happened that a fleet of English privateers was already seeking prey +in the Lower St. Lawrence. These privateers, commanded by Kirke, +intercepted the Company's heavily-laden caravels, overpowered them, +and carried their prizes off to England. Thus the Company of the +One Hundred Associates lost a large part of its capital, and its +shareholders received a generous dividend of disappointment in the +very first year of its operations. + +A more serious blow, however, was yet to come. Flushed with his +success in 1628, Kirke came back to the St. Lawrence during the next +summer and proceeded to Quebec, where he summoned Champlain and his +little settlement to surrender. As the place was on the verge of +famine owing to the capture of the supply ships in the previous year, +there was no alternative but to comply, and the colony passed for +the first time into English hands. Champlain was allowed to sail for +England, where he sought the services of the French ambassador and +earnestly advised that the King be urged to insist on the restoration +of Canada whenever the time for peace should come. Negotiations for +peace soon began, but they dragged on tediously until 1632, when the +Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye gave back New France to its former +owners. + +With this turn in affairs the Company was able to resume its +operations. Champlain, as its representative, once more reached +Quebec, where he received a genuine welcome from the few Frenchmen who +had remained through the years of Babylonian captivity, and from the +bands of neighboring Indians. With his hands again set to the arduous +tasks, Champlain was able to make substantial progress during the next +two years. For a time the Company gave him funds and equipment besides +sending him some excellent colonists. Lands were cleared in the +neighborhood of the settlement; buildings were improved and enlarged; +trade with the Indians was put upon a better basis. A post was +established at Three Rivers, and plans were made for a further +extension of French influence to the westward. It was in the midst of +these achievements and hopes that Champlain was stricken by paralysis +and died on Christmas Day, 1635. + +Champlain's portrait, attributed to Moncornet, shows us a sturdy, +broad-shouldered frame, with features in keeping. Unhappily we have no +assurance that it is a faithful likeness. No one, however, can deny +that the mariner of Brouage, with his extraordinary perseverance and +energy, was admirably fitted to be the pathfinder to a new realm. Not +often does one encounter in the annals of any nation a man of greater +tenacity and patience. Chagrin and disappointment he had to meet on +many occasions, but he was never baffled nor moved to concede defeat. +His perseverance, however, was not greater than his modesty, for never +in his writings did he magnify his difficulties nor exalt his own +powers of overcoming them, as was too much the fashion of his day. +As a writer, his style was plain and direct, with, no attempt at +embellishment and no indication that strong emotions ever had much +influence upon his pen. He was essentially a man of action, and his +narrative is in the main a simple record of such a man's achievements. +His character was above reproach; no one ever impugned his honesty or +his sincere devotion to the best interests of his superiors. To his +Church he was loyal in the last degree; and it was under his auspices +that the first of the Jesuit missionaries came to begin the enduring +work which the Order was destined to accomplish in New France. + +On the death of Champlain the Company appointed the Sieur de Montmagny +to be governor of the colony. He was an ardent sympathizer with the +aims of the Jesuits, and life at Quebec soon became almost monastic in +its austerity. The Jesuits sent home each year their _Rélations_, +and, as these were widely read, they created great interest in the +spiritual affairs of the colony. The call for zealots to carry the +cross westward into the wilderness met ready response, and it was amid +a glow of religious fervor that the settlement at Montreal was brought +into being. A company was formed in France, funds were obtained, and +a band of forty-four colonists was recruited for the crusade into the +wilderness. The Sieur de Maisonneuve, a gallant soldier and a loyal +devotee of the Church, was the active leader of the enterprise, with +Jeanne Mance, an ardent young religionist of high motives and fine +character, as his principal coadjutor. Fortune dealt kindly with the +project, and Montreal began its history in 1642. + +A few years later Montmagny gave up his post and returned to France. +With the limited resources at his disposal, he had served the colony +well, and had left it stronger and more prosperous than when he came. +His successor was M. D'Ailleboust, who had been for some time in the +country, and who was consequently no stranger to its needs. On his +appointment a council was created, to consist of the governor of the +colony, the bishop or the superior of the Jesuits, and the governor of +Montreal. Henceforth this body was to be responsible for the making +of all general regulations. It is commonly called the Old Council to +distinguish it from the Sovereign Council by which it was supplanted +in 1663. + +The opening years of the new administration were marked by one of the +greatest of forest tragedies, the destruction of the Hurons. In 1648 +a party of Iroquois warriors made their way across Lake Ontario and +overland to the Huron country, where they destroyed one large village. +Emboldened by this success, a much larger body of the tribesmen +returned in the year following and completed their bloody work. A +dozen or more Huron settlements were attacked and laid waste with +wanton slaughter. Two Jesuit priests, Lalemant and Brébeuf, who were +laboring among the Hurons, were taken and burned at the stake +after suffering atrocious tortures. The remnants of the tribe were +scattered: a few found shelter on the islands of the Georgian Bay, +while others took refuge with the French and were given a tract of +land at Sillery, near Quebec. To the French colony the extirpation of +the Hurons came as a severe blow. It weakened their prestige in the +west, it cut off a lucrative source of fur supply, and it involved the +loss of faithful allies. + +More ominous still, the Iroquois by the success of their forays into +the Huron country endangered the French settlement at Montreal. +Glorying in their prowess, these warriors now boasted that they would +leave the Frenchmen no peace but in their graves. And they proceeded +to make good their threatenings. Bands of confederates spread +themselves about the region near Montreal, pouncing lynx-like from the +forest upon any who ventured outside the immediate boundaries of the +settlement. For a time the people were in despair, but the colony soon +gained a breathing space, not by its own efforts, but from a diversion +of Iroquois enmity to other quarters. + +About 1652 the confederated tribes undertook their famous expedition +against the Eries, whose country lay along the south shore of the lake +which bears their name, and this enterprise for the time absorbed +the bulk of the Iroquois energy. The next governor of New France, De +Lauzon, regarded the moment as opportune for peace negotiations, on +the hypothesis that the idea of waging only one war at a time might +appeal to the Five Nations as sound policy. A mission was accordingly +sent to the Iroquois, headed by the Jesuit missionary Le Moyne, and +for a time it seemed as if arrangements for a lasting peace might be +made. But there was no sincerity in the Iroquois professions. Their +real interest lay in peaceful relations with the Dutch and the +English; the French were their logical enemies; and when the Iroquois +had finished with the Eries their insolence quickly showed itself once +more. + +The next few years therefore found the colony again in desperate +straits. In its entire population there were not more than five +hundred men capable of taking the field, nor were there firearms for +all of these. The Iroquois confederacy could muster at least three +times that number; they were now obtaining firearms in plenty from the +Dutch at Albany; and they could concentrate their whole assault upon +the French settlement at Montreal. Had the Iroquois known the barest +elements of siege operations, the colony must have come to a speedy +and disastrous end. As the outcome proved, however, they were unwise +enough to divide their strength and to dissipate their energies in +isolated raids, so that Montreal came safely through the gloomy years +of 1658 and 1659. + +In the latter of these years there arrived from France a man who was +destined to play a large part in its affairs during the next few +decades, François-Xavier de Laval, who now came to take charge of +ecclesiastical affairs in New France with the powers of a vicar +apostolic. Laval's arrival did not mark the beginning of friction +between the Church and the civil officials in the colony; there were +such dissensions already. But the doughty churchman's claims and the +governor's policy of resisting them soon brought things to an open +breach, particularly upon the question of permitting the sale of +liquor to the Indians. In 1662 the quarrel became bitter. Laval +hastened home to France where he placed before the authorities the +list of ecclesiastical grievances. The governor, a bluff old soldier, +was thereupon summoned to Paris to present his side of the whole +affair. In the end a decision was reached to reorganize the whole +system of civil and commercial administration in the colony. Thus, as +we shall soon see, the power passed away altogether from the Company +of One Hundred Associates. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE AGE OF LOUIS QUATORZE + + +Louis XIV, the greatest of the Bourbon monarchs, had now taken into +his own hands the reins of power. Nominally he had been king of France +since 1642, when he was only five years old, but it was not until 1658 +that the control of affairs by the regency came to an end. Moreover, +Colbert was now chief minister of state, so that colonial matters were +assured of a searching and enlightened inquiry. Richelieu's interest +in the progress of New France had not endured for many years after the +founding of his great Company. It is true that during the next fifteen +years he remained chief minister, but the great effort to crush the +remaining strongholds of feudalism and to centralize all political +power in the monarchy left him no time for the care of a distant +colony. Colbert, on the other hand, had well-defined and far-reaching +plans for the development of French industrial interests at home and +of French commercial interests abroad. + +As for the colony, it made meager progress under Company control: few +settlers were sent out; and they were not provided with proper means +of defense against Indian depredations. Under the circumstances it did +not take Colbert long to see how remiss the Company of One Hundred +Associates had been, nor to reach a decision that the colony should +be at once withdrawn from its control. He accordingly persuaded the +monarch to demand the surrender of the Company's charter and to +reprimand the Associates for the shameless way in which they had +neglected the trust committed to their care. "Instead of finding," +declared the King in the edict of revocation, "that this country is +populated as it ought to be after so long an occupation thereof by our +subjects, we have learned with regret not only that the number of its +inhabitants is very limited, but that even these are daily exposed to +the danger of being wiped out by the Iroquois." + +In truth, the company had little to show for its thirty years of +exploitation. The entire population of New France in 1663 numbered +less than twenty-five hundred people, a considerable proportion of +whom were traders, officials, and priests. The area of cleared land +was astonishingly small, and agriculture had made no progress worthy +of the name. There were no industries of any kind, and almost nothing +but furs went home in the ships to France. The colony depended upon +its mother country even for its annual food supply, and when the +ships from France failed to come the colonists were reduced to severe +privations. A dispirited and nearly defenseless land, without solid +foundations of agriculture or industry, with an accumulation of Indian +enmity and an empty treasury--this was the legacy which the Company +now turned over to the Crown in return for the viceroyal privileges +given to it in good faith more than three decades before. + +When the King revoked the Company's charter, he decided upon Colbert's +advice to make New France a royal domain and to provide it with a +scheme of administration modeled broadly upon that of a province at +home. To this end a royal edict, perhaps the most important of all the +many decrees affecting French colonial interests in the seventeenth +century, was issued in April, 1663. While the provisions of this edict +bear the stamp of Colbert's handiwork, it is not unlikely that the +suggestions of Bishop Laval, as given to the minister during his visit +of the preceding year, were accorded some recognition. At any rate, +after reciting the circumstances under which the King had been +prompted to take New France into his own hands, the edict of 1663 +proceeded to authorize the creation of a Sovereign Council as the +chief governing body of the colony. This, with a larger membership and +with greatly increased powers, was to replace the old council +which the Company had established to administer affairs some years +previously. + +During the next hundred years this Sovereign Council became and +remained the paramount civil authority in French America. At the +outset it consisted of seven members, the governor and the bishop _ex +officio_, with five residents of the colony selected jointly by these +two. Beginning with the arrival of Talon as first intendant of the +colony in 1665, the occupant of this post was also given a seat in the +Council. Before long, however, it became apparent that the provision +relating to the appointment of non-official members was unworkable. +The governor and the bishop could not agree in their selections; each +wanted his own partisans appointed. The result was a deadlock in which +seats at the council-board remained vacant. In the end Louis Quatorze +solved this problem, as he solved many others, by taking the power +directly into his own hands. After 1674 all appointments to the +Council were made by the King himself. In that same year the number of +non-official members was raised to seven, and in 1703 it was further +increased to twelve.[1] At the height of its power, then, the +Sovereign Council of New France consisted of the governor, the +intendant, the bishop, and twelve lay councilors, together with an +attorney-general and a clerk. These two last-named officials sat with +the Council but were not regular members of it. + +[Footnote 1: Its official title was in 1678 changed to Superior +Council.] + +In the matter of powers the Council was given by the edict of 1663 +jurisdiction over all civil and criminal matters under the laws and +ordinances of the kingdom, its procedure in dealing with such matters +to be modeled on that of the Parliament of Paris. It was to receive +and to register the royal decrees, thus giving them validity in New +France, and it was also to be the supreme tribunal of the colony with +authority to establish local courts subordinate to itself. There was +no division of powers in the new frame of government. Legislative, +executive, and judicial powers were thrown together in true Bourbon +fashion. Apparently it was Colbert's plan to make of the governor +a distinguished figurehead, with large military powers but without +paramount influence in civil affairs. The bishop was to have no civil +jurisdiction, and the intendant was to be the director of details. The +Council, according to the edict of 1663, was to be the real pivot of +power in New France. + +Through the long years of storm and stress which make up the greater +part of the history of the colony, the Sovereign Council rendered +diligent and faithful service. There were times when passions waxed +warm, when bitter words were exchanged, and when the urgent interests +of the colony were sacrificed to the settlement of personal +jealousies. Many dramatic scenes were enacted around the long table at +which the councilors sat at their weekly sessions, for every Monday +through the greater portion of the year the Council convened at seven +o'clock in the morning and usually sat until noon or later. But +these were only meteoric flashes. Historians have given them undue +prominence because such episodes make racy reading. By far the greater +portion of the council's meetings were devoted to the serious and +patient consideration of routine business. Matters of infinite variety +came to it for determination, including the regulation of industry and +trade, the currency, the fixing of prices, the interpretation of +the rules relating to land tenure, fire prevention, poor +relief, regulation of the liquor traffic, the encouragement of +agriculture--and these are only a few of the topics taken at random +from its calendar. In addition there were thousands of disputes +brought to it for settlement either directly or on appeal from the +lower courts. The minutes of its deliberations during the ninety-seven +years from September 18, 1663, to April 8, 1760, fill no fewer than +fifty-six ponderous manuscript volumes. + +Though, in the edict establishing the Sovereign Council, no mention +was made of an intendant, the decision to send such an official to New +France came very shortly thereafter. In 1665 Jean Talon arrived +at Quebec bearing a royal commission which gave him wide powers, +infringing to some extent on the authority vested in the Sovereign +Council two years previously. The phraseology was similar to that used +in the commissions of the provincial intendants in France, and so +broad was the wording, indeed, that one might well ask what other +powers could be left for exercise by any one else. No wonder that the +eighteenth-century apostle of frenzied finance, John Law, should have +laconically described France as a land "ruled by a king and his thirty +intendants, upon whose will alone its welfare and its wants depend." +Along with his commission Talon brought to the colony a letter of +instructions from the minister which, gave more detailed directions as +to what things he was to have in view and what he was to avoid. + +In France the office of intendant had long been in existence. Its +creation in the first instance has commonly been attributed to +Richelieu, but it really antedated the coming of the great cardinal. +The intendancy was not a spontaneous creation, but a very old and, +in its origin, a humble post which grew in importance with the +centralization of power in the King's hands, and which kept step in +its development with the gradual extinction of local self-government +in the royal domains. The provincial intendant in pre-revolutionary +France was master of administration, finance, and justice within his +own jurisdiction; he was bound by no rigid statutes; he owed obedience +to no local authorities; he was appointed by the King and was +responsible to his sovereign alone. + +From first to last there were a dozen intendants of New France. Talon, +whose ambition and energy did much to set the colony in the saddle, +was the first. François Bigot, the arch-plunderer of his monarch's +funds, who did so much to bring the land to its downfall, was the +last. Between them came a line of sensible, earnest, hard-working +officials who served their King far better than they served +themselves, who gave the best years of their lives to the task of +making New France a bright jewel in the Bourbon crown. The colonial +intendant was the royal man-of-all-work. The King spoke and the +intendant forthwith transformed his words into action. As the King's +great interest in New France, coupled with his scant knowledge of +its conditions, moved him to speak often, and usually in broad +generalities, the intendant's activity was prodigious and his +discretion wide. Ordinances and decrees flew from his pen like sparks +from a blacksmith's forge. The duty devolved upon him as the overseas +apostle of Gallic paternalism to "order everything as seemed just and +proper," even when this brought his hand into the very homes of the +people, into their daily work or worship or amusements. Nothing that +needed setting aright was too inconsequential to have an ordinance +devoted to it. As general regulator of work and play, of manners and +morals, of things present and things to come, the intendant was the +busiest man in the colony. + +In addition to the governor, the council, and the intendant, there +were many other officials on the civil list. Both the governor and the +intendant had their deputies at Montreal and at Three Rivers. There +were judges and bailiffs and seneschals and local officers by the +score, not to speak of those who held sinecures or received royal +pensions. There were garrisons to be maintained at all the frontier +posts and church officials to be supported by large sums. No marvel it +was that New France could never pay its own way. Every year there was +a deficit which, the King had to liquidate by payments from the royal +exchequer. + +The administration of the colony, moreover, fell far short of even +reasonable efficiency. There were far too many officials for the +relatively small amount of work to be done, and their respective +fields of authority were inadequately defined. Too often the work of +these officials lacked even the semblance of harmony, nor did the +royal authorities always view this deficiency with regret. A fair +amount of working at cross-purposes, provided it did not bring affairs +to a complete standstill, was regarded as a necessary system of checks +and balances in a colony which lay three thousand miles away. It +prevented any chance of a general conspiracy against the home +authorities or any wholesale wrong-doing through collusion. It served +to make every official a ready tale-bearer in all matters concerning +the motives and acts of his colleagues, so that the King might with, +reasonable certainty count upon hearing all the sides to every story. +That, in fact, was wholly in consonance with Latin traditions of +government, and it was characteristically the French way of doing +things in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. + +Louis XIV took a great personal interest in New France even to the +neglect at times of things which his courtiers deemed to be far +more important. The governor and the intendant plied him with their +requests, with their grievances, and too often with their prosy tales +of petty squabbling. With every ship they sent to Versailles their +_mémoires_, often of intolerable length; and the patient monarch read +them all. Marginal notes, made with his own hand, are still upon many +of them, and the student who plods his way through the musty bundles +of official correspondence in the _Archives Nationales_ will find in +these marginal comments enough to convince him that, whatever the +failings of Louis XIV may have been, indolence was not of them. Then +with the next ships the King sent back his budget of orders, counsel, +reprimand, and praise. If the colony failed to thrive, it was not +because the royal interest in it proved insincere or deficient. + +The progress of New France, as reported in these dispatches from +Quebec, with their figures of slow growth in population, of poor +crops, and of failing trade, of Indian troubles and dangers from the +English, of privations at times and of deficits always, must often +have dampened the royal hopes. The requests for subsidies from +the royal purse were especially relentless. Every second dispatch +contained pleas for money or for things which were bound to cost money +if the King provided them: money to enable some one to clear his +lands, or to start an industry, or to take a trip of exploration to +the wilds; money to provide more priests, to build churches, or to +repair fortifications; money to pension officials--the call for money +was incessant year after year. In the face of these multifarious +demands upon his exchequer, Louis XIV was amazingly generous, but the +more he gave, the more the colony asked from him. Until the end of his +days, he never failed in response if the object seemed worthy of +his support. It was not until the Grand Monarch was gathered to his +fathers that the officials of New France began to ply their requests +in vain. + +So much for the frame of government in the colony during the age of +Louis XIV. Now as to the happenings during the decade following 1663. +The new administration made a promising start under the headship of De +Mézy, a fellow townsman and friend of Bishop Laval, who arrived in the +autumn of 1663 to take up his duties as governor. In a few days he and +the bishop had amicably chosen the five residents of the colony who +were to serve as councilors, and the council began its sessions. But +troubles soon loomed into view, brought on in part by Laval's desire +to settle up some old scores now that he had the power as a member +of the Sovereign Council and was the dominating influence in its +deliberations. Under the bishop's inspiration the Council ordered the +seizure of some papers belonging to Péronne Dumesnil, a former agent +of the now defunct Company of One Hundred Associates. Dumesnil +retorted by filing a _dossier_ of charges against some of the +councilors; and the colonists at once ranged themselves into two +opposing factions--those who believed the charges and those who did +not. The bishop had become the stormy petrel of colonial politics, and +nature had in truth well fitted him for just such a rôle. + +Soon, moreover, the relations between Mézy and Laval themselves became +less cordial. For a year the governor had proved ready to give way +graciously on every point; but there was a limit to his amenability, +and now his proud spirit began to chafe under the dictation of his +ecclesiastical colleague. At length he ventured to show a mind of his +own; and then the breach between him and Laval widened quickly. +Three of the councillors having joined the bishop against him, Mézy +undertook a _coup d'état_, dismissed these councilors from their +posts, and called a mass-meeting of the people to choose their +successors. On the governor's part this was a serious tactical error. +He could hardly expect that a monarch who was doing his best to crush +out the last vestige of representative government in France would +welcome its establishment and encouragement by one of his own +officials in the New World. But Mézy did not live to obey the recall +which speedily came from the King as the outcome of this indiscretion. +In the spring of 1665 he was taken ill and died at Quebec. "He went +to rest among the paupers," says Parkman, "and the priests, serenely +triumphant, sang requiems over his grave." + +But discord within its borders was not the colony's only trouble +during these years. The scourge of the Iroquois was again upon the +land. During the years 1663 and 1664 bands of Mohawks and Oneidas +raided the regions of the Richelieu and penetrated to the settlement +at Three Rivers. These _petites guerres_ were making things +intolerable for the colonists, and the King was urged to send out a +force of troops large enough to crush the bothersome savages once for +all. This plea met with a ready response, and in June, 1665, Prouville +de Tracy with two hundred officers and men of the Regiment de +Carignan-Salières disembarked at Quebec. The remaining companies of +the regiment, making a force almost a thousand strong, arrived a +little later. The people were now sure that deliverance was at hand, +and the whole colony was in a frenzy of joy. + +Following the arrival of the troops came Courcelle, the new governor, +and Jean Talon, who was to take the post of intendant. These were gala +days in New France; the whole colony had caught the spirit of the new +imperialism. The banners and the trumpets, the scarlet cloaks and +the perukes, the glittering profusion of gold lace and feathers, the +clanking of swords and muskets, transformed Quebec in a season from a +wilderness village to a Versailles in miniature. But there was little +time for dress parades and affairs of ceremony. Tracy had come to give +the Iroquois their _coup de grâce_, and the work must be done quickly. +The King could not afford to have a thousand soldiers of the grand +army eating their heads off through the long months of a Canadian +winter. + +The work of getting the expedition ready, therefore, was pushed +rapidly ahead. Snowshoes were provided for the regiment, provisions +and supplies were gathered, and in January, 1666, the expedition +started up the frozen Richelieu, traversed Lake Champlain, and moved +across to the headwaters of the Hudson. It was a spectacle new to +the northern wilderness of America, this glittering and picturesque +cavalcade of regulars flanked by troops of militiamen and bands of +fur-clothed Indians moving on its errand of destruction along the +frozen rivers. But the French regular troops were not habituated +to long marches on snowshoes in the dead of winter; and they made +progress so slowly that the Dutch settlers of the region had time to +warn the Mohawks of the approach of the expedition. This upset all +French plans, since the leaders had hoped to fall upon the Mohawk +villages and to destroy them before the tribesmen could either make +preparations for defense or withdraw southward. Foiled in this plan, +and afraid that an early thaw might make their route of return +impossible, the French gave up their project and started home again. +They had not managed to reach, much less to destroy, the villages of +their enemies. + +But the undertaking was not an absolute failure. The Mohawks were +astute enough to see that only the inexperience of the French had +stood between them and destruction. Here was an enemy which had proved +able to come through the dead of winter right into the regions which +had hitherto been regarded as inaccessible from the north. The French +might be depended to come again and, by reason of greater experience, +to make a better job of their coming. The Iroquois reasoning was quite +correct, as the sequel soon disclosed. In September of the same year +the French had once again equipped their expedition, more effectively +this time. Traveling overland along nearly the same route, it reached +the country of the Mohawks without a mishap. The Indians saved +themselves by a rapid flight to the forests, but their palisaded +strongholds were demolished, their houses set afire, their _cachés_ of +corn dug out and destroyed. The Mohawks were left to face the oncoming +winter with nothing but the woods to shelter them. Having finished +their task of punishment, Tracy and his regiment made their way +leisurely back to Quebec. + +The Mohawks were now quite ready to make terms, and in 1667 they +sent a delegation to Quebec to proffer peace. Two raids into their +territories in successive years had taught them that they could not +safely leave their homes to make war against the tribes of the west so +long as the French were their enemies. And the desire to dominate the +region of the lakes was a first principle of Iroquois policy at this +time. An armistice was accordingly concluded, which lasted without +serious interruption for more than a decade. One of the provisions +of the peace was that Jesuit missions should be established in the +Iroquois territory, this being the usual way in which the French +assured themselves of diplomatic intercourse with the tribes. + +With its trade routes once more securely open, New France now began a +period of marked prosperity. Tracy and his staff went back to France, +but most of his soldiers remained and became settlers. Wives for these +soldiers were sent out under royal auspices, and liberal grants of +money were provided to get the new households established. Since +1664, the trade of the colony had been once more in the hands of +a commercial organization, the Company of the West Indies, whose +financial success was, for the time being, assured by the revival of +the fur traffic. Industries were beginning to spring into being, the +population was increasing rapidly, and the King was showing a lively +interest in all the colony's affairs. It was therefore a prosperous +and promising colony to which Governor Frontenac came in 1672. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE IRON GOVERNOR + + +The ten years following 1663 form a decade of extraordinary progress +in the history of New France. The population of the colony had +trebled, and now numbered approximately seven thousand; the red peril, +thanks to Tracy's energetic work, had been lessened; while the fur +trade had grown to large and lucrative proportions. With this increase +in population and prosperity, there came a renaissance of enthusiasm +for voyages of exploration and for the widening of the colony's +frontiers. Glowing reports went home to the King concerning the latent +possibilities of the New World. What the colony now needed was a +strong and vigorous governor who would not only keep a firm hold upon +what had been already achieved, but one who would also push on to +greater and more glorious things. + +It was in keeping with, this spirit of faith and hope that the King +sent to Quebec, in 1672, Louis de Buade, Count Frontenac, naming him +governor of all the French domains in North America. Fifty-two years +of age when he came to Canada, Frontenac had been a soldier from his +youth; he had fought through hard campaigns in Italy, in the Low +Countries, and with the Venetians in their defense of Candia against +the Turks. In fact, he had but shortly returned from this last service +when he was chosen to succeed Courcelle as the royal representative in +New France. + +To Frontenac's friends the appointment seemed more like a banishment +than a promotion. But there were several reasons why the governor +should have accepted gladly. He had inherited only a modest fortune, +and most of this had been spent, for thrift was not one of Frontenac's +virtues. His domestic life had not been happy, and there were no +strong personal ties binding him to life in France.[1] Moreover, the +post of governor in the colony was not to be judged by what it had +been in the days of D'Avaugour or De Mézy. The reports sent home by +Talon had stirred the national ambitions. "I am no courtier," this +intendant had written, "and it is not to please the King or without +reason that I say this portion of the French monarchy is going to +become something great. What I now see enables me to make such a +prediction." And indeed the figures of growth in population, of +acreage cleared, and of industries rising into existence seemed to +justify the intendant's optimism. Both the King and his ministers were +building high hopes on Canada, as their choice of Frontenac proves, +and in their selection of a man to carry out their plans they showed, +on the whole, good judgment. Frontenac proved to be the ablest and +most commanding of all the officials who served the Bourbon monarchy +in the New World. In the long line of governors he approached most +nearly to what a Viceroy ought to be. + +[Footnote 1: Saint-Simon, in his _Mémoires_, prints the current +Parisian gossip that Frontenac was sent to New France to shield him +from the imperious temper of his wife and to afford him a means of +livelihood.] + +It is true that in New France there were conditions which no amount +of experience in the Old World could train a man to handle. Nor was +Frontenac particularly fitted by training or temperament for all +of the duties which his new post involved. In some things he was +well-endowed; he had great physical endurance, a strong will, with no +end of courage, and industry to spare. These were qualities of the +highest value in a land encircled by enemies and forced to depend for +existence upon the strength of its own people. But more serviceable +still was his ability in adapting himself to a new environment. Men +past fifty do not often show this quality in marked degree, but +Frontenac fitted himself to the novelty of colonial life exceedingly +well. In his relations with, the Indians he showed amazing skill. No +other colonial governor, English, French, or Dutch, ever commanded so +readily the respect and admiration of the red man. But in his dealings +with the intendant and the bishop, with the clergy, and with all those +among the French of New France who showed any disposition to disagree +with him, Frontenac displayed an uncontrollable temper, an arrogance +of spirit, and a degree of personal vanity which would not have made +for cordial relations in any field of human effort. He had formed his +own opinions and was quite ready to ride rough-shod over those of +other men. It was this impetuosity that served to make the official +circles of the colony, during many months of his term, a "little hell +of discord." + +But when the new viceroy arrived at Quebec he was in high fettle; +he was pleased with the situation of the town and flattered by the +enthusiastic greeting which he received from its people. His first +step was to familiarize himself with the existing machinery of +colonial government, which he found to be far from his liking. He +proceeded, accordingly, in his own imperious way, to make +some startling changes. For one thing, he decided to summon a +representative assembly made up of the clergy, the seigneurs, and +the common folk of New France. This body he brought together for his +inauguration in October, 1672. No such assembly had ever been convened +before, and nothing like it was ever allowed to assemble again. +Before another year had passed, the minister sent Frontenac a polite +reprimand with the intimation that the King could not permit in the +colony an institution he was doing his best, and with entire success, +to crush out at home. The same fate awaited the governor's other +project, the establishment of a municipal government in the town of +Quebec. Within a few months of his arrival, Frontenac had allowed +the people of the town to elect a syndic and two aldermen, but the +minister vetoed this action with the admonition that "you should very +rarely, or, to speak more correctly, never, give a corporate voice +to the inhabitants, for ... it is well that each should speak for +himself, and no one for all." In the reorganization of colonial +administration, therefore, the governor found himself promptly called +to a halt. He therefore turned to another field where he was much more +successful in having his own way. + +From the day of his arrival at Quebec the governor saw the pressing +need of extending French, influence and control into the regions +bordering upon the Great Lakes. To dissipate the colony's efforts in +westward expansion, however, was exactly what he had been instructed +not to do. The King and his ministers were sure that it would be far +wiser to devote all available energies and funds to developing the +settled portions of the land. They desired the governor to carry on +the policy of encouraging agriculture which Talon had begun, thus +solidifying the colony and making its borders less difficult to +defend. Frontenac's instructions on this point could hardly have been +more explicit. "His Majesty considers it more consistent with the good +of his service," wrote Colbert, "that you apply yourself to clearing +and settling the most fertile places that are nearest the seacoast and +the communication with France than to think afar of explorations +in the interior of the country, so distant that they can never be +inhabited by Frenchmen." This was discouraging counsel, showing +neither breadth of vision nor familiarity with the urgent needs of the +colony. Frontenac courageously set these instructions aside, and in +doing so he was wise. Had he held to the letter of his instructions, +New France would never have been more than a strip of territory +fringing the Lower St. Lawrence. More than any other Frenchman he +helped to plan the great empire of the West. + +Notwithstanding the narrow views of his superiors at Versailles, +Frontenac was convinced that the colony could best secure its own +defense by controlling the chief line of water communications between +the Iroquois country and Montreal. To this end he prepared to build a +fort at Cataraqui where the St. Lawrence debouches from Lake Ontario. +He was not, however, the first to recognize the strategic value of +this point. Talon had marked it as a place of importance some years +before, and the English, authorities at Albany had been urged by the +Iroquois chiefs to forestall any attempt that the French might make by +being first on the ground. But the English procrastinated, and in the +summer of 1673 the governor, with an imposing array of troops and +militia, made his way to Cataraqui, having first summoned the Iroquois +to meet him there in solemn council. In rather high dudgeon they came, +ready to make trouble if the chance arose; but Frontenac's display +of armed strength, his free-handed bestowal of presents, his tactful +handling of the chiefs, and his effective oratory at the conclave soon +assured him the upper hand. The fort was built, and the Iroquois, +while they continued to regard it as an invasion of their territories, +were forced to accept the new situation with reluctant grace. + +This stroke at Cataraqui inflamed the governor's interest in western +affairs. During his conferences with the Indians he had heard much +about the great waters to the West and the rich beaver lands which lay +beyond. He was ready, therefore, to encourage in every way the plans +of those who wished to undertake journeys of exploration and trade +into these regions, even although he was well aware that such +enterprises would win little commendation from his superiors at the +royal court. Voyageurs ready to undertake these tasks there were in +plenty, and all of them found in the Iron Governor a stalwart friend. +Foremost among these pioneers of the Far Country was Robert Cavelier +de La Salle, whom Frontenac had placed for a time in command of the +fort at Cataraqui and who, in 1678, was commissioned by the governor +to forge another link in the chain by the erection of a fort at +Niagara. There he also built a small vessel, the first to ply the +waters of the upper lakes, and in this La Salle and his lieutenants +made their way to Michilimackinac. How he later journeyed to the +Mississippi and down that stream to its mouth is a story to be told +later on in these pages. It was and will remain a classic in the +annals of exploration. And without Frontenac's vigorous support it +could never have been accomplished. La Salle, when he performed his +great feat of daring and endurance, was still a young man under forty, +but his courage, firmness, and determination were not surpassed by any +of his race. He had qualities that justified the confidence which the +governor reposed in him. + +But while La Salle was the most conspicuous among the pathfinders +of this era, he was not the only one. Tonty, Du Lhut, La Forêt, La +Mothe-Cadillac, and others were all in Frontenac's favor, and all had +his vigorous support in their work. Intrepid woodsmen, they covered +every portion of the western wilderness, building forts and posts of +trade, winning the friendship of the Indians, planting the arms of +France in new soil and carrying the _Vexilla Regis_ into parts unknown +before. If Frontenac could have had his way, if the King had provided +him with the funds, he would have run an iron chain of fortified +posts all along the great water routes from Cataraqui to the +Mississippi--and he had lieutenants who were able to carry out such +an undertaking. But there were great obstacles in the way,--the +lukewarmmess of the home government, the bitter opposition of the +Jesuits, and the intrigues of his colleagues. Yet the governor was +able to make a brave start, and before he had finished he had firmly +laid the foundations of French trading supremacy in these western +regions. + +During the first three years after his coming to Canada, the governor +had ruled alone. There was no intendant or bishop to hamper him, for +both Talon and Laval had gone to France in 1672. But in 1675 Laval +returned to the colony, and in the same year a new intendant, Jacques +Duchesneau, was appointed. With this change in the situation at Quebec +the friction began in earnest, for Frontenac's imperious temper did +not make him a cheerful sharer of authority with any one else. If +the intendant and the bishop had been men of conflicting ideas and +dispositions, Frontenac might easily have held the balance of power; +but they were men of kindred aims, and they readily combined against +the governor. United in their opposition to him, they were together a +fair match for Frontenac in ability and astuteness. It was not long, +accordingly, before the whole colony was once more aligned in two +factions. With the governor were the merchants, many of the seigneurs, +and all the _coureurs-de-bois_. Supporting the intendant and the +bishop were many of the subordinate officials, all of the priests, and +those of the tradesmen and habitants with whom the clerical influence +was paramount. + +The story of the quarrels which went on between these two factions +during the years 1675-1680 is neither brief nor edifying. The root of +it all lay in the governor's western policy, his encouragement of the +forest traders or _coureurs-de-bois_, and his connivance at the use +of brandy in the Indian trade. There were unseemly squabbles about +precedence at council meetings and at religious festivals, about +trivialities of every sort; but the question of the brandy trade was +at the bottom of them all. The bishop flayed the governor for letting +this trade go on; the missionaries declared that it was proving the +ruin of their efforts; and the intendant declared that Frontenac +allowed it to continue because he was making a personal profit from +the traffic. Charges and countercharges went home to France with every +ship. The intendant wrote dispatches of wearisome length, rehearsing +the governor's usurpations, insults, and incompetence. "Disorder," he +told the minister, "rules everywhere. Universal confusion prevails; +justice is openly perverted, and violence supported by authority +determines everything." In language quite as unrestrained Frontenac +recounted in detail the difficulties with which he had to contend +owing to the intendant's obstinacy, intrigue, and dishonesty. The +minister, appalled by the bewildering contradictions, could only +lay the whole matter before the King, who determined to try first a +courteous reprimand and to that end sent an autograph letter to each +official. Both letters were alike in admonishing the governor and the +intendant to work in harmony for the good of the colony, but each +concluded with the significant warning: "Unless you harmonize better +in the future than In the past, my only alternative will be to recall +you both." + +This intimation, coming straight from their royal master, was to each +a rebuke which could not be misunderstood. But it did not accomplish, +much, for the bitterness and jealousy existing between the two +colonial officers was too strong to be overcome. The very next vessels +took to France a new budget of complaints and recriminations from +both. The King, as good as his word, issued prompt orders for their +recall and the two officials left for home, but not on the same +vessel, in the summer of 1682. + +The question as to which of the two was the more at fault is hardly +worth determining. The share of blame to be cast on each by the +verdict of history should probably be about equal. Frontenac was by +far the abler man, but he had the defects of his qualities. He could +not brook the opposition of men less competent than he was, and when +he was provoked his arrogance became intolerable. In broader domains +of political action he would soon have out-generaled his adversary, +but in these petty fields of neighborhood bickering Duchesneau, +particularly with the occasional nudgings which he received from +Laval, proved no unequal match. The fact remains that neither was able +or willing to sacrifice personal animosities nor to display any spirit +of cordial cooperation even at the royal command. The departure of +both was regarded as a blessing by the majority of the colonists to +whom the continued squabbles had become wearisome. Yet there was not +lacking, in the minds of many among them, the conviction that if ever +again New France should find itself in urgent straits, if ever there +were critical need of an iron hand to rule within and to guard +without, there would still be one man whom, so long as he lived, they +could confidently ask to be sent out to them again. For the time +being, however, Frontenac's official career seemed to be at an end. At +sixty-two he could hardly hope to regain the royal favor by further +service. He must have left the shores of New France with a heavy +heart. + +Frontenac's successor was La Barre, an old naval officer who had +proved himself as capable at sea as he was now to show himself +incompetent on land. He was the antithesis of his headstrong +predecessor, weak in decision, without personal energy, without +imagination, but likewise without any of Frontenac's skill in the +art of making enemies. With La Barre came Meulles, an abler and more +energetic colleague, who was to succeed Duchesneau as intendant. Both, +reached Quebec in the autumn of 1682, and problems in plenty they +found awaiting them. Shortly before their arrival a fire had swept +through the settlement at Quebec, leaving scarcely a building on the +lands below the cliff. To make matters worse, the Iroquois had again +thrown themselves across the western trade route and had interrupted +the coining of the colony's fur supply. As every one now recognized +that the protection of this route was essential, La Barre decided +that the Iroquois must be taught a lesson. Preparations in rather +ostentatious fashion were therefore made for a punitive expedition, +and in the summer of 1684 the governor with his troops was at +Cataraqui. At this point, however, he began to question whether a +parley might not be a better means of securing peace than the laying +waste of Indian lands. Accordingly, it was arranged that a council +with the Iroquois should be held across the lake from Cataraqui at a +place which later took the name of La Famine from the fact that during +the council the French supplies ran low and the troops had to be put +on short rations. After negotiations which the cynical chronicler La +Hontan has described with picturesque realism, an inglorious truce was +patched up. The new governor was sadly deficient in his knowledge of +the Indian temperament. He had given the Iroquois an impression that +the French were too proud to fight. For their part the Iroquois +offered him war or peace as he might choose, and La Barre assured them +that he chose to live at peace. When the expedition returned to Quebec +there was great disgust throughout the colony, the echoes of which +were not without their effect at Versailles, and La Barre was +forthwith recalled. + +In his place the King sent out the Marquis de Denonville in 1685 with +power to make war on the tribesmen or to respect the peace as he might +find expedient upon his arrival. The new governor was an honest, +well-intentioned soul, neither mentally incapable nor lacking in +personal courage. He might have served his King most acceptably in +many posts of routine officialdom, but he was not the man to handle +the destinies of half a continent in critical years. His mission, to +be sure, was no sinecure, for the Iroquois had grown bolder with the +assurance of support from the English. Now that they were securing +arms and ammunition from Albany it was probable that they would carry +their raids right to the heart of New France. Denonville was therefore +forced to the conclusion that he had better strike quickly. In making +this decision he was right, for in dealing with savage races a thrust +is almost always the best defense. + +Armed preparations were consequently once more placed under way, +and in the summer of 1687 a flotilla of canoes and batteaux bearing +soldiers and supplies was again at Cataraqui. This time the expedition +was stronger in numbers and better equipped than ever before. Down the +lakes from Michilimackinac came a force of _coureurs-de-bois_, among +them seasoned veterans of the wilderness like Du Lhut, Tonty, La +Forêt, Morel de la Durantaye, and Nicholas Perrot, each worth a whole +squad of soldiers when it came to fighting the Iroquois in their own +forests. At the rendezvous across the lake from Cataraqui the French +and their allies mustered nearly three thousand men. Denonville had +none of his predecessor's bravado coupled with cowardice; his plans +were carried forward with a precision worthy of Frontenac. Unlike +Frontenac, however he had a scant appreciation of the skill with which +the red man could get out of the way in the face of danger. By moving +too slowly after he had set out overland towards the Seneca villages, +he gave the enemy time to place themselves out of his reach. So he +burned their villages and destroyed large areas of growing corn. After +more than a week had been spent in laying waste the land, Denonville +and his expedition retired slowly to Cataraqui. Leaving part of his +force there, the governor went westward to Niagara, where he rebuilt +in more substantial fashion La Salle's old fort at that point and +placed it in charge of a garrison. The _coureurs-de-bois_ then +continued on their way to Michilimackinac while Denonville returned to +Montreal. + +The expedition of 1687 had not been a fiasco like that of 1685, +but neither was it in any real way a success. It angered the whole +Iroquois confederacy without, having sufficiently impressed the +Indians with the punitive power of the French. Denonville had stirred +up the nest without destroying the hornets. It was all too soon the +Indians' turn to show what they could do as ravagers of unprotected +villages; within a year after the French expedition had returned, the +Iroquois bands were raiding the territory of the French to the very +outskirts of Montreal itself. The route to the west was barred; the +fort at Niagara had to be abandoned; Cataraqui was cut off from succor +and ultimately had to be destroyed by its garrison; not a single +canoe-load of furs came down from the lakes during the entire summer. +The merchants were facing ruin, and the whole colony was beginning to +tremble for its very existence. The seven years since Frontenac left +the land had indeed been a lurid interval. + +It was at this juncture that tidings of the colony's dire distress +were hurried to the King, and the Grand Monarch moved with rare good +sense. He promptly sent for that grim old veteran whom he had recalled +in anger seven years before. In all the realm Frontenac was the one +man who could be depended upon to restore the prestige of France along +the great trade routes. + +The Great Onontio, as Frontenac was known to the Indians, reached the +St. Lawrence in the late autumn of 1689, just as the colony was about +to pass through its darkest hours. Quebec greeted him as a _Redemptor +Patriae_; its people, in the words of La Hontan, were as Jews +welcoming the Messiah. Nor was their enthusiasm without good cause, +for in a few years Frontenac demonstrated his ability to put the +colony on its feet once more. He settled its internal broils, opened +the channels of trade, restored the forts, repulsed the English, and +brought the Iroquois to terms. + +Now that his mission had been achieved and he was no longer as robust +as of old, the Iron Governor asked the minister to keep him in mind +for some suitable sinecure in France if the opportunity came. This the +minister readily promised, but the promise was still unfulfilled when +Frontenac was stricken with his last illness. On November 28, 1698, +the greatest of the Onontios, or governors, passed away. "Devoted to +the service of his king," says his eulogist, "more busied with duty +than with gain; inviolable in his fidelity to his friends, he was as +vigorous a supporter as he was an untiring foe." Had his official +career closed with his recall in 1682, Frontenac would have ranked as +one of the singular misfits of the old French colonial system. But the +brilliant successes of his second term made men forget the earlier +days of petulance and petty bickerings. In the sharp contrasts of his +nature Frontenac was an unusual man, combining many good and great +qualities with personal shortcomings that were equally pronounced. In +the civil history of New France he challenges attention as the most +remarkable figure. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +LA SALLE AND THE VOYAGEURS + + +The greatest and most enduring achievement of Frontenac's first term +was the exploration of the territory southwestward of the Great Lakes +and the planting of French influence there. This work was due, in +large part, to the courage and energy of the intrepid La Salle. +René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, like so many others who +followed the fleur-de-lis into the recesses of the new continent, was +of Norman birth and lineage. Rouen was the town of his nativity; the +year 1643 probably the date of his birth. How the days of his youth +were spent we do not know except that he received a good education, +presumably in a Jesuit seminary. While still in the early twenties +he came to Montreal where he had an older brother, a priest of the +Seminary of St. Sulpice. This was in 1666. Through, the influence of +his brother, no doubt, he received from the Seminary a grant of the +seigneury at Lachine on the river above the town, and at once began +the work of developing this property. + +If La Salle intended to become a yeoman of New France, his choice of a +site was not of the best. The seigneury which he acquired was one of +the most dangerous spots in the whole colony, being right in the path +of Iroquois attack. He was able to gather a few settlers around him, +it is true, but their homes had to be enclosed by palisades, and they +hardly dared venture into the fields unarmed. Though the Iroquois and +the French were just now at peace, the danger of treachery was never +absent. On the other hand no situation could be more favorable for +one desiring to try his hand at the fur trade. It was inevitable, +therefore, that a young man of La Salle's adventurous temperament +and commercial ancestry should soon forsake the irksome drudgery of +clearing land for the more exciting and apparently more profitable +pursuit of forest trade. That was what happened. In the winter +of 1668-1669 he heard from the Indians their story of a great +southwestern river which made its way to the "Vermilion Sea." The +recital quickened the restless strain in his Norman blood. Here, he +thought, was the long-sought passage to the shores of the Orient, and +he determined to follow the river. + +Having no other means of obtaining funds with which to equip an +expedition, La Salle sold his seigneury and at once began his +preparations. In July, 1669, he set off with a party of about twenty +men, some of whom were missionaries sent by the Seminary of St. +Sulpice to carry the tidings of the faith into the heart of the +continent. Up the St. Lawrence and along the south shore of Lake +Ontario they went, halting at Irondequoit Bay while La Salle and a few +of his followers went overland to the Seneca villages in search of +guides. Continuing to Niagara, the party divided and the Sulpicians +made their way to the Sault Ste. Marie, while La Salle with the +remainder of the expedition struck out south of Lake Erie and in all +probability reached the Ohio by descending one of its branches. But, +as no journal or contemporary record of the venture after they had +left Niagara has come down to us, the details of the journey are +unknown. It is believed that desertions among his followers prevented +further progress and that, in the winter of 1669-1670, La Salle +retraced his steps to the lakes. In its main object the expedition had +been a failure. + +Having exhausted his funds, La Salle had no opportunity, for the +present at least, of making another trial. He accordingly asked +Frontenac for trading privileges at Cataraqui, the site of modern +Kingston, where stood the fortified post named after the governor. +Upon Frontenac's recommendation La Salle received in 1674 not only the +exclusive right to trade but also a grant of land at Fort Frontenac on +condition that he would rebuild the defenses with stone and supply a +garrison. The conditions being acceptable, the explorer hastened to +his new post and was soon engaged in the fur trade upon a considerable +scale. La Salle, however, needed more capital than he himself could +supply, and in 1677 he made a second trip to France with letters from +Frontenac to the King and Colbert. He also had the further design in +view of obtaining authority and funds for another trip of exploration +to the West. Since his previous expedition in 1669 two of his +compatriots, Père Marquette and Louis Joliet, had reached the Great +River and had found every reason for believing that its course ran +south to the Gulf of Mexico, and not southwestward to the Gulf of +California, as had previously been supposed. But they had not followed +the Mississippi to its outlet, and this was what La Salle was now +determined to do. + +In Paris he found attentive listeners to his plans, and even the +King's ministers were interested, so that when La Salle sailed back to +Quebec in 1678 he brought a royal decree authorizing him to proceed +with his project. With him came a daring spirit who was to be chief +lieutenant and faithful companion in the ensuing years, Henri de +Tonty. This adventurous soldier was later known among the Indians +as "Tonty of the Iron Hand," for in his youth he had lost a hand in +battle, and in its stead now wore an artificial one of iron, which he +used from time to time with wholesome effect. He was a man of great +physical strength, and commensurate courage, loyal to his chief and +almost La Salle's equal in perseverance. + +La Salle's party lost no time in proceeding to Fort Frontenac. Even +though the winter was at hand, Hennepin was at once sent forward +to Niagara with instructions to build a post and to begin the +construction of a vessel so that the journey westward might be begun +with the opening of spring. Later in the winter La Salle and Tonty +joined the party at Niagara where the fort was completed. Before +spring arrived, a vessel of about forty-five tons, the largest yet +built for service on the lakes, had been constructed. On its prow +stood a carved griffin, from the armorial bearings of Frontenac, and +out of its portholes frowned several small cannon. With the advent of +summer La Salle and his followers went aboard; the sails were spread, +and in due course the expedition readied Michilimackinac, where the +Jesuits had already established their most westerly mission. + +The arrival of the _Griffin_ brought Indians by the hundred to marvel +at the "floating fort" and to barter their furs for the trinkets with +which La Salle had provided himself. The little vessel then sailed +westward into Lake Michigan and finally dropped anchor in Green Bay +where an additional load of beaver skins was put on deck. With the +approach of autumn the return trip began. La Salle, however, did not +accompany his valuable cargo, having a mind to spend the winter in. +explorations along the Illinois. In September, with many misgivings, +he watched the _Griffin_ set sail in charge of a pilot. Then, with the +rest of his followers he started southward along the Wisconsin shore. +Reaching the mouth of the St. Joseph, he struck into the interior to +the upper Kankakee. This stream the voyageurs, who numbered about +forty in all, descended until they reached the Illinois, which they +followed to the point where Peoria now stands. + +Here La Salle's troubles began in abundance. The Indians endeavored +to dissuade him from leading the expedition farther, and even the +explorer's own followers began to desert. Chagrinned at these untoward +circumstances and on his guard lest the Indians prove openly hostile, +La Salle proceeded to secure his position by the erection of a fort +to which he gave the name Crèvecoeur. Here he left Tonty with the +majority of the party, while he himself started with five men back to +Niagara. His object was in part to get supplies for building a vessel +at Fort Crèvecoeur, and in part to learn what had become of the +_Griffin_, for since that vessel had sailed homeward he had heard no +word from her crew. Proceeding across what is now southern Michigan, +La Salle emerged on the shores of the Detroit River. From this point +he pushed across the neck of land to Lake Erie, where he built a canoe +which brought him to Niagara at Eastertide, 1680. His fears for the +fate of the _Griffin_ were now confirmed: the vessel had been lost, +and with her a fortune in furs. Nothing daunted, however, La Salle +hurried on to Fort Frontenac and thence with such speed to Montreal +that he accomplished the trip from the Illinois to the Ottawa in +less than three months--a feat hitherto unsurpassed in the annals of +American exploration. + +At Montreal the explorer, who once more sought the favor of Frontenac, +was provided with equipment at the King's expense. Within a few +months he was again at Fort Frontenac and ready to rejoin Tonty at +Crèvecoeur. Just as he was about to depart, however, word came that +the Crèvecoeur garrison had mutinied and had destroyed the post. La +Salle's one hope now was that his faithful lieutenant had held on +doggedly and had saved the vessel he had been building. But Tonty in +the meantime had made his way with a few followers to Green Bay, +so that when La Salle reached the Illinois he found everyone gone. +Undismayed by this climax to his misfortunes, La Salle nevertheless +pushed on down the Illinois, and early in December reached its +confluence with the Mississippi. + +To follow the course of this great stream with the small party which +accompanied him seemed, however, too hazardous an undertaking. La +Salle, therefore, retraced his steps once more and spent the next +winter at Fort Miami on the St. Joseph to the southeast of Lake +Michigan. In the spring word came to him that Tonty was at +Michilimackinac, and thither he hastened, to hear from Tonty's own +lips the long tale of disaster. "Any one else," wrote an eye-witness +of the meeting, "would have thrown up his hands and abandoned the +enterprise; but far from this, with, a firmness and constancy that +never had its equal, I saw him more resolved than ever to continue his +work and push forward his discovery." + +Now that he had caught his first glimpse of the Mississippi, La Salle +was determined to persist until he had followed its course to the +outlet. Returning with Tonty to Fort Frontenac, he replenished his +supplies. In this same autumn of 1681, with a larger number of +followers, the explorer was again on his way to the Illinois. By +February the party had reached the Mississippi. Passing the Missouri +and the Ohio, La Salle and his followers kept steadily on their +way and early in April reached the spot where the Father of Waters +debouches through three channels into the Gulf. Here at the outlet +they set up a column with the insignia of France, and, as they took +possession of the land in the name of their King, they chanted in +solemn tones the _Exaudiat_, and in the name of God they set up their +banners. + +But the French were short of supplies and could not stay long after +the symbols of sovereignty had been raised aloft. Paddling slowly +against the current. La Salle and his party reached the Illinois only +in August. Here La Salle and Tonty built their Fort St. Louis and here +they spent the winter. During the next summer (1683) the indefatigable +explorer journeyed down to Quebec, and on the last ship of the year +took passage for France. In the meantime, Frontenac, always his +firm friend and supporter, had been recalled, and La Barre, the new +governor, was unfriendly. A direct appeal to the home authorities +for backing seemed the only way of securing funds for further +explorations. + +Accordingly, early in 1684 La Salle appeared at the French court with +elaborate plans for founding a colony in the valley of the lower +Mississippi. This time the expedition was to proceed by sea. To this +project the King gave his assent, and commanded the royal officers to +furnish the supplies. By midsummer four ships were ready to set sail +for the Gulf. Once more, however, troubles beset La Salle on every +hand. Disease broke out on the vessels; the officers quarreled among +themselves; the expedition was attacked by the Spaniards, and one ship +was lost. Not until the end of December was a landing made, and then +not at the Mississippi's mouth but at a spot far to the west of it, on +the sands of Matagorda Bay. + +Finding that he had missed his reckonings, La Salle directed a part of +his company to follow the shore. After many days of fruitless search, +they established a permanent camp and sent the largest vessel back to +France. Their repeated efforts to reach the Mississippi overland were +in vain. Finally, in the winter of 1687, La Salle with a score of his +strongest followers struck out northward, determined to make their way +to the Lakes, where they might find succor. To follow the detail of +their dreary march would be tedious. The hardships of the journey, +without adequate equipment or provisions, and the incessant danger of +attack by the Indians increased petty jealousies into open mutiny. On +the 19th of March, 1687, the courageous and indefatigable La Salle +was treacherously assassinated by one of his own party. Here in the +fastnesses of the Southwest died at the age of forty-four the +intrepid explorer of New France, whom Tonty called--perhaps not +untruthfully--"one of the greatest men of this age." + +"Thus," writes a later historian with all the perspective of +the intervening years, "was cut short the career of a man whose +personality is impressed in some respects more strongly than that +of any other upon the history of New France. His schemes were too +far-reaching to succeed. They required the strength and resources of +a half-dozen nations like the France of Louis XIV. Nevertheless the +lines upon which New France continued to develop were substantially +those which La Salle had in mind, and the fabric of a wilderness +empire, of which he laid the foundations, grew with the general growth +of colonization, and in the next century became truly formidable. It +was not until Wolfe climbed the Heights of Abraham that the great +ideal of La Salle was finally overthrown." + +It would be difficult, indeed, to find among the whole array of +explorers which history can offer in all ages a perseverance more +dogged in the face of abounding difficulties. Phoenix-like, he rose +time after time from the ashes of adversity. Neither fatigue nor +famine, disappointment nor even disaster, availed to swerve him from +his purpose. To him, more than to any one else of his time, the French +could justly attribute their early hold upon the great regions of the +West. Other explorers and voyageurs of his generation there were in +plenty, and their service was not inconsiderable. But in courage and +persistence, as well as in the scope of his achievements, La Salle, +the pathfinder of Rouen, towered above them all. He had, what so many +of the others lacked, a clear vision of what the great plains and +valleys of the Middle West could yield towards the enrichment of a +nation in years to come. "America," as Parkman has aptly said, "owes +him an enduring memory; for in this masculine figure she sees the +pioneer who guided her to the possession of her richest heritage." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE CHURCH IN NEW FRANCE + + +Nearly all that was distinctive in the life of old Canada links itself +in one way or another with the Catholic religion. From first to last +in the history of New France the most pervading trait was the loyalty +of its people to the church of their fathers. Intendants might come +and go; governors abode their destined hour and went their way; but +the apostles of the ancient faith never for one moment released their +grip upon the hearts and minds of the Canadians. During two centuries +the political life of the colony ran its varied rounds; the habits of +the people were transformed with the coming of material prosperity: +but the Church went on unchanged, unchanging. One may praise the +steadfastness with which the Church fought for what its bishops +believed to be right, or one may, on the other hand, decry the +arrogance of its pretensions to civil power and its hampering +conservatism; but as the great central fact in the history of New +France, the hegemony of Catholicism cannot be ignored. + +When Frenchmen began the work of founding a dominion in the New World, +their own land was convulsed with religious troubles. Not only were +the Huguenots breaking from the trammels of the old religion, but +within the Catholic Church, itself in France there were two great +contending factions. One group strove for the preservation of the +Galilean liberties, the special rights of the French King and the +French bishops in the ecclesiastical government of the land, while +the other claimed for the Pope a supremacy over all earthly rulers in +matters of spiritual concern. It was not a difference on points of +doctrine, for the Galileans did not question the headship of the +Papacy in things of the spirit. What they insisted upon was the +circumscribed nature of the papal power in temporal matters within the +realm of France, particularly with regard to the right of appointment +to ecclesiastical positions with endowed revenues. Bishops, priests, +and religious orders ranged themselves on one side or the other, for +it was a conflict in which there could be no neutrality. As the royal +authorities were heart and soul with the Galileans, it was natural +enough that priests of this group should gain the first religious +foothold in the colony. The earliest priests brought to the colony +were members of the Récollet Order. They came with Champlain in 1615, +and made their headquarters in Quebec at the suggestion of the King's +secretary. For ten years they labored in the colony, striving bravely +to clear the way for a great missionary crusade. + +But the day of the Récollets in New France was not long. In 1625 came +the advance guard of another religious order, the militant Jesuits, +bringing with them their traditions of unwavering loyalty to the +Ultramontane cause. The work of the Récollets had, on the whole, been +disappointing, for their numbers and their resources proved too small +for effective progress. During ten years of devoted labor they had +scarcely been able to make any impression upon the great wilderness of +heathenism that lay on all sides. In view of the apparent futility of +their efforts, the coming of the Jesuits--suggested, it may be, by +Champlain--was probably not unwelcome to them. Richelieu, moreover, +had now brought his Ultramontane sympathies close to the seat of royal +power, so that the King no longer was in a position to oppose the +project. At any rate the Jesuits sailed for Canada, and their arrival +forms a notable landmark in the history of the colony. Their dogged +zeal and iron persistence carried them to points which missionaries +of no other religious order would have reached. For the Jesuits were, +above all things else, the harbingers of a militant faith. Their +organization and their methods admirably fitted them to be the +pioneers of the Cross in new lands. They were men of action, seeking +to win their crown of glory and their reward through intense physical +and spiritual exertions, not through long seasons of prayer and +meditation in cloistered seclusion. Loyola, the founder of the Order, +gave to the world the nucleus of a crusading host, disciplined as no +army ever was. If the Jesuits could not achieve the spiritual conquest +of the New World, it was certain that no others could. And this +conquest they did achieve. The whole course of Catholic missionary +effort throughout the Western Hemisphere was shaped by members of the +Jesuit Order. + +Only four of these priests came to Quebec in 1625. Although it was +intended that others should follow at once, their number was not +substantially increased until seven years later, when the troubles +with England were brought to an end and the colony was once more +securely in the hands of the French. Then the Jesuits came steadily, +a few arriving with almost every ship, and either singly or together +they were sent off to the Indian settlements--to the Hurons around +the Georgian Bay, to the Algonquins north of the Ottawa, and to the +Iroquois south of the Lakes. The physical vigor, the moral heroism, +and the unquenchable religious zeal of these missionaries were +qualities exemplified in a measure and to a degree which are beyond +the power of any pen to describe. Historians of all creeds have +tendered homage to their self-sacrifice and zeal, and never has work +of human hand or spirit been more worthy of tribute. The Jesuit went, +often alone, where no others dared to go, and he faced unknown dangers +which had all the possibilities of torture and martyrdom. Nor did this +energy waste itself in flashes of isolated triumph. The Jesuit was a +member of an efficient organization, skillfully guided by inspired +leaders and carrying its extensive work of Christianization with +machine-like thoroughness through the vastness of five continents. +We are too apt to think only of the individual missionary's glowing +spirit and rugged faith, his picturesque strivings against great odds, +and to regard him as a guerilla warrior against the hosts of darkness. +Had he been this, and nothing more, his efforts must have been +altogether in vain. The great services which the Jesuit missionary +rendered in the New World, both to his country and to his creed, were +due not less to the matchless organization of the Order to which he +belonged than to qualities of courage, patience, and fortitude which +he himself showed as a missionary. + +During the first few years of Jesuit effort among the Indians of New +France the results were pitifully small. The Hurons, among whom the +missionaries put forth their initial labors, were poor stock, even as +red men went. The minds of these half-nomadic and dull-witted savages +were filled with gross superstitions, and their senses had been +brutalized by the incessant torments of their Iroquois enemies. Amid +the toils and hazards and discomforts of so insecure and wandering a +life the Jesuits found little opportunity for soundly instructing the +Hurons in the faith. Hence there were but few neophytes in these early +years. By 1640 the missionaries could count only a hundred converts in +a population of many thousands, and even this little quota included +many infants who had died soon after receiving the rites of baptism. +More missionaries kept coming, however; the work steadily broadened; +and the posts of service were multiplied. In due time the footprints +of the Jesuits were everywhere, from the St. Lawrence to the +Mississippi, from the tributaries of the Hudson to the regions north +of the Ottawa. Le Jeune, Massé, Brébeuf, Lalemant, Ragueneau, Le +Dablon, Jogues, Gamier, Raymbault, Péron, Moyne, Allouez, Druilletes, +Chaumonot, Ménard, Bressani, Daniel, Chabanel, and a hundred +others,--they soon formed that legion whose works of courage and +devotion stand forth so prominently in the early annals of New France. + +Once at their stations in the upper country, the missionaries +regularly sent down to the Superior of the Order at Quebec their +full reports of progress, difficulties, and hopes, all mingled with +interesting descriptions of Indian customs, folklore, and life. It is +no wonder that these narratives, "jotted down hastily," as Le Jeune +tells us, "now in one place, now in another, sometimes on water, +sometimes on land," were often crude, or that they required careful +editing before being sent home to France for publication. In their +printed form, however, these _Rélations des Jésuites_ gained a wide +circle of European readers; they inspired more missionaries to come, +and they drew from well-to-do laymen large donations of money for +carrying on the crusade. + +The royal authorities also gave their earnest support, for they saw +in the Jesuit missionary not merely a torchbearer of his faith or a +servant of the Church. They appreciated his loyalty and remembered +that he never forgot his King, nor shirked his duty to the cause of +France among the tribes. Every mission post thus became an embassy, +and every Jesuit an ambassador of his race, striving to strengthen the +bonds of friendship between the people to whom he went and the people +from whom he came. The French authorities at Quebec were not slow to +recognize what an ever-present help the Jesuit could be in times of +Indian trouble. One governor expressed the situation with fidelity +when he wrote to the home authorities that, "although the interests of +the Gospel do not require us to keep missionaries in all the Indian +villages, the interests of the civil government for the advantage of +trade must induce us to manage things so that we may always have at +least one of them there." It must therefore be admitted that, when the +civil authorities did encourage the missions, they did not always do +so with a purely spiritual motive in mind. + +As the political and commercial agent of his people, the Jesuit had +great opportunities, and in this capacity he usually gave a full +measure of service. After he had gained the confidence of the tribes, +the missionary always succeeded in getting the first inkling of what +was going on in the way of inter-tribal intrigues. He learned to +fathom the Indian mind and to perceive the redskin's motives. He was +thus able to communicate to Quebec the information and advice which +so often helped the French to outwit their English rivals. As +interpreters in the conduct of negotiations and the making of treaties +the Jesuits were also invaluable. How much, indeed, these blackrobes +achieved for the purely secular interests of the French colony, for +its safety from sudden Indian attack, for the development of its +trade, and for its general upbuilding, will never be known. The +missionary did not put these things on paper, but he rendered services +which in all probability were far greater than posterity will ever +realize. + +It was not, however, with the conversion of the Indians or with the +service of French secular interests among the savages that the work of +the Jesuits was wholly, or even chiefly, concerned. During the middle +years of the seventeenth century, these services at the outposts +of French territory may have been most significant, for the French +population along the shores of the St. Lawrence remained small, the +settlements were closely huddled together, and a few priests could +serve their spiritual needs. The popular impression of Jesuit +enterprises in the New World is connected almost wholly with work +among the Indians. This pioneer phase of the Jesuit's work was +picturesque, and historians have had a great deal to say about it. It +was likewise of this service in the depths of the interior that the +missionary himself wrote most frequently. But as the colony grew and +broadened its bounds until its settlements stretched all the way from +the Saguenay to Montreal and beyond, a far larger number of _curés_ +was needed. Before the old régime came to a close there were far +more Frenchmen than Indians within the French sphere of influence +in America, and they required by far the greater share of Jesuit +ministration, and, long before the old dominion ended, the Indian +missions had to take a subordinate place in the general program of +Jesuit undertakings. The outposts in the Indian country were the chief +scene of Jesuit labors from 1615 to about 1700, when the emphasis +shifted to the St. Lawrence valley. Some of the mission fields held +their own to the end, but in general they failed to make much headway +during the last half-century of French rule. The Church in the settled +portions of the colony, however, kept on with its steady progress in +achievement and power. + +New France was the child of missionary fervor. Even from the outset, +in the scattered settlements along the St. Lawrence, the interests +of religion were placed on a strictly missionary basis. There were +so-called parishes in the colony almost from its beginning, but +not until 1722 was the entire colony set off into recognized +ecclesiastical parishes, each with a fixed _curé_ in charge. Through +all the preceding years each village or _côte_ had been served by a +missionary, by a movable _curé_, or by a priest sent out from +the Seminary at Quebec. No priest was tied to any parish but was +absolutely at the immediate beck and call of the bishop. Some reason +for this unsettled arrangement might be found in the conditions +under which the colony developed in its early years; with its sparse +population ranging far and wide, with its lack of churches and +of _presbytères_ in which the priest might reside. But the real +explanation of its long continuance lies in the fact that, if regular +_curés_ were appointed, the seigneurs would lay claim to various +rights of nomination or patronage, whereas the bishop could control +absolutely the selection of missionary priests and could thus more +easily carry through his policy of ecclesiastical centralization. + +Not only in this particular, but in every other phase of religious +life and organization during these crusading days in Canada, one must +reckon not only with the logic of the situation, but also with the +dominating personality of the first and greatest Ultramontane, Bishop +Laval. Though not himself a Jesuit, for no member of the Order could +be a bishop, Laval was in tune with their ideals and saw eye to eye +with the Jesuits on every point of religious and civil policy. + +François Xavier de Laval, Abbé de Montigny, was born in 1622, a scion +of the great house of Montmorency. He was therefore of high nobility, +the best-born of all the many thousands who came to New France +throughout its history. As a youth his had come into close association +with the Jesuits, and had spent four years in the famous Hermitage at +Caen, that Jesuit stronghold which served so long as the nursery for +the spiritual pioneers of early Canada. When he came to Quebec as +Vicar-Apostolic in 1659, he was only thirty-seven years of age. +His position in the colony at the time of his arrival was somewhat +unusual, for although he was to be in command of the colony's +spiritual forces. New France was not yet organized as a diocese and +could not be so organized until the Pope and the King should agree +upon the exact status of the Church in the French colonial dominions. +Laval was nevertheless given his titular rank from the ancient see of +Petraea in Arabia which had long since been _in partibus infidelium_ +and hence had no bishop within its bounds. From his first arrival in +Canada his was Bishop Laval, but without a diocese over which he could +actually hold sway. His commission as Vicar-Apostolic gave him power +enough, however, and his responsibility was to the Pope alone. + +For the tasks which, he was sent to perform, Laval had eminent +qualifications. A haughty spirit went with the ultra-blue blood in his +veins; he had a temperament that loved to lead and to govern, and that +could not endure to yield or to lag behind. His intellectual talents +were high beyond question, and to them he added the blessing of a +rugged physical frame. No one ever came to a new land with more +definite ideas of what he wanted to do or with a more unswerving +determination to do it in his own way. + +It was not long before the stamp of Laval's firm hand was laid upon +the life of the colony. In due course, too, he found himself at odds +with the governor. The dissensions smouldered at first, and then broke +out into a blaze that warmed the passions of all elements in the +colony. The exact origin of the feud is somewhat obscure, and it is +not necessary to put down here the details of its development to the +war _à outrance_ which soon engaged the civil and ecclesiastical +authorities in the colony. In the background was the question of the +_coureurs-de-bois_ and the liquor traffic which now became a definite +issue and which remained the storm centre of colonial politics for +many generations. The merchants insisted that if this traffic were +extinguished it would involve the ruin of the French hold upon the +Indian trade. The bishop and the priests, on the other hand, were +ready to fight the liquor traffic to the end and to exorcise it as the +greatest blight upon the New World. Quebec soon became a cockpit where +the battle of these two factions raged. Each had its ups and downs, +until in the end the traffic remained, but under a makeshift system of +regulation. + +To portray Laval and his associates as always in bitter conflict with +the civil power, nevertheless, would be to paint a false picture. +Church and state were not normally at variance in their views and +aims. They clashed fiercely on many occasions, it is true, but after +their duels they shook hands and went to work with a will at the +task of making the colony stand upon its own feet. Historians have +magnified these bickerings out of all proportion. Squabbles over +matters of precedence at ceremonies, over the rate of the tithes, and +over the curbing of the _coureurs-de-bois_ did not take the major +share of the Church's attention. For the greater part of two whole +centuries it loyally aided the civil power in all things wherein the +two could work together for good. + +And these ways of assistance were many. For example the Church, +through its various institutions and orders, rendered a great service +to colonial agriculture. As the greatest landowner in New France, +it set before the seigneurs and the habitants an example of what +intelligent methods of farming and hard labor could accomplish in +making the land yield its increase. The King was lavish in his grants +of territory to the Church: the Jesuits received nearly a million +_arpents_ as their share of the royal bounty; the bishop and the +Quebec Seminary, the Sulpicians, and the Ursulines, about as much +more. Of the entire granted acreage of New France the Church +controlled about one-quarter, so that its position as a great +landowner was even stronger in the colony than at home. Nor did it +fold its talents in a napkin. Colonists were brought from France, +farms were prepared for them in the church seigneuries, and the new +settlers were guided and encouraged through, the troublous years of +pioneering. With both money and brains at its command, the Church was +able to keep its own lands in the front line of agricultural progress. + +When in 1722 the whole colony was marked off into definite +ecclesiastical divisions, seventy-two parishes were established, and +nearly one hundred _curés_ were assigned to them. As time went on, +both parishes and _curés_ increased in number, so that every locality +had its spiritual leader who was also a philosopher and guide in all +secular matters. The priest thus became a part of the community and +never lost touch with his people. The habitant of New France for his +part never neglected his Church on week-days. The priest and the +Church were with him at work and at play, the spirit and the life of +every community. Though paid a meager stipend, the _curé_ worked hard +and always proved a laborer far more than worthy of his hire. The +clergy of New France never became a caste, a privileged order; they +did not live on the fruits of other men's labor, but gave to the +colony far more than the colony ever gave to them. + +As for the Church revenues, these came from several sources. The +royal treasury contributed large sums, but, as it was not full to +overflowing, the King preferred to give his benefactions in generous +grants of land. Yet the royal subsidies amounted to many thousand +livres each year. The diocese of Quebec was endowed with the revenues +of three French abbeys. Wealthy laymen in France followed the royal +example and sent contributions from time to time, frequently of large +amount. While the Company of One Hundred Associates controlled the +trade of the colony, it made from its treasury some provisions for +the support of the missionaries. After 1663, a substantial source of +ecclesiastical income was the tithe, an ecclesiastical tax levied +annually upon all produce of the land, and fixed in 1663 at +one-thirteenth. Four years later it was reduced to one-twenty-sixth, +and Bishop Laval's strenuous efforts to have the old rate restored +were never successful. + +In education, yet another field of colonial life, the Church rendered +some service. Here the civil authorities did nothing at all, and had +it not been for the Church the whole colony would have grown up in +absolute illiteracy. A school for boys was established at Quebec in +Champlain's day, and during the next hundred and fifty years it was +followed by about thirty others. More than a dozen elementary schools +for girls were also established under ecclesiastical auspices. Yet +the amount of secular education imparted by all these seminaries was +astoundingly small, and they did but little to leaven the general +illiteracy of the population. Only the children of the towns attended +the schools, and the program of study was of the most elementary +character. Religious instruction was given the first place and +received so much attention that there was little time in school hours +for anything else. The girls fared better than the boys on the whole, +for the nuns taught them to sew and to knit as well as to read and to +write. + +So far as secular education was concerned, therefore, the English +conquest found the colony in almost utter stagnation. Not one in five +hundred among the habitants, it was said, could read or write. Outside +the immediate circle of clergy, officials, and notaries, ignorance of +even the rudiments of education was almost universal. There were no +newspapers in the colony and very few books save those used in the +services of worship. Greysolon Du Lhut, the king of the voyageurs, for +example, was a man of means and education, but his entire library, +as disclosed by his will, consisted of a world atlas and a set of +Josephus. The priests did not encourage the reading of secular books, +and La Hontan recounts the troubles which he had in keeping one +militant _curé_ from tearing his precious volumes to pieces. New +France was at that period not a land where freedom dwelt with +knowledge. + +Intellectually, the people of New France comprised on the one hand a +small élite and on the other a great unlettered mass. There was +no middle class between. Yet the population of the colony always +contained, especially among its officials and clergy, a sprinkling of +educated and scholarly men. These have given us a literature of travel +and description which is extensive and of high, quality. No other +American colony of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries put so +much, of its annals into print; the _Rélations_ of the Jesuits alone +were sufficient to fill forty-one volumes, and they form but a small +part of the entire literary output. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SEIGNEURS OF OLD CANADA + + +From the beginning of the colony there ran in the minds of French +officialdom the idea that the social order should rest upon a +seigneurial basis. Historians have commonly attributed to Richelieu +the genesis of New World feudalism, but without good reason, for its +beginnings antedated the time of the great minister. The charter +issued to the ill-starred La Roche in 1598 empowered him "to grant +lands to gentlemen in the forms of fiefs and seigneuries," and the +different viceroys who had titular charge of the colony before the +Company of One Hundred Associates took charge in 1627 had similar +powers. Several seigneurial grants in the region of Quebec had, in +fact, been made before Richelieu first turned his attention to the +colony. + +Nor was the adoption of this policy at all unnatural. Despite its +increasing obsolescence, the seigneurial system was still strong in +France and dominated the greater part of the kingdom. The nobility and +even the throne rested upon it. The Church, as suzerain of enormous +landed estates, sanctioned and supported it. The masses of the French +people were familiar with no other system of landholding. No prolonged +quest need accordingly be made to explain why France transplanted +feudalism to the shores of the great Canadian waterway; in fact, +an explanation would have been demanded had any other policy been +considered. No one asks why the Puritans took to Massachusetts Bay the +English system of freehold tenure. They took the common law of England +and the tenure that went with it. Along with the fleur-de-lis, +likewise, went the Custom of Paris and the whole network of social +relations based upon a hierarchy of seigneurs and dependents. + +The seigneurial system of land tenure, as all students of history +know, was feudalism in a somewhat modernized form. During the chaos +which came upon Western Europe in the centuries following the collapse +of Roman imperial supremacy, every local magnate found himself forced +to depend for existence upon the strength of his own castle, under +whose walls he gathered as many vassals as he could induce to come. +To these he gave the surrounding lands free from all rents, but on +condition of aid in time of war. The lord gave the land and promised +to protect his vassals, who, on their part, took the land and promised +to pay for it not in money or in kind, but in loyalty and service. +Thus there was created a close personal relation, a bond of mutual +wardship and fidelity which bound liegeman and lord with hoops of +steel. The whole social order rested upon this bond and upon the +gradations in privilege which it involved in a sequence which became +stereotyped. In its day feudalism was a great institution and one +which shared with the Christian Church the glory of having made +mediaeval life at all worth living. It helped to keep civilization +from perishing utterly in a whirl of anarchy, and it enabled Europe to +recover inch by inch its former state of order, stability, and law. + +But, having done its service to humanity, feudalism did not quietly +make way for some other system more suited to the new conditions. It +hung on grimly long after the forces which had brought it into being +ceased to exist, long after the growth of a strong monarchy in France +with a powerful standing army had removed the necessity of mutual +guardianship and service. To meet the new conditions the system merely +changed its incidents, never its general form. The ancient obligation +of military service, no longer needed, gave place to dues and +payments. The old personal bond relaxed; the feudal lord became the +seigneur, a mere landlord. The vassal became the _censitaire_, a mere +tenant, paying heavy dues each year in return for protection which, +he no longer received nor required. In a word, before 1600 the feudal +system had become the seigneurial system, and it was the latter which +was established in the French colony of Canada. + +In the new land there was reason to hope, however, that this system of +social relations based upon landholding would soon work its way back +to the vigor which it had displayed in mediaeval days. Here in the +midst of an unfathomed wilderness was a small European settlement with +hostile tribes on every hand. The royal arm, so strong in affording +protection at home, could not strike hard and promptly in behalf +of subjects a thousand leagues away. New France, accordingly must +organize itself for defense and repel her enemies just as the earldoms +and duchies of the crusading centuries had done. And that is just +what the colony did, with the seigneurial system as the groundwork of +defensive strength. Under stress of the new environment, which was not +wholly unlike that of the former feudal days, the military aspects of +the system revived and the personal bond regained much of its +ancient vigor. The sordid phases of seigneurialism dropped into the +background. It was this restored vitality that helped, more than +all else, to turn New France into a huge armed camp which hordes of +invaders, both white and red, strove vainly to pierce time after time +during more than a full century. + +The first grant of a seigneury in the territory of New France was made +in 1623 to Louis Hébert, a Paris apothecary who had come to Quebec +with Champlain some years before this date. His land consisted of a +tract upon the height above the settlement, and here he had cleared +the fields and built a home for himself. By this indenture feudalism +cast its first anchor in New France, and Hébert became the colony's +first patron of husbandry. Other grants soon followed, particularly +during the years when the Company of One Hundred Associates was +in control of the land, for, by the terms of its charter, this +organization was empowered to grant large tracts as seigneuries and +also to issue patents of nobility. It was doubtless assumed by the +King that such grants would be made only to persons who would actually +emigrate to New France and who would thus help in the upbuilding of +the colony, but the Company did not live up to this policy. Instead, +it made lavish donations, some of them containing a hundred square +miles or more, to directors and friends of the Company in France who +neither came to the colony themselves nor sent representatives to +undertake the clearing of these large estates. One director took the +entire Island of Orleans; others secured generous slices of the best +lands on both shores of the St. Lawrence; but not one of them lifted a +finger in the way of redeeming these huge concessions from a state of +wilderness primeval. The tracts were merely held in the hope that some +day they would become valuable. Out of sixty seigneuries which were +granted by the Company during the years from 1632 to 1663 not more +than a half-dozen grants were made to _bona fide_ colonists. At the +latter date the total area of cleared land was scarcely four thousand +_arpents_.[1] + +[Footnote 1: An _arpent_ was about five-sixths of an acre.] + +With the royal action of 1663 which took the colony from the Company +and reconstructed its government, the seigneurial system was +galvanized at once with new energy. The uncleared tracts which the +officials of the Company had carved out among themselves were declared +to be forfeited to the Crown and actual occupancy was held to be, +for the future, the essential of every seigneurial grant. A vigorous +effort was made to obtain settlers, and with considerable success, for +in the years 1665-1667 the population of the colony more than doubled. +Nothing was left undone by the royal authorities in securing and +transporting emigrants. Officials from Paris scoured the provinces, +offering free passage to Quebec and free grants of land upon arrival. +The campaign was successful, and many shiploads of excellent +colonists, most of them hardy peasants from Normandy, Brittany, +Perche, and Picardy, were sent during these banner years. + +On their arrival at Quebec the incoming settlers were taken in hand by +officials and were turned over to the various seigneurs who were ready +to provide them with lands and to help them in getting well started. +If the newcomer happened to be a man of some account at home, and +particularly if he brought some money with him, he had the opportunity +to become a seigneur himself. He merely applied to the intendant, +who was quite willing to endow with a seigneury any one who appeared +likely to get it cleared and ready for future settlers. In this matter +the officials, following out the spirit of the royal orders, were +prone to err on the side of liberality. Too often they gave large +seigneurial grants to men who had neither the energy nor the funds to +do what was expected of a seigneur in the new land. + +As for extent, the seigneuries varied greatly. Some were as large as +a European dukedom; others contained only a few thousand _arpents_. +There was no fixed rule; within reasonable limits each applicant +obtained what he asked for, but it was generally understood that men +who had been members of the French _noblesse_ before coming to the +colony were entitled to larger areas than those who were not. In any +case little attention was paid to exact boundaries, and no surveys +were made. In making his request for a seigneury each applicant set +forth what he wanted, and this he frequently did in such broad terms +as, "all lands between such-and-such a river and the seigneury of the +Sieur de So-and-So." These descriptions, rarely adequate or accurate, +were copied into the patent, causing often hopeless confusion of +boundaries and unneighborly squabbles. It was fortunate that most +seigneurs had more land than they could use; otherwise there would +have been as many lawsuits as seigneuries. + +The obligations imposed upon the seigneurs were not burdensome. No +initial payment was asked, and there were no annual rentals to be paid +to the Crown. Each seigneur had to render the ceremony of fealty and +homage to the royal representative at Quebec. Each was liable for +military service, although that obligation was not written into the +grant. When a seigneury changed owners otherwise than by inheritance +in direct succession, a payment known as the _quint_ (being, as the +name connotes, one-fifth of the reported value) became payable to the +royal treasury, but this was rarely collected. The most important +obligation imposed upon the Canadian seigneur, and one which did not +exist at all in France, was that of getting settlers established upon +his lands. This obligation the authorities insisted upon above all +others. The Canadian seigneur was expected to live on his domain, +to gather dependents around him, to build a mill for grinding their +grain, to have them level the forest, clear the fields, and make +two blades of grass grow where one grew before. In other words, +the Canadian seigneur was to be a royal immigration and land agent +combined. He was not given his generous landed patrimony in order that +he should sit idly by and wait for the unearned increment to come. + +Many of the seigneurs fulfilled this trust to the letter. Robert +Giffard, who received the seigneury of Beauport just below Quebec, was +one of these; Charles Le Moyne, Sieur de Longueuil, was another. Both +brought many settlers from France and saw them safely through the +years of pioneering. Others, however, did no more than flock to Quebec +when ships were expected, like so many real estate agents explaining +to the new arrivals what they had to offer in the way of lands fertile +and well situated. Still others did not even do so much, but merely +put forth one excuse after another to explain why their tracts +remained without settlements at all. From time to time the authorities +prodded these seigneurial drones and threatened them with the +forfeiture of their estates; but some of the laggards had friends +among the members of the Sovereign Council or possessed other means of +warding off action, so that final decrees of forefeiture were rarely +issued. Occasionally there were seigneurs whose estates were so +favorably situated that they could exact a bonus from intending +settlers, but the King very soon put a stop to this practice. By the +Arrêts of Marly in 1711 he decreed that no bonus or _prix d'entrée_ +should be exacted by any seigneur, but that every settler was to have +land for the asking and at the rate of the annual dues customary in +the neighborhood. + +At this date there were some ninety seigneuries in the colony, about +which we have considerable information owing to a careful survey which +was made in 1712 at the King's request. This work was entrusted to an +engineer, Gedéon de Catalogne, who had come to Quebec a quarter of a +century earlier to help with the fortifications. Catalogne spent two +years in his survey, during which time he visited practically all the +colonial estates. As a result he prepared and sent to France a full +report giving in each case the location and extent of the seigneury, +the name of its owner, the nature of the soil, and its suitability +for various uses, the products, the population, the condition of the +people, the provisions made for religious instruction, and various +other matters.[1] With the report he sent three maps, one of which has +disappeared. The others show the location of all seigneuries in the +regions of Quebec and Three Rivers. + +[Footnote 1: This report was printed for the first time in the +author's _Documents relating to the Seigniorial Tenure in Canada_ +(Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1908).] + +From Catalogne's survey we know that before 1712 nearly all the +territory on both shores of the St. Lawrence from below Quebec to +above Montreal had been parceled into seigneuries. Likewise the +islands in the river and the land on both sides of the Richelieu +in the region toward Lake Champlain had been allotted. Many of the +seigneuries in this latter belt had been given to officers of the +Carignan-Salières regiment which had come out with Tracy in 1665 +to chastise the Mohawks. After the work of the regiment had been +finished, Talon suggested to the King that it be disbanded in Canada, +that the officers be persuaded to accept seigneuries, and that the +soldiers be given lands within the estates of their officers. The +Grand Monarque not only assented but promised a liberal money bonus to +all who would remain. Accordingly, more than twenty officers, chiefly +captains or lieutenants, and nearly four hundred men, agreed to stay +in New France under these arrangements. + +Here was an experiment in the system of imperial Rome repeated in the +New World. When the empire of the Caesars was beginning to give way +before the oncoming Goths and Huns, the practice of disbanding the +legions on the frontier so that they might settle there and form an +iron ring against the invaders was adopted and served its purpose for +a time. It was from these _praedia militaria_ that Talon got the idea +which he now transmitted to the French King with the suggestion +that "the practice of these sagacious and warlike Romans might be +advantageously followed in a land which, being so far away from its +sovereign, must trust for existence to the strength, of its own +arms." In keeping with the same precedent, Talon located the military +seigneuries in that section of the colony where they would be most +useful as a barrier against the enemy; that is to say, he placed them +in the colony's most vulnerable region. This was the area along the +Richelieu from Lake Champlain to its confluence with the St. Lawrence +at Sorel. It was by this route that the Mohawks had already come more +than once on their errands of massacre, and it was by this portal +that the English were likely to come if they should ever attempt +to overwhelm New France by an overland assault. The region of the +Richelieu was therefore made as strong against incursion as this +colonizing measure could make it. + +All who took lands in this region, whether seigneurs or habitants, +were to assemble in arms at the royal call. Their uniforms and muskets +they kept for service, and never during subsequent years was such a +call without response. These military settlers and their sons after +them were only too ready to rally around the royal _oriflamme_ at any +opportunity. It was from the armed seigneuries of the Richelieu that +Hertel de Rouville, St. Ours, and others quietly slipped forth and +leaped with all the advantage of surprise upon the lonely hamlets +of outlying Massachusetts or New York. How the English feared these +_gentilshommes_ let their own records tell, for there these French +colonials put many a streak of blood and fire. + +But not all of the seigneuries were settled in this way, and it was +well for the best interests of the colony that they were not. Too +often the good soldier made only an indifferent yeoman. First in war, +he was last in peace. The task of hammering spears into ploughshares +and swords into pruning-hooks was not altogether to his liking. Most +of the officers gradually grew tired of their rôle as gentlemen of the +wilderness, and eventually sold or mortgaged their seigneuries and +made their way back to France. Many of the soldiers succumbed to the +lure of the western fur traffic and became _coureurs-de-bois_. But +many others stuck valiantly to the soil, and today their descendants +by the thousand possess this fertile land. + +What were the obligations of the settler who took a grant of land +within a seigneury? On the whole they were neither numerous nor +burdensome, and in no sense were they comparable with those laid upon +the hapless peasantry in France during the days before the great +Revolution. Every habitant had a written title-deed from his seigneur +and the terms of this deed were explicit. The seigneur could exact +nothing that was not stipulated therein. These title-deeds were made +by the notaries, of whom there seem to have been plenty in New France; +the census of 1681 listed no fewer than twenty-four of them in a +population which had not yet reached ten thousand. When the deed had +been signed, the notary gave one copy to each of the parties; the +original he kept himself. These scribes were men of limited education +and did not always do their work with proper care, but on the whole +they rendered useful service. + +The deed first set forth the situation and area of the habitant's +farm. The ordinary extent was from one hundred to four hundred +_arpents_, usually in the shape of a parallelogram with a narrow +frontage on the river, and extending inland to a much greater +distance. Every one wanted to be near the main road which ran along +the shore; it was only after all this land had been taken up that the +incoming settlers were willing to have farms in the "second range" on +the uplands away from the stream. At any rate, the habitant took his +land subject to yearly payments known as the _cens et rentes_. The +amount was small, a few sous together with a stated donation in +grain or poultry to be delivered each autumn. Reckoned in terms of +present-day rentals, the _cens et rentes_ amounted to half a dozen +chickens or a bushel of grain for each fifty or sixty acres of land. +Yet this was the only payment which the habitants of New France +regularly made in return for their lands. Each autumn at Michaelmas +they gathered at the seigneur's house, their carryalls filling his +yard. One by one they handed over their quota of grain or poultry +and counted out their _cens_ in copper coins. The occasion became a +neighborhood festival to which the women came with the men. There was +a general retailing of local gossip and a squaring-up of accounts +among the neighbors themselves. + +But while this was the only regular payment made by the habitant, +it was not the only obligation imposed upon him. In New France the +seigneur had the exclusive right of grinding all grain, and the +habitants were bound by their title-deeds to bring their grist to his +mill and to pay the legal toll for milling. This _banalité_, as it was +called, did not bear heavily upon the people; most of the complaints +concerning it came rather from the seigneurs who claimed that the +legal toll, which amounted to one-fourteenth of the grain, did not +suffice to pay expenses. Some of the seigneurs did not build mills at +all, but the authorities eventually moved them to action by ordering +that those who did not provide mills at once would not be allowed +to enforce the obligation of toll at any future date. Most of the +seigneurial mills were crude, wind-driven affairs which made poor +flour and often kept the habitants waiting for days to get it. Usually +built in tower-like fashion, they were loopholed in order to afford +places of refuge and defense against Indian attack. + +Another seigneurial obligation was that of giving to the seigneur +certain days of _corvée_, or forced labor, in each year. In France +this was a grievous burden; peasants were taken from their own lands +at inconvenient seasons and forced to work for weeks on the seigneur's +domain. But there was nothing of this sort in Canada. The amount of +_corvée_ was limited to six days at the most in any year, of which +only two days could be asked for at seed-time and two days at harvest. +The seigneur, for his part, did not usually exact even this amount, +because the neighborhood custom required that he should furnish both +food and tools to those whom he called upon to work for him. + +Besides, there were various details of a minor sort incidental to the +seigneurial system. If the habitant caught fish in the river, one fish +in every eleven belonged to the seigneur. But seldom was any attention +paid to this stipulation. The seigneur was entitled to take firewood +and building materials from the lands of his habitants if he desired, +but he rarely availed himself of this right. On the morning of every +May Day the habitants were under strict injunction to plant a Maypole +before the seigneur's house, and this they never failed to do, because +the seigneur in return was expected to dispense hospitality to all who +came. Bright and early in the morning the whole community appeared and +greeted the seigneur with a salvo of blank musketry. With them they +carried a tall fir-tree, pulled bare to within a few feet of the top +where a tuft of green remained. Having planted this Maypole in the +ground, they joined in dancing and a _feu de joie_ in the seigneur's +honor, and then adjourned for cakes and wine at his table. There is no +doubt that such good things disappeared with celerity before appetites +whetted by an hour's exercise in the clear spring air. After drinking +to the seigneur's health and to the health of all his kin, the merry +company returned to their homes, leaving behind them the pole as a +souvenir of their homage. That the seigneur was more than a mere +landlord such an occasion testified. + +The seigneurs of New France had the right to hold courts for the +settlement of disputes among their tenantry, but they rarely availed +themselves of this privilege because, owing to the sparseness of the +population in most of the seigneuries, the fines and fees did not +produce enough income to make such a procedure worth while. In a few +populous districts there were seigneurial courts with regular judges +who held sessions once or twice each week. In some others the seigneur +himself sat in judgment behind the living-room table in his own home +and meted out justice after his own fashion. The Custom of Paris +was the common law of the land, and all were supposed to know its +provisions, though few save the royal judges had any such knowledge. +When the seigneur himself heard the suitors, his decision was +not always in keeping with the law but it usually satisfied the +disputants, so that appeals to the royal courts were not common. These +latter tribunals, each with a judge of its own, sat at Quebec, Three +Rivers, and Montreal. Their procedure, like that of the seigneurial +courts, was simple, free from chicane, and inexpensive. A lawsuit in +New France did not bring ruinous costs. "I will not say," remarks the +facetious La Hontan, "that the Goddess of Justice is more chaste here +than in France, but at any rate, if she is sold, she is sold more +cheaply. In Canada we do not pass through the clutches of advocates, +the talons of attorneys, and the claws of clerks. These vermin do +not as yet infest the land. Every one here pleads his own cause. Our +Themis is prompt, and she does not bristle with fees, costs, and +charges." + +Throughout the French period there was no complaint from the habitants +concerning the burdens of the seigneurial tenure. Here and there +disputes arose as to the exact scope and nature of various +obligations, but these the intendant adjusted with a firm hand and +an eye to the general interest. On the whole, the system rendered a +highly useful service, by bringing the entire rural population into +close and neighborly contact, by affording a firm foundation for +the colony's social structure, and by contributing greatly to the +defensive unity of New France. So long as the land was weak and +depended for its very existence upon the solidarity of its people, so +long as the intendant was there to guide the system with a praetorian +hand and to prevent abuses, so long as strength was more to be desired +than opulence, the seigneurial system served New France better than +any other scheme of landholding would have done. It was only when +the administration of the country came into new and alien hands that +Canadian seigneurialism became a barrier to economic progress and an +obsolete system which had to be abolished. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE COUREURS-DE-BOIS + + +The center and soul of the economic system in New France was the +traffic in furs. Even before the colony contained more than a handful +of settlers, the profit-making possibilities of this trade were +recognized. It grew rapidly even in the early days, and for more than +a hundred and fifty years furnished New France with its sinews of war +and peace. Beginning on the St. Lawrence, this trade moved westward +along the Great Lakes, until toward the end of the seventeenth century +it passed to the headwaters of the Mississippi. During the two +administrations of Frontenac the fur traffic grew to large +proportions, nor did it show much sign of shrinking for a generation +thereafter. With the ebb-tide of French military power, however, the +trader's hold on these western lands began to relax, and before the +final overthrow of New France it had become greatly weakened. + +In establishing commercial relations with the Indians, the French +voyageur on the St. Lawrence had several marked advantages over his +English and Dutch neighbors. By temperament he was better adapted than +they to be a pioneer of trade. No race was more supple than his own in +conforming its ways to the varied demands of place and time. When he +was among the Indians, the Frenchman tried to act like one of them, +and he soon developed in all the arts of forest life a skill which +rivaled that of the Indian himself. The fascination of life in the +untamed wilderness with its hair-raising experiences, its romance, its +free abandon, appealed more strongly to the French temperament than to +that of any other European race. _Non licet omnibus adire Corinthum_. +And the French colonist of the seventeenth century had the qualities +of personal courage and hardihood which enabled him to enjoy this life +to the utmost. + +Then there was the Jesuit missionary. He was the first to visit the +Indians in their own abodes, the first to make his home among them, +the first to master their language and to understand their habits of +mind. This sympathetic comprehension gave the Jesuit a great influence +in the councils of the savages. While first of all a soldier of the +Cross, the missionary never forgot, however, that he was also a +sentinel doing outpost duty for his own race. Apostle he was, but +patriot too. Besides, it was to the spiritual interest of the +missionary to keep his flock in contact with the French alone; for if +they became acquainted with the English they would soon come under +the smirch of heresy. To prevent the Indians from engaging in any +commercial dealings with Dutch or English heretics meant encouraging +them to trade exclusively with the French. In this way the Jesuit +became one of the most zealous of helpers in carrying out the French +program for diverting to Montreal the entire fur trade of the western +regions. He was thus not only a pioneer of the faith but at the same +time a pathfinder of commercial empire. It is true, no doubt, +that this service to the trading interests of the colony was but +ill-requited by those whom it benefited most. The trader too often +repaid the missionary in pretty poor coin by bringing the curse of the +liquor traffic to his doors, and by giving denial by shameless conduct +to all the good father's moral teachings. In spite of such inevitable +drawbacks, the Jesuit rendered a great service to the trading +interests of New France, far greater indeed than he ever claimed or +received credit for. + +In the struggle for the control of the fur trade geographical +advantages lay with the French. They had two excellent routes from +Montreal directly into the richest beaver lands of the continent. One +of these, by way of the Ottawa and Mattawa rivers, had the drawback +of an overland portage, but on the other hand the whole route was +reasonably safe from interruption by Iroquois or English attack. The +other route, by way of the upper St. Lawrence and the lakes, passed +Cataraqui, Niagara, and Detroit on the way to Michilimackinac or to +Green Bay. This was an all-water route, save for the short detour +around the falls at Niagara, but it had the disadvantage of passing, +for a long stretch, within easy reach of Iroquois interference. The +French soon realized, however, that this lake route was the main +artery of the colony's fur trade and must be kept open at any cost. +They accordingly entrenched themselves at all the strategic points +along the route. Fort Frontenac at Cataraqui was built in 1674; the +fortified post at Detroit, in 1686; the fort at Niagara, in 1678; and +the establishments at the Sault Ste. Marie and at Michilimackinac had +been constructed even earlier. + +But these places only marked the main channels through which the trade +passed. The real sources of the fur supply were in the great regions +now covered by the states of Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota. As +it became increasingly necessary that the French should gain a firm +footing in these territories as well, they proceeded to establish +their outposts without delay. The post at Baye des Puants (Green Bay) +was established before 1685; then in rapid succession came trading +stockades in the very heart of the beaver lands, Fort St. Antoine, +Fort St. Nicholas, Fort St. Croix, Fort Perrot, Port St. Louis, and +several others. No one can study the map of this western country as +it was in 1700 without realizing what a strangle-hold the French had +achieved upon all the vital arteries of its trade. + +The English had no such geographical advantages as the French, nor +did they adequately appreciate the importance of being first upon the +ground. With the exception of the Hudson after 1664, they controlled +no great waterway leading to the interior. And the Hudson with its +tributaries tapped only the territories of the Iroquois which were +denuded of beaver at an early date. These Iroquois might have rendered +great service to the English at Albany by acting as middlemen in +gathering the furs from the West. They tried hard, indeed, to assume +this rôle, but, as they were practically always at enmity with the +western tribes, they never succeeded in turning this possibility to +their full emolument. + +In only one respect were the French at a serious disadvantage. They +could not compete with the English in the matter of prices. The +English trader could give the Indian for his furs two or three times +as much merchandise as the French could offer him. To account for +this commercial discrepancy there were several reasons. The cost of +transportation to and from France was high--approximately twice that +of freighting from London to Boston or New York. Navigation on the St. +Lawrence was dangerous in those days before buoys and beacons came +to mark the shoal waters, and the risk of capture at sea during the +incessant wars with England was considerable. The staples most used in +the Indian trade--utensils, muskets, blankets, and strouds (a coarse +woolen cloth made into shirts)--could be bought more cheaply in +England than in France. Rum could be obtained from the British West +Indies more cheaply than brandy from across the ocean. Moreover, there +were duties on furs shipped from Quebec and on all goods which came +into that post. And, finally, a paternal government in New France set +the scale of prices in such a way as to ensure the merchants a large +profit. It is clear, then, that in fair and open competition for the +Indian trade the French would not have survived a single season.[1] +Their only hope was to keep the English away from the Indians +altogether, and particularly from the Indians of the fur-bearing +regions. This was no easy task, but in general they managed to do it +for nearly a century. + +[Footnote 1: In the collection of _Documents Relating to the Colonial +History of New York_ (ix., 408-409) the following comparative table of +prices at Fort Orange (Albany) and at Montreal in 1689 is given: + + _The Indian pays for at Albany at Montreal_ + + 1 musket 2 beavers 5 beavers + 8 pounds of powder 1 beaver 4 " + 40 pounds of lead 1 " 3 " + 1 blanket 1 " 2 " + 4 shirts 1 " 2 " + 6 pairs stockings 1 " 2 "] + +The most active and at the same time the most picturesque figure +in the fur-trading system of New France was the _coureur-de-bois_. +Without him the trade could neither have been begun nor continued +successfully. Usually a man of good birth, of some military training, +and of more or less education, he was a rover of the forest by choice +and not as an outcast from civilization. Young men came from France +to serve as officers with the colonial garrison, to hold minor civil +posts, to become seigneurial landholders, or merely to seek adventure. +Very few came out with the fixed intention of engaging in the forest +trade; but hundreds fell victims to its magnetism after they had +arrived in New France. The young officer who grew tired of garrison +duty, the young seigneur who found yeomanry tedious, the young +habitant who disliked the daily toil of the farm--young men of all +social ranks, in fact, succumbed to this lure of the wilderness. "I +cannot tell you," wrote one governor, "how attractive this life is to +all our youth. It consists in doing nothing, caring nothing, following +every inclination, and getting out of the way of all restraint." In +any case the ranks of the voyageurs included those who had the best +and most virile blood in the colony. + +Just how many Frenchmen, young and old, were engaged in the lawless +and fascinating life of the forest trader when the fur traffic was at +its height cannot be stated with exactness. But the number must have +been large. The intendant Duchesneau, in 1680, estimated that more +than eight hundred men, out of a colonial population numbering less +than ten thousand, were off in the woods. "There is not a family of +any account," he wrote to the King, "but has sons, brothers, +uncles, and nephews among these _coureurs-de-bois_." This may be an +exaggeration, but from references contained in the dispatches of +various royal officials one may fairly conclude that Duchesneau's +estimate of the number of traders was not far wide of the mark. And +there is other evidence as to the size of this exodus to the woods. +Nicholas Perrot, when he left Montreal for Green Bay in 1688, took +with him one hundred and forty-three voyageurs.[1] La Hontan found +"thirty or forty _coureurs-de-bois_ at every post in the Illinois +country."[2] + +[Footnote 1: _Documents Relative to the Colonial History of New York_, +ix., 470.] + +[Footnote 2: _Voyages_ (ed. Thwaites), ii., 175.] + +Among the leaders of the _coureurs-de-bois_ several names stand out +prominently. François Dauphine de la Forêt, Nicholas Perrot, and Henri +de Tonty, the lieutenants of La Salle, Alphonse de Tonty, Antoine de +La Mothe-Cadillac, Greysolon Du Lhut and his brother Greysolon de la +Tourette, Pierre Esprit Radisson and Médard Chouart de Groseilliers, +Olivier Morel de la Durantaye, Jean-Paul Le Gardeur de Repentigny, +Louis de la Porte de Louvigny, Louis and Juchereau Joliet, Pierre +LeSueur, Boucher de la Perrière, Jean Peré, Pierre Jobin, Denis Massé, +Nicholas d'Ailleboust de Mantet, François Perthuis, Etienne Brulé, +Charles Juchereau de St. Denis, Pierre Moreau _dit_ La Toupine, Jean +Nicolet--these are only the few who connected themselves with some +striking event which has transmitted their names to posterity. Many of +them have left their imprint upon the geographical nomenclature of the +Middle West. Hundreds of others, the rank and file of this picturesque +array, gained no place upon the written records, since they took part +in no striking achievement worthy of mention in the dispatches and +memoirs of their day. The _coureur-de-bois_ was rarely a chronicler. +If the Jesuits did not deign to pillory him in their _Rélations_, +or if the royal officials did not single him out for praise in +the memorials which they sent home to France each year, the +_coureur-de-bois_ might spend his whole active life in the forest +without transmitting his name or fame to a future generation. And that +is what most of them did. A few of the voyageurs found that one trip +to the wilds was enough and never took to the trade permanently. But +the great majority, once the virus of the free life had entered their +veins, could not forsake the wild woods to the end of their days. The +dangers of the life were great, and the mortality among the traders +was high. _Coureurs de risques_ they ought to have been called, as +La Hontan remarks. But taken as a whole they were a vigorous, +adventurous, strong-limbed set of men. It was a genuine compliment +that they paid to the wilderness when they chose to spend year after +year in its embrace. + +In their methods of trading the _coureurs-de-bois_ were unlike +anything that the world had ever known before. The Hanseatic merchants +of earlier fur-trading days in Northern Europe had established their +forts or factories at Novgorod, at Bergen, and elsewhere, great +_entrepôts_ stored with merchandise for the neighboring territories. +The traders lived within, and the natives came to the posts to barter +their furs or other raw materials. The merchants of the East India +Company had established their posts in the Orient and traded with the +natives on the same basis. But the Norman voyageurs of the New World +did things quite differently. They established fortified posts +throughout the regions west of the Lakes, it is true, but they did not +make them storehouses, nor did they bring to them any considerable +stock of merchandise. The posts were for use as the headquarters of +the _coureurs-de-bois_, and usually sheltered a small garrison of +soldiers during the winter months; they likewise served as places +of defense in the event of attack and of rendezvous when a trading +expedition to Montreal was being organized. It was not the policy of +the French authorities, nor was it the plan of the _coureurs-de-bois_, +that any considerable amount of trading should take place at these +western stockades. They were only the outposts intended to keep the +trade running in its proper channels. In a word, it was the aim of +the French to bring the trade to the colony, not to send the colony +overland to the savages. That is the way Father Carheil phrased it, +and he was quite right.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Carheil to Champigny (August 30, 1702), in R.G. Thwaites, +_Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents_, lxv., 219.] + +Every spring, accordingly, if the great trade routes to Montreal were +reasonably free from the danger of an overwhelming Iroquois attack, +the _coureurs-de-bois_ rounded up the western Indians with their +stocks of furs from the winter's hunt. Then, proceeding to the grand +rendezvous at Michilimackinac or Green Bay, the canoes were joined +into one great flotilla, and the whole array set off down the lakes +or by way of the Ottawa to Montreal. This annual fur flotilla often +numbered hundreds of canoes, the _coureurs-de-bois_ acting as pilots, +assisting the Indians to ward off attacks, and adding their European +intelligence to the red man's native cunning.[1] About midsummer, +having covered the thousand miles of water, the canoes drew within +hail of the settlement of Montreal. Above the Lachine Rapids the +population came forth to meet it with a noisy welcome. Enterprising +_cabaretiers_, in defiance of the royal decrees, had usually set up +their booths along the shores for the sale of brandy, and there was +some brisk trading as well as a considerable display of aboriginal +boisterousness even before the canoes reached Montreal. + +[Footnote 1: The flotilla of 1693 consisted of more than 400 canoes, +with about 200 _coureurs-de-bois_, 1200 Indians, and furs to the value +of over 800,000 _livres_.] + +Once at the settlement, the Indians set up their tepees, boiled their +kettles, and unpacked their bundles of peltry. A day was then given +over to a great council which, the governor of the colony, in scarlet +cloak and plumed hat, often came from Quebec to attend. There were the +usual pledges of friendship; the peace-pipe went its round, and the +song of the calumet was sung. Then the trading really began. The +merchants of Montreal had their little shops along the shore where +they spread out for display the merchandise brought by the spring +ships from France. There were muskets, powder, and lead, blankets in +all colors, coarse cloth, knives, hatchets, kettles, awls, needles, +and other staples of the trade. But the Indian had a weakness for +trinkets of every sort, so that cheap and gaudy necklaces, bracelets, +tin looking-glasses, little bells, combs, vermilion, and a hundred +other things of the sort were there to tempt him. And last, but not +least in its purchasing power, was brandy. Many hogsheads of it were +disposed of at every annual fair, and while it lasted the Indians +turned bedlam loose in the town. The fair was Montreal's gala event +in every year, for its success meant everything to local prosperity. +Indeed, in the few years when, owing to the Iroquois dangers, the +flotilla failed to arrive, the whole settlement was on the verge of +bankruptcy. + +What the Indian got for his furs at Montreal varied from time to +time, depending for the most part upon the state of the fur market +in France. And this, again, hinged to some extent upon the course of +fashions there. On one occasion the fashion of wearing low-crowned +hats cut the value of beaver skins in two. Beaver was the fur of furs, +and the mainstay of the trade. Whether for warmth, durability, or +attractiveness in appearance, there was none other to equal it. Not +all beaver skins were valued alike, however. Those taken from animals +killed during the winter were preferred to those taken at other +seasons, while new skins did not bring as high a price as those which +the Indian had worn for a time and had thus made soft. The trade, +in fact, developed a classification of beaver skins into soft and +half-soft, green and half-green, wet and dry, and so on. Skins of good +quality brought at Montreal from two to four _livres_ per pound, and +they averaged a little more than two pounds each. The normal cargo of +a large canoe was forty packs of skins, each pack weighing about fifty +pounds. Translated into the currency of today a beaver pelt of fair +quality was worth about a dollar. When we read in the official +dispatches that a half-million _livres_' worth of skins changed owners +at the Montreal fair, this statement means that at least a hundred +thousand animals must have been slaughtered to furnish a large +flotilla with its cargo. + +The furs of other animals, otter, marten, and mink, were also in +demand but brought smaller prices. Moose hides sold well, and so +did bear skins. Some buffalo hides were brought to Montreal, but in +proportion to their value they were bulky and took up so much room in +the canoes that the Indians did not care to bring them. The heyday +of the buffalo trade came later, with the development of overland +transportation. At any rate the dependence of New France upon these +furs was complete. "I would have you know," asserts one chronicler, +"that Canada subsists only upon the trade of these skins and furs, +three-fourths of which come from the people who live around the Great +Lakes." The prosperity of the French colony hinged wholly upon two +things: whether the routes from the West were open, and whether the +market for furs in France was holding up. Upon the former depended the +quantity of furs brought to Montreal; upon the latter, the amount of +profit which the _coureurs-de-bois_ and the merchants of the colony +would obtain. + +For ten days or a fortnight the great fair at Montreal continued. A +picturesque bazaar it must have been, this meeting of the two ends of +civilization, for trade has been, in all ages, a mighty magnet to draw +the ends of the earth together. When all the furs had been sold, the +_coureurs-de-bois_ took some goods along with them to be used partly +in trade on their own account at the western posts and partly as +presents from the King to the western chieftains. There is reason to +suspect, however, that much of what the royal bounty provided for this +latter purpose was diverted to private use. There were annual fairs at +Three Rivers for the Indians of the St. Maurice region; at Sorel, +for those of the Richelieu; and at Quebec and at Tadoussac, for +the redskins of the Lower St. Lawrence. But Montreal, owing to its +situation at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa trade +routes, was by far the greatest fur mart of all. + +It has been mentioned that the colonial authorities tried to +discourage trading at the western posts. Their aim was to bring the +Indian with his furs to the colonial settlement. But this policy could +not be fully carried out. Despite the most rigid prohibitions and the +severest penalties, some of the _coureurs-de-bois_ would take goods +and brandy to sell in the wilderness. Finding that this practice could +not be exterminated, the authorities decided to permit a limited +amount of forest trading under strict regulation, and to this end the +King authorized the granting of twenty-five licenses each year. +These licenses permitted a trader to take three canoes with as much +merchandise as they would hold. As a rule the licenses were not issued +directly to the traders themselves, but were given to the religious +institutions or to dependent widows of former royal officers. These in +turn sold them to the traders, sometimes for a thousand _livres_ or +more. The system of granting twenty-five annual licenses did not +of itself throw the door wide open for trade at the western +establishments. But as time went on the plan was much abused by the +granting of private licenses to the friends of the officials at +Quebec, and "God knows how many of these were issued," as one writer +of the time puts it. Traders often went, moreover, without any license +at all, and especially in the matter of carrying brandy into the +forest they frequently set the official orders at defiance. + +This brandy question was, in fact, the great troubler in Israel. It +bulks large in every chronicle, every memoir, every _Rélation_, and +in almost every official dispatch during a period of more than fifty +years. It worried the King himself; it set the officers of the Church +and State against each other; and it provoked more friction throughout +the western dominions of France than all other issues put together. + +As to the ethics of the liquor traffic in New France, there was +never any serious disagreement. Even the secular authorities readily +admitted that brandy did the Indians no good, and that it would be +better to sell them blankets and kettles. But that was not the point. +The traders believed that, if the western Indians could not secure +brandy from the French, they would get rum from the English. The +Indian would be no better off in that case, and the French would lose +their hold on him into the bargain. Time and again they reiterated the +argument that the prohibition of the brandy trade would make an end to +trade, to French influence, and even to the missionary's own labors. +For if the Indian went to the English for rum, he would get into touch +with heresy as well; he would have Protestant missionaries come to his +village, and the day of Jesuit propaganda would be at an end. + +This, throughout the whole trading period, was the stock argument of +publicans and sinners. The Jesuit missionaries combated it with all +their power; yet they never fully convinced either the colonial or the +home authorities. Louis XIV, urged by his confessor to take one stand +and by his ministers to take the other, was sorely puzzled. He wanted +to do his duty as a Most Christian King, yet he did not want to have +on his hands a bankrupt colony. Bishop Laval pleaded with Colbert that +brandy would spell the ruin of all religion in the new world, but the +subtle minister calmly retorted that the _eau-de-vie_ had not yet +overcome the ancient church in older lands. To set his conscience +right, the King referred the whole question to the savants of the +Sorbonne, and they, like good churchmen, promptly gave their opinion +that to sell intoxicants to the heathen was a heinous sin. But that +counsel afforded the Grand Monarch scant guidance, for it was not +the relative sinfulness of the brandy trade that perplexed him. The +practical expediency of issuing a decree of prohibition was what lay +upon his mind. On that point Colbert gave him sensible advice, namely, +that a question of practical policy could be better settled by the +colonists themselves than by cloistered scholars. Guided by this +suggestion, the King asked for a limited plebiscite; the governor of +New France was requested to call together "the leading inhabitants of +the colony" and to obtain from each one his opinion in writing. Here +was an inkling of colonial self-government, and it is unfortunate that +the King did not resort more often to the same method of solving the +colony's problems. + +On October 26, 1678, Frontenac gathered the "leading inhabitants" in +the Château at Quebec. Apart from the officials and military officers +on the one hand and the clergy on the other, most of the solid men of +New France were there. One after another their views were called for +and written down. Most of those present expressed the opinion that +the evils of the traffic had been exaggerated, and that if the French +should prohibit the sale of brandy to the savages they would soon lose +their hold upon the western trade. There were some dissenters, among +them a few who urged a more rigid regulation of the traffic. One +hard-headed seigneur, the Sieur Dombourg, raised the query whether the +colony was really so dependent for its existence upon the fur trade as +the others had assumed to be the case. If there were less attention to +trade, he urged, there would be more heed paid to agriculture, and in +the long run it would be better for the colony to ship wheat to France +instead of furs. "Let the western trade go to the English in exchange +for their rum; it would neither endure long nor profit them much." +This was sound sense, but it did not carry great weight with +Dombourg's hearers. + +The written testimony was put together and, with comments by the +governor, was sent to France for the information of the King and his +ministers. Apparently it had some effect, for, without altogether +prohibiting the use of brandy in the western trade, a royal decree of +1679 forbade the _coureurs-de-bois_ to carry it with them on their +trips up the lakes. The issue of this decree, however, made no +perceptible change in the situation, and brandy was taken to the +western posts as before. So far as one can determine from the actual +figures of the trade, however, the quantity of intoxicants used by +the French in the Indian trade has been greatly exaggerated by the +missionaries. Not more than fifty barrels (_barriques_) ever went to +the western regions in the course of a year. A barrel held about two +hundred and fifty pints, so that the total would be less than one +pint per capita for the adult Indians within the French sphere +of influence. That was a far smaller per capita consumption than +Frenchmen guzzled in a single day at a Breton fair, as La Salle once +pointed out. The trouble was, however, that thousands of Indians got +no brandy at all, while a relatively small number obtained too much +of it. What they got, moreover, was poor stuff, most of it, and well +diluted with water. The Indian drank to get drunk, and when brandy +constituted the other end of the bargain he would give for it the very +furs off his back. + +But if the Jesuits exaggerated the amount of brandy used in the trade, +they did not exaggerate its demoralizing effect upon both the Indian +and the trader. They believed that brandy would wreck the Indian's +body and ruin his soul. They were right; it did both. It made of every +western post, in the words of Father Carheil, a den of "brutality and +violence, of injustice and impiety, of lewd and shameless conduct, of +contempt and insults." No sinister motives need be sought to explain +the bitterness with which the blackrobes cried out against the +iniquities of a system which swindled the redskin out of his furs and +debauched him into the bargain. Had the Jesuits done otherwise +than fight it from first to last they would have been false to the +traditions of their Church and their Order. They were, when all is +said and done, the truest friends that the North American Indian has +ever had. + +The effects of the fur trade upon both Indians and French were +far-reaching. The trade changed the red man's order of life, took him +in a single generation from the stone to the iron age, demolished his +old notions of the world, carried him on long journeys, and made him a +different man. French brandy and English rum sapped his stamina, and +the _grand libertinage_ of the traders calloused whatever moral sense +he had. His folklore, his religion, and his institutions made no +progress after the trader had once entered his territories. + +On the French the effects of tribal commerce were not so disastrous, +though pernicious enough. The trade drew off into the wilderness the +vigorous blood of the colony. It cast its spell over New France from +Lachine to the Saguenay. Men left their farms, their wives, and their +families, they mortgaged their property, and they borrowed from their +friends in order to join the annual hegira to the West. Yet very few +of these traders accumulated fortunes. It was not the trader but the +merchant at Montreal or Quebec who got the lion's share of the profit +and took none of the risks. Many of the _coureurs-de-bois_ entered the +trade with ample funds and emerged in poverty. Nicholas Perrot +and Greysolon Du Lhut were conspicuous examples. It was a highly +speculative game. At times large profits came easily and were spent +recklessly. The trade encouraged profligacy, bravado, and garishness; +it deadened the moral sense of the colony, and even schooled men in +trickery and peculation. It was a corrupting influence in the official +life of New France, and even governors could not keep from soiling +their hands in it. But most unfortunate of all, the colony was +impelled to put its economic energies into what was at best an +ephemeral and transitory source of national wealth and to neglect the +solid foundations of agriculture and industry which in the long run +would have profited its people much more. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND TRADE + + +It was the royal desire that New France should some day become a +powerful and prosperous agricultural colony, providing the motherland +with an acceptable addition to its food supply. To this end large +tracts of land were granted upon most liberal terms to incoming +settlers, and every effort was made to get these acres cultivated. +Encouragement and coercion were alike given a trial. Settlers who did +well were given official recognition, sometimes even to the extent of +rank in the _noblesse_. On the other hand those who left their lands +uncleared were repeatedly threatened with the revocation of their +land-titles, and in some cases their holdings were actually taken +away. From the days of the earliest settlement down to the eve of the +English conquest, the officials of both the Church and the State +never ceased to use their best endeavors in the interests of colonial +agriculture. + +Yet with all this official interest and encouragement agricultural +development was slow. Much of the land on both the north and the south +shores of the St. Lawrence was heavily timbered, and the work of +clearing proved tedious. It was estimated that an industrious settler, +working by himself, could clear not more than one superficial _arpent_ +in a whole season. So slowly did the work make progress, in fact, that +in 1712, after fifty years of royal paternalism, the cultivable area +of New France amounted to only 150,000 _arpents_, and at the close +of the French dominion in 1760 it was scarcely more than twice that +figure,--in other words, about five _arpents_ for each head of +population. + +While industry and trade, particularly the Indian trade, took the +attention and interest of a considerable portion in the population of +New France, agriculture was from first to last the vocation of the +great majority. The census of 1695 showed more than seventy-five per +cent of the people living on the farms of the colony and this ratio +was almost exactly maintained, nearly sixty years later, when the +census of 1754 was compiled. This population was scattered along both +banks of the St. Lawrence from a point well below Quebec to the region +surrounding Montreal. Most of the farms fronted on the river so that +every habitant had a few _arpents_ of marshy land for hay, a tract of +cleared upland for ploughing, and an area extending to the rear which +might be turned into meadow or left uncleared to supply him with +firewood. + +Wheat and maize were the great staples, although large quantities +of oats, barley, and peas were also grown. The wheat was invariably +spring-sown, and the yield averaged from eight to twelve +hundredweights per _arpent_, or from ten to fourteen bushels per acre. +Most of the wheat was made into flour at the seigneurial mills and +was consumed in the colony, but shipments were also made with +fair regularity to France, to the West Indies, and for a time to +Louisbourg. In 1736 the exports of wheat amounted to nearly 100,000 +bushels, and in the year following the banner harvest of 1741 this +total was nearly doubled. The price which the habitant got for wheat +at Quebec ranged normally from two to four _livres_ per hundredweight +(about thirty to sixty cents per bushel) depending upon the harvests +in the colony and the safety with which wheat could be shipped to +France, which, again, hinged upon the fact whether France and England +were at peace or at war. Indian corn was not exported to any large +extent, but many cargoes of dried peas were sent abroad, and +occasionally there were small shipments of oats and beans. + +There was also a considerable production of hemp, flax, and tobacco, +but not for export in any large quantity. The tobacco grown in the +colony was coarse and ill-flavored. It was smoked by both the habitant +and the Indian because it was cheap; but Brazilian tobacco was greatly +preferred by those who could afford to buy it, and large quantities +of this were brought in. The French Government frowned upon +tobacco-growing in New France, believing, as Colbert wrote to Talon in +1672, that any such policy would be prejudicial to the interests of +the French colonies in the tropical zones which were much better +adapted to this branch of cultivation. + +Cattle raising made substantial progress, and the King urged the +Sovereign Council to prohibit the slaughter of cattle so that the +herds might keep on growing; but the stock was not of a high standard, +but undersized, of mongrel breed, and poorly cared for. Sheep raising, +despite the brisk demand for wool, made slow headway. Most of the wool +needed in the colony had to be brought from France, and the demand was +great because so much woolen clothing was required for winter use. The +keeping of poultry was, of course, another branch of husbandry. The +habitants were fond of horses; even the poorest managed to keep two or +three, which was a wasteful policy as there was no work for the horses +to do during nearly half the year. Fodder, however, was abundant and +cost nothing, as each habitant obtained from the flats along the +river all that he could cut and carry away. This marsh hay was not of +superior quality, but it at least served to carry the horses and stock +through the winter. + +The methods of agriculture were beyond question slovenly and crude. +Catalogne, the engineer whom the authorities commissioned to make an +agricultural census of the colony, ventured the opinion that, if +the fields of France were cultivated as the farms of Canada were, +three-quarters of the French people would starve. Rotation of crops +was practically unknown, and fertilization of the land was rare, +although the habitant frequently burned the stubble before putting +the plough to his fields. From time to time a part of each farm was +allowed to lie fallow, but such fallow fields were left unploughed and +soon grew so rank with weeds that the soil really got no rest at all. +All the ploughing was done in the spring, and it was not very well +done at that, for the land was ploughed in ridges which left much +waste between the furrows. Too often the seed became poor, as a result +of the habitant using seed from his own crops year after year until +it became run out. Most of the cultivated land was high and dry and +needed no artificial drainage. Even where the water lay on the land +late in the spring, however, there was rarely an attempt, as Peter +Kalm in his _Travels_ remarks, to drain it off. The habitant had +patience in greater measure than industry, and he was always ready to +wait for nature to do his work. Everybody depended for his implements +largely upon his own workmanship, so that the tools of agriculture +were of poor construction. The cultivation of even a few _arpents_ +required a great deal of manual drudgery. On the other hand, the land +of New France was fertile, and every one could have plenty of it +for the asking. Kalm thought it quite as good as the average in the +English colonies and far better than most arable land in his own +Scandinavia. + +Why, then, did French-Canadian agriculture, despite the warm official +encouragement given to it, make such relatively meager progress? There +are several reasons for its backwardness. The long winters, which +developed in the habitant an inveterate disposition to idleness, +afford the clue to one of them. A general aversion to unremitting +manual toil was one of the colony's besetting sins. Notwithstanding +the small per capita acreage, accordingly, there was a continual +complaint that not enough labor could be had to work the farms. Women +and children were pressed into service in the busy seasons. Yet the +colony abounded in idle men, and mendicancy at one time assumed such +proportions as to require the enforcement of stringent penalties. The +authorities were partly to blame for the development of this trait, +for upon the slightest excuse they took the habitant from his daily +routine and set him to help with warlike expeditions against the +Indians and the English, or called him to build roads or to repair the +fortifications. And the lure of the fur trade, which drew the most +vigorous young men of the land off the farms into the forest, was +another obstacle to the growth of yeomanry. Moreover, the curious and +inconvenient shape of the farms, most of them mere ribbons of land, +with a narrow frontage and disproportionate depth, handicapped all +efforts to cultivate the fields in an intelligent way. Finally, there +was the general poverty of the people. With a large family to support, +for families of ten to fifteen children were not uncommon, it was hard +for the settler to make both ends meet from the annual yield of a few +_arpents_, however fertile. The habitant, therefore, took the shortest +cut to everything, getting what he could out of his land in the +quickest possible way with no reference to the ultimate improvement +of the farm itself. If he ever managed to get a little money, he was +likely to spend it at once and to become as impecunious as before. +Such a propensity did not make for progress, for poverty begets +slovenliness in all ages and among all races of men. + +If anything like the industry and intelligence that was bestowed +upon agriculture in the English colonies had been applied to the St. +Lawrence valley, New France might have shipped far more wheat than +beaver skins each year to Europe. But in this respect the colony never +half realized the royal expectations. On the other hand, the attempt +to make the land a rich grain-growing colony was far from being a flat +failure. It was supporting its own population, and had a modest amount +of grain each year for export to France or to the French West Indies. +With peace it would soon have become a land of plenty, for the +traveler who passed along the great river from Quebec to Montreal in +the late autumn might see, as Kalm in his _Travels_ tells us he saw, +field upon field of waving grain extending from the shores inward as +far as the eye could reach, broken only here and there by tracts of +meadow and woodland. Here was at least the nucleus of a Golden West. + +Of colonial industry, however, not as much can be said as of +agriculture. Down to about 1663 it had given scarcely a single token +of existence. The colony, until that date, manufactured nothing. +Everything in the way of furnishings, utensils, apparel, and ornament +was brought in the company's ships from France, and no one seemed to +look upon this procedure as at all unusual. On the coming of Talon in +1665, however, the idea of fostering home industries in the colony +took active shape. By persuasion and by promise of reward, the +"Colbert of New France" interested the prominent citizens of Quebec in +modest industrial enterprises of every sort. + +But the outcome soon belied the intendant's airy hopes. It was easy +enough to make a brave start in these things, especially with the aid +of an initial subsidy from the treasury; but to keep the wheels of +industry moving year after year without a subvention was an altogether +different thing. A colony numbering less than ten thousand souls did +not furnish an adequate market for the products of varied industries, +and the high cost of transportation made it difficult to export +manufactured wares to France or to the West Indies with any hope +of profit. A change of tone, moreover, soon became noticeable in +Colbert's dispatches with reference to industrial development. In +1665, when giving his first instructions to Talon, the minister had +dilated upon his desire that Canada should become self-sustaining in +the matter of clothing, shoes, and the simpler house-furnishings. +But within a couple of years Colbert's mind seems to have taken a +different shift, and we find him advising Talon that, after all, +it might be better if the people of New France would devote their +energies to agriculture and thus to raise enough grain wherewith to +buy manufactured wares from France. So, for one reason or another, +the infant industries languished, and, after Talon was gone, they +gradually dropped out of existence. + +Another of Talon's ventures was to send prospectors in search of +minerals. The use of malleable copper by the Indians had been noted by +the French for many years and various rumors concerning the source +of supply had filtered through to Quebec. Some of Talon's agents, +including Jean Peré, went as far as the upper lakes, returning with +samples of copper ore. But the distance from Quebec was too great for +profitable transportation and, although Père Dablon in 1670 sent +down an accurate description of the great masses of ore in the Lake +Superior region, many generations were to pass before any serious +attempt could be made to develop this source of wealth. Nearer at hand +some titaniferous iron ore was discovered, at Baie St. Paul below +Quebec, but it was not utilized, although on being tested it was +found to be good in quality. Then the intendant sent agents to verify +reports as to rich coal deposits in Isle Royale (Cape Breton), and +they returned with glowing accounts which, subsequent industrial +history has entirely justified. Shipments of this coal were brought +to Quebec for consumption. A little later the intendant reported to +Colbert that a vein of coal had been actually uncovered at the foot of +the great rock which frowns upon the Lower Town at Quebec, adding that +the vein could not be followed for fear of toppling over the Château +which stood above. No one has ever since found any trace of Talon's +coal deposit, and the geologists of today are quite certain that the +intendant had more imagination than accuracy of statement or even of +elementary mineralogical knowledge. + +Above the settlement at Three Rivers some excellent deposits of bog +iron ore were found in 1668, but it was not until five decades later +that the first forges were established there. These were successfully +operated throughout the remainder of the Old Régime, and much of the +colony's iron came from them to supply the blacksmiths. From time +to time rumors of other mineral discoveries came to the ears of the +people. A find of lead was reported from the Gaspé peninsula, but an +investigation proved it to be a hoax. Copper was actually found in +a dozen places within the settled ranges of the colony, but not in +paying quantities. Every one was always on the _qui vive_ for a vein +of gold or silver, but no part of New France ever gave the slightest +hint of an El Dorado. Prospecting engaged the energies of many +colonists in every generation, but most of those who thus spent their +years at it got nothing but a princely dividend of chagrin. + +Mention should also be made of the brewing industry which Talon set +upon its feet during his brief intendancy but which, like all the rest +of his schemes, did not long survive his departure. In establishing a +brewery at Quebec the paternal intendant had two ends in mind: first, +to reduce the large consumption of _eau-de-vie_ by providing a cheaper +and more wholesome substitute; and second, to furnish the farmers of +the colony with a profitable home market for their grain. In 1671 +Talon reported to the French authorities that the Quebec brewery was +capable of turning out four thousand hogsheads of beer per annum, and +thus of creating a demand for many thousand bushels of malt. Hops were +also needed and were expensive when brought from France, so that the +people were encouraged to grow hop-vines in the colony. But even with +grain and hops at hand, the brewing industry did not thrive, and +before many years Talon's enterprise closed its doors. The building +was finally remodeled and became the headquarters of the later +intendants. + +Flour-making and lumbering were the two industries which made most +consistent progress in the colony. Flour-mills were established both +in and near Quebec at an early date, and in course of time there were +scores of them scattered throughout the colony, most of them built +and operated as _banal_ mills by the seigneurs. The majority were +windmills after the Dutch fashion, but some were water-driven. On +the whole, they were not very efficient and turned out flour of such +indifferent grade that the bakers of Quebec complained loudly on more +than one occasion. In response to a request from the intendant, the +King sent out some fanning-mills which were distributed to various +seigneuries, but even this benefaction did not seem to make any great +improvement in the quality of the product. Yet in some years the +colony had flour of sufficiently good quality for export, and sent +small cargoes both to France and to the French West Indies. + +The sawing of lumber was carried on in various parts of the colony, +particularly at Malbaie and at Baie St. Paul. Beam-timbers, planks, +staves, and shingles were made in large quantities both for use in the +colony and for export to France, where the timbers and planks were +in demand at the royal shipyards. Wherever lands were granted by the +Crown, a provision was inserted in the title-deed reserving all oak +timber and all pine of various species suitable for mastings. Though +such timber was not to be cut without official permission, the people +did not always respect this reservation. Yet the quantity of timber +shipped to France was very large, and next to furs it formed the +leading item in the cargoes of outgoing ships. For staves there was a +good market at Quebec where barrels were being made for the packing of +salted fish and eels. + +The various handicrafts or small industries, such as blacksmithing, +cabinet-making, pottery, brick-making, were regulated quite as +strictly in Canada as in France. The artisans of the towns were +organized into _jurés_ or guilds, and elected a master for each trade. +These masters were responsible to the civil authorities for the proper +quality of the work done and for the observance of all the regulations +which were promulgated by the intendant or the council from time to +time. + +This relative proficiency in home industry accounts in part for +the tardy progress of the colony in the matter of large industrial +establishments. But there were other handicaps. For one thing, +the Paris authorities were not anxious to see the colony become +industrially self-sustaining. Colbert in his earliest instructions +to Talon wrote as though this were the royal policy, but no other +minister ever hinted at such a desire. Rather it was thought best that +the colony should confine itself to the production of raw materials, +leaving it to France to supply manufactured wares in return. The +mercantilist doctrine that a colony existed for the benefit of the +mother country was gospel at Fontainebleau. Even Montcalm, a man of +liberal inclinations, expressed this idea with undiminished vigor in +a day when its evil results must have been apparent to the naked +eye. "Let us beware," he wrote, "how we allow the establishment of +industries in Canada or she will become proud and mutinous like the +English colonies. So long as France is a nursery to Canada, let not +the Canadians be allowed to trade but kept to their laborious life and +military services." + +The exclusion of the Huguenots from Canada was another industrial +misfortune. A few Huguenot artisans came to Quebec from Rochelle at an +early date, and had they been welcomed, more would soon have followed. +But they were promptly deported. From an economic standpoint this was +an unfortunate policy. The Huguenots were resourceful workmen, skilled +in many trades. They would have supplied the colony with a vigorous +and enterprising stock. But the interests of orthodoxy in religion +were paramount with the authorities, and they kept from Canada the +one class of settlers which most desired to come. Many of those same +Huguenots went to England, and every student of economic history knows +how greatly they contributed to the upbuilding of England's later +supremacy in the textile and related industries. + +If we turn to the field of commerce, the spirit of restriction appears +as prominently as in the domain of industry. The Company of One +Hundred Associates, during its thirty years of control, allowed no one +to proceed to Quebec except on its own vessels, and nothing could be +imported except through its storehouses. Its successor, the Company of +the West Indies, which dominated colonial commerce from 1664 to +1669, was not a whit more liberal. Even under the system of royal +government, the consistent keynotes of commercial policy were +regulation, paternalism, and monopoly. + +This is in no sense surprising. Spain had first given to the world +this policy of commercial constraint and the great enrichment of the +Spanish monarchy was everywhere held to be its outcome. France, by +reason of her similar political and administrative system, found it +easy to drift into the wake of the Spanish example. The official +classes in England and Holland would fain have had these countries do +likewise, but private initiative and enterprise proved too strong in +the end. As for New France, there were spells during which the grip of +the trading monopolies relaxed, but these lucid intervals were never +very long. When the Company of the West Indies became bankrupt in +1669, the trade between New France and Old was ostensibly thrown open +to the traders of both countries, and for the moment this freedom gave +Colbert and his Canadian apostle, Talon, an opportunity to carry out +their ideas of commercial upbuilding. + +The great minister had as his ideal the creation of a huge fleet of +merchant vessels, built and operated by Frenchmen, which would ply to +all quarters of the globe, bringing raw products to France and taking +manufactured wares in return. It was under the inspiration of this +ideal that Talon built at Quebec a small vessel and, having freighted +it with lumber, fish, corn, and dried pease, sent it off to the French +West Indies. After taking on board a cargo of sugar, the vessel was +then to proceed to France and, exchanging the sugar for goods which +were needed in the regions of the St. Lawrence, it was to return to +Quebec. The intendant's plans for this triangular trade were well +conceived, and in a general way they aimed at just what the English +colonies along the Atlantic seaboard were beginning to do at the time. +The keels of other ships were being laid at Quebec and the officials +were dreaming of great maritime achievements. But as usual the +enterprise never got beyond the sailing of the first vessel, for its +voyage did not yield a profit. + +The ostensible throwing-open of the colonial trade, moreover, did not +actually change to any great extent the old system of paternalism and +monopoly. Commercial companies no longer controlled the channels of +transportation, it is true, but the royal government was not minded +to let everything take its own course. So the trade was taxed for the +benefit of the royal treasury, and the privilege of collecting the +taxes, according to the custom of the old régime, was farmed out. All +the commerce of the colony, imports and exports, had to pass through +the hands of these farmers-of-the-revenue who levied ten per cent on +all goods coming and kept for the royal treasury one-quarter of +the price fixed for all skins exported. Traders as a rule were not +permitted to ship their furs directly to France. They turned them in +to farmers-of-the-revenue at Quebec, where they received the price as +fixed by ordinance, less one-quarter. This price they usually took in +bills of exchange on Paris which, they handed over to the colonial +merchants in payment for goods, and which the merchants in turn sent +home to France to pay for new stocks. Nor were the authorities content +with the mere fixing of prices. By ordinance they also set the rate of +profit which traders should have upon all imported wares brought into +the colony. This rate of profit was fixed at sixty-five per cent, but +the traders had no compunction in going above it whenever they saw +an opportunity which was not likely to be discovered. As far as the +forest trade was concerned, the regulation was, of course, absurd. + +Every year, about the beginning of May, the first ships left France +for the St. Lawrence with general cargoes consisting of goods for the +colonists themselves and for the Indians, as well as large quantities +of brandy. When they arrived at Quebec, the vessels were met by the +merchants of the town and by those who had come from Three Rivers and +Montreal. For a fortnight lively trading took place. Then the goods +which had been bought by the merchants of Montreal and Three Rivers +were loaded upon small barques and brought to these towns to be in +readiness for the annual fairs when the _coureurs-de-bois_ and their +Indians came down to trade in the late summer. As for the vessels +which had come from France, these were either loaded with timber or +furs and set off directly home again, or else they departed light to +Cape Breton and took cargoes of coal for the French West Indies, where +the refining of sugar occasioned a demand for fuel. The last ships +left in November, and for seven months the colony was cut off from +Europe. + +Trade at Quebec, while technically open to any one who would pay the +duties and observe the regulations as to rates of profit, was actually +in the hands of a few merchants who had large warehouses and who took +the greater part of what the ships brought in. These men were, in +turn, affiliated more or less closely with the great trading houses +which sent goods from Rouen or Rochelle, so that the monopoly was +nearly as ironclad as when commercial companies were in control. When +an outsider broke into the charmed circle, as happened occasionally, +there was usually some way of hustling him out again by means either +fair or foul. The monopolists made large profits, and many of them, +after they had accumulated a fortune, went home to France. "I have +known twenty of these pedlars," quoth La Hontan, "that had not above +a thousand crowns stock when I arrived at Quebec in the year 1683 and +when I left that place had got to the tune of twelve thousand crowns." + +Glancing over the whole course of agriculture, industry, and commerce +in New France from the time when Champlain built his little post at +the foot of Cape Diamond until the day when the fleur-de-lis fluttered +down from the heights above, the historian finds that there is one +word which sums up the chief cause of the colony's economic weakness. +That word is "paternalism." The Administration tried to take the place +of Providence. It was as omnipresent and its ways were as inscrutable. +Like as a father chasteneth his children, so the King and his +officials felt it their duty to chasten every show of private +initiative which did not direct itself along the grooves that they had +marked out for the colony to follow. By trying to order everything +they eventually succeeded in ordering nothing aright. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +HOW THE PEOPLE LIVED + + +In New France there were no privileged orders. This, indeed, was the +most marked difference between the social organization of the home +land and that of the colony. There were social distinctions in Canada, +to be sure, but the boundaries between different elements of the +population were not rigid; there were no privileges based upon the +laws of the land, and no impenetrable barrier separated one class from +another. Men could rise by their own efforts or come down through +their own defaults; their places in the community were not determined +for them by the accident of birth as was the case in the older land. +Some of the most successful figures in the public and business affairs +of New France, some of the social leaders, some of those who attained +the highest rank in the _noblesse_, came of relatively humble +parentage. + +In France of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the chief +officials of state, the seigneurs, the higher ecclesiastics, even +the officers of the army and the marine, were always drawn from the +nobility. In the colony this was very far from being the case. Some +colonial officials and a few of the seigneurs were among the numerous +_noblesse_ of France before they came, and they of course retained +their social rank in the new environment. Others were raised to this +rank by the King, usually for distinguished services in the colony and +on the recommendation of the governor or the intendant. But, even if +taken all together, these men constituted a very small proportion of +the people in New France. Even among the seigneurs the great majority +of these landed gentlemen came from the ranks of the people, and not +one in ten was a member of the _noblesse_. There was, therefore, a +social solidarity, a spirit of fraternity, and a feeling of universal +comradeship among them which was altogether lacking at home. + +The pivot of social life in New France was the settlement at Quebec. +This was the colonial capital, the seat of the governor and of the +council, the only town in the colony large enough to have all the +trappings and tinsel of a well-rounded social set. Here, too, came +some of the seigneurs to spend the winter months. The royal officials, +the officers of the garrison, the leading merchants, the judges, the +notaries and a few other professional men--these with their families +made up an élite which managed to echo, even if somewhat faintly, the +pomp and glamor of Versailles. Quebec, from all accounts, was +lively in the long winters. Its people, who were shut off from all +intercourse with Europe for many months at a time, soon learned +the art of providing for their own recreation and amusement. The +knight-errant La Hontan speaks enthusiastically of the events in the +life of this miniature society, of the dinners and dances, the salons +and receptions, the intrigues, rivalries, and flirtations, all of +which were well suited to his Bohemian tastes. But the clergy frowned +upon this levity, of which they believed there was far too much. On +one or two occasions they even laid a rigorous and restraining hand +upon activities of which they disapproved, notably when the young +officers of the Quebec garrison undertook an amateur performance of +Moliere's _Tartuffe_ in 1694. At Montreal and Three Rivers, the two +smaller towns of the colony, the social circle was more contracted and +correspondingly less brilliant. The capital, indeed, had no rival. + +Only a small part of the population, however, lived in the towns. At +the beginning of the eighteenth century the census (1706) showed +a total of 16,417, of whom less than 3000 were in the three chief +settlements. The others were scattered along both banks of the St. +Lawrence, but chiefly on the northern shore, with the houses grouped +into _côtes_ or little villages which almost touched elbows along the +banks of the stream. In each of these hamlets the manor-house or home +of the seigneur, although not a mansion by any means, was the focus of +social life. Sometimes built of timber but more often of stone, with +dimensions rarely exceeding twenty feet by forty, it was not much more +pretentious than the homes of the more prosperous and thrifty among +the seigneur's dependents. Its three or four spacious rooms were, +however, more comfortably equipped with furniture which in many cases +had been brought from France. Socially, the seigneur and his family +did not stand apart from his neighbors. All went to the same church, +took part in the same amusements upon days of festival, and not +infrequently worked together at the common task of clearing the lands. +Sons and daughters of the seigneurs often intermarried with those of +habitants in the seigneury or of traders in the towns. There was no +social _impasse_ such as existed in France among the various elements +in a community. + +As for the habitants, the people who cleared and cultivated the lands +of the seigneuries, they worked and lived and dressed as pioneers are +wont to do. Their homes were commonly built of felled timber or of +rough-hewn stone, solid, low, stocky buildings, usually about twenty +by forty feet or thereabouts in size, with a single doorway and very +few windows. The roofs were steep-pitched, with a dormer window or two +thrust out on either side, the eaves projecting well over the walls in +such manner as to give the structures a half-bungalow appearance. With +almost religious punctuality the habitants whitewashed the outside of +their walls every spring, so that from the river the country houses +looked trim and neat at all seasons. Between the river and the uplands +ran the roadway, close to which the habitants set their conspicuous +dwellings with only in rare cases a grass plot or shade tree at the +door. In winter they bore the full blast of the winds that drove +across the expanse of frozen stream in front of them; in summer the +hot sun blazed relentlessly upon the low roofs. As each house stood +but a few rods from its neighbor on either side, the colony thus +took on the appearance of one long, straggling, village street. The +habitant liked to be near his fellows, partly for his own safety +against marauding redskins, but chiefly because the colony was at best +a lonely place in the long cold season when there was little for any +one to do. + +Behind each house was a small addition used as a storeroom. Not far +away were the barn and the stable, built always of untrimmed logs, the +intervening chinks securely filled with clay or mortar. There was also +a root-house, half-sunk in the ground or burrowed into the slope of a +hill, where the habitant kept his potatoes and vegetables secure from +the frost through the winter. Most of the habitants likewise had their +own bake-ovens, set a convenient distance behind the house and rising +four or five feet from the ground. These they built roughly of +boulders and plastered with clay. With an abundance of wood from the +virgin forests they would build a roaring fire in these ovens and +finish the whole week's baking at one time. The habitant would often +enclose a small plot of ground surrounding the house and outbuildings +with a fence of piled stones or split rails, and in one corner he +would plant his kitchen-garden. + +Within the dwelling-house there were usually two, and never more than +three, rooms on the ground floor. The doorway opened into the great +room of the house, parlor, dining-room, and kitchen combined. A +"living" room it surely was! In the better houses, however, this room +was divided, with the kitchen partitioned off from the rest. Most of +the furnishings were the products of the colony and chiefly of the +family's own workmanship. The floor was of hewn timber, rubbed and +scrubbed to smoothness. A woolen rug or several of them, always of +vivid hues, covered the greater part of it. There were the family +dinner-table of hewn pine, chairs made of pine saplings with, seats of +rushes or woven underbark, and often in the corner a couch that would +serve as an extra bed at night. Pictures of saints hung on the walls, +sharing the space with a crucifix, but often having for ominous +company the habitant's flint-lock and his powder-horn hanging from the +beams. At one end of the room was the fireplace and hearth, the sole +means of heating the place, and usually the only means of cooking +as well. Around it hung the array of pots and pans, almost the only +things in the house which the habitant and his family were not able to +make for themselves. The lack of colonial industries had the advantage +of throwing each home upon its own resources, and the people developed +great versatility in the cruder arts of craftsmanship. + +Upstairs, and reached by a ladder, was a loft or attic running the +full area of the house, but so low that one could touch, the rafters +everywhere. Here the children, often a dozen or more of them, were +stowed away at night on mattresses of straw or feathers laid along +the floor. As the windows were securely fastened, even in the coldest +weather this attic was warm, if not altogether hygienic. The love of +fresh air in his dwelling was not among the habitant's virtues. Every +one went to bed shortly after darkness fell upon the land, and all +rose with the sun. Even visits and festivities were not at that time +prolonged into the night as they are nowadays. Therein, however, New +France did not differ from other lands. In the seventeenth century +most of the world went to bed at nightfall because there was nothing +else to do, and no easy or inexpensive artificial light. Candles were +in use, to be sure, but a great many more of them were burned on +the altars of the churches than in the homes of the people. For his +reading, the habitant depended upon the priest, and for his writing, +upon the notary. + +Clothing was almost wholly made at home. It was warm and durable, +as well as somewhat distinctive and picturesque. Every parish had +spinning wheels and handlooms in some of its homes on which the women +turned out the heavy druggets or _étoffes du pays_ from which most of +the men's clothing was made. A great fabric it was, this homespun, +with nothing but wool in it, not attractive in pattern but able to +stand no end of wear. It was fashioned for the habitant's use into +roomy trousers and a long frock coat reaching to the knees which he +tied around his waist with a belt of leather or of knitted yarn. The +women also used this _étoffe_ for skirts, but their waists and summer +dresses were of calico, homemade as well. As for the children, most of +them ran about in the summer months wearing next to nothing at all. A +single garment without sleeves and reaching to the knees was all that +covered their nakedness. For all ages and for both sexes there were +furs in plenty for winter use. Beaver skins were cheap, in some years +about as cheap as cloth. When properly treated they were soft and +pliable, and easily made into clothes, caps, and mittens. + +Most of the footwear was made at home, usually from deerhides. In +winter every one wore the _bottes sauvages_, or oiled moccasins laced +up halfway or more to the knees. They were proof against cold and were +serviceable for use with snowshoes. Between them and his feet the +habitant wore two or more pairs of heavy woolen socks made from +coarse homespun yarn. In summer the women and children of the rural +communities usually went barefoot so that the soles of their feet +grew as tough as pigskin; the men sometimes did likewise, but more +frequently they wore, in the fields or in the forest, clogs made of +cowhide. + +On the week-days of summer every one wore a straw hat which the women +of the household spent part of each winter in plaiting. In cold +weather the knitted _tuque_ made in vivid colors was the great +favorite. It was warm and picturesque. Each section of the colony +had its own color; the habitants in the vicinity of Quebec wore blue +_tuques_, while those around Montreal preferred red. The apparel of +the people was thus in general adapted to the country, and it had a +distinctiveness that has not yet altogether passed away. + +On Sundays and on the numerous days of festival, however, the habitant +and his family brought out their best. To Mass the men wore clothes +of better texture and high, beaver hats, the women appeared in their +brighter plumage of dresses with ribbons and laces imported from +France. Such finery was brought over in so large a quantity that more +than one _mémoire_ to the home government censured the "spirit of +extravagance" of which this was one outward manifestation. In the +towns the officials and the well-to-do merchants dressed elaborately +on all occasions of ceremony, with scarlet cloaks and perukes, buckled +slippers and silk stockings. In early Canada there was no austerity of +garb such as we find in Puritan New England. New France on a _jour de +fête_ was a blaze of color. + +As for his daily fare, the habitant was never badly off even in the +years when harvests were poor. He had food that was more nourishing +and more abundant than the French peasant had at home. Bread was made +from both wheat and rye flour, the product of the seigneurial mills. +Corn cakes were baked in Indian fashion from ground maize. Fat salted +pork was a staple during the winter, and nearly every habitant laid +away each autumn a smoked supply of eels from the river. Game of all +sorts he could get with little trouble at any time, wild ducks and +geese, partridges, for there were in those days no game laws to +protect them. In the early winter, likewise, it was indeed a luckless +habitant who could not also get a caribou or two for his larder. +Following the Indian custom, the venison was smoked and hung on the +kitchen beams, where it kept for months until needed. Salted or smoked +fish had also to be provided for family use, since the usages of the +Church required that meat should not be used upon numerous fast-days. + +Vegetables of many varieties were grown in New France, where the warm, +sandy, virgin soil of the St. Lawrence region was splendidly suited +for this branch of husbandry. Peas were the great stand-by, and in the +old days whole families were reared upon _soupe aux pois_, which was, +and may even still be said to be, the national dish of the French +Canadians. Beans, cucumbers, melons, and a dozen other products were +also grown in the family gardens. There were potatoes, which the +habitant called _palates_ and not _pommes de terre_, but they were +almost a rarity until the closing days of the Old Régime. Wild fruits, +chiefly raspberries, blueberries, and wild grapes, grew in abundance +among the foothills and were gathered in great quantities every +summer. There was not much orchard fruit, although some seedling trees +were brought from France and had managed to become acclimated. + +On the whole, even in the humbler homes there was no need for any one +to go hungry. The daily fare of the people was not of great variety, +but it was nourishing, and there was plenty of it save in rare +instances. More than one visitor to the colony was impressed by the +rude comfort in which the people lived, even though they made no +pretense of being well-to-do. "In New France," wrote Charlevoix, +"poverty is hidden behind an air of comfort," while the gossipy La +Hontan was of the opinion that "the boors of these seigneuries live +with, greater comfort than an infinity of the gentlemen in France." +Occasionally, when the men were taken from the fields to serve in the +defense of the colony against the English attacks, the harvests were +small and the people had to spend the ensuing winter on short rations. +Yet, as the authorities assured the King, they were "robust, vigorous, +and able in time of need to live on little." + +As for beverages, the habitant was inordinately fond of sour milk. Tea +was scarce and costly. Brandy was imported in huge quantities, and not +all this _eau-de-vie_, as some writers imagine, went into the Indian +trade. The people themselves consumed most of it. Every parish in the +colony had its grog-shop; in 1725 the King ordered that no parish +should have more than two. Quebec had a dozen or more, and complaint +was made that the people flocked to these resorts early in the +morning, thus rendering themselves unfit for work during most of the +day, and soon ruining their health into the bargain. There is no doubt +that the people of New France were fond of the flagon, for not only +the priests but the civil authorities complained of this failing. +Idleness due to the numerous holidays and to the long winters combined +with the tradition of hospitality to encourage this taste. The +habitants were fond of visiting one another, and hospitality demanded +on every such occasion the proffer of something to drink. On the other +hand, the scenes of debauchery which a few chroniclers have described +were not typical of the colony the year round. When the ships came +in with their cargoes, there was a great indulgence in feasting and +drink, and the excesses at this time were sure to impress the casual +visitor. But when the fleet had weighed anchor and departed for +France, there was a quick return to the former quietness and to a +reasonable measure of sobriety. + +Tobacco was used freely. "Every farmer," wrote Kalm, "plants a +quantity of tobacco near his house because it is universally smoked. +Boys of twelve years of age often run about with the pipe in their +mouths." The women were smokers, too, but more commonly they used +tobacco in the form of snuff. In those days, as in our own, this +French-Canadian tobacco was strong stuff, cured in the sun till the +leaves were black, and when smoked emitting an odor that scented the +whole parish. The art of smoking a pipe was one of several profitless +habits which, the Frenchman lost little time in acquiring from his +Indian friends. + +This convivial temperament of the inhabitants of New France has been +noted by more than one contemporary. The people did not spend all +their energies and time at hard labor. From October, when the crops +were in, until May, when the season of seedtime came again, there was, +indeed, little hard work for them to do. Aside from the cutting of +firewood and the few household chores the day was free, and the +habitants therefore spent it in driving about and visiting neighbors, +drinking and smoking, dancing and playing cards. Winter, accordingly, +was the great social season in the country as well as in the town. + +The chief festivities occurred at Michaelmas, Christmas, Easter, and +May Day. Of these, the first and the last were closely connected with +the seigneurial system. On Michaelmas the habitant came to pay the +annual rental for his lands; on May Day he rendered the Maypole homage +which, has been already described. Christmas and Easter were the great +festivals of the Church and as such were celebrated with religious +fervor and solemnity. In addition, minor festivals, chiefly religious +in character, were numerous, so much so that their frequency even in +the months of cultivation was the subject of complaint by the civil +authorities, who felt that these holidays took altogether too +much time from labor. Sunday was a day not only of worship but of +recreation. Clad in his best raiment, every one went to Mass, whatever +the distance or the weather. The parish church indeed was the emblem +of village solidarity, for it gathered within its walls each Sunday +morning all sexes and ages and ranks. The habitant did not +separate his religion from his work or his amusements; the outward +manifestations of his faith were not to his mind things of another +world; the church and its priests were the center and soul of his +little community. The whole countryside gathered about the church +doors after the service while the _capitaine de la côte_, the local +representative of the intendant, read the decrees that had been sent +to him from the seals of the mighty at the Château de St. Louis. That +duty over, there was a garrulous interchange of local gossip with a +retailing of such news as had dribbled through from France. The crowd +then melted away in groups to spend the rest of the day in games or +dancing or in friendly visits of one family with another. + +Especially popular among the young people of each parish were the +_corvées récréatives_, or "bees" as we call them nowadays in our +rural communities. There were the _épuchlette_ or corn-husking, +the _brayage_ or flax-beating, and others of the same sort. The +harvest-home or _grosse-gerbe_, celebrated when the last load had been +brought in from the fields, and the _Ignolée_ or welcoming of the New +Year, were also occasions of goodwill, noise, and revelry. Dancing +was by all odds the most popular pastime, and every parish had its +fiddler, who was quite as indispensable a factor in the life of the +village as either the smith or the notary. Every wedding was the +occasion for terpsichorean festivities which lasted all day long. + +The habitant liked to sing, especially when working with others in the +woods or when on the march. The voyageurs relieved the tedium of their +long journeys by breaking into song at intervals. But the popular +repertoire was limited to a few folksongs, most of them songs of Old +France. They were easy to learn, simple to sing, but sprightly and +melodious. Some of them have remained on the lips and in the hearts of +the French-Canadian race for over two hundred years. Those who do not +know the _Claire fontaine_ and _Ma boulë roulant_ have never known +French Canada. The _forêtier_ of today still goes to the woods +chanting the _Malbrouck s'en va-t-en guerre_ which his ancestors +caroled in the days of Blenheim and Malplaquet. When the habitant +sang, moreover, it was in no pianissimo tones; he was lusty and +cheerful about giving vent to his buoyant spirits. And his descendant +of today has not lost that propensity. + +The folklore of the old dominion, unlike the folk music, was +extensive. Some of it came with the colonists from their Norman +firesides, but more, perhaps, was the outcome of a superstitious +popular imagination working in the new and strange environment of the +wilderness. The habitant had a profound belief in the supernatural, +and was prone to associate miraculous handiwork with every unusual +event. He peopled the earth and the air, the woods and the rivulets, +with spirits of diverse forms and varied motives. The red man's +abounding superstition, likewise, had some influence upon the +habitant's highstrung temperament. At any rate, New France was full of +legends and weird tales. Every island, every cove in the river, had +one or more associated with it. Most of these legends had some moral +lessons attached to them: they were tales of disaster which came from +disobeying the teachings of the Church or of miraculous escape from +death or perdition due to the supernatural rewarding of righteousness. +Taken together, they make up a wholesome and vigorous body of +folklore, reflecting both the mystic temper of the colony and the +religious fervor of its common life. A distinguished son of French +Canada has with great industry gathered these legends together, a +service for which posterity will be grateful.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Sir J.M. Lemoine, _Legends of the St. Lawrence_ (Quebec, +1878).] + +Various chroniclers have left us pen portraitures of the habitant as +they saw him in the olden days. Charlevoix, La Hontan, Hocquart, and +Peter Kalm, men of widely different tastes and aptitudes, all bear +testimony to his vigor, stamina, and native-born vivacity. He was +courteous and polite always, yet there was no flavor of servility in +this most benign trait of character. It was bred in his bone and +was fostered by the teachings of his church. Along with this went a +_bonhomie_ and a lightheartedness, a touch of personal vanity, with a +liking for display and ostentation, which unhappily did not make for +thrift. The habitant "enjoys what he has got," writes Charlevoix, "and +often makes a display of what he has not got." He was also fond +of honors, even minor ones, and plumed himself on the slightest +recognition from official circles. Habitants who by years of hard +labor had saved enough to buy some uncleared seigneury strutted about +with the airs of genuine aristocrats while their wives, in the words +of Governor Denonville, "essayed to play the fine lady." More than one +intendant was amused by this broad streak of vanity in the colonial +character. "Every one here," wrote Meulles, "begins by calling himself +an esquire and ends by thinking himself a nobleman." + +Yet despite this attempt to keep up appearances, the people were +poor. Clearing the land was a slow process, and the cultivable area +available for the support of each household was small. Early marriages +were the rule, and families of a dozen or more children had to be +supported from the produce of a few _arpents_. To maintain such a +family as this every one had to work hard in the growing season, and +even the women went to the fields in the harvest-time. One serious +shortcoming of the habitant was his lack of steadfastness in labor. +There was a roving strain in his Norman blood. He could not stay long +at any one job; there was a restlessness in his temperament which +would not down. He would leave his fields unploughed in order to go +hunting or to turn a few _sous_ in some small trading adventure. +Unstable as water, he did not excel in tasks that required patience. +But he could do a great many things after a fashion, and some that +could be done quickly he did surprisingly well. + +One racial characteristic which drew comment from observers of the day +was the litigious disposition of the people. The habitant would have +made lawsuits his chief diversion had he been permitted to do so. "If +this propensity be not curbed," wrote the intendant Raudot, "there +will soon be more lawsuits in this country than there are persons." +The people were not quarrelsome in the ordinary sense, but they were +very jealous each one of his private rights, and the opportunities for +litigation over such matters seemed to provide themselves without end. +Lands were given to settlers without accurate description of their +boundaries; farms were unfenced and cattle wandered into neighboring +fields; the notaries themselves were almost illiterate, and as a +result scarcely a legal document in the colony was properly drawn. +Nobody lacked pretexts for controversy. Idleness during the winter was +also a contributing factor. But the Church and the civil authorities +frowned upon this habit of rushing to court with every trivial +complaint. _Curés_ and seigneurs did what they could to have such +difficulties settled amicably at home, and in a considerable measure +they succeeded. + +New France was born and nurtured in an atmosphere of religious +devotion. To the habitant the Church was everything--his school, his +counselor, his almsgiver, his newspaper, his philosopher of things +present and of things to come. To him it was the source of all +knowledge, experience, and inspiration, and to it he never faltered in +ungrudging loyalty. The Church made the colony a spiritual unit and +kept it so; undefiled by any taint of heresy. It furnished the one +strong, well-disciplined organization that New France possessed, and +its missionaries blazed the way for both yeoman and trader wherever +they went. + +Many traits of the race have been carried on to the present day +without substantial change. The habitant of the old dominion was a +voluble talker, a teller of great stories about his own feats of skill +and endurance, his hair-raising escapes, or his astounding prowess +with musket and fishing-line. Stories grew in terms of prodigious +achievement as they passed from tongue to tongue, and the scant regard +for anything approaching the truth in these matters became a national +eccentricity. The habitant was boastful in all that concerned himself +or his race; never did a people feel more firmly assured that it was +the salt of the earth. He was proud of his ancestry, and proud of his +allegiance; and so are his descendants of today even though their +allegiance has changed. + +To speak of the habitants of New France as downtrodden or oppressed, +dispirited or despairing, like the peasantry of the old land in the +days before the great Revolution, as some historians have done, is to +speak untruthfully. These people were neither serfs nor peons. The +habitant, as Charlevoix puts it, "breathed from his birth the air of +liberty"; he had his rights and he maintained them. Shut off from the +rest of the world, knowing only what the Church and civil government +allowed him to know, he became provincial in his horizon and +conservative in his habits of mind. The paternal policy of the +authorities sapped his initiative and left him little scope for +personal enterprise, so that he passed for being a dull fellow. Yet +the annals of forest trade and Indian diplomacy prove that the New +World possessed no sharper wits than his. Beneath a somewhat ungainly +exterior the yeoman and the trader of New France concealed qualities +of cunning, tact, and quick judgment to a surprising degree. + +These various types in the population of New France, officials, +missionaries, seigneurs, voyageurs, habitants, were all the scions of +a proud race, admirably fitted to form the rank and file in a great +crusade. It was not their fault that France failed to dominate the +Western Hemisphere. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + + +On the earlier voyages of discovery to the northern coasts of the New +World the most informing book is H.P. Biggar's _Precursors of Jacques +Cartier_ (Ottawa, 1911). Hakluyt's _Voyages_ contain an English +translation of Cartier's own writings which cover the whole of +the first two expeditions and a portion of the third. Champlain's +journals, which describe in detail his sea voyages and inland trips of +exploration during the years 1604-1618 inclusive, were translated into +English and published by the Prince Society of Boston during the years +1878-1882. + +For further discussions of these explorations and of the various other +topics dealt with in this book the reader may be referred to several +works in the _Chronicles of Canada_ (32 vols. Toronto, 1914-1916), +namely, to Stephen Leacock's _Dawn of Canadian History_ and _Mariner +of St. Malo_; Charles W. Colby's _Founder of New France_ and _The +Fighting Governor_; Thomas Chapais's _Great Intendant_; Thomas G. +Marquis's _Jesuit Missions_, also to _Seigneurs of Old Canada_ and +_Coureurs-de-Bois_ by the author of the present volume. In each of +these books, moreover, further bibliographical references covering the +several topics are provided. + +The series known as _Canada and Its Provinces_ (22 vols. and index, +Toronto, 1914) contains accurate and readable chapters upon every +phase of Canadian history, political, military, social, economic, and +literary. The first two volumes of this series deal with the French +regime. Mention should also be made of the biographical series +dealing with _The Makers of Canada_ (22 vols. Toronto, 1905-1914) and +especially to the biographies of Champlain, Laval, and Frontenac which +this series includes among its earlier volumes. + +The writings of Francis Parkman, notably his _Pioneers of New France, +Old Régime in Canada, Jesuits in North America, La Salle and the +Discovery of the Great West_, and _Count Frontenac_ are of the highest +interest and value. Although given to the world nearly two generations +ago, these volumes still hold an unchallenged supremacy over all other +books relating to this field of American history. + +Other works which may be commended to readers who seek pleasure as +well as instruction from books of history are the following: + +PÈRE F.-X. CHARLEVOIX, _Histoire et description générale de la +Nouvelle-France_, translated by John Gilmary Shea (6 vols. N.Y., +1866-1872). + +C.W. COLBY, _Canadian Types of the Old Régime_ (N.Y., 1908). + +A.G. DOUGHTY, _A Daughter of New France_ (Edinburgh, 1916). + +JAMES DOUGLAS, _Old France in the New World_ (Cleveland, 1906). + +F.-X. GARNEAU, _Histoire du Canada_ (5th ed. by Hector Garneau, Paris, +1913. As yet only the first volume of this edition has appeared.) + +P. KALM, _Travels into North America_ (2 vols. London, 1772). + +LE BARON DE LA HONTAN, _New Voyages to North_ _America_ (ed. R.G. +Thwaites. 2 vols. Chicago, 1905). + +MARC LESCARBOT, _Histoire de la Nouvelle-France_ (translated by W.L. +Grant. 3 vols. Toronto, 1907-1914. Publications of the Champlain +Society). + +FREDERIC A. OGG, _The Opening of the Mississippi_ (N.Y., 1904). + +A. SALONE, _La colonisation de la Nouvelle-France_ (Paris, 1905). + +G.M. WRONG, _A Canadian Manor and its Seigneurs_ (Toronto, 1908). + +For further references the reader should consult, in _The +Encyclopaedia Britannica_, the articles on _France, Canada, Louis XIV, +Richelieu, Colbert_, and _The Jesuits_. + + + + +Index + +Algonquins, The, act as guides to Champlain, 41; + friendly to the French, 45 +Anticosti, Island of, 19,20 +_Arrêts of Marly_ (1711), 143 + +Belle Isle, 18, 19, 20 +Bigot, François, 68 +Brébeuf, Jean de, Jesuit missionary, 56 +Brouage, birthplace of Champlain, 33 + +Cambrai, Peace of (1729), 15 +Canada, _see_ New France +Cap Rouge, Cartier winters at, 26; + Roberval winters at, 28 +Cartier, Jacques, sets out on first voyage of discovery, (1534), 16; + a corsair, 16; + former voyages, 17; + reaches New World, 18; + purpose of expedition, 19; + returns home, 19; + begins second voyage, 19-20; + his ships, 20; + winters at Stadacona, 21-23; + learns of Great Lakes, 22; + takes Indians to King, 23; + account of voyage, 24; + sails on third voyage from St. Malo (1541), 25; + winters at Cap Rouge, 26; + defies patron, Roberval, 27; + personal characteristics, 29; + later life, 29; + death (1557), 29; + bibliography, 29 +Catalogne, Gedéon de, makes survey and maps of Quebec region (1712), + 143-44; + makes agricultural census, 184 +Cataraqui (Kingston), fort established at, 85-86; + La Salle receives grant of land at, 103 +_Chaleurs, Baie des_, 18 +Champlain, Samuel de, born at Brouage (1567), 33; + sails with expedition of De Chastes (1603), 33; + personal characteristics, 33-34; + embarks as chief geographer (1604), 35; + winters at St. Croix, 36-37; + _Order de Bon Temps_, 38; + returns to France, 39; + sails again for the St. Lawrence (1608), 39; + raid against the Iroquois, 41; + seeks western passage to Cathay, 44; + takes journeys into interior (1613 and 1616), 44-47; + journals, 47; + as viceroy's deputy, 48; + surrenders to English, 51-52; + returns to Quebec as representative of Company of One Hundred + Associates, 52; + death (1635), 53; + appreciation of, 53-54 +Champlain, Lake, 41 +Chastes, Amyar, Sieur de, 32, 33, 34. +Chauvin of Honfleur, 32 +Church in New France, loyalty to, 113; + Récollets, 115; + Jesuits, 116 _et seq_.; + aid to civil power, 127-28; + revenues, 129-130; + _see also_ Jesuits +Colbert, Jean Baptiste, personal characteristics, 8; + interest in + colonial ventures, 8-9; + plans for French interest, 60-61; + plans fleet of merchant vessels, 197-98 +Courcelle, Daniel de Rémry, Sieur de, Governor of New France, 75 +Coureurs-de-bois, + attack Indians (1687), 95-96; + kind of men engaged as, 161-62; + number, 162-63; + leaders, 163-64; + methods of trading, 165 et seq.; + licenses granted to, 172 +Crèvecoeur, Fort, 106, 107 + +D'Ailleboust, Governor of New France, 55 +Denonville, Marquis de, Governor of New France, 94 +Donnacona, head of Indian village, 23 +Duchesneau, Jacques, Intendant of New France, 88; + quarrels with Frontenac, 89-91; + recalled, 91 +Du Lhut, Daniel Greysolon, 87, 95, 131 +Dumesnil, Péronne, 73 + +Education in New France, 130-132 +England, + early explorations, 15, 16; + colonial ventures, 49 + +Five nations, appellation of the Iroquois Indians, 42 +France in the seventeenth century, + population, 1, 3; + army, 1; + power and prestige, 2-4; + outstripped in commerce, 3; + racial qualities, 3-4; + government, 4-5; + church, 5; + tardiness in American colonization, 6-8; + weakness of colonial policy, 10-14 +Frontenac, Louis de Buade, Count, + chosen to carry out colonial policy, 9; + sent as Governor to Quebec (1672), 80; + early life, 80; + personal characteristics, 81-82; + inauguration, 83; + plans checked by King, 83-84; + expansion policy, 84 et seq.; + builds fort at Cataraqui, 86; + opposed by Bishop and Intendant, 89-91; + recalled (1682), 91; + returns to Quebec as Governor (1689), 97-98: + death (1698), 98 +Frontenac, Fort, 85-86, 103, 108 +Fur trade with the Indians, 155 et seq. + +Gallican branch of the Catholic Church, 5, 114 +Gaspé Bay, 18 +Georgian Bay, Champlain's journey to, 46-47 +Giffard, Robert, 142 +Green Bay, 163 +_Griffin_, The, ship, 104-105, 106 + +Habitants, 147-51, 207-26 +Hakluyt, account of meeting of Cartier and Roberval, 27 +Hébert, Louis, 137 +Hennepin, Louis, Récollet friar, 104 +Hochelaga (Montreal), 21-22, 26, 34 +Huguenots excluded from Canada, 195-96 +Hurons, The, + act as guides to Champlain, 41; + friendly to the French, 45-46; + destroyed by the Iroquois, 55-56; + Jesuits among, 118-19 +Hurons, Lake of the, _see_ Georgian Bay + +Illinois River, La Salle reaches, 106, 109 +Indians, + hostility toward Cartier, 26; + fur trade with, 156 et seq.; + effect of trade upon, 178; + _see also_ Algonquins, Hurons, Iroquois, Onondagas +Irondequoit Bay, 102 +Iroquois, The, Champlain's encounter with, 41-43; + friends of English, enemies of French, 42-43; + troubles with, 56-58, 74-78, 93 _et seq_. + +Jesuit _Relations_, 54, 119-20, 132 +Jesuits, The, settle Montreal, 54-55; + oppose Frontenac, 88; + come to Canada (1625), 115-16; + characteristics, 110, 117-18; + missionaries to Indians, 118 _et seq_.; + progress among French settlers, 122 _et seq_.; + service to trade interests, 156-58 +Joliet, Louis, 103, 164 + +Kalm, Peter, _Travels_, 185-86, 188 +Kirke, Sir David, Commander of English privateers, 51 + +La Barre, Le Febvre de, Governor of New France, 92-94, 109 +La Durantaye, Olivier Morel de, 95, 164 +La Forêt, François Dauphine de, 87, 95, 163 +Lalemant, Jesuit missionary, 56 +La Mothe-Cadillac, Antoine de 87, 163 +La Roche, Sieur de, 32 +La Salle, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de, + foremost among French pathfinders, 87; + born (1643), 100; + comes to Montreal (1666), 100-01; + equips expedition (1669), 102; + receives trading rights and land at Fort Frontenac, 103; + goes to France for further aid, 103-04; + first journey down the Illinois, 105-107; + returns to Montreal, 107; + reaches the Mississippi, 107; + winters at Fort Miami, 108; + journeys down the Mississippi, 108-09; + plans for founding colony in lower Mississippi valley (1684), 109-10; + death (1687), 110; + later estimates of, 111-12 +Lauzon, Jean de, Governor of New France, 57 +Laval, François-Xavier de, + Abbé de Montigny, Bishop of Quebec, arrives in New France (1659), 58; + friction with civil authorities, 58-69; + relations with Mézy, 72-73; + returns to colony, 88; + opposed to Frontenac, 89 _et seq_.; + born (1622), 124; + personal characteristics, 125-26; + opposed to liquor traffic. 126-27 +Law, John, 67 +Le Caron, Joseph, Récollet, missionary, 46 +Le Moyne, Jesuit missionary, 57 +Lescarbot, Marc, 38 +Liquor traffic with the Indians, 126-27, 173-78 +Longueuil, Baron de, 142 +Louis XIV, + centralization of power under, 4-5; + interest in colonial ventures, 9; + assumes power (1658), 60; + edict of 1663, 62-63; + personal interest in New France, 70-71 + +Maisonneuve, Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de, 54-55 +Mance, Jeanne, 55 +Marquette, Jacques, Jesuit missionary, 103 +Matagorda Bay, 110 +Mazarin, Jules, not interested in colonial ventures, 8 +Meules, Intendant of New France, 93 +Mézy, de, Governor of New France, 72-74 +Miami, Fort, 108 +Michilimackinac, 105, 108 +Mingan Islands, 20 +Mississippi River, La Salle reaches, 108 +Montmagny, Charles Jacques Huault. Sieur de, 54, 55 +Montreal, + settled, 54-55; + annual fur fair at, 166-71; + _see also_ Hochelaga +Monts, Pierre du Guast, Sieur de, + granted trade monopoly, 35; + organizes company, 35-39; + loses influence at court, 48 + +New France, + reflects old France, 10, 14; + difficulty of communication with Europe, 12-13; + population (1663), 61-62; + colonial intendant, 67-69; + administration, 69-70; + requests for money, 71-72; + period of prosperity, 78, 79; + seigneurial system of land tenure, 133 et seq.; + military seigneuries, 145-46; + forced labor in, 150; + merrymaking in, 151; + courts, 151-53; + fur trade, 155 et seq.; + competition with English in trade, 159-61; + liquor traffic, 173-78; + effect of trade upon, 178-79; + agriculture, 180 et seq.; + industries, 188 et seq.; + minerals, 190-92; + exclusion of Huguenots from, 195-96; + trade conditions, 198-201; + social organization, 203 et seq.; + seigneurs, 206-07; + homes of habitants, 207-11; + clothing, 211-13; + food, 213-17; + use of tobacco, 217; + festivities, 217-21; + folklore, 221-22; + poverty of habitants, 223; + litigious disposition of people, 224-25; + religion, 225; + characteristics of people, 225-26; + types of population, 227; + bibliography, 229-31 +New France, Company of, _see_ One Hundred Associates, Company of +Newfoundland, Cartier's expeditions rests at, 18 +Niagara, + fort rebuilt by Denonville, 96; + La Salle builds post at, 104 + +Old Council, 55 +One Hundred Associates, Company of, + organization, 50; + powers and duties, 50-51; + sends fleet to the St. Lawrence (1628), 51; + sends Champlain as representative, 52-53; + charter revoked, 61; + failure of, 62; + grants by, 137-38; + restricts industry, 196 +Onondagas, The, Champlain's attack upon, 46 +Ontario, Lake, 46 +Ottawa River, 44 + +Perrot, Nicholas, 95, 163 +Pontgravé of St. Malo, 32, 29 +Port Royal (Annapolis), 36, 37 +Portugal, + early explorations, 15, 16; + colonial ventures, 49 +Poutrincourt, Biencourt de, 35, 36, 38 + +Quebec, + Champlain settles, 39-40; + population, 48; + surrenders to English, 51-52; + burns, 93; + pivot of social life, 204-05; + _see also_ Stadacona + +Récollets, The, 115 +Richelieu, Cardinal, + interest in colonial ventures under, 7-8; + becomes chief minister of Louis XIII, 49; + prevails upon King to organize colonizing company (1627), 50; + interest in New France not lasting, 60 +Richelieu River, 41 +Roberval, Jean François de la Roque, Sieur de, + enlists services of Cartier, 25-26, + meets Cartier returning to France, 27; + winters at Cap Rouge, 28 +Rouen, birthplace of La Salle, 100 + +Sable Island, 32 +Saguenay River, 34 +St. Croix, 36-37 +St. Germain-en-Laye, Treaty of (1632), 52 +St. John's, Newfoundland, 27 +§t. Lawrence, Gulf of, 18 +St. Louis, Fort, 109 +St. Malo, 16-17, 19, 25, 29 +St. Maurice, 28 +Seigneurs of New France, 133 et seq., 206-07 +Sovereign Council, 63-66 +Spain, + early explorations, 15, 16; + colonial ventures, 49 +Stadacona (Lower Quebec), 21, 26, 39 +Sully, Due de, opposed to colonial ventures, 7 +Sulpicians, The, 102, 128 +Superior Council, _see_ Sovereign Council + +Talon, Jean, first Intendant of New France (1665), 63; + arrives in Quebec, 66-67, 68, 75; + report to the King, 80-81; + fosters industries, 188-89; + plans trade with West Indies and France, 197-98 +Three Rivers, 28, 53 +Ticonderoga, fight between French and Indians at, 41 +Tocqueville, de, French historian, 10 +Tonty, Henri de, 87, 95, 104, 163 +Tracy, Prouville de, 74-78 + +Ursulines, The, 128 + +Vignau tells Champlain of English shipwreck, 44-45 + +West Indies, Company of the, 78, 196, 197 + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Crusaders of New France, by William Bennett Munro + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12523 *** |